May 28, 2011 - 11 Night Mediterranean Sailing from Barcelona

[disneymom13176]

Finally got back to planning. First starting with catching up with all of your plans. I really enjoyed reading everyone's posts. Looks like we have lots of new people joining the cruise. Very exciting!!!

I got our hotel booked on the front end finally. We are at the Hotel Arts. Not a Disney hotel but they were very helpful in making pickup arrangements from the airport to their property and then from their property to the ship the following day.

Got our hotel booked for the 2 days after we return to Barcelona. Great rates and they had family rooms with bunk beds. Petit Palace Museum Hotel. No pool and no restaurant on property but very nice and very close to lots to do and see, so I think it will be a good choice for us for the return portion of this adventure.

Finally Shore Excursions. I have made reservations for the 3 Italy stops with 2 different private tour companies. RomeCabs for Civitavecchia and Naples. And then Rome Connection for La Spezia. In La Spezia we decided to skip Lucca and go to Pisa. I really could not let go of seeing the tower.

I am now studying the other stops. Probably will pick from Disney's selections but not 100% at this point. I am hoping that one or two of the ports will offer some things and an excursion will not be mandatory. I think we have so much to do already that I am afraid I will need a vacation from my vacation when I get home.

I think that covers all that I have done since my last post. It was really nice catching up everyone's trip plans. I am really looking forward to this cruise!

Amy

 

[lawelch]

Check out our cruise website, I've put a lot of information there. If you have anything to add let me know.

Cindy,
On your website you have the ashore time listed as 4:00 am and Disney is showing 6:45 am. Do you know what time we will be allowed to leave the ship - from your Med cruise last year? We're usually not in a hurry to leave the ship, but we are planning a post cruise trip to Paris and were wondering how early we can make a flight.

 

[scrapycruiser]

Finally got back to planning. First starting with catching up with all of your plans. I really enjoyed reading everyone's posts. Looks like we have lots of new people joining the cruise. Very exciting!!!

I got our hotel booked on the front end finally. We are at the Hotel Arts. Not a Disney hotel but they were very helpful in making pickup arrangements from the airport to their property and then from their property to the ship the following day.

Got our hotel booked for the 2 days after we return to Barcelona. Great rates and they had family rooms with bunk beds. Petit Palace Museum Hotel. No pool and no restaurant on property but very nice and very close to lots to do and see, so I think it will be a good choice for us for the return portion of this adventure.

Finally Shore Excursions. I have made reservations for the 3 Italy stops with 2 different private tour companies. RomeCabs for Civitavecchia and Naples. And then Rome Connection for La Spezia. In La Spezia we decided to skip Lucca and go to Pisa. I really could not let go of seeing the tower.

I am now studying the other stops. Probably will pick from Disney's selections but not 100% at this point. I am hoping that one or two of the ports will offer some things and an excursion will not be mandatory. I think we have so much to do already that I am afraid I will need a vacation from my vacation when I get home.

I think that covers all that I have done since my last post. It was really nice catching up everyone's trip plans. I am really looking forward to this cruise!

Amy

We are also going with RomeCabs in Rome and Naples.
You will be very pleased with RomeCabs. We had so much fun with Stefano when we were on the Disney cruise in 2007 and in Rome with him ! Very professional, wonderful with my 12 yo Grandson...took him to the Ferrari Store as a surprise ! Even bought him a kid friendly book at the Colisseum.
He had just gotten married, and we brought him a small wedding gift from our home near Colonial Williamsburg. So this time, we will have our son and his wife and 2 Grandboys.
In Naples, we'll have him take us to Amalfi, Positano and Ravello. We loved Sorrento and saw Pompeii last time. But the area we're going to is not so touristy. The buses can't get to, I believe, Positano which is suppose to be so beautiful.

I hope we can get a group together to do the Blue Grotto & Fishing Village. I hear it is a good tour, so the more the merrier !

If you're not planning to go to Florence, I suggest doing Cinque Terre on your own. Very easy. Just get a copy of Rick Steve's Cinque Terre book.
Cinque Terre will give you a definite flavor of Italy !

I have lots of thoughts on Villefranche area, but will save that for another post.

 

[DopeyFan1966]

Hi! Cindy,

If I join the DCL port adventure "Blue Grotto Boat Trip & Fishing Village"(it takes 4-4.5 hrs), do you think I could still have time to visit the city centre by ourself?

Yes, if I recall correctly, they did a morning tour and an afternoon tour. We did the Jeep Safari trip last year and had time to walk around Valletta for a little while to sightsee and shop.

If you do the Blue Grotto trip, make sure you do the morning one, from what I understand it is the best time to do the trip.

Cindy

 

[Nanarella]

Hi Everybody,
We are so excited to be joining you on this Magical Cruise of the Mediterranean!
We are:
Nancy
John (DH)
Greg(DS)
We are celebrating Greg's College Graduation (and our tuition emanicipation!)
Also joining us:
Vicki (DD)
Dan (DS-I-L) Castaway Club Members and experienced cruisers
We are in staterooms 5622 and 5624. Late dinner seating.
We would like to be added to the roll call and to the FE list!
Thanks to everybody for all your posts. The info here is priceless.

 

[VickidiBobbidiBoo]

Hi Everyone!!

We are so excited to be cruising with all of you!

We are:
Vicki (32)
Dan (32 - DH - DisneyDan24 on DISboards)
we are traveling with Nanarella and crew as mentioned above to celebrate my brother's college graduation!

Dan & I cruised DCL in March 2008 with some of his family and did a 4 night to Bahamas and Castaway, and we LOVED IT!

Please add us to the FE list also! The creativity of DisBoarders is amazing.

As for a group name - maybe something to do with our cruise being the first Mediterranean cruise in 2011? Or, maybe something with 101 Dalmatians, since 2011 is the 50th anniversary of the release?

"Spot" Us in the Mediterranean - Disney Magic 2011?
"Spotted" in the Med....?
Other ideas?

We are staying at Hotel Curious in Barcelona on May 27, and after the cruise, we are going to Rome till June 11. We are still reviewing excursion ideas -- but one definite is a trip up to the Banfi Winery when we are in Civitavecchia.

Happy Planning!
Vicki

 

[scrapycruiser]

Hi Everyone!!

We are so excited to be cruising with all of you!

We are:
Vicki (32)
Dan (32 - DH - DisneyDan24 on DISboards)
we are traveling with Nanarella and crew as mentioned above to celebrate my brother's college graduation!

Dan & I cruised DCL in March 2008 with some of his family and did a 4 night to Bahamas and Castaway, and we LOVED IT!

Please add us to the FE list also! The creativity of DisBoarders is amazing.

As for a group name - maybe something to do with our cruise being the first Mediterranean cruise in 2011? Or, maybe something with 101 Dalmatians, since 2011 is the 50th anniversary of the release?

"Spot" Us in the Mediterranean - Disney Magic 2011?
"Spotted" in the Med....?
Other ideas?

We are staying at Hotel Curious in Barcelona on May 27, and after the cruise, we are going to Rome till June 11. We are still reviewing excursion ideas -- but one definite is a trip up to the Banfi Winery when we are in Civitavecchia.

Happy Planning!
Vicki

Great ideas for our name !!
Would like to hear about the Banif Winery. We will have a private guide...RomeCabs, and our son & wife love wine. They might be interested.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Riots in Tunis. President overthrown. I checkecked the State Dept and they are recommending tourists to stay away. Warning in affect til April. Who wants to bet they pull Tunis?

 

[scrapycruiser]

Riots in Tunis. President overthrown. I checkecked the State Dept and they are recommending tourists to stay away. Warning in affect til April. Who wants to bet they pull Tunis?

Hi Kevin
If they do I hope we go to Sicily. We were there in 2007 on the DCL Med cruise and took a DCL tour to the coastal town of Cephalu and loved it ! Would be very happy to go back !

Gina/ Mom

 

[annichan]

Hi everybody, I haven't posted for a few weeks but now I really have the feeling that our cruise is getting incredibly close! It is great to see all the new names on our thread, looks like we are becoming more and more people here!

Scott and Jason
Desk 5 secret porthole room
Late Seating
Celebrating Scott's 40th and Jason's 45th
Pre cruise stay in Barcelona
After Cruise heading to DLP for 3 Nights
Would be interested in sharing tours

Welcome Scott and Jason!
Have you ever been to DLP before? If not, I am sure you will like it, there are some things unique (I think) to DLP that I love, like the Jules Verne-esque version of Space Mountain, and the Dragon under the Castle - great!

Hello. We are getting very excited about this cruise. It will be our second DC and our first trip to Europe. We thought it would be a great way to get a taste of Europe before taking extended vacations there in 2012. We would love to be added to the roll call and the FE list, although I am still trying to figure out how the FE works!

Rachelle (momma age 39)
Lee, aka "Grandma Peabody" (grandma age 65)
Jessica (daughter age 21)
Joseph, aka "cub" (son age 6)

Our cabin is on the 6th deck, with late dinner seating.

Welcome Rachelle, Lee, Jessica and Joseph!
At first it looked like everybody on our thread except for us had picked early seating, so it's nice to see some more "late diners".

I'm compiling the list for the FEs. The only rule we are applying that is not always applied, the rule is one gift per party/stateroom. From my understanding others on other cruises would sometimes give separate gifts for children and adults, or if a party had 3 staterooms they would give 3 gifts. We aren't doing that due to the space issue in everyone's luggage.


Cindy

Hey Cindy, thanks for organizing the FE - I am still not sure if I want to participate, I'm a bit scared with the amount of space this might take up in our bags . One question, since I've never participated in an FE before: Do we have any kind of price range for these gifts?

Today was the deadline to send my final payment to my TA for the trans-atlantic portion of this vacation (really just a phone call authorizing her to bill my card). It's getting closer!

I hadn't realized that you would be doing two cruises in a row - 25 nights, that is so awesome. I wish we could do that, but DH is worried he would be bored, and of course it would be difficult to get so much time off work. Not to mention the costs - I once researched it and a one-way flight (Germany-Orlando or vice versa) was actually MORE expensive than a return flight!

I am planning to book a dinner at Palo but I'm not certain which day will be better. I don't want to miss those special dinner night, such as formal dinner, priate night, etc. Any suggestion?
Also, is there any "show" or "perofrmance" during the dinner at different resturants?

I don't think your question has been answered yet, and to all those DCL pros out there, please correct me if you find that I'm wrong:
There is one special thing going on in the restaurants, and that takes place at "Animators Palate" on the first evening you dine there, UNLESS that evening happens to be Formal Night - then it will happen on your second night there. It's not easy to find out when you will have your first dinner there, as that depends on the dining rotation you are assigned (and you usually don't find that out until check-in at the terminal).

From my research on the DIS, this may probably be the schedule for the special dinner nights:

Saturday: Welcome Aboard / Let The Magic Begin
Sunday: Formal Night
Monday: Rotational
Tuesday: Rotational
Wednesday: Rotational
Thursday: Master Chef Menu
Friday: Semiformal Night
Saturday: Pirate Night
Sunday: Flavours of the Med Menu
Monday: Captain's Gala
Tuesday: Till We Meet Again

Hi Everybody,
We are so excited to be joining you on this Magical Cruise of the Mediterranean!
We are:
Nancy
John (DH)
Greg(DS)
We are celebrating Greg's College Graduation (and our tuition emanicipation!)

Welcome Nancy, John and Greg!
More late diners!

Hi Everyone!!

As for a group name - maybe something to do with our cruise being the first Mediterranean cruise in 2011? Or, maybe something with 101 Dalmatians, since 2011 is the 50th anniversary of the release?

"Spot" Us in the Mediterranean - Disney Magic 2011?
"Spotted" in the Med....?
Other ideas?

Welcome Vicki and Dan!

Great ideas for the group name, especially the one about us being the first Med cruise of the year ... I'm not creative today but I will keep thinking ...

Riots in Tunis. President overthrown. I checkecked the State Dept and they are recommending tourists to stay away. Warning in affect til April. Who wants to bet they pull Tunis?

That is exactly what I came online to ask you all today! I am pretty sure DCL won't risk Tunis, too.

Hi Kevin
If they do I hope we go to Sicily. We were there in 2007 on the DCL Med cruise and took a DCL tour to the coastal town of Cephalu and loved it ! Would be very happy to go back !

Gina/ Mom

Sicily sounds like a great replacement, and it's not too far away from Tunis so it seems realistic. Not that I would mind an additional sea day instead, either ...

 

[Cousin Orville]

Sicily sounds like a great replacement, and it's not too far away from Tunis so it seems realistic. Not that I would mind an additional sea day instead, either ...

I agree. I wonder how challenging it would be to book a new port just a few months ahead? Sicily definitely seems the most logical. It's close. Likely not a very competitive port for DCL to book. Hopefully they don't wait too long and just have a sea day.

On the other hand, if they keep Tunis it opens up the possibility of names for our cruise. Overthrowing the Mediterranean? The Coup of the Disney Magic?

 

[scrapycruiser]

Cindy

Can we get an update for the FE participants ?
I don't see the recent ones added to the FE list. Or maybe I didn't pull up the right list ??


Just need to know how many to make. Of course, it's still early and I know they'll be more to join later. BTW, when is the cut-off to sign up for the FE ?
I would suggest April 1st ??

The Name of our Cruise ?? Vicki suggested something pertaining to being 1st in the Med and/or 101 Dalmations theme since this is the big anniv for that movie.
I suggest :

1st Spotted in the Med

Thanks again for all you do for us on these boards.

Hello to all our recent add ons ! WELCOME !

GINA

 

[David & Jane]

Cindy



The Name of our Cruise ?? Vicki suggested something pertaining to being 1st in the Med and/or 101 Dalmations theme since this is the big anniv for that movie.
I suggest :

1st Spotted in the Med

Thanks again for all you do for us on these boards.

Hello to all our recent add ons ! WELCOME !

GINA

Hi to all the new members that have joined, since we last posted before the xmas holidays

Nice to see & read all the new posts.

This will be are third disney cruise,the last cruise we did was the TA crossing on the Magic in September 2010 ( Great trip )

Our suggestion for a name is " The First Magic Spot in the Med 2011" or
" First Magic Cruise Spot in the Med 2011"

Jane & David

 

[Nanarella]

Hi Everybody,
Here a some more names for our cruise for your consideration:

101 Spots of Fun

101 Magical Mediterranean Spots of Fun

...to keep in mind the "101 Dalamations" film anniversary.

After reading about the trouble in Tunisia, I thought the Sicily option would be great, until I read about the eruption of Mount Etna...where else can we go?

 

[pamela k]

Hi all

Are are also sailing on this cruise.

It will be our 3rd cruise. We have done Disney Wonder 4 night Bahamas 2008 and last year we did the last Baltic cruise!!!

We are from Liverpool UK and it is just me Pamela & my DH Simon who are going!!

So Excited

xx

 

[DopeyFan1966]

Sorry that I have been slacking. I printed all the pages this morning at work, when I get home tonight I will update the cruise website that I created for us.

If anyone has addition information regarding ports that they would like to share, please let me know and I will add it.

Everything should be update tonight.

130 days to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DopeyFan1966]

Okay, so I added everyone to the roll call and I think I have everyone added to the FE list that requested to be added. Please check the website and let me know.

Kaceyisme: do you still have spaces left on your tours in Rome, Naples and Nice/Monaco? If you do I will add your information to the website so people can see it.

Cruise Names, so far we have the following suggestions:

101 "Spots" of Fun
101 Magical Mediterranean "Spots" of Fun
First Magic Cruise "Spot" in the Med 2011 (or "Spotted" in the Med 2011)
"Spot" Us in the Mediterranean - Disney Magic 2011
"Spotted" in the Mediterranean - Disney Magic 2011
1st "Spotted" in the Med

Make a choice and which ever one gets the most votes we will use.

I'll try to make name tags to fit the one chosen. We can make them stick on, pin on or lanyards. We did lanyards last year and they were great. I've emailed a company about making us white lanyards with black spots, I'll let everyone know how much they would cost, if everyone would like to do that then I will order them.

Cindy

 

[kaceyisme]

Kaceyisme: do you still have spaces left on your tours in Rome, Naples and Nice/Monaco? If you do I will add your information to the website so people can see it.
Cindy

Cindy, I actually do have room on the tours. We have room for four people on all of the tours. The people that said that they were coming with us have not replied to any of my attempts at contacting them. If anyone is interested, and you are a party of two, three or four, please let me know.

 

[kaceyisme]

For the cruise name, I like

First Spotted in the Med - Disney Magic 2011

 

[DopeyFan1966]

Cindy, I actually do have room on the tours. We have room for four people on all of the tours. The people that said that they were coming with us have not replied to any of my attempts at contacting them. If anyone is interested, and you are a party of two, three or four, please let me know.

What is the name of the companies that you are using so others can research the trips and make a decision on if they would like to join you or not