Magic to The Med Report VERY LONG

[holidayfanatic]

: Where were you able to shop ? What was shopping like on the ship ? I'm looking forward to seeing alot of history but did wonder...is there time to buy souvenirs and gifts for the family back home ?

Hi

We were on the first Med cruise and I can't help with the DCL excursions, as we did our own thing but with regards to the shopping on the ship, I can help!

The merchandise was sourced very well I thought. I've travelled quite a bit to Spain, France and Italy and what they sold on board was typical of what you could buy in those destinations, so don't worry if you don't always get a chance to buy ashore as you'll still be able to buy authentic items aboard. Price wise seemed fine to me. I bought a lovely piece of Lladro (Spanish porcelain) as a gift for my Mum, as she's a collecter. They also had some beautiful Lalique pieces that I liked and I'm sorry now I didn't buy a gorgeous Christian Lacroix silk scarf! They had a good selection of Murano glass jewellery with some items very inexpensive (pendants on leather tie strands for around $22 - great for gifts for older teens/young women).

They carried such a wide range and changed it often, I really enjoyed shopping in there. The Mediterranean ceramics were very authentic (I should know as I have a ton of them bought over a 20 year period from my travels to Spain).

One tip, when you see that Bijoux Terner table selling Pashminas for $10, grab one (all the colours, but black seemed to sell out fast). I only saw the 'table' in their once as it was a special promotion. On the same table was pretty handbags (purses), cuff links, ties etc.

Happy shopping everyone!!

 

[been2marceline]

Hi,
Someone once told me to put all the clothes you decide to take on your bed then put all your spending money there too. Finally you should pack half the clothes and double the money...

Mick.

 

[been2marceline]

Hi

We were on the first Med cruise and I can't help with the DCL excursions, as we did our own thing but with regards to the shopping on the ship, I can help!

The merchandise was sourced very well I thought. I've travelled quite a bit to Spain, France and Italy and what they sold on board was typical of what you could buy in those destinations, so don't worry if you don't always get a chance to buy ashore as you'll still be able to buy authentic items aboard. Price wise seemed fine to me. I bought a lovely piece of Lladro (Spanish porcelain) as a gift for my Mum, as she's a collecter. They also had some beautiful Lalique pieces that I liked and I'm sorry now I didn't buy a gorgeous Christian Lacroix silk scarf! They had a good selection of Murano glass jewellery with some items very inexpensive (pendants on leather tie strands for around $22 - great for gifts for older teens/young women).

They carried such a wide range and changed it often, I really enjoyed shopping in there. The Mediterranean ceramics were very authentic (I should know as I have a ton of them bought over a 20 year period from my travels to Spain).

One tip, when you see that Bijoux Terner table selling Pashminas for $10, grab one (all the colours, but black seemed to sell out fast). I only saw the 'table' in their once as it was a special promotion. On the same table was pretty handbags (purses), cuff links, ties etc.

Happy shopping everyone!!

Love the shopping update!

We have always LOVED (TOO MUCH) the shopping on the ship! They really make it interesting every day and every port!!

I would have loved the Murano Necklaces!!

Karen

 

[scrapycruiser]

Were there any leather products on board? We are not going to Florence and didn't know if we could get these things in Naples or Rome ???

 

[been2marceline]

Were there any leather products on board? We are not going to Florence and didn't know if we could get these things in Naples or Rome ???

Was in Rome several years ago and the leather products were fabulous!!

As were, of course, THE SHOES!!! Bought a bag just to bring home the shoes, sweaters, and leather items!

Enjoy!

 

[woody73]

Was in Rome several years ago and the leather products were fabulous!!

As were, of course, THE SHOES!!! Bought a bag just to bring home the shoes, sweaters, and leather items!

We were in Venice in '05 and Rome in '06. Mrs. Woody loved the shoe stores!

Any coincidence that Italy is shaped like a boot?

Woody

 

[tink&cinderella]

I thought this was a trip report thread..... So what happened on the rest of the cruise, the ports, etc.....

I am on the return trip and welcome ALL opinions, ideas and experiences.

That must be because we are CANADIAN!! Just Kidding!!!

Would love to hear more about the trip Laura and all the other's who have chimed in with their partial reports. This has turned into a different thread - Could we get back on topic...PLEASE???!!

Tink&Cinderella

 

[NHdisneylover]

I thought this was a trip report thread..... So what happened on the rest of the cruise, the ports, etc.....

I am on the return trip and welcome ALL opinions, ideas and experiences.

That must be because we are CANADIAN!! Just Kidding!!!

Would love to hear more about the trip Laura and all the other's who have chimed in with their partial reports. This has turned into a different thread - Could we get back on topic...PLEASE???!!

Tink&Cinderella

You can click on the link in my signature for my FULL trip report (I am still working on it but there is a fair amount so far).

 

[dukenukkem]

We are a family of 3, our son is 9, and have made 5 DCL cruises so far. We are scheduled to sail 08-08 for the final 10-day Med cruise, and, we are also booked for the repo cruise back to back on 08-18. After reading so many negative reviews for the EB TransAtlantic cruise, My wife and I are seriously reconsidering our choices. We have a Cat-1 for the 10-day cruise and a Cat-3 for the Crossing. You were one of a few people that seemed to think the repo cruise was worth taking of all the reviews I've read.

Did you feel the T/A cruise was too long? Did your family feel trapped when bad weather or seas set in? Was the food and service as bad as other cruisers would have us believe? Did you feel bored since your family has taken other recent Disney cruises, or were there enough new activities to make the voyage pleasant for the whole family.

TIA,

Dennis

 

[NHdisneylover]

We are a family of 3, our son is 9, and have made 5 DCL cruises so far. We are scheduled to sail 08-08 for the final 10-day Med cruise, and, we are also booked for the repo cruise back to back on 08-18. After reading so many negative reviews for the EB TransAtlantic cruise, My wife and I are seriously reconsidering our choices. We have a Cat-1 for the 10-day cruise and a Cat-3 for the Crossing. You were one of a few people that seemed to think the repo cruise was worth taking of all the reviews I've read.

Did you feel the T/A cruise was too long? Did your family feel trapped when bad weather or seas set in? Was the food and service as bad as other cruisers would have us believe? Did you feel bored since your family has taken other recent Disney cruises, or were there enough new activities to make the voyage pleasant for the whole family.

TIA,

Dennis

I am not sure if this comment was directed at me or not. First, if you read through this entire thread you will see comments from three people who had mostly negative comments. They are the OP and:

hopemax (who still said she was "quite satisfied" with the trip but might have been unhappy if it were full fare--post 33)


gismo1554 (whose comments are actually more neutral than negative).

MANY of us who feel this was a FANTASTIC cruise. Those of us who loved this voyage heavily outweigh those who did not enjoy the cruise. In addition to me, others who commented positivly on this thread alone are:

ssnyder

DizzneyDAnn

rikimuk

gailadams_uk

seaulater

Scoobypop

jeff fujimoto

Kissimmee

BobandLee

milestogo

cquick

CACruisin'

So that is 13 of us who posted rave reviews. And three who had complaints (and two of those were pretty nuetral). Better than four to one for the cruise (and I kNOW many people loved the crusie but did not post on this thread). I have not seen other negative reviews. My TR (see link in signature) has lots of info on specifics. Also, the navigators have been psoted if you want to see all the activites that were available (we were busy all the time). You can always pop onto our meet thread (still going strong) and ask over there if we liked the cruise.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1064911
I bet you'd get inundated with "we want to go agains" Actaully a few lucky people did book the return and are going again.


Specifically:

"Did you feel the T/A cruise was too long?
NO! We ALL four (kids ages 8 and 10) would have happily stayed on for another two weeks or more. We HATED to get off.

Did your family feel trapped when bad weather or seas set in? Again, no. There was plenty do do inside. The crew added tons of activities when the weather made the pools unusable. We expected possible poor weather and packed appropriately Was the food and service as bad as other cruisers would have us believe? ABOSLUTELY NOT! We felt the food was very comparable to that on our previous DCL trips. There was lobster at least three times and fresh fruit and fizzy soda throughout--big Coke addict here. Everything was tasty. We had THE BEST service we have ever had and that is saying a lot. Guest Servoces was the one wink link and even there it was more newness/ not knowing than anything. Our steward, dining room servers and the cruise staff were all amazing.Did you feel bored since your family has taken other recent Disney cruises, or were there enough new activities to make the voyage pleasant for the whole family. Plenty of new activites (and DIS stuff). I only read half a book on the entire voyage. Again, check the posted navigators or my TR

If you do want to cancel, I am sure someone on the wiatlist will be thrilled to get your suites and I feel you will miss out on the best that DCL has to offer.

 

[Scoobypop]

We are a family of 3, our son is 9, and have made 5 DCL cruises so far. We are scheduled to sail 08-08 for the final 10-day Med cruise, and, we are also booked for the repo cruise back to back on 08-18. After reading so many negative reviews for the EB TransAtlantic cruise, My wife and I are seriously reconsidering our choices. We have a Cat-1 for the 10-day cruise and a Cat-3 for the Crossing. You were one of a few people that seemed to think the repo cruise was worth taking of all the reviews I've read.

Did you feel the T/A cruise was too long? Did your family feel trapped when bad weather or seas set in? Was the food and service as bad as other cruisers would have us believe? Did you feel bored since your family has taken other recent Disney cruises, or were there enough new activities to make the voyage pleasant for the whole family.

TIA,

Dennis

Hi Dennis,
Well, Hadley already spoke up and I don't have much to add that she didn't already articulate beautifully. I might have missed it, but I personally didn't see "so many bad reviews". I saw the OP's, and personally, I would disregard the bulk of it. I mean come on, things like: How dare Disney uphold their policy and only give one gift per stateroom?! That seemed to be a huge deal to the orignal poster, but consider this. Hadley for instance has been on numerous cruises, with her husband and 2 children, all in one cabin. That would make ALL four in her family Castaway Club members, being repeat cruisers all. When they check into their cabin, there are not FOUR Castaway Club gifts--there is ONE per cabin. For the OP to get so angry and upset that they only got one gift even though there were two families in the cabin--get real. It's policy. Shame on Disney for upholding their policy, right!? It's because of people like her that Disney cast members cringe when they hear you are a Diser. In my humble opinion, and "YMMV", I would accept the policy, and either a) get my OWN cabin and not share with another family, or b) just buy the book they were giving since it was for sale in the gift shop.

The food? Amazing, as always.

Bad weather? Well, I posted it several times, and I guess I have to say again, "Where was I? What cruise was I on?" I LOVED the weather, I LOVED the feeling of the ocean and the ship at sea. We were in the MIDDLE OF THE ATLANTIC. I couldn't imagine the weather really being any better for the location we were at! No matter how cool or breezy, the pool was always heated to perfection and a BLAST! As Hadley said, check out our main Med thread that is still going strong--you will see PLENTY of us that had a blast in the pool every single day. Besides, I see you are from Vegas. Well, I am here right now as well, since I live here, and I would imagine some cooler, breezier sea days would be most welcome in the middle of August. It was 118 degrees here today, as you well know!

Bored? Well, I suppose if you're the type to get "bored" you may find the sea days long and uneventful. For my party, as usual, there were not enough hours in the day. We found ourselves double, triple, and once quadruple booked for activities, having to narrow and choose which one we wanted at the time, then RUSH to the next.

Too long? It's funny I actually cried on my way home from work today thinking how much I miss my vacation from almost two months ago. As Hadley said, I would bet you money that MOST of us wish we could have turned the ship around and done another 14 days back home.

Anyway, as this thread started with, "YMMV". I'd give anything to be on the August repo, unfortunately, I can't afford it or the time off work. If you do go, please post so we can see your experience. Have a blast!
Chris

 

[seaulater]

Hi Dennis,
Well, Hadley already spoke up and I don't have much to add that she didn't already articulate beautifully. I might have missed it, but I personally didn't see "so many bad reviews". I saw the OP's, and personally, I would disregard the bulk of it. I mean come on, things like: How dare Disney uphold their policy and only give one gift per stateroom?! That seemed to be a huge deal to the orignal poster, but consider this. Hadley for instance has been on numerous cruises, with her husband and 2 children, all in one cabin. That would make ALL four in her family Castaway Club members, being repeat cruisers all. When they check into their cabin, there are not FOUR Castaway Club gifts--there is ONE per cabin. For the OP to get so angry and upset that they only got one gift even though there were two families in the cabin--get real. It's policy. Shame on Disney for upholding their policy, right!? It's because of people like her that Disney cast members cringe when they hear you are a Diser. In my humble opinion, and "YMMV", I would accept the policy, and either a) get my OWN cabin and not share with another family, or b) just buy the book they were giving since it was for sale in the gift shop.

The food? Amazing, as always.

Bad weather? Well, I posted it several times, and I guess I have to say again, "Where was I? What cruise was I on?" I LOVED the weather, I LOVED the feeling of the ocean and the ship at sea. We were in the MIDDLE OF THE ATLANTIC. I couldn't imagine the weather really being any better for the location we were at! No matter how cool or breezy, the pool was always heated to perfection and a BLAST! As Hadley said, check out our main Med thread that is still going strong--you will see PLENTY of us that had a blast in the pool every single day. Besides, I see you are from Vegas. Well, I am here right now as well, since I live here, and I would imagine some cooler, breezier sea days would be most welcome in the middle of August. It was 118 degrees here today, as you well know!

Bored? Well, I suppose if you're the type to get "bored" you may find the sea days long and uneventful. For my party, as usual, there were not enough hours in the day. We found ourselves double, triple, and once quadruple booked for activities, having to narrow and choose which one we wanted at the time, then RUSH to the next.

Too long? It's funny I actually cried on my way home from work today thinking how much I miss my vacation from almost two months ago. As Hadley said, I would bet you money that MOST of us wish we could have turned the ship around and done another 14 days back home.

Anyway, as this thread started with, "YMMV". I'd give anything to be on the August repo, unfortunately, I can't afford it or the time off work. If you do go, please post so we can see your experience. Have a blast!
Chris

Ditto!

My husband Robert, and our friend Adrienne had a blast in the adult pool going across the Atlantic. We headed to the pool every day! The only negative I have is that we lost an hour every single night. The added plus of the westbound is you get 6 more hours than we did! (Oh and we got the firsts of everything!).

I have been on 12 Disney cruises. Love everyone. My husband, daughter and I are headed to Ireland next week for a couple of days, and then headed to Barcelona to get on the Magic for 10 more "magical" nights of cruising through the Med. I wish I had more vacation time so I could take another two weeks in August to bring her back. I would rebook in a second if I could!

 

[rikimuk]

We are a family of 3, our son is 9, and have made 5 DCL cruises so far. We are scheduled to sail 08-08 for the final 10-day Med cruise, and, we are also booked for the repo cruise back to back on 08-18. After reading so many negative reviews for the EB TransAtlantic cruise, My wife and I are seriously reconsidering our choices. We have a Cat-1 for the 10-day cruise and a Cat-3 for the Crossing. You were one of a few people that seemed to think the repo cruise was worth taking of all the reviews I've read.

Did you feel the T/A cruise was too long? Did your family feel trapped when bad weather or seas set in? Was the food and service as bad as other cruisers would have us believe? Did you feel bored since your family has taken other recent Disney cruises, or were there enough new activities to make the voyage pleasant for the whole family.

TIA,

Dennis

Dennis

Put it this way. Whilst on the first T/A cruise myself and my sister booked to go on the return journey next month and we can neither afford it or the time off but who cares!!!! LOL.

As I have said on here there are alot of people from the first cruise who loved it not hated it believe me as there are quite a few of us who are doing the return leg of the trip.

In answer to your questions:


Did you feel the T/A cruise was too long? No way. I never wanted to get off. Seriously all I can say is this for me was a trip of a lifetime and I never expected to feel that way especially since I didnt initally want to go on the cruise. When we started stopping at ports I didnt want to get off the boat and resented the fact that I did.

Did your family feel trapped when bad weather or seas set in? Not at all. Disney did everything possible to arrange other events to keep people busy even though the weather was bad. Also myself and my sister still went and used the hot tub even on the bad weather days. (We did get some funny looks though). I only really had one sick day and even then sitting in the middle of the boat drinking Ginger Ale seemed to sort that out.

Was the food and service as bad as other cruisers would have us believe? No the food was amazing. (Hence why Im now on a diet). The bad weather days did bring some problems for the serving staff because people were getting sick so at times it was a bit slow but you cant expect perfect all the time. That being said the meals were amazing and as normal they could not do enough for you. The only reason I can think for people not liking the food is when we got to the med the menus became more med orientated which people are not used to I guess so maybe wouldnt enjoy as much but I loved it. Plus if you dont like a meal they will bring you another so just reorder lol!!!My servers Deepak and Putu were amazing and I have requested them again on this cruise.

Did you feel bored since your family has taken other recent Disney cruises, or were there enough new activities to make the voyage pleasant for the whole family. Bored???? I dont know how anyone can be bored on a cruise as there is so much to do. Even on the port days if you stayed on the boat there were things happening. We ended up playing scrabble with Simone (Sorry not sure on the spelling) on one of our last port days. It was great fun especially as none of us could spell. I honestly dont know how people can be bored unless they choose not to partake in anything.


Anything else you would like to know feel free to ask.

Lindsay

 

[milestogo]

I have exactly the same answers. Bored? I was on the ship for 25 days and wasn't bored for one second. Didn't have time to read the 3 books I brought and didn't open my psych class that I was supposed to work on once! There was so much to do.

An interesting point on the weather: on our side of the ship (Starboard) we didn't open up our balcony nearly as much as the port side folks did because the windy spray was hitting us harder - and we still loved the balcony! I loved not getting sunburned!!!

 

[TDC Nala]

I can explain this one. In the Med they are adding tax on to alcohol so the bar tenders were expecting tips to fall because people wont be giving extra on top of the 15% grat because they know that there is also this extra tax making the prices higher anyway. Hope this makes sense?

There was a 15% auto grat plus the 7% VAT on drinks.

It's customary to add some to the auto grat because it just isn't enough. I guess it's thought the addition of the VAT might cut down on the incentive for guests to add to the automatic gratuity.

 

[TDC Nala]

I think the CMs who you have direct contact with can often change your experience.

We have cruised on another line and had what we perceived as a so so cruise and others lived it--veryone is different.

I am wonderiing about the CC gift though. We have cruised in a cat 1 where we had different families and only received one gift. We asked if we could get another and were told one per cabin and let it go. Often grandparents or aunts or friends share a cabin and many rooms have different families and a rule must be established, so I don't see this as the big negative you displayed it to be. No you cna't cut it in half or share, but to me one per cabin is one per cabin and we have never pressed the issue.

Sorry you didn't have a good time

I travel with friends and on the PC westbound repo last year, my friend and I did ask, and got two of everything. But we had to ask, it wasn't automatic.

On the med cruise we got one CC gift, a travel wallet. I ended up winning a travel wallet from DVC, so we didn't try asking for another one; I really don't need two travel wallets. My stateroom host urged me to ask, though.

 

[dukenukkem]

First, thanks to everyone for taking the time to respond. I wasn't actually refering to Hadley or to this thread specifically. This thread seemed most active with pasengers from the first repo cruise, so I posted my question here. I guess we detected some undertones of dissatisfaction from the reports we'd read in different places around the Boards.

Scoobypop is absolutely correct, since we are both in Las Vegas where it is 110 degrees each and every day - Any cool sea breeze in August is a good cool sea breeze. Thank you for the much-needed 'Reality Check'. LOL

I really am looking forward to 24 days aboard the Magic!

Dennis