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European Cruise Port Reviews- pretty long

luvz2run2000
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Nora4sure

Nora4sure

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Hello,

I noticed you took the same tour out of Nice that we are signed up for in July. I have a question...did you visit a perfume/cosmetics factory? It is mentioned as a place of interest and it appeals to some in our group as they asked if I knew the name of it. If it was on your itinerary, do you remember the name?

 

We were told that we could skip St. Paul de Vence and spend some time in Cannes if we wished. If it hadnt been a zoo in Cannes, do you think it would have been a something to see instead of St. Paul? Ive heard that St; Paul and Eze are similar medieval villages, but am not sure which to include and which to leave out.

 

M

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endeavourol

endeavourol

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Hello,

I noticed you took the same tour out of Nice that we are signed up for in July. I have a question...did you visit a perfume/cosmetics factory? It is mentioned as a place of interest and it appeals to some in our group as they asked if I knew the name of it. If it was on your itinerary, do you remember the name?

 

We were told that we could skip St. Paul de Vence and spend some time in Cannes if we wished. If it hadnt been a zoo in Cannes, do you think it would have been a something to see instead of St. Paul? Ive heard that St; Paul and Eze are similar medieval villages, but am not sure which to include and which to leave out.

 

M

 

There is a perfumery that sells local scents and perfumes but I cannot remember the name

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randalls2b

randalls2b

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luvz2run2000,

 

When your ship did not stop in Livorno and you had booked Tuscany by taxi, were you charged for a no show at all by the company?

 

Great review. Thanks. :)

 

I dont't think you will be charged if the ship misses a port of call through no fault of your own

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Sugar&Buddy

Sugar&Buddy

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We went on the Carnival Liberty Med cruise. I posted a full review including CCL specific info on that board but decided to share the port info here as well since most of it would apply to any cruise line. My husband and I are both in our 40’s, open to new experiences and love to travel. He had been to several of the ports of call before this cruise but this was my first trip to Europe. I am a librarian and love to research so I was the trip planner for our cruise. We’re “go with the flow” people about a lot of things, but like to have a plan for the big stuff.

 

Naples

We joined a family of four from our roll call for a tour with Salvatore from Drive Amalfi (*********************) . What a great day! He was waiting for us at the dock and we headed for Pompeii. We arrived just as it was opening. We agreed as a group to spend just 2 hours there so we could spend more time at other places during the day. Pompeii is the kind of place that you could spend the entire day, but 2 hours was plenty and we had so many other things we wanted to see and do. The drive along the Amalfi Coast was beautiful. We stopped in several small towns as well as Amalfi. I would recommend Salvatore to anyone looking for a guide in Naples.

Since none of us had a restaurant in mind for lunch we had Salvatore suggest one for us. What a treat! He took us to a little restaurant at the top of a winding street. They had an ala carte menu and a sampler type menu that was served family style. Two of the people in our group got pizza and rest of us decided to have the sampler menu. I have never seen so much food in my life and it was all delicious. They brought us pitchers of wine and then lemoncello with dessert.

 

Dubrovnik, Croatia

We (ok I) really wanted to get out into the Croatian countryside and see what it was like. We also wanted to have time to walk the wall and explore the old city of Dubrovnik. CCL offered a Best of Dubrovnik tour that seemed to be the easiest way to accomplish everything we wanted to do. We were on the bus pulling away from the ship at 8:00am. We drove out into the Konavle countryside and went to a traditional family restaurant. We were given traditional food and wine and had time to sit by the river and eat and walk along the river. We then went to the seaside village of Cavtat. It was a beautiful little village and we had time on our own to explore.

The bus then took us to the walled city of Dubrovnik. That was the end of the organized tour. Our guide gave everyone a shuttle ticket for a return trip to the ship to be used when we were ready to go back. Our guide was great and gave us a lot of history and background about the area. She was a college professor and very well educated.

We ate a traditional seafood lunch, complete with the fish heads. Then we found the Pile Gate which is one of the points you can purchase admission to walk the walls. The cost was around 5 euros per person and well worth it. The view is incredible. After that we explored some of the churches, wandered the alley ways, checked out the shops and found a great bar for people watching. It is near one of the squares and they have these big comfie chairs with thick pads and ottomans. You can sit in the shade, have a drink and just watch all the people walk by.

In the late afternoon we hopped on the shuttle and headed back to the ship. There was a line, but the wait was only about 10 minutes.

 

Venice - Day 1

What an incredible day! We pulled into Venice to the sounds of a Pavarotti concert playing on the big screen. The ship sailed down the grand canal to get to our dock. Everyone was out on deck watching and taking photos, it was breathtaking.

 

We purchased the shuttle bus tickets to get to the Plaza Roma vaparetto station. They were 5 euros for a round trip. We purchased a 24 hour vaparetto ticket and we were on our way. We had decided to attempt a walking tour route in one of our guide books that would take us from the Rialto Bridge to St. Mark’s Square. They say the best way to see Venice is to walk around and get lost, no problem there for us. The route was sketchy at best but we had a blast. We wandered, had wine at a sidewalk café, watched some boys place soccer in a piazza, visited some beautiful churches, ate gelato, went in some shops, and eventually found ourselves at St. Marks’s Square.

 

After a look around we decided to get some dinner. We ate at a charming little restaurant along side one of the canals. The food was great and we were treated to gondola serenades during our dinner. After we ate we took a gondola ride. The city is beautiful at night. We had planned to go back to St. Mark’s Square for drinks after the gondola ride but it had started to rain and since it was already very late we decided to just head back to the ship.

 

Venice - Day 2

This was the day we had planned as our sightseeing day. We had reservations for the Secret Itinerary Tour at Doge’s Palace (phone number from the US is 011 39 041 520 9070). This was a great tour but make sure to allow yourself time before or after your tour to view the public areas of the Palace as they are not covered on the tour.

 

We also had a time certain admission to St. Mark’s Basilica.. I highly recommend you make an advance reservation to visit the Basilica. The line was several hours long when we were there and we talked to several people on our ship who were not able to visit because of the length of the line. We simply took our reservation e-mail to the guard at the group line and he opened the chain and let us walk right in. The best part of all is that it’s FREE! (http://www.alata.it/eng/BOOKING/sanmarco.asp)

 

Since we were in full on tourist mode we also went to the top of the Campanile and got some wonderful photos. We could even see the ship from up there and got a great shot of the Liberty amid the rooftops of Venice. We followed this up with Bellini’s at Harry’s Bar. Just a note if you’re planning to go there, they do not allow shorts (men or women) in the bar.

 

At this point we jumped on the vaparetto and headed back to the Rialto Bridge. I had fallen in love with a necklace the previous day but didn’t buy it because we were sure they would have some like it near St. Mark’s Square. WRONG! Fortunately I remembered where I had seen it and led my DH right to it. We even had time for some more gelato before we hopped on the vaparetto and headed back to the ship.

 

Messina, Sicily

This was the day that put our “go with the flow” personalities to the test. I’ll admit that DH was a little better at it than I was. After reading numerous positive reviews both on CC and tripadvisor we booked a tour with Sicily Life. The contact person from the company was wonderful to work with pre-cruise and suggested several itineraries for our day. After consulting with our tour buddies (the family from Naples and another CC friend and her daughter) we selected an itinerary that included Mt. Etna, a traditional Sicilian lunch, Taormina, and a visit to a historic winery.

 

The day of the excursion the driver showed up 45 minutes late, that was our first clue that there was trouble ahead. There were 2 other groups waiting for Sicily Life tours and none of the drivers were there on time. We actually called the company and were told they were running late and would be there in about 5 minutes. They arrived 30 minutes later. The driver then asked us, “What do you want to do?” We exchanged puzzled looks and I handed him a printout listing the itinerary of the tour we had selected. As he read it he just kept saying, “No, no, no”.

 

He said he didn’t know anything about the lunch that was supposed to have been arranged ahead of time. He said we couldn’t go to the winery because it would be too far and he “didn’t like it”. DH decided we should just head to Mt. Etna and he would try to talk with him and see what was going on once we got there. On the way he gave us very little information on what we were passing and just ignored our questions if he didn’t want to answer them. By this point we were just looking at each other and laughing, it was so bizarre. At Mt. Etna we turned DH loose on him but he didn’t get very far. At this point we decided to salvage the rest of the day and just go with it. We were all looking forward to Taormina and told him to just head there when we left Mt. Etna.

 

We thought we were the “unlucky van” but we heard that the other groups from our roll call had gotten pretty much the same treatment. We e-mailed company several times, but never got a response. We had friends who had booked with Sicily Tours (because Sicily Life was booked up) and they had a great day. If you’re looking for a tour, I would suggest you check with them.

 

Mt. Etna was the biggest letdown of our trip. I guess maybe we were expecting something more. Basically it was a mountain and next to it were a couple of craters from the last big eruptions and some little souvenir shops. You can look at the pictures, it really wasn’t that exciting and we didn’t think it was worth the couple hour drive up the twisty road to see it. Of course that’s one of those things you don’t know until you actually do it and find out. There is an optional tram ride and hike to the top of the mountain where you can apparently see some steam and hotspots but it was an additional 3-4 hours and about 50 euros per person and none of wanted to spend that much time there.

 

On the way to Taormina the driver stopped at the overlook in a seaside town called Naxos which was the first Greek settlement in Italy. It was very pretty and you can see the ruins of a Greek temple below the surface of the harbor.

 

Taormina was beautiful and was definitely saved the day for all of us. It is a wonderful little town full of shops and restaurants and is also the home of the historic Greek Theatre. The driver dropped us off in the center of town and we arranged to meet up with him several hours later.

 

DH and I headed to the Greek Theatre while the others headed out to find lunch. The theatre was interesting and the views were incredible. After that we wandered around looking in the shops for a while and finally settled at a sidewalk café where we could get a quick bite (pizza and the best sandwich I’ve ever tasted) and enjoy some liquid refreshment. After lunch DH decided another Italian beer and people watching was just what he needed. I headed off for a little more shopping and a walk to the far end (not really that far) of town. The main street is probably less than half a mile long from gate to gate. When I got back several other people from our group had joined him for liquid refreshments and people watching. Once we were all together we found the driver and headed back to the ship.

 

Just a note about Taormina. It is one of those towns where a lot of the shops still close up for several hours in the middle of the afternoon. I would say at least half of the shops were closed between noon and 2:00 or even 3:00 in some cases. If you want to shop while you are there take that into consideration when planning your day.

 

Stromboli Volcano – As we left Messina the captain cruised by the Stromboli Volcano. Stromboli is an active island volcano and it was incredible. People actually live in two small villages at the base of it. We saw several large puffs of steam. We didn’t get to see any actual lava but we did see an “eruption” of hot rocks. They flew out of the volcano and bounced down the face of the volcano and into the sea. You can actually see the rocks and the steam when they hit in water in some of our pictures. Stromboli was much better than Mt. Etna and we didn’t have to drive hours to get there.

 

Barcelona

We got off the ship as soon as it was cleared, unfortunately the shuttle busses don’t start running that early. We hopped in a cab and headed straight for La Segrada Familia. The church is beautiful. There is a self-guided tour that includes the church, a museum and Gaudi’s tomb. We arrived about 30 minutes before it opened which was great because it gave us time to walk all the way around the outside and take pictures without having a lot of people in the way. There are also several coffee shops near by if you wanted to have something while you wait.

 

We were among the first people inside and decided to head toward the lift that takes you up to the top of one of the towers, thank goodness we did. We had to wait for the elevator to return to the lower level and then we got on and headed up. We walked around and climbed the stairs to go a little higher. When we returned to the ground floor (about 25 minutes later) the wait for the lift was about an hour long. We were told that later in the day it can be 2-3 hours. While I’m in good shape and would have no problem climbing the stairs to the top, it was VERY tight in the curved stairways and if someone was going the opposite direction you literally had to press against them to pass. Definitely not my idea of fun.

 

We wanted to go see the Casa Batllo and some of the other buildings in that area so we decided to see if we could take the subway to that area. There is an information booth across the street from the church and a very sweet girl told as exactly which train to take to get there (this was a main station and several lines went through) and which stop we should get off at. We had no problems at all and were there in less than 10 minutes. We walked a few blocks looking at the buildings and then grabbed a cab and headed for the Gothic Quarter.

 

We had heard there would be people performing traditional folk dances in the square of the Cathedral at noon and we wanted to be there to see it. There were a few people, but not as many as we’d been led to believe. It turned out to be fine because a religious festival/parade passed by the cathedral and headed up the street. It was basically a decorated cart being pulled by two huge oxen and a lot of people in traditional Spanish dress. We decided to follow it and see where it went. It stopped in front of a building with several decorated balconies and the people on the balconies began to throw rose petals down. Then all the people in the costumes began to dance right on the street, even pulling in members of the crowd to join them. After about 15 minutes, the cart and people went through the underground parking entrance to the building and that was the end. We were told it was the celebration of Red Sunday, but I couldn’t find out much more about it. It was a fun surprise and made a great story to share at dinner.

 

After that we visited the Cathedral and the cloisters. We even got to attend a short mass. This is one of the places that is VERY strict about people having their knees and shoulders covered. There was a guard who was literally pulling people out of the line waiting to enter. He would just say “NO” and point to the offending area, nobody even tried to argue with him, he looked pretty serious. There were people selling scarves and even paper pants in the square. My personal favorite was the man who made a skirt out of his map to cover his legs.

 

After the Cathedral we walked through the Gothic area to Las Ramblas. We walked around for awhile and had lunch at a little café. I wanted to try the Arroz Negro which is a specialty in Barcelona. It looked a little scary, but it tasted great! It is basically rice with lots of different kinds of seafood mixed it. The thing that makes it so interesting it that it is mixed with squid ink, so the whole thing is a dark black color. They have very good sangria at the cafes along Las Ramblas, we taste tested several just to be sure.

 

We had planned to take the shuttle back to the ship and had been told that the shuttle stop was near the Columbus statue and that we wouldn’t be able to miss it because there would be a long line. Eventually we made our way to down Las Ramblas to the statue. We didn’t see a line or anything that looked like a shuttle stop or even a bus. It was getting late so we decided not to bother with it and just take a cab back to the ship. This turned out to be a quick solution and a bargain to boot. The shuttle was 5 euro per person and the cab was only 6 euros total, so we saved money and didn’t have to wait in line, which apparently was inside of a building somewhere near the statue.

 

If you are in Barcelona on Sunday do not plan to do any shopping. I would say about 90% of the stores were closed. The ones that were open were very touristy souvenir type shops. Didn’t really matter to us, but some people were very upset.

 

Cannes

This was my absolute favorite day of the entire cruise. We joined six other people from CC for a tour that included Monaco, Nice, Eze and St. Paul de Vence. We used Dream Tours (www.dream-tours.com) and our driver was Jean Marc. He was incredible and he made our day. We discussed it as a group and decided to forgo a traditional (translate 1-2 hour long) lunch for food on the go so that we could have more time at each of our stops.

 

We headed straight to Monaco because we all wanted to see the changing of the guards at the Prince’s Palace. Jean Marc gave us a lot of information about Monaco and told us when and where he would meet us, then dropped us off right at the palace. After the changing of the guard we split into little groups and went our separate ways. We had time to explore, visit the shops and go into the church were Princess Grace is buried. There are a lot of little cafes and everyone found something to their liking for lunch.

 

Next we went to Monte Carlo to see the casino. Make sure to bring your passport if you want to go inside since you are not permitted to enter without it. Since not everyone in our group had their passport we decided to move on. The Monaco Grand Prix had been run the day before we got there. The stands and course were still set up. Our driver was able to take us on a spin around the course, which made the men in our group very happy.

 

Next we went to Eze. Eze is a darling little medieval walled village on the edge of a cliff. You will swear you have wandered onto a movie set. We sat out on the terrace of the Hotel Eze and had the “Eze Cocktail” a refreshing little champagne cocktail for a mere 17 euros. Oh well, when in Eze….. I made DH promise we could come back and stay for a few days for our 5th anniversary.

Then it was on to St. Paul de Vence. This is another medieval walled village but with more of an artsy feel. Matisse, Renoir and Chagall all spent time there and Chagall is even buried there. There are lots of galleries and shops selling art in all price ranges, from reasonable to the downright absurd. We will definitely come back to St. Paul de Vence while we are in Eze next time.

 

On our way back to the ship we passed through Nice and Jean Marc stopped at an overlook so we could take some pictures. We had decided to avoid Cannes since the film festival was wrapping up and it was a zoo. The best part of having a driver for the day was that he could take us right up to all the cities and villages we visited. The busses had to stop a great distance for the villages and it was a pretty steep uphill walk to reach them.

 

 

Livorno

We had arranged a driver through Tuscany by Taxi (www.tuscanybytaxi.it) pre-purchased tickets to climb the Leaning Tower (www.opapisa.it/boxoffice) and our driver had made reservations for our group to visit the Accademia Gallery to see the David statue. Alas this was not to be. The weather was rough with high winds and huge swells and the Livorno port captain closed the port because he felt it would be unsafe for us (and the other two cruise ships we saw) to attempt to dock.

 

Rome (3 days post-cruise)

Vatican

Since we were arriving on Wednesday which is the day of the Papal Audience we had arranged for tickets (www.goporta.com) that we could pick up at St. Peter’s Square. The handling fee was only 3 euros and well worth it since we couldn’t pick them up Tuesday night when we were at sea. We had also arranged for a driver (c.tabarni@tiscali.it) to pick us and our CC friends up at the ship, take us to our hotel to drop off our luggage, and then drop us off at the Vatican.

We made it to the Papal Audience with plenty of time to spare. It is like a giant pep rally while you are waiting for it to start. Groups of school children were chanting the Pope’s name, it was really fun and the time passed quickly. The day we were there the audience was outside in St. Peter’s Square. If you had a ticket you got a seat, if not you stood squashed in the back until they stopped letting people in. The Pope came out in an open car and they drove him along the aisles through the crowd before he took his seat. Be aware that this lasts about 3 hours, because they repeat everything in seven or eight languages. We thought it would last about an hour, so we were caught off guard.

 

We had faxed a reservation for a museum tour through the Vatican (http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/z-Info/MV_Info_Servizi_Visite.html) but did not hear back before we left. We decided to pass on buying the audio tour and just wander at our pace. We wandered in the direction of the two things we really wanted to see, the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel is amazing but it is so much smaller than I thought it would be.

 

Next we went into St. Peter’s Basilica, it was incredible. It is enormous and so beautiful. Everywhere you turn there is something to see. People were just walking around with their mouths hanging open. I have really never seen anything like it.

 

I wanted to climb to the top of the Coppola but DH wasn’t finished in the Basilica so we split up and agreed to meet up in the square later. It’s 551 steps to the top and then 551 steps back down again. There is also an elevator that goes to the roof if you can’t (or don’t want to) climb stairs. The view from the roof is good and from there it’s only 323 steps to the top. The stairs are actually part of the fun. There are places where you are climbing at a slant and feel like you’ll just slide down any minute. There are also places where the spiral staircase is so tight that there is no railing just a fat rope hanging down from the ceiling that you have to hold on to while you climb. It’s a tough climb but the view is worth it.

Our second day in Rome we shared an all day tour with four other people from our roll call. Our driver/guide was Stefano who is the owner of Rome Cabs (Stefano@romecabs). He was incredible and we have already recommended him to some of our friends. He was a wealth of information but didn’t overload you with details unless you asked for them. DH was asking him some questions about Roman History and he pulled all these books and charts out from under the front seat and started showing him what it would have been like in ancient times.

 

Since we had all been to the Vatican the day before we were able to go to some places that are a little off the beaten track. Our day included San Callisto Catacombs, a drive on the Appian Way, Circus Maximum, Palatine Hill, Arch of Constantine, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Mouth of Truth, St. Paul’s, Vittorio Emanuel Monument, Sacred Stairway, Pantheon, Piazza Novona, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. I know that’s not all, those are just the places I can remember right now.

 

If you are going to the catacombs try to arrive early in the morning as there are not many English speaking tour guides and the wait can get quite long. Stefano timed it so we were there when it opened. We purchased our tickets and since there were no other English speaking people there we got our own private guide for our little group. Since there were just six of us he took us into parts of the catacombs where they can’t take the larger groups. When we returned to the entrance about an hour later we could not believe how many people were waiting for tours. He also pre-purchased our tickets to the Colosseum so we were able to bypass the long line and just go right in.

 

Our last day in Rome was actually a National holiday, Festa della Repubblica. It was a good thing we went shopping after the tour because the stores were all closed. Restaurants and cafes were open and a couple of little touristy type shops but that was it. We heard that there would be a military parade so we decided to go check it out. It was fun, there were lots of military vehicles and soldiers marching and there were flyovers by some jets. We just spent the day wandering around and enjoying Rome.

 

Hotel - We stayed at the Hotel Mozart (www.hotelmozart.com) which in the shopping area near the bottom of the Spanish Steps. It was a great location for us and we would definitely stay there again. We had a room that over looked the center courtyard and it was spacious and quiet. The hotel has a 5th floor rooftop bar with great views and they also server pizzas and little things like that. There is a wine bar next door that has incredible Eggplant Parm. The room included breakfast and there were different meats and cheeses, rolls, cereal, boiled eggs, fruits, coffee, tea and juices.

 

 

 

What tour company did you use in Naples? AP tours offers 9 hour tour, however, cutting it very close since we are only in port for 10 yrs.

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minniemax

minniemax

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Our cruise stops in Bari, Italy. I have heard that it is not worth going off the ship there. However, I just had someone else tell me (who happens to have a home in Bari) that it is worth taking a trip to Alberobello. This person also recommended a restaurant for lunch in Alberobello - "Il Pinnacolo".

 

Any thoughts or suggestions as to Bari?

 

Also, what is the best thing to do in Koper?

 

Would love some ideas - not necessarily interested in large group excursions.

 

Thanks.

 

Judy

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