Host Mick

Tell your kid to not say anything stupid to Customs people. This is NOT the time to be funny. When they asked about any animal or plant products' date=' mine once made a remark about her pet bird traveling in her backpack. Yes, the guy looked.[/quote']

 

We took a Disney cruise four weeks after the 9/11 attacks. SERIOUS security.

I lectured my older son, the joker, from front door to security about making jokes or comments, no bomb jokes, no hijack jokes, NOTHING. We made it through without incident.

How mobile is your mom? Pompei is rough cobble streets and high curbs. She'll have to be nimble.

On another line, I took the Pompeii and other stuff excursion. The other stuff was mundane and I was annoyed that we only had two hours in Pompeii which was endlessly fascinating to me. If you're up to it and think that you are in to it, consider a private tour or a third-party excursion that goes to Pompei only. Or possibly get there on your own and do a self-guided tour. They are out there, written and audio. Rick Steves has one on his "Rick Steves Audio Europe" phone app.

Cheese making isn't nearly as much fun.

Thanks for posting.

We would like it a lot if you could write a member review for Cruise Critic.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/

Thanks.

We bought our dolls at the terminal in St. Petersburg. There are a bunch of souvenir stands apparently operated by the same company in the terminal. They were much less than at the shop at which we were dropped off with our tour. The dolls for sale on the Celebrity ship were far more expensive but of a higher quality. From memory, the 7 doll sets ran us about $35 US. A 10 doll set will be quite a bit more expensive. We paid credit card with no problems.

You didn't mention Amsterdam but for others reading, it has a great sailaway. You can see how some of The Netherlands truly is below sea level then about an hour after sailaway, you pass through the locks that separate Amsterdam from the North Sea. The Celebrity Silhouette seemed to just squeeze into the locks.

There were also nine river cruise boats docked there at the same time that we left. You get a preview of what could be my next cruise.

Feel free to start a roll call on the Disney Magic Roll Call board.

Cruise Critic staff put together a helpful guide to help you decide between Disney and Carnival.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/articles.cfm?ID=2860

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If you haven't done so already, check out the huge selection of Personal Navigators (many specific to the Dream) on another site. Not sure I can post a link here, but search Disney cruise line blog. The left hand pane has a Personal Navigator graphic. Click on it, and you'll likely be able to find a schedule that matches (or closely matches) your cruise.

Go ahead, as long as it's not a travel agent site.

How's the food?

The smoked salmon was extra good.

Have they tried unplugging the ship and plugging it back in?

A few weeks ago, we received an email from Celebrity warning us about excessive waiting times at Schipol airport. They suggested to us that we arrive at the airport 3 hours early for international flights.

BELIEVE IT.

We got guest services to move us to the first group off of the ship. Arriving at the airport on Friday, we were subject to about 2.5 hours of waiting in various lines before we got to the gate. If our flight hadn't been weather delayed, we would have been busting some sweat. Many panicked passengers were skipping through the line trying to make flights.

Three hours, folks.

Yum!! Reminds me of the gray burgers on in Windjammer's on Liberty of the Seas.

At the Oceanview on Silhouette today, the burgers line was backed-up with people requesting a fresh burger off of the grill, the reason I oveheard cited being "those are badly overcooked". Hopefully, they'll get the message.

Perhaps the bar service is slow because so many passengers have drink packages. Celebrity saves money by serving fewer drinks. There is no financial incentive for Celebrity to hire more servers to provide more drinks to people with drink packages.

Crew berthing is limited. To get more servers, you have to eliminate other positions. Who?

Sweet. Another Jen cruise thread. I always enjoy there. It's like taking a virtual cruise.

Claire sure has grown. Compare her to that little girl in the signature picture.

We're book on the Celebrity Silhouette for the Baltic next month. The Disney Magic, sailing almost the same itinerary but for a night less, is about three times as much for a verandah stateroom. Given that our kids are adults now and we won't take advantage of some of the things that might make up the difference such as the kids' clubs and character greetings, we can't possibly see sailing on the magic this time.

Why are you concerned about a hurricane? The ships are almost guaranteed to sail while a hurricane is nearby. They do make changes to the itinerary to avoid bad weather as getting you to enjoy your vacation is their second most important concern.

Your only concern should be getting to the port during a storm. For that, the advice is usually arrive the day before and get a hotel room.

"For the fifth consecutive year, Disney Cruise Line has taken top honors in Cruise Critic's annual Cruisers' Choice Awards, with Cruise Critic reviewers choosing Disney Dream as the "Best Overall" large cruise ship for the third year in a row.

Meanwhile, sister ship Disney Magic earned the same honor in the Mid-Size ship category, accounting for the second of Disney's eight awards, which also include "Best Cabins" and "Best Service" in the Large ship category and "Best for Families" overall."

Read the rest of the story here:

http://gallery.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=7537

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We'll be cruising the Baltic in May aboard the Celebrity Silhouette. I saw that the Disney Magic will also be in the Baltic in May so I logged into the DCL website to see if we would be in any of our ports a the same time. (Spoiler: No)

What I did notice is that the 10 day Baltic for two in a Disney aft veranda stateroom is $10,600.

Our 12 night Celebrity Aft Veranda Stateroom is $4200 for two including unlimited internet and tips.

I didn't think that I'd be posting about DCL pricing in that I have some skin in the game but Wow, it's going to take a whole lot of pixie dust to backfill that $6200 difference.

We have always bought power strips with us because there are never enough outlets. Is this a Disney rule or all cruise lines? Do I need to request one prior to leaving or can I do so onboard? We are bringing medical equipment.

It's an industry-wide standard.

The floating 120VAC system on ships can cause problems with the spike protection circuitry in power strips causing them to overheat.

The way around it is to bring a block type device that doesn't have any surge/spike protection.

I think know that it's odd that the insurance company would insure missed ports. The passengers aren't out any money, they're disappointed or annoyed.

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It's been a lot of fun, and educational too!

 

I will be leaving it now, but wish all of you safe seas, happy cruising, and memories forever!

 

ex techie

Good luck with your new venture.

Fair winds.

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There are sites out there for renting and offering to rent DVC points. I don't believe I can mention them here, but a quick search should pull them up. The going rate is around $12 a point.

Go ahead. They're not prohibited.

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ex techie

Crawfish Crooners? No way.

The Firefly Five plus Lou was one of the best Disney puns.

I got the Disney Premier Visa card a few months ago and it has the following perks:

 

Earn 2% in Disney Dream Reward Dollars at gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants and most Disney locations.

 

Earn 1% on all your other card purchases.

 

So you get 2% back on Disney purchases.

 

It has a $49 annual fee.

 

Plus the $200 you get for spending $500 is a statement credit, not a gift card. That makes it easier to redeem since it just is applied to your account directly.

We just used our rewards redemption card at WDW. We had over $3000 on it. It paid for all of our food and booze for five adults for 10 days. It was well worth it.

OK! You've piqued my interest! How did you know that Host Mick?

 

ex techie

In my other life, I design and build building automation and industrial control systems.