May 26, 2010--5/26/2010 10 Night Mediterranean

[KLS Georgia]

Hi. You say you are doing private excursions. Do you have any advice on reputable companies in our ports? We are in a group of 11 (6 adults and 5 kids - 14,11,10,9, and 6 - the youngest is our princess and I am not sure when we will be including her in the excursions or leaving her in the wonderful kid club on ship). We were hoping to book our own excursions so to keep the tours flexible and small. We are a fun, active group and would love to find guides/tours that were the same.

Also, I have been reading about these fish extenders and thought it would be fun for the kids....anyone know how we join up?

 

[sinnika]

We are planning to do our own excursions, without the cost of private excursions. We are a group of 4, so taking public transportation would be easier than a larger group like yours. I found this thread very helpful: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1481572 The cruise reports were also helpful for lots of tips. Here's the thread that lists many of them:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1977518

We did FE gift exchange on our last cruise in June and it was fun. We are going to pass this time as our kids are older, and we don't want to carry anything extra this time.

 

[sinnika]

Good Morning Everyone!
Great news from DD's high school. We got the go ahead for the trip! DD will be taking her finals in the summer when we return! Now if she has additional missed days in the semester, she'll also have to make up school time in the summer as well. We are still going to hold off on purchasing airfare till final payment is due just to make sure the school year is going well (she's been an A student in the past but HS is tough!).

 

[DEADEA]

I sent you a PM. Please check your inbox. We are from Atlanta also. Kids near same age!!

 

[MKJEcruisers]

I sent you a PM. Please check your inbox. We are from Atlanta also. Kids near same age!!

We're in Greenville, SC about 2 1/2 hours away from Atlanta. Daughters are 9 and 6 (10 and 7 and cruise time).

 

[KLS Georgia]

I received your pm but because I just joined and only have 2 posts (need 10 to pm) it rejected my PM back to you and my lengthy message dissapeared so I couldn't even post it here.

We are traveling with my in-laws and sister-in-laws' family - we are 2 boys (at time of cruise 9,10.5) and our princess (almost 7). My sister in law's family will have her girl 14 and boy 11. We haven't booked our flight but we booked hotel - Petit Palace Garden (cheapest with the best location and has rooms for 4/5) We have a short list of hotels we are going to monitor to see if the price comes down, but we will see.

Wish I could PM...7 more posts to go.

I sent you a PM. Please check your inbox. We are from Atlanta also. Kids near same age!!

 

[walloon]

We are in Raleigh, NC, my sons will be 10 and 7 at cruise time.

 

[DEADEA]

Lots of kids near our ages!! At cruise time, we have DS(13), DS(10) and DD (6). Let me know if anyone is flying out of Atlanta on May 22nd. We are on a direct flight to Barcelona that arrives morning of 23rd.

 

[walloon]

We haven't booked flights yet, hoping and praying costs come down.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

Lots of kids near our ages!! At cruise time, we have DS(13), DS(10) and DD (6). Let me know if anyone is flying out of Atlanta on May 22nd. We are on a direct flight to Barcelona that arrives morning of 23rd.

I will be flying out of Atlanta on the 23rd, routed through LHR. I am flying back from LHR, so that was the best way to go for us. Have you chosen a hotel. I have two reservations, one for the Hotel Jazz and one for the Casa Camper. Not sure which one I will keep. I will decide in the next few weeks.

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

Welcome! We're near Houston.

We're in the Houston area too.

 

[AnnaCruisin']

CAN'T WAIT for May 26th! Just found this thread and am so excited about it!

 

[sinnika]

CAN'T WAIT for May 26th! Just found this thread and am so excited about it!

Welcome to our cruise meet and welcome to the Dis boards!

 

[walloon]

Hi All,

This will be my family's first ever cruise. I have been to Europe twice and my wife has been once. Neither of us have been in 10 years and neither of us have ever been to the ports for this cruise (been to Germany, Paris, Switzerland, Austria). Our daughters will be 10 and 7 at cruise time and neither have been outside the US.

For Barcelona, we decided to go 'budget' on the hotel as we will be spending most of our time there touring Barcelona. We will be at the Holiday Inn Express (Barcelona City-22) the night before and the night after the cruise at around 100 Euros a night with breakfast included. Not bad for a family of 4 in Barcelona! And it's just a short metro ride away from all the main stuff downtown.

We're also looking at things to do in each port and are heading to Munich, Germany after the cruise...

We'll see you on the cruise!

P.S. - And if any of you have kids close to my kids' ages let us know. It sounds like one will have to go to Oceaneer Club and one to Oceaneer Lab so it would be good for them to know a name or two before they go...

We just booked the Holiday Inn Express as well, DH has a free room there so we jumped on it. We have ds 10 and 7. Look forward to meeting you!

 

[bill3540]

We originally posted before many people had joined, so we are thrilled to
meet all our new dis-friends!

We've never been to Europe and were wondering if it's too silly to let
Disney do our air. Does anyone use local travel agents any longer?

We hope to get to Barcelona a few days early...where would you go?

We're both seniors and won't have kids with us.

Thanks tons! Liz & Bill

 

[sinnika]

We originally posted before many people had joined, so we are thrilled to
meet all our new dis-friends!

We've never been to Europe and were wondering if it's too silly to let
Disney do our air. Does anyone use local travel agents any longer?

We hope to get to Barcelona a few days early...where would you go?

We're both seniors and won't have kids with us.

Thanks tons! Liz & Bill

Unless Disney is getting you a better price, I'm not sure why you would not book your own air. Since you are coming in a few days early, even if your flight is delayed, you will still make the ship. If you check expedia you should be able to pull up all the airlines that fly into Barcelona from your city.

I picked up a great travel book: Frommer's Barcelona day by day. 19 smart ways to see the city. It even has touring plans for one, two and three days.
And a nice foldable map that my older eyes can read!

We are AARP members and have kids. DS turning 13 on the cruise and DD 14.
We just got a late start with those kids!

 

[MKJEcruisers]

I would definitely do flights on your own. The Disney prices seem to be a little steep.

 

[bill3540]

Thanks for the suggestions...

And for all of you who are flying from Texas, like us...do you have a
preferred airline...Delta looked good.

We are so excited about this cruise, but the Alaska ones look good too!

 

[sinnika]

Thanks for the suggestions...

And for all of you who are flying from Texas, like us...do you have a
preferred airline...Delta looked good.

We are so excited about this cruise, but the Alaska ones look good too!

We hope to fly Continental from Houston to Paris nonstop, then back from Barcelona to Houston via New York. We'll be taking an overnight train from Paris to Barcelona arriving the morning of the cruise. Multi destination air on Continental is running about $1070. Although R/T to Barcelona is running about the same. Fares change daily it seems. AirFrance and Delta also have nonstops to Paris from Houston. If we find any great deals on R/T to Paris, we'll do that and just buy air returns from Barcelona to Paris.

I would love to do a Mexican Riviera cruise. Alaska sounds fun too!

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

Thanks for the suggestions...

And for all of you who are flying from Texas, like us...do you have a
preferred airline...Delta looked good.

We booked a Continental non-stop flight from Houston to Paris then will take a connecting flight to Barcelona.