4/24/2010 Med cruise: Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your Ears

[NC_Tink]

We had looked at the Berber Village tour. Initially when I first saw it as an offering I was really excited about it! I wanted to do it because I thought my kids would get a real kick out of it. But, now, I think I'd be paying way too much for what exactly?? While riding camels, donkeys, etc. and seeing belly dancing and snake charmers sounds like it would be fun - I'm not certain I'm willing to shell out that much money for it - especially since we are technically 4 "adults" based on DCL pricing. The fact that no one has been able to find out anything about the place and not even DCL is able to offer any more information makes me feel better about just booking an excursion to Medina and Carthage. JMHO

Of course, I may end up regretting my decision as Berber Village may end up being one of those great "once in a lifetime" type of excursions

 

[skoi]

Brooklyn-

What branch is your husband in?
Mine is done with Navy Reserve in May. After spending a year in Afghanistan (the disaster year with kidney surgery for our youngest and all sorts of other issues), he's done.

Julie

 

[linkandclover]

We booked the Berber Village excursion also. We can't find a thing online about it. We can't even find mention of the Douar Sidi activity center, which is said to be the location. We're hoping to find out more, or we might change to the Bardo Museum and Medina for Families. This tour includes a kids activity.

Well if you decide to stick with it at least there will be another ds10 for my son to hang with.

 

[linkandclover]

By the way if anyone is planning to stay longer in Barcelona and has not booked their hotel yet they should do so now. Our ship returns just prior to the Spanish Grand Prix starting and in past experiences in other countries the hotels can get pretty full at this time of year, raise their prices and have 3 night stay minimums.

 

[Brooklyn]

Brooklyn-

What branch is your husband in?
Mine is done with Navy Reserve in May. After spending a year in Afghanistan (the disaster year with kidney surgery for our youngest and all sorts of other issues), he's done.

Julie

DH is a Marine. Oh yes I understand those disaster years! DH has done 4 deployments to Iraq for a total of 29 months. DD Madison was born 8 weeks premature and he barely made it home. I have been through 6 surgeries with the girls while he was gone. I am sure your year has been so hard!!!! I am glad that it is almost for you!!! DH is planning on staying in for at least 28 years so we have some time before I can say that!

 

[Brooklyn]

By the way if anyone is planning to stay longer in Barcelona and has not booked their hotel yet they should do so now. Our ship returns just prior to the Spanish Grand Prix starting and in past experiences in other countries the hotels can get pretty full at this time of year, raise their prices and have 3 night stay minimums.

Thanks for the info!

 

[friend of tinkerbell]

I think we will stick with the Berber Village. Our 10 year old, Noah, will be happy to hear another 10 year old will be going! we did find the following:

Other tours of the area include tour of Tunis with a visit to a souk, and the Bardo Museum famous for its Roman mosaics. Also available is a visit to Carthage, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and a jaunt to a Berber village, which offers a similar atmosphere to Colonial Williamsburg except it has Arabic touches of snake charmers, camel rides, and belly dancing.

also see page 19 of the following. It appears to be the Berber Village Show. I wish the pictures were larger.

http://www.jci.nl/component/attachments/download/314.html

 

[skoi]

I think we will stick with the Berber Village. Our 10 year old, Noah, will be happy to hear another 10 year old will be going! we did find the following:

Other tours of the area include tour of Tunis with a visit to a souk, and the Bardo Museum famous for its Roman mosaics. Also available is a visit to Carthage, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and a jaunt to a Berber village, which offers a similar atmosphere to Colonial Williamsburg except it has Arabic touches of snake charmers, camel rides, and belly dancing.

also see page 19 of the following. It appears to be the Berber Village Show. I wish the pictures were larger.

http://www.jci.nl/component/attachments/download/314.html

Thanks for this. The kids are still up in the air. Ds is telling me we'll have already seen snake charmers in Marrakech, and my teacher's brother promised to take him camel riding and to see monkeys, and in his opinion, everything in Morocco will be better than Tunisia. What a snob.

Julie

 

[skoi]

Brooklyn,
Wow, I thought I had it bad. Dh was called up (he's home now) two days after we returned from China when we adopted youngest ds. He left like 2 months later, and he was gone one day, and I was in the ER with youngest who had of all things chronic kidney stones. So we had operations on his ears (he has cleft palate and as a result has hearing issues), and kidneys, but only two kidney and one ear surgeries.

His contract is up in May, and he's out. He would have another 12 years to reach 20 (reserves), but he's already 42, so he says he's too old to be deployed again.

He'll be staying home with the little ones for the trip. See how he likes it.

Julie

 

[Brooklyn]

Brooklyn,
Wow, I thought I had it bad. Dh was called up (he's home now) two days after we returned from China when we adopted youngest ds. He left like 2 months later, and he was gone one day, and I was in the ER with youngest who had of all things chronic kidney stones. So we had operations on his ears (he has cleft palate and as a result has hearing issues), and kidneys, but only two kidney and one ear surgeries.

His contract is up in May, and he's out. He would have another 12 years to reach 20 (reserves), but he's already 42, so he says he's too old to be deployed again.

He'll be staying home with the little ones for the trip. See how he likes it.

Julie

My heart goes out to you! It is not easy!!! You need this vacation!!!

DH has about 4 years till 20 but with the economy we figure he is better off staying. He got selected for promotion which is another key factor in wanted to stay. It is a long shot but we are hoping that on this cruise we will be celebrating his promotion being official. I think though he will probably be promoted May 1st which does not good for us bc we will be onboard. He could not wear his new rank on his uniform but at least his pay will increase! Then he will have the promotion ceremony after we get back.

 

[grlzmom]

We were looking at this and so was Jeanne I think. But neither of us can find any reviews. The problem is that the words are so common in Arabic and used in place names all over North Africa. I even tried looking it up in Arabic as close as I could come to it- I can't spell really well when I translate English letters to Arabic. (Ok, my Arabic is really poor, especially since I've been allegedly studying since the summer)

No luck. It sounds pretty cool though. I want to try it, kids don't. They want to go to Carthage and the medina in Tunis and eat all those foods Brooklyn's list says they shouldn't, like they did in China.


Julie

I don't think we could go to China and NOT eat the food, it would be too tempting

Currently my gang is booked for the Berber Village excursion, whether we keep it or not is still debatable, but it looks fun and it is the one port dh strongly prefers to do a DCL excursion so I will probably do it.

 

[grlzmom]

DH is a Marine. Oh yes I understand those disaster years! DH has done 4 deployments to Iraq for a total of 29 months. DD Madison was born 8 weeks premature and he barely made it home. I have been through 6 surgeries with the girls while he was gone. I am sure your year has been so hard!!!! I am glad that it is almost for you!!! DH is planning on staying in for at least 28 years so we have some time before I can say that!

Thanks for posting the vaccine info. With frequent travel I think mine are all good to go (I hope!).

Glad you guys will be celebrating your dhs promotion.

 

[skoi]

Jeanne- you'd be surprised how many of the adoptive parents we traveled with and talked to wouldn't touch Chinese food. Their guides/translators had to go out of the way to get them American food, which is easy in big cities because there are always tons of KFCs, Mc Donald's, Pizza Huts and Papa Johns. They're always so happy to get to Guangzhou at the end of the trip, because there's a place where they serve fairly cheap American like food. We just ate whatever, and I think on the China slideshow on my blog we have pictures of the Night Market where you can get snake on a stick and things like that.We stuck with meat. What kind, we're not sure. Supposedly beef.

Brooklyn- congrats to dh on his promotion. Mine is leaving as a Petty Officer 1st class which is an E6. He's supposed to take the test for chief next month, but since he's leaving in May, he's not going to bother.

I finally managed to get up a slideshow of our 1999 trip to Italy. Next, I'm doing our first family trip to Disney (1997) when we only had one kid.

Julie

 

[skoi]

Did we decide on a time for the pre-cruise meet in Barcelona at the Fountains?

And is everyone okay with the Promenade meet up onboard around 3 on embarkation day?

What other plans do we have, so I can update the first post.

Julie

 

[Brooklyn]

Did we decide on a time for the pre-cruise meet in Barcelona at the Fountains?

And is everyone okay with the Promenade meet up onboard around 3 on embarkation day?

What other plans do we have, so I can update the first post.

Julie

3PM sounds good to me at the Promenade louge. We will not be venturing into Barcelona so no fountain meet up for us.

DH is selected for LtCol. Still debating on if we are bringing his uniform or not. It is sooooo heavy that I am tempted to leave it at home.

 

[skoi]

Good thing dh isn't coming and bringing his uniform. He'd be having to salute everyone through the entire formal night.

Julie

 

[Brooklyn]

Good thing dh isn't coming and bringing his uniform. He'd be having to salute everyone through the entire formal night.

Julie

Marines don't salute indoors without covers.

On the last TA DH brought both his dress blues and mess dress uniform. When he wore his mess dress everyone thought he worked on the ship bc of the short jacket. The funny this is that it was our first Disney Cruise so he did not have a clue the answers to any of the questions he was getting!

 

[NC_Tink]

3pm - Promenade lounge sounds good!

 

[grlzmom]

Good thing dh isn't coming and bringing his uniform. He'd be having to salute everyone through the entire formal night.

Julie

That's too funny When dh was active duty all day in and out of different hospitals and changing clothes alot he often lost his hat. He would frequently call me and say please bring me a hat so I can leave the building, I lost mine again.

I think I read your whole blog, love it!

We are up for whatever time at the fountains (I think Lynne is the expert on this?), probably my littles will stay in the Oceaneers Lab for that and definately 3pm meet!

 

[grlzmom]

3PM sounds good to me at the Promenade louge. We will not be venturing into Barcelona so no fountain meet up for us.

DH is selected for LtCol. Still debating on if we are bringing his uniform or not. It is sooooo heavy that I am tempted to leave it at home.

The uniform is so nice for formal and pictures.