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

[goingsouth]

I am having a hard time focusing on work today. Not sure if it all the the anti-histamines or if I am getting itchy to start this vacation. I really need to firm up our touring plans for the ports. We are planning to tour on our own everywhere but St. P. In Warnermunde I have the Molli steam train booked, but can't decide whether or not to bag that and just explore on our own.

I'm the same way. We have excursions booked with disney but now I'm leaning towards sightseeing independently. Sat through that john lawrence DVD a few times. I'm thinking Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm. I looked into private walking guides but it's so expensive.

joanne

 

[slg]

Received our documents today! Wow. They look very different than two years ago.

Exciting!

I wish DCL would put right on the documents the total of the obc. I should get $600 from DU, $200 OB booking bonus, and $500 OBC for booking early.

It would be nice to verify this ahead of time.

I have so much to do...mostly shopping and packing and organizing being away for 5 weeks...bills etc. Feel kind of overwhelmed!

I wish I could just snap my fingers and be there. Or have someone else do all the last minute details.

 

[babybear42]

Just been woken up by the Fedex man knocking on the door so I went downstairs bleary eyed and hair all over the place to be handed an envelope containing our travel documants. It was worth getting up for. Can we go now?

 

[nzdisneymom]

just thought I'd share this here -

I had asked our private tour guide in Russia about paying for souveniers & they suggested paying in rubles & mentioned there are plenty of ATM's around to get them. Also if anyone is interested, I asked about fur hats (ds #1 wants one) & he said we should be able to find them on the shopping street (Nevsky?)

not toooo much longer - we're getting super excited

Thanks for sharing this. We are planning how much money we want for each port - could you ask how much the nesting dolls typically are (that tourists buy) and a range for the fur hats?

Anyone know if we'll be able to exchange for rubles on the ship? We're doing the shopping excursion on the first day but thought if we could exchange onboard then we wouldn't have to do that during our shopping time.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Just been woken up by the Fedex man knocking on the door so I went downstairs bleary eyed and hair all over the place to be handed an envelope containing our travel documants. It was worth getting up for. Can we go now?

Docs? AWESOME! I just checked our front porch in case ours came yesterday I'll be checking every day now til they arrive! Looks like you all are the first of the group to get them!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Yeah, I'm all over the place this morning Had to get up early to bake cupcakes for DS to take to school - I didn't want to do them last night which meant early for me this morning. So now I have time to catch up on DIS

I did go ahead and book our London Eye tickets - they have something different that I hadn't seen before and that's a Flexi-ticket which means you can reserve the day you want and then just go whenever you get there that day. We were also able to do the Family ticket (2A, 2C) and saved a bit of money doing it that way. One more thing off my list of things to do / pay for (LOL).

I was looking at how tube fares work and think we'll just get a Travelcard off-peak for Zones 1 and 2 for both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday since we're planning to go to the London Eye that day and maybe the Tower of London, and Sunday because we're doing a guided walk about the Beatles and it requires a Zone 2 fare for part of the tour.

We're planning to do the hop-on, hop-off bus after we're done with the walking tour on Sunday ... just do the whole ride-around on Sunday and then use the rest of our 24-hours on it for transportation to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guards on Monday and whatever else we can do as we work our way back towards the hotel. I feel a lot better about our plans for London now that I've been able to hang some structure on it. And yeah, Mom that I am, I checked out where the nearest McDonalds is so the boys will know they can always get McD's if nothing else appeals to them. (There's one within a stone's throw from the hotel.) Whatcha gonna do when you have picky eaters? That's actually why cruising is a great way for us to see a bit of the world and not have to worry about feeding anyone - we know they'll always find something to eat on the ship.

One more week of school after this one and then it's full-on getting ready for the trip. Cabin 6116, we can't wait to see you!

 

[Stimpy]

Documents are coming???

 

[mom_rules]

Document dance here
Came yesterday.

 

[sshaw10060]

Hope you are not allergic to animals!!!

I am actually really allergic to Guinea Pigs. Can't even be in the same room. Luckily they are only rarely in the ER/ICU

I'm the same way. We have excursions booked with disney but now I'm leaning towards sightseeing independently. Sat through that john lawrence DVD a few times. I'm thinking Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm. I looked into private walking guides but it's so expensive.
joanne

I watched the first few cities. Need to keep going and get the plans finalized.

No documents for us yet. Maybe today.

 

[tfc3rid]

Interesting about the cruise docs... Mine will be going to my former place of residence in New York City and forwarded to me here in Atlanta... Hopefully it won't be too complicated... I just never remembered to change my address for DCL.

 

[goingsouth]

Ooooh..can't wait to look thru docs..hope they come today.
Are they sent regular mail or UPS/fedex?


joanne

 

[babybear42]

Ooooh..can't wait to look thru docs..hope they come today.
Are they sent regular mail or UPS/fedex?


joanne

Mine came via Fedex, but then that could be because I live in the UK.

 

[sshaw10060]

No documents for us yet. Kinda sad being left out.

 

[Deb T.]

Doin' the Document Dance!!!

Ours came today via regular post office (USPS). It's amazing how such a small package can cause so much joy!

 

[bhayes]

Can somebody direct me to the Fish Extender Participation list? Trying to get organized and cross things off the packing list .... need to get busy on those FE Gifts .... Woo Hoo!!! Not to much longer and we'll be sailing through the Baltic!!!

 

[DW2DH&DS]

Cruise Doc Dance

arrives USPS!!!!!

 

[Deb T.]

Can somebody direct me to the Fish Extender Participation list? Trying to get organized and cross things off the packing list .... need to get busy on those FE Gifts .... Woo Hoo!!! Not to much longer and we'll be sailing through the Baltic!!!

Joanne "goingsouth" is keeping track of the FE list. I was just checking over my notes and we don't have your cabin number yet, so please be sure to pass that along when you contact her.

 

[APinCA]

Docs came today!!!

 

[CarolAnnC]

No docs here yet - maybe tomorrow I hope!

Good news for anyone who booked on DVC points - I was checking my ressies on the DCL website and found the following statement on both of our stateroom reservations:

Information about your cruise.

Fuel Supplement Onboard Credit: The cost of the fuel supplement charge has been applied as a refundable Onboard Credit to this reservation


Whooo hoooo! I was going to call about this - probably will still call to verify the amount of the credit applied. This will be a much welcomed OBC for us!

 

[aurorafan65]

Does anyone in here have an opinion on the London Pass? The group I will be with is not the kind of group that plans ahead and knows what they want to see and do... A lot of play it by ear... Know that we definitely want to go to the Tower of London, Kensington Palace (since it's near our hotel), not likely going to hit up museums this trip at all (and I know they are free)... Any thoughts?

I looked into the London Pass with travel - for us it wasn't worth it
I figured out how much the attractions would cost vs. buying the ticket there & we wouldn't have broken even. Also there is a cap to how much you can use it in a day.