...trying to get back to the top before Annie snaps her towel at us again...
Am I that bad?! 
I have spent a LONG time out here talking to myself sometimes!! (First one booked on the boat I think!) 
Still have not booked flights, and Luke and I appear to be jockeying for Last Minute Barcelona rooms. I"m sure it will gel at some point, just have been stupidly busy. I think we are flying Aer Lingus, so I can set toes on my Irish roots for an hour each way and say i've been there and done that. Oh, and its also the cheapest for me too.
Now that I've grappled Euros... where are you guys finding the best exchange rates? Second question - should I just get Amex checks to protect and transfer on the ship? I don't know what the rates are onboard, and apparently, neither does
DCL. heheheee
I don't know where you live but I will probably use either Capital One (our regular bank) OR PNC which I've heard is good for this too and I have a small acct. there that I haven't used in ages but at least it's an account. Both have less in fees than say Wells Fargo (Wachovia).
We discovered Rick Steve's podcasts, free maps, and audio guides and have fallen hard for them. They are so much fun to explore. So far, our interests are:
Fri - Barcelona: Sagrada Familia, Palau de la Música Catalana (there is a festival going on while we are there, and the guitarist is amazing!) and dancing through the Gothic Quarter. I would LOVE to get there early on Thursday, however, and add in a futbal game
Maybe nothing on our first afternoon pre-cruise. Rooftop pool at our hotel is sounding good right now... After the cruise probably the HOHO bus & Montserrat.
Sun - Villefranche (Monte Carlo/Nice/ Cannes), France: Looking for Must Do's here. I'm thinking it should be Monte Carlo? Open to suggestions.
We are either going to Nice or Monte Carlo / Eze via train or bus (probably Monte Carlo) then I want to come back & spend the afternoon on the beach at Villefranche.
Mon - La Spezia (Florence/Pisa), Italy: Can we fit in both the Leaning Tower and Cinque Terre? All I want to do in Pisa is take a leaning picture and say we've been there. My heart is in walking the villages of CT and meeting the residents. (any advice on how to convince two teens that this is fun would be appreciated as well.)
I have been kicking this idea around (Pisa FIRST thing in the AM then high tailing it to Monterosso) but am worried about the holiday that day messing up the train schedules. Hear Pisa is a one trick pony town so not sure it's worth the extra stress. Everybody has seemed to absolutely LOVE Cinque Terre so I think we're planning on doing that on our own via a combo of train & ferry boat if it's running. Rick Steve's has a small pocket guide Called Snapshot of Cinque Terre that is very helpful as it's devoted just to that region.
Tues - Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy: Sistine Chapel, St. Petes, then a four-hour Rick Steve's Rome blazing through the Trevi Fountain, knocking on some dead guys in some catacombs, and finding gelato before roaring in the colliseum. Yeah, i know it's aggressive; we plan on being off the boat in the predawn hours, swimming to shore.
This is why we hired romeinlimo for this port...lots of ground to cover....
Wed - Naples (Pompeii), Italy: Hopping the train to the ruins and just walking and enjoying.
Pompeii, Positano & Sorrento with Mikki & Andrew via romeinlimo
Thu - At Sea: Sleeping
Palo brunch & pool 
Fri - Palma, Mallorca (Spain): Not sure here, open to suggestions, but damn, if I don't get a set of Mallorca pearls here, I am disowning myself.
I think lots of us are just planning to take a taxi to a beach for a fraction of the DCL bus to the beach.
Sat - Barcelona, Spain: Collapsing on plane to go home and get kids ready for school. When? Monday.
"So... what did you do this weekend?" "Jetted back from Europe... you?"
Looking for:
~ Advice on ports we don't have things planned at
~
The best port for Italian masks (my daughter and I have a mask collection)
~ Speaking of daughter, she's looking to see if there are a lot of other 14's on the ship, or Freshmen/Sophomores. She is so not into hanging with her brother on the ship (he's in college)
~ what am I missing? Tipping maybe?
banana
He's my little 5'5" 93 Lb. computer geek who spends day & night playing the SIMS whenever he's not at swim practice or at school. I took him to Borders the other day to get his summer reading books and I couldn't even get him to LOOK in the "Young Adults" section because he's convinced that every book in that area is about Vampires & that they have been written solely for girls.
He picked The Waxman Report for his AP State & Local Govt read and he picked some adult mystery novel that he read 15 pages in & decided he doesn't like.
(I'm going to take it back.) I gave him a few of my old paperbacks to look thru to see if I had a John Grisham book or something that he would like. He ended up picking Dan Brown's Angels & Demons (which I threw in the pile simply because we're going to Rome). So he goes & picks Angels & Demons and now I have to push him to read at least 30 pages a day so he can get it done & write his book review AND still have time to read this Waxman Report book and do the workbook packet that goes with that. 
Bon Voyage!
getting really excited now 
