Let’s Focus On the Mediterranean

Since many of you are hoping for a Disney Magic® Mediterranean sailing in 2013, I thought today I would talk about some of the ports in the Mediterranean and explore possible options.  While none of the information we and others have found for the 2013 itineraries has been confirmed by Disney just yet, putting the information together gives us at least a partial picture of what could be.

If the Disney Magic continues sailings out of Galveston in 2013, which we do anticipate based on the port schedule at Grand Cayman, this will add at least another day to a Transatlantic sailing, which would be why we are not seeing enough of a gap between Madeira and Gibraltar to add a stop at Cadiz like she has done in the past.

Next comes the question of a home port.  Based on the surveys from Disney Cruise Line recently, this could either be Barcelona or Civitavecchia (Rome).  With a home port of Civitavecchia, we would expect alternating 7 night Mediterranean sailings from the West to the East.  However, the port schedule for Villefranche doesn’t seem to support this.  With a home port of Barcelona, we could see Western Mediterranean sailings, but we could also see a long cruise with both Western and Eastern Mediterranean ports.  Still this doesn’t quite support what we are seeing at Villefranche.  It’s possible that there will be a variety of different itineraries and the port schedule definitely supports this.  August definitely has the appearance of seven night sailings while July has some evidence of 12 night sailings.  Hopefully, this will all become clearer soon.

So lets assume that the sailings, whether originating from Barcelona or Civitavecchia, will include stops in both the Western and Eastern Mediterranean.  Where could the ship stop?  Here are some of the ideas, based on Disney Cruise Line’s surveys and other ship’s itineraries in the area.

• Venice, Italy
• Palma de Mallorca, Spain
• Santorini, Greece
• Athens, Greece
• Ephesus, Turkey
• Marseille, France
• Genoa, Italy
• Sardinia, Italy
• Kusadasi, Turkey
• Crete
• Messina, Italy
• Heraklion, Greece
• Naples, Italy
• Dubrovnik, Croatia
• Piraeus, Greece
• Izmir, Turkey
• Istanbul, Turkey
• Mykonos, Greece
• Argostolion, Greece
• Kotor, Serbia and Montenegro
• Carthage, Tunisia
• Ibiza, Spain

Please join in the discussion here or on our Facebook Page about where you would like to go!