DCL Party Planning Thread (combined threads)

[Luckymomoftwo]

Here are a couple of pics from our party...

Me & DH

Our "Welcome Aboard" area!!

The party deck!!

 

["Got Disney"]

Has anyone who has been complaining about the quanities of things like Pirate hats, thought that they were for prizes and not 10 kids? I think all of us really jumped into this with great gusto and enthusiam and had parties much bigger than probably was the design. The fact that they talked about things like 10 bags means we really only had to target 10 people/families. While it would be great to have tons of stuff, 10 of everything for 1000 parties is a lot of stuff and if it should have been all DCL stuff, their merchandising arm is not as big as the rest of the company.

Ah well, we had a blast, appreciated the opprotunity, appreciated the company putting a $50,000 liability on their books (1000 $50 on board credits) and the chance to talk about our favorite obsession, Disney Cruise.


Hope we do they do it again!

Well if you look at the other parties that HP has had there other parties are showing around 15,000 guests. DCL shows around 12,000( lipstick Jungle has almost 20,000 ) so we were about 3,0000 less guests so they had to know that there are alot of people that come to theses parties just by that...never mind that we are talking a Disney party and not a hot dog party.

I for the life of me cant figure out what there thoughts were on this. They have to know that we are all addicts and that we know how Disney operates and what we would expect from them. After all they have trained us to be spoiled and also that they always do things over and beyond. It seems as if they left the company that was packing everything to do it and like Disney did not have someone overseeing it.

so for us to expect more is what there logo is...is it not. They have over the years drilled that into our heads and they have spoiled us to know return. So for us to expect more is not wrong.

I would do the party again also. everyone asked me the same thing"Did DCL supply you with all of these decorations"???? In addition ...we did not use the napkins either except for as coaster.


the cheese and chocolate Fondue were a hit and the games were all fun. I spent alot of $$$ for prizes and even brought down a bunch of my Mary Kay Spa stuff so out of the 14 people just about everyone won something including a $28.00 bingo pot ( that is from the $2 everyone chipped in). In addition each guest walked away with there goody bags another H2O product that I got from Marshalls.

There was not enough cruise info for 4 people because they did not send enough. I told a few to pass it on to the other when they were done with it. If anything they should have let us have enough for all out guests on that. Next time I will also go to a TA and get her card and more info

So who besides me is glad it is finally over!!! Party planning is sooooo tiring time to start concentrating on my 2 upcoming vacations. One to the Smithsonian School trip th Washington and that to Gettysburg...that our trip to DL for 7 days and next day 7 day cruise cant wait!!!

 

["Got Disney"]

don't forget to have your guests enter the sweepstakes! you can also copy the page for where they go to HP and paste it on your e-mail and send it that way and it will take them right to the info to fill out

 

[allears]

We had a great time last night at John and Gayle's DCL House Party (allears)!

Thanks so much for allowing us to be a part of your gathering. The food was fabulous- loved the chicken wings, the chocolate souffles, and the Mickey rice crispy treats! The island music added to the atmosphere. You were both very gracious hosts.
And we had the pleasure of meeting Verandah Man (Andy) and his wife Hazel. Such good conversation with all of the guests- it only helped make our exicitement for our upcoming very first DCL Cruise (12/31/08) grow even more!

Andy- your pics are terrific! Thanks for posting them.
I hope everyone's parties went as smoothly and were as much fun as the one we were fortunate enough to attend!

It was so great to meet you guys and we appreicated you helping make the party a real event!

 

[allears]

Well, I did lick the plates clean before we left................

Yep he sure did! We really enjoyed having he, Hazle and Angelina with us! We love making new friends.

 

[allears]

[QUOTE="Got Disney";22808907]Well if you look at the other parties that HP has had there other parties are showing around 15,000 guests. DCL shows around 12,000( lipstick Jungle has almost 20,000 ) so we were about 3,0000 less guests so they had to know that there are alot of people that come to theses parties just by that...never mind that we are talking a Disney party and not a hot dog party.

I for the life of me cant figure out what there thoughts were on this. They have to know that we are all addicts and that we know how Disney operates and what we would expect from them. After all they have trained us to be spoiled and also that they always do things over and beyond. It seems as if they left the company that was packing everything to do it and like Disney did not have someone overseeing it.

so for us to expect more is what there logo is...is it not. They have over the years drilled that into our heads and they have spoiled us to know return. So for us to expect more is not wrong.

I would do the party again also. everyone asked me the same thing"Did DCL supply you with all of these decorations"???? In addition ...we did not use the napkins either except for as coaster.


the cheese and chocolate Fondue were a hit and the games were all fun. I spent alot of $$$ for prizes and even brought down a bunch of my Mary Kay Spa stuff so out of the 14 people just about everyone won something including a $28.00 bingo pot ( that is from the $2 everyone chipped in). In addition each guest walked away with there goody bags another H2O product that I got from Marshalls.

There was not enough cruise info for 4 people because they did not send enough. I told a few to pass it on to the other when they were done with it. If anything they should have let us have enough for all out guests on that. Next time I will also go to a TA and get her card and more info

So who besides me is glad it is finally over!!! Party planning is sooooo tiring time to start concentrating on my 2 upcoming vacations. One to the Smithsonian School trip th Washington and that to Gettysburg...that our trip to DL for 7 days and next day 7 day cruise cant wait!!![/QUOTE]


I guess we didn't check out the other House Party type events much, because we were just thrilled to be apart of this and were less concerned about what was in it for us or how much stuff would be sent for the party. We will use any excuse to talk up the cruise line and or to have a party, so it was a perfect match for our household.

 

[POOHWHORH]

Went to a party at the Price house in Fl. Great time and way to much food. Hope they have another one.

 

[Verandah Man]

We love making new friends.

Thanks, us too!!! Can't wait to taste those warm chocolate lava cakes. I'll go off my diet for them as well.............

 

[ibouncetoo]

CONGRATULATIONS​

Maybe some of that good luck will rub off to your party guests.

Your lips (or keyboard) to God's ears! I just got home from Prescott and Cheri's party. We had a great time with a modest sized party of 10

OK...don't know if Cheri (NotSoLittleMermaid) will tell this story about herself...but I will....what are friends for.

She was planning on makeing the chili sauce/grape jelly sauce for her meatballs and accidently used COCKTAIL sauce instead of chili sauce. IT WAS DELICIOUS! Probably was a bit sweeter that what the original receipe would have been but it was tasty!

Thanks for posting all the pictures everyone!

 

[InstImpres]

After the dawing class, we had a raffle and every child (11 of them) won! We had made bags filled with candy, a pirate ducky, small bar of Mickey soap, grow a pirate, and a beach safe. The children loved them. For the adults, I purchased a bunch of stuff such spa kits, candle sets and Disney Christmas ornaments (thank you Sandy) along with the photo album from Disney. Everyone seemed happy with their prizes. We asked the children who wanted to have a Disney poster or Peter Pan masks and then had them guess the number we were thinking. For the grand prize, the plush Mickey, we put gold coins in a bag and only one of them had a number on it. We let everyone take a coin until someone picked correctly.

Hi AnnMarie -

Glad to hear it was all a hit. Sounds great. Hope you treated yourself with some down time with the "snow day" I hear went your way today.

Sandy

 

[InstImpres]

Congratulations to NotSoLittleMermaid on winning the cruise, I bet you were shocked. To Eric, Julie, Hailey and Jessica we too finished our party at 10 pm tonight, wow are we tired, 38 in attendance not counting 5 members of the hosting family, A super big THANK YOU to Sandy, she is co-owner of a travel company and drove in to help us, about 2 hours or so and I believe she received a couple of quotes or bookings. There was more food than anyone could eat, games galore, several hundred cruise pictures placed on the tables for all to view, we also have taking way too many pictures and will get them posted for all to see. We are booked for #14 on November 8, 2008 Eastern. KUDOS to everyone at HP, they were super in all they did and yes we are a tough bunch, Disney Fans to the end. I would think Disney would send them on a cruise and then they too would understand. So to all the super Disney Cruise Fans out there, good night and may God Bless.

Hi Ralph & Carolyn -

It was great being there last night. Your pirate and DCL spirit certainly showed through. I think Carolyn had a fix on the BINGO though, I thought the guests were going to create a pirate mutiny if someone didn't win soon!

It really was wonderful to meet other DIS boarders and your hospitality was a true treat.

Hope to see you again
Sandy

 

[CruiseGirl30]

Our party was a great success. I, like many others, was disappointed with the quantities of items with each email notification. I have found Oriental Trading to be of poor quality sometimes, so I opted for Rhode Island Novelty for this party. I was able to pick up pirate playing cards, pirate pencils, and beach safe necklaces (a big hit). I also hit the Disney Store Clearance sale and picked up some washclothes and keychains. I was also able to get Disney drawstring backpacks at the Dollar Store! It ended up costing me more than I wanted to spend (about $120 in total) for goodie items, but once I had invited everyone, I wasn't going to disappoint the kids.

My son dressed in his First Communion white suit and channeled Christaan as he welcomed everyone on board as the Cruise Director. We chose to let everyone dress as they wished, so we had a mix of Disney clothes, Disney costumes, Pirate wear, and Cruise wear. We announced everyone when they came in and took their picture.

We set sail and the kids immediately headed downstairs to the Oceaneers Lab to watch the DVD, play Wii, play air hockey, and just hang out. We held tournaments, so I handed out the goodies as prizes which kept the excitement moving and everyone involved. We held a High School Musical karaoke contest, and the biggest hit was my 5 year old daughter and her Bingo Betty routine. Everyone was playing and I had picked up some Disney home goods (trivets, ornaments, bags) from the Clearance Sale for the adults, so the excitement was high.

I kept the food to a wide variety of appetizers which everyone enjoyed. I'd do this again in a heartbeat, as we love Disney and just went on our first cruise in August. I'm sure that Disney would do a better job with the promotional items in the future, so it will cost me less to promote their brand. I can't wait until next year!

 

[NotSoLittleMermaid]

OK...don't know if Cheri (NotSoLittleMermaid) will tell this story about herself...but I will....what are friends for.

She was planning on makeing the chili sauce/grape jelly sauce for her meatballs and accidently used COCKTAIL sauce instead of chili sauce. IT WAS DELICIOUS! Probably was a bit sweeter that what the original receipe would have been but it was tasty!

BUSTED!!!!

They were still a hit! I'm going to serve the left-overs next Sunday at my Superbowl party.

I couldn't have done it without Jackie's help!

I'm going to upload my pix and then I'll post them and write about my party.

 

[NotSoLittleMermaid]

Here's the link to my party photos:
http://s137.photobucket.com/albums/q222/notsolittlemermaid/My DCL House Party/?albumview=slideshow

So the party was small (10 or so), but it was fun!

Jackie drove up to attend and help (little did she know it would be the other way around!) Thanks again, Jackie!

I was about an hour behind schedule because I got the call from House Party that morning that I'd won the sweepstakes!!! So of course I had to call some people and post it before I could even get out of my jammies!

[I'm supposed to get a call from DCL this week to give me more details. All I know now is I won a 4 night cruise for 4 people (all in the same cat. 9 cabin), with air and tips included. Don't know if there are restrictions as far as dates, etc. Jackie suggested going around the holidays to see the decorations, which would be cool. Also, since I've never really been to WDW, I'd like to do that as well.

It's hard to pick 3 people. I think picking 1 would be easier. I have several ideas but haven't made up my mind yet.]

But back to the party...

My niece brought her two little ones, age 5 and almost 3. Poor kids, it was pretty boring for them, as I didn't have games or anything. But their dad took them down to the park in my development, so that was fun.

I made the famous DISboard meatballs (grape jelly and chili sauce), except I made them with cocktail sauce--oh well, everyone loved them, and couldn't believe what they were made with!

I also served Mickey-shaped pizzas I got at WalMart, macaroni salad made w/Pirates of the Caribbean pasta, chocolate dipped strawberries, a fruit juice+Pina Colada mix+sparking water punch, and Mickey pretzels and crackers from DL.

I had a blue cloth on the party table with a clear plastic cloth over it. So under the plastic I (or rather Jackie) arranged some of my cruise photos. I also bought a Mickey punch at the craft store and had red & blue Mickey heads scattered around the photos. I hung some fish net in one window and had other photos displayed there. I put up the posters. I had a towel folding station with towels, photos and some directions. People had fun with that.

My DVD didn't work, but I was able to copy it and reburn it so it worked for the party. I made copies of the DVD for the parents of kids who came. I also copied the music CD and made one for everyone. In my treat bags I put the CD, gold chocolate coins, a bag of Mickey pretzels, a few sheets of the stickers (torn out of the cruise info books), a little bottle of bubbles from Dollar Tree that I'd glued a DCL logo on, a bar of soap or lotion from the Disneyland hotel, and the big cruise info guide w/DVD. I left the Family Fun mags out for people to take if they wanted one. I gave one pirate hat to Jackie (I already have one). The other pirate stuff I was going to give out to whoever wanted it, but I forgot. I think I'll give it to whoever I invite to go on the 4 day cruise with me. I didn't use the Peter Pan stuff at all. I meant to give it to my niece for her kids but I forgot. Same w/the coloring sheets. I didn't find out until the day of the party that the iron-on was in w/the coloring sheets. I just thought I didn't get one! So I didn't have time to do anything with that.

Final verdict: House Party was great. I'd do another one any time. A great excuse to have people over and talk about something I love!!

DCL--so strange how they handled this! As many others have said, getting a poorly packed box with a mish-mash of stuff that mostly had nothing to do w/DCL and a DVD that didn't work properly--NOT what we would expect from Disney! Hopefully they'll do better next time.

All in all, it was a lot of fun! Next Sunday, Super Bowl party (leftover meatballs will be served)! And, hey--I won the sweepstakes! I have nothing to complain about!!

 

[barney4liz]

I was about an hour behind schedule because I got the call from House Party that morning that I'd won the sweepstakes!!! So of course I had to call some people and post it before I could even get out of my jammies!

I think I would have been too excited to finish getting the party together!! Congrats again!!

I made the famous DISboard meatballs (grape jelly and chili sauce), except I made them with cocktail sauce--oh well, everyone loved them, and couldn't believe what they were made with!

I think those sauces are pretty interchangeable -- I sometimes use the chili sauce as a base for cocktail sauce if that's what I have on hand.

 

[Tikihula]

Nice pictures, Cheri! You had a beautiful party setup, and it was nice of Jackie to come help you.

It's going to be kind of cozy in that stateroom with 4 adults. Maybe they wouldn't charge you much for an upgrade to a suite. Wouldn't that be fun?
Yes, do try to go during mid November or early December when they have Christmas decorations up on the ship and at the parks. Everything is so beautiful and festive during the holidays. Just stay away from the actual Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays when it's so crowded at the parks.

Have fun deciding who's going with you on the cruise. Are you taking bids??

 

[Verandah Man]

[I'm supposed to get a call from DCL this week to give me more details. All I know now is I won a 4 night cruise for 4 people (all in the same cat. 9 cabin), with air and tips included. Don't know if there are restrictions as far as dates, etc. Jackie suggested going around the holidays to see the decorations, which would be cool. Also, since I've never really been to WDW, I'd like to do that as well.

I found this in the list of contest rules, this should help you with the blackout dates:

iii. Prize fulfillment is subject to availability and restrictions at Disney Cruise Line and airline seat availability. Travel may not occur during cruise ship or airline blockout periods, which blockout periods are as determined by Disney Cruise Line at the time of prize winner vacation booking. Cruise ship blockout dates are currently as follows for 2008 (but are subject to change without notice): February 21-24, March 13-April 2, May 22-August 24, November 23-December 3.

 

[NotSoLittleMermaid]

I found this in the list of contest rules, this should help you with the blackout dates:

iii. Prize fulfillment is subject to availability and restrictions at Disney Cruise Line and airline seat availability. Travel may not occur during cruise ship or airline blockout periods, which blockout periods are as determined by Disney Cruise Line at the time of prize winner vacation booking. Cruise ship blockout dates are currently as follows for 2008 (but are subject to change without notice): February 21-24, March 13-April 2, May 22-August 24, November 23-December 3.

Thanks, Andy! Those dates make sense. Interesting that the whole summer is blocked out, but I don't want to go then anyway. Also, it seems like Xmas-New Year's would also be blocked out... Oh well, I don't want to go then, either. Looks like my tentative time is available!

 

[DVCLaurie05]

Just a quick note - I called my TA today, my OBC is ON!! WOO HOO!!!!

Be sure to call and activate yours!!

Laurie

 

[Luckymomoftwo]

I found this in the list of contest rules, this should help you with the blackout dates:

iii. Prize fulfillment is subject to availability and restrictions at Disney Cruise Line and airline seat availability. Travel may not occur during cruise ship or airline blockout periods, which blockout periods are as determined by Disney Cruise Line at the time of prize winner vacation booking. Cruise ship blockout dates are currently as follows for 2008 (but are subject to change without notice): February 21-24, March 13-April 2, May 22-August 24, November 23-December 3.

Sigh!!! We are booked for 12/4/08...we JUST made it to get our extra $50 OBC!!