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

[MrsScooby]

Originally Posted by elm95376

Yay! I booked all 6 tickets. I was worried there wouldn't be enough room. One less thing to stress about. It will be great to all go over together.

So far this is all I have booked. We plan on doing Pompeii on our own and I'm assuming I don't have to get anything ahead of time for that. This is our first time so I can't book DCL tours until April, but Rome maybe the only tour we do through them as we are concerned about missing the ship with so much to see.

Thanks!
Janet

great
I don't think there are advance tickets for Pompeii
I haven't heard of any...
Rome we are doing privately with Rome in Limo.

Originally Posted by nzdisneymom

We have made arrangements for a private tour in Dubrovnik - we are excited to have someone who is local to show us around the city. So with getting those details finalized, I think the planning is done - just need our DCL booking window to open next Wednesday night! I love this part of trip planning!

Love this part of the planning too
Just renewed my DS's passport on Saturday but won't relax until it comes in the mail.
I'm hoping to get to this place in Duborvnik-- Lovrijenac

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio..._Dalmatia.html

[MrsScooby]

Originally Posted by elm95376

Do you know if the Secret Itenery include the Bridge of Sighs?

Janet

I have to go check
But it looks like the best pictures are from the outside anyway

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...ce_Veneto.html

[meb51]

My 18 year old son would love to do mass at St. Peter's in Rome. I was thinking of doing the Rome on your own tour so we could do this. We are doing B2B cruises so we will have had a tour of Rome on the previous trip. I know that we would need to be careful about pickpockets but has anyone ever tried this on previous trips or know of anyone who did this on previous trips? I have read that tradition is that the pope appears at noon on Sunday. Anyone else thinking of doing this?

[jedipup]

Originally Posted by nzdisneymom

It looks easy enough to get there, just figuring the right amount of time. Let us know if you book it. I think we could all head over early together. You probably want to book it soon. The 10:45 isn't available so only 9:55 and 11:something. Oh, I paid via PayPal, too. Super easy.

We paid via paypal also.

[jedipup]

Originally Posted by elm95376

I hope I won't be too late, especially since I think there will be 6 of us. I sent off the email so I am hoping to get the tickets tomorrow. I'll check into the clock tower tour to. Do you know if the Secret Itenery include the Bridge of Sighs?

Janet

Hello Janet,

We did the tour a few years ago. Yes the tour includes the bridge of sighs as to cross over into the prison cell area of the palace.

[elm95376]

Originally Posted by jedipup

Hello Janet,

We did the tour a few years ago. Yes the tour includes the bridge of sighs as to cross over into the prison cell area of the palace.

Thank you. I'm looking forward to the tour.

[poohmomof5]

First, let me tell you, we have a strange family. And we are very into technology...so this will probably sound weird...

This past Sunday we did a family video conference. Mind you, 5 of us live in the same house, but our 2 sons are in college. One is a Software Engineering Major in La Crosse, its on the other side of the state from us. My younger son has no idea what he wants to major in (he is only a freshman) and is in Madison. So we set up a video conference where they could each log in with their laptops and we each went on a different computer here at home and we could all see each other. It was a dream for me! Of course, since they are mostly teens, they outsmarted the technology, took over my powerpoint, drew inappropriate pictures on the screen etc, but it was a blast! Every time I would look at my 8 year's screen, she would be licking the camera, kissing it, or some other strange thing...

Anyway, my powerpoint was about the cruise and I assigned each of the kids a port to be in charge of. They are booking the excursions, doing a one page history of the port and making sure each of us have fun there and maybe learn a thing or 2 along the way. I was kind of impressed that they were game on an cooperative (well, except for when my oldest son took over my computer and went to the last page of the powerpoint entitled "thank you" and tried to end the call, lol).

So, my little one wanted to take on Venice, I have been sitting with her looking at some websites and ordered her some books. We came across lots of fun looking scavenger hunts etc. I am really excited about the ports we are going to!

That brings me to a question, if anyone is doing some of their own self made hunts or history pieces or anything, could we set up a way to share that? I know there are things like Google docs etc, but I don't know how any of that works. But I would love to share what we are putting together and would love to see what other people come up with as well.

PS, the last long cruise we did with DCL was the Baltic in 2010 and they had really neat activity sheets etc for the kids and booklets on each port. Does anyone know if they still do that?

[nzdisneymom]

Originally Posted by poohmomof5

Anyway, my powerpoint was about the cruise and I assigned each of the kids a port to be in charge of. They are booking the excursions, doing a one page history of the port and making sure each of us have fun there and maybe learn a thing or 2 along the way.

That brings me to a question, if anyone is doing some of their own self made hunts or history pieces or anything, could we set up a way to share that? I know there are things like Google docs etc, but I don't know how any of that works. But I would love to share what we are putting together and would love to see what other people come up with as well.

PS, the last long cruise we did with DCL was the Baltic in 2010 and they had really neat activity sheets etc for the kids and booklets on each port. Does anyone know if they still do that?

What a great idea for your family to be so involved in the planning, and this way everyone gets to do something they like. Plus it's great experience to learn how to do this sort of thing.

I love the idea of a scavenger hunt / history search. Have you googled it? There may be blogs or other sites that have things other families have done to get ideas from.

I remember the books from the Baltic - our kids kept theirs even though they didn't do the activities in them - but for the younger kids, it's a great activity / souvenir.

[MrsScooby]

Originally Posted by meb51

My 18 year old son would love to do mass at St. Peter's in Rome. I was thinking of doing the Rome on your own tour so we could do this. We are doing B2B cruises so we will have had a tour of Rome on the previous trip. I know that we would need to be careful about pickpockets but has anyone ever tried this on previous trips or know of anyone who did this on previous trips? I have read that tradition is that the pope appears at noon on Sunday. Anyone else thinking of doing this?

That sounds wonderful
You can check out an REI store and ask them about travel wallets and such. That was where I got our neck wallets/pouches (they go under your shirt) and a belt wallet/pouch that has a loop for a belt and the zippered pouch goes either inside your pants or in your pocket.
I thnk there are also wallets that can go around your ankle when you are wearing long pants which your son would need for the mass anyway.
A mass at St Peter's is on my list of "must dos" for a future trip to Rome.

Originally Posted by poohmomof5

First, let me tell you, we have a strange family. And we are very into technology...so this will probably sound weird...

This past Sunday we did a family video conference. Mind you, 5 of us live in the same house, but our 2 sons are in college. One is a Software Engineering Major in La Crosse, its on the other side of the state from us. My younger son has no idea what he wants to major in (he is only a freshman) and is in Madison. So we set up a video conference where they could each log in with their laptops and we each went on a different computer here at home and we could all see each other. It was a dream for me! Of course, since they are mostly teens, they outsmarted the technology, took over my powerpoint, drew inappropriate pictures on the screen etc, but it was a blast! Every time I would look at my 8 year's screen, she would be licking the camera, kissing it, or some other strange thing...

Anyway, my powerpoint was about the cruise and I assigned each of the kids a port to be in charge of. They are booking the excursions, doing a one page history of the port and making sure each of us have fun there and maybe learn a thing or 2 along the way. I was kind of impressed that they were game on an cooperative (well, except for when my oldest son took over my computer and went to the last page of the powerpoint entitled "thank you" and tried to end the call, lol).

So, my little one wanted to take on Venice, I have been sitting with her looking at some websites and ordered her some books. We came across lots of fun looking scavenger hunts etc. I am really excited about the ports we are going to!

That brings me to a question, if anyone is doing some of their own self made hunts or history pieces or anything, could we set up a way to share that? I know there are things like Google docs etc, but I don't know how any of that works. But I would love to share what we are putting together and would love to see what other people come up with as well.

PS, the last long cruise we did with DCL was the Baltic in 2010 and they had really neat activity sheets etc for the kids and booklets on each port. Does anyone know if they still do that?

WOW, wish I could get my family involved like this. I don't have anything like scavengers hunts planned. I do recall seeing a cool book that DCL was selling on their excursion page with regard to things like that in Venice.

[gydell]

Originally Posted by meb51

My 18 year old son would love to do mass at St. Peter's in Rome. I was thinking of doing the Rome on your own tour so we could do this. We are doing B2B cruises so we will have had a tour of Rome on the previous trip. I know that we would need to be careful about pickpockets but has anyone ever tried this on previous trips or know of anyone who did this on previous trips? I have read that tradition is that the pope appears at noon on Sunday. Anyone else thinking of doing this?

We did a mass about 10 years go. It was on Easter Sunday. Don't remember what time, just that I couldn't understand a thing!

[meb51]

Originally Posted by gydell

We did a mass about 10 years go. It was on Easter Sunday. Don't remember what time, just that I couldn't understand a thing!

Wow! I can't imagine how crowded that must have been. We don't expect to understand anything either --- but I do think it would be interesting especially if the pope continues to appear at the balcony at noon on Sunday.

[meb51]

[QUOTE=MrsScooby;47711630]That sounds wonderful
You can check out an REI store and ask them about travel wallets and such. That was where I got our neck wallets/pouches (they go under your shirt) and a belt wallet/pouch that has a loop for a belt and the zippered pouch goes either inside your pants or in your pocket.
I thnk there are also wallets that can go around your ankle when you are wearing long pants which your son would need for the mass anyway.
A mass at St Peter's is on my list of "must dos" for a future trip to Rome.



I will definitely look into this. I was thinking about a neck wallet for myself.

[poohmomof5]

Originally Posted by MrsScooby

That sounds wonderful
You can check out an REI store and ask them about travel wallets and such. That was where I got our neck wallets/pouches (they go under your shirt) and a belt wallet/pouch that has a loop for a belt and the zippered pouch goes either inside your pants or in your pocket.
I thnk there are also wallets that can go around your ankle when you are wearing long pants which your son would need for the mass anyway.
A mass at St Peter's is on my list of "must dos" for a future trip to Rome.



WOW, wish I could get my family involved like this. I don't have anything like scavengers hunts planned. I do recall seeing a cool book that DCL was selling on their excursion page with regard to things like that in Venice.

I think I am going to pick that up, I love doing stuff like that. And it kind of brings out the competitive side of my kids. I think they would be thrilled to be released in Venice on their own with some money and a Vaparetto pass and see how they do.

We did the Art picture mystery hunt on the Dream in January. We broke into 3 team, boys vs. girls. vs parents and ran around the ship like maniacs trying to win. There were families with little kids that knew what we were up to and were trying to help us parents beat the kids, so when they saw us coming, they would have their kids wait and let us go ahead. Alas, we lost, but it was so much fun!

[poohmomof5]

I found the website for the Save Venice group. I has several different hunts etc that you can purchase ahead of time.

http://www.savevenice.org/publications/treasure-hunts

[nzdisneymom]

I posted this over on the June 15th thread as well, so my apologies to those who see it twice.

Our travel plans will have us driving from home to Atlanta the day before our flight to BCN. My brother lives in the ATL area so what we have typically done is meet him and have him keep our car for us while we are gone. Because we will be gone for a month this time, that's a long time for him to have our car parked at his house - and his driveway is such that it makes it harder for him to get around with the extra car in the way. Because the day we fly out is also his birthday, we planned to just stay at a hotel near the airport rather than staying with him so he wouldn't have to go out of his way and miss part of his work day to haul us around.

Anyway, I had looked at one-way rentals for a vehicle to take and come back. When I checked, we could get a good rate on a one way from home to ATL, but from ATL back home was nearly 4 times as much - yikes - put it out of my price range. But today when I was thinking that I needed to confirm with my brother about our plans, I decided to check again and found that the return rate is nearly the same rate as the going rate, so I went ahead and made reservations for one-way rental vehicle to get us to the airport in June and another one to get us home in July.

We are staying at a hotel not too far from the airport that has a shuttle service, so our plan is to check in the hotel, meet my brother for dinner, and then return the rental car and take the shuttle back to the hotel. Then take the shuttle from the hotel to the airport on the 12th when we fly out. Then when we get home, we'll pick up the rental car and then spend the night at my brother's house before driving home the next day.

This will keep our car in our garage, out of the sun and other weather elements while we are gone. And we don't have to pay for parking at the airport, etc., and no inconvenience to my brother (see what a good sister I am?!) This is the longest vacation we've ever taken.