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

[goingsouth]

Interesting to hear about some of you trying to lose weight - me too. I write a regular column called "The Fat Bloke Diaries" elsewhere. Would you guys be interested in me posting it here too?

I googled your blog-it's wonderful! I can't wait for the next installment..
joanne

 

[scottishwee35]

Well I go away for a few days and everyone starts typing like crazy! We had five fantastic days walking in the hills of Northern England ("The Lake District"). The weather was appalingly bad, but it was fun. Back to work tomorrow though - boo !

Wee, the kids look great in the pics, so grown up now! Sorry to hear about your mouth though - is it feeling any better?

Exchange rate - fallen from £1 = $2 to approx £1 = $1.50 recently. I'm saving for a trip to WDW in May, so I'd appreciate getting lots more dollars for my pound around that time please!

Hi Sharper_fin

I am fine and my mouth is fine now phew

Oh dear very bad weather over weekend as came home on Friday, it was heavy raining.

I just finish working and saw the exchange at my work £1.00 for $1.48 dollar Let pray get better rates for this cruise and your trip in May.

Scottishwee35

 

[sharper_fin]

I googled your blog-it's wonderful! I can't wait for the next installment..
joanne

That's kind of you Joanne, thanks.

 

[DW2DH&DS]

Interesting to hear about some of you trying to lose weight - me too. I write a regular column called "The Fat Bloke Diaries" elsewhere. Would you guys be interested in me posting it here too?

Oh my gosh yes please. I googled you. The first two episodes you wrote are quite funny.

 

[tinkerbell_29]

Were thinking about extended our post stay from two days to three. I was looking online and saw that you can get from London to Paris in a little over 2 hours by train. I would love to see Paris if possible. I'm trying to cram as much as possible into this trip as this will probable be our very last family vacation with all three of us.

Lissa

 

[yargrnhoj]

Were thinking about extended our post stay from two days to three. I was looking online and saw that you can get from London to Paris in a little over 2 hours by train. I would love to see Paris if possible. I'm trying to cram as much as possible into this trip as this will probable be our very last family vacation with all three of us.

Lissa

You can catch a ferry to Calais and take the Eurostar to Paris from there without going into London. I think you can also take a train to Ashford and catch it there. We took the Eurostar from Paris to London in April and considered getting off at Calais and going to Dover but didn't.

Of course all of these before/after discussions have me wondering how to do luggage. Thanks to British Airways, we didn't have much luggage when going from Paris to London (because it was all lost in Terminal 5). I don't know how we would have handled it if we had all three of our bags instead of just one duffel.

J. R.

 

[GeneralMax]

SWMBO and I have been looking into other cruise lines since we aren't sure we want to pay the "Disney Tax". In the process, I ran across these excursions from Celebrity, which might be a taste of what is available. (Apologies in advance for the long post).

WOW I am already making my list. It looks like a lot of interesting things to do. The most exciting part for me is that unlike the Med cruise where we had been to some of the countries but wanted to go with our kids these are ALL new locations for me too. It will be great to see them for the first time with my family.

I realized as I was looking at your list that I fly through Germany for work 2 or 3 times a year and I never get off.

 

[denise]

Were thinking about extended our post stay from two days to three. I was looking online and saw that you can get from London to Paris in a little over 2 hours by train. I would love to see Paris if possible. I'm trying to cram as much as possible into this trip as this will probable be our very last family vacation with all three of us.

Lissa

We are looking at Paris too! Either before or after. I would like to trade our Marriott timeshare for one there that is next to Disney. We could then take the train into Paris and do things there. The entire family says YES!!!

We stayed on property back in 1996. We flew into Paris and stayed at Hotel New York. We did a couple days at the park which was so cool. We took the local train into Paris too. We then took the Eurostar train to London and then on to midlands on a train for a few days then back to London for a few days. We flew from London to Miami and then to Orlando for 2 weeks...What a vacation. The air was all on miles. They (American Airlines) said becauce all the cities were hub cities, or something like that, we could do what we did. For free basically.

That is the plan this time....free...free...free....
Just have to find a trade...glad to know we don't have to go into London if we do Paris first. Just want to get to Dover at least one day before and stay there before the cruise.

 

[yargrnhoj]

WOW I am already making my list. It looks like a lot of interesting things to do. The most exciting part for me is that unlike the Med cruise where we had been to some of the countries but wanted to go with our kids these are ALL new locations for me too. It will be great to see them for the first time with my family.

I realized as I was looking at your list that I fly through Germany for work 2 or 3 times a year and I never get off.

As we were looking at other lines that did much of the same itinerary except did Taillin instead of Berlin, SWMBO said "Well, I really want to go to Germany". I pointed out to her she's been to Frankfurt three times in the past year on her way to meetings with her boss in Italy. She's only seen the airport.

 

[nzdisneymom]

We got our official confirmation from our TA yesterday. That makes this all seem very very real since I now have a Guest Copy of the Confirmation. Seeing all the info laid out is WOW!

We have three nights pre-cruise at the Renaissance, and one night post-cruise (wait-listing for a 2nd night). We'll fly the red-eye from ATL to LHR.

And looking at the actual cruise itinerary, I didn't realize we had TWO sea days at the end. Woo-hoo! And I hadn't looked at the calendar to see that we leave on Tuesday from Dover, which means we'll fly out late Friday, July 2nd and arrive in London on Saturday, July 3rd, which will give us Sunday and Monday to see London before going to Dover on Tuesday.

The itinerary has us in port like this:
Tues: Dover - depart at 5:00 p.m.
Wed: Sea
Thurs: Oslo - 8:30 - 4:30
Fri: Copenhagen - 9:30 - 5:00
Sat: Warnemunde - 5:00 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Sun: Sea
Mon: St. Petersburg - 11:30
Tues: St. Petersburg - til 10:30 p.m.
Wed: Helsinki - 9:45 - 5:00
Thurs: Stockholm - 7:30 - 4:30
Fri: Sea
Sat: Sea
Sun: back to Dover at 8:00 a.m.

When looking at the times in port, it seems so short, but from our Med. experiences last summer, it really is ample time to see and do a lot. But it's also why we'll do all of our port-excursions through DCL. With a 5:00 a.m. arrival in Warnemunde, I wonder how very early the excursions will start since I read that there is quite the travel-time to Berlin. It also makes me think we will schedule Copenhagen to be a bit of a lighter day since we'll have a longer day for Warnemunde.

One thing we learned from the Med experience was to build in some down-time for the children even if it meant we adults didn't get to see/do everything we wanted. Our day in Rome was a super-long day and it followed several busy long-days. It pretty much wiped the kids out because we'd had such busy days prior - but fortunately our Pisa day the next day was an afternoon excursion so they got to rest - and it turned out to be one of our favorite days. We will look to schedule some afternoons rather than doing everything in the mornings. We are also hedging our bets on recovering from jet-lag by having a few pre-days in London. One of the other DIS families we met last summer had spent a week in France before coming on the cruise and she said it was so worth the time to do that and be acclimated before boarding the ship.

For those of you planning to see a bit more of Europe while there, that's awesome - I like to get as much out of a single air-fare as I can... as it is, we'll be gone about 3 weeks by the time we add our pre- and post-days.

 

[scottishwee35]

We got our official confirmation from our TA yesterday. That makes this all seem very very real since I now have a Guest Copy of the Confirmation. Seeing all the info laid out is WOW!

We have three nights pre-cruise at the Renaissance, and one night post-cruise (wait-listing for a 2nd night). We'll fly the red-eye from ATL to LHR.

And looking at the actual cruise itinerary, I didn't realize we had TWO sea days at the end. Woo-hoo! And I hadn't looked at the calendar to see that we leave on Tuesday from Dover, which means we'll fly out late Friday, July 2nd and arrive in London on Saturday, July 3rd, which will give us Sunday and Monday to see London before going to Dover on Tuesday.

The itinerary has us in port like this:
Tues: Dover - depart at 5:00 p.m.
Wed: Sea
Thurs: Oslo - 8:30 - 4:30
Fri: Copenhagen - 9:30 - 5:00
Sat: Warnemunde - 5:00 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Sun: Sea
Mon: St. Petersburg - 11:30
Tues: St. Petersburg - til 10:30 p.m.
Wed: Helsinki - 9:45 - 5:00
Thurs: Stockholm - 7:30 - 4:30
Fri: Sea
Sat: Sea
Sun: back to Dover at 8:00 a.m.

When looking at the times in port, it seems so short, but from our Med. experiences last summer, it really is ample time to see and do a lot. But it's also why we'll do all of our port-excursions through DCL. With a 5:00 a.m. arrival in Warnemunde, I wonder how very early the excursions will start since I read that there is quite the travel-time to Berlin. It also makes me think we will schedule Copenhagen to be a bit of a lighter day since we'll have a longer day for Warnemunde.

One thing we learned from the Med experience was to build in some down-time for the children even if it meant we adults didn't get to see/do everything we wanted. Our day in Rome was a super-long day and it followed several busy long-days. It pretty much wiped the kids out because we'd had such busy days prior - but fortunately our Pisa day the next day was an afternoon excursion so they got to rest - and it turned out to be one of our favorite days. We will look to schedule some afternoons rather than doing everything in the mornings. We are also hedging our bets on recovering from jet-lag by having a few pre-days in London. One of the other DIS families we met last summer had spent a week in France before coming on the cruise and she said it was so worth the time to do that and be acclimated before boarding the ship.

For those of you planning to see a bit more of Europe while there, that's awesome - I like to get as much out of a single air-fare as I can... as it is, we'll be gone about 3 weeks by the time we add our pre- and post-days.

Hi

Thank you for your information. We are thinking to go to London for 2 or 3 days and let childrens see around of London before the Cruise. We are still searching for hotel or b&b. My work have special offer for hotel and train together so still early to book it so I wait after Xmas.

Aye, I remember about Med and it was long day at Rome then half day at Pisa. It was fine for my kids as they had fun in the pool in the afternoon. Med was awesome.

Scottishwee35

 

[sharper_fin]

Jill just called me at work - we too have received our confirmation. Cool! It seems so far away still though....

I've posted the Fat Bloke Diaries (episode one) on the Just For Fun / Communities board here, if anyone's interested.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1994514

 

[goingsouth]

We got our official confirmation from our TA yesterday. That makes this all seem very very real since I now have a Guest Copy of the Confirmation. Seeing all the info laid out is WOW!

We have three nights pre-cruise at the Renaissance, and one night post-cruise (wait-listing for a 2nd night). We'll fly the red-eye from ATL to LHR.

And looking at the actual cruise itinerary, I didn't realize we had TWO sea days at the end. Woo-hoo! And I hadn't looked at the calendar to see that we leave on Tuesday from Dover, which means we'll fly out late Friday, July 2nd and arrive in London on Saturday, July 3rd, which will give us Sunday and Monday to see London before going to Dover on Tuesday.

The itinerary has us in port like this:
Tues: Dover - depart at 5:00 p.m.
Wed: Sea
Thurs: Oslo - 8:30 - 4:30
Fri: Copenhagen - 9:30 - 5:00
Sat: Warnemunde - 5:00 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Sun: Sea
Mon: St. Petersburg - 11:30
Tues: St. Petersburg - til 10:30 p.m.
Wed: Helsinki - 9:45 - 5:00
Thurs: Stockholm - 7:30 - 4:30
Fri: Sea
Sat: Sea
Sun: back to Dover at 8:00 a.m.

When looking at the times in port, it seems so short, but from our Med. experiences last summer, it really is ample time to see and do a lot. But it's also why we'll do all of our port-excursions through DCL. With a 5:00 a.m. arrival in Warnemunde, I wonder how very early the excursions will start since I read that there is quite the travel-time to Berlin. It also makes me think we will schedule Copenhagen to be a bit of a lighter day since we'll have a longer day for Warnemunde.

.

That's odd...all of my information for Warnemunde says 8am arrival- I even pulled up itin on the DCL website to recheck at it says 8am--did it change to 5am arrival?? That's great if it did- I just wish the website matched that info!


Joanne

 

[sharper_fin]

...it was long day at Rome ...
Scottishwee35

Oh yes, it certainly was! As a card carrying Fat Bloke I was drenched, most of the day. But it was a fantastic city, and my birthday too. We finished it off with dinner at Palo. A fantastic day

 

[goingsouth]

Jill just called me at work - we too have received our confirmation. Cool! It seems so far away still though....

I've posted the Fat Bloke Diaries (episode one) on the Just For Fun / Communities board here, if anyone's interested.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1994514

I laughed just as hard the second time reading! I'd buy you a drink onboard ship just to see a photo of that exercise bike...just saying..

joanne

 

[goingsouth]

We were planning on just a pre-trip to London. It's so hard to take 3 weeks from work. Now my husband found out that the Farnbouough Air show is (near London) the week following the cruise. He's an aerospace guy and might be able to talk his way into getting work to spring for him to go! It would be great to get more days because you are all right- it pays to get the most from high air tickets!



joanne

 

[nzdisneymom]

That's odd...all of my information for Warnemunde says 8am arrival- I even pulled up itin on the DCL website to recheck at it says 8am--did it change to 5am arrival?? That's great if it did- I just wish the website matched that info!


Joanne

Joanne - I went back to look in case my eyes played tricks on me, but our confirmation does, indeed, say 5 a.m. That doesn't mean it won't change

I'm also excited because our TA has given us a $750 OBC... which we'll use for excursions.

The boys are starting November 1st with "saving" their cruise fare. I have one can and need to get another one so they can each have their own. Our cruise final payment day is March 8th, 2010.

 

[Pappy]

just a thought for those in the usa.. the pound has had a kicking this week and has dropped to £1.54.. if you want to buy pouinds buy them now or book your hotels now or at least keep a close eye on the exchange rates.. a couple of months ago it was 2 dollers to the pound.. good for you terrible for us..

 

[scottishwee35]

just a thought for those in the usa.. the pound has had a kicking this week and has dropped to £1.54.. if you want to buy pouinds buy them now or book your hotels now or at least keep a close eye on the exchange rates.. a couple of months ago it was 2 dollers to the pound.. good for you terrible for us..

Hi Pappy

Aye, I know we went on cruise last May for Panama and we got very good exchange money 2 dollars for a pound and now it is cracking up - down to 1.51 Let pray for better exchange for 2010!!

I always pay up every month to dreams unlimited but I hold it now and save up until it get good exchange money (hopeful).

Scottishwee35

 

[CarolAnnC]

Hi everyone! No confirmation here yet, but we booked through DVC so that may make a difference. I am anxiously awaiting it..

Chilly and frosty here in Chicago this morning - 28 degrees on our way to work yikes.

Hope everyone has a nice evening. Off to tape The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and then to watch Dancing With The Stars!