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

[jedijill]

I made it home at midnight MST last night not after some delays on my JFK-Denver flight. We were delayed about 20 minutes due to the incoming airplane being late. When we got boarded, we had another 30 minute delay to fix the bathroom. We started taxiing to the runway and then had to wait another 20-25 minutes because of an incoming medical emergency that they needed to keep the runway open. Just as we were getting ready to take off, the pilot said they may have a ground stop in Denver...luckily we got clearance to take off before they issued the ground stop. We had to circle for 30 minutes over Kansas before being allowed to land. We ended up being about an hour late. We were lucky....many flights were canceled into and out of Denver due to severe storms, tornadoes, and egg and baseball sized hail.

It was wonderful to meet all of you guys. I had a wonderful time. Hopefully I can get some thoughts on the trip posted with some of my pics.

Jill in CO

 

[emmalouisenicholson]

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to check in and say what a fantastic holiday we have had!!

It was lovely to meet some of you on board and am glad to hear that everyone is getting home safe & sound.

I have been back at work today and am so depressed - need to book another holiday to cheer myself up lol! (Thinking 14nights at WDW followed by a 3/4night Cruise on the Dream towards then end of next year)

 

[Prinny27]

Well, we made it home, and I'm ready to go back! Our flight into JFK actually landed an hour early, which was so nice. I managed to walk through my door at 3:50 EST, which gave me some time to unpack. I had a great time meeting you all, and chatting the past few months on the thread. It's going to be hard not to check in here every day!

 

[Jeff Spencer]

We are sitting at our gate in Chicago waiting for our last flight to Huntsville. We're definitely doing an Alaska cruise, just haven't picked out which one. It was a lot of fun for myself and my family to meet so many of you. And for those at Table 32 - you're the best!

 

[leelee9878]

Hi everyone! I am so glad to see that everyone is making it home safe and sound. Our flight was at 10:45 yesterday, we woke up at 6:00, got breakfast at Topsiders, off the boat by 6:45, had luggage and was in a taxi and on our way to the airport by 7:00- the cost was $45 euro (not bad split 3 ways). We got to the airport so early that the Continental desks werent even open yet. Our flight left a little late but we made it to Newark early and was actually able to land on time!!

We did a Disney tour in Malta and was pleasantly surprised, I really enjoyed this port. Tunis, I really could have done without. We did a Disney tour (Carthage & Sidi Bou Said) based upon everyone stressing not to go out on your own and had a HORRIBLE experience, Carthage was nice but everything else we experienced was really bad. We arranged tours in the Italy ports with Rudy based upon Jeff's suggestion and couldnt be happier. They really were great, I am so in love with Italy! Paris used to be my favorite but I think Italy just bumped it to #2. I must say though that the highlight of my trip was being able to get a tour of the bridge, and blow the horn!!!! (I will post some pics as soon as I upload them all!)

I had a great time this cruise and met some great people. I actually booked 3 future cruises while on board- 2 cabins on the last 7 night med of the season next year (labor day week) and a 3 night cruise this September. I can not wait until the Med next year, especially because my parents and boyfriend will be able to join me this time!

Talk to you all soon!

Lisa

 

[k8e]

We made it into Detroit at about 4:40pm on Weds. We walked our own luggage off at about 7:20am--our flight to Paris was at 10:25am. Apart from waking up with either a 24 hr stomach flu or food poisoning at 4 am Weds., our flights went well. I, however, felt miserable and couldn't wait to get home & sleep.

My mom and I had a great time on the cruise. It was great to meet everyone! Thanks to everyone for all the FE gifts, they were wonderful. So sad to be back to 'reality'. I'm going to try to do a trip report soon. Glad to see everyone is making it home safe & sound!

 

[HelenMartinez]

This was our first cruise and we had such fun that we already booked out next one to Alaska. It was great meeting everyone! We all loved participating in the FE's. Thanks to Jeff and everyone that made the disboards such a great experience.

 

[Greg M]

Hey guys, we enjoyed meeting all of you (or for our fellow southerners... ya'll). We had the best time! Thanks to Jeff for arranging the Palo brunch. It was a great opportunity to meet other DIS members on a more personal level. I am also glad that we had such great nightly dining tablemates (all fellow DIS'ers). We are already discussing when to take our next Disney cruise but this one will be hard to top thanks to all the wonderful people we met!
Now back to real life away from the Disney Magic. Our 5 hour lay-over in Newark turned into 9 hours thanks to a thunder storm. After more than 26 hours straight of no sleep, we arrived home at 2am. Cristy had to be at work at 9am today so she had it worse than I did.... hmmmm think I'll take another nap now

 

[nanaguide]

I'm in London! Sara and I had fun traveling together. This is a fantastic city. I have walked everywhere and have seen oh most everything - 38 pounds for a little room near Victoria Station has been the best buy of my trip. Especially after Carl's episode with the Barcelona pick pocket I needed to save some money. Tomorrow I'm going to Bristish Museum and to the play, Billy Elliott. Tower of London was amazing! I sure hope I get home on Sunday. BA cancelled my flight back to Barcelona so my brother is letting me use one of his tickets for United so hope I make it to Orlando. Faith, trust, and pixie dust - I'll be at work on Monday night. Don't forget to e-mail me if you plan to come to Epcot. Enjoyed meeting all of you. The whole cruise was magical for me and the pre-planning was the BEST! Thanks for all the FE gifts. You are all so creative. Jeff and Jane special thanks for all your work on our behalf.

Connie (Travelbee), we will be on the August 2 Alaska cruise and we're bringing our grandson, Aiden, who is 7 1/2. He loves to read so we need to get him and Allison together - maybe they can do some Alaska planning on the internet this year. Sean told me she likes to read. Aiden and I want to take a dog sled ride for sure.

I enjoyed every port. These are my rankings:
#1 - Amalfi Coast (Naples) because of lunch, Dominique's singing, and the lemoncello!!!! Wheee!!!
#2 - Rome - just because of the history and our Vatican guide told me so much about the Catholic Church. Rudy's Tours are definitely #1 in my book - he is amazing! He makes you feel like you are the President - I cannot believe the places he parked!
#3 - Villefranche - just loved Eze and St. Pauls and Ville de Rothschild's Rose Gardens
#4 - Malta - Duncan's Uphoto Tour made it a highlight of the cruise. He was so entertaining. It is a beautiful place.
#5 - La Spezia - seeing my old boss in Florence and the winery
#6 - Corsica - just relaxing (spent over $155 on ship's phone trying to get Travelocity to help me with my BA flight from Barcelona to London - they will definitely hear from me when I get home)
#7 - Tunis - we enjoyed Carthage/Sid but it was because we had a good tour guide - not a place I'd go back to visit.

The food was good on the ship and Palo's of course was amazing. The shows were all good. I didn't like Villians - hated the storyline. We needed Mickey at the end to play the good guy. I will never forget Gary wearing his daughter's bra and his dancing. What a fun evening! Ok Gary - now everyone will want to know what I'm talking about. It was a fun show in Rockin Bar D. Take care disfriends - hope to see you again and make more wonderful Disney memories

 

[MPS516]

After our night in Barcelona we arrived home early this morning after our delay at JFK. After the gate delay we were allowed to sit on taxiway for 2 hours while they tried to file alternate flight plans to get us on the way, for awhile we were going to go to Atlanta and then turn north to Minneapolis, luckily the storms passed and we flew straight home.

It was just great to see all of you and share the cruise. We did book Alaska for August 30th 2011 with a possibility of moving that up a couple of weeks if we reconsider bringing DD1 along. Right now we are figuring on just Donna and I the week after Jessi heads back to school. In the meantime we are looking forward to our Disney Christmas trip, in our held mail drop today I see there is a "planning your Christmas vacation" booklet and DVD, looking forward to reviewing. I am also very envious of those of you doing the Panama Canal repositioning, we just coupld not do that week.

Continued safe travels to all and we look forward to seeing some in the future, when we meet again.

 

[amackay]

Hey guys, we enjoyed meeting all of you (or for our fellow southerners... ya'll). We had the best time! Thanks to Jeff for arranging the Palo brunch. It was a great opportunity to meet other DIS members on a more personal level. I am also glad that we had such great nightly dining tablemates (all fellow DIS'ers). We are already discussing when to take our next Disney cruise but this one will be hard to top thanks to all the wonderful people we met!
Now back to real life away from the Disney Magic. Our 5 hour lay-over in Newark turned into 9 hours thanks to a thunder storm. After more than 26 hours straight of no sleep, we arrived home at 2am. Cristy had to be at work at 9am today so she had it worse than I did.... hmmmm think I'll take another nap now

I'm glad to hear that you guys got home safe. I bet Christy wasn't too keen to get up for a 9am start. It was a lot of fun meeting both of you. I'll be emailing you shortly with our contact details so we can keep in touch.

 

[Greg M]

I'm glad to hear that you guys got home safe. I bet Christy wasn't too keen to get up for a 9am start. It was a lot of fun meeting both of you. I'll be emailing you shortly with our contact details so we can keep in touch.

Haha yep, you know by now that she doesn't do mornings! She handled it like a trooper though and had a good day despite the sleep deprivation. We enjoyed it as well, meeting you and Genna really made the cruise even more fun. Sounds like a plan, I have a picture from pirate night that I think you may be interested in

 

[Travelbee]

We made it into Detroit at about 4:40pm on Weds. We walked our own luggage off at about 7:20am--our flight to Paris was at 10:25am. Apart from waking up with either a 24 hr stomach flu or food poisoning at 4 am Weds., our flights went well. I, however, felt miserable and couldn't wait to get home & sleep.

Sorry to hear about the stomach flu/food poisoning. Sean (DH) had that the last sea day, went to the ship doctor and was quarantined until we got off. Yesterday, Allison got a much milder version of it...

I'm in London! Sara and I had fun traveling together. This is a fantastic city.

Connie (Travelbee), we will be on the August 2 Alaska cruise and we're bringing our grandson, Aiden, who is 7 1/2. He loves to read so we need to get him and Allison together - maybe they can do some Alaska planning on the internet this year. Sean told me she likes to read. Aiden and I want to take a dog sled ride for sure.

We spent two days in London before the cruise and loved it. If you have time, St. Paul's cathedral is awesome and the view from the top is worth the hike! And you have an amazing memory... Allison loves to read and would be happy to make friends with Aiden before our Alaska cruise. Helen and her family will be on that cruise as well. She has a little boy named Aiden that will be 7 1/2 when that cruise rolls around. BTW - thanks for those glasses!

 

[HelenMartinez]

Connie (Travelbee), we will be on the August 2 Alaska cruise and we're bringing our grandson, Aiden, who is 7 1/2. He loves to read so we need to get him and Allison together - maybe they can do some Alaska planning on the internet this year. Sean told me she likes to read. Aiden and I want to take a dog sled ride for sure.

Hello there,

What great fortune, we will be on that cruise as well. It was great fun running into to you and your travel companions throughout the cruise. I'm sure the boys will have a good time with your grandson. Oh no Allison, more boys!!

 

[2BNDisney]

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

 

[Pinmeister]

This was our first cruise ever and boy did we get lucky. The people were fantastic, the weather was perfect and the ports of call were amazing. We are hooked on Cruising. Nancy & I are already talking about Alaska for next year but it probably won't be a Disney cruise. We want to do a Sea and Land tour which Dis does not offer (at least as of yet).
Thanks again to Jeff Spencer for all of his hard work and time. All his efforts helped in making the cruise what it was, absolutely GREAT.
Hope to see many of our new Dis'er friends on future cruises, we miss you already.

 

[llkoolj40]

We made it home Saturday morning at about 2:30 Am after the flight to Miami and the 4 hour drive home. Considering the trip over to Barcelona this was a short trip...LOL
We had an amazing trip! We it was great meeting many of you. Thank you to all for your great tips!
We booked 3 private tours with Romelimotours and enjoyed those very much,with Rome being the best.We did take the folowing tours with DCL:

Tunis-Dougga This tour was mis-represented as it tour over 2 hours to get there,but the ruins and country side were well worth the drive!

Malta- Blue Grotto- Loved this tour but did not need the food tasting,as it wasn't very appealing or good. Not much of a fan of the soft drink Kindle either.This tour was in the afternoon so it allowed for time to see Valetta as well.

Corsica- sweet Corsica- This was a very relaxing and good tour!! and we had time to see Ajaccio.

VillaFranche- Nice and Monaco- This tour was ok but lunch in Eze was not. We left the lunch and walked thru Eze instead, as the restaurant was at the bottom with no view and they would not let you eat outside. Eze was worth the uphill walk though, and we ate at a little outdoor cafe up theer.

Again, nice to meet everyone! Hope you all had a great trip too!

 

[ebony]

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.

 

[dfsc]

We made it home Friday after our Wednesday BA flight was cancelled and BA moved us to a Lufthansa flight Thursday. We enjoyed the extra day in Barcelona as we were able to visit Parc Guell and ride the funiculars to Montjuic.

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.

Friday was my 40th birthday. I had a great German breakfast in Frankfurt and then hopped on the plane to return home to the USA. I received lots of hugs from my two kids. Since I gained 7 hours on the flight home it was the longest birthday I've ever had.

Missing everyone at table 27/28. Thanks for the great conversation and laughter.

Felicia

 

[sayhello]

I got home from side trip to Israel late last night. Flights were not bad. Not nearly as bad as I thought it would be aside from the 23 hour total travel time!

We did 't get there until 8:45 but did find ICollectBelle &her family, rashdecision & his family, gg.leigh, pinmeister (Frank & Nancy). Sayhello met us in las rambla for dinner and rode the metro with us. It was a neat show. The third show was Disney themed.

Jeff, I really enjoyed meeting up with you & your family, and the tapas (which, ACK! I still owe you for!!!!) and the fountain. Table 32 was just totally, completely AWESOME!!!! A big highlight of the trip!

We're onboard. Took us just under 30 minutes to board from the time we got out of the cab. Time to get in rooms is 1:30. We spent 60 euro on breakfast at hotel and now we're not hungry for the free Disney food. Not terribly smart on our part.

Jeff, the Blue bus from the Columbus monument --- NOT a good option! Took an hour & a half to get on the bus! Should have just taken a taxi, even if it would have been expensive. Ah, well! Live & learn!

Hey all, I miss you guys already and it has only been like 12 hours. Just wanted to let you guys know that I made it to London alive, yay!! Now off to find Jelly Babies. I blame you Jane!

Sarah, I hope you're having a WONDERFUL time on your tour! I miss all you guys, too!!!!

Great to hear Sara. We checked into our hotel, did the city history museum and our Segway tour, which was AMAZING! Tomorrow is our flight home.

I wish I'd been able to do the Segway tour. Sounds like a blast!

I made it home at midnight MST last night not after some delays on my JFK-Denver flight. We were delayed about 20 minutes due to the incoming airplane being late. When we got boarded, we had another 30 minute delay to fix the bathroom. We started taxiing to the runway and then had to wait another 20-25 minutes because of an incoming medical emergency that they needed to keep the runway open. Just as we were getting ready to take off, the pilot said they may have a ground stop in Denver...luckily we got clearance to take off before they issued the ground stop. We had to circle for 30 minutes over Kansas before being allowed to land. We ended up being about an hour late. We were lucky....many flights were canceled into and out of Denver due to severe storms, tornadoes, and egg and baseball sized hail.

It was wonderful to meet all of you guys. I had a wonderful time. Hopefully I can get some thoughts on the trip posted with some of my pics.

Jill in CO

It was so great getting to know you! Glad you made it home OK. Sorting through my pics for a report is going to be a major effort!

Table 32 ROCKED!

We are sitting at our gate in Chicago waiting for our last flight to Huntsville. We're definitely doing an Alaska cruise, just haven't picked out which one. It was a lot of fun for myself and my family to meet so many of you. And for those at Table 32 - you're the best!

I totally agree re: Table 32. Not planning Alaska at this point... But stranger things have happened!

This was our first cruise ever and boy did we get lucky. The people were fantastic, the weather was perfect and the ports of call were amazing. We are hooked on Cruising. Nancy & I are already talking about Alaska for next year but it probably won't be a Disney cruise. We want to do a Sea and Land tour which Dis does not offer (at least as of yet).
Thanks again to Jeff Spencer for all of his hard work and time. All his efforts helped in making the cruise what it was, absolutely GREAT.
Hope to see many of our new Dis'er friends on future cruises, we miss you already.

The ABD Adventure Guides did say that ABD/DCL are considering an ABD/DCL Alaska trip like they did for the Med, since the Med trips did so well. Nothing specific, but it's likely it will happen. Not sure if it will be a land/sea trip (since the ABD goes nowhere near where the cruise goes) or a whole new itinerary to go with the cruise. I'll let you know if I hear anything specific.

Glad to be home, but I miss all you guys. What a fabulous, fabulous trip with Amazing people!!!!

Sayhello