Pullmantur Sovereign 10/27/2012

Just booked this cruise and was wondering if anyone else was going on this cruise.

Pat

Is my DD and her DH, my DH and myself the only ones going on this cruise. Lots of space for just the 4 of us.

Hi Pat: I'm sorry I won't be onboard. I don't think you will be the only ones on the ship, but there is a very good chance you will be the only Americans on the ship. I just returned two weeks ago from my third Pullmantur cruise,this one on the Zenith, the others on the Holiday Dream in 2007 and the Horizon in 2010, and I've yet to meet a US citizen onboard.

That being said,you'll probably meet many English speakers on the ship as many British expats who live in Spain tend to cruise with them.Unlike yourselves, most Americans don't seem adventurous enough to sail with Pullmantur, which in my estimation are great value and are Royal Caribbean's best kept secret.

We are considering a Pullmantur cruise for next spring, but need to know about its smoking policy as DD is allergic to smoke. Can anyone assist?

We are considering a Pullmantur cruise for next spring, but need to know about its smoking policy as DD is allergic to smoke. Can anyone assist?

We were on the Ocean Dream two years ago and on the Horizon last week. They allow smoking in outside areas (except the balconeys), the casino and the disco. Smoking is not allowed anywhere else.

Sorry this is a bit of a thread hijack. But did you say you were on the Pullmantur Horizon a couple of weeks ago? we are leaving next week on it from Aruba. A rare opportunity to board mid-trip. We are Canadians living in Aruba. Our Spanish is so-so. Did you find excursions in English? or do you speak Spanish? Also wondering about the theme nights. Our TA here said there is a formal night, a pirate night and an hawaiin night. Do people dress up much?

Thanks

Sorry this is a bit of a thread hijack. But did you say you were on the Pullmantur Horizon a couple of weeks ago? we are leaving next week on it from Aruba. A rare opportunity to board mid-trip. We are Canadians living in Aruba. Our Spanish is so-so. Did you find excursions in English? or do you speak Spanish? Also wondering about the theme nights. Our TA here said there is a formal night, a pirate night and an hawaiin night. Do people dress up much?

 

Thanks

All the staff on the boat speak English but to be honest, their English wasn't as good as it was two years ago on the Ocean Dream. There is an "International Hostess" that will help you with any concerns though. She has hours set in the daily program. Be sure to ask your room attendant for the news in English and your waiter at dinner for the menus in English. People embark and disembark on this cruise in Cartagana, in Guiara, Aruba and in Colon, mostly everyone is Colombian or Venezuelan. I speak a lot of Spanish but on board I mostly spoke English to the staff. I think the excursions from the ship are in Spanish but ask the staff since they do speak English. We didn't take any from the ship so I'm not sure.

Yes, there is a formal night, a tropical night, a pirate night and terror night. Some people dress up but many people don't. It's up to you.

There is a facebook group with lots of pictures and information. Search for: Pullmantur- Horizon- Crucero Antillas y Caribe Sur

It is a private group but I am in charge of it and will add you as soon as you send the request.

Have lots of fun!!!

Whom do you book Pallmantur Cruise's with. As the website is in Spanish. I am wanting to book a cruise for my 18 year old daughter and friend out of Athens and it looks cheap and cheerful. I wonder if you have to be 21 in order to a have a room though.

Thanks for the great information. I have sent a request to your group on Facebook. We are pretty excited. The menus and such in Spanish shouldn't be a problem. And we have taken tours in Spanish before so we can get the gist easily enough. My husband knows quite a bit of spanish but is just out of practice.

On a more personal note did you say your husband is an engineer in Columbia? mine is also an engineer and has done alot of work in Peru a few years back. We would love to get back to that area.

If you send me an e-mail at (pjthiel at juno dot com) I will give you information on what TA I booked through, they spoke english. Juat put (pullmantur cruise) in the subject line.

Whom do you book Pallmantur Cruise's with. As the website is in Spanish. I am wanting to book a cruise for my 18 year old daughter and friend out of Athens and it looks cheap and cheerful. I wonder if you have to be 21 in order to a have a room though.

My wife, son and I are taking the Mediterranean Breezes cruise on Pullmantur Sovereign departing Barcelona April 7, 2012.

We'd love to know if any other travellers are on that same cruise, particularly English speaking. My son has been taking Spanish for eight years, so he is looking forward to the language immersion, however, we'd appreciate finding some fellow passengers to group up on excursions.

We had to dig a little more than normal to find the information we needed and book our trip, but it seems like it will be worth it. From the all inclusive, to the children under 17 free in the same cabin, there seems to be a lot of value with this cruise line. We found some sketchy companies that were offering this cruise, but ultimately went with a company that gave us confidence and a good price.

I'm happy to share more before and after we go if there is any interest.

My wife, son and I are taking the Mediterranean Breezes cruise on Pullmantur Sovereign departing Barcelona April 7, 2012.

 

We'd love to know if any other travellers are on that same cruise, particularly English speaking. My son has been taking Spanish for eight years, so he is looking forward to the language immersion, however, we'd appreciate finding some fellow passengers to group up on excursions.

 

We had to dig a little more than normal to find the information we needed and book our trip, but it seems like it will be worth it. From the all inclusive, to the children under 17 free in the same cabin, there seems to be a lot of value with this cruise line. We found some sketchy companies that were offering this cruise, but ultimately went with a company that gave us confidence and a good price.

 

I'm happy to share more before and after we go if there is any interest.

Yes, DO hope you will share info! We will be taking the same cruise later in May. If you prefer, you can email me at evweber at msn dot com. Thank you!

Hi...just wondering how your cruises went libby and nfgolfer??? My husband and I are taking this same cruise June 2nd and would LOVE to find out how it was. It is so hard to find any reviews or information on them! Thanks!

This is probably not the best place to post this, but in the interest of providing info quickly to the growing number of people using this cruise, I will past this info in this thread until I find a better home.

My wife, 15 year-old son and I sailed on the Pullmantur Sovereign in April 2012. I think the specific cruise was called the Breezes of the Mediterranean, it left from Barcelona and it made 1 stop in Tunisia, 3 stops in Italy, and 1 stop in Villefranche (France). There are other reviews out there that cover the ship history and the basics of the cruiseline, so my review will cover a lot of the detail that I wasn’t able to find, but would appreciate knowing beforehand.

Summary

Overall we enjoyed the cruise and would highly recommend Pullmantur, the Sovereign and the Breezes of the Mediterranean itinerary. We are easy going travelers and don’t expect everything to be perfect. If you are overly picky, you could find many little things to fault in the European style and age of this ship, however, if you have the right expectations you will very much enjoy the value and experience.

English-speaking Passengers

We were definitely the minority on the cruise. There were several other English-speaking couples/groups that we encountered during the week, but we never really knew how many of us there actually were on the sailing. The ship had an English-speaking informational meeting on the first day given by the international hostess, Anna. The meeting was worthwhile to attend, but only two other parties besides us attended. As other reviews have stated, the staff mostly speak some English, however, there were some who spoke none. The announcements were also offered in English, but expect all the shows to be in Spanish as well as many of the activities. This was, however, not an issue for us and I will explain more in the Activities section below.

Room

Since there were 3 of us, and kids up to 17 years old (!) sail for just the port fees/taxes, we booked a junior suite, which inlcuded a balcony and a sofa bed. It was plenty of room for us. We thought the room would have a mini-bar, but only Grand Class rooms did. The suite did show its age and had a few issues – our safe didn’t work, the bathroom floor drain would overflow when the shower was on, and our balcony door had a strong draft. We told the floor steward about the safe and he attempted to do something to it, but it never worked and never got replaced. We told the front desk about the floor drain and that was repaired a few hours later. We never did tell anyone about the draft, but tried to remedy that once ourselves on a particularly windy night. Our dinner partners did not have any issues with their room.

Dress

We read some information about the more relaxed dress code of this cruiseline and decided not to bring anything formal. At dinner, we saw a mix of dress, from jeans (mostly young men) to formal wear. You can be comfortable dressing the way you want. They had theme nights for many of the nights, but I don’t know how anyone could plan for it ahead of time. They had a horror night, a tropical night, a black and white night, and I think also a casual night. For Gala night, they had a special cocktail hour with the Captain in the theater, which we did not attend, and of course the dinner was more special too.

Food

We had the early dinner seating which we expected to be 8pm based on other reviews and online information, but it was actually 7:30. They strongly advise you to be on time, but we saw that they would let people in late anyway. We were seated with 2 ladies from New York and the 5 of us were the only ones at our table the entire week. Not sure if they intentionally seated us English-speakers together or not. There are 2 sit-down restaurants and you will be assigned to one of them – they serve the same food. The food selection and food itself was always very good and nicely presented. It was not particularly ethnic, but they would always have a specialty dish that was related to the port of call. There was no issue ordering multiple dishes for any course. There is also a buffet restaurant that basically served the same food, but not as nicely presented, of course. On Gala night, the sit-down restaurant would have a bit different selection than the buffet. We never had a lobster option – the closest was nice prawns on Gala night. For breakfast and lunch, they would have buffet in both the buffet restaurant, as well as in the sit-down restaurant. You need to be careful on excursion days because there were heavy crowds right before the departure times and it would be difficult to find seating. They also had an outdoor buffet grill restaurant on the pool deck which would have expanded hours for lunch and serve a smaller selection, but always had staples such as pizza, paninis and salad. We did not eat in the specialty restaurant, Wu, but we heard very positive feedback about it. Items were 4-10 Euros each. One passenger we spoke to said the captain often eats in Wu and he had the opportunity to dine with him there.

Drinks

This was one of the best features of the cruise package for us. They did have a (large) drink menu for reference, and some of the more premium items had a price, but there was a great selection that was included in the all-inclusive – wines, cocktails, liquors of all sorts. There was, however, only one draft beer that was included, Mahou, which is a light pilsner and which my husband enjoyed greatly. The drinks were served differently on the pool deck versus the indoor bars. The pool deck drinks were served in small plastic cups, and seldom were the frozen drinks served frozen – for example, the pina coladas were served on ice. Indoors, they were nicely served in glasses with garnish, and the frozen drinks were blended frozen. There was not a large selection of frozen drinks though, but perhaps you could request something custom. Despite the all-inclusive plan, we never saw anyone drunk or out of hand. Another great feature of the plan were the coffee drinks. They had a ‘coffee bar’ on one of the floors, but you could also order the same coffee drinks from the bars as well. It was very nice.

Activities

Activities included dance lessons, a Password-like game, a Best-couples game, a grand cooking demo, Bingo, etc. They were led in Spanish, however, if they knew English-speaking passengers were participating, then they would incorporate some English in as well. They were very welcoming of English passengers, but you needed to take initiative to get involved. Bingo was a daily event, and the week ended with a grand Bingo event that had a large jackpot. Note, the Bingo cards contained only numbers and you disregard spaces. Straight Bingo was only across the row, no columns. They also had a kids club, a teen club which seemed to have limited hours, and other crafty activities that may involve a fee. The ship also had a ping pong table, a caged paddle-ball type of court which you had to sign out (and was very popular), and a rock climbing wall which was only available during certain times. We went to the nightly show which was at 10pm for the early dinner seating passengers. They were all in Spanish, but were very visual shows so we were able to enjoy them. The shows were decent, and by American standards, some of them were a little risque for kids (think women in thongs shaking it). At the end of the shows, they would have informational announcements regarding the next day. They would talk for 3 minutes in Spanish, but then somehow condensed it into a 15 second English announcement! I guess we didn’t miss anything important. We would typically head back to our room by 11:30 or so, but heard that the disco would be hopping into the late night. We also heard that there would be a lot of teens and some kids in the disco as well. There was also a casino on board, but it appeared to get very little usage. There are also 2 pools and 2 hot tubs on deck.

Excursions

We did all of our own sightseeing and planned for much of this since we weren’t sure if any of the excursions would be offered in English. We highly recommend Rick Steve’s ‘Mediterranean Cruise Ports’ book if you plan to do the same. We found out from the international hostess that there would be 1 of the excursions at each port offered in English. We’re not sure if this is standard, or if it was because of the number of English-speaking passengers on board. We only considered possibly doing the ship excursion for Tunisia, but when we found out that it was the shopping trip, we decided to do our own thing, which was to hire a taxi driver to take us around for a few hours – we paid 50 Euros for this, but probably could have found a driver for less. Our dinner partners went on the ship excursion for a couple of the ports – they agreed the English-offered Tunisia excursion was all shopping, and they went on the Monaco/Nice excursion for which they said was nice, but it was disappointing to get to the casino in Monaco only to find out that it didn’t open until later. There is also a dress code for the casino if you could and wish to enter. On the days that our dinner friends didn’t do the ship excursions, they walked out of the port and joined people waiting there for their group to be large enough for the guide or taxi driver to leave for a tour. That seemed to work well for them. Keep in mind that the times listed for departure from each port is the actual time the ship takes off, so you need to plan to be back safely before that! Also, some of the port entrances were actually quite a distance away from the tourist areas.

All of the ports were worth visiting and we found that trying to do less was preferred because everything took longer than planned and we enjoyed not rushing around too much.

Thanks for an excellent review. My wife and I will be taking the same cruise in mid May and are looking forward to it. We have cruised with Pullmantur in the Caribbean before and enjoyed their "formula" and did not have any problems with the use of English.

We have pre-booked the Tunis shopping excursion and hope it will be interesting. We have also booked the bus transfers in Livorno to Florence and Civitivecchia to Rome and will do the remainders on our own. Florence I am familiar with but we have not been to Rome and would appreciate any suggestions for site seeing/touring you might have.

We are also staying in Barcelona the night before departure and for a few days after and would welcome your comments on getting to and from the ship.

Thanks so much for the great review and information! My husband and I can't wait. We unfortunately are not staying in Barcelona for any extra days, but would still love to see the city. Do you have any recommendations for the day of arrival in Barcelona? We arrive at noon and don't know what to do? Ship sails at 8 I believe. Just curious what we should do since we will have all our luggage...Don't know if we can board the ship right away then venture out for a few hours? Is this even possible once you check in on the ship?

In terms of getting to and from the ship in Barcelona, I would reccommend a taxi. The port appears to be close to the center of Barcelona, but because of the roads and size of port it is actually difficult to get to on foot or via metro. There is mention of a port shuttle and we were very comfortable with the metro system, however, with luggage and multiple passengers, we opted for taxi from our hotel which can take you right to the ship. Taxi should be no more than 15-20 Euros if you are within decent distance of center of Barcelona, much more if coming from airport. We got over charged on our trip to the port, so be confident in challenging them if you see a price more than this from center of Barcelona.

When we sailed, the Sovereign was docked at Terminal B of Port Moll Adossat. I don't know if that is always the case, but it will definitely be at Port Moll Adossat and there are only terminals A-D. We were able to identify the ship as the taxi was driving in.

In terms of Rome, there is more than you could ever think of doing in part of a day. We bought combo tix ahead of time to go to Coloseum, Forum and Palantine Hill. We really just toured the first two though. Then we took metro over to Vatican City. St. Peter's square is very nice, but long line to go into basillica. You need to go into the musuem or take a tour if you want to get more out of Vatican City than just the square. We did not plan for that, nor did we really have time. My suggestion is pick what is important to you and plan for that thoroughly. Enjoy it fully and if you see anything else it's gravy. This is not a trip where you can do justice to Rome.

nan4-unfortunately if you are getting to Barcelona around noon on sailing date, you probably won't have time to do much, if anything, in Barcelona. Ship actually sails at 7 and you need to be on by 5 which means getting to port around 3-4. If you don't mind paying extra for taxis, it does look like you could check your bags at the port and then take a taxi back into town for a little while. It will likely cost you $30-50 Euro round trip in taxis for whatever time you think you can allow. The whole baggage check process happens curbside before you ever enter the cruise terminal building. You could just check the bags and then turn around and go to the taxi stand, then actually check in for the cruise when you return. You should be able to call Pullmantur and ask what time they begin checking bags, but my guess is it's no later than 1 PM. Go to Sagrada Familia as first priority. Ramblas area as second priority starting in Placa Catalunya, walk south on Ramblas towards Columbus monument which is heading back towards port. You should be able to get cab near Columbus monument or if you do some research you may be able to figure out how to walk to the port shuttle near there.

Hope this helps.

GREAT report, njgolfer!

We are now in Barcelona, ready to board the Sovereign tomorrow. Re> taxi charge. Our driver told us there are specific taxis and prices for cruise and for airport trips. Our short trip from ship [we were on another ship to BCN earlier] to Plaza Catalunya was 26 euros, which included 3 euros for each of 2 bags, etc. etc.

There was a port shuttle from ship to near Columbus statue at foot of LaRambla for 3 or 4 euro.

You can book the Vatican tickets online in advance. Same for Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

Again, many thanks for report.

Libby... Have a great trip and please keep posting if you have time! Love hearing about everything! We leave in 12 days and cant wait!

Thanks again njgolfer also for your great review! Doing some last minute shopping now... !

Njgolfer67, thank you for a most excellent and informative report.

Would it be ok to pick you brains a little further?

As a complete beginner to cruising (this is our first cruise), we have a few additional questions and hope you might be able to assist. We are on the Breezes of the Mediteranian cruise sailing out of Barcelona on 2nd June (nan4, I guess we are on the same cruise and might even bump into each other aboard), and we're wondering about a few basics.

Firstly what towels are provided, do we need towels for the pool area? Also are there hangers in the cabins?

I don't know if any of you went on any of the excursions available from Pullmantur, but if so what were your thoughts? What was the food like on these trips and do we need to bring water bottles or can we get water from the ship to take with us?

Any help on these would be useful as we are now starting to get things together for the trip.

CatalpaAndy - You do not need to bring any towels. They change room towels frequently and you can get pool towels on deck by signing them to your room and returning them whenever you want a fresh one.

We had plenty of hangers in our room and you could probably ask for more if you needed. If you are first time cruisers, the advice is pack as light as you can, recycle outfits and use their laundry for key items if you need to. This ship seemed to offer very reasonably priced laundry services

We did not personally use the ship's excursions, but we heard a bit about them. As far as we know, there was no food provided on excursions. You have some free time in different locations and are on your own to eat as you choose. For Tunisia and Villefranche, the trips are short enough to eat on the ship before you go and when you return. The longer day trips are all in Italy and we always saw plenty of places to eat for a variety of options. We had a 15 year old boy with us, so pizza was the lunch of choice. Authentic Gelato in Italy is also a must do.

Bottled water is available on the ship, however, it is in large bottles (2 liters or larger). Much too big to carry with you on an excursion. Just go to any bar on the ship and ask for bottled water and they will give you a new bottle to take back to your room. I would suggest bringing smaller, reusable bottle(s) that you can fill from the larger one and take with you on your excursions.

Enjoy your trip!

Hello again njgolfer!! I thought of one more question...What kind of electrical outlets are there on board? As we are from the States and the ship is European, I was wondering if I need to bring an adapter and converter?

Welcome aboard CatalpaAndy! One week away...my husband and I are very excited as we are celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary!

The Sovereign has European outlets. You will need an adapter for the plug.

You may or may not need a converter. Most modern electronics can handle 110 and 220 current. Look at your charger or device and if everything you plan to plug in says 100-240v, then you don't need a converter.

njgolfer67, many thanks for the information, we are now mostly packed and can't wait for our flight tomorrow.

nan4, thanks for the message, maybe see you in the week.

We just got back from our Med cruise on the Sovereign. This was our second Pullmantur cruise, the first being on the Pacific Dream out of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic a few years ago.

Our first cruise was generally better than the Med cruise for several reasons, but the overall cruise was a great experience. The Sovereign is a bigger ship but getting tired. Our first cabin had a faulty toilet that could not be repaired so we switched cabins. The food was good but not great, but the wait staff were very good as was our cabin attendant who, BTW, if you change cabins is still responsible for you even if on another level.

We took in one excursion, shopping in Tunis,and it was very interesting and the tour was in English. The tour guide was very informative and I expect h made a few extra dollars or dinars for having directed the group we were in to some "special" fragrance and rug shops.

We also purchased bus transportation from and back to the ship for Rome and Florence. These we part of a package with the Tunis excursion that we booked through Pullmantur in advance of the cruise and which saved us about 20 euros each doing so.

This cruise is a real bargain if you live in Spain and don't have to fly across the Atlantic to get to the ship, and I expect that many Spaniards use it just to go shopping in Italy and France. It is probably cheaper than driving for them.

We enjoyed the cruise but in some ways there were too many ports in too few days and we were exhausted from seeing so many new things and from a lot of walking too.

We will probably go on another cruise with Pullmantur, likely the Eastern Mediterranean, but with a cabin upgrade to a suite and ideally on a smaller ship.