I took my young adult children on a 5-night Mediterranean Cruise on Disney which started and ended in Barcelona, Spain. For the most part, it was a nice cruise. There were lots of young children and a handful of young adults between ages 18 – 24. The restaurant manager cleverly sat us with another family who had a 20 yr old son. This was back in the day when we sat at the same table for every meal so my children got to know the son quite well and they did some fun things together. Excellent shows and performances nightly. The crew was youthful, welcoming and pleasant, their number one goal was that you had a good time. The food was just okay. Seems like they spent more on the entertainment and shows, rather than perfecting the meals. I also felt that the cruise itself was targeted toward the under 18 year old crowd.
Prior to boarding, we spent a couple days in Barcelona and visited the Gaudi Sagrada Familia Cathedral. Barcelona is known for their fantastic food and we had our fill of tapas and sangria.
From Barcelona, we sailed to Nice to the beautiful port city of Villefranche on the French Riviera. Our shore excursion made stops in Cannes, Monte Carlo, and Eze.
On Day 3, we entered the port in Livorno. I hired a private car from Papillon Tours and were greeted at the dock by our driver and his black Mercedes. It was the smartest thing I did this entire trip. Traveling in air conditioned comfort, we were able to tailor our tour according to our activity level. Our guide provided us with excellent and thorough commentary along the way. The car was able to go up narrow driveways, where tour buses could not. When we had enough of a certain site, we jumped back in the car and sped off to the next destination. Unlike a standard shore excursion, our tour did not end at the obligatory shopping mall selling useless trinkets. Instead we opted to visit a winery in Florence and sampled local wines, olive oil and specialty treats.
The last port was Civitavecchia and from there we toured the main tourist attractions in Rome: The Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Pantheon, and the Vatican. Back on board ship, the following sea day was a welcome break and filled with events to entertain the children and adults. The ship has an adult-only pool area which was perfect for me. The last evening was the Pirates of the Caribbean theme party and we dressed up like pirates, and were treated to an awesome fireworks show over the ocean.
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