beekash

We stayed at Hotel Arlecchino last October. It was absolutely lovely and very convenient to the port and the bus stop - just one bridge to go over.

We had an inside cabin on this cruise, and it was just fine. Deck 10. Slept great. Most of the time on the ship was at night so there was not much to see anyway. If we wanted to see outside, it was easy to just walk out to the promenade or several other areas. Keep your money for the ports - they are all amazing!

Liz

I'll be on this cruise in 6 days!!! Loving your review -

Your review and the pics are fabulous! I've been following every day! Thanks for doing so much work!

I am loving them - will be doing similar itinerary this fall - looking at the pictures makes the waiting bearable!! We will also be celebrating our 30th - our first cruise and first overseas trip!!!

Not quite right

 

1) get on the people mover at the "People mover Terminus"

2) Take the mono rail 1 stop to to where it says "People mover staion about here" and get off

3) walk a couple of minutes to the the building next to the ship where you check-in

 

 

Pete

This is great info - thanks! However when I look at pictures of where you get off the People Mover in the cruise ship marina area, it does not look at all pedestrian friendly. Looks like a lot of confusing roads. Are there signs pointing you to your cruise ship, and how long a walk might it be (we will be on Norwegian Spirit in October)? DH has mild mobility issues and wondering if we should take a taxi from Piazzale Roma to the cruise terminal, especially when we are getting our luggage over there. Any advice? Thanks, folks -

Just returned from the cruise as well with Budgetfairytale, and others. It was amazing. I agree with Istanbul. Very crowded and no one takes no for an answer. Very different than what I thought it would be. It was so crowded.

In regards to your passports, they are all collected on embarkation. The ship makes arrangements at every port with customs and immigration etc. Once they ship gets the clearance from immigration, you are welcome to disembark. The night before our arrival in Venice (our last port) they were returned in a very orderly fashion. Each floor had a different time to go down to the showroom and collect them. We were surprised that they took them when we boarded, but no problem. We had to carry our ship card and picture id with us at everyport. I did copy my passport before we left and laminized it. We actually never had to show picture id.

We purchased all our euros, liras etc before we left home. We never used our charge cards. One person we know on the cruise had their card breached after buying a leather coat.

Our favorite place was Mykonos. Every port though had its own amazing feature. The said part was all the graffiti on the buildings. It was sad

We arrived 3 days before or cruise in Barcelona. We really enjoyed our train trip up to the Montserrat Monastery built into the side of a mountain. We did this on our own. We stayed at the Hotel Atlantis, (a reasonably priced hotel for location etc), which was a stone throw away from the HOHO buses and the top of Las Rambles. We also loved Guell Park, found on top of a dead end street off the hopon hopoff bus route red. It was just beautiful. One of our best places to look out over Barcelona. Well worth the climb up the steep street. FYI, about a city block going south on the Las Rambles strip is a grocery store you can pick up anything at. We found that great for snacks and spirits for the room. We got tired of seeing the guys throwing the squichy balls on the ground. They were trying to sell them at every place we stopped at on our cruise.

Watch going into St Marks in Venice. Professional pickpockets everywhere. The friend we travelled with had her purse strap magically broke, and she did not even know it. Nothing was missing because she had clutched her purse between her arm and side. There definitely was an attempt.

Here is a very important thing for the Ship layout. It is the colour of the carpet.

Elevators and area with red carpet is at the front of the ship

Elevators and area with green carpet is midship

Elevators and area with blue carpet are aft of the ship

It helped so much.

We were disappointed in the dinner in the Cagneys. My husbands steak was very tough, and it was actually better in the Garden dining room. I would not pay the extra. Mind you, he may have preferred the filet which I hear was terrific.

The staff on the ship were amazing. We were in room 6512, a oceanview. It was fine. We have always had a balcony, but with having to book this three weeks before the cruise we got what we could get. We were one of the castaways, from the cancelled Sunshine Cruise, and that a whole other story.

In Venice we did the tour of Doges Palace. It was really good. We had booked the secret tour of Doges Palace and the Bridge of Sighs, with our previous cruise line (read above), but we could not rebook it on this cruise as it was sold out. Book this ahead through the Palace webpage. I really wished we had another couple of days in Vencie. We stayed at the Arlecchino Hotel, eyeshot from the bus station, at the end of the people mover. It was a lovely place. It sits between to joining canals.

 

Galaxy of the Stars, and the Blue Lagoon (fish and chips were awesome and available 24 hours a day) were our favorite places on the ship.

At the Livorno port, we did the same as Mindy, "Livorno on Your Own"

Have to get back to reality, hope this helped with your plans. Will check again for any info we can lend you.

This was a trip of a life time for us, and it was even better than we expected.

Happy Cruising!

Debi (Seaing the World)

Thanks for all this information - we are doing this cruise in reverse (Venice to Barcelona) in October - very excited. We are booked at the Arlecchino also so glad to hear the good review. This is our first cruise! BTW what are squichy balls?

We'll be on our first cruise ever - on the Spirit in October (Venice to Barcelona) - thanks for the great pictures - just don't know how I am going to make till October!