Slightly O/T, but I'd also be interested in a trip report mrsp1030.
I plan on writing a much more extensive trip report on my blog very soon ( as in when my kids return to school next week) but can help with some basics right now.
1. Barcelona: We flew in the on Friday morning and booked our own transfers and a 4 hour tour directly from the airport via Barcelona Day Tours...They even purchased our Skip the Line Tickets to Park Guell ahead of time and it was definitely a great way for us to see Barcelona in a nutshell. Wonderful service overall. They also provided our transfers to/from the port. We stayed at the Renaissance using points and there was a Disney service rep there for those staying via Disney and using their transfers. Wonderful hotel with a nice rooftop area for drinks and hanging out in the evening. We walked to Playa Catalunya in about 10 minutes and ate dinner right at tip of Las Ramblas. Never felt unsafe at all. Wonderful city and people.
2. This was our 2nd time on the Magic so we knew the ship well. We even had our previous server one morning for breakfast. We had a 11:30 arrival time and we were checked in and on the boat by 12:30. There is a small shop in the port where you can grab some wine/water to take onboard. We grabbed 4 bottles of wine and it was well worth it! I think we left port a tad late that evening as the sail away party, we didn't sail way until almost 7pm during the opening show. The main shows were Twice Charmed on the 2nd night, Tangled on the 5th Night, and Once Upon A Dream on the Last night. We did have Pirate Night on Villefranche with a smaller display of fireworks but it was very odd as it was also the Captain's Gala night so the waiters were dressed in tuxes. We had Animator's 3x in our rotation and the first time we had the main show and last night we got to do the actual animation show so the kids loved it. Main complaint was the pool was constantly closed for accidents at minimum 1-2x per day it seemed. We did eat at Palo and it was amazing; so quiet and very rarely busy at this is a port intensive cruise. If you do eat there, I highly recommend the pan seared sole...wow...we could have eaten about 10 of them..amazing.
Spa services were great as well: I had a stone massage and a pedicure and both were excellent. Kids as always loved the kids clubs and we had tons of family fun doing game shows, bingo, etc...
3. Ports: In Italy I booked all my own private tours ahead of time and they were all fantastic. All drivers were in port, on time, and gave us amazing days. In Naples, we went to an olive oil factory and tasted 30 varieties, shopped in Sorrento, made our own pizzas at a tiny village outside sorrento, and visited Pompeii. In Rome, we saw all the sites, went into St.Peters and had a fantastic afternoon. In Livorno, we visited Pisa, biked through Lucca, visited a unique town along the coast and had the best gelato ever back in Livorno. All my guides asked for ideas and they would even stop and add extra time if we asked. Our tablemates said their trip to Rome via disney felt rushed and they did not enjoy it nearly as much as what we did it seemed. We did book a Disney excursions in villefranche and it was a let down after our 3 private ones in Italy, mainly because I felt rushed...like 10-15 min of free time at every stop, not the easy pace our guides gave us.
Hope that helps somewhat. Ask any questions and I will try my best to help answer.
