Chivi-Chocolate-Covered-Cherry has been the best one so far!

Rávena is well worth a few nights on its own. The city has some of the finest Byzantine mosaics in the world. The food is great as is the shopping

When we cruised from Ravenna, we flew into Rome, spent 2 nights there, took the train to Ravenna and spent a night there, and arranged private transfer to the port. Ravenna was charming, and I would have loved another night there. We took the train back to Rome upon disembarkation, and spent another night there before we flew home.

Great information, Thanks!

No ad here even though I get ads constantly. Sorry! One thing I would like to add to your good advice is that Rome may be worth it if you can fly direct from a city near your home, which is important to us. We can fly nonstop from Miami to Rome in 8-9 hours and I'd rather avoid changing planes to knock off air travel time/layovers in order to get a good night's sleep and endure a bit of a car ride to Citaveccia. We have done Monte Carlo to Venice, Venice to Athens, and this fall we are doing Lisbon to Rome, both cities direct to/from Miami. The cruise line is picking us up and shuttling us to hotel, all inclusive. Not sure the hotel yet but was told it would be a basic business style hotel, probably close to airport, which is okay with us because we've already explored Rome. This time we added extra days in Lisbon. Having spent time in each city before and after, I do highly recommend Athens for the reasons you said (foodie!) as well as Venice. Lots to see and do, fairly easy to get around, distance wise. But our cruise was straight out of Venice. Smaller ships are good for this. When a layover is required (say, London or Amsterdam) then we add on two or three days there because we can't get enough of those cities. We always check bags and usually take cars rather than trains so I can't speak to walking much or schlepping luggage aboard trains. Taking a car to Heathrow was death defying enough.

Very helpful and on time! Thanks

Great topic to cover. Well done!

Love your informative videos. You always make me smile 😃

We took a cruise where we had a choice of embarking in either Civitavecchia or Barcelona. We actually chose Civitavecchia because we thought Barcelona was easier to do via cruise ship stop. We felt we needed more to do Rome than you have allotted in a cruise ship stop.

Really appreciated your video about Rome/Civitavecchia Watched it a couple of times. We decided to opt to take a Lemo from our hotel to cruise port. Our driver took us directly to where he u loaded our bags & then our bags went directly to the ship people. So easy. We heard several stories of difficulty trying to get to the correct cruise as the port is huge. Some people took the train to Civitiavecchia the day before & stayed in a hotel overnight. Taxied to the ship the next morning. That sounded nice too. It’s just way more confusing than any other cruise port we’ve ever sailed into or out of.

We just did a Med cruise leaving from Rome ( Civitavecchia) . We flew into Rome 3 days before our cruise. We got a train into Rome then another train into Civitavecchia. It was very easy. We choose a hotel to stay at in the cruise port of Civitavecchia where the Prices were reasonable compared to Rome. We then took the train into Rome for the day , again the train prices were reasonable and wandered around Rome at our leisure. We then went back to our cruise port hotel. It was a stress free time . I was surprised at the number of people who also did this.

Thank you for this info

Thanks for the great insight on ports! Though I don't have a cruise in the Med scheduled yet will file this away as it is definitely on the bucket list. The adv was perfectly places and was for Princess Cruises so actually relavent to me for once.

awesome information, thank you! and yes, your commercial break was spot on - very slick :) Ravenna is same deal as Trieste/Venice!!! My cruise ends there and it's a heck ton of trouble to get to venice and then to our flight home.

Your video on Rome trains is what I used to get to the cruise. Thank you was one your 1st videos I watched years ago. The warning about the ncl epic. Much appreciated this information. Great job 👏

Morgan, you are just a darling!! I have enjoyed your content for years now and Sunday Sofa Time is something I look forward to every week.

We got an Allianz Travel Insurance ad - thanks for the helpful information.

Ohhh Morgan, your Civitavecchia puns never cease to amuse me!!!

I got a Lowe's ad & I watched it so you would get credit. Cruising out of Barcelona in November & I can't wait. This was a very informative video for the newbies.

From Athens to Piraeus, it was 30 minutes or so by car service. Not a big deal or expense. We loved spending time in Athens beforehand.

Love your commentary

Loved the video!! I have planned an eastbound transatlantic cruise from Port Canaveral to Barcelona on the Disney Fantasy next May, so seeing this was a relief! I plan on staying for two days in Barcelona before flighting back to the US, even though I wish it could be longer but money and over two weeks away says otherwise. I will have to watch your Barcelona guide now!

I have KZfaq premium so I saw no advert! You do a great job, and are a natural on camera. I’ve done tv for 44 years, so I know it when I see it. Keep making them!

I just booked a cruise that departs from Venice/ Trieste and ending in Athens/Piraeus. I was planing on trying to book an extra day or two so this was very informative. Thanks❤

I have one in August. This video is right on time.

Super helpful! Thanks! Got a liquor commercial.

Great information

Speaking of Athens, your perspective on Celestyal Cruises would be interesting. Ben and David gave a favorable review. Your reviews are always informative and helpful.

We almost never use cruiseline transfers because of the hideous cost, But having explored options to get to Revenna for our cruise next year and mindful of the frequent train strikes in Italy we will be using the transfer. Great to hear you say that this is the best way of doing it because we may have been missing something.

Excellent content! We love Barcelona as well!

Ii totally agree, Barcelona is my favorite too. Not only lots of hotels in the neighbourhood (on La Rambla) but also lots to see when you arrive a day (or two) early. As a female solocruiser Barcelona felt the most safe.

commercial break was spot on and on point -- exactly where you said it would be and the ad was for Holland America

Cruising from Palma de Mallorca is also very convenient.

Love Barcelona! There are also some German cruise lines starting from Mallorca. That's also very nice!

You are always a wealth of information and entertaining. ✌️

We are taking an NCL cruise from Venice/Trieste in Sep. Due to our very late arrival and since we spent a week in Venice a few years ago, we booked a hotel near VCE with NCL. The booking includes a transfer to the ship, which is at least 1.5 hours away. The ship makes a port stop in Ravenna and I've booked a tour to San Marino, a micro-country, to check it off my list. We end in Athens/Piraeus and again we are taking a ship's transfer to the airport since we have also been to Athens before and we will be worn out since this cruise is B2B with one from Reykjavik to Southampton. We have a transfer from Southampter to Heathrow where we will catch the flight to VCE.

No ad. Thank you for your vlog on getting from Rome to ChivvyChewbacca. We found it to be very useful.

You are hilarious…and very informative! Thanks 🌈😎👍

Thank you for this. We had the worst experience at the end of the cruise in Civitavecchia someone told us we needed to take a cab to town to meet our prearranged car service. NOT. We finally did meet up with him an hour and a half later.

We managed to find a fast train from Chevychasevacia we found fast trains to Rome . There was only about 1 or 2 however each way so I guess I was putting my luck in the travel gods and it worked out . We got a train at about 9am which took 45mins straight t Rome and one back at 4:30 I seem to remember . Tbh in the heat and having been before that was long enough to do all the sights , which we had pre booked tickets for . Great video again Morgan

My commercial was for Princess Cruises...thanks for the heads up on how to do Piraeus/Athens - I'm planning a cruise from there in 2025 so this was very helpful!

Love ❤️ Barcelona! Two of my transatlantic cruises ended there and taking a 3rd transatlantic in November that starts there! Easy peasy lemon 🍋 squeezy! The Spanish have it figured out, just waiting for the rest of the world 🌎 to catch up. Barcelona is amazing 🤩 I can’t get enough of it.

Glad to see the old tub is still sailing. We were on it in March. Turned back after 3 days - it broke down 😂. Still loved it

I agree with Venice’s need to cut back on especially the new monstrosities dock in town. But the sail away from Venice back in 2013 beat all the others.

Here's a little tip: Italians tend to strike on Sundays. Use this knowledge to your advantage.

Barcelona is our favorite port to cruise from. Our last cruise to Venice was in 2019 and the ships were still allowed to cruise down the Grand Canal and Dock in Venice.

Add Lisbon. Very easy short taxi ride. Agree with Barcelona.

Going on a Med cruise this September, out of Chivi--whatever, LOL. At least I get to Rome 3 days early, so I'll have some time to explore. Trip to the port is through the cruise line, so I just have to get back to the airport, and then I don't have to worry about any traffic issues. Then I booked a shuttle through Expedia back to Rome. Thanks for all your info.

This video is so handy right now as we are flying from Australia to Rome on Friday to cruise out of Chivercherrycola...😂 never been there b4...but we have watched a video of yours b4...so we are fairly confident...than you...❤

yes I did get a video where you gave the prompt 😉

Port in Italy has a few great Hotels and restaurants....Barcelona is wonderful, I fell in love with the Tapas.

Your spot on with your advice, I've sailed from all of these ports with the exception of Athens. You could also add to your list sailing from Southampton/London. London is a minimum on a fantastic traffic day 2 hrs drive. Never done the journey on the train, however I think it's @90 mins into central London from Southampton. Barcelona is a breeze to the port if staying in a central location. Good advice, well done 👍

Cruising from Barcelona was so easy. For cruising from Rome we are flying in and having our Civitavecchia hotel pick us up, staying there two nights, cruise then we booked private transportation to a Rome hotel where we will stay for two nights and hotel has arranged car to the airport.

Had Athens as As a stop in march this year. Walking to the next metro stop was ok - without my luggage. Would absolutely recommend some kind of shuttle service if you have all your stuff with you.

We booked a mediteranean cruise next year with royal caribbean and it leaves from Ravenna. We booked the cruise because we were on the transatlantic cruise two months ago that disembarked in civitavecchio. We took the train into Rome and stayed 5 days. On one of the days, we took the train into Venice but didn't see enough of it due to the water bus being on strike. Also, when we disembarked from the ship, there was a rail strike. We thought this would be a good opportunity to fly into Venice a few days early and be able to see more of it before cruising to the mediteranean. I am glad we found out early that Ravenna is nowhere near Venice and will arrange a shuttle to the port. Thanks for the info.

Hi Morgan, good info. Yes, Barcelona is easiest, but I much prefer cruising the Greek Islands to the Western Med, and find Athens/Piraeus is easy enough. Commercial was for Thuma bed which I’ve never heard of.

Oh wow. I had no idea! Thank you for this. We are 69 so this would have been so stressful!

Our Athens cruise ended in Ravenna. We took a ship excursion to Venice airport with a great stop in beautiful Padua. Didn't care for crowded and rude Venice.

Yes so great that you mentioned Ravenna is very far from Venice and that transportation needs to be carefully planned! I noticed this when I was planning my upcoming royal Caribbean Greek isles cruise in September. However the cultural delights in Venice outweigh the downfall of the Ravenna port; and thus is not really that bad of a port…RCI did alert us guests about the need to plan transfers and while it is an extra expense, it is a pretty overt and manageable inconvenience!

Before my Mediterranean cruise on the Oasis of the Seas, I stayed at the Hotel Traghetto in Civitavecchia. From there, it was only a few steps to the cruise shuttle bus. Very friendly staff, clean rooms and good wifi. The shuttle to Rome was a bus company that unloaded me directly at the Roma Termini station. It is so wrong of the companies to even add the "famous" location with the slash. This should be banned to avoid creating false expectations.

I got Visible by Verizon and then Verizon internet. Totally my own fault for exploring an internet connection I won't have to share with the other roommates. I miss all the cruise ads I used to get! And yep, it came exactly where you planned. When I eventually take a Mediterranean cruise, your video on it has convinced me it'll be from Barcelona, even though they've added extra fees for those who depart from there. An easy process from the airport to the hotel matters a lot to me, as does a port where I would enjoy spending a couple of days. It won't be before 2025 though, and maybe 2026. And it'll be as off-season as I can manage. I bookmarked that video so I can easily find it when it's time.

Ad was for Dillons - a Kansas grocery store owned by Kroger. Always enjoy your videos.

Good morning. We are returning to the Med last one was so port intensive, it wore me out😊

Well, what a coincidence. I'm going on a med cruise with RCCL out of Ravenna. I booked this cruise a year ago with only the ports in mind not the embarkation / debarkation port. I very quickly found out via various you tube channels what that means. So, I am actually flying into Bologna from western Canada. Getting a flight was actually pretty easy, and I had a few musts. I will be spending 4 days in Italy pre cruise, have my train tickets from Bologna to Ravenna purchased as well as my cruise shuttle purchased. KZfaq channelssych as your are a invaluable source of great information. Crossing my fingers every thing works out. Thanks for the great info.

This is the best timing. I am cruising in September out of Rome and ending in Ravenna . We fly back out of Bologna to Frankfurt to Montreal to Orlando .😂

I have found that almost all the Europe ports listed are not the ports you actually sail out of. I believe it is because they tell you the major tourist spot that they think most people will recognize. Your video on chabaka really helped on our first cruise and also the Barcelona video. Our hotel had a shuttle service shared by other hotels to the port in chabakaacake . Barcelona was easy. Cab from hotel.

I think you'll find that a short while ago Barcelona has announced they will be cutting the number of cruise ships they will allow because the town has become too busy for them to continue to accommodate them all. Piraeus is only 30 minutes drive away from the airport - did it years ago. I am flabbergasted at the number of cruisers booking a Mediterranean cruise seem to do no research into the places they are planning to go. Even a quick look at a map will show how far Civitavecchia is from Rome. The same applies to Ravenna and Venice. So glad we went cruising to all these places years ago when were small ships and you could dock in Venice. Also went to Santorini and Mykonos, our very small ship was the only one moored up. Those two places were then authentic Greek villages, now they've ruined them and made them into commercialised tourist spots and have lost much of their original charm.

No ads🎉 I have premium...but your videos are worthy of an ad...great info

Thanks.

we have a cruise coming up and it's from barcelona for exactly the reason you cruise from barcelona. The same cruise also starts from chilichubbaca, but i would never ever choose that one to begin and/or end my cruise.

I know not many cruise lines start and end here but my home city of Valencia is a beautiful city and the port and airport are not very far.

My commercial was for Viking cruises.

Commercial break worked. I got an Allianz travel insurance commercial.

We loved Barcelona. That would be my port choice.

Ravenna is great. With eight UNESCO World Heritage buildings and many more things to see its a phantastic travel destination of its own. I've been there 3 times (without cruising).

Athens/Pireus- New stop on the Blue line gets you a bit closer. Last stop is now Dimitiko Theatro. Still a bit of a trot, but not as bad as getting off at the port entrance.

Our last cruise was on NCL and we were supposed to go to Venice proper but about 3 months out they told us that we were going to go straight to Trieste (which they tried to pawn off as Venice - Trieste WAS originally the last stop anyway so we just pulled into one day early) I won't get into details but it had to do with the original Venice cruise port having 'environmental issues' with the Venice port (proper). We STILL got our Venice excursion (albeit it took ALL day). But a bit disappointing (Not NCL's fault). Three of the four places mentioned have a 'slash' which is what I was saying about Venice/Trieste. When I was trying to book flights at the end of our 'Venice/Trieste' cruise. WE had some ulterior motives to fly into Spain at the beginning and thus fly OUT of Spain at the end. So looking at flights from Trieste to Madrid vs Venice to Madrid, we opted for the nonstop on Iberia...except our IB flight was delayed 3 1/2 hours and we arrived in MAD around midnight and the hotel shuttle - which DID run 24hrs didn't have room for us the first run because they had a priority for handicapped people of which there were FOUR on the first run. We DID make the 2nd run but we arrived around midnight and the shuttle back was at 6a. So a VERY short night. Giving the finger to IB! When we arrived at Athens (AKA Pireaus) our excursion was slated for the afternoon, so we ventured off on our own. We found out about a railway museum and headed out to it. We FINALLY found it only that it was closed. My suitcase broke right before we boarded so I was looking for a new one. I could have got one relatively cheap but I balked. I DID get one for a few $$ more at the forum where our Venice excursion dropped us off. OH, Turkey, Greece and Croatia liked US dollars. Italy? not so much. Sponsored by NCL...I was NOT impressed with NCL - not that we are cruise veterans. But, so far, of our 6 'mainstream' cruises, HAL has been the best. We are giving them another go soon, and will hopefully find them as our 'forever line'.

Hay Morgan we are going to Miami in November for the first time. Where should we avoid ?

Its like stopping in Baltimore, Maryland and saying it's also new York city.

In Mexico is also Father’s Day

Booked a Royal CArib. cruise from "Venice" a couple of years ago. After booking, found out it left from Ravenna and how far away it was. Cancelled it (and lost $1K) and rebooked with MSC from Venice that actually left from Venice (across the bay) and cost about $1K less than Royal, so it was a wash. Had a great couple of days in Venice before the cruise and the switch was well worth being able to stay in Venice and get to the ship easily. Sadly, we did not like MSC itself, but still glad we switched rather than have to make our own way to Ravenna.

One benefit of many cruiselines in the med is board and depart in any port. So a normal 7 day cruise can be 8 days to assist a better itinerary.

That has been a challenge for us. They Royal Caribbean and Celebrity only offer transfers from the airport to the port. Unless they changed. But on our trip we had to arrange our own transfers in Southampton.

I watched Allianz..hope you get credit for the Ad.

Commercial break worked. I got a Royal Caribbean ad

I have never cruised from Europe, but if I did I would consider a hotel near the port the night before sailing.

Watch Barcelona for walking to the ship. My friend got pick pocketed when she did and it stressed her cruise.

Barcelona is my absolute favorite cruise port

Cruise lines always scamming passengers with the trick port names. Same happens in the US with Long Beach (Los Angeles) and Port Canaveral (Orlando).

I did get a commercial but it wasn't for a cruise this time it was for Mitsubishi

i saw Venice Triest or Venice Marghera that are like 1 hour but never saw Ravenna if i search online for the rc it,s writen Ravenna

Chewy…lol. Perfect commercial when speaking about Chewychewbacca…

Ad: for Mediterranean cruise😀. The time we took a shared minibus from Rome to Civi…what’s its name the driver got stopped by the police for some kind of traffic infraction so we had a “lovely” half hour staring at the garbage cans in a picnic stopover while the driver and police settled the issue

My ad was for Chuck Norris‘s Roundhouse protein powder. That is very odd because I don’t like protein powders.

Got a Lowe’s commercial.

Several people have mentioned Lisbon. The metro station is almost directly across the street from the new terminal. 30 minutes to the airport by metro, but you do have to make one transfer tot he red line.

How much was the taxi from Venice to Ravenna? I understand why the port was closed, we fortunately were able to sail in 2014 and it was gorgeous.

Venice/Ravenna is like Orlando/Cape Canaveral. Or wherever those ones go from. It's totally silly. I don't know Ravenna, but calling it Venice is a bit helpful to know it's not on the other coast. Barcelona could have been slashed with Barthelona LOL.

yes I got a gramerly ad. LOL I need it

Have friends leaving on a cruise from “Venice” - which in reality is Trieste. Looking at trains or a bus. However, if they had flown to Ljubljana, Slovenia, the flight from nyc was cheaper, it’s closer to Trieste and the bus ride is quicker and cheaper.