August 10, 2013 Magic 7 Day Med!!

[OADad]

The Chunnel is a train that takes cars, whereas the Eurostar is for passengers only .. both are very quick and convenient, but only the Eurostar is for passengers and goes from London (Chunnel goes from Ashford in Kent).

Thanks for the clarification on this! I had thought that the Chunnel was only the slang name of the Channel Tunnel, and was using it above as synonomous with the Eurostar (which I now realize was a mistake).

In any event, we plan to fly to London about a week prior to the cruise - and then take a couple of trains (Eurostar and then Elipsos, I believe) down to Barcelona.

 

[Ms Sleepy]

We are also going on this Cruise it will be out first Cruise and who better to go with but DCL. It will be myself DH and DD aged 12.

 

[bats]

We are also going on this Cruise it will be out first Cruise and who better to go with but DCL. It will be myself DH and DD aged 12.

Welcome aboard!! You're certainly starting with a beautiful ship and a great itinerary!
Are you flying direct to BCN ( Barcelona) or visiting more of Europe beforehand?

 

[Nat Tucker]

FE?


I know its early but would anyone be interested in participating in FE exchange? I'll start the list and share with all if anyone is up for it. You can PM your name, DISboard name and room number. I'll share with those who participate.

Natalie

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[CBEB]

Hi Everyone!

DH, DD16 and I will be joining you I've been to Italy and Monaco a zillion years ago, but neither DH nor DD have ever been to that part of Europe. This will be Disney Cruise #9 for us

We're also doing the ABD add-on - our 3rd adventure. We did a cruise combo in Alaska and were so glad we decided to splurge - they are definitely pricey. We saw and did SO MUCH MORE than those that were just on the cruise and relying on the DCL excursions. I haven't looked that closely on this Med cruise, but on the Alaska cruise the ABD price was within $100 of the pricing for the indivdual excursions offered to the same places/activities. PLUS, there is no way you can do all of them except with ABD. Since you're in a small group, it's easy for them to get us to many more sights at each port than we could do on our own. Since we don't plan to go back to Alaska (and probably not the Med), we want to maximize the experience.

FE? Absolutely count us in It's so much fun coming back to the Stateroom to see what little surprises are waiting for us in our FE! DD and I also have a blast plannnig our gifts!

 

[Nat Tucker]

Hi Everyone!

DH, DD16 and I will be joining you I've been to Italy and Monaco a zillion years ago, but neither DH nor DD have ever been to that part of Europe. This will be Disney Cruise #9 for us

We're also doing the ABD add-on - our 3rd adventure. We did a cruise combo in Alaska and were so glad we decided to splurge - they are definitely pricey. We saw and did SO MUCH MORE than those that were just on the cruise and relying on the DCL excursions. I haven't looked that closely on this Med cruise, but on the Alaska cruise the ABD price was within $100 of the pricing for the indivdual excursions offered to the same places/activities. PLUS, there is no way you can do all of them except with ABD. Since you're in a small group, it's easy for them to get us to many more sights at each port than we could do on our own. Since we don't plan to go back to Alaska (and probably not the Med), we want to maximize the experience.

FE? Absolutely count us in It's so much fun coming back to the Stateroom to see what little surprises are waiting for us in our FE! DD and I also have a blast plannnig our gifts!

welcome aboard!

i would love to do the ABD but it's soo pricey and we'd like to do Alaska in 2014 (if they ever announce the dates!).

i'll put your name down for FE. so far, it's just us for now. I'm sure others will come along when we get closer to the date.

I'm going on the Panama Canal in a few weeks and have a lot of FEs to do and haven't even started.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[Mom2BCCC]

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let everyone know that I just found out that August 14 and 15 are holidays in Italy. I emailed a private tour company to inquire about tours. They told me that on the 14th the Vatican is closed and on the 15th (when we are in Naples) the traffic would be so bad that the tour company would not go to Pompeii, Sorrento and Positano. We would have to chose either Pompeii or Positano and Sorrento. We have decided that seeing the Vatican is important to us so we are switching our vacation to the first week of August. Unfortunately there are no Disney cruises that week so we are going with another cruise line.

Ugh. I am a Disney fanatic. Believe it or not the DCL cruise is cheaper for our family of six (with the onboard booking discount) than the RCCL cruise we are now going on. However, we are spending a ton of money and can not justify not seeing what we want in 2 of the 4 ports. We may never get back to Rome or Naples.

I hope you all have a great cruise!

 

[CBEB]

welcome aboard!

i would love to do the ABD but it's soo pricey and we'd like to do Alaska in 2014 (if they ever announce the dates!).

i'll put your name down for FE. so far, it's just us for now. I'm sure others will come along when we get closer to the date.

I'm going on the Panama Canal in a few weeks and have a lot of FEs to do and haven't even started.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

You will LOVE the Panama cruise!!! We're ready to do it again! Have a wonderful trip!

 

[Magic 2013]

Hi All,

We just booked yesterday, this will be a first cruise for DD (12) and I. My DW has been in cruises in the past but not Disney or Med. so It will be new to us all.

We have a few questions for some of the more experienced:

Do we automatically get rotated through the restaurants or do we have to book them ourselves?

Can you book shore excursions once you have booked your cruise with the deposit or do you have to wait until you are paid in full?

Do the shore excursions typically have you back to the ship for dinner? We are on the second seating but are looking at a few that are in 11 1/2 hours.

Have any of you been on past Med cruises? If so what shore excursions have you done and what did you think of them?

That's it for now. I'm sure we'll have more questions as it gets closer.

Craig

 

[bats]

We are also going on this Cruise it will be out first Cruise and who better to go with but DCL. It will be myself DH and DD aged 12.

Ha, just realised you're from Wales, so why would you want to see more of Europe??!!!!!!!

 

[bats]

Hi All,

We just booked yesterday, this will be a first cruise for DD (12) and I. My DW has been in cruises in the past but not Disney or Med. so It will be new to us all.

We have a few questions for some of the more experienced:

Do we automatically get rotated through the restaurants or do we have to book them ourselves?

Can you book shore excursions once you have booked your cruise with the deposit or do you have to wait until you are paid in full?

Do the shore excursions typically have you back to the ship for dinner? We are on the second seating but are looking at a few that are in 11 1/2 hours.

Have any of you been on past Med cruises? If so what shore excursions have you done and what did you think of them?

That's it for now. I'm sure we'll have more questions as it gets closer.

Craig

Welcome aboard!
Shore excursions can only be booked once you've paid in full and as a first timer, you have to wait until the platinum, gold and silver cruisers have booked their options too. Don't worry, you'll be ok, there's lots of space!

Dining rotation is automatically done, you don't need to do anything.

We have been on 2 Med cruises now but the only DCL excursion we've done is a half day Pisa which was $69 each. Good enough price but really it was a taxi service as we just bumbled around the Tower and took the obligatory 'I'm holding up the Tower' photos!!

For the tours lasting over 11 hours, personally I'd steer clear. Last year we did Rome with a brilliant private company (www.yourtourinitaly.com) and it was nearly 100c ... We baked and the only reason we were ok was that the company used minivans that could go directly into the city centre whereas Disney used buses that had to park outside the city. People were having to walk around in that heat all day ... No thank you!!!
Anything that requires me to move around and excerpt energy in that heat is a definite no no.
For next year, we'll jump off in Villefranche for a nice ice cream and for Naples, we'll catch the train to Pompeii .. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!!

Hope that helps

 

[dcar1]

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let everyone know that I just found out that August 14 and 15 are holidays in Italy. I emailed a private tour company to inquire about tours. They told me that on the 14th the Vatican is closed and on the 15th (when we are in Naples) the traffic would be so bad that the tour company would not go to Pompeii, Sorrento and Positano. We would have to chose either Pompeii or Positano and Sorrento. We have decided that seeing the Vatican is important to us so we are switching our vacation to the first week of August. Unfortunately there are no Disney cruises that week so we are going with another cruise line.

Ugh. I am a Disney fanatic. Believe it or not the DCL cruise is cheaper for our family of six (with the onboard booking discount) than the RCCL cruise we are now going on. However, we are spending a ton of money and can not justify not seeing what we want in 2 of the 4 ports. We may never get back to Rome or Naples.

I hope you all have a great cruise!

hello

 

[dcar1]

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let everyone know that I just found out that August 14 and 15 are holidays in Italy. I emailed a private tour company to inquire about tours. They told me that on the 14th the Vatican is closed and on the 15th (when we are in Naples) the traffic would be so bad that the tour company would not go to Pompeii, Sorrento and Positano. We would have to chose either Pompeii or Positano and Sorrento. We have decided that seeing the Vatican is important to us so we are switching our vacation to the first week of August. Unfortunately there are no Disney cruises that week so we are going with another cruise line.

Ugh. I am a Disney fanatic. Believe it or not the DCL cruise is cheaper for our family of six (with the onboard booking discount) than the RCCL cruise we are now going on. However, we are spending a ton of money and can not justify not seeing what we want in 2 of the 4 ports. We may never get back to Rome or Naples.

I hope you all have a great cruise!

I inquired about the Vatican. Yes the museum and the sistine chapel will be closed however St. Paul's Basilica will be open. One can also go to the courtyard. You can't take pictures inside the chapel or the museum if you do happen to go in. I asked a private tour company about how Naples is during the holiday, they said that in general August is less busy then lets say June. We are still going to go and make the best of it.

 

[bats]

I inquired about the Vatican. Yes the museum and the sistine chapel will be closed however St. Paul's Basilica will be open. One can also go to the courtyard. You can't take pictures inside the chapel or the museum if you do happen to go in. I asked a private tour company about how Naples is during the holiday, they said that in general August is less busy then lets say June. We are still going to go and make the best of it.

I think you're right to go for it.
As I said in an earlier post, we did an all day tour of Rome last year and although it was great, the Vatican was a tiny part of it. I actually thought the Trevi fountain was more spectacular (being that it's in the middle of crowded streets and tall houses)!

The Sistine Chapel was nice and I'm glad I've done it, but I wouldn't do it again. When you walk through the hallways, they all have paintings on the ceiling .. all fanastic. By the time you get to Chapel, you've gone through 7 or 8 rooms that are all the same. It's boiling hot, no air and in the Chapel, you're not allowed to talk, use flash photography or stand still.

I understand that it's a big tourist attraction, but if there was an emergency and people needed to get out quickly, I wouldn't fancy the chances! We were packed in like sardines and I only saw one way in and one way out (a small single door in the corner to get out).

My over-riding memory of the Sistine Chapel was of the guard making Shhhhhh noises as loudly as possible!! They made more noise than anyone else!!

We'll definitely be staying on the ship on the Rome day, enjoying the peace and the cocktail list!!

 

[Nat Tucker]

You will LOVE the Panama cruise!!! We're ready to do it again! Have a wonderful trip!

The Panama Canal cruise was absolutely wonderful! Like you, I could do it again!!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[CBEB]

Just paid for plane tickets - yikes! But now it seems real! Started reading past trip reports for recommendations on what to see in Barcelona.

Getting Excited

 

[GreenAcres]

Hi Everyone!

Now that the holidays have passed, we've really started concentrating on our cruise plans! This week we went ahead and booked our airline tickets. The prices had been much higher, then slightly lower and appeared to be heading back up, so we just bit the bullet...OUCH!

On all previous cruises, including 2011 when we cruised DCL to Alaska, we did all Disney excursions and had a great time. However, after getting two of Rick Steves' books for Christmas I was feeling mighty brave and this week I booked some excursions on our own at what I believe will be substantial savings....guess the trauma of the airline ticket prices also acted as motivation! We're taking a Segway tour in Barcelona and have booked tours for Naples (Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast) and Rome (with extended Colosseum tour due to Vatican Museum being closed). I've emailed another tour company about Florence and Pisa and am awaiting a reply. Anyone else made plans yet? If you're going with Disney excursions, which are you thinking about?

It looks like our son has got to choose between Middle Tennessee State and the University of Southern Miss for college. When we get home from the cruise, we'll maybe have time for a nap before we have to take him to school! This cruise is his high school graduation gift and his only request so far has been that we wait until after his birthday in June so he can finally eat at Palo.

Hopefully as we head toward spring, activity will pick up on this thread!!!

Happy New Year....Lisa

 

[bats]

Happy new year everyone .. Glad to see a couple of you have booked your flights now. What kind of prices are you looking at for transatlantic flights? Ours were obviously cheap as we're in the UK .. Think we paid just over £100 each, so about $160!!

Did you all have a good Christmas? We didn't really do much apart from the normal eating too much, drinking too much and staying up too late .. Bit like a Disney cruise really!!

Joa

 

[bats]

Here are some details of DIY tours that my fellow cruisers gave on the Dibb (uk version of Dis) ..

This info from K8T of the Dibb ...

"Rome also simple, so many people do it, it is like a DIY excursion!! Just follow everyone and make sure there is a train after your planned return train, just in case - but my thoughts are that at the worse we would get a cab!!!! (hopefully not though, I dread to think the cost!.

Pompeii is easy on the train, but I would suggest a taxi to the train station, as the walk along the busy roads is horrid (we did it once!). There is a bus outside the gates of the cruise dock, but we missed this last time - However, we still got on another bus further along. Check out Cruise Critic site for lots of help on DIY trips.

You can also do the Vesuvius trip on your own. We combined this with Herculaneum and have done it twice now. Get on the train from Naples to Ercolano. You need to get on the Circumvesuviana line, which is down below the main station - well signposted and trains are every 20 - 30 minutes. It is quite quick and before the Pompeii stop.

When you get off the train, look to your left (you are in a dead end street) and you will see an office selling trips up Vesuvius in a Minibus. These leave every 20 mins, or depending on how many people there are. They take you to the bottom of the walk up and wait until you come back down. It takes about 45 mins to get up - although we had a 3 year old the first time and a 6 year old the second!!! It is quicker to get down! Make sure you wear trainers or shoes which are enclosed as the gravel and rock gets into sandals. It can be chilly at the top too.

When we got back to the minibus, we had time for a quick icecream and they dropped us off at the entrance to Herculaneum, from which we walked back up (about 10 mins max), to the train station to go back to Naples. Herculaneum is actually a lot smaller and easier to understand as a town than Pompeii."

 

[bats]

All of the following post is from Heather (scarecrow) on the Dibb. I have copied it from there, over to here for you.

"Monaco as other have said is dead easy. It's a 10 min walk along the water front. You will see a large tree on your right hand side, cross the road and the station steps are hidden behind the tree. Then you are on the train for Monaco. Don't forget to validate your ticket before you board the train.

We loved Monaco. We headed straight for the palace and caught the little red train. Then after the palace we caught the bus for 1 euro each and went back to the Cafe de Paris for our rather expensive ice creams. They were €5 each and we sat in the little park in front of the hotel, not in the actual cafe. Then we got the bus back to the train station for another euro each. You'll have loads of time. I remember the issue with the trains very well I think we caught the last train into Monaco that morning and we had a long wait for it due to track failure I think.

For La Spezia, we caught the train again. It's around a 30 min walk to the train station for this port, I was with some fellow Mouseketeers and I can't remember who. But between us all we found the station. You need to head into the middle of town. Then we caught the train to the 5 villages and got on and off at different ones and walked between the first two, which I enjoyed, but Matthew did not. Moan, moan moan. I wish we had taken our swim things with us. We had pizza and gelato at various stops which he enjoyed. You buy the special card from the tourist info shop inside the main station and it includes the pass for the walk and train fare between all of the villages. We were back on the ship for around 2.00 and set off around 9.00

Rome we did on our own, with the train. Just follow the masses, we got off at St. Peter's or something like that dead easy. We arrived at around 10.30 and there were already long queues for the Vatican here. We just got on a hop on hop off bus and did our own thing.

Now my favourite trip is next. Top tip, get up early in time for the opening of the hydrofoil ticket office and go straight there. Secure your tickets for the boat you want and then you could get back on the magic to have breakfast. I wasted over 1 hour queuing for my tickets and missed the early hydrofoil. As soon as you land on Capri, go to the ticket office to buy your return tickets. If you want to leave the Island earlier than the time on your return ticket they will let you, we did this. Also if funds allow, take a taxi to the top, there are very, very long queues for the funicular and again we wasted time here. I wanted to go to Ana Capri, but we ran out of time. Capri is very expensive to eat and drink, so pre-order your room service sandwiches and fruit to take with you - top tip that Bats gave me."


Link for Ville Franche http://www.eportreviews.com/Europe/V...che_France.htm
Scroll half way down and it shows you a picture of where to catch the train to Monaco.

Naples on your own, again scroll down the page for train info
http://www.eportreviews.com/Europe/Naples_Italy.htm

Pompeii - http://www.eportreviews.com/Europe/I...iOnYourOwn.htm

Little red train in Monaco - http://www.monacotours.mc/

Italian train website - gives you a rough planning guide.
http://www.trenitalia.com/cms/v/inde...80 a3e90aRCRD

Ron in rome - includes photo's to help you get to Rome on the train.
http://www.roninrome.com/transportat...-civitavecchia

Here's another Rome info page, with a ton of stuff and maps, thanks to a poster on cruise critic for this. http://www.tomsportguides.com/Rome-04-10-2011.pdf

Hop on hop off bus rome http://www.city-sightseeing.com/inde...tinations=Rome

Website for tickets in Italy http://www.tickitaly.com/

A wealth of info for trains across Italy from all ports http://www.ftroute.com/IT_Schedules.cfm (Thanks to Cruise Critic for this)

Capri info (Naples) - http://www.mediterranean-cruise-port...-to-capri.html