Wander. Sing. Cheer.: Western Mediterranean Cruise with Royal Caribbean

Here is a special note from a client of mine, Christina and her family. I just love getting back emails about experiences my customers have! As a travel agent, although many people think we've been everywhere, we just can't see it all! This is definitely on my bucket list though. Christina took a cruise on the Royal Caribbean ship, "Liberty of the Seas." It was a 7 night Western Mediterranean cruise sailing round trip from Barcelona, Spain. She visited amazing ports of call with her two young sons: Provence, France; Monte Carlo, France; Florence, Italy; Rome, Italy and Naples, Italy. Here is a brief description of her experience and some great advice for those who may be thinking of a cruise to Europe. And Christina was nice enough to provide us with a few great pictures as well!

Hi Ashleigh,

Well...we made it! What a great trip! First off, let me tell you that Hotel America was great! Very clean, modern (wooden floors, white linen, nice bathroom with a bidet!) and the staff couldn't have been friendlier. A few of the reviews I read about them on Trip Advisor mentioned that people were rude, but that wasn't the case at all for us. As far as location goes, it was in the Eixample neighborhood which is upscale. Probably quite a hike to get down to Las Ramblas (we never walked completely there from the hotel) but only 3 blocks from Gaudi's La Pedrera house which is also where we took the Tourist Hop-on-hop-off bus which was great (got a 2 day pass to do that). The breakfast buffet which we added on at the hotel was good too. I'd definitely recommend it again...unless someone wants to be right in the heart of the Ramblas area or Gothic quarter.

The cruise was great too. My boys and I were very happy with the Dreamworks and Royal Caribbean partnership. We had characters on the boat with us all week: Shrek, Fiona, Puss in Boots, Po (Kung Fu Panda), Alex the Lion, Gloria the Hippo and King Julien from Madagascar. They did photo opps throughout the week and a character breakfast and costume parade the last day. My boys were in seventh heaven! (Definitely the highlight of the trip for them!) I've only taken one other cruise, and that was about 18 years ago on Carnival, but Royal Caribbean kicked their butt. The decor, the service, everything. I loved having the balcony room. Slept a few nights with the door open (something we never could do in the Bay Area) to hear the waves. Plus, while we were in port, I had a great place to hang laundry that would dry in one day (brought travel hangers, clothespins and a travel clothesline). We didn't take advantage of the Kids Club on board because I'd scheduled pretty much every day for us. But there was another family at our dining table with younger kids that pretty much had them in the kids camp the whole time and their kids loved it. I kept asking my boys if they wanted to do it, maybe in the evenings, but they didn't. I think we were just so wiped out from playing tourists all day. The excursions were good...some more than others. Definitely not conducive to shopping if people are looking to do that. They tried to schedule in "free time" on the tours, but sometimes that consisted of about 20 minutes...certainly not the kind of shopping time I like. I was talking to a crew member about it and she said that pretty much the only way to do shopping is to either go into town on your own, or sign up for a "On Your Own" excursion which basically provides you a bus ride into town and back to the ship. But seeing the sites was the most important thing and that's what we did. I'm really glad we took the extra night back in Barcelona on Saturday. Going back to the same hotel was comforting and we also got to squeeze in a little more sightseeing that we hadn't been able to do before. Barcelona's a beautiful city and would've loved to spend more time there. Could pretty much say that about all the places I visited...but then again, this kind of trip just gives you a taste...and makes you want to go back for more.

On the way there we took Air Canada and that was fine. Way home we took SpanAir from Barcelona to Munich which was OK...just 2 hours. From Munich to SFO, we took Lufthansa and much to our surprise and delight, as we were boarding, they handed us new seats...in Business Class! Talk about a treat! What a world of difference between the service, the food and being able to stretch out was heaven. I can never really sleep when I travel, but I loved being able to recline and just watch movies or "rest my eyes". Guess my fairy godmother was looking out for me!

One thing I did spend a small fortune on (by choice)...using the Internet on board. It's about .65/minute or you can buy packages for an hour or more at a time. But with my wanting to check in with emails and Facebook status updates, I spent a bundle.

Thanks again for all you did for my children and me. It really was a wonderful trip. If you have any questions or want more info about our experience, please don't hesitate to ask.

Take care,

Christina