carlmm

For scenery I recommend Santorini. The sailing within the caldera is quite unique. For beaches probably Mykonos. As third may Rhodes because you can find everything, beaches, history, scenery and great restaurants. Of course, if you do not totally rule out history, Athens is the number one must see place in Greece. Actually the Acropolis is quite scenic, too.

Congratulation to your upgrade! May I ask how far in advance, how many days/weeks before the cruise, you got the assingment?

Thank you for posting. Even if others had a better experience, some of this should certainly not happen to anybody on Cunard. Especially the managers attitude is terrible. I hope you send your issues also to Cunard to make them aware of the shortcomings and give them the chance to improve.

Just to add: It is not like Piraeus has nothing to offer but Athens has so uncompsrable more important sights. If one has already toured Athens intensively, Piraeus can be nice for a day or two. There are couple of museums and churches and a theater. The restaurants at the smaller ports are a favourite of many, Mr wealthy, people from Athens.

I certainly about staying in Athens vs Piraeus. If it is actually the Plaka or someplace very close, is in my opinion less important. I would just advise against every, albeit maybe more upscale, hotel which is not in comfortable (!) walking distance.

They do have scales for the use by crew somewhere behind the scences. If you ask niecly and ahead of time, your steward might make one available to you.

Last time Iwas in Aix we stayed three days, thus I would say there is certainly more than enough to see and enjoy for six hours. The other tour obviously covers more ground. You might come back and enjoy some more indepth experience - Aix. You will never come back and want to see as many different places as possible - second tour.

I am sorry for you. Thank you for reporting about your trip when the world looked better. Now: All the best, God bless you.

Be warnend that other airline might be affected, too, because eg. one of the Lufthansa subsidiaries under strike does groundhandling for many others eg. 80% of aircraft pushing in Dusseldorf.

Yes, you should pack collared shirts instead.

Totally opposite to my experience, certainly no encouragement to take your jacket off. That is a total no. Also a total no to short sleeved shirts in the rooms that follow the Dress code.

I know several people on recent Grandiosa cruises in the North: One was allowed off the ship on ones own in every port.

Yeah. One is free to dress up at McDonalds and when watching a football game. You know exactly what I am talking about.

I really enjoyed and would recommend the Bernice P. Bishop museum. It is reachable by public bus.

No guarantee, but: Most of the multi-language tours I attended, were accompanied by an individual guide for each language group.

One still wonders if some of the inderlying assumptions aren't just not thought through enough. I am not just taking HAL but the cruise industry. Why shouldn't families enjoy to cruise in more style? On one of my last pre-covid cruises I was positively surprised about the high number of teens totally dressed up, the young men in tuxes, the ladies in beautiful dresses/gowns. Smaller children eg in Italy or Spain appear always to be dressed up in the evening. Even if the the mayority should want something else, why not offer at least a number of ships with this level? Why the lowerst denominator? I know people who have not sailed HAL since the dimissal of formal night.

What an informative post - thank you very much. Disturbing and reassuring at the same time.

!!!

And, no, it is not a good day to stay on the ship! 😉 The second you step oft the ship you are on historic ground.

The ships dock right next to historic, walled Valetta, thus you can easily walk around and enjoy the sights there. There are more than one can cover within one day in the town itself, thus there is no need to splurge in any excursion to, albeit certainly also interesting, parts of the island. There are no beaches close by. The top sights are the Gradmasters palace and the cathedrale.

Unfortunately Naples is not the most Ideal port for somebody with limited mobility. Capri is very hilly, Pompeii karge and uneven. In Naples you might use the hop on hop off

Thank you for this informatuon. Should be an example.

I am glad to read about the removal of the food. Unfortunately, even when I reported behaviour like touching or sneezing on food, nobody cared. @purpletraveler, thanks for your review.

If it was me I stayed in Barcelona itself for my first visit instead of leaving the city and waste the limited time on transportation. Barcelona is one of the rare major cities in Europe where the ships dock right in the city. How about eg. an overview tour, maybe with an open bus? Maybe combined with one mayor sight like the Sagrada Famiglia? Or a walk through the Gothic Quarter?

Sounds correct.