August 28, 2010 Pirates of the Barbary Coast - 11 nights in the Mediterranean

[eva]

Sounds fantastic!!! I shall definitely be eating/drinking too much this weekend. It's the BIG birthday weekend with my in-laws and I am dreading it. In a nutshell (I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before) my MiL is 80 in December, my SiL was 50 in October and Richard's 47 on Saturday SO we're taking everyone away to Oxford for the weekend in a nice hotel to celebrate their joint 177th birthday. Awesome idea in principle but getting less so by the day as I recall how irritating they are! However, Richard is my main concern and I just want the weekend to go well for him, so I'll just sip copious amounts of champale in the corner and behave myself...

I can relate. My in-laws are great! But my side of the family tends to have more stressful events. The best example of the difference is a trip that we took years ago (prior to DVC) with my DM and Steve's DM. They are both widows. So we thought it might be nice to take both of them on a trip to WDW. Unfortunately DM decided that she didn't want to stay in a room by herself and wanted to bunk up with DMIL. My mother has a number of "interesting" habits and I had a bad feeling about the trip, FOR GOOD REASON! The whole trip my DM woke up at 5:00 am and turned on all the lights so she could read. She didn't like most the rides. The food was too expensive, even thought we and DMIL paid for it all. And the shopping was TOO DISNEY! She hated that we took a break each day to swim and relax. "Who wants to do that when you are on vacation?!?" When we asked what she wanted to do, she really had no idea. Needless to say, we have taken DMIL back many times since, but no more for DM. I love DM, but spending more than a day with her makes me go for the drink.

 

[eva]

Sounds fantastic!!! I shall definitely be eating/drinking too much this weekend. It's the BIG birthday weekend with my in-laws and I am dreading it. In a nutshell (I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before) my MiL is 80 in December, my SiL was 50 in October and Richard's 47 on Saturday SO we're taking everyone away to Oxford for the weekend in a nice hotel to celebrate their joint 177th birthday. Awesome idea in principle but getting less so by the day as I recall how irritating they are! However, Richard is my main concern and I just want the weekend to go well for him, so I'll just sip copious amounts of champale in the corner and behave myself...

I forgot to wish you good luck on your "special" weekend. Tell Richard

Happy Birthday!​

 

[CustardTart]

I forgot to wish you good luck on your "special" weekend. Tell Richard

Happy Birthday!​

Thanks, Eva!!! I'll pass it on!!!

I'm pretty sure I predicted the excursions would be released around Richard's birthday so come on DCL - get a move on!!!

 

[eva]

I'm pretty sure I predicted the excursions would be released around Richard's birthday so come on DCL - get a move on!!!

I know! I sent DCL an email a few weeks ago asking when they would be out on the website. The email I got back just said that they weren't on the site yet, but to keep checking back. Lot of help that was! I really need to see the prices. Steve has been pestering me about upgrading to business class for the flight to Barcelona. We did for our flights to Marco Island and now he is spoiled. I am just having a tough time justifying the cost.

 

[CustardTart]

I know! I sent DCL an email a few weeks ago asking when they would be out on the website. The email I got back just said that they weren't on the site yet, but to keep checking back. Lot of help that was! I really need to see the prices. Steve has been pestering me about upgrading to business class for the flight to Barcelona. We did for our flights to Marco Island and now he is spoiled. I am just having a tough time justifying the cost.

I just can't understand why they are so up in the flippin' air over this??? There's only a couple of different ports from last time in the Med, for goodness sake and we're paying enough...

OK, my mini-rant is over. Time for a glass of wine, I think...

Have a good evening... xxxxx

 

[eva]

I just can't understand why they are so up in the flippin' air over this??? There's only a couple of different ports from last time in the Med, for goodness sake and we're paying enough...

OK, my mini-rant is over. Time for a glass of wine, I think...

Have a good evening... xxxxx

I just checked on the prices for upgrading to buiness and discovered that the price went up almost $1,000 per person overnight! Steve may be out of luck for this trip. It'll be wine time for me soon too!

 

[CustardTart]

I just checked on the prices for upgrading to buiness and discovered that the price went up almost $1,000 per person overnight! Steve may be out of luck for this trip. It'll be wine time for me soon too!

That sucks!!! Tho' if you keep a-checking maybe you'll spot them come down again - I'll keep my fingers crossed. IME flights are very fickle.

I haven't booked our flights to/from Barcelona yet as Richard can't give me a straight answer about when to fly in. Or which airport it suits him to fly from. Soooo once this weekend's over, I'll start demanding answers...

 

[CustardTart]

Hi, Barbary Pirates!!!
We had a great time on Richard's birthday weekend. The hotel was fab!!! Here's a link. Charmingly old-fashioned in a British sort of way but 5* service and the rooms were very chic. We managed to squeeze in a trip to the newly refurbished Ashmolean Museum as well as a tour of the city. Last night's dinner was amazing with really excellent food, nice wine and good company. SiL Anne and her daughter Ellen were in great spirits and it was lovely to see them both. My MiL is a different matter but we (Anne, Ellen, Richard, me and my kids) were all very chatty and dominated the proceedings so she didn't get the chance to be a beeyatch - tho' I did hear her having a go about someone to Anne whilst we were eating... But all-in-all it was a rip-roaring success!!!

Anyway here's a few photos...
Me and the Birthday Boy!

Me and my eldest children, Sophie and Matty ...

Richard and his niece, Ellen..

Me, Dr. Joe (Sophie's partner) and my youngest son, Samuel...

Richard and his Ma...

Me and R's sis, Anne...

 

[eva]

Karen, It looks like you had a wonderful time over the weekend. The hotel looks great. Glad you had fun and no one was too over the top.

Steve has come to his senses and decided to save the money on the flights and use it for excusions and shopping. So that is one thing off my plate.

This weekend was pretty warm, near 60 each day and sunny. So we put out our Christmas lights in the front and back yard. I will try to take a picture and post it later. We were short a few strings and will need to finish up tonight. All our bushes have really grown over the year. So more lights were needed.

Well, I need to go buy a couple turkeys for Thanksgiving. We are having 16 people for dinner Thursday night.

 

[eva]

The Excursions Are Out!

 

[CustardTart]

The Excursions Are Out!

About time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[eva]

I've been looking over the excursions. They seem pretty slim. I wonder if they will be adding more. I didn't even see one for the Amalfi Coast out of Naples. They had one on the previous Med cruises. I'm a bit bummed.

 

[CustardTart]

Mmmm, just had a good browse and I'm somewhat underwhelmed. Oh well, at least it's crystallised my thinking and forced me come up with a plan. So I think we'll be booking the following four excursions.

Day 1 Barcelona, Spain...

Day 2 At Sea..

Day 3 Valletta, Malta... Beach Club.

Day 4 Tunis, Tunisia.... Bardo Museum, Medina, Carthage & Sidi Bou Said.

Day 5 Naples, Italy.... Mt. Vesuvius by 4x4, Hike, Wine Tasting & Pompeii.

Day 6 Civitavecchia.... BOOK PRIVATE TOUR.

Day 7 At Sea.

Day 8 La Spezia, Italy.. Portofino and Santa Margherita.

Day 9 Ajaccio, Corsica.. Independent lunch and wine tasting.

Day 10 Villefranche.. Independent lunch and wine tasting.

Day 11 At Sea......

Day 12 Barcelona, Spain...

Having checked DCL's prices, I think we'll definitely be booking a private tour for Rome to make sure we see as many sights as efficiently as possible. As we both speak French (after a fashion) we're happy to do our own thing in Corsica and Villefranche so I'm going to hunt down a couple of wineries to visit independently...

 

[CustardTart]

With regards to the Westin Dragonara Beach Club excursion in Malta, I've contacted the hotel directly to see how much it would be to have access to a room for the whole day. If it's possible to do so, I think we'll make our own way there and treat it as our Castaway Cay day...

 

[eva]

Mmmm, just had a good browse and I'm somewhat underwhelmed. Oh well, at least it's crystallised my thinking and forced me come up with a plan. So I think we'll be booking the following four excursions.

Day 1 Barcelona, Spain...

Day 2 At Sea..

Day 3 Valletta, Malta... Beach Club.

Day 4 Tunis, Tunisia.... Bardo Museum, Medina, Carthage & Sidi Bou Said.

Day 5 Naples, Italy.... Mt. Vesuvius by 4x4, Hike, Wine Tasting & Pompeii.

Day 6 Civitavecchia.... BOOK PRIVATE TOUR.

Day 7 At Sea.

Day 8 La Spezia, Italy.. Portofino and Santa Margherita.

Day 9 Ajaccio, Corsica.. Independent lunch and wine tasting.

Day 10 Villefranche.. Independent lunch and wine tasting.

Day 11 At Sea......

Day 12 Barcelona, Spain...

Having checked DCL's prices, I think we'll definitely be booking a private tour for Rome to make sure we see as many sights as efficiently as possible. As we both speak French (after a fashion) we're happy to do our own thing in Corsica and Villefranche so I'm going to hunt down a couple of wineries to visit independently...

Am I looking in the right place for these excursions? I don't see any of these on the official website. I am looking at Malta right now and only see these 5 excursions:

1. Valletta - The City of the Knights
2. Dolphin Swim
3. Blue Grotto Boat Trip and Fishing Village
4. Sweethaven Village - An Encounter with Popeye
5. The Valletta Historical Hunt

I don't see a beach excursion on the site at all. Am I looking in the right place? And the only Mt. Vesuvius excursion I see is this one - Pompeii & Mt. Vesuvius. I don't see anything about 4x4's and wine tasting. I must be missing something.

 

[CustardTart]

Am I looking in the right place for these excursions? I don't see any of these on the official website. I am looking at Malta right now and only see these 5 excursions:

1. Valletta - The City of the Knights
2. Dolphin Swim
3. Blue Grotto Boat Trip and Fishing Village
4. Sweethaven Village - An Encounter with Popeye
5. The Valletta Historical Hunt

I don't see a beach excursion on the site at all. Am I looking in the right place? And the only Mt. Vesuvius excursion I see is this one - Pompeii & Mt. Vesuvius. I don't see anything about 4x4's and wine tasting. I must be missing something.

OMG!!! Am I hallucinating!!!?????? Hang on...

OK, click on this link to Port Adventures and scroll through the destinations at the bottom... Hope that helps...

 

[IrishCowboy]

subscribing

 

[eva]

OMG!!! Am I hallucinating!!!?????? Hang on...

OK, click on this link to Port Adventures and scroll through the destinations at the bottom... Hope that helps...

Ok, that's more like it! I wondered what was going on. If you go to the DCL website and open the itinerary for the 11-night it shows the ports listed. When you click on a port and go to Port Adventures it only shows about 5 excursions per port. Wonder why that is? Thanks for the link above. Now I need to go look through them again.

 

[eva]

Welcome IrishCowboy! Are you going on this cruise?

Ok, we have another tentative schedule:

Day 1 Barcelona, Spain...

Day 2 At Sea..

Day 3 Valletta, Malta... Walking Tour On Our Own

Day 4 Tunis, Tunisia.... Medina and Carthage

Day 5 Naples, Italy.... Mt. Vesuvius by 4x4, Hike, Wine Tasting & Pompeii or Amalfi Coast Drive and the Ruins of Pompeii

Day 6 Civitavecchia.... Italian Countryside and Olive Oil

Day 7 At Sea.

Day 8 La Spezia, Italy.. Portofino and Santa Margherita or Cinque Terre Scenic Boat Tour

Day 9 Ajaccio, Corsica.. ???? Still looking ????

Day 10 Villefranche.. On Our Own in Villefranche

Day 11 At Sea......

Day 12 Barcelona, Spain...

 

[CustardTart]

Happy Thanksgiving!!!​