Coffee on the Verandah - Let the Festival Begin - 5/13

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by Flossbolna

Steamed toast was speciality that was unknown to us before that trip, too. When we were at breakfast we each got two slices of toast, my parents and I got perfectly normal crispy slices. Katharina's were warm, but also slightly moist and not at all crispy. As if they had warmed them with hot steam. We had no idea how that could have happened and she did not eat those slices...

If the bread had freezer burn, it could happen. It happened to half of Evan's toaster waffle the other day (and became a reminder of WHY you seal up such things well before putting them back in the freezer).

We had an old toaster here at the office that would do that one one side of the bread without fail but not the other. It appeared to be a setting issue but for the life of me I could never figure it out.

Originally Posted by Flossbolna

That trip was quite spectacular as so many funny things happened that we all still love to talk about today. We were staying in friends' (he is Greek) vacation home on one of the Cycladic islands (Syros) and one evening we were supposed to go out for dinner. Since the first evening we dared to show up at a quarter to 8 pm and the whole restaurant was upset that people arrived sooo much too early for dinner, we had decided to wait until 9pm or so before we would head out. When it was 9pm I was famished but the rest of the family had been snacking the whole evening and decided that they did not want to head out that late anymore. I got into quite a fit (there might have been some tears) as I was sooo hungry that the rest of the family started to quickly assemble something to eat for me. My father - trying to lighten the mood - was going to get some tomatos and while doing that started to sing " Tomato, tomato, where are you?" After he repeated that line three times it suddenly knocked on the door! And we all shouted out: The tomato is at the door! But it turned out to be friends of our friends, who were Greek, did not speak a single word of English, only the 11 year old son had learned some English in school. And she spoke some Italian which she used to communicate with my father who speaks French. It turned out that they wanted to invite us to lunch for the coming Sunday. We happily accepted the invitation and since that Sunday was Palm Sunday for the Greek orthodox it was a day of fasting, which meant no meat. But we were treated to about 10 different fish dishes, mainly grilled. My mother hates fish and this was the only time I ever saw her eat fish. They had a huge lobster like animal (wikipedia seems to call it spiny lobster?) which was surprisingly tasty and the only time I ever enjoyed a shellfish. It was quite an experience! And the best part is that the whole family kept a trip journal together which my parents typed into the computer (using different fonts for the different authors) and put it together with pictures from that trip. The perfect memory....

Sorry that got longer than I wanted, just thinking about Greek isles brings back so many memories of fun stories!

Fun times! I absolutely love those kinds of memories.

Somehow I thought your lovely lunch was then going to include tomatoes!

[jedijill]

So jealous! Venice is one of my favorite cities in the world and I would love to do the Greek Islands. I was stationed in Northern Greece when I was in the military and just ate up the history of the area. I lucked into a last minute GTY rate in 2010 on an 11 night Disney Med cruise and I doubt I would ever get a deal like that again. I really hope it works out for you!

Jill in CO

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by jedijill

So jealous! Venice is one of my favorite cities in the world and I would love to do the Greek Islands. I was stationed in Northern Greece when I was in the military and just ate up the history of the area. I lucked into a last minute GTY rate in 2010 on an 11 night Disney Med cruise and I doubt I would ever get a deal like that again. I really hope it works out for you!

Jill in CO

I saw you got the Southern booked yesterday on the 1st day thread Very cool! That is going like hotcakes.

I hope it works out. It is pricey, no doubt. I did look at it though and the crazy thing is it's actually about the same (pp/per day) as what we paid for the Alaska Wonder in 2011, it's just 2 days longer. The 4 night Dream was still more expensive on the pp/per day side...but we also were in a higher cat stateroom. I booked 5C as I just don't see K being able to make it, hopefully I won't regret that but it's so far out I just didn't want to tie up more deposit than that either. It may not sell as fast simply as it's hidden due to glitch in the site so I will be watching prices.

Although I've been before...really...it was in HS and then just after college. Going now, as an adult, with Jeff would be so completely different and it so exciting. The 7 day med is a much better deal but we didn't like the ports nearly as much.

[TeresaNJ]

I don't travel to the TR Board very often, so just read the first installment of your trip report, meeting you & your family! Got me hooked! Can't wait to read more.

[MeMom]

Originally Posted by eandesmom

We are currently booked on a ....

9-Night Mediterranean Cruise on Disney Magic!


Time will tell but we may well be celebrating a big birthday for Jeff in Greece!

How very cool!

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by TeresaNJ

I don't travel to the TR Board very often, so just read the first installment of your trip report, meeting you & your family! Got me hooked! Can't wait to read more.

Hi and So happy to have you here! Look at all the pretty tags you have

We are only a little more than half way through so plenty still to come.

Originally Posted by MeMom

How very cool!

Thanks! I am super excited. It is a long shot but awfully fun to dream about.

[norybell]

All caught up! Looks like it was a great day, particularly brunch, the lounge, & the solo time. Looking forward to reading all about your CC day...hope it lives up to the E's expectations!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

[jedijill]

Originally Posted by eandesmom

I saw you got the Southern booked yesterday on the 1st day thread Very cool! That is going like hotcakes.

I hope it works out. It is pricey, no doubt. I did look at it though and the crazy thing is it's actually about the same (pp/per day) as what we paid for the Alaska Wonder in 2011, it's just 2 days longer. The 4 night Dream was still more expensive on the pp/per day side...but we also were in a higher cat stateroom. I booked 5C as I just don't see K being able to make it, hopefully I won't regret that but it's so far out I just didn't want to tie up more deposit than that either. It may not sell as fast simply as it's hidden due to glitch in the site so I will be watching prices.

Although I've been before...really...it was in HS and then just after college. Going now, as an adult, with Jeff would be so completely different and it so exciting. The 7 day med is a much better deal but we didn't like the ports nearly as much.

I'm super excited about the Southern itineraries. Something different and cheaper than the Fantasy Eastern I moved from May.

If you need a good hotel in Venice, I stayed at an awesome B&B right off St Mark's Square....it's family run and such a cool place. One of the owners looks a lot like Johnny Depp...and he cooks! http://www.locandaorseolo.com/

Jill in CO

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by norybell

All caught up! Looks like it was a great day, particularly brunch, the lounge, & the solo time. Looking forward to reading all about your CC day...hope it lives up to the E's expectations!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

Hi Nory!!! It was a great day all around. I don't know that I could do a ton of at sea days, we are a bit to go go go go for that but oh they are lovely once in a while!

Originally Posted by jedijill

I'm super excited about the Southern itineraries. Something different and cheaper than the Fantasy Eastern I moved from May.

If you need a good hotel in Venice, I stayed at an awesome B&B right off St Mark's Square....it's family run and such a cool place. One of the owners looks a lot like Johnny Depp...and he cooks! http://www.locandaorseolo.com/

Jill in CO

Honestly those were quite tempting to me but I know Jeff isn't terribly interested so I didn't run them by him, plus at the time I was thinking a trip for 4 of us, not just the adults and so with school just doesn't work. Sadly this is definitely more than the Fantasy Eastern I moved from late August but those dates wouldn't have worked after all so I guess that part is a bit irrelevant.

We will need lodging in Venice for at least a night and possibly more if this pans out so I will definitely check that out, thanks!

[Captain_Oblivious]

Originally Posted by eandesmom

I am SO happy for you guys! That is SOOOO exciting. I've been reading up like crazy, reconsidering my room requests and just getting so excited in general for it. We are at double digits but oh I wish it was sooner.

You and me both! I can't wait to get out of here. It'll be amazing to see the place in person.

Originally Posted by eandesmom

You can hijack away, it is wonderful wonderful news and I'm glad you can share it, and we can be part of the surprise! Do let me know if there is anything specific you want me to check out for you while we are there,

Mostly I'm worried about the traffic to/from Honolulu and how it will affect our ability to see the island, get to things like Pearl Harbor/Diamond Head, etc. We still want to do a lot of exploring and we love to get to places early. I'm just not sure we'll have the ability to do that with the rush hour traffic.

We may end up skipping the restaurants on-site (aside from counter-service) just due to the cost. I think there will be a lot of PB&J sandwiches in our future. What are your plans?

Originally Posted by eandesmom

Quick update with some breaking news.

It's a bit of a long shot that we can pull this off but I moved our 2014 dummy cruise booking to one we really hope we can do. There are a lot of moving pieces that may or may not allow this to work out but I'm sure hoping it does!

We are currently booked on a ....

9-Night Mediterranean Cruise on Disney Magic!

Departs from: Venice, Italy

Ports of Call:
Katakolon, Greece
Piraeus (Athens), Greece
Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey
Rhodes, Greece (Greek Isles)
Mykonos, Greece
Venice, Italy



It could be 4 of us, or possibly just 2! Moving pieces are $$ (of course), other vacation plans (hoping for an adult only Australia trip but I think that's more likely for 2015) and kids schedules. Time will tell but we may well be celebrating a big birthday for Jeff in Greece!

WOW! That sounds like an amazing trip!

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by Captain_Oblivious

You and me both! I can't wait to get out of here. It'll be amazing to see the place in person.

I can't wait!!!

Originally Posted by Captain_Oblivious

Mostly I'm worried about the traffic to/from Honolulu and how it will affect our ability to see the island, get to things like Pearl Harbor/Diamond Head, etc. We still want to do a lot of exploring and we love to get to places early. I'm just not sure we'll have the ability to do that with the rush hour traffic.

I hear you there. Honestly we have both seen some of those things more than once so I think our plan is more around the resort/North Shore and we may avoid downtown as much as possible though will need to head in a little to visit my family, and possibly the office for me. But as we have a full week I think we can time it around rush hour. It sounds awful and it's been so long since I drove there I don't have a frame of reference other than dealing with traffic her or other big cities. Nothing worse than sitting in traffic on vacation! I will definitely let you know what I find.

Originally Posted by Captain_Oblivious

We may end up skipping the restaurants on-site (aside from counter-service) just due to the cost. I think there will be a lot of PB&J sandwiches in our future. What are your plans?

Hopefully a mix of making dinner and going out but probably not a lot of counter service at all. Currently I am planning on 3 dinners out, one at each of the on site restaurants and one at Roy's. The rest will hopefully primarily be handled out of our villa but as we have a studio, that will be a bit of a challenge and I'm going to have to get creative. I'm sure we will have a couple of lunches out on the fly from counter service or while we are out.

Originally Posted by Captain_Oblivious

WOW! That sounds like an amazing trip!

It will be! Hopefully we can actually go on it. The real issue will be flights which are pretty much insane. I am hoping with this much time we can make it work but who really knows. Far too far out to get a finger on that one yet.

[PracPerfPatricia]

Your cruise sounds like heaven... I love Venice and sailing the Mediterranean should be absolutely amazing... I've never been to Greece... it should be beautiful with those beautiful blue skies and water against the white buildings... & getting to see the Acropolis... WOW...

(do either of the boys read the Percy Jackson books? Good way to get into mythology...

[englishrose47]

Just keepin' up with the chatter !!!

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by PracPerfPatricia

Your cruise sounds like heaven... I love Venice and sailing the Mediterranean should be absolutely amazing... I've never been to Greece... it should be beautiful with those beautiful blue skies and water against the white buildings... & getting to see the Acropolis... WOW...

(do either of the boys read the Percy Jackson books? Good way to get into mythology...

It will be amazing! Even more amazing if it actually happens with all four of us, the flights are just ridiculous.

Very into Percy around here, we've all read them all (well except Jeff and Taylor that is). I even made the boys some Camp Half Blood T shirts a few years ago before the first movie came out. The boys would be over the moon that is for sure. They won't know about it unless it ends up being a done deal though. Speaking of Percy though....Sea of Monsters is finally in post production, I am glad the franchise didn't die off movie wise even though we were all disappointed in the Lightening Thief.

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by englishrose47

Just keepin' up with the chatter !!!

You are better than I! I am behind on chatter, and updates, everywhere! Hopefully this weekend though I'll get caught up and am hoping to do an update here too, maybe even this afternoon.