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

[CustardTart]

I hope you are feeling better soon. Have you seen the doctor? My daughter is just getting over bronchitis. Hope you don't have anything like that. Take care!

I think I'm on the mend now - it's just the cough and a tendency to sound somewhat bunged up that are persisting. Thankfully the sinus pain has gone away - that was horrid!!!

I don't think I've ever felt so down at this time of year. I know this illness and the slow progress of the building work hasn't helped (it's been delayed by around a month due to the awful weather we've had here) but I would love to have escaped somewhere warm for a week or so. Next January I have the Dream's maiden voyage to look forward to so I'm very happy about that...

Eva, I've been meaning to ask you if you're on Facebook?

 

[eva]

I think I'm on the mend now - it's just the cough and a tendency to sound somewhat bunged up that are persisting. Thankfully the sinus pain has gone away - that was horrid!!!

I don't think I've ever felt so down at this time of year. I know this illness and the slow progress of the building work hasn't helped (it's been delayed by around a month due to the awful weather we've had here) but I would love to have escaped somewhere warm for a week or so. Next January I have the Dream's maiden voyage to look forward to so I'm very happy about that...

Eva, I've been meaning to ask you if you're on Facebook?

I sure hope you start feeling better really soon!

 

[eva]

Steve and I are kicking around the idea of not getting off the ship in Civitavecchia. We know that we aren't going into Rome. While we love it there, we are not prepared to spend 3 hours in transit after spending 4 nights there just a year ago. So our options are:

1) The only excursion that isn't in Rome - Italian Countryside and Olive Oil.
2) Just walk around Civitavecchia for a bit - But all searchs show there isn't much there.
3) Just stay on the ship, enjoy an empty pool, and do a bit of laundry.

Any thoughts?

 

[CustardTart]

Steve and I are kicking around the idea of not getting off the ship in Civitavecchia. We know that we aren't going into Rome. While we love it there, we are not prepared to spend 3 hours in transit after spending 4 nights there just a year ago. So our options are:

1) The only excursion that isn't in Rome - Italian Countryside and Olive Oil.
2) Just walk around Civitavecchia for a bit - But all searchs show there isn't much there.
3) Just stay on the ship, enjoy an empty pool, and do a bit of laundry.

Any thoughts?

FWIW I think the excursion sounds good and isn't too expensive. Plus we're docked for a long time that day, so you'll still have a chance to enjoy the empty ship and do laundry...

We're going to pre-book private transfers into Rome and just potter around on our own for a few hours. Richard fancies a relaxing day and is in no hurry to whizz around the sights - we'd rather spend a long weekend there in the future...

 

[eva]

FWIW I think the excursion sounds good and isn't too expensive. Plus we're docked for a long time that day, so you'll still have a chance to enjoy the empty ship and do laundry...

So true! Steve is pushing for the excursion too. I wonder if that excursion leaves in the morning or afternoon. If I know that we would leave in the early morning and be back around lunch time. I would be more likely to want to go. I just don't want to take an excursion that breaks up the day by leaving in the late morning or afternoon. Maybe I will email DVC when it gets closer to see what time of day the excursion is.

We're going to pre-book private transfers into Rome and just potter around on our own for a few hours. Richard fancies a relaxing day and is in no hurry to whizz around the sights - we'd rather spend a long weekend there in the future...

I think you are smart here. We spent 4 days in Rome with ABD at a pretty good pace to see all the things that we wanted to and have a bit of free time too. If you want a list of my musts for a leisure day visit, let me know.

 

[CustardTart]

Having spent time chatting with Richard, I now have yet another finalised itinerary!!!

The main changes we've decided on include using DCL's transfers in/out of Rome and booking a rather wonderful sounding private wine-tasting tour (with Benvenuto Limos ) in La Spezia.

We're also toying with the rather controversial idea of each doing our own thing in Corsica!!! Richard fancies the kayaking whereas I may book the less energetic Sweet Corsica excursion. Decisions, decisions...

Day 1 Barcelona, Spain...
Day 2 At Sea...
Day 3 Valletta, Malta... Beach Club, Malta. $50 x 2 ...
Day 4 Tunis, Tunisia... Bardo Museum, Medina, Carthage & Sidi Bou Said. $90 x 2...
Day 5 Naples, Italy... Private tour of Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast...
Day 6 Civitavecchia... Rome On Your Own. $99 x 2...
Day 7 At Sea.
Day 8 La Spezia, Italy... Private tour of the Chianti Region...
Day 9 Ajaccio, Corsica... Kayak on Lake Tolla. $199... AND Sweet Corsica. $89...
Day 10 Villefranche... Lunch and leisurely shopping in Villefranche...
Day 11 At Sea......
Day 12 Barcelona, Spain...

 

[CustardTart]

Just a quick question - as the cruise is 12 nights long, do we know if we'll have more than one opportunity to eat dinner in Palo's??? It would be rather nice...

 

[eva]

Having spent time chatting with Richard, I now have yet another finalised itinerary!!!

The main changes we've decided on include using DCL's transfers in/out of Rome and booking a rather wonderful sounding private wine-tasting tour (with Benvenuto Limos ) in La Spezia.

We're also toying with the rather controversial idea of each doing our own thing in Corsica!!! Richard fancies the kayaking whereas I may book the less energetic Sweet Corsica excursion. Decisions, decisions...

Day 1 Barcelona, Spain...
Day 2 At Sea...
Day 3 Valletta, Malta... Beach Club, Malta. $50 x 2 ...
Day 4 Tunis, Tunisia... Bardo Museum, Medina, Carthage & Sidi Bou Said. $90 x 2...
Day 5 Naples, Italy... Private tour of Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast...
Day 6 Civitavecchia... Rome On Your Own. $99 x 2...
Day 7 At Sea.
Day 8 La Spezia, Italy... Private tour of the Chianti Region...
Day 9 Ajaccio, Corsica... Kayak on Lake Tolla. $199... AND Sweet Corsica. $89...
Day 10 Villefranche... Lunch and leisurely shopping in Villefranche...
Day 11 At Sea......
Day 12 Barcelona, Spain...

Excellent interary! Of course that tour in Naples sounds lovely!

I never thought of a wine tour in Tuscany. You will love that private tour of the Chianti Region. I love a good Chianti. Banfi's Chianti Classico is wonderful. Wish I would have thought of that too. But the tour of Cinque Terre we have booked is something I have been wanting to do for quite awhile.

We are still trying to decide what to do in Corsica. Right now we are thinking that we might just stay in Ajaccio and do another walking tour I found. We are doing that in Malta too. But I think that Sweet Corsica tour sounds good too. I'm pretty sure we have confirmed the Italian Countryside and Olive Oil tour in Civitavecchia.

The cost of the tours is not our main concern. We just want to be careful not to book every moment of our time. On our ABD tour in 2008 we found that we had a lot of memorable moments during our free time.

So far here's what we have:
Day 1 Barcelona, Spain...
Day 2 At Sea...
Day 3 Valletta, Malta... On Our Own - Walking Tour for Malta
Day 4 Tunis, Tunisia... Medina & Carthage (DCL)
Day 5 Naples, Italy... Private tour of Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast
Day 6 Civitavecchia... Italian Countryside and Olive Oil (DCL)
Day 7 At Sea.
Day 8 La Spezia, Italy... Private tour of Cinque Terre
Day 9 Ajaccio, Corsica... Sweet Corsica (DCL) or walking Tour on Our Own
Day 10 Villefranche... Nice and Eze with Wine and Cheese (DCL)
Day 11 At Sea......
Day 12 Barcelona, Spain...

 

[eva]

Just a quick question - as the cruise is 12 nights long, do we know if we'll have more than one opportunity to eat dinner in Palo's??? It would be rather nice...

Well, I've been told that you can only book one night ahead online, but are able to try for more when getting on board. I am sure we will try for another night or two once we are onboard. We love Palo. If you want to try for an extra night for the four of us, let me know. Maybe we can decide that after boarding. Also, we may eat at Topsiders a night or two when we need to be up extra early in the morning. If I have to be up early, eating at 8:30 or later doesn't really work for me. I have a mild case of IBS that really plays havoc on me early in the morning if I eat a large meal late the night before. Don't worry, we will let you know ahead when we are doing that. Remember that we need to link reservations after making our excursion and Palo reservations.

 

[CustardTart]

Excellent interary! Of course that tour in Naples sounds lovely!

Well, naturally!!!

I never thought of a wine tour in Tuscany. You will love that private tour of the Chianti Region. I love a good Chianti. Banfi's Chianti Classico is wonderful. Wish I would have thought of that too. But the tour of Cinque Terre we have booked is something I have been wanting to do for quite awhile.

I didn't think of a wine tour either but we decided this morning that we wanted to do something different!! A wine tour is something we've talked about doing for ages so I couldn't believe it when I checked out what was available with Benvenuto and there was the Chianti tour!!! I received confirmation this evening so looks like it's sorted...

The tour of Cinque Terre sounds awesome and is totally unique so you are right to go for it BUT, should you change your mind, please know you guys are more than welcome to join us. If not, we'll definitely bring a bottle or two of Chianti back for you... xxx

We are still trying to decide what to do in Corsica. Right now we are thinking that we might just stay in Ajaccio and do another walking tour I found. We are doing that in Malta too. But I think that Sweet Corsica tour sounds good too. I think that we had confirmed the Wine and Chees tour in Villefranche.

I just want something easy for the last two ports with minimal travelling. I'm trying to anticipate any back problems I might have - boring but necessary...

 

[CustardTart]

Well, I've been told that you can only book one night ahead online, but are able to try for more when getting on board. I am sure we will try for another night or two once we are onboard. We love Palo. If you want to try for an extra night for the four of us, let me know. Maybe we can decide that after boarding. Also, we may eat at Topsiders a night or two when we need to be up extra early in the morning. If I have to be up early, eating at 8:30 or later doesn't really work for me. I have a mild case of IBS that really plays havoc on me early in the morning if I eat a large meal late the night before. Don't worry, we will let you know ahead when we are doing that. Remember that we need to link reservations after making our excursion and Palo reservations.

Oooh that would be lovely if we could all dine at Palo one night!!!

We ate at Topsiders one night on our last cruise and were very pleasantly surprised - so, yes - I can imagine we'll be doing that too... Sorry to hear about the IBS - mild or otherwise, it's no fun.. I am hoping that being in a similar timezone will make this easy on us but, hey, who knows!???

I won't forget about the ressie linking thing - just cannot wait for it all to come around!!!
Anyway, off to bed now. Catch up with you soon...xxx

 

[eva]

Oooh that would be lovely if we could all dine at Palo one night!!!

We ate at Topsiders one night on our last cruise and were very pleasantly surprised - so, yes - I can imagine we'll be doing that too... Sorry to hear about the IBS - mild or otherwise, it's no fun.. I am hoping that being in a similar timezone will make this easy on us but, hey, who knows!???

I won't forget about the ressie linking thing - just cannot wait for it all to come around!!!
Anyway, off to bed now. Catch up with you soon...xxx

Good Night! Have a lovely sleep! Talk soon!

 

[CustardTart]

Morning!!!
Just giving us a little *bump* as we'd faded onto page 2...

Today's quite exciting as, not only is it just 1 year until the Inaugural Dream cruise I'm doing with Sophie BUT ALSO I am waiting for our DVC guide to call me about a small add-on at VGC!!!!

 

[eva]

Morning!!!
Just giving us a little *bump* as we'd faded onto page 2...

Today's quite exciting as, not only is it just 1 year until the Inaugural Dream cruise I'm doing with Sophie BUT ALSO I am waiting for our DVC guide to call me about a small add-on at VGC!!!!

Oh, how exciting! An Add-On! I will have to live vicariously through you. Steve as put a stop to my add-onitis. My goal has always been 1,000 points. But I may have to settle on 800. I even tricked him into going to The Doorway to Dreams in Chicago in August over our anniversary and he still said no. My dream is to add more BCV points. Maybe we will do a resell down the road. Congrats on the add-on!

By the way, if you have never been to DL and visited the Grand Californian, you should know that you are in for a major treat. That hotel is wonderful. We stayed there 5 nights in 2005 during their 50 year celebration. The hotel has a rustic feel like WL. But also a more grand or elegant feel like GF. Five nights may be a bit much. You can probably do all very comfortably in 3 nights. We spent a couple days relaxing around the pool. The restaurant in the hotel, Napa Rose, is an absolute must. It was named top restaurant in CA by Zagat in 2002. I bet the villas are going to be spectacular!

 

[CustardTart]

Oh, how exciting! An Add-On! I will have to live vicariously through you. Steve as put a stop to my add-onitis. My goal has always been 1,000 points. But I may have to settle on 800. I even tricked him into going to The Doorway to Dreams in Chicago in August over our anniversary and he still said no. My dream is to add more BCV points. Maybe we will do a resell down the road. Congrats on the add-on!

Oh Steve - how could he resist your feminine wiles???!!!

TBH Richard's not 'jump up and down' keen but I sold him on the sense of the current offer! Also I've been renting AKV points to a couple of UK DISers and he's been impressed by how easy that is, so I guess he no longer feels that 630 points is too many to have in total - despite earlier misgivings...

Besides which, I wanted the 11 month booking window at VGC - we'll be there at Easter before the LA/Vancouver Repo so I didn't want to risk the 7 month window. And the 100 point add-on is perfect for our needs. And we're going back in 2013 for my 50th birthday as DL is my fave park. And I'm soooo worth it!!!!

By the way, if you have never been to DL and visited the Grand Californian, you should know that you are in for a major treat. That hotel is wonderful. We stayed there 5 nights in 2005 during their 50 year celebration. The hotel has a rustic feel like WL. But also a more grand or elegant feel like GF.

What a coincidence!!! We were at the GCH in 2005 during the 50 year celebration too!!! We stayed for 5 nights over the New Year period and loved it, tho' the weather was a bit bleuch!!! Then we went back to DL in August 2008 (stayed at the DL Hotel that time) after the DCL Mexican Riviera cruise and TBH loved it even more - the weather was sublime!!! So very much looking forward to going back... I have a pic somewhere of the VGC being built....

Look at that sky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Five nights may be a bit much. You can probably do all very comfortably in 3 nights. We spent a couple days relaxing around the pool. The restaurant in the hotel, Napa Rose, is an absolute must. It was named top restaurant in CA by Zagat in 2002. I bet the villas are going to be spectacular!

I think we might stay somewhere near LAX on the 1st night and switch 1st thing to VGC as that would save me a few points... I'll definitely be around the pool too - we didn't get any time for that last time... We ate at Napa Rose on our last night - fab meal!

I just hope she rings soon!!! I'm as twitchy as can be and daren't go out!!!

 

[eva]

TBH Richard's not 'jump up and down' keen but I sold him on the sense of the current offer! Also I've been renting AKV points to a couple of UK DISers and he's been impressed by how easy that is, so I guess he no longer feels that 630 points is too many to have in total - despite earlier misgivings...

We rented our developer points in 2008. It sure went smooth. I've never had points since then to rent. Should I use that ploy of renting on Steve?

Besides which, I wanted the 11 month booking window at VGC - we'll be there at Easter before the LA/Vancouver Repo so I didn't want to risk the 7 month window. And the 100 point add-on is perfect for our needs. And we're going back in 2013 for my 50th birthday as DL is my fave park. And I'm soooo worth it!!!!

Are you doing the Repo and the Alaska cruise? I need my memory refreshed. I'm sure you told me. How fabulous!

What a coincidence!!! We were at the GCH in 2005 during the 50 year celebration too!!! We stayed for 5 nights over the New Year period and loved it, tho' the weather was a bit bleuch!!! Then we went back to DL in August 2008 (stayed at the DL Hotel that time) after the DCL Mexican Riviera cruise and TBH loved it even more - the weather was sublime!!! So very much looking forward to going back... I have a pic somewhere of the VGC being built....

Isn't it funny how our lives keep crossing here and there? We were at DL in August of 2005 over our anniversary. I then had a business event in Anaheim. It was a great trip. I made the Million Dollar Club that year and received an award. Another funny coincidence, the company I worked for from 2000-2005 had their headquarters there. And the company I work for now is headquartered there. What are the odds? You'd think that I went looking for companies based in Anaheim.

 

[eva]

Hey Karen, check out this thread: New Dreams Info I believe you said that you are on the ship's inaugural cruise. It looks fabulous. The restaurants look so cool. And a swim up pool bar.....

 

[CustardTart]

We rented our developer points in 2008. It sure went smooth. I've never had points since then to rent. Should I use that ploy of renting on Steve?

Worth a try, I'd say...

Are you doing the Repo and the Alaska cruise? I need my memory refreshed. I'm sure you told me. How fabulous!

We're doing the Repo in April/May 2011. I can't do the 1st Alaska cruise as a B2B as I'll be back in Uni by then and exams start mid-May. So we are booked on the last Alaska cruise in August 2011 BUT I'm starting to have cold feet - no pun intended!!! OMG I really hated our last vacation that featured cold, ice and snow so I'm not sure I'll enjoy the frozen wastes too much!!! Richard's told me not to be silly (like that ever works!!?? ) as the cruise will be fab. So I'm biting my lip and just holding onto the ressie for now...

Isn't it funny how our lives keep crossing here and there? We were at DL in August of 2005 over our anniversary. I then had a business event in Anaheim. It was a great trip. I made the Million Dollar Club that year and received an award. Another funny coincidence, the company I worked for from 2000-2005 had their headquarters there. And the company I work for now is headquartered there. What are the odds? You'd think that I went looking for companies based in Anaheim.

I know - it's just so strange...

 

[CustardTart]

Hey Karen, check out this thread: New Dreams Info I believe you said that you are on the ship's inaugural cruise. It looks fabulous. The restaurants look so cool. And a swim up pool bar.....

 

[eva]

We're doing the Repo in April/May 2011. I can't do the 1st Alaska cruise as a B2B as I'll be back in Uni by then and exams start mid-May. So we are booked on the last Alaska cruise in August 2011 BUT I'm starting to have cold feet - no pun intended!!! OMG I really hated our last vacation that featured cold, ice and snow so I'm not sure I'll enjoy the frozen wastes too much!!! Richard's told me not to be silly (like that ever works!!?? ) as the cruise will be fab. So I'm biting my lip and just holding onto the ressie for now...

Well, it looks like we will be going on an Alaska cruise that year too. But it won't be with DCL. Steve's family is going and they want a casino onboard. Steve's DB and DBIL love going to the casinos. Plus they would like a ship that has a cigar/cognac type lounge. It has been really tough trying to find a cruise line with everyone's wants. Steve wants to make sure that we cruise Glacier Bay and definitely wants to do a helicopter ride on top a glacier. He also wants to go dog sledding. Me? I want a ship that has great accommodations and service, like DCL. My DSIL's want great 5-star type dining and a great spa. Plus they keep talking about activities like cooking classes. The activities may be important. Steve's DM is going and will be 77 that year. She may go back to the ship early or even choose to stay onboard some days. I know she says she is not doing anything like a dogsled tour. I'm totally confused.

PLUS, I am like you and hate the cold and snow. So I am skeptical of the whole thing. But many people have told me that the summers aren't that bad in southern Alaska. Some friends of ours said that the highs were in the 70's their entire cruise.