We began our journey on July 12 2012, when we booked the dream of a med cruise. It seemed forever in the distance. We used Bonnie Buchanan at Cruise one as recommended by Carol Hill from Travel Talk on Line. The cost of the cruise was $5633.38. We booked our own air on American Airlines at a cost of $2273. We were able to use points to upgrade to first class on the trip there. Steve also used points to pay for the Hilton Diagonal in Barcelona and the Hilton Molina Stuckey in Venice. We pre booked all of our tours through Princess.

The reality finally came true, when we boarded the first leg of our flight for Miami at 6:00 AM. We arrived in Miami at 10 and had a 7 hour layover. We watched Gatsby and snacked all day. We boarded the 767 and sat on the plane 75 minutes before we finally departed. We had dinner and were given personal entertainment systems. Steve watched 42 and went to sleep. I watched the big wedding/Mary and Martha/ mud/ and funny girl. We had breakfast and arrived in Barcelona at 10:45 am.

We got our luggage, a taxi and drove to the Hilton diagonal. The cost was $35 euros and he took a credit card. We checked in and were very pleased with our room; we showered, and took the city bus tour. The cost was 25 euros each. We only took the blue line which took us past the la sagrada familia. The tour lasted two hours. We were amazed at the history of the city and the influence of Gaudi everywhere and all the SCOOTERS!!! We did not feel like taking the red and green line tours. It would have required 4 more hours and we were just exhausted. We had dinner at the vibe outside and retired to our room for the night. We got some much needed sleep.

On Tuesday, we got up at 7:30, showered, had breakfast, we went for a walk and Steve worked on the pix from the prior day. We took a taxi to the port to board the ship, The Royal Princess. The taxi driver did not accept a charge card, only euros so I had to go inside to the banker to exchange money. The cost of the ride was 35 euros. We boarded with group 4 and they allowed us to get on board at 11:45 and go straight to our room. Our room M504 is on the 15th floor midship, which is the top floor for cabins. It is quite small but well appointed. The balcony is also small. We toured the ship. It is a very beautiful elegant ship. We had lunch at Alfredo’s pizzeria. We had a calzone and pizza and the house chardonnay. The wine was 6.25 a glass. Note to self…gratuity was added in. We had dinner at 8 at concerto. We are on the dine anytime plan so we have a choice of two full service restaurants…they have the exact same menu. The service by mark was excellent…but the food was mediocre. We had sea bass. We talked to some lovely Jewish ladies form California by way of South Africa much of the evening. We missed the show at 8:30 of course and were too tired to stay up for the 10:30 show. The ship is lovely however so far we have not been impressed with service.

On Wednesday we got up at five and had breakfast on the balcony. We could not get the room safe open. We called service but they did not show up in time for us to get it repaired. We went to the theater to meet our tour group at 7:35. The cost of the tour was $198 for both of us. We disembarked in Toulon and boarded a bus for Provence. We drove 90 minutes through the French countryside. There were lots of vineyards and mountains and some lovely seascapes. Provence is full of history and old architecture. It is amazing how buildings from the fifteenth century are still standing and in use today. We had lunch a le belle epogue. I think my Caesar salad had dandelions in it…lol The tour guide was very knowledgeable but painful to listen to. It was as if he had to translate from French to English for every word. Many people just dropped out of the tour. We got back on the ship at 4:30. We had dinner at symphony.

On Thursday we had breakfast on the balcony and met in the theater for our excursion at 7. The cost of the tour was $398 which included lunch. We boarded the bus in Livorno for the 20 minute drive to Pisa to see the square of miracles. Walking through the gate and seeing the white marble leaning tower of Pisa, was breathtaking. The Church, baptistery and bell tower were pristine. It was amazing! We boarded the bus and drove the 90 minutes to Florence. We did a ton of walking throughout the city. We saw Giotto’s bell tower and baptistery. We saw the piazza Della Signoria, the Ponte Vecchio Bridge, the piazza St. Croce…the final resting place of Machiavelli, Galileo, and Michelangelo. We went to the Uffizi Museum and Gallery and saw the sculpture of David by Michelangelo. We saw the amazing Santa Maria de la Florence basilica which hold 30,000 standing Catholics! It is made of white, green and pink marble and is amazing! We had an authentic Tuscan lunch at trattoria. Steve bought me a Valentino purse and wallet. We got back to the ship at 5:45, hot and exhausted but omg the memories!!! The guide was wonderful! We had dinner at concerto. I had fettuccini alfredo and Steve had red snapper. Once again…it was mediocre at best.

Today we got up at 6 to catch the bus for the 90 minute drive to Rome. The tour cost was $478 , which included lunch. We went to the Colosseum which was simply amazing. We saw the circus maximus, the largest stadium in ancient Rome. We then went to lunch at villa carpegna. Then we went to St. Peters square and Basilica, the Vatican museums, and the Sistine chapel. The guide was wonderful. We got back at 6 pm. We had dinner at symphony and had a table by the window. We had martinis before retiring to bed.

Saturday September 8, 2013, we got up at 5:00. We showered and had our breakfast on the balcony. It is interesting watching the ship come into port. We had to meet in the theater at 6:50. The tour cost was $478 which included lunch. We boarded a catamaran and headed for the beautiful Island of Capri. We took a cable car to the top of the island. The views were simply amazing. We did a little shopping. The people here are famous for perfume making. Many very wealthy people come here to vacation. We took the cable car back down and reboarded the catamaran to go to Sorrento. Sorrento is on the peninsula with spectacular views of the Vesuvius volcano. The people here are famous for their beautiful inland wood artistry and we almost bought a grandfather clock. We had lunch at Ristorante paraucchinio . Each lunch has been wine, water and pasta followed by meat and vegetable and a dessert with coffee. The pastas have been good, but the meat leaves a lot to be desired. We left Sorrento by bus and went to Pompeii. The ruins of this magnificent city destroyed by the volcano in 79 AD are amazing! We watched a cameo demonstration. They used beautiful conch shells. We got back to the ship at 5:30. Our guide was very good. We had dinner at concerto which was surf and turf followed by martinis at crooners.
Sunday was a day of rest. We had to change our clocks forward an hour. We had breakfast on the balcony and then attended a wine tasting at a cost of $25 apiece. Tonight is Formal night. We had dinner at Crown grill at an additional charge of $25 a piece. We both had filet mignon. We had a wonderful chocolate soufflé for dessert.

Monday’s tour was the Greek Island of Mykonos! The cost was $78. We boarded a bus to the beach. The guide was very good. What a beautiful picturesque place!!! White houses all along the cliffs. This was my dream!! To come to Greece! But I will confess, it did not live up to my expectations and I am so glad I came here for a short visit and did not book an entire vacation here. We walked to several beaches and had a drink. We got back on the ship at 1. We attended another wine tasting at a cost of $40 per person and went to Symphony for dinner.

Tuesday September 10 we went to the city of Istanbul Turkey. The tour price was $278. We boarded a bus and went to the hippodrome. We visited the Blue Mosque. We visited the grand bazaar. We visited Orient Handmade Carpet and jewelry for a carpet making demonstration. We saw the Topkapi palace, museum and harem. We saw the Hagia Sophia museum. We had lunch at Reji. It was very good. We had dinner at Concerto.

Wednesday…September 11…We had breakfast at 9:30 in the buffet. YUCK! We docked in Kusadasi Turkey about noon. The tour price was $158 . We boarded a bus to visit the house of the Virgin Mary. We went to the Ephesus Ruins. We went to Basilica of St. John. It was a very hot day with little shade. We were exhausted. We got back to the ship about 7:30. We had dinner at symphony.

Thursday, September 12, we docked in Piraeus, Greece. The tour price was $298. We boarded a bus to travel to Athens. There were 7 other ships in port…one was the legend of the seas, the ship we will sail in January to the Caribbean. We went to the Olympic Stadium. We went to the acropolis which was terribly crowded and the temperature was 91 degrees. It was almost unbearable, but it was amazing to see the Parthenon and Erechtheum. We had lunch at the Radisson Park hotel. We went to the Acropolis National Archeological museum. We shopped in the plaka and had a drink at an outdoor cafe. Our guide named Maria, was very knowledgable, but she was a total Bitch! She refused to carry the lollipop with our group number and instead carried a silver umbrella to shade herself. There were many silver umbrellas, so it made it very difficult to keep track of her in the huge crowd. It was a bit scarey. We got back to the ship about 4:30. We had dinner at concerto.

Friday the thirteenth we slept until 8:30. We had a champagne breakfast on our balcony…a gift from our travel agent Bonnie Buchanan from Cruise one. It was wonderful. We went to a wine tasting at 11 which cost $10 per person. We shopped on the ship for souvenirs for the kids. We had dinner at Sabatini’s. We attended a show.

Saturday sept 14…we had breakfast at concerto. We had lunch at alfredos. We took a vaproetta to St. Marco’s square and toured the doge palace, went to a glass blowing demonstration, had a glass of wine in the square while listening to a band play godfather, and took a gondola ride. The cost of the tour was $159. The guide was very good. We ate dinner at symphony.

Sunday we had breakfast at symphony and disembarked the ship at 8:30. We took a vaporetta to st Marcos square and caught the water taxi to the Hilton Molina Stucky. We had lunch at Harry’s Dolci.

Monday morning we got up at 4. We took a water taxi for $120 euros to the airport dock. Then we took a shuttle for $35 euros to the airport. We waited in line for an hour to check in. Our flight left at 7:30. We flew to Madrid; Then to Dallas. We got home at 10:30 pm.

We were a bit disappointed in the service on this cruise but we would certainly use Princess again.
It was an amazing trip full of memories we will cherish for a lifetime.

Hi Cathy. Thanks so much for the report!!! Which exact ship was it?

I took the liberty of going in and inserting some extra lines after each paragraph to make the report easier to read.

I really enjoyed reading your trip report.

However, last time we were in France, Provence was not a city.<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Smile.gif" alt="" />

The cruise except for your poor service sounds like a dream come true trip.

Sue

thanks carol...when i wrote it...it had the spaces but when i copied and pasted they disappeared and I am running low on brain power. My body is so tired and confused!!!

The ship was the royal princess...

swg...the service was not poor...just not great. We have only been on one other cruise...and it was a disney cruise...and Disney blew princess out of the water!

oh swg...provence was not a city? hmmm...all my paperwork certainly says it is...lol I did buy a post card that says AIX-EN-PROVENCE but everything else says Provence.

No problem, Cathy. Formatting sometimes doesn't come through the way it should. I am editing the title of the post to put in "Royal".

I think Princess service is fairly mainstream in terms of what you get. I have heard that Disney service is topnotch, but living close to Mouseworld, I have no desire for a Disney cruise, which is my own personal idea of hell.

Provence is a territory in France. Aix en Provence means Aix in Provence. There are numerous cities in Provence, e.g. St. Remy, Arles, Avignion, etc.

Sue

Thanks for the trip report. Glad you survived.

Hoping it was just bugs to work out on the Royal Princess service. We've taken a lot of Princess cruises and service is usually pretty good. I've taken that Grand Med route twice on Ruby and Emerald Princess boats. It takes awhile to recover from that nonstop history/sightseeing Grand Med trip. Only two at sea days out of 12. I did ship excursions the first time and did it on my own with taxis, trains, buses, subways the next. Saved a lot of jack on my own the second time and we moved at our pace. We had the same experience with tour guides only in different cities. Rome was our worst and we paid a lot for our private Vatican entrance. Second time, bought tickets direct from Vatican online. I have two more kids to take on that world experience tour. Each time I aad some things to see and some things to delete.
One of the deletes for me is that Greek Archaelogical museum. It was an addon our second time to replace a boring byzantine museum that wouldn't let my daughter in with shorts on. After a long hike up the Acropolis and around the Plaka, the arch museum was a quick 15 minute walk around. Our cabbie couldn't believe we were out so soon. He took us to some other sights and did such a good job parking up close he got a ticket. Blast watching him fight with the local govt cops. I want to add spice Market in Istanbul, Capri, and beaches in Barcelona. We got off ship in Barcelona on their independence day. Fireworks and firecrackers everywhere. We loved La Rambla and the open air market and fish market. I would add another day there for sure.

We are heading to Cozumel in January on Ruby Princess and I want to see Mayan ruins at Tulum. MY wife says "Didn't we see enough rocks last year? .

I hear the beach is great next to the ruins. I agree with her. 75% beach and 25% history.


It would be nice if there were two Orient Beach like places in the Mediterranean to break up the history tour and relax and recuperate under a yellow umbrella.

Sue ... I stand corrected since you seem to know more about it than i do

Pelican pirate... There seemed to be an underlying currant of unhappiness with the employees Many were being replaced in a couple of weeks I am sure that contributed to the service issue

We are going on the royal carribean legend of the seas to the caribbean in january for 11 nights I will have a better idea of comparison after that cruise

The ruins at tulum are certainly worth seeing We were there in 2002

In my mind No beach compares to orient

My husband worked for a French company for over 30 years and one of our perks was to travel to France. Hubby is fluent in French and I get by.

Provence is beautiful and each town and city has its own character. The light is amazing and it is easy to see why the impressionists painted there.

Sue

Carol...I would like to edit my report but I do not see the option

Cathy--It is too late for you to edit it now. If it is a relatively small edit, just send me a PM with what you want to do. If it is a large scale edit, it might be easier to just upload the report all over again. Let me know.

http://public.fotki.com/sphotovacations/

All the pix from the cruise have been posted here.

Enjoyed your report. Maybe when you have time you could post some pics?

SXM??? Wendell

I gave the link to the pix above

There are SXM pix there also