A Med Cruise Without The Mouse -Carnival Sunshine 2013 - Marseilles And Final Thoughts

[scarecrow]

The port where the ships dock is horrible; there is public transport, but it is a bit of a hike through industrial streets. I had hired a tuk tuk, which picked us up at the port for 20E and then we had an hour's tour of Marseille, again in the tuk-tuk and this was 90E. The cost of port transfer by the port authority were 15E each. There were lots of taxi's waiting too.
After our tuk tuk ride, we were dropped off at the old port, which was a beautiful place, the boys had another McD's lunch and I looked for a French cafe. I hadn't come all the way to France to eat a McD's.

Sadly our last night was soon here and it was time to say goodbye and the following morning we arrived in Barcelona.

Thoughts
You cannot compare Carnival and Disney, it's like trying to compare chalk and cheese. Disney has all of the bells and whistles, the decor is more ornate, the food is better quality; fancier.(For example I didn't eat anything when it was the Gala dinner) The staterooms are larger.

On Carnival we enjoyed everything. The food was good with plenty of choice, but plainer, which we liked. At times the service was very slow, and a couple of times I had to send my meal back because it was cold. They soon learned to make sure it was hot enough. I had a special ticket from then on, which told the wait staff to make sure it was hot.

The evening entertainment was better than Disney, more variety; it was more geared to adults and generally there just seemed to be more going on. Main show, Piano Bar, Music in the main Atrium, Nighclub, Comedy Club.

DS said he preferred Disney's kids club, because with Disney if he didn't want to join in the activity he didn't have to, whereas Carnival made them. To be honest, I think he only used the club as a meeting point; most nights I saw him in the hot tub with his friends and roaming around the buffet, gosh that child can eat.

The cost, Carnival wins hands down, even before the price drop this cruise was a fantastic price.

Would I sail with Carnival again? Yes and we will be sailing on the Breeze in August and it saddens me to say I did have a cruise booked with DCL which I cancelled.

If anyone is looking to book a Carnival cruise, then the biggest lesson I learned is to book directly yourself through the American Carnival site .com not.UK and to book the early saver rate. If the price of your cruise drops, then you can claim to have it matched, you can have a refund up until final payment date or the additional OBC after final payment date until 2 days before you sail. As far as I know no other cruise line offers this. On my Upcoming Breeze cruise I saved approx £180.00. I could have saved more, but we liked the cabin we had and didn't want to upgrade.

We were really surprised at how lovely Marseilles was and this is another port where there is lots to do in neighbouring towns if you can get to grips with public transport and French.

The final fair well from Carnival, a bit cheesy but fun to watch.

[app]

New Photo Added by scarecrow - 1 Aug 14 6:18 PM.

[beck_loz]

Great pics x

[caj]

Interesting to compare the two. We've only done one cruise and that was DCL, spoke to a few people on it that ventured off ... and they had then come back to it. They preferred the service.