PTR: When You Wish Upon A (Death) Star updated 11/09/2015 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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PTR: When You Wish Upon A (Death) Star updated 11/09/2015
Hello everyone! I haven’t been posting on the boards all that much lately as life has kept me busy. Mostly it’s been the small people I added to my life. Every time I try to open a computer and type something they find me and intervene. Or worse yet try to “help” me type. Love the little buggers, but who knew they would be so demanding. Oh right… everyone.
I couldn’t stay away from here forever though. I’ve got another trip in the works and it’s a big one for us. Our very first cruise! Not only our first cruise with DCL, but the first time we’ve ever been on a cruise ship sailing on the ocean. Sure we’ve been on short little evening river cruises and larger ships on Lake Superior (we are from the land of 10,000 lakes you know), but no one in our traveling party has ever been on a cruise ship sailing out on the ocean. Two people in our party have stayed overnight on the Queen Mary that is docked in California so technically we have stayed overnight on a cruise ship, but it was docked so that doesn’t count. We’re new cruisers.
I suppose before I babble any more (which I do a LOT) I should get everyone up to speed about the actual trip that this PTR is about. Some may have guessed by the title that there is some sort of Star Wars floating around. That’s because we are booked on the VERY FIRST cruise on the Disney Fantasy that includes the Star Wars Day at Sea. Now I am not a big Star Wars fan. I’ve seen the movies and I don’t hate them. My husband likes them better than I do, but I wouldn’t call him a huge fan. At least he doesn’t have a bunch of Star Wars memorabilia or anything, but he does enjoy it and will talk to my brother-in-law (who DOES own a bunch of Star Wars memorabilia) for long lengths of time about Darth Vader or Han Solo or whoever they all are. So I guess my husband knows what’s going on, which is more than I do!
So that covers what we’re doing and technically the when as well since there is only one VERY FIRST Disney Fantasy sailing that has the SWDAS (is that an accepted abbreviation? It’s kind of tedious to type out Star Wars Day At Sea!). On to who is going. It’s pretty much the same old same old for us. The trip started out as our family of 4 just like the past few trips have. Then somewhere along the way we add some parents/grandparents. This trip is no exception so I’ll start with the “basics” and inform you of the “stowaways” at a later time. And since there has been a serious lack of pictures thus far I’ll start with the little ones as who doesn’t like pictures of cute small people on their first ever Disney trips?
DS - He’s our 5 year old adventure man. ALWAYS moving. Loves vehicles of all kinds, but has a special place in his heart for construction trucks. His favorite character is always changing as he likes a little variety in his life, but at the moment he’s been into Phinas and Ferb. He’s got a great sense of humor and a kind heart. If only he would stop ripping holes in his pants… He wasn’t so sure about the princesses on his first trip, but did warm up to them:
Belle got a kick out of his shyness and eventually got him to admit that she is his favorite after Ariel:
Even if his biggest smiles were for Aurora:
DD - She’s almost 3 and has the attitude that goes along with that age. There are glimpses of sweetness about her so we’re hoping that this attitude is just a phase. Like her brother the humor is strong with this one. She loves to sing and dance and all things GIRLY. Her favorite princess is Rapunzel. On her first trip she was going through the nose picking phase which the characters found amusing. So much so that Woody and Jesse tried to keep her:
DH - My better half has decided to go on another Disney vacation with me. It’s growing on him. So much so that I think he’s starting to look forward to them as much as me. His favorite movie is Aladdin and I think the Genie is the reason why. We have a deal at the moment where we can take a Disney trip every other year. And then he kind of gets to pick the trips for the other years. Although he just took me camping. In. A. Tent. Not sure if he gets to pick anymore…
Me - And then there is me. Like everyone on these boards I’m the planner. The obsessive planner. The one who reads way more than needed and follows up on most every detail. Honestly the cruise is driving me crazy because there just isn’t that much to it. I feel like I must be missing something, but I’m pretty sure it’s under control. I love all kinds of things Disney. Much like my son I have a variety of favorites. My favorite princess is Belle. I love Mickey and the gang. I love Tinkerbell's attitude (which is good because my daughter seems to have it!).
Here’s DH and I on our honeymoon. I was going to be ambitious and drag out pictures from our first trips, but that would involve digging through boxes in our parents basements. Something our kids will never know the difficulties of as they’ll just search their family albums on the internet. Don’t worry I have made a point of not labeling things online so they at least have to browse all the pictures. Can’t let them off too easy ya know.
So to recap…
Who: Me, DH, DS (5), DD (3) + the mystery “stowaways”
What: Our first cruise ever!
Where: Disney Fantasy for Star Wars Day At Sea (Western Caribbean)
Why: Because it’s an even year and those are Disney years!
When: January 9th-16th, 2016
I'm genuinely excited to read this PTR! I've loved reading your previous reports.
Much like you, I have worked out a deal with my husband to go every other year. But without really "meaning to," we've gone every year (only 3 years so far). Ya see, before we started dating in 2013, my family and I had already begun planning a trip for 2014. And I couldn't very well let his first trip ever be with my family instead of just the 2 of us. So, we went in Dec. 2013, a few months after we were married. Then we went on that family trip in Oct. 2014... and now we've decided to go in Dec of this year
I truly think it'll be another 2 years after this one, though. So, we'll be on the "odd numbered years" plan.
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Fantastic start! I know what you mean about not much to plan and this year I think that's good for me as I already feel like I'm falling behind on my upcoming trip!
I'm genuinely excited to read this PTR! I've loved reading your previous reports.
Much like you, I have worked out a deal with my husband to go every other year. But without really "meaning to," we've gone every year (only 3 years so far). Ya see, before we started dating in 2013, my family and I had already begun planning a trip for 2014. And I couldn't very well let his first trip ever be with my family instead of just the 2 of us. So, we went in Dec. 2013, a few months after we were married. Then we went on that family trip in Oct. 2014... and now we've decided to go in Dec of this year
I truly think it'll be another 2 years after this one, though. So, we'll be on the "odd numbered years" plan.
Hum... I need to figure out how to go to Disney without "meaning to". It's actually not too bad going every other year as I do like to do other trips. Plus it gives me more time to obsess about my next Disney fix.
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Originally Posted by chezp
Great start!
Quote:
Originally Posted by OhToodles!
Fantastic start! I know what you mean about not much to plan and this year I think that's good for me as I already feel like I'm falling behind on my upcoming trip!
You're busy Kelly! A cruise is probably just what you will need. Not a ton of planning and then relaxing. I do feel like something is missing though with so little to do. Of course my children are doing the whole "lets see how many clothes we can outgrow" thing so I've got to make sure we have enough clothes for them for the trip. It's kinda hard to find swim wear in Minnesota in the winter.
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Originally Posted by lexiemom
Great start, Missy!
for joining in!
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Originally Posted by lauriep
Sounds like a fun trip. I absolutely love the adorable photos of your kids with the characters!
I think it will be fun. It's kind of an unknown as we don't know much about cruising, but I'm willing to take one for the team and give it a try.
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Some might wonder why we are going on a cruise that includes a sea day dedicated to Star Wars if we aren’t the biggest SW fans. Honestly I wonder this as well. Will there be enough to keep me interested when I don’t know the difference between R2-D2 and C3P0? (OK I’ll admit I do know those two, but my SW knowledge doesn’t go much beyond that.)
Truth is it all boiled down to cost. If you’ve looked at the cost of the SW cruises you might question how I could have chosen this cruise based on a “better deal”, but it’s true. This cruise was the cheapest available option for our family at the time we booked. And I did book AFTER the announcement of SWDAS. I guess it just wasn’t long enough after the announcement to cause the price to rise that much.
See I’m the type of person who likes to have a nice vacation, but I’m also all about getting the most for my money. We’ve stayed at value resorts, moderate resorts and most recently a deluxe resort (AKV). I didn’t hate any of them, but I question if it was “worth it” to splurge on a deluxe. So a lot of my research in selecting a cruise boiled down to cost. Eventually I went to my husband with the options of a trip in January or October as those months were friendliest on the wallet and our work/school schedules.
It was just after the holidays and we still hadn’t settled in on DL vs. WDW vs. DCL. We were leaning towards saving DL for a later date as our kids aren’t tall enough for all the attractions in Cars Land and we figure we won’t head to DL nearly as often as WDW. So I guess our 2018 trip might be to DL! My husband wasn’t 100% sold on a cruise for 2016. He knew if we stayed at a value resort our budget for a trip would be much less than a cruise. He kept playing the “our kids are so little and won’t remember it” and “we’ll probably only cruise this once so maybe we should wait until they’re older” cards. And he’s right this might be the only time we cruise because of the cost. I don’t know. We debated WDW and DCL the entire month of January.
For some reason in all of our discussions my heart ended up set on DCL. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the kids clubs and the promise of a date night with DH. Maybe it’s that it seems really relaxing. Maybe it’s just the sunshine and ocean breeze. Whatever it was I knew we were going on DCL in 2016. So I did what every PPer on these boards does. I researched the crap out of a cruise.
After reading the Passporter cruise guide I had decided that we should at least go on a 7 night if we were going to do it. I also decided that I didn’t care which ports we would visit. We had never been to any of them so it was all exciting. My only requirement was that we had to depart from a US port. I also figured any of the ships would be fine. So I needed to convince my husband that a 7 night cruise to somewhere on some boat was the vacation for us!
One night in early February I told DH that I had my heart set on a cruise. He said he already knew that. Must have seen me reading up on cruises. I told him about all the options and we discussed January vs. October. In the end I knew I would be sad if I was near WDW in October and didn’t attend MNSSHP. Paired with a 7 night cruise we didn’t think we could get the time off work and would have to pull the kids out of school in order to make MNSSHP. So I took October off the table.
Another week passed and we still hadn’t actually booked a January cruise. I knew from all my research that prices only went up and the January itineraries were already out. I guess I was just done with the discussions. I just wanted to get something booked! So after lunch one day I told DH that if we were going to book we should do it NOW. It was the day after Valentine’s Day so he must have still been feeling the love because he agreed!
So we sat down at the computer and pulled up the DCL website. A few clicks later we learned that SWDAS was happening on a few cruises that fit our schedule. And at the time we booked the January 9th Fantasy sailing with SWDAS was going to be $300 cheaper than the other sailings for our family of 4 in an 8C stateroom.
Of course since we booked the price of our stateroom increased significantly. I think within a month it would have cost us $600 more for the exact same reservation. So I’m glad we booked when we did. I’m glad we are sailing. And I guess I’m going to learn something about Star Wars.
It all sounds great! Many people don't know that the cruise prices are at their lowest when the itineraries first come out, so your research paid off on a wonderful deal. And I can't think of anything nicer than escaping winter with a warm-weather cruise!
Now you explain it, I can see why you've ended up with a Star Wars cruise, even if you're not the biggest fan of it.... so I guess you weren't exactly doing cartwheels over the D23 announcements then?
I'm not a Star Wars fan at all but with those savings, I would've booked it too. I'm all about having a great vacation without breaking the bank.
As for next year's plans... there are no plans. We're in a bit of a bad financial situation so any travel next year is pretty much out of the question. Although I still have a countdown in my signature, I'm 95% sure there won't be a Disney vacation. So now the plans are for 2017.
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
It's actually not too bad going every other year as I do like to do other trips. Plus it gives me more time to obsess about my next Disney fix. 
Did you ever work out your plans for your next trip?
Will there be enough to keep me interested when I don’t know the difference between R2-D2 and C3P0? (OK I’ll admit I do know those two, but my SW knowledge doesn’t go much beyond that.)
Paired with a 7 night cruise we didn’t think we could get the time off work and would have to pull the kids out of school in order to make MNSSHP. So I took October off the table.
We're in a bit of a bad financial situation so any travel next year is pretty much out of the question. Although I still have a countdown in my signature, I'm 95% sure there won't be a Disney vacation. So now the plans are for 2017.
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