Postscript
The trip report is all written and posted and with this, I have to accept the fact that this cruise is really over. During the last weeks, I have relived the cruise with you and for you. Before I sign off for the last time for this trip report, I wanted to leave you with some thoughts and observations.
If I am absolutely honest, before this cruise I was not too enthusiastic about it. The Med has never really appealed to me. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that I grew up in an environment where it was almost compulsory to head for the Med every summer. My family never went and I had no wish to go either. I think I have learned during this cruise that people can love the same thing for completely different reasons. Yes, a Med cruise was on my to do list, but not because I was interested in the ports, but because it is kind of a must do if you live in Europe and love cruising.
Another reason why I was not too enthusiastic about the cruise was that I was afraid that in my mind, the Magic had become tainted. I had a very tough few months at the end of last year. Even though nothing actually happened on the Magic, a lot of it was going on while I was on the Magic and to me the ship and the events at home had become linked. I was worried that being back on the Magic would bring all of this back up. This was actually the main reason why I wanted to do the cruise. The next cruise is the Transatlantic with 8 sea days, which meant that for large parts of the cruise, I could not get of the ship. So I wanted to try out how I felt about the Magic on a very port intensive itinerary, where I could spend large periods of time away from the ship if I needed to. Part of me was expecting that I would come home and cancel the Transatlantic. Fortunately this did not turn out to be the case. I think I knew that everything would be OK when I faced the very real possibility that we would never make the cruise. This was just a possibilty that I was not willing to entertain. Any last bit of worry was gone when I stepped into the atrium on embarkation day and I realized that I love the Magic as much as ever.
I know DH would disagree with me, but for me being on the Magic is all about people. We have now sailed three times on the Magic and I start to recognize people and what is more surprising, people start to recognize us. We met my two favourite photographers in the terminal where one took our embarkation photo and the other helped with crowd control. It was also nice to see the cruise director from our first cruise in the terminal. Speaking of cruise directors, we had a different cruise director for each of our first three cruises. It made me smile when on the first evening, all three of them stood next to each other in the atrium. We met loads of familiar faces. It was nice to meet our server from our last cruise pretty much just as soon as we got on the ship. It was also nice to see the bartender at the Promenade Lounge again and certain members of the cruise staff.
Apart from people we already knew, we met loads of new people that helped to make our cruise special. First of all, there was our serving team. They were completely different from the serving teams that we had previously. Instead of fun and nightly capers, we got quiet and polite efficiency. Initially I missed all the fun, but my the end of the cruise, I liked them just as much as I had liked our previous serving teams. Other people that made our cruise special were the staff at the spa and the gym, some of the cruise staff and the members of the youth activity staff that had come on our excursion. I also had a great time chatting to the DVC staff that were on board for this cruise.
Apart from the staff, it was people from the cruise meet thread that made this cruise special. It is just a shame that I did not have the chance to get to know more people from this great group.
Last but not least, it was our table mates that made this cruise special. We have always been lucky with our table mates, but this time round, we had the best table mates yet. I still really miss them and I hope that we will stay in touch with the couple with whom we exchanged email addresses and I just noticed that one half of the other couple send me a friend request on Facebook. This is the first time ever that we kept in touch with people from a cruise that we had not met through the Cruise Meet Thread. I really hope that we will keep in touch.
I can see though that people can both make or break a cruise. Our server at Palo most certainly contributed to our meal there being less magical than it should have been. Another person who provided a bit of a disappointment was somebody from the cruise meet thread. On the first day I bumped into her and said "hi" and was completely blanked. I gave her the benefit of the doubt. After all the, the first day can be a bit confusing and overwhelming. A few days later, I bumped into her again and got the same treatment and after that, I just gave up. Of course, the sweet irony was that this was the person I had been looking forward to the most.
Apart from the people, the ports were definitely the most important. I am a person who cannot understand what the hype about port is all about. I am happiest on sea days. There have been a number of ports on previous cruises where I did not bother to get off the ship. As far as I am concerned, the captain could take the ship into the open sea and then go around in circles and I would be happy. This time was definitely different though. Ports were an important part of this cruise. The ports that I had looked forward to the most prior to the cruise were Tunis and Rome, but they did not end up being the ports that I enjoyed the most. I loved these ports, I am glad that I have seen them and I pretty sure I will go back for a second, more leisurely look, but they did not make it into my top three. That honour falls to Malta, La Spezia and Villefranche. Have you noticed something? Yes, they are precisely the three ports where I did not even want to get off the ships. For beauty, you cannot beat Villefranche. The photos I took there are some of my favourites. If stunning landscapes is what rocks your boat, then look no further than La Spezia. Still, the place that really got under my skin was Malta. I cannot even put my finger on what it is that makes me feel about the place like this, but I definitely want to have a closer look.
My least favourite ports were Barcelona and Naples. Barcelona I will have to give the benefit of the doubt for now as we did not have much time there and we were exhausted by our adventure getting there. But on first impressions, Barcelona has about as much soul as Milton Keynes.
Naples is another place that I did not really get. It was for the most crowded, polluted and chaotic. Yes, there were some pretty areas, but not enough for me to want to go back to. This is one place where I think we probably would have enjoyed ourselves more if we either had done a shore excursion to Mount Vesuvius, Pompeii or Herculaneum or organized a private tour to the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento or Capri. If we ever go to Naples again, this is what I would do.
Barcelona and Naples might have been my least favourite ports on this cruise, but I am still glad that I have seen them. I definitely do not feel about them like I do about Nassau, where I really regretted that I had got of the ship in the first place.
With such a port intensive itinerary it is very easy to overdo it. I spoke to so many people who did a full day excursion in every port. All over sudden what is supposed to be a holiday becomes hard work. I only had one day where I was away from the ship the whole day and that was Rome, but it was still quite tiring. We are definitely looking for a more leisurely cruise next time.
I think we both learned something during this cruise. I have learned that port days can be fun and actually can make a cruise and DH can now see the charm of sea days.
was quite surprised by the activities or lack thereof. I did not expect much by the way of activities on the port days on such a port intensive itinerary, but I expected the same amount of activities on sea days that I have experienced on our 7 night cruise last year. Indeed, I really wanted to do the Galley Tour and the Behind the Scenes Tour at the theater this time round, but neither was offered. The amount of activities offered was more in line with the 4 night cruise we did a couple of years ago then with a longer cruise with three sea days. The only thing that there seemed to me more than enough of where the alcohol tastings, of which there were usually multiple tastings a day even on a port day. Still, this has actually taught me a valuable lesson. Traditionally I have litterally ran from activity to activity, often feeling like I need a holiday when I come from a cruise. Being forced to take things at a slower pace was actually really enjoyable. I had really time to appreciate some of the finer details of the ship. For my Transatlantic cruise in September, I have promised myself that I will not even consider doing more than two activities a day on a sea day. That way I should have plenty of time to just chill out on a lounger on deck 4 or on the secret deck area on deck 7 to read a book or watch the world go by.
One of the big draws for me on a
Disney cruise are the characters and the character interaction on the ships has always been brilliant. This time it was extra special with the characters often wearing costumes presenting the country in which we would be docked the following day. We had the characters in Spanish, Italian, French and Tunesian costumes. There were also some more unusual characters like Suzy and Perla around this time. Some character Meet and Greets had lines, but I never stood in line for more than 10 minutes and usually it was less than 5. Indeed, there were occasions when I had the characters all to myself. Stitch and Minnie in their Pirate costumes come to mind. I could not believe my luck when I got there, the character and the photographer were there, but nobody wanted to see them.
One thing that I was not quite sure about was the addition of characters on the rotational nights. On every cruise that we have done on the Magic, they had Sorcerer Mickey coming towards the end of the meal at Animators Palate. However, this time we had Minnie at the beginning of the meal at Parrot Cay and Belle and the Beast towards the end of the meal at Lumieres. I am not sure if this is just for the European cruises or if this is a permanent fixture. I rather would have had a photo opportunity with the Beast.
Speaking of dining rooms, I have left the most important part until the end - food. We have always enjoyed the food on our cruises, but I had the feeling that the standards have gone up since our first cruise. The menus were all very well thought out and the food was utterly delicious. The only aspect that has not improved at the same rate as the rest of the food was the desserts, but I have always thought that they are the weak point of
Disney Cruise Line. I am glad that I will have another chance to sample the Mediterranean and Master Chef Menus as they were a bit special.
The only meal that we did not particularly enjoy was our dinner at Palo. We could not quite put our finger on if it was just that the quality in the main dining rooms had improved considerably or if the quality of the food at Palo had actually decreased, but either way, this time round we did not feel it was worth the $15 per person that we paid for this. It comes to something when at a restaurant that sees itself as a fine dining experience, you cannot even tell what some of the stuff you are supposed to be eating is.
And with this, I sign off. I have another cruise to plan and prepare for. At this point it is a little more than three months until we will be on the Magic again and I can promise you that there will be another trip report then.
Looking forward to hopefully more at the weekend - thanks again for all your reports
