Day 4 and 5 of Celebrity Equinox Mediterranean cruise - Corsica and Sardinia

Trip Index

***

Celebrity Today for Tuesday, July 1:

Today we docked in Ajaccio on Corsica, a French island located between the coasts of France and Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. Ajaccio is the capital city and also has the distinction of being Napoleon's birthplace.

We didn't sign up for any excursions here so the group went their separate ways. Kaleb and I had a leisurely morning and walked to the town to gawk at the house where Napoleon was born before heading towards the beach.

view out our balcony

"Blue Ice" yacht docking near our ship

Napoleon's birth house

pretty ocean

small strip of beach

picturesque

where's Kaleb?

there may be a topless lady in this picture...

Tonight's dinner...forgot to take a picture of the entree menu!

tomato salad

terrine of something...

pan fried trout

some kind of meat in puff pastry

tiramisu

peach clafoutis

kiwi sorbet

I forgot to mention earlier that the World Cup was going on during our cruise and Celebrity was able to broadcast it via satellite on TVs as well as various public areas on the ship. We headed to the comedy club lounge to watch the United States lose.

Celebrity Today for Wednesday, July 2:

The next day, Celebrity Equinox arrived in Sardinia (a 5-hour ferry ride south of Corsica...the ship was probably traveling slowly in circles during the night), docking at Porto Torres. It was mainly an industrial port so there wasn't much to do if you didn't reserve a ship's excursion. I looked on the internet but there weren't any Viator-like tours available, so we pre-booked a Celebrity shore excursion to Neptune Caves. It was possible to arrange private ground transportation to the site but you'd have to walk down 600 steps to get to the caves versus taking a boat tour from Alghero and docking right at the entrance. The cost of the excursion was pretty expensive ($99 per person) which included the bus ride to Alghero, the boat ride to Neptune Caves, admission, and free time in town.

Since we purchased the excursion pre-cruise using Celebrity's website, the tickets were already delivered to our stateroom when we embarked. We were to meet as a group at the Celebrity Theater at a specific time for our 8:15am morning departure. When we got there, a sticker with a group number was placed on our shirt and we were asked to sit down and wait for our group to be called. When that time came, we followed a Celebrity representative off the ship to the buses waiting outside. The local tour guide met us and passed out wireless headsets just like the ones we used on our Rome tours.

looking for #6

The bus ride to Alghero took around 45 minutes. There wasn't much to see out the windows until we approached Alghero. The tour guide gave us a short briefing on Sardinia during the ride. When we arrived at the boat dock, we found out that the cave tour boats were overbooked and our group was the one to be bumped. The tour guide had to improvise, so we took a short city tour while we waited for the boat situation to be sorted out.

wait, none of these are our boat???

fortified port

Old Town arches

interior of Alghero Cathedral

When we returned to the dock, a boat was waiting for us, but it was a smaller vessel and moved slower than the original boat we were to board, so we spent a lot of time on the water. When we reached the cave, we had to wait for a previously docked boat to leave before we could approach. In the meantime, the captain took us to various caves and crevices along the cliff walls.

found some seats out front

solid cliffs

Neptune Cave entrance (the 600 steps up are on the right)

approaching a sea cave

impressed we could get this far into the cave

and even further...I guess a plus for the small boat

Eventually our boat docked; we made our way across the gangway to the cave entrance. Then we followed a whole slew of people into the caves. There wasn't much commentary. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

beginning (or end) of the 600 steps

getting off the boat

mirror-like saltwater lake

amazing that it is still, when the cave is surrounded by open ocean

We were only there for less than half an hour, then we got back on the boat for our long journey home. Because of the slow transport, we only had 15 minutes to spend in Alghero; we were the last group to come back ashore, even though there were many other groups who came after us (but were able to get on the larger vessel). Our tour group was rushing to look for souvenirs in the stores.

first time seeing a Pringles dispenser

There was a bit of miscommunication between the tour guide and the guests and a handful of them did not make it to the meeting point at the specified time. The guide ended up looking around for them and eventually found out they had walked several blocks to where the bus was parked and was waiting there. The rest of us ended up following the tour guide to the bus parking area. Once everyone was accounted for onboard, we headed back to the ship. During the return, the tour guide admonished the guests who went missing publicly on the speaker system...awkward! In summary, this excursion was a disappointment; it was not worth the price paid. It didn't help that we were bumped off the big boat and were rushed in town because of all the time burned getting to and from the caves. Some of the group complained later to the shore excursion desk and ended up getting a $20 refund. I didn't follow suit but I did fill out a comment form on paper as well as online about the experience. In my opinion, Porto Torres was not a good choice for a cruise stop as there wasn't much to do at the port, plus it was far away from attractions. I wouldn't be surprised if all the buses in Sardinia were hired just for today's shore excursions. A quick search on CruiseCritic for Porto Torres excursion recommendations pretty much came up empty, meaning it was probably not a regular stop. Maybe that is why celebrities (not Celebrity passengers :) ) go to Sardinia to get away from the public...I read later that Zac Efron and his main squeeze at the time, Michelle Rodriguez, were there around the same time. I searched to see if Porto Torres was on any 2015 itineraries, but I only found Cagliari (the capital of Sardinia), which is probably a better choice, thank goodness...