June 14, 2014 - Taking the Magic to Venice

Welcome to all the new cruisers on our meet thread!!!!:cheer2::cheer2:

3princessMommy - thanks for adding the roll call. (the formatting looks a bit staggered :lmao:) Johnny Quest's first name is Jim and Iron Man is Mark.

bitAWL - love the photos!!!!! They are beautiful!!!! I haven't checked out the links but I will!!! Hopefully we'll have some great trip reports and information from all the 2013 Med cruisers.

We booked the Barcelona Hilton precruise thru DCL w/hotel transfers.
Anyone else?
 
I have moved to the July 14th cruise instead of this one. You guys have fun.
 
Hi all - we are family of 6 from southern California - DH and I plus girls ages 13, 11, & 9 and son age 7 as of cruise date. This will be our 4th DCL trip. We are going on the Fantasy in about 5 weeks - Western Carribean for spring break.

I have been dreaming about a European trip with the kids and thought DCL would be easy way to do it with 4 kids. I was trying to wait for th Fantasy cruise next month to book Europe but worried since very limited cabin availability for the arrangement we need. So I did it today - booked - and understand I can reprice onboard if prices are better with onboard discount, OBCs, etc.

Just had to post and join the group - although we have our cruise in about 5 weeks, I LOVE to have vacations booked out so we can have it to look forward to - plus it will soften the blow when we disembark the Fantasy next month!

Bye for now!
 
Griffith6 said:
Hi all - we are family of 6 from southern California - DH and I plus girls ages 13, 11, & 9 and son age 7 as of cruise date. This will be our 4th DCL trip. We are going on the Fantasy in about 5 weeks - Western Carribean for spring break.

I have been dreaming about a European trip with the kids and thought DCL would be easy way to do it with 4 kids. I was trying to wait for th Fantasy cruise next month to book Europe but worried since very limited cabin availability for the arrangement we need. So I did it today - booked - and understand I can reprice onboard if prices are better with onboard discount, OBCs, etc.

Just had to post and join the group - although we have our cruise in about 5 weeks, I LOVE to have vacations booked out so we can have it to look forward to - plus it will soften the blow when we disembark the Fantasy next month!

Bye for now!

:welcome:

We've got three girls who are 11, 9, and 6 now! They will be very excited to have kids the same age on the cruise!!!!
 

3princessMommy - thanks for adding the roll call. (the formatting looks a bit staggered :lmao:) Johnny Quest's first name is Jim and Iron Man is Mark.

We booked the Barcelona Hilton precruise thru DCL w/hotel transfers.
Anyone else?

Fixed it! The bold format was throwing the spacing off, so I had to take it out. Now it looks better.

Was the precruise stay pricey??? We hope to fly in Friday night so will need someplace to stay. Would be nice if they had a precruise excursion too...
 
It was quoted at around 260.00 /night but when she added our son it bacame 3 adults and the price practically doubled! So I don't know if we're in two rooms or one? It all happened so fast. I'll have to pull up our booking and check the figures.

this is US dollars. I'm guessing you will have the advantage of the Euro which will be a decent savings!

We were briefly booked on the June 26th med this year and I had made my own reservation at the Renaissance Barcelona (the other hotel the DCL uses). That was priced at 389 euro for 3 adults in a room with 2 single beds. So I'm using that as an example of how expensive it runs and it looks like the prices are comparable a year later.

What a project!!!!

We chose the DCL transfers for convenience since it's our first trip to Europe.
For being such disney vets, we are really green over here!!!:lmao:
 
Hello!

We are not booked yet, but decided that we would be booking while on the Magic next month. We did an 11-night on the Magic in 2011 that sailed to many of these same ports. All of the repeat ports were stops we wanted to go back to so it was easy decision to book! I am hopeful that rates will not go up too much before we book onboard.

I have already started pulling up the tour information from the private companies I used in 2011. I am ready to get in full planning mode!

We will be a part of 5- Myself, DH, DS (15), DS (9) and my mom! Super excited! Can't wait to report back when we are officially booked! :cloud9:
 
disneymom13176 said:
Hello!

We are not booked yet, but decided that we would be booking while on the Magic next month. We did an 11-night on the Magic in 2011 that sailed to many of these same ports. All of the repeat ports were stops we wanted to go back to so it was easy decision to book! I am hopeful that rates will not go up too much before we book onboard.

I have already started pulling up the tour information from the private companies I used in 2011. I am ready to get in full planning mode!

We will be a part of 5- Myself, DH, DS (15), DS (9) and my mom! Super excited! Can't wait to report back when we are officially booked! :cloud9:

I would love to get info on some of the private companies you used. We are traveling with our 4 kids & thinking private drivers are better option.
 
I would love to get info on some of the private companies you used. We are traveling with our 4 kids & thinking private drivers are better option.

OMG! I saved SO much money over the cost of Disney tours doing it on my own. Plus I got to see what I wanted to see! They were amazing!

I am pulling together a list for you and will post shortly.
 
Based on personal experience I can recommend all of companies. I am planning to use some of them again myself I was so happy!

Rome and Naples- I used RomeCabs. Stefano was amazing to work with during the booking process. Both tours were great! They helped with entry tickets to our sites. Booked additional private guide at the Vatican and Pompeii. Which BTW, I would not do either without!!! (Actually due to a horrible rain storm in Naples we ended up canceling the guide in Pompeii, leaving my kids & mom in van with the driver for a quick Pompeii stop. We got terribly lost and really didn't see the key things I wanted to see. Not a memorable moment. I know had the rain storm not happened it would have been much better with a guide) The guide we had at the Vatican was terrific!

Villefranche- I used Revelation Tours. Of all my tours this was not my favorite. The guide was good but not great. She took us for a drive through Monte Carlo, a stop at Monaco for the Palace, Oceanographic Museum & lunch, then off to the hillside towns and a final stop in Nice. Monaco was amazing and I would recommend it again. The other I could skip. Put it this way when we go back I will be going to Monaco and probably nowhere else. For those that might wonder taking the time to inside the Oceanographic Museum is worth it. My whole family loved and my kids still talk about it.

La Spezia-I used RomeConnection. AWESOME! As a matter of fact I have already emailed then and FB'd my guide from last time to see if they were available. This one was a bit more expensive but worth every single penny. This was having a guide with you the whole way. When we went in the museums our guide went too. Showing and telling us everything that we needed to know to truly enjoy our tour. Strongly recommend these folks for your tours.

Barcelona - I used Barcelona Tour Guides. When we went we went in & out of Barcelona so I had them pick us up at the pier at the end of the cruise. We started out on a driving tour of the city seeing all the sites you need to see by car. We stopped at our hotel around lunch time, checked-in, dropped off luggage and then headed out for lunch and walking tour. Our guide took us to a local place for lunch, which was amazing! (Until I got home and saw the exchange and lunch for over $400 US... but I would do it again!) Then we went for a walking tour of the Gothic Quarter. Much of it cannot be seen by car/van and you need to have someone who knows their way around.

Hotels in Barcelona - On the way there we stayed at the Hotel Arts. :cool1: It was the James Bond Hotel! We booked the rooms through Virtuoso. Suites were cheaper than regular rooms and with a party of 5 we had 2. With Virtuoso you are guaranteed a FREE upgrade if one is available. So upon check-in we were upgraded to 2 floor apartment with butler service. This place was amazing!!!! They also sent a driver to the airport to meet us which made getting in off a long flight in a foreign country super easy. Now... Don't get me wrong it was not cheap. But it was an experience of a lifetime! Did I mention the pool??? It did not disappoint either!!!

Then on the tail end of the trip we stayed at the Petit Museum Palace Hotel off the La Rambla for a considerably lower amount than the Hotel Arts. It was your typical European Hotel. It was clean, reasonable, reasonable for off number of people and I felt secure. Everything you need!

If I can help with any questions or any additional info please do not hesitate to ask. As a first timer I asked a ton of questions and I feel blessed to be repeating and able to share my experience!
 
disneymom13176 said:
OMG! I saved SO much money over the cost of Disney tours doing it on my own. Plus I got to see what I wanted to see! They were amazing!

I am pulling together a list for you and will post shortly.

Thx sooo much - it is overwhelming to even start planning. I will PM you to exchange emails. I want to be very strategic with time & money. Willing to spend $ where it counts & makes the experience with kids great. But also know we have to budget a bit.
 
We went ahead and booked two cabins just in case the rates go up or what we want is not available while on the Magic for Spring Break. Probably not necessary but I would rather be safe than sorry! I will provide cabin #'s after we confirm we don't have to cancel the first reservation to use the one we will book onboard.

I have a couple of questions.
1. Is someone organizing a FE? If so, count us in!
2. Is anyone else interested in a Closed Facebook Group for our cruise or is there one already?

I love Disboards for the big questions and FB for the little comments and getting to know people. I'm happy to create one if we don't have one going and if anyone else is interested.

We are super excited. I have already starting making decisions on what we will do in each port and actually already booked 2 private excursions.

Let the planning begin!!!! :cool1:
 
We just booked too! So unbelievably excited. It will be our 3rd DCL voyage. Anybody have kids sailing with them? We will have our three boys (twins who will be 9 and an older son who will be days away from 13). Let the planning festivities begin!

Steph

This will be our 5th disney cruise. We are sailing with our 3 boys as well, they will be 11, 9 and 7 at the we set sail.
 




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