The Spencer Family's Disney Blog

Touring In Tunisia

2010-05-25T09:18:00.003-05:00

Tunis, our port city, is the capital of Tunisia. Tunisia is located in Northern Africa and our visit aboard the Disney Magic marks our first visit to the continent. Tunisia is located between the countries of Algeria and Libya. The coast of Tunisia was settled in the 10th century B.C. by the Phoenicians. In the 6th century B.C. Carthage rose to power but was conquered by the Romans in the 2nd century B.C. Afterwards, it was held by Vandals and Byzantines for two centuries and in the 7th century it was conquered by Arabs. The region became known as Ifriqiya and the Berber population was converted to Islam. Successive Muslim dynasties ruled, interrupted by Berber rebellions. The reigns of the Aghlabids in the 9th century and of the Zirids (from 972), Berber followers of the Fatmids, were especially prosperous. When the Zirids angered the Fatimids in Cairo (1050) the latter ravaged Tunisia. The coasts were briefly held by the Normans of Sicily in the 12th century. In 1159, Tunisia was conquered by the Almohad caliphs of Morocco. The Almohads were succeeded by the Berber Hafsids under whom Tunisia prospered. In the last years of the Hafsids, Spain seized many of the coastal cities, but there were recovered for Islam by the Ottoman Turks. Under its Turkish governors, the beys, Tunisia attained virtual independence. In the late 16th century the coast became a pirate stronghold. The Hussein dynasty of beys, established in 1705, lasted until 1957.

We actually docked in La Goulette, not Tunis and our ship was greeted by several camels, their handlers and two bands playing music. Tunis was the only port where we booked a Disney Cruise Line tour. We had not found any private tour guides on Cruise Critic or Trip Advisor with good ratings so decided to stay with the safety of Disney. Our excursion, as I’d posted before our cruise in the blog, was a Jeep 4x4 excursion into Tunisia. All of the Jeeps were in fact Toyota Landcruisers or similar large engine SUVs…there wasn’t a “Jeep” in the lot (thank goodness, since Jeeps aren’t the most reliable vehicles). There were 8 vehicles, each with 5 to 6 guests in them. We traveled in a convoy fashion – always sticking together. Truth be told, we really only needed the 4x4 capability and high ground clearance for 1 spot in the whole trip and that was for a bridge that had either been washed out or was under construction. All other travel was on paved roads or graded gravel. Our first stop was in what appeared to be a “made for tourists” example of a Berber village. There were only a few people there and they seemed to be there only to play a little music, bake a little bread and “populate” the exhibit. I asked our Disney person on the trip if we were going to see a “real” town at some point. He said he didn’t know. Hmmmm? We did enjoy the Berber bread with honey and olive oil and the spiced tea. The elaborate tiled bath area was also worth a look.

We got back in our SUVs and made our way to stop #2. On the way we passed a small pickup truck loaded down with beds – headboards, footboards and mattresses. We expected the truck to turn over at any time given its high center of gravity. We also passed a number of people riding their donkeys or leading one piled high with varying types of goods. I found the Tunisia countryside to be really interesting. There were olive trees everywhere. The landscape (minus the olive trees) reminded me of Arizona or even northern California with the hills and dry land.

Stop #2 turned out to be a real town. Our convoy of SUVs entered the small town square where there was a little market going on – simple things like sheets, blankets and various household items. We were lead to a high point in the town, past the local mosque, where we could take pictures. We also visited a typical house, which had few furnishings but seemed to be well made. Inside was a woman in traditional dress who wove/braided grass into various craft items. Most of the locals were dressed in this traditional manner; however, I was struck when I noticed a few women wearing Crocs – the rubber shoes that have become so popular in the U.S. The younger kids seemed to be wearing more Westernized clothes.

Soon it was time to get back in our SUVs and head to stop #3, which was some Roman ruins. These were pretty interesting but I knew they would pale in comparison to what we would see soon in Rome. We spent about 20 minutes at this third stop before moving onto our final stop nearby where we had lunch.

This last stop was at a restaurant/resort. We had a nice salad, bread, some type of grilled bird (we joked that it might have been crow), cous cous and fruit. It was a good meal. After about 45 minutes, we were on the road again for our 1 hour drive back to the port. All in all, we give this tour a thumbs up but it was a lot of driving.

Our Day In Malta

2010-05-23T08:59:00.005-05:00

The Maltese Archipelago, consisting of the inhabited islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino are located in the Mediterranean Sea, about 52 miles south of Sicily. The history of the Maltese Islands goes back some 7,000 years, to the dawn of civilization. Malta and Gozo are the home to mysterious prehistoric temples that pre-date the pyramids of Egypt and Stonehenge in England.

The Roman Empire dominated the islands from about 218 BC. Malta changed hands a number of times after the Roman rule, most notably under the Arabs from 870 AD. Other occupiers included the Byzantines, the Normans, the Swabians and the Arogonese. In 1530, the Knights of the Order of Saint John arrived in Malta. During their rule, the Order fought off the great Ottoman Empire of Turkey in the famous great siege of Malta. The period of leadership under the knights ended in 1798 when Napoleon Bonaparte took the islands, but this occupation was short lived when the Maltese revolted against the French and the islands fell under the protection of the British Empire in 1800. Malta became an independent state within the British Commonwealth in 1964 and became a Republic ten years later. Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is a small and densely populated island nation comprising an archipelago of seven islands, three of which are inhabited. It has a warm, inviting Mediterranean climate. The main island is 17 miles long and 9 miles wide.

Our tour of Malta started off a bit rocky as we were expecting our private tour provider, Duncan Zammit of UPhotoMalta, to meet us at the cruise ship pier at 8:30 am when the ship docked but he didn’t show up until 9 am. I don’t know if it was my mistake or his but regardless, once the tour started, the hiccup at the beginning was quickly forgotten. Duncan was very knowledgeable about Malta, where he’d been born, raised and still lived. We started off by driving about a few spots in Valletta, including a park across from where the Magic was docked, allowing us to get some great photos. We then headed off to Marsaxlokk, an authentic fishing village. The boats in the harbor were all shapes and sizes, from the smallest one person boat to large boats. Most were brightly painted in blue, yellow, green, red and brown.

From there we headed to Mdina, the old walled part of Malta. However, before entering Mdina, we stopped at a local tea shop/bar for a local pastry filled with peas (pastizzi) and a hot, spicy tea. Both were very good. The Mdina was walled, and where we entered it was about 20 feet thick. The roads were little more than alleyways, limiting traffic to residents and, during certain hours, small trucks for delivery of supplies and goods.

We then drove into what seemed like the interior of the island where there was a distinct focus on agriculture. We saw various types of vegetables being grown. It was interesting that the farmers had to erect greenhouse-like structures, not to accelerate the growing process, but instead to protect the crops from the high winds. From there we visited several overlooks from which we saw beautiful beaches, stunning cliffs and scenery. All the while, we were talking with Duncan, who we found to be very personable and funny. His easy-going nature and willingness to share personal insights about Malta and its people made our half-day tour one we will remember.

Embarkation and Our First Sea Day (plus some teaser photos of Malta)

2010-05-17T10:12:00.001-05:00

I'm taking advantage of free internet on the cruise port walkway, down near the far end of the row of restaurants and shops, there is free wi-fi internet. The wi fi is just past the ATM near a shop called Bristow Potteries and there is another called Sterling Jewelry. Back to the embarkation day.

Well, somehow I just deleted two paragraphs of typing! Uggghhh. How frustrating. Anyway, from the time we got out of the taxi to when we boarded the ship was just under 30 minutes so I guess we arrived in a lull period. I heard from other people that boarded about 2:30 that it was busier but they also mentioned some computer problems so that probably contributed to the backup. Once aboard we walked around to get Brian used to the layout since he'd not been on board since 2001. At 3 pm, we made our way down to Promenade Lounge where we met up with more than 120 of our fellow cruisers who had been posting on the DIS boards about this cruise for quite a few months, where we've been helping each other plan and research the ports. We handed out lanyards and chatted until we had to break up to attend the mandatory muster drill at 4 pm (was scheduled for 5 pm).

The Sail Away party was held at 4:45 pm even though we didn't actually leave the port until 9:30 pm. I guess Disney decided after its first cruise on 4/24 that more guests would participate if it was held during the day when it was warmer.

The 6:30 welcome aboard show was the typical show, with entertainers giving us a sample of their comedy and magic coming up during the cruise. Dinner was good and I'm drawing a blank about what we did after that. I think we crashed, still suffering from jet lag.

The next day was our first sea day where we cruised down to Malta and the seas were pretty choppy. Wave heights were announced at 8 - 13 feet and they were coming across the ship making for quite a side to side rocking motion. We had our first DIS Group Brunch in Palo and it was really nice to be in the private room at one table where we could all chat and get to know one another better.

After the brunch was a private DIS wine tasting set up by rashdecision (Rob) in the Sessions Lounge. We had 6 wines to taste, accompanied by white and dark chocolate, which was a nice touch to illustrate how the taste of the wines changed when paired with the chocolate. As if that wasn't enough drinking, Brian talked me into a beer tasting in Diversions at 3 pm. We had 5 beers - Stella, Newcastle, Guinness, Sam Adams one other - Beck's perhaps? Anyway, these were half size glasses so it was quite a "tasting" of beer. I think after this we handed out some fish extender gifts and then got ready for Formal Night photos and the "Twice Charmed" show. We took a good 3 or 4 nice family pics so I guess we'll see how they turned out tonight after I get back on the ship. Susan, Katy and I finished up the night with Heath Hyche's adult show and I have to say Health doesn't suck anymore. He's gotten better but his routine still included some routines that didn't quite click. Tomorrow is Tunis, Tunisia for us and it's supposed to be a long day so I'm not sure when my next update will be.

We've Arrived!

2010-05-15T04:12:00.001-05:00

Things started out terribly for us. With all my focus on the ash cloud over the last few days I'd neglected to pay any attention to the weather back in the US. When we arrived at the Huntsville, AL airport on Thursday morning that all changed. As time for our flight approached, American Airlines notified us we were on an indefinite hold for weather in Chicago. When I pulled up the weather on weather.com I could see severe storms on top of Chicago with no letup in sight as storms extended from Illinois back southwest to Oklahoma - it was going to be storming for a long time. I went to the check-in counter and spoke to the agent there and explained calmly and nicely that we needed to get to JFK to catch a flight to Barcelona today so we could make our Mediterranean cruise departing on Saturday. American came through and got us all moved over to a Delta flight departing in 50 minutes! Better yet, our original flight was connecting from Chicago to LaGuardia and we were going to have to transfer by bus or cab to JFK. With the Delta flight, we went to Ronald Reagan in Washington, D.C. and from there directly to JFK. The only question I had in my mind was whether or not our bags would make it, but long story short, every one of our bags did make it!

We were able to meet up with DIS family ICollectBelle at JFK and had a nice chat with them while waiting for our flight to Barcelona. After 8.5 hours we landed in a cool, rainy Barcelona. Processing through customs was smooth. Just make sure you find a "Non-EU" line to go through. Our only hiccup was baggage claim. It was so slow - we waited a good hour and ten minutes before finally collecting all our bags. There must have been some kind of break down somewhere. No biggie - we arrived on time and our bags made it too! For those reading this that will be cruising later, there are PLENTY of taxis waiting at the airport. The four of us plus 5 bags, 3 backpacks and a camera bag were fitted (tightly) into what we in the US would characterize as small-medium size vehicle. I didn't see how the driver could get the bags in there but he did.

We stayed at the Novotel Barcelona City, which is further away from the port that it shows on Tripadvisor. The good news is that it's a short two block walk to the Glories metro station. We bought the 10 trip metro passes and we've had no problems at all using the metro to get anywhere we need to go. It's clean and very efficient. After a 3 hour or so nap, we met up with fellow DISer "sayhello" and walked Las Ramblas. We had dinner at Amaya restaurant consisting of a sausage assortment, a truffled cannaloni, sizzling shrimp with garlic and Spanish tortilla/frittata, toasted bread topped with tomato and a pitcher of sangria.

After dinner, we headed to the Metro to see the Monjuic magic fountain show at 9 pm. We met several other DISers including rashdecision (Rob) and his family, ggleigh (Tina, Andrew and Rachel), ICollectBelle (Donna), Appleguy (Gary) and their family, Pinmeister (Frank & Nancy). The fountain shows were neat - the third show being all Disney themed. Definitely well worth a visit! Tomorrow - the Magic!

Tomorrow's D (Departure) Day!

2010-05-12T10:40:00.000-05:00

The departure day is rapidly approaching and the only thing standing between us and Barcelona is a ash-belching Icelandic volcano, with a name only two guys (Brynjulfur & Ragnheidur) in Iceland can pronounce - Eyjafjallajokull. Grrr...

We've stopped our mail, newpaper (yes, we're among the few that actually still do read a newspaper), and will be dropping our dog (Oliver) and our daughter's dog (Bree) off at the kennel this afternoon. We've yet to put anything into a suitcase yet, but have been working on our packing lists and gathering our stuff together in order to be ready to pack it. We've also notified the bank and credit card company that will be traveling out of the country so they'll know (hopefully) not to freeze our cards while we're away.

Our first flight in the morning departs at 6:05 am from Huntsville to Chicago. We then fly from Chicago to New York (LaGuardia), where we'll catch a shuttle to JFK and then (knock on wood) catch our 8.5 hour flight to Barcelona departing at 6:25 pm. If all goes well, we'll arrive in Barcelona at about 8:30 am on 5/14. We're staying in the Novotel Barcelona City hotel. We have plans to meet up with some of our fellow cruisers from the DISboards.com at the Montjuic Magic Fountain around 9 pm.

We'll Be In Barcelona in Two Weeks!

2010-04-30T13:16:00.001-05:00

It's kind of hard to believe but in two weeks we'll be in Barcelona Spain, touring the city and looking forward to boarding the Disney Magic. Since my last post, I've gotten to know many more of our fellow cruisers through the DISboards.com thread for our cruise. To help organize and share the cruise planning information, I set up a website called "Disney Magic Med Cruisers - May 15, 2010". One of the things I like best about the web site is the Roll Call section where we have posted the names and pictures of many of our fellow cruisers. This way we get to know each other a bit better before we actually meet on the ship. As we've done on our last two Disney cruises, we've set up or joined private tours at most of the ports of call. Below are links to the web sites of each of the tour providers:

Valletta, Malta - UPhotoMalta

Naples, Civitavecchia (Rome) and La Spezia (Florence), Italy - Rudy's Touring Service

Villefranche, France - Dream Tours

As of right now, we're doing our one and only Disney Cruise Line (DCL) tour in Tunis, Tunisia, which is the Jeep 4x4 Experience. Here is a description of this tour:

On this tour you will:

Proceed to the Berber village of Sidi Jedidi, known for its hot thermal waters, where you will have the opportunity to appreciate the beautiful landscape.
Enjoy some local food in the "Mtir center," comprised of a complex of traditionally built rooms. Each room is called Dar, and the entire block is called "Douar." Here you will have the opportunity to taste typical Tunisian specialties including Berber bread, olive oil, honey, Tunisian pastries and mint tea.
Continue to your second stop, the Berber village of Jeradou; one of a few Berber villages in the Dorsal mountains. The village rests on a mountain pinnacle along the road that leads to the Zawiyya shrine and mosque. There are also some small Roman ruins in a nearby olive field.
Drive in an air-conditioned Jeep to Zaghouan.
Enjoy a 30-minute guided walking tour of The Water Temple of Zaghouan. Commonly referred to by its French name, Temple des Eaux, it dates back to Roman times and was not actually a temple; it was a magnificent fountain with 12 niches built to hold life-size statues representing the 12 months of the year. Note: This tour includes approximately 1.5 miles of walking at a steady pace, part of which will be on cobblestones and/or uphill, including steps.
Lunch at the Dar Zaghouan restaurant.
Drive back to the pier.

I have not yet set up anything for us in the port of Ajaccio, Corsica. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! Our plan will be either to take it easy and maybe do one of the bus/train tours and maybe visit a local beach OR I might rent a car so we can drive into the interior of the island and see some of the sites, like Les Calanches. We'll see.

2010 Disney Med Cruise Itinerary

2010-02-11T15:10:00.000-06:00

Hello! Jeff here again. I figured I might as well start blogging a bit about our upcoming Mediterranean cruise on the Disney Magic in May. Wait, what? Didn't you guys already do that? Yes, we did...well at least 75% of us did back in June 2007. Unfortunately, our son Brian didn't get to make the first trip as he was in summer classes at Auburn University. Soooo...since we had such a FABULOUS time back in 2007 AND Brian is graduating in May AND Disney tempted us again with those low Category 12 cruise fares, I ask...how could we NOT go? See, it all makes sense. :-)

Disney tweaked the itinerary a bit this time, dropping Olbia (Sardinia) - YEA!, Marseille (France) - we actually liked Marseille, but OK, and Palermo (Sicily) - wasn't bad. In their place they've added Ajaccio, Corsica, Tunis, Tunisia and Valletta, Malta. So we'll be adding the second largest continent to our travels - Africa. I haven't made our flight arrangements yet (been watching airfares and hoping for them to drop) but the preference would be to fly out of Huntsville on May 13th and arrive in Barcelona in the morning on May 14th. Our hotel this time is the Novotel, Barcelona City. Looking forward to February 14th, which is when we can begin making reservations for Palo and any Disney tours that we might like.

Here is the cruise itinerary.

Day	Port	Guest Ashore	Guest Aboard
Saturday (5/15)	Barcelona, Spain	—	4:00 p.m.
Sunday (5/16)	At Sea	—	—
Monday (5/17)	Valletta, Malta	8:30 a.m.	6:00 p.m.
Tuesday (5/18)	Tunis, Tunisia	8:30 a.m.	4:00 p.m.
Wed (5/19)	Naples, Italy (Pompeii)	8:30 a.m.	9:00 p.m.
Thursday (5/20)	Civitavecchia, Italy (Rome)	7:45 a.m.	9:00 p.m.
Friday (5/21)	At Sea	—	—
Saturday (5/22)	La Spezia, Italy (Florence, Pisa)	7:30 a.m.	7:30 p.m.
Sunday (5/23)	Ajaccio, Corsica	7:30 a.m.	5:00 p.m.
Monday (5/24)	Villefranche, France (Monte Carlo, Cannes, Nice)	8:00 a.m.	7:00 p.m.
Tuesday (5/25	At Sea	—	—
Wed (5/26)	Barcelona, Spain	7:00 a.m.	—

Victoria & Albert"s and Heading Home

2010-02-02T10:30:00.000-06:00

Hello Everyone! Susan here. Last night we got all spruced up for dinner at Victoria & Albert's, Disney's premire restaurant. I got some interesting looks as I emerged from the Comfort Station at the Fort Wilderness Campground in my cocktail dress. Of course, the fancy dress with clogs would get some looks (didn't want to put on the heels until I had to). Jeff looked very dapper in his suit. We headed over to the Grand Floridian Resort and valet parked (that's part of the deal with Vicky & Al's), and the valet directed us to the restaurant. First, let me say that the Grand Floridian is lovely. There was a pianist playing when we walked in and the band was getting ready to play as we walked by. The lobby is just a wonderful place to go and relax and listen to music in the evenings.

When we walked into Victoria & Albert's, it was like we had left the normal cacophony of Disney behind and entered a very genteel home. They took my coat and offered me a cashmere shawl so I wouldn't be chilly. We were taken to our table which was in a room with a fireplace, near the harpist. (we swear that she was union - played about 10 minutes and took a 10-15 minute break) There were two other couples in the room with us. Our server was Bill and his assistant was Ann. Ann welcomed us and poured glasses of champagne (part of the wine pairing with dinner) as we looked at our personalized menus. We had to make six selections for our dinner. We carefully chose different things from each other in order to maximize our experience (so we could taste each others' food). Each selection had a wine pairing with it.

After we ordered, Ann was back with an amouse bouche, compliments of the chef. The plate was like a work of art, and they only got better as the evening progressed. Listed below are the remaining six courses we each ordered, along with some additional photos of the wonderful food.

Susan

Maine Lobster with Watermelon Radish, Kohlrabi and Vanilla Aioli
Diver Scallop with Zellwood Corn and Chorizo Sauce
Duck Breast, Duck Sausage, and Confit with Salsify, Pomegranate Sauce
Colorado Lamb with Fresh Cannellini Bean Cassoulet (Photo 4)
Thomas Hoe Stevenson Stilton, Couronne Lochoise, 36 Month Aged Parmigiano, Thomasville Tomme
Meyer Lemon and Blood Orange Purse with Blackberry-Violet Sherbet (Photo 6)

Jeff

Colorado Buffalo with Fennel, Olives, Artichokes and Sherry Vinaigrette (Photo 1)
Sake-Soy-marinated King Salmon with Bok Choy and Soy Beans (Photo 2)
Poulet Rouge with Mushroom Truffle Ragout, Black Trumpet Mushrooms and English Peas
Marcho Farms Veal Tenderloin with Marble Potatoes and Sauce Soubise (Photo 3)
White Chocolate Gelato with Tableside Shavings and Micro Orchids
Hawaiian Kona Chocolate Souffle (Photo 5)

After the amazing dinner, we headed back to the camper. It was cold again, so Jeff had both heaters running. Not long after we went to bed, he noticed that the power was out. We had no flashlight, so he used my Blackberry for light as he checked the breakers. Nothing would work, so he decided to go to Wal Mart for another extension cord and a different adapter for the heavy duty extension cord that we had in the camper. He also got a couple of flashlights. I stayed bundled up under the quilts and the extra sleeping bag that he pulled out before he left. After he returned, he got the heater going again with the extension cord, so we didn't freeze! Not the best ending to a wonderful evening but it could have been worse!

Recovery Day

2010-01-11T16:05:00.000-06:00

Susan here. After a good night's rest and a great breakfast at Fort Wilderness' Trails End buffet, we were feeling much better. Jeff is feeling a lot better today and got his appetite back. Both of us are a little sore, but not too bad. In fact, we could even run some today if we wanted to. Guess that's where the training pays off.

Jeff here. After breakfast, we walked around what used to be the petting farm at Fort Wilderness but all that remains are some ponies for rides and stables for the various horses large and small used around the Disney property. The large horses are Belgians and Percherons. Many of them weigh upwards of 2000 lbs and so obviously they're huge. Also we noticed that it was so cold out that the ponies had on coats!

Susan here. Next up was a search for some ibuprofen, as I didn't have any in my purse. One of the items to remember next time! After the visit to Walgreens, we decided to go to Downtown Disney. There is a large movie theatre there, so we decided to take in a movie. We chose "The Blind Side." We really enjoyed it and would highly recommend seeing it if you haven't already.

After the movie we wandered around the World of Disney Store to see if there was something that we couldn't live without, and there wasn't. As we exited, what was in our gaze, but the Ghiradelli shop. Of course, we had to go in. There are always free samples, and free samples of chocolate are always good. We decdided to have hot chocolates and one of their colossal cookies - chocolate chip and toffee. We went outside and found a table in the sun, since it was warmer today.

We wandered around some more, going through the Lego Store, where they have some nice displays made of lego blocks. Yes, those dogs and family are made of legos.

We're getting ready now for our celebration dinner at Victoria & Alberts, Disney's premiere restaurant. More tomorrow on our dinner.

Marathon Day!

2010-01-11T08:40:00.000-06:00

Susan here. We were up at 2:30 race morning to get over to the Epcot before 3:30. Seems awfully early, but when you are dealing with about 24,000 registered runners, there will be traffic. We got to Race Retreat package again this year. The promise of a "climate controlled" tent was very appealing. They just didn't say what the climate would be...COLD! I swear the "heaters" were blowing cold air. Everyone was bundled up head and ears inside. I felt for the folks that had to wait outside. The folks that drove could wait in their cars, so that was better. Still...Brrrr!! We did have some bagels and peanut butter when we got there, and there were "private" porta-potties there, too. We also took the opportunity for some photos with Disney characters.

Everyone in Race Retreat waited until the last possible minute to head to the starting corrals. We made it to Corral D just in time. We had bought some zip up hooded sweatshirts at Sam's, so we had those on at the start. One of the really nice things that Disney does is to collect all of the clothing discarded not only at the start, but over the entire course, launder it and donate it to charity. We both had on two pairs of pants, two pairs of gloves (with hot-hands inside), and multiple shirts.

Mickey and his pals counted down, fireworks shot into the air and we were off. The first five or so miles were in and around Epcot. It was thrilling to hear John Williams' Olympic Themes playing as we entered the World Showcase, which was lit by the torches used for Illuminations. Then on to Magic Kingdom. Along the way, we were serenaded by a couple of local high school and middle school bands, along with their cheerleaders.

It was so cool to run down Main Street USA with all the spectators cheering us on. We stopped for a couple of pictures there. On through Tomorrowland and then, with the herald trumpets announcing our arrival, we ran through Cinderella's Castle. We completed Magic Kingdom with Frontierland, then the long, backstage stretch to Animal Kingdom, where there was little to look at other than the backs of fellow runners.

Jeff here. I don't know if it was the cold overall, the fact that we made so many stops in the Magic Kingdom for photos and I got cold there, that I had almost no sleep the night before the race, that I didn't eat enough, or a combination of everything, but I got REALLY cold coming out of the Magic Kingdom and my whole body started hurting. During the run to the Animal Kingdom I grabbed a Tylenol at one of the aid stations to try to dull the pain. I also ate a raw banana, and I don't even like bananas, to try to get my strength back up. I also picked up a CLIF gel shot to try to get some energy.

After a half hour or so I started feeling better and was able to run into and through the Animal Kingdom feeling pretty well. I shot this nice picture of Expedition Everest (roller coaster) there. Things continued to go pretty well for me through about mile 21. We were running slower than our normal pace but at least I didn't feel like I was in any distress. Things started going south again for me as we turned north into the cold wind and did a couple of runs up hill over an overpass and up an exit ramp on our way to Hollywood Studios. There were volunteers handing out snack sized candy bars in the park and that again seemed to give me a little energy boost and I was able to make it to the 24 mile marker near the Boardwalk resort. Just over 2 miles to go but it seemed like 10 for me at that point. I'm not sure what happened but I felt like I had run completely out of energy.

Susan, bless her heart, seemed like she could run another 10 miles. She kept looking back, checking to make sure I was still running, and encouraging me on. Rather than running a mile or two in between stops I was now lucky to run a quarter mile. I began looking ahead to something (archway, curve, hill, building) and telling myself to run to that point. Finally, we made it to the back entrance of Epcot - the International Gateway) and we walked again backstage. I SO wanted to be able to run around World Showcase and finish out the race but I just couldn't do it! I'd run until I felt like I was about to collapse and then I'd stop and walk. When I could breathe again, I'd run some more. FINALLY, FINALLY we were at the front of Epcot and running past the 26 mile marker. I decided then that I wasn't stopping until I crossed the finish line - NO MATTER WHAT. If I collapsed, so be it. Perhaps it's that same mentality that causes marathon runners to have heart attacks at the finish? No matter - we did it! Our time was 4:57:10 - about 15 minutes slower than I thought we'd do but neither of us every expected the conditions that we ran in.

Susan here again. We went back to Race Retreat (it was still cold even with a lot more bodies in there) for brunch. First we checked our time at the computers, then got food. Jeff thought that the eggs were the only thing that tasted good to him. I got some eggs and potatoes, as well as some of the soup, which wasn't that good, but it was warm. I ate my soup standing up, while stretching my legs at the table.

After that , we went out to the truck and headed back to Fort Wilderness. I took a looonnnng hot shower and Jeff took a looonnnng nap. (I took a nap, too) After we were all cleaned up and rested (and I washed all the dirty running gear), we went to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma, an African buffet. Jeff was still feeling bad, so he didn't enjoy dinner as much as he normally would. After a good, long sleep, we are both feeling pretty good this morning.

A side note: We have seen a lot of wildlife on this visit. We have regularly seen 4-5 deer grazing. I saw 7 turkeys at a nearby campsite, and I've seen a *live* armadillo. I also saw something unusual last night - a cat walking on a leash! Our neighbors are full-time RV'ers and this is the only way that Scout, the cat, gets outside. He likes it, too!

Cold, Wet Saturday

2010-01-09T18:53:00.000-06:00

Oh my, Susan and I felt so bad for the half-marathoners this morning when we awoke at 5:30 am and heard the rain drops pecking at the roof of our camper. Knowing that thousands of people were milling around in that frigid rain trying to stay warm before the start of the race made us cringe! Today, after bundling up in multiple shirts, sweatshirts, leggings, pants, coats and gloves (did I say it was COLD?) and grabbed our umbrellas, we ventured out to Hollywood Studios.

The only good thing about the cold, wet weather is that Floridians don't like to go out in cold weather so there were only die-hard tourists like us at the park. We were able to ride Toy Story Mania, Rock-N-Roller Coaster and Twilight Zone Tower of Terror multiple times with little or no wait and these attractions typically have lines that are an hour or more.

After riding everything we wanted several times, Susan had the idea to go over to the Beach Club to a cozy little restaurant called Beaches and Cream. They have an excellent chicken noodle soup that was calling to our chilled to the bone bodies. Afterwards, we played a few games in the nearby game room. We then walked over to Epcot where we listened to the Voices of Liberty singing group and watched (snoozed during) the American Adventure show. We finished up the evening back at Hollywood Studios with a hearty dinner at 50's Prime Time of pot roast (me) and meat loaf (Susan).

We're now getting our stuff ready for our frigid marathon tomorrow and our early alarm at 2:15 am. Yikes!

Dreary Friday

2010-01-09T18:27:00.000-06:00

Hi all. Sorry I didn't post about yesterday's activities but Susan and I were pretty busy. As nice as Thursday was, we knew it wouldn't last - Friday was a coolish, dreary day. We decided to visit Animal Kingdom as we didn't make it to that park during our previous visit in October for the International Food & Wine Festival. We did all of our favorite things, including the Expedition Everest roller coaster, Nemo show, Lion King show and the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. You can see I'm wearing my new FREE sunglasses with free strap though a little while after this picture was taken, it got completely overcast and then started sprinkling. It continued to mist and sprinkle the rest of the day, hence dreary Friday.

Speaking of the safari ride, Susan was the photographer and she managed to capture the rear end of most of the animals on the savannah. We got a good laugh out of it. :-)

We finished up the evening with a wonderful meal at the Bistro de Paris in Epcot, which is one of our favorite restaurants on Disney property. Susan had the venison and I had the beef tenderloin. Both entrees were excellent and the entire dining experience was wonderful.

Pasta in the Park

2010-01-08T15:53:00.001-06:00

Hello again! Picking up where we left off yesterday, after setting up camp and having lunch, Susan and I went to Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex to pick up our race packets and browse through the merchandise at the Health and Fitness Expo. Packet pickup was straight-forward and crowds were pretty well managed. We did have to make an extra trip back out to the parking lot because I'd forgotten our "proof of time" from the Huntsville Half marathon Susan and I had run back in November. We're in the "D" corral, right behind the "elite" runners so we shouldn't have to deal with passing all the walkers like we did in the half-marathon last year.

We both bought us some new running gloves that were a bit thicker and better at moisture wicking than the ones we already had. I also got a free pair of running sunglasses. We happened upon the booth where Susan had purchased running glasses at the Expo last year and mentioned to the person there that one of the ear pieces had fallen off so she couldn't use them. The lady told her that her glasses were warranted for life so she or I could pick any glasses we liked except for the very best and could have them for free. Can't beat free! She also gave us both free straps and free storage pouches for our glasses.

We also taste tested various samples of gel, gelatin squares and power bars and grabbed some samples to take with us to eat early in the race.

After a few hours, we headed over to Epcot where we attended the "Pasta in the Park" event. We got there a bit early so we decided to walk through Innoventions to kill some time and to warm up (getting chilly after sunset). As it turned out, they were doing Segway introductions so Susan and I signed up. We'd done one of the Disney Segway tours 3-4 years ago and really enjoyed it and were looking forward to trying out the newer generation models. They did seem easier to maneuver than the older units.

The Pasta Party turned out to be a nice activity. Things started out with a nice buffet featuring various green, potato and pasta salads, pasta, broiled chicken and brownies. Also included were bananas, water, fruit punch and lemonade. There was a cash bar with beer and wine. There were also character photo opportunities, which we took advantage of. We met two couples from Canada that had come down to run. One couple was doing the Goofy Challenge (both half marathon and full marathon) and the other was doing the half marathon. The third couple at our table was from Birmingham, AL and they were proudly wearing their Alabama Crimson Tide gear. It was nice visiting with them all.

After a nice couple of hours Susan and I decided to head back to the campground to watch the BCS National Championship game. We found a TV in Crockett's Tavern and were able to watch through the first half, by which time the Tide had established a commanding lead. Go SEC!

We've Arrived!

2010-01-07T13:13:00.000-06:00

We arrived at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground just after noon and it is fabulous here. Temps I think are around 60 but with the bright sun shine I'm comfortable in my t-shirt. Susan and I set up camp on campsite 1734 and we're enjoying it as we're right across from the Comfort Station (showers / restrooms). Susan fixed us some soup (chicken and herb dumplings) for lunch and we're heading out to the Health and Fitness Expo to pick up our race packets and free-bee stuff. Here are a few photos of our campsite.

2010 Disney World Marathon Itinerary

2010-01-04T09:37:00.004-06:00

Hello all! Our upcoming trip to Disney World is for the 2010 Disney marathon. Susan and I have been training for 8 months for this race and we're really psyched to be running it. We will be blogging during the trip so be on the lookout! Below is our daily itinerary:

Thursday, January 7th
Check-in @ Fort Wilderness Resort
Go to Wide World of Sports for Health & Fitness Expo and pick up race packets
Attend "Pasta in the Park" pre-race dining event at Epcot

Friday, January 8th
Theme park day
Dinner at Bistro de Paris in Epcot @ 7pm

Saturday, January 9th
Theme park day
Dinner at 50's Prime Time Cafe in Hollywood Studios @ 5:35 pm

Sunday, January 10th
Disney's Marathon Race Retreat @ 3-5:30 am
Marathon start @ 5:50 am
Disney's Marathon Race Retreat open to 2:30 pm
Dinner at Boma in the Animal Kingdom Lodge @ 5:30 pm

Monday, January 11th
Theme park day
Celebration dinner at Victoria & Albert's @ 5:30 pm

Tuesday, January 12th
Depart Fort Wilderness Resort for home

2008 Food & Wine Photos

2009-10-19T10:18:00.015-05:00

Yeah, these are a year late but oh well. Picture #1 is Susan with our Happy Limo driver. Picture #2 is inside Epcot, showing the theme of the 2008 festival, which we thought was kind of a lame name "Cities in Wonderland". Picture #3 is Susan on a bench near the China pavilion. Picture #4 are chefs from Puglia, Italy doing a demo on how to make fresh pasta. Picture #5 is Susan near the France pavilion. Picture #6 is Susan sitting in front of the entrance garden to Epcot. Picture #7 is me pigging out on a sausage from the Germany pavilion. Picture #8 is Susan with Crescent Lake, the Yacht Club and Dolphin resorts behind her. Picture #9 is me overcoming my dread of hammocks (goes back to a fall from one in Cozumel, Mexico).

2008 Food & Wine Festival Preps

2008-10-21T16:29:00.002-05:00

This will be the 6th year in a row Susan and I have trekked to Epcot to attend the International Food & Wine Festival and I don't think we'll ever get tired of it. This year, we're excited to be staying at the Dolphin hotel, which is a short walk from the International Gateway entrance to Epcot. We've also decided to extend our stay from our normal "long weekend" to 4 full days plus whatever time we tour on Sunday. Below is our itinerary. We have the two main events on Friday and Saturday and will be spending most of the rest of the time touring Epcot's World Showcase, sampling the various food and wines. We also will try to catch any new/renovated attractions we've not yet seen at the World.

Tuesday, October 21st

Flight from Huntsville, AL to Orlando International via Atlanta
Happy Limo to the Dolphin
Sleep

Wednesday, October 22nd

Epcot, Food & Wine Festival

Thursday October 23rd

Epcot, Food & Wine Festival

Friday October 24th

Epcot, Food & Wine Festival - Culinary demonstrations, seminars and wine tastings

Taste of Spain -- A unique, casual dining experience to discover, taste, and enjoy regional food & beverages from Spain. Chefs, wineries, and breweries from Spain prepare local tastes for guests to enjoy in a walk-about event. Features live entertainment from Spain.

Saturday, October 25th

Epcot, Food & Wine Festival - Culinary demonstrations, seminars and wine tastings

Party for the Senses, Eat, Drink and Celebrate -- Feast on this tribute to the sensory arts! Begin your evening with a reserved seat at the Eat to the Beat concert series at the America Gardens Theatre. Following the show, World ShowPlace becomes the setting for an amazing evening showcasing the talents of more than 25 eminent chefs and over 25 wineries and breweries. Wander amongst various tasting stations in the midst of imaginative décor and exciting atmosphere.

Sunday, October 25th

Epcot, Food & Wine Festival - Culinary demonstrations, seminars and wine tastings
Return flight from MCO to HSV

Another Day at Sea

2008-06-15T14:01:00.000-05:00

Just to finish the cruise blog up (better later than never right?) here are some photos from our Palo brunch and Galley Tour on our final day of the cruise.

Friday The 13th - Day at Sea

2008-06-14T22:03:00.009-05:00

Hello again, Jeff here. It’s Saturday afternoon on the ship and it is once again VERY COOL outside. Every sea day has been overcast, windy and temperatures have hovered in the 60’s. I’ve got about 20 minutes before we go on the kitchen tour so I’ll try to summarize what we did yesterday.

In the morning, we spent time doing a backstage tour of the Walt Disney Theatre called “Stageworks”. The presentation was done by the theatre and costume technicians. The presentation consisted of some prepared video clips, talks by the production personnel and a demonstration of how scene changes are done. At the end, guests were invited up on stage to talk one on one with the technicians and staff. This activity was limited to guests 18 and older.

This was followed by a “Behind the Scenes” look at the ABC Television network operations, including its affiliate ESPN, provided by Executive Vice President Jeff Bader. Jeff had a nice presentation and answered a lot of the questions average viewers have about why TV programming is the way it is.

Susan and I then went to the Sessions Lounge we were participated in our second wine tasting of the cruise. These tastings are offered on each Sea Day and different wines are used each time. Our favorite surprisingly was a Merlot – neither Susan or I are Merlot fans but the Smoking Loon (a relatively cheap wine) was good; so good we ordered a bottle later in the evening with our dinner.

Susan and Katy then participated in the Origami Animals class in the Promenade Lounge. Katy now makes a wicked Origami Crane. I stayed in the stateroom and took the time to update the blog on our Puerto Vallarta tour. Next, after showers and donning our semi-formal apparel, we made our way to the Disney Theatre for “Disney Dreams: An Enchanted Classic”. This show was rated the #1 show in the entire cruise line business and is an impressive production.

We then went to the family cabaret show of musician/comedian John Charles. John is a long time favorite on the Disney Magic and he was again thoroughly entertaining.

Dinner was in Lumiere’s, my favorite restaurant. The other guests at our table didn’t make it to dinner so it was just the three of us and that made dinner more leisurely. Jonathan, our assistant server entertained us with a number of tricks and brain teasers involving crayons on the table. Katy also showed Jonathan her new-found Origami skills and taught him how to make the Crane.

We finished out the night with the Dessert Buffet. Unfortunately, given we’d just finished dinner less than an hour earlier, we really couldn’t do it justice. We did have fun just looking at the artistry of the cakes, pastries, chocolate fountains and other goodies the chefs created.

This will be my last post onboard – I’ve used up my 250 internet minutes. I’ll post the activities of our final day at sea, debarkation, and (hopefully) time at Disneyland / California Adventure when I get internet access again. Adios from the Magic!

Puerto Vallarta & City and Tequila Tour

2008-06-13T17:02:00.013-05:00

Hello again, Jeff here to tell you about our day in Puerto Vallarta, hereafter known as PV for short. Like our day in Mazatlan on Wednesday, Thursday was overcast but still comfortably warm and we had no rain – which was good. I’d start off with a little history of PV; however, I didn’t pick up one of the little cheat sheets as we were leaving the ship so I have nothing from which to copy. For those reading the blog that are future cruisers on Disney’s Mexican Riviera cruise this summer note that you lose an hour of sleep (i.e., you set your clocks forward 1 hour) on both Tuesday night and Wednesday night so the Magic keeps ship time equal to local time.

I’d arranged a 4 hour tour of the city and tequila tasting (through Mazatlan Frank) with his friend Fernando Alfredo as our guide. The cost of the tour was $35/person. We were to meet Alfredo at 10 am at the Hospitality Tent just as we departed the ship. As it turned out, Alfredo was doing a tour with passengers on the Vision of the Sea and had asked Bernardo to handle our tour. Bernardo asked if we’d mind waiting a few minutes while he tried to get another couple to join us. We didn’t mind – in fact Frank had mentioned this to us yesterday during his tour of Mazatlan so we were expecting it.

After only a few minutes Bernardo came walking up with Gene and Carmen, an older couple and fellow cruisers on the Magic. Soon we were off in Bernardo’s sparkling clean, comfortable 12 passenger van heading south on the main road through Puerto Vallarta. Bernardo shared with us quite a few facts including that PV depends almost entirely on the tourism industry for its economy. Despite being located on a bay, it has a very small fishing industry – most of what is done is geared to the sport/tourist fisherman. PV’s official population is on the order of 250,000; however, it is one of the fastest growing cities in Mexico so its actual population is larger. The growth is apparent in all the building that we saw along our tour. Numerous hotel and condominium complexes were being built in addition to the many already there. Also, PV was more modern looking to me…from the Sam’s Club and Super Walmart you see just across from the pier to the Home Depot just down the road.

Things changed though the farther south we went. Soon we transitioned from smooth roads to cobblestone roads that were rough. The streets became much narrower and the buildings much older and modest. After passing the Boardwalk area we entered the older part of the city. Here Bernardo took us into the areas where the locals go to shop, get their hair cut, buy clothes and shoes. It was really interesting. We finally ended up at the southern end of the city in an area where there is an off shore underwater sanctuary that is a popular spot for snorkeling and scuba diving. Just a bit further down was the area where they shot the movie “Night of the Iguana” in the 1960s.

Next, we made our way to Mama Lucia's Tequila Distillery. Actually, Mama Lucia was the great, great grandmother of the current operator. Once there, one of the family members explained to us each step of the tequila harvesting, preparation and distillation process and answered our questions. Then came the good stuff - yes, that's right the tequila tasting. Mama Lucia's offered the traditional white, reposado (golden color - aged in oak barrels for a few months) and anejo (aged in oak barrels for a minimum of one year) as well as flavored tequilas (orange, almond and chocolate). We sampled the white, reposado and all three flavored tequilas. All were very good.

It was now about lunchtime, so Bernardo backtracked a bit and we went off-road to a restaurant called El Nogalito. Nogalito apparently is a type of walnut tree. The restaurant turned out to be fantastic. The area was very lush with all types of flowers and vegetation. The dining area was covered but still out in the open air. Their were macaws around as well as birds and even an iguana. Dinner was excellent and we enjoyed getting to know Gene and Carmen better as we dined. On the way back to the ship, we stopped at the PV church, which was well adorned. Our four hour tour turned into more like 5 hours but it seemed much shorter since we had such a good time. Bernardo was an excellent tour guide. His knowledge of PV, his personable nature and his love for his home town made him one of the very best guides we’ve ever had. I would not hesitate to use him again or to recommend him to anyone.

Once back on the ship, I took the opportunity to catch up on the blog while Susan and Katy did what? Want to guess? No, they didn’t nap but you’re close. They both went and got a massage. After taking our showers, Susan and I went and relaxed in the Sessions piano bar with some drinks and a cheese plate. Katy doesn’t like Sessions – she says they only play “old people” music so she stayed in the stateroom and watched TV. We met up at 8:15 and made our way to dinner in Parrot Cay – which tonight was Pirate themed as tonight was “Pirate Night”. Waiting for us on the table were pirate bandanas to put on our heads. Actually, I was the only one to put it on my head, the girls didn’t want to mess up their hair. I captured this photo of our two servers (Pema and Jonathan) and the head server (Ciao Romano – no I’m not kidding) with Susan and Katy. We finished off the evening by attending the “Pirates in the Caribbean” deck party and fireworks show. Tomorrow and Saturday are Sea Days.

Mazatlan & City and Colonial Tour

2008-06-12T09:39:00.023-05:00

Hello, Jeff here. We’ve just returned from our tour of Puerto Vallarta and Tequila “factory”. We’ve got another 4 hours in port so I have time to add a description and photos to the Cabo entry for our dinner at Palo and to catch up on what we did yesterday in Mazatlan. First some history.

Mazatlan was first settled by Totorames and Xiximes, who are believed to have given the city its name, which means “place of the deer.” At one time, herds of deer wandered throughout the area. Today, in their memory, a large statue of a deer stands proudly on the waterfront and is also included on the city’s coat of arms. Founded in 1531, the city served as a port for Spanish galleons loading up on gold and silver from the Sierra Madre Oriental. Pirates who preyed on the treasure-rich ships, including the infamous Sir Francis Drake, also frequented the region, and rumors of gold and silver buried here endure to this day.

After incorporation in 1792, Mazatlan was officially established as a municipality in 1837. Shortly thereafter, the city enjoyed a surge of growth when a large group of German immigrants arrived. They established strong trade ties. The port has remained active and vital to the region, and today it is Mexico’s main commercial port on the west coast. One of Mazatlan’s largest exports is shrimp; approximately 40 million pounds are shipped abroad annually. The city also has an interesting military history. In 1847, the US Navy blockaded the port and the French bombarded it in 1864. After the American Civil War, a group of defeated Confederate loyalists attempted to establish a community in Mazatlan. Mazatlan was also the second city in the world to be aerially bombed, attacked in 1914 during the Mexican Revolution.

Mazatlan differs from other well known tourist resorts with its dual personality. Though tourism accounts for half of the city’s economic importance, the other half includes shrimp and tuna fishing, freezing and canning plants, commerce and port activities. These two aspects meld to form the city’s distinct personality.

Our tour of Mazatlan was with Mazatlan Frank, who I’d heard about on cruisecritic.com forums. Frank has been doing tours of Mazatlan, his home city, for many years and his attention to detail, demeanor, pride in his city and personality make him an excellent tour guide. We met Frank just outside the cruise terminal where we also met up with the rest of our tour group from the Magic – a couple from San Francisco and a family of 5 from Houston. We fit comfortably in a 12 passenger, air-conditioned van. The weather for the day was cloudy, with rain showers possible. We took our rain jackets just in case but we were fortunate as it only sprinkled a couple of times.

Our first stop was a brick “factory” which was basically a one-man operation. The man would shovel the clay soil into a wheel barrow, mix it with grass, straw and manure. He’d then shovel the mixture into a wood rack laying on the ground and smooth off the top. The ground was sanded so the wet bricks didn’t stick. After drying on the ground, the bricks would then be assembled into a kiln structure. A hardwood fire would be started inside and it burn for about two days before the bricks were fired properly. The man could make about 2000 bricks a day, which equated to about $20. This was better than minimum wage, which in Mazatlan is about $5 per 8 hour day.

Our next stop was Malpica, a quaint little town of about 1,400 people. Here we visited an old fashioned bakery that used a wood burning oven to make some of the best bread and pastries I’ve ever had. Just the smell was worth paying for. We bought two pastries for $1. Next we watched a man make colored tiles using a 100+ year old hand press. Very interesting and they were beautiful tiles.

A furniture “factory” was our next stop. Here about a half dozen men made custom furniture by hand with basic woodworking tools. The “factory” was actually an open air shed that provided protection from rain but still allowed the workers to have fresh air and a breeze in which to work. Adjacent to the factory was a ceramic “factory” where they made all types of figurines, plates, bowls, cups, wind chimes, tiles – you name it, and they made it. They also had some leather goods and jewelry. We browsed here before moving on to Concordia.

Concordia was a much bigger town than Malpica. There was a town square, a nice old church and plenty of open air arts and crafts shops. After spending about 20 minutes here we were on the road again back to Mazatlan. Frank had this touring thing down. As we were driving back into town, he passed out a menu for a restaurant called Tony’s on the Beach. Frank took our order and while we were shopping in the “Golden Zone” (read high priced tourist area) Frank called in our orders so they would be ready for us when we arrived. Is that service or what?

Tony’s turned out to be a nice, open-air restaurant right on the beach. Since Mazatlan is known for shrimp, I ordered the jumbo garlic shrimp and they were yummy! I also had a concoction whose name I’ve forgotten but basically you put lime juice and ice in a glass and then top it off with beer (Pacifico) and salt on the rim. Very refreshing. Susan and Katy had the Mexican plates which included lots of traditional food. We were also treated to complimentary tequila and Sprite shots after lunch.

We waddled out to the van and continued our tour by visiting an exclusive area called El Cid. Homes start at $250,000 and go up into the millions. It reminded me a lot of driving around on the Gulf Coast of Florida or down in the West Palm Beach area. We noticed quite a few license plates on the cars were from the United States. We also drove along the coastal road and were able to see a rock diver make a 45 foot dive into water only 5-6 feet deep. I was amazed how far out the guy had to jump – it had to be at least 20 feet! Tough way to make a living.

We finished the tour off by visiting the old part of Mazatlan. I really enjoy getting to see the areas away from the touristy parts of town and this fit the bill quite nicely. You can see from the photo that there was a lovely square here with nice sidewalk restaurants and gathering areas for the locals. Frank made one final stop at an overlook so we could photograph the Magic back at the port. All told, the tour was 7 hours long and we all came away quite pleased that we were able to see as much of Mazatlan and its people and culture as we did. I would highly recommend Mazatlan Frank to any tourist looking for a good tour guide.

Once back on the ship, the girls napped while I worked on the blog. After showering, we then caught the 6:15 showing of “Twice Charmed” an interesting twist on the Cinderella story. We then went to the 7:30 cabaret show of John Charles. John plays guitar and does comedy and he does both extremely well. Any guy that can play the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana one minute and Queen and Lynard Skynard the next has some talent. We also enjoyed some margaritas. After dinner, Susan and I went to the adult comedy show of Heath Hyche. From what I remember, he was pretty good. Unfortunately, I think I slept through most of it as I didn’t get a nap earlier like the girls.

Cabo San Lucas & 4 x 4 Desert Safari Tour

2008-06-11T17:52:00.013-05:00

To wet your appetite, I’m going to post some pictures of our day in Cabo yesterday. As forecast, the weather turned out to be amazing – bright, clear but best of all WARM (in the 80’s). Our tour was the 4 x 4 Desert Safari with Cabo Adventures. I’d heard about this tour on Tripadvisor.com and tried to book it myself; however, when I called them I found out that Disney had already booked all their spots. Of course Disney added another $20/person to the tour price but I booked it anyway since it had gotten such rave reviews. We were not disappointed. Our tour guide Jose Luis was excellent and the ride into the desert in the Mercedes Unimog trucks was truly an adventure. I’ll write more about the tour later when I’ve got more time. I’ve got to jump in the shower and get ready for tonight’s show – Twice Charmed and dinner afterwards.

Let’s begin with a little history lesson. Cabo San Lucas lies in the Baja California peninsula in the state of Baja California Sur (south). It has the Pacific Ocean on one side and the Sea of Cortez on the other side. Its population is approximately 41,000. For centuries the Baja peninsula was inhabited by Cochimi Indians. In the 16th century, lured by rumors of Aztec gold, the Spanish explorer Hernan Cortez sent ships to explore the area. The first ships landed in what is now La Paz, where many crew members were slain by Chochimis. Though the survivors found no gold, they did discover a bounty in pearls. Aside from the pearl trade, the Baja Peninsula held no wealth for the Spaniards. In the 17th century, the Jesuits arrived and founded the first mission in Loreto in 1697. In all, 30 missions were founded by the Jesuits and later by Franciscans and Dominicans. By the 1850s, as disease depopulated the peninsula, all were abandoned.

In 1834, US President Polk sided with Texans who were tired of paying taxes to Mexican generals. Troops marched on La Paz and San Jose del Cabo. At the bargaining table, Americans conceded they didn’t need any more desert than they already had. Baja was thus left to the Mexicans. Today, Cabo San Lucas is unspoiled and is one of the world’s best fishing areas. It remains Los Cabos’ primary tourist attraction with beautiful white sand beaches, great shopping and a large American retiree population. Last year, 550,000 visitors arrived by air, car and cruise ships.

We began our tour at the Cabo Adventures Dolphin park, which was a short walk from the pier where we tendered in. Cabo is a tender port, meaning the ship actually anchors out in the bay and small tender boats transport passengers to and from the port. We were split up into groups and loaded into our Mercedes Unimog trucks to begin our adventure. Our truck made it about two blocks before the engine quit right in the middle of the road. The driver was able to coast backwards down the hill out of traffic. Our tour guide called and we had another truck there to pick us up in minutes. Better to break down 2 blocks from headquarters than in the middle of the desert!

The entire tour is 72 kilometers or about 43 miles. Given we made a loop (roughly speaking) we drove about 21 miles into the wilderness. The first few miles were on paved road but we were soon on sand and dirt and I was glad we were in a 4 x 4. After a couple of more miles civilization disappeared – I mean there was nothing but the occasional “ranch”. These ranches were modest at best and their cattle were allowed to freely roam to search for whatever food they could find. By the looks of some of the cows, they weren’t finding much. Jose Luis gave us a running commentary on the flora and fauna as we rode. He also told us about the history of Cabo and the surrounding region. At one point, we stopped and got out of the trucks so we could see up close some of the species of cactus, trees. He even showed us the amazing echo one could achieve in the valley by yelling really loud – though the echo did sound more like our driver Ivan than Jose.

After awhile we arrived at the ranch where we had our lunch. There were nice, clean restroom facilities there as well. First though we had the opportunity to feed some of the baby goats there corn tortillas. We “Frisbee” tossed the tortillas over the fence, much to the delight of the goats. Next up was the tequila tasting. We were all given small little ceramic tasting cups on a ribbon that fit around our neck (our souvenirs). We taste white and gold tequila, both made from 100% blue agave and mescale tequila, which is made from green agave. I liked them all and was ready for more. We also got to try blue agave syrup, which was excellent…lighter than honey. Jose compared it to maple syrup.

We then moved over to another area where Jose Luis showed us how the natives used to grind corn hominy and made tortillas. He worked up a pretty good sweat raking and crushing the hominy until he had a nice ball of corn “dough”, which he patted out into a tortilla. Our final activity at the ranch was lunch and it was yummy. We had chicken mole, seasoned beef, refried beans, cactus salad, soft drinks, beer and some other stuff that I’m forgetting. Excellent! We finished off the tour by taking the quick route back…first through the backcountry and then on to the highway. Once we hit the pavement, Jose Luis opened up the “bar” in the back and we had one final toast to our fellow tourists and to our tour guide and driver. A fitting end to a wonderful tour.

Once back onboard, we took advantage of the nice, warm weather and sunned up on Deck 10 and then snuck in a nap afterwards. The highlight of the evening was a marriage proposal during the Ron Pearson (comedian) show. The groom had arranged to be picked out of the audience by Ron and put on the spot to ask his girlfriend of 2.5 years to marry him. After offering him $21.29 out of his pocket, a Disney cap and bottle of champagne from backstage and various and sundry items donated by the audience, the guy finally said he didn’t have a ring. Ron then pulled the ring out of his pocket and handed it to the guy. He proposed and I’m pretty sure she accepted. This was Virgil’s (WVMD from the DIS Board) son, I believe.

Next was dinner at Palo, the exclusive adult-only restaurant on the Magic. Katy has really been looking forward to dining here since she's turned 18. Our server was Toni (he was a guy) and he did a good job of tending to our every request. Susan and I stuck with our usual filet mignon and Katy had the lobster ravioli. For dessert, we all had the chocolate souffle and then thought about the dessert we promised to eat for Brian so we got these. We're thinking of you son! Tomorrow, is Mazatlan!

Day at Sea & Formal Night

2008-06-11T17:18:00.006-05:00

As you all can tell, I'm behind on blogging - about two days. We just got back from a 7 hour tour of Mazatlan, the girls are taking naps and I'm trying to catch up! Anyway, here's our first day at sea, which turned out to be pretty cool (68 F)...too cool for us to be hanging out by the pool. Per the Disney cruise staff, this has been the pattern on each of the two previous cruises too. Warmer weather is ahead though...but I don't want to get ahead of myself. Back to Monday.

Today was a day for relaxing and getting reacquainted with the ship. Our first event for the day was the Castaway Club (repeat Disney cruisers) meet and greet in Rockin Bar D. Here we got to meet our substitute Captain (Captain Tom is on vacation), eat some snacks and enter ourselves into the drawing for free Castaway Club clocks. Next up were “Art of Entertaining” sessions on cake and plate decorating and napkin folding in Studio Sea. I thought the chef (from England) doing the decorating was less than enthusiastic about the task and really didn’t show any really cool techniques. The young lady doing the napkin folding was much better but still frustratingly fast at the end of each folding. Luckily we came away with step by step instructions with which to practice. Next up was a wine tasting in Sessions Lounge. Susan and I always enjoy drinking wine so this was a winner.

Monday night was also Formal Night, which meant dressing up and going around the ship getting our picture made against various backdrops. The evening was capped off with the theatrical show “Golden Mickeys” in the Walt Disney Theatre and dinner in Lumiere’s. Tomorrow is Cabo San Lucas.

Hello California!

2008-06-10T09:12:00.006-05:00

Hello, Jeff here. Our trip from Huntsville, Alabama to Ontario, California was, thankfully, uneventful. We did have some moderate turbulence when departing Denver, Colorado as we were climbing up over the Rocky Mountains but it wasn’t enough to cause any in our party to get sick. Susan’s Uncle Danny and Aunt Marilyn picked us up at the airport, took us to their lovely home in Mira Loma, fed us a wonderful supper (lasagna) and let us spend the night with them. We also met their dog Henry – a Dalmation mix breed. Henry is a friendly dog that likes to lean up against you while you pet him. Susan’s cousin Kathy also came over to visit and eat dinner with us.

Kathy took Susan and Katy to the store to pick up some cold medicine and nail polish. How we packed four suitcases to the brim and forgot those I’m not sure. J We chatted a while longer and then the hour and time change caught up to us and we had to call it a night.

We were up plenty early Sunday morning. Danny, the breakfast master, was gracious enough to cook us all breakfast. We had scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, toast, juice and coffee. Danny serenaded Katy with the tune “Blood on the Saddle”. I took the camera outside and photographed their beautiful front yard and flowerbeds. Marilyn has some gorgeous roses and cute topiaries (donkey, giraffe and swan). I also learned that lime and grapefruit trees have thorns on them. Ouch!

At 10:15, we all piled into their Honda CR-V and headed for the cruise ship terminal. It took us about an hour as we pulled up in front of the terminal at 11:15. We said our goodbyes and learned from one of the baggage handlers that the ship returned to port around 6:30 am but whomever was picking us up should wait until about 9:30 or 9:45 to come get us (if we weren’t in a hurry). That way the crowds would have died down.

Embarkation was a snap for us. We got into a short line in the Castaway Club members area (for repeat Disney cruisers) and had completed check-in within 15 minutes. We were given a boarding card with the number 7 on it. Then it was just a matter of waiting for our boarding number to be called. The first number (1) was called at 11:35. Our number was called at 11:50. Every guest has to go through a security screening station, very much like that at airports where they x-ray your bags and use metal detectors to check the people. At least they don’t make you take off your shoes. The final check-in station is a scan of your plastic cruise cards (that you received at check-in) and you’re aboard. Total time for us was from when we arrived to walking on the ship was 45 minutes.

Once aboard, we made our way to Topsiders Buffet, where we chowed down on some yummy food and desserts. Afterwards, we wandered around the ship, killing time until 2 pm when our stateroom was ready for us to enter. Our bags soon arrived and we spent the next hour unpacking. As I mentioned in the first entry, we’d been upgraded from a Category 12 inside room to a Category 9 outside deluxe room. The deluxe room is 20 square feet larger (214 ft2) than the standard room and we had a nice large port hole to look out. The biggest difference though was the split bathroom. One bath has the toilet and a sink/mirror in it and the other has the shower and another sink and mirror in it. Traveling with two women who spend a lot of time in front of the mirror getting “beautiful” can make it tough on a guy trying to shave/shower.

We’d just finished unpacking and stowing the suitcases when it was time for the mandatory evacuation drill. We donned our life vests and made our way to Station L. The crew does take roll of each cabin’s occupants so they do know if you don’t show and I’m sure will contact those who don’t attend. After the drill, it was time to set sail. We pulled away from the dock at about 4:15 pm and were on our way. Tomorrow is a day at sea as we make our way down to our first port – Cabo San Lucas.

We're Off to California!

2008-06-07T14:07:00.004-05:00

Our departure (from Huntsville anyway) has finally come. After spending several hours last night and this morning stuffing everything humanly possible into 4 suitcases, two backpacks, and Katy's color guard bag, we've finally zipped up the last zipper. The girls were once again challenged to pack everything required to bring out their natural beauty while still staying at or under the airline limit of 50 lbs per bag. :-)

We were sad to leave our miniature long-haired dachshund Oliver behind but he seemed to be happy to be visiting Jimmy Johnson and his family once again.

If all goes well we'll depart at about 2:50 PM and begin winging our way west to Denver, Colorado, where we'll change planes and then depart for Ontario, California. Susan's relatives are kindly picking us up at the airport, letting us spend the night with them and then taking us to the cruise port in the morning.

Mexican Riviera Cruise Itinerary

2008-06-03T19:23:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone! Jeff here again. I'll be the primary blogger once again unless I can trick, err umm, convince Susan or Katy to chime in. We do this blog primarily for family and friends but I also know that fellow Disney cruisers also visit us so here again is a little about us:

Jeff - 48, NASA Engineer, long time Disney fan
Susan - Dear wife, 40 something, NASA Engineer, talented musician
Katy - Dear daughter, 18, extremely smart, pretty and very creative

Dear son Brian is once again taking summer classes at Auburn University (mechanical engineering program) so he won't be joining us on this trip. We also have a family web page that contains more info about us, our hobbies, photos and links.

Our Itinerary for this trip is as follows:

6/7 - Travel from Huntsville, AL to Ontario, CA

6/8 - Arrive Port of Los Angeles, Board Disney Magic

6/9 - Day at Sea and Formal Night

6/10 - Dock at Cabo San Lucas; Disney 4 x 4 Desert Safari Tour; Dinner at Palo

6/11 - Dock at Mazatlan; Private Colonial & City Tour w/ Mazatlan Frank

6/12 - Dock at Puerto Vallarta; Private City and Tequila Tour; Pirate Night

6/13 - Day at Sea; Semi-formal Night

6/14 - Day at Sea; Palo Brunch @ 10:30 am

6/15 - Dock at Port of Los Angeles; Visit with West Coast Relatives

6/16 - Visit With Relatives; Go to Disneyland/California Adventure

6/17 - Return to Alabama - BOOOO!

One final note...we got a pleasant surprise today. When I checked our Disney reservation on the Disney Cruise Line website I discovered we'd been upgraded from a Category 12 inside cabin (2009) to a Category 9 outside deluxe cabin. Woo Hoo!!!

Adventure All Day

2007-11-05T11:48:00.000-06:00

We began Day 3 the same as Day 2 – with a 45 minute run around the area between Epcot and MGM Studios and breakfast in our wonderful room at the Swan. Since Susan had not yet seen the new “Nemo the Musical” show at Animal Kingdom, we decided to go there first thing. Upon arriving, we were shocked at the long lines at the park entrance. I’ve been to the Animal Kingdom dozens of times at different times of the year and different days of the week and I’ve never seen that many people queued up at the turnstiles. It took us at least 15, maybe 20 minutes to just get into the park. Our plan was to get Fastpasses (FP) for Expedition Everest, see Nemo and do things like the Safari ride, Pangani Trail, etc. as needed to fill time. Susan and I separated while she went to get a Times Guide to check the Nemo show schedule and I went on to Expedition Everest to get the Fastpasses. I kept checking behind me expecting her to catch up but she never did (as it turned out – she took a wrong turn along the way). After getting the FP I looked around for her near the attraction but still didn’t see her. I picked up a Times Guide myself and noted the Nemo show was starting at 11:30 and ASSumed that Susan was probably waiting for me there so off I went. Upon arriving, Susan was nowhere to be found. Hmmm…she must be waiting for me just inside the door of the theatre I told myself so I continued into the theatre…No Susan…Hmmm. Why not just call her you’re probably wondering? I’ll tell you why - because Susan didn’t have her cell phone. I found a seat inside and watched the entrances hoping/expecting she’d come in but she never did. So here we are 2 people out of tens of thousands in a 500 acre theme park with no easy way to find each other. I stayed for the show (I highly recommend it by the way) and was thrilled to find Susan waiting for me at the show’s exit. Hurray – reunited!

I believe we ate lunch next at the McDonald’s restaurant in Dinoland…we split a nutritious (NOT) double cheeseburger and fries. Next, we went to Harambe to get FPs for the Safari Ride and then walked the Pangani Trail where I got a cute picture of a meerkat (above). We then returned to Asia to do the Maharaja Jungle Trek, where we saw this tiger (below), before using our FPs to ride Expedition Everest (roller coaster in background of photo below). We returned to Harambe for a cool (and alcoholic) beverage at the Dawa Bar before cashing in our Safari FPs. We ended our day at the AK by catching another show of Nemo.

We returned to our hotel to freshen up and then headed to Epcot for more of the Food & Wine Festival. We had thoughts of perhaps catching the 5:45 pm David Cassidy show at the American Gardens Theatre but it was full. We stood at the back of the theatre and listened briefly to his opening number and I wasn’t at all impressed but there were plenty of older ladies in the audience that were apparently reliving their girlish crushes from the Partridge Family days. They can have him!

We met up with Tony O’Neil and his wife Cosette again and decided to eat at Tangierine’s Café at the Morocco pavilion. It’s always been a favorite of ours and we were able to enjoy a nice meal at an outside table. Tony and Cosette had not yet seen the movie “Impressions de France” at the France pavilion so we did that next. After that, Tony and Cosette headed off to the Land pavilion to use their Soarin’ FPs. Susan and I thought it would be fun to go to the Adventurer’s Club at Pleasure Island so we returned to the Swan to put on some warmer clothes as it was starting to get a little chilly outside. As it turned out, this was a wise decision – not so much for the outside temperature but the Disney bus we stayed on for 30 minutes getting to Pleasure Island was FREEZING. The Disney bus driver explained that Disney had done a study on this and concluded that it was best to have the buses serving Downtown Disney/Pleasure Island really cold because 1) it helped to keep the inebriated people from getting sick, 2) it helped keep the inebriated people awake so they wouldn’t miss their bus stop. I might buy that story later in the evening but not at 8:30 pm. Bottom line we were SO GLAD to get off that bus!

It has been several years since I’d been to the Adventurer’s Club and I’ve missed it. For those that may not be familiar with the AC, it’s a themed bar/theatre that features actors that portray various members of the Adventurer’s Club. When you enter the club, you step back in time as the “show” is set on New Year’s Eve, 1937. You’re welcomed as a visitor and the Club is holding an Open House to recruit new members (that’s you). There’s lots of humor, shows, skits and even opportunities for audience participation. I was “lucky” enough to be chosen to go up on stage for one skit. It’s all in good fun and Susan and I had a great time.

Happy Birthday To Me!

2007-10-25T14:35:00.000-05:00

Today was my 48th birthday. Happy Birthday to me!

We started Saturday with a 40 minute run to burn off some of the calories we'd consumed at the South African Wine Adventure. We ran down the sidewalk connecting the Boardwalk-Swan-Dolphin area to Disney's MGM Studios, and around the Crescent Lake (Boardwalk, Yacht Club, Beach Club) walk. What a beautiful area to run in! After a shower, we decided to take advantage of Swan hotel room service for breakfast (ham & cheese omelet and hash browns). After all, we had this nice table in our room and spectacular views out the windows and it was a great choice.

Checking the Food & Wine Festival guide, we noted Pam Smith was having a cooking demonstration at 11 am in the Odyssey. Pam is a familiar face to those who've attended the F&W Festival before as she's typically the hostess for other chef's demonstrations in the Odyssey. Pam showed us how to make a tasty crab and fresh corn risotto and, the best part, we got to taste it....mmmm. Next up was a wine tasting. While Susan headed to the Festival Center in the Wonders of Life pavilion to get in line, I went to the Land pavilion to get Fastpasses for Soarin'.

The winery hosting the tasting was Allen Scott Winery & Estate, located in Marlborough, New Zealand. As I recall it, we tasted an unoaked Chardonnay, a couple of savignon blancs and a pinot noir. All were very good. In a "It's a Small World" moment, the Alan Scott representative, Fred Ordway, was actually from Huntsville, AL - our neck of the woods. Fred's presentation included a nice briefing that described the various New Zealand wine growing areas, with a focus on the Cloudy Bay area where there winery is located. We are definitely going to be looking for Allen Scott wines in our local wine stores.

Next, we went to Guest Services to get me a "It's My Birthday" Disney button. If you're at Disneyworld during your birthday, do it. It's nice to get "Happy Birthday" wishes from the Disney Cast Members and also from other Disneyworld guests. We spent the next several hours sampling the cuisine at the Marketplace food booths (Dominican Republic, Greece and Oklahoma). Of particular note were the Spanakopita in Greece and the seared Buffalo with scalloped wild onions and Three Sisters Soup at the Oklahoma-Three Sister's Cafe. While in the Oklahoma exhibit area we also enjoyed a show by some Native American dancers.

By this time it was getting pretty hot outside so we decided to go to the American pavilion to see the Voices of Liberty and American Adventure. As we walked into the pavilion and were about to take a seat, one of the Disney Cast Members came up to me and said I had a phone call in the lobby. When I picked up the phone it was Goofy singing Happy Birthday to me. Too cute! As we made our way back to our seat yet another Cast Member came up and said she noticed that we'd lost our seat when we came to answer the phone. Since it was my birthday, she said she was going to escort us up to the second floor and make us the "First Family" for this show of the American Adventure. Cool! We got to sit in real chairs and listened to the talented Voices of Liberty below. After the preshow, the Cast Member escorted us into the theatre where we could sit anywhere we wanted. After the rest of the crowd entered, the Cast Member announced us as the "First Family" and asked for a round of applause. We turned around and gave the crowd a wave as they clapped. Our last activity in the park was Soarin'. What a great ride. For those not familiar with it, Soarin' is a simulated hang glider tour of various areas of California. Guests sit in tiered swings that face a huge movie screen that is used to project the scenes. Definitely a "do not miss" attraction.

Afterwards, we hot footed it back to the Swan to freshen up and change clothes in preparation for our reservation at the Party for the Senses. Once again, we were joined by Tony and Cosette O'Neil. What can I say - we had a great time. The food was fabulous - the wines were excellent - the entertainment (acts from La Nouba by Cirque de Soleil) was amazing. This was our 5th Party for the Senses and I'd have to say it was the best we've been to so far.

Honey, Have You Seen My Wallet?

2007-10-16T13:24:00.001-05:00

We woke up at 6 am Friday (10/12) morning feeling like we’d have plenty of time to finish packing and run an errand before driving to the Huntsville airport at 9 am for our 10:05 am flight to Orlando. Things were going wonderfully until I started looking for my wallet – and I looked and then looked some more. “Honey, have you seen my wallet?” “No.” Darn! Finally I decided I must have left it in my airplane, which I had flown down to Auburn the day before. OK, that’s a 25 minute drive one way and I’ve still got to run that errand too. I’m getting nervous now. I drive out to my plane, look around…nothing! I Call Susan at home and ask her to look in my flight bag and computer bag now sure that it must be at home. I head out to run that errand while Susan searches. I cross my fingers and hope. Susan calls back on my cell phone and gives me the bad news – no luck. Double Darn! By this time we realize that to make sure we can get our bags to the airport in time to check them, we’ll have to drive separately. Luckily, being a NASA employee, I have a handy government-issued picture ID that I can use as proof of identification for checking in at the airport. Our flight is delayed by about 15 minutes so that gives me a little breathing room to make our flight. Whew! I thought this was going to be a relaxing morning.

Our non-stop Delta flight down to Orlando went smoothly. On the flight with us were friends Tony O’Neil and his wife Cosette. After picking up our bags at Baggage Claim we met our driver (George) from Happy Limo who escorted us out to our stretch limo. We highly recommend Happy Limo by the way. We've used them for 6 years and we've always been very pleased. George dropped Tony and Cosette off at the Boardwalk and then took us to the Swan. We were able to check in and drop our bags off at our room and we were VERY pleased with it. We were on the 7th floor, had wonderful views towards MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom, a nice king bed with widescreen LCD TV…it was great.

Susan and I changed into shorts and headed out to Epcot for lunch. We had the cheddar cheese soup and maple glazed salmon at Canada and the chilaquiles and quesadilla con chorizo at Mexico – all were excellent! While we were at the Mexico pavilion we also did the revamped Gran Tour ride, which now features the Three Caballeros (Donald Duck, Jose Carioca and Panchito Pistoles). Next, we decided to venture over into Future World to check out the Food & Wine Festival Center set up this year in the old Wonders of Life (WoL) pavilion. This is a nice change from previous years as the WoL pavilion is air conditioned and no longer used so its facilities can be 100% geared towards the needs of the F&W Festival. We had a nice surprise…as we were wandering by the location of the complimentary wine tastings, a Disney Castmember waved us in to a tasting (by the Achaval Ferrer winery from Mendoza, Argentina) that was just getting underway. We’d never heard of the winery but found their malbecs to be outstanding. We had one in the $25 range, a second in the $50 range and a third in the $110 range.

We returned to the Swan to change for the South African Wine Adventure and met Tony and Cosette at the World Showplace at 6 pm. We didn’t know quite what to expect at this event as it was the first and only time it was to be held.
We suspected it would be set up similar to the Party for the Senses and we were correct. Color-coded areas were set up in the middle of the floor that corresponded to the various wine regions within South Africa. The “culinary specialty” items (yummy food) were located at tables arrayed together along the north wall. Unlike the Party for the Senses, the chefs didn’t cook the food at the stations; instead, it was precooked and they were simply serving it. It was all delicious; however, they could have set the tables up better. They were so close to one another that the lines for each merged into one long line. Finally, it would have been nice if some type of dessert item had been included - a zebra dome from Boma would have done nicely. These minor comments aside, we all all agreed this event was well worth the expense and we would not hesitate to do it again. In fact, we would suggest that Disney expand this event to not only include South Africa, but also do a similar event each Friday during the Festival focusing on the wines of countries such as Italy, France, Germany, Australia, Spain, Chile, etc.

Getting Prepared

2007-10-10T13:00:00.000-05:00

I decided to edit our Mediterranean cruise blog to capture our visit to the Food & Wine Festival this year. Pretty nifty, eh?

This will be the 5th year in a row Susan and I have trekked to Epcot to attend the International Food & Wine Festival and I don't think we'll ever get tired of it. This year, we're excited to be staying at the Swan hotel, which is a short walk from the International Gateway entrance to Epcot. Below is our itinerary. We have the two main events on Friday and Saturday and will be spending most of the rest of the time touring Epcot's World Showcase, sampling the various food and wines. We also will try to catch the new/renovated attractions we've not yet seen, like the Nemo show in the Animal Kingdom, Monster's Inc. Laugh Factory in the Magic Kingdom, and the Gran Fiesta Tour in the Mexico pavilion in Epcot.

Friday Oct. 12th

Direct flight from Huntsville, AL to Orlando International
Happy Limo to the Swan
South African Wine Adventure at 6:30 pm, Epcot World Showplace

"This is a unique occasion to meet the most prominent wine makers in South Africa today and to taste the wines from 30 different vineyards. The evening's wine walk-about will include culinary specialties from Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge and roaring entertainment!"

Saturday Oct. 13th - My Birthday!

Party for the Senses at 6:30 pm, Epcot World Showplace

"Feast on this tribute to the sensory arts! Begin your evening with a reserved seat at the Eat to the Beat Concert Series at the American Gardens Theatre (Starship for us). Following the show, World Showplace becomes the setting for a sensational evening showcasing the talents of more than 25 eminent chefs and the diversity of over 70 wines and beers. Wander among tempting tasting stations in the midst of imaginative decor and awe-inspiring acts from LaNouba by Cirque du Solei."

Sunday Oct. 14th

Culinary demonstrations, seminars and wine tastings

Monday Oct. 15th

Culinary demonstrations, seminars and wine tastings
Return flight from MCO to HSV

Last Sea Day, Disembarkation Day and Barcelona

2007-06-28T19:45:00.000-05:00

Jeff here again. It’s Thursday, 6/28 and we're back in the states at my mom's house. We've been up for 22 hours and I'm worn out. Nevertheless, while we had time sitting around in the various airports we worked on our latest blog entry off line. Here we go....

We got up around 8:30 on the last sea day. We had noticed overnight that the seas had gotten rough. The Magic has fantastic stabilizers, so it wasn’t nearly as bad as the sea state (very rough) indicated. Going up to get coffee and diet cokes, I noticed large waves with white caps and the winds were blowing hard. No one was eating breakfast outside at Topsiders either. We decided to go to the 10:15 am showing of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. It made a lot more sense the second time around, especially since I stayed awake for the entire movie. After the movie and lunch in Lumiere’s, Susan and I went to the wine tasting. During the cruise there are 3 tastings, each on a sea day...well that would be true for the 11 night cruises...I'm not sure what they do for the 10 night cruises. Also, each of the tastings is themed to a country. The first tasting was for Italy, second for France and the last for Spain. Neither of us was terribly impressed with the Spanish wines we had, but it was an opportunity to drink wine, so that’s always a good thing! Next up was packing…talk about depressing...you know you’re going home when it’s time to pack your bags. They must be tagged (with tags Disney leaves in your room) and placed outside your stateroom between 8 and 10 pm if you want Disney to take them off the ship for you. Otherwise, you’ll have to tote them around with you all morning on disembarkation day. We finished packing in time to see the 6:30 showing of the Farewell Show. It was a nice variety show with Taylor Mason, the ventriloquist, being my favorite. Our final dinner was at Lumiere’s, where we said our farewells to our tablemates Bob, his wife Sara, Michael, his wife Alice and their daughter Marta and exchanged email addresses. We then presented our head server Toto and assistant server Analia with their tip envelopes and some tokens of our appreciation for their great service through the cruise.

Wednesday morning, disembarkation time. BOOO! Though we hated to leave, part of us are also ready to get back home to see our dog Oliver and to sleep in our own beds. The disembarkation process is as simple and easy as it can be. We just walked off the ship. There was no waiting for them to call your color or number or any such mess. Luggage in the terminal was organized by tags…ours was Chip and Dale. We quickly found a porter and were queued up for a taxi. Disney announces they want everyone off the ship by 9 am. We were dropped off at our hotel, the Regencia Colon, in a short while and, after leaving our bags there, we were off to do the “Bus Touristic” – Barcelona’s city bus tour. It costs 19 Euro each for one day and covers three separate routes. We did the red route (north) which visits the Sagrada Familia church (first picture) and Park Guell (second picture) and the blue route (south) which visits the Spanish Village (third picture) and Montjuic hill. This was a good way to see the city and get around. With the Bus Touristic ticket comes a discount coupon book which includes coupons for Spanish Village and Sagrada so don’t miss those. The Sagrada Familia was designed by famed architect Antoni Gaudi, who spent most of his career working on the church. Construction began in 1882 and, as the photo shows, it continues today after more than 100 years and will likely continue for decades more.

Our next stop, Park Guell, is yet another Gaudi creation. His ability to combine nature and architecture is displayed throughout the park - the second most visited park in the city. Originally planned as a garden city, the project was abandoned after only 5 of 60 buildings were completed. It was turned over to the city by owner/industrialist Eusebi Guell, for whom the park is named. Next up was the Spanish Village or Poble Espanyol. Built for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, the Spanish Village was intended to be a temporary exhibit showcasing regional architecture, handicrafts, cultural styles and cuisine. However, the Village proved to be so popular, it was kept and now receives more visitors than the Sagrada Familia or the cities major museums. We finished up the evening with a nice dinner at Amaya, a sidewalk restaurant on La Rambla. It had been recommended by the desk manager at the Regencia Colon and we give a thumbs up to it as well.

Susan here reporting on the VAT refund. The DCL folks provide envelopes to save your receipts for purchases from Treasure Ketch and Mickey’s Mates (combined) and Shutters. If I had been smart, I would have used those envelopes all along rather than getting it all together on the last sea day. Anyway, you can only claim items that you have not used or consumed. This is important! Also, all of the purchases have to be in the same name, so ladies, you can make all of the purchases!! There is a chance that they might check at Customs, so better to be safe on this. On the last sea day, from 6 pm to 10 pm, they have a number of Cast Members at the Shore Excursion Desk to check your receipts and fill out the forms for you. There was a pretty substantial line for this so be forewarned. Beverage purchases that you have consumed and spa services are not able to be claimed. All of this is explained on the back of the envelope, and obviously quite a few folks didn’t understand. I had all of my receipts together, they were totaled and the forms with my receipts stapled to them were returned later in the evening. I believe that there was a message on our phone with the times that the desk was open. At the Barcelona Airport, it took a while but I finally found the wee little white window where you get the stamp on your forms. It is located in Terminal A, just outside the Arrivals. When you walk into the door of Terminal A, look to the right for the arrivals, pass the information desk, and the window is to the right of the arrivals exit. There is a small sign that says “Tax Free” near the window. For those of you that need a landmark or two, there are some vending machines at the corner, and it is before you get to the bank windows and food court. FYI, you have to have your ticket and passport. At first, we had not checked in, so I wasn’t able to get the stamps, but after a quick and efficient check-in at KLM, I was back at the window and soon had stamped forms in hand. Yeah!!! I will mail them when I get home. I believe it will take 6-8 weeks to get the refund.

Villefranche, France

2007-06-26T10:09:00.000-05:00

Jeff here again, writing in between meals, an afternoon wine tasting and packing (sigh). Yesterday, as I said before, we docked at what in my opinion is the most picturesque port of all that we’ve visited – Villefranche. Once again, we did a private tour, this time with a company called Revelation Tours. Our driver was Michel (pronounced Michelle) and our touring partners were Jeanette, her husband Doug and Patti and her husband Mike. I’d contacted Revelation about a tour and gotten Jeanette’s email from Michel. Jeanette and I had exchanged several emails prior to the cruise to coordinate our itinerary. In short, Jeanette, Doug, Patti and Mike were a lot of fun to tour with.

After we’d both had less than desirable experiences tendering in La Spezia, Jeanette and I agreed we’d get to the Buena Vista Theatre an hour early to make sure we met our driver at the agreed to time of 9 am. As it turned out, we were 30 minutes early. Better to be early than late! Once again, Michel, like Olivier had a wonderful 8 passenger van that was very roomy. Additionally, Michel had a microphone hooked up with speakers in the back so that we all could clearly hear everything he was saying as he narrated the various points of interest we saw. Michel also had pre-recorded segments covering the key spots that he played over the audio system.

We began our tour in the port city of Nice. Michel told us that we would see a heavy Italian influence in Nice since it had been under Italian rule and influence for many, many years. Nice has a population of about 380,000. One can see from the photo that it’s pretty densely packed. After stopping at the overlook from which we took the picture here, we proceeded to the old part of Nice. Here, Michel let us off for about 30 minutes to tour the market square, which holds a nice flea market each Monday. There were a lot of antique type items here in addition to paintings, minerals, etc. It was interesting to look through it. At Michel’s suggestion we then visited the local Baroque style church, which was as plain as cardboard on the outside but very ornate inside. Next, we were back in the van and on our way to a small medieval village called Tourrette. This tiny village was amazing. Like other such villages, it sits on a hilltop (for defensive purposes) and is surrounded by a rampart (wall). Michel dropped us off so we could tour on our own. At this stop, and all stops, Michel passed out laminated cards that had a summary of the place we were visiting, along with a map notated with the most significant/interesting places to see. Michel would be a good engineer because he’s extremely organized.

Our next stop was another medieval village, Saint Paul. It was similar to Tourrette except it was much more popular with tourists. Michel told us that some 3 million tourists visit Saint Paul each year. It wasn’t too bad when we visited though until several Disney tour groups showed up. We made our way to the rear of the village intent on finding the grave of painter Chagall. After searching the entire cemetery and all but giving up, we found his grave right by the entrance…doh! We had lunch at the Malabar restaurant (recommended by Michel) and it turned out to be very good. Next up was Monaco and Monte Carlo. Here we made the obligatory tourist stop at the grand casino, rode around the streets used to run the Monaco Grand Prix, visited the grave of Princess Grace, visited the royal Palace and admired all the beautiful yachts in the harbor. It was like an episode of the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

We finished up our tour with a visit to Eze (pronounced Ez), yet another small medieval village. This was my least favorite village – it is very touristy and it was the most crowded of all the villages we visited. Of course it could also have been that we were all tired at this point and ready to relax on the ship. We didn’t spend too much time here bud did stay long enough to buy some sweet treats to snack on during our drive back to the pier. We said our goodbyes to our touring mates and Michel and reboarded the ship. We finished out the evening by watching the new show “When Mickey Dreams”. It was pretty good. My favorite part was the re-use of music from the Tapestry of Dreams parade at Epcot.

Marseille, France

2007-06-26T08:45:00.000-05:00

Hello, Jeff here. It’s Tuesday morning (6/26) and this is the last full day of our cruise, which is a day at sea. Speaking of seas, we’ve got white caps on the water today and it’s very windy outside. We dock at Barcelona, Spain tomorrow morning and will be disembarking the ship after breakfast. We will be spending the day touring in Barcelona and hope the weather there cooperates.

On to Marseille…up to this point, we’ve been on tours that I’d arranged with tour companies. For Marseille, I’d been communicating with a nice lady named Jodie on the DIS cruise message boards and we’d agreed to join up with her family - husband Mike, son Cary (9) and daughter Jill (7) - on a tour of Aix en Provence and Cassis. Marseille is not a tender port so we were able to depart the ship right onto the pier where our driver, Olivier (pictured with Susan and Katy), was waiting. The tour company is Rendezvous Tours and is based in Aix. I have to say right up front that Olivier has the BEST touring van we had all cruise. It was very roomy for the seven of us, was immaculately maintained and had pull up screens for the windows one could use to block out the bright sunshine. We used those screens as, once again, the weather was spectacular…bright blue, sunny skies with warm, but not hot temperatures. One of the first things that struck me as we started touring was how dry it is in the area. I asked Olivier about it and he confirmed that was their normal climate. I would compare this whole area (including Villefranche) to say Santa Barbara, California. Lots of rocks, scrub brush, etc.

Our first stop was to be Aix and we were soon off on what was the equivalent of one of our interstate highways. Being that it was Sunday morning, there was very little traffic and we arrived in Aix in about 45 minutes. There was very little activity in the town as it was just waking up. Olivier took us to the old part of town, much of it dating to the 15th and 16th centuries. He gave us a map and then took us a walking tour of the main square, the church and through the narrow streets. We found out some interesting things: 1) the French love their dogs; 2) the French hate to clean up after their dogs. There was dog poop all over the place and one had to be careful where they stepped. We were also warned about pick pockets, especially around the markets. Olivier told us to carry our backpacks in front or on the side. He then gave us some free time to explore. Since it was Sunday, most of the shops were closed. That combined with the dog poop and warnings about pick pockets seemed to drain my excitement for Aix. It is a pretty city though and I love how the city is so pedestrian friendly. One can walk to church, to the corner café, to work, etc. and never have to use a car.

Next, we were off to Cassis, which is on the coast. This place was BEAUTIFUL. When one looks up picturesque in the dictionary a photo of this Cassis should be right there. We first had lunch at a sidewalk café where Susan, Katy and I all had what seemed to be a common dish for the French…meatballs and French fries in a bowl. It was yummy! Next we went on a boat tour of what are called calanques, which are basically tall, white limestone cliffs carved over the years by rivers that empty into the sea. We also got to see some other white things but unfortunately they were the private parts of nude sunbathers lying out on the rocks and/or on their yachts. After the boat ride, we loaded back up in the van and Olivier took us up to an amazing overlook of the Cassis area and the view was breathtaking as you can see.

We finished up the day by touring a beautiful medieval, hilltop village called Castellet. This place was so pretty and quaint, with narrow, winding, cobblestone streets and flowers all around. We looked around in some of the shops, visited their church and then found a place to get some cold desserts. The one thing Castellet was lacking was a public toilet. After searching for quite some time we finally found the public “water closet” which consisted of a hole in the ground. This was totally unsuitable for Katy – even though she had to go really bad. We finally do what is traditionally done in France – buy something in a restaurant in order to use their real toilet. Olivier delivered us back to the pier to end a wonderful tour on our first day in France. Tomorrow – Villefranche!

Marseille and Villefranche To Come

2007-06-25T11:07:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone, Jeff here again. Whew! We just got back from another great day of touring from the port of Villefranche. What a picturesque port it is. It's definitely the best of all the ports the Disney Magic docks at during these Med cruises. Tomorrow (Tuesday) is our last sea day. We will try to write up the blogs for Marseille and Villefranche - being less verbose would help but we're trying to capture for ourselves as much as anyone, the interesting things we pick up in these ports before our aging brains lose the information. We have literally taken hundreds of pictures...certainly more than 500 so beware those that express an interest in seeing our cruise photos. Luckily, many people are still on tours so the laundry rooms aren't packed and we'll be able to get that task out of the way and be able to enjoy our time on the ship tomorrow doing fun things. More tomorrow!

La Spezia

2007-06-24T23:15:00.000-05:00

Hello, Jeff here again. It’s Sunday morning (6/24) and we’re getting ready for our first day in

France

– specifically, Marseille. However, I have a little time to first catch you up on what we did yesterday at the port of La Spezia, our last port stop in the beautiful country of

Italy

. La Spezia has a population of about 95,000 people. It has been settled by man since prehistoric times; the Romans established nearby city of Florence (our first stop) in 59 BC; the city of Pisa (our second stop) was built as a Roman colony in 180 BC. The city of Florence (known as Firenze here) is considered by many to be an artistic hub in

Italy

. Many famous artists were once residents of Florence, or have their work displayed there including: Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo, Boticelli, Raphael and Donatello. In the city of Pisa, during World War II, the Nazis used the Leaning Tower as a watchtower; Galileo Galilei is said to have used the Tower to conduct physics experiments, dropping cannon balls of different sizes from the top to show that the rate they drop is independent of their mass.

The port of La Spezia is a tender port for us, meaning that our ship cannot dock but instead must anchor out in the bay and we must be shuttled from our ship to the dock via smaller boats called “tenders”. We (and others not on Disney excursions) reported to the Buena Vista Theatre to receive tender tickets at 7:30 am. It appears others arrived earlier as there were already about 100 there before us. Here’s a tip for those of you reading this that might be doing this cruise later. Those on the far right and top of the theater (as you face the stage) are the first to be called to go. So if you want to make the first tender, get there between 7:15 and 7:30 and make sure you’re either seated on the top row all the way to the right or are standing by the door on the top right. We were seated on the left and had to wait for the third tender and were about 20 minutes late meeting our driver at the port. Other than that, the tender process was smooth. It took about 10 minutes to get from the Magic to the dock. As you can see from the photo, this gave us a great opportunity to get photos of the ship. Once again, our driver was there waiting for us and we were off to Florence. Joining us today was Vicki. Marie and her son Jeff decided they weren’t up to the 2 hour drive each way and backed out.

Again, we had a “chamber of commerce” day - beautiful, clear blue skies with temps in the upper 70’s to low 80’s. The drive to Florence was interesting as there was plenty of scenery for us to admire – there were tall mountains on the left side and smaller mountains and hills on the right. Within the tall mountains on the left, the driver pointed out marble quarries and we were able to see quite a few small towns perched on the hills. It took about an hour and 45 minutes to get to Florence. There we met our licensed tour guide Virginia. She looked to be about our age (40s) and she was very enthusiastic about everything she told us. Our first stop was the Accademia, the museum that houses one of Michelangelo’s most famous masterpieces – the statue of David.

Susan here, picking up where Jeff left off. Rising some 16 feet tall, the David is truly a work of art. Virginia, being an art historian, gave us a detailed explanation of how Michelangelo’s sculpting procedure was radically different than that of his contemporaries, then explained why his David was unique when compared to other depictions. First, David is depicted as a man, not the teenage boy that we read about in the Bible. Second, David is normally shown with his foot on Goliath’s head, but this feature is notable absent, with David’s expression as thinking about what he is about to do. And lastly, David is naked, representing the Roman god, Apollo, who is always depicted with a tree trunk behind his leg. She took us all around the statue noting the sling in his enormous hands, indicating strength, and the larger than normal size of his head representing wisdom. We saw many students seated around the walls doing sketches of the statue, learning from this magnificent work of art. A copy of the statue (seen in the photo here) is now found in the original location, outside the Palazzo Vecchio, which is now the city’s administration building. Next Virginia took us quickly though an exhibit of exquisite musical instruments. The exhibit included a marble piano and a violin by Stradivarius. Oboes, recorders, bassoons, and stringed instruments we incredibly detailed and understandably priceless.

Our next stop was the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Flower, known for the beautiful green, white, and red marble exterior and the enormous dome (Duomo), designed by the masterful architect Brunelleschi. The construction technique, using no scaffolding, that Brunelleschi employed for the huge dome are still a mystery to contemporary architectural studies. We viewed the massive bronze doors of the little octagonal Baptistry (see photo at bottom), which is to the west of the cathedral. The beginning of the construction of the Baptistry is unknown, but the bronze doors, begun after a competition in 1401 to chose the artist, signals the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy. The doors, designed by Ghiberti, were completed in 1424, depicting people in structures in perspective. The Paradise doors depict themes from the Old Testament. These doors were replicas however, as the original doors, damaged in a massive flood, were removed and moved to a museum for their protection.

From the cathedral, we went to the church of Orsanmichele, where there are niches on the exterior that are filled with Renaissance statues sponsored by the guilds that depict the patron saints of the various guilds.

We then proceeded to the Piazza della Signoria (photo at the end), where there are spectacular sculptures; all but two are priceless originals. It is here, outside the Palazzo Vecchio, where we saw the copy of Michelangelo’s David. Another noteworthy item is some graffiti by Michelangelo. He was challenged to carve a face in the wall of the building, behind his back. After a stroll past the Uffizi, we were greeted with a view of the beautiful Ponte Veccchio (photo), built in 1345. We walked back up along the Arno River, grabbed a gelato, and walked to our next destination, the gothic Church of Santa Croce (Church of the Holy Cross). The exterior is similar in color to the Duomo, but it is done in the Gothic style. There are more than 200 dignitaries buried inside, including Galileo, Michelangelo and Rossini. This was the end of our tour with Virginia – we said our farewells and found a walk up pizza place for a quick lunch. Susan, Katy and Vicki went off to do some shopping (Myra, Susan and Katy each both an Italian leather purse). Our driver soon showed up and we were off to Pisa.

We arrived about 1 hour and 15 minutes later (during which we all slept most of the way) to do a quick tour of La Piazza del Duomo, the complex that includes the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Tower is on the far right of the photo. It was built as the bell tower of the Cathedral.

Katy here. Pisa was a quick visit. It only took 30 minutes to get in there and see what we wanted to see. Mom refused to take the “obligatory ‘holding up the Tower of Pisa’ picture.” We saw several of the Disney photographers, and so we had them take our pictures. One of the photographers, who refers to me as “the princess” had me take a couple pictures by myself while striking a random pose. I had a couple poses in mind; however, I was in the middle of a crowd of tourists and I didn’t want to embarrass myself, even if I WAS never going to see any of those people ever again. So I stuck my hands on my hips (the photographer’s suggested pose) and had my picture taken while staring straight into the sun thus giving me the squinty, awkward look.

Anyways, after taking all the lovely outside pictures, we decided to make a quick run through the church. Inside was the body of someone named Ranieri (or something like that) in an illuminated box thing, much like the decaying body of that one pope in St. Peter’s. Across the way was another illuminated box containing the skull and a couple other bones (I think) of some unknown person. By that time, we had to leave.

We met back up with the cab driver, Giambattista, who, by the way, drove the most incredibly cramped van I’ve ever been in. As Dad put it, a super micro mini van. I had the choice of sitting crammed together with my Mom and Vicki (I don’t like it when people rub up against me. It violates my personal bubble.) or being crammed in the “back seat.” So naturally, personal space ruled over my decision, also I didn’t know that the back was THAT cramped. I couldn’t even sit normally. If I did, my knees were pressed up really hard against the seat, so I had to sit with one leg to either side (not very ladylike) or diagonally. I alternated the two because either way, it was hardly an enjoyable experience.

Now, the tight squeeze aside, let me shed some light on our driver’s driving “technique.” He had this quirk where he would speed up, then let off the gas and coast, then speed up again, etc. He never would keep his foot on the accelerator and go a constant speed! Anyway, the driving and smallness of the van aside, we had another amazing excursion in Florence and Pisa.

Civitavecchia, Italy

2007-06-22T07:36:00.000-05:00

Today is a sea day, which gives us a chance to rest and catch you up on what we did yesterday at the port of Civitavecchia, Italy. We did another private tour, this time with Limo in Rome owned by Claudio Camponera. Our driver was Pepe, and he was at the port waiting for us at the agreed upon time of 7:45 am. Joining us again for this tour were Marie and her son Jeff. Susan has volunteered to do the writeup for today so here’s Susan.

Hi Everyone! Susan here, reporting on our fabulous tour of Rome. We woke up bright and early, grabbed some breakfast, and we got off the ship by 7:30 am. We were waiting for Marie (worktoplay) and her son, Jeff, who had also joined us on the tour of the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii. Before long, we joined up with them, and found our driver, Pepe, and we settled in the van for the drive to Rome. It took us about an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Rome, as the traffic wasn’t too bad. It was a bit overcast to start the day, but by 9:30 or so the sun was shining brightly, and it was hot. Our first stop was at the Colosseum. Prior to that, Pepe showed us the Forum, Circus Maximus, Palatine Hill, the Baths of Caracalla, as well as many other sites whose names I can’t remember. Pepe said that he knew how to bypass the long lines at the Colosseum legally, so we stopped and bought tickets at an office close by and once we were through security, he instructed us to stay to the left and go through the turnstiles. Felt a lot like doing FastPass at WDW. We had thirty minutes to wander around. We didn’t have any maps, as they didn’t offer any free maps, so we just speculated about some of the areas that we were seeing. As others have commented in previous blogs, it wasn’t hard to imagine the cheering crowds inside the Colosseum.

As we were walking back to meet Pepe, we saw a Disney tour and our friends, Vicki (vtiffany) and Tom, who were on the Amalfi tour as well. Also saw the Disney photographers near the Arch of Constantine, but didn’t have time to get our pictures taken (plus the tour group had just arrived). Back in the van, Pepe told us that he grew up a few blocks from the Colosseum and that as a child he played hide and seek there. We drove by the Mouth of Truth, but the gates were still closed, so we didn’t stop. Next stop was the Church of St. Peter in Chains where we saw Michelangelo’s statue of Moses and the binding chains of the apostle Peter. At one point during the tour we passed ruins where Peter and Paul were jailed in Rome. We stopped at the top of the Spanish Steps and walked down for a few pictures. We were all amused by the McDonald’s cart out in front. We drove around some more, as Pepe pointed out the important sites and told us about the history or the area.

At the Pantheon, we were all amazed at the architecture of the building and the vastness of the dome. It is truly an engineering marvel, considering the construction techniques of the age in which it was built and that the dome is self-supporting. The sunlight streaming in the open top did give you the feeling of being near heaven. The picture shows a group of nuns we saw inside. Next stop was Trevi Fountain (photo below), and we all tossed the obligatory coins in. The Disney photographers were there too, so we snagged one for a picture. It wasn’t quite time for lunch, so we went to another church. The interesting aspect of this particular church was that the patron family of the church ran out of money during construction before the dome could be built. One of the money saving measures was to paint a forced perspective of a dome on the flat ceiling. From the rear of the church, it looks so real. It is only when your get closer that you notice that the top of the dome is not in the center. Really cool effect! Also some of the “marble” columns are also painted in perspective.

By now we were getting hungry, so we all decided that a quick stop for pizza and gelato would do the trick. We stopped near Piazza Navone, at a Pizza shop recommended by Pepe. The pizza was outstanding, and of course I wound up wearing my lunch, dribbling pizza grease all over my shirt and skirt. Grrrr!!! And I had just done all of the laundry the day before. Oh well, hopefully most of it will come out. We sat at the restaurant across the street with the promise of getting gelato when we were through with pizza. They had 51 flavors of gelato. Pepe recommended getting ciccolato (chocolate) with pana (cream), and Jeff and Katy took his suggestion, while I got my standard dish of limone (lemon). Marie got cream caramel and Jeff got the standard vanilla. The waiter brought out the lovely dishes of gelato with cookies and a little decoration. Very cool and very yummy!!! Again, we saw the Disney tour walking by, seeing Vicky, Tom and Steph (taysmom).

After our gelato, we walked around the piazza and looked at the fountain. It was 1:45 and time to go to the Vatican to meet our tour guide at 2:00. After going though security and purchasing our tickets, we were off to the museum. Our guide told us that there are over 70,000 pieces of art in the museum, making it the most vast collection in the world. The first hall contained busts of Roman emperors and other famous Roman citizens, their “celebrities.” Next, we went through the Courtyard of the Pine Cone – yes, I said Pine Cone. This cone is bronze and HUGE. It was built by the Romans as a fountain in the first or second century BC. We also visited the Octagonal Courtyard, home of more beautiful sculptures, the Hall of Animals, the Round Hall (inspired by the Pantheon) and the Hall of Maps. We actually saw much more in the museums but those are the high points.

Our guide explained what we were going to see prior to entering the Sistine Chapel. The paintings are truly breathtaking. It would have been nice to linger, but the crowd was oppressive, and not following the instructions to not take photos or video, not talk, and not sit on the floor, despite the instructions that had been given in every language imaginable. Tourists!! We then went to the magnificent St. Peter’s Basilica, the largest church in the world. We were all amazed at the size of the church and the beautiful mosaics. There is only one painting in the Basilica, with the rest as reproductions of famous paintings in mosaic. Some were so detailed, that it was difficult to tell that it wasn’t a painting. There were opulent statues and alters in the various alcoves to mark the crypts of popes and wealthy rulers from all over. Now, only the popes are allowed to be buried in St. Peter’s. From grates in the marble floor, one can see the level below and some of the crypts. We bought a book about Vatican City that describes the area in more detail than we could see in our tour. We entered into St. Peter’s Square, and imagined the crowds of people that assemble to see the Pope give his blessings every Sunday.

We said goodbye to our guide at 4 pm and were off to the ship. The ride back only took about 45 minutes, as the traffic gods were on our side. We said goodbye to Pepe and boarded the ship. There were very few people on board, so I got some Shout wipes from Marie, and proceeded to attempt to get the grease out of my skirt. I made it to the laundry before the hordes arrived.

We had a wonderful tour of Rome, without having to walk around for hours. We weren’t nearly as tired as many others that we talked to. We were able to see most of the important sites and spend reasonable amounts of time at the more popular areas.

Dinner was at Animator’s Palate and it again was outstanding. Big thumbs up to the kitchen and service staff! We finished out the evening by visiting the Buena Vista Theatre to watch James Bond in “Casino Royale”. Good flick!

Olbia, Sardinia

2007-06-21T12:01:00.000-05:00

Hello, Jeff here again. First of all, to Kay, DriveAmalfi doesn’t have a web site – well it does but it just says “Under Construction”. To reach Salvatore, send an email to info@driveamalfi.com.

Today’s report is on the port of Olbia, Sardinia. Sardinia is an island that lies between Italy, Spain and Tunisia, south of Corsica. Sardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily). Olbia has a population of just under 50,000 people. From the port of Olbia, we took the Disney tour called Panoramic Tour of La Maddalena. Here’s Katy’s take on it.

Katy here. Olbia was probably the most boring tour I’ve been on so far, and by the looks of it, I wasn’t the only one. My mom and I slept on most of the drive to the ferry that would take us to La Maddalena. We didn’t miss much from the tour guide Robert. All he seemed to be doing was pointing out granite and various plant life. He even got all excited about a heron - big deal. We see those all the time in Alabama. His two favorite words to say were “Look!” and “Okay”. He would point something out and say something like: “LOOK! That over there is the French Quarry. LOOK! That is where they mined the granite for the base of the Statue of Liberty. LOOK! You can see it over to your left now. LOOK!” If I kept tally of how many times he said those two words in 5 minutes….it’d probably be like 100 times. He was nice though, and he did have a couple funny moments like when he said “Italians…. They park wherever they stop”.

Anywhos… after reaching La Maddalena, we got a free gelato. We met some people from Mobile, Alabama who let us cut in front of them in line because Mom just HAD to go to the restroom before getting in line for the gelato, and by the time we got back, the line was super long. Afterwards we wandered about a little, and the parents then decided that they wanted ANOTHER gelato (Crazy peoples). There was nothing very exciting about the walk around the shops and such. So we got back on the ferry and then back on the bus. On the way back to the port, we watched a couple of the little informational video things that the Disney Cruise had done about our next port, Civitavecchia and then a couple cute little Disney cartoons. And of course, I slept some more. (I was very tired, I couldn’t help it). Now back to Dad with all the information that I slept through!

Jeff here. Actually, Katy pretty much covered it. The tour wasn’t bad but it wasn’t particularly memorable either. I did find it interesting that Sardinians don't have a trespass law. In fact, property owners must allow citizens access to their property to hunt wild boar and gather foodstuffs. Of course, this tour had a tough act to follow after the amazing scenery we’d seen the day before on the Amalfi Coast drive. After returning to the ship, we decided we’d try to do some laundry as we were all down to our last pair of clean underwear. Unfortunately, it seemed everyone else on the ship had the same idea. We checked all the laundrys and they all had waits. Susan toughed it out though and waited for her turn and was able to get all our laundry taken care of. Thanks dear!

We freshened up and then went to see “The Art of the Story” show in the Walt Disney Theatre. Katy thought it was OK, Susan and I liked it a bit better. Katy correctly points out that some of it was a bit “cheesy” and some of the performances were only so-so but considering what they have to work with, it was good.

Dinner was in Lumieres and it was fantastic. Whatever problems Disney might have had in their kitchen have definitely been worked out. The service is excellent and the quality and presentation of the food has been top notch. We turned in after dinner knowing we’d have to get up early for our 7:45 am departure on our private tour of Rome.

Naples, Italy

2007-06-19T00:38:00.000-05:00

Good morning! We arrived in the port of Naples just a few minutes ago. I thought while I was waiting for the girls to get ready I'd upload some more photos from Cefalu. Look for them at the bottom of the Palermo blog. Myra, good suggestion on getting some more locals in the photos. I'll do that today on our tour. More later!

Update 6/20:

Hello, Jeff here again. We had a busy day yesterday in Naples, Italy. Here’s some info about the city:

Population is just over 1 million people
City covers 45 square miles
Naples (Napoli) was founded by the Greeks in the 6th century BC and named Neapolis, which means New City
Naples is considered the birthplace of pizza. It was first created in 1889 when it was served to Queen Margherita during a visit to Naples

As I’d mentioned before, today we’re taking a private tour with DriveAmalfi, which is run by Salvatore Lucibello. I’d researched private tour operators on the cruisecritic.com message boards and found nothing but glowing reviews of DriveAmalfi. Our driver twas Roberto and, as promised, he met our party just as we got off the ship holding a sign with “Spencer” on it. In addition to Susan, Katy and I, there were four other people in our group. Fellow DIS boarders Vicky (vtiffany), her husband Tom, Marie (Worktoplay) and her son Jeff (12) joined us on the tour. We were loaded into a very roomy 8 passenger van and began our trip to the Amalfi coast. Roberto told us about the city, about Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii as we drove. Roberto told us we were going to do the coast tour first and then do Pompeii in the afternoon when it was less crowded.

The drive was simply amazing. I’ve never seen landscape that was close to what we saw on this drive. We passed through the towns of Piano, Sorrento, Positano, Praiana before stopping in the town of Amalfi for about 30 minutes.

While here, Susan, Katy and I toured the Cathedral of Amalfi. The cost was just a couple of Euros each and it was well worth it. The Cathedral was built starting in the 12th century and contains four main areas: the Cloister of Paradise, the Basilica of the Crucifix, the Crypt of Saint Andrew and the Cathedral. The Cloister and Basilica were interesting and contained many historical pieces from the 12th, 13th and 14th century but it was the Crypt of Saint Andrew that interested me most. Here, the head and other bones of Saint Andrew, Jesus’ first disciple, are buried. The Apostle, who had evangelized Greece, was crucified in Patras. From there his body was taken to Constantinople and later to Amalfi in 1208. The final stop on our tour was the Cathedral. The interior is a Baroque style dating to the early 18th century. There are large inset paintings on canvas upon the ceiling.

Next, we stopped at a small village above Amalfi called Pontano – so small it doesn’t even show on the map – for lunch at a nice restaurant. We started off with a beautiful plate of appetizers, followed by a plate of pasta, followed by pizza and then topped off with an assortment of desserts. Oh, we also had bottled water, red and white wine and lemoncello. Cost for the meal was 20 Euro each and it was well worth it. There were also nice, clean restrooms for us to use. Soon we were off again in the van on our way to Pompeii. After the lunch and drinks, we loaded back up and Roberto drove us to Pompeii.

For those that may have forgotten, Pompeii was a city of about 20,000 people that was buried in ash and rock in 79 AD after a sudden eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Here, we had two hours to explore the ruins and chose to do a self guided tour using the online touring plan of Rick Steves. It was so HOT and the walls of the ruins tended to block what little breeze there was; nevertheless, with touring plan and map in hand we were able to see most of the major sites in our allotted time. The most interesting things to me were the bodies on display, the Temple of Apollo, the House of the Faun, the Bakery, the various murals and mosaic tile work. My knees hurt thinking about how long it would take someone to set those thousands of small, individual tiles in intricate patterns. Soon, our time was up and we exited the site to meet up with Roberto but he was no where to be found. Unfortunately, Pompeii had changed things up on Roberto as those exiting the ruins were directed to an area away from the entrance. After walking around about 15 minutes we were finally able to find our driver and we were on our way back to the ship. It was a long day but definitely a wonderful tour.

After grabbing a snack on Deck 9, during which Katy was almost pooped on by an evil seagull, we freshened up, then Susan and I went to Palo to celebrate her forty-somethingth birthday. Dinner, as usual at Palo, was fabulous. We started off with a goat cheese, red pepper and arugula flatbread. We had wonderful filet mignon topped with sautéed mushrooms on a bed of potatoes and asparagus as our entrée and a chocolate soufflé for dessert. Feeling bad that Katy couldn’t join us (one must be 18 to dine in Palo) Susan got her a chocolate soufflé to go. Katy loved it.

Port of Palermo

2007-06-18T16:36:00.000-05:00

Hello, Jeff here again. I’m trying to get Susan and/or Katy to contribute to the blog but they’d rather do other things like take naps and rest. The nerve! We’ve got a few minutes before dinner so I’ll try to catch up with what we did today in Palermo, but first some info abut the city:

Population is just under 700,000 people
It covers an area of 61 square miles
The city was founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC
Its original Phoenician name was “Ziz”, which means “flower”
Palermo is one of the world’s most conquered cities

We docked at Palermo at 7 am and were off the ship just after 8 am for our Disney tour of the coastal village of Cefalu (pronounced Chefalu). Getting off the ship was very straightforward and we were escorted behind a big Mickey Mouse head sign to bus 11. We had just under a full bus. Our tour guide, Peter, did a nice job telling us about various sites of Palermo, including a beautiful opera house and Theatre, as we rode through the city on our way to Cefalu, which lies about 70 kilometers east on the north coast of the island. The bus ride was just over 1 hour. Once we arrived at Cefalu, we had to park the bus and walk perhaps 1/8 mile into town. Once we got there it was obvious why we couldn’t drive. The streets all through town are very narrow – basically a single cobblestone lane between old, multi-story buildings, most of which have wrought iron balconies filled with various plant and flower decorations. We also noticed most balconies had clothes lines above them and it was common to see linens and clothes hanging out to dry. The town was very picturesque as you can see from the few photos I’ve included – it almost didn’t seem real. Peter took us on a guided walking tour which ended up at the Piazza Duomo – a beautiful little square in front of the Cefalu Cathedral. Here Peter showed us where the public toilets were which we were free to use for the sum of 0.50 Euro.

After our short break, Peter took us into the Cathedral. Being a person who is awed by history it blew my mind that we were standing in a church that was built almost 3 centuries BEFORE Christopher Columbus sailed to America. Inside the church there were beautiful altars and statues like the Virgin Mary and child here. I really can’t find words to describe it. After 15 minutes or so, we were taken back out into the Piazza where a table was set up with “snacks”. We had bottled water, orange juice and espresso coffee, along with cannoli, crème puffs, some green dessert that was delicious and some type of nut pastry. To top that off, we had to have a gelato too. This was my first experience with gelato and it was yummy!

After our snacks, we had about 30 minutes of free time on our own. Susan, Katy and I wandered through some of the shops and then went back down to the beach to snap some more photos. We made our way back to the bus at noon and were soon on our way back to Palermo.

On the way out of town, the bus stopped at a nice overlook where we were able to snap some post card type photos of Cefalu. During the bus ride back, Peter passed out bottled water, some candy and some pizza flavored crackers. Once in Palermo, Peter had the bus driver take us back through some other sites, including a historical city gate, the Parliament building and a king’s palace. We were back to the ship on time at 1:30 pm. After going aboard for a quick bit of lunch, we ventured back out on our own to walk through the city but came back after an hour because it was so HOT.

Sail away was delayed for almost an hour as we apparently waited for some late guests but we’re now on our way to Naples. Tomorrow we have a private tour booked with DriveAmalfi, who will take us to Pompeii and to several towns along the famous Amalfi Coast, including Sorrento, Ravello and Positano. Time for bed.

First Sea Day

2007-06-18T10:09:00.000-05:00

Hello, Jeff here again. Sorry I missed blogging yesterday but I spent my internet time trying to figure out how to download the photos from our Panasonic digital camera to my laptop. The Microsoft Camera Wizard, which works fine for our Canon digital camera (which we also have with us), will NOT work. Boo! I checked the Panasonic web site looking for a device driver or the Lumix software that came with the camera but had no luck. Too soon it was time to go see the Golden Mickeys stage show and then get dressed up for formal night.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. We started the day with a wake-up call of sorts from Palo at about 9:30 am. On Embarkation day we’d asked to be put on the standby list for Brunch for each of the three sea days and Inga or Ingrid or Hagrid (I was still not totally awake) was happy to inform us they could fit us in! Cool! We still had a couple of hours before our reservation so Susan and I dragged our carcasses out of the bed and went walking on Deck 4. Three laps equals one mile so we did two miles in all. It was a nice way to start the day and get rid of the cob webs.

After refreshing showers, we made our way to Palo’s which is on deck 10 aft and were promptly seated after picking up our complementary drink (champagne or Mimosa). Our server (Annie Marie) then gave us the tour explaining the various appetizers, cheeses, breads/buns, pizzas/flatbreads, hot breakfast items, hot lunch items and finally the desserts. Everything looked wonderful. Our drink order was taken and we were off to eat. Everything I had was excellent.

Next up was the DIS board gift exchange on the secret deck 7. It’s called “secret” because it’s kind of out of the way so it’s not some place you stumble upon or accidentally walk by. We chose it expecting that we’d have it to ourselves; unfortunately so did about a half dozen sunbathers. We soon outnumbered them and some of them decided to bask somewhere else. It was nice putting face and real names to our fellow DIS’ers we’d not yet met and to exchange small gifts with them. One of the people I met that I’d not met on Embarkation day was PurtyPat1. By the way, she says hi to all her family that is reading this blog! And Danielle, Jack (smilingjack) says hi too!

Soon it was time to make our way to the Roy Suite (8530), one of the two luxurious suites onboard the Disney Magic. Another DISer, DVC4US (LeiLani) was kind (and crazy) enough to invite all the DIS board participants and their families to tour the suite. It was HUGE by cruise ship standards and very ornate. The bathroom off the master suite was almost as big as our stateroom! There we met up with even more fellow DIS board members. I suspect we set a record for most people crammed into a cabin but it was all fun. One of the families we met was Michael, Vicky and their daughter Kristine. Michael is an Airbus captain for America West. Kristine and Katy took off on their own while the parents went up on Deck 9 to grab some beverages and chat. The weather was perfect for sitting outside and getting to know Michael and Vicky. Soon it was time for them to go get ready for dinner (they have the early seating at 6:30) so Susan and I grabbed a sandwich each as a snack and that catches us up to my camera problems.

The Golden Mickeys show was pretty good – I especially like the Hunchback of Notre Dame number. The stage show that ran for years at the Disney-MGM Studios was one of our favorite Disney shows EVER. I can’t count the number of times we saw it. After the show, we returned to our stateroom to don our formal attire. I wore my tuxedo and the girls looked lovely in their dresses. We waited in a couple of lines to have our picture made by Disney photographers before it was time for dinner.

For those not familiar with Disney cruises, dining is done on a rotation between three separate and distinct restaurants. Our first night was in Parrot Cay, a tropically themed restaurant. Our second night we were in Lumiere’s, which is an ornate, formal dining room. Tonight, we will be in Animator’s Pallet, which is a restaurant that starts out completely in black and white and as the evening progresses, it transforms into color.

Last night’s dinner at Lumiere’s was excellent. Both the calamari (that’s squid) and the chicken appetizer were amazing. Several of us had both of these or two of the same as they were SO good. The Moroccan lentil soup was delicious. For the entrée, we all had the sirloin steak which turned out to be good, but not great. The dessert was a Golden Mickey chocolate something that too was very, very good. After dinner, we went back to our stateroom and crashed as we knew we were going to have to get up early (6:30 am) in order to catch our tour to the Village of Cefalu (pronounced chefalu (like the “ch” in “church”) from our first port, Palermo Sicily.

Embarkation Day

2007-06-16T17:56:00.000-05:00

Hello, Jeff here again. Saturday was embarkation day. Picking up where I left off at the Work Center, I made my way back to the hotel to check on the girls and whether our lost bag had found its way to our hotel. It had not. We had breakfast at that well known Barcelona institution – Starbucks – across the street. We tried calling KLM multiple times to check on the lost bag but only got a busy signal. Bah! We decided to take another walk on La Rambla and stopped at the Cathedral in the Barri Gotic on the way. While the outside wasn’t much to look at since it was largely hidden behind scaffolding and netting, the inside was beautiful. We continued to La Rambla and walked down to the pier to see if we could see the Disney Magic and we could! Woo hoo! We returned to our hotel to check out and were happily reunited with our lost bag.

We took a taxi to the cruise ship (25 Euro) and went through a very smooth embarkation process. It took maybe 30 minutes from the time we first walked in the terminal door until we walked up the gangplank. New to me was the process where all passengers had to disinfect their hands prior to boarding. Disney seems to be going all out to try to prevent outbreaks of the stomach flu. Once aboard we made a beeline to Palo where we were able to book an 8:30 pm reservation on Susan’s birthday (6/19). We were put on the waiting list for Brunch on each of the three sea days. Next up was meeting up with fellow DIS board cruisers at Parrot Cay at 1:30 pm. It was really nice to finally put some faces to the names we’d been chatting with over the last several months! Taysmom (Steph), smilingjack (Jack), pillow (Jodie), worktoplay (Marie), also (Brian), princess jasmine, carolmb and probably others that I’ve forgotten. We had a nice lunch and nice conversation getting to know each other better.

Afterwards, we wandered around the ship, refamiliarizing ourselves with where all the main entertainment and dining locations were. We also went topside where I schooled Susan and Katy in ping pong. We had talked about going back ashore to do more touring of Barcelona but it started sprinkling and frankly, we just really didn’t feel like getting off the ship and getting back on. We attended the evening show Welcome Aboard! Let the Magic Begin. Definitely not a must see but it was entertaining. Our first night’s dinner was in Parrot Cay (Table 35) where we met our table mates Michael, Alice and their daughter Marta (16) from San Diego and Bob and Sara from Pittsburg. Our server is Toto and his assistant Analeia. Dinner was very good. The food came out promptly so apparently some of the bugs experienced by the earlier cruisers have been ironed out.

We Made It!

2007-06-16T00:42:00.000-05:00

Hello, Jeff here at the Work Center in Barcelona, Spain. Our hotel doesn't have internet access but they gave us directions to this Internet Cafe, which charges 1 Euro for each half hour of connection time.

On our trip, we arrived on time, though a bit worn out after 12 hours of travel. We had a pretty tight connection in Amsterdam to begin with but our flight from Memphis to Amsterdam was 15 minutes late so we had about 40 minutes to get off the plane, walk across the airport, go through Customs - thank goodness for the "Short Connections" line! - and catch our flight to Barcelona. The good news again is that we all made it. The bad news is that all of our bags didn't. We checked 5 bags and only 4 arrived in Barcelona. We filled out the requisite paperwork with KLM and caught a cab to the Hotel Regencia Colon. Traffic was TERRIBLE! We sat in traffic forever and all the while the meter kept running. It ended up taking us about an hour to cover 7 miles and the cost, with the extra bag charge was about 50 Euro. I was expecting about 30-35. At this point I was so tired and happy to get there I didn't fuss about it.

Check in at the Hotel Regencia Colon was a breeze and we were soon in our room - which was nice. We'd requested a triple room and that's what we got. Nice size for a European hotel room, nice bathroom and full size shower. I see why this hotel is one of the higher rated hotels on TripAdvisor. We washed up a bit, changed clothes and then crashed for a nap.

We got a map and restaurant recommendation from the front desk but I'd already done some research on my own and settled on Les Quinze Nits. We made our way over to the La Rambla and did some tourist strolling - watching the street performers and did some people watching. Speaking of that, we saw an old man walk by that was naked...except for the Speedos he had painted over his rear end. I'm glad I didn't see him from the front! We took photos along the way but I haven't uploaded them to my laptop yet so I'll have to post some of those later.

Dinner at Les Quintze Nits was good. We asked for and were give a seat inside along the window so we could look out over the placa (plaza?) during dinner. Out on the plaza were more of the street performers entertaining guests/tourists. We had a variety of appetizers - the cubed potatoes with sausage were amazingly good. For dinner, Susan and I had paella and Katy had a pasta dish. Both were good but not great. We also had a couple of desserts and a liter of sangria. Total for the meal was just over 50 Euro which was reasonable. We returned to the hotel and crashed for the evening.

Today our plan is to get our lost bag - check in on the Disney Magic around noon, meet up with our DIS board friends at 1:30 for lunch, disembark and then do some more touring of Barcelona. I think we'll venture onto the Bus Touristic, which has gotten good reviews from other DISers that have been here before us. More to come!

We Leave Tomorrow!

2007-06-13T21:00:00.000-05:00

Jeff here. Wow! It's almost time to go. We've got clothes and suitcases laying all over the place. Everyone is pitching in...even our sweet little miniature dachshund Oliver, who turned 1 year old yesterday. I printed out several packing lists - two were from the DIS Disney Cruise message board, one from Rick Steves' web site. We've got some other lists of absolutely critical things like our passports, medicines, Euros, a copy of our credit/debit cards and our itinerary, including phone numbers, confirmation numbers, addresses, etc.

Susan here: How many pairs of shoes does Katy really need? Does Katy have enough outfits? Are the suitcases too heavy? Where do I put the sunscreen? Too many questions!! So little time... Not to mention the "help" that Ollie is giving...panty raids and getting into the packed suitcases in an attempt to undo my careful folding and packing. Oh yes, don't forget the mouthpiece. I seriously contemplated bringing my French horn and the Silent Brass System to practice some on the cruise. The more I thought about it, it was just another chance for it to get damaged, so just bringing the mouthpiece to annoy Jeff and Katy! Really, I have a concert coming up on July 1 so I need to keep my embrochure in some sort of shape. Well, my break is about over...back to packing.

Katy here: I'm not really looking forward to the flight. All these airport regulations are pretty much a pain in the neck. I don't mind flying, so long as there's no turbulence and/or I'm at the controls; however, since I'm definitely not going to be at the controls, and there's more than likely going to be turbulence... I'm probably going to be drugged out of my mind. Praise motion sickness medicine and the drowsiness that follows. And I KNOW that I'm going to worry about Ollie the whole time. I love that dog... even if he is pure evil in puppy form, and I would be crushed if anything happened to my baby.

Susan again: I think that we have done all that we can do tonight. Finish in the morning. I'm tired...going to bed.

Katy (after being interrupted by Mom) : I'm totally way ahead of the parents. ;) I've got all my toiletries out on their bed. (Definitely NO room on mine. I've got a mini mountain of suitcases and other objects.) I've packed my ever-so-handy color guard duffel bag so full, it probably weighs about 30 lbs easy. I hope nothing happens to any of the luggage. My stuff is precious to me. I'm most likely going to be staying up a little later than the parents so I can say bye to my peeps, plus I have too much of a headache to be sleepy. Hope I didn't forget to pack anything. Off to do other stuff now...

Why A Disney Cruise?

2007-06-12T11:04:00.000-05:00

Some may wonder why we're doing a Disney cruise versus one of the other cruise lines (Princess, Royal Caribbean, Carnival, etc) for this Mediterranean cruise. Sure, our kids are almost grown and well past their awe and excitement at meeting Disney characters; however, having cruised on Princess, Carnival, Norwegian and Disney before, it is our opinion that we get the best overall cruise experience from Disney. We're not big drinkers or gamblers and are past the point in our lives where we're into partying, so those activities have little to no appeal for us. We're also not so old that all we want to do is sit around playing Bingo all day either. We do LOVE good food, quality entertainment and excellent service and it is our experience that Disney Cruise Lines (DCL) excels in each of these areas. We have been on Carnival cruises where we literally had nothing to do except go to the pool area, go to the casino or sleep. On DCL, there are so many things to do at any given time that it's often hard to decide what to do!

"Aren't you afraid all those kids will drive you crazy?" Not at all. Disney has an excellent kids program that is tiered so that kids of similar ages are grouped together and the activities and facilities they utilize are targeted to that specific age group. Kids love their groups and the Disney staff does a tremendous job keeping them busy and happy. Disney also has designed its ships so that there are distinct areas and events for kids, for families and for adults only.

Finally, while the kids are older and Disney is certainly nothing new to us given we're long time Disney fans, we still feel the Disney "magic" and enjoy the familiar characters, stories and the joy of feeling a little bit like a kid again.

Things To Do

2007-06-11T15:35:00.000-05:00

Here's a list of key things to do before we leave on our trip:

Stop mail & newspaper
Make copies of Passports & credit/debit cards
Reconfirm flights, hotel & private tours
Get neighbors to water plants & keep eye on house
Arrange for someone to mow the grass
Pay bills
Away messages on work phone/email
Write down important phone numbers (credit card, bank, doctors, etc.)
Notify credit card/bank of international travel

Introduction & Itinerary

2007-06-11T14:04:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone! Jeff here. I'm doing this blog primarily for friends and family but in case others find their way here that don't know us, here is a brief introduction to the cruisers.

Jeff - 47, NASA Engineer, long time Disney fan
Susan - Dear wife, 40 something, NASA Engineer, talented musician
Katy - Dear daughter, 17, extremely smart, pretty and very creative

Dear son Brian is doing the summer term at Auburn University (pre-engineering program) so he won't be joining us on this trip. We also have a family web page that contains more info about us, our hobbies, photos and links.

Our Itinerary is as follows:

6/14: Depart Memphis, TN to Barcelona, Spain via Amsterdam

6/15: Arrive Barcelona - Recover from jet lag

6/16: Check in on Disney Magic - Sail away at 10 pm

6/17: Day at Sea

6/18: Dock at Palermo, Sicily - Disney tour of Village of Cefalu

6/19: Dock at Naples, Italy - Private tour of Pompeii and Amalfi Coast

6/20: Dock at Olbia, Sardinia - Disney tour of La Maddalena Island

6/21: Dock at Civitavecchia, Italy - Private tour of Rome

6/22: Day at Sea

6/23: Dock at La Spezia, Italy - Private tour of Florence & Pisa

6/24: Dock at Marseille, France - Private tour of Aix en Provence and Cassis

6/25: Dock at Villefranche, France - Private tour of Nice, Cannes, Monaco and Eze

6/26: Day at Sea 6/27: Dock at Barcelona, Spain - tour of Barcelona

6/28: Return flight to Memphis, TN