kcross3625

I am loving your review. I was on this cruise too, except with a large group. Quite a different dynamic with a group. I agreed the best jerk chicken we had was at Jack's Shack.

I brought a 12 pack of La Croix onto the Sunshine two weeks ago with no problem. We sailed out Port Canaveral and security never even gave a second glance at our soda Never inspected it or even took it out of the carry on bag. Same thing with the wine we brought on.

The line at the taxi stand was very long. We used Stan the Man Tours for our group of 10 but i think he van can hold up to 14 people.

We used Stan the Man Tours for our group of 10 people and he was fantastic. We told him where we wanted to go and how long we wanted to stay at each place. He quoted us a fair price. He picked us up exactly where and when he said he would. He recommended a great place for lunch too.

If this post properly belongs on the ports of call board, please let me know)

I am trying to decide between the 3 catamaran excursions Carnival offers on St Kitts: The FanTaSea Catamaran, the Deluxe Catamaran and the Power Catamaran.

I am mostly concerned with how many people were aboard. I don't like to snorkel in large groups. I generally stay away from ship excusions, preferring to book on my own, but am checking them out for this cruise.

Thanks, Kim C

(If this post properly belongs on the Carnival board, please let me know)

I am trying to decide between the 3 catamaran excursions Carnival offers on St Kitts: The FanTaSea Catamaran, the Deluxe Catamaran and the Power Catamaran.

I am mostly concerned with how many people were aboard. I don't like to snorkel in large groups. I generally stay away from ship excusions, preferring to book on my own, but am checking them out for this cruise.

Thanks, Kim C

Thank you for your feedback. We are looking at this tour for our September cruise. Can you tell me about how many people were on the excursion with you?

This is the exact issue my husband and I have been debating so I thank all of you for the good info. I am assuming the in room drink packages have to be pre-ordered ? Is that correct ?

Kim,

 

Did you book your excursions onboard? Any suggestions? They all look great and I'm looking forward to our trip

 

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Hi NOLAGrandma,

we ended up doing more of the ship's excursions than we planned because one member of our group fell in Mallorca and tore a ligament in her knee. If you went on the ship's excursion, they let you use the ship's wheelchair. It was the most effective way to get her around the ports.

Initially, we booked two excursions online prior to sailing: the Rome Complete and the Transportation to Cassis from Toulon (no tour, just the bus to Cassis).

We picked the Rome complete because you have to get to Rome from Citivecchia anyway and this included the bus transportation, plus the tour obtained your tickets to the Vatican which can be a pain to wait in line for. Plus, it was the most effective and cheapest way to see a lot of sights in Rome and the Vatican. I'm not sure I'll ever get back to Rome, so I wanted to see as much as I could. This tour was reasonably priced and covered a lot of ground. Since it took over an hour each way to and from the ship and you saw A LOT of Rome, the tour was fast paced and at times felt rushed. We had only about 40 minutes free time and we had to chose between the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish steps or lunch. We chose the Trevi Fountain and grabbed take out pasta which we literally ate on the run from the Trevi Fountain back to the bus. Best take out pasta I've ever had.

We decided we wanted to see Cassis and the ship's bus to Cassis was the cheapest we could find. We booked this online before we left. However, once on the ship we were notified the bus was cancelled due to lack of people. So Pullmantur offered us the prebook online price for any other tour they had availability on. We chose the tour to Aix en Provence, which several of us wanted to see anyway. I was a little disappointed in this tour as the tour was 5 hours total but it took 1.5 hours to get to Aix from Toulon and then 1.5 hours to get back. We had a guided walking tour once we got there, but very little free time and no time to eat. Since we were in port for so long that day, it is unclear why we did not have more time in Aix.

We initially had planned just to take the train on our own to Pompeii. However, once my friend hurt her knee we knew this was out, so we booked the Naples/Pompeii excursion while on board. We were very grateful to have a guide in Pompeii as we did not fully realize how large nd confusing Pompeii is. After you tour Pompeii, you have some free time in Pompeii to shop or eat. Then the bus drives back to Naples. The bus tour of Naples was uninteresting as you just drove by buildings without stopping. There is one stop in Naples to take pictures of a fountain. I really could have skipped Naples altogether.

We did not book anything in Sardinia as my friend with the hurt knee decided she needed to stay on the ship and off her feet. We thought we could get off the ship and maybe find a tour or transportation to Alghero to see the Devil's grotto, but we underestimated how little there is in Porto Torres. The only tour we could find required 8 people to go to Alghero and we were only 4. We just walked around the town. There is a beautiful basilica. It was market day (I think the town is so small that any day a ship is in port is "market day") Some people walked down to the beach but weren't impressed. So we walked to the basilica, browsed the market stalls, ate lunch and got back on the ship. I regret not taking the ship's tour to Alghero as I really thought I could find an independent tour but it didn't work out.

In Mallorca, we booked a Segway tour through Segway Palma. It was fun until my friend tried to show off and fell and hurt her knee. The biggest problem we had was that there was a marathon being run in Palma that day. So the ship ended up docking at another pier. There were no taxis to be had as the roads were closed for the marathon. So we decided to walk to the Segway place. But our directions were from the other pier and with all the road closings, we got hopelessly lost. We ended up late for our tour and missed part of Palma.

Sorry this was so long. I hope the information is of some help.

Kim C

I apologize if this has been covered here, but I have read that on Pullmantur's Sovereign the dinner menu is the same each night, even though there are sufficiently many options for each course. Is it true?

 

How many courses is a typical dinner menu, and how many options are there for each course?

 

Also, where can I find a typical Pullmantur menu, please?

 

Thank you in advance.

Hi Robert,

Except for the Captain's night the menu was the same each night. There were approximately 6-8 appetizers and soups and salads, 5-6 entrees and about 4-5 desserts. There were a lot of fish dishes, some chicken, one steak and one beef tips entrees. You chose one appetizer, one entrée and one dessert. I wish I had thought to take pictures of the menus but I will ask my travel companions if they remember the menu better. I think Tina took pictures of the food. On the Captain's night there was a different menu with fewer choices.

Kim C

My husband and friends are doing the transatlantic on the Monarch in May from Cartagena Columbia to Lisbon Portugal.

And my cousin and I are doing the Mediterranean Breezes on the Sovereign (Spain-Italy-France) at the end of October.

Hi NOLAGrandma from a NOLA girl !

We did the Mediterranean Breezes itinerary on the Sovereign last October. Great ports. We felt it was a good value for the ports you get to visit. Hope you enjoy!

Kim C

Thanks very much for advice. I've gained more idea about what it's like to be a solo English speaker on Pullmantur from this forum than anywhere else. I'm sailing on Horizon soon, so I'd be grateful for any tips:

• Did most ladies wear dresses on the formal night?
  
• Did they have exercise/dance by the pool, yoga in the gym, and so on? Karaoke?
  
• Was the muster drill done early, and did it take long? It seems passengers embark and disembark at most ports.
  
• Were the internet packages fairly priced/ reasonable speed?
  
• Were the excursions good? Some look reasonably priced.
  
• Did they charge for port shuttles, and were they disorganised?
  
• Did anyone try the spa, and how would they rate it?
  
• Any other advice and tips?
  

Thanks!

Hi Cardiff Girl!

Most of the older Spanish ladies dressed up for dinner. The only night we "casual Americans" wore dresses was the Captains Night and we wore cocktail dresses. The other nights we were pants or capris. We never felt out of place.

There was a dance party by the pool every afternoon. I did not see any yoga or karoke butI wasn't out there much. The muster drill was done early afternoon and was over very quickly. We only had to do one on the day we embarked in Barcelona. The internet package was pricy, very slow and kept cutting out. One of my group had some last minute work she was trying to get done and she was very frustrated by the slow and intermittent wifi.

We ended up doing more of the ships excursions than we planned as one of our group fell on our first day and tore a ligament in her knee. If we did the ships excursion, they let her use the ships wheelchair on the excursion. We felt the prices were good. They were very organized but a bit rushed. Would have like to have more time in each port. We did ships excursions in Rome, Naples/Pompeii and Aix on Provence. The shuttles were $8 and were very organized. We never used the spa.

For the money, I would definitely cruise again with Pullmantur.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Kim C

You're welcome WayWard.

I always check Cruise Critic before I cruise and was frustrated with the lack of information on the Sovereign. So if you have any questions, please ask !

What is your itinerary, if I may ask ? We left from Barcelona to Mallorca, Naples, Rome (Civitavecchia), Porto Torres Sardinia and La Seyne sur Mer and back to Barcelona. All good ports except for Porto Torres.

Kim

Hi Jenny !

We did 3 of the ships tours and all of them were in Spanish and English, even though they weren't guaranteed English. It seemed the most of the tour guides speak English and Spanish (and also French and Italian), so it was just a matter of doing the tour all in both languages. There were also groups of cruisers from Germany, Thailand, Phillipines and India for whom English is a second language that were on our tours. I really feel you'll be ok with the ships excursions. Speak to the staff at the Excursion Desk. They were so helpful and if they find out you speak English, I think they'll make sure the guide speaks both languages. As I said, all of the guides they used spoke English, Spanish, Italian and French, so it was just whether they did the commentary in Spanish only or in both languages.

As far as on board the ship, you'll be fine with English only. I never had any trouble getting around or communicating. Although some of the shows were in Spanish only, but honestly, the shows weren't very good so I skipped them altogether.

Thanks, Kim

Hi Mackfam,

Some of the shows were in Spanish and some in both English and Spanish. The daily ship diary, which you receive each night, will indicate which shows include English.

The drink package includes some cocktails such as pina coladas, daiquiris and margaritas. Each bar has a menu which will tell you which cocktails are included with the basic drink package and which are upgrades. The upgraded drink package, which I think was about $75 USD, included bottled water. This was a plus for us as we liked to take a bottle with us into the port.

There were 15 English speaking people aboard our cruise. Some Americans and some Brits. We were seated at dinner with all native English speakers. There were also groups of people from India, Thailand and Germany for whom English was their second language. Our cruise left from Barcelona. If you are considering a Caribbean cruise, you would probably have more English speaking passengers.

Is this a luxury cruise liner ? No. But for the price, I would sail on this ship again.

Thanks, Kim

Hi WayWard,

I just got off of the Sovereign on October 22, 2016. I had an inside cabin on deck 6. Although the cabins are small, I have had smaller cabins on larger ships. We had the room configured into two twin beds with a small table in between. You can fold up the table flat to the wall and push the two beds together, but it doesn't leave you much room. Our dinner companions initially had their room set up with the beds pushed together, but ended up separating them after one day. The bathroom was decent sized. The shower drain was in one corner of the shower and if the ship was leaning the other way, the water wouldn't drain. I ended up flooding the bathroom one night.

My main complaint was no cupboard or shelves to put away your clothes. The closet had two small hanging rods with a few hangers. My suitcase did not fit under the bed, so there was no place to store it. I ended up shoving it between the beds under the table.

At first the room smelled like old broccoli and feet, but we left the door open a few times to air out and it was ok. The air conditioning was very good. We are from Florida and are used to sleeping in a very air conditioned room. The beds were very comfortable.

Thanks, Kim

We did the ship's excursions to Naples/Pompeii and Aix-en-Provence (from La Seyne sur Mer)

Hi Rein53,

I just sailed on the Sovereign October 15-22. Stephen's review captured everything nicely and was spot on. However, we did not see many children, perhaps because we sailed in October when they are in school. There were approximately 15 English speaking passengers, some Brits and some Americans.

My friends and I did several ship excursions and I thought I could maybe answer some of your questions. We did the Rome Complete excursion, which was a full day. The bus ride to Rome from the port was about an hour. We started at the Vatican which took about half of the day. Tickets to the Vatican and Sistine Chapel were included in the price of the excursion. We saw a little of the Vatican Museum, the Sistine Chapel and the entire St Peter's Basilica. We had two different tour guides, one for Rome on the bus and one for the Vatican. We were 4 American ladies and all of the the tours we took were in Spanish and English. The bur tour guide (Sarah) had excellent English. The Vatican tour guide was Hugo and his English was not so good, combined with the noise level inside the building made it hard to understand. We were also there on a Wednesday, when the Pope has a papal audience, so it was a bit more crowded and we had to wait a bit for the Sistine Chapel to reopen. After the Vatican and a little time to shop, we were back on the bus for the Rome tour. The bus drove by the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, the Victory monument, the Borghese gardens, and the some ruins of the original city. After we finished the city, we had about 35 minutes of free time to see either the Trevi Fountain or the Spanish steps. This was not enough time and was my only complaint. We had to chose between seeing the Trevi Fountain or eating or shopping. Since it was a full day tour, we tried to do both the Trevi and eat, but we ran out of time and ended up gulping takeaway pasta on the way back to the bus. (it was very good takeaway pasta however).

Not sure what other ports you will be visiting but we did the ships excursions in Naples/Pompeii and Aix en Provence. I'll be glad to give you details if you are visiting those ports. We did Porto Torres, Sardinia and Mallorca on our own.

Americans tend to be very casual, so except for the Gala night, we usually went to dinner in what ever clothes we had worn into port, including jeans and capri pants. Our British dinner companions did the same. We never felt out of place. As a rule though, the Spanish diners tended to dress up a bit more. I think if you avoid shorts and flip flops, you'll be all right in whatever you wear. For the Gala night, we wore short cocktail dress with "blingy" jewelry.

I hope this helps. I know you are sailing soon and you will enjoy the Sovereign. The staff and crew are delightful.

Kim

I am on the Pullmantur Sovereign docking in Naples on October 18 and I was thinking of doing the same plan as FLBeachWalker. I wanted to say the information here was so helpful. Thank you for posting this.

Kim

Thank you. We sail on the Sovereign on September 15 out of Barcelona. We are a group of 4 American ladies, however, two in our group speak Spanish. We are very excited to be able to see all of these amazing ports for a value price. I will come back onto this thread and update you once my trip is over

Kim

Would be interested in your thoughts about your cruise Drbabe. I have it booked for October 15, 216.