Barbara Ryan - Travel Agent - A Time to Treasure Travel

25/04/2024

24/04/2024

The Skyliner is my favorite mode of transportation at Disney World!

☀️THE COUNTDOWN TO SUMMER IS ON!!☀️

Teachers, students & parents alike are looking forward to a break from the daily grind. 🥳 And our agents at A Time to Treasure Travel are here to tell you that it’s not. too. late. to take advantage of some AMAZING summer discounts at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida!!

Check out this CRAZY GOOD deal that one of our precious teacher clients just booked for her family of 4 for a super fun summer getaway:
▪️ 5 nights at the Pop Century Resort
▪️ Skyliner Access
▪️ 4 days in the Disney theme parks for 2 adults & 2 children
▪️ Early Park Entry
▪️ Free Parking
▪️ Early Access to the Lightning Lane System
▪️ Quick Service Dining Plan

All of this ⬆️⬆️ was under $3,350! 😲 Our agents specialize in making MAGIC happen – let us handle the messy details so you can relax and enjoy the moment!!!

10/04/2024

It’s a little early to start planning just yet, but keep this in mind! Imagine watching the eclipse in front of Cinderella Castle 🏰 !!

10/04/2024

✨ Re-OPENING ✨

1900 Park Fare will reopen at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa today 😍 It will feature returning guest favorites along with new character greetings, a refreshed dining room and other special touches.

25/03/2024

All aboard! 🛳️ ✨ Soak up the sun on a Mediterranean with Greek Isles Cruise this summer with Disney Cruise Line! From the beaches of Mykonos to the ancient Roman ruins of Pompeii, there is so much to explore on a seven to 11-night sailing aboard the Disney Dream!

There is so much to see!!

24/03/2024

ICYMI: new Disney dining reservation features are coming. 😋 Soon you'll be able to see Disneyland and Walt Disney World dining availability for up to 10 days at a time!

23/03/2024

Get ready to roar! With the film turning 30, Walt Disney World will be celebrating The Lion King all summer long at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

June 10 – Sept. 6! 🦁 👑 Learn more: http://spr.ly/6186k2hPw

23/03/2024

Disney Cruise Line has announced Summer 2025 itineraries, with sailings to tropical destinations in The Bahamas and Caribbean and unforgettable adventures to Alaska and Europe! 🧳 Bookings open today!!

22/03/2024

🛶 The wilderness is calling! 🌲

Guests can now book a stay at the all-new Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness. Reservations are available starting Sept. 27! ✨

21/02/2024

19/01/2024

Missing

27/12/2023

2024 is days away, have you contacted your A Time To Treasure Travel, LLC agent to discuss your travel plans for next year?
We have a diverse team of travel professionals that are honored to help you plan your dream vacation around the WORLD! 🌎🌍🌏

🌟Let's ADVENTURE in 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣4️⃣!!
🏰Theme Parks
🚢Cruises
🏝Tropical All-Inclusive
⛩Asia & Europe Luxury River Cruises
🦏African Safaris
🍎NYC - The Big Apple
🎰Vegas, Baby!
💍Honeymoons
🧑‍🎓Graduation Celebrations
👩‍💻Retirement Celebrations
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦Multi-Generational Families..and SO. MUCH. MORE.

02/09/2023

Let’s get to the beach!!

24/08/2023

Travel, explore, while you can. It probably wasn’t the ideal time for us to take 2 weeks out of life to take that cruise we just took, but if not now, when? ✈️🧳🌋🚢🏝️⛵️🚡🚆🗺️

24/08/2023

Mirror Lake in Lake Placid NY from the Golden Arrow Resort

20/08/2023

Imagine lounging on this couch!

31/07/2023

Last day of our cruise was Friday, July 14.
Today’s port was Livorno. This is a very industrial port and big. You cannot walk into town, you must take a shuttle bus.
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We didn’t book a tour for this day. I would have liked to see Lucca, but couldn’t find anything by the time I looked that wasn’t private so very expensive. All the tours offered were full day tours to Florence or Cinque Terre which are 2 hours away so 4 hours of travel really makes for a long day. Since we’ve been multiple times to Florence and we did spent a few days in Cinque Terrre years ago, we decided to just hang in Livorno.
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So we took the shuttle bus which was a frustrating experience. Long wait with no other option. It dropped us in a central location in town and we walked around. They have their own little Venice with canals so we hopped on a boat tour through the canals of Livorno. Then we wandered through the market and found a local non touristy restaurant that was very good. Our last good meal on Italian soil. Considering the chaos of the bus situation we decided to just head back to the ship after eating, it was crazy hot again anyways. The bus back was much easier, it came in a few minutes and took us right back to the ship.
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We enjoyed SpiceH20 and the Martini 🍸 Bar to say goodbye to our favorite bar staff and finally got into Shanghai Noodle Bar for dinner!
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Tomorrow will be interesting, there is a planned airport worker strike in all of Italy. So far our flight has not been canceled like 90% of all flights. It’s also not on the safe list. We are going to head to the airport as planned and see what happens.

25/07/2023

July 13, 2023
Naples
One of my main “must do’s” for the cruise was Pompeii. I’ve wanted to visit Pompeii forever and been close, but it never worked out. We went early down to the theater where excursions meet, they handed me my bus number stickers and before I even got to my seat, they called our bus. Wow, this was great! Got on the bus and within a few minutes we were leaving. The guide starts talking as the bus is departing. She immediately goes into talking about Sorrento. I started freaking out. The bus was at the gate to leave the secure area inside the port. I jumped up and went up to the front and asked if this bus was going to Pompeii. Nope, it’s Sorrento. I showed her my tickets and the driver stopped. They told you the wrong bus. Okay, it’s fine, get off and walk back. Mind you it’s 2 mega ship lengths back to where we started. We were walking as fast as we could, but she had called them and when we got there someone with a clipboard was waiting and got us on the right bus. Phew!
🌋
On the way to Pompeii we stopped at a cameo manufacturer. It’s interesting, but also a money grab waste of precious Pompeii time. I was still wondering what was going to prevent me from seeing Pompeii this time. FINALLY we arrive and Roberto our guide splits us up into 2 group and we went with the other Roberto, who went by Robby.
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It was brutally hot 🥵 but WOW! They were quite advanced with street crossings and fast food. And of course there was a lot of the seedier side of life. Brothels everywhere and they weren’t shy about it. Clear symbols marked their locations and pointed the way on roads and sides of buildings. It was pretty amazing, especially the plaster casts of the bodies and Vesuvius looming overhead.
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Back in Naples we ventured into the city via the new tunnel built from the port through the metro station. It’s avoids crossing several busy streets. San Carlo was recommended by Roberto and closer than Sorbilo which my parents told me to go to. We walked over and enjoyed a real Neapolitan pizza, yummy yummy. Then it was back to the ship.

24/07/2023

July 12, 2023

Sicily
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Today we arrived in Messina, Sicily early. We woke up to the view from our balcony of the city in front of us. We had an excursion to Taormina planned. If you have seen The White Lotus, season 2 was filmed in Taormina. This ancient town sits below Mount Etna.
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It was less than an hour’s drive to Taormina from Messina. There is a large parking garage where the buses park and then you can walk right into town from the top floor of the garage which is a piazza overlooking Mount Etna🌋 in the distance. Smoke was rising from Etna and by afternoon there were 2 spouts of smoke 💨 rising. Etna is active and is almost constantly spewing smoke and erupts every few months.
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We followed our guide down the Main Street through Porta Catania, a middle porta (open archway “door” in the city wall) to the last one Porta Messina. Before Porta Messina and leaving the city however we turned right and walked down to the Greek Theatre. An ancient ruin of a Greek amphitheater, one of a very preserved relic from when the Greeks ruled Sicily. The theatre is spectacular and it is still used today for concerts. They were setting up for a concert 🎶 actually.
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After this our guide left us to wander the town on our own with instructions to be back at the bus at a certain time. Taormina is just beautiful. Residents take care in decorating their balconies, doorways, the street outside their houses. We wandered and stopped for a granita in a cafe before heading back to the garage. I could spend a week here. ❤️ Taormina!

Back in Messina, we found a lovely shady spot for a late lunch next to a cathedral and picked up real Sicilian cannoli which are a must in Sicily, birthplace of the Cannoli! I decided to grab them and take them back to the ship because I was stuffed. Forgetting of course we are not allowed to bring food on. They were all wrapped up like a present. The guy scanning my bag asked what that was and I said cannoli and he made a face and shook his head and the other guy said, take it go. So I got to eat my cannoli on my balcony, they were so good.

23/07/2023

July 11,2023

Malta 🇲🇹

This was never on my bucket list, it just so happened it was on the itinerary of the cruise I picked. There were options for excursions, mostly boat trips to beaches or grottoes. We decided to see the city first and if we ever come back we’ll venture out.
🇲🇹
Malta is one giant Word Heritage site. A massive walled city/fortress. It’s not a very big island, but the capital city of Valletta looked quite large. We stayed in the historical city center which wasn’t very big, but reminiscent of San Francisco with the hills and stairs built into sidewalks. Most people were speaking Italian (or Maltese which was close enough to not feeil so foreign to me) so I felt more comfortable here than in Greece where I understood nothing!
The ship 🚢 docks right by the Barraca which is the old fort. We walked the gauntlet of taxis which would have taken us on a tour or anywhere we wanted to go. If I go back I might do that instead of a ship excursion. They had a placemat with different tour options they could do. We walked to the elevator that takes you up to the old town from the port. It’s part of the Barraca. At the top you are in the Upper Barraca Garden. The Lower Barraca is further down the street and then you would walk uphill into the town. Elevator was €1 for a return trip. There was a bit of a line, but it only took about 10 minutes. At the top you can visit the Barraca with its canons if you choose, but it’s also just a beautiful terrace overlooking the harbor and city. We just wandered into town across the street from there, saw walls, gardens, churches, monuments etc…We made a brief stop to rest and cool down, it was 110 degrees again today I swear, at the Queen Victoria Pub.
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One of the best meals we had the entire trip was here at a little sidewalk restaurant. I did love my gyros, tzatziki and pasticio in Greece, but this was incredible!
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A little shopping and we returned to the ship while it was still quiet to enjoy the Spice H2O pool with the incredible view of Valletta.

21/07/2023

Katakolon ~ Olympia
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This port was changed from Corfu months ago, but seeing the site of the ancient Olympics was of interest so we didn’t mind. Of course I have no idea what we missed in Corfu, I didn’t look.
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Another smooth process for a tour today. We wanted a guide because it’s very hard to know what you are seeing looking at ruins without someone to explain. We drove the 30 minutes to Olympia from the port and it was hot 🥵 again. We spend probably 2 hours wandering around with our guide and I wasn’t sure what to expect and wasn’t really excited about this day, but it turned out to be really interesting. Afterwards we had a little time to wander into the town, but we chose to just stay there and look around some more. It was so hot and walking to the town and back to the bus did not sound appealing.
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When we arrived back at the port we found a restaurant for lunch overlooking the harbor. It was very good although trying to pay was an experience. They didn’t make it easy and there is no sense of urgency or time at this place. Pretty common in Europe, but this was the worst one we encountered. We eventually paid and browsed the shops before walking back across the street to the ship. Love those ports where you can just walk on and off.

20/07/2023

Today was a relaxing day after the crazy of the Acropolis yesterday. 𝕄𝕪𝕜𝕠𝕟𝕠𝕤 𝕚𝕤 𝕤𝕚𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕪 𝕤𝕥𝕦𝕟𝕟𝕚𝕟𝕘!
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We wandered off the ship into the new port equipped to handle mega ships. They had shuttles to the town, it is walkable in distance, but no sidewalks. Although it was early AM on a Sunday so not much traffic. But we opted for the Sea Bus. ⛴️ Right by the ship was a little booth and you buy a roundtrip ticket for €4 I think. In 5 minutes it takes you over to the Old Port right in the heart of the town.
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We wandered the little streets (alleyways) trying to get lost as the town was designed to do. It was purposely designed to confuse drunk pirates and disorient them. 😂 It didn’t work on me, I had google maps and found the windmills no problem. It was early and we were some of the first group off the ship so it was very quiet. Today was just wandering around, seeing tiny little churches, shopping and of course a lovely lunch overlooking the waterfront of their Little Venice. And cats 🐈‍⬛…lots of cats 🐈
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19/07/2023

Saturday was Athens and we had a shore excursion booked to see the Acropolis. It was a smooth process to meet in the theatre and board our bus right outside the ship.
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We drove through the port city which is Piraeus and just outside of Athens and made our way into Athens. It took less than 20 minutes and we arrived at the Olympic stadium site, site of the modern Olympics. We got off the bus for a quick picture stop and then continued to our drop off at the base of the Acropolis.
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Our guide Helen led us to the ticket booth skipping the already long line. We were able to get right in, but then inside it was a mass of people barely moving. We stuck with Helen who talked about what we were seeing the entire time as we made our way very slowly up. The good thing was it was so slow that it wasn’t tiring at all. Just hot. Things opened up considerably when we reached the top as there is so much more space up there.
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It was spectacular of course. There is virtually no shade and it was scorching 🥵 but worth it to see it in person and stand right there. After this visit we were free to stay there as long as we liked and then make our way down to the Plaka district, the historic center right at the base of the acropolis. We had a meeting point for the bus there in about 2 hours. We wandered down and found a lovely spot for lunch then just walked around the area before meeting our group by the Melina Mercouri statue.
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It’s exhausting sightseeing because of the heat and amount of walking so I deliberately planned half day excursions so we could be done early and back on the ship to recover. With 8 stops in 9 days I didn’t want to over commit. Back on the ship we hit Spice H2O, the adult area and our favorite martini 🍸 bar for pre dinner drinks and post dinner dessert. I think this was the Howl at the Moon dueling pianos🎹 night which was a great show.

18/07/2023

The first stop on our Mediterranean cruise was the spectacular island of Santorini in 🇬🇷 Greece.

The Old Port is where the tender boats drop you off. If you are doing an excursion they take you to the new port which has road access. The old port only has a few options to get up to the town way up on the mountain top.
1. The Cable car 🚠
For €6 each way the cable car whisks you up to the town in just a few minutes. Of course, the line you will wait in depends on how early you got off the ship. We waited 45 minutes in a mainly constantly moving line and were off fairly early.
2. Walk up 588 steps 🚶‍♀️
It’s a steep climb and you’ll be fending off donkeys 🫏 and their 💩 the entire way.
3. Donkey 🫏 (not recommended)
They have donkeys that will take you up. It’s hot and cruel, but plenty of people chose that route.
4. Skip all that and take a speed boat to Oia. They sell the transfer right in the port and will leave as soon as the boat is full. 30 minute ride to Oia and then there is a little climb to where shuttle buses take you up the town. You then ride a scheduled bus back to Fira, there is no return by boat.

Getting back down has only 2 options:
1. Cable Car 🚠
Lines can extend through the streets and take hours so plan accordingly. We headed back to the ship early, about 6:30pm when our all aboard time was 9pm and there was no line, but we heard by 7:15 the line was forming and people barely made the last tenders.
2. Walk down 588 steps
Down is easier than up and maybe by evening the sun is not quite as hot. Still have 🫏 💩 to contend with, but 30 minutes will do it and may be the better option to a 2 hour line.

𝓢𝓪𝓷𝓽𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓲 𝔀𝓪𝓼 𝓪 𝓭𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓶! We took the cable car up and walked towards the next 2 towns over, Firastefani and Imerovigli with beautiful views long the cliff edge. Back in Fira we shopped a little and had a nice meal at Zafora overlooking the caldera and our ship. Wandered a little more and headed back down before the line for the cable car 🚠 got crazy. There were only 2 ships in port, but ours had 4000 + people on it. The cable car can only handle 1000 people per hour.

17/07/2023

16/07/2023

Pompeii has been on my for over 20 years. It never worked out on previous trips, but I finally made it there last week. Not without a hiccup, NCL put us on the wrong bus and as the guide started talking about Sorrento I stopped the bus to get off because I wasn’t missing Pompeii again.
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Seeing this very well preserved town in person is just incredible. You walk the very cobblestone streets that the people of Pompeii walked. They were so advanced, has a drainage system, stone signs to point people in the right direction, the very first street food counters and of course…brothels. Those male organs were pointing the way to the brothels.
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09/07/2023

02/07/2023

19/06/2023

When you can’t be at your Happy Place…bring a little of the magic 🪄 home!
🧚

10/06/2023

My office this morning. Sending 2 happy families to Disney World 🏰