Transatlantic & Med 2007 BLOGs and TRIP REPORTs and other Important FAQ

I was hoping to find some information for those who took this age range as well. Mine would be 3 1/2 and 5 1/2 for the TransAtlantic cruise. I am mostly worried about the flight. They have some trouble with their flight from PA to FL!!!

We did the EB TA in 2007 DD was a month shy of 4. She did ok on the flights. I thought she would sleep, but :sad2: . Instead she watched hours and hours of french cartoons (Air France flight with personal entertainment set ups). She did final crash on our last leg from Houston to LAX. She had trouble with the descents (Sp?), but I knew that would be a problem. I gave her motrin, sudafed and Afrin (per pediatrician's instructions) and that helped a bit. She had been treated on the ship for an ear infection, but I could tell it was still there. I called DH from Spain (he was home in the States - had to work:guilty: ) and he contacted the pediatrician and made us an appointment for the day after our return. Turns out she had double ear infections and a sinus infection. :scared:

She loved the cruise, but was often asleep at dinner (and awake again at 1am!) The time changes were brutal for us from the west coast. After she was on the antibiotics from the ship doctor, she was allowed to go to the club. She did some things with the club, but I kept her with me a lot because I wanted her to take it easy.
 
Is there anyone out there who did the Med with small children? My DD's will be 5 & 2 and a half...

Mel
x

We did the Med cruise with DS4 and DS2. We had a great time! We had a "less is more" philosophy when it came to excursions and only did 2 DCL tours. For more details, see my trip report:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1489149

I say it's definitely doable. A much different trip than for those families with older children, but still a very fun one. :thumbsup2
 
Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about the double ear infection!
Thank you for sharing your experience with me. I have a request in with a TA for a price so perhaps the cruise cost will help me decide one way or the other.

How long was your flight total?

We did the EB TA in 2007 DD was a month shy of 4. She did ok on the flights. I thought she would sleep, but :sad2: . Instead she watched hours and hours of french cartoons (Air France flight with personal entertainment set ups). She did final crash on our last leg from Houston to LAX. She had trouble with the descents (Sp?), but I knew that would be a problem. I gave her motrin, sudafed and Afrin (per pediatrician's instructions) and that helped a bit. She had been treated on the ship for an ear infection, but I could tell it was still there. I called DH from Spain (he was home in the States - had to work:guilty: ) and he contacted the pediatrician and made us an appointment for the day after our return. Turns out she had double ear infections and a sinus infection. :scared:

She loved the cruise, but was often asleep at dinner (and awake again at 1am!) The time changes were brutal for us from the west coast. After she was on the antibiotics from the ship doctor, she was allowed to go to the club. She did some things with the club, but I kept her with me a lot because I wanted her to take it easy.
 
Hello all,
i'm going to be doing the 8 day Dover to Barcelona cruise in July 2010 with my 2 son's.( 15 y/o and a 2 and a half!).
Were there any excrusion that the older children could go on alone?( like at castaway cay.) i really hope there is as, being relistic the 2 1/2 y/o will only be able to deal with short/child friendly actvities.
Did anyone here do any trips in Cadiz or Gibrator?
Ruth
 


As another DISer who has signed up for one of the 2010 special cruises, I want to send Moderator lbgraves a HUGE THANK YOU for compiling those TRs.

And thank you to all of the wonderful DISers who are kind enough to share their experiences! :flower3:

:thanks: :thanks: :thanks: :thanks: :thanks:
 
I did the first med cruise and the west-bound trans-atlantic.

they were both amazing but the trans-atlantic was my fave! 8 sea days and 6 of them in a row!! :rotfl:

it was the best holiday of my life!
 
We never got around to posting a trip report, but sailed the 7/18/2007 Med (10-night) with our family - two adults, two boys ages just-turned-11 and 9 3/4. We did all DCL excursions to take away the anxiety of "missing the ship" for our older son (and me).

We arrived in Barcelona the day before sailing, but by the time we got to the hotel and did our pre-registration with DCL, we only had a few hours to explore Barcelona. We did the hop-on-hop-off bus tour which was actually worth the time and a good way to get an overview without having to figure it out by yourself. DCL was fabulous with the transfer from the hotel to the port (we did DCL for air, pre-cruise-hotel, and transfers).

Our first sea day was a catch-up-on-sleep-get-over-jet-lag day.

Because DCL will not go to all the same ports, I'll only write now about the ones that are common between 2007 and 2010.

Naples: We chose to do the Capri, Sorrento, Pompeii for Families tour which started with a rocky hydrofoil boat ride across from Naples to the Isle of Capri.

DSC00719.jpg


The hydrofoil was set up similar to airplane seats. There was a restroom onboard. It took a while to get over there so it was great for the boys to sleep a bit more as we had an early departure and a full day ahead. At the Isle of Capri, we boarded a tour boat which took us about half-way around the island, pointing out coral, and going through that famous rock formation Faraglioni.

DSC00737.jpg


Then we had some free time in the harbor area - about an hour or so, and we were given a voucher for a gelato (try the lemon-strawberry - mmmmm). There were restrooms to use in one of the gift shops but it was definitely an adventure. We was the funicular that takes people up but didn't go up. We would not have had time to do anything at the top by the time we figured out what to do, so we just did some shopping and took some pictures.

DSC00745.jpg


From the Isle of Capri, we took the hydrofoil over to Sorrento where we then took a shuttle up the cliff to the town. As a previous poster wrote, we were taken on a "tour" of a shop where we saw a demonstration of inlaid wood techniques and then allowed free use of their clean and air-conditioned restrooms. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant that was really delicious and also free use of their restroom. We didn't have long in Sorrento beyond the lunch but there wasn't a lot to see in the immediate area where we were.

DSC00765.jpg


We then had a bus ride to Pompeii where we were taken in a shop where they make cameos, and allowed to use their free and clean restrooms before going into the site. We were all interested in seeing Pompeii as the children had heard about it at school from time-to-time and we had talked about it before going. It was phenomenal. The only thing I would say is that doing it with children, I would have thought they would do that part in the morning rather than the end -- my guys were tired and it was blazin' hot - while we enjoyed Pompeii portion, I think we would've enjoyed doing our tour that day in reverse.

Then we had a bus ride back to Naples where we didn't see anything of Naples itself... but the kids had a great nap on the way back.

(more in following posts)
 


Choosing an excursion for Rome was the most difficult thing for us. We knew it would be a super-long day, and by having the 10-night cruise, we didn't have a sea day between any of the ports. We had some specific things we wanted to see in Rome and some specific things we didn't want to spend the whole day doing, so we used that to pick our excursion.

We wanted our excursion to include the Colosseium, but not just the outside - we wanted to go in. We wanted to see the Trevi Fountain. And we wanted to see the Vatican but not spend the whole day there.

Our excursion started early in the morning on the Roma Express. Peter Pan rode with us. That's one thing I wanted to mention, too -- DCL did a great job of getting their photographers out in the various ports as well as the characters. We had an escort from the Port to the train station in Rome where we met our guide. Our escort also stayed with us for the whole trip, too. Our tour guide in Rome was the best we had - she was fabulous - very knowledgeable, her English was excellent, and while we didn't dilly-dally anywhere, she certainly didn't rush us through. We had lunch at a restaurant with several other excursion groups and we had use of their restroom :) From there, we went to the Vatican where it was hot as blazes during our wait to enter. We had the obligatory souvenir store stop for restrooms and shopping before reboarding the bus to return to the Port. We nearly missed the train and would've had to wait thirty minutes if we hadn't all run through the train station. Whew.

The following day was La Spezia. We were exhausted and because we were on the 10-night, we didn't have the sea-day to rest between Rome and La Spezia (Florence/Pisa). We chose an afternoon excursion that took us to Pisa and included the climb to the top of the tower. This was our favorite excursion in terms of fun. I think getting to sleep in that morning was what the boys enjoyed the most. This was a tender-port, so we didn't head over to La Spezia until closer to time to meet our excursion. Again, we had an escort to Pisa (and one other thing - there was usually at least one DCL cast member accompanying the various tour groups on "non-official duty" although some went "officially") and took a bus to Pisa where we boarded a "choo-choo" which is an open-air tram/train that took us to the town.

We got to climb the tower:

e043.jpg


and then had some "free time" while waiting on the rest of our group to finish - they only let so many up at a time - and if you don't do an excursion that includes climbing the tower, or if you do it on your own, make sure to find out ahead of time how to get tix because otherwise you won't get to go. We did a little souvenir shopping and got gelato.

Here's my souvenir from Pisa:

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We then had a walk through the town and ended up at a restaurant for pastries.

e044.jpg


We took the choo-choo back to the bus. On the way back, the DCL guy who was with us noticed that our guide had miscounted and we had left someone behind at the pastry shop. So we waited while our escort went back to get her. The confusion resulted from some non-excursion tourists hopping onto our choo-choo and the escort got discombobulated when counting and having them get off. Anyway, that took about 30- minutes for the guest to be fetched -- she was on the excursion alone but no one knew she was alone so none of the rest of us were looking out for her (you know, like if your mom is in the restroom, you'd say hey, wait a minute, mom isn't here?). Anyway, all was well, but we made it back to get the last tender back to the ship for the night. Whew. Again, that's why we chose DCL excursions.

(more to come)
 
The other port that is the same between summer 2007 and summer 2010 in the Med is Villefranche:

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We again did an excursion through DCL and went to Nice. Our tour guide met us at the port and we boarded a bus for the short drive to Nice. We chose the shorter excursion because of the children. We did an open-air "choo choo" again in Nice, and had a great overview of the area which was absolutely breathtaking. There was an opportunity for a carousel ride which our boys passed on in favor of walking down to the non-sand beach. This was a short excursion (about 3 1/2 hours) and very relaxing after the busier days in Italy.

In the afternoon, we left the boys onboard the ship (again, it was a tender port) and DH and I explored the shops in the immediate area. We thought this was the most beautiful of the ports.

I'd be happy to answer any questions about our experiences - it was truly a memorable trip. We still talk about it. And the boys get to say "hey, I saw that with my own eyes" when they have pictures of the colosseium or the leaning tower of Pisa or the ruins of Pompeii in their school books. Or when watching the Amazing Race on t.v. and seeing some of the places we have actually been....
 
Where can I find the description of the 2010 Med excursions from DCL? I want to compare the price with the private tour.
 
My family and I went on one of the 2007 Med Cruises and I would be happy to answer any questions as folks plan for 2010. I did not post a formal trip report, unfortunately. We did truly enjoy it and I highly recommend it as an outstanding trip.

My family and I are also going to the Baltics this year (2009), but on RCCL instead of DCL, and I'd be happy to answer questions about that as well once we get back in late June.
 
Where can I find the description of the 2010 Med excursions from DCL? I want to compare the price with the private tour.

DCL will not release their excursion information for these cruises until December 2009/January 2010 at the earliest based on past history. If you want to see what was offered in 2007 you can find the link to the past excursion information on the first page of this thread.
 
I need help! LOL!.

DH and I are thinking of doing the med transatlantic cruise next year but we want to do the Eastbound going to Barcelona and then fly back but I am having a very hard time trying to find a review of anything bu westbound. I see a lot of reviews on the first page here but are any of them eastbound?
 
Wow so much info. Too much to read on my blackberry. Ill have to make notes when I get my laptop on line

Thank you all for posting all the info for us to sort through
 
I did the first med cruise and the west-bound trans-atlantic.

they were both amazing but the trans-atlantic was my fave! 8 sea days and 6 of them in a row!! :rotfl:

it was the best holiday of my life!

Please tell me more about the westbound trans-atlantic. We are booked on a 5 day double-dip next June on the Wonder, but now I'm thinking about switching to the longer trip. I love the sea days, but I'm wondering if it's just too many. What did you do on all those sea days? Did they have 14 different nightly shows? What was the weather like? TIA. If I'm going to do this, I need to arm myself with lots of info to convince DH to switch!!
 

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