Barcelona Med Cruise Questions

[Ware Bears]

My answers are below in red

Loving the recent Trip reports, so much info, thank you for posting. I decided to start my own question thread to keep track of info

1. Where did you stay in Barcelona? How did you get from the airport to your hotel and from your hotel to the ship? Im thinking of getting there the day before and flying home the evening of disembarkation day. Is this a good plan

We stayed at the Eurostars Grand Marina. We used a shuttle company to get from the airport to the hotel, a cab from hotel to ship then used DCL transfer from ship to airport. We flew in three days before so had two full and one half day in Barcelona. I like to fly in at the latest the day before, would never leave it until the day ..... just in case things go wrong you have more time to sort it. We had an early afternoon flight home so the DCL transfers worked fine for it, if you have an evening flight DCL arrange a couple of day tours which end up at the airport, you book these onboard.

2. Excursions and Ports
This is something which has always put me off cruising, Im not really into the organised day trips, I prefer to do DIY. Is there something you wished you had done but didnt or something you didnt do but wish you did? Im thinking of not doing any Disney excursions, and just going ashore for a few hours at each port on my own, having a basic idea of things I would like to see and do. Is this a good idea?

Yes, definitely. It's your holiday, do whatever makes you happy. We did a B2B Med cruise last summer and did nothing on both Rome days, it was lovely having the near empty ship to ourselves! Actually tell a lie, we did get off for an hour or so to wander round Civitivecchia the first week. We had booked a DCL tour to visit some ancient tombs but it was cancelled due to lack of numbers (most people head to Rome), we could have made the effort to make our own way there on local transport but when it came to it we couldn't be bothered! We did four DCL tours on our B2B and they were all excellent (contrary to what you often read online) but have also done independent tours previously or just meandered in port.

3. What I am really looking forward to is the Disney cruising experience, what onboard things to do and see are a must do, not to be missed?

The shows and we also enjoy the main dining room restaurants. We also enjoy Palo brunch and now try to go once every cruise but it's not a must. We tried Palo dinner for the first time last cruise, the food was lovely as was the service and ambience but we both felt underwhelmed by it and probably wouldn't bother again.

4. What about the alcohol situation? Did either of you do the alcohol packages or did you bring your own onboard? Im not really a beer or wine drinker, more a spirits and cocktails type.

We're not big drinkers so have never bothered with the alcohol packages. I sometimes order a glass of wine at dinner and DH might have a beer some nights. We tend to have a cocktail or two in one of the bars after dinner - I usually order the drink of the day and have yet to find one I dislike!

6. Tipping, Im so confused about all that.

We always pay our tips in advance and if we want to add more we can either add cash to the envelope or have it increased at guest services. We also take some $1 notes to tip room service.

I'll probally have more questions as I go along

p.s. I'm another who rates the Rick Steves cruise ports books.

 

[ldo]

here are my prior DIY posts-sorry for the repetitiveness. There was also a really good thread from 2010 with lots of great info, called Med planning (?)
You can add Sorrento to below, but we never did, as i am uncomfortable to be that far away in the afternoon from the ship (Sorrento) and you really want to do Pompeii in the AM, before the crowds and before the heat. Plus, my teens are good for about 5 hours, then they want to go back to the ship. So, we decided just on Pompeii. But there is a ferry straight from port to/from Sorrento. I read that sometimes the afternoon ferry back can get canx due to weather/winds, so you would need to leave time to train back.
DIY to Pompeii by train. super cheap and you can decide at the last minute whether you are up for Herculaneum. For kids/teens, definitely Pompeii--they have/will study it in school and it is an important ruin to see. It was #1 place to see on our trip to Europe. For easy DIY--1st, right off the boat, stop in a tourist souvenir shop at the port and look for the cardboard book that has the overlay of Pompeii as it used to look (they also have them for Coliseum). These books are also at the airport. [From amazon. Pompeii Reconstructed: Book with DVD in English Hardcover – January 1, 2007 by Lozzi Editori (Author)]. They also have similar one for the Coliseum. These books are so worth it to have when you are standing looking at some ruins and then see what it looked like back then--even if you don't have kids. I saw them at the FCO (Rome) airport, Pisa, etc., but I would order in advance to make sure I had them, plus great to get kids interested in what they will be seeing.
Directions: walk to the end of the port (pedestrian friendly), cross the small street and buy a ticket from the tobacco stand to/from Pompeii and good for all trams (5 or 8 euros PP), then take tram #1 right there to the circumvensia train station--5 minutes away. Get on the next train to Sorrento (one every 30 minutes). Get off at Pompeii Scavi (means excavation) and walk to front gate--right around the corner and buy your tickets--kids under 18 are free. With the above book, there is no need for a tour--get a map and go to the sites that interest you (or even better, download Rick Steves tours for free). My tweens/teens loved looking at the book and then at the ruins. It is hot and they lasted for 2.5 hours.
There is a café/gelato place inside Pompeii that you can cool down in, plus a few nice café style places right outside the gate where we got slushi drinks. Get back on the train (cross under the station--the train goes the opposite way back). The great thing is, you can decide on the fly if you want to get off at Herculaneum or head straight back for the ship. With DH and I alone, we did both. The next trip with the kids, we went to the ship--they had had enough---and it was a great day.
Remember to get off at the circumvensia station and get the #1 back--not the main trenitalia statin. We made that mistake--no worries, just hop on the train back 1 stop--15 minute detour to get the next train. It's pretty foul-proof to DIY. This is about the easiest port to DIY and with kids free at Pompeii and Herculaneum, you can save a lot of $$. We felt 100% safe at the port, on the tram, circumvensia train and at Pompeii. have fun! It's a great place.
Herculaneum is a stop "Ercolano Scavi" on the same train. That all day ticket is like a hop-on, hop off tickets, good for that train, trams and buses--make sure you tell the tobacco guy you want the all day ticket to Pompeii and return also good for the trams--You can also say "biglietti train a Pompeii et return con tram"--and motion to the tram line, in case he doesn't understand English--which I'm pretty sure he will, as his main market is English speaking tourists.
Once you get off the train at Ercolano Scavi, it is a short downhill walk, uphill back--not far as the train station at WDW to the hotdog place at the end of Main street. The entrance area has A/C and good bathrooms (LOL). You have to check you backpack there (very safe). H is not crowded and much smaller and more shade. The buildings are more intact and you can still see some frescoed walls, etc. It is a good add-on to Pompeii (you could spend a total of 2 hrs--walking, looking around, back to train) and get a decent look around---but Pompeii should still be your 1st stop and the earlier, the better (definitely off the boat by 9am--8:00/8:30 is ideal).
I think Pompeii opens at 10. There is also a tour bus that goes to Pompeii and back--the stand is right at the end of the port--before you cross the small street to the tobacco stand. We debated taking the bus--but it returns at a set time and there is no option to go to H then. We opted for the tram/train. If you have to wait for the next train--we had to wait 20 minutes, there is a fun little food/drink stand right by where you get the train. My kids got some 1 euro interesting fruit slushis (like coconut, etc.) while waiting.
If you surf the web, you can find step by step photos of what to do to get the tram/train, etc. My info came from those, which I followed in 2011--only getting off at the wrong train stop on the way home--but easily getting on the train back 1 stop. Aug. 2013, it was a breeze. We felt very safe both times--of course, watch for pickpockets--but I carry a shoulder bag purse and never had any issues.
If you want a tour guide, they are 10 eruos PP at the front gate. The book is 12euros--and I was the guide. I also really like DKI European Ports--I have used it for years--worth buying. have fun!
if you are in Naples on a weekday (and maybe Sat), you can just buy a day pass from the tobacco stand just outside the port next to the tram. The port area is fairly small and it's a straight walk of about 200 feet from ship to tobacco stand. It's about 8 euros and covers the tram and the train to/from. you need cash. we took the tram/cicumvensia (maybe not the correct spelling) in 2011 and 2013. We felt very safe, but pickpockets are everywhere in Europe. Keep $ in moneybelt, or in safe, with pocket change of under 100 euros in wallet/purse. Wear passports or just take your drivers license (which you can afford to lose on the cruise, as long as you don't need to rent a car).
fyi, you can buy some Italian train tickets online. If highly suggest getting at least outbound tickets ahead of time for Pisa and Rome. We would not have made the train to Pisa if we didn't buy online. They are good for 4 hours. Rome usually has a long ticket line. You can also buy tickets at the tobacco store for Rome, which not as many know about. But, definitely buy online, if possible.
We have done DIY Lucca/Pisa from Livorno. Always go to the farthest place and work back towards the ship when DIY. Lucca is a lovely place, you can rent bikes and ride along the very wide, park-like wall around the city.
Elaine (ps. when we went in 2013, they also had a 20 euro PP bus to Pompeii at the end of the port, but we wanted the train to be able to stay as long or short as we wanted).

Last edited: Sep 19, 2016

 

[RedSox68]

If you want to see Barcelona, come in at least two days early. We flew in the day before last time and had basically a half day there and it was frustrating. We are going back next year to completely see the city and I'm very excited about it. Also, if you are flying out the night you return, see if there are excursions on that day that will give you a tour (maybe Montserrat) and then take you and your luggage to the airport.

 

[kiford]

Im thinking of not doing any Disney excursions, and just going ashore for a few hours at each port on my own, having a basic idea of things I would like to see and do.

A lot of the ports are quite far from anything really interesting to do so you need to know in advance what you want to do/see and plan accordingly, particularly if you want to see something that requires tickets or you have to take a train.

A friend of mine decided to go to Florence and Pisa with his family on their own (different cruise line). On their way back they discovered that the express train from Pisa they thought they were taking only runs on certain days of the week and that day wasn't one of them. They ended up having to get off and then take two long haul taxis (7 people) to the port and just made ship in time. I can't recall if the problem was that the train they were on just made so many stops because it wasn't an express version that they would be too late or if it didn't go to the port or something but as you can imagine, he was freaking out a bit. Fortunately, his wife's family is Italian and her mother was able to speak enough to figure out that they had actually taken the wrong train before it got too late to make alternate arrangements and was able to speak to the taxi drivers.

On our 2010 Med cruise I overheard a woman telling someone else how they had got off the ship as early as possible at La Spezia and got the first train to Florence so that she could see Michelangelo's David. By the time she got to the museum, the earliest ticket she could get for viewing was 6 pm and the last tender to the ship was, I think, 6:30 or 7:00 pm so she just wandered around for a bit and then took the train back. We did a tour through DCL which included a viewing of David so the tour took care of that. Of course, had she done some quick research online, she could have pre-purchased tickets or would have at least known that you can't just show up and expect to walk in.

So you might need a bit more than a basic idea of what you want to see and do - pre-purchasing tickets, how close anything you want to see is to the port and if there is anything to see at or near the port, and transportation logistics are all critical to do/know beforehand. Lots of people do it on their own so you should be able to search out information online.

Whether you go on your own, go with DCL tours or another tour company, I do second the recommendation to obtain any of Rick Steve's books. Even if you don't use his advice and recommendations for going on your own, they do provide a lot of relevant information and are very interesting to read. There are some that are specific to cruising so the information about how to get around starts at the ports which can be much more useful than just general travel books.

One of the things we liked a lot about our Baltic cruise was that the ports where you docked had lots of stuff to see right at or near the port. We still did DCL tours, but there were a lot of options that didn't require a long time to get there. Unfortunately, that's not the case for many of the Med ports.

Ive been to Rome and Florence before, so I wouldn't be doing the DCL excursions there and yes I agree there is so much to see that you do need to go back.

Not all of the DCL tours go just to Rome when they dock at Civitavecchia. On our second Med cruise we decided to go to Orvieto (DCL tour) which we loved. If we do another Med cruise, it will actually be a difficult choice between Rome and Orvieto. I suppose you could just wander through Civitavecchia but I don't know that it's a particularly exciting port.

 

[kiford]

Naples and Pisa Im not sure about, I kinda want to explore Naples instead of doing an excursion.

From what I've heard and read Naples is not really a very nice city and there isn't much to see. Several people I know have done tours of or trips to Naples and said that, beyond a pizza lunch, they would skip it and spend the time either at Pompeii, Herculaneum, Capri or Sorrento. "Scuzzy" was the word most often used. Certainly when we were there, there was a garbage collection strike on at the time and there was garbage on the side of the road everywhere. According to our tour guide, there's frequently a strike on and even when there isn't there's a lot of garbage everywhere.

We did a tour with DCL - no idea if they offer this now - that was a tour of a winery on the slopes of Vesuvius with lunch and a wine tasting, then a trip to the summit and then the afternoon in Pompeii. It was fantastic. I would have liked more time in Pompeii and not in the afternoon as there is no shade and it was really hot (early September) but the views from Vesuvius were amazing and just being there was a thrill for me. The wine was really nice (we bought two bottles of their red wine intending to bring it home and share with friends but it never made it off the ship except in my stomach) and the lunch was superb. Originally I had wanted to do a tour that took you out to Capri on a hydrofoil and then did a trip down the coast a bit but it wasn't offered when we cruised, apparently due to the rough waters so the winery/Vesuvius/Pompeii tour was my second choice but I'd do that one again.

 

[BadPinkTink]

wow, thank you so much @kiford lots of detailed info for me to think about

 

[bbel]

As a CM I'm luckily enough to have visited the ports multiple times, and also as a CM I'm all about DIY...although I would say the Med is where I'm least comfortable, i think that's because of the language barriers and their more relaxed view of time. And as a CM were always pushing time and need to be back haha

Naples was my favourite, I had a 3 hour break and me and a couple of others got a taxi to Vesuvius, and climbed it (it was around €100 for the taxi there, back and it wited 45 minutes for us). Climbing Vesuvius was tough but amazing views and one of my best memories. I also went to Pompeii and Herculaneum. IMHO herculaaneum was so much better, get a taxi then a train. We got there when it opened, it's way less crowded than Pompeii and although smaller, more to see and you can get closer, it was better preserved and there's actual bodies if you're interested in that stuff.

I got off in Civi once, there's nothing much in Civi apart from pizza and never had a long enough break to do anything else. If you're not wanting to go to Rome and want to spend a port day on the ship I'd suggest this port...

I don't know if you're going to villefrance or Cannes, but both are two of my favourites, from villefrance i once got the train to nice for the day, but it felt like a lot of effort, or Monte Carlo is close (although I never made it there) there's also a little bench in VF to chill on and the water is so nice to go in.
Cannes has a really nice old town to walk around, and again a beach, as well as the red carpet and hand prints of "stars" Cannes is a lot busier than VF

Livorno: Pisa is an easy bus and train ride away, I did it in a morning and was at work by 12pm: bus, train, Pisa, pizza, train, bus, back to work. Little crazy but glad I did it and it was cheap. I've also got friends that managed to do Florence in a morning too by train. I know you'd want to stay longer, but I'm just pointing out you can do it in limited time so you can def do it when you have a whole port day. Livorno is also a nice little town, we did the sightseeing bus once and there's not that much to see but it includes a tram ride up a mountain too, and we did a boat ride through the canals too.

I will just say one thing, I was lucky enough to go on a guest port adventure as part of work. I got to go to Capri, Sorrento and Pompeii, which was amazing. The guide was excellent. You can get a ferry to Capri and it takes about 30 minutes, I would definitely recommend Capri. Sorrento was great too although there wasn't much time at Pompeii, however, te tour guide got her times wrong, and we were still at Pompeii when all aboard was happening...Pompeii is about 30 minute bus ride away... because it was a DCL port adventure, we were able to keep in contact and the ship waited for us and we were back well over an hour after all aboard. If anything happens and you're independent and you don't make it back, the ship won't wait that long for you

I can't really comment on anything else as I've never been a guest, but if you have any questions about the ports let me know. I've done one and a half med seasons now hehe.

 

[Ware Bears]

Cannes has a really nice old town to walk around, and again a beach, as well as the red carpet and hand prints of "stars" Cannes is a lot busier than VF

We visited Cannes on our first cruise, Villefranche on our second and we really enjoyed both. After wandering round Cannes we took a boat trip(on the recommendation of our assistant server) to Île Sainte-Marguerite where the Man in the Iron Mask had been held prisoner.

We did a tour with DCL - no idea if they offer this now - that was a tour of a winery on the slopes of Vesuvius with lunch and a wine tasting, then a trip to the summit and then the afternoon in Pompeii. It was fantastic. I would have liked more time in Pompeii and not in the afternoon as there is no shade and it was really hot (early September) but the views from Vesuvius were amazing and just being there was a thrill for me. The wine was really nice (we bought two bottles of their red wine intending to bring it home and share with friends but it never made it off the ship except in my stomach) and the lunch was superb. Originally I had wanted to do a tour that took you out to Capri on a hydrofoil and then did a trip down the coast a bit but it wasn't offered when we cruised, apparently due to the rough waters so the winery/Vesuvius/Pompeii tour was my second choice but I'd do that one again.

We did this tour last August, luckily for us the itinerary was in a different order and we visited Pompeii first (thank goodness because it was so so hot) then had lunch at Cantino del Vesuvio then climbed Vesuvius. I agree that more time in Pompeii would have been nice but we also thought it was a fantastic tour. We also bought two bottles of wine (white in our case) and funnily enough ours never made it off the ship either! My DH is not normally a lover of spaghetti or pasta but he so enjoyed the lunch he had not only a second helping but a third!