A long time ago on a cruise ship far, far away…
Laura and Lee decided to take a Mediterranean cruise on the Disney Magic in May 2010.
That was back in January 2009 when we took our first Disney cruise. It really seems like a long time ago!
So now it’s April 2010, and we leave for Barcelona, Spain, on May 12. All of a sudden that’s coming up very fast! I’ve never been to Europe before, and our Caribbean cruise was the first time I’d been outside the U.S. in over 25 years, so this foreign travel thing is very new to me.
Fortunately several of our AllEars team did the Disney Mediterranean cruises the first time around, back in 2007, and THEY BLOGGED ABOUT IT!!! I read the blogs at the time, but now I am re-reading them with renewed interest, since we will be visiting many of the same places.
One aspect of the blogs that is especially helpful to me right now are those that Linda Eckwerth wrote BEFORE the trip where she outlined the pre-trip preparations that they made, which includes some things I had not previously considered:
Getting Ready for the Mediterranean Cruise
Linda also provided a very helpful packing list:
We are taking the 11-night Med cruise, with the following itinerary:
Wednesday, May 12 – Leave San Diego
Thursday, May 13 – Morning arrival in Barcelona
Friday, May 14 – Sightseeing in Barcelona
Saturday, May 15 – Set sail from Barcelona. Onboard 4:00 pm
Sunday, May 16 – At sea
Monday, May 17 – Valletta, Malta. Ashore 8:30 am, Onboard 6:00 pm
Tuesday, May 18 – Tunis, Tunisia. Ashore 8:30 am, Onboard 4:00 pm
Wednesday, May 19 – Naples, Italy (Pompeii). Ashore 8:30 am, Onboard 9:00 pm
Thursday, May 20 – Civitavecchia, Italy (Rome). Ashore 7:45 am, Onboard 9:00 pm
Friday, May 21 – At sea
Saturday. May 22 – La Spezia, Italy (Florence, Pisa). Ahore 7:30 am, Onboard 7:30 pm
Sunday, May 23 – Ajaccio, Corsica. Ashore 7:30 am, Onboard 5:00 pm
Monday, May 24 – Villefranche, France (Monte Carlo, Cannes, Nice). Ashore 8:00 am, Onboard 7:00 pm
Tuesday, May 25 – At sea
Wednesday, May 26 – Barcelona. Ashore 7:00 a.m. Sightseeing.
Thursday, May 27 – Fly home
We have selected excursions in most of the ports we will be visiting – I think I am most excited about climbing Mt. Vesuvius! (Followed by a tour of Pompeii.) In Rome we will be doing the same Jumping Back Into Eternal Rome tour that Deb and Linda did – aka “See as much of Rome as you can in 10 hours or less”.
When I did our on-line check-in last week I got a wonderful surprise – I found that we had been upgraded from a Category 9 stateroom on Deck 2 to a Category 5 stateroom on Deck 7 – which has a veranda! Woo hoo!
Any suggestions from any of you on things to see (especially in Barcelona), things to pack, or anything else to make our trip even better?
Can anyone tell us if it is worth the extra cost to add the Adventures by Disney on to the Mediterranean Cruise? Thank you
This is probably one of the most awesome itineraries I have ever seen for a cruise!! OMG I hope you had so much fun and took lots of pictures. I always tell my kids, that a cruise is once and a lifetime, especially a cruise like this… They keep telling me I am crazy, but when we go on our cruise next year, they will know what I mean!
Thanks for the awesome blog post 🙂
Laura and Lee,
have a great time on your cruise and trip to Europe! I look forward to reading about your experiences. A pity you’re not stopping in Amsterdam, JJ would have loved to say hi to Tigger 😉
My advice would be the same as at Disney World, don’t just rush from sight to sight, but take time to enjoy the atmosphere and the small details.
Once again, I hope you have a wonderful cruise!
Laura replies: Thanks so much, Aruna! Sorry that we won’t get to see you and JJ this time around.
Hi Laura!
You will LOVE Barcelona! Here is a great website for pre-planning your time there. Turisme Barcelon Home Page(click the ENG button for English!!)
http://w3.bcn.es/XMLServeis/XMLHomeLinkPl/0,4022,495525130_543993719_3,00.html
We went last August before our Princess grand Med cruise. We chose not to take the ship transfers, and took taxis from the airport to our hotel, and then from the hotel to the ship; not too expensive. We did the Hop-on-Hop-off (HOHO) bus, rode the Metro everywhere, and spent time at Guell Park. You can pre-purchase Metro passes and HOHO tickets on thios website, too. There is a great half day bus tour out to Monserrat. Your marathon experience will serve you well- you will walk everywhere!!
We had dinner at an outdoor cafe – tried Tapas and Sangria. Gelato is TO DIE FOR in Barcelona! Disney Store was disappointing – looked exactly like our store at the Westminster Mall…thought hubby would kill me after the long hike to find this store!!!
Laura replies: Carol, thanks for all of the great information!!! I will definitely check out the web site. Monserrat sounds like a must-see.
The cruise sounds amazing! 🙂
I went to Barcelona a few years ago – I would recommend Parc Guell and La Segrada Familia (both designed by artist Gaudi), and definitely visit Le Boqueria (food market)on La Rambla – it was amazing!
Emma
Surrey, England
Laura replies: Thank you for the tips, Emma!