UPDATED! 24 April 2010 - Mediterranean Adventures of an Aussie family! Trip Report

[lmhall2000]

What a PRECIOUS family!! And it looks absolutely beautiful there...I wanna goooo!! Love their face painting!!!

Tara

[lmhall2000]

Did you get a letter yet?? Sending pixie dust!!!

Tara

[shushh]

Tara, yes we got the extra OBC! DU informed us via email when we hadn't received anything by mail. We're also paid in full now so we're super duper excited!! I also managed to finalised our transport bookings in Barcelona so that's another thing out of the way! Who did you go with in the end?

[lmhall2000]

YEAH!!! OBC rocks!! I'm a renegade, I really can't book my transport until I know which flight we're on...haven't booked airfare yet, big sale supposed to happen in January, so holding out...yes, I'm a rebel with a budget! I did go ahead and book our Pompeii/Amalfi driver and I'm trying to book a driver with RomeinLimo or other to do a half day tour...I plan on taking the train (San Pietro) to the Vatican then spending 3 hours there...having a driver pick us up at the Vatican to take us to Rome spots...they're trying to talk me into a full day tour, but we'll be walking around the Vatican for hours while they sit in their car and wait for us at a price of 250 euro! We can take a one way ticket to the Vatican for 28 euro...but I like the convenience of having a driver to hit as many spots in Rome as we can....did I say I like a bargain??

What have you booked so far??
Tara

[shushh]

Good luck with flights and with booking the half day tour at Rome!!! Let me know you go. We've booked private tours so far in Tunis, Malta, Rome, Naples and La Spezia. We are pottering in Villefrance and Corsica. Still trying to nut our the specifics of Barcelona.

I am exhausted from a busy but great Christmas! Hope you had a fantastic one too.

[grlzmom]

Great pre trip report and can't wait to meet you all on the Med!

Love the detailed plans. We will be relaxing in Villefrance too and trying to end up with a mix of long days and short days for ports to make it more enjoyable for the kids and not too tiring.

Can't wait to read more.

[shushh]

We received our cruise documents today! That was a pleasant surprise after such a busy month and the inspiration to breathe new life into this pre-trip report.

My mother-in-law is finally home after 2 months in hospital with seizures of unknown cause. The cause remains a mystery but they seem to diminishing in frequency and severity which is great. We're down with viral gastroenteritis which is the absolute pits but my Disney pack is keeping me going!

More updates to come soon!

[Subrbnmommy]

You must be gatting excited about the upcoming trip!

I can't wait to read your trip report!

[shushh]

Yes we are getting very excited! I just realised that we leave in 22 days! Ok and with that realisation comes the realisation of the many many things that I have to do, including planning and packing for trip to Canberra to visit friends.

A quick update on Rome and Naples, we've changed our tour operator to Rome Connections and saved ourselves 120 Euro which I am very happy about. They seem to have good ratings on TripAdvisor and the extra Euros will always come in handy. They have also agreed to provide a carseat for free for Jonah which is reassuring for me. We are still looking into Rome carefully to make sure that we're not trying to see too much.

The FE list has been finalised and now time to get cracking to actually make the darn FE itself! Wish me luck.

[shushh]

Got my transfer paper to make my FE only to realise that I need to replace the ink in my printer. ARGHHH!!!

Was so fortunate to have a fellow DISer on our cruisemeet create and share beautiful journal pages for the children. Again I was all set to get the 5.5" x 8.5" binder that it was designed for only to realise that it was not a standard size in Australia and is not available! Sigh...so had to print to the closest size paper and bind it myself using a spiral binder with black cardboard on the back and clear plastic on the front. Quite proud of my efforts actually! The kids love their journals. Will post a photo as soon as I find out where the children put the darn things...

[Becx N Gav]

Hey there I just spotted your PTR and thought I should say hi!

Your kids are adorable and I love the dress you have

I can't believe how close it's getting now, I hope your mother-in-law is ok?

Looking forward to meeting you on the cruise - I can't wait

[NC_Tink]

Hi Shushh!! Just found your PTR - very nicely done!! It seems like you have a great plan in place Can't wait for the actual trip to start. It's hard to believe that it's now less than one month away. I'm really looking forward to meeting all of our fellow DISers!

[shushh]

Can't wait to meet you all as well! In a bit of a panic at the moment as I just realised that we've still got alot to do and we're going away as well before the trip. And thanks for the compliments on the children! MIL thankfully is doing well. She can now walk again and was even able to go shopping the other day.

Found the journals designed by Brooklyn and here are the photos as promised.

[soxfan1495]

Great discussion! Since we are going after you, in August, all of your hard work will be helpful for our planning. We are really looking forward to hearing about your trip. We hope you have a great cruise.

[Dicecatt]

Subscribing! And your babies are beautiful!!!