11 Night Mediterranean Cruise – Mouse style!

11 nights in the Mediterranean!! With the Mouse!!:sohappy:

I got a last minute travel agent special too great to pass up! Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love Disney cruises. This was my fifth! When this deal came out, I was scrambling to make it work.

Dh couldn’t get off work for two weeks, but he was beyond sweet and told me to go ahead! I knew the kids would love it too, but there was no way Ds15 could miss two weeks of high school. Dd12 however, no problem! I talked to Ds who insisted he could go at first. After a week passed, I decided to talk to him again.

The conversation went like this –

“So, about this cruise…” – Me
“Mmhmm” – Him
“You know there’s no way you can miss two weeks of school, don’t you?” –Me
“Yeah, I know.” – Him
“So you won’t be bitter if I go?” – Me, sounding hopeful
“No, I guess not.” – Him
“Would you be bitter if I took your sister?” – Me
After an eternal silence – “No, but you’re going to have to buy me off.” – Him (obviously my child):lookaroun

Now, who else to bring? My parents were tempted, but Mom felt like it was someone else’s turn since she took advantage of the last travel agent special cruise with me. I started talking to friends, and one, Debbie, didn’t hesitate, she was in! She didn’t mind taking her dd14 out of school for this kind of opportunity. And bonus, she has a ds17 who could commiserate with my ds15 while we were gone. We talked to the girl’s teachers and got the green light. Woo hoo!

My parents were still toying around with going. I checked the military specials and there was a great one. They got a category 5, verandah, for an 11 night cruise for $2300. Total. For two people. :eek: Pretty amazing!
I realized my in-laws wouldn’t want to pass that up either, so they booked a verandah too.

Here we all are. These photos are your teasers for different parts of the trip!

Dd and I:
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Debbie and her dd:
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My parents:
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My inlaws:
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The scene was set, we were ready to plan! And we only had about 6 weeks to do it!

About three weeks before the cruise, we got our room assignment. A verandah!! I couldn’t believe it! With all of my cruises, we’d never splurged for one before. We’ve always been happy enough with our portholes. I was crazy excited to try a verandah, though. What a perfect cruise to have one on!:sohappy:

About a week before we left, the Icelandic volcano started to erupt, shutting down European airspace for days. We were flying directly into Barcelona, which thankfully wasn’t immediately shut down. I was pretty worried we weren’t going to make it, and incredibly thankful we purchased trip insurance. I DID NOT want to use it, but it sure provided some piece of mind.

I have to tell you, of all the reasons I thought we might have to use our trip insurance, illness, flight delays, etc., a volcano in Iceland never crossed my mind!:lol:

I had also devised about 13 alternate plans to get there, including – flying into Madrid if it was still open, flying anywhere in Europe we could get to, flying into Morocco and taking the train/ferry/train to Barcelona, and meeting the cruise at any port we could get to.

Well, thankfully, about two days before we left, everything started to open again. Woo hoo, indeed!

After several days spent researching ports and excursions, little bit of shopping, and lots of packing, the big day had finally arrived!
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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We relaxed and listened to a street performer for a little while before going back to the hotel for bed.

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I took my last pictures of the trip :cry:, on the balcony.

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Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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Thursday, May 6th, Day 15 – Home again home again

Our grand vacation was over. After 2 weeks, 3 continents, 8 countries (9 if you count Vatican City), and 1500+ pictures, it was time to head home.

We did end up with one last adventure, thanks to our transfer company.:lookaroun

My in-laws flight was at 10:30, the rest of us at 11:00. My fil is the kind of man that likes to be at the airport 3 hours before a domestic flight, so he would have liked to have been there 6 hours before an international flight! :lol: The transfer company assigned us a pick up time of 7:30. He wasn’t real excited, but decided to stick with us.

We ate the free breakfast in the hotel at 7:00 and waited for the shuttle.

And waited and waited.

The shuttle was 30 minutes late! :eek: The hotel said I should call my travel agent. I laughed and said I am the travel agent! :D

They finally came, and then we drove down the one of the busiest streets in the city to get to the airport.

About half way there, the bus stalled. Hmm. That wasn’t very comforting.

About 5 miles from the airport, 2 hours before my in-laws flight, the shuttle bus died. In the middle of the highway.

We could not believe it. The driver got on his phone, but we had no idea what he was saying. I walked to the front of the bus and insisted he call us taxis immediately.

With the language barrier, we weren’t sure if he did or not. We waited and waited, and finally, with cars zooming past on all sides, we got out and started flagging down taxis. You should have seen us trying to get our luggage out of the bus and into the taxis. Dangerous doesn’t even begin to cover it.

My in laws and Debbie got in the first taxi and took off. It cost them 20 Euros. We flagged down another one, and just then, one of the taxis the company called showed up. We tipped the one who stopped 2 Euros for stopping and got in the other one. The company paid for it.

We rushed in to the airport with less than 2 hours before our flight. We ran into my in-laws in a separate line, and luckily (?) their flight was delayed 4 hours! Ours was delayed an hour, so we were all good.

Needless to say, I am not happy with the transfer company.

After 24 hours of traveling we finally made it back home. I couldn’t wait to see ds and dh! I’m still adjusting to the time difference but it was an unbelievable trip!

Thanks so much for reading! I know this is a crazy long report!!
 

tiaragirl

Well-Known Member
Loved this TR =) That sounded like a complete nightmare at the end though.. luckily it all worked out (and your FIL *did* end up at the airport 6 hours before his fight in the end, just sayin'!).

Take another cruise! I'll be waiting ;)
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Loved this TR =) That sounded like a complete nightmare at the end though.. luckily it all worked out (and your FIL *did* end up at the airport 6 hours before his fight in the end, just sayin'!).

Take another cruise! I'll be waiting ;)

:lol: That is so true!! :lol: I did tell him when I ran into him at the airport, "See! I told you I'd get you here in plenty of time!":lol:

My next one is scheduled for Alaska in May of 11!!:sohappy:

Of course there could always be some unscheduled ones.:D
 

tiaragirl

Well-Known Member
:lol: That is so true!! :lol: I did tell him when I ran into him at the airport, "See! I told you I'd get you here in plenty of time!":lol:

My next one is scheduled for Alaska in May of 11!!:sohappy:

Of course there could always be some unscheduled ones.:D


Funny, I was saying to someone at work yesterday that I'd love to do an Alaska cruise!
 

corey154

Active Member
loved this trip report, as I always do enjoy your reports!! Thanks for sharing your trip with us and can't wait until your next adventure!
 

erstwo

Well-Known Member
Just wanted to say thank you one more time for posting the report! I know these TR's take a LOT of time, so thanks for doing this so we can all "live" through you!

Too many beautiful pictures to mention- I loved them all!

Thanks again! :sohappy:
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Just wanted to say thank you one more time for posting the report! I know these TR's take a LOT of time, so thanks for doing this so we can all "live" through you!

Too many beautiful pictures to mention- I loved them all!

Thanks again! :sohappy:

No, thank you for reading!!:)
 

HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
That's one heck of a hotel!! :sohappy: And that view... breathtaking! I really like the shot of everyone on the stairs. It's really too bad you're not also in it.

As for the departure issues, I can't imagine how much stress you were all feeling. Add to that how excited you probably were to get home. I never want my vacations to end, but when they do, I'm just ready to get home.

Fabulous review, Tammy. I really do hate to see it end. I'll be looking forward to the scrapbook pages to come. :D
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
That's one heck of a hotel!! :sohappy: And that view... breathtaking! I really like the shot of everyone on the stairs. It's really too bad you're not also in it.

As for the departure issues, I can't imagine how much stress you were all feeling. Add to that how excited you probably were to get home. I never want my vacations to end, but when they do, I'm just ready to get home.

Fabulous review, Tammy. I really do hate to see it end. I'll be looking forward to the scrapbook pages to come. :D

:lol: Thank you, Holly! Maybe I'll actually get back on the scrapbooking wagon this summer.
 

WishIWasAtWDW

Well-Known Member
AMAZING!!! sounds like a wonderful trip!! very sad that the trip report is over but like holly said, i look forward to seeing some scrapbook pages! you have so many great pictures to work with! thanks for sharing! :D
 

Crush Dude!

Back from WDW!Counting down to DLP in November!
The last show was the always excellent, Disney Dreams. After that, we went back to our room and put on some pjs so we could put our clothes in our luggage that was about to be taken. After our luggage was gone, we remembered the Till We Meet Again party. Oops! :eek:

I confess, we went in our pj’s.:lookaroun

For those of you who are character stalkers, this is a character palooza! They spread out all over the lobby and you run around and take as many pictures as you can.

We were going from one to the next so quickly that I didn’t pay attention to my settings, or the fact that my lens hood was casting a shadow on my flash. So just get the feel for characters everywhere, and don’t look at picture quality!

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After we said goodbye to Mickey and Minnie, I went up on deck to get some night shots. It was raining! :brick: Serves me right for waiting until the last night. I had to settle for pizza and ice cream.:lookaroun

One more day to post! Thanks for sticking with this!

Who are they in the last pic???
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thank you crush dude!! I can't say enough wonderful things about it!:)

In the last picture they are with some performers from a Lion King portion of one of the shows.
 

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