June 5,2010 Relocation Cruise

[Tink lives with me]

Greetings!!!! I am on this one too!

 

[bode]

76 more days!!!!

 

[jgura]

Hi All,
Are any of you bringing "fish extenders" on the relocation cruise? I have never preplanned exchanging the goodies, but would like to. Fish extenders are fabric mail pockets you hang outside of your cabin door for mail and small surprises from fellow cruisers. I purchased mine from ebay. I am also new to disboard, please direct me to the correct place to get involved in the June 5 Barcelona to Dover cruise (if I'm in the wrong place)

KATE: Any suggestions on private car hire from Dover to London? We want to sight see the main attractions on our way back to London. I could not find a tour going from the port into London. With kids and luggage it looks like a private driver is our best option. We are traveling with our 7 year old twin daughters, please let me know if you need any information. This will be our 6th Disney cruise. I am also in the travel industry, but clueless on Europe travel.

Jill

 

[KT27]

Welcome Jgura! We are a Texas Family as well just stationed in Germany for a few years.

Disney has a few tours that they offer after the cruise including:

Private Car: http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/c...ursions/dover-england/private-vehicle-london/

http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/cruises-destinations/shore-excursions/search/

 

[KT27]

Greetings!!!! I am on this one too!

Welcome! We just booked last week! I am so excited!

 

[YenSid1222]

Looks like Texas will be well represented! (I am from Arlington...home of the Texas Rangers and Dallas Cowboys)

As for Fish Extenders, I am game. We have had a lot of fun doing that on my last two cruises.

 

[K8T]

Fish Extenders!!!!! Yeah!!!

I have read about these and always wanted to do some.

Haven't a clue really how they work, I am presuming we just bring little bits along with us and each day leave a little something in our groups extenders? I was going to do this form my daughter, wouldn't tell her they were from us, but that Mickey (her hero!), had left the things.

Let me know if I have the right idea or not!

Jgura, The road from Dover to London is a fairly boring one, not much to see on the way, everything is in London itself.

There is a good train link to the City, a private car may be expensive, but easier. I wouldn't have a clue how much it would cost though. Are you flying straight out of London? If so a car would be the only way to do it, as they could give you a tour around the main sites, having said that, London gets extremely jammed up, the HopOn HopOff bus is better, because it casn go along bus lanes and jump the traffic.

You would need to book a London company to come down and pick you up, as their drivers know their way around London, a Dover company would probably not have a clue of the best way around. Some hotels may do a 'day stop' room, whereby you can dump your bags, freshen up and go out and have a look around, before picking up you stuff again.

Bear in mind that it will take around two hours, maybe slightly less to get from Dover to London, it is only 70 miles or so and we can drive at 70mph plus on the motorway (legally 70, but everyone does at least 80!!), but the traffic into London is very slow and congested, which is why the train is a good bet.

You could then get into a black cab and ask them to take you around the sites. Cabbies are usually very trustworthy and would be more than happy to show you around, however the meter would be ticking, so you could pre arrange a company to pick you up at the train station, if you get the times of the trains.

Hope this helps.

Kate

 

[jgura]

Hello, From Dover to London I was wanting to see Leed's Castle & Canterbury. The Disney options seem expensive and on one excursion they take you back to London then back out to sight see the castle and cathedral. Does that geographically make sense? Good to know on the traffic.

I believe on the Fish extenders, a family has one day they pass out goodies with a note or label so you know who it is from. I also bring my own things for my kids to find in their pouch. We have never exchanged, however on our last cruise someone dropped a cute baggie of things in our extender. They had their family name and a message printed on an address label.


Jill

 

[adrianna_sarah]

Texans here, too. At least as long as the Army has a say in the matter!

We have done FEs on a previous cruise, it was a lot of work!

Still working on booking plane tickets, some sort of internet craziness got in my way this afternoon. We are adding Canterbury/Leeds to London provided hubby's leave extention is approved.

 

[YenSid1222]

Fish Extenders can be a bit of work, but with as small as our group here is looking it will probably be easier than you think. My first time we had a small group and it was pretty easy and we were able to do some "nicer" items for everyone. My last cruise had A LOT of DISers and it was a bit of walking! But I love seeing everyones door, etc.

I usually try to bring a few little, easy to pack, things from my home town to exchange (plus usually some other little goodies too!). It was really fun when we all brought little things from our home towns to share. And it is always fun to arrive back at your cabin and find that someone has left a little surprise. I have had people make themed CDs, Christmas Ornaments, Magnets, candy, pirate stuff (for Pirate night...speaking of which...do we get that on a European sailing??), games and activities for kids, YOU NAME IT! There is no right or wrong way to do it...we can make it what we want it to be.

If you want someone to organize...I can probably do that too. (famous last words!)

 

[KT27]

I'm in for fish extenders!

 

[Pappy]

liz and I have booked at short notice got a deal from Virgin.. so see you all soon..Regards to Scot and Lynn

 

[disneymom7851]

I am in room with Yensid1222 and another DF. Fish Extenders will be great, I will get the one I made for Yensid's last cruise and rework it for us.

I have been to Leeds and Cantebury and they are worth it. I took a tour out of London and it doesn't seem like it was very long a trip on tour bus. I looked to do it again but train ride from Dover is not good to Cantebury and then Leeds

 

[K8T]

Hi there

It would make sense from Dover, to do Canterbury and then Maidstone (Leeds Castle), on the way to London, it seems a bit daft to go into London and then back out again. A good private hire company would be able to take you to both and then on into London.

Please note that Leeds Castle is NOT in Leeds! Leeds is actually in the North of England - not too far from me actually. Leeds Castle is down in the South East, not far from Maidstone, which is just outside London.

Have a look at Google Maps, put Dover, Canterbury and Maidstone for destinations, I tried to link but it didn't work!.

Canterbury is a very old town - Chaucer and all that, Leeds Castle is just beautiful, both worth doing if you have the time.

I am not sure about the trains though, unfortunately in the UK, we are not known for our good rail service, there are always delays. I wouldn't fancy doing it with trains, unlike the rest of Europe, which put our networks to shame! I once travelled (in my youth), all over Europe, including Eastern Europe by train and not once was a train delayed, or late in two months.

I arrived back in London and my connection home was cancelled

Kate

 

[jgura]

YenSid, looks like your in charge of FE. Thanks!

Thanks Kate for the info! Next is hotel planning.

Jill

 

[bode]

Count us in for the FE also.

I know we are 70+ days out but I still find myself checking the official site to see if they have posted my cabin yet. We are in a Cat 12gty and I am hoping for an upgrade.

 

[YenSid1222]

OK...If you want to participate in the Fish Extender please PM me with your stateroom number (if you know it) and the information as to who is in your room...ages of kids often helps as well to find some neat things. I will get a the list compiled and keep it updated as we move along closer to departure!

Also, do we want some cool name for our cruise? Relocation Cruise is pretty plain...

 

[adrianna_sarah]

Count us in for the FE also.

I know we are 70+ days out but I still find myself checking the official site to see if they have posted my cabin yet. We are in a Cat 12gty and I am hoping for an upgrade.

Me, too. We have never been upgraded on the DCL. We are Cat. 5 but there are ton of Cat. 4 mid-ships left, so we're hoping for a bump. I am guessing it is unlikely with our military rate, though.

On another note, we finally have our plane tickets. Apparently somehow my ticket charge was doubled so all charges were rejected and our card shut down for suspected fraud. Once we bought the tickets, we were still sent and email from our card company making sure that it was really us who made the purchase. I guess they considered the purchase to be outside of our normal buying pattern. Everything's back to normal now.

A point that most all of you seasoned travelers will already know. Call your credit card company and let them know you are leaving the country. This would have been a hassle to deal with overseas. The fraud detections seem to go off about most any spending irregularity.

 

[K8T]

Good point about the credit cards!

We have booked our flights, with a budget carrier - not sure it is a good idea, but cheap!!!! Not yet got a hotel in Barcelona, we intend going on the Thursday and staying a couple of days pre cruise. Anyone already booked something? Any ideas?

I also had a thought, when reading a thread about recharging phones etc. Europe have round three pin sockets - not sure about the Ship, they are probably two pin. The UK, for those staying over in London, are rectangle three pin!!! Although we are in Europe, we do like to be a little different, along with £s not Euros!!!!.

Kate

 

[adrianna_sarah]

We are at the Grand Central Hotel. Our first choice was the Duquesa de Cardona, but they didn't have suites available for the whole of our stay. Our kids are young, so we needed a suite or at least a room that slept 4. I used the Travel for Kids website as it breaks hotels down by location and the maximum number the rooms sleep, with a brief description of each hotel. The TFK website links to a European travel site, but I found specials at both hotels by contacting them directly.

http://www.travelforkids.com/Family-hotels/Spain/barcelona-family-hotels.htm#waterfront