Barcelona SOS Mediterranean Greek Isle Cruise w/Paris and Copenhagen Review

[crvng4mr]

 

 

Of course we had to get gelato!

 

Airport

 

We ran into someone we knew in the airport. She is one of the supervisors in the MRS and WJ. She was on here way home for 2 months.

[crvng4mr]

Whew! That was close and we made it to the airport extra early. By now it was about 4:30 pm and we went inside to see if there was any information on what gate or area we would leave from.

 

As you can see in the previous picture we ran into someone from the ship. She was always smiling and making sure everything was okay. We asked her how we should find our gate and she told us that we would have to wait. They do not let you through security this early.

 

Maybe it was a miscommunication thing or something but that is absolutely not true. At least for us it wasn't. We decided to go upstairs to security and the gentleman explained we needed a stamp or something on our tickets. So we headed back downstairs to the ticket counter. Then the woman there said we need to just walk across to get the stamps at the window. So basically, if you ever take Ryanair Airlines, you need to print out your boarding passes ahead of time up until I believe 2 hours before or you will have to pay and then you must get your passes stamped at the window not the ticket counter if you are in Barcelona. This took all of 5 minutes so it was very easy but we had to ask as there were no signs explaining it well enough.

 

We headed back upstairs and straight through security. By this time we knew what section we needed to be in but the screens don't tell you the gate until 30 minutes before. We happened to sit at the gate we would leave out of. We ate some Burger King, ehew, for dinner, called home and reminisced about our vacation so far.

 

I will say that I thought it was bad when people stood in line even when their section to board had not been called yet. Our plane wasn't even at the gate yet and at least 100 people where in line.:eek::confused: Then there was another line for expedited people. We happened to have that on our ticket. I have no idea why or how but we got to board first. Really a good learning experience as it was very different than how it is done in the States.

 

We boarded and this was an old plane. Hey who cares right! As long as it does what is supposed to do and get us there safely. Well we thought the bus to the airport was bad. My row and the row in front of us kept gasping as things rattled and the plane would drop here and there. Then the pilot was going way too fast for landing so we all almost got whiplash and he had to back up to turn to get to the gate. We all almost kissed the ground after we landed.

 

Up next Paris!!!

[crvng4mr]

 

We were half way tilted here.

 

 

Safe and sound. I only paid $50 per ticket and we fly into Beauvais which is far from Paris. (At least 1 hour and 45 minutes) It was cheap but not worth it.

[vplsh]

What an awesome review, Ayasha!!! Thank you so much for writing it. DH and I are booked on this same itinerary on Vision of the Seas next July and hope to do many of the same things you did!

 

Your pictures are wonderful and your writing style fabulous. I laughed out loud a lot!

 

Good luck to your daughter in college!!!

 

 

Thanks again

[bearette]

I am looking into cheap inter Europe fares and all the dartboard experts told me you get what you pay for on those so only use if you know the rules, thanks for the warnings!

 

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[patreke]

Thanks for a great review and especially the amazing pictures of the Serenade. We are going in September and this just made it fell very real! i am kind of wishing we had more sea days.

 

Love all the pics…funny thing is I have a lot of the same ones from a previous visit to Rome, Sorrento, Positano Athens and Kusadesi.

 

Looking forward to the rest of the adventure!

[crvng4mr]

What an awesome review, Ayasha!!! Thank you so much for writing it. DH and I are booked on this same itinerary on Vision of the Seas next July and hope to do many of the same things you did!

 

Your pictures are wonderful and your writing style fabulous. I laughed out loud a lot!

 

Good luck to your daughter in college!!!

 

 

Thanks again

 

Thank you! I am jealous! I might have to stow away with you.;) You're making me blush. I am glad to hear you like my writing style. I haven't written anything this long besides work stuff in at least a decade. I enjoy writing but never allow myself enough time for it.

 

One of the perks of getting one out of the house is focusing more on me.:D I take her Wednesday so the count down is definitely on.

[crvng4mr]

I am looking into cheap inter Europe fares and all the dartboard experts told me you get what you pay for on those so only use if you know the rules, thanks for the warnings!

 

Sent from my KFTHWI using Forums mobile app

 

Yeah, it definitely is worth looking into. We loved Norwegian! We would not have minded the old plane on Ryanair but the ride was eventful and the landing scary. We might have had an adventurous pilot and I can not say I would never fly them again but all of the above plus the way out airport did not make it a great financial decision.

[crvng4mr]

Thanks! It is funny how many of us seem to take the same pictures.:)

 

Enjoy and I will have the beginning of Paris up tonight!

[Rocknsoul]

One of the perks of getting one out of the house is focusing more on me.:D I take her Wednesday so the count down is definitely on.

 

How I wish I could feel this way!! Mine is leaving Tuesday & I feel like I'm scrambling to hold on to every day because she's been so busy this summer. She's ready to go, except every now & then she thinks how much she'll miss it here. She'll miss the dogs the most!

 

The crazy part is she'll only be half an hour away!!:p I'm such a mess!!:o

[kirian]

 

I will say that I thought it was bad when people stood in line even when their section to board had not been called yet. Our plane wasn't even at the gate yet and at least 100 people where in line.:eek::confused: Then there was another line for expedited people. We happened to have that on our ticket. I have no idea why or how but we got to board first. Really a good learning experience as it was very different than how it is done in the States.

 

We boarded and this was an old plane. Hey who cares right! As long as it does what is supposed to do and get us there safely. Well we thought the bus to the airport was bad. My row and the row in front of us kept gasping as things rattled and the plane would drop here and there. Then the pilot was going way too fast for landing so we all almost got whiplash and he had to back up to turn to get to the gate. We all almost kissed the ground after we landed.

 

Up next Paris!!!

 

I had the same experience at the airport in BCN... although I guess I have experienced the crazy rush to the gate before you're called thing in the States too. Annoys me every time. Just sit down and WAIT until you're called people....geesh!

 

OK, I would have died before that plane even had the chance to land. I HATE flying and if a plane is rattling and hitting air pockets, well, that just about does me in. The only saving grace would have been if I had taken enough of my anti-anxiety meds before it all started. I think just reading your description of events got my heart rate several notches higher :eek:

 

Melissa

[Nana57]

Loving your review! Planning my Med cruise for next June. How did you arrange your private tours? How did you get the group together and did you have to leave a deposit with the companies? Also, can you list all the tour companies you used as we are doing the same trip. What month should we start reserving the tours? Thanks again.

[crvng4mr]

How I wish I could feel this way!! Mine is leaving Tuesday & I feel like I'm scrambling to hold on to every day because she's been so busy this summer. She's ready to go, except every now & then she thinks how much she'll miss it here. She'll miss the dogs the most!

 

The crazy part is she'll only be half an hour away!!:p I'm such a mess!!:o

 

I totally get it! At least you are only a half an hour and can visit in a heartbeat if you need to. I know I will even though mine is going to be 6 and a half hours away. I have no problem jumping in the car on a whim.:D

 

Luckily family weekend is in September, then she has a 4 day break in October (if she gets off work) she will come home, a week for Thanksgiving, a month for Christmas so that should hold me over.

[crvng4mr]

I had the same experience at the airport in BCN... although I guess I have experienced the crazy rush to the gate before you're called thing in the States too. Annoys me every time. Just sit down and WAIT until you're called people....geesh!

 

OK, I would have died before that plane even had the chance to land. I HATE flying and if a plane is rattling and hitting air pockets, well, that just about does me in. The only saving grace would have been if I had taken enough of my anti-anxiety meds before it all started. I think just reading your description of events got my heart rate several notches higher :eek:

 

Melissa

 

Yes but usually when they open the gate, not before there is an actual plane there.:eek:

 

I almost did! I definitely needed anxiety medicine for that plane ride. Usually it's the take off and landing that I get a little jittery with but this one was a different story.

[crvng4mr]

Loving your review! Planning my Med cruise for next June. How did you arrange your private tours? How did you get the group together and did you have to leave a deposit with the companies? Also, can you list all the tour companies you used as we are doing the same trip. What month should we start reserving the tours? Thanks again.

 

Thank you! All of my tours were done via email. I just listed which tours I booked on our roll call and then people just responded to the roll call or emailed me. Many tour operators took my cc(debit) info but never charged me as all of them wanted to be paid in cash at the end of the tour.

 

I used Rome In Limo for all 3 Italian Ports, Revelation Tours for Cannes, PK Travel for Athens and Best of Ephesus for Turkey. I reserved 3 months out but only because it took me awhile to research tours and what I wanted. I think the earlier the better, especially if you are going during summer. No problem!;)

[crvng4mr]

Last night I reread my review and apologize for so many grammatical and spelling errors. I should have written it on word first instead of straight to the board or at least reread 3times what I wrote before posting. *Hangs head in shame* Hopefully going forward I will do better. Time for Paris!

[sr4mjc]

Ah, I love Paris! This should be good..

[crvng4mr]

We last left off with us landing, barely, safe, sound and shaken up.:eek: Beauvais Airport is a very small airport that actually reminds me of the airport on Martha's Vineyard. There is not a whole lot to it.

 

Before we boarded in Barcelona I found a bus that goes from Beauvais to Paris Porte Maillot. It says on the website that there is a bus available after every flight that lands and that certainly seemed to be the case. The cost was 17 euro per person but you can get it for a little less by purchasing online. It is your typical charter bus, maybe abit older, with little room.

 

The whole time we were in the bus it rained lightly. It took about an hour and forty five minutes to get to Porte Maillot. The bus stops in what I would call a gravel parking lot. There are some cabs waiting if you want to go that route but me being the cheapskate that I was decided we would take the metro at 11:15 at night. Luckily there were about 25 other cheapskates who were doing it with me and the kids were game and so we set out for the metro. Let's see how this works out!:cool:

 

So we all set out purposely but not planned together to get to the metro. The first 2 entrances were closed and so we searched out for a third as this seemed like a station that has like 5 or 6 entrances/exits over a circular 5-6 blocks. (Like many ones in NYC). Luckily I saw another metro sign and we all headed in that direction. Okay so we finally get to the metro and I ask the ticket person how to get to the St. Michel station. She quickly explained I which train I need to what stop, then transfer there for another train to St. Michel and if I wanted to use a card to pay I would have to use the machines. What?! Change trains?! Use that machine thing? Is it in English?! And can you explain that again twice more? (Which she did btw)

 

After attempting to purchase metro tickets (not understanding the zones we would need) for several minutes I decided to just purchase the tickets with euros at the ticket booth so we could stay with our unofficial group from the bus.

 

Now remember I am a New Yorker and it really takes a lot to scare me in the way of neighborhoods, subways etc but not Ciera. I explained to the kids prior they needed to take great care with there things and be aware of there surroundings because of unsavory people who come in all shapes, sizes, ages etc. Ciera was on watch, serious watch and stood right by my side the entire time. She did not like the Paris metro so far and thought it was way worse than New York which she doesn't care for either. What she didn't realize at the time was that each city has different stations that are dirtier and older than some others and with homeless people. This was not the time to have that discussion and I would have to save it for another time.

 

I decided to ask a young woman in the "group" to help me figure out what stop I needed to change trains at since she seemed to know where she was going and we were engrossed in the station map and conversation as to what stop that would be. Little did I know everyone else including my children where watching a show across the tracks on the opposite platform. I would find out later in the comfort of our hotel that the "show" was a homeless man who happened to be lets say pleasuring himself for the "audience". Ciera was horrified and Cai thought it was disgusting but "Ce La Vie".

 

Anyway, we found the stop to transfer and made it to our next train. It only took about 12 minutes total to get to St. Michel from beginning to end. After we excited we asked a family if they knew which way we should go and our hotel was literally right around the corner we were standing at.:D It was now almost midnight and I had called from Barcelona to let them know we would get in extremely late so they were expecting us. The Hotel Albe at St. Michel did not disappoint.

 

We were given a room on the second floor and it was quite spacious for Europe and Paris. Unfortunately we had to call the front desk to have the young man come up to show us how to turn on the lights and the tv. I was so embarrassed but we were safe and happy! We were in Paris! Not to mention my kids deserved a medal for the extremely long day traveling we had.

 

We slept soundly that night!

 

Up next our first full day in Paris....but first some pictures of our hotel.

[crvng4mr]

2nd bed

 

 

 

 

 

[kirian]

Oh my! Your Metro to Paris experience sounds even scarier than my "where the heck did the the train station get moved to" adventure in Rome. So glad when I got further down in your post and read that you all made it safely to the hotel!!!

 

Melissa

[Cancruz]

You are a trooper! Can't wait to hear the rest of the story...

 

Ciera, Hope your adventure to Auburn is wonderful. Two of my friend's children got their MD there. God bless you on the rest of your life journey.

 

Ayasha, it gets better after the shock of leaving them at school. Tears all the way home. You have done an amazing job of raising them!

Edited August 9, 2014 by Cancruz

[dlafoot1]

What a fantastic review. I am booked for a 12-day for my birthday next year. Leaving out of Barcelona. I cannot wait. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences.

 

 

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[bcnvcanada]

Loving this, can hardly wait for Paris, and Copehagen. Thanks again, for

the great review and pictures.

[Irish Cath]

 

 

Aleysha this is such a funny coincidence for me. Last time we were in Paris we sat at a cafe/bar directly opposite your hotel wondering what it is like and thinking it might be a nice place to stay next time we're back. Well because of you I guess I know what its like now and heck even how to get there ! We are unfortunate enough to use Ryanair a lot of the time and yes most of them sound like your experience. :D

Edited August 10, 2014 by Irish Cath

[crvng4mr]

Oh my! Your Metro to Paris experience sounds even scarier than my "where the heck did the the train station get moved to" adventure in Rome. So glad when I got further down in your post and read that you all made it safely to the hotel!!!

 

Melissa

 

Yep! Only difference is at least we had 20 other people with us, even though we did not know them, many didn't speak english and we would never see them again.:)

 

We had never been more grateful to finally get in our room.