June 18, 2011 - 11 Night Mediterranean Sailing from Barcelona

[JulieWent]

Allison,

War Eagle back at ya! My DS (who is also named Austin -- age 15) will be so happy that there will be more Auburn fans on the cruise. On our ABD tour (to London / Paris) there was one other family from Alabama -- you guessed it: from Tuscaloosa.

I've been busy checking the flight schedules out of Atlanta. They haven't released the June / July fares yet, but I've been very pleased that prices are better now than last time we flew to Europe. (The only time we've flown to Europe.)

We've settled on the Blue Grotto tour as well. Looking at the Jeep tour for Tunis. I have no idea about Naples / Pompeii. Rome -- private tour. After that, who knows?

But I'm excited. Can you tell? Glad you're family is joining our little group.

Julie

 

[hygienist999]

Thanks Julie, I can tell your excited, just as I'am. My family can't wait.

We will do the Blue Grotto and we are liking the way the 4x4 excursion sounds.

We are hoping to use sky miles for at least 3 of the airline tickets. I'm going to research this trip to death. I want to get everything in that I can. With the ages of the kids it will be hard to get everyone together for a family trip again. Our oldest won't be going, unless he can tear himself away from the girlfriend and get off work. Don't think he will leave her for the length of this trip. Although DD is leaving her's.

We will be getting a little bit of a Disney fix at the end of July. We will be in Orlando at the Animal Kingdom resort for a week. Can't wait for that also.

Here's to the countdown and shared info for our upcoming cruise.

 

[JulieWent]

Today is my birthday. A year from today I will be celebrating my birthday on the Magic somewhere between Rome and Florence. Just had to share.

Julie

 

[hygienist999]

Happy Birthday Julie. I hope you had a great day. But, just think of how much you will enjoy your birthday next year Disney style.

 

[hygienist999]

Happy Birthday Julie. I hope you had a great day. But, just think of how much you will enjoy your birthday next year Disney style.

 

[hygienist999]

Just to give a heads up.

Everywhere I look about excursions, I see the same thing about Tunis. Do not do this on your own. The people there are relentless with haggling you for money. One family hired a private guide and the guide would not keep to the planned tour. The family ended up getting swindled out of $300. Also tour guides were hassling people at each stop for tips. Disney for us will be the only way we do this port.

 

[JulieWent]

I read a report of the Jeep 4x4 trip in Tunis. I was pleased that the person who wrote it said that this trip doesn't even go into any of the markets. The markets don't bother me. (We lived in Texas for a time and used to go into Mexico and haggle with the street vendors.) But it's not really the way I want to spend my time, and I'm not sure my son would "get it." (He'd be soooo embarrassed!) So, I really hope that there's room on that trip when it's time to book.

Julie

 

[lornak]

We are pretty seriously considering not getting off the ship in Tunis. I can't believe I am even saying that--I was so excited about visiting another continent! But after looking over the entire itinerary I can tell we are going to need some down days. I feel like we have to skip a port or two so we don't return home exhausted (or tour too tired to appreciate what we are seeing!). So, combined with the things I have read about Tunis, I think this may be one port we skip.

If not, we will definitely do a Disney excursion--I don't think we would brave this one alone!! I was reading about the pottery excursion and thought that sounded fun. I'm going to keep watching the trip reports and keep researching but those are my thoughts for now!!! We'll see....!!

 

[aroundtheriverbend]

Hi all! We're so excited to check in and say we'll be joining you next June! This will be our first family and Disney cruise - DH and I used to cruise before the kiddos, but that feels like a distant memory. At the time of sailing, we'll be:

Me - Allison
DH - Dave
DS River - 7
DD Winter - 5

We can't wait! If the experienced crew doesn't mind sharing, how do you best find airfare deals?

Thanks, looking forward to chatting!

 

[jmatias]

Aloha All!

We are now booked on this cruise. Switched from the June 8th sailing so we get that extra sea day and because the prices dropped it made it all work out.

This will be our 3rd Disney Cruise. At time of cruise we will be:

DH - 45
Me - 41
DS - 15
DS - 13
DD - 7

Been reading all the trip reports and can't wait!

Aloha,
Jen

 

[aroundtheriverbend]

Hi again, what did you all end up doing for trip insurance? Any good suggestions that let you add the airfare piece at a later date? Thanks!

 

[JulieWent]

Wow! Our group is getting BIG! Hi Jen and Allison! Welcome to the June 18 sailing. I guess we're supposed to come up with a name for our cruise, but I'm not good with that sort of thing.

Jen, I think you win the prize for coming the farthest for this cruise. Aloha, indeed.

Allison, I think one other member of our cruise group is also from the Carolinas, but I can't remember which one.

I don't think any of us have started hard and fast planning yet, though, it's tempting, and I think a few of us are REALLY reading the excursion reports that have come in recently from the Med 2010 cruises. It will be interesting to see if Disney changes any of them.

I am watching the airfares carefully. We need to fly Delta (tons of SkyMiles), and Delta won't release the fares I need for another month or so. They (the fares) I've been watching have been MUCH better than they were a few years ago -- the last time I cared about trans-Atlantic fares. So, there is hope. We're planning on flying to London for a few days before the trip and then flying from London to Barcelona.

We definitely purchased the trip insurance Disney offered. It's such a huge sum of money. We're DVC members, and I'm kind of careless about not purchasing trip insurance for our Disney trips, but those trips are all smaller sums -- sums that wouldn't make me just hurt if we had to cancel things at the last minute for a true emergency. (We live close enough to drive to Disney, so we don't have to include airfare for those trips.) The cruise -- THAT amount would make me hurt, I think. Thus, the insurance.

I'm glad that both of you joined us here. As we get closer to our trip, I'm hoping we can organize a bit -- maybe an onboard meet or something. It will be interesting to see what everyone is planning in port, as well.

Once again, welcome!

Julie

 

[hygienist999]

Great to have you Jen and Allison. Jen I'm envious of your home state. I've never been there, but certainly plan to one day.

Allison, I will be at the world of Harry Potter in 3 weeks. So, I'll give you a little report.

My DH booked us 2 rooms at the Marriott Ren. Hotel at the airport. We have Marriott points, so rooms were free.

Like Julie, we will be using sky miles from Delta, so we won't be able to book for a couple of months now.

We will probably purchase the insurance. We are also Disney Vacation Club members, and I would hate to lose all of those points.

We love Disney. When Disney does something, they usually do it very well. So I'm hoping any and all glitches with excursions Disney will have worked out by our sail date.

Julie, my DH has given me a lot of grief about the research I've been doing. But, I can't help myself. We will be down in your neck of the woods this weekend. We both are very fortunate that we are within driving distance of WDW.

Keep the info coming!

Allison

 

[lornak]

Welcome to all our new members! What a fun group we have!!!

I have not purchased insurance yet but am definitely planning on it. We are leaving our 4 children at home and I wouldn't feel comfortable without it. However, we haven't decided if Disney insurance is the way to go or if another supplier would be better. Am I correct in thinking that the Disney insurance DOES cover your airfare even if you don't book it through Disney? I guess that is what I am most concerned about....airfare isn't cheap!! I would love to hear what others are doing about insurance!

I WISH I had FF miles to use for flights but we will be paying cash (ok, credit). I believe tomorrow is the first day I can check actual fares for the dates we want. Honestly, I hope the fares aren't very good right now as I need to save up a little bit before I can buy. But from what I have read, 11 months out is historically a good time to buy.....so I am watching closely!

Julie, great idea about a meet up or something! It will be fun to meet everyone in person!!

 

[aroundtheriverbend]

Hi Lornak,

I just got our insurance today - through insuremytrip.com. They've got a zillion options, I actually ended up calling the 800 number and had very good customer service. The quote I went with was lower than Disney's, and covered much more! You can add your flight info at a later date. It also covers catching us up to ports if for some unbelieveable reason our flights were delayed and we missed the first sailing. I highly recommend it! If you are also particularly interested in the missed connection piece, you should probably call them, as you can't really search for it online. We went with a Travelex package, I think availability depends on your home location.

Good luck!

We, too, are freaking out about airfare. Very expensive! I think this is the first time in my life I've actually planned a trip before airline schedules were even out!

 

[jmatias]

We are also planning on trip insurance. Will look into it once we get back home....at WDW right now!

Also thinking about maybe doing London before/after the cruise. Planning to use our AA miles for the flights so have to see what works the best.

Jen

 

[hygienist999]

We will most certainly look into the trip insurance.

Jen, I know you are having a great time at WDW. We will be there on July 25th. Can't wait for some Disney magic.

Allison

 

[JulieWent]

Got a trip "Home" (to BWV) and to visit Harry Potter in just a few days. Can't wait! DS is already planning the entire itinerary for us. (Funny, I used to do the itineraries. How did it happen that HE became the planner?)

J

 

[hygienist999]

Julie I hope your family has a great time. Give me a heads up on the crowds for Harry Potter. We have never stayed at our DVC 'HOME', isn't that funny. We always skip around. We will be staying at AKV in three weeks and I'm so looking forward to going. That's funny that your DS is doing the planning. The only planning that's being done, other than mine, is my oldest DS is asking his girlfriend to marry him while we are at WDW. So it should be a very memorable trip.

I haven't searched the net in the last few days for info on our cruise, but I probably will this weekend. I'm very interested in posts from people who have done this cruise. I will certainly pass on any info that is useful.

Allison

 

[JulieWent]

Oh! Congratulations! (I hope!) That's so romantic, wonderful, exciting! I hope everything goes well. Does he have locations, etc. all planned out? (My DS, being 15, says that he thinks Tower of Terror would be the PERFECT place to propose. I'm hoping he readjusts his sense of romance in the next few years OR that he finds just he right girl. LOL) Oh, I hope everything goes well for your son.

On the Disney front, we hardly ever stay away from our "Home." We've tried over the years, but my boys (DS and DH) always gripe, "It's not the BoardWalk." So back we go. I even got a 2BR for DS and his best friend at Beach Club when we went last summer. DS said Stormalong Bay was "nice," but not the same as sitting out on our balcony watching things happen on the BoardWalk. Go figure.

We're going to stay over at Universal for a few days too. (We love Universal almost as much as Disney.) Can't wait to explore WWoHP and let my husband visit the Cinnabon attraction. (His place while DS and I go on rollercoasters, etc.)

Hope everyone's 4th is good, and once again, I hope your son's proposal plans work out well! Let us know about them.

Julie