Euro Disney

Well we did it, went to eurodisney. It was...hmmm...ok. Not as good as california but definately had it's good things.
1st was space mountain. It was fantastic. They do it a little different here and..spoiler alert...it has corkscrew turns..you go upside down! We were definately suprised and I was a little green at the end!
2nd was Big Thunder..my personal favorite in california and Euro disney did it better. It seemed faster and you went under water to it's own island. It was very cool.

The bad things...well hate to say it but the people. Everyone was pushing and shoving. So many people cutting in line. It was hard to be happy in this place.
Also, I never thought I would appreciate the "smoking" zones in california. Here people smoke EVERYWHERE...in lines and all over the park. It was definately a shock from california.

Unfortunately, it rained so the parade was cancelled. Which was a bummer. We did get to see some characters and tay got some autographs.

The other bad things...the cost...OMG...it was 20 euros for a hamberger and chix nuggets at lunch! Crazy!..All of the food was expensive...but something I've never seen at disneyland...SALES..they had so much merch on sale. I'd never seen anything like it in california. We got some trinkets as memories, but otherwise we really stayed away from the souveniers.

We didn't get over to MGM, so Robert if your reading this, I could not find a "cars" shirt for adults. Plenty for kids, but nothing in the big boys size. It was actually hard to find items with anything DLP on it.

Anyways, we are packing up for london tomorrow. I broke down and hired a car service to take us to the train station. No lugging luggage tomorrow. Will do the same in london.

Then it's the big red bus to sightsee and harrods and back to the hotel to head home.
I won't be blogging again until then as my battery is pretty much dead!

Can't wait to be home. Talk to you all then!

Will add pics then.

City of Lights

Here we are in Paris. We have done the eiffel tower



Louvre...

Versailles

It has been fun to run around paris. BTW, at the Louvre they have a kids tour. It's a brouchure in french, but with pictures. It really help taylor stayed interested in the art. She was trying to "find" the pictures in the brochure. She really liked Versailles, looking at a "real palace" was too cool to her. If we had planned better, I would have gone to versaille in the morning to see all and then the louvre. OH well...there's always next time.
Taylor still prefers the ship, but she has liked what we have seen so far. I am in a internet cafe to post this report and the french keyboard is killing me. Tomorrow is Disneyland, then london and home. We are missing our kitty very much.

Waiting at barcelona airport

Pictures have been updated through Marseilles.

We are currently waiting for our flight to paris. It's about 2am california time, 11am barcelona time. Taylor is sleeping next to me. I am trying to use up the 15 minutes I have left on my airport wireless card. I just finished work! Yea, might have some more to do, but I don't know if I'll be able to charge the laptop in france. I forgot the converter. Thank goodness the ship had US plugs or i'd have been in trouble.

It was hard to leave this morning. We stopped and said goodbye to the johnsons. Taylor was very sad so she wasn't in the mood for hugs! She wanted to stay on the ship again, what could be the problem..didn't we have 2 more months of summer vacation? HAHAHA..she just doesn't understand. Now if mommy had won the bingo pot last night...hmmm..

So, we might blog again in paris, if we can post otherwise we'll see our family and friends in July when we return.

Hope you all had fun reading about our trip. Have a good summer. We'll miss the mouse!

Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze

Today we went to Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze. It was a quick bus ride to Monaco. We arrived in a parking garage and then went up to the outside level. It was beautiful. Beyond Beautiful. Gorgeous ocean views of this hillside principality. We were on the lookout for Crown Price Albert. You know he’s looking for a wife! We toured his “castle”, saw where his sisters live.


We also went to the church where his mother and father are buried. Princess Graces grave was covered in flowers. Prince Rainers was too, but not as much. It’s hard to believe that all these years later, she’s still so thought of by the people. After this, we boarded the bus for a short, really short, ride to Monte Carlo. Playground of the rich and famous. We walked up and saw Bentleys and Rolls Royces and Ferraris, well you get the drift. People walking around in their fancy shoes, dripping in diamonds and lots of people with their little dogs. We went to Café du paris for lunch. Apparently a very respectable restaurant, then we had free time to explore. I went to the Casino and dropped 11 euro gambling.

No winner here, so I decided to walk around and window show through all the fancy stores. Prada, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Dior and Cartier to name a few. I didn’t buy anything, such restraint I know! A guy on our bus bought a rolex. He was very excited, but his wife and kids weren’t.
Then we boarded our bus and went back towards the ship to Eze. This place was HIGH up on a hill. It had the most beautiful scenery.



Patricia and I walked up to the top of the village. Taylor stayed back with Patsy and her granddaughter, Jenna. Then I shopped all the way down. I bought some cute pictures to give to our server and some smaller trinkets. All in all it was a good day. It was a long excursion that didn’t seem to long. We had a fantastic guide that gave us pertinent and current information. Never boring. On the way back to the ship we drove through Nice and she pointed out Elton John’s home, Tina Turner and various other famous Europeans.
We came back to the ship and I crashed. This cold finally won and I decided to skip the show and dinner and went to bed. Taylor stayed with Jenna and ran around the ship. She had her own babysitter, which was great. They had a good time. Taylor felt like a big girl.

before the end...

Ok, so today was our last day at sea. And I slept..most of the day. LAME, I know, but it was necessary. Taylor ran around with Jenna most of the day and rachel a little in the night. I am sad we are done. It's been a GREAT first disney cruise...minus the small excursion mishaps, and the staff has been excellent. Especially, Phillip our Room steward, Louise and Michelle in the dining room, and ally in kids club. They have all been phenomenal..above and beyond. They are all going to be on our Panama Canal cruise, so we look forward to seeing them again. I certainly hope they will be our peeps again. So tomorrow we disembark around 8am and head to barcelona airport to catch our flight to Paris, city of lights. We plan on checking in to our hotel and then going over to the eiffel tower and checking it out. Maybe the square where marie antoinette lost her head... We don't plan on going to euro disney until friday, however it's raining in paris, so we'll see. Play it by ear. I guess we'll be spending alot of time indoors at the louvre.
Thanks for playing along with our blog. We hope we didn't bore you too much. For all you future disney cruisers, it was great! BUT be preparred to GO GO GO ...there's very little down time.
Oh, and thanks to the anonymous disboarder that gave me the zpack and decongestant...it has worked wonders! I feel 1000% better.

Also, to all my fellow cruisers and disboarders It was great to meet you all. You have made our cruise so much fun! I've enjoyed spending time with you all and look forward to seeing you on the boards!

Stephanie and Taylor

Tay says hi to Lise and Alex and can't wait to see you guys when we get home!

Marseilles, a beautiful city.

We started off this morning with a tour to aix en province (pronounced x in province). It was a cute town. A short bus ride to the city and then an hour walking tour to churches and squares and lots of fountains.

I put my hand in the “healing” fountain hoping to get over my “cruise cough” I’ve developed. We’ll see…. It was Sunday, so for all you future cruisers beware that most shops are closed all day. There were a few little soap and candy shops open and of course the outdoor markets and patisseries were open. BUT that’s it. We sat at an outdoor café and I had my café au lait while taylor had a coke. I know so very French of her. We bought pastries and some souvenirs then made our way back to the ship.


I had every intention of going to chateau d’if this afternoon, but with my mild sickness coming on, I chose to take a nice long nap by the pool. Taylor was off in kids club. Her check in /out privileges have been restored…we’ll see how that goes. I reminded her today that we only have 3 days left, well 2 now as I type this. She’s sad that it’s over as she has made lots of new friends from all over the country. We are both dreading carrying our luggage to our hotel in Paris, but we’ll persevere.

The show tonight was Dreams. It was FANTASTIC. Best one so far, but I hear tomorrows, when mickey dreams, is even better….we’ll see.

Tonight was pirate night. Our first one!

Here is me, with amanda, allison and lauren...all sisters and very sweet! Don't they look good in their costumes. I felt underdressed. Unfortunately this cruise cough was starting to get to me. It was very windy and cold up on deck. Taylor and I were both tired, plus I scored a washing machine right before the party, so we only stayed about 15 minutes. It was too windy to wait and see if they were doing fireworks.

I tried to cancel my evening casino excursion, but in order to do that I have to see the ships doctor and it’s pretty much the same price. So if I still feel poorly, I just won’t go. We have an all day excursion in the morning to Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze and I think that’s going to wipe me out for the day!

It’s almost over….:(

Pisa, Pisamo, Paisano

Today we went to Pisa. Not VIP Pisa, just Pisa. I guess the old saying goes, it really DOES matter what bus you’re on! We had a bus guide that didn’t speak a word. Literally. We rode from the ship to Pisa in silence then she let us to the main square. When SOMEONE else informed us we’d have free time for 45 minutes. OK, what is that all about? Then we met back at the center and we had a guide that took us over to the Tower and gave us all the info, we walked to the basilica and went inside. It was beautiful. Then to the Baptismal and went inside to hear some beautiful singing. It echos throughout and makes it seem as though there is more than one person singing. Well, our guide, while knowledgeable didn’t like the hands free microphone to talk into, so she chose to push the button on the walkie to talk. However, she would release the button and keep talking. People would remind her that she had to push so we could hear her. It was a mess. I ended up switching channels and listening to another guide with another bus. I spoke with several people who had other busses and they all had a great experience. Meanwhile, I spoke with several people on our bus and they were all frustrated. So…I don’t know how to pick the right bus, but good luck.

These people were on our bus and they HAD to be first in line for EVERYTHING…hello kindergartners. They were cutting people, including children, off to make sure they were right behind the guide. I took their picture from the back, so I won’t get sued. There were several of us laughing our butts off at them.

After Pisa, we came back and taylor and I swam (well I read) and then I lost her again to her friends! We met up at the Crew Talent Show which our tablemate and friend (and disser) marie was in! It was a good show and Marie did fabulous, even though she was really nervous.

After the show taylor stayed with her son Jeff, to watch the second show, and I went to dinner. Since I had no table mates tonight, Sandy and JJ joined me for dinner. Sandy and I are both a little sick. We have some throat thing going on. Sandy is amazed at how much we have in common, it’s quite funny. Then I came back and went to bed. Taylor got to run around with Jeff and Jenna and trade pins and do whatever until Midnight. Jeff and Jenna are 12 and 13 so I felt comfortable with taylor being with them. She came crawling into bed and fell fast asleep.

Next stop Marseille…

2nd sea day...

So another sea day has come and gone. Today we slept in, well my little one slept. I was up around 8am. Today we had the Mickey’s Island Jam Breakfast (character breakfast). Now I don’t mean to sound whiny, but…we arrived and sat at our table, which wasn’t our table today. It turns out since we switched our dining rotation we had it another day, so we found our friends, the Johnsons’ who also weren’t supposed to be there and sat with them. Unfortunately, there were very few people, but you had to sit at your assigned table regardless. We were far away from the action. The kids were always over where the characters were and our waiters were trying to move us along very quickly. I sure do appreciate the buffet style breakfast.
After that I lost taylor for several hours. She was off with her friends. I eventually found her at the pool and soon enough it was time to get ready for Tea with Alice and the Mad Hatter. The tea was…well…terrible. If you forget to go, don’t worry you’re not missing much. They had tea (real iced tea, unsweetened) on the table for the kids with 1 cookie. The tables were all smashed together and it was basically an etiquette class for the kids with some fun thrown in. Taylor was disappointed, but we did get our obligatory picture with Alice and the Mad Hatter.

After that, I dropped taylor off at kids club as I had another Disboard meet that she didn’t want to attend and then right after dinner at Palo’s with the ladies.
The Disgroup meet was fun. We all had time to catch up and compare notes. See people we hadn’t seen in a while.


Then Marie, Patricia, Patsy and I went to Palo’s for dinner. We met up with a woman patricia had met (who was a reporter) and her son’s girlfriend…got that?!

She interviewed me about being a single mom on the cruise. I still need to get a link to her article. Dinner was wonderful. I had the most brilliant filet and dessert…OMG! A soufflé to end all soufflés. Our waiter was Ciao and he was very accommodating. We were sitting next to 3 women who some in our group thought were men in drag. I must admit that the one in the Tigerskin blazer did look like an old man in drag. HAHAHA...
So I ran out of dinner to get taylor and go see Twice Charmed. We didn’t make it in time to find seats, so we stood in the back behind a crotchety old man who was shooshing every child that made any noise. We reminded him that this was a Disney cruise he signed up for, but he didn’t care. He was just rude.
I was wiped out after the show and surprisingly so was taylor, so we headed to our cabin to go to sleep. Another early day tomorrow as we are going to Pisa to hold up the leaning tower.

My thoughts so far…

So I thought I would share my thoughts on what we’ve done so far, this being my first Disney cruise and first time in the Mediterranean. We have enjoyed all aspects of this cruise, including our inside cabin. We have a “sideways” cabin on deck 6 and it’s great. I like it much better than the lengthwise one. My daughters wish is that we have more sea days. 3 are not enough according to her. I’m glad we weren’t on the 10 day. I have enjoyed our excursions, but my 9 year old has not. She always says she’s glad she went but really, she would have preferred to stay on board. I won’t let her as this is her first time also and I don’t know when/if we’ll get back here.
The on our own excursions we did in Palermo and a Naples were fine. We had plenty of time to run around. I felt that we saw the important things and the literature provided by the churches and historical sights was informative. Disney also provides bus and train schedules and ferry schedules which really help out a lot!
For Olbia, its beauty surpassed the excursion. In hindsight, I realized I paid way too much for “day at sea” but being my first time, I would say it was worth it. If you do your research you should be able to find a gorgeous beach on your own and spend about 20-40 euros (total). If that’s what you’re looking for!
For Rome, again, I felt that I paid too much for the “Jumping Back” excursion. Although, the extra 20? Dollars to take the train was WELL worth it! Our group was a slow one, which was fine with me, but there were 7 bus loads of people on this excursion and I heard from more than one person on different busses that they were being rushed and “herded”. We were not, which I am sure frustrated our guides as people were always disappearing. Our penance was a smaller amount of time at the Vatican. On the other hand, our guide was not as informative as I would have liked. She couldn’t answer “historical” based questions on the landmarks we were seeing. She’d give us the overview in broken English and sent us around on our own. She apologized a lot for this and stated many times, that she was a “guide to take us to the places” but not an expert on each place. For the amount of money this excursion was, I expected someone to know more. Especially since I didn’t know much either. At then end of the day, I spoke with Sandy and she did the whole Rome on your own (taking the train on her own) and saw all the same places I did and had a much more interesting time. She was able to spend more time at each location. I know Disney provides a lunch, but it is a 1-2 hour stop, which really cuts into your time to explore. Additionally, since we were on a Private train, this excursion could have given us an additional hour at the Vatican. Again, this being my first time, I did enjoy it but those little touches would have added so much more.

Also, it’s been HOT. I have quite a nice tan going. Be prepared for the heat as they have said it’s just going to get worse over the summer. It’s a wet hot too, very humid. Bring sunscreen and either a case of water with you or buy the water package on board.

I have been to the spa several times (too many) but it’s been good. The employees are friendly and good at their services. I highly recommend.

We have Philip as our room steward, he’s excellent. Can’t say more or I might get him into trouble, but he has gotten me everything that Taylor and I have wanted!

We have Louise and Delroy as our servers and they are spot on! Bringing you more that what you asked for and never judging!


I’ll sum up the second half at the end.

Civit…whatever..it’s ROME!

Today was the BIG excursion day. We went to Rome. Our excursion left at 7:45am, which was very early for taylor and I but we made it on time. Taylor and I took the “Jumping back to Eternal Rome” tour. Basically, we boarded busses for a train station and took a private train to Rome. The train was very nice. It was about 45 minutes to the San Pietro station, which is just outside Vatican City. Once there we boarded busses and headed into Rome itself. We drove straight to the coliseum and got out and looked around.

It was magnificent. To see these structures to well preserved and such history behind them was amazing. On our bus today was Jsmom and Vtiffany from disboards, but Silver 7 and Also were on another bus. We saw so many disboarders today on all the tours as we crossed paths with others throughout the day.
We even ran into a student from Seven Hills, Victoria B. She was on a tour with other students from the bay area. She was very surprised to see us at the coliseum.

After that stop we went down to the Trevi Fountain.

It was beautiful. Taylor and I threw a coin in the fountain in hopes of returning some day to Rome. We tried to find the Spanish steps in our allotted “free time” but got a little lost so we returned to get some ice cream at Blue ice. I recommend this place at the trevi fountain as the portions were big and the prices were reasonable. Then we headed by foot to the panthenon.

Another magnificent, well preserved building. After that, we headed again by foot to see a Bernini statue. It was under restoration but it was still magnificent. Then we boarded our bus and headed to Lunch.
Lunch was at a restaurant on the river. It was a good meal, with lots of wine! I was very happy as dealing with my whiny child was getting on my last nerve! So now I was relaxed and taylor was happy and we boarded the bus again and went to St. Peters Basilica and Vatican City.



This was the most amazing structure of them all. The paintings still so stunning and the sculptures were fascinating. We didn’t see the pope, but we did see the popes swiss guards and lots of nuns and padres.

After this we headed back to the train and came back to the Magic. All in all it was a great day with amazing sights. I have lots of pictures and I couldn’t tell you what they are all of, as we saw so many things. Taylor was lucky that we hooked up with Jsmom (wendy) so she was with jasmine all day.

I have secured my foot massage appointment for later this evening and taylor and jasmine are going to see pirates 3 later, so I am feeling very good!
Tomorrow is a sea day. We have only 6 nights left. About ½ way done with this cruise. It has been a great first Disney cruise and now I am really looking forward to the Panama Canal trip next may.

Pictures..

Pictures are a problem to load. Just keep checking back to the pages where there are none entered. I am trying to get them on as the connection lets me.



Here is our room door. Nicely decorated thanks to the disboarders and DVC.

Olbia

What can be said about this paradise in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea! This was our first excursion by Disney day. We chose the Day at sea at La Maddalena. We started off by meeting with our group on board and then left to board 3 different tourist busses. We traveled for about and hour or so to Palau. From Palau we caught a ferry out to La Maddalena. We did not travel to the main island, but a smaller one, whose name escapes me. We docked at the beach, and what a beach. White sand, clear blue water, even some topless Europeans! We spent a lovely afternoon at the beach. The water was cold, but refreshing.


There were some seriously large mosquitoes. I recommend bringing the repellent if you’re going on this trip in the future. We had a simple and filling lunch on board the ship. Nothing fancy, but not bad. We then rode the bus back for a quiet nap while going back to the ship.
On board tonight, I did some research on future cruises. Taylor and her friend Julia hooked up and we saw the Art of the Story show. It was cute. The girls went to the high school musical dance party and belted their hearts out.

Tomorrow is the big day. Rome! We have an all day excursion planned. It’s supposed to be super hot with no breeze…drat!

cya

Ciao Napoli

Today was Naples, gateway to the Amalfi Coast. We had an adventurous day planned. We met up with the Johnson family from New Jersey after breakfast and headed to the Circumvensia Train Station. Thankfully and luckily, two nice people for the Carnival Cruise ship spoke Italian and helped us buy our train tickets. The kids and J.J. Johnson (the dad) bought tickets just to Pompeii, but Sandy and I were adventurous and bought all the way to Sorrento. It was a mild walk to the train station. Not as dangerous as others had made it seem to be and we were on our way. The train was nothing spectacular, but it got us there in ½ hour. Pompeii was better than the pictures. We walked all around there for 2 hours.



It was super hot and we were all whiny and tired by the end. BUT sandy and I bid farewell to our children and her husband and headed to Sorrento.

Sandy met a nice man and wife from Sorrento on the train and they helped us immensely figure out the ferry system as we also wanted to go to Capri if there was time. I was chit chatting with a family from Oklahoma (they were on the Carnival Ship) all the way to Sorrento. We got off the train and hello…Sorrento was beautiful, a quaint little town with adorable stores and streets. We ran into some of our fellow Disney passengers in Sorrento, they were having a good time on their excursions.



BUT fellow cruisers beware…it was hot (90+) with very little shade and this was June. They said it gets hotter in July and August. There are 2 pompeii, Sorrento, Capri excursions (one for families on not) and each starts in a different route. The families ended at Pompeii which was probably miserable for those kids, as it was around 3pm when they arrived.

We bought ferry tickets to Capri. What a beautiful place. The landscape and marina and town are amazing. We shopped around and then settled into a Cliffside Ocean View restaurant for an Italian beer and some Tapas. We were sitting with some people on holiday from Dublin and England. They were very lovely.




After too many drinks we headed down to the marina and with a few minutes to spare caught our ferry back to Naples. I am supposed to mention that sandy and I bought our limonchello liquor and promptly tried it on the ferry back! It was a very relaxing ride across the bay. We docked right next to the Disney Ship.

On our way through security, the Carnival was leaving and tooting their horn…well Disney can’t be outdone, so she started sounding her horn and all of you know what Disney horn sounds like! It was very funny to see these two cruise ships battling it out with their horns. One of the ferries’s got into the act too.

The kids had a great time back on the boat. Taylor ran around with Sandy’s daughter, Julia and had a blast. We went to animator’s palette tonight and they had their show. It wasn’t all I thought it would be but it was nice.

Tomorrow we have a boat trip/beach excursion to La Maddalena, Olbia, Sardinia.