July 6, 2010 - 7/6/2010 ~ Pounds to Rubles ~ Mickey invades the Baltic Sea

[CarolAnnC]

Wow - I was offline for 4 days and had a lot of catching up to do! We had a great visit to Portland, Oregon, and took the red-eye home last night / this morning. I forgot how wearing that can be!

Y'all have been really busy. Love the logo design - when it's officially done with tweaking, I'll add the info in the first post about how folks can put it in their sig lines, etc., (if someone can succinctly post it!).

I added everyone that has posted new since I had last updated the first post for an "at a glance" look at how many DISers are booked. Keggy, thanks so much for putting together the website - I PMed my info to you today (since my email wasn't open right now), but if you don't get it, let me know and I'll email it to you.

Lissa asked about pre- and post-stays. Our TA sent the info to us while we were away about our options. She checked with DCL and you can use DCL transfers for 3-days prior and 3-days post cruise. So that helped us narrow down what we wanted to do. She also got the per-night charges for the DCL hotels. We had hoped to stay at the Renaissance pre-cruise and try the Park Plaza for post, but the Park Plaza is enough more money that it pushes the limit... as it is, instead of doing three and three, we'll do three days pre- and two days post-cruise at the Renaissance (assuming it's available).

We also went ahead and booked air, although I remember from the Med that we had an option of dropping the air if we decided to do our own air travel -- the price difference between cruise and cruise+air is relatively close right now for what a July 2009 fare would be for us. But not knowing how fuel prices and other economic things will go that might have an effect on the cost of air travel, we plan to just keep watch and see what happens when the window opens for booking our own air (what is it generally? eleven months out?)

As for why we picked the cruise with Helsinki, my grandmother was Finnish, so I would like to see her homeland. And whenever my children have "heritage projects" at school, we always pick Finland because it's what they are "the most of." And timing works out well with having the 4th of July for a paid holiday with work.

Kristen (DISTeach) - it's good to see ya posting here, too!

DadofLostBoys - there was a rumor you'd be joining us! I hear you have a great reputation for doing cruise shirts and setting up with cafe-press and noticed you're ready for us in your sig! Thanks so much for taking the lead with this!

Hope you all have a great week ahead! We're working the math this week to get our bi-weekly $$ figured out for saving up for this cruise... so I'll be crunching numbers.

Glad you had a nice time in Oregon! We would be interested in T-shirts as well. Cindy, would you be able to give us an idea of the DCL hotel prices in London? We are thinking of 2 or 3 nights in London prior and 1 or 2 after the cruise ourselves. Did they give you an idea of the DCL transportation to the Port and what the cost might be for that too?

Did you use DCL air before? What airline(s) do they book for the overseas travel?

Hope you can catch up on sleep after the red eye!

 

[DW2DH&DS]

I have a thought. I was wondering since there seems to be a bunch of us that want to do pre and/or post stays in London if any of the hotels would be willing to block off a block of rooms and maybe give a discount rate. i know we can do htis here in the states. how about in London?

 

[DW2DH&DS]

regarding the Mickey pirate in The Baltic...How about Mickey in a Viking hat?

 

[eeyorelvr10]

I need the new logo! LOL Love it!!! Awesome Brooklyn!

And I have a maybe dumb ques someone here can answer- why/who will know if I keep a couple of rubles to bring home? I don't want to get into trouble;just wondering

I am counting on the June 12 Cruise to let us know how strict the reboarding procedures in Russia are regarding whether or not they check for Rubles. Know what I mean? I really want to bring some home for my foreign coin currency collection. I figure just put them in my shoe. Will that set off the metal detector? Will security be able to tell on xray? Will security really even care?

Inquiring minds want to know this. DH also likes to collect coins and I wonder what would happen. Anyone know?

I am possibly doing the cruise after this and there is a lady there that just sailed the Baltic region this summer - I can ask her if she had any problems about the money and get back to you. I think she just did a sailing (on another cruise line of course). I'll get back to you guys.

 

[Brooklyn]

Here is the logo with the space in it. Good luck with whatever logo you guys decide! Happy planing and I hope you guys all have a great trip!

 

[sharper_fin]

For anyone thinking about catching trains in the UK, and thinking that the prices are high, that's because they are! BUT if you bookmark www.thetrainline.co.uk and keep checking (closer to the time, obviously) then there are serious bargains to be had.

 

[cruellababy]

Beth and Eeyorelvr; that's exactly what I was thinking- I'll just mix them with some US quarters and then they'll just be w change!
Beth, I am really interested in the block of rooms- I'd like to do a couple of days either way. We're booked into 1 pre-nite at the Park Plaza; but $481 is a lot- Idon't know if I'll be able to add a nite at the end at that price! Have a great am all!

 

[Keggy]

regarding the Mickey pirate in The Baltic...How about Mickey in a Viking hat?

I don't know how to make a mickey with a viking hat from scratch and can't seem to find a picture of one that isn't a figurine. That was my initial thought too. I do have a cute picture of Captain Mickey with a DCL flag, I think it was originally a pin.

I was thinking that in the middle with the flags in the shape of Mickey Heads in a circle around the outside? Just a thought...

 

[Keggy]

I have alot of friends that work there and Bethany was there for the first 10 weeks of her life! I give them alot of kudos, I love kids but just cant do pediatrics! Hubby and I work at Largo Medical center, not sure if you know were that is?
Funny the things that come up when you start thinking about this cruise. I had some friends over tonight for a scrapbook and stampin up party and we got to talking about cruise and the time changes and what they were in all the different countries( this is without any alcohol too LOL).I said well with working nights im so screwed up on time now that I dont think it will even effect me.

I do know where that is! DH grew up in Pinellas Park.

 

[threebritts]

I needed a smaller logo to put in my siggie because of everything else I have in there, lol. So DH (Crissup) came up with this one for me. If anyone else would like to use it, feel free to copy the URL into your signature!

http://disney.crissup.com/DCL1007/July6-2010.gif

Thanks! My daughter loved this one!

 

[threebritts]

I do know where that is! DH grew up in Pinellas Park.

Yep, definitely small world! My daughter goes to school in PP.I cant believe the Rays did it last night, One of the ER docs was selling tickets to the game for 250 bucks apiece, hubby was thinking about it but he said no since that would be big chunk for cruise payment. I was surprised Mickey won over baseball !

 

[Keggy]

Yep, definitely small world! My daughter goes to school in PP.I cant believe the Rays did it last night, One of the ER docs was selling tickets to the game for 250 bucks apiece, hubby was thinking about it but he said no since that would be big chunk for cruise payment. I was surprised Mickey won over baseball !

That is our dilemma today. We got chosen to buy tickets for game one and two. We are trying to decide but tickets or not. We definitely can't do both. Decisions, Decisions!

 

[threebritts]

That is our dilemma today. We got chosen to buy tickets for game one and two. We are trying to decide but tickets or not. We definitely can't do both. Decisions, Decisions!

You should go for it! As I always say ,lifes too short and we need to live it up!
Thats not a oppurtunity that comes around every day!
There some people at work that ive talked to about this cruise and they just cant see how we can pay so much and Ive said the same thing. WE have and can only have one child too and I feel like I want her to see as much as the world and learn about it as I can and this cruise will be an awesome educational experience.

 

[threebritts]

Hubby is on the other pc trying to come up with a "viking' mickey for our logo.

I wonder what night pirate night will be?

 

[nzdisneymom]

Glad you had a nice time in Oregon! We would be interested in T-shirts as well. Cindy, would you be able to give us an idea of the DCL hotel prices in London? We are thinking of 2 or 3 nights in London prior and 1 or 2 after the cruise ourselves. Did they give you an idea of the DCL transportation to the Port and what the cost might be for that too?

Did you use DCL air before? What airline(s) do they book for the overseas travel?

Hope you can catch up on sleep after the red eye!

Renaissance is $758/night and Park Plaza is $1,140/night for a family of four.

DCL transportation is included when you do air - but it seems like I saw its value as $650-ish if you add it (when I looked on dcl.com late Tuesday). The info we have from the TA is that DCL transportation is via shuttle / ground.

We used DCL for our Med trip -we had non-stop from ATL via Delta to Barcelona.

 

[cruellababy]

for 2 adults we were charged $481 for 1 nite ptr-cruise @ the Park Plaza; in case anyone is interested in the pricing for 2 adults.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Here's the link for the Renaissance hotel and this is the Park Plaza one.

And looking at these myself for July 2009, I'm wondering about the charges and will have our TA double-check the rates for us... or at least find out what type of room they are booking DCL guests in...

 

[cruellababy]

Good idea Cindy, I didn't even think to have DU tell me what kind of rooms these are!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Ok, I just called DCL -- 800-951-3532 -- to see if they could give me a price breakdown for hotels, transfers, etc. Without a reservation, they cannot give me a price for the hotels, but she did tell me that the Park Plaza is the only one that can take four passengers in a room... so I will be double-checking that I understood our TA right.

Because we are using a TA, the DCL rep couldn't give me much info - so I called back and just asked questions as if I didn't have a reservation If someone else who has made their own reservation would call and ask for rates for the hotels, I'm sure that others would appreciate the info!

Also about ground transfers -- if you book air through DCL, it's included. Otherwise you can purchase it yourself for $165/person.

If you book air through DCL, you can cancel up to 120 days prior if you decide to do it yourself. They give you your flight info 30 days in advance of your travel.

 

[calif disney 1]

Hey, for some reason i stopped getting the e-mail posts, did we pick a logo..?