June 27, 2007 Med Cruise Report

[Doingitagain]

Again, this was drafted the evening of Rome day. But after I posted Sunday’s report, the satellite was screwed up again and I couldn’t get access for two days. I only have time to post late evenings, and when the skies are cloudy and the seas are “rolling”, the satellite doesn’t function well. So here it is, written the same day but posted late.

Today was Rome day. This will be short, because I am very tired!

Not as many excursions for Rome, but a lot of people on each excursion. We did the Highlights of Rome and VIP Vatican. I think there were five buses.

We drove about 90 minutes to Rome. We stopped partway to use restrooms at an Auto Grill. We had a bus guide, Christian, who handled administrative types of things.

When we got to Rome we met a guide, Guiseppe, who was with us the remainder of the day. He spoke constantly the entire day, giving us information about what we were seeing. We spent about two hours in the Rome center, looking at excavated ruins and the Coliseum. It moved fairly quickly.

Bring a water bottle…it is hot and dusty and there is no time to stop. There is one bathroom break at the Coliseum and that is it.

We had lunch at a restaurant…all five buses! That was my main disappointment…it took 1.5 hours out of our day. We were rushed through everything (which we expected, because there is so much to see and we only had the one day), but why not give us that 15-30 minutes for sightseeing rather than sitting and waiting at lunch?

Lunch consisted of water and wine (and we had to keep asking for more water bottles from busy waiters), a lettuce salad with corn, eggs, and some very fishy tasting tuna (and no dressing), a small amount of pasta, and tiramisu. Not a very satisfying lunch for our tastes.

The afternoon was very busy with St. Peter’s Basilica and getting to the
Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel.

Our time at St. Peter's Basilica was limited, but it was incredible!

The Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel was a special private event for Disney guests, so we walked quickly through parts of the museum and Sistine Chapel with our guide, who gave commentary the entire time. I cannot try to describe everything, it was just so great to see all the historical and religious significance during this part of the trip.

We even got to go to the Pope's private car collection, showing all the historical cars going back to the harnesses used by horses, gilded carriages, and secured military type vehicles.

We had to wait a bit for everyone to get through the restroom before our 90 minute drive back. It is getting tiring being part of large groups all the time.

Dinner on Rome night is moved back 1/2 hour because of late arriving guests. And they try to fit guests from first seating into the second seating. So don't worry about when you get back. We were tired and hungry and were taken care of very well. But still anxious to shower! The head server arranged for chicken tikka and a chicken/spinach dish this evening. DH and DS enjoyed them in addition to other food! Service again was excellent.

I know this does not give Rome justice, but you just have to see it for yourself. So rather than just writing my opinions, I just provided highlights and now some suggestions.

This is not a tour for young children.

You do not have any free time. Zero. It is all guided. There was about 15 minutes at a souvenir shop by St. Peter’s basilica, but that is the only shopping. If you want to see anything special or do shopping, take a different tour.

Have an attitude that you are seeing a little bit of a lot of things. You will go away wanting more, but there is just too much for one day.

The table next to us took the train in to Rome. It was 9 Euro each and the shuttles from the port take you within 5-10 minutes of the train station. DCL has the train time tables in a booklet available, just like the shopping guides (they do this for most ports).

Next time, we will do it on our own. But for this first time and with limited time, this tour worked for us.

Watch "Roman Holiday" with Audrey Hepburn before you leave, then have fun seeing the sights "live". We didn't, but wish we had.

When I get back, I am going to order the book Archeological Rome with Overlays. Our guide had one...it has photos showing the Roman architecture as it is today, then there is a transparency overlay painted so that when you fold it over the photo, you see what it would have looked like centuries ago.

Suggestions for bus:
1. Our favorite position is midway down the bus on the right side, the first seats after the door that opens mid-bus. It generally has a tray and/or water holders, and slightly more leg room. But more, it has an unobstructed view in front for betting viewing and pictures.
2. The next best seats are across the aisle from this. You can take photos on both sides with the unobstructed view on the right. And you can get on/off the bus quickly.
3. Bring an old sweatshirt to 1) use if the bus is cold or 2) to leave on your seat when you leave so no one else beats you back and takes it.
4. Don't sit in seats where the curtains are right in front of you, go back one for a better view.

Suggestions for group lunches:
Send the guys in to get seats and have the women immediately get in line for the restroom. As more buses come, but lines get longer. And as we found out today, the restrooms couldn’t handle this many people. Of the three female stalls, before lunch was over one wasn’t working at all and the others didn’t flush completely. And they didn’t have a toilet seat. Yuck.

Another special request since this Internet is so slow…could someone get me the information for shipping stuff home from Barcelona? I understand that it is extremely expensive to use regular mail services, but perhaps DSL or something like that? If you could get me the link to that thread, it would be very helpful, thanks!!!

 

[Doingitagain]

Today was La Spezia. A lovely city. We did the Florence and Pisa tour. I had not read good things about it, but we really wanted to see Florence and DS really wanted to see the leaning tower of Pisa. Doing it on our own was making me nervous because of tendering, so this tour was our only choice.

It was a two hour drive to Florence. DD had already built that into her sleep schedule so she stayed out late again last night! We again had an “administrative” guide, but met with an actual tour guide in Florence.

We walked through Florence with the guide. It was very beautiful. After a 15 minute wait, we went into a Cathedral, which was very beautiful. We spent about two hours touring. The guide spoke about many things. It really was just a “taste” of Florence, you don’t see any of the “big” attractions, only outdoor ones. With only 2 hours, there is no time to wait in lines.

We went to a gorgeous hotel for lunch. It had a high domed ceiling, it was like eating in an art museum! This lunch was much better than yesterday. We started with bruschetta and some sort of pate on a biscuit, followed by two courses of pasta, a beef/potato/carrot entrée, and followed by tiramisu (why do they keep serving that?). The service was quite good, except that when a new bus came in they stopped serving us to get them going. So lunch took 1.5 hours, which is almost as much time as we had touring Florence!

After lunch it was a bit frustrating…our guide told us to leave the restaurant at 2:30 and meet her outside, but she didn’t show until 2:45! Fifteen minutes is a lot of time on this tour.

We walked about 15 minutes back to the bus. Florence was extremely crowded. DCL probably had 10 buses, plus there were other groups there.

We spent another 1.5 hours getting to Pisa. Traffic was very heavy. When we got to Pisa, it took a ten minute walk to get to the leaning tower, then we had about 10 minutes before we had to start back! That was very disappointing. It cost about 2 hours of time to get a photo at the leaning tower of Pisa!

It took a bit over an hour to get back to the ship. This was a tender port, so we had to wait in line for a tender to get back to the ship. Return tendering was much more crowded than when we left, because in the morning excursions were given priority, and you funneled people into more space. On the return, they were crowding to get off one small gangway.

Since this is my thread, I am going to take a minute to whine. Sometimes, you just know when certain people are going to be high maintenance. At the very beginning of our tour, one woman announced clearly that she just wanted to shop, and asked how much shopping time she would have. Evidently, she was very upset about not getting to shop in Rome. When she found out that there was no shopping time (didn’t she read the excursion info?), she said she and her friend were going out on their own and would meet us. The guide spent 5 minutes explaining how they could get to where they wanted to go, where to meet the bus, etc. while 40 other people stood and waited (again, 5 minutes on this tour is a lot of time!). These same two people showed up at lunch, motioned the waiter to take their table out of turn so they could leave early to shop again. To top it all off, at the end of the day in Pisa, the entire bus was ready to go except for this party and we all had to sit and wait on the bus about 5 minutes for them (which was 15 minutes after the bus was supposed to have left). I have no idea why they didn’t do “Florence on your own”…why pay for a guide you don’t use? OK, done whining.

We showered and changed for dinner. DD and DS headed down to Diversions early to play Giant Jenga with Pubmaster Paul. He is incredible at that game! He swears he only plays it when people are in Diversions with him.

Dinner was wonderful as well. We spent a lot of time chatting with the next table again, such wonderful people. They were very disappointed with our Florence visit, they said we didn’t see any of the Florence that we should have, that we should have done it on our own. Next time. This time we played it safe.

Today’s “extra” entrée was chicken curry. Very nice. It was a very different menu tonight (Mediterranean menu), so Sanjeev helped each of us DH, DS and I each had one entrée that we didn’t like (the goat cheese was overwhelming it), so he got DS and I a melon boat. We were so busy talking with the next table that he didn’t ask for our dessert selection…he proceeded to bring each table one of each kind of dessert!

Michelle, the head dining room person, stopped by our table again to check on us. This cruise, the head really works hard because people come back late from excursions and need to be fit in somewhere. When we came back on the tender, it was after 7:00 and some people were first going to the club to get their kids and then down to their 6:30 seating.

After dinner, we went to Rockin Bar D for Michael Harrison. He was funny, as usual. I laughed a lot, but the jokes and act were almost identical to what we saw last year. But somehow the familiarity made it more fun.

The seas were really rolling today. The waves were 13-20 feet high. The ship was sailing into a wind.

Notes on clothes restrictions:
It didn’t seem like closed shoes matter. Many people wore sandals. But I did not see any flip flops, so you may not want to chance that.
They did check covered shoulders, but some churches had shawls you could borrow to wear.
It didn’t seem like they were super fussy on the shorts, as long as they were not extremely short.
But they did have people checking, so it may depend on that particular day.

 

[Doingitagain]

July 4 was Marseille day. The ports all start getting mixed up! This was our first day without a DCL excursion. DD and DS both have taken French and wanted to try it on our own.

There is a shuttle bus from the ship right into Marseilles, about 10 minutes. We started by taking the Little Train Tour. Extremely easy to do on your own! Walk with the water on your right side and you will see the Little Trains and a ticket booth. It is 5 Euro each (3 Euro for 3 to 11 year olds). There are two choices…scenic and historic. We did the scenic tour. The train takes you through the city and slows down certain areas and a narrative in French, English and Italian tells you what you are looking at. You can get out at the Notre Dame Cathedral (a must see!), then board the next train back using the other part of your ticket.

The Cathedral was incredibly beautiful. (No clothes security here). Definitely worth the stop. It is high on a hill and the views overlooking Marseille are a great photo opportunity. As the train was going to the top, we saw our next table mates walking…quite a climb up the hill. I recommend the five Euros!

We met two coworkers of mine (we have an office about 20 minutes away) for lunch. A little confusing finding our way…the funny thing with Marseille streets is that they don’t stay the same street name. Every few blocks they seemed to change names. They had made reservations at Chaperon Rouge. We had a nice lunch, and it was great to have someone interpret the French menu!

We walked around the streets of Marseille for a while. We found the candy shop recommended by Winston yesterday! It is “La Cure Gourmande” and has a yellowish front. It is worth the stop. We tried the chocolate olives and ended up buying some for gifts. They look like olives, and we wouldn’t have thought twice about them until we tried them. They were very tasty! To get there, you continue up Quai Du Port (water to the right) to the Little Trains and go right (water to the right). Part way down go left onto what I think is Rue des Fabres. When we were there, there was construction along the street. The store is on the left hand side.

If you go to the street to the right of the candy store, Rue Saint – Ferreol, it is a pedestrian walkway … a mall … with many shops on either side. It was very crowded! Another tidbit of information from our French friends at lunch…France regulates sales. They can only have sales in January and in July, and the discounts must be very specifically a discount from the retail so they are “real”. Today, July 4, was the first day of the July sale. We saw many signs with “soldes” or “sales” on them. Shoes were 50-60% off. These are very big discount sales. So that is why there were tons of people. So you shoppers on future cruises…this will last about 5 weeks per my friend. But selection may get limited, so that is why so many people were out today. Not our scene, so we just kept walking through it.

We tried to catch a ferry to the island to see the prison, but it was too windy. So we headed back to the ship on the shuttle for an early afternoon. As we boarded the ship, we went through a building and there was a small merchandise stand and DD and DS were able to each pick up a Marseille hat. Probably tourist pricing, but I can’t stand the crowds shopping in the stores for the sales.

Sorry to inundate you with so much, but I finally got onto the Internet. Posting late at night evidently won’t work, and this is the first time we have been on the ship when we are at a port and not at sea.

I am sitting in Diversions…a nice relaxing place for the family (DD is writing in her journal, DH and DS are playing chess) and the Internet connection is the same as in Promenade (if you have your own laptop with wireless card).

Tonight is Pirate’s Night. They have a special “American menu” because it is July 4. We are concerned that they will not have fireworks because it is so windy. I will try to remember to finish off this day another time.

 

[Doingitagain]

I posted the link to this thread on the Med excursions thread. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this!

Merci, Julie!

 

[Doingitagain]

Last night at dinner we were thinking...if this was a 7 night cruise like last year, it would be our last night! Ten days are much nicer!

 

[bellelinus]

Merci, Julie!

Je vous en prie! Merci beaucoup for posting while on the trip. This is the link I found regarding shipping at the port in Barcelona:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1498336

and here is some actual info posted:


SHIPPING-UPS was set up in the port on Friday afternoon and you could go ship your stuff that evening if you didn't want to haul it back to the U.S. However, be forewarned, the cost was unbelievable and you are better off to back over weight luggage fees than pay the cost they were asking for. Here was the chart (please sit down before reading)

KG's Euros
20 345
25 359
30 369
35 384
40 393
45 404
50 413
55 422
60 432
65 442
70 452
80 472
90 490
100 510
+ 100 Kg 5,10 per kg

I was told 20 kg is about 42 pounds and based on 345 euros that would be over $450 us dollars.

Also, was told that it would take 8-10 days. They said if you had your own business account you could you use your business number and the rate would be less expensive, but don't know what that is.

Like I said, you are better to be the overweight fees on luggage at the airport if you have a problem!

 

[Jillpie]

Marie, so much valuable information, I wish I were going this Summer! I read thru every single word, as if I were going. What a fantastic couple of days you have had. Rome sounded very hectic, but you saw so much. And you met up with coworkers, how fun! Have you been there before? Are you staying in Europe beyond the cruise? I really hate to see it come to an end. Jill

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

This thread has been such a wonderful read. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts about all of your tours and experiences so far.

 

[taysmom]

I agree about the lunches. A waste of our precious touring time! Sounds like you're having fun. We were on the 6/16 and are missing the ship already. I still haven't unpakced!

 

[jlawall]

Thx for all the detailed info!!

 

[Doingitagain]

Marie, so much valuable information, I wish I were going this Summer! I read thru every single word, as if I were going. What a fantastic couple of days you have had. Rome sounded very hectic, but you saw so much. And you met up with coworkers, how fun! Have you been there before? Are you staying in Europe beyond the cruise? I really hate to see it come to an end. Jill

We are on the last day! We are heading to Cambridge for three nights and London for two nights. At least that helps the sadness of the cruise ending.

I have been in Europe before, but primarily work related.

 

[Doingitagain]

Let me finish July 4, Marseille port stop. We had pirates night. Dinner was very fun. Traditional pirates night bandanas and menu. There was the “limbo line” at the end. Very festive. We also each received souvenir champagne glasses with champagne or sparkling apple cider for a July 4 toast.

They were able to have the deck party, fireworks and buffet. Nothing new, except that now with late seating the buffet was not appealing at all! We did have to try a crepe, however.

Thursday was Villefranche, a lovely port. We took the Nice and Monaco excursion. Most of the day went very well. We started by driving along the coast with beautiful scenery. The tour guide provided commentary.

We stopped in Nice. We had a guided tour for about 15 minutes to take us to the outdoor market and visit a Cathedral. We then had about 45 minutes of free time in the market and/or along the harbor. We were able to get DD the Nutella crepe she has been craving! Nutella is a form of chocolate, it is very good!

We then drove about 20 minutes to Eze, a wonderful medieval village in the mountain. The lunch service was excellent…they had four buses done in an hour! The scenery was great also. The food was a salad (lettuce, tuna, tomato, egg, cucumber, dressing). The entrée was chicken with a mushroom/wine sauce and some cute balls of potato. Dessert was an ice cream cake drizzled with raspberry sauce. The kids ate the same thing, except they had a salad that was shredded carrots with dressing and lettuce with dressing.

We had ten minutes to wander on our own and take pictures.

We drove a half hour to Monaco. We had a guided tour on the bus through the city, then got off at the Rock and had a walking tour to a few places and then had about a half hour to shop and take photos.

We drove 20 minutes to Monte Carlo. I could have done without this part of the tour. We got there about 3:15 and she gave us until 4:55. If you don’t go into the casino (most didn’t), there isn’t much to do except walk around. The guide took us to a restaurant where we had a choice of ice cream or a soft drink. They were very efficient…the guide asked who wanted ice cream and they had it ready in advance and could just serve us all right away. The ice cream was a small scoop of strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate served in a chocolate dish (which was yummy).

We were ready for the ice cream…you have to go up an elevator to get to Monte Carlo. There was more than a 100 people waiting to catch two elevators up (and more than that trying to get them down). It was crowded and chaotic and hot. Very stressful. Our poor guide!

We walked around a lot and took photos, but the time dragged until 4:55. Luckily, everyone for the bus was back early and we could leave a few minutes early. We really liked the excursion, except that the Monte Carlo stop was too long. But I can’t recall if there is a way to do a DCL excursion without the Monte Carlo piece. I think that with four buses on this excursion, they could have had some buses stay for those who want to go in the casino, and the others leave after a half an hour.

Tendering went well today. The tender boat back was a dinner cruise ship, very nice!

Dinner was the Captain’s Gala, but it was casual. I am bummed, we missed one of the semi-formal nights. Evidently it was on La Spezia night, but the navigator said cruise casual.

We stopped at Diversions to do some Internet work (if you have your own laptop, it is just as good as going elsewhere on the ship if you need wireless access). We ended up visiting a bit with Pubmaster Paul and playing some cribbage.

This evening was dessert buffet! We figured they would have it on the night before the last sea day, and they did. We just went in to look, we couldn’t eat a bite! They had new additions since we were last there…a chocolate fountain and a white chocolate fountain. The best part was that guests could not do it themselves, they had crew members dipping marshmallows, fruit, etc.

 

[Jillpie]

I'm so glad you're not done tomorrow, you will continue this when you get off the Magic, riiiiiiight??? I can't stand the thought of it ending. You know, it would be a really great thing for DCL reps to read this entire report, it would provide them with some fantastic feedback, open and honest. Ok, nutella!!! That is the first thing Pat had to buy when he got home from his Italy trip last year. We saw that in our cabinet for many months. He loves that stuff too! I can't believe all you are seeing, you guys are so lucky. What memories together. Enjoy your last night on the Magic Marie, WOW what a trip.
p.s. I was curious about the college kids...can you ask Beth how they compare to last year's group? Would Pat have liked them? Are they just as fun?

 

[TDC Nala]

Hey Marie! Have you been practicing your putting?

 

[Jillpie]

Hi Marie, I hope you're having fun! Come back when you can.

 

[Jillpie]

ok now I'm getting worried, everything okay Marie?? I hope so.

 

[ImprovGal]

Hi, Marie!
What about the most popular sporting event coverage in Diversions? Sure, Wimbledon had the most lengthy coverage. But when it comes to quality vs. quantity, the Nathan's Hot Dog Challenge won by a landslide!

-- Improv"I Didn't Know It Was an a I Tile"Gal

 

[Doingitagain]

We are home and very tired!

The last day was busy. I had a report written, but it is on the hard drive of my laptop, which broke on the way home. Not sure if I can recover the file, so here is a very brief version.

I couldn't post it before we left, because they kick you off the Internet at midnight and you can't get on the morning you leave.

We had a galley tour in the afternoon. Nothing new, nice to do once but I don't think I will keep doing it.

DD, a friend, and I went to High Tea. It was relaxing. There weren't many people there. I think brunch and dinner are much better.

We had a nice round of putting in Diversions (half DisBoards!). Men vs women. I made the first putt (go figure, I don't play golf).

Pub night was fun as usual. First chance for DD to see it!

Getting off the ship was easier because we were second seating. When we left at about 9, a lot of the luggage was already gone. We boarded a bus to the airport. The Barcelona airport is horrible. Lines everywhere, not clear where to go. Even asking didn't help...some people were sent to the wrong place.

For those of you taking British Airways...go up to the front where their ribbons start a formal queue (the lines go much longer than that) and there is a board where they post which flights they are boarding. If you are too early, they won't take you. Also, ours was a British Airway flight operated by Iberia. Our flight wasn't posted on the board, so I asked and we were told to check in with Iberia.

We flew to London Heathrow and took a bus to Cambridge for three nights, visiting friends. Punting on the River Cam, visiting historical places, relaxing finally. We stayed at a bed and breakfast.

We then went to London for two nights. We stayed at the Royal Garden Hotel using our DVC points. Five star hotel, very nice. We did the "hop on/hop off bus", but we were so tired from all our touring that we did a lot of riding the bus and taking pictures.

We did take a bit of time to tour the Tower of London, seeing the Bloody Tower and the Crown Jewels. We also took extra time to go to King's Cross station to platform 9 and 3/4. They cut a shopping cart in half and attached it to the wall. We have a great photo of the kids pushing the cart through the wall.

We went to Les Miserables at the Queen's Theater. Our seats were wonderful (I had ordered them in advance). It was very nice.

Then more packing and heading home. Uneventful. Then catching up on sleep and laundry, laundry, laundry.

Sorry this is so brief, but I have thousand emails and work to catch up on, too!

 

[Doingitagain]

Hey Marie! Have you been practicing your putting?

Why practice? I was the first to make a putt during the contest and I haven't touched a putter in years. I did it after I had my drink of the day, must have been relaxed.

 

[Doingitagain]

Hi, Marie!
What about the most popular sporting event coverage in Diversions? Sure, Wimbledon had the most lengthy coverage. But when it comes to quality vs. quantity, the Nathan's Hot Dog Challenge won by a landslide!

-- Improv"I Didn't Know It Was an a I Tile"Gal

This was one of the funniest events of the trip! Pubmaster Paul was so excited that they were showing the hot dog eating contest on July 4. He even skipped his dinner break! He video taped the TV, adding his own colorful commentary.

A bit of controversy at the end (and some yuck) of the contest on the TV, but we had great fun in Diversions!