jlawall
<font color=royalblue>Captain Lucky, the Great Pro
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2002
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I agree, it was MJ (Mary Jo)
July 28, 2007 - "Rome-ancing the Mouse Cruisers" -11 days! Part 2
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jlawall
<font color=royalblue>Captain Lucky, the Great Pro
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2002
- Messages
- 11,591
to you
See you real soon!
HB to Laura and belated HB to Megan!!!
jlawall
<font color=royalblue>Captain Lucky, the Great Pro
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2002
- Messages
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Too bad you went to bed JoAnn, I am still up with a headache---probably too much sun, but I did stay under umbrella more than usual for me today...maybe I'm just too excited!
---now that would be a surprise,---me, excited!
We'll chat tomorrow and maybe I'll get 500 and you can get 900!
By the way, has any heard from Penny lately? I have not heard from her since they were at WDW and that was a few weeks ago, I think.
Sorry about the headache, I'm not super excited yet b/c I still have to get my whole family to pack and reorganize what I've done!
It's really fun hearing everyone head out b/c I'm not quite close yet......I guess in a day or two the real anxiety will set in......
jlawall
<font color=royalblue>Captain Lucky, the Great Pro
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2002
- Messages
- 11,591
We left Chicago Sunday afternoon and arrived at O'Hare Airport via limo. Nice sunny travel day and flight was on time. I had not been to the international terminal at O'Hare before and have one suggestion for those who will be going there. We thought we would just pickup a quick snack there for lunch prior to boarding. The "quick snack" ended up costing $50 for the 4 of us! Prices are outrageous and selections are few and far between. I would suggest bringing food and snacks from home instead.
Security was long and crowded. Good thing we arrived 3 hrs early as we needed all that time to get through and out to our gate. Weren't there long at all then we were boarding.
We flew on SWISS airlines which was our first time with them. I was very impressed. The staff were very polite and attentive. They must have come by at least 6-8 times with the drink cart and also provided dinner and breakfast as well as a little snack. They even gave a light lunch on our connecting flight from Zurich to Barcelona. This was the first time since the 1970's that I had real silverware in Coach class on a flight!
We changed planes in Zurich, and it was very convenient that our checked luggage was transferred by the airlines instead of us. We just headed off the plane with carry ons and got on the new flight. I will mention that the Zurich Airport was rather unique in that the ladies room did not have any handicapped accessible stalls at all in the ladies room. I was surprised at this, and I guess we sometimes take the US amenities for granted.
Upon arrival in Barcelona (which was on time yay) we were met by our driver right after we picked up our luggage. Youtransfers was excellent! Very nice, good driver, friendly and lumped all our luggage (16 pieces total including carryons) into the vehicle. No small task I might add for this family lol.
We headed off to our hotel Rivoli Ramblas where we were able to check right into our rooms. It was about 3:30 pm when we were settling in our rooms. The location is excellent here right on Las Ramblas and our rooms look right over it. We headed out and were starving so had dinner right away. We crossed the street and found the first restaurant and headed inside. Food was ok, not great but beware of something here. I had seen this previously on Samantha Brown's show on the Travel Show but had not experienced it before. Remember, just because the waitstaff places food on your table, does not mean it is free nor "included". This waiter brought a small basket of breads and a plate of olives. Only John likes olives, so he proceeded to enjoy all of them. That plate of olives ended up costing us $9 US on our bill! So diner beware!
Some interesting tips are included which I hadn't heard before...
Security was long and crowded. Good thing we arrived 3 hrs early as we needed all that time to get through and out to our gate. Weren't there long at all then we were boarding.
We flew on SWISS airlines which was our first time with them. I was very impressed. The staff were very polite and attentive. They must have come by at least 6-8 times with the drink cart and also provided dinner and breakfast as well as a little snack. They even gave a light lunch on our connecting flight from Zurich to Barcelona. This was the first time since the 1970's that I had real silverware in Coach class on a flight!
We changed planes in Zurich, and it was very convenient that our checked luggage was transferred by the airlines instead of us. We just headed off the plane with carry ons and got on the new flight. I will mention that the Zurich Airport was rather unique in that the ladies room did not have any handicapped accessible stalls at all in the ladies room. I was surprised at this, and I guess we sometimes take the US amenities for granted.
Upon arrival in Barcelona (which was on time yay) we were met by our driver right after we picked up our luggage. Youtransfers was excellent! Very nice, good driver, friendly and lumped all our luggage (16 pieces total including carryons) into the vehicle. No small task I might add for this family lol.
We headed off to our hotel Rivoli Ramblas where we were able to check right into our rooms. It was about 3:30 pm when we were settling in our rooms. The location is excellent here right on Las Ramblas and our rooms look right over it. We headed out and were starving so had dinner right away. We crossed the street and found the first restaurant and headed inside. Food was ok, not great but beware of something here. I had seen this previously on Samantha Brown's show on the Travel Show but had not experienced it before. Remember, just because the waitstaff places food on your table, does not mean it is free nor "included". This waiter brought a small basket of breads and a plate of olives. Only John likes olives, so he proceeded to enjoy all of them. That plate of olives ended up costing us $9 US on our bill! So diner beware!
Some interesting tips are included which I hadn't heard before...
jlawall
<font color=royalblue>Captain Lucky, the Great Pro
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2002
- Messages
- 11,591
The adventure begins! Today is embarkation day for the July 18 Med cruisers! We awoke early and headed next door to the little coffee shop for breakfast. We found a menu in English there today which made ordering much easier lol.
After breakfast we headed right back to the room to pack up our stuff and lo and behold the YourTransfer driver was a half hour early! No problem though, the girls headed down to the lobby and we followed shortly after with our caravan of luggage.
Once on board the van we were thrilled beyond belief! As we approached the Port we got our first glimpse of The Magic! As we drove into the parking lot we could see a large welcome home banner hanging over the open gangway into the ship. It was so exciting to find the ship there, so very far away from its home in Florida.
Boarding was somewhat different here. We arrived around 11:30 and was expecting to have a wait since official boarding time is 1 pm. We checked our luggage with the porters, tipping them in Euros as recommended by DCL. They went off happily with our bags and we entered the terminal. There was the routine security checkpoint and then table for those who needed to fill out documents. We proceeded to the general line, seeking out the Castaway Club line which is the majority of the passengers lol.
Once there, an employee told us only one of us could enter the line. I tried to reason with her, but she would not listen. My DH continued on in the line while this woman was just not listening to me. I told her over and over that I had the passports, cruise documents etc. Then she finally relented and said ONLY ONE MORE OF YOU CAN GO IN. Geez. Well long story short, when we got to the check in person, she first of all needed all of us since my girls are over 21 and need to sign. Plus they are in their own room, using own credit cards etc and charge authorizations etc needed to be matched to the credit cards themselves. Well we had to go past the hard headed one and call them over. All this held up the line since we had no choice but to wait for them to return.
This is one area where they are lacking. The employees need to qualify and find out if they are shooing away people who need to check into their own separate rooms, and listen to what the passengers are trying to say. I assume these are people just hired for this particular series of cruises, and it shows.
Once we were through this line, we were sitting for a bit in the waiting area here. We were organizing our room keys, signing them, reading the handout on flu and cold viruses and checking out the small shops there. Before long we figured out we needed to proceed to another area in the terminal for boarding. We snaked through a line and then were directed outside where we walked the red carpet and onto the Magic! What excitement!
There was the obligatory roll call announcement of our names, picture taking and then the water package salesperson got us lol. We missed our photo being shown on the large Ariel View Television out by the pool since we were busy purchasing the water. Most people do seem to be buying the water packages as evidenced by the large amount of them sitting outside staterooms later in the day.
We headed up to Topsiders where the girls sat and ate while John and I ran up another floor to Palo's. This is where dining questions are now taken care of. We confirmed our table for 4 for each evening and then were able to fix up our Brunch ressies so we were on the same time reservation for the 4 of us. After that we enjoyed the buffet ourselves.
We headed off to our staterooms once 1:30 arrived and unpacked our carryons. Our luggage all arrived within the next couple of hours except for one bag which was a straggler. That came shortly before dinner.
Before we knew it we were heading to the Promenade Lounge for our DIS Meet. It was so much fun to meet so many DISers and to put faces with all the names we have been following on our thread for so many months. Many brought small gifts or mementos and we gave out Chicago key chains and magnets. Some people were very creative in their gifts and it was heartwarming to see so much effort put into this for the DISers.
The first night show was a special welcoming performance for the Med Cruisers. It was excellent and Cruise Director Brent from Australia provided us with so much interesting information.
Our first dinner was in Parrot Cay and we were happy to meet our waiters Ronald and Kendall. Our head waiter is Jareev who is also very attentive. We could not be happier with them.
We were able to head up to the Sailway Party though we were afraid we may have missed some of it since we were at dinner till 10 pm (late seating). Not to worry they had not yet done the countdown. Even after the countdown there was a delay till we finally were given the ok to head off into the Mediterranean.
All in all it was a most wonderful day! We are so comfy here in our home away from home and we are looking forward to our first Day at Sea tomorrow!
__________________
Carol
After breakfast we headed right back to the room to pack up our stuff and lo and behold the YourTransfer driver was a half hour early! No problem though, the girls headed down to the lobby and we followed shortly after with our caravan of luggage.
Once on board the van we were thrilled beyond belief! As we approached the Port we got our first glimpse of The Magic! As we drove into the parking lot we could see a large welcome home banner hanging over the open gangway into the ship. It was so exciting to find the ship there, so very far away from its home in Florida.
Boarding was somewhat different here. We arrived around 11:30 and was expecting to have a wait since official boarding time is 1 pm. We checked our luggage with the porters, tipping them in Euros as recommended by DCL. They went off happily with our bags and we entered the terminal. There was the routine security checkpoint and then table for those who needed to fill out documents. We proceeded to the general line, seeking out the Castaway Club line which is the majority of the passengers lol.
Once there, an employee told us only one of us could enter the line. I tried to reason with her, but she would not listen. My DH continued on in the line while this woman was just not listening to me. I told her over and over that I had the passports, cruise documents etc. Then she finally relented and said ONLY ONE MORE OF YOU CAN GO IN. Geez. Well long story short, when we got to the check in person, she first of all needed all of us since my girls are over 21 and need to sign. Plus they are in their own room, using own credit cards etc and charge authorizations etc needed to be matched to the credit cards themselves. Well we had to go past the hard headed one and call them over. All this held up the line since we had no choice but to wait for them to return.
This is one area where they are lacking. The employees need to qualify and find out if they are shooing away people who need to check into their own separate rooms, and listen to what the passengers are trying to say. I assume these are people just hired for this particular series of cruises, and it shows.
Once we were through this line, we were sitting for a bit in the waiting area here. We were organizing our room keys, signing them, reading the handout on flu and cold viruses and checking out the small shops there. Before long we figured out we needed to proceed to another area in the terminal for boarding. We snaked through a line and then were directed outside where we walked the red carpet and onto the Magic! What excitement!
There was the obligatory roll call announcement of our names, picture taking and then the water package salesperson got us lol. We missed our photo being shown on the large Ariel View Television out by the pool since we were busy purchasing the water. Most people do seem to be buying the water packages as evidenced by the large amount of them sitting outside staterooms later in the day.
We headed up to Topsiders where the girls sat and ate while John and I ran up another floor to Palo's. This is where dining questions are now taken care of. We confirmed our table for 4 for each evening and then were able to fix up our Brunch ressies so we were on the same time reservation for the 4 of us. After that we enjoyed the buffet ourselves.
We headed off to our staterooms once 1:30 arrived and unpacked our carryons. Our luggage all arrived within the next couple of hours except for one bag which was a straggler. That came shortly before dinner.
Before we knew it we were heading to the Promenade Lounge for our DIS Meet. It was so much fun to meet so many DISers and to put faces with all the names we have been following on our thread for so many months. Many brought small gifts or mementos and we gave out Chicago key chains and magnets. Some people were very creative in their gifts and it was heartwarming to see so much effort put into this for the DISers.
The first night show was a special welcoming performance for the Med Cruisers. It was excellent and Cruise Director Brent from Australia provided us with so much interesting information.
Our first dinner was in Parrot Cay and we were happy to meet our waiters Ronald and Kendall. Our head waiter is Jareev who is also very attentive. We could not be happier with them.
We were able to head up to the Sailway Party though we were afraid we may have missed some of it since we were at dinner till 10 pm (late seating). Not to worry they had not yet done the countdown. Even after the countdown there was a delay till we finally were given the ok to head off into the Mediterranean.
All in all it was a most wonderful day! We are so comfy here in our home away from home and we are looking forward to our first Day at Sea tomorrow!
__________________
Carol
MrsJobba1
Dvc owner at BWV & SSR
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2005
- Messages
- 6,024
Helen---let me know that Dave is home safe!! Sounds dangerous!!
Hi yes he got home safe and sound - tired feet he walked 20 + miles over the weekend and hiked up skiddaw ( a mountain in the lake district)
MrsJobba1
Dvc owner at BWV & SSR
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2005
- Messages
- 6,024
Thanks but can I just point out ...
In UK NO TWEEZERS IN HAND LUGGAGE THIS IS A BIG NONO (THINK ITS THE SAME IN EUROPE AS i WAS ASKED THIS WHEN i WENT TO SPAIN IN EUROPE!
iF YOU NEED TO PLUCK, PUT THEM IN YOUR CASE
MrsJobba1
Dvc owner at BWV & SSR
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2005
- Messages
- 6,024
I just can't wait to meet Helen, she has been so much fun!
Thx again for your spirit and sense of humor.......sweet dreams!!
Now whats that American term ....
Oh Shucks ? ( Have i said it right)
I am really looking forward to meeting everyone too!
MrsJobba1
Dvc owner at BWV & SSR
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2005
- Messages
- 6,024
"looking for Bon Jovi with dark brown hair and blond highlights "
yep thats me
safe travels - I'll mark you as gone!
MrsJobba1
Dvc owner at BWV & SSR
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2005
- Messages
- 6,024
Yes - they will charge you for the bread you eat or anything else they put on the table. Sometimes it can be expensive. This is regular practise in Spain ans France (never been to Italy before)
Disneynutinlondon
<font color=blue>It's been such a blast with all t
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2006
- Messages
- 4,468
Good luck, Lynn. I hope everything comes out more better than worse.
They sell them at the office supply stores. You can get a roll of magnetic tape. Good luck.
Oh - I saw the kind you stick on back of paper at our local KMart here. do you have something similar there?
Lucky you! May your workday go by quickly, but not too quickly as I have a lot of stuff to do and time is running out for me.
Here you go:
http://www.maryjomellado.com/DIS.on.Board.gif
You're a star Maryjo thank you sooooooooo much
Disneynutinlondon
<font color=blue>It's been such a blast with all t
- Joined
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Caven533 20th July (1st to go !!!) GONE
Kyla (Jeanne) 22nd July GONE
Andrew 21st July 8568 GONE
Kidcoos3 (leslie) 23rd July 2037/2039 GONE
Alexcturner (Lisa) 23rd July GONE
Me, Helen - 24th July 7129
funluvin (ceil) 24th July
Bridegirl (Suzy) 24th July
MaryJo 24th July ( )
Salliep 25th July 7546
MrsG (Maryann) 25th July
Eeyorelvr10 (Laura) 25th July 2083/2085
Disneylover5 (Lisa) 25th July 6109
TeddyBear 25th July
Pixiedust11 (harloe Ann) 26th July
Formercper (Brian) 26th July
bellelinus (julie) 26th july 5020
4kittymagic (Diane) 26th july 6594
Iowazipcode (Barb) 26th July 7554
Sandaneli (Sandra) 26th July 2017
Lovebeast (Lynnise) 26th July 7501
Disney Spirit (Tom & Lynn) 26th July
DanfromCA 26th July
UKMickeyC 26th July
Lynn T 27th July 7629
Jlawall (joann) & rents 27th July
Disneynutlondon (izzi) 27th July 8564
AnnaS 27th July
Justjus 27th July
DisneyMagic316 (wendy) 27th July
Apierceon050501 27th July
I've updated and I've put into date order so it's easier to follow
Safe journey everyone
Kyla (Jeanne) 22nd July GONE
Andrew 21st July 8568 GONE
Kidcoos3 (leslie) 23rd July 2037/2039 GONE
Alexcturner (Lisa) 23rd July GONE
Me, Helen - 24th July 7129
funluvin (ceil) 24th July
Bridegirl (Suzy) 24th July
MaryJo 24th July ( )
Salliep 25th July 7546
MrsG (Maryann) 25th July
Eeyorelvr10 (Laura) 25th July 2083/2085
Disneylover5 (Lisa) 25th July 6109
TeddyBear 25th July
Pixiedust11 (harloe Ann) 26th July
Formercper (Brian) 26th July
bellelinus (julie) 26th july 5020
4kittymagic (Diane) 26th july 6594
Iowazipcode (Barb) 26th July 7554
Sandaneli (Sandra) 26th July 2017
Lovebeast (Lynnise) 26th July 7501
Disney Spirit (Tom & Lynn) 26th July
DanfromCA 26th July
UKMickeyC 26th July
Lynn T 27th July 7629
Jlawall (joann) & rents 27th July
Disneynutlondon (izzi) 27th July 8564
AnnaS 27th July
Justjus 27th July
DisneyMagic316 (wendy) 27th July
Apierceon050501 27th July
I've updated and I've put into date order so it's easier to follow
Safe journey everyone
bellelinus
<font color=deeppink>You have liberally applied fl
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2006
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- 7,243
Happy Birthday, Laura!!! (eeyorelver10)
bellelinus
<font color=deeppink>You have liberally applied fl
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Julie---lost track of pages, but wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed the pictures of your girls. I can't wait to meet them. They are lovely young ladies!
See you soon!
Thank you for that, Harole Ann . . . and remember that there is an older one you can't miss because of all of her red hair . . . hard to believe we will be seeing each other so soon!
bellelinus
<font color=deeppink>You have liberally applied fl
- Joined
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I pretty much did that all day........
Yes, he tries to be subtle . . .
bellelinus
<font color=deeppink>You have liberally applied fl
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"I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself."
--James Baldwin
--James Baldwin
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- Dec 15, 1998
- Messages
- 27,075
I'm standing here outside my door....
Safe travels!!
to you to youDear Laura to you! Wow! I guess he'll have no problems on the excursions! I'm glad he returned home safely.
I think it's the same in Germany, too. I'll have to remind the kids not to touch unless they're really hungry for it.Yes - they will charge you for the bread you eat or anything else they put on the table. Sometimes it can be expensive. This is regular practise in Spain ans France (never been to Italy before)
salliep
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2007
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Safe trip!!! I cant wait to meet you !!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA!!!!!!!
See you real soon!
jlawall
<font color=royalblue>Captain Lucky, the Great Pro
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2002
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I never heard of this before, so I'm glad that I saw that last night!Yes - they will charge you for the bread you eat or anything else they put on the table. Sometimes it can be expensive. This is regular practise in Spain ans France (never been to Italy before)
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