Med Glamour 21st Aug a few questions please

[samnewbie]

Thanks Sam,

 

It is great to have someone to 'talk cruises' with! My husband despairs of all the time I spend on CC and trip advisor!

I have lots of research on the various ports saved onto PDF documents which I will be happy to send you but our Email is currently down - thankfully not our internet! I can let you know when we are up and running again.

Was speaking to friends who were on 5th May Eurodam today and they said there was a strong military presence and lots of barbed wire obvious in Tunis. HAL also advised no one to travel on their own and only as part of a tour. (Being cynical I wondered if this was to encourage people to only use HAL tours but our friends thought not!) Will need to monitor the situation closely... :confused:

 

Hiya!

 

Yes, it is lovely to have someone to 'talk cruises' with. My husband just closes his ears I think when I'm rambling on :rolleyes:

 

OO the info would be great whenever you are able, thankyou.

 

We actually had an entirely different cruise booked for the last 13 months and had to cancel it, so i'm a bit behind with planning now as this cruise has totally different port stops apart from Civitavecchia. We were really disappointed cancelling the other cruise at first however we now wonder why we didnt look at HAL in the first place and are really excited about the whole thing and all the ports, especially as there are a couple of places I havent been to before.

 

I have been researching Santa Margherita Ligure today, we are definately wishing to do some snorkelling in the area, its such a beautiful area. We have considered diving but decided against it on this occassion but I have emailed a dive company about the possibility of a boat snorkelling trip in the bays around the area so we can see some of the fantastic marine life and have a bit of an 'excursion'. I also asked if was possible to rent just snorkel equipment for the day to use at the beach. I can let you know anything I find out if you are interested :)

 

Other option is the ferry to Portofino if we fancy a bit of a 'trip' but we are liking the beach/snorkelling option best :D

 

That is interesting what your friends have said about Tunis. I would actually expect to see a strong military presence there, would be more surprised I think if there wasnt in Tunis especially. I agree, it is just a case of monitoring, my only worry is if we decide we do want to book an excursion via HAL if they will be sold out..fingers crossed we won't need that. They actually only have 'full on' tours with probably more sights to visit that we really want. I will read a few reviews of them online I think.

 

Will research Trapani now I think before daughter is due home, she is at a local music concert today with friends...it has been such a peaceful day here ;)

 

Sam

[samnewbie]

We sure are! I am mostly spending my days and nights studying for the bar exams which I'll take a week before the wedding, so the honeymoon will be thrice-exciting. Since we are talking about tours, I have never been to Europe and wanted to make sure I got the most and even though I know they were expensive, we choose all ship tours.

 

Monte Carlo: French Riviera

Santa Margherita: San Fruttuoso, Comogli & Portofino

Rome: Rome & Vatican Museums

Trapani: Erice & Trapani

Tunisia: The Best of Tunisia (Carthage/Bardo/Medina/Sidi bou Said)

 

In Barcelona on the pre-cruise day we are just going to do the HOHO with plans to visit La Sagrada Familia, Park Guell & La Rambla for sure.

 

Hiya!

 

OOOO now that IS a very exciting time for you! ...Good luck with your studying and taking the bar exams :)

 

You will love Europe I'm sure. Have you booked tours for your first week on the EPIC too? It has some fab port stops, we actually were booked on the EPIC for this week, that is the one we have had to cancel.

 

The tours you have chosen for this cruise sound great, I'm sure they will be fantastic, may join you on the Tunisia one if we change our minds to doing it ourselves.

 

You will LOVE Barcelona, it is an amazing city, so many things to see and do.

With regard to HOHO bus be prepared for long queues at each stop especially August and allow extra time.

 

Sagrada Familia is breathtaking and well worth the trip up to the top, it is a long wait for the lift though so if you can get there early you would be best as not so long to wait if the queues havent started forming too much :)

 

Park Guell is beautiful, the mosaics are gorgeous, fantastic photographic opportunities and the view over Barca is one of the best from there.

We went to Park Guell by local bus (not HOHO) which stops right outside the gates as opposed to the metro which means an uphill walk from the station.

 

La Rambla is also lovely, nice to people watch, be sure to visit La Boqueria , it is fabulous :)

 

Another place to consider visiting is the Castell de Montjuïc, the funicular and cable car access to it are lovely and the views over the port are amazing .

 

We too will be in Barcelona before and after the cruise, we are their for 3 nights before and havent decided how long after, anything up to 4 nights , but we may travel further down the coast again as we fancy some kayaking and have done that before.

 

Sam :)

[doggfan7]

Hiya!

 

OOOO now that IS a very exciting time for you! ...Good luck with your studying and taking the bar exams :)

 

You will love Europe I'm sure. Have you booked tours for your first week on the EPIC too? It has some fab port stops, we actually were booked on the EPIC for this week, that is the one we have had to cancel.

 

The tours you have chosen for this cruise sound great, I'm sure they will be fantastic, may join you on the Tunisia one if we change our minds to doing it ourselves.

 

You will LOVE Barcelona, it is an amazing city, so many things to see and do.

With regard to HOHO bus be prepared for long queues at each stop especially August and allow extra time.

 

Sagrada Familia is breathtaking and well worth the trip up to the top, it is a long wait for the lift though so if you can get there early you would be best as not so long to wait if the queues havent started forming too much :)

 

Park Guell is beautiful, the mosaics are gorgeous, fantastic photographic opportunities and the view over Barca is one of the best from there.

We went to Park Guell by local bus (not HOHO) which stops right outside the gates as opposed to the metro which means an uphill walk from the station.

 

La Rambla is also lovely, nice to people watch, be sure to visit La Boqueria , it is fabulous :)

 

Another place to consider visiting is the Castell de Montjuïc, the funicular and cable car access to it are lovely and the views over the port are amazing .

 

We too will be in Barcelona before and after the cruise, we are their for 3 nights before and havent decided how long after, anything up to 4 nights , but we may travel further down the coast again as we fancy some kayaking and have done that before.

 

Sam :)

 

For the week before on the Epic, we planned some great tours as well. Thanks for the advice, I'm sure we will love Barcelona.

[Silverwing]

We had a few days in Barcelona before the 5th May cruise on the Eurodam. I had heard about lengthy queues to visit the Sagrada Familia, so we bought our tickets online and were able to print them at home. You can choose a one hour time slot. We chose 10am - 11am and arrived just after 10am. By then the queues were already very long. We went to the front of the queue, showed our tickets and walked straight in - fantastic. I felt so sorry for all the people who were going to have to stand in the hot sun for several hours.

 

There is a link to buy tickets on this page of the official website:

http://www.sagradafamilia.cat/sf-eng/docs_serveis/infoTarifesInd.php

 

Although the outside is interesting the interior is not to be missed. Without doubt one of the highlights of our trip. It was sad to hear so many people on our cruise say that they had given up trying to get inside when they saw the length of the queue.

[samnewbie]

For the week before on the Epic, we planned some great tours as well. Thanks for the advice, I'm sure we will love Barcelona.

 

I'm sure you will too!

 

You will have a fabulous time and love all the european ports of call.

 

Just out of interest have you got a tour booked for Civitavecchia the first week too or are you using that as a rest day the first week to break it up?

 

Sam :)

[samnewbie]

We had a few days in Barcelona before the 5th May cruise on the Eurodam. I had heard about lengthy queues to visit the Sagrada Familia, so we bought our tickets online and were able to print them at home. You can choose a one hour time slot. We chose 10am - 11am and arrived just after 10am. By then the queues were already very long. We went to the front of the queue, showed our tickets and walked straight in - fantastic. I felt so sorry for all the people who were going to have to stand in the hot sun for several hours.

 

There is a link to buy tickets on this page of the official website:

http://www.sagradafamilia.cat/sf-eng/docs_serveis/infoTarifesInd.php

 

Although the outside is interesting the interior is not to be missed. Without doubt one of the highlights of our trip. It was sad to hear so many people on our cruise say that they had given up trying to get inside when they saw the length of the queue.

 

Hiya,

 

Yes thats brilliant advice! You can also book tickets at the booth for the lift up the towers i believe.

 

When we last went we were unable to book in advance sadly and did spend a long time queuing for the lift, actually going in the cathedral was fine, no queues when we got there but huge ones when we left.

 

The long wait for the lift was well worth it when we got to the top and saw the views, long walk back down though and a much needed bar stop was called for!

 

Sam :)

[doggfan7]

I'm sure you will too!

 

You will have a fabulous time and love all the european ports of call.

 

Just out of interest have you got a tour booked for Civitavecchia the first week too or are you using that as a rest day the first week to break it up?

 

Sam :)

 

We are doing the Inside the Coliseum Tour the first week. It covers all of Ancient Rome with limited stops in the Vatican, so for the second week we went with the tour that gave us the most time at the Vatican with limited stops in Ancient Rome. It made sense to us at least, haha. We were going to opt for the papal audience, but DF has done that before and sitting in the heat for 5 hours while we could be using it to explore Rome didn't sound that appealing.

[samnewbie]

We are doing the Inside the Coliseum Tour the first week. It covers all of Ancient Rome with limited stops in the Vatican, so for the second week we went with the tour that gave us the most time at the Vatican with limited stops in Ancient Rome. It made sense to us at least, haha. We were going to opt for the papal audience, but DF has done that before and sitting in the heat for 5 hours while we could be using it to explore Rome didn't sound that appealing.

 

 

Hiya,

 

OOO excellent choices, they will both be amazing.

 

I think you are wise regarding the Papal audience and as long as you throw your coin the the Trevi fountain you could always do that another time :)

 

We are not visiting the Vatican, husband and daughter really want to see 'ancient' Rome so the Colosseum is our primary 'must do'...I'm really quite excited at the thought of going back there, it has been many years :D

 

Sam :)

[samnewbie]

Boat trip with snorkelling is booked for Santa Margherita :D...really looking forward to that, it should be lovely sailing around the bay of Portofino.

 

Trains researched for Civitavecchia , Colosseum visit researched.

 

Wondering about Trapani, if to get cable car to Erice which i now know requires a taxi to it as it about 2kms from the port or if to hire a car or perhaps catch a bus hmmm. I had thought the cable car would be a lovely way to visit Erice but not sure now.

 

Anyone else thinking of using the cable car?

 

Sam :)

[PGV]

Boat trip with snorkelling is booked for Santa Margherita :D...really looking forward to that, it should be lovely sailing around the bay of Portofino.

 

Trains researched for Civitavecchia , Colosseum visit researched.

 

Wondering about Trapani, if to get cable car to Erice which i now know requires a taxi to it as it about 2kms from the port or if to hire a car or perhaps catch a bus hmmm. I had thought the cable car would be a lovely way to visit Erice but not sure now.

 

Anyone else thinking of using the cable car?

 

Sam :)

 

 

Hi Sam

Got an Email from DWS to say that a party of 3 will be joining us for snorkelling... guess that is you! They also wanted to know what time we would be there but unfortunately our Email still is not working properly so I cant reply. It will depend on whether we tender/dock. :o

[samnewbie]

Hi Sam

Got an Email from DWS to say that a party of 3 will be joining us for snorkelling... guess that is you! They also wanted to know what time we would be there but unfortunately our Email still is not working properly so I cant reply. It will depend on whether we tender/dock. :o

 

Hiya!

 

Oh that is so funny! Brilliant, it should be fab :D Hope you don't mind :)

 

Looks like our 15 year olds are destined to meet! ha ha

 

I emailed all the information about port times and that we are due to tender to Cathy and she replied saying she will contact me nearer the time will an itinerary so don't worry.

 

She also recommended a fab gelateria right by their base :D

 

Sam :)

[PGV]

 

Hiya!

 

Oh that is so funny! Brilliant, it should be fab :D Hope you don't mind :)

 

Looks like our 15 year olds are destined to meet! ha ha

 

I emailed all the information about port times and that we are due to tender to Cathy and she replied saying she will contact me nearer the time will an itinerary so don't worry.

 

She also recommended a fab gelateria right by their base :D

 

Sam :)

 

 

Great! Thanks :)

[samnewbie]

Great! Thanks :)

 

You are very welcome :)