Liberty Med cruise

anybody have general info on this cruise.

I am thinking of doing this cruise (actually already booked waiting to see if vacation time is approved)

I need to know the basics. ie.) flights, hotels, transportation, ports of call things of interest. blah blah.

if anyone wants to share some info with me I would apprieciate it. thanks.

Loved it. Try and plan to get there a day or two ahead if you can. That way you can get your body use to the time change, and see Rome. We unfortuanetly did not do that and wished we had. Plan to do a lot of walking if you do the excursions with Carnival. (Highly reccommend). We left people in several ports. I would also not purchase EUROES before you leave or exchnage on the ship. We made sure we had plenty of money in our checking accounts and just got cash when we got into the ports. we have a Cirrus card and had no problem withdrawing money. The fee was less also. Plus you get a better rate of exchange.

Excursions- We did Sorrento/Capri/Pompaii. A lot of walking involved. Try to ride the Venicular down from Capri and not up. Much shorter line. Pricey but does include lunch. We ate at a great place, got to sit out side.

Dubrovnick- We did the tour that was the countryside and included lunch. This was ok, but I heard that the Jeep tour was great.

Venice- We did Marrono-Burano and Totello- We did this because I collect glass. Also included lunch, the place on Tortello was UNBELIEVABLE. This was a four or five course meal, with cappacino. Remember to bring something to cover shoulders if wearing a sleeveless short. I just carried a light sweater. We also did the evening canal ride. You might be able to do this on your own, and get a little better deal, who knows. Good Gelato here as well. We pretty much tried it everywhere. A lot of street vendors. Picked up some local canvas art, paid a pretty good price.

Messina- We did Taoromina and Mtn Etna- Again alot of walking but we loved Taoromina. Buy the Gelato here. Also great place to buy ceramics. Make sure that you have Euros, most shops will give you a discount for cash. Also picked up a bottle of wine in the port. Local winery. Make sure comfortable shoes the streets in Taoromin are cobblestone. Bring a jacket for Mt Etna, a little cold on top.

Barcalona- We did the FULL GAUDI tour, this was great and we were allowed to leave the tour at the last stop. We ended uo walking down themain street and had time to shop and eat a local lunch. They have great street performers. Make sure to leave plenty of time to catch the shuttle buses back to the shp. The line got realy long. The shopping here is pretty pricy.

Cannes- We did Nice and eze- loved Eze France. The cleanest public restrooms we came upon. Yes keep some change because you have to pay to potty, unless in a resteraunt. It usually rus less than 1 euro.

Florence- Again a lot of walking. We did the Florence/Pisa with Enterance. Included lunch in Florence. If you can get on th ebus with PAOLO. He is actually from New York, but moved to Italy about six years ago. He makes the day worth while.

As you can see there is VERY LITTLE TIME for shopping with the tours that we took. So if you want to shop take a SHOPPING tour.

Take a night and do Harry's well worth the money.

I can share a lot more if you want to contact me cpwise@comcast.net

Read through your inputs on the tours. thanks for the input...

No problem. If you think of anything you would like to ask , I would put it out there. I am happy to share my experience with anybody.

tried to ask you on another thread... regarding the Carnival tour to Pompeii, Sorrento, and Capri, did you find it too long a day ( 10 hour tour) for the first port day? Do you get time to rest up on the bus between cities? Just a little concerned about the time and the heat ( July) but we do arrive one day prior to the cruise.

How do you rate this particular tour?

Yes it was a very long day, but I was glad we did the tour, the hyrdofoil is about 45 minutes to Capri, a little bumpy but not intolerable. The bus ride to Pompai was long enough to rest.

The day was very hot. I did feel our time in Pompai was short, but when you pack that much into 1 day it is hard to know what to cut short.

We trudged through knowing that we had a sea day the next day.

We got to the ship the same day as we traveled. We left Denver at 5:30 pm, and arrived in Franfurt the next morning at 9:00 am, caught the next flight to Rome which was about 2 hours, and then 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the pier.

The muster drill was pretty much a haze for me, as we were really tired, but tried to stay up as long as possible, we did awake about 3:00 am, and ate some pizza, and went back to bed.

we found some homeopathic pills that we took during the flight over which helped with the Jet Lag.

If you can get to Rome a day early it would be better.

I thank you so much for your response!

I will leave that tour as planned. Good to know the pizza place is open for 3 am snacks!

just got off the liberty on monday we spent an extra day i rome before returning home.WE were a family of five and we only took one excursion the rest ot them we did on our own but ask away i'll try to help

Hope you had a graet time!

So, which excursion from carnival did you choose, and how did it go?

What was your favorite port that you did on your own?

we did the florence and pisa tour .in naples we did the hop on hop off bus tour that allows you to get on and off when you see something you like,in venice we got vaporetta passes and got lost on our own what an awesome experience ,in dubrovnick we walked to the old city and back the people were spectacular. in messina we rented a car and went to mt etna and terimenia,barcelon walked to las ramblas and shopped and in cannes we took the train to monte carlo and monaco .hows that for a very quick sum up of an absolutely incredible 12 days (lol).I dont think i could pick just one place probably the vatican but right now we all feel that it was all a quick dream maybe in a week ill have a favorite

I would like to get to monaco and possibly montecarlo from cannes. How far is the train station from the port and how do I get there? How long does it take to get to monte carlo? Can I walk to the Palace and burial sites of Princess Grace from the train station?

If someone can walk me through this, I would be grateful. I am travelling on my own and want to have all "my ducks in a row" so to speak.

The ship has a shore excursion that includes nice and Monaco but it is 9 hours. Not sure if I want to do both.

Here's the link to our Liberty in the Med review that we posted awhile back. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=375641

You also might want to take a gander at the Europe forum on the Port of Calls board. Lots of info on the ports there, as well as some reviews.

Hope your vacation time is approved! By all accounts, it will be a truly remarkable cruise!