Our Magical Med Cruise (Aug 7) - The Tale of Row 13 -- FINALLY Finished!

[jd99]

Thanks for the kind words. I had to post one more time to make it 100!

 

[living20057]

Jeff,

The report was great! I felt like I was right there. The pictures were amazing. I had a few questions. I saw that your wife was wearing flip flops. Did she wear the whole time you guys did the tour. I love flip flops, but was thinking about sneakers with all the walking. Then my second question, I also saw used an over the shoulder purse. I heard pick pocketing was very big over there, did you see anything susupicious? I was thinking about the over the shoulder or waist wallet.

Thanks again for taking the time to give some much detailed information.

 

[jd99]

Jeff,

The report was great! I felt like I was right there. The pictures were amazing. I had a few questions. I saw that your wife was wearing flip flops. Did she wear the whole time you guys did the tour. I love flip flops, but was thinking about sneakers with all the walking. Then my second question, I also saw used an over the shoulder purse. I heard pick pocketing was very big over there, did you see anything susupicious? I was thinking about the over the shoulder or waist wallet.

Thanks again for taking the time to give some much detailed information.

We all wore sneakers to Tunis but we were SO HOT - kids brought their flip flops along and changed at Carthage. From there on out, I think all the girls wore flip flops everywhere.

Re the purse, I think she mostly wore it across her body and in front so she kept good track of it. To be honest, we didn't see anything suspicious in any of the places that folks warn so much about - Barcelona, Rome spots like the Coliseum and Trevi Fountain, or Florence. Lots of gypsies in Florence selling umbrellas (it was pouring that day) but didn't see anything that made us think any of these places was any less 'safe' than NYC or San Francisco.

 

[living20057]

We all wore sneakers to Tunis but we were SO HOT - kids brought their flip flops along and changed at Carthage. From there on out, I think all the girls wore flip flops everywhere.

Re the purse, I think she mostly wore it across her body and in front so she kept good track of it. To be honest, we didn't see anything suspicious in any of the places that folks warn so much about - Barcelona, Rome spots like the Coliseum and Trevi Fountain, or Florence. Lots of gypsies in Florence selling umbrellas (it was pouring that day) but didn't see anything that made us think any of these places was any less 'safe' than NYC or San Francisco.

Thanks for getting back to me. I think whereever you go, you should always be cautious.

Thanks again for the detailed trip report. I have a lot of work ahead of me.

 

[Jendisney9]

Thanks for a great trip report. It's got my wheels turning.

Just booked Med for 11. Did the Baltic last summer and only had 3 mos to prepare. Since I've got about 8 mos, I don't have to rush. I enjoyed the preview of the ports!

Glad to hear the tip about the transportation post-cruise. Sorry for your trouble. I feel your pain about the rudeness. There isn't much to do about it.

 

[mrp4352]

Thoroughly enjoyed the ride! Thanks for sharing!

 

[o0junebug0o]

Wow! Sounds like you had a fantastic trip, besides the cruses of row 13, or should i say 14!! You took gorgeous pictures, and it looks like the entire family had a great time!

My family and I are going on our first Disney cruise in June 2011, we are going on a 7-night Mediterranean. Although we are not visiting the same ports as you, I am very anxious to visit the beautiful ports of Europe! I don't know how we will wait 9 more months!!

Thanks for the great trip report!

 

[podsnel]

Hi Jeff!

I just finished reading your fantastic and hilarious report! Row 14!! Too funny!!

I felt so horrible for you and your family every time I read about the entitled people on your cruise, or the just plain rude Americans- I despise them both. You handled it all so well.

You really make a Med cruise so appealing....but for now, we will have to stick with visiting the Magic in the Caribbean in 8 days!

Thanks so much for sharing- I hope you'll visit my cruise TR when I start it next month!

Ellen

 

[jd99]

Thoroughly enjoyed the ride! Thanks for sharing!

My pleasure!

Wow! Sounds like you had a fantastic trip, besides the cruses of row 13, or should i say 14!! You took gorgeous pictures, and it looks like the entire family had a great time!

My family and I are going on our first Disney cruise in June 2011, we are going on a 7-night Mediterranean. Although we are not visiting the same ports as you, I am very anxious to visit the beautiful ports of Europe! I don't know how we will wait 9 more months!!

Thanks for the great trip report!

You are going to love it. I think you have some of the same ports, right - we can't wait to go back to Rome, Florence and Naples.

Hi Jeff!

I just finished reading your fantastic and hilarious report! Row 14!! Too funny!!

I felt so horrible for you and your family every time I read about the entitled people on your cruise, or the just plain rude Americans- I despise them both. You handled it all so well.

You really make a Med cruise so appealing....but for now, we will have to stick with visiting the Magic in the Caribbean in 8 days!

Thanks so much for sharing- I hope you'll visit my cruise TR when I start it next month!

Ellen

Unfortunately in today's world there are entitled people everywhere. I love the people at WDW who push my kids out of the way as you are entering a ride line. I always say "Sorry, I didn't realize YOU were in a bigger hurry to get on this ride than us."

I will definitely be visiting your trip report. Keeps us going in between sailings!

 

[jd99]

Jeff - So glad you finally finished this report! I'm going to break out the laptop tonight and read it with Mackenzie. She has been anxiously following your trip report as well.

Glad you had a great time. And I'm hoping for the Med in 2012. So don't get too toured out. We'd love to meet up with you guys again.

Hey Allison
How about Aug. 13, 2011? Come on...I know you want to!
jeff

 

[DCLShel]

Jeff-

I'm only about halfway through your report and I'm loving it! Thanks for all the great advice! We're doing the Med cruise in June, 2011 and our daughter will be celebrating her 12th birthday on the ship. So its nice to hear how your 11yr old enjoyed the trip.

Can't wait to finish reading the report! Thanks again!

 

[jd99]

Jeff-

I'm only about halfway through your report and I'm loving it! Thanks for all the great advice! We're doing the Med cruise in June, 2011 and our daughter will be celebrating her 12th birthday on the ship. So its nice to hear how your 11yr old enjoyed the trip.

Can't wait to finish reading the report! Thanks again!

My pleasure! Thanks for the kind words.

 

[jns]

Thoroughly enjoyed the report ! Thanks for sharing!
love all the photos

 

[jd99]

Thoroughly enjoyed the report ! Thanks for sharing!
love all the photos

Thanks! I was just revisiting my report and bringing back some memories. So ready to do this again.

 

[Elfinjojo]

Hi Jeff

Another fab TR(have only just discovered this section of the board!) and what was even better was the fact that it was the same trip that my family were on(we had done B2B repositioning and the 11 nighter afterward). Oh how I remember the weather in La Spezia that day and remember watching the tenders trying to get folk back onto the ship.

We didn't do any of the same excursions that you did but we also had a couple of memorable trips but not for the right reason - I think the med excursions need a serious looking into.(saying that we had fab experiences on the Rome trip and Pompeii)

Looking at your photos bought back great memories for me especially the views from VilleFranche.

Glad that your trip back home wasn't quite as eventful as the outward bound, fortunately for us we had good experiences on both legs, being that we are from the UK and able to drive the 2hr trip to Dover and then only having an hours flight back from Barcelona.

Along withs PODSNELS TR and this I am so going to write up the TR from the Dream MV, and then Alaska in the summer and then Western caribean at Christmas 2011 and fingers crossed the MV of the Fantasy alothough with date change don;t know if its do-able for us now!

thanks again for a great read
JoJo
x

 

[js1999]

Hi, we got back from our Med cruise last Wednesday. It has taken me a week to get things organized back home and now I am catching up on trip reports.

I think this was the most amazing trip ever, and I am loving re-living it through your report and pictures. You writing is very entertaining and it's great that you handle any issues that arise so well and see the good in things. I am sorry that Florence did not go well for you. We did not go to Florence, but we took private tours in Naples, Rome and Villefranche and it was a great way to go. We had 5 people in our party so we even saved money over the Ship's excursions. Just something you may want to think about for next year if you go back (lucky you!!) Looking forward to the rest, Karyn

Hi,

Do you remember which specific private tours you took for Naples, Rome, Villefranche, and how you found out about them?

 

[js1999]

HI Jeff,

what a wonderful account of your trip! So VERY informative, and such a fun read!

we are starting to do research prior to our upcoming 10-night mediterranean cruise in June 2011.

Can i ask something that is probably somewhere buried in the DIS threads but I have'nt seen it come up yet: If someone takes one of the DCL excursion tours and the group somehow gets delayed in weather/traffic etc (kind of like you described happening in FLorence and with some cruisers in Pisa); do they hold the ship for those guests until they reach port ? (in contrast, I assume that if you do a private tour on your own and you get late, you might miss the ship)?!

thanks!

 

[jd99]

HI Jeff,

what a wonderful account of your trip! So VERY informative, and such a fun read!

we are starting to do research prior to our upcoming 10-night mediterranean cruise in June 2011.

Can i ask something that is probably somewhere buried in the DIS threads but I have'nt seen it come up yet: If someone takes one of the DCL excursion tours and the group somehow gets delayed in weather/traffic etc (kind of like you described happening in FLorence and with some cruisers in Pisa); do they hold the ship for those guests until they reach port ? (in contrast, I assume that if you do a private tour on your own and you get late, you might miss the ship)?!

thanks!

Thanks for the kind words!
My understanding is that they WILL wait if you are on a DCL excursion. That being said, when we went to (late) dinner after our Florence excursion, our server told us there were people still "stuck in Pisa" who may not make it back to the ship before we sailed. We assumed they were part of a DCL excursion and they said that DCL would get them to the next port because it was a DCL excursion and the ship needed to leave. However, later in dinner just before we sailed, we were told that they did indeed make it back.

 

[dustermom02]

Jeff that was fantastic!

It was fun to live the cruise again and even see my family in some of your pictures.

I finally got our Med Cruise albums made for Christmas gifts for my parents and in-laws - a week of 3am nights to get it complete but it arrived at 2:50pm on the 24th -whew! 56 pages and 541 photos. With 11 people and 11 cameras we had over 11,000 pictures. It was so hard to pick and choose. We've been showing them to all our family that came to visit the last couple weeks and we've been sharing your story too since you showed up in some of our pictures - "this is family we met that came running onto the plane in Philly as they were shutting the doors and then the taxi accident and almost missing luggage." I never realized you were attributing it to parking in row 13 though. Too funny.

We loved all the tours we did and only had one major problem and that was the Florence day - the bus had not planned stops for any bathroom breaks- and with a bunch of kids I had asked to make sure there were bathrooms on the bus before I signed up for the tour - I was just dying to see the statue of David- but surprise! - they refuse to unlock them- we had to ask for them to stop. I complained about that on our response card. It didn't seem like anyone else had a problem -only us-and I knew we would. It really frustrated me that I had tried to plan ahead for problems that I knew would arise and it didn't work out.

The only other issue we had on a tour was the wine and cheese tour in Nice. We left our children on the boat while we went on the "wine and cheese" tour - sounds like an adult thing, you know? And we were attempting to celebrate our 18 yr anniversary w/o kids. We kind of wished other people had left their children on the boat too. I'm just saying.

There was one picture I wanted that I couldn't find on any of our cameras -Did your family eat lunch at Papa Rex in Rome? There was a man that came in during lunch and cut silhouettes of the children and we don't have a single picture of it. It was just amazing how fast he was and so accurate! He cut one for every child in the restaurant. We'd love to have a picture of him if you have one.

Thanks for posting this - it was such a fun surprise to read this evening!

And hey - we're going to be in the Pittsburgh area in April for my friends 40th birthday - she wants to go to Falling Water. Me - I pick a Med cruise for my 40th- her Falling Water Go figure.

 

[TaiTai1]

Jeff.... I'm planning our 2011 Med cruise, and have used our trip report for some great info. I've got a couple of questions:

1) Corsica.... looks like there are not many excursions here, which is fine. Were you there on a Sunday? Our itinerary will have us there on a Sunday, and I'm concerned about everything being closed. Anyone with experience or knowledge of this?

Also at Corsica.... is that a good option for a beach day.... just pack our beach bags and hang out there? Is it easily accessible from the ship?

2.) Villefranche: Eze.... This is one place I really want to go and spend some time. What was the exact name of your excursion?

Thanks for the time you invested to leave this great trip report.