Star Princess - Mediterranean
Written: Jun 09 '04
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Pros: great itinerary, anytime dining, self service laundromats
Cons: spotty anytime dining service, felt crowded sometimes, ship design could have been better
The Bottom Line: For this port intensive cruise, this cruise ship felt like a moving hotel/restaurant rather than a cruise vacation. But, our expectations were completely satisfied, especially with the "Anytime Dining".
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| skono's Full Review: Star Princess |
Intro
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Cruise Description: 12 Day Mediterranean cruise leaving from Venice, Italy and ending in Barcelona, Spain.
Cruise Itinerary:
Day 1 (12:00 pm - 10:00 pm) - Venice, Italy
Day 2 (??:?? am - ??:?? pm) - At Sea
Day 3 (08:00 am - 06:00 pm) - Corfu, Greece
Day 4 (07:00 am - 05:00 pm) - Katakolon (Olympia), Greece
Day 5 (06:00 am - 11:59 pm) - Piraeus (Athens), Greece
Day 6 (08:00 am - 11:59 pm) - Mykonos, Greece
Day 7 (07:00 am - 05:00 pm) - Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey
Day 8 (07:00 am - 04:00 pm) - Santorini, Greece
Day 9 (??:?? am - ??:?? pm) - At Sea
Day 10 (08:00 am - 07:00 pm) - Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy
Day 11 (08:00 am - 06:00 pm) - Cannes, France
Day 12 (08:00 am - ??:?? pm) - Barcelona, Spain
Day 13 (??:?? am - ??:?? pm) - Barcelona, Spain
This was the third cruise I have ever been on. The other two were through Royal Caribbean. I'm going to split this review into three categories. One reviewing the ship, ship activities, ship service, etc., the second comparing Princess with Royal Caribbean, and the third reviewing the ports and excursions.
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1) Star Princess:
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Embarkation
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The Star Princess was docked at the Marittima Pier, which was a 5-10 minute taxi ride (10 Euro) from Piazzale Roma. For those interested, the Santa Lucia Train Station was located near our hotel, so it would be about a 20 minute walk to Piazzale Roma with luggage over 3 step filled bridges, or a very short vaporetto (water bus) ride to Piazzale Roma.
Princess representatives were waiting right where the taxis dropped people off to take the luggage you were going to check in. Make sure your luggage tags that Princess sent you with your cruise documents are attached and fully filled out. After our luggage was taken, we were directed to another building to check in for the cruise. We proceeded upstairs and into the sizable line. There were three different lines: one really short line for Platinum members, one line for regular check-in, and one line for express check-in.
By filling out your immigration information early, you could be in the express check-in line instead of the regular one. The express line had about 10 counters helping people, while the regular line had about 4 counters. Check in was supposed to start at 12:00 pm, and we got there sometime between 12:30-1:00 pm. It took us about 30 minutes to get through the line and about 5 minutes at the counter. After walking a little ways, there was a security checkpoint where a Princess representative was collecting all passenger passports. She told us that we would not need them, and would be given them back if certain ports required them or else on the last day of the cruise. She just tossed ours into this big box of passports and we just hoped that they wouldn't get stolen or anything. On a side note, we got the passports back for the Cannes port because I believe if you want to get into the Monte Carlo Casino you need them.
A Princess photographer then took a photo of us with the ship in the background. There was a line to take a bus the short distance to the ship, but even though it was raining we walked it, and easily beat the bus. We boarded the ship, checked out our stateroom, explored a little, and hit the buffet. Our bags arrived at our door only about a few hours later, which we were very happy with.
Room
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We had an interior stateroom on Deck 10 (Caribe deck) around the middle of the ship. When logging on to the Princess website prior to the cruise, I noticed it said that the beds were in a twin bed configuration. So, I called Princess and asked if they could set the beds up as a queen configuration and that was how they were set up when we arrived. The room also included a small table with drawers on each side of the bed, a desk/vanity area with a hair dryer attached to the wall, a TV mounted in the top corner of the room so you could watch from bed, one light on each side of the bed, switches for all the room lights near the bed (except the bathroom light), and a telephone on the desk.
The TV channels included ESPN (Sportscenter was in Spanish sometimes and in English others, and we were also able to watch some NBA playoff games), CNN, BBC World, Discovery, a few channels playing movies (ex. Haunted Mansion, Bruce Almighty), a channel showing a live view of the front of the ship, a channel showing ship stats like where we were, how fast we were moving, etc, a few channels playing music with slide shows of on-board events, and a few channels for ship information (one would be playing the show talking about the next ports of call).
The one complaint that we have with every interior stateroom that we've stayed in is the lack of a digital clock. With the interior stateroom (no windows), noon and midnight look exactly the same when the lights are off: pitch black. It would be nice to know what time it is without turning on a light to find and look at my watch. Anyways, the telephone served as our alarm clock. Setting a wake up call was very easy through the telephone. The only problem was that the phone was not next to the bed and it would stop ringing after about 6 rings and then start ringing again a few minutes later. The phone also had a quick dial button to the weather center so we could know what the forecast for the day was. The only problem with this was it would only give you information on the current day and not the forecast for the next day as well.
The little hallway area in between the bedroom and the bathroom was where the closet was. There were about 10 shirt hangers and 10 hangers with clips for pants and skirts. Underneath the hangar area was enough room for our two big suitcases. There was also a small cupboard closet where we put our shoes and some other small things. There was also a safe in here for you to store your valuables (it let you set any code you wanted).
The bathroom had a small stand up shower (w/ movable shower head and a pullout clothes line), small toilet, a small sink, and a small tiered area near the sink for toothbrushes, brushes, etc. Soap bars and shampoo packets were supplied.
Overall, we were very satisfied with the room. Having cruised before, this was pretty much how we expected it to be.
Food
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The ship contained three dining rooms: Portofino (one of the "Anytime Dining" dining rooms; open from 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm for dinner), Capri (the other "Anytime Dining" dining rooms; open from 5:30 pm - 9:30 pm for dinner), and the Amalfi (with one early and one late seating). We opted for the "Anytime Dining", so we never went to the Amalfi. However, I heard the wait staff did stuff that did not happen in any of the other two dining rooms, like sang a song to entertain the guests.
"Anytime Dining" is supposed to provide the same service and food as traditional set time dining, with allowing you a great amount of flexibility. You could have dinner anytime during the time frames listed above. You could request a table for two or request to sit with other people at a table that seats 4-10. You could request a table near the window or for a table with a certain waiter. You could also reserve a particular table at a particular time for just the next night or for the rest of the cruise. We loved the flexibility of when we could eat dinner, enjoyed eating by ourselves when we wanted a private dinner, and enjoyed meeting a variety of different people (instead of being stuck with the same people every night). The only downside to this type of dining was that depending on who you got, the service ranged from great to not so good. Also, you might have to wait for a table if you come during certain rush periods and have a specific request (like a table for two). Nonetheless, this option was perfect for this cruise because we never knew when we would get back from exploring the ports. I wouldn't want to rush back from port to make the early seating, or wait around on the ship for our dining time if we got back early.
Anyways, time to talk about the actual dining room food. We ate here for breakfast one morning, and the quality was definitely better than the buffet. We never ate here for lunch because on the two at-sea days, the menu did not sound that great. For this cruise there were two formal nights and the rest were smart casual nights. A basket of different types of breads (some breads changed each night) and breadsticks was provided each night while looking over the menu. Each dinner menu consisted of a choice of around four appetizers (almost always a warm and cold soup were two options), one salad (three choices of dressings), five entrees, and five desserts. On the left side of the menu was where the vegetarian options were and also a selection of options that were available everyday. Some of the dinner entrees included lobster tails, prime rib, filet mignon, pasta dishes, etc. We would typically order two appetizers, two entrees, and two desserts each, so we pretty much had the whole Princess menu. Some days the food was excellent and some days the food was just ok.
The Horizon Court was the place to get your buffet style meals. Breakfast consisted of pre-made omelets (different every day), bacon, sausage, pancakes, pastries (different every day), fruit, cereal, oatmeal, potatoes (different style every day), and a guy frying up over-easy eggs. We came here every port day for breakfast to get a quick bite before heading out into port. We came here a few times for lunch, and they did have some ok tasting sushi one of those days. We never ate dinner here, but we did walk through once to see what they had. It was pretty empty, and they did have one or two dishes that were the same as what was on the dining room menu that night.
There were also two restaurants (Sabatini's and Tequila's) where you needed to pay a cover charge. Sabatini's was an Italian restaurant while Tequila's was a steak house. As this was our first Princess cruise, we wanted to try out all the dining room food, so we did not get a chance to try these.
Finally, there were a few places to grab a bite to eat near the Neptune pool, including Prego Pizza, Trident Grill, and Scoops. The pizza at Prego Pizza was pretty good and made in the Italian style (thin crust). We just had fries at the Trident Grill, but they were pretty good. Scoops was a Haagen Dazs ice-cream bar, that we would have tried, except you had to pay for it.
Service
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Princess automatically charges $10 per person per day to cover tips for your stateroom attendant and wait staff. Of course, you can give more to the certain people you feel are more deserving. I believe Princess automatically charges the tips to their passengers because with the concept of "Anytime Dining", you probably will not be getting the same waiter every meal (unless you request this). It would be hard for the passenger to keep track of who had waited upon them and how much to tip each of them individually.
We dined with the "Anytime Dining" option, and we felt the service in the dining rooms greatly varied. Some nights it would be poor, some nights average, and some nights good. Some nights the food would come out fast and other nights slow. Some waiters really knew the menu and some did not. The style of some of the waiters were completely different as well. For example, I would sometimes order two entrees and depending on the waiter, he or she would ask me if I wanted them both at the same time or one at a time, deliver them one at a time, or deliver them at the same time. Personally, I would want them both at the same time, but I felt it was much nicer when they asked. But, one time the waiter delivered one of my entrees and did not deliver entrees to anybody else at my table. It felt like he was waiting for me to finish my entree (while nobody else was eating), so then he could then deliver my second entree with everybody else's entree. After about 10 minutes, we finally flagged him down and asked him to bring out the other entrees. On the good side, we eventually found a waiter we really liked and sat in his area for the rest of the cruise.
Our stateroom attendant was very speedy and efficient. Princess has a service where you can page your stateroom attendant, but we never needed to use this. Many mornings, we would go out to grab breakfast, come back in about 20-30 minutes, and our room would already be cleaned up. Our attendant also seemed happy to see us and would always ask us how our day was.
Entertainment
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There were two different shows each night at two different times each. For example, the Princess Theater would have a production show while the Vista Lounge might have a comedian. We went to five shows while on the cruise, including a short production show (Princess singers/dancers) on the first night and four headliner shows (singer, 2 comedians, magician). The production show was entertaining, but nothing special. The singer had a good voice, but was not singing my kind of music. One comedian and the magician kept us well entertained, while we walked out on the other comedian. Unfortunately, with all the walking we had done in the ports and after eating a big dinner, we did not go to anymore shows.
There were many other types of entertainment throughout the week. They had the wooden horse racing, art auctions, a cooking demonstration, an ice carving demonstration, etc. There would always be dancing every night in the Wheelhouse Bar and the Skywalkers Nightclub. Bingo didn't seem as big a thing on this cruise as my past cruises (I wasn't sure if it was the European crowd, Princess itself, or that people were just too tired from ports), but it was there.
Ship Activities
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The casino had a variety of slots, video poker, blackjack tables, a Let it Ride table, two roulette tables, and a craps table. The casino was a little bigger than expected and never felt overly crowded. It looked like they only accepted US Dollars and no other currencies (including the Euro).
There was a video arcade right near the entrance to the casino. There were about 6 arcade machines and one air hockey table.
There were three pools including one in the solarium, one main outdoor pool, and one swim against the current pool. The solarium was kept a pretty warm temperature and the pool itself was pretty warm as well. The outdoor pool was pretty nice as well, with the water temperature being cooler than the pool in the solarium. Both of these pools had two jacuzzis adjacent to them, and got very crowded on at sea days. We unfortunately did not try out the swim against the current pool. It looked very small, and if you were swimming against the current it could probably only hold one person at a time. On a side note, towels for the pools are provided in your stateroom, so you must bring these with you to the pools.
The workout room had a wide variety of machines, but we didn't workout at all so I cannot give much detail about it. We also toured the spa area, but did not purchase any treatments. A few of the things I remember seeing are the sauna, multi-spray showers, and these warm stone seats.
There were also many indoor activities other then the ones described above. There was a game room with a few tables to play chess, checkers, Taboo, cards, or work on a puzzle. Other places to do things included the library, Internet access room (35 cents a minute), area for kids, art gallery, golf simulator, and a theater (for shows and movies). Some of the movies they showed included Master & Commander and Mona Lisa's Smile. There was also a small shopping area selling perfume, alcohol, and souvenirs. The T-shirts normally sold for $12 each, but they had a day or two during the cruise where you could buy 3 T-shirts for $30 instead of $36. Finally, there was also a photo shop where you could buy photos that Princess took of you (including at the Parthenon in Athens and other places) and you could also have them burn a CD of your digital pictures for you so you could clear off space off your digital camera to take more pictures (the price varied on how many megabytes).
There were many outdoor activities on the ship as well. There was a paddle tennis court (which I think could have been switched into a small basketball court), a jogging track, a huge outdoor chess set, and two shuffleboards. There were about 4 ping-pong tables set up upstairs in the Solarium (which was very nice because they were sheltered from the wind). There was also a sheltered 9 hole miniature golf course (clubs and balls were readily available).
Disembarkation
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We were told that our bags had to be packed and outside our cabin door by 7:00 pm the final night. We got back to the ship after touring Barcelona at about 6:30 pm. We showered and started packing and ended up finishing at around 8:30 pm. There were plenty of bags still outside of cabins, and even some of the people we were having dinner with had not completed packing yet. I don't know why they told us packing had to be done by 7:00 pm, when midnight would have been more reasonable.
We bought ship transfers to the Barcelona Airport for $28 a person earlier in the trip, and were notified that we were in Green Group 1 (7:15-7:30 am disembarkation time). The main reason we bought the transfers was that we were a little worried about getting to the airport early as our plane was scheduled for 10:20 am. It turns out that people were disembarking as early as 5:00 am.
On the day of disembarkation, we packed the rest of our things, grabbed breakfast at the Horizon Court, and just as we finished breakfast at around 7:00 am, our group was called over the loudspeaker. So, we headed down and off the ship, found our luggage, and a Princess representative directed us to the correct bus to board. The bus ride to the airport took about 20-30 minutes and dropped us off at our terminal. We grabbed our luggage and proceeded to stand in our check-in line. On a side note, we flew on Iberia and there were lines for International Destinations and American Destinations. We waited in the American Destinations for a while until I found that even though our final destination was America, we had a stop in Frankfurt, Germany so we were in the wrong line.
Ship Overall
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The Star Princess is a pretty nice ship overall. Some of the things that stood out in my mind were that having self service laundromats was really convenient to have especially for a cruise this long. Having these saved a lot of space in my luggage for all those souvenirs. On a side note, I heard that you should try to avoid doing your laundry on "At Sea" days. We did our laundry two days before the second "At Sea" day and we had to go to three different laundry rooms to find an open washer. Also, the theater was full on certain nights because with the "Anytime Dining" you never know when people are going to be eating dinner and when they are going to go to the show. Overall, I really liked the ship and would definitely sail on her again if I were to sail Princess again.
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2) Princess vs. Royal Caribbean
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Ship
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Star Princess: Above Average
Positives - self service laundromats; nice placement of activities (ex. ping-pong tables sheltered from wind)
Negatives - small atrium; navigating around the ship was confusing at times
Radiance of the Seas: Excellent
Positives - eco-friendly; lots of windows; huge atrium; nice overall ship layout
Negatives - bad placement of activities (ex. ping-pong tables outside)
Overall: Radiance of the Seas
Room
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Princess: Above Average
Positives - felt bigger; nice room layout; could get weather info through telephone
Negatives - could not check account through TV
Royal Caribbean: Above Average
Positives - had a couch; could check account and book shore excursions through TV
Negatives - had to rearrange room setup to create more space
Overall: Tie
Food
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Dining Room Food:
Princess: Above Average
Positives - sometimes excellent
Negatives - sometimes ok (ex. overcooked meat)
Royal Caribbean: Above Average
Positives - consistently good
Negatives - practically the same menu on two different ships/cruises
Edge: Royal Caribbean
Buffet Food (mainly breakfasts):
Princess: Average
Positives - good fruit selection; good pastry selection
Negatives - no made to order omelets
Royal Caribbean: Above Average
Positives - made to order omelets, good biscuits & gravy
Negatives - not much variety
Edge: Royal Caribbean
Midnight Buffet:
Princess: N/A
Royal Caribbean: Excellent
Positives - chocolate covered strawberries; fun to see ice/food sculptures
Negatives - sometimes they run out of certain items
Edge: Royal Caribbean
Overall: Royal Caribbean
Service
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Stateroom attendant:
Princess: Above Average
Positives - fast; friendly; can page if needed
Negatives - no towel animals
Royal Caribbean: Above Average
Positives - friendly; towel animals
Negatives - could be faster
Edge: Princess
Dining Room:
Princess Dining: N/A
Princess Anytime Dining: Average
Positives - sometimes the service was excellent
Negatives - sometimes slow; sometimes it felt like they did not want to be there
Royal Caribbean: Above Average
Positives - waiter gets to know you; consistently excellent service
Negatives - have to go at set times
Edge: Royal Caribbean (although if not Anytime Dining, Princess might just as good or better)
Overall: Princess (based on stateroom attendant only, because not sure about other Princess dining option)
Entertainment
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Production Shows:
Princess: Average (we only saw a short show on the first night)
Positives - entertaining;
Negatives - just not my style of entertainment, small stage
Royal Caribbean: Above Average
Positives - entertaining; big theater and stage
Negatives - just not my style of entertainment
Edge: Royal Caribbean
Headliner Shows:
Princess: Above Average
Positives - Good variety (singer, comedian, magician)
Negatives - none
Royal Caribbean: Above Average
Positives - Good variety (singer, music group, comedian)
Negatives - none
Edge: Princess
Overall: Tie
Activities
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Princess: Above Average
Positives - bigger casino; sheltered ping-pong tables; sheltered miniature golf; paddle tennis; cheaper Internet access
Negatives - Princess Theater was small so popular show times would be full if you did not get there early
Royal Caribbean: Above Average
Positives - basketball; bigger main theater; rock climbing wall
Negatives - bad placement of activities
Overall: Princess
Overall
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Princess: better service; better activities
Royal Caribbean: better ship; better food
For a port intensive cruise like this one, I believe Princess was better suited because of the "Anytime Dining" option. I will still sail on both Princess and Royal Caribbean. Which one I choose for the next one will probably be based on the itinerary.
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3) Ports:
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This cruise was taken in May 2004, so prices and weather conditions may vary. :)
Venice, Italy - docked in port
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We booked a hotel in Venice for two nights so we could enjoy the city before the start of our cruise. The day before our departure to Venice, I went online to check the weather in Venice and the forecast called for rain/showers the entire time we were there. My wife and I were so ready for this vacation that a little rain could not spoil it for us.
Day 1 - We arrived in Venice pretty much on time (around 2:30 pm) and proceeded to collect our luggage and head to our hotel. I only found one ATM inside the airport and it was not STAR or PLUS system compatible so I did not use this as planned. The exchange rate was 1 Euro = $1.18 when I checked online before we left, and the currency exchange place in the airport was quoting around 1 Euro = $1.33. I thought I could get a better deal at a bank in town, so I only exchanged $40 to cover transportation, tips, and some food.
Now, from the information I gathered online, there were three different ways to get to our hotel from the airport. The easiest, but most expensive way would be to take a water taxi directly to the hotel (heard it would cost 90 - 100 Euro). Another way would be to catch a normal taxi to Piazzale Roma (heard it was about 15 Euro), and then from Piazzale Roma catch a vaporetto (water bus) to a stop close to our hotel (heard it would be about 3 Euro each). The last way, which was the way we did it, was to take an ATVO bus (3 Euro each) to Piazzale Roma and then walk about 20 minutes to our hotel. Our hotel was located near the Scalzi Bridge, which crosses the Grand Canal. We crossed three bridges, including the Scalzi, to get to our hotel, and each bridge consisted of many steps which made the trip more difficult than expected.
We finally arrived at our hotel, checked in, and relaxed a little in our room. Our only plans for the rest of the day were to book the Secret Itineraries Tour for the Doge's Palace for the next day, find a nice restaurant to eat at, and recover from the jet lag. We went downstairs to the concierge desk to ask if they could book the Secret Itineraries Tour for us. He called and got us booked on the 12:25 pm English speaking tour.
By then, it was around 4:00 pm and we weren't hungry yet, so we thought about taking a nap. But, since the weather was partly cloudy instead of raining, we decided to take advantage of it because we might not be so lucky the next day. So, we wandered along some big street full of shops selling T-shirts, Murano glass, gelato, etc. We eventually ended up at the Rialto Bridge, took our pictures there and window shopped (knowing we would probably come back here later to buy our souvenirs). We continued past the Rialto bridge and ended up getting a little lost and very hungry. We decided to head back to the Rialto area to look for a place to eat. We found a trattoria along the Grand Canal near the Rialto Bridge and were unimpressed with the overpriced pizza and spaghetti bolognase we had there. After dinner, we made our way back to our hotel and slept.
Day 2 - We woke up and grabbed some delicious pastries at a local bakery for breakfast. We then started walking toward St. Mark's Square and looked for a bank to exchange some money on the way. We ended up at a San Marco Bank, which had an 1 Euro = $1.21 exchange rate, and exchanged our money there.
It rained here and there all day, but overall was a nice day. We arrived in St. Mark's Square and took some nice pictures of the square, St. Mark's Basilica, the Campanile, and the Doge's Palace. We walked around the entire square looking at the shops and cafes, and ended up at the Doge's Palace at around 10:30 am. The ticket line took about 20 minutes and we bought our Secret Itineraries Tour tickets (12.50 Euro each - cash only). The ticket also allowed us to tour the rest of the palace on our own, so we decided to do this before our Secret Tour started. There were audio guides on sale, but we decided to just walk through on our own. There were informative signs in pretty much every room, so I don't know how much more information the audio guides gave. Backpacks were not allowed inside (there was a convenient bag check area) and pictures (even without the flash) are not allowed inside the palace. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to walk around the palace, including rushing through the prisons to get a glimpse of the Bridge of Sighs before meeting for our Secret Tour.
The Secret Itineraries Tour was well worth it. You must book it at least one day in advance because it gets filled so quickly and only a limited number of the tours are in English. Our tour group consisted of about 20-30 people and it lasted about 1 hour and 15 minutes. The tour took us through areas not available when touring the palace on your own, including some of the Doge's offices, an interrogation room, a prison (including the one where Casanova stayed and escaped from), and the attic (where you can see how some of the ceiling paintings are attached). Our tour guide explained each of these areas and told many interesting stories including the one about Casanova's escape.
After the Doge's Palace, we proceeded to stand in line to enter St. Mark's Basilica. The line stretched about half way into the square, but moved fairly quickly. We got a chicken salad and a ham and egg tramezzini (overfilled sandwiches with lots of mayonnaise) to eat while we were in line. Backpacks were not allowed in the basilica and you had to go down a side street to get to an area to hold your bag. Pictures were also not allowed inside. Once inside, there is pretty much a single path through the basilica to admire it. Entrance into the basilica is free, but there are certain areas (Treasury and the Pala d'Oro) which require a small fee to see.
After seeing St. Mark's Basilica, we got some gelato from a cafe in the square and sat down for a bit to relax, people watch, and pigeon watch. We then went to the Rialto Bridge area to take care of our souvenir shopping. Finally, we found a nice restaurant to have dinner in on the way back to our hotel. We tried the "Menu Turistic" there which provides the tourist with an authentic Italian meal, consisting of a first course, second course, and dessert. The first course had a choice of spaghetti or ravioli, the second course was basically your meat dish (we had chicken and a pork cutlet), and for dessert there was fruit or ice cream.
Day 3 - Today was pouring rain. We went to the same bakery we went to the other day to get some more pastries for breakfast, hoping the rain would die down a bit after we were done eating. It didn't. We checked out and asked the front desk what the best way to get to the pier was. Water taxi was the best way, because the rain caused the canals to flood, and the vaporettos were not operating because of this. We decided instead to walk through the pouring rain with all our luggage to Piazzale Roma and hopefully catch a bus to the pier from there. The walk actually wasn't too bad with ponchos and umbrellas, and I ended up wandering around the square to ask about buses to the pier. I asked two bus ticket booths about rides to the pier, and they both said they didn't have service to the pier. We ended up taking a taxi to the pier (10 Euro), which took about 5-10 minutes. We got to the pier, checked in, and were on board ready for the cruise to start. :)
In our room, were two tickets for a trip to St. Mark's Square saying that $10 had been charged to our room per ticket already for our convenience. If you did not want to use these, you needed to drop the tickets off at the Purser's Desk to get a refund. If it was not pouring rain, we might have used these, but we returned them to get our money back. Talking with other people throughout the cruise, we were glad we had already done our sightseeing because many of the ship excursions into Venice got canceled and we heard St. Mark's Square got flooded because of the rain.
Once our ship began it's journey to Corfu at 10:00 pm, the captain announced that everybody should come out to watch our sail away from Venice. He pointed out some landmarks over the loudspeaker, including St. Mark's Square (which we passed right by).
Corfu, Greece - docked in port
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We did not book a Princess shore excursion at this port. Our plan was to catch a bus to see the Achilleion Palace, come back to Corfu Town and see some sites (Church of St. Spyridon, Esplanade, Old and New Forts), find a nice place to have lunch, and shop.
Unfortunately, it rained most of the day, so we tried to see and do as much as we could. We got off the ship around 8:30-9:00 am, and proceeded to exit the pier area. We exited the pier area, turned left, and continued along the coast. After passing the New Fort and taking some pictures we took a right to go more into Corfu Town. After a little while, we luckily ended up at a local bus terminal and asked about how to get to the Achilleion Palace. The number 10 bus (blue local bus) left about every 2-3 hours for the palace (7:00, 10:00, 12:00, 2:00, 5:00) and took about 20 minutes to get there (so, the return times to Corfu Town were at 7:20, 10:20, 12:20, etc). We bought round trip tickets for 1.70 Euro each and then had to walk about 10-15 minutes to find the proper bus stop to wait at. We walked to find the bus stop and ended up walking around the local shops because we had plenty of time before the 10:00 am bus.
The bus was about 10 minutes late, but was smooth sailing to the Achilleion Palace. We got off the bus, walked by a few souvenir stands, and reached the entrance to the palace. It cost us 6 Euro each to enter.
We quickly took a few pictures from the outside of the palace, as it was still raining, and headed inside. We were only allowed to walk through the 6 or so downstairs rooms and it was pretty crowded inside (partly because of the rain and partly because there were about 3 tour groups going through). It took us at the most 30 minutes to see everything we wanted to see inside, so we then went back out into the rain toward the garden areas. With all the rain and many of the floors outside made of marble, it was very slippery. Even with my steady footing, I slipped once. Anyways, in the main garden area were the two famous statues of Achilles (whom which the palace is named after). There is also a very nice view of the island from here.
So, after about 1 hour we were done with the palace, so we still had another hour and 20 minutes before the bus back to Corfu Town. We browsed through the local souvenir stands, decided against eating around here, and sat around for the bus. The bus finally came, and the second we got off the bus we proceeded to find a place to eat some Greek food. We stopped at a Sandwich-o-Mania and I had a pretty good sandwich made with a pita, kebab (combination of beef and lamb), french fries (fries were inside the pita), and tzatziki (yogurt based sauce), while my wife had a chicken pita sandwich.
After lunch, we just walked around Corfu Town to shop. We still had time to see the other sites I had planned on seeing, but we got lazy and just felt like shopping and exploring. After some walking though, we ended up in the Esplanade and did end up seeing the Old Fort as well. So, the only site we didn't see was the Church of St. Spyridon. Anyways, we finally found the coastline again and followed it back to our ship at around 3:00-4:00 pm. We walked 5.8 miles according to my wife's pedometer.
Katakolon (Olympia), Greece - docked in port
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We booked the Olympic Spirit Tour through Princess for this port of call.
Our tour tickets told us to meet on the pier around 7:30 in the morning to board our bus to Ancient Olympia. A lot of people booked this tour as there were at least 30 buses for it. Anyways, we ended up on bus 8 and our bus ended up getting filled so fast that we were the second bus to start off to Olympia.
The bus ride lasted about 45 minutes and our tour guide talked about some of the history of Olympia and pointed out a few interesting things on the way. Anyways, since we were one of the first few buses, our guide explained that we would be going to the Archaeological Museum first and the actual Olympic Ruins second. Our tour group ended up being the first in line to enter the museum at 9:00 am. Pictures were allowed here, but only with no flash and you could not take pictures with people in them (only pictures of the statues by themselves). Our guide ushered us to the main exhibits, giving us a brief talk about them, and then left us with about 10 minutes to explore the rest of the museum on our own. The museum is not too big, but 10 minutes seemed kind of short while I think 30 minutes would have been plenty of time. We were here for about 1 hour total.
Afterward, our guide led us to the ruins of Ancient Olympia. He led us from the entrance on one end to the Olympic Stadium on the other end, stopping to explain what some of the important sites were along the way. He then gave us 20-30 minutes to explore the other parts of the site that he didn't take us through. Again, we felt like we needed a little more time to see everything we wanted to see. We were here for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Next, we all got back on the bus to go to the modern village of Olympia. He dropped us off in the middle of the small town where he gave us 45 minutes to shop and eat. He also told us that we should haggle with the shop keepers to get better prices here except if you wanted to buy any 2004 Athens Olympic gear because those are all sold at set prices. We spent the entire 45 minutes shopping, and got back on the bus to go back to Katakolon. The bus driver was nice enough to drop some of us off in the small town of Katakolon, while he continued to drop the rest of the people off back at the ship. We were back in Katakolon around 1:00 pm. The shops in Katakolon were pretty much the same as in Olympia, so we walked back the short distance to the ship. We walked 3.2 miles according to my wife's pedometer.
Piraeus (Athens), Greece - docked in port
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We did not book a Princess shore excursion at this port. Our plan was to take the train into Athens and see the Acropolis, Ancient Agora, Roman Agora, and Syntagma Square, and also go to the Plaka to eat and shop.
The forecast for the day said cloudy with a chance of rain and a high of 73F. It turned out that it did not rain, was actually just partly cloudy, and it felt hotter than 73 (especially when walking up to the Acropolis). I can't imagine making that climb in the summer in 100F weather.
We got off the ship around 9:30 am, headed out of the pier area, and turned left. We kept along the coastline, asking for directions occasionally, and after about 20-30 minutes we ended up at the train station (an unmarked light yellow building). It cost .60 Euro each for a one way train ticket from Piraeus to the Monastiraki Station in Athens.
After about a 15 minute train ride, we arrived at the Monastiraki Station. The train got very crowded, so be very watchful of your belongings. Walking out of the station, you can see the Acropolis off in the distance because it is so high up. We started walking toward the Acropolis and stumbled into the Roman Agora. We bought a combined Acropolis/Roman Agora/Ancient Agora/Temple of Olympian Zeus/Theater of Dionysos/Kerameikos ticket for 12 Euro each.
The Roman Agora was small enough, that you could see the whole area without entering the Agora itself if you wanted to. We spent at most 20 minutes in here because the only monument worth admiring here was the Tower of the Winds.
After, we continued our hike up to the Acropolis. We kept walking uphill until we reached a huge fence that surrounded the entire Acropolis. Unfortunately, we went around and to the left (because that way looked more uphill), instead of going to the right, so we had to do a little backtracking. Eventually, we ended up at the entrance and we had to check our backpacks in before entering because they were not allowed. Having already bought our tickets, we avoided waiting in the small line and headed straight in.
Unfortunately, many of the monuments in the Acropolis were going through restorations for the upcoming Olympic Games, so they weren't as spectacular with all the scaffoldings around them. Anyways, on the right, when first entering, you can look down below into the ruins of the Theater of Herodes Atticus. We then went through the Propylea (ancient gateway into the Acropolis) and saw the Parthenon, Erectheion, Acropolis Museum (pictures allowed, but with no flash and no people), the Theater of Dionysus, and many great views of the city. A few Princess photographers were here to take pictures of people with the Parthenon in the background. We took our time and had to deal with some crowds, so we probably spent about 1 hour and 30 minutes here.
After picking up our backpack, we left the Acropolis going around the other way so we ended up walking by the Theater of Herodes Atticus and the Theater of Dionysus. We were getting hungry, so we then headed for the Plaka. We walked a little too far and ended up walking by the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Hadrian's Arch, and Syntagma Square.
Now, I got confused figuring out where exactly the Plaka area was. We walked along many streets with designer shops, so I thought this area was part of the Plaka. But, then we couldn't find any cafes or such, so we thought that maybe this wasn't the Plaka. We were so hungry though that we just stopped at a fast food sandwich place and ate. After, we continued walking around and ended up in an area with a bunch of souvenir shops and cafes. Now, we thought, this must be the Plaka. After hours of souvenir shopping, we found a small gyro place amidst a bunch of expensive cafes (1.50 Euro for a gyro instead of 7.50 Euro for a gyro at the cafes). We got a couple of gyros and found a place in the little square to sit. After looking around for a bit, I thought the place looked a little familiar and wouldn't you know it, we were back at Monastiraki Station. According to the map, the Plaka was not near here, so I'm a little confused if we even went through the Plaka at all! :)
Anyways, it was around 6:00 pm by then and we were tired and hot, so we bought our .60 Euro train tickets and headed back for the ship. We walked 8.2 miles according to my wife's pedometer.
Mykonos, Greece - docked in port
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We did not book a Princess shore excursion at this port. Our plan was to walk into Mykonos Town, find a boat to take us to Delos and back, walk through Little Venice, see the famous windmills, and of course eat and shop.
The forecast for the day said partly cloudy with a high of 74F. It turned out that it was partly cloudy, but later it became overcast, and it felt hotter than 74. We both got a little sunburned on Delos.
We got off the boat at around 9:00 am, walked out of the pier area, turned right, and followed the coast to Mykonos Town. I think the walk took about 45 minutes and Princess also had a deal with a local bus company to give rides into Mykonos Town for $10 each round-trip.
Once in Mykonos Town, we headed straight for the small pier and bought tickets for a round trip boat ride to Delos for 6.50 Euro each. The boat was just about to leave, but the guy who sold us the tickets shouted to the boat to wait for us. We ran out to the boat and went to the front of the boat where nobody else was. After about 10 minutes, I started wondering why we hadn't left yet, so I looked toward the back of the boat and all the people I saw sitting there before were gone. We went to the back of the boat and it looked like some guy was getting his wet suit on to check out a problem with the boat. Another guy told us that the adjacent boat would be taking us to Delos instead and would be leaving soon. So, we got on this packed boat and enjoyed the nice ride to Delos. If you're on the left of the boat you can get a good shot of the windmills. I believe the boat schedule was: 10:15 am leave for Delos and 12:20 pm, 1:45 pm, and 3:00 pm (final boat) were the times for the return trip back.
Upon arrival on Delos, we had to pay a 5 Euro each entrance fee and were given a map to help us explore the island. Most of the tour groups were headed to the left, so we started out going to the right. If you only have a limited time here, the left contained many ruins, the famous Avenue of the Lions, and the Archaeological Museum, while the right contained the Ancient Theater and many of the spectacular floor mosaics.
Anyways, off to the right we went, where there were a lot of buildings that we wondered around through. There was one main path, but it was kind of fun to go off that path and explore the non-main sites on our own. The only problem with exploring where a lot of people don't normally go was that there were a lot of huge spiders and spider webs around. After some exploring we started heading off to the main sites including the Ancient Theater, the House of Dolphins, and the House of the Masks. The houses with the floor mosaics, like the House of the Masks, are gated so you can't walk into them, but you can still get a good picture of the floors.
After the houses, there were two paths to take: one led to the left side of the ruins and one led to the top of this small mountain. We decided to go up the mountain. The path was pretty steep, uneven, rocky, and consisted of some steps part of the time. I think it took about 20-30 minutes for us to reach the top, but it was worth it. We got an awesome 360 degree view of the island and got to see how extensive the archaeological area actually was. After taking many pictures and resting up a bit, we walked back down and went down the other path toward the left side of the ruins.
The path led to the Archaeological Museum, and we went in and out of there pretty quickly because it was not as impressive as the ones we saw in Olympia and the Acropolis. It looked like they had a little souvenir shop in a building next to the museum, but it was closed.
I think it was around 1:00 pm by this time, and we were getting pretty hungry, so we decided to definitely make the next boat back to Mykonos. We definitely had to see the Avenue of the Lions, so we headed straight there. We took some nice pictures there, explored a little past that, and then headed back for the pier.
Back in Mykonos, the cafes lining the pier area were very crowded. We wandered a little past these cafes and found a nice place to eat. I had a gyro and helped my wife with her chicken gyro plate (kind of like a fajita dish, where you have to assemble the gyro yourself).
With our stomachs satisfied, we wandered through Little Venice to the windmills. They were neat to look at up close and we took many pictures of them. After, we backtracked toward the pier and shopped along the way. The shopping here was much more expensive than Athens and the designs of the souvenir stuff were pretty much the same except they would say Mykonos on them and there was a lot of stuff that had the windmills on them. We bought a few things and then walked back to the ship. I think we got back around 4:00-5:00 pm. We walked 9.8 miles according to my wife's pedometer.
Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey - docked in port
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We booked the Ephesus, St. John's Basilica, and Virgin Mary Shrine Tour through Princess for this port of call. On a side note, before the trip began, we thought VISAs might be required to visit this country, but we did not need to get one.
The forecast for the day said sunny with a high of 76F. It turned out that it was sunny and it felt hotter than 76. After getting sunburned in the last port, we put a lot of sunscreen on today.
We disembarked around 7:15-7:30 am and followed the crowd of people to the bus area. Princess representatives were there to direct you to the proper bus for your tour. The bus took us along the coast, and our tour guide gave us some history on Turkey in general and pointed out some sites (like a Turkish bath and the Temple of Artemis) on the way to our first stop: St. John's Basilica.
The bus parked a very short distance to the entrance of the ruins of St. John's Basilica. Our tour guide stopped at all the important areas of the basilica and gave us a nice overview of each of these areas. She also gave us about 10 minutes of time to wander around the basilica ourselves after she was done, which was plenty of time.
Our next stop was the House of the Virgin Mary. Our tour guide explained about the house while on the bus from St. John's Basilica. Once there, she led us to the line to enter the house. There were a few signs saying that proper attire would be required to enter, but I saw plenty of people entering with shorts and T-shirts. The line moved pretty quickly, as the house was really small. Walking back toward the bus, there were a few souvenir stands selling a variety of religious items.
Our next stop on the tour was the ancient city of Ephesus. Our tour guide explained that we would walk through the city and be picked up by our bus on the other side. Ephesus really felt like an ancient city, more so than the Acropolis in Athens, because there were ruins around every corner. Our tour guide did a wonderful job of explaining all the sites we saw here. She also gave us about 15-20 minutes of time to explore on our own around the Celsus Library and about 10 minutes at the Ephesus Theater. A few Princess photographers were here to take pictures of people with the Celsus Library in the background. There were also people following tour groups around, taking pictures of us and selling them to us at the end of the tour.
Finally, our bus took us back to Kusadasi (right near our ship) and the tour group went to see a carpet demonstration. We were served apple tea and a cheese biscuit and watched while someone explained the different types and qualities of carpets. We ended up buying a small carpet for ourselves as a nice reminder of our trip.
After, we headed out on our own to the bazaar area close to the pier for some souvenir shopping. I think it was around 1:00-2:00 pm by this point. Now, we were told many times that you must negotiate for better prices here. The shop keepers love negotiating and feel that it is like a game and some may feel insulted if you do not negotiate. Also, you are not supposed to start negotiating for something unless you seriously want to buy it. Walking through the bazaar, it felt like every shop had a person outside the shop trying to get you to come in and look at things. It was a fun and interesting experience and definitely one of the cheaper ports to shop in. On a side note, they readily accepted dollars as well as Euros here, and they seemed to treat the exchange rate as $1 = 1 Euro. So, needless to say, we spent our dollars here rather than our Euros. After we were done shopping, we headed back to the ship around 4:00 pm. We walked 5.0 miles according to my wife's pedometer.
Santorini, Greece - tendered
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We did not book a Princess shore excursion at this port. Our plan was to ride the donkeys or cable car up to the town of Fira, catch a round trip bus to Akrotiri, visit the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira, find a nice place to have lunch, shop, and head back to the ship.
The forecast for the day said partly cloudy with a high of 70F. The forecast was pretty accurate today.
As we knew we were tendering in this port, we decided to get off the ship around 8:30-9:00 am to avoid waiting in any tender lines. The tender drops you off at the small pier and then you are faced with three choices to get to the city of Fira above: cable car, donkey, or walking. The climb to the top looked pretty steep and you have to share the same path with the donkeys, so we decided against walking. My wife was against going on the donkeys, so we took the cable car up. It cost 3.50 Euro each for a one-way trip up the cable car, and the ride took less than 5 minutes. At the top was a nice view of the island and our ship.
The Akrotiri tours offered by Princess were canceled because Akrotiri had been closed for renovations. I went to the Princess Tour Desk the day before and asked if Akrotiri would be open or not, and she said they would be open, but tours would still not be going there. We planned on going there on our own anyways, so we were off to find the bus to get us there. I knew the bus station was supposed to be pretty close to the Museum of Prehistoric Thera, so we started following these signs that pointed toward a museum. Unfortunately, it was some other museum, so we asked for directions and had to backtrack a little bit. Upon exiting the cable car, if your back is to the ship below, you want to head right (we headed straight).
Eventually, we found the bus station, and had to wait another 15 minutes or so for the bus. A one-way bus ticket to Akrotiri cost 1.30 Euro each, and you don't have to pay until you have boarded and the bus already starts on it's way. The ride took about 30-40 minutes, and had some nice views of the island. I believe the return bus came back around 1 hour and 30 minutes later.
The entrance to Akrotiri was free, and the entire site was enclosed in this structure which made it nice and cool. There is just one path through the excavation site, that would probably take about 5 minutes to walk through if you did not stop at all. It took us no more than 30 minutes to explore the site, including reading the occasional information signs scattered throughout. Although the site was small, and the ruins were not spectacular, it was amazing to see structures that were built in the 17th century BC and it was also kind of neat to see what an excavation site actually looks.
After, we waited at the bus stop for another hour our so and got back into Fira. It was around 1:00 pm by now, so we got some gyros to eat and headed for the Museum of Prehistoric Thera. The entrance fee for the museum was 3 Euro each and photography was allowed, but only with no flash. We took our time admiring some of the highly advanced work for the time including some amazing wall paintings. After about an hour in the museum, we did a little souvenir shopping and started to head back to the cable car at around 2:30 pm.
The line for the cable car back down was really long. We had to be back on board by 4:00 pm, while I overheard that people aboard another big cruise ship had to be back on by 5:00 pm. We considered walking down because the line was so long, but heard that the walk down would take about 45 minutes. The line ended up taking about 30 minutes and we saw plenty of people doing the walk down. So, if you are unable to walk down, make sure you leave enough time for the line for the cable car.
There was a small line at the pier for the tender boats, and we were back on board by 3:30 pm. We walked 2.8 miles according to my wife's pedometer.
Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy - docked in port
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We did not book a Princess shore excursion at this port. Our plan was to walk to the train station, take the hour train into Rome (Termini Station), grab the Metro to the Colloseum, walk through the Roman Forum, walk to the Pantheon, grab something to eat including some gelato there, walk to the Trevi Fountain, walk to the Spanish Steps, take the Metro from there to the Vatican, walk through the Vatican Museums, sit in the Sistine Chapel for a while, go to St. Peter's Basilica, look around St. Peter's Square, then catch the train from San Pietro Station back to Civitavecchia.
The forecast for the day said cloudy with a chance of rain and with a high of 70F. It turned out that it was partly cloudy, did not rain, and it felt hotter than 70.
This was our first trip to Rome, and not knowing when or if we were ever going to go back, we wanted to see as much as possible. Also, being an hour train ride away from Rome made this trip a little stressful because we did not want to miss the ship. We considered buying a round-trip ride into Rome through Princess ($69 each), but decided that it was too expensive.
With our arrival time set for 8:00 am, we went down to the disembarkation area at about 7:45 am. It was around 8:10 am when people finally were able to disembark. After about a 5 minute walk, there was a pier bus that provided people with a ride to the pier exit (this saved about 10 minutes of walking). From the pier exit, turn right, and follow the shore, where you will eventually see signs pointing to the SSFF station (about a 10 minute walk from the pier exit). There was a train into Rome about every 30 minutes, and we caught the 8:40 am train for 9 Euro each (round-trip and could use the tickets for the Metro in Rome as well). It took about 1 hour to reach the San Pietro Station from Civitavecchia and another 15 minutes to get to Termini Station.
Once at Termini Station, we found signs leading us to the Metro, where we used our same train ticket to get on the B Line Metro. We got off two stops later at the Colloseo stop, which drops you off right in front of the Colloseum. We didn't enter the Colloseum, but probably spent about 20-30 minutes here and at the nearby Arch of Constantine.
We then headed through the Arch of Titus and into the Roman Forum. We spent about 30 minutes walking through the Forum, and exited up a staircase near the Arch of Septimius Severus. At the top of the staircase was a nice view of the Roman Forum.
From here, we walked to the Vittorio Emanuele Monument, took some pictures there, and continued on to the Pantheon. We got to the Pantheon, and were getting a little hungry, so we went down a side street and found a place to get a few slices of pizza. We then probably spent about 15 minutes inside the Pantheon and tried to find a good gelaterie in that area. We eventually decided to try to find one on the way to or around the Trevi Fountain.
We got to the Trevi Fountain, and it was pretty crowded here. We went down to the fountain to throw our coins in to make sure we come back to Rome some day, sat for a little while, and got some gelato nearby. After about 15 minutes here, we walked to the Spanish Steps. We took a picture of the steps and continued on to the Piazza di Spagna Metro station.
We took the A Line Metro to the Ottaviano Station for the Vatican Museums. There were signs pointing to the Vatican Museums that we followed, and we ended up at the Vatican walls at about 12:30 pm. We looked around at the gift shop before entering, and there were only two people ahead of us in line. We bought our tickets (12 Euro each - cash only) for the Vatican Museums and entered. Pictures were allowed (not sure about the flash), but no pictures were allowed in the Sistine Chapel.
We walked around for a little while and ended up in the Courtyard of the Pinecone and took a picture with the Sphere within Sphere sculpture in the middle of the square. We were taking our time, trying to take in all there was to see at the beginning, but by the end, we just wanted to get to the Sistine Chapel. We did take our time again in the Egyptian Museum and the Raphael Rooms, but we sped by everything else. A full day to spend at the Vatican Museums would have been nice, but we were on a schedule. After about 1 hour and 45 minutes we finally reached the Sistine Chapel. We had brought small binoculars to admire the ceiling, but I thought the ceiling was low enough that we didn't need them. We eventually got a seat and stayed here for probably about 30 minutes to rest our feet and admire Michelangelo's masterpiece.
We exited through this side exit that looked like it was for tour groups, and ended up right at St. Peter's Basilica. The basilica was huge, so we spent about 30 minutes walking through it, stopping only at Michelangelo's Pieta (front right corner). We then exited the basilica and tried to get as far back as we could to take pictures of St. Peter's Square. We were pretty tired by then, so we decided to just head to the San Pietro Station and take the train back to Civitavecchia. At San Pietro Station, Civitavecchia is permanently marked on platform #5. We caught the 4:00 pm train and the trip back took about one hour.
Once in Civitavecchia, we walked from the station to the pier and then to the ship (the pier bus was still running, but we were unsure so we walked). We were back on board by 5:30 pm, very happy with how much we saw and making it back with plenty of time to spare. We walked 8.4 miles according to my wife's pedometer.
Cannes, France - tendered
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We did not book a Princess shore excursion at this port. The Cannes Film Festival was taking place while we were here, so our only plan here was to go check out the Film Festival, hopefully catch a glimpse of some stars, find a bakery to get some French pastries, and shop.
The forecast for the day said cloudy with a high of 68F. It turned out that it was cloudy and it felt nice and cool that day.
We had to tender here in Cannes, so we slept in a little bit. Without waiting in any lines, we disembarked at around 9:00 am. From where the tender dropped us off, we exited the pier area, turned right, and followed the shoreline. Not too much further, and we ended up on La Croisette boulevard.
We followed La Croisette until we reached a big building with huge Cannes Film Festival signs on it. We saw the red carpet area and took a few pictures in front of it. We needed security passes to get inside, so we continued wondering around. Next to this building was an area with celebrity hand prints in the ground.
We then continued walking down La Croisette, where there were a few small booths being set up. Most were uninteresting except there was one selling Cannes Film Festival items. We kept walking until we reached this huge hotel with movie posters and a screen showing some of the events that had already taken place at the Film Festival. We stayed here for a while, and decided to walk back to the main Film Festival building area.
On the way back, we looked for any bakeries or shops selling Film Festival items. We found a magazine store and bought some Cannes Film Festival shirts there and stopped again at the area near the red carpet. A bunch of photographers were setting up their equipment, but it didn't seem like anything was going to happen for a while. So, we decided to go into a nearby casino, but we were not allowed in because I was wearing shorts.
We finally decided to just head back to the ship, figuring that we didn't just want to sit around waiting for some Hollywood stars to show up. Later, when we were back home, I checked on the Cannes Film Festival web site for what happened the day we were there, and no big stars had premieres that day anyways. If we were there the day before, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were there for Brad's movie Troy. Anyways, we couldn't find any bakeries along the way, so we grabbed the tender, and ended up eating on the ship. A pretty non-eventful day, and according to my wife's pedometer we walked 2.4 miles.
Barcelona, Spain - docked in port
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We did not book a Princess shore excursion at this port. The plan here was to get to the Columbus Monument, catch the Bus Turistic to see La Sagrada Familia, Casa Batllo, Gothic Cathedral, La Pedrera, and Park Guell, find a place to eat tapas, and shop along Las Ramblas.
The forecast for the day said partly cloudy with a high of 68F. It turned out that it was partly cloudy and felt hotter than 68F.
We got off the ship around 8:00-8:30 am and started looking for a way to walk into Barcelona from the pier. To walk into town, you would have to cross this huge bridge, so we decided to find alternate transportation. A few taxis were here, but a public bus stopped here as well. We decided to take the bus at 2.50 Euro each for a round trip bus ticket (1.50 Euro for a one way ticket). The pier bus dropped us off right next to the Christopher Columbus Monument.
There was a Bus Turistic stop near the Colombus Monument, but those buses did not start running until 9:00 am. We decided to walk up Las Ramblas to the Gothic Cathedral and pick up the Bus Turistic there. We stopped at some newspaper stands along Las Ramblas (as many places were not open yet) and ended up at the Gothic Cathedral. We took some pictures and found the Bus Turistic stop across the street. The Bus Turistic sign there said that the first bus did not stop there until around 9:40 am, so we waited around for about 20 minutes.
The Bus Turistic finally arrived, and we boarded. The Bus Turistic is a fleet of double decker buses (open air at the top), and because the upper deck was more popular the drivers would allow current passengers seated below an opportunity to move up before other people would board. The Bus Turistic costs 16 Euro each and the buses stop at most of Barcelona's major tourist spots while allowing you to get on and off when you choose. They provided a nice route map and a coupon book. The map booklet showed the three different color (red, blue, green) routes you could take and where to get off to switch routes. Each route was a counter clockwise circle and we never had to wait more than 10 minutes for the next bus to arrive. The map booklet also had explanations of each of the 40 stops telling you what there was to see at those stops and also a small map of the stop area. The coupon book they provided had discounts for entrance fees, souvenir shops, and food places. For example, there was a 20% off entrance to Casa Batllo, 2 Euro discount for entrance to Sagrada Familia, 20% off entrance to La Pedrera, 10% off at BCN Gift Shops, and 2 for 1 Big Macs at McDonald's. Overall, the Bus Turistic provided an excellent way to get around and tour Barcelona at your own pace. The only complaint would be that if there were many stops in between the stops you wanted to stop at, it could take a while to get there (I think the full red loop would take over 1 hour).
So anyways, we got on the blue line bus at the Gothic Cathedral and got off two stops later at Casa Batllo (one of the works by Gaudi). We got the discounted entrance fee and paid extra so we could go up to the roof (worth it). They provided an audio guide here that was included in the price of the entrance fee. After Casa Batllo, we got on the next bus to go one stop to La Pedrera (another Gaudi work). It took us about 30 minutes to get through the ticket line (but, we switched off holding our place in line to go through the gift shop) and you must pay extra for an audio guide here (which we did not do). La Pedrera was set up like a museum of his work, so we walked through that and through his apartment rooms. But, the roof was the highlight of the place, with all the interesting chimney designs. We next switched onto the red line and got off at the next stop: Sagrada Familia (another Gaudi work). We paid the discounted entrance fee and walked through the inside (including a small museum) in about 20 minutes. I thought there would be more to see here, but as it still is a construction in progress, a lot of the areas were blocked off. There was a huge line for an elevator to the top, but we did not feel like waiting for it. We then got on the red line again to go to the next stop: Park Guell (another Gaudi work). The bus dropped us off about 4-6 uphill blocks away from the park. We looked at some stores and small restaurants on the way up to the park. The Park Guell had no entrance fee and a variety of things to look at. We were starting to get tired and it was getting hot by then, so we relaxed a little on the colorful Gaudi benches there.
After Park Guell, we got back on the red line to get to Placa de Catalunya (about 7 stops away) and that took about 45 minutes. We then walked the short distance to Las Ramblas and began looking for a place to get tapas. There were a few places that we found, but it was hard to tell what was in some of the tapas and we eventually gave up. We walked through Las Ramblas to the Colombus Monument (doing some shopping along the way) and got back on the pier bus and back to the ship by 6:30 pm. We walked 4.3 miles according to my wife's pedometer.
General Europe tips
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1) Toilets: might have to pay, might not have toilet paper, and might not have seats. Museums, restaurants, McDonald's are the best place to find free, clean toilets. Here are the free toilet locations (might not be clean or have toilet paper, but free) that we found:
Venice Toilet locations: Doge's Palace
Corfu Toilet locations: ??????
Olympia Toilet locations: Archaeological Museum
Athens Toilet locations: Acropolis
Mykonos Toilet locations: Delos Museum
Santorini Toilet locations: Akrotiri
Ephesus Toilet locations: House of the Virgin Mary
Rome Toilet locations: outside St. Peter's Basilica, McDonald's near Pantheon, Termini Station had a pay one.
Cannes Toilet locations: McDonald's on La Croisette
Barcelona Toilet locations: La Pedrera, McDonald's all over
2) Pickpockets: we didn't run into any, but we kept a watchful eye on our stuff especially on crowded trains and on crowded streets; had a neck pouch for money/credit cards; wore backpack in front in crowded areas.
3) Bus/Metro/Train tickets: you must remember to validate your tickets in these little machines before boarding or you can be fined; on all our trips though, we did not ever have our tickets checked.
4) Attire: If you are planning on entering churches such as St. Mark's Basilica, you need to dress appropriately. Basically, don't wear anything that exposes your knees, shoulders, or navel.
5) Directions: I found that when asking for directions, souvenir shops and news stands generally had people who spoke some English. I also felt that they appreciated it when you tried to speak their language, like saying "thank you" (grazie in Italian, efharisto in Greek) for example.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Couples
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Epinions.com ID:
skono
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Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 4 members
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