August 13, 2011 Med - Mickey's Marauding Mates

[Kels Sem]

Just thought you would all like to know what's on the news in the UK at the moment in case anyone was worrying

Spanish airport strikes called off

"A strike by Spanish airport workers has been called off after a preliminary deal was reached between the airport authority AENA, and trade unions."

Jon

PS : My wife's name is Amanda & DD(9) is Charlotte & DD(4 - but will be 5 by August) is called Katie if you want to update your front page

Hi, thanks for posting as I haven't heard the news all day! That's one less thing to worry about. Welcome aboard by the way, my DD Keira will be 3 weeks off her 5 birthday when we cruise so her and Katie are more or less the same age.

 

[Kels Sem]

Hi Karen, Glad to hear you are feeling better and up to chatting again.

It's been a lovely day here today and what's even better is that I'm off work tomorrow as it's St Patricks Day

 

[Kels Sem]

Hey LeeAnn, I was just reading the Med ports on your own thread and someone has posted that as the15th August is a holiday in Italy then the public transport may not run on a normal service. I know you were thinking of getting the train to Pisa and then onto the Cinque terre so you will need to see how the trains are gonna run on this day. I certainly know here in the UK, public transport won't run a normal service on a holiday.

This potentially could throw a spanner in the works for a few peeps plans that day.

BTW may cousins still hasn't come back to me about Palma yet

 

[Anal Annie]

Just thought you would all like to know what's on the news in the UK at the moment in case anyone was worrying

Spanish airport strikes called off

"A strike by Spanish airport workers has been called off after a preliminary deal was reached between the airport authority AENA, and trade unions."

Jon

PS : My wife's name is Amanda & DD(9) is Charlotte & DD(4 - but will be 5 by August) is called Katie if you want to update your front page

Jon - you are my new HERO!! THANK YOU for posting about that!! Now I can proceed with buying our trip insurance and know that our flights will be covered if they've called it off!! WHEW! That was REALLLLLY bugging me!!!

Hey LeeAnn, I was just reading the Med ports on your own thread and someone has posted that as the15th August is a holiday in Italy then the public transport may not run on a normal service. I know you were thinking of getting the train to Pisa and then onto the Cinque terre so you will need to see how the trains are gonna run on this day. I certainly know here in the UK, public transport won't run a normal service on a holiday.

This potentially could throw a spanner in the works for a few peeps plans that day.

BTW may cousins still hasn't come back to me about Palma yet

Yeah, I had already posted on there that there was something going on that day 'cuz the Vatican is closed on the 15th. I am sure if it's a major national holiday that all public buildings will be closed. That will actually simplify the day for us tho. I wanted to do Cinque Terre and DH wanted to do Pisa (well, I wanted to see the tower but I hate to schelp an hour each way to do that and nothing else)!! Anyway, I had been looking at the train schedules and such so that we could try to go to Pisa on our own first thing then take the train directly from Pisa to Monterosso (the furthest town in Cinque Terre) to have lunch & hang on the beach for awhile. If the tower is closed to visitors that may convince DH it's not worth the trip & we could just go to Cinque Terre and have a more leisurely day sampling wine, eating pizza & gelato & canneloni's!! It would be less stressful and I would be fine with that. I have sent an email to an email address I found on the website where you buy the tickets for the tower to see if I can find out if they'll be closed. I know that this whole thing complicates things for you and some of the others who wanted to go to Florence tho...

 

[west&east]

Ugh. I am feeling so out of it and far behind in planning our ports! What is the deal with August 15th? Any other curve balls?

 

[Anal Annie]

Ugh. I am feeling so out of it and far behind in planning our ports! What is the deal with August 15th? Any other curve balls?

Sigh...August 15th is called Ferragosto and most everything in all of Italy closes for the holiday... Sounds like the coastal areas will be jam packed tho!! JUST what we need!!

http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy-featured/holidays/ferragosto-august-15th-holiday


I found a website related to tourism in Cinque Terre and have emailed them to see if there will be any Ferragosto celebrations we could attend. If all else fails we'll go back to the ship & have a Maurading Mates deck party!!

 

[Kels Sem]

The port excursions for Palma are finally posted on the DCL website for those who are interested. The beach excursion is to Palmanova. DCL are basically just offering you transport to get there and back.

 

[Anal Annie]

The port excursions for Palma are finally posted on the DCL website for those who are interested. The beach excursion is to Palmanova. DCL are basically just offering you transport to get there and back.

Thanks for the heads up! I was just about to do my Wednesday check on the website!! Shame it's only a 4.5 hour excursion. By the time you figure in travel time each way that's not very long AT the beach. We'll have to hope your cousin comes through with some more ideas & options for us to think about. Time for more research.

So how was your St. Patrick's Day?! Did you have a good time off?!

 

[Anal Annie]

WOW! Already back onto page 3!!

Got an email from DCL over night announcing that our port adventures were up! It was exciting to see - I got all tingly!! And a bit scared about all of it!! I still can't believe we're doing this and now it seems so real!!!

Well, busy day ahead here - going to the grocery store this morning (that chore ranks right up there with cleaning toilets for me)! Then it's supposed to be in the 70's later today so I think I am going to drain & clean my pond! Any of you who've been on here since last spring know that I HATE this chore!! It's a real back breaker of a day. But it's time to get it started up. I DID go out yesterday & look at it and I saw 2 of my fishies swimming around. I had started out last year with 5 new ones and thought I still had 3 left...so I hope I find the other one when I get into it. The worst thing is I have a HUGE plastic tub that I have to put some pond water in then I have to catch the fish with a net & put them in the tub for the day before I can start draining. That's always a hard process. Poor fishies.

 

[Kels Sem]

St. Paddy's day was very quiet for us. I was off work but the kids were still in school. I had a nice day though. I met my Mum for coffee in the morning and did some shopping, after picking the kids up from school we had a play date with a good friend of mine so I had some more coffee Mum & Dad then took the kids out for dinner as they are going on holiday today and then DH came home.

Today has been a bit stressful! We are getting new carpet & furniture in 1 of the bedrooms and then DS has decided to move into a bigger room. DH & his Dad are currently upstairs building furniture and there is just stuff everywhere. I think it's gonna take all weekend to get it all sorted!

LeeAnn - I can't believe it's that time of year again and you are cleaning that pond again I remember you talking about it last year. I also totally agree with you about the grocery shopping

Hope everyone has a good weekend

 

[Anal Annie]

Bump up from page 3! Where have all of our peeps gone?! Guess I'll talk to myself again for awhile.

Got the pond drained, cleaned & refilled - it got up to about 80 degrees so was a PERFECT day for working outside. Good grief did it have a lot of algae! I had BIG problems with algae last year and it lingered through the winter. WHAT A MESS!! Can I just say if any of you out there THINK you want a little Koi pond or water garden you reallllly don't!!! That is unless you are independently wealthy and can afford to hire a company to come out & do this job FOR you every year!! Also...another tip...go bigger!! They are easier if you can keep them running all year round with bigger pumps & filter systems. Mine is a total pain because as ponds go it's not that big - only about 300 gallons (about 1140 liters). I have a pressurized UV filter that is buried in a hole but it cannot freeze so I have to shut the whole thing down in the fall & bring that filter inside for the winter. Once the pond sits all winter there's so much sludge on the bottom that has to be cleaned out. It's a NASTY, NASTY project. I DID find 2 fish and 6 snails that survived. No frogs this year (sometimes I find a frog that hybernates in it). Once it warms up a little more I'll probably go buy a few more fish. If I stick to small ones I can have 6 or 8. I USED to have a gorgeous Butterfly Koi that was about 14" long but something took him near the end of the summer year before last. Broke my heart. He was a real pet (I had him for 5 or 6 years and he ate out of my hand) so I decided no more Koi...they are too valuable so I will stick to the little Shubunkins & Goldfish that are cheap (although apparently less hardy).

Kelly - exciting stuff you got going on there!! How's it going?!

 

[mikki.young]

I have a friend heading off on the Dream tomorrow - lucky thing!

I've only ever done one Disney cruise before and that was a 3 nighter that I was lucky enough to win way back in 2002 I think. We didn't do a lot of the ship activities that time and I plan on more this trip. Do we know what stage shows they will have - films I guess we find out day by day but they are not high on my list of unique activities! What about quizes, trivia and other stuff like that? What sort of things can I look forward to?

The more I think about August 15 the less inspired I am to try and do much. May look again at the disney do it yourself option and try and work out a touring plan for myself - may be the safer option. On the other hand if everyone is heading to the beach we should be against the traffic heading to Florence?

 

[Joanne Hollyoak]

Bump up from page 3! Where have all of our peeps gone?! Guess I'll talk to myself again for awhile.

Got the pond drained, cleaned & refilled - it got up to about 80 degrees so was a PERFECT day for working outside. Good grief did it have a lot of algae! I had BIG problems with algae last year and it lingered through the winter. WHAT A MESS!! Can I just say if any of you out there THINK you want a little Koi pond or water garden you reallllly don't!!! That is unless you are independently wealthy and can afford to hire a company to come out & do this job FOR you every year!! Also...another tip...go bigger!! They are easier if you can keep them running all year round with bigger pumps & filter systems. Mine is a total pain because as ponds go it's not that big - only about 300 gallons (about 1140 liters). I have a pressurized UV filter that is buried in a hole but it cannot freeze so I have to shut the whole thing down in the fall & bring that filter inside for the winter. Once the pond sits all winter there's so much sludge on the bottom that has to be cleaned out. It's a NASTY, NASTY project. I DID find 2 fish and 6 snails that survived. No frogs this year (sometimes I find a frog that hybernates in it). Once it warms up a little more I'll probably go buy a few more fish. If I stick to small ones I can have 6 or 8. I USED to have a gorgeous Butterfly Koi that was about 14" long but something took him near the end of the summer year before last. Broke my heart. He was a real pet (I had him for 5 or 6 years and he ate out of my hand) so I decided no more Koi...they are too valuable so I will stick to the little Shubunkins & Goldfish that are cheap (although apparently less hardy).

Kelly - exciting stuff you got going on there!! How's it going?!

Hi just catching up reading everyones messages, had a busy week took my son to the Theatre to see Georges Marvellous Medicine great show.
Tuesday we are off to DLP staying at the Newyork Hotel for 3 nights, can't wait as anyone been on the Hot Air Balloon?
Annie you make me laugh with your pond we have 4 goldfish and thats just reminded me to get a food block to pop in the tank for next week.

 

[Joanne Hollyoak]

hello peeps,

Cant believe final payment is due next month , its going to be an expensive month we' re travelling Easter time ( just me and DS) to visit family in Egypt Easter tickets were so expensive .
Anyway saw something today in the shop that looks like the fisher extender thingy - i got it just in case as it was cheap - Annie are we doing a FE or not ?

Hi I was keen on the idea as didnot want Aaron to miss out on anything then I read how much organising it takes and finding out how many children likes and dislikes ages of children, what gifts to buy, packing everything. So have decided to just pack loads of Love Heart sweets so Aaron can give out to the children in the kids club.
Does anyone know the prices of the photos on board the ship and do they allow you to leave a camera in the kids club

 

[Joanne Hollyoak]

Sigh...August 15th is called Ferragosto and most everything in all of Italy closes for the holiday... Sounds like the coastal areas will be jam packed tho!! JUST what we need!!

http://www.italymag.co.uk/italy-featured/holidays/ferragosto-august-15th-holiday


I found a website related to tourism in Cinque Terre and have emailed them to see if there will be any Ferragosto celebrations we could attend. If all else fails we'll go back to the ship & have a Maurading Mates deck party!!

Makesure you let us know before we set sail lol Will be great to say hi to everyone

 

[Anal Annie]

YAY! The peeps are alive!!

Mikki - that's great that you won a free DCL once upon a time! But that's why I don't like the 3 nighters - just too short to DO anything and no time to enjoy any of the ship. We're not huge on doing bingo or trivia or anything - I like to do the Martini Tasting if I can work it in (depends when they do it). We usually try to see whatever the new run movie is (last time we sailed was right after Wall-E came out so we waited to see it on the ship). Actually, we went to the midnight showing IN OUR PJ's!! Yes! All 3 of us went in our jammies!! DS and I went to see the Toy Story show (I think DH stayed back in the room to take a nap). So we try to see 1 show & 1 movie. I don't stress over making sure to see EVERYTHING. I feel like we do so much planning for our port excursions I just don't want to have to feel obligated to HAVE to do everything. If it works into the day and there's not something else I'd rather be doing then we'll go. We do the late dining so going to the shows mean we have to be showered & basically ready for dinner early as there's not time in-between to do it. If I have a good lounger & am enjoying a cold beverage at the adult pool at show time then guess what wins out for me?! A girls gotta have her priorities!! DS is old enough now that he can go to a movie or show alone if he wants to go. He is pretty independent that way. Probably 'cuz he's an only child. He is used to being alone.

Joanne - hope you check back in before you head off to DLP!! Take notes for me as this summer will be our first time going too!! Where is the hot air balloon? Is it at one of the parks or is it at your hotel??? They have one at WDW in Downtown Disney but we've not been on it yet.

 

[mikki.young]

I've done the balloon at Paris but not at WDW. Good views of all the hotels and the parks. Nice to do once but pricy. Went for a day trip to DLP last year when on a trip to see Monets Gardens (which were stunning). We have been a few times to DLP including opening day. I still think one of the most stunning things at DLP is the dragon under the castle - you have to go look at him!

 

[MallenBeadle]

Annie re pond - seriously impressed, we struggle with one goldfish in a tank

Quick question to you all, do many people stay on board when the ship docks, especially the La Spezia dock. Originally we fancied Florence but it seemed a long journey with the kids then we thought pizzas in Pisa overlooking the leaning tower of. Finally about to settle on Cinque Terre but now may stay on board especially as planning "longish" days on shore before and after

Thanks

Jon

 

[Joanne Hollyoak]

I've done the balloon at Paris but not at WDW. Good views of all the hotels and the parks. Nice to do once but pricy. Went for a day trip to DLP last year when on a trip to see Monets Gardens (which were stunning). We have been a few times to DLP including opening day. I still think one of the most stunning things at DLP is the dragon under the castle - you have to go look at him!

Cheers will check prices on Balloon. Annie its in Disney village
It will be my 3rd visit to DLP and the 1st time we never saw the Dragon and last year we went and it was a bit scary at first as didnot know what to expect lol
They have built Toystory land so thats why we are returning this year as Aaron is a big fan, we loved woodys round up village as you got time to have photo shoots with all the characters and it was really quiet this time of year and not so expensive.
Must check the weather in Paris
would love to go to WDW and castaway cay

 

[Kels Sem]

Annie re pond - seriously impressed, we struggle with one goldfish in a tank

Quick question to you all, do many people stay on board when the ship docks, especially the La Spezia dock. Originally we fancied Florence but it seemed a long journey with the kids then we thought pizzas in Pisa overlooking the leaning tower of. Finally about to settle on Cinque Terre but now may stay on board especially as planning "longish" days on shore before and after

Thanks

Jon

Hi Jon,

I don't know how many will be staying on board as we haven't cruised before but I'm planning just to spend an hour or 2 in La Spezia itself and then the rest of the day relaxing on the boat. I have read in another thread that it's a nice town for a stroll around and there is park it the centre of town. I know they have a promenade along the front which looks nice for a stroll. If you look at google earth you can zoom right down to have a look at the promenade.