25 Days on the Disney Magic to Europe About This Page:

[VerandahMan]

Thanks for the updates, it's been interesting following your voyage, have a safe trip back home.

[Zazu]

Originally Posted by ukmickeyc

Hi ... you seem to have missed out the day at La Spezia- were you napping again??

Apparently. Missed that day completely and messed up the numbering in the process. This should go between the day at sea and Marseilles. Here it is:


La Spezia is a tiny industrial port where we had to tender in. It was a long way, but with a 300-passenger tender it didn't take long.

Our destination this day was Florence, which we did on the "On Your Own" tour. We had two friends with us who are artists and art critics, and who had planned out a whole week's worth of activities for our five short hours, with the understanding that things left undone would be the start of the list for the next visit.

Unfortunately, we didn't know until we got on board that this was a national holiday. Rather than meaning the museums and such were closed, it meant they were open with no fee. Naturally, the natives were out in droves, and this greatly curtailed our activities. We still managed to have an outstanding day.

Florence is a beautiful city located on the Alba River. It's riddled with plazas and squares, restaurants and sidewalk cafes, art and architecture. It's also just a friendly place. You may recall I described Seville as welcoming and Barcelona as a bit intimidating -- Florence is definitely in the former category.

Some of the highlights were the public statuary -- classic pieces I sometimes didn't quite recognize until I walked around to the position where the textbook photograph was taken and it snapped into focus. A bit spooky, actually.

We also saw things that hadn't made it into the books, but would have qualified in any other city. One street, a former Medici residence on both sides, was lined with statuary. We rather bumped into the Medici chapel almost by accident, and what a glorious accident it was!

The new sacrestry inside houses multiple figures by Michaelangelo, including the tombs of Lorenzo the Magnificent and his country cousin who became Pope Paul V. The old sacrestry was simply an inside-out monument of marble. Not just the Medici family arms, but those of other families into which they married over the centuries were tricked out in multicolored marble. The ceiling had brilliant frescoes of biblical scenes that rivaled the Sistine Chapel in impact, if not size and detail.

Outside the sacrestries was a collection of relics. SWMBO was fascinated by one complex structure of silver, surmounted by a crown and standing perhaps 3' tall. When she asked what it was I showed her that it was a fancy mounting for the thighbone of some dead saint. Oops! This is a woman that has to have a pillow handy in case "CSI" has an autopsy scene, so we didn't see anything else *there*.

A lovely early lunch (read "noon") in a quiet restaurant provided a wonderful repast, and refreshed us for more of the same. All too soon it was time to gather up for the bus, but not before one of our friends had to purchase an incredibly tacky souvenier -- a pair of boxer shorts with images of the statue of David on both front and rear! Funny, but where exactly does one wear such?


Our return was on schedule, but just late enough with the tendering we missed the first third of the Crew Talent Show. Again, some outstanding performances, including at least one singer who's good enough to give up his day job. Don't miss this!

[Zazu]

And so our trip draws to a close with one more day at sea. Boy do we need it -- we're beat! We're going to need a vacation after this vacation. Fortunately, we have one scheduled....

The only thing we *had* to do today was to pack -- a non-trivial task after all this time. But what appears to our wondering eyes in the Personal Navigator but an 11am showing of "Pirates of the Caribbean 3"! We finally get to see it, *and* to sleep in. I won't spoil things for those still waiting, but it both ties things up neatly and lays the groundwork for PotC 4.

Another dinner at Palo with friends. Our farewells to PJ and the gang there, to our wonderful serving staff, Valdo and Sara, and a long session of trying to add comments to the survey form brought our last full day on board to an end. Bags packed and out of the room by 10, and I only got locked out of the cabin wearing my skivvies once this time. (Had to knock on the neighbor's door and ask them to lean out of their veranda and ask SWMBO to unlock the door.)

Now we notice that SWMBO has packed her room key -- the same one we need to unlock the safe. Ah well, it appears that the excitement will continue just a bit longer.


While I promised a 25-day report, because of a few requests I'll continue these reports a few more days as connectivity permits. Tomorrow we spend in Barcelona, then off by train to Disneyland Paris. I *told* you we needed a vacation to recover from our vacation!

[WDWfan]

Bruce - Back to back cruises and DL Paris! I'm so ! Thank you for taking the time to share your trip with us. I'm looking forward to the rest of your adventure!

[Jeff_Spencer]

Thanks for the reports Bruce!

[chezp]

More great updates Bruce - I hope you guys make it safely to Disneyland Paris and I can't wait to hear all about it!

[Colexis Mom]

Thanks for your reports Bruce Have fun at DLP

[Tink and co.]

Holy Cow!!!! What a trip! Thanks for sharing with us!

[yo ho yo ho]

Thanks for your wonderful trip report. I'm in awe. You've definitely given me some ideas! LOL. Have a great time in Paris!

[JoanW]

Well, I for one am in awe of everything you did, the length of time on the ship, back to back cruises, and a third leg of your vacay. I'm going to have to go back to work if I'm ever going to get to do something similar.

And I'm loving the hallway skivvies show.

[Disneybine]

Wow, now that's what I call a VACATION !!! Do you really think there can be a PotC 4? That would be awesome but I was under the impression that the ending didn't leave room for another sequel...

Can't wait to hear how you like DL Paris! Let me know what you think of the two new Pixar attractions at the Studios (Crush's Coaster and Cars Rally)!

[disneyfan4994]

Just caught up with your report. Thanks for letting us share in your wonderful trip. Can't wait to hear about DL Paris!

[DrDolphin]

Wonderful trip report!!!

[gshaps2]

Wow! It sounds like you had a fantastic time. I have one question.... Were there any shore excursions that you heard about from other passengers that you wish you had gone on? Which shore excursions do you recommend the most in each port.... or should we just "go our own way" as we are leaning toward doing?

Thanks for the time and effort you put into your trip reports. We'll be sailing on the 07/07/07 cruise and just can't wait. We've purchased over $200 in travel books to do research on each of the ports and to make the most of our days. Your feedback is extremely helpful.

[Zazu]

And so it ends. After 25 days and nights, thousands of nautical miles, a dozen ports of call, and perhaps a million more calories than we really needed, we're back on solid ground to stay -- at least, until our next trip.

We plan to travel by train to Paris, and the only such train departs Barcelona at 9pm, so we have a very full day to spend in town. Disembarcation was simple, with not a single customs form or question. Then things got difficult.

Unlike our first day in Barcelona, Disney was not running shuttles to anywhere but the airport, and then only for those who had booked their flights thru Disney (or so I was told). This meant a cab just to get off the pier, much less any destination.

Do you know how long it takes to put all the passengers from a big cruise ship on taxis? Hint: It's at least 75 minutes, which is what we waited. After a brief language issue, we were on our way to the correct train station -- Barcelona has at least four. The cab fare was under five Euros to Estacion Franca, and nine more put out luggage into lockers. Now we were free to roam the city!

We considered the tourist buses. There are three routes, and 19 Euros buys an all day pass on all of them. They really do go everywhere in town of interest ... eventually. After not quite enough thought, we set off to see Gaudi's Sagrada Familia church on foot.

Barcelona is a very walkable city. Crosswalks are set back from the intersections a ways, which helps because cars are only threatening you from one or two directions, rather than the dozen or more often seen in Spanish intersections. Many have pedestrian and bicycle signals as well.

Gaudi is very difficult to explain to those who haven't seen his designs. Think of the embellishments used on La Belle Epoch or Art Noveau designs, now imagine that esthetic used to design the basic structure. If that doesn't work, imagine a small child's clay building. Naw, that doesn't work either. Just Google on "Gaudi" and hope for the best.

Sagrada Familia has been under active construction for over fifty years, and today was no exception. Some parts appear nearly done, others haven't even begun construction. While conventional cathedral design is mostly stone, this structure includes concrete structural components, colorful tile decorations, and text. It's a wonder now, and I only hope to live long enough to see it finished.

We hit one other shop that had been closed on a previous visit, then began wandering in search of lunch. Despite our intentions, we ran out of energy and patience and ended up back at the same wharf-side restaurant where we'd enjoyed the paella on our first day in town -- having paella again. Yeah, it's a rut, but it's a yummy rut.

The restaurant was on the ground floor of the building that housed the Museum of Catalonia. Now Catalonia is presently a region of Spain, the official language is Spanish, and nobody outside of the region thinks much else of it. Not so the Catalonians!

Have you seen Southern redneck pickups with the bumper stickers that say "Fergit Hell!" suggesting that they aren't sure the Yankee invaders aren't still at risk of being pushed back north of the Mason-Dixon line? Catalonia is a bit like that, only more. They have their own language, their own literary tradition, and it's a big enough deal that restaurants with only two languages on their menus will use Spanish and Catalan. While the first part of the museum dealt with everything from the paleolithic era to the 15th Century, the second half of the displays concerned the way Catalonia has been overrun, revolted, conquered, stolen, defied authority, and generally been hard for anyone else to govern. They seem to have changed governments as much as any country I could name. Interesting, but hard for me to get emotional about.

After that, we just wasted our time. Wandered around, ate some ice cream, and finally toured the train station where we marveled at how the trains arrived and departed smack on time. The last Amtrak trip we took ended 23 hours late and nearly 800 miles short of our destination! Our train was no exception, and rolled out promptly with us aboard.

Our cabin was adequate, but the shower made us long for the spacious ones aboard ship. Dinner was pretty good, and included in the fare, but took over two hours. Language barriers didn't help, but that was our fault.

Fortunately, we were so exhausted from our long day in Barcelona that we slept the blissful sleep of the totally exhausted, and crossed the border into France unnoticed while we snored.

Tomorrow, Disneyland Paris!