7 Night Med Cruise on the Disney Magic

MissyMouse77

MissyMouse
Joined
Feb 4, 2017
This will be a Trip Report for the 7 night Mediterranean Cruise that started in Civitavecchia, Italy and ended in Barcelona, Spain.

June 19, 2019 - Flying to Rome! Will we actually have seats on the plane?

I booked flights as soon as we booked the cruise, which was just under a year out. I didn’t want to worry about the flight piece and it was important for us that we get direct flights from Logan Airport in Boston, MA to Rome’s FCO. My daughter is eight and this was her first taste of international travel. I wanted to try and get us on Italy time as quickly as possible because I had a jam packed itinerary planned. I felt an overnight direct flight was our best shot at acclimating quickly.

We flew on Alitalia because it was by far the best price for direct. However, at the time I did not realize that Alitalia has been in financial trouble for almost two years and has been in negotiations for new partners. Luckily, everything was fine and we didn’t have to deal with a sudden strike, which is what I was most afraid of. We did have a lot of trouble getting confirmed seats even though I had used their site online and paid the fees to have confirmed extra legroom. It was about a week before the trip that I tried logging into their website and received a message saying that I needed to contact Alitalia because there was an issue with our seats. When I called I spoke to a very curt woman that said the seats I had booked, and paid extra for, were no longer available because “there was a reconfiguration”. I tried inquiring exactly what that meant and she just kept repeating the same line to me. After many more phone calls to Alitalia we were told we finally had confirmed seats but that my husband would have to sit in a different area of the plane. Oh, and we wouldn’t automatically be refunded the money we spent on the seats. We would have to apply for a refund via their website. Let’s just say that we didn’t have a great customer service experience with Alitalia. At that point we were just happy we had seats. We only had two full days in Rome before we left for the cruise and I had a lot of private tours booked for us. We had to get to Rome! We got to the Alitalia check-in counter at Logan nice and early (we live by the rule of always giving ourselves a lot of extra time to get to the airport and wanted to be there three hours early since it was international travel) and wouldn’t you know.....there was a problem with our seats. Again. Luckily the woman working at the desk was very kind and saw we were traveling with an eight year old and took pity on us. She called over a supervisor and managed to score us all seats together with the extra legroom we had originally paid for. She was great, as was the other Alitalia agent working next to her. It seems our luck was changing and I began to feel my blood pressure return to normal again.

We actually breezed through security and passport control quite quickly, so we ended up stopping into a restaurant at Logan to grab a light meal and a drink for Mommy and Daddy, because at that point I needed it. I wanted us to all sleep through the flight as much as possible so it was better to walk onto the plane not feeling hungry. They began the boarding process a full hour before our scheduled take-off. The same woman who was working the check-in desk appeared to help with boarding and she walked through the terminal finding families who had young children to let them line up first. We were excited to find the plane interior seemed to be in great condition and looked very clean. We had a ton of legroom which was awesome since it was an eight hour flight to Rome. From that point on, we actually had a very nice experience on the plane itself. It was an uneventful flight and we tried to sleep. I brought headphones and sleep masks for us and my daughter wore her pajamas on the plane. We took off just before 10pm and around midnight we all began to doze off. Unfortunately none of us really ever got into a deep sleep but we all managed to get maybe 4 hours on and off throughout the course of the flight.

An hour before landing they turned on the cabin lights and started breakfast service, which consisted of a warmed up strawberry pastry of some sort and juice, coffee or tea. We were super tired but also very excited to finally be in Italy. It was a smooth landing and pretty chill disembarkment off of the plane but we were surprised to discover that when getting off of the plane we were outside and had to all get on shuttles to take us into the airport itself. The shuttles took us to passport security and luckily it moved fairly quickly. Our plane landed around 11:30am in Italy time and we were through security, had our baggage, and found our driver I had booked in advance by 12:30pm! We were off to a good start and I was excited to check into our hotel, the Gran Meliá, which was just outside of the Vatican area.

June 20, 2019- Gran Melia Hotel Review

We arrived at our hotel, the Gran Melia, around 1pm. The hotel is about a 10 minute walk to the Vatican area but it is cool because the hotel is extremely quiet even though it’s right in the city. I booked this hotel because it has an outdoor pool and I knew our daughter would like being able to take pool breaks in between all the tours we had planned. It was the best decision and because we used the pool quite a bit. There is a serious heat wave all through Europe right now. Every place we visited on this trip was 90-95 degrees and the locals all kept saying they couldn’t remember a June this hot in years. I was grateful to have a place to cool off and their grounds were really lovely. Overall, we were very pleased with our experience. Our room, while small for a family of three, was nicely appointed. It had a King size bed and they added a single roll away at the foot of the bed for our daughter. The bathroom had a shower with a separate “water closet” that included the toilet and a bidet. The products were all Clarins brand and they have a highly regarded Clarins Spa on site. My daughter got a kick out of the bidets in Europe. She is now a fan. I’m happy to report that the air conditioning worked beautifully! We received turn down service each night and the hotel provided robes and slippers for the adults. Our room didn’t really have a view but we also didn’t pay for an upgraded view, so we weren’t expecting much.

We did choose to have breakfast included in our hotel rate and I’m so glad we did! This spread was awesome. They had an entire room off of their pool/lounge area set up each morning for breakfast. While it was buffet style they had a service team on hand to greet you, show you to a table in the breakfast room or of you preferred you could sit outside in the pool lounge area. The buffet included a large variety of fresh pastries, breads, jams, meats and cheeses, a salad bar that included fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, greens, and a variety of balsamic vinegars. There were cereals, yogurt, waffles with Nutella, an oatmeal station, hard boiled eggs, and mini sandwiches. Beverage choices included a wide variety of fresh squeezed juices and coffee and tea. The servers asked if you’d like an espresso or cappuccino and all was included in the buffet. They also opened bottles of Moët in case people wanted to make mimosas. If you wanted something from the a la carte menu a server would come to take your order. My daughter did end up ordering scrambled eggs one morning and it wasn’t cheap. I think it was 8 Euros but I wanted her to get some protein and she isn’t a fan of hard boiled eggs. We were all extremely happy with the breakfast and I’d definitely recommend adding that to your room package should you choose to stay there.

Back to Rome! So after we got into our room, which was ready for us upon arrival, we changed into swimsuits and took a dip in the pool. It was a nice way to recharge for a busy night ahead. We swam for about an hour and then went back to the room to do a little unpacking, shower, and get ready for our first tour. We had a Private Sunset Walking Tour booked through a company called LivItaly. It included a pick up at 5pm that would drop us off to meet our guide. I’ll work on the next installment that includes a review of this tour soon!

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Private Sunset Walking Tour:
We booked this tour through a company called LivItaly. They were recommended by a friend that had used them for a couple tours last summer. Our driver picked us up at the hotel right on time and had cold bottles of water waiting for us. He was extremely friendly and welcoming. He explained various sites as we drove to meet our tour guide, Melanie. He dropped us off in front of Babbington’s Tea Room, near the Spanish Steps, and Melanie was there with a big smile. We hit it off with her right off the bat. She took us to all the major sites in that area including the Trevi Fountain, inside the Pantheon, and ended in the Piazza Navona. The tour included a stop in a fabulous gelato shop where Melanie taught us the ins and outs of how to shop for quality gelato. While all gelato is yummy, I will admit that after having my first bite of real homemade gelato vs. premixed gelato, I realized very quickly the huge difference. I’m happy to report that this tutorial helped us a ton for the rest of our trip and we had some amazing gelato all throughout Italy. Melanie went to school for architecture and had also studied art history. She was extremely articulate and also warm and personable. She did a great job of engaging our eight year old daughter in conversation and by the end of the tour she was able to tell the difference between buildings designed by Bernini vs. Borromini. We loved this experience from start to finish and would highly recommend this tour. It was the perfect introduction to Rome.

We said goodbye to Melanie and headed off for our first meal in Rome. I had made a reservation for a place close by, Da Francesco. I had heard good things about about it and our driver from earlier said it was definitely one of the better restaurants in that area. We wanted an authentic Roman dining experience and wanted to try and avoid any tourist traps. He assured us Da Francesco was legit and we would find a lot of locals, as well as tourists, dining there. He said they specialized in Roman dishes and their pizza was also excellent. Sold! We were greeted at the door and I was glad I had made a reservation because they were turning people away. It’s a small, cozy little trattoria with maybe 15 tables inside. We only had to wait maybe five minutes and we were given a seat right by the windows. We ordered a margarita pizza, a beef dish, and the spaghetti alla carbonara. Every single dish was excellent and my husband declared the pizza the best he’s ever had. We also ordered two glasses of the house red. Our server was lovely. He did not really speak any English but he was great at interpreting what we were saying and we tried using the few phrases of Italian we had learned. Our daughter was exhausted, as she was going on fumes at that point, and actually fell asleep at the table. We paid our bill and boxed up our leftover pizza because there was no way we were leaving that deliciousness behind. We woke up the sleeping beauty and went off to find a taxi to take us back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep. We arrived back at the hotel right around 10pm, which was perfect because we would hopefully all be used to the time change by the morning.

June 21, 2019- Conquering Rome in 24 hrs!

We had a great sleep and woke up around 7:30am feeling ready to start the day. After showers and dressing, we headed to the breakfast room and enjoyed a leisurely meal out by the pool. We then headed out to the Vatican area because we had a 10am guided tour of St. Peter’s Basilica. It was only a
10 minute walk from hotel and super easy to navigate using Goggle Maps. We did have some trouble locating where we were supposed to meet our tour group. We booked this tour through Viator and the directions on the confirmation email said to meet outside of the Vatican Post Office. After asking a few different people where to go, we finally found the correct area which was off to the right hand side. We were told by someone to “look for the men with the blue shirts” and they were direct us from there. Blue shirts found and we were then given a sticker that signified which tour we were on and corralled into a specific holding area. There ended up being about 15 people in our group and we were given a headset so that we could hear our guide more clearly. This guide was less personable than Melanie. I don’t think he actually even introduced himself. That said, he clearly knew his stuff. He knew St. Peter’s inside and out and I felt the pacing of the tour was very good. Despite the crowds, we felt like we got a good viewing of everything and didn’t feel rushed. He allowed time for us to take pictures and he explained all of the details of each area of the Basilica very well. Our daughter was totally in awe, as were we, and this ended up being one of our favorite experiences in Rome. I also thought it was a good value. In total, the tour was 76 Euros for the three of us and was an hour long, although it actually ended up being closer to 75 minutes. We were also told we could stay and explore St. Peter’s more on our own should we wish to do so. I highly recommend doing some sort of guided tour of St. Peter’s.

We had a tour of The Colosseum booked for 3pm and then a night tour of the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel at 8pm ( if you are saying to yourself this sounds ambitious, you’d be correct) so we decided to walk back to the hotel and take a dip in the pool and grab a light lunch. It was already in the 90’s and we wanted to chill out while we could. Around 2pm we took a second round of showers and got ready for the second half of our day.

The Colosseum:
We took a taxi to the meeting point and arrived 15 minutes in advance of our reservation. We booked this tour through The Roman Guy. The tour was called the Restricted Access Belvedere Top Levels Colosseum Tour. After checking in with a staff member who was coordinating a few tours for this company, we met our tour guide leader. She was from Rome and was an archeologist. I wish I could tell you her name but she said it very quickly and I was embarrassed to ask her to repeat it. She was witty, warm, and clearly extremely intelligent. Our group had nine people in total, so it was a nice size for a tour of this site. After greeting us she said she had some bad news. Unfortunately she had just received word that they were not allowing anybody on the Top Levels that day apparently due to safety concerns. She was very upset about it but she said this kind of thing happens quite frequently and she would make sure we still got a great tour. They did have a disclaimer on the confirmation email saying that the company had the right to alter itineraries on an as needed basis. We weren’t too concerned and just glad we would still get to tour the site. Our guide had to go check in with a few different security agents because our passes were technically listed for a different thing, so after some back and forth action, we were finally waved through and able to enter at The Gladiator entrance area. Our guide gave us a wealth of information about the site and told us of the history behind the building, the politics involved, what life was like for the gladiators, for the animals, for the citizens coming to watch this spectacle. It was a fantastic tour. We spent about 90 minutes at the Colosseum, including making our way up to the highest level we were allowed to enter at that time. We had an awesome view of the whole arena. Afterwards our guide explained that she could then either continue on there for the last hour or we could go and take a walk through the Roman Forum. We all agreed we’d like to see the Forum so we moved on. We had to pass through a separate security station to access the Forum. By this point my little one was beginning to get super tired from the heat. Honestly, we were all feeling pretty beat by this point. So the guide explained that there were to places to exit and that if anyone was feeling ready we were welcome to part ways at the first exit point. We decided to take advantage of the first exit and go find somewhere to rest and grab dinner. We still had a tour of the Vatican to make it through, and it was close to 6pm. Our guide gave us a recommendation on where to find a good restaurant and we were off on our next adventure!

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Small Group Evening Vatican Tour Review:
After grabbing a bite to eat near The Colosseum we headed back St. Peter’s Square. We had an evening tour of the Vatican booked for 8pm and didn’t want to be late. We booked this tour through LivItaly again. I’m glad we gave ourselves extra time because we did have some difficulty finding our guide. We thought we were meeting them at a restaurant located in a different area of the square but the restaurant was outside of the square near the entrance to the Vatican Museums. We asked at least four different people for help and got conflicting answers. We finally found a gentleman who pointed us in the correct direction and told us to follow the wall all the way to the outside entrance. We made it just in time!

This was one of the most expensive tours we booked, as it is only offered on Fridays and supposedly is a hot ticket because the only people allowed in at that time of night are with tour guides, as the museum is technically closed. I had heard that the crowds were much better if you could do an evening tour. Our group was small with only four other people in our group, so there were eight of us if you included our guide. We did not use headsets on this tour, which I think some of our tour mates were upset by. I didn’t mind, as I did feel we could hear our guide well (but we did need to stick close by her) and I was sort of sick of using headsets at that point in the day. But I can understand how you might want one because acoustics are tricky as you navigating through the different areas. I thought our guide was excellent and extremely professional and knowledgeable. The museum areas are giant and there is so much to see its overwhelming. It was still crowded but it was confirmed by the guide that this was close to 50% less people than that afternoon. She had actually led a tour earlier that same day. She said the early morning tour was also a good time to go but afternoons were always very difficult. It’s also not air conditioned in most of the spaces, so it’s very warm. This tour included the Sistine Chapel. Because talking is not allowed and strictly enforced by the guards in the chapel, the guide gave us a thorough description of what we would see and the history behind various aspects of the chapel before we entered the space. We were then given about 15-20 minutes to walk through/sit in the chapel on our own and we met back up at the exit. No photography or video is allowed in this space either, so just be aware. There were definitely people breaking the rules and the guards were on them immediately. It’s not a job I would want, as I understand it’s their job to enforce that it’s a sacred space and meant to be used as a space for reflection and prayer. It makes it kind of a bizarre experience to be in there having a moment and then hearing the guards begin to yell at the crowds. We then walked out and spent a few minutes in St. Peter’s Square, all beautifully lit up at night, before the guards asked everyone to exit for the evening. Again, they mean business. They were not allowing people to dilly dally once it was closing time.

We enjoyed the tour a lot but this was something we probably won’t do again. I’m glad we had the experience but it’s hard staying totally engaged for the three hours in the Museums. There is so much to see I felt we almost became Di sensitized to all of it after an hour and half. Also, my family are huge modern art fans (my husband actually attended the Museum of Fine Arts school in Boston and is an artist himself) and we were bummed that we were rushed through the areas of the museum (former residence areas of previous Popes) that held more contemporary art pieces by Matisse and other great artists. It would have been refreshing to have more time to look at these works because it felt so different from the rest of the artworks on display. I was also fascinated by the fact that Matisse had made robes for the Pope and other large scale art pieces. If I were to go back, that is what I’d like to spend more time looking at and learning about. It’s understandable that the tour has to be focused in one specific way, as there is so much you could spend days walking around. We felt the tour was worth doing but it’s not a tour we feel we need to repeat.

We walked back to our hotel and we were excited that we could sleep in the next morning and then get ready to board the Disney Magic!

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Scroll down below the comments to read my next installment which includes boarding the Disney Magic and my stateroom review.
 
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It was a smooth landing and pretty chill disembarkment off of the plane but we were surprised to discover that when getting off of the plane we were outside and had to all get on shuttles to take us into the airport itself. The shuttles took us to passport security and luckily it moved fairly quickly.

This is very normal in Europe. European airports are very busy and have a huge amount of flights between countries, similar to the domestic flights in USA. Disembarking using stairs down to the tarmac and shuttle buses into the terminals, allows more planes to land.
 


This is very normal in Europe. European airports are very busy and have a huge amount of flights between countries, similar to the domestic flights in USA. Disembarking using stairs down to the tarmac and shuttle buses into the terminals, allows more planes to land.
I was just surprised that I hadn’t read about this in any of my guide books. It happened again in Barcelona where we used a shuttle to get to our plane. I’m not a seasoned international traveler. In fact, the only other trip I’ve taken to Europe was to Paris, and we didn’t experience any shuttles that trip, so I was just taken off guard. I wasn’t alone because there other travelers that didn’t anticipate the shuttles either. Figured it was worth mentioning in case there are others that don’t travel abroad frequently so they know what to expect. :)
 
I was just surprised that I hadn’t read about this in any of my guide books. It happened again in Barcelona where we used a shuttle to get to our plane. I’m not a seasoned international traveler. In fact, the only other trip I’ve taken to Europe was to Paris, and we didn’t experience any shuttles that trip, so I was just taken off guard. I wasn’t alone because there other travelers that didn’t anticipate the shuttles either. Figured it was worth mentioning in case there are others that don’t travel abroad frequently so they know what to expect. :)
Ironically, the only time I've ridden a shuttle bus across the tarmac in Europe WAS in Paris. Ha!
 


I’m beginning my Cruise Installment of my Trip Report here because I’ve run out of room for pics on my previous thread. Figured it might be nice to break into a new thread anyway since this is where the actual cruise begins.

June 22, 2019- All Aboard the Disney Magic!

We enjoyed sleeping in and having a nice leisurely breakfast at the Gran Melia. Again, such a beautiful breakfast spread in a perfect setting! We then went to pack up our room and met our driver at 11am sharp. I booked a private transport through LivItaly once again. The driver was awesome. We had a nice big SUV style Mercedes, cold bottles of water, and the driver was super friendly. It took just over an hour to get to the port, so not too bad at all. Our driver parked and there were luggage handlers right there to take our luggage for us. Security and check-in was a total breeze and by the time we checked in (at about 12:15pm) it was open boarding, so we walked right onto the ship! We had a 12:30 boarding slot but clearly it wasn’t really necessary at all. The vibe is definitely low key at this port and while the reps were all very friendly, there is less of a Disney feel than the Port Canaveral terminal. But considering how smooth and quick this process was, I have absolutely no complaints. I love that we were on the ship in about 20 minutes!

We arrived via Deck 1, so while there are greeters and they do still announce your name, it’s less exciting than when you board via the Atrium deck area. We only had one carry on bag with us, so we used the stairs to head straight to Cabanas for lunch. Cabanas was busy but didn’t feel crazy at all. I think arrival day for the Med cruises is generally more low key and staggered because a lot of people are still trying to get touring time in before getting on the ship. We enjoyed a relaxing lunch, grabbing lots of the yummy peel and eat shrimp, and ordered our first of many cocktails. Then we headed to check out our stateroom right around 1:30pm.

I was extremely excited because I had booked a “secret verandah” stateroom, which supposedly are kind of hard to get. We were in room 6634. The reason these have been coined by cruisers as “secret” is they are categorized as having navigator style verandahs but it’s actually a partially obstructed view verandah that has the clear plexiglass. So you are paying slightly less (in this case it was a very good savings as I really wanted the plexiglass style verandah but we saved over $500 by booking this category of stateroom. And truthfully, the obstruction is minimal and we actually liked how it made our verandah feel more private. I would most definitely book this room again for a future cruise. I believe there are only four “secret verandah” rooms on each of the classic style ships and you need to book ASAP because they are often go immediately. We booked this cruise just under a year out and I was surprised one was still available. It is located in the aft section of the ship, which some people are weary of. We didn’t have any issues in aft and while there was some noise and vibration felt during docking, it wasn’t anything that bothered us. Because this is an itinerary where you are getting up early each day because it’s so Port intensive, I didn’t mind the wake up call. The room was also in very good condition. Just be aware that these rooms only sleep 3, as there is no pull down bunk bed, only the sleeper sofa in additional to the Queen size bed. A perfect room for a couple or a family of three.
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I have to say that this room felt so well designed and spacious compared to our room at the Gran Melia. Even though our room at the hotel was nicely appointed it was immediately apparent how much consideration goes into the design of the staterooms on the ships so that every aspect makes sense for you as a traveler. From the split bathrooms, to the storage under the bed, to how nicely the couch converts each evening and the curtain that pulls out to separate the two sleeping areas, we never felt crowded and lived very comfortably in this room the entire week. My family said they could have even spent another two or three nights in this space, whereas we were definitely feeling crowded in our hotel room in Rome.

My daughter immediately asked to decorate our stateroom door and wanted to go explore the ship and hand out magnets for our magnet exchange group. I didn’t want to join a fish extender group because we would be tight on packing space. However, our awesome Facebook Cruise Group (we had a really phenomenal Facebook group experience for this trip) had also planned a magnet exchange group for people that still wanted to participate in an activity. This was perfect for us. We were in a group of eight staterooms and we all exchanged magnets over the course of the cruise. It was fun coming back to our stateroom and looking to see if any new magnets had appeared. So my husband and daughter went off to leave some surprises for people and I tackled the project of unpacking. We didn’t have a ton of time because we had a Facebook Cruise Group Meet and Greet at the Promenade Lounge scheduled before the mandatory muster drill. We were excited to meet the people we had been interacting with over the last six or so months. I had also organized a Pen Pal group for kids ages 7-10 and the kids in the group were also going to meet at this event. The Pen Pal group idea came about because my daughter had been eager to make new friends on our previous cruise the year before but she felt shy and a bit overwhelmed at the Kids Clubs and never really bonded with anyone. This was a longer cruise and I wanted to find a way for her to go into the cruise feeling like she already had a group of buddies. What started as a small group of 2-3 kids quickly turned into a group of about 15-16 kids. Turns out a lot of other families felt the exact same way. The kids exchanged letters over the course of about six months. Some wrote more often, some less, but it was fun because my daughter felt so excited that she was making friends prior to the cruise. All of the kids were lovely and they had a lot of fun meeting one another that first day. My daughter ended up bonding quickly with three other girls from the group they had fun meeting up at the Kids Clubs almost every night after dinner for an hour or more. One of the girls she connected with immediately and our families ended up hanging out sporadically throughout the cruise. We even ended up staying at the same hotel in Barcelona and enjoyed lots of pool time and a wonderful dinner out together. We are already talking about trying to vacation together again. Making new friends on the cruise was such a gift and totally unexpected. It is definitely one of my favorite parts of this experience. We are kind of shy when it comes to meeting new people so the fact that we had so much fun interacting with new people on the cruise also really speaks to how organized and comfortable the Disney crew makes you feel. We had so many lovely interactions with people throughout our seven days on the ship.

After our Facebook Group Meet Up, we headed to our stateroom to prepare for the muster drill. We were assigned Animator’s Palette as our station, which was nice because we were out of the sun and heat. By the time this was finished it was time to get ready for dinner. We chose Main Dining after lots of back and forth. We originally had Second Seating which sounded like a good idea because so many of the Port excursions were scheduled to come back right at 6pm. Main Dining began at 6pm and Second Seating at 8:30pm. However, after more thought, I felt there was no way our daughter could wait until 8:30pm to eat. We eat early at home (usually by 5:30pm) so I worked to book excursions that were mostly Half Day outings and would have us back on the boat by 3pm. The only day we were gone all day was our we traveled to Florence from Livorno. We let our serving team know that we weren’t going to get back on the ship until 6pm that day. They said not to worry and just come to dinner whenever we got back on the ship and they could make it work. However, we actually ended up skipping that one dinner because we ate a huge, lovely meal while we were in Florence and none of us was very hungry that evening. We ended up at the pool and just grabbed some slices of pizza later that evening. But I digress...so we switched to Main dining about two months beforehand and it worked well for our family.

We were assigned to Rapunzel’s Royal Table for our first night. We were all excited to try out this new restaurant which we had heard so much about “Tangled” is one of our favorite Disney movies, so we were really looking forward to this experience. I’ll add my review for it soon!

Rapunzel’s Royal Table:
This was probably the restaurant we were all the most excited for on this cruise. We really enjoyed our dinners at Tiana’s Place on the Disney Wonder the year before, so we were curious as to how this experience would compare. We all really enjoyed it. I love the atmosphere, which I find slightly more immersive theme wise over Tiana’s. I think it’s the softer lighting and there are definitely more prop details scattered throughout the restaurant. As other reviews have noted, the addition to the Thugg characters greeting you upon entering and interacting with tables throughout the course of the evening also helps bring the whole theme to life. These characters were really on point and did a fantastic job. Rapunzel makes rounds to tables to say a quick hello to everyone and there is a little show they put on as well in celebration of Rapunzel’s birthday. Because it’s pretty loud and more of a dinner theater type thing, it’s not conducive to lots of dinner conversation but that can actually be perfect after a long day of touring. It’s just worth knowing that going into the dinner.

The food our first night ranged from okay to outstanding. Our second dinner improved and the food was good to excellent. I imagine that part of this was we ate at Rapunzel’s on our very first night on the ship and I think that first night is a tough one for the serving teams. They are meeting everyone for the first time, trying to make sure everyone’s needs are being met, and finding their new flow. I’m always kind of blown away by how much food is prepared and served in one seating. So considering all of this, we were happy.

The first night we had the “Thug Menu”. I chose the goat cheese yellow and red beet tower. Flavors were really nice but I feel this dish would come together more if the beets were grilled or something. My husband had the wild mushroom soup and it was outstanding. In general, all of the soups we had at dinner were great. And they were all served at the perfect temperature which is quite impressive. I had the portobello triangoli for my main and I enjoyed it quite a bit. My husband had the turbot dish and he enjoyed it but I remember it was served kind of lukewarm. Our daughter chose to order salmon and asked for French Fries instead of rice. It also came with broccoli which is perfect because my daughter is a huge broccoli fan. We got the white chocolate bread pudding, which was recommended by our server, and I’m glad we did. This was one of our favorite desserts on this cruise. Our daughter got the signature cupcake and was very happy with it. We ordered coffee with our dessert and our assistant server was awesome about bringing the coffee out right before our desserts were served. We had the best serving team and totally fell in love with them. Our head server made a point of coming by almost each night to check in and say hello, our server (shout out to Omar!) was outstanding and always had great recommendations and went out of his way to engage our eight year old even though she was very shy at mealtimes. Our assistant server was so kind and attentive. We only have kudos to give them. They work so hard and bend over backwards to make everyone happy. We were truly sad to say goodbye to them at the end of cruise.

So we give Rapunzel’s Royal Table a thumbs up! It is awesome theme wise and a fun, interactive dining experience.

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June 23, 2019- Naples (Pompeii)

We booked the Half Day Pompeii DCL excursion for this port day. I knew my eight year old wouldn’t last a whole day in the heat and frankly, I’m not sure we would have either. While we would have liked to also have hit Pisa, it just wasn’t in the cards this time around. The Med intinerary is a bit of a marathon and we didn’t want to wear ourselves out too early on.

We had a light breakfast delivered via room service as a wake up call (cereal, pastries, juice, coffee) and then we headed for the Theater, where we were to check in for our excursion and board our bus with our tour guide. I highly recommend the pre-ordered room service for early excursion days on this itinerary. It allows you to get up and leisurely get ready in your room. And given how much food we had been eating, we weren’t super hungry in the morning. Our guide was friendly and provided plenty of info while on the bus ride to Pompeii, however, we noticed immediately the difference in the feeling of a large group tour. Up to this point all of our tours had been done in very small groups (10 or less people) or private tours. This allows you to really get very comfortable with the guides and ask questions spontaneously. Being on a large tour we didn’t feel as engaged, and our eight year old definitely lost interest more quickly in what the guide was saying as we walked the site. That isn’t to say that our experience was void of awesomeness. As soon as we entered the site we were struck with how huge it is and that it is a very active archeological site. In fact, I think they made a very new discovery just days before we were there.

I should add that while we were on the morning tour, it was still extremely hot and humid. It reached the 90’s by 10am and Pompeii does not have a lot of areas to hide from the sun. I think this aspect of things, coupled by the large crowds, also impacted our ability to enjoy the tour guide. We were glad we went but felt we would have been happier if we had booked a private tour and included time at the Archeological Museum in Naples. I think that would have been the ideal way to do Pompeii. Next time we are in Naples we will do the museum and couple that with a trip to the Herculaneum, which I have heard is smaller and easier to navigate alone.

June 24, 2019- Day at Sea

Who doesn’t love a day to just enjoy being on a Disney Cruise Ship? We allowed ourselves to sleep in and went to the Cabanas buffet just before the end of breakfast. I had character Meet and Greets scheduled for the Princesses in the Atrium, and then our daughter had a date to meet with some new friends in the Kids Clubs. One of the best parts of this cruise was that we met so many awesome people. We were struck by how friendly everyone was, Cruise staff and cruisers alike. People went out of their way to strike up friendly conversations and the overall vibe was just so pleasant the entire time. Our daughter ended up making friends with a crew she had met through the Facebook Pen Pal group we helped start via the Facebook cruise group. This was the best thing because it made her excited to meet up with these kids throughout the cruise and I could tell she just felt excited that she knew other kids. This also meant she enjoyed her experience in the Kids Club areas that much more. She ultimately become very close with one of her Pen Pal buddies and they started a tradition of meeting up in the club after they were done with their dinner. This allowed my husband and myself some quality time together to just take our time finishing dessert, grabbing a cocktail post dinner, and sitting out on the deck. It was glorious. I highly recommend seeking out your cruise group via Facebook. We had such lovely interactions with the group members and made some real friendships through it.

We spent some time at the pools but didn’t stay for too long since it was crazy crowded. We also took the opportunity to just chill on our verandah before it was time to take my daughter to her Bibbidi Bibbidi Boutique appointment. I booked it so the timing would work out where she would be dressed up for formal night so we could get some nice family pics at dinner. We met up with my husband at the Captain’s reception and grabbed some complimentary cocktails, hit the Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto Meet and Greets, and went to dinner! We actually really enjoyed the opportunity to meet new people and see everyone dressed up. It was a festive environment. After a lovely dinner (we absolutely fell in love with our serving team) we took a walk back to the room to freshen up before heading to the Theater for the show, Twice Charmed. Then it was straight to bed as we had a very big day planned for our next port of call.

June 25, 2019- Livorno (Florence)

We got up extra early because we were taking the DCL bus transport to Florence. This is a transportation only booking, so you tour the city on your own or meet up with a privately booked guide. We were doing the latter. The ride is a good two hours with traffic, which scares some guests from going all the way to Florence. But there was no way I was missing it! And I’m so glad we made the trip because it ended up being one of our favorites of the entire trip.

Once we got off the bus we had a little walk to the center of town and where our rep explained where we needed to be later that afternoon to meet again. We then had about an hour and half before we were meeting our guide for a tour of some of the highlights of Florence. We stopped into a few local shops (Florence is known for its jewelry and leather goods) and also grabbed some amazing espresso and gelato. Then we met our guide and the other four members of our small group. Our guide took us to some of the highlights of Florence before we made our way to a cue to enter the Accademia Gallery museum to see Michelangelo’s David. This was the only hiccup in our day. The cue was insane and while we had paid for a special ticket that the guide had assured us would allow us to not have to wait in a long cue, our guide didn’t seem to know which cue we did need to wait in. After about a good 40 minutes of waiting and lots of frustration from members of our party, we finally got into the museum. I was really overwhelmed by the beauty of seeing the David sculpture in person. First of all, it is huge. Much larger than I would have thought. And it is breathtaking. Despite being annoyed by the hassle of entering the museum, we loved our time in the museum. After spending about two hours here, we actually parted ways with our tour group because we had dining reservations for a late lunch at a restaurant that a good friend of mine said we could not miss. We pulled up walking directions via Google Maps and made our way to La Giostra. Okay, let me stress how AMAZING this experience was and how I am now obsessed with heading back to Florence to return to this restaurant. It’s down a small alley, kind of tucked away. It’s small, and has twinkle lights everywhere, and pictures of the owner and his family and various friends and famous patrons decorate the walls. When we arrived there were probably only two other tables dining and they were clearly locals and friends of the owner, who was sitting at one of the tables. We were greeted warmly and treated to complimentary Prosecco and an appetizer plate of some house specialities. Clearly, this establishment knows how to give stellar service. While we had one main server, all of the other servers paid close attention to all the tables and at any time some one would be topping of your wine glass, refilling water, and chatting with you. The food was divine. Every dish we ordered was beautiful but it was the very simple dish of penne pasta with tomato based sauce that was the stand out. I don’t know what about this dish made it such a star but I have never tasted a bite of pasta more perfect in my entire life. It was life changing. And my daughter and I can’t stop talking about “that pasta we had in Florence”. We had a very long, leisurely lunch and it couldn’t have been more perfect. We then made our way back to meet our bus mates for the return trip to the ship but managed to stop into a store that made leather handbags. I purchased myself a gorgeous black handbag that I now love to wear anytime I’m missing Italy. We made it back to the boat just in time for a light dinner on the pool deck and we managed to rally for Pirate Night.

We secured a table to the right of the stage and met up with our new friends for the Pirate themed festivities, including a pit stop at the special buffet in cabanas. This was such a great day and we made so many wonderful memories. More to come soon! I’ll try and finish up this report in the next couple of weeks.
 

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We originally had Second Seating which sounded like a good idea because so many of the Port excursions were scheduled to come back right at 6pm. Main Dining began at 6pm and Second Seating at 8:30pm. However, after more thought, I felt there was no way our daughter could wait until 8:30pm to eat. We eat early at home (usually by 5:30pm) so I worked to book excursions that were mostly Half Day outings and would have us back on the boat by 3pm. The only day we were gone all day was our we traveled to Florence from Livorno. We let our serving team know that we weren’t going to get back on the ship until 6pm that day. They said not to worry and just come to dinner whenever we got back on the ship and they could make it work. However, we actually ended up skipping that one dinner because we ate a huge, lovely meal while we were in Florence and none of us was very hungry that evening. We ended up at the pool and just grabbed some slices of pizza later that evening. But I digress...so we switched to Main dining about two months beforehand and it worked well for our family.

When we were on the transatlantic in May, our serving team told us that with Mediterranean port days they know people are sometimes late getting back, and they will therefore tell guests to come at whatever time they are back, not to worry about being a little late. I think that's honestly great they do that!

Can't wait to read the rest of your report :)
 
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Okay, seems to have worked. There’s some highlight pics.
 
June 26, 2019- Genoa

We planned for a light day with no major excursions. Since our day in Florence was jam packed, we needed a day to recoup. It was easy to disembark and walk to the port area where there were plenty of shops and cafes. At this point, our daughter was pretty exhausted and feeling a bit emotional. She got a little freaked out by the large numbers of skinny, stray dogs roaming about, the fairly strong smell of the fish in the markets, and some of the other aspects of the locale. She said “it feels scary here”. I thought it was odd she felt so nervous. While this area did feel a bit less “shiny”, I enjoyed that it felt less touristy. I think being a bit overtired was contributing quite a bit. We ducked into a random bakery where the specialty was special focaccia pizzas. Here was another trip highlight. This very spur of the moment decision landed us the opportunity to have one of the best meals of the trip. The pizzas were absolutely delicious and the Baker was so kind to us. While she spoke no English, she was very patient with us and helped us pick out some different options to try. The pesto pizza was my favorite and very fitting as Genoa is known for both its pesto and focaccia. After lunch we decided to hit the local aquarium which was right next to the port area, near where the Magic was docked. The aquarium was a nice size and had some wonderful exhibits open. Our daughter loved it. I was upset to see they had dolphins in captivity but otherwise it was a fun detour. We were back on the ship by 2pm and took advantage of the quieter pool time.

After another delightful dinner we headed to a magic show in the Walt Disney Theater. Our daughter met up with her new BFF and she joined us for the show. The house was packed, so we ended up in one of the last rows. The magician was apparently from Venice and we heard he was very good from some of the staff. Well, not only was he fabulous but when he asked for a volunteer we couldn’t believe it when he ended up walking all the way to the back of the house and picked our daughter! She did a great job as his assistant for a good 10 minutes or so. It was exciting to see her up there, holding her own, and being quite fearless in front of a crowd. She was a celebrity for the rest of the cruise, as we had people who recognized her for the next few days. After the show she got the chance to meet the magician with her buddy and they took pics with him. He then gave her a signed copy of a magic trick book. It was a very special night and one we won’t forget.

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June 27, 2019- Cannes, France

My daughter had requested a pool day and my husband decided that they would just hang out on the boat. I was not missing Cannes! So after having a family breakfast at Cabanas, I flew solo to take the tender over to Cannes. I waited until after all of the morning excursions had departed and then easily jumped on a tender with no wait. The ride over was so stunning. It was a perfect summer day and I spent about three hours walking around, taking swims in the perfect water, and sipping espresso and eating crepes by the water. I ended up having a lovely interaction with a women who lives in Cannes and once again, found that some of the most memorable parts of the trip were the ones that were unplanned and cost almost nothing.

It began to get quite hot after lunch and I had a good three hours to myself and decided to head back to the ship to rejoin my family. The tender back was just as easy and pleasant. I was excited because I had a spa appointment booked for later that afternoon. I met my crew at the pool and we were able to ride the Aquadunk about four times in a row with almost no wait! This is a must do! It’s best to try and go on a day when many others are out on excursions. I checked in for my massage at Senses (it was fabulous) and then went back to the room to hang out with my daughter while my husband did the Chocolate and Liquor tasting. He said this experience was “off the hook” and that next time we have to do it together. He loved it so much he still talks about it and when I start hounding him about using our placeholder for 2021 I know all I need to do is mention the Chocolate and Liquor tasting. Lol.

As if the day couldn’t get better, we had a date at Palo that night. We took our daughter to the pool deck for dinner and dropped her off at the Oceaneers Lab and headed to dinner. We had the chance to dine at Palo on the Wonder and had a fantastic time, so we were very much looking forward to this experience on the Magic. Our server was attentive and knowledgeable and helped us decide on the perfect choices for our night out. We ordered the calamari with jumbo shrimp app, because we loved it last time so much, as well as the lobster pappardelle in a smaller portion. This was all served after an exquisite antipasto plate served table-side. For our mains, I had the scallops and my husband had the filet. Dessert had to be the famous soufflé for us both. It was a lovely time and everything was delicious. At this point in the evening, we were so stuffed that I didn’t know if I would make it but we didn’t want to miss Tangled in the Theater! Somehow I got myself moving, we picked up our daughter from the Kids Club, and got to the second showing. We made sure to arrive a good 20-30 before show time so we could get prime seats. We all liked the show quite a bit and felt the actress playing Mother Gothel was particularly strong. However, the show had some inconsistencies in plot line and writing in our opinion. Full disclosure, I’m a retired professional dancer, trained at an arts conservatory with a very strong musical theater program, and am now a full time performing arts educator. So, I watch Theater with a pretty discerning eye. Outside of what we felt were some writing issues, we thought it was a really fun show. But we’d put the Frozen show on the Wonder above it. In fact, we actually liked the last show of the cruise, Disney Dreams, more than Tangled. But still a great way to end yet another great day!

I want to add a note that we had exceptional service from our cabin attendant, Pa. Not only was our cabin cleaned twice a day, she always left an awesome towel animal surprise at turn down in the evenings and made sure to check on us throughout our vacation. This just continues the trend of our feeling that Disney Cruise Line just delivers in the service category. Pa made us feel like we were at home and our daily interactions with her helped make our time on the ship that much more enjoyable. A+++8C9F405D-43EF-4C52-BBB1-5FB50BB48788.jpeg8DB1A923-CFE0-468B-B92F-D6E996931CB2.jpegCB20EA47-A208-4D2C-A03B-C15A97EBC8CF.jpeg4BD7CDBB-CB6D-46FF-AB37-C5C4F74181FE.jpegFA97046E-ACE3-4E1D-A41E-815156F0CC54.jpeg7AC1CCF7-D5E3-4AEB-9652-894C3B8FE96B.jpegC38E311E-CFF9-49C9-8EE4-AFAE4FD069FC.jpegE4DCA9CA-0676-4F16-859E-5A53315459A6.jpeg8C9F405D-43EF-4C52-BBB1-5FB50BB48788.jpeg8DB1A923-CFE0-468B-B92F-D6E996931CB2.jpegCB20EA47-A208-4D2C-A03B-C15A97EBC8CF.jpeg4BD7CDBB-CB6D-46FF-AB37-C5C4F74181FE.jpegFA97046E-ACE3-4E1D-A41E-815156F0CC54.jpeg7AC1CCF7-D5E3-4AEB-9652-894C3B8FE96B.jpegC38E311E-CFF9-49C9-8EE4-AFAE4FD069FC.jpegE4DCA9CA-0676-4F16-859E-5A53315459A6.jpeg
 
June 28, 2019- Toulon, France

We booked a DCL excursion for this port called Castellet Village and Wine Tasting. At the time, the excursion was family friendly and included a honey and lavender activity for the kids at the vineyard. But I noticed that this same excursion seems to now be 21+ only.

We took a bus up the hillside to the picturesque village of Le Castellet. The village was adorable and there were tons of tiny shops carrying lavender products, sweets, blown glass sculptures, and linens. We took advantage of purchasing some fun gift items for family back home and grabbed some ice cream because it was crazy hot. It was actually record breaking hot that day. I believe it reached 109 degrees. Despite the heat, we all loved walking around this Provincial town and it almost made me want to break out in full on Beauty and the Beast sing-a-longs. We reboarded our tour bus to meet our very fun loving guide. This tour was maybe a bit smaller with about 30 of us and our guide was a very sweet, funny, and sharp witted French woman. She had us laughing the whole insane climb to the Bandol vineyard. The road is tiny, bumpy, and up in the hills. So it’s a windy trip to get there. The entire bus started experiencing some nausea at that point and luckily someone on board had something to hand out for those of us that needed it. It’s funny because I took Dramamine the first day or two onboard but really felt fine by day three and hadn’t used meds at all. My other family members were fine as well and my daughter is super prone to motion sickness. So it’s funny that a bus ride in Provence was the thing that set it off for us. We were fine once we took the meds and then were welcomed by the staff at the vineyard. The kids were gathered up and taken on a scavenger hunt while we learned about Bandol wines and sampled a variety. The kids joined us after getting a chance to eat some sort of delicious apple and honey tart and we bought a few bottles of wine to take home with us.

By the time we got back to the boat it was time to clean up for dinner, so we changed clothes after some showers and we were off for our last meal with our serving team. We don’t usually go to the breakfast on the last morning because I find it too stressful to try and get ready, gather bags, and make that early seating. We prefer to sleep in a bit, I grab some items from Cabanas and bring them back to the room, and then we don’t feel as rushed. We were sad to say goodbye to our dining team. We really loved all three of them. Unlike some other reviewers, we saw our Head Server quite a bit over the course of the cruise and felt he was a very involved member of the team. We gave them all their gratuity envelopes before heading out to see Disney Dreams in the Theater!

Like I said earlier, we loved Disney Dreams. It’s just a very sweet story and it’s fun to see how they incorporate some favorite Disney songs into the mix. The actress playing the little girl was excellent. She really sold the story, which I think was key. And the ending is quite magical. We all got a little teary and we were sad this amazing cruise was coming to an end.

Last stop....Barcelona!
 

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June 29, 2019- Barcelona (Disembarkation Day)

Sad, sad day! Honestly the only thing holding us back from all crying was that we were excited to have three days in Barcelona. We woke up, I grabbed some some plates from Cabanas, and we gathered up our stuff to head out. We said our goodbyes to Pa and touched base with our new buddies from PA who we discovered were also staying at the same hotel in Barcelona! This also helped us from feeling sad. We still had fun adventures in store.

We had to wait for them to give the all clear for disembarkment but once they made the announcement is was extremely easy. We literally just walked off the boat. There aren’t any customs procedures to deal with so it’s super simple. We then carted our bags to find our driver we had hired to take us to our hotel, Hotel Arts Barcelona. Unfortunately we had a bit of wait at this juncture because we got off the boat much kore quickly than we anticipated and then our driver hit traffic. But about an hour later we were at our new home away from home.

First impressions: The Hotel is awesome. It was apparently built for the Barcelona Olympic Games and is considered to be a luxury hotel. From an amentities standpoint it definitely is a standout. We found the front desk staff to be wonderful, the pool manager was awesome, and the grounds were immaculate. The hotel has a lot you can walk to with gorgeous beach and city views. More to come on how this hotel stacks up later on.

We couldn’t get into our room yet because it very early, so we were escorted to the lounge because we were staying on the Concierge level floor. A very sweet Concierge host came to greet us, explain they would hold our bags until our room was ready, but we were welcome to use the lounge now and all of the hotel amenities. We grabbed a small bite to eat, some drinks, and grabbed our pool bag and headed to the pool area to meet up with our friends. Our kids hugged as if they hadn’t seen one another in years, when in reality it was less than 12 hrs., and we all spent some time just hanging out, waiting for our rooms, having some cocktails and gelato, and swimming. The pool area was quite crowded, so we had to share chairs. The pool itself is gorgeous and overlooks the beach. There is a second pool that is for adults only that has a champagne bar and lots of electro music playing in the background. I only got over there for a few minutes because I’ve got a kid, and to be honest the vibe over there was not me. But it did seem like a more chill spot to hang out, as it was much less crowded.

Here’s where I started to worry. Despite being told we should be able to get into our room early, we actually didn’t get in until almost 4pm, which was well after normal check-in. This was annoying. However, we were super pleased by the room and the view. So we let it go, took a rest, and then got ready to head to our first night out in Barcelona.84273D4A-F12A-436B-A998-6D18E5657B8F.jpeg31FBEAC3-7499-4A35-A066-D7198F358BBF.jpegF40BD98C-0599-4F78-9583-0D80AD5B72A8.jpeg587D27E7-C774-4ABD-A5F5-DDF009EC26AC.jpeg387338D4-DB16-48FA-A977-B57E228EC756.jpeg93CC1D9C-CA8E-499B-9B16-C14B2C167EEA.jpegFEDAE1A0-C1C5-46FC-A28E-D5E0229C210A.jpeg72D0FD4E-8D1E-4829-84A3-86D775A0928F.jpeg548B79B0-2E2B-4182-AC73-0DA2D3AE6D2A.jpeg
 
June, 29, 2019- Barcelona Day 1 Cont.

After a short nap, we got up and ready to go meet our friends for dinner. We decided that one of us should go grab two drinks from the lounge so we could take advantage of the concierge amenities. However, my husband was told that we weren’t allowed to take anything out of the lounge. No food or drinks could leave the lounge area. This was the next super annoying thing to happen. I get that it’s probably difficult to constantly have to get dishes from rooms and get them returned to the lounge kitchen, but if you are paying a major premium price for Concierge I expect to be able to take a beer or a glass of wine back to my room. It didn’t help that my husband said the hostess that spoke to him was very curt. My husband is a very chill person, so for him to say someone was a bit cold means they were super icy.

We decided to skip the lounge and just went to meet our friends and we all walked to dinner. We had a fabulous time laughing, getting to know one another, and eating amazing food. After a beautiful walk along the beach front back to the hotel, we enjoyed a good nights sleep.897E1820-546E-4772-869B-8BBE428BD35E.jpeg73F8715F-5720-4E60-9796-00B8E29B0E9B.jpeg12908CDF-E57B-445A-9693-2C5BE827D6E1.jpeg
 
June 30, 2019- Barcelona Day 2

We woke up, grabbed breakfast in the lounge, inquired about a good place to make a dinner reservation, and headed to our main event for the day, visiting Gaudi’s La Sagrada Familia. Once again, Concierge dissatisfaction in that breakfast items weren’t replenished so there wasn’t much of a selection left at 9am. This is unacceptable in my opinion. The coffee maker was being temperamental, and there were many tables left with dirty dishes on them. To top it off, when we sought help finding a good spot for dinner that hostess on duty seemed disinterested and gave us the feeling she was too busy to help us. When she finally did help she basically gave us the name of a place but said she couldn’t reach anyone but maybe we could call later. Again, at a hotel that is considered a luxury hotel on the lounge floor, we expect better standards of service. DCL staff was making these people look poorly trained and super lacking in the hospitality department.

We grabbed a cab headed to La Sagrada Familia. Just when I thought I couldn’t be blown away any more, we discovered this breathtaking Basilica. I won’t do it justice in my description, so look at the pics. But more importantly, go there. It’s definitely the most amazing piece of architecture I’ve ever seen and we did feel very emotional inside of it. We did an audio tour, so we had the ability to go at our own pace while inside and that was perfect. We spent a good hour and half just roaming around and taking it all in. Then we took the elevator up to the Tower. While we knew it was super high, we weren’t prepared for how scary it could be up there. You have to climb single file up/down the tower after the elevator takes you to a certain point and my daughter began to have a bit of a small panic attack. She froze up and started to cry, so we never made it to the very top and had to calmly talk her down. She was okay just a bit freaked out. She can occasionally get nervous about heights (we are prob skipping the Skyliner on our March WDW trip) so just take note that you might want to skip this portion of the touring experience if you have anxiety around heights. I really think it was the super narrow and winding stairs that did it for her. It was kind of dungeon like with tiny barred window areas and it just set her off. Outside of this issue, it really was amazing and we highly recommend it. I feel like it should be the one thing every person sees when they visit Barcelona.

At some point we made our way to the famed La Bouqueria. It must have been during Day 1. For the life of me I can’t remember going there between check-in and pool time but we must have. Anyway, Im including some pics from that experience here as well. We loved visiting the bustling market and I made it my job to get a counter spot to eat delicious tapas. The food didn’t disappoint and we were glad we braved the standing room crowd to snag a spot at this beloved dining spot.

When we returned to our room after a long day of sightseeing we were super bummed that it had not been cleaned. It was easily 3pm and couldn’t understand how no one had come to make the bed, take out the trash, etc...by this point in the day. We said something to the hostess before we left for dinner. Fast forward: after returning from a lackluster dinner that was made upon one of the hostesses recommendations we found our room never attended to at all. This was the three strikes you are out defining moment for us. Despite having great rooms and some awesome amenities in a great location, this hotel is not worth half of its price point. We can’t recommend it and won’t every return. When we filled out the guest survey and explained why we left very dissatisfied the hotel manager did send us an email apologizing and offered a complimentary room upgrade at our next stay. Ummm, no thanks. First of all, we were staying Concierge this trip so unless you are giving me some crazy Suite, I’m not sure how much more upgraded we can go. Secondly, we won’t return. We had a lovely time in Barcelona but this hotel experience was easily the worst part of our trip. But keeping all things in perspective, it really was an amazing trip. Truly the trip of a lifetime and outside of a few annoying things at Hotel Arts, we had one amazing experience after another. We made new friends, met tons of lovely people from all over the world, had amazing food and drinks, and saw so many breathtaking sights.

If you are wondering if a Disney Med Cruise is worth it, in my opinion it is worth every single penny! Do it! Happy cruising! That concludes this trip report. I hope it helps some future cruisers out and feel free to reach out if you have any questions. C933D110-5D31-4B4A-8726-D22DC7E71145.jpeg5C133940-9134-4093-A832-7DA97E7B1228.jpeg74CD04D3-DC04-44D1-BBC3-84D6D0955011.jpegF76E534F-0B9B-4FE9-A376-F033D935BFCB.jpeg3DA1FD39-0E4C-4018-A8BD-31062419B80A.jpegCAB7E71E-7A0E-4095-AC15-0741DC3316EB.jpegBE721641-4E32-47A3-A6A2-D6DCFB76DDE9.jpegEAA9AFCC-4477-41AF-9D09-AF0FC66D330B.jpegC4EB7411-27A2-4B8C-B307-DC13B92D9442.jpeg
 
thanks for updating the rest of your cruise. I love that you did some solo time onshore and just chilled. :)

Regarding your stay in Barcelona. I kinda feel that its a mis match of expectations regarding customer service. Customer service is very different in Europe compared to America. I get it, I've been travelling to America almost every year since 2000 and in my experience, what is expected and the norm in American hotels can be very different to the norm in central Europe. I have had customer service experience in America, where I have found it much in your face and the constant bending over backwards to please just over the top. But I get thats how its done in America and I accept it with gritted teeth and just smile and think, oh god I wish they would just stop and leave me be.

Especially coming off a Disney cruise, where you get the American customer service, even though you are in Europe. In my head, I can see the hotel staff, shrugging and saying pfft Americans , as your complaints mounted up.

Most likely they never have guests coming back at 3pm and possible scheduled your room for the end of the shift, and didnt expect you come back until evening. Then when you complained, they might have just not bothered, again pfft Americans.

Regarding the food recommendations. European food expectations and tastes and American food expectations and taste are very different, especially in central Europe. What was recommend could possibly have been popular with Spanish / Portuguese / French / Germans etc but might not be what Americans are used to. Again you had just come off a Disney cruise, where the food is targeted for Americans.

Also expecting a full selection at the end of breakfast, to me may not be how the hotel does things. As a former chef I can see the logic and reasoning behind not having the breakfast items replenished. Again you are assuming that how things are done in America is how things are done in Europe. And regarding the staff member not being helpful , just because they are serving concierge guests does not mean that they have superior customer service skills. Again you are comparing to Disney Cruise, where the concierge staff and Palo servers have a higher standard than the MDR. Thats not a very realistic comparison.

I'm not belittling or saying your concerns about the hotel were not legitimate concerns, just that Europe and European ways, and European customer service is not like America. Just because its considered a luxury hotel, does not mean it will be the same as a luxury hotel in America.
 
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thanks for updating the rest of your cruise. I love that you did some solo time onshore and just chilled. :)

Regarding your stay in Barcelona. I kinda feel that its a mis match of expectations regarding customer service. Customer service is very different in Europe compared to America. I get it, I've been travelling to America almost every year since 2000 and in my experience, what is expected and the norm in American hotels can be very different to the norm in central Europe. I have had customer service experience in America, where I have found it much in your face and the constant bending over backwards to please just over the top. But I get thats how its done in America and I accept it with gritted teeth and just smile and think, oh god I wish they would just stop and leave me be.

Especially coming off a Disney cruise, where you get the American customer service, even though you are in Europe. In my head, I can see the hotel staff, shrugging and saying pfft Americans , as your complaints mounted up.

Most likely they never have guests coming back at 3pm and possible scheduled your room for the end of the shift, and didnt expect you come back until evening. Then when you complained, they might have just not bothered, again pfft Americans.

Regarding the food recommendations. European food expectations and tastes and American food expectations and taste are very different, especially in central Europe. What was recommend could possibly have been popular with Spanish / Portuguese / French / Germans etc but might not be what Americans are used to. Again you had just come off a Disney cruise, where the food is targeted for Americans.

Also expecting a full selection at the end of breakfast, to me may not be how the hotel does things. As a former chef I can see the logic and reasoning behind not having the breakfast items replenished. Again you are assuming that how things are done in America is how things are done in Europe.

I'm not belittling or saying your concerns about the hotel were not legitimate concerns, just that Europe and European ways, and European customer service is not like America. Just because its considered a luxury hotel, does not mean it will be the same as a luxury hotel in America.
Thanks for reading. While I agree that sometimes it’s cultural differences in service standards, the inconsistency lies in that the hotel staff interactions we had on the grounds, at the front desk, at the pool were all great. It was really our experience on the concierge floor that was lacking. If I am paying over $500 night, I think I should be able to get my room cleaned, especially if I mentioned it to the staff. If because I am American that is why they felt the need to ignore the request, that’s not cool either. For the record, we had amazing experiences at every other hotel we visited in Europe. I’ll add that we are not people who shy away from new experiences in different cultures. As for the food on our last night, it was not a culture difference. In fact, it was the opposite. It was clearly a tourist trap restaurant. They didn’t have local fare featured, some of the same items we had the previous evening at another establishment just suffered in comparison, and the place was filled with not a local to be found. We honestly should have just walked out but at that point we were hungry and it was late. Oh well. I’ll add that we didn’t seem to be the only dissatisfied people. There were many people lining up at the concierge desk to try and get help throughout our stay. Many international travelers including a family from Australia and a family from India who were also having issues. I worked in both industries throughout college and always think about how hard a job it is. So my opinion is pretty objective in those regards. I only say this because it is a review of my trip experience and I think others should know how we felt. I think you can do better for that price point. I’ll add that I believe the real issue was they were understaffed due to it being the beginning of the Summer season and they didn’t have people trained for the job. One concierge hostess told us she didn’t regularly work up there and we only saw one person attending to rooms. The pool manager actually admitted they were experiencing their first real busy week at the hotel for the season. The bellhop told us it was his first week. So I think our experience was very likely due to understaffing and people just getting trained. Again, it’s life. People have good days, bad days. This was my experience and someone else probably had a great one.
 
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