Trip Report Our 19-Day Mediterranean Adventure – Greece, Turkey and the Search for Free Wifi

Finally, right? It seems like I’ve been waiting forever to start this, but really we’ve only been back three weeks! And in that time I’ve lived in a hotel for two weeks and driven across the country from Washington DC to our new home in...wait for it...Las Vegas! For some reason I have chosen now, surrounded by boxes that need to be unpacked, as the time to start my trip report. Stalling maybe? :D So here it goes!

What: A massive 19 day (13 days on the cruise with 6 more including travel time and extra days in Europe) trip extravaganza. A 12 night Mediterranean cruise with a day in London beforehand and a few days in London and Barcelona afterwards. So yes. This is going to be a long stinking trip report. Oh, and I took 5239 pictures. On my camera! That doesn’t even count the Instagram/iphone photos you’ll see scattered throughout the report.

Great day in the morning.

Why: Because cruises are awesome mostly. But also because I was able to do a last-minute 11 night Med cruise back in April of 2010 with my daughter and some other family and friends, so this was a makeup cruise for my son and husband. It worked nicely as a graduation trip/present. :)

When: June 13-July 1, 2013

I booked this cruise the day it came out, back in January of 2012.

As time got closer we realized it was going to get crazy. My daughter was going to have to miss the last day of school, my son was graduating from high school the Saturday before the trip, we had a house full of family that whole weekend and a big graduation party on Sunday, he then left and was coming home one day early from his senior trip to make it on time, and we were moving across the country to Las Vegas so our household goods were all moved the day before we left. Then the kids were traveling with their youth group to Scotland 3 days after the cruise ended, so it really didn’t make sense for us to come all the way back home and we needed to stay in Europe for three more days before we dropped them off in London Heathrow. Got all that? Yes. Like I said, a little crazy.

Totally worth it though. :)

Who: Us! Here we are a few days before we left! This picture is a celebration of the whole Whiting family – but mostly Chase. The high school graduate. Also appearing in this photo are myself-Tammy, hubby-Stephen, and daughter – Ally.



My parents! My parents were on our last Med cruise, and have been in several of my trip reports. They had quite the trip in store for them. Here they are in Monaco:



My in-laws! My in-laws were also on my last Med cruise, as well as a few other cruises with us, so they may look familiar if you've ever read one of my reports. Here they are in Palo:



My brother-in-law! Scott has appeared in a few trip cruise trip reports as well. He’s the oldest of three boys with my hubby falling in the middle. Here he is in Mykonos:

 
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Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

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Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

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We found a fish and chips place and decided that would hit the spot!



While we were sitting there, Chase asked if I’d looked at the vacation countdown on my phone lately. I hadn’t, so I opened it up.

Look what he did!

I loved it and almost cried at the same time. :cry:







We walked to the Underground after a yummy lunch. We passed Zara on the way and almost bought something, but passed. Must say I was loving the shopping in London.



We decided to stop at the Tower Bridge before our big destination for the day.





It was great! I wish we had more time to do the museum!





 
Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

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We bought some snacks and got on the Underground. Where were we going you ask? Well we had reservations at the Harry Potter Warner Brother’s Studio Tour!

Woo hoo!! :):):)

According to the website, we should get there 20 minutes early to check in and could not be late for our reservation or we may not get in. It also said it would take about 20 minutes on the Underground plus a short bus ride at the end.

What we did not realize was that was only if we were on an express train.

Oh my word, we were not. :eek:

It took us more like an hour. We thought we had plenty of time and suddenly we didn’t. I was starting to stress a little. Or maybe a lot.

Ally was going to KILL me if we missed this. Seriously. She may never have spoken to me again.

When we finally got to the end of the line, we didn’t want to wait for the bus. We ran right to a taxi driver and asked if he could take 5 of us and could he go as quickly as possible.

He could and did.

When we arrived, Dad paid while I ran to the window to check in.

We made it!

Hallelujah!







Walking inside we found these:




http://tammywhiting.smugmug.com/Tra...15929_69cZtJ#!i=2780861788&k=LbKhw7z&lb=1&s=A


 
Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

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Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

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And more good news from the line – Free Wi-Fi! Woot woot! All the better to Instagram with and make your friends jealous. :D

The first room they take you into is a room full of screens where they showed movie clips.

Then we went into a small theater. Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint appeared on screen as themselves. They told us how much fun it had been to film and how they felt like they grew up there. They also assured us that none of the props we were about to see were replications. They were all the actual props and clothing they had used in the filming of the movies.

After they finished talking, the screen lifted and we were staring at - the doors of the Great Hall.

Oh. My. Word.



Goosebumps. Seriously.



We all got together and when they opened the doors. We were IN the Great Hall!!



In. It.



They had uniforms behind the tables:





They told us a little about the Hall and what we were going to see and of course I took a million pictures.




http://tammywhiting.smugmug.com/Tra...15929_69cZtJ#!i=2783786920&k=KkWdjXF&lb=1&s=A



http://tammywhiting.smugmug.com/Tra...15929_69cZtJ#!i=2783788637&k=RTmq7ZC&lb=1&s=A

http://tammywhiting.smugmug.com/Tra...15929_69cZtJ#!i=2783788637&k=RTmq7ZC&lb=1&s=A
 
Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

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Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

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Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

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Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

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Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

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Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

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At the end we ate at the little cafeteria and then shopped. This was a barbeque sandwich that was quite yummy.



I loved the coke bottles in the UK. They all had a name on them. We looked for friend’s names every time we bought one. I thought this was appropriate for today.



We got some great souvenirs. Apparently I completely failed at taking pictures inside the store. I apologize to all trip report readers.

I bought Chase a baseball hat that says "Seekers" that was super cool. Sadly, he accidentally left it on Space Mountain at Disneyland a few weeks later and it’s now gone forever.

Shame on you, hat stealers. :mad:

Here’s the main area without so many people:



Goodbye, Harry!


It’s the Harry Potter bus!




See how happy a girl with a Harry Potter bag is?




So I can’t tell you enough how much we loved this tour. Dad and Mom like Harry Potter fine but aren’t huge fans like us. Even they agreed it was amazing. If you’re a huge fan it may be worth a trip to London all on its own.

Yep. I said it. It was that good. :)
 
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Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

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We took the Harry Potter bus back to the Underground and this time, with the help of some locals, we caught an Express train! I don’t know if you can see how many people have Harry Potter bags at the Underground stop:



Look! Alight here for the tour! Alight! I love it!



Back on the train and home to the hotel:



Tomorrow I was dropping the kids off at Heathrow to meet up with their youth group from church and go to Scotland for two weeks. So we were up late packing and sorting. Our marvelous adventure was at an end!


Day 19: Travel Home

We were up very early today! We weren’t flying out until 2, but the kids were leaving at 10:30, so we needed to get there.

We made it! Our friends from Virginia had just flown all night to get there and they were exhausted! We said goodbye to Chase and Ally and settled in for a while.

Heathrow has some excellent shopping by the way. Just a helpful side note for you. :D

Our flight home was 8 ½ hours! I had time to take a nap, finish a book and watch 3 movies!! Crazy!

We ended our trip in Dulles where Stephen was waiting for us.

It was such a great trip. Absolutely one of the best of my life.

Thank you for following along with me! Sorry it took so long!
 
disneyfan1995

disneyfan1995

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Your trip report was awesome!! I loved all the pictures of London. I wanna go there so badly! Was the Harry Potter studio tour available to book for the general public?
 
Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

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disneyfan1995 said:
Your trip report was awesome!! I loved all the pictures of London. I wanna go there so badly! Was the Harry Potter studio tour available to book for the general public?
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Thank you, Disneyfan! It sure was! You can't just show up, you have to book it online beforehand. It's worth it! :)
 

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