European cruise... who's been on one?

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Ancient_Fish_Master

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 27, 2010
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Las Vegas
so i'll be going on a cruise in mid July and my ports will be:

Start: Civitavecchia, Italy
Genoa, Italy
Cannes, France
Barcelona, Spain
Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Valencia, Spain
Cruising Day
End: Civitavecchia, Italy

So i was just wondering if anyones been on a European cruise and has had one of these ports... if so, do you have any recommendations on excursions, sights to see, restaurants and anything intersting i should know about the port? lol also any do's and dont's to do on any cruise... this will be my first cruise so im just trying to see how everything is before i go. oh and me and my family will be arriving a day before the cruise to do some site seeing in rome and to see the vatican, so if you guys know of any good hotels in that area of italy... let me know! lol
 
How long are you going for and what else are you doing? IMO many of those places deserve more than a quick stop-over on a cruise, but I haven't actually been to any so can't comment on what there is to do there.
We did one around the Med last year, from Athens, Istanbul, Mykanos, Santorini, Izmir, Kusadasi, Patmos and Crete, thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was good to "tick off' the smalelr places like Mykanos that we felt we wouldn't need to spend more than a day in. The boat wasn't super-huge or flash but still very nice and more than adequate (also had a unlimited drinks card you could buy!), and TBH I'm not sure I'd want to be on one of the huge boats with 4000+ other people. The other thing I'd suggest is trying to avoid the peak season if possible. When we were in Santorini there were four other boats in port that day and the main town was packed, my folks waited nearly two hours to catch the cable car back down to the port (wife and I opted to walk the 580 stairs!), and when we got back on the boat our friendly drinks waiter told us that in the busy season there can be up to twelve boats a day there!!!

As for Rome/Hotels, try looking on expedia.com, we booked all our accommodation based on references around the recommendations there and they were all good.

Pic from Mykanos of our boat;
255004_1938600117748_6450874_n.jpg
 
I'm jealous! I haven't been on a cruise (well a voluntary one) since I was kid, but I did just spend 10 days in Italy... all I can say is, EAT! Especially being by the coast, you're gonna get some AMAZING fresh seafood and home-made pasta.
 
David R said:
How long are you going for and what else are you doing? IMO many of those places deserve more than a quick stop-over on a cruise, but I haven't actually been to any so can't comment on what there is to do there.
We did one around the Med last year, from Athens, Istanbul, Mykanos, Santorini, Izmir, Kusadasi, Patmos and Crete, thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was good to "tick off' the smalelr places like Mykanos that we felt we wouldn't need to spend more than a day in. The boat wasn't super-huge or flash but still very nice and more than adequate (also had a unlimited drinks card you could buy!), and TBH I'm not sure I'd want to be on one of the huge boats with 4000+ other people. The other thing I'd suggest is trying to avoid the peak season if possible. When we were in Santorini there were four other boats in port that day and the main town was packed, my folks waited nearly two hours to catch the cable car back down to the port (wife and I opted to walk the 580 stairs!), and when we got back on the boat our friendly drinks waiter told us that in the busy season there can be up to twelve boats a day there!!!

As for Rome/Hotels, try looking on expedia.com, we booked all our accommodation based on references around the recommendations there and they were all good.

Pic from Mykanos of our boat;
255004_1938600117748_6450874_n.jpg
Click to expand...

its an 8 day cruise but we are getting there a day earlier and staying for five days in italy after the cruise. and i think our cruise is the last cruise for that area so i dont think we will have a problem with it being busy, and from what i heard, there wont be more than 4k passengers, so thats a plus too i guess haha.

MaddMaxx said:
I'm jealous! I haven't been on a cruise (well a voluntary one) since I was kid, but I did just spend 10 days in Italy... all I can say is, EAT! Especially being by the coast, you're gonna get some AMAZING fresh seafood and home-made pasta.
Click to expand...
me and my family are huge seafood lovers so the whole fresh part is exciting since fresh seafood is hard to come by here in las vegas haha.

princess said:
skip italy n france, get to mallorca and BCM it up
Click to expand...

lol i really cant skip those stops since thats where the boat has to stop. but whats there to do in mallorca and barcelona? anything you recommend?
 
oh btw whats the deal with currency exchange? lol should i just tell my bank ahead of time that ill be going to europe so i can use my debit card? or should i just get my money exchanged when i get to italy...
 
Yes, definitely call your bank to let them know you'll be using your cards over there, most places will accept cards. I also took out some euro's from my local bank before I left (just go a few days before, cause they probably have to order them for you). I usually just get money from the ATM when I go to Abu Dhabi, but I had some trouble with the Italian ATM, I dunno if I was doing it wrong tho.
 
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