July 20th, 2011 – 10 Night Mediterranean "Mickey's European Explorers"

[msabol01]

We are staying on the 20th as well. We prefer the 10 day itinerary, I will get a message to Irish Cowboy.

 

[Anal Annie]

We are staying on the 20th as well. We prefer the 10 day itinerary, I will get a message to Irish Cowboy.

i just looked at the new itineraries & priced out some stuff.....gonna run it by DH. The 7 n added Palma, Mallorca.... For us, with our re-booking disc. the Aug. 13, 7 nighter would be $2,143 LESS than the Jul 10 nighter.... that's kind of a lot... Just want to be sure he & I are on the same page!!

 

[msabol01]

OH man, Decisions Decisions. I will talk it over with my wife. We're inclined to stay on the 10 night. But the savings is tempting. Isn't Sue Ellen on a cruise right now?

 

[IrishCowboy]

I have moved link from Aug 10 to July 20 on cruise meet list.

 

[Anal Annie]

Thanks Cowboy!

NOW if only I could make up my mind for sure about what to do....... I have not heard back yet from Sue Ellen... Yes, she is on a cruise this week. I want to confirm if we switch back to a 7 n that we'd be able to keep the 1/2 deposit.... I am definitely seeing $$$ in my eyes right now tho. Esp. when I think about how much LESS of a balance it would leave. You know, the cruise may be 17 mo. away but the date the balance due is only a little over a year away...March right? I tried to get some feedback from some Facebook friends... Not too much response...I've had 2 friends say they'd definitely save the money & 1 said GO FOR IT since it's likely a once in a lifetime trip... Still haven't had time to talk to DH...

 

[Keever]

I say July, July, July! Don't switch Annie - we are all friends now. The July cruise will be more fun!

 

[Anal Annie]

Can't we still be friends if we DO switch out??

We're still undecided. DH & I talked about it briefly last night in the car. DS says he doesn't care if he misses the end of his swim season if we stick to July...but if we switch to the 7 n we would literally save $2,000. We would use that savings for pre & post cruise nights in Barcelona & Paris. We would still make a 2 week trip out of it but we'd be better off financially. It would be hard to afford to go for longer than 14 or 15 nights with either date. With travel time, that's a long trip. There are definitely pros & cons to both.... Sigh... I don't know guys... I wish I had more time to research the ports!!

 

[msabol01]

We're 85% sure we are staying on the 10 day. Like Annie the temptation to switch and save money is tempting, but it may be a wash since we are a family of four and the extra land days and travel would be a wash.

We've done most of Europe and the cruise covers a lot of the places we haven't visited before.

Let us know what you decide.

 

[Anal Annie]

Whoa!! We were all the way back on page 4 guys!! This ain't how this works!! We gotta keep the thread up on page 1 or 2!!! Even if we are talking to ourselves!!

DH and I are still in talks about which cruise to do. This is a reeaallllly hard decision. LOL...being the anal retentive person that I am, I had printed out a whole bunch of stuff about the 3 ports on the 10 night cruise that we'd be giving up and some stuff on the Mallorca port that we'd gain if we flipped to the 7 night cruise. I do all the driving and so while we were traveling to / from my parents house in WV this weekend I made DH read thru all this stuff (+ I had bought a book on European cruises and had each port tagged). Conclusion - he is no help!! There are pros & cons to both. I know I keep repeating myself...but with the 7 night cruise we'd save over $2,000 so it makes adding time in Paris & Barcelona so much easier... But then Malta looks so drop dead GORGEOUS... I think Corsica would likely end up just being a beach day for us. The DCL excursions for 2010 are very pricey there and don't hold the same interest for us. So Corsica is a couldn't care less port for us. I think Tunisia & Malta would be interesting to visit tho. There is no excursion info. yet for Mallorca since it's so far away. But we are sort of looking at what we'd likely do in each port.

Anyway, I was just popping in to say hi and hope ya'll had a great Christmas holiday. I'm still around (for now) until we can decide for sure what to do so come chat!!! Don't leave me out here to talk to myself!! Tell me what you've been up to!!!

 

[msabol01]

So we are staying with the 10 day. Although the savings is tempting, I want the time at sea and on the ship to relax and recover. Andrew's comments about the faster pace of med cruises resonated with me. Also just checking in to keep this alive.

 

[Keever]

Great news, Mike! Hopefully Annie's new year's resolution will be to stay on the July cruise. What a fun group we'll be!

We were actually happier to get a date in July. I also prefer a longer cruise because I really want the experience of settling in to shipboard life. Here I sound so haughty - like I have so much cruising experience. In fact, we have cruised once on the 4 night Carribean cruise last summer. We loved it but I did feel the first day was frenetic; we felt mild anxiety about making choices to attend an ideal activity without missing something else that was happening onboard at the same time. Ten nights will alleviate this, I expect.

The cost wasn't such a factor for us as we have applied banked and borrowed points. Working with points doesn't have the same feeling as cash withdrawals or Visa charges...We did pay for one child fare, a small difference between July and August cruises.

Our eldest will be 15 at sailing. I expect he'll work the following summer, so we look at this as the last opportunity for such a grand family holiday. As we have banked and borrowed points, we will look at closer to home holidays this summer and in 2012. ("Stay-cations" is the term, I believe).

So, let's hope for Annie's commitment and then we can pick a name and welcome new folks to this thread. And organize a Fish extender if you are interested.

Annie, of course, we can still be friends if you switch dates.

 

[msabol01]

Happy New Year to you too! We are definately staying on this cruise.

Annie- if you decide to leave us, let me know...so I can let our TA know to switch my one obstructed view SPH room to one of yours!

 

[Anal Annie]

Hey peeps! Happy New Year!! We were back on page 4 again so I thought we could use a bump up in the ranks!!!

We are still here for now anyway...I keep checking the DCL website & watching the SPH cabins on a couple of the 7 nighters...a couple have disappeared... Mike - of course I will let ya'll know what we decide to do. I suspect that whenever we get around to figuring out our taxes I'll have a better idea what we'll do. I am always scheming and I had HOPED to set aside a good chunk toward the cruise balance so that NEXT year I'd only be worrying about paying for excursions (and finding airfare). We have always had good refunds in the past but this year I've been unemployed all year and DH had to adjust his withholdings etc. so I really don't know how we'll come out. This is probably TMI but our taxable income will be a lot less - but so our withholdings will also be less...but our Schedule A is still big. I have no idea how it will work out. I will be anxious to do them ASAP at the beginning of Feb, as soon as we have all of our filing info. Cross your fingers ya'll that we still get a hoooge refund!! I suppose I really should resume looking for a job 'eh?!

Keever - I did a fish extender exchange on our last cruise & it was a lot of fun...but I am concerned about it being larger on this cruise...and the whole luggage / weight thing might be a factor!! I will have to play that by ear!! It was indeed great fun planning for it tho and coming back to the room to see what goodies we'd been given. I just worry about all the luggage fees on this trip!!!!

 

[jtw999]

Hello everyone! Our family is very excited to be going on this cruise. We have three sons (will be 13, 11, and 8 at time of cruising).
I'm enjoying looking ahead at possible excursions and other things to plan.
I know it's very early, but does any one have ideas for a hotel in Barcelona to stay at before the cruise? It's challenging to find one that will take 5 of us. Any suggestions would be great!

 

[Anal Annie]

Hi JT!! Welcome aboard! Look guys a new peep on our boat!! 2 Americans & 2 Canadians!! Keever has a couple of boys & I have 1 boy - all near the same ages as yours. Mike? Other than in-laws what (who) are you bringing along?? I'm sorry, I forgot what you said about your kids!!

JT - look in the very first post on this thread...Mike inserted a bunch of links we got from Andrew Derek UK who has done a Med cruise before & who has offered up a lot of info. There are a few hotels listed for Barcelona. Another option is a short-stay apartment! They look to be just about as reasonable as hotels! They will sleep more but some have minimum stays of 3 or 4 nights. I looked thru several of them at this link as we will likely add 2 or 3 nights in Barcelona as well:

http://www.enjoybcn.com/en/catalogo/listado_4.html

 

[Anal Annie]

Bump!!

Where is everyone?

 

[jtw999]

Hi JT!! Welcome aboard! Look guys a new peep on our boat!!

Thank you for the welcome!

Also, thank you for the advice on the apartments. It's been very helpful!

 

[Anal Annie]

Thank you for the welcome!

Also, thank you for the advice on the apartments. It's been very helpful!

I have seen mixed reviews of the property itself but I've read that the Marriott Renaissance which is near the airport has 2 bedroom suites that sleep 5 & they have some free shuttles to the airport & into Barcelona. I think with 5 + luggage you might have a problem fitting into 1 taxi too so the shuttle thing might be handy! But these little apartments do look like an option don't they? I just don't know how good their locations are for sightseeing etc. I think we really want to also go to Paris too...so time-wise it's going to be really tough to spend more than a night or two in Barcelona. I cannot decide if we should do Paris pre-cruise or after now that we have to go in July.

 

[msabol01]

Hi JT,

Welcome to the cruise! Hotels in Europe are a tough choice since many are much smaller than what we may be used to in the US and Canada. My original plan was to use my Marriott points to stay at the airport Renaissance. I didn't hear about the two bedroom suites...wonder what those run! The catch is each room's max occupancy is for 3. If my in-laws still come with us on this cruise, I will farm one of the kids over to them.

I did a quick check on the popular travel sites and there seems to be a fair number of well priced hotels that could accommodate four people. I think the apartment option may be a good alternative.

Our numbers may be changing but currently its our immediate family of DW, DD, DS and me. In-laws (MIL, FIL) and SIL, BIL, 1 niece and 1 nephew. In the end it may just be the four of us.

 

[Anal Annie]

Happy weekend guys!!

Mike! What's up dude? Why might the rest of your peeps bail on you? I am still waffling about the 7 nighters...gosh I hate to switch but $2,000 is a lot of bread dough!! And it truely would make adding time to either end of it easier. I just saw someone this morning who's been to Barcelona...she showed me some pictures. It looks so amazing. I keep checking on "our room" on the 7 nighters to see how they're holding up. I can't wait to get our taxes done so I can make a decision I can sleep with! Darned paperwork will take at least a couple more weeks to come. I suppose there's always the home equity line!

Meanwhile I am having withdraw from Disney already! We're going down for 6 nights the end of March to squeeze in 1 more trip off of our AP's...it will be our 3rd within a year. But so in planning ahead for the Med thing we (I) decided we should try to vacation on a budget this year for a change! (read: drive not fly, no more park tickets save whatever cash we can etc.) So we booked at the DVC at Hilton Head for a week in August in order to go on the cheap side!! I am a bit anxious tho that we will be bored...we have not done strictly a beach vacation since like I don't know...2001 or something like that. We have not been to any of the Carolina beaches at all. Well, I went to Myrtle as a kid with my family but DH has not been at all. And Myrtle is MUCH MORE commercial so it is not the same AT ALL. Wish us luck! I know many people LOVE it down there...and the DVC at HHI is hard to get into so we got lucky. I just already miss our Owners Locker and WDW!! It is sort of funny tho the way I keep saying "it's our cheapest option". Many people spend A LOT of money to go there...we are so blessed to have DVC to fall back on to save all that cash!! It is amazing really, isn't it? We can go on vacation for the cost of about probably 4 tanks or so of gas. Of course THAT is a killer these days too...

Well, must go throw in a load of laundry or do something domestic!! Hope everyone is doing well!!