With 5 ports in a little over 6 days and ports being far away, it was a busy cruise with little time to enjoy the ship. In the future, I would not try to do Rome and Florence, but do something closer and maybe get back to the ship early.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
We got there early as we had spent a few days in
Barcelona, so had no issues.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
The quality and selection of food served in the main dining room is nothing special. I am accustomed to having a night with Lobster, but it was an upcharge on this cruise. The deserts and the food was just average. The only exception was the specialty restaurant, where the food was great. Filet that melted in your mouth.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
The number of ports and time of excursions meant we had little time on the ship.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
I thought this was the best part of the cruise. The shows were excellent.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
As always, they were very attentive. My issue is a daily gratuity charge of $13.50 to my ship account. Others went to customer service and had it taken off, but I didn't want to short employees who may not have had direct contact, but deserved a cut of the gratuities. It was then uncomfortable as my tablemates tipped the waiters and we did not as we felt we had tipped enough. It is a crappy system and resent forced tipping. I'm going to have them taken off my next cruise and tip individually.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
It's a big ship and requires a lot of walking.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
It was fine. The beds were not terribly comfortable as they were very hard.
We did excursion which was just site seeing on a bus. A family decided that the time frame did not apply to them, so we were made to wait on the bus until they deemed to join us and had our free time cut short. Worthless tour--would do the hop on hop off bus which is cheaper and not dependent on fellow passenger tardiness.
Too far away from ship dock. Took 2 hours 15 minutes each way on a bus which wasn't sceanic as it was on a highway. We took historical tour as had skip the line tickets for David which was
$199. Once there, we were dropped off and make to walk the entire tour. We had an average lunch and had to wait about 35 minutes to get into the museam. When we found the tour did not include Ponte Veccheo (sp), we left and took a taxi to the bus meeting place. Waste of money! My biggest complaint though was when the tour director walked us up 3 floors to find it was a jewelry store that she had struck a deal with The prices were ridiculous and most just sat and waited for the 15 minutes to be up. Too much of this on tours. (see below)
We paid $89 for the train transport from the ship at the excursion rate. It was a very old train that went to St. Peters train station which no one at the Vatican had heard of at the end of the day when we were trying to find it. It was straight uphill and not for those not in shape. Once there, we took the hop on hop off bus, but found it didn't get close to the sites. We didn't have time to get off and walk as we had booked Sistine Chapel reservations for 1PM. We got in around 10AM, so had we known where the train station was, we would have booked them for the morning and then had the afternoon. We only got to do that other than riding the bus as Rome traffic bad. It is just not enough time to see Rome. I would have gone to one of the places closer and smaller and saved Rome for an actual visit had I known. Luckily we had been there before, but didn't get to the Trevi Fountain, so may not get back!!!
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