First Trip to the Med (Complete)

[Flossbolna]

I am finally caught up! Your Pompeii excursion sounds fantastic! I am really happy that this was so good as it would be the one I would choose.

However, I don't think I would make it to Rome. It just seems so far away from the port. I get the point of wanting to see it when you have the chance, but ultimately I kind of find it a bit of false advertising to call these ports the ports of Rome, Florence (Livorno) or in Northern Europe Paris (Le Havre), Berlin (Warnemünde) or now in England Stonehenge (Portland).

 

[m3owbox]

I am finally caught up! Your Pompeii excursion sounds fantastic! I am really happy that this was so good as it would be the one I would choose.

However, I don't think I would make it to Rome. It just seems so far away from the port. I get the point of wanting to see it when you have the chance, but ultimately I kind of find it a bit of false advertising to call these ports the ports of Rome, Florence (Livorno) or in Northern Europe Paris (Le Havre), Berlin (Warnemünde) or now in England Stonehenge (Portland).

I loved Pompeii, we want to go back one day and see it for a full day. I agree with you about the distance from the ports. It is weird because it says Rome, so you think Rome is going to be right there when in reality you're spending a decent part of the day on a bus.

 

[remlap]

What nights did you have the 3 rotational menus vs. special menus (Golden Mickeys, Pirates, etc)

 

[m3owbox]

What nights did you have the 3 rotational menus vs. special menus (Golden Mickeys, Pirates, etc)

The first three nights were the standard rotational.

 

[Flossbolna]

I loved Pompeii, we want to go back one day and see it for a full day. I agree with you about the distance from the ports. It is weird because it says Rome, so you think Rome is going to be right there when in reality you're spending a decent part of the day on a bus.

That was the great thing about our Norway cruise. Every port you could walk from ship to town center in 15 minutes or less. You did not even have to take a shuttle. I am spoiled now!

 

[m3owbox]

Surprise Marseille Day!

So today was originally supposed to be our Day at Sea, but we were going to be going to Marseille instead. I am usually a planner, and DH relies on those plans. If we don't have plans we don't usually do anything too interesting because we both get paranoid about missing the ship. I know, we need to relax a bit.

We woke up a little early, did our normal breakfast in Cabanas, then set out to explore. From port you have to take a bus through the port and it takes you to a spot in the city. We got on the bus and it filled up.

After the bus ride (which was about 15 minutes) we were dropped off. All of us got off the bus and we had no idea where we were. The bus driver only spoke French. We didn't know when the buses would be coming back or how frequently or if this is where they would actually pick us up. We knew basically nothing. So we all took a picture of a map to try to help us remember where we got off the bus and would hopefully be getting back on.

Dh and I started to walk around. It was a very beautiful city. We just wish we knew what we could set out and do. So with no plans we just wandered around.

We came to a beautiful little port area with little boats. It was very pretty. It had started to get quite cloudy.

We continued walking around and went into a mall. It was a pretty cool mall and had some ancient ruins outside.

We wandered around the mall for quite some time. We had to go to the bathroom as well, good things we had Euros because sometimes in Europe you have to pay for bathrooms and this was indeed one of those places. It was really neat though, it was all automatic to get in. And the bathroom was very very nice and clean, totally unlike Spain.

After this we decided to just head back to the ship.

We found the bus in the same spot that we left from, except it was down the street a ways, like two blocks. Good thing we walked up this way or we would have been really confused. Of course after boarding the bus we saw so many cool things we could have done, to include a hop on hop off bus. But since we were already on our way back there was nothing we could do.

 

[m3owbox]

Surprise Marseille continued...

We got back on the Magic and decided to hit up the hot tub. Dh also really wanted me to try the Aquadunk. So off to our room to get changed. Afterwards we were up on deck where there was hardly anyone! Dh went down the Aquadunk first. Then he waited quite some time while I talked to the lifeguard and tried to muster up some courage. Finally I stepped into the little launch pod. The water was very warm. The the little pod closed on me and I held my nose as the floor fell from beneath my feet! It was so scary! But well worth it and I went and tried it out again. The lifeguard even said that he knew he would see me up there again. Afterwards we went to the adult hot tubs and there was no one in them! Just Dh and I.

We relaxed for a while, then I got some schwarma . DH got a turkey sandwich. We relaxed for a while in some nice loungers in the adult area facing the sea. Then we went back to the room to get cleaned up.

Dh went to go see Captain America and I just wandered around.

I saw the ship sail away.

After I was done watching the Magic leave port I headed down to look up some new cruises. I knew I couldn't book anything because I wanted to talk to DH and try to get my parents on board as well. But I found an awesome cruise to Norway that I was really interested in, after all we already had a place holder and so did my parents. (spoiler alert: we ended up booking this one the week I came back).

We saw Disney Dreams in the Walt Disney Theatre. It was such a beautiful show. I cried quite a few times, especially since it was the last night and we would soon be getting off.

We had one last dinner in Lumieres. We had the "Til we meet again" menu.

I had some seared ahi tuna, it was alright, just turns out I don't like it that much... Same mistake as the tuna steak haha.

DH had some soup with some sort of dumpling.

I had some beef wellington, which was very good.

Dh had a rack of lamb.

And some cake.

Dinner was quite sad since it was our last one. We went down to Fathoms afterwards and drank a bit with our tables mates and bunch of other people that didn't want the cruise to end. We ended up going to bed quite late.

Up next: debarkation and some more Barcelona!

 

[Flossbolna]

It is a shame that you had to improvise with Marseille so much! While it is a city with a lot of history, it is also a bit of a problematic place as it has large pockets of poverty. I only was there once when we flew into Marseille to then catch a train about 15 years ago. It does look much nicer in your pictures now then it did then!

Enjoying the ship is always a great alternative, too. And at least you really got an empty ship to enjoy!

 

[m3owbox]

It is a shame that you had to improvise with Marseille so much! While it is a city with a lot of history, it is also a bit of a problematic place as it has large pockets of poverty. I only was there once when we flew into Marseille to then catch a train about 15 years ago. It does look much nicer in your pictures now then it did then!

Enjoying the ship is always a great alternative, too. And at least you really got an empty ship to enjoy!

We just didn't know anything about the city so we found it hard to do things. I like to go in with a plan, otherwise we don't see much. The city itself was nice, but on the way to and from port there was an area with a lot of poverty.

 

[GPaLarry]

We were on the same cruise, but stayed on for a B2B Trans to NYC. Our excursions were similar except for Marseille. First, I couldn't believe how fast DCL got permission to dock there, put together all the activities for the unexpected sea day, then lined up nearly a dozen excursions in Marseille. A DCL officer told me later that they have plan B and C (maybe more) for every situation. In Marseille we booked/took the bus to Avignon (awesome little historic city not to be missed), then off to a vineyard for wine tasting in a rustic, very cool castle. It rained a bit in the am, but that didn't dampen our experience. I would recommend that DCL stop in Marseille from now on. The rest of the Med cruise involved Disney excursions in every port that were long and taxing (we are in our 70's). However, we wanted to get the most bang for our buck(s) from each trip. They were more than worth it and we figured we would relax during the 11-night Transatlantic, and we did. Barcelona was awesome. We had two extra days before the Med cruise there and saw our last "must see" site during the switch-over B2B day. Going to Alaska with the Mouse in June, easy drive from home. Will we see you folks there?

 

[m3owbox]

Oh we were thinking of doing that excursion, but in the end decided not to. We should have though! I heard it was very nice and I love wine. It was awesome that they had a plan b. We will not be doing a Disney Alaska, at least for some time, we currently live in Spain so it will be European itineraries for a while. We are said Disney this June to Norway though How did you enjoy your Med cruise?

 

[elena_n2o]

Finally caught up with your trip!!

The Pompeii excursion looks really good!! Maybe if we do the Med cruise again in a few years we can try that, my daughter will be a bit older so we can try the hike up to Vesuvius... Gorgeous pics!!

Rome looked even busier than when we did our trip!! We ended up booking an independent trip, it was just us 3 and our driver, and loved it. Had never been to Rome, so I couldn't miss it! We could tailor a bit what we did, I really wanted to go inside the Colisseum (if you ever go back to Rome, you need to go inside, really quite something!!). We managed to fit quite a bit in, really good (and exhausting day). Love your pictures of the columns in the Vatican, I took practically the same ones...

Last days are the worst No wonder the queue for the OBB desk gets so long that day!!

I only did the Aquadunk once and almost lost my swimming costume... But ended up doing the Twist and Spout many many times, loved it (yes it was mostly kids in the queue, but you see I was going with my daughter )

 

[m3owbox]

Finally caught up with your trip!!

The Pompeii excursion looks really good!! Maybe if we do the Med cruise again in a few years we can try that, my daughter will be a bit older so we can try the hike up to Vesuvius... Gorgeous pics!!

Rome looked even busier than when we did our trip!! We ended up booking an independent trip, it was just us 3 and our driver, and loved it. Had never been to Rome, so I couldn't miss it! We could tailor a bit what we did, I really wanted to go inside the Colisseum (if you ever go back to Rome, you need to go inside, really quite something!!). We managed to fit quite a bit in, really good (and exhausting day). Love your pictures of the columns in the Vatican, I took practically the same ones...

Last days are the worst No wonder the queue for the OBB desk gets so long that day!!

I only did the Aquadunk once and almost lost my swimming costume... But ended up doing the Twist and Spout many many times, loved it (yes it was mostly kids in the queue, but you see I was going with my daughter )

Rome was so busy! My friend went just this past November and she had so many pictures with hardly any people in them. We do like water slides!

 

[Carol19]

I really enjoyed reading all about your med Disney cruise! I really hope to go on this cruise one day. But for now im ok reading great reviews like yours.
THanks!

 

[m3owbox]

I really enjoyed reading all about your med Disney cruise! I really hope to go on this cruise one day. But for now im ok reading great reviews like yours.
THanks!

Thank you. I will hopefully be finishing it up this weekend. I got really busy with work and DH and I did a last minute trip to London.

 

[m3owbox]

Sorry I didn't finish it this weekend. We were fostering a puppy and it was crazy over here. I'll get the last bit up asap.

 

[m3owbox]

Final Day

Today was quite sad, but it was also a day where we learned a lot about things we could have done better as far as planning the last day goes. We woke up early, good thing we were already packed. I looked out the window and saw the port of Barcelona. Right back where we started. We got showered and dressed, then gathered our bags and went down to Lumieres to see our table mates and our servers one last time. We had our breakfast, sorry no pics. Actually there ins't many pictures from today. But we had a good breakfast and made sure to get the full name of our server so we could request her for next time (which we already did, and good thing too, because she will be on our next cruise!). I may or may not have cried when we were leaving breakfast...

Oh let me give you a little back story on our original plans for today... Our plane wasn't until 8pm. And we got off the ship at about 9:15 am... We were going to go to the airport and just hang out (this would have been the worst day ever lol!) We didn't know what to do since we weren't staying an extra night.

So anyways back to us being down with breakfast... We were talking to all of our table mates and they all were staying extra nights in Barcelona. And everyone wanted to hang out... So what do you know?! We got three offers to hang out with them and store our stuff at their hotels! Great! Now we don't have to hang out at the airport! So we chose one and stuck with the two of them. First things first... time to walk off the ship.

We got off the ship and made our way to get the one bag of luggage we had. Very easy process. Everything was laid out nice and easy to find. Then we went and just walked out of the terminal...That's it... just walked right out. No customs or anything. We got in a long line for taxis and waited about 20 minutes. And off to the hotel with friends. We go there and were able to store our stuff with theirs no problem. Apparently a lot of the hotels in Barcelona will let you do that even if you aren't staying there! Good to know!

We then took our first subway ride ever... It was pretty neat and I wish we would have done this earlier when we were there the week before! We could have done a lot more that day! We were making our way up to La Segrada Famila to take a little look.

Then we got on another subway and made our way to see this... Which was far less impressive...

We kept exploring and really just hanging out. We went back to our friends hotel since their room was ready and we sat fora bit... we were all really tired. Then we went for a walk and saw this...

It was a cathedral in a very beautiful square. It was actually right across from the other hotel I was originally thinking of booking. I am quite glad I didn't book it now though seeing the location... IT was PACKED! So busy, I don't think we would have ever gotten any sleep! Afterwards we walked back towards the hotel and were looking for some dinner. We found a spot with some tapas and were seated outside, but it was quite hot and we asked to be moved inside which they did. Turns out at this place you have to pay to sit outside! So weird! I have been living in Spain for 8 months now and still this is the only instance of this I have seen! Maybe southern Spain is different, I don't know. The tapas were quite good and now it was time for us to make our way over to the airport.

We gota cab and off to the airport we went. We gave ourselves a bit of time because we like to be places early and would rather wait around then be late. So we actually made it in quite good time. We had to then wait at the counter to check our bags in because they wont let you in any earlier then 2 hours. Which I just think is crazy. But I have seen that in the EU a lot. I like the way the US and the UK do it, where you can check in early, then go have some dinner at a restaurant and shop and do whatever.

We also saw that at the airport you can store your luggage there for a fee. Which that is quite nice... but would have ended up being expensive because we would have needed to get a cab there and then back to the city.

So anyways we waited around then finally checked in and that is when I consider this trip report complete! I hope you all enjoyed it. If you have any questions please feel free to ask! I love talking about my trip!

Our Trip to Norway On the Disney Magic (This won't be the actual title) coming June 2017!...

 

[Duck In Blue]

Thanks for writing such a great report. I've loved reliving the cruise through you!

 

[m3owbox]

Thanks for writing such a great report. I've loved reliving the cruise through you!

Thank you!

 

[linetbo]

Love it!!! We did the Best of Rome tour and I did like it but we didn't have free time to shop and the lunch was included and I felt like we loose a lot of time there. See you in Norway!!