Someone was kind enough to post this on cruisecritic dotcom. Some more positive feedback for the Mediterranean cruise!
Taking the Kids: Disney cruises consider the whole family
01:42 PM CDT on Friday, July 6, 2007
By EILEEN OGINTZ / Tribune Media Services
It's grown-up time.
But this is no movie-and-dinner night.
We're in Monaco, people-watching and gambling. A member of our group won more than 900 euros (about $1,226) at the famous Grand Casino in Monte Carlo. As we sip our pricey drinks at a postcard-perfect outdoor cafe, we expect James Bond, or at least a movie star, to stroll by any minute.
This fantasy come true has been brought to us courtesy of
Disney Cruise Line though Mickey isn't anywhere in the vicinity. We're all passengers aboard the Disney Magic, anchored about a half-hour away, where our kids are happily involved in supervised activities or probably hanging with their friends in the ship's teen area, the Stack, complete with smoothie bar, overstuffed couches, music and movies.
We're at the tail end of an 11-day cruise that has taken us from Barcelona through some of Italy and now the French Riviera. (There is still limited availability the rest of this summer.) Many cruise lines report a growing number of families on their European cruises, but on our ship there are 2,480 passengers, more than 900 of them children triple the number on other cruise lines. Well over half of the passengers have cruised Disney before, though the majority have not been to Europe.
"We just want to show the kids the world so they realize the United States isn't the center of the universe," says Julie Levi, cruising from San Diego with her husband, two kids and her parents.
After 10 days aboard this ship, I can't think of a better way to do exactly that and get a little rest in the process, thanks to the programs for kids. Each child gets a journal packed with fun facts and games. New pages for that day's port are delivered the night before.
"My kids love it," said Julie Levi, whose daughters are 9 and 11. "They like the idea of reading about something and then going to find it."
Sure you only get to spend one (exhausting) day in Rome or Florence, but realistically, how much culture can the kids take at one time? Anchorage, Alaska, architect Jeff Koonce originally mapped out a more than two-week trip to Europe that would have taken his wife and two teens from city to city via train. "They would have died on that itinerary," he says, laughing. "The history is incredible, but they need their sleep."
Mr. Koonce also figures that he saved some money because, with the dollar so weak against the euro, a trip paid in American dollars that includes transportation, food, lodging and onboard entertainment is a good deal. (Disney, www adventuresbydisney dotcom), also has land-based European adventures for families.)
Just as important, rather than navigating unfamiliar roads (or train schedules) checking in and out of hotels or seeking restaurants, the Mouse does all the work for you, even organizing your forays into foreign cities, as long as you're willing to tool around with 50 other people. Though some of us opted for private guides, many are more comfortable letting the Mouse lead the way.
"I know if anything happens, even a flat tire, that the ship won't leave without us," said Patricia Pasechnick, a hairdresser from Teaneck, N.J., who traveled with her mom and her daughter. "I feel safe."
And that's no small thing for families traveling abroad, especially for the first time.
Just as important to moms, smiling stewards will make your bed, leave animals fashioned out of towels for the kids and serve your meals. If your teen wants three servings of beef tenderloin or your 4-year-old only eats plain pasta, it's no problem.
In fact, if parents have any complaint at all, it's that the tours sometimes are too all-encompassing. I discovered that firsthand in Rome with my 13-year-old niece, Erica Fieldman. The trip was her bat mitzvah present, but I learned very quickly that if an excursion didn't involve shopping or ice cream, she wasn't interested.
We peeled off from our tour group in Rome at the Forum and did our own mini-tour of the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steppes lots of shopping and ice cream, of course. Then we met up again with the group for the special after-hours tour of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican museums that Disney had been able to arrange. Amazing can't begin to describe Michelangelo's ceiling, the centuries-old tapestries and other artwork in the museums. The other teens in the group were busy snapping photos. Erica didn't seem impressed.
Maybe she's too young. Maybe it's because she lives in Las Vegas. Maybe she'll laugh about this trip to Rome with her aunt when she returns with her own kids.
"The memories won't go away," Mr. Koonce promises.
I can only hope.
To read a daily blog of Eileen Ogintz's
Disney Cruise to Europe, go to www takingthekids dot com
I'm glad you were finally able to get her on the plane. Hopefully there is something that will help her on the flight to Spain so she can calm down. I feel so badly for her to feel like that and be unable to control it. 
