2007 Transatlantic and First Med cruises thread

[kpros]

Hi Kelly

I would like to do the Wonder PC cruise and one of the late summer Alaskan cruise.

Ken

 

[tig82174]

Jason and I will 100% be doing an Alaskan cruise...although not sure when.

The DCL site is having "technical difficulties" and so I can't actually look at dates or anything....but Jason and I are seriously considering doing B2B Alaskan either as Alaska then Vancouver to LA or vice versa....and then we could add a few days at DisneyLand & California Adventure at the LA end of the trip.

Although i should add that we're likely to try for later in the summer rather than earlier since we're doing such a huge cruise in Sept. 2010.....but we'll see!!

 

[tig82174]

OK the DCL site is finally back up now that I'm home from Cheerleading....but I'm confused. The dates for the April trip from LA to Vancouver and the first Alaskan cruise in May connect so that you could, in theory, do a B2B.....however, if you look at the dates for the LAST Alaskan Cruise (Aug. 30th) and then the date for the Vancouver to LA trip (Sept. 20th), it looks like there is a lag of 14 days between.....?!? Is the ship just going to sit in Vancouver and do nothing for 2 full weeks? Does it seem weird to anyone that those 2 weeks between are there? So you can't do a B2B trip with the last Alaskan and then travel back down to LA?

If that's accurate then that stinks....because as much as we'd love to be on the ship with Deb (and anyone else who's going in early May), I don't think we can swing another big trip so early in 2011 after doing 24 nights on the Magic in Sept./Oct. of 2010. We'll need a little more time to accrue vacation time and save up money!!

 

[tig82174]

OK....so Jason and I have talked about it.....and talked to our travel agent, who thinks the 2 weeks of unbooked time in 2011 in Vancouver are either some special cruise they aren't announcing yet or a quick dry dock of some kind.

So, while the timing of it is awfully quick after our Sept. 2010 cruises....Jason and are probably going to have our TA call on Sept. 21st (we are gold Castaway so we get to book early apparently) and put us in a reservation for the April 27th LA to Vancouver repo trip and then the first Alaska cruise on May 3rd-----depending on pricing. Of course we're hoping that being an April/May trip which is typically not high volume season that we'll be able to get decent deals, but we're not holding our breath since these are new itineraries and will probably sell pretty quick.

So if anyone else is thinking of doing the May 3rd then maybe we'll see you aboard!

 

[nanaguide]

Hi Kelly, Deb, Ken, Erik, and Jason, It is good to see some of the old gang on the board. I am definitely calling on Sept.21 to get an Alaskan cruise - just haven't decided on which one. Can't be in May as we want to take our grandson, Aiden, with us and he isn't out of school till the end of May. This Summer we took him to DC/Williamsburg for 10 days so we think the Alaskan cruise would provide a lot of learning opportunities for him and FUN!!!! This is a dumb question - where are you finding the dates of the cruises listed? I just can't find them. There is also one other problem I want to sail on the new ship that year too and Carl is rolling his eyes at all the money I want to spend. We'll see what happens BUT I will be up early on the 21st trying to book. Hope all is well with each of you.

 

[Hoagie Pie]

Hey - great to hear from the ole gang! We miss everyone, but passing on Alaska. We are going to wait. They are taking the Magic back to the Med again in 2011 so I might want to do that one again. Miss you all very much and keep talking about Alaska, we might change our minds! We just got off the ship on Saturday and it was a great cruise! Miss all of you!

 

[CACruisin']

Hopefully I will be in school fulltime in 2011 so Alaska/PC/Med are all out for us. We are just so excited to get a ship of our own on the West Coast!

Nanaguide - how great to take your grandson to DC/Williamsburg last summer. We are thinking of doing that trip summer 2010. How was the weather? Was it crazy hot and humid? How were the crowds?

Here's one way to get to the dates are on the DCL website. From the main page select Cruises & Destinations (one of the tabs on top). Select a cruise destination. You'll get a screen that has an overview of the cruise destination selected. From that screen you can select two other tabs: sail dates & itineraries. There may be an easier way, but this worked for me.

Anna

 

[tig82174]

Hi Kelly, Deb, Ken, Erik, and Jason, It is good to see some of the old gang on the board. I am definitely calling on Sept.21 to get an Alaskan cruise - just haven't decided on which one. Can't be in May as we want to take our grandson, Aiden, with us and he isn't out of school till the end of May. This Summer we took him to DC/Williamsburg for 10 days so we think the Alaskan cruise would provide a lot of learning opportunities for him and FUN!!!! This is a dumb question - where are you finding the dates of the cruises listed? I just can't find them. There is also one other problem I want to sail on the new ship that year too and Carl is rolling his eyes at all the money I want to spend. We'll see what happens BUT I will be up early on the 21st trying to book. Hope all is well with each of you.

The dates are listed on the DCL website. I didn't see them immediately either. On the DCL website put your mouse over the "cruises & destinations" tab at the top. A menu should drop down that includes the Alaskan cruises. Click on "7-Night Alaskan" and on the screen it takes you to in teh center column beneath the picture there are three tabs: overview, sail dates, itineraries. Click on "sail dates" and it will list the dates for you.

Currently it says:

7-Night Alaskan Cruise
Departure Date 2011
May 03, 10, 17, 24, 31
June 07, 14, 21, 28
July 05, 12, 19, 26
August 02, 09, 16, 23, 30

 

[Lynn G]

Hi Gang!

We are planning on doing the repo from LA to Vancouver, and then the first Alaskan (May 3rd), we will have to call from our layover in the Atlanta airport as we are headed to Peru the 21st.

Good to see everyone posting again!

Have a great day!

 

[NHdisneylover]

Hello all--it is sooooo fun to see you all posting again I really love this group.

I KNEW Alaska would be the big draw for most people. Airfare to the US is just too steep (especially to the west coast) to make that feasible for us, especially because we have to travel in the dreaded high season as German schools are not so nice baout you pulling your children to cruise We ARE pulling htem for two weeks this year (to do WDW with Erik and Jason and see Sandi and family while there--and then do a cruise), and also the westbound TA next year, BUT we can only do so because we can show prrof htat we booked both trips before we moved here. Anyway, I am hoping the med prices will be a bit lower because everyoen else wants to cruise Alaska (where is the crossing your fingers smilie?)--and we should get first tier prices as we also get the early window and have our TA on it. We are looking at doing back to back Med cruises on Ausgust 2011. They would start August tenth and there is a random one day gap in between the cruises which Doris is at a loss to explain They go to mostly the same ports, but we feel like a med. cruise is so intense that we would not relax if we felt we needed to see every port without taking down days. This way we can miss some ports on one week (and stay on the ship, or hit a nearby beach) and then miss the otheres the next (and go to Florence twice becuase I love Florence).

On other fronts, the kids had their first day at a German public school today. They were nervous wrecks the last week or so but came home happy and much more relaxed

 

[Lynn G]

Hadley - great to hear from you. Good to hear the kids are in the public school, I know that is what you wanted to do - guess their German has gotten pretty good.

Have a great day all!

 

[Hoagie Pie]

Hadley - great to see you post! Lyn - have fun in Peru! Is that through Adventures by Disney? It is so hard to plan into 2011. 2010 seems like forever for me. I have some other trips I would like to do. I would love to take Abby to Washington, D.C. and go back to LA to visit family and friends so things will have to wait, but I love living it through all of you (and I think I said that before ). Miss all of you and wish we could book a cruise together again.

 

[Lynn G]

Yes, our Peru trip is AbD. We opted for one of the adults only trips. We also have lots of trips we would like to do, we only get about half in each year!

 

[Hoagie Pie]

Yes, our Peru trip is AbD. We opted for one of the adults only trips. We also have lots of trips we would like to do, we only get about half in each year!

Lynn, please let us know how it is. Did you ever do ABD before? Darrell and I said it is something we would love to do and it hasn't happened yet. We will be thinking of you - have a great trip!

 

[tig82174]

Lynn and Scott are going to do the same B2B trip we are in 2011? LA to Vancouver and then the first Alaskan? And Deb is going to be on that Alaskan with us, as well? HOORAY!! (and, off the record, Chris and Rob have been crazy busy and we haven't talked as much lately but I did hear from them last week a quick note that they were considering the same trip(s) as well).

How fantabulous it will be to cruise with so many of our original TA friends! You guys were our first DIS thread and first DIS cruise friends....so all of our TA 2007 friends you remain our favorite group to cruise with! (now we just have to convince Sandi and Hadley to join us!)


Kelly----I know you said you probably won't do one of these trips during the school year, but Jason and I are definitely going to be coming to DL/CA for at least 4 days prior to the LA to Vancouver repo cruise so we should meet up while we're in town!! (and get any of our other cruise friends to join in!!)

 

[nanaguide]

Lynn - my Disney boss told me at work last week that he thought he was in the hot tub with friends of mind from Wyoming at the Grand Californian after the half marathon - was it you and Scott?

 

[NHdisneylover]

Lynn--I have been thinking about you and Scott and your upcomming trip to Peru. I can't wait to hear your impressions--have a wonderful time.

Erik, we will be happy to sail the repo and Alask crusie with you when you buy the airfare and convince the German authorities to let the kids miss the extra weeks of school

The kids had a great first week of school Marika's German has gotten really good. Rio's is comming slower, but he picked up a lot this week just hearing it every day. The school is a really unique, public, international school. They work with immgrant children from about 180 countries--all of whom come in with little or no German. They seem to really know what they are doing and handle it well (they have been doing this since the 60s so I guess they have plenty of practice).

We took a trip to Denmark this summer. I highly recommend a summer week there to any of you who ever get the chance. We loved it Of course, if anyone wants to visit Heidelberg we might be able to hook you up.

Happy booking to you all

 

[tig82174]

Hey all!!

Jason and I booked our 2011 trips today. We're solidly booked and doing the Northbound repo from LA to Vancouver in late April and then staying aboard to do a B2B with the first Alaskan cruise on May 3rd. We got a Cat 7 (or, as they're called now, "Cat 7A") and got room 7622 for both trips which is awesome. We got an AMAZING deal (in my opinion) on the LA to Vancouver trip and even the Alaskan, while twice as expensive, was reasonable I thought. We're doing the entire 14-day B2B for less than $6000!! (which, compared to the VERY hefty price tag we're paying for the last Med 10-night and the WBTA in 2010, feels like nothing! )

So who else is booked??

I guess I have to start searching for meets threads for these new trips, huh?

 

[edna mode]

Hi all, I've been so darned busy that I didn't realize I hadn't been back on the dis for almost 2 weeks. I'm so glad to hear from everyone.

Hadley, it sounds like you're having the trip of a lifetime over there. What an experience. Jonathan taught in some of the international schools in Belgium and England, he thought they were great.

Nanaguide, glad to hear you guys are well... and moving around the country.

Lynn, Scott & Ken, Anna (CACruisin) and I really missed the DL 5K this year. We were both so busy that it just went passed us and we didn't even get over there to see everyone. Was it fun? I was sitting at my desk watching the news at 6am and the story about the race came up and it really hit me that we had missed it.

Ken, Jonathan missed the ride up there this year too because we've been working around the clock. But, he did ride his bike down to Coronado, when we went to visit Kathy and Ted in July.

Erik, Wow, you've got quite the cruising plans going on. You're going to love the B2B from the med. I would do that again in a heartbeat. You'll be shocked at how fast the time goes. Especially compared to how long it takes to plan. Do let us know when you're coming out to DL.

Sandy, Check out my website, I've got the beginning phases of the home-school page up. www.milestogodrugeducation.com

In fact, anyone who wants to see what I've been up to I've been working around the clock on this: www.milestogodrugeducation.com

 

[Lynn G]

Lynn - my Disney boss told me at work last week that he thought he was in the hot tub with friends of mind from Wyoming at the Grand Californian after the half marathon - was it you and Scott?

Yes that was us!

Eric and Jason - yes, we will be on the same cruises up to and in Alaska! There are 2 threads, both very active. (Sorry, I am computer illiterate so I cannot post the link).

Hadley - good to hear you all are having fun in Germany! I am sorry that it looks like we will not be in your neck of the woods when we get to Europe next summer.

The AbD trip to Peru was great! We are glad we did the adults only trip, we got to do some things they do not do with the kids - like eating cuy (guinea pig). The guides did a great job of explaining the culture and customs of the area. We are already starting to plan our next trip - not sure where yet - probably Galapagos.

Have a great day all!