7/14/2014 - 12-Night Mediterranean Cruise (with Greece) Venice to Barcelona

[TammyAlphabet]

I've responded to all the facebook requests as of now, and I think we now have 5 or 6 members.

To keep it on the last page of the thread:

Here is the link to the group.
Facebook Group for July 14, 2014 Med Cruise

I just deactivated my Facebook account, it was too much of a time drain on me. But I think I am going to be spending a good bit of time here on the boards.

 

[denise]

looking at American for flights and OMG
one way was about $3k pp for around the same date but this year of course. Checked out mileage awards and found some cheap ones 30k miles one way, but what a joke the route was...
Sacramento to Los Angeles
Los Angeles to Vegas
Vegas to Heathrow
Heathrow to Gatwick
Gatwick to Venice

are you kidding me!

Going to keep looking....

 

[SailingSeas]

Tammy, I'm not a FB'er either, we'll keep the thread lively. Mykonos I think is where my Yiayia is from. I'm going to track down my family there, and go visit. My cousins have already given me the names of some family members in the area, I just need to reach out. I feel silly doing it

So you speak some Greek?

Baklava... souvlaki... yiassou... opa... Metaxa parakalo... fi lise me... how am I doing? OK that last one i'd better not use in port - there are far too many sailors around! I spoke it with all my cousins when i was very young, but as I grew up, we lived too far to make it fluent at all and I lost it. I can sound like I know what i'm saying (greek is easy to pronounce for me just from growing up in it), but I really don't. I'm hoping I can pick up some, and perhaps it may allow me to learn more. It's a very immersive cruise (unlike the 7-night, which visits multiple countries) so am happy about that.

Denise - you DID plan on taking a month off to get there, right? LOL Also, caught your Nikon in your sig. Might have to pick your brain about that one. Shooting with a Canon SX40 but i believe I want to sell it and get something with a little more adaptable depth-of-field.

Vaca... would love to get them together. Just asked my daughter though and she said "NOW? Mom! One cruise at a time! I can't keep up with everyone!" (we are going on the Eastern in May - kid's spoiled on cruises and seeing the world.)

 

[keenercam]

It is so exciting to see this thread activity. We did the 10 night Med cruise in June-July 2011, and we met so many wonderful people on the DIS ahead of time. We didn't have a FB group then, but many of my DCL cruising friends who have done cruises since then have gotten to know each other a bit better on their FB groups just because they felt people were more willing to "open up" there, where their posts weren't visible to the world.

By the way, I've responded to every request to join the FB group, but if you are a FBer and haven't sent a request yet, go to here and send a request:

Here is the link to the group:
Facebook Group for July 14, 2014 Med Cruise


I'll keep posting the link once in a while to be sure we capture everyone who is interested.

Hey, gusdmh, would you be willing to update your opening post on this thread to add people as they join this thread? It would be great to put the DIS user name and who is in the sailing party, if people are interested. For example, for me it would be:

keenercam (Cam) -- Cam, DH (Howard)

 

[denise]

working some more on flights...
changed our departure to San Francisco... so we would have to drive a few hours to get there.

still over $2k for one way. But only 2 stops. SFO to Heathrow, Heathrow to Venice.
mileage still a joke: same kind of stops. But the funny, or stupid thing is flying into Heathrow and then leave Heathrow and fly to Gatwick and then Gatwick to Venice....ok after typing this it is stupid and not funny.....and this was for 62.5 K miles for a one way trip!!!!

When we did the MED in '07 it took quite a bit of planning on the air part of it because we went to Greece before the cruise. Had it all worked out and then the day before our trip our flight got cancelled out of Sacramento and we had to drive to San Francisco. Then it rained in New York and all flights were delayed. We left hours late but I knew we would miss our connecting flight to London so I got boarding passes for the next flight out. When we landed they said those who have boarding passes must RUN to the next gate to catch that plane. We did and got on it. Of course we landed about 14 hours late and lost our non refundable hotel. We had also missed the plane to Athens. They said don't worry we have you on the next one. Having spent so much time on all this, I knew there was no "next one". I explained this and they said no you are booked on a flight to Amsterdam! I said no we are going to Athens not Amsterdam. They said "OH!" They found us a flight leaving in 10 minutes on yet another carrier. We got to Greece at 230am (a day late)
What a trip....or and our luggage arrived 4 days later...

Words of caution: don't fly Iberra, worst airlines ever. Also flying within Europe seems to have different rules about luggage then flying in the US. When we were leaving Greece for Barcelona they said our carry on was too heavy and we had too much. At that time you could have two each. They said to check them. My husband asked the lady if she spoke Greek (since it was a Spanish carrier) she did. He begged her to help us. She then just said ok...go ahead. Then in Madrid we were worried about the same thing with the same carrier and that person tells me there is no such rule....so guess it all depends on the person checking you in!

I will keep looking for tickets and report back....

 

[keenercam]

Oh, my goodness, Denise! That sounds like my worst nightmare. It sounds so crazy to say this, but there is no way I am not flying non-stop. I'd rather pay a bit more for the peace of mind of not worrying about layovers, changing planes, lost luggage, etc. There are so many things out of my control - - to the extent I can minimize the worry, I'm even willing to have one day less vacation planned and use the hotel cost etc. toward getting a non-stop flight. LOL!

 

[SailingSeas]

Facebook is too addicting for me. I'm okay with talking all by my lonelies here.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

I am not facebooking for the same reason Sailing Seas!

 

[denise]

Oh, my goodness, Denise! That sounds like my worst nightmare. It sounds so crazy to say this, but there is no way I am not flying non-stop. I'd rather pay a bit more for the peace of mind of not worrying about layovers, changing planes, lost luggage, etc. There are so many things out of my control - - to the extent I can minimize the worry, I'm even willing to have one day less vacation planned and use the hotel cost etc. toward getting a non-stop flight. LOL!

now that I think about the flight from Athens to Barcelona it was not the carry on but the check in bags. This is before you had to pay so American said we had two bags free. When we went to check them we had 4 bags total with 3 people and the woman said no. She also said they were over weight. They were all under weight but she had made up some weight and said we were over it. Crazy!

 

[keenercam]

You have to wonder if she was going to make you pay some non-existent fee and pocket it.

 

[denise]

You have to wonder if she was going to make you pay some non-existent fee and pocket it.

perhaps....she said one bag per person...yeah right. So glad she spoke Greek and then she changed completely... a simple, "you have to help us" worked....but freaked us out for the rest of our vacation. I saw so many things I wanted to buy and didn't because I thought she was right about the weight.

Now we have a portable hand-held scale. never again will they say we are over on weight without seeing a scale.

I guess that is tip #3....get a hand held scale to take with you.

#4 is ALWAYS arrive at least one day before the cruise. Our luggage came 4 days later but at least we were still in Greece. We saw dozens of families on our MED cruise with NO Luggage the entire trip! The luggage was always a port behind....

#5 remember to pack at least one change of clothing in your carry on...We didn't but Marriotts was wonderful in Athens and washed our clothes for free daily and gave us toothbrushes and toiletries.

I will post more as I think of them....

 

[denise]

for those who collect Hard Rock Cafe pins and stuff...there is a HRC in Venice, Athens, Malta, Barcelona and Mykonos.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

I plan on getting to Venice a few days early for sure. We want to take a day trip to Verona and maybe a day or two in the Lake Como area. i hear it is beautiful.

As for luggage, it is tempting to take carry ons only as there will be laundry onboard. However, in my past experience, I have found that I am not the only person who thinks of this and the laundries are often packed. I can remember one cruise where there was a lady there all the time. She had to iron everything her family wore. I never iron anything or buy anything that has to be ironed so that is strange to me. However, I am strange so that is nothing new.

We will probably be bringing carry ons and one checked per person as usual. We intend to live in shorts, t shirts, sandals and tennis shoes for this trip. With a few things to wear to dinner. I will bring one fancy dress, two sundresses, two or three shorts, several casual blouses, one pair of black pants, some t-shirts, underwear/socks and swimsuits with coverup/robe. The rest of the suitcase will be dedicated to my electronics. LOL.

 

[vacationsitis]

Planning on getting to Venice a couple of days early & also staying a couple of days after cruise in Barcelona. There is so much to do both in Venice & Barcelona that we would only be able to do a few things. Thinking of doing the day trip to Montserrat Monastery as I have heard so much about it.

 

[SailingSeas]

Every time i've been to Barcelona, i've been in a sleep-deprived coma. I can tell you just how comfortable the beds are different hotels are, but that's about it. Looking forward to actually *seeing* Venice.

Tammy, sounds like you and I pack alike. If you're missing something, just come find me. I carry enough gadgets it's not funny. I use all of them though.

I pack light, and will do laundry. I have a portable drying rack i've brought on a 7-nighter before; it's great for bathing suits and towels, and anything we hand wash in the sink.

I forgot who was asking if we overnight that first night in Venice; we do not. At this time, it's shipping off for two sea days before hitting Greece, so we'll all be wide awake and raring to go by then. I'm grateful for all the long days in port.

 

[denise]

checked British Airways about an "open jaw" trip from San Francisco was about $2K.....almost $700 is just taxes and fuel charges! They said I could use my American Airlines miles so will have to call that department.
Booking starts one year to the date of travel. Their website will let you enter open jaw ticketing.

Going to call American today.

So it looks like we will be driving to SFO instead of leaving local. It was almost $1,000 pp more to travel from our airport at Sacramento!

 

[vacationsitis]

We plan on leaving from San Francisco too. We will be using United Airlines & I think their booking starts 11 months ahead of departure but I have to cross-check that & be ready. We usually drive to SFO & park our car there.

 

[denise]

just checked with a "real" person at American (where we have our miles)

booking start 11 months out.

To check multi city or "open jaw" tickets on line you first click on "Plan Travel" at the top of the page. A drop down menu appears and select "flights". A new page comes up and there is a tab for multi city!

I am checking flights from SFO to Milan now. Seem cheaper.

Now when I checked Milan (MXP) on British it was almost $200 cheaper than when I checked it on American....funny thing is the flights thru British were on American Airlines planes and not British!! ???

I also checked using miles and if booked today it would be 90,000 miles. Using this July as the date. So I am sure it would be about 60K when booked at 11 months out.

Gonna check out trains from Milan to Venice...

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Is it just me, or does this cruise have the best itinerary that disney has ever offered?

 

[OzRalphs]

Hi Cam and Howard,

I have requested to join the Facebook group, my name is Tanya Glasson Ralph and my family and I will be travelling all the way from down under for our second Disney cruise! looking forward to meeting you all!
cheers
Tanya