Review: Carnival Mediterranean 12-Night Cruise

[sjn911]

The pictures you took are amazing! Very professional looking and vivid with color.:)

 

Enjoying your review... liking the details of the Breeze as we will be sailing on her soon. :D

 

BTW, your little boy is adorable!

 

He is..so happy when kids get a chance to go to Europe and all can do what they want with a group like this...so great..Sarah

Edited January 3, 2013 by sjn911

[sailawaybellaluna]

Oh, thanks everyone for reading up to this point and for your compliments on my pics! :)

 

I'm really hoping I can make this review helpful for anyone cruising on the Breeze or doing a similar European itinerary!

 

In terms of restaurant recommendations in Barcelona...I'm afraid I don't really have any. Since we were in a self-catering apartment for the 5 days we stayed, we did a lot of cooking in. We did have a few meals out (paella and such), but the restaurants weren't anything to write home about. I had my Frommer's Barcelona book with me, and I recall they have lots of good recommendations. The problem is that I always get sucked into the ambiance...

 

So, we found a little square (seen below) and decided that's where we wanted to eat! Unfortunately, they only had toasted sandwiches and wine. But the ambiance was so nice, we just went for it!

 

[sailawaybellaluna]

After our tour of Eze and Menton, I returned to the ship to hang out with my little guy, while the men went to the casino...

 

If you're going to spend some time on the ship while it's in port, Monaco is a beautiful port to look at from the decks.

 

Lots of yachts moving in and out of their slips around you.

 

We headed to deck 5 for a bit of reading and playing on the iPad to relax....

 

 

 

As you can see in the pic above, deck 5 has lovely chairs and umbrellas! It's also right around the corner from Fat Jimmy's C-Side BBQ (open only on Sea Days). You can easily get your food and sit out here for a relaxing afternoon!

 

Next up: Florence! (Or in our case, Pisa & Lucca on our own)...

[sailawaybellaluna]

Today our ship docked in Livorno. Since we had done Florence a couple of times in the past, we decided to venture out to Lucca & Pisa.

 

I had studied in Italy in college, so I had visited the Leaning Tower twice before, but my husband and son had never been and I really wanted them to see it!

 

I planned our rail journeys ahead of time using Rail Europe online. I was happy I did this because it saved us a lot of time of waiting in lines, figuring out journeys in the station, however I have two warnings about this:

 

1. When booking your tickets online, you're made to believe you're booking for the actual journey - at a specific time - in a specific seat. In fact, you're just getting a first or second-class ticket good for any journey on that same line. There are no "reserved" seats.

 

2. I got charged $18 for express 2 day delivery of our tickets. I thought that was a bit cha-ching, but I was happy I had my tickets in advance.

 

If you watch your time and don't make a serious mistake (like we did), you'd be perfectly fine doing this outing on your own!

 

If it helps anyone, here's the trains I booked below. The total cost for tickets (including the $18 delivery surcharge) was $52. Considering the cost of Carnival excursions from Livorno, I thought that was a great deal! [You'll see all the trains to Lucca stop in Pisa, so you could actually do that stop first. I decided to do Lucca first and end in Pisa, in case we had an emergency or something went wrong with the trains, it wouldn't be too far from the port to take a taxi...

 

The specifics of our train tix:

 

Livorno-Lucca Trip

 

From:

Livorno Centrale

Departs:

Sep 21, 2012 - 8:29AM

Train

#11874

 

To:

Pisa Centrale

Arrives:

Sep 21, 2012 - 8:50AM

Class of Service:

Comfort

 

From:

Pisa Centrale

Departs:

Sep 21, 2012 - 9:00AM

Train

#6733

 

To:

Lucca

Arrives:

Sep 21, 2012 - 9:36AM

Class of Service:

Comfort

 

We spent the morning in Lucca, wandering around and eating lunch at a lovely little family run hole in the wall. Pictures to follow soon....

 

From Lucca we ended our day in Pisa:

 

From:

Lucca

Departs:

Sep 21, 2012 - 1:12PM

Train

#6736

 

To:

Pisa Centrale

Arrives:

Sep 21, 2012 - 1:41PM

Class of Service:

Comfort

 

You can actually stop at the Pisa stop prior to Centrale which gets you much closer to the Tower. Not all trains stop there, but ours happened to, so we jumped off.

 

Now, for the Pisa to Livorno portion....I assumed if we got on at the station nearest the tower, we'd catch a train on it's way to Pisa Centrale. Not so. In fact, we had PLENTY of time for this little excursion, but we made the brutal error of waiting for a train at the station near the tower, instead of going straight to Pisa Centrale. Don't do this! There were other Carnival passengers we met up with that decided to wait for the later train (arriving 29 minutes before back on board time). But for us, it wasn't worth the stress - especially with a 3 year old. So, below is the journey I had booked, but in the end we decided to splurge 40e on a private taxi back to the ship - just for some peace of mind, and also to have time to freshen up before dinner...

 

Pisa-Livorno Trip

 

 

Trip #1

From:

Pisa Centrale

Departs:

Sep 21, 2012 - 4:33PM

Train

#3115

 

To:

Livorno Centrale

Arrives:

Sep 21, 2012 - 4:48PM

Class of Service:

Comfort

[Jasonmom]

I am loving your review. Will be on the Legend May 4th. Some of the same ports. Loving your pictures. What kind of camera did you use? Are you a professional? Keep it coming.

[sailawaybellaluna]

Lucca was a lovely city to walk around...As soon as we got to the train station, we were about a 5 minute walk from the entrance through the walls into the town.

 

Be warned: If you need the bathroom at the station in Lucca, it is only the squat type - with foot pads - and a hole in the floor. :)

 

This is the lovely restaurant we ate at. Seriously, a hole in the wall, but AMAZING! They had pizza stuffed with Nutella for dessert!

 

 

 

 

I should add, the glasses of wine at this joint were 1E each! :p

 

If you need to check email (or you know, tempt your friends with Facebook mobile upload pics), I found lots of free wi-fi places in Lucca. If you had a coffee or ice cream anywhere, they'd give you the password, no problem!

 

Next up, Pisa!

[Sundiego]

Your little guy is adorable, your pics are great, and I love the details you include in your review (train info!) We have been on one Med cruise but plan on going back this year and I've bookmarked your review for future reference. Great job so far :)

 

~Denise

[sailawaybellaluna]

I am loving your review. Will be on the Legend May 4th. Some of the same ports. Loving your pictures. What kind of camera did you use? Are you a professional? Keep it coming.

 

Thanks so much! Not really a professional - I have a shop online selling travel photography and I've had a couple of things featured in Budget Travel magazine. It's definitely a goal of mine though - someday! ;)

 

I use a Canon T2i and a tiny Canon digital elph 1000. LOVE them both!!

 

(You can get amazing deals right now on the T2i since they dropped the price on the T3i and the T4i is coming out soon)!

 

Have a wonderful time on the Legend!!

[sailawaybellaluna]

Your little guy is adorable, your pics are great, and I love the details you include in your review (train info!) We have been on one Med cruise but plan on going back this year and I've bookmarked your review for future reference. Great job so far

 

Thanks Denise! I was wondering if the train info was too much detail, but I'm glad it (might) be helpful! I just want to illustrate that there often is enough time to see ports on your own at a reasonable cost!

 

Ok...pausing to cook dinner while my son plays with his dinosaurs, and then it's onto Pisa! :)

[sailawaybellaluna]

After a great morning in Lucca, we made the short train journey to Pisa.

 

Like I mentioned earlier, when booking tickets online, the only option I could find was to Pisa Centrale. However, these small regional trains also [sometimes] stop at Pisa S. Rossore (you can actually see the tower from the train). Ours happened to stop there, so we jumped off and walked straight to the tower. It's an easy 5 minute walk.

 

These are some glimpses as you approach the Tower:

 

 

 

 

And a couple from inside the tower:

 

 

 

And a word of advice: The stairs are EXTREMELY slippery - they've been worn down along one side the entire way up...It really wasn't a good decision to wear my shiny gold flip flops (which my husband had warned me against)...

 

 

I had booked our tickets to the tower in advance, online. You have to have a set timed appointment, and they are available every 15 minutes. Young children under age 8 aren't permitted, so my husband and I had to take turns going up separately.

 

The ticket was 17E and I had my print out with me. When I took it across the street to the office to get the "actual ticket" they told me it wasn't necessary - apparently the printout confirmation is enough.

 

Here are some specifics:

 

SALE INFORMATION

For security reasons, children under 8 years old are not allowed to access the Leaning Tower.

In order to collect the ticket BY AVOIDING THE CUE, please provide this form to the cash desk no. 2 located inside the “Sinopie Museum” or cash desk n. 2 at the “Central Ticket Office” at least 30 minutes before the visiting time scheduled.

Once the tourist hands in the voucher, the cashier gives him the ticket for the visit. The ticket is valid only for the time shown on the ticket and the voucher

The tourist must show the cashier the same document that appears in the voucher..

The tourist has to go to the proper left-luggage office to hand in bags/luggage before starting the visit.

The visit will last about 30 minutes on the whole and the tourists will be led by the staff of Opera della Primaziale Pisana.

[sailawaybellaluna]

After we got back from Pisa, we rested a bit before heading out to the MDR for dinner.

 

In the evenings we spent some time wandering around the shops and playing a bit in the casino...We didn't really do the shows, since they usually don't interest us. At that time they had "The Brits" playing, and we peeked in for a portion of it, but thought it was really cheesy...

 

The next day we docked in Civitavecchia in order to make our way to Rome. We've spent a good amount of time in Rome on previous trips and felt comfortable doing it on our own.

 

When the ship docks in Civitavecchia, Carnival provides a free shuttle to the top of the port - along the town's main street. From there, it is a very short walk to the train station.

 

We purchased one-way tickets for 5E each and the journey took 1 hours and 5 minutes. Not bad at all! We got into Termini station, and from there walked downhill to the ancient Forum area. This was the neighborhood I stayed and studied in during college, and not a lot changes around Rome, so I still had a vague idea where we were. :)

 

I knew we'd be in time to catch the beautiful market in Campo di Fiori, so we headed straight there on the bus. Pretty much any bus going towards Plaza Argentina (I believe it's called) is right near the Campo di Fiori square. I had purchased our bus tickets for 1.80E at the Termini station before exiting...

 

If you want to "see Rome" but still have a leisurely day, I'd definitely recommend Campo di Fiori in addition to a walk through Piazza Navona, the Forum, the Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum. They are all in relative close distance, and we journeyed between all of them on foot after that initial bus ride. And we had a 3-year old in a stroller!

 

Back to Campo di Fiori...It's beautiful. They have a daily market until around 1:30pm each afternoon where you can find olive oils, truffle oil, vegetables and fruits, t-shirts, scarves, hats and kitchen ware. There are several restaurants lining the market which have daily deals - approximately 8E for a plate of pasta, glass of wine and a cappuccino. That's what we opted to do.

 

Some pics from the market and our yummy lunch:

 

 

 

[etwright]

Thank you for your review so far. I am absolutely loving it. And as others have said, your pictures are AMAZING!!!! (professional quality). I am glad that you decided to do this review. As soon as they come out with the Summer 2014 Med cruise schedule, we are booking for our 30th anniversary. I can't wait. Subscribing to your thread. :):):)

[sailawaybellaluna]

Before I continue on about our journey through Rome (which I hope will be helpful for people planning to sail on the Legend or the Sunshine), I know the Breeze is now in the Caribbean with many people anxious to know more about her.

 

I've been focusing a lot on the ports up to this point, so if you have any specific questions about the ship I might be able to help answer, please ask away! :)

[sailawaybellaluna]

Thank you for your review so far. I am absolutely loving it. And as others have said, your pictures are AMAZING!!!! (professional quality). I am glad that you decided to do this review. As soon as they come out with the Summer 2014 Med cruise schedule, we are booking for our 30th anniversary. I can't wait. Subscribing to your thread.

 

Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it!

 

Darn, I just checked and you're right - the summer Med schedule isn't out! I'm already wanting to plan another trip for 2014 too! That'll be a great anniversary trip for you! Congrats!

[dolphin2012]

thanks for posting the great pics.. we are going on the sunshine in june to some of the same ports. we are so excited! looking forward to reading more about yalls trip! :)

[sailawaybellaluna]

After having a relaxing lunch in Campo di Fiori, and doing a bit of shopping, we walked through Piazza Navona to look at all the beautiful fountains and brightly colored architecture. Piazza Navona is lined with lovely outdoor restaurants, and would also be a great lunch stop (although I'm sure some of the quality would be pretty hit and miss since it's a major tourist area)...If you've seen National Lampoon's European Vacation (one of my faves), this is where several scenes are filmed. :)

 

 

After Piazza Navona we made our way to the Trevi Fountain. I've really only traveled to Italy in the winter before, and being late September, I was SHOCKED at how amazingly crowded it was. I mean, packed. We had to fight to get down the steps to throw our coins in there! That being said, we didn't want to stay too long. We each through some coins in, took some snapshots, and escaped. It was total chaos! In college I remember eating at the gelato place across from the fountain, and hanging out there in the evenings. I guess January in Rome is completely different from September because there was no way we were going to be able to do that! We barely could keep track of each other through the crowds!

 

 

We escaped the chaos of the Trevi Fountain and decided to end our afternoon walking through the Roman Forum and onto the Colosseum. If you haven't been there before, I'd definitely recommend taking a tour through the Forum, and visiting the Mamertine Prison where the Apostle's Peter & Paul were said to be imprisoned. I'd also take time to do the tour inside the Colosseum. Last time we did it it was 10E each for the entrance and audio guide, but that's been a few years now...

 

Since we'd visited those places in depth before, we just had a leisure wander around, taking some photos with our son.

 

 

 

Note: The garbage cans lining the street on the way to the Colosseum are the perfect height to set your camera on (with timer) and take some family snapshots! That's what we did above! :) Just keep a close eye on your camera, or it'll sure to go missing!

 

It's hard to want to "do it all" while in Rome, but I think part of the magic of visiting there is just to take it easy and soak it all in...That being said, I felt like we crammed just the right amount of "stuff" into our day. We were lucky that we'd done the Vatican and Sistine Chapel on a previous visit, as well as the Spanish Steps, etc. I'd encourage you to decide on a few "must sees" and then save the rest for another trip if possible. Italian time isn't what many of us are used to, so trying to cram too much in on a tight schedule may just end up being extremely frustrating!

 

I will say that my parents spent the day on the Carnival tour of the Catacombs which included lunch and they LOVED it! Definitely felt it was worth the money and they saw a lot!

 

On the way back to the ship we bought a pack of bottled water and 3 bottles of wine and boarded without any problems at security!

[sailawaybellaluna]

thanks for posting the great pics.. we are going on the sunshine in june to some of the same ports. we are so excited! looking forward to reading more about yalls trip

 

Glad you're enjoying it! Let me know if you have any specific questions about any of the ports I might be able to help with...It's hard to remember all the details of such a long trip!

 

I hope you'll post about your experience on the Sunshine...I'm so interested in taking a cruise on her in the future!

[sailawaybellaluna]

This is what a day exploring that beautiful ancient city will do to a 3-year old:

 

 

:)

[Lidolounger]

We're veteran cruisers, but never been to Europe. Planning on going in April 2014. I appreciate all of the port info, as this is all new to me!

 

What are your don't miss items for a first timer?

 

Thank so much!

[sailawaybellaluna]

We're veteran cruisers, but never been to Europe. Planning on going in April 2014. I appreciate all of the port info, as this is all new to me!

 

What are your don't miss items for a first timer?

 

Thank so much!

 

Glad the port information is helpful!

 

Have you already booked your cruise for April, 2014? Do you know the specific ports yet?

 

In general, I'd say the BEST part of our itinerary was Rome, Dubrovnik and Venice - we absolutely loved all of those ports and had a wonderful time exploring on our own (I'll write more when I get to those days!). For me, I'd probably skip itineraries that spend a lot of time in Sardinia or Sicily. I feel bad even saying that, but we didn't particularly enjoy either of those ports, and in the case of Olbia, went back to the ship quite early (which we rarely do!).

 

We liked this itinerary because it began and ended in Barcelona (and it was cheaper to buy round-trip airfare from one city rather than a multi-city ticket). However, if I were to do Europe again, I'd choose an itinerary that begins in Venice or Rome. Those are the cities that I feel have the most to offer, where I'd want to spend a couple of extra days pre or post-cruise.

 

If you already know your ports and have specific "must do" items in each of them, I'll definitely be happy to see if I can help offer any thoughts! :)

[sailawaybellaluna]

After a full day in Rome, and hitting a port everyday, we were ready for a sea day! (We actually really enjoy sea days!)

 

But first, we had a stop in Olbia, Sardinia. The ship was docked there from 7am - 3:30pm.

 

I really struggled deciding what to do in Olbia. I knew we'd be tired, so I didn't want to commit to a tour, but in the end, I wish we would have. I had really wanted to do the Sardinian Winery Tour through Carnival which also stopped in Porto Cervo. But in the end, at $99 per person, we weren't convinced.

 

So, we took the free shuttle from the pier to downtown Olbia. Carnival contracts a local company to bus you back and forth, and it's very nice and convenient. In fact, for anyone with mobility issues, Olbia is a great port. The buses were equipped to handle wheelchairs, and the town is quite flat and easy to navigate.

 

Unfortunately, we didn't love Olbia. There were a couple of artisan shops selling some local pottery which I really enjoyed, as well as an antiques shop and a perfumerie. Other than that, there were some cafes, clothing stores, and it was all in a mix of traditional building blended with some not so quaint 60's architecture. It felt a bit abandoned, like they were making a huge attempt to revitalize it through the cruise industry.

 

 

 

I hate to sound like a Debbie Downer, but personally, I couldn't see anything very fun to do there on your own, and I'd recommend a tour.

 

After we explored the main street, we headed back to the ship and relaxed in the piano bar. It was nice have much of the boat to ourselves!

 

I swear, we don't allow our son to play on the iPad all day every day! I just got out my little camera when we were relaxing, and he happens to have it in nearly every picture! He plays educational games - I swear! :p

 

 

Next up...a much needed SEA DAY!

[sailawaybellaluna]

Ahhh, a day at sea! This was such a port intensive cruise, that we really looked forward to a day at sea...

 

This morning, we went to the back of the ship on deck 10 for coffee and a little reading! I will say that I felt The Library Bar had a great selection of books, and I managed to check out and read 3 of them during our trip! I also like that you can sample wines while you're browsing books - very fun!

 

After coffee we got ready for our day and the headed to the Punchliner Brunch. I'll be honest - one reason we went was because we had the Carnival Free Drinks coupons that are given to VIFP members, and they are only valid during breakfast, brunch and lunch in the MDR.

 

I thought the service during brunch was fantastic! We really enjoyed talking with Luis and Daniella, and they'd often come and say hello to us during dinners from then on out. Luis had children at home that he hadn't seen in months, so I think he really enjoyed playing with our son - making him hats and towel animals. It was fun.

 

 

The food was wonderful during the brunch - kind of a fancy Mexican theme with pretty much NO healthy options! Lots of fried food with guacamole. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it! :)

 

The "comedy" portion of the brunch? Not so funny. Tom Pepper & Austin Knight were the comedians, and the brunch took place in the Sapphire Restaurant. Perhaps their longer shows in the evenings were funnier? We just didn't "get it" during the brunch. And the show is literally 8 minutes - so if you show up after the hour, you've missed the comedy portion (again, not a loss in my opinion).

 

After brunch our son went to grandma & grandpa's cabin for a little nap, and my husband and I went to see John's marriage show. I always enjoy the marriage shows on cruises, and this was no different. John Heald is a funny guy!

[sailawaybellaluna]

That evening was "elegant night". I must say, people really dressed up and they looked really classy!

 

We opted to walk around the ship taking our own photos. We did try taking some of the formal pictures (and I thought some of the Carnival photographers were quite good). I just couldn't imagine where I'd display the photo once I got home - some of the backgrounds are quite...interesting. :p

 

 

In front of our Porthole Cabin, #1214:

 

 

We had a great meal in the MDR that night, although if I remember correctly, it was a bit busy...The lobster was wonderful. No complaints from me!

 

 

I should add that we always order wine glasses to our cabin through room service. We typically fill them and carry them into the MDR at dinner. No one has any issue with this. In fact, they really wouldn't know they're not just from the atrium bar. We also ordered drinks (wine and beer) from the cocktail waitress in the MDR and had great service. I thought the prices were pretty reasonable...

 

It was a fun elegant night and a relaxing day! It ended with a towel animal that made our son very happy!

 

 

We called it an early evening so we could prepare for Dubrovnik...!

[Starlight Durban Cruising]

Superb photography & a great writing style. Best I've seen yet on CC. Time to start publishing coffee-table travel books!!!!

 

It looks like the ship has a much better decor style than others in the line. More upmarket & better quality.

 

In the picture of lunch in Rome what all was on that pizza (besides the mushroom that I could see). Was it a good pizza, or just so-so? Thanks.

[Jasonmom]

Thanks so much! Not really a professional - I have a shop online selling travel photography and I've had a couple of things featured in Budget Travel magazine. It's definitely a goal of mine though - someday! ;)

 

I use a Canon T2i and a tiny Canon digital elph 1000. LOVE them both!!

 

(You can get amazing deals right now on the T2i since they dropped the price on the T3i and the T4i is coming out soon)!

 

Have a wonderful time on the Legend!!

 

 

Goes to show that it is the hands the camera is in rather than the camera itself. Nothing wrong with the Canon T2i, but many of your pictures are much better than some I've seen with a $5000 camera. Having some of your work in a magazine........well that shows you just how good others think you are. Your colors are amazing. Do you shoot RAW? How much post shot work do you do? I'm a beginner so I'm looking into what people that I like their work do & use.

 

 

By the way, your son is beautiful. Isn't it fun traveling with a toddler?