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I board the Grand on Saturday, and we've set aside enough for 2 open
bookings. The itinerary was posted on the Princess site for the April 2006
Grand Princess Galveston-Rome itinerary. I was a little shocked to see that
it has been changed from 16 to 19 days. I'm not complaining.

Anyway, here's the itinerary, and I'm wondering what you all had to say
about the ports, and specifically if this itinerary is as interesting to you
as it is to me.

Galveston, at sea, Ft. Lauderdale, 6 days at sea, Madeira, Portugal, at sea,
Casablanca, Gibraltar, Alicante (?), Barcelona, Spain, Cannes. Genoa,
null(to be decided shortly, but I assume some beach town in France or a sea
day), Livorno and Civitacecchia.

Casablanca is a big plus since Marrakech is somewhere Jarrod dreams of
going, and Princess offers a day visit (although Casablanca would be a nice
visit in itself).

Since Princess is just posting these, I'll pretty much have my pick of
cabins. I'm thinking either a category BB aft on Dolphin (the balconies are
massive) If those are booked, we might just book a Vista Suite. Anything to
get an aft balcony. If the BB is available, we'll also book a regular cabin
for Jarrod's mom and Alegra to share (she'll be ready for her first cruise
then)

Since I've rambled on, please share your opinions on this itinerary. I'll be
booking it Saturday or Sunday onboard the Grand :-D

LES!

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Well, since you asked...

Madeira - postcard pretty little place. Some take tours and do the
basket ride thing, but it is pleasant just strolling around the town,
sipping fabulous coffee "al fresco", shopping (tho not on Sundays)
etc. It's about a 20 minute walk from the ship to the town, and
sometimes shuttle busses are provided.

Casablanca - large, dirty and commercial, especially where the ship
docks. Beware of pesky touts (tho not as bad as Tanger), but I think
you will be OK safety-wise so go ahead and have a look around on your
own if you like. A one day return tour to Marrakech seems way too
rushed, and I'm wondering just how much you will see for the big bucks
you will have to shell out. Still, if it is one's lifelong dream...

Gib - definitely no need for an organized tour here, as it is so
small. See the monkeys and take the tram to the top if you want (but
not if one of the frequent fogs impair the views), but the main
attraction is the duty free shopping and ersatz-British ambiance.
It's a bit of a hike into town, and you'll certainly want to cab it
back laden as you will be with goodies and bargains you are sure to
find. Good port for a short stop. Also fun to ride the double decker
around town.

Alicante - Drove through a couple of times but didn't stay, so I have
no comment. There will probably be an interesting castillo (fort), as
there seems to be in all Spanish cities. Nice beaches to the south.

Barcelona - Tons to see here, so get an early start. You may want to
cab it into town, from where you can catch a special hop-on/hop-off
tourist bus that will take you to the main tourist places. A walk
up/down the mile long Ramblas
pedestrian boulevard is a must of course, and don't miss the adjacent
historic Gothic district where you are bound to get happily lost.
Everybody seems to love Barcelona and it is indeed an interesting if
not somewhat over-rated town(IMO).

Cannes - Oogle at the fabulous yachts moored along the corniche as
well as the facades of the grand old hotels. We drove through here
last year (or at least tried to) during the film festival - absolute
mayhem. Did run into Paul Newman further along the coast, however.

Genoa - port city. Not my fav, but I really haven't given it much of
a chance either.

Livorno - can't comment, except to recommend you take a train down to
one of the Cinque Terra towns a little to the south.

Civitavecchia - really nothing more than a port town, a short distance
from Rome.

If the other POC in France is Villefanche then lucky you. It is one
of the prettiest towns on the Riviera. Some folks travel into Nice
but I wouldn't bother. This is where we met Newman BTW.

You are going to love this cruise, I'm sure. We'll be following you
crossing the Atlantic on the Splendour OTS ex Tampa, but we only go as
far as Barcelona.
Cheers. JOHN

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On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 23:29:45 -0700, LES! wrote:

> Casablanca is a big plus since Marrakech is somewhere Jarrod dreams of
> going

CSNY fan?

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LES!

Transatlantics are awesome! That's a fab itinerary! My only quibble...did
you look at/could you do the reverse itinerary in the fall, e.g., Med
cruise/crossing back to the states? The reasons that would be superior, in
my opinion, are: (1) we were pretty exhausted by the end of our Med cruise,
so it'd be ideal to follow it with a crossing, which, in theory, can be
relaxing, although they offer so many activities to fill your string of sea
days, I did *not* get much R 'n R on ours!, and (2) taking that slow boat
back home crossing time zones from east to west means you totally eliminate
jet lag and step off the ship in the US with your body already in the
"right" time zone!

No matter, this looks wonderful, it'd be an especially memorable trip for
you all.

Re: the cabin selection, have you tried the BC on a Grand-class ship? The
Caribe deck balconies are, IMO, the best because they are the largest
balconies and feature one-half shade, which is the BB Baja deck balcony
above, and one-half sun, as that half of your balcony floor acts as roof for
the BD Dolphin deck below.

Have a great time on this one!

Diana Ball
near Houston, TX


"LES!" <CruiseAddict@gmail.comYourClothes> wrote in message
news:424a47fc_3@x-privat.org...
>I board the Grand on Saturday, and we've set aside enough for 2 open
> bookings. The itinerary was posted on the Princess site for the April 2006
> Grand Princess Galveston-Rome itinerary. I was a little shocked to see
> that
> it has been changed from 16 to 19 days. I'm not complaining.
>
> Anyway, here's the itinerary, and I'm wondering what you all had to say
> about the ports, and specifically if this itinerary is as interesting to
> you
> as it is to me.
>
> Galveston, at sea, Ft. Lauderdale, 6 days at sea, Madeira, Portugal, at
> sea,
> Casablanca, Gibraltar, Alicante (?), Barcelona, Spain, Cannes. Genoa,
> null(to be decided shortly, but I assume some beach town in France or a
> sea
> day), Livorno and Civitacecchia.
>
> Casablanca is a big plus since Marrakech is somewhere Jarrod dreams of
> going, and Princess offers a day visit (although Casablanca would be a
> nice
> visit in itself).
>
> Since Princess is just posting these, I'll pretty much have my pick of
> cabins. I'm thinking either a category BB aft on Dolphin (the balconies
> are
> massive) If those are booked, we might just book a Vista Suite. Anything
> to
> get an aft balcony. If the BB is available, we'll also book a regular
> cabin
> for Jarrod's mom and Alegra to share (she'll be ready for her first cruise
> then)
>
> Since I've rambled on, please share your opinions on this itinerary. I'll
> be
> booking it Saturday or Sunday onboard the Grand :-D
>
> LES!
>
>

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