5/12-5/26, 2007- LIVE from the first MED repo cruise! Now adding PICS! :)

[CRSNDSNY]

So what's our next stop???

Looks like today is a Sea Day and tomorrow is Cadiz, Spain 11:00 AM 10:30 PM.

 

[jblb1020]

I so wish I was on the Magic........

 

[Verandah Man]

So what's our next stop???

14-Night Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise to Barcelona Itinerary

Sailing - May 12, 2007

Ashore Onboard
Saturday: Board the ship in Port Canaveral 4:30 PM
Sunday: Castaway Cay 8:30 AM 4:30 PM
Monday: At Sea
Tuesday: At Sea
Wednesday: At Sea
Thursday: At Sea
Friday: At Sea
Saturday: At Sea
Sunday: Tenerife, Canary Islands 8:30 AM 9:00 PM
Monday: At Sea
Tuesday: Cadiz, Spain 11:00 AM 10:30 PM
Wednesday: Gibraltar, UK 8:00 AM 5:30 PM
Thursday: At Sea
Friday: Barcelona, Spain 11:00 AM Overnight
Saturday: Debark Barcelona 6:45 AM ​

 

[jonesing]

And yeah, it was good to see land, but there were alot of us that loved all of the sea days too! I don't think it was as big of a deal to me as it was alot of the crew LOL. I am sure other people were excited too though. I am just excited to have another sea day tomorrow to maybe catch up on some sleep again.

After being at sea that long, I'm sure I would have probably kissed the ground! Great photos! Can't wait for the next update.

 

[Barbossa]

I can imagine how wobbly everyone's legs were when they stepped on land at Tenerife. My brain was pitching up and down for a week after our DCL cruise ended!

 

[BobandLee]

14-Night Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise to Barcelona Itinerary

Sailing - May 12, 2007

Ashore Onboard
Saturday: Board the ship in Port Canaveral 4:30 PM
Sunday: Castaway Cay 8:30 AM 4:30 PM
Monday: At Sea
Tuesday: At Sea
Wednesday: At Sea
Thursday: At Sea
Friday: At Sea
Saturday: At Sea
Sunday: Tenerife, Canary Islands 8:30 AM 9:00 PM
Monday: At Sea
Tuesday: Cadiz, Spain 11:00 AM 10:30 PM
Wednesday: Gibraltar, UK 8:00 AM 5:30 PM
Thursday: At Sea
Friday: Barcelona, Spain 11:00 AM Overnight
Saturday: Debark Barcelona 6:45 AM ​

Actually, we left Ternerife at 4:30. On the dot.

 

[BobandLee]

I can imagine how wobbly everyone's legs were when they stepped on land at Tenerife. My brain was pitching up and down for a week after our DCL cruise ended!

Speaking for just the two of us.....no problem.

 

[Verandah Man]

Actually, we left Ternerife at 4:30. On the dot.

So much for getting good info from the DCL website.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

So much for getting good info from the DCL website.

What year was that????

 

[jakenjacksmom]

Great Report!!!!

 

[Michelle2]

Day 8: Saturday, May 19, 2007

I am retroactively doing this day and the next day (Sunday), so they may be more brief since it is now Monday.

Remember when I said that most everyone chose one of the 2 sleeping options of:
A. Either sleeping in until 11 or later (sometimes 12:00 after nights where we have to set the clock forward) in the morning or,
B. Waking up early and then taking a huge nap for most the day? LOL
Well, today, we chose option B.
We started out the day just great, waking up at a decent time at about 9:30am (since we wanted to catch the final Desperate Shipmates series at 11:00 am). Believe me, that is a good time for us! Desperate Shipmates was really cute by the way! I think the characters in that one did a fabulous job!

DS and I went back to the room (per his request) and ended up falling asleep for most of the afternoon. L Deck 9 was super windy, so hardly anyone was up there….I doubted they would even hold the Mickey 200 grand prix up there at 2:15.…
DH speaks fluent Spanish. He went to live in Argentina for 2 years soon after graduating high school, but it was so long ago---no, I am not telling how long ago. J He is getting rusty, even I admit that. He went to the basic Spanish class 2 to see if it would brush up his vocabulary. He has no problem with the conjugations of the verbs, but forgot a lot of vocabulary words. It ended up being a very simple class just teaching people certain phrases that they might need to know in Spanish. I tried to tell him it would probably be that, but oh well, he went and said it still had some good information on the ports as well.

We did not do so good with the destination lecture series, especially since it was getting to really good stuff about the individual ports of call that we would be heading to the next day. But we were so tired, we probably would have fallen asleep anyways. Nothing to do with the speaker, he was really good, but we were really worn out today for some reason.
Some other things that we had highlighted, but never made it to were:
Chip it golf tournment
Boat building challenge (but I think this was an ongoing event since they announced that people had been working on it all week…)
Spanish jackpot bingo
Improv workshop
Game show-the Feud

We could not do the last 2 anyways since they started at 5:30 and we had dinner at 6:00

We ended up staying and reading/relaxing/sleeping in the room. But when I wake up, I still end up beating myself up for all the things that I ended up missing….L Kind of like cheating on a diet. You sure feel great while you are doing it, but once you indulge, you kick yourself for being so undisciplined. Afterall, I can sleep plenty when I am at home right? Ok, no more naps or sleeping in. Yeah right, that lasted until Monday. Hahaha!

Tonight came another really tricky maneuver night. Exactly like on Golden Mickey night (in which we did not have good seats for). And this is one of my “no matinee” gripes, that can be said for main and late dining.
We had dinner at 6:00, a family cabaret show by Mike Super, who is in fact pretty ravenous, at 7:45, which we would already have to get desserts to go in order to attend it, and then that goes right up until showtime Twice Charmed at 8:30. SO we had the choice of either:

A. Skipping the family cabaret show in order to stake out the theater to get good seats for Twice Charmed. In which we would still have to leave dinner at a timely fashion…
Or
B. Have one of us leave dinner early to take just DS to the Mike Super show, and the other (still having to get desserts to to go) stake out seats at the theater until the other 2 could join exactly at 8:30.
Confused yet? Sorry, I am pretty precise in my evening show planning….

We ended up choosing option A and skipping the family cabaret show completely and just all going to the theater to get good spots. We did not like the idea of saving seats, since it really is not allowed, and we do not like it when others do it.

We noticed someone was already at one door, so we headed to the other. DH went and took DS to do some things instead of just waiting at the theater doors.
When 8:00 came, it was almost exactly like a scene out of Chariots of Fire. Imagine the music with me:
Our doors open first, so DH goes at a quick WALK down the stairs. There are no kids around or anyone in front of us, so no bowling anyone over. We glance over to the other side, COOL, we were let in first, and they hadn’t even came in yet. But as DH was about ¾ down, a husband (I think of a fellow Diser) cames RACING down the stairs on the other side, and almost beat my hubby down. He was bookin it! DH saw that out of the corner of his eye but was about already there, so we grabbed seats right in the middle. Some seats on the right side had already been taken up by some reserved seats--cquick and her son. There were plenty of seats on both sides, but the man took seats in the center in the second row. I have noticed sometimes they win, sometimes we win, LOL I think it will be a battle every night. But I say, there are plenty of seats in the front for all! There were 2 sets of 4 seats on both the right and left side that went unclaimed for awhile…so I think it all depends.

Before we used to have a problem with a family that sent 2 young kids (2 boys) who literally would run down the stairs and would save half of the front row. That is when I have a problem is when about 3 or 4 people save the entire front row. Sorry for going into all this, I just thought the whole Chariots of Fire race that night was really really funny. When they open up the race horses, “And they’re OFF!” J

The show was great as always, and then we headed over to Rockin Bar D where John Charles was giving another adult cabaret show. Since there was actually time in between the shows, we could actually SEE that one.
He also did a great job as usual. They announced that they were all getting off the ship tomorrow at Tenerife, and a whole new set was getting on. Cool!
After that, we just settled into our room and relaxed and read. We wanted to get to bed pretty early since we wanted to see us dock into Tenerife the next morning!

Stay tuned:
Docking in Tenerife--a new port of call, which was also quite literal for us, since the only cruises we had done had both been Easterns.
Our excursion at Loro Parque---our only full day excursion
“We sure aren’t in Kansas anymore, Toto---ah yes, I remember Europe now…..”
Dinner at Animator’s Palate and the light show
Boyz II Men
Thank goodness, no conflict with any family cabaret show.

 

[Michelle2]

Day 9: Sunday, Tenerife!!!

We did an excursion through DCL for Loro Parque. Now if our DS4 was not with us, we probably would not have done this excursion. Afterall, we have Sea World at home that we could go to anytime. But we thought with him that we should do something we could take him to.

Our excursion left from Rockin Bar at 8:45, so we had plenty of time to have breakfast and see the ship dock for the first time in Tenerife at 8:00

We woke up at about 6:30 so DH could be right at the exchange desk to get some Euros while I got ready. He said no one was around at that time. When we headed to the upper decks at about 7:30, the ship was already in the process of slowing down and approaching the port. The ship actually pulled up along one side of the dock, and then backed down the other side….make sense? So Topsider’s was a perfect spot to have breakfast AND watch the ship dock.
Once we were all pulled in, they did the ship’s horn not only once but twice. I did not think that they would since it was so early. And, since we were really near the mountains, it echoed a lot! Really cool….J

We finished breakfast and I finished getting myself ready and the room straightened up, We went and met at Rockin Bar D at 8:40, and were in group number 1. They said they were having 2 busses, one would leave first, and the second right after. Literally, when we pulled into the park, the other was right behind us, so it really did not matter.

We had had a talk with one of the kids clubs counselors the night before that said it was the best excursion and that he had been to it not long ago, and loved it. He said it was the second largest water animal park show in the world behind Sea World, and the first largest in Europe. Mount Teide would have been our second choice, but he said it was kind of risky since the cable cars didn’t always operate due to weather conditions.

The drive there was beautiful!! I am glad it took a nice long 35 minute route to get there, got to see the beautiful country:

At the park, they gathered us all together to take our picture for the city newspaper since this was the first time Disney had come to Tenerife.
We met in a conference room and said there were tours available, but it really was not necessary to seat us all down in the room like that. Just a waste of time and crowding in my opinion.
The park itself was beautiful, clean and well kept. The shows were not much different than you would find at Sea World, in fact I thought they were a little beneath that. But all in all, a great excursion for a family, or those that love zoos and animals, or those with young children that want to take them on the excursions with them.

It was a long day, and I did not like the people/crowd mentality there. I have never bumped into or have been bumped into by so many people before in my life. Since it was Sunday and shops close on Sundays, therefore being most people having Sundays off (probably moreso than even the US) it was pretty crowded, especially as the day went on. And maneuvering through crowds seemed different with Europeans, cannot put my finger on how, but it was.

The parrot show was hilarious!!! There was one bird in the background that was just talking up a storm, it was so funny.
We were supposed to leave at 5:00 pm so that some of us could try and catch our 6 pm dinner time. In fact, we were supposed to meet at 4:45 so that we could leave at 5:00. Everyone was there sitting on the bus at about 4:50, in fact when we stepped on the bus, we thought we had kept everyone waiting, since most everyone was almost there. BUT---some people (8 to be exact) chose to keep everyone waiting by not showing up at 10 after 5:00.
We had just enough time to barely change clothes to make it up to dinner, and even then we were about 15 minutes late. I would not have cared so much, but it was the special show in Animator’s Palate. I really like it, so I wanted to be there for it.
Sorry for the gripe…. not meaning to sound overly negative, but it bugged me. After a too long excursion for us, we really wanted to get back to the ship. We actually were ready to head back at about 2:00pm. I guess I am a half day excursion gal. At least it could have been later causing us to miss our dinner completely right?

After dinner, DH was really tired so he did not feel up to going to the show (Boyz II Men) and DS did not want to go to the kids clubs. I did not want to miss it, so I went by myself. J DH and DS took a nice nap. But to me, naps can be taken when we are at home!!!!
I thought the Boyz II Men show was really good! But I have always liked them. There were a lot of fans there, so they had a really loud welcome, and a standing ovation at the end. The late show was very crowded. During one song, they handed out roses to whatever ladies came up to the stage. There was a mad dash up there, and they were really beautiful long stemmed roses, but I did not feel like getting up. LOL It wasn’t out of laziness it was out of avoiding some extra pain.
**Quick note, I forgot to mention in the beginning of my report (partly/mostly because it was an embarrassing incident J), that about a week before this trip, I think I broke my tailbone. That week before leaving, it hurt like you know what to sit down and to get up from sitting…especially from softer seats, go figure. It also hurt more leaning back than sitting forward. So after sitting in the WD Theater for the shows (about an hour to an hour and a half depending on how early we get there) it really really hurt to get up out of those soft seats.
As the time has gone on, it has been a little better, but still not much after the shows. It’s still painful getting up.

I saw that both Jiminy and Pinnochio were making a picture opportunity together at 9:30 pm...Even though I was ready to call it a night, I could NOT pass that one up. I begged DS to come and get his picture taken with them for me. I got him down there, but then he decided he did not want to do it. The small line that there was, dwindled down to no one, so I turned on the charms with DS. I told the handler to PLEASE not leave, I was working on DS as much as I could. To make a long story short, I know, too late, LOL!
I was able to get DS in a pic but he did not look happy in it, so I don’t know which was worse. I told him he did not have to do any other pics after that one, but we will see. He usually was so good at getting his pic taken, I think he was just tired that night, so immediately after it, I took him up to the room and we all called it a night---after some ice cream of course.

We enjoyed relaxing and reading, and posting some pics of Tenerife.
Tomorrow, another sea day, and ANOTHER hour forward tonight…JOY! But it’s the last one, so Woo hooo!

 

[Michelle2]

Day 10: Another sea day! Monday, May 21, 2007

Where is the time going? We are already over half way over with this cruise….L
We ended up sleeping in today--we chose option A this morning. We did not even set the wake up call. J
Setting the clock forward all those nights, and then a final one last night, it has been taking its toll, especially from those of us in the west.

So we got up and hurried and got ready to see the Ducky Williams auction. Wow! That was so much fun to watch. He had limited edition proofs and original proofs, and even original paintings for sale. We watched the bidding by a lot of people with more spare money than we had! LOL I wish I could have bought one, but that would be money out of our next cruise which is the Panama Canal in a little over a year, so could not do it. There were sure some beautiful pieces of art! He is so talented….

In the atrium off to the side by the guest services desk, they have a display of all the special plaques that DCL is giving to the ports for being the first visits by DCL. They are also displaying all of the plaques received by the ports as an honor for visiting them. They had only one from Tenerife, obviously since it was the only one we had visited so far. They had 3 out of the 4 plaques that they will present to the remaining ports on display too. I thought that they were really neat. I was also really happy to be a part of this inaugural cruise.

The weather today was awful. It was SOOOO windy, and cold even. The captain in his announcement said it was totally untypical and rare. He also said we would be passing by Casablanca and the state of Morocco most of the day about 80 nautical miles off of the starboard side. I never was able to see it though---weather was just to rough to go up there for long, and therefore, I forgot about it.
To tell the honest truth, the weather really hasn’t bothered me much. The only thing that has been rough, is we like to go on deck 4 to read, and never have due to the winds, but no biggie, we just read in our room. Also, we have a verandah, and have not really been out on it, just too windy. But when it comes to the pools, we have one at home, and DS doesn’t go down the slides, so swimming is not that big a deal to us. We are hoping it will get a little better as we get out of the Atlantic….

Rachel came on the speaker and said that all deck activities would be canceled, and that most would be replaced or moved to inside. I went up to get DS a cheese pizza and you should have seen the Mickey pool that was completely closed. What a wave pool! I am glad they closed it, for as fun as a wave pool sounds, it was really dangerous looking for kids. The Goofy pool was still open though, with the lifeguards huddling in jackets. There were a few crazy kids who were in it too, but they looked like they were having a great time in it (being a great wave pool) so good for them!

They added a high school musical dance party (with Donald duck), and moved a character dance party from the Goofy stage into the atrium. I noticed when I went by both of these parties that mostly it was for young young kids. At the character one, they were playing Wiggles music “Head shoulders, knees and toes”---the characters were Chip and Dale, Lilo, Max and Donald.

Boyz II Men were having an autograph session, which I thought was really nice of them. I thought they would be more secluded since they had to stay the night because the ship left before their second show was over. They signed anything you wanted them too, and although they had a greatest hits CD people could purchase, they did not make that the only thing they would sign. A lot of people had them sign their cruise book, or the navigator with their pics on the front. They even had extra clean and new navigators that they gave you if you forgot it, or didn’t have it. I had it, but it was all wrinkled and folded, since I carry it around with me. They even took pictures with people. I know it does not sound like a big deal, but I have been to meet and greets where they did a lot less than that. So I was really surprised, especially since they said they had a new album out. I thought that they would make you buy the new CD. The line basically took an hour for me, and I was about half way through the line, so it was probably a 2 hour thing.

When I got out of Rockin Bar D at 4:00, I basically went and worked on my past due days’ reports, and then we had Palo dinner at 6:00pm. We were able to get DS to the kids clubs by telling him that they were in the Lab that night LOL, which was true of course.

DH went up to Palo and got us a table in the middle of the window and with our server Alex. Dinner was exquisite. Usually in the past I have loved brunch much better, but dinner was actually better for me this time. In fact, I was close to canceling it, but am so glad that I didn’t. It was divine. It also fit in perfect since there was not the huge scheduling mess of family cabaret, show and adult cabaret tonight. In fact, there were NO cabarets tonight. Nothing but the regular showtime, and it was the crew talent show tonight.

We had the minestrone soup as the appetizer, along with the Pizza Lucana (bbq chicken). DH had the filet mignon which he thought was perfectly cooked and delicious!! He said it melted in his mouth. I tried some, and it did!
I had the linguine…it was in a white cheese sauce, and had bits of ham in it. Right up my alley! We also had small tried of the Gnocchi and he brought out a small try of ravioli filled with spinach and cheese…also right up my alley. And for dessert, of course the Palo souffle. In all honesty, it tasted much better than on our other 2 cruises. For some reason dinner was so awesome this time around, and I don’t even know why. I am sure things were pretty much the same, but I really loved it more this time.


At the talent show:
They did a really good job. I think it takes so much guts to get up there in front of so many people. They also did Dancing with the Officers throughout the show, which was really cute. I am pretty sure Rachel used to dance growing up, because she seemed very coordinated. They all did a great job!

Tonight there is no setting the clocks forward, HALLELUJAH!!! In fact, it’s the last time this trip! HALLELUJAH!!!

Tomorrow is the port of Cadiz!! We have the Jerez de la Frontera and the Royal Equestrian school planned. I am happy because it is a half day excursion---especially since we are taking DS. The ship does not leave port until 10:30 at night, so we will be so happy to drop DS off at the lab and go and look around, DH and I. We are really excited!

 

[sherrie]

Thank you Michelle sounds like you are falling into the cruise groove. Wish i was there except for the cold and wind

 

[PrettyInTink]

Great updates Michelle! Thanks for sharing. Sounds like you are having a great time (between naps, of course )

 

[2angelsinheaven]

Wow guys how cool! I can't imagine waking up and being in SPAIN, that's incredible. Michelle thanks for the updates they are just great. =o)

 

[cruiseletters]

Actually, we left Ternerife at 4:30. On the dot.

I thought that the schedule for leaving Tenerife was later than that. We have an excursion on the western repo that is 9 hrs long Robin

 

[Michelle2]

I thought that the schedule for leaving Tenerife was later than that. We have an excursion on the western repo that is 9 hrs long Robin

It should be fine. Ours was a big full day one too. From 9 till 5, so I think it should be ok. Heading the other way, maybe you will not be as tight on time either?
But our departure has always been around 4:30 or 5:00, they just headed out a little earlier, but not by much....

 

[jns]

Thanks again for the live reports really enjoying been a part of your cruise

 

[MrsG]

Thanks so much Michelle. We really enjoy reading about your trip!!!