Sanitiser,Sangria and Sunsets - A 13 day Equinox review Barcelona to Rome

[Velvetwater]

Hi!

 

I always try and get a day by day review out from my cruises but this will be my first Celebrity one...hurrah!

 

About us and how we booked

We are married twentysomething teachers and always cruise in the UK summer holidays. We adore Carnival and enjoy its community feel and fun factor on its ships as well as the great price. We like culture and good food but do like to stay up late and enjoy ourselves. We have never experienced Carnival trash as some say it is but we did want to try another line just to see.

 

Here we are in our favourite Port Kotor:

 

 

J likes cruises but not as much as me and decided to have a cruise break this year. That was until I bought him a 3DS and games for his birthday and he announced I could have one. This was the end of April when all the sales had gone so I searched high and low for a bargain cruise that didn't repeat too many ports for our Vista cruise next year.

 

After expensive airfares to Asia and the US and Royal's Iceland cruise rocketing we finally saw this 13 day voyage for the bargain price of £988 ($1470) pp for a guarantee ocean view and we were sold. We wanted to do the European train thing so booked cheap train routes with hotel stops:

 

Day 1 : Eurostar London to Paris, Paris to Perpignan (South of France)

 

Day 2 : Perpignan to Barcelona quick train, overnight in Barcelona

 

Day 3-15 : Board the Equinox stopping at Toulon (France), Cannes (France), Livorno (Italy), Corsica (France), Valetta (Malta), Kotor (Montenegro), Corfu (Greece), Messina (Italy), Salerno (Italy), Rome (Italy) with 3 sea days.

 

Day 16: Rome to Milan, Milan overnight stop

 

Day 17: Milan to Paris, Eurostar Paris to London

 

Will post more later...

Edited August 16, 2015 by Velvetwater

[snow bunny]

Looking forward to your review. DH and I would like to do a cruise such as this as we have not been to Spain!

 

snow bunny

[Velvetwater]

This is the part where I talk about heading to the ship so if you hate that part skip ahead but if you want to found out about train travel to a cruise or you are just nosy read on. I have been asked both on these forums and on board about train travel in Europe so I am slotting in the outbound journey to the ship for UK travellers who fancy going to a Med cruise without flying and those from further ashore who dont fancy more flying but want to discover Europe. I promise the rest will be er....less focussed on trains.

 

 

Day 1 (Home to Perpignan)

 

We have a bit of a lie in as the cases are packed...well mine is as J procrastinates like nothing else. Its a cruise day so I jump out of bed and haul my suitcase (that weighs as much as an 11yr old child) down the stairs. By the way let me introduce you to 'Willy'. I bought him for J as a present and he became a feature for documenting the holiday and yes J did use lots of entendres with him before you ask.

 

Here he is with the bags:

 

 

 

We start with a mini Journey from Coventry to London Euston which is pretty standard and get to St Pancras on time (quick walk or taxi) and the famous piano players are in full swing beautifully playing classics from musicals but fortunately for us no songs from Titanic.

 

 

After milling about in the Eurostar lounge which involves bags through the scanners like an airport and passport checks we board an old but comfortable Eurostar. The lounge to train has lifts and travelators but a queue will begin to form 15 minutes before boarding. Once the Eurostar is announced everyone quickly rushes to their carriage which is marked by numbers on the platforms for ease. Each carriage has ample room for large and small bags so if you are a late boarder you will be fine.

 

 

After securing out heavy suitcases we sit back and enjoy beer,wine and fajitas since there is a restaurant car but I should warn you the servers at these places are more miserable than a disembarking cruise passenger with gastro. The journey takes roughly 2 hours and here is Willy getting a round in:

 

 

Upon arrival at Paris Gare du Nord we have to change stations which is simply done by either a 2 Euro Metro ride or a 15-20 Euro Taxi ride if you have heavy bags. I should warn anyone at any large Paris station of Taxi touts...ALWAYS go to the Taxi rank to get the best fare and a safe ride.Some idiot decided to tell us a Taxi ride would cost us 55 Euros as it was usually 80 Euros according to to his friends meter on his phone...what a plank. Also leave at least an hour between trains in different stations due to general French traffic.

 

We arrive at Gare de Lyon and board soon after to prepare for a 6 hour ride which has a great resturant car, lots of storage for bags and comfy seats. We are also on the upper floor so get a stunning view as we head south. By the way Gare de Lyon has that famous ceiling restuarant (you need to pawn diamonds to eat there though) and plenty of lifts for heavy bags:

 

 

The journey is tiring as we get in at 11pm...next time I will plan an earlier journey but we whiled away the time with beer, crosswords and mindless travel games sinces our electronic devices had died by this point. We sleepily step off the train and to Comfort inn in Perpignan which to my husband's delight is space themed,2 mins from the station, clean and only £50 for the night.

 

 

Overall a good journey so far even with heavy bags and we are 2 hours from Barcelona! Its about the time I think I can smell the cruise ship or maybe its just the burger bar next door...onwards!

Edited August 16, 2015 by Velvetwater

[Bimmer09]

Ok you have me hooked so I will be following along. Thanks for making this a photo review!

 

Norris

[cruisemuse13]

Thank you for taking the time to post a photo review so I can travel along vicariously.:)

[Velvetwater]

Thanks! My Husband took most of the photos so I am hoping theres good ones and enough ship ones.

[Velvetwater]

Day 2 Perpignan to Barcelona

 

I will state here that theres a way to do London to Barcelona in a day. You take an early Eurostar then a lunch time high speed 6 hour to Barcelona. By the time we booked these had almost sold out so we did not buy. Get in there early for good prices!

 

We wake up in our odd space room and wander out for breakfast.As much as our hotel is great its not central so we nibble cheese filled pastry from a boulangerie and give ourselves high cholesterol but we are about to cruise so it doesn't count. We discover a Lidl (German owned supermarket popular across Europe) and buy cold meats and bread to nibble in the room while spreading butter with a store card from my purse. I promise you it works and is a camping tip!

 

Check out the Banksy room art and my massive case:

 

 

 

Perpignan has no lift so we use cruise adrenaline to haul heavy suitcases to our platform and find out its an hour delay but no sweat as many European carriers refund/partially refund you for this. We board the train and again it has lots of baggage room and the only part you need to worry about is hauling it on/off the carriage which is easily done for the average person.

 

We arrive in Barcelona in the afternoon and after seeing there are no lifts in most metro stations we opt for a 10 euro taxi to our hotel which is near the port,beach,La Ramblas and the Gothic quarter. It was £60 for the night and had free wifi....the best location for a cruiser no doubt about it. For the life of me I cannot remember its name but it was next to Hotel Oasis. J gets free Wifi which makes him jump for Joy as his roaming package is kaput.

 

We head out for T and A....that is Tapas and Alcohol and find a lovely spot as the heavens open and Barcelona is struck by rain, thunder and tourists buying overpriced umbrellas. The heat of the day made it quite welcome and as we are a bit sadistic we enjoyed watching people run for cover as we slurped a stein of sangria and Willy got trollied:

 

 

 

 

We had a selection of Tapas with no seafood as J can't stand it whereas I would happily kill my own Lobster to eat the stuff and its delicious:

 

 

After we shop on the seafront and wander to see the cruise terminals where I am overcome with excitement and give J a talk on where our ship be and who will be joining us. Jamie pats me on the head and needs beer so we wander back. Barcelona is wonderful and bustling at night and I kept wondering who were fellow cruisers for the next day.

 

Stumbling across a Belgian beer bar we drink some favourite beers and this will be a theme for the cruise as we are beer geeks and love finding quality stuff on holiday. I want to party but I know its 'Cruise eve' and I need to prepare for the big day as we head back and dream of the seas.....

Edited August 16, 2015 by Velvetwater

[lovecruzin]

Looking forward to your review!

 

Our friends from Oz travel with a beaver (he's stuffed but don't tell him that). He and Willy would get on great, he likes his martinis and beer, anything with alcohol really! :D

[RickT]

Great review, almost feels like I was there... wait, I was (other than the travel to and from the port to catch/debark the cruise) :D. Sorry we didn't get to meet you due to the messed up meeting although from looking at your picture it appears we passed you a number of times on board.

[Pushka]

Great review, almost feels like I was there... wait, I was (other than the travel to and from the port to catch/debark the cruise) :D. Sorry we didn't get to meet you due to the messed up meeting although from looking at your picture it appears we passed you a number of times on board.

 

 

I know the feeling RickT. And we did get to meet her too - at the Martini Bar of course.

[julia]

Love the review so far! Willy looks to be having a grand time... I sure hope he has a drink package on the ship, or you could be in for a huge tab! :eek: :)

[cruise kitty]

Hi, enjoying your review! Looking forward to the rest!

[fatbaldbloke]

What a great read, thanks for sharing. It's certainly giving us food for thought on avoiding those flying machines.

[Velvetwater]

Thanks!

 

Hopefully tonight or tomorrow morning for embark day and Toulon. Waiting for J to upload those photos.

 

I really do recommend Western European trains...very prompt,very comfy and every train station we encountered had enough info and people to help navigate. We liked it so much we are planning another Eurostar trip to Brussels/Berlin for a mini Autumn/winter break before Christmas.

 

Also going to book our Eurostars/High speed Barcelona trains as soon as possible for our cruise next year.

Edited August 18, 2015 by Velvetwater

[laslomas]

I hope there is Wi-Fi available soon, Velvetwater, - I am looking forward to your next posting to find out how getting to the port and embarkation was - hopefully smooth. I am staying in Barcelona, on Las Ramblas the night before my Equinox cruise in October and hopefully doing the same kind of T and A the night before (hopefully without the rain). Enjoy.

[cruisecatmama]

Hi, enjoying your review! Looking forward to the rest!

 

Ditto!! :D

[HAM]

Hi, enjoying your review! Looking forward to the rest!

 

What she said !!!!!!!

[flyingv4me]

Enjoying your review and writing style. Thanks for sharing!

[Darkwolfe]

Nice! I'll be watching this thread for certain. GF wants to go to Europe and I do not want to fly home at the end of the trip so we're planning to start from London and take the train from there to Hamburg, then on to whatever port we decide to sail from for Trans Atlantic back to the States.

[cruise47]

I like Willy.

[Gig103]

Looking forward to more!

[Velvetwater]

J assured me the photos are on his computer but no dice and hes off on a stag weekend (Bachelor party)...Gah.

 

I have posted this link before on other parts of the forum but it was my bible for when I started using trains in Europe and is still great:

 

http://www.seat61.com/

 

 

In the meantime here is a shot of Willy chilling out n the cabin on embark day which I found:

 

[HAM]

Where's Willy ??? ???

[RickT]

Did Willy take another vacation?

[cruise kitty]

Really hoping the OP will post more, very enjoyable review!