Boundless Horizons

This series was originally posted on Disboards, but since it was the inspiration for this blog, I wanted to have a copy here. This was written shortly after we got home from the cruise, while the memories were still fresh!

Pre-Trip Planning

Well, I’ve never written a trip report before, but I love reading them so figured I should contribute! I’ve been updating on my Instagram during the trip, but this lets me do a more in-depth write up.

Background

We’re a party of two adults in our thirties, there’s my husband (Rhys) and me (Louise). We’re from Scotland, and both love Disney. I grew up going to Walt Disney World, while Rhys grew up going to Disneyland Paris – coincidentally both of our first Disney trips were in 1997! We’ve been married for a few years and together we’ve done three WDW trips, one Disneyland Resort (California) trip, and four DLP trips (with another couple planned this year).

We did our first Disney Cruise Line sailing (and first cruise ever) in September 2021, which was a UK Staycation on the Magic. We loved it and wanted to do another, especially since the Staycation cruises were a bit unusual. We booked a placeholder on our first cruise which gave us a 10% discount on a second sailing within two years. We originally booked this cruise on opening day using the placeholder (with very long wait times on hold…), but at New Year they released discounted rates that were a better deal, so we cancelled and rebooked. The discounted rate was a Verandah Guarantee (VGT) rate, which meant DCL would select a room for us but they guaranteed we would have a verandah. For the discount we decided to gamble!

We decided to fly into Barcelona the day before the cruise and stay another night after to enjoy the city, giving us a 9 night trip. We booked our flights and hotels through British Airways Holidays, and the cruise through Dreams Unlimited Travel when we rebooked for the VGT. I usually like to have as much control as possible over my trips so we rarely use travel agents, but I make an exception for cruises! If you have a placeholder discount from a previous cruise, you have to call to book – and those hold times can be really long. By transferring the placeholder to our travel agent, she can do the booking for me at no additional cost to me! She also gives Onboard Credit as a thank you for using her services which is a lovely bonus.

Itinerary

Travel day – May 19 – flying to Barcelona, staying at H10 Port Vell
Day 1 – May 20 – Barcelona (embarkation)
Day 2 – May 21 – Toulon
Day 3 – May 22 – Livorno
Day 4 – May 23 – Civitavecchia
Day 5 – May 24 – Naples
Day 6 – May 25 – Day at Sea
Day 7 – May 26 – Palma
Day 8 – May 27 – Barcelona (debarkation), staying at H10 Urquinaona Plaza
Day 9 – May 28 – Barcelona / fly home

Pre-Trip Prep

When I looked at our travel options, I couldn’t get direct flights for the day before the cruise and we couldn’t travel sooner due to work schedules. I held off until Black Friday and booked through British Airways holidays which worked out as the cheapest combination of flights and hotels. It also let me book flights plus hotels for the 19th and 27th as one package which was convenient.

I’ve always got a spreadsheet for my Disney trips and this was no different. I used two books as my main guides, The Unofficial Guide to Disney Cruise Line, and Rick Steve’s Mediterranean Cruise Ports. Those were great for getting an overall view of the ship and the ports we’d visit. We also found The Dis / DCL Fan content on YouTube really helpful, we watched Craig and Corey’s “two dudes on a cruise” series for our sailing on the Magic and were happy to discover there was a version on the Dream!

We’ve both been to Florence and Pisa (the main destinations from Livorno), I’ve been to Palma, and we agreed we’d rather jump on a cheap flight to Rome and spend a weekend there instead of paying for a tour from Civitavecchia. Our key goal was to enjoy the ship, so we decided to book just one Port Adventure, NP39 Pompeii Half Day – Adult Only Departure.

Booking and check-in windows opened at 5am UK time so those were early starts! As we’d completed one previous sailing, we ‘re Silver Castaway Club members and could book activities 90 days in advance. We were able to get the tour that we wanted, I’d hoped for Remy Dessert but it was only running once so it was sold out by the Silver window. On check-in day, Rhys grabbed a reservation for the Royal Gathering and I did a speed-run through the check-in process to grab an early Port Arrival Time. We managed to get a 12:15 PAT, boarding group 4.

After lots of research, I’d originally selected a Category 7A stateroom, which has a slightly obstructed verandah so it’s cheaper than other rooms. I was really happy with the location so changing to a VGT was a gamble, but it was such a big saving that we decided it was worth it. 11 days out we were assigned 5536, a Category 4E stateroom with a huge extended verandah!

Next up, travel day!