May Med Magic - May 15 2010 - Meet thread - Part 2

[trampslady]

Matt and Theresa here. We left Barcelona on Friday morning after having to make changes to our flight itinerary. Lovely Iberia, who lost our luggage on the outbound from Madrid to Barcelona, apparently cancelled our return to Madrid. Thankfully, I had the foresight to check our ressie when we arrived at the hotel (big shout out to Hotel Regina--great location and first class service) after disembarking Wednesday. American Airlines rebooked us on their nonstop to JFK, connecting to DFW. We could have taken a $400 voucher each and flown from LaGuardia since the flight oversold, but we would not have got to Dallas until after midnight, and I hated to have my parents pick us up so late. And, quite honestly, it was time to get home at that point.

We had a wonderful trip. Although we only met a few Dis'ers we especially enjoyed our Palo brunch (THANKS JEFF) and peeking out from our verandah to say hi to our Dis neighbors below.

I am not ready to say how I rank the ports as we really enjoyed them all. Our private tours with Rome in Limo were FABULOUS.

Somehow we ended up with a $1200 silk berber rug purchase in Tunisia. What a crazy, exhausting experience the Medina was. I had no intention of buying a carpet when I first arrived. But, we got sucked into the market atmosphere. We were on a Disney tour, and we were taken to a specific market stall. All in all, I like my carpet (now affectionately referred to as our "magic" carpet), and we will definitely have lasting memories of that bartering experience.

Thanks to all for making this cruise an amazing one!

 

[crzy4dals]

....

I am not ready to say how I rank the ports as we really enjoyed them all. Our private tours with Rome in Limo were FABULOUS.

....

Can you tell me which tours you did with Rome in Limo? We are on the 8/18 cruise and looking at options.

Thanks

 

[trampslady]

Can you tell me which tours you did with Rome in Limo? We are on the 8/18 cruise and looking at options.

Thanks

We used Rome In Limo for our Naples and Rome stops. We used another company for our Florence stop simply because the driver was an art historian as well, so we did not need an additional guide for the museums. But, we loved the guides that Rome In Limo selected for the Vatican and Pompeii visits. And, as I already mentioned, our drivers were wonderful. They were informative, native to the city, and they were professional and worked hard to ensure our happiness.

 

[Travelbee]

When we arrived at the airport the next morning we realized our short haul flight to Frankfurt had not left its destination due to the strikes in France. This caused us to miss our long haul flight out of Frankfurt to Houston. Lufthansa sent us to a hotel for the night and we slipped out for a few hours to see the Rhine river and the 7 bridges. As we toured the town we nibbled on a bratwurst smeared with German mustard.

Felicia

Our Lufthansa flight from BCN to Frankfurt on Sunday was also delayed -- by 50 minutes -- giving us 30 minutes to make the connection to LAX. There was a bus waiting to take us to our terminal but we had to go through security and customs at Frankfurt! Luckily, the flight waited because there were 30 of us making the same connection but it took off 50 minutes late. It was a very stressful experience.

 

[Jeff Spencer]

Can you tell me which tours you did with Rome in Limo? We are on the 8/18 cruise and looking at options.

Thanks

For anyone doing Rome, Florence and/or Naples tours, I give a big recommendation to Rudy's Touring Service. Rudy did our tour himself in Rome and he was excellent. Our group felt like VIPs as it seemed everyone knew Rudy and Rudy knew everyone in Rome. The two drivers he arranged for us in Florence (Danny) and Naples (Dominic) were not only great drivers but fun and interesting people to meet and spend the day with.

 

[leelee9878]

So good to meet those of you from the DISboard that I was able to meet on the ship. Had too much fun on this cruise, and it was an awesome vacation!
Thanks especially to all at TABLE 32 as all of you all made our table the BEST and the cruise much more fun!!! And thanks to LeeLee for letting me barge into your tour with Rudy's in Naples - it was overall my fav of the cruise!! Off to bed now to try and regain some much needed sleep.

Blake

Blake we wish that you could have joined us for the rest of the ports!!!! Send me your email so we can exchange some pics

 

[leelee9878]

5th day home

Hey everyone sad to be home. Im pleased that most of us, had trouble free journeys home. Our flight was about 30 mins late, so that was good.
It was nice too meet so many of you, really sorry I didnt get to meet all of you.
I think we had one of the best tables for dinner ( Hi everybody )
We all got on great and had good times ).
We absolutley loved the Med cruise and have booked it again for next year, ( Had to do it, its only a 2 hour plane ride to Barcelona ).
We have also booked a back to back on the Dream for Sept 8th. Anybody on these cruises ?.
I would like to say thanks to all of you, it was sooo lovely to meet you.

Which Med cruise did you book next year? I ended up booking a 7 night Med, only because I didnt think I could swing 10 or 11 nights again next year (work wise).

 

[leelee9878]

For anyone doing Rome, Florence and/or Naples tours, I give a big recommendation to Rudy's Touring Service. Rudy did our tour himself in Rome and he was excellent. Our group felt like VIPs as it seemed everyone knew Rudy and Rudy knew everyone in Rome. The two drivers he arranged for us in Florence (Danny) and Naples (Dominic) were not only great drivers but fun and interesting people to meet and spend the day with.

Jeff our group could not agree more! We LOVED Rudy's Touring Service. We had Francesco in Rome and we joked that he was the mayor or something because it seemd like he knew EVERYONE and EVERYONE knew him! It was a great experience in all 3 ports. We even met Francesco's mother in Rome, which gave it an even more personal feel.

 

[tripodjw]

I'm officially home now. Sitting in the office trying to avoid doing the urgent stuff.

We got home yesterday evening after a lovely few extra days just down the coast from Barcelona. There's some beautiful quiet seaside towns only 30 mins drive from Barcelona, would highly recommend the town where we stayed: "Vilanova i la geltru" if you are ever in the area and need a quiet beach break.

It was nice not to rush back home and to the office but i was more Magic-sick (like homesickness) away from home than i was when i went straight home afterwards. I guess going home is always accompanied by being busy (unpacking, laundry back to work etc).

I now know that if i will tag extra time on it has to be before the cruise in future.

On a brighter note, my veggie garden has gone mental while we've been away - i'm going to be eating lettuce for every meal for a month i think, whihc fits well with the planned diet (i officially gained 10 lbs while away) .

 

[DopeyFan1966]

5th day home

Hey everyone sad to be home. Im pleased that most of us, had trouble free journeys home. Our flight was about 30 mins late, so that was good.
It was nice too meet so many of you, really sorry I didnt get to meet all of you.
I think we had one of the best tables for dinner ( Hi everybody )
We all got on great and had good times ).
We absolutley loved the Med cruise and have booked it again for next year, ( Had to do it, its only a 2 hour plane ride to Barcelona ).
We have also booked a back to back on the Dream for Sept 8th. Anybody on these cruises ?.
I would like to say thanks to all of you, it was sooo lovely to meet you.

Which one did you book next year? We booked the May 28 cruise.

We had a blast and I'm so sad to be home, wish I was back on the cruise with everyone right now.

 

[rashdecision]

Well, back to work and already checking the board for the cruise I just came back from. Absolutely awesome experience. Got to put my props up to Limo in Rome and especially Guido our guide in Florence. He was absolutely amazing and if people are looking to guides in Italy, Limo in Rome was fantastic.
I believe my wife arranged our next cruise to alaska next year in July while on this cruise. Its on my birthday and she wont admit it but I got a confirmation letter in the mail on Friday, so I think she is being sneaky.

 

[nanaguide]

Got home from London on Sunday - that was an amazing solo side trip. I enjoyed London immensely. Stayed at a little hotel close to Victoria Station so I walked everywhere. Cindy, I climbed to the top of St. Paul's - what a view. I kept saying to myself this climb will help take off the pounds I put on eating chocolate mousse on the Magic. British Airways went out of their way to help rebook me - I was impressed with them but decided to take my chances and fly home on my brother's United companion pass. Got to fly business class and drink champagne all the way home - now I know how the other half lives. When I fly I'm always in coach or tied to the tail section with barb wire. Didn't realize how nice it is in Business class. Now back to reality!

I agree with Jeff completely. Rudy's tour service is fantastic. I too couldn't believe the connections he had and where he got to park. I really felt like we saw all of Rome because of him. I absolutely loved our Naples tour because of Dominique from Rudy's tours. The lunch we had in Positano was a slice of the real Italy. That afternoon was definitely a highlight of our cruise for me. It was so special. Dan made our Florence trip special too by taking us to the winery - I had their honey on my toast this morning. Rudy kept calling Jeff that day to check on us so he is sure involved with all of his tours. Rudy's Tours is #1 in my book. So glad we all had good luck with our private tours. Also thought Dream tours (Jon) did a super job for us in Villefranche. I loved Eze, St. Paul's and Rothschild's Villa. Also want to recommend highly Duncan Z. at Uphoto tours in Malta - he did an outstanding job.

Cindy and Helen, I have the picture of your families that I took at our Positano lunch on my fridge so Aiden knows what the people look like who are going to be on our Alaska tour. He tells me he wants to go whale watching too. We are planning some extra time in Vancouver/Victoria as those are 2 favorite cities.

Have a great Summer everyone! Come visit me at Epcot.

 

[bsgjunkie]

What a great trip. The weather (and ash cloud) cooperated perfectly. Tunisia is the only port I'd question a return to. As a first time cruiser it was amazing to wake up the first morning to:



Welcome home everyone.

 

[AppleGuy]

We all arrived home late Sunday evening after 4 days in Paris after the cruise. I didn't meet all the DIS board cruisers but it was our pleasure to meet some of you. Met Jeff and his family in JFK on the way over and it seemed like we were at the same place all the way through the cruise--enjoyed meeting you and your family Jeff and we are signed up for the Alaska cruise in August of next year. Nanaguide--don't know how I ended up there in Rockin Bar D Sat night--I think its because my son wouldn't do it and my wife ( I Collect Belle--Donna) grabbed me and said --You go do it! It was all fun and my whole family was crying when I returned to the table because they were laughing so hard. Donna met more of you than I did--she enjoyed the room crawl with some of you. Loved all the Fish Extender gifts--Rash Decision was a life saver with the sun screen--we did use it! Some of the candy and cookies we received were excellent--like I needed more to eat! Hope to see some of you on a future Disney cruise--what a great cruise and its hard to believe all the sights we saw. I will second Limo in Rome as they did us a great job in all 3 Italian ports.

As Mickey would say "See you real soon!"

Apple Guy
I Collect Belle
Pixie Dust
Ariel 412
Bubby 627

 

[kehonuamemano]

Hello everyone-
We are back to reality here in Boston. We enjoyed every moment of our time on the cruise and enjoyed meeting many of the DISers.

As promised I am posting all of the pictures of the food that I took throughout the cruise. Our servers were even joking that I was a spy for another cruise line! Everything we ate was good, with a few items being really good. Palo was incredible.


http://www.photoshop.com/index.html...ed604909be&wf=shareslideshow&trackingid=BTAGC

 

[DopeyFan1966]

Calling all Disers for help.

A couple on the cruise went down to shutters and the cast member there helped them take the photos off of their camera and put them on their hard drive. The only problem is that the cast member didn't transfer all the pictures to the hard drive, they lost several days worth of pictures.

If any of you were on excursions with a couple with the names of Rob and Jennifer (they had a son named Chancelor, they called him Chance) and have any pictures that they may have ended up in please let me know. Rob left for Afghanistan yesterday and they are waiting for shutters to see if they can recover any of the pictures. But if anyone can help I'm sure they would appreciate it.

I can't add attachments or I would post a picture of them, but I hope some of you out there remember them.

Thanks.

 

[Jeff Spencer]

Cindy,

Do you know what tours they were on for each of the ports? That might help people narrow it down.

 

[jlwhitney]

Hey everyone,

Our trip report is located at www.philandjensbigadventure.blogspot.com

 

[DopeyFan1966]

Cindy,

Do you know what tours they were on for each of the ports? That might help people narrow it down.

I was just getting ready to email her to ask. Opened up Facebook and there was a message from her. Disney found their pictures on their computer and they are sending them to her on a disk.

Thanks for looking and wanting to help, she really appreciates the thought.

Cindy

 

[tripodjw]

I was just getting ready to email her to ask. Opened up Facebook and there was a message from her. Disney found their pictures on their computer and they are sending them to her on a disk.

Thanks for looking and wanting to help, she really appreciates the thought.

Cindy

Glad to hear they found the pictures. I would be distraught if i lost pics.

Third day back at work and can't stop thinking about planning my next vacation. Heath has been looking at the excursions for our April 2011 cruise on the Dream already.

Can't decide if we want to try Hong Kong in late Oct/early Nov or if we should catch a 4 nighter on the Wonder before she heads westward. We have officially decided to go to Japan (and Tokyo Disney of course) in Summer/Fall 2011.