Magic cruises Dover to Barcelona August 3-10, 2015

[JimmyJackJunior]

Hey Pacific Northwesteners or is that Cascadians? May 10th at the Rick Steves travel center they have seminars on Portugal and Barcelona the same day.

We went to the spring travel festival last Spring and learned an invaluable amount about Rome, Barcelona, Greece and Turkey for our cruise.

 

[ReadingFC]

Hello Paul, Celestine, and Family. We were wondering when you were going to join in.

Any possibility of your arranging transportation from London like you did for the Baltic cruise?

I can organise the coach, but someone else would have to act as bus conductor as we will already be on the Magic. We are now doing the 12 night Baltic and then this cruise.

There is plenty of time, if someone wants to help? I am also organising coaches for the Baltic cruise. So if anyone is interested PM me with how many passengers would be travelling and we will see if it is a starter. I anticipate it costing no more than $25 per person to travel.

 

[LisaHK]

Hi

We will be joining you.

It will be myself (Lisa), husband Andy and our four children. Joshua will be 13, Charlie will be 11, Zachary will be 7 and Heidi will be 4.

This will be our second cruise. We were trying to get deck 2 as we loved it on our last cruise but have ended up on deck 6.

I look forward to chatting with you all.

 

[jbrockwell5081]

I will get you back when my 9 year old has two mickey bars for desert. LOL.
They are good rooms. Close to the AFT elevators which are not used very much and laundry. Generally quiet.

Can I get you to check your room no again? Mum and dad have just booked 2103 on the Disney website (thanks for being tag alongs nan and grandad).

Oh and Mickey bars don't bother us. May join you

 

[MissMorningStar]

Hi all!

We will be joining you on this cruise. It will be myself Amanda and my daughter Cameron-Jayne who will be 16yrs when we cruise, were leaving dad at home! She's very happy to see there's already some young people her age cruising with us

This will be our fourth Disney Cruise. We are from Birmingham UK and so couldnt resist a sailing from Dover.

Look forward to meeting you all

Amanda and CJ

 

[Caropooh]

It's great to see so many people joining our thread! It looks like a nice diverse group so far. New cruisers, established cruisers (didn't want to say old!) and all ages! Looks like quite a few from the UK and also the Pacific Nothwest!
I'll work on compiling a list of everyone and posting it either tonight or tomorrow. I'm working overtime today making money for our Mickey Cruise Fund!

 

[JimmyJackJunior]

Can I get you to check your room no again? Mum and dad have just booked 2103 on the Disney website (thanks for being tag alongs nan and grandad).

Oh and Mickey bars don't bother us. May join you

I got a message that my mother has upgraded us to outside which we actually did not want because the kids will sleep better without the light. So we are in another room now but I don't know what it is. Sure it is in the same general area.

Edit - Just found out my mom moved us to 2100 across the hall.

 

[Caropooh]

Happy Mothers Day to all of our UK mothers! Hoping you are having a wonderful day!

 

[lark]

Well, we're booked. Of the 2015 itineraries just released, this was the only one that appealed to us except Iceland, which doesn't work for our schedule. I will be interested in following the thread to see what people's plans are, because at this point I need a bit of convincing. Three sea days is a bit of a bummer, especially because it would have been easy to do a coastal France stop. And the port days are just so darned short, especially Gib, which is the stop I am most looking forward to. Still, I can't imagine ever getting to NW Spain, so this is appealing. I just wish there was a bit longer in each port.

 

[twopeasonepod]

We booked on opening day for Silver (our last time until Gold next month!) Lots of b2bs! We will be doing the same, unless we decided to switch to the 12-nt med. I booked all three haha.

We LOVE the longer cruises, especially the TAs. We are doing WBPC in a few weeks (bucket list!) and I'm so pumped!

It's me, DH, and our twin sons will be 9 when we do this one! Excited!

 

[MacDisney]

Looks like we will be joining you…that is 17 of us…fingers crossed that we don't need to cancel

Anyone travel to Dover/Barcelona before….We are starting to think about pre and post cruise planning…does Disney have excursions? With 17 of us … just going out to tour will be difficult with so many people….any suggestions as we "dream plan?"

 

[JimmyJackJunior]

Looks like we will be joining you…that is 17 of us…fingers crossed that we don't need to cancel

Anyone travel to Dover/Barcelona before….We are starting to think about pre and post cruise planning…does Disney have excursions? With 17 of us … just going out to tour will be difficult with so many people….any suggestions as we "dream plan?"

1) Well I got us back to the inside, now 2105. Still might have to contend to a 2 year old bouncing off a wall in the grandparents room. LOL. It will be good with our son that immediately wakes up with any hint of light.

2) We did a 12 night Med cruise in 2013 that started and ended in Barcelona. Montserrat Monastery is among my most favorite places ever. Between the beautiful national park and the Monastery itself and all if its world class art I can't imagine a better day anywhere. La Sagrada Familia is also amazing. We never got to other highlights like the Ramblas, Casa Milla, Gaudi Park and the Block of *******. Hoping to this time. The only excursion Disney did after getting off the ship was to Montserrat but it was only a half day and frankly you would not do it justice if both facets of Montserrat interested you. Also,
I have enjoyed Disney excursions in Alaska and the Carribbean but they were not very good in Europe at all. They ranged from average to outright disastrous. The pre cruise tours in Barcelona seemed to go towards the average - they were not bad but not good value for money by all reports. The Lonely Planet pocket guide to Barcelona is a great help as is Rick Steves guide to Mediterranean ports(although you may want to get just his Barcelona book/or perhaps Spain and Portugal.

As for Dover, never been to England and I am looking for some tips. I don't think I can get any time off before the cruise or I might think about Disneyland Paris.

 

[jbrockwell5081]

1) Well I got us back to the inside, now 2105. Still might have to contend to a 2 year old bouncing off a wall in the grandparents room. LOL. It will be good with our son that immediately wakes up with any hint of light.

Haha, I'll warn them. We can get them from both sides now then

Will serve them right for booking to come with us

Edit: Think I must have misunderstood, oops. You meant our 2 year old. No, well he will be 4 by then (actually on the holiday in fact!) so I'm hoping he will have calmed down a lot by then, it's just me being paranoid. I hate thinking we may annoy anyone so I'm always apologetic even when we probably don't need to be.

 

[lark]

We were in BCN for several days last summer. The hop on hop off bus in Barcelona is really quite good. It is great if you are there for one day and also good for the first day of a multi-day stay to get an overview. I haven't been to Dover, but from what I understand there isn't all that much going on, and it may be a better strategy to take the train down on the morning of the cruise from points north.

 

[waltcanada]

Our family did the 12 Night Baltic out of Dover in 2010 and have been waiting (not-so-patiently!) for a return! Decided on this repositioning cruise as opportunity to spend week in England beforehand and still add some cool new stops to our list of ports we've visited.

Our 4 kids love Fish Extenders - with so many people already posting on this site, should be a good one!!

Walt's Wife

 

[Dizney73]

We are doing our first trip to Europe this summer! We are flying to Venice for 2 nights and then train to Rome for 3 before heading out on our western Mediterranean cruise on the NCL Epic! I have the Barcelona city and Montserrat full day tour booked while we are in port for the day. Our kids are 8 and 5 this year and I am thinking that I will shorten our tour to just the city tour since next year's cruise will leave us off in Barcelona. We can stay an extra 2 or 3 nights after the cruise to experience Barcelona, including Montserrat.
We also thought about visiting Madrid. Are there any other places within a few hours that we SHOULD definitely visit?

 

[redsox13]

Anyone on Deck 7 by any chance?
I think most people seem to be on deck 2.

Can't wait to do the fish extender this time round, already thinking of ideas for adults and children.

Nice to see more people joining the group.

 

[rachelsmom97]

We are on Deck 6 - forgot to post that in my introduction.

I have been looking into Barcelona Hotels as we are planning on a couple days in Barcelona at the end of our B2B. Someone on a trip report(Texasgirl? I think) mentioned the Tryp Apolo which is part of the Wyndham chain. They have family rooms with one bed for parents and bunk beds in a connected area. This looks to be in a great location, so I am going to look into this one for our post cruise stay.

 

[lark]

We are on Deck 6 - forgot to post that in my introduction.

I have been looking into Barcelona Hotels as we are planning on a couple days in Barcelona at the end of our B2B. Someone on a trip report(Texasgirl? I think) mentioned the Tryp Apolo which is part of the Wyndham chain. They have family rooms with one bed for parents and bunk beds in a connected area. This looks to be in a great location, so I am going to look into this one for our post cruise stay.

I don't know that hotel, but that location is fantastic. It's really hard to find hotels in Barcelona that will allow more than 2 in a room, so having one that central is good. I believe there are several Holiday Inns in Barcelona -- it's actually a nicer chain in Europe than in the U.S. -- that have rooms that accommodate more than 2.

We stayed at the Hilton Diagonal Mar last year, which is not in the main, touristy part of Barcelona. It had access to all the big spots by the hop on, hop off bus, but it was a little out of the way. We booked there because we had Hilton points, but I would say that all other things being equal staying in the Diagonal area (unless you're going to the beach) is not as convenient.

 

[ReadingFC]

We stayed in the Novotel last year and it was really good, for the four of us. Near to shops, transport and the girls loved the pool on the roof. Swimming pools at hotels in Barcelona are quite rare apparently?