Serenade of the Seas picture heavy fun review–12 day Med cruise incl DIY port trips!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Monaco (part one of three)

 

While you wander along, it is a whole lot fun to watch people, cars and the scenery. The closer we got to the casino, the bigger and more expensive the cars got. Tarik has about a million pictures of cars which blow you away. Never seen so many Ferraris, Maseratis (MY new favourite cars in the world), Rolls Royces and Maybachs at the same time --- actually I have never seen any of these together at any time before. Well the kid was one happy kid! I think these cool cars were one of his highlights all trip long!

 

See him running around with his camera? We really had to watch him here—he got so excited that he didn’t pay attention to the fact that these cars still move and could potentially hit him anymore. It was a good thing he was nice and easy to spot with his yellow baseball cap on. This cap would play a bigger role later on.

 

The classical tourist shot I guess

 

This is the entrance to the Hotel next to the Casino. Before we left on the cruise I saw a documentary about people who’d plan on gambling in the Casino would rub the hoof of a metal horse in the lobby for good luck. The horses hoof apparently has been rubbed a lot – because there is a lot of wear – only on this hoof.

I really wanted to go rub that hoof….but we were dressed in shorts and had a big backpack with us …..and in front of this noble hotel there were these men in suits who’d greet you as a hotel customer…. To make a long story short …. I chickened out again….now I regret it. If you go to rub the horses hoof – please take a picture and post it for me, will ya?

 

After dragging Tarik away from the cars – which was quite tough– we strolled back down to and around the harbour. From internet port guides we knew where to find the elevator to bring us up to the palace.

 

And wasn’t it a beautiful path leading to it?

 

 

 

Cool elevators – right in the mountain.

 

 

More on Monaco next up!

[ms8654]

Thank you for such a detail review!!

 

Three of my memories of my time in Monaco a couple of years ago.

 

On the backside of the casino was a hill to climb from where the bus dropped us off. I was rushing to catch up with my group and was grateful I was in decent condition as the hill was a pretty good climb. As I reached the top wi a little huffing and puffing, I noticed a heart defibrillator. I thought to myself, "Well, I know why they put that there." LOL

 

While waiting to cross the corner before starting to climb the above mentioned hill, a Mercedes station wagon pulled in front of me. A man was standing on the front seat sticking out of the sun roof. He was a paparazzi taking pictures of the two guys in the very expensive sports car behind him. From the angle of the cars and where I was standing, I'm sure I was in the pictures. I wished I would have known if they were published, I could be famous....... :)

 

As I went back down the hill, I picked up my BFF's mom from a park where she chose to stay while I wandered up the hill. It was a pretty warm day so we decided to buy ice cream at a little stand. I look down and see a camera memory card. I picked it up to give to the vendor. I changed my mind and put it in my pocket. The entire area was filled with people on tours from our ship. That evening we loaded the card into the laptop. Crossing out fingers we would not infect the computer or see something that we shouldn't, we started going through the photos. My friend recognized the family in the photos having seen the Dad around the ship, the next day we began a quest to find that man. By lunchtime we found him. I retrieved the card and gave it to him. Ironically his cabin was directly below mine. I don't know what made me keep that card, but I just had am inkling the owner was on the ship. I thought if I give the card to the vendor it will never find its owner. The camera bag had fallen open. He thought he picked up everything and obviously missed the card. It had all of his photos from Barcelona and Provence, plus the Fourth of July family party.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Monaco (part two of three)

Once we were uptown we just started to follow the signs leading to the palace. The Oceanogaphic museum was to the left…but we missed to look at it from the sea level -- it sort of stands right by the mountain and once you took the elevators uptown all you see is the unspectacular upper story from the back. Sigh, but there’s just not enough time to do it all in a day. Common cruise problem. Next to the Museum there was this little guy:

Ever since the soccer world championship in 2006 I love Octopusses. Anybody remember Paul – the Octopus who foretold all the results? Loved him! So this was a mandatory picture for me!

Well, we kept walking, wondering how much further it was to the palace and suddenly stood in front of the cathedral by mistake. We didn’t actually plan on visiting this sight, but we figured since we were standing right in front of it already—let’s go in.

This church has a dark glow to it. Tanja describes it as a place of mourning and grief – I rather felt the dark beauty of it… like in a romantic vampire movie. The use of light to highlight the darkness ( I know – strange – but that’s how I felt) and the silent music sent shivers down my spine.

This place is beautiful – dark yes, but classy.

In the back of the church you have the graves of many of the Grimaldi Family. Of course the grave of Grace Kelly and Rainier are the most frequented ones.

Mmhh, Tanja said: Would you want your mother to lay here with thousands of tourists goggling at it each day? No – I probably wouldn’t. It was crowded in between the graves…sort of like waiting in line to pass all the dead people. And most people weren’t behaving accordingly…it’s just not a place to talk out loud or even make jokes. Even our kid acknowledged and respected that – why can’t some grown ups do the same? Rant over.

Once out in the sun again – without turning into ashes -- we fought our way to the palace through real tight tourist lanes.

If you love Ferraris or the Formula one in general…this is your place to shop.

Finally we made it to the palace.

See me pulling out my imaginary sword like the first Grimaldi who sneakily got in the palace dressed as a monk to take over this place ever since? Muhahaha, let’s take over Monaco -- lol – I guess that trick won’t work anymore.

More to come!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi ms8654,

 

lol -- I saw some Defibrillators too :eek:(and many signs telling you where the next one would be located at)...I've read that Monaco is the country with the longest life expectancy of its inhabitants:)...I guess they're working hard to keep up that standard:D.

 

Thanks so much for your shared memories. See, I would have forgotten all about the defibrillators otherwise. Cool, that you could find the owner of that card...ask Carol how it feels to (even if only temporary) loose all of those precious memories!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Monaco (last part)

 

See this guy behind the cool looking guard?

 

He’s actually the cooler one of the two – he’s the personal mailman of the prince himself (it said so on the back of his shirt.) … ain’t that cool? To have your own personal mailman?

 

Anway, let’s finish up Monaco. We still had to take the mandatory picture with the scenery…

 

Check!

 

We walked around to find the next bus station (Look at Mr. Cool with Monaco in the background – too bad he’s not into girls yet, or he could show off with this picture)….

 

 

Check!

 

The public bus system in Monaco is EXCELLENT!

 

Don’t even think about taking the little train or the Hohobus. Both are horribly expensive and stuffed with people to the max! All public busses were pretty much empty … and they go where you want to go too! This is a sign for the nr. 2 bus.

 

 

It runs every 10 minutes. It covers the palace, the harbour, the casino, the train station and the exotic garden. What more would you wish to do in a day? A day pass is only €5:00 per person…we ended up not using it, since we enjoyed our stroll…but still an unbelievably cheap and convenient way to get around Monaco. We only used it to get back to the train station (we were pooped) and therefore got three single tickets at 2€ (?) each. The tickets are even cool themselves…they have a panoramic picture of Monaco printed on the back – great additional souvenir! The ride from the palace to the Train station brought us one more time past the harbour and the casino, which we enjoyed (some more than others -- Tarik was a little exhausted).

 

 

At the train station we got off, because there really wasn’t enough time left to do the exotic garden thoroughly. Too bad, I really wanted to see the cave they have there. Anyway, we figured, since we were at the station early, we’d just hop on an early train and this way we’d have some time left to stroll around Cannes.

 

Well – it didn’t work out like this at all. We barely missed one train that left to Cannes. Grrrr. But no biggy – you can’t always luck out when it comes to catching trains afterall. We looked in the departure announcements and saw that the next one to Cannes – due in an hour – was already delayed… Mhh, but there was a train that went to Nice in about 20 minutes…We decided to take that one, so we’d have at least managed half the trip already (and the station in Nice was a station above the ground, so we’d be able to wait in the sunlight).

 

This train was really full, but we managed to get a seat. Tanja and Tarik fell asleep instantly. They woke up shortly before Nice and we left the train. Then we waited…and waited…almost got on the wrong train (I refused to board it – which was good, because it was headed to Italy which we found out later) and finally there was a train pulling into the platform overflowing with people, since two! regional trains to Cannes haven’t shown up like they were supposed to. Well – this was pretty much our only chance to get back to Cannes, so we squeezed in.

 

Man, I NEVER was in a train this full before. We stood so squeezed together you couldn’t breathe without having someones hair in your face, moving was impossible, close body contact in all directions. At least nobody could fall down this way either. It took forever till the doors could close, since there were people blocking it standing too close to those doors. After desperately trying to squeeze in one more inch the doors would actually manage to close…I was sweating profusely already and it literally hurt to be pushed against all these people. Tanja and I tried to form a circle around Tarik, so at least he wouldn’t be pushed too bad. All this and the train hadn’t even start to move yet! Oh fun!

 

But I thought – well, we already are in Nice – so how bad can it get? I thought we’d be on the tracks for about 30 minutes … maybe 45 because of all these people and the doorclosing problems.

 

Oh boy was I mistaken. This train took another route to Cannes. Earlier on we had about 5 stops between Nice and Cannes. This time I believe it was 20! We almost died! At least it emptied out a tiny bit, so we could breath and not be painfully squeezed anymore…but sitting, or moving for more than 2 inches – still unthinkable of. We started to worry – time was flying past (the train sure wasn’t) that we’d miss the ship. The last tender was at 17:30. It was now 16:50 and we were still not in Cannes!

 

We finally arrived at the station at 17:05. There wasn’t a taxi in sight! We were amongst the RUNNERS! I hated it. Refused to do it. They ran past us. Don’t get me wrong – we had a pretty strong walking pace, but running --- no! We made it to the second last tender and felt like we ran a marathon! We didn’t make it to the first formal dinner or to the theatre that night…we just got a bite to eat and basically crashed for a while. Tanja and I tried to watch the movie later on that night, but even then we were still too exhausted to stay awake till the end.

 

What did we learn?

 

Monaco was fun!

We definitely don’t earn enough money to live here.

Trains are generally cool, but can be a severe stress test in some circumstances.

We managed to pull it through as a family.

Would we do it again – YES! But Monaco isn’t one of the places I’d have to say I need to come back here. I would, and I’d enjoy it, but I don’t have to.

 

…..and now I wrote so much that all the housework is still undone and my animals are giving me the LOOK. I have to say I’ll take off the day tomorrow to catch up with everyday life… but I’ll return on Friday…promise!

 

Next up on Friday: La Spezia!

[Mizsuzee]

Just wanted to say that I'm really enjoying your review/travel story!!! We are taking a similar cruise next month on the Serenade (not to Venice, however) and it's great to see your photos and read all about the trip! Thanks for your time and effort doing this!! :)

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Just wanted to say that I'm really enjoying your review/travel story!!! We are taking a similar cruise next month on the Serenade (not to Venice, however) and it's great to see your photos and read all about the trip! Thanks for your time and effort doing this!! :)

 

 

Hi Mizsuzee,

 

Thank you! you're welcome! Ahh, the excitement a month before the cruise... I'm a little post-cruise jealous ... but just a little:).

 

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

I'm back! Did you miss me?

 

Today we'll start with beautiful Cinque Terre. But first of course the cruise compasses:

 

Day 3 -- La Spezia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

more to come!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Day 3 -- La Spezia (part one of seven)

 

This was the “surprise” port of call….because when we booked the cruise, we were supposed to stop in Livorno instead. The next surprise happened about a month later, when the “tender” port changed into a “docked” port.

 

Well, to shorten this up a bit – we pretty much were stoked about both changes! We had already done Pisa and Florence from Livorno last year, and although we would have loved to do that again, discovering something new was just so much more exciting -- and being docked would just give us more time to do so!

 

Our plan was to catch an early train to Vernazza, hike the famous trail to Corniglia and from there to Manarola (this way we wouldn’t have to climb UP those horrible stairs). Take the train to Sarzana, from there the bus to Tellaro to a beautiful beach called Spiaggia Eco del mare. Here we could chill out in the afternoon and show Tarik how to snorkel before returning to the ship by bus, since it would drop us off pretty close to La Spezia harbour. This of course meant, that I would have to carry our snorkelling gear with us all day, since there would be not enough time to stop by the ship during the day. But I LOVE snorkeling and I was willing to carry it for the whole trail ahead of us.

 

It was wonderful to approach La Spezia early in the morning. Once again, we let Tarik sleep in a little longer and enjoyed our morning coffee routine in the outside portion of the Windjammer. The light and the scenery was Wow (that’s where I took the picture showing the outdoor WJ – if you’d like to enjoy it again scroll back to page 6).

 

But let’s get started with our port trip. We left the ship around 7:15 I believe.

 

 

There were shuttle busses waiting and we were on the road in no time.

 

 

We were docked in the container port…no way you could have moved around this place without the shuttle busses, it would have been real dangerous – and was forbidden anyway.

 

Look – we’re in Italy! Even these …ahem… whatever you call them -- are made by Ferrari!

 

Well, once the shuttle bus drops you off, there are info stands with nice people handing out free maps of La Spezia. They even had a little stamp added to the map which said “you are here”. That helped immensely since we thought we’d be dropped off at the other side of the harbour where the cinque terre ferries start. Bummer. This meant we had a longer walkway to the train station. But it was a very nice walk indeed. First you stroll through a walkway alongside the harbour with big palm trees until you get to the ferry station. Here you turn right and just keep walking straight ahead. This will lead you through the shopping pedestrian street pretty much all the way to the train station. This walk at LEAST takes 30 minutes from the shuttlebus drop off point!

 

Here you can decide…either you choose the right street (leading up to the train station with an incline, or you choose the left street,which will bring you to the bottom of some metal stairs, which will lead you up to the train station as well.

 

This cracked me up…in order to get to the stairs from the train station, you have to pass this sign … which apparently you’re not allowed to….but everybody did it anyway. The stairs are behind the first building to the left.

 

To get the tickets was a lesson in tolerance. There was ONE ticket booth open. There were two Italian elderly women chatting away with the only ticket selling person around. We’re really not impatient people. I hope not at least. But this Italian epic chat brought us close to the point of despair. 10 minutes into the chat a second counter opened up…but there was already a line that had formed there as well and we thought, what the heck, they must be done chatting pretty soon now. The train to Vernazza of course left in the mean time – without us, since we were still waiting to buy our tickets. When we actually approached the counter and had bought our tickets it dawned on us, that we’d have an hour and a half wait until the next train. Well—we really had to fight hard to keep our language clean at that point. I was so upset that I left Tanja and Tarik at the platform to walk around La Spezia on my own for a while. I just hate it when my plans don’t work out – and since I knew how delayed we’d be in Vernazza – it was clear that our afternoon plans of snorkelling in Eco del mare had just dissolved in thin air. I was in a bad mood and just needed a time out. After 45 minutes of walking I felt much better and returned to the two waiting at the station. The train ride was a mix between tunnels and beautiful scenery.

 

Important: If you need to go to the restroom and you’re headed for Vernazza….go early…or on the train …anything….but whatever you do DON’T go use the facilities on the platform in Vernazza!!!!! Despite the fact, that it is only a whole in the ground, it was in the worst possible hygienic state….and believe me I’m not picky at all! Just don’t go there!

 

Looks okay from the outside, doesn’t it? But trust me! Don’t try it!

 

More to come!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Cinque Terre (La Spezia part two)

 

Vernazza and Italy – the land of the Panda

 

First thing we did in Vernazza (let’s just forget about the traumatic restroom experience) was to walk down to the waterfront.

 

Proof – we were there.

 

But we couldn’t really appreciate the beauty, because we really wanted to get going on the trail to Corniglia. But where did it start? We looked around by the water, but didn’t find any signs. So we decided to hike back up the street towards the station. Good Idea. At a big wall straight ahead there was a big sign marking the beginning of the trail. Right in front of that wall we saw this:

 

It’s an (ancient) police panda! Whoohoo. Go panda!

 

We saw his younger brother in La Spezia:

 

And look….it’s orange…and it’s a four wheel drive

 

 

And last (for today) but not least:

 

Whoohoo – I’m a HUGE TRUCK! I can carry my own ladder!

 

Can you tell we really like pandas?

 

More to come!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Cinque Terre (La Spezia part three)

 

The Sentiero Azzurro (trail nr. 2)

 

You start by climbing a whole lot of steps. While you do that you get to see some of the last remnants of the heavy floods that almost destroyed Vernazza two years ago.

 

 

After a whole lot more steps you’re being rewarded with this view.

 

 

Shortly after that you get to a toll booth, where you have to buy your cinque terre card if you don’t already have one…now here is one point I’m not quite sure of…does this card enable you to take the trains to and from La Spezia as well? If it does, we were too stupid too prebuy it on the internet…anybody know? I knew there was supposed to be a store near the train station in La Spezia where you can buy it, but there was nothing open when we were there. But I was over my little grunch in the morning and just happy to be on this beautiful trail – so we just bought the cards here and moved on.

 

 

…of course to find a whole lot more steps

 

 

…to the point where the kid really needed a rest.

 

 

Lol – ask and you shall receive …we stumbled into this gate

 

 

Tanja and I were hoping for a Café with ice cold drinks (and maybe a glass of wine), but you can’t buy any drinks here. It’s a private home, which the owner has opened up to the public to rest a while. He has a sofa and other places to sit and relax. You can use the faucet to get tap water…a little plate next to it for tips. It’s a really nice place worth stopping by. He sells some self made jewellery and art work there as well.

 

Tarik loved it for another reason…

 

More to come!

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Cinque Terre (La Spezia part four)

 

The Sentiero Azzurro (trail nr. 2)

 

 

There was a cat! Tarik instantly forgot his sore limbs and was in heaven cuddling this (really filthy but friendly) cat. Sigh. We just made sure he washed his hands afterwards and let him be happy. This was a great place to get out our drinks. We didn’t bring any food, but enjoyed a lot of our ship's water here. Luckily they don’t check for liquids on the way off the ship in the morning, so we always filled empty waterbottles from the day before with fresh water and had plenty to drink all day long. It was hot, the trail is really strenuous and we drank pretty much a Litre of water per person! Great effect – my backpack was getting lighter all the time! Just remember you have to take fresh plastic glasses to get the water at the fountains each time—otherwise you’ll get in trouble with the RCI staff (yup – happened to me). Most of the times it was Tarik’s job to make a few trips to the fountain to refill our water supply for the day. But I’m drifting once again…back to the trail.

 

From here on the trail was easier (thank God). We passed some Olive yards

 

(the nets will be unrolled for the harvest)

 

basically we just moved on enjoying the breathtaking scenery

 

 

 

And there’s where we’re headed to:

 

Corniglia!

 

…and…

...what do you think…

was the kid as dead as a doornail once we arrived there?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NO WAY!!!!!

 

We’re so proud of him! But by this time we were pretty much starved and needed FOOD!

 

More to come!

[kirian]

Your timing of the Cinque Terre/La Spezia pics are PERFECT! I am researching what do to in La Spezia and was leaning towards Cinque Terre, but after seeing your amazing photos, I am DEFINITELY doing this on our stop at this port now.

 

Thank so much for all the time and effort you are putting in this review. You are doing an AMAZING job!!!!

 

Melissa

[Hobie]

Thank you for your great review and funny stories! I really enjoy the details you provide and all of the great pictures.

 

I just found your review today and am catching up!

 

I will be stepping onboard Serenade of the Seas one week from today (8/23) although our itinerary is a little different than yours.

 

Thanks again!

 

Hobie.

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Your timing of the Cinque Terre/La Spezia pics are PERFECT! I am researching what do to in La Spezia and was leaning towards Cinque Terre, but after seeing your amazing photos, I am DEFINITELY doing this on our stop at this port now.

 

Thank so much for all the time and effort you are putting in this review. You are doing an AMAZING job!!!!

 

Melissa

 

Hi Melissa,

 

lol --stop that! I keep blushing:o!

 

...but it actually feels quite good to hear that you're enjoying all of this:p!

 

I'll try to finish Cinque Terre tomorrow! 2 and a half more posts...and I'm uploading pictures for it already. I have an emercency call weekend coming up -- so if it's busy you guys will have to be patient until monday -- but most likely I'll have quite some time to go on with the review...we have great weather here right now and then it tends to be less work -- don't ask me why. I have no clue!

 

I really loved the trail between Vernazza and Corniglia-- keep in mind that the very first part between Manarola and Riomaggiore will be closed until 2014! By the time you'll be cruising it should be less hot -- so that will be really nice! But good hiking boots and sufficient drinking water are a must for this trail! We saw some tourists in Sandals...they looked really miserabel.

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Thank you for your great review and funny stories! I really enjoy the details you provide and all of the great pictures.

I just found your review today and am catching up!

I will be stepping onboard Serenade of the Seas one week from today (8/23) although our itinerary is a little different than yours.

Hobie.

 

 

Hi Hobie,

 

glad you like the review. Wow -- only one more week! You must be real excited! But then again, looking at your cruise history -- man, those are a lot of cruises. Have you been to all the upcoming ports before or are they new to you? I'll try to finish Cinque Terre this weekend and get started if not finished with Rome as well. Maybe I can manage to do Salerno as well before you leave on our cruise, but I don't know that yet...a week is just gone so fast.

 

thanks again.

 

Stef

[relaxlynn]

I have just found your review and I am loving it. I am on the same cruise as Melissa (22Oct) so the timing is perfect. After reading of your experience in Monaco I am hoping to get up the courage to do it on my own. That train ride back is what scared me. Nightmares of missing trains, buses, planes...

 

I hope you have a slow weekend so we don't have to wait long for more of your adventure.

 

Lynn

[kirian]

Just me hijacking again to give a shot out to my fellow roll-caller, relaxlynn, and her hubby relaxkarl (who is doing a fabulous job of handling the actual roll call in Sandra's absence). Lynn, so glad you came over to Stef's review. She is doing an amazing job and has so many wonderful tips for us to make our Oct 22nd cruise even better :)

 

Ok, latest thread hijack over :D

 

Melissa

[WillWorkForCruise121]

Hi Melissa, Lynn , Peg and of course stef. My wife jessica and I are also on the October 22nd sailing and really enjoying your review.

 

We are planning on doing a lot of the DIY shore excursions too and so far your review has been extremely helpful in our planning. Just wanted to say thank you and we will be looking forward to your upcoming details :)

 

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Forums mobile app

[ms8654]

Hi Stef,

 

I just finished reading your Adventure review, which I liked too. I have packed a wine bottle opener in my suitcase in the past and it has that knife (that style I think always does to cut open the foil). It has never been an issue. I'm curious if RCCL will confiscate it from my suitcase or was it only an issue since you had it in your carry on? Although I can request one from the room steward, I'd rather just have my own available in my cabin.

 

Had to laugh about your Taco Bell comment. We have them on every corner in Las Vegas. Too many in my opinion. Where in CA did you live?

 

Marie

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Cinque Terre (La Spezia part five)

 

Corniglia

 

We didn’t have mere lunch – we feasted here! Tanja and I shared a bottle of wine and the ice cold water was delicious! We were in a grand mood!

 

 

Okay guys – you look like carps---let’s try this again:

 

Much better - -thank you.

 

 

My pasta with fresh pesto (a specialty of the region) was plain phenomenal.

 

 

 

After all that wine of course one needs a restroom…but how to wash your hands? Look on the ground – you need to activate the water with your feet!

 

 

After this magnificent and long lasting lunch stop we decided to stroll around Corniglia for a bit. We found a terrace uphill, where you have the most wonderful views in both directions of the coast. What caught my eyes was this little bay down below

 

 

I did have our snorkelling gear with me afterall – and we sure wouldn’t make our regular planned snorkelling trip. Tanja knew what was coming! I wanted to go down there real bad to snorkel. Well, Tanja’s leg was pretty much done with walking extra stairs this day and she decided to stay up in Corniglia and chill for a while. Tarik was joining me to go down to the waterfront to jump into the sea for the very first time ever! Would he like it? First we had to hike down there

 

 

Almost there!

 

More to come!

[JasonTehGreat]

You know I must say; Tarik is very lucky to have come to such a wonderful family, I just wish his earlier life had not been so difficult. I also hope he knows he has an international fan base!

 

Sent from my GT-P5113 using Forums mobile app

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

I have just found your review and I am loving it. I am on the same cruise as Melissa (22Oct) so the timing is perfect. After reading of your experience in Monaco I am hoping to get up the courage to do it on my own. That train ride back is what scared me. Nightmares of missing trains, buses, planes...

 

I hope you have a slow weekend so we don't have to wait long for more of your adventure.

 

Lynn

 

Hi Lynn,

 

welcome to the review and thank you!

 

 

 

I'd do Monaco again on my own in an instant...I think it was just bad luck that two trains were delayed. It might even be possible, that one of the faster regional trains passed us on the way to Cannes. They had some kind of mumbled announcement in French on the train, which we didn't understand (but I think it said in order to get to Cannes a bit faster change into another train at the next station .... since we were really late already, and weren't sure if we understood correctly --we didn't dare to leave this train which went to Cannes for sure though).

 

 

Afterall -- what's the worst that can happen -- let's just imagine you actually DO miss the ship in Cannes. The next port will most likely be in northern Spain or northern Italy -- both destinations can easily be reached by train in a couple of hours. A hotel room for one night is always to be found -- even spontaneously -- and you can reboard the ship the next day. Yes -- It's embarrassing to get back on and maybe having to talk to guest services. But you'll definitely have another overnight adventure to talk about after your vacation! I'd go for it!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

Hi Melissa, Lynn , Peg and of course stef. My wife jessica and I are also on the October 22nd sailing and really enjoying your review.

 

We are planning on doing a lot of the DIY shore excursions too and so far your review has been extremely helpful in our planning. Just wanted to say thank you and we will be looking forward to your upcoming details :)

 

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Forums mobile app

 

Hi WillWorkForCruise121,

 

 

Lol- I absolutely LOVE your screen name! Thank you and welcome to the review!

 

Stef

[Kreuzfahrtneuling]

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I also hope he knows he has an international fan base!

 

 

Hi Jason,

 

:DOh, I HAVE to tell him that! He'll LOVE it:cool:! How cool:D!

 

Stef