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By Vicky Wells, on October 26th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Oct 26 ~ Day #169
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$16900
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$102.34
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$14902.15
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$88.18
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|
Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
|
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15551
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6378.9
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7662
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168
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29759.9
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Current Location: At Sea Onboard the Celebrity Century
Today’s Total Expenses: $102.34 (cruise cost includes transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment)
Miles Traveled Today:
At sea all day, will record mileage at next port.
Lazy Day at Sea
After our full schedule in Dénia and Barcelona, it was nice to have a day just to relax. It was also a good thing to give my remaining footwear a break. It had been a long walk just getting to the cruise ship yesterday. And, on top of that, we spent time walking around downtown Barcelona as well.
On Board Activities
There always seemed to be some on board activities planned and we joined in with a couple of things.
I like trivia games. Geoff usually just plays along and is not as interested as I am, but he usually ends up winning anyway – darn him!
One of the activities today was Gender Wars – a Trivial Pursuit game pitting the men against the women.
I can’t actually remember the outcome, so I guess that means the women lost. 
Later in the day there was more trivia in Hemisphere lounge. Not Trivial Pursuit, just answering trivia questions. People formed teams and won little trinkets as prizes. We never got enough answers to even challenge the winners.
Meet the Captain
Tonight was the traditional “meet the Captain” night. That made it our first formal night and everyone looked terrific!
By Vicky Wells, on October 25th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Oct 25 ~ Day #168
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
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|
Total
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$16800
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$114.51
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$14799.81
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$88.09
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Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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15551
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6378.9
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7662
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168
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29759.9
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Current Location: Celebrity Century, Barcelona, Spain
Today’s Total Expenses: $114.51
Transportation: $3.91 (€2.80 – subway to cruise port)
Cruise: $102.34 (transportation, accommodation, food & entertainment)
Food: $8.26 (€2.98 – tuna sub in Barcelona for lunch & €2.94 – Sangria to take on ship)
Miles Traveled Today:
Zero
Hotel to Cruise Port
After checking with a few people at the front desk at our hotel in Barcelona, we determined, I think, that we can take the subway (which is just a couple of blocks from our hotel) to the cruise port.
So, that’s exactly what we did.
With a little help from a local person at the subway station, we found which way we needed to go and what station we needed to get off at.
We figured we had it all covered. Well – almost.
So, Where’s the Ship?
We got off the subway and began to look around to see if we could determine where we should go.
We could see the ocean – that’s a plus – but the port is pretty big and we didn’t want to charge off in the wrong direction.
We followed some people who seemed to know where they were going and were heading towards the port. Also, we could see shuttle busses for the MSC cruise line – the cruise line that we had taken for the Greek Island cruise.
Getting lots of exercise with our loaded backpacks, we walked, and walked, and walked – finally stopping at a hotel and asking the concierge where we would find that Celebrity Cruise Line check-in.
He pulled out a map of the port and showed us which way to go. It didn’t look very far so we headed off.
After what seemed like quite a long walk, we stopped at a ferry office and asked again about Celebrity.
In very broken English a gentleman said we were headed in the right direction but it was probably about 3 or 4 kilometers more. YIKES!
He suggested we catch the local port bus and pointed it out to us. But in our infinite wisdom we were sure it couldn’t be that much farther.
We should have listened.
But, we didn’t, so we continued walking and getting all kinds of exercise. Fortunately, it was a pleasant day for a walk.
We finally got to the bridge that would take us to where Celebrity was supposed to dock. That’s right, we had to walk over a rather large bridge – meaning uphill the first half of the way.
But, we did it and got to where the Celebrity Century was SUPPOSED to be.
But, they were taking bags and checking people in and we were assured we were at the right place.
We gladly gave them our backpacks and headed into the terminal to check in.
The reason the ship wasn’t at the dock was because it was late. It wouldn’t be there until at least 4:00pm (the time we were supposed to leave).
Celebrity Cruise LInes Understands Customer Service
After checking in, by way of apology because the ship was late, they told us that they would give each passenger a $25 onboard credit.
In addition to that, they had shuttle busses taking those who wanted to go into downtown Barcelona. The busses would be running until 4:00pm.
As it was only about noon, we decided to take advantage of the shuttle bus as we had not explored the downtown area.
We walked around a bit (like we needed more walking – but it was much easier without our backpacks) and stopped into a sub shop to have a tuna sub for lunch.
We also picked up a couple of bottles of Sangria to take on the ship with us. Celebrity actually allows passengers to bring a couple of bottles of wine or liquor onboard at the start of the cruise – very unusual for any cruise line.
Waiting to Board
If you’ve ever been on a cruise you know that the board process can be – well – slow and boring.
When you check in you get a boarding group number and you have to wait until that is called to be able to board.
Because we were, for all intents and purposes, in the “cheap seats”, we were among the last to board. We just had to sit around waiting for them to call our number.
When we were finally called the boarding process was fairly smooth and we were greeted by several officers and a terrific cruise director (more about her later), in addition to a welcoming glass of champagne.
Thanks for the Upgrade
One thing everyone should know about booking a cruise is – don’t pick a specific stateroom, just pick a guaranteed category. If you do that you’re much more likely to get an automatic upgrade.
That’s exactly what happened to us.
We picked the cheapest category. We should have been in the bowels of the ship – but we ended up on the Penthouse deck! Now, it was still an inside cabin. You’ll never get an upgrade from an inside to an outside cabin, but it was still great to get the upgrade that we did.
The stateroom was very roomy and comfortable.
Dinner the First Night
We had selected late seating because the early seating just seemed way to early for us.
We were at a table for eight and we were the only ones there. We were hoping that the rest of the guests were just too tired for the late seating.
We had a wonderful first dinner, even though it was kind of lonely. I had Coq Au Vin and Geoff had a Braised Lamb Shank that I swear could have fed two or three people.
By Vicky Wells, on October 24th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Oct 24 ~ Day #167
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
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Total
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$16700
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$109.61
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$14685.30
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$87.94
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Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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15551
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6378.9
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7662
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168
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29759.9
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Current Location: NH Forum Hotel, Barcelona, Spain
Today’s Total Expenses: $109.61
Accommodation: $73.24
Food: $36.37 (€19.70 lunch buffet + €6.35 groceries)
Miles Traveled Today:
Zero
Barcelona & Gaudi
Barcelona is synonymous with Gaudi and we were not going to miss the opportunity to see his most famous, and still under construction, work.
La Sagrada Familia
After getting some idea of the distance that La Sagrada Familia was from our hotel, we made the decision to walk to this famous landmark.
Walking, as we have said before, is our favorite method of exploring a new place. We find we get a better feel for things that way rather than only being a spectator from a bus, train or taxi.
It’s fairly apparent that we do a lot of walking given the footwear I’ve been through on this trip. My walking shoes gave out in Croatia and now my very comfy leather sandals are starting to come apart. It’s a good thing we’ll be getting on the ship for our transAtlantic cruise tomorrow.
It didn’t take us as long as expected to get to La Sagrada Familia. It surprised us, though, that the city Barcelona encroached on this cathedral on all sides. It is on a plot of land just large enough to contain it, and no more.
We had expected it to be on a much larger piece of land given it notoriety and importance.
Nonetheless it was fascinating and impressive and we were once again lamenting our lack of a camera.
Lunch in the Shadow of Gaudi
Our tummies were reminding us that it was definitely time for lunch but we weren’t quite ready to leave.
We don’t often eat out but we couldn’t resist the chance to dine with a view of La Sagrada.
So, we splurged a little and treated ourselves to a leisurely lunch overlooking Gaudi’s masterpiece.
Another Gaudi Building – Casa Milà
We had a map of Barcelona with us and took a different route back to our hotel which took us past an apartment building that had been designed by Gauda – Casa Milà.
We didn’t get a chance to see Park Guell which was also designed by Gaudi, on this trip.’
However, we hope to return to Barcelona some day. It’s a beautiful city and we definitely enjoyed our short stay here.
By Vicky Wells, on October 23rd, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Oct 23 ~ Day #166
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
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|
Total
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$16600
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$171.70
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$14575.69
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$87.81
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Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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15263+288=15551
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6378.9
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7662
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168
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29759.9
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Current Location: NH Forum Hotel, Barcelona, Spain
Today’s Total Expenses: $171.70
Transportation: $98.46 (€67.72 bus to Barcelona + €2.80 bus to hotel)
Accommodation: $73.24
Miles Traveled Today:
Road Miles: 288 (Dénia to Barcelona)
Taking the Bus from Dénia to Barcelona
There was more than one choice of bus going from Dénia to Barcelona, but only one going during the day.
It turned out that that one was also the shortest (time wise) to get to Barcelona. The ones that went overnight took as long as 14 hours. Yikes!
However, we wanted this to be a sightseeing experience as much as we wanted it to be a mode of transportation, so we took the bus leaving at 10:00am and arriving in Barcelona at 6:00pm.
That’s right – it was an eight hour bus trip.
However, surprisingly enough, it simply didn’t seem like it took that long.
In several places we were able to see the coastline and there were several stops along the way. At some of them we had a half-hour to 45-minute break to get out and stretch our legs or get something to eat.
We had packed a lunch before leaving the unit that morning to take with us on the trip so we had water, sandwiches and grapes. Plenty of food for the trip.
We didn’t want to be forced into buying overpriced food and bus stations along the way.
We Go Where? And Do What?
It seems that when people give directions for things that are second nature to them some important details seem to get left out.
At the information booth at the Barcelona Nord Bus Station, we spoke with a woman whose English was impeccable and asked where we would find the bus we needed.
Geoff had already printed out directions from the Barcelona Bus System’s website, so we knew which bus we needed to take.
Her directions seemed simply enough – go upstairs, out the door and across the street. And, that’s exactly what we did.
However, all we saw were taxis and absolutely nothing that resembled a bus stop – not to us, anyway.
We walked up and down the street the main bus station was on but were still confused.
We stopped to talk to a motorcyclist, who spoke no English, to see if he could help. Just as we were getting across the concept that we were looking for Bus 54, he pointed at a bus (Bus 54) that was coming down the street.
I pretty jumped into the middle of the street and indicated that we wanted to get on.
The startled bus driver pointed to a bus stop just around the corner and we hustled over there and got on the bus.
Geoff explained, or tried to, where we were going. The bus driver seemed to indicate that the street we were looking for was 16 stops along the line. The instructions Geoff had said it was 15 stops. So, we didn’t know if he was counting the stop we were getting on at or not and it was just too complicated for people who didn’t speak the same language to get that figured out.
Finding Our Hotel
We counted the stops, got off at the 15th stop (not counting the one where we got on) and found we were at the right street.
The instructions we had was that it was about a 10 minute walk from the bus station to the hotel.
Now, remember, we’ve both got rather heavy backpacks on and are carrying some luggage as well and we’re very, very tired. But, what do you do?
So, we headed off in the direction that we were pretty sure was right and just a few steps along – there was our hotel! Yay!
The gentleman that checked us in spoke perfect English and we happily dropped our backpacks in the room and relaxed for a while.
We still had some sandwiches and water left over from our trip and that became supper.
We did a quick walk around the area we were in and then just settled in for the night.
The room was fairly basic but also fairly new and very comfortable.
Our bed, however, was two singles pushed together – and made up separately. The beds were also on wheels so you had to make sure you didn’t roll over onto the crack between the beds because if you did the beds would roll apart and you could possibly end up on the floor.
Hey – it almost happened to me!
By Vicky Wells, on October 22nd, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Oct 22 ~ Day #165
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$16500
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$33.73
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$14403.99
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$87.30
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|
Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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|
15263
|
6378.9
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7662
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168
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29471.9
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Current Location: Ogisaka Gardens, Dénia, Alicante, Spain
Today’s Total Expenses: $33.73
Accommodation: $28.14
Entertainment: $5.59 (€4.00 – Dénia Castle)
Our Last Day in Dénia
Sometimes we’re just not sure where the time goes, but this was our last day in Dénia and so we decided to visit the Dénia Castle.
We had planned to visit it earlier in our stay but just never got to it. So, today, we made it our top priority.
It was an easy walk from our hotel and we arrived there mid-morning.
It is an impressive structure and we spent lots of time walking around the ruins and up on the walls and ramparts. It has a pretty impressive view over the ocean and the whole town of Dénia. The archaeological museum that was housed in part of the castle, was small but informative.
Time To Pack – Again
The rest of the day was spent just relaxing and then packing for our trip to Barcelona tomorrow.
By Vicky Wells, on August 24th, 2010
Blog Title: Inception at IMAX
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Aug 24 ~ Day #106
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
|
|
Total
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$10600
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$58.00
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$9223.38
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$87.01
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|
Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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|
13542+28=13570
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4451
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000
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69
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18086
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Current Location: Vacation Village at Parkway, Kissimmee, Florida
Accommodation: $30.00
Entertainment: $28.00
Today’s Total Expenses: $58.00
More Rain? Yep!
We woke up to overcast skies and it wan’t long before it started to rain yet again.
The forecast on the Weather Channel calls for scattered thunderstorms EVERY SINGLE DAY!
Watching the Tropical Updates
We currently use the Weather Channel on TV and the National Hurricane Center (www.nhc.noaa.gov) online to follow any activity in the Atlantic. and, it looks like things are starting to heat up.
Fortunately, it looks like we don’t have to worry at all about
Danielle. But now there’s Earl and something else behind that.
Keep your fingers crossed that there’s nothing we have to worry about over the next few months of hurricane season.
Over the past few years it seems that most of the hurricanes have been going further North than usual. As a matter of fact, over the last 5 years Geoff’s daughter in Halifax has been hit twice, while we got nothing.
It also looks like she may have to worry about Danielle.
Unfortunately, the Weather Channel really only cares about hurricanes that may threaten the US. So, there’s not a whole lot of information about ones that threaten the Bahamas or Atlantic Canada.
Following the path online at the National Hurricane Center is a bit better but still slanted towards US interests. Not surprising as these are US sites.
Checking Out the Travel Club We Just Joined
We managed to get a temporary membership number from Global Discovery Vacations as we still have not received our regular number by email. That was promised to be available to us no later than Monday (yesterday) and still nothing.
Anyway, we have the TransAtlantic Cruise to book and have already determined the best price we can get on our own online. We called and spoke to the travel agent part of the club and they gave us the same price we could get ourselves!
I told them that and they said that certain cruise lines (this one is Celebrity) will not allow travel agents to discount their cruises. So, in this case, the travel club does us no good.
Next, we asked them to find a hotel close to the cruise port in Barcelona for around $60/night. They came back with three hotels ranging from $150 to $250/night and said that was the best they could do.
Again, we can do much better on our own using CheapOstay. And, we told them that, too.
One More Chance
We decided to give the travel club one more chance to prove that they are worth the membership fee.
One of the things they do is offer condo stays around the world. So, I checked for what condos they had available for a certain time frame.
For the entire two week time frame that I checked the ONLY condos they had available were on the Texas Coast. Really? Nothing else? That’s just way too restrictive for our needs.
Our decision was clear – this travel club would just not work for us.
We contacted our salesperson and they told us it was no problem to cancel, we just have to send our cancellation to Global in writing. I’m hoping we can do that by email, we’ll see.
We’ll keep you posted on this.
TransAtlantic Cruise Booked
We went ahead and booked the TransAtlantic Cruise on our own because the travel club couldn’t get us a better price. We certainly don’t want to use them if we’re canceling our membership.
We will be leaving Barcelona on Oct. 25th and arriving in Miami on November 8th. That’s a full two week cruise and we paid a total of $1432.74. That works out to just over $100/day and that includes food, accommodations, entertainment and transportation. A pretty good deal,
actually.
I did check airfare and it was only a couple of hundred dollars less. It was a no-brainer to take the cruise.
Inception at IMAX
Tonight we treated ourselves to a movie. We’ve been wanting to see Inception and it was playing at the IMAX theatre in Orlando.
We had seen Avatar at this same theatre in April, but that was also in 3D. Inception was not in 3D.
It’s a good movie and certainly worth seeing. We’re just not sure if it was worth paying the extra to see it in IMAX.
But, hey, at least in an IMAX theatre I don’t need to put my glasses on to read the credits. They’re not tough to read when the letters are several feet high!
See the movie, but it’s up to you if you want to shell out the extra to see it in IMAX.
We actually went to the late showing – 10:30pm. As it’s almost 2-1/2 hours long, that means we didn’t get out until after 1:00am!
By Vicky Wells, on August 19th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Aug 19 ~ Day #101
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Budget to date
|
Spent today
|
Total to date
|
Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$10100
|
$30.00
|
$8916.28
|
$88.28
|
|
Miles by Road
|
Miles by Sea
|
Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
|
|
13459+13=13472
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4451
|
000
|
69
|
17992
|
Blog Title: Travel Club Presentation
Current Location: Wyndham Resort, Kissimmee, Florida
Accommodation: $30.00
Today’s Total Expenses: $30.00
Travel Club Presentation
As we mentioned yesterday, we had accepted a bribe to show up for yet another presentation.
If you’ve never done this before, you may not know that they take a refundable deposit when they sign you up just to make sure you show up. In this case, they were holding $40.00 of our money to make sure we showed up for the presentation. The amount of the deposit can vary. In our experience it’s usually around $20.00. $40.00 is the largest deposit we’ve ever given. You should know though that we have ALWAYS received our deposit back regardless of whether we have bought or not. Like we said, it’s just a way for them to insure that you’re going to show up for the presentation.
We showed up for the presentation, as promised, not knowing quite what to expect.
We were assured it wasn’t timeshare but, hey, we’ve been told that before. Pretty much all we’d been told about this presentation, besides the fact that it wasn’t timeshare, was that it would only be a 60 minute PowerPoint presentation and there’d be no pressure.
Naturally, there was the seemingly mandatory selection of stale doughnuts, coffee and sodas. Trust me, you don’t come to these presentations for the food.
The lady that was assigned to us seemed kind of bored, actually. She told us that she was on salary and, therefore, didn’t really care if we bought or not. Oh, sure, she’d get a bonus if we did but she’d still get her salary if we didn’t.
However, at this point, we still had no idea what they were actually selling.
Time Wasted
There was a lot of time wasted just chit-chatting and waiting for the person who was supposed to give us the “60 minute PowerPoint presentation” to actually get started.
No matter what amount of time you are told that ANY of these presentations will take – a good rule of thumb is to at least double it!
The Actual Presentation
We were finally ushered into a room, along with all the other people that were there for the same presentation.
The person giving the presentation was lively, engaging and personable. He had lots of anecdotes and lots of examples of how you could save money with their system.
It actually seems to work a lot like timeshare. There’s a large initial investment (over $10,000), an annual fee ($389) and a use fee ($159) that seems comparable to and exchange fee.
With any of these kind of sales pitches, the more you resist, the lower the price goes. So, if you really are interested – resist as much as you can.
What originally started out around $12,000 was reduced to about $10,000 if you bought today. However, if you wanted to pay cash, the price dropped to $7,600!
If you were still not interested then they got another crack at you at the “exit survey”. I guess this is where they pull out all the stops to get you to make any purchase at all.
We were somewhat softened up for this pitch. We needed to book a specific cruise (we still need to book our TransAtlantic cruise from Barcelona to Miami) and were hoping to get a much better deal. Also, they had shown us discounts that were possible on things like flights to Australia that looked amazing and we were able to compare that to what we knew my sister and her husband, who are going to Australia in September, had just paid.
Their system also included weeks at condos – unused inventory from resorts and various timeshare properties – for that $159 fee I mentioned earlier.
Last Try
So, at the “exit survey” they hit us with a 3-year trial that actually seemed reasonable compared to what we had just seen. The offer for the 3-year trial membership was $1500 (which could be purchased with $99 down and then $59/month). And, this amount would be applied towards the full membership later, if you decided to continue with them.
There’s also a “Star Points System” attached to all of this that I won’t go into right now.
Suffice it to say that, with the cruise we needed to book and the hotels we still need to book in Europe, we thought this could actually work for us.
We Buy Global Discovery Vacations Membership
So, we decided to risk the initial investment of $99.00 as that would give us time to see if access to their system was actually worth it for us.
We were told they would email us our membership number and that we’d have it, most likely, by Saturday but certainly by Monday at the latest.
We’ll update you on this on the appropriate days.
More Rain
We spent the rest of the day at the condo and got – you guessed it – more rain in the afternoon.
Geoff’s Note
I think it is worth mentioning that we take a lot of these presentations because we are writing a book about timeshare and how to get the best value from it.
We will of course announce it here when it is ready but if you would like advance notice just send us an email.
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