The Cruise
This is the second part of our story about our Barcelona Cruise. If you want to start from the beginning, you can go here.
We were sad to leave Barcelona, but excited to begin our Mediterranean cruise. It took some time for us to decide which cruise take. Here are some of our thoughts after deciding on this Mediterranean Cruise on the MSC Splendida. It’s probably stating the obvious, but you should choose your cruise based on the destinations, not on the ship itself. Most all of the ships will be very similar. They’ll have pools and jacuzzis and other outdoor activities. They’ll have a theater for shows and entertainment. You’ll be able to eat dinner in a spectacular dining room, or you’ll have other dining choices if you’d rather have a casual dinner. You’ll likely also have a casino to spend your evenings. Some of the newer ships might have attractions that might be worth considering when deciding on your cruise, but that’s unlikely.
The deck onboard the MSC Splendida was usually packed with people
The place where you can differentiate your cruise from others is in the type of room that you stay in. We made sure to get a balcony room, and felt that it was well worth the extra cost. Rooms are going to be on the “small” side… that’s a given. You’re on a ship. Having that extra room on the balcony to spend time on, and being able to look out at the sites, even if it’s just the ocean, is really worth the extra cost.
The room was standard size but gave us plenty of room to feel comfortable
Balcony rooms are well worth the money and provide you with extra space.
Also, the balcony gives you the opportunity to see views like this at sunset.
As we mentioned in our first cruise post detailing our start city of Barcelona, our itinerary was for an 8 day cruise with 5 additional stops before returning to our starting port of Barcelona. Our first stop was Marseille.
Marseille
The one place in Marseille that we really wanted to see was the Basilique Notre-Dame de la Garde. There was a tour that included it, but it was quite expensive. There was also a much less expensive option for “do it yourselfers” where a bus would just drop you off at the main harbor area. From there, people could plan their day however they wanted. On the map, it looked like the walk to Notre-Dame from there would only take around 30 minutes, so we decided to take that option. The bus dropped us off at the harbor as planned, and we started our trek toward the Basilica. The walk seemed to take longer than we expected and when we stopped to ask a local for help, the directions were simply, “Up, up up… keep going up”. That didn’t sound encouraging, but we kept going in the direction that she pointed. Eventually the street opened up, and we saw the daunting hill in front of us with the Basilica at the top. We had somehow come up the back way and now needed to ascend stairs to the top. We got to the base of the Basilica and walked in. After spending some time on that level, we realized that there were stairs up to the top level. Luckily, we found it since the view from the upper level was amazing. From the top, you could see all of Marseille including the harbor. The view from there was definitely worth the hike up the hill.
The long climb up the back side of the Basilique Notre-Dame.
Be sure to walk all the way up to the top for some great views of the city and bay below.
Amazing views from the top of the Basilique.
Back in the harbor, we realized that we still had some time before the last bus departed. We decided to take a boat tour to a nearby island of Chateau d’If. This island was originally used as a military fortress, and later turned into a prison. It became famous for being one of the settings for the adventure novel The Count of Monte Cristo.
Boat excursion to the nearby island of Chateau d’If.
Genoa
Our next stop was Genoa. For Genoa, we decided on the day trip to Portofino. Transportation from Genoa to Portofino started with a 45 minute bus ride to the small port of Santa Margherita Ligure. From there, we took an open boat for the last 15 minutes to Portofino.
Our tour boat coming into port at Portofino
As you pull into the harbor, you notice the iconic colored buildings that line the water. As you depart the boat, the restaurants and shops will be to your right. If you go left you can find steps up the hill overlooking the harbor. From there, you can get some great pictures of the harbor and town. We easily spent our two hours just walking through the town and browsing through the shops.
Walk up the hill for some great pictures of Portofino down below.
The vibrant colors of all of the buildings of Portofino are just breathtaking.
Naples
The obvious choice for our Naples tour was the one that took us to Pompeii. The bus ride to Pompeii from the port of Naples was about 30 minutes. As we started getting close to Pompeii, we could see Mt. Vesuvius from our bus window looming in the distance.
The imposing view of Vesuvius on our bus ride to Pompeii
To say that Pompeii was a tourist site would be a massive understatement. There were tons of buses that lined the parking lot. At the entry into Pompeii, numerous vendors had set up shop to sell their goods. There were several places to buy souvenirs or food.
There are tons of tourist stands right outside the gate of Pompeii.
The walk through Pompeii took you back in time as you strolled over the cobblestone roads. Our guide did a good job of describing the various buildings and what they were used for. There were several structures that were roped off that contained artifacts that were dug up in the area.
Some of the areas where they are excavating have maintained their original color.
Rooms full of artifacts.
After our bus returned us to port, we had some extra time before we needed to be back onboard the ship so we decided to take a walk through Naples. We walked into the Galleria Umberto to check out its iconic domed glass roof.
Galleria Umberto was a short walk from our port
Palermo
The Palatine Chapel is the royal chapel of the Norman palace in Palermo. It has a mixture of Byzantine, Norman and Fatimid architectural styles. We had read about the elegant mosaics that decorated the interior of the chapel so we definitely wanted to make the chapel one of our stops while we were in Palermo. The Chapel appeared to be about 45 minutes walking distance from the port. Certainly doable, but we weren’t sure if we wanted to take up that much time in our day walking. We knew that taxis would be readily available from the port so we decided to take a taxi to the chapel, and then to walk back to the port and take in as many sites as we could along the way. As we had planned, we were able to catch a taxi right outside the port. Unfortunately, it took a few minutes to convince the driver that we indeed wanted to go to the Palatine Chapel instead of a “much better” chapel that happened to be several more miles away. We were able to make it to the chapel, and the mosaics were as beautiful as we had heard.
Palatine Chapel
Beautiful mosaics throughout the chapel.
On the walk back, we made stops at the Palermo Cathedral, the Fontana Pretoria and the Massimo Theater. We made it back to the boat in plenty of time but we weren’t exhausted so we were glad that we decided to take the taxi for half the excursion. There were tours that would have taken us to the spots that we walked to, but we definitely felt like our self created walking tour was the way to go.
Fontana Pretoria
Palermo Cathedral
Teattro Massimo
Palma de Mallorca
We had one goal for our stop in Palma de Mallorca and that was to visit the Palma Cathedral. This Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral is massive and is clearly visible from the surrounding area. The cathedral is 396 feet long, 130 feet wide and 144 feet tall. It sits atop the former citadel of the Roman city. We spent the day inside the cathedral, and also roaming the old town around the cathedral. At the end of the day, we made the 30 minute walk to the harbor area before returning to the ship.
Palma Cathedral
Back to Barcelona
We returned to port back in Barcelona and spent another night there before flying back home. It was our first cruise, and we really ended up enjoying it. We felt like we spent the right amount of time in each port and other than Barcelona, probably wouldn’t need to return to any of those destinations. Barcelona was another story, and we definitely thought that we would be back to visit someday.
