jagaul

When planning our Riviera cruise last year these boards were so very helpful and in posting this Photo Slideshow Review my hope is to give those of you who are planning a Mediterranean Cruise in the future a tiny glimpse of the beauty that awaits your arrival at your destination! Questions and answers on every aspect of Oceania have been very thoroughly covered and were very helpful to me in planning our wonderful trip....but as a photographer I also loved viewing the photos that others had posted. Our cruise on the Riviera was the last cruise of 2013 sailing out of Istanbul Turkey and ending in Barcelona Spain. It was an incredible journey and hopefully anyone viewing my slideshow will agree that we saw a fascinating array of awesome locations. Here is the link to my slideshow!

Enjoy!!

http://s993.photobucket.com/user/photoartistrybyjudy/slideshow/

Just wanted to send off a big thank you for your review and the photographs! I just stumbled upon it while searching some boards on Cruise Critic last evening and spent hours pouring over every photo and all of your writing. What a wonderful trip you all were able to enjoy. I too feel as you mentioned....like I belong in if not Italy, then somewhere else in Europe. We spent fourteen days there last year going to many of the same locations you visited. And we are so lucky as we are returning again in November. Just a bit over two months from now! Were not planning to do so this year but stumbled upon a deal that was just too good to pass on...so here we are...off again on another adventure! This time beginning in Istanbul Turkey and ending in Barcelona. We loved Barcelona....spent two days there last year so are looking forward to another two days there this year.

I must ask.....are you a photographer by profession? If not you should be. I totally understand your love of recording all the details of these amazing scenes....I do happen to be fortunate enough to have been a working photographer for the thirty plus years and so dearly love being able to get out in new locations and shoot, shoot, shoot. Last year I came home with over 6000 images....and this year will be that many if not more!

Anyway....just wanted to send off a big thank you for such a wonderful narrative and photos from your dream vacation...and again to say.....if you are not a professional photographer you should think about it....you definitely have the "eye" for it!

Hopefully I too will be able to accomplish a review of our upcoming trip.....as last year we returned home and then got busy and never got it done.

Happy Travels!!

Thanks so much...we just scheduled a cruise on the Riviera for this November....I really appreciated seeing all of your beautiful photos....great job!

We recently were on a Celebrity Cruise to the Med. In Rome we and three other couples booked our tour in Rome with Rome In Limo. Our driver was Maurizio and our tour guide for the Coliseum was Federica. Both were excellent tour guides and provided us with wonderful experiences for the time we were with them.

We highly recommend both Rome In Limo as well as our two guides for the day!

You cannot go wrong with Rome In Limo...A wonderful time was had by all....and it appeared even Maurizio and Federica were really enjoying themselves as well!

Thank you to each of them and to Rome In Limo!

Thanks Ashley....This is very helpful...I've copied your text to take along when we leave on Wednesday for our date with the Solstice on a week from tomorrow!!

Loving your entire review! Must say, you have set the bar VERY HIGH for anything I do when we return! LOL!

Loving your wonderful review and photographs! We will be on this exact cruise on 10-14 so am devouring all of your thoughts about Barcelona and now the Solstice.

Can't wait for the remainder of your trip!

Hi, Judy!! Appreciate your super kind comments on my postings and photography. Glad to know it's been helpful and that you have such great photographic background/interest. Here are a few reactions/comments:

 

1. CAMERA: On just taking a point-and-shoot 16x optical zoom, that worries me a little. Don't you loose lots of quality when using that optical zoom? Personally, I would take your D700 and maybe limit a little your number of lenses. With my D3100, most all of my pictures were done with a 18-55mm zoom. Having a 10-20mm and 55-300mm was nice also. Being able to shoot RAW, get lots of quality, etc., made it so much easier to then edit more on my laptop, etc. You'll see so much great sights that you'd hate to "cheat" yourself for what you can capture and bring back. Just a caution as I am not experienced with that Panasonic Lumix camera.

 

2. LANGUAGE: It was no problem for us in these various countries. BUT, in many cases we were doing private and/or ship tours. Plus, for some cities such as Venice and Rome, we had been there before and knew the territory, etc. We had also done a decent amount of advance "homework" to know fairly well where we were going, what we wanted, etc. For food ordering, many of the people in these larger cities are experienced with serving lots of tourist from the USA, UK, etc. Many places have menus with added language, etc. You won't go hungry there!!!

 

Keep those good, smart questions rolling along. If you'd like ideas on another great Europe adventure potential for the future, check out our July 2010 trip along the Norway coast, fjords, puffins, etc. See connection below.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 71,454 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

Hello again Terry,

Actually the Panasonic Lumix is a pretty great little camera....and the optical zoom is what to look for in the point and shoot variety of camera...it is the digital zoom that people get confused with....digital zoom is useless....terrible quality. I actually would have never considered going with only a camera like this had I not seen my sons images from their trip across the pond last year...they are wonderful...viewed on a 62 inch television screen without editing at the time I first viewed them! I have worked with this camera and it does a super job. This past weekend took it along to a wedding I was shooting and and did some comparision shots both outdoors and indoors with it and my Nikon D700 and they are great....so I'm not really worried about quality. What I am not used to is not having a viewfinder....although that is what I am trying to get away from....seeing everything through a viewfinder!

As to the language....thanks! We have been doing a lot of research and know what we want to see and do in Barcelona as well as the various ports. On the ship we will be doing tours in the larger cities and doing our own thing in the smaller ports. I believe for Rome and Florence we will take the ships transportation into the cities along with their short driving tour and then time on our own before meeting back up with the ships transportation at end of day. For Naples we are looking at either doing one of the ships tours or if possible I'm still l hoping to get together with some other couples from the rollcalls to arrange private tours. Venice we just want to explore on our own. We've gotten some language disks we are listening to and have several apps for language conversion on our tablet and iPhones so think we will be okay....it is great to have it firsthand from someone that has been there that it was not a problem! Thanks again.

When we return I'll try to remember to let you know when I have some images available showing how I and the new camera do together in Europe!

Hi Terry,

A big Thank You from a neighbor in Indiana. We live in Fort Wayne and I often come to your city for buying beads at shows held there at the large covention building on I believe Broad Street in downtown Columbus! But that is another story!

The Thank You is for your wonderful blog style review and all the following pages of questions following with your marvelous photographs. We will be on the October 14th sailing of the Solistice for the same cruise although we call at Cannes. I have read every page within this thread and have viewed every photograph....Wonderful, Wonderful!

I have been a professional photographer for many, many years although shooting mostly weddings and portraits. I am soooo looking forward to this cruise for the many photographic opportunities. I just want to tell you that you are "right on" with all of the photo advice that I've read within your posts.

After many cruises on which I have hauled around large cameras and lenses I made the decision to get a smaller camera for this trip after seeing what my son did with the same camera on a trip last year to England and France. I purchased a Panasonic Lumix point and shoot camera with a 16x optical zoom and so hope I am not disappointed in my decision as I am so used to working with my Nikon D700! I've spent so many vacations peering through a lens that I want to enjoy this cruise on a "real time" basis!

We are also spending two days in Barcelona prior to the ship and cannot wait to photograph this great city as well.

As to a question, here is one that I don't remember being addressed throughout this thread.......neither of us speak Spanish/Catalonian, French or Italian....if you do not speak these languages either, how much of a problem did you encounter when attempting to accomplish things like ordering in a restaurant or purchasing items? Just wondering!

Sorry for rambling on but I am so impressed with all of your photographs and your travelogue that I couldn't help!

Thanks again and many happy photo experiences in the future!

Judy in Fort Wayne