June 27, 2013 - Magic in the Med (Venice)

[Wynn]

Hi, Family of 4 myself, DH, DSs (13,10). Hoping to be able to go. Went 3 yrs ago on RC. Very excited about doing it again with Disney. Been trying to keep up but what I wanted to add while all the planning is going on is that it looks like the Tour de France, if I spelled it correctly, will be going on around our time there so I wonder how crowded it will be. I think we will be gone by the time it hits the "main land" but has anyone experienced the reviera around that time. A personal driver may be risky if its too crowded. Might need to stick with something Disney.

[carpenta]

In 2007 we did the tour of the Vatican which included a private tour of the Sistine Chapel. There was only a handfull of us in the Cahpel and we even got to take pictures and video which is normally not allowed. In 2010 we did the "Jumping back into Eternal Rome" excursion through Disney. It was well done but one thing that was great we debarked the ship, boarded a bus to the train station basically at the end of the pier and boarded a private train just reserved for the Disney group. It was a "Bud" type train that wisked us to the station in the shadows of the Vatican. After a wonderful tour we reboarded the same train and returned to the ship. Disney had set up ahead of time the Gladiators in front of the Colusseum so all of us could have our pictures taken with the "Romans". Also lunch was included and we went to a restaurant a couple blocks from St. Peters. It was an excellent tour with a first rate guide. Another time we went to Orvieto for a tour and for everyone already seeing enough Rome than this is a wonderful alternative. Adventure by Disney includes this town in its' land tour.

[Deb T.]

Originally Posted by nzdisneymom

I posted on the main forum asking about hotels in Barcelona. I linked the thread in the first post on this thread because I compiled a list of recommendations from the thread and linked them to the hotel sites - this way I'll be able to find it later but I also thought you all might be interested at some point along the way when we start pre-cruise hotel shopping!

Awesome! Thanks!

[nzdisneymom]

Wynn - welcome to the Roll Call!

We loved our day in Rome in 2007 - it was a super long day, though, and since we are B2B'ing in 2013, we'll do our long Rome day on the first go around, so when we're in Civitavecchia with this one, we'll likely do something that is in the surrounding area - see a bit more of Italy that way.

[hawaiian mickey]

aloha,
I'm really excited about our trip. I want to start planning our trip, but my wife says we should concentrate on our trip to Tokyo Disneyland first. It's only 16 days from now.
I'm looking at hotels Barcelona already. Also do you think they will be using the same hotels they used in 2007?
Am I crazy to start planning 510 days before our trip? Are there any crazy ones like me out there?
I'm in Hawaii right now. Got to see Au'lani. It was better than I expected.
Well back to the beach. Got to work on my tan for the Med

Aloha,
Hawaiian Mickey

[Doingitagain]

Lots of familiar names! We are in, at least for now, pending work schedules,

It will be me, DH, DD (24 at time of sailing) and DS (21 at time of sailing).

Crossing my fingers that it will work out...

[nzdisneymom]

Doingitagain - Welcome! Glad to have you with us. I have a feeling that when our sons are the ages of your children, we'll still be bringing them along on vacation! We love traveling with our boys!

Hawaiian_mickey - I totally get the desire to be working on this trip's planning even with another vacation between now and then. How fun for you all to go to Tokyo Disneyland - have you been before? Be sure to post when you get back and tell us about it. We have a trip to Yellowstone this summer which is pretty much all planned out - but DH reminds me to not let this one overshadow that one because it's going to be fun, too. We're gonna hit 7 states in under two weeks (ok, we're cutting the corners of North Dakota and Nebraska just to say we've been), but we'll be seeing Yellowstone, Battle of Little Big Horn, and Mt. Rushmore while we're out there.

[MrsScooby]

Originally Posted by jel0511

Boy am I glad that we have no intention of returning to the Vatican this cruise. Didn't even think to look at days we're in port yet. We'll probably hire a driver and a private guide for Rome this time and see it more in depth. Our last time(private tour as well), seemed to glaze over Rome and focus on the Vatican. A word of advice to all of those planning private drivers/tours in Italy. The drivers AREN'T allowed to give tours, just drive. They can give you advice, but that's it. You need to hire an additional private guide for that. It's the law in Italy that a guide MUST be licensed as such, and most drivers aren't.

Same thing in Germany. Only licensed guides were allowed inside the buildings.
This is our first trip to Italy so we have to hit the highlights. I'm preparing myself for the crowds

Originally Posted by nzdisneymom

The discussion about the day of the week we'll be in various ports led me to look it up so I can start getting things fixed in my brain about what day we'll be where. From our itinerary (and I will add this to the first post as well):


Thursday, June 27 Barcelona, Spain - 4:00 p.m.
Friday, June 28 Villefranche, France 8:45 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, June 29 La Spezia, Italy 7:45 a.m. - 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, June 30 Civitavecchia, Italy 7:15 a.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Monday, July 1 Naples, Italy 7:45 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, July 2 At Sea - -
Wednesday, July 3 Venice, Italy 1:00 p.m. -
Thursday, July 4 Venice, Italy - 5:00 p.m.
Friday, July 5 Dubrovnik, Croatia 1:15 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, July 6 At Sea - -
Sunday, July 7 Valetta, Malta 7:45 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Monday, July 8 At Sea - -
Tuesday, July 9 Barcelona, Spain 7:00 a.m. -


Re: travel insurance - we always just get it through the cruiseline. However, with our Greece one, we will have to insure it with someone like insuremytrip because of the cash portion of that trip - we will insure our DVC points through DVC.

I'm waiting for DCL to decide what they think we'll be able to do re: air with them or not - they did call me yesterday to tell me they still didn't know... I appreciated the follow-up. If we do air on our own, we'll also insure that. I'd like to do all my insurance at the same time but will probably piece-meal it. We don't normally insure just travel on our own - but we are making a big trip to the North Central states this summer and I actually did insure our flights. Not sure what made me decide to do that - maybe because we booked them pretty far in advance.

Thanks
I have to make a copy of that schedule and put it in my guidebooks so I know what might be closed or not available when we are there

We've never needed our travel insurance (knock on wood) but I know at least 2 families that did for really weird unexpected things that popped up on their trips.

Originally Posted by nzdisneymom

I posted on the main forum asking about hotels in Barcelona. I linked the thread in the first post on this thread because I compiled a list of recommendations from the thread and linked them to the hotel sites - this way I'll be able to find it later but I also thought you all might be interested at some point along the way when we start pre-cruise hotel shopping!

Big help, thanks again
I'm trying to figure out which hotel to go with.
I'd like to have the pre-trip hotel out of the way so I can focus on the ports

Originally Posted by Wynn

Hi, Family of 4 myself, DH, DSs (13,10). Hoping to be able to go. Went 3 yrs ago on RC. Very excited about doing it again with Disney. Been trying to keep up but what I wanted to add while all the planning is going on is that it looks like the Tour de France, if I spelled it correctly, will be going on around our time there so I wonder how crowded it will be. I think we will be gone by the time it hits the "main land" but has anyone experienced the reviera around that time. A personal driver may be risky if its too crowded. Might need to stick with something Disney.

Oh this is good to know, thanks
It's stuff like this that can blindside you when you make plans in advance.

Originally Posted by carpenta

In 2007 we did the tour of the Vatican which included a private tour of the Sistine Chapel. There was only a handfull of us in the Cahpel and we even got to take pictures and video which is normally not allowed. In 2010 we did the "Jumping back into Eternal Rome" excursion through Disney. It was well done but one thing that was great we debarked the ship, boarded a bus to the train station basically at the end of the pier and boarded a private train just reserved for the Disney group. It was a "Bud" type train that wisked us to the station in the shadows of the Vatican. After a wonderful tour we reboarded the same train and returned to the ship. Disney had set up ahead of time the Gladiators in front of the Colusseum so all of us could have our pictures taken with the "Romans". Also lunch was included and we went to a restaurant a couple blocks from St. Peters. It was an excellent tour with a first rate guide. Another time we went to Orvieto for a tour and for everyone already seeing enough Rome than this is a wonderful alternative. Adventure by Disney includes this town in its' land tour.

Sounds great
We're hoping to do one of the ABD one of this days

Originally Posted by hawaiian mickey

aloha,
I'm really excited about our trip. I want to start planning our trip, but my wife says we should concentrate on our trip to Tokyo Disneyland first. It's only 16 days from now.
I'm looking at hotels Barcelona already. Also do you think they will be using the same hotels they used in 2007?
Am I crazy to start planning 510 days before our trip? Are there any crazy ones like me out there?
I'm in Hawaii right now. Got to see Au'lani. It was better than I expected.
Well back to the beach. Got to work on my tan for the Med

Aloha,
Hawaiian Mickey

Definitely another crazy planner here too
I'm looking at the Barcelona hotels also.
Checking tripadvisor and there seem to be plenty to choose from...which can also make it hard to make a decision as well

[jel0511]

Originally Posted by hawaiian mickey

aloha,
I'm really excited about our trip. I want to start planning our trip, but my wife says we should concentrate on our trip to Tokyo Disneyland first. It's only 16 days from now.
I'm looking at hotels Barcelona already. Also do you think they will be using the same hotels they used in 2007?
Am I crazy to start planning 510 days before our trip? Are there any crazy ones like me out there?
I'm in Hawaii right now. Got to see Au'lani. It was better than I expected.
Well back to the beach. Got to work on my tan for the Med

Aloha,
Hawaiian Mickey

It's never too early to plan, that's half of the fun isn't it!!!!

Can't wait to hear a report of your Aulani trip, we're headed there in July!

[MrsScooby]

Originally Posted by nzdisneymom

I have a feeling that when our sons are the ages of your children, we'll still be bringing them along on vacation! We love traveling with our boys!

I am so having a hard time leaving my DS18 and DD14 1/2 home for this trip. I "threatened" to make them go with us last night at dinner and the looks of panic on their faces

My DH and I keep telling ourselves that we will have a better time without dragging a teen that doesn't really want to be there...

But it is going to be hard for us to see all you folks with your kids around the same age

[Angie_Ohio]

Hi Everyone! We are in also! Me, Angie and 2 of my 5 DSs (Stephen 16 and Michael 15). My DH is not up for travel out of the US. My DS Alec and I traveled with my parents on the 11 night Med this past summer. I am thrilled to be able to get back so soon with my two youngest sons. Thanks Trevi Fountain!

I am a fan of Rick Steves and his travel advice. I used his books and many DIS trip reports to plan an awesome trip this past summer. We did all the ports on our own.

We arrived in Barcelona 1 day early and used the HOHO bus to see many sights. (We left 2 days early and traveled from Ohio to Montreal to Frankfurt to Barcelona on day 1) Yikes!!

It's never too early to dream and plan. I love to research trips.

[nzdisneymom]

Angie - welcome! I'm with you on the whole Trevi Fountain thing - I'm telling everyone that I didn't toss those coins for nothing

Mrs_Scooby - we are lucky that our boys WANT to be there; if they were not interested, I would be hard-pressed to spend the money on them for the trip. But they both love to travel and we've learned a lot in our traveling days about how to NOT over-do it, to build in some down time for them and for me to remember that it's their vacation too! We about over-did it on our first Med cruise and learned so much about traveling then that we've adjusted, so we're getting pretty good at it now.

We're leaning towards one of the apartments for the three days pre-cruise - just for the extra space before boarding for 24 nights in a small confined space. Thank goodness the boys both enjoy the youth programs so they will spend a lot of time out and about - and I'm happy for having the verandah for some extra room. Can't wait to sail on the Magic again!

[Cptjackandcrew]

We'll be onboard too. This will be Disney Cruise #9 for us, us being myself, DH, DD (18) and DD (15). We did the Baltic Cruise in 2010. I must admit that I am quite jealous of you B2Bers! I find it hard to do a 7-night after some of our longer cruises. If I were to cruise for 24 nights I might never be able to go on a 7-night again. It's a great idea and definitely worth consideration. Well anyways, we're very excited!

[nzdisneymom]

Originally Posted by Cptjackandcrew

We'll be onboard too. This will be Disney Cruise #9 for us, us being myself, DH, DD (18) and DD (15). We did the Baltic Cruise in 2010. I must admit that I am quite jealous of you B2Bers! I find it hard to do a 7-night after some of our longer cruises. If I were to cruise for 24 nights I might never be able to go on a 7-night again. It's a great idea and definitely worth consideration. Well anyways, we're very excited!

Welcome to the board! When we booked our very first cruise in 2005, we opted for the 7-night because I was afraid a 3- or 4-night would not be enough - I was right - we were hooked from the beginning. Our second cruise was a 10-night in the Med, followed by a 3-night at spring break (which was fun but not nearly long enough - but we got to meet Deb T. on that cruise and she's such a great cruise-buddy!) Then another 2 7-nighters, followed by a 12-nighter in the Baltic in 2010... that was amazing! We did a week in Alaska this summer and 7-nights felt short, but didn't fall short! We just did a week at Christmas on Carnival and it was just about right - although it did seem like the end of the week got there fast. So now to do two 12-nighters - it's ambitious but we are looking at it as one long cruise in terms of planning what we will do at each port so we can relax and enjoy being in the Med but not over-exhaust ourselves as we did our first time around!

[Wynn]

I understand how you feel about not over-exhuasting yourselves. Last time we thought we may never be able to do this again, so we tried to see as much as possible. We hired private drivers in order to accomplish that goal and boy did we get our moneys (sp) worth. But by the end of the 12 days, I was so tired. This time I'm telling myself leisure, I hope I am listening.