I'm thankful for...MICKEY!!! My Thanksgiving '08 TR!: TR Update, Last Day!

[MeMom]

How cool! I'm sure it was surreal to be at that pool looking out on that view. What an experience to be able to remember and share with others for the rest of your lives! I'm more convinced than ever that it is a beautiful place. I love the streets and shops pictures, too, especially the restaurant lined with grapes.

Does Disney Adventures do a tour of Greece? One of these days, when grandkids are old enough to enjoy it, I want us to take an overseas trip, and Greece looks like a wonderful destination.

 

[JaxJags08]

Wow - those are awesome pictures! I want to go!!!

Did you fly Delta from Phoenix to Atlanta? The trivia game sounds really cool. I wonder how many of their planes have it. I, too, love airplane food. A lot of people think it's gross, but I think I'm always so excited to be on a trip that it the quality doesn't bother me.

Your hotel was amazing! I can't imagine swimming in a pool and having that view. Are hotels in Greece really expensive? I'm now going to have to do some research for a future trip to Greece when DD is a little older!

BTW, Athens looks so clean. Did you find that to be the case? It sounds like there were a lot of stray dogs. It would have made me so sad! I saw a stray cat and kitten yesterday while walking our dog and wanted to bring them home . I have a major soft spot for animals!

 

[k_reile]

that sux about not having tv's on that long of a plane ride. That is the only thing that kept my friend and I occupied on our flight to Paris...well that and on the way home I slept most of the way since I was getting sick. We also landed at 7am Paris time and our hotel room was not ready. We toured Paris all day and came back later at night and just crashed since we had been up for soo long. Now i really want to go to Greece. It was on my list before...but now more than ever.

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

How cool! I'm sure it was surreal to be at that pool looking out on that view. What an experience to be able to remember and share with others for the rest of your lives! I'm more convinced than ever that it is a beautiful place. I love the streets and shops pictures, too, especially the restaurant lined with grapes.

Does Disney Adventures do a tour of Greece? One of these days, when grandkids are old enough to enjoy it, I want us to take an overseas trip, and Greece looks like a wonderful destination.

I have many more shop pics to share, just for you!

I'm not sure about Disney Adventures doing a tour of Greece. However, I've been to Italy, France, Switzerland, and Greece. And Greece had, by far, the friendliest people. We felt so very welcome and comfortable everywhere we went. I highly recommend it!

I'm so jealous of you right now...can't wait to see your pics when you return!

Wow - those are awesome pictures! I want to go!!!

Did you fly Delta from Phoenix to Atlanta? The trivia game sounds really cool. I wonder how many of their planes have it. I, too, love airplane food. A lot of people think it's gross, but I think I'm always so excited to be on a trip that it the quality doesn't bother me.

Your hotel was amazing! I can't imagine swimming in a pool and having that view. Are hotels in Greece really expensive? I'm now going to have to do some research for a future trip to Greece when DD is a little older!

BTW, Athens looks so clean. Did you find that to be the case? It sounds like there were a lot of stray dogs. It would have made me so sad! I saw a stray cat and kitten yesterday while walking our dog and wanted to bring them home . I have a major soft spot for animals!

We did fly Delta from Phoenix to Atlanta. All the other 3 flights were Delta as weel, but they didn't have those individual screens or trivia. Bummer!

Thanks!

I think everyone should go to Greece. It was awesome! And there were TONS of people there with kids.

We stayed in some pretty ritzy hotels (my MIL paid for that!), so our hotels were pretty expensive. But there are much more reasonable hotels which are also very nice. However, with how weak the dollar is right now, everything in Europe is expensive!

Athens was really clean in the tourist areas. All the shopkeepers sweep up the streets and sidewalks in front of their shops, so that keeps is so nice and clean.

There were tons of stray dogs and cats. And I'm just like you...I wanted to take them all home with me! Those animals are smart! Most of the restaurants have lots of tables outside, so the dogs and cats just hang around the tables and wait for people to feed them.

There were even dogs and cats up on the Acropolis! Just hanging out by the Parthenon, waiting for tourists to feed/water them. None of the strays looked skinny, so I assume they're really well-fed!

that sux about not having tv's on that long of a plane ride. That is the only thing that kept my friend and I occupied on our flight to Paris...well that and on the way home I slept most of the way since I was getting sick. We also landed at 7am Paris time and our hotel room was not ready. We toured Paris all day and came back later at night and just crashed since we had been up for soo long. Now i really want to go to Greece. It was on my list before...but now more than ever.

They only showed ONE movie on the way to Greece. And the overhead screens were in terrible locations, so I didn't even watch it. On the way back, they showed Spiderwick Chronicles, 27 Dresses, and another movie. One of the screens was in a good location, so I watched the first two.

You should definitely go to Greece!

I love Paris!

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

We booked our Orlando flights today!

I was nervous that we wouldn't be able to use frequent flier awards because of Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving Day is not a blackout day (YES!!!) and neither is our return day!

So we have 2 flights booked to Orlando.

Oh yeah!

One strange thing about the flights is that they don't have a nonstop from Phoenix to Orlando Thanksgiving Day. I guess they decreased the number of flights that day. It must not be a heavy travel day. So we have to have a stop in Houston. The good part of that is that the usual nonstop from Phoenix does not arrive in Orlando till 4:00, but with this flight, we'll arrive 2 hours earlier. I smell an extra day on our park hoppers!

 

[luvfigment]

That totally stinks that you didn't have your own TV on the flight from Atlanta to Athens! I think I would go crazy...luckily when I have flown to England the past 2 times I have had my own screen plus it is like your own little TiVo! You can watch whatever movie you want or TV show and then you can pause it, rewind, or fast forward so now I have been spoiled.

You first day sounds exhausting but tons of fun! You are starting to get the Greece bug going in me. I am also glad to hear that the Greeks are really friendly. I am going to Paris in Oct and am a little nervous about that. I am really looking forward to reading more about your trip!

I am also glad that you go your flights to Orlando and that you even get to land earlier than planned! Yippie!

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

That totally stinks that you didn't have your own TV on the flight from Atlanta to Athens! I think I would go crazy...luckily when I have flown to England the past 2 times I have had my own screen plus it is like your own little TiVo! You can watch whatever movie you want or TV show and then you can pause it, rewind, or fast forward so now I have been spoiled.

You first day sounds exhausting but tons of fun! You are starting to get the Greece bug going in me. I am also glad to hear that the Greeks are really friendly. I am going to Paris in Oct and am a little nervous about that. I am really looking forward to reading more about your trip!

I am also glad that you go your flights to Orlando and that you even get to land earlier than planned! Yippie!

Which airline do you normally fly to England? Those TVs sound awesome!

In Paris, if you at least TRY to speak a little French, they'll be nice. If you start out speaking English, that's when they get rude!

I'm so excited about our flights to Orlando! I need to write those in my Passporter!

 

[Charleston Princess]

The rooftop pool at our hotel. We swam in this pool as we waited for our room to be ready. It was a surreal feeling to be swimming in a pool looking at the Parthenon!

Wow! What a view! This may be my favorite pic of this batch!

I ordered a chicken souvlaki pita. The guy asked if I would like french fries with it. I, of course, said yes! Little did I know he would put them ON the pita with the chicken and other stuff!

American food eludes the rest of the world! That's too funny!

That's awesome about your flights to Orlando!!!

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

Wow! What a view! This may be my favorite pic of this batch!



American food eludes the rest of the world! That's too funny!

That's awesome about your flights to Orlando!!!

If you look closely in that pic, you can see me, my SIL, and my BIL in the pool. My MIL forgot to zoom when she took the pic, which turned out to be a great thing!

I feel like now that Greece is over, I can dedicate myself completely to Disney planning...and getting our flights put me in a total Disney mood!

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

Greece Day 2

We woke up at 5:15 this morning and ate our breakfast, which had been delivered to our room the night before. We were leaving so early that we would miss the hotel breakfast that took place from 7 to 10 a.m.! Breakfast in foreign countries fascinate me. This one consisted of lots of bread and rolls, fruit, butter, honey, jam, and coffee.

We packed up (almost) all of our stuff...stay tuned to see what I forgot in the hotel room! The taxis picked us up at the front door at 6:45 and we headed back to the Athens airport.

As we waited for our flight, I read all about Crete in my Greece book. I was so excited to go to Crete!

Finally, it was time to board. So we got on the bus that took us to the plane. Then we climbed the stairs to the plane and took our seats.

Here's DH's booty climbing the steps:

It was a short flight, maybe 45 minutes. Here's a view from the airplane

When we landed, we found our drivers who would take us to our hotel in Rethymnon, Crete!

I don't know if you can see it in this pic, but in the lettering on the outside of the airport, there were hundreds of birds' nests. EEK!!! I have a serious fear of birds, so this was not a fun sight for me to see.

DH, his sister, and I went in one car and my MIL and BIL went in the other. It was about an hour drive to the little Venetian town we would stay in. We arrived at our destination and found our beautiful little hotel. It was located among streets that are not passable to cars. That's how old this town is! Amazing!

Our hotel was called Avli

Here's the entrance to our hotel...we walked up those stairs you can see on the right to get to the rooms.

After getting situated in the rooms, it was time for lunch! DH and I shared another souvlaki and a Greek salad:

And they put fries on the pita again!

Lunch was delicious! Then it was time to explore. Here's the fountain that used to supply the water for the whole town:

Here's the boardwalk to the beach:

The beach was BEAUTIFUL! We would definitely be back at the beach the next day.

We explored the town some more and went into some of the shops.

We headed back to the hotel and went for a swim in our rooftop pool

We had some gelato. YUM!

We walked along the water at dusk.

And we had dinner!

I was hit by a tired wave at dinner this night, so it was straight to bed after dinner.

It was another great day in Greece!

 

[Charleston Princess]

We woke up at 5:15 this morning and ate our breakfast, which had been delivered to our room the night before. We were leaving so early that we would miss the hotel breakfast that took place from 7 to 10 a.m.! Breakfast in foreign countries fascinate me. This one consisted of lots of bread and rolls, fruit, butter, honey, jam, and coffee.

Yummy! I am a sucker for breads and rolls! What kind of coffee was it? Was it like ours? I am also fascinated by the coffee found in other countries.

We packed up (almost) all of our stuff...stay tuned to see what I forgot in the hotel room!

Okay, so I am taking imaginary notes for our imaginary trip to Greece that I might get to take one day...did you keep the hotel room in Athens for the whole week?

Here's the entrance to our hotel...we walked up those stairs you can see on the right to get to the rooms.

GORGEOUS!

We walked along the water at dusk.

My favorite of this group!

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

Yummy! I am a sucker for breads and rolls! What kind of coffee was it? Was it like ours? I am also fascinated by the coffee found in other countries.

Okay, so I am taking imaginary notes for our imaginary trip to Greece that I might get to take one day...did you keep the hotel room in Athens for the whole week?

GORGEOUS!

My favorite of this group!

The coffee was "filter coffee" because they knew we were Americans. If we had asked for Greek coffee, they would have given us syrup-ish super strong coffee! My MIL tried it one time and about gagged!

We did not keep our hotel room in Athens the whole week, but we did stay in that hotel again the last night.

You must go to Greece!

 

[Charleston Princess]

The coffee was "filter coffee" because they knew we were Americans. If we had asked for Greek coffee, they would have given us syrup-ish super strong coffee! My MIL tried it one time and about gagged!

We did not keep our hotel room in Athens the whole week, but we did stay in that hotel again the last night.

You must go to Greece!

Your trip is really re-igniting my Greek lust!

We had Greek take-out tonight although I did keep my fries beside my Gyro not in it (I haven't eaten my piece of baklava yet) and I even priced flights to Athens! One day! One day!

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

Your trip is really re-igniting my Greek lust!

We had Greek take-out tonight although I did keep my fries beside my Gyro not in it (I haven't eaten my piece of baklava yet) and I even priced flights to Athens! One day! One day!

Phoenix does not have much in the way of Greek food! There are a couple restaurants, but they're not so good.

Baklava...YUM!!!!

I bought the Moonspinners, but I haven't read it yet!

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

I just realized that my ticker says 4 months, 28 days. So excited to be in the 4 month zone!

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

I'm not feeling well today (fun night out last night!), so I've spent my whole morning online. And that usually leads to some shopping.

Well, today it was Disney Shopping! I bought a hoodie and t-shirt, both of which I had been eyeing for a long time. And now they're in the outlet and with the 6 dollar shipping, I couldn't resist!

My little patients LOVE it when I wear my Disney shirts, so I'm sure they'll love both of these items!

 

[TarzansKat]

I'm not feeling well today (fun night out last night!), so I've spent my whole morning online. And that usually leads to some shopping.

Well, today it was Disney Shopping! I bought a hoodie and t-shirt, both of which I had been eyeing for a long time. And now they're in the outlet and with the 6 dollar shipping, I couldn't resist!

My little patients LOVE it when I wear my Disney shirts, so I'm sure they'll love both of these items!

Oh, gosh! I did the same! I'd been coveting a couple pairs of shorts and tanks on Disney Shopping for a while, and today I finally did it.

I hope you like your new purchases!

 

[Charleston Princess]

I have a whole shopping cart of things I want to buy at disneyshopping, but I keep resisting...I wonder how long before I cave in?

 

[TarzansKat]

I have a whole shopping cart of things I want to buy at disneyshopping, but I keep resisting...I wonder how long before I cave in?

I give it another 15-30 minutes. Do you know all the coupon codes?

 

[Charleston Princess]

I give it another 15-30 minutes. Do you know all the coupon codes?

What are these coupon codes of which you speak??? I just know about the $6 shipping one!