Sept 4-8 2005 Wonder S.S. Member Cruise!

[alikat99]

I told DH about the passporter last night. And, even though we've been on a cruise, we're thinking about getting one anyway.

 

[WDWLVR]

Gee looks like Passporter knew what they were doing when they sent me an extra. They are making even more sales.


Honestly i do recommend the Passporter. It is a great source of information. It is a great resource for looking at future cruises as well as it covers all the ports (except Costa Maya - I expect that will come in the 4th edition).

There is also a listing in the back of many, many websites.

I got to meet one of the authors at Mousefest in 2003 - a very nice guy. Enjoy!

 

[3DAN]

I agree with Mary. I don't think you will go wrong buying a passporter.
Bill

 

[cgcw]

Okay, another question to start the day.

How many of you have passports?

We don't and I'm wondering if we are in the minority. We've never traveled outside of the US. I believe I've read that after 1/1/06, they will be required. I know if we are going to get them, we need to hop on it rather quickly.

 

[WDWLVR]

Cindy - we do! Got them a few years ago. I had one from before we were married that had expired and was in my maiden name. We also got them before the price increase a couple of years ago.

You will be fine without them for this cruise. Just make sure your birth certificates have the raised seal on them.

I would however recommend them going forward because as you said it looks like they will be mandatory after the first of the year.

We have found that having the passports makes the check-in process very smooth. We have our documents filled out and the sheets (torn out of the book) placed in our passport. Both times we've sailed that we used this we got smiles and thank you's from the agents for making the process so smooth for them.

 

[cgcw]

We have our documents filled out and the sheets (torn out of the book) placed in our passport.

Mary, which sheets are you referring to? I know there are forms on the disneycruise.com site and planned on having them filled out. What else can we do to make it easier?

 

[alikat99]

We also have our passports. DH got his when he was traveling back & forth to Canada weekly, then I got mine soon after. Emily got hers when we were traveling to the Bahamas 2 years ago for a wedding. And Madison's we are planning to get soon. (I better get moving on that, huh?) Luckily, for the babies, they come back in less than 2 weeks. We figured for Emily that it was because there's not much background checking on a baby.

 

[alikat99]

Mary, which sheets are you referring to? I know there are forms on the disneycruise.com site and planned on having them filled out. What else can we do to make it easier?

I was wondering the same thing. Since we cruised back in 2003, I don't remember what documents are needed.

 

[iluvdisney]

Hello from my road trip - wow - all of you have been busy here!

I'm visiting with family and will be heading down to Florida later this week - sure hope the storms fizzle out by then.

Congrats on your publication Mary!

I didn't make either the Cruise Chat or DVC this past weekend and not sure if I will til I arrive back home at the end of the month. Busy, busy! Will check in when I can and catch up on the latest!

 

[WDWLVR]

Mary, which sheets are you referring to? I know there are forms on the disneycruise.com site and planned on having them filled out. What else can we do to make it easier?

Cindy - those are the same forms. Before they had them online you had to wait until you got your documents. They come all in a little bound book. You tear out the ones you need, fill them out and have them ready.

Unfortunately many people do not do this. So now they have someone checking to make sure you have them filled out before you get in line.

I'm pretty sure they are the exact same documents as online. Charging form, Bahamian immigration form (remember Castaway Cay is in the Bahamas so it needs to be filled out). Emergency notification form. When everyone starts getting their documents we can make a list of the exact names so everyone is ready. Off the top of my head I think it is 3-4 that you need (one being the charging form that only one member of the party needs to fill out).

 

[WDWLVR]

Hello from my road trip - wow - all of you have been busy here!

I'm visiting with family and will be heading down to Florida later this week - sure hope the storms fizzle out by then.

Congrats on your publication Mary!

I didn't make either the Cruise Chat or DVC this past weekend and not sure if I will til I arrive back home at the end of the month. Busy, busy! Will check in when I can and catch up on the latest!

Mary - thanks for checking in from the road. Stay safe out there! I missed both chats as well. Will try and make them this coming week.

 

[bcvprincesses]

Congratulations Grumpy-1. We are getting ready to go camping tomorrow. It is alot of work. It should be fun. There is about 50 of us going from all over the state and meeting in Silver Lake. We go every year. I'm sure I will need a cup of coffee and a few hours to catch up with all the posts I will miss.

 

[iluvdisney]

Forgot to add my congrats to Grumpy-1 and wanted to add that we also have passports. Have to pick up a copy of the Passporter sometime - in between road trips would probably be a good idea!

 

[#1Mouse]

We just applied for our passports a week ago. When we were on our cruise in February we were told many times that Passports will be required soon. We are going on a RCL cruise in December and even though they won't be required I figured it would just make everything easier. Plus, we won't have to listen to the "Passports will be required after next week" speech.

Mary - the price just increased again last March. The price for an adult is now $97 plus your pictures. Costco does the pictures for $4.99 and they do a very good job.

If you go to this website http://travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html
it has all the info on passports that you will need. You can even download the application and type it up, print it out and take it with you.

The lady at the Post Office said that the passports are coming back within 3 weeks - unless of course they need more info. I will let you all know how long it takes to get ours back.

 

[#1Mouse]

We are getting ready to go camping tomorrow. It is alot of work. It should be fun. There is about 50 of us going from all over the state and meeting in Silver Lake.

One of the families from dd's soccer team is going camping at Silver Lake this week also. She said it was a big group of family and friends going. They are going for 2 weeks. Is this by chance the same group that you're camping with?

 

[Bompy213]

I just had to catch up on about 6 pages of posts - wow! I was away since early Sat. thru late last night. I decided to go ahead and go to DC. The security was plentiful and tight, but it did not interfere with anything. The Disneyland exhibit at the Smithsonian was VERY tiny, but worth seeing. I'm glad we did other stuff while we were there and did not just see that cause it would've been a big letdown. Oh, and there was an exhibit on the Mickey Mouse Watch witch was really cute.

Yesterday we went to the Tanger Outlets at Rehoboth, DE. I was never there. I got a ton of stuff at the Disney Catalog outlet and only spent $25. Stuff was 60% off!!!!! FYI - All sales were final ... they're closing in a few weeks for a full renovation. I'm glad I went, but sad that I couldn't get a disc. (I work at TDS, but we're owned by CP now - so no disc's. Glad I got my DVC while I was still a CM!)

Anyway, I'm back, and home sick w/ a sore throat...but glad I'm catching up with this chatty crowd : )

Mary, the raffle was a terrific way to get those new to the Dis or new to cruising, participating here - KUDOS!

 

[TnRobin]

I guess we are in the minority - we do not have passports. I know I have to get them before next December's cruise.

We have had no problem with using our Driver's License and Birth Certificates.

 

[chipscinderelly]

I have a passport and Matt's should arrive this week or next if it's really only 3 weeks on the return. I imagine later this year it will take longer due to the new requirements. Of course over the weekend I couldn't find the safe place I had put mine and spent 2 hours searching top to bottom only to find it between 2 magazines. Hello that's not what I call a safe place.

We are excited as this morning we were able to finalize all our DVC reservations around the cruise. In January we cancelled a trip and had to put the points in holding which I was none to happy about. Today was the 60 day mark for 9/9, however, due to a weird computer glitch all our points came out of holding and we were able to book through 9/11 our final check out date. I was pretty concerned during the call as the number of points remaining in holding kept coming back wrong and it seemed they wanted me to hang up and wait until tomorrow. I decided that I wanted to wait for the glitch to be fixed and poof - all our nights are booked . We are staying SSR the night before the cruise (home resort) and BCV after the cruise. I am so excited now!

 

[Mikem861]

I guess we are in the minority with you. We used our birth cert's and drivers licences on our Feb 2004 cruise and they worked just fine. We will just have to get passports before our next cruise.

Mike & Lisa

 

[HookdonWDW]

We have passports. We've had them since we lived in Germany in the 80's, and we got one for each of the kids for travelling. We were actually supposed to go to London this summer, but we postponed it until next year when news of the Member Cruise came out last fall.