The MAGIC is Back!!! ~ WBTA 2014 ~ Come & join the fun!

[MandyGirl]

Looks like we had enough on waitlist to make an 8th Palo group brunch, which I have updated. All who were on the waitlist are now in a group.

Thank you for your patience. With my EBTA / Europe cruises and Iceland, plus my operating system crashing on my computer (and internet onboard costing 75 cents a minute) I am now back home and have replied to all PMs regarding brunch. Now to go back and read what I missed.

Hope everyone is having a great summer so far!

Updated Palo Group Brunch listings:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=47526305#post47526305

 

[JustAnnieNotHazel]

Looks like we had enough on waitlist to make an 8th Palo group brunch, which I have updated. All who were on the waitlist are now in a group.

Thank you for your patience. With my EBTA / Europe cruises and Iceland, plus my operating system crashing on my computer (and internet onboard costing 75 cents a minute) I am now back home and have replied to all PMs regarding brunch. Now to go back and read what I missed.

Hope everyone is having a great summer so far!

Updated Palo Group Brunch listings:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=47526305#post47526305

Thanks for all the work you've put into organizing the group brunches Mandy. Glad everyone is off the waistlist now!!!!

 

[MandyGirl]

Thanks for all the work you've put into organizing the group brunches Mandy. Glad everyone is off the waistlist now!!!!

It's been quite popular for this sailing! How many months have we been adding folks? Since February I think - so four months' worth of answering and replying to PMs, update the post, etc. Final payment is in about a year and we will be needing to collect cabin/reservation numbers along with booking names on reservation at that time. If anyone cancels the cruise, hopefully they continue to send me a PM to keep an accurate list should we have others interested in adding.

The EBTA 2013 only had two (2) Palo group brunches -- so the 8 here shows there is quite the demand! Thankful we were able to accommodate all who requested. And thankful those I replied to by pecking on my phone were patient to wait for me to get back to a computer to update the lists. Darn Apple crashing ... sigh.

 

[arlenesp]

Seriously thinking about doing this cruise. I probably will be sailing single. Just retired 2 months ago so have lots of time on my hands. Need to talk to my TA this week. Lots of pages on this thread.

 

[lovingthemouse]

Hi Arlene - hope that you choose to join our group. There are a number of us who have recently retired, and initially, were traveling single but have met wonderful folks whom we are now rooming with.
Truly, the experience of my lifetime!!!

 

[arlenesp]

Hi Arlene - hope that you choose to join our group. There are a number of us who have recently retired, and initially, were traveling single but have met wonderful folks whom we are now rooming with.
Truly, the experience of my lifetime!!!

Susan (Geffric) is hoping I will go.We traveled on the EB Panama Canal. Long trip to travel alone but always wanted to do this. Time frame does not work for my family and friends. Just trying to coordinate it with traveling before the cruise. I have a cousin I have not seen in over 15yrs that lives in London. So having to pay for the airfare anyway makes sense.

 

[MandyGirl]

There are still some Palo brunch group spots open that we will request with DCL. Please PM me to be added

Full details available on post here:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47526305&postcount=424

 

[lilpooh108]

Welcome aboard! I disembarked the Magic when you boarded on June 1! (We did EBTA followed by 3 nights in Barcelona and NCL Spirit 12-night from Barcelona to Venice).

I've added you to the waitlist for Brunch. Just keep an eye on it here:

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47526305&postcount=429

Some folks have cancelled the cruise and I have been able to move people from the waitlist into groups.

Thanks Mandy! Glad to get into a group

How was the NCL Spirit? DH and I would like to take an NCL cruise one of these days for their Med or Greece itineraries. The ports look so great! We actually had signed up for the NCL Jade this winter during off-season (deposit paid and everything) but decided to cancel for various reasons. Would love to hear your experience.

 

[MandyGirl]

Thanks Mandy! Glad to get into a group

How was the NCL Spirit? DH and I would like to take an NCL cruise one of these days for their Med or Greece itineraries. The ports look so great! We actually had signed up for the NCL Jade this winter during off-season (deposit paid and everything) but decided to cancel for various reasons. Would love to hear your experience.

Glad to get them all taken care of and that we had the demand for an eighth group! Now to hope DCL will accept them all when we send them in next year. But still be sure to book a private brunch anyway when those bookings open with DCL online after PIF just in case. DCL will automatically cancel our individual bookings if a private group room booking is accepted.


The NCL cruise was good. We looked at it from the perspective of "floating hotel with overnight transportation while sleeping". NCL has some really unique itineraries. It was our fourth NCL cruise, and we have also done a few on Celebrity and a couple on HAL, as we are not exclusive DCL folks. And our shortest cruise has been 7 nights, with the longer cruises appealing to us more.

From getting off the DCL EBTA with a few nights inbetween in Barcelona, I would say that comparing the two would be:
- food tasted better to us on DCL, but with the long port days we really appreciated the freestyle dining in the Med (never had a wait to get into a restaurant)
- rooms are smaller on NCL but we had such a port intensive cruise we were there to sleep and shower
- both had great kids clubs for our 6- and 3- year olds, but we felt DCL CMs developed genuine relationships with the kids. Surprisingly our youngest refused to go back to Oceaneers the second day (which we were called after 20 minutes). However, on NCL she asked to go every day. I think it was because NCL separates the age 3-12 group into 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12 so they had age appropriate activities and did not have 12 year olds with 3 year olds - quite the developmental difference both physically and cognitively. Our two children were in the same club but in different groups (wristband colors) and always came out talking about their different activities


The 12-night Spirit itinerary is well worth looking into if wanting to hit both sides of the Med. It was a great opportunity to see the two ports in Turkey we visited. We did have Athens cancelled about 11 hours prior to docking due to union work strikes, but the captain was able to substitute Dubrovnik, Croatia instead. Lots of great planning tools on CruiseCritic. I have to always speak with great caution on DISboards if mentioning a non-DCL cruise.... some on these boards get all worked up, offended, appalled, etc that one could even consider something else. We did see the Epic and Jade in different ports, and sailing into Venice was awesome! (We overnighted there on the ship)

With the EBTA and time in Iceland afterwards, we ended up visiting about 16 cities in 10 countries during that time. Because of my MacBook crashing, we could not download pics from our camera but purchased a new memory card instead. I haven't even begun to touch those pics yet -- just the ones taken with my phone. I never knew I would take so many pics!

 

[lilpooh108]

From getting off the DCL EBTA with a few nights inbetween in Barcelona, I would say that comparing the two would be:
- food tasted better to us on DCL, but with the long port days we really appreciated the freestyle dining in the Med (never had a wait to get into a restaurant)
- rooms are smaller on NCL but we had such a port intensive cruise we were there to sleep and shower
- both had great kids clubs for our 6- and 3- year olds, but we felt DCL CMs developed genuine relationships with the kids. Surprisingly our youngest refused to go back to Oceaneers the second day (which we were called after 20 minutes). However, on NCL she asked to go every day. I think it was because NCL separates the age 3-12 group into 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12 so they had age appropriate activities and did not have 12 year olds with 3 year olds - quite the developmental difference both physically and cognitively. Our two children were in the same club but in different groups (wristband colors) and always came out talking about their different activities

Thanks for your summary. Such great info!!! Your cruise also sounds great!

Now I'm really sad that we cancelled our Jade reservation. We got an obstructed oceanview, 12 night Med for $1650 (with taxes) for ALL 4 OF US due to their kids sail free. Also had $100 OBC. The company that booked us almost fell over when they saw the pricing. The dates and other stuff just didn't work out. After the June 1 DCL Med tho, I'm so tired I don't think I can take the kids anywhere for a while. We're all still recovering from exhaustion

As to Oceaneer's--- my DD is 4YO and honestly I am worried about her being in the DCL club. She is quite small for her age and a lot of the kids in there are much older and rough with the running around. She mostly stays in the small computer area where the princess dresses are and she plays on the computer. She is generally quite social at school but I think the kids club intimidates her.

Long-winded way of saying that it's nice to hear NCL divides up the kids by age group. That makes much more sense to me. I'll tell DH that. He's quite the DCL loyalist and so we'll have to have a chat about trying something new.

Anyways...excited about the transatlantic! We missed a ton of activities on the 7-day Med so I'm looking forward to getting some sea days in.

 

[MandyGirl]

Wow. That was an amazing price! We kept watching but no luck on huge discounts for our sailing - ended up being about $1250 per adult and $349 kids. Now I see July/Aug for $549. Sigh. But I hear ya - worn out! Those long port days (that were really necessary!) added up. We had four ports, day at sea, four ports, day at sea, then Venice scheduled. The Athens/Croatia swap just moved one sea day around, but it was a thankful move because we needed the recuperation day a day early

After Venice we took a train to Milan and stayed one night there, then took a late night flight to Iceland to take advantage of their free stopover. Stayed there two nights. Loved Iceland - and will definitely route ourselves that way again! One-way airfare was $2200 for all four of us total including taxes - Milan to Iceland, and then Iceland all the way home (connecting at JFK). Great airline!

 

[lilpooh108]

Wow. That was an amazing price! We kept watching but no luck on huge discounts for our sailing - ended up being about $1250 per adult and $349 kids. Now I see July/Aug for $549. Sigh. But I hear ya - worn out! Those long port days (that were really necessary!) added up. We had four ports, day at sea, four ports, day at sea, then Venice scheduled. The Athens/Croatia swap just moved one sea day around, but it was a thankful move because we needed the recuperation day a day early

After Venice we took a train to Milan and stayed one night there, then took a late night flight to Iceland to take advantage of their free stopover. Stayed there two nights. Loved Iceland - and will definitely route ourselves that way again! One-way airfare was $2200 for all four of us total including taxes - Milan to Iceland, and then Iceland all the way home (connecting at JFK). Great airline!

Wow, your trip sounds really amazing! You really should do a TR, even if half of your trip was on NCL. I'm sure others would like to hear about it as well. BTW, the Kids Sail Free promo was only for off-season cruises. The one we had booked was for late November, which does not have the greatest weather.

Iceland Air-- what a great deal! Did you book it directly on their website, with the free stopover? I will have to keep tabs on it for this transatlantic. I hope people will update this thread with airfare alerts when bargains show up. I trust the DIS'ers to be more on it then Kayak alerts or even the airfarewatchdog website

 

[MandyGirl]

Wow, your trip sounds really amazing! You really should do a TR, even if half of your trip was on NCL. I'm sure others would like to hear about it as well. BTW, the Kids Sail Free promo was only for off-season cruises. The one we had booked was for late November, which does not have the greatest weather.

Iceland Air-- what a great deal! Did you book it directly on their website, with the free stopover? I will have to keep tabs on it for this transatlantic. I hope people will update this thread with airfare alerts when bargains show up. I trust the DIS'ers to be more on it then Kayak alerts or even the airfarewatchdog website

I will post the highlights below

Iceland Air - booked directly with their website. They have a tab for stopovers, and playing with the dates can change the airfare. It is different from multi-city so play with it a little to find airfares for your dates. We absolutely loved Iceland!

 

[MandyGirl]

Our EBTA / Med / Iceland trip overview:

- Flight to Houston 5/17/13 and car rental to Galveston for Tremont House night
- Embarked cruise in Galveston, TX with Captain Mickey after getting up early to watch the ship sail into Galveston for the final time with several from our DISboard rollcall
- Bahamas - Castaway Cay (horn battle between Magic and Dream, waterslides)
- cruised across the Atlantic (6 days in a row with no land)
- Portuguese island - Madeira, Funchal (explored town this time)
- UK - Gibraltar (did another tour of siege tunnels, rock, airport runway, Europa point)

- Spain - Barcelona (disembarked cruise, spent 3 nights there seeing Parc Guell, Casa Batllo, Sagrada Familia, Picasso museum, and other major sights)
- Spain - Monteserrat (went up the mountains to monastery, heard 800+ year old boys choir in amazing church, hiking with beautiful monuments telling the story of Christ, touched the black Madonna - this was on our own with the Renfre train I believe, not a guided tour - saved us $$$)

Boarded a 12-night cruise for the Med:
- France - Toulon (tourist train of town/beach, awesome crepes on the coast)
- Italy - went to:
--- Florence (too much to list that we saw in Florence, also had a side trip to organic winery that we loved)
--- Pisa (that tower is still there, had pizza and gelato for late lunch)
--- Rome (yay for skip-the-line tickets! saw the highlights on an 8 hour tour - Colloseum, Palatine Hill, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, etc and youn)
--- Naples (archaeological museum for Pompeii artifacts, pizza from Rick Steves' recommendation, gelato, and the vespas zipping down the streets),
--- Venice (yay for maps! had skip the line tickets for St Marks),
- Greece - went to Mykonos - windmills, over 300 churches on island, had authentic baklabav (but Athens was cancelled due to a strike)
- Turkey - went to:
--- Istanbul (Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, a pharmacy LOL -- in Istanbul when the rest of the world was seeing the Taksim Square riots - we used public metro and heard the sirens blaring for prayer time at the mosques)
--- Ephesus (and then a long tour in Ephesus to see Artemis, Basilica of St John, Gates of Ephesus, and last House of the Virgin Mary)
- Croatia - Dubrovnik and Ston - both places we would not hesitate to return to (tasted oysters from the Adriatic Sea - fresh, visited olive oil mill, wine tasting with walking tour of Old Town Dubrovnik; both towns had walls encircling them but Ston has the second longest wall in the world - next to Great Wall of China)
*** Used Rick Steves' guidance on pretty much every port except for the ones we had guided tours in (just easier to do with little children) - but still used his advice at those sites ***

Our post-cruise stops:
- Milan after the cruise disembarkation via train Trenatalia - were able to change from 8:50am train to 6:50am train no problem and have lots of room to spread out (in Milan saw the Last Supper painting that we pre-purchased tickets for the 3:30pm English tour, amazing duomo, exploring Milan by metro/foot, yummy homemade gnocci)
- Iceland - did the Golden Circle and Blue Lagoon on our own with a car rental - and we will be returning! Made it home on 6/20/13

We used countless metros, public buses, taxis, churches, ruins, bottles of hand sanitizer, and gelato ice cream cones - and would do every bit of it again. Who says you can't travel with a 2- and 6- year old in Europe?!?

ETA:
We had been to Galveston, Madeira, Castaway Cay, Gibraltar, and Barcelona previously, so took it easy in those places (hence the day trip to Montserrat while in Barcelona). Every other location was new to us.

 

[*Flower*]

What an amazing snapshot of your marvelous trip!!
Thanks for posting it- it gives me courage to give it a try..

 

[MandyGirl]

There are still some Palo brunch group spots open that we will request with DCL. Please PM me to be added

Full details available on post here:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=47526305&postcount=424

If you are wanting to be added to the available spots for Palo group brunch, please send me a PM on DIS as indicated.

My head is spinning from catching up reading the thread, FB pages, website, etc. that I missed over the past five weeks while cruising and want to make sure I don't miss anyone. (Hence the one central way to sign up when I started collecting names back in February via PM for accurate record keeping --- been through that on other cruises of multiple medias hence why I am just funneling it through one site for this event since this is a traditional DIS event).

Thanks so much!!

 

[MandyGirl]

What an amazing snapshot of your marvelous trip!!
Thanks for posting it- it gives me courage to give it a try..

Definitely give it a try! Hubby's mother decided to accompany with us on this trip, turning 66 while in Mykonos, so we had a wide range of ages and did great. Tiring, yes, but very well worth it.

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Our EBTA / Med / Iceland trip overview:

- Flight to Houston 5/17/13 and car rental to Galveston for Tremont House night
- Embarked cruise in Galveston, TX with Captain Mickey after getting up early to watch the ship sail into Galveston for the final time with several from our DISboard rollcall
- Bahamas - Castaway Cay (horn battle between Magic and Dream, waterslides)
- cruised across the Atlantic (6 days in a row with no land)
- Portuguese island - Madeira, Funchal (explored town this time)
- UK - Gibraltar (did another tour of siege tunnels, rock, airport runway, Europa point)

- Spain - Barcelona (disembarked cruise, spent 3 nights there seeing Parc Guell, Casa Batllo, Sagrada Familia, Picasso museum, and other major sights)
- Spain - Monteserrat (went up the mountains to monastery, heard 800+ year old boys choir in amazing church, hiking with beautiful monuments telling the story of Christ, touched the black Madonna - this was on our own with the Renfre train I believe, not a guided tour - saved us $$$)

Boarded a 12-night cruise for the Med:
- France - Toulon (tourist train of town/beach, awesome crepes on the coast)
- Italy - went to:
--- Florence (too much to list that we saw in Florence, also had a side trip to organic winery that we loved)
--- Pisa (that tower is still there, had pizza and gelato for late lunch)
--- Rome (yay for skip-the-line tickets! saw the highlights on an 8 hour tour - Colloseum, Palatine Hill, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, etc and youn)
--- Naples (archaeological museum for Pompeii artifacts, pizza from Rick Steves' recommendation, gelato, and the vespas zipping down the streets),
--- Venice (yay for maps! had skip the line tickets for St Marks),
- Greece - went to Mykonos - windmills, over 300 churches on island, had authentic baklabav (but Athens was cancelled due to a strike)
- Turkey - went to:
--- Istanbul (Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, a pharmacy LOL -- in Istanbul when the rest of the world was seeing the Taksim Square riots - we used public metro and heard the sirens blaring for prayer time at the mosques)
--- Ephesus (and then a long tour in Ephesus to see Artemis, Basilica of St John, Gates of Ephesus, and last House of the Virgin Mary)
- Croatia - Dubrovnik and Ston - both places we would not hesitate to return to (tasted oysters from the Adriatic Sea - fresh, visited olive oil mill, wine tasting with walking tour of Old Town Dubrovnik; both towns had walls encircling them but Ston has the second longest wall in the world - next to Great Wall of China)
*** Used Rick Steves' guidance on pretty much every port except for the ones we had guided tours in (just easier to do with little children) - but still used his advice at those sites ***

Our post-cruise stops:
- Milan after the cruise disembarkation via train Trenatalia - were able to change from 8:50am train to 6:50am train no problem and have lots of room to spread out (in Milan saw the Last Supper painting that we pre-purchased tickets for the 3:30pm English tour, amazing duomo, exploring Milan by metro/foot, yummy homemade gnocci)
- Iceland - did the Golden Circle and Blue Lagoon on our own with a car rental - and we will be returning! Made it home on 6/20/13

We used countless metros, public buses, taxis, churches, ruins, bottles of hand sanitizer, and gelato ice cream cones - and would do every bit of it again. Who says you can't travel with a 2- and 6- year old in Europe?!?

ETA:
We had been to Galveston, Madeira, Castaway Cay, Gibraltar, and Barcelona previously, so took it easy in those places (hence the day trip to Montserrat while in Barcelona). Every other location was new to us.

All sounds absolutely amazing ... and what an incredible experience for your girls.

 

[magic123]

WOW not been on Dis since page 40, not sure that I stand much chance of catching up but will try my best. Lots of new names to remember, so hello to all those old and new friends

So what did I miss, or is that a very big question !!!

 

[lilpooh108]

Our EBTA / Med / Iceland trip overview:

- Flight to Houston 5/17/13 and car rental to Galveston for Tremont House night
- Embarked cruise in Galveston, TX with Captain Mickey after getting up early to watch the ship sail into Galveston for the final time with several from our DISboard rollcall
- Bahamas - Castaway Cay (horn battle between Magic and Dream, waterslides)
- cruised across the Atlantic (6 days in a row with no land)
- Portuguese island - Madeira, Funchal (explored town this time)
- UK - Gibraltar (did another tour of siege tunnels, rock, airport runway, Europa point)

- Spain - Barcelona (disembarked cruise, spent 3 nights there seeing Parc Guell, Casa Batllo, Sagrada Familia, Picasso museum, and other major sights)
- Spain - Monteserrat (went up the mountains to monastery, heard 800+ year old boys choir in amazing church, hiking with beautiful monuments telling the story of Christ, touched the black Madonna - this was on our own with the Renfre train I believe, not a guided tour - saved us $$$)

Boarded a 12-night cruise for the Med:
- France - Toulon (tourist train of town/beach, awesome crepes on the coast)
- Italy - went to:
--- Florence (too much to list that we saw in Florence, also had a side trip to organic winery that we loved)
--- Pisa (that tower is still there, had pizza and gelato for late lunch)
--- Rome (yay for skip-the-line tickets! saw the highlights on an 8 hour tour - Colloseum, Palatine Hill, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, etc and youn)
--- Naples (archaeological museum for Pompeii artifacts, pizza from Rick Steves' recommendation, gelato, and the vespas zipping down the streets),
--- Venice (yay for maps! had skip the line tickets for St Marks),
- Greece - went to Mykonos - windmills, over 300 churches on island, had authentic baklabav (but Athens was cancelled due to a strike)
- Turkey - went to:
--- Istanbul (Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, a pharmacy LOL -- in Istanbul when the rest of the world was seeing the Taksim Square riots - we used public metro and heard the sirens blaring for prayer time at the mosques)
--- Ephesus (and then a long tour in Ephesus to see Artemis, Basilica of St John, Gates of Ephesus, and last House of the Virgin Mary)
- Croatia - Dubrovnik and Ston - both places we would not hesitate to return to (tasted oysters from the Adriatic Sea - fresh, visited olive oil mill, wine tasting with walking tour of Old Town Dubrovnik; both towns had walls encircling them but Ston has the second longest wall in the world - next to Great Wall of China)
*** Used Rick Steves' guidance on pretty much every port except for the ones we had guided tours in (just easier to do with little children) - but still used his advice at those sites ***

Our post-cruise stops:
- Milan after the cruise disembarkation via train Trenatalia - were able to change from 8:50am train to 6:50am train no problem and have lots of room to spread out (in Milan saw the Last Supper painting that we pre-purchased tickets for the 3:30pm English tour, amazing duomo, exploring Milan by metro/foot, yummy homemade gnocci)
- Iceland - did the Golden Circle and Blue Lagoon on our own with a car rental - and we will be returning! Made it home on 6/20/13

We used countless metros, public buses, taxis, churches, ruins, bottles of hand sanitizer, and gelato ice cream cones - and would do every bit of it again. Who says you can't travel with a 2- and 6- year old in Europe?!?

ETA:
We had been to Galveston, Madeira, Castaway Cay, Gibraltar, and Barcelona previously, so took it easy in those places (hence the day trip to Montserrat while in Barcelona). Every other location was new to us.

Your trip sounds amazing, and I love your attitude. Food/dining was also a major part of our trip and we loved every minute.

I also agree on the kids thing We did the Med with our 4YO and 1YO. People thought we were nuts....but it was

I love that you guys rented a car and did your own sightseeing in Iceland! How exciting!! My DH has been bugging me to "let him" rent a car in Europe. I don't care how adventurous we are, I just refuse He can hardly find our car in the parking lot at Home Depot so driving around in Europe... lost...with kids.... That's one adventure I don't feel like doing just yet.