As much as we loved spending time onboard the Carnival Vista with so many amazing ports to discover we just had to get off the boat to explore and spent our time wandering the local ports and visiting some historic sites on some organised shore excursions.
Our first day in port was in Messina Sicily. Waking up and looking out over the hills of Messina and seeing all of the amazing monuments, statues, and churches was enough to give me itchy feet. Hubby was booked on to a Godfather Shore Excursion and Alison wanted to spend the day in kids club so Elizabeth and I went for a walk around the local area.
We spent two hours wandering around the town of Messina, enjoying the sites, catching Pokemon and even playing in one of the local parks. The town has some amazing architecture and I had great fun taking photos whilst we were there.
Our next port was in Naples where we went on an organised shore excursion for a half day trip to the ruins of Pompeii. Now this place was spectacular and I am so glad that we went without the girls as it was hot and a lot of walking. We really enjoyed wandering the ruins and seeing all of the amazing structures that are still standing after all of this time. In fact, I just wish we had booked to be there even longer as there were huge sections we didn’t get to see. We would definitely return to Pompeii and Naples to explore more of this wonderful region.
We decided not to get off the boat in Rome as the shore excursions were all really long so instead we opted for a day on the boat but I do hope to visit Rome as a family in the future as some of the pictures that the other Carnival Families posted looked amazing.
The day after Rome we docked in Livorno where we had a shore excursion booked to visit Pisa and the beach. This was a great excursion as it gave us plenty of time to walk around the Leaning tower of Pisa and take all of the photos we wanted before being able to chill out on the beautiful private beach. We hired a pedalo to go out on the sea for a couple of euros and spent time swimming and playing on the sand which was a lovely change from spending our time in the pools. Elizabeth and I also went for a little wander into the town and found a lovely small Italian cafe in the square nearby where we had the best lasagne and spaghetti bolognese for lunch. I would definitely recommend doing this as the food at the beach wasn’t great.
When we docked in Marseilles we spent the day onboard the Carnival Vista again, this time enjoying all of the fun included activities such as the Skyride and Skycourse. We did want to go on the boat trip but unfortunately it was canceled and none of the other excursions appealed to us.
The last stop of the cruise was Palma in Mallorca. There were loads of shore excursions available or you could just hop on one of the shuttles or taxis available at the port. We decided to get off and have a wander in the local area. We did only end up in a shopping mall spending the last of our euros in the Disney Store but it was quite a nice end to the cruise.
We had an amazing time on our Carnival Cruise both on and off the boat and would definitely recommend going on a cruise as a family. With so much to see when in port and so much to do when onboard it really is a great way to holiday if you have a fun seeking family like mine.
It’s amazing the range of places you’ve visited and all the culture and history you’ve seen. When I go to places like Pompeii I can’t help be envisage all the people before who’ve walked those streets. And you were totally right not to take the girls on that as I think they’d have been bored and irritable; it was *so* hot when we went and I struggled to enjoy it all.