June 27, 2007 Med Cruise Report

[Doingitagain]

Today was Palermo, Sicily. What a beautiful area! We docked about 7:00 a.m. We ordered from room service last evening so we could get an early breakfast at 7:15 because our shore excursion left at 7:45. One advantage of concierge is that you can order a hot breakfast.

There were three buses on the Erice and Segesta excursion. We spent the whole day with our one bus. It really did not feel crowded at all. Let me start by telling you we all really liked this excursion. It was what we wanted…we saw a little bit of a lot of areas in Sicily and the tour moved quickly without a lot of waiting.

Luca was our guide and he spoke excellent English. We drove for an hour to get to Segesta. Luca talked about Sicily almost the entire drive. It was very interesting. And the countryside is so beautiful!

Segesta had a temple and some ruins. That doesn’t do it justice…just know that it is very interesting and beautiful. Luca provided a lot of information. I don’t think the tour would have been nearly as good if we didn’t have a guide providing information.

We drove to Trapani and took a cable car up the mountain to a medieval village called Erice. It was fantastic! Erice is a walled city with stone buildings, what I envision when I think of Europe and older cities. The Catholic church was very beautiful. Our guide also provided some good information to make it more interesting. We had about twenty minutes to walk around the city on our own. Narrow stone roads, a bit difficult to navigate. Again, wear practical shoes!

We took the bus back down the mountain, winding back and forth. The view was gorgeous, the best of the day.

We stopped at a hotel restaurant…a large room with a lot of windows facing the Mediterranean. They had wine and bottled water for each table. The first course was pasta with tomato sauce which was pretty good. The next course was baked potatoes and some sort of stuff meat (which I did not care for). The last course was an almond ice cream something or other. It was a nice end to our trip and we had a nice visit with the other DCL guests at our table.

The drive back to this ship took us through some beautiful countryside again.

We drove through Palermo on our way out and back. It is a big city, and not nearly as clean as Barcelona. I am glad we were able to see the countryside in Sicily rather than just walking around Palermo. It is so beautiful.

For those considering this excursion, we recommend it. There is a lot of walking and climbing up hills and stone surfaces (wear practical shoes!). DCL has it listed as “moderate” and recommended for ages over 5. Don’t bring young children, I don’t think the few on our bus really got much out of it. There is no way to use a stroller anywhere on the excursion. And if you are the type to use the elevator to go up two flights of stairs, skip this excursion. Don’t shy away from it, I am not in super shape and I have asthma…but I did just fine.

We were hungry when we got back on the ship, so we ordered room service. Oops, we forgot about the concierge reception!

We stopped by Shutters, we already got most of our 8x10 package selections picked out!
Not to worry, you can always swap in for a bigger package (or get a refund to a smaller package, we have done that).

Dinner was nice as usual. Visited with the family next to us. They noticed we had seen their special order food…they ordered Indian food from the many chefs from India who are on board. They passed over a plate of lovely onion fritters with mint and cilantro sauce. Wonderful family, a very nice visit.

I have discovered that Diversions has a decent wireless signal, so I can sit here while DH watches sports (instead of being by myself in the Promenade lounge).

Sorry everything is so brief, but the Internet is 30 cents/minute and it is very slow even when copying and pasting things.

 

[Doingitagain]

Thankyou for the trip report - I'm really getting excited when Iam reading it.

If you have time, could you look on your navigator when you are @ Naples to see if the Italian island and Beach resort excursion is running.

We have it booked for our 28th July cruise but I can not see it on any navigators?
Thanks

I can't recall seeing it on the Navigator, I can check back in the room. I am collecting Navigators each day to scan and post when I get back.

 

[Jillpie]

Hey Marie, a fantastic detailed report on Sicily, awesome. I had Don read this one, he would give anything to see all of this. Funny thing is, he works for a travel agency and we can't even travel!! Very frustrating sometimes, but we will, once the kids graduate. He loved your report. I'd give anything for Pat to read the Sicily part, he is a camp counselor this summer in NH, say hi to Beth from him and me!
This experience sounds just great. Keep it comin!

 

[capstonecruiser]

Thank you so much for your great posts! I am glad to hear that you were able to VPN and get office mail. I need to do the same. What stateroom are you in? Hoping that wireless works in 8080. We will be there on July 18th cruise.

 

[Jillpie]

Thank you so much for your great posts! I am glad to hear that you were able to VPN and get office mail. I need to do the same. What stateroom are you in? Hoping that wireless works in 8080. We will be there on July 18th cruise.

I don't want to answer for her, but I have a feeling she won't reveal her room # till after the cruise, for security reasons. A good question for when she gets back though!

 

[AnnaS]

Thank yo so much for taking the time and sharing w/us.

Looking forward to more.

 

[Doingitagain]

I can't recall seeing it on the Navigator, I can check back in the room. I am collecting Navigators each day to scan and post when I get back.

Nothing in the Navigator for Naples. You could call DCL directly.

 

[Doingitagain]

Just to finish off last evening…I forgot to mention that DH pulled me from Diversions to see DD be part of the Go Go Girls band…there was a battle of the boy and girl bands in Rockin Bar D. She and several others were dressed in large towels and dancing. They won! Of course, the prizes were drinks and she couldn’t partake because she isn’t 21 yet, so she got an orange juice.

We moved over from Diversions to the Promenade Lounge to check out their evening snacks while I finished posting. As I was leaving, one of the castmembers who had seen me sitting at the table with my laptop said “were you on the DisBoards”?

DD had an early night…only 1:30 a.m. Even DS stayed out until 12:30. Us old folks need sleep!

Today we did the Timeless Pompeii and the Taste of Sorrento. Some people really liked it, we were neutral. Part of my issue was that the description of the excursion was not true in all cases, as well as I didn’t agree with the time allocation. Let me write a bit more about it.

We left early again, about 7:45. There were five buses on this tour. Three of the buses went pretty much the same place at the same time all day. I don’t know about the other two, we only saw them when we got to Pompeii in the afternoon.

We were on the bus about an hour to Sorrento. The guide talked a bit, but not as well as yesterday’s guide. The excursion description said that we would stop at a historic center and a Cathedral before spending time in Sorrento…we did neither. They essentially just dropped us off in Sorrento and said to shop for an hour and they would pick us up. The shops were interesting enough, but we would never pick an excursion with a lot of shopping time. They did start us off at a shop where they showed how they made the decorative tops of wood furniture, art, etc. Very beautiful pieces, but you get the feeling that the tour group gets a kickback for starting everyone there.

We then got on the bus and drove 20 minutes to a working farm. We had a tour, showing us the lemon and olive trees. They demonstrated how to make cheese and showed the equipment used to make olive oil. It also was interesting enough, but we had two buses of people with one guide. Too many people for me.

We had lunch at the farm. I could have skipped that part. Not only did this portion of the trip eat up two hours of time, but we had three bus loads of people. We started lunch by sampling some of the farm food items…cheeses, salami, eggplant and bruschetta with artichoke paste. The adults then were given a plate of pasta with red sauce and some sort of cheese, then a piece of cake. The younger children were given hamburgers, fries and Coke for lunch. Wine and water bottles were on the table also. Adults had to pay one Euro for a Coke, only the children were given them for free. Children also received an ice cream treat rather than the cake. Very biased to the children here. I expected a bit more for the adult lunch. And of course, the offer to peruse the gift shop!

We then boarded the bus for another hour to Pompeii. This was by far the best part of the trip. Pompeii is fascinating and much larger than I thought. We barely scratched the surface with our two hour guided tour. We were given earpieces and a radio to listen to the guide during the tour. We started with a complimentary soda, water, or gelato. The guide toured us through Pompeii showing what he considered to be of interest.

Other tour groups from DCL had been given maps of Pompeii by their guide, our guide did not provide them. I asked about it at the beginning and he said he would get me one at the end (and at the end he said it was too late and the office was closed).

One couple on our excursion brought a young child and attempted a stroller through Pompeii. Thankfully they had a lot of family with them, because they ended up lifting and carrying the stroller a lot. Pompeii is not stroller friendly, I don’t advise doing that.

On our way back, we stopped at a cameo shop. What a waste of time. We walked in the store and they showed how they made cameos out of shells. That was two minutes of interest. Then they had you go into the store. We had twenty minutes at the stop, but most of us went right back to the bus after looking at the prices. Again, I figure the tour company is getting a kickback for this stop. We were all hot and tired and wanted to get back to the ship. Fortunately, it was only about a 20 minute trip back.

Pompeii is very, very interesting. I wish I would have studied more about it before our tour. I highly recommend Pompeii if you can get it as part of your excursion. If I would do this over again, I would do a tour that focused only on Pompeii so we would have had more time there. If you do Pompeii on your own without a tour guide, I suggest you buy a book to review before you start. I saw some people looking at soft cover “history of Pompeii” books during our tour. That probably would be a good idea even if you have a guided tour.

The tour guide walked fairly quickly. If you have limited mobility, a guided tour may be difficult.

When we got back on the ship we finally had the chance to meet both Connie and Hilda of the concierge staff when they stopped by the room. Very nice, friendly people. They are encouraging us to order room service from Palo on our Rome night since we get back so late from our excursion. Ordering from Palo is a benefit for concierge rooms.

We spent some time in Diversions before dinner. Pubmaster Paul had the college age kids playing “giant Jenga” and then we played some Uno. And had some snacks.

The show tonight was a large group Disney trivia contest called “On the Nose”. We skipped it because it didn’t sound interesting to us.

Dinner was at Parrot Cay. Service again was excellent. When we explained that three of the four of us would be at Palo the next evening, Sanjeev told DS that he would provide him better service than Palo. We said we might stop down anyway so we wouldn’t miss Lumiere’s crème brulee, so Sanjeev immediately offered to bring it to us tonight! So of course we said yes!

Karoake is the big item on the adult agenda tonight. DD will probably go with a group, but DH and I will probably skip it.

 

[MrsJobba1]

Nothing in the Navigator for Naples. You could call DCL directly.

Thanks for looking -I emailed DCL last week about this and they said
In reviewing your reservation, I see you have the Italian Island And
Beach Resort NP-10 reserved. This shore excursion is still active for
your cruise.

Whatever that means

Thanks for looking anyhow

 

[Jillpie]

"Dr. Bombay, Dr. Bombay, come right away", sorry just couldn't resist the Bewitched reference whenever you said Pompeii .

Sounded like kind of a bust on this one Marie, ha? But very beautiful at the same time. Your tips are invaluable to all the summer cruisers! Really well done, I'm sure they are very appreciated.

Room service from Palo....Niiiiiice.

Where are we going tomorrow? Jill

 

[jlawall]

Thx for posting with such detail! I look forward to hearing more!! My DDs are in the college range so I'm glad the programs have improved for that age grouop!

 

[4kittymagic]

This is just wonderful to read... Thanks very much

I'm wondering how the service and food has been so far??

 

[Doingitagain]

I tried to post this last night, but I had trouble accessing the Internet and was too tired to keep trying. So it is written for Sunday, but posted on Monday…

Today was Olbia, Sardinia. I have heard a lot of guests use this as a “leisure day” and stay on the ship. For the 10 day cruises, it is a Sunday and shops maybe open in the morning, but then are closed in the afternoon until about 5:00.

We had a half day afternoon excursion, so we used the morning to rest and relax. DH, DS and I had a light breakfast at Lumiere’s (with May as our asst server!) while DD caught up on much needed sleep. We relaxed all morning. I read and watched a movie, while DH and DS played board games and read. We went to Lumiere’s for lunch, where we had Sanjeev as our server. May was in the section right next to us, so she hopped over quite often to refill water and check on us even though we weren’t in her section. She is a very hard worker.

We went on the Jeep Safari excursion. It was the best excursion so far, per DD. We all really enjoyed it and I recommend it as a great way to see Sardinia. If you do a beach excursion, you see “Italian tourism” rather than local culture…but that relaxing day might be what you are looking for…each of us are on this cruise for different reasons. Our goal is to see as much of the local cultures and scenery as we can.

The jeeps can fit six guests along with a guide and driver. That is tight, however. We were fortunate to only have the four of us in the jeep with the driver and guide. Most jeeps (not all) had either a driver who spoke English or a guide who spoke English, so you could learn about Sardinia as you drive.

After a 30 minute drive along gravel and winding roads, we stopped at San Giacomo Church in the country. It is still used by locals and is named after a Spanish saint. Under the trees outside are a lot of stone tables and benches that are used for festivals. There was also a small local cemetery…talk about seeing local culture…it was very interesting. We were provided a snack of olive crackers, bottled water, Coca Cola and Fanta (note that the crackers have an unusual taste, not bad, just different. I think many grabbed them thinking they were sweet cookies).

The second stop was the Tomb of the Giants. After a short walk, a guide explained the tomb and how it was used, very interesting. They then provided a snack of locally produced products…wine (Nepente), pecorino cheese (from sheep), sausage and pancetta, as well as bottled water, Coca Cola and Fanta.

The third stop was a charming village called San Pantaleo. We were able to look into the church and walk around it a bit. The shops weren’t open because it was a Sunday, but that really didn’t matter. We were there for only a short time, and mostly to walk around and see the local village.

Our driver, Giovanni, had a CD player and played some special Sardinia music for us. Our guide, Maggie, was actually one of the people who took the buses of DCL people around when they were considering Sardinia for a port stop. Giovanni, our driver, was “the boss” of the tour, so our jeep got to pull ahead of everyone and lead! That was especially nice on the dirt roads because it meant less dust for us. Also, we had flexibility to slow down for pictures, etc. DS was in the front and was caught taking a snooze (late night before), so Giovanni revved the engine, swerved around a bit, and slammed on his breaks to stop and skid. He was really a lot of fun, and drove well. Maggie was our guide, and she talked a lot about Sardinia, it culture, people, etc. She also had samples of some local plants she described, and Giovanni pulled over once to pick some for us. One was named Myrtle (my Mom’s name!) and one was named Heather (another relative’s name)!

The scenery was incredible, as it was in Sicily. We really enjoyed seeing Sardinia, not just the port city area.

You don’t need to bring your own water on this excursion. There isn’t a lot of walking. You don’t need the special “Cathedral” clothing, but I would still dress respectably because you do stop at two churches. Your hair gets really blown around, so pull it back if you can. You can wear a hat, because the jeeps are enclosed.

Before you go to Sardinia, our guide recommended that you use the Internet and research writings by Grazia Deledda to learn more about Sardinia before you come.

Also, learned two Sardinian words:
Aijo means “come on”. It is pronounced ī-yō.
Eja means “yes”. It is pronounced ā-ya.
Most Sardinians also speak Italian.

This tour is offered in both the morning and the afternoon. The guide suggested the morning, because the guides are less tired. Also, on the 10 day tour this is on a Sunday and the San Pantaleo shops were open in the morning, but not the afternoon. We went on an afternoon excursion because it gave DD and DS the chance to sleep in (which they needed!).

We really liked this tour, but keep in mind that we ended up with the best driver/guide combination available. A guide can really make the difference in a tour. Maggie said that the first DCL cruise they only had six jeeps in the morning and four in the afternoon; this time they had 11 each time. I think the word is spreading!

Maggie also said they were initially nervous about DCL and commercialization and expectations. Also, they expected a lot of young children and she actually had planned some games for the stops. I explained that DCL had an age minimum of 10 for this excursion, and that parents could check their kids into the clubs before they headed off the ship.

There was a Castaway Club reception in Beat Street starting at 5. We stopped in briefly after we got back on the ship. I know they have to accommodate a lot more people, but it is still disappointing if you compare it to what it used to be. They offered cookies, orange juice, soda and water. You were given cards for drawings and had a trivia card to complete. I am not sure what the officers did for greeting and talking, we didn’t stay long at all. The only reason I would do it again is that the pen they give you is a nice Castaway Club pen. Late edit…DS won a clock from the raffle! It is a very nice silver clock (although unfortunately it is very heavy and will weight the luggage coming back!).

DD, DH and I went to Palo for dinner. Ciao Romano was our waiter again. He is so nice! DD didn’t care for any of the appetizers, so I asked for some fresh fruit. Any request is magnified in Palo…he came back with a dinner plate of bananas, watermelon, cantelope, honey dew melon, grapes, and strawberries! I couldn’t make up my mind of the salad and entrée, so I ended up with two salad courses and two half orders of entrees!
He remembered from brunch that we had a son back in the room, so when we ordered chocolate soufflés for dessert, he ordered a fourth to bring back to the room. And then due to some mix-up, we ended up with two to take down to Lumiere’s for DS…who proceed to eat his as an appetizer. We gave the second to the table next to him in Lumiere’s, who have so kindly shared their Indian food requests. Tonight they ordered chicken curry, so DS had that as his entrée.

Note that the passengers next to us went out the port to see if they could hire someone to take them sailing, but found nothing. It is very, very quiet on a Sunday.

Could someone do me a really big favor? This Internet is really slow and even going page to page drives me a bit crazy (can’t afford that, I am halfway there already!). Could you post a link to this trip report on the Med Shore Excursions thread? I had intentions of copying my reports into that one, but I have given up on that. I thought perhaps someone could post a link on there for me, and then people could come to this thread to read about our excursions. I can answer questions, etc. when we return to the US. Thanks in advance!

 

[bellelinus]

I posted the link to this thread on the Med excursions thread. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this!

 

[Jillpie]

Marie, this is one of the best trip reports I have ever read. You are really doing fantastic with the details. We love the details, it makes us right there with you all! That was so nice to share the 2nd Palo souffle. And that tour sounded really terrific, you got so lucky with the guides. Thanks for bringing us along! A huge HI to your family from me and Don, ok?!

 

[MPV]

Hi! Can you tell me how the weather is at night on the ship? I know the days will be hot, but I'm wondering if the evenings and at sea days call for sweaters. Thanks!

 

[musicgirl]

Great report Marie! In reading, I hear so much of your personality shining through!

Miss you all!

 

[Lqqieee]

Today was Palermo, Sicily. What a beautiful area! We docked about 7:00 a.m. We ordered from room service last evening so we could get an early breakfast at 7:15 because our shore excursion left at 7:45. One advantage of concierge is that you can order a hot breakfast.

There were three buses on the Erice and Segesta excursion. We spent the whole day with our one bus. It really did not feel crowded at all. Let me start by telling you we all really liked this excursion. It was what we wanted…we saw a little bit of a lot of areas in Sicily and the tour moved quickly without a lot of waiting.

Luca was our guide and he spoke excellent English. We drove for an hour to get to Segesta. Luca talked about Sicily almost the entire drive. It was very interesting. And the countryside is so beautiful!

Segesta had a temple and some ruins. That doesn’t do it justice…just know that it is very interesting and beautiful. Luca provided a lot of information. I don’t think the tour would have been nearly as good if we didn’t have a guide providing information.

We drove to Trapani and took a cable car up the mountain to a medieval village called Erice. It was fantastic! Erice is a walled city with stone buildings, what I envision when I think of Europe and older cities. The Catholic church was very beautiful. Our guide also provided some good information to make it more interesting. We had about twenty minutes to walk around the city on our own. Narrow stone roads, a bit difficult to navigate. Again, wear practical shoes!

We took the bus back down the mountain, winding back and forth. The view was gorgeous, the best of the day.

We stopped at a hotel restaurant…a large room with a lot of windows facing the Mediterranean. They had wine and bottled water for each table. The first course was pasta with tomato sauce which was pretty good. The next course was baked potatoes and some sort of stuff meat (which I did not care for). The last course was an almond ice cream something or other. It was a nice end to our trip and we had a nice visit with the other DCL guests at our table.

The drive back to this ship took us through some beautiful countryside again.

We drove through Palermo on our way out and back. It is a big city, and not nearly as clean as Barcelona. I am glad we were able to see the countryside in Sicily rather than just walking around Palermo. It is so beautiful.

For those considering this excursion, we recommend it. There is a lot of walking and climbing up hills and stone surfaces (wear practical shoes!). DCL has it listed as “moderate” and recommended for ages over 5. Don’t bring young children, I don’t think the few on our bus really got much out of it. There is no way to use a stroller anywhere on the excursion. And if you are the type to use the elevator to go up two flights of stairs, skip this excursion. Don’t shy away from it, I am not in super shape and I have asthma…but I did just fine.

We were hungry when we got back on the ship, so we ordered room service. Oops, we forgot about the concierge reception!

We stopped by Shutters, we already got most of our 8x10 package selections picked out!
Not to worry, you can always swap in for a bigger package (or get a refund to a smaller package, we have done that).

Dinner was nice as usual. Visited with the family next to us. They noticed we had seen their special order food…they ordered Indian food from the many chefs from India who are on board. They passed over a plate of lovely onion fritters with mint and cilantro sauce. Wonderful family, a very nice visit.

I have discovered that Diversions has a decent wireless signal, so I can sit here while DH watches sports (instead of being by myself in the Promenade lounge).

Sorry everything is so brief, but the Internet is 30 cents/minute and it is very slow even when copying and pasting things.

We did the Erice and Segesta tour as well! We were on the cruise before you 6/16. We really enjoyed it as well. My husband blogged about it at http://www.largelyignored.com
The internet in our stateroom was slow for the entire 11 nights of our cruise. I think it's just the way it is.

We had Ciao Romano for Palo brunch as well! We loved his name, lol.

 

[NYCDisneyFan]

Hi friends:

I was lucky enough to bring my own GPRS data card for my Macbook, so no Internet issues.

I've posted (a few hundred) photos from the 6/27 cruise to Flickr. Feel free to browse and get an idea for the ports, excursions, etc. I have not had time to caption each one, or delete a few 'not so great' photos, so there's the disclaimer.

otherwise, I'm posting the photos on the day of the port of call each day.

Just an FYI.

Palermo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boyds/sets/72157600561130811/

Naples:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boyds/sets/72157600571090993/

Olbia/Sardinia:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boyds/sets/72157600585953821/

Civitavecchia (7/2):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boyds/sets/72157600641085224/

La Spezia (7/3):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boyds/sets/72157600641046775/

Marseille (7/4):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boyds/sets/72157600641539475/

I'll be happy to answer any questions when I login next, or simply post a question to the photo on Flickr.

It is a wonderful cruise, with wonderful people. I can't say enough.

All the best,
Brian

 

[Doingitagain]

Hi! Can you tell me how the weather is at night on the ship? I know the days will be hot, but I'm wondering if the evenings and at sea days call for sweaters. Thanks!

It has been windy. I recommend a light jacket that you can take on and off. I also get cold in some of the lounges and theaters, so I am constantly wearing layers.

DD cautions about wearing skirts because the wind blows them around.