June 8, 2013 Mediterranean Magic!!

[DisneyOHFan]

I'm think we are earlier since we are on the West Coast but YES!!! I have it as an alert on my computer and we have the excursions already saved. Palo is easy this early, too! This will be our 1st as Gold members
This trip is coming up fast. I feel like SpongeBob...I'm ready, I'm ready!!!

Oh I am so jealous you get to do it at 9:00 PM. I just hope I can stay awake.

 

[SueTGGR]

Now that the PIF date is behind us, let's get this thread going! Thought I would post here instead of FB to help out other potential cruisers.

So where are you all staying pre/post cruise? I've struggled with trying to decide where to stay--way too many choices! I initially booked Novotel Barcelona City, but then thought we are in Barcelona--we need to experience the city! So after the cruise, we'll be staying at Gaudi's Nest--received pretty good reviews on TripAdvisor. Plus they offer a Spanish brunch, paella dinner, and shuttle service if you choose, all for a reasonable fee.

Any food recommendations off the ship?? We're really looking forward to trying churros and chocolate in Barcelona & pesto and anchovies at Cinque Terre. Looking for more ideas...

As you can tell, we LOVE to eat!

Are you going to take the Cinque Terra DCL tour or on your own? We keep going back and forth but I think with being unfamiliar and with a 13 yr old in tow we will play it safe and go with DCL.
For pre-cruise we are going to stay 2 nights in London and fly into Barcelona the day of...I know risky but DH wants to see London. We don't know when we will get another chance, so London it is. Your choice in Barcelona sounds great! Brunch AND Paella?? Food is our way of experiencing the culture when we go on vacation.
If I get any good ideas from tomorrow at the Travel show, I will post them here and on FB!
Are we there, yet????

 

[LauraJoJo]

Just wondering if there will be many teenage girls. I'll have a 13 & 14 year old. I've seen lots of boys that age but not any girls. Can't wait to go, but first have the Princess Run this weekend & the Aulani next month!

 

[SparklesofHope]

Are you going to take the Cinque Terra DCL tour or on your own? We keep going back and forth but I think with being unfamiliar and with a 13 yr old in tow we will play it safe and go with DCL.
For pre-cruise we are going to stay 2 nights in London and fly into Barcelona the day of...I know risky but DH wants to see London. We don't know when we will get another chance, so London it is. Your choice in Barcelona sounds great! Brunch AND Paella?? Food is our way of experiencing the culture when we go on vacation.
If I get any good ideas from tomorrow at the Travel show, I will post them here and on FB!
Are we there, yet????

We are planning to do Cinque Terre on our own- I'm a little nervous about that but it sounds like many people have done it. We considered the DCL tour but would rather do a little more walking than spending more time on a boat.

It sounds like we like to experience culture the same way--Eating our way through Europe!! London is a great city- so many things to see! DH & I went to London & Paris back in 2000 before kids & would love to go back someday. Our oldest is really into soccer so we are also planning a visit to Camp Nou at FC Barcelona.

How was the travel show??

 

[MrsKP]

We are staying at Novetel Barcelona City the night before the cruise. It was cheap & had the family room. Plus the HOHO bus stop is right in front of the hotel.

When we return from the cruise, we are puddle jumping to Lisbon. Staying there for a few days & then returning to Barcelona. Staying a Casp 74 Apartments for 3 nights before returning home.

Using Rome in Limo for Rome & Naples. DCL For Florence and on our own in Villefranche. We cannot book until March 10th so may have to change Florence if we cannot get excursion. Want Palo for dinner 6/12 (my birthday ) and any brunch opening either sea day. Plan to do tastings but think those are booked on board.

 

[SueTGGR]

Travel Show was OK. I was kind of amazed at the fact that 1/2 of the booths were for places that are local to us here. There was one person that had a Disneyland shirt on and looked like they booked that and other things. Lots on China and Asia. No one really specializing in parts of Europe all of them were more general travel agents, showcasing a certain spot on the planet but not many knowledgeable. I did find out Pleasant Holidays (they used to be Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, the cheap packages to get to Hawaii??) now covers Fiji and a few other remote places now. They must have had 3 different booths spread out. Lots of brochures and bags to carry them all in! I am sure I will get swamped with all the slips of paper I filled in to try and win a trip here or there but maybe I will win something some day, right?
But the best was listening to Rick Steves about Italy and watching his slide show. It went through his "Best of Italy" tour his company does and boy can he talk fast! But you could understand everything he talked about. His one big piece of advice was buy tickets to the museums and such ahead of time and don't waste time standing in line. I like that he isn't so secretive about what he knows. He isn't in it for the money. He truly loves to travel and wants us to love it too. And not pay an arm and leg to get his words of wisdom. He did say that his Europe Through the Back Door was his biggest re-write. So I would say that if you have an older book, it might be a good time to buy another. He signed books after each of his 2 talks but the mobs there kept us away. I think I am even more excited to see Italy now!!!

MrsKP, the tastings are booked on board and we plan on attending a few of those if time allows. We have gone to 2 different martini tastings and they were well worth the $$! Yummy!!! The wine tasting might be interesting this time considering the areas we will be in this cruise.
I am a big volleyball fan and it is huge in Italy but we may be there in the wrong season for me to see a match, so I know how your daughter must be feeling about seeing soccer.
Any suggestions for London are welcome, too.

 

[MrsKP]

We did the wine tasting when we were on the Wonder (granted that was forever ago) & we had fun but doubt we would do it again. We plan on buying wine in every port and doing our own tasting each night!

I am very interested in the martini & tequila tastings. My biggest issue is that I do not plan to get on the Magic early. We will board probably between 2 & 3pm. Want to go to the local market for breakfast Saturday morning & take in a few sights before boarding.

 

[ame]

We are staying at Novetel Barcelona City the night before the cruise. It was cheap & had the family room. Plus the HOHO bus stop is right in front of the hotel.

We're staying there too. We arrive on Monday the 3rd. Say hi if you see us around, we're the loud Australian family with lots of kids

I did find out Pleasant Holidays (they used to be Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays, the cheap packages to get to Hawaii??) now covers Fiji and a few other remote places now.

I love travel expos. Can only dream of future travels! It's funny your perspective of Fiji as being remote. From Sydney, it's a 3hr flight and seen as a regular family beach vacation location.

When we went on a cruise to Mexico 2 years ago it was perceived by other Australians as *exotic* and we had tons of questions asked of us!

We did the wine tasting when we were on the Wonder (granted that was forever ago) & we had fun but doubt we would do it again. We plan on buying wine in every port and doing our own tasting each night!

I am very interested in the martini & tequila tastings. My biggest issue is that I do not plan to get on the Magic early. We will board probably between 2 & 3pm. Want to go to the local market for breakfast Saturday morning & take in a few sights before boarding.

We're planning to do the same thing with local wine too

I did a margarita and tequila tasting on an Alaska cruise last year, it was fun! I'm not a fan of tequila (thanks to my 18 year old self) but there was one that I really enjoyed. We're planning on doing some tastings. If I remember correctly they only show up in the navigator the day before the tasting and then you can call or go to guest services to book. You shouldn't have a problem booking one.

 

[DisneyOHFan]

If I remember correctly they only show up in the navigator the day before the tasting and then you can call or go to guest services to book. You shouldn't have a problem booking one.

You should be able to sign up when you get onboard.

Also, I heard that the wine tastings for the Med cruises DON'T include local wines, which is a huge disappointment to me. Maybe they received enough feedback from last years Med cruise that it will change for this summer. It would be fun to get a group of us together to do one of the tastings. We did that on our Fantasy cruise last summer.

 

[DisneyHelen]

I would like to do Martini tasting.

 

[SueTGGR]

We did the martini tasting this last Summer and a few years ago. This time we didn't wait for the Navigator we just went to Guest Services and asked. They let us know the days it was scheduled and signed us up right there. Best $35 (per person) I spent. Typically, 5 different martinis in smaller glasses but they have been generous and typically there are "let overs" at the end. With our 1st one they had probably 10+ people they were expecting and it ended up only us and another couple. It was so sad, we had to drink all the left overs The one we did this last Summer the bartender took 2 different volunteers and guided them through making the one they liked the best. I tried to do a meetup with a martini tasting but it so hard since you don't know when they will be.

 

[DisneyHelen]

I have booked pre cruise ABD for Barcelona for June 8. I am just wondering if other people have booked. I am hoping it will not be cancelled.

 

[Angie_Ohio]

My son is a soccer fan as well. Camp Nou was a stop on the HOHO bus route so we took the tour. I would recoommend it. There is a coupon for $ off in some type of booklet we got. Can't remember if it was part of the material given with the HOHO map.

 

[Angie_Ohio]

We booked Colosseum, Vatican and Galleria for David in Florence. No waiting in line!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Hi all,
Sorry to intrude on your thread but this is a 7-nt cruise which we will be doing in Aug.

Is anyone planning to do early debarkation? I'd love to know what time they start letting guests off the ship. I booked 10:45am return flights after hearing so many posters saying it was easy to catch but I'd like to give our transportation company an accurate pick up time but also as early as possible. I don't want to leave our driver waiting a long time or have him think we're a no-show. I also don't want to make it later than it has to be. Unfortunately, I had to choose this early flight as I need to return to work that Monday.

In all the times I've cruised from PC, I've never checked my watch to pay close attention to exactly what time early embarkation starts; I only knew what time we needed to be out of our room.

Thanks!!

 

[DisneyOHFan]

Hi all,
Sorry to intrude on your thread but this is a 7-nt cruise which we will be doing in Aug.

Is anyone planning to do early debarkation? I'd love to know what time they start letting guests off the ship. I booked 10:45am return flights after hearing so many posters saying it was easy to catch but I'd like to give our transportation company an accurate pick up time but also as early as possible. I don't want to leave our driver waiting a long time or have him think we're a no-show. I also don't want to make it later than it has to be. Unfortunately, I had to choose this early flight as I need to return to work that Monday.

In all the times I've cruised from PC, I've never checked my watch to pay close attention to exactly what time early embarkation starts; I only knew what time we needed to be out of our room.

Thanks!!

We also plan on doing early debarkation with an early flight. We are using a car service, so I will let. You know.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We also plan on doing early debarkation with an early flight. We are using a car service, so I will let. You know.

Thanks! May I ask what time did you request to be picked up at the port? My mom called DCL and the only info they would give was to say they don't recommend flights before 12:30pm. They had no idea what time early debark starts.

 

[DisneyOHFan]

Thanks! May I ask what time did you request to be picked up at the port? My mom called DCL and the only info they would give was to say they don't recommend flights before 12:30pm. They had no idea what time early debark starts.

We have the service picking us up at 8:00 but we also plan on taking our bags off with us vs leaving them out the night before.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We have the service picking us up at 8:00 but we also plan on taking our bags off with us vs leaving them out the night before.

Ours is 7:30am for now until I hear back from some on the early cruises. I guess you'll be ready to board when they get disembark but I'll post it as soon as I hear anything.

 

[SueTGGR]

Ours is 7:30am for now until I hear back from some on the early cruises. I guess you'll be ready to board when they get disembark but I'll post it as soon as I hear anything.

The last couple of cruises we took with DCL (Dec & June) I believe you were able to leave with your luggage @ 7:30am. The only Navigator I can find from our last cruise says as soon as they are cleared at the dock. Now who knows what it will be in Barcelona. 7:30am might be cutting it a little close. Do we have customs of some sort to pass through? Or that is on our way home?