Wherein We Answer the Question: Does a Six Year Old Find the Med Magical? - COMPLETE!

You saw and did so much in Barcelona, fantastic!!!! The food looks and sounds incredible; hopefully we get to Barcelona some day!
 
Love your trip report so far. We are trying to decide whether to do the Mediterranean cruise starting in Barcelona next year with our then to be 6 year old (and my mom and our 10 year old) so your report is perfect for me!
 
Oh and so is the food apparently! YUM!

Oh the food. It was so amazing!

And I loved how you are making sure you daughter learns about art (I guess having an artist dad helps)!

He teaches me too! I'm a scientist and he's an artist so we figure she has no choice but to be well rounded. lol!

By the way, Nespresso is far and away the better coffee compared to Keurig.

I thought it might just be vacation, but good to know I have a discerning palate. ;)

you should get one for home!

We actually need a new coffee pot...

Love your trip report so far. We are trying to decide whether to do the Mediterranean cruise starting in Barcelona next year with our then to be 6 year old (and my mom and our 10 year old) so your report is perfect for me!

So glad you're here! Feel free to ask any questions.
 


Goodness! How have I waited so long to update?!

Ok. Here we go.


Heading to Port (aka Embarkation Day!)

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(You'll notice I still can't sleep the night before a cruise. Lol)

I got up around 7:00 to shower and finish packing. I woke up DD at around 8:30. We had an interesting breakfast of refrigerator leftovers. Fruit, ham, bread, cheese. DD had her cupcake from the night before.

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What can I say? Vacation. (I always contend that muffins are just cupcakes without icing and somehow they are respectable.)

Our van from Barcelona Welcome Tours was scheduled to arrive at 9:30. At about 9:00, my dad looked out the front window and saw the van already in front of the building. The driver was polishing the van! My dad called down and told the driver we weren't quite ready yet, so he went to grab a coffee.

We finished packing and headed out!

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Bye condo. You were so good to us!

We got settled and started driving to the port. On the way, we discovered that there was a bike race that closed several roads to the port.

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Our driver found an alternate route and we got to see some new parts of town and drive up to Montjuïc again.

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We entered the port area and headed towards the correct terminal.

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And there she was!

The port wasn't quite open yet, but we were able to drop our bags. The lines were long-ish but more than anything, it was unclear if there were two separate lines or just one really long line snaking back and forth. We decided it was the one line and took our spot.

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By 10:30 we were walking inside. Security was so easy! There were a few shops inside and a snack bar. We didn't buy anything though.

We got in line for our KTTW cards, lanyards, and navigators.

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Group 5! My parents had Group 7 because I had to check them in a day later. My dad's passport had expired and, on check in day, I didn't have the updated number. It was ok though because DD had decided that she wanted to board enough separately that they said our family name and not just my parents'. She growing up!

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Navigator with double shows. Boo.

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We posed for our Mickey photo and met some folks from our cruise group. She also met a nice CM who had a couple photo trading cards. She was psyched.

Then, we headed back to our seats until boarding started.

Up next: It's a Grand Slam!
 
It's a Grand Slam!

Very shortly after we arrived at our seats, boarding began. People were very well behaved and there was no crowding at the entrance.

I explained to DD that we were group 5, so we wouldn't stand up and put on our backpacks until they called group 4. This was very hard for her. :D

They called group 4, so we put on our backpacks and agreed with my parents that we'd meet them at Lumiere's. Then they called group 6! Oh my kid was mad at me. Hahahahaha! But it was not a big deal.

We stopped for our photo and started walking. And we definitely walked. It was sooo long.

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DD got another high 5.

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She was excited to see her suitcase.

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Eeeeeek!

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And we were on board our fourth Disney ship! Hooray!

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Our table had a beautiful view of the castle of Montjuïc. It was fun to see it from the other side.

Mom and dad weren't far behind and we had a lovely lunch.

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After eating, I went to the Promenade Lounge to see about adding a person to our Palo brunch. I was surprised to find that I had to wait a long time and that adding me meant moving the time to 10 am on the last sea day. (Remember this...) I've never had so much trouble getting a Palo brunch just like I wanted before.

Then we checked out the kids clubs.

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DD really loved the Marvel room.

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Our suitcases were delivered early so I was able to get unpacked before Sail Away.

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We were at sea!

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DD had her traditional Sail Away soft serve. The cones on this sailing were really good.

Up Next: Night 1
 


Night 1

I don't have a ton of pictures for the first night and I certainly don't have food pics. I've kind of stopped taking pictures of the regular menu items at the MDRs.

We decided on late seating in Europe because it had worked so well in Alaska.

After relaxing for a bit, we headed to the Walt Disney Theater for Twice Charmed. This was our first "opportunity" to hear the choices speech. You know how some people get the overwhelming excellent speech? Well, the cruise director, Darren, would not stop giving the choice speech as a reason for the double shows.

On a side note, I notice they've stopped it on all ships except the Magic at this point. Hopefully this means DCL listened to guest feedback.

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I really enjoyed this show! Not enough to want to see it again the next day, but I am looking forward to seeing it again this spring. At one point the prince runs down the aisle and he actually touched DD and sang to her. Easily one of her favorite parts of the trip.

Then mom and I went to the shops while DD went to the clubs and Dad did ... something. I have no idea.

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I bought DD her next stuffed animal. We've started buying one to have our stateroom attendant make up in her bed one night on the trip. She's pretty close to getting a full set at this point!

There were two logos for the summer sailings.

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This one shows all of the European ports. The pin itself spins and is very cool.

The pin explicitly for the Med was not as cool.

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This Christmas ornament was very pretty though, so I grabbed it for myself.

Now, in order to get VAT refunded, you had to buy $100 some odd all at one time. So we started looking around to see if we could hit that number. I found a shirt I really liked and added that.

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It is super soft and really cute. Now, it's like 100 degrees here every day so I am still waiting to wear it.

We were now $15 short, but we would also gave about $20 in tax added. So my dad found us again and added a DCL Europe hat to the pile and we were good to go.

I also saw this ornament that I thought was cool.

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Now we come to the low point of the cruise. We headed to Lumiere's for dinner. Our server and assistant server seemed nice enough, but service was slow. I mean really really slow. We didn't even get dessert until at least 10:30. DD was exhausted and our section was the only one left in the dining room. We also never saw our head server. Nor was our serving team terribly personable. Not rude, but not super outgoing.

As we finished, I pulled our server aside and mentioned I would appreciate it if we could speed up service on future evenings. My dad jumped in and was kind of rude about it too which added to my stress. It just was not a great way to end the first day.

We headed back to our cabins and quickly fell asleep. Usually I have a hard time getting to sleep on the first night in a new bed. Not tonight!

Next Up: Day at Sea
 
I wasn't able to get brunch AT ALL on our cruise. It was crazy! Though, we only had one sea day on ours.
I suspect it's because the specialty cruises have so many higher status cruisers, but I'm also hearing that they've started holding back more reservations. I'm glad we got one, but I wonder how it will play out in the future.
 
Regarding the repeat shows, I get how people could be upset about this. After I thought about it, I’m thinking it could be beneficial? If we do first dining, no show, this promotes going to bed for all day/early port adventures? Curious about your experience specifically with this?
 
I suspect it's because the specialty cruises have so many higher status cruisers, but I'm also hearing that they've started holding back more reservations. I'm glad we got one, but I wonder how it will play out in the future.

Yah, it was booked up before Gold could even check in. I kept stalking, but never got one and wasn't able to get one on board either!
 
Regarding the repeat shows, I get how people could be upset about this. After I thought about it, I’m thinking it could be beneficial? If we do first dining, no show, this promotes going to bed for all day/early port adventures? Curious about your experience specifically with this?
That goes along with Disney's line. Double shows because it's a port intensive cruise. However, on this itenerary, the only place that makes sense is for Tangled. Day 1, obviously no port. Day 2, At Sea. Day 3 & 4 are port days. Ok, give people a choice when to go. Day 5, port day, but Day 6 is at sea. No excuse really not to have a Welcome Show on Day 1 and it would make sense to have something else on offer on Day 5 too since there isn't really a reason people to not be able to go on Day 6.

In terms of going to bed earlier, the second show ends before 10:00. That's not exactly encouraging people to be up all night. That's about when second dinner ends too. So it's not like people in the second show have a hardship or anything.

In my experience, it just doesn't play out as a good thing, but I get why you're asking.
 
They did the double up shows on the 10 night, here is the list:

Day 1 - Be Our Guest 7:30
Day 2 - Port - Twice Charmed 6:30 and 8:45
Day 3 - Port - Twice Charmed 7:30
Day 4 - Port - Susan Egan 6:30 & 8:45
Day 5 - Port - Tangled - 7:30
Day 6 - Sea Day - Tangled 6:30 & 8:45
Day 7 - Port - Once Upon a Song - 6:30 & 8:45
Day 8 - Port - Movie "Ant-Man and the Wasp" 5:30 & 8:00
Day 9 - Sea Day - Dreams - 6:30 & 8:45
Day 10 - Port - Dreams 7:30

We had first seating and while we were done by 7:30, some days we went straight to dinner once getting back on the ship after our excursions. I never saw a 7:30 show. I would have loved to see Tangled twice but it just didn't work for us.
 
They did the double up shows on the 10 night, here is the list:

Day 1 - Be Our Guest 7:30
Day 2 - Port - Twice Charmed 6:30 and 8:45
Day 3 - Port - Twice Charmed 7:30
Day 4 - Port - Susan Egan 6:30 & 8:45
Day 5 - Port - Tangled - 7:30
Day 6 - Sea Day - Tangled 6:30 & 8:45
Day 7 - Port - Once Upon a Song - 6:30 & 8:45
Day 8 - Port - Movie "Ant-Man and the Wasp" 5:30 & 8:00
Day 9 - Sea Day - Dreams - 6:30 & 8:45
Day 10 - Port - Dreams 7:30

We had first seating and while we were done by 7:30, some days we went straight to dinner once getting back on the ship after our excursions. I never saw a 7:30 show. I would have loved to see Tangled twice but it just didn't work for us.
I'm sorry to see they are still replaying shows. I'd hoped they'd returned to normal like the others.

Thanks for sharing!
 
Joining in....great trip so far!!

We are booked in a norwegian/Iceland cruise next summe with our DDs, who will be 4 and 7, so excited to follow your experience with your DD!
 
Yay, you're onboard!!!
I'm so sorry to hear your serving team was not great this time around :(

We finally get to sail on the Magic in Oct 2019 for the DVC Members cruise so I'm really paying close attention to all the pics of the ship you are taking (well, I'm paying close attention to everything lol)
 
Day At Sea - Character Breakfast and Pools

First things first, I realized I haven't sing the praises of our stateroom host yet. Janice from Jamaica was amazing! She not only took great care of our rooms and anticipated our needs, but she showed such genuine love for DD and friendliness to us. It was a pleasure to talk to her each day.

This was a different experience for us than on past cruises. Previously, we had Palo brunch and/or some princess greets booked on the first sea day. However, those events were booked up by the time I was able to log in. We had them scheduled for the second day at sea. We were able to get character breakfast tickets for this day though.

We got up at a reasonable time and visited a couple characters before our ticket time.
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While waiting to see Jake, we watched the Princess Gathering below. There were two women in beautiful Mickey Mouse kimonos. Amazing.

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This was one of the best character breakfasts we'd had. Excellent service and the food was very good. We also had great character interactions.

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While we were there we looked up and saw Miguel, our assistant server from Alaska! He looked over and saw us and immediately came over to give hugs. He even asked DD if she still liked cherries. Lol. We chatted for a bit and heard about how his year has been.

Then it was up to the pool deck for a while. Dad and DD swam but mom and I delivered our FE first. The classic ships are so much smaller that this just took a little while.

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DD LOVED the Twist and Spout. It had been too cold to try it in Alaska. My dad liked it too.

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The lifeguard kept an eye on the top with a video screen and reminded people about the rules with a PA system.

The one thing I don't like about the pool deck on the classic ships is that you can't watch the movie while you're by the slides and kiddie pool. So, after they rode the slide a bunch of times, we headed to the other side. This was DD's first time in the deeper pool and she did great!

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My mom and I had drinks and relaxed while Dad and DD swam. Then we needed to get a bit of lunch before the adults went to our mojito tasting and DD headed for the clubs.

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I grabbed pizza for everyone and we ate it in the room. It was perfect.

Next Up: Mojito Tasting
 
Mojito Tasting and Night 2

After we had our lunch and dropped DD off at the clubs, mom, dad, and I headed to Keys for our Mojito Tasting. This was one I hadn't done before, so I was really looking forward to it.

They were racing babies in the atrium, so we stopped to watch for a few minutes. Always hilarious.

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The adult area is so pretty. I love walking through it.

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So this tasting was kind of a blend between doing your own bartending and having the drinks made for you. The staff had all of the set ups waiting for us with the liquors pre-measured. During the class, we learned how to muddle and did the mixing. You could mess it up if you added too much soda but they were good about telling people how much of everything to add.

The drinks were really good and I learned a lot. There was a group who made it clear that they were there to get the most for their money, but everyone else was really there to learn and have a good time.

After all that, my parents needed a rest. We also wanted DD to get a little nap in just in case dinner ran so long again.

I decided to go up on deck to journal. I grabbed an iced coffee from Cove Cafe while I worked.

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Inspiring! I could also hear the band from the adult pool. It was really a perfect spot.

I did get interrupted at one point.

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So fun!

After about an hour and a half, I headed back. Since it was Formal Night, we allowed extra time for getting ready and swing through the atrium for the Captain's reception.

Tonight we were going to see Junnk in fathoms. They were AWESOME!!! If you ever have a chance to see them, do it!

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I got a martini and let DD get a Sprite. Not sure where it was packaged but it was cool.

Because the show was short (boo double shows,) I had plenty of time to take DD to see characters.

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Mickey showed up early and Minnie was clear that he had to wait his turn.

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The Chipmunks were looking dapper but still being hilarious.

Dinner was in Animators. I love the color change show on the classic ships! I had grabbed myself a glass of champagne. When DD and I got to dinner, my parents had grabbed me one too! Oops.

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Dinner tonight was much better. Service was so much quicker and we had a new Assistant Server! Ignacio said he'd been sick the day before. We were so glad to meet him. He was excellent and Ritesh seemed much more on his game now that he had good help. What a difference a day makes!

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After dinner we headed straight to bed. The next day we'd have our first big excursion in Pompeii!

Next up: Pompeii
 
Wondering what were some of the different types of mojitos? I like getting a regular mojito when I go out to eat. I've seen different types of ones that have different types of fruit in them(usually raspberries or blueberries), but didn't know if there are other ways of making them besides adding different types of fruit to them. We saw Junnk on the Wonder last March, they were really good. I also like the AP show with the changes in colors on the Magic/Wonder. I think the Crush show is OK, but it's one of those that once you've seen it, there's really no reason to see it again. The Magic/Wonder one is worth seeing over and over.
 
Yum....mojitos!

Yay for some alone time.....and then Mickey shows up, gotta love Disney cruises :rotfl2:

I'm not sure a few extra glasses of champagne is a bad thing :laughing: So glad your dinner service has improved by the second night! And 'off service' can really set the tone for the cruise so it sounds like things are now on track!
 

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