Suggestions & Opinions On Western Mediterranean Cruise? Genie?

[Vincent]

Wife & I are researching 7 night Western Mediterranean in June on Allure for next year. We've come up with a few questions that the two of us seem to have different viewpoints on. We've sailed on Allure but never been to Europe.

There are 4 different itineraries available. The key differences between all 4 sailings are that 2 embark/disembark in Barcelona and 2 in Civitavecchia (Rome), and of those 4,  1 from each feature 2 days/nights at sea, while the other 2 have 1 day/night at sea but also have a stop in Provence (Marseille), France (see below):

Itinerary 1

Day 1
Barcelona, Spain
Day 2
Palma De Mallorca, Spain
Day 3
Provence (Marseille), France
Day 4
Florence / Pisa (La Spezia), Italy
Day 5
Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy
Day 6
Naples / Capri, Italy
Day 7
At Sea
Day 8
Barcelona, Spain

Itinerary 2

Day 1
Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy
Day 2
Naples / Capri, Italy
Day 3
At Sea
Day 4
Barcelona, Spain
Day 5
Palma De Mallorca, Spain
Day 6
Provence (Marseille), France
Day 7
Florence / Pisa (La Spezia), Italy
Day 8
Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy

Itinerary 3

Day 1
Barcelona, Spain
Day 2
Palma De Mallorca, Spain
Day 3
At Sea
Florence / Pisa (La Spezia), Italy
Day 5
Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy
Day 6
Naples / Capri, Italy
Day 7
At Sea
Day 8
Barcelona, Spain

Itinerary 4

Day 1
Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy
Day 2
Naples / Capri, Italy
Day 3
At Sea
Day 4
Barcelona, Spain
Day 5
Palma De Mallorca, Spain
Day 6
At Sea
Day 7
Florence / Pisa (La Spezia), Italy
Day 8
Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy

My specific questions are:

1. What are the advantages or disadvantages of boarding in Rome as apposed to Barcelona? One that my wife brought up is that the itineraries which embarks/disembarks in Barcelona is at sea the final day/night before disembarking, which gives some time to relax, pack and "chill". I've read a few post relating to boarding in Barcelona vs Civitavecchia, and both itineraries have the type of cabin we are interested in booking available, so other than a matter of opinion, is there really a right or wrong answer?
2. Two of the itineraries stop in Provence (Marseille), France while the other two have an extra day at sea. Have watched a few videos, and some advise that a vast majority of the locals, restaurant workers and stores do not speak English. Has anyone had issues related, and would you recommend this itinerary just based on this "extra" port?
3. We've previously sailed Star Class on Allure and are considering it again for this sailing. However, with such busy and heavy itineraries, thinking I may not be able to justify the extra cost associated with having a Genie. Any thoughts and/or prior experiences???
4. And if we don't book Sky Class, would you still recommend purchasing the unlimited dinning package, knowing that we wouldn't utilize lunch on the ship as much, and even questioning dinner as we are glorified foodies, and will partake in as much eating & snacking off of the ship as my blood pressure will allow

Would greatly appreciate all feedback!

[FionaMG]

Barcelona vs Rome:

Consider ease/cost of getting there. Are there non-stop flights from your preferred airport? Is there a massive difference in price?

Assuming you'd want to spend at least a couple of days pre-cruise in your departure port, does either of them "speak" to you more than the other, e.g. Roman archaeological attractions vs Gaudi in Barcelona.

Barcelona, the port is close to the city centre so easy to get to from your hotel on boarding day. However, this also makes it an easy port to visit if you're just there for the day. Also, the airport is easy to get to from the port at the end of the cruise.

Rome, the port is actually in Civitavecchia, over an hour's drive from Rome, so a bit of added logistics to get there on boarding day. Conversely, this makes it a long, difficult port day with a lot of time spent just in getting to and from the city. A similar ride awaits between the port and the airport at the end of the cruise.

Barcelona is the "main" departure point for this cruise (having two overlapping boarding ports is referred to as "interporting"). This means embarkation and disembarkation will be much busier in Barcelona than in Rome. Boarding in Rome means fewer people boarding with you so a faster process and (big bonus) a quieter ship since lots of the Barcelona boarders will be off the ship visiting Rome.

With Rome being the "secondary" departure point, the days/menus will be out of sequence as they will be based on the cruise starting in Barcelona. So, for example, your "Welcome Aboard" dinner will be several days into your cruise rather than the first day.

Itinerary with/without Marseille:

I would absolutely pick a date with a stop in Marseille. I speak French so have never had any issues and I enjoy the city but I think it's not so much that the locals don't speak English but that they feel you should make an effort to speak some French. Once you make the effort they will too. All it takes is a few words and if you do that I think you will notice an immediate difference. Even if you don't want to stay in Marseille itself, it's the gateway to Provence which is a wonderful place and it would be a shame to miss it. You could do an excursion to Aix-en-Provence or Avignon, for example.

I can't help with your other two questions but I'm sure someone else will chime in with advice and opinions.

Have fun planning!

 

[SebagoSue]

Vincent, @FionaMG has outlined some excellent points and are similar to my thoughts, so I will just add a couple of my experiences doing this same thing the last couple years.

We boarded in Rome ( Civitavecchia) because we wanted to spend several days exploring Rome before the cruise.  I would recommend flying in to either port at least 2 days in advance of your cruise. Because the port is about an hour from Rome, I think it is much easier to board there and then have an easy day to explore Barcelona without so much travel.  Last year we actually walked back to the ship from Las Ramblas without any problem. The only issue with staying in Rome next year is it is the Jubilee year, so it will be much more crowded and things will book quickly at likely higher costs. But, it could also be an amazing year to spend more time in Rome.

The only problem we had with boarding in Rome was with the Royal app and my understanding is that this is still a problem. The app would only recognize cruises starting in Barcelona so we could not book anything that way or see events on our personal planner.  We could use the app but needed to go into the Barcelona sailings to see anything.  The concierge was great with making our UDP dining reservations, though.  Even he could only make the first 3 days initially and then once we hit the next Barcelona boarding day he could make the rest.  Sounds confusing but it all worked out. If you booked specific dining reservations in advance, rather than the UDP, this would not be a problem.

i agree that the itinerary including Marseille is better.  We did a day trip to the Provence region and loved what we saw. Everyone we met spoke English so the language was not an issue. I would not plan to spend the day in Marseille.

I truly do not think you need to do Star class on this cruise.  I would rather spend the extra money on wonderful tours.  We were in a CLS Sky Class and it was perfect.  The views from that balcony were fantastic and the concierge is close by to do whatever you need. At the end of our cruise, we laughed and said we needed to go back on the ship another time because we just didn’t spend any time there during the days. Port days are long and very busy if you want to see all that is available.  I would still do Sky Class, though, if you normally do Star Class.  With the long days it is nice to have Coastal Kitchen as well as the suite lounge and concierge.

We had the UDP as we normally do.  For us, it was great, I just wish I had booked later reservations so we had a little time to relax when we returned from touring.  But we also wanted to enjoy all the entertainment available on the ship.  Bottom line, great cruise, nonstop activity.

 

All your options are great and I’m sure you will have a fantastic trip!

[FionaMG]

Very good advice @SebagoSue.

Regarding the app, I think I read very recently that this has finally been fixed so fingers crossed that is correct. I know it was a real pain for guests boarding in Rome.

[MarvinS]

I would completely second and agree with the comments made by @FionaMG and @SebagoSue.  We just completed this exact same western Mediterranean "loop" in June 2024 on Oasis. 

We also embarked from Rome (Civitavecchia).   We arrived in Rome 4 days ahead, and spent a majority of the first day dealing with recovering from jet lag.  From where I'm from (Alaska), we had a 10-hour time zone change.  Talk about completely flipping your day upside down!  We then spent the next couple of days visiting the sites of Rome.  We intentionally stayed in a hotel near the Roma Termini station, which made it VERY easy to get to/from the airport and to easily take the subway trains to the other sites in the city (Vatican, Coliseum, Trevi fountain, Spanish Steps, etc.).  On our boarding day, it was a simple 1-hour train ride from Roma Termini to the port in Civitavecchia.  The train tickets cost me 5 Euros each (10 Euros for both my wife and I)!  Once we got to Civitavecchia train station, we took an easy port shuttle bus for the ~1.5 mile trip to port (costs 6 Euros each-cash or credit card).  You could walk it, but in the summer heat dragging a suitcase apiece, the shuttle bus was definitely the way to go.  Once at the port, we literally walked through the terminal and right onto the ship.  There were NO lines for anything.  I think we were all of 10 minutes once we entered the port building to walking onto the ship.  As another aside, we found that those that embarked in Barcelona got the usual blue-colored seapass cards, while those that embarked from Civitavecchia, the seapass card is orange.  We were told that about 75% of the passengers embark in Barcelona with 25% from Civitavecchia.

Having Barcelona as a regular "port-stop" made it easy to visit that city.  Those that have Rome as a port-stop have to deal with the 1 hour trip to Rome (and 1-hour back) before they can see the sites of Rome.

We did note that currently in Rome, there is a LOT of construction going on and was told there was a lot of refurbishments to various locations in preparation for the Jubilee next year (every 25 years, with 2025 the next Jubilee).  We did hear from several that they were anticipating heavier visitor traffic next year, so if you are thinking about embarking in Rome, get your travel and reservations set sooner than later.

Regarding using the mobile app, I found that things generally worked pretty well, even with the interporting.  We didn't do ANY specialty dining, so didn't have any experience trying to book dining times.  I did do my reservations for entertainment (main theatre, aquatheatre, studio-B) ahead of time in the cruise planner online (NOT in the app).  I did receive an email that one of my entertainment reservation times shifted a little (something like 7PM to 7:30PM).  The DAY the email showed was the "Barcelona embarkation" schedule and NOT the Rome embarkation (as mine was).  It said the show time was shifted for my Day 1 event (Barcelona) when it was really by Day 4 event (Rome).  Other that keeping the days straight, I never did have an issue with the app the entire cruise with regards to seeing activities on the schedule.  The app did indeed have our entertainment correct regarding the day of the cruise for all of the entertainment the entire sailing (contrary to the email ahead of sailing).  Even the pictures we had taken (first formal night) pre-Barcelona were easily viewable on the app the entire cruise, so the interporting didn't affect that at all.

When I originally booked the cruise (~19 months out), Marseille was in the itinerary.  About 6 months out, we got the email from RC that "our cruise schedule has changed", and they dropped Marseille for another sea day.  In watching the western Med. cruises just prior our sailing, I noted that every other loop had a stop in Marseille.  I already had all my hotels and airfare lined up prior to that RC schedule change email, so changing our sailing one week forward or back was just not worth it.

Given the choice to do it again, I would embark in Rome (Civitavecchia) again in a heart beat, as the short time in the port building at Civitavecchia and easy-to-visit Barcelona was great.  This is, of course, NOT taking into account flight costs between arriving in Barcelona vs. Rome, but we intentionally wanted to spend a few days a Rome before the cruise, anyway.

[PhillyLady]

I am getting ready to cruise the Med in less than two weeks.  We are going from Rome to Barcelona (not on RC), so we have the ability to do pre-and post stays in two different countries (which we are doing).

I always tell people to cruise out of Rome if they have never been there before, and arrive several days early to sightsee in the city, recover from jet lag, make sure your luggage makes it, and leisurely transfer to the ship.   The one day tour from Civi to Rome can be very expensive and/or time limiting if you leave out of Barcelona.  Okay, I am a Romance language lover, and I never find anyone in any of the Med countries rude because I always try to use their languages. I do not think people in France speak less English than in other countries--they just love their own language. Always ask them politely first, "Parlez-vous anglais?''  I agree that I would never miss a stop in France on this type of cruise--it adds that fun dimension of having a third country on your itinerary.

As you may know, there have been some complaints against tourists in Barcelona lately, and they are recovering from a drought, so that is another reason to sail from Rome.

These types of voyages with a different port every day can be a bit hectic, especially if you book full-day shore excursions.  No need to upgrade the cabin when you are rarely there!  My choice would be itinerary two, especially if you have never been to any of those places before.  The cruise basically stops in cities, and there are opportunities for lunch at a seaside cafe.  We stopped in Naples last Summer, and did a very strenuous and hot, but quite fascinating visit of Pompeii.

As to all the app stuff, I am old school and try to do as much in advance online on my main computer before I sail.  I like to keep my phone in the safe when I am on board!

Have fun planning, and bon voyage!

[ChessE4]

I would give some thought to the time of year. We thought October would be less crowded, but in 2022 the warm weather made Italy and France overwhelmed with tourists, making port visits disappointing. I see the appeal of Rome, but you need to decide what you want from your cruise vacation. Iconic landmarks aren't the same as out of the way villages. I do believe in a trip of at least two weeks to justify the cost of air. We found that a junior suite was plenty spacious, really more than we needed.

[CynBeth]

Last summer we left from Barcelona and ended in Rome which is actually Civitavecchia. We came in a few days early to tour Barcelona and after the cruise took the train to Rome to get our train to Venice where we spent a few nights and then took the train back to Rome for time there. I don’t know if you have to travel certain dates and if it has to be that ship and if there are certain ports you have to do but I see a one way for the end of June into the beginning of July that looks pretty good.

[FOB]

In case you need to know what is “extra” in a Jubilee year

there are special doors in each of the 4 main Basilica- St Peter’s (Vatican), St John Lateran, St Mary Majors and St Paul outside the Walls - that are only open in Jubilee years. Tradition has it that people who can visit all 4 doors during a Holy Year get time off in purgatory. 
there is also a set of sacred stairs (tradition has it they are the steps Jesus walked up to see Pilate) and if you go up them on your knees you get more time off

having done the steps before I can confirm that the reason you get time off is cos you have already done the time on Earth - it is sore as heck by the time you get to the top

The “time off’ bit is known as an indulgence and it was the selling of these back in the day that prompted the reformation

and yes I know us Catholics have strange ideas but we do mostly share them nicely with anyone else who wants to take part

[SynEpona]

On 7/26/2024 at 5:42 PM, MarvinS said:

 ...We just completed this exact same western Mediterranean "loop" in June 2024 on Oasis. ...

We also embarked from Rome (Civitavecchia).   We arrived in Rome 4 days ahead, and spent a majority of the first day dealing with recovering from jet lag.  From where I'm from (Alaska), we had a 10-hour time zone change.  Talk about completely flipping your day upside down!  We then spent the next couple of days visiting the sites of Rome....

When I originally booked the cruise (~19 months out), Marseille was in the itinerary.  About 6 months out, we got the email from RC that "our cruise schedule has changed", and they dropped Marseille for another sea day.  ...

 

We're about to do the same, mid August from Rome, and are also spending 4 days in Rome ahead of the cruise. Sounds like a very similar plan to yours -- see the sites, stay centrally, and spend that first day or so adjusting to the 8 hour time difference for us. Thank you for sharing your recent experience!

We had the same experience that Marseilles was in the itinerary we booked, only we never got an email about the change! We did notice when we first installed the RC app that it was missing from the days shown, we'd also already booked flights, accommodation, and structured our summer plans around the date we'd chosen, so we didn't make any effort to look at a change. My kids are happy to have a 2nd sea day though -- on Oasis there is so much they want to see and do that having an extra day to fit it all in isn't a bad thing.

[FionaMG]

5 minutes ago, SynEpona said:

... on Oasis there is so much they want to see and do that having an extra day to fit it all in isn't a bad thing.

We sailed on Harmony in the Med back in 2016 and met two English couples who deliberately booked B2B so they could have a more laid-back voyage and get to enjoy all of the onboard offerings. Great idea that I would copy if I had the time.

[SynEpona]

Just now, FionaMG said:

We sailed on Harmony in the Med back in 2016 and met two English couples who deliberately booked B2B so they could have a more laid-back voyage and get to enjoy all of the onboard offerings. Great idea that I would copy if I had the time.

I had no idea when we booked this (our first cruise ever) that B2B was a thing! We looked at longer cruises when we were booking, but in the event we don't love it, we didn't want to feel stuck for more than a week on the ship, so the rest of our vacation time is on land before & after. I guess we'll know by the end of this month if any cruises one at a time or B2B are in my future.