August 13, 2011 Med - Mickey's Marauding Mates

[veludo]

Morning All

First time for DLP - we have bought a couple of planning books but I think 2 - 3 days ill probably be enough from reading others trip reports.

We are flying to Majorca at the end of May so I hope that the Volcano / Ash saga is all over by then.

Ive been reading threads on The Dibb this morning from people who are eitehr stranded in Florida and unable to get home or are due to fly out and have had their flights cancelled - it awful. I would hate to be in that situation, when its time to come home I just want to get back so all this uncertainty would be dreadful. I feel so sorry for all those affected.

Kelly - does your DH fly in / out of Blackpool? We are flying from Blackpool when we go to Majorca in May - never flown out of there before even though its only about15 minutes drive from our house!!

Justine xx

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Hello all, I have been checking airfare for this years flights going from the US (Baltimore MD area) and have not seen any non stop flights. So taking into consideration I must stop over, it looks like the choices are Montreal, London, Frankfurt and Munich. I am thinking of leaning more towards Montreal Canada as the first leg is short, then board Leuftansa for the remainder and longest leg of the flight right into Barcelona. I think Air Canada is the carrier into Montreal. Does anyone have any experience with Canada's airlines? Leuftansa does not charge extra for checked bags( from what I have read so far). And they are one of the few who serve free drinks on their flights!!!

 

[Kels Sem]

Morning All

First time for DLP - we have bought a couple of planning books but I think 2 - 3 days ill probably be enough from reading others trip reports.

We are flying to Majorca at the end of May so I hope that the Volcano / Ash saga is all over by then.

Ive been reading threads on The Dibb this morning from people who are eitehr stranded in Florida and unable to get home or are due to fly out and have had their flights cancelled - it awful. I would hate to be in that situation, when its time to come home I just want to get back so all this uncertainty would be dreadful. I feel so sorry for all those affected.

Kelly - does your DH fly in / out of Blackpool? We are flying from Blackpool when we go to Majorca in May - never flown out of there before even though its only about15 minutes drive from our house!!

Justine xx

Hey,
No DH flys in and out of Manchester. The Belfast/Blackpool route only operates in summer time and the flight times are more suited to holiday makers rather than commuters. He did fly for a while with manx airlines but then they had to stop at the Isle of Man!

I have done DLP twice now and yes it could be done in 2-3 days.

I've also been reading The DIBB today. It must be a real nightmare for them. My Aunt & Uncle are currently stuck in Majorca. Fortunately my cousin lives there so they have somewhere to stay. They just don't know when they are going get back at the moment.


BWV Dreamin - Sorry I haven't flown with any Canadian Airlines before so can't help with your flights.

Kelly

 

[Kels Sem]

I've been reading a few pre-trip reports people have started here on the DIS for their upcoming Med Cruises.

It won't be long until the first Med cruise and then the trip reports. I must say I'm looking forward to reading them to get all the great info

Kelly

 

[Anal Annie]

OK, so how many of our UK / Ireland peeps have been to Majorca before? I am guessing that it is to you guys like the Caribbean islands are to us? A frequent vacation destination? You must give us all the scoop on Majorca!! I was wondering if that port would just end up being sort of a beach day sort of stop for us.

Hope - Would you consider using another airport besides BWI?? US Airways has direct flights between Philly and BCN! How far are you from Philly? You must be closer than we are. They price out round trip right now for $1,073 (I used Mon. 8/9 to Tues 8/24 as those are the closest dates to what we would likely do). The non-stop flights would be great doncha think? I have several alerts set up on kayak.com that I've been watching... I can't set up an alert for multi-city so I've got several one-ways going since we're flying in & out of different cities but the one-ways are BIG BUCKS.

If I go in and do a search for round trip (which I have to do manually each time I look) I get Air France Dulles to Paris (direct in 7.5 hrs), Paris to Barcelona and then Barcelona back to Dulles via Paris for $1,052!!! The trip home is 11 hrs. 40 min. which sucks but....nothing direct coming back on Air France. If I price it out one-way so I can use Swiss Air home it works out to be more! I think $1,052 is reasonable considering it includes Paris to Barcelona too. If I price it without that hop from Paris it comes up at $1,020 (Delta codesharing with Air France non-stop going) and Delta home via JFK in 12.5 hrs). Air France includes 1 checked bag for free I think but their carry-on size is smaller than our domestic airlines so I might have to buy a new carry-on or two and they have a 26 Lb weight limit on the carry-ons. Anybody ever use Air France? How strict are they on this carry-on size? I wonder how much they really enforce it? I know I probably only have 1 bag that meets their measurements. Most of our carry-ons are 22" x 14" x 10" (empty, ie no overstuffed protruding pockets). Their website info. works out to 21.45" x 13.75" x 9.95" including handles, pockets and wheels so all of our bags are JUST SLIGHTLY over their limits. I might go start a thread to see what people say about their policies...

I think I will be also shopping our flights direct thru the airline websites too!! I am concerned that this volcanic ash thing will ultimately result in higher fares being passed along by the airlines in order to recover their losses. I hope everything returns to normal soon!!

 

[BWV Dreamin]

The best prices seem to be out of Dulles. That's where I am checking flights from. But I'm checking thru like Orbitz. I'm not checking directly thru the airlines. Are there any airlines from Dulles that are direct, not stops? Philly is too far. It's BWI or Dulles. What airlines should I check out?

OK, so how many of our UK / Ireland peeps have been to Majorca before? I am guessing that it is to you guys like the Caribbean islands are to us? A frequent vacation destination? You must give us all the scoop on Majorca!! I was wondering if that port would just end up being sort of a beach day sort of stop for us.

Hope - Would you consider using another airport besides BWI?? US Airways has direct flights between Philly and BCN! How far are you from Philly? You must be closer than we are. They price out round trip right now for $1,073 (I used Mon. 8/9 to Tues 8/24 as those are the closest dates to what we would likely do). The non-stop flights would be great doncha think? I have several alerts set up on kayak.com that I've been watching... I can't set up an alert for multi-city so I've got several one-ways going since we're flying in & out of different cities but the one-ways are BIG BUCKS.

If I go in and do a search for round trip (which I have to do manually each time I look) I get Air France Dulles to Paris (direct in 7.5 hrs), Paris to Barcelona and then Barcelona back to Dulles via Paris for $1,052!!! The trip home is 11 hrs. 40 min. which sucks but....nothing direct coming back on Air France. If I price it out one-way so I can use Swiss Air home it works out to be more! I think $1,052 is reasonable considering it includes Paris to Barcelona too. If I price it without that hop from Paris it comes up at $1,020 (Delta codesharing with Air France non-stop going) and Delta home via JFK in 12.5 hrs). Air France includes 1 checked bag for free I think but their carry-on size is smaller than our domestic airlines so I might have to buy a new carry-on or two and they have a 26 Lb weight limit on the carry-ons. Anybody ever use Air France? How strict are they on this carry-on size? I wonder how much they really enforce it? I know I probably only have 1 bag that meets their measurements. Most of our carry-ons are 22" x 14" x 10" (empty, ie no overstuffed protruding pockets). Their website info. works out to 21.45" x 13.75" x 9.95" including handles, pockets and wheels so all of our bags are JUST SLIGHTLY over their limits. I might go start a thread to see what people say about their policies...

I think I will be also shopping our flights direct thru the airline websites too!! I am concerned that this volcanic ash thing will ultimately result in higher fares being passed along by the airlines in order to recover their losses. I hope everything returns to normal soon!!

 

[veludo]

Ive been to Majorca quite a few times - its an easy short flight (about 2 1/2 hrs) for us. We used to holiday there a lot when I was little - we mostly stayed in Cala D'or which I seem to remember being vrey nice (although that was more than 20 years ago LOL).

I have stayed in Palma Nova a couple of times (again this was about 15 years ago) and it can't have been far to Palma (the port) as we hired a car and went there quite a few times (and I was only 21 and the first time Id driven abroad - i wouldnt dare do it now ).

In May we are staying at Puerta Pollensa which is in the North of the island - about an hour from the airport. Were staying at Club Pollentia resort - it looks very nice and I cannot wait for a week of all Inclusive doing nothing apart from lazing about and making my way to the swim up bar

On the cruise, when we dock in Palma - we wont be taking any organised excursions. we will probably just make our own way around. There IS a cathedral to visit but Im not sure our DS will find that very amusing and I remember a large department store called El Corte Ingles or similar - its quite a few years since we went so its probably changed a lot in Palma itself. I dont remember it being massive so its probably somewhere that you could explore on foot on your own.

Justine xx

 

[Kels Sem]

I've been to Majorca a few times myself and have always stayed in the North of the Island. Last time I was there was about 12 years ago. It was a girlie trip with my friends. I have vague memories as a child going to Palma. As Justine says it can be explored on foot. My cousin is currently living in Palma so i intend to spend the day with her if she can get the day off work. If she is no longer living there then I think we will have a beach day. When I next see her I will pick her brains on what to do for the day.

Kelly

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Hello all! I am geographically challenged..... Where is Majorca?

Rethinking doing the pre-cruise hotel bookings thru Disney. I have them booked, but haven't paid for them yet. My travel agent suggested hotels.com. I see lots of hotel rooms for half the price Disney is charging. In fact, for the AC Diplomat, I can book that on my own for half the price! So still searching the hotels around the central part of Barcelona.

Annie, how is the job going? Have you started yet? I didn't get a census form so I guess someone will be knocking on my door!Just doin my part to keep some people employed! (Sorry international friends! Political shot I just took!)

Lets talk money....I know Suntrust Bank here is the US sells Euros for a $10 surcharge. Do any international friends here know where the best place to convert US dollars into Euros? I think doing it at the airports gives the worst return.

 

[veludo]

Hi

Majorca is an island in the Mediterranan, its part of a group called the Balearics and they belong to Spain - I think that they are a bit South of Spain but I too am useless at geography - i DO know that whenever Ive been it been sunny and warm so thats good enough for me.

There are some lovely beaches - I think that when in Palma we might pinch Kellys idea and have a beach day - DS 4 just loves being onthe beach. Ill do some investigating of some nice beaches not too far from the port.

Oooh I can do some investigating when I am there in 5 weeks!! I so cannot wait and pray that the travel chaos is over by then

Justine

 

[veludo]

Hello all! I am geographically challenged..... Where is Majorca?

Rethinking doing the pre-cruise hotel bookings thru Disney. I have them booked, but haven't paid for them yet. My travel agent suggested hotels.com. I see lots of hotel rooms for half the price Disney is charging. In fact, for the AC Diplomat, I can book that on my own for half the price! So still searching the hotels around the central part of Barcelona.

Annie, how is the job going? Have you started yet? I didn't get a census form so I guess someone will be knocking on my door!Just doin my part to keep some people employed! (Sorry international friends! Political shot I just took!)

Lets talk money....I know Suntrust Bank here is the US sells Euros for a $10 surcharge. Do any international friends here know where the best place to convert US dollars into Euros? I think doing it at the airports gives the worst return.

I think that you will save loads booking your hotels yourself - have you tried LastMinute and Expdia (both .com) or I think there is also Alpharooms and laterooms.

In the past I have also booked direct with the hotel itself after checking it out on a few travel agents websites and thats worked really cheaply aswell.
Good Luck

Justine x

 

[BWV Dreamin]

A beach day would be great!!! Didn't really know what to do in Palma. It would also be a great relaxing day after such busy itineraries in Italy! Yes, I have been looking at some hotels right in the center of Barcelona. Looking forward to your trip report!

Hi

Majorca is an island in the Mediterranan, its part of a group called the Balearics and they belong to Spain - I think that they are a bit South of Spain but I too am useless at geography - i DO know that whenever Ive been it been sunny and warm so thats good enough for me.

There are some lovely beaches - I think that when in Palma we might pinch Kellys idea and have a beach day - DS 4 just loves being onthe beach. Ill do some investigating of some nice beaches not too far from the port.

Oooh I can do some investigating when I am there in 5 weeks!! I so cannot wait and pray that the travel chaos is over by then

Justine

 

[veludo]

Hi BWV

For our pre cruise - i think we are going to look at one of the beach resorts nto too far from Barcelona - there is Sitges and also a couple of resorts on the Costa Dorada. We have a DS (4) who loves the beach - even though here in the UK we live right on the coast we rarely visit the beach - I'm sure Kelly will vouch that Blackpool beach / sea isnt for the faint hearted!! Our coast is on the irish sea and its pretty choppy so we dont get a nice calm blue sea - we get sandy, brown rough seas . Needless to say, we dont go swimming there. There are a couple of places further up the coast that have prettier beaches but nothing like those in the Med.

Best beach ever was Naples (near the Vanderbilt hotel - is that still there?) getting drinks fro the Chickee Hut and watching the sun go down on a gorgeous florida sunset

J xx

 

[veludo]

Found this:

http://cruises.about.com/cs/europe/a/mallorca.htm

may be useful

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Found this:

http://cruises.about.com/cs/europe/a/mallorca.htm

may be useful

Great link! If it's not too far from the ship I would love to see the beach! But the castle tour looks good too. Hmmmm... decisions, decisions.

 

[Anal Annie]

Hey ya'll I hope our UK friends are getting back to normal now with all this volcano nonesense. I will certainly be keeping this mess in mind whenever I shop for trip insurance next year!!

Hope - I think you will save yourself BOATLOADS by booking anything you can on your own VS booking thru DCL. You don't need to PAY DCL for the hotels NOW do you? I didn't think that was due before the cruise balance. We may book a couple of excursions thru the DCL for France or Majorca but not our hotels or flights I don't think. If you use the links that I've got so far on our website you can see where booking any of those hotels direct would be a big savings over DCL. (And no, I haven't touched the website lately...my bad!) Justine - thanks for the Majorca link! Also, if you go onto the DCL website for our cruise and click on the itinerary tab it will pop a little map and show the sailing route / ports and you can see exactly where Mallorca / Majorca is located.

Hope - I can't believe you didn't get a Census form! Wow! Shocking. We got ours back in mid-March. I filled it out & returned it before we went to FL for spring break. I have not started working yet. My training is next week Mon-Thur 9-5:00 in Montgomery Village. My "Crew Leader" called me yesterday to tell me a couple of things & I asked him if he knew what area I would be working & he said likely from East of I-270 (which is like 1/2 mile from us) / North as far as the Frederick Co. line and up Rt. 27 to Damascus. So no really bad neighborhoods in that area I don't think. (There could be some in Germantown if I had to go in that direction.) This sounds pretty rural though. I will get paid mileage too.

I asked at my bank (Chevy Chase) about getting Euros and the girls there said to get them at the airport at a Travelex booth. They appeared to maybe be from India and they said that's where they get them when they travel rather than the bank where they work! Chevy Chase charges a fee to order them and another fee to exchange them back if you don't use all of them. So I don't know yet what I will do. My "cruise fund" bank acct. is at Wachovia (now Wells Fargo I think) so I can always check there too. Do we go anywhere that doesn't take Euros? France, Italy & Spain all take them, right? But the UK does not? So if you xfer planes or something somewhere you may need to have something else if you need for food or something? I don't know. I haven't gotten that far in my planning yet.

I went to Costco in Frederick yesterday & the food sampler people had a sign that they were hiring PT. I might apply for that too! $11 / hour for 6 hr. shifts. Pretty mindless work. We'll see. I could do a couple shifts a week. I really want some new patio furniture and am trying to figure how to pay for it if I were to talk DH into it!! I need a job but I don't really want a FT office job again. I feel like I've been "out of it" for too long now. I want something where I can work around DS's swim schedule etc.

 

[Anal Annie]

Hello. My name is LeeAnn (aka Anal Annie) and I am a shopaholic.

Just wondered if any of you saw this thread about Overstock.com having 50% off on the Pac Safe bags??

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2446201

http://www.overstock.com/search?keywords=pac%20safe&SearchType=Header

http://www.pacsafe.com/www/index.php?_room=3&_action=detail&id=82&features=specification

http://www.pacsafe.com/www/index.php?_room=3&_action=detail&id=88

I sort of feel like I am being a little paranoid BUT....I read too many stories! These were such good prices....I just ordered the smaller messenger laptop bag (M100 in silver/black) for DH and the H200 Totebag for myself (in the smoke blue). I had looked at them a day or so ago but didn't order anything...then I looked again today & it said they were at a high risk of selling out so I just did it. When I put them in my cart it said there were only 5 left of one & 8 left of the other. I got both for just under $60 with the shipping. I had found a "Baggalinni" bag a couple weeks ago that has some neat features but it's a bit too small so I had been sort of looking for a larger one...but I hadn't settled on which one...but then I couldn't pass up this price on these. I have no will power gals!!

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I don't have to pay for those DCL hotel bookings my TA made. She just added the cost to my total that is due next year. But I am going to have her cancel them anyway. I have looked at your website (its awesome!) plus searched thru hotels.com. I'm going to book hotels on my own. That will also save me on trip insurance because they won't be included in the total cost (I can cancel those rooms 24 hrs. ahead of check-in).

I haven't even thought of itineraries, just briefly looked at the excursions DCL offered. I'm going to do Barcelona on my own. The hotels there have people that will help you see the sites, and give you contacts for tours.

Most of my fact finding has been looking for flights from the US! I just don't see me getting around a connecting flight. Sooo, do I connect in Canada or London? I feel like I want an English speaking country where I connect. I have connected in Frankfurt before...people not so nice there!! I know they probably think we are dumb US travelers, don't know where we are going, etc! Well, they are right!!!

 

[Anal Annie]

I don't have to pay for those DCL hotel bookings my TA made. She just added the cost to my total that is due next year. But I am going to have her cancel them anyway. I have looked at your website (its awesome!) plus searched thru hotels.com. I'm going to book hotels on my own. That will also save me on trip insurance because they won't be included in the total cost (I can cancel those rooms 24 hrs. ahead of check-in).

I haven't even thought of itineraries, just briefly looked at the excursions DCL offered. I'm going to do Barcelona on my own. The hotels there have people that will help you see the sites, and give you contacts for tours.

Most of my fact finding has been looking for flights from the US! I just don't see me getting around a connecting flight. Sooo, do I connect in Canada or London? I feel like I want an English speaking country where I connect. I have connected in Frankfurt before...people not so nice there!! I know they probably think we are dumb US travelers, don't know where we are going, etc! Well, they are right!!!

Hope - of course ALL of these flight schedules are subject to change drastically between now and next year BUT...just wanted to say that you can also look for a cheap flight on Air Tran or SW to say NYC (JFK) or Atlanta or Philly and then you CAN get direct flights between BCN and those cities if you'd rather transfer on American soil. From Atlanta you can go direct on Air France / Delta (codeshare). From Philly on Spanair which codeshares with US Airways and from JFK there are multiple choices - AA, Continental, Delta & United I think all offer non-stops. (Delta round trip is currently $1,004 thru JFK.) I will consider this option when it comes time to book which won't be before Sept. anyway.....

 

[Anal Annie]

Ya'll will never guess what I found today! I went shopping to get some new shorts for DS (he recently had a growth spurt & got a lot taller...so some of his shorts from last year are too short on him & his gangly skinny knees are poking out the bottoms & he looks silly). ANYWAY, I found REVERSIBLE shorts for MEN!!!! The were cute (I thought). Solid on one side & plaid on the other. They were on sale half off (only $15) so I got a pair for DH to see how he likes them. I got sort of a khaki color & the inside is khaki, white & orange plaid. They also had cheap lightweight polo shirts for $15 so I grabbed an orangey color one of those too to be sure he had something to match... But how perfect is that for packing on a trip like this one next year!?! Two shorts in one! I hope he likes them - they had them in a gray color with a blueish plaid inside too...I could go back for more!! Our anniversary is this Sunday so I'll give them to him then. We had agreed not to exchange gifts - I just want to go OUT to eat rather than order take-out for once but this doesn't really count as a gift, right? It's really just a little wardrobe maintenance, right?!

(Hope - this was at 'Old Navy' if you have one of those near you...)

http://oldnavy.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=45495&vid=1&pid=750898