May 14, 2011 - Eastbound TransAtlantic

[seamour]

We are being bold and daring and doing public transit, I am not sure the plan just yet, working with the Eyewitness travel and my guide book from the last time I was in BCN, I am thinking Ode to Gaudi and then to the park.
Perhaps some time on the hill but Sangria is manditory for me as it is the best in BCN!!!

okay adding Sangria to my itinerary! Thanks for the tip, LOL !

 

[stsomewhere]

So confused! Today I am leaning towards Montserrat. Why can't I make up my mind? I need to go to the book store and figure this out.

Christi

 

[bwcb4]

Hi Mic,

The name of the towncar place seems to have been starred out, could you possibly PM me it? Not sure I'm up to driving on the 'wrong side' of the road

Thanks
Vicky

Thanks for my morning smile......It's good for us Americans to be reminded that the "wrong way" goes two ways!!!!!

You can also take DCL transportation to the port. It depends on how many people are in your group. We have used a town car many times, but this time when I checked, the prices had gone up and it was actually cheaper to take the DCL bus from the airport for the four of us. And there is an advantage now....if you are taking the DCL bus then you check in for the cruise AT the airport. They do the entire thing there including your cruise boarding pass. At the port you go through security and then just sit down and wait. It was nice to have the details over. We come in a day early and stay at an airport hotel with a free shuttle and then return to the airport to check in for the bus and cruise whenever we get there. As a bus is filled then it leaves.

See you real soon!

Barb

 

[Vicky29]

oooppps - didn't realise it was really called ******

For those of you worrying about Barcelona - we spent a couple of days there last year prior to one of our Med cruises, and even as two females and a small child always felt totally safe. I'm not sure what it's like at night as we were always back in the hotel by 8ish, but certaily during the day it's totally fine Las Ramblas is really fun, well worth a visit

 

[dylan'smom]

On the 2007 EBTA, Disney provided busses to round drip to get from the dock to an area just across the street from where Las Ramblas starts all day on Friday. I would expect that they will do that again. No need to spend money on a taxi if the ship provides the busses.

I do not remember this being the case last year - at least if it was they never told us that I can remember! I will ask on the board for that cruise if anyone knows for sure!
Krisann

YES!! DCL did provide this last year on the ebta. DH & I used it & wandered around, visited our hotel we were checking into the following day, priced the HOHO buses, etc. They contract with local buses - it was running every half hour for part of the day...they have a schedule though that changes throughout the day.



Welcome to all the "newbies" !!

 

[dylan'smom]

I was wondering, for those of you that have done the transatlantic before, if it is warm enough for the kids to swim on the 6 days at sea?

The ebta was a month earlier last year, and very windy during the crossing. I'm thinking swimming will be much more easily done in May, lol, but most likely they will be able to swim all the other days anyway - those 6 on the crossing may still be iffy due to all that wind out on the ocean...!

 

[oddman]

I did the ebta a few years ago I think it was about the same week as this years crossing.

Anyway, the weather was mostly fine and most days swimming was fine. But we did have the pools closed one day due to rough weather and some people were getting sick.

mostly swimming was fine, but it was not super warm and there some wind.

even with so few kids and only OK weather the pools were busy...

 

[icruise]

So confused! Today I am leaning towards Montserrat. Why can't I make up my mind? I need to go to the book store and figure this out.

Christi

We are doing Monserrat on our own. A train leaves from Placa Espana. I looked at a subway map and it seems fairly easy. We have plenty of time as we don't get off the ship until the next morning. You are welcome to join us.
M

 

[kcashner]

DCL did offer the bus service from the cruise terminal to the area at the start of La Ramblas. It was $5 round trip and could be booked at the excursion desk. It ran round trips all day, but didn't go until the bus was fairly full...so we sat about 30 minutes at the end waiting till the bus decided it was time to go.

We were very blessed--we had a lovely friend we'd met on the cruise who spoke fluent Spanish...she and the driver chatted and we got all our questions answered.

The weather last April was lovely. We'd heard that it had been cold in 2007 with rough seas. We had wind, but it was warm, sunny, and smooth sailing. It did get cool in the evenings. I'm hoping May will only be warmer.

 

[twokings]

DCL did offer the bus service from the cruise terminal to the area at the start of La Ramblas. It was $5 round trip and could be booked at the excursion desk. It ran round trips all day, but didn't go until the bus was fairly full...so we sat about 30 minutes at the end waiting till the bus decided it was time to go.

We were very blessed--we had a lovely friend we'd met on the cruise who spoke fluent Spanish...she and the driver chatted and we got all our questions answered.

The weather last April was lovely. We'd heard that it had been cold in 2007 with rough seas. We had wind, but it was warm, sunny, and smooth sailing. It did get cool in the evenings. I'm hoping May will only be warmer.

Me too!

 

[DisneyDream2B]

For those of you who cruised the EBTA last year - was the Madeira ashore time really 10:30 am? Just wondered if you were able to deboard earlier. Thanks!

 

[TxMermaid1]

***Secret Mickey***
Secret Mickey will close tonight so if you want in be sure to signup today! I will send out names tomorrow......

 

[SonjaLeigh]

JB, earlier post ... I was just wondering; were u suggesting giving our stateroom attendant his/her tip the first day and then extra at the end of the trip for great service?

 

[Gdes1]

Hi! I would so love to be joining you guys! We had our first DCL cruise on the Magic last Fall and have been trying to find a way back ever since.

We have a lot of "ifs"...IF, DH can change jobs in May and IF the new one will let him start later, we might be able to swing this booking GTY.

But, how are you all getting back to the U.S.? The one-way tix from Europe are insane.

Just in case we can make this happen, I'm doing research. Any airfare tips are appreciated. Thanks!

 

[tamsocal]

I posted below on cruisecritic- but saw the link for this message board...

Started out at the beginning of the week looking for a 7 day Alaska cruise to maybe go on this summer. Found the ads for this cruise and now we are officially booked! There are 6 of us DH, 3 DS-- 7yr old & 3 yr old twins & Grandma. I think I read some where in this thread that there are another set of 3 yr old twins already. We have cruised before, but never on Disney & never a transatlantic. Will have to try to catch up with the thread from beginning to end this weekend.
Would love any tips on what I need to do quickly or any advice for shore excursions-- haven't even looked to see what's available

 

[tamsocal]

Hi! I would so love to be joining you guys! We had our first DCL cruise on the Magic last Fall and have been trying to find a way back ever since.

We have a lot of "ifs"...IF, DH can change jobs in May and IF the new one will let him start later, we might be able to swing this booking GTY.

But, how are you all getting back to the U.S.? The one-way tix from Europe are insane.

Just in case we can make this happen, I'm doing research. Any airfare tips are appreciated. Thanks!

We just booked today- Cat 9D & 5C. Can completely understand your if's.... the last 48hrs had lots of if's. When I started looking at the beginning of the week- oneways were $1500-3000 for LA. FOund a few charter air that were ~$600-800 but I also looked at round trips that were $900-1500 and we thought about just using the 1st segment of the round trip & not using the return to BCN- not what the airlines policies are- but we werent going to pay 3x the cost for a one way vs round trip.
Multicity search of LA or SAN to MCO & then returning to LAX-SAN-- ranged anywhere form $900-4000 the last few days. THought I was going to end up booking expedia for $1300pp RT SAN-MCO-BCN-SAN but to our surprise disney air ended up being cheaper. We paid~ $1100 for the adults & ~$900 kids. Not sure what the rates have been doing over the past year or so, but we had to make a decision. Might have been able to find something cheaper but was worried if I waited too long the great cabin rates would be gone or the airfare would no longer be within reason for us.

Hopefully your if's will work out for you & we will see you on board

 

[TxMermaid1]

JB, earlier post ... I was just wondering; were u suggesting giving our stateroom attendant his/her tip the first day and then extra at the end of the trip for great service?

If you give them a tip at the beginning they will go overboard to do for you. No pun intended... I usually do that in addition to the tip at the end. It is well worth it.

 

[TxMermaid1]

I posted below on cruisecritic- but saw the link for this message board...

Started out at the beginning of the week looking for a 7 day Alaska cruise to maybe go on this summer. Found the ads for this cruise and now we are officially booked! There are 6 of us DH, 3 DS-- 7yr old & 3 yr old twins & Grandma. I think I read some where in this thread that there are another set of 3 yr old twins already. We have cruised before, but never on Disney & never a transatlantic. Will have to try to catch up with the thread from beginning to end this weekend.
Would love any tips on what I need to do quickly or any advice for shore excursions-- haven't even looked to see what's available

Welcome to our group.... on the first page of this thread you will find a link to our roll call. Please sign up. At the bottom of the roll call are tabs to different events like, FE, Candy swap, Secret Mickey(it closes tonight), etc.. Also you will find a link for our FB. If you are on FB please join us. We chat there everyday.

 

[strawberryblonde]

Welcome to the "new to the thread" folks!!

http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwSBwOmOkso&feature=related

 

[KrisannB]

Hi! I would so love to be joining you guys! We had our first DCL cruise on the Magic last Fall and have been trying to find a way back ever since.

We have a lot of "ifs"...IF, DH can change jobs in May and IF the new one will let him start later, we might be able to swing this booking GTY.

But, how are you all getting back to the U.S.? The one-way tix from Europe are insane.

Just in case we can make this happen, I'm doing research. Any airfare tips are appreciated. Thanks!

We used disney air - it was cheaper than anything we could find, and included the aiport - port - airport transfers so that was good. We did both TA's last year and booked our own air because it was cheaper than disney's air - but not this year! It is amazing, and only for this cruise- we are also looking at doing the WBTA (had it booked till yesterday when I transferred it to Hawaii!) but the airfare for that one is much higher through disney than what I can get on my own.

We just booked today- Cat 9D & 5C. Can completely understand your if's.... the last 48hrs had lots of if's. When I started looking at the beginning of the week- oneways were $1500-3000 for LA. FOund a few charter air that were ~$600-800 but I also looked at round trips that were $900-1500 and we thought about just using the 1st segment of the round trip & not using the return to BCN- not what the airlines policies are- but we werent going to pay 3x the cost for a one way vs round trip.
Multicity search of LA or SAN to MCO & then returning to LAX-SAN-- ranged anywhere form $900-4000 the last few days. THought I was going to end up booking expedia for $1300pp RT SAN-MCO-BCN-SAN but to our surprise disney air ended up being cheaper. We paid~ $1100 for the adults & ~$900 kids. Not sure what the rates have been doing over the past year or so, but we had to make a decision. Might have been able to find something cheaper but was worried if I waited too long the great cabin rates would be gone or the airfare would no longer be within reason for us.

Hopefully your if's will work out for you & we will see you on board

Welcome! we found disney air to be the best deal this year!

Krisann