Pinkocto
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2011
Trip dates: 3/13-3/18/12 Disney Dream 5 Night Cruise followed by 3/18-3/21/12 at AKV Jambo House
Greetings Everybody. Not only was this our first cruise ever but this will be my first TR ever, so please be patient with me. I took tons of notes and about 1700 pictures, so hopefully I can skim over unnecessary parts and not bore anybody. Well the players of this trip were myself, Pam, and my mother, Jeanette. This was our annual mother/daughter trip for 2012 where we get to catch up with each other and just have quality time.
The history of this trip is as follows. I joined DVC in January 2011, and this was actually the first trip I booked using points. Well not being versed with the booking rules at the time, even though I thought I knew the ins and outs completely, I waited until exactly 12months to the day to book the cruise. Well we were totally content to stay in an inside stateroom, which is what I asked for, but unfortunately they were all sold out. Apparently they hold a certain amount of each stateroom category for DVC, and when they're all booked that's it even if there is some of the same category available for cash. The DVC CM then told me I could book with points as soon as the itineraries come out, which was months earlier so I asked what the next cheapest was which turned out to be a 5E, Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah. Since the Dream had just started to sail as of 1/31/11, and this was 3/13/11 when I called and booked they had not recategorized the rooms yet, and what we ended up with was an 'oversized verandah'. Totally by chance since I had done no investigation on what would be a good room to request, didn't even know that was something that should/could be done. The stars were alligned in our favor and we were given the best room, in our opinion, but more on that later. So for an entire year in advance I poured over TRs and read the DCL Passporter 2 times. I felt like I was so prepared and knew what to expect but I was totally blown away by the magnificence of the whole experience. I tried to get my mother involved in the excitement, but she just wanted to let me plan and she'd enjoy the spoils of my investigations. This is how it always is when we go on our trips, so I shouldn't have been surprised. Well halfway through the year of anticipation I had had enough of waiting and booked another short trip for last December since I was driving myself insane anticipating the cruise so much. I will never ever book something a year in advance without anything inbetween again. Hopefully, if anybody is interested, I can tack on the December trip at the end. That in itself was a fabulous getaway. More pictures in the next post.
Greetings Everybody. Not only was this our first cruise ever but this will be my first TR ever, so please be patient with me. I took tons of notes and about 1700 pictures, so hopefully I can skim over unnecessary parts and not bore anybody. Well the players of this trip were myself, Pam, and my mother, Jeanette. This was our annual mother/daughter trip for 2012 where we get to catch up with each other and just have quality time.
The history of this trip is as follows. I joined DVC in January 2011, and this was actually the first trip I booked using points. Well not being versed with the booking rules at the time, even though I thought I knew the ins and outs completely, I waited until exactly 12months to the day to book the cruise. Well we were totally content to stay in an inside stateroom, which is what I asked for, but unfortunately they were all sold out. Apparently they hold a certain amount of each stateroom category for DVC, and when they're all booked that's it even if there is some of the same category available for cash. The DVC CM then told me I could book with points as soon as the itineraries come out, which was months earlier so I asked what the next cheapest was which turned out to be a 5E, Oceanview Stateroom with Verandah. Since the Dream had just started to sail as of 1/31/11, and this was 3/13/11 when I called and booked they had not recategorized the rooms yet, and what we ended up with was an 'oversized verandah'. Totally by chance since I had done no investigation on what would be a good room to request, didn't even know that was something that should/could be done. The stars were alligned in our favor and we were given the best room, in our opinion, but more on that later. So for an entire year in advance I poured over TRs and read the DCL Passporter 2 times. I felt like I was so prepared and knew what to expect but I was totally blown away by the magnificence of the whole experience. I tried to get my mother involved in the excitement, but she just wanted to let me plan and she'd enjoy the spoils of my investigations. This is how it always is when we go on our trips, so I shouldn't have been surprised. Well halfway through the year of anticipation I had had enough of waiting and booked another short trip for last December since I was driving myself insane anticipating the cruise so much. I will never ever book something a year in advance without anything inbetween again. Hopefully, if anybody is interested, I can tack on the December trip at the end. That in itself was a fabulous getaway. More pictures in the next post.
They packed the bus full, so I was even more glad we went straight to check-in on arrival because I would not have been happy if, after getting up so early, I had to wait for the next bus. It might have left immediately after ours, but I have no idea how that works. 
I usually find/join TR when they are almost finished or done. 
What a great way to start your cruise with getting a super great cabin upgrade assignment. 
You can't even control your family sometimes. So through the ears we went
