Mediterranean Cruise Part I

We spent 12 nights aboard Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas ship. We cruised France, Italy, Greece and Turkey. Our trip started in Barcelona. Click here for the Barcelona trip report. Cruising is a great way to see a lot of ports in a very short period of time. Over the 12 days, the ship traveled more than 3,000 nautical miles.

The Brilliance of the Seas

Our overall experience on the Brilliance of the Seas was quite good. We sailed on one of the sister ships, the Serenade of the Seas, last June so it didn't take long for us to find our way around. The ship was in good shape and it didn't seem near as crowded as the Alaska cruise. (Even though the Brilliance was sold out) This may be because the weather was so nice, people were equally dispersed amonst the ship. In Alaska it was cold and everyone was always indoors.
	One of our favorite places to "hang out" during the days at sea was the Solarium. No kids allowed and they don't play loud music. Nice place to read a book and enjoy the day. The staff was really cracking down on people "saving chairs". By the end of the cruise they were monitoring lounge chairs like meter maids!
We lucked out and were upgraded to a handicapped junior suite. This was VERY nice indeed. The only thing we had to get used to was the automatic front door. When you insert the key it swings wide open for 15 seconds. (Expecting a wheel chair of course) The room was almost as big as the Grand Suite we had on the Serenade of the Seas.
	The balcony was also extra large. Also included in the room was a very large walk-in closet. This was great for storing our clothes in an "out of the way" place.
It appeared to us that the food quality has gone down between ships. It was "OK" but by no means was the formal dining room "fine dining". We did eat at Chops and Portofino and both were excellent. (That really was fine dining) Our favorite place in the Windjammer was to eat outside on the back deck. The picture to the right is Carroll having breakfast in Santorini. The back deck is beautiful and usually not very crowded.
	We played minature golf this trip and it was pretty fun. We thought about the rock climbing but decided against it.
On a few of the days a "laundy sale" was offered. This was very appreciated since it was a longer cruise. They would wash and dry as much underwear, t-shirts, and socks as you could get into a bag for $20. We used the service and they did a great job.
	The upper deck of the ship was always empty.
We had the late seating so we were always able to watch the sun set just before entering the dining area.

Villefranche

Our first port was Villefranche, France. This was one of the most scenic ports of the cruise. We were scheduled to arrive at 10 AM, so I went down at 8:45 AM to pick up our tender passes. We were in group number 2. We were off the ship and on land by 10:15 AM. We later discovered that after group number 2 they called all of the tours to the tenders. So group 3 wasn't able to go ashore for another 1.5 hours. So make sure you get an early tender pass at this port, or you will be waiting on the ship until noon.
	We decided to take the bus to Nice, France. This is very easy to do. Just walk to the top of the hill and look for the pharmacy (as shown). The bus to Nice stops directly in front of the pharmacy. The fare was 1 Euro per person. The buses were comfortable and air conditioned.
When we arrived in Nice we tried to find a bus to take us up the hill to the Matisse museum. That didn't happen so we ended up walking. (See Carroll's blog for details)
	The Matisse museum was very nice.
Afterwards we took the bus down the mountain back into the main portion of town. There is a huge square in the middle of Nice that is rather impressive.
	It was time for lunch so we headed toward the beach! The French Riviera is absolutely beautiful. The water is very blue and the beach was packed full of sun worshippers. The beach was not sand, but rather round stones.
We ate lunch at a place called Opera Plage. The lunch was expensive but very good. You couldn't beat the location. After lunch we did some shopping in town. Then it was back to Villfranche. (Since it was actually much prettier than Nice.)
We found this nice little bar that was having "happy hour" and showing the Wimbledon tennis match. We enjoyed a beer and solved all of the world's problems with some Brits that we met. We really enjoyed Villefranche. It is very scenic and very quiet.
	On the way back we visited the Savonnerie de Villefranche, or the soap factory. This place makes soap and they were fantastic. We purchased some and used it in lieu of the crappy soap on the cruise ship.
One of the most picturesque places we visted.
	We left the port around 7 PM.

Florence

In Livorno we took the "On your own" tour to Florence. The tour is a bus ride into town, which took about 1.5 hours, and then they drop you off and tell you to meet back at the bus as 3:30 PM. This tour was great for us because it allowed us free time to explore Florence on our own.
Florence is just full of art. Everywhere you turn there is a statue, mosaic, or beautfiul building.
	The Duomo was larger than I expected. Very beautiful. Florence was one of our favorite places of the cruise
We had lunch at a place called Pasticceria Maioli. It was pretty casual and the food was good. Everything in Florence is VERY expensive, so be prepared to spend some Euros. The picture to the right shows "Lover's Locks". It is a tradition where people write their names on the locks and chain them to the bridge. It is a sign of romantic love.
	The Ponte Vecchio bridge. This is the only bridge that survived World War II.
This was the church were met back with our tour.

Rome

We took the "Eternal City" tour with the cruise. This was the most expensive tour but it assured us access to the Vatican, which included the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica. When we arrived at the Vatican there was a long line of people waiting to enter. Our tour went to the front of the line and we were inside in mere minutes. (One of the advantages of taking a tour)
	The Vatican museum was very impressive. The tour only took us to a few areas of the museum, but it was clear that you could spend days looking at the art that was collected through the centuries.
	Our guide was very informative. We had walkie-talkies that were linked in with the guide. This made it easier to understand since the museum was loaded with people.
We do not have any pictures of the Sistine Chapel because cameras are not allowed. But it was very impressive. Much smaller than I thought it would be. Next we entered St. Peter's Basilica.
The church was much larger than I had anticipated. It was down right huge. And beautiful! This was truly a highlight.
We then proceeded outside where we were able to see the massive Vatican square. The square can hold thousands of people.
We then had time to do a little shopping at the Vatican. We are not Catholic, visiting the Vatican wasn't a necessarily religious experience, but it was still a very special day.
Our next stop was the Roman Coliseum. Our tour also included entry into the Coliseum.
	We didn't see any actual lions, but we did see some references to them...
For a moment I thought I was in Southern California at a USC game...
The tour was very interesting. It was afternoon when we toured the Coliseum so it was hot! The tour never did offer us any water which we thought was rubbish.

Mykonos

Mykonos was a major disappointed because we never made it off the ship. When we arrived we noticed that it was very windy and the seas were quite choppy. The tenders were lowered and they looked to be bobbing in the waves quite a bit. Later the captain announced that it was too dangerous to tender to shore so we would not be visting Mykonos.
	What we later found out, from our head waiter, is that it is "rare" that they are able to tender into Mykonos. (Due to the winds) He said that usually they skip the port and that "everyone" in the cruise industry knows this. My question is "then why is this a port"? If it is common knowledge that it is always windy in Mykonos, why is this is scheduled stop?
Could it be that they then have everyone captive on the ship for an extra day of drinking, gambling, and shopping? Or maybe it makes the cruise "sell" better because it is a stop that isn't normally visited? Whatever the reason, we think that if this is normally skipped, that it should not be listed and another port should be substituted. (We would have loved to go to Venice!)

Friday, July 4, 2008

We check out of the Apsis Atrium Palace at around 11:30 am. We then took a taxi to our cruise terminal. From check-out to check-in was about 45 minutes and we were on the ship by 12:15. The process was pretty painless. One not was out taxi driver was excellent and assured us that he would get us to our port safely. Taxi fare from our hotel to the port was around 17 Euros including luggage. Luggage cost extra in Barcelona.

We were able to check-in in the suite queue because we had been upgraded to a junior suite from the balcony room we had originally booked. This made waiting much shorter. After check-in we walked toward the ship. There were a few shops and also the Royal Caribbean folks selling wine and spa packages.

We boarded the ship and made our way to the Windjammer for a nice lunch. We couldn’t get into our room until 1:00 pm. After a relaxing lunch we walked around the ship and were able to take a few photographs and some video footage without many people. At 10 we got into our room. As I said earlier we were upgraded to a junior suite.

The suite was a handicapped suite. The first surprise was when we inserted our key the door swung open by itself. This suite had much more room than the typical junior because it needed to accommodate wheelchairs so it was as big as the Grand Suite that we had had on the Serenade last year… now we were feeling pampered.

We had the late seating for dinner so we went to the show which was an acrobatic duo. It was a Cirque du Soleil type presentation that was good but not spectacular.

After the show we made our way to dinner. We had pre-scoped out our table earlier and found it to be a window side table. What we didn’t know was that they were resetting the number so we sat down and were later embarrassed when we found out that the numbers had been changed. Long story short part way through our meal we were move to the table next door with a family of six. After dinner which was just so-so we returned to our room and crashed.

Saturday, July 5, 2008 (Villefranche, France)

We awoke fairly early at around 6:30 am. We enjoyed coffee in our room until room service delivered our breakfast. We relaxed in our room until 9:00 when Dave went down to obtain tender tickets. We were in group 2 so he did well.

We anchored in the bay at 10:00 and RCI started tendering people into port right away. Villefranche really didn’t have much to it so our destination was Nice. We hiked up the hill and found the bus stop. For 1 Euro per person we were able to take the short ride to Nice.

Once in Nice we made the long walk uphill to Musee Matisse. Although it was quite hot it was pretty. We kept thinking we would see a bus on the way up but we never did. We finally found the museum and for some reason admission was free. We spent about an hour admiring he works from all eras of his career. For anyone who is a fan of Matisse this museum is a must see!

We found the bus stop to get back down to the main area of Nice. There we met our “French Angel”, an elderly woman with a head full of wavy white hair. She was most helpful in informing us about the correct bus line and then where to get off so as not to get lost. We followed her directions which worked out perfectly. She was so happy to help and said she was grateful to practice her English.

Once off the bus and in the main square of Nice we were in search of a place to eat. We strolled along the streets and found the cafes to be expensive so we decided to make our way to the beach or la plage as they say in France.

We ate at a little seaside café called Opera. We each had a salad and we split a very small carafe of sangria. The cost of the meal was around 40 Euros. It was a bit more expensive than usual in Europe but not too bad.

After lunch we walked around and admired the street scene. We purchased a few souvenirs and then got back on the bus toward Villefranche. Once off the bus we walked down the hill and stopped off at the soap factory. We picked up several bars of fine French soap which was all natural and made of the finest ingredients.

We stopped at a cute little internet bar on our way back to the ship and had a few beers. It was happy hour and the Wimbledon Women’s final was showing on TV. We had a great conversation with a couple of Brits who were working there in Villefranche. We didn’t solve all the problems of the world but we came close.

Once back on board the ship we found a message on our phone stating that our table had been changed for dinner. The family we had dined with the night before had moved to early seating. Our new table was to be with other English speaking couples.

Our new table mates were much more talkative and livelier than the last group. We now are seated with a couple from Great Britain (Sarah and Mark), a couple from South Africa (Rob and Gill), a couple from the US (Tracy and Kathy), and a mother and daughter from San Antonio (Beth and daughter).

The menus on RC seem to be more limited than in the past and the portions seem to be much smaller. Dave was not impressed with his meal of Salmon but I enjoyed the pork medallions.

Sunday, July 6, 2008 (Livorno, Italy)

Livorno was our port of the day. The port itself is absolutely nothing to look at but the main destinations is the grand city of Florence or Firenze as the locals call it. Some people skipped Florence and toured the Tuscan wine region.

We ate an early breakfast in the Windjammer and then met in the Pacific Theater to wait for our tour which was basically just a bus ride to Florence. The drive from Livorno to Florence took about 90 minutes so we had a relaxing ride through the Tuscan countryside. One of our observations was that the countryside looked much like Northern California. I guess that is why both regions grow such superb wine grapes.

Since motorized vehicles are not able to drive in downtown historical Florence we parked a short distance away and walked in where our guide showed us where to meet in the afternoon.

We started off by wandering over to the replica of Michelangelo’s David. There were hordes of people so we quickly retreated to the Duomo. We viewed the stunning East Door of the Baptistery which Michelangelo named “The Gates of Paradise” and were designed by Lorenzo Ghiberti .

We then moved over to the Duomo. Brunelleschi designed this double shelled dome. At the time it was the largest self supported dome of its kind. This cathedral is the fourth largest in the world.

We then moved back toward the Ponte Vecchio (old bridge). This is the only bridge to cross the Arno River that was not destroyed by the retreating Germans during World War II. It is now lined with fine jewelry shops but at one time it mainly housed meat markets. The ensuing smell due to lack of refrigeration encouraged the de’ Medicis to banish the sale of meat on the bridge. Gold became the standard because it didn’t smell.

We ate lunch at a small place on the other side of the Pent Vecchio called Pasticceria Maioli. The lunch was expensive but satisfying. I had a trio of pastas and dive had a ham and cheese Panini. We each had a soda which satisfied our thirst after being out in the hot sun.

After lunch we strolled toward the Pitti Palace which was the newer home of the de’Medicis. We took a few pictures of the façade and headed back toward the Ponte Vecchio. On the way we stopped off at a cute curio shop and purchased a few souvenirs for family and friends.

We walked down the Arno toward the Uffizi Gallerie. We did not have tickets but it was a hoot to see the lines of people. You really do need to arrange the Uffizi Gallerie and the Academia in advance if you don’t you will just waste your time in line.

We browsed through a few of the leather shops. I bought a journal cover for only 7 Euros but most of the better quality products were quite expensive.

All in all Florence was quite warm. It was, however, the most beautiful. Everywhere you looked you saw beauty. The ride back to the ship was restful and a perfect opportunity for a well deserved nap.

Dinner again was wonderful. We got sad new that our waiter was leaving us because his wife in Tunisia was ill and in the hospital. We enjoyed great food, good company and lots of great stories. We skipped the comedian show because we were quite tired and needed to get up very early in the morning.

Monday, July 7, 2008 (Civitavecchia, Italy)

Rome the Eternal City…Our stop was actually Civitavecchia. We booked a tour because we had heard horror stories about bus strikes. Lo and behold the evening before docking the captain announced that the public transportation workers were on strike so it was fortunate that we had booked a tour.

Getting into town took longer because of the strike but we eventually got to a “drop off” point. We walked to Vatican City where we were able to bypass the line because we were on a tour. We walked through just a small portion of the museum but still we were able to view some of the precious works of art the Papacy has collected over the centuries. The Sistine chapel was truly and exquisite experience. The only downside was the crowd of people. We were surprised at the number of people who showed disrespect while in the chapel by talking, snapping pictures or just being downright rude.

St. Peter’s Basilica was the last stop while in the Vatican. St. Peter’s is the largest church for the people and was designed by Michelangelo. Even though the length of the church was over 2 football fields long it felt large but not that large. The highlight was Michelangelo’s Pieta which is a statue of Mary holding her crucified son. This statue was the first of its kind to show the emotion of the anguished mother. It was also Michelangelo’s first sculpture. Once through the Vatican we were able to make a quick stop at one of the Vatican stores for a few souvenirs.

We then boarded the bus and made our way to our lunch stop. Lunch was a 3 course affair with wine and champagne. Although the food was quite good we felt they could have supplied more water for the table.

Our next stop was the coliseum which was built in 80 AD. Again our bus parked a ways up the hill and we walked down toward the coliseum. We walked in and listened to the great commentary of our guide. She was full of many facts and had great pride in the roman history. After a quick stop for pictures we had to make the dreaded trek back up the hill in the heat.

After an hour and a half drive back to our port we arrived just in time for sailing. We had to wait a bit for a few buses to return that were late because of heavy traffic due to the strike.

Dinner tonight was at Portofino, one of the specialty restaurants on the ship. We were both very impressed with our meal and we had a window side table to boot!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008 (Day at Sea)

Today was our much anticipated day at sea. After more than a week of nonstop sightseeing we were ready for a slow day without much to do. We had coffee delivered to our room and we lazed around until 9:00. We then decided to explore the ship a while. We ate breakfast in the Windjammer. We then played a quick round of miniature golf. We observed Bingo but didn’t play. The casino panned out well for us. I was able to turn $10 into $30 by hitting a nice little jackpot.

We ate lunch up at the Skyview Lounge. The other folks on the ship had not found out about it yet. The fare is pasta, pizza, and paninis.

We then relaxed in our room until the 3:30 wine tasing. We were surprised that they didn’t pour better wines. Oh well!

The Captain’s reception was at 8:00 and dinner followed at 9:00. It was also formal night for dinner. We posed for a few of the ship’s photographers before dinner. All in all we had a relaxing day…tomorrow…Mykonos!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008 (Mykonos, Greece)

Since we weren’t supposed to arrive to Mykonos until 1:00 pm we slept in. We made sure we were up and ready by 9:00 so we could go downstairs and acquire tender tickets at 10:00. Even though we were in line by 9:15 we still only got group 7.

We arrived to Mykonos a little early only to find out that it was too windy (40 knots) and the seas were too choppy to go ashore. The captain made the decision for safety’s sake that we should not go ashore. He decided that we would sail toward our next port of Kusadasi, Turkey and perhaps we would have an extra night there. Sol long story short we automatically have another day at sea.

We actually both napped and read throughout the day in our stateroom since we couldn’t find an empty chair by the pool. Although it was disappointing not to go into Mykonos we really needed the rest.

We docked in Kusadasi at around 9:00 pm just as we were going into dinner. All at our table were going to see Ephasus tomorrow so it will be interesting to compare stories.

 

Part II

Click here to continue the trip report.