Empty Ship??

[Lem]

Hi all. My daughter and her fiance are booked on Galaxy for the "Best of Med" leaving Rome area on 11/10/06 for their honeymoon. He has posted on Roll Call with no response. Could it be that the majority of the ship will be Europeans, not members of Cruise Critic?

 

Also, if anyone has done this trip before, any suggestions as to what do see while in port?

 

Thanks

Lori

[crazidude1400]

The cruise is too far out.

[Palms2Pines2Sea]

Lori,

 

To answer your question...

Yes. It is entirely likely that the majority of passenger will be Europeans. The Med has cooled off by then, literally and figuratively. Most American travelers are thinking about the Caribbean by mid-November.

[colmil]

Dear Lem,

 

I am unable to comment on the numbers on your cruise, but I would like to offer some advice if you are visiting Lisbon.

 

We were on a cruise last year and my partner and others were robbed on the tram from the main square back to the docks.

 

They are so practised in the art of suprise, please, please, take advice and take a taxi both ways, its only a few minutes each way!

 

Lisbon is a dump anyway!

 

Have a great time,

 

Colmil (England)

[Lem]

Thanks for your responses. They are not going to Lisbon, so I guess they don't have to worry about problems there. I guess they have to wait and see if anyone posts on their roll call.

Lori

[NanaNancy]

We will be visiting Lisbon in April. You have me scared. Lisbon is a dump and thiefs will try to steal your money? Does Celebrity tell you this on the pre visit talks? Is the tram into the city the area of the most of the theifs? Can the taxi drivers be trusted? What is worth seeing in Lisbon? We had planned on Fatima & the cathedral. Is this a good idea? Thanks for any help you can be.

[florisdekort]

I was robbed on Manhattan yet would not call New York a dump.

[Joanandjoe]

It's sad that Colmil was robbed in Lisbon: of course he has a negative impression. In Lisboa (the Portuguese name for the city), as in all large cities, you have to be careful. Cabs are inexpensive and are a good idea in getting to the pier.

 

Joe has been in Lisboa twice, Joan once. The trip together was in mid-November, 2004, at the end of a two week cruise on the Wind Surf. The city has amazing squares and museums, delicious wines and port, fabulous fado nightclubs, and interesting old barrios. November is a lovely time in Lisbon: the weather is cool but not cold, and Christmas decorations are already up. There's a festive feeling to the city, there's singing in the churches and on the streets, and the lights in Rossio square are beautiful.

 

Best wishes to your daughter and her fiance for a lovely wedding and honeymoon, and a long and happy marriage.

 

Nancy, how much time do you have in Lisbon? Fatima is outside the city, so it's a day trip. Do some research and find what you like: there's something there for you, no matter what your tastes are. If your there for one day, pick an area, walk around, go to maybe one church and one museum. We were right near one of the barrios, so we took the tram next to our hotel, went to the old church of St. Roche, walked around the barrio and the main squares, went to a museum, and ate great food with cheap, but good, wine. We would have gone to the Port Institute, but it's closed on Sundays.

[BrendaJ]

Lori - we were on the last Millennium Med cruise before the transatlantic in November. There were very few participants on our roll call (less than 10 active participants by the date of the cruise) as opposed to our upcoming transatlantic this September, where our roll call is over 50 pages long already. Our Med cruise was mostly Americans and Canadians, as far as I could tell, and the ship was full. Your departure probably just doesn't have many Cruise Critic users, at least no yet. No reason to worry.

[Lem]

BrendaJ,

 

I guess they will have to wait and see. My only concern is that they will be at a dinner table with 6 non-english speaking people, making dinner a little awkward. This will be his first cruise and both of them are very excited to say the least.

 

Any suggestions as to excursions they should do?

 

Lori

[Host Anne]

Lori ~ every cruise is different. Sometimes roll calls are active very quickly and then other times they just take awhile to get going. November is a long time from now so tell them to hang in there and check back often.

 

What are their ports of call? We did the Med several years ago and had a fantastic trip.

[TOM CRUIZES]

Hi Anne, only tip I have is when they get to Livorno, take a Taxi to the rail Stn, then take the train to Pisa then Taxi to the sights then back to Station take train to Florence to do the sights then catch train back to Livorno, it is a whistle ;) stop tour but the trains are cheap clean and ontime and it is a great way to see most of the sites at a fraction of the onboard price, you just have to watch time and allow enough time to get back, hope this helps. Did this 3yrs ago and had a great time. Also as previously stated Europe is cool at this time of year warm clothes are required. Hope they have a great time and best whishes to them.

[Lem]

Anne,

The ports they will be doing are Civitavecchia (Rome), Naples Italy, Mykonos Greece, Santorini Greece, Sicily, Villefranche(Nice) France, Florence Italy and back to Rome.

He is an archeologist, so he is excited about the history of these places.

 

Lori

[Joanandjoe]

Lori, so they won't be doing Lisbon, but they will be doing Villefranche, with is only 3 miles from Nice by land. If your future SIL is an archaeologist, he'll probably focus on Rome, but there are two "must dos" in Nice that he may not know about:

 

1) Terra Amata. This is a 400,000 year old human (or more accurately, pre-human) habitation turned into an archaeological dig. It's about 2 miles via taxi from Villefrance, and there's lots on info on the web. Joe, the archaeology buff, couldn't get enough of flints, bones, spearheads, etc. If either spouse can read French, so much the better, since many signs are only in French.

 

2) Roman ruins at Cimiez. There is an open Roman ruin area, with a museum, on Cimiez hill, right next to the Matisse museum. Very interesting place, for us much more interesting than the Matisse museum. We saw people sitting on the ruins eating lunch. Fabulous.

 

If his interest is in things more modern (say, 200 to 500 years old), he should wander through old Villefranche and old Nice. Villefranche has the Rua Obscura, an medieval covered street that is indeed dark and obbscure, but fascinating. Old Nice is also interesting, although it's a bit dirty.

 

We haven't been to any of the other ports on the itinerary, and my visits to Florence and Rome in 1960 are too far in the past to have mush relevance.

 

Again. Mazel tov.

[idssms]

I have been to Lisbon 3 times and have walked around the city, taken tours and think the folks are very friendly and never got assaulted or robbed.

 

Just because there are a few bad apples, I d hate to trash the place.

 

I am sure in Beverly Hills Ca folks get robbed, etc.

 

Lisbon and Sintra are great places to visit.

 

 

Don

[joeyanddavid]

there are two "must dos" in Nice that he may not know about:

 

1) Terra Amata. This is a 400,000 year old human (or more accurately, pre-human) habitation turned into an archaeological dig. It's about 2 miles via taxi from Villefrance, and there's lots on info on the web. Joe, the archaeology buff, couldn't get enough of flints, bones, spearheads, etc. If either spouse can read French, so much the better, since many signs are only in French.

 

2) Roman ruins at Cimiez. There is an open Roman ruin area, with a museum, on Cimiez hill, right next to the Matisse museum. Very interesting place, for us much more interesting than the Matisse museum. We saw people sitting on the ruins eating lunch. Fabulous.

 

Wow Joe thanks for teh information .. We can sure use the information on our cruise in October... You guys are so knoweldgeable.. I tip my hat Sir :)

[Host Anne]

Lori ~ here's a link to the review I wrote from our Med cruise several summers ago. I list contact information for the tours we set up privately (along with restaurants we enjoyed) at the end of the review. http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=447

 

Hope this info helps. I'm about to get on a ship this morning so I won't be on line for awhile. But let me know if you have questions and I'll respond when I return.

[keela1eva2]

We will be visiting Lisbon in April. You have me scared. Lisbon is a dump and thiefs will try to steal your money? Does Celebrity tell you this on the pre visit talks? Is the tram into the city the area of the most of the theifs? Can the taxi drivers be trusted? What is worth seeing in Lisbon? We had planned on Fatima & the cathedral. Is this a good idea? Thanks for any help you can be.

 

I visited Fatima whilst on a cruise with RCI.in 1998. We left the ship by coach and travelled to Fatima with a stop en route. We then visited Fatima spending time there visiting the church and attending Mass.

Later we had lunch in a restaurant sampling the vino verde. We had a short time to shop and then returned to the ship. At no time did I feel unsafe or in any sort of danger. Fatima is if I recall correctly about 3 hours by coach.

2 Years ago I visited Lisbon whilst on a Princess cruise. We were bussed to the city centre. We arrived around 10am and whilst window shopping my sister became aware of us being watched and of a young man moving from side to side with us. We immediately went into a shop and he left. I think that Lisbon like many European cities do have a problem with theft. The worst in my opinion are Barcelona Rome Malaga and Palma. It is always necessary to be aware of where you are and to observant. Don't however let this spoil your enjoyment of your holiday. Have a great time!

[Joanandjoe]

Wow Joe thanks for the information .. We can sure use the information on our cruise in October... You guys are so knoweldgeable.. I tip my hat Sir :)

 

I didn't realize you were on this board as well as the other one. I don't know if Joan and I are especially knowledgeable, or if we just do a lot of research. We found most of Nice information on http://www.allaboutnice.com/, which we found on Virtual Tourist. The British lady who keeps up the site has an apt. in Nice, and she's very knowledgeable.

 

It pays to do your homework before a trip, and it's fun! Our photos and postcards from Nice are outa sight; but they were taken with film, not a digital camera, and we don't have a scanner--so we can't post them. Joe

[NanaNancy]

Thank you so much for the info. We probably will go to Fatima. Century offers excurisions of either 6 or 8 hour duration. We think it could be an interesting day with our only concern being such a long bus ride. They also offer a couple other options so we will have to decide over the next few weeks.