Is anyone cruising with me on the August 27th 2011 Meditteranean Cruise? Hellooooo?

[TJFrack]

anyone purchased vatican jump the line tickets yet????As my computer is not showing our date as available yet?????

Nope not yet...I have it bookmarked on my calendar for this Thursday they should be available, but it might be friday with the 31 days in July counting towards the 60 days and not calendar months

 

[yvnalvar]

OKay i get it now. Usually the initials you see are things like this and not people's actual initials--I can totally see how that would confuse a new person:

DW (Dear Wife or Darling Wife or Disney Wife)
DH (Dear Husband, etc)
DD (Dear daughter, etc)
DS (Dear Son, etc)

Welcome on board Yvonne (that is my mom's middle name BTW).

Have you cruised before? Been to the Med before?

I see now where the initials come from. I was trying to figure them out as I was reading. We are Castaway Gold now. this will give us 7 cruises. This is our first Med Cruise. DH wanted to go to Italy for his 50th so this is it.

 

[yvnalvar]

Welcome aboard!! Where in PA are you from? I grew up in Bethlehem, PA.

Hi Thank you,

We live in Stroudsburg. Most of our business is in Bethlehem, Allentown.

 

[TJFrack]

Hi Thank you,

We live in Stroudsburg. Most of our business is in Bethlehem, Allentown.

Cool! Look forward to meeting you! =)

 

[diane aggelidou]

Thanks to those whom sent personal messages from Disney and world-wide. Thanks,fortunately, we are a safe distance from Athens & Thesseloniki and we are safe from violence.However, this Euro situation is not going to stop and of course all of us in Greece have been struggling for some -time in order to survive! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX to all whom showed concern!Appreciated!DI
Look on bright-side! 8 weeks time,we will be aboard ship to celebrate aniversary and birthday! Of-course, we will maintain contact with home!

 

[mkmommy]

anyone purchased vatican jump the line tickets yet????As my computer is not showing our date as available yet?????

Nope not yet...I have it bookmarked on my calendar for this Thursday they should be available, but it might be friday with the 31 days in July counting towards the 60 days and not calendar months

Do you have a website, I am assuming that this is for the Vatican Museum?

 

[mkmommy]

Thanks to those whom sent personal messages from Disney and world-wide. Thanks,fortunately, we are a safe distance from Athens & Thesseloniki and we are safe from violence.However, this Euro situation is not going to stop and of course all of us in Greece have been struggling for some -time in order to survive! XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX to all whom showed concern!Appreciated!DI
Look on bright-side! 8 weeks time,we will be aboard ship to celebrate aniversary and birthday! Of-course, we will maintain contact with home!

Glad to hear that you are safe and away from the violence.

Hopefully they govenment can come up with some plans that are not too hard on the people. Change is always so hard and everything is ,going up in price so much.

Glad that you have a special trip to look forward to your daughter will have great memories of this trip.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Diane so glad you are safe! Tell me if you can. Does the situation affect the exchange rate between the euro and the US dollar?

 

[austraveler]

I do a little bit of work with FX. The general principle is that the more worried people are about "risk", the better the $US is ( ie you get more EURO for your $). The USD is looked on as a "safe" currency to hold in times of gobal uncertainty. This is balanced out by the bad financial situation the US is in right now, which is why your dollar is so low relative to others. If the greek financial situation gets sorted out, the $US is likely to drop again (ie you get less Euro for your dollar) Hope that helps a little.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Do you have a website, I am assuming that this is for the Vatican Museum?

prebuy them directly from the vatican on their website (it will save you a good hour or two--literally--of waiting in line):

http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Home.html

 

[BWV Dreamin]

I do a little bit of work with FX. The general principle is that the more worried people are about "risk", the better the $US is ( ie you get more EURO for your $). The USD is looked on as a "safe" currency to hold in times of gobal uncertainty. This is balanced out by the bad financial situation the US is in right now, which is why your dollar is so low relative to others. If the greek financial situation gets sorted out, the $US is likely to drop again (ie you get less Euro for your dollar) Hope that helps a little.

Thank you! Well I guess I should start monitoring the rate daily in that case. Wow today's rates are up! I am hoping they come down in the next two months!

 

[TJFrack]

Thank you! Well I guess I should start monitoring the rate daily in that case. Wow today's rates are up! I am hoping they come down in the next two months!

I monitored the rates for three weeks using this website. https://www.foreignexchangeservices.com/index.html?partnerid=FES&serviceType=rate

I ended up buying them last friday for 1.49 conversion rate which was the cheapest I had seen during my monitoring time for purchasing them in the US. The Euro rate is slightly lower but the bank charges a little fee on each euro. Adding the 3% fee I would paid on the credit card I figured I calculated that I only paid $45 extra for the euros but now it is something that I don't have to worry about doing when I get there plus I dont have to worry about bank fraud since I won't even take my ATM card and all the other identity theft issues. If we have any euros left I plan to use them for tips on the ship and let them convert them back to whatever currency they want.

Some people suggest using the ATM's at the airport for the cheapest conversion rate, but then you hear of FAKE Atm scams internationally also you still have the conversion fee for your bank card/credit card so that is 3% on top of your purchase. I know Capital One Credit card doesn't have the 3% fee for one of their cards. Some places charge a handling fee so we decided to convert enough euros to cover the entire trip.

 

[mkmommy]

I had on a sweater today that I obviously have not worn since last summer as in the pocket was 3 Euros and a receipt for popcorn from the Magic dated Aug 2, 2010. This trip is coming fast.

Make sure to pack a sweater, it may be hot outside but I find that inside the AC works really well especially in the theaters.

Exchange rates are a mystery to me. The Canadian and US have been pretty much at par for the last several months, I bought Eurors at 1.42 which is about the best it has been since I have been tracking, so not sure why the differnence for you in the US to buy.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

Well I ordered the Beer Mug for my hubby!! Wow, they even add a gratuity charge for the mug, which doesn't come with any beer in it! Jeezz... Well so that should be waiting for him when we enter our room!!

Speaking with DCL while ordering the beer mug, I asked about my cabin assignment. He said I should know within 2 weeks cause they will be sending out the cruise docs tickets then so they have to have one assigned by then! He said the longer it's taking them to assign us a room the better the chance for an upgrade!! Need some pixie dust!

Also bought the teal shirt to match the dress....only thing left is to buy a matching tie and find/buy some wind pants (to throw on before entering the churches). Still watching the exchange rate to by the Euros. So almost done!

 

[TJFrack]

Woo hoo!! We got our Vatican Tickets!!

 

[Tigerfan2k2]

We want to book our Vatican tickets and wondered what time to get them for. We are on the Taste of Rome Disney tour and need to know the time that we get to that area of Rome. Has anyone done this before and know the time?

 

[NHdisneylover]

We want to book our Vatican tickets and wondered what time to get them for. We are on the Taste of Rome Disney tour and need to know the time that we get to that area of Rome. Has anyone done this before and know the time?

I would ask over on the main board for people who have taken the tour--but I THINK (double check0 that the DCL tours which go by the Vatican include your ticket and they have it worked out so you do not wait in line as a group. So, I don't think you need to get one.

 

[diane aggelidou]

I too have bought tickets for vatican! I hope bought the correct ones! I got those that were 15 euro adult and 8 child and booked 1pm,so that no rush if running late or want to do other places first!

Also,got Barcelona zoo tickets!

At what times can you disembark/embark the ship at ports??? Is it at set times or all day? (simply walk the ships ramp as on our previous cruises)



Weather pretty freaky in med this year,not as hot as usual with freqent rain/storms, I will keep you informed on this!Pack an umbrella!

 

[Tigerfan2k2]

Called Disney yesterday and the Vatican tickets are not included on taste of Rome tour. They also had no idea on the time that we should book the tickets for. If we buy an earlier time, say 12:30 and we don't get there until 1:30 - will we be allowed in still?

Thanks.

P.s going suit and dress shopping today!

 

[NHdisneylover]

Called Disney yesterday and the Vatican tickets are not included on taste of Rome tour. They also had no idea on the time that we should book the tickets for. If we buy an earlier time, say 12:30 and we don't get there until 1:30 - will we be allowed in still?

Thanks.

P.S g suit and dress shopping today!

I do not know if they let you n if you miss your time by more than a few minutes or not.

I suggest you ask on the main cruise board here for people who took the tour already to tell you what time they ended up near Vatican city.

Also, FYI that you can get into St Peter's without a ticket. So you can see that (and the Pieta which is there) without issues. The tickets get you into the museums and the Sistine Chapel.