fishiecrackers

Sort of, but we were just honestly really tired and worn out by that point. We had a stop in Megalochori that I absolutely loved, but I wanted to spend a bit of time at the beach and one of my kids wasn't feeling well, and I wanted to go up to the top of the monastery, but it was socked in with clouds. If I had to guess, being completely honest, my kids would've preferred going back to the boat, and my husband and I thought that Megalochori was an absolute highlight of Santorini and made the afternoon trip worth the extra time and money. It was not slippery to me, not any more than any of the polished marble surfaces we'd been walking on all week all over Italy - haha. We were prepared for a possible walk either way and all had sneakers on though. Saw some people in sandals and they were for sure struggling. Our shoes did have poo residue on them but not so much that it ruined the shoes or anything. I wore them again on the trip. I will say that enough people must have walked down that it made our whole hallway smell like donkey poop for a good half a day. My biggest fear was getting kicked, but we just tried to stay away from the donkeys or quickly move past.

We were told to have cash to get them upon arrival, so that's what we did. Then when we got there, our guide told us that there's a (newish?) kiosk past where everyone is lining up to buy tickets, more over where you go through the turnstiles to go inside, so she just marched us over there and we bought our tickets that way, with a credit card. The lines didn't look too bad from what I saw - nothing like some of the major tourist attractions in Florence and Rome. Probably no harm in getting them ahead of time, though!

So we were on Royal and they give you a number for your tender. Our excursion was rerouted to the cable car but we were #2. However, it's mostly how aggressive your guide is in pushing your group to the cable car, and ours really wasn't. She also wasn't holding up her sign a lot so it was stressful. After tendering, it took us two hours of straight pushing through crowds to get to the top (where the guide was again not holding up the sign so we had no idea where/how to find her bc we were at the back). We were supposed to meet at I think 7:15am? But had to sit there forever while they figured out what to do. I think we got off the tender at about 8:30am and finally up to the top at 10:30am. So it was super stressful. We were only left with about an hour in Oia, which was a bummer. Then we did do our private tour in the afternoon but we cut it short because the day had been so exhausting and stressful. When we got back to the cable car line there were Disney employees there who said it was probably about a 1.5 hour wait for the cable car line, or a 30-45 min. walk down at a "leisurely pace." We all had appropriate footwear and are able-bodied, so we chose to walk. It only took 20 mins and the walk down was a breeze, no big deal at all. Way better than the line which was snaking around this courtyard and then down an alley as far as the eye could see. Here's the crowds while waiting to go UP. Honestly would've been better off taking the speedboat at this point but would've lost over $300 on the excursion.

That would've been a better way to do it, yeah. I actually sort of considered that, but in my head we were going to Pompeii first so it didn't get super hot, and then Positano, and I was too nervous about taking the ferry back and missing it, and then missing the ship. It never occurred to me to do Positano first and then Pompeii, which is obviously what we ended up doing. I had never traveled internationally before, and one of the reasons we booked the cruise was to see places and not deal with the travel logistics because I was scared of it. But Italy is super easy, and now that I've been there, yours seems like a very doable plan and not one that I considered, but a good option. I am glad we did it though, because both places were really awesome. And the drive was beautiful, and interesting. But VERY curvy roads and just a LOT of driving. I just have some personal regrets about Positano because my daughter wanted to shop for souvenirs, my son ordered something that took a really long time to come out, and my husband had to use the bathroom which was a whole big production. What I should've done is just left my family to do all of that together and walked around Positano by myself. 😆 I think I could've been okay with an hour if it hadn't been taken up by so many dumb things. So I'm just sort of frustrated with myself that I didn't just split up and do what I wanted while I was there since I was mostly the one that wanted to go in the first place. So, in retrospect... a ferry to Positano for a few hours and then a car picking us up from there to do a few hours in Pompeii would've been the best plan. But if I'm choosing between the excursion we actually did versus only seeing Pompeii OR Positano.... I think I would still do the long excursion. They were both really cool stops. And if we'd only gone to Pompeii I know I would've been sulking on the boat the rest of the day, like, "I should be on the Amalfi Coast right now." 🤣

Yes, it was choppy water out to Athenios. On RC, Athenios excursions weren't cancelled, but rerouted through Fira.

We just went to Ephesus, and I think we spent about 3 hours there, including the Terrace Houses, so if you can find a tour that works with your schedule restrictions, and can get you there right when it opens, you should be okay. I think it would be worth doing even with a shorter visit.

We just returned from our European adventure, and I wanted to post a report on our Italy port experiences, as this board was so helpful to me when planning! About our trip: I traveled with my husband and 3 teenagers (ages 13, 16, and 17). We were in Italy for a week before the cruise and went to Venice, Florence, and Rome. Happy to answer any questions on these cities as well, but we didn't do them as port days. Our trip was at the beginning of high season, from June 4-22. Transportation: We decided to take private transport from Rome to Civitavecchia. We used RomeCabs, and it was pretty easy. By this point in the trip I figured we'd be tired of navigating, and didn't want to deal with public transportation. Our driver was running a little late due to blocked streets near our VRBO, so I think we ended up leaving about a half hour later than we were supposed to, but we made it right on time for a 1pm checkin. I purposely did a late checkin because we had so many early mornings on this trip, and I wanted to stay at our VRBO as long as possible in the morning. Day 1: Amalfi Coast (Salerno) This was one of our longest days of our cruise. My husband and two of my kids REALLY wanted to see Pompeii, and my daughter and I REALLY wanted to see Positano. We decided to book a private tour through Italytours.eu that does both, largely because they have a guarantee to get you back to the boat on time, and I know the roads can be a little hairy around that area. I had told them ahead of time that Positano was important to me, and I wanted to spend more time there than Sorrento. I have mixed feelings about this excursion. It ended up being a LOT of time in the car. It was an 8-hour excursion, and we probably spent 5 hours in the car. Our driver was excellent, and pulled off for some great pictures and told us interesting things the entire time. From the port, we went north to the highway, then dropped down through the mountains, popping out near Ravello, instead of driving completely along the coast. We met our driver at 8:15am and got to Positano at about 11:15am. We got about an hour in Positano, and I would've loved to have had more time. By the time we found a bathroom and got a little snack, we hardly had any time left to walk around. Then it was back in the car at about 12:15. We drove through Sorrento but did not stop, and honestly I think we all fell asleep during this leg. We got to Pompeii around 1:15 and met our guide, since we had chosen to do a guided tour. She was fantastic. This was one of the only places we paid for a guide in our whole trip, and it was DEFINITELY worth the extra cost. We all loved Pompeii. We met back up with our driver at 3:30ish, and drove back to the port from there. We had a stop for some fresh mozzarella, and I think we got to the port at about 4:30pm. Day 2: Siracusa, Sicily This day we were originally scheduled to do a Royal Caribbean excursion called Taormina On Your Own, which was essentially just transportation to and from Taormina. However, we were getting tired by this point in the trip, and all of us unanimously felt like we didn't want another early morning with a bunch of driving to just see somewhere for an hour or so, and we canceled it. Our port had been changed from Messina (45 mins from Taormina) to Siracusa (1.5 mins from Taormina), and it was just too much driving. I'm sad because I really wanted to go to Taormina, but we needed a quieter day after what we'd done so far. So we slept in, had breakfast, and then walked into the town of Ortigia (about 10 mins from port). We went to the market, and then walked around to some shops. Then we split up, because some of us wanted to go to the little beach and some didn't. My son, daughter, and I had a little beach time, then went to get some sandwiches at a place we had seen on TikTok, haha. We finished up with some delicious gelato and granita, then got back on the boat! While I'm bummed to have missed Taormina, I've learned when traveling with my kids that pushing ourselves never ends well, so I'm glad we had kind of a chill day. And that was it for Italy! We also had one port in Turkey and two in Greece, which I will also add to those port forums. We finished with a few days in Athens, and then went home! Happy to answer any questions about any part of the trip!

We went on June 13 and definitely had a regular sized backpack that we kept with us the entire time.

Hello! Does anyone know if once you’re off the ship, can kids go back on without an adult? Like if we all get off together and my kids want to get back on the ship but I want to go do something else? Port is Mykonos, tendering, if it matters, and my kids are older teens but not yet 18. If it was a regular port I’d just walk them back on but don’t really want to tender back just to take them back. Thanks!

OP here! Off to a bad start with my excellent plan - seas are too choppy to go to Athenios, so we are going to Fira and dealing with the cable cars anyway. 🙄 Allegedly with priority, we shall see. Already running pretty late. We had to be in the theater at 6:45am and it’s 8am now. So sleepy.

If you don’t do a tour, my not-asked-for suggestion would be the Coliseum over the Vatican. It’s closer to other major sites, and my entire family enjoyed it more. We may have had a skewed perspective since we had just come from Florence, but we didn’t enjoy the art as much as the Uffizi. It was also extremely, EXTREMELY hot in there (8:30pm tickets). There are other beautiful churches with gorgeous painted ceilings in Rome, and in retrospect I wish we’d just done that, I think.

Just reporting back on our experience, since we did our tour yesterday. I had asked to spend more time in Positano than Sorrento. We ended up going in reverse through the mountains, to Positano (our port was Salerno, unfortunately). It was probably 3 hours of driving to get to Positano, including several photo stops and a puke stop for my carsick daughter, who refused to take Dramamine. We only had an hour in Positano, which was largely taken by a lunch and bathroom break, unfortunately. I was pretty disappointed (not in our driver, just the circumstances), as I would’ve liked more time to just enjoy the city, but it took us quite a while to find a bathroom and like 20 minutes to wait for a CHEESEBURGER my kid had ordered. 🙄 So don’t do that. We would’ve had time to walk down to the beach but not like enjoy beach time, unless we didn’t pee or eat. We were in Positano from about 11:15-12:15. Then we drove to Pompeii via Sorrento and got there around 1:45. We spent roughly 2 hours there and left about 3:45 for the ship. We did not have the same experience as the previous poster, our driver talked CONSTANTLY, told us everything, showed us everything, and made sure we got great photos on the Amalfi Coast. Pompeii was also fantastic, SUPER glad we got the guide. Overall it was rushed with our port being Salerno to do both Positano and Pompeii, but I really wanted to do Positano and my kids really wanted Pompeii, and this way we all got what we wanted out of the port day. So Positano and Pompeii are possible, just don’t plan to do much else if you port in Salerno. And take your Dramamine and don’t order a cheeseburger!

We had mixed luck with taxis, I think bc we were a group of 5. We had LOTS cancel on us, and had to give up and Uber twice. You’ll probably be fine if you only have 4, but if your group is bigger, give yourself a cushion of time with a taxi. Additionally, idk if you can find any companies whose times work for you, but our family’s favorite thing we did was a Vespa tour (my kids are 14, 15, and 16). We did not drive but rode on the back and sidecar and had headsets to hear about all the sites. It was an awesome way to see tons of stuff quickly.

I was nervous about the food due to so many threads, but cautiously optimistic about Enchantment in particular, since I’d read mostly good reviews about the food on this ship. We’re on Day 4, and pretty mixed reviews on the WJ, but having good luck in the MDR. I would consider myself fairly picky about food, since my husband used to be a chef so my food at home is always delicious. 🙂 I’m traveling with my family of 5, and we’ve eaten at the MDR twice, once my entire family and once with just my husband and I. ALL food has been the correct temperature, good portion, and seasoned well. My husband in particular has had great luck with his food - he ordered the chicken/leek pot pie on night 1 and the osso buco last night. I got the strip steak night 1, and it was okay, kind of an odd texture but good taste, and the salmon last night, which was tasty. The chocolate hazelnut cake was super tasty, both in the WJ and the MDR. Fingers crossed for more good food luck, though we are not having good weather luck, with our one sea day full of rain and wind. 😕

Well, we made it! On time and as originally scheduled! That was stressful!