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

[CustardTart]

Here's a link to Navigators from the last Med cruises which might make interesting reading...

 

[eva]

Thanks Eva! I just love writing the trip reports because it brings the whole thing back to me and means we have a permanent record - the fact that others enjoy them is an absolute bonus...

The Marco Island trip sounds gorgeous - well worth tagging along for that!!!! I look forward to reading all about it later in the year!!! And Puerto Rico would be amazing...

Richard also oversees Turkey, South Africa and Russia so hopefully Istanbul, Cape Town and Moscow might feature in my future...

Looking forward to your birthday????

What interesting locations Richard visits. Does he know any of the languages?

I'm not sure what we will do for my birthday. I'd love to go away for the weekend. But we are working on our yard right now for a big 4th of July celebration. Steve is putting in a new outdoor kitchen area and I am replacing all our mulch and putting in a new brick walkway from our existing patio to the new outdoor kitchen. Plus, I need to stay close to home. Our youngest is due in a couple weeks and the doctor says she could go at any time now. I'm sure Steve will take me out for a nice dinner.

 

[eva]

Here's a link to Navigators from the last Med cruises which might make interesting reading...

Thanks for the link. I am just diving into them right now. I do see that they offerred 2 excursions in Naples that included driving tours of the Almalfi Coast. One with Sorrento and the other included Pompei. It looks like four of the ports are the same; Naples, Civitavecchia , La Specia, and Villefranche. The rest of the ports on the 2010 cruises appear to be new. I have a feeling that we will be spending a lot on excursions this cruise.

 

[CustardTart]

What interesting locations Richard visits. Does he know any of the languages?

No!!! Fortunately English is the language of business more than ever nowadays so he copes OK...

...I'm not sure what we will do for my birthday. I'd love to go away for the weekend. But we are working on our yard right now for a big 4th of July celebration. Steve is putting in a new outdoor kitchen area and I am replacing all our mulch and putting in a new brick walkway from our existing patio to the new outdoor kitchen. Plus, I need to stay close to home. Our youngest is due in a couple weeks and the doctor says she could go at any time now. I'm sure Steve will take me out for a nice dinner.

Wow!!! Sounds lovely!!! WHEN (or do I mean IF????) we have our house refurbished, I'm hoping to include an outdoor kitchen into the plans... And what better birthday gift than a new grandbaby - you lucky thing!!!

Thanks for the link. I am just diving into them right now. I do see that they offerred 2 excursions in Naples that included driving tours of the Almalfi Coast. One with Sorrento and the other included Pompei. It looks like four of the ports are the same; Naples, Civitavecchia , La Specia, and Villefranche. The rest of the ports on the 2010 cruises appear to be new. I have a feeling that we will be spending a lot on excursions this cruise.

I know!!! It's going to require a lot of research as it may work out more cost effective to do private tours. When this thread gets up and running it'll be interesting to see what others think...

 

[eva]

And what better birthday gift than a new grandbaby - you lucky thing!!!

Well, what a coincident! The little tike came along early today. My daughter went into labor early and had to have an emergency c-section. Baby (Andrew James) and Mommy are doing fine. But the little gent is only 5 pounds 14 ounces. He is about 20 days early, but seems to be in wonderful form.

We are all very excited!

 

[CustardTart]

Well, what a coincident! The little tike came along early today. My daughter went into labor early and had to have an emergency c-section. Baby (Andrew James) and Mommy are doing fine. But the little gent is only 5 pounds 14 ounces. He is about 20 days early, but seems to be in wonderful form.

We are all very excited!

OMG Eva!!! How fabulous!!! CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU ALL!!!!!

That's a great size for around 3 weeks early!!! So fingers crossed Andrew James progresses well...

My best love to you all...

 

[eva]

Karen, Thanks so much for the well wishes.

Right now I am stealing a little me time before my granddaughter wakes up. We are watching her while my daughter is in the hospital. It's strange how the Daddys stay in the hospital too. Sure wasn't like that 25 years ago. But it is nice for Shannon to have company and someone to help with Andrew. And I get to have my DGD for 4 whole days!

I'm so excited! Steve says we should move our planned trip to WDW with DGD to May instead of December 2010. I know that the Christmas decorations are great at the GF, but I hated waiting over a year to go back to WDW. Plus, Steve was watching our DGD in the sprinkler yesterday and decided we should go when we are more certain of warmer swimming weather. So we are planning a stay at the GF the week of May 1st.

Now I have to do a lot of reading about GF. I hear that you can rent a cabana at the pool for half or a whole day. We are thinking of doing this one day. DGD (and GM and GP) needs a break in the afternoons. So we are looking at what GF offers to help with a bit of relaxation for an afternoon break. We are also looking at renting a boat one day and maybe a bit of afternoon tea. Any other suggestions?

 

[CustardTart]

Hope you're having a wonderful day... xxx​

 

[eva]

Hope you're having a wonderful day... xxx​

Thanks so much! This is really awesome! I spent most of my birthday cleaning house and watching my DGD. But I plan on doing some celebrating this coming weekend. We are having the whole family over for a cookout on the 4th.

 

[CustardTart]

Thanks so much! This is really awesome! I spent most of my birthday cleaning house and watching my DGD. But I plan on doing some celebrating this coming weekend. We are having the whole family over for a cookout on the 4th.

Sounds fab!!! You'll have a lovely weekend...

I'm having a hard time at the moment accepting that September will be a our last WDW trip for the foreseeable future so I can't stop playing with the WDW UK website which is showing an awesome free dining offer...

Someone tell me to step away from the MacBook!!!

 

[eva]

Sounds fab!!! You'll have a lovely weekend...

I'm having a hard time at the moment accepting that September will be a our last WDW trip for the foreseeable future so I can't stop playing with the WDW UK website which is showing an awesome free dining offer...

Someone tell me to step away from the MacBook!!!

I know that you said that you are staying at BLT in September. I am anxious to hear how you like it. Who is going on this trip with you?

I am getting really excited about our trip in May too. I know it is 305 days away. But at least it is less than a year. Since we have never stayed at the GF before, I have plenty of planning and research to do over the next few months. Lexy (our DGD) is very excited to be going again. I hope that she will be 40" tall by that time. She will be 4 and a half on the trip and most likely will be. On this past trip she wasn't able to do Soarin or Test Track. I love seeing WDW through the eyes of little children. She was so excited to see the characters.

Any idea when DCL will come out with the excursions for our cruise? Steve says that we can't cancel this cruise because you and Richard might think we are trying to avoid you, after canceling the Northern European cruise.

 

[CustardTart]

I know that you said that you are staying at BLT in September. I am anxious to hear how you like it. Who is going on this trip with you?

We're staying at BLT for 3 nights in a studio - it's just Richard and myself prior to our Tortola cruise... Post-cruise I'm at VWL for 7 nights with DD Sophie...

I am getting really excited about our trip in May too. I know it is 305 days away. But at least it is less than a year. Since we have never stayed at the GF before, I have plenty of planning and research to do over the next few months. Lexy (our DGD) is very excited to be going again. I hope that she will be 40" tall by that time. She will be 4 and a half on the trip and most likely will be. On this past trip she wasn't able to do Soarin or Test Track. I love seeing WDW through the eyes of little children. She was so excited to see the characters.

We last stayed at GF back in 2004 - we were there for 2 weeks and it's still Richard's fave resort tho' Im keen to see what he thinks of BLT... I remember when we first came to WDW with Samuel (1998 for his sister's 16th birthday) that he had a few minor tantrums about being too short for certain rides - the boy's always been a thrill-seeker... He loved the characters too - I'll see if I can find a photo from way back when to share...

...Any idea when DCL will come out with the excursions for our cruise? Steve says that we can't cancel this cruise because you and Richard might think we are trying to avoid you, after canceling the Northern European cruise.

NO idea about the excursions - I can't wait to find out more, maybe it'll distract me from wanting to book something (ANYTHING) at WDW for 2010!!! Steve's right - you can't cancel, we'll take it VERY personally...

 

[eva]

Steve's right - you can't cancel, we'll take it VERY personally...

OK then, you can't cancel either! Then we will take it personally!

Do you feel like we kind of have our own personal thread? I have been hoping that others would join. But we may have to wait until closer to the sail date. Although it has been great just going back and forth between the two of us.

 

[CustardTart]

OK then, you can't cancel either! Then we will take it personally!

Do you feel like we kind of have our own personal thread? I have been hoping that others would join. But we may have to wait until closer to the sail date. Although it has been great just going back and forth between the two of us.

Yes, it's definitely a little on the s-l-o-w side!!! I'm surprised more people aren't showing their faces TBH - especially Brits! It's cheaper than the earlier Med cruises AND in the UK we can still get our children back to school in time. Well, just about. Samuel's actually due back on the evening of the day we disembark in Barcelona so fingers crossed we'll make it...

Hopefully, when it gets to less than a year, we'll be inundated with new cruisers!!? Ah well, we'll just have to keep the thread bubbling along in the meantime so it doesn't disappear into cruise meet obscurity. Tho' I must confess I won't be much help over the next few weeks as I'm going to Spain on Tuesday and don't return until August 1st!!! I will try and pop in from time to time - internet connectivity permitting...

 

[eva]

Yes, it's definitely a little on the s-l-o-w side!!! I'm surprised more people aren't showing their faces TBH - especially Brits! It's cheaper than the earlier Med cruises AND in the UK we can still get our children back to school in time. Well, just about. Samuel's actually due back on the evening of the day we disembark in Barcelona so fingers crossed we'll make it...

Hopefully, when it gets to less than a year, we'll be inundated with new cruisers!!? Ah well, we'll just have to keep the thread bubbling along in the meantime so it doesn't disappear into cruise meet obscurity. Tho' I must confess I won't be much help over the next few weeks as I'm going to Spain on Tuesday and don't return until August 1st!!! I will try and pop in from time to time - internet connectivity permitting...

We are flying in the day before the cruise. Any ideas on a nice place to stay in Barcelona? Since you are in Spain quite a bit, I thought you would have some good ideas. Your trip sounds lovely! I'm jealous! I'm green with envy!

 

[CustardTart]

 

[CustardTart]

We are flying in the day before the cruise. Any ideas on a nice place to stay in Barcelona? Since you are in Spain quite a bit, I thought you would have some good ideas. Your trip sounds lovely! I'm jealous! I'm green with envy!

No ideas for Barcelona hotels, I'm afraid - we've never been!!!!!!! I do have a lot of friends who have so I'll ask around... I'm pretty sure I recall the Royal Ramblas as being popular...

I'm definitely planning on arriving with Samuel (and hopefully Richard depending on his work commitments ) a couple of days early so we can see the sights - maybe even have a day or two at the Port Aventura theme park as that's just an hour away from Barcelona...

As for the bit of Spain I visit - it's down on the Southern coast...

This is the house...

View from the bedroom balcony...

Cheers!!!

 

[eva]

Thanks so much Karen! We are having a big 4th party this afternoon.

Your pictures for your villa in Spain are lovely. My daughter wants to see more, especially from inside the villa.

 

[eva]

Now that Karen is in Spain, I'm not sure if I can keep this thread from being buried. Anyone else out there going on this Med Cruise?????


Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

 

[eva]

Bump. Just trying to keep us from getting buried.