kadey

12 minutes ago, Senga said:

@kadeyHave you joined your cruise Roll Call?  Ours has lots of small group tours for the various ports so you might get lucky.

Yes,  I started the roll call! I love doing pre trip research. I was looking for ideas from people who have been to Gibraltar before and no one from our roll call had.

 I really enjoy the Cruise Critic community and I appreciate that you tried to give me some great  direction! 😀

18 hours ago, Over from NZ said:

This is the best one if you can get a group of 8 - 

 

https://www.rocktoursgibraltar.com/packages/ultimate-tour

 

It's not that expensive - just under Eu$100 each. Gibraltar is amazing. The tour is 7-hours.. so if you've got lots of hours there you can still shop etc. afterwards. The place is small.. so after the excursion.. do the shopping.. have the meal etc.. and then either walk back to the ship or take a short taxi ride. 

Thank you! We did book with them!

Hello! We stop in Gibraltar in September from 7 am to 10 pm. It seems both private tours and ship tours are about 2-3 hours long.  The often include 3 activities. 
 The ship is excursions are pricey but not crazy. The private tour prices for two hours are crazy!!

Please tell me about your experiences n Gibraltar! Is it easy to find taxis and get around on your own?   Is shopping and cafes located at the bottom if the rock or is old town a separate ? We have a lot of hours in Gibraltar to fill!  Thank you for any advice or suggestions.

Hi! We are coming in on  the afternoon the day before the cruise. We wont have that much time to explore Bilboa. I liked the  idea of the cafes, restaurants, and shopping all be outside our hotel. From the info on the internet it seemed the Old Town was the best spot for us!  What did you do in Bilboa that you'd suggest doing if you only had 24 hours? 

Bilboa🤭 thank you

Hello! We have overnight in Bilbao before our September cruise . Any suggestions for a hotel in the heart of Old Town? Open to all suggestions! TY!

Ugh!!! Milan!

thank you for pointing out my mistake!! 

I would like to keep in  under $300 a night. I'm hoping that I might find a good  deal since it will be the middle of January. 

Hello! So nice to be getting back to traveling and so fun to return to Cruise Critic! We have a chance to be in Malon this January. We are looking for a hotel that is close to the Duomo. I am hoping to find a nice hotel but not outrageously expensive. Location is important. Thanks in advance for any help! So happy to start traveling again!!

Thanks for doing this! We have been on MSC i,n the Med , twice before on the Divinia and Fantastica,two beautiful ships. I'm concerned that the Musica is older and won't be as nice. How is the condition of the ship? A frustration with the Divinia and Fantasia was that after touring all day we are tired and hungry.After getting back on board after 4:30 we constantly found that the only option open was pizza! Day after day…..! Is there any place on the MUsica open for a snap after the buffet closes at 4:30? Silly stuff,but curious! How are the pools? How has your food been and the service?

Thank you again for answering these and others questions. We all agree that there is little info on the Musica and I think we all really appreciate you doing this while on vacation!! Have a wonderful time!!-Kade

Last year I saw a contest on the top of CC and for the first time filled in my info.. We won an a french river cruise that included airfare and transports! It was an amazing prize and a really great trip!!

A rep from Carnival is saying we can't do this! However, he said that he would look into this further to make sure then get back to us.

THank you for all your responses!

Don't put too much faith in the word of a cruise line rep., "no" is always the easy answer but not always the right one. ;)

 

Certainly its done elsewhere in Europe.

And Marseilles is an international port so there'll be immigration & customs staff.

 

But as others have said, you will need permission from Carnival - and best to get that in writing ie by e-mail & print it off.

 

If they don't give you permission I guess the evening before Marseilles you could get drunk, walk up to the captain, grab him by his wedding vegetables, and say "who's a big boy, then". :p

You will then find that not only will they allow you off at Marseilles, they will insist. And they'll help by throwing your luggage out of your cabin and onto the quayside.

Do let us know how it works out if you do that. :D

 

JB :)

You have a year to figure it out. Why not ask the cruise line rather than on here?

We are doing a cruise next year from Barcelona to Barcelona. The port before our return to Barcelona is Marseilles. We would like to disembark there instead of returning to Barcelona and fly home from Marseilles. I know that I couldn't do this when the cruise starts and ends from a US port (Jones act?). When I asked the cruise rep.,she said your not supposed to do this but none would stop us from getting off with our luggage.

Has anyone done this on a Med . cruise? Did you inform the cruise line before getting off? I've seen this on MSC and Costa on Med cruises in the past .We will be on Carnival for this cruise. I am afraid to book our flight home from Marseilles and then not be allowed to disembark!

TIA for any information!

Thank you again for your response! I don't know why I feel so nervous about this port! I really appreciate the time you took to give details about your past visits here. We are not scheduled to do this trip till next year but it's the one port that has me a bit hesitant and fascinated with at the same time.

We are looking at a MSC cruise with this stop too.Please let us know what you decided to do and how it went! DH and I would like to do the ship sponsored trip to Marrakech. We do have concerns about the safety of the travel there and some of the reviews were not good. The one review that sticks out was a few years old and hopefully things have changed. The reviewer felt it was a day of visiting places where you were forced to listen to long sale talks (i.e. carpets) and barely anytime to enjoy the sights and marketplace. I see your post is from May. Have you done this trip yet or is it still upcoming? Curious about the other ports!

Hi Kade. Obviously not knowing your interests, 'attention tolerance', or activity levels, this is not a suggestion, only statements and opinions from our experiences:-)

Casablanca: the Mosque is the most beautiful in Morocco; the old Medina is interesting and fun; and most people have to go to "Rick's" bar of movie fame,(Humphrey Bogart) just to say they've been there.

 

Marrakech: This is a very interesting city, busy and colorful. More what tourists are looking for in Morocco. BUT it is a 3 hour bus ride(if you don't run into issues(which normally you do). The trip there is beautiful scenery, but coming back, it is the same scenery and it will probably be dark.

 

Hope this helps in making a decision. We felt we HAD to see Marrakech the first time we were there, but the next time, we stayed in Casablanca. It was fine both times:)

Thank you for the response! We are pretty adventurous travelers. While doing my research I have found a few comments mentioning safety. Did you have any safety concerns in either Casablanca or Marrakech or while traveling from each place?

We are looking at a cruise that stops in Casablanca. There is an excursion to Marrakech. How safe is it in Casablanca and traveling through Morocco? I've read there's not a lot to do or see in Casablanca . I'm concerned about the three hour (each way) excursion to Marrakech. Can anyone share their insight or experience? It's a long port day from early morning to 10pm. Thanks-Kade

Thank you for the responses!

I had wanted to do the ship excursion to Muir Woods and Sausalito . The time we had wanted is now sold out! Are their local companies around the port or the commercial piers offering these excursions? Most of the companies online leave before our ship arrives. TIA

We were scheduled to be on Carnival Sunshine for its inaugural cruise from Venice to Barcelona that was cancelled (the ship wasn't ready). We quickly found another cruise that was Barcelona to Venice on another cruise line. Carnival paid the difference for us to change our flights. We were given 25% off any other Carnival cruise within the year and of course a full refund for the cancelled cruise. The cruise was cancelled 3 weeks prior to departure.

We just did "deal of the day" on Priceline. You don't get to pick your hotel but you can pick the area you want. I picked market/waterfront area. Last time we had a great hotel by the market. This trip we are at the Edgewater. It's on the waterfront and 10 mins walking to Pikes Place Market. It's about a 5 minute taxi/uber to the port. I just did this two days ago and got a 4 star hotel under $200 (before taxes)

We are scheduled to leave this Thursday with a change of planes at Heathrow Friday morning. Early afternoon on Friday (June 3) we are scheduled leave heathrow and fly into Marseilles and meet our ship. I see there a quite a few scheduled strikes set for France next week. Air traffic in France is supposed to strike from June3-5. Has anyone experienced this interfering with getting to the ship? We will be on Vantage (our flights booked through them) and I imagine this will effect a lot of the passengers. Can anyone share their experience .. Was your flight rerouted to still get you there? was your trip cancelled? was the trip shortened? Do you just not make it all. This is our first river cruise and I've been very excited counting down the days! I feel a little panic starting!

We are going to be in Paris on June 14, 2016. I just found out there will be a planned nationwide strike that day. We had planned on going to Versailles that day but now I am not sure about the transportation from Paris. Any ideas on what we can expect that day? We are also flying the next day to meet our cruise, is it likely there will be delays due to the strike the previous day?

Oh no! I am sorry I have no answers for you. We are to land in Marseilles the day the air traffic controllers will strike.Train strike on our day to get to Paris for our flight home the next day.I feel a bit of panic coming on!