June 27, 2013 - Magic in the Med (Venice)

[MrsScooby]

What is the Hypogeum?

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g776430-d267896-Reviews-Hal_Saflieni_Hypogeum-Paola_Island_of_Malta.html

I read about it in someone's trip report and my DH actually started showing interest when I showed this to him

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypogeum_of_%C4%A6al-Saflieni

 

[MrsScooby]

I found this on the DCL website:

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/c...editerranean-tours-with-adventures-by-disney/



.

Those look very cool

There's a trip report out there from someone who went on the DCL ABD.

 

[DenverVal]

Kayak had the exact flight I was tracking drop by $135, and only that flight. Everything else is at the same fare it's been at for months. Whatever. I booked it. We're going.

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is hosting the exhibit "A Day in Pompeii" for the next few months. We toured it this week. Wow. I can't wait to see this place for real. The fragments of frescoes are still vibrantly colorful, and the items on display are in perfect condition. So hard to wrap my head around the fact that they are two thousand years old.

 

[nicis]

Hi all! We just switched our trip to this June sailing. Have done two European previously (DH, DD (7), DS (15) and Papa). Love Barcelone and have stayed on after each Magic cruise.

Hope to be part of groups Will scroll the pages as we are late to the game here although it is June it comes so fast!

Oh and we have done this itinerary in 2010 (w/o Venice and Dub but with Tunisia). I did all travel by myself (trains, tours, etc) so pls post questions if you have them (we did Pisa (not Florence; way too far IMHO), Pompeii, Rome (not Vatican), St. Pauls/Catacombs in Malta).

 

[nicis]

Be careful in Rome. Lots of pickpockets there too. When we go to Europe we carry Pacsafe bags while touring. I have a cross bag and my husband has a fanny pack.

I love the PacSafe it saved me in Rome last time we were there, two people in the square were pocketed and i was tugged but they were foiled

 

[MrsScooby]

Kayak had the exact flight I was tracking drop by $135, and only that flight. Everything else is at the same fare it's been at for months. Whatever. I booked it. We're going.

The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is hosting the exhibit "A Day in Pompeii" for the next few months. We toured it this week. Wow. I can't wait to see this place for real. The fragments of frescoes are still vibrantly colorful, and the items on display are in perfect condition. So hard to wrap my head around the fact that they are two thousand years old.

Congrats on getting the flight deal
Doesn't feel real until the flights are booked, does it

Can't wait to see Pompeii too

Hi all! We just switched our trip to this June sailing. Have done two European previously (DH, DD (7), DS (15) and Papa). Love Barcelone and have stayed on after each Magic cruise.

Hope to be part of groups Will scroll the pages as we are late to the game here although it is June it comes so fast!

Oh and we have done this itinerary in 2010 (w/o Venice and Dub but with Tunisia). I did all travel by myself (trains, tours, etc) so pls post questions if you have them (we did Pisa (not Florence; way too far IMHO), Pompeii, Rome (not Vatican), St. Pauls/Catacombs in Malta).

Welcome aboard

I have private tours booked for Rome , Florence and Naples, but not sure how best to tackle Malta.
How did you get around in Malta?

I love the PacSafe it saved me in Rome last time we were there, two people in the square were pocketed and i was tugged but they were foiled

I also have a pacsafe bag
I haven't used it much as I have had trouble opening and closing the lock mechanism on it
Guess I need to practice before June

There is also a travel wallet that my DH has used that loops on the belt and can go in a pocket or inside the pants to be pulled out and unzipped when needed. Great when in crowds.

 

[gydell]

I also have a pacsafe bag
I haven't used it much as I have had trouble opening and closing the lock mechanism on it
Guess I need to practice before June

There is also a travel wallet that my DH has used that loops on the belt and can go in a pocket or inside the pants to be pulled out and unzipped when needed. Great when in crowds.

We love our Pacsafe items! We all have backpacks. I have a cross body bag and dh and dgs have the fannie pack.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Hi all! We just switched our trip to this June sailing. Have done two European previously (DH, DD (7), DS (15) and Papa). Love Barcelone and have stayed on after each Magic cruise.

Hope to be part of groups Will scroll the pages as we are late to the game here although it is June it comes so fast!

Oh and we have done this itinerary in 2010 (w/o Venice and Dub but with Tunisia). I did all travel by myself (trains, tours, etc) so pls post questions if you have them (we did Pisa (not Florence; way too far IMHO), Pompeii, Rome (not Vatican), St. Pauls/Catacombs in Malta).

welcome - i've added you to the who's sailing list in the first post. Feel free to go to the Roll Call forms that are linked in the first post to add yourself to the spreadsheet - it's also where you can sign up for Fish Extenders.

 

[nzdisneymom]

We bit the bullet and asked our T.A. to apply final payment today. Whew.

Now to get to the excursion budget!

 

[nicis]

In case you have been to Florence or Pisa already and want to try something different we're considering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinque_Terre which many of our fellow travellers did in 2010. June should be excellent for the Lovers Walk!

 

[nzdisneymom]

In case you have been to Florence or Pisa already and want to try something different we're considering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinque_Terre which many of our fellow travellers did in 2010. June should be excellent for the Lovers Walk!

We are going to do Cinque Terre on the sailing before this one. Doing it on our own.

 

[MrsScooby]

We bit the bullet and asked our T.A. to apply final payment today. Whew.

Now to get to the excursion budget!

We used to call it the "paid in full" dance

In case you have been to Florence or Pisa already and want to try something different we're considering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinque_Terre which many of our fellow travellers did in 2010. June should be excellent for the Lovers Walk!

Definitely doing that some day
Our first trip to the area and my DH and DS are set on the Tower of Pisa.
I have a friend from Naples and we keep saying we are going to travel through Cinque Terre one of these days.
I'm still working on trying to get her on one of these cruises, but she usually visits family during the summer time.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Our first trip to the area and my DH and DS are set on the Tower of Pisa.

We loved going to Pisa for an afternoon and climbing the tower - it was so fun! We bought our favorite souvenir in Pisa - the 7th Harry Potter book There was a book shop right on the square - I was actually looking for a little Tower of Pisa souvenir but didn't ever find one -- we didn't have much time for shopping right there. After the tower, we took the little choo-choo through the town and had an afternoon dessert. I was able to dash down the street and find a postcard, but that was it.

We are looking forward to doing Florence this time (and we'll do Cinque Terre on the previous cruise). Nathan will be taking AP Art History next year for his fine arts credit (nothing like waiting til Sr year to get that out of the way) so I am hoping that at least some of what we see in Florence will be relevant to his course next year. That will make it more interesting for him at school.

We still haven't sorted out what we want to do about the Rome days - we know we want to go into Rome on the previous cruise and do something in the outer regions on this one. The reason we're doing it that way is that we wanted to do Florence on this cruise and don't want two very full days back to back.

 

[MrsScooby]

We loved going to Pisa for an afternoon and climbing the tower - it was so fun! We bought our favorite souvenir in Pisa - the 7th Harry Potter book There was a book shop right on the square - I was actually looking for a little Tower of Pisa souvenir but didn't ever find one -- we didn't have much time for shopping right there. After the tower, we took the little choo-choo through the town and had an afternoon dessert. I was able to dash down the street and find a postcard, but that was it.

We are looking forward to doing Florence this time (and we'll do Cinque Terre on the previous cruise). Nathan will be taking AP Art History next year for his fine arts credit (nothing like waiting til Sr year to get that out of the way) so I am hoping that at least some of what we see in Florence will be relevant to his course next year. That will make it more interesting for him at school.

We still haven't sorted out what we want to do about the Rome days - we know we want to go into Rome on the previous cruise and do something in the outer regions on this one. The reason we're doing it that way is that we wanted to do Florence on this cruise and don't want two very full days back to back.

We are not holding back...it will be 4 very long days in a row
We are so sleeping in that first sea day

My DH Darren took an art history class in college. He was an optics major and it was just another elective to him at first, but he wound up really enjoying it more than expected.

Kind of weird, but while architecture really interests me I am not so much interested in paintings and sculpture
DH and my DD really enjoy walking around art galleries though...so I make sure I have something to read while they look

 

[gydell]

Checked this morning on flights. They went up in price $1000! I guess when they get back to $1400 I should buy the last one I need.

 

[poison ivy]

Hi everyone,

really great to read all the plans for this cruise. Still sad we had to cancel.

Anyway, I am getting ready to cancel a 1 nt rsvp at the Renaissance Barcelona Hotel - pau Claris 122 Barcelona, Spain 08009.
It was for 3 adults
check-in June 26, 2013
room type: executive guest room, 1 K or 1 Q or 2 Twin Beds
rate: 395.28 eu

It appears it can be completely modified online with new booking information, cc #'s etc. If anyone wishes to switch it over, please pm me.
I would hate to just cancel it if someone had their heart set on staying at this hotel and was experiencing difficulty.

thanks
chrisitine

 

[disney minnie]

Is anyone using vrbo in Barcelona?

 

[MrsScooby]

Checked this morning on flights. They went up in price $1000! I guess when they get back to $1400 I should buy the last one I need.

Ouch
Hope they'll be down soon.
I always find buying airfare stressful...

Hi everyone,

really great to read all the plans for this cruise. Still sad we had to cancel.

Anyway, I am getting ready to cancel a 1 nt rsvp at the Renaissance Barcelona Hotel - pau Claris 122 Barcelona, Spain 08009.
It was for 3 adults
check-in June 26, 2013
room type: executive guest room, 1 K or 1 Q or 2 Twin Beds
rate: 395.28 eu

It appears it can be completely modified online with new booking information, cc #'s etc. If anyone wishes to switch it over, please pm me.
I would hate to just cancel it if someone had their heart set on staying at this hotel and was experiencing difficulty.

thanks
chrisitine

That's nice of you Christine
We have our hotel already for 4 people, but hopefully someone will come on soon that can use it. I think we will see more people visiting once we get into January

Is anyone using vrbo in Barcelona?

Had to google that to see what you were talking about
Apartment rental?
That looks like something I'll have to look into for future trips to Barcelona

 

[nzdisneymom]

On the Amazing Race this week, they flew into Barcelona - we were all "we're going to be there, we're going to be there!" and they spent the day at the beach - so that was fun to see it.

We got a new camera for the trip - Amazon had a great deal of the day on a Sony Cybershot; our current camera is also a Sony Cybershot we bought before we made our first Med cruise in 2007. So now we'll have two which will be nice since we won't have to pass the camera back and forth! Can't wait to get it all figured out - gotta practice practice practice before we go so I won't miss great shots. The new camera has a panoramic feature so I really want to get that figured out!

 

[MrsScooby]

On the Amazing Race this week, they flew into Barcelona - we were all "we're going to be there, we're going to be there!" and they spent the day at the beach - so that was fun to see it.

We got a new camera for the trip - Amazon had a great deal of the day on a Sony Cybershot; our current camera is also a Sony Cybershot we bought before we made our first Med cruise in 2007. So now we'll have two which will be nice since we won't have to pass the camera back and forth! Can't wait to get it all figured out - gotta practice practice practice before we go so I won't miss great shots. The new camera has a panoramic feature so I really want to get that figured out!

Sounds great
yes, I like the idea of having more than one camera on a trip too.
We have gotten some decent shots with our cell phone cameras
Sometimes better than our regular camera

Our local AAA office is having a travel photography class this weekend and I have registered for my DD and I to attend
Most of her Christmas wish list is photography supplies and it looks like she is starting to get serious about photography. Had to explain that she was going to have to save up for Adobe Photoshop She didn't realize how expensive the software is

We will most likely look into renting one of those expensive lenses that we read about in a Med trip report for this cruise.

Really hoping to get some photos like Nicole posted on facebook