Hey all! I hope you are doing ok. I have a few questions regarding a cruise I plan to take my family on, it's next year, I'll try to keep questions as simple as possible.
There's a really nice brilliance sailing for next year, July 3, 2023. Parts from Barcelona with only one sea day, it's a one week cruise, stops in portofino, Genoa, Marsellie, Nice and Florence, it ends in Rome.
The trip would be with wife and two kids, so things like extended tours and stuff like that are sort of out of the question, plus we've already been to some of those places.
My doubts are regarding how easy it is to simply arrive and walk around to nice parts of places like portofino, genoa and marsellie? Because I've already been to florence, the ship stops at livorno and you need to take a long bus in order to get to florence, which is what we're going to do, I find it very important to go and see the David and all around Florence is an incredible place but I know it's not a "walk out of the ship and viola! everything is there!" kind of thing.
I already know my way around civitavechia, barcelona and Nice, in Nice it's easy to get an uber to Monaco (return is trickier) or just take the train, or maybe just stay at the beach near the ship. So those are fine, my problem is the other three, portofino, marsellie and genoa, these are places I really want to get to know, walk around, experience the food and culture but without having to be on a tour. Do you guys know if any of these places are like florence? Where I would be forced to get a car or a bus just to be able to get to the good stuff? Or will it be fine if we decide to do everything on our own?
My other question (questions I guess) is about travels before the cruise departs. We were originally planning to arrive three days before to Paris then fly to Barcelona for a day before taking our cruise but I am thinking of adding another three days before paris to get to London first, so the trip in total would be three days in london, three in paris, one in barcelona, the cruise which ends in rome, three days in rome and go back home.
The flight from Paris to Barcelona is easy, we've done that same trip before for a cruise it was seamless. Adding London into the mix before paris makes me a bit nervous. I know the UK has never been part of the Schengen but I dunno if brexit made things more difficult, as I haven't been there since brexit. I have a mexican passport, my kids have both mexican and USA passports, we would all be flying into London for three days before paris, which means we have the chance to take either the eurostar to paris or a flight. I know the train is the best, most hassle free option but we would have luggage, four big pieces, with a stroller, I am not sure the eurostar is the best option for that kind of travel, wouldn't it be easier to simply fly to paris? Flying around europe isn't that expensive.
Anyway, any tips you guys may have or recommendations would be appreciated, the trip is already sort of set in stone as far as locations we would travel to, I already even paid for the cruise, but the london part of the trip is the only one that's still up in the air, I may do it, change it or simply not do anything at all and arrive directly to paris, it's just the kids would love to know both places, especially my 9 year old girl.