The Fairy Godblogger: Disney Med July 9-20 On Our Own (New Pics Added)

[Anal Annie]

You know what's funny I just out of curiosity looked up that restaurant on Trip Advisor and it gets awful reviews but as you can see from our pictures, we loved it! We had pizza and my daughter got a plate of standard spaghetti and we thought it was all very good...best pizza of the trip and we had a lot! I just added my good review of the place.

FYI

For grins I just looked in my Rick Steve's Snapshot of Cinque Terre book & he DOES list it under "other options" for "the economy and the view".

So at home would you say you're more of a Domino's Pizza or Papa John's Pizza or Pizza Hut pizza or local Mom & Pop pizza kind of family!?

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

For grins I just looked in my Rick Steve's Snapshot of Cinque Terre book & he DOES list it under "other options" for "the economy and the view".

So at home would you say you're more of a Domino's Pizza or Papa John's Pizza or Pizza Hut pizza or local Mom & Pop pizza kind of family!?

Definitely NOT Domino's! Honestly we consider ourselves total pizza snobs, so do with that what you want... Maybe we got lucky that day.

There were at least three choices for restaurants by the breakwater and I'm sure you can't go wrong with any of them! The ambiance will make up for what the food lacks.

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

Your report is helping me get super excited about our trip.

Yeah!!

 

[nifferearly]

Thanks for writing the great trip report! We're going on 8/27 and I can't wait!

We're doing Pisa because my husband is a civil engineer and really wants to see it. I had originally wanted to also do the Cinque Terre but thought it'd be too busy of a day. But your blog is inspiring me.....

So, it sounds like you take a train back to La Spezia from Pisa and then get on another train? Is it a train to Vernazza? How long is the train ride? How long did you spend in Varnazza before heading back?

Thanks for the help!

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

Thanks for writing the great trip report! We're going on 8/27 and I can't wait!

We're doing Pisa because my husband is a civil engineer and really wants to see it. I had originally wanted to also do the Cinque Terre but thought it'd be too busy of a day. But your blog is inspiring me.....

So, it sounds like you take a train back to La Spezia from Pisa and then get on another train? Is it a train to Vernazza? How long is the train ride? How long did you spend in Varnazza before heading back?

Thanks for the help!

If you get out first thing in the morning and head to Pisa and only stay an hour or so then you can easily one cinque terre town in.

You do have to take the train back to la spezia then there will be a train headed to monterosso that will stop in each of the five towns. The train to Pisa is an hour. The train from la spezia to vernazza is like 20 minutes give or take five minutes. Vernazza is very small so you could spend anywhere from an hour to three depending on what you wanted to do. We stayed around two hours but that was with a very leisure lunch.

My original plan, which would have pretty much worked if we hadn't of gotten on the wrong train in Pisa was to get to Pisa at 10:15, stay until 11:30 then get to vernazza by 1 p.m. For lunch. With the screw up and long lines for bathrooms in Pisa we didn't leave Pisa until 12:15 and then went at least an hour out of our way then had to wait on the vernazza train so we didn't get there until 3:30ish. We left vernazza around 6 and were on the last tender in la spezia. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the tender from vernazza.

I hope this helps you. Don't forget the Pisa s. Rossore stop will save you some walking time in Pisa, too. Just go ahead and have your return ticket...I can't stress that enough!

 

[Anal Annie]

I had been looking at the trains on RailEurope.com from Pisa Centrale station and according to that schedule I think there is a train that goes directly to Monterosso. There is a direct one at 11:44 that takes 1 hr. 10 min. so it arrives in Monterosso at 12:54. (I wanted to start in Monterosso then work our way back toward La Spezia & go to Vernazza by ferry.)

I know some people say to use the Italia train site & I don't quite understand the difference if I can get where I want to go at the time I want to go with RailEurope?!

Does anybody know why the Tower website recommends the Centrale station if it is further away??

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

I had been looking at the trains on RailEurope.com from Pisa Centrale station and according to that schedule I think there is a train that goes directly to Monterosso. There is a direct one at 11:44 that takes 1 hr. 10 min. so it arrives in Monterosso at 12:54. (I wanted to start in Monterosso then work our way back toward La Spezia & go to Vernazza by ferry.)

I know some people say to use the Italia train site & I don't quite understand the difference if I can get where I want to go at the time I want to go with RailEurope?!

Does anybody know why the Tower website recommends the Centrale station if it is further away??

My guess on the central station is because it's bigger and for tourists may be easier to use. But if you already have your return ticket, it shouldn't matter.

Honestly, I would be careful getting the schedule ahead of time except to use as a reference because the regional trains tend to change weekly, sometimes daily. They new schedules are put up weekly at most stations. But you can use the sites to get an idea I'm sure. I didn't buy any tickets ahead of time because I couldn't be positive when we would be getting at each station.

I am 99 percent sure there is no train that goes direct to the cinque terre from pisa...you'll have to change in La Spezia. I think Rick Steves even talks about this in his book. I could be wrong...but I really don't think so.

 

[Anal Annie]

My guess on the central station is because it's bigger and for tourists may be easier to use. But if you already have your return ticket, it shouldn't matter.

Honestly, I would be careful getting the schedule ahead of time except to use as a reference because the regional trains tend to change weekly, sometimes daily. They new schedules are put up weekly at most stations. But you can use the sites to get an idea I'm sure. I didn't buy any tickets ahead of time because I couldn't be positive when we would be getting at each station.

I am 99 percent sure there is no train that goes direct to the cinque terre from pisa...you'll have to change in La Spezia. I think Rick Steves even talks about this in his book. I could be wrong...but I really don't think so.

I didn't buy Rick Steve's Italy book (because we've booked private tours for Rome & Naples) so I only got the Snapshot of Cinque Terre. I know the schedules can change and since we're there on a major holiday I check frequently (I printed it out so I could compare). Anyway, so on the RailEurope site I have been periodically checking the train schedules - but it hadn't changed since April until I checked it today (they have removed 1 of the connecting trains that used to leave Pisa at 11:00). Anyway, on that site when you have to change trains it says "connecting train" and then it will usually say something like "you have 20 minutes to change trains". I'll see if I can copy some of the schedule below (I also don't intend to prepurchase any train tix).

Train Autres 1812 8:51AM
Pisa Centrale, Italy
15 Aug 10:41AM
Monterosso, Italy
15 Aug 1hr 50min Connections: 0

Intercity Plus 670 11:44AM
Pisa Centrale, Italy
15 Aug 12:54PM
Monterosso, Italy
15 Aug 1hr 10min Connections: 0

Train Autes 11846 12:34PM
Pisa Centrale, Italy
15 Aug 1:40PM
La Spezia Central, Italy
15 Aug 1hr 6min Connections: 1
CONNECTING TRAIN
Train 2050 2:00PM
La Spezia Central, Italy
15 Aug 2:17PM
Monterosso, Italy
15 Aug 0hr 17min
Please note: You have 20 min to transfer between trains.

Intercity Plus 674 1:44PM
Pisa Centrale, Italy
15 Aug 2:54PM
Monterosso, Italy
15 Aug 1hr 10min Connections: 0

Train 11852 2:34PM
Pisa Centrale, Italy
15 Aug 3:40PM
La Spezia Central, Italy
15 Aug 1hr 6min Connections: 1
CONNECTING TRAIN
Train 2052 4:01PM
La Spezia Central, Italy
15 Aug 4:26PM
Monterosso, Italy
15 Aug 0hr 25min
Please note: You have 21 min to transfer between trains.

So if I'm reading this correctly, there is a train leaving Pisa Centrale (the "Intercity Plus 670") that goes directly to Monterosso... It leaves Pisa Centrale at 11:44 and arrives in Monterosso at 12:54. Duration 1 hr 10 min. / Connections -0-. So while this Pisa Centrale station is further away, I don't think we'd have to change trains. I read somewhere that a taxi from the train to the tower is pretty cheap. (But I don't know how much is cheap.) How did you know to use the other train station? Did Rick Steve's give you that tip? The fare is coming out to be $16 pp for "economy". Does that sound about right??

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

Maybe those are the fast trains...I don't know. We only used the regional ones and it was my understanding, but again, I could be wrong, that there were ONLY regional trains in the cinque terre That schedule clearly appears as if there is a fast train that does go direct.

We paid 13.5 euro for two adults and one child (the girls were free) to go from La Spezia to Pisa...one way. If it's 16 euro one way, that has to be the fast train.

I think you'll just have to wait until you get there and check at the la spezia station if you can go direct from pisa to monterosso. I was told we had to come back there (la spezia) the day we were there. Good luck!

I read the tip about the closer station on Rick Steve's site (there's a message board) so I researched it a little further online and sure enough it was right. Rick Steve's also talks about it in his Italy book and gives directions from there to the tower.

 

[mkmommy]

Wow Palma looks nice.

Glad that your "wing it" day turned out as a good experience, sometimes those days happen and it is great to be able to improvise.

Do you by chance remember the bus number that you took to the Cathedral?

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

Wow Palma looks nice.

Glad that your "wing it" day turned out as a good experience, sometimes those days happen and it is great to be able to improvise.

Do you by chance remember the bus number that you took to the Cathedral?

We took the free Disney shuttle to the cathedral. Do you mean the castle? If so I'm pretty sure it was 46 but we could have taken several to that particular stop. Best thing to do is go to a bus stop, look at the map and then confirm with the driver of the bus when one arrives.

I know bus 50 was the hop on hop off one. I found a Palma bus map online and looking at that I'm pretty sure we got off at placa gomila.

http://www.emtpalma.es/EMTPalma/Front/donde_estoy.en.svr?accion=cargatodas&donde=destino

 

[Kels Sem]

Hi Becky,

I've just finished your report and loved it. Thanks for sharing. Just 2 weeks today we'll be in Barcelona! I can't believe it.

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

Hi Becky,

I've just finished your report and loved it. Thanks for sharing. Just 2 weeks today we'll be in Barcelona! I can't believe it.

Thanks so much! I hope it gave you some ideas of the wonderful experience you're about to have.

 

[HermanTriplets+1]

Thank you for writing your blog! I have to say, I almost cried reading your last entry, I really felt the joy of the trip and the bittersweet feeling of heading home
Hope your "re-entry" is going smoothly.
We are hoping for a DCL in the med in 2014. Dreams are what make it all happen, right?!

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

Thank you for writing your blog! I have to say, I almost cried reading your last entry, I really felt the joy of the trip and the bittersweet feeling of heading home
Hope your "re-entry" is going smoothly.
We are hoping for a DCL in the med in 2014. Dreams are what make it all happen, right?!

Thank you so much!! It is bittersweet heading home after such a great trip!

My re-entry is going alright I still have the urge to order a cheese platter every night though...room service really spoiled us.

I really am keeping my fingers crossed that they go back again once they have four ships to play with.

 

[MaryJaneP]

Thanks for your blog. We were on the cruise and you have very eloquently described what it was like. The pictures are also awesome. "Pompeii hot" is a classic, as it was also our hottest day.

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

Thanks for your blog. We were on the cruise and you have very eloquently described what it was like. The pictures are also awesome. "Pompeii hot" is a classic, as it was also our hottest day.

Wasn't it a great cruise? If you couldn't tell, we had a great time Thank you for reading it!

I'm trying to decide now which pictures we are going to frame! My husband did a great job on those I thought, so I'll pass along that you thought so, too.

Pompeii was so hot. When I look at those pictures, you can see how red-faced we all are. Shew!

What was your favorite thing/port?

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

I added a new post today with a bunch of new pictures so I'm giving this a bump before it dies forever

Here is a link to the new post: http://thefairygodblogger.blogspot.com/2011/08/more-disney-med-cruise-pictures.html

 

[janiebubble]

Thanks for the extra pictures ... I read your blog before we left on our cruise, now looking at your extras they bring back memories for me too you might find it amusing that one of my 'ooh' moments was recognising the restaurant you ate at in Capri - I actually went back to my DSIL (who had also read your blog) all excited and said 'I just found the fairygodblogger's restaurant!'). She also used your directions to the Cinque Terre -so thank you again x

 

[bibbidibobbidibecky]

Thanks for the extra pictures ... I read your blog before we left on our cruise, now looking at your extras they bring back memories for me too you might find it amusing that one of my 'ooh' moments was recognising the restaurant you ate at in Capri - I actually went back to my DSIL (who had also read your blog) all excited and said 'I just found the fairygodblogger's restaurant!'). She also used your directions to the Cinque Terre -so thank you again x

That's so awesome! haha! It was a great restaurant. I hope you had as much fun as we did...it sure was a great trip.

I'm glad she was able to use some of the info I had on there...that's a big part of why I wanted to write it!

I've finally narrowed down my pictures to print so I'll have fun making my scrap book

Thanks for telling me about that!