WOO HOO Indeed!!!

I am so excited - my cruise documents were in the mail when I got home. So very cool! Now I need to figure out what I'm taking clothes-wise, schedule my cat sitter and I'm ready to go!! Love the motto and plan to adhere to it; especially on our cruise!

Checklist for Documentation

Ladies - I wanted to do a checklist for myself to be sure I had all the required documentation for the cruise. So, I thought I would share it with you. If I have forgotten anything, just add it to this blog so we can all be sure we have it done before we leave our homes for Europe.

Insurance Cards:

See the blog below on the insurance cards. These are done on the Travel Guard website and you should print at least one copy to carry with you in case you need it.

Boarding Pass for the Cruise:

You need to fill in your information online on Celebrity. This should include:

• Provide Celebrity with required contact, mailing and immigration information before your vacation
• Proceed with Online Checkin - print the cruise ticket contract during this process (you may NOT be able to print the actual boarding pass if you don't print this part or at least check it off that you accept the contract)
• Set up your onboard charge account
• Print your Xpress Boarding pass

If at any time you make any changes to any of the information for Celebrity (like maybe contact information), you MUST reprint your Xpress Boarding pass.

Airline Buddy Passes:

Barb, Reba, and I need to print our Delta passes with the bar code on it for boarding.

Conversion Cheat Sheets:

You probably don't remember, but I added a link on the website that allows you to print a cheat sheet for converting to/from euros/dollars. I will probably print one the day I leave so I have the most current copy.

Recheck Side Trips:

FYI - the side trips you purchased are listed in the Celebrity documentation booklet you received. I checked mine against what I had ordered and they are fine.

Let me know if you think of anything else we should add to this checklist to make it complete and helpful.

Hello Again from the Blog Slut

Well, it seems that the Blog Slut had forgotten how to post something--tax season you know!

I don't recall getting the side trip envelope but I did get the important docs, the one with the luggage tags. Now if I could just get Boyd to come over and get my suitcases down from the attic...

I worked 12 hours on both Saturday and Sunday last at the tax office. Am working tonight until 10PM (after my day job) and tomorrow night until probably about midnight!! I can't take off on Wednesday because something very strategic will be here for me to read (that's saying I can keep my eyes open).

All this leads up to the fact that I will be VERY MUCH ready to party down on May 17th!! I can't wait. It's all that's getting me through this tax season.

Woohoo for no fuel surcharges on our tickets--more money for the Martini Bar!!

See everyone in Venice (cool beans--doesn't that sound wonderful)!!

bah

Venice and Barcelona Hotel Costs

Just to make it easier on all of us, here are the costs for the Barcelona and Venice hotels as of 4/12/08. Hopefully, this will be our WORST case scenario.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p-c12FORL8Pv3pQqSTpCVXQ&t=652045828970830303&guest

Printing Your Cruise Boarding Pass

Ladies - I AM BOOKED and ready to go. I printed my Xpress Pass tonight. You can print this anytime before you need to board the cruise ship. If you need to make a change in your information (there are several items you probably already filled in but they must be done before), you must reprint the Xpress Pass so it is correct. To print your pass, you need your passport and your credit card for your onboard expenses. The instructions to do the printing are:

1. Log into Celebrity Cruise website
2. Sign in to My Celebrity
3. Choose Online Check in
4. Fill in the pages (have accept and move forward arrows at the bottom of the pages) and it allows you to select YOUR information only (as opposed to everyone else in your cabin with you)
5. I did print the Cruise Ticket Contract when that page popped up
6. Print the Xpress Pass and sign (I saw 2 places to sign -- for the ticket and for my CC. The last part on page 1 is for those with non-US Visa cards and MC holders -- the FAQs say they do use USD on board the ship so we should have NO currency conversion requirements on board)

That's all she wrote. You can print as many copies of this pass as you want without any problems.

Don't forget -- we are now sailing at 3 PM from Venice. I checked our original records and we were scheduled to sail at 4 PM. It may mean that for anyone who wants to do any sightseeing on Saturday, you need to be back by 2 PM ish. Anyone who wishes to continue sightseeing on Friday, I would recommend you keep your bags at the hotel, do your sightseeing, and then retrieve your bags from the hotel to take the cab to the port and get onboard. If you go out to the ship first, you will need to get a cab to come back into town (and then back to the port once you are done sightseeing). Last year, the cab for 3 of us and our cruise bags cost 15€ total. Keep in mind, taking a cab does NOT require you schlep these bags on/off a water boat! It's not that far but they do charge for the bags so I don't have an actual price for the cost for just a cab to/from the port. I do think you can get an Allilaguna boat to/from San Marco to/from the port for 6€/pp each way (look for BLU line from San Marco to Stazzione Marittima) (this was my original plan last year to get from the city of Venice to the port before I booked a hotel in Ple Roma) but you would need to find out the details -- especially if you need a reservation.

Details on Insurance

Here are the instructions to print your insurance cards. The Policy Number is 902721409 and it's under Bernice Mar's name.

To print your own copy:

1. Go to: http://www.travelguard.com/travelinsurance/cruise.asp
2. Select Customer Service from the links at the top of the page
3. Select View Policy from the left menu options
4. Type in the information (see it in Bernie's e-mail) (use your OWN e-mail address)
5. Click Submit
6. When the policy displays, there is a Print Fulfillment Package option at the top of the page and it prints the policy AND the insurance cards (and ignores all the advertisement)

Count Down is Really Starting

Feel like the countdown is really starting for our cruise. I received my first official documentation from from Celebrity! Got the side trip document, personalized for Rebecca Herbig no less, in the mail yesterday. Course we all pretty much have scheduled all of ours but it was exciting anyway!!