Trip Report Our 19-Day Mediterranean Adventure – Greece, Turkey and the Search for Free Wifi

Finally, right? It seems like I’ve been waiting forever to start this, but really we’ve only been back three weeks! And in that time I’ve lived in a hotel for two weeks and driven across the country from Washington DC to our new home in...wait for it...Las Vegas! For some reason I have chosen now, surrounded by boxes that need to be unpacked, as the time to start my trip report. Stalling maybe? :D So here it goes!

What: A massive 19 day (13 days on the cruise with 6 more including travel time and extra days in Europe) trip extravaganza. A 12 night Mediterranean cruise with a day in London beforehand and a few days in London and Barcelona afterwards. So yes. This is going to be a long stinking trip report. Oh, and I took 5239 pictures. On my camera! That doesn’t even count the Instagram/iphone photos you’ll see scattered throughout the report.

Great day in the morning.

Why: Because cruises are awesome mostly. But also because I was able to do a last-minute 11 night Med cruise back in April of 2010 with my daughter and some other family and friends, so this was a makeup cruise for my son and husband. It worked nicely as a graduation trip/present. :)

When: June 13-July 1, 2013

I booked this cruise the day it came out, back in January of 2012.

As time got closer we realized it was going to get crazy. My daughter was going to have to miss the last day of school, my son was graduating from high school the Saturday before the trip, we had a house full of family that whole weekend and a big graduation party on Sunday, he then left and was coming home one day early from his senior trip to make it on time, and we were moving across the country to Las Vegas so our household goods were all moved the day before we left. Then the kids were traveling with their youth group to Scotland 3 days after the cruise ended, so it really didn’t make sense for us to come all the way back home and we needed to stay in Europe for three more days before we dropped them off in London Heathrow. Got all that? Yes. Like I said, a little crazy.

Totally worth it though. :)

Who: Us! Here we are a few days before we left! This picture is a celebration of the whole Whiting family – but mostly Chase. The high school graduate. Also appearing in this photo are myself-Tammy, hubby-Stephen, and daughter – Ally.



My parents! My parents were on our last Med cruise, and have been in several of my trip reports. They had quite the trip in store for them. Here they are in Monaco:



My in-laws! My in-laws were also on my last Med cruise, as well as a few other cruises with us, so they may look familiar if you've ever read one of my reports. Here they are in Palo:



My brother-in-law! Scott has appeared in a few trip cruise trip reports as well. He’s the oldest of three boys with my hubby falling in the middle. Here he is in Mykonos:

 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After laundry finished, we caught one of our favorite cruise activities – Jack Jack’s diaper dash!

Jack Jack’s Diaper Dash is absolutely hilarious. Unfortunately today there were only two entries. It was still so funny. The babies start at one end and when the race begins their parent on the other end tries to convince them to come! The parents use stuffed animals, cell phones, anything.

The audience cheers and screams which sometimes terrifies the racers. Seriously, don’t miss this. It’s so fun.



See mom enticing baby with a cone?





We saw my Dad there who was finishing his pineapple Ice Cream!! What?! Pineapple Ice Cream? I have got to get me some!

We went to another animation class next and then went to see the ice carving demonstration.

 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After dinner we skipped the show and packed. Then we all went to the Til We Meet Again show and ran around for character photos. Well, Ally and I did.

During Til We Meet Again, the characters are introduced and then disperse all over the lobby. There’s about 15-20 minutes to run around and get pictures. The lines are incredibly short and you can see just about everyone during that timeframe, believe it or not.

Here they come!






http://tammywhiting.smugmug.com/Tra...69706_CwB9mG#!i=2745227214&k=czhpq2C&lb=1&s=A




Hello Donald:


http://tammywhiting.smugmug.com/Tra...69706_CwB9mG#!i=2745228233&k=KZCpTj3&lb=1&s=A
 

Soarin Fan

New Member
Your pictures and trip report have been fantastic. I keep showing DH your pictures saying "wouldn't you love to see this, or this?". Because of your trip report we have decided to go to Europe (on a Disney cruise of course) for our 25th instead of Hawaii. I have to go back and write down all the tips you gave on how to get around there.
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I HATE that I missed this! <3 :p

I know you do. Look at that! :D

Your pictures and trip report have been fantastic. I keep showing DH your pictures saying "wouldn't you love to see this, or this?". Because of your trip report we have decided to go to Europe (on a Disney cruise of course) for our 25th instead of Hawaii. I have to go back and write down all the tips you gave on how to get around there.

Thank you, Soarin Fan! Oh you are going to just love it so much!
 

ChuckElias

Well-Known Member
Tammy,

Amazing pictures of Malta. I so wish this had been a stop on our Med cruise. (Maybe instead of Olbia.) And the Segway tour looks fun. I'm surprising my wife and daughter with a Segway tour of Ft. Wilderness when we go down in November for Food and Wine. Yup, 6 mph!! Better stay out of our way.

Quick question. Do you remember which ship this is, in front of the Magic?

 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
My alerts must not be working quite right. I left off on page 7. I have some catching up to do. :eek:

Well I just gave you plenty of time to catch up! Lol!

Tammy,

Amazing pictures of Malta. I so wish this had been a stop on our Med cruise. (Maybe instead of Olbia.) And the Segway tour looks fun. I'm surprising my wife and daughter with a Segway tour of Ft. Wilderness when we go down in November for Food and Wine. Yup, 6 mph!! Better stay out of our way.

Quick question. Do you remember which ship this is, in front of the Magic?

Thank you, Chuck! Malta was awesome. We really loved it.
6 mph! Woo hoo! Lol
I don't remember what ship that was! I'm sure I looked, but I don't remember at all!
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'm back! So sorry I didn't quite finish before I left! But I've only got a couple of days left! Should have it finished this weekend. :)

Day 15: Disembark and Barcelona

After a crazy long cruise, they were finally making us get off the ship today. :(

We were up at 7 today and went upstairs for breakfast in Topsiders around 8.

We walked by a family trying to get into their main dining room for breakfast and were very unhappy when they were told it was too late. “But no one said we couldn’t come late!”

Oops.

Ally wasn’t ready for pictures yet this morning -





After breakfast, we walked off and said goodbye to the Magic as we know her. Goodbye Magic! See you and your new self in October!
:)

We’d booked a shuttle to our hotel today to avoid long taxi lines, although they didn’t look bad from what we saw.

Our hotel was close, right on Las Ramblas, the beautiful walking area near the port.

We checked in and left all of our bags with the bellman. Everyone sat for a moment and enjoyed the free Wi-Fi:



We had a plan today! The first stop was Camp Nou, the home of FC Barcelona. Stephen and his family are all big soccer fans. Stephen grew up playing soccer and is a blogger for the fan site of DC United, our (formerly) local team. There was no way Chase and Stephen were going to Barcelona without a stop at Camp Nou. Stephen's family were all game.

My parents were more just there for social reasons.
:)

We had already bought the tickets, we just needed to find where to print them! There are little printing stations all over, and it didn’t take too long to locate one. Figuring out how to use it took longer!

But we did and we were off to the subway.
 

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