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

[momtomari]

Hi Momtomari!

I found this hotel deal posted on another thread. I checked it out for 4 but it only showed room availability for 2 people so this may work for you? The rate was very good too!
"The Hotel Eurostars Grand Marina currently has a great rate for the period. Here is the link, looks like a fantastic hotel !!"

http://www.eurostarshotels.com/EN/ho...]=PROMOZOOUK

It's a special deal through a website called TravelZoo"

thanks ill look into it. i love travelzoo website that is how i got to visit ireland last march. received an email with the top 20 that had an awesome price

 

[sinnika]

thanks ill look into it. i love travelzoo website that is how i got to visit ireland last march. received an email with the top 20 that had an awesome price

If the first link doesn't take you directly to the hotel with the promotion price, this one should. I just did it and it was 127 euro for 2 people plus a free welcome drink to boot!
http://www.eurostarshotels.com/EN/ho...]=PROMOZOOUK

 

[GA-yaya]

i noticed this today as well. I am now going to come in a day before from detroit and it looks like i will be on your return flight leaving at 11:20 to jfk. now im off to look at hotels in barcelona since i will have the 25th to explore and will have to decide what were going to explore in barcelona now.

Great! We'll need to plan to meet along with Wrennies who is also on the return flight.
Good luck with your hotel search, there have been a lot of good suggestions on here.

 

[momtomari]

If the first link doesn't take you directly to the hotel with the promotion price, this one should. I just did it and it was 127 euro for 2 people plus a free welcome drink to boot!
http://www.eurostarshotels.com/EN/ho...]=PROMOZOOUK

i think that i will go with the novotel it was 89 euro and we can plan a before cruise meet since other people are staying there

 

[sinnika]

i think that i will go with the novotel it was 89 euro and we can plan a before cruise meet since other people are staying there

Yes, that's an awesome price! And great idea to meet up with the group!

 

[colmom]

Just booked all our excursions-yipee!
Being brand new to the cruise scene, I do have a question about the kids' program. I was only able to register my 9-yr-old, but not my 11-yr old. I thought I read somewhere that 12 and under had to be registered. Anybody know about this?

 

[NHdisneylover]

Just booked all our excursions-yipee!
Being brand new to the cruise scene, I do have a question about the kids' program. I was only able to register my 9-yr-old, but not my 11-yr old. I thought I read somewhere that 12 and under had to be registered. Anybody know about this?

11s are in the OceanQuest on the Magic and do not need to be registered (cannot be in fact). I think on the Wonder it is 12 and under as they do not have a seperate space for the tweens. DS is 11 this cruise also, so it is the first cruise we have done where neither kid is being registered--I feel so old

 

[NHdisneylover]

I have a few more questions for the experienced cruisers on the Disney Magic: Does it use the same electrical current that we use in the U.S. (wondering about bringing a travel iron)?.....How long does it take to get a dress pressed and cost??.....How many laundry facilities do they have and how busy are they?....Do they have a midnight buffet?

I would appreciate your answers to my questions! Thanks so much! I'm eating, living, and breathing about the cruise nowadays! lol

DisneyDeb

I am not 100% positive about this because I never deal with the eletronics but DH says the staterooms have both US and European outlets in them. i know US plugs work as that is what you always used to have.

As always, great info Taina. Maybe Disney will do a laundry special (like Carnival did)... $14 to do all the laundry that will fit into a plastic bag which they give you. We took advantage of that quite frequently when we went on the Glory in 2007.

I have never yet seen them offer a laundry deal like that--but I would be happy to jump on it if they did

 

[wrennies]

I also was up at midnight booking excursions. We only had one disney excursion and we got it!!! Yeah!!! (Turkish Schooner in malta - Is anyone else doing this?)
I really wanted a Palo brunch - they were all booked at 12:03!!! We did not want to do a dinner because we are really big on the "family thing" and the family dinners are something that I am really looking forward to! I do not know the last time that we had 2 weeks of dinners where we were all together!

 

[jocjarmom]

I also was up at midnight booking excursions. We only had one disney excursion and we got it!!! Yeah!!! (Turkish Schooner in malta - Is anyone else doing this?)
I really wanted a Palo brunch - they were all booked at 12:03!!! We did not want to do a dinner because we are really big on the "family thing" and the family dinners are something that I am really looking forward to! I do not know the last time that we had 2 weeks of dinners where we were all together!

Wrenn, I think they were booked before you got there. We are Silver Castaway members, and there were no Palo's brunches when I went to sign up.

 

[GA-yaya]

Wrenn, I think they were booked before you got there. We are Silver Castaway members, and there were no Palo's brunches when I went to sign up.

We did exactly the same thing. They must have all been booked - there were no Palo's brunches available when I clicked on them. Guess we'll try again when we get onboard, I understand that they hold about half of the reservations back.

 

[Dgentrysim]

I thought I had this "fish extender thing" down pat....but now I read something that makes me wonder if I've got it wrong. So for any of you who have done this.....do you give one nice gift to each family (one for adults...then for each of the children) or do you just give them small things like hand sanitizer, candy, etc.? Same with children....candy, bookmarks, pencils, etc. For those of you who have participated in FE in the past, what were gifts you gave that people really liked or that you really enjoyed? And while I'm at it.....do you give quite a few things for the kids or just a couple of nice things. I may be repeating myself...but I want to be on the right track. For example....for girls...I found some cute glow-in-the-dark leis. I know kids like those at night to play around with. Is this the type of items you would get?

Thanks once again for your feedback! Hope everyone has a wonderful week-end!!!

DisneyDeb

 

[traceyjayne]

I thought I had this "fish extender thing" down pat....but now I read something that makes me wonder if I've got it wrong. So for any of you who have done this.....do you give one nice gift to each family (one for adults...then for each of the children) or do you just give them small things like hand sanitizer, candy, etc.? Same with children....candy, bookmarks, pencils, etc. For those of you who have participated in FE in the past, what were gifts you gave that people really liked or that you really enjoyed? And while I'm at it.....do you give quite a few things for the kids or just a couple of nice things. I may be repeating myself...but I want to be on the right track. For example....for girls...I found some cute glow-in-the-dark leis. I know kids like those at night to play around with. Is this the type of items you would get?

Thanks once again for your feedback! Hope everyone has a wonderful week-end!!!

DisneyDeb

Hiya,
I have never done this before either but as far as I am concerned I am trying to gather a few bits that are not too bulky for people to carry back but still can be some kind of memento and I shall give some sweets for the kids as these can be enjoyed during the trip!! I am sure that whatever you give will be fine! Why not check with Karen the organiser or Taina as she can advice you! Tracey

 

[NHdisneylover]

I thought I had this "fish extender thing" down pat....but now I read something that makes me wonder if I've got it wrong. So for any of you who have done this.....do you give one nice gift to each family (one for adults...then for each of the children) or do you just give them small things like hand sanitizer, candy, etc.? Same with children....candy, bookmarks, pencils, etc. For those of you who have participated in FE in the past, what were gifts you gave that people really liked or that you really enjoyed? And while I'm at it.....do you give quite a few things for the kids or just a couple of nice things. I may be repeating myself...but I want to be on the right track. For example....for girls...I found some cute glow-in-the-dark leis. I know kids like those at night to play around with. Is this the type of items you would get?

Thanks once again for your feedback! Hope everyone has a wonderful week-end!!!

DisneyDeb

I have seen it done all ways but most of the times it is just little trinkets. Nice gifts tend to be reserved for secret mickeys or other bigger exchanges. I like the little things persoanlly--much lower stress all around and it does not take much to be fun.
Just a bag of M&Ms to munch at a show, a book mark, a deck of cards, a magnet for the door, a mini bottle of handsantizer, etc is plenty.
Our last cruise people really went all out. There were several large goody bags for the kids, photo albums, Chirstmas ornaments, etc. It was REALLY very nice of everyone and we appreciated it, BUT it made the people who did not go so far out feel guily and started to feel like a contest to see who could outdo everyone else instead of a fun little thing. It also got to be truly difficult to store everythign in the stateroom and at the end of the trip we took home a ton of things and still left two grocery bags FULL of thigns with the cruise satff to use as prizes (they said they could) because we could not possibly fit it all in our luggage to return home (and that does not even count the food gifts which we ate on board). So, my vote is to keep it simple, small and inexpensive; For example, for the kids I was thinking of bringing German Kinder Eggs (chocolate eggs with toy surprises inside), not a big goodie bag or a lot of stuff. I want tell what I am thinking of for the adults as it should be a surprise, but it is also small.--but I will go with whatever everyone wants. BTW--I think the glow in teh dark leaighs sound like a great idea--how fun for pirate night.

 

[jocjarmom]

Happy Friday evening to everybody (or Saturday a.m. to our friends across the pond!),

Both Taina and I are starting to get requests to list the groups for the FE program, so I am officially listing them here. These groups are based on ages of the kids. Right now, we have 3 groups of 9 families, and 1 group of 4. I assume that eventually, the 4th group will fill up.

Since this is a public thread, I will only post the Disboard monikers here. I will send personal messages later to provide more detailed info:

Group A:
Marlower
Traceyjayne
jocjarmom
KLS Georgia
DEAdea
BSH
ARG73
NHDisneylover
Mustravel2day

Group B:
Tahiti2go - Cabin 1
MKJEcruisers
speakupjc
Aussiechick
Bewitched00
pookinandpiglet
Nicsmom1500
Kansasdisneymom
Momtomari

Group C:
threebritts
Family #1 - no Disboard moniker
Family #2 - no Disboard moniker
Wrennies
Connieosci
NHDisneylover
Juliethecruisedirector
inGreece
tahiti2go - Cabin 2

Group D: (At the moment, this group is entirely made of adults, but new families will be added to this group...)
Bill3549
Eeyore77
Tahiti2go - Cabin 3
Dgentrys

I have also posted this on the Facebook page. I will also try to send PMs to folks in the next day or so with names of family members, cabin #s (if I have them), kids & ages, and assignments. If you see a duplicate name on more than one group, that is at the request of the family.

Hope you are all happy with it!

Karen

 

[AliceinWonderland]

Hello everyone,
We are probably going to book this cruise. I have a few questions if you could help me. On check-in day, can we check-in and then easily go back out to explore the city some? I noticed that most return flights leave Barcelona earlier than Disney recommends. How early have you booked your flights out? Are a lot of the excursions already booked up? Have you found any hotels that sleep five at a reasonable price for pre-trip? Anything else I should know or consider before booking?
Thanks so much!!
Alice

 

[wrennies]

I can help with the sleeping five thing....If you are looking at hotels, you will need two rooms. Holiday Inn Express, Radisoon at the airport and the new Novotel hotel all have good rates. There are some "apartments" that you can get that sleep 5 also.

 

[wrennies]

Also we just booked excursions last night and we got the "one" we wanted. I looked later today just to see how many were "full" and I only saw four. Palo dinners are still open, but no brunch or high teas.

 

[jocjarmom]

Hello everyone,
We are probably going to book this cruise. I have a few questions if you could help me. On check-in day, can we check-in and then easily go back out to explore the city some? I noticed that most return flights leave Barcelona earlier than Disney recommends. How early have you booked your flights out? Are a lot of the excursions already booked up? Have you found any hotels that sleep five at a reasonable price for pre-trip? Anything else I should know or consider before booking?
Thanks so much!!
Alice

Hi Alice,

We are staying at the Hotel Next To, which has "apartments" that hold 5, even though it is a hotel. Many of the apartments we looked at had offices that were several miles away... we didn't want to go to our hotel, and then have to travel a few miles away. Plus, they don't have maid service. But many of them look lovely!

Here is a link to Next To... i think it looks amazingly cool!
http://www.hotelnextto.com/

Karen

 

[Kiss-im-mee2]

Hello everyone,
We are probably going to book this cruise. I have a few questions if you could help me. On check-in day, can we check-in and then easily go back out to explore the city some? I noticed that most return flights leave Barcelona earlier than Disney recommends. How early have you booked your flights out? Are a lot of the excursions already booked up? Have you found any hotels that sleep five at a reasonable price for pre-trip? Anything else I should know or consider before booking?
Thanks so much!!
Alice

You can check in and go back into Barcelona. There is a port shuttle for 3 euros one way, 4 euros RT that will drop you near the Columbas monument at the end of La Rambles. We have cruised out of Barcelona twice and we are arriving one day early and staying three days after. Barcelona is a great city.
We just booked the tour we wanted tonight in Tunisia. Everywhere else we will go on our own.