Live from Mediterranean Odyssey - March 28 thru April 9, 2022

[Azulann]

37 minutes ago, Eggtuary said:

Thanks for this suggestion!  We have booked with Viator. Now I am thinking we may come out ahead vs what we had booked through Viking. We get two full hours in Sagrada Famiilia, versus fitting it in among a handful of locations scheduled on the Viking tour. And there will be a max of 9 people on our Viator tour. So thanks again!

Two hrs is great to see everything both outside , interior  and  including the basement area where you can see the whole story of Gaudi sketches etc of his dream for Sagrada Familia . I have been there twice . I hope you have a sunny day . The sun through the stain glass is breathtaking how it lights  up the interior with colors . 

[LindaS272]

It was on fire yesterday!

 

[Sapphire_07]

2 hours ago, Eggtuary said:

Thanks for this suggestion!  We have booked with Viator. Now I am thinking we may come out ahead vs what we had booked through Viking. We get two full hours in Sagrada Famiilia, versus fitting it in among a handful of locations scheduled on the Viking tour. And there will be a max of 9 people on our Viator tour. So thanks again!

 

Wonderful news!  Enjoy the tour! 

[seprout93]

Have they allowed independent exploration without an excursion in any of the Italian ports at all? We are supposed to sail in May and are trying to pay close attention to this as it will determine whether we make the trip or not. 

Edited April 6, 2022 by seprout93

[Eggtuary]

2 hours ago, seprout93 said:

Have they allowed independent exploration without an excursion in any of the Italian ports at all? We are supposed to sail in May and are trying to pay close attention to this as it will determine whether we make the trip or not. 

Yes, Italy started allowing independent exploration as of April 1!  

[Dukefan]

2 hours ago, seprout93 said:

Have they allowed independent exploration without an excursion in any of the Italian ports at all? We are supposed to sail in May and are trying to pay close attention to this as it will determine whether we make the trip or not. 

Which Mediterranean Odyssey cruise are you on in May?  My wife and I are on the one leaving Barcelona on May 25th.

[millybess]

Did this cruise have a formal "Meet & Mingle"?  Or did you just meet others and mingle on your own?

[millybess]

On 4/3/2022 at 3:08 PM, PWRWAGN said:

FWIW, we embarked on Viking Sea today.  Masks optional.  Spa requires no reservations.   Contact tracing still required

Did you do the pre-extension in Madrid?

[Peregrina651]

3 hours ago, millybess said:

Did this cruise have a formal "Meet & Mingle"?  Or did you just meet others and mingle on your own?

 

"Meet & Mingle" is sponsored by Cruise Critic in co-operation with the various cruise lines. Currently, they remain paused, so any get-together would have been an informal meeting arranged via the roll call.

 

My guess is that "Meet & Mingle" is one of the last things that will return to cruising.

[millybess]

Thanks much Peregrina. We were hoping it would be in place for our cruise in a few weeks, but probably not. 

 

In my previous post, I was curious if there were CC members who were able to meet up informally. I’m still interested to hear if that is the case. 

[Eggtuary]

2 hours ago, millybess said:

Thanks much Peregrina. We were hoping it would be in place for our cruise in a few weeks, but probably not. 

 

In my previous post, I was curious if there were CC members who were able to meet up informally. I’m still interested to hear if that is the case. 

Our roll call wasn’t really active, so nobody  arranged one. But my wife and I have simply met folks on excursions, or talked to those at nearby tables at dinner. 

[seprout93]

16 hours ago, Eggtuary said:

Yes, Italy started allowing independent exploration as of April 1!  

Amazing! That's so exciting! 

[seprout93]

16 hours ago, Dukefan said:

Which Mediterranean Odyssey cruise are you on in May?  My wife and I are on the one leaving Barcelona on May 25th.

We're actually on the Sky on the Mediterranean & Italian Sojourn leaving May 21 from Venice so our ships will be crossing paths at some point!

[SoccerMom#3]

Thank you so much for your comments and detailed descriptions.  And thank you to everyone for the follow up commentary.  My husband and I are on the August 5 Mediterranean Odyssey with the pre-cruise extension in Venice.  I'm a detail person so I love reading all the posts.  Again, thank you

[20Cruise20]

Time to Catch Up!

 

Livorno: Woke up to no hot water on Tuesday. Yikes! Mid-day hot water had returned. Healthsurveys ended. Since we only had a brief window of time between the time Italy opened for independent  exploration and our arrival, we weren't able to pull together my "perfect day" in Florence. So, we stuck with Plan B and enjoyed the included incursion to Pisa. The cathedral was simply stunning. What an unexpected cultural treasure. The cathedral is absolutely worth visiting! The leaning tower was simply fun on a beautiful sunny day. Another fabulous dinner at The Restaurant, too! 

 

Nice, Eze, and Monte Carlo: Warning! This post might strike the wrong cord with some. Beautiful places, but, this tour wasn't what we expected. A short bus ride to Eze, lots of climbing, beautiful views, followed by about an hour of free time in a few little shops and a cafe or two. (It was way too early in the day/tour for this much free time to shop.)

 

Another short bus ride to Nice. A brief walking tour followed by almost two hours of free time for lunch or to shop. 

 

Another short bus ride to Monaco, a walking tour in a portion of Monoco, and more free time to shop. Finally, the last bus ride to Monte Carlo, including a minute or so drive on the Grand Prix road, and a brief walk to the Monte Carlo Casino. About 30 minutes of free time in the Casino area.

 

We expected more time touring, either walking or via bus, and much, much less time in the shopping areas. I'm a shopper, but, this wasn't my cup of tea. If you want to see a little bit of the French coast, have lots of time in repetitive shops or enjoy a coffee, this tour will not dissapoint you. I do plan to include comments in my feedback to Viking that it would help to align expectations if a tentative timeline could be provided with tours of this nature. Happy to answer more specific questions, if it's helpful.

 

Viking Sea was also in port. Another night with a delightful dinner in The Restaurant. 

 

        

 

 

[Eggtuary]

I will catch up this live blog later, but just had to share some photos from La Sagrada Familia. Our guided tour was amazing; it was just me and my wife!

 

 

[austinetc]

Thank you for these terrific updates!

 

Question: Viking used to offer a “Kitchen Table” event, whereby a few passengers interacted with the chef by shopping for ingredients ashore, etc. Was it offered during your cruise?

[Eggtuary]

1 hour ago, austinetc said:

Thank you for these terrific updates!

 

Question: Viking used to offer a “Kitchen Table” event, whereby a few passengers interacted with the chef by shopping for ingredients ashore, etc. Was it offered during your cruise?

Afraid not. They said they stopped due to COVID and weren’t sure when they would start again. 

[Azulann]

 So glad you got  to Sagrada Familia. Having your own tour guide  for just the two of you must be amazing.  Looking forward to your experience  of this Gaudi masterpiece. 

 

[PWRWAGN]

On 4/7/2022 at 2:21 AM, millybess said:

Did you do the pre-extension in Madrid?

Yes.   We did arrive a day prior to the extension however and glad we did as we saw a lot on our own.  Loved Madrid.  

[Eggtuary]

I'm really behind on my updates.  WiFi on the ship was pretty horrendous the last few days. As in, loading a page on this site could take a full minute or more at a time. I'm now in the air over the Atlantic, where I have considerably better WiFi.  We love Viking, but we'd sure like to see them make an improvement in that regard, if they could.  

 

Day 9 - Florence/Tuscany

 

I'm so glad my wife pushed for us to do the Cooking in a Tuscan Castle excursion.  Not only was it a fun experience, and a nice change of pace, but it was good to take a break from all the long walks of the previous couple of days (in Pompeii and Rome).  I feel kind of bad telling folks how great it is because it sold out VERY quickly, with only 14 people getting to go.  I was one of the volunteers, who learned how to use the quite long (almost a meter!) rolling pins to make incredibly thin noodles.  The other volunteer made almost perfect dough while I kept tearing mine.  I felt better when the other guy revealed that he's a professional chef!  Anyone who wanted got the experience of cutting the dough into the noodles, which was more fun than I would have guessed.  And then another did all the cooking in a pan for one of the sauces.  We then all sat down for a delicious meal that we'd helped prepare.  And the castle is beautiful!

 

We were also fortunate to have a fantastic guide named Luca.  It was a little unusual that he handed out business cards, but honestly I was happy for it because I would happily use him again.  Entertaining, informative, easy to understand, knew when to talk and when to give us a break.  Can't ask for more.

 

Day 10 - Monte Carlo, Monaco

 

It was hard to believe we had two days in a row of incredible guides.  This time, it was "Nick" from Nice (I'm afraid I didn't catch his actual name, but he said he was okay with us calling him Nick.)  Again, a funny  guy who kept up a good pace, super cool accent, and knew a ton.  This time, our excursion was Nice, Èze, Nice and Monte Carlo.  I had seen on another social media site a number of fantastic reviews of this particular excursion, and they were spot-on.  Èze is just a beautiful, unique location on the French Riviera.  It's kind of a steep climb up a hill, but it's completely worth it.  The roads were narrow and winding, the views were awesome, and the little shops had a character all their own.  Nice also was really nice.  We got some free time there and Èze to shop (though not as much as my fellow blogger in this thread).  It worked out perfectly, as we were able to sample some local foods, buy some stuff, and even sit for a ridiculously good cappuccino.

 

My wife and I weren't as big on Monte Carlo.  It truly has that feel of being the playground of the rich and famous, which some people may like, but wasn't our thing.

Edited April 9, 2022 by Eggtuary

[Eggtuary]

Day 11 - Marseille, France

 

We did the Le Castellet and Wine Tasting excursion.  By this point in the trip, my wife was apologizing for all the wine tastings she'd talked me into, because I don't drink very much at all (due to interactions with a med I'm on).  But honestly, I found them enjoyable.  This ended up being one of my favorites, especially because we were seated right next to a wonderful couple from CA we met earlier on this cruise, and that we really enjoyed hanging out with on a number of occasions, who also happened to know a TON more about wine than we do (though that's a low bar).  They gave us some quick pointers on how to do a wine tasting so as to really get everything out of each wine, and we were really surprised how much of a difference it made for us.  

 

Unfortunately, the guide for this trip was not the best.  He had a rather boring delivery, and he spent a strange amount of time talking about things completely unrelated to the excursion (like helicopters and military matters).  I'm fine when a guide sprinkles in interesting off-topic tidbits, but his were really over-the-top.  We could even hear several other guests quietly grumble at different times about the same thing. But it was such a nice excursion otherwise that the guide certainly didn't ruin the experience.

 

Le Castellet reminded me of Èze.  I strongly advise future cruisers doing one or the other (if not both!) as they're just a really pleasant change-up from the rest of the itinerary.

 

We knew we were going to have a busy day in Barcelona, so we started packing after we got back to the port in Marseille (which, by the way, is really ugly.  I mean, Fusina's commercial port that Viking has to use as an alternative to Venice these days was almost pretty by comparison).

[Eggtuary]

Day 12 - Barcelona, Spain

 

I am SO thankful to the folks who suggested using Viator to book our own tour of La Sagrada Familia!  My wife and I got a private tour by a fantastic guide.  Not only was he interesting, easy to understand and super pleasant, but he also brought along a tablet on which he would pull up pictures from time to time to help better explain the points he was making.  For instance, there was a statue from the time of Jesus's life that they ended up using Gaudi's face for, and our guide was able to pull up a photograph showing how true the likeness was.  

 

Of course, with it being a private tour, we could go at whatever pace we wanted.  Our guide also saw that my wife's knees were really acting up on her from all our touring, and he arranged for us to get to the elevator.  Plus, he spent a lot of time outside of the basilica in various places, where we not only got wonderful pictures, but also a better appreciation for how truly amazing the place is.

 

We wanted to sample some local tapas before returning to the ship, and our guide again gave us a great suggestion.  After stuffing ourselves on a delicious sample of unique local flavors, we ended with a dessert that was essentially a crème brûlée on top of a Krispy Kreme doughnut with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on it.  Yum!!

 

After going back on board for a couple of hours to rest and finish packing, we went back out for An Evening of Flamenco.  This was a really cool experience, though they had an awful lot of us crammed into the venue.  The excursion was advertised as providing a "snack," which made everyone laugh because they gave us a ton of food, again in the form of tapas.  Some were much better than others.  

 

Day 13 - Disembarking (Barcelona)

 

I'm glad we paid for the airport transfer with Viking.  They made everything quite simple, including getting our bags all the way up to the ticketing/check-in counters (which were surprisingly far from any available doors).  

[Eggtuary]

I'm creating a separate post with my general reflections as I fly back home.

 

• I now have a far better appreciation as to why so many folks have been eager for independent exploration.  That really is where you often get your best memories from a trip.  The two days in Venice on our own before joining Viking were especially fantastic, as there were great places to pick up delicious cicchetti (Italian small plates) in the most random of back streets.  No excursion, no matter how carefully planned, is going to provide that sort of experience.
• I'm so appreciative for the advice I read somewhere on this forum that one should only book optional excursions if they sound really great.  We never did an included excursion, though I hear some of those were quite good.  Being first-timers to Europe, we appreciated the ease of booking things through Viking, but when we did our own thing through Viator (once in Venice before joining the ship, and once in Barcelona) it was a LOT better for only a little more money.  The private tour through La Sagrada Familia was clearly unlike what Viking offered, as we actually saw folks from the Viking Jupiter doing the excursion we were supposed to be on.  There were more than a couple of folks in that group who noticed our Viking contact tracers, and they looked incredibly jealous of our much more individualized treatment.  Viking has some great options with the Privileged Access excursions (like ours in the Tuscan castle), so I will likely seek those out on future Viking cruises, but otherwise I might use independents.  Or just take the free shuttle into town (as we did in Corfu and Barcelona) and explore on our own.
• I thought I would be a bigger fan of the lectures than I was.  But it was such a port-intensive cruise, we found we really needed downtime.  Don't get me wrong, the lecturers were VERY good, and I think on a cruise with more sea days, I would make use of them much more.
• I was very curious to see what kind of passengers are found on Viking.  I really enjoy the forums and social media groups of their fans, and I see why they have such a loyal following.  Some posters seemed to indicate that Viking attracts more of the down-to-earth crowd than do other luxury cruise lines.  Others have said that you'll find all the same types on Viking that you will anywhere else.  My own experience is that Viking is the kind of place where it's easy for friendly and outgoing people to find one another and have a great time.  We made a number of new friends, exchanging contact info.  That's not to say there weren't some annoying people (like one guy who got very loudly political in the spa changing room one day, or some very entitled-acting individuals in other locales), but there were so many other great people to meet, it was easy to overlook and/or avoid the ones who weren't so pleasant.
  • Along these same lines, we found that one of the best ways to figure out who we might get along with was to see how they treated the crew.  We gravitated to the types who joked with the crew and seemed genuinely nice to them.  There were some people early on who seemed nice but something just felt "off."  Then we saw how they treated the crew (not poorly, but certainly not friendly) and it just made everything click as to why we didn't connect with them.

I'll probably share more thoughts in the coming days, and hopefully more pictures once I get home to much better WiFi.  Eventually, I'll also share links to some videos I plan to create and share on YouTube. I'm not the most talented at creating such videos, and am too busy to spend a lot of time on it, but I find doing so helps me tremendously with recalling the details of a trip, especially a relatively long, intense one like this Mediterranean Odyssey.

[Eggtuary]

Here's a specific example of the joys of independent exploration:  yesterday in Barcelona, as my wife and I were waiting to meet our guide, a group of four elementary school boys walked up and asked if they could conduct a survey with us.  They said it was to help them with their English.  We agreed ... and it was a blast!

 

They asked what we thought of the people in Barcelona.  We threw out a few adjectives, but when we said, "friendly," they looked shocked.  One of the boys said, "You're the first people to say we're friendly, and we've talked to a lot of people today!"

 

There were other fun moments during that conversation.  It was just such a great little micro-moment of cultures meeting, and the kind of thing that couldn't have happened on a Viking excursion, simply because those kids wouldn't have been able to get that kind of time with anyone from a big, organized group that was being shepherded through a big crowd.  And it's unplanned moments like that which are much more likely to stick with us.

Edited April 9, 2022 by Eggtuary