July 18, 2007 07-18-07 Med Cruise

[tinkerbell_29]

Glad to know I wasn't the only one watching the DCL show last night on the travel channel. We had seen it before but still it helps to build the excitment.
Made copies of our passports today. Two to take with us and one to send to me uncle just in case. I also added a I.C.E. number to my cell phone contacts and ordered a new medical ID bracelette. I never wear one at home but I figured it might be a smart idea over there.

Lissa

 

[sharper_fin]

Lissa, what's an I.C.E number?

Shaun

 

[nzdisneymom]

An ICE number is "In Case of Emergency" - I first heard about it after something had happened in London with bombs on the subway - and it became a big push for people to put an In Case of Emergency number in their cell phone and just list it as ICE. I have three ICE numbers in ours - I just have them ICE, ICE2 and ICE3.

The ICE numbers can be used by emergency management people to contact your "emergency contact person" like your spouse or parents or whoever is your point of contact.

This reminded me that I want to put DCL's number in my cell phone - seems like they have it listed or something in the navigators? so if something happened and we were separated from our excursions that we could make contact with the ship.

 

[misbel]

An ICE number is "In Case of Emergency" - I first heard about it after something had happened in London with bombs on the subway - and it became a big push for people to put an In Case of Emergency number in their cell phone and just list it as ICE. I have three ICE numbers in ours - I just have them ICE, ICE2 and ICE3.

The ICE numbers can be used by emergency management people to contact your "emergency contact person" like your spouse or parents or whoever is your point of contact.

This reminded me that I want to put DCL's number in my cell phone - seems like they have it listed or something in the navigators? so if something happened and we were separated from our excursions that we could make contact with the ship.

Thanks for the great ideas. I'm going to save DCL # on my cell too, since I'm doing all the ports on my own!!!

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Cindy I didn't think about adding DCL's number to my cell phone. That's a great idea. That way if something happens like we get seprated from the group we can contact them. My TA made a good point if your ICE contacts are people that are going to be with you you might want to temproarily change them to people that are at home.

Lissa

 

[nzdisneymom]

I just checked the Navigators at allearsnet and see that they list the Ship's Agent for each port with address and phone number.

 

[seaulater]

Only 43 1/2 more work hours until I am officially on vacation!

Put my three ring binder together last night with all our confirmations together so I know where I am going and when.

One week from tomorrow we are headed out to Dublin, Ireland. I am getting excited. Guess I'll start putting stuff together this weekend for packing.

Oh-and my husband and daughter don't know, and I am going to surprise them. When we fly home on Sunday, July 29th, we aren't really flying home. We leave Madrid and fly to JFK and when we get to JFK we will be staying at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. I was able to snag 4 tickets for the "final curtain" of Beauty and the Beast on Sunday night (they weren't on sale to the public at all, it is by invitation only, or you had to know someone who could get you tickets!) We are meeting our friends Georgie and Joe (who we met on a Disney Cruise) and Georgie will be coming with the 3 of us to the play. Joe is going to hang out while we are in unless I can somehow find him a ticket.

So when we get to New York, Robert and Jamie will think we are getting on another plane to Salt Lake City...............but NO.....we aren't. I am NOT going to tell them either what we are doing. It's going to be a total suprise!

 

[sharper_fin]

What a great surprise Linda! The only problems I can see with that are...
1) Staying awake through the show - that transatlantic jetlag is a killer!
2) making sure that none of us on hear leak the news to your family.....



Shaun

 

[DisTeach]

What a great surprise Linda! The only problems I can see with that are...
1) Staying awake through the show - that transatlantic jetlag is a killer!
2) making sure that none of us on hear leak the news to your family.....



Shaun

My lips are sealed; I know nothing lol. That sounds like a lot of fun. I've seen a few broadway productions in NYC and they were completely awesome (and very crowded so it is great you were able to get your hands on some tix).

I look forward to the entertainment on the ship, too. I couldn't really enjoy The Golden Mickeys last time as that was when I became ill onboard. I'm glad this time I can kick back and take in the festivities! Horray!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Linda - what an awesome surprise - and yep, my lips are sealed! You'll have to be sure to post post-trip about it.

Gosh, my count-down says 6 work days but it's really 5 plus the rest of today. And here's how next week looks:

Monday - dentist appts for boys in the afternoon
Tuesday - playdate for boys in the morning, haircuts in afternoon
Wednesday - dr. appt for 11 y.o. in the morning
Thursday - dentist appt for me in the morning
Friday - final packing frenzy
Saturday - leave for ATL

I still need to fit in getting Euros at AAA and printing out the contact information for our neighbor watching the house and sending it all to my family members who need to know.

I started laying out more clothes today - I think I'm set on what all I'm going to take and as soon as I get laundry done tomorrow, what I'm taking will go in the suitcase and shall not be worn again til the trip! My coworkers will just have to trust that I wash the same pair of pants every night to wear the next day (hee hee). I had our TA double-check our planned excursions to see if they visit churches or not (it's not always clear in the write up about whether you actually go into church or just drive by) so that will help with my planning.

 

[sharper_fin]

... my count-down says 6 work days but it's really 5 plus the rest of today...

That's one of the great things about living here in England - my Friday's already finished! My weekend's already begun! Just five more work days!!!!



Have a great weekend everybody (and those of you that haven't started yet... get packing!!!)

Shaun

 

[nzdisneymom]

That's one of the great things about living here in England - my Friday's already finished! My weekend's already begun! Just five more work days!!!!

What's also nice about having DISers from all over is that I am guaranteed to find new messages posted when I get up in the morning and all through the day rather than having big gaps where everyone is sleeping.

Now I'm thinking about our transatlantic flight - we'll be leaving ATL at 8 p.m. as the sun is setting and arriving in BCN at 11 a.m. where the sun will have been up for a while.... I wonder what "time" the sun will "rise" for us on the plane - and if it will ever be truly night time - I guess it will for a couple of hours as it's a 10 hr flight... hhmmm......

 

[sharper_fin]

Cindy, we tend to find on the USA to Europe nightime flights that they dim the cabin lights and ask you to pull the blinds down a few hours into the journey, that way creating an artificial 'night', regardless of what the sun is actually doing outside. Sleep is one of the greatest ways to handle jetlag, so I'd suggest those of you coming from the States to grab as much as you can on the plane.

Another thing I try to do is set my watch to the time of my destination as soon as possible - usually just as I'm getting on the flight. That way my head thinks that I'm already on local time so I adapt a little better.

Shaun

 

[RJMOMSusan]

[
FWIW, I'm allowing my children to bring their Nintendo DS's because of the long trip over and back, and I will let them use them during the cruise as well - in fact, I'm definitely going to let them bring them to the "Meet" on Wednesday as that way I can enjoy meeting all of you and they can sit on the side with their heads buried in their game -- but also because I find that the hand-held video games are GREAT ice-breakers for children to get acquainted over. My boys are drawn to any other child with their head-in-a-game and they often have that same experience when they have their games with them. It's a common language for children And with them occupied, I don't have the "when can we go?"'s from them which makes me able to enjoy my time with other grown-ups!


Cindy,

I totally agree with you regarding the "bond" formed over the hand held things.. And .. I love to have it in a restaurant .. this reminds me to make sure DH deals with the ( all things electronic) portion of our packing. RJ is a baseball nut, so I have SANDLOT for him to watch on the plane.. with headphones of course.

Can't wait... I promise to go do some housework before sneaking back to the computer..

Thanks for the DCL tip on travel TV.. We loved it!

 

[RJMOMSusan]

I have a 3 ring binder too... Thought I was the only one

Susan

 

[sharper_fin]

I have a 3 ring binder too... Thought I was the only one

Susan

You are not alone Susan, embrace your love of the binder!!! Ours over here are two-ringed, but it's the same concept. Ours is fit to burst with all the confirmations, maps, plans, etc etc. I have now idea how My beloved plans to bring all that paperwork with her....

Shaun

 

[seaulater]

Cindy, we tend to find on the USA to Europe nightime flights that they dim the cabin lights and ask you to pull the blinds down a few hours into the journey, that way creating an artificial 'night', regardless of what the sun is actually doing outside. Sleep is one of the greatest ways to handle jetlag, so I'd suggest those of you coming from the States to grab as much as you can on the plane.

Another thing I try to do is set my watch to the time of my destination as soon as possible - usually just as I'm getting on the flight. That way my head thinks that I'm already on local time so I adapt a little better.

Shaun

The bright side is we will be losing all the time all in one night! I have to say the hardest part of the eastern TransAtlantic in May was every night going to bed and having a note in your stateroom next to your towel animal that read "SET YOUR CLOCKS FORWARD 1 HOUR TONIGHT". It happened 6 times. It was really hard. You should have heard the cheers in the Walt Disney Theater when Rachel (Cruise Director) announced that one night we didn't have to move our clocks forward. It wa pretty funny.

 

[DisTeach]

The bright side is we will be losing all the time all in one night! I have to say the hardest part of the eastern TransAtlantic in May was every night going to bed and having a note in your stateroom next to your towel animal that read "SET YOUR CLOCKS FORWARD 1 HOUR TONIGHT". It happened 6 times. It was really hard. You should have heard the cheers in the Walt Disney Theater when Rachel (Cruise Director) announced that one night we didn't have to move our clocks forward. It wa pretty funny.

Wow that's funny; I never thought of how much you'd have to move your clocks throughout that long journey! I don't think we will need to move clocks on our trip. Right? I'm nervous about the jetlag, though. Whenever I'd fly from Boston to California I'd have a lot of trouble getting used to the time difference. This is a much longer flight than that! I might take a couple Tylenol PM to help me sleep on the plane!

 

[CarolAnnC]

After boarding the plane we will most likely set our watches to Barcelona time, then that is it. No time changes for us on our cruise! Yay!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

So how many hours ahead is Barcelona from Mickey, East Coast?

Oh never mind - I found it - 5 hours ahead of us.