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

[poohmomof5]

Hooray!!

This is my 10th post!! I can stop bombarding you nice people with nonsensical or even noninteresting facts about our family!!

We will be staying at the Hilton Diagonal Mar for the pre-cruise and the Hilton Barcelona for the post-cruise.

Anyone else checking in at the Hilton Diagonal Mar? We didn't book a Barcelona excursion, we were hoping to 'hoof' it ourselves.

That Mickey D's sounds like a real winner

Loved getting to know you! Those were awesome posts!

As I said in earlier posts, the Magic is my favorite ship! I have been on her about 70 nights! The Dream is obviously newer, but you still get the same great (if not better) service, and the Disney atmosphere!

 

[jel0511]

The Magic is my favorite ship! I have done all 4 ships.

With a kid in tow we will be back at the McDonald's. We also have Hard Rock Cafe planned for the 26th.

If you want to be daring, head down Las Ramblas, go past Le Meridien and on the opposite side of Las Ramblas from Le Meridien past the Food Market there is a restaurant that serves the BEST paella. We got one with just chicken and rice and the kids LOVED IT!!! I forgot the name of the place, but it truly was awesome.

 

[gydell]

If you want to be daring, head down Las Ramblas, go past Le Meridien and on the opposite side of Las Ramblas from Le Meridien past the Food Market there is a restaurant that serves the BEST paella. We got one with just chicken and rice and the kids LOVED IT!!! I forgot the name of the place, but it truly was awesome.

We will be in BCN for 5 days so we will try and find it. Others we like are Artisa and Forns del Pi. They are located near Las Ramblas.

 

[nzdisneymom]

I've been lurking for the past few days.... You all seem like a great bunch so far.

Welcome - and when you get added, be sure to say Hi there, too.

So...
We are thinking of doing Dubrovnik on our own.... Cab to the city wall entrance and cafe, lunch, walking tour.

We have hired a private tour guide for the day in Dubrovnik.

Also, although I have been on a Disney Cruise before...

I have NEVER heard of a Fish Extender until I started lurking here.

I love the concept, and we are listed as UNDECIDED for now.

You have until Friday night to decide for sure! It's a lot of fun, and while you'll see extravagant fish extenders that some folks have (just google for "fish extender" and look at the images), you can just hang a tote bag on your "fish" and that works just as well! That's what we did for our first cruise that we particpated in FEs. It's so fun to come back to the room and have little things left for you - your kids are at a great age to do these!

I noticed lots of highly decorated cabin doors on our Dream cruise and really had no concept of what was going on. I just thought these were really enthusiastic Cruisers.

It seems that Disney Cruisers (although its the only Cruise Line I've ever been on) have a culture all their own.

That's a great way to say it - a culture of our own! And especially us DISBoarders!

We originally booked this cruise as a BIG 4-0 birthday gift to me (my Birthday was in March).
But, as I was speaking to our TA, we realized that my birthday is the least of our celebrations.
DH's birthday is on our actual sail date: June 27
Our wedding anniversary is June 29
and one week before sailing DD (10) graduates from Elementary School - 5th grade!!
My birthday has now gotten completely lost in the shuffle

Happy celebrations all around! We are doing B2B with the June 15th cruise and my older son has his 17th birthday onboard. Lucky duck!

Hooray!!
Anyone else checking in at the Hilton Diagonal Mar? We didn't book a Barcelona excursion, we were hoping to 'hoof' it ourselves.

That Mickey D's sounds like a real winner

Just a comment about McD's in Barcelona - the food does taste different than what you find in the USA - our boys were 9 and 11 when we were there in 2007 and really noticed. In fact, I have a blog entry from a couple of days ago about that - it still sticks with them.

Here's what we are doing in Barcelona: land, check in, hope our room is ready so we can have 90 minutes for a rest (no more than 2 hours - as I want each of us to have time to take a shower, too), then find some food. If the room isn't ready, we'll store our stuff with the hotel and head out for the day.

We have pre-purchased tickets for the Bus Turistic hop-on-hop-off bus for two days so we'll begin day 1 on the day we arrive. We'll see whatever we can see and stay awake for, and then find a market somewhere to get some food for dinner / snacks / breakfast the next day. We have a DIS meet at the hotel that evening for others who arrive early, and then we're going to zzzz. The next day, we're doing the HOHO bus again and have pre-purchased tickets for La Sagrada Familia for 11:00. We drove past it on the HOHO in 2007 and said if we were ever back in BCN, we wanted to tour (never dreaming we'd actually be back - at that point we thought that was our "trip of a lifetime" rather than our 'first trip of a lifetime." (LOL). We'll spend the rest of the day HOHO'ing and then we have another DIS Meet at the hotel around 7 PM and after that, we are going over as a group to see the Magic Fountains. Unfortunately it is only operational on Thursday through Sunday nights; we had thought we'd go the night we get off the ship as we're staying an extra day in BCN before flying home.

 

[gydell]

Here's what we are doing in Barcelona: land, check in, hope our room is ready so we can have 90 minutes for a rest (no more than 2 hours - as I want each of us to have time to take a shower, too), then find some food. If the room isn't ready, we'll store our stuff with the hotel and head out for the day.

We have pre-purchased tickets for the Bus Turistic hop-on-hop-off bus for two days so we'll begin day 1 on the day we arrive. We'll see whatever we can see and stay awake for, and then find a market somewhere to get some food for dinner / snacks / breakfast the next day. We have a DIS meet at the hotel that evening for others who arrive early, and then we're going to zzzz. The next day, we're doing the HOHO bus again and have pre-purchased tickets for La Sagrada Familia for 11:00. We drove past it on the HOHO in 2007 and said if we were ever back in BCN, we wanted to tour (never dreaming we'd actually be back - at that point we thought that was our "trip of a lifetime" rather than our 'first trip of a lifetime." (LOL). We'll spend the rest of the day HOHO'ing and then we have another DIS Meet at the hotel around 7 PM and after that, we are going over as a group to see the Magic Fountains. Unfortunately it is only operational on Thursday through Sunday nights; we had thought we'd go the night we get off the ship as we're staying an extra day in BCN before flying home.

We are doing Guell Park on the 25th after arriving. Then Las Ramblas till we can go back to the hotel and sleep. On the 26th we have gocars rented to tour the town. Going back to Sagrada Familia for a tour and climb tower at 11(we did this when we were there before), St. Mary of the Sea Cathedral, Palace of Catalan Music, Guell Palace, and whatever we can do until around 5. Then HRC. After the cruise we will do Montserrat. We also have a hot air balloon ride scheduled for the 10th. Somewhere in here we want to do the cable cars. It was too windy last time. Hopefully we get it all done!

 

[nzdisneymom]

We are doing Guell Park on the 25th after arriving. Then Las Ramblas till we can go back to the hotel and sleep. On the 26th we have gocars rented to tour the town. Going back to Sagrada Familia for a tour and climb tower at 11(we did this when we were there before), St. Mary of the Sea Cathedral, Palace of Catalan Music, Guell Palace, and whatever we can do until around 5. Then HRC. After the cruise we will do Montserrat. We also have a hot air balloon ride scheduled for the 10th. Somewhere in here we want to do the cable cars. It was too windy last time. Hopefully we get it all done!

What a great adventure planned! I'd like to do the cable cars, too.

 

[teerama]

Thank you all for the warm welcome!!

I hadn't thought about the HOHO bust ours in BCN. We also get into BCN on June 26th in the early AM so hoping the room will be ready too!


I found this website with what seems like the perfect one day self guided tour (coming from someone who has never been to BCN):

http://promptguides.com/barcelona/guides/one_day_guide.htm

I figured that whatever we missed on this day, we could pick up the day we return post-cruise.

I really think the Magic fountains seem fab

 

[gydell]

Cindy - how are you doing the Magic Fountains?
Never mind you are doing the cruise before this aren't you?

 

[disprincess4ever]

[QUOTE="teerama".

It seems that Disney Cruisers (although its the only Cruise Line I've ever been on) have a culture all their own.[/QUOTE]

Welcome aboard! This will be our first cruise that we have participated on the boards before sailing as well
Haha love how you refer to it as a culture! I'd like to think of it as that too

 

[disprincess4ever]

Hooray!!

This is my 10th post!! I can stop bombarding you nice people with nonsensical or even noninteresting facts about our family!!

We will be staying at the Hilton Diagonal Mar for the pre-cruise and the Hilton Barcelona for the post-cruise.

Anyone else checking in at the Hilton Diagonal Mar? We didn't book a Barcelona excursion, we were hoping to 'hoof' it ourselves.

That Mickey D's sounds like a real winner

We're also staying at the Hilton Barcelona! We're doing it pre and post stay. Glad to hear of someone else staying there cause I don't know of anyone else who is!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Cindy - how are you doing the Magic Fountains?
Never mind you are doing the cruise before this aren't you?

Yes, because that's the only way we'd get to - I first started looking at it because someone here mentioned it (or on FB) and we were thinking to get a group together to go = but since we sail on Thursday and get back on Tuesday, unless you're coming in super early or staying several days late, it's blocked out. I remember in 2007 that several DISers from our group went but we weren't able to go as we came in too late. We learned that trip to always come in at least two nights ahead so you don't miss the port you're leaving from in terms of being able to sightsee.

I found this website with what seems like the perfect one day self guided tour (coming from someone who has never been to BCN):

http://promptguides.com/barcelona/guides/one_day_guide.htm

I figured that whatever we missed on this day, we could pick up the day we return post-cruise.

I'll have to take a look - thanks for the link.

 

[gydell]

Yes, because that's the only way we'd get to - I first started looking at it because someone here mentioned it (or on FB) and we were thinking to get a group together to go = but since we sail on Thursday and get back on Tuesday, unless you're coming in super early or staying several days late, it's blocked out. I remember in 2007 that several DISers from our group went but we weren't able to go as we came in too late. We learned that trip to always come in at least two nights ahead so you don't miss the port you're leaving from in terms of being able to sightsee.


.

You will love them. We did them last time.

 

[rotary2808]

We're also staying at the Hilton Barcelona! We're doing it pre and post stay. Glad to hear of someone else staying there cause I don't know of anyone else who is!

We're staying there as well.

 

[klar]

Hi All!

I know I read this somewhere either on the forum or FB but what are the receommendations for a private airport transfer to the hotel in Barcelona?

Any help is great.

Thanks.

 

[jel0511]

Hi All!

I know I read this somewhere either on the forum or FB but what are the receommendations for a private airport transfer to the hotel in Barcelona?

Any help is great.

Thanks.

We're using http://www.barcelona-airport-transfers.com The prices that I got were pretty reasonable, though I booked them back in October.

 

[rotary2808]

Hi All!

I know I read this somewhere either on the forum or FB but what are the receommendations for a private airport transfer to the hotel in Barcelona?

Any help is great.

Thanks.

We're using Sun Transfers.

 

[friedrich2010]

I booked my flights through DCL with my reservation. Does anybody know when I can expect to be provided with the details of those flights in case I need to make changes? I have always booked my own flights in the past. Thanks.

 

[jel0511]

I booked my flights through DCL with my reservation. Does anybody know when I can expect to be provided with the details of those flights in case I need to make changes? I have always booked my own flights in the past. Thanks.

45 days in advance unless you have long connections, then you would have been notified. You can't make any changes unless you've paid the air deviation fee.

 

[nzdisneymom]

I booked my flights through DCL with my reservation. Does anybody know when I can expect to be provided with the details of those flights in case I need to make changes? I have always booked my own flights in the past. Thanks.

You can call them and ask - it's usually 30-45 days in advance that they notify you officially, but you can call and see if they have it already scheduled. Or if you have a TA, have them check on your behalf.

We actually booked airfare on our own this time because it was enough less to do it ourselves even when adding in the extra for insurance. I checked today and if I were booking today, then DCL would be a better buy.

 

[friedrich2010]

45 days in advance unless you have long connections, then you would have been notified. You can't make any changes unless you've paid the air deviation fee.

I also saw somewhere that the air modification form needed to be filled out 60 days prior to the cruise - how would I know if I need to modify something if I don't know what the flights look like yet? Doesn't it make more sense to see how the flights are assigned and then fill out the modification form?

Disney FAQ Section:
Question: What is the Flight Modification Form and how do I complete it?
Answer: This optional form allows Guests who have booked their flights through Disney Cruise Line to request such changes as airline, non-stop flights, different class of service and more. Simply fill in the fields on this form and select the "Submit" button. You will be taken to a Confirmation Page, where you can edit the form or print it for your records. You must submit the form at least 60 days prior to your sail date. A Disney Travel representative will contact you within 48 hours.