Roll Call 8/5/07 - Wind Surf -- Rome to Barcelona

[Robbo1]

Anyone else on this voyage?

 

My wife and I (both in our late 30s) are very much looking forward to the trip.

 

If anyone has done this itinerary before, any suggestions about shore excursions or other "must-do" activities in the various ports of call would be most appreciated.

[6rugrats]

Have not done this exact itinerary, but have been to most of your ports of call. Highly recommend you stay an extra day in Barcelona, just to wander down Las Ramblas and to see the Park Guell, Sagrada Familia, and Casa Batlló and if nothing else.

 

We usually don't book excursions directly through the ship, preferring to go out on our own, but if you are interested in Pompeii (Sorrento), you must book this through the ship. Although there will be information on taking the train provided to you, there is no way you will be able, due to time constraints, to do this on your own.

 

Capri is fabulous; you should get an early start if you are doing this on your own. Take the cable car up to the top first thing in the morning and have a cup of coffee and do some people watching. By noon, even in mid June, the lines became awfully long to go up. Lots of higher end shops and jewelery stores. You can easily do the Blue Grotto on your own, for much less money then a ship excursion.

 

Some things I did not like about the Wind Surf. Be careful of all the chair cushions outside on the deck. They quickly become covered with black cinders from the smokestack, which then quickly becomes transferred to the seat of your pants!

 

If you wish to make reservations in Degrees, you must do this ASAP in the morning. They begin taking reservations at 7:00 a.m., and on our cruise, were often full by 7:15. Not sure why, because I did not find it to be fabulous food, but if you want to eat there, you must act quickly. Heard many, many complaints about this.

 

Also, several of the crew, while serving drinks would make the comment, "Have another cocktail, Miss ______ or Mr. ______, make you feel sexy." I thought this was very strange!

 

Never got laundry back within the promised 24 hours, although it was done perfectly, when it finally arrived. Otherwise, service was fabulous and crew wonderful.

 

Be prepared for very warm weather.

[debphillips]

Anyone else on this voyage?

 

My wife and I (both in our late 30s) are very much looking forward to the trip.

 

If anyone has done this itinerary before, any suggestions about shore excursions or other "must-do" activities in the various ports of call would be most appreciated.

 

YES< My husband, Gary & I are going on Windsurf from Rome to Barcelona on August 5! Never cruised on Windstar before...nor been to Europe! We will be in Tuscany the week before. We can't wait! We are especially looking forward to the Amalfi Coast. We have booked a couple of the shore excursions online...like the Blue Grotto, Ravello, and Positano tour. We also booked the kayak tour in Minorca, Spain which looked fun to us. We will be staying at the Visconti Palace Hotel in Rome on August 4, then taking the shuttle to the port the next morning.

 

Have you traveled on Windstar before? Is your wife dressing up a bit a night? I am! We are from San Diego (Oceanisde) in California...How about you?

 

See you in a few weeks!

[Robbo1]

A week in Tuscany sounds real nice. I think Florence is the most beatiful city in the world. Thats probably our next big vacation.

 

This will be our third Windstar cruise-- we did the Greek Islands about 12 years ago and a Belize intinerary about 7 years ago. Like the brochures say, attire has been "country club casual", so generally nothing too fancy in the evenings.

 

We have booked a couple of excursions-- Taste of Capri and the kayak trip in Minorca-- so we will see you on that one (we'll be the ones capsizing). Most other ports we'll just wing it on our own.

[brooklyn225]

My husband andI will be there too. We booked a bunch of the shore excursions -- they all looked great to us. We are also tying to keep it casual -- nothing dressy. See you there.