Marshyone

HI DEBBIE AND RAPHAEL  SOUNDS LIKE YOU ARE HAVING A WONDERFUL TRIP AS ALWAYS.  WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING FOR THE FALL IE OCT, NOV. DEC,  I HAVENT BOOKED ANYHING YET.....

BEST REGARDS TO YOU BOTH.

10 hours ago, LACruiser88 said:

Hi guys. What bar are you at?  Couldn’t see you!  Anxious to say hi?

 

@Marshyone  Tonight we were at the Crown Grill bar before dinner.  Btw, I'm only posting here on the "Live" thread.

Ok. Will you be there tonight? If yes we will walk over to say hello

HI YOU TWO.  LOVED YOUR POST AND,  DEBBIE I'M WITH YOU.  DISCOVERED ZARA SOME

25 PLUS YEARS AGO IN BARCELONA.  STILL MY FAVORITE.  SEE YOU BOTH SOON.  ENJOY THE TIME IN MADRID.  MARCIA

On 10/25/2023 at 9:42 AM, LACruiser88 said:

 

Next week we will be leaving for our pre-cruise trip to Madrid prior to sailing on the Enchanted Princess from Barcelona.  We booked our Business Class flight via EZair on Air France, LAX>Paris>Madrid.  EZair had the lowest BC fares by far!  We booked our return non-stop flight, Miami>LAX, directly via American Airlines.

 

This will be my first time in Madrid.  Debbie visited Madrid during her three-month long 18th birthday Europe trip.  That was many moons ago and she is curious to see how much of the city she remembers.                 

 

We will be staying at a Hyatt Hotel in the city center.  As a Cuban-born Spanish speaker we will not have any language difficulties in Spain.  While in Madrid, we have booked an "Ultimate Spanish Cuisine" 4-hour walking (and eating!) tour with "DevourTours.com"  We also plan to do a couple of day trips via train to Segovia and Valencia.  We have been to Valencia on a couple of occasions and really loved the city.

 

After seven nights we will fly to Barcelona via Iberia Airlines on the morning of embarkation.  We booked this flight with our Amex points.  We have spent LOTS of time in Barcelona and feel very comfortable with the 1 hr & 20 min flight on embarkation day (embarkation is from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm).  Iberia has many flights throughout the day from Madrid to Barcelona. 

 

We have arranged for a car service to pick us up at the airport and take us to the ship.  We will be using the same car service in Madrid.  As a side note, we use the same car service (www.Blacklane.com) worldwide.  

 

We booked our cruise as a 26-day voyage.  The cruise was also available to book as an 11-day and 15-day back-to-back voyage.  After evaluating the fares and all of the OBC scenarios, it was financially advantageous for us to book this cruise as one voyage.

 

We are in a mid-forward mini-suite on the Riviera Deck.  This is a location that we have really enjoyed on previous cruises on Royal Class ships.  This will be our first time on the Enchanted Princess.  We booked with the Princess Plus Package, which for us saves us a ton of $$$!

 

We have only a couple of pre-planned excursions for this voyage.  We were on the Regal Princess last year at this same time for 37 days and visited many of the same ports.  This will be our 12th westbound transatlantic crossing.  We are not fans of excursion groups and prefer to wing-it on our own.

 

In Toulon we have arranged for a private tour for the day to St. Tropez and a couple of wineries in the Provence sub-region of Bandol (known for their Rose wines).  We are using the same fantastic guide we used last year for a tour of Marseille. 

 

In Naples we will be doing the Naples Underground Tour for the first time.  Having been to Naples many times over the years, we had never heard of this tour.  We were told about it last year on the Regal Princess by our good friend, Maitre'd Nicola Furlan.  Nicola transferred to the Enchanted from the Regal on Oct 8th and will be onboard until January.  It will be fantastic cruising with him again! 

 

Below is a brief description of the tour:

 

The term underground Naples indicates the dense and complex network of tunnels and cavities, which are found in the Neapolitan subsoil and which form a real city that follows, in negative, the surface city. The underground city extends under the entire historical centre, linked to it are myths and legends still alive today in the collective imagination of the Neapolitans. The galleries underlying Naples have been used in various ways over the centuries. Born following the extraction of tuff for the construction of the city, they were then used as an aqueduct and as a refuge during the Second World War.

 

Descend with us into the bowels of the city to discover its history and mysteries through the most fascinating underground tour of Naples .

 

The guided tour is suitable for everyone and is particularly appreciated by children. It is a real 2400-year journey through time that begins in one of the alleys of the Spanish quarters, near Piazza del Plebiscito , and ends in Via Chiaia, a few steps from the meeting point in Piazza Trieste e Trento .

 

In Genoa we will be visiting with a friend that lives in the city.

 

And there will be shopping, LOTS of shopping!  I think Debbie knows the location of all the Zara and H&M stores throughout Europe.  She tells me that the European stores have different items than what we have at home.  Who am I to argue with a professional shopper?

 

We always look forward to strolling through Rome, Florence, Naples and several of the other ports on this itinerary.  We usually take trains, local buses or Uber/taxis to reach our destinations.  Along the way we will pick-up local wines to bring back to the ship.  Our cabin usually ends up looking like a Total Wines store!

 

We are a little bummed that our day in Corfu will be on a Sunday.  We were in Corfu last year, also on a Sunday, and just about everything was closed.  It would be great if the cruise lines avoided European ports on Sundays!

 

We are very excited to see our dear friend (and former Maitre'd), Carlos Justina, on this cruise.  Carlos is currently the F&B Director onboard the Enchanted Princess.  We have known Carlos over 20 years and last saw him several years ago when we were hosted at his home in Portugal.  Carlos' wife and youngest daughter will be boarding with us in Barcelona.  They will remain onboard until our last European port of Madiera.

 

During the past several weeks, we have had our Flu and RSV vaccines, latest Covid boosters and have our Paxlovid prescriptions.  We are also packing a good supply of Covid tests.  We are eager and ready to go!

 

Feel free to ask questions and I will try my best to provide answers.  I will usually post the "Princess Event Listings" on the daily.   

 

To our fellow passengers, I encourage you to add your experiences, observations, and answer questions on this blog as we all have different perspectives and experiences.

 

Cheers!

Rafael

  

 

Date	Port	Arrive	Depart
Sun. Nov 12	Barcelona, Spain		07:00 pm
Mon, Nov 13	Toulon/Provence (La Seyne), France	08:00 am	06:00 pm
Tue, Nov 14	Genoa, Italy	07:00 am	07:00 pm
Wed, Nov 15	Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy	07:00 am	07:00 pm
Thu, Nov 16	At Sea
Fri, Nov 17	At Sea
Sat, Nov 18	Kotor, Montenegro	07:00 am	06:00 pm
Sun, Nov 1	Corfu, Greece	09:00 am	10:00 pm
Mon, Nov 20	At Sea
Tue, Nov 21	Sicily (Messina), Italy	08:00 am	06:00 pm
Wed, Nov 22	Naples, Italy (for Capri & Pompeii)	07:00 am	07:00 pm
Thu, Nov 23	Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy	05:00 am	07:00 pm
Fri, Nov 24	Florence/Pisa (Livorno), Italy	07:00 am	07:00 pm
Sat, Nov 25	Corsica (Ajaccio), France	07:00 am	05:00 pm
Sun, Nov 26	At Sea
Mon, Nov 27	Gibraltar	09:00 am	06:00 pm
Tue, Nov 28	At Sea
Wed, Nov 29	Santa Cruz De Tenerife, Spain	08:00 am	05:00 pm
Thu, Nov 30	Madeira (Funchal), Portugal	08:00 am	05:00 pm
Fri, Dec 1	At Sea
Sat, Dec 2	At Sea
Sun, Dec 3	At Sea
Mon, Dec 4	At Sea
Tue, Dec 5	At Sea
Wed, Dec 6	At Sea
Thu, Dec 7	At Sea
Fri, Dec 8	Ft. Lauderdale, Florida	05:00 am

 

 

 

 

DOING UNIWORLD JUNE 19 DANUBE RIVER.  VERY EXCITED.  ANYONE ELSE DOING THIS CRUISE?

Hi!  Marcia and Andy on Uniworld June 18. My first river cruise  have 60 ocean cruises. Really looking forward to this one. Anyone else on this trip?

28 minutes ago, chrysalis said:

Another perfect weather day today in Kotor Montenegro.... anchored well up the fjord and enjoyed a long tender ride to and from town.

 

Heard that next cruise will only have 1700 pax and the crossing portion will be down to 1500 passenger.

 

We will be back in Kotor again next cruise.

 

Tomorrow is another sea day....

Hi, I am on the 11/6 to 12/2 and am so surprised at the numbers of pax on those cruises. are you referring to my dates?  BTW thank you for all your posts.  Really enjoying reading them.