Very Long Review of 5/11/08 Summit BCN to Venice

My group consisted of six adults and one 16 mo old baby; we vary in age from late 20’s to mid 60’s. Half the group had been on a cruise and another half had been to the ports we were visiting. We opted to do Celebrity Air/Transfer and one day pre-cruise more out of convenience, we realized we could have done it ourselves much more inexpensively, but we chose not to. I had a mobal cell and my bro had a global blackberry, which worked well for all our needs. I had arranged private drivers/guides in Villefranche, Rome, Florence, Naples, and Athens. All in the comfort of a Mercedes van with a baby seat they all provided. All of our drivers kept us on schedule; we saw everything we wanted to see, and more. And we made it back to the ship usually by 4:30 or 5pm, enough time to get ready for dinner @ 6:15. We purposely didn’t want to go “museum/church sightseeing”, but we did do a couple. We’ve all had our share of those in previous trips, and we just wanted to soak in much of the local flavor.

The journey begins…..

We flew Delta from SFO to ATL onto BCN nonstop. The Delta agent in SFO was impressed with Celebrity’s air itinerary, and we were too. But we had some misgivings about our connection in ATL because it was a 50 min legal connection. If I had to do this leg of the trip over, I would definitely do an air deviation. We landed early in ATL, made a mad dash to Int’l security screening, stopped briefly to get a pizza for the baby, and arrived to the gate as the agent was calling my name….WHEW! :eek: Since this was an evening flight, we thought it will be easy for the baby to go to sleep. Little did we know there was going to be a medical emergency on the flight, two rows behind baby. With all the commotion around, the baby was having a hard time sleeping and did cry, not too much, but enough to invite dirty looks from one particular passenger. But hey, what can you do if there are people behind him trying to take care of someone else in need. Gladly the passenger was fine and baby did eventually fall asleep.

OMG, it’s raining:mad:

All that we had planned for that day in BCN was washed away in the rain. Our Celebrity transfer picked us up and brought us to a really nice boutique hotel, Gran Havana, about 4 city blocks from Placa Catalunya. The rooms were pretty big for European standards, the bath was big and clean, and we had a nice view. Since it was raining we decided to rest and go from there. My DH, mom, bro, and I ventured out for dinner in the unstoppable rain but with hotel umbrellas in hand. We took a taxi from the hotel to El Corte Ingles to do some minor shopping, walked around the Placa and had dinner in a tapas restaurant. I recognized the name of the restaurant from earlier research on places to eat in Barcelona. I was actually looking for another place, but since it was raining, I thought we might as well try it. The restaurant was full of locals, so I new we had a good spot. We had bread w/tomato sauce (it’s really good), Mussels with vinaigrette, potato omelet, grilled octopus, Iberico ham and Manchego cheese, 3 bottled waters and a beer for the low price of 50 euros. At the end of the meal, we were satisfied. The only time I felt bad was when we were leaving; all the locals seated before us were still sitting as we left. It was a reminder that Europeans like to do things in a slower pace than Americans.

The next morning the air was cool and the sun was coming out. After breakfast, we decided to see the Sagrada Familia before our transfer @ 11am. We didn’t have time to take the HoHo Bus or the metro because we just didn’t have the time and we didn’t want to chance it. We took a 15 min cab ride to an awe inspiring site. Afterwards, we took another cab ride to the soccer stadium, Camp Nou. From what our cab driver said, we were driving along one of the most beautiful avenues in BCN; we agreed with him. The avenue was wide with tree lined streets and old world architecture, with people walking their tiny dogs.

Two words for embarkation: smooth and quick. We didn’t have our ship tags to begin with (our TA no longer sends them out), but was told by our TA and the transfer agent at our hotel that we can get them at the port. As a result when we were transferred to the port, our luggage was with us on the bus, unlike the other passengers whose luggage had already been delivered to the ship earlier. But no worries, it was still a smooth and quick embarkation. A gentleman slapped our luggage tags on, we went through security, up to the counter w/our docks, received our cards, did some more shopping in the small shops before boarding, had our pics taken, sipped some champagne on board, headed to our staterooms, and had lunch…..After lunch we decide to venture out some more, w/o baby and my other brother. The whole point of us leaving the ship was to go back to Corte Ingles to buy ham for my brother and milk for the baby. We forgot it was Sunday and Monday was a holiday, this meant a lot of the stores outside of the tourist areas would be closed. When we found out Corte Ingles was closed, we walked Las Ramblas. It was a busy promenade with all kinds of people and things. We were directed to go to a supermarket, 10 mins away from Las Ramblas that is supposedly open on Sundays. 20 mins later, we didn’t find the market but we were buying water and other supplies at a gas station away from the tourist hub. We felt like we hit the jackpot, because everything was so much cheaper than the rest of Barcelona. We were however near the Arc de Triomf, and did a picture stop. We actually enjoyed the walk because it brought us into the city away from the crowds and into some really neat neighborhoods. Even though we didn’t see everything we wanted to see in BCN, we enjoyed our stay and took some amazing pics. And we have an excuse to come back.

After our Muster Drill and before dinner, we had all luggages accounted for. We had early seating at 6:15, not just because of the baby, but we didn’t want to eat late and so that we can relax the rest of the evening. This turned out perfect for us. Lunch was always good, dinner was always great, and the desserts were to die for! The baby would dress up too, but he didn’t come to many of them. My bro and sil would either have a baby sitter, @ $8/hr, take turns coming into dinner, or not come at all. It really would depend on how tired the baby was. And of course our wait staff and room attendant were great.

We all had unobstructed, ocean view staterooms. We chose it because we knew the dollar was weak and wanted to save some $. Since my DH and I live in SF, we were used to the size of our stateroom. It was pretty spacious and comfortable for us, everyone else too. My other brother even had a crib in their room and they had 5 luggages, but it was tucked under the bed and in the closet. Our windows were pretty big, not a just a port hole. We would wake up to the most amazing views from our staterooms. Closet space was ample, the bath was a bit on the small side but fine for us.

Entertainment was good, we especially enjoyed the aerialists. We didn’t watch movies in the cinema because we had already seen the movies they were showing; it would have been nice if they had newly released movies though. The Gym was really nice; real weights too, not the ones filled w/air. The spa & Thalassotherapy pool were nice, especially in cooler days. I didn’t use the swimming pools but from what I saw, many people did. As my dh said, “once you find your spot, you have all the entertainment in front of you”. He found his spot in the casino.

Villefranche (Nice)

Villefranche greeted us with overcast clouds and cool air. We tendered into the dock and were greeted by Michel. He was an amazing smooth Cat. :cool: He reminds me of a beatnik who dresses nicely. He was a talker, which was fine for us because we learned so much about where we were and what we were seeing. He drove us to the top to get a panoramic view of nice and Monaco (from afar we saw Bill Gates 90 mil Euro mansion, as well as Tina Turner, and Elton John’s) We walked through the cobbled streets of Eze and Saint Paul, and had coffee in a café in the flower market of nice.

While we were in Eze, it showered lightly. Michel was chasing us down w/umbrellas in hand. With the clouds and showers against an amazing backdrop, we came up with some amazing family pics. The weather seemed to go with the village. While we waited for Michele to come around with the van, we snacked on some fruit we bought in small fruit stall outside the walls of Eze for 30 cents. As the day went on, the weather got nicer and the sun was out.

When we arrived in Monte Carlo, the city was in preparations for the Grand Prix, fences were up along the route, banners, and stands were erected. We drove along the Grand Prix route, taking into some of the sights. Did you know many people who have balconies along the route make a killing in euros for people who want to watch the race; it can easily go up to 5 figures. I can’t remember if it was 30K or 13K euros. And standing behind the fence will cost you too.

We walked around Monaco and visited Princess Grace and Prince Rainer’s tomb. Since we had a baby with us, we chose not to eat in too many restaurants. A lot of the times we sat in parks and ate. In Monaco, among the orange tree lined streets, we had a nice picnic lunch in a park overlooking Monaco. This was very memorable.

Since it was only 4:30, we walked around Villefranche which is beautiful on its own. Michel had told us to find the “dark alley”, this is where people would go and hide into the alley during the war. There were small doors in the alley walls still visible to anyone looking. That was interesting and beautiful, because off from the alley were some amazing side alleys to take some cool pics. We found a café along the waterfront to quench our thirst before catching the next tender. It’s so picturesque.

Livorno (Florence)

It’s actually sunny! Ricardo picked us up and took the scenic route to Florence since he made reservations for us to see the David @ 10:15. Everything you see in the countryside is exactly how you would imagine Tuscany to be. Did you know that there are these tall boxes strategically placed through out Italy that take the picture of the cars license plates if they’re speeding? I know it’s pretty trivial, but I thought it was neat.

Our first stop in Florence was the Piazzalle Michelangelo. You can go panoramic photo crazy on this spot. You can see all of Florence from here. I had originally planned on DIY Florence, but in the words of Fabrizio, “everyday in Italy someone is on strike” and my family voted for a driver. On to see David. He was magnificent; to think he was sculpted in the 16th century is amazing. I wanted a picture of me pinching his tush, but my dh wasn’t digging that. Oh well. Florence is a walking city; all the sites are relatively close by. It’s a definite DIY. We walked through San Lorenzo Market, had lunch in the Central Market, got lost walking to Ponte Vecchio, and just had fun exploring the city. Off to Pisa. We spent about an hour here and took some pics. There really wasn’t much for us to see here. We got a kick out of watching a long line of people doing there proverbial “Pisa Pose”, so much so, we took a picture of them doing it. It cost 30 cents to use the WC in Pisa.[/size

Civitavecchia (Rome)

Ah, the eternal city. Fabrizio met us at the dock. He has such a great personality, I highly recommend him. He couldn’t pronounce our names so he baptized us. In Rome I was Leticia, my sil was Sophia, my dh was Francesco, my brother was Eduardo, and the baby was bambino, since he was able to pronounce my other brother and mom’s names, no baptism for them. Fabrizio’s goal that day was to make us say wow, especially for my brother, since a lot of the sights we were seeing were a refresher for some of us who had already been to Rome. We couldn’t wait for that moment. Sure enough, Fabrizio drove us through a very nice neighborhood in Rome had us look through a “key hole”. Imagine looking through a key hole; you see a long gravel path that seems to go on forever. Lining both sides of the path are tall cypress trees. At the end of the path is a blue sky and St. Peter’s Basilica. This was one of Rome’s little treasures, WOW! We saw every tourist spot in Rome and more. My dh wanted a photo op in front of the soccer stadium, so we had time since we made it thru the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum in record time, according to Fabrizio. On that day, there was an Italian tennis match next door to the stadium, so security was very tight. Or so we thought. There was a tiny little car in front of us w/a security person yelling at the woman behind the wheel, something about not following directions; apparently she wanted to get in the secured area too. Yelling or not, the Italian words sounded beautiful. I don’t know if security thought we were someone important, or if he was tired of yelling, because next thing you know, he waved us in. :p I can’t say enough good things about Fabrizio; he made us fall in love with Rome. I wish I had used him in the other Italian Cities. Oh well, maybe next time

Naples…lemon trees abound.

Nelo met as at the Dock. By all appearances, Naples didn’t seem as clean as the other cities we’ve been too. But they were having garbage pick up issues at the time we were there. We drove along the Amalfi Coast, stopping in Sorrento and Positano. We felt more at home in Sorrento because It reminded us of home…Sausalito. We relaxed at a local park with a stunning view, had a fantastic lunch at a nice restaurant called La Basilica, and basically enjoyed another relaxing day. My poor sil is banned from ordering coffee for anyone in our group because she somehow always manages to get hot milk instead of café au lait. So the baby always has more than enough of his share of milk. Pompeii was our last stop for the day. It cost 11 euros pp and we chose not to have a guide, and ventured on our own. I had done some reading on Pompeii so we new what we wanted to see and what to look for along the way.

Piraeus (Athens)

Markos picked us up in sunny Piraeus and then drove 15/20 min to Athens. This was another city that we were going to DIY, but no one wanted to walk 20 min to the metro from the port which by the way was pretty nice. After our scenic drive through Piraeus and Athens, we made our way to the Acropolis. Markos told us to hold on to our tickets from the acropolis because we would be able to use it on the other sites. Here’s the thing, they let us in free, not sure why. Since my mom wasn’t in an Acropolis mood, she held on to the stroller instead of having it checked in. This was the hottest (temp) spot for us; it was about 78 or so. Afterwards, we made our way to the first Olympic stadium, went up to Lycabettus Hill for a panoramic view of Athens. Getting up the hill was pretty interesting. Since it was Sunday, everyone was going to church. As a result cars were parked on either side of the road going up to the hill and we were squeezing in with the mini van. Didn’t work, so we had to squeeze back out with the help of two other Greek men. Talk about being temperamental, not our driver, but the two “assistants”. We even side swiped the car on our right, while backing out. No note going on his window. We still managed to get on the hill via another road for another panoramic view. On our way to the Plaka, we saw the parade for the changing of the guards, which was cool. We loved the Plaka, spent more money on inexpensive things and had a fantastic lunch at Thanasis. My dh, bro, mom, dh, and I shared a plate of pork souvlaki and a plate of lamb souvlaki (both came w/pita bread and salad), a bottle of beer, and 3 cokes all for the grand total of 23 euros. Afterwards, we drove along the coast, stopped at a beach and had a photo op at the soccer stadium.

Santorini.

The view from our stateroom was breathtaking. How often can you tell people that you awoke to see Santorini outside your window? It was very windy that morning, and the water was very choppy. This was a DIY. The plan for the day was to take the cable car up and catch a bus to Oia. Well, it wasn’t 100%. My dh and bro decided they were going to walk 600 steps up, they didn’t realize it was going to be 600 steps and that the donkey poop would be so “pungent”. But they said it was an experience they will never forget especially since they said they’ll never do that again. Once they met up with the rest of us, we worked our way to the bus station. Well, on that day, the buses were on strike and we didn’t see too many taxis. So we did the next best thing, rented 2 cars at $25 each w/$7 insurance. The main road to Oia was closed so we had to take a more scenic drive on the other side of the island……awesome sights! After our walk through of Oia, we had lunch in Amoudi Bay. Lunch was yummy. They let us see how fresh the fish was, we actually saw the fisherman in his boat with his catch that he sold to the restaurant where we were eating. How often do you see that? For 95 E we had, 2 small grilled red snappers, grilled octopus tentacles, a side of fries, bread, moussaka, 1 bear, 1 tall bottled water, 1 Fanta, and 2 orders of the most flavorful pork chops w/fries. And we cleaned up our plates.

Afterwards, we just drove around more and spent more time walking around Fira and did some shopping. My bro, sil, and mom did some major jewelry purchases. The rest of us stuck to the more inexpensive items. I did notice that Santorini had the best exchange rates thus far. Public WC not so good, use it in the restaurant which for us was nice and clean.

Dubrovnik

We were supposed to dock in old town, but because the waters were choppy we had to tender about 20 min away from the old town. We forked over $10/pp for a shuttle to old town; it would have been a good long walk otherwise and no one in the group was up for that. We didn’t walk the wall because we were having fun wondering around. The city is beautiful; old world charm still intact. This was a very relaxing day for all of us, because we took things slowly here. We shuttled back to the ship for lunch to complete a perfect afternoon. We ate outside under the sunny, cool, weather and we had a fantastic view of Dubrovnik from the ship. BTW, the shops in old town took euros and dollars.

Venice

Sailing into Venice was beautiful. We were suppose to dock at 12 noon, but ended up arriving earlier @ 10:30. Many people from the ship had gotten shuttle tickets; I believe they were $20/pp. We didn’t take the ships shuttle service but walked 15 min or so to Termini Roma to catch a water bus. This was a nice experience. We got the 12 hour pass for 14 E/pp which for us was a good deal since we wanted to go back in the evening and wonder around some more. We did all the things we wanted to do, except “museum/church sightseeing”, we didn’t go to Murano or Burano because we just wanted to take things slow in Venice and spend more time in the city itself. First stop was the Rialto Market; we had an opportunity to check out the fresh catch, fresh veggies, and the various food specialty stores. We had a quick bite at a local wine bar, nothing fancy, but the food was yummy. After we wondered around the Rialto area, we hopped right back onto the water bus and went to St. Marks Square. We wondered around the alleyways and into the local shops. Venice was the most expensive city, but very beautiful. BTW, it cost 1E to use the WC in St. Marks Square.

Goodbye Celebrity, Arrevaderci Venice

Disembarkation wasn’t too bad; we met in the Rendezvous Lounge until we were called to disembark. The buses brought us to a warehouse to pick up our luggage and to be shuttled to the airport. It just got a little crazy boarding the shuttle to the airport because there’s obviously more luggage than passengers. We kind of had to gauge how much luggage was going to fit under the bus before getting on it. We were in the ships lounge at 8:45am and one of the last in line for Delta, at the airport, a little before 10am, done with checking in at 11am. The lines in the airport was crazy, our line snaked around. Delta’s was long because they have their own “security question” check point before you actually get to the counter; and there were only 2 of them.

Last thoughts……..

This was a trip of a lifetime. As Fabrizio said “a cruise is an introduction to the city you visit”. We found small parks in every city for the baby to let loose; shopped at many open air markets for quick snacks; and quenched our thirsts in picturesque settings. We didn’t try to do everything all at once because then it would take the fun out of really enjoying ourselves in the city. Things didn’t always go the way I had planned, but our backup plans worked out even better.

I’m glad we all enjoyed ourselves, and no regrets of bringing baby. The baby handled the trip surprisingly well. We used the stroller everywhere; cobbled streets, inclines, bridges, steps…….. every where except the Acropolis. I’m thankful all the drivers we had were able to provide a baby seat; otherwise this would have been an entirely different story.

The weather for the most part would start overcast w/sprinkles ins some ports, but it cleared up by mid morning and thankfully the air was cool and nice. We all still managed to get a nice tan.

We didn’t encounter pick pockets, but my dh did see it occur. He witnessed them take a camera from the back pocket of one gentleman and a wallet from another, both on the water bus in Venice.

We didn’t have any restroom issues, just use it in a restaurant were you’ve bought something, or in“pay-to-use” WC. Use up all your Euro coins, the exchange office will most likely not buy them back. We didn’t lose any luggages and no overweight charges too. Our favorite ports were Rome and Nice, I’m sure our drivers had a lot to do with it. Enjoy your trip…….we sure did.

thanks for a great review, and for getting us excited for our upcoming cruise on Freedom!

EQR-

We were on the same ship...wasn´t it lovely? I am writing a review on the Celebrity Boards. Just started today.

If anyone wants a review of drivers in Livorno , Naples and Rome , take a look at page 35 of the May 11th Celebrity Summit Connections Roll call. I wrote a review of the 3 different drivers and experiences there.

Glad you had a great time. We sure did!

Kim

Luvdasea....make sure you have a lot of memory for a digital camera. I think we took more than 1k pictures.

Kim...I was meaning to sign up for our roll call, but it got crazy at our house. I will check out your review. I got thumbs up from my group on all our drivers except one; he was too quiet for our group.

eqr,

Thank you for posting. We go in August on the Emerald Princess and will be in Barcelona, Florence, Rome, Athens and finish in Venice. I love soaking in what everyone shares on these boards. :p