Our client Natasja from the Netherlands send us this report after her family’s Disney Fantasy cruise in May 2012. A veteran cruiser of the original Disney ships, Natasja makes some comments comparing the new Fantasy with the old. “We had a great cruise. Wow, wow, WOW!!” she writes.
We liked all our Disney cruises and to me the christmas ones are still very special. But this ship … WOW. Truly amazing. You can tell they have improved many things by lessons learned.
We loved our stateroom. We had a private verandah. Very nice to sit outside and we took lots of pictures. The extra space was very nice, and we thought it was also nice that we were able to put all the suitcases underneath the bed. We also liked the bigger bathroom. Our Stateroom Hostess was lovely and did an excellent plus job!!
I could go on and on about the ship! We loved Animator’s Palate. Great ambiance. What a show! And creating your own magic was great fun, also for us adults. It is a lot of fun to see your own character back in the cartoons. This is our favorite restaurant. Enchanted Forest and the Royal Court were also beautiful. Lots to see. The better placement off the serving stations is a big improvement (less noise and smell and looks way better).
Big improvements at Cabanas (vs Topsiders buffet). Better routing, no trays anymore and cutlery at the table. So you only have to take your plate. More space and tables and beverage stations everywhere. Great variety, good quality.
We didn’t think our servers were excellent. Actually the least couple of all our cruises… The server was not friendly from the heart and we didn’t get a lot of attention as the other (bigger) tables in their section did. They seemed to be in a rush all the time. The assistant server was very shy and insecure and after a couple of day he was very nice. But they made mistakes every night (forgetting the desert or wine, bringing the wine after Mark finished desert, small things but really every night). The headserver was very nice and attentitive.
I thought the food was very good (not excellent), but not every day. Also very good choices for the kids.
All our other cruises we were with a large group on a large table but now it was only the four of us. The tables are very close together.
We missed the character breakfast. They don’t do that anymore. Too bad, because it is so nice when all the characters come to your table. And the singing and dancing was so much fun for the little ones. We also missed the gala desert buffet. We thought we heard the cruise director mentioning it one time, but we didn’t see it in our Navigator and the dining staff didn’t mention it. So we are still not sure if we just missed it or that Disney changed that.
The Aquaduck was great fun. Too bad our youngest missed by some inches and was not allowed. He did like the Mickey slide a lot. To me it seems the Pools didn’t get bigger. Especially the Donald Pool is very small. It is fun to sit in the hot tub and look through the glass windows and bottom. The adult area is very nice, quiet and spacious. I only went there 2 times at night.
The Spa is great. Nice views, very good massages, treatments and lovely ladies. I didn’t go in the Rainforest but it all looked very tempting. I thought the sales talks were a bit too pushy. I think they could sell more products if they would also give you some samples to try. I was interested in several things but couldn’t try. Here in European salons they do give samples especially when you spend as much money on treatments and products as I did…
I didn’t work out (hey I am on holiday) but that area sure looked well equipped and way bigger.
Our boys loved the Eye Scream Station. Too funny!
Good we don’t have girls. I love the Bibbi Dee Bobbi Dee Boutique. Too cute. And many girls (and their parents) did!!
Bigger and better shops. More little coffee places and more places to sit down. Lots and lots of characters around the ship. Lot’s of new characters and the Princess Parade is priceless when you see all the little girls happy faces looking up in complete adoration. Funny to say, but I loved all the different washrooms around the ship. All uniquely decorated and very pretty. With our little one and only Mark and me we didn’t go to the adult section at night. Looked all very good.
Victor (age 12) thougt the Edge was even cooler than last time and Vince (age 3) went to the Oceaneers Lab and Club 3 times for about 1,5- 2 hours. This was sooooo cool. Looked like fairy-tale/Toy Story etc. WOW, a true children’s paradise!!
Shutters was very neat. All your pictures in your own private storage album. Looked very pretty, was very handy and also nice deal to buy all your digital pics (including artistic framework/backgrounds) on a cd and get a free print of all. I think they do an excellent job. Very friendly and patient. I love making photo albums and scrapbooks and I am still waiting on software to download to make your own Disney/Cruise album/book. (In a co-ship with Apple…) I think Disney would make many people very happy and I would be really willing to pay for that opportunity.
(I have many, many ideas to improve the turn-over on the ship).
The Pirates in the Caribbean Party and the Fireworks were very good. I didn’t see the buffet with all the Pirate food but maybe we just went back to our stateroom on the other side.
All the interactive stuff (paintings, cartoons, pictures) are very neat.
The shows were great. We had the same cruise director as last time, Brent, and he did an excellent job. We liked Aladdin and Disney Believe the best. The midnight premiere of the Avengers in 3D was a big surprise. Victor and Mark went together and loved it.
7 nights went way to fast. We hope for the longer cruises to come on this ship. So far we really liked the 10/11-night cruises the best when it comes to the duration of the cruise. There is so much to see and so much to do. And I think most guests would like to spend more time on Castaway Cay. It is the best beach of all on the last day and it is sad to realize it is really your last day . So please Disney expand this place with another day!!!
Shore Excursions
In Costa Maya we went on a trip to the Mayan Ruins. Very interesting, well organized, good guide. We were interested in more excursions but they were not suitable for Vince. I would recommend this one for sure. Disney does a great job to organize all different people to different excursions.
I think the beach break excursions are way too expensive. We like to go on our own. That is the only thing I miss in all the info or on the Navigator. What are great beaches to go to and why? What are the costs etc. If you ask a taxi driver they don’t always give you the right info.
I also think that the shopping terminals are everywhere the same. Same stores, same stuff, same brands and pretty boring. We are interested in the local (nice) stuff and not the watches, diamonds etc. And it is everywhere the same. Too bad.
Overall
We had such a great time. We will sure go again. Maybe next year! I have some friends interested in the Disney cruise who I am referring to you, and another interested in a non-Disney cruise. I told them you are THE specialist! Thanks again Tim for your excellent service.
Thanks to our clients Jeff and Joan from New York for sharing their experience on the Disney Dream. Interesting comparison at the end between the Dream and Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas which we had booked them on previously.
Disney Dream
4 night Bahamas Cruise
October 23 – 27, 2011
Sunday, October 23
Embarkation was a snap because we arranged to use Disney transportation from MCO to the cruise terminal. We did our complete check-in at the airport (including our room card) and boarded the bus within 10 minutes of arriving at check-in desk. We were given a cruise ship boarding group number of 4. We arrived at terminal at 11:30 AM. As we entered, they were announcing boarding groups 1 and 2. Again, ten minute wait and we were on board. We stopped at Cabanas for a bite to eat and then explored the ship. We were in our cabin at 1:30 PM sharp and luggage was delivered by 3 PM.
Our clients Michele and Paul from Illinois on their Disney Wonder Alaska cruise in August 2011. We had booked them at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Vancouver for a pre-cruise stay, followed by a 7 night Alaska cruise.
The Pan Pacific was a beautiful hotel and very conveniently located to the sights of Vancouver. I’m a huge fan of the Winter Olympics so it was so nice to be in close proximity to the Olympic Cauldron and went to see it several times during our stay. We did use the Big Red Bus hop-on and hop-off service for two days, which was a great way to get some perspective of Vancouver. On Sunday we went to the Capilano Suspension bridge and Cliffwalk, which was a very nice way to spend the day. It was a little on the warm side for my tastes but enjoyable none-the-less. On Monday, Paul and I spent a cold and rainy day at Granville Island, taking a tour of the Granville Island Brewery (where you can get a 2-for-1 tour coupon by signing up at their website) and eating our way through the Public Market. We wanted to spend some time in Stanley Park, but the rain was just relentless and agreed that we would return some time in the future to hit the things we didn’t see.
Our stateroom was just perfect and even Paul commented at the end of the trip that the size was just right for the two of us. We weren’t tripping over one another and had plenty of room and storage for all that we brought. My only comment/complaint was that it was somewhat noisy. I don’t know where the heavy footsteps were coming from above us, whether they were from the footsteps in the hallway or we just had noisy upstairs neighbors, but I was able to tune it out and still continue to enjoy the trip.
In Skagway we did the Takshanuk Mountain Trail 4X4 excursion which took us 1,400 feet up into the Tongass National Forest. It was a little rainy, overcast, and chilly but absolutely beautiful. We started out the trip by taking our 4X4 mules up through one mile of switchback turns to the lodge where we had time to take a “biological break” and where they had freshly baked cookies as well as warm drinks. Then it was back out to take an additional nine switchback turns up into the forest. We stopped at two viewing areas and the clouds parted long enough for us to see Chilkoot River and Chilkoot Lake as well as the bridge that spans the river. Afterwards we headed back down to the lodge where they served us lunch consisting of fruit salad, a tossed green salad, roasted potatoes, BBQd chicken, and fried halibut. Lunch was DELICIOUS! There was a black bear that came out of the woods in front of the lodge but I was not quick enough to see it before it was scared back to whence it came. Both Paul and I considered it well worth the price we paid, which was $198/per person, and had no complaints.
In Juneau we took the Exclusive Whale Encounter and Mendenhall Glacier excursion. Of the three excursions we booked, this was the most disappointing. They do have a 100% money back guarantee if they are unable to locate any whales but I was really disappointed that by the time we found the Humpback whales we were able to observe them for 60-90 seconds and then they said the tour was over and we were heading back. Now, we did see Orca whales which is very rare and was a beautiful sight. At one time I was a marine science/marine biology/biology major and I was “in my element” riding on the bow of the boat with the wind, rain, and spray hitting me and possibly because of my previous experiences I was left feeling a little empty. They had some smoked salmon, chocolate, fudge, and drinks onboard for the guests to sample and let us know where we can purchase more in town. From there we headed over to the Mendenhall Glacier where I was excited to possibly see some bears. As luck would have it, we were always either too early or too late for a bear encounter, but we certainly were able to smell them! Several people in our group were walking on the beach and had a bear walking along behind them or they managed to see them at the entrance to the elevated walkways. We got to see a …. porcupine. We also did see an eagle but we had seen several eagles during our travels and were really looking for something new. I was quite impressed with the chunk of glacier ice they had in the visitor’s center and could have looked into that crystal clear ice for hours, but time was a wasting and we had to head on back to town. Both Paul and I agreed that this excursion was a little overpriced … it was $139/per person.
Ketchikan was where we experienced our favorite excursion … the Bear Creek Zipline Adventures tour. When we first pulled into Ketchikan it was rainy and cool, several excursions were being canceled but we knew that our excursion would go on rain or shine. While we were on the bus to the zipline park the rain stopped, the sky cleared, and we had bright sunshine. There are two different experiences you can have at this zipline park and the one we chose included seven ziplines, a sky bridge, a 40-foot rappel, and a 250-foot mountain slide. The guides were patient, informative, and funny which made for a very positive experience. We also enjoyed the fact that there were only four people and two guides on the excursion so we never felt rushed. Upon completion of the course all participants on both courses received a medal to commemorate their accomplishment. Our particular excursion was priced at $178/person and both of us felt we got our money’s worth. We were torn with this town as our other favorite excursion, the Bering Sea Crab Fisherman’s Tour, was offered through Disney and had the additional option of dining with the crew. While it was very, very tempting we thought we would try something new. We were also very, very excited to see the Cornelia Marie docked in Ketchikan as well. I’m a huge fan of the show “The Deadliest Catch” and it is one of the crab boats featured on the show so it was nice to see it in person, even if it was from our verandah.
Looking back at our Alaskan cruise on NCL and comparing it to this one there really is no comparison. We chose NCL because we thought we would enjoy the relaxed dress code and flexible dining schedule however we felt we didn’t get the personal service that we did on Disney. It is really nice having someone know what you like to drink, what you’re allergic to, and what you like/dislike. Upon speaking with our dining room servers about the dress code they assured us that we could come to dinner dressed as we wished, even on formal and semi-formal night. While we did not do this, it was nice to know we had the option and actually did show up in blue jeans one evening. We booked all excursions with Disney whereas on NCL we only booked one because it was so hard to get the excursions you wanted and the size of the tour groups were very large. I believe the largest group size we had was 36 and we didn’t feel crowded, rushed, or neglected.
I don’t know that I would do anything differently the next time that we take this trip other than to go earlier in the season. We planned well in advance, did our research, and booked our excursions as soon as we were permitted. We also prepared for the weather as well. There were so many people who were walking around in summer clothing … shorts, t-shirts, etc. but we were prepared for the rain and cold and therefore able to stay out in the elements longer than others. I’m kind of disappointed that the ship will be repositioned to Seattle for subsequent sailings as I would like to return to Vancouver to do some more touring, but we’ve only spent one evening in Seattle so far and look forward to spending some time there when we sail to Alaska again.
Thanks again for all of your help with booking this trip, and we look forward to working with you on the next!
Michele
Here’s a great video slideshow Paul and Michele shared with us of their vacation:
Amy from Virginia on her family’s Disney Wonder Alaska cruise in July 2011:
We had a great cruise. The weather was fantastic—“hot” for Alaska (71 degrees) and no rain.
We spent four days in Vancouver before the cruise. Very relaxing. We stayed at the Pan Pacific, right at the cruise dock at Canada Place. It made for a very convenient starting point for exploring the city. While the room was not cheap, I thought it was well worth it—lovely hotel with good service, good location, awesome views (I could have stayed there all day just looking out the window at the harbor and mountains), reasonably spacious, near mass transit and a reasonably priced underground food court, an elevator ride to the pier, and a very well thought out use of space in our room. We enjoyed Stanley Park (for two days) and generally exploring the city.
The cruise was great, as expected. The Wonder is beginning to show its age, but is being kept up well. Our server from last year, Branislav, is still on the Magic, but Leonardo from Peru was a very capable replacement. The scenery was spectacular. Pictures don’t do it justice, much like the Grand Canyon. We saw whales, bald eagles, a bear, and dolphins. It was mandatory to have a plan for the ports; I wouldn’t want to wander in and negotiate a deal with a shady vendor—no risky flying or other hazardous activites for me without a bit of research!
In Skagway we did a Disney Port Adventure and took the White Pass Railroad to Fraser, BC, with a bus ride back to a gold dredging museum in Skagway. There we panned for gold. Everyone enjoyed it.
Juneau was the highlight. I booked a tour directly with Alaska Helimush (ERA Helicopters), which is the same vendor as Disney uses, and saved almost $1000 by booking directly. They were great. We got picked up at the Mt. Roberts tramway and taken to their heliport, where we were outfitted with overshoes and lifevests, and then took a helicopter ride up over the Wonder and onto the Juneau icefield to a dogsled camp. The dogsled camp had 170 dogs and their mushers living there for the summer. We spent about an hour at the glacier riding on the sled with our musher, Jeff, who was in his early twenties and had already competed in two Iditerods, and then we met his dog team. Then we took the helicopter back to the base in Juneau. An awesome experience! Afterwards Paul and I visited the Red Dog Saloon—what a hoot! And the food there was (surprisingly) pretty good!
In Ketchikan we walked around town and saw a salmon hatchery and some totem poles.
The sail up to the glacier was phenomenal. We spent most of the afternoon and early evening on our veranda with cameras and binoculars, and occasionally fortifying ourselves with warm coffee and food. Stunning, amazing scenery. That day we saw quite a number of whales at the entrance to the fjord.
Differences between this cruise and previous cruises? We definitely like the longer cruises. I never thought we’d be a cruising family, but it really works for us. Everyone can have their own space and time for themselves, which helps to keep everyone happy. I would do the Alaska cruise again, but not right away (just like I would go back to the Grand Canyon, but not two years in a row). The water in the inside passage was as smooth as silk and the scenery incredibly picturesque. You can see things on a cruise in Alaska that you would never see any other way.
“We LOVED Half Moon Cay. It was beautiful! If there was a hotel on that little island, I could have stayed there for 7 days or more…The beach was amazing; soft sand, clear water, no seaweed stuff. We rented paddle boats then rented a raft for the day. Other than the BBQ, we spent the entire time in the water. We loved it…”
Carole McKeown, Family Travel Gurus client from Denver
We originally booked Family Travel Gurus client Carole McKeown of Denver on a Royal Caribbean cruise in early June for a special getaway with her niece. When her niece’s school schedule changed causing them to move their travel date by a week, the Royal Caribbean price jumped significantly. We recommended this Carnival Liberty cruise instead in the same price range as the original cruise. “Half Moon Cay is better than any port you would have visited on the RCCL cruise,” we told her. She was to find out what a special place Half Moon Cay is. Thanks to Carole for sharing this trip report and pictures with us.
Half Moon Cay
My niece and I had a wonderful time! Thank you so much for the chocolate covered strawberries…we certainly enjoyed them! I wanted to give you a quick synopsis of our trip.
– The ship itself was very nice (actually, much nicer than I thought it would be)
– Our room was great. The twin beds worked out fine. They were very comfortable (we slept well). We had plenty of storage for our things. We liked being on the 1st floor towards the front of the ship. We were close to the exit for the shore excursions. Of course, the other side of this is waiting for elevators. We used the stairs alot to the 2nd or 3rd level to catch elevators (it was quicker).
– The food in the dining room was good. The buffet was okay. My niece loved the frozen yogurt stations everywhere!
– We liked the shows, loved the comedy club, liked all the live bands they had
– I thought Bingo was a ripoff (very expensive)
– We took advantage of the spa and had pedicures (very nice!)
Excursions:
– We LOVED Half Moon Cay. It was beautiful! If there was a hotel on that little island, I could have stayed there for 7 days or more…The beach was amazing; soft sand, clear water, no seaweed stuff. We rented paddle boats then rented a raft for the day. Other than the BBQ, we spent the entire time in the water. We loved it…
– I loved St. Thomas. I used Shore Trips for a private island tour. Our guide was a very nice young man with roots in the area. He took us all over the island and was very knowledgeable. Thank god we were riding in an air-conditioned Excursion because it was brutally hot that day! He was terrific. I would recommend him to others wanting a private, cool tour. The shopping was good. Kind of weird that it was gated…
– Grand Turk Island- this was probably the biggest disappointment of the trip. It looked beautiful as we were pulling up to the island but once you were on the beach, things changed. The beach was quite dirty. Lots of trash (cup lids, straws, paper) and cigarette butts in the sand. I was surprised by this because the setting is so pretty with the palm trees and stuff. The sand was very hard to walk on; very coarse. The water had lots of seaweed/kelp looking stuff in it and it was very hard to walk on as well. What saved the day was the pool area around Margaritaville. We were able to get some chairs under an umbrella and had a very pleasant day at the pool swimming and watching the flow riders and listening to the DJ. We had lunch at the restaurant and did some shopping there as well. It ended up being a great day despite the crappy beach.
The Hilton Garden Inn was very nice and a short drive from the airport. The shuttle drivers were very nice and quick to respond to getting picked up and dropped off. We also used another shuttle service to go to dinner that night and it worked out very well. Their continental breakfast is not free. I paid $25 (for 2 of us) for something I get for free at other hotel chains. The room was clean and cool.
Remember the authorization I needed from my niece’s parents to take her on this trip? Well, that was never questioned until we hit customs yesterday. The customs guy was the only one the entire time who wanted to know what my relationship was to my niece. I thought the cruise ship would ask this when we first checked in and they didn’t. I almost threw away the paper…
All of our flights worked out. No major delays. No lost luggage. The weather was sunny and hot, no rain. It was a great trip overall! Thank you again for all your help and making the process go so smoothly.
When Susan Ben approached us asking for a Europe cruise vacation for her family (2 adults 2 kids ages 23, 16) we suggested this Holland America Noordam cruise departing from Civitavecchia. The Bens wanted to see Italy and departing from the port close to Rome allowed them some days in Rome before and after the cruise. We also set them up in a small family run hotel that was close to the city sights and considerably less in price than the larger hotel options. Thanks to Susan for providing us this report and pictures:
Cruise Day 1
Some pictures… As we set sail, and then later that evening my son and I attended the welcome aboard Mixology class.
We are in Lavernno today, and heading to Luca and Pisa. To see the Leaning Tower of course.
Ciao!
Sue
Dinner in Rome
On the ship
Leaving Rome Port
We took a mixology class
Jen and Mark
Mark And Mom
Cruise Day 2
I am having some great fun with this “deployment plan” for Project Rome!
Still on track. Today,:
step 127.1.2.1 – Eat Gelato (Strawberry was the flavor) was completed
Step 132.3.4.7 – Lean with the Leaning Tower Of Pisa was completed
Step 995.1.2.4 – Back-up and have wine in an Outside Café was added and completed
We are on track for deployment. Up next is Monte Carlo and the James Bond/Princess thing, when we dock in the morning.
Ciao!
Sue
Eat Gelato
Lean With The Leaning Tower
Wine at outdoor café
Cruise Day 3
Project Rome! Risk Mitigation (Gambling) Plan
Since we are in the high-end gambling Principality of Monaco today is about managing risk.
• Being a Princess isn’t easy, so I made sure that my kingdom would be ready! The royal Wedding is on July 2nd, so the streets are being decked out to celebrate. See the flags by My palace, overlooking the sea?
• Of course I met my “James Bond” prince by the Casio. Honest!
So the through project plan and the bucket list have been as a good “risk of not doing everything” tool as a well-managed RAID list.
Formal night for the Princess and her James Bond this evening.
Bon nuite! (they speak French in Monaco)
Sue
All Ready For The Royal Wedding
View from My Palace Overlooking the Sea
My 2 James Bonds
Cruise Day 4
June 23rd
More items on the Vacation Bucket List crossed off today in Barcelona.
· Enjoy Spanish Wine & Eat Tapas in Barcelona – We did this in two different places today
· See Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia – They started building that Church in the late 1600’s and still are not done!
· Wander the Streets of Barcelona – Did a little wandering today… More tomorrow, which is a national holiday for the feast of Saint John
· Sit on the Spanish Steps – This is our lesson for today on defining clear requirement!
I have my family keeping track of the bucket list of vacation objectives… one was to sit on the Spanish Steps. My requirement is to sit on the Spanish Steps in Rome, but today my son said “Mom, there are some steps by the church, why don’t you sit there and I will take your picture sitting on Spanish steps”. He got it right, but did not meet the business partner requirement… Just goes to show the value of well documented requirements!!
See you all next update!
Sue
Eating Tapas and drinking wine in Barcelona
Seeing Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia
Wander the Streets.. Included street musicians
Sitting on “Spanish Steps” not “The Spanish Steps” get those requirements right!
Cruise Day 5 & 6
June 24th and June 25th (Cruise Day 5 & 6)
Just another day in Barcelona, right like that’s normal. The deployment is still on track and the status is green. In fact in the past 2 days even got a chance to add some items from the extended family bucket list…
· Spend a day NOT doing a preplanned shore excursion – Mike
· Have a martini – Jennifer
· Take pictures of something other than “tourist sights” – Mark
· Go to a beach in Mallorca, it was the Palmas Beach – Sue, Mark, Jen (Mike just wanted to sleep)
· Plan a surprise for Sue (sent flowers and wine) – Mike
Sunday we are at sea all day… so taking a tapas cooking lesson, doing a wine tasting and another mixology class and continuing our vacation “Hand and Foot” card game tournament. Only 25 points separate the ‘rents (parents) from the Kids.
The weather has been so good, I have forgotten all about System Bulletins.
Sue
Just hanging on La Rambles in Barcelona
Jen having her martini (lemon drop), while we play cards
We made it to the Beach!
Mark went topless, Jen didn’t, I stayed covered up and 50% of the females were topless.
Yes, I am rubbing it in that I am not back in the states at work!
June 26th and June 27th (Cruise Day 7 & 8)
We spent Sunday “at sea” (no port) and headed into Tunis in Tunisia today. I finally visited Africa! It was pretty cool to see Carthage. Got my hair done on Sunday and did “ship things”, to get ready for the history lesson on Monday. To celebrate Mike and I did the ship Pub Crawl this evening… 5 bars, 5 different drinks. Since we have been on this ship so long we have actually gotten to know Ken (the master bar tender), Elizabeth (Party Planner) and Frank (Cellar Master) pretty well. What can I say we are enjoying the vacation!
More items on the bucket list:
· Have fun on vacation
· Appreciate the History of Carthage, we really saw some very cool history items from before Christ.
· And Mike and I did the ship pub crawl this evening!
Only two items, but lots of fun!
On to Sicily tomorrow.
Sue
Some Fun Places on the Ship
In Carthage – Roman ruins and a WWII memorial to our soldiers.
More North Africa
And some fun back on the ship
Cruise Day 9
June 28th (Cruise Day 9)
Relaxing day today in Palermo, Sicily. Walked in to town to “Do Something Memorable and Spontaneous in Palermo”; who would have guessed that consisted of trying to cross a street and make a local phone call. LOL. Of course we also did some shopping and ate more gelato. We are just leaving port now as I write this. It’s our last formal night so Jennifer has started her 2 hour “get ready” ritual.
We are still on track to complete the “cruise milestone” on schedule.
Today’s items crossed off the bucket list:
· Something spontaneous – Just wander into town with no set agenda
· Something memorable – Trying to cross a street without getting run over by a Vespa, horse and carriage or car.
Only two items, but lots of fun, since shopping was also involved!
On to Naples and Pompeii tomorrow.
Sue
Just some shopping time
Watch out for the Vespa’s they are everywhere
More Gelato!!! Yumm Yumm!
Coming back to port
Cruise Day 10
June 29th and June 30th (Cruise Day 10 & Rome Day 1)
Spent the last day in Naples and packing up all the clothes and memories to head back to Rome. We are back in Rome (where the internet is FREE!!!) now waiting for our friends to arrive. The vacation is getting shorter and the list of un done items on the bucket list is also getting shorter. We have met a few people from the Chicago area, but today we did meet some one from Naperville… We always joke that no matter where we go we meet someone from Naperville.
More items on the bucket list:
• Eat Pizza in Naples
• Explore the ruins of Pompeii
• Shop in a real Italian Market
• Make bruschetta in Rome
We are eating under the stars this evening… and on to the Vatican tomorrow.
Ciao
Sue
Mt Vesuvius in the background from the Forum of Pompeii
Pompeii Collage
Shopping in the Italian Market
Before and after the cruise the Bens stayed at the Residence Candia which we had booked for them. Sue’s comment:
Residence Candia – We did like the hotel. The location is fantastic! Less than 5 minute walk to Vatican Museum entrance, 15 minute walk to St Peter’s Square, Metro station 5 minutes, excellent shopping district and restaurants. Hotel staff is very friendly and helpful. The apartment we chose when we returned to Rome was a pretty large apartment by European standards. We had 3 bedrooms, 2 baths (all showers as is typical for Europe). The kitchen was a full kitchen (4 burner stove/oven) and everything you needed. I would recommend this if you are dealing with people that understand Europe and the state of non-chain hotels. For the price it was an excellent value. But like European 3 star hotels it is functional not luxurious. Our friends that came down from Turin also stayed there and were quite impressed at the level and cleanliness of the rooms.
And some final pictures of the Bens time in Rome:
Sue writes “Thanks for the great service!” and we thank Sue for sharing these wonderful pictures!
Thanks to our client Jen O’Brien for sending us this review. We had set Jen and her family up with transfers to and from the port through Happy Limo in addition to booking their inside stateroom on the cruise:
Our cruise was wonderful! The stateroom was ok, we will definitely go with a window or balcony next time! I can’t believe how much bigger those rooms are. In the past 3 Disney Cruises we had 2 with windows and one with an balcony and there is such a big difference! We really enjoyed the stingrays at castaway cay. As far as how this cruise compares to the other Disney Cruises, we had the same awesome service from the waiters, stateroom host, room service etc. Really the only thing different was the Aqua duck…the kids loved that! (so did the adults!) and of course the size of the ship! I would go on the Wonder or Magic again especially if the prices were cheaper.
I guess the only thing I would do different is to go on a 7 night, 5 nights just isn’t enough time, I was disappointed when I first booked and found out they weren’t doing 7 nights on the dream.
We were upgraded to a Hummer Stretch Limo by happy limo as they needed the van for something that morning, the only catch was we had to leave later for the ship. The kids really wanted to take the limo so we did that leaving at about 11:15 from Disney…I would NOT do that again! I am glad we did it for the kids but we didn’t get on the ship until well after 1 and it was crazy busy and it seemed like we didn’t get much in before it was time for dinner! But like I said, it was fun to ride in the hummer! I would definitely use Happy Limo again, thanks for setting that up!
Again, Thanks for all of your help with everything, we will be in touch for our next Disney Cruise!! ;o)
Of all of the cruises we’ve now done, this is one of the top ones I think. Warm weather, interesting variety of ports, and something for everyone. They said multiple times that the Splendour was the smallest ship in the RCCL fleet, but had the best weather. It was the perfect ship for this cruise with 8 ports days and only 2 sea days, as we didn’t miss the other activities found on larger ships (we did see the Navigator in Athens and the Voyager, on which we sailed in 2008, parked next to us yesterday in Venice as we left). The public areas were in good shape.
By Bryan Richardson (Family Travel Gurus client)
Our aft junior suite was very nice. The cabin itself was only microscopically larger than the D1s we’ve often sailed on in the past, but that microscopic difference was big–we could get from one side of the cabin to the other when the sofa bed was out. The interior of the cabin was extremely worn–the carpet was shot, and there were lots of signs of wear on the drawers, shelving, and in the bathroom. But the balcony more than made up for it–almost the size of the cabin interior. Half exposed, half covered by a sunbathing deck above (nice and quiet at night and early mornings), we could always find a shady spot to read our book or watch where we’d been disappear into the distance. I’d readily book another aft cabin again on a ship with nothing loud overhead. You’ll see all of our other trip pictures on Facebook, so I’ll attach a couple of balcony shots here that didn’t make that cut.
The rest of the ship looked to be in good shape. I didn’t see too many other signs of wear in the public areas (theater, lounge, dining room). We found the food to be very good–better than our RCCL experience on the Jewel in 2009 or Voyager in 2008. Maybe it was the smaller dining room and fewer meals getting cranked out. Or maybe it just hit the spot more after hiking and touring every day 🙂 I think the Splendour was originally scheduled to dry dock last spring but it was postponed. Hopefully the dry dock work would be in updating the cabins. Entertainment was, as always, a mixed bag. Three acts were repeats from the Jewel cruise in 2009–I wonder if they don’t fly back & forth between the ships in the Med & the Baltics. The show on the next to the last night was one of the best live shows I’ve seen on a cruise ship–East Coast Boys, a Frankie Valli (sp?) tribute group–and I wasn’t even a fan, but it was extremely high energy and they got a rare standing ovation at the end.
In terms of the itinerary and stops, here’s what we did (no RCCL shore excursions, you’ll note. We’re getting braver at coordinating our own thing):
Day 2: Still in Venice. Used the remaining hours of our 48 hour water bus pass to go back into town and see another art museum and collect our souvenirs.
Day 3: Kotor. Got off, wandered around the quaint and very clean old town. Hiked up 1,000 feet to the fort in the 90 degree sun (we didn’t arrive until noon). Very pretty
Kotor
Day 4: Sea Day
Day 5: Athens. Did a private tour Becky found somewhere from a Cruise Critic link. Very sharp lady; says she generally has stopped taking cruise ship passengers because they aren’t opinionated enough about what they want to see, but I think the fact that our daughter and hers were the same age caused her to make an exception. Could have easily done it on our own but would have missed a lot of context. The port is close to the Acropolis and old town (5-7 miles?). There were (I think) 8 cruise ships in port that day–the port was a mob scene between day-trippers like ourselves and several ships starting/stopping their cruises.
Day 6: Kusadasi/Ephesus. Booked a tour through Ekol Travel (recommended again on Cruise Critic). Wasn’t as pricey as Athens. Highly recommend this alternative as it got us into the Terrace Houses which the bus tours from the cruise ships cannot do in Ephesus. And you can stop and take pictures and other private-tour stuff, including having an interesting cultural conversation over lunch with our guide (as in Athens, two days after some riots). Really enjoyed Ephesus–I hadn’t had the time to research and prepare like we did in the Baltics and so was pleasantly interested and surprised.
Day 7: Bodrum. Nice little town. Great castle. Hot–done in about three hours, including 30 minutes finding a Bellco-ATM card accepting ATM to get some Turkish Lira for the Castle. Something of a rest day after the previous two. Several nice beaches right in town for folks walking off the ship.
Day 8: Santorini. Took the cable car/tram up the hill. Then the city bus to Oia for a few hours of walking around, and then the bus back to Fira. Very scenic. City busses were mobbed as the Star Princess beat us into port by 30 minutes, so we ended up standing up one way. Kate wasn’t feeling well, so we quit a bit early. Otherwise, lots of nice shopping if that’s your thing, but if not, once the scenery is done there’s not much else to do but eat and shop. Walked down the “donkey poop” trail to the tender.
Santorini
Day 9: Mykonos. And the ports keep coming! Here, we took the Ferry to Delos, another archeological site. I couldn’t find much on line, but wish we’d researched a bit harder. They were out of maps and everything by the time we got there (again, three big ships and another smaller one in port that day). Signs were few and far between indicating what we were seeing, but we were able to explore and figure out a reasonable amount. Then wandered around the pretty town a bit and were out of time for the day.
Day 10: Sea Day (finally)
Day 11: Split, Croatia. We really enjoyed Split. Our plans for the museum and their walking tour were tossed quickly when we found it was a national holiday (on a Thursday) and lots of stuff was closed. We took one of the two walking tours aggressively hawked by young ladies in T-shirts in town (I was a bit skeptical, but our guide turned out to be great–we did the blue shirt company, not the red one 🙂 ). Wandered around a bit, had a light lunch, and then got on the hop-on-hop-off bus tour. Highly recommended (but our bus had four passengers–three of my family and one other lady from our ship). Took us out to the big city park where the locals were playing on their day off, far from the madness of the cruise ship. Had an ice cream, and then they dropped us right off at the ship. So our day was saved!
Day 12: Yesterday–long, long day. First Lufthansa/Star Alliance flight for our free tickets was at 2 pm, and they won’t check your bags until three hours prior to departure. So we stood and chatted with the other waiting passengers in the business class line–one couple from our ship (enjoyed the cruise; said the food on Celebrity was much better), and another that had just gotten off some pricey Seaborne trip only to Croatia. Got home at about 1:30 am this morning!
Conclusion: I wouldn’t take a Vision-class ship for anything except a port-intensive cruise like this one. But it worked out well for us on this trip.
