A magical Mediterranean vacation live report UPDATED 7/15 - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Making good progress! Sounds like you got good deals for the hotels in both Florence and Venice and very good flights. I hate making those decisions as you never know if you'll get something better if you wait. I usually book early, as it's worth it to me to have it all settled.
I'm with you - I much prefer having the peace of mind by getting things all booked early too.
Sounds like excellent progress being made! Good thing that Mari pointed out that certain things are closed on Mondays, so you could rearrange your itinerary.
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Sounds like a lot of progress on the flight and hotel front. One thing is with all of this is it helps to wait it out a bit to get a good deal. Prices for flights fluctuate so much from day to day and you must be patient as much as you want to jump on it and get it done!
I think the two of us are quite alike with regard to doing these things as I'm quite organized with my planning, look for great deals that match what I really want (willing to give up some price for convenience) and am somewhat of a perfectionist. All in all, I generally get what I want and never felt I've gotten the raw end on any of my bookings. Always, done well for myself!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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Sounds like a lot of progress on the flight and hotel front. One thing is with all of this is it helps to wait it out a bit to get a good deal. Prices for flights fluctuate so much from day to day and you must be patient as much as you want to jump on it and get it done!
It's interesting you say that. We were discussing that the other day and that's what used to happen. Our experience now with flights around Europe and over to America is that it doesn't happen as much now. Instead, the flights tend to come out, be a certain price, and then go up from there...
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I think the two of us are quite alike with regard to doing these things as I'm quite organized with my planning, look for great deals that match what I really want (willing to give up some price for convenience) and am somewhat of a perfectionist. All in all, I generally get what I want and never felt I've gotten the raw end on any of my bookings. Always, done well for myself!
Pre-trip report – part five: the cruise is now how much?
Saturday 18 January
Well, it’s taken me a while, but I think I’m now officially done with our itinerary for the road trip section of our trip. I took out quite a few places, because I tend to find when I originally draw up an itinerary that I’m a bit over-ambitious and try to squeeze too much into one day. That was definitely the case here! How I thought we’d get round all those places in so little time, I do not know.
So, now the more reasonable version of the plans looks like this:
Monday:
Drive to Brescia
Drive around Lake Garda, including taking the ferry across the lake
Drive to Verona and spend the night there
Tuesday:
Explore Verona
Visit Vicenza
Drive to Padua and spend the night there
Wednesday:
Explore Padua
Drive to Maranello and visit the Ferrari Museum
Drive to Florence and take an evening river cruise there. Spend the night there
Thursday:
Explore Florence
Take a night-time Segway tour there
Spend the night in Florence
Friday:
Drive to Lucca and explore it
Drive along the Cinque Terre coastal area
Spend the night in Rapallo near Portofino
Saturday:
Drive to Portofino
Drive to Genoa and spend the day exploring the city
Spend the night in Genoa
Sunday:
Visit Parco Durazzo-Pallavicini
Visit Imperia-Oneglia along the Italian coast
Fly home in the afternoon from Nice, France
Now having written that out, that seems eminently doable!
Today, I also asked Sara to pay a bit more off the cruise, so I’m gradually reducing the amount we owe on it…
Tuesday 28 January
Well, I’ve paid a bit more off the cruise, and I think I’ve finally worked out how we’re paying for the rest of it, which is just as well, given that it’s all got to be paid off in just over a month’s time…
Saturday 1 February
For a bit of a laugh today, I happened to go on to the Disney Cruise Line website just to see how much our stateroom category would cost now, as I know that the prices do tend to go up the nearer you get to the cruise date. Oh my goodness! I genuinely could not believe my eyes!
Are you ready for this?
Absolutely sure?
Really, really sure?
Ok, in that case… here goes…
The price had gone up by $2,500! Wow, that really is terrifying! Thank goodness we booked as soon as the cruises went on sale. I would’ve been gutted had we waited, and seen it go up by that much!
Saturday 8 February
I thought it was about time to start thinking about when we want to try for our Palo dinner and brunch, as we can book six weeks from today! It’s a pain, because our date falls on a Saturday, and midnight EST is 5:00am our time. However, it’s not all bad, as that’s actually the date we’re heading to Paris for the weekend and we need to be leaving the house by 6:30am at the latest, so that’s worked out Ok.
I had a look at our all ashore times to work out which nights to go for dinner. I didn’t want to do a night where we’d have an early start the next day, and let’s just say that with three 7:15am starts on consecutive days, I immediately ruled those nights out. I wanted to go earlier on in the cruise, as generally on every cruise we’ve done, we’ve found that once we’ve had dinner once at Palo, you can usually get another dinner again later on. As a result, I figured I’d go for either the Sunday, when we’ve got an all sea day, and a nice late start the next day, or the Monday night, when the start is again relatively late. It will depend on when we can get brunch…
For brunch, I want to go relatively late in the day – i.e. I don’t want a 10:00am brunch, as on our at sea days, I want the opportunity to have a lie in. I’ll go for either the first Sunday or the Saturday. There are only three at sea days on this whole trip, so I think the brunches will go quickly. It’ll probably be a case of taking whatever’s available on 22 March, and heck that’ll be here before we know it!
Tuesday 18 February
The exchange rate is so good right now – I’ve seen it up to $1.67 for £1 that I told Sara to go ahead and take another $500 off our payment from this credit card month. I did some calculations, and compared to where the exchange rate was a year ago, it cost us £30 ($50) less to pay off the $500 now. Not bad going!
Friday 21 February
Ok, well as the credit card month rolled over last night, I had a look at the exchange rate. it’s still good - $1.66 to £1, so I told Sara to go ahead and pay off our balance, so now we are paid in full!
Tuesday 25 February
I happened to go into one of the managers’ offices at work, and ask how her week away had been. I had no idea where she’d gone, I just knew she’d been off. Her next words to me were “have you ever been to Athens?” I said, before explaining I’d be going there as part of a cruise in the summer.
She then proceeded to pretty much give me a game plan for the day, which was just perfect. She told me that there was even a subway station at Pireaus, the cruise port, which sounded just the ticket. Sadly, when I checked my trusty PassPorter, I found that the station was about a 20 minute walk away. Ok, that’s not going to work on a hot sunny day.
However, when I went back to look at the cruise excursions, they do offer transport straight into the centre of the city for $39/each, so maybe we’ll do that. We might even just take a taxi into Athens, as the manager told me it’s only about €10. I must admit I’m not sure how comfortable I feel about that, but we’ll see…
I certainly think exploring on our own is the way to go, now I have a good idea of what I want to see, as we can take our time, and not feel rushed. The last time we went to anywhere similar to the Acropolis was our visit to Pompeii and we felt we barely scratched the surface of that place, as we just didn’t have enough time there. I don’t want to feel like that again.
It still sounds like a lot of ground to cover to me, but I tend not to like moving from hotel to hotel. Certainly do-able! As for getting into Athens, I'd do a cab and just make sure they turn the meter on! I think it'll be more like 15 euro, but that's a lot cheaper than the cruise transport, which would only get you to a central location. You'd still have to take a cab, bus or metro to wherever you're going first. You could take the cab right to the Acropolis, if that's where you're starting. I don't know how much time you'll have, but if you have energy and time after doing your must-do's, take the funicular up to the top of Lycabettos. You get a spectacular view of the city, the mountains (which should really be purple this time of year with the thyme blossoms) and the Acropolis. I used to live right at the base of the funicular line and this was a favorite thing to do!
It still sounds like a lot of ground to cover to me, but I tend not to like moving from hotel to hotel. Certainly do-able! As for getting into Athens, I'd do a cab and just make sure they turn the meter on! I think it'll be more like 15 euro, but that's a lot cheaper than the cruise transport, which would only get you to a central location. You'd still have to take a cab, bus or metro to wherever you're going first. You could take the cab right to the Acropolis, if that's where you're starting. I don't know how much time you'll have, but if you have energy and time after doing your must-do's, take the funicular up to the top of Lycabettos. You get a spectacular view of the city, the mountains (which should really be purple this time of year with the thyme blossoms) and the Acropolis. I used to live right at the base of the funicular line and this was a favorite thing to do!
Good to know - and wow, it sounds like you lived in an amazing location!
I was so excited to see your PTR for your cruise. I remember when you posted that you had booked it....cannot believe that it is coming up so quickly. Time just flies by.
Love all the plans and cannot believe how much more the cruise is now....just insane. So glad you booked as soon as it was released. It definitely pays to do it that way as it gives you time to pay it off and also secure the best pricing.
I was so excited to see your PTR for your cruise. I remember when you posted that you had booked it....cannot believe that it is coming up so quickly. Time just flies by.
I know - doesn't it just?
Quote:
Love all the plans and cannot believe how much more the cruise is now....just insane. So glad you booked as soon as it was released. It definitely pays to do it that way as it gives you time to pay it off and also secure the best pricing.
It really does. I know that's what my trusty PassPorter always advises you to do, and I always take heed of that advice, but that difference in price really brought home to me what good advice it is!
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All in all, I generally get what I want and never felt I've gotten the raw end on any of my bookings. Always, done well for myself! 
I genuinely could not believe my eyes! 
and we need to be leaving the house by 6:30am at the latest, so that’s worked out Ok. 
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