7/18/2010 Mickey's Baltic Ballyhoo!! Part 4

[crystald]

I was wondering if there was a kids thread for this cruise. Thanks

 

[bellelinus]

If you want to be there around 11am then your math is correct. I guess we'll have to check the first cruisers and see what time the port opens and we can get into the terminal. The terminal is small, at least the one we were at, and there weren't many chairs. But boarding had already started when we arrived at Noon and we didn't have to wait in line at all.

I was also thinking I didn't want to be at the terminal too early for this one -- 11 or 12 is fine. I know for the Med cruises out of Barcelona, the terminal was not that terrific, and we waited a bit for the Med cruise (I think we got there at 11 or 11:30 -- I know we had visited Sagrada Familia that morning), but for the repo got there at 1:30 or so (having flown in from Paris that morning). They weren't announcing names any more at that point, but it was nice to go straight to our room and then grab a bite to eat.

 

[bellelinus]

I was wondering if there was a kids thread for this cruise. Thanks

I don't think anyone has started one yet -- it's a long time for the kids to wait! -- but perhaps someone will closer to time. If so, the link to it would always be on the first post of whatever thread we are on, since it has all the basic information. If you would like to be added to our list of cruisers, pm jilljill with your info.

 

[Madisonznana]

Train is £25pp adult, one quote for private car same route £256.

How much are the dcl transfers? We always do the cruise line transfers because we are a family that has great relations with Murphy's Law

 

[jilljill]

How much are the dcl transfers? We always do the cruise line transfers because we are a family that has great relations with Murphy's Law

Look Karen, we've been talking cruise talk.

I guess the only real answer to this question is to do a dummy booking on DCL's site and see what they show up as.
If I remember right for our Carnival cruise last summer they ran around $85/person each way.

 

[Madisonznana]

Look Karen, we've been talking cruise talk.

I guess the only real answer to this question is to do a dummy booking on DCL's site and see what they show up as.
If I remember right for our Carnival cruise last summer they ran around $85/person each way.

I am quite excited!! I read back a few messages the someone thought Disney was charging between $125-150 per person. Is this one way or both ways?

 

[jilljill]

I am quite excited!! I read back a few messages the someone thought Disney was charging between $125-150 per person. Is this one way or both ways?

Excited?!? We paid about $60 total for the 3 of us to go on the National Express coach. For that rate we were excited, but I was still bummed since I missed the cheap rates when bookings opened up at 12 weeks out. I was totally bummed to pay the $255 for the 3 of us to take a coach back to Heathrow, but it was the easiest after a long, tiring cruise.

That rate looks low for r/t transfers. I'm thinking when I was booking this it was over $500 for the 3 of us for r/t transfers.

 

[RJAYL]

How much are the dcl transfers? We always do the cruise line transfers because we are a family that has great relations with Murphy's Law

Look Karen, we've been talking cruise talk.

I guess the only real answer to this question is to do a dummy booking on DCL's site and see what they show up as.
If I remember right for our Carnival cruise last summer they ran around $85/person each way.

I am quite excited!! I read back a few messages the someone thought Disney was charging between $125-150 per person. Is this one way or both ways?

Okay I got it wrong DCL transfers were $85 per person when we booked!

However it should be said that for my family of 6 is $510.

Ground transfer's to the airport in Barcelona are only $30 each for a total of $180! We will be using Disney transportation in Barcelona!

One must believe that I can hire a coach for our party for less!

I also believe that Disney has a more laid back attitude about getting to the ship anytime before the ship leaves is okay and we like to arrive just before boarding starts.

I believe they left the Grand Californian after 11 or 12 last summer & in Barcelona in 2007 they did not start leaving the hotel untill 12!

So at $500 I might as well get to the ship when I want to!

 

[RJAYL]

Good Morning All TGIF

 

[MrsScooby]

howdy

busy few weeks here will try to catch up later

graduation is tonight, part of the family came in yesterday and the balance arrives this morning

senior picture

Hey there
Beautiful pics
Have fun

The major hurdle with trying to set this up is we would all have to decide on where to catch the bus that would be central to everyone since we won't all be staying in the same area of the city. Or wonder if the company could recommend a place for everyone to meet and catch the bus.

It would be easy to set up something like that at D'land or WDW since everyone is basically in the same area and not spread out over a city.

Ahh, you make several good points
I've never been to London (or Europe for that matter), plus I'm horrible with maps My only experience with public transportation has been NYC, upstate NY and Washington DC-which is fine for most things, but I dread it with our luggage for a 2 week trip
I was just kinda hoping to round up enough people for at least one chartered bus. Of course that may be unrealistic on my part

I think getting a DIS bus is a great idea!!!!

We have never been to the UK and are planning on spending a day or two before the cruise in London. We're all going in the same direction so this makes a lot of sense (especially for us newbies!) We haven't booked our hotel yet and want to see the touristy things in London so a bus leaving from the London area would be great for us. I'm guessing that a cab or the tube from our hotel to the bus meeting place would be less hassel than doing that anyway to a bus station and then figuring out how to get from the Dover stop to the terminal. It also would probably get us there faster overall. If a central London stop is not convenient for all, maybe the company will set up 2 stops in the area. It still has to be better than a Greyhound type bus.

I have no idea where to start with this. Robert, Julie, Andrew, Barb, Celestine, does this make sense to do???????

Haven't booked our hotel yet either and may choose one depending upon where some of the more experienced Londoners are

I'll contact Silverline and see what they say and report back.

Thanks, that would be great

DH has got me some coach prices, but he is at night school at the moment so will have to post them later. If there is enough interest, I am happy to co-ordinate (yes, I saw the stress first hand that Julie went through last year) & I'm still willing to give it a go. I note some-one asked about picking up - our contacts say it should not be diff=icult to pick people up from their hotels as long as you are all in London (Bayswater, Paddington, London eye etc.) rather than Outer London. I'll do a proper post later & ask for a rough idea of numbers. Logistically it may be easier with a couple of smaller mini coaches rather than 1 large coach.

Celestine

Sounds wonderful

No clue what stress Julie went thru last year, but at least you are in the same time zone and calling zone as the companies you can get the info from so that has to be a huge help.
That would be so great of you to be able to get us some info, especially where they can pick us all up from. I'm sure to save £'s we would all be willing to get to a central point.

I dont know if I should post that in 2010, all I need to do is either drive to the cruise port or get a taxi and be there in one hour!!!!! Mint.

If I could, I'd post the smiley with the tongue sticking out

Being honest it has lots of logisital issues as Julie knows from last year, there people were only at the DIsneyland resort area and thats compact and there were issues, london is a big place so unelss you all book hotels very near each other picking up all over the palce could be a cost. As its a weekend no congestion charge and traffic is lighter.

Now as said if you are in the London Bridge, or Charing Cross areas the rail service to Dover Priory will be good. Our rail is generally better than USA, Sunday traffic on the trains will be lighter.

Or
Private van/ car hire for a familiy of four will be quite enconomical agaisnt coash or DCL transfers.

Hire car to the port from London is an option.

Personally I feel the private coach will be an issue unless you all book a hotel at the same place.

Normally we'd opt for renting a car, except you folks drive on the "wrong" side of the road

How much are the dcl transfers? We always do the cruise line transfers because we are a family that has great relations with Murphy's Law

Oh, we must be related.

 

[MrsScooby]

Good Morning All TGIF

Good morning

 

[Caropooh]

Happy Birthday Caro!!!

Thanks Barb!
I had a nice day! Nobody at work knew it was my birthday, but that's all right, lots of my FB and other internet friends wished me HAPPY BIRTHDAY. (and my family did too, of course) Kathryn had a choir and choir chimes concert at school last night and then we went to dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory!

I'll be back this afternoon/evening to catch up on everything here. We actually have CRUISE stuff to discuss?

 

[MrsScooby]

Yes, Celestine, you did see how badly arranging coach service privately can be last year when I did it I have been holding off on commenting because I know my girls would go crazy if I suggested that we do a variation on the "pirate bus" again this time . . . logically I know that it is a very different situation in London, and with your husband's expertise, Celestine but I will have to wait and see how things look before committing to this again. And you are a saint for looking into it!

Thanks, both of you -- I am not ruling out a bus with everyone if it seems workable but I do have some residual trauma from last year! (Barb, basically I coordinated three large buses, none of which seemed to know that they were there for us -- and bore a different name than what we had reserved -- none of the drivers spoke English, and only one spoke Spanish, which was fine, the other two spoke Mandarin! Then there was not enough space for everyone's luggage despite being assured there would be, and they didn't know the way to the port and got lost. Yes, and I was in charge Thank God for Todd -- DisneyVegas)

If it makes you feel any better-now we know what to look out for

 

[MrsScooby]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARO

I sent you a card on facebook, but forgot the cake

 

[jilljill]

Ahh, you make several good points
I've never been to London (or Europe for that matter), plus I'm horrible with maps My only experience with public transportation has been NYC, upstate NY and Washington DC-which is fine for most things, but I dread it with our luggage for a 2 week trip
I was just kinda hoping to round up enough people for at least one chartered bus. Of course that may be unrealistic on my part


Haven't booked our hotel yet either and may choose one depending upon where some of the more experienced Londoners are




Thanks, that would be great


Sounds wonderful


Normally we'd opt for renting a car, except you folks drive on the "wrong" side of the road

London transport is so easy to use and figure out. Look at the tube map ahead of time, even print it out from the link in the first post, and just figure out where the places are you want to see and go from there. The London tube was my first experience with any kind of public transit and I figured it out right away. Now DH, he can't figure it out at all and he's good with maps and I'm not.
I've tried the Wash DC subway but we were with my cousin and he got us around, and the NYC had me confused a little bit but once I figured out which direction we needed to go we were fine.
We like the sense of adventure of taking our luggage on the tube, and always have with more bags than we have now. This was the reason we wouldn't take DD to London when she was still in the stroller, didn't want to deal with that and luggage. We only packed 2 suitcases for the 3 of us for our cruise last summer, and only had 2 carry on's. We did lots of laundry on the ship, but that was ok. We also opted out of taking a suit for him and dresses for me. Less clothes and shoes to pack that way. We've overpacked way too many times when going to England and we've vowed to never do that again.

We would have liked to have rented a car last summer, BUT the prices were way over the top for a 1 day rental, gas (petrol) prices are even more over the top, and the rental car agency at the port was closed on Sunday. So it was only a very short consideration. My DH doesn't mind driving a manual transmission on the wrong side of the road, so that didn't bother him if we had rented a car.


Andrew how much is petrol/liter selling for these days? Just so I can remember not to complain too much on my drive to FL in 1½ weeks since our prices keep rising.

 

[jilljill]

Okay I got it wrong DCL transfers were $85 per person when we booked!

However it should be said that for my family of 6 is $510.

Ground transfer's to the airport in Barcelona are only $30 each for a total of $180! We will be using Disney transportation in Barcelona!

One must believe that I can hire a coach for our party for less!

I also believe that Disney has a more laid back attitude about getting to the ship anytime before the ship leaves is okay and we like to arrive just before boarding starts.

I believe they left the Grand Californian after 11 or 12 last summer & in Barcelona in 2007 they did not start leaving the hotel untill 12!

So at $500 I might as well get to the ship when I want to!

So that means that DCL's transfers in London are $85/person each way. I don't think you can get private transport for your family for that cheap. It's cheaper to get a larger form of transportation and split it with other families. I was pricing out private transfers for 2 families, 6 people, and it was coming out to be around $650 for all of us.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

No it was on the East Bound Repo silly!

Andrew was skulking about on deck 10 taking pictures he can vouch the activities!

Aren't you the joker this evening?!?
Maybe Andrew can post some of those pics for us to see.

Missed this? what ones?

 

[RJAYL]

Missed this? what ones?

You know when Ally & AJ were in the pool on the REPO!

 

[Celestine]

Coach from London

Ok, DH has priced a coach - if there are 40 of us it works out at £10/head & you'll be collected from your hotel on or about 9am. The drivers all speak English (not necessarily recognisable English dependent on dialect!) & as they are a Kent based firm know exactly where the cruise terminal is. These coaches are good quality & we're angling for a freebie upgrade to a VIP coach which has tabled seating areas etc. If we want to pay to guarantee the upgrade, the cost is more like £15/head. Our party can take 8 of those seats, so we are looking at another 32 of you Ballyhooer's to join us.

DH is happy to organise a coach back to Heathrow if anyone is interested, but it depends upon everyone's plans.

PM me or post here so I can start to guage potential interest & we can go from there

Celestine

 

[bellelinus]

Coach from London

Ok, DH has priced a coach - if there are 40 of us it works out at £10/head & you'll be collected from your hotel on or about 9am. The drivers all speak English (not necessarily recognisable English dependent on dialect!) & as they are a Kent based firm know exactly where the cruise terminal is. These coaches are good quality & we're angling for a freebie upgrade to a VIP coach which has tabled seating areas etc. If we want to pay to guarantee the upgrade, the cost is more like £15/head. Our party can take 8 of those seats, so we are looking at another 32 of you Ballyhooer's to join us.

DH is happy to organise a coach back to Heathrow if anyone is interested, but it depends upon everyone's plans.

PM me or post here so I can start to guage potential interest & we can go from there

Celestine

Sounds like a great rate to me, Celestine -- you could count me in for 4 to Dover (although not coming back, since we are staying on the ship). That's wonderful that they are willing to pick everyone up at their hotel!