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

[susanowen27]

Small change...I believe we ARE going to see the Leaning Tower, just not the Duomo or Baptistry in Pisa...we want to spend as much time as possible in Florence but are going to "swing by" the Tower

I like the change. Should have read this first. If you still have 2 openings, pm me.

 

[linkandclover]

Happy Birthday Belinda

Welcome everybody

Emily when are you leaving for Barcelona and which airport will you be leaving from ( wondering if we will be on the same flight)

We are arriving a day earlier and staying at the AC Diplomat just so Disney will take our luggage on board (I booked it through the hotel directly which was cheaper than DCL but still gives you access to their transportation. After our return to Barcelona we are staying at hotel Gaudi ( decent reviews and we were able to get a quad).

 

[skoi]

Hi all,

Thanks for the warm welcomes. We are wondering if anyone has availability left on private tours? Let me know if you do.

Thanks,
Bee

P.S. - I think someone asked for our "real" names. We are Bee (me), Gwynn (Dad) & Gwynn (Son)

I sent you a pm.

Julie

 

[skoi]

Just did a quick roll call update, if you're not on the list and want to be, let me know.

Here are our shore excursion plans so far...

Malta: DIY Mdina and Valetta

Tunis: DIY Carthage and the Medina (what with my near native-Moroccan Arabic we'll be fine)

Naples: Tour down Amalfi Coast without Pompeii. Still have three spots open.

Civitavechhia: DIY Rome including Vatican and museum, St Paul Outside the Walls.

La Spezia: Disney transport to Florence then on our own.

Ajaccio: Napoleon!

Villefranche: DIY Nice (Chagall Museum and just hanging out)

We arrive on the 21st and yes, we are staying in the Holiday Inn Express, so maybe I'll just take over and captain the ship, like in those commercials.

And to answer Belinda's question, we are so not ready to go Morocco. Last meeting with our tutor is Tuesday, and he has a cousin and sister in Rabat who want to meet us. Last meeting with our friend Hafid is Wednesday, and his family will have us in Fes, so I don't think too much can go wrong, seeing how we have "family" in country.

At least they can bail us out of jail, or call the embassy for us.

Julie

 

[shushh]

Julie, it does look like you'll be well taken care of!

Lara, next weekend will be great. How about Sunday lunch?

 

[dolphingirl47]

Lubi, I saw on the other thread that you're with DU as well. Do you mind me asking who your agent is? We're getting a little frustrated with our agent now. It always takes AT LEAST 36 hours before she answers any emails sometimes up to 1 week. We're pretty laid back people. Tried to let John know for future reference but he just says he's surprised at our comments and offered to transfer our reservation to DCL. We've got Kelsie and every one seems to rave on about her. Maybe the questions that we're asking are too hard...

That really surprises me. Kelsie has handled my last cruise for me and also the next 3. When I transferred an existing booking to this cruise, it took her less than an hour from my initial request to letting me know that it had all been done. It then took another 90 minutes or so for everything being finalized including confirmation that the payment had been applied. This has been my experience in all my dealings with her.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Belinda

 

[haddybaby]

Happy Birthday Belinda

Welcome everybody

Emily when are you leaving for Barcelona and which airport will you be leaving from ( wondering if we will be on the same flight)

We are arriving a day earlier and staying at the AC Diplomat just so Disney will take our luggage on board (I booked it through the hotel directly which was cheaper than DCL but still gives you access to their transportation. After our return to Barcelona we are staying at hotel Gaudi ( decent reviews and we were able to get a quad).

We'll be taking the red eye on the 23rd out of Philly to Barcelona. It was the closest airport we could get an inexpensive direct flight. (Didn't want to do a 2 hour lay-over with 3 kids in the middle of the night.) We are spending a night in Barcelona after the cruise, but I haven't booked it yet. Guess I need to get on top of that.

Thanks for the very nice welcomes all!!!

 

[haddybaby]

We'll pass on tips about the DISboards and you can pass on tips about DCL.

Welcome!

So it took someone from Australia to get a Marylander hooked up with us for a European cruise?

Right now we are in the middle of discussing what to do about shore excursions. The DCL ones are a bit pricey, and several of the ports seem to be okay for Do-It-Yourself.

I created an external website for this Med- and the preceding Eastbound Transatlantic- (TA) cruises. (See http address at the bottom of this post). I'm collecting individual's plans for the port excursions and posting them on a page of "Med Excursions."

Is Kellan a DS or DD (Dear Son or Daughter)?

If you would like to participate in a gift exchange wherein you give one gift to each of about 11 other cabins, we are signing up for that right now. It is referred to as the FE (Fish Extender), named that because the receptacle for receiving the gifts hangs from a metal fish mounted on the wall outside your cabin, thereby "extending" the usable space of the fish (it is there for DCL to leave you reminders of upcoming events). You don't have to make up your mind today. You have probably seen them handing outside cabins. And you have probably seen magnets on the doors - that will be you if stick around the Boards long enough.

The EB TA just went through Cabin Upgrade Chaos this week, which means many of us should be getting our cabin assignments in about 1 1/2 weeks.

Even though you are a member CC (Castaway Club), we'll also have a lanyard with name tag to give you as a gift. They serve as a nice ice breaker to find and meet other DISers from this forum. The lanyard is black with white lettering and the name tag should look like mine with my real name on top and my DIS name below:



I don't know if you are able to search before you get 10 posts (you can't send a Private Message - PM - until you do), but I find the search this thread function at the top of the thread to be a very handy tool.

- Lynne

Thanks...that just cleared up a lot of stuff I have been very confused about. I would love to participate in the FE gift exchange!! I don't have any of my shore excursions figured out yet. I was planning on doing them with DCL until I saw how expensive they are. Now I'm buried in a pile of travel books trying to figure out how to do it on my own. I picked my staterooms when I made my reservations. They are 6089 & 6087.

Kellan is a DS (all 3 boys)

Emily

 

[Dicecatt]

Originally I thought that Tunis and Villefranche were the two tender ports...but looking at the previous Med Navigators shows La Spezia as a tender port...can anyone confirm?

The only time I've been through a tender process is Elite status on Princess so we had priority tender...can anyone share experiences with tendering on Disney?

 

[auntlynne]

Originally I thought that Tunis and Villefranche were the two tender ports...but looking at the previous Med Navigators shows La Spezia as a tender port...can anyone confirm?

The only time I've been through a tender process is Elite status on Princess so we had priority tender...can anyone share experiences with tendering on Disney?

According to the DCL site, here's the Transportation info for La Spezia:


Tender boats: Tender boats ferry guests from the ship to a promenade approximately 200 yards from downtown La Spezia. The walk to the city's main shopping district takes about 10 minutes.

Taxis: Taxis are available 200 yards from the pier. Prices are generally determined by a meter with additional fees for suitcases, time of day and travel on holidays. A display in the cab lists some standard rates. If you are traveling longer distances, we recommend that you negotiate a price before your journey.

Buses: Most major venues in La Spezia are accessible by foot, but there are 2 major bus lines available. Line "L" runs from the railway station to Lerici in 35 minutes with a bus departing every 15 minutes. Line "P" and "11" run from Piazza Chiodo to Portovenere in 1 hour with a bus departing every 30 minutes. Bus tickets are purchased at newsstands and must be stamped upon boarding.

Train: The La Spezia railway station is a 15-minute walk from the pier. The train provides transportation to the Cinque Terre National Park. Guests can buy train and park tickets at an office inside the main gates of the railway station.

They actually have some info to help those of us not using their sponsored tours.

 

[guynwdm]

Does anyone know what the movies are during the Med cruise?

Should be the new earth series movie since we start the day after earthday.

 

[Yvet]

Originally I thought that Tunis and Villefranche were the two tender ports...but looking at the previous Med Navigators shows La Spezia as a tender port...can anyone confirm?

What i found was also from the navigators from the med 2007 cruises and we have to tender at Villefrance and La Spezia, so you are correct.

The only time I've been through a tender process is Elite status on Princess so we had priority tender...can anyone share experiences with tendering on Disney?

We have tendered before with DCL it was at Grand Cayman.
We were booked with a DCL excursion and thoose people get to be the first to tender and get of the ship.

 

[uwo93]

Don't know if everyone knows about Character calls...

I was just playing around with my res this morning, waiting for the CAT 12 GTY to magically change and I found Character calls. Options are Mickey, Goofy and Ariel.

Link was at the bottom of My Reservation page (look for Captain Mickey).

Pretty neat.

 

[Lyrah]

Hi everyone! Things have been so busy here lately that I have only been able to sneak in a few minutes at a time to see what's been happening on here. Sounds like a lot of plans are coming together. I love reading about all of the different ideas of what everyone is doing at the ports.

to all of the new cruisers!

I am really excited to share something with everyone. We are arriving in Barcelona on Apr 21st (DH's birthday) and I was looking for somewhere a little out of the ordinary to stay. My neighbor lived in Spain for 3 years and she suggested that I take a look at staying in a Parador. So I looked through some info she gave me, and guess what? Our first 2 nights we are staying in a 9th century CASTLE!!! It is called the Duques De Cardona. Check it out if you have time, it's so awesome. We are now renting a car at the airport and then driving there. It is about a 45 mile trip. The next day we will explore the castle and the village below. Then on Friday we will drive to Barcelona and probably stop at Montserrat for a few hours since it will be on the way back.

I still have 2 more ports to confirm plans in and then I will post those.

Julie, I bet you and the kids are getting really excited about your trip. Have a wonderful time!

 

[dolphingirl47]

I am still not making any progress with my planning for the cruise itself. However, I am starting to look at our pre-cruise stay in Barcelona. One of my team members used to work for a different cruise line in Barcelona and he has put together some recommendations for us and also provided me with some reading material. So that is my project for this week.

Corinna

 

[Disneyfalcon]

You can link to Auntlynne's website here: http://web.me.com/lyncorn/Site/Welcome.html Also, she includes a link on all of her posts

Thanks NCTink! And thanks to you too, Lynne!

 

[shushh]

Don't know if everyone knows about Character calls...

I was just playing around with my res this morning, waiting for the CAT 12 GTY to magically change and I found Character calls. Options are Mickey, Goofy and Ariel.

Link was at the bottom of My Reservation page (look for Captain Mickey).

Pretty neat.

No I don't know what it is! but it sounds interesting. I can't see it on our "My reservation page"

 

[shushh]

Belinda

Thanks Corinna!

We were surprised at the amount of time Kelsie has taken to reply to our emails. An eg of a question we asked recently was with regard to photo CDs. I know of the packages offered for the current caribbean/bahamas cruises (which I mentioned in my email) but I asked if she could enquire with DCL if they had plans for the longer cruises eg TA or med. It took 10 days for us to get a reply. A reply which just had info that appeared to be cut and pasted from the website, and my question not being answered. I didn't expect an immediate answer but perhaps a quick "I'll look into it for you" would have been nice.

In the long run, its not a big deal as the cruise is all booked and paid for. We're certainly not out to get her into trouble! We wouldn't have realised how slow she was if it wasn't for our small world vacation TA who always replies with 2 days and usually by the next day (even with time difference) with any questions that we asked about our PC cruise.

 

[shushh]

Our first 2 nights we are staying in a 9th century CASTLE!!! It is called the Duques De Cardona.

That looks really lovely!