Ron98GT
-
Posts
92 -
Joined
Content Type
Forums
Store
Blogs
Downloads
Events
Gallery
Posts posted by Ron98GT
-
-
We cruised on the Royal Caribbean Splendour of the Seas in May, out of Venice, Italy. We hit 4 Greek ports: Corfu, Piraeus (Athens), Mykonos, & Argostoli. Mykonos & Athens are my favorite.
Like you, I wanted to hit as many Greek ports/cities as possible. Back when I was searching the cruise lines, it looked like the ships that hit Turkey included less Greek ports, so avoid ships that include Turkey in their itinerary. Also, to include the most Greek ports in your itinerary, you need to sail out of Venice, Italy.
-
I'm assuming that this was posted with tongue firmly planted in cheek but, just in case someone thinks this is a brilliant idea, you can't move more than a couple of feet in the basilica without passing a security person. They have no problem escorting you to the exit.
Absolutely not. I wear Levi cargo shorts, which are long, but just above the knee. I always wear long polo shirts with the tails hanging out: I don't tuck them in. It wouldn't be that hard to pull my pants down enough to cover my knees. I just wouldn't want bend forward, else I may expose the notorious plumbers crack. :o But I heeded the warning and wore long length cargo pants to the Vatican, but switched back to shorts for the nite on the town.
-
Men as a general rule don't wear shorts in Europe. When in Rome- do as the Romans do. Long pants or jeans are the style.
:confused: When was the last time you were in Rome? Boloney. We just spent a week in Rome, in May of 2014, along with a week in Venice and a week in Greece. Shorts are not a problem, as long as you don't go into one of the churches, specifically the Vatican. I'm a tourist, there's no hiding that, and I don't care what the locals wear. The only day I wore my long pants was the day we went to Vatican, otherwise I wore my Levi cargo shorts. We stayed in a hotel across from the Pantheon and even walked in there on numerous occasions without any problems. Rome is tourist town, tourists in Rome wear shorts and sandals, You a Tourist, don't be afraid to wear shorts. People state these silly little rules that are no existent.
If a guy wants to dress like a local/Roman, wear skinny pointed shoes, blue jeans, a blue sport coat, and chain smoke cigarettes, but not me. Shorts Rule :D
-
My father was refused entry because he was wearing shorts. They knew ahead of time and my mom wore a longer skirt but Dad didn't believe them. So, no Vatican for them.
Sue
I would have pulled my shorts down till they covered my knees. :D
Once your in, you can always pull them back up a little.
-
Hi Ron98GT,
We are travelling on RCCL SOTS on 23 August. What is the ship like? Also we are planning to do the hop on hop off in Piraeus/Athens. Is the bus pickup at the cruise terminal? As you ran out of time, what would you recommend to see/not see in our limited 7/8 hours in port? Also what was the mix of nationalities and ages on board the ship?:):)
Thanks for your comments.
Kerry & Steve
1. SOTS is a small ship.
2. Highly recommend my time dining which we did not do, but should have. Early dining is too early, when your getting get off the ship in the ports. Late dining was too late,since you get to bed/sleep late, and you just didn't want to get up early to eat breakfast and get off the ship.
3. We weren't happy with the food choices or quality in the MDR and we are not buffet people. There never was filet steak or lobster on the menu. One nite they had strip steak? on the menu so I attempted to try it. I ordered the steak medium rare and 3 time they brought it out well down. When I finely got a medium, I could not cut it with a table knife. When the waiter gave me a steak knife to cut the steak, I could not chew it, because it was so tough. Moral: stick withe seafood, especially the sea bass.
4. Since we luv food and wine, I always to the chefs table with my wife. Highly recommend it.
5. If possible, try the package that includes the Chefs Table, Azumi's, and Chops.
6. Definitely try Azumi's at least once for the HOT Rock dining. It's not that expensive, food was great, and it was a great experience.
7. When our ship became available for booking, all the balconies were booked, no balconies were ever available, so I booked a JS about three days after booking started and I'm glad I did, because the price I paid, $3900 for 2 people almost doubled by sail date to $7600. So book early.
8. Some electrical supply company in the USA pre-booked the balcony cabins for there clients through-out the US, so the cruise had a lot of other people from the states. We also had a number of people from New Zealand and Australia: surprising. I would think that on your cruise you'll find more Europeans.
9. For Athens, try to get off the ship as soon as possible, you''ll need the time and we were too pokey/slow. Get into and thru the terminal as fast as possible, where you need to exit at the front of the building where the parking lot is, along with buses and cabs. This is NOT where you catch the HoHo bus, so we lost more time here not knowing any better. Walk straight out of the terminal and head to the side walk along the street and turn left. When you exit the terminal, Do Not turn right, which is tempting. After you walk a couple of hundred feet, there will be a parking lot on your left, with different colored buses, from different tour companies. Yours will be the red bus. Take advantage of the discount and purchase your HoHo tickets online. People in the parking lot will be trying to sell tickets, but walk up to one of those people near the red bus and show them your tickets before you board the bus. Since the buses run every half hour, you want to get on a bus and to the Acropolis ASAP.
10. You want to walk up the stairs to the Acropolis and the small ticket building will be on you left, but you can't see the line from the sidewalk, because it's on the other-side.
11. You want to leave as much time as possible to catch a bus to the Plaka to eat and have enough time to board a bus to see the other sites. There is NOT enough time to walk from site to site. Plan on: 1/2 to get to the Acropolis, 1/2 hour to get back, 3 hours for the Acropolis, 1-1/2 to eat, walking thru the Plaka, and a little time left for other site seeing. 7-8 hours will/did go way too fast.
12. Carefully watch what time the last bus leaves the Acropolis back to the ship.
13. We had a rear facing AFT balcony, which was huge. Don't pass one up if you can get one.
14. We found it strange that there was no bathrooms on the MDR deck, which is also the Casino deck. So don't waste your time looking for one.
15. We stayed at the Hilton Molino Stucky in Venice for 3 nites before boarding, which was great. We used the Alilguna Blue to get to the ship, which was very convenient.
16. Ask about getting a galley tour. That was interesting and fun.
17. I prepaid for the water package and the wine package. We always had plenty of bottled water and wine with dinner.
18. No problems with the staff. No sanitary problems, everything seemed clean. Don't forget a small bottle of hand sanitizer.
19. I paid for the on-board WiFi, which was convenient check email and the status of my home alarm.
20. They seemed to stop breakfast in the MDR rather early, so I never did get to try it.
21. I never boarded a ship with so little problems, but I heard from some people that it was it or miss. At times bus loads of people would show up and then it slow down to a trickle, like when we boarded. having a suite made little difference.
22. In Argostoli, wish I would have taken a cab to the other side of the island to site-see. The food was good in Argostoli, but that was it.
23. Don't sure what else to say about the SOTS. If you have any specific question, feel free to ask.
24. Oh yeah, we took the train to Rome after the cruise, I can tell you about disembarking and getting to/on the train if need be.
-
IMO with a pedestrian-only central historic core, I am not sure what the HoHo bus accomplishes for you. This definitely is a city for walking if you want to explore the historic sites and lovely Plaka area.
Get a copy of Rick Steves' Athens guidebook out of the library and check out his suggestions for a day in Athens. The six historic sights ticket, which includes the Acropolis, Agora, etc. will suffice for the main highlights plus a trip to the new Acropolis Museum at the southern foot of the Acropolis.
1. Sounds like you've never done a "HoHo" in a big city before, and Athens is big.
2. Sounds like you've never been to Athens.
3. Unlike you, we used the HoHo, so we do have experience and not just criticism.
3. As insulting as you are, we found the HoHo very useful and interesting.
4. The HoHo gets you from the cruise ship to the Acropolis rather quickly, with very little walking, no crowds, and no buses or cabs to content with. The HoHo also gets you from the Acropolis to the Plaka quickly and giving you a break. Not sure what you expect to see between the Acropolis and the Plaka, although the guide did mention a few things, it's not worth walking.
5. If you tried a HoHo, you would know that the HoHo gets you to the major tourist sites where you can then walk around. The HoHo also gives you a break, so you can sit down and relax. You can see just as much as if you walked around all day, but in less time.
6. You have a guide on board, supplying information that your not reading in Rick Steves book. You can always read Rick Steve, or any other travel book, but it's nice getting first hand information from someone who lives there.
7. Try to keep an open mind.
7. Not all of us are 20 years old and up to walking and standing all day like you. Not all of us live in your world, so try to have a little understanding and a little less criticism. If you prefer walking all day, state that, but you don't have to degrade what we did, enjoyed, found useful, and recommend to others.
-
That's great, thanx! So we need not worry about bringing a change of shoes to change in the car, and both my husband's Tevas and my sandals will be fine then? Makes it a lot easier! :)
I have Teva's and Merrell's (water sandals) with thick soles and arch support, which would be OK. I've done a lot of walking with those, but they're not flip-flops.
-
we will be ther only one day on a cruise.
We did the Hop-on/Hop-off bus:
http://www.city-sightseeing.com/tours/greece/athens.htm
Real convenient and cheap. When you get off the ship, go thru the terminal, go straight out to the street (don't turn right) thru the parking garage, turn left, go to the corner, and that's where you catch the bus. You can catch a red bus at the terminal, or on the street at the designated stops, every 1/2 hour.
-
Agree - it's a shame misinformation is given out on these boards leading some people to worry about things unnecessarily. There is NO dress code about wearing any type of shoe (altho obviously not bare feet) and anyone turned away wouldn't have been turned away because of flip flops
With all the walking and standing that we did at the Vatican (Museum, Sistine Chapel, & St Peters), I can't imagine why someone would want to wear basic flip-flops?
-
We did Corinth and the Corinth Canal in the morning. Plaka for lunch, and Acropolis in the afternoon.
But that is what interested us. No idea what interests you.
I had the best Greek food that I've ever had in by life in the Plaka. It was some-kind of Vegetarian eggplant entree dish: yummy.
The OP didn't state how long (hours) they will be in Athens, so hard to make any suggestions.
We did the Hop-on/Hop-off bus, which was nice. My only complaint is that we ran of of time. We had to get back our ship, the RCCL Splendour of the Seas, otherwise we would have explored the Plaka more and bought some of the packaged olives to take home.
It can get really hot up on the Acropolis, so you might want to do that before lunch.
-
Thanks for the info, hopefully others will be prepared for the bait and switch.
There was no bait & switch. Re-read the post.
Glad we tendered with RCCL back on May 21st.
-
Thank you both.
It is my understanding that RCCL docks and you have to take a shuttle into town.
We plan to take the ferry to Delos. However. if the shuttle costs 10 Euros as it did in two years ago in Dubrovnic, we would probably be better off with a tour than going on our own.
Are we talking about the Royal Caribbean Splendour of the Seas?
Check out your specific cruise on-line. I still have a copy of my "Countdown To Cruise" on my wall. It specifically states "Tendered", which is what we did on May 21st.
Granted, if more than one ship visits Mykonos at the same time things can be different, but for us there was no shuttle, which was nice.
Here is a different thread on this subject:
-
We also did a taxi tour...we were there June 1. Loved Kefelonia!! Our taxi tour was kefelonia taxi and was 35 euro an hour. Our driver was great! We visited the caves and Melissani Lake then went to have lunch and also tour of the island and the views. I think a taxi is the way to go; not much to walk to.
We were just there on May 22nd and I do have to agree with that. Small town, not much to see, but the food was good.
Now I wish we took a cab to where they filmed the move Captain Corellii's Mandolin (Sami?) and saw the monument to the Italians in WWII.
There were cabs available near the dock and nobody was pushy, unlike Corfu. Also sounds like the cabs were significantly cheaper.
-
What shuttle? You tender right into the port & town. As soon as you walk into town from the tender, turn right & stay right, which will lead you to Little Venice. Lots of restaurants & views. We learned about the short cut on the way back to the ship/port, after walking thru town to get to the old wind mills.
We were just there on May 21st, the day of our 30th wedding adversary. :D
-
Has anyone here experienced one of the following guided tours at St. Mark's in Venice?
-- St. Mark's Cathedral and It's Treasures (or)
-- St. Mark's Museum and Cathedral from Above
Both of the above tours are done by Veneto Inside and cost about the same. Plus, they both allow for skip-the-line entrance into the cathedral itself. I'd like to do the free tour at 11, but our Doge's Palace Tour timing prevents that.
I'd love feedback about the above two tours. I've read the descriptions and the Treasures tour focuses on The Golden Pall, Baptistery, and Zen Chapel and the Museum tour focuses on Mosaics and Tapestries.
Thoughts? Feedback? Thanks in advance! :)
We will be taking the "St. Mark's Cathedral and It's Treasures" tour on May 16, 2014, at 12:15. Booked and paid for the tour with VenetionSide.com, which was the link from the St. Marks web site. Cost me 36 Euros for two.
Also booked and paid for the Doge's Secrets tour, which will be at 9:55 on May 16, 2014. This tour cost 41.50 Euros for two and was booked thru Viva Tickets.
Not sure why you are have a time conflict with taken the Doge Secrets tour and the "St. Mark's Cathedral and It's Treasures" tour, since both tours are only an hour and they have tours throughout the day.
-
Do you know the cost of the trip ? As from the port of Civitavecchia to Rome is about an hour away, which could be expensive
RomeCabs has fixed rates, which you can get from their web site.
http://www.romecabs.com/transferservice/civitavecchia/
Civitavecchia to/from Rome, 130 Euro each way.
Rome to/from FCO (airport), 50 Euro each way.
-
PSU,
Thank you. I have no idea why I missed that. I did email them.
Tony O,
The cost for my wife and I, 4 large suitcases and 2 carry ons, from the port to our hotel in Rome is 130 Euros. It is cash only, payable when you arrive at your destination. Figure a tip and you are looking at 150 Euros give or take.
Expensive? Probably, but they have gotten good reviews here at Cruise Critic, and I would rather spend a bit more and be sure. We are both in out late 60's with minor locomotion issues, so schlepping our luggage any distance is not something we would do if we can aviod it at all.
But since we plan on winning the final Bingo and hitting the slots for a large amount, should not be a problem :-D
Thanks again,
Sid1962
Hmmm. I was wondering how much to tip. We'll be using RomeCabs next month to go from our hotel near the Pantheon to FCO. Fixed rate is 50 Euros. Not a lot of baggage. I was guessing 5 Euros? But, maybe 10 Euros?
-
3-pin, inline. The center pin is ground. Make sure your charger is 110/220 volts.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
venicelink.com does offer private water taxi and they are cheaper than motoscafi
That's not really a true/honest statement about VeniceLinks.com. Normally it's 110 Euro for a private water taxi from Marco Polo to a hotel in Venice, but there is a discount/sale on for 95 Euro "if" you per-book online, otherwise it's 110 Euro.
If you need a water taxi from Marco Polo to the cruise ship dock the price is 105 Euro if you pre-book online, otherwise the price is 120 Euro.
So yes, VeniceLinks.com "could" be cheaper, but they must book online and they must do it before VeniceLinks eliminates the discount for booking online. I'll leave it up to the OP to read the reviews and make the appropriate decision.
So, when you stated "they are cheaper than motoscafi", you should have add "if you book online" and "while they are offering the book online discount".
-
I booked and payed for the VeniceLink Shared In Water Taxi, fom Marco Polo Airport to the Hilton Molino Stucky Hotel Dock, which cost me 42 Euro for 2 of us:
For a larger party, you might consider a private water taxi:
http://motoscafivenezia.it/eng/
Looks like they offer a 10% discount for round trip.
Although a number of companies offer Private Water Taxi's (PWT), if I was going to use a PWT, I'd use Motoscafi for two reasons: the good reviews (check TripAdvisor & Cruise Critic) and the are cheaper.
On the day of our cruise, we'll take the Alilaguna Blue from the Hilton to the cruse ship dock. 16 Euro for the 2 of us (14 Euro if I pre-pay).
-
While this is an option, you will pay more for this service than if you use an ATM machine.
Using the 700€ as an example, you paid based off of the Wells Fargo rate for this service = $1019.82
Using 700€ at a European ATM with the 3% + $5.00 surcharge = $1002.86
Actually it cost me $1028. I will get additional Euro's out of ATM machines using one of my CU debit cards, which will cost me the 1% Visa/MC charge. I need the Euro's when we get to Venice and won't have time to run around looking ATM's, so the extra 2% charge was an acceptable convenience charge.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
-
You can also use Wells Fargo to purchase Euro's in the states before you go. You can have them over-nite the Euro's or you can pick them up locally, which is what we did last week. We picked-up 700 Euro's to get use by. Don't use your credit card in the European ATM machine, use a debit/ATM card. If you use a bank debit card, your going to get charged 3%. If you use a credit union debit card it's only 1%.
https://www.foreignexchangeservices.com/index.html?partnerid=FES&serviceType=rate
-
If you do a search on the board you will find a lot of info on this subject.
Providing a link or two would be a lot more useful than the usual sarcastic, easy to type, "do a search".
I found a few threads, from 2013, that discussed tipping the higher priced limo tours, usually running about 500 euros. I didn't find anything about tipping the lower priced tours offered by companies like Walks-of-Italy, that are between 80 to 100 euros. Up until reading this post, I didn't give any thought to tipping the employee tour guide. I guess 5 euro for me and the DW, or maybe 5 euro/person?
-
Ron, deals are available at other times in Europe than in North America. Also, we do not get options like price drop or free cancellation.
My cruise is a European cruise. It's a Royal Caribbean cruise from Venice to/from Greece for 7 nites. There has been no deals offered or advertised. No price drops. No free cancelations. No ship board credits. No nothing. I booked the cruise when it was first advertised on the RCCL web site last year for about $3900 for a JS for 2. Last time I looked the price was about $7000 US dollars. The price never went down, just up, up, and away.
Sent from my iPad Retina using Tapatalk
Athens/Piraeus for a First Timer.
in Greece Ports
Posted · Edited by Ron98GT
Your opinion, but I STRONGLY DISAGREE with it. The DW & I rode the "Hop On/Off" in Athens this last May, we enjoyed it, & glad we did it. We got on/off very close to where the shipped docked. No problems getting on/off at different stops. No problems with traffic. Plenty of room on the bus to relax. It may not be for you, but we've done HO/HO bus tours in many cities around the world and have always enjoyed them.
So, if you've done an HO/HO somewhere else and enjoyed it, do it in Athens. If you tried a HO/HO tour before and didn't like - don't do it in Athens. That simple.
Taking the subway system would have been a real PIA, a waste of time, & I'm glad we didn't attempt it: my opinion, that simple.