Pre-Cruise — Disney Magic 14-night Trans-Atlantic Cruise

Guest Cruise Blogger Lori Edelman is back to share her adventure on the high seas! She’s on the Disney Magic Trans-Atlantic Cruise.

(Read Lori’s 2008 Panama Canal Cruise on the Disney Magic)

The time is quickly approaching. Our Disney Magic 14-night Trans-Atlantic Cruise – Eastbound sets sail April 10 from Port Canaveral!!!

We booked this cruise well over a year ago using our Disney Vacation Club membership. Once I started to research airfare though, I had sticker shock. Wow! Lots of $$$. We nearly cancelled, but in the end decided we really wanted to go. Never having traveled to Europe I was a little hesitant to make my own airline reservations, but after much research I figured it out. Despite the extra cost, we selected flights requiring only a single plane change on the way home: Barcelona to New York to Portland. The more stops, the greater the chances of losing a bag or missing a connection, and by this point in our trip we know we will only want to get home.

Once we had the airfare arranged, we had to book hotel stays in Orlando (the night before we sail) and an extra night in Barcelona. The Orlando stay was easy: the Hyatt right at the airport is so convenient. Barcelona was a little trickier so I let Disney Vacation Club and Disney Cruise Line assist. We are booked at the AC Diplomatic. Stay tuned for details on that experience! DVC also booked transfers from Orlando International Airport to the Disney Magic and when we disembark in Barcelona to the hotel and the hotel to the airport. Whew! Lots of details, but we should finally be set.

In early March, I came home to a very special voicemail message. “This is Disney Vacation Club calling on behalf of Disney Cruise Line regarding your April 10 sailing. You are receiving a complimentary stateroom upgrade!” Wow. We couldn’t believe it! We were already set for a lovely room on deck 7, but now we have a slightly larger stateroom: Stateroom 8588 on deck 8 for cruise #8. Excellent.

A week or so later, we received our travel documents. The format has changed since we last sailed. This time we received a nice spiral notebook with our luggage tags and a printed, fully personalized itinerary. The Vacation Summary includes all of our sailing details – cruise reservation numbers, ground transportation purchase details, Barcelona resort reservation details, and all of the port adventure, Vista Spa, and Palo dining reservations we have made online! This booklet is well laid out and easy to follow; a great improvement over the old format.

How will this trip be different than our other Disney cruises? For one thing, it is just Michael and me – no children – just us. Why would two adults choose a Disney cruise? We know we will meet a lot of wonderful people, both guests and cast members. We know we will have as much adult time as we want as Disney does an amazing job of separating children-only activities from family activities from adult-only activities. We’ve experienced the incomparable Disney service, dining, and entertainment. We know this will be another trip of a lifetime!

Our travel documents already revealed one very special guest that will be sailing with us; more on that in another blog edition. We are anxious to see if cast members we know from prior trips will be aboard – Yelena? Ponz? Pikey? Claire? Captain Tom? Christian? Fitz? Will we meet up with guests we’ve met on prior trips? It sounds like a cliché, but it is a small world after all!

Who are we? Lori and Michael. We make our home in Oregon and have been Disney Vacation Club members since 2000 enjoying many cruises and trips to Walt Disney World. We both grew up in Southern California with countless family vacations at Disneyland. So that you will recognize us, here is a photo from the Adventures Away Sail-away party from our 2008 Panama Canal trip.

Bon voyage! Look for the next blog installment from the ship!