Who's in for GREECE and TURKEY, June 15 2003????

[DL1957]

Finally have seats on a plane going to Barcelona AND getting home!!! We have been in frequent flyer h---! Actually have flights to Paris - would have to do Paris to Barcelona on our own (only $600 for 4). So worst case scenario is about $1200 for the four of us instead of cheapest $5000+ from Portland, OR. Still hoping for paris to Barcelona to open up - keeping fingers crossed! Will continue to research accomodations for a little longer.

Wishing everyone luck with their flights!

Marni

Sounds good and wishing you pixie dust for the last leg. I am happy that we now have our resevations now I just need to call DCL with the flight info for our DCL transfers and we are done except for the shore excursions. I am figuring they wont be out until Jan. any one else have a thought on that? Sue

 

[pxlbarrel]

Well, apparently the DCL hotel rooms for Barcelona are all full up. If you want DCL to book you a room, you're on a waiting list. Hmmm... oh well, it'll probably be cheaper to book it myself at this point anyway.

 

[tajz90]

Well, apparently the DCL hotel rooms for Barcelona are all full up. If you want DCL to book you a room, you're on a waiting list. Hmmm... oh well, it'll probably be cheaper to book it myself at this point anyway.

I called a couple of weeks ago and had them hold one. So far, I can't get The Renaissance cheaper, but there are others to be had that aren't bad.

 

[Tired mom of 3 boys]

Was able to find a flight out of Dulles for $1286 that could align with two frequent flier tickets. We also made reservations for Hispanos 7 Suiza for an apartment that could accomodate the 5 of us. Looking forward to meeting everyone! MinnieDiva - noticed that you're in Oak Harbor - we spent 8 years there prior to our move to Maryland. (I actually still telecommute to my job in O.H. as well...)

 

[DL1957]

Was able to find a flight out of Dulles for $1286 that could align with two frequent flier tickets. We also made reservations for Hispanos 7 Suiza for an apartment that could accomodate the 5 of us. Looking forward to meeting everyone! MinnieDiva - noticed that you're in Oak Harbor - we spent 8 years there prior to our move to Maryland. (I actually still telecommute to my job in O.H. as well...)

Part of our group is flying out of Dulles. Which airline and how many stops is your $1286 flight?

 

[Tired mom of 3 boys]

We leave out of Dulles on 6/12 on Lufthansa through Frankfurt. Have 4 hr layover there, but were able to fly together. (Was scrambling between FF accounts and Lufthansa and almost stranded my DS in Frankfurt for 2 hours without the family.....had to do some flight changes)

 

[MinnieDiva]

MinnieDiva - noticed that you're in Oak Harbor - we spent 8 years there prior to our move to Maryland. (I actually still telecommute to my job in O.H. as well...)

Small world! We moved here 4 years ago...husband works on base but is civilian. When did you move away?

 

[Tired mom of 3 boys]

We left in October 2005 - I come back for a week every year in Feb/Mar to work "in house" for tax season and do the rest from here. We'll have to stay in touch as the cruise gets closer and I know my dates for the 2013 trip. Am also an obsessive planner - have my binder going now....

 

[DL1957]

We leave out of Dulles on 6/12 on Lufthansa through Frankfurt. Have 4 hr layover there, but were able to fly together. (Was scrambling between FF accounts and Lufthansa and almost stranded my DS in Frankfurt for 2 hours without the family.....had to do some flight changes)

Thank you for the information I sent it on to them.

 

[gotomu212]

Hi All. I'm sorry to say that we'll be jumping ship (pun intended) and won't be joining everyone next summer. We moved over to NCL. We were doing B2B with the Venice and with NCL we could do a Greek and W Med from Venice for half the price of DCL and upgraded into a balcony and the ports are a little better fit for our B2B needs.

Happy sailing to everyone, and if you see NCL in the same port I hope the Capt will blow the Mickey horn so we'll have a taste of Disney!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Hi All. I'm sorry to say that we'll be jumping ship (pun intended) and won't be joining everyone next summer. We moved over to NCL. We were doing B2B with the Venice and with NCL we could do a Greek and W Med from Venice for half the price of DCL and upgraded into a balcony and the ports are a little better fit for our B2B needs.

Happy sailing to everyone, and if you see NCL in the same port I hope the Capt will blow the Mickey horn so we'll have a taste of Disney!

Sorry to see you go, but certainly understand! We are using DVC points for this half of our B2B.

Regarding airfare, on Monday morning our flights were $1,444 (ATL to BCN on Delta, nonstop, redeye). Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday, they were $1,464. This morning and this afternoon, $1,426. I told DH that if it ever hits $1,400 or under, we're buying at that very moment! If we were returning a day sooner, it would be $1,406 so I'd like to see it drop to that or less before we pull the trigger and buy air on our own.

DCL wants $1,818. If we go on our own but still want to do DCL transfers, that's $90/each. Plus additional insurance for the separate purchase of the flights is about $50/ticket (depending on which company and amount of coverage we get). So $1,818 - $90 - $50 = $1,678. So at $1,446, that's $252 per ticket savings times 4 people = $1,008 savings. Yep, definitely worth doing on our own! That covers our pre-cruise DCL hotel stay and should cover most of our expenses for being in BCN for those two nights ahead of time. Or we could say it covers our tips for the two cruises (almost).

 

[tajz90]

Hi All. I'm sorry to say that we'll be jumping ship (pun intended) and won't be joining everyone next summer. We moved over to NCL. We were doing B2B with the Venice and with NCL we could do a Greek and W Med from Venice for half the price of DCL and upgraded into a balcony and the ports are a little better fit for our B2B needs.

Happy sailing to everyone, and if you see NCL in the same port I hope the Capt will blow the Mickey horn so we'll have a taste of Disney!

Oh wow.... So you will be sailing back to back for 20+ days???

 

[DL1957]

Sorry to see you go, but certainly understand! We are using DVC points for this half of our B2B.

Regarding airfare, on Monday morning our flights were $1,444 (ATL to BCN on Delta, nonstop, redeye). Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday, they were $1,464. This morning and this afternoon, $1,426. I told DH that if it ever hits $1,400 or under, we're buying at that very moment! If we were returning a day sooner, it would be $1,406 so I'd like to see it drop to that or less before we pull the trigger and buy air on our own.

DCL wants $1,818. If we go on our own but still want to do DCL transfers, that's $90/each. Plus additional insurance for the separate purchase of the flights is about $50/ticket (depending on which company and amount of coverage we get). So $1,818 - $90 - $50 = $1,678. So at $1,446, that's $252 per ticket savings times 4 people = $1,008 savings. Yep, definitely worth doing on our own! That covers our pre-cruise DCL hotel stay and should cover most of our expenses for being in BCN for those two nights ahead of time. Or we could say it covers our tips for the two cruises (almost).

Sorry to see gotme leaving.... Like you folks we are using DVC points. Some folks dont agree with us using our points for cruises. It works for us especially the cash flow issue! Of our soon to be 10 cruises we have only paid for 3 of them the rest we have used our DVC points.

 

[MinnieDiva]

We left in October 2005 - I come back for a week every year in Feb/Mar to work "in house" for tax season and do the rest from here. We'll have to stay in touch as the cruise gets closer and I know my dates for the 2013 trip. Am also an obsessive planner - have my binder going now....

Let me know! Would love to meet in person! In the last 6 months, the old ford dealer was torn down, we got s donut shop, 2 frozen yogurt shops, and a bakery....

 

[tinkagain]

I don't think so.
I'm just curious about how a facebook page is helpful compared to the meet thread here on DIS? I know more and more meet groups are going to facebook in addition, but I've never understood how it's helpful besides being able to see faces and that people tend to work on their handhelds vs computers (although the DIS's app for iPad/iPod is really easy to use...not sure if there is an android version, anyone know?).

The reason I like the facebook page is that it was a closed group so everyone did not see your posts as I do not like to broadcast when I am away and it seemed easier to follow the posts.

 

[tinkagain]

re: the high taxes

British Airways, Iberia, and I'm sure some others pass one of the fuel taxes on transatlantic flights directly onto the consumer specifically on award tickets. For me to use my miles to fly on either of those airlines is ~$300-400 per person, each way, along with the massive amount of frequent flier miles.

On the contrary, if I fly on American, I pay $5 per person, each way with the same amount of frequent flier miles. No brainer there... But harder to find availability. Right now we have one ticket DCA-JFK-BCN and one DCA-MIA-BCN, and unknown whether we'll be able to get them together.

I was looking at American also from LAX but it was going to cost us $600 per person if used 60K miles or $300 per person for 90K miles or $10 if using 110K miles. Boy I had no idea the fees would be so much!

 

[Lyrah]

Hi All! We'll be joining you on this cruise! We're Jeff, Charyl Lee, DD Paige 18, and DD Jade 15.

Since we're going on the Fantasy in Nov and that cruise is quite costly due to having 3 verandah staterooms, we had to get in on this cruise with a 11B GTY. My reasoning is that I would rather be in an inside stateroom than not go at all I was wondering if I could get some reassurance from fellow cruisers who have stayed in inside staterooms before, that I have made the right choice. We usually are only in our rooms to shower and sleep, but we really enjoy having our morning coffee, the view, and late night quiet time on the verandah.

I'm hoping that on the Nov cruise that I'll be able to rebook a different room and get the discount and stateroom credit, but it looks as though there aren't many rooms left.

Thanks for the help, and we look forward to cruising with you.

 

[DL1957]

Hi All! We'll be joining you on this cruise! We're Jeff, Charyl Lee, DD Paige 18, and DD Jade 15.

Since we're going on the Fantasy in Nov and that cruise is quite costly due to having 3 verandah staterooms, we had to get in on this cruise with a 11B GTY. My reasoning is that I would rather be in an inside stateroom than not go at all I was wondering if I could get some reassurance from fellow cruisers who have stayed in inside staterooms before, that I have made the right choice. We usually are only in our rooms to shower and sleep, but we really enjoy having our morning coffee, the view, and late night quiet time on the verandah.

I'm hoping that on the Nov cruise that I'll be able to rebook a different room and get the discount and stateroom credit, but it looks as though there aren't many rooms left.

Thanks for the help, and we look forward to cruising with you.

BFF is going on this cruise with us and her first time without a veranda for exactly the same reason. She has done some research and has found the actual room not to be much smaller that the 5c that she usually books. She did not want to be on deck 2 and was able to book deck 5 right across from us. You will be fine. Welcome to the group! Sue

 

[tajz90]

Hi All! We'll be joining you on this cruise! We're Jeff, Charyl Lee, DD Paige 18, and DD Jade 15.

Since we're going on the Fantasy in Nov and that cruise is quite costly due to having 3 verandah staterooms, we had to get in on this cruise with a 11B GTY. My reasoning is that I would rather be in an inside stateroom than not go at all I was wondering if I could get some reassurance from fellow cruisers who have stayed in inside staterooms before, that I have made the right choice. We usually are only in our rooms to shower and sleep, but we really enjoy having our morning coffee, the view, and late night quiet time on the verandah.

I'm hoping that on the Nov cruise that I'll be able to rebook a different room and get the discount and stateroom credit, but it looks as though there aren't many rooms left.

Thanks for the help, and we look forward to cruising with you.

Our first Med Cruise was in an inside cabin and we always say its our favorite cruise. You'll be ok. You won't want to stay in your room anyway.

Have fun!

 

[rossjen2]

The reason I like the facebook page is that it was a closed group so everyone did not see your posts as I do not like to broadcast when I am away and it seemed easier to follow the posts.

That was kind of what I was thinking too... but it sounds like folks aren't really fans.. I was just thinking it would be a way to help keep info organized or easier to sort through than the, already 50+ pages, pages here.

Hi All! We'll be joining you on this cruise! We're Jeff, Charyl Lee, DD Paige 18, and DD Jade 15.

Since we're going on the Fantasy in Nov and that cruise is quite costly due to having 3 verandah staterooms, we had to get in on this cruise with a 11B GTY. My reasoning is that I would rather be in an inside stateroom than not go at all I was wondering if I could get some reassurance from fellow cruisers who have stayed in inside staterooms before, that I have made the right choice. We usually are only in our rooms to shower and sleep, but we really enjoy having our morning coffee, the view, and late night quiet time on the verandah.

I'm hoping that on the Nov cruise that I'll be able to rebook a different room and get the discount and stateroom credit, but it looks as though there aren't many rooms left.

Thanks for the help, and we look forward to cruising with you.

I had my heart set on a verandah room as well but just couldn't justify the cost difference....and had the same thought as you -- I would rather be on the cruise than sitting at home! I know the chances are slim, but I keep hoping for upgrade opportunities!