Ellan Vannin

6 hours ago, Scottishclover said:

KOTOR

 

What did we do?

Hiked the Ladder of Kotor first thing and then had a wander around the old town

What did others do?

Some people did boat trips in the bay and visited Lady of the Rocks Church at Perast. Judging by how busy Kotor was after our hike, I think lots just went to the old town.

Need to Know

Kotor is a tender port. Tickets for tender were available at Craft Social. Journey around 15/20 mins. Old town was about 5 mins walk from tender dock. 
 

DH and I got out on deck for around 6 for a very serene sail in to Kotor. A friend at my Zumba class and father in law had both suggested this.

The morning light was very pretty.

 

After a quick breakfast we donned our hiking gear and caught one of the first tenders around 7:30. We were so early, tickets weren’t required at that stage we just walked straight on.

 

Kotor Bay from the tender dock.

 

There’s  information booths just at the entrance to the old town and we got some maps and directions. We had to go old skool as our roaming data did not include Montenegro. It took us a little while to find the start of the hike and it’s not really well signposted. It’s left of the old town over a bridge then head for the path up by the Pekara Bakery. We were on the right path but it’s not obvious. 
 

When we finally started the hike it was 8:30am and already hot🥵 We each had our own filled water bottles with us plus a Celebrity water bottle too. We didn’t consider the hike to be too strenuous as it’s a series of switchbacks which cut out the steep incline. You can go even further up than us but after about a 2 and a half hour climb amongst stunning views, we decided to turn back. It’s best to do this hike as early as possible as parts of the path are shaded in the morning. If you are fit at all I would really recommend doing this hike. You don’t even have to go too far, as far as the fort would give you the views. The view from every corner was just wow. I just hope the my pictures do it justice. I’ll let the photos talk for themselves….

 

Early on we had an exchange with this man and his donkey who told us he was “ a proud Croat”. 

A tall ship sailed into the bay as we were walking.

The fort, about a third of the way up. You can access it via steps from the old town.

Can you spot the Beyond?

 

The path was not well defined in parts. Hiking boots would be ideal but we just had our trainers.

 

The sweat on my back is evidence of how hot it was!!

 

You can see the switchbacks here.

 

There were a lot of mountain goats around.

There were a few people hiking but we mostly had the path to ourselves.

 

We just kept going higher….

 

….Until we got to this point on a kind of plateau and decided to turn around. 

Just checking The Beyond is still there on our way back down!

 

By this time it was getting so hot. So hot in fact that the snakes were out sunbathing. Yes, I got a bit of a fright when a black snake slithered across the path in front of me. I’ve googled - it might have been a Whip snake. Needless to say I did not stop to take a photo and increased my speed to get off that damn mountain! I’m not going to lie, it was harder going down. The monotony of the switchbacks was beginning to get to me and DD1 a bit and we were trailing the others. To make things worse, our water was now getting to a premium. 

Nearly down….. but still pretty.

 

In total we had been hiking pretty much nonstop for 4 hours out and back. The Ladder of Kotor hike does go a bit further but I don’t think the scenery gets any better. Once off the mountain, we headed in to town for a much needed drink and look around.

The old town is set against a beautiful backdrop.

 

Kotor was a bit like a mini Dubrovnik but more authentic.It’s pretty but tiny and still has a bit of an undiscovered feeling about it. I will say it felt a bit swamped by all the cruise guests. I couldn’t imagine spending more than an hour or two here. Doing the hike was a great idea for us. Just so you know there are a lot of stray cats lurking about in Kotor. I am not a cat lover and found this a bit off putting but I know lots of people find this cute. After a potter about, we decided to head back to the ship. We did have about a 20 minute wait to get the tender and the cold towels and water came in very handy while we were hanging around. 
 

Kotor Verdict

I think you can probably guess what I’m going to say here. It was our favourite port but that was probably due to the hike. We are not good at just looking around and shopping, we need to be doing something active. I think you would be hard pushed to beat Kotor for scenery anywhere in Europe. It’s like Norway but with decent weather. By the way, the deck was still busy at 7pm for the sail out. Plan on eating your dinner later that night.

 

I think we met  and spoke to you when you were on the way back down. It was certainly hot that day as you got towards the top. Much easier last time we were there in the rain.

We had intended to hike through the forest more this time but the thought of ice cold beer in town won the day

I see from the update today that  visits to Greece appear to now require supervised test within 48 hours of boarding and not the 2 days as previously.

Rules are rules but I am not sure what value taking a supervised test is for Greece when in my case it will be 12 days and several countries after the test before I actually get there?.

I wonder what happened to the updates from August 18 that have disappeared now  replaced with the previous August 10 updates?.

Be interesting to see if the check in staff at the ports have much idea about all the rules

7 hours ago, wrk2cruise said:

How inept is Celebrity messaging if they can't update their global websites within days.   The Canadian and UK sites have had the Sept 5 changes for at least 2 days now.

The UK site has actually gone back to an older version of the updates  (10th August) now and is back to 2 days for testing whereas yesterday morning it was the update dated 18th August and 3 days for testing.

Clear, concise communications does not seem Celebrity’s strong point.

6 minutes ago, abo said:

No problem - do it in three days and see how you get on.  Just letting you know Greece haven't changed their rules as of today - up to you what you do with that information.

You would like to think Celebrity would  actually be giving out to its customers the most up to date and correct verified information.

6 minutes ago, abo said:

 

Any cruise to Greece is unchanged - test must be supervised and within two days prior to sailing.  As per Celebrity web site...

 

https://www.celebritycruises.com/healthy-at-sea/italy-travel-requirements/updated

 

Nope, it is currently showing  3 days( or actually only  prior to boarding for supervised test).

screenshot from uk site.

2 minutes ago, Deenoob said:

If you see my post above , the guidelines specify “the day before “

https://www.healthygateways.eu/Portals/0/plcdocs/EUHG_Operational_guidelines_CoV_April2022.pdf?ver=2022-04-06-152525-527

These are the official European guidelines, however it’s interesting that these are guidelines and not regulations. This would mean that cruise lines are not bound by them.

 

maybe why different lines have different rules ????

And departures from different European countries have different rules which makes no sense.

Flybe flights are now available for June if you are still looking for that option. As a general rule the earlier you book the cheaper it is.

I use Flybe several times a month and generally they are fine although like any airline they have awful days. I notice that they have 3 flights on a Sunday to Southampton so plenty of options.

You also could just book the basic fare and add your luggage to that, that works out cheaper than the Get more fare but you don't get to choose your seat in advance and the change penalties are greater.

Also, the aircraft used usually is a Bombardier Q400 which are made in Toronto but do not have very large overhead lockers, keep that in mind when considering hand luggage as a lot of the standard cabin bags do not fit in the lockers so they end up under your seat.

I understand what you are saying...but I have been discouraged from flying FlyBe...have you flown them? And we are travelling with a couple and there is only 1 flight that day that has 4 seats still...and I am concerned that we all won't get on the same flight...with each of us booking separately...I guess I could book all 4!! We have flown "low cost" before...think flying to Prague...and it worked out ok...LuAnn

Are you sure there are only 4 seats left?.

Airline websites often state this but what they actually mean is 4 seats left at this fare.

Flybe do have a sale on at the moment so your flight may be included.

Just don't buy extras you don't need although if you wanted to sit together and all booked separately you might need to book seats.

I fly several times a month with Flybe and have had very few problems with them over the years

Fwiw we were booked on the equivalent cruise in oct14. Celebrity gave you the option of refund of monies or accept changes.

We opted for refund which we received without problem but Celebrity showed absolutely no interest in trying to keep your business.

The price of the cruise then dropped considerably so in our case it made financial sense to cancel and if you wanted to go on the revised itinerary rebook. Might not be the case so far from sailing date though.

You will be able to book right through to Manchester airport on the one ticket (not always the cheapest option). Trains from Manchester to the airport are very frequent and quick.

However, the train from Southampton to Manchetser is likely to be very busy especially if a few cruise ships are docked that day and luggage space is limited although you should in theory be able to book seats FOC.

Personally I would go with the Flybe option to Manchester, they often have sales which would make the journey cheaper just sign up for there email updates or if the fare is cheap now then you will be able to book now. Just watch that you only pay for the add ons you want though.

An ordinary service bus would be free from the central bus station to the Park Inn.