Raleigh NC 27606 - (919) 424-0798   Fax - (919) 828-4485    info@vestratravel.com

Royal Caribbean International – Voyager of the Sea

10/28/06 Western Med Cruise 7 nights

Itinerary: Barcelona, Spain; Marseille, France; Villefranche (Nice), France; Livorno, Italy; Civitavecchia, Italy; Naples, Italy; Barcelona, Spain

We had arrived in London, England a few days before our cruise departure. This gave us plenty of time to recover from the dreaded jet lag before taking our cruise. Our Cruise was scheduled to depart from Barcelona,Spain on October 28^th, so on that Saturday morning we flew from London’s Gatwick airport on a two hour British Airways to Barcelona arriving at 12:30pm local time in Spain. We took a cab from the airport to the Dock where we were dropped off at the terminal where the Voyager of the Seas was docked. Cab fares range in the 25-30 Euro range depending upon traffic. 

What a magnificent site that ship was!  It's so big it defies all words. As one intrepid cruiser said to me as we lined up to check in, “it’s like laying the Empire State building on its side and floating it around the oceans.” Royal Caribbeans' Voyager of the Seas completed her maiden voyage in 1999, is 1020 feet long and a beam of 156 feet. Gross tonnage 138,000, with a passenger capacity of 3,114 and a crew of well over 1000. This was our first experience on one of the mega sized ships, and we were somewhat apprehensive as to how crowded it would feel. 

Check in procedures were quick and efficient. We were given a flier to read, re health concerns, I suppose it was  prompted by all of the recent bad press about passenger illnesses on cruise ships. I’ll address some of these issues later. Armed with our ‘seapass’, a credit card sized id card, which doubles as your room key and shipboard charge card we were on our way to board the Voyager of the Seas. 

Luckily we each packed only a small, almost carryon bag, which turned out to be more than I really needed. Because we traveling light and I mean light in comparison to some passengers, we could just walk on the ship and go to our rooms immediately. In my opinion you can always tell the not-to-frequent traveler, as they have way too much luggage, God knows where they stack them in the staterooms! As it was, we were tripping over things in our stateroom, and we stowed our minimal possessions in the closets provided. I would have liked to be a fly on the wall of some of these fellow passengers. Anyway the other advantage besides not having to tip a porter, is that you don’t have to wait 3-5 hours for your suitcases to be delivered to your room. We were changed and unpacked and ready to have lunch within 30 minutes of our arrival. 

As we walked in the Windjammer Café / Island Grill, the causal dining cafeteria located on Deck 11 at the rear of the ship, we were welcomed with a beautiful display of carved exotic fruits that just set the right mood for the beginning of our special 30^th wedding anniversary trip. There is no way that you can go hungry on a cruise with unlimited eating options available, and for the most part, are all inclusive.  

After having a very nice lunch, we proceeded to explore the ship. We had been on a smaller Royal Caribbean ship, the Rhapsody of the Seas, earlier in the year for a Caribbean cruise. So we wanted to see how much bigger the Voyager was. I was interested in the large shopping Mall on the interior of the ship, onto which many interior cabins overlook. I must say, it was massive and starting to bustle with all of the newly arriving passengers. The lighting is especially impressive and can change the mood from one of a city mall to an azure and vermilion carnival atmosphere in the evenings. This is the first time I encountered shopping deals on a boat that easily rival the best sales on land, particularly those recommended Royal Caribbean Shopping. I find that usually the ship’s stores are overpriced because they have a captive audience. I was pleasantly surprised to find the prices in certain items, such as jewelry are comparable to wholesale prices. 

We had to endure the usual muster drill – we just grin and bore. It is a requirement that all passengers take part in the Muster drill before the ship departs. You basically don your life vest and line up, next to the lifeboat you are assigned to, with all your fellow passengers . It only lasted 20 minutes and then we were done. 

On Royal Caribbean you are assigned to a table in the formal dining room and to prechoose the early or late dinner seating. This ensures that all groups and families are seated together. We usually went to the formal dining room for dinner which on this cruise was a rather late 8:45PM sitting. On our earlier Caribbean cruise, late dinner seating was preceded with an early show, early seating dinner had a later second show. On this Med cruise, and I am guessing predicated by the itinerary and length of port times, first seating was 6:30pm followed by a show at 8:30pm, second seating dinner at 8:45pm with the second show time around 11:00pm. We are used to being in bed by 11:00PM and after a good day of touring and exploring the ports of call you are ready for bed because you have to be up early for the next day’s adventure.  

We did not see many shows or participate in after hours activities. We found that the dining experience on the Voyager of the Seas was slightly different. Most notably was the beef and steaks which, we are happy to report, were prepared perfectly as requested, unlike previous cruises where it was impossible to get a rare steak. However, we did consider that the menu selections were not quite as varied, and the number of desserts offered did not appear as creative and plentiful as we have experienced previously. 

Day 2 Sunday - Our first port of call was Marseille, France and we were docked and cleared by the local authorities by 7:00am. As is the case for most

of the ports of call on this cruise, they dock at an industrial port which has no ambience whatsoever. We chose not to partake of any of the Royal Caribbean shore excursions as we prefer to explore independently using local transportation. The ship does however provide a shuttle bus to take you to the center of town for a reasonable fare of $4.00 per person each way and we highly recommend the use of this service. 

Chris likes to get up early and head to the Gym for his daily three mile treadmill walk. He considers this to be his ticket to explore the dessert tray more fully each evening! We were in no rush, and by the time we were both ready to go it was about 10:30pm. The shuttle bus took about 15 minutes to get us to the drop off point in the center of Marseille.  

We of course, did our homework on each of the locations and decided what we wanted to see before we left home, and brought our plans with us. As far as Marseilles was concerned, we decided to walk around and see the sites for ourselves.  We found the Tourist office open on a Sunday morning and went in to get some updated information. It was here that we found out that all the buses were on strike - so we had to regroup.

[This is where I have a bone to pick with Royal Caribbean and their Guest Relations Dept. They are only too pleased to sell you one of their shore excursions and have all of the information to answer questions about them. However, for guests like ourselves, who prefer independent exploration, they have no, and I repeat no local information available. Any good hotel in the world would have a concierge desk with all sorts information available, especially facts like  a bus strike that Sunday, before we got off the boat,  and in Civitavecchia, the following Wednesday, that it was All Saint’s Day and the country rolls up and sleeps through the day. As it happened, in Civitavecchia as we will get to later, the train services were on Sunday schedule, and main tourist sites were closed as well as the Vatican City because there was a special Papal conference going on. None of this information was imparted to the passengers. Basically you were on your own if you don’t utilize their excursion services, and from talking to passengers who did sign up, they were not told either until it was too late.] 

We decided since it was such a lovely and warm day that a seat on top of an open sightseeing double decker bus known as the “Le Grand Tour – Marseilles bus (20 Euros) would be just right. Then if we saw anything particularly interesting we would walk back and investigate further. This proved to be a good plan. The harbor views and the scenic coastal route along the Avenue of President Kennedy and the Promenade of George Pompidou would have been too far to walk even for the most athletic in the time allotted. Ditto for the walk to the most prominent building in the city over 500 feet above sea level, the grand cathedral Notre Dame De La Garde which is one of the many stops on the sightseeing bus.   

Along the coastal road, you could easily see the notorious Chateu D’If, a small offshore island, and the setting of the Alexander Dumas’ novel “The Count of Montecristo”. Another good thing about this city tour is that you may stop at any of the 16 bus stops, see the sights, and then  hop back on the next bus circling the route during that day. Tickets are valid for the day and you may hop on and off as many times as you desire. After the 1½ hour trip which made a pretty exhaustive tour of Marseilles and the outskirts, we parked ourselves at an outdoor cafe for a drink, rest, and of course the inevitable visit to the restroom. The only reason I mention this is that it was so filthy dirty, and had no toilet seat, it was beyond comprehension! 

We had a chance to walk around the harbor area and check out the backstreet restaurants. Since it was Sunday, everybody was out and about and eating their main meal of the day. Most of the restaurants had fixed priced dinner menus displayed, which averaged about 15-20 Euros. We enjoyed looking at what people were eating and caught some restaurant fresh fish displays on camera. Naturally the French were eating and drinking voluminously; I did not see one table without a bottle of wine on it, and it was nothing for them to start their Midday meals as late as 4:00PM. 

Since we had another hour or so, we decided to take another tour around the Old city of  Marseilles with the ‘Little Tourist Train’ (5 Euros each for the 45 minutes tour) which you can catch in the same area as the Le Grand Tour bus. It is not really a train, just a truck dressed up as a train towing three passenger trailers. This train takes you through  the very narrow streets of the Old City bumping and scratching all of the cars and passerby’s in its wake. We enjoyed this as much as the double Decker bus because you got so close to the people, including the perennially, yet cute, waifs and strays following the little train. Because of the old city’s very old narrow streets, you were so close to their homes that you could hear their conversations and smell the food on their kitchen tables.  

It was now around 4:30pm and while we waited for the Royal Caribbean shuttle bus to pick us up, we enjoyed the local color on the wharf, a professional sounding troupe of Peruvian Indians, singing and dancing to the strains of Peruvian Pan pipes and flutes, complete with an Indian mother with baby in papoose, selling CD’s to the assembled onlookers. The music was lovely and they drew a great crowd, but the juxtaposition of Peruvian Indians on a Marseilles wharf struck me as a bit odd. But that’s what traveling is all about! 

That evening was the Captain’s Welcome Aboard Champagne reception, so we decided to get dressed and attend, and then afterwards go to the Carmen Dining Room for dinner at 8:45pm. This event was rather well done, they use the Royal Promenade (the shopping mall area) for the event and the lighting would make Studio 54 blush. It was extremely colorful yet tastefully vibrant, the Captain took the opportunity to introduce his senior officers. This is another photo op for the passengers and they seemed to love to have the opportunity to meet the rather charming and hospitable Captain Gerry – more about the captain later. We met a lovely female Air force Captain traveling as a passenger, who had recently been back from Iraq. She was dressed in formal dress uniform and was accompanied by her two young daughters, who were eagerly awaiting their turn in line to meet the Captain. 

The evening was capped off with a good chuckle when we entered our stateroom and saw a large monkey hanging on a coat hanger over our bed. It was fashioned from bath towels by our stateroom attendant. 

Day 3 Monday - Our second Port of Call was Villefranche, France. By 9:30am we sauntered to the Windjammer cafe for breakfast. The view we encountered has to be one of the most beautiful on the planet. The small village of VilleFranche, about 5 miles from Nice, clings on the Maritime Alps that plunge directly into the bay on this part of the Cote-D’azure. And from this vantage point it is no surprise why they call it the Cote ‘D’ Zur.  It is the most perfect azure blue color water you will ever see. Of all of the ports of call, this is only of two, Naples been the second, with a spectacular view. We had to be tendered in to the port but this was not a problem. It only took about 10 minutes. Believe it or not just as the last port of call, all you needed to step off the boat was some Euros and your seapass, and you’re ready to go. You could easily spend the day in this little village and be very satisfied. As a matter of fact I have read other’s accounts of this stop on the cruise, and this is what many recommended.  

Being ever on the prowl for another adventure,  we spend several hours checking out the arts and craft market that was open that day, and walking up and down the winding streets catching glimpses of real French life along all of the alley ways in the village. Culminating in a visit to the lovely little church at the top of the hill. Some of the alley ways lead to vistas of the harbor that are breathtaking, and there are some really spectacular art galleries, neatly tucked away in the narrow streets, that are fun to pop in as well.  

If you are seriously into shopping, this is not the stop you need. Head to Nice to the west or Monte Carlo the east, Nice is 7 minutes away and Monte Carlo about 40 minutes. VilleFranche is a very pretty place yet I wanted to press on to Antibes and see the Picasso Museum, that I did not have a chance to visit on one of our previous trips to the south of France. Chris resisted but eventually relented. We found the small train station about five minutes walk from the dock. Make sure that you select the correct platform or you will be on your way to Monte Carlo and Monaco in the opposite direction. We decided to hop on one of the trains headed to Marseilles. This train goes along the entire coast stopping at Nice, Antibes, Cannes and points further west. The stop at Nice was only 7 minutes by train and only several Euros, significantly less expensive than the organized Royal Caribbean tours.  

Many of the trains were new and spotlessly clean. The train to Antibes took about an hour. We found a lovely young French college student, named Marin, on the train who was also destined for Antibes. We all walked together from the station into the center of town (less than a mile) to Picasso’s Museum. I questioned a woman who lived across the street from the Museum in my best pigeon French, and asked “What time does it open?” I was appalled to find out the it was closed – no reason given – I was told as best I could make out, not to waste any more of my time hanging about. It’s closed! Some of  these older French woman can get a bit prickly and I got one that was downright sour. I could not believe my bad luck.  

I consoled myself by taking some nice shots of this picturesque location which Picasso used to awaken his Muses. Alas I am destined to return again. Next time I will check the times and not assume the Picasso Museum is always open. After a short and lovely stroll back to the train station, via the marina and its fashionable yachts rocking gently in the water, we took the train back to Villefranche and were back on the boat about 5PM . We were there well in time to appreciate the Drink of the Day – in the appropriately named doublespeak– Blue Azure!  As we do when we are home, we always take a stroll in our  garden during the cocktail hour ,and we did not see why we couldn’t continue our practice on the top deck of the ship. After all we had a marvelous view, and a very romantic sunset. So we both strolled with our drinks in hand and enjoyed the warm autumn breezes, as we watched the fiery sunset on one side of the boat, and the crescent moon on an azure sky rising on the other. Since it was our 30^th wedding anniversary trip, this romantic ambience was not lost on us. 

Day 4 Tuesday – Livorno, Italy: Heralded as the port for Pisa and Florence. This port was nothing other than a giant freight parking lot for containers. Not very pretty. As we had been to Florence several times in the past, we opted to go it alone again.  We took the proverbial shuttle bus into downtown Livorno. Here we were dropped off, quite a ways from the train station. We found out that we had to take the Number 1 bus to the train station. The fare was very reasonable about 1 Euro. The ride took about 10 minutes which offered us a good chance to take a glimpse at this port town. Livorno is not a place I would suggest to tour, but I did see some good shopping opportunities, so if that is all you want, just wander around the main part of town and get back on the boat.  

We did encounter some unscrupulous individuals here; licensed bandits, known as taxi drivers. On the key side, besides shuttle and tour buses, there were several cabs available. The taxi drivers were trying to convince us that taking the shuttle into town would be a large mistake since once there, if we did make it to the railway station, there would be no train service due to a wildcat strike. I am going to guess, even though I have no evidence, that the shuttle bus ticket collector girl was in cahoots with them, as she basically confirmed their story. Well we have never been ones to accept such stories and today was no exception; we pressed on, caught the number 1 bus in town, arrived at the railway station to find no interruption in service whatsoever. 

We had our sites set on going to both Lucca and Pisa. We purchased round trip tickets to Lucca which cost us ten euros each. We took the train to Pisa which took about 15 minutes and then had to change platforms to get the connecting train to Lucca which took another 30 minutes.  

The visual experience on alighting at Lucca was delightful. It was obviously not a mega tourist venue, although I don’t know why. The train station looked as new as it did when it was constructed in the 1930’s. As we walked out we saw the city in front of us, totally surrounded by a giant brick red rampart. Outside of the wall, we crossed a wide grassy area which probably could have been a moat which once surrounded the city. A small tunnel and a set of stone steps got us inside this giant wall. The gleaming 11^th century cathedral of San Martino was the first massive architectural structure that attracted our attention. Lucca is a marvelous, totally enclosed, medieval Italian town that has retained it pristine perfection. 

It is exceptionally clean, unlike other Italian towns such as Naples, which comes to mind immediately. It would have been a pleasure to spend more than just a fleeting afternoon exploring Lucca. Nevertheless, we walked up and down the streets with abandon, I had a momentary manic desire of finding Casa Puccini, in which Giacomo Puccini was born, and in which he composed his last opera Turandot. We managed to find it easily in a rather large square. The square appropriately named Piazza Puccini is dominated by a large bronze statue of Puccini depicted  sitting rather elegantly. I was particularly happy having found this. The only disappointment in our brief visit to Lucca was that some sort of special market was being setup, so virtually every piazza was chocked full of tents and marquees full of people selling comic books! 

Unfortunately we could only spend several hours in Lucca since I had never been to Pisa and Chris was urging me to squeeze out some time to see the leaning tower. We jumped back on a train to Pisa, and were under the opinion that we should get off at the Pisa Centrale station. But as we approached Pisa it was not difficult to miss the imposing Duomo, and Leaning Tower out of the train window. So we got off at the station we were just entering. Can’t remember its name, something like Pisa Royale?  A five minute brisk walk and into the enclosed brick area known as the Campo die Miracolo, or the Field of Miracles which houses the magnificent 11^th century Duomo, and the rotunda Baptistery, and of course the all famous leaning tower of Pisa.  

Again we did not have much time to see anything other than these three most famous places. We got tickets to view two of the three buildings, the Baptistery and the Duomo for about eleven euros. Well worth it. We did not have time or desire to climb up to the top of the leaning tower of Pisa. Maybe next time. We did see all of the infernal tourists straining to take that famous shot – holding up the leaning tower. The Japanese, Americans and Europeans all were in the act I wish I had taken a picture of the 20 odd simultaneous posings that I observed. I decided at that point not to get into that act. But when I got home my girlfriend asked me why I hadn’t taken this famous snap, and I re-visualized the circus and cringed at the thought. 

Because Chris was getting concerned about catching the last bus to the ship in Livorno, I was persuaded to take a taxi to the Pisa Centrale train station instead of wandering through the streets in what would have been a 20 to 30 minute walk. We had no wait for the next train back to Livorno. As it turned out that was a prudent move as we still had to catch the number one bus back to the shuttle bus pickup point in Livorno, where we had to wait 30 minutes for the shuttle to pick us up. 

Voyager was to depart Livorno at 7:00pm, and passengers were to be onboard by 6:30pm. Last shuttle bus, we were told, was to leave downtown Livorno at 6:00pm. We encountered several very unhappy passengers later that evening, who were still fuming about the fact that they were at the shuttle stop at 5:30pm, and by 6:15pm still no shuttle. As recounted to us, a call was made back to the ship to find out what happened to the remaining shuttle service. By then some 45 passengers were waiting to return to the ship. They all made it back but not without some panicked moments about missing the boat. 

When we got back on the Voyager there was quite a few things that were going on in the evening. I sat in the Schooner bar and had my ‘drink of the Day’ which was a ‘Novella Vecchia’. Since it was Halloween, the crew had decorated the bar appropriately, and there was going to be a Halloween Monster Mash, which we predictably did not get around to, but the reviews the following morning were good. The Love and Marriage game show was hilarious, I caught quite a bit of it on the ship TV station the following day as a rerun. And they also had an Ice Odyssey. We decided to relax and have a formal dinner in the dining room. We have been known to be critical of food and service but I can’t really fault the dining room staff or Chef. They did not disappoint us any night. 

Day 5 Wednesday – Civitavecchia, Italy Gateway to Rome. We had discussed this port of call before we left home and decided that we would probably pass on the trip to Rome since we had visited  several times before. The problem as we saw it was, that it would take at least 1 ½ hours each way on the train and once we got there we would leave us less than 5 hours all told, and that really was a lot of train travel for that short a period of time. If however, we had never been to Rome I would have been out on the first bus at 7:00 AM and maxed the day out. 

I probably did not mention that we brought our laptop computer with us because we had to tend to some business while we were away, and we could take advantage on catching up on the business activity on board ship. This might interest passengers that want to go on vacation but need to stay abreast of the business back home. This was not hardship on board the Voyager because there were wi-fi hot spots in five public places on board the ship, in addition to the ships internet café in the Library. The problem we encountered was that the connections were at best painfully slow and very expensive. The speed of connection seemed to vary by the hour and by the day – some days we had almost acceptable speed, whereas at other times it was virtually unusable. It would have been great if Voyager had a couple of desks set up in one of the hot spots for laptop computer use. As it was Chris had to either balance his computer on top of a small cocktail table, or on his lap. The least expensive internet option was to buy a $50 worth block of time, which brings the unit price down to $0.33 per minute.  

We arrived in Civitavecchia and the weather was cloudy and a bit miserable. When we got off the boat we met a group of ladies that were moaning that the trains were not running that day because it was All Saint’s, Day a big Holiday in Italy. They were very unhappy because they had wanted to go to Rome but couldn’t because of the trains. Since the train station was just down the street, less than a ½ kilometer we decided to check this story out. We both thought it was unlikely that all of the trains weren’t running at such a large station. When we arrived we determined that there was service but on a reduced “Sunday – type schedule” which was more understandable.

If we had wanted to got to Rome we would have had to wait another 1½ hours for the next train and that ate even further into the time that we would have in Rome. The other possibility we had considered for the day was going to the small town of Viterbo about an hour away. But we prudently concluded that we were not meant to be leave Civitavecchia, timing of the trains to Viterbo,  if there was service, would have been difficult, the stores and possibly the sites would be closed, so we decided to go back to the ship, relax and catch up on some email.  I was starting to develop a cold, and I was feeling a bit under the weather. Chris worked in the Schooner Lounge while I had my nails manicured in the beauty parlor. For the rest of the day we enjoyed the many activities onboard. 

Day 6 Thursday - Naples: We arrived in Naples at the main port, smack in the middle of all of the Neapolitan action. The view from the boat was spectacular, With a 360 turn you can see, the imposing Mount Vesuvius, the city of Naples, Sorrento and the island of Capri. We loved Naples from a previous trip and felt at that time that we did not even scratch the surface of all of its wonders. Well obviously in a 12 hour visit we were not going to dig too much deeper. But last time I felt I had missed a very important site, the National Archeological Museum in the center of town, and since we had enough time this visit, I could go through it leisurely and at least have the satisfaction of finally visiting it. 

I should point out that the wonderful warm weather we started off the cruise with in Barcelona, had now in Naples, deteriorated to a windy chilly wet day. As we were sitting eating breakfast, we spotted the same red double decker Hop on Hop Off City Sightseeing buses, similar to the one we had ridden in Marseilles. No shuttle bus required here – just a short two minute walk to town. We decided that we should do the whirlwind bus trip since we had not done this before in Naples. This turned out to be an excellent choice since it started to rain again and walking would not have been too much fun. We jumped on the bus and took both of the tours they offered. Namely, the Bay of Naples tour, and the Art Tour which concentrated on the central part of the city. They had a third tour the San Martino tour, but they only offer this on weekends in non-peak season. Royal Caribbean offered quite a few tours in the Naples area. Many passengers chose to go to Pompeii, some chose to go to Sorrento and the isle of Capri, while others chose the Amalfi coastal drive to the towns of Amalfi and Positano. Anyone of these trips is a must see for first time travelers. Unfortunately the weather was cold with on an off showers and they may not have had the spectacular impressions you get on a hot summer's day. We hope they will return and see it in better weather. 

We did the complete ‘Bay of Naples’ aka the ‘Blue Line’ sightseeing bus tour without getting off, and then switched to the Art Tour, aka the ‘Red Line’ . Here we got off at stop four so that we could visit the National Archeological Museum. Housed here are the treasures that were removed from Pompeii, magnificent sculptures and mosaics, and a very unusual collection of Roman obscenities, not for the faint of heart.  

Rather than hopping back on the Bus, we chose to walk back to the port, through the back streets and alley ways of Naples. If this had been our first visit to Naples, I probably would have never ventured down such streets. However, Naples is one of those cities that you really have to experience more than once. Yes it’s dirty, and yes the traffic doesn’t appear to follow any set rules of the road, and yes it has a bad reputation, but I can honestly say that we have never felt threatened here. We did briefly speak with a Canadian couple as we walked back to the ship who were besides themselves with grief over what they considered was the awful state of Naples. They could find absolutely nothing positive to say. I would guess that these folks were on their first international trip and were certainly not ‘international travelers’. Having grown up in New York City and Newark NJ, and traveled the world, Naples is Heaven on earth compared to some I’ve visited! 

Day 7 – Friday At sea returning to Barcelona: Naples was our last port of call and day seven was a ‘sea day’ as we sailed back to Barcelona. Very relaxing and very calm. That evening, we had a pre dinner farewell show in the ships theater.  Captain Gerry was introduced to give, what we thought would be a thank you for sailing with us speech. Imagine our surprise – not only did he thank us for sailing, he cracked several jokes, was then handed a guitar and he broke into song accompanied by the ships’ orchestra! What a ham – this was no amateur singing on stage. A standing ovation later, he was gone and the show continued.  

Saturday – Disembarkation Barcelona: Rather a busy situation, and the only time we felt the effects of 3000+ passengers. The line for taxi cabs was huge, and it took us forty five minutes in line for it to be our turn – no shortage of cabs, just a large volume of people. 

Final thoughts

What was the worst thing about the cruise? In a word, smoking. Royal Caribbean still permits smoking in the cabins and in the bars. The schooner lounge, where Chris spent many hours on his computer, had a no smoking section, totally surrounded by a smoking section. The Casino was just a smelly smokey environment. Usually we decide to waste a few dollars, but as neither of us can stand the smell of smoke, we gave it a complete miss. According to our stateroom attendant, a couple a few doors down from us,  constantly smoked in their cabin; although we could not smell the smoke in our cabin, smoke was very evident in the hallway. 

What was the best thing about the cruise? The service from the crew was impeccable, especially in the restaurants and our stateroom attendants. As we mentioned earlier, more attention should be given to port information and local conditions. The food was always good, and of course you are never going to like every selection presented, especially on a ship where the passengers represented so many differing nations. We certainly found it more than acceptable. 

Hygiene Concerns

Much has been made in the press of late about shipboard illnesses. I mentioned earlier that as part of the embarkation process, we were given a flier outlining the ships procedures for preventing such outbreaks. At the entrance to each restaurant were hand sanitizers; passengers were encouraged to get a ‘squirt’ and rub vigorously as though washing your hands. Besides catching a small cold, which we probably got before joining the cruise, we were both healthy.  Hand shaking is discouraged, but we found ourselves doing it without even thinking. We both noticed, that despite all of the encouragement to constantly wash hands, especially after a visit to the restroom, a few passengers still exit the restroom without even a splash of water. 

Would we recommend this cruise?

A resounding yes. We spoke with many of our fellow passengers from the USA, some experienced in European travel, and others who had never been overseas before. For the experienced traveler, such as ourselves, each port of call gave us an opportunity to explore a specific location that, on a prior visit, was missed, or was something we had previously enjoyed, and wanted to relive again. For the novice, this cruise provided a manic opportunity to see an awful lot in a very short period of time. Certainly terrific value for money. Two  people can stay in good accommodations, with full board, entertainment, and transportation between each city visited for a fraction of the price you would have to pay if doing your own land tour.  

Contact Information

Dr. Aves is the President of  Vestra Travel, a full service travel agency, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. With husband Chris they run the Travel Agency and British Country Tours, a company specializing in small group exclusive tours to the British Isles. Helena holds a Bachelors degree from Rutgers, and Masters and Doctoral degrees from Columbia University, New York City.

Please forward your questions comments and observations to: 

helena@vestratravel.com   

(919) 834-5680 Ext 113