Looking for Feedback - 7 Night Western Med - Liberty of the Seas - Sept 2012

[Spire2000]

I realize this a very general question, but I am hoping some folks here may have experience on this cruise or this region and be able to provide some feedback.

 

I am looking at the Sept 30th, 2012 sailing of the Liberty of the Seas from Toulon to the usual Western Med ports. I don't know if this cruise has been offered in the past, but I'd like to hear anything anyone may have to say about the cruise. I do have some specific questions:

 

For the stops (Toulon, Nice, Florence, Rome, Naples, Barcelona) which ports would you recommend a tour/excursion and which can be seen by strolling off the ship?

 

Are there any good tour operators so I don't have to get stuck with RCL prices?

 

Thanks in advance. If these are too general, let me know and I'll step away.

[newlifeca]

I've been to each of these stops except Toulon...

 

Here are a couple of suggestions...

 

1) The port of call boards will have a ton of information on those stops, including recommendations for tour operators, doing it on your own, etc. I recommend checking them out.

 

2) I did all the stops on my own, and did not use any tour operators, this takes more planning, but saves money. Again...you can learn what you need to on the port of call discussion boards.

 

3) I enjoyed each of the stops. For example, in Naples, we exited the board, walked across the pier and caught the hydrofoil to the island of Capri, hung out there for a while, toured the city of Capri by foot, then caught a hydrofoil to Sorrento, toured the city center on foot, at lunch, gelato, etc, then caught a hydrofoil back to Naples.

[Scottifer]

I've been to some of those places with Royal Caribbean.

 

Toulon, Barcelona, and Naples you can walk right off and see the city. Definitely in Toulon you'd be fine on your own, there is so much stuff to do right there. Barcelona is VERY easy to navigate once you get their subway down which is very easy to do. There is also lots to do in Naples right off, but because of the trash strike it was so dirty I didn't do too much.

 

Rome and Florence you have to take a bus as they are not right on the water.

 

I've not been to Nice so I cannot comment.

 

As Newlifeca said, your best bet is the boards for those specific stops, I wish I had known about them before I left on my cruise to Europe

[argyle143]

Something you may want to consider. I am going on a 7-day med cruise on Liberty that departs Barcelona on 9/15/2012. I noticed when I was researching what itinerary I wanted to go on, that the Liberty departs Barcelona on 9/15 and goes to Toulon on 9/16. Per RCI, they are also selling cabins for passengesr to embark at Toulon and go round trip from Toulon rather than Barcelona. So, I looked at the RCI website today for your cruise that departs Toulon on 9/30. The cost for a deluxe balcony E2 cabin (the type of cabin I reserved for my 9/15/2012 cruise) was $1,876. The cost for the same deluxe balcony E2 cabin that departs Barcelona on 9/29 was $1,399. A $480/pp difference. So, just something to keep in mind when trying to decide what port you want to depart from. Same ship, same itinerary. Just different round trip ports and vastly different prices. Have fun researching. For me, September 2012 can't come fast enough!

[taxatty]

We just got off this cruise--all in all it was excellent. You can't really see much strolling off the ship in Toulon--not much nearby--try a ship excursion or renting a car (which we did) to go to Aix, Cassis, Marseilles, etc. If you're up to it, you can easily do excursions on your own much cheaper than the ship tours by public transportation out of Civitavecchia (train to central Rome), Villefranche (Nice, Monaco etc. by train or bus), and Naples (Pompeii and Sorrento by train, Capri by boat, the Amalfi Coast by bus, or pizza and the fantastic archeological museum in Naples itself, which we did). In Livorno, I'd suggest a private or ship tour, as it's a long way to Florence from there.

 

Les

[Spire2000]

I've been to each of these stops except Toulon...

 

Here are a couple of suggestions...

 

1) The port of call boards will have a ton of information on those stops, including recommendations for tour operators, doing it on your own, etc. I recommend checking them out.

 

2) I did all the stops on my own, and did not use any tour operators, this takes more planning, but saves money. Again...you can learn what you need to on the port of call discussion boards.

 

3) I enjoyed each of the stops. For example, in Naples, we exited the board, walked across the pier and caught the hydrofoil to the island of Capri, hung out there for a while, toured the city of Capri by foot, then caught a hydrofoil to Sorrento, toured the city center on foot, at lunch, gelato, etc, then caught a hydrofoil back to Naples.

 

Thanks for these tips. I will definitely check out the port of call boards as that makes a ton of sense.

[Spire2000]

I've been to some of those places with Royal Caribbean.

 

Toulon, Barcelona, and Naples you can walk right off and see the city. Definitely in Toulon you'd be fine on your own, there is so much stuff to do right there. Barcelona is VERY easy to navigate once you get their subway down which is very easy to do. There is also lots to do in Naples right off, but because of the trash strike it was so dirty I didn't do too much.

 

Rome and Florence you have to take a bus as they are not right on the water.

 

I've not been to Nice so I cannot comment.

 

As Newlifeca said, your best bet is the boards for those specific stops, I wish I had known about them before I left on my cruise to Europe

 

Well, considering some of the information I've learned from this thread, my ports of call will be altered. A lot of good info here though, so thanks.

[Spire2000]

Something you may want to consider. I am going on a 7-day med cruise on Liberty that departs Barcelona on 9/15/2012. I noticed when I was researching what itinerary I wanted to go on, that the Liberty departs Barcelona on 9/15 and goes to Toulon on 9/16. Per RCI, they are also selling cabins for passengesr to embark at Toulon and go round trip from Toulon rather than Barcelona. So, I looked at the RCI website today for your cruise that departs Toulon on 9/30. The cost for a deluxe balcony E2 cabin (the type of cabin I reserved for my 9/15/2012 cruise) was $1,876. The cost for the same deluxe balcony E2 cabin that departs Barcelona on 9/29 was $1,399. A $480/pp difference. So, just something to keep in mind when trying to decide what port you want to depart from. Same ship, same itinerary. Just different round trip ports and vastly different prices. Have fun researching. For me, September 2012 can't come fast enough!

 

Wow, thanks a ton for pointing this out. I didn't realize this at all. I noticed that Toulon does not show up as a searchable departure port for RCI, but never put two and two together. Now that I understand that, I am not going to spend almost $1,000 between two people to leave from a different port on the same itinerary.

 

That being said, a key component to this trip was a road trip up to Switzerland before we cruise, so leaving from Barcelona doesn't really help in that regard. Some more researching and I noticed a 7 Night cruise from Genoa on Sept 02, 2012. The ports of call are not as good as the Toulon departure, but the price is far cheaper ($829 vs $1299) and accessibility to Switzerland is even better than Toulon (4 hours to Luscerne vs 6 hours to Lausanne).

 

Ugh, so many variables.

[jill5172]

I just got off that itinerary and my review is here: http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberre...?EntryID=85667

 

As far as Toulon is concerned, you'll likely be docking in La Seyne sur Mer instead of Toulon. If this is the case, you will need to either take a ferry or a shuttle to Toulon. We opted to do neither and to just walk around La Seyne sur Mer since we docked there on a Sunday when everything is closed anyway. There were a couple of neat forts within walking distance and a farmers' market in the town. Other than that, not a lot to do there.

 

We didn't get a formal tour in Cannes; plenty to do within walking distance of where the tenders let you off.

 

With the Italy ports, we used Rome in Limo and they were the ideal way to see the sites without worrying about anything. You can book tour shares on the roll call boards to make it less expensive - we had our own for our large family but plenty of people do shares and it's a great way to see the sights.