"Seven Seven 07" 20070707-11 Night Mediterranean Cruise

[Hanover]

We booked our flights today. Now we only need to wait on our passports (renewed for DH and I/new ones for the boys). How long did it take for passports for those that have received them lately?

 

[MJGirl]

We booked our flights today. Now we only need to wait on our passports (renewed for DH and I/new ones for the boys). How long did it take for passports for those that have received them lately?

Can't tell you about the situation in the States because I'm Canadian ... I can tell you that I ordered mine in person in August and it took two weeks. Mind you I applied before the big rush. Don't know what your system is like, but the only advice I have is make sure all your t's are crossed and your i's are dotted. You don't want them sending it back because you forgot your zip code. That happened to a friend of mine! It took her an extra 2 months because of all the sending back and forth of the app, all because she forgot to enter her postal code!

 

[cohartman]

Can you let me know the name of the private tour company and contact information?

Thanks!

 

[cohartman]

Hi, just renewed for our 10 yr old and it was 2 weeks.

 

[Hanover]

Thanks for the passport information. We have an appointment on Friday at 8:30 at our local post office to sign all the paperwork and bring all the necessary information to obtain the pasports. We thought it may take longer than the 4 weeks the post office worker quoted, but it looks as if we will be just fine.

We went through and ended up picking a Disney excursion at each port to add to our wish list. We aren't positive we will take them all (most likely we will), but wanted to reserve them in case them fill up fast. So far we have chosen:

Palermo for Kids
Coda Cavallo Beach in Sardinia
Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri for Families
Rome on Your Own
VIP Pisa
Marseille and Little Train
Nice and Train Tour

My MIL will go through and see what she wants to do with us. We may also switch a couple if she's not interested in any of ours. We tried to not overschedule long tours with the boys. The ones in Marseille and Nice are only 3-4.5 hours so it gives us plenty of time to look around on our own too. Those 2 were relatively inexpensive ones. Still the 7 excursions come up to nearly $3,000 just for what we chose for me, dh and our 2 boys. DS9 will be 10 then and adult rate. We figure it will be a while before we get the opportunity to get to the Med again. The only one I'm afraid we may not go through with right now is the one with Capri and the jet boat. DS6 and I do not do well at all on small boats. I'm hoping a good batch of Bonine will take care of us.

I also decided to do the Ebay thing again and get our boys tuxedos. On our May trip, I bought 2 tuxedos and with shipping paid less than just the sports coat for ds then 8 on semi-formal night. They already have Mickey cummerbunds and bow ties my parents had a tailor make for them last year. I figure they'll make good Christmas pictures.

Does anyone know for sure the luggage allowance on British Airways? I can call them, but thought someone here may already know. We are traveling regular fare (no 1st class, etc.) I saw on their web site 1 bag and a 51 pound limit, but said it did not go into effect until 1 Sept. 2007. Another travel site said 2 bags per person. We are flying through London each way.
If we can only take 1 bag, we will be doing laundry for sure and probably still needing to pay extra to take our formal wear bag.

I'm also debating on whether to take our umbrella stroller for our son who just turned 6 last week. He never uses it here, but if we are going to be doing tons of walking, I'd rather give him a rest as he is a very tiny 6 year old (only 42 inches and less than 40 pounds) and can't always keep up. He may also take a nap depending on how long we are out and how late he stays up. I didn't really want to have to carry him the entire time he slept. I think I just answered my own question.

 

[MJGirl]

I can't be 100% sure, but if British Airways follows the same rules as Air France, you will be allowed two bags if you are just passing through. If you are landing and staying awhile before flying, then you are limited to 1 bag. I would just call them and ask. There number is 1-800-AIRWAYS. That's what I did with Air France. Good luck.

On another note, here is something you may want to consider for the boys in Marseille. I know my daughter and I will be doing this. We are going to take a ferry from Marseille to Chateau d'If ... Chateau d'if is an island off shore with a castle that acted as a prison in the 17th century. It was the fictional prison home to the Count of Monte Cristo, as well as the Man in the Iron Mask. My daughter is a huge Count of Monte Cristo fan, so it is on her must do list. I believe we take a ferry over to the island and tour. They have a gift shop there as well and from what I here it is quite reasonable. Here is a link to a website that may offer more information:

Château d'If

Maybe we could arrange to head over together? The Marseille and the Little train is my second choice for Marseille. My first choice is the Santon Figurine tour. I would love to pick one up for my puppy sitter. I think it would be something unique to give her for minding my puppy for three weeks while I'm gone!

 

[APinCA]

Does anyone know for sure the luggage allowance on British Airways? I can call them, but thought someone here may already know. We are traveling regular fare (no 1st class, etc.) I saw on their web site 1 bag and a 51 pound limit, but said it did not go into effect until 1 Sept. 2007. Another travel site said 2 bags per person. We are flying through London each way.
If we can only take 1 bag, we will be doing laundry for sure and probably still needing to pay extra to take our formal wear bag.

You can go to www.ba.com and click on "Manage My Booking."
Enter your booking reference and last name.
Click on "Before My Flight" and then "Baggage Information"

If you are flying through, the luggage allowance for your original flight will be used (2 bags), otherwise you only get 1.

Good luck with your packing.

Kathy

 

[Hanover]

You can go to www.ba.com and click on "Manage My Booking."
Enter your booking reference and last name.
Click on "Before My Flight" and then "Baggage Information"

If you are flying through, the luggage allowance for your original flight will be used (2 bags), otherwise you only get 1.

Good luck with your packing.

Kathy

Thanks! I just did the above instructions and found out we get 2 bags a piece! What a relief!!!! Now I am not so worried about cramming all our stuff into one bag each and having to do laundry a couple of times on board. We'll make sure we pack a couple very lightly to make room for souvenirs!

Thanks for everyone's help!

 

[Hanover]

I can't be 100% sure, but if British Airways follows the same rules as Air France, you will be allowed two bags if you are just passing through. If you are landing and staying awhile before flying, then you are limited to 1 bag. I would just call them and ask. There number is 1-800-AIRWAYS. That's what I did with Air France. Good luck.

On another note, here is something you may want to consider for the boys in Marseille. I know my daughter and I will be doing this. We are going to take a ferry from Marseille to Chateau d'If ... Chateau d'if is an island off shore with a castle that acted as a prison in the 17th century. It was the fictional prison home to the Count of Monte Cristo, as well as the Man in the Iron Mask. My daughter is a huge Count of Monte Cristo fan, so it is on her must do list. I believe we take a ferry over to the island and tour. They have a gift shop there as well and from what I here it is quite reasonable. Here is a link to a website that may offer more information:

Château d'If

Maybe we could arrange to head over together? The Marseille and the Little train is my second choice for Marseille. My first choice is the Santon Figurine tour. I would love to pick one up for my puppy sitter. I think it would be something unique to give her for minding my puppy for three weeks while I'm gone!

We are just passing through London...I think we land at 7 AM and leave for Barcelona at 9:30AM . We get in to Barcelona at 12:30 on the 7th. I am not crazy at all about flying in on embarkation day and know we will be wiped out, but it's the only option we have since DH cannot get off any earlier than the 6th. I'm glad our 1st day is at sea so we can adjust to the time change and rest up (yeah right!) Our boys will be jumping in the Mickey pool the first chance they get.

I am so glad we get 2 bags each. We had 2 bags each for a 7 day last May and just couldn't see how I could cut back to less than 5 bags total. We'll probably pack 5 or 6 and take a couple extra mostly empty ones for the goodies we'll buy. I think we'll skip taking our snorkel stuff this time.

I will run by the excursion you posted the link for by DH and my MIL. I hope to see the excrusion times sometime soon so we can get a better idea of what time we will have left in port to do other activities. We have a very close family friend that lives in Eze (near Nice) and may be getting together with him if he's not at his Paris apartment. He has a yacht and mopeds which I'm sure the boys would love (they won't be on the mopeds though)

 

[Hanover]

We just got our passport pictures taken. They were free since we are AAA Premium members. We have the paperwork complete and ready for the office to review/sign them on Friday morning.

Right now we have late dining but are waitlisted for early. When does everyone else have their dining schedluled? We were thinking of keeping the late dining due to the later port times and also because we liked it so much on the Wonder in December. We have had early dining twice on DCL, but that was before they started the rotations. I think 5:30 would be so early plus getting ready even earlier would really cut into our afternoon activities. I also liked getting to do some of the family activities they have on board that we'd miss if we had main dining like Walk The Plank and Who Wants to be a Mouseketeer. I guess with 11 days they may have the activities scheduled more than once to accomodate main diners.

 

[MJGirl]

I had early dining and switched to late due to the port times, plus my daughter and I are used to eating around 7 anyways. I have early dining on the EB Repo and am thinking of switching as well, however, I want to wait and see how I like the late seating on the Med first.

Good luck with the passports!

 

[Hanover]

I had early dining and switched to late due to the port times, plus my daughter and I are used to eating around 7 anyways. I have early dining on the EB Repo and am thinking of switching as well, however, I want to wait and see how I like the late seating on the Med first.

Good luck with the passports!

We have late dining for the EB, but we are waitlisted for early. With that trip, I was worried about the time change and our boys being too tired at late dining. I enjoyed our early dining when the boys were younger, but really liked late dining better this past trip. Besides getting to a lot of the family activities we had been unable to attend when we had early dining, I also liked that our boys were awake during the shows which they always fell asleep during when we had early dining/late shows.

I've reviewed our passport paperwork several times and hope the person at the post office we are meeting with can also review them before we sign and send them.

 

[been2marceline]

All,

Do a bunch of business issues, in combination with the fact we got a Cat 2. on the Westbound Repo in May, 2008 through the canal, it looks like we are going to have to cancel our cruise - and the wine tasting I wanted to throw on the veranda.....NUTS!

We have a handicapped Cat 3 that will be returned to DCL in the next week or so, pending our final decision.

I just wanted to let everyone here know so that they could confirm with DCL any waitlist issues.

We will post again when the decision is made and the cancellation has been requested.

We are dying over this decision, but some licensing issues have delayed the opening of our new wine bar for almost a year, which means it will only be open for a month or two when the cruise is scheduled.

We won't be able to be away at that time for any reason.

 

[MJGirl]

All,

Do a bunch of business issues, in combination with the fact we got a Cat 2. on the Westbound Repo in May, 2008 through the canal, it looks like we are going to have to cancel our cruise - and the wine tasting I wanted to throw on the veranda.....NUTS!

We have a handicapped Cat 3 that will be returned to DCL in the next week or so, pending our final decision.

I just wanted to let everyone here know so that they could confirm with DCL any waitlist issues.

We will post again when the decision is made and the cancellation has been requested.

We are dying over this decision, but some licensing issues have delayed the opening of our new wine bar for almost a year, which means it will only be open for a month or two when the cruise is scheduled.

We won't be able to be away at that time for any reason.

So sad that you may not be joining us ... I hope the opening goes well!!!!

 

[Hanover]

All,

Do a bunch of business issues, in combination with the fact we got a Cat 2. on the Westbound Repo in May, 2008 through the canal, it looks like we are going to have to cancel our cruise - and the wine tasting I wanted to throw on the veranda.....NUTS!

We have a handicapped Cat 3 that will be returned to DCL in the next week or so, pending our final decision.

I just wanted to let everyone here know so that they could confirm with DCL any waitlist issues.

We will post again when the decision is made and the cancellation has been requested.

We are dying over this decision, but some licensing issues have delayed the opening of our new wine bar for almost a year, which means it will only be open for a month or two when the cruise is scheduled.

We won't be able to be away at that time for any reason.

Good luck with your opening and have a great time on the WB repo.

 

[Dylcal]

So sorry you won't be joining us. Good luck with the wine shop opening -- the wine tasting would have been great!!!

Sheryl

 

[Hanover]

I finally got around to reading the posts on this thread from before I joined it.

Cohartman- I saw you are flying in to Barcelona from London on the 7th? What airline are you going to be on and what time? Just wondering if we will be on the same flight.

MJGirl-I pretty much gave up reading the EB repo cruise meets. I will stick with the summaries. I can't believe it's now well over 2,000 pages with some disers having over 2,000 posts on the thread alone!! Every time I get caught up and go do something else, they add another couple of hundred posts!I think some of the members have been on their computers through out each day and night since they booked! I can only imagine what it will be up to by the time we cruise in 8/2008!!!

 

[OurDogCisco]

All,

Do a bunch of business issues, in combination with the fact we got a Cat 2. on the Westbound Repo in May, 2008 through the canal, it looks like we are going to have to cancel our cruise - and the wine tasting I wanted to throw on the veranda.....NUTS!

We have a handicapped Cat 3 that will be returned to DCL in the next week or so, pending our final decision.

I just wanted to let everyone here know so that they could confirm with DCL any waitlist issues.

We will post again when the decision is made and the cancellation has been requested.

We are dying over this decision, but some licensing issues have delayed the opening of our new wine bar for almost a year, which means it will only be open for a month or two when the cruise is scheduled.

We won't be able to be away at that time for any reason.

We are waitlisted for a category 3. Maybe they will call us but I doubt it. Anyways, what does the handicap room look like. Is it just missing the bathtub and have wider hallways, walk areas? Just curious. Hopefully they will give it to someone who is actually handicap first.

Sorry you won't be able to join us on the cruise. I'm sure you WB repo cruise will just as fun! Good luck with your wine bar too.

 

[MJGirl]

MJGirl-I pretty much gave up reading the EB repo cruise meets. I will stick with the summaries. I can't believe it's now well over 2,000 pages with some disers having over 2,000 posts on the thread alone!! Every time I get caught up and go do something else, they add another couple of hundred posts!I think some of the members have been on their computers through out each day and night since they booked! I can only imagine what it will be up to by the time we cruise in 8/2008!!!

I agree for a while there I was keeping up, even participating, but I can't maintain their pace. There has been so much planning for that trip already, it's unbelievable. I have been reading the summaries and popping up every once in a while to say Hi! It should be fun though, but I don't want it to overshadow the Med. I think I'll get more active when I get back. My daughter should really enjoy the Repo, as we set sail on her birthday. She'll turn 18, so she can do the adult tours and enjoy the adult pool and restaurant. I have been readin

 

[cohartman]

I finally got around to reading the posts on this thread from before I joined it.

Cohartman- I saw you are flying in to Barcelona from London on the 7th? What airline are you going to be on and what time? Just wondering if we will be on the same flight.

MJGirl-I pretty much gave up reading the EB repo cruise meets. I will stick with the summaries. I can't believe it's now well over 2,000 pages with some disers having over 2,000 posts on the thread alone!! Every time I get caught up and go do something else, they add another couple of hundred posts!I think some of the members have been on their computers through out each day and night since they booked! I can only imagine what it will be up to by the time we cruise in 8/2008!!!

What flights are you taking? I hadn't booked them yet. It looks like British Air and Iberia are the two carriers. I am concerned about a flight arriving after 6pm, in case there is an issue.