Trip Report! ABD/DCL Mediterranean Magic Part 3 - IMAGE INTENSIVE!

[sayhello]

SayHello, loving the report. Totally shallow observation here: you look fantastic in all the photos!

Of course, I assume you just go through life looking fantastic, but I do have to ask: do you credit some of that to sleeping in the same bed every night on the cruise as compared to the moving every few days on a traditional ABD? Or was the ship's shower water especially "hair friendly?" Have you discovered some travel beauty secret that you'd care to share?

I ask b/c by day 3 in our trip photos, I am always looking a little worse for the wear. Relaxed, but not glowing with good sleep and good health, if you follow me.

Geez, kristilew, you're going to give me a big head! (Or bigger than it already is! ) I suppose it could have something to do with only posting pictures where I look decent... But thank you so much for the compliment. That's very sweet of you!

I'm pretty high maintenance. I totally admit this. There is no point trying to deny it, because it's totally, absolutely obviously true. I always allow plenty of time in the morning to go through my normal routine. I shower every morning, condition my hair every time I shower. I brought my own blow dryer (which I *normally* don't do, but I'd heard so many stories about how bad the blow dryers onboard were, that I just didn't want to chance it for 11 days! That's a long time to be miserable about my hair). I got it cut & colored just a few days before I left. I wear a hat if it's really sunny.

If that constitutes a 'travel beauty secret' (thanks for that! ) then there you go. It may also have something to do with the ship's water, since it's all very processed/treated water. My hair didn't have to keep adapting to different water. I did notice my hair rinsed out really well. Maybe I need to look through my pictures & post a few bad hair pictures... naw, never gonna happen!

Sayhello

 

[wdwsos]

We did get pins; pretty much the same as all the other ABD pins. I'll post a picture towards the end. Unfortunately, they didn't give us lanyards (the Guides thought maybe it was because they thought a lot of folks would have Castaway Club lanyards?) They gave us a pouch to put the pins on (designed to go on your belt). As I don't ever wear a belt, it was pretty useless to me except as a place to stick the pins. I was tempted to buy a lanyard, but never did find one I liked. I hope that the pouches is NOT the new thing for all ABD's, because I really enjoy wearing the lanyard with all my pins attached.

Sayhello

On Knights and Lights, we had a choice of lanyard or pouches. I have something like 20 AbD lanyards (I confiscate all the pins and lanyards from the family -- if I'm paying for the trip, I'm damned well going to keep the pins - lol!) so I opted for the pouch. I'm always looking for small pouches for packing things like camera batteries and memory cards, or even little things I don't want to hunt for in my purse. I'm sure I'll never wear it on a belt, but I liked having something different!

Dotti

 

[sayhello]

On Knights and Lights, we had a choice of lanyard or pouches. I have something like 20 AbD lanyards (I confiscate all the pins and lanyards from the family -- if I'm paying for the trip, I'm damned well going to keep the pins - lol!) so I opted for the pouch. I'm always looking for small pouches for packing things like camera batteries and memory cards, or even little things I don't want to hunt for in my purse. I'm sure I'll never wear it on a belt, but I liked having something different!

Dotti

Well, if I had 20 lanyards, I think I'd agree with you on that! I only have 2 so far, so I could stand for at least 1 or 2 more...

Sayhello

 

[tksbaskets]

Waiting anxiously for part 4

 

[sayhello]

Waiting anxiously for part 4

Soon! It's been a *crazy* week!

Sayhello

 

[Becx N Gav]

Hey there! It's great to see what the ABD add-on is like.
We did the first Med cruise this year. We only did Disney excusrions and I also noticed the description did not always match the excursion - little things like a kids activity in La Spezia (it was of no concern to us - a childless couple) that we didn't do, a couple of other minor things.
It was not enough for me to mention to anyone but just an observation. I think they must still be finding their feet for these excursions but I am quite suprised an ABD one didn't do exactly what was mentioned!

I know you mentioned that the other ABD participants were sat together for dinner / Palo, did you get any other special treatment on board? Reserved seats for the show? I know there isn't much 'spare' time on the ship with such a port intensive cruise but I would expect something 'extra' for ABD.

 

[sayhello]

Hey there! It's great to see what the ABD add-on is like.
We did the first Med cruise this year. We only did Disney excusrions and I also noticed the description did not always match the excursion - little things like a kids activity in La Spezia (it was of no concern to us - a childless couple) that we didn't do, a couple of other minor things.
It was not enough for me to mention to anyone but just an observation. I think they must still be finding their feet for these excursions but I am quite suprised an ABD one didn't do exactly what was mentioned!

I know you mentioned that the other ABD participants were sat together for dinner / Palo, did you get any other special treatment on board? Reserved seats for the show? I know there isn't much 'spare' time on the ship with such a port intensive cruise but I would expect something 'extra' for ABD.

Well, I guess since this was only the second time they'd run the ABD add-on, there were still some adjustments going on. Malta & Tunisia are brand new ports, DCL hasn't gone there before, and neither has ABD. I would hope that things are better for the end of the summer trips. We shall see.

We did not get anything like special seating at the shows. My, that would have been nice! I'll have to suggest that to ABD! The activities were the only "special treatment" we got. The session with the ship's historian & the animation lesson. Plus a couple of receptions. Oh, and we did get priority for disembarking for excursions. But that was because we were with the Guides.

Sayhello