July 6, 2010 - 7/6/2010 ~ Pounds to Rubles ~ Mickey invades the Baltic Sea

[slg]

What time should we go to the dock? I need to order a taxi. I'd like to get on the boat as soon as I am able. Any recommendations? We're in Dover, the weather is great. Off to the castle tomorrow.

 

[njdisneyfans]

We (NJDisneyfans) may be the last ones to leave; departing Newark Airport on Monday evening, arriving LHR, then going straight to Dover. If we are truly the last ones out of the US, we'll turn off the lights!

Bon voyage!

 

[Addicted.to.Speed]

lighting/thunder and pouring in Paris....tomorrow should be ok (Sunday)

Just got back from Paris today and other then the Eurostar beige delayed, our day went really well. The rain ended late morning and held off the whole day.

 

[Stimpy]

We (NJDisneyfans) may be the last ones to leave; departing Newark Airport on Monday evening, arriving LHR, then going straight to Dover. If we are truly the last ones out of the US, we'll turn off the lights!

Bon voyage!

We're right with you! Leaving out of JFK on Monday evening and directly to the port.

We may have to stow the kids in the luggage compartment on the way home Somehow, their seat assignments are missing for the trip home. We are a party of 6, all of us have assigned seats going to Heathrow, 4 of us (the adults) have seats coming home. Next to the kids names there are big blank boxes. I'm getting nowhere fast trying to get it fixed! It's really weird because they HAD seats at one time but now they don't.

My TA checked with DCL air dept and they say the kids have seats. Virgin Atlantic says they don't (but do have tickets). Talked to DCL directly and was told I needed to deal with VA myself.

So I called! OMG, what a bizarre headache inducing conversation! 30 minutes of the rep telling me that she can't do anything until 24 hours before the flight and I need to call then. I tell her we will be on a cruise with no phone and my cell will not work in Europe. She tells me to go on the internet instead then....tell her I won't have an internet connection or our laptop. She tells me to call 24 hrs prior then. Again tell her I have no access to a phone or computer for 2 weeks! Ok call 24 hours before Again tell her I can't and why...ok use the website. This went back and forth for about 20 minutes. I was getting ready to jump through the phone and strangle this poor woman!

Finally she tells me that VA's policy is that they will sit families together no matter what. (We'll see! ) And to try and talk to the reps at the JFK when we check in on Monday to see if there was anything they could do for me instead.

And then this was the best part! She asked if there was anything else she could do. So I figured why not? Can I get kid's meals for the children? OK, after asking their ages she sets them up for the trip to Heathrow. Then she asks about the return trip...I say yes if she can do it without them having assigned seats yet. OK, tap tap tap into the computer....then she asks me "what are their seat numbers??"

Seriously, I will be the one with a drink in each hand on sail away!

 

[fabumouse]

We may have to stow the kids in the luggage compartment on the way home

The friends we are cruising with - flying Virgin as well - got informed that b/c the flight was full, the car/airline seat they brought to fit the baby (and have flown with before) was unacceptable, and after paying for a seat for the baby, essentially had to hold her the entire flight out of NJ. Hmmmmm. Not good customer service.

We leave tomorrow at 4pm, so I guess we won't the ones to turn off the lights.

See y'all soon!

 

[bhayes]

Packs are packed (4 bags weighing in at under 40 pounds each ..Woo Hoo). Dropping dog off at kennel tomorrow ... then off to the airport ... should be arriving in Dover early Monday afternoon!

Can't believe that after many months of planning and preparing .. it is time to take flight

 

[denise]

packing up and leaving Paris for Dover today...see you all soon.....

 

[slg]

Where is evergone staying in dover? We're at the castle guesthouse. Off to explore the castle today.

 

[denise]

Staying at Dover's Restover B & B

 

[ladyvet]

Hope all you guys have a WONDERFUL and safe trip! We're on the July 18th cruise, and we're so excited. Is anyone blogging from your cruise? We are loving reading all the details from the previous cruisers.

Have fun!
Beth

 

[babybear42]

We're staying at the Premier Inn Dover Central. Will arrive sometime tomorrow afternoon.

 

[Stimpy]

Well it's 11:30 am here and I guess I should start packing sometime soon! It's a little difficult b/c my DH works nights and he's sleeping now in our bedroom. I can get the kids' stuff together but have no where to put it yet.

I really need to stop procrastinating so much!

Oh if I have to sit with my 10 yr old DS on my lap on the flight home, I will NOT be a happy camper I always thought Virgin Atlantic had a great rep, now I'm stressing more about the flights than anything else!

 

[bhayes]

We are staying at the Ramada in Dover!

 

[caniac27]

We are staying at the Ramada in Dover!

With you there - maybe see you tomorrow!

 

[justhat]

We're right with you! Leaving out of JFK on Monday evening and directly to the port.

We may have to stow the kids in the luggage compartment on the way home Somehow, their seat assignments are missing for the trip home. We are a party of 6, all of us have assigned seats going to Heathrow, 4 of us (the adults) have seats coming home. Next to the kids names there are big blank boxes. I'm getting nowhere fast trying to get it fixed! It's really weird because they HAD seats at one time but now they don't.

My TA checked with DCL air dept and they say the kids have seats. Virgin Atlantic says they don't (but do have tickets). Talked to DCL directly and was told I needed to deal with VA myself.

So I called! OMG, what a bizarre headache inducing conversation! 30 minutes of the rep telling me that she can't do anything until 24 hours before the flight and I need to call then. I tell her we will be on a cruise with no phone and my cell will not work in Europe. She tells me to go on the internet instead then....tell her I won't have an internet connection or our laptop. She tells me to call 24 hrs prior then. Again tell her I have no access to a phone or computer for 2 weeks! Ok call 24 hours before Again tell her I can't and why...ok use the website. This went back and forth for about 20 minutes. I was getting ready to jump through the phone and strangle this poor woman!

Finally she tells me that VA's policy is that they will sit families together no matter what. (We'll see! ) And to try and talk to the reps at the JFK when we check in on Monday to see if there was anything they could do for me instead.

And then this was the best part! She asked if there was anything else she could do. So I figured why not? Can I get kid's meals for the children? OK, after asking their ages she sets them up for the trip to Heathrow. Then she asks about the return trip...I say yes if she can do it without them having assigned seats yet. OK, tap tap tap into the computer....then she asks me "what are their seat numbers??"

Seriously, I will be the one with a drink in each hand on sail away!

We left on the 2nd, on VA out of JFK, also a party of 6. We booked 5 tickets last summer, then when our 3rd child was born in January we booked her ticket. So she was on her own reservation. We got an email from VA to check in at least 13 hours before our flight or they would give our seats away. So my husband checked us in about 19 hours or so before the flight. He could only check in the 5 of us as the baby was on her own reservation and he got an error message that said "Infants must be checked in with an adult". So we had booked our seats to be 2, 2, and 2 and could check in 2, 2, and 1.

When we got to the airport Friday afternoon someone had taken the baby's seat so they gave her a random seat. We explained that she was 5 months old and they basically said "too bad, ask at the gate". Our other kids are 3yo and 6yo so we couldn't really rearrange the seats much. And we did buy a seat for the baby, she wasn't a lap baby.

We got to the gate and when a worker finally arrived they said "Well, someone has that seat, it was never a guarantee, it was always only a request." They finally moved one of our seats to be near her, but now we were in that middle section of the plane.

A fresh young person adamantly told us that we would not be allowed to take the car seat on the plane--saying "it creates too much space..." Ha! Even though we're in Premium Economy and in fact purchased her a seat. He wanted to be a rude young moron trying to assert some amount of power his little body could---"no...no seat." Asked how that's safe for an infant, he didn't care, saying "...it's our policy. And you're the first people to ever get surprised that we don't allow car seats for babies."

Virgin seems nice, but the fact they disregard any seat assignments and don't allow baby car seats means I'll likely stick to american carriers from this point on.



ETA: My husband finished my post for me (the last 2 paragraphs) and didn't mention that Virgin did provide some sort of seat for our baby. Had the man told us that we wouldn't have been as irritated about him saying "NO SEAT" over and over. Only problem was it was a completely upright, hard seat. Our 5 month old can't sit up unassisted yet, so she was really unable to sit in the seat as the belt didn't really hold her back well enough. And no one in the world could ever sleep at that angle. So she sat in it 3 minutes max, then spent the rest of the flight in my arms, which totally sucked for me as I got so little sleep cause I kept waking up in fear that I'd drop her. And she kept waking up too as she HATES to sleep in someone's arms. The whole reason we paid for her seat (aside from it being safer than a lap baby) was so that I wouldn't have to hold her for 6 hours overnight. So instead we got there and I was exhausted and then had to be up all day.

 

[caniac27]

Hope all you guys have a WONDERFUL and safe trip! We're on the July 18th cruise, and we're so excited. Is anyone blogging from your cruise? We are loving reading all the details from the previous cruisers.

Have fun!
Beth

I'm going to try the blog thing.

http://crownridgebandb.blogspot.com/

I've posted our London experiences. Not sure how much I will be able to do from the cruise as it seems the internet is spotty at best.

 

[Stimpy]

We left on the 2nd, on VA out of JFK, also a party of 6. We booked 5 tickets last summer, then when our 3rd child was born in January we booked her ticket. So she was on her own reservation. We got an email from VA to check in at least 13 hours before our flight or they would give our seats away. So my husband checked us in about 19 hours or so before the flight. He could only check in the 5 of us as the baby was on her own reservation and he got an error message that said "Infants must be checked in with an adult". So we had booked our seats to be 2, 2, and 2 and could check in 2, 2, and 1.

When we got to the airport Friday afternoon someone had taken the baby's seat so they gave her a random seat. We explained that she was 5 months old and they basically said "too bad, ask at the gate". Our other kids are 3yo and 6yo so we couldn't really rearrange the seats much. And we did buy a seat for the baby, she wasn't a lap baby.

We got to the gate and when a worker finally arrived they said "Well, someone has that seat, it was never a guarantee, it was always only a request." They finally moved one of our seats to be near her, but now we were in that middle section of the plane.

A fresh young person adamantly told us that we would not be allowed to take the car seat on the plane--saying "it creates too much space..." Ha! Even though we're in Premium Economy and in fact purchased her a seat. He wanted to be a rude young moron trying to assert some amount of power his little body could---"no...no seat." Asked how that's safe for an infant, he didn't care, saying "...it's our policy. And you're the first people to ever get surprised that we don't allow car seats for babies."

Virgin seems nice, but the fact they disregard any seat assignments and don't allow baby car seats means I'll likely stick to american carriers from this point on.



ETA: My husband finished my post for me (the last 2 paragraphs) and didn't mention that Virgin did provide some sort of seat for our baby. Had the man told us that we wouldn't have been as irritated about him saying "NO SEAT" over and over. Only problem was it was a completely upright, hard seat. Our 5 month old can't sit up unassisted yet, so she was really unable to sit in the seat as the belt didn't really hold her back well enough. And no one in the world could ever sleep at that angle. So she sat in it 3 minutes max, then spent the rest of the flight in my arms, which totally sucked for me as I got so little sleep cause I kept waking up in fear that I'd drop her. And she kept waking up too as she HATES to sleep in someone's arms. The whole reason we paid for her seat (aside from it being safer than a lap baby) was so that I wouldn't have to hold her for 6 hours overnight. So instead we got there and I was exhausted and then had to be up all day.

Unbelievable!! Did you book air on your own or through DCL? The only reason I ask is that DCL told me I didn't have to check in before the flight since we already have seat assignments Guess I'm going to be checking the website as soon as 24 hours comes up tonight!

I'm actually starting to appreciate the boarding groups on Southwest after this Atleast I know what to expect!!

 

[sshaw10060]

Looking forward to seeking many of you tomorrow at dinner. We're in Portsmouth for the night. We have a blog as well at http://theshawsgotoeurope.blogspot.com

 

[justhat]

Unbelievable!! Did you book air on your own or through DCL? The only reason I ask is that DCL told me I didn't have to check in before the flight since we already have seat assignments Guess I'm going to be checking the website as soon as 24 hours comes up tonight!

I'm actually starting to appreciate the boarding groups on Southwest after this Atleast I know what to expect!!

We booked on our own, but according to everyone we spoke with at VA, the seat assignments are "requests only". They aren't actually assigned to you until you check in. So while we had "requested" rows 31-33, seats A-C, we did not actually have them till we checked in. We had no idea as those seats showed up on the website when we booked, checked the flight, etc. But since we couldn't check the baby in, someone checked in between 12 hours prior to the flight and when we got to JFK (almost 3 hours before the flight) and "took" our baby's seat. VA basically didn't care.

And the highlight was that the man there would NOT switch his seat for our bulkhead aisle seat!! So though he saw my infant, 3yo, and 6yo (who was crying to sit with "an adult from our family), he would NOT move. Luckily the guy sitting in one of the middle seats next to my husband switched and sat with the annoying guy. Otherwise my daughter would have been crying for awhile as she was terrified to sit with only her brother for some reason. And seating him alone was NOT happening as he flipped out when we tried sitting him next to annoying guy. Normally they are excellent flyers, but we just moved out of our house last weekend and have been in a hotel since then, and won't be in our new house (and new state, we're moving from DC to AZ) till the end of this month, so they are both a bit clingy at the moment.


So yes, definitely check in for your flight online!

 

[Stimpy]

We booked on our own, but according to everyone we spoke with at VA, the seat assignments are "requests only". They aren't actually assigned to you until you check in. So while we had "requested" rows 31-33, seats A-C, we did not actually have them till we checked in. We had no idea as those seats showed up on the website when we booked, checked the flight, etc. But since we couldn't check the baby in, someone checked in between 12 hours prior to the flight and when we got to JFK (almost 3 hours before the flight) and "took" our baby's seat. VA basically didn't care.

And the highlight was that the man there would NOT switch his seat for our bulkhead aisle seat!! So though he saw my infant, 3yo, and 6yo (who was crying to sit with "an adult from our family), he would NOT move. Luckily the guy sitting in one of the middle seats next to my husband switched and sat with the annoying guy. Otherwise my daughter would have been crying for awhile as she was terrified to sit with only her brother for some reason. And seating him alone was NOT happening as he flipped out when we tried sitting him next to annoying guy. Normally they are excellent flyers, but we just moved out of our house last weekend and have been in a hotel since then, and won't be in our new house (and new state, we're moving from DC to AZ) till the end of this month, so they are both a bit clingy at the moment.


So yes, definitely check in for your flight online!

What a jerk! My kids are excellent flyers too but a 8 hour flight is a lot to ask for them to be by themselves. If it was me, I might have left him with my very high maintanance, very talkative DD for the entire flight

Thank you so much for telling me about the check in! I did just check in on-line and printed our boarding passes. Atleast we can GET to Heathrow now. I'm really hoping they do the on-board airline check in on the Magic or we're really in trouble for the return flight!