To Barcelona and Beyond!!!! May 26 - June 5 on the Magic

[wrennies]

We are all truly getting an understanding of the term "I need a vacation from my vacation!!!" We took a train tour of Corica today and then went to the beach. Somehow the boys did not even notice the toples women, I beleive it was because their feet hurt too much from the rocks. I can not wait to get back to a sandy beach!!!

 

[tkmcinturff]

I just now figured out how this crazy web site works, I've been sitting here for over a week thinking that you guys weren't posting anything. I'm glad everyone is having a good time. Tell Nate I miss him and I love him. Have him call as soon as he is back in the good ole USA.

 

[mickeyluv]

Thanks for posting about your adventures!! Loved reading them! If you see The Atkinson family from the UK tell them Glen, Pam, & Allison said hello....LOL!! I'm sure you'll not know them even if you saw them but you never know who you'll meet while on a Disney cruise...it's like Magic! (i know corny huh)

 

[wrennies]

We are in Villefrance today. We toured the area and then went to a beach....no way to avoid the topless thing here. They said that the beaches were soft sand....NOT. Maybe a little softer rocks, but not sand! The water was still too cold and we were all ready to get back to the pool pretty quick. Tomorrow we will be at sea and then we return home on Saturday.

I will be posting a lot more detail and pictures when we get home.

 

[tkmcinturff]

Nate better not come home with pictures of women at topless beaches to show all of his friends!!! Are you all trying to corrupt my sweet innocent boy? LOL

 

[pixie08]

We are all truly getting an understanding of the term "I need a vacation from my vacation!!!" We took a train tour of Corica today and then went to the beach. Somehow the boys did not even notice the toples women, I beleive it was because their feet hurt too much from the rocks. I can not wait to get back to a sandy beach!!!

I know this med cruise is intense! I am excited but expect to exhausted. Glad to hear all is going well (and the boys were too tired to notice the topless bathers lol!)

 

[yow]

Thanks for the updates -- very helpful for our planning. Looking forward to more!

 

[Eeyore77]

I just got off this Cruise this AM aznd it was a blast. I think that everyone on there was really tired in the end, but it was a trip that I will never forget.

 

[graysm]

Can't wait to read more about your cruise. My DS and I depart Newark on August 16 for the August 18 Med cruise. Keep it coming!!

 

[wrennies]

okay, so with a really busy summer, I am finally getting around to updating the trip report. I am going to start with the ports and then go to things on the ship.

 

[wrennies]

We were told that this was one of the most beautiful "ports" and that it would be worth our while to be up early as the ship pulled into port. So we did.....
I was going to add the picture, but it wants a link.....a am unsure of how to do this.

Anyway, we did a disney excursion, "Turkish Schooner" which was wonderful. We left the ship at around 8:30 to board the other small boat that was waiting for us. It was still fairly cool out. We were given mats to sit or lay on. It was a beautiful ride. We took tons of pictures ( i hope to post these when someone helps me out with how). At around 11:00 we anchor and were allowed to swim. We wondered why they wanted everyone to take a "pool noodle" before jumping in.....then they told us the water was only about 60 degrees. I was very glad to have the noodle. It took your breathe away. The water was beautiful. They also had googles and snorkels and we were about to look at the fish. We never got used to the water, but it was just so beautiful that you could not resist getting in.

They prepared a buffet lunch and there was also an open bar (wine and beer). The lunch included sandwich meats, pastas, crab salad, fresh fruit, rolls. It was good, but not awesome. We moved to a more secluded area and again anchored. We were able to watch some people cliff jumping.
The views were incredidble.

The water was so blue.

We returned to the ship around 5:00.
If you have any questions about this excursion, I will be happy to answer. It was awesome, but in a way I feel like we missed out because we never went into the city at all.

 

[TheThomsLuvDisney]

subbing in! Can't wait for pictures!

 

[akluss]

Thanks for the report. We leave on August 27th and I am trying to get information about the ports so we can decie what to do in each place.

 

[wrennies]

 

[bbn1122]

If I pursue my idea for this this cruise or the shorter 7 Med in 2012. I will probably drive you crazy with questions for the next year.

I also have 3 DS's ages 16, 12 and 10, they will be 18, 14 and 12 when I planned to take a Med cruise in 2012. Two of my sons will be graduating (HS and grammar School) and I will turn 50 that June. So, from looking at these boards so much I have stumble upon these unbelievable trip reports and now I want to go on a European cruise.

I am worried about them being bored with some of the excursions. Italy is one of the only places I have ever been and I always wanted to go back.
I also notice how increbibly expensive so of the excurisions are.

Well, your trip report so far is excellent. I am looking forward to any other info you provide and any other phots.

 

[birkner]

If I pursue my idea for this this cruise or the shorter 7 Med in 2012. I will probably drive you crazy with questions for the next year.

I also have 3 DS's ages 16, 12 and 10, they will be 18, 14 and 12 when I planned to take a Med cruise in 2012. Two of my sons will be graduating (HS and grammar School) and I will turn 50 that June. So, from looking at these boards so much I have stumble upon these unbelievable trip reports and now I want to go on a European cruise.

I am worried about them being bored with some of the excursions. Italy is one of the only places I have ever been and I always wanted to go back.
I also notice how increbibly expensive so of the excurisions are.

Well, your trip report so far is excellent. I am looking forward to any other info you provide and any other phots.

My suggestion to you is to get your kids involved in the planning. My husband and I decided to take our youngest then 16 year old DD and her best friend to Europe.

We let both of them totally plan the itinerary, excursions, where we would stay etc. DH and I decided the trip was for them, not necessarily what we would have done if it was just DH and myself.

Though most of what they planned was geared towards 16 year olds, we did have a fabulous time touring Europe. You might be surprised how frugal kids can be with your money if you give them a budget and let them plan your cruise and excursions.

Just my thoughts.

 

[bbn1122]

Thanks for your advice.

I have been showing my DS's all the great photos posted here....two of them want to go tomorrow...especially if we go to Tunis...they want to ride a Camel!!!

 

[Adsmama]

Thanks for the report! Can't wait for the rest! I go Aug 18!

 

[wrennies]

First thing....aviod the dinar (tunis currency). Most places take euro, even prefer euros. The thing about the dinar is that you can exchange to get as much as you want, but they will not exchange it back. Therefore you are "stuck" with the extra as a souvenior.

We did not have alot planned for this day. We just wanted to see a little of the culture. We were going to walk to the train station. We had to pass by all the cabs that were waiting. They were very pushy, but we passed....the first time.

As we walked we felt very out of place an uncomfortable. We decided to go back. We found out that only four people could fit into a cab and there was no way we were splitting up so we left again. Then one of the driver told us that if we were willing to "hide" one of the kids when we passed police he would take us to the market, wait two hours and bring us back. I believe this was for forty euros. We were a little nervous, but felt this was better than splitting up.

The driver spoke pretty good english and was pleasant. He did exactly as we asked and also took the long way back to the ship to show us a round a little.
The market was as everyone says, lots of bargaining and very pushy people. They were constantly after me and not as much with my husband. We walked through once, just quickly looking and then came back to the places we had seen things. We got some great things at awesome prices. I feel like our best souveniors were from here because they really showed the culture.

Be aware that Many of the people in the market would try to deal in dinar and then try to switch to euros....which are worth twice as much.

We did not eat or drink anything here.
(I will add pics later tonight or tomorrow)

 

[wrennies]

This is the day that we were all looking most forward to. We hired a driver for 300 Euros to take us to Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii.
The driver met us at the port (we had decided on 10:00 so we could sleep in a little). He was great and the van was very nice and clean. He drove us around Naples for a few minutes. We were very surprised at how dirty things were (trash along the side of the road). It also took us by an ATM. Then we went to Mt. Vesuvius. We purchased our tickets (no credit cards were accepted) and began our hike. It was much harder than I thought, but the trail was extremely nice (wide, gravel, clean). I took us about 2 hours to go and come back down. There were also several souvenior shops along the way. Prices were good we felt and we bought several things.
Our driver then took us for pizza which was okay (it was at the Pompeii site). The enterance to Pompeii was also cash only (Euros). there were several souvenior shops that did take credit cards.
I tried to use the ATM at the Pompeii site and it "ate" my card!!! thus leaving us with only one ATM card for the rest of the trip and also a $600 limit per day. This was a little stressful at first, but in the end was not a problem. this is something that you may want to think about though. All the ATMs we saw in Europe were the "old type" that actually takes your card in (instead of just swiping it, or pulling it out quickly).
Back to Pompeii. There is very little shade and a lot to see. we were amazed at how big it was. We had set - up for 3 hours with our driver and could have spent the whole day here. There was a lot of the same stuff (houses, and baths that looked the same) but everything was really spread out. This was also a lot of walking.
We were extremely tired after this day.. I took a nap before dinner!!!!