These are a few comments from our Mediterranean Cruise. If you are interested I am 59 years old and my wife wonıt let me tell you how old she is.
We took the Taste of the Mediterranean - 7 night cruise. There were 5 ports of call: Villefranche(Monte Carlo/Cannes), France; Ajaccio, Corsica; Civitaveccia(Rome), Italy; Messina, Sicily; and Valletta, Malta.
We took a 3-day pre cruise plan in Barcelona, which is where the cruise started. Barcelona: Left NY at 6:00 pm on 7/6 and arrived at the Majestic Hotel in Barcelona(with a stop in Lisbon Portugal) at about 10:30 am. Of course since there is a six hour difference, our bodies thought it was 4:30 am and not 10:30 am. We were able to go right to our room. My wife was happy because they had a hair dryer in the room. The room was quite comfortable. The only problem that I found was that the room had two twin beds that were next to one another. We were not the only ones with the twin beds. The hotel was centrally located and I was happy with the choice.
There was a representative from RCCL to assist you in the lobby. I found the hours that she was available to be inconvenient. She was available from 9-11 am and 3-5 pm. By the time we got settled in our room she was gone. When I did get to talk to her I found that if you had a specific question, she could answer it or make a call and find the answer. She was not too helpful with any advice or direction. Learned more from other Americans at the hotel. The tenth floor of the hotel has a pool and also affords a nice view of the city.
The first thing I did was go to a bank and get some Spanish money. Banks truly have bankers hours. I am not sure if they open at 8:00 am or 9:00 am but they definitely close at 2:00 pm. The banks are open Monday-Friday and closed on Saturday and Sunday. There are quite a few ATM machines around the city. I tried to use my credit card as much as possible.
My wife and I have never been to Europe. All I have to say about Barcelona is WOW. Not having slept that much on the flight over and arriving at 10:30 am we took a nap at about 2:00 in the afternoon and were in bed at 8:30 pm. We did not get too much accomplished on the first day.
I had no trouble communicating with people. Most businesses had someone that could speak English to some degree or they had some way of communicating. For example, if you wanted to buy an ice cream, they would have pictures of all the different types and flavors. All you had to do was point at the one you wanted.
We bought a two day pass on the Bus Turistic. This bus has two routes, one northern(the red loop) and one southern(the blue loop). You can get on and off as often as you wish. They stop at most of the attractions in Barcelona(25 stops). When I got off the bus, I never had to wait more than 10 minutes for a bus to come along. One of the stops is about two blocks from the hotel. You are able to get on either the blue loop or the red loop from this stop. The two day pass also comes with a 32 page booklet that has a map of the routes and the stops. There are also discount tickets for most of the attractions at each stop. There is also a brief explanation of each stop in 6 different languages. If you do not get off the bus for each loop, it takes about 3.5 hours to complete the two loops. We started about 9:00 am and would go till about 8:30 pm. We did not see everything. We had to pick and choose what we wanted to see. We were able to see everything that we wanted to see. Every stop we made was worth while. My favorites were Sagrada Familla, Placa Espanya, Olympic Stadium and Barri Gotic. The one thing that I found and is well documented on the internet is that many of the stops involve a lot of walking and/or a lot of climbing hills or stairs. Of the stops we made there was a significant hill that had to be climbed to get to Park Guell. I wish I had counted the blocks but the hill is about three or four blocks long.
On Saturday we were able to pre register at the hotel for the ship. We were given our boarding passes so that when we got to the the ship we went right in and only had to activate the boarding pass with a credit card. We left the hotel at 12:15pm and we were in our cabin at 12:30pm.
This was our 5th cruise with RCCL. We were on the Legend of the Seas to Alaska previously.
Our luggage was in our cabin within a couple of hours. My wife was disappointed because there was no hair dryer. The ship had the normal electrical outlets. I think they also had outlets for European appliances.
With so many long shore excursions we did not spend as much time on the ship as we usually do. We had to take the tender to shore to board the bus for the Villefranche tour. The notice said to meet in the lounge at 10:00 am. They started handing out tender tickets by groups at 9:30 am. Each group was enough to fill one bus. As people came in they were given a number if your whole group was present. Once there was enough for a couple of buses, you headed to the tender. We had main seating. On the Monaco, Eze and Nice tour we never got back to the ship until 7:10 pm and main seating is at 6:30 pm. Someone from the dining room met us as we got back on the ship and told us that we could still go to the sit down meal and we would be served if we went right up to dinner.
As we went to different ports we were able to exchange money to the foreign money on board ship for that port. The only place where they did not exchange money on the ship was for Malta. They said that most shops accepted American or English money. That was not true for the places that I went. Again, I used a credit card as much as possible and did not have to contend with the foreign money.
My last cruise was in August of ’98. I donıt know when this practice started but we were able to pay for the tips with a credit card. The ship deducted per person per day $3.50 for the cabin steward, $3.50 for the waiter, $2.00 for the assistant waiter and $0.75 for the head waiter. You were given an envelope on Friday with a card that the waiter(etc) could turn in for their tip. Obviously if you wanted to give more you could add money to the envelope.
I did not enjoy the entertainment as much as I have on other cruises. However what I donıt enjoy someone else may think is great. Along with the normal revue type shows they had the Lorador Brothers, Annett and Pat Bradford. I missed this show because there was only one showing that night and that was the night we were late in coming back from our tour. They also had Maddi Cryer(singer impersonator), Naki Ataman(pianist), Hal Frazier(singer) and Flash(ladder acrobatics). Even though there was over 50% repeaters on the ship they did the "What would I be if I were not upon the sea" skit. I have seen this so many times that it is not funny anymore.
I have no statistics but I would say that 90-95% of the passengers were English speaking. All announcements were made in English and if it was an important announcement, it also was made in Spanish. All the entertainment was in English. I would say that 90% of the passengers were Americans.
When we departed the ship, we were the 2nd to last group to leave the ship(9:00 am). We had a charter flight with Qantas that left at 1:55pm. When we put our luggage outside the room on Friday, the luggage was picked up and brought directly to the airline. We did not have to struggle to look for our luggage in the terminal. This was not true of all the airlines. They also gave us a 2.5 hour bus tour of Barcelona with several stops for picture taking. This was a nice surprise. By the time we got to the airport we did not have to wait long to board our plane for England. As a matter of fact they started boarding early because once we were boarded there was a 45 minute wait to get cleared for take off. When we arrived in London, we had to claim our baggage and get seat assignments on British Airways. This was the difficult part. Royal Caribbean had a block of seats but it was tough to get two seats together. If you were a group of four or more, there was almost no chance of getting seats together. Maybe we were just late for our group to get seat assignments, but there was a fair crowd behind us.
The meals were the usual for Royal Caribbean. If I can walk away from the table and be full, I am happy. So using that as a criteria it was 5 star for me. However, many people are looking for super quality and presentation. The food was good but not excellent. For example, was the prime rib the best prime rib I ever ate, the answer is no, but it was good.
There were the usual two formal nights, one smart formal night and the rest were casual
nights.
Excursions:
We took the 8.5 hour Nice, Eze and Monaco excursion in Villefranche and there was too much shopping time as far as I am concerned. This was the excursion I enjoyed the least. We stopped in Eze at an Italian restaurant for lunch. This was part of the tour. There is a lot of walking and hill climbing.
In Ajaccio, Corsica we just went into town and did not take an excursion. We were in need of a relaxed day. Some people that took the tours really enjoyed it.
We took the 10.5 hour "The Eternal City" tour in Rome. It was extended to 11.5 hours. There was a guide with the bus, but when we got to Rome, a local guide joined the bus and gave us the tour of Rome. We had a guide by the name of Roberto. He did a great job. Again there is a lot of walking and climbing of stairs. There is a strict dress code to get into St Peterıs Basilica and it is enforced. I enjoyed this excursion the most. There was a stop at a local restaurant for lunch that was part of the tour.
In Sicily we took the 4.5 hour Tindari tour. I found the Roman ruins and the Greek amphitheater to be quite interesting. There is one hill to climb as I remember.
In Malta we took the 3.5 hour Grand Harbor Cruise and Shopping excursion. You obviously only get to see the exterior of the island. Though I enjoyed this excursion, I would recommend you consider another tour in Malta.
As usual, excursions are a matter of taste, what I find interesting someone else may find boring.
Of the ten cruises my wife and I have taken, this was the best cruise I have been on. I liked it better than Alaska and I really enjoyed Alaska.
We have been on multiple cruises and have enjoyed each and everyone of them.
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