The Great Adventure! VISION OF THE SEAS 12-Night Med Cruise: A Full PICTORIAL Review!

By this point, we’d basically done everything we’d wanted to do in Paris: we’ve shopped, we’ve dined, we’ve roamed and we’ve seen most of the major sites. It was too late in the day to even attempt to get into the Louvre and we figured it was probably too much effort to head up to Sacre Coeur, too, but we weren’t ready to go back to the hotel. So we did what we naturally gravitate to – we wandered. We browsed the high-end delicacies at Fauchon. We perused the goods at (another) Monoprix. We turned down streets we hadn’t been through yet just to see what we could find.

And since I couldn’t leave Europe without at least ONE more good cappuccino, we stopped at a small café, Patisserie Viennoiserie, that we found while wandering down one of those streets for just one more.

When we’d lost track of time and found dinnertime approaching, we stopped at the nearest café (Les 3 Quartiers). The food was decent, the service was great and we settled in at a table outside to people watch with our last meal. Dining truly is a spectator sport in Paris, and there was no more appropriate way to spend our last evening in the city.

It was getting late when we finished dinner (nearing 9:00 pm – still wasn’t used to these late dusks!), but I wasn’t ready to go back to the hotel and pack quite yet, so we split up. Mom and Stephanie went back to pack and I just…wandered…taking in as many storefronts, building facades and brightly colored doors as I could find.

Oh, and I made one last stop at Monoprix to stock up on French skincare, cappuccino mix, chocolates and whatever else I could fit in my suitcase.

Mom texted me that I couldn’t avoid packing forever and she was right, so I slowly trudged back to the hotel.

Our 9:30 am flight would really be 2:30 am at home, which isn’t an unheard of bed time for me, so I tried to stay up as late as I could so I could up my chances of sleeping on the flight home. There was no room for jet lag here – I had to be back at work the next day! So I packed (and re-packed). I took a long bubble bath. I checked the turbulence forecast and our flight path and I went through all of my pictures, not truly able to believe that our nearly three week adventure had come to an end. And when I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore, I gave in to sleep.

I want to go now.....you girls know how to make the best out of your time and energy!....I have a silly question....do the cafes do decafe?....I love fancy coffee but can't have but a bit of caffeine in a day's time....such a pain but one must keep the heart rate steady....my husband adores croissants so he is going to be in pastry heaven....thank you so much for continuing......you have such a good eye for atmosphere.....

I want to go now.....you girls know how to make the best out of your time and energy!....I have a silly question....do the cafes do decafe?....I love fancy coffee but can't have but a bit of caffeine in a day's time....such a pain but one must keep the heart rate steady....my husband adores croissants so he is going to be in pastry heaven....thank you so much for continuing......you have such a good eye for atmosphere.....

I think so -- some of the cafe's we visited definitely had decaf :)

That is good news.....every time i've looked at your breakfast and snack photos I wondered....thank you....

Leaving Paris…leaving Europe…was bad enough. But a 4:30 am wakeup call so we could leave this beautiful place we’d spent three weeks exploring? That’s just torturous.

We had to be out of the hotel by 5:30 am to have enough time to check in for our flight, validate and process our VAT return, check our luggage and make our way through security before our 9:30 am flight. So even though we were up super early, the staff at the Hyatt Paris Madeleine were ready to help us depart, taking our embarrassing large volume of luggage from our room to a taxi they had arranged for us.

The meter starts on a taxi in Paris when it’s called and arrives, not when you begin your ride, so when Mom was gabbing with the door staff before we left, our meter was running and we had a €12 charge before we even left!

The sun was just beginning to rise as we drove through the streets of Madeleine on our way to Charles De Gaulle, casting a cold grey glow across the shadows of the streets we’d fallen in love with over the past three days. I kept my eyes on the road ahead, not daring to look back behind me. The three weeks we’d spent in Europe was nothing short of magnificent, and not only would I be back at work the next day, but to even get to that, I had a ten hour flight ahead of me. I hadn’t combed through my pictures, saving it for that ten hour flight to give myself something to look forward to and an apt way to reminisce as we departed.

Charles de Gaulle is to Paris much like O’Hare is to Chicago – a large airport serving a large city, but not existing quite within those city limits. The drive to the airport was about a half hour and a €60 fare.

The airport hadn’t quite opened when we’d arrived – the check-in desks for American flights hadn’t even opened yet – so we roamed around looking for the office where we’d need to process the VAT refunds for our handbags. Once we found the machines and office, it was quick and painless. We put our validated forms in the mailbox, packed our new handbags back in our suitcases and headed off to check in for our flight.

As we were checking in to our flight, we saw the one word on the kiosk that we could only laugh at, given how our trip had began: DELAYED. A fitting bookend to this trip, I suppose. The inbound flight to Paris was delayed in Boston, and as such, we were looking at a (minimum) three hour flight delay. We made our way through a Customs checkpoint, checked our luggage, passed through security and made our way to the gate, now having almost five hours to kill until our flight. Thankfully, Charles de Gaulle has free wifi and these nifty charging stations where you could lock up your device to charge while you roam around.

We grabbed a quick breakfast – some croissants and subpar cappuccinos – and checked in on our flight, our emails and started getting back into the life we’d left at home.

Once we were caffeinated, we set out to explore the airport. On the list of airports I’ve been delayed in (and there are many), Charles de Gaulle ranks amongst the best. Every shop I could have wanted to stop in was right there in the international departures lounge, from Fauchon to La Duree to Maxsim, every Parisian delicacy I could want was available right in the airport. And that doesn’t even touch the luxury shopping, with stores like Dior, Chanel, Hermes and Miu Miu lining the corridors. It was easy to pretend I wasn’t bumming around an airport for hours waiting for my delayed flight to board and instead was wandering around a high-end luxury shopping mall in Paris. I don’t even know if they have high-end luxury shopping malls in Paris (let alone shopping malls at all), but this game of pretend was exactly what I needed to power through this extended delay.

All these random Euros floating in my purse wasn’t going to do me any good back at home, so I spent the remainder on small souvenirs and treats to enjoy on the flight home.

Okay, and I have to talk about the restrooms, too. Because Charles de Gaulle has some of the cleanest, most modern facilities I’ve ever seen in an airport. We went to freshen up before our flight and were impressed. Impressed by restrooms. Yeah. I don’t even know what else to say there, but props to the French.

As we settled back at our gate, they announced that our flight was overbooked. Very overbooked. And anyone willing to take the next flight out (the next morning) would be bumped up to first class, given overnight hotel accommodations and a $1000 flight voucher. Another day in Paris, a first class flight home and enough to cover most of another flight to Europe? I was about to jump at it, but then I realized I’d be in Paris alone and flying home 10 hours alone – my employer has a generous time off policy, but Stephanie’s employer has a rather restrictive one, and if it wasn’t an option for her, it wasn’t an option for any of us.

The flight in from Boston arrived a little earlier than anticipated and before we knew it, we were boarding a large (but old and outdated) airplane and jetting eastbound towards the States.

Unlike our flight to Europe, which required a layover, our flight home was direct. And unlike the overnight flight that allowed us to reset our sleep schedule enough to acclimate, our flight home was during the day. Our flight left Paris at noon, and we were scheduled to land in Chicago just past 2:00 pm. On the same day. We were flying backwards in a space where time didn’t really pass or exist. The ride was smooth and peaceful, so we settled in with some wine from the beverage cart and a cheese basket and Fauchon macarons we’d purchased in the airport.

A couple of hours later, they served lunch: an option between chicken and ravioli. I had the chicken, Stephanie and Mom had the ravioli. Both options were adequate for an economy meal service. They were accompanied with a soft breadstick, a fresh salad, crackers and spreadable cheese, a crumb cake dessert and a water bottle.

Time passed by in a blur. I took a nap. I watched a movie on my iPad. I went through the pictures on my camera and I looked out the window before napping again. A ten hour flight can pass by quickly when it’s as peaceful and smooth as ours was.

There are few things I take more seriously (when I travel) than staying hydrated and keeping my skin hydrated on long flights. A little extra hydration goes a long way. My sister says I take it a few yards too far, but screw jetlag -- the only bags I planned on showing up to work with were filled with souvenirs.

Just as I’d settled in with my undereye pads and a movie, the snack cart came around with ice cream and another round of beverages.

And less than an hour before we landed, they served us another meal: a warm tomato and pesto wrap sandwich and a cake square. We may have been flying economy, but American kept us fed and comfortable throughout the entire flight.

Just as we finished our bonus lunch, we began our descent into Chicago, trying to spot my high rise apartment building as we glided along the skyline. It took awhile to taxi to O’Hare’s international terminal and the walk from the gate to Customs after such a long flight was brutal. It took less than an hour to collect (all of) our luggage and cross through Customs.

And from there? We went home. I spent a couple hours at Mom’s house to do my laundry before Stephanie drove me back to my apartment. And as quickly as it came on, it was over, and all that was left was the jetlag (which took me two weeks and a long weekend trip to Mexico to fully recover from, by the way).

I hope someone in the great big beyond of the Internet world found something helpful in this. Planning for this trip having never been to Europe before was daunting to say the least. But having done it (and done it well, if I do say so myself) once, we’re prepared to dive into it headfirst next time. Six more months. I hope some of you will join along for that adventure, too. We're heading back to the Carnival board in the next couple of weeks for a Christmas cruise to Aruba, Bonaire and Grand Turk (which you can follow along with live on my blog, Facebook or Instagram, if you'd like!) and a Med cruise on the Vista in May.

And I'll be posting a few more posts around here, too, on things we wish we knew before our first Europe cruise and VAT refunds and all that fun stuff. If you have any questions, feel free to holler. If not, thanks for letting me re-live this trip with all of you! :)

Hands down, this is one of the best reviews I've read on here. Your pictures and commentary were absolutely amazing and had me hooked the entire time. I will definitely have some questions as I continue to plan my first European cruise as well, but the first one is, what is a VAT refund? Is this something you receive if you purchase an expensive item?

Very Nice Nicole! :D

Ha! I am just now (11-25-15) reading this review and I have to say it is spectacular. It is better than any book I have read recently. And for one so young, you are a fab writer.

A couple of questions:

Was the Hotel Miramar air conditioned?

Where did you purchase your pick pocket proof "purses".

Can't wait to read the rest. You are just getting on the ship. :)

Happy Thanksgiving.

Do the motor coaches have bathrooms?

QUOTE=Nicole721;47758152]Civitavecchi-ugh

When they announced sticker #4, our group was gathered at the front of the lounge and escorted down to the gangway and led to our tour bus. To be frank, the pier at Civitavecchia was downright disgusting, covered in a thick layer of bird droppings across the pavement and an impermeable stench of rotten fish wafting through the air (which made more sense given that Civitavecchia is an industrial port that deals primarily in fish).

We began to realize that, unlike the Caribbean, most of the ports we were (and would be) docking in were industrial ports that weren’t built to cater to tourists. So unlike the Caribbean, there weren’t shops and restaurants nearby and if you aren’t on an excursion or have a pre-booked tour, and you’re not looking to explore what local life looks like in these industrial villages around the ports, there’s not much to wing it with in some of these ports. No taxi’s lined up at the pier, no drivers hocking tours.

Thankfully, it was only a short walk from the gangway to our tour bus. We were taken aback, at first, to be led to a full size motorcoach since the description of our tour was very specific that it be limited to 26 guests and we couldn’t imagine that they’d use a full motorcoach for a group so small. Alas, our group was exactly 26, which gave us plenty of room to spread out on this rather luxe bus, with leather seats and primo air conditioning (a relief to us, as there was a warning in the excursion packet saying that the air conditioning may not be up to US standards on any tours in Rome).

As the driver pulled out and we began the hour and a half drive to Rome, our tour guide for the day, Laura, introduced herself and detailed the day ahead: a stop at the Trevi Fountain followed by a tour through the Colosseum (as soon as it reopened for the day from the morning strikes – a big relief for us!), lunch at a top notch hotel and then an entire afternoon touring Vatican City and the Sistine Chapel.

The little fishing village made way to rolling green hillsides as we made our way towards Rome.

About a half hour into our drive, the bus pulled off at a gas station to make a comfort stop for anyone who needed to use the restrooms. Laura handed out cold water bottles as everyone re-boarded the coach and we pulled back onto the highway towards Rome.

Hands down, this is one of the best reviews I've read on here. Your pictures and commentary were absolutely amazing and had me hooked the entire time. I will definitely have some questions as I continue to plan my first European cruise as well, but the first one is, what is a VAT refund? Is this something you receive if you purchase an expensive item?

Aww, thanks girl!

VAT (value added tax) is a consumption tax. When you shop, if you spend more than a certain amount (I want to say €175) at the same store, you're eligible to get a percentage back in the form of a tax refund. I'll do a post on it -- it was super simple for us!

Very Nice Nicole! :D

Thank you! :D

Ha! I am just now (11-25-15) reading this review and I have to say it is spectacular. It is better than any book I have read recently. And for one so young, you are a fab writer.

 

A couple of questions:

Was the Hotel Miramar air conditioned?

Where did you purchase your pick pocket proof "purses".

 

Can't wait to read the rest. You are just getting on the ship. :)

 

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you so much!

A couple of answers to your questions:

Yes, the Hotel Miramar was air conditioned. Quite well, in fact!

I believe my sister purchased them from QVC, but I'll have to double check :)

And some of the buses had restrooms onboard, some didn't, but all of the tours we were on made comfort stops for people to use the restroom when the drives were long.

Hope that helps!

Awesome review! I have my first med cruise coming up on NCL.

Hi Nicole.

Wow what can I say? Such a brilliant review! I came across it by chance thanks to the above member pushing it up the boards between Christmas and New year.

I started reading because we are on harmony in October from Barcelona and I'm craving info and pics on Barcelona and the Italian ports. I was hooked so I've spent the last few days reading every single post when I've had a moment.

The absolute bonus which I wasn't expecting was the detailed review of Sants station and the Tgv to Paris. We are travelling to Barcelona and back from the U.K By train to have an adventure as my husband doesn't like flying and its something different than sailing from the U.K. I thought your photos were better than those on the man in seat61 website.

I laughed out loud at some of your comments and I'm glad I wasn't stuck in that Turkish carpet basement I'd have gone nuts lol.

Thanks for sharing your trip with us x

Awesome review! I have my first med cruise coming up on NCL.

Hope it's as wonderful as ours was! :)

Hi Nicole.

Wow what can I say? Such a brilliant review! I came across it by chance thanks to the above member pushing it up the boards between Christmas and New year.

I started reading because we are on harmony in October from Barcelona and I'm craving info and pics on Barcelona and the Italian ports. I was hooked so I've spent the last few days reading every single post when I've had a moment.

 

The absolute bonus which I wasn't expecting was the detailed review of Sants station and the Tgv to Paris. We are travelling to Barcelona and back from the U.K By train to have an adventure as my husband doesn't like flying and its something different than sailing from the U.K. I thought your photos were better than those on the man in seat61 website.

 

I laughed out loud at some of your comments and I'm glad I wasn't stuck in that Turkish carpet basement I'd have gone nuts lol.

 

Thanks for sharing your trip with us x

I'm so glad you found it helpful! Have so much fun on your Harmony trip!

Hi Nicole

We are doing some of the ports on our eastern Mediterranean cruise in May so your review was much appreciated and is now bookmarked for future reference.

I have to say I love your "glass half full" approach to the setbacks that you encountered on your trip; from flight delays,cancelled dream ports and slow HOHO buses, you made the best of everything. I am not sure I would have taken everything so well, but you proved with a positive attitude you don't have to let these things upset the experience and I can learn from that ;)

Thankyou

Sarah