Love2Travel

I also love the space bags. We use them all the time for dirty laundry and for wet bathing suits. I think they work much better than plain plastic bags because you are able to compress them so easiliy- taking up so much less space. I have a question for you guys... do you know if celebrity has egg crates avaliable for matress toppers, if requested?

Joey Thanks for the link to the Barcelona tourist bus- nice site with lots of info in one spot.

Here is info on sunrise and sunset times. Thought might find interesting. I know i was wondering about when it gets dark... http://www.sunrisesunset.com/ Been away for a few days. Just catching up with all the posts. Can you believe it is July? We are getting closer and closer. Yippeeeeee!!!

hi everyone. looks like the rain kept everyone posting this afternoon.rainy here also. diane, hope thing improve in your neck of the woods, glad the info i posted was helpful. i have a map that looks great. here is the link. scroll down to the last map, indicates bus routes and time between each town. check it out: http://www.vsaint.com/tourists/en/location.html (sorry, don't know how to paste a link you can just click on to open;-( ) tonia, so you guys like to gamble. we are black jack players, perhaps we will have to have a cruise crazies meeting at the casino on the ship. sooo...we may run into each other busing our way across the french rivera. Sounds so goo, doesn't it diane, looks like getting to eze is pretty easy. hope you enjoy your visit and we may see you there. it is not very far away. which is nice and also we have a sea day the day before jackie, as i stated we hope to do nice, eze, monaco and then back to VF. think we will get back to VF 6-7ish. what time do you think it gets dark that time of year? id daylight savings observed in europe?

Tonia glad to help out... what are you and becki thinking of doing at VF port? have a good day everyone. Joey good luck today. you will be all of our thoughts. gail

jackie found this info on tripadvisor for you or anyone else../ Villefranche is very small and there is no bus station. From where you will be landed by the tender you need to walk up hill, following the obvious road which climbs steeply to the left. Keep going up hill when the road forks and after about 500 yards you will arrive at the main road. Cross this road at the traffic lights, turn left and you will find the bus stop within about 10 yards. All buses from here go to Nice bus station, No. 100 runs every fifteen minutes (if you are lucky, this is France) and No.81 less often. Give the driver 1.30 euros or more and make sure you punch your ticket in the machine behind him. If you forget, as I often do, he will make a very exasperated noise and you will be embarrassed. When you arrive in Nice bus station you will find the stop for Eze Village within about 20 feet of where you get off the bus. Check the times of the buses and decide which one you want to get before heading into the old town, across the road from the bus station. When you arrive back at the bus station position yourself casually close to the place where the bus will arrive. Most people going to Eze will be tourists, including many Japanese who are the most polite people on earth, so when the bus arrives and the French, Germans etc hurl themselves at it (The French don't stand in line) you will have a good chance of actually getting on. Actually, the bus is rarely full. Pay another 1.30 and you will be in Eze in about 20 minutes. When you arrive you can again check bus times to Monte Carlo. When I was last there someone had removed the times from the stop but they are always displayed outside the tourist office. From Monaco to Villefranche it is easiest to take the train. Timetables can be found on www.lignedazur.com FYI bus for Eze-Village is bus no 82. If you plan to get on buses more than 3 times in your day, get a one-day pass for 4 euro. The driver will sell it to you like any other tickets. Hope this hels ;-)

Jackie There is no bus station in VF. From what i have read in various places on CC and trip advisor etc... youjust need to head up the hill from the port and cross the street at the top of the hill and catch the bus there at the bus stop. you pay the driver. it 1.30 e to nice hope that helps. I will look through my stuff and give you anything more precise later.

no concierge class for us ;-( thanks for the guesstimate, joey. that helps. i will have two plans in place in the event we are not ashore that early. rail is a good option except for a few things i have discoveed. In nice the train station is far away from everything you would want to see and the bus is real close to old town. next, if I took the train to Eze from VF, it leaves me at Eze by the sea not the village. Unfortunately, the bus service from the sea to the village ends in October and we would have to ask for a cab to pick us up to bring us up the hill to the village. BUT i hear the train from Monte Carlo would work. just went into all this detail in case anyone else is considering doing it yourself at this port. SOOOOOOO.... what is the topic of the day, Joey? Hey, did anyone chat last night? we weren't home.

I am trying to plan VF port. Does anyone remember or know what time I can expect to be on land after tendering to port? Looking at bus service and trying to decide if I have time to go to Nice by bus, look around, then bus to Eze village and then perhaps on to Monte Carlo where I can take the train back to VF. BUT the tendering piece has me stumped. I have never tendered before and I assume that they will let the people with Celebrity shore excursions off first. Thanks for any info.... for those do it yourselfers out there, anyone else planning on doing something similiar?

Good Morning all! We have been talking about ports, lets talk about the ship ;-) for those of you who have sailed the millie or sister ship, what are your favorite spots to hang out to relax or to go to listen to a little music ? any little known spots you could suggest or must not miss experiences you can share with us newbies?

Here is our info... Jackie & Tony - departure - 11/12, flight time 11:30 am Gail & Paul - departure - 11/12. flight time 8:30pm Diane & Lou - departure 11/12, flight time 11:25 am Paula & Trish - departure ?, flight time ? Tonia & Becki - departure 11/11, flight time ? Margaret & Mike - departure ?, flight time ? The port we would eliminate would be Croatia but with all that i havw read i am sure we will enjoy this little known port. we will embark as soon as we check out. Jackie thanks for the tip abput the ship being a distance from anything because we half thought we might explore the waterfront area a little after boarding. But it will be nice to settle in and relax... get to know the ship Gail

hi Joey... did you look into extending your trip by spending a night in venice? as far as wine goes I like dry reds the best. I will have to check out the link you posted. I have Hugh johnson's pocket wine book. It breaks down info into regions and I thought it would be good to refernce when we are in port. how about you?

sunday chat time

question for you digital camera users... how do you plan to store your images while on the trip? buy mutiple cards, or make CDs along the way? anyone have other ideas of what worked for them? I take lots and lots of pictures but this is our first big trip with digital. I have one 1 gig card, I know this won't cut it for our one month trip- so much to see and so many photo opportunities. would welcome anyones tried solutions...Gail

me too... we can help out. Joey... how could we not come over join our illustrious leader!! I wanted to give you a smiley face but am not real educated in how to do this fancy computer stuff. so here is my smile :-) (hee,hee)

Hi everyone!!! I'm back. I sure missed all the conversations. You guys have busy the last two weeks. I just caught up. Can't wait to get in the chat room with everyone...still thinking about sunday evenings? Ok-LOVE the pin design, Joey! great job and a wonderful keepsake of the cruise and of the friends we have all met online. thanks for your efforts and time. Welcome to all the newbies! Glad to have you aboard! And more bithdays to celebrate. Whoppeeee!!!!!!! Yippee, we are going to party. How fun! You know when we booked this cruise, we were disappointed our friends were not able to join us and Now, we are so excited about meeting everyone. it is so cool. oh yeah... we always book cruises with our T.A but pretty much book all other travel on our own... guess that is everything. talk to all of you soon. Gail

Hi Everyone... ok coudn't resist finding internet access while I am away. wow, busy weekend on board as Mike indicated. we are also spending 2 nights in Venice at the orselo locando. would also be interested in sharing a wate taxi to the hotel from the ship. Question, I read this quickly- does this holy day of obligation mean no museums will be open? That will be a disappointment. i wanted to see David. Gail

It is the annual Society of Nuclear Medicine Conference. Draws about 5000 people. Paul is coming also because we are ending the week at his cousin's wedding. We have friends in San Diego and another cousin in LA. He will keep busy hanging out while i work and then later in the week we are going to drive the coast road up to Monteray area for a couple of days. will be nice to get away from work for awhile. Although the conference keeps you busy from morning into the evening with sessions and vendor events and talks- it is somehow energizing- I love to learn new things and look at the latest in technology and catch up with people i don't see often- nice networking But as I said, i will miss my computer. This is addicting! Oh, visited the other CC site this evening and told everyone to comeon over, lots of conversation here. We will see if anyone else joins us... hope so. Gail

Hi Joey... We are not interested in a formal tour of the vatican either but i did want to see the Cistine chapel and the Pieta. The religious aspect is not really a big thing with us. We are also more interested in seeing the other sites in Rome. I will miss all of you guys... I leave in the AM for a conference. i will be in your neck of the woods,Joey. The conference is in San Diego. We will be gone till the 12th. I will be having Cruise Crazies withdrawal, i am sure. ;-) OK Escargot... haven't tried them before but I am up for it. Hey, any chance on getting king crab on the cruise? when we were on RCC, I believe you were able to get salmon any night. Yes, lets start another list with everyones birthday, anniversarys, retirements etc... we have plenty to celebrate. Just the fact that we all lucky enough to be able to take this wonderful trip, make new friends etc. I'll start.... Gail and Paul's 6th anniversary, Nov 5th, Paul's retirement beginning Oct 5th. Gail

Joey I have heard that it is easy to get a cab... that the fare is somewhere between 25-30 euros from airport to hotel. I am pretty sure that includes the luggage. I plan to write the the name of the hotel and address on a card. I have read that many of the cab drivers do not speak English. Why not make it easier for us... I am nervous about the language barrier but I figure that is all first time jitters. I am sure it will be easier to negotiate then my nerves are telling me. Jackie,,, will I am sure respond and give us first hand advice. She is a wealth of information, isn't she, I understand that bus transport and the metro are pretty esy to ngotiate and cheap but with luggage I don't want to go that route. Gail less than 5 months- wow indeed. we are leaving on Oct 12th for the first leg of our trip. I know the time will pass quickly, especially now that summer is in swing.

Thanks for all the wonderful welcomes. Seems like a friendly group of people... glad to be a part of the group! Gail

Just was at the other site and posted that I would be visiting here and there but that we had to keep things going. hopefully, more will join here. I do feel like family. It is exciting to me to "meet an talk" with others who will be sharing the cruise with us. Especially, for those of us who don't have traveling companions from home joining us. ok, yard work is calling so I have to go... only if I could be obsevive about doing the chores as I am with reading, researching playtime activities like VACATIONs!!!! cy later! Gail

Hi guys... I found you! ( joey, jackie and kareen ) Thanks to kareen for mentioning you had moved to this site. I had never heard of this site before. glad to be a part of this board. Afterall, did not want to lose site of our ring leader :->...afterall Joey, you got us started. OK... lets get down to business Paul and I are in Cabin 6008 We are staying at the Hotel Continental Barcelona Arriving on Oct 27th at Noon Think that is everything. not sure how to do the cut and paste thing, so if you could add our info to the list we'd appreciate it. And Joey, to answer you... yes I know what you mean about your partner not always telling you what he wants. Paul is very interested in what we are going to do on the trip when we leave for the trip- up until that point in time, he listens to me obsess with interest and offers opinions if I am way off the mark of what he would want- but kind of leaves most of the real planning to me. I guess some of us have more of the bug than others! Anyhow, hope your weekend is great. Been busy, babysitting, housepainting and gardening. I will need to go back to work tomorrow just to relax. Whew! Gail