7/9/11 - Summer Magic in the Med

[tinkerbell_29]

We decided that since we had to give up our cruise in 2010 that we would splurge on this one. We usually book on points and stay in a cat 10 so it will be nice to have the veranda and the two bathrooms. We are only doing 3 nights in Barcelona before and one night after so that really didn't add to much more to the cost. I would've loved to gone to Paris after but my brother can not get that much time off of work.

Melissa

 

[miksilver]

Wow. You guys even know how long you are going to stay before and after. I just know that I am going on this cruise. I have a lot of points saved up via work that we are going to use for our airline tickets. I have a few ideas floating around in my head, but nothing concrete.

I think it will all depend if my in-laws actually come and visit us next summer like they told my DH they wanted to. But, if they don't come then I will probably feel too guilty not to make a stop over in England so my DH and DD can see them. But since the in-laws don't really talk to me (only DH) it can be very difficult and frustrating making plans. Oh -- and we all do speak English and I do understand their accents and slang, they just don't really address me too often . It's very weird. The 2 week trip I planned last year can attest to that .

So....if there is no England in the mix (I do love the country though) then we will probably do a few days before in Barcelona to get over the jet lag and maybe one day after.

No matter what I better get saving now for the before and after part. That Euro is a killer! Ahhh, the days when the $ was actually more than the Euro...I miss those months!

Kim

 

[lauritagoddess]

Wow. You guys even know how long you are going to stay before and after. I just know that I am going on this cruise. I have a lot of points saved up via work that we are going to use for our airline tickets. I have a few ideas floating around in my head, but nothing concrete.

I think it will all depend if my in-laws actually come and visit us next summer like they told my DH they wanted to. But, if they don't come then I will probably feel too guilty not to make a stop over in England so my DH and DD can see them. But since the in-laws don't really talk to me (only DH) it can be very difficult and frustrating making plans. Oh -- and we all do speak English and I do understand their accents and slang, they just don't really address me too often . It's very weird. The 2 week trip I planned last year can attest to that .

So....if there is no England in the mix (I do love the country though) then we will probably do a few days before in Barcelona to get over the jet lag and maybe one day after.

No matter what I better get saving now for the before and after part. That Euro is a killer! Ahhh, the days when the $ was actually more than the Euro...I miss those months!

Kim

Ouch on the in-laws issue. Maybe you could make a brief visit before the cruise if they don't come to you next year.

I had been tentatively making plans to take my DS on his first trip to Europe in 2011 and then actually almost decided to do one of the Alaska cruises instead. I had our TA price the Alaska and Med cruises when she was doing booking for her gold and platinum members. I was pleasantly surprised at the cost of the Med cruise and less so at the cost of the Alaska. Originally I had planned to go for a week to London, then to Paris and maybe to Rome. Instead now we'll go to London and then probably straight onto Barcelona. We'll do more of a land trip another time.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

When they announced this cruise and we knew we were going to be going on it we know from the past med cruise that there was so much we wanted to see in Barcelona that we would need 3 days before to see all of it and recover from jet lag before the cruise. The day after is to get a little sleep before flying home and then driving the four hours from Atlanta back to Asheville. The advantage of teaching is I have the month of july off so I do not have to worry about whether or not I can get the time off from work for a long trip.

Melissa

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Just wanted to say hi. Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Found out Friday that I've got to have my gallbladder taken out. Can't schedule surgery till the second week of November due to work so that should make for a fun Thanksgiving.

Melissa

 

[lauritagoddess]

Sorry to hear about the gall bladder surgery and having it so close to Thanksgiving. I had mine out 9 years ago and it was a relief to have it done to stop having the attacks. FWIW, I had it done laparascopically and was up and around and back to work in about a week.

It's hard to believe Thanksgiving is so close already. Halloween in the big thing in our house now. This week in school my son has a craft party where they paint pumpkins, a costume parade on Friday during the day and a Halloween magic show on Friday night. And of course there's the big day itself. They're predicting shows next Saturday, but I hope that changes before then. Then the day after is my uncles 60th birthday and we're having a big surprise party for him. My son thinks we should bring him some trick or treat candy as a present, lol.

 

[miksilver]

Just wanted to say hi. Hope everyone is having a good weekend. Found out Friday that I've got to have my gallbladder taken out. Can't schedule surgery till the second week of November due to work so that should make for a fun Thanksgiving.

Melissa

Sorry about the sugery. That doesn't sound like fun at all

Halloween is my favorite holiday as well. I've been known to throw some big Halloween parties and I go all out for them. My entire house gets decorated and our front lawn gets a spooky makeover. But this year we decided not to do that party and to take it easy.

This week it's also my birthday. I have no idea what my DH and friends have planned for me. They asked me what I wanted to do and I didn't have any suggestions. I am great at planning events for other people, but not myself. I just find it too weird. My friend told me that she was going to take over my plans so now I have no idea what's up her sleeve this week.

Kim

 

[tinkerbell_29]

I'm not really looking forward to the surgery but I've been dealing with this sick April and I'm just tired of being sick so I'll be glad when it is over.

We don't really do Halloween. Our big holidays are Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love to decorate and bake.

Melissa

 

[miksilver]

In my family business I am really busy in December (so is my DH), but we still manage to have a big Christmas each year. We don't go all out as some do, but we manage to set up a tree and do some decorating inside. We don't do much decorating outside with lights since with work we get SLAMMED in Jan. -- especially the beginning. Our Xmas decorations have been known to stay up a bit longer than I'd like sometimes and our homeowner's association doesn't like that...

I will do the "Elf-on-a-shelf" thing though with my DD leading up to Christmas. I don't know if you are familiar with it or not but we use a reindeer named Gumdrop who visits our house to keep an eye on my DD and to report to Santa. He'll come to our house after Thansgiving and return to Santa when he picks him up on Xmas Eve. Gumdrop has been known to get into some slight trouble at night. Last year he made "snow angels" in the flour on the counter, made a complete mess when he made hot chocolate for himself, "decorated" the tree with her clean underwear and he even had a bowl of candy corn for breakfast! My DD loved it last year and while I can I want to keep it up for a few more years. I'll need to think of some new ideas for this year...

Kim

 

[lauritagoddess]

They do Elf on a shelf in my son's school. He comes and visits each of the classrooms.

I just love this time of year, once you get into fall and then leading into the holiday season. I've havingThanksgiving for the last few years, although this year we need to have Thanksgiving at my parents since my dad isn't really mobile now. I'm still going to do all the cooking which should make it interesting, I'm going to try and get what I can done in advance. And I love the xmas season, and especially while my DS still believes in Santa, I want to make the most of it.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Met with the surgeon today. Surgery is scheduled for the 6th and if all goes well i will go home that day. I'm looking forward to getting this done and over so that I can enjoy the holidays. Hope everyone is having a good week.

Melissa

 

[tinkerbell_29]

While recovering from surgery I looked through all of the stuff we brought back from the last med cruise. In 2011 we will be in the ports of call a little later than we were the last time. For places like Rome this will be great because the port is quite a distance from Rome. A lot of nights dining times were pushed back so that people on excursions could dine in the dining rooms. Again this was helpful when in Naples and Rome. All ports that are repeats are doable on their own but if it is like last time Disney really offered some amazing excursions. The only place we will most likely do on our own is Villefrance the train is extremely easy to use our favorite place was the midevil village called Eze. It was beautiful and had a lot to explore. In Barcelona the bus turistic is the easiest way to see everything you can buy one ticket to cover all three bus lines which are designated by a color. The three lines cover all the major tourist sites and even if you speak no Spanish which we don't they were very easy to use. There is also a chocolate factory in Barcelona not to be missed. Disney offered an excursion on sailing day but we went on our own. Tickets for the bus can be bought before hand or as you board the bus. I know it is early still but if y'all are like me it is never to early to start thinking and planning.

Melissa

 

[lauritagoddess]

Thanks for the info! Interesting to know that Disney pushed back the dining times to accomodate people. Are there any excursions in particular that you really liked?

How are you feeling? I hope your recovery from your surgery is going well.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

I'm feeling a lot better. Glad the surgery is done and over.

It was really good that Disney pushed back dining the days we were at Naples and Rome it was nice to be able to go back to the room and clean up before heading to diner.

Our favorite excursions were in Naples and in Villefrance. In Naples we went to Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri. There were 2 versions of the excursions one regular and one designed for families we did the one for families because in Capri you took a boat tour through the fragolina rocks which was really neat. If they offer those choices again we will do the other because it did something different in Capri. Both had lunch in Sorrento in a restaurant under 100 year old lemon trees. In Villefrance we did Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze. Toured the palace and saw the changing of the guard in Monaco. In Monte Carlo we had lunch at the Cafe de Paris and then could go to the casino or shop. Eze is a midevil town on top of a mountin that was just amazing we had a short amount of time to explore and shop before the bus ride back to the port. The times in port while seem long really are not long enough to really see the place but they do give you a sense of what they are like especially if you get a good local guide.

Melissa

 

[lauritagoddess]

Did you see on the main board that they mentioned that DCL is starting put up info about the shore excursions for some of the Med ports now? I don't know if it only applies to the 2010 cruises or 2011, but I checked Barcelona and it does list the chocolate museum you mentioned. I can't wait for them to put up all the excursions, and then plan obsessivley for the next year and a half, lol. There's also another big drama since DCL apparently has either suspended or cancelled the Med cruises from 7/30/11 onward and it's unknown why. I'm really surprised that they'd make changes at this point, but who knows.

 

[IrishCowboy]

Subscribing

 

[tinkerbell_29]

I saw where they had done that to those later cruises. It will be interesting to see what they will end up doing. I figure most of the excursions for our cruise will be the same as the ones for this upcoming summer. The only thing that may change is if an excursion does not sale well or if there is not positive feed back it will be dropped.

Welcome IrishCowboy. Will you be sailing with us in 2011?

In case I don't get back on before happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Melissa

 

[lauritagoddess]

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone too!!

I have to say I'm very curious about what's going on with the later cruises. I'm very excited about our Med cruise, but if they moved the TA back earlier into the summer it would be very tempting.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

We would love to do a TA but it would have to be in July as that is the only time i can get off. If they offered a July cruise going to Venice we would probable switch since except for the three new ports we have already done this cruise before.

Melissa

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Excursions are up on DCl's website. A few are the same as the previous med cruise which is good because we actually wanted to do the Pompeii Sorrento and Capri excursion again. There are some really interesting ones one in Naples that includes a special lunch sounds like a lot of fun. Just have to wait and see what works and what doesn't and what they will change before our cruise. We do have the advantage of trip reports being done before we book excursions.

Melissa