Cruising on Big Ships

My wife, Marilyn and I just returned from a cruise. We had wanted to visit Italy to include Rome and the Amalfi Coast area for some time. The trip was contracted by a California Travel Company, but when we got to Rome we found that it had been sub-contracted to an Italian company. The trip consisted of the flight from the U.S. to Rome, a stay of three days in Rome, then moving north to Montecatini as a base, where we visited Siena on the way and then spent the next day in Florence. Following our visit to Florence, the next day we continued our trip by bus to the coastal port of Savona, about a four to five hour bus ride through beautiful and historical countryside. At Savona we boarded a Costa Cruise Lines ship, the Mediterranea, and left the Italian tour company's guidance.

The cruise ship was beautiful, a little bit gaudily decorated, and only three years old. It held 2500 passengers and over 900 crew. Our first stop was at Barcelona, Spain, for the afternoon. My wife , Marilyn and I, were traveling with another couple whom we had met on a previous cruise through the Panama Canal two years ago. We left the ship , boarded a bus for a short ride into town, got off the bus for a short walk into the downtown and my wife got sick to her stomach. It was then back to the bus, the ride back to the ship, back on board and a race to our cabin. No more Barcelona! Then on to St.Cruz de Tennirife, an island in the Canary Islands. We went ashore there, explored the city of Tennerife and enjoyed the bustling little city. From there, our next stop was Guadaloupe, an island in the Leeward Islands, after spending five days crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Crossing the Atlantic was an interesting experience, but after spending five days eating, playing cards, looking at water all day and both of us being sick with a virus (they said) a day and a half, neither of us has any desire to cross the Atlantic Ocean again. When we arrived at Guadaloupe our friends and us couldn't wait to get off the boat. We hired a cab and the driver agreed to take us to see a waterfall. The pathway to the falls was so muddy and slick, the girls were afraid they'd fall and so only half our group got to see the falls, which wasn't much. From there we left for St. Maartin. Nice clean, well-kept island but only a half day visit. Then to Catalina Island in the Dominican Republic. This was a beach which was leased by Costa and was just a picnic day in the sun surrounded by beautiful blue waters. Our next to last stop before ending our cruise in Miami, FL, was Nassau for a day. We had been there before and aside for the fact that it was cleaned up some, it's still the same highly commercial tourist trap. After arriving in Miami, getting off the boat, collecting our baggage, going through customs and getting to the airport for the trip home was the same disorganized mess we had experienced before on departing cruise ships.

To recap this vacation trip:
1. The guides we had in Rome were terrible.
2. The hotels in Italy were nice.
3. The sub-contracted guides really cheated us by not narrating information about northern Italy on the bus trip from Rome to Savona.
4. The ship was gorgeous and the crew was first-rate.
5. Five days crossing the Atlantic was boring.
6. Most Carribbean Islands aren't very clean.
7. 22 day vacations are just too much to be away from home when you're old and set in your ways.

All-in-all it was a great trip!!