Emerald Princess Civitavecchia to Barcelona: 30/05/15 - 06/06/15: Our First Cruise

[LH2015]

Day 5 - Genoa - Part 2

 

The boat trip to Portofino is very scenic one and you get greats views of the coast. As we neared PF, there were some serious yachts, which you could only ever dream about sailing on. And then we rounded the corner into PF. So very beautiful. We walked up to the church on the jill where you can take the famous panoramic photos from. I thought that I would love to get married here, Dream on, girl. Oh, how the better half live. We decided to grab a Foccacia and a Gelato and enjoy it down by the harbourside. They were both delicious and the nicest I had ever had. After enjoying the town for a while we were back on the boat back to Santa Margherita and back to the ship.

 

 

Small church in the square at Portofino.

 

 

Taken from the top of the hill. Just like a postcard.

 

 

You've got to get a Bow/name shot, haven't you?

 

As some of you may know, the final resting place of the Costa Concordia is Genoa, where she is being broken up. As we sailed out of port we passed very close to her and could get a good (but morbid) view of the damage. It was quite so,bre to sail past her knowing peopl lost their lives there. Apparently some ships sound their horn in salute as they sail past, but Emerald did not.

 

 

This is the side the lay under water and took mot of the damage.

 

 

Despite the attempts to remove the paint, her name remains. RIP :(

 

Tonight was the last of our formal nights. We attempted to get a decent formal photo of us and we ended up bringing one home. I always imagine the photo developers must look at our pictures and put it in the 'unfortunate' pile. I always get all awkward with photos and end up never being able to smile properly. For those of you who have seen the episode of Friends where Chandler can't smile properly for his engagement photo, that's me. After dinner we went to the Casino where we gambled more money away into the pockets of Princess. Then it was a nightcap and off to bed for our final day tomorrow.

 

Day 6 and 7 coming soon. Feel free to ask any questions you may have and I'll be pleased to answer

Edited July 15, 2015 by LH2015

[gailjen]

Very sad sight The Concordia

 

Your trip to Rapallo, Santa Margherita and Portofino was this organised or did you do it alone, we are planning this trip but weren't sure if we would have time to complete the boat trip to Portofino & San Fruttuoso di Camogli

 

If organised was it a princess trip?

[LH2015]

It was a Princess trip, yes. You could do it on your own and we know some who did. The boat leaves from Santa Margherita, not Rapallo. It's definitely worth visiting both Rapallo and PF. Pictures really don't do it justice as to how pretty it is.

[yukongold]

Loving the photos...the ones of the Concordia were very interesting.

[gailjen]

It was a Princess trip, yes. You could do it on your own and we know some who did. The boat leaves from Santa Margherita, not Rapallo. It's definitely worth visiting both Rapallo and PF. Pictures really don't do it justice as to how pretty it is.

 

 

Thanks for the info, it's DIY then x

[shredie]

Oh the sad picture of the Concordia. :(

[caribill]

Day 4 - Livorno - Part 2

 

The queues for Uffizi and David were huge so we realised if we did this we wouldn't have time to see much else.

 

For future cruises, when you have popular sights such as these go online before the cruise and purchase timed entry tickets. This enables you to skip all those lines.

 

Purchase from the attraction itself, not from a broker who will only add unnecessary convenience charges.

[nimiq]

Love the review and the pics ...this help us as we are going to be sailing her Aug 1st 2015

 

Thanks

Sea ya

Eric

[Colo Cruiser]

Just love Portfino! Beautiful!

[LH2015]

For future cruises, when you have popular sights such as these go online before the cruise and purchase timed entry tickets. This enables you to skip all those lines.

 

Purchase from the attraction itself, not from a broker who will only add unnecessary convenience charges.

 

We were actually advised to do this at the Cruise Critic meet-up, but unfortunately the tickets for the next week or so ahead were sold out. Should we return, we'll purchase in advance.

[LH2015]

Day 6 - Toulon - Part 1

 

If you are in any ship of considerable size, you'll find yourself actually docking just over the bay from Toulon in La Seyne Sur Mer and Emerald, being a large lady, docked here. If you want to visit Toulon, you can get on the boat just after you disembark which is about a 15 minute ride to Toulon.

 

Today we would be visiting La Castellet and doing some wine tasting in Bandol. We met our guide who was witty with a good sense of humour. We drove up into the hills of Provence to reach La Castellet. What a beautiful little village this is, postcard pretty. Lots of flowers in bloom decorate the village and give off a wonderful scent. Here we bought some gifts from the region to take home. We saw a piece of art we liked and asked the woman in the shop how much with our pigeon French. 1000 Euros??? Maybe not, then. A tad overpriced, I suspect. There is an amazing biscuit shop here. If you go in, you will buy biscuits and come out suitably plump. You have been warned. We had a picturesque coffee before heading back to the coach.

 

 

View from La Castellet over to the Med.

 

 

Lots of Bougainvillea everywhere that permeate the village. Jasmine and honeysuckle are here in abundance too.

 

 

A typical french sign with a dog looking like he was advertising the wares.

 

 

This opening is called 'The Ladies Hole' in french. It's a double entendre because this is where the women would gather and because well....you know.

[LH2015]

Dy 6 - Toulon - Part 2

 

Now it was time to do some daytime drinking. When in France....The pretty little vineyard was called Vannieres. We were shown the cellar with the barrels and stocks of wine from 1990 onwards. We were told how wine changes as it ages and the process it goes through to reach our table. I also found out that the year of the wine is when the grapes are harvested, not the date when it is bottled, as is often believed.

 

 

The vines.

 

 

The bottles are left like this from when they are bottled until they are served. It enhances the flavour apparently.

 

 

The huge barrels.

 

We got to try a 'casual' white (apparently a wine you drink when not trying to compliment food or not hosting', their house, red, white and rose. We got little nibbles to go with it to compliment the flavour. The 1992 Red was dangerously drinkable, so much so we brought some home. It wasn't a cheap bottle, but you only live once. I will definitely get in contact with the winery at a later date to see if we can get some sent over as you cannot buy it in the UK. Feeling rather light headed, we headed back to the ship to embark her for the very last time. :(

 

 

Baby grapes.

[LH2015]

Day 6 - Toulon - Part 3

 

We spent our final afternoon relaxing by the aft pool feeling sad that tomorrow we would be leaving her. I wanted to witness the 50th Anniversary Golden Balloon Drop in the Piazza tonight so we planned dinner around this. Sod's law dinner went on longer than planned and we missed it by minutes. Tonight I wanted to walk around the ship at night to get some pictures of her lit up. The moon was full and bright tonight so it didn't seem to get fully dark until the early hours, so I just had to make do with 'nearly night' pictures.

 

 

The balloons ready for the drop. You'll have to use your imagination to work out what the actual drop looked like.

 

 

The ship gets a new plaque for every new port she docks at.

 

 

The aft lit up.

 

 

And a lit up side shot.

 

 

When we got back to our room we had had the Journal from the bridge crew delivered. I really loved this little touch and I plan to frame this and hang it in our house. With very heavy hearts we went to the bar for the final time, took some drinks back to the room and enjoyed them on the balcony. We had requested a 'late as possible' disembarkation for tomorrow and we had been given 11am.

 

Day 7 and our day in Barcelona coming soon.

[nutensteve]

Excellent review and pictures. Thanks for sharing with us.

[ckfajf]

What a wonderful writer AND photographer you are! Thank you for this, really enjoyed reading!

[Matcodixon]

Excellent review with great photos. We took the same "transportation only" Princess tour for Florence and Pisa. We had purchased timed tickets for Uffizzi and Accademia (David) in advance, however the time it takes to tour Uffizzi consumed almost the entire time we were in Florence. Never made it to Accademia and the Domed Cathedral or the famous bridge.

All I can say is that one can easily spend an entire day in Florence and not begin to see it all. (much less about half a day) i really want to return someday. (even more so after seeing your beautiful photos.) It is an amazing city.

Dixon

[Steelers0854]

When we got back to our room we had had the Journal from the bridge crew delivered. I really loved this little touch and I plan to frame this and hang it in our house. .

 

 

Just a heads up at the end of the cruise the last art auction they will auction off a very nice map with all the port information and ship information. If you take a cruise that you really enjoy this is a great item to take home and frame. They don't have a minimum starting price and sometimes they have a hard time even selling it, others it goes for a significant amount.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Barcelona is such a beautiful city...can't wait to see it through your lens!

[LH2015]

Day 7 - Barcelona - Part 1

 

We had a leisurely breakfast, said hood bye to our room and spent a quiet hour reading our books by the pool until it was time to leave.

 

Disembarkation was running ahead of schedule so we ended up leaving about 10.30. Farewell Emerald. On the dock we got a taxi to our hotel. We had decided to stay one night in Barcelona so we could enjoy a bit of the city. We checked into Casa Camper. I only have good words for this hotel, everything was fantastic from the service to the rooms to the atmosphere. I highly recommend it and would stay again if I return to Barcelona.

 

It was a really hot day today. We caught the tourist bus to take us to Montjuic where we took a look at the 1992 Olympic stadium and visited the Olympic museum which is a great little place. Then we got the cable car to the castle at the top. You had a great view down to the port where we could see the Emerald looking terribly sad that we were no longer on board. I started to wonder if someone else was already in our room like some sort of women wondering if her husband was cheating.... From there we saw the really tall cable car that takes you down to the port and decided we must have a go on this. Sadly the queue was an hour long and we really didn't fancy standing in the heat for an hour, so that put paid to our plan. So we caught the tourist bus down to the beach and got some lunch here.

 

 

Olympic Stadium. It was much smaller than I expected.

 

 

Where the flame would have been burning. Funnily enough the sun was replacing it perfectly here.

 

 

The London Olympic Torch

 

 

Castle battlements on top of Montjuic.

 

 

Does she miss us?

 

 

The cable cars with Barcelona in the background.

[LH2015]

Day 7 & 8 - Barcelona - Part 2

 

BY now it was incredibly hot so we were glad of the shade and a nice cool drink. We had some tapas with the biggest calamari I've ever seen! Then it was back on the tourist bus to the Cathedral to have a quick look and then we walked the rest of the way back to the hotel. We didn't visit the Sagrada Familia. We were so exhausted and our feet were killing us that the pain won over.

 

 

Huge calamari!

 

We knew we either had to have paella or tapas for dinner so we asked at reception for a recommendation. They told us about Bar Lobo, a tapas place around the corner. All I can say about it was Y-U-M-M-Y! Great food for a great price.

 

Tonight was the Champions League Soccer final and having a soccer mad OH, there was no way we weren't watching it, especially as Barcelona were in the final. It was very amusing to watch the locals go mad every time Barcelona scored. They won 3-1 and there was cheering and chanting into the early hours. Some sore heads the next morning, I suspect.

 

The bed at this hotel was the comfiest I have ever slept in at a hotel. Before I knew it I had fallen asleep and was woken the next morning by the bustle of the streets. With a heavy heart we had breakfast, checked out and headed to the airport. Being an aviaton geek, I was very excited to see we would be flown home by the British Airways 'Olympic Dove'. This one of only a few aircraft painted as a golden dove to commemorate the London Olympics. This aircraft carried the Olympic flame around the world and brought it to the UK so it was really cool to fly her. And so on the wings of a dove we were carried home.

 

 

Our dove awaits.

 

Final thoughts:

 

We LOVED cruising. It exceeded our expectations by miles. The Emerald Princess is a beautiful ship and still in great condition. I love the look of this class of ship, it looks so much more appealing and elegant than the new Royal Class. It will be a shame to see them gradually growing old and retiring. It made us sad to think we will never sail her again. I believe she's doing her last Caribbean season soon before she splits her time between Australia and Europe, both of which we are unlikely to cruise, but I guess you can never say never. We are already planning a Caribbean cruise for 2017 and we know we will be Princess cruisers again.

 

I hope you enjoyed reading my report of our first cruise, I hope it wasn't too boring. If you have any questions or would like to see more pictures, please do ask. I took many pictures but couldn't share them all.

[caribill]

 

I hope you enjoyed reading my report of our first cruise.

 

I did.

 

Thanks.

[partybarbie]

We'll be boarding the Emerald in Barcelona soon. Thank you for posting all of the pictures and happy to hear that you had an amazing time on her.

[Woobstr112G]

Pictures are beautiful. Brought back memories of our multiple visits to a number of the same areas. Thanks for sharing.....:):):)

 

Bob

Edited July 18, 2015 by Woobstr112G

[Colo Cruiser]

Excellent! Thanks. :)

[jlf1]

what a great review.