May 5, 2010 Magic of Barcelona

charpie127

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 4, 2008
We (mom, sis and i) :dance3: booked this cruise today!!

Only 555 days to research, plan and dream!! :cheer2:

Any one going with us?? :confused3

and of course a meet and greet :grouphug:

this is our second Disney cruise.....we love the Disney difference
 
My son and I booked this cruise last week when we were on the magic. DW does not want to travel overseas.

Just looking to see the logistics involved in travel.

Jim
 
Welcome aboard!!

We were on the Magic in March and loved it! I tell everyone that Castaway Cay is worth the cost of the cruise all by itself! It is as close as you can get to paradise on earth.

While on that cruise we met Harry and his family. They had been on the Magic Barcelona cruise the first time it was there and told us all about it. Mom said she wanted to do that cruise so as soon as it became available ... we booked it.

Mom and Sis are the world travelers and sis can probably give you some insight on the logistics (she hasn't been able to get a name and post yet for some reason) Hopefully she will soon.

We booked a category 8 cabin on deck 7 for this cruise (hoping for an upgrade) We had a category 11 (inside cabin) on deck 6 in March. We were very comfortable there, but this cruise is a once in a lifetime so we wanted to get at least an oceanview.

ONLY 507 more days!!!!!!

Helen
 
Well over a year until we go.

I think that Mom and I will fly to the East Coast on 5/1/10, spend the night and fly to Barcelona on 5/2/10. I don't want to fly the REDEYE and meet up with the ship at the last minute. Sorry about that, Sis. I hope you can sleep on the flight.

OH, that reminds me, it is time to renew my passport!

We will have to research hotels in Barcelona. I think that there are Holiday Inns cheaper than the prepackage offers.

I WONDER what the weather will be in May there. Ah, in the 60s.
This site seems to have some good info.
barcelona-tourist-guide.com/en/weather/barcelona-weather
 


We have a long way to go but my son and I may go a few days early and see some sights in Irland before heading to Barcellona.

Probably won't spend too much time planning until later this spring. Too much other stuff going on right now.

I will try to drop in here from time to time.

Jim
 
We just booked. Me, the wife, our son, his wife, and the grand daughter. 2 rooms cat 10 (thats all the DVC points we had!)
Let the planning begin:grouphug: :grouphug:
 
Made reservations as well!!
Not sure yet how we are going to get to Barcelona, probABLY drive down there a couple days earlier. Got to figure out how much parking costs.
 


We booked about a month ago. Now I'm looking up the room we selected and reading bad reviews. Does anyone know if you can change rooms at this point? I will have two little ones with me ages 5 and 1 and I know we are all going to have a blast. This is our first cruise ever! We love Disney and have been to the theme parks too many to count.
 
Using the kids sail free promotion, I booked this today for me, daughter (4.5 at cruise time), aunt and mom. Haven't been to Europe in six whole years, yikes! We'll head to Disneyland Paris for 3 nights before flying down to Barcelona the night before the cruise. I'm really excited. The ship stops in several places I haven't been before, which is always nice. Hopefully, lots of new people will come aboard after the new deal.
 
Well, we've actually just changed plans and are going on the April 24th cruise instead. Hope you all have a great time and maybe we'll pass you at the port on the 5th!

Enjoy your cruise!
 
I'm wondering when they will release the excursion information. Surely by December...I need time to research and plan, lol. Reading some of the 2007 Med cruise reviews, it seemed like a lot of people complained about the Florence & Pisa tour. I hope Disney has improved things since then. I'm also hoping for more 1/2 day excursions, since my 4 year old won't be able to do 10 hours. If not, we'll just do it ourselves at our own pace. I'm a Europe veteran (lived in London and went all over Europe), so I don't mind doing it myself. I'm just sort of paranoid about not making it back to the ship on time!

It seems a lot of people book their own Barcelona hotel. I've seen the Hilton Diagonal Mar mentioned and the Rivoli Ramblas. I like the idea of being on right on Las Ramblas...that's where I was last time I was in Barcelona and it was very convenient. Le Meridien is right there too, but boy are they expensive after converting it from Euros to dollars! Darn exchange rate.
 
Tell me I'm not the only OCD planner going on this cruise, lol!

I have read some (ok, a lot) of negative reviews of the Disney excursion to Florence/Pisa from the 2007 Med cruises. I've been to Italy quite a few times, so I'd be pretty comfy doing those on my own. I checked into the train times, and while they didn't have info for our travel date yet, it seems doable:

Off the ship at 7:30am. Catch train to Pisa at 8:06am, arrive 8:57am. Get taxi to see Leaning Tower (there is other stuff to see, but really...there are lots of better churches around, might as well just see the horribly constructed tower!). Catch train to Florence at 10:54, arrive 12:03. Leave Florence at 4:27, arrive La Spezia at 6:38pm. Onboard is 7:30pm. That's a long day, but it can be done. I'm just not sure if I want to fool with Pisa. I love Florence...and want to shop. Worth it to see the faulty tower? I don't know. Most trains to Florence stop in Pisa, so you kind of feel like you should hop off, but I'm also completely paranoid about not getting back to the ship on time.

Rome is off the ship at 7:45am and onboard at 9:00pm, so that's nice. There is an 8:41am train to Rome, arriving at 9:50am. There is a 7:09pm train back, arriving at 8:17pm.

Have to see what excursions Disney comes up with for this trip though. Maybe they have taken the feedback from the 2007 cruises into account.
 
I must admit I'm a little DISappointed with the price we are paying. We booked last year and now seeing all the great deals like kids sail free and shipboard credits we are paying over 10k with no bonus lol.

I'm also concerned with the late night dining. I have two kiddos age 5 and will be 1 1/2 at time of cruise. I would like someones opinion if you think this is too late for kids to eat and if I could even switch it. We have never cruised before.

We still have not booked flights or hotel either. We did pay for Disney's transportation from airport to hotel. Does anyone have the info on which hotels Disney is working with and how to make the reservation. Does Disney have a discount or anything with the hotels?

Also is anyone wanting to do the Fish Extenders? I have one made and would love to participate, but have heard no interest so far.

Thank you!
 
You could call DCL or your TA to switch your booking to a new one with the kids free offer. It might work out cheaper for you to have the kids free offer but either DCL or your TA should be able to find out for you.
As for dining times, we had last time the second seating but my 5 year old
barely made it because she is just too tired and sleepy around the time we had dinner so this time I am going to have the first seating.
But I guess for some people the late seating would just work fine .. but it
didn't for us.
The other thing is.. the med cruise is very port intensive and if you want to spend more time at the ports then maybe late seating is better.
 
Thank you for the advice. I actually called DCL an hour ago and they took off about 3K woohoo! Now my husband has no say with excursion and extras lol. :tigger:

I decided to stick to late seating and just go with it.
 
We just booked yesterday!! 3 kids (14, 12, 11) and my dh and me!! We have NEVER sailed in our lives! But couldn't pass up this opportunity..money will be tight, does anyone have ANY idea how much to budget for excursions for a family of five? Am I crazy to think we can fly in the morning of the cruise?? I figured we'd just walk on the ship and crash...

Can't wait to get to know each of you! My kids are soo excited, we homeschool and now we're devoting our history/reading to this area! So cool!!

Tara
 

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