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

[disprincess4ever]

Only 49 days for us till we fly to Barcelona!

Anyone else feel like time is flying by way to fast and they need more time to prepare? Cause I sure do! So much to remember I'm afraid to forget something.

 

[lisah0711]

Only 49 days for us till we fly to Barcelona!

Anyone else feel like time is flying by way to fast and they need more time to prepare? Cause I sure do! So much to remember I'm afraid to forget something.

I'm with you! I'm sure it will be fine and they actually do have stuff in Europe if we forget something, right?!? That's what I keep telling myself anyway.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Here's a link to Taxi info for Naples in case anyone needed it. Look for the ordinary urban tariff pdf.

We are thinking that we'll cab to the pizza place after our excursion. Here's what the pizza place said to do:

Take a taxi and let them lead to VIA CASANOVA n.109 near PORTA CAPUANA. With the taxi arrived in less than 15 minutes (3.3 km away).

This is the pizza place we're planning to go to.

 

[lisah0711]

Here's a link to Taxi info for Naples in case anyone needed it. Look for the ordinary urban tariff pdf.

We are thinking that we'll cab to the pizza place after our excursion. Here's what the pizza place said to do:

Take a taxi and let them lead to VIA CASANOVA n.109 near PORTA CAPUANA. With the taxi arrived in less than 15 minutes (3.3 km away).

This is the pizza place we're planning to go to.

Thank you so much for posting this! This will help us figure out how to get to the National Museum in Naples and then hopefully on to delicious pizza.

 

[krennhack]

We were booked on the Capri, Sorrento and Pompeii excursion. It looked really interesting to me, but when I talked to a local guide, we said they would NOT offer that trip to us as it would be too much for the short time we have their. They said we woudn't really get to enjoy much of each place. So we decided to cancel it. But I am still kind of wondering about it. What were your thoughts of the excursion?

We are booked on the Pompeii, Sorento and Capri for Families excursion. This trip is all about sampling for us. We will come back on our own some day and do a more indepth coverage of things that really interest us.

 

[nzdisneymom]

We are booked on the Pompeii, Sorento and Capri for Families excursion. This trip is all about sampling for us. We will come back on our own some day and do a more indepth coverage of things that really interest us.

That's exactly how we express it when talking to people about cruising - it's a way to see a lot of places and figure out if there are places we would like to go back and explore more via a land-based trip. I tell people that all the time when they are thinking about cruising - it's a sampler platter.

 

[MrsScooby]

Hey, Anyone out there interested in sharing a private tour for Rome ?
We have a minibus and guide booked with Rome and Limo with Thumpery and her family and there is room for another family if anyone is interested.

We are planning on these sites:

Pantheon
Colliseum
Circus Maximus
Trevi Fountain
Roman Forum & Palantine Hill
Church of Bones
St. Peter Basillica (depending on wait time)
Pasta/pizza lunch, gelato, and souvenir shopping

And saving the Vatican/Sistine Chapel for our next trip...

Between the two families so far we have 4 kids ranging in age from 15-20.
Anyone interested send me a pm
Price depends on how many we get in our group so potential for saving money is very good

 

[nzdisneymom]

Hey, Anyone out there interested in sharing a private tour for Rome ?
We have a minibus and guide booked with Rome and Limo with Thumpery and her family and there is room for another family if anyone is interested.

We are planning on these sites:

Pantheon
Colliseum
Circus Maximus
Trevi Fountain
Roman Forum & Palantine Hill
Church of Bones
St. Peter Basillica (depending on wait time)
Pasta/pizza lunch, gelato, and souvenir shopping

And saving the Vatican/Sistine Chapel for our next trip...

Between the two families so far we have 4 kids ranging in age from 15-20.
Anyone interested send me a pm
Price depends on how many we get in our group so potential for saving money is very good

You guys will have a great time, and honestly if we weren't going to Rome the previous week, we'd jump at this. If you can't get to St. Peter Basillica, try to get to Basillica San Clemente. It's open from noon to 6 PM. Here's a link to their brochure. Our friends were there in February and said it's worth going to look at.

 

[sandiedvc]

Well, I'm back! Hopefully for good this time. The last couple of months have been a little rough. My parents moved down here to be close to someone in the family as they were in poor health and in the time they were here their health has gotten much worse. Took my sister coming to visit the folks for me to realize that there was no way for me to do everything that they needed. Took until now to find the best place for them and get that all finalized. Still have a dining room and storage unit full of "important" stuff to figure out what to do with, but I think that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, the tunnel is still littered with all the things that I haven't gotten done because they didn't make the triage list, but I feel hopeful.

So now I am scrambling to get things together for the trip. I was putting together a spreadsheet for clothing and I realized that I don't have when the formal/semi formal nights are. Does anyone know when they are?

Spent all morning trying on clothes to see what I have that will work, now I have to slot that into the spreadsheet and see what I still need while I have time to get something!

Has anyone gotten luggage tags yet?

 

[thumpery]

Hey, Anyone out there interested in sharing a private tour for Rome ?
We have a minibus and guide booked with Rome and Limo with Thumpery and her family and there is room for another family if anyone is interested.

We are planning on these sites:

Pantheon
Colliseum
Circus Maximus
Trevi Fountain
Roman Forum & Palantine Hill
Church of Bones
St. Peter Basillica (depending on wait time)
Pasta/pizza lunch, gelato, and souvenir shopping

And saving the Vatican/Sistine Chapel for our next trip...

Between the two families so far we have 4 kids ranging in age from 15-20.
Anyone interested send me a pm
Price depends on how many we get in our group so potential for saving money is very good

I'm Thumpery and SOOOO looking forward to this tour with MrsScooby and family! We are a friendly bunch if anyone wants to join!

On a sidenote - I prepaid out tips yesterday. Almost double of a 7 night cruise . BUT SO WORTH IT! Disney does it right!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Well, I'm back! Hopefully for good this time. The last couple of months have been a little rough. My parents moved down here to be close to someone in the family as they were in poor health and in the time they were here their health has gotten much worse. Took my sister coming to visit the folks for me to realize that there was no way for me to do everything that they needed. Took until now to find the best place for them and get that all finalized. Still have a dining room and storage unit full of "important" stuff to figure out what to do with, but I think that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately, the tunnel is still littered with all the things that I haven't gotten done because they didn't make the triage list, but I feel hopeful.

So now I am scrambling to get things together for the trip. I was putting together a spreadsheet for clothing and I realized that I don't have when the formal/semi formal nights are. Does anyone know when they are?

Spent all morning trying on clothes to see what I have that will work, now I have to slot that into the spreadsheet and see what I still need while I have time to get something!

Has anyone gotten luggage tags yet?

Welcome back, and whew, you will definitely be ready for vacation.

I expect luggage tags to start arriving early next week. We got ours on Saturday for the June 15th sailing, and some people got theirs earlier.

I put our daywear spreadsheet together today, well mine anyway. We aren't doing formal or semi formal so I don't know when they are.

 

[Kouris_Family]

I haven't even thought of packing yet...
I love to vacation but I am the worst packer, hate it and always do it at the last moment... maybe if I didn't do that I wouldn't dislike it so much.

Still looking to find another family of 4 or less to share our private driver in NAPLES, anyone still looking for something to do there? We plan on driving on the coast to SORRENTO, POSITANO, RAVELLO, AMALFI, and PIZZA of coarse.
More of a relaxing mode along the coast.

Let me know if you are interested, the car is 450 Euro for all day.

Kay

 

[jel0511]

I haven't even thought of packing yet...

I agree!!!! I'll probably start packing on 6/24, though I wouldn't be surprised if I end up doing it all on 6/25. I'm a pretty good packer and and pretty efficient doing it.

 

[nzdisneymom]

I have my packing spreadsheet and lists good to go - but won't do the actual packing until the Saturday / Sunday before we leave on June 11th. mostly because we're packing things we use and wear anyway. But having a comprehensive list keeps me from forgetting something or having to remember a bazillion things - and lets me go ahead and make sure everyone has enough socks and underwear and clothes that fit.

My spreadsheet is really just for me because I put the date/day/location and then what I plan to wear. I do it that way so that I can plan laundry days accordingly - and there are some specific things I want to wear based on where we are - for example, for our day in Rome, I have a pair of shorts that cover my knees but aren't capri length - I want to wear them in Rome because we're going to the Basillica San Clemente - but that's the only church we'll be going in - and I want to wear my sneakers which would look ridiculous with capris on me. So I need to make sure that I have it clean for our day in Rome. I will bring the list and pretty much stick to it - I did that for the Baltic and it really helped. Plus I can make sure everything will be worn at least twice - if not, it doesn't go.

Kids have 12 more days of school plus exams. I have 20 days of work.

 

[nzdisneymom]

I've updated the FE list with those that have provided me their GTY cabin assignments - just a couple of people still waiting to hear from DCL as to what their cabin number is. Once I have those, I'll send a message out again - the link is the same that you received in your PM.

 

[sandiedvc]

I am a "what if" packer. I always overpack. The first time I went to London for 10 or so days I took two large suitcases, true that they weren't totally full going over but the cabbies were appalled at the amount of stuff I had!

I am trying to be better. My spreadsheet is my attempt to pare it down. I have used it since our first long cruise and it worked out so great I have kept doing it. If I didn't do that I would be that person wearing a polka dotted top with striped pants the day before laundry day because that was all that was clean!

I had to go thru my closet as my usual attire is sweats and tshirts. All our big trips lately have been to cool to cold weather: London in the winter, Ireland in the spring, and the first Alaska cruise... I had no idea was was still in my closet for warm weather.

Found some really comfy capris at J Jill today. I think I still need one more pair (they don't weigh very much!)

Thanks for the info on the luggage tags. I was afraid that they had come and I had lost them in my mountains of paper.

I am sitting in the dark typing this on the ipad. The power has been out here for over a half and hour. Luckily the battery back up is keeping the internet going. Who knows how long it will last.

 

[nzdisneymom]

I saw on cruise critic that La Spezia opened a dock last month for ships. Some itineraries on other lines have changed from tendering status to docking. I wonder if we might be as lucky... I would love to have easier access to shore in the morning.

 

[DenverVal]

I just added on port transfers and the new confirmation I received has 'tender' next to that port, at least as of yesterday.

 

[nzdisneymom]

I just added on port transfers and the new confirmation I received has 'tender' next to that port, at least as of yesterday.

I hadn't noticed a change either. I was looking to see if we are the only ship there that day, but didn't finish looking...

 

[sandiedvc]

Looks like there will be one other ship in port with us. The other ship is an MSC with about 3300 people. Port Authority in Dubrovnik says that we will be in Berth 11 at Port Gruz.. That sounds like docking to me, but I didn't get a chance to research where that was. (Power was out about 2.5 hr last night and the battery back up for the internet only lasted an hour!)

They did have some good information on the port website.

Transportation options from the port into old town:

30 min walk

or Bus 1, 1A, 1B, 3 from harbor into city. Cost 10 HRK (kuna) pp. Buy tickets on the bus or at a newsstand

or Taxi. Harbor to city 70 HKN (kuna)