June 18, 2011 - 11 Night Mediterranean Sailing from Barcelona

[hygienist999]

Thanks Julie. Yes, we like Kristen, who is Kyle's girlfriend. I think they will wait til she finishes college to marry (we hope). I don't know where he plans on proposing, but DD thinks he wants the family around and for it to be filmed. So, it should be very exciting.

We have never stayed at Boardwalk. I think we would like it a lot. We last stayed at Saratoga Springs and loved it. Walking distance to Downtown Disney was a plus with the kids. We will be at the Animal Kingdom Villa's this year.

That is so funny, Tower of Terror. I'm with you, hope he changes his mind, or finds that perfect girl who would love it. It would be different. So cute.

Everyone, have a safe and fun 4th.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

We haven't purchased travel insurance yet, but thanks for the info--I'm going to check it out. Can't believe we're on the less than 1 year countdown. We can't wait!

 

[lornak]

Aroundtheriverbend---thanks for the great info on the insurance. I will look into that right away. I realize now that we should have purchased insurance earlier if we wanted the "cancel for any reason" coverage. But I think we will be fine with standard coverage. Great tip about the missed connection coverage. I am going to call and ask about that!

hygenist999---you will have to come back and let us know how it all goes! As someone with a very unromantic proposal (worse than the Tower of Terror!!) I would love to hear how someone does it right!!!

Julie---I would also love to hear about Harry Potter! Please fill us in when you have time!!

Happy 4th everyone!!!

 

[pegthelawyer]

Glad to see I am not the only one a bit freaked out about the airfare. I have heard recently that better airfares for Europe are availabe 4 months before travel, but I think I will not be able to pass up a decent fare to wait that long.
Seems like we have a great group so far - do any of the other Northern Californians want to look into a group airfare rate? We have either 9 or 10 people and I have heard that group rates may be a good money saver...




Peggy

 

[Calfan]

Peggy:

We are going to try to use United miles for our flights to Barcelona. I will know by very early Augsut whether we are going to be successful. If that doesn't work out, we might be interested in looking into group flights. I will let you know.

Laura

 

[ctldavis]

This will be our first Disney Cruise for me, DH and DD(15). We are flying from charlotte, NC. Can't Wait...

 

[JulieWent]

This will be our first Disney Cruise for me, DH and DD(15). We are flying from charlotte, NC. Can't Wait...

Welcome aboard! (It's great that we've got so many teens going! Of course only the mom of a teenager would say that! LOL My DS will be 15 on the cruise as well.)

Julie

 

[2PrincesseInTow]

I just found this board.... I thought I was the only crazy one that plans so far out. We're DH, DD 9.75, DD 5 and possibly MIL. It's our first family and Disney cruise. DH and I have done Alaska and are doing Athens to Istanbul in September.

I just booked air for the girls and I outbound only. We're in British Airways from Los Angles via London. Oh, we're from Las Vegas. I was able to get the three of us there with upgraded economy for $1,000 with 68k miles. I thought that was an okay deal. We had to travel on the 13th so we'll have lots of time to adjust to the time change. I'm thinking of the Hilton by the sea. I want the girls to be able to play at the pool and adjust as well as get some sights in. DH won't be able to join until Friday but he adjusts very well to time changes. I only booked the outbound because it was too early to book the return and I didn't want to loose the outbound deal.

On the way back I think we'll stop in London (maybe Paris too). Since the 4th of July holiday is just after the cruise, DH may be able to manage being away that long. It seems a shame to miss it when we've gone so far.

As for excursions, DH and I have been to Rome and Florence so we don't have as much pressure to see it all. I'm looking forward to learning more about the excursions.

Ok... That's us for now.

Sara

 

[ctldavis]

Welcome aboard! (It's great that we've got so many teens going! Of course only the mom of a teenager would say that! LOL My DS will be 15 on the cruise as well.)

Julie

Thank you Julie - we can't wait. anxious about flights like everyone else.

 

[MadHatterMom2]

Here's another family from California to add to this Med thread. We just got back from the 6/24 Baltic Cruise and booked this Med cruise while on board. There's me (another Julie), my DH, DD (12) and DS (8) on the cruise date.

Just a quick tidbit - when we booked this cruise the travel gal on board told us that Tunis was definitely the least popular port. I'm already thinking about maybe skipping this port too.

I was wondering if anyone would be interested in doing a FE exchange. We did this on the Baltic and it was a blast for the kids, although if the group is too big, it's can get expensive.

I am going to start looking at airfares as well. If anyone finds a good deal, let me know. Looking forward to planning.

 

[aroundtheriverbend]

Welcome more people! CTLDavis, we're out of Davidson, glad you can join us!

Sara - quick question for you - you were able to book miles for just a one way?? Can you add the second leg at a later time, or do you have to do two one ways? We've got enough miles for a few one ways or a few rts, but not both. Also, have a DD who will be 5 then too (and a DS who will be 7).

Sooo looking forward to this cruise!!!

 

[2PrincesseInTow]

Welcome more people! CTLDavis, we're out of Davidson, glad you can join us!

Sara - quick question for you - you were able to book miles for just a one way?? Can you add the second leg at a later time, or do you have to do two one ways? We've got enough miles for a few one ways or a few rts, but not both. Also, have a DD who will be 5 then too (and a DS who will be 7).

Sooo looking forward to this cruise!!!

I was able to book the one way with miles. We are planning to hit Paris and London on the way home perhaps via the train so our return may end up straight from London. I learned Wimbledon ends on July 3rd but I don't know if that will affect hotel rates and airfare.... But yes, I'll be booking the return one way.

My DD (5) is Grace and I have a feeling she is going to throw a fit when we leave the ship for excursions!

 

[2PrincesseInTow]

I was wondering if anyone would be interested in doing a FE exchange. We did this on the Baltic and it was a blast for the kids, although if the group is too big, it's can get expensive.

Can you please explain the FE exchange? Thanks!

 

[MadHatterMom2]

The FE stands for "Fish Extender". It's a little pocket thing that hangs on the fish outside your cabin door. If you do a search of "fish extenders" on this site, you can see examples of them.

So - whoever wants to participates can be included. You just put together a list of cabin numbers and families who want to participate, and bring little gifts to leave for each other. Kind of like a little Secret Santa kind of thing.

On our last cruise, there were 14 cabins and everyone brought little trinkets (very inexpensive) to leave in each other's fish extenders. It was lots of fun. Some people brought things from their home state or country; others gave out souvenirs from the ship and some people did home-made things, like magnets and calendars.

This may not be the best explanation, so if you want, go ahead and do a search, it might be a little more clear.

 

[JulieWent]

Hi everyone! Welcome to those who have joined the past week or two. It's getting closer. (Okay, well not that close, but, closer!)

We just got back from a week in Orlando. Spent four nights at Disney (our BoardWalk Villas home-away-from-home) and then went over to Universal where we stayed at Royal Pacific for three nights. We spent LOTs of time at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and had a great time. Magical highlights of the trip: We ran into two cast members at WDW who were working together -- one who had graduated from Auburn University (where we both got our undergraduate degrees and where my husband now teaches) and one who was on the college program from University of Texas (where DH got his graduate degrees). We talked for awhile, said War Eagle and Hook 'em, and then started to walk away. They stopped us and gave us two "Cast Member" fast passes each. So, we were able to walk on Space Mountain and BTMRR in the middle of the day. Very nice. The other magical highlight, of course, was at Universal. I cannot begin to tell you how exquisitely done the WWoHP is. So detailed, so amazing, so HOT! But I diverge. It really is what you have imagined as you have read the books and seen the movies. There's just not doubt. We just sat in the Owlery for awhile looking at it, it was so brilliant.

I know several of you are going in a few weeks (to WWoHP), so I wanted to make a few suggestions. Most of these have been made on the Universal board already, but what the heck? Suggestion one: GO EARLY, GO EARLY, GO EARLY. If you are staying on-site, leave your room no later than 7:00 a.m. They opened the gates for on-site and package holders both mornings we went in at 7:15. We were ON Forbidden Journey by 7:40.

Suggestion two: Skip Ollivander's if you can manage it. That line is crazy. If you can't manage it, go to Ollivander's first, and change suggestion one to, "Leave your room no later than 6:45." I purchased a wand for DS for his birthday about 8:15 a.m. with no problem by just going in Dervish and Bang's. The TMs there were very helpful and "in character." You get the feel of wand buying without the crowd.

Suggestion three: Have a cauldron cake from Honeydukes. It was great! (I had one at 9:30 in the morning -- I called it breakfast dessert!)

Suggestion four: Ride Flight of the Hippogriff. It really is a well-done refurb.

Suggestion five: Have lots of butterbeer! Sooooo good.

Final suggestion: Go back at night. It was lovely.

Let me know if you have any questions. I'm ready to start planning for our cruise now, but I'd love to talk more about our trip!

Julie

 

[aroundtheriverbend]

Thanks Julie! We're off to WWoHP October 15 - hopefully the hot part wears off by then! My kids are 4 and 6, so we generally get up early with them anyway, we'll plan on walking over by 7! My 4 year old will probably be too short for FJ, we'll probably have to do a parent swap. We can't wait! The pictures look incredible!

Hey, we're staying at Royal Pacific too - did you happen to do a character meal at Islands? Is it worth it?

Thanks!

 

[jmatias]

Good news today in that we were able to book our flight using miles to Barcelona. We are arriving a bit early, on June 14 to give us time to get over some jet lag before the cruise and to explore Barcelona for a couple of days.

Now just gotta wait about 2-3 weeks to hopefully get flights back home

Will also start looking into hotels. We are a family of 5 so looks like we will have to get 2 rooms or a suite.

Aloha,
Jen

 

[aroundtheriverbend]

We're looking at hotels too, and just have to wonder - are the Spaniards all smart enough that they never vacation with their kids? Why else would "family rooms" that sleep 4 be so hard to find?

 

[JulieWent]

We're looking at hotels too, and just have to wonder - are the Spaniards all smart enough that they never vacation with their kids? Why else would "family rooms" that sleep 4 be so hard to find?

Okay, that made me laugh! I think we'll probably end up staying at one of the "Disney approved" hotels in Barcelona so that we can take advantage of shuttles, check-ins, etc. But I do keep looking at one -- Casa Ramblas? I think. It is very high on TripAdvisor's review list, and it looks intriguing.

I'm not quite ready to plan Barcelona yet, though. Still thinking about London before the cruise. I'm also getting really impatient with Delta -- seems they just drag and drag about releasing dates and rates.

About WWoHP -- We love Royal Pacific and stay there whenever we go to Universal (which is about every other time we go down to Orlando). We haven't gone to any character meals at Universal since DS is 15 now and kind of past that in his "cool" teenaged way. If I had little ones who liked Spidey, etc., I'd jump on it. We think the restaurants in the Universal area are generally excellent. (DS always looks forward to Hard Rock, and DH loves Margaritaville. I talked them both into taking me to Emeril's Tchoup Tchoup for lunch this past time, and it was one of our best meals ever.)

It's almost time for school to start again. (I'm a teacher!) Alas, less time to plan and play. But, when the coming school year is over, it will be time to sail!

Hope everyone stays cool.

Julie

 

[hygienist999]

Thanks for the tips Julie. We will be at the WWoHP this coming Monday. We are staying at the AKV the entire trip so we will have to drive over to Universal. I'll have to see when the park opens for outsiders so we can be there early.

Can't believe in a little over 10 months we will be in Spain, taking a magical journey.

Haven't booked flights yet. Waiting to book round trip.