La Belle de l'Adriatique Review
A DELIGHT FROM START TO FINISH
Rating by category
Additional details
I wanted a small ship experience and I was also keen to try out a French ship - I was travelling with my children and they all learn French at school and I thought it would be a good chance for them to practice with natives! And this was a family sailing too, so I thought there might be some other kids on board for them to befriend. In the event there weren't many other children (though there were some) but my children still spoke French to plenty of the adults who were very friendly and chatted to them in the tender boats or in the pool on the sun deck. It was lovely. And there were some English-speakers on the boat too, so that was fun and they were sat on the table next to us in the restaurant.
What did we like about the cruise?
We LOVED the food - it was 10/10 gourmet superb and mealtimes were an absolute delight. At first we thought it was too much having a 3-course meal for lunch as well as dinner, but we soon got used to it. And it ended up being much healthier, because none of us snacked between meals which is very unusual for my children!
Cabin Review
This was a twin cabin with two portholes. None of the cabins on this ship have balconies. It wasn't big, but the beds were extremely comfortable and I slept really well as did my daughter. There's a safe, plenty of storage space under the bed and in the cupboards, a good hairdryer and good shower with toiletries. And the cleaning staff did an EXCELLENT job at cleaning our cabin nightly. The TV screen was good with lots of useful information about the cruise/excursions/daily info available on it.
Despite the cabin being on deck 2 (which is the lowest I've ever been, but then again this is a very small 200-passenger boat) I never felt sea-sick or too low.
Port Reviews
Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik was very pretty. There was a public bus from the port to the old town which was very easy. We walked round its ramparts and through the old town. On the afternoon we even walked to Casablanca beach - about 30 mins from the port - which was lovely.
Korcula
Here we just lazed on the beach next to the boat and then had a quick whizz through the old town to buy an ice-cream. Very pretty, but we needed to rest here. there are urchins underfoot, so you need to bring with river shoes.
Sibenik
We did the ship excursion to Krka National Park - the dynamic excursion, not the regular classic one. This was excellent.
Split
The Diocletian's palace is awesome. We arranged our own guided tour through the tourist board. We don't like being part of a big group wandering round.