Royal Caribbean Mediterranean Cruise 2009

Introduction

We flew into Barcelona on November 21, 2009 and sailed Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas through the Mediterranean from November 22-29, 2009. This was our third cruise but first cruise with Royal Caribbean. Previously, we have been on Disney cruises so you’ll see me compare the two lines a lot in the Voyager of the Seas review. This was also our first time in Europe.

Trip Report

Below are links by day to my DETAILED trip report with photos:

+ Barcelona, Spain
+ Voyager of the Seas
+ Naples, Italy
+ Rome, Italy
+ Florence & Pisa, Italy
+ Villefranche, France
+ Marseille / Toulon, France
+ All 1,336 photos from my cruise
+ Photo book of my cruise

All photos were taken with the Canon PowerShot SD790 IS digital camera and many of the shots of Chris and I together were taken using Xshot Camera Extender/Monopod.

Trip Planning

I planned for this trip obsessively and I am an extremely detailed oriented person. These were the resources that made my trip a success:

+ Cruise One: We booked our cruise through Anne Waters at Cruise One. We got a great deal on the rate, plus free spa treatment, free gratuities, and $100 onboard credit!
+ Cruise Critic: The Europe forum was awesome for planning our port days and my cruise had a very active roll call, where we organized our groups for private tours!
+ Guide books & maps: Frommer’s Italy, Frommer’s France, Eyewitness Travel Guides – Barcelona & Catalonia, Eyewitness Travel Guides – Provence and Cote D’Azur, Streetwise Barcelona Map

Pickpockets

While planning this cruise, I read several web sites with strong warnings again pickpockets in Europe with Barcelona and Rome being the most infamous for them out of the places we were visiting. These warnings definitely scared me. There are countless stories on Cruise Critic from people who were pickpocketed or mugged, sometimes having their passports stolen along with their wallets and purses, and it being a huge headache. On my cruise, we met a lady at dinner who had it happen to her the night before we were boarding the cruise. Her purse with her passport in it was stolen while she was having dinner on Las Ramblas and she was unable to board the cruise until she got a replacement 2 days later, meeting our ship in Naples. What a horrible experience!

There are many web sites that will give you tips on how to protect yourself. Some of them more dramatic than others. I’ll tell you what we did. First of all, I bought a Pacsafe MetroSafe 200 Anti-Theft Shoulder Bag and used it as my main purse. It is slash proof and the zippers clip so it makes it much more difficult for someone to unzip your bag and steal your wallet. The strap will also clip to a stationery object like a chair so that someone can’t just walk off with it. Chris (my husband) and I also each bought a PacSafe WalletSafe Bi-fold Travel Wallet. The wallet is hooked to a chain that you can clip to your belt for men or inside of your handbag for women. Lastly, Chris wore the Lewis N. Clark TravelDry Hidden Travel Wallet, which loops to his belt and is worn on the inside of his pants. (He also tried on a traditional money belt but thought this was much more comfortable.)

We only brought the cash we expected to use each day and kept the rest of it in the safe at the hotel/ship. However, we usually had to carry several hundred euros on us because we had to pay for our tours in cash so we kept it in the Hidden Travel Wallet. A smaller amount of spending cash was split between our 2 PacSafe wallets. Chris’ wallet was much easier to access (and most likely to be stolen) since my wallet was behind the locked zipper of my purse so Chris had mostly small bills for souvenir purchases and tips. We also each carried 2 different credit cards and 2 different ATM cards that way, if one of our wallets was stolen, we would have the other set of cards to use. Never pull the Hidden Travel Wallet out in public. Chris only took it out when we were inside of our private tour van.

We used the buddy system. If I ever needed to look at a map while walking on the street, I would let Chris know and stand with my back against a wall facing out. Chris would then keep an eye out while I examined the map. We did the same thing whenever one person was distracted, like paying for a purchase at a street stand or buying subway tickets (yes, we took the subway in Barcelona!), that way one of us was always keeping a look out for anything suspicious. We never had one incident happen during our entire trip and I believe that most of the reason was being vigilant. I felt like a combination of everything we did to protect ourselves helped. It made me feel more comfortable and led to a great experience!

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions!