Western Mediterranean Cruise

NAGGIE03

Was thinking of maybe taking a med cruise with Royal Caribbean this summer. The one I have my eye on departs Barcalona and takes in Naples,Rome,Florence,Nice and Provence. My question is are the ports actually near the cites or would we need to pay extra each day to visit these places? Has anyone done this cruise?
Thanks in advance!:D

lord lucan

We done the Western Med cruise with RC about 2 years ago. Similar itinerary,it left Barcelona and stopped at Villefranche,Livorno,Cittavechia,Naples and Palermo.

Villefranche was the stop where you could travel to Nice,Cannes or Monaco. We checked it out and it was pretty handy to do by train. About half an hour on the train would get you to Monaco or Cannes so doable.

Livorno was the port for Florence. We didn't get to stop their as there was a dockers strike on so we had to go further up the coast and it wasn't worth the hassle of trying to revise my plans. Originally we planned to get the train from Livorno to Pisa and then on to Florence. It was pretty handy to do and pretty cheap iirc.

Cittavechi was the port for Rome. We got the train from Citavecchia into Rome,it only took 40 minutes. We hopped off at St.Peters station and hit the vatican first and walked our way around Rome. Got the train back from the central station in Rome,just up the road from the Colliseum. Was pretty cheap train fare as well.

Naples port drops you right into Naples city. We got the hovercraft from Naples dock over to Sorrento and then the train from there to Pompeii. When we finished there we got the train from Pompeii back into Naples. Again very cheap and very easy to do.

Palermo on Sicily is right beside the town,it's only a few minutes walk into the centre of the town.

As you've probably figured we done everything ourselves. The money RC were charging for their trips was mad. A bit of searching online showed us that we could do it much easier(and cheaper!) ourselves.

A great resource is the Cruise Critic website and forums:http://www.cruisecritic.com/

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=603

NAGGIE03

Ah thanks a million for your advice lord lucan!
Have been looking at some of the trips RC have and it would mean an extra €120 a couple/day! Which is extremely pricey! Thanks so much for the link. I will have to do some investigations! It seems a lot of travelling!

Jumpy

We just came back from a Western Carribbean and it was a similar price than the Med trip we did with them. The Caribbean trip was by FAR the better holiday.

All the ports required no travelling. The Med trip was far too rushed because of the time taken to get from the ports. The ports are also very industrial and ugly, especially Civitavecchia.
The Caribbean ports were all paradise.

NAGGIE03

Thanks Jumpy. Ive done a Caribbean cruise before and i totally agree! Pure heaven! My only problem would be that flights to e.g Miami would work out a lot more expensive than say a flight to Barcelona. Cruise im looking at at the moment would work out approx €900 each including flights.

Jumpy

NAGGIE03 wrote: »

Thanks Jumpy. Ive done a Caribbean cruise before and i totally agree! Pure heaven! My only problem would be that flights to e.g Miami would work out a lot more expensive than say a flight to Barcelona. Cruise im looking at at the moment would work out approx €900 each including flights.

Flights to Barcelona or Venice came out at 200 euro per person less than a flight to Newark. The cruise itself was 300 euro per person cheaper than the other Med one we were looking at. So it was actually cheaper and 2 days longer.
However it wasnt the one you were looking at as we had already done that one. Your cruise is the cheapest Med one on offer by them at the moment, because of its popularity.

We did this one.

http://www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/findacruise/cruiseDetails/itineraryAndPricing.do;jsessionid=0000NzE8BLNCwd_iEkiKr5wEGwv:13dlht99k?packageCode=EX09L030&sailDate=1100610&date=ANY&selectedCurrencyCode=EUR&promoType=&hasSenior=&hasMilitary=&hasFireandPolice=&state=

Jumpy

P.S - Cococay is a private island owned by RC. Its the best part of the trip and is literally my definition of paradise.

NAGGIE03

Ive been to Cococay!! Fab!! Just lying in a hammock and relaxing drinking cocktails. Heaven! Loved the inflatable water park too.

Thanks for all your information and that cruise you went on is definitely worth thinking about. Youve been a great help!

Jumpy

Not a worry My experience of Cococay was a little different, I was speeding Wave Riders around the island and snorkelling with the stingrays

Maryorange

Hi

Going on a cruise in june for 8 nights Place's we stop. Corfu slovenia venice zadar Croatia dubrovnik in Croatia and Montenegro then back to corfu.love to hear from you who went on this cruise before no idea what to expect?