Who's in for GREECE and TURKEY, June 15 2003????

[nzdisneymom]

We did the Mexican Cooking in PV, nice little ranch in the hills. Enjoyed it, and had the girl from the excursion desk join us on the tour. Have to find those recipes and cook up some good salsa! I am keeping my fingers crossed for sure for the Tuscan cooking, DH keeps asking LOL!

We have always enjoyed having Cast Members join us on excursions - it's a great opportunity to get acquainted and then when you see them onboard later in the cruise, they always seem to remember! I'm glad that they have the oppotunity to "work" as an escort for tours.

We get to book excursions on Friday night - cannot wait to get that going! I'm blogging about each port this week to help make the time go faster (hee hee). Today as I was doing Rome, I was looking in my photobucket and saw I only had some Colosseum pictures there from Rome - I guess that's where I stopped with the trip report in 2007. I was remembering how beautiful the mosaics are inside St. Peter's Basilica - I absolutely loved how intricate they were. And I remembered us tossing our coins in the Trevi Fountain so we could make another trip to Rome - yay! And the Pantheon was my favorite site we saw that day - our tour guide gave us a lot of information and that really made the time there so interesting.

 

[NanNan]

Another source would be Rick Steves' travel help line - http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/

I've posted questions there for other trips and have received lots of good info.

Great tip! Thankx so much!

 

[NanNan]

We have always enjoyed having Cast Members join us on excursions - it's a great opportunity to get acquainted and then when you see them onboard later in the cruise, they always seem to remember! I'm glad that they have the oppotunity to "work" as an escort for tours.

We get to book excursions on Friday night - cannot wait to get that going! I'm blogging about each port this week to help make the time go faster (hee hee). Today as I was doing Rome, I was looking in my photobucket and saw I only had some Colosseum pictures there from Rome - I guess that's where I stopped with the trip report in 2007. I was remembering how beautiful the mosaics are inside St. Peter's Basilica - I absolutely loved how intricate they were. And I remembered us tossing our coins in the Trevi Fountain so we could make another trip to Rome - yay! And the Pantheon was my favorite site we saw that day - our tour guide gave us a lot of information and that really made the time there so interesting.

One of my favorite activities on board is getting to know the cast members! They all have such amazing stories: where they are from, where they want to be, etc... And of course they are all so friendly.

Enjoy your booking Friday! I will wait two more weeks holding my breath. Checked out your blog, nice, very nice!
Marilyn

 

[DL1957]

One of my favorite activities on board is getting to know the cast members! They all have such amazing stories: where they are from, where they want to be, etc... And of course they are all so friendly.

Enjoy your booking Friday! I will wait two more weeks holding my breath. Checked out your blog, nice, very nice!
Marilyn

I agree. DH is a graphic designer and he hit it off on our B2B LA to Vancouver and on to Alaska cruise in 2011. We are originally from San Francisco so we gave them a map of the area (actually our FE gift) and pointed out the places to go. They were interested in shopping! The cast members is the reason why DBIL will now only sail on Disney. They had sailed on other lines (he is also very frugal) however after DSIS convinced him to go on the Baltic with us there has been no looking back. The Med is their second on DCL and their 4th and we have a family cruise booked for Dec so after that cruise they will be gold!

 

[CJCPixieDust]

I have used my Ipad for reservations and it works ok. I needed to increase the page area where the check-off boxes are out. Depending on the service I have found my ipad to run a little slower than my pc. I would go into your reservation off your ipad before your reservation date.

I made all my reservations on an iPad. Got them all within 10 minutes. I don't think it's any different than using a regular computer.

Thanks for the information and advice- much appreciated! I'm feeling more confident now and think I will go for it on the iPad.

 

[Travelbee]

I'm starting to research the ports and are leaning on private tours instead of Disney. For comparison, can one of the platinum CC tell me how much DCL wanted for the private tours to Rome and Florence/Pisa?

 

[mindelmouse]

I'm starting to research the ports and are leaning on private tours instead of Disney. For comparison, can one of the platinum CC tell me how much DCL wanted for the private tours to Rome and Florence/Pisa?

I thought the prices for the private tours were listed for anyone to see. They were for Turkey and Greece. We found the private tours to be significantly cheaper than DCL's.

 

[Travelbee]

I thought the prices for the private tours were listed for anyone to see. They were for Turkey and Greece. We found the private tours to be significantly cheaper than DCL's.

Thanks! For some reason I thought we have to be within the booking period to see the prices. I guess I should check next time.

 

[MoonDaughter23]

Since the search feature is temporarily disabled on DIS and I haven't found my answer on Google, I have a lengthy question for experienced "port on your own" Med cruisers:

This will be our first time with DCL doing ports on our own, but not our first time in Europe so we are comfortable dealing with public transportation there and other local "activities" that tend to scare other tourists. In talking again this weekend with friends who have done Med cruises (non DCL) they say the people with excursions are allowed off before anyone else. Is this also the case with DCL Med? I've only done Caribbean cruises so far, but I remember many non Port Adventure cruisers were able to get off the ship as soon as the Captain announce it was clear while we were still waiting for our PA groups to finish checking everyone in.

I was just checking to see if it worked differently than I'm used to because it would seriously put a stressful damper on things if I had to wait that long to get off the ship. Particularly for Rome because Civitavecchia has 2 other ships in port with the Magic, but also Pisa and Athens. We can't afford private transfers or taxis so public transportation is all we have to rely on. Every train or bus we miss getting into the city takes out of our touring time.

 

[DL1957]

Since the search feature is temporarily disabled on DIS and I haven't found my answer on Google, I have a lengthy question for experienced "port on your own" Med cruisers:

This will be our first time with DCL doing ports on our own, but not our first time in Europe so we are comfortable dealing with public transportation there and other local "activities" that tend to scare other tourists. In talking again this weekend with friends who have done Med cruises (non DCL) they say the people with excursions are allowed off before anyone else. Is this also the case with DCL Med? I've only done Caribbean cruises so far, but I remember many non Port Adventure cruisers were able to get off the ship as soon as the Captain announce it was clear while we were still waiting for our PA groups to finish checking everyone in.

I was just checking to see if it worked differently than I'm used to because it would seriously put a stressful damper on things if I had to wait that long to get off the ship. Particularly for Rome because Civitavecchia has 2 other ships in port with the Magic, but also Pisa and Athens. We can't afford private transfers or taxis so public transportation is all we have to rely on. Every train or bus we miss getting into the city takes out of our touring time.

We have been on the med and Baltic with DCL. These cruises as well as others anyone can disembark once the ship is cleared. DCL excursions meet on the ship and are taken off as a group. Depending on the port sometimes they take DCL tours off one side and the other guests the other side but non-excursion people do not have to wait until the excursion people are off the ship.

 

[mindelmouse]

Since the search feature is temporarily disabled on DIS and I haven't found my answer on Google, I have a lengthy question for experienced "port on your own" Med cruisers:

This will be our first time with DCL doing ports on our own, but not our first time in Europe so we are comfortable dealing with public transportation there and other local "activities" that tend to scare other tourists. In talking again this weekend with friends who have done Med cruises (non DCL) they say the people with excursions are allowed off before anyone else. Is this also the case with DCL Med? I've only done Caribbean cruises so far, but I remember many non Port Adventure cruisers were able to get off the ship as soon as the Captain announce it was clear while we were still waiting for our PA groups to finish checking everyone in.

I was just checking to see if it worked differently than I'm used to because it would seriously put a stressful damper on things if I had to wait that long to get off the ship. Particularly for Rome because Civitavecchia has 2 other ships in port with the Magic, but also Pisa and Athens. We can't afford private transfers or taxis so public transportation is all we have to rely on. Every train or bus we miss getting into the city takes out of our touring time.

Nakhoma,

The way it works on DCL is once all ashore is called anyone can go a shore. Anyone taking a DCL tour will first meet at a designated location. Then they will disembark as a group. If you happen to go down to disembark at the same time they will hold you up for the group so that they can stay together.

 

[MoonDaughter23]

We have been on the med and Baltic with DCL. These cruises as well as others anyone can disembark once the ship is cleared. DCL excursions meet on the ship and are taken off as a group. Depending on the port sometimes they take DCL tours off one side and the other guests the other side but non-excursion people do not have to wait until the excursion people are off the ship.

The way it works on DCL is once all ashore is called anyone can go a shore. Anyone taking a DCL tour will first meet at a designated location. Then they will disembark as a group. If you happen to go down to disembark at the same time they will hold you up for the group so that they can stay together.

Thanks to both of you for confirming. Your descriptions is how I assumed it would go. Phew! I feel better now. We can continue with our plan to be down on deck one a few minutes before the scheduled ashore time to try to beat the line. And if we end up with a group in front of us we will courteously and patiently wait our turn.

 

[DL1957]

Thanks to both of you for confirming. Your descriptions is how I assumed it would go. Phew! I feel better now. We can continue with our plan to be down on deck one a few minutes before the scheduled ashore time to try to beat the line. And if we end up with a group in front of us we will courteously and patiently wait our turn.

Another suggestion I would get down there 15 to 30 minutes early it has been our experience in ports that DCL has been at before many times they give the ok to disembark before the time on the navigator.

 

[MoonDaughter23]

Another suggestion I would get down there 15 to 30 minutes early it has been our experience in ports that DCL has been at before many times they give the ok to disembark before the time on the navigator.

By "a few minutes before" I actually did mean 30. I just didn't want to sound obsessive.

 

[burma]

What time does the booking open 12eastern or 3 pacific

 

[DL1957]

What time does the booking open 12eastern or 3 pacific

12 eastern which is 9 pm pacific!

 

[puredata]

This will be our third Disney cruise... our first trip to Europe, and our first attempt at a fish extender... is there anything different about the Med cruises? We have been on the Mexican Riv cruise and an Eastern Caribbean Cruise... both of those were cat 5 rooms, this time we booked cat 11/gty.

Looking forward to it, though! And spending 4 nights in BCN before embarking!

 

[nzdisneymom]

This will be our third Disney cruise... our first trip to Europe, and our first attempt at a fish extender... is there anything different about the Med cruises? We have been on the Mexican Riv cruise and an Eastern Caribbean Cruise... both of those were cat 5 rooms, this time we booked cat 11/gty.

Looking forward to it, though! And spending 4 nights in BCN before embarking!

Welcome. If you follow the link in my sig to the June 15th list of who is sailing, you will find information about how to add yourself to the roll call and fish extender, etc.

Or more conveniently:
ROLLCALL FORM

SPREADSHEET

If you want to join the Facebook group, go here to request to join the group.

 

[puredata]

Or more conveniently:

Added myself right before my first post

If you want to join the Facebook group, go (masked) to request to join the group.

Perfect, thank you, just sent request to join group!

 

[puredata]

I just added my SO and my parents to the Facebook Group as well (pending admin approval), not going to add my children though... unless there is some reason I should?