Final cruise post

Maisie and I had an absolutely fabulous, wonderful and fantastic time on our cruise and something about it felt very special. This cruise had a much different feel and vibe than our previous cruise which was a one week western Caribbean on Carnival. I can’t put my finger on exactly what made this cruise so special but it really was. Maybe because it was a transatlantic voyage or that we spent two weeks on board so we really got to know people and people got to know us, I’m just not sure but I’m glad that we got to experience it. Some people that I’ve spoken with have said it was because it was Disney but I really don’t think that was the case for us, even though Maisie really did love the Princesses and characters.

Many people also told me that once I experienced the Disney pampering, service, foods, shows and the entire Disney experience, that no other cruise line would come close. The only other cruise line I have sailed with was Carnival so that is all I have to use as comparison.

Food: On both Disney and Carnival I found the food to be good but not exceptional. They are cooking for hundreds of people and I’d say that overall it’s good banquet quality food. The variety of offerings was comparable on both cruise lines but because this last voyage was a special transatlantic voyage there were special menus beyond what you’d find on a week-long cruise and that was nice. Unfortunately though I have to say that many of the offerings didn’t quite live up to what they could/should have been. When reading the description or hearing the waiter rave about a dish and then have it just be “good”, I found to be a bit of a disappointment. One thing that Disney did excel at was that they were spot on at always delivering meat at the desired degree of done-ness.

Disney did have a better children's menu as in addition to the mac & cheese, pizza and usual kid's fare they had additional nightly offerings of things like steak, chicken or other more "adult" offerings. As with Carnival, the children's meals came out quickly and first so that they could start eating and not get impatient waiting. Maisie never ate off the children's menu as there were always things that she preferred on the regular menu. Our table mates were quite impressed with Maisie's choices and what she ate especially at one of the Captain's dinners when Maisie ate and finished an appetizer of liver pate followed by the lobster entree. As for the other children at our table, I think Marta ate pizza and fries each and every night and Colin had a bit of variety but mostly the kids items.

The nightly menus always offered a good variety of items and each night I managed to eat an appetizer, entree and dessert but because the portions were all very large, there unfortunately was a lot of waste. I swear, the first night I ordered a steak and it was the size of my foot!! I sure hope that the fish enjoyed all that I left behind.

One thing that I really enjoyed on the Disney ship that the Carnival ship did not have was the rotational dining. I liked that we rotated through the three main restaurants on board, Parrot Cay, Lumiere's and Animator's Palate and that our servers traveled with us. It was nice to experience the different restaurants while having the people who knew us and our likes and dis-likes stay with us. For the record, Lumiere's was my favorite of the three.

Maisie with our wonderful waiter Erasamo and assistant waiter Fransien.

I did dine one night, with one of my table mates, at the upscale adult's only restaurant Palo, and it was definitely a couple of steps up from the main dining rooms in terms of the offerings, quality and preparation of the foods as well as the extremely attentive service. Friends Ilene and Michael had told me not to miss this experience and because I was traveling alone (without another adult) I was like ya-ya-ya no big deal if I miss it but I'm glad that I got to experience it. On our Carnival cruise there was a similar upscale restaurant but Eammon and I never tried it but we may give it a go on our next cruise.

Another experience that Maisie and I had was, one night when we didn't go to the show we instead had a late night picnic in our room. We ordered room service and in our pajamas sat in the cabin, watched a movie and ate more junk food than we should have but it was fun and Maisie LOVED it.

On both ships, in addition to the main dining rooms there was a buffet that was open for all meals but Maisie and I never ate there. Also there were snack bars serving pizza, burgers, hot dogs and other items...again, there was so much food served at our meals that other than Maisie's afternoon ice cream we never ate at any of the snack areas.

Pastry: Carnival wins this category hands down. I can honestly say that the pastries, desserts and breads on the Disney ship were plentiful and beautiful yet totally tasteless...of course that didn't stop me from trying them all! My table mates and I all agreed that the cheesecakes were blah, the chocolate desserts had no flavor and the pastries were heavy. Honestly the best dessert on the ship was the chocolate covered Mickey ice cream bar. When we sailed on our Carnival cruise there was a French pastry chef and the quality of the desserts and especially the pastries were far superior.

Shows: I can’t compare shows between Disney and Carnival because on our Carnival cruise Maisie fell asleep each-and-every night at dinner and afterwards just wanted to go to sleep so we never saw any of the entertainment that Carnival had to offer. On the Disney ship Maisie and I saw some really good shows which included: Twice Charmed: An Original Twist on the Cinderella Story, Walt Disney: The Dream Goes On, Disney Dreams: An Enchanted Classic, Remember the Magic: A Final Farewell as well as one of their new shows, Villains Tonight. There were also shows by (some of which we saw and others we didn’t) hypnotist Ricky Kalmon, illusionist Jason Bishop, hip-hop comedians Alfred & Seymour, American Idol contestants Brooke White & Justin Guarini and even a crew talent show. Also offered on the Disney cruise were lots and lots of movies so Maisie and I saw Toy Story 2 in 3D, The Princess & the Frog, Up, Pinoccio, Earth, Tinker Bell, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, Chronicles of Narnia, the premier of Oceans and Alice in Wonderland in 3D and we didn't even come close to seeing even a tenth of what was offered.

Adult activities: Here I am not comparing apples to apples because what is offered on a 2-week cruise is always more than on a one-week sail. In addition, on this cruise I made time to attend more of the adult programs where on our Carnival cruise I was happy to sit by the pool and read a book when Maisie was in the kid’s club. On our Carnival cruise I only attended a towel folding demonstration (how to make the towel animals) and a galley tour and on this recent cruise I attended a few cooking demos, lectures about various aspects of Disney, it’s past, present and future as well as lectures about our ports of call and other nautical stuff. On both cruise lines I enjoyed the activities and all were well presented. The Disney ones all seemed to have more hype to them and sometimes characters would show up which made them fun. If I was someone who really was into all things Disney, I could see going ga-ga over the presenters and the programs.

Children’s activities: There were definitely more and varied activities for children on the Disney ship plus all the character appearances. On both cruises Maisie never really wanted to or asked to go to kids club as she would have always preferred to stay with me but on both cruises when she did go to the children's activities she had fun, was engaged and enjoyed herself. A few times on the Disney cruise and also since being home I've asked Maisie which kid's club she enjoyed better and she changes her answer based on the day and seemed to like them both about the same. This is good news for me since we're booked to sail on another week-long Carnival cruise in September.

Facilities on board: Here I have to say that both ships were comparable. They each had a kid's pool, a family pool and an adult only pool and all the pools were small. Both had a nice spa area, a gymnasium, walking/running track, basketball courts, Carnival did have a putt-putt course but overall, very similar. I didn't go to any of the night clubs on either ship but they were there on both. The Disney ship did not have any gambling other than Bingo and the Carnival ship had a large casino. Both ships had numerous bars but because I didn't partake, I can't comment on the quality of the drinks.

Cabin: The only real difference between the cabins from ship to ship was that the Disney ship had a bathtub in the bathroom and many of the cabins had a second bathroom with a toilet & sink but the size of the cabins, the furnishings and the amenities were exactly the same. On both cruises we had great room stewards who were attentive, nice and took good care of us but our steward on the Carnival ship seemed to always be around and every.single.time we left the cabin for even the briefest of time, he would get in there and re-straighten everything. On the Disney cruise after the room was made up in the morning, Aldo didn't come back in until he prepared the room for the evening. Both cruise lines had nice bath, shower & hair products in the bathroom but personally I preferred the Carnival items.

Crew: Both cruises had friendly, warm and helpful crew members who were always happy, energetic, attentive and who worked their tushes off to be wonderful. The service and pampering was honestly the same on both cruise lines and I can't think of a single instance on either cruise where a crew member missed doing something or where we had a bad or even an off encounter.

Final notes:

* Our Disney cruise was only at about 70% capacity and instead of the usual 600-800 children per voyage our cruise carried only about 200 children. This was very nice for us as there were enough children that there were plenty of kids to play with and share the experience but it wasn't overwhelming and the queues to see the characters and to have pictures taken were thankfully quite short with waits usually between 5-10 minutes and the longest one being maybe 20 minutes max. I'm really thankful that the cruise wasn't at capacity as I appreciated the emptiness of the ship and the ability to always go to the activities I wanted to attend and sit where I wanted to sit at the pool and just the less crowded-ness of the voyage. I don't know if I would have enjoyed the experience as much or have felt as relaxed had the ship been at capacity.

* One nice thing about Disney is that when you would go to have portraits or pictures taken with a Princess or character there was always a "handler" there who was more than willing to use your camera to take pictures for you. This was very nice because the cost to purchase the professional pictures was, in my opinion, outrageous at $20 for each 8x10-inch and $10 for each 6x8-inch photo and packages starting at $85...sorry too rich for my blood.

* I debated on whether or not to bring Maisie's stroller and am so glad that I did as it was one of the smartest things I did. During our days in port, Maisie probably only spent 10-15% of her time in the stroller but when she needed it, it was great to have it. In our ports we walked for miles and miles and Maisie did great but when she was tired I didn't have to carry her, she fell asleep and napped in the stroller and I didn't have to stop to let her rest. The stroller also was great for pushing around the backpack so that I didn't have to carry it the entire time. I can't recommend the stroller I use enough, the Maclaren Volo as it's extremely sturdy and super light-weight and when I needed to carry it I would use the carry-strap and just sling it across me and carry the folded up stroller on my back keeping my hands free.

* Maisie and I really enjoyed getting dressed up each night for dinner and I'm glad that I brought plenty of fancy dresses and Princess wear for Maisie. If you've read all the posts and seen all the pictures, you've seen that Maisie was happy to be a Princess all the time and often wore dress-up clothes during the day and just loved it.

* Other than a couple of pairs of panties and some socks, we ended up wearing every item of clothing that I brought along. There was of course laundry service on the ship as well as self-service laundry facilities but I heard from a number of people that there were often long wait times for do-it-yourself use. I brought along a Tide-to-Go so if I got a little stain on something I would use it, rinse the item in our sink and hang it to dry. We had enough clothes so that I didn't need to do laundry whilst on-board.

* Another item that I just love and is great for travel are the One Natural shampoo and conditioner bars. They work wonderfully and since they're neither a liquid nor a gel they don't have to go in your one-quart bag when passing through airport security.

* I just loved all the sea days and the transatlantic experience but if I do it again would probably prefer to do a westbound cruise so that instead of losing an hour each of six nights, I could gain those hours and get some extra sleep!

* Eammon wouldn't have fared well on the cruise as we either had rough seas or that imperceptible movement, both of which cause him to feel quite ill. From people who had done a transatlantic cruise before I heard that the high seas that we experienced were calm compared to what they experienced on their previous sails. Maisie and I both enjoyed the rough seas and found it comforting to be rocked to sleep at night by the movement of the ship.

* I thought that after 14-nights of all things Disney I would be Disney'd out but it really wasn't that way and I have to say that I could escape the Disney mania when needed.

* My one real regret of the cruise is that we didn't have enough time in each of our ports and of the ports we visited, I really want to return to Gibraltar and Barcelona.

Final pictures:

Colin & Maisie being great little travelers playing their games and waiting to check in at the airport in Barcelona.

In the Sala VIP Miró Lounge awaiting our flight.

Maisie and Colin working off some energy before our flight, running back and forth along one of the moving sidewalks.

Now, as Porky would say... Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-... That's all, folks!
(Yes I know Porky is Warner Bros but if he could close Touchstone Pictures (Disney) Who Framed Roger Rabbit, he can close this post too.)

Port of Call ~ Barcelona

Our wonderful trip was sadly coming to an end with our final port being Barcelona. In contrast to Gibraltar, Cádiz and even Funchal, Barcelona is a huge city and not even a week there would be enough to even scratch the surface of what the city has to offer. The old, the new, the sites, the sounds, the food, the history, the people...just so much to experience and see I MUST return some day.

Our ride around the city. Barcelona is so big that I knew we wouldn't be able to see much of the city on foot but the Disney tours didn't really suit our needs so before we traveled I had book a Trixi Tour as I thought it would be a fun way to get around and Maisie would enjoy the experience. We had a wonderful guide who peddled us all though the city whilst giving us running commentary about all the sites. The tour that we took was 2.5 hours long which ended up being a bit much for Maisie but she happily put her head in my lap and slept for about the last hour of the tour and she must have been tired as she managed to sleep through all the bumps and bouncing around.

The Trixi tour was a wonderful way to see the city and I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting a fun, interesting, educational and different tour of Barcelona.

Our tour started in the Gothic Quarter at the Plaça de la Catedral directly in front of the Catedral. In the Gothic quarter we also saw the Plaça de Sant Jaume & Plaça de Sant Felip Neri. We saw some of Gaudi's buildings including La Sagrada Familia, Casa Batlló & Casa Milà or La Pedrera. We also visited the El Raval, the Born, beautiful Port Vell & Barceloneta.

Palau de la Música Catalana was a beautiful building architecturally and with the stained glass and mosaics, just breathtaking.

Arc de Triomf at the entrance to Parc de la Ciutadell was built for the 1888 Universal Exposition.

The park area behind the Arc de Triomf

  One of the beautiful street lights in Parc de la Ciutadell.

El Monumental, the bull-fighting arena.

La Sagrada Familia is one of Gaudi's most famous works in Barcelona. It's a giant temple that has been under construction since 1882 and it's not expected to be completed for at least another 20 years.

Maisie at Sagrada Familia.

A lot of controversy surrounds the building of the Sagrada Familia. Many feel that the new construction materials which are being use, Gaudi himself would not have used.

This is the bottom backside of La Sagrada Familia.

The top backside of La Sagrada Familia.

  Casa Batlló on Passeig de Gracia. The building was designed by Gaudi for Josep Batlló, a wealthy aristocrat, as an upmarket home. The Batlló family lived in the lower two floors and rented out the upper floor apartments.

From the outside the façade of Casa Batlló looks like it has been made from skulls and bones. The "Skulls" are in the balconies and the "bones" are supporting pillars.

Another view and such a mix of architectural styles on one street.

Another Gaudi building, Casa Milà.

For Eammon and I, the best part of the entire adoption process was of course Maisie but another wonderful thing that happened is that we now have friends all over the world. Fina and I have been corresponding since we each received our referral for WanZhou girls back in November 2006. We had hoped and thought that we may have been able to meet in China but Fina traveled to get her April a week after we met Maisie so we never met. Over the past 3.5 years Fina and I have stayed in contact via email and when I realized that Maisie and I would be visiting Barcelona emails started flying and Fina and I set up a time to meet. The day that Maisie and I were in Barcelona was Diada de Sant Jordi, and Fina was already committed to working the entire day but that didn't stop us from at least meeting. Unfortunately due of our time constraints and schedule, we weren't able to also meet her husband or daughter April. Fina and I had a nice little visit and thankfully one of her fellow workers spoke some English as my Spanish is limited to "Dora" Spanish and Catalan, forget-about-it and Fina doesn't speak English. We in the end managed just fine but I will say that I'm thankful for translation software so that at least over the internet communication is easy.

Maisie and I were so busy touring around, walking Las Ramblas and taking in the sites that we had gone the entire day without eating and when Maisie said that she was hungry I just happened to see a gelateria and though I don't speak Spanish I had no difficulty picking out a wonderful, fabulous, darn near org@smic dark chocolate with orange gelato that I have been dreaming about ever since...oh yeah Maisie liked it too. It was so rich and wonderful that Maisie and I shared a small cone and I had tears in my eyes when together we couldn't finish it and had to throw some of it away.

We had a wonderful but oh-too-short day in Barcelona but it was time to head back to the ship to pack and enjoy our last dinner & last on-board show and for Maisie's last night to be a Princess, at least on the ship.

Maisie still in her Princess dress from dinner with her final towel animal from Aldo.

Port of Call ~ Gibraltar

I LOVED Gibraltar and really hope to make it back one day soon. Though Gibraltar is relatively small, there was so much there to see that I could have spent an entire week and still not have seen as much as I wanted. It was so cool to stand on the rock and look out over the Mediterranean sea and the Strait of Gibraltar and to see both Europe (Spain) and Africa (Morocco). All I kept thinking was, that the views in every direction were just breathtaking. Once again we chose not to do a tour so it was another day of walking, walking and more walking and even though we took the cable car to the top of the rock and back down, walking the rock it's self included long distances and major treks up and down the hills. Walking the rock was beautiful but because of the distances and time constraints, this is the one place where it probably would have been better to do a rock tour as the vans take you from site to site so you're able to see much more.

On our walk from the ship to the cable car and back again, we passed the Trafalgar Cemetery and Eammon is a huge Nelson and Trafalgar buff so the above three pictures are for him.

Riding up to the top of the Rock in the cable car and looking down to the Alameda car park and the cable car bottom terminal station. Once again the cable car ride was a huge hit with Maisie...no fear of heights in my little girl!

View from the bottom terminal station looking up to the middle station.

As soon as we stepped off the cable car there were Barbary Apes everywhere and this little one was so cute!

The Barbary Apes are actually tail-less monkeys and they are the only free-roaming monkeys in Europe. The monkeys are native to North Africa and their presence in Gibraltar is said to date to the early days of the British garrison when it is presumed that they were imported as pets or maybe even game but they inevitably found the rough limestone cliffs and scrub vegetation a congenial habitat.

Many legends have grown up around the Apes. One is that they travelled from their native Morocco via a subterranean tunnel starting at St. Michael's Cave leading down and underneath the strait. The fact is that the apes are firmly established on the Rock, another legend claims that should the apes ever disappear, the British will leave Gibraltar.

It is illegal to feed the monkeys and it carries a maximum fine of £500. This one nicked this treat from an unsuspecting woman who ventured too close to the snack bar door and the monkey just jumped across her, grabbed the treat from her hand, sat down, unwrapped it and feasted. Scared the you-know-what out of the woman!!

View from the top of the Rock looking north to La Linea to inland Spain.

Looking across Gibraltar town to the Bay of Gibraltar. The Disney Magic docked and the huge and beautiful Ventura just arriving, ready to dock.

Looking down the eastern side of the Rock.
  An alternative to the cable car are these steps leading all the way back down to sea level. A nice option but I think not!!

We encountered monkeys everywhere on the Rock and they have absolutely no fear of people and were even happy to pose for pictures!

At the entrance to St. Michael's Cave.

Stalagmites and stalactites.

The concert hall inside the cave. See Maisie way up on the left.

Maisie and I in the concert hall. I can just imagine the acoustics in there, it would have been fun to hear a concert.

Maisie and I with the Strait of Gibraltar behind us. The land to the right of us in the picture is Spain and behind our heads and to the left, lost mostly in the fog, is Morocco.

Maisie and I along one of the paths with the view looking north. See that fort at the top of the picture, yep we were making our way back up to there to catch the cable car back down the Rock.

After our time on the Rock Maisie was tired as she had walked most of our time up there so she settled herself in the stroller and promptly fell asleep. I was thrilled that she was out as it allowed me some time to wander in and out of the shops and do some shopping. Maisie slept for about 1.5 hours and then when she awoke she was hungry so I bought us each a samosa which we ate as we continued to make our way back to the ship but then we passed an ice cream place and just had to stop so we shared an ice cream then headed back to the ship.

Since Maisie had napped in the stroller she was ready to go and when she realized that Belle and Tiana were in the lobby she wanted to hurry and put on her Princess wear and get pictures so that's what we did.

Maisie couldn't get enough of Belle and surprisingly wasn't afraid of the Beast.

Maisie roped me into the picture again. I didn't realize that I had dressed to match Belle.

Two beautiful Princesses.

Yep, dragged into the picture again.

Maisie being silly behind the Mickey statue outside Lumiere's Restaurant.

On deck waiting for the ship to leave Gibraltar.

Molly came to see the ship leave too and found Maisie on deck.

Two cutie-patooties.

Port of Call ~ Cádiz

After our day in Funchal and another (thankfully our last) night of turning our clocks forward an hour, we enjoyed a "down" day at sea followed by our next port of call, Cádiz. Cádiz is a very historic city and is quite small so I planned to do a walking tour just taking in the sites with one place of interest which I wanted to go into, the Torre Tavira Camera Obscura.

Cádiz is a lovely walking city and it's made extra easy in that there are different walking tours depending on your interests and all you need to do is follow the correct colored lines on the pavement and sidewalks so you're never lost. The city has absolutely lovely narrow streets, wonderful shopping areas and a beautiful covered food market area.

The Plaza de España was close to the port and it's dominated by the Monument to the Constitution of 1812.

Maisie in front of part of the lower portion of the monument.

El Arco de la Rosa (The Rose Arch) is the old gate carved into the walls of medieval Cádiz next to the cathedral. The walls and the gate were built during the reign of Alfonso X. The gate is named after Captain Gaspar de la Rosa, who lived in the City in the 18th Century.

The Cathedral in Plaza de la Catedral. This is one of Cádiz's most famous landmarks and it sits on the site of an older cathedral which was completed in 1260 but then burned down in 1596. The reconstruction was not started until 1776 and was supervised by the architect Vicente Acero who ended up leaving the project and was succeeded by several other architects so as a result, the largely baroque-style cathedral was built over a period of 116 years and due to the drawn-out period of construction, the cathedral underwent several major changes to its original design. The cathedral was originally intended to be a baroque edifice, it contains rococo elements, and was finally completed in the neoclassical style.

Three views from the observation deck of the Torre Tavira.

Ayuntamiento ~ City Hall

Just a lovely tree in a little city square.

I loved walking through the beautiful narrow streets.

Especially the empty ones!

Once again, previously posted pictures of Maisie and how we ended our day in Cádiz.

Maisie sound asleep again at dinner. She slept for about 40 minutes but did end up eating a good meal.

Maisie before bedtime with her animal towel.

Next post, Port of Call ~ Gibraltar.