4/24/2010 Med cruise: Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your Ears

[Happy Goofy]

Arrived home safely after 25 days on the Magic. Loved almost every minute of it. A special thank you to Lara, Chris, and Erin for arranging the private van tours they were great! We tentatively booked the Panama one in January- Hope to see some of you on that cruise.

 

[abird]

Home now for a few hours. Sig is passed out on the couch.

We had a great time and it was fantastic to meet everyone.

abird: can't answer about the excursion in particular, but we spent three weeks in Morocco prior to the cruise and traveled all over on our own- no problems at all even in places where tourists rarely go. Of course I saw a lot more security in Morocco, but I think the security situation in Tunisia-Morocco, etc isn't as bad as other parts of that region. I didn't feel at all threatened or in danger, but that might just be me. Others might want to chime in. That said, though I loved Morocco, Tunisia not so much.

Have a great cruise.

Julie

Thanks Julie for the info. I'm feeling better now that I have heard from others on our thread. Glad you had a great trip! Anne

 

[alltheparks]

Hi All -

We are in Heathrow! Really enjoyed our quick stopover yesterday!

Heading to Dallas, then LAX, and on to Sydney (for the last time).

 

[TheCruisers]

Hi, this is Anne from 5/15 upcoming cruise. I had a question. Did anyone go on the Pottery in Nabeul excursion? I had read another post of someone who was concerned 1)drive was long and 2)possible safety issues in N. Africa. Any reason to be concerned? Thanks.

Hi Anne,

We took the Pottery in Nabeul excursion. We really enjoyed the pottery part of it. My son (8) was thrilled to be able to paint a plate and make a small cup on the turn table, and still talks about it. The people there were very nice and gave us all a finished plate as a gift. The ones we painted were not fired yet, but we kept those too. They wrote our names on the back of the plates in arabic. A little girl wanted to buy a vase and she asked how much it was. The owner told her it was a gift from him to her. Very nice of him.

The down side was there wasn't enough time to do any shopping at the pottery place. We spent an hour there and then an hour at the open air market. The market was not a pleasant experience. The vendors we extremely agressive. I had one woman block me and physically hold me trying to force me into her shop. Almost our whole tour group were back at the meeting point within 15 minutes because no one liked it. Although our guide did say if there was anything we wanted in the market to come and get him and he'd help us "negotiate". The agression was just to much for me, I would have preferred spending more time at the pottery place.

I did not find the drive too long. I really enjoyed the sightseeing and the commentary along the way.

Hope you enjoy your trip!

 

[TheCruisers]

How do you come back home after 25 days on the Magic?!?!?

I just keep wondering around my house wondering why it is not spotless and why no one has fed us.

I don't remember where I work.

(sigh)

 

[abird]

Hi Anne,

We took the Pottery in Nabeul excursion. We really enjoyed the pottery part of it. My son (8) was thrilled to be able to paint a plate and make a small cup on the turn table, and still talks about it. The people there were very nice and gave us all a finished plate as a gift. The ones we painted were not fired yet, but we kept those too. They wrote our names on the back of the plates in arabic. A little girl wanted to buy a vase and she asked how much it was. The owner told her it was a gift from him to her. Very nice of him.

The down side was there wasn't enough time to do any shopping at the pottery place. We spent an hour there and then an hour at the open air market. The market was not a pleasant experience. The vendors we extremely agressive. I had one woman block me and physically hold me trying to force me into her shop. Almost our whole tour group were back at the meeting point within 15 minutes because no one liked it. Although our guide did say if there was anything we wanted in the market to come and get him and he'd help us "negotiate". The agression was just to much for me, I would have preferred spending more time at the pottery place.

I did not find the drive too long. I really enjoyed the sightseeing and the commentary along the way.

Hope you enjoy your trip!

Eleasa, thanks for the info. I will let our 2 grown daughters (ages 21 & 26) look at the post and make their own decision. They are doing the pottery excursion, and DH and myself are doing Medina & Carthage. Did the hour you spent at the pottery shop include making the plates etc? That doesn't seem like enough time and they could make pottery in US at a shop. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks, Anne

 

[TheCruisers]

Eleasa, thanks for the info. I will let our 2 grown daughters (ages 21 & 26) look at the post and make their own decision. They are doing the pottery excursion, and DH and myself are doing Medina & Carthage. Did the hour you spent at the pottery shop include making the plates etc? That doesn't seem like enough time and they could make pottery in US at a shop. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks, Anne

Yes, the hour did include making the pottery. I suppose in hindsight I could have easily broke away from the pottery group and browsed the store. I just didn't realize then the time constraint we had.

 

[lynnemcb]

Hi all from our cruise
got back late wed night - initial connecting flight at Paris cancelled due to volcanic ash but got on a later one. Back to work the next day - what a rush!!

Just wanted to say thanks to all in our FE group for the lovely gifts - kids loved checking the pockets each day.

The whole trip was great - saw some lovely places and had a great time. Booked again provisionally for dream next year but 4 nights doesnt seem long enough so going to change to either alaska or mexican riviera.

Lynne

 

[Michelle2]

Back home and had a normal first day back in reality. Caught the sore throat, head cold sickness, but thankfully on the very last day on the ship. (After 25 nights, that is great!)

I am so happy to be back home. The cruise was wonderful, but it was so nice to be with ALL of my family and friends again. But I also SO miss my Cruising buddies.
Thanks so much to those that included me when my teenage son kept ditching me for the Stack. (I was happy he was having a great time! He is the one not liking being back).

 

[NC_Tink]

We're home too! After a glitch and being bumped from our initial flights due to - still don't know what - we were given direct flights back to JFK later in the morning. Spent yesterday driving back to NC. So good to be home!

Awesome meeting so many Disboard friends! Loved all the FE gifts - really fun It was an awesome cruise with a few bumps along the way -- would do it again in a heartbeat!!!

 

[auntlynne]

After hours waiting for our Aer Lingus flight (which we think was only allowed to Shannon, not Dublin and had no connecting flights to Boston that day), we jumped over to Air Berlin on Thursday morning. We joined forces with grlzmom and arrived in Ft Meyers, FL at 6pm Thursday. Karen and I had a comforting dinner at Cracker Barrel and were asleep before 9pm Eastern time (3 am boat time), so we woke up early Friday am and headed home in a rental car. Arrived home tired but safely and am now thinking about getting a new life without daily DISboard sessions.

 

[dolphingirl47]

After hours waiting for our Aer Lingus flight (which we think was only allowed to Shannon, not Dublin and had no connecting flights to Boston that day), we jumped over to Air Berlin on Thursday morning. We joined forces with grlzmom and arrived in Ft Meyers, FL at 6pm Thursday. Karen and I had a comforting dinner at Cracker Barrel and were asleep before 9pm Eastern time (3 am boat time), so we woke up early Friday am and headed home in a rental car. Arrived home tired but safely and am now thinking about getting a new life without daily DISboard sessions.

I am sorry that you were caught up with cancellations on the way back. I am glad that you arrived back safely though.

There is no way that there is a DISboard free time for me. I am now in full planning mode for the WBTA and they chatted up a storm while I was gone. I have about 90 pages to catch up on and I am only about half way.

Corinna

 

[mrosen]

Sorry to hear about some of you have flight challenges getting home.

It was a nice cruise. We are glad we were able to join in Naples and while it was disappointing to miss Malta, Tunisia ports, we had a nice time. We did get a few extra days in Rome on the front end before we met the ship in Naples. We are still in Barcelona and fly home early this week. I did read that some of the Spain airports were closed today due to the volcanic ash so I sure hope we don't encounter issues flying home after all the challenges getting to Europe to join the cruise.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Sorry to hear about some of you have flight challenges getting home.

It was a nice cruise. We are glad we were able to join in Naples and while it was disappointing to miss Malta, Tunisia ports, we had a nice time. We did get a few extra days in Rome on the front end before we met the ship in Naples. We are still in Barcelona and fly home early this week. I did read that some of the Spain airports were closed today due to the volcanic ash so I sure hope we don't encounter issues flying home after all the challenges getting to Europe to join the cruise.

I hope that you will have a safe and ash-free journey home.

Corinna

 

[skoi]

Have a great time on the TA.

I hope everyone still in transit is home quickly and safely.

We're thinking of an early December cruise for all six of us, finances permitting.

Julie

 

[Dicecatt]

Have a great time on the TA.

I hope everyone still in transit is home quickly and safely.

We're thinking of an early December cruise for all six of us, finances permitting.

Julie

Julie it was great meeting you! Your kids are great, I spoke with your daughter a little bit about her desire to go on a Nile cruise.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Have a great time on the TA.

I hope everyone still in transit is home quickly and safely.

We're thinking of an early December cruise for all six of us, finances permitting.

Julie

I hope that you can all go on a cruise.

Corinna

 

[shushh]

Glad to hear everyone got back home safely (even with delays). Was worried about what might happen with the volcanic ash. We just returned home yesterday and going back to work today was hard! Really missing life on the ship.

Just wanted to say how much fun I had on the cruise and that I really enjoyed meeting everyone. I especially enjoyed our outing to Nice with Julie and Lynne and their gang.

Also thank you to everyone for their fabulous FE gifts. It really went way beyond our expectations of how thoughtful and creative all the gifts were. We loved all of them and the kids had a lot of fun checking our FE everyday!

 

[salboz]

Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the folks I did get to meet. Sorry I couldn't get to more. Just too old for such a schedule. Also, missed one on the FE exchange as I did not find one of the upgraded cabin numbers. I am very sorry. I enjoyed all my gifts and was as excited to check each day as any kid at Christmas. Would love to see that start on other lines. The hard part was making the extender and then keeping up with the upgrades they were giving out like candy.

Very much enjoyed the camel ride in Tunisia. Most of the sights, especially the Malfi coast, were beyone description even though I had been in several of these cities many years ago. Surprised to see the progression in some and loack thereof in others.

We were one of the ones not knowing until the evening before if we were going to get there as we went via Heathrow. Since I am older and have mobility problems, I always use wheelchair service for large or unknown airports. In Heathrow, the chair porters were literally running us through the airport. The connection was that close, but we made it.

Wonderful, wonderful time. Great travel companions that joined us for outstanding tours with local guides. We averaged about 100 euros or less per day per person for all day tours of whatever we wanted for 6 of us.

Can't wait 'til I'm on the sea again.

 

[auntlynne]

While we were in Nice, I thought it would fun to get a picture of skoi, auntlynne and Shushh: