Toulon embarkation

[nomad098]

Hi all

 

We are looking for information on embarkation from Toulon

specificly for the Liberty of the seas but any general

information on departing from this port would be most

appreciated.

 

Regards

 

Damon and family

[Toulon2Barcelona]

My husband and I are also boarding in Toulon, but on the 9/16 sailing. I am so curious about the logistics of this. For example, if we have to wait to book spa appointments until arrival day, how do they ensure availability (assuming those boarding in Barcelona do the same thing)? And if Toulon is formal night, but our luggage is not guaranteed to be in our room by 8 PM, how do we dress for dinner? And how can we use our shipboard credits (which can't be used on excursions booked online) on excursions, if the popular excursions are already filled by the people boarding in Barcelona? And how do they arrange disembarking for excursions in Barcelona when most of the ship is disembarking for their final stop?

 

We decided to pre-book our excursions and just pay for them so that we could get what we want, and as for the rest, we're just gonna roll with it...but I am curious how they manage it.

[nomad098]

My husband and I are also boarding in Toulon, but on the 9/16 sailing. I am so curious about the logistics of this. For example, if we have to wait to book spa appointments until arrival day, how do they ensure availability (assuming those boarding in Barcelona do the same thing)? And if Toulon is formal night, but our luggage is not guaranteed to be in our room by 8 PM, how do we dress for dinner? And how can we use our shipboard credits (which can't be used on excursions booked online) on excursions, if the popular excursions are already filled by the people boarding in Barcelona? And how do they arrange disembarking for excursions in Barcelona when most of the ship is disembarking for their final stop?

 

We decided to pre-book our excursions and just pay for them so that we could get what we want, and as for the rest, we're just gonna roll with it...but I am curious how they manage it.

 

Hello Toulon2Barcelona

 

Because this is what they call an "interport" cruise you can not book spa appointments until you are onboard. RCI have not upgraded their online booking system to accommodate interporting yet. If you require a spa appointment I would suggest you book it as soon as you can when you embark.

 

I have spoken to 1 person who has embarked in Toulon and they suggested we put our formal wear in our carry on for the first night.

 

RCI have not fully got to grips with "interporting" like some of the other lines have and are still working out the bugs. Especially with things like shore excursions with there being no shore excursions tailored for those boarding in Toulon but wishing to visit Barcelona.

 

There are a few disadvantages at the moment mainly to do with RCI not updating there systems to accommodate those "interporting" and I hope they get these sorted out.

 

But I am told there are a few advantages as well things like,

 

1) Instead of several thousand passangers embarking there is only a couple of hundred making it quick and easy

 

2) The whole ship is open and not as crowed making it easier to get around

 

3) Muster is quick and relatively painless apparently

 

4) The benefit of debarking in Toulon is that you get the whole day in Barcelona but you must be back at the ship by 4pm

 

5) You can use room service on your last morning which you cannot do if debarking in Barcelona

 

6) Disembarkation at the end of the cruise is very easy so I am told because there are so few disembarking but once you are off the ship you can not get back on.

 

Next year the same cruise will have 3 embarkation points Barcelona,Toulon and Naples so I hope RCI sort the bugs out before then.

 

regards

 

Damon

[Toulon2Barcelona]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, Damon. Before this cruise, I was not even aware of interporting, so it had never crossed my mind that we would not have the same benefits as other passengers. I am just going to expect the best and be grateful for the smaller crowds. Maybe smaller crowds means our luggage will be in our rooms earlier. We could also dine in one of the other restaurants on our first night. We'll have to use those shipboard credits somehow!

 

Also, I downloaded some Toulon ferry maps from this site. Do you know if it's better to cab it or ferry it from Toulon over to our port? We'll be coming from our hotel over by the train station.

[Riggy84]

To those that have returned from the cruise, do u have any extra information to add?

Any info would be much appreciated.

[Toulon2Barcelona]

Hi Riggy84,

 

My husband and I took the TGV from Paris to Toulon the day before boarding the ship, and we stayed at the Grand Hotel de la Gare, directly across the street from the train station. The hotel clerk had offered to schedule a taxi for us, but knowing that the taxi would charge us from its departure point, rather than our pick-up point, we decided to just cross the street and pick one up at the train station. I told the driver that we were going to Royal Caribbean, but I was not sure if it was at L’Espace Marine or La Seyne Sur Mer. He made a phone call to find out precisely where the ship was docked and dropped us off right where we needed to show our passports and begin the embarkation procedure.

 

Damon (above) was right on about Royal Caribbean needing to work out the “bugs” with “interporting”, but also about the advantages (i.e. smaller crowds). In preparation for the bugs, I decided to be proactive about getting information on everything that might be different for a Toulon boarder (i.e. what time to disembark, whether we can carry our own luggage, where to disembark in Toulon, when and where to disembark in Barcelona for our excursion when other passengers are disembarking for the entire trip, when to purchase our photo package, etc.). This helped tremendously because RC geared their announcements/information toward Barcelona boarders.

 

There was one area where it had not occurred to me to be proactive, and I wish I would have been. When our Barcelona tour guide was a no-show, we needed to re-board the ship to email our guide (using the Internet package we had purchased from RC). As we approached the metal detectors with our boarding passes, three employees charged toward us to prevent us from walking any further, not realizing that we were already passengers on the ship. It took a while to convince them that we were allowed to embark. It was not enough to show our boarding passes, so fortunately, someone came along and approved our embarkation. If I had to do it over again, I would go to guest services the night before and ask them how to ensure we can re-board with ease in Barcelona. Also, when we got back to our room, we discovered that the Internet was down for the day (most likely because it was Day 1 for most of the passengers). So, I would also recommend not postponing any excursion research to the Barcelona day if you’re relying on the ship’s Internet.

 

One other caution for a Toulon boarder on the Barcelona day… If you have a balcony room, at some point, a worker will abruptly remove your balcony privacy panels without warning and begin hosing down your balcony.

 

As for the answers to my questions in my earlier post above…

-Spa appointments did not appear to be a problem. I guess not everyone thinks of that on Day 1 like I had thought they might.

-We packed our formal wear in our carry-ons because Toulon Day was formal night, but since there were fewer people boarding, our luggage was in our rooms before dinner (although, we did see it sitting outside for hours – from our balcony -- so we were not sure if it would make it on time, but it did).

-We did not use our shipboard credits on excursions since we booked them before boarding to ensure we would get the ones we wanted. Instead, we used them at the spa on the Internet package. You can also use them for photos and drinks, of course.

-For disembarking in Barcelona (while other passengers are ending their cruise), we asked one employee, who did not have an answer, and a second employee, who directed us to the same deck where all of the Barcelona passengers were disembarking, and we just disembarked with them, sans luggage.

-We opted to cab it over to the ship rather than ferry it over because the walk from the hotel to the ferry (which we had done the night before) was longer than we would have wanted to drag our luggage.

[Riggy84]

Thank you so much for the information, it will come in very useful if we choose the Toulon embarkation!

I doubt Barcelona would be much of a problem for us, as we will probably use that as a leisurely day. I've been before and hubby hasn't expressed an interest, though i'm sure he wouldn't mind the stadium but that can be discussed at a later date!

 

I hope you don't mind, i have a few more questions! I'll try to keep them to a minimum!

What are the earliest and latest times for embarkation and disembarkation? ANd were the queues long?

I was thinking we may drop our luggage off at the terminal and then have a look around and check in later (depending on queue times we may check in 1st and drop our hand luggage off in the cabin and head back out again!) I'm assuming thats ok?

Also would you recommend the hotel you stayed at? What was the cost?

Were the trains pretty self explanatory?

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Toulon2Barcelona]

Embarkation:

While our “Set Sail Pass” had indicated that our boarding time was 2 PM, the Cruise Summary that Royal Caribbean emailed us had indicated that it would be between 11 and 3. I bet yours would be the same. We arrived closer to 10 or 10:30, and we had to wait about 15 minutes, but we were still on board before 11. There was no line for us during the entire embarkation process (I believe there were fewer than 100 Toulon passengers boarding throughout the day). That was the best part of starting in Toulon.

 

Also, if you like to get your photo taken by the ship’s photographers at each of the ports, be sure to get the Toulon one while you are boarding because you won’t have an opportunity to do this when you return to Toulon on your last day (because you’ll be disembarking and it will be too late to purchase).

 

 

Disembarkation:

The sail time was 5 PM for us, so if you check in early, I don’t see any reason why you would not be able to drop your things off in your room and then disembark with your plastic boarding pass along with the Barcelona passengers who will be on their Day Two.

 

Grand Hotel de la Gare:

We paid 69 euros for one night at the Grand Hotel de la Gare. It was a basic, no-frills room. It was supposed to be a non-smoking hotel, but I had to sleep with the sheet over my mouth because the smell of cigarette smoke was too strong for me. Since all of Toulon smelled very strongly of cigarette smoke to us, we decided that if we had to do it over again, we’d still choose that hotel because we weren’t sure we’d find another one less smoky; plus, the location by the train station was so convenient.

 

Train:

We booked our train through http://www.tgv-europe.com/en/. I had been warned not to put “USA” as my country; otherwise, I would have been directed to another site. I was told to put Antarctica or Afghanistan instead in order to stay on the TGV Europe site and have the opportunity to print tickets at home. I might have chosen Canada – I don’t remember – but I did purchase the tickets online and printed them at home before traveling. Tickets that are printed at home do NOT get “punched” by the ticket validation machines at the train station. Instead, you take them on the train with you and keep them out to show them when they come by checking tickets.

 

Since we were coming down from Paris, we checked out Gare de Lyon before our travel day so that we could make sure we understood what we would need to do. There are boards that tell you where to go (kind of like the monitors do in airports); plus, there are information stations staffed with people. If you can’t check it out a day early, you might want to go early just to give yourself extra time to make sense of everything, or to wait in line at an info station. The Toulon station was much smaller and had monitors that displayed info, as well as an info station (which we did not need since we were able to make sense of the monitors).

 

Oh, one more thing about the trains… The boards/monitors list the name of the last stop of the route, so it’s good to know not only what your last stop is (so you can identify which train on the monitor is yours), but also, the stop before your stop, so that when you are on the train, you know your stop is next.

[Riggy84]

That is brilliant information, just what i was after!

Thank you for all that, i'll make a note of it all in (what i'm now calling) my "holiday obsession" folder!!

Luckily, being European myself, i shouldn't need to worry about that website! But as we are taking the Eurostar from London to Paris and then onto Toulon from there, we may be able to book it all through Eurostar. But i can have a play around and see what works out cheaper. Its just a bit frustrating that you can only book 3-4 months in advance!! So i have no idea what the prices will be like in the summer and by the time i can get prices, i might miss out on cheaper flights when the airline prices go up!! Risky business!!

[Toulon2Barcelona]

Happy to help! I know the "holiday obsession" folder well (only, mine was a "birthday trip" folder)!

 

I had put a note in my phone calendar to notify me 90 days before departure so that I could start shopping the high speed train fares. I ended up choosing TGV 1st class, upper level, dual face-face tickets so that my husband and I could face each other and look out the window for the trip from Paris to Toulon.

 

Have fun planning your holiday!

[smmountaingal]

My husband and I are also boarding in Toulon, but on the 9/16 sailing. I am so curious about the logistics of this. For example, if we have to wait to book spa appointments until arrival day, how do they ensure availability (assuming those boarding in Barcelona do the same thing)? And if Toulon is formal night, but our luggage is not guaranteed to be in our room by 8 PM, how do we dress for dinner? And how can we use our shipboard credits (which can't be used on excursions booked online) on excursions, if the popular excursions are already filled by the people boarding in Barcelona? And how do they arrange disembarking for excursions in Barcelona when most of the ship is disembarking for their final stop?

 

Hello. We are on this same LOS sailing and I have the same questions about Toulong. We will be flying from Rome to Toulon and staying the night of 9/15. This is the second of two RCCI cruises for us during this single trip to Europe. Thanks for the heads up on Formal night! I have alot to explore obviously. We are considering going to Paris when we disembark for a few nights. I look forward to hearing more.