July 28, 2007 - "Rome-ancing the Mouse Cruisers" -11 days! Part 2

[jlawall]

HI everyone- my very dear aunt passed away late last night unexpectedly, although she has battled cancer the past 20 years! Sh appears to have passed peacefully in her sleep thank God.
So I will not home much the next few days, although I will try to check in
If anyone wants their child added to the Kids Room Card please leave me a PM.
Brian I got yours !
Thanks

 

[bellelinus]

MJ and everyone,

Here is the e-mail I just got from my friend who did almost every port on their own...I think we are going ot do this......I would love comments.

Hi Lisa-
The car was stolen from our driveway last Wed night. They recovered it yesterday in Smithfield. It had been driven 200 miles. They left the windows down and sunroof open and of course it rained. They also tore the gear shift out and center console-why??? Anyway, we are working with our insurance company-praying that they will total the car and sell it. I'll keep you posted.

Okay- here is what we did...
Sicily-we did Disney's tour for Segesta and Erice-highly recommended.

Naples-The boat terminal is steps away from where the ship docks. We bought tickets for the 9am (approx) hydrofoil boat to Sorrento. This is a beautiful town-we did some sightseeing and ate lunch down on the beach. I got most of my ideas for Italy from Rick Steves' Italy tourbook. Then we took the train to Pompeii-very easy. In Pompeii We made a mistake not to hire a tour guide. There are lots of tour guides at the entrance. Hire one and get so much more out of Pompeii. Pompeii is so very interesting. We then took the train back to Naples. The train stops for Pompeii literally right outside the entrance. The trip back to Naples is quick. Took a taxi back to the port.

Sardinia-We were there on a Sunday. This little town was literally asleep. We walked around then went back to the ship and took the day off-we needed it!

Rome- Amazing!! We took the train in. Train was very clean and very fast. The tickets are easy to buy at the station. We got off at Termini-the main station. Went downstairs in the station for the metro (included in your train ticket) to Colosseum. Once there we hired a guide to give us a tour of the Colosseum and Forum. Then we took a taxi to the Vatican. I had arranged for a tour with Icon tours for a tour of the Vatican and St. Peters. Excellent!! Small groups, headphones-all of us agree that this was the best thing we did. After the tour we raced to the Pantheon, grabbed some food and then took a taxi back to Termini. Disney serves dinner late that night. We were eating a 10pm in Lumieres-you don't get your regular servers but we didn't care!!

In La Spezia we did not want to spend all that time on the train to go to Florence so we took the train to Vernazza, one of the towns of the Cinque Terra. 10 min train ride there-absolutely beautiful. We did 3 towns, Vernazza, Manarola and Riomaggiore. Could have skipped the last one but it is part of this awesome hike-I can't say enough about the scenery-fabulous. Train ride back was quick and cheap.

Marseille is a big, busy town. Keep your wits about you. We walked to the train station and took a train to Aix en Provence. Beautiful town, good shopping and eating. Bus back to Marseilles. Huge port-Disney gives you a free shuttle out of the port into the city.

Villefranche- incredibly picturesque. Has a pebbly beach within walking distance of where the tender drops you off. Beautiful water-quite cool with great rocks that you can jump off of in the water. We walked to the train station (short walk) and took the train to Monaco. We went to the old district-watched the changing of the guards at the palace, toured the cathedral where Princess Grace is buried, shopped. Then took a bus to the grand casino-didn't go inside and could have skipped this. Took the train back to Villefranche, went to the ship, ate lunch, changed into bathing suits and parked ourselves on that beautiful beach. We could have easily gone on to Eze but at that point we had seen so many beautiful towns and really needed to chill out.

Let me know if you need specifics on anything we did. It was easy, we felt safe and we saved about a million dollars. Almost everywhere we went we saw large crowds from our boat following a guide around with a mickey paddle. I am glad we did it at our own pace.

Thank your friend for that info, Lisa . . . that's the way (uh huh, uh huh) I like it!!!!

 

[jlawall]

Julie, have you heard anything about the fire in midtown Manhattan today?

 

[bellelinus]

Here are my three money choices....help me pick

I went to the bank and I am a platinum customer.

Euros - No upcharge just the exchange rate.....set each day

American Express Travellers checks - No charge (usual 1% fee waived) you use them in Europe and your change is in Euro's

American Express Traveller Card - You pur money on the card and it is fully refundable if stolen, just like Travellers checks. Have a pin #, but don't need to carry your regular bank card with you off of ship. Does not work for Hotels and car rentals.....but I will have my credit card for items like that.....

Which one do I pick?
I have till Friday to decide
Lisa

For me, the choice would be euros . . . lots of places in Europe don't take traveler's checks or Amex . . .

 

[LynnTarrant]

We've got a school prom tonight for the leavers.

7pm -9pm but ......

I finished school today!

Congratulations Helen my turn next week. Tonight's performance of Alice was really good. 'm so proud of the children.

 

[bellelinus]

Does anyone know about a building that was on fire in NYC today? My DD20 is there and she told something is on fire???

A transformer fire caused an explosion near Grand Central, 41st and Lexington.

 

[LynnTarrant]

HI everyone- my very dear aunt passed away late last night unexpectedly, although she has battled cancer the past 20 years! Sh appears to have passed peacefully in her sleep thank God.
So I will not home much the next few days, although I will try to check in
If anyone wants their child added to the Kids Room Card please leave me a PM.
Brian I got yours !
Thanks

So sorry Sallie

 

[bellelinus]

HI everyone- my very dear aunt passed away late last night unexpectedly, although she has battled cancer the past 20 years! Sh appears to have passed peacefully in her sleep thank God.
So I will not home much the next few days, although I will try to check in
If anyone wants their child added to the Kids Room Card please leave me a PM.
Brian I got yours !
Thanks

Sorry to hear about this, Sallie . . .

 

[kyla]

Hey everyone, I think I'm close to finishing the DIS booklet with most of the information from page 1 of our thread. I'm hoping to find someone who can turn it into a pdf and then get it posted on page 1 for people to review and tell me what needs to get updated. Trying to get MaryJo's ship graphics that shows the cabin locations downloaded right now to stick in the booklet. soon soon

 

[kyla]

kidcoos3
can you help me with some information? I need to know who all is participating in the group Palo brunch on Aug 3rd for the booklet. Also, can you look at the celebration section on page 1. Tompixie and you are listed next to each other so I'm not exactly sure who the celebration is for. Maybe Tompixie was deleted?

 

[jlawall]

A transformer fire caused an explosion near Grand Central, 41st and Lexington.

Thx, we have some DISfriends from Indiana, who are visiting NYC, and their hotel is right near the fire.........also, my DD20 is there to see a concert...

 

[funluvin]

HI everyone- my very dear aunt passed away late last night unexpectedly, although she has battled cancer the past 20 years! Sh appears to have passed peacefully in her sleep thank God.
So I will not home much the next few days, although I will try to check in
If anyone wants their child added to the Kids Room Card please leave me a PM.
Brian I got yours !
Thanks

Sallie,

My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. It is never easy to have a family member pass, but if she went peacefully that is a blessing.

Be well.

Ceil

 

[eeyorelvr10]

Julie,

My oldest DD will be 15 in early Sept. She is bringing a 15 yo friend. My niece who will be 14 in early Sept. will also be aboard.

My DS is 12 and my youngest DD is 8.

Perhaps they will run into each other.
Ceil

Ceil - you might have missed my joke.....see below.....

My 15 year old has a touch of red...more strawberry bonde.
My 12 year old is a REDhead.
My 8 year old...well, I think we ran out of dye.

I have a redhead, blonde, and brunette, in that order . . . if you look at their faces you can tell they are all related, but the hair does tend to throw people off.

Heys guys! As we all meld together - its seems that red is coming back with a vengence!

I to have a redhead, a blonde and a brunnette and at any given time I might have 2 redheads and/or two blondes. But in real life - my oldest DD was not quite a towhead until age 5. Then she just continued to darken until she helped Mother Nature along. Right now she's a cross between pumpkin orange and mousy brown. We are waiting until just before we leave to get all spiffied up!

Anyway, my joke or a makings of a joke is somehwere in there I tell


A blonde, brunette and a redhead walk into a bar.....

Several weeks back I told a story where we went to eat at Friday's - restaurant around here. The only seating was near the bar area. As DH had dropped me off in the front - I told the hostess and waitress to keep an eye out for a 6 ft blonde, a redhead and a brunette .......

She thought I was kidding until they actually walked in.

So there is a joke in there somewhere.


Anyway, the redhead won't be coming with us but the 1 brunette and the dark blonde will!

I haven't decide what color to make myself - its a surprise!

 

[kyla]

Does everyone want the detailed info on page 1 that people provided about who they are etc? I hope to have the booklet posted in a couple of hours so people can tell me what needs updating. Right now, its about 10 pages and has the calendar, who's going, DIS meets info, Group Palo brunch, Hotels, dinner seating, fish extenders (Sandra, let me know if I need to update please), celebrations, excursions. I'm trying to get MaryJo ship layout into it right now. Just got to remember how to convert it to jpeg.

 

[funluvin]

Ceil - you might have missed my joke.....see below.....





Heys guys! As we all meld together - its seems that red is coming back with a vengence!

I to have a redhead, a blonde and a brunnette and at any given time I might have 2 redheads and/or two blondes. But in real life - my oldest DD was not quite a towhead until age 5. Then she just continued to darken until she helped Mother Nature along. Right now she's a cross between pumpkin orange and mousy brown. We are waiting until just before we leave to get all spiffied up!

Anyway, my joke or a makings of a joke is somehwere in there I tell


A blonde, brunette and a redhead walk into a bar.....

Several weeks back I told a story where we went to eat at Friday's - restaurant around here. The only seating was near the bar area. As DH had dropped me off in the front - I told the hostess and waitress to keep an eye out for a 6 ft blonde, a redhead and a brunette .......

She thought I was kidding until they actually walked in.

So there is a joke in there somewhere.


Anyway, the redhead won't be coming with us but the 1 brunette and the dark blonde will!

I haven't decide what color to make myself - its a surprise!

 

[kidcoos3]

kidcoos3
can you help me with some information? I need to know who all is participating in the group Palo brunch on Aug 3rd for the booklet. Also, can you look at the celebration section on page 1. Tompixie and you are listed next to each other so I'm not exactly sure who the celebration is for. Maybe Tompixie was deleted?

What an undertaking!! So, I think what happened was that Tompixie was responding to my post and somehow they got all put together - I was listing celebrations - none are while we are on the ship DD turned 16 6/20; 19th Anniv 6/11 - so, no need to put into your booklet.Thanks for asking though.I'm not on the 8/3 group Palo - originally I was, but I decided not to, so I can't help you there.

 

[kidcoos3]

Does everyone want the detailed info on page 1 that people provided about who they are etc? I hope to have the booklet posted in a couple of hours so people can tell me what needs updating. Right now, its about 10 pages and has the calendar, who's going, DIS meets info, Group Palo brunch, Hotels, dinner seating, fish extenders (Sandra, let me know if I need to update please), celebrations, excursions. I'm trying to get MaryJo ship layout into it right now. Just got to remember how to convert it to jpeg.

Whatever you can put in is great! Thank you so much for doing this!

 

[disneymagic316]

HI everyone- my very dear aunt passed away late last night unexpectedly, although she has battled cancer the past 20 years! Sh appears to have passed peacefully in her sleep thank God.
So I will not home much the next few days, although I will try to check in
If anyone wants their child added to the Kids Room Card please leave me a PM.
Brian I got yours !
Thanks

We are so sorry to hear about your aunt.

 

[JustJus]

Hello everyone. The 2nd Brunch Group, August 3rd at 10:30 am is now complete. Each of you that is in should have received a pm from me. Here is the list in case you didn't.

Lisa and Dale Turner (alexcturner)
Penny and Quatro (islandmom3)
Sandra and Gerald (Sandeaneli)
Jon and Justine (JustJus)
Mary Jo, Nick and Kelly (Mary Jo)
Dan and Roan (danfromca)

Have a wonderful night!

kidcoos3
can you help me with some information? I need to know who all is participating in the group Palo brunch on Aug 3rd for the booklet. Also, can you look at the celebration section on page 1. Tompixie and you are listed next to each other so I'm not exactly sure who the celebration is for. Maybe Tompixie was deleted?

Hi Jeanne

I think the above list is still accurate...

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Have any of you heard of David Beckham? The football (soccer for us Americans) player?

You know he's transferring here to Los Angeles, right? I don't follow soccer, but I know because it's been in the news for weeks, now, and there are billboards all over the place announcing it. Well, he's going to be playing at the Galaxy Stadium at the Home Depot Center....

What does that mean to me, you ask? Well, you probably are really asking, "Why is she going on about this..."

David Beckham will definitely have an impact on me because the Galaxy stadium is right next to my neighborhood, and whenever there is a game traffic gets reall tied up