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)