Vineyard View

It seems to me that if they are “simplifying” sailing on them, why would they not just set the alcohol prices to include the tip? If you are going to be charged 20% regardless, just roll that into a new price list. If it is about the bartenders and servers getting tips, then just tip them out of the total collected. I don’t get the “premium” message in that whole piece.

Thank you ORV. Good to know about the terrace. I will check out the closest bar! Speaking of which, does it get crowded on sea days at the terrace with Concierge having unlimited access?

Thank you. The new Simply more program worked in our favor in a big way ($4k-$5k difference over SB same number of days concierge cabin, different bit pricier part of the Mediterranean generally, 1 month different sailing time), making the decision very difficult. The new pricing structure however, it’s all over the board how it’s affecting pricing and mostly increasing it. Regarding dogs, cruise lines in my opinion need to get their arms around this issue. Anyone can print from the internet that their dogs are service dogs, when in fact they are pets. It’s a sticky wicket with the ADA wording, but in this year alone, I have read about the “service dogs’ (aka spoiled pets and entitled owners), on Seabourn, Viking, and Oceania. In all cases it was an issue due to lack of training and disruption of passengers. Regarding the bus situation OP posted, I do not believe that you were by any means out of line. If someone knows they will hold everyone up, for a myriad of reasons, it seems the polite thing to let others go before them. Yet one of many reasons we avoid excursions.

We noticed that on our itinerary it wasn’t a big jump in price for the Concierge category. The aquamarine terrace looks really nice. And early booking for restaurants seemed appealing having found on Viking that it does make a difference - not sure about Oceania. Mauibabes, thank you for the cabin recommendations. I may go back to look at availability. It is nice to view from a different lens, so thanks for that. Question. Are you able to have a glass of wine on the Aquamarine terrace?

We’ve traveled in October in the Mediterranean. It was lovely. It was a favorite time of year other than Apr/early May. We generally stick with Spring now. The reason being that we’ve had a lot of wildfires the past number of years here. Three evacuations experienced, and one fire hitting our property in 2020 causing a lot of damage. We were gone during one and it it not something I want to repeat. That said, starting mid- later November we are more comfortable with this idea, but I was worried about weather. So this is helpful. Thank you all. I may have to re-think some ideas. I still love April travel though more so than May due to crowds.

Enymarsh did you get off on the islands or were you on the boat the entire time (except for that swim and how was the water late April).

Over 9600 pax on 5/27/24 Thank you for the suggestion marazul. Still pondering between the two itineraries, but that is sound advice. I suppose Santorini would be much like Venice was for us this May. Delightful during the mornings and then again starting mi-late afternoon and evenings.

Regarding cabins close to the concierge lounge. There were a couple right across from the lounge available on the itinerary we booked. I steered clear of them due to what I thought might me hall traffic noise/people talking. Was that an incorrect way to think? I think the retreat looks like a nice quiet place to escape sometimes?

That sounds like it would be lovely. November would be more difficult for us than spring, but I may need to look into that concept more as I read more. We’ve travelled a lot in Spring as that is our best time. We really do prefer earlier than this itinerary. I am not aware of a lot of small ship November itineraries though, so would need to do some homework. Thank you.

Thank you. Sounds like a lovely stay. I am not really looking for upscale shopping. We are more interested in exploring the historical character of where we are visiting. Thanks for the tip on Silas. If you were there for only a port day, what would be your top choices?

Thank you. I will look into this company and person. Really appreciate this. I am finding that private tour guides for a lot of ports are so much more difficult to locate than preC. I realize that many had to take a different career direction, but I sure do hope that these careers were financially stable enough that many start to come back soon. It was such a great way to see so many different places when we travelled.

Wow. I have always wanted to go to Santorini. We are looking at a trip next year end of May mix looked at cruise timetables for the port. The ship we are looking to is 1200 pax. There are three other ships in port that day. Total would be almost 9800 pax not counting tourists on ships. Kinda sounds like a nightmare to me. Pretty disappointed but I sure can’t impact that. It’s all part of making the decision to sail that itinerary or another

Thanks for the feedback. We were in the Mediterranean just into last month. We were mostly lucky in that a lot of the ports were not too bad that were very under the radar ones. I imagine it’s exploded since then. Thanks for the feedback. MSC sure impacted our Malta experience. Out of curiosity, where did you locate your private guide for Santorini? We generally trend that direction but found them difficult to locate in todays post C world for this last trip.

We are also in Nafplion on this itinerary. We’ve been there before and went to Mycenae that time. We were looking at doing Corinth as an option from there but haven’t decided. Thank you for the suggestion. I am sure we will get off for a bit. We went to both museums last time including Piraeus. Both were incredible. Thank you very much as always.

But in a way, that has changed somewhat with SM. With everyone having a credit, it would seem wise to jump on that earlier than later. That could change how the game is played by many

Well, Santorini sounds like a place we should have chosen to go long ago. What a shame that they do not control some of this crowding. Dubrovnik finally has and it in my opinion was a smart idea. to your point See_more, maybe there are some private tours available that will take you via boat round trip? I have thought of visiting Santorini for a long time, but this just does not sound like a good way to spend a lot of time. I really appreciate all this feedback and information. What about Palma de Mallorca? It has also been in my sites for some time. That said, if these places are better visited at a different time of year, it would be a good thing to know. I wish this itinerary was earlier in the year, but it is not. Athens. We spent several days their pre-cruise in the past. Kind of feel like we’ve been there, done that as far as the top things to do. With almost 10k cruise pax that day, does that sound like a ship day, or does anyone have suggestions that would be different? thanks much again

I started researching cruise timetables to understand better how many ships we will be in port with at some of the locations. I realize that may be just the case to always expect at a couple we have not been to (ie Santorini, Palma De Mallorca) but I was nonetheless a bit surprised. I also realize time of year has an impact (our sail date is 5/18 and 14 days), so maybe these places are better to visit at other times. Santorini will have 4 ships 9,900 pax, Palma de Mallorca 8,800 pax - these are the two I am most concerned with from an ability to enjoy them standpoint having never been. Barcelona, we have been to and stayed multiple times is embarkation (so not as concerned), but 5 ships, 13k+ pax. Rome, disembarkation so not as concerned, also been to, but six ships. Athens, we have been to, 9,640 pax so is it even worth revisiting and getting off the ship. Argostoli we have not been 3300 pax. Valletta we have been but 4130 pax. Several others have ships in port but not like these. I think I would mostly appreciate input as we have never been, would be on Palma de Mallorca, Santorini, and Argostoli. We experienced Malta with a big MSC ship this year and it was impactful - thank goodness it sailed early. Thank you

This is all great further information. We don’t participate in shore excursions, unless it is a port that for where we want to go we cannot find a private. With $1,000 SM credit, we would like to find smaller group offerings and are actually thinking that might be fun. Thanks for all this input. I will email my TA.

You are awesome. Thank you LHT. I would have thought that I could view these under my booking. I didn’t look under the general website. I appreciate this very much!

I am truly not being snarky or anything, just curious. Pre SM, what would you have used it for that you cannot use it for now with SM?

That is actually what I was trying to view - what is available. I cannot view any shore excursions let alone book them. It states that they are available 365 days prior, but maybe I am just not looking in the correct area. That said, under shore excursions, it doesn’t show a thing so IDK. But thank you for your response.

We booked an itinerary starting 5/18/24. I just went into our profile. It shows the SM excursion credit amount, however when I try to view what excursions are available, it states that “due to excursions restrictions, you cannot shop at this time”. Is this standard until “x” amount of days prior? Also, when would we be able to view what the offered excursions will be? We would really like to know what are the higher level excursions are that will be offered with this SM credit as we typically do not participate in ship excursions. From what I am told, there are small group excursions available for this credit, so we would be interested in those. Thank you

Probably on any ship on any cruise line! Love it!

I did see that about tubs we are A3 so should be good what I worry about is if the refurb isn’t done on time and we end up with #21 cancelled itinerary. Thanks for the information though. Good to know Jayne.

Renditions I saw looked like they are! Thanks for confirming that