Magical Mystery Tour

What stunning photos from La Spezia Corinna. Another great day, I love all your Pirate night photos with the characters, and I can see why you love that photo with Stitch

What a shame that Palo was such a let down for you, I would've been gutted as Palo is one of the main things I love about the Disney Wonder. We're not lovers of the 'famous chocolate souffle' either, it's too heavy for us

I'm really enjoying your reports, I don't want them to end. I look forward to your next installment :)
 
La Spezia looks lovely - must look it up to see where it is!
Sorry the Palo meal wasn`t up to much. You expect spectacular service there and I`m not surprised you didn`t want to go back.
Looking forward to more.
 
WOW Corinna .... I am now convinced. I would love to see Rome and all of the locations from Angels and Demons .... probably needs more than a day though. La Spezia looks gorgeous. I love Italy. I will definitely be looking at a Med cruise for 2011. :love:
 
A brilliant couple of days. Rome looks a beautiful city. Love the photos:thumbsup2
 

What stunning photos from La Spezia Corinna. Another great day, I love all your Pirate night photos with the characters, and I can see why you love that photo with Stitch

What a shame that Palo was such a let down for you, I would've been gutted as Palo is one of the main things I love about the Disney Wonder. We're not lovers of the 'famous chocolate souffle' either, it's too heavy for us

I'm really enjoying your reports, I don't want them to end. I look forward to your next installment :)

I had to slow down a little as I had run out of pre-typed trip reports. I now have everything done apart from the last sea day and disembarkation day and both of them are in the works. So watch this space. Hopefully I will post the next installment before I go to bed tonight.

La Spezia looks lovely - must look it up to see where it is!
Sorry the Palo meal wasn`t up to much. You expect spectacular service there and I`m not surprised you didn`t want to go back.
Looking forward to more.

La Spezia is near Pisa and Florence.

WOW Corinna .... I am now convinced. I would love to see Rome and all of the locations from Angels and Demons .... probably needs more than a day though. La Spezia looks gorgeous. I love Italy. I will definitely be looking at a Med cruise for 2011. :love:

I would definitely recommend the cruise. They will also do 7 night Med cruises next year that will include Villefranche, La Spezia, Rome, Naples and Palma.

Corinna
 
I forgot to add a couple of photos to the last installment. They were done against the green screen backdrop again. So here they are:

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Day 12

After 5 days in port in a row, a day at sea was more than welcome. We had out allocated character breakfast at Parrot Cay that day, which did not start until 9:45 so we had a nice lie in that day. The character breakfast is offered on cruises of 7 days or more and happens on sea days. I missed it on our last cruise as is clashed with the DVC Member celebration and I really wanted to attend this. So I was very pleased that we had been allocated the character breakfast for that day.

For the character breakfast, you are sitting at the same table that you have been allocated for dinner, with the same table mates and the same serving team. I was really looking forward to this. DH, who does not really do characters, was not too keen, but he came with me as my nominated photographer. We were the first people on our table to arrive. Our server sorted out our breakfast order very quickly so that we would have time to enjoy the characters. One of the other couples arrived shortly afterwards. The characters that were present were Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale, who were all wearing their tropical outfits. The only shame was that they did not have any Shutters photographers in attendance. I think they would have made a fortune if they had. Each character came with an escort and they were only too happy to take photos with your camera. DH took most of mine, but Minnie would not take no for an answer and DH is actually in this photo. About halfway through breakfast the assistant servers came round to their tables and made hats out of napkins. I got a nice bow. DH politely declined his Peter Pan hat. I really enjoyed the character breakfast, but I think once will probably be enough for me.

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After breakfast, we decided to walk off breakfast. The ship was actually completely stationary. On the 10 night cruises, there is no sea day between La Spezia and Corsica and we did not need one either. We could actually see Corsica in the distance. So the captain had essentially just parked the ship. We started off walking on deck 10, but soon moved down to deck 4. I finally heard the ship's horn that day as it is always sounded at midday on a sea day. I had volunteered to put together some questions for a Scavenger Hunt on the Westbound Transatlantic and I came up with some good questions while walking around the ship. After we were all walked out, we decided to try out the loungers on deck 4 for the first time as we still had time until the next activity that we wanted to attend. They are rather comfortable and I intend to spend some quality time relaxing there reading on our next cruise.

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After our epic win the day before, we decided to go and do the Disney Trivia. Two of our table mates joined us for this. Let's just say that we did not do too well with this. Still, it was a bit of fun and we had some yummy Virgin Pina Coladas.

Once the quiz was over, I was waiting for DH by one of the portholes on deck 3 as he needed to use the bathroom. While I was waiting there, a little yellow bird landed on the outside of the porthole and just sat there for a while. There was a steady stream of people going by, but the little bird did not seem at all disturbed by this. It was kind of surreal to have a bird that is not a seabird come to visit on a sea day.

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It was nearly time to go to the DISBoards reception. The owner of the DISboards, who also is the co-owner of Dreams Unlimited Travel, was on this cruise and he had arranged the reception in Studio Sea. As there was not enough time to do anything else, we went and sat down on deck 4 overlooking the atrium. There were other people already there and it was nice chatting to them.

We knew that there would be some finger food served, but I was very impressed with what Disney had come up with. There was a selection of cold canapés, Spring Rolls, Beef and Vegetable Kebabs, fried Mozzarella Sticks and Almond Chicken with various dipping sauces plus cut tropical fruit. We had been told previously told that there would be a cash bar, but Disney actually provided free drinks as well. They were the same kind of watered down drinks that were served on formal night, but it was the the thought that counts. One of the people from the Cruise Meet Thread had brought little Mickey Heads from Disneyland for everybody. I got a princess and DH got a pirate. Somebody else had made bottlecap pins from the movie Up for everybody. This was very nice. After about an hour, we were moved on as they needed to set up Studio Sea for the Tea with Alice and the Mad Hatter.

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After the reception, we headed up to the Rainforest Room, which was surprisingly empty considering that it was a sea day. We spent some serious quality time there. I ended up falling asleep on a tile lounger and missed the new Villains Tonight show. All too soon it was time to get changed for dinner.

This night was semi-formal night and I finally got to wear my new semi-formal dress. They had the green backdrop up again and we got our photos taken against this. We ended up with a really strange effect. DH was wearing a blue shirt and you can see the background through his shirt. We still rather liked the photos.

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The menu that night was a new Villains menu. I had Crispy Cheese Ravioli, Cruella De Vil’s Sangria Bisque followed by Yachtsman Steakhouse Grilled NY Strip with Green Asparagus, Oven-baked Potatoe and a spicy butter. For dessert, I had the Sweet Temptations, which consisted of Raspberry Cheesecake, Maleficent’s Ricotta Crème Brulee and The Villains Chocolate Ending.

After dinner, we went up to deck 4, where they had a backdrop of Rome. So we had our photo taken in front of this backdrop.

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Afterwards we headed back to our cabin, where we found this towel lobster:

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A lovely relaxing day at sea Corinna. I've never done a character breakfast onboard, it looks lots of fun :)
 
More great updates. I especially enjoyed your photos of Rome as I spent a lovely week there a few years ago & want to go back sometime soon. :)

Looking forward to more.
 
Day 13

When we got up, we were already docked in Corsica. The first view, that we got was very pretty. We went to Lumieres for some breakfast and then headed out. The weather forecast was not promising, but when we left the ship, it was a bit cooler, but otherwise fine.

The port in Corsica is right in the centre of Ajaccio. We were amused by the precise docking of the ship. I don't think that there was even an Inch between the bow of the ship and the walkway in front of the terminal building. This made for some very interesting photos.

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We were given the royal welcome again. They had a band out. They also had set up a tent with tourist information and were giving out goody bags for the children. We decided to head towards the centre of the town. There was a lovely little market just outside the port and we had a look at that. It was just a shame that we could not do any shopping. Some of the local produce looked really tempting, but we would not have been allowed to take them back on the ship or back to the UK for that matter.

Once we had walked through the market, we came to a little square. We saw a little road train parked there and decided to check it out. They were advertising two tours, a 45 minute city tour and a 90 minute tour that took in some of the coastline as well. We wanted to do the longer tour, but this did not operate on that day. So we did the 45 minute tour. Corsica is another place with a very colourful history. It is also the birthplace of Napoleon. This is a fact the locals are incredibly proud of. Napoleon featured very heavily in the tour.

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We made a 10 minute stop at a beautiful little park that apart from a Napoleon statue, featured a gorgeous view. We had a walk around and took some photos. When we got back on the road train, it started to rain. First it was only a few big drops, but it soon got heavier. Still, we were in the dry and continued to enjoy the sights of Ajaccio. One thing I particularly liked was a street that was lined with orange trees.

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By the time we got back to our starting point, it was pouring it down. We decided to have a quick look at the harbour to see if we could do a boat tour. Unfortunately the only tour operating that day, would have got back too late. We decided that Corsica is one of the places that deserves a closer look and headed back to the ship. On the way we took some more photos of the Magic.

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There was a little chaos at the gangway. People were still getting off the ship, but a large number of people wanted to get back on. There was also a large group of what I assumed were local tourism officials and travel agents waiting to get on for a tour of the ship. Still, about 10 minutes later, we were back on the ship.

As we were absolutely drenched by the time we got back to the cabin, we got changed. DH decided to head for the pool. I took my iPhone to work on the questions for the Scavenger Hunt for our Transatlantic Cruise. I had great fun doing this. I literally covered every inch of the public areas of the ship looking for potential questions. It is amazing how many things I noticed that I had never spotted before. I think I came up with a good range of questions with some of them being very easy and others being fiendishly difficult.

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Once I had completed my grand tour of the ship, I went to see how DH was doing. I noticed that the hot tubs were completely empty so I decided to make good use of this. It looks like a lot of people had that idea. By the time I had gone to our cabin and got changed, both hot tubs were full. So I decided to join DH in the pool. The water temperature was pleasant, but it was quite windy. As soon as one of the hot tubs started to empty out a little, I got in and DH joined me shortly afterwards.

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Once we had enough of this, we got dried off and dressed. After we had dropped our stuff in the cabin, we decided to get some lunch. Parrot Cay was closed so we headed to Lumieres as Topsiders would have been manic with so many people back on the ship already. We had to wait a little while to get seated and ended up sharing a table with a lady from the USA who had come over on the Eastbound Transatlantic and after our cruise, she was planning to travel around Europe until the first Baltic cruise. She is doing this cruise as well before returning home. Let's just say I was a little jealous.

I was not too impressed with the lunch menu this day. It was very heavily seafood based. I ended up ordering the Spaghetti Bolognese from the kid's menu without the sides as a starter followed by a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich on sour dough bread, which was very nice.

After lunch, we decided to go back to the cabin to have a nap. Once we were awake again, DH headed to the gym and I wandered around the ship to take some more photos of Corsica and to put the finishing touches to my questions for the Scavenger Hunt.

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We had arranged to meet up outside the Cove Cafe just before the all on board time as we wanted to watch us sailing away from Corsica from there. I got there a little early to stake out some of the comfortable seats. I had just settled down, when the captain made an announcement that one of the excursion buses had been involved in an accident and was not servicable. Everybody was fine, but they needed to get a new bus to the passengers to get them back to the ship. The new estimated departure time was an hour later. I went to find DH to give him the update.

We decided to wait for the revised departure time in the Cove Cafe. When I did the Tequila and Margarita Tasting on the first sea day, this was hosted by Fernando, who works at Cove Cafe. He recommended that if anybody likes a good Margarita, they should come there. When we got there, he was on duty. He mixed us Margaritas that were very good indeed. I still think that the Margaritas at Salt Island Chop House and Fish Market are slightly better, but those came a close second.

While we were sitting there, two of our table mates arrived. So we ended up chatting with them for a bit. Shortly before 18:00, the captain made another announcement that the replacement bus that had been sent to collect the people that had been involved in the access still had not located them and that the new estimated departure time was now 19:00. At this point we decided to head for the Rainforest Room.

There were very few people in the Rainforest Room. I started out just relaxing on a heated tile lounger. We had moved to the mild sauna when the ship got underway.

All too soon it was time to get ready for dinner. I decided to wear my favourite dress that night. This had always been a tight fit, but was now very loose. I was not too concerned about this at first, but I soon realized that it was threatening to fall down whenever I moved. In the end, we used my lanyard to tie together the straps at the back, which solved this problem.

On the way to dinner, I spotted Mickey wearing his French outfit so I had a photo with him.

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Dinner that night was the Flavours of the Mediterannean Menu, which turned out to be my favourite. We had the Antipasti Platter with Parma ham, Parmesan cheese and olives for starter followed by a Spicy Andalusian Tomato Soup. We then both had the Osso Bucco on Saffron Risotto and also shared the Tuscan Flank Steak, which came with pearl onions and a potatoe cake. I cannot remember what I had for dessert that night, so it was obviously not very memorable.

After dinner, we headed to bed. We found this towel creature. We are still not entirely sure what this was supposed to be, but thought that this might have been a swan.

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Corsica looks like a lovely place, what a shame the rain cut your sightseeing short

More great photos too ::yes::

How many more days are left Corinna ? I'm going to miss your updates when its finished :)
 
Whoo---I am finally all caught up in your trip report Corinna!! I love reading them, I feel like I am there with you and since I can't be I guess this is the best I can get....
I love the Dress above, you look amazing! Wish I was cruising with you again....I am gonna miss not doing the Mexican Riviera, but flying to Orlando is much cheaper for us and I am excited about the DREAM. Not sure about the B2B part but. I would love to be doing the transatlantic, do you see alot of kids on those?? Always afraid to take them out a week more. Hmm maybe someday! Looking forward to more reporting from you!
 
Thanks for the update - Corsica looks lovely - shame about the downpour.

Disappointed to read there are only 3 days left

Tammy
 
Just three: Villefranche, Sea Day and Debarkation day.

Corinna

Oh well, at least I've got another 3 to read, then I see by your ticker that its on 3 months and 3 weeks till your next cruise. I can't wait to be making my own memories in 2 weeks time on the Disney Wonder :yay:
 
Whoo---I am finally all caught up in your trip report Corinna!! I love reading them, I feel like I am there with you and since I can't be I guess this is the best I can get....
I love the Dress above, you look amazing! Wish I was cruising with you again....I am gonna miss not doing the Mexican Riviera, but flying to Orlando is much cheaper for us and I am excited about the DREAM. Not sure about the B2B part but. I would love to be doing the transatlantic, do you see alot of kids on those?? Always afraid to take them out a week more. Hmm maybe someday! Looking forward to more reporting from you!

I have not done a Transatlantic cruise so far, but I will report back when I get home from that. On the Med cruise, we had more kids then I had expected.

Corinna
 














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