Northern Sights & Mickey's MAGICal Delights - 1st Baltic cruise - June 12,2010

[eva]

Packing for this trip is going to be completely different than most of our vacations. I am used to sunny weather with highs usually from 75 to over 90. I was just checking on averages for our stops and here they are for June:

London - 68/52
Oslo - 68/52
Copenhagen - 66/52
Berlin - 74/55
St. Petersburg - 68/51
Helsinki - 68/48
Stockholm - 67/49

I guess there may not be too much swimming on the sea days. The sites were listing the highest it has ever been in those cities. And the highest temps recorded were in the mid 80's for June. Hmm, time for a new wardrobe!

PS - most of the cities average 10 to 15 days of rain in June. Pack the raincoat!

 

[granmaz]

We're in! I'm trying not to allow myself to get too excited though. I've never booked anything 20 months out!

I've not read all 72 pages of this thread so this might have already been mentioned but I was told that if you don't do a DCL Russian excursion, you will need a visa to get off the ship. And if you do go on a DCL Russian excursion and you want to stay ahore a little longer, you will need a visa.

We had to get visas for our trip to China. They are easy enough to get but I think they were about $100 pp or so and took a couple of months. Anyway, just something to keep in mind....for about this time NEXT year.

~Mike

Hi and welcome. This is a great group you are joining.

Someone posted that about visas the other day. We have some folk looking into the issue with booking independent tours. Some tour companies apparently get visas for you. thank goodness we have a long time to prepare!!!

Packing for this trip is going to be completely different than most of our vacations. I am used to sunny weather with highs usually from 75 to over 90. I was just checking on averages for our stops and here they are for June:

London - 68/52
Oslo - 68/52
Copenhagen - 66/52
Berlin - 74/55
St. Petersburg - 68/51
Helsinki - 68/48
Stockholm - 67/49

I guess there may not be too much swimming on the sea days. The sites were listing the highest it has ever been in those cities. And the highest temps recorded were in the mid 80's for June. Hmm, time for a new wardrobe!

PS - most of the cities average 10 to 15 days of rain in June. Pack the raincoat!

Well we sure have had lousy Junes for the last few years. I'm not planning on fantastic weather, then I can be pleasantly surprised if we we get some.

 

[mishoe01]

All I can say is.....LAYERS!

So now that we have a name - who's going to design our sign/logo?

 

[Michelle2]

oh no....the poll is over?

 

[mishoe01]

Apparently - check out the new name in the thread title - Northern Sights & Mickey's MAGICal Delights.

 

[hawkaye19]

We were hoping a cabin a bit further aft would open up today....but according to our TA

everybody paid their deposits and all veranda cabins are nor GTY

I took a quick look at the July cruise and there are lots of spots open

Guess we all want to be the first in the Baltic

 

[EpcotKilterFan]

I have no problem doing that, if we had 12 then that's a person a day for a few rooms. It was just to hectic on the PC and TA having the whole ship. We will want to be exiting the ship as soon as we can when we are in ports so I don't want to be tied down to several hours on the ship doing gifts.

It really took people that long? On the TA and the PC in 2005 (Inaugural Fish Extender Cruise) I did three total gifts over 3 days for the entire DIS group. And it really did not take me that long to do.

If you are in our DIS group, i.e. on the Roster you will get a gift from me and my mom. As the "first to extend her fish" that is the fun part of the cruise. I could care less if I get a gift in return.

I will do a spreadsheet along with the web page roster. Anyone is welcome to have it. It can be sorted by room, then by floor, and printed out. It only becomes a problem when folks upgrade to a different room.

Look for an update to the list by tomorrow night. I have been picking out tile ALL day and I just want to fall over And I didn't even load the 200 square feet of ceramic tile!

Deb

 

[gydell]

We were hoping a cabin a bit further aft would open up today....but according to our TA

everybody paid their deposits and all veranda cabins are nor GTY

I took a quick look at the July cruise and there are lots of spots open

Guess we all want to be the first in the Baltic

I think we will see quite a few cabins open up in the next 600 days!

 

[gydell]

It really took people that long? On the TA and the PC in 2005 (Inaugural Fish Extender Cruise) I did three total gifts over 3 days for the entire DIS group. And it really did not take me that long to do.

If you are in our DIS group, i.e. on the Roster you will get a gift from me and my mom. As the "first to extend her fish" that is the fun part of the cruise. I could care less if I get a gift in return.

I will do a spreadsheet along with the web page roster. Anyone is welcome to have it. It can be sorted by room, then by floor, and printed out. It only becomes a problem when folks upgrade to a different room.

Look for an update to the list by tomorrow night. I have been picking out tile ALL day and I just want to fall over And I didn't even load the 200 square feet of ceramic tile!

Deb

We even divided into groups and took an assigned day. We got together and put our stuff together on our day and then each took a floor. I spent about an hour after stuffing bags and then did more in the evening.I think most the ship were dissers so there were a lot of cabins!

 

[EpcotKilterFan]

I finally got to watch the actual announcement of the itinerary held in NYC. Did anyone else catch that one of the excursions in Germany was to the ship yard where the new ships were being built?? That would be cool to see, but I would not want to take time away from other wonderful sights in that port.

But I am sure it would be neat to see how it is made.

Debbie

 

[gydell]

Boy, I've never done FE's on any of our cruises. But if it takes several hours to deliver 10-15 gifts, then I am for dropping the FE's. No way do I want to spend more then an hour or two on something like that.

We each had the whole ship on the PC, when it took so long. The TA and the other cruises didn't take so long.

We're in! I'm trying not to allow myself to get too excited though. I've never booked anything 20 months out!

I've not read all 72 pages of this thread so this might have already been mentioned but I was told that if you don't do a DCL Russian excursion, you will need a visa to get off the ship. And if you do go on a DCL Russian excursion and you want to stay ahore a little longer, you will need a visa.

We had to get visas for our trip to China. They are easy enough to get but I think they were about $100 pp or so and took a couple of months. Anyway, just something to keep in mind....for about this time NEXT year.

~Mike

Welcome! Visa are $200 each and when I checked I was told they were hard to obtain.

 

[pixie3]

London - 68/52
Oslo - 68/52
Copenhagen - 66/52
Berlin - 74/55
St. Petersburg - 68/51
Helsinki - 68/48
Stockholm - 67/49

I was just looking this up as well My kids will be sad about the pool part.

If you are in our DIS group, i.e. on the Roster you will get a gift from me and my mom. As the "first to extend her fish" that is the fun part of the cruise. I could care less if I get a gift in return.

I will do a spreadsheet along with the web page roster. Anyone is welcome to have it. It can be sorted by room, then by floor, and printed out. It only becomes a problem when folks upgrade to a different room.

Look for an update to the list by tomorrow night. I have been picking out tile ALL day and I just want to fall over And I didn't even load the 200 square feet of ceramic tile!

Deb

I don't mind giving the gifts either. My kids like to run around with me pulling the suitcase of stuff. Although on the WB PC it was really nuts!!!!

Me too, my husband thinks I have an addiction to them. I have them for places I haven't even been to.

I do have an addiction. I'm glad to hear you say this because I too have ones to places I haven't even been. I ran out today and got the cruise one and St. Petersburg one.

 

[gydell]

Although on the WB PC it was really nuts!!!!

Do you think it was because we had groups and it took time to put everything together? It was NOT like that on other cruises and we didn't have assigned days so we could do a little a day. I think I like it better when we did what we wanted.

 

[ibouncetoo]

I finally got to watch the actual announcement of the itinerary held in NYC. Did anyone else catch that one of the excursions in Germany was to the ship yard where the new ships were being built?? That would be cool to see, but I would not want to take time away from other wonderful sights in that port.

But I am sure it would be neat to see how it is made.

Debbie

This interested me very much. Don't know how long an excursion it would be, would hope to see a bit of the port...or at least sun (hopefully!) on a wicker chair on the beach for a little bit! Don't think I'd go all the way into Berlin.

Packing for this trip is going to be completely different than most of our vacations. I am used to sunny weather with highs usually from 75 to over 90. I was just checking on averages for our stops and here they are for June:

London - 68/52
Oslo - 68/52
Copenhagen - 66/52
Berlin - 74/55
St. Petersburg - 68/51
Helsinki - 68/48
Stockholm - 67/49

I guess there may not be too much swimming on the sea days. The sites were listing the highest it has ever been in those cities. And the highest temps recorded were in the mid 80's for June. Hmm, time for a new wardrobe!

PS - most of the cities average 10 to 15 days of rain in June. Pack the raincoat!

Ah but this looks like beautiful 'touring' weather, no getting all hot and sweaty. Hopefully there will be clear skies!

BTW, I generally have very good 'weather karma' on my all my trips so far, so I'll be sure and put my juju to work on this one.

.

 

[pixie3]

Do you think it was because we had groups and it took time to put everything together? It was NOT like that on other cruises and we didn't have assigned days so we could do a little a day. I think I like it better when we did what we wanted.

Actually, I messed up that cruise completely. I tried hard to keep up with the board and just couldn't. I would check every now and then to make sure I was still on the list, but I missed PM's about Navigators and FM and got off those lists. My kids were sad, so I bought all kinds of stuff at the store and secretly threw it in the mail. Some people gave me stuff when they found out - which was nice. I never joined one of the FM groups and just did it on my own. I could just tell from the list about how many I needed then when I got there, I flew down the halls with my kids and if there was a FE out we threw the stuff in it. I didn't even bother checking for people or numbers.

 

[EpcotKilterFan]

Pixie... is this you??

 

[gydell]

Ah but this looks like beautiful 'touring' weather, no getting all hot and sweaty. Hopefully there will be clear skies!

BTW, I generally have very good 'weather karma' on my all my trips so far, so I'll be sure and put my juju to work on this one.

.

Well I hope your karma holds out because that would be perfect weather!

 

[pixie3]

Pixie... is this you??

Hey!!!! Yep, those are my fins!!!!!

 

[gydell]

Hey!!!! Yep, those are my fins!!!!!

Good pix!

 

[pixie3]

Debbie: Can I just say: WOW! you are quick with the pictures woman!!!!!!!