Live from the Sun Princess: Rome to Barcelona - 8 June

[Drdarkknight]

1 hour ago, InFullertonCA said:

@DrdarkknightI’m sorry to be so specific, but I’m curious as to which excursion you booked in Istanbul if you’re willing to share it?  I’m trying to decide which one I will book for my trip in August.  Thank you for all the great info!

I believe it was called Best of Istanbul with Bosphorus Cruise. 

[InFullertonCA]

@DrdarkknightThank you!!

[Cruise Feen]

I'm really enjoying your review of the Sun Princess!  Could you tell me what entrees you have really enjoyed in the main dining room.  

[Drdarkknight]

37 minutes ago, Cruise Feen said:

I'm really enjoying your review of the Sun Princess!  Could you tell me what entrees you have really enjoyed in the main dining room.  

Anything involving beef tenderloin has been good so far. The pork belly last night was quite good if you like crispy! The Norwegian salmon is good.

[Drdarkknight]

 

Up at 7am this morning for Athens. I’ve been to Athens several times in the past and, to be honest, I don’t like the place. We seriously considered staying on the ship but since two people (my husband and my sister’s boyfriend) hadn’t been before we looked at tours outside from the typical sights. What we chose was the small group foodie walking tour. 

 

The group was indeed small at only 14 people (and with my family taking up 8 of the spots). The tour was so-so. The guide was excellent but the headsets we were using didn’t work consistently. The food was also a bit underwhelming for the bulk of the tour. We started with some street food, a sesame pretzel type of thing. It was very dry and everyone needed water immediately. We followed that up with a spanakopita, which was my favourite of the day. We next stopped for some honey donuts which was a chance to sit in some air conditioning. The guide did a fantastic job of keeping us cool and the tour evenly divided walking stops with sitting stops. We went for a stroll through the Athens central market next before stopping again to try some absolutely disgusting Greek coffee. Our official ‘lunch’ was souvlaki and it was very popular with the group. My husband, sister and her boyfriend and I split a litre of the house white wine for €8 total. The final stop was for baklava. 

 

The most surprising part of the tour was a street designed to look like Disney World. Overall the tour was fine I’m just not sure it was worth the money. It was also tainted somewhat by a crew member who joined us and who hit on the tour guide the entire time while she looked visibly uncomfortable. At multiple points other guests had to interfere to get him to leave her alone. 

 

We returned to the pier at 2pm and were surprised to find out that in transit guests had to join the embarkation line with all the new people boarding. In Rome they had a separate line for the in transit guests but I guess not in Athens. It took about thirty minutes to get through it but thankfully the terminal had air conditioning. We were told only 1200 people were staying on from the previous leg of the cruise and the capacity for this next leg would be stretched to 4500. 

 

We quickly changed into our bathing suits and headed up to the pool deck. Embarkation day seems to be the easiest day to get seats. We swam for a long time before I was looking for an earring that had fallen out and saw what looked like a log 💩 in the corner. We all promptly jumped out. 

 

My sister was down at the wake view pool so we went to meet her. The pool is warmer but it’s smaller and quite shallow. I think I prefer the main pool, mostly because it’s deep. I didn’t like the bar very much. It was quite busy and they couldn’t keep track of what order everyone had come in. 

 

After a nice shower my husband and I went down to Princess Live to catch the Cats String Duo again. They were still just as amazing as the first time. The comedian Mark Palmer was next. I didn’t laugh much at the start of his set but I really enjoyed his back half that focused on airports and marriage. 

 

We had a drink at Crooner’s before heading to Sabatini’s for dinner. I was absolutely blown away. I’ve never eaten there on a Princess ship and my only specialty dining experience with Princess left a lot to be desired. This completely changed my opinion. The level of service we received for $45 was insane. Absolutely stellar white glove service. And the food was to die for. I had the sabatini salad, arancini, lobster tortellini, chicken Parmesan and chocolate hazelnut tart. We were so full by the end of it we couldn’t do anything but head to bed and finish the movie we started the other night. 

[Drdarkknight]

 

For our second to last sea day we got up at 8:30am and headed to The Eatery for breakfast. My husband waited at the International Cafe for a coffee and I was already done my breakfast by the time he got it. So he ended up eating on the pool deck. 

 

It was a weird weather day. It was cold in the shade with a lot of wind and absolutely roasting in the sun. There weren’t a lot of activities going on today we found. No live music at the pool; barely any music at all. It was a bit of a bummer. On previous cruises I’ve done there’s been a never ending supply of trivia, game shows, etc. but here there seems to be a spotlight piece of entertainment (usually in the piazza) and then music everywhere else. 

 

OrderNow Delivery was not working at all today. It took me almost an hour to get a Prosecco delivered. It never really warmed up so around 11:40am we all decided to go down to Alfredo’s for lunch. To our surprise they were able to accommodate all eight of us immediately. And the head waiter was someone we recognized from Sapphire Princess when we did Alaska last year! 

 

The decor in Alfredo’s is different than usual but reminded me a lot of Sorrento. I had the antipasto platter, half pepperoni/half what to Formaggi pizza and cannoli. Everything was tasty but the pepperoni pizza was divine. 

 

After lunch we had a quick swim in the pool and but it was cold and overcast so we didn’t last long. At that point I wasn’t really up for just sitting on the pool deck in the cold so we went to the pub before heading to Bingo. Bingo was fun. The patterns were a bit different than usual and my husband almost won (but didn’t). 

 

We’ve started our laundry struggle. We’ve looked several times and can never find an available machine. I brought some travel detergent to be used in the sink so may resort to that pretty soon. My mom and aunt suggested waking up at 3am to do it. Absolutely not. I’m on vacation and that is absolutely unacceptable. I cannot believe there’s only two machines per floor. It’s ludicrous. 

 

Dinner was a repeat of formal night. We didn’t eat at the MDR last night but that was also a repeat of the welcome aboard menu. I’m hoping it’s not a day by day repetition of our meals from last week. The only change I made was I tried the cilantro lemongrass shrimp, which I didn’t like. Otherwise the meal was just as good as last week. 

 

The dining room wasn’t very different but it was utter insanity as soon as we left it. There were people everywhere. We had hoped to go to O’Malley’s but it was packed so we went back out to the captain’s reception in the piazza. There is a cirque show that kicks off the champagne waterfall and it was fun. 

 

We next headed to Princess Live to see the Cats String Duo, this time with my parents and uncle in tow. They really enjoyed them as well. Then, miraculously we found a table at O’Malley’s, and for the Irish duo to boot. We stayed for multiple sets, knew every song and requested others. It was a blast. I even got to talk with the two of them! A night to remember. 

[Drdarkknight]

 

It was a bright and early wake up for our stop in Bar, Montenegro. At the end of April we were notified that Kotor was being substituted for Bar. I was pretty upset as sailing in and out of the Bay of Kotor was something I was really looking forward to. For a bit I almost didn’t even want to bother doing anything. The tour we had been booked on was cancelled and then resold for $100 more per person and there’d only be an hour in Kotor. But after a bit of wallowing I kicked my butt into gear and started looking at options.

 

By sheer happenstance I stumbled across a man on Facebook named Andreas Fofilos who offered tours. We did our transaction purely through Facebook messenger so I was a little worried we’d be stood up, but since payment wasn’t made in advance we decided it was worth it. 

 

He was there waiting for us at the drop off point for the Princess shuttle. Please note that the all aboard time in Bar is a lie. It says 5:30pm but it’s actually 4:30pm since you need to catch the shuttle. 

 

We were first driven to Kotor. Traffic was complete insanity but luckily since our guide was a local and we were in a van as opposed to a bus we were able to skip a lot of the traffic via back roads. We had about two hours free in Kotor. My husband and I wandered around for a bit and then stopped at a wine bar for a Montenegro wine tasting. We decided to go with the five wine tasting and regretted it when they gave and basically gave us each 5 ounce free pours per glass. It was fun, though, and I’m glad we did it. Their indigenous red grapes in particular are quite good. 

 

Next it was off to Budva with a few panoramic stops for photos. We had about ninety minutes in Budva which we mostly spent eating lunch. I had been wanting to try the famed black risotto and was excited to see it on the menu. I was even more excited when it actually tasted good. 

 

Then it was time to drive back to the port. We were on the shuttle bus by 3:30, having thanked Andreas for a wonderful day. I was pretty exhausted so I had a shower and a nap, though I wanted to swim. It’s day 10 and the late nights and long days are starting to get to me. I was also feeling snacky and there was nothing to be found. I sent my husband to the Eatery to look but there wasn’t much there. That’s been a common theme this cruise - we always want snacks and can never find any. And I mean snacks like chips or cheese or something. I don’t always want or need a full slice of pizza or a hot dog. Just something to snack on. I ended up ordering a Chef’s Salad to the room. 

 

And then I never left. I felt awful even after a nap so called it an early night. This is a pretty port intensive stretch so I needed to listen to my body. 

[Wishing on a star]

Great posts and photos!!!

This is wonderful that you are able to go with the flow and switch things up.

That is just evil about that tour cancellation...  We had expensive air flights totally cancelled on us like that, and then later suddenly reappear at nearly twice what we had booked.  

That is interesting about Kotor...  As it seems it is often being switched to Bar...  (probably several reasons for this.. winds, cruise ship limitations, etc...)

If I were on a sailing like this,  I wonder if it would be possible to book a boat cruise up the Bay of Kotor and back?  That would be nice!  Different than on an upper deck of a cruise ship...  But another option.

Edited June 18 by Wishing on a star

[FFlowers]

Thanks so much for the trip report!  I will be on the identical cruise, departing from Rome on July 20th.  I was on a Greek island cruise on Seabourn last summer and spent a couple of days in Athens before the cruise so I'm skipping Athens for my upcoming cruise for the reasons you mentioned, and will make it a nice spa day with hopefully a very quiet ship!

 

Thank you especially for sharing your experiences about the heat, Istanbul, etc.  I'm diabetic and will be conscious of the heat and staying hydrated.  I'm also bringing a wide-brimmed hat given how hot it will be and to give my face a bit of shade.

[Drdarkknight]

 

I woke up feeling quite a bit better and we went down for breakfast at The Eatery. Last night Princess had made shuttle buses available to Corfu for $15 round trip. We booked for 9:30am but my parents couldn’t by the time they went to grab, so they left earlier at 9am. 

 

I’m noticing the crowd on the cruise this week is a bit different from last week. Case in point, the buffet was packed this morning and everyone was so rude. I had three people butt in front of me in the queue for cheese and cold cuts. And then when I put my plates down and ran to the bar a couple feet away a lady literally sat down at my table. I ran back and grabbed my things and she just said “oh, I thought you were done.” People were complaining about their seat on the free shuttle, kids are jumping in the pool and splashing people with no parents in sight…it’s very different.  

 

It a bit of a walk to the terminal but we passed by some cool military ships. Boarding the shuttle was easy and the drive to town short. Once everyone was together we started wandering. We didn’t really have much of an agenda. We made it as far as the Old Fortress but nobody wanted to pay to go in. We wandered around for another hour but didn’t find anything terribly exciting, especially when compared to a place like Mykonos. 

 

We went for lunch before our return to the ship. We ate at a place near the New Fortress called Fishalida. I had some local wine and split some tope bourdello and shrimp moussaka with my husband. I also tried a bit of the marinated sea bass bruschetta my dad ordered and it was delicious. 

 

Then it was back to the shuttle and onto the ship. This was also a smooth process and we were back onboard by 1pm. So not a very long day. It was nice but I likely wouldn’t deliberately come back to Corfu.

 

It seemed like a perfect afternoon for the pool and luckily it wasn’t too busy yet. I swam for a good hour.  Got ready for dinner and headed down for the pub’s opening of 4pm. 

 

Our dinner reservation was at 5pm and I don’t know what on earth was happening tonight but it was insanely slow. It took 52 minutes to get our appetizer. And everything was lukewarm. Really disapponting. On top of that it was another repeat menu; that’s 4/4. The only new thing I tried was the salmon. 

 

After dinner my husband and I called his mother. She’s never been outside Canada and had been watching our adventures via Facebook. The FaceTime call worked quite well, which was surprising as the wifi hasn’t been the greatest. 

 

Then it was up to the pool deck to watch their 80’s movie of the week: Dirty Dancing. It was quite busy. They should do more crowd favourites like this. 

 

Afterwards we went to see Laura Bond and she was surprisingly very good! Very talented performer. We caught the comedy show with John Ryan afterwards but I didn’t enjoy it very much. He’s British but he got very political about American politics in a way I didn’t enjoy (and especially didn’t enjoy the folks cheering him on). We went to find my family at Bellini’s and had a drink when to my surprise who sat across from us but Laura Bond and her husband! We got chatting with them for about an hour. Lovely people. It was great to meet them.

[beg3yrs]

1 hour ago, Drdarkknight said:

....

It a bit of a walk to the terminal but we passed by some cool military ships..

...

 

We had a great laugh walking from the pier past the cool military ships. In front of us walking toward the terminal were two young ladies from the Marbella Explorer 2 docked across from us. One was dressed like a nice tourist but the other IMHO was absolutely stunning (don't let DW read this). Flowing long white pants that were see-through enough to see the color of her bathing suit underneath and a matching jacket top that somehow didn't have any front buttons. It exposed a small white bandeau bra top underneath. To top it off she was blond with hair that fell to just above her shoulders. She was constantly flipping it and DW was making comments. Anyway you get the picture. As we passed the second military ship with the two ladies still ahead of us, there was a shout from the ship. The ladies turned and headed back to the vessel as at least five sailors in full battle rattle (I think they had just finished a drill) were hanging on the railing. One came down the gang plank to "chat them up". I predicted there would be a ship tour but we didn't wait to see.

[JimmyVWine]

On 6/15/2024 at 3:46 PM, Drdarkknight said:

The most surprising part of the tour was a street designed to look like Disney World.

Little Kook is a wild place.  It is a great place for coffee, drinks or dessert and really comes alive at night.  While the area out front may have looked like Disney World when you were there, they change the décor and theming regularly.  When my daughter lived in Athens, she would send me pictures whenever the theme changed.  Here is what it looked like at Christmas one year:

  

 

And here is an Alice In Wonderland theme:

 

 

And a Halloween motif:

 

 

If you are in the Monastiraki Square and head down Ermou Street, just take a right onto Pittaki and a whole colorful fantasy world opens up to you, seemingly out of nowhere! 

[Drdarkknight]

 

We went back an hour again and woke up in Messina, Sicily. I’ve been here before and went to Taormina so this time we decided to do the Godfather tour. It was only five hours so not too draining, though you do spend most of your time driving. Our guide was hilarious - the best guide I’ve had the whole trip. 

 

We first stopped in the mountain town of Savoca - a precarious journey in the bus that made more than a few people gasp. Savoca is where Michael fled in the first Godfather movie and married Apollonia. We got to try lemon granita and a biscuit then walked up to a church. It was strenuous but we were warned, and it was cool to walk the same path as the film. We had about 45 minutes of free time so we explored a wine shop and then made it back to the main piazza for a Peroni in the mountains. 

 

Savoca has clearly embraced the tourism boost they’ve gotten from the film series. There’s a statue of Francis Ford Coppola and countless shops selling Godfather souvenirs. We next drove a short way to Forza d’Agro. This town was used in Part 2 and Part 3. Unlike Savoca there didn’t seem to be any tourist shops, which I liked. It was very pretty and quaint, with gorgeous views.

 

During our free time we had some tasty pizza and a Sicilian beer. Then it was back to Messina. Was the tour worth the price? I’m not sure. It was a bit of a gimmick in my opinion. As a fan of the film series since I was a kid (my dad showed me many age-inappropriate films because my mom wouldn’t watch them with him) I don’t regret going but I’d never do it again and I wouldn’t suggest it for just a casual fan of the films. My husband complained afterwards that it was a lot of driving for not a lot of time in the towns and if he’d known he wouldn’t have come. 

 

When we got back to Messina we went off in search of cannoli. Unfortunately it was siesta time for a lot of the shops. We did manage to find a patisserie near the duomo and had some amazing cannoli. It was so delicious. I’ve never had one like it. Then it was back to the ship and up to the pool to cool off. 

 

We went to Princess Live to see my favourite string duo before going to dinner. The service was even worse than last night. It was a repeat of Italian night and the steak was left almost untouched on my plate. My sister’s came out blue when she asked for medium-rare. We only got drink orders taken once. 

 

We barely made it to our next activity on time and we definitely didn’t get seats. We attended Do You Wanna Dance, a new game show. It was chaotic and hilarious.

 

We unexpectedly went and finished the night at the arena. Originally it was supposed to be another performance of Viva La Musica but due to technical difficulties it was postponed and moved to tomorrow. The Mighty Quinn replaced the time slot and I’ve heard great things about him. And those things were right. He’s a great entertainer and absolutely hilarious. Made Canada proud. 

 

I can’t believe tomorrow is our last port before Barcelona! 

[Drdarkknight]

 

I can’t believe today is our final port! We woke up shortly after 7am and dressed and heated to breakfast at The Eatery. Our meeting time was 8:10am in Princess Live. We were quickly whisked out to meet our tour guide. Today we would be going to Capri. Things started taking a turn immediately when our guide announced his group had 46 people and there were two other groups. 

 

We were led to the marina to get the ferry to Capri. I felt like I was in a cattle line. There were hundreds of people waiting for the boats. Thankfully the ferry was nice and air conditioned and I fell asleep for most of the journey. When we landed in Capri we were led to a car park. We don’t have hired coaches on Capri to take us around we take a company of contracted tourist buses. And they are small and tight. Our group took four buses to get to Anacapri and I’ve never been so squished in my life. 

 

Thankfully the drive was short but we arrived in Anacapri already sweating bullets. We had options for our hour of free time: take the chairlift for gorgeous views, go to another panoramic viewpoint or explore the cultural center. My parents chose the chairlift and it took them the entire time due to the lines. My husband and I, along with my sister and her boyfriend, chose to go into the cultural center. We wandered a bit and then stopped at a place for a bottle of volcano wine. The host at the restaurant made us laugh as he was calling out to everyone who walked by in Italian and then French. Well, I happen to speak French fluently so I turned around and responded to him and he seemed shocked. The whole time we were there he only spoke in French to us. 

 

Then it was waiting for everyone to head back to the teeny tiny buses. Except the group that had done the chairlift weren’t even back yet (that’s how long the line was). We were sent on ahead and crammed on another bus and it was over to Capri Town. 

 

Thankfully our next stop was lunch as everyone was a hot, sweaty, miserable mess. I sat down and said I wanted to go back to the ship (which isn’t an option when you’re on an island). There was no air in the restaurant but the food was good and each table received three litres of wine! We got to have cannelloni, chicken Parmesan and a nut cake for dessert. I had to laugh at the chicken Parmesan. On our Roman food tour we were told that Italians don’t do chicken Parmesan; it’s an Italian- American recipe. So we knew we were being given a more westernized menu to appeal to the masses. 

 

I hoped it I drank enough wine maybe I wouldn’t notice the heat so much but that didn’t really work. We were escorted to the main piazza in Capri Town and told we could either walk with the guide to the gardens of Augustus or do our own thing until either 3:20pm or 4pm. I knew I didn’t have the walk in me so we went and found an air conditioned bar and had some new Italian beers. We did a bit of exploring before meeting the guide at 3:20pm. 

 

That group was sent down the funicular as we had elected to go on a boat trip around the island. The funicular was a complete zoo and by that point we were once again hot, sweaty and miserable. By sheer happenstance we ended up at the very front of the funicular, which made for some cool views. 

 

The boat ride was an add on to the excursion and only a handful of us from all three groups decided to pay the steep fare of €24 per person. Were we ripped off? Absolutely. But the boat had a breeze and sometimes you pay for comfort. I was disappointed to not go to the blue grotto, as I thought it was part of it. 

 

The nice thing was we got back and were basically immediately ushered onto the ferry. No waiting in a cattle line for us this time! We were back at 6pm which was less than ideal. Originally our tour was scheduled from 7:30am-4:30pm but we’d received a notice a few days ago saying the tour time had been moved forward an hour. I’ve been noticing a trend of excursions getting back thirty minutes late so I wasn’t surprised to hear 6pm return when we hadn’t even left yet.

 

It was a long day and I don’t think I’d ever do Capri again. The crowds and the heat just ruined the whole experience for me. And the price point was incredibly steep and the highest of everything we did. I was so relieved to get back to the ship. 

 

It was a fast turnaround between embarkation and dinner and only my husband and I turned up. And we only came because it was surf and turf night. Dinner was the quickest it’s been yet. We like to think it was us. 

 

We headed to the piazza afterwards to see if we could grab seats for Marriage Match and lo and behold there was an entire couch available 45 minutes before the show. My husband and I competed in Marriage Match on our Alaskan cruise last year but it’s more fun to watch. The couples were hilarious and Jayson, the cruise director, really earned his paycheque tonight. He kept the laughs coming.

 

Next up was 90’s Music Trivia in Princess Live. We came close with 38/40. Then my husband and I went to watch Christian Bispo in O’Malley’s. We wrapped up the night in Good Spirits.