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

[milestogo]

Susie, I'm sorry to hear about that news. While the money may end a little prematurely, following your heart and dreams is always the way to go. The intrinsic rewards are so high that the money follows. Find what you love and find a way to make money doing it! That is really what you are about to do... it's like you're going on a new Disney ride! Scary and exciting - its a whole new world.

 

[Scott H]

Sorry, to hear about the layoffs, hang in there, I do believe that there is a reason for everything and that which does not kill you makes you stronger.

I do envy you folks close to DL.

 

[ssnyder]

Find what you love and find a way to make money doing it!

Thanks for the reminder of why I made this decision. It really helps.

 

[tig82174]

Sorry, to hear about the layoffs, hang in there, I do believe that there is a reason for everything and that which does not kill you makes you stronger.

I do envy you folks close to DL.

I agree! Lay offs around the holidays sounds like it SUCKS!! I feel even more fortunate now that I am not in threat of that and that Jason not only didn't get laid off but actually just found out that he got another significant raise! (Vista Spa.....HERE WE COME!!! )

I will keep my fingers crossed for everyone else's finances and jobs though....cuz we don't want anyone else from this group dropping off!!


(of course, I also envy anyone who lives close to anythign Disney!)

 

[milestogo]

Susie, Ask me when you need a reminder and I'll be there!

Scott and Erik, yes, we are fortunate to enjoy DL, you both have wonders that we don't. Scott, you live in a beautiful part of our country! And Erik, man I'd give my right arm to be able to see Broadway shows and then go away from the city to my home (without having to wait for two years or more to see them!) I've been meaning to ask you if you've seen Mary Poppins or Beauty and the Beast? When the cruise comes this way, I will give you both the special friends tour of our area and of course, DL parks! Kelly

 

[charwac1]

I just got off the phone with DCL - they finally have some information on a post-cruise excursion to Disneyland Paris. (I didn't see anything on the website.)

Disney is offering a three night hotel and length of stay (both parks/hopper) ticket package with ground transportation and an air option.

The price depends on the hotel. Newport Bay is $700/adult and Hotel New York is $770/adult. This includes ground transport from the Paris airport to DLP but not anything from the ship to the Paris airport.

They don't have price with air from Barcelona (and I assume ground from the ship to the Barcelona airport) is not yet available.

I don't know what the luggage allowance with that air option will be. I hope that they'd apply US rules. (Remembe that luggage allowances/charges in Europe are very different than luggage allowances in the US and on international flights. The second bag charge in Europe can easily be more than the ticket on low cost airlines.)

 

[tig82174]

Susie, Ask me when you need a reminder and I'll be there!

Scott and Erik, yes, we are fortunate to enjoy DL, you both have wonders that we don't. Scott, you live in a beautiful part of our country! And Erik, man I'd give my right arm to be able to see Broadway shows and then go away from the city to my home (without having to wait for two years or more to see them!) I've been meaning to ask you if you've seen Mary Poppins or Beauty and the Beast? When the cruise comes this way, I will give you both the special friends tour of our area and of course, DL parks! Kelly

Hey Kelly.....

Well I agree that despite the fact that I don't live near Disney...there's a reason I/we have stayed in Rochester for as long as we have...and that is because it's the perfect city for us, probably. (Besides i don't think I'd actually want to LIVE at Disney because it would seem less special when i did get there then!)

Although I have to say that my trips to see Broadway shows might seem a bit exagerated and more reflective of my obssession with musical theater than with accessability! *lol* We can go to Toronto to see whatever shows happen to be passing through there but that's easily a 3 to 4 hour drive so it usually requires an overnight....and Broadway itself is a world away from us! We're in far upstate/western New York so NYC and its theater scene are a good 6-7 hour trip NOT including traffic or a 90 minute flight!!



I have seen Beauty and the Beast twice...once touring and once in NYC. It's a fun show...not really all that different than the film but a spectacle nonetheless with fabulous costuming and fun dance numbers, etc. I have not yet seen Mary Poppins, although a close friend of mine from Philly saw it in preview....she is also a Disney nut....and she absolutely loved it...so I have high hopes for it and intend to see it as soon as possible. The other Disney show on Broadway now is Tarzan. I haven't seen it either, although I am curious to see it. HOnestly I kind of hate the movie....and I'm also not a huge Phil Collins fan...and for that reason I never went and saw the Tarzan show in Animal Kingdom for the longest time until once Jason decided we should at least give it a try and I absolutely LOVED it....away form the film itself the music is really really good and the acrobatics and stuff from the show were fantastic. The new Finding Nemo musical that is opening in that space since they closed Tarzan has some big shoes to fill for me! Anyhow, a coworker of mine saw Tarzan and said the show is really impressive from a staging and athleticism perspective...very much like a Cirque du Soleil show (another of my faves!)...so I'm sure I'll make it to Tarzan on Broadway sometime, too

 

[tig82174]

I just got off the phone with DCL - they finally have some information on a post-cruise excursion to Disneyland Paris. (I didn't see anything on the website.)

Disney is offering a three night hotel and length of stay (both parks/hopper) ticket package with ground transportation and an air option.

The price depends on the hotel. Newport Bay is $700/adult and Hotel New York is $770/adult. This includes ground transport from the Paris airport to DLP but not anything from the ship to the Paris airport.

They don't have price with air from Barcelona (and I assume ground from the ship to the Barcelona airport) is not yet available.

I don't know what the luggage allowance with that air option will be. I hope that they'd apply US rules. (Remembe that luggage allowances/charges in Europe are very different than luggage allowances in the US and on international flights. The second bag charge in Europe can easily be more than the ticket on low cost airlines.)

Oh my! Not to rain on the parade of those who are doing DLP after the cruise, which I'm sure will be AMAZING....but I don't want them creating excursions for AFTER the cruise....i want to hear about the excursions ON the darn cruise already!!!

 

[gydell]

Well the excursions are listed on the DCL site. Lots of reading to figure out which ones we like. Does anyone know if it would be safe to take a cab and head out(2 women and a 5 year old)? We could skip a lot of things that the little one would be bored with but still get to see things we(adults) want. We have been to Europe before but never to Spain. Thanks for any help you can give!


145 days to go!

 

[tig82174]

Well the excursions are listed on the DCL site. Lots of reading to figure out which ones we like. Does anyone know if it would be safe to take a cab and head out(2 women and a 5 year old)? We could skip a lot of things that the little one would be bored with but still get to see things we(adults) want. We have been to Europe before but never to Spain. Thanks for any help you can give!


145 days to go!

THEY ARE?!?!?! I literally just looked YESTERDAY I think....how could I miss this?!?

Alreight I know what I'M doing tonight!!!

 

[mom_rules]

Well guys! What do you think?

I just printed every one of our ports - some I immediately dismissed.

What's on your wish list?

 

[gydell]

With a 5 year old we dismissed all the long bus rides and all the long walking tours. We are still deciding about taking a cab to most the places we want to go. $250+ seems like a lot to spend to go swimming in Tenerife. The tours were a little more pricey than I expected. I guess the dollar is not what it used to be!

 

[BobandLee]

A while back I mentioned about our company was downsizing and that I had asked to be layed off (in order to pursue my new career directions). Well it happened a little sooner than we expected. My last day of work will be January 2nd. At least they are paying us through the holidays and I will get a couple of months of severence.

Curt managed to survive the first round of layoffs. We will be taking a hard look at our finances this next month. Hopefully we'll still be able to stay on this cruise.

I don't start tour director school until the first part of February, so it looks like I will have a little bit of free time in January. Maybe I'll make a trip or two to DL. We just renewed our annual passes, so that is already paid for.

Susie,
what a wonderful thing for your employer to do.
Who do you work for? Ebeneezer Scrooge or the Grinch?

Unfortunately, many companies do not value their employees as much as they use too.

Hopefully things will work out for you and Curt.

 

[BobandLee]

I agree! Lay offs around the holidays sounds like it SUCKS!! .....(Vista Spa.....HERE WE COME!!! )

I will keep my fingers crossed for everyone else's finances and jobs though....cuz we don't want anyone else from this group dropping off!!

I agree with you about the layoffs and not wanting anyone else dropping off.

Don't use up ALL the Vista Spa time.
Leave some Lee and I.

 

[EpcotKilterFan]

Well one more day... well half a day... here at WDW. But at least I have the excursion list to look forward to when I get home.

I had my TA call DCL about the Paris add-on.... they told her that they are not doing DLP for the Transatlantic cruises The DCL rep was just as confused about that as we are. But she is going to keep calling until she get can get an explanation.

The planning can begin!!

Debbie

 

[gydell]

Got my excursions narrowed down. Tenerife seems to cost more but the other stops seem very reasonable. Wish we had times so we could see if we can fit more than one per day in.......at least we have excursions!

 

[tig82174]

I've only just started working my way through the excursions list....the nice thing about having our entire vacation prepaid in cash AND Jason getting a big raise last week is that I have been given "permission" to not worry too much about cost on excursions....YIPPEEEE!!! I am not sure what, if anything, we'll do as an excursion in Barcelona....I'm kind of leaning in the direction of getting some guide books and doing the day on our own that day. Perhaps the same in Cadiz, I'm not sure. As for Tenerife, it will come as no surprise to anyone here that I'm really strongly leaning in the direction of the tour that takes you to spend the day at the animal park with dolphins and whales and tigers and "the largest collection of parrots on Earth." Everyone who's been reading the list knows I'm an animal nut....and I am PARTICULARLY fond of parrots (we own one actually). So I strongly sense that is where we'll spend a good chunk of our day in the Canary Islands. In Gibraltar I'm almost positive we're going to do the excursion that includes a cabe car ride to teh top of the rock and a visit with the Barbary Apes (again wiht my animal fascination) and exploring the tunnels. But, of course, nothing is set in stone as I haven't REALLY researched anything yet. In Castaway I think we're going to do the Stingrays because we booked that in Nassau 2 cruises ago and Hurricane Frances destroyed their habitat...then we booked it again in Nassau this past February and they cancelled it saying that it was too cold and windy. I'm kind of shying away from the swimming excursions in our other ports (other than Castaway) because did you notice the little weather report thing on each port page? It looks like several of the ports are going to be in the low 70's in May when we're there....that's not really outdoors swimming weather for me....but we'll see.

 

[EpcotKilterFan]

I still want to know what the Off-Kilter Stage is? Pin trading something??

How many of us are on the back to back cruises?

Well... Off Kilter is a Celtic Rock band that plays in the Canadian Pavillion in Epcot I *ahem* tend to see many of their shows and may have been known to plan vacations around their show schedule

Here are the 3 of 5 men in kilts:

Debbie

 

[ssnyder]

Susie,
what a wonderful thing for your employer to do.
Who do you work for? Ebeneezer Scrooge or the Grinch?

Unfortunately, many companies do not value their employees as much as they use too.

Hopefully things will work out for you and Curt.

Perhaps some explanation is in order. In all fairness to my employer, I DID ask to be laid off when they started the downsizing effort. I just thought it would be another couple of months. I think you may have joined the group after I explained that I am making a career change and going back to school to be a tour director. But they did actually do me a favor by granting my request.

Although we still haven't made the decision whether we can still go on the cruise, I did have some good news yesterday. I had the first meeting with HR. My severance package will include paying me up through most of March, complete paid medical, dental, vision up through April, and career assistance for 3 months. I met with the career assistance people and I can wait to start the 3 months until after I complete the tour director school in February and they will help me with my career change.

And here is the news that may help us still be able to be on this cruise. The IT director asked me for my rates as an independent consultant. Apparently they are still thinking they may need my services for a little while longer. Keep your fingers crossed.

And thanks to all of you for your support.

 

[gydell]

We found out around 11 that my dh kept his job, so no chance of us not being on the Magic on the 12th of May!