Long Review of Reflection October 1-12, 2018 Western Mediterranean Cruise

[ROWSE]

7 minutes ago, Bimmer09 said:

That goes for me too!
I particularly love the photos from Nice etc as the one time we had a stop there, on our Emerald Princess cruise in October 2015, the Captain heeded the weather conditions ashore and sailed on by. Several people died on land due to flash floods.

I hope to visit the area on a future cruise.

Thanks for sharing ROWSE!

Norris

That must have been BAD weather!  We had terrible winds and still went in, so I can imagine to not go in must have been bad.  I am so glad you are still hanging out with me!  I have taken my time on this one and relishing the memories. 

[morbihan]

I have just caught up. Enjoying your trip very much.

[ROWSE]

9 hours ago, morbihan said:

I have just caught up. Enjoying your trip very much.

Thank you for reading along! 

[ROWSE]

Our 7th port was La Spezia, Italy.  We arrived on October 11, at 7 a.m.  Our plan today was the Cinque Terre, and I had pre purchased the tickets that included the trains, trail, free wifi at the station, free bathroom use at the station and the shuttle up to Coniglia.  This had been one of the ports and thing we had most looked forward to.

We ate in the buffet and were ready to get off at 8:45.  We caught a taxi for the Central Train station.  A couple just in front of us were doing the same thing but the taxi driver would not let us a share a cab.  This was very odd, but it is what it is.  Taxi was 15 Euro.

Once at the train station we checked in with the welcome center for the Cinque Terre National Park.  Sadly, since it was slightly rainy they had closed all the trails.  OH NO!!!

We had a choice to not go at all even on the trains and they would later refund our tickets or use the train and void the tickets for refund.  Well, travel between the villages by train would be fun too, so that is what we did and it was fantastic! 

 

This is one of the train reader boards.  We are headed to Livorno and will get off in Monterosso. 

 

 

The trains pull in and we hope we are on the right direction!!!

 

 

 

Inside the train there is an upstairs and they are super comfortable!!! 

 

 

 

 

Once at the station of Monterosso we use the bathroom.  My dear friend had told me that they are horrible BUT they must have been updated because they were clean and new! 

 

They are just to the left of this picture

 

 

Men on one side women on the other. 

 

 

One spout for soap, one for water, and one for blow dry!

 

 

Back out and a picture up the tracks at Monterosso.

 

 

 

[ROWSE]

Our first village which was the farthest away from La Spezia which was Monterosso.  It has two areas that are separated by a tunnel.

We walked both areas. 

 

 

I loved the different plant life

 

Look at the purple flower!

 

 

 

 

 

It was quite stormy as the dark clouds attest to. 

 

Whoops, time for the umbrella!

 

I used the umbrella off and on.  The water was beautiful!

 

 

 

Edited November 9, 2018 by ROWSE

[ROWSE]

In our walk we saw the area that the trail to Vernazza started.   We wanted to see if we could walk a little of the trail just to see what it was like. 

This is the entrance area back toward where we had come from.

 

 

The picture cuts off the V, but on the ground it points to way on the trail.

 

 

We were able to walk about a half a mile and then came across an actual booth with an attendant that told us no farther and we would have to go back.  At least we got a taste of the trail, and with the rain it was a bit slippery so they were wise to close it.

 

We walked back and were in the other side of town.  With many buildings and small little cut throughs.

 

 

 

We found ourselves on a trail upward and we knew there was a church up at the top of this hill so we walked it.  We saw the terraced areas behind the village. 

 

 

This was a gate to a winery that I wish would have been open. 

 

 

At the top we found a massive vaulted graveyard. 

 

 

There was a little church but we must not have taken a picture.  We did get this statuary. 

 

 

We had a beautiful overlook back at where we had tried to go on the trail.  It begins just at the base of the hotel in the far distance at the center of the picture.

 

 

We knew we had better move on so we could see the next village.  We headed back down the hill.

 

 

Next up will be the village of Vernazza and it will have to wait for a few days as we have other things planned away from the computer.  See you in Vernazza. 

Edited November 9, 2018 by ROWSE

[jimbri]

I am really enjoying your pictures.  Thank you.

[floridaag]

Too bad about your weather in Cinque Terre.  My wife and I spent a number of days there and it is wonderful (albeit much more crowded now than it used to be).  We did the entire hike between all the towns and took the ferry back to Monterosso where we stayed.  

 

[ROWSE]

On 11/9/2018 at 4:31 AM, jimbri said:

I am really enjoying your pictures.  Thank you.

I'm so glad you are still hanging in with my slow review.  Life just keeps getting in the way.

 

On 11/9/2018 at 4:49 AM, floridaag said:

Too bad about your weather in Cinque Terre.  My wife and I spent a number of days there and it is wonderful (albeit much more crowded now than it used to be).  We did the entire hike between all the towns and took the ferry back to Monterosso where we stayed.  

 

You are so lucky to have gotten to do that!  How fantastic!  Even if we would have been able to do some of it, there were still some of the trail closed for repair and not for weather I was told.  The weather we had closed all ferry travel as well that day.

 

[ROWSE]

We never had very long to wait for a train, they really have a great system!  Vernazza was up next and it was wonderful!

This is a picture they have displayed that shows how devastating the damage was during a storm and mudslide in 2011.

I can't even imagine how hard this was to clean up. 

 

 

This was what it looked like today.

 

Areas off the main street climb upward!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The colorful fishing boats just makes the villages so charming!   Too dangerous for them to be out so everyone had them tied in at the dock our anchored in the bay. 

 

 

Time just keeps ticking so we were off to visit Corniglia next.

 

 

[ROWSE]

Our ticket included a shuttle in Corniglia, as the village is a long walk up the  hill.  At this point, time wise, we were very grateful for that.  It happened to be there right when the train came in.  So up we went.  I don't know why, but I loved this village the most.  Maybe it was the Gelato I got there! 

 

This is the area the shuttle stops. 

 

 

The view of the area off a deck at this area.

 

 

 

We start to explore.

 

 

 

I find a Gelato shop with the most chocolaty Vegan Gelato, and I have a LARGE please!!!  They were so wonderful they even gave me a coupon for a free one later which I passed on to someone as we were of course headed back to the ship.  I can just taste it now!!!  YUM!!! 

 

 

 

 

After covering myself in chocolate, I likened it to when I eat mustard, that stuff gets everywhere!!!  We walked through the adorable village.  Narrow little walkways! 

 

 

There was another balcony area to view this...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[floridaag]

The Belforte Cliffside restaurant in Vernazza is amazing - the views are incredible

[ROWSE]

Corniglia continued....

We just loved all the sites and sounds and seeing people just sharing bottles of wine and cheese plates together in this village!

The little church was beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My husband loves to see all the unique doors that are on all these buildings.  Here is a selection of the many photos he took.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadly, we only really looked at one side of Corniglia as time was not our friend.  We caught the shuttle back down and got onto the train.  We really did appreciate the wifi at each station included in our ticket! 

 

 

[ROWSE]

10 minutes ago, floridaag said:

The Belforte Cliffside restaurant in Vernazza is amazing - the views are incredible

Reviewing all this makes me want to head back to here right now, what about you!!! 

[ROWSE]

We had a decision to make at this point; one of us, me, who is a worry wart about missing the ship, felt like we could only see one more village.  It was between Manarola or Riomaggiore.  I chose Riomaggiore.  I have no idea what we missed in Manarola,

but I loved seeing Riomaggiore!

 

After the train, this is the tunnel walkway you go through.  It is filled with mosaic art.

 

 

Another decision, go left up to the village or go down to the waterfront area.  We are all about the water, so we chose that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[floridaag]

28 minutes ago, ROWSE said:

Reviewing all this makes me want to head back to here right now, what about you!!! 

Most definitely.  

[ROWSE]

The waterfront area of Riomaggiore was just breathtaking!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Riomaggiore actually has a little beach area.

 

 

Time was up, for my comfort level it was time to take our last train ride back to La Spezia, catch a cab, and head back to the ship.  Funny thing, we had the same driver that we did this morning.  Earlier, he was rather quiet on our ride to the train station, but I guess this made us old friends, and we had a wonderful conversation.  We boarded easily within our all aboard time.  Silly me, but I have ran to a cruise ship nearly missing it one other time while cruising with a dear friend, and it is NOT fun! 

 

[floridaag]

Doesn't look like you hit the Lover's Walk between Manarola or Riomaggiore - too bad but you covered an impressive amount of ground

[Silkroad]

Thanks so much for the very helpful information about Cinque Terre, as well as your beautiful photos. We’ve not yet been there, so it’s lovely to follow along with you on your adventure🙂

[jha112]

Loved your review and the pictures! We will be doing a Baltic cruise on the Reflection this summer. One of our family members is a vegan. Did the cruise line accommodate?

[AnJ]

Thanks so much for taking us along on this wonderful trip. Great review!

[ROWSE]

23 hours ago, floridaag said:

Doesn't look like you hit the Lover's Walk between Manarola or Riomaggiore - too bad but you covered an impressive amount of ground

No we did not hit this, but that sounds wonderful!

 

14 hours ago, Silkroad said:

Thanks so much for the very helpful information about Cinque Terre, as well as your beautiful photos. We’ve not yet been there, so it’s lovely to follow along with you on your adventure🙂

It was so much fun, I hope you get to experience it someday!

 

5 hours ago, AnJ said:

Thanks so much for taking us along on this wonderful trip. Great review!

Thank you for reading along!

 

13 hours ago, jha112 said:

Loved your review and the pictures! We will be doing a Baltic cruise on the Reflection this summer. One of our family members is a vegan. Did the cruise line accommodate?

Yes they accommodated us on being Vegan!  They have a separate Vegetarian menu, and it would usually work for us asking for no cheese on things and they also would bring the menu for the next night and said if nothing worked to let them know and they would make something.   I think you just need to ask on the desserts as I imagine those are not Vegan.  Sometimes on cruises we are a little lax on dairy in desserts.  I'm sure your family member will be treated as wonderful as we were. 

[ROWSE]

Once back on board after La Spezia, we had to do the dreaded packing.  We had decided to do a self carry off as we were doing a shared shuttle through Shared Shuttle.  Catchy name!   We were going to spend four more days in Rome!  I would have been so sad to get off the ship, but we had that to look forward to.  Our meet time was 7:30, so I didn't want to have a problem getting off and looking for luggage. 

 

We went to the 7:00 show of Elysium and I enjoyed my last Mud Slide of the trip.  Dinner tonight found me taking a few pictures.  Last meal so to speak....

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was off to try to spend the last of our non refundable on board credit of $43.55.  The other $150 left was refundable.

We had thought we would buy an Apple product but they were out of what we wanted.  Off to the odds and end store we went.  In the end, with all these purchases of sunglasses, soaps, and M & M's I spent $43.56.  We had a good laugh when we pulled up the account.

 

 

 

How much closer could I get without losing any!!!!

 

The next morning was breakfast in the Ocean View Cafe and a last Carmel Macchiato off our drink package.  In perfect timing we were ready and pulled us and our luggage off the ship.  I tried to grab on to something, but my husband insisted we leave!

Shared Shuttle and all the other passengers showed up in a very timely manner and we were off to Rome in a very comfortable van. 

 

Edited November 14, 2018 by ROWSE

[ROWSE]

I know the title of my review is suppose to be a review of the cruise, and if that is enough for you, then stop reading, BUT

for any that like reading about peoples adventures like I do, then I am continuing to tell you about our visit to Rome as well.

 

Some of our first sites of Rome as we drove through or should I say sat in traffic as it was very busy.  There was a mass of students protesting that held us up for quite some time.

 

 

 

We had pre-booked an airbnb months out and after more research, I was rather sorry for the area I had chose which was near the Termini Train Station.  In the end, we had the most wonderful time there and it was so convenient to grab the metro!  It was called Termini Guesthouse and our hosts Emanuela and Alexandra were the best!

 

It was on the fourth floor of a building and it had a little tiny elevator but somehow we managed to get us and all our luggage in.  We were able to meet Emanuela, have a little overview of the place and leave our luggage in what was going to be our room even though we were much earlier than check in. 

 

We hit the ground running as our plan today was to see any sites that we happened upon.  We were given a little map to help us see where some things were located.  We were very close to the Santa Maria Maggiore.  We seemed to never hit it at the right time to actually go inside, but I bet it is amazing.

 

 

 

We walked around a corner and there was the Colosseum!  

 

We knew we actually had a tour of all of this on day 3, so we didn't venture in that direction.

 

Sites that were around us...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A corner window!!!

 

 

 

[ROWSE]

We tried to head to the Trevi Fountain now and after wandering unsuccessfully, we did follow a tour group thinking surely they were going somewhere interesting and we came upon this amazing building.  The picture is taken outside in some small inner courtyard, but you walk under this glass ceiling.

 

 

 

 

 

We wander...wait, what is this massive crowd we are coming up on....

 

 

Oh my gosh!!  Here it is just within all the other tons of buildings...The Trevi Fountain!!!

 

 

It was crowded and the only real time I felt a bit uneasy over possible pick pockets. 

 

 

After all this wandering we were getting hungry, and we are fairly certain we are now headed in the direction of the Pantheon.  We find a little place to eat.  Of course since there must be no one that has to go to the bathroom in this city other than in tourist sites and restaurants, I have waited and I really have to go. 

My husband reads the menu and I go down in the deep recesses of the restaurant into a basement that has one room toilets.  NO ONE is down there.  I go in lock the door, go, and unlock the lock.  NOTHING!  The lock seems to be disengaged and I am stuck!!!!!  Of course I have no phone and who would I text, my husband doesn't have his on.  I pound on the door yelling for help.  I finally shake the door handle hard over and over and try the lock again.  That must have engaged it again and I get out.  I go up and tell my husband what happend.  He thought I was merely having a long private time in there.  UGH!  I wonder how long, if ever, he would have come to check on me.   I can say when he went later, he did not lock the door.

 

Our wonderful lunch...

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 14, 2018 by ROWSE