Western Med Cruise review Oct 2007

[Monterey Girl]

We just returned from a fabulous 14 day cruise on the Millennium. As so many have stated before me, I thought I would try to pay back a little for all the help I received on this board before taking our cruise.

 

I chose this particular cruise and cruise line because I liked the itinerary and I also like Celebrity. We have cruised on Princess, Celebrity and RCCL. I booked thru an on line travel agent I have used before and saved quite a bit of money. I must say the service I received has been far superior to any local travel agent I have used in the past. Also, I requested a much coveted aft cabin but was told they were all gone. My TA said that she would keep an eye out at final payment time since sometimes people back out at that time. When final payment time came, guess what?, we got our aft cabin! Point being, if you don't get what you want right away, talk to your travel agent. They can be a marvelous asset if you do more than just book and pay, so to speak. I have also heard people talk about all the money they saved by booking last minute. On this particular itinerary the price just kept going up and up. Book early and watch the price. Most TA's will give you the cheaper price if it happens to go down. Mine does.

 

Ok, now what? If you are like me, I was at a total standstill after booking the cruise. I found and registered on my cruise's particular Cruise Critic roll call site. A great place to meet fellow cruisers and exchange info on your cruise. Then I began pouring over this site , reading everything on every Med. cruise I could find. Both sites proved to be gold mines.

 

After reading a while, I got the idea that we would probably do better with private tours, but again that's about as much as I knew. The first thing I did was find and print out every excursion Celebrity offered for my cruise. I knew zilch about most of the places we were going. What was available ? And how much could we expect to pay? I figured the info from Celebrity would give me something to use for comparisons. Then I started printing out everything I could get my hands on about each port, including private drivers, things to do and se, etc. Search on this site. IE: "Private drivers in Florence"." Google IE: "Things to do in Florence". Check out and print out info from other posters. I put all the info I was gathering in manila folders labeled with each port. After a while you will miraculously start to make sense of it all and you will start narrowing down the field of what's available and what you want to do.

 

IMO, I felt like all the private drivers pretty much offered the same tours at about the same prices. First thing I did was eliminate those with any bad reports. There are many companies to choose from so I wasn't even going to waste my time going there . Then I started looking for something that set any apart from the others. I chose Benvenuto Limos for all of our Italy tours because they have each person sign and FAX a contract. That means no one person in your travel group is on the hook for the entire excursion expense. Let's face it, you probably don't know the people you are hoping to set up a tour group with. Someone else that I hooked up with on the Roll Call site chose Revelations Tours in France because they give you a nice printed portfolio of the sites on your tour as a souvenir AND provide a cooler with cold drinks for the trip. I chose EKOL Travel for Athens and Istanbul because they DIDN'T require a credit card to reserve and their price includes a guide as well as a driver. All three of these companies have extensive web sites and all came highly recommended by other Cruise Critic posters. I am happy to report that none of them disappointed. They were all as advertised and then some. I emailed Benvenuto and requested a cooler of ice for drinks which they provided at no extra cost. I know now to also request that all the drivers have microphones. Some did and some didn't. It made it so much easier to hear and understand our drivers who were "wired ". Just to be sure, I specifically requested nonsmoking drivers.

 

So I have the tour companies and drivers, how do I get other people to share the expense ? I simply advertised , so to speak , on my roll call site. I posted a very simple request on my roll call site, along with my email address. By this time I had posted many times with other questions and responses and maybe people felt like they knew me but I got plenty of responses right away. I was glad I asked early on because as time went on, more and more people were looking for warm bodies to fill their tours. I limited the group size to 8. This seemed to be a price separation point, meaning the price went up after 8. I thot 8 would be a manageable group for size and personalities. After all, we were doing private tours in order to avoid being in a herd. When people responded, I privately emailed them , introducing myself and my husband and giving the specific details of the excursions they were interested in. A couple people declined after they knew more but I absolutely had no problems filling out my tours. Then as a group we made some other decisions about our tours. IE: We decided to skip climbing the Leaning Tower. We agreed to hire private guides for Pompeii and the Vatican. In hind sight we ALL wished we had hired a private guide for the Coliseum. It was not much more than a big building to most of us w/o a guide. We agreed we all wanted to pay the extra fee to go see "David" in Florence. When some wanted to go one way and others wanted to go another, we all just agreed on a time and meeting place. Everybody was happy. Before we left on the cruise we exchanged room numbers and reservation numbers and agreed to meet in my cabin our first day at sea to finally meet each other face to face. It turned out to be quite a large group because not everyone went on every excursion,(except me and my husband) but every excursion was full. At this meeting we agreed upon a meeting place every morning. For us it was on the other side of the gangplank. It turned out to be tons of fun and I am totally convinced this is the ONLY way to go. We saw more and got closer to the sites because we were not on a big bus, being herded in a big group. Someone said you can only go as fast as the slowest person in your group. How true that is and the bigger the group the more chance you have of really being held up. We only took one ship excursion, ( Santorini) and we were held up waiting for people to use the rest room forever! But I would still do the ship excursion here since we avoided the long lines to take either the gondolas or donkeys up to the top. People literally waited in line for hours.

 

Once I got everything sorted out and decided upon, I put everything in a plastic file folder. Each file was labeled chronologically by port. Then I inserted the info into each file chronologically. IE: BARCELONA. First would be the cab company info. Then our hotel info. Then tour info by date. I did this for each port. I had all of our cruise info in the very front. We did not attach our cruise luggage tags until we left the hotel in BCN for the ship. I had all of our flight info in a completely separate zip up folder. Each thing was clearly marked in big letter on the outside. On the outside of the file folder were two little see thru pockets where I kept a list of everyone's room numbers and reservation numbers. These two folder were always with me in my carry on luggage. Just before departing for the cruise I started getting a terrible case of the "what ifs". What if the driver didn't come ! So I went back and made a PLAN B for every port. These included explicit directions on how to do each port on our own. I got wonderful info from www.portreviews.com I also included the emergency numbers for all the tour companies. The ship's emergency number. We arranged for international cell service before we left "just in case". We actually used our phone to call our drivers when we were done early a couple of times. It was a very nice thing to have.

 

I also used the Roll Call site to make up a table of 10 for dinner. I just asked if anyone would be interested in joining us at the late seating. As with the private excursions, I posted my email address and people contacted me privately and we sort of introduced ourselves before hand. You need to have your TA cross reference your reservation number with the other person's reservation number. Of course the other person has to do the same thing on their end. Again, it worked out great and we thoroughly enjoyed our dinner companions. BTW, if you have cruised previously w/Celebrity you can make reservations for their specialty restaurant before you cruise but you must contact Celebrity directly.

 

My husband and I decided to stay in hotels two days before and two days after the cruise. Just check out what others have said about their hotels and again you will come to your own satisfactory decision. I highly recommend you take at least two days before the cruise to allow for any snafus concerning your flights or luggage. And you might as well take advantage of checking out the port where your cruise starts and ends. .

 

Our particular cruise began in Barcelona.

I prebooked private taxi transportation from the airport to our hotel On Las Ramblas in BCN. The cost was 35 E., including our ton of luggage. We used Barcelona Taxi Van and they have a web site. Book early. They sell out. This was the best money we spent on the entire trip! Public transportation in BCN is crawling with pickpockets and thieves. One woman I spoke to personally was mugged in the airport train station in broad day light by three Gypsie women. She lost her money, ID and passport. AND she missed the ship while trying to sort it all out. The worst part was that NO ONE came to her aide while she was being attacked in the turnstile. Remember the addage: "Penny wise and pound foolish" It may sound easy to do the "do it yourself" bit for fun or to save some money but remember you probably don't speak the language, aren't familiar with the territory and you will most definitely be tired. After all the other money you spent, treat yourself to a nice EASY cab ride!!!

 

We stayed at the Hotel Continental Barcelona on Las Ramblas ( the main drag) in Barcelona. It certainly was not luxurious but it wasn't bad and it sure was convenient to everywhere. They have a web site. They also sell out so book this hotel as soon as you have decided that is where you want to stay in BCN. You can always cancel later if you change your mind. We took a cab to the Sagrada Familia, which is a huge church/temple that was begun in 1882 and is still no where finished and the Casa Batllo, a private residence that Gaudi remodeled, but easily walked everywhere else. These are Gaudi creations that you cannot prebook but they are well worth making the effort to see. We have NOTHING like them here in the U.S. that I can think of. INCREDIBLE!! We went to S. F. first, arriving just before it opened. There was a line but once the gates opened, it moved very quickly. I rented the audio guide and felt it was worth the extra money. From the S.F. we cabbed over to the Casa Batllo. An audio guide was included in the cost. I had read about both of these buildings before I left and therefore felt somewhat informed when I actually got to see them. I also booked a walking tour a different day of the Gothic District thru the official Barcelona Turisme office. Their web site is reserves@barcelonaturisme.com.Their offices are located near the park at the upper end of Las Ramlas. The offices are actually under ground like a metro station so look for their logo sign which is 4 different colored diamonds. They offer lots of different tours, different times , in different languages. Our tour took about two hours and was a very easy walk along mostly flat ground. I don't think you have to be a big history buff to find it very interesting and informative. We also reserved a Flamenco show and dinner thru this company which was also kind of cool. I probably would skip the dinner part next time. It wasn't bad but it wasn't good. We never really looked around for a restaurant while we were there. We spent some time just walking up and down Las Ramlas and wandering the side streets. Don't count on going anywhere once you check in to the ship in BCN. The cruise pier is a long way from anything.

 

I won't go into detail about the ship or the ports. If you want specifics, just ask me. We thought the ship looked good, the food was good and our bed was comfortable, the staff friendly and competent. We enjoyed every port, I think due in large part to all the pre planning I did.

 

Our last port was Venice. OMIGOD!!! It was as wonderful as I hoped. We stayed two nights in the Westin Europa-Regina. We used Starwood points to stay there so it was free. It has it's own dock and I could reserve transportation from the ship to the hotel and then from the hotel to the airport , in advance , thru the hotel, which meant I could earn more Starwood points. Otherwise, I am sorry to say, we did not find a thing to recommend about this hotel. The staff were pretty indifferent. The food was astronomical, even for Venice. Try 52E, or maybe it was 52 US dollars for breakfast. PULEEZE!!! A liter bottle of water was 14E from room service. That's about 22USD. Some fellow cruisers stayed at the Panorama Hotel on the Island of Lido that seemed very nice when we visited them in their room and it was much less expensive. I had prebooked our tour of the Secret Itinerary at the Doge's Palace. We learned all about the political intrigue that went on and there was a nice armory museum inside. Book that in advance thru www.tickitaly.com. We also got advance free tickets to St Mark's Basilica at www.alata.it/eng.com The tickets are always free but with reservations, you avoid the line. Maybe I was "churched out" but I didn't think it was worth the effort, even free. We just about walked our legs off walking the narrow winding lanes and bridges of Venice. Not until our last evening did we remember the vaporetta, or water bus. Did we feel foolish! Yes, wandering is part of the Venice experience but there were several places we never got to because we got lost or thot we were too far away from them. Riding the Vaporetta would have saved us SO much time. Be aware that food, drinks and hotels in Venice are totally off the chart expensive. A small cup of "American" coffee was 6.50E . That's about 10.00 US !! Some thing I definitely was not prepared for was how cold it was in Venice in October. Of course it is damp but the sun never shines in places because the buildings are so high and the streets are so narrow. I wish I had packed a pair of gloves. The rest of me was pretty well layered and I bought a beautiful heavy cashmere and wool shawl in a store ( not souvinir stand) for 10E. Of course now I wish I had bought more. Mostly I wish we could have stayed another day or two!!

 

Speaking of souvinirs: We mostly bought books and post cards which really loaded us down with weight. I bought some beautiful leather bound blank books in a small street market near Ponte Vecchio in Florence for 10E and less.There were tons of purses, wallets and other things for sale here but we just simply did NOT have much time to shop. I got a Lladro Flamenco dancer figurine in BCN, price comparable to US prices. I forgot to turn in my VAT refund card at the venice airport. At the flower market in Nice I got a several lavender sachets ( 3E for 5) and a small lithograph (5E) of the market. My friend got some beautiful olive dishes that I was sorry later I didn't get, too. I think they were about 5E each. I also got gold charms from most of the cities we visited, none of them cheap. We thought the best prices for gold jewelry was the island of Mykonos and NOT the places on the ship's list. We popped into a little grocery store and got sodas for .60E and beer was 1.10E. My husband also bought a small bottle of Ouzo for less than 2E at the same store. We found restaurant food to be expensive there, however.I bought several inexpensive scarves in Sorrento.Everywhere we went the women in Europe were wrapped in beautiful scarves, even in warm weather.In Venice we got two blown glass wine toppers for 7E each .

 

Now some random thots: I mentioned our ton of luggage before. SERIOUSLY consider taking less stuff. Someone on our roll call managed to bring all of her clothes in one suitcase by using those bags where you roll the air out and rolling the light weight things. She always looked nice and her clothes were clean, what more could you ask?? Plan to use the ship's laundry service. I send my husband's dress shirts out at home and the price wasn't much more on the ship. I was tempted to throw away half of what I had in my suitcase and ALL of what I had jammed in a new HUGE purse I bought for the trip, including the purse! I never used the puzzle books, hand lotion, journal, tablet, Chapstick, extra socks, calculator, etc, etc that I was forced to lug thru the airports and then find room for on the plane. I watched movies or slept. My carry on suitcase weighed a ton and the handles on those things are never quite long enough to pull w/o leaning back or otherwise tweaking your back. We crammed everything we brought including our carryons and my big purse into our big suitcase on the way home, over weight charges be damned! The nice lady in Venice let us go w/o paying any extra.We vowed never to over pack again. And while I'm on the subject of suitcases, put a copy of your itinerary in each suitcase right on top in case your luggage goes on vacation w/o you. Include your cell number if you have international service. Put a couple luggage tags on each piece of luggage and then bring a couple extra. I don't know how in the world they managed, but the ship's luggage handlers broke several of our luggage tags between BCN and Venice. Mark every piece of your luggage distinctively, they all look alike when you are searching for yours in a sea of thousands of suitcases! I attached bright blue net scrubby pouffs to each handle. $1.00 for 5 at the Dollar Store.

 

Safety: Buy and USE those under the clothes money safes or whatever they are called. They cost about $7.00.We carried our passports and all of our valuables in one for each of us. Then we put them in the safe when we were in a hotel or on the ship. We each carried copies of our passports. Like they say, never carry more than you are able to lose. My husband carried some money in his front pocket and would put his hands in his pockets when we were in a crowd . He carried a small backpack but it only contained guide books and maps. I carried a small messenger type bag that slung across my chest. This type of bag is very slim and fits nicely under your arm but still manages to carry a lot of stuff. Before we left I ordered slash proof camera straps for each of our digital cameras on line from Wolfe's cameras. They were about $14.00 each . We wanted to have our cameras out where we could reach them and take pictures w/o having to fumble around. We wore our cameras around our necks and tucked them under our jackets as we walked along or tried to keep one hand on it in a crowd. We never had any problems with being pickpocketed or robbed but we were always aware of what was going on around us. Yes, there were pick pockets around but nothing like we were led to believe from other on line reports. Just be smart.

 

I have been thinking about posting this review before we even left on our cruise! I think this covers everything. I hope you all find what I have written informative and helpful. I will try to answer any questions you may have.

 

Until the next cruise, Monterey Girl :) :)

[aussiecruzer]

Wow, what a fantastic review!! Glad you had a wonderful trip and it certainly sounds as if all your planning paid off. Having just returned from our first cruise ( Voyager Med ) which was also our first trip to Europe I completely agree with you. Good preparation is so valuable. I spent about 6 months researching and preparing for our trip and I must say that I enjoyed the lead up and preparation as much as I did the wonderful vacation. I also agree with your comments about travelling light. We ( family of 4) travelled with just one carry on bag each which we took onto the plane and 1 suitcase for all 4 of us which we checked in. This made moving around much easier and I found that you really don't need much at all. You have some great advice in your review. Thank you!!:)

[Coolcruise02]

Thanks for a great review and all the helpful info! I am also doing a lot of research and planning for our upcoming MED cruise. Glad I'm not the only one. :)

[Angel]

Thankyou for such a great review, I am in the planning stage like you did getting ready for our first cruise to the med. You have just given me alot of info that I will use. I am going to print it out to have while I am planning our trip.Can I email you for more info if I need to?

Thanks again monterey girl

Bev

[texancruzer]

Leaving in 13 days !!!! Thanks for all the info.

 

I just finished stenciling on the front of our black luggage in 4 inch high letters, our initials in gold paint pen.

 

It turned out really good and no one will mistake our bag for theirs !!!!! Also have lime green plastic name tags and itinerary printed up for each bag.

 

I usually research stuff to death also before any of our travels..... but did something totally out of the ordinary - we booked this cruise just one month ago..... so have a mix of ships excursions and private tours (with some of our roll call members). We usually like to rent a car and go it alone..... but not this trip. Still - have a large 3 ring binder with all our "plans" and keeps me sane as dh doesnt get involved.....just likes to have all the details figured out for him :)

[calberry]

You go girl! Good job!

 

It sure was fun running into you at the Continental. THAT is a story I will be able to tell forever.

 

We just booked a Panama Canal cruise on Millie's sister, Inifinity. We liked the itinerary because it will actually have some sea days so we can relax and enjoy the ship...which we couldn't really do on our Millie cruise.

 

Welcome back!

 

Steve

[aussiecruzer]

May I ask which on-line travel agent you used , and do you think we in Australia would be able to use on-line travel agents, most of which seem to be US based?? Some on-line deals seem quite good.

[Host Karen]

May I ask which on-line travel agent you used , and do you think we in Australia would be able to use on-line travel agents, most of which seem to be US based?? Some on-line deals seem quite good.

 

You may ask, but the poster may not answer. It's against the Comunity Guidelines to discuss anything but types of travel agencies (i.e., online vs. brick and mortar agenices). No specific travel agency or travel agent names may be posted or discussed.

 

Karen

HostKaren@CruiseCritic.com

[Monterey Girl]

CALBERRY: I too tell the story of our chance meeting at the hotel in BCN!! I think I told you then that several people from my roll call were following your blog before we left for our cruise. Small world, getting smaller. BTW, I grew up in Concord. :D

Hope you enjoy your Panama Canal cruise. We did that a couple years ago. Believe it or not, we are cruised out, at least for now. I would love to go back to Italy and spend a few days in Venice, Florence and Rome on a land trip. Hopefully our next big cruise will on a small river boat in Egypt. Does that sound cool or what!!??

 

To those who want to ask questions: ask here or post your email, and I will get back to you.

 

On line TA ?: Just ask your friends. I bet they can recommend someone.

MG :)

[auntdot]

Thanks for posting your great review. It was a fabulous review of your planning process which I really appreciate. Like texancruzer, my DH needs everything planned out for him and it is very daunting to be planning for these Mediterranean ports! This is our first time to Europe and we are doing a couple of days pre and a couple post cruise that I need to figure out.

 

If we wanted to stay near St. Mark's Sq and do NOT have points for any of the hotels that offer shuttles and transfers, would we have to get to the V station and then schlepp our bags a few blocks from the V station to the hotel? I have back problems and my husband is 'elderly' and I'm not able to picture this?? Same deal in reverse to get to the airport? Any ideas?

:confused:

 

Thanks,

Dot

[Monterey Girl]

Hi Dot,

Some CC friends stayed at the PANORAMA HOTEL on Lido Island which I think you can actually see from St Mark's Square. At any rate it is not a very long vaporetta ride back and forth. Once you get there, it is not very far to the hotel. I KNOW you can see the hotel from the vaporetta stop and not a bridge in sight. They actually have cars on this island. We liked it so much we decided if we ever go back, we are staying there. Our friends stayed there for three nights for the cost of one night at the Westin :eek: That also included a candle lit dinner, a huge boquet of fresh flowers, champagne and I think some kind of daily breakfast. I am sure they have a web site. Check it out if you are still near your computer!! MG :)

[aussiecruzer]

Thanks Karen and Monterey Girl for your comments. I was not aware.

[calberry]

BTW, I grew up in Concord. :D

Before becoming 'empty nesters' and moving to Brisbane to minimize commutes (I work in SF) we lived 12 years in Clayton! Now the world is indeed getting even smaller!:)

 

Hopefully our next big cruise will on a small river boat in Egypt. Does that sound cool or what!!??

 

Big cruise on a small river boat...sounds much more fun than a small cruise on a big river! Once we get 'the canal' scratched off our big 'to do' list, we want to do a river cruise, but in Europe. I have started accumulating information...from Cruise Critic of course!

 

We have some Marriotts reward points (Timeshare) that we need to start using, so after retirement (this summer???) we are going to start looking into where in Europe to go back and see. People on our cruise did a 'pre-stay' in Lake Como, and we just loved Venice, so I have to figure out some land trip that will tie going there as well.

 

I'm not quite into being burned out on cruising, but I am getting burned out on PLANNING. That's whats nice about our family Mexico cruise here in a couple of weeks...NO PLANNING. I may not even get off the ship. I'll just babysit the grand-kids all week.

 

Steve

[mad4mky]

Wow, what a fantastic review!! Glad you had a wonderful trip and it certainly sounds as if all your planning paid off. Having just returned from our first cruise ( Voyager Med ) which was also our first trip to Europe I completely agree with you. Good preparation is so valuable. I spent about 6 months researching and preparing for our trip and I must say that I enjoyed the lead up and preparation as much as I did the wonderful vacation. I also agree with your comments about travelling light. We ( family of 4) travelled with just one carry on bag each which we took onto the plane and 1 suitcase for all 4 of us which we checked in. This made moving around much easier and I found that you really don't need much at all. You have some great advice in your review. Thank you!!:)

 

Hi Susmita! :D

(we were on the same cruise last month!).

 

Thanks for your review Monterey Girl! You give some good insight on how to prepare for the cruises.

I did the same as you, and had a plastic folder...labled day by day, with each day's information. Whether it be airline info, or tour info...I had it ready for each day. :)

(and I live just north of you in Redwood City. We go to Monterey often. :) )

 

Peggy