OK. So, technically a Disney cruise is not a road trip. But, my thinking is that since it basically remains in North America and we plan to rent a car in each Hawaiian port, that it does not rise to the level of warranting a standalone blog... especially since there is so much written by Disney experts already available. So, here we go!
We booked this trip about a year before it happened. We had been interested in a Disney cruise, but couldn't stand the thought of all those kids. We had talked about a cruise to Hawaii. Then, we heard that DCL was getting ready to release this cruise, 15 days during school time and over our 27th Anniversary. It sounded perfect for us. Then, I tried to book it. Forget about it. DCL opens bookings first to their Platinum, Gold, then Silver Castaway Cay members. I still don't know quite what those terms signify, but since we had never cruised DCL before we weren't anywhere in the first week of booking. I was following Disboards and it looked like it might sell out without ever opening to the general public. I tried to get a quote from Dreams Unlimited, the Travel Agency that sponsors the Disboard, but never got a reply,. They were overwhelmed. Eventually, DCL's website went live and I was able to book myself. I took the cabin it offered me in the closest category to low, balcony, midship. It was number 7582 and a category 5A for $8742.22 total for the 2 of us. I had asked for a category 5B, deck 6 midship, but they were sold out. We got a $25 onboard credit for booking on DCL's website. A few weeks later, I contacted Dreams Unlimited again about transferring the booking for the $400 onboard credit and that happened quickly and smoothly after things had calmed down with the new cruise releases. It was a couple of months before they assigned us an actual agent, but it turned out that we never had reason to have contact with her, so all was fine. A few weeks after booking, I received an offer for a Chase Disney credit card with a $200 gift card after the first use within 30 days or something like that. I applied and got the card with Mickey on it! Pretty quickly got the $200 gift card and that finished out our onboard credit of over $600. We also wound up with another $42 in Disney Rewards from using the Disney CC that we also applied to our onboard account. In the end, we ended up with $3.87 being credited back onto that card.
We booked American Airlines flights with frequent flyer miles in October. Even so, we were only able to get coach seats outbound and on the return only first class seats were available. Fortunately, we still had enough miles between us to get award tickets roundtrip. Meanwhile, AA was changing our flights and never contacting us all the while in bankruptcy and we were sweating it. All went just fine.
We headed to LAX a day early. On April 28th, we left home about 10 minutes of 6am. We drove to Clay's office and parked and waited a few minutes for the taxi Clay scheduled. It is less than 5 miles to RDU from the office and we were there in plenty of time. It was not terribly crowded and we were through security with only carry on luggage and the boarding passes we printed at home 23 hours in advance with no trouble.
Not much was open this early and we ate at Bruegger's Bagels. About $13 for 2 bagels with eggs, cheese and meat and 1 coffee. They only sell bottled water. Clay found a public drinking fountain to fill our travel water bottles. The flight was not completely full. The plane was a 2/3 configuration and we were on a 2 side. About 1.5 hours to Chicago's ORD. It was rainy and 49 degrees in Chicago and it was a turbulent flight. Clay watched PBS' Mansfield Park on his tablet. They did have a drink service in coach. We each got a cup full of ice and a whole can of Coke. There was no snack at all, except food for sale.We arrived at gate K9.
About 2 hours later we flew out from gate K8. The flight to LAX was completely full and rough to start and lasted about 4 hours. ORD had nice ladies toilets with electrically operated seat covers! I hate the auto-flush though. I ate a protein bar. I bought an Apple Pie caramel apple for about $8 at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and shared it with Clay. Clay was on a quest for a brat. He got a Classic Chicago dog with fries at Prairie Taps and said it was good.
Our flight is booked solid, possibly overbooked, not good. This flight is a 3/3 configuration and we have a window and middle seat. Clay let me have the window. The guy next to him did not get the memo about the center seat getting both arm rests. He kept his elbow in Clay's side the whole flight and Clay leaned into me. It would have been nice to be able to raise the armrest against the wall to gain an extra couple of inches, but it was fixed. There was drink service again, but just one ice cube and one cup, with the same little snack. They showed one, maybe 2 movies, but you had to buy a headset and I didn't. Clay had a headset he could use already and he used it. I don't remember what they were showing, though I could see it, just not hear it. Looking forward to first class on the way home.
We were on the ground at LAX before noon. We planned to take public transit all the way to the ship. On the way home, we expect to have additional luggage and will take Prime Time Shuttle directly from the pier when we disembark ($32 for the 2 of us and 4 bags). But, for today we only needed to get to the Queen Mary Hotel in Long Beach. We booked this directly with the hotel about a year in advance and prepaid $160 as an AARP rate. Check-in time is 4pm, so we have plenty of time to make our way there. We had also reserved 9:30am Sunday Brunch for Wonder embarkation day. It was $39pp when we reserved, by April of this year the price had increased to $48.95pp and we decided it could not possibly be worth that much to us, so on 4/9/2012 I cancelled brunch. Anyway, on to public transit!
The hardest part was finding the free shuttle to the Green Line Aviation Blvd. Station. I believe we finally wound up standing in the center of the roads under a sign that said LAX Shuttle & Airline Connections. We had to ask for help. It was also the longest wait! No idea what was up with that. It was maybe a 10 minute bus ride to the Metro station, once the shuttle bus showed up. You buy a ticket from a machine downstairs. It is $1.50 one-way for adults. You need to buy another $1.50 ticket for the Blue Line when you transfer. We messed up and just bought four tickets at the first ticket machine. Technically, that wasn't the right thing to do. We should have gotten one ticket each for the Green Line and then one ticket each for the Blue Line when we got to it, but we did pay our full fare at the Green Line's Aviation Blvd. Station and no one stopped us so it was OK. The next problem was after we got off the Blue Line at the Long Beach Transit Mall. We should have been able to just walk across the street and get the Passport C red bus, which is free, the rest of the way to the Queen Mary Hotel. Unfortunately for us, there were some sidewalk barriers/construction going on and more than one or two of the stops were blocked and closed with no signage to that effect. We finally saw a red Passport C bus that was signed as going to Queen Mary and we chased it 2 blocks while the driver kept pointing ahead at us until it finally arrived at an open bus stop. The prices I found online were out of date and we paid $6 total for the 2 of us from LAX to Long Beach.
We got to the Queen Mary Hotel about 3:30pm. By the time we got to the check-in desk it was just after 4pm. There was a very long line! I had read a lot of Trip Advisor complaints about the noise when staying at QMH during special events or music events. Unfortunately, at some point after we booked they booked a "Rock the Queen" rock and roll event for the 28th. We were offered complimentary ear plugs! There were also throngs of bicyclists there for a diabetes fund raising race that weekend. I will say that the walls were paper thin and you could hear everything. Also, the Queen Mary is haunted! We were bone tired, but did not sleep well!
After dinner, we had planned to continue on the bus in the same direction and go shop for wine and beer, but we were too tired. We walked back to the Aquarium of the Pacific bus stop and watched the prom goers arrive and unload in a variety of limos and buses until our own bus arrived. It was a trip!
