May Med Magic - May 15 2010 - Meet thread

[jedijill]

$15/person.

And worth ever cent and then some.

Jill in CO

 

[k8e]

Booked our airfare on Wednesday!! $967 from Detroit to Barcelona on Air France (layover in Paris both ways). This is slightly cheaper than what I paid in October 2008 DTW-BCN.

 

[Travelbee]

Wow - lots of new posts in the last couple of days...
By the time we logged on at 9 pm PST and navigated to the Palo page, only dinner was available. I guess I'll try again on March 1. BTW - haven't booked airfare either. DH kept telling me that airfare will go down and I'm getting nervous. Yesterday it went up $150... definitely going in the wrong direction! Is anyone else flying from Southern California?

 

[jenandmartin]

From what I can gather from scubaboard (similar format to this and cruise critic and free), Malta is the way to go if you want to dive. It should be warmer than corsica. The water temperature is my achillies heel here. I am used to the caribbean and south pacific water temperatures. Every photo I have seen of a diver in the med is gowned in full body wet suits, hood, and gloves (ie its friggin cold). The average water temp that I have found was about 65-70 C in the month of may for malta. Brrrrrr. If you are interested in diving corsica, I would jump over to scubaboard.com and see the comments. I think I finally talked my wife into cutting me loose from the family vacation to dive Malta but I could switch to Corsica if there is a group wanting to do it.

I've not been diving anywhere in Europe or the Med. Like rashdecision, I'm generally a warm water diver. I did find several dive shops in Ajaccio though.

Thanks for the info...I had also read Malta has great diving but there are many things I'd like to see there and not so much in Corsica. I will take a look at scubaboards too...thanks! I looked at the links Jeff sent (thanks Jeff!) and they seem to have fair prices. At this point, I think we'll play it by ear and see what the weather will be like closer to the date. I don't think a dive in frigid waters would be that enjoyable but I'd love to say I dove in the Mediterranean. We can't book anything till 3/1 so that gives me more time to research.

 

[jenandmartin]

Jill,

On the cruises we've done so far, Palo ressies were booked at Palo; however, I've seen for the Caribbean cruises Palo ressies have been done in Rockin' Bar D. Luckily, there will be a couple of Med cruises before ours so we'll know from them for sure where to go.

MPS516,

Sorry for the confusion. You can only book the tastings in person on the ship. I was trying to point out that when you do that, don't be too discouraged if they're sold out.

Does anyone know how much the wine tastings cost? On the bright side, if they are sold out, we can do our own wine tasting with wine from the different ports

 

[rashdecision]

Thanks for the info...I had also read Malta has great diving but there are many things I'd like to see there and not so much in Corsica. I will take a look at scubaboards too...thanks! I looked at the links Jeff sent (thanks Jeff!) and they seem to have fair prices. At this point, I think we'll play it by ear and see what the weather will be like closer to the date. I don't think a dive in frigid waters would be that enjoyable but I'd love to say I dove in the Mediterranean. We can't book anything till 3/1 so that gives me more time to research.

That is exactly what I told my wife. It would be really cool to say I dove the med! Im still lost at this point on whether to dive. If a dive trip comes up or looks feasible, please let me know.

 

[Jeff Spencer]

Does anyone know how much the wine tastings cost? On the bright side, if they are sold out, we can do our own wine tasting with wine from the different ports

They were $12 the last time we did them (Mexican Riviera).

 

[MPS516]

Ok so has anyone ever flown into LGA and then change airports to JFK? The flights we are looking at get into LGA at 2:00 PM and we have to make our way to JFK by 6:25 PM. The airline of course says that this is very legal. Just wondering if anyone has done this, we have to take a cab, shuttle or something to JFK. The price of the flight is 950.00 from St Louis to Barcelona then Paris back to St. Louis. We also have to meet our daughter, Pixiedust, coming from Orlando so the flights match overseas. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Donna

Alyssa (Pixiedust)

There are a couple of transfer services that run between the airports, here is one of them
http://www.ct95express.com/
I have done it a few times when using multi stop tickets, it is not that big of a problem. The shuttle is right off the baggage claim and drops you right at the curb side check in.

 

[Prinny27]

Hi everyone! My DH, Jared (28), and I, Heather (29) just booked this cruise last week. We were originally booked for the 4 night Wonder but then saw what great deals DCL was offering for this cruise, so booked it. We have a cat. 12 gty and have the late dinner seating. We're going to be celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary on the 18th.

This is our very first cruise EVER and are so excited. And of course, since we are allowed to book everything starting March 1st, I am in mega planning mode thinking of excursions and Palo, oh, and of course, airfare. There's tons of info to take in here and I'm excited to start with the planning. Any suggestions?

Can't wait to see you all on the cruise!

 

[sayhello]

Hi everyone! My DH, Jared (28), and I, Heather (29) just booked this cruise last week. We were originally booked for the 4 night Wonder but then saw what great deals DCL was offering for this cruise, so booked it. We have a cat. 12 gty and have the late dinner seating. We're going to be celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary on the 18th.

This is our very first cruise EVER and are so excited. And of course, since we are allowed to book everything starting March 1st, I am in mega planning mode thinking of excursions and Palo, oh, and of course, airfare. There's tons of info to take in here and I'm excited to start with the planning. Any suggestions?

Can't wait to see you all on the cruise!

Welcome, Prinny27! Read through the thread, there's LOTS of info here! The good news is, since you're in New Jersey, you shouldn't have as bad a time finding airfare if you can fly directly from JFK. We haven't seen any deals on airfare so far. I'm thinking it's a crapshoot, and I went ahead & bought mine.

I think a LOT of us took advantage of the Cat 12 GTY rate. It really is a fabulous price.

Sayhello

 

[jojo6617]

Hi everyone! My DH, Jared (28), and I, Heather (29) just booked this cruise last week. We were originally booked for the 4 night Wonder but then saw what great deals DCL was offering for this cruise, so booked it. We have a cat. 12 gty and have the late dinner seating. We're going to be celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary on the 18th.

This is our very first cruise EVER and are so excited. And of course, since we are allowed to book everything starting March 1st, I am in mega planning mode thinking of excursions and Palo, oh, and of course, airfare. There's tons of info to take in here and I'm excited to start with the planning. Any suggestions?

Can't wait to see you all on the cruise!

Welcome Prinny27 Wow you have chosen well for you first cruise, You wont be disappointed with Disney they are simply the best, we have been on a few British ones and none of them even come close to Disney they are truly magical.

regards
joanne

 

[Jeff Spencer]

Welcome Prinny27.

For our specific cruise, I'd suggest you read up in this forum and ask questions. As for cruising on Disney in general, you'd benefit from visiting the general Disney Cruise Line forum. There are more threads there about cruising in general, cruising on Disney, planning tips, etc.

Here's a direct link to the DIS DCL FAQ which has a lot of good info in it.

 

[tripodjw]

We had a letter from DCL today saying they were crediting us with $100 shipboard credit per person for booking early. It said it was for booking a Med or Baltic cruise early.

I'm quite surprised it applied to us as we originally booked Cat 11 and downgraded when the great deal Cat12 GTY rooms came out - we kept our reservtion no. whihch must explain it.

Now we have enough free shipboard credit to pay for both our excursions and Palo trips.

Hope some of you get it too (though i guess it won't apply to the recent bookers).

 

[sarahgirl]

We had a letter from DCL today saying they were crediting us with $100 shipboard credit per person for booking early. It said it was for booking a Med or Baltic cruise early.

I'm quite surprised it applied to us as we originally booked Cat 11 and downgraded when the great deal Cat12 GTY rooms came out - we kept our reservtion no. whihch must explain it.

Now we have enough free shipboard credit to pay for both our excursions and Palo trips.

Hope some of you get it too (though i guess it won't apply to the recent bookers).

I and many other people received that same letter in December. There was a thread about it. Previously it had only been given to those that booked a Med cruise before late November. Anyways Congrats!!

 

[jojo6617]

We had a letter from DCL today saying they were crediting us with $100 shipboard credit per person for booking early. It said it was for booking a Med or Baltic cruise early.

I'm quite surprised it applied to us as we originally booked Cat 11 and downgraded when the great deal Cat12 GTY rooms came out - we kept our reservtion no. whihch must explain it.

Now we have enough free shipboard credit to pay for both our excursions and Palo trips.

Hope some of you get it too (though i guess it won't apply to the recent bookers).

us to, sooo happy thats a few cocktails coming my way i think LOl

 

[sayhello]

us to, sooo happy thats a few cocktails coming my way i think LOl

Sigh. I booked about 2 weeks too late for this. I suppose I'll get over it!

Sayhello

 

[Jeff Spencer]

Also, we've signed up for the FE exchange and were wondering how it's actually executed...i.e.: gifts daily, once during the cruise, etc...?

I don't know if anyone answered this for you. Gifts are exchanged once per cruise per participant. Here is a link to a quick summary.

Fish Extender Exchange

 

[peterpanstout]

I remember someone on another Med cruise thread had problems booking this one. It was a website issue. I suggest calling DCL and asking. That's what this other person did, and DCL was able to book it for them.

Sayhello

UGH! I just called them and it is sold out! ooooh well...I guess starting my bookings a half an hour late cost me. I tried. booohoooo...

 

[peterpanstout]

Oh, BTW, we also booked the 4x4 in Tunisia. Looked like the most exciting thing to do. We did the souks in Egypt and I was told the ones in Tunisia are much smaller. I still think it is fun to go and see and interact with them.

I am so excited!!!

 

[sayhello]

UGH! I just called them and it is sold out! ooooh well...I guess starting my bookings a half an hour late cost me. I tried. booohoooo...

I would check back periodically. Since you can get a full refund on most of the excursions up until, like, embarkation, I'm betting a lot of people booked "just in case" excursions, and may cancel. I wonder if DCL would do a "waitlist"?

Sayhello