Heather - TraceyJane tipped me off to this DISBoard. I am Julie the Cruise Director from Cruise Critic and Mucho Magico on the Med. Real name is Jennifer, and we are traveling on our first trip to Europe and 3rd
Disney cruise with my husband Rob, and daughters Georgia, 12, and Olivia, 9. We're very excited as everyone. Some of our planning that has worked out for budget-conscious traveling even with this extravagent vacation:
1) Flying from O'hare to BCN on Saturday before (arrives on Sunday). Did queries on Kayak and set up alerts. Eventual tickets were $874RT with British Airways. They still have that pricing yesterday, for a return on Sunday, June 6th (couldn't find a flight that left after 11:00 Am to Chicago, and was cheaper to stay one more night).
2) Staying at Novetel, a brand new (smoke free, which is unusual in Barcelona) hotel that will open in Barcelona off Avenue Diagonal on March 1st. Rooms with a queen and sleeper sofa accomodate 4, and if you book 2 nights get some discount. Pricing for 3 nights pre-cruise was $400 USD. Kids eat breakfast free and adults are $20 USD each, so we'll see when we get there if worth it.
3) Cruise excursions - we are only going on 2 all day excursions, both through Driver Guide Services (Ivano) in Naples and Rome. Cost is high at $500 Euro/day for up to 7 when book 2 excursions (otherwise $550/day), with a few additional costs (lunch, gratuities, and some site admission) but these are two ports we are determined to see the sights in case our only trip there. Driver Guide tours include more stuff than others (Pompeii tour and Vatican Tour), and are a responsive but small, family run business with good reviews on TripAdvisor and Cruise Critic. We are sharing with TraceyJane's family.
4) Not a money saving thing, but the fish extenders sold on ebay from ilvdisney are beautiful and clearly sewn by a professional and a good deal at $35 plus tax. She is very willing to customize colors and fabric. I will be bringing lots of small trinkets from Michigan for others that have fish extenders so our girls to go around and place treats at night (they like thinking of themselves as small "tooth fairy-esque" mice).
5) Pin Trading - Our daughters are very into pin trading with cast members, who are always kind and generous and allow children to pick which pin to take and receive. We have found pin sets (doesn't really matter what they are as they are for trading, and often cast members are thrilled to get them as they are special edition) on disneystore.com twice a year pin clearance. We have gotten Jessica Rabbit, Stitch military, and High School Musical sets for about $3-$4 a pin, which for an expensive hobby is cheap. We usually let the girls pick out one special pin from each trip, of which there are of course 1,000s to choose from.
6) Hidden Mickeys - check out a Hidden Mickeys book from the library and photocopy the pages with clues for the Disney Magic. Then if (big if) there is a bored moment, go on a scavenger hunt. We always do one scrapbook page (yes, a cheesy junior league hobby that my liberal, social worker self really enjoys) of pictures of hidden mickeys, which of course once you find it's hard not to notice. There is a wonderful one in rope in the main store on the Magic that Goofy is holding.
7) If you are into characters, purchase a three ring binder of index cards and a sharpie (or several - we prefer the click in/out ones in purple) for the characters at a drug store (Walgreens and Rite Aid have them, and I'm sure many others). Cheaper than the autograph books. You have better and quicker access to characters on the cruise than you ever will at the parks.
8) Not a money saving, but I have made some flashcards with words and phrases in Spanish, Italian, and French for all of us to study. We are trying to use Rosetta Stone for Spanish, but thought knowing a couple of courtesy phrases in each language would be good. Just checked out translation dictionaries from library and the phrases are typically on the inside cover.
I am interested in lanyards if Heather you are still willing to allow people to join your group. Also we'd love to meet and greet on the first day. We are going to try to find/make/print some door signs, and "ears" that go around our cabin number. The planning is half the fun.
Enough for now. Glad to have found this site.
If you have not already emailed me your full names and 
Going to go to Downtown Disney and see what I can see for gifts too 
I've got spots for 2 people on the 2nd Palo's brunch list if you are interested! Just email me at 
