The very last sentence of the very last travel portfolio post covering our Mediterranean cruise of 2016 was:
At some point we’re really going to have to explore more of the Mediterranean region.
That point is approaching. That had been a week-long cruise in September on a Princess ship and because we’re creatures of habit we’ll be spending another week in September on a Princess ship in the Mediterranean a mere three years later from then, which, at time of writing and barring any sudden lottery wins, will be our next scheduled trip abroad. There will be some differences: instead of Royal Princess we’ll be cruising on the older but new-to-us and more familiar in design ship, Emerald Princess. Also, our last (and only) Mediterranean cruise covered the east of the sea region, taking us from Rome to Athens whereas we’ll be exploring the western end this time around, flying into Barcelona and departing from the Italian capital.
Emerald Princess
As stated, it will be our first time on Emerald Princess, but with her being another of Princess’s Grand-class ships most things will be instantly familiar to us. Elements aboard that we are looking forward to trying out for the first time will be the MedallionNet internet (as it is due to be installed the month before we sail) and the food venues, many of which are revamped versions of what we’ve experienced before – World Fresh Marketplace (replacement for the Horizon Court buffet), Salty Dog Grill, Coffee & Cones, and Slice Pizzeria – but others haven’t been present on any of the other Princess ships on which we’ve cruised: SHARE by Curtis Stone, the Salty Dog Gastropub, Steamers Seafood, and Planks BBQ. The only issue with those last two dining options is that I don’t really do seafood (fish, I’m fine with; just the thought of mussels or oysters is sending my gag reflex into a panic) and my wife doesn’t like the taste of barbecue (smoky drinks good, smoky food bad), and neither of us will want to eat alone. Awww. We might work something out, you know, for the site. Or make up the experience. It’s not like you could tell.
Mediterranean Cruise Itinerary
While both of us have hit the Mediterranean as youngsters and have had one enjoyable family holiday in Spain in 2012, we’ve only cruised in that region of the world once before. Everything we’ll be seeing will be new.
Barcelona
Barcelona is where we fly into and cruise out from which means there will be no chance to explore it but we’ve already seen a lot of the city on that 2012 trip so this doesn’t bother us at all.
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is the only stop where we won’t be taking a ship’s excursion because everything looks very doable on foot by ourselves. We are planning to head up The Rock, of course, and will be booking the cable car online ahead of that so that we can skip the queues. The weather and just how long it takes us to walk back down because of what piques our interest on the way will determine what else we get up to but having a drink in a pub in Gibraltar is a must.
Marseille
When I first saw Marseille on the list of cruise ports I was very interested as it has always felt that it’s a city with a lot to see. More in-depth nosing quashed that notion (it probably does have a lot to see but nothing was jumping out at us) so we’ve booked a trip outside the city instead to visit Arles – a city with a two-tiered Roman amphitheatre and which, for a while, was home to Van Gogh – and Les Baux-de-Provence – a commune atop a rocky outcrop, the place from where bauxite gets its name, and with a history of habitation as far back as 6000 BCE.
Genoa
Our excursion at the first Italian port on our cruise will take us along the coast to first Camogli then Santa Margherita to explore those two areas and check out their histories. From there we’ll be boating along to Portofino to spend some time among its colourful buildings.
Livorno
Livorno is the port where most people will head off to explore Florence or Pisa. Florence has a lot of appeal but we’ll be back in this region with a chance to explore it next year as we’re booked on the Enchanted Princess preview cruise so, with Pisa seemingly rather limited in interest outside the obvious, we’ve decided to head to the multi-towered town of San Gimignano to first look around, then partake in a wine-tasting (hey, it’s Italy!) We will then be stopping in Pisa on the way back to the port where, if the wine has done its job, only the tower will appear straight. We don’t intend to take a selfie in front of the tower but we might try to hunt down what has been described as the “world’s best ice cream” when we hit San Gimignano, two of Leanne’s Italian travel bucket list items. If it’s really good then we’ll see what else we can tick off that list over time.
Civitavecchia
Our termination port of Civitavecchia was our embarkation port on our previous trip and, like then, its primary purpose is to serve as a short hop to the airport at Rome. To give us the briefest of tasters of Italy’s capital city we’ve booked a debark tour to that we can have a nose at St. Peter’s Basilica and the Colosseum. We know it can’t do Rome any justice but we also felt that extending our stay by one day in the city and flying back on the Sunday wouldn’t have allowed us to see enough of the place either; it feels like somewhere to dedicate some time to and maybe we’ll get around to doing that one year.
Featured image is of the Mediterranean (shock!) taken from Tarragona in 2012.