Sea Day and Thoughts on Disney Cruise Line

This is our final Sea Day and a good opportunity to relax a little. We also have to pack up everything and have it outside our cabin door this evening. It’s important to remember not to pack everything up or else you could wake up in the morning and have no clothes to wear. Only your PJ’s!

This has been a very busy itinerary. We’ve visited 8 ports and 5 countries in 10 days! The kids are sad to leave the ship and the new friends they’ve made. Sydney is taking pictures and getting friends email addresses and Eric says one of his friends is from Greenland and the other from the U.K. He just doesn’t happen to remember their names!

This was our second cruise with Disney and they definitely know how to treat their guests! The crewmembers all greet you in the hallways and I have never heard anyone speaking disrespectfully to each other or to guests. They are focused on ensuring the passengers have a great time and all our needs are met. Disney Dining is unique in that there are 3 different restaurants that you dine at on a rotational basis. The same wait staff follows you which means that you have the same waiter throughout the entire cruise so he gets to know your likes and dislikes and can accommodate any food preferences or even cater to picky eaters! Here are a few thoughts on traveling with kids to Europe.

· If you’re taking a cruse make sure you get to your departure port at least a day or two early. That way you won’t have to worry about missing your cruise if your plane is delayed. It’s also good to try and work out some of your jet lag before your cruise starts. I also really wanted to see Barcelona.

· Allow extra time for everything. Kids don’t move at the same pace that grownups do and sometimes (as in Barcelona) they just want to chase the pigeons!

· Don’t be afraid to leave them on the ship when you go out to explore a port. The Disney counselors are the best I’ve seen. Kids wear a GPS tracking device so they can always be located. I told Sydney and Eric that we were all going to get off in most of the ports but if they wanted to stay behind in a few that was fine. If you force them to come to every museum and church you want to go into they’ll resent it and then no one is having fun!

· Before you leave make sure you buy some fun books or look up information on the Internet about your destination. It gets them interested in the history and they can start looking forward to their trip. We did a lot of research on Herculaneum so they were really looking forward to visiting it. In fact several people we talked to that had visited both Pompeii and Herculaneum said that Herculaneum is the better ruins yet most people have never heard of it!

We’re glad that we still have a couple more days in Barcelona, as there is still more of the city to explore. We’ll be staying in an apartment so it should be homier and a good transition before we head home. Sydney is already trying to finagle a few more days out of school; “I won’t be able to stay awake because of my jet lag so why can’t I just have the rest of the week off?” I explained that she’s going back on a Wednesday so only has half the week. Welcome back to reality!