vatali27

We, a family of 4, are seriously considering this cruise. until today that is, when we looked at temps in the northern stops. Malaga at 28F! Morocco (tangier) at 35F. water temps in the canaries in the 60's. ouch.

is this year an anomaly or is this just a cold weather cruise in the sub tropics? We would love to go, but we would want some beach time, and I'm not seeing how that's possible.

Anyone who has gone in the winter, did you get to beach at all?

We stayed at the best western president, and while not the most beautiful surroundings, it was a great place to start from. maybe 4 blocks from the coliseum, with little cafe's and stores on the walk to get a drink or a cannoli!

The rooms were nice, had free breakfast, and the hotel staff was very nice. Made walking easy, and when we wanted to go further, say the Vatican, it wasn't hard to get a taxi.

I have taken both of my children (4 and 10) to St. Martin. I have 2 girls, and they didn't seem to give any care in the world to topless (full nude they were asking questions). We did not partake in the clothing optional parts. We did go to orient, in the north side, and if you can't deal with topless, don't go there. Most people will be topless, but hardly ever did we see anyone bottomless (only one time in 6 hours). This is a wavey beach, so your kids will have to have some idea of water safety.

That being said, we LOVED pinel. You have to take a ferry there, but it's mostly locals. The island is a little private like island off the northern coast, so its pretty far away from the dock. There will be a few topless people here, but its not a lot. There is 2 little restaurants on the island (crazy expensive), and you will need to take cash, no credit cards, but its protected and there are always other kids for your kids to play with. They have lobster traps set out there for the catch of the day, and on the southern side near where the ferry docks, there is a pier with little fish to look at.

If you don't want any topless, which might still be difficult, you need to stay on the Dutch side. for children, stay on the western side of the island to avoid waves. I'd look for a beach south of Marigot , but I don't know what's there. We stayed on the French side the whole time and while much more expensive, it felt much more like a Caribbean island vs the Dutch side, which seemed more like cheaper, touristy places.

From someone who did their first cruise overall on your same iten, here is how we did it (family of 4)

1) Rome - Our port of origin. Far away from the city. We did it DYI (because we stayed 2 extra days). Using the cruise ship tours made a HUGE amount of items to accomplish in a single day (Vatican, coliseum, etc) and personally, I wouldn't have enjoyed it. Doing a private tour would have been more relaxing (being in a car vs that bus) but the activities would have still been to much. Doing a DYI here requires a lot of planning, because of distance, traffic, and so many activities. My answer, if you are just stopping and not starting from here, private tour for more $

2) Florence - to me, the more important port of the trip. We did a private tour here, from a teacher specifically trained to work with children. Once again, this port is FAR away from the 2 locations people visit. Like Rome, if you plan to DYI here, you need to plan this out. Always buy your tickets in advance. Pisa is completely DYI, and wont take long if you did your advance work. Florence is amazing, but is easily walkable, and you won't get lost. Because we had children I think our investment was worth it, but if you had a reliable shuttle service to and from the cities, you could easily DYI this port. Getting to the cities is the issue

3) Cannes - can't say, we did Marseille

4) Palma - We did this DYI. got a taxi at the port, knew where we wanted to go, did the beach, taxi back to the port directly from a stand at the beach. Went grocery shopping while near the beach. No issues what so ever, and I can't see how there would be any value using a tour.

5) Barcelona - In hindsight, we screwed this up. We did a DYI here, and while its easy to get a taxi and go anywhere cheap, we were ill prepared for how much there was to do here. We wasted the day away by just doing the aquarium (which was average at best) and shopping in the big outdoor market, which was the same things from booth to booth. There was so much more we could have done here, and the little we did, it did not give me the incentive to go back. I could see how a tour, either from the cruise or a private tour, would be beneficial.

6) Naples - We did the boat tour here, and honestly, it was ok. we decided to do the tour of Sorrento, a city I now would love to call home, and skip the mountain. Sorrento is a bit away from Naples, but nothing like Rome or Florence. I can't imagine driving it, and a taxi would be a little pricy, but once in the city, there is no need for a guide. Go down to a hotel on the docks, pay the fee and rest or walk around the city and buy things in the market. If we had a good shuttle, I doubt we would have needed the boat tour.

In southern France we did a boat tour to a tiny village for shopping and some time on the beach. It was the better of the 2 boat tours we did, and if you didn't know French, it would have been much more helpful than it was for me. I loves seeing the little French towns, and being able to use some of my horrible French skills in live action. The tour was basically a DYI to go around these villages, but the shuttle to and from them took me to places I wouldn't have done in a DYI.

Overall, you need to plan out what you want to see in these areas, and then determine what is better for you. a private tour is more $, a boat tour is more people, and a DYI is more "you". I enjoyed a mix of all 3, it took off the stress of me having to do everything.

I thought it was great too, but I was going to say sit on the floor. It becomes an interactive event if you are down on the floor, and is much more fun. I got to hold the balloons blindfolded!

We are in CST, and we did it with a 4 year old and a 10 year old as well! We just set the expectations early that when we landed there were going to be things to do, so eat as much as you could on the plane, take as long of sleep as you could, eat again then be prepared for the day. We stayed near the Coliseum, so once we got to the hotel and dropped everything off, we went out walking. Had a lunch, desert cannoli, some gelato, then went to the coliseum and the Forum, then took a cab to trevi fountain. we ate dinner near there, took a cab back to the hotel and passed out early.

As long as everyone knew this was going to happen, it was fine. its those trips where everyone thinks they will take a relaxing day, and then decide to pump it full of energy that the grouchies come out.

1) don't overwhelm yourself. There is nothing worse than spending all day in the car going into rome, running from place to place, and being so exhausted by lines and items that you no longer care what you are seeing. I see so many people do that deluxe rome in a day, and by the time they get out of the coliseum, they don't care what is next.

2) Don't assume your driver speaks English. None of ours did. the tour guides did, but the drivers didn't.

3) Take time to smell the roses, or the lemons. I loved Rome, we did several extra days there. But for cruise ports, I loved Sorrento. Very Europe feel, and it allowed for a very relaxing day. We ended up not doing Naples or Pompei.

4) It costs. A lot. assuming you go in the summer months, you will want water. and the snacky food was great, and the souvenirs, and all of the other items that wont fit in your suitcase. Oh, and your going to need another suitcase. :)

5) Pisa and Florence were easy to do in 1 day, assuming that you want a taste of both. Pisa is very short, and even if you shop and eat there, its only a couple of hours. Florence could easily be multiple days if you wanted it to be.

6) buy your tickets in advance, or have the tour company do it for you. For the Vatican, for the tower of Pisa, for Statue of David, the lines are very long, even the tour lines, if you haven't gotten your tickets in advance.

7) Enjoy yourself and take notes for where you want to come back to.

Hi, we too are looking to head to the beach that day. Maybe do a combo tour/beach day.

 

If you took a taxi, how did you get back to the boat. Were they plentiful at the beach area, or did you take your cabbie's name and information.

At the beach we went to, there was a taxi stand close to the entrance/showers. It was no difficulty getting in one. they all spoke enough english to understand where I was going, and if you tell them the big boat in the harbor, they all know what it is.

I want to say it was 15-20 minutes??? I wasn't really paing attention to the. you certainally couldnt see the port in the horizon if that helps. :(.

The taxi driver pointed out the grocery store. its a red building with 1 set of doors. I'm not sure I would have known in was a grocery store has I not been told. When you are at the showers, if you look across the street you can see it on your right, about 1/4 block up. No english there, so brush up on simple spanish. Clearly its for the locals, and not us passers by :)

As for Cirque, we paid the permier seating fee. We also arrived early, like 30 minutes early, and there was still a line when we got there. None of the upstairs had been filled but a majority of the downstairs was populated. we didn't choose the table, but we got really lucky that we got what we did.

Palmanova is where we went. took a cab with the 4 of us for 18 euro each way and paid 18 euro for the 2 chairs with a umbrella. there is a grocery store across the street which has every thing on the cheap (cold bottled water for 27 cents!) and the beach is pretty family oriented with showers and bathrooms. But its not so family oriented that you wont have the typical eourpean beach culture, in case you need to be aware of that. My children had a blast there, the water was safe, the beds were safe and it was a confy ride back to the boat. We did this on the epic about a week ago.

Enjoy. Oh, and make sure you sit in the first table as you walk in on the lower level for Cirque. :)