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

[jilljill]

5 cm over night, 5 cm now, but another 10cm due tonight.

Wind is now up, so its drifiting a bit, where we are there is nowhere to go as its the end of a road, so stops here!!

Your own little Alaskan iceberg at the end of the road?!?

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Your own little Alaskan iceberg at the end of the road?!?

Glacier, not iceberg.

Igloo progress, three blocks high...

 

[Celestine]

Glacier, not iceberg.

Igloo progress, three blocks high...

Not sure how big your blocks are - we've used recycling bins and are 2 bricks high. Trying to work out how the roof bit will work tomorrow. Not yet snowing again, but we still have more than enough to finish the project. One casualty in this was the tray MIL bought me - Lauren used it for sledging & it snapped in 2!

Celestine

 

[Caropooh]

What travel guide books are people thinking of buying or have bought already?

 

[Madisonznana]

What travel guide books are people thinking of buying or have bought already?

I pre-ordered Rick Steve's Scandinavia from Amazon. It is due out on the 5th of Feb.

 

[jilljill]

What travel guide books are people thinking of buying or have bought already?

I pre-ordered Rick Steve's Scandinavia from Amazon. It is due out on the 5th of Feb.

WHAT.....cruise planning question in the middle of weather/igloo/broken tray conversations?!?


I'll have to look at the guidebook that I got for the last cruise. I also went to the library and checked out a bunch of books, especially to look at Warnemunde and StP. I also checked out a huge book on StP that had a good overview of the Hermitage so we could decide if we wanted to add the gold treasures room into our day.

 

[smilis]

Hi Everyone!
Just joining the Baltic Cruises thread. We are going on the July 18th sailing and looking forward to it very much. Guess I have a lot of reading of past posts to do to catch up. Our first Med cruise was July 2007 and was one of the best cruise experiences we've had.

We have our airfare, pre-cruise hotel (Park Plaza Westminster-booked on our own), Disney transfers to and fro. I still need to book 1 night post-cruise but plan on staying near Heathrow where we fly out of. Guess I better start taking a look at shore excursions, although I will definitely look at doing some independent or private ones.

Haven't been on the boards since 2007, so I need to refresh my familiarity of them

Okay, am I correct that shore excursions for the July 18th sailing are not open yet? We are Castaway Club members so it looks like 90 days prior is when we can access the "My Cruise Plans" portion of our reservation.
Thanks Jilljill for directing me over to the 7/18/10 thread. Still earning my ears!

 

[jilljill]

Hi Everyone!
Just joining the Baltic Cruises thread. We are going on the July 18th sailing and looking forward to it very much. Guess I have a lot of reading of past posts to do to catch up. Our first Med cruise was July 2007 and was one of the best cruise experiences we've had.

We have our airfare, pre-cruise hotel (Park Plaza Westminster-booked on our own), Disney transfers to and fro. I still need to book 1 night post-cruise but plan on staying near Heathrow where we fly out of. Guess I better start taking a look at shore excursions, although I will definitely look at doing some independent or private ones.

Haven't been on the boards since 2007, so I need to refresh my familiarity of them

Okay, am I correct that shore excursions for the July 18th sailing are not open yet? We are Castaway Club members so it looks like 90 days prior is when we can access the "My Cruise Plans" portion of our reservation.
Thanks Jilljill for directing me over to the 7/18/10 thread. Still earning my ears!

Nice of you to join us. There's tons of info in the first post of this thread. We really do discuss cruise stuff every so often.

Excursions are not loaded into DCL's system yet, so nothing to see on their website.

Just feel free to jump right in here and get to know us. Most of us have been talking on these 5 threads since before bookings opened for this cruise.

 

[Sailingpartyof10]

I have been booked since day one but am just now joining the thread because have just started doing more planning. My group will be me, DH, DS (7), DD (5), my sister and BIL, their three kids (12YO DS, 8YO DD, and 4YO DS), and my sister's MIL. We have independently booked Park Plaza Westminster Bridge for a couple of nights before the cruise and are on Celestine's list for the transfers to and from the ship. I need to book airfare still (complicated, because we are coming and going from different cities but are trying to coordinate the overseas leg so the kids can help entertain each other on the long flight, plus my DH is coming later - the night of the 16th - due to a work obligation) and then figure out how to get from the airport to the hotel. It's looking like we'll most likely be flying into Heathrow. Any thoughts on the best way for a group of 9 to get from there to the Park Plaza Westminster?

I'm looking forward to the trip! I have been to all the ports except St. Petersburg and Warnemunde (I lived in the Baltics for a short time), but I am the only one in the group who's seen those places. It will be fun to do them again plus add St. Petersburg, which I have wanted to see for ages!

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Not sure how big your blocks are - we've used recycling bins and are 2 bricks high. Trying to work out how the roof bit will work tomorrow. Not yet snowing again, but we still have more than enough to finish the project. One casualty in this was the tray MIL bought me - Lauren used it for sledging & it snapped in 2!

Celestine

Big lego boxes, the ones used to hold all the lego blocks, Put snow in that, and comes out as big blocks.

Igloo quite a size..

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

What travel guide books are people thinking of buying or have bought already?

I have Thomas cook Baltic cruising guide.
And each port of call guide.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Hi Everyone!
Just joining the Baltic Cruises thread. We are going on the July 18th sailing and looking forward to it very much. Guess I have a lot of reading of past posts to do to catch up. Our first Med cruise was July 2007 and was one of the best cruise experiences we've had.

We have our airfare, pre-cruise hotel (Park Plaza Westminster-booked on our own), Disney transfers to and fro. I still need to book 1 night post-cruise but plan on staying near Heathrow where we fly out of. Guess I better start taking a look at shore excursions, although I will definitely look at doing some independent or private ones.

Haven't been on the boards since 2007, so I need to refresh my familiarity of them

Okay, am I correct that shore excursions for the July 18th sailing are not open yet? We are Castaway Club members so it looks like 90 days prior is when we can access the "My Cruise Plans" portion of our reservation.
Thanks Jilljill for directing me over to the 7/18/10 thread. Still earning my ears!

Welcome.

http://www.sofitel.com/gb/hotel-6214-sofitel-london-heathrow/index.shtml

I have stayed at the above hotel, Sofitel at T5 Heathrow, linked to the terminal, shops, tube train there, nice hotel.

Shore trips my latest guess is next Wednesday, based on the release of the English Repo, once last Wednesday, and it takes that cruise a week to get to Dover. Also seen they have them on system from various *errors* on release on website since last Sunday.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I have been booked since day one but am just now joining the thread because have just started doing more planning. My group will be me, DH, DS (7), DD (5), my sister and BIL, their three kids (12YO DS, 8YO DD, and 4YO DS), and my sister's MIL. We have independently booked Park Plaza Westminster Bridge for a couple of nights before the cruise and are on Celestine's list for the transfers to and from the ship. I need to book airfare still (complicated, because we are coming and going from different cities but are trying to coordinate the overseas leg so the kids can help entertain each other on the long flight, plus my DH is coming later - the night of the 16th - due to a work obligation) and then figure out how to get from the airport to the hotel. It's looking like we'll most likely be flying into Heathrow. Any thoughts on the best way for a group of 9 to get from there to the Park Plaza Westminster?

I'm looking forward to the trip! I have been to all the ports except St. Petersburg and Warnemunde (I lived in the Baltics for a short time), but I am the only one in the group who's seen those places. It will be fun to do them again plus add St. Petersburg, which I have wanted to see for ages!

Welcome;-

From heathrow options are TUBE;TRAIN;COACH:TAXIRIVATE TRANSFER.

Best for party of 9 with considerable cruise luggage would be to book two or more private transfer vans.

Tube can be done, Piccadilly line from any Heathrow terminal to Barons Court, swap across the same platform to District line (avoids escalator transfer), then District to Westminster and over bridge.

Train goes to Heathrow out of way, coach is cheap to Victoria, bit not too often luggage space could be an issue.

Black cabs expensive and need a few.

Tube you can buy oyster cards which are cheap and can be used all the time in London, on Tube, train and Bus.

 

[MrsG]

5 cm over night, 5 cm now, but another 10cm due tonight.

Wind is now up, so its drifiting a bit, where we are there is nowhere to go as its the end of a road, so stops here!!

Wow. I remember doing that as a kid. We haven't had snow like that since the 60's- early 70's. Yes we've had a lot of snow at once, but not continual as you seem to be having. I remember wearing boots all winter back then. When my kids were little, I hated to buy them boots because they only used them once or twice that winter and then outgrew them by the next.

Hi Everyone!
Just joining the Baltic Cruises thread. We are going on the July 18th sailing and looking forward to it very much. Guess I have a lot of reading of past posts to do to catch up. Our first Med cruise was July 2007 and was one of the best cruise experiences we've had.

We have our airfare, pre-cruise hotel (Park Plaza Westminster-booked on our own), Disney transfers to and fro. I still need to book 1 night post-cruise but plan on staying near Heathrow where we fly out of. Guess I better start taking a look at shore excursions, although I will definitely look at doing some independent or private ones.

Haven't been on the boards since 2007, so I need to refresh my familiarity of them

Okay, am I correct that shore excursions for the July 18th sailing are not open yet? We are Castaway Club members so it looks like 90 days prior is when we can access the "My Cruise Plans" portion of our reservation.
Thanks Jilljill for directing me over to the 7/18/10 thread. Still earning my ears!

I have been booked since day one but am just now joining the thread because have just started doing more planning. My group will be me, DH, DS (7), DD (5), my sister and BIL, their three kids (12YO DS, 8YO DD, and 4YO DS), and my sister's MIL. We have independently booked Park Plaza Westminster Bridge for a couple of nights before the cruise and are on Celestine's list for the transfers to and from the ship. I need to book airfare still (complicated, because we are coming and going from different cities but are trying to coordinate the overseas leg so the kids can help entertain each other on the long flight, plus my DH is coming later - the night of the 16th - due to a work obligation) and then figure out how to get from the airport to the hotel. It's looking like we'll most likely be flying into Heathrow. Any thoughts on the best way for a group of 9 to get from there to the Park Plaza Westminster?

I'm looking forward to the trip! I have been to all the ports except St. Petersburg and Warnemunde (I lived in the Baltics for a short time), but I am the only one in the group who's seen those places. It will be fun to do them again plus add St. Petersburg, which I have wanted to see for ages!

Welcome to all our new friends! You will find that we are a very fun and colorful group!

We have Fodor's European Ports of Call. That seemed to have all our stops.

 

[jilljill]

I have been booked since day one but am just now joining the thread because have just started doing more planning. My group will be me, DH, DS (7), DD (5), my sister and BIL, their three kids (12YO DS, 8YO DD, and 4YO DS), and my sister's MIL. We have independently booked Park Plaza Westminster Bridge for a couple of nights before the cruise and are on Celestine's list for the transfers to and from the ship. I need to book airfare still (complicated, because we are coming and going from different cities but are trying to coordinate the overseas leg so the kids can help entertain each other on the long flight, plus my DH is coming later - the night of the 16th - due to a work obligation) and then figure out how to get from the airport to the hotel. It's looking like we'll most likely be flying into Heathrow. Any thoughts on the best way for a group of 9 to get from there to the Park Plaza Westminster?

I'm looking forward to the trip! I have been to all the ports except St. Petersburg and Warnemunde (I lived in the Baltics for a short time), but I am the only one in the group who's seen those places. It will be fun to do them again plus add St. Petersburg, which I have wanted to see for ages!

Welcome. Just jump right in, we won't bite.

You'll have to give up some pointers on the ports you've been to. We've been to all the ports but Oslo and Norway, we did a Baltics cruise summer 2008.

Please read over the first post of this thread as we have lots of info there and feel free to add to it.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Wow. I remember doing that as a kid. We haven't had snow like that since the 60's- early 70's. Yes we've had a lot of snow at once, but not continual as you seem to be having. I remember wearing boots all winter back then. When my kids were little, I hated to buy them boots because they only used them once or twice that winter and then outgrew them by the next.

Overnight we didnt get the predicted snow here, but just down the road it was heavy. Funny we even have had a slight thaw at the moment with most stuff starting to melt. Igloo is now up to six blocks high all around but we have used up the 'usable' snow.

 

[MI-MINI]

What travel guide books are people thinking of buying or have bought already?

I've gotten/had:

"The Little Black book of London" - no pretty pictures, but great tips/reviews

"Eyewitness Travel Guides Great Britain" - lots of pretty pictures and good for giving an overview of where you may want to visit

"Eyewitness Travel Top 10 St. Petersburg" -great tips & pics, plus a pullout map & guide that I'd bring w/ on cruise

"Insight Pocket Guide Oslo & Bergen" - I have this from a past trip, so it's a few years old, but also has a great pull out map I'll bring with.

And a small "popout" map of Stockholm-

I also sent away to Norway/Sweden & Estonia's tourist boards for information, and they both sent nice packs of useful information, small maps & nice brochures.

It might also be worth checking out your local library- my libraries selection is a bit outdated, but still great for ideas and to get a grasp on what you're going to see.

Also, if you see a travel guide you like, check out Amazon's marketplace where you can usually pick up used copies much cheaper than new ones.

On a cold January day with snow outside the window it's fun to either poor over seed catalogs or travel books!

 

[Celestine]

In terms of books I bought Rick's book about a year ago. I also got a load of stuff from the relevant tourist boards. Just impatiently waiting - hoping that there will be some prices when the trips eventually go up otherwise my planning will not be hugely helped as cost will be an influencing factor for some of the ports as to whether we "go it alone"

On the weather front a slight thaw this afternoon, but a few more snowflakes now. School will reopen tomorrow, but short days (10 -2.45) for Monday & Tuesday

Celestine

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

In terms of books I bought Rick's book about a year ago. I also got a load of stuff from the relevant tourist boards. Just impatiently waiting - hoping that there will be some prices when the trips eventually go up otherwise my planning will not be hugely helped as cost will be an influencing factor for some of the ports as to whether we "go it alone"

On the weather front a slight thaw this afternoon, but a few more snowflakes now. School will reopen tomorrow, but short days (10 -2.45) for Monday & Tuesday

Celestine

Our schools are open, normal times..

TV now saying there is a thaw.

 

[Madisonznana]

I have been booked since day one but am just now joining the thread because have just started doing more planning. My group will be me, DH, DS (7), DD (5), my sister and BIL, their three kids (12YO DS, 8YO DD, and 4YO DS), and my sister's MIL. We have independently booked Park Plaza Westminster Bridge for a couple of nights before the cruise and are on Celestine's list for the transfers to and from the ship. I need to book airfare still (complicated, because we are coming and going from different cities but are trying to coordinate the overseas leg so the kids can help entertain each other on the long flight, plus my DH is coming later - the night of the 16th - due to a work obligation) and then figure out how to get from the airport to the hotel. It's looking like we'll most likely be flying into Heathrow. Any thoughts on the best way for a group of 9 to get from there to the Park Plaza Westminster?

I'm looking forward to the trip! I have been to all the ports except St. Petersburg and Warnemunde (I lived in the Baltics for a short time), but I am the only one in the group who's seen those places. It will be fun to do them again plus add St. Petersburg, which I have wanted to see for ages!

Hi, welcome to our happy family. My dh and I are coming with our 8 yo dgd and bil, sil with their dd 8 and 11.