June 27, 2013 - Magic in the Med (Venice)

[Kouris_Family]

That is so nice of you to offer, but we ended up taking the good advice offered by so many and have booked a car to take us to both Pisa and Florence. They have assured us we can do both. It would be nice to meet you on the boat and introduce our girls. Mine loves the cruises as much for the friends she makes as the activities she gets to do. When we aren't on the boat, she is in the club!

Glad you got what will make everybody happy, would love to get our girls together, my daughter has a hard time going to the club without a friend...

 

[jel0511]

Thanks for the advice. We are booked with Rome in Limo. A little more expensive, but the thought of one less bus is pretty appealing. Not to mention getting to see both sites.

Your welcome enjoy Pisa and Florence we did in 2010.

 

[MrsScooby]

[QUOTE/]
We have room in our private tour for Rome if you're interested in joining us. We are going through the company Rome in Limo and so far have 2 families sharing. Our kids are older (16-20) and we plan on hitting most of the major sites with the exception of the Vatican. Only way to see the Vatican on this trip is if you go with a Disney excursion (due to our being there the last Sunday of the month there will be huge crowds and longer than usual lines)

[QUOTE/]What is the price pp and what sites are you aiming for?[/QUOTE]

We are getting a 15 person minibus that includes a driver and guide for the whole day. The total is 1500 euro split among the group and we have 8 people so far. So the closer we get to 15 the closer we get to 100 euro pp.

Our list of sites include the Colosseum, Palantine Hill, Forum, Pantheon, Circus Maximus, Church of Bones, maybe St Peter's Basilica if the tour guide thinks it is doable, photo op of Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain, and of course gelato and lunch. I'm hoping to fit some souvenir shopping in there somewhere too

DCL has something similar, but their price doesn't include a tour guide and is limited to 9 hours, charging extra if you want to stay longer.

 

[jkind]

Thanks for the advice. We are booked with Rome in Limo. A little more expensive, but the thought of one less bus is pretty appealing. Not to mention getting to see both sites.

I should clarify, more expensive than the excursion we were going to do, but cheaper than a car through DCL.

 

[Kouris_Family]

[QUOTE/]What is the price pp and what sites are you aiming for?

We are getting a 15 person minibus that includes a driver and guide for the whole day. The total is 1500 euro split among the group and we have 8 people so far. So the closer we get to 15 the closer we get to 100 euro pp.

Our list of sites include the Colosseum, Palantine Hill, Forum, Pantheon, Circus Maximus, Church of Bones, maybe St Peter's Basilica if the tour guide thinks it is doable, photo op of Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain, and of course gelato and lunch. I'm hoping to fit some souvenir shopping in there somewhere too

DCL has something similar, but their price doesn't include a tour guide and is limited to 9 hours, charging extra if you want to stay longer.[/QUOTE]


We just signed up our family of 4, Kay, Mark, Christian (14) Hannah 10
13 more days until we fly to Madrid

 

[MrsScooby]

We just signed up our family of 4, Kay, Mark, Christian (14) Hannah 10
13 more days until we fly to Madrid

I just got the email from RIL
welcome

My sister has a son the same age as your Hannah and she loved Madrid when she visited there about a year ago.
She did say one weird thing was that they ate dinner so late in Madrid. At 10 pm I think she said. So make sure you eat a good sized lunch

 

[Kouris_Family]

I just got the email from RIL
welcome

My sister has a son the same age as your Hannah and she loved Madrid when she visited there about a year ago.
She did say one weird thing was that they ate dinner so late in Madrid. At 10 pm I think she said. So make sure you eat a good sized lunch

Thanks Laurie,
Are you pre-purchasing any tickets for Rome? Don't want to hold up the bus. Colosseum maybe?
Kay

 

[bananaheim]

Does anyone know why we are docking in La Spezia rather than Livorno? I think Livorno is the port typically used by cruise lines and is somewhat closer to Florence. My Rick Steve's tour book barely mentions La Spezia and focuses on Livorno.

 

[BellesMommy]

Booked our transfers for Barcelona from the airport to the hotel, hotel to ship, ship to hotel after the cruise & hotel to airport. Carsdeluxe.es. Reasonable rates IMO. If anyone is looking for a private transfer, they deal with a lot if different hotels..... see if yours is on their list!!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Does anyone know why we are docking in La Spezia rather than Livorno? I think Livorno is the port typically used by cruise lines and is somewhat closer to Florence. My Rick Steve's tour book barely mentions La Spezia and focuses on Livorno.

Disney has always used La Spezia since they started sailing in the Med in 2007. It's a tendering port, although they have recently opened up to allow some ships to be able to dock rather than tender, but when the Magic was there last week, she still tendered.

 

[MrsScooby]

Thanks Laurie,
Are you pre-purchasing any tickets for Rome? Don't want to hold up the bus. Colosseum maybe?
Kay

Yes, we purchased our tickets already for the Coliseum. We used the link that RIL provided in their email. It led us to a combo ticket that included the Coliseum/Forum/Palantine Hill. You will save a lot of time if you get them in advance

Cindy posted on facebook that these sites should be free for kids under 18. I keep meaning to check with the first DCL Med cruise to see if this is in effect yet but I haven't located their Dis page yet to ask them
We already bought our tickets but for those of you that haven't it would be good to know if you need them for the under 18 cruisers.

 

[poohmomof5]

Booked our transfers for Barcelona from the airport to the hotel, hotel to ship, ship to hotel after the cruise & hotel to airport. Carsdeluxe.es. Reasonable rates IMO. If anyone is looking for a private transfer, they deal with a lot if different hotels..... see if yours is on their list!!

Morning! We were just going to use a taxi, but this seems reasonable! Especially since I have heard stories of taxis charging excessive fees just because they can! This seems safer.

THANK YOU!

 

[nzdisneymom]

Yes, we purchased our tickets already for the Coliseum. We used the link that RIL provided in their email. It led us to a combo ticket that included the Coliseum/Forum/Palantine Hill. You will save a lot of time if you get them in advance

Cindy posted on facebook that these sites should be free for kids under 18. I keep meaning to check with the first DCL Med cruise to see if this is in effect yet but I haven't located their Dis page yet to ask them
We already bought our tickets but for those of you that haven't it would be good to know if you need them for the under 18 cruisers.

Hey - they didn't have much of an active page - they were mostly on FB but my understanding is that it's a pretty small group anyway. There are two June 15thers on this week - one is keeping in touch via FB.

 

[nzdisneymom]

Morning! We were just going to use a taxi, but this seems reasonable! Especially since I have heard stories of taxis charging excessive fees just because they can! This seems safer.

THANK YOU!

If you have anything of a tight schedule on disembarking day, then for sure the private transfer is the way to go (IMHO). I've heard the lines for cabs can be quite a bit at the port, and if you have a larger group or too much luggage, then you'd need separate cabs, etc., so if you can book private transfers to handle it, it's just one less thing to worry about.

 

[lmcarr]

Booked our transfers for Barcelona from the airport to the hotel, hotel to ship, ship to hotel after the cruise & hotel to airport. Carsdeluxe.es. Reasonable rates IMO. If anyone is looking for a private transfer, they deal with a lot if different hotels..... see if yours is on their list!!

do you mind saying how much these transfers were? tia, lc

 

[BellesMommy]

do you mind saying how much these transfers were? tia, lc

You can get a quote on their page depending where you're going and where you're coming from. For us, from the airport to the hotel then the hotel to the cruise ship was 128 euros (about $175)

 

[lmcarr]

You can get a quote on their page depending where you're going and where you're coming from. For us, from the airport to the hotel then the hotel to the cruise ship was 128 euros (about $175)

thanks!!

 

[MrsScooby]

Hey - they didn't have much of an active page - they were mostly on FB but my understanding is that it's a pretty small group anyway. There are two June 15thers on this week - one is keeping in touch via FB.

Thanks Cindy !!

 

[kelvinwyng]

Booked our transfers for Barcelona from the airport to the hotel, hotel to ship, ship to hotel after the cruise & hotel to airport. Carsdeluxe.es. Reasonable rates IMO. If anyone is looking for a private transfer, they deal with a lot if different hotels..... see if yours is on their list!!

For your booked private transfer, what is the name of the company?

 

[BellesMommy]

For your booked private transfer, what is the name of the company?

Cars Deluxe. The website is carsdeluxe.es .