8 Night Disney Magic Mediterranean Cruise – The Start of Our Adventure and Travel Day
This June, my husband and I took the trip that we had been dreaming of since we started dating. We went on a Mediterranean cruise! Being the Disney-loving couple we are, we were so excited to cruise on the Disney Magic for their 8-night Mediterranean sailing beginning and ending in Rome, Italy (the port of Civitavecchia to be exact).
We discussed going to Europe for our honeymoon last year, but ultimately decided to do a more relaxed trip since we would be leaving right after our wedding. We got married on June 1, 2018 and went on our honeymoon to Disney World and then to Jamaica to stay at Sandals Montego Bay. It was a wonderful and relaxing honeymoon (exactly what we needed after the wedding), but we were extremely psyched to finally go to the Mediterranean for our anniversary trip this year!
Norwegian Airlines recently started offering nonstop flights between Boston and Rome, so we took advantage of that and booked our round-trip flights to arrive two days before the cruise embarked and depart two days after the cruise.
{The Disney Cruise Line iPhone app gives a fun countdown for your cruise!}
Norwegian offers several ticket tiers within the Economy class, and we selected their LowFare+ option so that we could choose seats, each bring a checked bag, and have a meal during the flight.
On the day of departure, we got to the airport about 2 hours before our boarding time. Check-in and bag drop were very easy, but then we got to security…
The line was so long! We were not too surprised by this since we were leaving out of the international terminal and it is always super busy, but it definitely helped that we gave ourselves more than enough time to get to our gate before departure so we were not panicking about missing our flight.
Once we got past security, we found our gate and settled in to wait for our boarding group to be called. We try to sit near a restroom and water bottle fill station if possible, and thankfully our gate was right next to one! I always travel with a reusable water bottle in my carry-on now and honestly it is a game changer. I make sure it is empty when I carry it through security, and then just fill it at a water fountain or water bottle fill station before I get on the plane. It’s a great way to stay hydrated during the flight and it’s better for the environment!
We met the nicest flight attendant while we were sitting at our gate and had a great conversation with her about travelling. She works for JetBlue (we LOVE JetBlue!) and had a few hours break between flights, so we started talking and ended up asking her where her favorite place to travel is. She said Ireland! We definitely want to plan a trip there soon, and she had some great recommendations for us on where to stay and what to do there.
We were one of the last people to board our flight since we had assigned seats and didn’t need any overhead space (we just carried on backpacks that could fit under our seats since we each checked a bag). The seats were standard economy in terms of width and amount of legroom, and they each had a touchscreen display in the back of the headrest.
We had a smooth takeoff and I was able to watch one movie on the in-flight entertainment before dinner service started. The entrée choice was chicken or veggies and came with a side salad, bread, and a small chocolate. We also got a choice of several beverages as part of the meal service. Overall the food was edible, but not something we would choose if we were not on an airplane.
Our flight was overnight, so we tried our best to sleep a few hours before we arrived in Rome. I tried something new this flight: I used a cleansing wipe to take my makeup off and then applied a face moisturizer before attempting to sleep. I would definitely do this again for all long-haul flights because it made a huge difference in how my skin felt during and after the flight. Usually the recycled air in the cabin makes my skin feel dry and tight but adding that extra barrier of moisturizer really helped to protect my face! I felt so great afterwards and just ended up cleaning off the moisturizer and reapplying my makeup in the morning when we landed in Rome.
Thanks for reading about our Travel Day to Rome! Head over to Day 1 of our Mediterranean Disney cruise where we talk about getting to the port of Civitavecchia and embarkation!
