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

[Cliffside]

Originally Posted by MrsScooby

http://www.dubrovnik-secrets.com/ds/...ievalfair.html

Cool website for Dubrovnik

Thanks for posting...

Susan

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

The Medieval Festival looks fun but I almost don't want it to be occurring while we are there. I imagine it will cause the city to be even more crowded than normal, especially as we are arriving in the afternoon.

[Cliffside]

Originally Posted by nzdisneymom

I'm a daily checker of our cruise - mostly because I am hoping that our cabin will open up on the June 15th one (we are in 6114 for that one, but 6116 for this one - it's our favorite cabin). So I check every day in case it opens up so I can call DVC to grab it for us. Otherwise we'll be moving cabins - yeah, it's only one over, but we really really want our beloved 6116! So as long as I'm over there, I check the price for this one. It's been steady for a 5C since the second day.

In other news, Air is available to book through DCL now. Because we're doing B2B and our DVC one is first, our TA is having to work with DCL to get them to put the air onto this reservation. They usually require it to be on the first one, but we don't want to do that because DVC would require that we pay the air now - certainly not going to do that - we'll watch airfare once it becomes available - and by booking through TA, we don't have to pay until final payment is due. At that point we'll know if we are sticking with DCL's air / price or if we can do better on our own (and will it be worth the hassle for us). Our TA is supposed to call them today so we should hopefully find out the air price tonight... I've been curious at what they'll set it at. If I had to guess, I'd say $1,400 - $1,600 per person - someone else may know already?

Good luck getting your cabin....we are right across the hall in 6616....Lori says she really liked that cabin so we went for it.

I too have been watching prices just out of curiosity...and to see availability

When we sailed the med in 2102... We were originally booked in a cat 9(no letters at that time) for close to 8k...then they announced inside gty at $999 a person...we couldn't turn that down...we were so lucky we got upgraded to a cat 9 a few doors down wher we would have been....deal of the century ...I don't think I would ever get that lucky again.

[kmitchel]

Has someone started a FB page for this group yet? If no one has, I can start a closed group (I don't like people being able to see that I'll be in Europe for 3 weeks).

[nzdisneymom]

Originally Posted by Cliffside

Good luck getting your cabin....we are right across the hall in 6616....Lori says she really liked that cabin so we went for it.

Our first DCL was in 2005 and we were in 8058. We had booked a Christmas cruise but then moved it to the week before so we were able to sail in 8058 for the same as we had been originally booked on Deck 6. We didn't like being on Deck 8 because of the noise from Deck 9.

So our next cruise, we were in 6116 - it was the Med, 10 nights in 2007 and we absolutely LOVED it. The location is perfect - three floors up or down from everything, close to the aft stairs so that's close to the dining options and the drink station. Close to the movies. No cabins right underneath so if the kids walked loud, no worries. We liked port side because at that time, smoking was permitted on deck 4 starboard and we didn't want the smoke coming up to our cabin. It was near enough to the elevator / stairs but not right there in the traffic. The boys like that they can just go down one floor for easy passage to wherever they are going rather than navigating the cleaning carts, vacuum, etc.

We liked the cabin so much that we've booked the same one on both the Wonder and the Magic for every other DCL sailing we've had. So five times in that location. It's like coming home!

Count us in the being disappointed at the short amount of time we'll have in Dubrovnik - but belive me, we'll make the most of every minute we're there!

[nzdisneymom]

Originally Posted by kmitchel

Has someone started a FB page for this group yet? If no one has, I can start a closed group (I don't like people being able to see that I'll be in Europe for 3 weeks).

I don't think anyone has, but I will say that I won't participate until way closer to time to sail. I have found that a FB group is a nice supplement and lets you "see" each other prior to sailing so you can recognize each other, but I prefer keeping my cruise planning here

[kmitchel]

OK, I created a closed group on FB for those who like to participate in both.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/107870879338262/

See you next year!

[nzdisneymom]

Originally Posted by kmitchel

OK, I created a closed group on FB for those who like to participate in both.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/107870879338262/

See you next year!

For some reason I didn't have you on the first page - what's your travel party and I'll add you at the same time I add this.

[jel0511]

Originally Posted by kmitchel

OK, I created a closed group on FB for those who like to participate in both.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/107870879338262/

See you next year!

Just a note to all. Karen has promoted myself to admin so I'm also allowed to approve requests to the FB group. I request that anyone who wishes to join to please PM myself and Karen (kmitchel) here on the DIS with your full name so we can match you up. I'd really like to keep the FB group to DIS'ers only since there is more personal information available there.

Thanks!!!

Also, Cindy if you could add this to the first page I'd appreciate it!

[MrsScooby]

Originally Posted by Cliffside

Thanks for posting...

Susan

I've been collecting websites and really liked that one

Originally Posted by Lifelong_Dreamer

The Medieval Festival looks fun but I almost don't want it to be occurring while we are there. I imagine it will cause the city to be even more crowded than normal, especially as we are arriving in the afternoon.

Yup, I have mixed feelings about it also.
Hoping DCL gets into port early and stays late

Originally Posted by kmitchel

OK, I created a closed group on FB for those who like to participate in both.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/107870879338262/

See you next year!

Originally Posted by jel0511

Just a note to all. Karen has promoted myself to admin so I'm also allowed to approve requests to the FB group. I request that anyone who wishes to join to please PM myself and Karen (kmitchel) here on the DIS with your full name so we can match you up. I'd really like to keep the FB group to DIS'ers only since there is more personal information available there.

Thanks!!!

Also, Cindy if you could add this to the first page I'd appreciate it!

I was added to the group and then had to leave it because I don't know how to keep others on FB from seeing what I don't want them to see

Basically we really don't want certain family members to know we are going yet

My DMiL sees everything I post on my friend's FB pages which is not fun

Hoping when my DS comes home he can help me with my privacy settings and I can request to join the group again

[MrsScooby]

Originally Posted by MrsScooby

I was added to the group and then had to leave it because I don't know how to keep others on FB from seeing what I don't want them to see

Basically we really don't want certain family members to know we are going yet

My DMiL sees everything I post on my friend's FB pages which is not fun

Hoping when my DS comes home he can help me with my privacy settings and I can request to join the group again

Sorry folks, I sent another request to join the FB page.
After much discussion with my DS we determined that there was no way to hide that I had joined this group from my DMiL
But at least she won't be able to see my posts in the group.

[nzdisneymom]

Laurie - You made me laugh about not wanting your DMiL to know about your plans. We haven't told any of our extended family yet, but we've told friends and coworkers. I don't know why it's different - guess I just don't want to hear about it for 16 months We will tell them sometime later this year.

I added the link to the facebook group to the first post with instructions to PM kmitchel or jel0511 if you want to join.

Our TA got the airfare rate for us. $1,818 per person. We had her go ahead and add it since we had worked out how it needed to happen with our B2B and one being a DVC reservation, but we will pretty surely drop it once we're able to book air on our own. At least we have a "top" price now for budgeting purposes. She said hotels were not yet available.

[Cliffside]

Originally Posted by nzdisneymom

Our TA got the airfare rate for us. $1,818 per person. We had her go ahead and add it since we had worked out how it needed to happen with our B2B and one being a DVC reservation, but we will pretty surely drop it once we're able to book air on our own. At least we have a "top" price now for budgeting purposes. She said hotels were not yet available.

That is crazy!

We used miles in 2010 for two tickets and cash for the third...we hope to do that again this go around but at those rates we better earn more miles so we can get all three with them. If I remember correctly the ticket we paid for was right around $1000. We had a direct flight from Newark to barcelona .

[MrsScooby]

Originally Posted by nzdisneymom

Laurie - You made me laugh about not wanting your DMiL to know about your plans. We haven't told any of our extended family yet, but we've told friends and coworkers. I don't know why it's different - guess I just don't want to hear about it for 16 months We will tell them sometime later this year.
Same here I love my DMiL, but things go much smoother when she is not privy to all the details of our life. Kind of sad that she is the one family member that would cruise with us except that we found that our ideas regarding cruising were too different to mesh. The whole "everybody do their own thing" just wasn't gonna work with her

I added the link to the facebook group to the first post with instructions to PM kmitchel or jel0511 if you want to join.

Our TA got the airfare rate for us. $1,818 per person. We had her go ahead and add it since we had worked out how it needed to happen with our B2B and one being a DVC reservation, but we will pretty surely drop it once we're able to book air on our own. At least we have a "top" price now for budgeting purposes. She said hotels were not yet available.

Originally Posted by Cliffside

That is crazy!

We used miles in 2010 for two tickets and cash for the third...we hope to do that again this go around but at those rates we better earn more miles so we can get all three with them. If I remember correctly the ticket we paid for was right around $1000. We had a direct flight from Newark to barcelona .

We wound up flying out of JFK for our Baltic cruise because it was so much cheaper than flying out of Dulles. We saved about $200 pp on airfare. Hated the extra driving, but we needed to save the money for excursions.
I think the tickets were around $1000 or a little under.
Definitely stalking all the websites to get the best airfare helps.

[nzdisneymom]

Originally Posted by MrsScooby

We wound up flying out of JFK for our Baltic cruise because it was so much cheaper than flying out of Dulles. We saved about $200 pp on airfare. Hated the extra driving, but we needed to save the money for excursions.
I think the tickets were around $1000 or a little under.
Definitely stalking all the websites to get the best airfare helps.

We fly from ATL when we go. It was about $1,300 per person to Barcelona through DCL in 2007, and about the same to London in 2010. I was surprised they put it at $1,800 for this one - they must be anticipating a huge increase in prices. Or hoping people will just do their own Right now it looks like if we were to fly this summer, same weeks / days of the week, it would be about $1,500 per person. I know we do pay more to have a non-stop flight, but I much prefer the non-stop when flying out of the country.

We have always flown Delta to Europe. It looks like you can't book your flights until you are 11 months out from your return flight. So I guess we'll be actively looking in July / August.

Our TA did let us know that our OBC is $700. That takes care of tips plus a wee bit more, so that's good news. I'm figuring $12/day per person for 12-nights so that's $144 per person.