A magical Mediterranean vacation live report UPDATED 7/15 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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A magical Mediterranean vacation live report UPDATED 7/15
A magical Mediterranean vacation
Ok, so just before we start to explain - I'll be posting the pre-trip report in this forum, along with live updates from our cruise and then eventually the trip report for the cruise only. The rest of our vacation will be in the Globetrotting trip report forum, including live updates from Italy and the trip report for the land portion of this trip.
All clear now? Probably about as clear as mud... Anyway, let's get this show on the road...
Pre-trip report – part one: “out of Venice?” I’m sold!
Dates: Friday 4 July – Sunday 20 July Adventurers: Me, Cheryl (41) and DH Mark (48) Destinations: Italy, Greece, Turkey, Greek Islands Resorts: hotels in Italy and nine nights on the Disney Magic Meets: we’ll be sailing with our great friends Mari and Raleigh and appropriately enough, we first met them on the inaugural Med cruise back in 2007. Celebration: sailing around the Med on the Magic for the second time
We were fortunate enough to be on the inaugural sailing around the Med on the Disney Magic back in May/June 2007, which was a wonderful experience. We sailed out of Barcelona, and visited a range of ports, including Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, La Spezia for Florence, Villefrance for Monte Carlo, and Marseilles. It was a stunning cruise, and we loved every minute of it. Since then, we’ve been desperate to get back on a Disney cruise around Europe again.
We obviously didn’t want to do exactly the same cruise again, we wanted to do something different, and when Disney announced they were going to do a Baltic cruise in 2010, out of Dover, which is about 40 minutes’ drive away from us, I was sold. However, it wasn’t that simple. The prices, when they came out, were horrendous, and there was just no way that we could afford to go on that cruise, so we gave up on that idea.
Disney came back to the Mediterranean again, and the next set of different cruises they introduced were for 2013, when they added in 12-night sailings to either Venice or Greece. Unfortunately, those didn’t work for us either, as we’d already planned to head back to Walt Disney World for Halloween and the Food and Wine Festival, and Hawaii so we could stay in Aulani. We just didn’t have enough holiday to add in one of those cruises as well, so that wasn’t an option either. Would we ever be able to cruise around the Mediterranean again?
With Disney coming back to the Med in 2013, perhaps they’d be back the next year, or then again, maybe not… There’s no way of knowing what Disney will do with the Magic from one summer to the next. In 2012, it went up to New York City, and then did various itineraries out of there, which was an interesting turn of events, and something I certainly didn’t see coming. My fear was perhaps Disney would do something just as unexpected for 2014?
Just before we set off on our wonderful trip to Walt Disney World, our cruise on the Fantasy, and a trip over to Disneyland, we heard news that the 2014 itineraries were coming out for the Disney Cruise Line. Yay – this meant that we could re-book on board the Fantasy, and get the on board discount! Except that only some of the itineraries came out… boo hiss!
Essentially, the summer plans for the Magic and the Wonder were missing from the line-up, although the Dream and Fantasy both had summer itineraries out. We spoke with our wonderful travel agent Sara. Honestly I cannot praise her enough – she looks after us so well. Her advice was to go ahead and re-book on board and get the furthest ahead possible cruise that we could.
We took her advice, and ended up booking for the 30 August sailing on the Fantasy, and put our deposit down. We explained the situation to the woman booking for us, so she knew that this wasn’t the cruise that we wanted. She seemed to have very little interest in our booking, which I thought was because she knew that we’d be changing it. Thank goodness for Sara is all I can say.
We told her that we’d made the booking, and she said that she’d look out for it. This was on about day two or three of our seven night cruise. Literally the day we got off the Fantasy, Sara contacted us to say that she’d been in touch with Disney, as she still hadn’t received our reservation details, and usually they come straight through. I don’t know what on earth went on, but apparently they hadn’t taken the deposit and the booking was (I think ) about to lapse, but whatever happened, Sara sorted it all for us, and that was it, finally we were booked. Phew!
Now just to wait for the rest of the 2014 itinerary to come out….
It was mid February, when I got an email through from Sara, titled “2014 rumors”, which said:
We are hearing rumors that DCL is going to announce the rest of the 2014 cruises later today and begun booking tomorrow. I will let you know as soon as I hear something! J
Well, the rumours were right, because literally two hours later, another email came through from her, which told me:
Good news! Disney Cruise Line has announced the full schedule for their ships for 2014. Following the early 2014 season sailings out of Florida, the Disney Magic will move to Europe for 2014! (The Eastbound Transatlantic Cruise leaves Port Canaveral on 5/19/2014.) The Magic will sail 4-, 5-, 7-, and 12-night itineraries out of Barcelona, Spain and, new for 2014, will sail 9- and 12-night cruises out of Venice, Italy!
The second I read the words “out of Venice, Italy”, that was it, I was sold. Now how cool would that be? We had visited Venice back in 2001, just after 9/11. The reason I remember that clearly is that’s essentially the reason we went. While in the States, flight prices went up to pay for all the additional security required, as Europe already had that security in place, they didn’t need anything additional. Instead, the airlines over here played an interesting tactic, which was to drop prices for flights through the floor to get people flying again – and it worked.
I managed to get a long weekend away in Venice at the end of November for just £27 ($40) for the two of us, and the vast majority of that money were taxes that we had no option but to pay. I think the flights were only £1 each!
Although it was cold while we were there, it was the sort of cold that looks perfect in photos, with blue skies and bright sunshine. We absolutely loved our time there, and St. Mark’s Square was just stunning. I remember the first time we saw it, we both just turned to each other, and said “Epcot!” It made us realise how realistic Italy is in Epcot.
Because it was winter, it was a quiet time of the year, so we were able to visit all the major sights, the Doge’s Palace, the Basilica in St. Mark’s Square, the Campanile, and we also saw the famous sights, like the Rialto Bridge and the Bridge of Sighs. We even headed out to Murano, where they make absolutely amazing glass creations. We bought so much – a tray of sweets, a Christmas tree, and a polar bear, so that’s definitely somewhere we’ll be heading back to again. It is a very beautiful city and a lovely one for couples to visit.
Anyway, I‘m getting ahead of myself…
Ok, so we knew what the itinerary was going to be – and this being Disney, they released it just a day before putting the cruises on sail. As we had just completed our fifth cruise on the Fantasy in December, we were finally gold members. It felt like it had taken forever to get to this stage, as although we’d only taken four cruises, of them two had been three day cruises, while two had been seven nights long, and the Mediterranean cruise we took was 11 nights long, meaning a total of 31 nights on board Disney cruises. Someone who’d taken five three-night cruises, totalling just 15 nights, would also be in that position. Frustrating to say the least….
Now we were gold members, we, along with platinum members, could book our cruises the very next day. So how much would they cost? The problem was, until the cruises actually went on sale the next day, no-one would know. It’s an odd situation to be in.
I had a look at how much the 2013 Mediterranean cruises were costing, and figured that, as these were 12 nights long, they should be cheaper than that, with any luck. Of course, they were sailing out of Venice, and there were only two of those cruises, so that could bump up the price. Hopefully not… but all we could do was decide what we wanted, and advise Sara accordingly.
Poor Mark! He came home from work to have me blabbering away at him, all about the new itineraries, which one we could take, which stateroom we could theoretically get, and how much it might cost, and the booking window opened the next day. I don’t think he knew what had hit him!
Once he’d had a chance to get in through the door, and think things through for five minutes he agreed with me that the cruises out of Venice sounded very cool, particularly the overnight stay there at the end of the cruise. We discussed what category stateroom to go for. I’d already been thinking about perhaps a 7A, if we could get one of the four staterooms with the verandas that weren’t enclosed. I knew this was a long shot, so I’d already suggested a 6A to Sara as an alternative, but she pointed out that all of these rooms were right at one end of the ship. When I looked at the deck plan, I realised that. My goodness, we didn’t want to be there!
After a bit more discussion, we decided to go for a 5B stateroom, as these were midship. We’re happier with a lower deck, so the fact they were on deck 6 worked for us. Honestly, I’ve never understood why the highest priced staterooms are on the upper decks, as they’re right below the deck with the swimming pools on. I’m sure they’re absolutely fine, given how much people are paying for them, but it’s just not something that I’d want.
Once we’d settled on that, we let Sara know what we were after. We still had no clue how much this was all going to cost, and just before you get the wrong idea about us, and think that money is no object, we had a couple of things in our favour. The first was that my grandmother left me some money when she died and the second is that we had just renegotiated our mortgage payments. The last time we fixed our rates was December 2007, and of course everything went wrong economically just a few months later, with mortgage rates plummeting. We’d been stuck with what seemed like a good rate at the time, but later turned out to be exceptionally high. Now, with interest rates still low, we got a much better deal, which gave us more disposable income each month. Some of that money would hopefully go towards paying even more of the mortgage off, but equally some of that money could go towards funding our vacations…
Now there was nothing more we could do until the next day…. We’d just have to see what Sara was able to get for us. Fingers crossed…
I have been looking forward to this as I think your cruise will be fabulous. I know exactly what you mean about mortgage rates as we had exactly the same problem until we moved this year. The amount we save on interest alone is staggering.
I have been looking forward to this as I think your cruise will be fabulous. I know exactly what you mean about mortgage rates as we had exactly the same problem until we moved this year. The amount we save on interest alone is staggering.
... especially with such low interest rates. They won't be that low for much longer by the sounds of things over the last couple of weeks...
I've been looking forward to this for selfish reasons, as it will give me a chance to see through your eyes some places I know very well! I've been to all of your locations, I think, and have spent a total of 15 months all-told in Greece and Italy. This was all very long ago, and I'm interested to see how they look today.
I've been looking forward to this for selfish reasons, as it will give me a chance to see through your eyes some places I know very well! I've been to all of your locations, I think, and have spent a total of 15 months all-told in Greece and Italy. This was all very long ago, and I'm interested to see how they look today.
And I'm interested in your take as well when we get to the trip report, as I'm sure some places will have changed beyond belief, but equally no doubt others will probably look exactly the same...
Pre-trip report – part two: how much would it cost?
Wednesday 13 February 2013:
I had an all day workshop to deliver at work, which was the first of a series of them, and I knew it would be a tough day. I’d said to Sara the day before to message me on Facebook as I could pick that up on my phone, and that would give me a boost after presenting the workshops.
As soon as the workshop was finished, I checked my phone and found this:
I have to be honest, I’d actually been expecting to pay more, so this was a result! Sure, it was a heck of a lot more expensive that the Caribbean cruises, but then again, I’ve come to expect that from Disney whenever they’re cruising around Europe. I just felt relieved that we could actually afford it this time, unlike when the Baltic cruises came out.
When I got home, the first thing I did was to go online and have a look at where exactly stateroom 6066 was. It’s about as midship as it’s possible to be – it’s only about three doors away from the midship elevators, so that was absolutely perfect. Thank you so much for this Sara!
Of course, after this, I went into overdrive on planning. Ironically enough, I was already thinking about spending a week exploring Northern Italy. Well, now this was the perfect opportunity to do just that!
So, before we get too carried away, what’s the itinerary on the cruise we’ve booked?
Now how cool does that look? I am a bit concerned that there are five days in a row of ports of call, as I remember how hectic that got on our last Mediterranean cruise, but at least we have a relaxing start and end to things, which is something.
Obviously, at this early stage, there was nothing more we could do, as flights wouldn’t be out until August 2013. With the cruise sailing on the Saturday, it made sense to fly into Venice the day before. The cruise will arrive back on the Monday morning, which leaves us with the best part of a week to do the exploration of Northern Italy that I’d been thinking about.
Because I’d thought about it, I already had some ideas in my mind, which included visiting the following places:
Padova
Vicenza
Verona
Lake Garda (the holiday brochure photos look amazing! )
Florence, as we didn’t spend nearly enough time there on our first Med cruise
Lucca
Cinque Terre
Portofino
Genoa
We can then fly home from Genoa, so that works as a basic plan… It’s not too far apart between all these places. In total, over a period of six days, we’re looking at less than 500 miles. As you can see, there’s a heck of a lot to see in that part of Italy.
Friday 26 April 2013:
This is the problem when you book a vacation so far ahead – very little happens for a long time! However, today, when we arrived home from our nephew’s wedding, I saw the announcement about the changes they’d be making to the Magic when she goes into dry dock this fall. Wow! Oh my goodness, how exciting that we’ll get to see this next summer when we board her. The changes look amazing, especially the lobby. However, I cannot believe that they’re going to do all of that in just a six week period! I guess they can move pretty fast these days….
Saturday 11 May 2013:
I’d heard a while ago that the excursions had been announced for the summer 2013 cruises in Europe, which given that the Magic will be across this side of the pond very shortly makes sense. Tonight I decided to have a browse to see what’s available for this year, as it’s a pretty good bet that they’ll have much of the same for next year as well. Unlike our med 2007 cruise, which was the inaugural one, at least I’ll have a year to get over the sticker shock of the price of the excursions meaning I can start to budget for them. It also gives us plenty of time to work out what we want to see in each port.
I spent about half an hour copying the information off the Disney Cruise website and putting them into separate Word documents for each port, so that I’d have a record of them. I didn’t look in detail at what was on offer, but I saw enough to notice that there were plenty of adult only departures, which I was really pleased to see. Don’t get me wrong, but particularly when you’re visiting some of the places we will be, which are historic with stunning remains, I want to be able to appreciate them. I can’t see some of the places we’ll want to go being of that much interest to children, which is why I like the idea of adults only departures.
I posted on Facebook what I’d been doing, and I was delighted at some of the responses I got. Mari, who we first met on the inaugural Med cruise back in 2007, said that she and her husband Raleigh were still thinking about it and were hoping to join us. I so hope that works out! Then our friend Marta, who again we’d first met on the inaugural Med cruise (how freaky is this? ) said that she and her husband Bruce would be on our cruise – great news!
Sunday 19 May 2013:
My parents were down visiting, so I grabbed the travel supplement of the paper they normally read (not the one we usually get) and lo and behold, guess what? They had a feature on Venice. I noticed that the newspaper also had a website with information all about Venice, something I’d never thought of checking out before, so I went online, and had a look. It gave me some good ideas for places to eat, although my goodness, when they said that the expensive ones were expensive, they weren’t kidding! One place offered a meal for €150 per person, which works out to about $193 per person. Thankfully, there were some cheaper places that I immediately jotted down, so that I wouldn’t forget them. Of course, as we all know, just because a restaurant gets a good review, doesn’t mean it’s going to be any good, but at least it’s a starter for ten.
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to explain - I'll be posting the pre-trip report in this forum, along with live updates from our cruise and then eventually the trip report for the cruise only. The rest of our vacation will be in 
Probably about as clear as mud... 
Anyway, let's get this show on the road... 
The prices, when they came out, were horrendous, and there was just no way that we could afford to go on that cruise, so we gave up on that idea. 
There’s no way of knowing what Disney will do with the Magic from one summer to the next. 
In 2012, it went up to New York City, and then did various itineraries out of there, which was an interesting turn of events, and something I certainly didn’t see coming. My fear was perhaps Disney would do something just as unexpected for 2014? 
Except that only some of the itineraries came out… boo hiss! 
It is a very beautiful city and a lovely one for couples to visit. 
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Pixie Dust
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I think my DH would be able to sympathise with him... 
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