May 12, 2007 -- Taking the Magic to the Mediterranean -- 14 day Repo Cruise! Part 2

[cquick]

I will refrain from posting my thoughts on American Idol since once I start I find it difficult to stop and you'll all want to shoot me when you see me (Just ask Chris/Scoobypop.....he is subjected to my 12 page rants about each contestant every week! )



Regarding meeting up in the parks while we're there....that is a definite possibility...I'm doing my best to fil up my parents' days but we are already meeting Kelly/milestogo and her clan on thursday the 10th for brunch at the Crystal Palace, so maybe if other folks are planning on being in the MK that morning we could all say hi to each other and get a photo in front of the castle!


Erik

oh, yeah, we can do that....PM me when the time gets closer.

 

[jw2736]

Grass skirts can also be found at Oriental Trading Company online.

 

[littleowensmommy]

Since I had pretty much decided to do Gibraltar on my own (or with others doing it on their own), I decided I better do some research. What looked best to me was taking the Cable Car up to the top of the rock and walking back down. On the way down I would want to visit St. Michael's Cave, the Barbary Apes and the Great Seige Tunnels.

Does anyone else have that itinerary in mind also?

Disney does have a shore excursion that would allow me to do this ("Explore the Rock on Your Own"). They charge about double what I think the cost would be though. My biggest concern would be getting to the cable car location which they describe as a 10 minute ride. That might be a bit far to walk, so if we do it on our own that might translate into a taxi ride.

Hi Susie,

I'm currently booked for the Gibraltar Walking Tour. I spent quite a bit of time on the phone this morning with a very nice CM at DCL going over the physical requirements for all of our scheduled shore excursions for both cruises. The Walking Tour requires approximately 3 hours of standing or walking over 1.5 miles of uneven terrain which includes concrete cobblestones and steps. I will be 40 days post injury when we are in Gibraltar but I don't think I'll be able to handle this strenuous excursion. The CM suggested we switch to the Explore the Rock on Your Own excursion since it is not as physically demanding. I see my orthopedic surgeon next on 9 May (to hopefully remove the fiberglass cast). I've made notes about each excursion and also notated how many days post injury each excursion will be so he can give me his opinion regarding whether or not he thinks I'll be able to manage at each give point in time. This is my futile attempt to control my recovery process.

 

[CACruisin']

Kelly , glad you are both feeling better.

Kathy, glad you are getting around. Great idea to bring your notes to your orthopedic doc appt. Here's that you are only in a fracture boot or something comfortable/removable by cruise time! We'll make sure to always have a chair/stool for you to elevate your foot (that really does help, by the way )

Re: Cartwheels - when I was in HS I did a running cartwheel in gym class and cracked my elbow, but that's me - Clutz!

We used ATM's in Italy 3 years ago and that was very convenient. I'll have some Euros with me before we go, but I'm planning on using ATM's & credit cards mostly. Thanks for the reminder to call the credit card company closer to cruise time. That is good to know about the notes going away after just two weeks.

Note to those looking at Oriental Trading company: Great online store, but use expedited shipping at this point. They tend to be very slow. Party City type store would be a good place for grass skirts.

Is anyone else getting that panicky feeling? We leave in 15 days!

 

[gydell]

Reality shows - Love them all - but what about the Bachelor?


No DOCS yet but since "they have not been sent yet" then I will probably be the 1st to get them. I don't know what all you people got but according to DCL it wasn't the docs!

 

[newgeneb]

Reality shows - Love them all - but what about the Bachelor?


No DOCS yet but since "they have not been sent yet" then I will probably be the 1st to get them. I don't know what all you people got but according to DCL it wasn't the docs!

Got mine yesterday - luggage tags for both cruises -Bahama immigration card and a booklet on crusing

 

[cupcake]

So here's my question for all you Cynthia's.....Do you go by Cindy or Cyndi? My sister is a Cynthia - she goes by Cyndi..."because that's how it's spelled"...which I can't argue with because when I shorten my name I spell it Nich. Since there's no 'k' in Nicholas....guess that runs in the family. Anyway most other Cynthia's that I know go by Cindy...how about you?

I generally go by Cynthia (exceptions: my mom calls me Cindy and my dh calls me Cyn). And until now, I have always been the only Cynthia in any sort of group. So this will be a taste of what it's like to be my dh! (just say "Jim!" in a crowd, and a bunch of people will turn around).

C.

 

[cupcake]

5 pages since I went to sleep last night!

Laura, I suggest letting your evil twin out and also going to your regional passport center since it sounds like it's not horribly out of the way. Remember the cautionary tale of my hairdresser, who relied on the phone passport people and ended up in the Wisconsin Dells instead of Mexico eek when they failed to process one of his son's passports and then could not get their act together in time to get to him before his trip. What a pain!!!! So sorry for the aggravation.

To sam'smomtoo who was asking about picking a cabin, ! Here's the link for stateroom reports:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/cruise-new/roomlist.cfm

In addition to your actual room, look at rooms nearby. Also look at deck plans to see what is above and below you, and remember to take laundry locations into account: deck 2 (midship across from 2090/2092/2094/2096), deck 6 (midship across from 6588), deck 7 (closer to aft across from 7590/7592/7594/7596).

Kathy, good luck with the move and healing your ankle for the trip!

So many things to comment on, so little short term memory...

C.

 

[NHdisneylover]

So many things to comment on, so little short term memory...

C.

 

[txaggie94gigem]

so our ATM cards can be used in europe??? i was not sure of this and did not want to rely on this...

i still do not know how much moolah we will need....i need to work on this...i am waiting on my reimbursement accounts to get me $$$$.....i was thinking about 200 euro but then i need to add taxi fees in barcelona to airport.....and then i really need to figure out how many gibraltar pounds we need too...

 

[kpros]

so our ATM cards can be used in europe??? i was not sure of this and did not want to rely on this...

i still do not know how much moolah we will need....i need to work on this...i am waiting on my reimbursement accounts to get me $$$$.....i was thinking about 200 euro but then i need to add taxi fees in barcelona to airport.....and then i really need to figure out how many gibraltar pounds we need too...

One catch about using an ATM card that I've heard is that the European ATM machines are setup for a 4 digit pin. So if you pin isn't four digit, it may not work. Can anyone else verify this info?

Ken

 

[NHdisneylover]

Someone who is smarter than I please help me (that's just about all of you right?). I want to read the former posts of my secret Mickey person to get an idea of what sort of gift to get (time crunch setting in). Anyway, I click on that screen name and then on the "find all posts by" option and then it goes over to the search engine and comes up with a message along the lines of "could not find anything. Try a differnt term." I tried some other peolpe and it seems to be about 50/50 whether I get the posts or not. Is there something I am doign wrong here?

 

[misseulalie]

Well, tomorrow we start with the calls to the senators and congressman. After our third phone call to the passport center's customer no service number we are about ready to go spend a day in Los Angeles and just collect the whole dang families while we are there.

Just to bring you up to date: Originally applied 2/12/07 and advised 4-6 weeks
Called on 4/16/07 because that was 10 weeks and still no passport and were advised that it had been marked up to urgent and would go out that week
Called 4/23/07, it has now been 11 weeks, and told still hadn't been done but would be mailed out that day, had been upgraded to expedited
Called 4/24/07 still hasn't gone out, but will go out today
Called back 4/24/07 at 6pm PDT, sat on hold for 90 minutes and got disconnected after it tried to ring through and no one picked up

Tomorrow I will call again in the morning and tell them they either give me the fed ex number or they will be hearing from my congressman or senator or both as the letters are typed up and loaded into the fax machine. Oh and if we still don't get it, we want to know where to send the bill for the money lost on the cruise.

They are making me use my power for evil instead of good...this never ends well for the other party...

I feel your pain.

We applied for DD's on Feb. 15th, told us 6-8 weeks.
Called a few days ago and they told me rather rudely to call back at 14 days. Well, I called back last night and told a little fib and said we are leaving May 8th. They told me her passport is in step 6. There are 8 steps to clear. They will expedite it but can't guarantee I'll get it.
They told me to go to Miami by May 3rd if I don't get it by then.

My congressman's office just called me this morning and they are going to look into it. So hopefully, they will come through...

By the way, we got our doc's!!!

 

[seaulater]

HELP!

I'm going to buy DH a tux. Figure that I am tired of renting them and now with Jamie on drill team DH has to escort her to a couple of functions the next year and tux is the order of the day.

So, I am on Ebay and am looking at two different tuxes. The one cost $79 and is a poly-vicose blend and the other is $99 for 100% wool.

Any thoughts on which would be better? They both look the same.

Here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...MEWA:IT&viewitem=&item=250107408267&rd=1&rd=1

Thanks. I am clueless when it comes to this sort of stuff!

 

[seaulater]

so our ATM cards can be used in europe??? i was not sure of this and did not want to rely on this...

i still do not know how much moolah we will need....i need to work on this...i am waiting on my reimbursement accounts to get me $$$$.....i was thinking about 200 euro but then i need to add taxi fees in barcelona to airport.....and then i really need to figure out how many gibraltar pounds we need too...

I have a reimbursement check from my office for about $750 so I thought I would just convert it to EURO before we leave Salt Lake City. And then we decided to go back on the Magic July 18th and take Jamie for the 10 night Med., so any unused EURO'S we will just take back for that cruise!

 

[seaulater]

One catch about using an ATM card that I've heard is that the European ATM machines are setup for a 4 digit pin. So if you pin isn't four digit, it may not work. Can anyone else verify this info?

Ken

Since I never use my ATM card, guess I better go by the ATM machine and make sure it works! Would hate to get to Barcelona and have it be invalid!

 

[DizzneyDAnn]

I used to be a Bachelor addict before tossing the TV 3 years ago, but since I am no longer in the reality show loop, I'll be with Hadley, t-shirt-less , with a chocolate soufle at Palo's! (Ummm, okay, so I won't be wearing a DIS shirt, but I don't want to scare the fine server who is willing to bring me manna from heaven, so I will cover the "girls.")

 

[seaulater]

I feel your pain.

We applied for DD's on Feb. 15th, told us 6-8 weeks.
Called a few days ago and they told me rather rudely to call back at 14 days. Well, I called back last night and told a little fib and said we are leaving May 8th. They told me her passport is in step 6. There are 8 steps to clear. They will expedite it but can't guarantee I'll get it.
They told me to go to Miami by May 3rd if I don't get it by then.

My congressman's office just called me this morning and they are going to look into it. So hopefully, they will come through...

By the way, we got our doc's!!!

Sounds like they have a 12 step program!

 

[NHdisneylover]

HELP!

I'm going to buy DH a tux. Figure that I am tired of renting them and now with Jamie on drill team DH has to escort her to a couple of functions the next year and tux is the order of the day.

So, I am on Ebay and am looking at two different tuxes. The one cost $79 and is a poly-vicose blend and the other is $99 for 100% wool.

Any thoughts on which would be better? They both look the same.

Here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...MEWA:IT&viewitem=&item=250107408267&rd=1&rd=1

Thanks. I am clueless when it comes to this sort of stuff!

JC Penny started carrying Men's tuxes (no boys ) last year. They are surprisingly nice looking and good quality (did a comparison on Good mOrning American to a $$$$$ tux and found both to be equal)and I think come to about $100 total (we just needed new shirts for Dave's he has had since college). Purchasing at Pennys would give you a chance to have him try it on, etc. which may be worthwhile. They do still carry them out here (was just in Pennys this weekend and saw them)

 

[faithfullyeeyore]

"I think you and I are the only B2B's coming to the party so we may have a banner of our own to do.."


HELLO!!! Hi! How ya doing?!?!?! Did you forget me? I'm B2B!!