Disney Magic 10 day Mediterranean Cruise 2017 HELP with Excursions Please

[canalgirl]

Hi, I am travelling with hubby and two kids (ages 5 and 13). We are taking the 10 day mediterranean cruise on Disney Magic in July out of Barcelona. Our ports: Villefranche, Livorno, Olbia, Civitavecchia, Naples, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca.

 

One question I have is has anyone taken a private car service? I was considering for ports of Livorno and Civitavecchia (Florence and Rome) as opposed to taking the Disney excursions. I was thinking the car service might be good for the kids so we can be flexible in timing and what we see. Love to hear from anyone who has done this, has had a good/bad experience etc.

Also, for Naples - Pompeii or Capri?

Any great excursions that you highly recommend or don't!

Tips for the boat etc.

Would really love to hear from you for planning purposes.

Thanks in advance.

[moki'smommy]

OK, we did Vesuvius and Pompeii. Vesuvius is a lot of climbing effort, but we made it. The nice thing is to say we did it, because I don't think either of us could do it now. Pompeii was a bit of a disappointment. We'd watched some documentaries and seen a lot of stuff on them; on our expensive, guided excursion we really didn't see much other than the ruins of the homes and public buildings. We were told that all the artifacts had been taken to the museum. The funny thing was that back on the ship, the people who went to the museum told us that they were told that all the "good stuff" was at Pompeii. Not sorry we did it, but wouldn't do it again. And I'm not sure why the "good stuff" is all on TV and in books. They did tell us that only about 15% of the excavation was finished, so there might be more now than we saw a couple years ago. Never did Capri, so can't compare.

 

You can take the train to Rome--much cheaper than a private car service and fast. Too much to see, way too little time.

We did Florence....I'd already spent about a week there on another trip. It's a lot of time driving for what you have in town, but we did have a great day. One block off the tourist trail we found a pizza place crowded with locals. Cost us 1Euro each for lunch and it was excellent. If you want to see David, you'll need to get advance tickets. Pick one or two things that you really want to see/do, and wing it from there. That's about all the time you'll have.

 

You'll barely get a taste of the cities from the cruise....

 

Villefranche is one of my favorite ports. The first time we stayed there and saw the sites. It is a lovely little town with a couple of free museums (limited hours), churches, some tunnels left from the wars, some great views, a little craft market, etc. One church had a quartet practicing but their rehearsal was open to the public--one of those little treasures you just stumble upon. Another had a sign inviting people to join their choir--my daughter cracked up because the cartoon picture of their director looked just like our conductor at home. The next trip, we went to Nice and St (?) Paul. It was also a great day The little art colony was well worth the visit, and we have the greatest photo of a Lamborghini sitting next to a junky Beetle at a stop sign. TOO funny.

 

Barcelona is great too--I highly recommend a couple of days there before or after your cruise. You can see the city from a Hop on/Hop off bus which has 3 routes. You can do 2 of them in a day (time wise) unless you really don't want to get off at all...in which case you could probably do all 3.

[easyboy]

Check out http://www.romeinlimo.com

 

 

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[mommb]

I think a car service is a great idea. We used Rome in Limo in Rome when our kids were 15 and 10 and saw much more than we would have with a Disney excursion.

 

We did use the DCL Florence on Your Own excursion. It was OK, but we spend much more time on the bus and trying to get our bearings in the city than we did seeing the sights. If I had the choice again, I'd consider a private guide to help us use our time more efficiently.

 

In Naples, we went to Herculaneum rather than Pompeii because we'd heard it was better preserved. We enjoyed it, but our guide was not the best -- he made no attempt to keep the kids interested. Another guide we saw seemed much more engaging, so there is luck of the draw involved.

 

 

 

 

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