Disney's Inaugural Mediterranean Cruise: A Magical Wrap-Up

When we left off a couple of weeks ago, we had a string of ports ahead of us. This is when I became very glad that we'd opted for the 11-night cruise, as opposed to the 10-night version. The extra night is, not surprisingly, spent at sea and it broke up the feeling we were starting to get of an endless series of ports. On the 10-night version, you'll be calling at all seven ports in seven days without a break. A lot of those ports are long days as well, as they're often a good hour or more drive away from the big cities that most people want to see.

I won't say much about the ports we visited, as they all warrant an article in their own right  and some will get that honor in the next few weeks. What I will tell you is that all the ports we called at were excellent and the general consensus amongst passengers seemed to be that we wouldn't change anything, although a few people felt that perhaps the stop at Palermo could be removed in favor of two days at Civitavecchia (for Rome).

The shore excursions did vary considerably in their quality. Some I couldn't fault, while others had failings with the transport  the jetfoil between Naples and Sorrento is not an experience I ever want to repeat. It was more challenging than any thrill ride at a Disney park, or any other park for that matter! Although all our guides knew their subject thoroughly and were full of interesting information about all the places we visited, some did a better job than others of keeping the group together and at pacing the tour. On more than one occasion, we were rushed when we would have preferred to have taken things more slowly. Having said that, I didn't regret taking any of the shore excursions and all of them were a great way to see a lot of each place in a short space of time.

As perhaps you'd expect, the first ever Disney cruise around the Mediterranean attracted a lot of interest at every port we visited. We had a great welcome everywhere we stopped. Some ports went to a lot more trouble than others, with a band awaiting us at Olbia, special shops on the quayside at Marseilles and best of all, a firework display just for the Disney Magic at Villefranche. That was quite something to see and an amazing sen- off, as we set sail shortly afterwards.