A magical Mediterranean vacation live report UPDATED 7/15 - Page 7 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
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Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
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It's time to move on and move forward.
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If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Here's a link to one of my favorite travel photographers - Elia Locardi. He shoots a lot in Italy, and now in other parts of the world. Check out some of his Italy photos to get you in the mood.
Here's a link to one of my favorite travel photographers - Elia Locardi. He shoots a lot in Italy, and now in other parts of the world. Check out some of his Italy photos to get you in the mood.
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Pre-trip report – part nine: that doesn’t fit me anymore…
Sunday 18 May
I’ve run into an issue… the formal dress I’ve worn for our last two cruises doesn’t really fit me anymore. Now I’ll be honest, I’ve known I’ve been putting on weight for a while. It hasn’t helped that I had a reoccurrence of an old ankle injury a couple of months ago, and I was advised to basically do no physical activity, outside of what I absolutely had to, for six to eight weeks. I was able to swim, but that was it – no cross trainer, no long walks, no jogging and no running. That didn’t help things. It also doesn’t help that we’re not long back from a very nice holiday, but as part of that very nice holiday, we had a three course meal every night, and a bottle of wine to share – not something I’m used to, and to be honest, towards the end of it, I think we were both a bit relieved that we wouldn’t have to do that again, which I think tells you something…
Ok, so there are two options, and I think I’m going to pursue both. 1) Lose weight and I will do my best, but at less than 50 days out, I don’t have much time and 2) Go and look for a new formal dress. At least if I cover both bases, then hopefully one or the other will work out…
Monday 19 May
Well, I found two possible formal dresses, so I’ve ordered both of them, and we’ll see what they look like when they come into our local store. Hopefully one or the other will be Ok. I’m also trying to exercise more – I did 40 lengths at the pool today instead of 30 and I’m back to doing sit-ups. I figure if I do just a little more than I’ll be able to keep that up, rather than trying to change my entire lifestyle, which I probably won’t be able to sustain.
In other news, we are now booked for the 4:00pm tour around St. Mark’s Cathedral, which I’m really looking forward to. Anything that means no lines and the chance to see things that most visitors don’t see works for me! We also now have our travel card for Venice, all 36 hours of it, which should cover the whole time we’re there, including getting into Venice from the airport. At least that’s something we won’t have to pay for during our vacation, and personally I like that, as I prefer to have things paid off beforehand. That’s why the Dining Plan works for us whenever we visit Disney World.
Saturday 24 May
As of today, I now have the admission to the Ferrari Museum and the Track and Factory Tour all booked for the four of us. Even better, although most days it’s only on at 12:30pm and 1:30pm, which would’ve meant leaving Padua quite early on, there was an option for the day I wanted to visit at 2:30pm, so I opted for that. That should make the day run a bit simpler.
It’s not quite as easy though to get tickets for the Scrovegni Chapel. You have to register on their system, and it just won’t let me. It keeps asking me to input my passport number, then tells me that it’s incorrect. I don’t think so… I’ll have to come back and have another look at it at some point, but that’s one thing that’s not going to get resolved today.
Sunday 25 May
I had a message from Mari today, asking how I was doing with the various bookings, and checking the list of what we still needed to book. Well, she had the list spot on, and I was able to tell her I’d at least got one thing booked out of four – it’s a start anyway! I did say to her that I was going to book the river cruise in Florence and the night Segway tour there, but then I figured as I was booking two things with the same company, I’d wait a bit and see if there was any discount offered, as sometimes they do. No sign of anything yet… but fingers crossed!
Mari also asked me about packing and what to bring. Well, it’s a bit early still to say, but I told her it was probably going to bbe hot, so to stick with light items, and then a couple of longer sleeved items for the evenings, maybe one casual and one smarter, as that’s my plan, so that I’m covered when we’re on the cruise.
On the subject of packing, I feel relatively calm about it. We’re currently at my parents, and every time we pack, I’m thinking about what I want to take with us on the cruise trip. As I get tops out, I’m looking at them and checking that they don’t look too crumpled or creased for example. I think I now have a pretty good idea of what’s coming along – well, apart from the small issue of the formal outfit, that is…
Monday 26 May
Mari and I have been messaging for much of the day. She was asking me about Turkish Lira, which apparently she can’t get over there. At this point, I have to say that we forget over here how easy it is to get most foreign currency. Even something like that, if not in stock, can be ordered, and we can get it within the next few days. I must admit I had been wondering whether to get any Turkish Lira as well, as we’ve only got the one stop for Ephesus, and I’d prefer not to. I figured the best thing to do was do a Google search (isn’t that the answer to everything now? ) and from what I can tell, shops and restaurants there accept both dollars and Euros, which works fine for me – problem solved and question answered.
By the way, we are now into the 30s in our countdown! The time is really starting to fly by…
Tuesday 27 May
Tonight I started the not-so-fun job of trying to work out how much we might be spending during our holiday. I used to take the attitude that I’d worry about it when we got home, but after a few unpleasant encounters with return credit card bills, I’d decided that budgeting beforehand is definitely the sensible way to do things. I start by totting up how much money we’ve got and then try and work out what we might spend, and fingers crossed, the whole thing tallies up!
A couple of words here about how we travel with money, as I figure it might help some of you heading abroad. We tend to put a lot of purchases on the credit card. I know that now most credit card companies (sadly ours included now as well) charge you for foreign purchases, but having said that, ours give us the commercial exchange rate, which is usually a good five cents (in the case of the dollar anyway) better than the tourist exchange rate. It’s the latter that tends to be used for exchanging your own currency into foreign cash – of course, because that benefits the company, not you…
We always take a small amount of cash with us, as we don’t like to carry large amounts of cash. If you check your travel insurance, you’ll find that they tend not to insure you for very much cash, as they assume you won’t have much on you, and that’s fair enough. It’s the way I am in everyday life. I always figure you can cancel credit cards, but if anything happens, the chances are you won’t get the cash back…
Then the other thing we now carry with us is a travel money card, which replaced the old travellers’ cheques a few years ago. Essentially they’re a credit card, debit card and card to withdraw cash all in one, which is exceptionally handy. Whenever we get low on cash, we use it to get more from the machine, but it’s also handy, particularly towards the end of the holiday, to use for purchases, if there’s anything left on it by then of course..
I hope you found the perfect dress! I hear you about weight gain.....with my Lyme disease this past winter I did nothing but lounge in bed . Finding that my summer clothing is not fitting so well
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I hope you found the perfect dress! I hear you about weight gain.....with my Lyme disease this past winter I did nothing but lounge in bed . Finding that my summer clothing is not fitting so well
I can very much sympathise with you on that one. I've bought a lot more new stuff this year....
I'm so sorry about the dress issues but I hope the two you ordered are wonderful. I've had to get new dresses every time I've cruised because I'm very bad about keeping my weight steady so I know what a pain it can be!
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I'm so sorry about the dress issues but I hope the two you ordered are wonderful. I've had to get new dresses every time I've cruised because I'm very bad about keeping my weight steady so I know what a pain it can be!
That makes me feel so much better, especially considering how wonderful you look in all your photos - I'd never have thought that in a million years!
That makes me feel so much better, especially considering how wonderful you look in all your photos - I'd never have thought that in a million years!
Aww thank you! I just look at it as a reason to buy something to make me feel and look my best right now, rather than trying to dwell on what I could look like in the older dresses. I still keep the smaller ones just in case, but new dresses always make you feel great!
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Now I’ll be honest, I’ve known I’ve been putting on weight for a while. It hasn’t helped that I had a reoccurrence of an old ankle injury a couple of months ago, and I was advised to basically do no physical activity, outside of what I absolutely had to, for six to eight weeks. I was able to swim, but that was it – no cross trainer, no long walks, no jogging and no running. That didn’t help things. It also doesn’t help that we’re not long back from a very nice holiday, but as part of that very nice holiday, we had a three course meal every night, and a bottle of wine to share – not something I’m used to, and to be honest, towards the end of it, I think we were both a bit relieved that we wouldn’t have to do that again, which I think tells you something… 
and 2) Go and look for a new formal dress. At least if I cover both bases, then hopefully one or the other will work out… 
It keeps asking me to input my passport number, then tells me that it’s incorrect. I don’t think so… 
I’ll have to come back and have another look at it at some point, but that’s one thing that’s not going to get resolved today. 
I start by totting up how much money we’ve got and then try and work out what we might spend, and fingers crossed, the whole thing tallies up! 
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