2010 news from the Magic

[mishoe01]

Guys, I think that the reason that the dates in the Baltic are June and July may be to take in the "White Nights" up in St Petersburg:

http://www.saint-petersburg.com/virtual-tour/whitenights.asp

They might then be planning to head somewhere else after.

Would/could this also be known as the Northern Lights?

 

[mishoe01]

Oh, and my Mum found a Carnival cruise online that is a 12 night tour of the Baltic from Dover, England, itinerary is:

Dover
Day at Sea
Copenhagen
Berlin (Warnemund)
Helsinki
St Petersburg
St Petersburg
Tallinn
Day at Sea
Day at Sea
Amsterdam
Dover

Hope that DCL go for something similar.

Milia

This is 1 of the cruises I'm looking into...just incase DCL is pulling our leg

 

[lillygator]

so are they making the announcement in Oct? Will we be able to book in Oct or will it be January?

 

[mishoe01]

but I've been following this thread and it seems all you folks are definitely in the know. I am thinking about the trans repo and the first cruise and wondering if there is a best way to go about booking this. It is basically two separate cruises but I was wondering about getting lucky and booking the same cabin on both and being able to keep our stuff in there. I vaguely remember there were a few people doing something like this last year for the Med. Any advice would be appreciated.

It can be done - if you book through a TA they should be able to book the same category & look for the same room to be available for both sailings. If you book on your own on line - book the same category & then call DCL to have them find you a room that is available for both sailings.

Your reservations can then be noted as a "back to back" - DCL would add that into both reservations. If you are able to get the same room then you won't need to do anything w/ your stuff. If you aren't able to, then you would need to pack everything up (like if you were leaving) but I think you just leave it in your room for your host/hostess to move to the new room.

Hope this helps!

 

[NancyIL]

Would/could this also be known as the Northern Lights?

No - Northern Lights = the Aurora Borealis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_Borealis

White Nights: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Nights

 

[NancyIL]

Oh, and my Mum found a Carnival cruise online that is a 12 night tour of the Baltic from Dover, England, itinerary is:

Dover
Day at Sea
Copenhagen
Berlin (Warnemund)
Helsinki
St Petersburg
St Petersburg
Tallinn
Day at Sea
Day at Sea
Amsterdam
Dover

Hope that DCL go for something similar.

Milia

We know that the Magic will go to Oslo, then Copenhagen, then Warnemunde. My guess is this:

UK port
sea day
Oslo
Copenhagen
Warnemunde
sea day
Stockholm
Helsinki
St. Petersburg (overnight)
St. Petersburg
sea day
sea day
UK port


Or maybe they will skip Helsinki, go right to St. Petersburg, and stop in Amsterdam on the way home.

 

[xangav]

I've had better luck booking on my own so I will try that route. Hopefully all the stars will be alligned and we are as lucky as we were with the med cruise.

 

[granmaz]

We saw the Northern Lights on our first flight back from the US. The captain made an announcement and woke us up(not that I was asleep but that is another story )and we looked out in the dark and saw the amazing sight.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Guys, I think that the reason that the dates in the Baltic are June and July may be to take in the "White Nights" up in St Petersburg:

http://www.saint-petersburg.com/virtual-tour/whitenights.asp

They might then be planning to head somewhere else after.



Pillow, BMI are British Midland, we fly with them to the Channel Islands. They work in partnership with United on the Transatlantic route, as they are both part of the Star Alliance Group.

Looking forward to finding out more. Here's hoping the prices aren't stupidly high!!

Milia

I think you are correct, Cpt Tom would have chosen the dates

The only problem is that those months are off season dates and not everyone can travel then if there are children in schools involved. Especially children in high school

I agree, I am thinking i cannot do the Baltic and I hope they will stick around for a sepcail cruise or two before going back to Florida Mid August.

but I've been following this thread and it seems all you folks are definitely in the know. I am thinking about the trans repo and the first cruise and wondering if there is a best way to go about booking this. It is basically two separate cruises but I was wondering about getting lucky and booking the same cabin on both and being able to keep our stuff in there. I vaguely remember there were a few people doing something like this last year for the Med. Any advice would be appreciated.

Book through on of the specalist TA's for DCL, Dreams Unlimited or (sorry not allowed to post)

so are they making the announcement in Oct? Will we be able to book in Oct or will it be January?

I understand preview date is October 7th, and I understand the on sale date is October 21st, but others reported an onsale date of the 14th.

 

[xangav]

We know that the Magic will go to Oslo, then Copenhagen, then Warnemunde. My guess is this:

UK port
sea day
Oslo
Copenhagen
Warnemunde
sea day
Stockholm
Helsinki
St. Petersburg (overnight)
St. Petersburg
sea day
sea day
UK port


Or maybe they will skip Helsinki, go right to St. Petersburg, and stop in Amsterdam on the way home.

That sounds like a great intinerary. I'm hoping for Amsterdam too. My folks are from Holland and we spent four years there while I was in high school. It would be nice to go where I also know the language!

 

[mishoe01]

so are they making the announcement in Oct? Will we be able to book in Oct or will it be January?

Hi V!!!

Announcement October 7th....bookings the 21st.

 

[ButterbearUK]

We know that the Magic will go to Oslo, then Copenhagen, then Warnemunde. My guess is this:

UK port
sea day
Oslo
Copenhagen
Warnemunde
sea day
Stockholm
Helsinki
St. Petersburg (overnight)
St. Petersburg
sea day
sea day
UK port


Or maybe they will skip Helsinki, go right to St. Petersburg, and stop in Amsterdam on the way home.

Yes, that was pretty much the conclusion we reached. I'm hoping that they will squeeze in Helsinki and Amsterdam, but I realise the chances of that are slim!

Milia

 

[JsMom2]

The only problem is that those months are off season dates and not everyone can travel then if there are children in schools involved. Especially children in high school

Those just happen to be the dates we are going (and in fact the Egypt cruise is over Spring break), but just keep checking because there are definitely deals to be had if you stay on top of it. Especially since our holidays don't always coincide with the European ones.

We went to 5 ports in Greece, Italy, and Croatia on Costa for around $1200 total for 2 people for 7 nights over Thanksgiving in 2006 (the smallest inside cabin you've ever seen, but the ports were fantastic!)

We sailed to the Baltics on the Crown Princess on June 29th of this year, had awesome sunny days, and the rate on that cruise kept going down also.

And yes for airfare, look for the cheapest fares you can find to get to Europe, and see if combining it with an intra-Europe fare works better. Fares within Europe are VERY reasonable. The only problem with that is the luggage restriction is usually around 22 kilos per person, so you have to pack efficiently for a long trip.

 

[pillow]

Hey everybody. I was just checking in to see if we were any closer to knowing where the ships headed for 2010????? Any educated guess? Thanks!

Ha Ha! Read back a few pages. Yes, its a definite. Steph found the Copenhagen port schedule, and the Magic was on it. So, its definitely Northern Europe.

Jodie

 

[denise]

Just jumping in about the luggage restrictions within Europe...be very careful.....last summer we left Athens on Iberia to Barcelona to go on the Magic...we had been in Greece for 3 weeks...the lady says...you have two bags each and they weigh over 20 pounds (there were 3 of us)...yes I said....Oh you can only have one bag each and you have too much stuff.....she said carry the extra bags on didn't matter that we already had carryon's...I told her they had liquids...she just looked at us and said well get ride of some of your stuff!!...my husband then asked if she spoke Greek (she was Spanish) she did and he begged her in Greek to let us on....she did and we were ok....
In London on the way to Greece you were only allowed ONE carryon...saw people leaving luggage just to board....
American who booked everything said we would follow American rules on all carriers....NOT TRUE...
So you just have to be careful and watch the rules for each carrier.

The different rules make travel hard.....

 

[pillow]

If you want to fly to europe cheaply you can. Airlines such as FlyGlobespan and carters such as thomsonfly offer cheap flights to the UK, and then just jump on an easyjet or ryanair as a connection. It's a bit complicated to get your head around it, but the savings are there.... I have done it, but normaly just let BA sort it all out for me... plus BA has much better food, and free drinks!

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out.

Jodie

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Just jumping in about the luggage restrictions within Europe...be very careful.....last summer we left Athens on Iberia to Barcelona to go on the Magic...we had been in Greece for 3 weeks...the lady says...you have two bags each and they weigh over 20 pounds (there were 3 of us)...yes I said....Oh you can only have one bag each and you have too much stuff.....she said carry the extra bags on didn't matter that we already had carryon's...I told her they had liquids...she just looked at us and said well get ride of some of your stuff!!...my husband then asked if she spoke Greek (she was Spanish) she did and he begged her in Greek to let us on....she did and we were ok....
In London on the way to Greece you were only allowed ONE carryon...saw people leaving luggage just to board....
American who booked everything said we would follow American rules on all carriers....NOT TRUE...
So you just have to be careful and watch the rules for each carrier.

The different rules make travel hard.....

Your last line covers it, we have a lot of cheap carriers with lots of hidden fees and restrictions, however there are quality airlines like BA British Airways they have 23kg limit per bag and you can take either 2pp or 3pp depending on the flight and the type of seat.

And note following my summer cruise we were slightly over on all our bags they accomodated us without charge or fuss.

 

[ga9497]

Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out.

Jodie

Personally I would stay away from Ryan Air - never heard anything good about it except their low fares but they allow very little in the way of luggage and they charge you for every little thing. My sister took them for an inter Europe flight in July and she really disliked everything about them. She wished she had paid a little more and gone with a different carrier

 

[grumpymakesmehappy]

Ha Ha! Read back a few pages. Yes, its a definite. Steph found the Copenhagen port schedule, and the Magic was on it. So, its definitely Northern Europe.

Jodie

Thanks Jodie! I realized that after I posted. There's just soooo many pages.
Northern Europe sounds great! Looks like I'll definitely be moving our 09 St. Croix to a 2010 cruise.

 

[pillow]

If you want to fly to europe cheaply you can. Airlines such as FlyGlobespan and carters such as thomsonfly offer cheap flights to the UK, and then just jump on an easyjet or ryanair as a connection. It's a bit complicated to get your head around it, but the savings are there.... I have done it, but normaly just let BA sort it all out for me... plus BA has much better food, and free drinks!

Just looked at both of these. Bummer is that we'd have to fly to either Canada or Florida in order to fly these carriers. FlyGlobespan would be too much hassle - fly to Canada, then to Scottland, then to London. By that time, you've paid just as much as a "regular" flight. Thomsonfly looked interesting since the flight goes to London, and you wouldn't have to book on another carrier once in Europe. The problem is that you'd have to fly to Florida to catch the flight - (would actually work great on a TA assuming that the trip will start and/or end in Port Canaveral). I tried putting in some dates for next June and couldn't get the flights to come up - was curious about the prices.

Jodie