Day 18: The Journey Home

We woke up bright and early, around 6:00, and loaded up the suitcases. By 6:30, we were downstairs waiting for the bus to the train station. It was incredibly quiet at this hour of the morning. We saw absolutely no guests and maybe two or three cast members. The bus showed up after a few minutes and took us straight over to the train station. We arrived about 45 minutes before our 7:27 train departure, and quickly realized that the train station did not have heat. I found a machine to validate our tickets, and then we waited for our platform number to be listed. About 10 minutes before our departure, the platform number came up, and we headed downstairs. Our train was already there waiting, so we found our correct seats (unlike last time), and put our luggage overhead.

After a quick ten minute ride, we were pulling into the station at the airport. European transportation is awesome! We headed upstairs to find the same confusing check-in system as in Barcelona, but fortunately, we were in the know this time. We had a little bit of trouble scanning our passports, but were able to get it figured out with some help. Then, the lines began. First we had to wait in the bag check line, then the passport control line (why we did this on departure I will never know), then the security line (why was I the only one who had to take his shoes off, no one else did). Thank goodness we got to the airport three hours early. By the time we were done with the lines, it was only an hour and a half until our 10:40 flight.

We headed downstairs to the giant Air France club, which we were able to use with our Delta Sky Club membership. We grabbed a table and enjoyed a nice breakfast, since we had left Disney before breakfast started. Aside from an expansive food selection, the lounge had international newspapers and wifi, a perfect way to pass the time before our flight. From the lounge, we headed to our gate, where we had to wait in a line to get into the gate area, and then fight our way through the herd to board the plane. Even though we were flying on a 747, the world's second largest aircraft, they decided to board everyone at the same time. Once onboard, we had the good fortune to be able to spread out, since the plane wasn't full. Dad grabbed an exit row seat with several feet of legroom, and Mom and I took the window and the aisle of our row. It made for a much more comfortable flight.

Shortly after takeoff, we were served a delicious dinner of either meatballs or pasta, I chose the meatballs. In true French style, the meal came with fresh bread, a vast improvement over our bagged bread on the Delta flight. Several movies were shown overhead throughout the flight, 2 in English and one in French. They also had a self serve beverage station by the middle galley, which was both a great place to get a drink and a great place to stand up and stretch. I passed the time by trying to sleep and playing on my iTouch. Before I knew it, we were being served our pre landing lunch (ratatouille and turkey with a really delicious chocolate souffle type dessert), and started our descent into Atlanta. Overall, Air France was one of the most impressive airlines I have flown. They took great care of us on both of our flights. We had excellent service and excellent food. I can highly recommend them.

Upon landing, we were subjected to the always interesting processes of US Customs and Immigration. We had to pass through passport control, then wait 45 minutes for our bags, then pass through customs where they didn't even look at our forms, then turn our bags back over to the airport, and finally, pass through security again. It was incredibly aggravating. I don't know how the poor people who don't speak English figure out what they are supposed to do. It was bad enough being US citizens. We managed to make it to our flight with no problem, but discovered an incredibly busy airport with huge lines at the gate, and everybody looked angry. It turned out, that there had been a fire onboard one of the underground shuttles, and it had shut down the airport. A bunch of flights were delayed, and people were having trouble getting new flights. We had not been issued boarding passes, so we tried waiting in line, but were promised that our Air France boarding passes would work. Boarding time came, and our Air France boarding passes didn't work. Fortunately they let us stay right by the door as they printed our boarding passes. Problem solved. We hopped on the plane and headed for home.

We had a short, uneventful flight, and arrived in Orlando just a few minutes late. We were worried about our bags arriving, given our tight connection, but they appeared very quickly. The parking lot shuttle showed up in about 10 minutes, we grabbed our car, and headed for home. What an amazing trip!

Up Next: Some Final Thoughts

Day 17: Disneyland, Paris

We woke up around 9, we had to sleep in a little to recover from Paris, and then headed down to the Yacht Club to get breakfast. It was a little busier then the day before, but we managed to get a table after just a short wait in line. After breakfast we stopped in the store, and got some ideas for what we wanted to buy. After all, we so far hadn't bought a single souvenir on the trip. We got ready and then headed for Disney Studios. While we were waiting in line to get our tickets, I all of a sudden heard someone say "Mike, seriously!" I am thinking, we are in Paris, who on earth would know me. I turned around, and there was Dave from the ship. He was starting his vacation the day we got off, and had gone to Paris to meet his girlfriend. What are the odds? We chatted for a little while and then headed into the park.

Dad and I took a quick ride on Tower of Terror (same as Anaheim but still awesome), and then rode Rock N' Roller Coaster (different story line but same ride as Orlando). After that, we realized that we had pretty much seen the entire park. While Studios is a nice place to spend a few hours, it really needs to be looked at as another land of Parc Disneyland, there is not nearly enough to do to spend an entire day. We spent some time in the store, and started to realize that almost every store on property carried almost exactly the same things.

Next, we headed across the esplanade to Disneyland and headed straight for Discoveryland and Space Mountain. This ride is way different then in the US parks. It has an accelerated uphill launch and inversions. I would say it is a lot closer to Rock N' Roller Coaster then Space Mountain. Once we finished Space Mountain, we took a ride on Buzz Lightyear, and I vastly improved my score from the day before. Once we had finished our ride, we set off in search of lunch. We had seen some cool restaurants in Adventureland and Frontierland, so we headed over there to check out menus. All of the restaurants in Disneyland are absolutely beautiful, they went to great effort to build these restaurants. At least one restaurant in each land is table service, and some restaurants even had live entertainment (American country band playing in the barbecue restaurant). However, after checking several menus, and observing a very odd buffet, we noticed on the map that the new Pizza Planet restaurant offered a Pizza, Pasta, and Salad buffet. We headed back to Discoveryland where we started, and made one of the greatest discoveries of our trip, an all you could eat buffet for 16euro. YAY!

We headed inside and had a great conversation with the person at the register. She wanted to know all about Disney World, and how it compared to Disneyland Paris, as she had not had an opportunity to visit the US parks. We had a fantastic meal that even included a self serve soda fountain, I had a line of cups to prove it. With how much food we ate, I am sure that Americans will no longer be allowed in that restaurant, lol. From Pizza Planet we headed to the train station to take a ride to Frontierland but we found out that it was closed. This would become a trend throughout the evening, that everything started closing down well before the park, but there was nothing on the map or the schedule to tell you when something would be closing.

We started the hike back across the park to Pirates, and took another ride. Then, we explored Discovery Island, the pirate equivalent of Tom Sawyer's Island. Dad and I took a ride on the scariest ride ever, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril. I definitely felt in peril, but not in the good we designed this ride well kind of way. I felt peril in the this rickety thing is going to fall apart and boy does it hurt to ride this kind of way. And they tell me this thing use to go backwards, that would have been a nightmare.

After Dad and I escaped peril we headed into Fantasyland to ride some more rides there, but alas, everything we wanted to try was either closed for the night or closed for maintenance. We then headed back to Frontierland (lots of walking in this park) and took a ride on Big Thunder Mountain and Phantom Manor. Interestingly, we were the last group to ride Phantom Manor before it closed, even though the park didn't close for another hour. From there, we stopped by Casey's Corner to use our free soda coupons that came with lunch. The line was ridiculously long, so I ran to the deli where I was able to get our drinks in no time. We then decided to grab some ice cream, which turned out to be an excellent decision since it was Ben and Jerry's. We took a stroll through the Emporium and checked out the Liberty Arcade that runs behind the Main Street stores to help protect people from the French winters.

Once we were done in the Emporium, it was time to say goodbye to Parc Disneyland. We stopped in the Disneyland Hotel to check it out. It was probably the most Disneyesque of any of the hotels and was very fancy, but not quite my kind of place. We made a quick stop by the train station to buy our tickets for the following morning and then moved onto Disney Village and stopped in the Disney Store to buy all of our souvenirs. I really wanted a t-shirt, but adult males must not wear t-shirts in Europe because I could not find a single one.

We finished up our shopping and then quickly toured the rest of the hotels. We thought our hotel was weird, but it only got weirder. Our first stop was Hotel New York. This was where we had originally asked to stay. It was very nice, similar to the Swan or Dolphin, but not quite a Disney hotel. It was more what you would expect of a hotel in a big city. Then we went over to Hotel Cheyenne and Hotel Santa Fe, the two budget hotels. Hotel Cheyenne was like an old western town, and it was weird beyond belief. I can't even begin to describe it. We then went past Hotel Santa Fe, which resembled an old broken down apartment complex. Finally we arrived at Sequoia Lodge, which was the coolest, and most Disney like of all the hotels. Sequoia had a beautiful pool with a slide, and most of the rooms were in lodge buildings making it the only one of the six hotels to have grounds to explore. The lobby and the restaurants were beautiful. Well done Disney, I guess 1 out of 6 isn't bad.

Back at Newport Bay, we stopped by the store to grab the last few items we wanted, and then Mom and I went downstairs to check out the pool. As I mentioned earlier, we were staying on the Admiral's Floor. We were supposed to have a bunch of benefits such as a private dining room for breakfast, but all we really got was a special check-in desk, free pool towels (why do they charge for these anyways), a kettle (to appease the Brits), and a really nifty sign by the elevator telling everyone how special we are. The pool was a very nice indoor/outdoor pool, the outdoor part was closed until summer, with a giant ship and steering wheel. There was also an arcade and a fitness center located right by the pool. The one odd thing about the pool, arcade, fitness center area, was that it was down a long hallway on the first floor by a bunch of rooms. It was not connected to a public area. Also, there were only two doors in and out of the hotel, both from the main lobby. If you were staying at the end of a wing (the wings are really long) on the first floor, you had to go up to the second floor, all the way to the lobby, back down to the first floor, and out. I really don't know how Disney forgot their many years of experience when they were building this hotel.

After we finished exploring our unique hotel, we stopped by the front desk to exchange all of our euro coins for notes, and to ask what time the buses started running to the train station, since we had to leave very early. Then we did some packing, and went to bed.

Up Next Day 18: The Journey Home

Day 16: A Day in Paris

We woke up around 7:30 and headed down to the Yacht Club restaurant for breakfast. All of the Disneyland Paris hotels include free breakfast, a nice touch. We had a delicious meal of fruit, yogurt, chocolate croissants, and cereal (where have I seen this before, lol). The restaurant was pretty crowded, but we managed to survive just fine. Since the parks didn't open until 10, we were beating the rush. After breakfast we got ready and then hopped on the bus to the train station. We stopped at the Paris transportation ticket window to buy a 1 day Mobilis pass which allows you unlimited use of the Paris Metro and the RER commuter train system. After making our purchase, we headed downstairs and found a train waiting for us. Since Marne La Valle Chessy was a terminus on the RER A, we didn't have to worry about going the right direction.

We spent about 45 minutes on the A line as we crossed the countryside and headed into the heart of Paris. About 2/3 of the way, the train headed underground to enter the city center. We got off at Chatelet Les Halles, a massive underground station that was very difficult to navigate. Using my trusty iTouch we were able to find our way to RER B and ride for one stop to the Notre Name stop.

We popped above ground around 9:10, we had scheduled to meet Mary at 9 but Chatelet was confusing, and shortly after we met up with Mary. This was our first time seeing Paris, and it was even cooler then you expect. The metro stop where we had chosen to meet up was right on the river Seine, and we were given an incredible view of Notre Dame. The architecture is just amazing, and you know instantly that you are in Paris.

As we headed across the river to Notre Dame, Mary gave us a warning. Gypsy women will be walking around asking if you speak English, you must flat out ignore them or you will probably be robbed. This turned out to be good advice as we ran into these people almost instantly. If you are planning a trip to Europe, learn to avoid eye contact with these people and ignore anything they say to you. They never gave us any trouble when we ignored them. In front of Notre Dame, there was a giant bread festival going on, a true slice of Paris culture. We spent a while walking through Notre Dame and enjoying the incredible architecture. Incredibly, there was actually no charge for entering the cathedral, there was only a charge for climbing up top.

When we were done inside, we took a stroll through the gardens between the cathedral and the river to see the famous gargoyles and flying buttresses. What an incredible place. Around back, there was another large garden right on the river and something you rarely see in Europe, free bathrooms. After using the bathrooms, we headed to a metro stop and hopped across the city to Le Tour Eiffle. As we came up the steps from the metro station, we got our first sight of the tower. WOW! That is all you can say. No movie or picture can prepare you to see it in person. It is huge, much bigger then you expect, and located right next to the river. We walked under the tower and marveled at its immense size. There was a huge line for the elevator to the first floor (surprisingly, the line to walk up the tower was very short), but we had already planned on doing the Arc De Triumfe instead of Le Tour Eiffel.

We headed across the river to get some better pictures, and to enjoy a higher perspective on the tower, walking through the many vendors and entrepreneurs of Paris along the way. The view from the top of the hill was fantastic, and we soaked in the view for a while before hopping on the metro and heading to the Champs Elysses. After just a few stops on the metro, we were strolling along the Champs Elysses, taking in the sights and sounds of one of the most famous streets in the world. We were all starting to get hungry so we stopped at an Italian restaurant called Vesuvio. Yes, an Italian restaurant in France, don't judge us. We had a fantastic 3-course meal. I had an antipasti platter, a pasta sampler, and chocolate gelato for dessert. We also learned that it is possible to get tap water in Paris, if you ask nicely.

After lunch, we took the underground tunnel across the 8 lane traffic circle, and popped out under the Arc De Triumfe. We grabbed tickets, and started the climb towards the top (there is only an elevator available for disabled persons). There are three different levels within the arc, two inside and one outside. The first level had some displays and artwork, the second level had a gift shop and a mini Arc De Triumfe museum, and the third level was the observation deck. The view from the top was beyond belief. The Arc sits in the middle of a traffic circle connecting 8 roads, so you could see down every major Paris artery. We also had an incredible view of Le Tour Eiffel. Something funny happened well we were up there. I was wearing a Florida sweatshirt and all of a sudden I hear, Go Gators!!! Some people from Oviedo, FL were standing right behind me, what a small world. After spending a while soaking in the view, we headed back downstairs, taking a moment to stop at the tomb of the unknown soldier.

We crossed back under the traffic circle and hopped on the RER towards the Luxembourg Gardens. Mary's school was located right near the gardens, so she knew the area well. We stopped at a local bakery to get croissants and drinks, and then set in the garden. This was truly a magical experience. There were no tourists, and no crowds. We were surrounded by locals, enjoying a beautiful day in the gardens. The gardens themselves were just incredible. There were giant fountains, lawns, gardens, playgrounds, tennis courts, it just went on and on.

After sitting in the garden for a while, we hopped back on the RER and headed for the Louvre. Even if we didn't have time to go inside, we wanted to see it. We got off the RER at the Musee d' Orse, and walked down the river to the Louvre. I cannot begin to describe how large this museum is. It seems to go on, and on, and on. We also ran into many of the "do you speak English" women here. An interesting thing about the area, was that it holds one of the other three arcs of Paris. This arc, lines up directly with the Arc De Triumfe and the new Arc downtown, right along the Champs Elysees, very cool. We also got to see the famous glass pyramid entrance to the Louvre that caused so much outrage when it was constructed (almost as much as Le Tour Eiffel caused). It seems like the Parisians get outraged quite often.

We decided to try and see if we could take a boat ride on the Seine, so we squished ourselves onto the metro (it was rush hour), and rode for a few stops. We then had to switch to an even busier metro, but this wasn't so bad since the line rode outside, and we had a fantastic view of the tower. We walked down to the boat docks (the main boat company docks are by Le Tour Eiffel), but the times didn't work well, so we decided to just head for home. We walked Mary back to the metro station and said our goodbyes. What a wonderful tour guide!

We hopped on the RER C and had something scary happen. When we boarded the train, our tickets were inspected by the metro police (this was new to us), but we could tell they weren't looking for us. Onboard the train with us were three metro police and three conductors talking to someone in the corner. Even the Parisians seemed confused by what was going on. We were very glad that we had only three stops to go.

We managed to escape the C, and hopped on the B for one stop, and then boarded the A for the rest of the journey back to Marne La Valley Chessy. We had a beautiful ride through the country, our seats were on the second level of the train so we had a better view then in the morning. About 45 minutes later we were pulling into the station. We sure gave those metro passes a work out. We stopped at the New York restaurant again for dinner and then grabbed some sodas at McDonalds. After that, we headed back into the hotel, and once again collapsed into our ridiculously hard beds. I don't really think I have ever been this tired in my life, but it was worth it.

Up Next Day 17: Disneyland, Paris

Day 15: Disneyland Paris

We woke up around 8 and grabbed breakfast in the lounge. Chocolate croissants, cereal, yogurt, and fruit. What a delicious breakfast. Afterwards, we headed back to the room, packed everything up, and left for the terminal 3 RER station at 9:15, where we were meeting Mary at 9:45. When we arrived, I walked around the station, and Mary was already there. YAYAYAY!!!! It is so cool to see people you know in another country. We hopped on the CDGVAL and headed over to the TGV train station in Terminal 2. We arrived to find a long line for tickets, but fortunately we had almost an hour before our train ride. Somehow I became an English speaking tour guide and had multiple people from various countries asking me directions.

With Mary's help we got tickets for the 10:28 train and headed down to the platform. The train arrived right on time and we rushed on, because the TGV trains don't waste much time. We didn't realize that we had assigned seats, but fortunately no one needed the seats we were sitting in. After a quick 10 minute ride we arrived at Gare Marne La Valle Chessy, the train station within the Disneyland Resort. The train station is located right next to Downtown Disney and the bus stops for the hotels. Since we had several bags, we hopped on the bus, and about five minutes later, we were pulling up to our hotel, Disney's Newport Bay Club.

Newport Bay Club was designed by the same person that designed Yacht and Beach Club, and from the outside they look quite similar. From the inside they are very different. We headed into the lobby and found complete chaos. The lobby was way too small to handle the hotel and there was a huge line for the check-in desk. Fortunately we were staying on the Admirals Floor which had just a short wait for check-in. While waiting to check-in, Pluto walked by and high-fived Mary and I, gotta love Disney hotels. Adrien checked us in and was one of the nicest Disney employees we have encountered. He is hoping to work at Epcot in the France pavilion because he loves the United States. He gave us a fantastic room that was already available, room 5280. We headed upstairs to our room which was on the 5th floor and overlooking Lake Disney and Disney Village, beautiful view. The room, however, was a slightly different story. We were staying at the Disneyland Paris equivalent of a hotel like Wilderness Lodge or Animal Kingdom, but if this hotel were at WDW, it would be an All Star. The British described the hotel well, cozy.

We dropped our stuff off in the room and then headed for Parc Disneyland. On the way, we got our first taste of the bizzaro-world Disney we found ourselves in. It all felt so familiar, and yet it was not at all familiar. Disney Village puzzled us, but I will get into more detail on this later. We arrived at the entrance to Parc Disneyland which is just incredible. The Disneyland Hotel sits right over the turnstiles, and in front of the hotel is a giant garden with flowers, a large pond, and a fountain. We had a little difficulty getting in, but finally got our tickets from guest services and made our way through the cast member entrance. After entering, you are standing between the train station and the Disneyland Hotel. Passing under the train station, we got our first view of Main Street and Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

While Main Street is extremely similar to the Magic Kingdom's Main Street, Sleeping Beauty Castle takes your breath away. It is sitting on a small hill surrounded by fountains and gardens. Absolutely incredible. Also, this Main Street still has cars and trolleys running up and down like the Magic Kingdom used to. After stopping to take several photos, we headed into Frontierland and rode Phantom Manor, followed by Big Thunder Mountain. Phantom Manor has an entirely different story line from the US parks, but I really enjoyed it. It was interesting to note that they didn't have a narrator during the attraction, in an attempt to make the park accessible to multiple languages. Big Thunder Mountain certainly packs a punch. I was just starting to think how it seemed so similar to ours, and then we plunged at high speed into the abyss. The Mountain is situated in the middle of the river, similar to the location of Tom Sawyer's Island at the US parks.

After riding Big Thunder, we stopped at Fuente del Oro, a mexican restaurant in Frontierland, for lunch. In keeping with the European way of dining, all of the Disneyland restaurants offer prix fixed lunch menus that include an entree, a side, a drink, and dessert. I had chicken fajitas, crispy fries, churros, and a coke light. With the cast member discount, the prices were actually better then in the US. Overall, a very impressive meal.

From lunch, we headed through Adventureland and over to Pirates of the Caribbean. The ride is inside a giant fort behind a dense Caribbean jungle. I have to say, the theming in this park is absolutely incredible. Everything is just perfect, and it is clear that lot of effort went into this park. The line for Pirates takes you through a fort and then through a palm tree filled seaside lagoon before boarding. Similar to California, the ride sails by the Blue Lagoon restaurant before its first drop. Also similar to California, the ride has many segments that the Orlando ride does not including a second drop. This was a really fun ride.

After Pirates we headed through Fantasyland and over to It's a Small World. Fantasyland is huge in this park, and has a ton of unique rides, gardens, and waterways. It's a Small World is similar to Disneyland on the outside and even has the train run through it. On the inside, it was almost identical to its US counterparts, aside from being the only It's a Small World to have a tribute to the United States. From It's a Small World, we headed over to the castle to look around inside and go up to the balcony. The castle is incredible both inside and out. It even has a dungeon underneath where you can go see the dragon.

After exploring the castle, we went to Discoveryland to ride Buzz Lightyear, which was really cool. You can actually pick up the guns and point them at the targets, way easier to aim. We decided to check out Parc Walt Disney Studios so we hopped on the train at the Discoveryland station and rode to Main Street. Then we headed across the esplanade and into the Studios. The main entrance, stores, and restaurant are inside of a giant sound stage ready for any Hollywood Director. It is a neat effect and also helps protect you from the French winter. In the central courtyard of the park, was the famous Partners statue with Mickey and Walt. We decided to do Cinemagique, so we got in line and were seated shortly after. Cinemagique is a tribute to the Magic of the Movies and is unlike any show I have seen before. Martin Short is the star along with a French cast putting the show in two languages. I won't give anything away, but the show is not to be missed.

We then checked out the Armageddon special effects spectacular, which was anything but spectacular. I highly recommend you avoid this at all costs. I'm still not sure what happened. There was a lot of shouting in French, smoke, water from the ceiling, random fire bursts, and then the entire floor dropped. Very odd. It was getting late, so Mary and I took a quick ride on Crush Coaster, which was unexpectedly intense, but awesome, and then we headed out.

We wanted to grab dinner to we headed through Disney Village looking for some place to eat. What an odd collection of stores and restaurants. There are the traditional things such as Rainforest Cafe, Starbucks, the Disney Store, Planet Hollywood, a Movie Theatre, and McDonalds. Then, there is King Ludwigs, Billy Bob's Country Buffet, Buffalo Bill's Wild West and I am not kidding, Steakhouse. All of this and several other places, were rapped into the oddest looking and bizzaro Disney buildings ever. It was like Downtown Disney West Side gone wrong. Very strange.

We stopped at New York Deli to grab food, and it turned out to be a great decision. They also had the prix fixed menu, and we were able to use the cast member discount. I had a ham and cheese sandwich, fries (these people sure love their fries), and an apple beignet. After dinner, we dropped Mary off at the train station and then headed back to the hotel. We took the long way around Lake Disney passing the Characters in Flight hot air balloon ride, Hotel New York, and Sequoia Lodge. Once back at the hotel, we collapsed into our surprisingly hard beds. What a great day at Disneyland.

Up Next Day 16: Paris, France

Day 14: Off to Paris

After 10 amazing days onboard the Disney Magic, it was time to say goodbye. People often wonder if they can stand being on a ship for 7 days, let alone 10 days. Let me tell you something, 10 days still isn't enough time. This was once again, the best cruise ever.

We woke up around 7:30 and headed to Parrot Cay for breakfast at 8:00. A nice benefit of late dinner is that you get to have later breakfast times. Since our flight wasn't until 12:30, we were not in a rush. We had the table to ourselves, and enjoyed one last meal with Summer and Igor. Willy stopped by to say goodbye to us, and wish the Gators luck in the coming year (Willy is a big Gator fan). We said goodbye to Summer and Igor, and headed down the gangway. On the way out the ship, we stopped to thank Brent for a great cruise, and let him know how well shore excursions had taken care of us. After our difficulties in both Pisa and Villefranche, we had left comments with the shore excursions team. The managers took great care of us on both accounts.

Once off the ship, we grabbed our bags (no immigration since we were coming from another EU country) and breezed by customs. There was an insanely long line for taxis, but they kept it moving pretty well, and we headed for the airport. I had read that the Barcelona airport could be pretty confusing, and that turned out to be very true. Fortunately, our driver did know where Air France was and dropped us off by their check-in area. European airports are set up much differently then most US airports. You must first find an e-ticket machine that serves your airline (not necessarily the one next to your airline that has a huge line, look around a little) and then get in a slow moving line to check your baggage. If you are flying out of Europe, I highly recommend online check-in. It will save you a good deal of time.

Once checked in, we headed through security, where we did not need to take off our shoes or remove our liquids. It was very nice. Past security there was a giant shopping mall and a large food court. We stopped at a really expensive pizza restaurant for some lunch. This airport definitely took advantage of the term "airport prices." They made Disney look cheap. We headed towards our gate and discovered that gate assignments are not posted until about 15 minutes before boarding, since all of the gates are shared by all airlines. All we knew is that we were in concourse B. So, we grabbed some seats in B and waited for our gate to show up. We lucked out, and were only about 5 gates away from our flight.

Boarding was a bit chaotic, as they just boarded everyone at once, but we made it onto the plane and to our three aisles seats that we had found at check-in. Air France was an impressive airline that included free drinks and sandwiches in flight. The sandwich was a bit odd (seafood sandwich), but it was food nonetheless. In no time we were landing at Paris CDG and were waiting for our bags. Our bags came fairly quickly and then we walked over to the train station and grabbed the CDGVAL shuttle that runs between terminals. This brought us right to terminal 3 where our hotel (and several other hotels) was located. The Hilton was absolutely beautiful and we were able to upgrade to a larger room that also had access to the executive lounge meaning free food, drinks, and most importantly, computers with free internet.

We brought the bags up to the room and spent some time reorganizing our stuff. Mom and I went down to the lobby to see if they had an electrical converter, but they did not. Back at the room, we grabbed Dad and headed over to the lounge to grab drinks and snacks. They had two computers and it was so good to finally be able to check facebook and emails at our leisure. Around 5 we headed down to the lobby so I could call Mary and set plans for tomorrow. After that, we headed over to the TGV train station via the CDGVAL to get a general idea of how things would work the next day. We decided to grab food in the airport, since we had heard the prices at the Hilton were pretty rough. We finally found a little cafe where we bought ham and cheese sandwiches and chips, which we brought back to the hotel to eat. We had dinner in the executive lounge and then I spent some time working on blogs well Mom and Dad went back to the room. After getting several things written I went back to the room and collapsed into bed.

Up Next Day 15: Disneyland Paris

Day 13: A Second Day at Sea

I slept in until 10. It was so nice to have a relaxing morning after a hectic seven days. We had Palo brunch reservations at 10:30, so we got ready and then headed upstairs. We had made plans to join Mike and Susan and I had talked with the matre'd to arrange for us to all be seated together. We met up with them at Palo, and were given a great booth right by the food. We finally had Sasha as a server. I had heard about him from many people, so it was great to finally get to experience him. He took us on a tour of the buffet and then we dug in. We ordered several pizzas and entrees. At one point Sasha asked us if there was anything we were missing. I decided I was missing a tilapia. I love cruising. At dessert time, we had already filled our plates, but Sasha brought us an entire plate of even more desserts. So incredibly full.

After brunch, I headed down to Rockin' Bar D for the Adventures by Disney presentation. We were on the first DCL cruise that included an Adventures by Disney tour, so the presentation was hosted by the onboard Adventure Guides. It was a great presentation, and I really would love to go on one of the tours. After the presentation I walked around for a while before running into Hilda, Tim, and Jenny in the atrium. The activity selection was very limited for the day, so we walked around for a while and then hung out with David and DJ Matt by the adult pool. There were supposed to be pool games, but they were cancelled due to the cold weather. As a side note, throughout the morning the seas had been very rough, but the Captain had sped up. By this time, we were sitting just offshore of Spain, not moving, hiding from the weather in a bay.

Tim and Jenny had to head out so I grabbed some ice cream and headed back to the room. Mom and I decided to go down to Diversions to play games. Most of the games had disappeared, so we played checkers, and Mom destroyed me. After Diversions, we headed to the theatre to watch Disney Dreams. They have made several changes to the show, and it was much better then the last time we saw it. I headed off to the Promenade Lounge to work on blogs, but ran into Hilda and ended up talking with her for a half an hour right up to dinner. Dinner was in Parrot Cay, and it was actually the first time we ever had dinner in Parrot Cay on the last night of the cruise. Service was a little slow, the beef was backing up in the kitchen, but we had a good time and enjoyed the farewell parade. Summer got me a huge slice of Baked Alaska, and then I headed off to catch the end of Till We Meet Again.

After Till We Meet Again it was time for Pub Night, and what a Pub Night it was. Dave was the tennis player, Neville was the funniest taxi driver I have ever seen, and Oscar was a hilarious undertaker. Oddly, for the first time in three cruises I did not end up on stage. I am losing my touch. Once the show ended my friends and I all spent a while taking pictures with the cruise staff and each other. I ran up to Studio Sea to say goodbye to Katrina and Hilda who were running karaoke, and then I joined everyone in Diversions for a couple games of mafia. It was a ton of fun and helped me forget the last night of cruise sadness. The girls went to bed, so Tim, Warren, and I played one last game of Jenga, right by several of the senior officers who were hiding in Diversions, and then I headed for bed.

Up Next Day 14: Off to Paris

Day 12: Ajaccio, Corsica

After a great night of sleep, we woke up around 9 and headed down to Parrot Cay for breakfast. We were seated by Kendall and saw Sammy working the dining room. During breakfast, there was a crew drill going on, so half of the crew was running around in life jackets, including Sammy. As we were leaving breakfast he pretended to save us, right before the abandon ship siren sounded and he had to take off. We spent some time out on the Verandah admiring the view. We were amazed at how beautiful Corsica is. It has the look of a Mediterranean city, with the blue water, mountains, and palm trees of the Caribbean. We went ashore around 10, and stopped by the tourism office to see if there were any internet cafes, since we were getting really desperate for internet. There was only one in town so we headed off in search of it.

We finally found the internet cafe after a few wrong turns/a scenic walk, and discovered that they had internet but no computers. There were no tables available, so I tried to see if I could log onto the internet. Fortunately, my friend Matt, the DJ onboard, was just leaving and gave me the wifi code. We checked all of our emails and facebooks to make sure there were no problems at home. After leaving the internet cafe we walked through the sea side plaza with the many statues of Napoleon (Corsica was Napoleon's birthplace). We then took a walk down the palm tree lined seaside promenade, just incredible.

Around 1:00 we headed back to the ship to grab some lunch at Topsider's. The meal was delicious and the view was incredible. It was also a very warm and comfortable day, compared to some of our colder days earlier in the trip. After lunch, Dad headed back to the room to take a nap, while Mom and I went back ashore to take one last stroll through town. After all, Corsica was our last port on the cruise. We stopped in a grocery store to grab some wine for Dad, and then I grabbed some chocolate gelato using my limited knowledge of French. Fortunately I ended up with what I wanted. When we walked over to the water we saw something funny. There were these two macho guys grabbing dart guns and strapping knives to their legs to go fishing, but the moment the water hit them, they lept in the air. It was really funny. During our last stroll along the waterfront, I was rambling on in Spanish, and some Magic passengers thought I was foreign. When I offered to take their picture in front of the Magic, they were shocked that I spoke in English. At least I can convince Americans I speak Spanish well. We saw Slobodon, our assistant server from spring break, heading back to the ship and chatted with him for a while. Mom and I barely recognized him in normal clothes.

We headed back onboard the Magic, and noticed a special offer for deck massages, that was too good to pass up. I went to the spa and set up an appointment for my first ever massage. While we were waiting, the pizza chef Marjorie, made a Blue Cheese and Spinach pizza just for us. She and Mom had talked before, and said that she would be happy to make one for us whenever. It was absolutely delicious, and a very magical moment. After that it was time for a half an hour deck massage by the adult pool. The temperature outside was great, and it was a perfect way to unwind after 7 straight port days.

Tonight was semi-formal night, and the new Villains Tonight show which had just prem-EARed a few cruises before ours. As a huge fan of Hercules the Muse-ical, I was very excited to see the show. I enjoyed the show, and it was a million times better then Toy Story, but it still wasn't up to par with DCL's other shows. The music and sets were fantastic, but the lines were very awkward and the jokes were a little weak. You really have to wonder what happened to DCL's show writing. After dinner I went up on deck to watch us sail away from Ajaccio and had a beautiful view of the Corsican mountains as we sailed away. Then I headed downstairs to the Promenade Lounge, in my nightly tradition, to listen to the band play and work on my blogs. Around 8:30 I headed upstairs to Animator's Palate for the Captain's Gala dinner, aka lobster night. I had a delicious dinner of lobster, venison, and chocolate lava cake. It doesn't get much better then that.

After dinner we headed to Rockin' Bar D for Danny Buckler's magic and comedy cabaret show. I can say without a doubt, that Danny Buckler had the funniest act I have ever seen at sea. And I have seen some really funny acts. I was in pain from laughter. After the show, I talked with Danny at the bar for a while. He is a big improv guy so we talked comedy for about half an hour while the Disco Legends dance party got under way. After a while I headed over to Diversions to join my gang for some card games. After the girls went to bed, we all stayed to play giant Jenga. We could have gotten a few more levels, but we were on a ship and it had to keep rocking. Around 1, it was off to bed.

Up next Day 13: A Day at Sea

Day 11: Villefranche, France (Nice and Monaco)

We arrived in France this morning marking the seventh country visited on our trip. I woke up around 7:30, and we all headed upstairs to Topsider's for breakfast. It was a beautiful morning so we sat outside and enjoyed the view of Villefranche. After breakfast, we got ready and then headed down to Diversions at 9:00 to meet up for our excursion (Nice and Monaco). Katrina and Hilda were running the excursion, so they told us really funny (ish) jokes while we were waiting for a tender to pull up to the ship. A tender finally arrived and we headed down to the gangway. We managed to survive the tender ride without any of the problems of the day before. The Magic looked beautiful sitting in the harbour. When you think of the French riviera, you are probably imagining Villefranche. It is a colorful town set into green hills, right by the clear, blue Mediterranean. Just incredible.

We arrived at the tender terminal, a much nicer facility then we encountered the day before, and were escorted over to our bus. The terminal was built right into a mountainside, and the bus parking lot was surrounded by cliffs. We were assigned to bus 23, the same number as we had the day before. With all of the problems of the previous day, we should have realized that this was a bad sign. We boarded the bus, and immediately the counting began. It seemed that our tour guide was extremely afraid of losing people (only to an extent as we would find out), and delayed our departure for 20 minutes so she could count us several times. She also seemed to keep forgetting how many people were on the bus.

After five counts, we finally headed out of the port and off to Nice. We got a beautiful view of the harbour and the Magic as we headed up through Villefranche and across the peninsula into Nice. Villefranche is sandwiched between Nice and the principality of Monaco. We arrived in Nice and took a short walk from the bus drop off into the old town. Our tour guide kept referring proudly to the "dirty old town" of Nice. We assume that she was misusing that term. We took a high speed walk through the market, and then a leisurely tour of the cathedral (even though the cathedral was not supposed to be part of the excursion. Our free time was cut from 30 minutes to 10 minutes, and the Promenade de Anglais was skipped entirely. We ran down to the beach, since the beach is what Nice is famous for, and then ran back to the group since our guide made us meet up far from where she had left us. Since the whole group wasn't back yet, Dad and I grabbed gelato, and then we all headed for the bus.

Back on the bus, we were counted three times before heading off for lunch. We took the higher road above Villefranche on the way to the medieval village of Eze where we were having lunch. Once again, we had an incredible view of the Mediterranean and the Magic. Our lunch in Eze was at Le Cheval Blanc, and even included an accordion player. Lunch was delicious. We started with a traditional French salad that I can't even begin to spell, had chicken and potatoes for our main course, and finished with ice cream.

After lunch it was back on the bus, and off to the principality of Monaco. This is where things got ugly. Monaco was in the midst of Grand Prix preparations, so tour buses had to park in a central area, and special shuttle buses had to be used. The shuttle buses were city buses that had been reserved for tours, and didn't hold as many people as we were told. They crammed two Disney buses worth of people onto a bus only big enough for one Disney bus worth of people, and we headed towards the Rock of Monaco.

We were dropped off near the Oceanographic Museum where our guide rambled on for a few minutes. We then headed up the street, passing by several beautiful gardens, before arriving at the Monaco Cathedral. Of course, another church. Fortunately this church was a little more exciting then the one in Nice, and included the tomb of Grace Kelly and all the prince's of Monaco. We then continued on to the prince's palace where we were given free time of about 20 minutes, barely enough to look around and make it back to the bus. Our tour guide even refused to give us directions back to the bus, she just told us to take that alleyway over there and keep walking. Great, a caring guide as you can see. We enjoyed the great view of Monaco, and stopped in the free bathrooms (a rarity in this part of Europe). We then made our way back to meet up with our guide, who ended up being late. She also had us on the wrong side of the street, so we missed our bus, and the next bus was not coming for 20 minutes.

She convinced the transportation operator to let us onto a bus, which turned out to be a city bus, that ran its entire route. We spent the next 30 minutes crammed on a city bus running along the grand prix track meaning that we were dead stopped in traffic. When people started complaining to her, she responded that she was doing it for us and we should feel so lucky to be on the grand prix track. Yeah, right! It became clear that this woman had no idea how to run a tour. We finally arrived at casino square and headed for the Cafe de Paris. While waiting in line (why is there a line for a reserved seating exactly) several groups in our tour group finally let our guide have it. Several of us had plans onboard the ship that she was making us miss by her poor organization. I almost ended up leaving with another DCL bus back to the ship, but I decided to stay and suffer it through. We got to have ice cream at the Cafe de Paris, and you could even eat the dishes (Willy Wonka reference) as they were made of chocolate. We also learned how many Frenchmen it takes to hang a sign. The answer is 4. We strolled into the less fancy casino because I wanted to play a slot machine, but I quickly discovered the cheapest slot was a 5 Euro. Too much for me. Oddly, we were followed by security on the way out. We took a walk around casino square. Surprisingly, the Grand Casino of Monte Carlo is really small. After that, we tried going into the Hotel de Paris, but they wouldn't let us in. For anyone interested in going to Monaco, I don't recommend it. It's a very snooty place, and surprisingly, we all felt more uncomfortable in Monaco then anywhere else.

We headed back to the bus about 5 minutes before the meeting time, and were met with a scene of chaos. Our tour guide had already started boarding the bus, without waiting for everyone and without even counting us. We all shoved onto the bus, and suddenly, our tour guide and another Disney tour guide began screaming at each other in French. They almost started hitting each other. Finally we were on our way back to our tour bus, hopefully we didn't lose anybody. She counted us all after getting off the city bus, and we were all there. YAY!!! We were not dropped off near our bus, unlike every other tour guide's group, so we had to parade a few blocks away to get on. Along the way, she didn't wait for everybody at the crosswalks, but just ran across often stranding some of us on the opposite side of busy roads. I couldn't wait for this day to be over with. We hopped on the bus and after being counted three more times were finally on our way. We arrived back at the port and had to wait for tour buses to clear the narrow roads before we could get to the parking lot. Thank goodness there was only one ship in port. Fortunately a tender was waiting and we were quickly on our way back to the Magic. I overheard one of the officers saying that we were the last tour group back. If only they knew.

After a beautiful ride through the harbour of Villefranche, we arrived back onboard the Magic an hour and a half late. By an incredible amount of Disney magic and pixie dust, we actually arrived about two minutes before the 6:45 showing of Walt Disney - The Dream Goes On. I was so afraid that we would miss the show, but we made it. And I have to say, this small filler show that had been thrown together just for the Med season, was one of the best shows I have ever seen on DCL. It is right up there with Golden Mickey's and Hercules the Muse-ical. I won't spoil it for you, but it is a fantastic tribute to Walt and not to be missed. I certainly hope it sticks around.

After the show we got ready for dinner and then I went off to write my blog. I went up on deck to watch us sail away and had a beautiful vista of Villefranche, Nice, and Monaco as we sailed for Corsica. Heading downstairs, I ran into Peter and told him about our day. He agreed that our tour guide had no business running a tour, and convinced me that we should talk to Port Adventures to see what they could do for us. I grabbed Mom and we talked to Port Adventures for a while. They agreed that our tour was subpar; they noted our stateroom number and gave us a form to fill out since the shore excursion manager was not available. Mom headed back to the room and I went off to work on my blog and fill out the comment form. I never got the form filled out because I ran into Dave and then Hilda, both of whom I spent a while talking with.

Lumiere's opened shortly before 8:30 so I headed in for my usual chat with Summer and Igor before everyone else arrived. The Dinner menu was Taste of the Mediterranean, and it was a very exotic menu. Probably not one of Disney's best, the food quality was a bit hit and miss, but we all found enough to keep us satisfied, and the desserts were excellent. Our whole table was present tonight so we exchanged stories of our day. After dinner, it was time for Heath Hyche's cabaret. I went to grab us seats, and we ended up sitting with Mike and Susan in Rockin' Bar D. Heath's show was hilarious. He had the audience falling out of their seats. The band came out afterwards for an Abba dance party at which point I joined my friends for a little while. Everyone decided to go to bed since we were all dead tired, but we ran into Dave and Katrina on the way out and talked with them for a little while. I sat at a desk in the Promenade Lounge for half an hour and wrote out three pages of comments on our excursion. I was very thourough, lol. After that, I turned the form into Guest Services and collapsed into bed.

Up Next Day 12: Ajaccio, Corsica

Day 10: La Spezia, Italy (Pisa)

While La Spezia is the cruise port for both Florence and Pisa, we decided to stick with an afternoon excursion to Pisa after 3 straight days of very long excursions. I would definitely recommend this to anyone taking a 10-night cruise. On the 11-night, you would have a day at sea to recover from the first four ports, but on the 10-night, its seven straight ports. So make your own morning at sea. I woke up around 10, and we all went down to Parrot Cay to grab breakfast. The ship was a bit busier then the past few mornings, it looked like some other people were following our plan. Also during breakfast, we noticed the ship start to sail away from La Spezia. The wind had been gusting pretty bad, so it looked like the Captain was moving farther out to avoid hitting anything.

After breakfast we went to the room to get ready to go ashore. Around 12 we noticed that a tender was loading at the forward tender lobby, so we ran downstairs to be told that the tender had left, even though we could still see it sitting there tied up. So they sent us to the aft tender lobby saying that one was pulling up. When we got to the aft lobby, the tender was just pulling away, so we were once again sent to the front. Fortunately the people working aft offered to call forward and make sure they held the tender for us. Finally we made it forward and boarded the tender. As we were waiting for the tender to finish loading, the rain and wind really picked up. It began raining so hard that we could no longer see La Spezia, we could only see the ship. All of a sudden, we heard people shouting and saw the crew running around. The tender had ripped away from the ship in a gust of wind. Half of a family was on the ship, and half was on the tender. They were not able to safely tie up to the ship, so they had to head in to La Spezia. The ship had been moved pretty far out in the harbor, so we had a 20 minute ride in.

We finally arrived ashore, to discover that there were absolutely no port facilities at all. There was a floating dock with a tent, and the Disney security tent. If you have ever lived through a hurricane, imagine that amount of rain, and that is what we were getting. We only had our little Barcelona umbrellas, so we hid under the Disney trent trying to wait out the rain. The rain began to slow, so we decided to head out in search of an internet cafe. We first made it to the bathrooms, the only port facilities they had, and then ran across the street to the tourism office to try and find an internet cafe. Of course, there was not an internet cafe within walking distance. We headed back into the rain to discover that it was pouring again. There were no buildings around, and the guy in the tourism office didn't seem to want us hanging out in there, so we made a mad dash back for the Disney tent. By the time we made it back, our pants, sleeves, and shoes were soaking wet. It was getting close to time for our excursion, and we were really starting to not want to go on the excursion since we were soaking wet, and figured that it was probably raining in Pisa.

Mom was worried about getting sick again from the rain, and Dad and I were miserably wet, so we all got back on a tender to the ship. In the end, Mom convinced us to go so we hopped off the tender and got on the bus, where they handed out ponchos to everyone. Why they couldn't have done this on the ship, I will never know. Dad and I did our best to dry our sweatshirts on the bus, while taking the 90 minute drive out to Pisa. Pisa is in Tuscany, and it was cool seeing the traditional tuscan farm houses and countryside. We had the most annoying guide in the world. She had the microphone turned up all the way and was shouting into it, several passengers were even covering their ears. There was a baby who kept crying every time she spoke, but she would just keep shouting "Oh, no! The baby is crying, why are you crying baby?" And the baby would cry even more. It was actually pretty funny.

We arrived in Pisa and took a 15 minute walk from the tourist bus parking, past the rows and rows of vendors, to Miracle Square, where we got our first glimpse of the tower. An amazing thing about Pisa is that it is just a tiny farm town. If it weren't for an engineering mistake, no one would ever have heard of it. The tower is really awesome though. There is a giant cathedral next to the tower (the tower was supposed to be the belltower for the cathedral), and our excursion included a tour of the cathedral and a half hour of free time. We didn't really want to listen to our guide anymore (and it was still raining), so we decided to meet up with our guide at 4:15, by the gates, the meeting point after the free time. We let Marianna, the Disney escort, know we were heading off and then spent some time taking pictures pushing over and holding up the tower.

We needed to use the bathroom, so instead of paying to use the public bathroom, we bought food and drinks and McDonalds, enjoyed being out of the rain for a moment, and used the free wifi. This McDonalds actually posed the greatest communication problem of our trip. We just could not get the lady taking our order to understand what we wanted. The problem, I figured out, was that we were trying to order by number, and apparently Italian's don't order by number. We almost ended up with three burgers and four McChicken's. We were finally able to get on the same page, and got our food. After eating, we still had about 20 minutes left, so we took another stroll around Miracle Square. It had stopped raining, so we grabbed some pictures with our ponchos off. The group met up and we headed back for the bus. It is amazing how many times people will try to sell you an umbrella even though you are carrying one. You gotta love Italy.

Our guide told us that she was going to let us sleep on the way back to the pier, but she kept talking the whole time. Oh well. We arrived back at the pier around 6, fortunately it had stopped raining in La Spezia. Dad and I were lucky enough to be sitting right by the door where they tied up to the ship, so we were the first ones off the tender. We headed upstairs to see Mom, and then Mom and I headed down to the Walt Disney Theatre for Heath Hyche's main-stage show at 6:45. We saw Heath on what was his first cruise with DCL, and absolutely loved him. His show tonight didn't disappoint. There was an Indiana Jones tribute that was one of the funniest things I have seen onboard, but I won't spoil it.

After the show I got ready for dinner and then went to the promenade lounge to work on blog posts. Since it was Pirate Night, there were a lot of pirate activities going on and the ship was just buzzing. I have never seen the atrium and lounges that full. I love the Europe crowd, they come onboard ready to party. I spent about half an hour talking with Hilda in the atrium before heading to Parrot Cay for dinner. We were really lucky with our dining rotation, Lumiere's on formal night and Parrot Cay on pirate night. Once again, I was the first one to the dining room from our table. Summer asked how I always beat everyone to dinner and I responded: "because I'm that good, and because I'm that hungry :)."

We had a delicious dinner, the mahi-mahi was awesome, and joined Summer and Igor for the Pirate limbo around the dining room. After dinner, we headed upstairs to catch the end of the pirate party and watch the fireworks. After the show I grabbed some delicious crepes and then headed downstairs to watch Krazy Karaoke with my friends. Surprisingly, almost everyone who sang was really good, it was definitely the best Karaoke i had seen onboard. Around midnight I headed to bed, since we had another all day excursion coming up.

Up Next: Villefranche, France (Nice and Monaco)

Day 9: Civitavecchia, Italy (Rome)

Today we woke up around 6:30, and room service was delivered shortly afterwards. Disney did open the restaurants earlier today, but we didn't want to have to worry about standing in line or getting up even earlier. Breakfast was very good, and it was great to have some tea to help me wake up. The ship arrived in port around 7:15, with an all ashore time of 7:45. Our excursion was meeting in the Walt Disney Theatre at 7:45. After seeing the huge crowds for our excursion in Tunis, we decided to head down to the Theatre earlier. This worked out well, and we ended up being on the first of 6 buses to head for Rome. We were quickly whisked down to the gangway, and onto one of the buses waiting just a few steps away. We had a Disney escort from the youth activities department onboard with us.

Our excursion guide welcomed us onboard and passed out the audio head sets for our tour in Rome. Civitavecchia is about an hour and a half away from Rome, so we started the drive through the countryside, while learning about the coastal area and getting information about our day in Rome. Just before arriving in Rome, we stopped at a service plaza to use the bathrooms and grab drinks. Several people found out the hard way that Europeans do not believe in taking coffee to go, as they were served coffee in china cups. We grabbed a few Coke Lights and got back onboard the bus. Shortly before arriving at our first stop, we picked up our local guide Max and then headed to the Coliseum.

The bus stopped about a block away from the Coliseum, and we got our first cultural tidbit from Max: "We are going to have to cross the street. When you cross a street in Rome, never look the drivers in the eyes, it gives them permission to go. First, we say a little prayer, and then we just walk." Fortunately we were able to survive our first test of crossing the street. Of course, it helped that there were 24 of us and we had 2 guides and a Disney escort to keep us safe. We saw the Arc De Constantine and then took pictures with Gladiators in front of the Coliseum. Max then took us through the tour entrance, and we walked by an hour and a half worth of line to get in. We toured the upper and lower bowls of the Coliseum and it was just incredible. It is hard to believe that they could build stuff like this thousands of years ago, and that it still stands today. Most of the features of the Coliseum inspired modern arenas, such as multiple bowls of seating and multiple gates. It was also interesting to hear that the holes all around the coliseum were caused by the Vatican taking the marble out of the Coliseum to build St. Peter's basilica.

We left the Coliseum and took a short walk up to our bus. A short 15 minute ride later, and we were walking towards the Trevi Fountain. For such a huge and famous fountain, it certainly is hidden. You are just walking along through a normal looking neighborhood, and BOOM, huge fountain. We were given 15 minutes of free time, so we headed down to the fountain to take pictures and throw coins into the fountain. One coin guarantees a return to Rome and two coins is to find your true love. I also took an opportunity to "Do as the Romans Do," and drink out of one of the fountains, nice fresh mountain spring water brought down by ancient aqua-ducts.

Once we all reconvened, we started the walk to the Hotel Bernini for lunch. As the first bus, we were fortunate enough to be able to eat on the rooftop terrace. The dining room was absolutely incredible and the view was fantastic. Since Rome has relatively short buildings, you could see everything. For lunch we sat with a group that also worked for Disney, and had some great conversations with them. We had two bottles of wine, two bottles of water, and a three course lunch comprised of penne pasta, chicken, and the best tiramisu I have ever had. After lunch we headed back to the bus, barely making it across the street, and left for Vatican City. The traffic was starting to get heavier, but we got a nice tour of the city seeing the river and several beautiful parks.

We circled the Vatican to get to the bus parking, and then walked into another new country. There was a long line to get into the Vatican, but once again we were able to use the tour entrance and had no wait. Once past security, Max stopped by a display of the Sistine Chapel art to give us a tour of what we would be seeing, since no talking is allowed in the Chapel. We then went through several of the galleries of the museum. If you stopped to look at each piece in the Vatican collection for 40 seconds, you would be in the museum for over 10 years. Personally, I don't know what was cooler, the art, or the buildings they were housed in. We toured the main statue gallery, the tapestry gallery, and the map gallery on the way to the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel was beyond words, it was incredible seeing the famous God bringing Adam to life in person. The Sistine Chapel is definitely a place to visit during the quiet times of the year, I was amazed at the number of people they squeezed in there.

We left the chapel through the tour door and went straight into St. Peter's Basilica. The Basilica is incredible, and huge. It, like so many things in Europe, cannot be described in words, and photos don't do it justice. We were able to peer down into the Pope's burial catacombs, rub the foot of St. Peter, and see the high alter on which only the Pope can perform Mass. The smaller side altars are used by the regular Vatican priests and Cardinals. From St. Peter's we headed out into St. Peter's square which is just massive. It features one of the many obelisks of Rome, and statues of many of the Saints. We also had the opportunity to see the lights in the Pope's Office, and see the famous Swiss Guards. In an interesting note, the Swiss Guards uniforms have the same color scheme as the Disney stateroom attendants.

We made a quick stop in a gift shop to use the bathrooms, and ran into our friends Mike and Susan as they were just leaving the store. We hopped back on the bus after saying goodbye to Max, and headed through the very thick Rome traffic back to the port. We were back around 6, way earlier then we had expected. The dining room manager hopped on the bus to let the early dining people know that they were welcome to go to dinner (something we saw throughout the week). You can't beat Disney customer service. We had planned on going to Topsiders, but with a combination of us being back really early and Topsiders serving a buffet for dinner, we decided to go to dinner in Animator's Palate for what looked to be an awesome Master Chef's dinner menu. We grabbed some antipasti in Cove Cafe before heading down to the room to get ready. Raymund had just finished our room, so we talked with him for a while and gave him several tips for when he got a chance to visit Rome. There was no show in the Walt Disney Theatre since so many of the passengers were either ashore or dead tired.

Animator's was insanely busy for dinner, it was the first time during the cruise that all 20 people in Summer and Igor's section were at dinner. Our table mates had done the Rome on Your Own excursion and got back just as dinner was starting, so we had an opportunity to compare our experiences from the day. Dinner service was a little slow with almost every seat in the dining room being taken, but the food was delicious. I had Citrico's Shrimp from Grand Floridian, and Yachtsman Steakhouse surf and turf from Yacht Club.

After dinner I went down to Rockin' Bar D to meet up with my friends and enjoy the Rock 'n Country dance party. I tried to escape line dancing, but Katrina had saved a hat for me and brought me up to dance. I ended up on stage rocking out with the band after David handed me a guitar and pushed me on stage, definitely made for a memorable night. Once the dance party ended, I went upstairs and collapsed into bed.

Up next Day 10: La Spezia, Italy (Pisa)

Day 8: Naples, Italy

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

We woke up around 7:30 and Dad and I headed up to Topsiders to grab food for all of us. The ship was just beginning to pull into the harbor area as we headed upstairs. We caught our first sight of Mt. Vesuvius looming over Naples. Topsiders was surprisingly quiet considering how early everyone's excursions were leaving. Back in the room, we ate out on the verandah to enjoy the views as we pulled alongside the pier. Naples has a beautiful cruise terminal with bus parking located about 30 feet from the gangway. Our excursion meeting time was at 8:30 so we finished getting ready and headed down to Rockin' Bar D, where Katrina was running the excursion process. The excursion operator was the Aloschi Brothers, and I can highly recommend them. They were the best tour operator we have ever encountered. We were assigned to Bus 6 with Shelley, Dennis, and the boys. Our tablemates were on the same excursion, but were on Bus 7. Throughout the excursion, the three boys fought over who get to sit next to me, and proceeded to talk my ear off. But they are cool kids, so I didn't really mind.

We left the port and headed off through Naples on the way to the Amalfi Peninsula. Everyone we had heard from had said that Naples was a big, dirty city that would rob you blind. That about summed it up. Once we turned off the highway and onto the coastal road, things changed. Our route took us down the Sorrento Coast, across the peninsula, and then up the Amalfi Coast. As we started heading down the Sorrento Coast, we got an incredible view of Naples, the Bay of Naples, and even the Magic off in the distance. Every turn brought one incredible view after another, and we weren't even on the Amalfi Coast yet. The roads we were driving on made this quite an adventure. We were driving on a two-lane road that was only one and a half lanes wide, with steep cliffs plunging down to the Mediterranean on the right. The roads are so narrow, that one time, a German tour company tried using a full size bus, and it got stuck. They had to slice the bus into two pieces to remove it. That is how tight these roads are. All along the coast, you can see where buses have taken chunks out of buildings, and even taken out a few balconies.

Just outside of Sorrento, we stopped in a woodworking factory that has been operating for hundreds of years. The stuff was absolutely beautiful, but the prices were outrageous. They did give us free drinks and snacks, so I really didn't mind the stop. We continued on through Sorrento and the lemon groves, and then made our turn to head across the peninsula towards the Amalfi Coast. As we started heading down the Amalfi Coast, the views became even more incredible. Words and pictures combined cannot describe how beautiful this area is. We continued winding along the narrow roads for about 45 minutes, before making another stop in the coastal village of Amalfi. We were given an hour of free time to explore. Even though lunch was coming up, we were all really hungry so we stopped by a pizzeria (couldn't pass up Italian pizza), and ate in the town square. It was a Sunday, so the church bells were ringing and everyone was coming and going from the beautiful cathedral. The whole town was set right between the mountains and the Mediterranean, just incredible. We took a stroll through the streets, checked out the beach, and then headed back to the bus. Several of the restaurants had signs in English, but they hadn't gotten it quite right. For example, one restaurant offered "local typical food." That certainly sounds like a winner.

Back on the bus, we continued driving along the Amalfi Coast for half an hour, passing by some incredible villas and seaside towns. We drove through the town of Majori, and then arrived in Maiori, the town where we would be having lunch. A three course lunch was included in the excursion. We ate on the 7th floor terrace of the Hotel Panorama overlooking the Mediterranean. The terrace was reserved for Disney guests only. This lunch is one of those things that you will never forget as long as you live. It was just magical, eating incredible food, and enjoying a view that words cannot describe. We started with an antipasti platter that included grilled eggplant, fresh mozzarella, and prosciutto. We moved on to fresh rigatoni and penne, and finished with gelato for dessert. The meal also included red wine, bottled water, and bottles of coke. They unfortunately made us leave, so we went over to the beach for a little while and I walked into the water for a little while.

Once our free time had ended, we got back on the bus for the last stretch of the Amalfi Coast. We then hopped on the autopista (expressway) and headed for Pompeii. Our guide handed out the headsets for each of us to wear so that we could hear him as we explored the ruins. After arriving at Pompeii, we were given a quick tour of a cameo factory, and allowed to use the bathrooms. Since we had a little free time, we almost bought sodas, until we realized they were 3 Euro. Fortunately our guide had bottles of water for all of us. We then headed into the ruins. Pompeii is absolutely incredible. It stretches over 60 acres, and 45 acres have been excavated. I could not believe how much of the city was still in place. You can still see most of the buildings and palaces, the theatra, the amphitheatra, marble mosaics, painting, ancient graffiti, the original roads, and most impressing, the town forum. The ash preserved the city almost perfectly in many places. The colors of the paintings are still vivid, and the marble is almost perfect. They even had plaster casts made of some of the people who died during the volcanic eruption. You could easily spend days walking around and exploring Pompeii. During our hour and a half, we barely saw 5% of the ruins. On a side note, they had Disney photographers in the forum. It was funny to see people wearing Mickey ears in the ruins of Pompeii.

After we left Pompeii we had an opportunity to use the bathrooms and try the local limoncello. Then we hopped on the bus and were back to the cruise terminal in about half an hour. We were able to board straight into deck 3, through a door I did not even know existed. After dropping our stuff off in the room, we headed up to deck 9 to grab drinks, while I grabbed some ice cream. We sat in the Cove Cafe for a little while to grab some of the afternoon antipasti. Disney Nature: Oceans was playing in the Walt Disney Theatre, but I did not feel like going so I went back to the room to take a shower. We left port around 7:45, we left almost every port late since people were having a hard time getting back to the ship. There was a string quartet playing in the atrium, so I checked them out for a bit before heading up to Deck 10 to watch us sail out of the Bay of Naples. I then headed down to my usual spot in the Promenade Lounge to work on blog posts and enjoy the band playing.

Dinner was in Lumiere's, and we were having the Lumiere's French Menu. Our tablemates were unable to join us, and Summer and Igor's section was very quiet, so we spent a lot of time talking with them. Willy had no one in his section, so he kept coming over to talk to us, it was great to finally spend more then 5 minutes talking to him. After dinner I took a stroll around the ship, popped into Rockin' Bar D, and then went to bed since we had such an early morning the next day.

Up Next Day 9: Civitavecchia, Italy (Rome)

Day 7: Tunis, Tunisia

Today we arrived in our 2nd continent of the cruise, Africa. Since booking the cruise, I had been really excited about going to North Africa, since it is such a different and unique culture. Boy was it different. The night before our arrival, we received an 8.5x11 sheet of paper with instructions and warnings for our arrival in Tunisia, never seen anything like that before. Also, every time Tunisia was brought up around any of the crew members, they would start giving us advice and warnings, and they had only been there once. It seemed like Tunisia made the crew very nervous, and we were very glad that we would not be going ashore on our own.

We woke up around 8 and Mom and I went out on the verandah to check out the port. Our side of the ship was alongside the pier, and we noticed that there was a lot going on down below. Camel rides (even though there are no camels anywhere near Tunis), a Roman gladiator band, and the scariest clown I have ever seen. He waved at us, Mom waved at him, and I pretended that scary clown didn't exist. After my close run in with scary clown, we headed upstairs to Topsiders for breakfast. It was a beautiful day so we sat outside and enjoyed the great views of the area. Our excursion, Sidi Bou Said and Carthage, met at 9:45 in the Walt Disney Theatre, so we got ready and headed down to deck 4. There was a huge line to get into the theatre, since there were 7 buses worth of people going on our excursion. We were assigned to bus 38, and were quickly whisked down to the gangway. Since they have so many excursions going ashore on the Med cruises, they give you numbered stickers and use numbered signs, instead of the character stickers they use in the Caribbean.

Once we were ashore, something else interesting happened. Brent, the cruise director, and Peter, the assistant cruise director, we stopping all of the excursions going ashore to give us even more advice and warnings, this place sure makes them nervous. We avoided the clutches of the clown and were quickly herded past the camels. It turns out that it costs 10euro to ride the camel, 5euro to take a picture, and 5euro to get your camera back if you handed it to someone. These people sure know how to get there money. We passed through immigration, Tunis is the only port on the Med cruise where you need your passport and need to go through immigration, and then onto our bus.

Our first stop on the excursion was the former military harbor of Carthage, now located inside an upscale residential neighborhood. During the time of the Roman Empire, Carthage was second only to Rome, and covered an area even larger then the modern day city of Tunis. From the military harbor, we left for the Antonin Baths. The baths were absolutely incredible. The entire basement system was still intact, as was much of the original marble. The basement itself was about 20 feet tall, and above that would have been almost 90 foot tall arched ceilings. It is so cool to see all of this, and realize that the stories you hear in history class aren't just fiction, but fact. It is amazing to think that buildings that tall, and that large could have been built thousands of years ago. It is also interesting to note that the baths bordered the Mediterranean, and there were soldiers with machine guns guarding them, more signs of what an interesting place Tunisia is. Also, we were commenting on how amazing it was that they didn't charge us to use our cameras inside the ruins, like they do in Mexico, right before our guide told us that Disney included the charge to use cameras in the excursion. Man these people are good.

After about half an hour of free time, we got back on the bus and made a quick stop at the theatra. The original Carthage theatra is still in use today as a concert venue for Tunis. After that stop, we headed for the blue and white berber village of Sidi Bou Said. Our guide was kind and had the bus driver bring us closer to the village then the buses would usually go. At about this point in the excursion, we started to see what the crew had been warning us about. Sidi Bou Said was a tiny, cramped village where the driver's didn't know what a brake was. We had heard that the merchants were extremely pushy, but we didn't find this to be the case. What we did find, was that the roaming vendors were extremely pushy with their flowers, string bracelets, and postcards.

We were taken way up the hill into the village to a museum inside a former palace. The highlight of this museum was that you could climb up to the roof overlook and get an incredible view of Tunis and the Mediterranean. We were not interested in buying any of the items of questionable quality and origin in the village, so we headed back to the bus, barely escaping cars the whole way. While we were waiting for the bus to come back, I watched some interesting goings on in the cafe right by us, and noticed another way that the locals had discovered to make money off of tourists. While we were there, the Tunisian Dinar was trading about 2:1 with the Euro meaning that 1 dinar was worth .50cents in Euro. Also note that it is illegal to bring the Dinar out of the country, making exchange difficult. The cafe, and many other stores, advertised that they accepted Euro. I listened to one of the servers who had just brought two cans of coke to a table say "six" to the couple that was sitting there. So they handed him six Euro instead of six Dinar, and the server said thanks and walked away. Turns out the Tunisians take the Euro and the Dollar at a one to one exchange ratio. Once again, they know how to get there money.

Before long, our guide and the bus arrived, and we headed back to the ship. When we got off the bus at the port, Jason, the shore excursion manager, and his minions were waiting there to ask everybody how their excursions went, and to make sure nobody had any problems. I bet the crew is really hoping that they never have to go to Tunis again after this season, even though its scheduled for next year as well. We headed back through passport control, and the clown was still on the pier, so I darted by scary clown as fast as possible. Back onboard, we headed up to Topsiders for lunch, where we discovered that they were having a locally themed buffet with lamb and couscous and other assorted local dishes. During lunch we had a great conversation with Father Lazarus and his wife Monica. Father Lazarus is a priest in the Coptic orthodox church, which has roots in the Egyptian language, so we had a very cool conversation.

After lunch, I grabbed some ice cream, and then headed to the Cove Cafe to enjoy the beautiful day we were having and catch up on blog posts. We set sail at 4:00, fortunately everyone made it back to the ship, despite the clown's best efforts. I went down to the promenade to watch us sail away, and then sat in one of my favorite places on the ship, the porthole seats by Sessions. The show (Once Upon a Song) was getting ready to start in the WD Theatre, so Neville was downstairs running the wheelchair entrance. I had decided to skip the show after hearing very negative reviews in both March and the Med season. We talked for a while, before I headed back to the room to get ready for dinner at Palo.

Tomas was our server, we had him for brunch on our cruise in March. The meal was as incredible as always, and we had a great view of the sunset. I had decided to do Palo on Tunis night both because we left port in the afternoon, and so we could eat in an Italian restaurant on our way to Italy. It worked out great. The beef tenderloin was cooked perfectly, and the chocolate souffles were better then ever. Our table-mates were also eating in Palo, so we stopped by to say hi on the way out. I headed down to the room to change, and then went to Rockin' Bar D for Match Your Mate. I was really early so I talked with David and DJ Matt for a while, and then joined my friends for the show. They got a good group of people for the show, and David did an awesome job hosting. DJ Matt took over after the show, and I chatted with Jenny for a while before heading off to bed since we had an early excursion planned for Naples.

Up next: Naples, the Amalfi Coast, and Pompeii

Day 6: Valetta, Malta

We found out on our day at sea, that the ship had a few engine troubles, so our arrival in Malta would be delayed from 7:30 until 9:30. This worked out perfectly for us, because it meant that we could be on deck for the sail-in to Malta. I got up around 8:30 to head up on deck. On the way out of our stateroom, we ran into our room steward, Raymund, and talked to him for a while. He is a really nice guy, took great care of our room, and gave us awesome advice about the ports. Once on deck, the views as we were pulling into port were absolutely incredible. The city of Valetta is a walled city, and most of the buildings date back to the 16th century. Words can not describe how awesome it was pulling into the harbour. I have also never seen the crew so excited to be pulling into port. A bunch of crew members had their cameras out, and a ton of officers, including Brent and Peter were on deck. The historian was giving us information about Malta over the loudspeakers.

After we were alongside the pier, we headed down to the buffet in Parrot Cay and ran into Kendell and Charlie, two of our servers from previous cruises. Breakfast was very good, and they had my favorite, the glazed chocolate donuts. It's going to be a good cruise :). We headed back to the stateroom to get ready, and a few minutes later we were crossing the gangway into the second country of our trip. We stopped in the terminal building to use the free wifi. Here is a cruising tip, if you want to find wifi, follow the crew. Once we had checked all of our emails, we had to make sure everything was good back home, we headed out into the city. The architecture of Valetta is very unique. Being halfway between Tunisia and Italy, the buildings are Arabic and Italian all at once. We headed up the steep and winding road into the city, and got some great pictures on the way in. We decided to just start winding our way through the streets exploring and seeing the sights. The entire city is hilly. In some places it gets so bad, they have steps next to the road. We walked through several streets and found a cool overlook of the harbour. I noticed that we were near the famous St. Johns Cathedral, ancient home to the Knights of St. John, so we headed over to take a look.

Across from the cathedral was a restaurant called Cafe Carevaggio. It was an awesome cafe sitting right in the heart of St. John's Square. We ordered some bruschetta, Maltese food is very similar to Italian, and had some Coke's. After out snack we headed down the main road through several of the squares. We stopped into the Palace of the Grand Masters, now the parliament building, and continued on to Fort Elmo and the Mediterranean. While we were down by the fort, we saw a huge domed building and decided to check it out. It turned out to be one of the 365 churches on the island, one for every day of the year. Incredible on such a tiny island. We stopped by a gelato shop for some ice cream, and ate in one of the nearby plazas. We headed down the main road towards the city gates, stopping to briefly check out the archaeology museum. I climbed on top of what I am sure is an old and historically significant gate, and then we proceeded through the city gates. After a stroll through one of the Knight's gardens, we headed back to the terminal for one last burst of internet.

Their was a classic car show on our pier, the officers of the ship didn't look to happy, but there were some awesome cars. We started some laundry since not a soul was in the laundry room, and then grabbed some food from Pluto's. They really loaded me down. I wanted one chicken finger and one taco, not four chicken fingers and two tacos :). I found that I could get a wifi signal from our verandah, so I used Skype to talk with Mary since I was going to be seeing her in a few days. I went to Phil Keller's Magic show at 6:30 in the Walt Disney Theatre, absolutely incredible. This guy really knows his stuff. He even levitated, on a ship. After the show I went back to the room to watch us sail out of Malta, it was just as beautiful as when we were coming in. I went down to the Promenade Lounge to work on blogs, something that was slowly becoming a nightly tradition. No Pluto dancing tonight though.

Dinner was at Animator's Palate, one of my favorite menus of the cruise. Incredible beef tenderloin and a baked apple crumble, all topped off by the restaurant changing from black and white to color. Once dinner was done, Paul Zerdin, a British Ventriloquist, had a hilarious cabaret show in Rockin' Bar D. This guy was absolutely hilarious, and people were talking about him for the rest of the cruise. There was a dance party after the show, Rockin' Country, a line dancing cowboy hat wearing dance party. I had headed to get a drink and missed hats being given out, but Katrina had saved me one, and I ended up out dancing with some of my friends. After the party, I worked on blogs for a little while and then went to bed.

A Quick Update

As I am sure you can tell, the intense port schedule and my need for sleep has forced me to be a bit behind in my blog posts, so I thought I would give you a quick update. The cruise was absolutely incredible, and we were very sad to get off this morning. Our flight to Paris went very well and all of our baggage arrived. We are now at the Paris Airport Hilton eating dinner and enjoying the sunset. Disneyland tomorrow! More blog posts to come.

Day 5: A Day at Sea

The first day of the Mediterranean cruises is a sea day, letting everyone relax after their travels. I woke up around 9:30 and we headed out to breakfast shortly after. We went down to Lumiere's for sea day brunch, and we had Alicia, one of our troublemaking friends from November, serving us. Around 11 we all left Lumiere's and headed upstairs to Studio Sea for the Gold and Platinum Castaway Club reception. We got photos with Mickey, and then talked with Peter, the assistant cruise director, for a while. Captain Thord came to thank us all for coming back to Disney (like they could keep me away if they tried), and Brent, our cruise director, showed us several new videos about the Disney Dream and Castaway Cay enhancements. On the way out of Studio Sea, Mom and I talked with my friend Katrina for a while and got some advice on the various ports.

My parents headed off to relax and enjoy the ship, and I headed down to Parrot Cay for the college club lunch at 12:15; after all, I hadn't eaten since 10:00. I was expecting to be alone, but fortunately several people showed up. Warren and Brittney from Canada, and Tim and Jenny from Minnesota. We were joined by Dave, one of the cruise staffers, and heard some awesome stories about how pretty much everything in Australia can kill you. After the college club, I met up with Mom at 2 for the Disboards meet. On the Disboards, there are several forums where you can talk with other people going on your cruise, to share advice, tips, and planning. We quickly said hi to everyone and then headed upstairs to the Historian's presentation on Pompeii in the Buena Vista Theatre. It was very odd, the lady seemed quite surprised about several of the things on her powerpoint, and didn't know how to pronounce many of the Italian words.

After the presentation, we headed up to deck 9 to get some food for Mom and Dad, and some ice cream for me. It was only my first ice cream of the cruise. I am really starting to slip on the whole eating thing. We ran into Mike and Susan by the pool, so we sat and talked with them for a while by the pool. We also got to see Sammy for the first time. He is our favorite server, and we had requested him but not gotten him. We talked with him for a while, introduced him to Mike and Susan, and he filled us up on Pizza. After a while a combination of cold weather and dinner forced us all to head inside. Mom and I headed downstairs to see Twice Charmed. When we had sailed in March, the cast had just come onboard, and they were pretty terrible. But this time, you wouldn't even know it was the same cast. Awesome show! Since it was formal night, they were having the Captain's welcome aboard reception in the atrium, so we met up with Dad there. I grabbed a picture with Katrina, and then talked to Peter, the assistant cruise director, some more. Later on I joined in on Mom's conversation with Barbara, the head of housekeeping. She was very fun to talk with, and had even worked at Newport Bay Club, the hotel we were staying at in Paris.

Dinner was at 8:30, so we headed into Lumiere's. We had the most prized dinner rotation onboard, Lumiere's on formal night, Parrot Cay on pirate night. Summer and Igor were waiting for us, and our tablemates showed up shortly after we did. Our tablemates were Howard and Nellie from New York, and there friend Trina from LA. Trina works for Walt Disney Imagineering, so I was obviously very happy to have them at our table. We had some great conversations over dinner, and we were very glad that we had good servers and good tablemates for our longest cruise ever. Once dinner had finished up, we headed over to Rockin' Bar D for Phil Keller, the French illusionist's show. It was a great show with some very impressive stuff. I talked with my friends for a while, wrote a blog post, and went to bed.

Up next, our first port of call: Valetta, Malta

Day 4: The Disney Magic

Cruising day had arrived and we woke up early to pack our suitcases. We had to have our bags ready by 8 with the cruise tags on them so that the bellmen could pick them up from our room and have them sent to the ship. Once our bags were packed we left them in the room and headed upstairs to grab breakfast. For the first time since we arrived on Barcelona, the sun was starting to break through the clouds. We were hopeful that we might get one sunny day in Barcelona. As we headed out of the lounge we pretended to say goodbye to the family that was cruising with us to keep up the surprise for the kids. We headed across the street to try and use the wifi at McDonalds, but for some reason it was not agreeing with my iTouch.

We headed back to the hotel, and grabbed the rest of our stuff. We had been told to meet in the lobby at 11:15 and that the bus to the port would be leaving at 11:30. On the way down to the lobby to check out the pool and terrace, since it was finally dry outside. We arrived in the lobby and started chatting with several of the people we had met over the past few days (Susan and Mike; Shelley, Dennis, and the kids), still keeping up the secrecy act for the kids.

Shortly after 11:30 we were on the bus with giant Mickey hands waving goodbye. During the ride, the kids found out that they were going on a cruise. Thank goodness. It was so hard not to slip. The ride to the port took about 15 minutes. As we came over the bridge, we got our first sight of the Magic, she looked beautiful sitting in the Barcelona harbour.

We arrived in to the terminal and were brought right past all of the check-in lines straight to the boarding line for the ship. The line was pretty long, but someone came and grabbed all of the Disney hotel guests and escorted us past the boarding line straight to the ship. Talk about VIP service. A quick family photo was taken and we were walking across the gangway. Katrina, one of my friends on the entertainment staff was working the door, and she announced our arrival after a round of greetings. Oscar was standing just across the atrium, and asked "weren't you just here?" Pretty much :). It is always so wonderful to see the Magic and so many familiar faces. It's just like coming home.

Susan and Mike were right behind us as we boarded, but they needed to make a stop at Guest Services, so we headed up to Topsiders and grabbed seats for the five of us. A funny thing happened well Mom and I were in the buffet line. I was mentioning how our favorite head server Roberto had mentioned that he would be on vacation during our cruise. As I was saying this, Roberto walked around the corner. Craziness. We had a great lunch with Mike and Susan, it was great to get to know them better. Around 2 we headed down to our stateroom. We are in stateroom 7032, a beautiful midship verandah room (cat 5). Mom and Dads suitcases had arrived, but mine was mysteriously absent.

We headed off to walk around the ship and enjoy the beautiful view of Barcelona. The sun was shining and it was finally starting to warm up. After a while we headed back to the room. About 15 minutes before the safety drill, my bag finally arrived. I was starting to get worried. I quickly unpacked all of my stuff so I wouldn't have to worry about it later. That is one of the best parts of cruising, you only have to unpack once.

Shortly before 4 we headed down to our muster station. Oscar was our assembly leader, I told him that we were doomed, lol. After the drill I headed up to deck 10 to gran a table for the sail-away party. I didn't have a lot of competition. The ship is full of new cruisers/tired people, so the sail-away party was one of the quietest I have ever seen. We also didn't sail-away afterwards, since the party was at 4:30 and all aboard time was 9:30.

After the party we walked around the top deck for a while and then ran into Mike and Susan. We talked with them for a while, while several ships and ferries sailed past us. One ship engaged us in a horn battle. Captain Thord started off by sounding the boring navigational horn, but then destroyed the competition with the real Disney horn. Everyone on the other ship cheered for us. Captain Thord walked out to wave at the other ship and Dad called out to him. The Captain seemed very surprised that someone was calling him by name on the first afternoon of the cruise.

I grabbed the first ice cream of the cruise, and then headed to the stateroom to get ready for the show. The welcome aboard show was great. We had Paul Zerdin, a British ventriloquist, and Phil Keller, a French Magician. I headed to the promenade lounge afterwards to write and listen to the band play. They have the same band that was inboard in March, and they are fantastic.

I met Mom and Dad in Parrot Cay. Our tablemates had been slipped in to early seating that night, so we wouldn't be meeting them until the next day. We did find out that one of them was an imagineer, so I was very excited. Our server was Summer from Australia and our assistant server was Igor from Montenegro. We had the Let the Magic Begin menu, and it was delicious. Our serving team wad awesome, very quick service. We realized that our friend Willy was back from vacation, and I went running over to say. Willy is like part of the family, and it is always awesome to see him.

I headed down to Diversions for the college club. Dave was running it, so I talked with him and my good friend Hilda for a while. The cruise staff on this cruise is awesome, so many people I have met before. I headed over to Magic Quest, a hilarious game show that I won in March. I sat and talked with DJ Matt who I had met earlier in the day. David does an awesome job of running Magic Quest and it was hilarious. After the game it was bed time.

Up next: our first day at sea.


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