08/08/07 Well, Olbia Monkey's Uncle! We're cruisin' on the 10nt Med Cruise!

[nordkin]

We made it home late last night and thankfully we received all of our luggage on both parts of the journey.

Thank you to all the DISers on this cruise. The meet was wonderful, the gifts were great and very original, and interacting with all of you during the cruise was the best.

I will post my thoughts about the cruise later. There are both positive and negative thoughts and I will be specific.

I hope everyone makes it home safely.

Donna

 

[UMTerp]

Hello everyone!

We got home late Saturday night as well. Flight delays made for a very long day but we got home with all luggage!

Hope everyone else has a safe trip home!

What a trip this was! For the most part things were good for us. Had a bad experience with the hydrofoil to Capri, problems with static on "whispers", etc. Most of our tours were good with good guides.

Lost two pieces of luggage when we arrived in Barcelona but luckily they were delivered to our apartment the next morning. So sorry to hear others were not so lucky! Sorry I didn't read the boards or we could have contributed some clothing to the efforts to help those who were missing luggage.

Was anyone else surprised at how casual everyone was for the excursions and at dinner? What a change from the Carribean cruises!

pclare and Gina - Thank you so much for the goodies!

If Austria's parents are reading this thread, please send me a PM with your e-mail address! My DD had such a great time with Austria at the pool and was looking for her on the last few days of the cruise and was sad to not find her. She would love to send her an e-mail! Thanks!

It was nice meeting everyone!

UMTerp

 

[Rat-a-too-ee]

Sorry I wasn't able to meet everyone on the first day. As a new DISer, I really wanted to go to meeting to introduce myself.

We were yet another couple affected by lost luggage. We arrived around 2 pm the day before the cruise, waited almost 3 hours for our luggage to arrive because that's what Ground Force (the company that handles the luggage issues for British Airways & others) told us to do. We finally gave up, gave Ground Force our itinerary hoping we would see the luggage again and Ended up taking a cabs to all of Gaudi's buildings and parks before the sunlight was completely gone.

We didn't see any of our luggage until around 8:45pm on 8/08 right before the ship left Barcelona! One of the bags was soaking wet when we got it because it was raining and they must have kept it outside in a holding area before it got to us.

Unfortunately, leaving Barcelona airport on 8/18 wasn't much better - the luggage conveyor belt broke and we are still missing one piece of luggage. They are going to have a delivery service deliver it to us when the find it sometime this week.

We had a great trip overall. We met some great new friends and really enjoyed our first trip to Europe. We were lucky to get amazing dinner mates. We had fantastic guides on 3/5 of our excursions, the other two were awful. Our favorite excursion was Aix En Provence.

Unfortunately, I was pickpocketed in Rome. We did Rome on our own, I was riding in a very packed subway, we had to standup and everyone was really crammed up against each other. I had my digitial camera in my cargo-type pocket in my pants that had 2 buttons securing it that were kind of difficult to un-do. I had my guard up 99.9% of the time, but somehow didn't notice the camera coming out of my pocket. I don't care about my camera at all, I just wish I could have my pictures back - those were really important!

Safe travels to those still coming home, I hope everyone had a wonderful time!!!

Dyan

 

[UMTerp]

Unfortunately, I was pickpocketed in Rome. We did Rome on our own, I was riding in a very packed subway, we had to standup and everyone was really crammed up against each other. I had my digitial camera in my cargo-type pocket in my pants that had 2 buttons securing it that were kind of difficult to un-do. I had my guard up 99.9% of the time, but somehow didn't notice the camera coming out of my pocket. I don't care about my camera at all, I just wish I could have my pictures back - those were really important!
Dyan

I'm so sorry to hear about your camera! If you post which excursions you were on perhaps some of us could send you some pictures of our excursions. I know it won't be the same but maybe better than nothing?

UMTerp

 

[corinnak]

We are home again, too. We made it back around midnight last night. That was a LONG day. We also had a great time on the ship and really appreciated all the fun gifts.

Luggage update - we lost another bag on the way home - a jammed belt at our home airport was the culpret and we were able to reclaim my suitcase this morning. Our duffel bag is still missing, but DH got the forms to file here and the man at the desk thought that there was still a fair chance we would get it back, given the unusual nature of its contents, apparently. I dont' know what is so weird about putting a bunch of jackets and a booster seat in a giant duffel bag, but there you go.

So sorry to hear about your loss, Dyan. Do let us know if there is anything we can do.

We had a similar ratio of fantastic tour guides to terrible tour guides. We thought that the tours through Trumpy Tours seemed to be of overall higher quality than the others that we went on in Italy, for what that was worth. The guide in Herculaneum was our least favorite of the trip. I think that the best thing we did, though, was our morning in Marsailles on our own. At the suggestion of Stephane, the head server in the dining room, DH and I ventured out to Chateau D'If, famous for being the setting of the book, The Count of Monte Cristo. Of course, we like that sort of thing.

How's the jet lag going for everyone? I just want to go to bed right now.

 

[Rat-a-too-ee]

So sorry to hear about your loss, Dyan. Do let us know if there is anything we can do.

Well if anyone has a few pictures of the following that they are willing to share, I would greatly appreciate it:

Sicily - Erice and Segesta
Naples - Amalfi Coast and Ruins of Pompei
Rome - Colloseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Vatican Museum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps

We thought that the tours through Trumpy Tours seemed to be of overall higher quality than the others that we went on in Italy, for what that was worth.

I totally agree! They were the hardest working, had great maps with emergency numbers ready for us and they even managed to bring chilled water and snack crackers! Plus, they had fantastic restrooms lined up for use in Florence, which from what I read was the hardest place to find a good restroom. I made sure to mention that on my feedback forms that I filled out on DCL.

How's the jet lag going for everyone? I just want to go to bed right now.

I took a homeopathic remedy called "No Jet Lag" both to Europe and back home. It worked great going to Europe. However, once back in America we really "crashed" yesterday and needed to catch up on sleep most of the day! I woke up today with a the sniffles because I totally forgot to take my Airborne on the flight back home!

 

[corinnak]

I do have some photos of Erice and Segesta. I'll go through them and see if I can find some that aren't just packed with my kids. LOL. I went up to that church on the top of the hill and took a video as well. Not sure how I could post that except maybe youtube? Anyhow, I'll look.

I took the "No Jet Lag" both ways, but I think that going east to west is just harder. Plus I brought back a virus, too. Coughing and sniffling. I am torn between taking a nap and not taking a nap. I feel like it would be more virtuous if I could manage to not, but on the other hand, if I am ill, that might just be idiocy talking.

Glad to hear you also had a good experience with Trumpy, too. They seemed to generally offer the right blend of information, efficiency and freedom for my preferences.

 

[nordkin]

Well if anyone has a few pictures of the following that they are willing to share, I would greatly appreciate it:

Sicily - Erice and Segesta
Naples - Amalfi Coast and Ruins of Pompei
Rome - Colloseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Vatican Museum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps

I have several pictures of Erice and Segesta as well as several from Rome. When I say several I mean a ~100 or so. I will be posting them to an albumn on Photobucket and will post the link when I get them uploaded.

Donna

 

[UMTerp]

Well if anyone has a few pictures of the following that they are willing to share, I would greatly appreciate it:

Sicily - Erice and Segesta
Naples - Amalfi Coast and Ruins of Pompei
Rome - Colloseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Vatican Museum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps

I should have pics of Pompeii, Colloseum, Forum, Pantheon, Trevi, and exterior of Vatican, St. Peters. I haven't checked anything yet on my digital camera. I took loads of pics so I can share some.

What do you think would be easiest? Send you a CD? Webshots? Photobucket?

Let me know what you think.

We seem to be doing OK with jet lag this direction. A little tired but sleeping pretty well.

A agree about the Trumpy tours. There were pretty good except a few problems with static on the whispers. I am happy with all that we saw!

UMTerp

 

[ladyvet]

We are home safe and sound, and today's my first day back at work. As of yesterday, three of our bags are still in Rome. We never caught up with them for the whole cruise. We did have enough stuff in our other bags to function, and we really had a wonderful time. We missed a flight due to flight delays in CHicago, but even that turned out alright.

We loved all our tours. Our tour guides were friendly and interesting. The weather was wonderful! My children made some nice friends, and so did we.

Overall, when I've fully recovered from the luggage and travel stress, I think I will only remember the fantastic opportunity we had to see a new part of the world.

Our excursions:
Panoramic Tour of Barcelona
A Day at the Farm (Palermo)
Timeless Pompeii and the Flavor of Sorrento
Jumping Back into Eternal Rome
Porto Fino and Santa Margherita
Calanques of Cassis
Nice and Eze with Wine and Cheese

Beth

 

[JamesF408]

I took the "No Jet Lag" both ways, but I think that going east to west is just harder. Plus I brought back a virus, too. Coughing and sniffling. I am torn between taking a nap and not taking a nap. I feel like it would be more virtuous if I could manage to not, but on the other hand, if I am ill, that might just be idiocy talking.

Glad to hear you also had a good experience with Trumpy, too. They seemed to generally offer the right blend of information, efficiency and freedom for my preferences.

Hi everyone, my wife and I arrived back home around 10pm last night, we stayed in Barcelona two days after the cruise to wind down. Corinnak, my wife and I brought back the same virus. It's not bad but it didn't help the flight back home.

On the other hand, I had a great time. Thankfully we didn't have luggage problems like some had experienced. I heard through the grapevine on the ship a couple people didn't receive any of their luggage and Disney took them on a "shopping spree" to help out.

We met some great dinner friends, exchanged business cards, and plan on throwing around ideas. The other family at our table (2 people) had very little good things to say and a lot of bad. We had late seating for dinner, so we watched the shows before dinner and talked about them over dinner. I thought all the shows were great, and the ones I saw before were even better this time around. The reason I bring this up is because the "grumps" at our table didn't watch one show.

Oh well for them. We were one of the lucky couples to a jackpot at BINGO! So you can image how happy we were. We won $333 so that helped with the bill at the end of the trip.

We also became part of DVC. We talked about joining a year ago because it seemed so worth it. Well we went to one of the speeches on the cruise and we were sold! (Which gave us $500 more dollars shipboard credit, we had $300 already through our travel agent) So if you do the math for two of us, it payed for all of our excursions!

We are going to book the 7 night Mexican Riviera cruise when we get our DVC packet. We bought a piece of the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It is perfect since we have very involved with animals and we love Disney!

I hope everyone is doing well back at home. I know a lot of people stayed on the ship for the repo cruise. We had to stare at the cruise ship after we checked in to our hotel The Grand Marina in Barcelona. Our room was on the sixth floor looking at the cruise ship.

Hope everyone is recovering well.

 

[Rat-a-too-ee]

UMTerp & Donna -- thanks so much!

UMTerp, if burning a CD would be easier for you, I will happily Paypal you a little $ for your trouble, otherwise any online picture sites would be just fine!

Dyan

 

[UMTerp]

UMTerp & Donna -- thanks so much!

UMTerp, if burning a CD would be easier for you, I will happily Paypal you a little $ for your trouble, otherwise any online picture sites would be just fine!

Dyan

Dyan - no need for the $. Why don't you PM me you address and I'll send you one once I get all of my photos uploaded. I promise not to include all of the ones with my kids in front of the sites!

UMTerp

 

[nordkin]

Dyan - no need for the $. Why don't you PM me you address and I'll send you one once I get all of my photos uploaded. I promise not to include all of the ones with my kids in front of the sites!

UMTerp

I will do the same. No money needed, we are here to help.

 

[Rat-a-too-ee]

UMTerp & nordkin....

Thanks so much, I really, really, REALLY appreciate your kindness!!!

Dyan

 

[JeanieP]

HELLO EVERYONE!!

We are back too! Got in late Monday, and then back to work on Tuesday! We had quite the adventure home too -- lost luggage , but it is found! So happy, because all of our souveniers and Disney pictures were in our luggage! I am so sorry about the stolen camera. It seems as if there was a lot of that going on this trip, it is a shame. But, they cannot take away your memories, so hold on to those... Quick trip report:

The GREATEST: You DISers!! Alex really enjoyed meeting Nicole and Mariah! What fun she had and the girls were so attentive to her on those days Alex was in the Kid's programming. For some reason, she didn't like the programming as much as she has in the past, and having Nicole there to take care of her was a blessing! Many thanks! We also wanted to say a heartfelt THANK YOU for the wonderful and thoughtful gifts. My children really enjoyed running to our room after the show every night to see what "treats" were left for them. My husband thinks the world of all of you, and I cannot imagine ever doing a Disney cruise without the DIS folks ever again! Added to the fabulous vacation!

THE VERY GREAT: Our fabulous servers Telita and Simoun! First time ever I actually cried saying goodbye! I get sad just thinking about our farewell... I cannot say anymore, for fear of losing it here at work. Great people and God Bless them for everything they do and the sacrifices they make. God Bless our host Aldo too - he really took care of us and the messes, spills, melted chocolate, etc...our kids really enjoyed the cabin and played pretty hard in it! We also HIGHLY RECOMMEND the COUPLES SPA VILLAS -- we did couples choice, and I think it was the highlight of the cruise. This is a must if you ever cruise on the Magic again! We also fell in love with Barcelona -- loved the little cafes in the Raval district and drank Barcelona style hot chocolate every day -- super thick and bitter sweet, like drinking a melted chocolate bar!! Despite the rain, we loved this warm, friendly and exciting city.

THE GREAT: Enjoyed our family day on beautiful Mondello Beach -- we got a nice tour of Palermo that we weren't expecting. Had a great time wandering Mondello on our own, had good gelatos, panini, great pictures of the kids... Also LOVED Sardinia - that was a delightful and unexpected surprise! Went to La Cinta beach and had a very relaxing time...much needed recovery from jet lag. We bought some local cheese and typical bread and had a feast at the Mickey pool. We did a private boat tour of Capri and all four of us jumped in the ocean for a swim! The kids had a blast and I highly recommend Capri Boats if anyone ever returns to Capri. Gracious family that has lived on the island for 6 generations! Jonathan and I also enjoyed visiting the breathtaking Provencial hill town Castellet and doing the wine tasting afterwards -- what phenomenal scenery! ANd, let's not forget manually picking up a car to remove it from the road so that our bus could get back to the ship! ha ha! HIGHLIGHT FOR US: Getting lost in VilleFranche, wandering all the way to the top of that beautiful city, deciding to skip Nice and just swim at the local beach, eating a thousand Nicoise styel tuna and egg sandwiches dripping in olive oil, and drinking cool, sweet local wine out of plastic cups. A magical and unforgetable day....

THE GOOD: The shows! What wonderful productions -- we have seen some before, but I liked the new touches. Our boy "Weed", okay it is really "Reid" was the little guy who was on stage holding the white ball before the Mickey Dreams show at 8:30. The food was good, but I seem to recall that it has been better in the past. We did enjoy the various Med style dishes, and loved Goofy's galley. Palo's was amazing as usual --we had Zita who always does a fabulous job (thanks for the extra helping of spaghetti carbonara Zita!).

THE BAD: Nothing too terrible to report. We really had an amazing time, exceeded our expectations. I was sort of dreading doing Europe with our children, but amazingly it was soooo much fun! I only hope our children remember it! I was shocked at how busy it was in Rome -- we have been there before and found the city to be enchanting. I would have to say that if it had been my first time in Rome, I don't think I would have enjoyed Rome. I used to think that the guidebooks exaggerated how crowded Europe is in August until this trip. On some days I felt like I was at EPCOT during the most crowded and stickiest day of the summer -- the crowds in some of the towns (like Rome and Cinque Terre) were somewhat unbearable at times (although Marseilles was pretty dead, perhaps because it was the feast of the Virgin Mary) . My husband's only complaint was that he wishes they had more movies playing in the movie theater, seems like they played the same ones over and over again. Our last sea day was a bust too -- way too windy to swim or enjoy the sun, but heck, that was in the Big Captain's hands, right? I was disappointed that there was no preview of High School Musical 2 -- Alex was looking forward to watching that on the ship. Oh well, even Disney misses the boat sometimes...

THE NASTY: I thought the cruise was overpriced, but then, yikes - I wasn't prepared for how much we spent on the ship, plus the tips, plus all the VAT, plus the shopping in ports! Whoa Nelly! I think the kids will be paying for their own college education! I am dreading the credit card bill!!!

OVERALL IMPRESSION OF THE CRUISE: What a phenomenal experience -- from the DIS folks to the crew to the beautiful ports of call, I cherish every wonderful moment of it (yes, even the sweatiest, stickiest, lost in Rome moment), but most of all I cherish the memories of my sweet children's faces experiencing the warmth and charm of Europe for the first time. Life really is beautiful... and we are truly blessed. Que bella la vida!

Ciao Ciao until we cruise again,

JeanieP and familia

 

[UMTerp]

JeanieP - Thanks for your report. We had Zita in Palo too! She is a gem! Too bad she may not be returning!

I think I finished uploading my pictures last night so I need to do a count. I know it's going to be a big number!

Hope everyone is doing OK in the "real" world!

UMTerp

 

[scottishwee35]

Unfortunately, I was pickpocketed in Rome. We did Rome on our own, I was riding in a very packed subway, we had to standup and everyone was really crammed up against each other. I had my digitial camera in my cargo-type pocket in my pants that had 2 buttons securing it that were kind of difficult to un-do. I had my guard up 99.9% of the time, but somehow didn't notice the camera coming out of my pocket. I don't care about my camera at all, I just wish I could have my pictures back - those were really important!

Dyan

Hi

I was on the Cruise of 18 th July to Med.

It look similiar as what happen that to other one family. He was carrying his child and one boy came along took his expensive mobile and ran away but he chased and catch his friend and hold him!!! He still hold him for 20 mins and he still hold him then finally his friend give it up and came back and hand him the moible. When he got the mobile back and missed out the train but lucky the cruise didn't leave until 9.30 pm.

He came back with his mobile and could not believe that happen as he wore long pant short with pockets with button on it.

He told my family and my father in law could not believe that he hold the boy and didn't give it up.

Amazing!!

I am sorry to hear about your pickpocket as I told that high pickpocket in Barcelona and I didn't think that happen in Rome!!

It is really annoying that You took the photos then gone!!

Scottishwee35

 

[Rat-a-too-ee]

Scottishwee35 - my goodness, that's crazy! I am grateful no one was injured! That's the scary thing when travelling, you never know what unscheduled adventure is around the corner.

In my case, I have already washed my pants and put them in the Salvation Army donation bin, they are in perfect condition, but I don't want a reminder of how easy it was for someone to take my belongings.

I really appreciate the DISboarders who are sending me photo CDs so I will have some pictures to remember this wonderful trip!

Dyan

 

[Vailcruiser]

Hi everyone,

Welcome Home! What an unbelievable trip! It was really great meeting everyone we met, it would have been nice to have one more Dis-meet on day three or four. Yes, thanks for all the goodies, Mariah LOVED coming back to the room every night! Thank you all for the great ideas! I am forever grateful to those we shared dinners, excursions on our own and unforgettable times with on this cruise. It was that much more spectacular due to the friendships made here! Also, Donna, thanks again for structuring us!

Hope everyone has recovered. We finally feel like we are back home and on EST. Still not 100% unpacked .

Wishing you all a great rest of the summer and beautiful fall.

I am very excited to see postings from the repo back to the States. C'mon
D3Boyz let us know how things went!!!

Until we meet again - Jocelyne