Our Disney Cruise Part 2: Port Adventures

In case you missed Part 1 of our Disney Cruise review, click here to see all about the ship and the cruise itself.  Today, I’m sharing more details of the Ports of Call from our 7-day Mediterranean cruise and what we loved most!

I mentioned in Part 1 that one of the main draws that helped us in the decision to do this particular cruise were the ports of call in Italy, which we truly love.  Last year, we spent two weeks on a road trip in Italy (and Switzerland) and if you’d like to read about that, the first post in that series in HERE.  So that trip had a bearing on the adventures we chose, which I will explain later.  Also– when we booked this trip, it included a stop in Monaco/Nice, France, which we were really excited about. However, the cruise itinerary changed due to whale habitats in the path soooo we ended up with a change and added Palermo, Sicily to the course instead.  So future itineraries may be slightly different than  ours, I’m not sure!

After a full day at sea on the Dream, our first port stop was Palermo and we were excited as this was our first time to Sicily.  We had booked a half day tour through Disney Port Adventures, which included a short bus ride to the city center then a walking tour with a guide to see more.  The main attraction on the walking tour was the Palermo Cathedral which was beautiful.

We also saw a few more architectural highlights as well as a few shopping streets and a 45 minute break to try some gelato or get a snack.

A half day was plenty of time to see some highlights and get an overview of the city.  The weather was perfect (late May) and walking was not hard at all.

Our tour bus took us straight back to the port and we opted for lunch back on the ship rather than venture in to the city.  The bonus was we had our choice of where to relax on the ship as several people were off the boat for the day.  It was a beautiful view of the city!

Our second port of call was Naples/ Pompeii.  There were several choices once again for excursions to book for the day, including touring the ruins of Pompeii. We had a total of about 10 hours off the ship.  Ultimately, we chose to do an excursion to nearby Sorrento, Salerno, and the Amalfi Coast!  This, too, was a new destination for us so we enjoyed it!  The bus ride was around 40 minutes and very comfortable with amazing views as we made our way to our first stop of Sorrento.

Sorrento was one of our favorites of this trip because it was so picturesque with gorgeous colors to see in the buildings, flowers, and shops.  It’s on the coast so there are gorgeous vantage points to see the water as well.

We had about an hour of free time here to stop into a shop and see demonstrations of how they make the inlaid wood pieces this area is famous for, and then we shopped around!

I found these adorable shell and pearl slides and decided they’d be a great souvenir from Sorrento.

We had a nice pasta lunch with our group in a private restaurant (which was included with the tour), and then we headed to Salerno to board a small cruise of the Amalfi Coast.

The cruise was about 30 minutes each way and took us to the pier in Amalfi.

We arrived to find out that Amalfi is a very small town with one main street packed with people that goes up from the square.  There are restaurants, shops, and of course, gelato.  (One funny fact– we have been all over Italy now and realized that this town has the most expensive gelato we’ve ever had in Italy. Ha!)

We thought it was beautiful.  But our honest opinion after seeing more of Italy last year is that we recommend visiting Cinque Terre as an alternative because there is way more to see and do, but the coastline is also more picturesque as well.  Also, having been to Cinque Terre at this exact time last year, the crowd was way larger in Amalfi, so it’s a little harder to get around.

After arriving back in Salerno, we took our bus back to Naples with one last stop at a Cameo factory where we saw this artisan at work.  I learned that these tiny cameo sculptures are made from shells!

We were back on the ship by dinner time and had a great evening resting up for our next adventure.

For the 3rd port of call, we stopped in Civitavacchia, which is the closest port to Rome.  Most people on the ship chose to take an excursion to Rome as it is definitely the most popular stop, and even though we have been twice before, we couldn’t wait to go again!  It was almost two hours by bus each way, and we chose to do the less structured option of the hop-on-hop-off tour once we arrived simply because we knew which highlights we wanted to see again.

It was still early when we arrived, and we had about 6 hours of time to tour once we were in the city. Please note that if this were to be your only time visiting Rome, we recommend getting to the city and booking a private custom tour so you make the most of everything you’d like to see.  This is what we have done both times before and we loved it!  You can read more about our visit to Rome last year HERE.

Some of you will remember that one of the biggest highlights of Rome that I mentioned last year was meeting Marcel in his little art shop we stumbled upon near Piazza Navona. We wanted this to be our first stop again so we could try to see Marcel again, so we made our way there and came to the shop just as he was opening.  We were the first ones there and when he opened the door, he looked at us, his face lit up, and he said– “You’re back!”  It was so touching that he remembered us we all teared up a little.  When I tell you this is the sweetest man, I mean it!  He speaks enough English to share some fun stories about his life and his art is so cute.  I promise you will not regret stopping at the Gran Cafe Marcel to see him if you go to Rome! And tell him we sent you!

From there, we just strolled, shopped, and hit some of our favorite sites!  The Spanish Steps…

Trevi Fountain…

The Pantheon…

And of course a perfect Italian lunch and gelato!

We also had to see the Colosseum once more as well for a few pics.

After that, we made our way back to the coach and back to the port!  Another great time in Rome.

Our 4th and last port stop the next day was in Livorno.  This is the closest port city to Florence and Pisa, so the majority of people chose those excursions.  Because we had been to both of those just last year, and to save time from spending more time on a bus (it’s approximately 1.5 hours each way to Florence), we opted to do the closer excursion to Livorno to see something new.  This was another half-day tour which included a short bus ride and then a walking tour and a short cruise ride through the canals.

Because I always want to give my honest thoughts regarding everything on this blog, I’ll tell you we were all pretty underwhelmed by Livorno unfortunately.  We kept wondering if there would be more to see, but there simply wasn’t much there.

We did see this lovely cathedral and some colorful buildings on the canal ride, but compared to everything else we’ve seen in Italy, we recommend passing on this if you have other things you haven’t seen.  So, for the port of Livorno, we definitely recommend taking the excursion to Florence or maybe Pisa for much more to see.

After the tour, we were back to the ship by lunch and enjoying a great afternoon relaxing!  The next day was a full day at sea, then we were back to Barcelona the following day.

The bottom line is we loved this cruise!  There was so much to do both on the ship and in the ports, and this is a great way to see some main ports of Europe if you prefer to get an overview with tour groups rather than plan a detailed itinerary of these cities on your own.  Obviously, you will get a much more in-depth view and experience by traveling on land and staying a few days at each place as we did last year.  But if you prefer to not have to transport luggage and change locations several times, a cruise is a great way to get that experience! Our girls are already asking to try another Disney cruise to the Bahamas or the Caribbean, possibly sometime in the future!  I hope this gives you a little info if you’re planning a cruise yourself!  Let me know if there are other questions or helpful info to add!