It's A Small World - A Never-ending Pre-trip Report

[dolphingirl47]

Well, that was rather quick, sweet and easy. I called them and advised that I just noticed that there had been a price drop and asked what our options were. She told me that the only way this could be applied would be as part of a category change. So we changed to a balcony guarantee cabin and this saved us £400. I was not charged the cancellation fee or an admin fee.

I also asked about the dining arrangements as this has changed since I made the booking. At the time, the only option was Dynamic Dining. It now showed up flexible dining or traditional dining.

When I asked about this, the person I spoke to has confirmed that there are three different options for dining: Dynamic Dining Classic 1 (early seating), Dynamic Dining Class 2 (late seating) and Dynamic Dining (choose when and were you eat). Essentially Dynamic Dining Classic is the same as Rotational Dining on DCL, just that you have 4 restaurants to rotate through rather than 3. I have now changed this to Dynamic Dining 2. The only drawback is that this means that we end up eating at The Grande four times. This suits me perfectly as I love dressing up, but I am not sure if I can sell Graham on this. We may use two of those evenings to eat at Chops Steakhouse and Jamie's Italian. All in all, I had a productive afternoon. I got a higher cabin category, but saved £400 on the cruise and got a dining arrangement that suits me better.

Corinna

 

[Malia78]

That white gown is exquisite! I'm looking forward to exploring all these wonderful locations through your eyes.

 

[Pinkocto]

That's awesome about the savings, and that's quite a savings! Hopefully your new room will be in a good position as well and you don't have to wait too long to find out what it is. Also great about being able to change the dining

 

[dolphingirl47]

That white gown is exquisite!

White is normally not my colour, but I finally got around to trying it on and I am absolutely loving it.

I'm looking forward to exploring all these wonderful locations through your eyes.

I can't wait to explore them all myself and I am more than happy to share.

That's awesome about the savings, and that's quite a savings!

I was absolutely thrilled with this.

Hopefully your new room will be in a good position as well and you don't have to wait too long to find out what it is.

In the end, it was only about 24 hours until we were assigned the new cabin.

Also great about being able to change the dining

I was so happy with this. Rotational dining is something I am familiar and comfortable with and I think it makes the cruise to a certain extend to be able to bond with your serving team and table mates.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Well, last weekend was a bit of a rollercoaster ride and this week has been crazy. We did not quite cover us much ground as we had hoped with all the excitement of the price drop and cabin change, but we have booked the first couple of things and I have now done a first draft of how this can all work. This may well get reworked a little as time goes on, but here goes:

30th April Manchester to London

15:30 Tour at Harry Potter Studio Tour

Holiday Inn Watford Junction


1st May London to Paris

13:31 Eurostar London to Paris – arrive Paris Gare du Nord at 16:47

Base for two days Trianon Gare de Lyon


2nd May Paris

Corinna Disneyland Paris/ Graham Sightseeing


3rd May Paris/ Paris to Narbonne

Morning and early afternoon sightseeing (Hop on hop off bus?)

16:07 – TGV Paris to Narbonne – arrive Narbonne at 21.01

Base for four days Appart'City Narbonne


4th May Narbonne

The Regional Natural Park of Narbonne in the Mediterranean in the morning

Sightseeing in the afternoon


5th May Perpignan

Train from Narbonne at 8:59 – arrive in Perpignan at 9:42

Sightseeing in Perpignan

Train from Perpignan at 19:19 – arrive in Narbonne at 20:01


6th May Carcassonne

Train from Narbonne at 8:08– arrive in Carcassonne at 8:40

Sightseeing in Carcassonne

Train from Carcassonne at 19:58 – arrive in Narbonne at 20:28


7th May Narbonne to Barcelona

Morning sightseeing in Narbonne

TGV Narbonne to Barcelona at 14:38 – arrive in Barcelona at 16:34

Base for 3 days Barcelo Barcelona-Sants

Dinner at a Tapas place near Sants

21:00 – first show of Magic Fountains


8th May Barcelona

Sightseeing by hop on hop off bus/ Port Cable Car


9th May Barcelona

Excursion to Colonia Güell and Montserrat


10th May Barcelona/ Ovation of the Seas

Morning -shopping (wine to take on the ship)

Around noon – go to port and check in for the cruise


I will post a more detailed update on what we are planning to get up to at each point as and when we are finalising stuff. This is shaping to be a really amazing trip.


Speaking of the cruise, I told Graham on Sunday that we will eat at each of the 4 complimentary restaurants 4 times. I also told him that I was perfectly happy for us to eat at either a couple of the speciality restaurants or even the buffet on a couple of the nights that we will be scheduled to eat at The Grande (formal restaurant). He really surprised me when he said that he does not mind eating there all 4 times even though it means putting a jacket on. I was very surprised by this, but I am very pleased by this turn of events.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

I was going to post the updates all last week, but ran out of time and steam. So I am posting them back to back today.

Monday was another pretty eventful day. First of all, I checked my booking details on the Royal Caribbean website and noticed that they have already assigned us a cabin again. That was super quick. We are now on deck 8 about as far aft as we can get. I preferred the original location, but not to the tune of£400/$600. Graham is very happy about the location. I think he was always a little concerned that our original cabin was so close to the kid’s club and the potential noise that this may bring. Deck 8 is exclusively a stateroom deck and decks 7 and 9 only have staterooms as well. Add to this that we are about as far aft as you can get and well away from the elevator lobby and we should hopefully have a nice quiet stateroom.

Planning is also progressing for September. I was in town on Monday after work and decided to see if our dedicated running shop had the running shoes I had picked out. It is somewhat difficult for me to find shoes that fit properly so I thought it would be wise for me to try them on rather than ordering them online. Unfortunately they did not have them in the wide fit, but I ended up with another pair of New Balance running shoes that are very comfortable. I had planned to hold off buying them until payday on today. However, things rather changed. I was chatting to the person helping me about my plans and he mentioned that they run a Couch to 5K programme and their next one starts next Monday. So I ended up signing up for this. I am getting rather nervous about this, but I think the process will be easier if I do this as part of a group.

Here are the shoes that I went with in the end:




I am breaking them in at the moment and I am rather pleased with them.

Corinna

 

[Flossbolna]

Your plans sound amazing and the new shoes are very cute! Hope you will enjoy the running group! I think that doing it with a group is a great idea, especially having someone there to ask questions and such. I remember that when I started running I really struggled with it as I got so quickly out of breath. But I did not even hear about any couch to 5k programs until after I ran my first 5k. I thought I really needed to just start running for 30 minutes! Not a good idea!!

 

[franandaj]

All your plans sound great. You're hitting quite a few interesting locations before you even board the ship.

Good luck on the couch to 5K program. The shoes are really cute!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Your plans sound amazing and the new shoes are very cute!

Thanks.

Hope you will enjoy the running group!

I hope so, too. This time tomorrow, I will have a better idea on what I have let myself in for.

I thought I really needed to just start running for 30 minutes! Not a good idea!!

If I were to attempt this, I would get an injury in no time at all. I always knew that I have to start slowly and build up on this.

All your plans sound great.

Thanks.

You're hitting quite a few interesting locations before you even board the ship.

Yes, I am getting hugely excited about this

Good luck on the couch to 5K program.

Thanks, I have the feeling I may need this.

The shoes are really cute!

Thanks.

Corinna

 

[Flossbolna]

Have fun with your first run!!! I hope the group is nice!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Catching up! Great plans for the cruise. It all sounds like fantastic locations to go see.

Nice shoes! Enjoy the run.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I am starting to be very glad that we have decided to put the November trip on the back-burner until we get back from our May cruise. Otherwise things would become a little bit overwhelming.

First of all, it is now only 4 days until we head to Disneyland Paris. The calendar for the first day is now out. That day, Disneyland Paris will be open until 20:00 so I am planning to see Disney Dreams then as the park will be open longer on the other days. Other priorities will be doing It's A Small World, which was closed in November; seeing the new show that they have during the day and off course do Buzz Lightyear. Other than that, I will see how things develop. The main aim is to recharge my batteries as I have worked 13 out of the last 14 days and pretty long hours on top of this.

Speaking of Disneyland, I manage to get something else ticked off the list for September. I was in two minds about the other events that they offer during the race weekend. So initially I just booked our bibs and decided to have a closer look at the other offerings when I had a bit more time. They are offering a party at Walt Disney Studios on the Friday night. During this party, there will be characters, food and the main attractions will be open. We have decided to do this and I booked this earlier today. The other option was the dinner show on the Saturday. This is not really our thing so we decided to pass on this. For the same kind of money, we can have a meal at Inventions so we may well do this to celebrate.

This brings me to the main news. We are starting to firm up plans for the May trip bit by bit. Last weekend Graham booked the Eurostar from London to Paris and he also surprised me with tickets for the Harry Potter Studio Tour for the first day of our trip. During the week, I booked a hotel near there for the night before we are heading to Paris.

Today we booked the hotel in Narbonne. We did go with the hotel that I had chosen. However, their reception closes quite early so we had to go with an earlier train to Narbonne, which I booked today. So that puts paid to the morning sightseeing in Paris, but I am good with that. I have never really rated Paris anyway. Instead I am trying to convince Graham to do a nighttime tour the evening we arrive in Paris.

We have not booked a hotel in Paris yet, but the one that I have chosen seems to be perfect. Graham is intending to spend our full day in the botanical gardens, which are quite close to the hotel. I can get a direct train to Disneyland Paris from the local station so this works for both of us.

We also have yet to book the hotel in Barcelona and the train from Narbonne to Barcelona. Once all of this is taken care off, we can concentrate on the day trips and tours.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Have fun with your first run!!! I hope the group is nice!

Thanks.

Great plans for the cruise.

We need to really sit down and think about how we are going to do everything we want to do.

It all sounds like fantastic locations to go see.

I am really excited about everything we will get to see.

Nice shoes! Enjoy the run.

Thanks.

Corinna

 

[jedijill]

Your plans are really coming together!

In regards to Paris touring, I've found that Rick Steves Walking Tour guides are wonderful for Paris. They are available on his website and you can download audible guides as well.

Jill in CO

 

[dolphingirl47]

Your plans are really coming together!

They definitely are.

In regards to Paris touring, I've found that Rick Steves Walking Tour guides are wonderful for Paris. They are available on his website and you can download audible guides as well.

Thanks for the tip. I am going to have to check this out. This may something that Graham would be interested in for this weekend.

Corinna

 

[Flossbolna]

How was your running group? I hope you had a good time!

 

[Pinkocto]

Your trip plans sound great and are really coming together nicely The Harry Potter studio tour has been on my list for years now.

Excellent that you now have your new stateroom number.

I like the new shoes, how did Monday go?

The party in September sounds like great fun.

 

[dolphingirl47]

How was your running group? I hope you had a good time!

Thanks for asking. This did my bruised ego a lot of good last night. Update coming right up.

Your trip plans sound great and are really coming together nicely

Yes, they are. I am trying to get something else firmed up every week.

The Harry Potter studio tour has been on my list for years now.

It had been on mine, too. The big difference is that we live so relatively close and still have not managed to visit so far.

Excellent that you now have your new stateroom number.

I was really pleased with this. Ironically somebody on our cruise meet thread has just been allocated our original stateroom.

I like the new shoes, how did Monday go?

It was an experience. More on this below.

The party in September sounds like great fun.

I thought so, too and it is a welcome opportunity to get Graham to come to a park with me.

Corinna

 

[dolphingirl47]

Yesterday, I did my first group session of couch to 5K and I was ready to give up on the idea that I will ever run a 5K there and then. However, having slept on this and analyzing what had actually happened made me feel a little more optimistic again. I arrived in plenty of time to sign in and a lot of the group had the same idea. After we had all signed in, signed a waiver and put our belongings in one of the changing rooms at the running store that hosts this, we had the obligatory group photo taken and then we headed out. Our first session was to take place at a local park that is about 10 minutes away from the store. So we took a brisk walk over there to warm up and then did a light jog for the last stretch. So far so good. We had been told that we would do intervals of running one minute and walking one minute for eight repetitions. I figured that I would be able to do this and actually had been quite looking forward to this. The reality was a different one.



The group had been advertised as a beginners group. That is why I had decided to join as I had thought and hoped that everybody would be in the same boat. The reality was that at best 4 of us were actually beginners. The rest have already done multiple 5 and 10 Ks. It is ever so slightly demotivating if you are struggling to run the uphill stretch and people come flashing past you like a bat out of heck. One of them was quite open about the fact that he was doing this to improve his personal best. Although I have every respect for this, we were told that we should be sticking together as a group and there was no way I could keep up.

The second issue was that we should have run 1 minute and walked 1 minute. That did not happen either. There is a circular path around the perimeter of the park, which is about a quarter of a mile. We were told to run one loop and then have one minute rest. I started to wonder if I should be able to run a quarter of a mile in one minute, but that would equate to a 4 minute mile and the pacing requirement for the 5 K is four times that. So that can’t be right. I also realized that I was supposed to run 2 miles on my first attempt to run after I left school. This seems to be a little much. So after I realized all of this, I felt decidedly less of a failure.

Today was a rest day and tomorrow I will do day 2 of week 1 before work. I have downloaded the Coach to 5K app from the NHS website and I invested in a sports armband for my iPhone. I am all set. There is a nice park with paved and flat path near my apartment and this is where I will do my run. This is about a 5 minute brisk walk away from my front door so this is warm up and cool down taken care of, too. Tomorrow I should have a better idea how much I am going to struggle. I am planning to go back to the group next Monday providing that the training runs tomorrow and Friday go OK, but if it is more of the same, I may just decide to just do it on my own with the help of the app.

On a positive note, we had the emails yesterday inviting us to complete our registration for the 5K. So this is another thing ticked off the list.

Corinna

 

[Pinkocto]

Sounds like overall it was a positive experience, but it's too bad people that are not beginners signed up for this. It also sounds like the instructor was not timing things correctly?

That's exciting about the registration email.