Trip Report Aug 24-28, 2014 DVC Member Cruise

Didn't see anyone else reporting this member cruise on here, so I'll post a summary of it. This was our first ever DVC Member Cruise, although we had been on DCL cruises before. We were warned to anticipate bring lots of stuff back, so we were ready with an extra duffel bag inside our luggage.

We arrived at Port Canaveral early since we had one of the earlier boarding times. The check-in area were suitably decorated with Banners and displays of the Member Cruise.
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When our boarding group number was called, we made our way through the walk way towards the ship (well, towards the security and photo-taking area, and then to the ship). There were banners lining the walkway.

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Once we were on the ship, the first thing we noticed was this ice-sculpture table in the lobby/atrium.

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.. cont.
 

ZapperZ

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
... cont

I forgot to mention that when you checked in at the very beginning, they give you a special lanyard to hold your key card. The lanyard comes with a very nice DVC medal.
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Of course, throughout the cruise, we got freebies from many booths, activities, presentations. Early in the cruise, the DVC table was giving this away. It is a cute little thing that has a couple of white LED light, and has a motion sensor. So each time it moves, it lights up. A lot of people were wearing it on their lanyards.
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By the middle of the cruise, they ran out of the LED thingy, and started to give away luggage tags. We got those too.
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One of the most useful gifts that we got was from the RCI booth. They were giving away these. At first I thought it was just a pen, but it wasn't. Upon closer look, one end of it (on the right in the picture) is a stylus for smartphones/tablets.
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The other end turns out to be a LED light source. It became pretty handy when we needed some light to write our answers during the few trivia games that we played during the cruise.
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But wait, there's more! If you pull the two ends apart, it reveals a regular pen! Handy stuff!
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I think they ran out of this by the end of the 2nd day of the cruise. Little wonder.

There were also a couple of other things that we brought home as souvenirs. Throughout the cruise, whenever we attend a presentation, the meet-and-greet with DVC executives, or order drinks from the bars, they serve them in these Member Cruise plastic cups. So we took home a few.
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Along with these cups, they also were using these Member Cruise coasters.
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So yeah, we brought back a LOT of stuff home! :)

Zz.
 

mrdrift

Well-Known Member
You did receive plenty of free gifts on that cruise, good for you. Once again thanks for sharing everything from the cruise it was really great to see all the beautiful pictures during the trip and the food looked so good. Hope you had a good trip home from the cruise.
 

mammaminnie

Well-Known Member
Fabulous trip report!! A Member Cruise is on my to-do list one of these years. Your story about the child at breakfast the final day reminded me of our first Disney Cruise. We took our children on a 7 night cruise and they cried so hard when they had to leave Mr. Andre and Ms. Julia. After a week they felt like family and were truly amazing to our kids at every meal- they even went out of their way to find them on deck when they were working elsewhere during the day to check-in and see who they were doing. It is that type of service that makes me go back to Disney Cruise Line again and again.
 

ZapperZ

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Beyond the freebies, we also bought stuff on the cruise (of course). I'm not going to show you everything, only the ones that I think are interesting enough.

First, there was the special t-shirt for the Member cruise.
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I also saw this t-shirt and thought it was cute. So I bought it. I'm wearing it right now.
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OK, now let's talk about pins.

First of all, there was this Limited Edition of 1000, Member Cruise pin. Between the two of us, we got 6! :)
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We bought other pins during the cruise, but these two are the ones we'll highlight here. The one of the left is an ordinary rack pin, but I thought it was hilarious enough that I had to get it. After all the amount of food I stuffed into myself at The Cabanas, I wanted to wear this while eating there, but I didn't. the one of the right has quite a nice design to it. It is an LE, and it was on sale. So how could I refuse?
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And then, there were the mystery pins. If you purchase more than $30, you get to buy, for $4.95, these mystery pins. They were sold in each in black pouches, and you don't know what you'll get till you open it. There are 6 different pins total, and they were all in the shape of anchors, but with the motif of the various Disney characters. I don't think I need to tell you who the characters are, do I?

Between the two of us, and with trading with other passengers, we managed to get 3 complete sets. Two of those sets will be traded away.
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By the last full day of the cruise, they completely ran out of these mystery pins.

We didn't buy this pin. We got it when we attended the DVC presentation.
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A little bit more about pin trading during the cruise. On the normal cruises that we've been, there were very little pin trading activities. The cast weren't wearing any pin lanyards. The only pin trading activities we had were with the officers during one evening of the cruise. That was it. So that's why, for this trip, I didn't bring that many pins to trade. I thought we would have some chance of doing trading with the officers, and then when we get to the parks, we'd do the rest of pin tradings there.

Boy were we wrong! The crew at the stores were wearing the new cast lanyard pins, while the DVC people, especially the executives, were wearing lanyards full of LE Artists Proof pins!! And they were doing this throughout the entire cruise! Holy cow! By the 3rd day of the cruise, we were literally running out of pins to trade, and I had to sacrifice several of the new cast lanyard pins that I traded for to continue to trade for these LE pins!

At the end of the cruise, we brought back plenty of very nice LE pins. Some we will keep for our collection, but most will be in our trading books. Not sure when I'll ever go back for another Member Cruise, but I've learned my lesson!

Well that, boys and girls, was my wonderful DVC Member Cruise. We had a great time, but I don't think I'll take another cruise during this time of the year. I've always enjoyed just sitting outside during previous cruises, but for this one, I was confined mostly indoors due to the hot and humid weather. It wasn't bad when the "indoors" is a ship this big, and with lots of things to do and see, but I still prefer being able to enjoy the ocean breeze. Next year's DVC Member Cruise will be an Alaska cruise. I would love to do that, but the scheduling just doesn't permit it.

This concludes my trip report. Thanks for reading!

Zz.
 

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