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5/29 - 6/5 AoS West Med. Cruise Review

jessicalorene

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jessicalorene

jessicalorene

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In May my husband and I were married after three years of dating. We had started planning our honeymoon the August before so by the time the wedding was all said and done, we were thrilled to be taking off to Spain for our Royal Caribbean Western Mediterranean Cruise. I had cruised once before in 2004 and have been to parts of Europe once or twice. My husband has never cruised or been to Europe so he was a little hesitant but believed me when I told him what an amazing vacation cruising is. I decided to start this travel blog to document our vacations together as well as offer tips, insight and photos for people looking for cruise or just general vacation information. I hope you enjoy my blog and my review of Royal Caribbean.

 

Day 1 (Thursday/Friday) - Traveling

We left our home in New Hampshire on Thursday afternoon in order to get on our 4:30 flight on Iberia to Madrid, Spain. Our flight was slightly delayed but nothing significant and soon we were boarding and settling in for roughly a 7 hour flight from Boston. I have heard a lot of really negative things about Iberia but overall I really enjoyed it. They served a fairly edible meal, had complimentary booze and played fairly new movies. The flight went by quick and once we got to Madrid we took off across the airport to switch terminals and hop on our plane to Valencia. About an hour and a half an one much smaller plane later, we were landing in Valencia and hailing a cab to our hotel.

 

 

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A friend of my dad's had recommended the Sol Melia chain of hotels while staying in Spain. This hotel was about a €20 cab ride from the airport and EXTREMELY centrally located. The going rate when we stayed was around €90 a night. I'm not sure if this was the regular going rate for hotels in this area but we were surprised when we got into our room. It was extremely basic and the bathroom smelled a bit ... off. Our window faced out onto an ally, but like I said the local was incredible, right in the middle of Plaza Ayuntamiento with tons of tourist attractions. We checked in about 1pm on Friday and, against all good travel advice, immediately fell asleep. We woke up around 6pm ready to walk around for a bit but worried that things may be winding down by the time we got dressed and found dinner. Not the case! One thing we learned fast about Spain is their nightlife is awesome. We walked around for about two hours just taking in the city: the atmosphere in Valencia was pretty amazing, everything seemed very laid back and ready to have fun. We tried to eat dinner back at our hotel around 8pm and were told to come back at 8:30 ... the restaurant wasn't even open yet! When we did get food, it was a bit overpriced but delicious: Valencian paella! Lance was skeptical about the rabbit and snail meat mixed into the dish but we both ended up loving it while sharing an awesome (and cheap!) bottle of Valencian red. We walked around a little bit more after dinner then went upstairs and fell back asleep: we did not adjust well to the time change (6 hours ahead) from Boston to Valencia!

 

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Day 2 (Saturday) - Sightseeing in Valencia

 

 

Lance and I woke up late on Saturday feeling ready to explore Valencia. Unfortunately, us waking up later on a Saturday impacted some of the things we wanted to see such as the Mercado Central market and a few churches in town. However, we took in plenty of sites and found that even without being able to go in we had plenty to do to keep us occupied. The picture to the left was taken right in the plaza our hotel was in: absolutely gorgeous landscaping and statues, fountains, etc. We spent the early afternoon just exploring the city. We walked past the bullring as they had a huge demonstration going on. There were cops and spectators everywhere and we had no idea what the protest was about. We didn't hang around too long but kept running into people staging the protest as they had a camp set up in the park across from our hotel. We later learned it was regarding the high unemployment rate in Spain and things actually stayed very orderly considering the huge amount of people participating.

 

 

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The one thing that surprised us was how hard it was to communicate with the people in Valencia. I studied Spanish for many, many years and used it on a daily basis while going to college in Phoenix but found a huge language barrier. Apparently, in Valencia they speak a different type of Spanish. We found that later on in the trip, it was much easier to communicate in Malaga then in Valencia. A lot of the people at the hotel spoke enough English that between my (non Valencian) Spanish and their English we could more or less figure each other out.

 

 

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That afternoon we headed down to the beach. Valencia was so easy to navigate: we took the subway down and it took us about 30 minutes. The beach was gorgeous, and packed! There were a ton of small restaurants right on the water, people playing sports and sunbathing. We didn't swim, but took off our shoes and took a long walk down the beach taking in the gorgeous Mediterranean. We ate dinner at one of the many small cafes back in the center of Valencia. We weren't that hungry so just shared some calamari tapas and two glasses of wine. Like everything else we ate, it was aboslutly delicious and cheap for being in such a large tourist area. After dinner we took in a little more of the nightlife. Barcelona was playing Manchester in soccer so the mass of people protesting was replaced by the very excited fans celebrating Barcelona's victory into the wee hours of the morning. We decided to return to the hotel fairly early and pack/prepare for getting up and checking out the next day. We were heading down to the pier around noon to check in to the Adventure of the Seas!



 

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jessicalorene

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Day Three (Sunday) - Embarkation Day !

 

Lance and I left our hotel around noon in order to hail a cab to bring us down to the pier. The check out process was very smooth and the lovely staff at the hotel even mailed a bunch of post cards for us that were bound for the United States. There was a lot of construction going on at the pier so it took a little bit longer to get there but by 12:45 we were standing outside the terminal ready to check in ! This cruise, as we found out shortly before, is what they refer to as an inter-port cruise, which means there are multiple embarkation points. We were the second and much smaller point so the terminal was busy with pax headed into Valencia but the actual check in process was very short and smooth. We were given a card after we checked in with a boarding time of 3:30. It was probably about 1:30 by this time, so no big deal for us. There was food and adult drinks in the terminal and a few small shops so Lance and I just walked around and read our books until our number was called. When it finally was, we quickly went through security, hopped a bus and 15 minutes later were standing next to the Adventure of the Sea marveling over how huge she was compared to the other ships in port. We boarded the ship, had our pictures taken and our Seapass cards activated and then went on to check out our state room. We were on the 7th deck, starboard side with a balcony [7252] and our cabin was ready as soon as we went up there.

 

 

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I had ordered the Grand Romance package for us, and there was a nice bottle of champagne on ice, cupcakes, chocolate covered strawberries and two robes waiting for us upon our arrival. It was fairly standard in size, small but with tons of storage space! We ran up to the windjammer, loaded up with some lunch and had no problem finding a seat to enjoy our very first meal on board. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the ship while my husband marveled at the size. Adventure looks incredible, especially given her age.

 

 

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Our dinner seating was 6:45, so around 4 we went back to our room to see if our bags were there. They were and we started unpacking, organizing, and showering for dinner. The main dining room was beautiful and as we walked in my husband grabbed my hand and asked "Is this included?! Every night?!" We were at a table for 8 but tonight only one other couple showed up so we chatted with them all night. Our waiter, Josep, was terrific and made great suggestions every night. I thought it was odd that our side of the dining room seemed so empty while the other was so packed. Josep explained to us that they keep the people who boarded in Malaga on one side and the Valencia passengers on the other. We had our sail away from Valencia while we were eating dinner, so we drank our wine and watched out the window as we took off for the open sea. I didn't take photos of the food or the menus (sorry CC'ers, I will next time) but I do remember having a terrific meal. We were never disappointed in the dining room, which was a relief as I was slightly worried based on a lot of the criticism of the food I read in reviews on the internet. I love appetizers, so I ordered two [caesar salad and jalapeno potato soup- both delicious]. When my husband saw this, his eyes lit up and he started planning his attack: two desserts!

 

 

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For meals, I had the Asparagus and Brie tart which was good but very filling: I could only eat about half of it. Lance had the beef shoulder and said it was delicious, but slightly cooked above his liking. Not a problem, he just ordered it medium rare instead of medium well for the rest of the cruise and was very happy. All in all we really enjoyed our meal, the service and the food. After dinner we rolled ourselves up to our stateroom and sat out on the balcony in our bathrobes, enjoying the sound of the ocean. My favorite part of cruising!

 

 

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jessicalorene

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Day Four (Monday) - At Sea !

 

Part of our Grand Romance package was receiving breakfast in bed one morning on the cruise. I was a little skeptical about this, since you can order room service every day but it was actually a terrific meal. It showed up on time, hot, with some mimosas, cheese, pastries, french toast, coffee, fruit ... pretty much everything you could think of. We took as much of it as we could on the balcony and balance it on our laps while enjoying the warm air and the sound of the sea. It was a very relaxing day to spend the morning. They give you a card in your package that you fill out and give to the head waiter the night before you want it and since we figured we had 3 packed days in port coming up we would just take advantage of it right away.

 

 

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After breakfast, we set off exploring the ship again. Lance and I found a port discussion going on in the theater so we decided to pop in and listen. We had planned to do Rome on our own and spent months doing research on the perfect way to do this. The lady ended up spooking us: we immediately left the talk to go book an excursion to Rome [more on this in the next post]. After the talk, we walked up and down the Promenade, checked out all the decks and even wandered up to the St Tropez deck which I quickly left when I realized what it was. I have no problem with topless sunbathing ... in fact, it was EVERYWHERE on this cruise, but I didn't want to look like a huge creeper walked around up there with my husband. He, of course, objected to this logic! We had a few drinks at a few of the bars in the Promenade - including a delicious mudslide - then decided to grab lunch and hit the pool. Like I mentioned before, the Spanish eat much later then we are accustomed to and the vast majority of pax were Spanish. So when we went to the MDR to grab lunch from the famous Tutti Salad Bar, it was pretty empty.

 

 

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Even better then a non crowded lunch was the pool after lunch. Lance and I thought after all the wedding stress laying in the sun by the pool would be the perfect cure. Now, there we still the chair hogs of course and the pool was defiantly full but we were able to find a decent spot by the main pool. After an hour or so, the shade started blocking where we were sitting so we moved to the solarium, which we also had no problem finding a spot in. So, if you are an American on a Spanish cruise, keep to your own schedule! It makes things so much less crowded. After hanging out by the pool for most of the afternoon we had our CC Meet and Mingle: I was SO happy we decided to go to this. The people were so friendly, we met a terrific couple about our age we ended up spending a lot of time with on the cruise and the rest of the couples were wonderful friendly faces to keep bumping into for the rest of the cruise. We met for about an hour and a half before we had to excuse ourselves to get ready for our first formal night. I usually love getting dressed up, but given we had JUST moved most of our really formal attire was still in our storage unit: we didn't think to pack it in our suitcases while moving. So we dressed nice but not as nice as I would have liked. Around the time we were getting ready to leave for dinner we started sailing between Corsica and Sardinia, which made for a pretty awesome view from the balcony.

 

 

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I hate to disappoint, but the rumor of there being no lobster server on the European itineraries is true. We did not have lobster on either of our formal nights and didn't even have sea food on the first formal night. I did get my escargots though and they were delicious: easily one of the best appetizers we had on the ship. I wanted to order a second but refrained: my husband surprised me by ordering them and actually enjoying them! I had been a little worried since the rabbit meal paella in Valencia on our first night. We met our last pair of table mates, a middle aged couple from Arizona celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. So somehow, on a cruise filled with Spanish passengers we had New Hampshire, Connecticut and Arizona at one table! We really enjoyed our table for the rest of the week. This was also the night we decided to order the gold wine package: it was pretty expensive to drink given the Spanish taxes so we found this was a pretty cost effective way to drink with dinner. We usually will drink a bottle between us at a long dinner so we didn't have a lot of already opened bottles being brought to us the next day. Lance and I called it an early night since we had to get up at 6am the next day and spent 10 hours in Rome. The nightlife available on this cruise seemed pretty amazing and kept going until the early AM. I wish we had gotten to take better advantage of it, but we spent almost every night exhausted from long days and tours in port. I wonder if this is common of European itineraries? Anyway, here is a picture of one of the many bars I wish we had spent more time in. I love that you can sit at a table, drink a beer and watch the ocean.

 

 

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Choochala

Choochala

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Thanks Jessica - this is wonderful. We did the west med last Sept and I can't wait to go back! We had booked the east med for this Christmas but the Navigator was re-deployed to the Carribean so we are doing the Carribean .... Eastern Europe - not this year but hey - there's always next year! The Spanish do have their own schedule and it really fits with ours doesn't it?! I just love the 'no rush' atmosphere that they have. Hoping it will be like that in the Carribean - I guess when you're cruising, there's really no reason to rush for anything no matter where you are ;). Thanks for bringing the memories!!! Keep it up - can't wait for your Rome review!

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jessicalorene

jessicalorene

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we are going in sept do u have any of the cruise compasses and i can not wait to see how rome went we have still not decided if to do a tour or do it out selves can not wait to read more

 

Hey there, I meant to save all my CC's and accidentally left them sitting on the table as we were leaving our room on debarkation day. Sorry about that! I'll have the Rome post up tonight!

 

Hollie - thank you!!

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Day Five (Tuesday) - Rome

 

Our tour was scheduled to meet in the Lyric theater at 7:15am. Lance and I got up around 6, prepared our bags for the day and ate a quick breakfast in the Windjammer. For our day in Rome we took a money pouch that goes over the shoulder under the shirt and kept our credit cards, Seapass cards and minimal cash in there. My husband wore it over his undershirt but under his button down and it worked out very well. We also took an over the shoulder messenger bag for storing souvenirs, camera and a few other personal items. This worked out great for us as I could keep it in front of me, buckled closed with a firm hand on it while we were working our way through crowds. The breakfast schedules were all bumped up due to such an early morning departure and the Windjammer was pretty crowded with excited tourists getting ready to head off to Rome for the day. We met our tour group and promptly got off the ship, loaded onto our bus and took off towards Rome. When we got close to the city there was some pretty serious traffic and it took us a little over 90 minutes to get into the city. Our tour was a 10 hour guided tour of the Colosseum and the Vatican City, which included all entrance fees and lunch. When we got off at the Colosseum, the line to get in was wrapped all the way around and was probably about an hour and a half long. Already, we were glad we had booked an excursion and didn't have to worry about timing or waiting in lines. Our tour guide was terrific - extremely knowledgeable and interesting. The Colosseum was incredible! I love history (was a major in college) and my husband loves anything that has to do with Gladiators so this was a pretty incredible stop for us. We were given little head phones and the tour guide spoke into a mic so we could hear everything she said, which I thought was a nice touch. We spent about 2 and a half hours here and managed to pick up a few souvenirs on our way out. The vendors were EVERYWHERE. Be aware, the guys dressed like Gladiators will let you take their pictures with your camera then charge you €10! Luckily, we were warned about this but we saw quite a few tourists who looked a little disgruntled by this unexpected cost.

 

 

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After the first part of our tour we all got back onto the bus and headed to a restaurant for an early lunch. The food was incredible: we had a pasta course, veal, mushrooms, potatoes, wine, bread, the whole nine yards. The restaurant was quite lovely, with a man playing the piano up on stage. We were set up in a private room that included our tour and another Royal Caribbean excursion group. All in all we really enjoyed the lunch we had in Rome.

 

 

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After lunch we boarded the bus and headed over to the Vatican. This portion of our tour was very interesting but VERY crowded! The line to get into the museums was over 3 hours long! Be prepared to see everything from a distance, especially the museums. It was also extremely hot by this point in the day and the Vatican museums are not air conditioned by any means so I would advise bringing a small fan or something of that nature. The museums were incredible: what an amazing collection of art from ancient Rome and all over the world. The structure of the building itself was incredible, as you can see in the photo below. The ceilings were very ornate. I wish we had more time in the museums because there were so many rooms we didn't get to see. However, it was hard to be disappointed at the end because walking out of the Vatican museum meant walking through the Sistine Chapel. For those of you who have never seen it, it is simply breathtaking! We sat staring up at the ceiling for a good 20 minutes while guards shushed everyone every couple of minutes. Unfortunately, they don't allow photography so I have to just hold onto my memories of how incredible that experience was.

 

 

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My group then made our way into St Peter's Basilica. WOW. Just unbelievable. We spent quite a lot of time in the basilica. Be aware, they require proper dress ... no shoulders and no knees showing on male or female. This seemed to be pretty well enforced as we saw a young girl trying to cover up so the guards wouldn't kick her out again. Our tour guide proved to be very knowledgeable in here as well as the rest of the tour. Like I said before, everything in here is breathtaking. I could not imagine making a trip to Rome and not coming here. We spent some time walking around St. Peter's Square after the basilica and did a little shopping before we got back onto the bus and made our way back to Civitavecchia to re board the ship.

 

 

 

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When we joined our group at dinner that night we learned from one of the couples we were sitting with that a lot of the people on our ship hadn't actually made it to Rome that day. Apparently, there had been a protest of Italian workers who were pissed because they were unable to get to work due to how crowded the trains were. They layed across the tracks and severely delayed the trains. We were also missing the third couple from our table who had gone off on their own in Rome so we were very worried about them! The only people who made it uninterrupted were those who caught the VERY first train out in the morning. On top of being glad we didn't have to wait hours in line we were so happy that we had decided to take the excursion because we may not have even got to see Rome. Since we booked our entire itinerary around Rome it would have been extremely disappointing. I had been totally gung ho about doing it on our own but it was one of the best decisions we made not to. We saw a lot, learned a lot, didn't have lines and didn't have to watch our watches the entire time. In the room that night, we both passed out early. a 6am day with 10 hours of touring in the sun was enough to wear both of us out completely !

 

 

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jessicalorene

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Thanks for the review! Our cruise on NOS starts and ends in Rome. Hope we get to see as much as you did. Did you find out what happened to your missing tablemates?

 

We did! They turned up the next night and told us that they had gone to Portofinos ... they were one of the lucky ones who made it on the very first train out and had no problems. It was a little scary though since the night before we had been razzing them about missing the ship and having to meet us in Florence !

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Day Five (Tuesday) - Rome

 

Our tour was scheduled to meet in the Lyric theater at 7:15am. Lance and I got up around 6, prepared our bags for the day and ate a quick breakfast in the Windjammer. For our day in Rome we took a money pouch that goes over the shoulder under the shirt and kept our credit cards, Seapass cards and minimal cash in there. My husband wore it over his undershirt but under his button down and it worked out very well. We also took an over the shoulder messenger bag for storing souvenirs, camera and a few other personal items. This worked out great for us as I could keep it in front of me, buckled closed with a firm hand on it while we were working our way through crowds. The breakfast schedules were all bumped up due to such an early morning departure and the Windjammer was pretty crowded with excited tourists getting ready to head off to Rome for the day. We met our tour group and promptly got off the ship, loaded onto our bus and took off towards Rome. When we got close to the city there was some pretty serious traffic and it took us a little over 90 minutes to get into the city. Our tour was a 10 hour guided tour of the Colosseum and the Vatican City, which included all entrance fees and lunch. When we got off at the Colosseum, the line to get in was wrapped all the way around and was probably about an hour and a half long. Already, we were glad we had booked an excursion and didn't have to worry about timing or waiting in lines. Our tour guide was terrific - extremely knowledgeable and interesting. The Colosseum was incredible! I love history (was a major in college) and my husband loves anything that has to do with Gladiators so this was a pretty incredible stop for us. We were given little head phones and the tour guide spoke into a mic so we could hear everything she said, which I thought was a nice touch. We spent about 2 and a half hours here and managed to pick up a few souvenirs on our way out. The vendors were EVERYWHERE. Be aware, the guys dressed like Gladiators will let you take their pictures with your camera then charge you €10! Luckily, we were warned about this but we saw quite a few tourists who looked a little disgruntled by this unexpected cost.

 

 

dscn0437.jpg?w=300

 

 

After the first part of our tour we all got back onto the bus and headed to a restaurant for an early lunch. The food was incredible: we had a pasta course, veal, mushrooms, potatoes, wine, bread, the whole nine yards. The restaurant was quite lovely, with a man playing the piano up on stage. We were set up in a private room that included our tour and another Royal Caribbean excursion group. All in all we really enjoyed the lunch we had in Rome.

 

 

dscn0505.jpg?w=300

 

 

After lunch we boarded the bus and headed over to the Vatican. This portion of our tour was very interesting but VERY crowded! The line to get into the museums was over 3 hours long! Be prepared to see everything from a distance, especially the museums. It was also extremely hot by this point in the day and the Vatican museums are not air conditioned by any means so I would advise bringing a small fan or something of that nature. The museums were incredible: what an amazing collection of art from ancient Rome and all over the world. The structure of the building itself was incredible, as you can see in the photo below. The ceilings were very ornate. I wish we had more time in the museums because there were so many rooms we didn't get to see. However, it was hard to be disappointed at the end because walking out of the Vatican museum meant walking through the Sistine Chapel. For those of you who have never seen it, it is simply breathtaking! We sat staring up at the ceiling for a good 20 minutes while guards shushed everyone every couple of minutes. Unfortunately, they don't allow photography so I have to just hold onto my memories of how incredible that experience was.

 

 

dscn0544.jpg?w=300

 

 

My group then made our way into St Peter's Basilica. WOW. Just unbelievable. We spent quite a lot of time in the basilica. Be aware, they require proper dress ... no shoulders and no knees showing on male or female. This seemed to be pretty well enforced as we saw a young girl trying to cover up so the guards wouldn't kick her out again. Our tour guide proved to be very knowledgeable in here as well as the rest of the tour. Like I said before, everything in here is breathtaking. I could not imagine making a trip to Rome and not coming here. We spent some time walking around St. Peter's Square after the basilica and did a little shopping before we got back onto the bus and made our way back to Civitavecchia to re board the ship.

 

 

 

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When we joined our group at dinner that night we learned from one of the couples we were sitting with that a lot of the people on our ship hadn't actually made it to Rome that day. Apparently, there had been a protest of Italian workers who were pissed because they were unable to get to work due to how crowded the trains were. They layed across the tracks and severely delayed the trains. We were also missing the third couple from our table who had gone off on their own in Rome so we were very worried about them! The only people who made it uninterrupted were those who caught the VERY first train out in the morning. On top of being glad we didn't have to wait hours in line we were so happy that we had decided to take the excursion because we may not have even got to see Rome. Since we booked our entire itinerary around Rome it would have been extremely disappointing. I had been totally gung ho about doing it on our own but it was one of the best decisions we made not to. We saw a lot, learned a lot, didn't have lines and didn't have to watch our watches the entire time. In the room that night, we both passed out early. a 6am day with 10 hours of touring in the sun was enough to wear both of us out completely !

 

 

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Thanks for the review. Didn't think anyone was going to review this cruise.

Like Lance, this will be our first cruise.

Can you help. What excursion did you do in Rome, (Imperial Rome ??) the one you chose seems to cover everything

Final payment was today and your review has just raised the excitement.

 

Liz & Alex

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jessicalorene

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Hi Liz and Alex, sorry that it took me so long to reply, I didn't even notice I had another comment on this thread! I believe we did the Imperial Rome tour but I am not 100% sure. Our tour was a 10 hour trip that did the Colosseum and the Vatican museums as well as St Peters. I know our table mates did another tour that covered a few more major sites and may have been slightly less expensive. Theirs may have been Eternal City? Either way I am sure you can't go wrong, enjoy your cruise! It really is a great one and my goodness, busy busy busy!

 

To everyone else, sorry it took me so long to finish this review but I am finishing up on my blog now and getting them over here ASAP :)

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Day Six (Wednesday) - Florence

 

After such an amazing day in Rome you would think we would book an excursion for Florence. However, another couple we had met on the ship were taking the train in by themselves and since we were exhausted from Rome we decided to take it easy in Florence. I am a little torn on this decision: part of me LOVED being lazy in Florence and we really did have an awesome day. The other part of me (the history buff part) is kicking myself for not seeing more. Ah well, always a reason to come back! We got a little bit of a later start this day (I stress a little because we were still off the ship by 8:30am) after meeting up with some people from the Cruise Critic roll call and enjoying breakfast together in the Windjammer. Once we got off the ship there were Royal Carribean shuttles to take you to the train station but they were completely full and not very friendly about how to get into town otherwise. The four of us ended up just grabbing a cab and it was €20 and less than a 10 minute ride. Once we got to the train station is was easy: Livorno to Firenze every hour. We bought out train tickets (€13.50 each for a round trip) hopped on the train and made our way to Florence. The train station drops you off a 5 minute walk from the historic center of Florence, where cars aren't permitted. We toyed around with the idea of doing one of the hop on hop off buses to tour around the city but decided against it as we were working on such a time crunch for getting back to our ship. For anyone who hasn't been there Florence is an incredible city! The people, architecture, shopping, and food is all wonderful! After making our way to the center we sat down for lunch. This is hands down one of the best meals I've had and one of the most enjoyable. The pizzeria we chose was right next to il Duomo and we chose a small table outside on the patio. The scenery was terrific needless to say. We shared a bottle of Chianti, I ordered a caprese salad and we both got pizza: mine loaded with prosciutto and artichoke and black olive and Lance's with fresh basil and mozzarella. We sat at the restaurant for almost two hours and loved every minute of it.

 



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At the very end of our lunch it started to rain, which was actually nice because it cleared out the plaza and made for some really nice and people free photos in front of the basilica. The rain didn't last long and soon after we were making our way up to the bell tower of the church. I did this when I was in Florence 10 years ago and desperatly wanted my husband to see the view from the top. All I can remember is thinking "yeah, totally worth it!" when I went at 16. The bell tower has over 400 stairs but is not limited to how many people can go up at a time the way the Duomo is so there was no line. The entrance fee was pretty small, around €5 for both of us. Here is where I give my disclaimer: going up to the top of the bell tower after a 2 hour lunch filled with wine was probably not the best call I have ever made. I was defiantly sluggish and my husband spent a good deal of time behind me making sure I didn't slip because on top of everything else I am clumsy by nature. They also like to trick you with several different landings: we kept thinking the view was incredible and wow, I can't believe it up here, and then we would notice people coming down from stairs we hadn't even noticed were there.

 

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But like I said before, when you get to the top, boy is it every worth it. We got so many amazing photographs of Florence from up here and they are all just beautiful.

 

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After our climb we spent the rest of the afternoon just poking around Florence. Lance got to have some gelatto and I got to go shopping so we were both content just wandering around Florence exploring. We headed back to our train around 3 in the afternoon in order to get back in plenty of time. I am glad we got there early because the train going back to Livorno was absolutely packed. Once we finally got back we hopped in a cab just like earlier that day and were back in the ship with plenty of time to spare for showering and a glass of wine before dinner. The one thing I really wish we had done was stop in Pisa: I wish we had booked an excursion that did both cities so we could have seen the Leaning Tower. We did have a terrific day in Florence though and it was extremely enjoyable after such a crazy day in Rome. After dinner we attended the Quest game show in the Lyric theater and ended up winning second place: we were only a team of four but the competitive streaks came out in all of us. I really enjoyed all the shows we did go see, I just wish we had been able to do more when it came to the ships night life.

 

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