LarsMars

For anyone who had booked prior to the adjustment, it will show up as a credit on your Palo/Remy bill.

Frisbeewife, I'm just curious. Your wonderful list of cruises do not include a Disney cruise. So am I correct in assuming you have never actually sailed with Disney? Just wonderin'……..

You don't have to experience something to determine if it's not worth the money or value. I've never owned a ferrari, but I still feel justified in saying it's not worth the value to me.

Not sure if anyone else saw this

http://disneycruiselineblog.com/2015/04/palo-and-remy-prices-to-increase-fleetwide-in-late-april/

With Sunshine making a few stops in Charleston next year, is that not a precursor to a new ship due to Fantasy's age?

Sorry, I was commenting on the new port facility, not the potential replacement for the Fantasy.

Local politics over the current and future port expansion keeps getting wrapped up in legal wrangling. In fact, there was an article in the local paper today about one group wanting to move the potential second port to an entirely new, and yet undefined, location. That would entail several years of environment studies, more lawsuits, etc...

The funds and plan was approved 4 years ago and no work has started.

I heard they are going to expand the Charleston port. I hope so. Would love to see bigger, newer ships go out from there!

That isn't going to happen anytime soon.

I don't believe the Sunshine is replacing the Fantasy anytime soon. I see cruises out of Port Canaveral till April 2017. She is just making a few stop there before she goes up to New York next year for a little while. I think a segment of the Charleston population doesn't want a bigger ship there. Very political. I would love it to have some bigger ships at my home port.

Both are correct. I live in Charleston and Sunshine is a temporary stop here, for now.

We had most of the same comments. It was about a 40 min commercial for DCL - other than the one dish for Remy, nothing really groundbreaking there food wise.

 

And why does EVERY cruise show have to stress how many pounds of meat, etc.. (Side note, if they load 10K pounds of beef tenderloin, and there are 4000 people on the ship (crew don't get to eat that), that means they are serving 2.5 lbs of just that to every man woman and child on board in a week (side side note - that was a 4 or 5 day cruise)). I think not.

Just to clarify, that 4000 number is just passengers, correct? So you would have to add crew in for the stores as well.

I really hated the food network special. I was hoping for far more information on the food side instead of a 48 minute promotional advertisement. I expected some of the editing, but it was a bit disingenuous. You could clearly see Nassau in the background when they did the AquaDuck portion, but they made it seem like they only stopped in Cast Away. The celebrity chefs were kinda rude and overly fake with their praise. One can only assume they filed Serenity Bay and Remy's prior to other guest times, perhaps by getting off the ship earlier than others.

We were looking at the photo package and decided not to do it, and rather bring our own cameras. Compared to WDW, I was disappointed with how few photographers there were onboard and how few total pictures we got. It seemed like they were only present for "events" like character greets and none that I could see roaming around or taking pictures outside of Remy/Palo, or roaming around Castaway.

If we decided to do a Disney cruise where we intend to stand in every line and get every possible picture it could be worth it. But any non-staged shots of families and people around the ship just didn't match my observation.

We dropped our 1 year old off last Sept on the Dream and really could not have had a better experience. I think our daughter had more fun in the nursery than she did with us. The staff were nice, friendly, accommodating, patient, and attentive. I heard some other families make unreasonable requests and they declined, which made me feel good to see. They also responded to all our requests and followed all our instructions, which weren't many.

Our Remy dinner ran late and a simple phone call to extend was happily accommodated. I really don't see how they could have improved any without hiring an individual person to look after each child.

Unreal cheap or unreal expensive

 

I have a wonderful full service TA but we aren't allowed to name such people on CC. Sorry.

I think you had a great post about what to look for in a TA, but it's a shame there's no way to send a PM.

What YEAR are you looking for? Because DCL recently released some IGT rates on their June 2015 cruises in northern Europe. Also' date=' DCL is supposed to be releasing more cruise dates and rates this week. Logically that would include summer 2016. You will get your best rates near the opening day point.

 

I have a wonderful full service TA but we aren't allowed to name such people on CC. Sorry.

 

Other lines--Celebrity is good, but tends to be an older crowd than DCL. Good food though.[/quote']

 

Sorry. Summer '16

Not sure if this is the right place, but Disney cruiselines is our only frame of reference.

My wife and I did our first cruise on the Dream last September and have booked a 7 night Magic cruise for next month. We absolutely loved our time on the Dream and weren't really looking for the cruise on the Magic, but it's over our 2 year old's birthday, so when Disney dropped the price for the IGT rooms, we decided to take advantage of the rate.

So that leads us to my question- over the summer months, I have a 13 year old son that I would like to take on a European cruise with my wife and I, preferably the Norwegian Fjords. Not knowing any other cruise lines, I really don't know where to start our search. I know Disney is an option, but they aren't booking that far out and I fear that it would be out of our price range. I just can't afford Disney's summer prices, though certainly understand and have no objection to them.

Normally this is the part where someone would recommend a TA, but the only one we've used does exclusively Disney vacations. We've been very satisfied with them, but they aren't a help here. I've been lurking around CC for a few years, and only recently registered hoping to send a few people who'm I've enjoyed feedback for a PM, only to find out that isn't really something I can see supported @CC.

Ideally we would like something that stops at various locations around Norway, etc... and something that is comparable to the Disney experience. There is a local Carnival cruise line at my city, and it looks fun, everyone I know who has been on it inevitably calls it a "booze cruise". Probably not what we'd like to take our son on, though I've no idea if all Carnival cruises are like that or just the local one that goes to the Bahamas. Some activities would the son would be ideal and something with better food would also be preferable. I've no interest in drinking or gambling onboard.

In any case, for those who have taken Disney cruises and can be budget conscious, are there any starting points or cruise lines that stand out more than others to begin our search? Or any hints as to where to look for a TA who can assist? Would it be best to go to the individual cruise lines or some kind of search aggregator?

For reference, I've no concern about airfare or hotel costs.

Thanks in advance.

I am just curious

 

My family of four is sailing on the Fantasy in a few short weeks :) I was wondering if we would be sure to have a table by ourselves or would we be seated with other people?

I'm not a big social person by nature and I thought I wanted a table by myself, but my first Disney cruise we really enjoyed the company of our dinnermates. They were the same approximate age and had a child of the same approximate age. It was their first Disney cruise experience as well, and it was interesting to have someone to chat with and share little bits of knowledge.

Prices are significantly different depending on the time of year you travel.