Just Returned - Pullmantur Sovereign

Just returned from our first Pullmantur cruise. Departed from Barcelona. Ports: Ajeccio, Corsica; Civitavecchia, Italy (Rome); Tunis, Tunisia.

Overall Impression: Enjoyed every minute. Would cruise again with Pullmantur. Spaniard's are a lively bunch and party later. That's their vacation culture. It never bothered us. Ship very clean. Quality of service comparable to Celebrity in my opinion. You can't beat the Pullmantur pricing.

Cabin: 7038, outside obstructed view. Large window with nice view. Queen size bed. Plenty of storage and hangers in closet. Average, cruise ship bathroom. Cabin steward was excellent.

Food: Good to Very good. We are not buffet people, but surprisingly we ate dinner there three of the five nights. Very nice evening atmosphere. Walk through the first buffet area to the back. Enjoyed The Grill for lunch on deck 12. Hamburgers were excellent, not the usual, cruise-fare hockey pucks.

All-inclusive: Very nice wine and draft beer. Cava (Spanish champagne) was excellent. Good brands of gin, scotch included. Was lovely to not be signing little slips of paper for every espresso, soda or adult beverage. Only items listed on our final statement were tips and the excursions. What a joy !

English-speaking passengers: We met the nicest group of people ever encountered on all of our cruises. Three Canadian couples and a couple from Houston, TX. We were seated at dinner with our Houston friends - table for four. Early dinner is 7:30. Snacking in the late afternoon at the Grill got us through. All announcements were in English and Spanish. Never felt uncomfortable being onboard. Every crew member we encountered spoke English to some extent.

Excursions: Booked onboard. Was hard to imagine doing this based on our experience with US based cruise ships, but it worked fine with Pullmantur. One excursion per port is provided by an English-speaking guide. We took the Eternal and Imperial Rome tour through the ship. Excellent guide. Very full day, learned so much. Had time to enjoy a nice lunch with glass of wine on a side street near the Trevi and a visit a gelato store for dessert. Rode camel at the port in Tunis and visited the "village" constructed near the port. Paid five euros each for the camel ride, having the gentleman take pictures with our camera was included. Confirm what's included before you saddle-up. :-) Ajeccio is a great walking town. We wandered through the farmer's market, found Napoleon's family home, and highly recommend riding the "Le Petit Train" located outside the port exit. Cost was seven euro and worth it.

Additional Info: We spent four nights in Barcelona -- two at El Jardi in Bari Gotic and two at Violeta Hostal in Eixample. Both were terrific and I will be posting reviews on Tripadvisor. Also booked a Wine and Cava tour through Bus Touristic that was excellent.

My parents were supposed to board the ship Saturday but apparently the Sovereign has lost a engine and the next two cruises have been cancelled. They are stuck in Spain!!

Newspapers in Europe are reporting that the former Royal Caribbean Sovereign of the Seas suffered an engine failure on one of its two main engines on May 10th while sailing from Barcelona to Tunis. It then limped instead to Naples for repairs.

Its current owner/operator, Pullmantur Cruises, attempted to repair the cruise ship in Naples but the repair pair attempts were unsuccessful. The ship was re-positioned to Civitavecchia and the cruise was cancelled.

The plans are now to undergo repairs at a shipyard in Marseille in the hope that it will be able to cruise under full power at the end of May.

After leaving the Royal Caribbean fleet, the cruise ship was re-named the Sovereign and it underwent a new, blue paint job of its hull.

According to one news account, the cruise line company said it regretted "deeply" the interruption of the cruise, thanking passengers for "patience and collaboration." It said that it will return the fare for the cruise, and reimburse passenger expenses related to the problem with the ship. It also offered a 60% discount on the purchase of another Pullmantur cruise.

The Sovereign is a relatively old cruise ship, having been delivered in 1988.

Update: A reader of our Facebook page stated:

"It has four main engines. Made by Pielstick 9PC 20L and they are a piece of **** engines. Only made 13 totally of them for Sovereign,Majesty and Monarch of the seas.... One of them on Sovereign had a major breakdown many years ago and they got the 13th engine that was a test engine installed in replacement.

They have never been good engines. They run on heavy fuel, mounted on rubber 2+2 on the same gear and they delivered a lot less power then they where supposed to on test run. No problem Piel**** said and mounted a lot bigget turbo chargers on them to boost the power up. And that worked,, but that made them run hotter and we changed exhaust valves on them all the time. So the French guys should stick to eating snails and crock monsieurs and leave the engine building to the Germans."

My parents were supposed to board the ship Saturday but apparently the Sovereign has lost a engine and the next two cruises have been cancelled. They are stuck in Spain!!

We were supposed to be on the May 17th sailing and left 3 days early for Barcelona. We did not have a cellphone and saw the email which was sent out Wednesday May 14th on Friday morning the day before the trip. It was only sent out in Spanish and I had to have someone interpret.:(

We, my wife and 2 daughters spent next 15 hours panicked and making other plans. Our room had to be vacated the next morning. We had not purchased any insurance. Pullmantur says they will reimburse 125% of our cruise but the cost of the cruise was way less than the airfares. We got a flight to Rome the next morning and stayed on the outskirts of rome for 6 nights. We got to see Rome but this was more expensive and highly stressful, not the relaxing all inclusive we had planned for many months. Our preplanned port adventures now are wasted. I hope Pullmantur will step up and help more. We came back 2 days earlier than planned and we are all glad to be home.

I guess we were better off than the people stranded on the previous sailing.

Can anyone else advice if they got more assistance and if they have received their refund. we have not seen our credit yet.

My college age daughter and her dad were on the May 8 sailing. Nothing went right. As stated above, the cruise skipped Tunisa, limped into Naples then barely made it to Rome. People were kept on the ship all day, finally being told that they were all going to be flown back to Barcelona. Not happening. I told my gang to get off the ship and on the train to Rome. By the time they arrived in Rome, I'd booked a great place five minutes from the Vatican (AirBnB). They spent a few fun days in Rome before heading back to Barcelona. No refund yet from Pullmantur, but they wasted NO time in charging the gratuities for the 3 days they were on the ship.

What a Mess! We were suppose to be on this ship on May 17th from Barcelona too. We found out the morning before we were to leave on our trip the 14th of May. Instead of packing I called and cancelled the excursions that I booked, was refunded for most of them. Since I had one day to figure out what we were going to do I called RCI our time share exchange and ask if they had anything in the area for that week. We were meeting another cruise (Aida blu) in Palma Mallorca after this one. We were lucky enough to get a time share on the island of Palma. Pullmantur was not helpful. We were told we would get a refund of 125% but it could take a month or so, we called our credit card co. and were refunded on the spot instead of waiting for Pullmantur. This was a trip for my husbands and my 20 year Anniversary, I have always wanted to go to Italy maybe another year.

BTraveling47 you wouldn't happen to have a blog or website with pictures from this cruise? My fiance and I are considering doing this for our honeymoon in late June of this year. She can speak some Spanish, but is no longer fluent in it like she used to be. I'm sure she knows enough to at least get us from point A to point B though. Let me know if there is anyway I can view pictures of this trip or reader a more in depth review..

Thanks!

Adam

Thank you for your review. We are booked on this ship for May 4th and wondering if any one else who frequents CC is. Information is hard to come by. The Travel agent also told me they have discontinued the all inclusive. That was a little disappointing since the port fees and taxes were almost the price of the cruise, but it is still a bargain.

Dated ship.... Good food... Clean .... Great ports .... Fantastic service

Have fun

AJ

Thank you for your review. We are booked on this ship for May 4th and wondering if any one else who frequents CC is. Information is hard to come by. The Travel agent also told me they have discontinued the all inclusive. That was a little disappointing since the port fees and taxes were almost the price of the cruise, but it is still a bargain.

I'm going on the Med cruise, May 30.

There are many mixed reviews on Spanish cruise websites, but for the price, even as a single, it can't be beaten.

First cruise, very excited!

Thank you for your review. With so little info around, it is good that you took the time to write. We will be on the Transatlantic in November 2015.

We had not purchased any insurance. Pullmantur says they will reimburse 125% of our cruise but the cost of the cruise was way less than the airfares.

I am not a great advocate of insurance generally but making independant travel plans to another continent without any insurance does appear foolhardy. My latest annual travel insurance was less than £20. It is not a great expense for the reassurance and backup it brings in cases like this.