A Magical voyage across the pond LIVE UPDATE 9/30 - Page 9 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
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That is the nice thing about reaching platinum status, the early booking option. Although on the TA there’s a higher concentration of platinum cruisers than you find on a standard Caribbean, I think. Hope you got what you wanted!
That is the nice thing about reaching platinum status, the early booking option. Although on the TA there’s a higher concentration of platinum cruisers than you find on a standard Caribbean, I think.
I'd think so too. I'd imagine that on any itinerary, which is a bit more unusual, you'll find more platinum Castaway Club cruises.
Oooooh the anticipation! Good and logical way to decide though. Indeed, way too many options!
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Sounds like a good plan in place for the excursions. Glad Mark is letting you decide all of this. Hope you get everything you want as Platinum members as you should but sometimes things don't go as well as planned. Looking forward to seeing what you went with.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Oh my! Just caught up! I hope you do come down to DC one day soon, but if you want to visit all those places, yes, you will need more than a day!
I was on the same cruise with Pris, and saw what happened to cause the groups to split, the 'admin for the first group wanted sole control over what the group did that when someone came in and had an idea she'd like to do, the original admin didn't like it. She clamped down so hard on the group that you couldn't even post a question without her approving your post. I quit shortly after and didn't bother. Unfortunately, I never ran into Pris, I did go down but never found her.
Oh my! Just caught up! I hope you do come down to DC one day soon, but if you want to visit all those places, yes, you will need more than a day!
We do like DC, but we've pretty much done all of the main sights. I think we've been there twice together maybe, but I visited twice, once with my parents and once on my own in 1996 as well.
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I was on the same cruise with Pris, and saw what happened to cause the groups to split, the 'admin for the first group wanted sole control over what the group did that when someone came in and had an idea she'd like to do, the original admin didn't like it. She clamped down so hard on the group that you couldn't even post a question without her approving your post. I quit shortly after and didn't bother.
Oh my goodness, I'm not surprised. That really is the definition of a control freak!
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Unfortunately, I never ran into Pris, I did go down but never found her.
Pre-trip report – part ten: why have Disney done that?
Now here I’m going to backtrack for a moment. At this point, we were fast approaching the date where we could make all our booking as platinum Castaway Club members. This means shore excursions, Palo brunch and dinner and onboard fun, including drinks seminars. If you remember, one of the main reasons I joined the Facebook group was so that we could participate in the private drinks tastings.
We were waiting for details from Disney and, from what was posted originally, I honestly thought that this wouldn’t be confirmed for quite some time, as the original post said that we’d need to pay in July. However, the details came through much earlier than that – in fact before platinum members were able to book anything…. And it wasn’t good news.
Rumours started to circulate a few weeks before bookings opened that Disney were no longer booking private drinks tastings on at sea days and they would only be available on port days. I must admit I was a bit shocked by this, but I figured it couldn’t be true. As others said, it made no business sense, when you’ve got potentially hundreds of people in a Facebook group who would hand over their money upfront to Disney, as opposed to Disney waiting until people are on board.
Sadly it did turn out to be true a couple of weeks later, with Disney saying that having private tastings on sea days interfered with the public ones. No I don’t get it either. Sigh.
It’s fair to say that there was absolute outrage on our Facebook group, with a lot of people saying that Disney would lose money, as they’d only go to a private tasting with friends they’d made on the group. I half understand what they’re saying, but honestly if you’re in a Facebook group you’ll know this, it is harder to make friends there. It’s not exactly a place where you can leave long posts and that’s what it needs to get to know each other. I’ve been a member now for a good few weeks and while there are a few names I recognise, I don’t actually “know” anyone. As Mark said, we’ve been on many cruises where we’ve made friends the day we boarded (or later in the cruise than that), so that doesn’t bother us. Suffice to say we’ll still be trying for the “public” tastings.
Having said that, I still think Disney are nuts for going down this route and needless to say everyone who had been signed up quickly dropped out, as they wanted to enjoy their days in port. Oh well, it’s just one more thing I’ll need to book when booking opens. I guess I’ll be busy that morning…
At least there was one good thing. Disney have confirmed that the open bars can still be held on sea days, albeit “based on availability”. I’m not holding my breath with this one either though, as more people have signed up for the premium bar and we really only want the signature one. Unless there are a lot more signing up for the signature event, I doubt it will happen. We’ll just have to see…
So finally the day I’d been waiting for arrived when I could make all our bookings. It was a Saturday and I set the alarm for 5:00am the night before. Ugh.
As soon as it went off, I was up and headed downstairs to try and get everything booked. The first thing I went for was Palo brunch. I know these book up quickly and I wanted to get the brunch for the one at sea day where we wouldn’t be crossing the Transatlantic, as hopefully that would be a lot smoother. I don’t mind if there are some other things we can’t do on those days, but I do not want to miss our Palo brunch.
With that safely booked, I went on to reserve Palo dinner. I got the first night booked, then went on to book a night later in the cruise (Saint John as the all ashore time is later than our other ports of call). I was a bit worried about this, as we’ve never tried this before and the website was warning me we could only book one of these per cruise. However, it was all fine (what a novelty for a Disney website to work perfectly!) and I was soon in possession of two Palo dinners.
Next it was on to the drinks tastings. The first one of the cruise is the cognac tasting on formal night, the second night of our cruise. It’s at 10:30pm, which will be very late for us, but hopefully we’ll be able to stay awake for it. The other good thing is that this tasting isn’t in the middle of the Transatlantic, so hopefully the weather and the seas will be Ok.
The next night, I’ve booked a whiskey tasting just for Mark at 10:30pm again. Whiskey is not my thing, so there’s no point in spending money on me doing it. Hopefully, if I’m still awake, I can watch from the sidelines.
I finally managed to get a booking for mixology on our third day at sea, which I’m really excited about. I just hope we’re in a fit state to do it. In all our cruises, either mixology hasn’t been offered at a time we could do or, by the time we were able to book it, it was already sold out. I have no idea what to expect, but hopefully it will fun. I guess it’s one where I might have to let guest services know about my allergies beforehand…
The final tasting I booked was a martini one. This was offered while we were in the middle of the Transatlantic, but I found another one on the final sea day, so went for that instead. At least we’ll already have had Palo brunch that day, so we’ll have eaten already. I’m not too worried about packing a lot in on our last full day on board. Normally I would be, but of course this time we’ll be staying on board, so we don’t have to worry about packing everything.
That does seem crazy, the decision that Disney have made about the private tastings! There are many hours in the day, you’d think they could have them without interfering with the public ones. I must say, 10:30 seems very late for the ones you booked. I thought these things were mostly during the day.
I heard the reason that Disney stopped the private tastings on sea days is that it blocked up too many of the lounges from use by everyone when you factor in the Disney tastings and other activities and people were complaining so many were 'closed' for private functions. Is that true? I don't know.
Good job getting all your wish list fulfilled! That's always a relief!!
I heard the reason that Disney stopped the private tastings on sea days is that it blocked up too many of the lounges from use by everyone when you factor in the Disney tastings and other activities and people were complaining so many were 'closed' for private functions. Is that true? I don't know.
This actually sounds like a reasonable explanation.
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No I don’t get it either. Sigh. 
I have no idea what to expect, but hopefully it will fun. I guess it’s one where I might have to let guest services know about my allergies beforehand… 
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