fishiecrackers

We picked our itinerary over the cruise line, because there's a port almost every day so cities were our most important factor. We chose one that started in Rome and ended in Athens since we wanted to spend more than one day in both those cities. I'm a teacher too, so we are on just about the earliest I could do, which is the second week of June.

If you've done this specific tour, can you let me know what the stops were in Sorrento and Positano? Did you feel like it was too much, or did you like going to both those cities? Where did the driver take you and what did you do? I'm feeling like maybe both these towns in addition to Pompeii might be a lot for a port day (especially in June since it'll be busier), so for now I've asked if we can spend more time in Positano and either a quick stop or skip Sorrento, but of course it's months away so I can change it back it needed. Thoughts?

We're booked to do the italytours.eu one that goes to Pompeii, Sorrento, and Positano, but I have requested to have more time in Positano rather than Sorrento. What did you do in Positano that you enjoyed? Do you feel like skipping Sorrento was the right call?

Also adding Ornos to my list of possibilities...

We will be in Mykonos in mid-June 2023 with our 3 teenagers, and I think we'll just do a beach day during the day, and then shopping in the evening. Our ship is in port from 7am-8pm on a Sunday. We are first-time cruisers, so I'd welcome any help with logistics/suggestions. None of us drink or party, so my main criteria for a beach would be: easy to reach from cruise port, not super loud and wild, able to rent lounge chairs (concerned about finding 5 loungers in heavy tourist season), possibly would like to rent kayaks or SUPs to be out on the water a bit. Thinking of renting our lounge chairs online ahead of time so that we don't need to stress about finding enough of them somewhere - or are they plentiful in June? Ideas I have in my notes include Agios Stephanos, Super Paradise, Platis Gialos, and Agia Anna. Would any of these match what I'm looking for, or are there others I should consider? Thanks!

Thank you, Dani. That's really helpful info to know that it felt worth it for you. I've been going back and forth but maybe we'll just go for it.

I am looking at possibly switching to that same cruise for next summer as well, and was bummed at such a late arrival into Santorini. The itinerary we are on now is on a much older ship but arrives in Santorini at 7am, and I had hoped to get off early and into Oia before it got insanely hot and crowded. Did you find the late arrival to be an issue? Did you go into Oia, or stay closer to port?

They're teenagers - it's not a huge deal, just annoying. Anyway, we're all on the 4th floor now. Can you explain to me what this means? I am a total cruising novice. I don't know what a category 1B Guarantee means - is it a regular balcony? I can't make any balcony rooms show up at all - they all say Sold Out. Correct - this was a great suggestion, and one we are still considering after talking to my family. I was more excited about the ports than the cruise, but apparently my husband and teens felt the opposite - haha. This change would give me the ports I was excited about (though less time in them), the exact time frame we needed, and the kind of ship my family wants. We'd still have to get ourselves to Athens to finish our trip, but that would be doable. We shall see. Family meeting this weekend....

I don't know, $3k is a lot of money for us, and this itinerary is so port-heavy that I'm concerned we won't have time to enjoy it. And yes, we were on Brilliance before. I think I will look at some other cruise lines - that's a good idea. That's what I was thinking - we only have one sea day on this cruise, and I'm hoping we can spend a lot of time in the ports. The reason for this cruise is mainly to give us a good sampler of Mediterranean cities without having to deal with travel and transport, so I'm not super interested in paying more for a nicer ship. Though I have been searching future cruises because I'd love to experience those as well!

Thanks, everyone, for making this so much clearer for me! It’s really only Santorini I’m worried about getting off the boat at the crack of dawn, so I’m general I will make sure we get a breakfast before we go, and pack some trail mix, granola bars, Clif bars, fishie crackers (haha) and such for port day snacks.

🤣 Okay, adding fishie crackers to my packing list - I have to!

Okay, update after talking to RC today. As some of you pointed out, our balcony room is no longer a balcony. They had never emailed us this change nor a price adjustment. They WERE able to move the rest of my party to the 4th floor and they WERE able to get us away from the bar. The new room is $700 cheaper plus a $100 on-board credit. They were not able to get us back into a balcony. So our options at this point are 1) to take the two 4th floor rooms without a balcony and save some money, leaving our itinerary as is, 2) see if they’ll switch us to the June 11th from Rome (which I doubt, as it is $3k more at this point and it was not on their list of available itineraries to switch to, plus worse port schedule, IMO), or 3) cancel this cruise and just do the rest of the Italy/Greece vacation we had planned, and just spend the cruise days on the Amalfi Coast and a Greek island, which were the two ports I was most excited about. My kids and husband were suuuuuuper excited to do a cruise and they’ve never been so they won’t know what they’re missing with the worse rooms, so we’ll probably stick with option 1, though I was kind of already leaning toward option 3 before I even discovered this whole issue. Bottom line is that the final verdict could’ve been better, could’ve been worse. Sigh.

Thank you for pointing this out. I did not realize this!

Correct - good detective.

This was a great suggestion, thanks. I looked into it but the prices were way higher (about $3k more, total), with one less port and less time in each port. If we don’t keep the June 12th maybe I’ll ask if they’d switch us to this one but they had a list of itineraries they’d switch you to in the original email and this one wasn’t an option.

We picked it because we wanted to do Italy and Greece, and this one starts in Rome and ends in Athens, enabling us to spend several days in each of those cities instead of doing them just as one-day ports. Also tried to get as early in the summer as possible once my kids were out of school.

I am on a cruise that was supposed to be on Brilliance but got switched to Enchantment. It said we were supposed to receive a follow-up email once our new reservation was settled after August 18, but we never did. Tonight I logged on and checked our new cabin assignments, and we’ve got a problem. I’m traveling together with my family, and we had two rooms, one balcony and one interior, across the hall from each other on the 9th floor. Now our balcony is on the 4th floor right by a bar and our interior is on the other end of the ship on the 2nd floor. Our reservations were supposed to be linked, so I don’t know what happened. When looking at available rooms, balconies are sold out, and interior rooms are limited, which is making me feel like we won’t be able to get these switched. I will call them tomorrow, but can any experienced travelers give me any tips on what to ask for or magic ways I can get this made right? I don’t want to be right by a bar on a trip with my kids, and I don’t want to be on separate floors! Is there a possibility they can switch us with someone else? We made these reservations back in February - I don’t know how this got so messed up. My husband’s job means our dates are NOT flexible and we can’t change itineraries, so I am really stressing about this.

On days we are going into port cities, are there any grab and go options available to take for breakfast or snacks? I have a few ports where we want to get up and out pretty early, and I'm wondering if there are breakfast options we could take with us, such as yogurt or a container of cereal. Same thing with snacks - is there anything we can grab off the ship and take with us if we are getting off early, like 7-8am? Wondering if it would be worth bringing some snacks on board with us to avoid hangry teens on long travel days, or if that's unnecessary. Thanks!

We are doing a Pompeii/Positano/Sorrento tour with ItalyTours.eu.

Hello! Wondering if there are places to rent kayaks just for an hour or two during a Messina cruise port day (in June). I have found many tours, but the timing doesn't work with our time in port (8am to 6pm). I think there will be transport-only cruise excursions to both Giardini Naxos and Taormina, which only gives us about 3 hours there. We will have done lots of historical sites and shopping in other cities, so I was thinking about maybe something on the water, but it would need to be during a fairly narrow window, so hoping something we could rent/book on our own rather than a tour (also looking for a walk-up type thing rather than advance reservations, in case we change our plans). Is this possible, and is it safe? I will be with my family of 3 teenagers. We have experience in kayaking but only in lakes. If this doesn't work out, our backup plan is probably hanging out in Taormina. Would appreciate any help on this!

We are coming in on a Royal Caribbean cruise in June 2023, in port from 7am to 8pm. I searched a little on this topic but many of the responses I saw were for the off-season, not summer, so I was hoping for more input. Our previous day will be a day at sea, so I am hoping we can be rested and up early for this particular port. I'll be traveling with my husband and 3 teenagers. We are planning to go immediately into Oia to walk around early, probably go down to Amoudi Bay, then take the bus back, wander around Fira, and get back on the boat. Perhaps pick up some of the hiking trail on the way back or when we get to Fira, depending on how hot it is that day (I will want to do this, my kids won't - haha). I know all of Santorini will be super crowded in June, so I am hoping going as early as possible is our best bet. We don't have excursions available yet, but from some Googling it looks like RC offers "Oia on Your Own" for $55pp. It only stays 90 minutes in Oia, so we would not plan to return with the excursion, but let the guide know we would be coming back on our own. Since we are a family of 5, I am trying to figure out if it would be worth the $250 to hopefully get off the ship and over to Oia more quickly versus tendering in and then taking the bus on our own. Does anyone have experience with how long of a time difference there might be between these options if we get up early either way? I'd love to avoid paying for the excursion but if it saves a few hours I might consider it. Thanks in advance for your input!