7/18/2010 Mickey's Baltic Ballyhoo!! Part 5

[jilljill]

I should have bought that size pack too. We have almost 2 bags of lollipops left and most of a big container of funsize Twix bars.
Now I know we won't have any more kids since it just started pouring here. Plus it's time to turn the light out and head out in the rain to pick up DD from my cousin's house.



Allan will be able to use the teen area until he's in college. They will let those that are 18 and still in high school or haven't started college in there.

 

[MI-MINI]

I love the postcard idea for an exchange. We'd be up for that.
For our Baltics cruise we took postcards from our hometown and a picture book about the state (it's a really small state so the book was also small ) and gave them to our StP guide and Anastasia and they were very much appreciated, this was in addition to their gratuity. We also gave our driver a postcard along with his gratuity). We found out our guide had spent a couple of months on the east coast, between New York and Washington DC, so she drove thru our state a couple of times and thought the book was wonderful.

I like this idea too- the FE does sound like fun, but the points you guys made about not only room in your suitcase to take stuff over to give out, and bring back, which is a point I hadn't thought about, would steer me away from it too- I like to pack light, just the necessities, and not over pack, plus I hope to do some shopping in London pre-cruise, and find neat souvenirs on our stops-

Another reason to pack light- at least if you fly USAir- after Nov. 4th they're charging $50 for your second checked bag and $100 for 3 (after your "free" first bag) on international flights-

 

[jilljill]

I like this idea too- the FE does sound like fun, but the points you guys made about not only room in your suitcase to take stuff over to give out, and bring back, which is a point I hadn't thought about, would steer me away from it too- I like to pack light, just the necessities, and not over pack, plus I hope to do some shopping in London pre-cruise, and find neat souvenirs on our stops-

Another reason to pack light- at least if you fly USAir- after Nov. 4th they're charging $50 for your second checked bag and $100 for 3 (after your "free" first bag) on international flights-

I saw that about USAir, good thing DH is silver so we don't have to pay for the first 2 checked bags for anyone booked on his reservation. But we aren't sure if we are going to use some miles and some timeshare points to 'pay' for our tickets or use cash. Using cash we don't have to worry about the luggage fees, the other way we just need to do creative packing which we can do. Last time we went over with 2 suitcases and came back with 3 for the 3 of us for 2 weeks - of course we did laundry on the ship.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Here it is 7:30 on H'ween night and we just had our 7th kid 5 minutes ago. What happened to the days of getting 50-60 kids or more?!?
I gave the kid 2 handfuls of candy.

They were over here, I must have had 50+ at our door last night.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I like this idea too- the FE does sound like fun, but the points you guys made about not only room in your suitcase to take stuff over to give out, and bring back, which is a point I hadn't thought about, would steer me away from it too- I like to pack light, just the necessities, and not over pack, plus I hope to do some shopping in London pre-cruise, and find neat souvenirs on our stops-

Another reason to pack light- at least if you fly USAir- after Nov. 4th they're charging $50 for your second checked bag and $100 for 3 (after your "free" first bag) on international flights-

Having flown 'the other way' across the Atlantic, and taken a family of fours luggage across the sea, airports,transfers, hire cars etc, the practicalities of trying to jettison, anything, that is not needed.

Cruising, means extra clothes, Formal, semi formal, and Pirate (AKA Viking ) deck parties. Then you pick up all the souvenirs, thoose pirate light up glasses, Don Ducky Williams lithographs etc.

Just being practical, you have to try to pack light, but now airlines sting you for additional fees if you are over, or just over, and thoose fees are horrendous. In the last few years for example I would hire a tux, to avoid carrying it, last cruise I purchased a simple and light suite, that I could use on formal, semi formal and Palo.

For once I do not have to worry too much, but the constraint is my own car size and what I can fit in my own boot, (trunk).

It is something that should be considered.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I saw that about USAir, good thing DH is silver so we don't have to pay for the first 2 checked bags for anyone booked on his reservation. But we aren't sure if we are going to use some miles and some timeshare points to 'pay' for our tickets or use cash. Using cash we don't have to worry about the luggage fees, the other way we just need to do creative packing which we can do. Last time we went over with 2 suitcases and came back with 3 for the 3 of us for 2 weeks - of course we did laundry on the ship.

Yes, we always come back with at least one extra suitcase, we learned early and took a expandable, luggage holder, dirty washing is stored in it first, then we swap the souvenirs around in them. Couldn't fit it in my hire car in August, thoose Discovery cove photo packages were the worst, key rings, and other stuff,

Laundry, we always ''plan'' this, the time we used it most was the 14/15 night Panama crossings, we would have a run the last night pre cruise say at Disneyland, then at least two en cruise. The laundry was always so so busy on sea days from early morning to late at night. Even one Panama cruise when we aborted laundry a few times, the Mrs did it Panama crossing day!! She had seen it before on Princess cruises, but then it was FULL!! Took her hours. You wouldn't have thought it. I was watching the crossing form our verandah, getting drinks and room service and taking it down to her, then bringing the clothes back to the room in relays.

The best time for laundry was in the med in 07, we had a Private tour of Rome, everything went very well, traffic etc, we were in the Vatican at 8.45am, for a Private tour, got back at 5pm, Dinner had been moved back to 6.30pm re the long coach tours, so we had 90 mins, and went to the laundry.

It was nearly empty, and we were able to use two machines at a time, and was only late for Dinner by 5 mins!!

In August 09, I said nothing on ship, we had a villa for 10 days post Cruise, so the plan was we would use all our clothes up, up to the end of the cruise which was half way through the vacation, then as the villa had laundry facilities do it there. We were up straight in one evening, did it at the same time as eating in.

The Sea days on our 12 night cruise will of course be very very busy. Best to plan.

 

[Doingitagain]

They were over here, I must have had 50+ at our door last night.

We had them as well! Almost four times what we had last year. Our neighbor had to rob the treat bag of her granddaughter to keep up with the demand!

I think it was the weather, it was cold, but clear and dry.

 

[Doingitagain]

In the last few years for example I would hire a tux, to avoid carrying it, last cruise I purchased a simple and light suite, that I could use on formal, semi formal and Palo.

We have rented tuxes for DH and DS the last few cruises as well. They are both very tall, and any tux/suit takes a lot of space in the luggage. They just "overdress" for Palo and wear it to formal and semi formal. That covers 3 of 7 nights, so they don't need many other dress clothes, and they wear shorts everywhere else.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

We had them as well! Almost four times what we had last year. Our neighbor had to rob the treat bag of her granddaughter to keep up with the demand!

I think it was the weather, it was cold, but clear and dry.

Its bad when you have to do that, we had loads last night, it never used to be like this when I was younger. I think it was the film, ET, that showed USA Trick and treating and introduced it to the UK. Its then picked up momentum.

We have rented tuxes for DH and DS the last few cruises as well. They are both very tall, and any tux/suit takes a lot of space in the luggage. They just "overdress" for Palo and wear it to formal and semi formal. That covers 3 of 7 nights, so they don't need many other dress clothes, and they wear shorts everywhere else.

A personal observation, I have noticed over the years, less and less people dressing up, the men in particular, far less wearing a tux, I didn't bother in August and was pleased, in fact felt slightly overdressed in my business suit.

In the Med 07, it was very relaxed, in fact in Palo for Dinner as soon as I arrived ,I was 'told' to take the jacket off. With luggage restrictions, I predict this cruise, will be more relaxed, and people saving space for Viking gear!

 

[MrsG]

I think on this thread we are all adult and experienced so able to discuss it openly, and I agree with you there does seem to be a percentage, who do feel they have to 'top' others. -But would also counter it that there are so many nice and generous people around.

I have always made it clear I do not do FE, not that I am against it, or for it, but the same as you, until this cruise its been luggage issues on flights, that was the decider. I think on your side its logical from a seasoned traveller, to consider the luggage constraints.

However whilst making it ''known'' I do not do it, some people have dropped off nice gifts, Julie, here, and CapatainCrash come to mind. He gave me a nice book last night, not to upstage, but as he didn't want anything in return, and ensured that occurred. We had a good chat and a friendship, that was more important to me.

FE are a lot of fun for thoose who enjoy it, and another aspect to cruising, it adds value to some, and creates friends.

Hopefully as usual this is balanced, and my personal feelings, and posted to experienced cruisers on this thread.

One nice idea from the Panama cruise, which was simple but nice, was kids all got a lot of post cards from their home town and had a swap one morning, we got some, but we got it wrong, there was so many doing it on that cruise, we ran out quickly, but it was nice to see peoples home town and didn't take up too much space and educational to the kids.



I think we are all still taking in all of the information, I have looked at all the rooms at length but after ten years of Cat 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12, its still hard to take on the new ones.

I love the postcard idea for an exchange. We'd be up for that.
For our Baltics cruise we took postcards from our hometown and a picture book about the state (it's a really small state so the book was also small ) and gave them to our StP guide and Anastasia and they were very much appreciated, this was in addition to their gratuity. We also gave our driver a postcard along with his gratuity). We found out our guide had spent a couple of months on the east coast, between New York and Washington DC, so she drove thru our state a couple of times and thought the book was wonderful.

Just an observation about FE's from our last cruise.

We decided to participate even though we were just 2 adults. The person organizing it put a cut off date about three weeks before the cruise for any staterooms that wanted to participate. This accomodated everyone who left early and had packing and shopping to do. Then, anyone who was participating was emailed the list with staterooms. (I printed out a map of the ship and highlighted the cabins.) When we met at Studio Sea the next day for our dismeet, any cabin changes were announced. After that, it was up to us when we wanted to deliver our gifts. Some days we got many, other days few. About 40 staterooms participated. The gifts ranged from goodie bags full, to stickers or candy. Some people put their names so you knew who it was from, others didn't. I don't remember anyone being judgemental as we had noted before that everyone has a different budget and it was the thought that counted. It is up to you what you take home, too. Overall, it was a lot more fun than we imagined.

Barb, postcards are a perfect FE gift. Lightweight and a memory from your hometown.

I think the kids on the cruise had their own FE list. Again, it's whatever is decided. If we keep it simple and lightweight, it should work out fine. It really is a personal choice whether or not to participate. Just my opinion.

 

[Doingitagain]

A personal observation, I have noticed over the years, less and less people dressing up, the men in particular, far less wearing a tux, I didn't bother in August and was pleased, in fact felt slightly overdressed in my business suit.

In the Med 07, it was very relaxed, in fact in Palo for Dinner as soon as I arrived ,I was 'told' to take the jacket off. With luggage restrictions, I predict this cruise, will be more relaxed, and people saving space for Viking gear!

We use the dress up opportunity to get formal pictures. There are different backdrops throughout the cruise. We purchase the photo CD, and we have professional photographs of our family that we can print out as needed, including our Christmas cards. We find it economical vs. paying for a photo shoot and then guessing what photos we need. We just print them as we need them. Plus we get a lot of casual ones without carrying our camera around everywhere.


If it weren't for the photos, we probably wouldn't dress up as much.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

We use the dress up opportunity to get formal pictures. There are different backdrops throughout the cruise. We purchase the photo CD, and we have professional photographs of our family that we can print out as needed, including our Christmas cards. We find it economical vs. paying for a photo shoot and then guessing what photos we need. We just print them as we need them. Plus we get a lot of casual ones without carrying our camera around everywhere.
If it weren't for the photos, we probably wouldn't dress up as much.

Very good point and I feel a lot of people take the opportunity to go this, as kids get older, its the only close family time to have everyone together to get these nice memento's, and also use then for other things such as Christmas cards etc.

The shutters staff are really good, and we had quite a few completed ourselves. Again though I purchased more this time, as I wasn't in a Tux, but was in my suit. They are up in our living room, I wouldn't like to see too formal stuff up for every day use.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Just a bit more information I found out today, if you are considering going to Dover by train from London.

SouthEastern Services, will be bringing in a new timetable from December. These include running the new ''javelin' trains from London St Pancras to Kent, and two trains an hour will go to Dover Priory, more at peak times.

Now to give you some detail, the 'Javelin's' are brand new High speed trains, being introduced for the 2012 Summer Olympics, that month, (now just under 1,000 days away,), for the Olympics they will run from London St Pancras to Stratford international the home of the Olympic stadium.

But allot of them are here now, so they will run these HST over the Eurostar tracks from London, all the way to Ashford international, then go onto local suburban tracks.

Firstly it will be a nice experience, but these trains will knock off a lot of time, in traveling through Kent to the port.


If you are considering a pre stay in London this is an alternative.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Just an observation about FE's from our last cruise.

We decided to participate even though we were just 2 adults. The person organizing it put a cut off date about three weeks before the cruise for any staterooms that wanted to participate. This accomodated everyone who left early and had packing and shopping to do. Then, anyone who was participating was emailed the list with staterooms. (I printed out a map of the ship and highlighted the cabins.) When we met at Studio Sea the next day for our dismeet, any cabin changes were announced. After that, it was up to us when we wanted to deliver our gifts. Some days we got many, other days few. About 40 staterooms participated. The gifts ranged from goodie bags full, to stickers or candy. Some people put their names so you knew who it was from, others didn't. I don't remember anyone being judgemental as we had noted before that everyone has a different budget and it was the thought that counted. It is up to you what you take home, too. Overall, it was a lot more fun than we imagined.

Barb, postcards are a perfect FE gift. Lightweight and a memory from your hometown.

I think the kids on the cruise had their own FE list. Again, it's whatever is decided. If we keep it simple and lightweight, it should work out fine. It really is a personal choice whether or not to participate. Just my opinion.

Sounds very well organised

 

[jilljill]

Just an observation about FE's from our last cruise.

We decided to participate even though we were just 2 adults. The person organizing it put a cut off date about three weeks before the cruise for any staterooms that wanted to participate. This accomodated everyone who left early and had packing and shopping to do. Then, anyone who was participating was emailed the list with staterooms. (I printed out a map of the ship and highlighted the cabins.) When we met at Studio Sea the next day for our dismeet, any cabin changes were announced. After that, it was up to us when we wanted to deliver our gifts. Some days we got many, other days few. About 40 staterooms participated. The gifts ranged from goodie bags full, to stickers or candy. Some people put their names so you knew who it was from, others didn't. I don't remember anyone being judgemental as we had noted before that everyone has a different budget and it was the thought that counted. It is up to you what you take home, too. Overall, it was a lot more fun than we imagined.

Barb, postcards are a perfect FE gift. Lightweight and a memory from your hometown.

I think the kids on the cruise had their own FE list. Again, it's whatever is decided. If we keep it simple and lightweight, it should work out fine. It really is a personal choice whether or not to participate. Just my opinion.

I agree with you MaryAnn that it's up to the person or group what to give, but when reading the FE thread on the main page it seems all the newbies to the DIS, DCL cruising and FE's want to 'top' what they see posted on the thread. It can be intimidating to some when looking at the thread for the first time. There are people on there that are making jewelry for each of the gals, another doing paintings to give to each cabin, some are making scrapbook embelishments (and a lot of them) to give to the adults and those type of things.

 

[jilljill]

Just a bit more information I found out today, if you are considering going to Dover by train from London.

SouthEastern Services, will be bringing in a new timetable from December. These include running the new ''javelin' trains from London St Pancras to Kent, and two trains an hour will go to Dover Priory, more at peak times.

Now to give you some detail, the 'Javelin's' are brand new High speed trains, being introduced for the 2012 Summer Olympics, that month, (now just under 1,000 days away,), for the Olympics they will run from London St Pancras to Stratford international the home of the Olympic stadium.

But allot of them are here now, so they will run these HST over the Eurostar tracks from London, all the way to Ashford international, then go onto local suburban tracks.

Firstly it will be a nice experience, but these trains will knock off a lot of time, in traveling through Kent to the port.


If you are considering a pre stay in London this is an alternative.

Will they consider Sunday morning a 'peak' time? I found last summer there were less trains/buses on Sunday morning than the rest of the week.

 

[jilljill]

Robert...oh Robert.....I just remembered something from this time last year.....did you put out your yard H'ween decorations this year?

 

[Celestine]

Although I will probably be quite jealous of the FE gifts, I don't think I will play either. It does get to be so much more to pack into the suitcases and that bit of stress that comes with being a procrastinator is not fun either! Postcards could be fun, even though Murrieta does not seem to have any, and cards from the town next door Temecula wine country is always fun for kids!

On the PC repo one of the FE gifts was a postcard. Paula (I'm sure that was her name) was from New Zealand & our gift was a beautiful postcard from that country. THe girls thought it was great & Lauren put it in the scrapbook she made with the postcards from the kids postcard swap. Some gifts were useful & you may be able to see on the photo I posted earlier a memo board. That was an FE gift from 3 cruisers who clubbed together, constructed the boards on board & then attached them to the room doors. Many of the gifts were of the "leave behind/use on board" variety which was great as we too had luggage weight issues after 3 weeks in the US!

Celestine

 

[Celestine]

Will they consider Sunday morning a 'peak' time? I found last summer there were less trains/buses on Sunday morning than the rest of the week.

Sunday is definitely off peak & subject to engineering work which can mean an alternative bus route between certain stations or a reroute via somewhere else!

Celestine

 

[jilljill]

Sunday is definitely off peak & subject to engineering work which can mean an alternative bus route between certain stations or a reroute via somewhere else!

Celestine

Since this cruise leaves on Sunday, this is an even better reason for leaving earlier in the morning or getting transportation that you and your DH are going to arrange. We are so grateful for the 2 of you doing this for us.