June 27, 2013 - Magic in the Med (Venice)

[MadHatterMom2]

Good morning everyone,

I don't know if anybody is interested but I did read in an earlier post that somebody was asking about Malta. I have been to Malta several times and love the place. On a Sunday morning there is a market in Valletta. Valletta itself is a beautiful city full of history. I would also recommend taking a boat trip around Valletta harbour. Malta is also famous for its Mdina glass which comes in a variety of colours (I will be picking up a piece or two ). I do know that DCL have done many different trips for Malta and I think one of them was to the island of Gozo which is also beautiful. I hope this has given you some idea of Malta and if you have any more questions I would be happy to answer them if I can.

Just to add to this post, we did the DCL Med. cruise last year (2012) and Malta was one of our favorite ports. We went on a DCL excursion - the Jeep Adventure - and it was a blast. One of the highlights of our trip, in fact. I hope they do the same excursion on this cruise.

 

[rotary2808]

Ok, so I need the advice of our veteran Med. cruisers.

In La Spezia, is it possible to see both Pisa and Florence? I have never been to Pisa so I don't want to miss that, but there's something I'd like to see in Florence as well so I'm hoping there's time for both. Really I just need to see two things, the Tower and a museum in Florence, please tell me it's possible!!

 

[jel0511]

Ok, so I need the advice of our veteran Med. cruisers.

In La Spezia, is it possible to see both Pisa and Florence? I have never been to Pisa so I don't want to miss that, but there's something I'd like to see in Florence as well so I'm hoping there's time for both. Really I just need to see two things, the Tower and a museum in Florence, please tell me it's possible!!

DCL has an excursion that takes you to both, but it's more of a do it yourself excursion and you don't climb the tower with DCL. I climbed the tower and went to Florence on our last time, but it was REALLY tight. You could do both as long as you hire a private driver. You will need reservations for both the tower climb and the museum as you won't get in without one. The tour company will help you with times where you can get to everything, but realize it's a 2 1/2 hour drive from La Spezia to Florence, so a considerable amount of time is spent in the car. We had about 1 1/2 hours in Pisa and around 2 hours in Florence. We left pretty early in the AM(around 8) and returned to the ship by 6. So as you can see a lot of your day is lost to driving.....

 

[nzdisneymom]

DCL has an excursion that takes you to both, but it's more of a do it yourself excursion and you don't climb the tower with DCL. I climbed the tower and went to Florence on our last time, but it was REALLY tight. You could do both as long as you hire a private driver. You will need reservations for both the tower climb and the museum as you won't get in without one. The tour company will help you with times where you can get to everything, but realize it's a 2 1/2 hour drive from La Spezia to Florence, so a considerable amount of time is spent in the car. We had about 1 1/2 hours in Pisa and around 2 hours in Florence. We left pretty early in the AM(around 8) and returned to the ship by 6. So as you can see a lot of your day is lost to driving.....

It's also important to know that La Spezia is a tender port so if you do something on your own, you won't be in the first groups for tendering off the ship. Honestly if I were to try to do both Pisa and Florence in a day, I'd do it with DCL because it gets you off the ship earlier and if there are delays in returning, they will hold the ship for you. When we sailed in 2007, there were a few DCL excursions that were late back to La Spezia - and a few regular folks who benefitted from the DCL excursions being late because they were able to cram on the last tender back that was held for the DCL late arrivals. With that much transportation time between Pisa and Florence, I would be nervous about it even with a private driver - but really until they post the port times, it might be hard to decide - if we have a super early arrival and a late departure, you could maybe do it, just know the risk.

We did a DCL to Pisa only and were able to climb the tower - it was what the boys wanted to do more than anything. So this time we'll go into Florence.

 

[rotary2808]

DCL has an excursion that takes you to both, but it's more of a do it yourself excursion and you don't climb the tower with DCL. I climbed the tower and went to Florence on our last time, but it was REALLY tight. You could do both as long as you hire a private driver. You will need reservations for both the tower climb and the museum as you won't get in without one. The tour company will help you with times where you can get to everything, but realize it's a 2 1/2 hour drive from La Spezia to Florence, so a considerable amount of time is spent in the car. We had about 1 1/2 hours in Pisa and around 2 hours in Florence. We left pretty early in the AM(around 8) and returned to the ship by 6. So as you can see a lot of your day is lost to driving.....

A DIY type tour might just fit the bill. I have no interest in climbing the tower. I may be young, but I don't have that much energy and stamina. I just want to be able to say I've seen it. Really the museum in Florence is more imp't to me but wouldn't be on most people's to do list. I love all things fashion and Gucci has their museum in Florence. It's something I really want to see b/c I might not get another chance (plus the opportunity to do some high end shopping doesn't hurt either). I'll be on if I can see both in one day.

 

[jel0511]

A DIY type tour might just fit the bill. I have no interest in climbing the tower. I may be young, but I don't have that much energy and stamina. I just want to be able to say I've seen it. Really the museum in Florence is more imp't to me but wouldn't be on most people's to do list. I love all things fashion and Gucci has their museum in Florence. It's something I really want to see b/c I might not get another chance (plus the opportunity to do some high end shopping doesn't hurt either). I'll be on if I can see both in one day.

make sure the tour doesn't include any other sightseeing through DCL. If it does, you'll find it hard to get away to see the museum you want... I had friends on the pisa/florence excursion and they said there really wasn't much time left to do shopping on your own....

 

[nzdisneymom]

make sure the tour doesn't include any other sightseeing through DCL. If it does, you'll find it hard to get away to see the museum you want... I had friends on the pisa/florence excursion and they said there really wasn't much time left to do shopping on your own....

We have found that to be the case, too - in fact, our Pisa day we had NO time for shopping - I stepped away while the 2nd half of our group was climbing the tower and ended up in a bookshop (I was looking for a souvenir tower) and bought the 7th Harry Potter book that had come out that week - best souvenir from the trip!

Sometimes DCL offers excursions that take you to the center of town and leave you for x amount of time - so basically they provide transportation into town and then pick you up at a designated spot at the end of the time. If they have something like that for Florence, that might fit your needs. You have the security of DCL should there be delays in getting from Florence back to La Spezia but you have some freedom in Florence itself to see and do what you want. The only downside would be if you got done way sooner than the time allotted and had to wait around more than you wanted - or if you got lost.

 

[rotary2808]

Pisa I really just need long enough to jump out of a car and take a pic of the tower. I'll take as much time in Florence as I can.

 

[jel0511]

Pisa I really just need long enough to jump out of a car and take a pic of the tower. I'll take as much time in Florence as I can.

Sounds like a private tour might be the best for you. A DCL tour will spend more time there than you want and might not give you enough time in Florence.

 

[carpenta]

Pisa I really just need long enough to jump out of a car and take a pic of the tower. I'll take as much time in Florence as I can.

Just do the classic holding up the tower and take the picture. Loved Florence too.

 

[DenverVal]

Please add us onto the roster! We've been booked since the beginning, but only just now starting to focus on the trip. We are: Val, DH Joe, DD 20 Rachel, and DD 18 Leia. 32 pages of talking? I have a lot of catching up to do.

 

[carpenta]

please add us onto the roster! We've been booked since the beginning, but only just now starting to focus on the trip. We are: Val, dh joe, dd 20 rachel, and dd 18 leia. 32 pages of talking? I have a lot of catching up to do.

welcome aboard!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Please add us onto the roster! We've been booked since the beginning, but only just now starting to focus on the trip. We are: Val, DH Joe, DD 20 Rachel, and DD 18 Leia. 32 pages of talking? I have a lot of catching up to do.

Val and gang, welcome aboard!

 

[DenverVal]

A secret porthole room became available, and I am happy to say it's all mine! Doing a happy dance!

 

[gydell]

A secret porthole room became available, and I am happy to say it's all mine! Doing a happy dance!

What cabin number? We're in 5024.

 

[DenverVal]

We're on the opposite side in 5520.

 

[gydell]

We're on the opposite side in 5520.

We've had that one before.

 

[DenverVal]

We are a little concerned about noisy theatre rehearsals at odd hours, which they did on the Wonder. The also did a premier showing of Cars 2 at 12:01 am which made the bed shake. I will bring earplugs just in case and roll with it. I want the window.

 

[shoes99]

A secret porthole room became available, and I am happy to say it's all mine! Doing a happy dance!

We're on the opposite side in 5520.

What cabin number? We're in 5024.

We are in 5020 for the Med Cruise, but next month we are in 5520 for NY to Canada. We like the non-connecting SPH cabins.
Michele

 

[nzdisneymom]

So you know how I've been watching airfare, and it's getting closer to being able to get the absolute dates we want plugged in, so I checked with our TA to see how much we would have to pay if we do air on our own but want DCL transfers from airport to dcl hotel to port to dcl hotel to airport. She said it is $90 per person. So then I went to insuremytrip dot com to get an idea of how much travel insurance would cost for a flight giving a range of what we have seen so far $1400 - $1600 per ticket. Depending on the company and coverage, we are looking at $50-100 per person

So doing the math,DCL wants $1818 for the flights. Minus the $90 transfers minus the $50-100 for travel insurance, we are
looking at a break-even point of $1600-1650 per ticket. So anything less than that would put us ahead so we have to decide at what point is the savings worth doing the flights on our own? At $1500 per ticket times four tickets, that is $400-600 savings. At $1400 per ticket, that jumps to $800-1000 savings. So I am thinking somewhere below 1500 which I believe we can get and in two weeks should be able to start pricing out and watching for variance on days of the week for booking.

So what am I missing? What else do I need to consider? DH is more comfortable with us going ahead and splurging on the DCL hotel, and having the transfers through them. So while we could do pre stay accommodations for less, he would rather we stick with dcl.

Also, when you get travel insurance for flights, how do you decide what coverage to get?

I am cross posting this with our B2B cruise.