New to SS.....On Whisper Apr-May '05 Mediterranean-any input appreciated!

We are booked on the Whisper for two 7 night back-to-back cruises starting Apr 28, 2005. Just my wife and I this trip. Our first extended vacation as my company is being bought out after 30 years and I will be sort of.... unemployed! Have never been able to go on a long vacation due to work constraints...

We are doing 3 nights hotel (Hotel de Paris) pre-cruise in Monte Carlo, 3 nights post-cruise in Rome (Inter Continental) plus the 14 night cruise. Is 3 full days in Rome at the end of this trip enough? ....or should we extend another day or so??

Cruise Itinerary:

Monte Carlo... Portovenere and Livorno Italy....Valencia, Ibiza, Palma de Mallorca Balearic Lslands and Barcalona, Spain.....

Marseille, France.....La Goulette (Tunis) Tunisia....Valletta, Malta....Siracusa, Sicily....Lipari, Italy, then end up in Rome on May 12.

We are in a veranda suite.

Any input on SS, the ship or the ports would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much! Best to all....

Have been on RSSC once, Princess once, RCL twice, and Carnival once.....

The Whisper is the same as the Shadow (except for the colour of the marble, so we were told), and a verandah suite has the same interior as a vista suite (sans the balcony). So for a description of your cabin, you can read our thread in this column "Mexican Riviera December 14-21 Part II" by meow! Of course, you are also welcome to read Parts I, III and IV. Hope this helps!

Is 3 full days in Rome at the end of this trip enough? ....or should we extend another day or so??

 

Any input on SS, the ship or the ports would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much! Best to all....

 

Dwight, you'll have a great trip.

The best approach and the one that is considered the most polite is rather than post a request for "any input" about both SS and all the ports your visiting is to instead do some initial research first by both reading all the threads and by doing searches on the various places, and places close by. You'll find a lot of opinions about Monaco, and some places close by. Search on Nice, Villefranche, Bealiue-sur-mer, San Remo, Cap Ferrat (or St-Jean-cap-ferrat) etc. Then I suggest you hone down what you ask others to help you with by asking specifics, otherwise those with the most knowledge whilst wanting to help may not be inclined to simply repeat what they have posted before and what you might easilly find by a simple search for yourself. And then you may miss out on some help.

In answer to some specifics. Hotel de Paris is a great hotel. If the budget allows have one meal in the restaurant which is considered the home of Escoffier and is a wonderful room in itself. Touch the horse's knee for luck in the entrance hall. e-mail the hotel in advance and claim it's a special occaision and ask for a room (or suite) overlooking the harbour rather than the square. When you check in you'll be given a pass to the Casino which is a few steps away. Residents of Monaco are not allowed in the casino.

Personally (I repeat personally) I do not believe there is enough to keep most people occupied in the resort for more than a day and I recomend you read threads I previously mentioned. Once you've said gosh a coupleo f times you might yearn for something more substantial. If you go to Nice for the day take the express bus rather than the train as the station in Nice is some way away from most of the action. I go to Nice every month and spend time in the places mentioned previously and would be happy to answer specifics partcilarly favourite restaurants etc which are mentioned in the threads which will pop up after you search.

Three full days in my view in Rome is pretty much spot on as long as you hit the tourist spots as they open in the morning. Suggest you search on Alpheus (if you like live music), and Ostia Antica (if you like Pompeii) as well as Rome itself.

Jeff

If only a day in Barcelona, get the highlights by taking the double decker bus. This will whet your appetite to return to this wonderful, friendly City.

We will be in Portovenere on Shadow during the first week in April. We will spend a long day ashore by visiting as many of the Cinque Terre as possible.

In Livorno you have a choice of Pisa or Florence.

Bon Voyage.

Last summer we spent a couple weeks in Italy including three days in Florence, and a half day in Pisa. Other than seeing and climbing the stairs in the Tower of Pisa, it was one of my least favorite spots. Choose Florence over Pisa. Florence is amazing.

if i may make a suggestion, as you are staying at the hotel de paris in monte carlo you obviously like good hotels. in rome the hotel de russie is absolutely beautiful and has a spectacular courtyard where one can have meals or drinks with views of the surrounding hillside. the rooms are oerfect and the srvice is as well. its located right at the piazza del popolo just a few short blocks from the spanish steps. the intercontinental, it must be said, has a great location right next to the hassler at the top of the steps but theres really no comparison between the two hotels. this is, of course, my own opinion and others may feel differently. i do think it warrants checking out tho.

as for the whisper you will have a wonderful time aboard her. i couldnt think of a better way to break in your free time to vacation. enjoy!!!

......................... our favourite in Rome is Grand Hotel De La Minerve.

http://rome-hotels.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187791-d265621-Reviews-Grand_Hotel_De_La_Minerve-Rome_Lazio.html

I agree - that I'd consider other hotels than the one chosen in Rome.

I'd like to respond to your question about whether 3 days in Rome are enough. IMHO, 3 days in Rome can't possibly due justice to this seat of the Christian religion and culture, and the ancient world. The Vatican Museums can take an entire day, and they are so large and full of wonderful art. Then there is St. Peters itself. Then the Vatican Gardens - a tour of these must be requested in advance.

Not to mention the various Roman ruins, the catacombs, side journeys----------I would buy a guidebook which describes all of these wonders and decide which (if any) you are interested in.

glenda

Quite right. You could spend a lifetime there!

There was a useful thread about Rome with input from several people that may be of interest:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com./showthread.php?t=51065&goto=nextnewest

........ including some specifics about getting the best from the Vatican museum.

Jeff

The Whisper is a beautiful ship with great service and great food. So much so, that we are considering to go on her again in May, doing Rome to Villefranche.

If we do this, we are going to do a 3 day stay in Rome on the front end, and I think that is going to be sufficient. We would be staying only one day post-cruise in Nice, however that is because we have already seen difficulty in finding a room. The Cannes Film Festival ends the day we disembark and the Monaco Gran Prix starts and there are no rooms to be had anywhere.

I concur with not spending a bunch of time in Pisa and heading straight for Florence. On our last trip we were travelling with a group, and a few in our group spent WAY too much time wandering in the souvenir shops in Pisa and then we only ended up with a little over two hours in Florence. Another reason why we are thinking about this cruise is to see what we missed the last time. I also agree with Neviboy, that Barcelona is a beautiful city. Beware though going down Las Ramblas. It is pickpocket haven. We also loved Malta. We had the most spectacular sunset there as we sailed out of port.

Best of luck and enjoy your cruise.

What do you mean to see what you missed the last time? Have you already done a Med. cruise before?

My husband and I will be on this cruise. We are going to Venice and Rome beforehand and Milan afterward. I wanted to go to Monte Carlo, but your right it's tough getting a room. Oh, you can get them, but they're going for mucho dollars. I guess that will have to wait till next time. In any event, I haven't been to Venice or Milan, or any of the ports so it should be great fun. If you're thinking about this trip I'd hurry, I think it's booking up fast.

Melbcruise, we did do the Med in October 2003 on the Splendour of the Seas. We ran into bad weather and missed ports in Villefranche as well as Naples and weren't able to disembark. We also missed Livorno, but managed to tender in from La Spezia. We were late getting off the ship because they let all the ships tours go first, so we had a very abbreviated visit. Also, it was also further away to Pisa and Florence than Livorno losing us even more time. So we want to return to see much of what we missed the last cruise.

So, have you already booked the Whisper for the May 12th cruise? We may just need to just go ahead and do this. We were waiting to see what was going to happen with our Diamond cruise that we already have booked for July. It is possible that it may be cancelled.

Don

If you plan to go to museums in Florence such as Uffizi, Academia, etc., it's essential that you make reservations. You can do it over internet.

I remember you mentioning it may be cancelled. I have a friend who has a Diamond cruise booked for August and he's concerned, too. If you have it booked can you still get your money back?

We are booked and so is my sister. She and I were on the Whisper in Dec. and she had such a great time that we booked the Med. one on-board. It's a great deal and the ports look interesting to me. Also, I want to go when it's cooler. My last two cruises on the Whisper have been in the Caribbean and I find it hot out on the pool deck. Anyway, like I said, we are going to Venice first and then meeting my sister in Rome. Afterward, we go to Milan for three nights.

My sister is going straight home after the cruise. I wonder if anyone knows if catching a noon flight out of Nice is going to be a problem? She is connecting in London and then flying to the U.S.. We were late getting off the ship in Aruba, but before that we were able to get off before nine.

Normally, I wouldn't think that getting to the airport in Nice for a noon flight would be a problem. However, the ship disembarks in Villefranche on the same day that the Cannes Film Festival ends and the same day that the Monaco Gran Prix begins, so the airport is going to be very busy I am sure. I would make sure that she arranges to be one of the first ones off the ship. We still don't know if about our Diamond cruise, but we did go ahead and secure hotel reservations in Nice (refundable of course) just in case. We also have on hold flights on American using our FF miles, for a couple of weeks while we wait to find out.

Yes, our cruise on the Diamond is still fully refundable, but we are still waiting to see the outcome.

Who knows, maybe we will see you and your sister onboard. BTW, do you know where you are staying yet in Rome? We are looking at our options there also and think it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and make some reservations there as well.

Don

It's interesting that Dwight requested fairly open-ended input early on 14th - (a week ago) and we haven't heard anything from him since. Normally, posters generally indicate that they've taken an interest in the help they've received by posting "thanks" for the help and / or further questions in order to keep the thread they started alive. People here are generally generous and post in order to help others by sharing their knowledge, experience or personal views. Many regulars helpfuly posted (once again) information that they have posted before and would have easilly been available if a simple search had been undertaken before such an open-ended question were posted.

If like me, you want to preserve both standards of usage and interest levels on the board and would prefer people not to be lazy and would like to encourage people, particularly new posters who may not understanding the etiquette, to help themselves better and to search first on their destinations and ships so that they then ask specifics, may I sugggest that collectively we are a bit clearer and offer this level of help only where someone has clearly taken at least an initial amount of trouble to help themselves first? Otherwise the board simply becomes a cycle of the same stuff over and over again and we don't help people to help themselves.

I do not mean to be seen as unhelpful, because I've not been, but isn't this a better approach?

 

If like me, you want to preserve both standards of usage and interest levels on the board and would prefer people not to be lazy and would like to encourage people, particularly new posters who may not understanding the etiquette, to help themselves better and to search first on their destinations and ships so that they then ask specifics, may I sugggest that collectively we are a bit clearer and offer this level of help only where someone has clearly taken at least an initial amount of trouble to help themselves first? Otherwise the board simply becomes a cycle of the same stuff over and over again and we don't help people to help themselves.

 

I do not mean to be seen as unhelpful, because I've not been, but isn't this a better approach?

Jeff...

We're all free to answer (or not answer as the case may be) any questions that are posed on this board. Some people may feel a bit chastised and thereby lose a bit of enthusiasm by others saying "do your homework, I won't help you." I don't think anyone here wants to dampen a fellow travellers enhusiasm.

If you feel that someone hasn't done due diligence prior to posing a question, that's fine...you're free not to answer them.

I enjoy reading people's questions and responses even if they don't directly relate to my travel plans and recognize that we all have our differing levels of expertise in travel and online 'conversations'.

For me, as long as someone isn't disrespectful, dishonest or rude I'm happy to read their comments.

I've seen many a great conversation begin with what some may view as a simplistic question.