Med Cruise info

[daisydog2]

Hi Everyone!! I'm a type "A" pre-planner (yikes)!!
We are going on a Med cruise from Barcelona to Rome in June 2020. I'm anxiously awaiting trip reports for this years Med cruises..
Any advice on excursions? Also, has anyone every been able to upgrade at the port on the Med cruises? Are they usually full?
You guys are Awesome, TIA- Michelle

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Hi Everyone!! I'm a type "A" pre-planner (yikes)!!
We are going on a Med cruise from Barcelona to Rome in June 2020. I'm anxiously awaiting trip reports for this years Med cruises..
Any advice on excursions? Also, has anyone every been able to upgrade at the port on the Med cruises? Are they usually full?
You guys are Awesome, TIA- Michelle

Did you check the Cruise Trip Reports forum?
https://www.disboards.com/forums/disney-cruise-line-trip-reports.10/

 

[aggiedog]

Our first cruise as a family was a Baltic with DCL. We did 2 DCL port excursions and 2 I arranged thru some research on TripAdvisor and Cruisecritic. I was scared to venture from DCL, but I know from experience with friends that there are some great non-cruise company experiences out there. My entire family decided the self-arranged ones were better, hands down, not even close. The DCL excursions were a far distant second. Aside from cost (DCL will be more expensive) the other ones made better use of port times, we saw more/did more, in a small group instead of a large tour bus. There's lots of BTDT experience and reviews on the two sites I mentioned. I contact companies I'm interested in, and go with the one that has the best communications and is willing to work with what we want. We travel with a family group of 8, so private tours are almost always as cheap as doing a small group tour. If you are a smaller group, most companies can plug you into small group tours, or you can find like minded travelers on your roll call.

 

[TestingH2O]

My TR is from June 2018.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/w...ar-old-find-the-med-magical-complete.3688775/

We LOVED our private tours and found them an amazing value. We actually prefer private tours to the DCL ones.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

We went last summers on a 10 night. My trip report is in my signature. We did a lot of private tours and a couple DCL tours.

 

[MissyMouse77]

We are going on the 7 night Med cruise from Rome to Barcelona this June. I'll try and post a trip report when we return.

Just finished booking our tours in Rome (Private Sunset Walking Tour via The Roman Guy, Vatican Evening Tour and Colosseum Upper Level Tour via Livitaly) and we are doing a DCL excursion to Pompeii, as well as using DCL transportation to Florence. However, we booked a tour via The Roman Guy once we get to Florence. We are also taking a DCL excursion to Portofino from Genoa. We don't have big plans in Cannes or Toulon. They will be our beach/pool, spa, Palo dinner days.

We haven't booked any tours yet for Barcelona but we know we will visit many of the Gaudi sites and eating some yummy tapas! I have an old friend that has family in Barcelona and we are meeting up with them to do a lot of our touring.

 

[tlprice]

We did the Barcelona to Rome last June. We only did one DCL excursion which was in Marseille. The cattle call feel of it made me very glad we didn't have any other DCL excursions booked.
In Villefranche we walked to the train station and took it to Monaco on our own. We went to the Oceanographic Museum, which we enjoyed, but Monaco was really not our thing. I wouldn't go back there. My daughter and I would have been perfectly happy just strolling around Villefranche and playing in the Med at the little beach there.
In Genoa we went to the Galata Museo del Mare. The DCL shuttle bus dropped us off right in front. We really enjoyed the museum and it had a lot of hands on activities for kids. We walked back to the ship because it was really close and we didn't want to wait for the shuttle.
In Livorno, we had booked Tuscanybus in advance to Pisa. The DCL shuttle bus drops you off right where you get on the tuscanybus. We went to Pisa and had pre-purchased our tickets online to climb the tower. Doing this on our own saved us 100s of dollars over DCL's excursion.
In Pompeii we were going to take the train to Pompeii, but we didn't dock at the main dock, so it was complicated to get there. So, we ended up paying for a shuttle at the port to take us to Pompeii and pick us up afterward. It wasn't very much money. We used Rick Steves audio Europe to guide us around Pompeii (free app for your phone).
Since we ended in Rome, we spent 3 days there seeing everything we wanted to see on our own.

 

[Figment_Fan]

We are doing a back to back in the Med this June. We are using Devour Tours in Barcelona and The Roman Guy in Florence and Rome. The rest we are doing with Disney. I've never done a trip report and I am finally thinking of doing one to give back to all of you who contribute so much to my planning. If not for this board, Rick Steves, and Youtube, my vacations would not be as great as they are.

 

[GuardMusic]

Hi Everyone!! I'm a type "A" pre-planner (yikes)!!
We are going on a Med cruise from Barcelona to Rome in June 2020. I'm anxiously awaiting trip reports for this years Med cruises..
Any advice on excursions? Also, has anyone every been able to upgrade at the port on the Med cruises? Are they usually full?
You guys are Awesome, TIA- Michelle

You sound like me last year! We are on the Barcelona RT next month. And yes, I WILL be posting a detailed TR here, so stay tuned!

 

[daisydog2]

Did you check the Cruise Trip Reports forum?
https://www.disboards.com/forums/disney-cruise-line-trip-reports.10/

I did Schmoo, Unless I missed something, it seemed a couple of years outdated. I was hoping for more current info. But I'll take a look again- Thank you!!

 

[TestingH2O]

I did Schmoo, Unless I missed something, it seemed a couple of years outdated. I was hoping for more current info. But I'll take a look again- Thank you!!

FYI - the Med cruises haven't started for 2019 yet. The 2018 reports, and there are at least 2-3, are as recent as you will find on this forum.

 

[babyruth]

We did the Barcelona to Rome last June. We only did one DCL excursion which was in Marseille. The cattle call feel of it made me very glad we didn't have any other DCL excursions booked.
In Villefranche we walked to the train station and took it to Monaco on our own. We went to the Oceanographic Museum, which we enjoyed, but Monaco was really not our thing. I wouldn't go back there. My daughter and I would have been perfectly happy just strolling around Villefranche and playing in the Med at the little beach there.
In Genoa we went to the Galata Museo del Mare. The DCL shuttle bus dropped us off right in front. We really enjoyed the museum and it had a lot of hands on activities for kids. We walked back to the ship because it was really close and we didn't want to wait for the shuttle.
In Livorno, we had booked Tuscanybus in advance to Pisa. The DCL shuttle bus drops you off right where you get on the tuscanybus. We went to Pisa and had pre-purchased our tickets online to climb the tower. Doing this on our own saved us 100s of dollars over DCL's excursion.
In Pompeii we were going to take the train to Pompeii, but we didn't dock at the main dock, so it was complicated to get there. So, we ended up paying for a shuttle at the port to take us to Pompeii and pick us up afterward. It wasn't very much money. We used Rick Steves audio Europe to guide us around Pompeii (free app for your phone).
Since we ended in Rome, we spent 3 days there seeing everything we wanted to see on our own.

wow I hadn't even considered that Rick Steve could get us around Pompeii with an audio tour. that would save a ton of money!

 

[tlprice]

wow I hadn't even considered that Rick Steve could get us around Pompeii with an audio tour. that would save a ton of money!

Pompeii would have been quite overwhelming, but he takes you through all of the highlights, he tells you what things are, tells you where to go and where to turn, etc. The nice thing is that you can skip things if you want, can listen to the parts you want, you don't have to stand around listening to a possibly boring tour guide, and he tends to make things pretty interesting. We also used his audio tours at the Colosseum and the Sistine Chapel.

 

[ninergrl6]

I did Rome to Barcelona last summer. My favorite excursion was with DCL to Cinque Terre from the port of Livorno. It was a gorgeous day on the water with lovely views, stops in two towns, and free time to explore and eat on my own. Bonus: it happened to be my birthday and I had one of the best meals of my life! I'd been to Florence and Pisa before and didn't want to repeat those, and I was too nervous to venture out on my own not on a tour, so Cinque Terre was the perfect choice for me.

 

[JARNJ3]

I did Rome to Barcelona last summer. My favorite excursion was with DCL to Cinque Terre from the port of Livorno. It was a gorgeous day on the water with lovely views, stops in two towns, and free time to explore and eat on my own. Bonus: it happened to be my birthday and I had one of the best meals of my life! I'd been to Florence and Pisa before and didn't want to repeat those, and I was too nervous to venture out on my own not on a tour, so Cinque Terre was the perfect choice for me.

I am currently signed up for that one - on the June 14th - 8 night Rome to Rome cruise!

I chose it because it will be a Monday when we stop in Livorno & the museums are closed in Florence, and I heard that Pisa is just a tourist trap. I don't need a photo of me holding up the tower

I am so looking forward to this excursion - the photos look beautiful. Thanks for sharing your experience here

 

[Figment_Fan]

Hey JarnJ3, I'm on that tour with you. I think we're out of La Spezia on this one. Livorno is on the June 8 cruise. Not sure that there is any appreciable difference between the two tours other than what part we are out of. And, yes, we chose this one as the museums are closed on Mondays. And also to PP, thanks for sharing.

 

[Figment_Fan]

Hey JarnJ3, I'm on that tour with you. I think we're out of La Spezia on this one. Livorno is on the June 8 cruise. Not sure that there is any appreciable difference between the two tours other than what part we are out of. And, yes, we chose this one as the museums are closed on Mondays.
And also to PP, thanks for sharing.
And, that's Pirate night. Going to be a long day.