Our Serenade Story - Review Oct 10 - 22 Med Cruise

[inmanfamily]

I had now reached the point of emotional fatigue, and the kids were hungry, so I decided I needed comfort food. A McDonald's was conveniently located across the street, so we went and tried European McRibs and quarter pounders with cheese. And if you know me personally, you will know that I openly detest McDonald's, but…I was in a fragile state. My McRib was actually quite tasty and much better that the version found in the states. Once we ate, we took a cab back to the hotel, where we rested for short time. We then went for a stroll on Las Ramblas, the famous avenue in the touristy part of town, and rounded up the last of the souvenirs we needed to pick up for folks back home. Today was our last full day in Europe, so we enjoyed a casual stroll through the shops and streets, and fully experienced the touristy part of Barcelona. Based on advice from Sheri, the Middle Age Drama Queen, we visited a gelato shop in Plaza Catalunya at the beginning of Las Ramblas called Fargii and ate the BEST gelato in Europe. HANDS DOWN, BAR NONE, the best. Period. Thanks Sheri! We owe you one for passing that along!

 

087 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

 

088 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

 

093 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

 

097 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

Will thought this was the best gelato on the trip. I agree that is was very, very good but I think the best was the gelato we had in St. Paul de Vence!

 

We ran into Micah and Christopher at Fargiis, who stopped to have some coffee. We then continued strolling the streets, and made our way to a massive indoor mall about a half mile or so away. The owner of that mall must be from Texas, 'cause it was impressive. We didn't stay long, and returned to the streets, where we watched some local con artists trying to sell knock off purses. They would set up shop for a few minutes, and when the cops discovered their location, they would bundle everything up and make a mad dash to another location. It was amusing to watch. It is also against the law to buy hot items off the street or knock offs. Don't try to get past US Customs with those items. Trust me on that. I've been arrested at the Port of Entry in Laredo, Texas once, but that is an entirely different story for another day.

 

099 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

We also stopped for some sangria! Will had the traditional sangria and I had the one made with Cava. The kids had coke and tea. It was so tasty. These glasses were huge!

[inmanfamily]

We met up with Sarah's family with the intention of having a final meal together. We set out in search of the perfect Spanish restaurant that served both Spanish fare and Catalonian cuisine. We found a plaza a few blocks off of Las Ramblas (this was Plaza Reial) and sort of close to the gothic district that had exceptional restaurant choices. Sarah and I joined Micah and Christopher and circled the square examining the various menus for our last supper. While we were doing this, Mike, Sarah's dad, got bored waiting, and went and sat down at the first Italian restaurant he could find. We have laughed about that several times, that our last mean in Barcelona was an Italian joint which employed waiters from Hong Kong. With that meal, our time was exhausted, and we were forced to return to our hotel for the night.

 

102 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

This is an excellent plaza to seek out for that great European feel and flair. Tables outside, hustle and bustle in the square. It was an amazing place to spend our last evening.

 

 

104 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

Rossini, the Italian place we ended up at! They did give us free champagne for choosing them (although it was really my dad's boredom that got us there)!

 

 

106 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

Toasting our last evening in Europe! The kids got free juice along with our free champagne.

 

 

108 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

And, because we just had not had enough yet, we stopped for one more gelato on our walk back to the hotel.

[inmanfamily]

Sarah spent many frantic hours the next morning trying to get all of our suitcases to not be over 50 pounds, which was a trick, because we had five bottles of wine from Santorini to fit into our luggage. Fortunately, Sarah thought to bring along a travel scale which we used to get our suitcases to the exact weight necessary. Without that device, we would have paid for extra heavy bags. While Sarah fussed with the bags, I went to Starbucks to get some coffee. That's when I discovered that it didn't open until 7:30, but the kid behind the counter saw me waiting outside and invited me in and let me order. I think he just wanted to practice his English.

 

I highly recommend a product called Wine Diapers if you plan to bring wine back with you. It kept ours well protected and they are reusable!

 

From there, Sarah had arranged for a car to the airport, where we began a rather daunting effort to find the right airline. We were supposed to fly out on KLM, an airline based in Amsterdam, and it took us a while to find the right line to stand in. We were told by the line attendant that our carry-on bags were too big and she forced us to check them as baggage, which didn't suit me at all. Getting through security in Barcelona was a snap. Literally. It was similar to the security at Disneyland. We budgeted an hour for security, and we were through in less than five minutes. So, we decided to kill some time by finding more authentic Spanish food to sample, but every place we found was closed—except for McDonald's. You guessed it. In totally, we spent three days in Barcelona, and ate at McDonald's twice and Italian food once. The next time I go to Italy, I'm going to look for Spanish tapas, and try to bring balance back into my life.

 

111 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

Waiting in the airport!

 

 

113 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

 

 

114 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

It was raining when we arrived in Amsterdam!

 

We flew to Amsterdam, where we were going to connect with Delta. What a treat it is to fly into Amsterdam and see the flowers in the fields and the lattice work of canals that crisscross the plains. We landed, and then we were promptly ushered into a line, which led us to Customs. This was something of a surprise to us, as we had no intention of staying in Amsterdam, and I was worried that we were about to exit from the airport, but that is standard procedure for the Dutch. We passed through Customs and even got a stamp in our passports. We found ourselves in the main terminal, where we worked our way to the Delta gates. We stopped to buy some Cokes and a snack. Sarah got a Dr. Pepper, and the rest of us selected a local soda of some kind. The guy behind the counter told us we couldn't take the drinks or snacks with us to the gate, but we didn't know what he meant. We walked another 20 feet and discovered his meaning. In order to fly to the US, we had to pass through another security checkpoint, one in which no liquids are allowed to pass. So, we stood there and slammed our drinks and snacks so we could pass through this check point. And let me tell you, it was thorough. Thoroughly thorough, in fact. And then we were herded into a waiting room with a lot of people and very few chairs, where we waited until our plane was ready. By this time, it was early afternoon. We got on the plane and headed west, flying over Iceland and Greenland, and landed in Seattle. The sun was up the entire day. This may not seem extraordinary to you, but we left Barcelona at around 11:00 that morning and landed in Seattle sometime around 4:00 that evening (We arrived in Spokane, our final destination about 7pm). By the clock it was a short day, but we had traveled about 18 hours, give or take. It was a much shorter trip for us to fly home than it was to get to Barcelona at the beginning of the trip.

 

We were so tired when we arrived in Spokane that we checked into a hotel and crashed until the next morning. We were glad to be home, but we had such a wonderful trip that we immediately began to calculate ways we could return to Europe ASAP. We're thinking about a Scandinavian cruise. That will probably be our next big trip.

 

Thus ended our Mediterranean vacation. I'll wrap up this rather verbose review with the following comments:

[inmanfamily]

A random thought about ordering pizza in Europe, especially in Italy. If you want a regular ordinary cheese pizza with a tomato type sauce, then you want the Margherita pizza. If you want an American style pepperoni pizza, then you will need to order the salami, and probably the spicy salami. It's the closest you'll get to the one from back home. Do not confuse my last sentence with the one that immediately follows. If you order a pepperoni pizza in Italy, you will get a pizza with small peppers. Don't make this mistake if you don't like peppers on your pizza. The pepperoni in Florence had bell peppers; other places had a different variety. If you order a pizza with ham, it will be ham, but it will be several sheets of thin, parma ham that are scattered across the pizza and it will resemble a Picasso. The ham pizzas are very good. One pizza will almost always feed two people. We knew that, but we continually ordered a different pizza for each member of our party. They were usually between 6 and 10 Euros per pie, and they were always thin crust. They also had a tendency to be ever so slightly gooey (just a little) in the very center, as if it needed 2 more minutes in the oven. Not one pizza that we ordered in Italy (or Barcelona) was sliced. We had to slice it with a fork and knife, and that is hard to do with randomly placed deli slices. If you asked they might slice it in the kitchen, but we continually forgot to ask.

 

A thought on using the restroom in Europe. Unless you're at a facility that offers those services, you are expected to pay for them. Anywhere from .50 Euro to 1 Euro, but usually between .50 and .70 euro. The bathrooms are clean. Very clean. Your change is actually funding the services of the person who stands off to the side in the restroom and then cleans it when you are finished. After a while, you will get used to that person standing there. They ain't watching, if that's what you're worrying about, and they won't be impressed, if that thought flashed through your mind. The toilets with holes in the ground are just as useful. None of the seats in Europe are built for comfort; you don't want to read the Wall Street Journal while you're in there. They're built for function. "Thank you for coming, thank you for leaving" seems to be their motto. And unlike the riot I almost started at the Vatican, observe and respect the waiting line.

 

Another travel tip in general: Sarah picked up some battery packs that you can plug your phone or game into and it will charge your device, just like electricity in a bottle, which is what a battery is, I suppose. But it will work on a plane or while on a bus, where you might not have a plug available. We actually used these almost exclusively to charge our devices while in Barcelona. Never had to use the power adapter/converter.

 

I mentioned that we were going to give you a final thought about the global roaming issues with our phones. We made plans to use an international calling plan, and prepped one of our phones for that purpose. But, we discovered that we had easy access to Wi-Fi signals almost everywhere we went, and we were able to stay in contact back home via texts, face time, Facebook, and Whatz App. Next time, we won't bother with adding an expensive call package that we never used. If I need a phone that bad, I will probably pick up a burner phone, which can be found on almost any street corner in every place we went.

 

My final random thought: We had a horrible time with artwork we purchased on the ship. In fact, we never received our order, which we paid for with a credit card. We contacted Royal Caribbean, who told us that the art company was going bankrupt, and that they would do everything they could to refund the money we spent. Fortunately, the credit card payment could be reversed, so I was thankful we used that instead of a debit card, which makes it more difficult to refund money. Sarah looked online and found the exact same painting and paid 1/3 of what it cost on the ship, and we received that order in less than a week. Lesson learned!

 

If you enjoyed this review, drop me a line and let me know. I am very vain, and I love accolades! Check out my author page as well. You might even enjoy some of my novels, (which are properly edited.)

[inmanfamily]

Well fellow cruisers, that concludes our trip to the Mediterranean!

Would I do it again?

You betcha!

 

It was a fantastic, fun-filled trip for the entire family.

 

Feel free to post any questions and I will do my best to answer them if I can.

[jules71]

Great review. I don't often read every word of long reviews, but I really enjoyed yours. Thanks for taking the time to share your wonderful trip!

[LuvCats!]

Turkey was fantastic and Ephesus was one of the highlights of the whole trip! That being said, I would LOVE to go back and do an itinerary that includes Venice! :D I don't think you can go wrong either way!

 

Lol I've already decided that when we do this trip Venice will be included... just probably not via a cruise. I'm looking at a RT from Rome that goes to Greece and Turkey. We'll stay long enough to see Rome/Florence/Venice and of course Naples (where my friend lives)--even if we have to put off to 2016 (sigh, lol).

 

Thanks for the great review! You've given many wonderful tips. :)

[dolfans0704]

Loved the review and thank you for sharing your journey with us. We are doing the exact cruise on Serenade in 5 weeks and your review was fun and informative! Thanks again for your efforts. :)

 

 

Dolfans from Miami

[jewelinthesand]

thanks so much for the review! great reading! we will be in your shoes in 5 weeks! can't wait. i have a "notes" sheet for each port with your suggestion and tips. thanks again!

[dolfans0704]

thanks so much for the review! great reading! we will be in your shoes in 5 weeks! can't wait. i have a "notes" sheet for each port with your suggestion and tips. thanks again!

 

 

WOW! The year of planning went quick! ;)

 

 

Dolfans from Miami

Edited April 17, 2014 by dolfans0704

[wnycruisefam66]

Thanks for finishing up your very enjoyable review! We'll be cruising with similar stops in about 2 months - can't wait! These great reviews help pass the time!

[inmanfamily]

Hey guys! Thanks for the nice words and thanks for coming back to check out the end of the trip, even though it took us a while to get to it! I just realized I didn't post the compasses for Day 12 so I'm going to go ahead and do that for future planners out there!

 

Thanks again and Happy Cruising!

 

 

Day 12 Compasses

 

CC D012P1 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

 

CC D012P2 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

 

CC D012P3 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

 

CC D012P4 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

 

CC D012P5 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

 

CC D012P6 by inmanfamily4, on Flickr

[jewelinthesand]

i'm not sure if you will be back on here but just in case you pop in...... do you happen to remember if there was a Quest? i've looked at the compasses and i might have missed it but i didn't seem to see it listed anywhere.

 

thanks!

[inmanfamily]

i'm not sure if you will be back on here but just in case you pop in...... do you happen to remember if there was a Quest? i've looked at the compasses and i might have missed it but i didn't seem to see it listed anywhere.

 

thanks!

 

 

I'm pretty sure there was a a Quest. We didn't attend but let me look through my notes for you.

 

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[inmanfamily]

i'm not sure if you will be back on here but just in case you pop in...... do you happen to remember if there was a Quest? i've looked at the compasses and i might have missed it but i didn't seem to see it listed anywhere.

 

thanks!

 

 

Okay, I checked back through my things and found that The Quest was held day 8 (our Athens day) at 10:30pm in the Safari Club. Hope that helps you!

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[nolesrule]

I desperately want to go back to Santorini, it is breathtaking! :D

 

Do it.

 

We stayed 5 nights in Santorini six years ago (as part of a bigger trip for our 10th anniversary that included Paris, Mykonos and Athens).

 

We did 2 nights in a hotel in Fira and 3 nights in Imerovigli.

 

Interestingly (for me anyway), we pulled out the bag of brochures, receipts and business cards we collected from that trip and were reliving some memories last night.

 

I've been looking at these Mediterranean cruises that include the Greek Isles, and while I could stop in Mykonos for the day, I dread the thought of going to Santorini as just a day stop. I don't know if I'd be able to get back on the ship.

 

Yes, we loved Santorini that much and plan to go back, but not on a cruise.

 

So again, do it... and leave the kids back home. :D

[Lanzalady]

Great Review! I have really enjoyed reading all about your cruise and will be following in your footsteps in exactly 8 weeks time. It all sounds so wonderful and thanks so much for the tips and advice of what to do and what not to do. We'll be very careful with those mules on Santorini! Yippee... not long to go now and I have some idea of what to expect. Thanks again! :)

[dolfans0704]

"One thing I intended to do on this last day in Italy was to find a wine shop that would ship a case of wine home to us in the US. I looked in every shop that sold wine on the way down to the beach, but found their prices to be a bit exaggerated, or touristy, if you will. Just beyond the church I followed the staircase and found a small supermarket that sold wine. I checked the prices and discovered that he sold wines from the 8 euro range all the way up to 800 Euros. He promised to ship to the US for only 60 Euros, which was expected. Most shops will ship anywhere between 40 and 70, depending on how much you order. Well, I ordered a case of 12. I picked up three bottles of limoncello and the store owner selected nine bottles for me that he highly recommended. All told, I spent 172 euro on 12 bottles, which averaged about 14 per bottle. I could have spent less, but I was satisfied with the selection made. The shipment was to be expected in 7 to 10 days. He also offered a guarantee that if a bottle was broken he would replace it. I think it was a good deal."

 

 

Thanks again for the review! How did the wine purchase work out for you? Were they shipped without any issues? Do you recall the name of the store and were you satisfied with the wine the store owner selected for you? Greatly appreciate your thoughts/recommendations. :)

[inmanfamily]

Do it.

 

We stayed 5 nights in Santorini six years ago (as part of a bigger trip for our 10th anniversary that included Paris, Mykonos and Athens).

 

We did 2 nights in a hotel in Fira and 3 nights in Imerovigli.

 

Interestingly (for me anyway), we pulled out the bag of brochures, receipts and business cards we collected from that trip and were reliving some memories last night.

 

I've been looking at these Mediterranean cruises that include the Greek Isles, and while I could stop in Mykonos for the day, I dread the thought of going to Santorini as just a day stop. I don't know if I'd be able to get back on the ship.

 

Yes, we loved Santorini that much and plan to go back, but not on a cruise.

 

So again, do it... and leave the kids back home. :D

 

 

I would love to do a trip to Santorini without the cruise ship and the kids :)

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[inmanfamily]

"One thing I intended to do on this last day in Italy was to find a wine shop that would ship a case of wine home to us in the US. I looked in every shop that sold wine on the way down to the beach, but found their prices to be a bit exaggerated, or touristy, if you will. Just beyond the church I followed the staircase and found a small supermarket that sold wine. I checked the prices and discovered that he sold wines from the 8 euro range all the way up to 800 Euros. He promised to ship to the US for only 60 Euros, which was expected. Most shops will ship anywhere between 40 and 70, depending on how much you order. Well, I ordered a case of 12. I picked up three bottles of limoncello and the store owner selected nine bottles for me that he highly recommended. All told, I spent 172 euro on 12 bottles, which averaged about 14 per bottle. I could have spent less, but I was satisfied with the selection made. The shipment was to be expected in 7 to 10 days. He also offered a guarantee that if a bottle was broken he would replace it. I think it was a good deal."

 

 

Thanks again for the review! How did the wine purchase work out for you? Were they shipped without any issues? Do you recall the name of the store and were you satisfied with the wine the store owner selected for you? Greatly appreciate your thoughts/recommendations. :)

 

 

All of our wine arrived very quickly and everything was in great shape! I don't know the name of the shop, but if your making the walk down to the beach it's just after you pass a large old church. It was a small market type store. All of the wine we have opened so far has been great.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[dolfans0704]

All of our wine arrived very quickly and everything was in great shape! I don't know the name of the shop, but if your making the walk down to the beach it's just after you pass a large old church. It was a small market type store. All of the wine we have opened so far has been great.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

 

Thank you for your prompt response! I have put the info in my notes! :)

 

 

Dolfans from Miami

[Trekker954]

Glad to see someone bumped this up and you finished your review. It was nice cruising with you all last October. We loved Santorini so much we are returning again this October to do a "Greek Isles" cruise and got my whole family, although much smaller than yours, to go too. Unfortunately, we can't duplicate the group we sailed with last year - our roll call is dead.

 

I hope we get to cruise again sometime in the future.

[Carolinagurl]

WOW! The year of planning went quick! ;)

 

 

Dolfans from Miami

 

Thanks for the review!! I have my notes, too..several of our cruisers in May, 2014 have followed your review..many thanks for the wonderful review and ideas!

[cruisequeen4ever]

Fabulous review! My hubby and I leave for our Med adventure in less than 3 weeks! Thank you for all the great info. and hope your family gets

to embark on another European adventure soon!

 

 

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[Cancruizer]

Hi Sarah,

 

I just wanted to say what a great job you and your husband have done with this review (and his travel blog). We are going on the same cruise on June 16 and your review has really been so helpful. Love the photos and descriptions of your experiences! Can't wait:D