We'’re out of it! A summer 14 “MAGICal” Med adventure Day 14/Aug 05 updated 05/05

[dizneeat]

I am so glad she redeemed herself!

The Magic came back - ship and all.

Welcome Back! Glad the Magic had its redemption! I guess they did that just for Tom's birthday..............

Not sure it was all for Tom's birthday, but there sure was a lot of pixie dust floating around!

Oh, I am happy to hear that you had a better experience on the Magic this time!! I hope that 2015 is a great year to sail on her as we will see her in 8 weeks!!

It was a totally different experience than the one we had in the Med. The Magic sure shows her age and she could do with a little patching up here and there, but the pixie dust and Disney high were back. So thankful for it.

Sorry that you had to cancel your summer plans. But it sounds like you will more than make up for it with next years cruises! And Cinque Terre should be beautiful for a land vacation as well.

We had been hoping that things would have been sorted out by the time we came back from vacation, but unfortunately we were challenged with a few more stepping stones in the way. Well, I am getting pretty excited with the Italian tour we are doing instead.

Welcome back!! I'm so happy that Tom's birthday cruise went so well and the Magic redeemed itself. So sorry to hear that you had to cancel your summer plans, and even sadder that we won't be able to see you both. Your new trip in Europe sounds wonderful!!

Thank you!
It was a great trip again. Just like the ones we were used to.
We were pretty crushed when we first found out we would not be able to go to the US in the summer as for once, so many of our friends would have been there the same time as us, but at the moment there is no way around it.
Hope we will overlap again in 2016.

 

[dizneeat]

I started the new TR!!!

Please come on over and join us.

Think of all the joy you'll find .........​

 

[dizneeat]

Aw that's a big bummer, sorry to hear that. At least you know what's happening in Summer 2016 though!

It was no fun to finally make the decision of cancelling our cruises for this summer, but at least we have a few other "get aways" in the works. Going to Italy next Friday for a long 4 day weekend for instance.

You have no idea how happy this makes me!!!! So glad you guys enjoyed yourselves on the Magic and look forward to seeing and hearing all about it.

All the magic came back from day 1 on. And it does not make it any easier that we will not have a Disney vacation in the summer. But we had a lot of good experiences on the Magic and it made it all worth while.

Wow, how many days is that, like 21???

We'll have 14 nights on board the Dream and Fantasy combined, but 11 WDW nights before the cruise and 7 after it, so 32 days all in all.

That's great that the Magic redeemed herself and your faith in Disney was restored. Sorry you had to cancel your 2016 plans. I know what that feels like as we had to cancel all our Spring 2015 plans, after the PiF date.

Ah, having to cancel after PiF really sucks!!! At least we did not lose any money on the cruises.
The cruise and WDW stay were really awesome. Lots of magical surprises and fun all around.

I'm glad to hear the magic is back for you.

It was great to feel all that Disney magic come back and being in the "bubble" again. We were able to "shut out" all the problems we had left behind at home and enjoyed our trip so much.

I'm sorry you had to change your plans but so glad the Magic was better this time! Happy belated birthday to Tom!

Jill in CO

The change in summer plans was something that was looming over our heads for quite some time, but once we were back home it was pretty sure we could not go through with them. The Magic still needs a bit of TLC to get her back to her old glory, but at least we had no issues what so ever.
Thank you for the birthday wishes!

 

[Poolrat]

I started the new TR!!!

Please come on over and join us.

Think of all the joy you'll find .........​

Caught up here and now heading to the new one!!!!

 

[dizneeat]

So glad you and Tom had a great cruise. Sad about this summer, but your Europe plans will be amazing....and I hope 2016 means our dates will overlap again

It was so sad to have to let go of our US summer plans, especially with so many DISfriends being there at the same time. But we have now come to terms with it and are pretty happy with our new plans for the Panama Canal!
I really hope our dates overlap again - cannot wait to meet you and your beautiful family in person.

Replied to your news on the other thread, Karin. But I'm hear and ready for an update whenever you get the time for one.

Update coming pretty soon, I promise.

I'm getting ready to start reading this trip report but I'm doing so nervously.... I just rebooked a Caribbean cruise on the Magic for next Spring. But this med cruise, this one is my dream! I'd love to do this. It's just so expensive and there are 5 of us so I just can't justify it. Maybe one day when the kids are grown....

I can't wait to hear about your adventures Karin!

Looks like I gave you a lot of time to catch up. So many things have happened and it just cut into my DIStime, big time.

I am happy to report that the Magic redeemed herself during Tom's birthday cruise. We had another stateroom and things just generally went a lot better this time.

I agree with you, DCL is super expensive in the Med. I have never ever paid that much for a 12 night vacation. Don't get me wrong, I am really thinking about doing another Med cruise, but I am pretty sure I would not do Disney in Europe again - lots of other great lines out there and a lot cheaper.

Update coming up pretty soon.

Caught up here and now heading to the new one!!!!

 

[pas130]

I really hope our dates overlap again - cannot wait to meet you and your beautiful family in person.

Same here Karin , I know they will one day!

 

[LuvEeyore]

Glad the Magic redeemed itself. I need to check out your new trip report.

 

[dizneeat]

Okay, I haven't updated here in like ages.
But I really am determind to get an update up today.

Same here Karin , I know they will one day!

Chances are good .... we have two trips (longer ones) planned for 2016!

Glad the Magic redeemed itself. I need to check out your new trip report.

We were glad too! It was really nice to experience that Disney Magic again, that we came to love so much.

 

[dizneeat]

​

Day 11, August 2

Kusadasi, Ephesus and more“ - Part 4

We took our sweet time to just explore and walk around and get all the background information from our guide,

which included the fact that Austria had had a huge hand in getting all the excavations done.

We stayed inside the hillside houses for quite some time, before heading down to the library.

The crowds had picked up a lot and many of them made their way up to where we had started from.

To be continued ..........​

 

[pas130]

Karin, I will keep my fingers crossed for 2016. I really want to get a F&G trip in, even if it's a sol trip (which 've never done but hey why not?), and I have to get at least one more WDW trip in sine we have APs!! Love those pics WOW!

 

[franandaj]

I had to go back and read the previous update to get my bearings as to where you were at in this TR. The ruins look fascinating, but it sure looks hot there!

 

[jenseib]

Nice to see you posting again!

 

[Leshaface]

I had to go back in my brain and remember which TR this was

The ruins really do look so neat and fascinating. And like Alison said, Hot.

 

[dizneeat]

Karin, I will keep my fingers crossed for 2016. I really want to get a F&G trip in, even if it's a sol trip (which 've never done but hey why not?), and I have to get at least one more WDW trip in sine we have APs!! Love those pics WOW!

I'll keep my fingers crossed for your F&G trip, even though I think those dates won't overlap, as we will be going during the week before Easter. And we will start our new APs again too.

I had to go back and read the previous update to get my bearings as to where you were at in this TR. The ruins look fascinating, but it sure looks hot there!

I do NOT blame you for having to back - I had to go back too.
Those turkish ruins were absolutely stunning and beautiful and having a private guide made it even better. The temperature was high, very high that day and there was little shade, so we kept crawling around.

Nice to see you posting again!

Thankfully the school year is coming to an end. One more week of school (and we are having a heat wave ) and then there will be nine weeks of holiday bliss! (and hopefully a few more updates and one or two finished TRs )

I had to go back in my brain and remember which TR this was

The ruins really do look so neat and fascinating. And like Alison said, Hot.

No problem having to go back on this one and refresh your memory. With three TRs going and this one not being updated since we left for our Easter trip, I had forgotten where we were as well.
The area is very impressive with all the history and someone constantly reminding you HOW old these ruins really are, but it was HOT, really HOT!!!

 

[dizneeat]

​

Day 11, August 2

Kusadasi, Ephesus and more“ - Part 5

We stayed inside the hillside houses for quite some time, before heading down to the library.

The crowds had picked up a lot and many of them made their way up to where we had started from. We slowly walked down the Marble Street and were shown the first “streetsigns” that Ephesus had to offer.

Our last stop was the theatre, which was huge!

To be continued ..........​

 

[dizneeat]

​

Day 11, August 2

Kusadasi, Ephesus and more“ - Part 6

Our last stop was the theatre, which was huge!

Our guide left us there and went ahead to get the car and organize some things while we had another 20 minutes to explore and then head down Harbour Street to the harbour and the entrance.

Since we again had a few minutes left we stopped into some of the shops at the exit and got ourselves a Diet Coke to share. We left with little time to spare and found our guide and driver right outside the exit.

Next stop, lunch!

So we got into our nice and cool vehicle and off we went to a country restaurant where we were to have lunch which was included in the price. We drove for about 20 minutes until we reached the restaurant, which we would never ever have tried (or found).

We sat down at an outside table and the driver told us that we were free to order whatever drinks we wanted. Tom asked for a beer recommendation and our guide told him his favourite brand, which was produced in the area and Tom went with it.

I just had a Diet Coke. The hostess put a basket of wonderful

freshly baked bread on the table and starters arrived just a few minutes later. We all got quite the

variety of starters. There was goats cheese, olives, Turkish cheese rolls, a stew of aubergines, cucumber, tomato slices and some herbed cream cheese. It was all wonderful, so fresh and tasty. I was just finishing off my starters when our

mixed grill arrived. There was a timbale of rice, grilled chicken and beef, grilled beans and tomatoes. We knew lunch was included, but we had had no idea it was such a treat. For dessert they brought out slices of

watermelon, which I don’t eat, but Tom enjoyed them very much. We sat for a little while before we got going again. Next stop was a carpet weaver school, where we learned how they got the silk threads from the catarpillars and how they processed them and made them into carpets.

To be continued ..........​

 

[englishrose47]

Those ruins look fascinating !! That lunch was awesome !!!

 

[franandaj]

I was amazed at the size of the theater, it looked about the size of the Hollywood Bowl!

Your lunch looked quite nice. Between the two of us, we would have enjoyed all the parts while each of us would have only ate some, each of us would have picked up the slack, just as you and Tom did!

 

[dizneeat]

Those ruins look fascinating !! That lunch was awesome !!!

The history we got to experience in one day was just breathtaking. And I never regretted booking that private tour for us. The guide was crazy knewledgeable and pointed out so many little things we would never have seen without him.
Yes, lunch was great. We would never have picked that little country place had we been on our own, but the food was awesome.

I was amazed at the size of the theater, it looked about the size of the Hollywood Bowl!

Your lunch looked quite nice. Between the two of us, we would have enjoyed all the parts while each of us would have only ate some, each of us would have picked up the slack, just as you and Tom did!

The theatre was HUGE. Let me tell you that most of the public buildings must have been pretty big but that theatre was in a league of its own. You felt lost climbing up all those huge steps/seats.

 

[Flossbolna]

Ephesus looks amazing! I have seen many classical ruins (especially Southern France, but also Italy and Greece), but this appears to be a very complete town. It makes you realize how much of a civilization there was around over 2000 years ago. If you compare some of these buildings with what was built in the medieval ages, it is scary how all that knowledge seemed to have been lost.