Just got back Rome to London cruise - any questions?

[sprinkles]

Hi all,

 

Not typing a full review since our cruise was a different itinerary. But if I can answer any questions for anyone. We stayed in Rome three nights and cruised to:

 

Livorno

Cannes

Barcelona

Gibralter

Casablanca

Cadiz

Lisbon

Vigo

 

We disembarked one day early in LeHAVRE, spent the night in Paris, then took the Eurostar to London where we stayed three nights.

 

Tammy

[sprinkles]

Oh, I forgot to say I wrote a port review under the Princess roll call section for the 9/4/04 sailing of the Royal Princess, since they are doing the same cruise in reverse order.

 

Tammy

[kona1234]

What tours did you take in Cadiz, Lisbon, Vigo? Will be on Westerdam in late July with similar itinerary. Also, any private guides in those ports??

[Aussie Gal]

Sprinkles,

 

If I remember correctly you were the lass who enquired on this board about leaving the ship early and going to Paris for a night.

 

Did you think it was worth it and do you wish you could have stayed on longer? I know I would have wanted to stay longer.

 

Jennie

 

The next cruise is always the best!

 

3RD OCTOBER, 2004 PRINSENDAM

[sprinkles]

Kona,

 

In Cadiz, we took the Princess tour Seville on your own. Cadiz looked pretty enough, but not sure what we would have done there. Seville was about an hour and a half drive, but was well worth it. It was a very pretty little town. You could take horse drawn carriage rides. We went through the church and walked down gorgeous little alleys with flowers hanging everywhere. Nice shops and cafe's, etc. It was fun and worth the drive.

 

Lisbon is easy on your own. We started by taking a taxi down to the carriage museum. It was free the day we went, not sure if that's normal. For a small fee it would have been interesting and even hubby found it cool. We then walked down to the big monument on the waterfront. Hubby enjoyed that while I shopped. Side note for anyone who goes there. Lisbon has gorgeous embroidered linens. I bought some incredible stuff at reasonable prices from a woman who had a little stand at the monument. I spent the rest of the day wishing I had bought more from her as the prices were through the roof in town. We then took a taxi to the main square and shopped and walked around (the main shops close at 1:00pm). We saw open air hop on hop off buses in the square. We then took a taxi up to St. George's Castle (close to the main shopping areas) where the views of Lisbon were spectacular.

 

Vigo - is very small. Princess offered two tours. One to Santiago de Campostella and one to the seaside town of Barona (people who took that one said it was nice). We went to Santiago de Campostella. The whole thing was pretty cool. It is a holy year and there are thousands of people making pilgrimages (sp?) to the church. It is considered to be the third most holy place in Christiandom as St. John the apostle's remains are there. We saw people with their special hats, walking sticks and gords walking to the church. We ditched our tour after we found out what time and where to meet back up. We ended up following a bunch of people into the church through what turned out to be an exit door. Mass was going on and we saw the HUGE smoke thing that eight men wave over the heads of the crowd. There were nice little cafes and shops around the town. Also the drive to the town was very scenic.

 

Aussie Gal, yes we were the ones who left the ship a day early. I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was very easy. We took a taxi to the train station in LeHavre, then waited about 20 minutes for our train. We were in our hotel room in Paris by 10:00am. We took a tour out to Versailles, then trekked around the city. Went to Notre Dame, walked the riverbank, took a taxi around at night. Then went to the Louvre the next morning at 9:00am. We saw alot of the Louvre in a few hours then we were on the 1:00pm Eurostar to London. The Eurostar was great. The French countryside was amazing, I WILL GO BACK TO FRANCE.

 

Besides, according to our friends who stayed on the ship, disembarkation was bad (held up for some reason) and they described their Princess bus ride into London as the trip from hell. I don't think we missed much.

 

Any other questions I'll be glad to help if I can.

 

Tammy

[Aussie Gal]

Tammy,

 

I am so glad your Paris sojourn worked out for you. I adore Paris and we are going back for a week after our cruise in October. You certainly packed a lot into the short time you were there.

 

Jennie.

 

The next cruise is always the best!

 

3RD OCTOBER, 2004 PRINSENDAM

[sprinkles]

LOL,

 

Yes, we are completely exhausted. If we hadn't met friends in London, we would have stayed two nights in Paris. I look forward to the day we go back and explore the countryside in France!

 

Tammy

[zacho46]

Tammy,

Can you recommend a service provider for the transfer from Rome's international airport to the ship port in Civitavecchia?

Thank you

 

Zach

 

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[sprinkles]

Zach,

 

We used www.romeshuttlelimousine.com to get from our hotel to Civitavechia. Their website says 110 euros for four people.

 

Tammy

[zacho46]

Thank you very much!

 

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[katisdale]

We took the ship's tour to Bayona when the ship was in Vigo. It was a nice tour with a very good guide (an Irish woman who had married a Spanish gentleman) who knew the history of the area and was also able to identify the various birds and plants that we saw. The driver however must have gotten his license in the mail. He missed the turn off to Bayona three times (the view in the tunnel just kept coming again and again) and could neither back up when he needed to nor shift gears. We went backwards whenever we stopped on a hill. The worst time occured when we were on a steep hill and he could not get it going forward and we started going back down the hill backwards. If there had been a vehicle behind us we would have rolled right over them. I was glad to get off the bus.

[karmaflor]

We will be taking the Royal Princess from Rome to London on Aug 11. Hadn't thought about disembarking in LeHarve - an interesting option! Did anyone use private tour companies they would recommend in any of the following cities:

 

Rome, Livorno, Cannes, Barcelona, Lisbon, or Vigo. I think we will do Gibraltar on our own and use the ship tour for Casa Blanca.

 

We are traveling with two teen boys (13 and 16) and two grandparents. The seniors have cruised before, but this is our first time. Any suggestions are appreciated

[wendyjg]

do you have a suggestion for a london hotel?

[karmaflor]

We want to go to Seville, but tour on our own (our 16 year old son spent a week there and wants to be our tour guide). Car rentals all seem to be manual, which I can't maneuver. Any cost saving ideas? Taxis services perhaps?

[XFed2001]

Zach,

 

We used www.romeshuttlelimousine.com to get from our hotel to Civitavechia. Their website says 110 euros for four people.

 

Tammy

Has anyone determined if the 110 Euros was a fair (reasonable) price for the trip the airport? Are there any other real alternative methods of transportation to catch a flight?

 

Thanks to all in advance

[sprinkles]

Karmaflor,

 

This was an awesome cruise - the itinerary was just amazing (but exhausting) have a great time. RE: Seville, I read on another thread (after we returned home) about people taking the train to Seville for something like 15 euros apiece (much cheaper then Princess Seville on your own tour), which might be an option for you, or like you said a taxi (they were at every port). Barcelona is SOOO easy to do on your own as well as Lisbon.

 

Wendy, YES, we LOVED our hotel in London - Victoria Park Plaza. We got a great rate on-line. I think my thread has dissapeared on it. But it was really awesome, close to Victoria Station (took tube and buses everywhere). The hotel was clean and very modern, breakfast is very hearty if you get it included in the price otherwise it is 12 pounds per person. The only complaint about the hotel was that our beds were very soft but we almost enjoyed the softness after our hard beds on the Royal Princess. Our room was similiar in size to an American hotel room and it was so wonderfull to have an ice machine that we were not afraid to use.

 

Tammy

[usavvy2]

Tammy -

 

We typically don't buy souviners home but I was just wondering, besides embroidered linens in Lisbon, what would you say (if any) are the shopping "bargains" in each port?

Livorno

Cannes

Barcelona

Gibralter

Casablanca

Cadiz

Lisbon

Vigo

 

also, what did you do about currency?

finally, should I pack the sneakers and be a comfortable Amn or pack loafers and be a stylish European wannabe?

[atejwa]

We will be taking the Royal Princess from Rome to London on Aug 11. Hadn't thought about disembarking in LeHarve - an interesting option! Did anyone use private tour companies they would recommend in any of the following cities:

 

Rome, Livorno, Cannes, Barcelona, Lisbon, or Vigo. I think we will do Gibraltar on our own and use the ship tour for Casa Blanca.

 

We are traveling with two teen boys (13 and 16) and two grandparents. The seniors have cruised before, but this is our first time. Any suggestions are appreciated

 

Hi Karmaflor,

 

We are also on the same cruise(8/11 Royal Princess from Rome to London) and have our 3 boys(14, 11 & 11) and it is good to know that there are other teen boys.

 

Regards,

Al

[katisdale]

We were also on this cruise with Tammy in May. Our favorite excursion was to the Normandy beaches from LeHavre. We used John Flaherty who can be reached at http://www.handmaidtours.com. He is an excellent guide and really explained all of the sites we went to. We shared with another couple and I think we paid about 250 to 300 per couple. (How soon I've forgotten what it cost but I do remember how good the tour was). We booked our hotel in London through Princess and stayed at the Hyatt Churchill. It was fine but on a previous trip we stayed at the Thistle Tower which is our favorite. The hotel is next to the Tower of London, a great location if you want to attend the Key Ceremony there. The views of the Tower of London are wonderful.

[bec2629]

How's the shopping in London, is it as expensive as I've heard? Are there any bargains or must-haves I should know about?

 

Becky

[sprinkles]

Hummm- USAAVY, well, I can't honestly say that there were ANY bargains and believe me, I looked. Hubby and I both LOVE to shop and we really tried. Those linens I found in Lisbon were at a little stand by the big monument by the water and were gorgeous and a steel. Later in town, the linens they were selling were insane, 1000 euros for a tablecloth etc. I did find some more gorgeous doillies at the shops at the Princess dock when we were re-boarding, but they were much more expensive then the little place by the water.

 

In Florence leather is supposed to be the bargain but on our private tour with Katisdale and another couple, we just didn't go to the big marketplace. Another friend on the ship got an amazing deal on a leather jacket though.

 

In Gibralter there are tons of jewelry stores, but not really a bargain like the Carribean and the LLadros were not a deal ANYWHERE. In Seville we did buy a gorgeous handpainted mother of pearl fain, but we paid a pretty penny for it.

 

In Casablanca we did have fun shopping. You could bargain there and we bought a silver tea set like nothing I would ever find in America for a 100 euros.

 

The one little bargain we found everywhere was flowers. Hubby started in Barcelona and bought me a pretty bouquet. Took them back on the ship and our room steward found us a vase. We then added to the bouquet from Casablanca and Gibralter.

 

Regarding currency, we really blew it. I had read on these boards that the only way to go was to use the ATM's and boy were they right. But we really didn't trust it since we had never been to Europe before. So we took $3000 US cash with us and planned on getting more from the ATM's if needed. We really got ripped off on the exchange rates, most places gave us 1.33, but everything we charged came back at 1.19, including when we did take cash out of the ATM. If you want to have just a little bit for a taxi or something before you go, I would go to a local exchange or order some from Bank of America online, but would get most of it over there.

 

We wore our tennis shoes and sandals everywhere and did not feel out of place - BE comfortable. Those cobblestones are killer on your legs and feet.

 

Becky, yes London was HORRIBLE. I'll give you a little example. On our last day we went out to Windsor Castle, I found a pretty Cardew teapot that I wanted, but when I heard the equivalent of $430 US dollars I said you're nuts. Hubby really wanted to buy it for me as we had really not bought a ton of souveneirs and I collect teapots. I said no-way, I told him that I knew I had seen the same teapot on Ebay before and that there are never Cardew teapots for more then $150 or so. Well, guess what, I came home and within a week I got the same teapot on Ebay for $160.

 

I'll give you both a tip for London. Every day we bought a travelcard from the magazine store for 6 pounds or so that gave us unlimited use of the tube and buses (we could have got a three day travelcard beforehand if I had known what I was doing). Anyway if you take the big trains to go anywhere show your travelcard. We got a discount for our train ticket to Windsor and our tickets ended up costing us 5.20 pounds round-trip from Waterloo to Windsor. I wouldn't have thought to show the travelcard if I wouldn't have seen the kid in front of us do it. That rate is good if you leave after 10:00 am.

 

By the way, Windsor was a lovely little town, the Castle was pretty and worth seeing and it was nice to get out of London. If you do go, we got the best and cheapest food the entire three days at a little Chinese restaurant. When you walk out of the castle you will be facing a little street directly in front of you. About half-way down the little street was the Chinese place. They had a lunch special for 5.50 euros that included soup, noodles (or rice) 1 item and a desert. The sweet and sour pork was awesome and way better then the 8 pounds or so we were paying for burger/fries or fish n chips in town.

 

Also if you go to the Tower of London, make sure you take the Beefeater Tour (it is free and it starts every 30 min I think, just inside the gates), they really make the whole thing worthwhile. Have a great time.

 

Tammy

[karmaflor]

Hi Al - I am also happy to hear there will be other teens on the ship. Look forward to meeting you on the cruise. We will look for you! See you in Rome on Aug. 11.

 

Tammy and Katisdale - Thanks you for the suggestions!

 

Right now we have Claudio booked for a tour of Rome. We are looking at Revelation Tours or Essential France for our stop in Cannes (they also do Normandy). I emailed handmaidentours for info about Normandy. We will do Gibraltar, Barcelona and Lisbon on our own. Casablanca will be 1/2 day with the cruise tour. Still figuring out Vigo.

 

When disembarking in Southamptom, does anyone know of any private transportation service providers and the cost to London?

 

Take care,

Karen

[katiestan]

Hi there karmaflor. We are also going on the Rome to Southampton cruise and bringing our 15 year old son so there's another teen to add. I was checking into portcompass.com for tours as we used them last year on our South America cruise but they do have a minimum of 8. They do tours in some of the ports we are visiting if you want to check them out. We have been on several cruises and this is the 3rd time on the Royal!! Jenny

[wendyjg]

thank you for the hotel suggestion and for all of the additional information. very helpful. :)

[lamessin]

Hi,

We are also cruising from Rome to London on Aug.11 with kids. Daughter- 16, sons - 13 and 9. Also with grandparents! this is our first time cruising as well.

I am happy to see that other teens will be along. I know that the Royal princess does not have teen or children's programs regularly scheduled. Have you heard anything about this?

 

We will be taking the Royal Princess from Rome to London on Aug 11. Hadn't thought about disembarking in LeHarve - an interesting option! Did anyone use private tour companies they would recommend in any of the following cities:

 

Rome, Livorno, Cannes, Barcelona, Lisbon, or Vigo. I think we will do Gibraltar on our own and use the ship tour for Casa Blanca.

 

We are traveling with two teen boys (13 and 16) and two grandparents. The seniors have cruised before, but this is our first time. Any suggestions are appreciated