Overview Part 3: Things We Didn't Like So Much
Some parts of the itinerary: We started off with 3 days in Cannes, and this is one of my few complaints about this trip. The time spent in Cannes, Corsica, and later Lucca, in particular, was too much. There simply isn't anything to do in Cannes during the non-film festival season that you can't do in an afternoon. Whereas in Nice, we spent less than a day and did not have enough time to hit both the Matisse Museum and the Chagall Museum, and the many other offerings of what is something like the third largest city in France. In Corsica, the only stop was Bastia for the better part of a day, and again, half a day'll do ya. Lucca was a really great, small, walled medieval town, but - Pisa was 10 miles away. In terms of Italian history, not to mention tourist interest (you know that funny tower) - this makes no sense. And our group said so.
Food on the ship: I mean, it was good. And included. But it included very American versions of "local specialties," and some of the local specialties ran to canned fruit in the morning. The menus were made even worse by the contrast when we spent the day off-ship, exploring markets with fresh fruit and vegetables, cured meats, fresh fish, pesto, etc. and seeing none of it on the menu back on board. I know I was not the only one who almost cried when we were docked overnight within sight of mussel farms but there was no consumption of mussels happening.
Cruise meal schedule: for the most part while cruising, it was breakfast-lunch-dinner on board. Breakfast, go ashore for tour, back to ship for lunch, go ashore for tour, back to ship for dinner. Now, I don't really care about breakfast. And dinner was on-board mostly because we were sailing each evening at 6 pm or so. But on-board lunch was a real waste of time, and despite the fact that it was "already paid for," (somebody's German heritage was showing, and it wasn't mine) I finally went on strike in Corsica and we stayed on shore and ate pasta and stuffed sardines in a little cafe with a great view, where Mama was cooking and the waiter spoke no English. It was excellent.
Boat wine: pretty awful house wines on board. I KNOW. We are in France and Italy, excuse me. I had one glass the first night, and went shopping. After the first two corkage fees (10 euro, so not a huge deal), our waiter told us if the bottle was already opened before dinner, there would be no fee. Wink wink.