Finally have some down time to reflect!! Once we got home I had some awful side effect from the scopolamine patches. Nausea and really bad headache, then we had some business to take care of and now DH is sick with a sinus infection that has hit him hard. He's never sick, poor guy.
Whew, what a trip!!! I don't think I will ever take such a long vacation again, it nearly killed me. We spent a week in the UK and a week in Paris before the cruise. While it was lovely, the heat and all was just to much. I got to experience the UK's NHS first hand and I must say they took wonderful care of me.
It was fabulous to walk onto the ship and see so many familiar faces of the crew members. It's been two years since we last took a cruise and I don't know what I was thinking but didn't ask for anyone to be our server and boy did we have an issue! It's the first time we have ever been this unhappy with a server and we ultimately had to ask for another. The topper came when DD asked for the mushrooms to be removed from her tuna appetizer and was told no. We have always found them more than accommodating in the dining rooms and this just floored us. Our new servers were fabulous and the head waiter hovered around making sure it was a good fit. We had such a good time with them!
We only did one excursion with
DCL and that was to Berlin. The distance kept us from going out on our own. I just didn't want to risk missing the ship! We loved all the information we got from our guide, it was a true history lesson. The fact that we came into an Eastern Germany port and took a train through Eastern Germany was totally not lost on us. Who would have ever imagined we would do such a thing? I remember the stories of the people in East Germany doing the most amazing things to cross over, many loosing their lives. Now to have stood there at the wall... awe inspiring to say the least.
We hired a private guide in St Petersberg through Anastasia, Olga was fabulous! Her knowledge of art amazed me and I was an art major! She was very open to questions about her country and shared everything with us. She was very proud that she could say something not so nice about Russia and proclaim that we now have the freedom to disagree! I was surprised at all the flowers and the amount of reconstruction they have done. Gilding Catherine's Palace will take an immense amount of gold! So glad to see they are taking on these projects and protecting them. This was my favorite port and I want to go back and spend more time there.
When we went through the fjords I was wiped out, so many hot days had finally taken their toll and I just had to lie down. I missed most of it and am so sorry I couldn't be dragged out of bed. I guess I'll just have to go back! Like everyone else I want to go live there!
The short amount of time in the ports bothered me as well. There just wasn't enough time!!! And to funny to get paperwork about a shortened port time when we're on the cruise! Must have more time in ports, Disney!!
I loved the FE! Some of you are so darn clever and it's so much fun coming back and seeing what new treasure there is. I'm so glad I participated, it really makes the cruise fun.
Our pre-cruise dinner was fabulous as well. Thanks Beth for taking care of this. You found a perfect spot for us and the food was good, we had the fish soup and lots and lots of alcohol (we got there early and the shopping had just closed up) Disney could find a port that doesn't roll up the sidewalks at 5 and I would be very happy!!
We stayed in Dover once we got back, for a couple of days. We took this time to tour Dover Castle and to drive around Kent. I had read about Dover Taxi (Dover Heritage) on the Cruise Critic site and booked them to bring us from the Eurostar station. I also booked them to take us to port, our tour of Kent and delivery to airport. The Eurostar pick up went great, port a total disaster, tour fabulous and airport another disaster. If you're a small party I see them as no problem, if you're a large party (we were 8) they seem very inconsistent. Since Disney is going back to the Baltic, just a heads up in case you use them again since they seem to be THE taxi for Dover.
And... glad to hear they will go back to the Baltic in 2012! We might be able to afford to go by then! We did book a 7 day Thanksgiving day cruise in 2011 and we bought more DVC points at the Grand Cal since it's so darn hard to get into! Our son lives in San Diego and Redheadedpirate lives in the OC so we go there often, now it will be nice to be welcomed homed!
For anyone doing the Inaugural, we will be on that and we are moving our Alaska cruise to early May. I hope we get to sail with ya'll again, it was fun!