First Med Cruise - Our excellent adventure!

[Adsmama]

I love your pics!!! Was it easy to know where to find the train? We were thining of finding the bus to monte carlo/monaco. Is it pretty obvious where all the public transport is when you get off the ship?

 

[Tigger-tastic]

Great review! I love your pics. Now can't wait for our Med cruise in Sept!!

 

[lovesDCL]

Great Pictures!

I love Palo too! On our honeymoon cruise we went 3 times! Twice for dinner and once for brunch...

 

[Disneyfalcon]

I love your pics!!! Was it easy to know where to find the train? We were thining of finding the bus to monte carlo/monaco. Is it pretty obvious where all the public transport is when you get off the ship?

It was very easy to find the train station. After you get off the tender you walk into a building with maps and lots of information. We went out and took a right. Just follow the water and you'll see signs for the train. There will also probably be a crowd of fellow cruisers walking with you.

Great review! I love your pics. Now can't wait for our Med cruise in Sept!!

Thanks Tigger!

Great Pictures!

I love Palo too! On our honeymoon cruise we went 3 times! Twice for dinner and once for brunch...

Ooh! Jealous!!

 

[lovesDCL]

Ooh! Jealous!!

Don't be! I gained 7lbs on that cruise! I blame it mostly on Palo

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Don't be! I gained 7lbs on that cruise! I blame it mostly on Palo

I will say, I didn't gain a pound on this cruise even with all my hobbit eating! We took the stairs everytime. I was literally on the elevator maybe 3 times in 12 days.

My problem was when I got home and kept eating like I was on a cruise and walking all over Rome and up stairs!!

 

[Señor DonDuck]

So many wonderful pictures! Everything looks so nice.

That last towel critter... loch ness monster?

 

[Disneyfalcon]

So many wonderful pictures! Everything looks so nice.

That last towel critter... loch ness monster?

That was one guess!

 

[melir]

Great trip report! Your pics are amazing!
I can't wait for our Med cruise !!!

Thanks a lot for sharing!

 

[ScottyBoomBotty]

I've just joined disboards in preparation for my DCL Med Cruise in September. You're photos and commentary have gotten me super excited!!

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Great trip report! Your pics are amazing!
I can't wait for our Med cruise !!!

Thanks a lot for sharing!

Thank you, melir!

I've just joined disboards in preparation for my DCL Med Cruise in September. You're photos and commentary have gotten me super excited!!

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

Welcome to the boards! You'll find lots of great cruising information. Glad I could help!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Tuesday, May 4th, Day 13 – Last day And what a day it was!

Today we woke up to a bit of rocking. The TV said the waves were 4-8 feet. I showered and got dressed while everyone else in the room slept. I took some pictures on our verandah. This is only 4-8 feet:

After I got ready, I answered some emails and realized I wasn’t feeling great. I checked the TV again and the waves were up to 15-20 feet! We were moving!

I knew I needed to try to get some air, so I went up on deck and got a croissant and coke. I couldn’t eat the croissant, but the coke helped. The kid pools were closed, but there were some men in the adult pool that had become an incredible wave pool. I was really wishing for my camera, but I didn’t think I could make it to the room and back.

I met Debbie for the last cooking class, but after about 10 minutes I knew I wasn’t going to make it. I tried to go out on deck 4 for more air, but it was too windy to even open the doors. We went up to deck 9. The pools were almost empty and the water was all over the deck. We sat for about 5 minutes before they told everyone they had to go inside.

I gave up and went back to the room to go to bed. The captain came on at noon and apologized for the waves. He said it wasn’t forecasted at all. We were going to start towards the shelter of the coast but it would take another 2-3 hours.

The captain said the winds were 65+ knots and it felt like it on deck.

I stayed in bed for 4 hours. I slept and watched parts of several movies. Parent Trap, Swiss Family Robinson, Ratatouille, Tinkerbell, and who knows what else. I slept a lot and didn’t move the rest of the time.

Debbie felt fine and went to get me a coke at some point. I wanted to get up and take pictures of the waves so badly, but I didn’t dare.

The Captain was right, at 3:00 we reached the coast and all was well. We went to the top deck to get some food since I hadn’t eaten all day. They opened Topsiders so people could bring their food inside.

After we ate, we had to begin the sad task of packing.

Our last dinner was at Animators. Our head servers told us the waves were the worst he’d been through. He said he was in charge of Topsiders. They opened at 11 with 36 servers, and by the time they closed at 1:00, they were down to 8. I didn’t feel quite so wimpy after that!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

The last show was the always excellent, Disney Dreams. After that, we went back to our room and put on some pjs so we could put our clothes in our luggage that was about to be taken. After our luggage was gone, we remembered the Till We Meet Again party. Oops!

I confess, we went in our pj’s.

For those of you who are character stalkers, this is a character palooza! They spread out all over the lobby and you run around and take as many pictures as you can.

We were going from one to the next so quickly that I didn’t pay attention to my settings, or the fact that my lens hood was casting a shadow on my flash. So just get the feel for characters everywhere, and don’t look at picture quality!

After we said goodbye to Mickey and Minnie, I went up on deck to get some night shots. It was raining! Serves me right for waiting until the last night. I had to settle for pizza and ice cream.

One more day to post! Thanks for sticking with this!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Wednesday, May 5th, Day 14 – Disembark

I hate, hate, hate disembarking day. It is so sad. The good thing was, we had one more day in Spain. We never get up for our early breakfast time, so we all met at Topsiders for one last breakfast.

We caught two taxis outside the terminal to our hotel. This time we were staying at Avenida Palace where we got a great rate thanks to a TravelZoo special.

This was truly a gorgeous hotel! We all loved the location and atmosphere. Our rooms weren’t ready so we dropped off all 24 pieces of luggage and started walking.

It was sprinkling a little off and on, but we were fine with umbrellas.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

We were about a block from Las Ramblas and we walked the length of the street. It was a wonderful shopping street. There were street performers, cafes, shops, a great market, etc.

We stopped by the museum of music on the way down, and went in the cathedral.

The market was awesome.

At the end of the street, we crossed over to a mall to walk around and eat lunch. In the mall Dd had something on her clothes that was setting off the security alarms in some stores. It may have been her Old Navy pants that hadn’t been washed yet. She has a metal implant in her heart, and she thought that was it, but who knows. We were actually kicked out of one because we set it off on the way in. I was not a pleasant American at that moment. She told us she would make an exception for us and let us stay, and I told her we could spend our money elsewhere.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

We bought the guys some souvenirs in the FBC Barcelona store. Soccer jerseys for everyone!

It’s hard to tell, but this street performer was not sitting on anything:

 

[Disneyfalcon]

After we were done, we walked back down Las Ramblas to the hotel. Our rooms were done, and ours was incredible. We were on the 8th floor with a balcony with gorgeous views of the city.

We repacked a little and caught a 20 minute nap before we all met for dinner. We ate at Hard Rock Café Barcelona. Dd fell sound asleep after dinner:

Then we jumped on the subway to the Magic Fountains.

The Magic Fountains don’t run some nights, and this was one of them. The whole area was just gorgeous though, and the weather was perfect.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

We relaxed and listened to a street performer for a little while before going back to the hotel for bed.

I took my last pictures of the trip , on the balcony.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Thursday, May 6th, Day 15 – Home again home again

Our grand vacation was over. After 2 weeks, 3 continents, 8 countries (9 if you count Vatican City), and 1500+ pictures, it was time to head home.

We did end up with one last adventure, thanks to our transfer company.

My in-laws flight was at 10:30, the rest of us at 11:00. My fil is the kind of man that likes to be at the airport 3 hours before a domestic flight, so he would have liked to have been there 6 hours before an international flight! The transfer company assigned us a pick up time of 7:30. He wasn’t real excited, but decided to stick with us.

We ate the free breakfast in the hotel at 7:00 and waited for the shuttle.

And waited and waited.

The shuttle was 30 minutes late! The hotel said I should call my travel agent. I laughed and said I am the travel agent!

They finally came, and then we drove down the one of the busiest streets in the city to get to the airport.

About half way there, the bus stalled. Hmm. That wasn’t very comforting.

About 5 miles from the airport, 2 hours before my in-laws flight, the shuttle bus died. In the middle of the highway.

We could not believe it. The driver got on his phone, but we had no idea what he was saying. I walked to the front of the bus and insisted he call us taxis immediately.

With the language barrier, we weren’t sure if he did or not. We waited and waited, and finally, with cars zooming past on all sides, we got out and started flagging down taxis. You should have seen us trying to get our luggage out of the bus and into the taxis. Dangerous doesn’t even begin to cover it.

My in laws and Debbie got in the first taxi and took off. It cost them 20 Euros. We flagged down another one, and just then, one of the taxis the company called showed up. We tipped the one who stopped 2 Euros for stopping and got in the other one. The company paid for it.

We rushed in to the airport with less than 2 hours before our flight. We ran into my in-laws in a separate line, and luckily (?) their flight was delayed 4 hours! Ours was delayed an hour, so we were all good.

Needless to say, I am not happy with the transfer company.

After 24 hours of traveling we finally made it back home. I couldn’t wait to see ds and dh! It was an unbelievable trip!

Thanks so much for reading! I know this is a crazy long report!!

 

[Melcatfish]

Thanks so much for writing this and for all the fabulous photos. I have loved it so much.

Mel
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