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**Cheryl** others who have done a Mediterranean Cruise
Jim and I are thinking of doing one in May/June for our anniversary. Just curious, if you've done one, what cruise line it was and what your favorite ports were and why?
We cruised to Europe once, on Princess, and it wasn't our favorite. The crowd was much older and we aren't sure if it was the cruise line, the itinerary, what? Trying to find something a little younger if we cruise Europe again.
We are looking at maybe NCL Epic from either Barcelona or Rome. We've been to Rome before so I'm leaning towards Barcelona. I know most of the ports aren't really like "Florence" but instead the nearest actual port city. Was it easy to get to the city to do stuff? Were you really able to actually see and do anything? Did you feel like you had to do an excursion (even just a transfer to the city) at every port? Or, was there stuff to do in the port towns?
Thanks for letting me pick your collective brains!
Re: **Cheryl** others who have done a Mediterranean Cruise
For our honeymoon we did the 12 night Mediterranean Venice Cruise on Royal Caribbean. We loved it! We were on the Brilliance of the Seas, but I think that route is done on the Serenade of the Seas now (our first cruise was on that ship - they both the same family though, so the ships are pretty much identical.)
Our ports of call were:
Barcelona, Spain
Cannes, France
Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy
Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
Naples, Italy (we did the Amalfi Coast and Pompeii)
Venice, Italy
Split, Croatia
Valletta, Malta
then back to Barcelona
We found it pretty easy to get from the port to the city we were in, but we did a lot of research before we left. We did an excursion through RC in Livorno, but we did the rest on our own. We got great reccomendations and very helpful advice from Cruisecritic.com. They have boards for the different ports of call and for your specific cruise. We were able to make plans with some of the people on our cruise for our day in Naples that ended up saving us a lot of money.
I could go on and on and on about how much we loved this trip. Just let me know what kind of info you want and I'd be happy to share.
My Blog
I missed some of your questions in my first reply, so here goes (sorry if this gets really long!).
what your favorite ports were and why? Our favorite ports were Florence, Rome, and Naples. We did a tour through RC in Livorno taking us to Pisa and to Florence. There is really nothing to do in Pisa other than look a the leaning tower. We loved Florence so much more. We wish we had more time to explore there (we only had about 3.5 hours).
Rome was exciting, but exhasuting. We did everything on our own. We only had about 12 hours in port, but it's an hour and a half train ride into Rome (and back to port from Rome). So we really only had about 8.5 hours to see everything. We were literally the first people off the ship that morning so we could catch the first train into Rome. It was a short walk from the port to the train station. We did a Vatican Tour (arranged prior to our trip), then ran around the city trying to see the highlights. We definitely want to go back so we can see more and not be so rushed.
For Naples we hired a private tour with another family from our ship. Our driver was awesome and he took us down the Amalfi Coast. We stopped in the towns along the way and he took us to this little restaurant off the main road for lunch. We then went to Pompeii where we got another private tour of the city. After the tour our driver took us back to the port.
Was it easy to get to the city to do stuff? Yes, every port was easy to get to the city. We researched what we were going to have to do in each port so that we were prepared (were we going to have to walk, take a taxi, take a train, etc).
Were you really able to actually see and do anything? Some cities yes, others not much. Rome and Florence were frantic (but we still loved it!). We had 24 hours in Venice so we saw pretty much everything we wanted to. We just wandered in Cannes, Split, and Valletta.
Did you feel like you had to do an excursion (even just a transfer to the city) at every port? Or, was there stuff to do in the port towns? We only did one excursion through the ship and we only made plans in 2 other cities (Rome, Naples). We just went to the beach in Cannes. Most of the stuff in Malta and Split was pretty close to port. We chose not to do an excursion in those places, but others we talked to did and they had a great time.
My Blog
Beth - this is awesome, thank you for taking the time to write it out.
We've been to Rome, Florence and the Amalfi Coast already - which is good - because I already know there is way way too much to see in just a few hours spent in port, kwim? Like, I've been to Pompeii, etc. We'd probably go to a few towns on the coast we never made it to (Positano comes to mind).
I think going to Venice, Split, etc would be very cool. I should look into a cruise on that side, too
Megan- I plan on answering your post... it may take me a day or two to get to it though...
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