Enchanted Princess Aug 5 - 26, Rome to Rome: live?

[Chrisclaire]

Thankyou trinitygirl for your posts!

I am glad you are feeling better and able to enjoy your cruise.

 

Really enjoying seeing your photos and reading all the info posted.

Very interested in everything, especially the ship and the food (which looks delicious btw)

 

We are thinking about jumping ship from Celebrity and to date, have only ever cruised with them, Princess is one of our possibilities, so thanks for the info!

Sailing on Celebrity Solstice in October from Sydney round East coast of Australia and will make our decision after that cruise.

Thanks again & enjoy the rest of you cruise.

 

Ps

Up at 5.30/6.30am......now that's very impressive 😊

[DeeTO]

On 8/16/2023 at 2:41 PM, CanuckCurlers said:

We are boarding with you. From what I've read boarding seems to be going well in other ports but you never know 'til you get there.

We boarded Sat 19 in Barcelona. Dropped off luggage around 12.15, lines moved fairly quickly to check in , pick up medallion and get on board. Probably about 25mins, no hassles. Announced around 1.00 that rooms were available for entry. I found it was quite fine.

[trinitygirl]

12 hours ago, Chrisclaire said:

Thankyou trinitygirl for your posts!

I am glad you are feeling better and able to enjoy your cruise.

 

Really enjoying seeing your photos and reading all the info posted.

Very interested in everything, especially the ship and the food (which looks delicious btw)

 

We are thinking about jumping ship from Celebrity and to date, have only ever cruised with them, Princess is one of our possibilities, so thanks for the info!

Sailing on Celebrity Solstice in October from Sydney round East coast of Australia and will make our decision after that cruise.

Thanks again & enjoy the rest of you cruise.

 

Ps

Up at 5.30/6.30am......now that's very impressive 😊

good morning everyone.  We are about to dock in Gibraltar - one of the ports on this cruise I have not been to before.  We haven't booked a tour, but are going to head out as soon as the gangway opens and take a taxi tour.  Our plan is to end the tour in 'town' and then walk back to the ship.  Hopefully we can do all of that before it gets too hot and then we will spend the afternoon relaxing back on the ship.   Yesterday was delightful - massage, an afternoon at the sanctuary, formal night dinner (we had our photo taken which I've never done before so that was fun) and then we went to see Starlight Bar, which I saw a fortnight ago but my friends had not seen yet - I actually enjoyed it more the second time around and my friends enjoyed it. 

 

Chrisclaire - I started cruising with Celebrity in the Caribbean and loved their style, but because they don't sail out of Melbourne I did a couple of cruises with Princess (which do) and I've now completed three with each company.  I think they both have good things going for them, but I find it harder to find a decent mid-length cruise on Celebrity and although I would love to do a NZ cruise with them, the fact that they don't do round-trips or sail from Melbourne makes their itineraries less attractive to me.  I have a back to back with Celebrity in November in the Carribean (8 days and 6 days on the Reflection) and am looking forward to it. 

 

ok, better get myself to breakfast.

[could travel all the time]

9 hours ago, trinitygirl said:

good morning everyone.  We are about to dock in Gibraltar - one of the ports on this cruise I have not been to before.  We haven't booked a tour, but are going to head out as soon as the gangway opens and take a taxi tour.  Our plan is to end the tour in 'town' and then walk back to the ship.  Hopefully we can do all of that before it gets too hot and then we will spend the afternoon relaxing back on the ship.   Yesterday was delightful - massage, an afternoon at the sanctuary, formal night dinner (we had our photo taken which I've never done before so that was fun) and then we went to see Starlight Bar, which I saw a fortnight ago but my friends had not seen yet - I actually enjoyed it more the second time around and my friends enjoyed it. 

 

Chrisclaire - I started cruising with Celebrity in the Caribbean and loved their style, but because they don't sail out of Melbourne I did a couple of cruises with Princess (which do) and I've now completed three with each company.  I think they both have good things going for them, but I find it harder to find a decent mid-length cruise on Celebrity and although I would love to do a NZ cruise with them, the fact that they don't do round-trips or sail from Melbourne makes their itineraries less attractive to me.  I have a back to back with Celebrity in November in the Carribean (8 days and 6 days on the Reflection) and am looking forward to it. 

 

ok, better get myself to breakfast.

Hope you enjoyed your day in Gibraltar 😊

 

I am interested to know how your tour went. We missed out on pre booking a tour so thought to do the same as you once at port 🤞 

[trinitygirl]

28 minutes ago, could travel all the time said:

Hope you enjoyed your day in Gibraltar 😊

 

I am interested to know how your tour went. We missed out on pre booking a tour so thought to do the same as you once at port 🤞 

Hi again.  It was GREAT.  really great.  I think it might be because I had low expectations, but this morning blew them out of the water.  We headed off the ship around 7.20am when it was still dark  and when we got outside we realised it was incredibly foggy.  We came across the taxi tours immediately outside the port but it wasn't clear how long we would have to wait so we decided to walk into town and see what happened.  However, just a couple of minutes later we came across Lester and his mini-van; he already had 4 people ready to go and with the three of us, his group was set, so we said sure.  The cost was 45 GBP ($57 USD/$90 Australian) and that included your nature reserve ticket which included all the attractions.   Because it was so foggy, he changed up the structure of the tour; we started at the lighthouse, then went to the Pillars of Hercules, then headed up the Rock where we visited with the monkeys, and then got to St Michael's Cave in time to be first in line.  We spent 20 minutes in the cave (which was fabulous and totally worth the time) and then went further up the rock to the glass viewing balcony, and then further up to the feeding platform for the monkeys.  By then it was about 10.30am and the other 4 decided to walk down to the castle; we got a ride back to town and spent about 90 minutes walking through town, checking out Marks and Spencer, eating icecream and so on.   It was a great tour, we feel like we got a good sense of what Gibraltar is like, and Lester was a great source of information.  I think it would definitely depend on your guide - we clicked with him and we were all Australian so on the same page.   

 

We got back to the ship just before midday (when the sun briefly came out so we could see the rock and it got really hot all of a sudden) and had the wake pool to ourselves for half an hour before lunch. 

[Senga]

@trinitygirl  So glad you enjoyed Gibraltar; we’re really looking forward to this port.  Wonderful your random group tour worked out.  That’s what we were originally planning and it sounds perfect.  We ended up booking a private tour for 8 on our roll call.  An ice cream and M&S are on our agenda too!

[could travel all the time]

33 minutes ago, trinitygirl said:

Hi again.  It was GREAT.  really great.  I think it might be because I had low expectations, but this morning blew them out of the water.  We headed off the ship around 7.20am when it was still dark  and when we got outside we realised it was incredibly foggy.  We came across the taxi tours immediately outside the port but it wasn't clear how long we would have to wait so we decided to walk into town and see what happened.  However, just a couple of minutes later we came across Lester and his mini-van; he already had 4 people ready to go and with the three of us, his group was set, so we said sure.  The cost was 45 GBP ($57 USD/$90 Australian) and that included your nature reserve ticket which included all the attractions.   Because it was so foggy, he changed up the structure of the tour; we started at the lighthouse, then went to the Pillars of Hercules, then headed up the Rock where we visited with the monkeys, and then got to St Michael's Cave in time to be first in line.  We spent 20 minutes in the cave (which was fabulous and totally worth the time) and then went further up the rock to the glass viewing balcony, and then further up to the feeding platform for the monkeys.  By then it was about 10.30am and the other 4 decided to walk down to the castle; we got a ride back to town and spent about 90 minutes walking through town, checking out Marks and Spencer, eating icecream and so on.   It was a great tour, we feel like we got a good sense of what Gibraltar is like, and Lester was a great source of information.  I think it would definitely depend on your guide - we clicked with him and we were all Australian so on the same page.   

 

We got back to the ship just before midday (when the sun briefly came out so we could see the rock and it got really hot all of a sudden) and had the wake pool to ourselves for half an hour before lunch. 

Wonderful! Good you had a great day! I hope that we will be so lucky ☺️

do you know if USD or Euro are easily accepted? 

 

A couple of more questions please… 

Sorry if I missed but what happened with you Cinque Terre tour??! We booked it as well and I know I’d be really really disappointed if they cancel it 🥺

Also have you noticed any changes onboard regarding covid? Precautions and the like?

[trinitygirl]

38 minutes ago, could travel all the time said:

Wonderful! Good you had a great day! I hope that we will be so lucky ☺️

do you know if USD or Euro are easily accepted? 

 

A couple of more questions please… 

Sorry if I missed but what happened with you Cinque Terre tour??! We booked it as well and I know I’d be really really disappointed if they cancel it 🥺

Also have you noticed any changes onboard regarding covid? Precautions and the like?

If you have cash, they will accept USD or Euros, but we all paid with cards in GBP so I am not sure how good the exchange rate would be.  
 

Princess stopped working with the company that does the small group tours to Cinque Terre.  They still offer big bus tours but having now been on a few big Princess tours we are not keen.  The shore excursion agent told me there were five buses going on that tour.  So we decided to stick to Livorno. 
 

it is as if COVID Never happened for most passengers. There is a lot of it about - I caught it for the first time 48 hours into the cruise.  There are no precautions being taken. But if you test positive and report medical, you go into a five day isolation period in your cabin.  I had a mild case and although I was really disappointed to miss Greece and Turkey, there are definitely worse places Trobe sick. 

[could travel all the time]

17 minutes ago, trinitygirl said:

If you have cash, they will accept USD or Euros, but we all paid with cards in GBP so I am not sure how good the exchange rate would be.  
 

Princess stopped working with the company that does the small group tours to Cinque Terre.  They still offer big bus tours but having now been on a few big Princess tours we are not keen.  The shore excursion agent told me there were five buses going on that tour.  So we decided to stick to Livorno. 
 

it is as if COVID Never happened for most passengers. There is a lot of it about - I caught it for the first time 48 hours into the cruise.  There are no precautions being taken. But if you test positive and report medical, you go into a five day isolation period in your cabin.  I had a mild case and although I was really disappointed to miss Greece and Turkey, there are definitely worse places Trobe sick. 

Oh wow 5 buses 😳. 
thanks for your feedback !! 

[Booboochase]

Fabulous pictures of the monkeys - we won't see them on our tour and now I wish we were.  Bit scary to hear about the covid uptick - there is definitely one here also.  I know it's a part of life now - but still concerning when traveling. 

[Senga]

@trinitygirl  Where did you take the sail in to Kotor picture from?

[wallyj]

Hi @trinitygirl, enjoying your thread and pictures. Just to clarify I think in post #13 and #78 you refer to the Production show in #13 as Soul Bar and in #78 as Starlight Bar, but pretty sure the name of the show is ‘Spotlight Bar’ so those not familiar will be able to identify. Princess has another show called ‘Sweet Soul Music’, but not sure if being done on your ship, but was performed on my recent Emerald sailings. 

 

Also the Gibraltar ‘Macaques’ are known to steal objects from passengers and bite and scratch. It seems every time I have made this port stop, passengers have medical stops on board to attend to ‘bites and scratches’.

Edited August 24, 2023 by wallyj

[trinitygirl]

6 hours ago, Senga said:

@trinitygirl  Where did you take the sail in to Kotor picture from?

Deck 17. 

[trinitygirl]

1 hour ago, wallyj said:

Hi @trinitygirl, enjoying your thread and pictures. Just to clarify I think in post #13 and #78 you refer to the Production show in #13 as Soul Bar and in #78 as Starlight Bar, but pretty sure the name of the show is ‘Spotlight Bar’ so those not familiar will be able to identify. Princess has another show called ‘Sweet Soul Music’, but not sure if being done on your ship, but was performed on my recent Emerald sailings. 

 

Also the Gibraltar ‘Macaques’ are known to steal objects from passengers and bite and scratch. It seems every time I have made this port stop, passengers have medical stops on board to attend to ‘bites and scratches’.

Hello and thank you - for some reason I can not get the name of that show right, even now that I have seen it twice!  Spotlight Bar, I will try to remember.  And yes, our guide was very good with keeping us clear of the monkeys but it was shocking to see another guide (a Princess tour guide!!) deliberately feeding one family in order to get them to come inside the bus, and then encouraging guests to stand too close for photographs.  Considering the huge fines for feeding them, it seemed really poor behaviour. 

[trinitygirl]

Morning everyone!  It's too early to be a good morning yet, and I am feeling stiff and sore, so I am trying to get a few chores out of the way so I can head upstairs for a walk to sort myself out.  I can't believe this cruise ends in just two more days!

 

So the day before yesterday was a sea day, and a lovely lovely one it was at that.  I treated myself to a pedicure to use up the last of my OBC, and then spent the afternoon at the Sanctuary, where we had a really lovely afternoon tea.  In the evening, it was greek night in the dining room with that delicious spanakopita being served, and the waiter convincing me to try a banana tart which was scrumptious and nothing like it sounded on the menu.  I then joined some cruise critic friends in Princess Live for the We Play, You Say, and Majority Rules game shows - both of them were a lot of fun.

 

Yesterday we were in Marseille, where I have never been before, and wow, what a great day that was.  We signed up with A La Francaise for an excursion and it was just fabulous.  Emanuelle collected us (there were the three of us, and one other couple from NZ) from the terminal, and took us first for a two hour driving tour of Marseille in his very clean, well air conditioned, spacious mini bus (with good safety belts).  We had a number of stops where there are great views out over the city, and he pointed out all the areas of interest, before driving us up to the Basilica Notre-Dame de la Garde, which just blew us away.  It was very busy, and by then it was very warm, but it was totally worth the effort.   From the Basilica we then headed to Cassis (pronounced Cassie) where we had 2.5 hours of free time.  Our group of three first went with Emanuelle to secure tickets for the 1pm boat trip to the Calanques, then had 50 minutes for a delicious lunch in an Italian restaurant up a side alley.  The boat trip was EXCELLENT - there was a lovely cool breeze on the water, the water is just beautifully clear because of the absence of sand, and the little ports in the inlets around the coast were picturesque - the hour long trip was perfect for us.  When we got back, we had half an hour for gelato and a little bit of shopping - I found a shop selling Provence specialities and bought some biscuits flavoured with orange blossom, anise, and lemon.    We finished our tour with a stop at the most amazing lookout, and then were back at the ship before 4pm, very satisfied with our day out.   We met up in the Platinum lounge for cocktails and snacks (I had a Deep Sea which is my new favourite) and then off to dinner (where I had a scrumptious Indian veggie curry - I wish they served this more often) and then I finally got to see Rock Opera in the theatre.  For the first four numbers I was bored and thinking, do I  need to leave? and then the  production seemed to turn over a new leaf and I really enjoyed the rest of it.  I preferred the Spotlight Bar but I am glad I got a chance to see this one finally.

Marseilles started off as five villages, and each village has its own little harbour separate from the Old Town harbour and the now the main habour - there are a lot of boats in Marseilles.

 

there are fortifications dating back a thousand years or more, all over the habour area and into the old town.

 

Cassis is just a beautiful little town - don't miss it.

one of the Calanques we visited on the boat tour.  and check out the fishies in the water - so clear!

a delicious lunch - I had the french version of Salad Caprese - it used burrata instead of mozzarella, and provided a delicious pesto and some sort of spice (not sure if it was sumac? neither is authentic to a caprese salad but it was delicious)

 

so yummy.  The biscuit is not short bread, too dense for that.  yum.

 

and then here are some ship board photos from recent meals - the spanakopita, banana tart, afternoon tea in the sanctuary, and last night's indian curry.  so yum.  oh,and some cocktails!

 

 

Edited August 24, 2023 by trinitygirl

[Senga]

@trinitygirl  Glad you enjoyed Marseille.  Your pictures definitely show there is another side to the dirty place we saw!  Guess a guided tour is the way to go.  The only thing I want from Marseille is Herbs de Provence so we may go ashore if there are shops close to the port. 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Senga

[trinitygirl]

Good morning everyone, for the last time on this cruise!  Yesterday we called in Genoa but I didn't really step foot in the city.   I did get to see it on my morning walk up on deck 18, because it took about an hour to come into the port, going very very slowly, and then doing that pivot (which was really disorienting mid walk!).   We walked from the ship to a boat that docked next to the ship, and headed off on a day long adventure to explore Camogli, Santa Margherita, and Portofino.  It was a really excellent excursion - I would have hated to do it by bus, but the 40 of us had a big boat all to ourselves so plenty of room to spread out, and the ocean breezes made the heat and humidity bearable for the time we were on the water (about an hour to Camogli, 15 minutes to Santa Margherita, 15 minutes back to Portofino, then an hour back to the ship).  We had a couple of hours in Camogli, starting with a tasting of focaccia and wine at a beach-front restaurant, a walking tour and some free time.  We then had an hour in Santa Margherita to have a delicious lunch (or to go shopping if you preferred) and then an hour in Portofino where we walked up the incredibly steep hill to St George's church for amazing views out over the village.  The only thing that would have made it better was if we had known that there were beaches and that we would have had time to go swimming - we would have taken our togs if we had known.   We got back to the ship around 4.30pm, and after a much needed shower and change, headed to the platinum lounge for a cocktail and then dinner in the dining room:  it was eggplant parmigano night and it was just as good this week as it was last week.  yum!  in the evening, i met up with some CC friends to watch the 'so you think you can dance' competition in the Piazza and that was great fun.  An excellent day all in all.

 

Today we are in Livorno - a last day of cruising adventure.  We are going on a walking tour that ends at mid day and then we are going to come back for a last swim on board before I have to pack for disembarkation tomorrow.  eeek.

 

Some photos, first of the church, the focaccia, the waterfront

 

and the beach at Camogli:

 

then a convent turned beach club on the way to Santa Margherita, lunch, and Portofino:

 

 

[Booboochase]

Love these pictures! We are doing this excursion and it sounds wonderful! 

[trinitygirl]

Good morning for the last time from this Live report.  The last day of our cruise we called at Livorno.  Originally we were booked on a full day small group excursion to Cinque Terre but it was cancelled last week.  The alternative was a big Princess tour but having heard that there were at least five buses we were not interested.  We opted for a morning tour of Livorno by foot and canal boat.  The tour took us by bus to the canals for an hour long cruise around the waterways.  To be honest, I thought it was full - Livorno was destroyed in WWII and there is not a lot of interest left, plus the sun was beating down at 9am and there was no shade on the canal boat.  Afterwards we stopped for a cold drink at the cafe afterwards, then headed off on the walking tour.  This was also pretty uninspiring and after we had been shown where the bus would pick us up later, when we came across a TIM shop (my Italian SIM provider) I ditched the tour and jumped in line to find out why my new phone was not giving me wifi.  Turns out that Türkiye is not in the EU and on 9 August I left my phone on while I was sick in my cabin and it ate up the 4 months of credit I had stored. Lesson learned.  Account restored and wifi working, I bought myself a celebratory gelato, had a quick tour of the veggie market in the central square and got myself back to the bus stop just in time to meet my tour group and then we were off to the ship.  A lovely lazy afternoon on board, last lunch at Gigis, laundry, cashed out the remaking $6 of onboard credit at guest services, did some laundry, had a nap after checking out the pools which were all packed like sardines in a tin, and met my friends for a last drink at Take Five.  Dinner was a bit disappointing but it was lovely to spend a few hours with my friends before we said farewell.  After packing and putting my case out, I met some CC friends for the farewell variety show in the theatre. A good nights sleep in that comfy bed and it was time to meet my CC transit group at Gigis.  Disembarkation was a breeze and our Rome Cabs driver was on time, everyone had exact change, and we were at Termini station by 10.30am.  And just like that, it was all over.  You all know how it goes.

 

I got myself on and off the fast train to Naples, and despite the INSANE heat and humidity, with the aid of Google maps, dragged my case to my hotel where I spent the rest of the day, a few minutes of which involved filling out the Princess survey.  And now I am dressed and ready for my excursion to  Herculaneum.  This afternoon I have to drag my case back to the station for my onward journey to Bari.  The plans we make in winter can kind of suck in summer.  Note to self.

 

ok.  Emma out!  

 

 

[Senga]

Thanks Emma for your live report.  We board Enchanted Saturday.  Thanks to your report, we'll give Livorno a miss!  Enjoy the remainder of your trip.  Safe travels.

[trinitygirl]

Just reading that last post I can see how full of typos it is - my apologies everyone.  Herculaneum turned out to be a bust - the driver didn’t turn up!  After waiting in the sun for 45 minutes I stomped back to the hotel and put in a refund request to Viator.  They processed it very quickly so although they wasted my time and I am super disappointed to have missed it, at least I got my money back.  And as I was waiting I realised that Google maps led me on a goose chase yesterday, and my walk back to the station was MUCH easier.  I am now sitting under the air con in my accommodation in Bari, Puglia, about to start planning my day tomorrow.  
 

I would skip Livornio too, if I ever went back.  I have been to Florence many times before so I would never go all that way for just a few hours, so if I couldn’t get a small group cinque Terre trip organised, I would use it as a ship day.  

[indiantraveler]

Hello Trinitygirl, 

thank you for sharing your excursions in Marseilles and Genoa.  We want to do Portofino but I have read that if the water is rough, the ferry is cancelled and people didn’t get to go to Portofino. Did you do an excursion from the cruise or outside? Can you provide a name of the tour company please? 

Thank you so much!!

[trinitygirl]

2 hours ago, indiantraveler said:

Hello Trinitygirl, 

thank you for sharing your excursions in Marseilles and Genoa.  We want to do Portofino but I have read that if the water is rough, the ferry is cancelled and people didn’t get to go to Portofino. Did you do an excursion from the cruise or outside? Can you provide a name of the tour company please? 

Thank you so much!!

Hi, it was a Princess excursion, the best one we did.  We went on a boat that was exclusive to our tour.  I can imagine that in rough seas the whole thing would have been tricky, but in August it was perfect.