Our Magical Westbound Transatlantic Voyage Sept 2010: Pre-trip Report

[TotallyAngelic]

Our Magical Westbound Transatlantic Voyage Sept 2010: Pre-trip Report - 17 Days to go!

Ok … so it may be considered a bit last minute to be starting a pre-trip report with only 16 days to go, but as everything else with me it is bound to be a bit “last minute”, but the benefit of a “last minute” pre-trip report is that there is far less chance of me boring everyone senseless. That is assuming anyone is bored enough to read it in the first place ….. but hey, 16 days isn't very long is it …. just imagine the intense excitement, the overwhelming anticipation, the joy of sharing in the build up to an incredible voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, following in the wake left by Christopher Columbus, Cortes, the Titanic ( although perhaps we won't dwell on that one too much ), the Queen Mary and the other beautiful transatlantic liners of yesteryear.

Before I start this endless waffle, I suppose it makes sense to introduce ourselves ... and give you some brief details of the trip.

We are Sarah and Tony from Wales in the UK:

Firstly there is myself, Sarah, aged 45 (yikes), midwife, mother and total Disney nut. I love everything Disney, but have a particular obsession with Pirates of the Caribbean (both the rides and the movies). I collect Disney Pins, mainly POTC related, and I only ride indoor coasters! I adore ships and cruising and was hooked within seconds of stepping on the Disney Magic for the first time back in 2008.

Secondly there is my wonderful husband : DH Tony, aged 48 – extreme coaster freak, Disney addict, can eat for the UK and loves everything about Disney, Cruising and Florida - especially the food..

This is us:

Sarah and Tony

This will be my 7th Florida trip, 5th Orlando trip and 12th Disney trip, if you include our many trips to Disneyland Paris. It will be our second Disney Cruise.

So now down to the very important details re. when and where:

The Trip:

September 16th – September 18th : Flight to Barcelona from Liverpool. A day and a half in Barcelona. prior to the cruise. We plan to visit some of the Gaudi architecture and just spend some time soaking up the atmosphere of this vibrant city.

September 18th – October 2nd : We join the Disney Magic in Barcelona for what if officially known as the Westbound Transatlantic Cruise but affectionately known as by our cruise group as “Sept 18 2010 WB TransAtlantic Pirates/Capt Jacks Re-Repoing Repossession Cruise”

October 2nd – October 3rd : One night in Orlando – staying at Port Orleans French Quarter, and visiting Downtown Disney for lunch and shopping, followed by late afternoon and evening in Magic Kingdom. The evening will likely end with me being dragged screaming and kicking from the park. I mean one night only in WDW ... really this is detrimental to mental health and I may never recover. Following my embarrasssing expulsion, we may pop for a night-cap at one of the resorts and then catch the bus back to POFQ, where me well have another night-cap before bed ( well it would be rude not to really ).

October 3rd - Magical Express to airport, then a long and protracted flight home to Manchester via Washington and London with 3 aircraft changes .... not good. Arriving home on the 4th followed by a severe case of Post Disney Blues.


Next installment to follow .... including how we came to book this cruise, connecting with our wonderful DIS MEET group, and the trials and tribulations of booking 2 years in advance.

 

[fizz13]

Hi sarah,
Firstly just wanted to say 16 days is a perfectly resonable time to do a pre-trippie, I am just a nut who fell from the tree that loves to write these things months out
I am so excited for you and a tad jealous about your cruise, having never been on one myself and its lovely that you're taking some time to enjoy Barcelona. I have to back up your claim of severe mental anguish at only having 1 day at the parks after though and feel that you should call in sick for a week after having caught some terrible bug on the cruise ship not saying its an honest idea, just a get out clause and good excuse to extend your stay Looking forward to reading more!

 

[Pugsly]

The best part of your "procastination" is that your trip comes up sooner and the sooner we'll be able to hear all about it upon your return.

Enjoy!

 

[mandymouse]

Great start Sarah. I can't wait to read about all your cruise plans and your meets

Have a fantastic time, I wish I was joining you

 

[wickesy]

Great start Sarah. I've always wanted to do a trans-Atlantic cruise - even more so now we've been bitten by the Disney Magic bug ourselves so I'll be looking forward to this one.

 

[suzycute]

Your trip sounds great! Looking forward to your next instalment!

 

[irongirlof12]

woop.woop. not long now so looking forward to reading more and how you cope with 1 day in disney

 

[PJB71]

You poor thing only one day in Disney

Im sure your cruise will more than make up for it though, im really jelious, I wish is were me

Really looking forward to hearing more

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Hi sarah,
Firstly just wanted to say 16 days is a perfectly resonable time to do a pre-trippie, I am just a nut who fell from the tree that loves to write these things months out
I am so excited for you and a tad jealous about your cruise, having never been on one myself and its lovely that you're taking some time to enjoy Barcelona. I have to back up your claim of severe mental anguish at only having 1 day at the parks after though and feel that you should call in sick for a week after having caught some terrible bug on the cruise ship not saying its an honest idea, just a get out clause and good excuse to extend your stay Looking forward to reading more!

Usually I would write one way before now .... don't know why I didn't really. Would love to extend my stay but don't really want to leave the kids for any longer.

The best part of your "procastination" is that your trip comes up sooner and the sooner we'll be able to hear all about it upon your return.

Enjoy!

Thanks .. we will

Great start Sarah. I can't wait to read about all your cruise plans and your meets

Have a fantastic time, I wish I was joining you

So do I ... would be lovely to meet you, especially on the Magic

Great start Sarah. I've always wanted to do a trans-Atlantic cruise - even more so now we've been bitten by the Disney Magic bug ourselves so I'll be looking forward to this one.

There's always 2011

Your trip sounds great! Looking forward to your next instalment!

Thank you ... it's in the next post !!

woop.woop. not long now so looking forward to reading more and how you cope with 1 day in disney

Thank you. It won't be easy

You poor thing only one day in Disney

Im sure your cruise will more than make up for it though, im really jelious, I wish is were me

Really looking forward to hearing more

Thank you. I'm sure the cruise will ease the pain.

 

[TotallyAngelic]

It is now necessary to rewind to late October 2008. Tony and I were enjoying our very first Disney Cruise with our four kids and our wonderful friends, on the Halloween on the High Seas Cruise on the Disney Magic. We had an absolutely amazing time, to the extent that once we returned to the UK in early November I was thrown into the deep dark depths of dispair …. the only cure for this was to spend every waking hour researching future Disney cruises and after much deliberating over the Med cruises, we finally booked the Westbound Transatlantic Crossing within a week of our return, at a totally unbelievable price of approx. £800 per person.

Deposit paid, I immediately sought out the DIS meet thread to link up with fellow cruisers, as we had such a great time doing this on our first cruise. Once again we were to encounter a fantastic group of cruisers from all corners of the globe who were as enthusiastic and excited about Disney as we were. Many of these cruisers had all cruised together before, but before long I felt accepted into the “WBTA family” and we began to plan events and activities for our DIS group once on board. Having had great fun with the Fish Extender Exchange on our first cruise, we signed ourselves up for this and I set about thinking about gift ideas and eventually came up with a few things which I hope everyone in my group will like.

Fast forward now to December 2009, with just under a year left to wait, we thought it was a good time to sort out our flights. This proved to be easier said than done, as good value one-way flights from the USA were very thin on the ground. Luck was on our side, however, when we snappped up one-way flights from Orlando to Edinburgh for £120 each with a highly reputable UK company called Globespan . Our smug satisfaction was to be short-lived, when early in 2010, Globespan went bust, and our bargain flights disappeared into thin air. Fortunately, having paid by credit card, we received a full refund, but lost the cost of our connecting flights to Manchester with BMI. It aslo took us right back to square one … flight hunting !!!

Eventually we managed to find two one way flights for £420 each, with BMI, but this involved flying from Orlando to Washington to London to Manchester. As someone who hates taking off, I was subjecting myself to the equivalent of airline torture witth 3 take-offs in one journey, but at this point in the planning beggars could not be choosers.

We booked flights from Liverpool to Barcelona with the lovely Easyjet and their wonderful 20kg per person bagggage restrictions … just perfect for accomodating a cruising wardrobe !!! We decided upon the hotel Praktik Rambla in Barcelona, perfectly located close to the main attractions as we were only there for one and a half days. We also booked one night at the Port Orleans French Quarter ( our first on property stay ) for the one night we are spending in Orlando.

Next up … our plans and our cruise “must do” list.

 

[wickesy]

There's always 2011

Probably 2013 now - next year's holidays are planned and 2012 we will be back to one holiday a year and that is reserved for the Disney Fantasy.

 

[SusanEllen]

Sarah,
If all goes to plan you should be having way too much fun on this trip and I certainly hope that you do, so you can tell us all about it and we'll get to enjoy your trip, too. Of course, you've been having fun with this trip for nearly two years now, haven't you? Good for you. Don't worry about the time you have at MK. No matter how much time we manage to spend there it's just never enough. Enjoy every glorious minute there (plus all the time you're anticipating it). I'll be looking for the first installment of your TR. Bon voyage.

 

[sehandiph]

Sarah,

looking forward to hearing all about your trip. We are booked on the Eastbound Trans Atlantic next May - so any hints and tips would be great.

We will have the same issue with luggage on our way back (Barcelona to UK) so it means we won't be able to buy too much (or else ship it home)

waiting for your next installment

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Probably 2013 now - next year's holidays are planned and 2012 we will be back to one holiday a year and that is reserved for the Disney Fantasy.

What are your plans for 2011? I am not yet sure what we will do. Maybe WDW, maybe DCL. DH is 50 so we want to do something special for that, but the offspring are hassling to go back to WDW. Also DD may get on the college programme and that will colour what we end up deciding to do.
After booking the WBTA at 2 years out I will be happy not to do that again and suffer such a long agonising wait !!

Sarah,
If all goes to plan you should be having way too much fun on this trip and I certainly hope that you do, so you can tell us all about it and we'll get to enjoy your trip, too. Of course, you've been having fun with this trip for nearly two years now, haven't you? Good for you. Don't worry about the time you have at MK. No matter how much time we manage to spend there it's just never enough. Enjoy every glorious minute there (plus all the time you're anticipating it). I'll be looking for the first installment of your TR. Bon voyage.

Hi Susan. We certainly hope to have a great time. At the moment I have pre-vacation stress and anxiety about things going wrong, but once I am on that ship it will be RELAXATION AND FUN all the way !!!!

Sarah,

looking forward to hearing all about your trip. We are booked on the Eastbound Trans Atlantic next May - so any hints and tips would be great.

We will have the same issue with luggage on our way back (Barcelona to UK) so it means we won't be able to buy too much (or else ship it home)

waiting for your next installment

The baggage has been a nightmare. I the end we had to buy new bags as our lovely solid suitcases weighed in at 5 kg each EMPTY !!!! We have bought some enormous wheeled holdalls which weigh less than 2kg, so thats an extra 6 kg packing weight in the 2 bags.

So my first tip would be, weigh your cases empty. It may be cheaper to buy lighter bags than pay for excess baggage. It was for us !!!

 

[wickesy]

What are your plans for 2011?

In June we're doing a cruise around the Norwegian Fjords and up to the 'Land of the Midnight Sun', which is already booked and then in September/October we're going back to WDW for their (and my belated) 40th birthday celebrations. That will be on DVC points so in a couple of months I'm going to book a one-bedroom at AKV and, hopefully, change it to a one-bedroom boardwalk view at BWV at 7 months out if there are any left by then - if there aren't I'll wait list and hope something becomes available.

 

[darthtatty]

great pre trip, cant wait to hear all about it

 

[binkytell]

I'm looking into doing this cruise in 2011 so in interested in every little juicy detail!! Can't wait to hear all about it

 

[TotallyAngelic]

only 8 days to go now and I have finished work. For the next few days I will be totally engrossed in cruise preparations. I have missed posting on my single digit dance day, which was yesterday !! So here's a belated single digit boogie moment just so I don't let the side down in any way

great pre trip, cant wait to hear all about it

I can't wait to be there ...

I'm looking into doing this cruise in 2011 so in interested in every little juicy detail!! Can't wait to hear all about it

there will be details ... way too many probably, and there will certainly be photos !!!!

In June we're doing a cruise around the Norwegian Fjords and up to the 'Land of the Midnight Sun', which is already booked and then in September/October we're going back to WDW for their (and my belated) 40th birthday celebrations. That will be on DVC points so in a couple of months I'm going to book a one-bedroom at AKV and, hopefully, change it to a one-bedroom boardwalk view at BWV at 7 months out if there are any left by then - if there aren't I'll wait list and hope something becomes available.

Sounds like a wonderful time ahead in 2011. Would love to do the fjords myself one day. We hope to be in WDW in October depending on DD and the Disney College Programme.

 

[CustardTart]

only 8 days to go now and I have finished work. For the next few days I will be totally engrossed in cruise preparations. I have missed posting on my single digit dance day, which was yesterday !! So here's a belated single digit boogie moment just so I don't let the side down in any way

It's getting exciting now, Sarah - can't wait to meet you and Tony!!!

BTW, my SDD is tomorrow so don't take your dancing shoes off, hun!!!

 

[BethEJo]

Great pre-trippie Sarah

I would love to do one of the transatlantic cruises, so can't wait to read what you have to say about it!

Hope you enjoy the last minute planning and running about