June 16, 2007 MedHead Cruisers

[Skallywag]

You will have to take into account the season as the airfares and hotels I think will be more expensive from June until September and in particular late July and August due to school holidays.

We are thinking if the hotels in Barcelona are very high priced will just fly down on the morning. Would rather not as you never know with flights cancelled and delays etc so will wait and see what prices come out later.

Flights from uk to Barcelona are not too expensive so this year for the first time we do not have that problem.

I know we cannot book any flights until the 11month mark but have made enquiries about doing this from LGW to Barcelona on air miles and that seems quite a good deal for us. I notice that Delta site also offers Hotels in Barcelona but nothing showing up yet for the time we need them. Just a thought for anyone from your side of the world if they are thinking of booking direct flights with Delta.

 

[Skallywag]

Have been looking on the uk airmiles website and they are showing availability and prices for most of the good hotels in Barcelona for this June and they are half what we are being quoted for next year. Do feel they perhaps have got wind of Disney coming and are pushing the prices up a bit. Could be wrong and hope so but we will have to wait and see what a similar site shows for next year and cannot do that for a couple of months.

 

[DSNY 4 US]

Also remember that the World Cup Soccer tournament is this summer in Europe (germany to be axact). Co-workers of mine that live in Europe have said this has significantly impacted all airline ticket prices all over Europe for this summer.

Maybe by next summer things will be back to normal!!

 

[silver7]

Good morning all!

We are off to Atlanta this morning--me by plane, ds has to ride the bus--a loong bus ride. I have paid my dues and rode it the last couple of years, so I am flying this year

 

[DVC4US]

Good morning all!

We are off to Atlanta this morning--me by plane, ds has to ride the bus--a loong bus ride. I have paid my dues and rode it the last couple of years, so I am flying this year

Theresa - tell DS Good Luck! and I hope you guys have a great trip.

 

[gou08]

oops... I thought I grapped another TOP but I didn't see that it had moved onto a new page... oh well

 

[DVC4US]

GOOOOOOOOD FRIDAY MORNING(OR AFTERNOON) EVERYONE!

Wanted to give us a bump back up to the first page.

 

[Skallywag]

Just received our confirmation from Disney and note the embarkation time is still 1 p.m. If this is correct we shlal have lotys of time on board before we sail. Sounds good to me.

 

[DVC4US]

I finally got a reply back from DCL regarding the hotels in Barcelona. He told me that the block of rooms they had reserved had sold out really fast. They are putting people on a waitlist and they are trying to contact the hotels to see if they can get more rooms. He said I would get a call back once they determine what they can do.

So I would say if you are interested in the hotels that DCL has put out, then go ahead and call and put your name on a waitlist. I am still going to look at other options, but at least this is a back-up.

I did tell him I wasn't real happy with the way this was handled. I was one of the first people to book on this cruise and I was never told anything about hotel rooms, and when I finally found out about them, they were sold out. The only thing he said was that DCL was not proactive about the rooms.

 

[Skallywag]

I quite agree that Disney have mishandled the hotel portion of their bookings as this was definitely not on their web site. Have received confirmation of our booking today and it states we have declined ground transfer - that was never an option either and wonder if anyone else has seen this on the site or perhaps did I miss it.

I know that we couldnot book our flights through Disney - it really would not be worth it for us but transport - Oh well will just have to get a taxi or see if the hotels have their own transport available.

 

[JulieWent]

I was wondering, about the hotel situation, I mean. Do you think there will really be a problem finding rooms when it comes time? I don't really know what to think. Barcelona did host the Olympics. Certainly there must have been many hotel rooms built for that. I am so hoping that this turns out to be more about the dates (being so far in the future, I mean) than about the availability.

Oh! And hi everyone! Only 15 more days of school left.

Julie

 

[tupperny]

We are looking to arrive in Barcelona a few days before the cruise. Hopefully, we will find an apartment/hotel.

We are thinking of driving to nearby castles. Does anyone know which side of the road they drive on? How expensive are rental cars?

Bill

 

[DVC4US]

Brenda - I totally have to agree with you. We were never asked about transportation either. I figure we can make it on our own if DCL does not come through.

Julie - I did a search on Hotels.com and there seem to be plenty of hotels in Barcelona. I think that the problem is being so far out right now. I will continue to check the hotels every couple of days and see what happens.

Bill - I did a quick search on Orbitz and a rental car for 5 days runs anywhere from $178 to $659, depending on the size of car and the company. The only thing I did notice was all the cars were listed as manual transmission.

 

[auntsue1]

Fellow MedHeads!

We also will be sailing on the June 16th Mediterranean Cruise! We can't wait! This will be our 3rd Disney Cruise. Looking forward to the shore excursions. Anyone heard anything yet? I know they are TBA later.

Titusville Disney Troup

 

[Skallywag]

We are looking to arrive in Barcelona a few days before the cruise. Hopefully, we will find an apartment/hotel.

We are thinking of driving to nearby castles. Does anyone know which side of the road they drive on? How expensive are rental cars?

Bill

Having spoken to several agents think we are a bit early to book most of the hotels - Disney obviously have negotiated badly on this one I think.

They drive the same side as in your Country on the right so you should have no problems with that.

As they say embarkation at 1.p.m. do you think that means we can go on board then just seems quite a while from the sailing time. Not complaining it seems they will probably have both dinner sittings and then perhaps the sail away party at 10.p.m.

Just realised we shall be at see for the longest day on the 21st June so will have plenty of hours of daylight.

 

[DVC4US]

Welcome Aboard AuntSue1! It is always great to have more cruisers join our group. We have heard nothing on excursions yet but you can check out other cruise ship options on the cruise critic website. It might give you some idea what DCL will have. According to people who went on the West Coast cruises last year, excursions were not out until about 105 days before the first West Coast cruise. At least we have one or two cruises that will take out before us, so maybe we can get some feedback from them.

And what a way to start a Saturday morning with a T.O.P!!!

 

[DVC4US]

As they say embarkation at 1.p.m. do you think that means we can go on board then just seems quite a while from the sailing time. Not complaining it seems they will probably have both dinner sittings and then perhaps the sail away party at 10.p.m.

Brenda - It sure does seem like a long time between "all ashore" 6:45am and "all aboard" 9:30pm. I don't know if this has anything to do with being in a different country and it taking longer to turn the ship over or not. If they do the sail away part that late I know some kids will not make it and some of those with late dinning will be cutting it close. I know that sometimes even when we have the 8pm dinner seating it is 10:00 or 10:30 before we are done. It just depends on how relaxed we take dinner. It will be interesting to see what happens with this day.

1:00pm is DCL standard time of embarkation so it would not surprise me if this time changes once those cruises start. Although, if you have people flying over from the States and they get in on an early morning flight what are they going to do until embarkation. Lots of things to wonder about!

 

[LisaTex]

Just checking back in Guess we will just have to do our home work and then be ready to jump once everything opens for booking I'm assuming if they have a trip to DLP it will come out with the excursions?

As far as rooms go - how many people does the magic hold? 3500? If you had 2/hotel room (that's assuming no local passengers and everyone coming a few days pre cruise) - it's really not that many hotel rooms. I may be totally wrong, but I just don't think there will be a problem getting a room if you reserve at the time the dates open.

Just saw silver 7's robotics competition on CNN - hope her DS did well. Have a great weekend!

 

[Skallywag]

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. Weather wise here is still not good. Wonder if summer has passed us by this year.

I am sure there will be plenty of hotel rooms once we can book but it is very frustrating.

A map has been posted on the main board and it is well worth having a look at great fun - wish I was clever with things like that on the computer.

 

[gou08]

We got word the other day that we were upgraded from our Cat. 4 to a Cat. 3, so for all you who are waitlisted, there's hope!