June 29, 2011-10 "MAGICAL" nights in the Mediterranean

[MissReeRee]

Paul HATES HATES HATES dressing up. Shirt and tie is about all I will get out of him.

We did the Alasakan cruise - heck, even in August - we were wearing our WINTER COATS - so the mosquitos cant even get through those suckers!!!

Miss ReeRee - Zingaro Park sounds interesting....Is that on the Disney cruise excursion or something you found on your own? There were a couple of options and I just -ugh. Don't even feel like spending the time to look. The farm sounded fun, but my daughter is a Vet major and we are seeing/experiencing so many farms - I am still kind of wishy washy about that one. Thought about doing the morbid Cappucini Catacombs on my own - because its just bizarre hanging dead people on the walls.

Zingaro Park is a Disney excursion:

Travel approximately 75 minutes through magnificent rolling hills brimming with vineyards and olive trees, as you make your way from the pier in Palermo to captivating Castallamare del Golfo.
Once there, board a boat and embark on an approximate 60-minute journey along the Sicilian coastline. Visit such stunning bays as Cala Bianca and Cala Rossa. Note: in case of inclement sea conditions, Guests will travel via bus.
Take in a delightful stop at Grotta dei Colombi, a grotto famous for its abundance of pigeons. Make your way through the picturesque Natural Reserve of Zingaro to Cala Marinella Cove..
Enjoy approximately an hour of swimming where skyscraping mountains, jagged cliffs, rugged caves and sandy beaches surround you at every turn.
From Cala Marinella journey to the seaside resort village of San Vito Lo Capo for a traditional southern Italian lunch, included in your tour.
Afterward, stroll the narrow alleyways and enjoy some shopping, or take a closer look at one of the many age-old towers scattered throughout the town that are used to signal the presence of hostile boats.
Finally, wind down with a relaxing air-conditioned ride back to the pier at Palermo.

It just sounds like the perfect Italian day, just a little pricey at $150 pp so I'm still looking for other options. However it would be the only tour we'll do. The rest of the ports will be on the cheap!

My husband is the same way when it comes to dressing up, formal night he wears a dress shirt and pants but no jacket and tie, he just HATES them! I don't mind because I'll be in a cocktail dress, nothing too fancy myself!

 

[sinnika]

Finally booked our hotel for after the cruise. Staying at the Hotel Fira Palace. We wanted to stay in this location to see the Magic Fountains Sat night as well as attend the flamenco dance (Tablao de Carmen) at the Poble Espanol Sat evening and these are both within walking distance. We also hope to go to Montserrat on Sunday. I called Hotels.com to book since I could not book for all 4 of us staying in one room from any website, but they were able to book for me - 2 adults and 2 children. The rate was $169 per night in case anyone is still looking for hotels. We are staying in the north Ramblas area at the Hotel Continental Palacete pre-cruise. Getting very excited about seeing Barcelona again and of course the cruise!

 

[keenercam]

Hey, everyone! Just a quick reminder - if you are going to join us for dinner on Tuesday night (boarding eve), please send me an email ASAP. We are at 36 people now, and if they can't accommodate that many, I want to be sure I find that out as soon as possible, so that we can look for an alternative location. But I want to be able to give them a firm number.

Our attendees are made up of 9 families! How wonderful!

 

[deplion]

Would love to join you guys, but we are coming in from Madrid that day and are not sure what time we will get in.

If you find out the place has extra room, and we make it in time, we will try to stop by. If not, I'm sure we'll see you guys on the ship.

 

[johnwdw]

We would love to do it as well but we wont be flying in from Paris until the morning of the cruise. See you all on the ship!!

 

[keenercam]

Would love to join you guys, but we are coming in from Madrid that day and are not sure what time we will get in.

If you find out the place has extra room, and we make it in time, we will try to stop by. If not, I'm sure we'll see you guys on the ship.

We would love to do it as well but we wont be flying in from Paris until the morning of the cruise. See you all on the ship!!

We'll miss everyone who can't make it to dinner , but we'll hope to see you at the DIS meet on board, before the sailaway party.

 

[thinkoflaura]

omg - i can't believe we fly to London 5 weeks from tomorrow and board the Magic a few days later!!!

a little off topic - and not sure if this issue is being discussed in your neighborhood, but i am really looking forward until SUNDAY, May 22nd... all this "end of the world scheduled for May 21st" is starting to get under my skin. it kinda feels like when you go to those theme park haunted houses where teens in costumes jump out at you to rattle your nerves. i know they're not real... but i'd rather not be exposed to that stuff at all!

 

[OH 6]

We got our cruise docs in the mail today!

Can't wait!

We're trying to convince a friend to sign on for the cruise...his niece is graduating from HS and he's giving her a trip to anywhere in the world that she wants...hoping she shows some interest in this since she can't seem to make up her mind.

 

[DCLShel]

We got our cruise docs in the mail today!

Can't wait!

We're trying to convince a friend to sign on for the cruise...his niece is graduating from HS and he's giving her a trip to anywhere in the world that she wants...hoping she shows some interest in this since she can't seem to make up her mind.

Yay!Yay! When the documents come, the trip seems so much closer!

Just checked our reservation - we're still GTY status but I'm ok with that. I'm hoping it means we'll get a upgrade (fingers crossed!). If not, no big deal.

Hope you can convince your friend and his niece to join us!! What a very generous uncle!

 

[DorothyDamato]

We were discussing this last night at a Tricky Tray - we all decided we would wait to hear if China was in shambles - and if so - rush to do what we wanted in the remaining hours!
My one friend hasnt had sugar in years - her son is a teenager and wanted to drive a fast car....so she told him that He could drive her to all the dessert and bakery shops!! We were laughing.....imagine the crazy driving and powdered white sugar from donuts all over your face as you drive to the cheescake factory!!

 

[sinnika]

We got our cruise docs in the mail today!

Can't wait!

Got ours too! Getting the luggage tags makes it so more real! We're assigned to our booked cabins #1066 and 1068 connecting. No upgrade. I'm thinking with all the IG, OG and VG discounted rates, upgrades aren't going to be as abundant as they were in the past. Before, DCL would sell lots of cat 12 rates (cat 11 c's now). On our last Med cruise, we had over 50 people booked at that level and there are only 13 of those cabins, so there were bound to be lots of upgrades. Offering those cheap cat 12 rates helped fill our last cruise and also meant lots of free upgrades. But offering discounts this new way makes DCL more money. Even the military rates are alot more this year than they were last year. The thing about the upgrades was, there were very few substantial upgrades if you already had a veranda (maybe a 6 to a 5, or if you were really lucky, a 4), but there were tons of upgrades from inside to oceanview, and some even went from inside to veranda! Some that paid higher rates in the first place for a veranda felt slighted because they had paid alot more than people who were getting free upgrades.
In all honesty, I would have booked connecting inside cabins for this cruise and saved another $1000 but DH needs his window! I did one cruise with the kids only and stayed in a cat 11C. I loved it! Best sleep I ever had with the room being so dark! I had room service every morning to wake us up, and had my coffee in bed, and the kiddos had their donuts in bed too!

 

[kmc33]

Yay! We got our docs too. They came today!

 

[sinnika]

We were discussing this last night at a Tricky Tray - we all decided we would wait to hear if China was in shambles - and if so - rush to do what we wanted in the remaining hours!
My one friend hasnt had sugar in years - her son is a teenager and wanted to drive a fast car....so she told him that He could drive her to all the dessert and bakery shops!! We were laughing.....imagine the crazy driving and powdered white sugar from donuts all over your face as you drive to the cheescake factory!!

So glad the world didn't end yesterday. However, just read on the main forum about a volcano eruption in Iceland
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2725206 Talk about a deja-vu. About a month before our Med cruise last year, the same thing happened, then on top of it an airline strike with British Airways. Made for some tense weeks before our cruise. The volanco settled before we left, but we had to scramble for other airlines because of the airline strike (not all flights were affected but ours was). In the end, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we were able to change our return flights coming back from London instead of Barcelona and on a totally different day for free (we stayed on the ship for the repo cruise Barcelona to Dover).
I read that this ash cloud is not affecting much air space yet, but they will know more info this evening. Lets hope it settles down!

 

[MissReeRee]

So glad the world didn't end yesterday. However, just read on the main forum about a volcano eruption in Iceland
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2725206 Talk about a deja-vu. About a month before our Med cruise last year, the same thing happened, then on top of it an airline strike with British Airways. Made for some tense weeks before our cruise. The volanco settled before we left, but we had to scramble for other airlines because of the airline strike (not all flights were affected but ours was). In the end, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we were able to change our return flights coming back from London instead of Barcelona and on a totally different day for free (we stayed on the ship for the repo cruise Barcelona to Dover).
I read that this ash cloud is not affecting much air space yet, but they will know more info this evening. Lets hope it settles down!

I was thinking of you when I heard this after everyone having to go through this last year! We are lucky enough that we can take the train if we need but our cruise meet last year everyone was panicking!

 

[DCLShel]

So glad the world didn't end yesterday. However, just read on the main forum about a volcano eruption in Iceland
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2725206 Talk about a deja-vu. About a month before our Med cruise last year, the same thing happened, then on top of it an airline strike with British Airways. Made for some tense weeks before our cruise. The volanco settled before we left, but we had to scramble for other airlines because of the airline strike (not all flights were affected but ours was). In the end, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we were able to change our return flights coming back from London instead of Barcelona and on a totally different day for free (we stayed on the ship for the repo cruise Barcelona to Dover).
I read that this ash cloud is not affecting much air space yet, but they will know more info this evening. Lets hope it settles down!

Its been a busy day and I haven't had the TV on much. I did see something about a volcano eruption in Iceland - I thought they were talking about the anniversary of the eruption last year! Oops - guess I should have paid closer attention - haha! Here's hoping the ash cloud dissipates quickly!

 

[keenercam]

Hi, everyone! I just wanted to let those families who signed up for the DIS meet at the Tapas restaurant to know that I emailed the group reservations coordinator and I am waiting to hear back from her.

Also, the exchange rate is better today than I've seen in a while, in case anyone is waiting to buy Euros.

Oh, and have I mentioned -- We received our cruise documents!!!!!

 

[DCLShel]

Just purchased our tickets for the Leaning Tower of Pisa!!

Has anyone purchased Coliseum tickets? I've tried but I keep getting a message that no tickets are available for that date - I'm hoping the date just isn't available yet.

No documents yet but I'm hoping they will be there today! We will check the mail after DD gets out of school~

 

[OH 6]

Paul HATES HATES HATES dressing up. Shirt and tie is about all I will get out of him.

We don't mind dressing up, but we also don't feel like it this time around - extra weight in the luggage no less for those suits. So we'll be dining in Topsiders on formal and semi-formal nights. The food up there is just as good, you don't have to dress up and you get to help train some new waitstaff.

 

[DorothyDamato]

Nope - have been checking twice some days - still can't purchase the tickets.
Nicholas - Mike - did your friend end up talking his....niece (?) into the Med Cruise?!

 

[MissReeRee]

I'm so jealous everyone is starting to receive their cruise docs! Can't wait to get mine!