7/18/10 Mickey's Baltic Ballyhoo Part 6

[Caropooh]

But dont trust them past a week!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunny Wed,Fri,Sat, Sun, light Rain Thurs this week, 22c>25c but nothing further than that.

We could stay sunny for a while but normally a heatwave like this breaksdown with Thunder storms,

The Weather Channel app on my phone is showing showers for Mon, Tues, Wed and Thursday (the day we arrive) and partly cloudy on Friday.
I'll only be checking a "few" times a day!

You would think one of those people that got off the ship today would be on top of that by now!

They really should be!

 

[Celestine]

I like Mars Bar! What color?

Secret to longevity: Eat when you want, but not people food (won't work for humans!); be sure all housemates know you are Alpha; decide what you want and go after it (including a new home and family). That about sums up Miss Spot. Oh yeah -- have a push-over in charge of your care!

Will go and take a photo this week-end & post for those of you that have not started your trip

Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Good Evening Everyone

I need help from the "other side of the pond". My husband has had bariatric surgery. He is not allowed to drink carbonated drinks and his drinks must be sugar free. Here at home he drinks an Orangeade and diet Lemonade.

From what I see on the boat, he will be limited to water and milk (he doesn't like tea unless it's thick with sugar...imagine, he's not even southern)

Anyway, we were hoping we could find a British drink that would work for him. We'd like to buy something while in London and bring it onboard (along with a truckload of water bottles...they are expensive).

Thanks for any suggestions. We'll be in London for four days before cruise and will have ample time to "check out" the suggestions made. Thank you very much for the help.

In the UK there is fruit flavoured drinks that you dilute with water. THere are a myriad of flavours, e.g. blackcurrant, orange, lemon etc. Every supermarket sells it and they do no added sugar varieties too. Look out for "squash". You can also buy fruit juice in tetrapak containers. Still (non carbonated) lemonade does exist but in a small supermarket I can'y guarantee you'll find it. The other option is a health food store like Holland & Barret. Cheap bottles of water can be found at supermarkets and Costco (if you have transport available)

Hope that is of some help

Celestine

 

[drleblanc]

For those going to London before the cruise, I have one restaurant your kids will love going to, we visit it every time we are in London with our 11 year old daughter (younger ones will like it too).

It is in the Chelsea / Fulham area, place called Buona Sera at the Jam, 289a Kings Road. It is had tables stacked like bunk beds, you have to climb a ladder to get to the top tables. Food is pretty good too so it is not just about the novelty. Call to make a reservation requesting a top table, 020 7352 8827.

 

[drleblanc]

Have also been nervous about booking a tour guide in St Petersburg and have booked some DCL trips as back up as well. Will have to remember to cancel them in the next few days, have gone with a private tour guide (she is not affiliated with any of the big tour groups) for both days. Feeling confident since she has good references, been very responsive to all my requests and inquiries and has not asked for any money yet. She will only charge us at the end based on how many hours we choose to spend with her. She can recommend other people she knows if anyone needs a find another tour guide quickly.

 

[RJAYL]

Good Morning All

 

[jilljill]

Good Morning All

'Morning

 

[jilljill]

I've read the PM's with cabin numbers from those that have sent them to me. If you are doing the postcard exchange please PM me with your cabin number. If there are any changes to your cabin number please call our cabin to let me know and I'll send out an updated list the first evening of the cruise. I'll get out the postcard list by tomorrow morning via PM. So far there are 12 cabins that have PM'd me.

thanks

 

[scrapycruiser]

Does anyone know the link that tells you which ships are in port on certain days ? Just wondering how many ships will be in each of our ports.

I'm half packed, the rest is hanging in my closet. Yes, I'm excited !!

Seeing my Grandchildren AND a Baltic cruise !!!

 

[Nick Charles]

But dont trust them past a week!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sunny Wed,Fri,Sat, Sun, light Rain Thurs this week, 22c>25c but nothing further than that.

We could stay sunny for a while but normally a heatwave like this breaksdown with Thunder storms,

Dude, you call that a heat wave? Round here, we call it downright frigid for July. To use your "goofy" temp guage, we hit almost 40c yesterday! (For those with normal thermometers, that's 100F).

Here's today's report:

Sunny High
100°F

Precip
0%

Wind: From N at 9 mph
Max. Humidity: 37%
UV Index: 10 Very High


Sunrise: 5:51 AM ET
Avg. High: 87°F
Record High: 101°F (1988)



70 to 75 sounds fine to me.

 

[Hanover]

I contacted my TA about what will happen with our Stockholm tour but she has not received any information about the 3PM departure or any tour modifications. Does anyone know what will happen for tours that would have been later? We are scheduled for the noon tour which should last 4.5 hours.

We are pretty much set with all of our cruise necessities. The only thing left is to see if my son that just turned 13's suit still fits. He's grown 6 or 7 inches since Christmas and I have a feeling we may be buying him a new one this weekend.

We have received our cruise documents but my MIL has not received hers yet.

We fly out on Wednesday from BWI (Baltimore) on a red eye and arrive in London 9:25 on Thursday. We are staying in the Park Plaza Westminister Bridge.

We are taking DCL transfers on Sunday. Does anyone know what time the bus will get to the terminal? We did transfers in Barcelona but didn't arrive until the afternoon and boarding had begun earlier. We are platinum members so hoping to board with the 1st group, eat lunch and possibly go to Dover castle. We'll see how tired we are after 3 full days of touring London.

We are also staying at the same hotel on the 30th (flying out the 31st) and are hoping to sign up for the castle tour on debarkation day once we board. Is anyone else doing the same tour? DCL told me they need at least 20 people.

 

[Flora Fan]

In the UK there is fruit flavoured drinks that you dilute with water. THere are a myriad of flavours, e.g. blackcurrant, orange, lemon etc. Every supermarket sells it and they do no added sugar varieties too. Look out for "squash". You can also buy fruit juice in tetrapak containers. Still (non carbonated) lemonade does exist but in a small supermarket I can'y guarantee you'll find it. The other option is a health food store like Holland & Barret. Cheap bottles of water can be found at supermarkets and Costco (if you have transport available)

Hope that is of some help

Celestine

Thank you so much. I really appreciate the help.

See you all very soon.

 

[flower91882]

It's 99°F here. With a heat index of 102°F.

At least it makes laundry and packing a little easier. There's no way we'll be wearing the jeans and pants that we'll be taking with us in this heat.

We depart from Washington Dulles next Friday and arrive in London at 7:05am Saturday morning. We're staying at the Grosvenor House Hotel. It's one of the Disney sponsored hotels but we book separately at a Significantly lower price.

Weather in DC for Friday the 16th: Hi 91°F Lo 73°F Precip 40%, Scattered T-Storms. Hopefully this doesn't interfere with our flight.

 

[flower91882]

We are taking DCL transfers on Sunday. Does anyone know what time the bus will get to the terminal? We did transfers in Barcelona but didn't arrive until the afternoon and boarding had begun earlier. We are platinum members so hoping to board with the 1st group, eat lunch and possibly go to Dover castle. We'll see how tired we are after 3 full days of touring London.

It seems like we have the same plans for Sunday (though we aren't Platinum). I really hope that we'll be able to get there in time to board, eat lunch, drop our bags off, leave to tour Dover Castle and be back in time for the Mustard, I mean Muster Drill.

Would a taxi be the easiest way to get to/from Dover Castle? Will they be easy enough to find on either end? Does anyone know what the estimated cost would be?

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

We will be in the morning of July 15 and are staying at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge. We are doing the London Eye, Cruise on river Thames and Porter's that evening. We are going to the French resturant Mon Plaisir on Saturday and then on to the Lion King and we have a High Tea reserved at the Georgian Resturant in Harrods for the 16th. We also plan on going to the Tower of London, the British Museum, and to see the changing of the guards. I do not know if we will stop while in London.

You are packing a lot in.

Why do you bother with a hotel room?
I got tired just reading your plans.

I think we're all going to need a sea day to recover from having fun in London!

Agreed.

Yes, I think we'll all need that sea day.

Can't wait for the navigator for Tallinn to be posted!

Yes agree nice to see that one.

Good Evening Everyone

I need help from the "other side of the pond". My husband has had bariatric surgery. He is not allowed to drink carbonated drinks and his drinks must be sugar free. Here at home he drinks an Orangeade and diet Lemonade.

From what I see on the boat, he will be limited to water and milk (he doesn't like tea unless it's thick with sugar...imagine, he's not even southern)

Anyway, we were hoping we could find a British drink that would work for him. We'd like to buy something while in London and bring it onboard (along with a truckload of water bottles...they are expensive).

Thanks for any suggestions. We'll be in London for four days before cruise and will have ample time to "check out" the suggestions made. Thank you very much for the help.

Celestine has given a great answer, you can go to TESCO's, SAINSBURY's MARK's and SPENCER, many have outlets in London and Dover. As you go in often there is a chilled drinks cabinet, and in store a larger sellection, many juice type drinks without the 'gas', Poweraide, Drench, Quench come to mind.

For those wondering about Stockholm and Sigtuna my friend did that tour last week and it still includes lunch whereas Skansen does not. I believe she said they served chicken. Our all aboard time in Stockholm was 3:45. She was aboard before that so I don't know if it will affect your times to shorten the day.

They ran a free shuttle from the ship to the side of the Royal Palace in the Old Town but there were issues with extremely long lines of people waiting to return to the ship in the afternoon. They ran four buses but it still took time.

Yes there were bugs in St. Petersburg, large ones. They landed on me but I don't recall them biting me.

Bring sunscreen.

Thank you. I am on that one and asked DCL re food.

Well this may seem like a silly question but we are on quite a budget for this trip and I am wondering if anyone could tell me what I should budget for meals for a family of 4 (2 adults, 11 yr old and 20 mth old) in London or Glasgow. I want to make sure I have enough money for food before spending too much play money

We leave on Friday so this is becoming real pretty soon...can't wait to meet everyone. And I agree with everyone else who has posted this, Thank you Andrew for all your help in making this trip extra special. Your reply almost had me in tears, so sweet.

Depends where you go.

McDonalds for four, low end is about £20.
Pizza Hut have deals say £28 but plus drinks and dessert £45.
Resturants can be £50>£100 x booze.

Dude, you call that a heat wave? Round here, we call it downright frigid for July. To use your "goofy" temp guage, we hit almost 40c yesterday! (For those with normal thermometers, that's 100F).

Here's today's report:

Sunny High
100°F

Precip
0%

Wind: From N at 9 mph
Max. Humidity: 37%
UV Index: 10 Very High


Sunrise: 5:51 AM ET
Avg. High: 87°F
Record High: 101°F (1988)



70 to 75 sounds fine to me.

We have cooled a little, but for us hot, and sunny, when I say the TUBE was 40c, then you know what I mean.

Anyone finding these boards very very sllllllllllllloooooooooooooowwwwwwwww.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

It seems like we have the same plans for Sunday (though we aren't Platinum). I really hope that we'll be able to get there in time to board, eat lunch, drop our bags off, leave to tour Dover Castle and be back in time for the Mustard, I mean Muster Drill.

Would a taxi be the easiest way to get to/from Dover Castle? Will they be easy enough to find on either end? Does anyone know what the estimated cost would be?

I walked Port to Town centre in 15 mins, the Castle is double that and up hill, if there is a taxi I would take it there, and then maybe walk back, you cant miss the sea, port, or ship. Cost maybe circa £5>£10.

 

[flower91882]

I walked Port to Town centre in 15 mins, the Castle is double that and up hill, if there is a taxi I would take it there, and then maybe walk back, you cant miss the sea, port, or ship. Cost maybe circa £5>£10.

Thanks! Hopefully, we have at least 2 hours to explore Dover. I figure if we get to the port by noon, we should be ok.

 

[Marla Hellwig]

howdy

another hot and sticky day here - but at least the is drying fast outside - thank heavens for air conditioning

For now, no plans to get off the ship once we board on Sunday - but you never know

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Does anyone know the link that tells you which ships are in port on certain days ? Just wondering how many ships will be in each of our ports.

I'm half packed, the rest is hanging in my closet. Yes, I'm excited !!

Seeing my Grandchildren AND a Baltic cruise !!!

http://www.cruisett.com/ports.php

Havent looked at it recently but in most ports there are other ships in and a lot in St Petes.

 

[Celestine]

Well this may seem like a silly question but we are on quite a budget for this trip and I am wondering if anyone could tell me what I should budget for meals for a family of 4 (2 adults, 11 yr old and 20 mth old) in London or Glasgow. I want to make sure I have enough money for food before spending too much play money

Don't forget to check out www.moneysavingexpert.com and go to the deals voucher tabs and worm your way to the restaurant deals for lots of 2 for 1 offers, many of which you just print at home, including Giraffe, GBK, Prezzo, Pizza hut etc.

Celestine