Who is definitely going?

Who is definitely going and who is still mulling it over? Cause I am serious, this is something I AM DOING! I just want to know if people are going to start saving money if we have it in 2.5 years, cause that seems like so far off and then it's like "oh I'll start next month" and then it's the next month and the next until the deadline to pay is upon you and you have to come up with a lot of money and then you can't go, kwim?
I don't want to pressure anyone but it's really hard to gauge people's responses online. I just want to sort of get a decent idea of if this is going to happen.

Let's get down to business...

I've called a couple of the cruise lines today and got the group "rates". Basically what you get with the group rates would be $150 off for every 8 cabins booked as well as 4 amenity points which could give each cabin $50 worth of spending money, or $25 worth of spending money plus an upgraded room (probably just a room with a window, although know that the windows do not open), or $25 worth of spending money and a 1 hour party with free drinks (they said they can do non-alcoholic mock tails or sodas, what ever we want). 
Note that the spending money would be divided between everyone in the room so depending on how many people we put in the room it would not be much. 
Also the $150 off we can give to one person (we might vote as to who we think this should be if say anyone is having a hard time financially), we can divide it between everyone to get a few extra bucks off of our ticket price, or we could use it as a credit. I personally think if we get it we should use it to buy internet time or to make phone calls to our family since all of that is so expensive and I know we will want to speak with our family and some people are students and will need to turn in homework assignments. 


Also no one books out farther than 18 months really so we can't actually reserve anything in the near future. The fall is the cheapest time to go and spring break and summer months are the most expensive with the winter/early spring falling somewhere in between. All the prices I am about to give you all for a fall cruise. 

Carnival Cruise Line

Ship: Carnival Sensation

Embarkation Port: Port Canaveral Florida 

Nearest Airport: Orlando International Airport (Airport Code MCO)

September 22nd, 2011

3 nights Bahamas

4 per stateroom $848.60 or $212.15 per person

3 per stateroom $706.45 or $235.48 per person

2 per stateroom $564.30 or $282.15 per person

Unlimited Soda Program $20 per person for the whole cruise

 We would have until July 2011 to pay for this particular cruise so I am guessing if we went in the fall of 2012 we would have until July 2012 to pay for the cruise. 

The Carnival Sensation

Typical Interior Stateroom for the Carnival Sensation, I believe the Carnival Sensation has larger rooms therefore if we wanted to have more people per room it might be more doable on this ship.

Norwegian Cruise Line

Ship: Norwegian Sky 

Embarkation Port: Port Miami

Nearest Airport: Miami International (Airport Code MIA)

October 7th, 2011

3 nights Bahamas

4 per stateroom $971.28 or $242.82 per person

3 per stateroom $740.96 or $246.98 per person

2 per stateroom $540.64 or $270.32 per person

Unlimited Soda Card $6.25 per person, per day

The Norwegian Sky

Typical Interior State Room on the Norwegian Sky (although the beds would not be pushed together and more than likely there will not be a love seat in the room, but I could be wrong, there might very well be one).

To reserve rooms for a group booking, it is $100 a room for Norwegian to guarantee the rooms, and I believe it's only $100 total for the Carnival cruise, but I can't be certain because the guy hasn't called me back, he was on the phone when I called back. 

If we did it per room it would be $25, $33, or $50 per person depending on if we wanted to have four, three, or two people per room. 

To me it seems like Carnival might be the best option. 

Now here is the big question, if Carnival can reserve all the rooms for only $100 would everyone be willing to pitch in $10 to reserve the rooms? Or would a few ladies be willing to do $25 a piece to get them reserved? We are still a little screwed up because of Danny's job but I could do $10 by Friday. Remember you wouldn't have to have your money paid until July of next year, so that would still give you 16 months to come up with $212-$282 (depending on if you want to be in a 2, 3, or 4 person room, we don't all have to choose the same)

Also there is no way of knowing what the airline prices will be then but I don't think September is a very big month for air travel so I'm going to say it will be $500 or less, but more likely $400 or less. 

So let's say 

$282 for the cruise

$500 for the air fare

$100 for travel insurance

$40 for transport between airport and ship

So $922 or less by July 2011

Is that doable, or do we need to wait a year?

St. Thomas

Half Moon Cay

The Flying Dutchmen Pirate Ship at Disney's Private Island Castaway Cay

Okay, I might have to do this zip-line thing!

Any other mom's you know of that might want to go?

I was thinking there are a few mom's I'm going to invite to go with us, they are all LDS and people I have known for a while and who I know would love a break.
If any of you guys want to invite other moms (as long as they are cool lol) go ahead, just please don't invite some random person from cafemom... please if they aren't in our group, at least know them from real life lol.
Other thing, it might be more comfortable for the mom's if they are LDS since we are all, however not really a requirement, just make sure they have standards that are close to ours. I don't want anyone who is going to be downing margarita's or smoking or anything like that. We want this to be contention free.
Also I'm thinking what if we draw names for each room? That way we don't cling to the people we know the best or anything and we have a chance to get to know each other and no one will get their feelings hurt.
What do you think? Any suggestions?

How many of you live near an airport where JetBlue or Southwest flies?

I know we had discussed leaving out of southern California so ladies from Utah could carpool, so I started researching the short cruises and found that the only 3 day cruises available go either to a little island right off of the coast of Los Angeles called Catalina Island, or to Ensenada, Mexico.
I joined the message boards over at cruisecritic.com  and found out that both of those places are considered too cold to swim during the off-peak season (when we would be traveling to save the most money) and the only other stuff to do costs money. Even both of those places you might have to pay a bus fee or a taxi fee to get to a beach.
I don't know about you but I sort of want to sit in a beach chair drinking lemonade and buy a few souveniers from a beach vendor... or if I had enough money I might be persuaded to do a zip line excursion or a swimming with the dolphins excursion... but that is it for me.
To me,  ideally, I will spend no more than $1000 total, and I will have already paid that money before we leave, minus about $100 to buy souveniers for my family. And I want to be a bum sitting on the beach, I want to relax, not walk everywhere.
So anyway what if we still did a Bahamas, Bermuda, or Caribbean cruise? The beaches will be so much prettier. Bermuda and the Bahamas even have pink sand in some places... that's right PINK SAND!!!

So what say you? Have I been persausive enough? Oh did I forget to mention that both JetBlue and Southwest often have fares as low as $200 roundtrip and they both fly into MCO in Orlando? 

Deciphering Staterooms 101 Pt. 1 The Inside Stateroom

Inside staterooms do not have any windows and are generally around 160 sq feet including the bathroom. They are pretty tiny, but they are generally about $20 cheaper per person for the entire cruise.

Here is a picture of an standard interior stateroom on Carnival Cruiselines (note the curtains are a facade, there is no window in this room). So far it looks like at certain points we could get this for $345 per person including airport pick-up and drop-off, included gratuities, and travel insurance. 

This room has two "twin" sized beds that can be converted into a queen (that's why I say "twin" since two twins is the size of a king), two upper berth beds (fold down beds or pull them down from the ceiling), and one trundle bed that is

Possible Discounts, I need some info

Some of the possible discounts are based on Age, Zip Code (I think it's based on the state but all the forms ask for zip codes to search for the discount),  Military, and if you have been on a cruise before.

So if you could please leave a comment with answers to the following questions, I would greatly appreciate it.
I am contacting a few different cruise lines about possible group discounts and I want to be prepared to give them this information when they ask... instead of stuttering and saying um and I don't know, I'll have to ask lol.

Age:
Zip Code:
Military:
Prior Cruiser:
If so what line:

So no one feels weird answering these questions I'll go first.
Age: 27
Zip Code: 74133
Military: No
Prior Cruiser: I wish
If so what line: n/a

Walkie Talkies...

will be a must since the cell service cost so much and we will want to be able to contact each other through out the stay.

I'm thinking about these Hello Kitty Walkie Talkies...

Although these motorola ones would probably have a better range lol

Norwegian Sun

I did some research and found an October 5th, 2011 cruise to the Bahamas, from Port Canaveral and with 4 people in a room it ends up being $285 per person. I figure that would be around the same price we would pay in the fall of 2012 (unless people felt they could save up before then) give or take $50.
That does not include transportation to or from the airport, not does it include vacation insurance. Both of those items tend to cost around $70 a piece. So add $140 to $285 and you get $425 per person. That includes all meals. Also if there are people on the eastern seaboard interested in carpooling you could definitely save money on airfare but what is more important, saving money or saving time?



If you want to learn more about the Norwegian Sun Cruise Ship, you can visit NCL's website.