2010 cruise info

[shoes99]

Ok my inventory control will accept your request and they will come back to you in 2010, with an offer you can refuse!

It will include a free tour of London by Tube and bus by a tour guide called Andrew. He knows London like the back of his hand.

OK put us on the waiting list please. Two adults, no kids, will be 64 and 65 at time of sailing and qualify for senior discounts, (but not on Disney).

Sailing on the first Baltic cruise in June 2010..

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

OK put us on the waiting list please. Two adults, no kids, will be 64 and 65 at time of sailing and qualify for senior discounts, (but not on Disney).

Sailing on the first Baltic cruise in June 2010..

Andrew Derek club member?

 

[bevgray]

I am thinking very hard about going on one of the Baltic Cruises in 2010. The question I have concerns the two alternate itineraries.

Which port would provide the most variety (i.e., differs from other ports on the cruise): Helisinki, Finland or Talinn, Estonia. This will probably be a "once-in-a-lifetime" event for me so I want to be sure to savor the experience as much as possible. My thought was that Helsinki (and yes, I know there is a difference between Finland and Norway and Sweden) might be a bit more similar to Oslo and Stockholm whereas Talinn in Estonia might have a very distinct "personality" compared to the other ports on the cruise.

I've studied history but that is not the same as having some knowledge of the richness of the cultures to be encountered. If you'all could point out some advantages/disadvantages between visiting Helsinki and Talinn, I'd really appreciate it. I'm an older lady so won't be interested in "adventurous" shore excursions (such as jogging/biking through the countryside) but will be doing more the museum/sight-seeing/shopping type of thing". Thanks very much!

 

[tinks86]

Hi, I haven't been to Helsinki or Talinn but having been to Scandanavia before, it is a beautiful area, but if you would like to see something different to Oslo and Stockholm then Talinn may offer that variety as it is a Baltic country, it would have a bit of a different vibe to its Scandanavian cousins. Its a beautiful area of the world though and I don't think you could go too wrong with either!

 

[JsMom2]

I'm not European (although I do live in Europe), but DD and I just visited both Tallinn and Helsinki on the Crown Princess in June.

The old city of Tallinn is absolutely beautiful! We only had a half day there, but with more time I would've loved to just sit at one of the restaurants in the main square and savor the ambience. There's also a palace outside of town that looked wonderful - although a lot like Peterhof in St Petersburg.

Helsinki is more of a big city, but it is VERY easy to get around on your own. My DD loves to look at churches, and they have some beautiful ones there. The Market Square is fun too.

For an expert's view you can order a DVD from John Lawrence, who is a former cruise director on Princess, and an expert on the Baltics. You can get his DVD from JohnLawrencecd.com He goes into great detail on all of the ports DCL is visiting.

For an amateur view, you can see our blog at Click here for our Baltic Adventures.

 

[Brooklyn]

I am looking at the repo cruises in 2010 but will have to take the kids. I cannot leave them for that long.
Will they be bored with six ocean days in a row?? In 2010 they will be 10, 7 and 3.

What about the flight to/from Barcelona? I am figuring prices will be about $700 p/p. The flight will take 21 hrs. I don't even know if I can take that long of a flight, much less the kids(mostly the little one).

If anyone has any experience with taking the family on a repo cruise, I would really like to hear about it.

I would love to give this experience to the family but I don't know if I should wait until they are older???

We did the EB Trans Atlantic last time with two kids. They were both just shy of their birthdays turning 2 and 6. They had a BLAST. We were NEVER board.

The flight back home was not bad at all. They slept and played with stuff that we brought for them. I however would rather get the long flight out of the way before the cruise. I do not want to end my vacation again with a huge flight back home. I would rather just get on a place from FL back to CA.

The time change was also a little tough on us. Hence another reason why we are doing the WB to get those 6 hours back!

In no way though were any of the members of our family bored! They all had a blast. We have a new moto in our house as of Monday...."small christmas' and small birthday's mean BIG cruise." Both the girls are saying it and my older DD (7) is being more thoughtful as to purchases she is asking for. I just have to mention the 14 night cruise and she is fine not getting what she was asking for. She loved it sooooooo much. When I told my mom about them going back to Europe and wanting to go again my DD (3) said "we need to pack our suitcases" Our DD's have nothing but amazing memories from the Disney Cruise. Your kids will love it!!!

 

[disneycruising]

Poohbug,

We took our 4 children on the TA. At the time the kids where 13,11,9 & 7.

I was a nervous reck about the flight home. I was so scared of being stuck on a plane for that long with all the kids. Mind you we have travel their whole lives...and have never had any problems before. I finally had to tell myself not to think about it... to just enjoy the cruise and deal with what will come. Once I finally did this I felt better.

Our flights ended up being great! Our children where so tired from all their travels that they fell asleep on both flights. We flew from Barcelona to JFK. Then had a few hours before our next flight, which gave us enough time to feed the kids and walk around for a while. Before we knew it, it was time for our flight to SFO. I had brought a ton of stuff to keep them enterained and I didn't even use half of it.

We were never bored on the 6 seas days. DCL had a ton of things planned to keep everyone busy. All of my children love the 'kid groups' and spent many hours there.

I think the hardest thing about the trip was the constant time change. If you decide to do the cruise keep the time change in mind. This will effect what time you get up in the morning and what time you will be going to bed. Even what time you are "actually" having dinner.

I would love to do the repo again! I can't this time around. We are looking at doing a cruises that will fall during school break.

 

[TDC Nala]

Sequoia Lodge, my DD is going with guides there in 2010!!! I havent stayed there its ok, a 2 star, and you have to get a bus to the parks, New York is a short walk along the Disney Village (Downtown Disney) to the parks.

Whilst Disneyland hotel is at the Disneyland park entrance, I do not rate it, too expensive, the pool at NY is better, and the restaurants are better.

Plus luggage transfer to NY is better, as Disneyland hotel is at the park entrance its hard to get it over there and you have further to walk to the Disney Village in the evenings

I stayed at Sequoia last year. Never took a bus to the parks. Always walked. It seemed to me it was only a little further than New York.

I liked Sequoia just fine.

 

[robind]

Sequoia Lodge, my DD is going with guides there in 2010!!! I havent stayed there its ok, a 2 star, and you have to get a bus to the parks, New York is a short walk along the Disney Village (Downtown Disney) to the parks.

Whilst Disneyland hotel is at the Disneyland park entrance, I do not rate it, too expensive, the pool at NY is better, and the restaurants are better.

Plus luggage transfer to NY is better, as Disneyland hotel is at the park entrance its hard to get it over there and you have further to walk to the Disney Village in the evenings

Actually, you can walk from Sequoia, it is only about three - four minutes further than the New York hotel. I never saw any busses from teh Sequoia to the parks when I was there in September.

 

[robind]

I think the hardest thing about the trip was the constant time change. If you decide to do the cruise keep the time change in mind. This will effect what time you get up in the morning and what time you will be going to bed. Even what time you are "actually" having dinner.

I would love to do the repo again! I can't this time around. We are looking at doing a cruises that will fall during school break.

I am thinking about doing the repo cruise, since you are taking 6 days to cross, how often does the time change during the trip over?

Thanks

 

[gismo1554]

I am thinking about doing the repo cruise, since you are taking 6 days to cross, how often does the time change during the trip over?

Thanks

You loose a total of 6 hours over the entire trip (1 a night). Gibralter I believe is an hour different to Barcelona or maybe it was tenerife cause I think one of the time changes was before we left the Med

 

[emma'smom]

We're thinking of the same cruise and our girls will be 7 and 5 at the time of sailing. I'm thinking that maybe they'll be a lot of younger kids (in this preschool/k/early elementary range) because parents may be more willing to pull younger kids from school than they would older kids.

Oops! That last post was in reply to Melanie151's post.

We are considering this exact cruise and our boys will also be 6 and 4 by then. They both had a great time on our Mexican Riviera cruise back in May but I gotta say I'll be glad that my little one will be older this time around (can you say kids club)!

 

[tink too]

I stayed at Sequoia last year. Never took a bus to the parks. Always walked. It seemed to me it was only a little further than New York.

I liked Sequoia just fine.

I agree with TDC Nala. Sequoia is an easy walk to the parks or the Disney Village area. We never took the bus once on our last stay there.

 

[gismo1554]

We're thinking of the same cruise and our girls will be 7 and 5 at the time of sailing. I'm thinking that maybe they'll be a lot of younger kids (in this preschool/k/early elementary range) because parents may be more willing to pull younger kids from school than they would older kids.

There weren't many kids on the boat for any of the Transatlantic ones.

 

[emma'smom]

Hmmm....define "many"? Just so I can get a sense of it....

There weren't many kids on the boat for any of the Transatlantic ones.

 

[gismo1554]

Well on the WB one there was a girl at our table who was around 11 and she said there were only 1 or 2 people her age on the boat. You really didn't see that many children at dinner either, maybe 5 or 6 families with kids but then I guess it depends on your rotation.

Also to note that the kids club staff were often seen around the adult pool after 6pm so I am guessing a lot of them got extra time off due to reduced numbers

 

[Brooklyn]

Hmmm....define "many"? Just so I can get a sense of it....

On EB TA there were about 400 kids registered with the kids club programs in total. Normally there is about 1000. At least that is what a CM told me.

There was never a fight for a chair or anything at the pool. The shows were easy to get seats. It was just great! The never had matinee shows of the normal evening shows bc there were not enough people to fill them.

 

[emma'smom]

But would you say there were enough kids to make it fun? My girls will be 7 and 5--so they'll be in the same group for the activities (one of several reasons we're thinking about doing it this year). I'm guessing this is one reason why the TA are so much cheaper than the other cruises.....

Bottom line....will it be fun for families with younger children?

...and how would this compare to other cruise lines at any time......

On EB TA there were about 400 kids registered with the kids club programs in total. Normally there is about 1000. At least that is what a CM told me.

There was never a fight for a chair or anything at the pool. The shows were easy to get seats. It was just great! The never had matinee shows of the normal evening shows bc there were not enough people to fill them.

 

[Brooklyn]

But would you say there were enough kids to make it fun? My girls will be 7 and 5--so they'll be in the same group for the activities (one of several reasons we're thinking about doing it this year). I'm guessing this is one reason why the TA are so much cheaper than the other cruises.....

Bottom line....will it be fun for families with younger children?

...and how would this compare to other cruise lines at any time......

Absolutly....dd (6 at the time of the EBTA) is a social butteryfly. We made friends who she still keeps in contact with. It is such a nice amount of kids. They all got so much special attention from the counselors too. My DD has a life long friend with one of the counselors and it was from the trans-atlantic.

It prefer it with the less kids, still the same great Disney everything but less to people to have to share it with.

Also, the character intereaction is amazing! Never long lines to meet the characters. They looked bored sometimes bc there were no kids around to take pictures with.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I stayed at Sequoia last year. Never took a bus to the parks. Always walked. It seemed to me it was only a little further than New York.

I liked Sequoia just fine.

Actually, you can walk from Sequoia, it is only about three - four minutes further than the New York hotel. I never saw any busses from teh Sequoia to the parks when I was there in September.

This will please my DD who is going with the guides to the Sequoia, on the maps it looks a lot longer way to go, I know even the New York has a bus service but doesnt need it as there is such a small walk to the parks through Disney Village and nice looking at the shops, The lodge seems spread out and for young people not a lot more to walk than the New York, but it seems longer from the map.