The MAGIC is Back!!! ~ WBTA 2014 ~ Come & join the fun!

[LindaBabe]

Hey, question about the FE groups. Are we planning on doing FE gifts every day of the cruise? Just wondering as I thought I'd start collecting little things here and there and wanted to make sure I have enough to last the entire time just in case! Lol


Also, can we ship boxes to ourselves on the ship in Barcelona? I know we can if we leave from Orlando, not sure about Int'l ports though. And, one more quick question on that.. Lol We're in Turkey with the military. Anyone have any suggestions on sending the box that would NOT route it through NY first? I want to avoid sending it across the ocean TWICE. haha I know there's some prior military on here not sure if y'all might know??? Seeing that all our mail is APO, it's based out of NY so all of the mail we send sorts through there first before going to final destination..

I would suggest mailing your box through the Turkish post office to the agent in Barcelona. If you send it through the APO it *will* go back to NY and through customs. (former military family - 9 years in Germany)

I was in the FE group on the WBTA 2011. PLEASE ALL y'all do yourselves and everyone else in the fe groups a favor and only do one gift! if 10 people gave a gift per cabin per day that's 140 gifts to get over there AND get home again. OYE

 

[twopeasonepod]

Umm.... so I guess the Marriott is out for us in Barcelona!! When I just went to look, they don't offer 2 Queen beds in a room, which is normally how we go. 1 for DH and I and 1 for the kids to share. NONE of us are going to be able to share a twin bed!

But yea I was able to find $234/night Euro for that same hotel. I dunno where Disney is getting their prices from.

Any other suggestions for decent hotels in Barcelona that will accommodate a family such as ours? We really can't do 2 rooms as young as they are but would consider adjoining rooms if necessary (As we are doing for the cruise)

European hotels rarely allow 4 in one room. Most people either rent an apartment or move farther away from the port (like us). I love our choice. Can't book there yet though (they are about two weeks out).

 

[twopeasonepod]

Oh, and I am totally lame, because the miles for 9/1 are totally higher since HELLO it's Labor Day. HAHAHAHA duh!

 

[twopeasonepod]

PLEASE ALL y'all do yourselves and everyone else in the fe groups a favor and only do one gift! if 10 people gave a gift per cabin per day that's 140 gifts to get over there AND get home again. OYE

Totally! Hahaha.

 

[MagicMe]

WE ARE SAILING IN 11 MONTHS!!!

 

[TeamH5]

I was in the FE group on the WBTA 2011. PLEASE ALL y'all do yourselves and everyone else in the fe groups a favor and only do one gift! if 10 people gave a gift per cabin per day that's 140 gifts to get over there AND get home again. OYE

That's why I was wondering, and, if indeed we WERE giving out gifts everyday, I was going to get mainly edible items (small Disney candies) and some VERY small gifts if I couldn't find all edible.. Lol

So I take it we will each be assigned 1 family per day to give a gift to? We didn't do the FE last cruise so not entirely sure how it gets planned out..

 

[TeamH5]

European hotels rarely allow 4 in one room. Most people either rent an apartment or move farther away from the port (like us). I love our choice. Can't book there yet though (they are about two weeks out).

Where are you planning on staying? We're planning on arriving at least 2-3 days in advance (We're going to make our way across Spain from Rota hopefully starting on the 1st, stopping in Madrid for a day or two,then heading to Barcelona. All via Train travel) so we defintely need somewhere all of us can fit or we can at least have 2 adjoining rooms.

 

[Tod&Copper]

Where are you planning on staying? We're planning on arriving at least 2-3 days in advance (We're going to make our way across Spain from Rota hopefully starting on the 1st, stopping in Madrid for a day or two,then heading to Barcelona. All via Train travel) so we defintely need somewhere all of us can fit or we can at least have 2 adjoining rooms.

We had a lovely hotel in June, not in the centre of the city, near poblenou, but was an easy hop into catalunya on the nearby metro. It was a family room with separate bedroom for adults and a double sofa bed in the lounge with a kitchen and dining table too. We always struggle finding somewhere reasonable for family trips. Check out the Apsis Porta Marina, it's not far from the port

 

[TeamH5]

We had a lovely hotel in June, not in the centre of the city, near poblenou, but was an easy hop into catalunya on the nearby metro. It was a family room with separate bedroom for adults and a double sofa bed in the lounge with a kitchen and dining table too. We always struggle finding somewhere reasonable for family trips. Check out the Apsis Porta Marina, it's not far from the port

Their prices aren't bad at all. Plus, it lets me book 2A 2C and 1 baby, so it looks like we only have to sneak in 1 kid! Wonder if they'd say anything?? Generally when we stay at Marriott we say we have 2 kids and no one says anything when we show up with 3. Technically with 3 we'd have to book 2 rooms even at Marriott in the States.

How soon would y'all suggest booking? I've never made travel plans this far in advance before, especially being military.. I have trip insurance that should cover everything (through USAA) but still..

What type of activities would be recommended the days prior? I saw the beaches are nearby. We might just play it on a whim and decide when we get there what to see. Especially with 3 younger kids and a baby in tow.

 

[twopeasonepod]

Where are you planning on staying? We're planning on arriving at least 2-3 days in advance (We're going to make our way across Spain from Rota hopefully starting on the 1st, stopping in Madrid for a day or two,then heading to Barcelona. All via Train travel) so we defintely need somewhere all of us can fit or we can at least have 2 adjoining rooms.

We are staying at Suites Avenue again. It's on Passeig de Gracia, directly across Casa Mila (La Pedrera) and very close to my absolute favorite place in Barcelona, Casa Batllo! The family apartment is around $305/night (I priced it out as far out as I could go, and that is two weeks prior). But I'm not sure that you can make three kids (and an infant) work. There is only one double, one twin, and one sofa twin (it doesn't pull out, the back cushions just get taken off and it becomes a bed).

You should try and get an apartment, like BCNGotic or Casp74. Lots of people of the DIS have talked about those before. I pick Suites Avenue because I want a pool and they also have a little (tiny) gym.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Just booked pre and post stays! So excited for this trip good thing we've got WDW trips in December and May to focus on or I may go nuts waiting for next September.

 

[twopeasonepod]

Question for those that have booked RT and thrown away the second half:

What are the potential consequences of doing that? In my (very brief) search, I've found people saying that some carriers will penalize you in the FF programs. I'm a little scared because we will be booking the San Juan to DC then home portion very soon, so will they even care that it seems weird? Does it even matter?

 

[TeamH5]

Question for those that have booked RT and thrown away the second half:

What are the potential consequences of doing that? In my (very brief) search, I've found people saying that some carriers will penalize you in the FF programs. I'm a little scared because we will be booking the San Juan to DC then home portion very soon, so will they even care that it seems weird? Does it even matter?

Granted I've never been a part of a FF program, but we've done it before when returning from deployment. DH had to buy a RT ticket for me cuz it was so much cheaper. It was the to portion that I didn't show up for. Nobody said anything to me on the return portion. and no one said anything to him on the way there. The airline gets their money you've already paid for the seat. If you don't show up they will try to give it out to a stand-by customer to fill the plane. But as far as consquence, I don't see how since you've paid for it. It's your own fault you didn't show up before boarding.. Lol

 

[wayneg]

Check with the airline about missing a first leg of a flight, almost all airlines will cancel the entire itinery, You would be very lucky if they didn't, just try a little Googling for responses https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=f...firefox-a&gws_rd=cr&ei=br9RUqWRH8eY0QW764H4CA

As for skipping the RT leg you should have no problems but thankfully I always find one way fares cheaper so never tried it.

I never rush into buying flights, a deal always turns up at some point.

 

[twopeasonepod]

Thanks to both of you! I do know that they will cancel the return leg if you don't show up for the first (TeamH5 you must've done this a long time ago).

The miles prices to/from BCN aren't as cheap as they were for the EBTA, so we are trying to decide whether to pay for the HNL-BCN portion for me and DH to get more miles and try to make the next level or to use miles for all of us on that one and pay for the SJU-IAD-HNL for the four of us.

HNL-BCN one way is $3508 (not joking!) RT is like $1770. Yeah. But I'm sketched out that they will penalize us somehow with missing the return. Not sure how, but I'm scared.

 

[*Flower*]

We used miles to book RT tickets to Barcelona for the WBTA in 2011. We only used the tickets getting us TO Barcelona, and the others went away.

We even asked about only booking the tickets one way because that's all we'd use of the round trip tickets, and they were more expensive (more than double the cost if we were to pay for them instead of using miles) to do the one way ticket instead of the round trip ticket.

Spain didn't want us hanging around LOL, and wanted to know that we had a way to get back home at he end of our 'trip'. Of course we were leaving on the Magic, so we wouldn't have a chance to use the other half of our round trip tickets.

HTH!!

 

[twopeasonepod]

The problem is I don't have enough miles to make the ideal scenario work (miles for all six of us to BCN, then miles for my parents and the boys the rest of the trip with me and DH paying for flights).

I found a travel forum that had a thread about throwaway tickets, and it listed UA's remedies for this "prohibited practice". One of their options is to revoke our elite status. I'm just too chicken to chance it, so I guess we will figure something else out.

 

[nordkin]

The problem is I don't have enough miles to make the ideal scenario work (miles for all six of us to BCN, then miles for my parents and the boys the rest of the trip with me and DH paying for flights).

I found a travel forum that had a thread about throwaway tickets, and it listed UA's remedies for this "prohibited practice". One of their options is to revoke our elite status. I'm just too chicken to chance it, so I guess we will figure something else out.

We are also using United Miles to get to BCN from DC, but are planning on booking one way through US Air via United because they have a non stop flight from Philadelphia to Barcelona and then taking Jet Blue from San Juan to DCA. United also has a non stop flight from Newark to Barcelona, but I have never seen it as an economy saver award. I will say since the merger with Continental they have become very strict with the rules. Good luck.

 

[twopeasonepod]

We are also using United Miles to get to BCN from DC, but are planning on booking one way through US Air via United because they have a non stop flight from Philadelphia to Barcelona and then taking Jet Blue from San Juan to DCA. United also has a non stop flight from Newark to Barcelona, but I have never seen it as an economy saver award. I will say since the merger with Continental they have become very strict with the rules. Good luck.

Thanks, ITA about the merger. We lost the benefit of Economy Plus seats at time of booking as well (we are normally just silver, but are trying to get gold this year, hence considering the $ for BCN). We got super saver on the way back to the states from BCN for the EBTA and I assumed that we would be able to do the same on the reverse trip. Oh well, I will keep checking!

 

[Ginamarie]

Most hotels in Spain will not fit 4 people in one room. We are stuck with two rooms per DCL cabin, so 6 hotel rooms!! I have no idea if we can get adjoining rooms either.


I looked at the airfare from ny to Florence for our pre-cruise and freaked out. If they stay too high, I can't afford to do that and will have to cancel the Italy accommodations. Not happy!!