Back from Millenium, 6-02-04

[cruisintwinsmom]

We are back today from the Med. Had a great time. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to answer them. We did private tours in Livorno, Citavecchia, Naples and Athens. We winged it in the remaining places, taking it easy. It was a wonderful trip and didn't want to get off the ship.

[Amy G]

Hi. What did you do in Villefranche?

[Amy G]

Tell me about the menu choices- we have never been on Celebrity. Thanks!

[cruisintwinsmom]

Hey Amy,
In Villefranche, we caught the bus to Nice and changed buses to go to St. Paul de Vence (which happened to be my DD's favorite place). Then bus back to Nice to see Old Town. My husband has MS and tires easily, so we probably could have also made it to Monte Carlo, but knew it was going to be a full 12 days and didn't want to push things. Probably could have taken the train and made faster time, but stuck with the bus for various reasons.

The food was very good. At dinner, there is are about 4 appetiser selections, 3 soups, 2 salads, 5 entrees (fish, pasta, poultry, pork/veal/lamb, or a beef) and 4-5 desserts. One of my daughters likes shrimp cocktail, and even if it wasn't on the menu the waiter would bring it. We didn't eat much lunch on the ship, so can't comment a lot on the buffet. The spacafe was very good for lunch--offered a light fare. At lunch there was also a pasta station. Breakfast buffet had the usual; we stuck with the small Belgian waffle station. They also offered an omlette station.

Hope this helps. If you need clarification, let me know.

[marko711]

Could you tell us who you used for the tours. How were they and how much they charged. Thanks in advance

Mark Olenski

[sophiek]

We will be travelling with a 7 year old who will undoubtedly be very tired at the end of long port days. Are there cartoon or 'family' channels on the TV's in the cabins or just CNN and ship reports? We would like to avoid the extra weight of a portable DVD player in our carry ons but want the peacefulness of a tired, but happy boy.(He is used to Disney cruises where it is 'all Disney, all the time'.

[Cruise Junky]

Hi - how was getting around Venice with Luggage? Did you start or end there? Any Pre-Cruise hotel suggestions? Full of questions aren't I!! [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] I can't decide between Millenium and Brilliance.

Some Ship, Some Itinerary, Somewhere in the Med.
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=008000&cdt=2006;5;12;17;0;00&timezone=GMT+0100[/img]

Mexican Riviera - Rhapsody of the Seas
11 Day Circle the Caribbean - Splendour of the Seas
Alaska - Dawn Princess
Coastal - Island Princess

[cruisintwinsmom]

Mark,
We used the following:

Claudio Caponera - [url="http://www.limoinrome.com"]www.limoinrome.com[/url] - for Livorno and Citavechhia. He was great. I let him organize everything. I told him we did not want to rush and if we didn't see everything we would not be upset. He reserved tickets for us to see The David; there was an extra 3E charge/ticket, but worth not having to wait an hour in line. He suggested a great resturant in Florence, inexpensive and tasty. In Rome I had reserved tickets for the excavations at St. Peter's and he worked the tour around that. We didn't get to the Sistine Chapel because it closed early on Saturday. Note: He is just a driver and not a guide, however he did explain a lot a destinations to us and strolled us through some areas. I would definitely use him again. His prices are on the internet. When I was booking he had the best rates.

Gennaro Ruocco - [url="http://www.sorrentolimo.com"]www.sorrentolimo.com[/url] - He was very professional. We drove the Amalfi coast. He organized the order of the tour and arranged a private guide for Pompei. The restuarant he chose was pricier than we had in Florence and Rome, but the view was magnificent. We booked him last year and he gave us last years price. I'm not sure if his prices are the same this year. It was 100Euro more for the guide. Note: He is also just a driver, but don't think a guide is needed for the drive.

Rania Vassiliadou (don't have her website address handy -still a little brain dead, but search google and I think it will come up). We loved her! She was a guide and come with a driver. The trip to the acropolis was made extra special because of her guidence. She is very knowledgeable and spoke very good English. We also went to Cape Soujoun with her. It was a pretty drive, but if you only wanted to do a half day trip, the acropolis would have been enough. She took us to a great Greek resturant and ate lunch with us. Again her prices are on the internet and I think she will discount it if you do a full day tour.

sophiek,
There was a channel that showed some old Andy Griffith shows and old Lucy shows, but not a cartoon network so to speak. They also showed "Nemo" on the movie channel a couple of times. Don't forget there is a fun factory on board that has kid's programs. You sign him up at embarkation, just look for the table. Don't know exactly what they do because my daughters are 16yo. The days are long, but we tried not to jam too much into a day, and left some stuff to do on a return trip.[img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

[cruisintwinsmom]

Cruise Junky,
We started in Barcelona with a pre-cruise through Celebrity, Gran Hotel Havana. Used their flight arrangements (going over was great with AirFrance, return another story for another time-still recovering from a 24hours with no sleep).

Didn't have to deal with luggage through Venice because we left for the airport straight from the ship. Seems like it wouldn't be the easiest if you have lots of luggage, but others have done it so it must be possible.

Can't compare Brillance and Millie-never been on Royal Caribbean.

[vivian02]

Hi Cruisintwinsmom,
I think our ship shadowed yours at Villefrance. We were on Splendor of the Seas. The one thing I noticed right away about Celeberty was the handing out of wet towels before entering the tender boats going back to the ship. Did Celeberty do this on all tenders or was this just a one time thing. I thought this little extra touch was pleasant for cruisers on Celeberty. Sounds like your still recouping from the flight home. On our way home we almost missed our connection in Los Angeles by 9 minutes. And the wife thought the problems would be over seas. Sounds like it was a great trip. Tim and Cathy

Norwegian Sky 5/03
Norwegian Star 11/03
Royal Caribbean Splendor of the Seas 5/04

[cruisintwinsmom]

Hi Tim,
It was a great trip! The only place I saw towels given out at the tender was in Dubrovnik. It was the hottest day and they gave out icy (literally) cold towels at the tender. How refreshing that was. Our return flight was at the gate for about 3 hours. Went to take off, got an "alert" light and went back to the gate. Mechanics fixed some fuel pump thing and then we were off. Missed flight at jfk and got one later. Celebrity could have done a much better job getting people to their next flight. It was very disorganized, although it looked as if they had everyone taken care of on paper. They told us to take a bus to the next terminal. We should have taken a tram! I'm sure you must have enjoyed the med as much as we did!

[missyal]

Hi Cruisintwinsmom--Great info! Thanks for the posts. I'm curiuos, how did you handle the jet lag going to the cruise/first day or two onboard? That is something I don't see much about. How was the overall ship board entertainment? Shows at night, casino, lounges, etc? Spa? Sorry--enough questions--I can't wait for our trip 9/18.
Thanks so much
Missyal

[msmeltz]

Celebrity is great about these extra services.
Not only do they have cold towels and cold drinks when you are in hot weather, in Alaska they always had hot chocolate waiting.
There were always beach towels on the bed in hot weather places, and umbrellas on the bed when you checked into your cabin in Alaska.
Going on Royal Caribbean this time. don't know if they do these kind of things.

july 1 on the brilliance
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;7;1;19;0;00&timezone=GMT+0100[/img]

[jezzdogg]

We cruised the Med 4 years ago on the Grand Princess and found you really had to get to the embarkation port a day before because of ther Jet lag will throw you for a loop. We are cruising the Med this year on Millie 8/13 sailing "the ghost ship" only 3 posters and ship is almost completely sold out do not know whats up, anyway we leave JFK at 6:15pm. aug 11 arrive in Paris at 7:35 Aug 12th layover and finally reach Barcelona at 11:45, by the time we get to the hotel and check in, get something to eat it will be 3 in the afternoon - will try to stay up until 8 pm there time so that I can wake up the next day with being a walking zoombie for the frist day of the cruise.

norm

[cruisintwinsmom]

We left Cincinnati at 4:45pm, arrived Paris about 6:45am. They whisked us over to our next flight (they waited for us), then over to Barcelona. Arrived about 9:00am. To get over the jet lag, we tried to sleep some on the plane, then stayed up for awhile and walked through Las Rambles. Came back to the room for a [B]short[/B] afternoon nap, got up walked around some more, had supper, then back on their time schedule. It was really pretty easy and by the next day we were fine. It was much easier than I thought it would be. Somewhere on these boards is a thread about it because I asked the question and received a lot of great answers.

[dbertell]

I can highly recommend Spiros for tours in Athens. We sailed on the Millennium May 21st of this year and we used him along with another couple from Colorado we met here online. Our driver was Dmitris and he was tremendous. His english is perfect and took us everywhere and answered all of our questions regarding the Olympics and other topics. He met us at 8 am on the dock and took us to the Acropolis first before many of the crowds. Saw a log of Athens and then headed to Sounion. Lovely ruins and almost deserted. Had a lovely lunch along the water and saw a lot more on the way back. A lovely day and he charged only 200 euros for the car for the day. As an aside, my wife is in a wheelchair so she didn't get out everywhere and Dmitris stayed with her and made her feel very comfortable. When we got back to the dock, he spoke to the guards, told them my wife was in a wheelchair and drove us right to the walkway up to the ship instead of having to walk a long distance from where everybody let off. He can be reached at [email]spirostours@yahoo.com[/email].

Dan Bertellotti
Foster City, Ca.

[petersonwith3]

can you explain more details about the cost, time and process of taking the bus from port to st paul de vence?

Carnival Jubilee 5/94
Disney Magic 5/01
Star Princess 5/03

Carnival Conquest 12/03
RCCL Brilliance 5/04

[vivian02]

Sorry about your missed flight CITwinsmom, we purchased our tickets separate from the Cruise and got very lucky. That only hitch at LAX was because of bad customer service by the Airlines information desk which was disinformation. Anyway we barley made our flight. I talked to a couple from Phoenix that had the same problem you had and they were divered to Toranto, Canada. They were flying out the same day and just made the port by two hours.
Celebrity sounds like they are really great on the small touches. Did you get towel animals?
By the way "warning" for those going to Florence if it is raining. We were swamped by street vendors selling unbrellas. The rain cleared up within an hour time but the vendor just found something else to sell.
We did pretty good for jet lag. I took a sleeping pill (two) after dinner and two glasses of wine. Even with 3 and half hours of sleep I was pretty beat when we got to Barcelona. You will wake up at 3:00 AM and wonder why you can't sleep. The Barcelona Sangreia on the second night sure helped cure jet lag.
Msleltz I think you will enjoy Royal Caribbean but I don't think you will get the treatment received on Celebrity (My guess). It seems the little things people seem to remember.
I am very interested in doing Celebrity next.
Tim

Norwegian Sky 5/03
Norwegian Star 11/03
Royal Caribbean Splendor of the Seas 5/04

[cruisintwinsmom]

Pwith3,
It took about 10-15 minutes to get to Nice from Villefranche for 1.6E/person on the #100 bus (I think it was 2E something for a roundtrip, but we didn't know what we were doing). Then transfer at the bus station (an information booth inside will give you details about what time the St. Paul de Vence bus will arrive and in which bay to pick it up) for a 30 or 40 minute ride up to St. Paul de Vence for 4.20E/person (no round trip ticket available). Make sure you take the bus all the way to St. Paul de Vence. We got off at the wrong stop, a bunch of people got off at a stop and there was a sign that said something about St. Paul de Vence and for some dumb reason we jumped off too. Be sure to ask what time the last bus goes back to Nice. We asked a taxi how much to get back to Nice and he said 50E to 55E depending on traffic. The bus to St. P de V only runs like every 40 minutes or so; if you get there and have a long wait you could always go over to Old town for a few minutes and then get back to the station. I liked Hank's idea, though, about going out to the farthest point and working you way back to the ship.

Tim,
No towel animals! We did enjoy the little touches on the Millie, but I'm afraid some people didn't have the best time. I can't figure out exactly what they didn't like! Don't mean to put a negative note on it, but some people set their expectations so high, then get dissappointed. Celebrity could have done a better job with getting people situated at JFK. It wasn't their fault that World Air had mechanical difficulties, but things could have gone much, much smoother in NYC.

[jsh]

Cruisintwinsmom,
Do you remember which nights were informal and which were casual? We would like to eat at the Olympic Restaurant on informal night if possible.

[vssy]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by cruisintwinsmom:
Mark,
We used the following:

Claudio Caponera - [url="http://www.limoinrome.com"]http://www.limoinrome.com[/url] - for Livorno and Citavechhia. He was great. I let him organize everything. I told him we did not want to rush and if we didn't see everything we would not be upset. He reserved tickets for us to see The David; there was an extra 3E charge/ticket, but worth not having to wait an hour in line. He suggested a great resturant in Florence, inexpensive and tasty. In Rome I had reserved tickets for the excavations at St. Peter's and he worked the tour around that. We didn't get to the Sistine Chapel because it closed early on Saturday. Note: He is just a driver and not a guide, however he did explain a lot a destinations to us and strolled us through some areas. I would definitely use him again. His prices are on the internet. When I was booking he had the best rates.[img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

We will also be using Claudio for our cruise in October. We already have him set up for Rome, and I have just sent another email about Pisa and Florence. Just a couple of questions! Where did you eat on your tours with Claudio, and what type of food was at the restaurants you visited. I am not in to seafood too much, but love pizza and pasta! I can't wait to try the gelato as well.
Thanks!

SPLENDOUR OF THE SEAS ~OCTOBER 9, 2004~ [url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?q=Y&s=927093444&a=tpc&m=766106561&f=1683059817"]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?q=Y&s=927093444&a=tpc&m=766106561&f=1683059817[/url]

Valerie

[Live the good life]

Cruisintwinsmom or others: (1) Does one need to bring a transformer and adapter to use a hot iron curler/hot rod curler inside a Celebrity Millie cabin? How many outlets are there in a cabin? (2) If one is interested in one or two tours through Celebrity, should one reserve in advance on line or will there be plenty of slots left if one reserve on board the ship? We leave for BCN-Venice in a few days...Thanks...
Kim-"Ltgl"

[sunflowr15]

Cool Cruiser,

I would love to do exactly what you did in Villefranche and explore on our own instead of paying to go on a group ship excursion. However, my husband and I will be on our honeymoon and we don't speak French. Do you? Do you think we would have a problem using the buses and not speaking French? I did buy a five language electronic translator but I am not sure how much that will help. We just don't want any hassle on our honeymoon, but we love to explore on our own. Thanks!

[jsh]

Live the good life,
I would appreciate it if you can take notice of which days are informal and casual dress and let me know when you return.
Thank you.

[4 cruisers]

sunflowr15, I think you can do it! Just remember to say "Bonjour Madame" pronounced Bo jure Ma daum (or Monsier)" then smile and say the name of the place you want to go, "s'il vous plait?" Sounds like "Sill vu play" Which means "PLEASE" Smile again! The fact you use this much French, I really believe it will open doors. We have had great luck remembering these things...The French always greet each other upon meeting even in stores and public places and they always say goodbye when they depart. Usually mouths drop open when you give it a try with a smile. So, before asking for help, at least say "Bonjour!"

Go for it! If you don't get help the first time, just give it a try again! Good luck!!!!

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;8;28;19;00;00&timezone=GMT+0100[/img]
...until our August 28, 2004 Splendour of the Seas