*BIG* meet up Fall 2016

If I book a Disney cruise, how much deposit will I need and when will the full balance be due?
Do you lose deposit if you can't go and have to change plans?

A 20% deposit is required for Disney Cruise Line bookings. Attached below is Disney Cruise Line's current booking and cancellation policy that shows what the loss is for canceling depending on the date, stateroom, etc. There are protection plans you can add on that cover travel insurance benefits AND allow you to cancel for any reason not covered by the insurance portion and receive a future cruise credit of 7% of the cancellation fee amount to apply toward a future Disney Cruise Line sailing, usable within one year from issue date.

Thanks Allie and Robyn.

I am!! Remember everyone, the pattern on DCL is that bookings are the least expensive when they are first announced. If you are planning to join us on that leg of the trip, be prepared to book within the first few weeks for the best deals.

We don't get a group "rate", but if we end of booking 8 staterooms, they will seat us together for dinner and we have the ability to be considered for special promotions. We create all of the reservations as individual bookings and then if they offer us a promotion, we can go back and apply it retroactively. So you can book immediately when those dates are released. (It would figure--I'm going to be in California from the day after our anticipated release date until Easter. )

Is everyone who is doing the cruise portion thinking awhile about their cabin choice? If you kind of have your budget in mind and your ideal stateroom category picked out awhile, booking will go more smoothly. Feel free to PM Allie or myself for our phone numbers or click our "find me on Facebook" links if you need to talk about anything ahead of time.

If we are doing the Dream, I know my stateroom too. I just hope you guys pick a date I can do. I'm limited to certain times by my job.

This is a general question and is not specific to Allie or Alicemouse.

Is there an advantage to booking a cruise through a travel agent rather than directly from the website?

If enough people want to make the WDW part of the meet-up, maybe we could book our own dessert party (minimum 10 guests). I also discovered on-line a lovely, cosy function room at the boardwalk called the attic, but I am not sure how the cost per person would work out if we arranged a meet up event there or somewhere similar.

Robyn, when you had your vow renewal at TOTWL, what did you have to pay for (eg. Food or venue hire), was there a minimum spend and were non DVC members allowed to attend?

Will be interested to know if non-DVC members will be allowed in DVC areas...I don't own on property at Disney - I have access to an apartment at Westgate Lakes and Spa, so lemme know

I just saw this and think it's an awesome idea!! Would love to be added to the definitely maybe list! Mark and I have been dreaming of a DCL lately and of course are always looking for an excuse to go to WDW!

There's really not much difference other than having a little bit of extra complimentary help if you've never cruised before. We may be able to offer some little extras like onboard credits, but unless they are offered to our agency by DCL, we'll have limited availability on that front. As far as booking though both of us, Allie and I chatted the other day about maybe dividing by venue--one of us helping with WDW and one helping with DCL, but that might be more of a pain for the folks who are doing both parts of the trip. If we can help you with your booking, we're more than happy to do so, but if you book on your own, we're still excited to get to meet everyone! On DCL, we should be able to link our reservations together regardless of how they're booked. For WDW, I still haven't received an answer regarding the rules for booking a "group". It's on my followup list for tomorrow.

As far as having to make a choice, I don't want to speak for Allie, but I think we're probably both in agreement that we understand that people will have to make a choice and we would never hold it against anyone or have hard feelings about someone's choice for how they book a trip. If we can help you with your booking, we're delighted to do so, but if you book on your own or with any other TA from any other agency, we're still excited to get to meet everyone!

I would recommend that if you would like for us to help you with your trip, PM one us for a phone number prior to the cruise release date. It's much quicker and easier to coordinate ad make the selections that you'll need to make over the phone than via facebook, email, or private message.

(Admins, I'm trying to tread lightly here with regard to giving out info via message board post while still answering questions that are posed. If you think that the conversation is crossing over the "no-TA speak" rule, please let me know and I'll be happy to make whatever edits you feel are necessary to any of my posts.)

The enthusiasm seems to be growing every day! Like the Colonel I think it sounds like great fun but I too am limited to certain times of the month. With close out taking up the first week I would be unable to go until the second or third week. Like Karlipants, you can put me down as a definite maybe!

Do we want to try to pin down a week or two that we will try to target while we are waiting for the official release dates? That way we can bat some ideas around and be ready for the release dates so that people with specific cabin preferences can book with confidence on the release day and don't lose their first choice of cabins.

I assume that we want to go out of Port Canaveral. For a 4-night cruise, we'll likely be limited to a Bahamas itinerary. For Fall 2015, all of the Caribbean itineraries are 5-7 night and the 5-night sailings are out of Miami. The Bahamas sailings are 3-4 nights out of Port Canaveral and the time only varies depending on whether or not your itinerary includes a day at sea. The port stops are all the same--Nassau and Castaway Cay. The time in port is identical. So whether we book a 3-night or 4-night, we'll be stopping at the same places for the same amount of time unless Disney revises their Bahamas sailings. The Dream basically just does one Bahamas sailing after another alternating 3-night and 4-night itineraries. So if we pick a week that works for the most people, we should be able to pin down the corresponding cruise with relative ease.

Who has a conflict that is already booked for September or October 2016? Colonel do you know what times will be busy for you at work this far in advance? If so, we can probably just work around your schedule. Does anyone have preferred dates? Assuming that I continue with the same schedule that I have now, I can tell you for sure that I prefer October due to fall teaching schedule and AP renewal concerns, but it doesn't matter to me at all which week in October.

Ideally my vacation would be 10/15-10/25. So 10/16 works for me and Mrs Colonel.

Those dates would work for me too.

That's a good date for me as well. (I could actually do any of those dates if they end up being the cruise dates.)

Are we thinking WDW before or after cruise? I usually advise people to do WDW first and cruise second because then the more relaxing part of the vacation is at the end and you go home well-rested, but in this case, since people will undoubtedly want to stay at WDW for different lengths of time, maybe the reverse makes more sense as all of the cruisers will start off together and then meet up with our land friends all at the same time.

My preference is cruise first.