July 18, 2007 07-18-07 Med Cruise

[nzdisneymom]

It was fun going through our souvenirs - a bit like christmas because I didn't remember all of them

I've been running on adrenalin for the past three weeks and today is my day to feel like I'm going to crash. The kids are out of town and we don't have anything planned for tonight, so I finally have the time to crash!

I enjoyed showing my "highlight pictures" to my workmates and am anxious to get my trip report going.

 

[DLRPfan.be]

Hello everyone. Yes, we are also back home. We arrived last saturdayevening, stayed at home on Sunday to do some laundry etc... and Monday we left for Disneyland Paris, 'till now.

Many thanks to everyone for the tips and presents (we ate that "Moon cake" in Paris)...

We're planning another cruise in 2009, so who knows: we'll meet again!

Sharper fin: thanks for letting me use the Pirate's Hat!
Scottishwee35: have you already recovered your luggage?

Grts!

Dirk.

 

[shortkathleen]

Yea!! We got all of our luggage!!!!!!! The laundry has begun!

Kathleen

 

[tinkerbell_29]

We are still missing our one piece of luggage. Delta has no clue where it is probable sitting somewhere in that mess of luggage at customs in Atlanta. It is really agravating me 'cause the video camera stuff is in there and I can't put all of our footage onto a dvd without the cords. Brighter news we booked our plane tickets for our cruise at Easter first class seats on US air for only 200 a person of course we have to drive to charlotte but oh well.

Lissa

 

[Barbie3-4]

I'm reading so much about bad flights and lost luggage and anger at a particular airline. We actually had a great experience with Iberia, all luggage where it should be, and an explanation and apology as to why we had to run to another gate and catch another plane.

Last summer when United cancelled our early morning flight home from Portland, Oregon and sent us to LA instead to wait around for the entire day and then sent us from there home that evening, they NEVER explained or apologized. I just think that since 9/11 with all the new restrictions and policies to combat terrorism, the airline industry has been, across the board, in a freefall when it comes to good service. Sometimes you have a good experience, sometimes a bad one. That's just life today in this time for those of us who are lucky enough to be able to fly to great vacations.

 

[nzdisneymom]

We were fortunate to have good flights going and coming and also had tons of pixie dust to get all of our luggage there and back. We're heading to New Mexico next week by way of Minneapolis (go figure?!) and are hoping for uneventful flights there as well. My travel philosophy has always been if my luggage is going to get lost, I'd rather it happen when I'm on my way home so I don't have to interrupt my vacation to replace items. But then as my DH often reminds me, I'm not traveling to 3rd world countries - there will be a WalMart in nearly every place in the US I go or a similar store in other countries.

I do hope that those with missing baggage will get theirs shortly, especially those with non-clothing items missing. I'd be dying if my photos were lost.

 

[CarolAnnC]

Hey Lissa,
Sorry your luggage has not turned up yet. Good news about your Easter cruise though. How did you get first class for $200? Did you use mileage credits? Sounds wonderful...

 

[tinkerbell_29]

No mileage through US air. I just went to their website and that was the price that popped up. I actually thought there was a mistake and called to confirm the price before booking. I think it was a special they were offering out of Charlotte since that is there home base. Actually tried to book with Delta use our FF points and was not able to they require 95,000 miles or points to fly from Atlanta to Orlando and that was in coach.

Lissa

 

[todds34]

Hi All

Glad to hear everyone is home safe and sound if not short of a few pieces of luggage. We arrived home safely and fortunately with all our luggage. I have now managed to finish all the laundry.

It was great to meet you all and we had a fantastic cruise and wish we were still sailing around the Med. It was a shock to the system to have to come home and go back to work .

All of you who have another cruise to look forward to are so lucky. I thought of rebooking on board but I don't know if the finances will allow for another cruise next year as we would have to make the transatlantic crossing this time .

Has anyone done a trip report yet? If so could you post the link so I can read them. Thanks.

Andrea

 

[nzdisneymom]

Andrea - it was so nice to meet you and your sweet DD as well. I'm not sure how I'm doing my trip report but I'm beginning to post snippets on my blog (see my sig line for the link). I have a few extra photos, etc., on my other blogs that you can link to from my Med Cruise one.

Anyway, my big thing is that I'm dreaming so much of our trip at night that when I wake in the morning, I'm often a bit confused as to why I'm not on the ship.

DH's big thing is not walking away from a restaurant table prior to receiving / paying the bill. He started to go at lunch today and I was like "um, where are you going? I haven't got the check yet."

 

[sharper_fin]

OK, if I got this right there SHOULD be a really small picture of Jill and I dressed up in our fancy toggs for formal night to the left of this. Hope it jogs some nice memories for those of you that we ran into throughout the cruise.

Andrea, Sandy's blog is at this link
http://www.joyfuljourneytravel.blogspot.com/

My own report / web article will be posted in a week or two, to coincide with the Magic going back home.

Dirk, you're very welcome. I hope we get to see a picture of you in that pirate hat! Your daughter certainly thought you looked funny (and, I seem to remember, "cool"!)

Lissa I can't believe that you've booked another cruise. Will it be the three of you travelling again? We're so jealous of you and all the others that have another one (or more?!?!) already planned.

Right, it's time to start thinking about Shaun and Jill's Great Disney Adventure 2008. Maybe, just maybe, we'll get to visit Hong Kong Disneyland....

 

[wendy151950]

Sarah and I are also home though it was quite a LONG trip. We left Sunday from Barcelona on Delta. No problems until we got to Atlanta where the weather had wrecked havoc on the airlines. Our 7:40 PM flight ended up leaving around midnight and we didn't get home until 3 am in the morning. It was a long, long day given that neither Sarah nor I slept on the plane from Barcelona.

It was great meeting everyone and we really enjoyed our first cruise ever. We're looking forward to doing another one in the spring. It has been hard to come back to reality and to work. Oh well, its the price we pay.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Wendy - welcome back! We enjoyed meeting you and Sarah. I ended up getting three boxes of the VMK pins - they had moved them behind the counter as there had been a problem on the last cruise with a kid who took most of the boxes off the rack and had emptied (stole!) the contents and left the empty boxes behind the clothing racks. Apparently at the beginning of our cruise, one of the CMs had put them back on the rack thing where Sarah found them but they soon after moved them back behind the counter. Zachary was THRILLED to get some pins and the accompanying cards and codes.

 

[nzdisneymom]

I just looked at my clock and saw that it is 4:45 p.m. which means exactly a week ago our flight was touching down at the Atlanta airport. Gosh, it seems like longer than a week ago that we made the journey home.

 

[CarolAnnC]

Time goes by so fast! As we waited for the cruise, it seemed so far away, and once it arrived, the cruise just flew by.

We do not have another cruise planned yet but I look forward to the day when we make the decision and go ahead with planning.

 

[sharper_fin]

Yes, we've played the "do you remember, this time last week..." game far too much since we came home. It's certainly not helped me settle into a normal working routine.

 

[Barbie3-4]

FYI - Just signed on to cnnmoney.com today and found two video articles. One was on British Airways as the "worst" airline in Europe. The airline blamed their lost baggage problems on the fact that Heathrow was their hub. I guess that means to beware of flying to, from or through Heathrow.

Also, there was an interview with the head of Disney (Robert Iger) about the company's future especially in light of the possible decline of the global economy and how that might affect Disney. Just bought another 100 points when we were aboard the ship, so I was interested in this article.

1st week in December, we're (my oldest daughter's family, Mom & me with my 6 year old grandson) staying at SSR. Has anyone stayed there lately? I'd be interested in a report as this will be our first time as we all bought points there late last year.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Still no luck with our bag. Delta tells us that it is in Atlanta but no one can seem to find it.

Shaun yes it will be the three of us going on the Easter cruise. We tend to do most things like traveling as a family.

Barbie we stayed at SSr in June and loved it. That was our first trip using points and everything went smothly. The only problem we had was with Gardne grocer and getting them to deliver our order. My one suggestion would be if your not driving to think about renting a car. It made our trip alot easier and it was nice to know that when we were ready to go back everybody had a seat. Hope you have a good time.

Lissa

 

[Barbie3-4]

Still no luck with our bag. Delta tells us that it is in Atlanta but no one can seem to find it.

Shaun yes it will be the three of us going on the Easter cruise. We tend to do most things like traveling as a family.

Barbie we stayed at SSr in June and loved it. That was our first trip using points and everything went smothly. The only problem we had was with Gardne grocer and getting them to deliver our order. My one suggestion would be if your not driving to think about renting a car. It made our trip alot easier and it was nice to know that when we were ready to go back everybody had a seat. Hope you have a good time.

Lissa

Thanks, Lissa. Glad to hear that you had a good time in SSR. Will let my daughter know about problems with Garden Grocer as she is planning on using them. Anyone else have problems with that company?

My daughter & DH will be driving their Honda mini-van but we (Mom, me and Jaiden) will fly. We all fit in the van but may use busses sometimes as our schedule won't always be the same as theirs. I've been reading some bad stuff about those buses but we are going during a time when it isn't very crowded (just before the Christmas crowds) and so I'm hoping we will be OK.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Barbie - we're SSR owners twice-over (ok, we bought and then added on, both at SSR) and have enjoyed our stays there. We're going in October for a long weekend.

If you haven't already checked out the DVC boards here on DIS, be sure to go over there. Carol is one of the moderators. There is a lot of great information and also tips for making DVC work for you and loads of trip reports / resort reviews.