DVC members-only cruise

[Plutosgirl]

I was reading about the member only cruise and am interested in taking it in the next couple of years. Does anyone know how far in advance they will announce the next one? :bigear:

[DisneyLove1012]

interesting,, havent heard anything but that would be really neat =)

[tjkraz]

Seems like it was around November when they started taking reservations for this year.

I think the cruises have been running for about 3 years straight now in the fall (September / October.) Something is telling me that the '07 cruise was announced during the '06 cruise.

[skelster]

My information was that they announced on the last cruise that another cruise was in the work, but I think they did not release the dates for a few more weeks after that...or maybe it was the points chart that wasn't released yet.

I am certain however that they gave members who had never been on a cruise the first chance at it using a lottery system. First time cruisers submitted their name and then many were given the opportunity to book first for a portion of the cabins.

Everyone else was given a chance a few days later on a first come first serve basis. MS was open early on 12/9/06 only for the member cruise. No other transactions were supposed to happen (although some may have, like land reservations before/after the cruise - they didn't let us but maybe some got lucky). The phone lines were several hours long for it; we called right away at 6am when they started and still had a 30 minute wait. There were a few cabins left several days later but they were all high end like category 3.

Anyways, that was how they did it for this year's cruise coming on October 21st. I expect it will happen almost identically this year. One thing about the member cruise; it is tip-inclusive. No tipping housekeeping, waiters, bartenders etc. The tickets cost an extra 10% to accomodate this. (We will still tip a bit for exceptional service; just not as much as we would have otherwise.)

Normal cruises you are expected to tip as most of the crew that you interact with do get paid room and board only and are expected to live off tips for everything else (at least that is what I have heard from a couple sources).

Hope this helps

[Plutosgirl]

Thanks for the info, that helps a lot. :yes: I hope I can go next year! I've never been on a cruise and am very interested in trying one.