June 16, 2007 MedHead Cruisers

[matty204]

I am a SAHM. We used to live in LA, but moved to Minnesota 10 years ago and love it!

Welcome to the group. We are in Minnesota as well.

 

[JulieWent]

Hi - we are just back from our first cruise and we loved it so much we booked this cruise!

I am looking forward so much to this trip. A little bio - All my life I dreamed of traveling - I never got to do too much until recently. Now, we are starting to travel!

I am a SAHM. We used to live in LA, but moved to Minnesota 10 years ago and love it!

I am mid forties - DH too. Next year will be our 20th anniversary. DS is 10 and DD is 7. Both would love to meet people. Both are very typical of their respective genders - son is into sports Star Wars video. DD is into dolls clothes singing dancing...

Kathleen

We are in our mid-forties, too. (I turned 45 today! ) The cruise next summer will be our 25th wedding anniversary gift to each other.

DS will be with us, too. Like your son, he is 10 and into the typical 10 year old things. I am hoping some of the DIS "kids" can get together on the cruise.

We are still thinking about what to do before the cruise. Flying into London looks interesting, but I really want to BE in Barcelona early enough to not have to worry about connections, etc. I am taking a wait and see attitude to see what is available hotel-wise beginning in September and October. (That is when most of the hotels in Barcelona have said they will be opening up rooms for June.) It will be less expensive to fly into London and then take a flight to Barcelona. A direct flight from Atlanta to Barcelona is more expensive. But, I'll see.

In the mean time, welcome to the MedHead thread! Less than a year to go!

Julie

 

[4kidsandadog]

I am mid forties - DH too. Next year will be our 20th anniversary. DS is 10 and DD is 7. Both would love to meet people. Both are very typical of their respective genders - son is into sports Star Wars video. DD is into dolls clothes singing dancing...

DH and I are 40-somethings as well (I just turned 42 a couple of days ago). We also have a 10yo son and 7yo daughter (plus a 14yo girl and 5yo boy). This will be our 3rd cruise.

 

[Skallywag]

Welcome Julie.

The hotels in Barcelona seem very high in price to me and really feel they are taking advantage of Disney being there. To be fair have not checked any of the other Disney Cruise dates and must do that.

Will have to start looking at flights soon but they should not be too expensive for us this year from Gatwick. No transatlantic and no jet lag.

I think it depends on what you want to see or do before the cruise would definitely recommend flying in a bit early at least to the UK so you get your body into the time zone. Plenty to see in and around London so you will not be bored at all I am sure. Shame it is a bit too early for Buckingham Palace to be open as that is so worth a visit but Windsor and Kensington are always open and if you venture down into Kent we have (they say) the most beautiful castle in the world at Leeds.

 

[mndisfam]

I am surely leaning toward the London experience...I have always been an anglophile and would love to introduce my family to some of my interests.

I esp. think they would love some of the gruesome exhibits at the Tower...Does anyone know of a relatively inexpensive London hotel that is family friendly?

My mother and I stayed at Kensington Royal Garden last year - loved it and its location. BUt, the rooms might be too small for all of us.

Anything with free breakfasts, or near by pizza, etc would be great. K

PS - can't wait to meet more people on the cruise!

 

[Skallywag]

There is a guide www.thehoteldirectory.co.uk and they have hotel prices with excursions if wanted. One of the cheaper range of hotels are the Travelodge (www.travelodge.co.uk) Do not think breakfast i included but they do have family rooms and one is situated in Docklands which would give you easy access to city via docklands light railway and from the Tower you can get boats up to Westminster and the london eye and that is a nice way to see London sights.

Some sites like Superbreak.co.uk do not seem to have their prices up yet for June next year. Most of the larger hotel chains are around london also and think many have quad rooms for families.

Also if you are thinking of staying in London and then flying to Barcelona the train from London Victoria goes directly to Gatwick south terminal with a monorail serving the north.

If you want me to make any enquiries from this end please let me know.

 

[JulieWent]

So, is it fairly easy to get from Gatwick into some of the "touristy" things in London? We're not great at navigating rail systems, but if they're fairly easy, we can do it. I was thinking of staying out near Gatwick and taking the rail in to London to tour.

I guess it might be smarter to take the rail in and stay right on it -- where it leads out to Gatwick, then tour from there. Any suggestions? I'm beginning to form a plan.

Julie

 

[Skallywag]

Would think it would be better to stay in London area rather than Gatwick if you want to do the tourist things. The rail link from London Victoria to Gatwick at present is non-stop and think takes about 1 hour (Daughters use it regularly and praise this service) However, there was talk of making this a commuter train also which would make many stops on route but do not think this has been done yet. My suggestion of London Docklands/Canary wharf was because it is just out of the main tourist area but very accessible. Will make some enquiries about links and post.

 

[Skallywag]

If you want to do some planning go to www.tfl.gov.uk/dlr They have information on all transport links such as boats, buses and rail around London so you can plan quite easily from there.
Hope this is helpful.

 

[DVC4US]

I'm Baaaaaaaaaack! Again!

Just wanted to let you know I am back from New York City and Niagara Falls. They were awesome! We really had a great time but it sure is hard trying to navigate 6 people around.

Next, I leave again a week from Thursday to go on college visits with Britt. She flew to David's from New York and I will meet up with her there and then David and his mom and Britt and I are doing a week long trip to visit colleges in Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. I can see I am really going to need my cruise in August. I am going to be so exhausted by the time it gets here.

Off to catch up. Hope everyone has a great day!

 

[DVC4US]

Welcome aboard Kathleen! It's great having you and your family join us on the cruise. I am also a SAHM and we are also in our 40's. I have 2 DD's. One will be 17 when we cruise and the other will be 11. We live about 3 hours south of you in Iowa and we visit Bloomington several times a year. Bet you can't guess why?



Your right! Mall of America is our(or I should say, my DD's) favorite place to shop.

 

[Surroundedbyboys]

Has anyone gotten hotel rooms for the 15th yet? I'm not having any luck trying to book. We really want to stay in one of the "Disney" hotels so we can get transfers...but when I try to book one they all say that they're sold out. ? Less than a year now...!

 

[4kidsandadog]

We are seriously considering dropping this cruise... With dh being in the military, he will barely have enough time to take off just for the cruise itself; there is very little chance of us being able to come in early. The whole jetlag thing does not sound very fun, especially with my 3 youngest (certainly not worried about the 14yo... she is quite adaptable). We're talking about doing something similar in a few years to celebrate the oldest's high school graduation and hubby's military retirement (which will coincide). Nothing firm decided yet, but we are leaning heavily towards giving it up and maybe just heading to WDW for spring break. Gotta use those DVC points!

 

[DVC4US]

We are seriously considering dropping this cruise... With dh being in the military, he will barely have enough time to take off just for the cruise itself; there is very little chance of us being able to come in early. The whole jetlag thing does not sound very fun, especially with my 3 youngest (certainly not worried about the 14yo... she is quite adaptable). We're talking about doing something similar in a few years to celebrate the oldest's high school graduation and hubby's military retirement (which will coincide). Nothing firm decided yet, but we are leaning heavily towards giving it up and maybe just heading to WDW for spring break. Gotta use those DVC points!

Karen,

I do hope you continue with the cruise, but I fully understand if you choose to cancel. The one thing I found out when we went to Scotland was that I wasn't bothered by the jetlag going over. It affected me more when I came home. We are going over a day or two early just to enjoy Barcelona and get ourselves ready for the cruise. I wish you luck with whatever you choose to do. Have a great day!

 

[DVC4US]

Has anyone gotten hotel rooms for the 15th yet? I'm not having any luck trying to book. We really want to stay in one of the "Disney" hotels so we can get transfers...but when I try to book one they all say that they're sold out. ? Less than a year now...!

About 2 or months ago we were able to book the Hilton Diagonal for the 15th but now they are showing full. We also wanted the 14th but it wasn't available. I have noticed that most of the hotels DCL went with do not open their booking dates until about September or October, so I will keep trying. I wanted to book airline tickets at 330 days out so that kinda poses a problem with not having a room on the 14th.

 

[Skallywag]

Am sure there will be hotel availability. Other hotels are showing up as available for the couple of days prior to our cruise but as you say some do not open for bookings as yet. Have not found any flight info as yet but as you also cannot book that until 11 months from the return flight date have a little while to wait.

Will have a look at Easy Jet from Gatwick as they do very cheap flights otherwise it will be airmiles with BA. If anyone was thinking of staying in London do not know if there are direct flights from London City Airport as that would be a lot easier than Gatwick or Heathrow.

Will have a search around and see. Have to take my daughter back to the airport tomorrow evening so will have a scout round Gatwick if I get there in time and see what is showing up to Barcelona.

Any tennis fans out there - beautiful weather for Wimbledon this year (fingers crossed it stays that way).

 

[DVC4US]

Brenda,

Speaking of Wimbledon - I just realized that we will be in London around Wimbledon time next year and I was wondering: 1) how hard is it to get a hotel room during Wimbledon(I am assuming pretty hard), and 2) how hard is it to get tickets to the matches. That's one thing that Rich and I have always wanted to do and I thought since we are going to be there we might get a chance to go.

 

[Skallywag]

Hi Everyone - still very hot and hunid here in England really dont envy them playing tennis but suppose they are used to it.

LeiLani, my daughter is over staying with a friend in London this weekend nd they decided to go up to Wimbledon yesterday. They had to wait for about and hour to get in but could have purchased tickets for centre court or court one cannot remember which. They decided to watch the matches on the big screen on Henman Hill now renamed Murray Mount and had a great time.
We went up a few years ago and was so suprised at how small the actual area of Wimbledon is it is well worth a visit. Will make a few enquiries from my daughter about buying the tickets in advance. Wonderful atmosphere and would love to go again some time. Around the area of Wimbledon would I think be very heavily booked and expensive but many people travel in by train or coach from outside London so would not think that it would be difficult to get rooms away from that area.

Have looked on website for flights from London City Airport to Barcelona but they do not do direct. They for some reason go via Switzerland or Amsterdam and that is a long way round. Presume it is because it is more a business airport and flights are direct to business centres.

Will come back with more information regarding tickets for Wimbledon as soon as I can find the information.

 

[Skallywag]

The address and dates for tickets to wimbledon 2007 -

The ballot closed for Wimbledon 2006 at the end of last year - so bad luck this time round if you missed the deadline.

You could lie and say your application got lost in the post, or beg, but neither is likely to get the All England Club to change its long-established rules.

You will be better off digging out the diary and making plans for 2007.

Next year's tournament runs from Monday 27 June to Sunday 8 July and for tickets you need to write to Ticket Manager, The All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, PO Box 98, Wimbledon, London SW19 5AE

Weather here still very hot 32 degrees they say today.

 

[DVC4US]

Brenda,

Thanks for all the information on Wimbledon. I think we will definitely looked into this since we are going to be in London during that time.