A Very Late Review / Serenade Med Cruise October 22, 2013

[paylady]

Another spot loaded with tourists. :)

 

Here are a few shots outside the Coliseum.

 

 

 

They had these cute horses all over town. This one had a hat:

 

Here's one inside the Coliseum.

[paylady]

It's time for lunch!

Maurizio brought us here for lunch. Another good choice. From the sign, it appears to be open 24/7.

 

 

I think all the RIL (Rome in Limo) drivers bring their guests here since we quickly ran into our roll call buddies. Note: Ernie is drinking a macho-size beer today. :)

 

 

Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel

 

We arranged for a guide for the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel through RIL. It was well worth the extra expense, especially split among seven people. We had plenty of time here for the museum, chapel and St. Peter's. Well, plenty of time is relative when talking about the Vatican Museum. It was enough time for a first-timer but certainly not enough for someone who wants to immerse themselves in the art. That would be better left to a land visit.

 

Exterior Building

 

Huge Courtyard

 

A Swiss Guard

 

Edited December 27, 2014 by paylady

[paylady]

Museum Interior

Beautiful Spiral "Staircase"

 

 

Art Everywhere, Ceilings, Walls!

 

 

 

 

Tapestry

Edited December 27, 2014 by paylady

[paylady]

Vatican Museum Continued

 

 

I imagine there's always construction going on here.

 

The ceiling version

 

 

More Ceiling Art

 

 

 

[paylady]

Sistine Chapel

 

My camera gave out on me so we had to use Brian's point and shoot from here on until I could switch batteries.

 

A Bootleg Photo of the chapel ceiling

This photo was snapped quickly and isn't in focus. Sorry for the poor quality.

 

 

St. Peter's Basilica

In a word, AMAZING!

 

This place was immense! Statues everywhere. There were a number of chapels as well.

 

 

 

Where John Paul II is now laid to rest.

 

 

 

The Pieta

 

I also wanted to see where John XXIII was laid in glass but didn't want to take a photo out of respect.

 

The basilica was amazing.

[paylady]

Outside St. Peter's

 

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure this is the door that is opened only every 25 years by the Pope.

 

 

Well, that was our day in Roma. It was a fabulous day and to top things off Maurizio took us to Capitan Cono Gelateria for gelato before we left Rome. We were so busy enjoying our gelato that we forgot to take pictures. :o You can find reviews in Tripadvisor if you're interested.

 

So ends Day 4. Tomorrow: Naples and the Amalfi Coast! :)

Edited December 27, 2014 by paylady

[Cheryl H]

Cheryl!! Nice to hear from you! Other than the rain the weather was fabulous. It was mild which was great because so many of the places we visited were not air conditioned.

 

How's little Dustin, who isn't little anymore. Gosh, I hope I have his name right. My goodness, how old is he now? Get as many vacations during school time in as you can before high school. I had to stop taking the kids out of school then because they would have missed too much. Bummer!

 

Wow, great memory. Dustin is great! He is 9 and we home school him now. He's doing fantastic at his school work and it makes scheduling trips so much easier. We are booked on the Radiance again for Alaska for September 2015. After that I want to do this cruise! Your pictures are amazing.

 

I was wondering if you could include a picture of your new purse and the leather gloves you found.

[paylady]

Wow, great memory. Dustin is great! He is 9 and we home school him now. He's doing fantastic at his school work and it makes scheduling trips so much easier. We are booked on the Radiance again for Alaska for September 2015. After that I want to do this cruise! Your pictures are amazing.

 

I was wondering if you could include a picture of your new purse and the leather gloves you found.

 

Cheryl, I will post that photo for you later in my posts. Thanks for sticking with me. :)

[paylady]

Now for Day 5. I know there are others reading this thread since their are 805 views. I was beginning to think I was writing this for myself, Cheryl and windjamming! :D If you're like me, you wait until the poster is finished with the review. I may have to rethink that in the future. :p

 

Dock at Port of Naples/Tour Amalfi Coast

The ship arrived a little late in Naples due to fog. You will see later on in the photos that it was a nice sunny day, but unfortunately there was still some haze along the coast line and that affected some of the photos taken at a distance.

 

At 8:20 we were off with another couple for our Amalfi Coast adventure. This was also a Rome in Limo tour share that was arranged by yours truly. The itinerary was purposely devoid of ruins and other historical information. Today was the day to soak in the beauty of the Amalfi Coast. No Pompei for us; I expected we'd need to decompress from all the three days of marathon touring, without a break, and made the right choice. For that reason, there were only four of us on the tour. It turned out to be a spectacular day.

 

Our plan was to visit Sorrento, Positano and drive the Amalfi Coast with a lunch break somewhere along the way. Carmine delivered that and so much more. I had to look back at previous RIL posts to remember our driver's name. :o

 

I had ordered a minivan so that four adults wouldn't be squished in a sedan. We were so glad we had room to move in that van --- it was worth the extra expense. We had met Suzanne and Mike on our Montserrat/Cava tour and were looking forward to spending the day with them. We had arranged this tour together during our pre-planning roll call activities.

 

Our first stop was Sorrento. I was feeling shop-deprived after the past two touring days and desperately needed a shopping fix. I explained this to Carmine and Suzanne was right there with me at the first store. I had heard the prices were better in Sorrento than Positano and in general that proved to be true. I only noticed one piece of pottery that was cheaper in Positano, otherwise the prices were much better in Sorrento with a plentiful selection. First, we shopped at Gargiulo & Jannuzzi, a big store with the inlaid wood and many other items of interests . Very nice. I'm afraid I don't have any photos of the store since I was so busy shopping! You can see photos on tripadvisor or tomsportguides if you're interested in researching this store before you leave home.

 

After my shopping fix was satisfied at Gargiulo & Jannuzzi, we stepped outside to soak in the ambiance of Sorrento. I really liked this town and would love to visit again or even stay there. It was lovely.

 

 

From a fruit a vegetable market

 

Lemon products everywhere

 

We ran into others from our roll call and they told us to go to this shopping alley, well it looks like an alley but it was probably a street. There I found a scarf for myself for 3€ and also found a store that had a nice leather purse for my good friend who watches our cats while we vacation.

Edited December 29, 2014 by paylady

[paylady]

After Sorrento, we started seeing more of the Amalfi Coast.

 

 

Carmine had a surprise for us --- he took us to Gargiulo, an olive oil producer that has their own farm. There were many wonderful oils there --- lemon, orange flavored olive oil and creamy limoncello, too.

 

 

Tasting Area within their store

 

A variety of harvested olives.

 

Their dog watching our departure from the balcony What a cutie!

Edited December 29, 2014 by paylady

[paylady]

After we OD'd on olive oil and made many wonderful purchases we had an absolutely fabulous lunch up in the hills at Trattoria La Tagliata. On the way, we saw some beautiful scenery. This shot was taken from the van as we were moving. You can tell from the flowers at the bottom of the photo.

 

 

If my memory serves me correctly, the trattoria was high above Positano. Here are views of the town on the way up the mountain.

 

 

 

 

 

[paylady]

And now --- lunch.

 

First the trattoria....

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a View!

 

The plate Suzanne would covet later

[paylady]

I'm not going to share photos of all the plates as there were at least a dozen different dishes.

 

Here are the first course dishes:

 

 

And no, these were not Thomas' English Muffins! :D

 

 

[paylady]

Hillside and exterior views from Trattoria La Tagliata

 

 

 

 

Herb/Vegetable Garden

 

Cactus Garden

Edited December 29, 2014 by paylady

[xrayvin]

Thank you for your review! I am enjoying every minute.

 

I will be going on my first Med cruise in May and am scouring CC for any and all reviews and PICTURES. We will be on The Vision of the Seas going to Villefrance, La Spezia, Rome, Naples, Venice, Ravenna, Kotor and Bacelona. Even though our ship is different we have a lot of the ports. We also have RIL booked for the 3 ports.

 

I find myself checking in on CC several times throughout the day to see if you have added another entry to your review! Thank you for taking the time to post pictures.

[paylady]

A note about the fresh food in Italy. We don't know what mozzarella truly is in this country. The Italians would balk at eating day old mozzarella, let alone what we eat here. Since returning, the only places that have come close to the freshness of food we experienced in Italy has been in the North End of Boston. And don't get me started on wine. Their house wines were all wonderful throughout Italy.

 

Toward the end of our meal, Suzanne asked our driver if we could buy some of their plates and meet "momma". Momma was a lovely and gracious lady.

 

Momma at work (it was an exceptionally clean kitchen, too!)

 

After multiple courses of food and some lovely wine we were then off to Positano. As we drove, Carmine led us in a rendition of Volare (well, we were a bit happy from the wine you know:p). We walked around Positano without feeling rushed. We saw a wedding party as we walked along. I was thinking it was just like in the James Bond movies.

 

 

The view up the hill from town

[paylady]

Positano, continued

 

Shops

 

 

[paylady]

It was a lovely little town. Goodness, I'm certainly using "lovely" a lot throughout my review. :) If the shoe fits ...

 

 

[paylady]

Final Thoughts on Rome in Limo (RIL)

Rome in Limo customer service was great pre-cruise. Jany answered every question quickly. Our drivers were all great to very good. For the tours where I was the organizer, they delivered exceptionally well. After our overall experience with them, I learned one very important lesson -- be the organizer of any tour shares I take with them. This is just me, I'm not recommending that anyone else be wary of joining tour shares with RIL. It's just that I have now had my first taste of touring Italy and using RIL. It means I am more sure about what I want in a future touring experience, and that I am still a control freak. :o

 

Skip this part if you don't want to read a bit of a rant. RIL is great when everything goes right. I had a post-cruise experience with Jany that was a bit disappointing. When things go wrong, as it did with the heavy rains that affected our drive to Florence, they don't seem to know how to respond to feedback that they solicited. It's like being in a restaurant and they ask you, "How was everything?" but they really hope you'll say, "Everything was great." Let me explain.

 

After our cruise, I received an email from Jany at Rome in Limo asking for feedback on our tours so I wrote back. I really hadn't had any intentions of writing to her about our driving experience to Florence but it seemed they truly wanted my feedback so I responded. Yeah, right. Here's what I wrote verbatim:

 

"Thanks for contacting me. I was very pleased with our tours in Roma and the Amalfi Coast. Both were 5 stars!! Our Amalfi Coast tour was outstanding!! Both ports were my absolute favorites and I credit this in great part to our excellent drivers.

 

Unfortunately, our Florence tour was disappointing due to the heavy rains the night before. Traffic was horrific and Mauro didn't know any detours. I heard that even the large tour buses left the main highway and detoured. I know Mauro tried calling the office as we sat in traffic, not moving. I was disappointed that he could not make contact with the office who may have been able to offer some help. Mauro tried his best to but our time was limited.

 

Please understand, it's not the tour cost that bothers me --- it was losing precious time. I wanted to do some quality shopping in Florence and our time was severely limited.

 

Thanks for asking for my feedback,

Marla"

 

Silly me, I actually thought Jany wanted my feedback. Here's her response, also verbatim:

"Thank you so very much for your feedback Marla, unfortunately is not neither our fault, since the night before our office phone got cut because of the heavy rain, this is why we have not add another phone number. But it was out of our control, I am sorry you lost some of your time in the traffic but I am sure you understand it was not our fault and wont add any review under 5 star one which is very important for our listing.

We all hope to have you back soon.

Kindest Regards

Jany"

 

:confused: Really? She would have been better off apologizing for the delay and thanking me for my feedback. Why make a point that the weather problems weren't their fault? :confused: I knew that already. My opinion of them dropped 20 points after that little email. I'm now a "passive" customer instead of a "promoter" on their Net Promoter Score, if they had one. Off topic here, so skip this part if you want --- When you get one of those surveys asking you to rate from 10 to 1, that's usually a Net Promoter Score. Royal Caribbean uses this for their guest surveys. If you rate at a 9 or 10, you are a "promoter"; a 7 or 8 rating makes you a "passive"; and a 6 or less makes you a detractor. Oh, and when you fill out those rate from 10 to 1 surveys they calculate a score. Here's how they calculate --- they only consider scores of 10, 9 and 6 to 1. They don't count the 7 & 8 scores. I keep that in mind when I complete the RCL surveys.

 

Enough of this business talk, let's move on to a day at sea. :)

Edited December 29, 2014 by paylady

[bubba83]

Beautiful review so far!

[tidygirl]

@xraven- I did a review of our Med cruise we took in Sept, It's under "our families viewpoint of our Med cruise." It has some of the ports you will be going to and pictures. It is a first time review so I don't have the writing skills as some, but it is nice to see the different areas and options you can choose from!

[paylady]

Finally, a day at sea!!

 

I will try to catch you up on the happenings on the ship and our cruise experience in this "chapter".

 

First, we barely left the suite on Day 6 between noon and 6 pm. We had our first breakfast in the MDR for the trip due to all our touring plans the previous days. The M&M was scheduled at 11 and we had a nice turnout.

 

 

After the Meet & Mingle, we went back to the suite. We eventually ordered room service for lunch and rapidly fell asleep on the balcony lounge chair after lunch. We were up and about for the evening. First we had cocktails with Suzanne and Mike ...

 

 

... in their cabin and then dinner at Chops with them and other Roll Call folks. It was a wonderful dinner in the company of nice people.

 

Our Fellow Cruisers

First and foremost, I must say this cruise had one of the nicest group of cruisers we have ever had the pleasure to cruise with. From the folks in the Concierge Lounge to all our Roll Call buddies, these folks made the experience so memorable for us.

 

To give you an idea of the kind of people we had the pleasure of being acquainted with, there was Elaine who posted the goings on in Barcelona while the rest of us hadn't left yet. Then she did the nicest thing for Patti & Jim who couldn't cruise with us due to health issues. She made a sign for Patti & Jim which we held while we took a group photo at our Meet & Mingle; she didn't know Patti & Jim. It was such a thoughtful gesture.

 

 

Then there was Lynn & Karl, also from our Roll Call, who we saw nightly in the Concierge Lounge. They arranged for the dining room manager, Chris, to have a cake for our wonderful concierge, Mario, to celebrate his birthday while he was thousands of miles away from his family.

 

 

 

Mario had just spoken to his family on the phone before Chris called him to the lounge to "assist a guest". The cake and those of us who joined in the celebration was a wonderful tribute to a wonderful RCI employee.

 

We met many other wonderful people on our Roll Call; any of which we would be delighted to cruise with again.

Edited December 29, 2014 by paylady

[paylady]

We've been on Serenade at least a couple times before this trip and love the ship. It's only improved since refurbishment. We've taken many photos of her in the past but still snapped a few more which I can now share with all of you.

 

A couple of shots of the Centrum from one of the higher floors

 

 

 

Giovanni's Table

 

 

Colony Club facing toward the Schooner Bar

 

 

Concierge Lounge

 

 

 

 

The CL & DL

Mario was a great concierge and so welcoming. The first day I was waiting for him to get off the phone with colleagues because he was helping, Laura, another D+ member, who turned out to be a member of our touring party in Rome. He went out of his way for D+ and suite guests alike. I'm so sad that he has moved on to another RCL ship. I will miss him.

 

I almost felt like I was cheating on Mario when I went into the DL so I didn't stay too long there. They also had a very nice DL concierge. I mainly went in there to chat with folks from our roll call.

 

My Time and Other Dining

We ate at Chops the first night with our D+ BOGO coupon. After dinner we went to the casino where the machines weren't too nice to us. I managed to leave with my money in the end thanks to a nice video poker machine that gave me four 3's with a kicker. I didn't go to the casino on nights 2 & 3, went again nights 4 (four 5's on VP) & 5 (four aces on VP). This kept me from leaving my gambling money on the ship.

 

Our My Time dining room waiter was Maximo, from Brazil. He was a fantastic waiter. He was very pleasant, had a great sense of humor and was extremely efficient which worked out well for us since we didn't want to fall asleep in our soup! We asked for him each time we arrived at My Time Dining and were accommodated immediately.

 

On occasion, we ate dinner or pre-dinner in the WJ. They had a great antipasto spread and daily specials at the grill such as made to order steak, pasta, dessert crepe, etc. We really enjoyed the WJ as an alternative dining option.

Edited December 29, 2014 by paylady

[paylady]

Thank you for your review! I am enjoying every minute.

 

I will be going on my first Med cruise in May and am scouring CC for any and all reviews and PICTURES. We will be on The Vision of the Seas going to Villefrance, La Spezia, Rome, Naples, Venice, Ravenna, Kotor and Bacelona. Even though our ship is different we have a lot of the ports. We also have RIL booked for the 3 ports.

 

I find myself checking in on CC several times throughout the day to see if you have added another entry to your review! Thank you for taking the time to post pictures.

 

I'm excited for you! I know how you feel scouring for every kernel of information. I did the same before we left. I was most concerned with what I could learn about each port in advance. It was an adventure just doing the research. :)

[paylady]

I missed these photos of Sorrento, taken by Brian, and decided to include them here.

 

I believe the little street with the good values is between the yellow and melon colored buildings.

 

 

Here I am in the little street after I purchased the purse for my cat feeding friend.

 

 

Here's a quaint limoncello shop.