Venice to Barcelona - Millie - July

[mikemary945]

I'm sorry I haven't posted the promised review of our cruise here, but I gave it my best effort. I had spent two days writing one online, and had had gotten as far as the Amalfi Coast, when I minimized the window and went to bed one night. By the time I got back to it the next day, the Grandkids had logged it off. I know, I know; I should have saved it in installments, but guess my brain wasn't working. In any case, I do have the pictures I took uploaded to Yahoo, and you can reach them via the following links:

 

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mikemary945/album?.tok=phBt3qBBhVw3ey9.&.dir=/187d&.src=ph

 

 

http://f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/mikemary945/album?.tok=phnw3qBBEfjdMGih&.dir=/cbe7&.src=ph

 

I still don't have a review ready, but a few brief thoughts come to mind:

 

1. Don't mix Meclizine, Trazadone (for sleeping), and wine at dinner. I became unconscious somewhere over the Atlantic, and scared Mary to death. The wonderful Alitalia crew didn't give a hoot, and pretty much ignored her when she asked them for help. Once I woke up, I was sick with nausea for the last four hours of the flight.

 

2. Alitalia crew members seemed uniformly rude, as has been reported on numerous sites. It was the cheapest fare, but not that much cheaper.

 

3. If anyone remembers the huge power failure in Greece a month before the Olympic games, then you can guess where my ATM card was when it failed. Thanks to George, our Spiros driver who stayed in touch with the bank manager via cell phone on the way to Sounion, I was able to get the card back before we reboarded the ship.

 

4. Sounion - If this is your first time to Athens, and you only have the one port day, do not take the Sounion option with a tour of the city. Sounion turns out to be somewhere around Never-Never land, and including lunch, the trip cost us a good 5 hours of the 9 hours we had in port. Concentrate on Athens instead, and save Sounion for another day. Athens was terrific, and watching the Olympics made us feel that much better for having been there. Spiros was a good company, but we like many others, got switched off to another driver after meeting Spiros at the dock. Since we had made our reservations with him very early, we were surprised. George was ok, but didn't care to use the microphone in the mini-bus while driving. We had one of our group sit up front, and use the mic to relay what he was saying.

 

5. Naples/Rome/Livorno - I lump these together because we had Executive Limo for all three ports, and were fortunate enough to have Remo himself for all three. He is incredible! He knows every back road there is. We waited in no lines anyplace, including at the Vatican Museum and the Accademia in Florence. At the Vatican Museum, he parked the mini-bus right at the front of the long line waiting to get in; moved the sawhorses out of the way, and stood there next to the line while we walked right in as if we were some special group. Nobody questioned us. The Accademia was a hoot. Mary wears a pain patch for her bad knee, and it is visible on her skin when she wears Summer sleeveless tops. Remo marched us right to the head of the long line waiting to get in, and told the person on the door that she had gotten sick that morning, and he had taken her to the hospital. He told him that they had given her a patch to wear, and that she couldn't stand very long. In we went! On top of everything else, he plays the accordian, and carries one with him. Every evening, he played us back on board the ship to the pleasure of the other tours coming back, and had us dancing in the street at Positano as he played for us there. In the pictures, you will see him playing. I know it isn't always possible to ensure that you will get a certain driver when booking these tours, but if you can get Remo, don't let the chance go by. He made our entire trip more memorable than we thought it could ever be.

 

6. Villifrance - This stop with Sylvie as our guide was very nice, although we ran a bit short on time at the end. We toured a lovely market in Nice, spent time in both Eze and St. Paul, and had a lovely tour in Monaco. Knowing what we know now, we would probably have dropped either Eze or St. Paul, in favor of more time in Monaco. As the mini-bus headed toward the rock, Sylvie was telling us about all the famous people that live there when Pavarotti drove by in his car headed the other way! Nice timing Sylvie!

 

7. Forgot Venice - What a magnificent city, and one that we would love to go back to for a week during the offseason to explore. The Hotel Ala, a Best Western Property, was terrific and so reasonably priced. We booked it early, and got a European Senior rate (Good for AARP members) of 108 Euros per night. The next best rate was 160 Euros per night. What a bargain. We upgraded our room to a deluxe, with a view of the lovely square outside, and paid 160 Euros for a 200 Euro/night room. It was a straight walk of about 5 minutes from our hotel to St. Marks, and the water taxi ride from the airport to the hotel, and again from the hotel to the Millie, was the only way to go, although expensive (90 Euros). Our group of 6 split the cost, so it wasn't so bad. We took the Secret Itinerary Tour of the Doge Palace, and it is terribly interesting. The additional 2 Euro cost over the regular tour rate is well worth the money.

 

8. Barcelona - Since our flight didn't leave until 3:30 that afternoon, we were able to book a Barcelona city tour through Celebrity, with a drop-off at the airport at the end. Other's staying on in Barcelona were dropped in a central location so they could get to their hotels, or if they were doing a Celebrity post-cruise trip, they were dropped right at their hotels. The Barcelona tour was a whirlwind, without much time off the bus, but was only an additional $12 more than the cost of the airport transfer alone, so worth it. It is a beautiful city, quite possible the most cosmipolitan of all that we visited, and would be worth a trip back. The one surprise for us was that the Gaudi Cathedral is completely full of construction scaffolding as they try to finish it. I knew it wasn't in use, but didn't realize how much work there was left to finish it. Still, it's an incredible sight from the outside, and makes you wonder what someone was drinking or smoking when the design work was done.

 

We used our ATM card, drawing from our checking account, everywhere without problems (If you don't count power failures). Our ATM card is Visa-branded, and the only thing we had to be careful of was to locate and ATM that provided an English option. We found them everywhere. It's definitely the way to go, as we got the best rate when the transaction hit our bank. The only downside is that you don't know exactly how much is being charged to your account until you see it back home. I just figured all of our withdrawals on the high side for exchange rate purposes, and didn't worry about it.

 

That's about enough for now. We did fly on to Brussels, to visit Mary's family, after the cruise, and had another great four days. We visited the North Sea, in a resort town called Knocke, and it was more magnificent than any place we've been in the States. The beach is incredibly wide, with a very wide promenade running for miles, and the whole area reminded one of Beverly Hills on steroids. Every expensive shop was represented, and this went on for dozens of square blocks. One interesting sight was the new Chrysler (Is it the 3000?), with the large grill. The sticker prices was over 57,000 Euros! On the way to the resort, we stopped in the beautiful town of Brugge, called the Venice of Belgium for it's beautiful canals. A lovely place.

 

While we took all precautions against the thieves, pickpockets and gypsies, we never really saw them, and never felt threatened at an time during the trip. I'm sure they were there, and am sure that others had bad experiences, but not us, and we didn't hear of any from other passengers. It probably helped that we were traveling in a group.

 

Oh, and Santorini. Is there a paradise at sunset on this earth? This is it. It's not to be missed.

[betonic]

Thanks for the review. I'm getting ready to go on the Splendor in less than a month and we'll stop on many of the same places you did.

 

I'm impressed by your rate in Venice. We are staying for 2 nights post cruise and my rate is no where near as cheap as yours. Would you consider the best Western 3 star or better? I guess the transportation in Venice is just outragous. My hotel quoted me 140 Euros for private transportation from the airport to the hotel. Did you buy much in Venice? How about in other places? What were the best deals?

 

I'm glad to hear that your ATM card worked everywhere. I'm planning on using mine as much as possible. Do you think you spend more than you has expected?

 

Thanks in advance

Nicole

[mikemary945]

Thanks for the review. I'm getting ready to go on the Splendor in less than a month and we'll stop on many of the same places you did.

 

I'm impressed by your rate in Venice. We are staying for 2 nights post cruise and my rate is no where near as cheap as yours. Would you consider the best Western 3 star or better? I guess the transportation in Venice is just outragous. My hotel quoted me 140 Euros for private transportation from the airport to the hotel. Did you buy much in Venice? How about in other places? What were the best deals?

 

I'm glad to hear that your ATM card worked everywhere. I'm planning on using mine as much as possible. Do you think you spend more than you has expected?

 

Thanks in advance

Nicole

Nicole,

 

We've had others that said they couldn't get that good a rate either. We booked very early (Jan to Apr timeframe?) for our July trip, and did so through the Best Western web site. The Hotel Ala also had its own web site, but the rates were higher there. We had 3 couples, and all got the AARP rate. The hotel is wonderful. I'd rate it a solid 3 star, if not closer to 3.5. It has been recently(?) renovated, and the rooms are lovely. More important, the bathrooms are lovely; all gleaming and while with lots of marble. Very modern. The breakfast, we have been told by others, is closer to an American buffet than any other hotel in Venice. It had the typical breakfast foods, including cereals, pastries, bagels, fruits......and much more. They have a lovely rooftop terrace where you can watch out over the city as you eat.

 

I'm not sure what kind of quote you're getting for transportation, but we used a water taxi both from the airport to the hotel, and from the hotel to the ship, and it was 90 Euros both times. Every post I've seen here about water taxis has given about the same price. At the airport, we simply walked up to the water taxi dock, and the guy took our name, put in our reservation and said it was 90 Euros. We ordered the taxi from the hotel to the ship through the front desk, and it too was 90.

 

We didn't do a lot of shopping on this trip, as the exchange rate was so ugly. For my budget purposes, since this was the trip of a lifetime for us, I planned high, and figured the exchange rate at $1.25 to the Euro. I believe it was actually nearer to $1.20 while we were there, but the airport exchange booth was ripping people for $1.36 when we got there. At least Jesse James wore a mask! In most cases on the trip, it seemed like what was $1 in the states was about 1 Euro in Europe. Given the bad exchange rate, that then made things around $1.25.

 

When we returned, and I checked our bank account, I found that we had been charged the commercial exchange rate for everything, with our bank charging us an extra $2/transaction for the foreign ATM fee. Not bad at all.

[HappyTraveling]

HiWe are booked on the Venice-Barcelona May 27, 2005 on the Millenium.

For now, we have a portside cabin with a balcony. Would you recommend a starboard cabin instead?

 

Thanks for the review.

[highworth]

Hi..thanks for the very helpful review. Can you tell us how many formal nights you had and what days they were?

Many thanks. We leave in a week for this same cruise.

[mikemary945]

HiWe are booked on the Venice-Barcelona May 27, 2005 on the Millenium.

For now, we have a portside cabin with a balcony. Would you recommend a starboard cabin instead?

 

Thanks for the review.

We had a portside verandah cabin as well, and before the cruise, I was concerned that starboard was going to be better. I came to the conclusion that port was fine, and maybe preferable. While sailing from Venice to Barcelona means that the starboard-side cabins usually have a bit better view of the arrival than port-side, in most cases the view is of a commercial port facility, which isn't all that great. Depending on your sleep habits, you might not even be awake when the ship docks. In some cases, we weren't. In the tender ports of Santorini and Villifrance, as the Millie swung at anchor, we had continually changing views of the area. As you can see in some of the pics we posted, we had lovely views of the towns from our balcony. Cruising into Dubrovnik, the view coming through all the outer islands was breathtaking, and port-side was fine. Athens is a commercial port, and didn't matter. Naples had better views from starboard, but it was still fairly dark when we docked, so didn't matter. The port isn't much to look at anyway. The same goes for Rome (Civ.), Livorno and Barcelona. However, the one great reason to stay with the port side, in my opinion, is the sail away from Venice. We sat on our balcony, with our friends, and watched Venice pass by us as we sailed out. It was magnificent. Don't worry about changing.

 

Mike

[betonic]

Mike,

 

Thanks for your response. I live in Mexico and it seems like exchanging money from Pesos to Euros might be OK. I'm going to order some and the rest of the time I'm going to get money from the ATM.