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

[helenreed]

Hi Keever,
We have just booked this cruise through DVC, would love to chat, we are WDW veterans but have only done one DCL before, we live in Newcastle, England and there will be myself, my husband, son 13, daughter 11 and daughter 8. I am totally new to DIS so this is all a bit bewildering! Love your website though!:

 

[Anal Annie]

Thank you so much for your advice, unfortunately I have already booked my stateroom on my points through DVC and don't think I will have enough to change but I will def look into it! I am finding the whole DIS thing very new and overwhelming and don't really know where to start! Do I need to register somewhere for a meet on board? It would be really nice to chat to some people who are going to be on the cruise. We have just come back from 3 weeks at WDW and I am having withdrawal symptoms and henc why I am starting to plan our next vacation! Your help is really appreciated!

P.S. Have just got off the phone with DVC and have switched to 2 staterooms opposite each other, 150 sq. ft. more space and have saved $1700!!!!! Thank you so much! I am now not dreading the cruise and am really excited, will only have one non-snoring child in with us and teenagers get their own cabin!!!

Oh Helen that is WONDERFUL news! I'm glad that suggestion worked out for you without any hassles from DVC! I'm still a little confused if you're talking about 1,700 points or $1,700 tho?! We cruised once on points - we are what I call "points challenged" and just don't have enough points to cruise on without wiping out all of our other vacations! The one time we did it we used up about 1 3/4 yrs worth of points for just 4 nights in a Cat 10...I've decided I'd rather use the points for WDW and we'll just pay cash for cruises...I hated being out of points!!

The DIS cruise board is the right place to get your answers! Congrats on your switch!!

 

[PrincessBelle39]

Hi helenreed, you will love it hear at the Dis. Disney information is almost non existent over here so without the Dis, we would have been lost planning our previous trips. Although it has helped fuel the addiction to Disney.
My dd's will be 6 and 9 when we cruise. The 9 year old will only have turned 9 the month before so a similar age to yours. We are planning a mixture of DCL and non-DCL excursions although aren't definite at the moment. Tunis will definitely be a DCL excursion. I think we will do the DCL Cinque Terre one also. I didn't think the price was too bad. Rome we are staying on the ship but we are having a couple of days in Rome (as well as Venice and Florence) after the cruise. The others we thought we might look into doing ourselves or hiring a private car as nothing does quite exactly what we want. Anyway, I'm sure we will gets lots of ideas here. Have fun with your planning.

 

[helenreed]

Oh Helen that is WONDERFUL news! I'm glad that suggestion worked out for you without any hassles from DVC! I'm still a little confused if you're talking about 1,700 points or $1,700 tho?! We cruised once on points - we are what I call "points challenged" and just don't have enough points to cruise on without wiping out all of our other vacations! The one time we did it we used up about 1 3/4 yrs worth of points for just 4 nights in a Cat 10...I've decided I'd rather use the points for WDW and we'll just pay cash for cruises...I hated being out of points!!

The DIS cruise board is the right place to get your answers! Congrats on your switch!!

We are also points challenged so I had to pay cash for one of the kids and that is what we have had refunded so I am delighted! We have also had to use 2 years worth of points but I am sure it will be worth it, we have just gor back from 3 weeks at the Boardwalk so it is so nice to have something to look forward to, thanks again for all your advice, it is very much appreciated!

 

[helenreed]

Hi helenreed, you will love it hear at the Dis. Disney information is almost non existent over here so without the Dis, we would have been lost planning our previous trips. Although it has helped fuel the addiction to Disney.
My dd's will be 6 and 9 when we cruise. The 9 year old will only have turned 9 the month before so a similar age to yours. We are planning a mixture of DCL and non-DCL excursions although aren't definite at the moment. Tunis will definitely be a DCL excursion. I think we will do the DCL Cinque Terre one also. I didn't think the price was too bad. Rome we are staying on the ship but we are having a couple of days in Rome (as well as Venice and Florence) after the cruise. The others we thought we might look into doing ourselves or hiring a private car as nothing does quite exactly what we want. Anyway, I'm sure we will gets lots of ideas here. Have fun with your planning.

Hi, thanks so much for your advice I think I am now becoming a DIS addict!

 

[DLRPfan.be]

Hi everyone: we just returned from the repo cruise Dover-Barcelona, and yes: we've booked this one for next year. DCL made us an offer we couldn't refuse...
We are:
DH: DLRPfan.be (Dirk) 52
DW: Tine (43)
DD: Manon (15)
We love to do the FE, and we're already lookin' forward for the DISmeet.
Great to now that there will be at least 2 Belgian family's onboard

 

[Keever]

Welcome aboard to the latest newcomers Meg ‘n walt, DLRPfan.be and helenreed and your families. It is great to have more fellow explorers and DISfriends. I have added your names to the Explorers list on our website and to the FE page if you have indicated you wish to participate. If any other Explorers wish to have details added on the site let me know and I will post any information you wish to share.

By my count, we have 12 families aboard
1 from UK
1 from Australia
3 from Canada
4 from USA
2 from Belgium
1 TBD

We have two other DISfriends who are “maybes”.

14 Disney sons (ages 15, 13, 13, 13, 11,11,11,10,10,10,10,9,8,8) based on preliminary information

7 Disney daughters (ages 15, 13, 11, 9, 8, 7, 6) based on preliminary information

Four families have agreed to participate in the Fish Extenders exchange. All Explorers are welcome to join in. Let me know. I’ll try to add some information links to our website for FE.

So, how many sleeps until we sail? 348?

Helenreed, I am so happy that you joined the boards and were able to get some savings as a result of Anal Annie’s advice. She is a font of knowledge! We too have banked and borrowed DVC points for this trip and every bit of savings that can be had means more to spend on the trip. When the cruise prices dropped, I contacted DVC to see if there would be a similar discount to the points, but no such luck. (Seems the general “pay in cash” public seems to get a better deal on cruises than DVC members…) However, if they announce a repeat of the kids sail free in the Med deal, I’ll be looking into this again as one child is not on points and is a paid fare. Whatever. We’re aboard and very excited!!!!!!

Kaleigh kindly sent me a PM with ideas about ports and excursions. So far, we’re leaning toward excursions for Rome, Florence, Tunis and Pompeii. We’ll look to explore the other ports on our own. This may change as I do some research. There are some links on page one of our threads that I’ve been looking at.

Planning is half the fun!

 

[helenreed]

Welcome aboard to the latest newcomers Meg ‘n walt, DLRPfan.be and helenreed and your families. It is great to have more fellow explorers and DISfriends. I have added your names to the Explorers list on our website and to the FE page if you have indicated you wish to participate. If any other Explorers wish to have details added on the site let me know and I will post any information you wish to share.

By my count, we have 12 families aboard
1 from UK
1 from Australia
3 from Canada
4 from USA
2 from Belgium
1 TBD

We have two other DISfriends who are “maybes”.

14 Disney sons (ages 15, 13, 13, 13, 11,11,11,10,10,10,10,9,8,8) based on preliminary information

7 Disney daughters (ages 15, 13, 11, 9, 8, 7, 6) based on preliminary information

Four families have agreed to participate in the Fish Extenders exchange. All Explorers are welcome to join in. Let me know. I’ll try to add some information links to our website for FE.

So, how many sleeps until we sail? 348?

Helenreed, I am so happy that you joined the boards and were able to get some savings as a result of Anal Annie’s advice. She is a font of knowledge! We too have banked and borrowed DVC points for this trip and every bit of savings that can be had means more to spend on the trip. When the cruise prices dropped, I contacted DVC to see if there would be a similar discount to the points, but no such luck. (Seems the general “pay in cash” public seems to get a better deal on cruises than DVC members…) However, if they announce a repeat of the kids sail free in the Med deal, I’ll be looking into this again as one child is not on points and is a paid fare. Whatever. We’re aboard and very excited!!!!!!

Kaleigh kindly sent me a PM with ideas about ports and excursions. So far, we’re leaning toward excursions for Rome, Florence, Tunis and Pompeii. We’ll look to explore the other ports on our own. This may change as I do some research. There are some links on page one of our threads that I’ve been looking at.

Planning is half the fun!

Hi Keever,

I am sure we would like to add our names to the FE page if I knew what one was! Also please can someone put me out of my misery and tell me what a Fish Extender is???!!!!

 

[helenreed]

Hi Keever,

I am sure we would like to add our names to the FE page if I knew what one was! Also please can someone put me out of my misery and tell me what a Fish Extender is???!!!!

Ok I have done some research and I now totally get it and have purcchased 2 Fish Extenders from Ebay!! Please add our names to the list!

 

[Keever]

Great helenreed!!!!

I've added your name to the FE list and also some tips from jeanigor regarding the fish extender.

Have you created your magnetic door decorations yet?

Keever

 

[helenreed]

Great helenreed!!!!

I've added your name to the FE list and also some tips from jeanigor regarding the fish extender.

Have you created your magnetic door decorations yet?

Keever

And that's next on my list! Any tips??

 

[KatieG73]

Hi everyone,

we have just come off the repositioning cruise from Dover to Barcelona (still in Barcelona, using the free wi-fi in the hotel) and have re-booked for 20th July 2011.

We are - me Katie, DH Donald and DD Niamh (9). We have also booked an additional room for my mum and dad -we needed a balcony for them as they both smoke and got a great price on a cat 5 for them.


Just hoping the next 11 months go quickly!!

Katie

 

[PrincessBelle39]

Great helenreed!!!!

Have you created your magnetic door decorations yet?

Keever

Thats my next job also. I've got my FE from last time but we didn't do the door decorations as we just ran out of time. If I start now, I should be organised.

 

[Meg'n'walt]

Hi everyone: we just returned from the repo cruise Dover-Barcelona, and yes: we've booked this one for next year. DCL made us an offer we couldn't refuse...
We are:
DH: DLRPfan.be (Dirk) 52
DW: Tine (43)
DD: Manon (15)
We love to do the FE, and we're already lookin' forward for the DISmeet.
Great to now that there will be at least 2 Belgian family's onboard

Hey Dirk, welcome aboard !! Did you check out the DIS website yet ? Cool, you know ! http://mickeyseuropeanexplorers.weebly.com/index.html

Belgian greetings !

 

[Keever]

I have door decorations from our last cruise (Hmmmm, that makes me sound like a frequent cruiser. Our last cruise was actually our only cruise EVER.)

We had the ear decorations on magnet sheets and a variety of hats downloaded and glued onto magnet sheets; these went around the stateroom door number plate and we changed up the hats daily. I had made some small magnets made from Disney stickers that I stuck on paper and then glued to the magnet sheets (mostly recycled promotional items like magnetic business cards that stores hand out…) I added Mickey shaped cutouts and buttons. We had four nameplates made from magnetic photo frames and decorated with cruising stickers from the local scrapbooking store to introduce us. I also found a cute sticker of Mickey and Minnie sitting on a park bench, which I added to an 8x10 photo of a fireworks scene so it looks like they are watching the fireworks. The photo is in fact an image of the Canada Day fireworks over Parliament Hill in our nation’s capital, Ottawa, where we live. And we had a picture of our dog because we miss her when we go away.

Here are the links to DISmember threads created and posted by milliepie. She has created some wonderful graphics that could be used for door decorations and FE if you are crafty.

Part One: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1523226
Part Two: http://www.disboards.com/showthread....47014&page=255
Part Three: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2299290
Part Four: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2440038

If you are looking for the ears to go over the number on your stateroom door check out this thread for some awesome creations:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2172891

If you want to see how others decorate their door, or if you want to post your pics check out this thread:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2281626

You can also enter “stateroom door decorations” into Google Images and you’ll see some lovely doors.

Webmaster Pete posted this notice as a reminder to avoid damage to the doors.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2434632

Have fun!

 

[Keever]

Welcome KatieG73 and family to Mickey's European Explorers! Wonderful to have you aboard.

 

[amandamc8]

Hi Everyone!

We've just got back from the Dover - Barcelona cruise and booked for this one while we were on board... Looking forward to it already! There wil be me and my DD Hayley, who'll be 17 by the time we sail. Keever - love your website!

Anyway, now I've said hello I'm going back to the first page to read all your posts...

Manda x

 

[Anal Annie]

OK, so why is it that nobody is re-booking MY cruise for next summer?! Are these fantastic re-booking incentives only for the longer cruises?! What about us folk that need to vacation in August and who got jipped on for the 7 night ones!? First they screw us out of the longer cruises then they let us go sailing alone?! I'm soooo lonely on my cruise!!!

(Sorry, just venting as there's nobody to vent to on my cruise.)

 

[scottishwee35]

Hi

After 4th times with Disney Cruise, my kids want go back....

My husband booked it but my family and I already booked with rcci for my special birthday in April 2011 at Florida as we booked the flights last month with full payments... and try to book for 3 days which went sold out as only balcony left ....

so mixed feeling as I know Katie and Dirk (Belguim) which I was sailing on 30 July at Dover to Barcelona was fab times.l...

Think we put it forward to 2012 or win the lottery

Just wait and see

Scottishwee35

 

[DLRPfan.be]

[

QUOTE=scottishwee35;37789200]
so mixed feeling as I know Katie and Dirk (Belguim) which I was sailing on 30 July at Dover to Barcelona was fab times.l...

Think we put it forward to 2012 or win the lottery

Just wait and see

Scottishwee35

Just WIN the lottery Deb!!!
Should be great to see you, Ian and the kids back next year...
DT&M