European Explorer: EXTREMELY late/long REVIEW

[bluenoser2]

O.K. – I have newfound respect for those of you who have your review up and posted with pictures the day after your return to reality. We returned at the end of June from our wonderful European Explorer cruise on the Crown, and I’m just now getting a chance to think about it. Would YOU like to go along with me on my memory cruise? I kept looking and looking for someone else to write their thoughts, but haven’t ever seen anything. This is my first time “reviewing”, so be gentle with me folks. First, a little introduction. Last Christmas, my dear sweet mom passed away, but the wish (really more of a demand) she gave my dad was that he take DH and me on one more cruise (they had already taken us on a couple of amazing trips). So, Dad asked us what cruise we would like to go on, and this was our choice – we thought we’d be saving for years for it, but when we saw that it wasn’t in the itinerary for 2012 we got a little worried that we might never get to do it, so, since he was asking, we told him, and he said, “sure, why not!” And the planning began.

 

We did all our booking through Princess, and booked 2 side by side Caribe balcony rooms in January. DH and I are 50 and 48 years old, and my dad, 83. Our stowaway was Florence – you’ll meet her along the way. We had previously done the Mediterranean cruise on the Emerald with my parents in 2007, beginning in Rome, so thought it would be fitting to begin in Rome again, going the other direction. (Besides, I keep forgetting to throw a coin in the fountain there, so I HAVE to go back, right?!!)

 

 

Booking flights is the most stressful and traumatic part of any journey we take. We live on the east coast, and I just find it frustrating to have to fly “backwards” before getting to go the right way! DH booked our flights Halifax-Montreal-Rome, with my Dad who lives in BC, meeting us in Montreal. As is often the case, we received an e-mail a month or so after booking that told of a change in itinerary. With a quick glance, we said, oh, no problem – it’s just a difference of 15 minutes or so. 2 weeks later, a closer inspection showed us that it was not just 15 minutes difference, but 2 days (and 15 minutes)!!!! They had us flying to Montreal as planned, then staying over a night, and then getting to Rome on June 10 – 2 days after the Crown would have left! More stress, more angst. We got it all worked out, now flying from Halifax to Toronto (meeting Dad there) and flying to Rome, arriving at 11:45 a.m. on June 8, the day of our departure. (I know, I know, we’re supposed to fly in the day before.....but at least now we weren’t booked for 2 days late!).

 

 

I’m getting stressed just remembering that part. Tune in tomorrow for the real beginning of our journey.

[Working 2 Cruise]

cant wait for the rest!

[rdsqrl]

Can't wait to hear more!

[Alessandrina]

Looking forward to your next installment!

[bluenoser2]

 

The Adventure Begins! O.K. – you know those threads where people agonize over how to pack? I went there. I listed, I categorized, and I had my outfits planned. After carefully itemizing just what I would pack in which suitcase, DH equally carefully divided our things between our 4 suitcases in case one was lost along the way.....that way, we’ll both be whining about missing something. The day (June 7) has arrived, and the “cool” cousin has arrived to oversee our daughters while we are away. We have seen the DDs off to school, their tearful goodbyes and “how could you do this to us – we’re going to fail Math for sure now” ringing in our ears. The drive to the airport was a quick hour trip by car. We parked the car, unloaded, and checked the luggage – ouch - $45 for each of our second bags.

 

The flight to Toronto was o.k. – Florence was happy to discover she had her own seat between us. Once in Toronto, we walked forever to find Dad, which we did, got a bite to eat and waited for our flight to Rome.

 

Catch of the Day: Washing up in the restroom, and discovering that the other 2 women doing the same were all heading for the Crown Princess, just like me! Now I feel like this is really happening! Of course, after that, I found out that there were about 90 of us in the same boat as it were, all flying to Rome to meet the Crown. I felt a little better about flying in the day of.

 

We arrived in Rome 20 minutes early, stood in line for passport check, and then waited for our luggage. Our FIVE pieces of luggage. We waited, and waited and waited. We finally accumulated 4 pieces of luggage for the 3 of us, but the big suitcase, MY big suitcase did not arrive. DH filled out the report, I waited, and the rest of our luggage got to go the ship. Exhausted, frustrated and worried, we did finally board our Princess coach to the Civitavecchia port. The Princess reps were great and as helpful as they could be. We found out that my suitcase had made a wrong turn in Toronto, and would try to catch up with us later. However, we were in ROME!!!!! How bad can it be, when you’ve successfully made it to Europe?

[u2cruiser]

Ooh! I love these kind of reviews that keep you on the edge of your seat waiting for more........

 

Looks like Forence is enjoying a film? :)

[cruisingallover]

Love your review so far. Hope you don't mind if I add to it as you go along. We were on the same cruise but arrived in Rome 2 days pre cuise. I arranged transfers for 8 of us (which I met through our CC roll call) with Stefano at RomeLimo. Much cheaper than the Princess transfer. We stayed at Hotel Italia which was very centrally located and it is within walking distance to all the must sees. This hotel is clean and in a safe area and included breakfast. We met wonderful people on this cruise which we remain in contact with. I have to say out of all the Med. cruises we have taken this one was our fave.

 

Keep it coming :)

[bluenoser2]

Ooh! I love these kind of reviews that keep you on the edge of your seat waiting for more........

 

Looks like Forence is enjoying a film? :)

 

 

Actually, she's previewing a Canadian cinematic short film for me - The Conductor - and she advised me afterwards not to watch it. She is still scarred from the experience. It took 2 episodes with Gordon Ramsey to get her to stop shaking.

 

Thanks cruisingallover - I look forward to your input! You will round this out nicely, since my Dad and DH are NOT adventurous at all and I couldn't get them to do much without the ship's sponsored excursions!

[Woobstr112G]

Looking forward to reading your posts.....:):):)

 

Bob

[mowb07]

Really looking forward to the rest of your review! Love your writing style and Florence is such a doll! :) no pressure or anyrhing but...keep it coming! :)

[bluenoser2]

Since Dad was Platinum (something he didn’t know beforehand; I informed him after hacking into his cruise personalizer), we quickly went through security and priority boarding (which really wasn’t any faster than the regular lines – everything was very efficient and moving quickly). We had arrived at 2:30 and by 2:40 were enduring our embarkation photo before making our way on board to our rooms.

Upon arriving, we found our excursion tickets were messed up (sometimes 3 tickets when we wanted 2, and only 1 ticket where there should be 2), so instead of enjoying that “We’re on the ship! We’re on the ship! exploring” time, we went off to take care of that. Actually, DH stood in the LONG line-up to do so, while Dad and I went and had some lunch at Caribe. By the time we were finished our meal, DH had made it almost to the front of the line, and got everything sorted out. I sat with him while he ate (4:30) and then he realized as he was finishing his LARGE portion, that this was LUNCH and I was still determined to have dinner in the dining room!

We did some quick exploring – the Crown was great – familiar, because we had been on the Emerald 3 years ago, and loved seeing the International Cafe (which I totally missed the first time!). We dutifully attended the Muster Drill (though the lifejackets seemed awfully big for Florence!) and returned to unpack. Or at least, DH returned to unpack. I sat and watched him. 2 bags had arrived before 5:00, the other came by early evening. And, the repacking DH did before we left? The suitcase Missing In Action had most of my things and all my shoes in it – his “repacking” meant that all he was missing were a couple of t-shirts and all I had were two skirts, a formal pantsuit, and a dress, with no matching shoes, or tops! My carefully charted wardrobe database was not going well. I changed into the dress I had with me in my carry-on for dinner, and wore flip-flops to the dining room. (yeah, I KNOW.....). We decided to miss Sailaway, and worked at finding Dad. When in doubt, I always knew to go to the piazza if there was classical music being performed, because that’s where he’d be – and sure enough, there he was, in the closest chair to the string quartet, snoozing. We were in Anytime Dining, so we headed to the Michelangelo Dining room for dinner.

 

We chose to share a table and got in right away, seated with one couple. Our servers weren’t amazing, but they were certainly efficient. The best part of the “entertainment” was listening to the waiters’ rendition of “Happy Honeymoon to youuuuuuuuuuuu....” to a couple behind us, complete with Philippine accents, and in several simultaneous keys and registers. (Did I mention I’m a musician?).

 

I had the lobster and shrimp pate for appetizer (it got 2 stars from me – have to save my stars for something really spectacular), DH had the spring rolls which he liked. We had salads for the next course, and I had the barramundi for main course, which I thought was very nice (another 2 stars). I finished with the flourless chocolate cake (3 stars!). DH went traditional with Caesar salad, fettuccine Alfredo and love boat dream – he wanted to make sure he got those in right away!

 

After our tummies were totally filled, we exercised by standing in line at the purser’s desk to inform them about our lost luggage. Victoria was SO helpful and very nice – I felt sorry for the staff at that desk when I heard some of the ranting people were doing – and it was only the first day of the cruise! She gave us 2 toiletry kits and said they’d look after formal night for us if my luggage hadn’t arrived by them. (The 2 kits became gifts for our daughters – their favourite souvenir that we brought them – go figure....). Of course, I HAD formal wear, just no shoes.

(The Strangelings - scaling Mt. Everest?)

We went to the Welcome Aboard show – the guys slept through most of it and then we retired for the night.

 

 

Catch of the Day: “So, what currency DO Canadians use?

 

-fellow passenger (I won’t say where he was from.....)

[u2cruiser]

Actually, she's previewing a Canadian cinematic short film for me - The Conductor - and she advised me afterwards not to watch it. She is still scarred from the experience. It took 2 episodes with Gordon Ramsey to get her to stop shaking.

 

Not the F word? :eek:

[Shogun]

Hi bluenoser,

 

Like the name, wonder how many here know what it means,

 

 

yours Shogun

[cruisingallover]

Wow such details bluenoser2. I can't even remember what I had for breakfast.

 

We did all the ports on our own so I will chime in as you get to each one of them.

 

We had a table for 4 (even though there were only 2 of us) by the window at late traditional seating. Francesco the Maitre' d took very good care of us. :D

[StLouisCruisers]

You're doing a great job! Did you take notes? That's the only way to remember what was for dinner, take my word for it.

 

Can't wait to hear more!

[caber]

Hi bluenoser,

 

Like the name, wonder how many here know what it means,

 

 

yours Shogun

:

 

I do. :D

 

Enjoying the report so far. Keep it up.

[bluenoser2]

Wednesday, June 9, Day 2, began with less than a full night's rest. After lying awake until 3:30 a.m. thinking, "oh, I'm sure I'll get used to that vibrating clicky sound after a few nights", I must have woke the poor DH up with all my sighing. He rose, went over to the TV, moved it about an inch back from where it was touching the railing, and I promptly fell asleep. He's just so assertive.

 

So we were in Horizon Court by 6:20 and it was packed out, and picked clean. The waitstaff were scurrying to replenish, and we did manage to find sustenance, and a little later a table, and still later some orange juice. Sufficiently satisfied, we made it to our meeting place by 7:00 a.m. for our tour start. We were one of the first to arrive, and got on the first tender. At muster drill the night before we had learned that we would not be going to Livorno as planned due to "Port Congestion" whatever that is. So we had travelled instead to La Spezia. It didn't make any difference to our tour "Pisa and Florence On Your Own", just changed up the driving routes and times somewhat.

 

After an uneventful tender ride (we did see Armani's big black yacht), we waited for our tour people to gather and met Stephano, our 22 year old guide (it was his birthday, that's how I know...).

 

 

He took the "on your own" part very seriously, and barely spoke at all during the bus ride. You should know that when on busses, I have about 10 minutes max before I fall asleep, which I did. We were to be going to Florence first for our free time there, and when I woke up to Stephano's voice saying gently "we are now in Pisa", I thought "oh no, I've missed Florence, slept right through it, why didn't Paul (formerly known as DH) wake me up?". But no, the driver had made an executive decision to alter the plan for the day. We got to Pisa at 9:15 and had an hour to spend there. Which was enough. It was very touristy already, and very hot, especially since I was getting to wear my lined capris and black shirt and hope-I-don't-have-to-walk-very-far-in-these shoes that I had been wearing "just for the plane ride."

 

The baptistry

 

 

 

These guys scared Florence, and she stayed in my purse after we kept trying to get her to take a picture with them.

 

And then, I got distracted, as usual.

 

 

 

Catch of the Day: The church had two entrances, one for tourists which we hadn't found at this point, and one which had a sign saying "FOR PRAYER ONLY - TO PRAY ONLY". We respectfully took our hats off, put cameras away, and entered this door, only to be shoed out promptly and swiftly by a man inside. Apparently, tourists may not pray. Were we that obvious? What gave us away? The flourescent orange oval stickers saying "GROUP #5"?

 

With that, it was off to the bus and off to Florence. And yes, within 10 minutes I was asleep and trying valiantly not to fall into the aisle.

[Coolmama_1]

I am loving your review. Can't wait to hear more!

[cruisingallover]

With bluenoser2 permission I will try and highlight for you our day in La Spezia. We were very happy when we were told that we would not dock in Livorno as the ship did not have a berth. We have been to Florence and Pisa before so we were going to take the train to Lucca. However, because of the change of ports we decided to go to Cinque Terre. It was in our bucket list and we got to see it before we had planned :)

 

We met a lovely couple from Utah on the tender who we invited to join us for the day as they were going to "do Cinque Terre on their own"also. We have a small advantage in Italy as DH and I speak fluent Italian. After the short tender ride we walked approx. 15 minutes to the train station in a very safe and clean area. Shops adorn both side of the street most of the way to the train station. My husband was lucky as most of the shops were not open yet....on the way back was a whole different story :D We purchased our train tickets and we were on our way in no time.

 

More to follow later...........

[cruisingallover]

Cinque Terre is considered a national park. It is one of the most scenic areas in all of Italy. It is a 5 mile stretch of rocky coastline with beautiful footpaths, breathtaking views, churches, castles, hotels, shops and restaurants/bars. Your train ticket also includes entrance to the walking trail along the coast. Make sure you wear comfortable shoes. I prefer running shoes as a lot of the path is uneven and can be hilly. We walked the first 3 villages which were Riomaggiore (bring a lock), Corniglia and Manarola.This can take 2-4 hours depending how long you would like to rest, wonder, shop or eat. We stopped in Manarola for lunch and had a delicious pizza. We used the train to get to Vernazza and Monterosso. Monterosso (great beach) was the furthest point we travelled and we took the train ride back to La Spezia from there. Once back in La Spezia my DH was not so lucky as I found a few nice shops to spend some Euros that were burning a hole in my pocket. We sat and had an espresso and pastry afterwards and then took the short walk back to the ship which completed our wonderful day.

 

Looking forward to bluenoser2 adventures in Florence.

[bluenoser2]

FLORENCE GOES TO FLORENCE!

After a 1 ½ hour bus drive, we arrived in Florence just before noon, with a fuming Florence in my purse. Disgruntled about not having time to climb the leaning tower, she recovered quickly enough when she realized her life’s dream had come true, and she was in her namesake city. Now if only her keepers could try to remember she was along for the ride.

 

 

 

 

First stop was the meeting place – a leather shop, with a WASHROOM! Once we were instructed in the time and place of meeting when our 3 hours was up, we rushed to our first stop – the just mentioned WASHROOM. That taken care of, we were ready to explore on our own. Florence is another Italian city that makes us realize that our next BIG trip must be a land trip to Italy so we can enjoy the experience in a more leisurely and complete manner. This was just an appetizer, and we knew that, so we set out on foot to see all we could see in our short amount of time. With the warmth of the day, we knew just what we would be doing for lunch. This is the point in the review when others will tell you of their delightful cafe finds, and the out of the way stops they enjoyed. This is where we began our quest for the perfect gelato. Finding a lovely gelateria nearby, we oohed and ahhed our way through our fragola (strawberry) and frutti di bosco treats. What a great lunch on a great day.

 

 

 

 

 

Our girls made us promise that there would be no pictures of insides of cathedrals or churches on this trip (we overdosed on church tours on a previous trip, and they’re still not over it), so we honoured their request and toured the streets, seeing the Duomo from every possible angle before moving on.

 

 

 

 

 

We had no problem navigating our way around the city area, and had a wonderful walk down the road by the Ponte Vecchio bridge. Were my feet tired? You bet. Blisters? Oh yes. But even though we barely scratched the surface of just a tiny bit of Florence, we had a blast, and hope to go back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found our group after only one navigational error, and most people were sleeping on the bus on our return – except for the 2 guys behind us of course, who managed to talk non-stop the whole way back to the ship. We were back to the tender dock by 6:30 and LOVED the cold towels we were given to use while we waited in line.

 

And oh, the sounds of rejoicing and the hugging and embraces as we opened our stateroom door and tripped over my large suitcase when returned from our long day! Shoes, glorious shoes......shorts, pants and some t-shirts..... (Feel free to join in on the chorus....)

 

 

Back on board, we found Dad (due to health reasons, he didn’t go on many tours, and chose instead to stay close to the ship – he had been to almost all our ports previously). We chose to have a table for 3 since we hadn’t seen him all day, and we went to the Da Vinci dining room this time. We had a relaxing dinner – and yes, I journal copious amounts while I’m on vacation, because I would NEVER remember all this stuff!

 

 

For you foodies, I declared the crawfish in puff pastry and the gazpacho to be worthy of 2 stars, and the chateaubriand and French vanilla soufflé to be 3 stars tonight. I fell in love with soufflés on this trip and overdid it a bit on them for desserts. Well, it’s not like I’m going to make them for myself at home!

 

We checked out Princess Pop Star - there was only one contestant that night, and I don’t think we ever returned to check it out any other night. We went to the late show with Seonaid Atkin – she was pretty good, and we actually made it to the end of the show this time before going to sleep.

[rdsqrl]

I'm so glad your shoes and clothes arrived!! My feet were hurting in sympathy. . .

[cruisingallover]

I was in such suspence.......glad to hear your luggage showed up :D

[bluenoser2]

Day 3: Genoa, Italy.

We were up early enough to watch the approach into Genoa, before starting our breakfast with a chocolate croissant at the International Cafe, and continuing on up to Horizon Court for second breakfast. We met our tour group at 7:45 and were off to start our Princess excursion. Now, in the write-ups given by Princess, this tour is touted as something like.... a leisurely cruise to Portofino on your motor launch. A three hour tour.

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale...

We were in the first group to arrive at our boat...so we took seats above and up front. (We were in the group of 3 seats in the centre of this picture)

 

 

Then we watched as group after group continued to board – I had no idea so many people could be packed into a boat that size. There must have been 200 people below in steerage. We were happy to be in the fresh air. Then we started our leisurely cruise. The harbour was great fun, lots of chatting, and people hoping they wouldn’t get seasick being up on the 2nd level as we were.

 

 

Then we were out in the open and the swells began to hit the boat. The group that were on the lower deck up front were soon swamped with water from above and through , and didn’t last long before retiring to below deck. We were just about to say “good thing we’re up here” when the first big wave hit and we were totally drenched in salt water. The reason there are no pictures of this part of the trip is that I was sitting on my camera to try and protect it, while I hung on for dear life to the railing and Poor Paul. (Florence was safe in his camera bag.) The tour guides kept up a continuous monologue during all of this which no one listened to I’m sure. After being totally doused, and then laughed at by the people behind us, we began to learn the art of ducking when a wave was coming, and this ended the laughter from behind.

 

Now, during all of this I was alternately terrified of being sick all over someone, or being pitched over the side and wondering if I could swim all the way to shore or not. Paul? LOVED IT. Every minute of it. The 1 ½ hour trip seemed like 3 to me, but we made it. Aside from being wet, we did fare better than those below, where more than a few were quite sick, as we were warned to take a deep breath of fresh air before departing through the hold when we docked.

 

Once we headed into the sheltered area of Portofino, the waters settled a little, and so did my stomach, and it was very hot and sunny. Very pretty, not much to the tour, and a lot of very unhappy tour group people. We weren’t amongst them – it’s just one of those things you get to store in the memory vault and bring out when needed....”well, I was on THE BOAT TO PORTOFINO, I can handle this”, or, “Rough? You think this is rough? Well, we were ON THE BOAT TO PORTOFINO.....”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found our gelato lunch here – Paul stuck with fragola and I had Limone and it was a wonderful treat and helped my stomach feel normal again. We wanted to make sure we had outside seats up above again for the return trip, so after walking around on our own for a bit and enjoying the views, we headed back to our boat. I think we only had ½ the people we did on the trip there, because so many had decided to fend for themselves and find alternate ways back to Genoa. The trip back was beautiful! We were with the swells, so we weren’t pitched and tossed about and stayed dry the whole way back. Paul even fell asleep; until I hit him when the dolphins started playing right in front of us (I like to think of it as a reward for making it through the first leg of the journey!).

 

 

 

 

Catch of the day: “I wish those dolphins would have come out of the water higher.

I couldn’t get a decent picture of them. “ - female passenger

 

We were back at the ship by 1:00 to change out of our salty clothes and meet Dad for lunch before setting out on our own for Genoa in the afternoon.

[Colo Cruiser]

Excellent!!