Barcelona SOS Mediterranean Greek Isle Cruise w/Paris and Copenhagen Review

[crvng4mr]

What an awesome review! That was really awesome to meet people that live so close to you million miles away. We Floridians are all over the place :)

 

 

Thanks! Yes we are! Where is Casselberry?

Edited August 25, 2014 by crvng4mr

[crvng4mr]

hey Ayasha, we're back from our cruise and I just caught up...still in absolute awe of your pictures...can I hide you in my suitcase or under some kind of invisibility cloak, take you along secretly and make you take all of my holiday pictures from now on as well:o? love 'em! LOVE 'EM L O V E ' E M !!!

 

Stef

 

Hey Stef!!! Welcome back! Of course you can hide me and take me along on any trip! I see how you waited to get back from your last one to invite me though,;). I am looking forward to your review!!!

[crvng4mr]

 

 

 

 

 

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[Cruz-On]

Thanks! Yes we are! Where is Casselberry?

 

Central Florida, good ole Orlando, Fl! You know Mickey town.....

[wnycruisefam66]

Hi:

 

I just found your review & started reading, but wanted to tell you "great job"! I just got back in July from a Med cruise w/my DH, DD (for her graduation, but delayed 1 year for planning purposes), DS 13, & a friend of mine from work. All of our 1st trips to Europe. We spent 19 days, but did not manage Paris. We're planning to go back in 2016 & will do Paris then. Can't wait to read the rest!

 

Tina

[clochette]

what a great review thank you so much for taking the time to write it.

[crvng4mr]

Hi:

 

I just found your review & started reading, but wanted to tell you "great job"! I just got back in July from a Med cruise w/my DH, DD (for her graduation, but delayed 1 year for planning purposes), DS 13, & a friend of mine from work. All of our 1st trips to Europe. We spent 19 days, but did not manage Paris. We're planning to go back in 2016 & will do Paris then. Can't wait to read the rest!

 

Tina

 

Thank you Tina!!! It is very time consuming but well worth it for reliving the trip!

[crvng4mr]

what a great review thank you so much for taking the time to write it.

 

 

Thanks Christine! Finally, I am almost at the end.:eek:

[crvng4mr]

So now we wake up to our 3rd day (2nd full day) in Paris. We are in Paris!!!! You see we are still excited. I forgot to mention that the day before when we were at the "family health day" on the riverbank we were given a free pedometer. That day we received it we had walked 8,972 steps from when we got it. I can only imagine how much we walked before.

 

Today was a jam packed day! I know you are thinking, well seems like most of your days were jam packed, but this was the most jam packed. We also had to switch hotels.:( When I originally booked the hotel I thought we would only be in Paris until then but when I purchased our plane tickets we had an extra day in Paris and the hotel did not have a room available for the extra night. So I did what any one else would do and booked another hotel.

 

The plan was to get up, pack, take our bags downstairs for them to hold, grab breakfast to go at Paul's, take the metro to Montmartre and see the Sacre-Coeur, and then be back at the hotel to check out officially by noon. It actually all worked out that way.:D This only worked because of the location of the hotel. It really was the best metro stop to get to everything in Paris. Christina graciously took our luggage to hold and told us how to get to Sacre-Coeur. We grabbed croissants at Paul's and headed for the metro. It only took us 20 minutes to get there even though we needed to switch trains.

 

There were plenty of people at Sacre-Coeur but it wasn't packed with no room. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures inside. Christine had told us about the funicular you could take to the top and that your metro ticket can also be used to pay for it as well so that is what we did. After we walked around inside we went outside around the back of the church to Montmartre. On the side there was a group of young men singing and selling their CD. They were really good and we stopped to listen and take pictures for a bit. As you go into the little town there are plenty of artists stopping you to draw a picture of you and/or your kids. We didn't have the time or the space to do this but I definitely will next time. They could get a little pushing but as long as you gave a stern no thank you and kept moving you were good. As we were heading back to the funicular there were now many armed guards around. I thought that maybe some dignitary was coming through to see the Sacre-Coeur. The funicular was shut down so no one could go up or down. Everyone had to take the stairs. Thank God we were going down.:)

 

At the bottom are many tourist shops with lots of souvenirs and a few places to grab a sandwich or crepe. We decided to get a sandwich as it was huge, like a foot long, and only 3 euros. As we were getting on the metro we saw a motorcade that explained the armed guards. We never did find out who it was. We made it back to the hotel by noon and checked out. Did you all notice we took the metro. Yes, I convinced my daughter to try it again and she had a totally different experience.:p I decided since we knew the area and there lots of places to eat that we would eat right by this hotel before checking into the next one.

 

We had a wonderful pizza, not as good as Italy but eh, at a restaurant right on the corner. As we walked there we noticed that we had a grocery store right across the street from the hotel the whole time. Hey, when did they put that there?:eek::confused: This made the location even better as you could buy water, sodas, snacks etc for cheap. I was so mad at myself for not noticing until we were changing hotels. Now it was time to head over to the new hotel. You can see my enthusiasm through the screen right?

 

Our new hotel was the Hotel Pointe Rivoli. Around the corner from the Albe Hotel is a taxi stand. I told you everything is right there! It took us 5 minutes and 7 euros including tip to get to the hotel. It was completely across the river and up a bit but not walkable with luggage and no direct metro or bus route. So the taxi let us out and said it is somewhere there....? Yeah well basically there is no sign that says Hotel Pointe Rivoli. There is a sign that says Hotel though squished in between 2 very busy cafes. I mean people had to get up out of there chairs for us to go in the door. It is an old building and has that old building smell. We checked in and they didn't ask for my passport or anything else. We were given a room on the 2nd floor (the whole trip we were given rooms on the 2nd floor as my son pointed out). There is no lift, ordinarily wouldn't be a problem except these stairs were narrow, very old, caved in and were circular. A definite hazard walking without luggage. The room was huge though! They tried to update it and it resembled the pictures on their website but glossed over. Too many bright patterns, and I love color! Torn wall paper, the floor was worn in some places and it wasn't clean enough. It had a new sink but all the tiles needed to be replaced. It was dingy. the a/c didn't work so they had a portable plugged in with an extension cord. We never used it as it was cool enough for us but it seemed like a hazard as there were many things plugged in and I was scared the wiring was old like the building. I think it was worse because we came from such a great hotel. My kids didn't mind it and that says something. It was good enough to sleep in and that was about it for me.

[crvng4mr]

So we dropped our luggage and headed back out as we had so much more to do. Good thing is the metro directly to the Louvre was right outside. I believe the Louvre stop was 3 stops away from the hotel. This time we went in the Louvre from the back way instead of the pyramid and we had to wait in line but only for about 20 minutes. Unfortunately our only goal was to see the Mona Lisa as we were running behind in our time and didn't have time really for anything else. That only means I have to go back and spend several days in the Louvre alone.

 

So there was a mob round the Mona Lisa and it took us 15 minutes to get in front to see her. I am glad that we did though. We used the facilities and then walked through the Tuilieries Garden down to Place de la Concorde. On the way we stopped and enjoyed the view by taking a break in the shade. Cai grabbed a crepe and we walked along the Seine until we got to the Theatre and walked over and then down Champs-Elysees. We were hungry by this time but as you know everything is so expensive we actually ate at McDonald's.:eek: I know, I know but the menu does have different things and they had a separate cafe section with macarons and everything and it was in our budget.:)

 

We then walked to the Arc de Triomphe. As we arrived there was a ceremony for the tomb of the unknown soldier. It was nice to see and because we had our Paris passes we walked right in to climb to the top. Boy was that climb something. I had to stop 3 times but I wasn't too embarrassed as there were people younger than me stopping too. Luckily there is more than enough room for someone to move to the side to stop and let others pass. It was well worth it! We spent at least an hour at the top taking pictures and enjoying the views. We walked back down, an easier feat than going up. Now there was a lone line of police and police vehicles in each direction which we learned were in place because France was currently playing in the World Cup and they happened to win a few minutes later. We were able to celebrate with all those honking their horns and shouting out of taxis as we walked to the Eiffel Tower.

 

This is were I lost my mind and my kids were great sports. I thought since we could see the Tower from the top of the Arc then we could just walk in that direction with our map and it wouldn't be that far. You just read how far we already walked. In my defense it only looked like 9 blocks on the map.

 

We really should have just taken a taxi but hey you live and you learn. The way we walked there was really nothing to see. It was all through a very quite neighborhood. We arrived at the Eiffel Tower and it was stunning! Just amazing!!! On the bridge going to the Tower there were all kinds of individuals selling trinkets and enticing you to play games of chance in hopes of winning money. My son was in awe of the card game and where is the ball game, lol. We had to pry him away. The kids were too tired to go up to the top so we grabbed some drinks and found a spot on the lawn to watch the light show. Ciera and I wanted to see the Eiffel Tower in the day and aat night and here we were accomplishing both. It was about an hour before it was dark enough to start the light show.

 

I was surprised there were many young men illegally selling cigarettes, beer, champagne and wine, many. Almost too many to count and they would have their stash hidden in bushes and garbage cans. We sat a few feet away from some wasted , looked like college kids, who kept buying champagne. My daughter was horrified and really couldn't wait to leave right after the light show. They weren't that bad but I was surprised the police that were roaming around only did just that.

 

The next thing on our list was to take the batobus down the Seine or rather up but we walked over and down the stairs to find out that it had already stopped running for at least a half an hour. What a bummer!!! Why would you do that when the first light show just starts then. I was unhappy but we walked across the bridge and grabbed the bus to it's last stop. We met a nice couple from the states on the bus and lucky them they had been here on business multiple times. We then had to take the metro 2 stops to our hotel. It was late now and the kids were hungry. We found a restaurant getting ready to close a few doors down from the hotel and got a pizza to go for the kids. Then we hit the sack! Steps walked the entire day 18,759.

 

Pictures to come!!! Tomorrow I will post our last day in Paris, boohoo.

[crvng4mr]

Yum!!!

Sacre-Coeur

 

 

 

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2nd hotel

 

[crvng4mr]

Louvre

 

 

 

 

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[wnycruisefam66]

Hi: I've made this my breakfast reading before work! Something to look forward to. So far, we've had the same ports except for France - we were in Toulon. Love the smiles on your kid's faces! My DD was great, but I had a pouty 13 yr old. Very few pictures with him smiling. I wish we could have got him to meet other kids on the cruise like your son did. He would have had a better time. We also used RIL & our guide Vinnie was able to get us in to our Tower of Pisa climb even though we were late. I don't think we would have made it in otherwise. And don't feel bad about the ticket purchase at the Coliseum. I had that happen to us at the Accademia. Vinnie took us to pick up the tickets & I was informed I had bought tickets for the day before! Luckily Vinnie was able to convince them to let me purchase new tickets for our group of 6 for that day. I didn't think we would be able to as the lines for ticket purchase were huge & we had just cut through everyone to pick our pre-purchased ones up. RIL is great!

 

Tina

[crvng4mr]

Hi: I've made this my breakfast reading before work! Something to look forward to. So far, we've had the same ports except for France - we were in Toulon. Love the smiles on your kid's faces! My DD was great, but I had a pouty 13 yr old. Very few pictures with him smiling. I wish we could have got him to meet other kids on the cruise like your son did. He would have had a better time. We also used RIL & our guide Vinnie was able to get us in to our Tower of Pisa climb even though we were late. I don't think we would have made it in otherwise. And don't feel bad about the ticket purchase at the Coliseum. I had that happen to us at the Accademia. Vinnie took us to pick up the tickets & I was informed I had bought tickets for the day before! Luckily Vinnie was able to convince them to let me purchase new tickets for our group of 6 for that day. I didn't think we would be able to as the lines for ticket purchase were huge & we had just cut through everyone to pick our pre-purchased ones up. RIL is great!

 

Tina

Hi Tina! Thank you! Some of the smiles were because I threatened them before the picture, lol. No, seriously I only had to do that twice.[emoji33] [emoji6] I did warn them before we left for the trip that in exchange for their fare they had to promise to give me at least one good family picture a day and smile in the pictures I took of them. It also helps that I am a bit goofy sometimes and they are laughing at me.[emoji14] Teenagers, I'll tell you, sometimes they drive you to drink. Good thing we all were in wine country!

[crvng4mr]

These pictures were taken from the top of the Arc.