Dan and Connie

Age: 50/50
Occupation: retired/management
Number of Cruises: 12
Cruise Line: RCL
Ship: Splendour of the Seas
Sailing Date: May 15th, 2004
Itinerary: 7 day Med. from Barcelona

When we go our tickets we noticed Malta was no longer on the schedule and another port in France added, but we thought no big deal.

The first day, Sunday, nothing was open, what a waste. We should have stayed on the ship. The French can keep their country with all the dog droppings on the sidewalks.

Monday we took a tour into Monaco and Monte Carlo. Several members of the tour were left behind at the first stop. The French tour guides response was "too bad, we had an appointment". At the next stop, the Casino at Monte Carlo (which was closed) my wife and I were almost left behind. A couple on the bus insisted that the guide go back and find us, when the guide came back she was very rude and argued with my wife for several minutes. We cancelled the remainder of the tours we had booked for the week. The tour desk is only manned for 1 or 2 hours a day making it hard to cancel. We also had to transfer to city buses with SRO for the Monaco portion.

Tuesday was better, we went to a modern Tuscan winery and got loaded tasting local wines. Not the greatest but potent. The red reserve was the best.

Wed. we stayed on the boat and relaxed.
Most of the areas to tour were about 2 hours away and we heard transportation was unreliable.

Thursday we decided to go for a walk and see Naples (Napoli). Just as we left the ship a cabbie asked (in very good english) if we would like a tour of Naples, Sorrento etc. Since we had not planned on doing much that day we did not have much cash and told him we we did not have enough for the entire day. He had started at 260 Euros for the day and finally accepted 200. We were with him from 9:30am til 6pm and had the best day of the trip. A personalized tour, not a cattle drive, for the same price. We chose what we wanted to see, stopped for coffee, stopped to take pictures, went to the factories and wholesalers not the tourist traps that charge twice as much. At dinner that night the people that took the tours from the boat said the buses were stuck in traffic for 4 hours and the afternoon tours were cancelled we were glad we had cancelled.

Friday was a day at sea.

Sunday was the flight home.

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