3 Dis Kids take on the Med! 8/13-8/20 (Updated 10/5 w/ Pics & Video)

[CastawayJP]

Hey everybody! I had so much fun, and got so much good info reading other peoples trip reports that I thought I would try and help others by doing one of my own!

I know that it probably won't be of much help for future planning, since DCL won't be back in the med until at least 2013 but it might help some of stir up memories, or at least build a vision for the future!

I'll also be posting these to my blog (link in signature). Check it out if you are feeling adventurous!

Before I get into the nitty gritty lets go over who joined me on the adventure!

CastawayJP: 35 year old father to 3 Dis Kids. DCL fanatic and Disney Junkie in general!

DW: Also a Disney junkie, but full time job making the world a better place doesn't allow her to spend as much time in it!

DD12: Dis Kid #1. Has been enjoying the Magic since she was 7!

DD4: Dis Kid #2. Joined Castaway Club at age 3 months 5 days!

DS3: Dis Kid #3. We still love him even though he is only a Silver Castaway club member.

DF: First time cruiser and his first time traveling internationally.

DM: First time cruiser but feels like a pro through hundreds of photos and stories shared!

DS was playing under the table when that picture was taken so I'll add his photo here...

More to come soon!

 

[CastawayJP]

Luckily, our schedules worked out so we would be able to fly to Barcelona 3 days before the cruise departed, and I was really happy to be able to spend a couple of days exploring the city. I had read more trip reports, watched more vlogs, and listened to more podcasts than I could count about other people's Disney Med cruises from 2007 and 2010. My excitement grew with each one as we got closer and closer to our departure date. I had built up this vacation so much in my head, I hoped that I had not set myself up for disappointment. But as it turns out, Barcelona met and surpassed all of my expectations!

I had read and researched a lot about what to do in Barcelona, but had not really done the same for where to stay. My Mom actually found the hotel that we ended up staying at. We had originally booked a room at the Novotel Barcelona City, on the recommendation of fellow cruisers, but when my parents tried to book a room for their arrival (two days after us), there were none available. So in looking for a place close to the Novotel (it wasn't), she booked at Hotel Diagonal Zero. Not wanting to be split up at two different hotels we followed suit, and boy am I glad we did!

Diagonal Zero was a great fit for us. Modern and clean, at a reasonable price. It was very close to the subway, and there was a large shopping center across the street. It wasn't that close to the touristy parts of the city, and it wasn't as close to the port, but we figured we could make it work.

We were able to do more than make it work. We loved it. Since it was a little further from Las Ramblas and the rest of the city center it was more quiet. The hotel has a more business feel, but it was still warm and inviting fortourists. Thebeach was about a 10-15 minute walk, and the shopping center (Diagonal Mar) was very nice, and had a hypermarket where we could get stuff for in the room. And while it might net be a big selling point for most American visitors -- but it was huge for us who have been living in Bucharest, Romania for 6 months -- there was a Subway sandwich shop!

We spent our first full day in Barcelona just kind of taking it easy an stayed close to the hotel. We hit the beach, walked around, enjoyed lunch at Subway, and pretty much eased our way intovacation. Other than venturing out to visit the Magic Fountains(more later) that night we kept it pretty simple.

The beach was great! After a short walk we got there around 10:30. People (mostly locals) were just starting to stream in. It had not gotten crowded yet, so we found a good spot pretty close to the water. The water was a little cold, but refreshing. The beach was great! there were a couple of bar/tapas places right on the beach, places to shower off, and free public restrooms that were not spotless, but by American public beach restrooms standards exquisite! I decided to post on my Facebook status that I was concerned about the poverty in Barcelona. Apparently the women there can't afford to buy a matching top to go with their bikini bottoms... Some of what we saw was not pretty... I had been warned of this, but thought that it would only be on more rural beaches, not a public beach in the city!

That evening we had decided to head into the city center to see the Magic Fountains. I had read mixed reviews about it (DISers raved, Rick Steeves didn't), but this was one of the things I really wanted to see. The subway in Barcelona is very easy to navigate so we used it to get us there. It took us about a half hour, and when we exited the station it was a sea of people. This was the only time on the entire trip that I was worried about being pick-pocketed. We trudged our way to the fountain (which was much larger than I expected), and found a pretty good place to sit and watch. To our surprise the entire "show" was set to Disney music, albeit in Spanish. It was a great warm up for our cruise in two days! If you are in Barcelona over the weekend this is definitely worth seeing! Gorgeous!

The next day was going to be our big tourist day. We had pre-purchased our tickets for the Barcelona Bus Touristic, and I had high hopes. My parents were coming in to meet us that morning, and they were going to join us on the bus! There was a bus stop right by the shopping center, so after they got to the hotel and showered up, headed back to Subway and then to the bus.

This was the one disappointment in Barcelona. We have toured around on "Hop On Hop Off" buses in a couple different cites, and have always found them to be a great way to see a lot of the city. The Barcelona Bus Touristic was reviewed well, but it just didn't work for us. The bus has three routes, and there aren't enough places to switch. We went on the Blue route to see La Sagrada Familia (AWESOME!), but then we were stuck on that route for more than an hour. Then we would have had to switch to red and then to green to get back to our hotel. We abandoned ship er... bus and took the subway back. That night we walked over to the shopping center and had some "very fresh" seafood at one of the restaurants.

The next morning we boarded the Disney Magic! Originally we had planned to take the subway to the Christopher Columbus monument and catch a port bus to the ship, but since that would have required lugging our bags, and 2 train changes, we decided to take a couple taxis to the ship (25-30 euros each). We were very excited and wanted to get there as quick as possible! We'll pick up there on the next post.

I despise using the phrase "in conclusion", but, in conclusion, we loved Barcelona! from the moment we got to the hotel we felt like we were on vacation. Coming from Bucharest it really almost felt like being back in the US. The people were so nice, there was so much to experience. There is so much more of the city that we have to explore. We can't wait to go back! Maybe for a long weekend, or maybe a couple years!

 

[CastawayJP]

Our first port on our cruise was Villefracnhe, France, gateway to Monaco, Nice and Cannes. This port represented a couple of things to me. On one hand I was very much looking forward to seeing Monaco and Monte Carlo. On the other hand I was a bit nervous about this being the first port that we would be "doing on our own."

Our plan was well researched (mostly by my wife), and we knew pretty much how we were going to execute our plan. Our plan was to get off the ship pretty early -- but not rush as it was our first morning on the ship-- and catch a tender to the port. From there we had well described directions to the train station, and we would catch the train to Monaco, about a 15 minute ride. Once in Monaco, we were going to take a ride on their tourist train, The Little Train, and then possibly if the little ones were in good spirits check out the Royal Palace. It should have been a pretty simple day, especially compared to what we had planned for our day in Rome.

Well you know what they say about the best laid plans... The first parts went off without a hitch. We got up leisurely, had a nice breakfast, and about that time the announcement came that they had just started open tendering, meaning we didn't need to wait at a meeting point until our turn came up. So we packed up our day bags and headed for shore.

Villefranche is a picturesque little marina town. Cafes and cutsie shops line the waterfront with flower boxes in the windows. There was a small public beach that we thought might be a nice activity after we returned from Monaco. This was one of those times when the pictures we ha seen perfectly matched what we were now viewing with our own eyes!

We found the train station with little trouble. We followed the signs up the stairs to the platform heading in the direction of Monaco. It was about 10:30 in the morning at this point, and we heard that the trains came about every 20-25 minutes. When we made it up to the ticket booth there was a sign in the window saying that the next train to Monaco wouldn't be until 1:30. After
speaking with the Frenchman in the window we were not filled with confidence when he said, "it should be here at 1:30, but it is Sunday so..." Well we knew that as pretty as Villefranche was, it was not going to hold the interest of our 3 and 4 year old for three hours, and the 1:30 train
apparently wasn't a done deal either... So we decided that we would catch a taxi in Monaco. It was less cost effective, but at least our day wouldn't be ruined, and in looking back it worked out well.

The 30 minute drive into Monaco was beautiful! Driving along the French Rivera with sweeping views of the Mediterranean, and our ship anchored at sea. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any photos of it, but you'll just have to take my word for it! The taxi driver took us exactly where we needed to go, and we got his card so we could call him for a pick up in a couple hours.

We bought our tickets for the Little Train, and we had a while until the next departure, so we ventured out to find a restroom. We had heard horror stories of disgusting public pay toilets in Europe, but we were in Monaco, the Beverly Hills of Europe, surely that wouldn't be the case here right? Wrong. Not far from the train was the restrooms. A woman sat out front with a plate full of Euro coins. I figured that the plate was for tips, and it wasn't actually a pay toilet, so I didn't add to the pile. She didn't hassle me, but apparently she hassled some other folks. I'm glad that I didn't pay because the place was dirty and almost stereo-typically, there was no seat on the toilet... You have got to be kidding me!

On the plus side there was a lovely little park across the street with even more lovely views of the water. I did get some pictures here. We had a snack and the little ones ran around for a few minutes before we headed back to the train.

The Little Train tour was everything that the Barcelona Bus Touristic was not. Interesting and only about 40 minutes. It took through Monte Carlo and by all of the major sites. Except for the cheesy background music, it reminded me a lot of the tourist train ride we took in Key West on our Western Caribbean Disney cruise a couple years earlier. After the train ride the little ones were ready to head back to the ship for chicken and french fries from Pluto's Dog House, and some quality time in the kid's clubs, so we called our cabbie and headed back to Villefranche.

We were greeted at the tender dock with the welcome site of Disney crew members with orange and lemon flavored ice water! It was a nice touch, and you could see the envy in the eyes of other cruise ship passengers in adjacent lines!

The tender ride to and from the ship was nice. The marina in Villefranche had some really nice yachts and antique looking ships. But as always we would be boarding the most beautiful ship in the harbor!

We spent the rest of the day lounging around the pool deck while we waited to see Twice Charmed. I had missed this show on our first cruise on the Magic, so I was looking forward to finally seeing it. It did not disappoint. The show was great, probably my favorite of all the shows I have seen on Disney Cruises.

While Villefranche was not without its challenges, it was a good start to our cruise. Luckily, we would have better luck with train stations in Italy than we had in France. It wasn't as easy as a day as we had thought it would be, but it was a success. We made it where we wanted to go, and made it back! We got a taste of the "high life" in Monaco, but were more than happy to retire at the end of the day, back to our staterooms on the Magic!

Up next La Spezia...

 

[CastawayJP]

Also I wanted to add that if anybody is interested in seeing the navigators (except Villefranche) from this cruise I have them and can email them to you. Since DCL won't be back in the Med until at least 2013, they won't help with planning much, but if your interested I've got em!

 

[iloverags2]

Enjoying your report! Villefranche is so beautiful! Oh, and I love your pics of the beach in Barcelona!

 

[CastawayJP]

Enjoying your report! Villefranche is so beautiful! Oh, and I love your pics of the beach in Barcelona!

Thanks for reading! As I mentioned we LOVED Barcelona! We are already looking at taking a long weekend trip there, That's one of the great things about being in Europe, cheap flights to amazing places!

 

[CastawayJP]

Our second stop on our Mediterranean voyage brought us to La Spezia, Italy, gateway to Florence and Pisa. This is one of those Mediterranean ports where cruisers get of the ship and scatter throughout the Italian countryside. We would be doing things a little differently however...

Early on in our planning we had decided to use one of our port days as a second day at sea. The decision was made for a couple different reasons. The first was that with so many ports to visit, and only one sea day, we knew that we all, and the kids in particular, would need a take it easy day. For us, we knew that after being in a very foreign country for 6 months, and not having been on a Disney ship in over a year, we would want to spend a day taking advantage of everything the ship has to offer. La Spezia was chosen as our second sea day because it made sense to have a good day of rest before we tackled Rome, which was sure to be a tiresome day for everyone. Another reason was because that Florence was at least a 2 hour trainride from the port, and since it was Monday the museum where the statue of David is located would not be open.

We started the day very leisurely, we slept as long as the younger kids would allow, grabbed some breakfast and checked out the navigator to see what was going on and when. Today would be a good day for the kids to hang out in the Oceaneer Club, and for the adults to hang out at the Quiet Cove pool! Nobody put up a fight with this plan, but we promised the kids they would get some pool time today as well! We wanted to make sure that our daughter got to see her favorite character Stitch, so after she got some pictures with him, we dropped them off at the club.

I was surprised how many people stayed on the ship. I thought that we would have the place pretty much to ourselves, but apparently, our idea was not as novel as I had thought! The Quiet Cove was active, but not busy, and we were able to get a couple loungers in the sun. We nabbed a couple of decent magazines from the Cove Cafe (although my wife enjoyed her Smithsonian magazine more than my Everyday with Rachel Ray), and some sweet treats, and just relaxed. It was pretty warm in the sun so we grabbed some lunch after about an hour and a half. We grabbed the kids so they could have some pool time, and I think that is when I decided that ice cream would be a good idea!

After some pool time, we thought our oldest daughter might like to do some family crafts. Theywere making buttons in the Promenade Lounge, so we grabbed some drinks from the drink station and headed down for craft time. The crew member who was running this activity was Matthew from Canada, and for the first 15 minutes or so, we were the only people there. We got a chance to really talk to him, and he really seemed to love what hewas doing. We always appreciate Disney Cast Members, but on the ships they just seem to be the best of the best! I think that there is so much guest interaction in a smaller (than a theme park at least) setting, you have to be really good with people, and the Disney Cruise Crew Members are just great at it!

My number one thing for this day was seeing Cars 2 as a family. You might remember that I wrote this post a couple months back about Cars 2, and how I was really looking forward to taking the kids to see it. Since Cars 2 has been out for awhile now, I won't bother with a full review, but the family enjoyed it. It was a little loud for my son, but he watched intently the whole time. Our youngest daughter fell asleep (I guess she was having lots of fun in the club)! Everyone above the age of 12 really liked it too. While I didn't like the story (or felt it was up to the high standards Pixar has set), I thought it was the best looking animated film I had ever seen (we saw it in 3D)! It was also really cool to see places we were going to see very soon!

After the movie it was time to get ready and head to dinner. I have to say that the food was very good on this cruise. Every night we really enjoyed our meals. This was also the first time that I taken part in the time honored cruise tradition of ordering 2 entrees. I usually split the second one with my Dad, but it was still fun to do it! I also ate more seafood than usual on this cruise. I guess my body decided that it missed fish living in Romania! I'm usually such a steak eater on the cruise... Sometimes I surprise myself!

for the rest of the evening we followed the theme of the day, and took it easy. I think after the kids were in bed we put the grandparents in charge, and checked out some of the evening adult activities. We weren't very impressed with the piano lounge singer in Sessions, so we just strolled up on deck before we turned in.

The next stop is the eternal city of Rome. Adventure awaits!

 

[iloverags2]

Fabulous idea to spend the day on the ship! The picture of your daughter and Stitch is absolutely precious!!! Cannot wait to hear about Rome.

 

[shoppgirl]

I am really enjoying your port reviews! Thank you for your detailed adventures for each port! We cancelled our Med cruise on NCL's Epic next summer for another Dream cruise. I don't know if that was a mistake or not, because it has always been a dream of mine to go to Europe!! I think I will wait until my girls are older and can appreciate it. They are adamant that they are not ready for Europe and would prefer the beaches of the carribean and the Dream ship! The flights to Europe are also a huge deterrant for me.

I look forward to reading about what you did in Rome! Maybe Disney will return to the Med in 2013, and we can get the best of both worlds! Looking forward to reading more of your trip review!

 

[CastawayJP]

Today was the day that I felt excited and sick. We would be doing Rome on our own. No Disney guides, no private transportation, no Rick Steeves, at least not in person... Well I guess there are some things to be thankful for... This was the port of call where I had done the planning and the research. This was the stop that we had the highest expectations for. I mean it's Rome for goodness sake! How many times had my 12 year old watched the Lizzy McGuire Movie and sang along with Hey Now, Hey Now... How many times had my father probably seen Roman Holiday or some other black and white dinosaur of a movie on TCM? We are talking the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon... And we are trying to do it by ourselves, with two kids under the age of five... We were either courageous, or delusional!

As I mentioned in a previous post, my wife had done most of the research and planning for our day in Villefranche and Monaco, so this one was mine. I read dozens of trip reports on the DIS boards, studied up at AllEars, and visited countless other websites. But then like manna from Heaven a fellow DISer posted about her website/podcast Cruize Cast I went to the site and saw that they were sharing their experiences doing ports on your own, and low and behold a couple weeks later they did an entire podcast on doing Rome on your own just for me (at least that is how I felt)! They took you through the entire day step by step, and their information was spot on! They planned out a much fuller day than we would be able to do,, but they important stuff was there! I bet I listened to it five times before we left, and at least once on the flight to Barcelona.

We planned ahead and pre-ordered breakfast from room service. We knew it would be a very full day and we wanted to get off the ship early so we never felt worried about getting back to the ship on time.

***On a bit of a side note... I heard more announcements for certain parties to call or visit guest services around departure time on this cruise than all of our 6 previous ones combined!***

We ate and got off the ship pretty early. It was nice that we didn't have to tender, but we did need to catch a shuttle bus to the entrance of the port. That was no problem and before we knew it we were walking to the Civitavecchia train station. I can't remember what time we arrived, but there was a short wait for the next train into Rome. Soon our train had come in, and we boarded. The train ride was about an hour and twenty minutes in the main station in Rome, Termini. We were lucky that we had boarded pretty early, because many people on the train did not have seats for the entire journey into Rome. From Termini we took the metro (a bit of a hike, but very well marked, and my wife was able to grab an espresso) two stops to the stop for the Colosseum, aptly named Colosseum.

Now I am a seasoned metro traveler. I've ridden the rails in Washington, New York, London, Barcelona, and some other big cities, but I have never experienced anything like stepping out of the Colosseum metro station. When you step out into the daylight you look up and there it is, what you have seen on TV and in movies so many times... The Colosseum in all her ancient glory. And what is the first thing that pops into my head?

"Wow having a metro stop this close to the Colosseum must have made it really easy to come see the gladiators!" Please hold the applause until after the post...

We were smart and pre-paid for our entrance online... we paid a little extra for the convenience, but after seeing the line it was money well spent. We buzzed by the stand by line like Fast Pass holders and soon we were in the Colosseum looking for our sons shoes... Just like Audrey Hepburn right?

Per Cruize Cast's recommendation, we had downloaded Rick Steeves' audio guide for the Colosseum an we had enough iPods for everyone ages 12 and up, but it was tough to follow because he wasn't very clear where we should start. My Mom seemed to continually be saying, "oh that is what he was talking about" throughout the tour. I never even bothered to start mine. It was really neat to be there, but when it really hit me that we were in Rome was after we came out of the Colosseum and saw the rest of the ancient city. Before my research I couldn't have told you anything about the forum, but here we were standing at the base of the Colosseum, looking at it. Just like people had said, pictures just can't do Rome justice.

Our next stop was the Trevii Fountain. I had my map, and I was ready to lead the way! I had read that there were some good places to stop for a quick lunch near the fountain, so we planned on eating somewhere close to there. The walk was a little longer and not as direct as I had thought, and it was a pretty hot day, but we got there eventually (probably about a half hour later). We saw signs for a McDonalds, but never saw it, so we trudged on looking for the fountain.

We walked down an alley and it suddenly appeared in front of us! It wasn't as out in the open as I had thought it would be, but it did not disappoint! The gellato and Coke Zero that we got there didn't either! We all took turns fighting through the crowds to toss our coins in the fountain, and I treated everyone in ear shot to my rendition of "Three Coins in a Fountain. " As we all tossed our coins in I wondered what they would think when they found our Romanian Bani in there!

At this point we were all hot and sweaty, so rather than walk to the nearest metro stop, we decided that we would hop a cab back to Termini station. After talking our cabbie into loading all 7 of us into his Peugeot, we were on our way. He was worried about the local police seeing his full car, so he dropped us off around the corner from the station, right next to a cafe. So we stayed and enjoyed a couple of Roman pizzas in the shadow of the train station.


After eating we started our voyage back to the ship. we were able to decipher the schedule to figure out when the next train to Civitaveccia was, but figuring out which platform was more of a challenge. We found the platform just as the train arrived, and we hopped on and grabbed our seats.

We got back to the ship around 6 o'clock. It's all a blur, but I think we grabbed a snack from Pluto's Dog House, took the kids to their respective clubs, showered up, and went to dinner.

There was a real sense of accomplishment after today. We did it... To Rome and back, with two little ones. We enjoyed the day, but I on't think that any of us would say it was our favorite day of the vacation. We were so happy that we did it, and found Rome to be awesome. But I don't know if it lived up to the (maybe unfairly high) expectations...

Next stop, Naples, Sorrento, Pompeii and the kidless excursion!

 

[CastawayJP]

Fabulous idea to spend the day on the ship! The picture of your daughter and Stitch is absolutely precious!!! Cannot wait to hear about Rome.

Thanks! I can't even guess how many pics we have of her with Stitch! She just loves him!

I am really enjoying your port reviews! Thank you for your detailed adventures for each port! We cancelled our Med cruise on NCL's Epic next summer for another Dream cruise. I don't know if that was a mistake or not, because it has always been a dream of mine to go to Europe!! I think I will wait until my girls are older and can appreciate it. They are adamant that they are not ready for Europe and would prefer the beaches of the carribean and the Dream ship! The flights to Europe are also a huge deterrant for me.

I look forward to reading about what you did in Rome! Maybe Disney will return to the Med in 2013, and we can get the best of both worlds! Looking forward to reading more of your trip review!

Thanks for reading! I hope they come back to Europe in 2013! I think you should wait until your girls are ready for Europe. We did this more for my parents so they could get a taste of Europe... I'm such a giver! The kids definitely appreciate the beauty of the Caribbean more than the significance of Europe. If we knew for sure DCL was coming back, we might have waited until the younguns were a little older.

we also wanted to take advantage of doing it while we were living in Europe...

 

[iloverags2]

Wow! You are brave souls for tackling Rome on your own...with the little ones! Ok, maybe you are delusional. Yeah, I think I would have way too high expectations also...that's always tough when visiting a place you have just always wanted to see. Speaking of which, I would love to visit Romania someday. My mom went about 15 years ago, to visit the town my grandparents (her parents) were born and raised in (Sarosch). The church where they were baptized is still there, and she found their names in a book! Pretty cool considering they came over to America in the 20's!

Back on subject...looking forward to hearing more about your cruise!

 

[CastawayJP]

Wow! You are brave souls for tackling Rome on your own...with the little ones! Ok, maybe you are delusional. Yeah, I think I would have way too high expectations also...that's always tough when visiting a place you have just always wanted to see. Speaking of which, I would love to visit Romania someday. My mom went about 15 years ago, to visit the town my grandparents (her parents) were born and raised in (Sarosch). The church where they were baptized is still there, and she found their names in a book! Pretty cool considering they came over to America in the 20's!

Back on subject...looking forward to hearing more about your cruise!

Romania really is a beautiful country... Especially outside of Bucharest. Unfortunately a lot of tourists kind of skip past it from Hungary to Turkey, and the ones who do make it only come to see Dracula stuff...

Your Mom's story is similar to the US Ambassador's... he didn't realize how much of his family came from Romania until he was appointed Ambassador here. he went to his family's village and saw his family member's names in a church as well. Luckily a lot of those old churches still exist since a lot of Romania was spared dome of the horrors of Communism destruction outside of Bucharest...

 

[CastawayJP]

The next stop on our jaunt around the Med is Naples, Italy. This was one of my most anticipated days of the vacation! Today we would be leaving the 3DisKis with my parents, while my wife and I set of on a Disney excursion named "Timeless Pompeii & The Flavors of Sorrento." This would be a great way for my parents to get some quality time with the grand kids, for the kids to get some quality time in the clubs, and for us to have some quiet time.

When we first started planning this vacation one of my first stops was the DIS's coverage of their Mediterranean cruise, "Magic in the Mediterranean". They had hours of content, and hundreds of photos covering their trip, and they have have always been a very trusted source for planning any Disney vacation, cruise or otherwise. While going through their abundance of videos I came across two that really peaked my interest... One was of the Little farm in Sorrento, and the other was a woman making mozzarella cheese!

We had been warned on embarkation day that we would be getting into Naples a little later than planned, and that some excursions would have later meeting and departure times. Ours was one of them, so we got to sleep about an hour longer than we originally thought we would.

As we have always experienced with Disney excursions, getting off the ship and on our way was very easy! After our day in Rome on our own, we very much appreciated the hand holding and ease that came with a booked port adventure! We boarded a large tour bus, and soon we were
on our way.

Our first stop would be Sorrento, where we would have about an hour and a half of free time before heading to a local farm for lunch, and then we would finish our day with a guided tour of Pompeii.

We winded our way through the shadow of Mount Vesuvius and made our way to Sorrento. We disembarked the tour bus at a store where they specialize in making inlaid wood furniture, but it was pretty much a very large tourist trap (although a nice one) shop. I bet there were 5 or 6 cruise tours all in this place at one time. We saw a quick demonstration about how they make the furniture, and we headed for town.

We walked around town for a little bit. It was pretty, but most of what we saw were your typical shops with things geared for people on vacation, and there were tour groups everywhere! We came to the waterfront, and saw a long drive with a sign for a spa. There was a guard gate and a private property sign, but we figured that since they were advertising a spa they would allow pedestrians in. So we walked down the driveway.

What we stumbled upon was an amazing boutique type hotel that had been voted one of the world's top 500 hotels by Conde Nast, The Excelsior Vittoria. we walked in and asked the concierge if there was a cafe, and he guided us out to a beautiful terrace overlooking the water! It was just us and one other couple out there. It was so quiet and restful, unlike the "outside world" just a couple hundred yards behind us! We enjoyed mineral water and a lemon soda with some mixed nuts before we headed back to the tourist trap to catch our bus. This was one of the highlights of our vacation! we were maybe there for 30 minutes, but we knew that we wanted to return in the future.

We re-boarded the bus and headed for the farm. Now being a city person, seeing the actual farm was not high on my priority list. Having a homemade lunch at the farm made from things grown fresh was! Plus I had seen the video, and the rave reviews from the DIS gang, so I was ready to see some cheese making!

Well, it turns out the we did not go to the same farm as the DIS gang... The tour was kind of interesting, but it was really just an overview to buy time while they prepared our lunch. And the lunch was a disappointment. The anti-pasta they served was pretty good and definitely fresh, but the pasta with tomato sauce and ricotta was boring and bland. The eating area was outside in the shade, but there was no air circulating so it was hot and uncomfortable. We did eat with a very nice family from New Jersey, who tried to sell us on Disney Vacation Club. It was nice to talk with fellow Disney geeks.

Now we were off to Pompeii. We we highly encouraged to take a nap on the bus ride, but we were some of the few who did not. Our tour guide woke up the sleepers about 15 minutes before we got to the site to give us some instructions, and more interesting facts about the region. She explained that this would not be the most in depth tour of Pompeii, but we would hit the important parts, and some things that she found especially interesting. i should say that our tour guide was awesome! I hate that I can't remember her name, because she was so personable, and she did such a great job with everyone.

I wasn't sure what visiting Pompeii would be like. After all, it is the site of one of the most famous natural disasters in the history of Earth. It was very interesting to be there. It wasn't a living history experience like I have been so used to growing up in Virginia and visiting Williamsburg, and Jamestown. There weren't people reenacting what life was like at the time of the eruption, it was just a lot of ruins. Some were in good shape, some were unrecognizable to what they used to be. This is where having a guide made all the difference. She was able to point out things that you wouldn't even look at, or know what it was if you did. One of the examples that comes to mind were "streets" of Pompeii. There were huge stone blocks going through the middle of the streets, and grooves running to each side of them. Well the stones were to cross the street without having to step in the sewage that would have been flowing down the street, and the grooves were actually for lining up the wheels of the chariot so you could drive over the blocks!
There were several others too.

After a shot of Limoncello it was back on the bus one more time for the ride back to the ship. Despite the disappointment of the farm, the excursion was still a great success. It was really nice to have Disney handle all of the logistics for the day. We are now totally sold on doing shore excursions! At least for ports where there is a need to venture out further. I also thought that if this $150 per person excursion was this good, I can't begin to imagine how great an entire Adventures by Disney vacation must be! I definitely see one in our future, and if we do another cruise where the ABD add on is available--and all the kids are old enough-- I will seriously consider it.

As good of a day as this was, and as much as we enjoyed it, there was a downside to our excursion. Because of our late arrival, and awful scheduling by DCL we were unable to attend the Castaway Club party for Gold and Platinum members. The party was scheduled for 5:00, and we didn't get back on the ship until 6:00. Why DCL decided to schedule it on a port day is beyond me. Especially a day where so many people would be going outside of the immediate docking area for the day. I understand that these parties are usually held on sea days, and since there is only one sea day on the 7 night Mediterranean itinerary it would be a busy day, but it just seemed to me like this party had become less and less important to them. The quality of this event has gone downhill over the last few years. I had hoped that when they only opened it up to Gold and Platinum members (no offence to Silver members) they would ramp it up again, but they didn't. It is very disappointing.

So that's it from Naples. Up next, a day at sea. Hang on, this one is about to get interesting!

 

[CastawayJP]

My plan was to finish typing my trip report before I finished the actual video, but I finished the video quicker than I thought I would! I must be getting better at editing! Plus it's not going to give anything away...

So without further ado... 3 Dis Kids: Mediterranean Magic!

Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/XLV43HaPGLc

 

[Anal Annie]

Hey JP!! Been reading your TR!! Good job!! I was bummed you never made it to our DIS meet on the first day!! I started a blog / TR too...it's going slow but was good until yesterday & I lost my Rome stuff when my internet crashed. Have to start over this weekend on getting that stuff posted!! I am adding a lot of pics and they're time consuming as heck. I haven't watched your video yet - off to swim practice right now so I'll watch it later!! I hope to do something before I call it quits tho!!
Chat soon!!
Annie

 

[CastawayJP]

Annie, yeah we had hoped to get down to the meet but didn't make it... I'll have to check out your TR! send me a link to your blog! It is always cool to see how other people enjoyed the same cruise, especially one like ours where you could go in so many directions!

 

[iloverags2]

Your quiet break at the cafe sounds absolutely wonderful! What a treat you were able to find a nice, secluded spot to relax. Sorry the farm wasn't as good as you had hoped, but it does sound like the stop on your own and Pompeii made up for that.

Bummer about the CC party. Yeah, it seems those special things DCL used to do are going by the wayside. Sad.

Looking forward to hearing about your at-sea-day!

 

[Anal Annie]

Annie, yeah we had hoped to get down to the meet but didn't make it... I'll have to check out your TR! send me a link to your blog! It is always cool to see how other people enjoyed the same cruise, especially one like ours where you could go in so many directions!

Hey there...there's a link to my blog in my siggie (I hope it works)!! I have 8 days worth posted so far & hope to add day #9 (Rome for us) this weekend if my internet cooperates!!

I think a lot of the peeps from our meet thread stayed on the ship in several ports - esp. the ones with younger kids and who were first time cruisers. They just wanted to enjoy the ship & didn't want the hassle of dealing with the kids in the ports and having long days.

 

[Anal Annie]

Hey - just watched the video - that was great!! I wanna do one!! I wanna do one!! I've never DONE one before!! What do you recommend using to put it together? I could use some advice, tips & hints (pretty please)!!