Live from the Crown... Mediterranean 10/02-10/13/18

[4cats4me]

We stayed 3 nights at Hotel Colon in Barcelona in the Gothic section. Such a nice hotel. Last time we stayed at the Jazz which was more convenient to the metro. The Colon is more traditional, while the Jazz has a modern vibe.  We had a Design Room at the Colon, and it was enormous.  Everything was updated. Air conditioning worked well. We loved the Juliette balcony. Buffet breakfasts (free if booking direct) were in the basement.  Good selection of food and Nespresso coffee machine as well as regular coffee in case you wanted espresso.   Hotel staff very nice.  

We enjoyed our free glass of cava on the roof top terrace, too    

Here are a couple pics of the room:

 

[4cats4me]

Vatican 

Seven people were canonized the day before our visit.  

Since we had toured there before, this time we simply walked around.   

[4cats4me]

Pantheon, and restaurant near Pantheon that we really enjoyed called Ar Faciolo

or Er Faciola.  Excellent pasta.  No service charge. Quaint. Most of the restaurants in that area seemed touristy. This one gets good reviews on Trip Advisor.  My husband ordered a pasta simikar to carbonara but minus the egg, pasta gricia or something.  It was the best pasta dish I have ever tasted.  

[4cats4me]

Sorrento and Positano. 

We toured with Joe Bananas and our driver took us to a restaurant in Positano 

28€ pp included several coutses of pasta, pizza, wine, dessert, appetizer. 

I think it was called da Consantino or da Constantino? It is perched high up on the hillside.  

 

[4cats4me]

Sorrento 

[4cats4me]

Pompeii 

[Trish Traveler]

Fantastic photos!!! 👍 Thanks for sharing.  We depart Oct 23 for similar itinerary.  Hoping for the blue skies that you enjoyed!

[Knickearth]

Love your pics.  We arrived in London.  Lov sun. For Barcelona.  Next time u visit your mom after nov 17, we will have to talk.  Sounds like u had a great trip.

[4cats4me]

Hi Joyce,

Have a wonderful cruise. Yes, it will be fun to compare notes when you return! 

 

I will just write this little mini review for those who might be interested:

We had a wonderful time. The only port we missed was Mykonos due to high winds. The  

seas were very rough first night out. Other than that, it was a perfect cruise.  The ship was very clean. We loved the new cushy beds.  Service was excellent everywhere. 

We felt that this ship was just too crowded most of the time compared to the Star, Regal, Golden, Sapphire, et cet.  

We sailed on the Emerald 10 years ago and didn’t care for it due to the crowding issues, and we expected the same from this ship.  

For example, buffet lines were awful, buffet always crowded whether it was 8 pm, 9 pm, 3 pm 

No crowding issues around the pool, however, even though the weather was perfect!

 

Just too crowded in the atrium with not enough seating.  

 

We liked the buffet food.  We loved the Salty Dog Grill near the 

pool and got street tacos several times.  We enjoyed the indoor Salty Dog dinner at the Wheelhouse bar and had the small plates, short ribs, poutine and grilled cheese. 

 

Crown Grill was excellent.  

 

Our cabin, which we handpicked a year ago due to its central location, E415, was extremely noisy every morning. I will attach pics later for those who are interested.  It had a platform beneath the window and a staircase with a gate at the bottom. The security personal utilized this area frequently, and every time the gate slammed, you could definitely hear it, but we needed to get up early every day anyway, so we didn’t care. I’m just putting that out there for the noise sensitive people.  Also, the lights in that area were exceptionally bright, ie, halogen bright, when they activated them for certain periods of time.    

 

Embarkation in Barcelona took awhile. We took our time getting to the port and arrived at 12:45, peak time.  Took 45 minutes to get through security and 5 minutes to check in. 

 

Disembarkation in Rome took 5 minutes.  

 

I had booked a shared shuttle through the Port of Civitavecchia and the driver promptly picked us all up at 8:00 and we arrived at our hotel in Rome by 9:15. The cost was 75€ per couple, about half what Princess was asking. 

 

Tours:  Took two through Princess, which were horrible, but they were free. 

We basically just used the tours as a means of transportation only and separated from the tour group once we reached our destinations.  Ridiculous waste of time compared to private touring.  

First, we took the Aix en Provence SMALL ship tour, max of 25 vs 48. Imagine our surprise when two “small” groups were combined into one large bus, even though the other three small tour groups remained small.  There was an approximately $50 premium for the exclusive small group tour, so had I actually paid for this, I would have been really mad, especially since as a couple, you would save $100.  

Then half hour into this bus ride, we stop for a restroom break of “10 minutes.” 

32 mins later we left the rest stop, but guess what? The small group busses left well before us.  We had to wait for 30 some odd people.  

So frustrating. We are used to traveling in groups no larger than 8-10, so this was quite an unpleasant surprise.  After arriving in Aix, the guide took us on a walking tour,and once he explained where the meeting place would later be, my husband and I left the tour to go docthe things we’d set out to do, shop and eat!

 

Florence on Your Own tour wasn’t very much better.  We were delayed due to a woman who didn’t realize that the tour would require as much walking as it did, and she informed the guide that her husband uses some walking aid but she had left it behind.  The guide said that there was no possible way he would make it without his walking aid, so we all had to wait about 20 minutes for the guide to leave the bus and go back to the terminal, which was quite a distance away, to get the said implement.  Then another five mins was burned up explaining that once in Florence, they would need to call a cab to get them into city center.  So now, the other two busses have left well in advance of us, then it took two hours to get there, where last time it took only one hour twenty minutes in a mini van. Onc in Florence, once again, another five-10 mins was devoted to this woman about where to meet the cab, et cet, while all the rest of us were ready to be on our way.  We had to park way out due to busses being too large to get into the heart of Florence, and walk a good distance, which was fine, but then the guide wanted to take us to some leather shop.  That wasn’t in the tour description.  We declined and tore off, since,p  Time was of the essence.  Ridiculous.  And, in the tour description it stated that we would have six hours to spend in Florence on our own, as we wished. 

 That just was not true.  By my calculation, if we left at 8:00-8:20 with an arrival time of 10:00-10:30, I had calculated that we should leave around 4:00 with an arrival time to the ship between 5:30-6:00, the sailing time.  Nope. We were instructed to meet back at the square at 2:45, with a departure time of 3:00, delivering us back to the cruise port at 4:45.  We had a grand total of 3:45- 4:00 hours free time, not six, in Florence. 

So, the moral of the story is don’t believe the tour descriptions to be accurate, especially when you get a later start and have to allow for long walks to get to and from the bus. 

Mercifully, that was it for Princess Tours. 

 

All the other tours we took, private, were a lot of fun and delivered on their promises.  

 

I will elaborate on those a little later.  

 

 

Edited October 20, 2018 by 4cats4me

[4cats4me]

The lines waiting to get back on in Livorno. Many tours got back late. 

[4cats4me]

For those considering E415  on either the Crown,  the Emerald or the Ruby,  this is the set up outside of the cabin and also the same for the opposite side of the ship, I assume?

 If we looked to the left we saw the big white locker box  We had a fall, unobstructed view looking straight out,  even though the cabin is classified as an obstructed view cabin.  

 The white locker box blocks cabins 408 and I believe 407.  

 The platform beneath our cabin would also be below cabin 411,  but refer to the diagram just in case I am incorrect.  

 At the bottom of the staircase is a loud gate, and every time it slams you hear it. 

 The activity usually took place when we were arriving in Port and when we were departing.   There was never any noise at night.  

 On CDs though the activity commenced in the mornings and we would hear them walking on the platform beneath our window and talking.  The talking did not bother us as we were always up but just in case somebody is noise sensitive I wanted to  alert them to this potential problem.  

 It was the loudest cabin we have ever had out of 30 cruises.  

 However, I would not hesitate to book it again, depending on itinerary.  

 I’ve attached many photos of the great views out the window,  as well as looking 

 Aft and toward the bow 

[4cats4me]

 This is as close as we got to Mykonos

 Before the port was called off.

[FishinChris]

Great Photos!  Thanks for posting them.

[4cats4me]

 Torre Argentina cat sanctuary in Rome

Cats are free to ‘Rome’ among the ancient site where supposedly Julius Caesar was murdered. 150 kitties are permanently housed here. 

[4cats4me]

More cat sanctuary pics

[4cats4me]

Budva, Montenegro 

[spyro1952]

Great pics.  Thanks. How was the internet on the Crown?  Did they have unlimited options or was it strictly on a per minute basis?  

Thanks

[4cats4me]

Thanks. Not sure.  We just used our free minutes and purchased $40 for 200 extra as an Eligible elite upgrade.  Had no idea about unlimited.  

Internet worked good.  Worked better  on deck 15 than deck 8. 

[riclop]

Thanks for sharing.

[4cats4me]

35 minutes ago, shepp said:

 

Funny, the steak tartare and the Stilton in Port sauce are two of my favorite onboard edibles. One man's cheese...

 

26 minutes ago, OCruisers said:

You aren't the only one!  We enjoy those things too and are happy on evenings when they are offered.  

OopS

this belongs on a different thread 

can’t erase. 😯

Edited October 21, 2018 by 4cats4me

[4cats4me]

Deletes 

Edited October 21, 2018 by 4cats4me

[4cats4me]

Barcelona