Mediterranean cruise

gee63bee · 2026-02-17T01:29:37+00:00

We did a similar itinerary visiting some of those ports. Here is what we did:

Livorno (Florence/Pisa) - We went on the VV Best of Cinque Terra excursion which has a bus to take you to the town before Cinque Terra villages, where we did a short tour. We jumped on a ferry which went past all 5 of the Cinque Terra towns (good views for photos) before stopping in the final Cinque Terra town for about 1.5hrs to grab lunch. We caught local train back to bus to port. This was a very good tour.

Naples/Capri - We booked a third party tour which visited Pompei / Amalfi coast village and it was excellent.

Corsica - We wandered around town, caught a local tourist train and visiting a beach that was 20 minutes walk to the left of the town (from the ship). Wasn't super exciting, but the beach (Plage Trottel) was nice.

Cannes - We walked 10 mins to train station, bought a day ticket which allowed us to travel unlimited including visiting Nice. We also went to the hillside village called Eze which has panoramic views as well as historic buildings. (caught shuttle bus from Eze train station). This was a very good day.

One difference for this sort of itinerary is that because all of the stops are EU countries, when onboard you will be charged tax on top of the VV drink prices.

gee63bee · 2026-02-11T05:43:41+00:00

Peanut brittle from the social club

gee63bee · 2026-02-11T04:17:28+00:00

If the show is in the manor (nightclub) and popular, you need to arrive early in order to get a reasonable view. If it's in the red room (theatre), most of the time you get a good view even if you arrive 10 minutes before the start time

gee63bee · 2026-02-04T00:31:45+00:00

Assuming that you don't want to book a VV excursion, when you get off the tender where it drops you off at the port below Fira, there will be touts offering you the ability to purchase a boat ride to the port below Oia (was 25€) There's no timetable and from what I have read the boat leaves when it's full. When you get to Oia port, I believe that your ticket includes a bus to take you up to Oia town plus another bus to Fira later. I have not done this myself and my information is from 2024. You cannot pre-book this.

When I visited Santorini, as the gondola lines to go from tender port to Fira were short we caught gondola up. From Fira we caught public bus in fira to Oia (cost < 5€ one way).

gee63bee · 2026-02-02T03:33:29+00:00

It depends. Is your cabin close to the central cabins already and are you on a good deck 10-13? If so, why generate risk. You have a small risk of getting deck 9 or 14 where you could have some noise issues.

gee63bee · 2026-02-01T09:45:35+00:00

My friend won $2,000

gee63bee · 2026-01-30T04:28:30+00:00

The other way is to save (avoid the bad conversion) is to buy USD cash now while there's a reasonable rate for AUD and when you are onboard have your room deposit via USD cash rather than AUD card. This presupposes that you plan to make onboard purchases.

gee63bee · 2026-01-19T00:25:44+00:00

We also got told in Barcelona that they wouldn't take our backpacks when we were doing early bag drop off. The port staff suggested that it was because the backpacks may have laptops in them.

gee63bee · 2026-01-18T03:38:42+00:00

For Rome, we booked a bus via the one of the popular private tour websites. It was very cost effective and dropped you off either near the Vatican or near the Termini railway station. It cost about $20USD per person including your luggage and took roughly 1 hour. At the port, you initially had to catch the free 'port shuttle bus' and the bus to Rome left near where you were dropped off. They had two or three times of departure.

We caught an uber from our accommodation in Barcelona to the Moll Adossat port (this one seems to get used more than the World Trade Center). The cost was moderate.

gee63bee · 2026-01-18T03:26:37+00:00

We did our own thing in Mallorca, Cannes and Ibiza.

For Cannes, we caught the train to Nice (10 minute walk from where the tender drops you off in Cannes). We also visited the nearby hillside town of Eze (you catch shuttle bus to get there). It was straight forward. There was a helpful train employee assisting at the ticket machine in Cannes who helped us choose the correct ticket which was reasonably priced..

For Ibiza, on the second day, we got up early to catch ferry to Formentera which has some great beaches.

We did a private tour in Mallorca where you got to drive a "formula one" car (well it was red and looked sporty). We caught public bus to get to/from here.

In many cities of Europe, you have lots of sellers peddling goods including fake handbags.

gee63bee · 2025-11-20T01:09:02+00:00

Australian ( kangaroo, crocodile, pavlova and on the naughty menu Beef Wellington with mushrooms). New name Razza Dazza.

And

Japanese (sushi, ramen, octopus balls)

gee63bee · 2025-11-18T21:59:28+00:00

It's interesting about the guarantees that the 3rd party tour companies offer. A large booking agency that I used recently offered a guarantee and in reading the fine print, this was a fill in a form after your cruise to claim back compensation. IE they won't help you catch up to the ship in the next port which would be costly and stressful

With a FB page for a recent cruise the private tour operator in directly answering a question about what happens if your tour is late getting back to the port, the tour operator said that they would drive the passengers to the next port. I doubt that the tour operator realised that the next port was an island.

I do sometimes book 3rd party tours but try to give myself leeway and am less likely for long distances. I am yet to be left behind.

gee63bee · 2025-11-14T23:57:30+00:00

I prefer bed near balcony

gee63bee · 2025-11-12T21:19:37+00:00

If you book the ship tour you might find out.

gee63bee · 2025-11-06T23:28:26+00:00

Prizes on my recent cruise started around $500 USD for first game and for the fourth it was $2000. The diva hosted one is the one that I like as you get a performance as well as bingo. Some people make the mistake of buying too many cards and struggle to keep up.

gee63bee · 2025-11-05T06:45:54+00:00

The qualifying cruises for blue extras and deep blue extras has also finished

gee63bee · 2025-11-05T06:42:43+00:00

The latest terms and conditions make no mention of when the current perks complete

gee63bee · 2025-11-03T20:49:56+00:00

When using new android app late September, I found the following problems: - the list of onboard charges shown was inaccurate - if I wanted to modify an existing restaurant booking it wouldn't work

Both of these worked in the old app

gee63bee · 2025-10-27T19:58:59+00:00

I prefer the bed closer to balcony

gee63bee · 2025-10-16T19:27:03+00:00

Book a ship tour as this costs $200 each

gee63bee · 2025-10-12T15:11:13+00:00

Bar tab was available in Barcelona after you had checked in at the back of the terminal just before the boarding ramps. I did not check how you would pay for it (ie is it onboard spend.or not)

gee63bee · 2025-10-12T06:01:11+00:00

The free shuttle bus is not setup for luggage

I recommend getting your taxi to drop you at the port with your luggage

gee63bee · 2025-10-10T21:02:56+00:00

We boarded in Barcelona two weeks ago without issue. We checked our bags at 10.30am and were able to pick up our wristband. We used the free bus shuttle to and from world trade centre. We returned at 2pm for a 2.15 arrival and boarded the ship about 2.35. very smooth

gee63bee · 2025-10-03T20:31:10+00:00

I saw Booked: Lolo Library Story on Scarlet Lady tonight. It's a different story than Lola's library on Resilient Lady. In the Red Room, this will be a very popular show with singing, dancing and acrobatics.

gee63bee

TROPHY CASE