Our Magical 12 Night Mediterranean Cruise 2016

[trekkie518]

Well, we are back from the most amazing cruise ever.

I wrote a pretrip report, it's here http://disboards.com/threads/disney-magic-12-day-mediterranean-cruise-8-1-2016.3518502/#post-56318246 Not very exciting, but, it kept me occupied a bit while I was waiting.

This trip came up suddenly, a trip too good to pass up, I won't go through all the preplanning again here, if you want that you can read it in the pre-trip report.

Cast of characters:
Me: Angie, I love all things Disney, and sci fi. I have been going to Disney every year since I was 5, and more than once a year since I got married to my very indulging husband.

DH: Ed, Works way to much, needs vacations, so I love planning them and having him get away. Best husband ever. Supports my Disney habit, and has developed his own love for Disney and getting away.

The week before

We tried to adjust to the time change a little bit, We started getting up at 4 am, (10 am European time) and going to bed earlier, DH went into work at 4 am, and I did things around the house, We tried to be in bed by 9 pm, which still would have been 3 am in Europe, but, it would at least be something.
We flew out on Friday.

We live in MI, it was cheaper and a straight flight out of Toronto, ON, so we got up at 3 am, and drove to Toronto, which is 4 1/2 hours. Our flight was at 7:10 pm, so we would have soem time in Toronto before we needed to check in at the airport. We made it to Canada at 5:45 am, made it through the security checkpoint, and continued on to Toronto. I wasn't allowed to sleep, so I would sleep on the plane. I was now going on about 36 hours without sleep. I have problems sleeping before a trip. I was still very hyper though.

We stopped at a Denny's and ate breakfast, and then continued on, made it to Toronto around 9:30.
We drove by the airport, and found the parking lot, then we headed into the city. We went to the Eaton Center, and walked around for a while. Went to the Disney Store. By then it was time for lunch.
We went to The Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch. It was very good. It was around 1:30 pm. After that we headed over to park the car and catch the shuttle to the airport.



We got checked in, got through security, found our gate, met a few other people that were headed to the cruise, grabbed some dinner (not very good) and found our gate. then we waited...
We really didn't wait that long before we were boarding the plane. I got a window seat, DH got the aisle seat next to me and we got settled in for the next 7 1/2 hours. Next time paying the extra for business or first class for a flight to Europe.... Wow, no room, and 7 1/2 hours, were we sore.
I'd now been up well over 48 hours, so I was exhausted, and a migraine kicked in. I took migraine meds, and was asleep pretty quick. Woke up when I smelled food, It was Chicken and pasta, better then the burger we had at the airport, I slept on and off after that, so did DH, for the continental breakfast they gave out a cold pound cake, it was very good... then we finally landed in Barcelona.
Me, planning ahead and thinking of jet-lag, planned a day tour with Barcelona Day Tours to pick us up at the airport, and take us around Barcelona for half the day, and then drop us off at our hotel. I figured we would get to see the sights of Barcelona, and fight off jet-lag, and get adjusted better to the time, as it was 8 am Barcelona time.

So we had to go through customs, get our passports stamped, get our luggage, finish the customs journey, and our guide Oscar was waiting for us as we exited the luggage/customs area. The whole journey from the plane, through customs, getting our luggage, and getting to the guide was about an hour.

Oscar had a sign up with our name, took our luggage, took us outside and had us wait while he got the car, loaded our luggage in the trunk, where it would be safe while we explored the city, and off we went for our adventure to see Barcelona.

Next up Barcelona

 

[m3owbox]

Awesome start! So excited for the rest!

 

[In Luv with Disney]

Great start! Can't wait to read more! We are doing our first Med cruise next summer. Not DCL, but RCCL. I still can't wait to hear more about your trip!

 

[linetbo]

We had all our transfers and tours with Barcelona day tours too.

 

[disneyholic family]

looking forward to reading your trip report!!
by the way, which way did you cross? tunnel/bridge in detroit? or at port huron?
we used to always cross via the tunnel, but now we always cross at port huron, to avoid the drive downtown..

 

[eva]

Looking forward to more!

 

[trekkie518]

Barcelona Day Tours were amazing... I loved them, can't say enough good things about them. We cross at Port Huron. It's the easiest crossing for us, and the closest. Sometimes the lines can get long, especially with the construction the last few years LOL but, since we crossed at 5:30 am it was no problem, the way back we crossed at 11pm, so it was a bit more of a line, but still not too bad., about 5 minutes on the way up, and 15 on the way home. I've had so much worse.... I'm working on the next installment. since I'm limited on pics, and I took 1800 on the trip, I'm combining some of them so I can fit more in a trip report. Almost have the pictures sorted, then I can start writing the next segment. Today, I went out and bought some Italian wine, and made homemade bolognese sauce. It's been simmering for 4 hours now. cooking for 6. It tastes soooo good. I've got to keep the Italian trip alive.... needless to say, I loved Italy....

Rosa Ragale is an amazing wine.

 

[hanscarlet]

Awesome! I look forward to more!

 

[o&smom]

So happy to hear you had such a great trip - can't wait to hear all about it!!!

 

[trekkie518]

Barcelona

Ok, so Oscar from Barcelona Day tours had picked us up at the airport. I have to admit. We were pretty tired, but we were excited to see Barcelona. Our plane landed at 8 am, by the time we made it through cutoms, and got our luggage it was 9 am. We started with a drive through the city we went by an old bull ring that was converted to a shopping center, the city was breath taking.


We stopped at MNAC (Museu Nacional D'art De Catalunya) and got some amazing pics of the city and the building itself. It was built in 1929. We got some good views of the city, and saw how big La Sagrada Familia was.



After that, it was time to head over to La Sagrada Familia. We had pre-ordered tickets and it was time. Oscar stayed with the car, and we had as much time as we wanted. It is amazing, only way to describe it. The sides go from the Nativity, Passion, and Glory, and inside, the stained glass, and the light from it is wow..... pictures will never do it justice. Before I went, I thought Antoni Gaudi was ok, I'd seen pictures, I wanted to see the church, but wasn't excited to see anything else. Now, I think he was a genius, and love that we got to see other things he created. I wish we would have had time to do Park Guell as well.
We spent quite a bit of time at the church, and took a ton of pictures, on the way out, we went through the gift shop (only way out LOL) and I bought a book, that had amazing pictures, and more info on the church, and we stopped and grabbed and ice cream, and headed back to the Mercedes and Oscar.

We then drove by Park Guell and could only see a few things and the wall, next time, we will go in and spend some time in. We did learn Guadi does not believe in straight lines.


We then drove to Casa Mila, Guadi's second most famous structure. Depending on where you stand it looks different. We only spent a few minutes on the road below taking pictures.



Then we stopped at Casa Batllo, also known as 'house of bones' it is so amazing. It tells a story, of a dragon, taking villagers. Very cool. It is part of the block of ******* with 3 very different buildings by 3 different architects.



We walked through Las Ramblas a bit, and then drove through old town, and saw the Christopher Columbus Monument, and then drove by the pier, the Magic wasn't in port yet, and then Oscar dropped us off at our hotel. We stayed at the AC Hotel Som. It was a very nice hotel. It was halfway between the port and the airport. Very quiet. There was nothing around it though. Next time I'd probably pay extra to stay on Las Ramblas were all the action is.
We got to the hotel around 2pm, thanked Oscar for a great tour. I was very tired, I was starting to doze off in the car. I had been up over 48 hours by this time, and I had a migraine when I got off the plane, I had taken meds, and they helped, but it was starting to come back, and I really just wanted to crash for the next 20 hours LOL. We had to be to the port by 10 am.
We went up to our room, and I was in bed within 5 minutes. DH said we needed to eat dinner later. I didn't think so, but since we hadn't really eaten anything but airline food in 24 hours either, I agreed, anything so I could go to sleep, so he set an alarm for 5. I was out in minutes, and so was he.

In what seemed like seconds, the alarm went off. and he made me get up. I really didn't want to get up. But I did. We got up, and we started looking around for where we were going to eat. That's when we discovered that the place I had scoped out that I wanted to eat at that was close to the hotel was closed on Sundays. So we went down to the lobby, the staff was great, everybody spoke English, so that was a plus. And we asked for a good tapas restaurant. The guy had no idea, LOL, he had just moved to Barcelona. So he called us a cab, and we went to Las Ramblas.

We walked around a bit looking for something that looked good. We found Restaurant La Rambla. OMG it was so good. We got 2 tapas, and an entree for 12.95. I got calamari and a tomato mozzerella salad and a ham pizza, and DH got Spaghetti Bolognese and ham croquettes and some sort of ham. It was so good, We split everything. It was amazing. We left very full, and very happy. We had Orange Fanta to drink.



We walked around a little bit more, then we headed back and caught a cab and headed back to the hotel. We were back and in bed by 10, I had cleaned out the minibar of the glass bottles of coke they had and the kit kat.
A wonderful day in Barcelona. I didn't get pics of the room, because we were so tired, we went right to sleep, didn't even think of it, but it was a very nice room.

Up next Boarding the Magic

 

[ctnurse]

Following. We were also on the cruise and had a fantastic time.

 

[trekkie518]

Next part is written, just have to get the pictures together, and get it all together. Finding out of the 1800 pictures I took, I didn't take as many on the ship as I thought I did. LOL The sea day post is going to be pretty boring and picture-less.

 

[rosaciri]

Glad I came across your trip report - looking at a Med or eastern carribean trip next year. Looking forward to more reading and pics.

 

[trekkie518]

It's finally the DAY!!!!!!

We woke up early, and since we knew there was nothing around the hotel, decided to get breakfast at the hotel. It was $15 Euros a person, but cheaper then a cab ride. The breakfast was great. I should have taken pictures. We were the only people there when we started. They had eggs, french toast, pancakes, croissants, muesli, cereal, oatmeal. It was a buffet. We ate, knew we would be satisfied until lunch.

We went back up to the room, rearranged the luggage, and made it so that our carry ons now had swimsuits, and clothes for dinner, etc, things we would need for the ship, if our luggage didn't make it to our room before dinner.

It was now 10:00. We had check in at 11 am at the port. So we went down, checked out, and hopped in a cab to the port. We got to the port by about 10:15 am. We saw the ship docked, and it was beautiful. I have always loved the Magic.



As we pulled up to the port, people were still coming off the ship. We went up, and there were people waiting to take our luggage, and a line was already forming. We were about 20th or so in line. We waited outside for a while they put up longer queue lines, and it at least felt like we were moving, LOL. We watched as more and more people arrived, and the line started stretching accross the parking lot, we were under the awning. It was getting warm. Finally they opened the door, and I started skipping into the building, pulling my carry on.

We were walking in, and Mickey was there waiting for a photo. Now, we were very early, and we could have gone and gotten right in line to checkin, or gotten in line to see Mickey Mouse. Hmmm, no brainer, I went to see Mickey. Not that many people got in front of us. We still got boarding number 3. It was worth it.



After our photo with Mickey, we walked in and got checked in, it only took about 10 minutes, we got our castaway club lanyards, (our last time getting gold, next time we are platinum) we had everything all filled out, so it didn't take long at all, we got our Key to the World card, and the and our boarding pass number, and off we went to sit down. There were a lot of seats in the terminal. Again, I didn't get any photos. I was too busy looking around, and bouncing around excited to get on the ship. I really thougt we'd have more time. We sat down, and really about 15 minutes later, they started calling off boarding numbers to get on the ship. It was much quicker then at Port Canaveral. We are normally there lined up in the parking ramp, forever, at Port Canaveral, and then in the Terminal FOREVER, but, it just went really quick. We were onboard eating lunch by 11:45 am.



I love walking through the entrance way having our family name announced. I always feel like dancing across the atrium. We headed across, and decided we were going to eat at Carioca's first. We didn't feel like Cabannas, and we'd never seen Carioca's since the change from Parrot Cay. As we walked over there, the cast member outside tried to send us away since we had baggage, but we said no, and went in anyway There were only about 10 people in the restaurant with all the food for about 45 minutes because she kept sending everybody away.
The food was amazing, I love the restaurant. It was very well done. I always loved Parrot Cay as well. We spent a while there eating, and then we headed off to try to get into our room, it wasn't ready yet, so we headed up on deck and looked around for a while.



Rooms were ready at 3. We were assigned room 6500. We weren't originally excited about it, as we had heard it didn't have a couch, and only one chair, etc, but, we figured we could always ask for an extra chair, or use the desk ottoman, so we'd deal. When we saw the room, wow. It was huge. It's a handicap accessible room, while the last cruise, I was in a walking boot, and was in a wheelchair occasionally, as I had ruptured my plantar facia, this time I was free and clear, finally, we had done a guaranteed room and this is what we got.



Needless to say, we loved the room. We met our stateroom host. Suprapta. It took us 11 days to learn his name. We recognized him by sight, and he was always very friendly, and kept our room very clean, but, he was the room cleaning ninja. We saw all the other stewards, and knew their names, but he'd say hi, ask how we were, and poof, he was gone. He really seemed to like being the ninja.

Our Castaway club gift was in our room, and I had pre-booked the character dining, princess meet and greet, and the frozen meet and greet and the tickets were in our room, and then we also had our shore excursion tickets in our room. We relaxed a little bit in our room, and then headed out to the Muster drill. We were up on deck 4. So we looked overboard until it was time for the drill at the port crew loading the ship with the supplies for our 12 night voyage.
The muster drill took longer then normal, Nobody really knows why, but finally they finished up, and DH and I decided to stay where we were and keep watching the activity. We like to watch sailaway from deck 4, it's quiet, and peaceful, and normally just us.
So, we can hear the sail-away party kicking up to full gear, and they are still loading luggage, and there are still a LOT of supplies that they need to load onto the ship. needless to say, we aren't sailing away at the sail-away party.
We have late dinner, early show. So the show time is coming up. I normally try to hit all the shows at Walt Disney Theater. I love them all. And if it's a variety show, who knows, might find somebody really good. I normally always love the Welcome aboard show. But, we still aren't even close to loaded, and DH doesn't want to leave his perch, and honestly, neither do I, so we skip the show, and decide, how long can it possibly take to finish up. LOL
So we continue to watch the show of the port, finally the luggage is on board, and most of the supplies are onboard. it looks like we are almost ready to get going. The cast members from shore come out to wave bye. And still not done. They start taking out the front gang way. Then, all of a sudden, an ambulance and the police arrive. cast comes off, and shows the police a photo, and the ambulance team goes on board. The police and the cast keep talk. about 15 minutes later, they bring a woman off on a stretcher, and load her in the ambulance with her overnight bag, and then they drive off. Then the gangway is taken away.
I think we are ready to go.

I can't upload anymore pics to this portion, the next one will be light on pics, I'll upload the ambulance pic to that one.

But all of the port personnel have gone home, and the lines are still attached to the dock from the ship. So we still wait. About 15 minutes later, a car drives up, and drops somebody at the front of the ship, and then drives to the back of the boat, and the lines are released from the ship. We are finally on the way. Woo hoo....
We headed back to the room about 7pm after we were out of the channel, and got changed for dinner. and relaxed a little bit, went and sat in the Promenade Lounge until Carioca's opened for dinner, and then we went in to meet our tablemates for dinner. We had a table for 9. We had Sharrie and Mike, Duwanna and Jim, Alton, Doyle and Robyn, and DH and me. Our servers were Cristian (assistant), and Emily, and head server Deneval.
We had a great first meal, great conversation, and loved our servers. DH and I both got Pork Wellington. It was very good. I don't remember what else we had that night. It was a pretty whirlwind day.
We got back to our room, and enjoyed our towel animal. Again no pic that night, and can't remember what it was. We found out that Alton is Alton Fitzgerald White, and had preformed as Mufasa on Broadway for 13 years, and will also be performing later in the week in the Walt Disney Theater, and Doyle is his Pianist. So that was pretty cool.

Next up first day at sea....

 

[MickeyEarrings]

I guess I never realized the performers eat in the MDR beside "regular" passengers!...

 

[rosaciri]

Looks like Barcelona Day Tours for us also since they are getting great reviews.

 

[trekkie518]

First day at Sea

Here is the picture of the ambulance from the day before.



And here is the Navigator



Ok this was our first day at sea, and as always, the first night on the ship, we slept like babies. We didn't set an alarm, as we thought we would wake up early, boy were we wrong. LOL We woke up in time to go to Lumiere's for breakfast. I got what used to be called Beast's tower, don't remember what they call it now, nothing as cute, and DH got Egg's Benedict.




We finished eating and I had the sudden crushing realization that we slept through our character breakfast. I should have known better then to schedule something on the first morning. So off to Guest Relations we went, and I gave them my sob story, and luckily we were able to reschedule for the next sea day. I felt much better.

After that we headed to Anyone can cook, it was Lobster Ravioli. It was very good. I of course didn't get a picture of the food, we ate it too quick, I did get a pic of the wine pairing. It was paired with La Roncaia Eclisse. The vineyard owner was onboard, and told us about the wine. I was not a wine drinker before this cruise, honestly. I always did the shutter whenever I drank any wine. I discovered I am a wine snob. I only like Italian wine. Doesn't matter if it is white, red, or sparkling, if it is made in Italy, I love it. It has a totally different taste, isn't as harsh. With our excursions we did a lot of wine tastings LOL, I did not meet an Italian wine I didn't like, found a few I loved, and did not meet any others that I could even tolerate. Ok, back to Eclisse, It was a white wine, very flavorful, went very good with the lobster ravioli. They are a very small vineyard, and bottle a limited number per year.



After we left, they were having Jack-Jack's Incredible Diaper Dash in the Atrium. If you haven't seen it, it's pretty cute. We hung out overhead and watched. And laughed. It was a pretty fun time.
By that time, we went up and had lunch at Cabana's, and then we went and changed and went to the hot tub for a while. After relaxing for a while, we headed back to the room, and took a nap. DH works very hard at home, so he deserves some down time on vacation, so we set an alarm this time, to make sure we were up in time for the show, and grabbed a nap.

We got up and got ready for the show, it was formal night, we didn't dress up too much, as Robyn at our table didn't have her suitcase, it had been lost by the airline. We decided we'd dress up, but not much. We didn't bring tux's or anything, I did bring a more formal dress, but, saved it for later. we had 12 nights.

The show was Walt Disney The Dream Goes On. It started out slow, but it was very good. I liked it. They seemed to have a problem with the sound system a few nights. It made it hard to understand what the performers were saying, the music was really loud, and they were really soft, but aside from that, the show was very good.

The Captain's reception party was in between the show and dinner, so we went down to the atrium, and got a few free drinks, and mingled with the crew. We didn't get any pictures tonight, I wasn't feeling it, the lines were long, I was hungry, and I was still fighting off the migraine from the airline. Luckily this was the last day of the whole trip for the migraine. Thank God.

We ate at Lumiere's that night, and for the life of me I can't remember what we had, or what the menu was. LOL I do know it was great, and I had a lot of deserts. DH has a seafood allergy, so he had to order his meal the night before so the chef could make sure that it didn't have any seafood in it. We normally share, but it's frowned upon on the cruise because my meals haven't been pre-approved for him, sometimes there are things in the sauce you wouldn't think, or in the dessert. Sometimes we chance it when the servers aren't looking LOL his allergy isn't that bad, but for the most part, he ate what they brought him, and I ate mine.

After dinner, we headed down to Fathoms. Stringtheory was perfoming that night at 10:45 pm. We made it down a little early, and Majority Rules was still going on, so we played along with that for a while, and then the show started. They were amazing. I loved the show. 4 brothers as a String quartet on unique instruments. They were very energetic, and we had a great time. After the show, we headed up to our room, and to bed, the next day we were going to be going to Palermo, and I had booked a tour outside of Disney with Marco's StrEAT Palermo Tour. We needed to be up early so we could eat first, so off to bed. Off to bed and the cute elephant towel animal.

 

[linetbo]

Looks like Barcelona Day Tours for us also since they are getting great reviews.

We booked all our transfers and a semi private tour. They were always on time.

 

[Dug720]

Muster could have taken longer either because people in charge were dealing with the medical emergency or because some people were late getting to their stations (and/or had to be brought from their stateroom). Or both.

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Sounds like fun!