Detailed Photo Review of Carnival Sunshine 12-Night Mediterranean Cruise 9/8/13

[isismommy]

Hope u started feeling better!

[emmak8]

Thank you for posting. Great pictures!

[deladane]

Hope u started feeling better!

 

 

Thanks! It actually took me close to a month to fully recover. I had a bad couch that lingered for a while :( never fun to be sick on vacation but I survived!

[deladane]

Thank you for posting. Great pictures!

 

 

Thank you! Photos are the best way to share my adventures :)

[deladane]

Sunday, September 15 - Messina, Sicily

 

Today marked the first of 6 straight days with a 6:15am wake up time. Boooo! On the bright side, it was beautiful to watch us sail into Messina while I ate breakfast on Lido.

 

 

We arranged a private tour with 8 of our friends from Cruise Critic, and we all met down in the lobby at 7:45 to walk off the ship together. Our guide, Antonio, was waiting outside the port area with our 8-person van (2 people sat up front with Antonio, and there were two 3-person rows behind that). Antonio gave us small bits of information during the drive, but he was not nearly as informative as our guides had been in Athens and Turkey.

 

We drove for about an hour down the coast to a scenic view point on the water. I think Antonio said this was where the Greeks first settled when they came to Italy.

 

 

Notice the black rocks from the volcanic ash...

 

Our next stop was a park called Gole Alcantara to see the views and waterfalls.

 

 

[deladane]

On the same grounds, they set up a little store which offered free samples of olive oil, spreads, wines, and liquors. It was fun to taste all the different flavors, and of course you could also purchase the products if you wished.

 

 

 

 

 

Next, we visited an old abandoned church on the countryside.

 

 

 

[deladane]

Behind the church, Antonio lead us on a short walk out to the river and to see another waterfall.

 

 

 

Out in the distance, we saw a little surprise wagging his tail!

 

We decided to walk a little further to see the cow up close...

 

On the walk back, we sampled some of the figs and grapes growing on the trees...

 

[deladane]

Next, we drove to the quaint old town of Castiglione. It was a Sunday morning, so the town was mostly deserted except for a group of about 10 men sitting together outside (Antonio said their wives were all inside cooking!). We walked around the town for a little while, and then headed up the hill to explore an old castle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The pacing of the day seemed a bit weird to me because that was all we did by 11:30am, but we still had a lot to do on our itinerary. It almost seemed like Antonio was stretching out our stops so we would arrive at the right time for lunch.

[Jeafl]

Still enjoying your review! I did have a question though...although the actual price of the cruise isn't horrendous, are the excursions expensive? I would feel like I had to do something great in every port which seems like it would really add up! It seems like the cost of excursions might be more than the trip itself.

[deladane]

Still enjoying your review! I did have a question though...although the actual price of the cruise isn't horrendous, are the excursions expensive? I would feel like I had to do something great in every port which seems like it would really add up! It seems like the cost of excursions might be more than the trip itself.

 

Yes, very good point. The excursions are definitely an added cost, but my feeling is that if I may only be at these ports once in my life, it is worth the added cost to see everything I want to see. Paying for an organized tour is the best way to maximize your time in port because they are great at getting you from point A to B to C quickly, as opposed to trying to navigate your way through a strange city via public transit and taking much longer to get to all the sites. My brother did a similar cruise the following summer (2014) and did not want to spend the money on excursions so he opted for the public transit route. He definitely saved a lot of money, and he was able to see lots of sites along the way, but I am not sure he got as much out of the experience as we did because he didn't have anyone to explain what he was looking at (Rick Steves has some good narrated walking tours, but I personally found it hard to focus on what he was saying without an actual tour guide standing on front of me so I could ask questions or whatever).

 

One thing I will say is that if you take the time to do the research, you can find a great private tour (or semi-private if you want to team up with some other people from your roll call), and it will cost you half the price of the ship-sponsored excursions. Our 3 Italy tours cost 75 Euro per person (so a little over $100), and an equivalent tour through Carnival would have cost close to $250 per person!

[deladane]

We drove up a steep, curvy mountainside road to our next stop, the Gambino Winery.

 

 

The winery was very pretty and offered beautiful views. Apparently, they recently renovated their tasting room and just opened it one week before we arrived!

 

 

For 20 Euros each, they had a wine tasting with 1 white wine and 3 red wines, and lunch including breads, cheeses, salami, olives, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, and sausage. The food was served on large platters and they continuously refilled as we needed more.

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

 

 

Here was the wine list and shipping prices in case anyone wanted to purchase a bottle:

 

The food and wine were all very tasty, and we stayed at the winery for an hour and a half. Remember how I mentioned my mom's food allergies? Well they did something very nice to take care of her... When we first arrived, my mom spoke to them about her allergies and they said that they would prepare a separate platter for her with things that were safe for her to eat. They brought her a few types of cheese, salami, and her own plate of sausage, so she basically ate the same thing as everyone else, but it was plattered separately to avoid cross-contamination from the items that she was allergic to. When she went to pay, they told her they were not charging for her meal because "She didn't eat anything" That was far from true, as they gave her many options and she definitely ate her share of food, but they refused to let her pay! She ended up leaving her 20 Euros as a tip because they took such good care of her haha

 

After lunch, we piled back in the van and drove to Taormina. Antonio gave us 1 hour to shop, and suggested 2 good canoli shops (since canolis were invented in Sicily, so of course we all wanted to try one!) When I researched Taormina prior to the cruise, I had read about a Greek amphitheater which was supposed to be beautiful and worth a visit. I never ended up finding it (oh well!), but other on my tour said that it was crowded and cost 8 Euros to enter, so I guess I didn't miss much. I spent my time enjoying the ambiance of the town, looking at the lava rock and Godfather souvenirs, and eating a delicious canoli.

 

 

 

[deladane]

 

 

 

 

 

We got back to the pier by 4pm for our 4:30pm all aboard time, and I went up to one of the upper decks for a view of the mainland of Italy. It's amazing how close it comes to Sicily!

 

 

 

[deladane]

After that, we got ready for dinner.

 

 

My cold was now hitting me with full force, so it was convenient that the MDR offered chicken soup on tonight's menu!

 

I also shared Oysters Rockerfeller with my mom:

 

Petite Fillet Mignon and Braised Short Ribs

 

One of the couples at our table were going to celebrate their anniversary on Tuesday. That was the day we were going to Rome, and none of us knew if we'd get back to the ship in time for dinner (the one night when the 6pm dinnertime wouldn't mix well with our 8pm all aboard time!), so we ordered them a cake for tonight to celebrate. They were very surprised!

 

[deladane]

They cut up the cake for everyone to have a piece

 

But I also wanted a dessert from the menu... Apple Pie!

 

Tonight's entertainment was Niels Dunger, Comedy Juggler. He was okay, but I've seen better on previous cruises. He dropped things a few times, and he wasn't very funny. After that, I went to bed early again to try and fight off my cold and rest up for tomorrow in Naples!

 

[Club Disney Chandler]

Still enjoying your review! I did have a question though...although the actual price of the cruise isn't horrendous, are the excursions expensive? I would feel like I had to do something great in every port which seems like it would really add up! It seems like the cost of excursions might be more than the trip itself.

 

 

We're doing the 8 day Mediterranean on the Vista in June and are doing most excursions through italytoursharing.com they do 8 passenger vans and the prices are really great, max of $125/person.

[isismommy]

Those cannollies are making me hungry! They look soo yummy!:)

[danacline]

When we planned our Med cruise, we budgeted $1500 for the cruise, $1500 for airfare, and $1500 for shore excursions (all per person). We ended up getting the cruise (12-day Barcelona to Venice, on NCL Spirit) for about $1300, same for airfare. We made up the difference by buying a fair amount of stuff to bring home. Wine from Cinque Terre and Mt. Vesuvius, limoncello, Murano glass, etc.

 

That said, there are some places you can dispense with the shore excursions. We went on our own in Istanbul, Athens, and Venice. All were easy to navigate with a bit of research, and all were fun.

 

Serious suggestion - the marble floors at the Acropolis and Ephesus were quite slippery - wear sturdy shoes with a good tread.

[Jeafl]

We're doing the 8 day Mediterranean on the Vista in June and are doing most excursions through italytoursharing.com they do 8 passenger vans and the prices are really great, max of $125/person.

 

Good to know! Thanks! If we plan on $250-300 per port for the two of us, does that sound reasonable?

[deladane]

Monday, September 16th - Naples, Italy

 

Another port day, another 6:15am wake up time, and another excellent burrito for breakfast! Yummmmy! I wish I could have one right now haha The port area offered beautiful views of the sunrise over Mt. Vesuvius:

 

 

Today was the first of 3 days when I organized private tours with people from our roll call. For all 3 Italy ports, we used a company called Rome In Limo. They received excellent reviews on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor, and it was a breeze to organize tours with their company. They have a great website which outlines the many different itineraries that they offer, and they answered all of my questions within a few hours via email (sometimes I could swear that Jany, the lady who I coordinated with, never slept because she replied at literally every hour of the day!) As a special perk for booking 3 tours with their company, Jany gave us a 50 Euro discount on each of the tours. They charged 600 Euros for the 8-person van (but we only had to pay 550 Euros with our discount), and they even offer a tour sharing website to help you fill your vans if you are not able to do so via your roll call. They might charge a little more money than some other companies, but they were fabulous to deal with, and all of our tours were great, so I thought it was worth the extra expense.

 

Ok, back to Naples... Our group met down in the lobby at 7:45am so we could all walk off the ship together, but we were surprised to see that today, we exited from deck 3 instead of deck 0, so we actually exited right next to where we were meeting anyway! We met our guide, Diego, right outside the port terminal. Diego was very enthusiastic and spoke near-perfect English, although sometimes we thought he offered a bit too much information and wouldn't stop talking! haha

 

We all got in our 8-person van and drove 20 minutes to Pompeii. As we were approaching Pompeii, we noticed some dark clouds in the distance. Diego promised us that it would not rain today, and told us to leave our umbrellas in the van. He said that the tour would be free if it did rain. I'm sure you can guess how that turned out... it rained for about 20 minutes, but sadly, the tour was not free haha

 

As I have already mentioned, we requested to have a private guide in Pompeii for an extra 100 Euros total (which we paid her directly at the end of our tour). Our guide's name was Libby and she spent 2 hours walking us through Pompeii. Libby was fantastic and worth every penny as she really made the ruins come to life.

 

Pompeii was empty at first, as we arrived right when it opened at 8:30am. Even though it did grow more crowded as the morning went on, Libby knew where to go to avoid the crowds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

One of the highlights of the day was visiting the brothel. It was incredible to see how well preserved it was! I will preface this post by saying that if you are under age 18, you should probably skip ahead to my next post! With that said...

 

This engraving in the street paving stones pointed the direction towards the brothel:

 

This projection outside the building was how they knew which door to enter for the brothel:

 

The beds inside the brothel didn't look very comfy... guess the ladies didn't want the men to stay too long!

 

These frescos were featured above the doors of each room. I was shocked at how graphic they were!

 

 

Men would etch ratings for each girl on the walls of her room to tell other men if she was good or not (and if she had any diseases!)

 

I knew people had said it was interesting to see the brothel, but really had no idea what to expect. Libby's commentary to point out all of the details inside really made it come alive and it was an experience I will remember for years to come.

[deladane]

We also visited the bath houses, gymnasium, several homes and stores/restaurants/bakeries, and the amphitheater.

 

Entrance to the bath houses

 

Inside the bath houses

 

 

 

A restaurant

 

[deladane]

 

The Amphitheater

 

 

The gymnasium- notice the mosaic on the floor of the front entrance:

 

 

 

[deladane]

After 2 hours, we paid Libby, used the rest rooms, then got back in the van to continue our day. We drove for 30 minutes along the Amalfi Coast, with a brief stop to take some photos along the way.

 

 

 

 

Our next stop was Sorrento. Diego dropped us off and said we could have 2 hours to shop and eat lunch, and he pointed us in the direction of the stores. Tons of shops and restaurants lined the pedestrian street, selling every type of lemon product you can imagine- soaps, lemoncello, candy, candles, clothes, etc.

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

 

 

 

I bought several souvenirs as we walked around the town, and I also bought a prosciutto and provolone sandwich for lunch.

 

There were also several gelato shops, but Diego told us to go to one called Gelato Primavera because it was famous for it's over 70 flavors!

 

 

 

I ordered straciatella and mint chip