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

[denise]

On another note...we booked half our fare today...woohoo...now need to wait 3 weeks to book return flight!! arriving june 30th!!! now i'm getting really excited!!

How did you do that? I looked at American and they said 329 days out. Will not let me look at the date yet. We want to arrive on June 26 in Paris..that is 332 days out still...
what airlines are you using? We want to use miles on AA so just have a few days left till we can book....

denise

 

[DW2DH&DS]

I did see that one and was interested when I first started researching, but when I went to go redeem Amex points that hotel was not listed as a participating hotel. I remember I did like that it was on the river. I guess I'm not going to complain. I don't have to pay for my 2 nights in London.

I didn't even know you could use amex for marriott. we are using amex points for air miles. we were going to use them for hilton in london. But DH has been commuting to Boston from LA for 4 months and staying at marriott...needless to say he racked up a hefty amount of marriott points and platinum status so we went with the river view and concierge and all that jazz. we were originally only goging to stay 3 nights but marriott has a promo going...stay 4 nights and get 5th free so we went for it. free is free right!!!! it's all good.

i am really looking forward to meeting everyone. i have rarely been on hee but now that hotel and half my air is booked...

we should have a 4th of july meetsomewhere in london!!!

 

[DW2DH&DS]

How did you do that? I looked at American and they said 329 days out. Will not let me look at the date yet. We want to arrive on June 26 in Paris..that is 332 days out still...
what airlines are you using? We want to use miles on AA so just have a few days left till we can book....

denise

We are flying Virgin Atlantic...you can book 337 days out. Today was our magic booking day. We are using miles. The good thing also is that we are only charged half the roundtrip mile amount. There are two nonstops daily from LA and we got on the 8:55 departure rather than 5:35 departure...arrive in London at 3:35 rather than noon. It seemed easier on the jet lag for our 7 year old who will be 8 on the trip.

SFO has one nonstop daily at 4:30 with a 10:30 arrival and one return at 11:30 which might be cutting it really close. LA has a later option!! 3:10 rather than 11:15. We looked at other airlines, and this was the best fit for us!!!

 

[Fivepin]

I didn't even know you could use amex for marriott. we are using amex points for air miles. we were going to use them for hilton in london. But DH has been commuting to Boston from LA for 4 months and staying at marriott...needless to say he racked up a hefty amount of marriott points and platinum status so we went with the river view and concierge and all that jazz. we were originally only goging to stay 3 nights but marriott has a promo going...stay 4 nights and get 5th free so we went for it. free is free right!!!! it's all good.

i am really looking forward to meeting everyone. i have rarely been on hee but now that hotel and half my air is booked...

we should have a 4th of july meetsomewhere in london!!!

I didn't know we could use Amex either until I did more research. They have a promo for Marriott. To stay at the Chancery was 50,000 pts per night, but it would normally have cost 73,000. It also includes breakfast for 2. What airline are you going out on? I looked into Delta via AMEX, but the schedules weren't that great. We have enough AA points for 1 roundtrip. We have enough Marriott points for another nite, but DH can't swing it with work. As it is now, he has to take his laptop. He's out in California this week as well. It stinks..he's staying at a Marriott, but his company booked it for him, so no points. They didn't let them book the hotel. I wonder what they got out of it because he usually takes care of all travel arrangements. I made him take AA to get more miles even though it wasn't the best schedule because they let him book the air.

4th of July plans sound good. I haven't been on that much either. We are doing the double dip in November. I feel guilty now, I have done more planning for this one. I haven't really done anything yet for that cruise. Gotta get crackin on the FE gifts. That cruise we'll be bringing our 3 boys.

 

[DW2DH&DS]

I didn't know we could use Amex either until I did more research. They have a promo for Marriott. To stay at the Chancery was 50,000 pts per night, but it would normally have cost 73,000. It also includes breakfast for 2. What airline are you going out on? I looked into Delta via AMEX, but the schedules weren't that great. We have enough AA points for 1 roundtrip. We have enough Marriott points for another nite, but DH can't swing it with work. As it is now, he has to take his laptop. He's out in California this week as well. It stinks..he's staying at a Marriott, but his company booked it for him, so no points. They didn't let them book the hotel. I wonder what they got out of it because he usually takes care of all travel arrangements. I made him take AA to get more miles even though it wasn't the best schedule because they let him book the air.

4th of July plans sound good. I haven't been on that much either. We are doing the double dip in November. I feel guilty now, I have done more planning for this one. I haven't really done anything yet for that cruise. Gotta get crackin on the FE gifts. That cruise we'll be bringing our 3 boys.

50,000 is a lot and 73,000 is outrageous. is it high because it is an amex promo?

Delta with amex was not attractive at all for us...huge miles and if I recall...no direct flights.

are you not bringing your boys next summer? how old are they? mine son is 7!

 

[Fivepin]

50,000 is a lot and 73,000 is outrageous. is it high because it is an amex promo?

Delta with amex was not attractive at all for us...huge miles and if I recall...no direct flights.

are you not bringing your boys next summer? how old are they? mine son is 7!

Well with Marriott points, it was the highest award category at 40,000 points and did not come with breakfast. They had some in London for 25,000 points but location was not that great.

I wanted to bring my boys, but financially was going to be tough because we would need 2 cabins. 2 outside cabins were cheaper than 1 deluxe family stateroom. The idea of 2 bathrooms was more appealing. The airfare looks like it was going to be outrageous as well. My mom offered to watch them. Next year is mine and DH's 15th wedding anniversary and 40th birthday. My mom told us to enjoy. My best friend is going to be coming as well. It is also the year of her 40th. The kids go with us on the all the Caribbean. My oldest has been on 5 Disney cruises. The are 5,7,9. We are about 2 1/2 hrs from Port Canaveral, so we usually try to go on a cruise at least every other year, but we have been doing every year lately. We are planning on being on the inaugural cruise of one of the new ships as well.

I'm looking at all the people bringing their kids and wish mine were going now. But, I know them. We have tried taking them off the ship a few times on other cruises, even the last one this past October. About 1 hr into it all, they just wanted to go back to the ship and hang out at the pool.

 

[denise]

I called and talked to American Airlines today and on the phone you can book 331 days out.....so.....tomorrow I can book our flight out!!! I will be using airline miles and then will wait to book the return in a few weeks.
We will be flying out June 26 to Paris
Will fly out of London for the home bound trip.....
That Marriott hotel next to Big Ben looks so nice...going to check it out more....

 

[Fivepin]

don't know much about marble arch...i believe we ruled it out due to location (distance form underground). we chose marriott county hall across the river from big ben!!! chose that over the chancery court due to scenery. i have an american friend living in london for the past 9 years, and he told me that both chancery court and county hall were good choices but steared me towards county hall as was more scenic than chancery!!! i know this doesn't help you directly but maybe food for thought. also....a lot of cruisers will most likely be at the chancery!!


On another note...we booked half our fare today...woohoo...now need to wait 3 weeks to book return flight!! arriving june 30th!!! now i'm getting really excited!!

Does your friend have a recommendation for a good place to eat while we're there?

 

[Fivepin]

I called and talked to American Airlines today and on the phone you can book 331 days out.....so.....tomorrow I can book our flight out!!! I will be using airline miles and then will wait to book the return in a few weeks.
We will be flying out June 26 to Paris
Will fly out of London for the home bound trip.....
That Marriott hotel next to Big Ben looks so nice...going to check it out more....

That's good to know. I still have to wait a bit longer. We're not leaving until 7/3. That hotel at County Hall did look very nice, but wasn't available thru AMEX rewards. I checked on it to use with our Marriott, but the date wasn't available. I did find out today that the train station we need for the direct train into Dover is only about 1 km away from the Chancery. My DH can't believe all the planning I'm doing already. He's so busy he can't think that far out. I need to do as much reserving and planning now because once school starts on 8/25, my life becomes very hectic with the boys, school, their extracurricular activities and such.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Are you doing the hotel thru DCL?

Judy - yes, we're doing air and hotel and transfers all through DCL. We were talking about it again today and Gary wants to just leave it all with DCL to hedge our bets a bit. We did all DCL when we sailed the Med in 2007 and it all worked out well (although we were late in deciding about the hotel and ended up at not-the-main hotel and had two rooms which made it more expensive). Because we can still fit into one room, that makes it a bit more affordable. If the boys were older and we needed two rooms, then we would either have to book on our own or dump our post-cruise nights in London. But I figure since we're getting just one cabin on the ship and the hotel will also accommodate four (yay!), we might as well get used to being on top of each other. We do figure that this will be our last cruise with just one cabin.

 

[denise]

That's good to know. I still have to wait a bit longer. We're not leaving until 7/3. That hotel at County Hall did look very nice, but wasn't available thru AMEX rewards. I checked on it to use with our Marriott, but the date wasn't available. I did find out today that the train station we need for the direct train into Dover is only about 1 km away from the Chancery. My DH can't believe all the planning I'm doing already. He's so busy he can't think that far out. I need to do as much reserving and planning now because once school starts on 8/25, my life becomes very hectic with the boys, school, their extracurricular activities and such.

Looked at the Marriott site. It is a cat 8! and 40,000 Marriott points a night. I just looked for a date for next month. I would hope it would be the same. It was a room with a king or two queens and a river view....think the date we want will be available next Monday. From what I understand they release each week on a Monday. That is how I got the reservation in Paris with cash. (Marriott Vacation Club there) then a few days after that I switched it to points when rooms were available with points.
This is so much planning....we don't pick vacation weeks at work, until Nov of this year for next...have never had a problem and hope it continues the same way. I get to pick 3rd and the first two take Christmas and then Thanksgiving so I have always been ok with my picks. People just don't get it that don't do all this planning....this all started last October when I booked the cruise!

 

[Fivepin]

Judy - yes, we're doing air and hotel and transfers all through DCL. We were talking about it again today and Gary wants to just leave it all with DCL to hedge our bets a bit. We did all DCL when we sailed the Med in 2007 and it all worked out well (although we were late in deciding about the hotel and ended up at not-the-main hotel and had two rooms which made it more expensive). Because we can still fit into one room, that makes it a bit more affordable. If the boys were older and we needed two rooms, then we would either have to book on our own or dump our post-cruise nights in London. But I figure since we're getting just one cabin on the ship and the hotel will also accommodate four (yay!), we might as well get used to being on top of each other. We do figure that this will be our last cruise with just one cabin.

When we did the Med in 2007 we did do hotel and transfer thru DCL. There was a significant difference in the air, so we did it on our own. If I didn't have all these reward points, I probably would have gone thru DCL, makes it easier. You'll like it when you start getting the 2 cabins...2 bathrooms. On my first disney cruise I didn't know any better and got a deluxe family stateroom. It was tough with the bathroom situation, and at the time when one of the kids needed a nap. I have 3 boys...we're doing 2 cabins again in November. It's cheaper than one that accommodates 5. what part of North FLorida are you from? We may not be that far from each other.

Looked at the Marriott site. It is a cat 8! and 40,000 Marriott points a night. I just looked for a date for next month. I would hope it would be the same. It was a room with a king or two queens and a river view....think the date we want will be available next Monday. From what I understand they release each week on a Monday. That is how I got the reservation in Paris with cash. (Marriott Vacation Club there) then a few days after that I switched it to points when rooms were available with points.
This is so much planning....we don't pick vacation weeks at work, until Nov of this year for next...have never had a problem and hope it continues the same way. I get to pick 3rd and the first two take Christmas and then Thanksgiving so I have always been ok with my picks. People just don't get it that don't do all this planning....this all started last October when I booked the cruise!

I'm waiting to book the last leg of the Chancery stay. It's not available yet either. At least of the pre cruise stay booked. I just have to make sure I put that AMEX reward certificate in a safe place until then. If I don't relinquish the cert at check in, they are going to charge me 350 pounds.

As far as the planning, I have a binder put together with port info and stuff. I booked this cruise on my last cruise this past October, so you're right, it did start back then.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Hi everyone! We made it back home last night. Had a great time at WDW and on the magic. St.Thomas was beautiful but I would not ever go to Tortola again it was almost like going into a third world country we were not prepared for that.

Cindy we do want to link our ressies with y'alls but I'm changing things around a little bit so let me get those changes made and then we will do that.

I know it's still early but are we doing FE gifts as teams or is each individual family doing there own? Trying to not wait till the last minute to pull things together.

Lissa

 

[denise]

As far as the planning, I have a binder put together with port info and stuff. I booked this cruise on my last cruise this past October, so you're right, it did start back then.

Judy,
I went out and bought binders...like the idea...I have had our stuff in a folder but sometimes things all out...Will put tabs in it too. We go to Hawaii about every other year so it will be nice to save things in sections and plan for the next trip...thanks...

Called American today and even though their recording said my date was out too far I was able to book our out bound flight!!
We leave Sacramento, CA on June 26 and arrive in Paris on the 27th!!!
I used miles for everything.
He stated I should call back on Aug 20/21 to book a flight back on July 18. That one is not as important as getting there...

This is really starting to sink in now....just need to find a place to stay July 4 & 5 and July 17...We want to stay in Dover on the 4th and 5th...
Anybody get reservations there yet? I've written many but have very few answers.....

Also about the FE....I have never done them until last cruise (Med cruise) I had read on the boards about them and really had no idea what to do...I did get a few small things but I just handed them to people as I met them so I know lots got left out...I didn't know, until I got them, you put the gifts in the FE.... But now I know....I will do whatever everyone wants to. Just lmk....

Time to exhale....I have plane reservations!!!

 

[DW2DH&DS]

Feels good to have plane ressies doesn't it? At least half way right? I feel better once we book our return fare!!!!

Less than a year to go!!!!

 

[Fivepin]

Judy,
I went out and bought binders...like the idea...I have had our stuff in a folder but sometimes things all out...Will put tabs in it too. We go to Hawaii about every other year so it will be nice to save things in sections and plan for the next trip...thanks...

Called American today and even though their recording said my date was out too far I was able to book our out bound flight!!
We leave Sacramento, CA on June 26 and arrive in Paris on the 27th!!!
I used miles for everything.
He stated I should call back on Aug 20/21 to book a flight back on July 18. That one is not as important as getting there...

This is really starting to sink in now....just need to find a place to stay July 4 & 5 and July 17...We want to stay in Dover on the 4th and 5th...
Anybody get reservations there yet? I've written many but have very few answers.....

Also about the FE....I have never done them until last cruise (Med cruise) I had read on the boards about them and really had no idea what to do...I did get a few small things but I just handed them to people as I met them so I know lots got left out...I didn't know, until I got them, you put the gifts in the FE.... But now I know....I will do whatever everyone wants to. Just lmk....

Time to exhale....I have plane reservations!!!

That's great about your plane reservations. We are staying in Dover on the 5th. Right now I have a reservation at the Ramada in Dover. I also booked another at a place called The Burlington Hotel in Folkestone (sp?) via Laterooms.com My best friend helped me research the hotel and this website. She read reviews. It was cheaper to go thru laterooms.com than the hotel itself. I emailed the hotel and they told me to book thru laterooms.com. I believe I got a room for 3 people for 36 pounds compared to 96 pounds at Ramada. Both I can cancel up to the day before I believe. Apparently Folkestone is about 7 miles from Dover. At least I have something booked and can still do more research.

This will be my 4th FE exchange, and it is the largest group. Well, my group in November is rather large right now as well. In October I had 25 cabins. I heard of others dividing up the list if there were alot of cabins. I'm game for anything.

The binder worked out great for me on the Med cruise. I believe I found the dividers with pockets as well. I put all that i had accumulated from the cruise (Navigators and such into the binder)

I want my plane tixs!!!

 

[Fivepin]

Hi everyone! We made it back home last night. Had a great time at WDW and on the magic. St.Thomas was beautiful but I would not ever go to Tortola again it was almost like going into a third world country we were not prepared for that.

Cindy we do want to link our ressies with y'alls but I'm changing things around a little bit so let me get those changes made and then we will do that.

I know it's still early but are we doing FE gifts as teams or is each individual family doing there own? Trying to not wait till the last minute to pull things together.

Lissa

Good question. The largest exchange I have done thus far is 25 cabins. I believe mine for November is up to 36 cabins. I usually put a gift together for a family. Are we assigning delivery days so that everyone gets something everyday, may with the exception of the last day b/c of packing?

 

[nzdisneymom]

Hi everyone! We made it back home last night. Had a great time at WDW and on the magic. St.Thomas was beautiful but I would not ever go to Tortola again it was almost like going into a third world country we were not prepared for that.

Cindy we do want to link our ressies with y'alls but I'm changing things around a little bit so let me get those changes made and then we will do that.

I know it's still early but are we doing FE gifts as teams or is each individual family doing there own? Trying to not wait till the last minute to pull things together.

Lissa

Lissa - welcome back! Glad you all had a great time. Let me know when you are situated and we can get our ressies linked. That would be so great!

 

[nzdisneymom]

We did FE's on the Christmas cruise and had about 30 cabins to deliver to - but we didn't assign days or anything - just whenever you were going somewhere, you take a couple with you and drop them off on the way At least that's what we ended up doing. Some people had things that they wanted to be delivered on specific days so they would do all theirs at once. We loved getting stuff nearly every time we opened our cabin door And we loved walking all through the ship delivering things, too. At first the ship seems really really big, but after a couple of days, it's not. We grouped our FE's to deliver by area of the ship - like forward port deck 2 or starboard deck 8. We found that taking a plastic bag like a Walmart sack was a good way to carry the FE goodies while walking down the halls.

We found that for that cruise that the participation was great by not being so organized That way folks could do what they wanted, when they wanted, if they wanted... we had a final list several weeks before so we had a good count by cabin / family-members / kids for those that wanted to participate. That left time to put our gifts together and tag them with names/cabin-numbers before heading out, or take the list with you and just check them off as you deliver so you don't double-deliver and miss someone. I didn't "check off" who we got stuff for, but from the load of what we got, there was more than plenty. In fact, we had so much candy it was like Halloween - we left a lot of it for our cabin attendant who was muchly appreciative (along with the extra bottles of laundry detergent that we had).

Speaking of laundry detergent, we tried the Purex 3 in 1 sheets on our DL trip and loved them! So we will definitely be packing those for the Baltic trip - in fact, I have enough left that I probably won't have to buy any - or else I'll be sure to buy some more early in the year in case they stop making them (like they stopped making the detergent tabs).

 

[DW2DH&DS]

Speaking of laundry detergent, we tried the Purex 3 in 1 sheets on our DL trip and loved them! So we will definitely be packing those for the Baltic trip - in fact, I have enough left that I probably won't have to buy any - or else I'll be sure to buy some more early in the year in case they stop making them (like they stopped making the detergent tabs).

I tried them as well while we were in Hawaii last week. They were so easy to pack and worked great!!!