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

[jd99]

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.

Nice to hear from you! We Did eat at that restaurant and he did cut silhouettes of the kids but I didn't get a picture of him either! sorry.

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.

Re Corsica - Yes we were there on Sunday and nothing was closed that we saw. We shopped at the tents near the port, went up into the town and shopped, had lunch at a waterside cafe, gelato later on. And yes it is a great option for a beach day. We walked right to the beach (about 5-10 minutes) and it was very pretty. Lots of folks there from the ship and from the island too.

In Villefranche - I can't remember the exact name, but it was the half-day tour that went from the port to Monte Carlo to Eze to Nice. It was the perfect thing for us that day. Next time I think we might head to Nice and just chill at the beach. The only downside was there was no stop in Monte Carlo - that was on the full -day version of a similar tour.

Thanks for your kind words!

 

[Dsmurf16]

Hey there we are looking at going on the 7 night Med cruise on Sep 3, 2011.
I was wondering how the weather was for you guys? We were on the Podcast 2.0 cruise and had high winds and big waves. Did you notice any of that during the Med cruise?

 

[jd99]

Hey there we are looking at going on the 7 night Med cruise on Sep 3, 2011.
I was wondering how the weather was for you guys? We were on the Podcast 2.0 cruise and had high winds and big waves. Did you notice any of that during the Med cruise?

We had a bit of it out of Florence but overall it was incredibly calm.

 

[tdizzle]

Fabulous TR Jeff!! Loved the pictures and your story. I hope you get to go back soon

Terri

 

[jd99]

Fabulous TR Jeff!! Loved the pictures and your story. I hope you get to go back soon

Terri

Thank you! WE get to go back this summer - but for a 7 nighter. But that will enable me to take another run at Florence!

 

[LisaWalkerC21]

Thank you! WE get to go back this summer - but for a 7 nighter. But that will enable me to take another run at Florence!

Jeff -

So jealous you are going back on the Med Cruise! So happy you will be able to give Florence a "do over!" Enjoy

 

[jd99]

For those who read this report, we are definitely getting a "do-over" in Florence. Bad news is that the museum housing David is closed the day DCL goes there. But we will fill our day with everything else we missed last year!

 

[jd99]

Just bumping to allow our new cruisemates for the Aug. 13 sailing to easily find the report...

 

[luke]

Just bumping to allow our new cruisemates for the Aug. 13 sailing to easily find the report...

gonna give this a good read through

 

[DoeWDW]

Thanks for the bump, Jeff. It DID help me find this TR and I loved reading all about your adventures in the Med last summer. Great preparation for the Aug. 13th sailing - hope to see you there!

 

[Toria]

I really enjoyed your TR! That cruise sounds amazing(besides some of your curses).

 

[jd99]

Thanks for the bump, Jeff. It DID help me find this TR and I loved reading all about your adventures in the Med last summer. Great preparation for the Aug. 13th sailing - hope to see you there!

I really enjoyed your TR! That cruise sounds amazing(besides some of your curses).

Thanks to both of you. And for those who did read last year's report, the curse is following us on this year's sailing a little. We are in Florence on August 15 (the big holiday) when things will be closed, the museum where the original David is located is closed. *sigh* We are still going to try to hit whatever we can in Florence as we just want to enjoy the city. I guess we have to go there a third time.