To Med cruise or not Med Cruise 2010?

[HappyGrumpy]

For anyone who went on the first Med Cruise on the Magic would you recommend it? I am so concerned that the cruise will be so port intensive we will not enjoy the overall experience! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!:

 

[NancyIL]

On the 10-day Med cruise, the first and last days are at sea - with 7 port days in a row. On the 11-night, you get one more sea day after the 4th port day. I haven't been on a Med cruise, but have read only good comments from people who did it with DCL. However, you are paying a premium price to do this cruise on a Disney ship. Only you can decide if it's worth doing so with limited time to enjoy the "Disneyness" of the ship.

 

[kcashner]

My tendency would be to do this sort of cruise on a cheaper line since I'm not really enjoying the ship! If I did it on DCL, I'd do a cheaper category--again, very little time in the cabin. But then, I'm cheap.

 

[msec]

We did the Med cruise in 2007 - we did the 10 night and in hindsight we wished we had done the 11 night to gain the extra sea day. As others have mentioned it is VERY port intensive and even though I knew that before hand I underestimated how much all those port days in a row take out of you (they are long days!) so it would have been wonderul to have had the extra sea day in the middle to re-charge!!

We did the cruise with our children (ages 9 & 11 at the time) and it was our best vacation ever!! I know Diseny prices are high but for our family we felt it was worth the extra - we had sailed on the Magic a few times prior so we felt comfortable with the ship and knew what to expect with accomadations, food, service, shows, atmosphere, etc. This was our first time to Europe and we were bringing the kids which for me was very exciting but also a little stressful as a mom - Europe is far from home and all the 'what-if's' kept popping into my head

So for me personally, going with Disney was just one less thing I had to worry about. The cruise was everything we hoped it would be and more!! Disney did a great job

 

[PurdyBertnie]

OMG I soooo want to do this and this thread is making me want to even more lol I haven't even gone on my first cruise yet lol and I am already daydreaming about this one

 

[HappyGrumpy]

Thanks to those who have responded! It will just be me and my husband and we LOVE to cruise with Disney!! We have a cruise booked for Dec 09 and 10 for the holidays but I am REALLY intrigued by the Med cruise. We shall see!

 

[magicgg]

You will love the Med cruise. We did a 10 night in 2007 and are doing a 11 night in 2010. We chose to do it with disney because we know how the ship works. We decided to do it again because we love all the little extras disney provides. I know other cruise lines provide extras but I feel like I get what I pay for. Although this time we will be doing our own excursions so we can spend a little more time exploring in each port. Enjoy

 

[HappyGrumpy]

Magigg Which Med Cruise are you sailing on. would you please expound upon what you will be doing differently this time. I notice on some cruise reviews people paid the extra bucks to have private tours and opted out of the DCL excursion. Are you doing that as well? We have not yet decided but my goal is to make a decision by the end of March. Thank you so much for responding!

 

[jrabbit]

We did the Med in 2007 with DCL. We felt that our "room charge" ie cruise cost was reasonable. We looked at the DCL shore excursions and it looked like they were charging an unreasonably high price for their excursions. And nightly before the main show in the Walt Disney Theater they remineded us that the only safe way to experince the ports was through their shore excursions. For these cruises the shore excursion desk was a very large profit center.

For example in Rome and Florence (remember the port is over 1 hour away from the city here) they had a "shore excursion" that cost $90 per person - seems reasonable except this excursion drove you into town and dropped you off and then came back 8 hours later and picked you up and took you to the port. We found directions from the port to the train station in Civiccita (Rome's "port") - less than a 10 minute walk. We purchased a pass that got us train service to both Rome train stations (St. Pietro, and Termini), subway and bus passes for less than $15/person (with the $ to euro conversion). We then hooked up with our non DCL tour guide at the Vatican. So for transportation AND a guided tour of St. Pete's and the Museum we paid less than $75 / person. This same tour through DCL was at least $150. What you got for the extra $75/person was a bus picking you up at the port and you got to bypass the hour long line to get into the museum (for some this is well worth the extra $$$). After our tour we took a city bus and saw the Pantheon then went over to the Trevi Fountain, then caught a bus back to the train station and we made it back to the port. We had to be responsible to keep track of the time because we were on our own.

I spent a lot of time on the internet researching the ports and decideing what we wanted to do. ANd I read Rick Steve "Europe Through the Back Door" and his Italy book.

We did all of the ports on our own and never had any problems.

 

[magicgg]

We will be doing private tours and some tours on our own. We just felt that with the DCL tours there just was not enough time to explore. With private tours, you can kind of pick and choose your own itinerary and with a good guide they can take you to where the locals go. We will be on the Aug.7 cruise and as we get closer we are willing to do tours with other families to help cut the price cost.

 

[sbell111]

We did the Med cruise in 2007. We loved it and would do it again in a second. In fact, if it wasn't for the baltic cruise (that we couldn't pass up), we might have booked one of the 2010 Med cruises.

 

[LisaWalkerC21]

We will be on the August 7 Mediterranean cruise as well and can't wait! I have read several of the posts here and on other sites and have decided to do private tours in Rome, Naples and Florence. I have been researching like crazy. Our boys will be 7 and 9 and we are so excited for this trip with DCL. We have traveled with DCL in the past but not to Europe. This post has me even more excited and happy about our decision...is it August 2010 yet???

 

[HappyGrumpy]

WOW!! This is getting exciting!!! jrabbit great info and thanks to all those who have jumped on board as well. We will either be on the August 7th or 28th trip. In my research I discovered that when you travel in groups of 6-8 you save some bucks and it seems to get you much better port time! If any of you find a good private tour company that you want to recommend I am all ears!!

We are going to have save every penny and may have to skip our Dec 09 Cruise but I have a feeling it will be very worth it!

HappyGrumpy

 

[LisaWalkerC21]

Call me crazy...but I already have my tours planned out with Rome in Limo for Naples, Rome and Florence. Jany at Rome in Limo did a great job tailoring the trips for my kids. We may be looking for people to join us to save some $$$ After reading all the suggestions on these boards we decided to do private tours for the ports we were really excited about.

 

[HappyGrumpy]

I am the details queen and with wanting to make sure we cross every T and dot every I, I am well on my way joining the "crazy" train

How did they tailor some of the excursions for your kids? What did they require for a deposit? Is their a max number of people they will put on the excursion that you booked?

I will look them up as well but I figured you could give me an idea since you are totally on the ball!

Thx HappyGrumpy

 

[MrsG]

We did the Med 11 nite and absolutely LOVED IT! DH & I still talk about how fabulous it was. If we weren't doing the Baltic, we'd do the Med again. We did all our excursions in every port through DCL and cannot say enough nice things about it. Each excursion was wonderful and well worth every penny.

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

And nightly before the main show in the Walt Disney Theater they remineded us that the only safe way to experince the ports was through their shore excursions. For these cruises the shore excursion desk was a very large profit center.

.

I find that a bit strange, Europe is no more dangerous than anywhere else! Do they give the same warnings on the Caribbean cruises as well at each Port?

I am another person booked on the 7th August trip next year! Seems like there are quite a few of us!!!

 

[jrabbit]

On our January Caribbean cruise it did not seem like they were pushing their excursions as much as when we were on the Med Cruise.

 

[HappyGrumpy]

Hi Pooh!
I think that jrabit was just saying that DCL really encourages their excursions because they will make more $$$ in the end. I also wonder if it cuts down on those who would be late getting back to the ship from their excursion as oppose to those who go it alone. So I interpret "safety" for me to mean that the tour company contracted out will have me back to the ship on time and in one piece!

btw Pooh, Norwich England holds a special place in my heart! I own a Norwich Terrier! He is mine and my husbands child and he is our champion show dog so we are a bit proud! so cool that is where you reside!

HG

 

[HappyGrumpy]

MrsG, Thanks for the reply so much great feedback! I was having a hard time choosing either the Baltic and Med but I am going with my original gut and I leaning towards the Med. Maybe one of the new ships will do the Baltic in a few years!