Repositioning on the Wonder Sept 2014 - Happy Anniversary!!! updated 11/30/14 - Page 3 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Sometime during the spring, Disney released some of their 2015 itineraries. I had just paid off our cruise and was really looking forward to my booking day, so all my thoughts were on this upcoming cruise, and I completely ignored the email. Until I saw HAWAII. It’s always been my dream to go there. Anytime there is a show or travel special that is in any way related to Hawaii, I watch and dream. I always thought I would go there for my honeymoon, but I got married too young and too broke for that. Then, with kids, we always wanted to use our little vacation money on a trip that would be more appropriate for them (like anything Disney). When Aulani opened, I thought that might be a nice option, but would cost a small fortune and I REALLY want to see Kauai. The idea of a Disney cruise there never crossed my mind, even though I had heard they had done that once before. So of course, I couldn’t help myself, I started messing around on the website to see what the rates might look like. It wasn’t cheap of course. Because we are 5 we can only fit in one of the deluxe family suites or higher. Those were already priced at $10,000 for the ten day cruise. Um…nope. Maybe someday, in like 5 or 10 years, if we don’t take another vacation that whole time. Then I checked what two inside connecting staterooms might come back at. Bingo!!! Thousands less, more square feet, more TV’s, two bathrooms, and more than enough extra space and beds, which means more privacy all around. Even booking the flights through Disney was way less than if we booked on our own (believe me I’ve looked). I jumped on it!!
This does NOT mean we are going. The Hawaii cruise doesn’t sail until next September (an exact year from our anniversary cruise this year). I have an entire year until I have cancellation fees. If I can, I will rebook on board this year’s cruise to get the rebooking discount (if the prices haven’t increased too much by then). Even with a whole year to save up, I’m pretty sure we won’t quite get there. But I’m not giving up until I have to. In the meantime, I can pretend I really am going to get my dream cruise. Because the Hawaii cruise takes us to four Hawaiian Islands, one of them being Kauai (yay!!).
As soon as I booked it I felt weird. We are not rich, world travelers. Affording one cruise is huge. Now I have TWO booked. Crazy!!! I feel so very fancy, and spoiled! But even worse, my attention was no longer on our upcoming cruise, but the one in 2015. I mean, c’mon, it’s hard to be excited about a 4 day Vancouver to San Diego cruise when you have a 10 day Vancouver to Hawaii cruise to look forward to! But, I got over it pretty quick, because my 90 day booking window was about to open and it was time to turn my focus back on the present!
Next time: My booking window opened but something went wrong!!
I can totally see this happening to me! I've often thought that the best way to sample several Hawaiian Islands would be a cruise. I hate flying and the thought of spending a vacation wasting time island hopping in a plane is not my idea of a fun time. Approaching the islands by sea, though, now that sounds very nice! I hope it does happen for you, but in the meantime, you've got a very nice cruise coming right up. I don't like the sound of your teaser, though....
I really hope you get to do that cruise, as I bet it will be amazing. All the Hawaiian islands you visit on the cruise are beautiful. Our favourite was actually Maui out of all of them, but Kauai is lovely too. I really hope it works out for you.
I can totally see this happening to me! I've often thought that the best way to sample several Hawaiian Islands would be a cruise. I hate flying and the thought of spending a vacation wasting time island hopping in a plane is not my idea of a fun time. Approaching the islands by sea, though, now that sounds very nice! I hope it does happen for you, but in the meantime, you've got a very nice cruise coming right up. I don't like the sound of your teaser, though....
I would love to be able to do it this way, if it works out. It just makes the most sense, and to have Disney service along with it, I can't think of anything better
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
I really hope you get to do that cruise, as I bet it will be amazing. All the Hawaiian islands you visit on the cruise are beautiful. Our favourite was actually Maui out of all of them, but Kauai is lovely too. I really hope it works out for you.
I'll be happy to visit any of them!
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
How exciting to have a potential Hawaii cruise in your future! Can't wait to hear how your bookings went!
Well you won't have to wait much longer cuz I finally wrote that part up and will be posting it soon!
Finally, after months and months of pretty much NOTHING going on with the cruise, the big day was coming. No, not the cruise itself, but almost as exciting, the BOOKING WINDOW!! As this is our 2nd cruise, we get to book ahead of all the first-timers, as Silver Castaway Club members . And my travel agent was very, very clear that she highly recommended we book our reservations and excursions at the moment our window opened, which was scheduled to be June 9th. HOWEVER, lucky us, we live on the west coast which means when June 9th hits the states, it’s actually only 9pm June 8th in my neck of the woods . No staying up late for me!!!
We only have one port ‘o call, in Victoria, Canada. I researched all our port options, and although they all sounded lovely, I couldn’t justify the cost for all 5 of us. Perhaps if my kids were a bit older and they would get more out of them, but not at this time. And toting a toddler along just makes more work and less fun. I wouldn’t end up getting to enjoy the various tours much. Some of the things I would’ve liked to have done were the tours of the town either on double decker bus or a carriage or trolley, and I think the kids would’ve done best with those, but for all of us it just broke the budget. I would’ve loved to visit the Empress hotel or the beautiful Butchart Gardens as well, but these are not appropriate venues for my wild crew. Other options like the whale watching excursions or the aquarium sounded like fun, but way too pricey. And keep in mind, we live on the coast of this exact same ocean, just a few thousand miles to the south. We have a very nice aquarium 20 minutes away that we can visit anytime, and an abundance of whale watching tours practically within arms reach. So although it would be neat to see a bit more of the northern stretch of our coast, we don’t feel like we’re missing out too much.
I did a bit of research on my own and discovered this neat little tour called the Hippo Tours. It’s not offered through Disney, and we would have to walk about 10 minutes from port to the location, but they are affordable and look like the kids would get a huge kick out of it. It’s an Aqua Bus, so for 45 minutes you get a nice bus tour of the city, and then they just drive right into the water and float like you’re in a boat for the remainder of the tour in the harbor. Sounds like a winner for our crew!! I called and they offer the tour every hour, and the gal just said to show up about 20 minutes before the tour we want to take. If we can get the first tour, we’ll be back onboard for lunch (I hate spending money on food in port, when I know I can get it for “free” onboard).
So, no excursions, and I had decided against booking any Spa treatments (although I’ll be open to any discounts they may offer while onboard). Which just leaves our Palo dinner, and for the first time, we are cruising long enough to try out their buffet too! I was very set on having our actual anniversary dinner at Palo, which is September 11th and our last night onboard. So I had planned the whole day June 8th around the opening of my booking window. Dinner at home, rented a movie so that everyone is occupied and not needing my attention at 9pm when I planned on making sure to snag our dining reservation (brunch I was less concerned about). I was giddy with anticipation as the hour drew near. Before I knew it, 9pm hit and I eagerly logged on expecting to get right in. Instead, I got this message:
DisneyCruiseLine.com is currently undergoing maintenance.
And then a whole little bit about how they are working hard to blah blah blah…I just couldn’t get past the first part. It never occurred to me that they would choose this exact moment to be undergoing website maintenance! Why would they do that to me? It felt very personal (I was being irrational you see, but I was so in shock). I logged out and tried again. And again. I shut down the computer and tried again. I tried from another computer. My husband tried from his work laptop. We tried over and over until midnight (so much for getting to bed early). Each and every time I got the same response.
We finally threw in the towel. I resigned myself to the fact that I would not be getting our special anniversary reservation and that celebrating any other day was still better than nothing. We went to bed, but guess who couldn’t sleep! After a fitful night, I found myself awake at 5am and thought, surely it’s fixed by now and every reservation is taken up! I know now I was being unreasonable, but again I was so caught off guard that I wasn’t thinking properly. So I dragged myself out of bed and logged on again, only to find that this time…I GOT IN!! From there it all went so quickly and smoothly. Of course all the reservations weren’t taken up. In fact, it looked like we still had our choice of days and times…so I went ahead and got us in at 6pm on September 11. I am hoping to catch a beautiful sunset as we dine Brunch went just as smoothly and is booked for 10am on September 10th, although we may just cancel this one later. We haven’t decided if we feel like spending the time doing brunch alone rather than with the kids. We don’t really need to. Anyway, finally satisfied, I settled off to sleep again, and this time it came much easier
Next time, well now most of our cruise planning is done and we are less than a month away from sailing. I’ll try to post some photos and recap our itinerary.
I'm so glad you were able to get Palo - what a pain having the website down for maintenance when you were trying to book. I'd have been mad if that had happened to me, as I have to be up at 5:00am our time to book everything...
I'm glad you had a good result and got what you wanted! The same thing happened with the website when my window opened for the 15-night Panama Cruise. I was frantic!! It all worked out for me, too, but I could have done without the anxiety. The "Hippo Tour" sounds perfect. Sounds like the "Duck Tours" in Boston. Victoria is a very pretty place. Now you're really getting close!
How dare they be doing website maintenance right then! I'd have been so annoyed! I'm glad you got your anniversary dinner at Palo! The Hippo Tour sounds great!
I'm so glad you were able to get Palo - what a pain having the website down for maintenance when you were trying to book. I'd have been mad if that had happened to me, as I have to be up at 5:00am our time to book everything...
Waking up that early just for it to be under maintenance would've been way worse! Not the way you would want to start the day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
I'm glad you had a good result and got what you wanted! The same thing happened with the website when my window opened for the 15-night Panama Cruise. I was frantic!! It all worked out for me, too, but I could have done without the anxiety. The "Hippo Tour" sounds perfect. Sounds like the "Duck Tours" in Boston. Victoria is a very pretty place. Now you're really getting close!
Oh, so this has happened before? Yikes! And even worse on such a long cruise when I'm sure you had a long list of bookings! I've always wanted to do the Panama Cruise.
The Hippo Tour does sound very much like the "ride the ducks" tours I've seen in other cities. We've never done anything like it so it should be fun!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
How dare they be doing website maintenance right then! I'd have been so annoyed! I'm glad you got your anniversary dinner at Palo! The Hippo Tour sounds great!
Right? That was just rude of them I'm just glad it all worked out.
Glad the Palo ressies worked out! Hate the wait & see though!
The hippo tour sounds perfect for you!
And congrats on the Hawaii cruise - I hope that works out for you as well!
Glad the Palo ressies worked out! Hate the wait & see though!
The hippo tour sounds perfect for you!
And congrats on the Hawaii cruise - I hope that works out for you as well!
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. And my travel agent was very, very clear that she highly recommended we book our reservations and excursions at the moment our window opened, which was scheduled to be June 9th. HOWEVER, lucky us, we live on the west coast which means when June 9th hits the states, it’s actually only 9pm June 8th in my neck of the woods 
. No staying up late for me!!!
It felt very personal (I was being irrational you see, but I was so in shock). I logged out and tried again. And again. I shut down the computer and tried again. I tried from another computer. My husband tried from his work laptop. We tried over and over until midnight (so much for getting to bed early). Each and every time I got the same response. 
I'd have been mad if that had happened to me, as I have to be up at 5:00am our time to book everything...
I'm just glad it all worked out.
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