May 26, 2007 (5/26/07) "First Magical Med Cruise!!" (The M&M's!)

[sunshine state kim]

My kids are Savannah (13) and Carter (10)

 

[figment52]

Has anyone offered to make a website for our cruise? I'd be willing to do that, unless someone else has already taken on that project.

Also, I didn't hear about the excursion PDF that was made until I had already gathered the info on my own. Not sure what all was included in that PDF, but I have a 60+ page version with all of the excursion info off the website (full description, pre/post Barcelona times, length, pricing, and additional info). I agree that it's a pain to not be able to see all the details for all the excursions on one web page. Very frustrating to have to keep navigating through all the menus.

So, is that the same as what's on the original PDF? Here are the number of excursions I have listed for each port: Barcelona (15), Palermo (13), Naples (15), Olbia (13), Civitavecchia (15), La Spezia (21), Marseille (13), and Villefranche (13).

I can stick that up on the proposed website for easy sharing. Any other info that you all would like to have on there?

Jen

This sounds great. Thank you, and all others here, for the generous offer of your time to keep us all organized. We are going to be very busy sooner than we think getting all our ducks in order.

I am getting excited again.

 

[DisneySpirit]

After reading through all the shore excursions it seems several of the Barcelona excursions are available on embarkation days at 1:45pm and 2:00pm. We have our air booked through DCL, on a red eye flight due to our limited vacation available. DCL won't give us our flight information as yet and we won't see much of Barcelona without doing one of these excursions. We are hoping that this red eye flight would get us into Barcelona in the morning. We are flying out of Phoenix, AZ Anyone here have any experience with red eye flights and approximate arrival times?

 

[Bareacuda]

If memory serves me right, our first DCL was a red eye. And sorry to say... Hated it! We live in Az also, but fly out of Vegas... it's alot closer to us.

We arrived in Orlando around 6 am(3 our time) and at the hotel by 7(4). We were exausted! Our room wasnt ready so we had a long walk and a cat nap in the lobby till 9 (6).Got our room and slept till noon(9) and hit the Magic Kingdom till closing. From that trip on... we insist on leaving the day before.

Now with the Med cruise, DCL promised me that the flights would be in Bareclona early enough to do some sight seeing since the ship wont leave port till 9pm.

I hope this helps.

 

[kpros]

Slipping to page 2 - can't have that.

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my list so far. Although, I'm still looking for a few people.

This is the list I currently have before any corrections:
(The first name listed is the name associated with the Disboard Name)

baileysgm - Carolyn, Keith, Elisabeth, Bailey (confirmed)
bettemom – Kim, Bette
charwac1 – Charlene, Andy (confirmed)
Coalchick - Karen, Doug, Jordan (confirmed)
CubCatsK&D – Kim, Deb
dd3rover - Sheryl, Dan, Nancy, Kaitlin, Brian, Michael (confirmed)
DebWills – Deb, Linda (confirmed)
disneyfamilyforever – Mike, Cathy, Allsion, Megan, Kelly
Disneynut1955 – David, Monica (confirmed)
DisneySpirit – Tom, Lynn, Shane, Laurie (confirmed)
figment52 – Sandy, Sharon (confirmed)
first timers - Alex, Carolyn (confirmed)
garylpn – Gary, Karen
Hygiene99 – Peter, Jenn (confirmed)
icunurse_celeste – Celeste, Jennie (confirmed)
jeanneg – Jeanne, John (confirmed)
Jeisur – Laurie, David, Breighton , JoAnne, Howard (confirmed)
konslerg - Gloria, Gary (confirmed)
kpros/spros – Ken, Shari (confirmed)
LegalBriefs - Ron, Monica (confirmed)
littleowensmommy - Kathy, Ted, Owen, Amy (confirmed)
Ltl Mermaid - ?
meb51 – Marie, Steve, Beverly, Dora, Katie, Will (confirmed)
milestogo – Kelly, Jonathan, Zoe (confirmed)
NejTheLion – Jen, Debbi, Berry (confirmed)
poconoboatniks – Ellen, Bob, Kate, Brett, Bob, Helen, Linda, Colleen (confirmed but not convinced)
renegade7 – Johanna, Gary
ronunc – Ron, Becky (confirmed)
Schiffy - Mark, Carol (confirmed)
Smetheringham - ?
sunshine state kim – Kim, Todd, Savannah, Carter (confirmed)
sweetsue – Sue, Barbara, Christina
TikiGirl - Leslie, Ed (confirmed)
UncaTigger – Mark, Gerry (confirmed)
Winotracy/AskAGeek – Tracy, Bill (confirmed)
wrabitdad – Bob, Dale (confirmed)

Please help me fill in the blanks.

Ken

 

[Schiffy]

Are there any details give out on the dinning plans such as special nights or the shows? It is going to be a busy 11 days.

 

[milestogo]

baileysgm:I've been thinking about your situation and while I am sure it is POSSIBLE to make that 10:00am Delta flight, it's the sort of thing that would have me worrying the entire trip and might cast a shadow on the entire experience. Before I cancelled, I kept trying to think of ways it still might work. Basically, I kept coming back to the fact that this will be only the second time the ship is disembarking in Barcelona (repo is first) It is not going to be like the Disney port in FL and there are bound to be lots of glitches. What happens if you guys all make it off the ship early and then have difficulty retrieving your luggage at the port? Or maybe the port workers won't start working until a particular time.....or something goes awry with the docking equipment on their end and there's a delay? And as someone else mentioned, we will be arriving on a Wednesday in one of the world's busiest cities. For me that would be VERY stressful. I did NOT want to give up our Delta flight. The times were wonderful, the cost was great and we had 2 legs each trip instead of 3. What I have now on AA/Iberia is not as good , but it works. Plus, Delta WILL refund your money if they can't accommodate you on a later flight. I thought about it long and hard and came to the conclusion that the extra inconvenience and approx$100 was worth it for my peace of mind. Hope this helps.....

You make a really good point about the glitches! On the first cruise of the West Coast 05 cruise we arrived at 11am and didn't get on the boat until 3pm due to all the computer failures and the cast members trying to learn what to do and how to do it at the "new"terminal.

Welcome all the new folks!

Ron, welcome back. I was just wondering the other day what happened to you, I wondered if you had cancelled. Nice to hear from you again.

 

[kpros]

Are there any details give out on the dinning plans such as special nights or the shows? It is going to be a busy 11 days.

Based upon our experience with the first Panama repo, we probably won't get much info and any info we do get will get changed at the last minute.

Ken

 

[baileysgm]

My father and I are on this flight as well. We can't change it as the later flight to ATL is sold out. Disney said flights after 10:30 but the way they read it to me sounded like if you were to do regular disembarking.

Are you using Dinsey transfers from the port to the airport? I am updating our travel information on the cruise site now.

BTW - I sent a complaint email to Delta about these time changes. I have had 2 flights in the last 3 months on Delta - they have all had time changes and 4 flight cancelations. I just hope they exisit come May.

After days of agonizing over the 10am flight out of Barcelona, I decided the entire trip would have a black cloud over it because we would be worried about making the flight home. I canceled that flight and made the difficult decison to stay over another day in Barcelona Delta allowed me to change my entire itinerary to go through Atlanta which actually works a lot better for us. The extra night in Barcelona is a whole lot cheaper than changing airlines since we only paid $700 for our tickets. Now I can relax and start worrying about which excursions to do

 

[NejTheLion]

Spent some time this weekend and got her started.

http://mysite.verizon.net/nejthelion/

If your browser tells you it's blocking content, it's just a little javascript, so don't be afraid

A bit limited on what I can do with the free account through my provider, but I think it'll suit our purposes.

I'd like to encourage everyone to register on the site to help those of us putting together lanyards and other gifts. Knowing the names of everyone in your group, the number of people, and stateroom numbers will be a big help. If you're GTY, just put that for now and resubmit later once you know. We'll also try to keep track of upgrades that happen at the port.

Please send me any suggestions you have for the site and any links or info you may have already gathered (inexpensive hotel, great restaurant, good airline availability, etc).

Jen

 

[kpros]

Very nice Jen - good work! Will there be a link to the actual list of names? I didn't see that.

Again, very nice. Thanks for setting this up.

Ken

 

[kpros]

Since we are now on a new page, I'm going to post this list I have again.

This is the list I currently have before any corrections:
(The first name listed is the name associated with the Disboard Name)

baileysgm - Carolyn, Keith, Elisabeth, Bailey (confirmed)
bettemom – Kim, Bette
charwac1 – Charlene, Andy (confirmed)
Coalchick - Karen, Doug, Jordan (confirmed)
CubCatsK&D – Kim, Deb (confirmed)
dd3rover - Sheryl, Dan, Nancy, Kaitlin, Brian, Michael (confirmed)
DebWills – Deb, Linda (confirmed)
disneyfamilyforever – Mike, Cathy, Allsion, Megan, Kelly
Disneynut1955 – David, Monica (confirmed)
DisneySpirit – Tom, Lynn, Shane, Laurie (confirmed)
figment52 – Sandy, Sharon (confirmed)
first timers - Alex, Carolyn (confirmed)
garylpn – Gary, Karen
Hygiene99 – Peter, Jenn (confirmed)
icunurse_celeste – Celeste, Jennie (confirmed)
jeanneg – Jeanne, John (confirmed)
Jeisur – Laurie, David, Breighton , JoAnne, Howard (confirmed)
konslerg - Gloria, Gary (confirmed)
kpros/spros – Ken, Shari (confirmed)
LegalBriefs - Ron, Monica (confirmed)
littleowensmommy - Kathy, Ted, Owen, Amy (confirmed)
Ltl Mermaid - ?
meb51 – Marie, Steve, Beverly, Dora, Katie, Will (confirmed)
milestogo – Kelly, Jonathan, Zoe (confirmed)
NejTheLion – Jen, Debbi, Barry (confirmed)
poconoboatniks – Ellen, Bob, Kate, Brett, Bob, Helen, Linda, Colleen (confirmed but not convinced)
renegade7 – Johanna, Gary
ronunc – Ron, Becky (confirmed)
Schiffy - Mark, Carol (confirmed)
Smetheringham - ?
sunshine state kim – Kim, Todd, Savannah, Carter (confirmed)
sweetsue – Sue, Barbara, Christina
TikiGirl - Leslie, Ed (confirmed)
UncaTigger – Mark, Gerry (confirmed)
Winotracy/AskAGeek – Tracy, Bill (confirmed)
wrabitdad – Bob, Dale (confirmed)

Please help me fill in the blanks.

Ken

 

[milestogo]

Hey Jen, that is so nice, thanks for taking the time!

Ken, we're spelled correctly!!

Have been agonizing over the excursions!

Is anyone attempting to do Rome on your own?

Is anyone going with an alternate shore excursion company or tour company? I'm curious as to what else is available?

Are there any cities we absolutely should not do on our own?

Is the port close to Las Ramblas? walking distance?

Is the town walking distance from the port to Monaco/Monte Carlo?

Thanks, Kelly

 

[NejTheLion]

Very nice Jen - good work! Will there be a link to the actual list of names? I didn't see that.

Ken

Oh, yes, of course. I just figured I'd wait until some people had sent their info in. Then we can check against your list and see who we haven't heard from.

And there's one misspelling on our entry. It's Jen, Debbi, and Barry. (Not Berry) It's possible I typed the wrong thing initially.

 

[icunurse_celeste]

Hi Kelly,
Nice to meet you...

Rome- yes, we are attempting to do it without DCL, but we are in the early stages.

There are lots of other companies....more to post later

The port is within walking distance to las ramblas, we got a hotel for $76 a night with breakfast. (0.7 miles from the port) Probably won't be fancy, but I don't really care.

And- I don't have any idea about Monte Carlo.

I am still looking into diving for Sardinia and possibly one other location. I am also looking into a company who will do Florence with the David and the tower of Pisa.


Anyone else going to Paris after? We are going until the 10th. I will be flying through Logan on the way back and I fully intend to have dinner at Legal Seafood.

If you are finding the prices expensive for the excursions, here is some info you might find helpful....


http://www.tourcaster.com/index.aspx


Download walking tours for free onto your MP3 or IPod. You can also purchase some tours.....

Hey Jen, that is so nice, thanks for taking the time!

Ken, we're spelled correctly!!

Have been agonizing over the excursions!

Is anyone attempting to do Rome on your own?

Is anyone going with an alternate shore excursion company or tour company? I'm curious as to what else is available?

Are there any cities we absolutely should not do on our own?

Is the port close to Las Ramblas? walking distance?

Is the town walking distance from the port to Monaco/Monte Carlo?

Thanks, Kelly

 

[kpros]

Oh, yes, of course. I just figured I'd wait until some people had sent their info in. Then we can check against your list and see who we haven't heard from.

And there's one misspelling on our entry. It's Jen, Debbi, and Barry. (Not Berry) It's possible I typed the wrong thing initially.

Thanks Jen for the correction. And for everyone else - please take a close look at your listing. Because what you see is what you get. And I cannot make corrections at the port (sorry, not planning to bring the laser printer along with us).

Ken

 

[LegalBriefs]

Hey, what ever happened to SweetSue? Is she still posting on here?

 

[winotracy]

Hey, what ever happened to SweetSue? Is she still posting on here?

The last I heard from her things were pretty crazy. I know she's still coming!

 

[kpros]

Good morning everyone! One day closer to cruising!!!!!

Ken

 

[milestogo]

Anyone else going to Paris after? We are going until the 10th. I will be flying through Logan on the way back and I fully intend to have dinner at Legal Seafood.

Yes, we are going to Paris for 2 days, not DLP though.


http://www.tourcaster.com/index.aspx


Download walking tours for free onto your MP3 or IPod. You can also purchase some tours.....

Well now, there is a cool idea! Thanks!!