Carnival Cruiser Sails Royal Caribbean ~ Navigator to Italy, France, Spain ~ 10/28/12

[Kellie Poodle]

Great photos! Looking forward to more of Barcelona.

 

The Sagrada Familia is awesomely bizarre. They keep saying it will eventually be finished, but I've heard that there is a tunnel nearby that might cause it to collapse.

 

My first reaction to it was "Dr. Seuss designs a church"

 

Can't wait for your photos of Parc Guell, the apartment buildings and Las Ramblas.

 

I feel like I'm taking my trip all over again.

 

Did you get to the dancing fountains at night?

[gapearl]

Jackie really enjoyed playing with my camera settings and got a couple of cool shots in there.

 

 

 

 

The show was great! The only bad thing was that it had to end. If you don't want to spend 60 euros on those other flamenco shows out there, check out Los Tarantos. The shows change nightly, so if you'll have two days in Barcelona, go check out two different shows.

 

We headed through the Ramblas area in search of some food.

 

This was some kind of Spanish omelet with potatoes. It was pretty good!

 

 

We shared this vegetable paella. Oh. My. God. I died and went to heaven after the first bite.

 

 

Jackie was tired and headed back to the apartment. I stayed out a couple more hours, had a drink, and talked with some locals. I had no idea Barcelona/Catalonia was trying to split from Spain and form it's own country. It was interesting to ask a couple of people what they though about it. Many people seem to be all for it for various reasons. If you never talk to local residents when you travel internationally, please take the opportunity next time to do so. You will learn so much.

[gapearl]

Great photos! Looking forward to more of Barcelona.

 

The Sagrada Familia is awesomely bizarre. They keep saying it will eventually be finished, but I've heard that there is a tunnel nearby that might cause it to collapse.

 

My first reaction to it was "Dr. Seuss designs a church"

 

Can't wait for your photos of Parc Guell, the apartment buildings and Las Ramblas.

 

I feel like I'm taking my trip all over again.

 

Did you get to the dancing fountains at night?

 

Awesomely bizarre is a good way of putting it I haven't heard about a tunnel collapsing. I read the anticipated completion date is 2026 because that's the 100 year anniversary of Gaudi's death. Dancing in the fountains? We missed out on that. :(

[Kellie Poodle]

Dancing in the fountains? We missed out on that. :(

 

There are fountains that dance. You don't dance in them. They are coordinated with music and colored lights that keep changing. They're over near some government buildings. You have to go at night.

 

My DH saw them when he was a college student in the 1960's hitchhiking his way across Europe. He wanted to show them to me and they were wonderful.

[gapearl]

There are fountains that dance. You don't dance in them. They are coordinated with music and colored lights that keep changing. They're over near some government buildings. You have to go at night.

 

My DH saw them when he was a college student in the 1960's hitchhiking his way across Europe. He wanted to show them to me and they were wonderful.

 

Ohhhh, kind of like the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Gotcha. :o I hate we missed them!

[gapearl]

We slept in pretty late today. Jackie wasn't feeling well and was planning to stay in all day. I wanted to go see the Barcelona beaches. I looked through my Barcelona guide book and saw that I had highlighted the Erotica Museum. It was on the way to the beach, and when I told Jackie I wanted to stop there first, she somehow managed to get up and get ready. :rolleyes:

 

We made it to the Erotica Museum around 3 pm. It's immediately on the right when you exit the Liceu metro stop. I don't have to go into too much detail about what was in there. The name says it all. This museum takes you back all the way to the 1700's. If you're curious about what Fifty Shades of Grey would have been like for your great-great-grandparents and you won't get bashful, check it out. It's 9 euros to get in and you get a free glass of champagne. The museum is very small. You only need about 30 minutes in here.

 

I took a few pictures on my iPhone for fun to show our friends, and I can't post those here. ;) This is the only picture I took from the museum that is Cruise Critic friendly, a nice view of the Ramblas area.

 

 

We left and went across the street to Dunkin Donuts for a little sugar snack.

 

 

Las Ramblas again.

 

 

[gapearl]

Some just for fun pictures.

 

 

 

 

Girl, don't even think about it.

 

 

 

Another building that's picture worthy but I have no idea what it is.

 

[gapearl]

We looked through some of the little markets for some souvenirs and walked down the water front. There were some ferries that would take you on a tour or drop you off in the Port Olimpic area. We took the second choice. I think it was 7 euros and the guy selling the tickets gave us a free drink coupon. More sangria!

 

The boat was pretty empty. There were maybe 5 or 6 other people on board. The guy that sold our tickets let us come up front to meet the captain.

 

Jackie is actually qualified to drive this boat!

 

 

But I'm not.

 

 

 

 

 

I spy a cruise ship!

 

[suzyluvs2cruise]

Kimberly and Jackie.....your review is amazing! Thanks for sharing your wonderful trip with all of us. :)

[gapearl]

The ride was about 30 minutes from Las Ramblas to Port Olimpic. Jackie played with my camera again on the way.

 

 

Huh?

 

 

 

 

I had no idea she snapped this one of me with the guy working on the boat. I don't know what I was talking about, but he sure seems interested!

 

 

Beautiful view.

 

 

Port Olimpic is a great place to hang out on a Friday or Saturday night, but on a Sunday night, it's DEAD. By the time we got there, it was too dark to get any glimpse of the beaches. We had dinner and headed back to the apartment. I put the cd that DJ Drag@n gave us in my computer so we had some good music to listen to while we packed. USA bound in a few hours!

[LDR]

I have loved reading this review:) My husband and I spent a few days prior to our Med cruise in Barcelona and we just loved it! Las Ramblas is such a cool place to walk around, we walked to the beach from there, such an amazing city!

[gapearl]

12 days. 5 cities. 3 countries. 2 worn out flight attendants. We had fun but were ready to come home!

 

Now, even though we fly for free, we fly stand by. Those of you that have ever traveled as an airline employee, as a companion or on a buddy pass, you know that you have to be flexible and have a plan b, plan c, and a plan w. When I saw how hard it was going to be to fly from Barcelona back to the US (on any airline we fly free on), I suggested we buy tickets from Barcelona to Madrid and fly back stand by from there.

 

I did my research and we had Vueling Airlines and Iberia Airlines as our options. Vueling had a 7:30 am flight that would get us in to Madrid with plenty of time to spare to switch terminals and get to our next gate. This is the first time I've bought an airline ticket in 7 years. The price was 49 euros, plus all the fees to check our bags, choose our seats, even a fee to process your credit card online. The final price was about $100.

 

We left the apartment at 5 am, when the metro opened. From the metro we had to take another train to the airport. We missed the first train by 5 minutes and had to wait another 30 for the next one. When you get off the train at the Barcelona airport, you have a looooooong walk. Then you have to take a shuttle to get to the other side of the airport, about a 5 minute ride, only after waiting 10 minutes for it. We made it to the Vueling ticket counter at 6:55 am, too late to check in for our flight. The lady sent us to the ticket sales counter where we had to pay 99 euros each to change our ticket to get on the next flight at 8:30. We were lucky we got on it because it was a full flight. They barely found seats for us. The flight was about 1 hour and 15 minutes. We left on time and the crew was very friendly. In saying all of this, I will say that Jackie and I have A LOT more empathy for our passengers now. :)

 

If we had realized it was going to be that much of an ordeal to get to BCN, we would have skipped the metro and called for a taxi. I'd recommend to those of you leaving Barcelona to do just that so you won't have to go through what we did. Oh well. We made it to Madrid and made our flights back home with no problem. It felt so good to sink my teeth into a Chick-Fil-A sandwich!

[Mewissy]

I've really enjoyed reading your review!

 

It sounds like you had a great trip. I love how you and Jackie could do your own thing and also share time together.

[gapearl]

Ok, so here it is finally, my comparison of Carnival and Royal Caribbean. I’m going to start from the very beginning.

 

ITINERARIES

This trip was all about a good itinerary. Neither CCL or RC had a Caribbean itinerary I was interested in for this week. CCL was running Mediterranean cruises on their newest ship, the Breeze, but they were all 12 days, much longer than what I wanted. RC has ships positioned all over the world with itineraries starting at just 3 days. This six day itinerary was perfect. They had some pretty appealing 7 day itineraries as well to the eastern Mediterranean (Greece, Turkey, Croatia, etc). I’m very happy though with the one we took. Because RC offers cruises from Asia, the Middle East, South America, and they have shorter options through Europe than CCL, I’m going to declare them the winner here.

 

BOOKING

I usually book early saver on CCL. This allows you to get credit for price drops on your reservation before final payment. If there’s a price drop after final payment, you can get obc up to 2 days before your sailing. My RC vacation planner that booked me told me they had nothing similar. We got a $400 price drop before final payment, and 3 days after final payment the price dropped another $100 per person. I would rather have had $100 in obc, but we were able to upgrade our room. So, our final price was $449 for a promenade room on deck 7. I don’t think that’s a bad price. Even though CCL’s early saver has quite a few restrictions, I’ll give them the edge since you can get obc after final payment.

 

EMBARKATION

Quick and simple. Friendly agents. It’s a tie here.

 

THE ROOM

Well it was definitely smaller than what I’m used to on CCL. I loved the promenade view and the fact that we had two sofas. We only had one closet to share between the two of us. I’m used to three closets on CCL. We managed just fine, but there should definitely be at least two closets. The room was comfortable, but I’ll say CCL wins here because of the bigger rooms and extra closet space.

 

MUSTER DRILL

On CCL, you first go to your assigned meeting area, and then from there you go to your life boats. On RC, we went straight to the lifeboats. I’ve read that on RC you show your seapass card and they check you off the list once you’re there. I honestly don’t remember if they did that or not. The drill was more or less the same.

 

SAILAWAY PARTY

They’re pretty much the same on both lines. Our sailaway party was held on the promenade because it was too cold and windy to have it by the pool.

 

LAUNDRY

CCL has self service laundry rooms on their ships. I’ve never had a need to do laundry while on a CCL cruise, but it’s nice to know the option is there. Their laundry rooms are equipped with irons, which I always use since you can’t keep one in your room. On this cruise we had to hang our wrinkled clothes in the bathroom when we showered since there was no iron and no place to iron. It’s my own fault for not doing my research here on the boards, but I didn’t realize the Navigator didn’t have a laundry room. I assumed a ship of her size would, and, well, you know what happens when you assume. Part of the reason we were able to pack for a 12 day trip in one suitcase was because we packed light with the intention of doing laundry half way through the trip. When I asked my cabin steward where the laundry room was on day 1, he looked at me like I had three heads and told me there wasn’t one. If we had known, we would have done a little laundry in Rome before leaving. They had a special for a bag of clothes to be washed and folded for $25. Jackie and I shared a bag, and I had four pair of jeans washed at $3.50 a pair. Not quite the $3 per self service load I was hoping for. Again, I know I should have done my research. However, CCL wins big time here.

 

FOOD

I know this is very subjective, so this is just my experience and opinion. I’ll give CCL the edge on their buffet. They had a few more options that I like than RC. However, the desserts at the buffet were much better on RC than CCL. In the MDR, I think RC’s food was a little bit better. I’ll give them a slight edge here because of taste and quality. However, I’m a picky eater and far from a foodie. What I ate I loved, but there were times where there was nothing I really liked and went to the pasta on the every day menu. CCL has more that I like on their menus than RC, but now that I’ve seen pasta every day on RC, I wish they had that too. Even though I prefer RC’s desserts at the buffet, I prefer CCL’s MDR desserts. For all of those reasons I’ll give RC and CCL a tie on food. I never starved, never went hungry, and always ate very well.

 

ENTERTAINMENT

I’ll give RC a big lead here. I only went to one show, but it seemed to be a bigger production and an overall better show than what I remember on CCL. Plus the ice skating show, of course. I loved the parades and the 70’s party down the promenade. RC wins entertainment easily.

 

NIGHTLIFE

The nightlife on RC was very similar to CCL. I spent every night listening to music at Bolero’s and dancing in The Dungeon. The piano/sing along bar was packed every night. There was music and other dancing in many other areas of the ship. CCL has comedy shows every night, which I missed. I never made it to karaoke, but some friends that did had fun. I was very happy the ship didn’t shut down at 10:30 pm.

 

OTHER

I love that RC keeps at least one hot tub open late after 9 pm. CCL shuts them all down at night.

 

For gratuities, you can put cash in envelopes or add auto gratuities to your account. Jackie did the auto gratuities, and I did the envelopes (putting a little more in there than the suggested amount).

 

Being away from the Caribbean, this was the most diverse crowd I have ever sailed with. I met people from all over the world- the Bahrain guys, the group of 70 from Nigeria, Brazil, Portugal, Germany, France, Mexico, Turkey, all over the United Kingdom, a big group from India, and of course plenty of people from Canada and the USA. There were people of all ages, but not too many kids.

 

In the MDR, our head waiter came by every night to check on us. On CCL, your head waiter takes your order and serves you. It’s the maitre’d that’s *supposed* to come by. Nothing good or bad, just an observation.

 

We only got two towel animals the entire cruise. On CCL, I get them every night, along with a little piece of chocolate. That’s not something to make or break a cruise, but I do look forward to seeing what awaits me every night after dinner.

[gapearl]

Well that’s about it. Thanks to everyone for reading and leaving such nice comments. If you have any questions about anything, please ask. You can email me at gapearlcruiser at yahoo if you don't want to post on here. I had a great time on my first Royal Caribbean cruise. Will I cruise RC again in the future? ABSOLUTELY! I really love the South America itineraries and really am interested in booking one for 2014. I have two more Carnival cruises booked for next year, but wouldn't mind squeezing in a quick Royal Caribbean one if I can.

 

Thanks again for reliving our vacation with us!

 

Kim & Jackie :)

[gapearl]

Kimberly and Jackie.....your review is amazing! Thanks for sharing your wonderful trip with all of us. :)

 

Thanks for reading! It was fun reliving our trip. :)

 

I have loved reading this review:) My husband and I spent a few days prior to our Med cruise in Barcelona and we just loved it! Las Ramblas is such a cool place to walk around, we walked to the beach from there, such an amazing city!

 

I would love to go back to Barcelona in the summer when it's warmer and we can enjoy the beaches. I wish we had more time there. Thanks for reading!

[gapearl]

I've really enjoyed reading your review!

 

It sounds like you had a great trip. I love how you and Jackie could do your own thing and also share time together.

 

Thanks a lot! Yeah, we did our own thing a lot but still hung out just as much. I think many times people travel with friends and feel they have to be attached at the hip 24/7 and you don't. Sometimes that little bit of separation for some me time is needed. We almost had 2 other people join us, but I'm glad it ended up being just us 2. Jackie was the best travel buddy I could have asked for.

[nathand95]

I just read through your entire review (insomnia has it's advantages;)). It is definitely one of the best reviews I have ever read! I loved your style of writing. I also loved that you included what you did post and pre cruise-very, very, informative! I'll be going on a Med. cruise next summer as a graduation present, good Lord willing, and all the info. was very helpful! I can't wait to read your next reviews. I have to check out your other reviews you've done. I'm sure I won't be disappointed!

Also, you seem like a great person to cruise with. You seem so positive and easy-going. You and Jackie also sound like my best and I...I'd be Jackie at the end of the cruise...:rolleyes:

 

P.S. I can see why so many Italian guys were so fond of y'all! Southern girls are the best!;)

[OttoCal]

Thanks for a great review! Glad to see you had such a fun trip! Loved the pictures and attention to detail, it was very helpful and fun to read. Barcelona and Rome are so much fun to visit.

 

Cheers!

[gapearl]

I just read through your entire review (insomnia has it's advantages;)). It is definitely one of the best reviews I have ever read! I loved your style of writing. I also loved that you included what you did post and pre cruise-very, very, informative! I'll be going on a Med. cruise next summer as a graduation present, good Lord willing, and all the info. was very helpful! I can't wait to read your next reviews. I have to check out your other reviews you've done. I'm sure I won't be disappointed!

Also, you seem like a great person to cruise with. You seem so positive and easy-going. You and Jackie also sound like my best and I...I'd be Jackie at the end of the cruise...:rolleyes:

 

P.S. I can see why so many Italian guys were so fond of y'all! Southern girls are the best!;)

 

Hi Nathan! Yes, southern girls are the best! **waving to you over in Douglasville** :)

 

Thanks for reading and for all the nice words. I hope you get your Mediterranean cruise for your graduation present. I think all I got was a card. :rolleyes: Have fun and congratulations on your graduation!

 

Thanks for a great review! Glad to see you had such a fun trip! Loved the pictures and attention to detail, it was very helpful and fun to read. Barcelona and Rome are so much fun to visit.

 

Cheers!

 

Thanks OttoCal! Indeed, we had a lot of fun. Thanks for taking the time to read!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review!

[BettyPC]

Great review! We tried RCCL for the first time this year also - after a couple Carnival cruises & I enjoyed them both!

 

The pictures were great and your advice is going to be very helpful for a lot of people!

 

Thanks again

 

Betty

[jobell]

Loved, loved, loved the entire review! Thank you for taking the time to write it and hope you are feeling better.

[mrsfecura]

What a great job!! Loved the review - can't wait for your next one! I'll have to wander over to the Carnival boards for it though it looks like! :D

[gapearl]

Thanks for the review!

 

You're welcome! Thanks for reading!

 

Great review! We tried RCCL for the first time this year also - after a couple Carnival cruises & I enjoyed them both!

 

The pictures were great and your advice is going to be very helpful for a lot of people!

 

Thanks again

 

Betty

 

Thanks a lot Betty! Which ship were you on? How did you think the two compared?