June 13th, 2020 9-Night Mediterranean with Greek Isles from/to Civitavecchia

So excited!! We booked opening day and have planned 10 days northern Italy trip prior and 7 day southern Italy afterwards...trying to figure out Greek excursions...have family in Sicily...but struggling with what to do on other days!! So many things to pick from. Traveling with DD20, DS19, best friend, her DH and their DS18...

I can't believe how close it is getting. I wish the stop in Sicily was longer. It is such a short day, that I think we will go with a Disney Excursion there to avoid getting back late. We might do the same in one or two of the Greek islands, but we have booked private tours everywhere else.
 
If you don't mind me asking who are you using...we have looked at Rome Limo and Joe Banana...our shipmates lived in Italy for a year and still have friends there just weighing all the options...and yes it's just around the corner...My oldest DS is getting married in April I have been busy planning their Honeymoon cruise and ours has totally caught me off guard! I know first world problems and blessed to have them!
Have you booked your flights yet?
 
If you don't mind me asking who are you using...we have looked at Rome Limo and Joe Banana...our shipmates lived in Italy for a year and still have friends there just weighing all the options...and yes it's just around the corner...My oldest DS is getting married in April I have been busy planning their Honeymoon cruise and ours has totally caught me off guard! I know first world problems and blessed to have them!
Have you booked your flights yet?

We are spending about 4 days in Rome before the cruise. We are using Romecabs for transportation and theromanguy.com for tours. Working with both companies so far has been great.

In Athens, we are booked with Tune In Tours (Previously Olympic Traveler. It isn't cheap, but we have a private car for our family and a real tour guide). This could be our only trip to Athens, so I really wanted to splurge here.

In Naples, we are using simplyamalfi.com. Again, not cheap. But seeing the Amalfi coast is my wife's life-long dream, so we want to do it right. I would really love to splurge and do a chartered boat down to Positano, but I can't justify the cost (unless maybe we found a couple other families to share the cost with).

We are still looking at the other options and whether to go Disney or not. On our two Disney cruises in the Caribbean, we bought into the claim that it is too risky to use private tours. But, after reading more and more, I am convinced you need to evaluate each port to see what is best. I am not concerned about the ship leaving us in Europe, because we would be just find making our way back to Rome on our own. But more so, because we plan to be back to the port with a couple of hours (or more) to spare, which should leave more than enough time for traffic problems or the like. With the Disney excursions, I think you waste way too much time. You have to be to the meeting place on the ship and wait. Then you get herded down hallways and stairs and wait to get off the ship. Then you wait on land again to board a bus. Then, if the bus is making another transfer (to a catamaran, for example), you wait again. Then the waiting happens on the way back again. It seems as if a large portion of their excursions is waiting. By going private, I am hoping to avoid all of it, with the exception of disembarking.

On the other had, I think there are some places that it is just easier to go with Disney's excursions. For example, in some stops, Disney's group gets to tender first, which could actually save time. In others, like Sicily, I want the guarantee the ship won't leave with out us given the shorter window there.

Yes, I booked airfare right when it opened on Delta. I travel a lot for work and have become a bit of a snob for which airline I fly. When flying all the way to Europe from Utah, it became even more important to me for my family to know we have the best shot at getting their comfortably and with great customer service. I am embarrassed to admit it, but I was able to pull off Delta One seats for the four of us through a combination of spending too much money and using miles to upgrade. Frankly, I am not sure it is healthy for my teenagers to experience the luxury at such a young age. But, I did it for me and my wife's sanity. We will be flying through the night and I am hoping all of us can get a few hours of sleep so that when we arrive in Rome in the morning, we can better adjust to local time and try to make it as late in the day as possible before our first night's sleep.

What do you have planned/booked so far?

My 18 year old daughter is a bit shy (not in an awkward way), but she takes time to warm up to people. She loves Star Wars, Marvel, and Disney. If either of your children share similar interests, it might be fun to make introductions sometime during the cruise. My other daughter is the opposite, and will be spending all of her time in the Edge.
 
All, I couldn't find a Facebook group for this cruise. I just started one if you are interested. Just search groups for "Disney Magic June 13-22."
 


We are spending about 4 days in Rome before the cruise. We are using Romecabs for transportation and theromanguy.com for tours. Working with both companies so far has been great.


In Athens, we are booked with Tune In Tours (Previously Olympic Traveler. It isn't cheap, but we have a private car for our family and a real tour guide). This could be our only trip to Athens, so I really wanted to splurge here.

In Naples, we are using simplyamalfi.com. Again, not cheap. But seeing the Amalfi coast is my wife's life-long dream, so we want to do it right. I would really love to splurge and do a chartered boat down to Positano, but I can't justify the cost (unless maybe we found a couple other families to share the cost with).

We are still looking at the other options and whether to go Disney or not. On our two Disney cruises in the Caribbean, we bought into the claim that it is too risky to use private tours. But, after reading more and more, I am convinced you need to evaluate each port to see what is best. I am not concerned about the ship leaving us in Europe, because we would be just find making our way back to Rome on our own. But more so, because we plan to be back to the port with a couple of hours (or more) to spare, which should leave more than enough time for traffic problems or the like. With the Disney excursions, I think you waste way too much time. You have to be to the meeting place on the ship and wait. Then you get herded down hallways and stairs and wait to get off the ship. Then you wait on land again to board a bus. Then, if the bus is making another transfer (to a catamaran, for example), you wait again. Then the waiting happens on the way back again. It seems as if a large portion of their excursions is waiting. By going private, I am hoping to avoid all of it, with the exception of disembarking.

On the other had, I think there are some places that it is just easier to go with Disney's excursions. For example, in some stops, Disney's group gets to tender first, which could actually save time. In others, like Sicily, I want the guarantee the ship won't leave with out us given the shorter window there.

Yes, I booked airfare right when it opened on Delta. I travel a lot for work and have become a bit of a snob for which airline I fly. When flying all the way to Europe from Utah, it became even more important to me for my family to know we have the best shot at getting their comfortably and with great customer service. I am embarrassed to admit it, but I was able to pull off Delta One seats for the four of us through a combination of spending too much money and using miles to upgrade. Frankly, I am not sure it is healthy for my teenagers to experience the luxury at such a young age. But, I did it for me and my wife's sanity. We will be flying through the night and I am hoping all of us can get a few hours of sleep so that when we arrive in Rome in the morning, we can better adjust to local time and try to make it as late in the day as possible before our first night's sleep.

What do you have planned/booked so far?

My 18 year old daughter is a bit shy (not in an awkward way), but she takes time to warm up to people. She loves Star Wars, Marvel, and Disney. If either of your children share similar interests, it might be fun to make introductions sometime during the cruise. My other daughter is the opposite, and will be spending all of her time in the Edge.
Sounds like you have a good handle on your trip! My DD is 20 and my DA is 19 our travel mates DS is 18... I'm sure they would love to meet your kids!
I totally agree with you about the airlines...my daughter and I traveled to Hong Kong and Toyko (Disneyland and DisneySea) in Sept ...and with such long flights, comfort is a necessity!
The friends we are traveling with lived in Italy ..
We are flying into Milan and spending 7 days in Northern Italy, traveling down to Rome for 3 days... cruising, then after the cruise spending 7 days in Southern Italy. My husband's family is from Calabria and we still have relatives there.
I have used a mixture of Disney and private excursions in the past, and like you it depends on the port.
What are you looking at for the cost of the private charter to Positano? There are 6 of us, as my husband isn't going to be able to make this trip with us.
I know this will be a wonderful trip of a lifetime for both our families...look forward to hopefully meeting y'all!
Pam
 


Sounds like you have a good handle on your trip! My DD is 20 and my DA is 19 our travel mates DS is 18... I'm sure they would love to meet your kids!
I totally agree with you about the airlines...my daughter and I traveled to Hong Kong and Toyko (Disneyland and DisneySea) in Sept ...and with such long flights, comfort is a necessity!
The friends we are traveling with lived in Italy ..
We are flying into Milan and spending 7 days in Northern Italy, traveling down to Rome for 3 days... cruising, then after the cruise spending 7 days in Southern Italy. My husband's family is from Calabria and we still have relatives there.
I have used a mixture of Disney and private excursions in the past, and like you it depends on the port.
What are you looking at for the cost of the private charter to Positano? There are 6 of us, as my husband isn't going to be able to make this trip with us.
I know this will be a wonderful trip of a lifetime for both our families...look forward to hopefully meeting y'all!
Pam
I am also interested in wondering how much the private charter is to Positano. There are 3 of us (all 19+ in age).
 
How did you like Norway? Thinking of maybe doing that cruise for 2021.
On the UK/Iceland/Norway itinerary, the Norway ports were probably my least favorite. The Port Adventures we took were pretty lackluster. In hindsight I should have done some on smaller boats going into the fjords instead of staying on land.

I loooooooooved Iceland though! If you can get on an Icelandic cruise, I HIGHLY recommend it.
 
Are most people here doing private or Disney excursions? We are doing mostly private, but might do one or two Disney. We have always done Disney in the Caribbean, since we read the horror stories of missing the ship. But we are ready to be a bit more adventurous now, with the hope of enjoying some private tours more than the large Disney groups that seem very slow to actually get anywhere. We will also plan to be back to the port area several hours early to play it safe.
I am doing mostly Disney excursions. (Just reserved! Whoohooo!) Not sure I trust myself to get around places I've never been before without knowing the local language.

I am looking for other options for Heraklion and Naples, though. Naples because I've been there twice and I've seen just about everything the Disney excursions offer, Heraklion because I'm not thrilled with the Disney options.

Go Niners! Feb. 2 was painful but it was a surprisingly GREAT season.
 
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My activity booking window opened a couple of hours ago, but even though I was online right on time, all of the Palo brunch reservations were gone. Most of the alcohol tastings too. Guess the Platinum folks got them all. I'll keep checking for cancellations. *fingers crossed* I did book a dinner at Palo and a champagne tasting before we even leave Civitavecchia:rotfl:Getting the cruse off to a lively start! Anyone else??
 
We booked on the 1st possible day (DW is Platinum) using our "Placeholder" from a prior cruise. Not cheap (least expensive veranda on Deck 7), but since 3 of our previous DCL trips (Europe, >7 days) were "the best vacations we've ever had!!!", we didn't want to pass this up.

Not 100% sure we will be able to afford given DS is college-bound, but we are saving Disney Dollars for paid-in-full day as I write.

Hope to see you all then!


Well, DW has been under-employed for a while and given our son's crazy summer schedule (and that he's now 18 and there isn't really a place for him "to hang"), we perhaps-regrettably cancelled . . . earlier in February.

Interestingly, as the world goes mad because of this CoVir-19, we may have dodged not just the virus, but the craziness and uncertainty of trying to fly to Italy, tour Rome, and join 3,500 other people on a cruise ship. I hope the world does NOT go mad, but right now during early March, it does not appear to be a great time to fly to Italy or even spend time in an airport, much less in a long line at the Vatican.

I hope folks who go on this cruise have a terrific time. We did WDW a year after 9/11 and it was actually a great time to tour.
 
Alright folks, our itinerary was officially cancelled today :( Had you cancelled or re-booked on your own already? I was holding out (false) hope that a miracle would mean all of the planning and waiting wouldn't go to waste. Thankfully Disney is a great corporation and offered credit to reschedule, so now I'm booked on a June 2021 Med/Greece cruise, same room category with a significant amount of on-board credit left over. Hopefully it'll happen! I've been trying to go on a Disney cruise to Greece for 7 years but something always goes wrong!
 
Alright folks, our itinerary was officially cancelled today :( Had you cancelled or re-booked on your own already? I was holding out (false) hope that a miracle would mean all of the planning and waiting wouldn't go to waste. Thankfully Disney is a great corporation and offered credit to reschedule, so now I'm booked on a June 2021 Med/Greece cruise, same room category with a significant amount of on-board credit left over. Hopefully it'll happen! I've been trying to go on a Disney cruise to Greece for 7 years but something always goes wrong!
Which one did you move to? We booked on the 6/19/21 8-Night instead. Got the same stateroom and everything!
 
Which one did you move to? We booked on the 6/19/21 8-Night instead. Got the same stateroom and everything!
Same! Great minds think alike! (Considered the 9-night 6/27/21 that included Croatia, but the price difference was too extreme IMO) We didn't get the exact same stateroom, but we're just a few rooms away from what we had originally. I started to panic that everyone from the June 2020 sailings would be rebooking for June 2021, so I snagged a room without even consulting my travel partner. Luckily she was in complete agreement when we talked it through. I guess my 14 months of planning will now turn into 28 months of planning!
 
Same! Great minds think alike! (Considered the 9-night 6/27/21 that included Croatia, but the price difference was too extreme IMO) We didn't get the exact same stateroom, but we're just a few rooms away from what we had originally. I started to panic that everyone from the June 2020 sailings would be rebooking for June 2021, so I snagged a room without even consulting my travel partner. Luckily she was in complete agreement when we talked it through. I guess my 14 months of planning will now turn into 28 months of planning!

Yeah- we looked at the 9 night, but it was just too much, not having booked on opening day like we had this time around. We are also doing the ABD Rome Escape beforehand. It was sold out this year, so glad to do that next- it falls over our 15th anniversary! Then I looked at the 8 night on June 11th, but I will still be teaching at that time next year. So this one worked out perfectly!
 
Yeah- we looked at the 9 night, but it was just too much, not having booked on opening day like we had this time around. We are also doing the ABD Rome Escape beforehand. It was sold out this year, so glad to do that next- it falls over our 15th anniversary! Then I looked at the 8 night on June 11th, but I will still be teaching at that time next year. So this one worked out perfectly!
Happy almost 14th anniversary and 15th anniversary waaaaaay in advance!

I'm a teacher too, but my school should be done by June 4 next year (who knows what school will even look like next year!). We might start farther north, like in Amsterdam or Paris, and make our way down to Rome, time and finances permitting, and we'll probably do Rome on our own for a few days before embarkation. I've been there a few times and have seen all of the tourist sites, but my friend hasn't. We'll be celebrating our birthdays on this cruise -- hers is the 25th and mine is the 26th. 🥳
 

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