July 18, 2007 07-18-07 Med Cruise

[misbel]

Hi Sandy,

In Palermo we are taking the bus to see the Catacombs of the Capuchins, then a bus to Modello Beach if time permits.

In Naples we will take the train to Pompeii, then take the train to Sorrento. We then plan to take the Hydrofoil back to Naples

In Olbia we are having a taxi (Just Sardinia) take us to a beach for the day. Possibly Pittulongu Beach which is very close to the port or La Cinta Beach.

In ROme we have the tour company... througheternity. They have a suggested itinerary, but will go where ever we would like. We plan to visit the Vatican, sistine chapel, colleseum, trevi fountain, spanish steps etc.

In La Spezia, we plan to take the train to Piza (1 hour away) The kids really want to see/climb the tower. THen we want to head back to Cinque Terre (1 1/2 hours back the other way), which I have heard is beautiful. You can hike from one coastal town to another. But we will take the train to Manorola and do the 20 min hike to Riomaggiore. From there it's a 15 min ferry/train back to La Spezia.

In Marseille we plan to sleep in late!! Visit the old port. If we feel up to it we might take the 30 min bus ride to Aix - en -provence.

In Villefranche, we will probably take the train into nice. An visit the casino at night.


As you can see there is no time for RELAXATION!! I did schedule some spa days for the days at sea!! We will need another vacation when we get back!!

Isbel

 

[minneapolismickey]

Hi All-

Wow Todds-so cool to upgrade to a veranda! We will have to be happy with our large round window.

Sandy- Italybylimousine is a private company that specializes in Italian cruises. I think that I remember seeing excursions to Rome and Florence. Not sure about Naples. Their website is very user friendly. Definitely check it out.

Starting to think about my wardrobe. There is so much that I want to bring, but we will be travelling 10 days before the cruise in Europe and want to pack as lightly as possible. I called Disney and they will not let us mail a box ahead. Any ideas on mailing things ahead of time to Barcelona for the cruise?

Angie

 

[xlRacerXlx]

I found out we're in different room! The room I posted was the Walt Suite, lol...

The room we're in is 8516

 

[scottishwee35]

Isbel

Your planning look good

As I have nothing plan for Palermo and Oblia. I got the library book about Italy so I will looking at it.

I am thinking about hop on hop off bus at Palermo but it seem expensive for four.

Just wait and see when we get there then we decide what to do.

My friend was telling me about Cinque Terre as it is really beautiful place to see.

Scottishwee35

 

[todds34]

Hi All

Misbel your planning sounds fantastic. I wish I were brave enough to explore on my own but as this is our first Med cruise and it is only me and my DD(11) I thought it safer to do the DCL excursions.

Todds34



PS Another day closer to Sailing The Magic

 

[smilis]

Good Morning,
For Angie, if you are spending a day or two ahead of the cruise in Barcelona, you might want to consider shipping your package ahead to the hotel. Hotels will allow that to be done. Just be sure you let them know to be expecting a package in your name to be set aside til your arrival.

Isbel, your excursions do sound very interesting and exhausting. Having spoken to a friend of mine who did a Med cruise last summer, in Florence, they did it "on their own" (no excursion at all) and they wish now they had done a paid excursion because they would have seen more and walked less.

I am beginning to put together outfits to take as well, and trying to consider what type of purse I am taking. Have been reading a thread of advice regarding safety, security, pickpockets etc in Italy and what you should do to protect yourself. Very interesting if not a little hair raising. I know caution and alertness is the primary focus.

Oh, we received our DVD yesterday. We used DVC points to book, so I think the DVD's are just going out gradually. It was very exciting to watch it.

Sandy

 

[CarolAnnC]

Sandy, as you know we booked on DVC points also and just received the DVD yesterday as well! Looking forward to watching it tonite...probably over and over lol.

My DD's and I have nice travel purses from LLBean. Check out their website online. LLBean is very popular in New England where we are originally from. We also got the matching passport wallets with the purses. Santa Claus was good to us this year, lol.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Nzdisneymom, how is the diet going?

Wow - I've been off-line for a few days and you folks have been chatty! Woo-hoo!

The dieting is going well - I'm down 7 1/2 lbs, so that's half-way to my original goal of losing 15 lbs before the cruise (and believe me, I have plenty more to go). I found a nice dress that will work for both formal and semi-formal nights - just need a wrap or something for the shoulders to go with it. I'm leaving the tags on because I can return it up through July 15th, so if it doesn't fit well, then I can take it back - I hope it won't fit well (meaning it will be too big) but honestly I think it will work well - AND it wasn't very expensive (great sale!). I'm just keeping the receipt with it.

Sounds like we're all getting excited - this time next week and everyone will have had a chance to book their excursions! And it won't be too many more days before the Magic starts making her way across the Atlantic!

Hope you all are doing well!

 

[ButterbearUK]

I have a technical question re booking and wish lists. I have saved the three excursions I want on my wish list. There appears to be no way of clicking on the items in the wish list and jumping straight to the relevant page. At the 75 day mark when I can book, is it possible to simply open up the wish list and click on the things there, or do I have to trawl through each of the port pages to find the excursions I want again?

I'm hoping there will be availability on the Florence and Pisa and Jumping Back to Eternal Rome tours. I really want to do those and I'll be quite upset if you guys got all the places...

Milia

 

[todds34]

I have a technical question re booking and wish lists. I have saved the three excursions I want on my wish list. There appears to be no way of clicking on the items in the wish list and jumping straight to the relevant page. At the 75 day mark when I can book, is it possible to simply open up the wish list and click on the things there, or do I have to trawl through each of the port pages to find the excursions I want again?

I'm hoping there will be availability on the Florence and Pisa and Jumping Back to Eternal Rome tours. I really want to do those and I'll be quite upset if you guys got all the places...

Milia

Dear Milia

You should be able to book your excursions at exactly 8.00am (maybe a minute or 2 before) Uk time at least this was the time that I was able to book at the 90 day mark.

On your MY Cruise Plans page when it is time to book a box will appear which says reserve excusions (in the right hand corner underneath the Shore Excurions, Palo Dining, Spa and Childrens Registration area). When you press this it takes you to a page which shows all the available excursions, the excursions on your wish list will also appear here but will be highlighted (in white I think). Once you have found your choice click the button and the excursion you want will turn yellow, you will then click the continue button at the bottom of the page which then takes you to another page where you will have to choose a time (if appropriate) and make sure all the people in your party who want to go on the excursion are ticked, you then click reserve and then start the process over again for your next choice. You can only book one excursion at time so make sure you try to book them in order of preference. If you want to book Palo or the Spa it is just the same. I got all 5 excursions and 2 spa times that I wanted and it took about 30 minutes total.

I hope this makes sense if not let me know and I will try and clarify for you. Good luck when your time comes for booking and please let us know how you get on.

Andrea

 

[todds34]

The dieting is going well - I'm down 7 1/2 lbs,


Wow that is fantastic I will have to go some to keep up with you. I have started going for a long walk every night since the weather has started to get a little nicer. They said tomorrow it will be warmer in Scotland than it will be in Barcelona .

I haven't started buying my clothes yet Iam going to wait another few weeks and see how much I loose but like you I will keep the receipts and can return any items which don't fit.

Keep up the good work

Andrea

 

[ButterbearUK]

Andrea,

Thanks for the info. We have now worked out our order of preference for each port, and may do Rome on your own after all...

It's so good to be able to ask these questions now, before panic stations on Friday

Do you know if I can book excursions for all five of us if we have two separate rooms? The bookings are linked, but have separate numbers...

Milia

 

[CarolAnnC]

We have two rooms also. I had to do each room separately, however. I opened up two windows for the DCL site though so I could do them quickly one right after the other. You will need to have the reservation number for each room, and the birthdate of the main person the staterooms are each booked under. In my case, it was my DH and one of my DD's names.

 

[smilis]

Starting to think about my wardrobe. There is so much that I want to bring, but we will be travelling 10 days before the cruise in Europe and want to pack as lightly as possible. I called Disney and they will not let us mail a box ahead. Any ideas on mailing things ahead of time to Barcelona for the cruise?

Angie[/QUOTE]


Angie,
I know I mentioned shipping it to the hotel where you are staying in Barcelona, but perhaps you are not staying any nights pre-cruise in Barcelona. We are going to be staying 3 nights pre-cruise in Barcelona and you would be more then welcome to ship your box to the hotel where we are staying and we could bring it to the ship with us and we could meet up there. Just a thought

Sandy

 

[smilis]

I guess I must be in the mood to start packing but I know its way to early so I just wrote down all my clothing ideas. Anyway, with the long days, are many of you thinking of taking a whole change of clothes for dinner time or just freshening up and heading to the dining room? (of course with the exception of Formal nights and Pirate night)

I normally do a whole change of clothes for dinner time, but I'm thinking with the excursion times so close to mealtime, that doing a complete change might not be feasible. Obviously, not having to change for dinner every night will definitely make packing easier and lighter. Don't forget those 50 lb. limits per suitcase

Sandy

 

[nzdisneymom]

When I've cruised before, I did a whole new outfit for dinner, but then would change into something else for the rest of the evening - and then I could get another wear or two out of my dinner clothes (mix and match).

We have at least three excursions that are getting back after our meal time, so I imagine we'll go to our cabin, wash up real quick and then go up to Topsiders for dinner.

 

[DLRPfan.be]

Hi everyone! It's been some days now since I've been on the thread, and WOW: you're all busy preparing now! I've been talkin' to some people here who also are doin' the the cruise (but on different dates) and for us, Europeans, most of the "shore excursions" are "in our backyard"...
So I think that most people from the mainland in Europe will do their own shore excursions, but the first reason they do this trip is to really enjoy what the "Disney Magic" has to offer.
And Yes: we still want to book for "Palo's" at least one time
Let's wait and see on may 4th....

 

[minneapolismickey]

Sandy-

Thanks for the kind offer to keep a box for us! We will be in Barcelona the day before the cruise. We are staying at the Atenea Mar Hotel. I emailed them weeks ago regarding shipping a box and have not received any response. I think that I will try that route again.

I am also starting to plan my outfits/packing for the cruise. I typically do change for dinner since I dress very casually for excursions. I have been reading a book/video be Anne McAplin called Pack it Up. She has great ideas regarding packing and travelling to Europe. She suggests that you pack mix and match wear so that you can easily change outfits. I am focusing on a color scheme so that many things will mix and match. She also suggests techniques to wear a few scarves which can really dress up an outfit worn earlier for an excursion. Check out her book. It's really quite helpful.

Good luck this week to the people registering for excursion. We have two computers in our home, so my husband and I were up at 2:01 am central time and online simultaneously to register two rooms of people.

Wish I had already lost 7 1/2 pounds. Nice Job!

Angie

 

[tinkerbell_29]

As the date of the trip gets closer I'm getting a little nervous about the flight and getting sick on the ship. The flight from here to WDW is a little over an hour and if i don't take a dramamine I'm miserable. I plan on taking a dose for the flight from Atlanta to Barcelona but really do not want to have to take one everday of the trip(the make me really sleepy). Can you feel the ship once it is moving? What do you do on a ten hour flight? I do good to sit for an hour. Hope everyone is well.
Lissa

 

[DisTeach]

On the other cruises I was on, there was only one time that the ship was moving a lot due to weather, but the rest of it was fine. You can feel it move a bit, but I don't think it is too disorienting. Take your pills with you like you plan, but like you said, if you take it everyday you are not going to enjoy the vacation as much. I don't think you will need them everyday anyone as you will get used to the movement. Plus, we won't be moving at the same speed all the time.

As far as the plane ride, I share a bit of your anxiety as well. I don't get sick, but I'm afraid I won't sleep! In my 30+ times of flying I've never, ever slept. Eek! I might take a little something like Tylenol PM to help. I've never flown transAtlantic so I'm not sure how the turbulence will be. I anticipate the flight being ok, though. Just bring a book, watch the movies, and think about the excitement awaiting you once you land!