7/26/2014 - 12-Night Mediterranean Cruise (with Greece)

[Halo]

I just applied to join the FB group too

 

[dizneeat]

I just applied to join the FB group too

You're already in!

 

[JoyB-UK]

One year to go

 

[Halo]

One year to go

 

[dizneeat]

One year to go

Something to celebrate today!

 

[Tennis Bro]

Hello! Does anyone know how often the entertainment changes on the ships? We sailed on the Magic Feb 2012. Will the shows be the same?

 

[mrebuck]

We are excited to be joining this group! Just booked the cruise while on our Eastern Caribbean Fantasy cruise. It will be our third Disney cruise (my mom's first). We are waitlisted for the ABD add-on. I hope we get in. It looks amazing. Let the planning begin!

~~ your Disname: mrebuck
~~ names of people traveling in your party, plus age of children at the time we sail: Myself, my mom Jane, DD Liz (14), DD Allie (12)
~~ where you are from: PA
~~ dining information (first or second seating): first
~~ stateroom(s) number: 6640, 6642
~~ if you are interested in the FE, SM, and/or candy exchanges. Once there are several people signing up for these, we can start that planning: Not sure yet.

 

[BellFamilyBelles]

This is our 3rd DC and 1st Mediterranean. We've visited Germany, England, Africa, just to list a few and have traveling in our hearts. This was one of my 30th bday gifts from my hubby and we decided not to take our girls, which will be 1 & 9 July 2014. Is anyone else having an adult only adventure???

~~ BellFamilyBelles
~~ James and Nedra (pronounced like Ned, which is a derivative of Edward, but I digress)
~~ Houston
~~ second seating
~~ stateroom will update
~~ will participate in FE, and can't wait to chat with and meet you all in Barcelona!

 

[lwilliam]

lwilliam
myself Lucy; husband Bob; son Tyler (will be 22); MAYBE son Bryan (28)
Kutztown, PA
first seating
Cabin 5522 (secret porthole)
will not be participating in FE this time...

this will be our 12th Disney cruise (sailed Fantasy last week); Magic our favorite ship in the fleet, but Fantasy close second

and our FIRST trip to Europe (I'm very nervous)

travelling with friends from PA; Cathy and Cassie; Tina and Katelyn

 

[JoyB-UK]

Welcome to all the new people, hope you all sign up for the FE.

Just booked my hotel and flights, really starting to get excited about it all now. Just got to pay the cruise off and that's it. I know we are a long way off still but now I know when I am flying and where I am staying it feels real.

 

[DizC1288]

I tried booking the airfare after seeing that you could
but Delta isn't opened up for Aug yet.........guess I will have to wait.

where did you book your hotel at?

 

[JoyB-UK]

I tried booking the airfare after seeing that you could
but Delta isn't opened up for Aug yet.........guess I will have to wait.

where did you book your hotel at?

I have booked my flights directly with British Airways who always seem to release flights a few weeks before other airlines. I have booked the Novotel City hotel on Expedia. I haven't stayed there before but have read quite a few reports by people on here and generally most have been positive. It is walking distance to the sagrada familia and to the beach. This will be my fourth time in Barcelona and we have done most of the sights so I liked the idea of being near a beach and I felt we got a good price.

 

[LindseyJane3101]

Hi everyone,

We are on this cruise also

 

[MrGLWatson]

We booked this cruise last week on-board the Magic.

That's me, Gary, Susan DW, Nicola DD and Alex DS.
We have two staterooms on deck 2, on main dining.

Gary

 

[MrGLWatson]

I have booked my flights directly with British Airways who always seem to release flights a few weeks before other airlines. I have booked the Novotel City hotel on Expedia. I haven't stayed there before but have read quite a few reports by people on here and generally most have been positive. It is walking distance to the sagrada familia and to the beach. This will be my fourth time in Barcelona and we have done most of the sights so I liked the idea of being near a beach and I felt we got a good price.

You might want to get a quote from Disney for hotels.
We previously have stayed at the Novotel and it's OK, but this year we stayed at the Renaissance hotel - organised by Disney (booked via DU) and it was $177 per room.
The hotel is much nicer than the Novotel and it's in the centre of Barcelona, with the Novotel you have to get the metro to get to the centre.

The Renaissance does not have a pool, but Disney also offer the Hilton which does have a pool and the price this year was $208 (the Hilton was full when we tried to book it)

 

[MrGLWatson]

Just wanted to mention about using Disney Transfers.

In previous cruises from Barcelona we organised our own transfers, but this year I opted to let DCL handle them. (Stress from previous years doing our own transfers).

Now DCL transfers are not cheap, they were $90 per person total for the 3 transfers; that's transfer from Airport to Hotel, Hotel to Port and Port to Airport.

When we arrived at the airport we were met by the DCL rep, who introduced us to our driver and they took our luggage to the limo. Limo took us to the hotel and arranged for the cases to be taken to our rooms.

At the end of our stay at the hotel, the cases were collected from our rooms around 8am, there was a coach to take cruise guests to the port at around 11am. Once at the port we checked in and were given boarding number 2.

So after a very short wait, we boarded the Magic and were sitting down to lunch just after 12 noon.

At the end of the cruise we left the terminal building walked a few feet, saw the DCL rep who pointed out our coach, boarded it and within 10 minutes we were on our way back to the airport.

It made for a very easy transfers, so we will be using DCL again for this cruise to handle this aspect.

 

[JoyB-UK]

You might want to get a quote from Disney for hotels.
We previously have stayed at the Novotel and it's OK, but this year we stayed at the Renaissance hotel - organised by Disney (booked via DU) and it was $177 per room.
The hotel is much nicer than the Novotel and it's in the centre of Barcelona, with the Novotel you have to get the metro to get to the centre.

The Renaissance does not have a pool, but Disney also offer the Hilton which does have a pool and the price this year was $208 (the Hilton was full when we tried to book it)

I spent quite a lot of time deciding what sort of thing we wanted and where we wanted to be, a pool was a must and I wanted to be in a different area to where we have stayed before. I paid £125 for 3 people including breakfast and free internet and I get 10% back from going through Quidco so I'm happy.

As for transfers we are taxi or public transport people. The airport train is very good, clean, efficient and roomy and goes to El Clot station which is not too far from the Novotel. Then we will get a taxi to the port then from port to the airport. I suppose it comes down to being tight and wanting to leave by my own schedule not someone else's, I can't justify paying the cost of disney transfers.

 

[MrGLWatson]

I spent quite a lot of time deciding what sort of thing we wanted and where we wanted to be, a pool was a must and I wanted to be in a different area to where we have stayed before. I paid £125 for 3 people including breakfast and free internet and I get 10% back from going through Quidco so I'm happy.

As for transfers we are taxi or public transport people. The airport train is very good, clean, efficient and roomy and goes to El Clot station which is not too far from the Novotel. Then we will get a taxi to the port then from port to the airport. I suppose it comes down to being tight and wanting to leave by my own schedule not someone else's, I can't justify paying the cost of disney transfers.

Very good price for the Novotel, and it's a nice hotel. The only issue we had with the Novotel was the overcrowd lifts when we tried to check-out. Took about 20 minutes before all of us reached the lobby.

We used the train on our first trip, no problems with that.

All our problems were really with the taxi's.

On a previous trip our pre-booked taxi was an hour late picking us up from the port, virtually all the passengers had gone and people for the next cruise were arriving. I had to ring the taxi company a few times to ensure someone was coming to pick us up.

On our first trip we queued for a taxi at the port to take us to our hotel, that was nearly an hour and it was really hot.

 

[onceuponadream]

Hi All!

We just booked onboard the Fantasy -August 3 - we are very excited!

We will be sailing with our 4 kids (22, 20, 18 and 15). We have sailed many times but this will be our first time to the Mediterranean.

We will celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary, a college graduation and a high school graduation - looking forward to lots of research and planning!

 

[lwilliam]

Hi All!

We just booked onboard the Fantasy -August 3 - we are very excited!

We will be sailing with our 4 kids (22, 20, 18 and 15). We have sailed many times but this will be our first time to the Mediterranean.

We will celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary, a college graduation and a high school graduation - looking forward to lots of research and planning!

FINALLY another 22 yr. old on board - our son, and the friend going along with us will be 22 next year.......he really enjoyed the 18-21 yr. old gathering this year on the Fantasy, but next year, can't believe I'm saying this, he will be TOO old......glad to hear others will be his age. This will also be our first time to Europe, our 12th Disney cruise. So exciting.