Dawnspring

The one great thing about the m class ships is the thalassotherapy spa pool in the solarium. To me that more than makes up for the grotty indoor Persian garden.

Updated weather rhodes 21* sunny Heraklion 22* sunny Nafplio 25* sunny Athens 23* sunny intervals. Kusadasi now 24* sunny thessaloniki now cooler with rain on 2nd day definitely packing layers and a rain jacket.

Currrent weather forecasts: will come back and update but this is a good start for the packing list. athens 25th sunny 19* thessaloniki 26 sunny 18* thessaloniki 27 sunny rain? 20* Kusadasi 28 rain am 21* limassol 30 sunny 23* Rhodes1 heraklion 2 nafplion 3 athens 4/5

I was in a cruise where someone died on an excursion using one of these. There’s a good reason why some cruise lines ban them.

It’s not really a Greek islands cruise. You visit Rhodes and Crete plus Cyprus and Turkey. The other Greek ports are on the mainland. And with 2 overnights and 2 sea days there are only 6 destinations apart from the start and end at Athens over the 11 nights of the itinerary. It’s appealing for its access to the ancient sites of Ephesus Heraklion & Mycenae, and for the old towns in Limassol, Nafplio and Thessaloniki, but it’s not your typical Greek Isles trip. We booked last minute to sail in two weeks at a very reasonable price for aqua class of less than £100 pppn including fees and gratuities. Move ups to a suite were on offer for £50pppn. We are interested in history and love sea days so think that it’s a great itinerary for us, but I would expect demand to be lower and for the bargain prices to stay low all year.

You also earn more captains club points. We are going concierge class for a 12 night TA as that gets us both to elite status. The value of the happy hour drinks and elite breakfast on the next couple of one week cruises is greater than the small difference in cost between the cabins.

I love the Blu menus. I’ve enjoyed my meals there more than in Murano or Tuscan Grille. But food is very very subjective. I suggest checking out the menus online and deciding if it’s your kind of food or not. On constellation we could order from MDR menu as well. I also loved the peaceful relaxed atmosphere at breakfast. persian garden on Constellation was meh. The hot rooms weren’t hot enough and it wasn’t an enjoyable space. I think a Persian Garden needs to have hot loungers with a sea view to be worth it. I’m doing a TA in November and sailing concierge to get the points to Elite status. Aqua was another £1,000 each and didn’t seem worth it. But if there’s a reasonable move up offer then we’ll take it. I’m thinking that the cost of 3 specialty restaurants for 2 plus one Persian Garden pass would be the break even price for us.

Ooh keen sewer here. I would probably buy a??$200 plastic Singer machine. Light enough to take as hand baggage, and cheap enough that damage or confiscation wouldn’t worry me. A cut down yoga mat to sit it on to dampen vibration and help hold it in place. Hair straightening iron to press out the seams. Magnetic pins and a magnet to keep control of them in the cabin. And I’d choose a cabin where the desk was by the window or balcony. Recently sailed on the constellation and the computer room above the library had large tables that would be perfect for cutting fabric.

Are you looking at a Europe or Australia cruise? Local laws say that full price has to be included on menu prices. $17 + gratuity is rounded down to $20 on these cruises

If you link your booking numbers then you will be able to spend their OBC as well. As you said “reservations “ plural I’m assuming you are booking for more than one night so you can book in different names. alternatively, if any of you have enough onboard credit to float the transaction then you can ask guest services to adjust all the accounts when you are onboard. you can even make some or all of the booking with a card and then ask for them to switch it to OBC onboard. It’s their discretion whether they will honour the online price or charge you full price. When I did this for excursions, I was told that guest services had to do a cancellation, refund and rebook at the onboard price but that the excursion desk had discretion to honour the online price, and they did. Obviously any OBC shifting around needs to be done with both cabins and sea passes present at the desk.