July 6th, 2022 - 12-Night Mediterranean with Greek Isles Cruise from Civitavecchia to Barcelona

[tassma]

Hello! Starting this thread for our cruise and am very excited! What ports are you most excited to explore, and which will you be doing on your own and which with DCL?

 

[Mbikz]

Hi! I am most excited about Florence. I have been there before, and look forward to going there again this time with my family.

We are doing most ports on our own. We are signed up for DCL excursion for Florence (since it's 1.5 hrs away frkm port), Santorini, and Marseilles (to go to Calanques).

So looking forward to the cruise!

 

[gstdog]

Hello! We just booked! Last time we did DCL in the Med, I did most on our own but used the DCL bus to get to Florence like Mbikz mentioned (largely because we left our two children ages 5 & 8 on the boat and didn't want to be too far away without a guarantee from Disney they'd wait for us).

Which excursions are you both doing?

I've only just started doing research. Palermo and the three ports in Greece are new to me, so we'll have to see what makes sense. Trying to decide which port days make the most sense for a beach day vs. exploring cities or historical sites.

For the other ports, we'll probably do our own since we've been before. Last time, we did the following:

• NAPLES: hired a driver to do the Amalfi coast and Pompeii. Likely will do the same, but spend more time in just Positano, and maybe make a beach day out of it.
• LIVORNO: Disney bus for 'Florence on your own', but then met with a private tour guide once we got there. Probably the same again, but this time get tickets for the Uffizi Gallery (we didn't have time last time).
• MAREILLES: public bus to Aix and met a private guide to show us around. This time, maybe do a boat to the Calanques ... or explore somewhere else in Provence.
• VILLEFRANCHE: public train to Nice and then just walked around on our own to explore the town and beaches. This time, maybe Monte Carlo or Eze?

Feel free to check out my trip report for any details on what we did last time.

 

[LennyMachine]

Checking in! I will be sailing with my DH, my DS (13), and DD (9 at the time of sailing). This is only our second DCL cruise, and it's been at least 5 years since the first, so I'm having to reacquaint myself with everything (not to mention that planning a European cruise seems quite different from planning a Caribbean one!). We are going with DCL Port Adventures straight across the board. I think I'm looking forward to Sicily (Palermo) the most (even though none of the Palermo excursions really hit me), followed by Naples, where we are going to see the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii.

I also have a pre-dinner BBB appointment for my daughter on Day 2, and the Royal Court Royal Tea on Day 3 for the two of us. I have Palo dinner on 7/11, but I'm hoping to move it to 7/12, so my husband and I can celebrate our 19th anniversary.

We're also doing a couple of days in Rome before setting sail, with tours of the Colosseum and Forum booked for one day and the Vatican City the next. We still have to find a good hotel -- we've found some nice ones, but decided to keep shopping around. I would welcome family-friendly recommendations!

I am also on hold with DCL to book a transport to get us from the Barcelona port to the airport. I've been on hold 5 hours and 45 minutes so far ... This is after being on hold 5½ hours the day booking opened because there were certain things I had difficulty booking on the website. Fuuuuuuuuuun.

 

[Mbikz]

Our excursions are:
* Palermo: taxi to Monreale and then walking around Palermo to flea market, eat, or the churches. Relaxing & shopping day.

* Naples: private driver and tour guide (like @gstdog ) to Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Historical museum in Naples. Looking forward to eating pizza in Napoli while singing Amore or at least humming quietly

* Santorini: Disney Excursion SA25 - Local Greek experience: bus to Oia and then lunch. Afterwards, going to museum in Thira and if energetic, take bus to the ruins. Sunset is after our boarding time, so no sunset yachting. I am worried about cable car lines.

* Mykonos: self - island of Delos and then walking around little venice and eat limonata. Relaxing & shopping day

* Piraeus: self - driver & guide to Acropolis and Acropolis museum

* Livorno: Disney excursion LV04 - discovering Florence. Might buy Accademia ticket and explore on our own during the 3hrs free time. Florence food is awesome though, so we might pig out instead

* Villefranche: self - train to Monaco. Montecarlo, car museum and aquarium. Half of our party might split after Montecarlo to go to Matisse museum at Nice

* Marseilles: Disney excursion to Calanques. It seems there are multiple steps to do it ourselves, so we opted with the excursion.


For LennyMachine - if you don't have a lot of luggage, you can reach the airport with subway. Disney has free transport that drops us at Columbus square, that has a subway station. However, if you have lots of luggage, the walk and stairs will be too cumbersome.

We cannot get a Palo reservation. Have fun at Palo @LennyMachine !! Happy anniversary!

 

[LennyMachine]

@Mbikz: Woah, we're doing so many of the same excursions! And even the days you're self-guided, we're doing a similar itinerary -- we'll be sure to wave as you pass our coach bus, LOL:

Palermo: Palermo and Ballaro Market (PL07)
Santorini: A Local Greek Experience and Fiesta (SA25)
Mykonos: Delos Island (MY01)
Piraeus: Essential Athens, the Acropolis and the New Acropolis Museum (PI32)
Naples: Amalfi Coast Drive and the Ruins of Pompeii (NP04)
Livorno: Discovering Florence (LV04) [we have tickets to the Uffizi for the free time -- refundable, however, because we're holding out a little bit of hope the San Gimignano/gelateria tour opens up]
Villefranche: Monaca, Monte Carlo and Eze (V04) [would like to switch to Eze, Nice, and French Wines (V08) or Nice and Monaco (V25) if they open up -- although your mention of the Matisse Museum has me intrigued ... !]
Marseille: Cassis and Calanques (MS12)

Thanks for the tip re: the subway. I did not know that! Our flight back to Chicago is a little too close to the suggested noon cutoff time for me to feel comfortable, though, so I'm hoping booking DCL transport will put the responsibility in their hands to make sure we make it on time, LOL.

Hoping you get the Palo date and time you want!

 

[Budzooka]

This is good stuff. We were disappointed with the availability of DCL port adventures and need to find some options on our own. First time to Europe for any of us (DW and DD19), so very overwhelming to sort through. But super excited for the trip that has been 2.5 years in the making!

 

[gstdog]

Our excursions are:
* Palermo: taxi to Monreale and then walking around Palermo to flea market, eat, or the churches. Relaxing & shopping day.

What made you decide to check out Monreale?

We are doing a 'food tour' via WithLocals (i.e., 3-hour tour with a guide sampling food while we learn about the city).

* Naples: private driver and tour guide (like @gstdog ) to Pompeii, Herculaneum, Oplontis and Historical museum in Naples. Looking forward to eating pizza in Napoli while singing Amore or at least humming quietly

Good idea on tour guide in Pompeii. I was absolutely overwhelmed by how big it was when we went before.

We booked our private drive via AmalfiCoastDayTours.

* Mykonos: self - island of Delos and then walking around little venice and eat limonata. Relaxing & shopping day

Any tips on Beaches in Mykonos? I want to find one that's family friendly, but also with restaurants and bathrooms nearby.

 

[leannak]

I am so excited for this trip but as we get closer I’m getting more and more concerned about testing positive at the port.

 

[gstdog]

I am so excited for this trip but as we get closer I’m getting more and more concerned about testing positive at the port.

Me too. We've done cruises out of Port Canaveral since the pandemic, and that's not quite as big the deal for us. We're driving to the port, and we usually don't do a ton of planning on excursions in the Caribbean. This is such a different story because of all the effort to travel over there plus the fact that you are in some ways stuck if you test positive and have to quarantine in a foreign country!

We're debating locking down the kids and the family for the two weeks prior to the trip just to make sure. Definite anxiety!

 

[LennyMachine]

Fortunately or unfortunately, that particular point of concern was taken out of our hands this week — my family and I all got COVID. The upside we’re all clinging to is that at least this means we’ll have heightened immunity for this cruise and our upcoming trip to the Galactic Starcruiser in a few weeks.

 

[gstdog]

Fortunately or unfortunately, that particular point of concern was taken out of our hands this week — my family and I all got COVID. The upside we’re all clinging to is that at least this means we’ll have heightened immunity for this cruise and our upcoming trip to the Galactic Starcruiser in a few weeks.

So sorry to hear that...but hopefully you recover quickly and it reduces anxiety for the future trips!

 

[gstdog]

FYI, not sure if you all saw this message from DCL this morning:

As you plan for your upcoming cruise, we want to let you know of a change in your scheduled itinerary. Local officials in Villefranche have recently changed the meeting location for tours ashore to one further away from the port. As a result, we are replacing our stop in Villefranche with a stop in Cannes, France. All other ports will remain as scheduled.​

Any pre-reserved Port Adventures in Villefranche will be removed from your stateroom account. Should you wish to schedule a Port Adventure in Cannes, you may do so online or through the Disney Cruise Line Navigator app prior to sailing once your reservation is paid in full and you are within the applicable Castaway Club booking window, subject to availability. At this time, we are still finalizing some of the onboard offerings and Port Adventures for your sailing and encourage you to check back as new inventory becomes available.​

I hadn't made my plans yet, but we'd been thinking of hitting the beach in Cannes anyway.

 

[mab2012]

Preferred Villefranche, personally. We intended to go to Monaco and likely still will, so it will be a longer and somewhat more expensive trip from Cannes. Also Villefranche just seemed like a nicer spot. Not a huge deal though.

Looks like there has been a small credit in port fees, possibly as a result of that change.

On a different topic, if anyone was waitlisted for the late dining seating, you might try to modify your selection today. I was finally able to update after checking back periodically for months.

 

[gstdog]

Preferred Villefranche, personally. We intended to go to Monaco and likely still will, so it will be a longer and somewhat more expensive trip from Cannes. Also Villefranche just seemed like a nicer spot. Not a huge deal though.

Looks like there has been a small credit in port fees, possibly as a result of that change.

Bummer--yes, Monaco definitely got further away. Villefranche is really nice. That was our port when we sailed back in 2019. The good news is that the train is really easy to use in that area. We used it to go from Villefrance to Nice. If you are comfortable with the train, it's just over an hour to get to Monaco from Cannes, and looks like 21 euros roundtrip.

 

[gstdog]

Just a few updates to share as we think about some of the excursions we are doing on our own:

• LIVORNO: I booked a tour of the Uffuzi museum at 10:30am, so I think I'm going to brave taking the train to Florence. There look to be options that can get me into the city by 9:30am, vs. the buses and shuttles are closer to 11am.
• PIRAEUS: My private driver convinced us to do Corinth first thing in the morning, and then drive back to Athens to do it in the afternoon. We have a private guide scheduled for 1pm for the Acropolis--hopefully not to hot our crowded!
• MAREILLES: We want to try to do lavender fields. Has anyone done that before? Is it worth it? Thinking of taking the public bus to Aix and then booking a driver from that city to see the fields.

Excited to be less than 2 months away! Hopefully the room assignments will come soon.

Steve

 

[Pooh's Pals]

Just realised that I've not checked in here for the cruise but been reading the posts for a while. There's myself, DH and our 3 grown up DD1, DD2 & DS. My husband and son tend to stay on board the ship but myself and daughters enjoys getting off and exploring. We have cruised the med before so have nothing booked for Italy and France, but have excursions booked for Santorini and Mykanos. .
Does anyone know if and when there is a pirate night? My next couple of months are full on at work so I'm trying to start thinking about what I need to pack/ still by when I get 5 minutes

 

[I'mWong]

Preferred Villefranche, personally. We intended to go to Monaco and likely still will, so it will be a longer and somewhat more expensive trip from Cannes. Also Villefranche just seemed like a nicer spot. Not a huge deal though.

Looks like there has been a small credit in port fees, possibly as a result of that change.

On a different topic, if anyone was waitlisted for the late dining seating, you might try to modify your selection today. I was finally able to update after checking back periodically for months.

Preferred Villefranche, personally. We intended to go to Monaco and likely still will, so it will be a longer and somewhat more expensive trip from Cannes. Also Villefranche just seemed like a nicer spot. Not a huge deal though.

Looks like there has been a small credit in port fees, possibly as a result of that change.

On a different topic, if anyone was waitlisted for the late dining seating, you might try to modify your selection today. I was finally able to update after checking back periodically for months.

How do you modify your dining? I have early and want to change to late.

 

[I'mWong]

Preferred Villefranche, personally. We intended to go to Monaco and likely still will, so it will be a longer and somewhat more expensive trip from Cannes. Also Villefranche just seemed like a nicer spot. Not a huge deal though.

Looks like there has been a small credit in port fees, possibly as a result of that change.

On a different topic, if anyone was waitlisted for the late dining seating, you might try to modify your selection today. I was finally able to update after checking back periodically for months.

Can you change your dining time online?

 

[mab2012]

How do you modify your dining? I have early and want to change to late.

Just log into your DCL account, through the app or online, and pull up your reservation (under the "already booked" menu item.)

There will be an option to modify your dining time that should be fairly obvious. On the app it's under "next steps" - choose "view all" if the dining "step" is not showing on the first page.

If you find the option but aren't able to change it, just check back periodically. Usually a spot will open up.