Questions for anyone who has done Disney Mediterranean cruise

[Carie Baker]

I'm traveling with my sister and my 15yr old son next Aug on the Disney Magic out of Barcelona.

Question 1 : We have main dinning now but should we change that with the excursion being 7-10 hrs long?

Question 2: Has anyone done the Barcelona port adventure that takes you to the airport by the end of it? Where do our bags go? Does the fee for this adventure include the transfer fee to the airport or do you pay that separately?

Thanks in advance for any guidance and/or tips for this trip.

Carie

 

[jrabbit]

It's been 9 years (already) since our DCL Med Cruise ...

I think that typically on Rome Day, they say to come to the dinning room whenever you return from Rome. Most excursions that go into Rome proper are later returns to the ship - never in time for main seating.

Mornings getting off of the ship are pretty early so even if you have a long excursion, most of the time you would be back to the ship by main seating. But Some times you would not have time to return to your room to get cleaned up / changed.

But more recent cruisers will be able to help you out more.

 

[Carie Baker]

It's been 9 years (already) since our DCL Med Cruise ...

I think that typically on Rome Day, they say to come to the dinning room whenever you return from Rome. Most excursions that go into Rome proper are later returns to the ship - never in time for main seating.

Mornings getting off of the ship are pretty early so even if you have a long excursion, most of the time you would be back to the ship by main seating. But Some times you would not have time to return to your room to get cleaned up / changed.

But more recent cruisers will be able to help you out more.

Thank you!

 

[aggiedog]

We did the Baltic cruise last year. We had late dining which was perfect. We never felt rushed to get back from port just for dinner, and instead had time to rest and clean up a bit. We usually had a heavy snack mid-afternoon, which was perfect to last until late dinner.

 

[RedSox68]

We did the Med in 2007 with a b2b WBTA. We missed a couple of dinners because some of our excursions were 12-13 hours long. We did room service on those nights. It depends on when you want to eat in the MDR when you are onboard. If you prefer early, I'd keep it the way it is and just plan to miss a couple of dinners maybe.

 

[Carie Baker]

We did the Baltic cruise last year. We had late dining which was perfect. We never felt rushed to get back from port just for dinner, and instead had time to rest and clean up a bit. We usually had a heavy snack mid-afternoon, which was perfect to last until late dinner.

Thank you... that was very helpful info

 

[Carie Baker]

We did the Med in 2007 with a b2b WBTA. We missed a couple of dinners because some of our excursions were 12-13 hours long. We did room service on those nights. It depends on when you want to eat in the MDR when you are onboard. If you prefer early, I'd keep it the way it is and just plan to miss a couple of dinners maybe.

Thank you something to think about.

 

[Disneymadhouse]

We were on the Magic in August for the 7 night med cruise, and were on main (early) dining. I think the only day there were long port adventures was the day we docked at Civitavecchia for Rome. We did the imperial and renaissance Rome, and did not get back to the ship until 6.30pm. We had told our servers and tablemates the day before that we may be late back and to go ahead without us. But we would turn up ... eventually!! There were many others running into the dining room with us, so I wouldn't worry too much.

Claire

 

[Carie Baker]

We were on the Magic in August for the 7 night med cruise, and were on main (early) dining. I think the only day there were long port adventures was the day we docked at Civitavecchia for Rome. We did the imperial and renaissance Rome, and did not get back to the ship until 6.30pm. We had told our servers and tablemates the day before that we may be late back and to go ahead without us. But we would turn up ... eventually!! There were many others running into the dining room with us, so I wouldn't worry too much.

Claire

How was that excursion? That is one we are looking at too. Did you do any other excursions? If you could do something different to make your trip even better... what would that be?

Thanks Claire

 

[Disneymadhouse]

Hi, yes we did enjoy the excursion, but it is a very very long day out. We needed to be at the meeting point on the ship for 7.15am. ( We ordered room service breakfast for that day, and ordered extra pastries so that we could take them off the ship for a mid morning snack, which worked well as were hungry mid morning due to having breakfast so early!)
It took around an hour and 15 mins to get to Rome. Our first stop was the Vatican. Our tour guide was very informative, and spoke excellent English. After our tour we had some free time ( she led us to one of the shops ) and we bought a few souvenirs and a drink to have with our pastries!
We then had a little tour around Rome on the motor coach, before stopping at the Collesseum for a little while. We didn't go in, it was just a photo stop.
We then drove near the centre of Rome, and there we had two hours free time to get lunch etc. We had pizza near the Piazza Novana and then an ice cream.
We then walked to the Panthenon, and we went inside, again with our tour guide giving lots of information.
We then walked to the Trevi fountain, and had free time to take photos, get a drink etc.
We then had about a 20 minute walk back to the coach.
It was a very good day out, but very hot! I think it could have done with being a couple of hours shorter. Personally I would have been happy missing out the Vatican in the morning, and just going straight onto the other sights. But unfortunately DCL do not offer a tour like that! You need to wear comfortable shoes, and be prepared for a lot of walking, and the heat. To enter the Vatican you need to have your shoulders and knees covered ( this is also for children).

We also did the Easy Pisa tour, which we really enjoyed. It wasn't a very long journey on the coach from the port into Pisa. We boarded the land train from the coach park and were dropped off a short walk from the Miracle square ( where the leaning tower of Pisa is). We had around an hour and a half free time to explore the area, shop, get a drink etc.
We then re boarded the land train and had a little tour around Pisa before going back to the coach. We were back on the ship in time for lunch.

We didn't get off the ship in Salerno or Ville Franche. But we would happily do the same itinerary again, but would probably not do tours in Rome and Pisa, but would perhaps have a wander around Ville Franche. ( actually I'm hoping Magic and Wonder switch, and Wonder does the summer in the Med in the near future!)

We had beautiful weather for our whole cruise, and had a fabulous time.

HTH

Claire

 

[melni]

We did a 14 night Mediterranean 2 years ago and did main dining. Main dining was later than it is in the Caribbean but I can't remember by how much. We didn't want to do 2nd seating (which is also a later time) because we had so many early morning meets for excursions. It was an amazing trip but quite exhausting, honestly.

By the way, we made it back in time for dinner every night but did skip a couple of them.