ilya12000

On 12/5/2019 at 1:20 PM, cruisemom42 said:

Agree with JB that both of these ports are easy, depending on what you want to see and do there.

 

If you are only looking to do one on your own, I'd vote for Split. It is easy to get to the center of the town (which is built inside the remains of the palace of a retired Roman emperor), and once there, it is equally easy to find a walking tour of the palace remains, or just buy the various tickets for the portions you can visit (basements, temple, mausoleum) and do it on your own. There is a Tourist Info point in one of the shops that face the courtyard and they can help with specifics, give you maps, etc. There is also an archaeological museum and some nice restaurants with outdoor seating (if it's nice) and good food.

 

Corfu you can also do on your own, as JB says, but there is more to the island than just Corfu Town and given the large numbers of tourists that clog the town on some days, you may prefer to do a tour with a private driver or by bus that takes in some of the prettier and more natural parts of the island.  If you opt to stay in Corfu Town, there is also an archaeological museum and a very good icon museum located in an old church that many people miss.

 

We have only 6 hours stop at Corfu on May 1st. So I try to choose between exploring just Corfu town or taking cruise 4hour scenic tour. Below is the tour description.  In this tour the town we'll see only from bus. What do you think is more interesting?

 This enjoyable coach tour combines a visit to Corfu town with a leisurely drive through the olive groves, cypresses and pine trees that are so typical of the island's beautiful landscape. The first stop will be at the fabulous bay of Palaiokastritsa, where you will have some time to explore on your own after an initial guided tour of the area. A brief photo stop will be made the village of Lakones at the Golden Fox Café, whose stunning hillside location affords breathtaking views of Palaiokastritsa bay and has earned it the nickname of "God's Balcony" among the locals. After a break in the village of Lakones, you will return to Corfu for an enjoyable drive-by sightseeing tour of the town. The route will take you past the Garitsa Bay and the city's 14th-century old Venetian fortress, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The tour will also give you a chance to see the Spianada square, once used to drill Napoleon's army in the art of marching, the Royal Palace of St. George and St. Michael, the old port with its traditional caïque fishing boats. Your return to the port and your ship marks the end of your tour.

Please note: outside viewings only of all sights during the drive-by tour of Corfu town.

In this tour the town we'll see only from bus. What do you think is more interesting

Thank you for all replies (especially related to my question, and not to drinks 🙂 ). What is it this mega-forum we're not supposed to mention? With abbreviation TA or it's something that I'm not familiar with? Now I understood a little bit specific of MSC, so may be it is really the reasons for such low activity. For me personally the most interesting part of RC is really not even M&G, but possibility to participate or organize private off-shore tour group, which was very successful on several previous predominantly Norwegian cruises. Pity that it is impossible on this coming cruise. 

It's the first time in our numerous cruises I see such inactive Roll call forums like MSC roll calls. We have cruise starting on April 26th from Venice and NO ONE answer on roll call to my starting post. Usually we use roll calls very actively and found them very useful - both for sharing information, and for organizing non-ship small tour groups. It is our first time on MSC cruise and I'm just curious why these forums are so inactive. Does anyone has any explanation?

Not, just from what I read in blogs it looks to me that Lecce is the most interesting towns in this area

On 3/27/2019 at 10:01 AM, aberthelot said:

 

Hello,

How was your cruise? Did you get to do a lot of sightseeing tours. We are going next year in April if all goes well.

Thanks.

Angela

 

Hi Angela, Aren't you by any chance on cruise departing on April 26th?

Pity

On 7/29/2019 at 9:07 AM, Beamafar said:

Thanks for doing this review ... there's very little posted here about Musica.  We're booked on her for late Spring 2020.  The itinerary is somewhat different to your one.

 

We've been to most of the ports before except Brindisi, so was interested to read your take on the port.

 

Ken ... not too much longer to go for you, now!  😃  We're 3 days later on Seaview (though flying out to Rome the day before).

Are'n t you on the cruise departing on April 26th by chance?

To cruisemom42: We have only 6 hours stop in Brindisi. Do you think we have enough time to go to Lecce by our-self?

Thank you Bpmsmith. Unfortunately our cruise is not this, but on February 3rd 2021. And according to the same site the timing in the sounds is after 12am )-:. So I try to find if the information is correct, and if yes - may be jump to another cruise line, as it is really pity to be there and not to see these sounds.

I can't find search button in this forum, so I need to open new topic. We booked 12 nights cruise on Norwegian Jewel from Sydney to Auckland, but it looks to me that it will cruise the three Sounds during night hours. Did somebody took similar cruise? I'm afraid, that it is not too much to see at night there. I can't find another NCL cruise with day time at Fiordland National Park. Any advice? 

Unfortunately we had not pleasant experience with Sentir tour. We just returned from the cruise with Norwegian Sun. On February 26th we had stop in Puerto Madryn. Six months ago we joined a group organized by one of shipmates with Sentir Patagonia to Peninsula Valdes. On August 17th I received confirmation from Diego from Sentir that we have a reservation. On arrival date we went to pier and found the group, however our names were not on the list. I showed Diego e-mail with his confirmation and he promised to solve the problem. On the list I found the people from our roll call, including the couple that joined the group just several days before the cruise (which Diego definitely mistakenly included to the full group already). He called another driver and send us and another couple that didn't have proper reservation with this driver. It was compact car with altogether 5 people in long trip, which was already not very convenient. Additionally, our driver was very nice and friendly women, but definitely not experienced guide with limited English. So after the tour I compared our impressions with other group and found that we saw and heard much less than them (just several seals and sea lions from far distance, and some small group Magellan penguins). Diego reduced price per person for $10 per person, but we really would prefer to pay full price for proper tour, and not for some relatively boring and tiring trip. I understand that mistakes could happen (which is already quite unfortunate), but in this case he was supposed to check who booked the tour earlier, and to solve the problem with the couple that he included by mistake.

This day and tour was the worst day of the whole cruise.

Just reminder to newer members of Cruisecritic: you could find a lot of information and open groups for non-ship shore excursions on roll call forum. Just find your ship and your debarkation date - and you could connect with your shipmates and to see which tours they organized, which are still open for sharing.

We will be on NCL Sun departing February 22nd, 2017 from Buenos Aires. We have open group with Edgar (tourguideushuaia) in Ushuaia to National park with hiking (option #3). So if you on this ship and want to join us - just go to http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2293122&page=8 to find all the information. Or you could book the tour on touguideushuaia.net (write in comments that you are going to join Ilya's group)

Thank you Mariann ns

Hi everyone,

We will be at Ushuaia in February 2017. I'm trying to chose between three options in Tourushuaia.com website. Does somebody who did tour with prison museum could share their experience how interesting is it?

I tried to Google this tour and found only the links from some cruise lines. Could this tour be boocked independently and how to find it on the Web?

Thank you in advance,

Ilya