MagicMeets 2009 Recap

Welcome Dizneemjk!

Welcome Dizneemjk! ; Nice to have some new MagicMeeters aboard, and good to hear you'll be at Pixelmania too!
 
glad you enjoyed the breakout and nice to see you hear... ; are you signed up for pixelmania!?
 
Welcome to the boards! ; These photo's are great! ; Tim, how cool is that that you were made into a cartoon?! ; Congrats again on a great day!
 
TMIP's own Gary is sad because there is no one to shill to... he would cheer up several minutes later.

 
Here is the OTHER view from the breakout room... ; it was a total honor to have that many people show up!

 
Great photo's! ; I'm sorry I couldn't be there to help, but being in Disney was the only place that would have and did keep me from being there. ; I'd say next year, but I don't think I can pull off a cruise without the wife if you know what I mean. . . ;)
 
"Tim" said:
Here is the OTHER view from the breakout room... ; it was a total honor to have that many people show up!
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Looky there...I'm in a photo (blue shirt standing in the back). ; A rare event.
 
"Scottwdw" said:
Looky there...I'm in a photo (blue shirt standing in the back). ; A rare event.
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That's the downside to being around so many photographers...for professional camera avoiders like myself who are used to being BEHIND the lens, you'll inevitably find yourself in FRONT of the lens at some point.
 
Well, it's quite a difference in price actually. DCL quoted us around $1200 per person for an inside stateroom. RCCL is around $550 and that's with all taxes and port charges included. That's not just a big difference that's a HUGE difference. While I didn't want to let price drive this it certainly played a major factor in my decision.

There's also breakout space we need and special functions we are planning. DCL would not be nearly as flexible with us as RCCL is.

Based on the years I've been doing MagicMeets, which as you are probably aware has not been in any venue associated with Disney in the past, I find that the competition is always willing to give you more. Why book a Philadelphia hotel at $300 a night and $30k for ballroom space when 30 to 40 miles away you can get more for less and they want your business much more?

In this case, with a weak economy, cost obviously played a major factor but most importantly, RCCL welcomed us with open arms when they heard about our group and gave us most everything we needed right up front. DCL came back to us and offered $50 per person stateroom credit for our group. (Off of the $1200 per person rate) Not really much when you think about it.

We also didn't expect this to be as large as MagicMeets events have been in the past. Since it was our first year trying this as a cruise, we went with a 4 day cruise instead of something longer. I also didn't expect the response it got (which I am VERY pleased with) and are already down to a few cabins left. More than 60% of them went at the 2009 event.

One other thing I should mention, for reference, since most of our attendees are adults, the kids room and activities issue was much lower on the list and as suspected 80% of guests so far are adults.

Just wanted to chime in. :)


Tim you did a wonderful job this year. Thanks for all of your support and dedication. It's really appreciated!

Fred

"Grumpwurst" said:
Nancy and I are still scratching our heads on this choice. ; Even though it's cheaper, everything we've heard from my mother-in-law (Nancy's mom) who is a big cruiser, is that RC and the other non-DCL cruise lines are not very "kid friendly" or "family friendly". ; From what we gathered from her, she wouldn't be surprised if the group wouldn't be very welcome by the other passengers with all their Disney-infused family fun
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Fred,

Thanks for the update. ; Having only been to one MagicMeets, I remember a lot of kids at the event and was basing my opinion off of one person's many, many cruises on non-Disney cruiselines (in fact she won't do a Disney Cruise because of the amount of kids onboard).

I wasn't necessarily commenting on the cruiseline choice because it wasn't a disney one but because I was worried that the non-attendees on board might make you all feel unwelcome.

I understand the price thing whole-heartedly. ; Anyone who has even looked at taking a DCL cruise knows how expensive it is. ; Heck, if you want to use DVC points, you pretty much have to blow 3 years worth of points just for a short cruise.
 
3 YEARS? That's ridiculous!

"Grumpwurst" said:
I understand the price thing whole-heartedly. ; Anyone who has even looked at taking a DCL cruise knows how expensive it is. ; Heck, if you want to use DVC points, you pretty much have to blow 3 years worth of points just for a short cruise.
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"MagicMeets" said:
3 YEARS? That's ridiculous!
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From my last attempt to calculate it, based on my 210 points, I'd have to bank one year and borrow from another to do a cruise on points. ; Because of that, we'd only use points, if we had know we could only take one trip in 3 years. ; My wife said that will never happen because she'd go nuts before that.

But Fred, don't get me wrong with my initial comment. ; I wasn't talking about price as part of your consideration that was very obvious on why you went non-DCL...almost a no-brainer. ; I was just wondering how well a Disney event of the magnitude and popularity as yours (there is a high pixie dust quotient at your event) would be accepted by the other cruisers on the boat. ;

I was having visions of loads of grumpy old cruisers screaming, "Hey you kids get off my boat"....haha
 
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