Florida in Europe? Disney (Cruise) and Theme Parks - Trip Report Index

[Sotong]

I started a pre trip a few months ago for my and my daughters upcoming trip to New York and Anthem of the Seas, seeing my plans in print and as a lasting record I thought I would convert my own trip diary for our 2015 holiday into a trip report.
Our 2015 trip was a week at Port Aventura, Barcelona and then a week on Disney Magic in the Mediterranean.

Travelling on this trip are me, Gillian, I work full time in the insurance industry and my daughter Harriet (H) who was 12 at the time of the trip.

In 2014 after an amicable divorce I decided that Harriet and I needed to make some new memories and we booked 2 weeks in Florida, hence finding the DIBB and getting some fantastic advice and help in booking, planning and enjoying a fantastic 2 weeks, part on site at Disney and the other half staying on site at Universal.

Photo in Saana, Animal Kingdom - August 2014

The following year 2015 not being able to justify the cost of Florida again I started to look into replicating some of the experiences with a week at Port Aventura near Barcelona followed with a week on the Disney Magic in the Mediterranean. We've cruised in the past and both love this sort of holiday and are both adrenalin junkies when it comes to theme parks.

Pre Trip – Holiday all booked and paid for via cruise travel agent Iglu including on site accommodation at Port Aventura at the Hotel Caribe, car hire for the first week and a splurge hotel in Barcelona, the Eurostars Grand Marina which overlooks the port so will be able to see the Disney Magic from the hotel window the morning of the cruise and from the roof top pool.

Then in mid July Harriet had an accident on a trampoline and badly dislocated her shoulder, this resulted in surgery to pin it back together under general anaesthetic on Tuesday 4th August, 12 days before we were due to start our holiday.
After a few weeks pre operation of consulting the insurance company and planning how to get to Barcelona by train if H wasn’t allowed to fly, and generally worrying about the operation and whether we would get to go on holiday, the operation was a success and we were given the OK to go on holiday.
Harriet would have a scar that would need to be kept out of the sun and a sling to support the shoulder joint and we decided that the high speed rollercoasters would have to be omitted from the trip! (good excuse to go back one day!).

The Plan (index)

1. Sunday 16 August - Pre Travel Day including some pre trip planning and packing for our ‘Fish Extender’
2. Monday 17 August – Travel Day – arrive at Port Aventura
3. Tuesday 18 August – Port Aventura
4. Wednesday 19 August – Port Aventura
5. Thursday 20 August – Port Aventura
6. Friday 21 August – to Barcelona
7. Saturday 22 August – ‘Disney Magic’ time
8. Sunday 23 August – At Sea, meeting the Frozen characters
9. Monday 24 August – Naples, Italy
10. Tuesday 25 August – Civitavecchia, Italy
11. Wednesday 26 August – Livorno, Italy
12. Thursday 27 August - Villefranche, France
13. Friday 28 August – At Sea
14. Saturday 29 August – Back to Barcelona and flight home


Onwards to Pre Travel Day and working out how to change the above words to links!

Gillian.