6/14 Med Cruise Debrief

[PurplePencil]

My family returned from a wonderful 8-night Mediterranean Cruise round trip from Civitavecchia aboard the Disney Magic in a Cat. 4B. I don't think I have enough time, energy, or content to write a full a trip report, so here goes.
Stateroom-- We did have 3 pump bottles in the shower (shampoo, conditioner, and body wash) and a pump bottle of lotion on the counter. We did ask our room steward for an extra bar of soap for the sink next to the shower, and received one with no issues, which is good to know for those preferring soap in the shower. We did not receive a Daily Navigator in the room, but did not ask our Room Steward if it would be possible to. Instead, we visited Guest Services each night where they were plentiful in the wall organizer, with no issues grabbing as many as needed.

Shows-- We had a "normal" nightly show schedule, with 3 Broadway style shows and no doubling up. In addition to the 3 shows (Twice Charmed, Tangled, and Disney Dreams) we also had a Welcome Aboard Show, a show featuring performances of Disney songs with light staging (Once Upon a Song), 2 Variety Acts, and Aladdin (the 2019 Movie). Once Upon a Song was unlike our previous European cruise with a Broadway star aboard, it was not any special performers. We did have a Prem-EAR of Toy Story 4 Thursday night at 11, which was announced the night before. However, it was quite evident that Toy Story 4 would be onboard based on the movie schedule for Friday which was almost completely empty (movie schedule for the entire cruise was shown in the first day Navigator)

Ports-- We did private tours in 2 ports, did a Disney excursion in 1 port (Florence on Your Own), and explored 2 ports on our own. For both of the private tours we had no issues finding the driver in the port area, and our driver checked with us when all-aboard time was to ensure we got back with plenty of time to spare (1.5+ hours for both). DCL did provide a shuttle bus in all of the ports, but we only used it in Barcelona, so I don't know where it drops off. In Barcelona, the shuttle was dropped off/picked up near the Christopher Columbus statue and was easy to find. There were no paging Mr. xyz from room 0000 calls over the PA system, however that is not to say that no one missed the ship

App-- We used the app to message each other, view the dinner menus, and find upcoming activities. For the most part it worked well, with occasional app crashes, message send failures, and message delivery failures. In addition to messaging via the app, iMessage on iPhones was free without having to log into Connect@Sea, as were app notifications. It is important to note that although you could receive a notification from other apps, you could not view the full content without paying for wifi (ie. Could view New York times breaking news, but not view the article; could see a WhatsApp message, but not reply)

Onboard Experience-- Our overall onboard experience was wonderful, as we expect from our previous cruises. The ships officers seemed to be more present in public spaces than previous cruises, and we often engaged in a brief before-dinner conversations with them. We did encounter a few issues, all of which were promptly resolved in an effective manner.

I hope this information helps, and feel free to ask questions.

 

[Mommb]

I had a similar experience with internet access (and everything else mentioned) on this cruise.

I also found that I had free data access on my T-Mobile phone (without using the DCL Internet package) until we were a good distance from shore when we left ports, and even while we were going between Sardinia and Corsica on our last sea day.

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

How did Florence on your own go? We're looking at that for next summer. LV03, right?

 

[DCL_Wonder]

Excellent recap Purple Pencil! We were on the cruise as well and I want to note that we hardly felt the ship move. IMHO, the weather was near perfect. I would agree that the ship officers were very visible around the ship during dinner times. Darren was the cruise director and in 8 sailings he was the most visible cruise director we ever had.

 

[PurplePencil]

How did Florence on your own go? We're looking at that for next summer. LV03, right?

Sorry, I was caught up with work lately.
We've done Florence on Your Own once before, so we had reasonable expectations. Usually we are fine with taking the train or other public transportation, but because Florence is so far from the port, we appreciated the security of knowing Disney Cruise would be aware if we were running late and would wait for us if possible.
The guide onboard is helpful, especially for those that are not sure what they are doing in Florence, or need help visualizing how to get to a specific place.
To note: 1. On the ride into Florence the guide spends almost the entire ride talking so for anyone hoping to catch up on sleep from the early port adventure start time earplugs or headphones are a must. 2. We did make a bathroom stop on the way into Florence, and would’ve if needed on the way to the port — most people were sleeping, and the guide checked to make sure a bathroom stop was not needed.
(For us, out of La Spezia it is LS01, but yes LV03 from Livorno)

 

[closetmickey]

Thanks! Who was the adult entertainment/club host?

 

[PurplePencil]

Thanks! Who was the adult entertainment/club host?

Tisa

 

[closetmickey]

Tisa

Had my fingers slightly crossed that Jo would be back