7/18/10 Mickey's Baltic Ballyhoo Part 6

[Madisonznana]

Our head waiter, Yolande, said they definitely were going back to the Baltics. This year was a test to see how it would go and then it takes two years in advance to make reservations to come to these ports. She said Disney was happy with the test.

 

[ladyvet]

We got back Saturday, and we're still digging through the laundry and the bags. Just a few thoughts:

1) A big thanks to Paul and Celestine for the organized travel. We met lots of great DISboard people, and they took some of the travel stress away. THANK YOU!

2) We enjoyed meeting many of you at the DISmeet in Sessions. We are a resourceful group since our first (and second) choices were occupied

3) My favorite port was Estonia. We did the concert and lunch, and I enjoyed every minute of it-- even in the heat!

4) Europe is a hot place. They should invest in air conditioning (or more Ice Bars!!)

5) Security women at London airports are thorough. I think I might be engaged to a couple of them

6) Our servers were Chantal and Leslie. They were wonderful. My daughter couldn't take her eyes off Mario, our head server.

Hope everyone has had a safe journey home.
Beth

 

[Celestine]

It was good to meet so many of you & pleased that many of you appear to have arrived home safely. Our kitten arrived saturday & tonight was renamed Perry (as in platypus from Phineus & Ferb).

Favourite port was Stockholm & then Tallinn - both DIY tours and in both cases were excellent. Favourite menu was the Russian Tzars which sort of surprised us. Server & Head server were excellent, assistant not so. It reached a point where I had words with the head server as kids had eaten, food orders placed & still no drink orders taken! Next day service improved (head server was like a hawk) & then he went off sick - coincidence?

Rebooked for the med next year, but may move that as we are already committed to Orlando with family & not sure I can stretch to pay for both & be able to enjoy then without continually counting the pennies, so may just shift the cruise to 2012 - can decide September/October when the new schedules are released.

Celestine

 

[Hanover]

We got back home late Saturday night. We had a fantastic cruise and already miss DCL. Fortunately we have more cruises planned! I got the DCL survey asking about different itineraries and I'm hoping for Bermuda, the Med with Greece/Turkey and the rumored cruises to the Far East.

It was really great meeting the Dis members that we were able to meet up with through out the cruise.

Here are the 2 photos that were taken with my camera at the Dismeet:

 

[MrsG]

Thanks so much for the pics!!!!!

And ditto a BIG THANK YOU to Celestine and Paul who made our travel to and from port not only stressless, but a fun time for all!!!!!

We also enjoyed meeting all of you. It's great to have faces to go with names. We still have not stopped talking about what a great time we had.

 

[Madisonznana]

The pictures turned out great, thanks for posting them!!

 

[Meg'n'walt]

Very nice pictures !
Thanks for posting.
It was nice meeting you all !

 

[CastawayClubCruisers]

Arrived home last night, really glad we finished the trip off with Disneyland Paris...it was great to have a couple extra days before heading home on the 8 hour flight.

I think Tallin and Coppenhaggen were my favorite ports. We really enjoyed walking around Old town and I found it interesting seeing Walt's inspiration in Tivoli.

Thank you to everyone for the FE gifts...my kids loved checking for "mail" everyday. I am disappointed that we were able to make it to the meet. Was nice to see the kids at the kids meet on the first day though.

Thank you again to everyone who had the great Europe info before the cruise as well.

Jen

 

[Meg'n'walt]

Arrived home last night, really glad we finished the trip off with Disneyland Paris...it was great to have a couple extra days before heading home on the 8 hour flight.

I think Tallin and Coppenhaggen were my favorite ports. We really enjoyed walking around Old town and I found it interesting seeing Walt's inspiration in Tivoli.

Thank you to everyone for the FE gifts...my kids loved checking for "mail" everyday. I am disappointed that we were able to make it to the meet. Was nice to see the kids at the kids meet on the first day though.

Thank you again to everyone who had the great Europe info before the cruise as well.

Jen

Thank a lot fror the nice gifts too !
What did you think of Disneyland Paris ? Did you like it and did you guys stayed in a disneyhotel ??
It s just that we go there at least one or twice a year so it nice to hear someones opinion !

 

[CastawayClubCruisers]

Thank a lot fror the nice gifts too !
What did you think of Disneyland Paris ? Did you like it and did you guys stayed in a disneyhotel ??
It s just that we go there at least one or twice a year so it nice to hear someones opinion !

You're quite welcome, we had fun doing it.

We did stay there. I didn't like that we had to pay 40% more because we weren't European citizens...I didn't think that was fair. We thought that it was qiute similar to Disney World (only smaller and longer lines than we are used to because of the time of year we often go to Disney World).

 

[flower91882]

We booked the may 28th med cruise for next yr while on board. I asked and apparentlyna lot of people booked a med cruise for next yr.

We booked this one too. At 20% off it's a tremendous deal.
I think the flights are going to be killer though.

 

[mca]

Arrived home last night, really glad we finished the trip off with Disneyland Paris...it was great to have a couple extra days before heading home on the 8 hour flight.

I think Tallin and Coppenhaggen were my favorite ports. We really enjoyed walking around Old town and I found it interesting seeing Walt's inspiration in Tivoli.

Thank you to everyone for the FE gifts...my kids loved checking for "mail" everyday. I am disappointed that we were able to make it to the meet. Was nice to see the kids at the kids meet on the first day though.

Thank you again to everyone who had the great Europe info before the cruise as well.

Jen

Glad you got home ok, we got in last night,

It was a pleasure meeting you guys and running into you everywhere including Disneyland.

 

[ladyvet]

Thanks for posting the pictures. I think we all look fabulous! Going back to work has been a challenge. I really want a nap, a Manhattan, and one of those cool desserts with three different choices on the same plate!!

Can't wait for the next one......

 

[MrsScooby]

Driving the kids around today plus working at home plus laundry...I'm taking a break right now to say HI to everyone

Really amazing trip..loved meeting you all

Favorite ports were Berlin, Copenhagen and Stockholm. A little disappointed with St Petersburg-the buildings were amazing but didn't get the warm feeling I got from the people in the other ports

Kids loved the segways! That was the highlight of the trip for them. Still need to organize pics as we have 2 cameras worth

 

[Toocoolmom]

Glad to see everyone has made it home. We got home on Saturday and now Aiden and I both have a cold. Yuck!! Although I am happy we were all healthy for the entire month.

We all had a great time and our entire group of 12 have rebooked for the July 11 day Med trip. We are all excited and ready to start planning.

I think Stockholm and Tallinn were my favorites. I think Disney did a great job although Russia needs to figure out the tourism industry a little more. Had great excursions minus Peterhof. We just got rushed through part of the fountains and then waited for the boat for 45 minutes.

Sorry I didn't get to meet everyone but, I did recognize a few. Thanks to everyone for all the great information and support a head of time. It sure was fun!!!

 

[jilljill]

Just getting caught up on here.


Arrived home on Sunday after an extra night in London compliments of USAir. We volunteered to be bumped from our flight on Saturday and they put us up at the Sofitel Hotel in Heathrow, gave us meal vouchers and then put us on a flight to Oslo Sunday morning and then in business class from Oslo to Philly Sunday afternoon.
Unfortunately when we arrived in Oslo it was grey again, but I can now say that the sun does shine in Oslo, since it finally came out a few minutes before we boarded the flight. If the flight had left on time we wouldn't have seen the sun shine there.


It was great meeting those of you that we did, and sorry we didn't get to meet more of you.
Thanks again to Paul and Celestine for organizing the buses, they were well organized and we loved the convience of the transfers.

We were sorry the day was cut short in Stockholm, we really want to go back there and see more of the city and all it has to offer.

We went into Harrod's the day we disembarked and saw several families from the cruise there. A couple of them we talked to since we had talked to them on the ship. It was very strange being in a store that large and 'knowing' people.
We also rode the tube into London with a Ballyhoo'ers sister, she lives in Rhode Island.

Back to reality and planning for next year's cruises.

 

[MrsG]

Driving the kids around today plus working at home plus laundry...I'm taking a break right now to say HI to everyone

Really amazing trip..loved meeting you all

Favorite ports were Berlin, Copenhagen and Stockholm. A little disappointed with St Petersburg-the buildings were amazing but didn't get the warm feeling I got from the people in the other ports

Kids loved the segways! That was the highlight of the trip for them. Still need to organize pics as we have 2 cameras worth

That's exactly what I am doing now, organizing pics! I bought a DCL scrapbook while on board and went to the store today for extra pages and little decorations. I've never done scrapbooking before, so $70 later I hope it works out all right (it better for that amount!)

 

[MrsG]

And thanks again, Barb, for organizing the brunch. It was a highlight of the trip!

 

[jilljill]

And thanks again, Barb, for organizing the brunch. It was a highlight of the trip!

You are most welcome. It was fun, even if Francois was not the best waiter to have for a large party. Unfortunately we also had him for dinner with a party of 8 and he wasn't much better.

 

[smilis]

Just wanted to chime in and say what a great time we had. Gary and I really enjoyed meeting and talking with so many of you. It was great to have folks to chat with who we kind of "knew" because of the boards. Kudos to Paul and Celestine for the great work on bus transfers.

Our favorite ports were St. Petersburg and Warnemunde. We had a great private guide in SPB who really made our time there special. We did the Molli train excursion in Warnemunde which was fun but then we just spent the rest of the afternoon walking around town on our own. Tallinn was okay but because we started our walking tour off in the wrong direction to begin with and the fact that there were so few public toilets it became a very frustrating day for me and thus dampened my enthusiam that I wanted to have

Great pics of our group at the dis meet. Thanks for posting. I want to start working on our pics and photo albums this next week. We had fun in London on debarkation day. Went to Spitafields Market and Covent Gardens, ate dinner at a pub. Our flight home went smoothly and was able to stay awake once home long enough to get a few loads of laundry done.

Thanks again for making it such a great cruise! Hope we sail with you all again in the future. We haven't booked anything else on DCL yet but we're hoping to do the DVC member cruise on the Dream in 2011. Will have to wait a couple of months to find out more details on that.

For now......