Mediterranean on the Emerald Princess 8/2608-9/9/08
Having just returned I am going to start this while everything is still fresh. I may not write it all at once.
We left for Barcelona on 8/26 and arrived on 8/27. Our Delta flight was over an hour late. We had no tours so just walked around in the late afternoon and evening just staying close to our hotel which was the Grand Hotel Central which we booked through Princess. Tired from the long flight we hit the sack early. We had hoped Princess would have tours available for the next morning so we could see more of Barcelona before we embarked. (We did this in Copenhagen before our Baltic). They had no tours, we had to be out at 10 am for our bus ride to the ship.The terminal was new and very nice and we had to wait till noon to board. As Platinum cruisers, we sat in the VIP lounge and were the first to board, but I would have rather seen more of Barcelona.
It was nice to be on the ship early and we walked all over getting familiar with everything. Jan and I both liked the changes they made on the Emerald much better than how the Grand, Golden, and Star were layed out. I heard some complaints about it being cut up, you did have to use the aft elevator to get to the Botticelli dining room but I didn't see that as a problem. I remember we had to do that on the Regal in Alaska. The Wheelhouse Bar (a favorite of ours) was located between the Atrium and the Theater and much larger than the other Grand Class ships, also had a much larger smoking section which I enjoyed. It no longer has the disco bar rising above the aft adult pool and blocking the sun. (I felt the other ships looked like a grocery cart with that bar as the handle). The bar was still up high but a bit more forward and the decks rose in "steps" from the pool up to it, nice look. We loved the ship, beautiful inside and out.
Our cruise director was Neil Chandler from England. He had an engineering degree, was a trained performer, later got a nursing degree, quit that and came to Princess. He has been on the Golden, Island, Diamond, Sapphire, then has served as Cruise Director on Sapphire, Grand, Dawn and Tahitian. We enjoyed him. Our captain was Giorgio Pomata who has served as captain on many Princess ships.
There was no covered pool on Emerald, I liked that. We met with some CC folks at 9 pm by the Calypso pool bar and then watched the sail away while they played the music from the Olympics in Barcelona on the loud speakers. Unfortunately it was way too loud and there was a suprano opera singer who I just wanted to put out of her misery. (I really don't like opera, especially supranos)!
Marseille, France
We did not book a tour for today, wanting to take it easy for the days ahead. We took a shuttle from the port to town (the old port) and just walked around on our own. It was the first of all the hot and humid and sunny days to follow! Many tall buildings surrounded a smaller port that had lots of sailboats and fishing boats. There were also many kiosks and outdoor restrurants all around. We walked past the fish market where any kind of fish you wanted was there for sale...great smell...NOT. We saw a "train tour" on wheels and jumped on board. We chose the tour to Notre Dame de la Garde. This old church complex was located high on a hill overlooking the harbor and we could see it from the ship. We had a nice trip through part of the city and got off at the church to see it and walk around. The "trains" ran continually so got on one to go back down when we were ready. It was 5 euros and worth it. We got some gellato, a few souvineers, and headed back to the ship.
We ate in the Botticelli dining room early seating. First night had 2 couples for table mates but one couple changed to anytime dining. Just well as all she did was complain saying RCI had free ice cream and better ships, so I told her she should go back to them as we preferred Princess! Our waiter and assistant gave us excellent service and were very enjoyable. I am not going to go into all the food on the menu. The food was very good as usual and we were always pleased with what we chose each night. Midway through the week I did mention I thought they should have creme broulet every night and guess what....I got it every night after that. I was pleasantly surprised about that.
After dinner we went to the Princess Theater for Welcome Aboard Showtime. The Princess dancers and singers did an intro and then they had Pete Matthews, comedy Juggler, wow! He was an amazing juggler and so funny we were laughing constantly, my cheeks hurt and tears poured, and an one time I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants! A great show and I don't usually like commedians!
I ended every night walking the upper decks just watching the ocean, seems I could do tht for hours. I should also mention that we really enjoyed our balcony, out first thing in the am with room service coffee and pastries as we got ready for our long day tours. Jan had not been that impressed with having a balcony before but this time she admitted she was "hooked" having really enjoyed spending time on it. I wished we could have left the door open at night to fall asleep to the ocean sounds, but it was too humid for sleeping. Speaking of the ocean, I have never been on a cruise where it was so calm, almost like glass. I like to feel the motion of the ocean and I missed that. Only wavey days were in Mykonos and on way to Istanbul and back to Kusadasi, and it wasn't much.
Livorno/Florance, Italy
Our tour today was Florence and Piza. The drive from Livorno to Florence was about 1 1/2 hours each way. This was a 9 1/2 hour tour that was mostly walking as buses aren't allowed in the areas we were seeing.
We walked from our bus to Piazza Del Duomo, a large square that has the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiora (4th largest church in the world). Amazing architecture, was dedicated in the 1400's and has had a new face put on I think a few hundred years ago! This square also had shops and kiosks and we did have some shopping time here. I found a darling back pack/purse for Jan's daughter and Jan liked it and bought it. Then Debbie bought one for her niece. (I always was a good shopper!).
We then walked to Piazza della Signoria-The Palazzo Vecchio-Town Hall. In this large square is a exact copy (plaster cast of original) of Michelangelo's statue of David and Cellini's statue of Neptune. The original of David is located in the building (museum) just behind the copy. It is enclosed in glass because of prior vandillisms and has been repaired. We did not go inside. It's quite a square with many other statues. Keep in mind that this was our first day of seeing statues so we were in awe. We didn't know that there were many many others to come in the days ahead. I think I got sort of complacent about statues by the end of the cruise!
We then went to the Church of Santa Croce wherre Michelangelo and Galileo are burried. We had a photo op of the Ponte Vecchio bridge. The famous bridge that has the gold and silver shops. Our guide said we would not go there as it has been unsafe for tourists with all the pick pockets. I was disappointed but got some pics anyway. Then we had a good lunch in a nice restrurant in Florence.
Next we boarded our bus for Piza. The walk from our bus to the area of the tower was loaded with kiosks and street venders peddeling there wares. When we entered the gate to see the Leaning Tower I was amazed. For some reason I always thought it was just the tower by itself. It is a beautiful complex of the Baptistry, Cathedral, and the Tower. They were all recently cleaned and were a glistening white. The same arches with pillars all around the tower were also on the other 2 buildings. A beautiful picture against the very blue sky! I really wanted to see the Tower and the other 2 went along with me and were very glad they did.
Then back to the ship, tired, hot, and sweaty, a quick shower and dinner. Then to the theater to see the production with the Princess singers and dancers titled Motor City. A great show. The other 2 went to the room and I went to donate to the casino, then a walk up top, and we were all in bed soon after 10pm so we could be ready for another very full day.
Civitavecchia/Rome Italy
Our tour today was Treasures of Rome, another 9 1/2 hour day in the heat and humidity! It was, again, about a 1 1/2 hour bus ride from the port to Rome. We looked at several tours here before we decided on this one. None of them had all we wanted to see in Rome, in life there are always choices! What we chose did not include the Colosseum, guess we will have to return!
We started out on our walking tour at the upper part of Rome and walked down the Spanish Steps which were built to connect upper Rome to the lower city. We then walked through some of the narrow streets with exclusive shops, saw where one of the famous designers lives (obviously I am not a designer person as I can't remember who he was). Then we went to Trevi Fountain, it is massive and located in a small, almost hidden piazza. Time for pics and of course, a coin toss...guess I will be returning someday. We then walked to the Roman Forum, a vast ensemble of ruins of the center of political, religious, and commercial life in Ancient Rome. Our guide also pointed out many other sites along the way. We had lunch in a nice restaurant and then on to the Vatican.
Being the last Sunday of the month the Vatican is open to the people for free, so large crowds were expected and we had been told a tour to the catacombs would probably replace the Vatican. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we were able to go to the Vatican after all. The Sistine chaple, however, was not open. We walked all around Vatican square which was not busy at all when we were there. We waited in line about 15 min to see St Peter's Basilica. That is HUGE! I was surprised to find I liked it as it was not gaudy or garish as other old Catholic churches I have seen. Beautiful marble and mosiacs all over. Too many areas and really too big to describe to do it justice. It is a must see and I am glad I did. Thus ended another hot and humid and busy walking day as we boarded our bus for the ride back to the ship, exhausted and our heads spinning with so much info.
I might add here: we learned how those huge marble pillars arrived at all these sites. Much of the marble was ordered from Egypt. Squares of marble were carved out, formed and rounded there at the site. Then a boat with wheels was built around a pillar, was pulled by animals to the Sea and sailed to Italy where more animals pulled the pillar to the site and then errected by a pully system built by the Romans. And there are thousands of pillars all over Rome, yikes!!
This night we passed on dinner in the dining room and just went for a burger and fries from the Trident girll. Sure tasted good. We passed on all the shows, I did my walking around agian, and again retired early for another full day in Naples.
Naples, Italy
Our tour today was Amalfi Coastal Drive and Pompeii. As our ship approached the port, from our balcony we could see Mt Vesuvius tower over the area with the pink sky of sunrise behind the mountain, a Kodac moment indeed! Another 9 1/2 hour tour began with a drive through Naples to Sorrento and the start of our costal drive. WOW, so glad we chose that over Capri. It was awesome with a narrow winding road (the only one), traveling up and down and around with a steep drop to the sea far below on our right and steep mountains above going straight up on our left. We passed through town after town with housed just seeming to be plucked in all over the cliffs both above and below us. The road was barely wide enough for our bus at times and when meeting a car, it was the car that had to back up. Our driver was excellent, there were times when he hung out the window, I'm sure swearing (in Italian) and flailling his arms at another driver who he felt was in the wrong. The other driver was often responding in like manor. I guess that is rather typical for the area. We had a few stops along the way for photo ops and souvineer shopping. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant in the cliffs in the town of Amafly overlooking the sea. It was blue skies and sunshine, can it get any better than that? I might add we were also glad we were riding instead of walking!
After lunch we drove to Pompeii and spent the afternoon touring the ruins. I was impressed at how very large the area was and they still have more to uncover. Pompeii was viewed as the playground of the first century's superstars. It offers an intimate look at the lives of people so affluent and powerful that the world was at their feet. "Even today we gasp at their lavish and indulgent lives." It was all destroyed by a catastrophic volcanic eruption by Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD. It was not the lave but the ash that managed to freeze an entire society in an instant. The ash was piled many times higher than the buildings. The roofs were destroyed by ashes and cinders but all else was preserved, even the mosaics and paintings were still intact on many of the walls and floors. This site is massive and defies description. Even after seeing it and walking through it I still can't fully comprehend all that I saw!
The mountain now has 2 peaks where there was once only one and a lot higher. It is still an active volcano, having errupted last in 1944. They say it will blow again, it's just a matter of time.
A bus ride took us back to the ship with not enough time to shower for dinner we chose to eat at the Horizon Buffet and then head for a shower. The movie under the stars was 27 dresses. Jan and Debbie went to see it and I wandered the ship and made another casino donation then up top to watch the last half of the movie as I had seen it before. We stayed up later as we were looking forward to a much needed sea day!
I don't talk much about the night life and entertainment in the bars as we rarely frequent them, even on less busy cruises. Jan and I enjoyed a drink before dinner in the Wheelhouse Bar, our favorite, but only once or twice as we were always out on tours. This was the first time we actually had a cocktail at the dinner table. The Atrium had frequent piano playing, also a combo of piano, 2 violins, a base, and an accordian. I thought the accordian a strange one to be in that group but they sounded very good playing a lot of classical music. There was always a lot of stuff going on throughout the ship but who had time to attend as we were always busy in port all day! We do enjoy the Princess productions and try to see all of them but we aren't interrested in much of the other shows. We also don't dine in the speciality restaurants as we are quite satisfied with the dining room and buffet and don't care to pay extra just for dining which is already included. We can do that at home and food isn't what we focus most on anyway.
I think I will take a break and start my ironing. Will try to finish tomorrow.
Thank you for sharing your cruise with us. I always wonder about those who complain about the ice cream...there's so many interesting flavors at lunch and dinner, also the Horizon Court make your own sundaes.
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Mediterranean on the Emerald Princess 8/2608-9/9/08
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Gosh, Carol, I almost missed this ... kept looking on your Live Report! 
Great Review and packed with useful information! Hopefully, everyone going or considering going to the Med will read! 
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