Things I need to know for cruising the Med

[Harlow2]

DH and I will be cruising the Med next year. I have always found the info and "tips" here on CC to be so very helpful with our previous cruises. I would appreciate any advice you can offer. This is our first trip to Europe as well.

 

We are cruising on the Splendor of the Seas - Ports include: Barcelona, Spain, Marseille, France, Villefranche (Nice), France, Livorno(Florence/Pisa),Italy, Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy & Naples, Italy

 

Any type of information will help. Thank you for the tips!!!

[Italy52]

DH and I will be cruising the Med next year. I have always found the info and "tips" here on CC to be so very helpful with our previous cruises. I would appreciate any advice you can offer. This is our first trip to Europe as well.

 

We are cruising on the Splendor of the Seas - Ports include: Barcelona, Spain, Marseille, France, Villefranche (Nice), France, Livorno(Florence/Pisa),Italy, Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy & Naples, Italy

 

Any type of information will help. Thank you for the tips!!!

 

What month are you cruising. July was VERY HOT in Italy when we went. I was glad we had hats and suntan lotion. Notify credit card company of your itinerary before you leave so they will not cut off your cards thinking they are stolen. If using an ATM machine overseas, make sure your PIN consists of numbers not letters. Wear comfortable walking shoes and keep a bandaide handy just in case you get blisters. Many streets are cobblestone. Wear comfortable clothing. I was told that I should wear long pants otherwise the Europeans would look down on me. Nonsense, I saw shorts all over the Med. I did, however, dress more conservatively if I was planning on going into a church. Do some research about the places you are visiting. Put together a list of "must-see items." We did. I pre-ordered tickets whenever possible and avoided waits in museums. Don't be afraid to explore. Your itinerary is a good one with many wonderful places to visit. If you can manage it, a pre and post cruise is a wonderful way to go. Helps with jet lag and port-itensive itinerary. Last, but not lease, relax and have a great time. We will be going back to the Med in 2006 and can't wait.

[vivian02]

You will really like this cruise but you should heed some warning in going to Europe for the first time. I guartee you will experience jet lag. Once you leave the Eastern U.S. or the Western U.S. you will arrive in Europe only to find you missed a good nights sleep. I strongly recommend you plan on a precruise stay of one or two days. Since you are doing Splendor you will find Barcelona a wonderful city to tour. Hotels in Barcelona don't come cheap so plan ahead. Try to arrive in Barcelona with some Euros in your pocket. Taxi drivers are pretty good in Barcelona but they are use to "Euros not dollars". Be prepared the dollar does not go to far these days in Europe. You might want to stay post cruise in Barelona before flying back to the States. The food is not like you are use to. Read ahead so you know what you are ordering. There is always MacDonalds. Note MacDonalds in Spain does not serve breakfast. They don't open until 10:00 am at most places. You can get some great wine at a price that is just plain cheap.

Do not be suprise if you go the beach only to find almost everyone topless. (Including males) My wife gave me a dirty look in Villefrance but once I explained to her "this is the French Rivera" and this is how the culture is in Europe. She took me up on my offer for a glass of rose at the beach side bar and everything after that was fine. This is why going to Europe is so wonderful. There is a surprise around every turn. I even know a relative that thought all those statues in Florence were "X" rated. I only know there sure are alot of Americans that have no culture at all.

There are some excursions that you can take on Splendor that offer a great chance to see places you would never know of. Example, the Les Baux tour at Marsellie offers a chance to see sights out side of the big city that are just amazing.

Don't over pack. I think you weight limit will be about 70 pounds. Do alot of planning and read all you can. I have been to Europe four times now and I am still amazed at all these places that are just so different. Trip number five has already been booked for late May of 2005. I wish you the best cruise ever. Tim and Cathy

 

Norwegian Sky Alaska 5/03

Norwegian Star Hawaii 11/03

Royal Caribbean Splendor of the Seas Meditterean 5/04

[Harlow2]

Hi Italy -

Thank you for the information. I knew there would be little things that we would not know or would miss just from not having to be concerned with those things when you travel domestically, i.e. credit cards etc.. Thank you. I will put these on my things to do list. We are not cruising until next October. Hopefully, it will not be as hot. DH is Italian, so he is looking forward to visiting the "homeland".

Thanks again!

[Harlow2]

Thank you Tim - We are avid wine drinkers, so we are looking forward to having so much quality at our fingertips. Can you bring or mail bottles back with you? We are flying out on a Wed afternoon and will arrive in Barcelona on Thursday at noon - our cruise is not until Saturday. DH can go on very little sleep, but I am an "8 hour per night" person unfortunately, so I know it is going to be rough. I told him to not dare let me get there and go to sleep in the afternoon. I would hate to waste the time when there will be so much to explore.

[Joanandjoe]

Here are a few more tips:

 

1) Find out whether your bank has correspondent banks in the countries you are visiting. You may receive fee-free use of ATMs. Our account is with Bank of America (formerly Fleet), and we were able to use ATMs in France (Paribas Bank) and Spain (Barclays, which is primarily a UK bank) with no fee.

 

2) Do some advance research - see the thread on that subject. Have a good idea of what you want to do in each port, but be flexible. From Villefranche you can visit Nice or St. Paul de Vence, plus other interesting places. You'll probably want to go to Rome from Civitavecchia and Florence or Pisa from Livorno; but both are long days. Have a backup plan in case you decide to have one long trip and one trip close to the port.

 

3) Arrive at least a day early. If the cruise is one way (e.g., Barcelona to Naples), try to stay a few days at both ends.

 

4) Don't be afraid to try local foods: you're going to Europe to experience a different culture. Why would you want to go to McDonalds in Barcelona when you can have wonderful tapas?

 

5) Pace yourself, and do different things. If you go to churches and museums in one city, go to parks in another. Otherwise you'll get glassy eyed, and all churches (or museums, monuments, parks, etc.) will start to look alike. Try to do a mix of ship's tours, going on your own, and maybe (if you are going with other people, or find them on the CC boards) take a private tour in at least one city. The CC boards have lots of suggestions.

 

6) Relax, enjoy, and try not to get upset if any little things go wrong. No cruise is perfect, but they're usually mighty good!

[vivian02]

Just to let you know we arrived in Barceloan on a late Thrusday afternoon. I think the wife was ready to shoot me when we got to the plaza and she asked me..."Well....where is the hotel? Anyway I knew it was close (a few blocks) She stayed at the plaza with our suit cases while I ran down the location of our hotel. Plan on staying in the Las Ramblas area or the beach area. We stayed in Las Ramblas precruise (Thursday,Friday) and the beach area postcruise(Sunday and Monday). The wife liked the beach area the best. I think she felt more secure in that area than Las Ramblas. Remember Barcelona does have Gepsies. No big deal Italy has had gepsies for a 1000 years. Also once you board Splendor. Most Europeans take the late dinner 9 to 10. This was way too late for us and you will find most Americans like the 6-7 dining. We did the 5-6 dining and found the dining area almost empty. What made it so great was the fact that we were wined and dined by our waiters because they only had us to attend to. I like dining with others but it was nice for a change to only have the wife and I at the table alone. Seemed so romanic. Remember this trip is very port intensive. Once you get back to the ship you are either ready for bed or ready for dinner. We chose dinner and made almost all of the nightly shows. This should give you plenty to think about for now. Tim and Cathy

[zebra]

The biggest tip I could give you is save now and book private tour guides as opposed to the huge tour "herded on, herded off" busses that the cruise line uses - you won't be sorry. In Villefranche we used Revelation tours and they took us to Eze and St. Paul de Vence, both these places are out of this world, don't miss them, we also went to Monaco and Nice. Your guide will drive you right up the hill to the city gates at Eze - no busses can get there, these poor people have to walk up the hill before they even get into the city which is also built on a hill. At lot of climbing, but spectacular.

 

I second the previous poster - why in the world would anyone want to eat at MacDonalds overseas. The food in Barcelona was wonderful. Great Tapas bars along Las Ramblas and in the market La Boqueria. Suberb Spanish wines, paella and tapas - sit out on Las Ramblas at these Tapas Bars and people watch!!! We also didn't feel at all jet lagged going over - just got ourselves situated at our hotel at 11:00am and then hit the streets. We loved Barcelona - great vibe!!!! The jetlag hit us when we got home, boy did we feel tired. The cruise is very, very port intensive (one sea day on a 12 day cruise) we walked miles and climbed 100's of stairs, but we knew this going into it and had "a ball". We loved Europe (especially the Greek Isles) so we're going back again in September.

 

In Naples we used Marcello and did the Amalfi Coast - unbelievable!!! In my opinion this is a MUST SEE. If you need any more info let me know.

 

In Rome and Florence we used Claudio of www.limoinrome.com he's amazing and so very flexible, he'll arrange all your tickets beforehand. We loved him and are using him again this coming year. He took us to his friends wine store where we got wondrful wines at bargain prices and he even bought us a bottle of Chianti as as farewell gift. We brought 9 bottles of wine back from Europe in our wheeled carry-ons, no problem. (Just take some bubble wrap from here to wrap each bottle in.)

[Italy52]

What part of Italy is your DH from? Mine grew up in a small town near the Dolomites. We are not tour people, we like to explore on our own. The fact that my DH knew the language really came in handy on a couple of occassions. In fact, he overheard a young boy talking about my watch while we were walking in the shopping center in Naples. He quickly moved closer to me and told the kid to move on. It was nice to have that added advantage.

[navel1ring]

We did Splendour this past October - It was fabulous! I have done a review of all the ports on this board. But something I did not stress, but a previous poster stated-contact your credit cards that you are leaving the country & which cities you will be in. I did not do that on a caribbean cruise & had my card put on "hold" but I contacted both credit cards prior to European trip & had no problems & was thanked for notifying them. The Splendour trip is very port intensive but we would do it again in a heartbeat!

 

Wendy

[Bruin Steve]

...I would appreciate any advice you can offer...

We are cruising on the Splendor of the Seas - Ports include: Barcelona, Spain, Marseille, France, Villefranche (Nice), France, Livorno(Florence/Pisa),Italy, Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy & Naples, Italy

Any type of information will help. Thank you for the tips!!!

 

Wow!! That's sort of a wide open question...You will get all sorts of advice...and conflicting advice...For example, as you've already seen, someone has advised to book private guides (seems to be typical advice on these boards)...I'm not sold on that...I've done both private tours and ship's excursions...and in Europe, especially in Italy, it's not necessarily true that "private guides" are better...In many jurisdictions, only certain guides are allowed to give actual tours...most private guides only are licensed as drivers. So, while my ship excursion guide gave us a delightful and educational tour of Pompei, some of our shipmates with private guides were merely dropped off at the entrance...And I have written many tims before of the advantages of the ship's tour of Pompei, Capri and Sorrento--basically, since you are not tied to the guide's car, the ship tour takes you by hydrofoil to Capri, then directly by hydrofoil Capri to Sorrento, saving lots of time and allowing you to see all three sites...As to the "herding" on and off buses, we simply found that to be not always true...Our "Walk in Renaissance Rome" excursion had only 11 passengers and they used a "minibus"...Our "Tuscan Countryside" tour had only 18 passengers...both were very comfortable and easy...Yes, though, some tours have more people and bigger buses...And, of course, remember some people like the security of having everything arranged through the cruise line...Private tours are not necessarily the best choice for everyone...

 

As for Barcelona, by all means plan on getting in at least a couple of nights early if you can...Book a hotel as near as practical to the Placa Catalunya...The Placa is the northern terminus of Las Ramblas, the great walking promenade...but, the Placa is also the hub of everything in Barcelona...all of the public transportation centers around there...and many tourist sites, like Gaudi's Casa Mila and Casa Batllo are walking distance...The great department store, El Corte Ingles is on the Placa as well (the supermarket in the basement level is the best place to buy snacks, drinks and bottled water)...Also, if spending time in Barcelona, purchase a copy of the AAA Spiral Guide-Barcelona--the maps and suggested walking tours are indispensible...Remember, dont miss seeing La Sagrada Familia or Park Guell...

 

For Marseille, find a tour or excursion that gets you out of Marseilles (big ugly port) and into the smaller cities and towns of Provence: Arles, Avignon, Nimes, etc.

 

For Villefranche, since you've never been, Monte Carlo is worth a visit...but also visit either Eze or St. Paul de Vence...

 

Livorno(Florence/Pisa), since you've never been, Florence is a must (we've been there a few times so we opted for San Gimignano/Volterra...but Florence will always remain one of my favorite cities...so much art and architecture...the city itself is a work of art)...

 

Civitavecchia (Rome): What can I say? Only unfortunate part is that you won't have near enough time to see everything...we were very pleased with that "Walk in Renaisance Rome" tour...not nearly as much walking as it sounded from the name and description and it hit all of my favorite sites: The Piaza Navona, Trevi Fountain and Pantheon as well as an in-depth tour of the Vatican...

 

Naples, Italy: Whatever you chose, make sure it includes a visit to Pompei...there is nothing like it in the world...Also, my wife absolutely loved Capri...

 

Good luck and enjoy...

[Joanandjoe]

Bruin Steve's posting reiterates something we said: do your research, and do a mix of private and ship's tours. Apparently, Naples may be a good place to stick with the ship's tours, while Villefranche may be a good place to take a private tour. Our ship, the Wind Surf, was in Marseille for 30 hours. The ship's tour we took to Avignon and Chateauneuf du Pape was great. However, we stayed in Marseille the next morning, and thought it too was lovely. We don't know why it has a bad rep.: it is not any "ugly port town", at least not from the nice area near the Cathedral where the Wind Surf was docked. Had we stayed in Marseille, we could have taken a harbor tour and seen the Chateau d'Yf. Maybe the Splendour docks somewhere else, and it's ugly there.

 

On a personal note, the Wind Surf was in port with the Splendour in several ports. The Splendour (a relatively small ship for RCCL) has 1,800 passengers and is 70,000 tons. The Wind Surf, larger than the other two Windstar ships combined, has 300 passengers and is 14,745 tons. Our ship looked so small next to yours that we dubbed it the "Wind Smurf".

[Harlow2]

Wow! thank you all so much for the information. It is truly priceless to me!

 

Italy52 - Husband's Father's side is from Florence and his Mother's side is from Sicily. Unfortuantely, he does not speak Italian...I am always kidding him about being and "Imitation Italian" :)

 

JoanandJoe - We were just on the Mariner last month which is much bigger than the Splendor. I am curious to see the difference. I am sure your Wind Surf was awesome with only 300 pax. Isn't Paul Cezanne from Marseille? He is one of my favorite artist.

 

Zebra - I will make sure we take plenty of bubble wrap. We would love to bring some wine back. Talked to my TA today and even she mentioned how you can get such good wines and such an inexpensive price. I also LOVE Paella!! Can't wait!

 

Tim & Cathy - Do you remember some of the hotels in Las Ramblas? I think we would rather stay there than the beach area (we live at the beach). I also just added an overnight in Paris on the front end of the trip, which will take away an extra day in Barcelona, so we will have to make the most of the day and a half that we will have there. I did have my TA look up the hotel package for Barcelona that the cruise line offers ...it was for the Atrium Palace and was twice the price that she could get if booked it independently. The advantage is that the transfers are included.

 

Bruin Steve - Yes, I thought we would look at both options for tours. Private and the cruise line. We usually do a mixture of both on most cruises that we take. That is why this board is so terrific in that we can share this type of information.

 

Thanks Wendy - I added it to my list

[navel1ring]

We loved Hotel Continetal Palacete right on Plaza Catalunya. Rooms were great, the 24 hour buffet was fabulous & Peter the concierge was sooo helpful for doing excursions out of Barcelona post cruise-we loved Sitges! Just remember, it is very port intensive-we didn't stop for the entire pre cuise-cruise & post cuise & were exhausted when we got home, but wouldn't hesitate to do it again. If you enjoy reading- read Angels & Demons which is the book before the Da VInci Code & you will especially enjoy Rome. I wish I had read them both before our cruise.

 

Wendy

[Bruin Steve]

A quick note on Barcelona hotels:

Our last two trips there we stayed at the Hilton and at the Gran Havana...

The Hilton was nice but not well located...I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a car...

The Gran Havana is a few blocks off the Placa Catalunya in the Eixample District on Corts de Catalan...a very good location if one is willing to walk a few short blocks totthe center of everything...The hotel was first rate all the way...

I have heard good things on Le Meridien--which is located ideally right on the Placa Catalunya...

When you hear "located near Las Ramblas", remember that can mean a number of things...You DON'T want to be near the southern end of Las Ramblas--it's simply not as nice a neighborhood and not nearly as convenient...A hotel near Las Ramblas MAY be in the Barrio Gotic...which is quaint, but often very old...and sometimes the "standards" aren't quite up to what you would expect...Hotels off the Placa to the north and east fall into the Eixample--which would have the more modern buildings with more spacious and up-to-date accomodations...

 

Good luck...

[lisiamc]

Another vote for the Hotel Continental Palacete in Barcelona - a lovely, friendly little treasure of a hotel. The rooms are somewhat small, but the price is very reasonable, and there is an extremely handy 24-hour breakfast bar. There is a great, non-touristy restaurant just a couple of blocks away that the desk staff can direct you to. It's called El Mussol.

 

Also, I have tried using travelers' checks in Europe, and they are a huge pain. No one really seems to want them, and there is a charge to cash them. Much better to take a credit card and an ATM card.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

Lisa

[CruisingCatherine]

I just wanted to tell you how much I am enjoying your thread!! I am also cruising on the Splendour in Oct. What date are you sailing. We are sailing on the 8th.

[JZenkow]

I am also doing this cruise in Aug. and appreciate all the info passed. One thing I found out is to be sure to read about the ship/s shore excursions. RCL's shore excursion are anailable to look at online. For the Pisa trips, you will not go up the tower if you book with the ship. It states that you willn not have time to go up the tower. So look close "See the tower or See the Coliseum" may mean you drive by it but you won't stop . I've already reserved a private driver for all 3 Italy ports, so I can do the things I want to see and do.

[vivian02]

OK I have to answer the to the MacDonlads thing on this thread. Two years ago in Germany I wouldn't let my wife step into a fast food resturant until the last day. We were in Heidelburg Germany and my wife couldn't believe it. You can acturally get ice at MacDonalds. It was so good that she went back and ordered a second drink. The other thing I like about MacDonalds in Germany is the fact that you can order breakfast...Not so in Spain. Its even more fun to order in Germany and see if you can get by as not being an American....

"Ein Egg McMuppin"," Ein Koffee" ..."Zucker...Ya" and then I would blow it because I don't know the term for Cream. Besides that in Spain you can get a beer with your Big Mac. Its just so different and that is why you a least check out MacDonalds once while you are in Europe. Now that I think about it I have not been to MacDonlds in Italy. Maybe someone out there can fill us in on that experience. Tim and Cathy

 

Average Tapia dinner for two in Spain.....$24.00 (Including wine)

Average MacDonalds dinner for two in Spain $10.00 (Including beer)

Note: prices can run alot higher depending on the resturant if there a taxes and union fees for the employees.

[CruisingCatherine]

I hate to sound completely ignorant but,....what is tapia?

[lisiamc]

Catherine,

 

I think maybe it was a typo for tapas. They are yummier than MacDonald's (only my opinion!;) ), but definitely more expensive.

 

Lisa

[CruisingCatherine]

I still don't know what tapas are either!:o

[Joanandjoe]

And that's as much of an understatement as saying that caviar is fish eggs. They are small plates of wonderful food - meats, fish, shellfish, egge dishes, etc. Try a google search for tapas and you'll get lots of wondeful likes to descriptions of tapas, including http://www.globalgourmet.com/destinations/spain/spaintapa.html and http://www.arrakis.es/~jols/tapas/indexin.html and many others.

 

The Spanish eat supper very late - starting at 10 p.m. or later. When we would eat an early dinner - say 5 to 7 p.m. - the Spanish eat tapas with wine or beer, depending on the region. You can also make a lunch of tapas; and, if you're earlybirds like us, tapas can replace dinner. Yum!!

[Captain Canuck]

another reason to go cruising. we were on a ship with a tapa bar. we got to try all the tapas. I did not like any of them. My wife loved some. so, when we were in Spain she ate some tapas and I stayed with stuff I knew. I also made her eat at a McDonalds in Barcelona. Not only was it food I knew, but it was cheap AND it had outside tables on las Ramblas. We got the feel of Spain, got to people watch AND got to have a Big Mac. We had a 3 star hotel just down from the Macdonalds. wish I could remember the name of it. Nice place with reasonable prices. there was also a internet place down by the Column with Christopher Colombus. You buy a ticket and use the time in as many visits as you want. With the time difference with home it was good. We stopped off in the morning and sent email and then returned on our way back to the hotel to read answers.

 

I have to get off these boards or I will be booking another cruise before I can afford it.

[Tania]

harlow, about the wine

 

DH and I have visited many wine regions in Europe over the years and have always brought back wine only to be disappointed because they didn't quite taste the same at home even after letting them rest several months, and in some cases, years.

 

The two most recent trips included Pauillac on a cruise and Burgundy & Champagne by car on our own. In Burgundy we made our largest purchase ever and brought the bottles home in a small rollerboard. I'm talking Volnay, Aloxe-Corton, Puligny-Montrachet, Gevrey-Chambertin, Cristalle, etc. The Volnay was 10 euro a bottle...here 50 dollars. Figuring good wine needed a little respect and after many years of discussion, we bought wine fridge.

 

The one bottle we tried recently was not a disappointment.