exbayern

You're right. I'm sick and jetlagged and it didn't make much sense to me the first or the second reading. Thanks for the translation.
True! It's like that in many cities; outside may be somewhat bearable, but enter the station and it is warm, by the time one gets to the platform it can be absolutely steaming down there. And that holds true for London, Paris, Barcelona, and pretty much most major metro systems in western Europe. I can't imagine having do stairs with a stroller or carrying a child in that heat as well as the long walks. (Paris metro stations have fewer escalators in general than London stations, although Paris is generally better for access overall, just not in the centre or on major tourist routes) This past weekend at about 10 o'clock in the morning it wasn't that warm (mid-20's) but by the time I took one train ride I was drenched. I think that the Tube is actually the worst (or at least feels that way to me) in summer for being overheated.

teflon

I wouldn't absolutely warn against small kids going, but do be prepared for what it'll be like inside the grounds.

The Olympic Park is big. Very big. Hopefully that means that it won't feel too crowded once it's open, but it does mean you may have to walk long distances once to get to your venue.

It takes around half an hour to get from the Basketball Arena to the Stratford Gate - and that's without thousands of people getting in the way! There's also not a great deal of shelter (from rain or sun), so bear that in mind when planning what you're bringing for the day.

A local blogger was at the Opening Ceremony rehearsal on Monday, and has some other hints and tips from a spectator's point of view, including food and drink prices:
http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.co.uk/...62522031089518

Ancien Maestro

Surely I will have to post a bit to get most of the details in. Its been an awesome trip so far but with kids, obviously more planning needed.

Per BadgerBoi I will comment on negatives.. We ended up doing 6 days at Disneyland Paris, including mid afternoon arrival prior to the first night. So with 7 nights at Disneyland Paris we decided to on the 7th day prior to the 7th night to hit up Paris. We did a tour in Paris at Versailles and went up the Eiffel Tower.

I waited an 45 in line at Versailles before the manager of the ticket office worked with my wife on a last minute tour opening. Phew, otherwise it would have been a 2 hour wait. We got to see the king's secret rooms, and the wonderful opera house that's not available with the regular admission. The tour is only 7 euros more and to avoid the line ups with general admission I highly recommend it. You get to wait in air conditioned waiting rooms prior to your guide arriving and avoid the long line ups.

And Eiffel tower was a surprise to me, as it was a 3 hour wait. I guess to go up the elevator lifts, its that long of a wait. I recommend if visitors go to the Eiffel tower, to just walk up halfway and buy tickets to the top. You avoid a 3 hour wait.. by that time you'll have climbed the first level probably 6 to 8 times. We barely got up before having to get down and catch our last metro train back towards Marne la Valley. But, my family can officially claim that we've up to the very top of the Eiffel tower, and the washrooms are nice in clean.

Received the rental car and currently in Venice. We received an E Class Benz upgrade, and currently put about 3,000 kms so far on it.

After picking up our vehicle, we drove about 6 hours to Montreux Switzerland. We spent 5 nights between July 25th and July 30th, 2012. We visited Bern, Zurich and Lucerne during our stint.

July 30th to July 31st was spent in Salzburg Austria. We took the Sounds of Music Tour, and we highly recommend it.. it was a great experience for us. The hotel Itzlinger Hof.. we received a two bedroom family suite with terrace. A bit of a cutesy hotel.. no air conditioning, but not needed as we arrived late and checked out early for our tour. Great in house restaurant.. one of the best dinners we've had all trip. Austrian food is delicious.

July 31st to August 1st.. we are currently in Venice. We did a tour today bought through Viator.. a Venice walking tour and Gondola ride. We scrambled today as we found out that the Basilica was not included in the tour (as it stated in terms and conditions that we were required to have knees and shoulders covered.) So we worked out a slight postponement of the gondola boat ride to accomodate the Basilica visit prior to closing. We go it in.

A negative today was we ate prior to our tour near the Basilica, and were charged 66 euros for a few sandwiches, 2 brownies and 3 pops. I wanted to check in to ensure that we had the right location where the tour was meeting, and only had half an hour prior to the check in time, and the kids were hungry and needing nourishment. So having a cranky family, or a happy family during the tour, I bit the bullet and paid the price for a snack. $8.50 euro for a small bottle of coke.. ouch.

We actually drove to Piazza Roma and paid 26 euros to park.. last second decision to drive as my hotel would not take my credit card to pay for transit ticket.. even though I offered to pay a premium to transact it.. Elite Hotel Residence.. we received a one bedroom apartment and it smelled weird when we entered the room. The air conditioning did not work all too well. The washer was completely soiled.. so the hotel let us use another apartment washer. Good hotel, great breakfast, free parking and free wifi. What bugged me a bit was this hotel did not have a universal adapter for north american electricity (same with Itzlinger Hof in Switzerland). Had to buy an adapter.. so finally located one at a lamp store today at the Basillica. Thank goodness it works as I depend on using Skype on my laptop to take the expensive long distance calls out of the equation. The nice thing from these hotels were that let me use their onsite computers as I'm constantly booking and changing reservations.. reserving tours as well.

Back to Disneyland Paris.. I recommend character dining at Inventions in the Disneyland Paris Hotel.. the best buffet (plus its not advertised on the brochures at DLP. We saved alot of money by buying the Fantasy Passport (worked for our dates).. so received 10% off dining.. plus we scored 50% off of Buffalo Bills Dinner Show with the Passport. A wonderful show, but were hassled by the staff, even though there were extra seats available, they would not give a seat to our 2 year old.. so were forced to sit on our lap or pay the extra seat price.. Good thing my 6 year old and 2 year old could fit on one seat!

A highlight of DLP is we actually got a professional photo of Mickey, Minnie and Family at Cafe Mickey. So I purchased 3 frames and 8 x 10s, carefully having to pack it. Although I was willing to pay Disney to package it carefully and send it back to Canada, they did not have the wherewithall to help me.. so I was creative to bubble wrap the framed photos and bought an extra DLP bag to carry around with.

A curveball thrown at me with my Olympic Tickets. We are not supposed to pick up our will call tickets until August 7th, and I received an email while in Switzerland that 1 of my 4 orders were picked up by someone with authorization. What? For 2 days I called the Cosport reservation line without success.. no one would pick up the phone. Then reading online, there was some controversy regarding Olympic tickets.. where orders received had mixed, missing, and completely mismatched seats. Finally got through to Cosport on the third day, and inquired.. found out it was a system error and my tickets were still there to be picked up.. I'm a bit worried that the Olympic ticket orders will be a major upsetting experience when we pick the order up on August 7th. Hopefully it all works out, and at least our kids are taken care of with seats enough beside them. I asked for cosport to check on the seating arrangements and they said they can't because the envelopes are sealed.. and if there was a problem, they couldn't do anything anyways.. I would have to visit Guest services at each venue to get it sorted out. I guess Cosport receives allocations of seats and can't control who gets what.. I don't know if this is true or just an excuse. Cosport mentions that the Olympic tickets in T&C are not guaranteed to be together. They mentioned that they make every effort with family with small kids to be sat together. Not sure how they would know the ages of my kids to do that, although I have sent several emails and inquiries mentioning that we have 2 small children accompanying us to the Olympics.

Another last minute curveball was our booking with Dea Suite Roma Hotel near Rome.. saying that under Italian law we can't have our kids stay with us, only one child allowed in the suite. Thanks for telling me last second, as I scrambled to get another hotel. We had several correspondences during our booking, and the general manager had plenty of opportunity to inform that there is Italian law affecting my booking. After, its a non-cancellable reservation on my end.

Will be heading to Rome tomorrow, we're planning Florence, Milan.. then Paris-London for the Olympics. We've got a tour lined up in Rome and Milan. I'm hoping to fit in the 8 and half hour Naples tour in Florence.. hope to do that the day after tomorrow.

btw.. no brainer to drive with our Tom Tom GPS.. would be completely lost without it. I highly recommend this GPS when driving around Europe.

I shall get into more detail about my experiences further at the end of the trip.

fredandgingermad

Glad to hear you're having a good time, even despite the high cost for a 'snack' i recommend finding a supermarket or something and stock up on those type of items even carrying them around would be better than being stung like that again!

The adaptor thing i would always take my own, so many people stay in hotels why would they have one for my convenience everytime i need one, i have one that can be used anywhere in the world plus half a dozen for N.America and for Europe

Odd about Disneyland Paris not being able to wrap that sort of thing, i did the same kinda deal in Hong Kong and when i explained i needed it wrapped for travel home they did it for me with no extra charge (solid wood frame so all bubblewrapped still in one piece!)

Hope the Olympic experience works out ok, i have no experience with seats for events but all sounds a bit odd, if they know you're with two small children (and it sounds like they should!) then hopefully it'll all work out ok

teflon

Disappointing, but not surprising, to hear that CoSport's ticketing operation seems about as disorganised as the Ticketmaster-administered one for UK residents.

As reported in another thread, CoSport are occasionally releasing more tickets for some events - it might be worth checking with them from time to time to see if anything else you're interested in becomes available.

Also, if you haven't already, make sure to read the tips on what you can and can't bring to the venues. In particular, there are airport-style security checks, with similar limitations on liquids. You can bring 'reasonable amounts' of food, though, which you might want to consider doing: the catering outlets aren't ridiculously expensive, but they're not particularly cheap either.

BadgerBoi

AM thanks for the update, it sounds as though things are going pretty well in general. A lot of the stuff that is going wrong sounds to be unavoidable. Fredangingermad's suggestion about going to the supermarket for snacks is excellent, you'll find all sorts of goodies for the kids that you just won't get at home and of course you'll save a fortune.

I'll refrain from offering any criticisms while you're still on the trip and having a great time, but I'm looking forward to seeing what comments might come from others who have contributed to this thread over the months.

Fornebufox

Apparently London isn't quite the nightmare mob scene previously anticipated:

After Warnings of an Olympic Crush, Businesses Suffer in a Deserted London
(registration/subscription required)

"Trains and subway lines have run smoothly....Normally crowded sidewalks in areas like Knightsbridge, Oxford Street, Bond Street, Piccadilly and Soho have looked much as they do when the city empties for summer weekends....Cabdrivers complain that business is down 30 percent from normal at this time of year....[yet] Transport for London... warned on Thursday that 200,000 people were expected to head to Olympic Park on Friday for the start of the track and field competition, double the number who showed up on any previous day of the Games so far."

Here's hoping the eerie calm continues for Maestro's Olympic leg.

teflon

Olympic Park was noticeably busier this lunchtime- lots more people wandering around, as well as the stadium being open (and pretty much full!)

fredandgingermad

From what i can work out having been in London recently, everyones been taking heed about how busy London was going to be that they've stayed away if they can help it!! We went down for the cycling last Sunday and have never seen the District Line (towards Wimbledon) so packed on a Sunday afternoon!

lewisc

It never would have occurred to me to order a brownie in Venice. How was it?

exbayern

I'm sorry that you are having a lot of disappointments, but I will have to respectfully disagree with one of my buddies on this thread and say that a lot of what you list as 'negatives' could indeed have been avoided with some advance planning or reading. If you are still reading, here are some recaps of tips you were already given to hopefully improve the remainder of your trip and reduce the amount of what you say are 'negatives'.

Extra room: as stated on your other thread by many of us, the maximum occupancy in many, many (most) hotels around Europe is either 2 or 3 and that includes an infant. Booking a room for 3 and expecting to have a toddler as an 'extra person' won't work, and you will most likely have to pay for an extra room. Hopefully you did book that correctly for your other stays

Credit cards: again, earlier I noted that a North American credit card often does not work, especially in machines in France and in Italy. Hence I advised one to carry cash, and to carry more than one may in North America. I'm not certain if I translate your attempt to 'pay a premium to transact it' but if the machine or vendor won't take your North American card, it won't take the card. Offering the operator extra money won't work. Carry cash for these circumstances.

Shorts: shorts are not permitted in many churches around western Europe, but especially in parts of Italy, France, Austria, and Germany. Hence the recommendation to pack long pants

Cost of food: if you had brownies in Venice, it sounds as if you may have eaten at a place targeting tourists. (I see that OP is still writing EuroDollars, so I assume that he means that he spent around €5 for a small bottle of pop?) When I worked in Venice for extended periods I would often have a quick cheap lunch or dinner for under €7 consisting of a large slice of brick oven pizza and a crępe or gelato for dessert. Eating local is alway cheaper than eating at tourist places. Hopefully you found a DeSpar in Rome to purchase 'pop'. Soft drinks are not as common in much of Europe as in North America, and water or wine is generally cheaper in restaurants. For anyone reading for future reference, the hint to find a supermarket in Venice doesn't work as well as they are few and far between. There are more smaller local speciality grocery stores, and a larger Austrian Billa a little further away from the main tourist areas.

Adaptor: you really cannot expect a hotel to provide one, and to be frustrated because one didn't have one when you didn't plan ahead really isn't fair. You could have purchased several at the Dollar store at home. If you didn't purchase a UK one, go to Boots as they sell them for North Americans who need a UK adaptor.

Extra seat: I'm not sure why you feel 'hassled' when the DLP site clearly states that if one doesn't purchase a ticket for a child under 3, a seat is not guaranteed. One really cannot expect to take a revenue seat for free during peak season, and that holds true for many venues, trains, etc. If you want the seat, you have to pay for it, or hope that it will stay empty.

Your time in Paris and Salzburg is something I will not comment on at the moment (as they were both my 'homes' during my life) other than to say that it sounds like you didn't plan for what you did end up seeing. Even on a Tuesday morning in November Versailles has queues, as does the Eiffel Tower. If you plan in advance, you will see more and find the best times for things. If you are doing any of the major tourist sights in London, do plan ahead for a better experience.

For anyone else reading, I strongly suggest avoiding the Sound of Music tour. At about €37 per person these days, it is a significant amount to pay for not much value, and the locals remains stymied and slightly amused why so many North Americans do this tour. Nor does one really see Salzburg; most of the movie sights and most of the must-see sights in Salzburg cannot be seen by bus, but rather on foot. It would have been especially charming in Salzburg as OP was there during festival season (I know that OP has no interest in that, but there is even more street performances, etc going on during festival)

I'm glad that you took my advice and listened about the dining discounts with the DLP AP. That advice I gave certainly saved you quite a bit of money on those events you list.

It sounds like you are doing a LOT of driving. Hopefully you are actually getting out to see the local sights and athmosphere.

London is quite empty in areas such as Oxford Street, etc although the TfL daily emails are still very detailed with changes to regular patterns. (Hopefully you signed up for those) The art galleries and museums are quite easy to get around now with low tourist figures, so I strongly suggest those. This week the main event location at Stratford may be busier than it was so far. And my two LHR experiences this past week were not good; far worse than the usual summer mess thanks to crowds, delays, inexperienced travellers, and large groups.

Enjoy the rest of the trip; hopefully you did have time to come back and read some of the advice to try and salvage the remainder of the trip and avoid some of the pitfalls you found to date. And hopefully you won't hold that against us here, as we did advise that one has to understand the differences between travel here and in North America. If one plans and understands and embraces those differences, it can be a wonderful holiday!

BadgerBoi

I graciously accept your disagreement with my comments and concede that many mistakes could have been avoided. I guess that I was concentrating on a small number of aspects, for example the snafu with the Olympics tickets. I was also overwhelmed by the length of his post (and the fact that, so far, Mrs AM appears not to have murdered him. She must be a wonderful woman - please, OP accept this comment as a joke!)

Thinking more about AM's long post, a couple of things did puzzle me. The adaptor, for example. I never travel outside my own country without at least two of these suitable for the country/countries that I'll be visiting. Maybe the OP didn't realise that Canadian plugs aren't universal? It's common for North Americans not to realise that a lot of things are not the same away from their continent (Canadians usually, but not always, somewhat more aware than their neighbours from the south).

I'm staggered by the amount of money that AM paid for the snacks in Venice. Whether he means euros, Canadian dollars, US dollars, or these newfangled "eurodollars" that I'm hearing about on this thread, that is an astonishing amount to pay.

A lot of the OP's trip is outside of my experience. Never traveled with kids so before this thread I wouldn't have known about limits on rooms (I would have made it clear when i booked how many people we were exactly, kids and adults). I've (almost) never had credit card problems as my cards are all PIN/chip, and I don't drive.

OP is doing a few things that I wouldn't do, such as the Sound of Music tour, and things that I've done once but would never do again (Tour Eiffel, Versailles). I do enjoy DLP and have been a couple of times, and would happily go again if I could convince someone to come with me. I wouldn't stay at the Park, one day would be enough for me and I wouldn't have kids so the character stuff isn't of interest.

As for lines to attractions, I try to look online to see what I can book and pay for before I leave home. If your hotels will let you have access to a printer you might save a few euros/pounds and save time in lines. Long lines are awful for kids.

OP has been given a lot of good advice in this thread, and Exbayern has provided a really good summary of some important points in her latest post. I hope the OP, now that he is there and knows what it's like, will revisit the advice and follow some more of it.

I'm looking forward to hearing more about the trip, negatives and positives, and of course more opinions from members of the little family who have added to this thread over the many months it's been on FT. I'm sure everybody here wants your trip to be successful and happy, and something to look back on with enjoyment in the years to come.

exbayern

I read/post over on TravelDining, and I believe that may be similar to the budget that OP spends in Canada. He's posted his monthly food budget for us before and it certainly 'staggered' a few people. I suppose that we all choose how to spend our money and others may not always agree with our choices.

But since OP listed that as a 'negative', I just wanted to ensure that he realises that we too would find that cost out of line. I just purchased a six pack of San Pellegrino grapefruit yesterday for less than 1/2 the price of his one drink. (I don't drink 'pop' and very rarely purchase the flavoured San Pellegrino, but just wanted to post that as an example)

I also noticed yesterday in a coffee bar that the brownie was the most expensive item in the case, costing more than even a sandwich. (I didn't buy one of those either)

Hopefully our tips will help a little, and of course in the UK there are always cheap meal specials at Boots, or Sainsburys, etc. Much as I like EAT and Apostrophe, they aren't the cheapest lunches available.

stifle

That is only slightly above average for Venice or other major Italian cities in tourist-trap areas. Not to say it isn't absurd in the grand scheme of things, but they price at what they think they can get away with.

BadgerBoi

I'm not staggered that they charge that amount, I'm staggered that he actually paid it. Venice is the only city in Italy where I was exposed to flagrant bill-padding. A cover, then a tax, then another cover (different charge to the first one) - when I queried the bill a new and correct one immediately appeared. No apology, no shame, and it was clearly no error.