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

[meb51]

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]

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]

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.

 

[sandiedvc]

Hey there! This is totally off topic and probably yesterdays news, but if anyone likes charms...


Pandora has a series of silver pendants: one for Rome (colosseum) and Barcelona (Sagrada Familia). They also have London (Big Ben) and Paris (Eiffel Tower).

I think they run about $45 each.....

http://www.jared.com/product1|10451|10001|-1|801781802|19064|

 

[sandiedvc]

And back on topic....


I think I posted that we booked the After Hours party at St Marks and that I was concerned about how that was going to really make the day difficult to plan,..

Well I was wrong!

Our excursion leaves the ship at 6:15p.

We are planning to get off the boat as soon as possible and get to the People Mover to go to Piazzale Roma. Allowing 20 min.

From there we are going to walk about 1/2 mile (google maps says 9 min, I am allowing 20 min) to see the Scuola Grande di San Rocco and also the Frari Church which is right next door. Rick Steves says to allow 1 hr for each viewing.

We hope to be able to see both places, but if time is running short or we get caught up in taking pictures or get sidetracked some other way, we can always save one for the next day.

I think if we leave the area by 4:15, we can be back on the boat with enough time to grab some chicken strips before heading out for the evening! I am really excited about this! (Not the chicken strips, although they are very good) I was surprised it was only 1/2 mile to the Frari area. It is supposed to be a really neat neighborhood.

We are going to stay on our own after the excursion in the St Peters Square area and wander around. I just have to research our options for getting back to the boat late in the evening.

I was just looking at the Alilaguna Blu line and if I am not reading the timetable wrong, it looks as though the last boat to leave St Marks to stop at the cruise terminal leaves at 4:42 in the afternoon. So I guess the easy one is out!

I'll have to check into the vaporetto schedule later...

Now, what to do the following day!

 

[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.

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

I bought the neck wallets for our Baltic cruise and they were great. Very light weight and comfortable. I just make sure the shirt I wear is loose enough to fit over the wallet.

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!

Sounds like fun
My kids love to beat us too

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

I saw that too because I was wondering if the books could be purchased cheaper from another source. Do you know how much savevenice charges for shipping?

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.

Yes, very nice sister
We are trying to figure out the best thing to do for our dog
DH doesn't feel comfortable with having someone stay in our house and our dog didn't eat for 3 days when we took her to his Mom's house for Thanksgiving. There is someone we usually pay to leave her with, but it gets expensive for these long trips.
Most family live a distance away, and not easy to get them to take 2 weeks off to come to our place and watch our dog

Hey there! This is totally off topic and probably yesterdays news, but if anyone likes charms...


Pandora has a series of silver pendants: one for Rome (colosseum) and Barcelona (Sagrada Familia). They also have London (Big Ben) and Paris (Eiffel Tower).

I think they run about $45 each.....

http://www.jared.com/product1|10451|10001|-1|801781802|19064|

nope, that is on topic for me
I keep meaning to get one of these bracelets...
Maybe just the charms for this cruise..

And back on topic....


I think I posted that we booked the After Hours party at St Marks and that I was concerned about how that was going to really make the day difficult to plan,..

Well I was wrong!

Our excursion leaves the ship at 6:15p.

We are planning to get off the boat as soon as possible and get to the People Mover to go to Piazzale Roma. Allowing 20 min.

From there we are going to walk about 1/2 mile (google maps says 9 min, I am allowing 20 min) to see the Scuola Grande di San Rocco and also the Frari Church which is right next door. Rick Steves says to allow 1 hr for each viewing.

We hope to be able to see both places, but if time is running short or we get caught up in taking pictures or get sidetracked some other way, we can always save one for the next day.

I think if we leave the area by 4:15, we can be back on the boat with enough time to grab some chicken strips before heading out for the evening! I am really excited about this! (Not the chicken strips, although they are very good) I was surprised it was only 1/2 mile to the Frari area. It is supposed to be a really neat neighborhood.

We are going to stay on our own after the excursion in the St Peters Square area and wander around. I just have to research our options for getting back to the boat late in the evening.

I was just looking at the Alilaguna Blu line and if I am not reading the timetable wrong, it looks as though the last boat to leave St Marks to stop at the cruise terminal leaves at 4:42 in the afternoon. So I guess the easy one is out!

I'll have to check into the vaporetto schedule later...

Now, what to do the following day!

I have put off familiarizing myself with the transportation details on Venice
I guess I just assumed we would be using the vaporetta for the most part

I think it was Cindy that posted the video of the vaporetta ride of the Grand Canal on Facebook. Very cool video!!
Plus if you will be going back and forth it would be worth getting a 12 hour or 24 hour vaporetta ticket I think

 

[poohmomof5]

I saw that too because I was wondering if the books could be purchased cheaper from another source. Do you know how much savevenice charges for shipping?

They don't make it really easy to order, you have to call, so I didn't get that far into it. It is only $5 more to purchase on the ship, but I would like to have it ahead of time if possible to be able check it out and figure out what admissions we need to purchase etc. Especially if I let the kids go on their own (reminder, they aren't young...15, 18, 19 and 21 and very well traveled). I was talking to my 15 year old about it last night and she was like..."you don't really think we would actually do the stuff, do you? We'll just wander around get lost and have a blast, or kill each other"...lol!

 

[MrsScooby]

They don't make it really easy to order, you have to call, so I didn't get that far into it. It is only $5 more to purchase on the ship, but I would like to have it ahead of time if possible to be able check it out and figure out what admissions we need to purchase etc. Especially if I let the kids go on their own (reminder, they aren't young...15, 18, 19 and 21 and very well traveled). I was talking to my 15 year old about it last night and she was like..."you don't really think we would actually do the stuff, do you? We'll just wander around get lost and have a blast, or kill each other"...lol!

Too funny! Sounds like my kids.

Yeah I figured you meant the older ones
After chaperoning my kids' field trips I have come to the realization that even in the same age range teens vary in maturity level a great deal. Some have no problem using their common sense and some do...
Had a group of teen girls in NYC and I'm still not sure who was taking care of who

I have our 2nd day in Venice pretty much planned out with the Doges secret itinerary tour, then lunch and then the clock tower tour and then back to the ship.
The first Venice day is for wandering around, a gondola ride and some shopping

 

[poohmomof5]

Too funny! Sounds like my kids.

Yeah I figured you meant the older ones
After chaperoning my kids' field trips I have come to the realization that even in the same age range teens vary in maturity level a great deal. Some have no problem using their common sense and some do...
Had a group of teen girls in NYC and I'm still not sure who was taking care of who

I have our 2nd day in Venice pretty much planned out with the Doges secret itinerary tour, then lunch and then the clock tower tour and then back to the ship.
The first Venice day is for wandering around, a gondola ride and some shopping

Sounds pretty much like a PERFECT visit! Our time will look pretty much the same.

 

[pacurn]

Glad I'm not the only one with a dog dilema. We are looking at one of my son's friends housesitting for us and then having someone else come in during the day to walk them while he is at work. I have put DH in charge of this as he as no opinion on ANYTHING trip related. After 30+ years of marriage his response is "tell me when we are going and how many night of clothes to lay out for you to pack"

I haven't given any thought on how we are getting to and from Dulles airport. DC traffic is a nightmare at the best of times and for an 8pm flight it is going to mean braving rush hour.

 

[MrsScooby]

Sounds pretty much like a PERFECT visit! Our time will look pretty much the same.

Venice was the reason we jumped on this trip. Been dreaming about visiting Venice for so long

Glad I'm not the only one with a dog dilema. We are looking at one of my son's friends housesitting for us and then having someone else come in during the day to walk them while he is at work. I have put DH in charge of this as he as no opinion on ANYTHING trip related. After 30+ years of marriage his response is "tell me when we are going and how many night of clothes to lay out for you to pack"

I haven't given any thought on how we are getting to and from Dulles airport. DC traffic is a nightmare at the best of times and for an 8pm flight it is going to mean braving rush hour.

See I have to watch what my DH is packing...one of our first pics on our honeymoon he is wearing his Ren and Stimpy shirt

Luckily we are only a few miles from Dulles so it is a quick cab ride there. When are you flying out? We are on the red eye for the 24th.

 

[poohmomof5]

Hi all,

Got all sorts of travel books the last few days. Most of them are for my kids, but I am still excited to browse through them. I Got the Top 10 series books for most of our stops. I figure they are nice little books to carry around town with us with a little info about each place. I had the ones for the stops the boys are in charge of delivered to them at each of their college campus rooms. I put a nice note saying "bring this home with you", but I'm thinking the chances of me ever seeing those books are slim to none...



My 8 year old is getting into planning. I showed her all sorts of stuff about Pompeii and she has asked me non-stop questions about when it will explode again, where are the people that died etc. It is truly fascinating to read about. She is being very factual about it and not freaking out by the deaths. Then I talked to her a little about Mt. St. Helens rupturing when I was a kid. She asked all sorts of questions so we found some videos etc on Youtube. Its been very educational for me as well!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Some of the folks on the Greece cruise are talking about going to the Magic Fountain in Barcelona. I didn't know what it was so I looked it up. Here's the link for those like me who didn't know what it was. We may have to figure that into our time in BCN - probably at the end of the trip rather than the beginning. If we do, if there's anyone else staying over after the cruise for a night in BCN that wants to join us, we'd be glad to do that. We can work out arrangements later.

 

[carpenta]

Hi all,

Got all sorts of travel books the last few days. Most of them are for my kids, but I am still excited to browse through them. I Got the Top 10 series books for most of our stops. I figure they are nice little books to carry around town with us with a little info about each place. I had the ones for the stops the boys are in charge of delivered to them at each of their college campus rooms. I put a nice note saying "bring this home with you", but I'm thinking the chances of me ever seeing those books are slim to none...



My 8 year old is getting into planning. I showed her all sorts of stuff about Pompeii and she has asked me non-stop questions about when it will explode again, where are the people that died etc. It is truly fascinating to read about. She is being very factual about it and not freaking out by the deaths. Then I talked to her a little about Mt. St. Helens rupturing when I was a kid. She asked all sorts of questions so we found some videos etc on Youtube. Its been very educational for me as well!

On the first year of DCL Med. cruise (2007) Disney gave all the kids a "leather" encased book which had history of each port visited. The night before we docked there arrived a few pages on the history and things you should look for when you visit as well as games to play in reference to that port. At the end of the cruise when you collected all the pages you took the binder to the kids' club and they affixed a seal on the front. It was a really nice gift for the kids both educational as well as fun. My daughter still has it on her shelf today. In 2010 no such book. Cut backs I guess.

 

[gydell]

Some of the folks on the Greece cruise are talking about going to the Magic Fountain in Barcelona. I didn't know what it was so I looked it up. Here's the link for those like me who didn't know what it was. We may have to figure that into our time in BCN - probably at the end of the trip rather than the beginning. If we do, if there's anyone else staying over after the cruise for a night in BCN that wants to join us, we'd be glad to do that. We can work out arrangements later.

We will be there. We meant to see the fountains last time, but we were too tired one night and the other night it rained.

 

[gydell]

Is there a cut off date for the FE? Don' want to carry any thing I don't need.

 

[nzdisneymom]

We will be there. We meant to see the fountains last time, but we were too tired one night and the other night it rained.

Well shoot - I just looked and here are the days / times:

Operating hours from 30th April to 30th September:
Thursday to Sunday, 9pm – 11:30pm
Musical displays: 9pm, 9:30pm, 10pm, 10:30pm and 11pm

Which means we won't be able to see it post-cruise because we'll be there Tuesday night. Bummer.

 

[JLSE50]

.......

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.

What am I doing wrong? I cannot find anything like that book.

Jan
.