7/14/2014 - 12-Night Mediterranean Cruise (with Greece) Venice to Barcelona

[SailingSeas]

Denise, I'm not sure where you are flying in to, but if you try Mestre, it's right next to Venice, and the train runs back and forth all day long. I've found many hotels which offer free airport transfers to Mestre, as well. I'll post a few links when we get closer.

LOL you are right - the easiest part WAS booking the cruise - all i had to do was scream "LET ME ON, I'VE GOT PLASTIC and i KNOW HOW TO USE IT!" and DCL was quite accomodating...

 

[dizneeat]

LOL Pooh, good answer!

Dizneeat - where have been some of the hotels you've stayed at? I'm currently considering a lower priced hotel on the train line in Mestre, but my daughter's aching to stay on the island.

Tammy, please feel free to share photos so we can all vicariously live your trip through you! I'd love to see Alaska too!

Last trip we stayed with friends who had rented a condo. Before that we stayed at the Concordia. Really nice hotel.
Not sure though if we won't return. It was a bit on the expensive side, even though service and room were very nice.
There are several Best Western and I am definitely drawn towards them. We will have a look at them when we go there in May.

Just a few impressions of Venice from our last trip.

Denise, I'm not sure where you are flying in to, but if you try Mestre, it's right next to Venice, and the train runs back and forth all day long. I've found many hotels which offer free airport transfers to Mestre, as well. I'll post a few links when we get closer.

LOL you are right - the easiest part WAS booking the cruise - all i had to do was scream "LET ME ON, I'VE GOT PLASTIC and i KNOW HOW TO USE IT!" and DCL was quite accomodating...

Please check VERY carefully if the hotels offer a pick up service or a free shuttle. MANY offer pick up service ...... you'll be presented with the bill lateron. Been there done that.

And I couldn't agree with you more - easiest part is BOOKING the cruise.

 

[keenercam]

Oh, Karin! Your photos are gorgeous! Thank you for sharing!

 

[keenercam]

We caught the tail end of a Rick Steves special on PBS this weekend during their annual fund drive. I heard a bit about Venice and the important point was to make sure that if you are going to hire a tour guide that he or she is a tour guide and not a salesperson who will get a cut of what is sold to the people in the group. I think this related primarily to Murano glass.

Seeing a Murano glass factory and riding in a gondola are my two must-do items in Venice. I haven't started reviewing the guidebooks I've bought, though, so there may be other must-do's that I haven't thought of yet.

 

[SailingSeas]

Diz... your photos have me doing a complete 180. Thank you for sharing. I too am a Best Western guest and was looking at the Hotel Bologna http://www.hotelbologna.com right at the Venezia Mestre train station, but dang... now I want to look into the city and see what the pricing differences are. I'd be very interested in what you find.

Yes, well versed in the 'free airport transfers' bit after the $50 for 5 minute cab ride in Barcelona.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

The photos are gorgeous. I can't wait.

 

[dizneeat]

Diz... your photos have me doing a complete 180. Thank you for sharing. I too am a Best Western guest and was looking at the Hotel Bologna http://www.hotelbologna.com right at the Venezia Mestre train station, but dang... now I want to look into the city and see what the pricing differences are. I'd be very interested in what you find.

Yes, well versed in the 'free airport transfers' bit after the $50 for 5 minute cab ride in Barcelona.

We intend to take a lot of photos when we go back in early May. This time I AM on a mission - finding us a hotel.
Last time's mission was finding the Disney store.

 

[SailingSeas]

We intend to take a lot of photos when we go back in early May. This time I AM on a mission - finding us a hotel.
Last time's mission was finding the Disney store.

rofl are you serious? All the way to Venice to find the Disney Store?

...wait, where is it?


I'm really liking the looks of the BW Hotel Olimpia right now. I like that they list "Cocktail Lounge" as the first amenity. lol

 

[dizneeat]

rofl are you serious? All the way to Venice to find the Disney Store?

...wait, where is it?


I'm really liking the looks of the BW Hotel Olimpia right now. I like that they list "Cocktail Lounge" as the first amenity. lol

Well, if the other "closest" Disney store is about 1000 km away, than Venice is okay for finding a Disney store.
Honestly Venice is about 6 1/2 hours drive from here and we have a nearby beach village where we spend lots of weekends. From there Venice is about an hour's drive.
Last time we went I noticed quite a few people having Disney store bags and I was on a mission finding it ...... and I did!

I looked at the Olimpia too. European standards I think - then cocktail lounge is a high priority!

 

[OzRalphs]

Hi everyone, please add us to the fish extender thread. I am gong to attempt to make one ?!? As a bit of a winter project with my daughter - yes we are just finishing a very long hot summer down here in oz! Julie was it you who said ou had a 10 year old daughter? Elysse turns ten next week, so nice to hear that there are others her age out there. We didn't do the fishe spenders on our Bahamas cruise,as I was disappointed so looking forward to it this time!
Cheers
Tanya

 

[SailingSeas]

Hi Tanya, welcome to the thread!

Diz, that is so wonderful. I am always stunned at how you can go to bed in one country, be in another for breakfast, lunch still in a third, and finish the day in yet another. Heck, in the US, you could be in just one state for days. I look forward to your Venice trip report with great anticipation.

 

[jarudinski]

Julie - have you done the ebooks? I'm a former scrapaholic who's attempt at recovery turned into a brand new decline into clipart and graphics and photos photos photos photos and more photos. I like that it's scrapbooking, but you LOOK like your doing something far more important because there's a computer involved... ...we just scared all the men from this thread. lol

I have never done any ebooks, Maybe I am thinking of something different but I thought most of those were for text and not pictures. I do use some digital scrapbooking though (stamps, text, patterns, etc)

Julie was it you who said ou had a 10 year old daughter? Elysse turns ten next week, so nice to hear that there are others her age out there. Cheers Tanya

My daughter will be 10 at the time of this cruise. She is actually 8 right now, she will turn 9 in May, then 10 the next year shortly before the cruise.

Julie

 

[poohmomof5]

I have never done any ebooks, Maybe I am thinking of something different but I thought most of those were for text and not pictures. I do use some digital scrapbooking though (stamps, text, patterns, etc)



My daughter will be 10 at the time of this cruise. She is actually 8 right now, she will turn 9 in May, then 10 the next year shortly before the cruise.

Julie

My daughter is 8 now as well, she will turn 10 about 6 weeks AFTER we come back from the cruise.

 

[SailingSeas]

I have never done any ebooks, Maybe I am thinking of something different but I thought most of those were for text and not pictures. I do use some digital scrapbooking though (stamps, text, patterns, etc)

You're right Julie, that's what i mean, I was just having a skullcramp moment.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

LOL you are right - the easiest part WAS booking the cruise - all i had to do was scream "LET ME ON, I'VE GOT PLASTIC and i KNOW HOW TO USE IT!" and DCL was quite accomodating...

That is a perfect description of the DCL booking activity.

 

[poohmomof5]

I was just thinking, we should all be smart enought to note the excursion times for the ports that DCL is going to this summer...that way we can kind of have an idea for next year!

I will try to keep up...

 

[keenercam]

I am really looking forward to hearing the experiences of this summer's cruisers. I want to hear about excursions, tour guides, hotels in Venice, and hotels in Barcelona. Though I should note that we loved both of the hotels we stayed at in Barcelona in 2011.

Also, if I am planning a boarding eve dinner for our DIS group here in Venice, I want to hear about restaurants there as well. I've been reading tripadvisor for restaurant reviews, but can't look too closely until I get some idea of how large a group we'll have. In Barcelona the night before boarding, our DIS group dinner that I planned was for 42 people. If our group gets that large for this trip/dinner, we'll probably be limited in the restaurant choices.

 

[poohmomof5]

I am really looking forward to hearing the experiences of this summer's cruisers. I want to hear about excursions, tour guides, hotels in Venice, and hotels in Barcelona. Though I should note that we loved both of the hotels we stayed at in Barcelona in 2011.

Also, if I am planning a boarding eve dinner for our DIS group here in Venice, I want to hear about restaurants there as well. I've been reading tripadvisor for restaurant reviews, but can't look too closely until I get some idea of how large a group we'll have. In Barcelona the night before boarding, our DIS group dinner that I planned was for 42 people. If our group gets that large for this trip/dinner, we'll probably be limited in the restaurant choices.

Good point! This will be tons of fun!

 

[denise]

I might be the last one to know this but Marriott Reward Points doesn't have a relationship with American Airlines anymore.

When we did the Med in '07 we didn't have enough airline miles for the whole trip so we turned Marriott points into a 7 night stay in Athens and enough miles for the three of us to fly from SF to Greece and then Greece to Barcelona for the cruise and then Barcelona home. It was perfect and so easy to do...

Was looking at Marriott's site last night because I think our daughter doesn't have enough miles...and no American Airlines listed. Did some research and guess it happened at least last year....

Plan B now for airlines....

 

[TammyAlphabet]

For air, I have no FF point except Southwest, which doesn't help me with the overseas trip. I am going to check on fares but try not to book until around 3 to 4 months out. On other trips, I have found that i when the prices are the best.