Germany: Once Upon a Fairytale Meets Thread

[dizneekrazee]

Next year I want to go to Italy! Or Aulani, or another Disney cruise, or...... Lol.

"SingingMom" ....Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

Aulani!! It is wonderful there!!

 

[SingingMom]

Aulani!! It is wonderful there!!

OT : Is it good for adults, too? It would be me, DH, and DD20. ;-)

 

[dizneekrazee]

OT : Is it good for adults, too? It would be me, DH, and DD20. ;-)

The resort itself is fabulous. Yummy drinks from Off the Hook. Plenty of excursions available from Aulani, or with a rental car. Most activities are family (with younger kids) oriented.

They are suppose to have an adult quite pool opening later this year, wish they had it while we visited. And of course, the spa!!

Do any of you golf?

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

SingingMom - I can tell you that your DD will most likely not have enough free time in Munich to do a side trip. ... Tomorrow we visit Salzburg

Disappointed that we won't have enough time for Dachau but can't wait to hear about Salzburg on your own, since we're doing that too.

How was the Stieff bear place? Making a bear head is the one thing I am not really looking forward to. Is there anything else around we could do instead?

Laurie

 

[sayhello]

Disappointed that we won't have enough time for Dachau but can't wait to hear about Salzburg on your own, since we're doing that too.

How was the Stieff bear place? Making a bear head is the one thing I am not really looking forward to. Is there anything else around we could do instead?

Laurie

I've never understood the whole bear head thing. Seems a bit creepy to me. I'd want a whole bear or nothing...

Sayhello

 

[SingingMom]

I've never understood the whole bear head thing. Seems a bit creepy to me. I'd want a whole bear or nothing...

Sayhello

I think there either isn't enough time to do an entire bear, or maybe that would be too expensive? Or maybe the entire bear has to be a Steiff factory made original?

DD thinks the " head only " is creepy too! She has already decided we need to purchase a REAL teddy bear, with arms and legs. Lol.

"SingingMom" ....Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[SingingMom]

The resort itself is fabulous. Yummy drinks from Off the Hook. Plenty of excursions available from Aulani, or with a rental car. Most activities are family (with younger kids) oriented.

They are suppose to have an adult quite pool opening later this year, wish they had it while we visited. And of course, the spa!!

Do any of you golf?

Thanks for the info! DH golfs and I have in the past. DH and DD like to kayak. I like to veg on the beach lol. Will probably be Aulani or ABD Italy next year!

"SingingMom" ....Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[JacksGirlz]

My DD15 thought making just a head sounded weird before she did it but ended up liking the experience. It is due to time constraints that you only make the head. You can choose different animal heads besides a bear - pig, sheep, frog, rabbit. The choices change depending on what the Steiff employees offer. You stuff your animal with the softest fluff imaginable. The employees make sure it's stuffed enough then you pass it to the employee to sew the top of the head up. The animal only has eyes to start with so you get to be creative and ask the airbrush artist to design a face for your animal. My DD had the artist put a crown on the top of her Teddy's head. Some other adventurers added a monocle, a cigar and a beard. Think of something cute or silly and they will likely do it for you to personalize your bear/animal head. To stuff, sew and decorate all the animal parts by hand to make an entire animal would take about 24 hours, much longer than we get to spend at the Steiff museum. The head itself makes a nice little pillow for the airplane. I will post pics of this when we are back home in about a week or so and I can download them off my camera.

 

[SingingMom]

My DD15 thought making just a head sounded weird before she did it but ended up liking the experience. It is due to time constraints that you only make the head. You can choose different animal heads besides a bear - pig, sheep, frog, rabbit. The choices change depending on what the Steiff employees offer. You stuff your animal with the softest fluff imaginable. The employees make sure it's stuffed enough then you pass it to the employee to sew the top of the head up. The animal only has eyes to start with so you get to be creative and ask the airbrush artist to design a face for your animal. My DD had the artist put a crown on the top of her Teddy's head. Some other adventurers added a monocle, a cigar and a beard. Think of something cute or silly and they will likely do it for you to personalize your bear/animal head. To stuff, sew and decorate all the animal parts by hand to make an entire animal would take about 24 hours, much longer than we get to spend at the Steiff museum. The head itself makes a nice little pillow for the airplane. I will post pics of this when we are back home in about a week or so and I can download them off my camera.

Two more questions - sorry to be a pain! ;-)

Do you have time at Steiff to purchase something in their gift shop?

Since it seems there is more OYO time on this ABD than on the one we took last year, did you need euros for meals, or did most cafes take credit cards?

Thanks for your input! We leave very soon for our adventure!

"SingingMom" ....Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[JacksGirlz]

Two more questions - sorry to be a pain! ;-)

Do you have time at Steiff to purchase something in their gift shop?

Since it seems there is more OYO time on this ABD than on the one we took last year, did you need euros for meals, or did most cafes take credit cards?

Thanks for your input! We leave very soon for our adventure!

"SingingMom" ....Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

Yes you do have time in the Steiff museum to look and purchase in their gift shop before lunch. If you see a Steiff bear in Rothenburg or Heidelberg that you really love the guides suggested getting it as the store does have a fair amount of selection it does not have everything so if you wait they may not have what you want at the gift shop.

In Waldeck where you stay at the castle it is a small town. We did not eat in the town but the guides mentioned that this is the town where there may be very little English spoken and very few places that take credit cards. Since they usually fill you up with lunch on the days you have dinner on your own my DD and I mostly got little snacks for dinner which I used Euros for. I brought 500 euros and spent about half of it in Germany (except for Christmas souvenirs and Steiff bears that I bought in Rothenburg with my Visa card and had shipped home). This is just for 2 of us. The Steiff museum/shop does NOT ship back to the US so I was glad that we purchased our bears in Rothenburg as they would not have fit in our suitcases.

 

[SingingMom]

Yes you do have time in the Steiff museum to look and purchase in their gift shop before lunch. If you see a Steiff bear in Rothenburg or Heidelberg that you really love the guides suggested getting it as the store does have a fair amount of selection it does not have everything so if you wait they may not have what you want at the gift shop.

In Waldeck where you stay at the castle it is a small town. We did not eat in the town but the guides mentioned that this is the town where there may be very little English spoken and very few places that take credit cards. Since they usually fill you up with lunch on the days you have dinner on your own my DD and I mostly got little snacks for dinner which I used Euros for. I brought 500 euros and spent about half of it in Germany (except for Christmas souvenirs and Steiff bears that I bought in Rothenburg with my Visa card and had shipped home). This is just for 2 of us. The Steiff museum/shop does NOT ship back to the US so I was glad that we purchased our bears in Rothenburg as they would not have fit in our suitcases.

Thank you VERY much about the heads up about the Steiff bears! My "little girl" (almost 20. Lol) wants a "real" teddy bear, so we will look in Rothenburg or Heidelberg and have things shipped home. Will also rethink the euros with DH. He was thinking less cash, but I figure if we have leftover we can give it to the guides with their tips.

We are hoping to also attend Catholic mass on the evening before the tour starts, when we arrive, and the following Saturday evening (first night) in Munich. Hope it works out with the schedule.

Did you find there was *too much* on your own time with this tour?

"SingingMom" ....Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[JacksGirlz]

Thank you VERY much about the heads up about the Steiff bears! My "little girl" (almost 20. Lol) wants a "real" teddy bear, so we will look in Rothenburg or Heidelberg and have things shipped home. Will also rethink the euros with DH. He was thinking less cash, but I figure if we have leftover we can give it to the guides with their tips.

We are hoping to also attend Catholic mass on the evening before the tour starts, when we arrive, and the following Saturday evening (first night) in Munich. Hope it works out with the schedule.

Did you find there was *too much* on your own time with this tour?

"SingingMom" ....Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

I thought it was a nice balance of group time and on your own time. The only time that felt rushed to me was at Neuschwanstein as we had tickets to tour at a specific time and if you miss that window you're out of luck. The guides were very up front about this on the drive over so we knew that we really had a schedule to keep.

I would think you should have time for mass both of those days, particularly if you discuss it with the guides so they can have directions to churches ready for you. On your preday just ask at the reception desk at the Crowne Plaza - they were very helpful to me with directions to places.

On our preday we took a boat ride along the Neckar River that was about 1.5 hours each way. At the end of the stop you could choose to get off and see the small sites of the little town. We did have some lovely walks along the river. Did not have enough time to go up the Philosophers Walk while we were there. The views from this path are supposed to be beautiful.

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

Thanks for the info about the bears. That activity sounds more interesting the way you described it than in the ABD description. Did you do Salzburg completely on your own or do a tour? How was the transportation getting there?

Laurie

 

[JacksGirlz]

Thanks for the info about the bears. That activity sounds more interesting the way you described it than in the ABD description. Did you do Salzburg completely on your own or do a tour? How was the transportation getting there?

Laurie

We took a day trip tour through Radius tours. The tour guide was friendly and informative but with a group of 38 people it was hard to manage with just one guide. The train trip to Salzburg took longer than expected, closer to 2.5 hours to get to the city. Then some people had to stop to get coffee so we wasted some minutes with that. The 1.5 hour guided part of the tour ended up taking closer to 2 hours. By the time we were able to have free time there were only 2 hours left. My DD was hungry so part of our time was spent in a cafe getting something to eat. Then we shopped for a bit. Had to be back to meet with the group at 3:30. If I had it to do over again I would stay overnight in Salzburg so I wouldn't be stuck within a day trips time constraints. And I would do it on my own. The train ticket purchase seemed like it would be pretty straight forward. The train itself seemed more like a bus to me so it wouldn't be very comfortable for longer rides but was fine for 2.5 hours. I'm sure that we had the cheapest seats possible via the tour company.

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

If I had it to do over again I would stay overnight in Salzburg so I wouldn't be stuck within a day trips time constraints. And I would do it on my own.

Good to know! We're staying 1 night in Salzburg and then going to Vienna for a day. Since we will be there during Oktoberfest, coming back to Munich for the night was crazy expensive. I'm a little uncomfortable doing it on my own but it sounds like that may be a good idea.

Laurie

 

[sayhello]

Good to know! We're staying 1 night in Salzburg and then going to Vienna for a day. Since we will be there during Oktoberfest, coming back to Munich for the night was crazy expensive. I'm a little uncomfortable doing it on my own but it sounds like that may be a good idea.

Laurie

Another option might be to check out Trip Advisor, and see if there are any highly rated private tour guides. It's a bit more expensive, but there would only be you and anyone else you invited to join you, rather than joining a large tour group. I know a lot of folks who did that in the Mediterranean and I did it with another DISer and her Mom in Greece. It works out really well, because you & the guide agree to itinerary, timing, etc, (although some of them are flexible if you want to shift around a bit). It's a bit less intimidating than doing Salzburg on your own.

Sayhello

 

[CastleLover]

Is it better to take cash, euro, or credit card? What is a good mix?

 

[CastleLover]

9/15 trip solo!

 

[richflour]

Lots of places only take euros

 

[Sarabi's Cubs]

Another option might be to check out Trip Advisor, and see if there are any highly rated private tour guides.
Sayhello

We are thinking about hiring a guide for Vienna since we have such limited time. Did you just find one on Trip Advisor? I'm not sure how to go about it.

Laurie