Our families viewpoint of our Meditterreanean cruise

[tidygirl]

Well here goes my first attempt of a review or whatever you want to call it!

 

A little about us my hubby and I are 48, 2 daughters went with us 27 and 23, and SIL 24. We are very active and also budget minded (the more we can do for as cheap as possible is our goal) so several of our days was DIY days.

We left from Pittsburgh to Barcelona Sept 19th with a layover in Chicago and Philadelphia arrived in Barcelona at 8:45 AM Sat. morning. We flew using Choice air as I had got flights at $400 pp cheaper than any travel site I had checked on for 6 tickets that was a big savings (Yes I said 6! Our son decided he wasn't going a couple months ago) fortunately everything went well and all our luggage arrived with us!

More details to follow

[pattle66]

I'm looking forward to following your review. We are sailing Splendour in the Med next month.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

I am looking forward to the rest of your review! Good start.

[Flacruiser123]

Yeah! Wanna hear about the med. Would you tell us the itinerary and ship first?

[FunX5]

Can't wait for the rest of it!!

[Bobkat26]

Excited as well to hear we are diy ourselves and love to hear about others experiences

 

Kathy

[tidygirl]

We were on the Liberty leaving from Barcelona with stops at Marseille, Villefranche, Laspezia (Florence/Pisa) Rome and Naples. Very port intensive which we like, but were definitely tired by Sat! My families philosophy on vacation is "who needs sleep you can do that at home!"

I'm trying how to figure out how to put pictures on with this, but my daughter and I haven't had any luck. Guess it's time to get the SIL (a computer programmer to help me out!)

[Iamthesea]

If you want to add just a few small photos, you can go to the Manage Attachments (gray box) below the Reply to Thread.

 

If you want your photos to be larger, and in multiples, you can join a program like Photobucket, that supply links to post on threads. Here are examples of both styles - Photobucket photo and CruiseCritic thumbnail.

 

Edited October 15, 2014 by Iamthesea

[mrsfecura]

Looking forward to your review! We did the 12 night Med on Serenade last year!

[tidygirl]

After asking at the information desk how much a taxi would be (at least 55e for 5 of us) We decided no better time than to learn the public transportation system as we would be using that for several port days.

I had researched and knew if I found the tobacco stand at the airport I could buy a T-10 card that our family could share for 10 rides for only 10E Now that sounds better to me, so off we go first to a bus then the Metro (scary stuff for beginners)

At the metro we went down a couple flights of stairs and realized we were on the wrong side so back up we go! Now this is where I advise if you have physical limitations or lots of luggage this was a challenge. A 50# suitcase and a backpack that weighed 25# thought I might die and I am in pretty good shape!

Well made it to our stop and our accommodations. Thankfully were very close by. We stayed at Operaramblas Hostel a clean, basic hotel which is what I had hoped for a bed and a shower at a decent price, with a bonus of being much closer to La Rambla than I thought!

Had planned on going to Park Guell to hike and check out the view, but was told by the desk clerk that you had to pay to go into the park and we wouldn't get in that day. We wandered around the streets debating what to do and since I had my heart set on going took the bus. The clerk was wrong you do not have to pay to hike and check out the views that is only to go in the main part to see the buildings. Was well worth the trip the views of Barcelona was worth it!

Our final goal for the day was to stay awake long enough to see the light show at the Majic Fountain. We arrived at 9:00pm and waited finally at 9:30 we heard someone say the light were not working and there would be no show that night. We waited 15 more minutes hoping they were wrong and after reassuring the family we'd try to see it when we came back from our cruise and decided to call it a night!

1st views of Spain

Barcelona

Park Guell

[tidygirl]

View from Park Guell

[sqykkhickinb]

I am looking forward to the rest of your review!

[tidygirl]

After doing homework for a year and a half and following advice from here and Trip Advisor I bought tickets for 10:30 the next morning for entrance to the Sagrada Familia and also one tower. My family was very impressed with this church much more than the Vatican. The details were just jaw dropping!

Word of advise if you really want to see this buy your tickets ahead of time! Lines were super long and they weren't even going to get in the same day!

Stairs in the Nativity Tower

[tidygirl]

Time to head to the ship- we got our luggage from the lockers at the hostel and took the Metro to the station close to the Christopher Columbus Statue. right behind there is a port bus that will take you to the shop for 2e a piece. Could have walked it if we REALLY wanted to but 3 miles with all the luggage. No we'll pass on that!

Arrived at the terminal at 2:50 PM and I had priority line passes, but they were not needed we were headed onto the ship by 3:00 PM Fastest check in ever!

Our rooms were already ready so dropped our carryons off and guess where we went next? The good old Windjammer!

I have no complaints with the ship and our room attendant Bibi was exceptional! She was so friendly and very attentive. My hubby asked if she would bring a bucket of ice sometime before bed (no hurry) and she took off and got it immediately!

We had inside rooms and our 1 daughter shared with us. I know some people thing the rooms are 2 small for 3 people with luggage but we make it work just fine! We've had 4 in our room no problem! We honestly are cruisers that know our vacation style, and realize we literally only use our room for sleeping and showering! We are constantly on the go as I said previously there is lot's to see and do as we are on vacation. No sitting on the beach for hours for us!

[drarill]

Excellent start!! looking forward to the rest of your review. :)

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Wonderful pictures! I am looking forward to the rest.:)

[tidygirl]

1st stop - Marseille France

Our ship was docked at the farthest point on the pier, we were planning on walking following the green line to town. Approximately 1 mile out we saw a sign for a free bus shuttle on Fri. Sat and Sun that would take you to the port entrance. As luck would have it a bus was waiting so decided to save some energy for later!

Our plans were to go to the Calanques Sugriton to do some hiking. The bus left us off and we were within 2 blocks of the Jolliette Train station we took the train to Castellane and switched to bus 21 till Luminy's last stop. Now the ride wasn't a short one as there were a lot of stops, (close to 2 hours 1 way) but we were very pleased with the end result. We ended up hiking 2 and 1/2 hrs and could have spent plenty more time there but had to make sure we timed everything right to get back to the ship on time.

We had seen some flea market stalls set up that morning and we had planned to look around for a little while to purchase souveniers, but by 4:30 or so everything was gone!

Calanques

[tidygirl]

I had booked a tour with Provence Riveria Tours (the most reasonable one I could find online with good Trip Advisor ratings)

Our day was to start at 8:30 AM and our first stop was Eze a neat little village we had maybe 45 minutes to check it out

 

 

Next stop Monoco to the the Monte Carlo speedway

 

Casino

 

Most expensive hotel in the world (or so the tour guide told us)

Edited October 19, 2014 by tidygirl
fixing pictures

[tidygirl]

We also got to watch the changing of the guards

Then a quick drive though of Nice

and back to the port

That evening watched the ice show which is always impressive. Then hurried to catch the main evening show. They had a very talented violinist, but my family don't really enjoy listening to music being played so decided to leave the show early as we had another early morning wake up call for 6:00 Am

[DaNana]

Beautiful Pictures. We certainly enjoyed our time in the Mediterranean last year. Making me long to be there again!

[tidygirl]

We kept noticing a large amount of people wearing either matching shirts or a lanyard around their neck with a name on it. After questioning our room attendant we were informed that all balcony rooms had been booked by this group with a total of 2,000 to 2,500 people on board.

Now this did affect the evening shows as they had their own private parties. It was fine for us as we didn't need to worry about finding seats, but I did feel bad for the entertainers as they had some small audiences.

One other thing we all noticed on this cruise was how much the Windjammer was used especially for dinner! In 10 or 11 cruises my husband and I have only did the MDR once (gasp!) I guess we are too impatient and active to sit 1 or 2 hours for a meal. We all like to get what we want, eat and run! The kids are like WOW there are more than 10 people in here! We heard one couple discussing why would they go wait when for and hour or more when they could get a lot of the same food as the MDR? They even had beef wellington the one evening that both hubby and SIL thought was the best ever!

I wonder if the secret is out that the Windjammer is pretty good for dinner or whether it was because it was such a port intensive cruise that people missed the early dining times?

Now one complaint here and it is NOT the cruise ships fault at all, but the night we got back from Rome it was insane in the WJ they were so busy they could hardly keep up! The complaint is RUDE people not sure if it's a culture thing or not, but I figure it's universal if there's a line you wait in the back? You don't jump to the front! I have no problem if there's a big gap in the line and someone jumps in front of me to get gravy or salad dressing, but my girls were so aggravated by the time they sat down to eat after people were literally reaching in front of them almost knocking them over to get the tongs that we tried to eat a little later the following evenings to avoid the frustration.

[tidygirl]

We took public transportation to Pisa- if anyone wants more detailed information how to get to the leaning tower let me know and I will try to help you out

We had booked the climb at 11:00 AM I had asked the family before the trip if they wanted to climb, They said YES if we are there we have to climb it!

It was definitely a unique experience you felt like you were staggering from one side of the tower to the other and only 295 steps!

The other buildings by the Leaning Tower

The Leaning Tower

The steps actually worn down

We also stopped in Florence but didn't have much time (less than an hour as we had to get back to the ship on time). We did get to see the street hustlers quite entertaining to watch when you realize what they are doing, They lay the stuff they are selling out on the street and when they know the police are coming the stuff is up in their ares or a big cloth bag and off they go till it's safe again.

Now this is where it got a little stressful we had got the 3:45 train and had a 6 min connection time. The next train was running late and we arrived in La Spezia at 5:55 we had a 20 min walk back to the port (had to walk very fast and also do some jogging), got on the port shuttle bus at 6:15 back at the ship at 6:29 all aboard was 6:30!! A little to close for comfort as I prefer to be back at the minimum 15 min 30 is better!

Edited October 20, 2014 by tidygirl

[maureencruiser]

Great photos, keep 'em coming! :)

[clochette]

great review thanks.

[Retirement]

Could you please give detailed instructions for getting to Pisa on public transportation? We will be there in 2 weeks.

Thanks! Anita