Disney Magic - my 1st cruise

My local port is Dover for Disney and Southampton for a lot of other cruise lines. DS and I didn't like the look of any of the Dover sailings so we are flying to Barcelona and will add a couple of days on each side as it's a beautiful city that we've only seen once.

Don't tell DS but I may even be persuaded to hit up Disneyland Paris.... (Our disney home)

Eeeeeekkkkkk 97 days until Barcelona and 99 until the cruise

Plans are starting to come together:
Fish extender list has been sent out - 10 families per group, I've ordered some gifts and started to plan out the rest.
Hotels are booked (2 nights before and after)
Flights are booked
Guidebooks purchased
1 excursion booked
Other excursions planned ready for online check in day
Our group is having wristbands made - placed order
Mixology class booking in progress

next milestone for this is online check in day.....

Still need to finish of FE
Look into resturants, or decide to wing it

Aww Tigger thank you I am keeping my fingers crossed that they still have space on that cruise when I'm on board, I hear the next booking discount is great. There are already Facebook groups for those cruises.

It's been such a long time since we booked this, double digits feels great. This is our 1st cruise, my Mum has not long been back from her 1st one and she loved it (it was not Disney though )

Ooohh 3 workdays left and 3 sleeps until we go to the airport (the night before)

Tomorrows job is hitting up the local fancy dress shop for a few pirate bits. And the washing machine goes on for the last time tomorrow. Then it's the last few bits to pack and we are all set to go

And....

My new job has made it possible to book a new trip, I was aiming at NY cruise, then thought of the next place on my bucket list (Las Vegas) but in the planning I've found a tour that does, LA, San Francisco, Las Vegas, monument valley, Grand Canyon, mamouth lakes, Yosemite and several other stops along route. A great bonus is that my Mum wants to come too so we are going for it in March. It's great because I will have planning waiting for me when I get back.

Here is our Fish extender - thanks to Mum for the applique (I love sewing but hate applique)

I'm home, in fact I've been home for over a week. I have had a serious case of cruise blues. I have decided not to write a trip report as I have an overflowing memory box and a huge array of photos to document my time but not many notes. I thought though I would capture my highs and lows as a reminder

Highs:
- my biggest high and a bucket list item... I climbed to the top of a volcano! I have so many pictures, for me I love the history of volcanoes and with my legs getting to the top was a real challenge, at 1 point I nearly didn't make it, thanks to Constanza and Tim and my Tim for helping me get there, I still get emotional knowing that I did it I was rewarded with stunning views of Capri, Sorrento and Naples.
- meeting so many fab people - shout out to Ray, Brianne, Linda, Shelley, Julie and Paula. I can honestly say that I loved spending time with all of them, and others
- fletcher and his mixology classes, I can highly recommend the martini tasting, however it does make the boat 'move' a lot!
- Pisa and Rome more places on my wish list, and another climbing challenge to get to the top of Pisa, again I did it and was well rewarded, in Rome I know now that I need to spend another 4-5 days exploring as there was no way of seeing everything. And the Pope was home so It was super packed.
- cruise life in general, I really enjoyed the excitement of a new adventure everyday, there was so much I did not get to do onboard as we were just so busy.
- a random high, I managed to come back the same weight as I left! This was no mean feet - the food was amazing. I loved the variety but my heart goes out to Animators palate.
- fish extenders - as much fun as I had hoped, would definitely do it again.

Lows:
There was only 1 low. As the Magic was going into dry dock straight after we got off, a lot of things, including most of the top deck got shut down very early (7pm) on our last night. You could still go up there but the chairs had gone and the basketball court was shut. It just felt like we lost our last full night a bit.

I am looking forward to doing another Disney cruise at some point, but this trip has really started my travel bug. I have a new countdown but it's not a Disney one... There will be some Disney in my next trip (soda fountain, El capitain and Grumans and possibly DTD in California) I think I want to wait for WDW and see what happens with the studios, and 2017 might be another cruise, or maybe Disneyland.... Still planning hahaha

Thanks Alicemouse,

It's funny my Mum is hooked on Northern Europe and I'm hooked on Spain/ France, so I understand your choices. As a whole our family feel the same about US travel - we have barely scratched the surface of our little island and still have so much to see.

I've set myself a goal of 1 new destination per year. 2014 was WDW, 2015 was Rome/Naples/ Pisa, 2016 is LA/ Vegas/ San Francisco,
I am looking forward to visiting the west coast even if it is as a means to go back. As for cruising we loved it and are debating Greece as our next Ship holiday.

Good luck with getting to Europe, some places are just stunning.