Disney Dream May 20 2023 7 Night Mediterranean - Trip Report - Complete

[Louise97]

Well, I've never written a trip report before, but I love reading them so figured I should contribute! I've been updating on my Instagram during the trip, but this lets me do a more in-depth write up.

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Background
We're a party of two adults in our thirties, there's DH (Rhys) and me (Louise). We're from Scotland, and both love Disney. I grew up going to WDW, while DH grew up going to DLP - coincidentally both of our first Disney trips were in 1997! We've been married for almost 6 years and since then we've done three WDW trips, one DLR trip, and four DLP trips (with another couple planned this year).

We did our first DCL cruise (and first cruise ever) in September 2021, which was a UK Staycation on the Magic. We loved it and wanted to do another, especially since the Staycation cruises were a bit unusual. We originally booked this cruise on Silver opening day using our placeholder (with very long wait times on hold...), but cancelled and rebooked for a VGT rate.

We decided to fly into Barcelona the day before the cruise and stay another night after to enjoy the city, giving us a 9 night trip. We booked our flights and hotels through British Airways Holidays, and the cruise through Dreams Unlimited when we rebooked for the VGT.

Itinerary
Travel day - May 19 - flying to Barcelona, staying at H10 Port Vell
Day 1 - May 20 - Barcelona (embarkation)
Day 2 - May 21 - Toulon
Day 3 - May 22 - Livorno
Day 4 - May 23 - Civitavecchia
Day 5 - May 24 - Naples
Day 6 - May 25 - Day at Sea
Day 7 - May 26 - Palma
Day 8 - May 27 - Barcelona (debarkation), staying at H10 Urquinaona Plaza
Day 9 - May 28 - Barcelona / fly home

Pre-Trip Prep
When I looked at our travel options, I couldn't get direct flights for the Friday from Glasgow and we couldn't travel sooner due to work schedules. I held off until Black Friday and booked through British Airways holidays which worked out as the cheapest combination of flights and hotels. It also let me book flights plus hotels for the 19th and 27th as one package which was convenient.

I've always got a spreadsheet for my Disney trips and this was no different. I used two books as my main guides, The Unofficial Guide to Disney Cruise Line, and Rick Steve's Mediterranean Cruise Ports. Those were great for getting an overall view of the ship and the ports we'd visit. We also found The Dis / DCL Fan content really helpful, we watched Craig and Corey's "two dudes on a cruise" series for our sailing on the Magic and were happy to discover there was a version on the Dream!

We've both been to Florence and Pisa (the main destinations from Livorno), I've been to Palma, and we agreed we'd rather jump on a cheap flight to Rome and spend a weekend there instead of paying for a tour from Civitavecchia. Our key goal was to enjoy the ship, so we decided to book just one Port Adventure, NP39 Pompeii Half Day - Adult Only Departure.

Booking and check-in windows opened at 5am UK time so those were early starts! We were able to get the tour that we wanted, I'd hoped for Remy Dessert but it was only running once so it was sold out by the Silver window. On check-in day, DH grabbed a reservation for the Royal Gathering and I did a speed-run through the check-in process to grab an early Port Arrival Time. We managed to get a 12:15 PAT, boarding group 4.

After lots of research, I'd selected a Cat 7A that didn't seem too obstructed when we made the original booking. Changing to a VGT was a gamble, but it was such a big saving that we decided it was worth it. 11 days out we were assigned 5536, a Cat 4E with a huge extended verandah!

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I'll leave it there for tonight!

 

[Louise97]

Travel day - May 19 - flying to Barcelona, staying at H10 Port Vell

We set off on the 08:10 flight down to Heathrow, it's only a one hour flight but I selected the 12:55 from Heathrow to Barcelona to give us a longer connection time. I didn't want to take any chances with missed connections, and I knew there were several later flights to Barcelona if anything happened to this one!

Flight 1 went smoothly, and we had plenty of time to grab a late breakfast at Pilots Bar & Kitchen in Heathrow Terminal 5. We also popped into Boots to pick up a Meal Deal (sandwich, snack and drink) for flight 2, since BA have stopped doing complimentary meals on short-haul flights, and their paid options are limited.

Flight 2 was also on time, and we landed at Barcelona around 4pm. Customs didn't take long, the line moved quite quickly - we'd cleared customs and collected our luggage by 4:30pm! My sister has been to Barcelona a few times and recommended downloading the Free Now app to order a taxi. A short drive later and we were at our hotel!

For the night before the cruise, we'd booked H10 Port Vell because it meant a short drive to the cruise terminal the next day. We were also only a 10 minute walk to the Columbus monument, so worst case we could walk there to get the shuttle bus - I like to know my contingency plans!

The hotel was beautiful. They gave us a glass of Cava to welcome us while we checked in. Our room was clean and comfortable, and the hotel has a roof terrace with a pool! You can just see the roof terrace in the photo above. After freshening up and relaxing in the room for a little bit, we headed out to the supermarket that the hotel reception had recommended to get wine to take onboard. While there is a smaller shop a block closer, the receptionist recommended the Coaliment for a better selection and better prices.

We decided to stroll along the marina to find somewhere for dinner. We looked at a few menus but we liked the look of La Gavina - I had a delicious paella while DH had a sirloin steak. The weather was a overcast but warm enough to enjoy sitting outside.

After dinner, we strolled further along the marina then headed back to the hotel to check out the roof terrace. The views were lovely, though it started to rain so that was our cue to go back to the hotel room! I'd made sure my pyjamas and clothes for embarkation day were near the top of my suitcase so I didn't need to unpack much for our first night.

We slept really well, the bed and pillows were nicely supportive - there's a room tour in the highlights on my Instagram (I've had to move Barcelona into its own Story Highlights because I ran out of room in my DCL one!).

And then suddenly it was embarkation day!

 

[Louise97]

Day 1 - May 20 - Barcelona (embarkation)

We had a 12:15 PAT and the port is a 15 minute drive from the hotel, so we planned to head down to the lobby at 11:30 to check out, then order a taxi using Free Now. With Uber we've had problems with not having taxis available, plus we weren't sure how busy traffic would be, so we wanted to build in some contingency time knowing that we could always just wait outside the terminal until it was time to go in. We didn't make any plans for the morning, the key thing was to relax!

We only had to wait a few minutes for a taxi - though there was a hiccup when the driver cancelled on us just as he arrived because he pressed the wrong button in the app. While he was trying to pick up our booking again, another driver picked it up - so the original driver missed out on the fare, but we were able to get on our way quickly with the second driver.

I've seen others comment on how chaotic embarkation was, but it went so smoothly for us. Our driver dropped us off at 12:07, we dropped off our luggage and joined the line for 12:00-12:30 arrivals. There were lines for 12:30-13:00 and 13:00-13:30, and port staff were checking PAT forms to direct people to the right line. After a few minutes, we were through security, and we heard them calling boarding groups 1-8 as we headed to the check in line.

Check in was nice and easy, they checked our documents then directed us to the waiting area. We heard them announce boarding groups 1-13 at that point, so they were moving quickly through the groups. We were boarding group 4 so we just headed straight to the ship! There were a couple of photographers waiting to take photos, and then we headed up the escalator to the bridge to deck 3.

The atrium was decorated for the 25th anniversary and looked stunning! We headed straight to deck 2 to speak to the dining team outside Enchanted Garden. I'd tried to book the Remy dessert experience but it was sold out so I wanted to join the waiting list (in the end we didn't hear back from them so I guess a place didn't open up), and I wanted to check our request for a private table had gone through.

The dining team said our preferred second seating was full so they had put us on a table of 8, with three other couples who'd all requested private tables. They were able to offer us a private table if we switched to main dining, which was less popular on this sailing due to the long days in port. Since main dining was 6pm on the Mediterranean sailings (second dining was 8:30pm), we decided to take the private table on main dining. DH suffers from really severe social anxiety so being at a large table with strangers would make dining stressful. We'd contacted special services in advance who could only suggest booking Palo and Remy to guarantee a private table - a bit of an expensive solution!

After speaking to the dining team, we headed to Animator's Palate which was open for lunch. From my timestamps, I can see we were seated by 12:55pm. We both had the leek and potato soup, then I had a chicken ceasar salad and DH had the beef sirloin. For dessert DH ordered the Welcome Aboard sundae. I was going to skip dessert, but our server suggested a Mickey bar, and I couldn't resist!

Over lunch we planned our next steps. We wanted to check out the kids club open house, and our stateroom was on deck 5 so we thought we'd see if rooms were available. At check-in we'd been told the rooms would be ready by 3pm, maybe a little earlier. We took a slow stroll up to deck 5 and arrived about 2:20pm to find the barriers were down so we could access our room!

We had room 5536 assigned to us on our VGT rate, and our onboard gift purchases were waiting for us. We'd pre-ordered the beer mug and the Luxury at Sea package. I'd originally hoped for a higher deck but that extended verandah was amazing! We really enjoyed the reclining chairs. The trade off was that they felt a little overlooked - the room above us seemed to be empty as we never saw anyone on that verandah, but we were really aware if we stood at the rail that people could see us. I had to sit further back to enjoy a coffee in my robe in the morning! Being able to see a little of the bridge was fun, when we were casting off on the starboard side we could see the officers watching from the windows.

I was initially concerned about noise from the theatre. We heard noise one night when we'd headed back to the room after dinner while the early show was still running. Dinner was 6pm, the early show was 6:30pm and one of the shows ran for 1 hour 15 minutes so we could hear some noise from the last few minutes of the performance. Other than that, we were either at dinner during the early show or attending the later show so it wasn't a problem.

The room is a category 4E due to the oversized verandah, but the rest of the room is a regular category 5 room sleeping 3 people (there was no pull-down bed). It's a perfect size for the two of us, though I noticed it was a little smaller than the rooms on the Magic. The location was great, we could get to the balcony seating in the theatre quickly and it didn't take too long to get to the restaurants for dinner. We tended to take the elevators up to deck 11/12/13 and walk down, we didn't have to wait too long despite the ship being 75% full.

After dropping our bags in the room, we realised the Oceaneer Club open house was going to close at 3:30pm ahead of the muster drill. Our muster point was in the Walt Disney Theatre (station D), so we strolled along and had a look through the shop windows until it was time for the drill.

On our last cruise we just had to use the app to check in to our muster point, so this was our first time doing the full drill. I was glad we could take a seat in the theatre as there was quite a bit of waiting. Once the drill was done, we headed up to deck 12 to watch the Sailing Away party! We didn't get this on our last cruise, and the characters were all dressed up for the Silver Anniversary so that was a lot of fun.

After Sailing Away, we headed to the Oceaneer Club to check it out. That place is so cool! I got to try the Ports of Call simulator where you try to steer the ship, I have to admit I wasn't very good at it, but I probably shouldn't have set it to hard mode on my first attempt.

We set sail just after 5:30pm, lots of people were out on their verandahs on Mein Schiff 2 to see us go. We saw them again as we sailed out of Civitavecchia which was fun.

We had a dilemma on our first night. The shops opened at 6pm and as we were originally on second dining we'd planned to go right away in case items sold out quickly. The shops ran out of a lot of items on the first night of our UK Staycation cruise and the shelves were almost bare at the end - I'd hoped it would be better this time, but I'd heard the 25th anniversary and sailing-specific merch sold out in ten minutes on the transatlantic sailing. Moving to main dining meant dinner began when the shops opened.

We decided to go to the shops first and risk missing dinner. It was pretty chaotic - I told DH to wait in line with a few items while I dodged the crowds to look around. Word got around quickly that there was no 25th anniversary merch at all, other than the Pandora charms. In the end our 25th anniversary haul amounted to the beer mug, popcorn bucket, Castaway Club print, and the bookmark/coaster from the Jubilee by the Sea cocktail.

I was able to pick up a few pieces from the Dream of Europe collection, and grabbed some things that I didn't want to risk selling out. It turns out I shouldn't have worried as the collection stayed well stocked throughout the cruise, but at least I could relax and enjoy the rest of my evening!

We got to dinner almost 30 minutes late, but we weren't very hungry after the late lunch. We apologised for being late and explained we only wanted two courses. Our first MDR was Animator's Palate, and I asked for a double serving of black truffle pasta purseittes as a main course while DH had the grilled tuna steak. For dessert I had the crunchy walnut cake and DH had the cookies'n'cream sundae.

After dinner we took photos in the atrium, I'd pre-ordered the photo package so we made sure to get as many photos as possible. It's pricey, but it's nice to have photos with both of us in them. We ended up with 187 photos over the course of the week and there's no way I could have chosen just a few!

We ended the night with a walk around deck 11 to grab drinks to take back to the room, then headed to bed.

 

[Louise97]

Day 2 - May 21 - Toulon

Our original port times were 08:30-16:45, but a couple of weeks ahead of the cruise they extended to 06:30-16:45. I'm not a morning person so it didn't make much difference to me!

DH woke up as we were docking just before 6am and snapped a few photos. We were docked across the bay from Toulon in La Seyne-sur-Mer and we didn't have any specific plans for this day, though we'd decided to get off the ship for a walk. As it was a Sunday, we'd read most things would be closed in Toulon, so we thought we'd just check out the local town.

We left the ship just before 10am to stroll into La Seyne-sur-Mer. There were a few stalls set up with local products, people in local traditional costume, and a Tourist Information desk with maps. A really nice welcome! There was also a shuttle boat to Toulon itself.

Leaving the port, we turned right and followed the road along to the town centre. It was an easy walk, and despite the wet ground the rain stayed off for us.

The town of La Seyne-sur-Mer was nice. We found the cathedral, and nearby there was a supermarket which allowed us to stock up. The supermarket looked quite small on the outside but inside it was huge! We'd decided to buy one bottle of wine each (red for DH, white for me) in Barcelona knowing we'd have plenty of opportunities to get more and it gave us an excuse to get off the ship when we didn't have tours planned, so we grabbed another bottle each here. We also picked up some pastries for a late breakfast.

We took a slow stroll back towards the ship and found a spot along the harbour to eat and take photos. As the weather looked like it might start raining, we got back to the ship around 12:30.

After dropping off our shopping in the stateroom, it was time for some lunch at Cabanas. We actually didn't make it to Cabanas at all on our previous cruise so we were curious to see what it would be like! Our last cruise was only 3 nights and with all of the covid restrictions in place we stuck to main dining rooms where we felt it was easier to keep distance. The mistake we made was ordering so many courses for each meal - we ate so much that we felt ill! This time we were determined to eat smaller meals so we could enjoy it.

I was really impressed by Cabanas! I don't usually care for buffets but everything we ate was really good. There was a good variety, and the food didn't taste like it had been sitting out too long - though I guess with how popular it is, there must be a reasonable amount of turnover.

It was formal night, which was also the Silver Anniversary evening. We had a Champagne tasting at 4pm then it was the Captain's Reception before dinner, so we decided to get dressed up before the tasting.

I'd debated whether to keep this tasting after seeing mixed reviews. Some people had drinks freshly poured each round whereas others reported drinks pre-poured (therefore going flat during the session) and even sparkling wines from other regions. We joked that since we were docked in France, serving non-Champagne at a Champagne tasting would be illegal! Ultimately we decided to go for it, and I'm glad we did.

Our drinks were freshly poured for each round, and the sommelier leading the session was really interesting. We had glasses of: Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Pommery Rosé, Billecart-Salmon Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru, and Bollinger. Very tasty!

After the Champagne tasting, we watched us sail away from Toulon as we headed over to the Captain's Reception. The characters were out in their Silver Anniversary attire, and the officers were there to meet guests. There were also servers going around serving a selection of drinks.

Dinner was in Enchanted Garden. Again we skipped straight to the main course as neither of us were interested in the starters, soups or salads. DH had the slow roasted prime rib, while I had the marjoram-scented roast chicken. For dessert, DH had the chocolate brownie sundae, and I had the warm sticky date pudding. All pretty tasty!

After dinner was the Silver Anniversary Soiree, with another chance to mingle with the characters in their special costumes, and more drinks. There was a little bit of time before the fireworks, so we decided to get changed into warmer clothing for going up on deck! I'm not a big fan of fireworks but I wanted to check these ones out, so we grabbed a spot by the window on deck 11 on the starboard side. We were really glad we'd changed as it was pretty chilly! We grabbed some warm drinks from the beverage station to sip while we waited.

The Silver Anniversary fireworks build up was a bit odd. It felt like there wasn't a real show as such, just entertainment cast members asking some families about their favourite cruise memories. Then our Cruise Director came out to do a quick speech with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy before the fireworks started. I don't really know what I was expecting, but I thought we might have had more of a show.

We headed back to our stateroom and found our host had left the 25th anniversary print out for us! This is a really cute gift, I still need to decide where we'll hang it. Given the lack of anniversary merch available to buy, it was nice to have this as a souvenir.

We enjoyed a glass of wine on the verandah, then it was off to bed!

 

[Louise97]

Day 3 - May 22 - Livorno
Port times today were 07:00-19:00, so a long day for those who headed out on port adventures.

We got up around 9am and decided to try breakfast in Cabanas. The Huevos Rancheros were tasty, and there was a good selection of fresh fruit to make my own fruit bowl. I was a bit disappointed in the Mickey waffles, which tasted like they'd been sitting out for a while, and the Eggs Benedict were dry (I couldn't find any hollandaise to go on top and the yolks were cooked through so didn't run). We might have just got unlucky with those because we were near the end of the breakfast hours - I think they started serving at 6:30am because of the early ashore time.

After breakfast was the point where we decided to stay onboard rather than going for a walk around Livorno. We were keen to enjoy the pool deck while the ship was in port because so many people were on all day port adventures, though there were definitely a lot of people with the same plan! It felt like everyone who'd stayed onboard was from the UK or Europe, going by the accents we heard.

We changed into our swimwear and headed back to deck 11. It was easy enough to find some loungers to sit and read for a while, then we decided to check out the Cove Bar. DH had ordered the beer mug package before our trip because we thought we'd probably order a beer for him and a drink of the day for me each afternoon, but ran out of time on Days 1 and 2! The bartender said they didn't have any beer on draft at Cove Bar due to a problem with the pipes, so couldn't use the mug there. DH ordered a red wine and I decided to try the Jubilee by the Sea anniversary cocktail. Cove Bar didn't have the coaster or the bookmark, but the drink was very good.

We had a chance to try out the whirlpool spa as we spotted it was free while we were passing. The sign said it was limited to 15 minutes maximum but we only managed 10 minutes before deciding we were too warm! I wanted to grab a Dole Whip with rum so we headed around to Frozone Treats. The good news for DH was that they had Miami Weiss on tap so he was able to use his beer mug here (note: later in the cruise, they'd run out of draft beer here too, so we could only use the beer mug at the bars on the lower decks).

Lunch was a quick bite at Flo's Cafe, DH wanted chicken tenders while I thought I'd try their Impossible burger. The quick service food on the pool deck was another thing we didn't really get to try on our previous cruise, I really enjoyed everything we had there.

The towel animals were a lot of fun! After lunch the adult pool seemed a bit busy so we decided to check out Satellite Falls. It was so peaceful up there! There were a few people quietly reading but lots of empty loungers and no one in the water. We had a quick dip, but dark clouds were approaching and we knew there was a thunderstorm forecast. By now it was late afternoon, so we went back to the stateroom to shower and get ready for dinner.

Dinner was at Royal Palace and we were ready with enough time to go around all of the photographers in the atrium first. This was particularly important because I'd looked at the menu in advance and knew I wanted French Onion soup as a starter - and I didn't want to get soup down my dress before the photos! This was the only evening where we both ordered starters, DH had the breaded and deep-fried brie. For mains, DH had the oven-baked salmon royale, and I had the Chateaubriand-roasted filet steak. Dessert was Tahitian vanilla creme brulee for DH and classic Opera gateau for me. We really enjoyed this menu, even if Royal Palace itself is less interesting than the other MDRs.

We were done with dinner in time to watch us sail away with a glass of wine on the verandah. The Walt Disney Theatre was showing Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 at 8pm and we'd intentionally held off on seeing it at the cinema so we could enjoy it on the ship. We headed up to deck 11 to grab drinks but we were pretty full from dinner so didn't bother with snacks. I was really surprised to find the theatre was mostly empty. We grabbed seats in the front row of the balcony - the down side is you have a safety rail which might obstruct your view depending on your height! As a short person, I tend to prefer to dodge the rail rather than gamble on a tall person blocking my view. There were maybe a few dozen people in the theatre in total. We both really enjoyed the movie!

We've both been trying to walk a minimum of 10,000 steps each day, which isn't usually a problem on a Disney trip. After the movie, we realised that our day of lying by the pool had left us behind on our step count! We decided to head out to deck 4 for a few laps of the ship. We could see Elba on the Port side and Corsica on the Starboard side which was fun, though difficult to get a good photograph! We also saw some lights that we're pretty sure were from a sailing ship from the shape. I've done a bit of Googling since we came home and I think it's the Royal Clipper, which set sail from Portoferraio on May 22.

Once we hit our 10,000 steps, we headed back to our stateroom, and ended the night watching Corsica go by from the verandah.

 

[Louise97]

Day 4 - May 23 - Civitavecchia

Another day with long port hours, 07:00-19:00.

This time we decided to do the main dining room breakfast, which we hadn't managed to wake early enough for on previous days. We dragged ourselves out of bed and down to the dining room for 8:30am, DH ordered chocolate chip pancakes and I was looking forward to the Eggs Benedict with Canadian bacon to make up for the ones in Cabanas! The food was good, it was just a shame that the dining room didn't stay open later for breakfast in port days as I just don't enjoy eating so early in the morning.

After breakfast we decided to see a bit of Civitavecchia. There was a free port shuttle bus into the town, which was really convenient. It dropped us off the Ponto de ônibus Porto - Estação trem. Once we stepped off the bus, we had the gauntlet of taxi drivers offering to take us to Rome. We walked on into the town itself, until we reached Fort Michelangelo.

We walked around the outside of the fort, then strolled back into the town to go to the Pam supermarket, opposite the cathedral, to buy some more wine for our stateroom. Then we headed back to the bus stop to take us back to the ship. The bus for the ship was clearly marked with Disney Dream, and there were people working there who asked to see our ship ID (Key to the World card) so they could check we were going to the right place.

We were back on board the ship by 12:30 and headed to Cabanas for lunch. After lunch, we relaxed by the pool with a drink of the day for me (with souvenir glass!) and a beer for DH.

We really wanted to try Midship Detective Agency, but somehow ran out of time on Day 3 so it became a priority on Day 4! We picked The Case of the Stolen Show, featuring the Muppets. It was a lot of fun, we certainly got a lot of steps in as we investigated clues across the ship. If you're going to do this case, take a photo of Pepe's door! There's clues in the signs on the door which came up during the case, we'd taken a photo when we passed on Day 1 so that saved some running around.

We kept playing until just after 5pm, then got changed for dinner. By now we were in a bit of an evening routine of grabbing a glass of wine while we got ready for dinner, then heading down around 5:30pm to take photos in the atrium while it was quiet. We were in Animator's Palate again for dinner, which is definitely my favourite of the MDRs. Photos and videos don't really do it justice, the atmosphere is so fun. Tonight was Animation Magic, where I regretted not practising my character in advance.

DH and I both had the beef wellington, then I had the Orchard Peach Tart and DH had the Chocolate Decadence. The food was really good, and the show was just as much fun as on the Magic.

After dinner we got back to our room in time to have a glass of wine on the verandah as we sailed away from Civitavecchia. We sailed by the Mein Schiff 2 again, we'd previously seen them in Barcelona so it was a brief reunion!

The Golden Mickeys were showing on Day 4, I'd read this was usually formal night but I guess the Silver Anniversary celebration caused a schedule change. It was our first time seeing the show and we grabbed the same spot at the front of the balcony that we'd had the previous night.

We really enjoyed it, so when we got back to our stateroom we checked to see what time it would be airing on the TV and caught some of the later broadcast. I really like that they show the stage shows on the stateroom TV. Our previous cruise was 3 nights so we had a stage show every night - it was nice to have the option to relax on the sofa one night rather than go to the theatre. We'd thought about doing that this time around, but we quickly realised that our stateroom host tended to do the turn down service during the second dining / show time.

The other fun thing on our TV were the on demand presentations from Bruce Kimbrell, I managed to watch about half of them over the course of the sailing but I really wish those were online!

Day 5 was going to be an early start for our only Port Adventure, so we just relaxed in our stateroom after the show, no late night walks this time!

 

[Louise97]

Day 5 - May 24 - Naples
Port hours were 07:00-19:00 again, extended from the original schedule of 08:00-18:00. I was a bit concerned that the earlier ashore time would affect our port adventure start time, but fortunately it wasn't affected.

I've mentioned in previous entries that I'm not a morning person - this morning was no exception! Our port adventure meeting time was 7:45am in the Walt Disney Theatre so we ordered a room service breakfast to arrive 6:30am-7:00am to make sure I had caffeine. I was so tired when I got up that I managed to bang my head really hard in the bathroom - I was fully expecting to see blood when I looked in the mirror! That wasn't a great start, I was really tempted to abandon the tour and go back to bed

DH is much more competent in the morning and was able to get a nice shot of Mount Vesuvius as we came in to dock.

We made our way to the Walt Disney Theatre just before 7:45am to join our group for our Pompeii Half Day port adventure. There was a bit of waiting around while they got everyone assembled - I'd packed a large sun hat to protect me from the sun in Pompeii so I was able to get seated in the theatre and use my hat to hide from the world until it was our turn to leave!

We headed to the coach and started on our journey, with our tour guide providing narration. On the way to Pompeii we stopped at a cameo factory where there was a very brief overview of how cameos are made, then an opportunity to use the bathroom and browse the shop. This felt a bit unnecessary, though the bathroom break was welcome. The cameos were pretty, but quite expensive so not really an impulse purchase!

We arrived outside Pompeii around 10am, where they split us into two smaller groups of 20. We then waited to get our "3D glasses" - to be honest, these were more hassle than they were worth! They were augmented reality glasses which let you see what the ruins would have looked like before the eruption, I found a video on YouTube about them. The glasses themselves were awkward to put on, they were attached to a control unit and you wore the whole thing around your neck. I found it quite heavy and it kept getting tangled with the radio / earpiece that they provided so we could hear the guide. We could have saved a bit of effort by just looking at print outs.

The tour itself was great. Our guide was really engaging and informative, and she led us around some key sights. We were glad we brought water with us, and hats!

The views were stunning! Pompeii is definitely worth visiting, and we were glad to have a guide to point out details that we might have missed. We finished the tour around 11:45am, and we were given a voucher for a scoop of gelato or a soft drink. We were told to meet back at the Hotel Vittoria at 12:15pm. I was a little disappointed that we'd not had a chance to go to the gift shop, so planned to go back - then we realised that we would need to clear security again just to access the shop. So we just joined the line to get our gelato and waited to go back to the bus.

The bus got back to the ship just after 1pm, so despite being advertised as a 4 hour port adventure, it actually took around 5 hours with the Pompeii tour taking around 1 hour 45 minutes of that. I'm glad we did the port adventure, but it would probably have been more efficient to do a private tour or go by ourselves.

I'd originally expected to be back around 12pm, and we hoped to go to the Archaeological Museum in the afternoon. Between being back a little later and being tired from a busy morning, we didn't have the energy for that so we decided to walk into Naples for lunch then head back to the ship to get ready for Pirate Night.

The port in Naples is in the city, so it was just a short walk to find lunch. As we were leaving the port we encountered a really insistent taxi driver who asked repeatedly if we wanted to go to Capri - we decided not to engage in conversation so I didn't ask how that journey was supposed to work! Given that we were hot and tired, and Naples was very loud and busy, all of the places I researched in advance were too far away. We went for a stroll near the port and came across Stritt Stritt. They didn't do pizza but they did serve excellent pasta which was perfect since it was almost 2pm and we hadn't eaten much.

Feeling refreshed after some food, we grabbed some photos and headed back to the ship.

The view of Mount Vesuvius was amazing.

We were back on board with enough time to catch the Making the Dream presentation, which ran a couple of times during the cruise. It was an interesting talk by Linds from the entertainment team in Pub 687 where she gave us an overview of DCL in general and the Dream specifically. This also gave me a chance to get a Jubilee by the Sea with the coaster and bookmark.

It was Pirate Night and I had been preparing my outfit since we booked the cruise! I've loved Pirates of the Caribbean since I first rode it as a kid, so my outfit was inspired by Redd. I definitely gave myself a challenge trying to transport my hat though!

This was our first Pirate Night and I really enjoyed it. We were back in Animator's Palate, which had pirate-themed art displayed on the screens. I had the Braised Barbecue Beef Rib Salad, which was in the "lighter note offerings" section of the menu, while DH had King George's Roasted Privateer Strip Loin. For dessert, I had to have the Rum-Soaked Chocolate Cake and DH had the Caramel Macadamia Nut Cheesecake Tart. The food on Pirate Night was really good.

After dinner was the first of the shows up on the pool deck, which we really enjoyed. The timing was great as we had just started to sail away which gave Mount Vesuvius as a backdrop to the show.

Between the two deck shows, we strolled around deck 12 taking in the view. It really is incredible to see the volcano in person.

We had some wine on our verandah and then headed to the Walt Disney Theatre to see Jamie Raven's magic show. We didn't bother with most of the variety acts, but we both really enjoy magic acts and we'd seen him on TV before. He was great!

Then it was time to go back upstairs for the fireworks. We headed to the same place that we had been sat on Day 2 for the Silver Anniversary fireworks - deck 11 on the Starboard side, by the windows. While this meant watching the fireworks through the window, and a slightly obstructed view of the stage, it gave us a table to sit with drinks and an uncrowded spot to enjoy the show. We also grabbed some pizza from Flo's Cafe.

And with that, Pirate Night was finished - at least it was for us, there was a party on deck after the show but we were done!

 

[Louise97]

Day 6 - May 25 - Day at Sea

Our only day at sea on this cruise. We had beautiful weather, and in the morning we could just make out the outline of Corsica off the Starboard side as we sailed by.

We headed to Royal Palace for breakfast, because it was open until 10:30am, an hour later than the port days. I was excited to have those Eggs Benedict at a more reasonable time! We got there around 9:40am and we were seated right away, we were expecting a line so that was a pleasant surprise. There were a few people eating when we arrived, and a few more arrived after us, but it was overall quiet.

We were quite hungry so I ordered an egg white omelette, Eggs Benedict, and hash browns. DH ordered chocolate chip pancakes and toast. Service was really poor, which was surprising because we'd had great service at our previous MDR breakfast. In fact this is the only poor service we've ever had on DCL. We waited about 10 minutes for a server to take our order - it seemed they only remembered about us after taking the order from the table next to us (they'd arrived after we did). It then took almost 30 minutes after ordering for most of our food to arrive - I didn't get my hash browns, and DH didn't get his toast. Meanwhile the table next to us had been served and were almost done eating by the time our food arrived. We started eating, assuming that the rest would arrive, but servers were nowhere to be seen so flagging someone down to let them know wasn't an option, and no one stopped by to check everything was okay. Frustratingly, we hadn't taken note of the server's name because he didn't stick around, and the guest survey at the end of the cruise has no option to provide a score for dining other than your serving team at dinner. Our regular servers were wonderful so we didn't want this to reflect on them in any way, so we didn't comment on it in the survey.

This was the only morning that we saw magic shots on deck offered, so we headed up to deck 12 after breakfast expecting to see a long line - this was a really popular activity on our previous cruise. There was no one waiting! We grabbed our photos and then did a lap of deck 12 to get some steps in.

Our next item on the schedule was the Royal Gathering which we'd booked for 11:45am. We arrived about five minutes early to find there was only a couple of people waiting so they were happy to let us join the line. We got to meet Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine and Tiana!

The princesses were so lovely. I always say I'm not bothered about meeting characters, and then find myself having the best time with them!

The Disney Vacation Club presentation was up next, at 12:15pm. They were offering $50 onboard credit for attending, so it was pretty popular. We were strongly considering buying DVC on our February 2020 WDW trip so we'd attended a presentation at the Riviera then. I really appreciate that they don't do a hard sell. The exchange rate has dropped significantly since then, so we're not likely to make major USD investments any time soon, but I was keen to hear the latest info.

We grabbed some lunch at Flo's Cafe after the DVC presentation, then I headed to Meridian for the Art of the Theme Show tour which began at 2pm. DH opted to go back to our stateroom to play the new Legend of Zelda game on the Switch, which he'd been playing during our down time. I arrived about 15 minutes before the tour and found Meridian was almost empty so I ordered a drink of the day (a Captain's Mai Tai) while I was waiting. It was delicious!

Meridian started to fill up as a steady stream of people arrived for the tour. By the time Matt from the entertainment team arrived, it was pretty busy - he said it was the largest tour he'd ever led! Remy and Palo were both busy so he wasn't able to take us in there, instead he gave us an overview of those restaurants plus Meridian, then arranged for us to visit the Oceaneer's Club.

It was quite a sight as we all walked down to deck 5! Someone estimated there were close to 100 people in the group. Visiting the club was fun, they let us have a go on the interactive floor - I had a chance to play a Tron-themed game. From there we went down to the atrium, around deck 3 to the Walt Disney Theatre, and back to the atrium for some final facts.

Did you know that the cast members working at Guest Services move the ships on the wall to their actual locations for that day? Amazing, I wish I'd learned that earlier in the cruise!

After the tour, I headed into the shops to grab some photos/videos of merch for Instagram because a few people had asked me what was available. The long port days meant the shops were quite busy in the evenings but they were much quieter during the sea day where they were open all day.

I went back to the stateroom to meet DH, and we relaxed in the stateroom for a little while. It was semi-formal night (or "optional dress up" as the app described it), so I put on a dress and DH wore a slightly smarter shirt. We didn't really have space in our luggage for another round of dress-up clothes so we were definitely more on the smart-casual side.

We headed down to Bon Voyage just before 5pm to grab a drink while we waited for the photographers to set up. This was a great spot to see the characters walk by as they headed to their meet and greet locations!

Another thing I wish I'd learned sooner, Bon Voyage also has a sommelier bin! I'd heard about it in Meridian but didn't know there was one so handy. After ordering, our bartender revealed the sparkling wine in the bin was Taittinger, which I love.

We were back in Enchanted Garden for dinner, and we both went for the New York Strip Steak. Then we were really naughty and couldn't decide what to have for dessert, so we had two each. We both went for the White Chocolate Bread Pudding, DH had the Creme Brulee Cheesecake and I had the Tiramisu. All great, though the Tiramisu had an unusual presentation which threw off the balance between marscapone cheese (too much) and the coffee-soaked ladyfingers (not enough).

After dinner it was off to the Walt Disney Theatre for Beauty and the Beast. The show was brilliant, I loved the puppetry. We also had sign language interpreters! The theatre was much busier than it had been for The Golden Mickeys - we were still able to get a pretty decent seat in the balcony but not our usual front row!

Jamie Raven was doing another magic show in Evolution at 10:30pm so after Beauty and the Beast we strolled along deck 4 to the adults-only area. We wanted to get to Evolution early so we could grab a drink and seats, which meant we arrived just in time for 2000s Music Trivia. It's not really my strongest era for music, particularly since they mixed in post-2010 and it's really set up for American audiences, but we still managed to score 18. Jamie Raven was excellent again - I'd seen a couple of the tricks before but they were very well executed.

This was definitely our longest night out, we didn't get back to the room until after 11:15pm!

 

[Louise97]

Day 7 - May 26 - Palma
Port hours were 08:30-17:30, a 45 minute extension from the original 08:30-16:45.

We woke up to a really great view from our verandah. I've been to Palma before and it's a beautiful city.

They were doing some training with the rescue boat just outside our room, so that was fun to watch.

We didn't have any set plans, but as it was our last day on board we had a few things we wanted to do that we just hadn't found time for sooner. We grabbed some breakfast on deck 11 and then decided we should get off the ship for a walk, similar to our day in Civitavecchia.

In hindsight, we should have just taken the bus marked Port Shuttle Bus. However, when we left the ship (around 11:30am), there was one sign for the bus and another sign which said To The City with an arrow. So we walked by the Mallorcan taxi drivers (much less pushy, these ones held signs saying "Taxi" and said "good morning" as we passed), and then followed the signs to the city.

After walking for a while, we still hadn't come across where the port shuttle bus was dropping people, or the bus for the city. We knew the Hop On Hop Off bus had a stop near the cruise port which had been an option, but we also hadn't reached that yet. It was hot and we had made the mistake of leaving our water bottles on the ship. When we reached Castillo Museo San Carlos it said there was a bar, which sounded perfect.

The museum was interesting, but most importantly it gave us somewhere cool and shaded to stop. After walking around following the signs for the bar but failing to locate it, we found someone who worked there and asked where it is, which was a good opportunity to break out my high school Spanish. "Está cerrada" - it's closed! Not what we wanted to hear! We were at least able to use the bathrooms before we headed back to the ship. We later learned from the cruise Facebook group that the port shuttle bus was dropping people off in the city near the Cathedral!

We still really liked our walk and ultimately it meant we were back on the ship around 1:20pm to spend the afternoon on board, but I wish we'd known that we should have taken the port shuttle to the city instead of following the "to the city" sign. I definitely appreciated that Disney provide some very cold water before you get to the gangway - that tasted so good, even if I gave myself brain freeze! The ship was busier than on our previous port days, so I guess a lot of people opted to enjoy the pool after those long Italian days!

We headed back up to deck 11 where I had a Dole Whip with rum and pizza for lunch. After lunch, we finally tried gelato from Vanellope's - it was amazing! I opted for hazelnut with chocolate sauce and Mickey sprinkles; DH had caramel sea salt with caramel sauce and chopped Twix. We took them back to our stateroom to enjoy on the verandah, then did a bit of packing.

We still had a bit of Midship Detective Agency to finish, so we got ready for dinner then played some of that until it was time for dinner. Shortly before 6pm we started to sail away, so we popped out onto deck 4 to watch us sail out of Palma, and waved in the general direction of the webcam that my parents were watching

Royal Palace was our final MDR for dinner. DH had the fettuccini with parmesan crusted chicken, I had the green pea and fava bean risotto. That risotto might have been my favourite main course from the whole cruise - it was cooked perfectly! For dessert DH opted for the chocolate lava cake, and I had the raspberry vanilla creme brulee. Our wonderful servers came over to say goodbye, we let them know that we didn't think we'd manage to get up in time for the 6:45am breakfast on debarkation day - we overheard other people having the same conversation so I guess the early breakfast isn't too popular.

After dinner, DH went to Bon Voyage to trade in his beer mug token for a mug to take home, and I stopped off in Mickey's Mainsail to ask what we needed for the VAT refund process. We needed to bring the receipts, passports, and the card where we'd like the refund sent. I'd looked out the receipts already (and divided them up by name - they need to match the passport to the guest name on the receipt), but I needed to run back to the room to grab my card. Be aware that everyone does this on the last night and they need to process each individual receipt, so it's time-consuming. We were lucky that there were only three or four parties ahead of us when we joined the line because it still took us around 30 minutes and by the time we were done, the line was all the way through the shop. We processed DH's receipts first then he headed off to finish Midship Detective Agency while I did mine.

After dealing with receipts, we ran back up to the stateroom to finish packing. We were packed and ready to put the cases outside the room just in time to run down to the Walt Disney Theatre for Disney's Believe. The theatre wasn't as packed as it was for Beauty and the Beast but definitely busier than The Golden Mickeys. We were back in our usual front row seats despite arriving bang on show time - with a quick detour outside to snap a photo of the tip of Mallorca.

Believe is a really fun show, and the Genie was brilliant! After the show, we headed back to Skyline bar, which we hadn't managed to visit sooner. As the screens were showing Rio de Janero when we arrived, I had an Eco-Tini which was delicious and came with a souvenir acai seed bracelet.

The See Ya Real Soon show began at 10:15pm, so we finished our drinks and headed along to watch it. We found a spot up on deck 5 overlooking the atrium which wasn't too crowded. Cruise Director Lee introduced the characters and they came out for one last opportunity for photos. Then we had a little show on the stairs to say "see ya real soon".

Part of the reason for choosing our spot on deck 5 was that it was just along from our stateroom. Room service finished at 11pm on the final night of the cruise and we wanted to order flasks of coffee and hot water (for tea) - the flasks that hot drinks are delivered in keeps them warm overnight so this gave us drinks ready for the morning. DH set off just before the end of the See Ya Real Soon show to beat the rush - and it was already 10:45pm so there was just 15 minutes left to order.

In addition to the hot drinks, DH realised he hadn't had a Mickey bar all cruise and I'd only had one on day 1! So we ordered those, some cookies for DH, and a tomato soup & grilled cheese sandwich for me. The room service soup is really tasty.

We enjoyed our last room service order with Disney's Believe on the stateroom TV, it was a pre-recorded performance with a different cast, but still good (but I think our Genie was better). Then we filled in the guest experience survey and headed to bed.

 

[Louise97]

Day 8 - May 27 - Barcelona (debarkation), staying at H10 Urquinaona Plaza

Well, it was finally here. Debarkation day. As expected, we did not wake early enough for the 6:45am early breakfast! We woke up at 7am and poured our coffee and tea from room service. Those flasks kept them piping hot and there's enough for a couple of cups each, which was much needed!

At 8am we said goodbye to our stateroom, and headed up to Cabanas for breakfast - they were open until 8:30am. Leaving the room, the ship felt really empty. Then we arrived at Cabanas and discovered that's where all the people were! While it was busy, we didn't have any problems finding a table. We had a light breakfast to set us up for the morning, then slowly made our way out, taking in the mostly-empty deck 11. At 8:40am, Captain Mickey came on to make an announcement that he'd "see you real soon" - a very polite way of saying "get off my ship"

We took the hint from Mickey and headed down to the atrium, though there were still plenty of guests waiting to leave so we didn't feel too bad for sticking around. Even with our relaxed approach, we were still off the ship around 8:50am. Our cases were there waiting for us, so we grabbed them and headed out.

We'd debated using Free Now to call a taxi since that's what we'd done before the cruise, but there was a fairly organised taxi line right outside the terminal. The line moved pretty quickly, and we were in the taxi on the way to the hotel by 9:30am. The taxi dropped us at the H10 Urquinaona Plaza at 9:50am and we headed inside.

Although check-in wasn't until 3pm, we were able to start the registration process and drop our bags off in their secure store room. They said they'd give us a call if the room was available sooner, and asked if there was anything they could help with. When I said we were going to look into the Hop On Hop Off bus (HOHO), they said they could arrange tickets for us which was really helpful.

The starting point for the HOHO was Urquinaona Plaza, just a block down from the hotel. The bus has two routes, Green (east) and Orange (west). While you can get on and off at any stop, we were feeling pretty tired after being up early and decided to just ride the whole route, which took about two hours. We boarded the bus for the Green route at 10:45am, plugged our complimentary earphones in for the audio tour, and sat back. While the upper deck is open-top, we opted to sit downstairs where it was cool and shaded.

Just before 12pm, we got a call from the hotel to let us know the room was ready. We were back at Urquinaona Plaza right around two hours after we left, and we went back to the hotel to finish checking in.

Like our previous H10 hotel, they offered us a complimentary glass of Cava and we took those up to the roof terrace while they took our bags up to our room. Again, there's a room tour in the Barcelona highlights on my Instagram. While we technically had an inside room, the large windows in the roof let in plenty of natural light.

We were glad to get a break from the heat, and I had a quick nap to recharge. By that point it was almost 3pm and we realised we hadn't eaten since breakfast! I'd read that El Corte Ingles had a restaurant on the top floor with great views. El Corte Ingles is essentially a large department store, I've been to branches in other parts of Spain. La Placa is the restaurant on the top floor and we had a really tasty sandwich with Iberian ham, and wine on tap!

The views were fabulous! After that, we headed back downstairs to take the Orange route on the HOHO bus to see more of the city. We set off around 4pm, and the tour was again about two hours without getting on and off. Parts of the two routes overlap, but largely they take in different areas. We ended up passing the cruise terminal around the time the Dream would be sailing away, though we didn't manage to hear those horns one last time!

They announced that the Urquinaona Plaza stop was closed due to a protest, and that the bus would be skipping to the stop after that or we could walk there in about 5 minutes. We never did find out what the protest was for, but we decided to walk from Casa Batlló to the Gothic Quarter. The hotel staff had said that the Gothic Quarter is the only part of the city where the HOHO bus doesn't go, because the streets are too narrow for it.

We visited Barcelona Cathedral, which is so impressive - though despite being centuries old, it's arguably overshadowed by La Sagrada Familia which we visited the following morning.

We arrived at 4Gats around 7:20pm and we were able to get a table right away. We got our timing right as by 8pm a lot of people were waiting outside for a table to open up. The restaurant is really interesting, it's a reconstruction of the original restaurant which was frequented by Picasso and Gaudi. We had a wonderful meal here and would definitely recommend it.

After dinner we took a stroll through the Gothic Quarter back to our hotel. We headed up to the roof terrace to see what it looked like in at night, and we were able to hear Coldplay who were playing at the Estadi Olimpic!

When we got back to the room, we did a bit of repacking with the luggage to make sure the bags were ready for the flight home the following day, then headed to bed.

 

[Louise97]

Day 9 - May 28 - Barcelona / fly home

Our final day had arrived. We got up around 9am and got ready to check out. I was a bit worried as our luggage scales said my case was pretty close to the limit! We don't usually book breakfast in hotels but it was included with our room so we headed down just before 10am to drop off our bags.

I must have been tired because I don't seem to have any photos of breakfast! The selection was great, a mix of cooked items and continental. There was also a nice selection of cakes. It was tasty and set us up well for the day.

We had booked La Sagrada Familia for 11:30am, and originally planned to grab a taxi. For the first (and only) time on the trip, Free Now was a bust! We both tried to book, but there were no cars available. Not wanting to risk missing our entry time, we set off for the Metro. It was a short walk to the station at Passeig de Gràcia, and then just 3 stops to Sagrada Familia.



The building is incredible, photos really don't do it justice. We arrived around 11:25am and headed to the entrance where there was an airport-style security check. The ticket check is right after security, the line wasn't too bad so we were through security in about 5 minutes.

The Sagrada Familia app has a really useful audio guide, but we'd both managed to forget to bring headphones. I took a lot of photos as we went around and then listened to the audio guide on the flight home. I'll include a few photos here, but it's so hard to convey the size and scale of the building.



These stained glass windows were absolutely amazing, I was a bit obsessed with how the light painted the surrounding areas. They're designed so that the interior of the building changes colour as the sun moves across the sky.

We booked tickets which included entry to the Nativity towers. Our tower entry was 12:15pm, and I was glad I only had a small crossbody bag because larger bags had to go into a locker - the locker required €1 coin and I had no coins on me! The way the towers work is that you take a lift to the top, then walk down. It's literally hundreds of stairs down - 340 in the Nativity towers, I believe it's 426 in the Passion towers.





The view is stunning! We chose the Nativity towers because they have the bridge across, and views of the city. If we go back to Barcelona, I'd definitely go back and see the Passion towers. The up-close views of the building are really great, there is so much detail that's hard to see from ground level. The spiral stairs, however, are a bit vertigo-inducing!



We took our time going down, though I have to say my legs were aching the following day! We had one last look around the interior, and headed out to see the Passion facade. We headed through the gift shop and then took the Metro back to the hotel to pick up our bags. We left around 1:30pm, so our visit was around two hours. We probably could have spent another half an hour or so in the museum, and I hadn't realised we could have seen the crypt during certain times. Definitely worth a repeat visit some day!

In contrast to the morning, we were able to order a taxi quickly from the hotel to the airport using Free Now. The taxi picked us up just after 2pm and we got to the airport at 2:30pm. We checked our luggage, then remembered to scan the VAT forms. The sign was a bit unclear, we went to the Global Blue desk only for them to direct us to the self-scan machines a little further along. All of the forms scanned properly, but one was rejected! We had to go for a manual passport check, and technically we were supposed to present the goods, but we'd already checked the cases so we didn't have everything on us. Fortunately the customs official just checked through the passport, stamped the form, and waved us on our way. I'd signed up to the Global Blue app so I was able to track the refund status - it came through to my card about two weeks after the trip.

Everything went smoothly through security, and we found a place to grab lunch before clearing passport control. Barcelona airport is very nice, fairly big but it didn't feel too busy, even for a Sunday evening. Our flight was due to depart at 4:50pm, though we had a 40 minute delay departing. We made up time and only landed 15 minutes late, just before 6:30pm, but I was glad I'd allowed extra time for our layover at Heathrow.

Despite not having to re-clear security on the way out, for some reason we had to do security all over again after passport control on the way back. Very annoying. We had a bit of time as our flight back to Glasgow was at 9pm, so we grabbed dinner at Giraffe. We've eaten there before when connecting through Heathrow and the menu has a good selection.

We headed along to the gate for our Glasgow flight and took a seat. There was a short delay, originally it said 25 minutes but ended up being closer to 40. I fly to London for work quite often (at one point it was weekly, now it's much less frequent!) so DH and I weren't particularly surprised - London air traffic is pretty notorious.

The flight itself went smoothly, though just like our flight on the way out, British Airways has really reduced the leg room it offers. DH and I find ourselves using Easyjet a lot because they offer more direct options for us (including to Disneyland Paris), and it's an indication of how far BA have fallen that we have more room with a "budget" airline than the national flag carrier.

And with that we were home. It was a magical 9 night trip and now we just need to decide when we'll use that placeholder!

Thanks for reading!

 

[Flossbolna]

Oh! You are fast to start! Looking forward to reading more. I am not nearly as quick with my trip report…

 

[Flossbolna]

@Louise97 can I suggest to post in this thread every time you add some more report to your previous posts? We won’t get alerts otherwise.

 

[Louise97]

@Louise97 can I suggest to post in this thread every time you add some more report to your previous posts? We won’t get alerts otherwise.

Thank you, I hadn't thought about that! I've finished Day 1

 

[Louise97]

Day 2 is finished! I'm travelling this weekend so I'm not sure if I'll get on to Day 3 until Sunday or Monday, but I'm really enjoying going back through my photos for this.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Day 2 is finished! I'm travelling this weekend so I'm not sure if I'll get on to Day 3 until Sunday or Monday, but I'm really enjoying going back through my photos for this.

If it weren't for my photos, I wouldn't remember the order of when anything happened! Looking forward to more.

 

[Flossbolna]

Loved you mr Day 2 description! I totally agree on the pre-show for the fireworks. From where we stood we couldn’t even understand what the people were talking about. Strange…

 

[Louise97]

Thanks for reading! I've just finished Day 3 - slightly delayed because it was a really busy weekend and I had no energy last night. I really missed sitting down and writing!

 

[Flossbolna]

Lovely day 3! It’s interesting to see how different your cruise was from ours! I really need to get started on my report.

I agree that the silver jubilee drink was very good. I liked how it was not too sweet. We got the blue drink they had at the Captain‘s reception and it was soooo sweet.

 

[Louise97]

Lovely day 3! It’s interesting to see how different your cruise was from ours! I really need to get started on my report.

I agree that the silver jubilee drink was very good. I liked how it was not too sweet. We got the blue drink they had at the Captain‘s reception and it was soooo sweet.

Just finished Day 4!

I love that even with the same ship and the same port itinerary, we can have very different cruises! Looking forward to reading yours

Yes, that blue drink was really sweet - I usually enjoy sweet drinks but that was too much!