LIVE From the Ruby Princess - Our European Adventure - July 4th to 16th

[jkocpa]

Thanks for posting this thread. I love following along (I am in cruise-withdrawal mode having returned June 7 from Alaska and not heading out on my next cruise until nov.28). YOu have a wonderful sense of humor which makes the posts very entertaining.

 

Plus, we visited many of these ports last year, so it will be fun to compare your experiences to ours.

My husband loved Venice more than I, but then, he loved the fact that it was flooding when we were there in Nov - me, not so much.

 

Enjoy! And keep posting.

[jkocpa]

First of all I wanted to thank you from a fellow Ontarian - Chatham to be precise - Love following your thread. My wife of 2 days and I are eagerly anticipating our Cruise leaving from Barcelona on the 16th!!

 

My question to you is:

 

In Mykonos, is there transportation provided by either the cruise ship or locally by bus from the port where you dock to the town of mykonos if you don't take a "tour" booked by princess ... i.e. doing in on our own?

 

I have heard taxi's are very limited and I am considering renting a car or a scooter for the afternoon to see both the town but more importantly to get to the beaches we want to see without losing a lot of time waiting for the infrequent buses.

 

Thanks again

 

We were in Mykonos last fall on the Grand. There is a shuttle bus provided by Princess that runs from the ship into town. (I think it was something like $5 round trip.) But, you can also walk along the beach and the road into town. It is only about 1 1/2 miles and very scenic. We walked, and saw mountain goats in the hills above the road. Very easy level walk....just be careful on the road portion for the buses zooming by.

[Pia1913]

We were in Mykonos last fall on the Grand. There is a shuttle bus provided by Princess that runs from the ship into town. (I think it was something like $5 round trip.) But, you can also walk along the beach and the road into town. It is only about 1 1/2 miles and very scenic. We walked, and saw mountain goats in the hills above the road. Very easy level walk....just be careful on the road portion for the buses zooming by.

 

We were just there in May. What easy level walk are you talking about? If you are docked and not tendering. the walk is uphill. on winding roads with no sidewalks. It's quite dangerous with vehicles coming very close and you having no where to go. We did it and wouldn't do it again.

[jkocpa]

We were just there in May. What easy level walk are you talking about? If you are docked and not tendering. the walk is uphill. on winding roads with no sidewalks. It's quite dangerous with vehicles coming very close and you having no where to go. We did it and wouldn't do it again.

 

Much of the walk was along the beach. Then, when we had to go to the road, I would not have said uphill....maybe slight incline (and slight downhill coming back to the ship.) With spots to sit along the wall if need be. You are correct, no sidewalks. But, a shoulder along the road, just have to walk single file. And, the road part was barely half the walk. If the person who posted the original question wants, I can e-mail him pictures of the walk to show him.

[teetee91477]

I recently ran into this problem at a waterpark. The park had very few chairs but at the end of the day me and my 3 girlfriends (all 21) wanted to lay out together before driving home. We found 4 chairs next to each other that were no occupied. When we sat in them an elderly lady turned around to tell us that was her daughters chair. We told her that saving chairs is not allowed or fair. Luckily the girl she was arguing with has a lot of class and did not say rude words back to the lady after she told us to have respect yet than called my friend a b****. She than proceeded to speak this same way when her family came back for a minute. It was awkward and luckily it wasn't me who the woman cussed at because I am not so great at holding my tongue. :D. (I almost got into a physical fight with a 34 yr old woman at the Eclipse (Twilight premiere, I have never actually been in a fight I just hate rude people). I will be on this cruise starting the 16th and I am warning you all now: Move your feet, lose your seat. I will be sitting in fake occupied seats whenever I feel the need. If the person comes back to the seat and ask for it back there is a great likely hood that I will give the seat back, it just really bothers me when they are not being occupied at all but are being taken up. I guess if I get a lot of enemies at least I have 20 family members on the cruise with me. We will be a big group with ages ranging from 13-70. I'll be one of the only 21 yr olds from what I've read but I am still very excited. :).

Haha this post is quite longer than I expected I've been reading stuff on here for a while and never expected to post.

 

I'll be on this cruise with you! I totally agree! I'm 32 and love to lay out in the sun, so if I see that there are towels everywhere and nobody in the pool, I feel like I have the right to tell a deck worker or move the towels myself. I'm kind of hoping that most of the people on the cruise will not want to be in the sun anyway! :D We will have to hang out one night, since I will be with my two older aunts and they will be sleepy very early!

[suenruss]

Hope you're having another really great day Kimmer (and wife!), I'm enjoying following you and I keep reading bits out to my husband who is a 'secondary lurker' on this forum - ie: he gets all the info from me : )

 

Could you tell me if you have noticed much of a problem with cigarette smoke - I've read on another post that it was quite bad in some of the corridors etc.

(Before anyone starts the smoking/non smoking argument - it's only a general question).

[waterski12001]

I recently ran into this problem at a waterpark. The park had very few chairs but at the end of the day me and my 3 girlfriends (all 21) wanted to lay out together before driving home. We found 4 chairs next to each other that were no occupied. When we sat in them an elderly lady turned around to tell us that was her daughters chair. We told her that saving chairs is not allowed or fair. Luckily the girl she was arguing with has a lot of class and did not say rude words back to the lady after she told us to have respect yet than called my friend a b****. She than proceeded to speak this same way when her family came back for a minute. It was awkward and luckily it wasn't me who the woman cussed at because I am not so great at holding my tongue. :D. (I almost got into a physical fight with a 34 yr old woman at the Eclipse (Twilight premiere, I have never actually been in a fight I just hate rude people). I will be on this cruise starting the 16th and I am warning you all now: Move your feet, lose your seat. I will be sitting in fake occupied seats whenever I feel the need. If the person comes back to the seat and ask for it back there is a great likely hood that I will give the seat back, it just really bothers me when they are not being occupied at all but are being taken up. I guess if I get a lot of enemies at least I have 20 family members on the cruise with me. We will be a big group with ages ranging from 13-70. I'll be one of the only 21 yr olds from what I've read but I am still very excited. :).

Haha this post is quite longer than I expected I've been reading stuff on here for a while and never expected to post.

 

Hey Vic,

 

just thought I would chime in to let you know if any of your 20 are not around my wife and I got your back :D That has to be the rudest thing I have heard of in a while... sitting on one side of the deck while saving a seat on the other for later... just begging to be ragged on.

 

See you on the 16th

[waterski12001]

Much of the walk was along the beach. Then, when we had to go to the road, I would not have said uphill....maybe slight incline (and slight downhill coming back to the ship.) With spots to sit along the wall if need be. You are correct, no sidewalks. But, a shoulder along the road, just have to walk single file. And, the road part was barely half the walk. If the person who posted the original question wants, I can e-mail him pictures of the walk to show him.

 

That's very nice of you to offer and I would greatly appreciate the pictures to look at :):)

 

jarrod.denure@gmail.com

 

Thanks again

[Kimmer17]

Day 3 – Athens

Exhaustion…..perspiration…..frustration….Athens!

Our day began with a 7:00 wake up call. After breakfast and a water purchase, we met our tour at the Explorers Lounge. It was quite easy, and well organized as we were given a group number upon arrival (along with a lovely red sticker), and herded out to the busses.

Now although we are on a cruise ship, in a foreign country, and signed up for a tour, Kim and I hate to feel like tourists. I don’t have much interest in just seeing things….I want to experience them, if that makes any sense. Alas, there was no way around this today. Our trip began with a delay, and travel on the very busy streets of Athens. Our guide was very nice, and informative, but we were an hour behind schedule even before we began.

As we headed to the Acropolis, I couldn’t help but notice that Athens gives the impression of a dirty city. I could not get over the amount of graffiti everywhere. Rarely did I see a building, or storefront (or bridge, or highway median, or ancient relics!!!!!) without some graffiti on it. We found the roads a little scary to be on. It seemed like a total free for all with the other multitude of cars and motorcycles.

Our tour guide tried to keep us together as we headed up to see the Acropolis. I have never seen so many people trying to move through a line in my life. I had heard that the Acropolis can be busy, but the crowds were overwhelming. To make things even more difficult, the line was not really organized. Essentially, the entrance and the exit are one place, with multitudes of people crossing the rope barriers keeping them apart. At one point as we slowly made our way up the multitude of steps and inclines, the line narrowed to a width that maybe 3 people could walk up at a time. It was here that people at the top were getting sick of waiting to come down, and crossed into the up line, clogging it even further. What a mess.

Once at the top, the ruins are quite spectacular. Unfortunately, to keep our schedule going, we only had about 10 minutes to explore the actual ruins. It was all very rushed, and as a result, we didn’t really get a chance to experience it. Getting down was even more difficult that getting up. It took us over 40 minutes to get out, and then climb down to the bottom. Again, the delays made us much more behind schedule.

We then drove to the Plaka to do some shopping. While Kim and I found some really neat shops in there, we really didn’t have enough time to explore. We would have loved to have just sit there in a café for a while and people watch over a drink. The shops in the Plaka strictly cater to tourists, with a great many selling typical tacky tourist items.

After the Plaka, we were taken to the President Hotel, where we were offered a decent buffet of Greek food. While neither of us are very entranced by buffet’s, it did the trick, feeding at least 10 busses full of people. The hotel looked quite nice, btw.

After lunch we loaded back on to the bus for a long drive (at least an hour) along the coast of Greece to the Temple of Poseidon. The coast drive was beautiful, passing by nice beaches and resorts along the way. The Temple itself was quite impressive, with small crowds, and lots of room for checking things out. Again, it was unfortunate that we didn’t have a lot of time there (maybe 20 minutes). I would re-think this tour if I were to do it again.

We returned the hour and ten minutes back to the boat, and our Athens tour was complete. By the numbers….Tour ran from 9:30 to 6:30 (9 hours total)….time eating lunch was around 30 minutes….time viewing the Acropolis and Temple was about 40 minutes…..time waiting in line was about 2 hours…..time shopping was about 40 minutes….time in the bus was about 5 hours. Not our cup of tea. Most of the other people I spoke with tonight had similar opinions. We are already re-thinking our tour schedule a little bit.

Anyways, from then on, we had a great, relaxing evening. We got back and showered and relaxed for a bit. I went down and played in a Texas Hold em tournament (2nd place, btw….please….again…hold the applause and accolades). Second place seems to be a bit of a theme for me thus far. Kim had a delightful couple of hours hanging out at the sushi bar, eating sushi and drinking some wine. She met me in the Casino, and we both played some three card poker (much better night tonight….muahahahaha). We watched the end of the soccer game, had a late night snack at the buffet, and off to bed we go.

We are looking forward to Ephesus tomorrow. Ciao.

[EAGLESLOVER]

Enjoying your posts VERY MUCH; we had a similar experience on a princess excursion in Athens. Now we try to book private tours on our cruises.

[Flyer]

You just don't know how valuable your comments are to us. We share many of the same feelings and will look much closer when we are able to make our excursion reservations for Athens. Keep the excellent comments coming. Our best wishes that you continue to have a great time in spite of the few things that may not suit you. Enjoy tomorrow!

[drdede]

Hi Kimmer....Thanks for this live report. Like Kevin and several others, we are on the Ruby starting Aug 9th Rome to Venice.

 

Look forward to reading you each day.

 

My question is about internet access. Is it available in the cabins? Around the ship? Or only in the computer lounge?

 

 

Thanks for any info.

 

 

Doris/Bill

[Pia1913]

Hi Kimmer....Thanks for this live report. Like Kevin and several others, we are on the Ruby starting Aug 9th Rome to Venice.

 

Look forward to reading you each day.

 

My question is about internet access. Is it available in the cabins? Around the ship? Or only in the computer lounge?

 

 

Thanks for any info.

 

 

Doris/Bill

 

We were on the Ruby for 40 days; 4/19 to 5/29. Internet available everywhere. I did a LIVE and never took my netbook off the desk in my cabin.

[J&Jtravelcouple]

 

My question is about internet access. Is it available in the cabins? Around the ship? Or only in the computer lounge?

 

From the Princess web site:

 

Internet access is available on all Princess vessels through our 24-hour onboard Internet Cafe and wireless network -- which is available in staterooms and various public areas including our world famous Piazzas.*

Use our state-of-the-art computer systems to access your web-based email account, or browse the Internet for world news, sports and stock trading. Or bring your wireless-enabled laptop and access the Internet through our onboard wireless network.

Passengers who subscribe to email services from an Internet Service Provider (ISP) are advised to verify that their ISP has a web-mail viewing site prior to sailing. Most major ISPs have websites that allow email access via a web browser using an email address and password.

Please contact the Internet Café Manager onboard for information regarding the charges that apply to Internet and wireless services and any other specific requirements.

Plus – Platinum and Elite Captain’s Circle members benefit from credit toward Internet Café packages while full suite passengers also enjoy complimentary Internet access.

* Internet access via satellite is significantly slower than high-speed connections on shore. Princess Cruises reserves the right to filter content accessed via the ship's Internet services. Please note high bandwidth consuming applications such as voice over IP telephony, peer-to-peer file sharing and streaming media may be restricted onboard Princess vessels.

 

 

http://www.princess.com/learn/faq_answer/onboard/in_touch.jsp

[ljw01]

Hi-

Glad to hear you're enjoying the cruise. We leave Aug 9th.

How did you book chairs at the sanctuary?

[Jeniceves]

Day 3 – Athens

Exhaustion…..perspiration…..frustration….Athens!

Our day began with a 7:00 wake up call. After breakfast and a water purchase, we met our tour at the Explorers Lounge. It was quite easy, and well organized as we were given a group number upon arrival (along with a lovely red sticker), and herded out to the busses.

Now although we are on a cruise ship, in a foreign country, and signed up for a tour, Kim and I hate to feel like tourists. I don’t have much interest in just seeing things….I want to experience them, if that makes any sense. Alas, there was no way around this today. Our trip began with a delay, and travel on the very busy streets of Athens. Our guide was very nice, and informative, but we were an hour behind schedule even before we began.

As we headed to the Acropolis, I couldn’t help but notice that Athens gives the impression of a dirty city. I could not get over the amount of graffiti everywhere. Rarely did I see a building, or storefront (or bridge, or highway median, or ancient relics!!!!!) without some graffiti on it. We found the roads a little scary to be on. It seemed like a total free for all with the other multitude of cars and motorcycles.

Our tour guide tried to keep us together as we headed up to see the Acropolis. I have never seen so many people trying to move through a line in my life. I had heard that the Acropolis can be busy, but the crowds were overwhelming. To make things even more difficult, the line was not really organized. Essentially, the entrance and the exit are one place, with multitudes of people crossing the rope barriers keeping them apart. At one point as we slowly made our way up the multitude of steps and inclines, the line narrowed to a width that maybe 3 people could walk up at a time. It was here that people at the top were getting sick of waiting to come down, and crossed into the up line, clogging it even further. What a mess.

Once at the top, the ruins are quite spectacular. Unfortunately, to keep our schedule going, we only had about 10 minutes to explore the actual ruins. It was all very rushed, and as a result, we didn’t really get a chance to experience it. Getting down was even more difficult that getting up. It took us over 40 minutes to get out, and then climb down to the bottom. Again, the delays made us much more behind schedule.

We then drove to the Plaka to do some shopping. While Kim and I found some really neat shops in there, we really didn’t have enough time to explore. We would have loved to have just sit there in a café for a while and people watch over a drink. The shops in the Plaka strictly cater to tourists, with a great many selling typical tacky tourist items.

After the Plaka, we were taken to the President Hotel, where we were offered a decent buffet of Greek food. While neither of us are very entranced by buffet’s, it did the trick, feeding at least 10 busses full of people. The hotel looked quite nice, btw.

After lunch we loaded back on to the bus for a long drive (at least an hour) along the coast of Greece to the Temple of Poseidon. The coast drive was beautiful, passing by nice beaches and resorts along the way. The Temple itself was quite impressive, with small crowds, and lots of room for checking things out. Again, it was unfortunate that we didn’t have a lot of time there (maybe 20 minutes). I would re-think this tour if I were to do it again.

We returned the hour and ten minutes back to the boat, and our Athens tour was complete. By the numbers….Tour ran from 9:30 to 6:30 (9 hours total)….time eating lunch was around 30 minutes….time viewing the Acropolis and Temple was about 40 minutes…..time waiting in line was about 2 hours…..time shopping was about 40 minutes….time in the bus was about 5 hours. Not our cup of tea. Most of the other people I spoke with tonight had similar opinions. We are already re-thinking our tour schedule a little bit.

Anyways, from then on, we had a great, relaxing evening. We got back and showered and relaxed for a bit. I went down and played in a Texas Hold em tournament (2nd place, btw….please….again…hold the applause and accolades). Second place seems to be a bit of a theme for me thus far. Kim had a delightful couple of hours hanging out at the sushi bar, eating sushi and drinking some wine. She met me in the Casino, and we both played some three card poker (much better night tonight….muahahahaha). We watched the end of the soccer game, had a late night snack at the buffet, and off to bed we go.

We are looking forward to Ephesus tomorrow. Ciao.

 

Sorry to hear about this tour as we have this one booked. Another passenger said she thought the crowds had a lot to do with the strike tomorrow where everything will be closed. We, too, would rather not "tour" but visit a city. However, on a cruise, this isn't possible with the limited time. I think we will probably still do this tour and see what we can and hope to return some day to visit Athens over several days, not hours.

[JWBearsgirl15]

Day 3 – Athens

 

Exhaustion…..perspiration…..frustration….Athens!

 

Our day began with a 7:00 wake up call. After breakfast and a water purchase, we met our tour at the Explorers Lounge. It was quite easy, and well organized as we were given a group number upon arrival (along with a lovely red sticker), and herded out to the busses.

 

Now although we are on a cruise ship, in a foreign country, and signed up for a tour, Kim and I hate to feel like tourists. I don’t have much interest in just seeing things….I want to experience them, if that makes any sense. Alas, there was no way around this today. Our trip began with a delay, and travel on the very busy streets of Athens. Our guide was very nice, and informative, but we were an hour behind schedule even before we began.

 

As we headed to the Acropolis, I couldn’t help but notice that Athens gives the impression of a dirty city. I could not get over the amount of graffiti everywhere. Rarely did I see a building, or storefront (or bridge, or highway median, or ancient relics!!!!!) without some graffiti on it. We found the roads a little scary to be on. It seemed like a total free for all with the other multitude of cars and motorcycles.

 

Our tour guide tried to keep us together as we headed up to see the Acropolis. I have never seen so many people trying to move through a line in my life. I had heard that the Acropolis can be busy, but the crowds were overwhelming. To make things even more difficult, the line was not really organized. Essentially, the entrance and the exit are one place, with multitudes of people crossing the rope barriers keeping them apart. At one point as we slowly made our way up the multitude of steps and inclines, the line narrowed to a width that maybe 3 people could walk up at a time. It was here that people at the top were getting sick of waiting to come down, and crossed into the up line, clogging it even further. What a mess.

 

Once at the top, the ruins are quite spectacular. Unfortunately, to keep our schedule going, we only had about 10 minutes to explore the actual ruins. It was all very rushed, and as a result, we didn’t really get a chance to experience it. Getting down was even more difficult that getting up. It took us over 40 minutes to get out, and then climb down to the bottom. Again, the delays made us much more behind schedule.

We then drove to the Plaka to do some shopping. While Kim and I found some really neat shops in there, we really didn’t have enough time to explore. We would have loved to have just sit there in a café for a while and people watch over a drink. The shops in the Plaka strictly cater to tourists, with a great many selling typical tacky tourist items.

 

After the Plaka, we were taken to the President Hotel, where we were offered a decent buffet of Greek food. While neither of us are very entranced by buffet’s, it did the trick, feeding at least 10 busses full of people. The hotel looked quite nice, btw.

 

After lunch we loaded back on to the bus for a long drive (at least an hour) along the coast of Greece to the Temple of Poseidon. The coast drive was beautiful, passing by nice beaches and resorts along the way. The Temple itself was quite impressive, with small crowds, and lots of room for checking things out. Again, it was unfortunate that we didn’t have a lot of time there (maybe 20 minutes). I would re-think this tour if I were to do it again.

 

We returned the hour and ten minutes back to the boat, and our Athens tour was complete. By the numbers….Tour ran from 9:30 to 6:30 (9 hours total)….time eating lunch was around 30 minutes….time viewing the Acropolis and Temple was about 40 minutes…..time waiting in line was about 2 hours…..time shopping was about 40 minutes….time in the bus was about 5 hours. Not our cup of tea. Most of the other people I spoke with tonight had similar opinions. We are already re-thinking our tour schedule a little bit.

 

Anyways, from then on, we had a great, relaxing evening. We got back and showered and relaxed for a bit. I went down and played in a Texas Hold em tournament (2nd place, btw….please….again…hold the applause and accolades). Second place seems to be a bit of a theme for me thus far. Kim had a delightful couple of hours hanging out at the sushi bar, eating sushi and drinking some wine. She met me in the Casino, and we both played some three card poker (much better night tonight….muahahahaha). We watched the end of the soccer game, had a late night snack at the buffet, and off to bed we go.

 

We are looking forward to Ephesus tomorrow. Ciao.

 

 

Hello!

 

As I've said before - love your writing. Congrats on being the big winner! Well, almost the big winner.

 

Anyways - if you are heading to Capri and Naples, I am awaiting your post. We are having trouble finding out where we dock and I want to visit Pompeii terribly, but can't arrange anything private because . . . .we don't know where we're docking. :mad::confused:

 

Thanks for the heads up on Athens. I'm glad we didn't book a tour yet! We'll just find another way to see the Acropolis!

 

Have a sweet night!

[hmh60]

This has to be one of the best "Live From" threads that I have read. It is so nice to read what a first time cruiser sees compared to a seasoned cruiser. You are doing a great job!!! I am one of those seasoned cruisers and love the breath of fresh air. It seems that you are having a wonderful time and I hope the rest of your trip is as good as the first part. Thank you for taking us along.

[Woobstr112G]

Day 3 – Sea Day

 

What a wonderful day on the Ruby Princess. Nothingness can be so fulfilling sometimes, after the hustle and bustle of life back home. What did we do today? Plenty…and yet…well…nothing, really.

 

After spending the better part of our first two days surviving on little to no sleep, we spent our morning unaware of the time….asleep…in bed. After spending part of our night previously discussing where we wanted to eat our breakfast, our 11:30 arousal from bed made the discussion moot. We are directly below the pool deck, and thus far we haven’t heard any noise from above. Even if we did, it wouldn’t really bother us. We’re pretty easy to please.

 

After finally getting going, we decided to just grab a quick burger and fries at the poolside restaurant. They were pretty good…the fries are great. We were up too late to find anything remotely close to a good seat by the pool, so we decided to check out the boat a little more. It baffles me a little bit why people will drop a towel or a book on a chair, and expect it held for all eternity. A pretty selfish way to go about things, in my humble opinion. The chairs around the pool were, at best, half being used, but completely taken or reserved. We have decided to plan our Sanctuary use, and have went ahead and told them to rent out seats there today, as we weren’t going to use them. I don’t mean to vent(actually…it seems I do), and this is certainly a difficult thing for the crew to monitor. Some new friends of ours actually waited around the pool watching for chairs to open up. After about half an hour, they noticed two chairs that had towels on them, that had been vacant for the whole time. As soon as they went to move the towels to the side and sit for a while, a person came from another chair they had on the other side of the pool, and told them to leave, as the seats were accounted for. Later that afternoon, they noticed that same person in the chair, also noticing the sun had now moved to the other side of the pool. Not cool, in my opinion. Anyways, enough of that.

 

Wandering tends to lead to interesting things sometimes. Our journey took us up to the Sports deck, where there was a demonstration of the golf simulators. They look like a lot of fun. They had a little closest to the pin competition going there (Second place….btw…please hold the applause). We have enjoyed the spontaneity of the ship…finding things going on by chance. We then proceeded to the Casino for a little more Poker….we did better today…enough to play for a couple hours on house money.

 

We decided to wander around a bit more, and found a trivia game going on at the Wheelhouse Bar. We joined up with a nice father and son from Nor Cal. Alas, although we made the finals, I blew it for the team in the playoff. We had a good time, and, again, met some great people. I would say our ‘new friend’ count is up to about 15. We intend on knowing at least 100 by the time we get off the boat.

 

We went back to the room to get ourselves all gussed up for Formal night. Kim looked beautiful as always. We had 8:30 reservations at Da Vinci with the New Yawkers and the Hillbillies. We had a great meal and had more than a few laughs. After getting a couple pictures done, we got changed and headed up to watch the end of the Soccer game. The pool area was absolutely packed, so we worked our way up the levels, and had to sit on some stairs. There was no room even to stand. Of course, some gentleman who was sitting comfortably in a chair got up and came over to tell us he didn’t like that we were sitting on the edge of the stairs, even though we had been careful to leave room for people to go up and down. It’s amazing how territorial people get with common spaces.

 

After the game, we headed back up to Skywalkers for a last drink before bed. Again, lots of interesting people up there to chat with. We decided to get back to the room early (is 12:30 early?) to get some sleep for Athens tomorrow. We are doing a tour with Princess tomorrow(Acropolis/Plaka/Temple of Poseidon). I hope to have more great stories and information for all my loyal followers tomorrow. Although I know a little French, and a tad of Italian, I can’t say I know a single work of Greek (does Souvlaki count?). Ciao from the Sea of Crete.

 

Kimmer;

 

Sounds like an exhausting but great day. Thanks for the report.....:):):)

[boiledham]

Enjoying your posts VERY MUCH; we had a similar experience on a princess excursion in Athens. Now we try to book private tours on our cruises.

 

 

Private tours are the way to go!!! You are with maybe a group of 8- 10 and it is a fraction of the cost. The guides know how to avoid the "bus groups"! My group of 3 did all private tours last year on this itinerary and paid approx. $345/pp instead of the $1000+/pp on the Princess tours. Good luck! Even the bus from the ship into Istanbul proved to take way too long! The tram is the fastest way to get into Istanbul. It's still alot of fun! No matter what your seeing and doing stuff that you'd always dreamed about doing.:D

[drdede]

We were on the Ruby for 40 days; 4/19 to 5/29. Internet available everywhere. I did a LIVE and never took my netbook off the desk in my cabin.

 

Thanks for the info on the internet. Just want to hang in the room early in the AM to do email checks and messages, etc.

 

Pia, BTW loved your live reports from your two BTB cruises. Lots of great info for our cruise Aug 9 Rome-Venice. We'll all deliver messages for you to Generoso and team.

 

Doris and Bill

[teetee91477]

Sorry to hear about this tour as we have this one booked. Another passenger said she thought the crowds had a lot to do with the strike tomorrow where everything will be closed. We, too, would rather not "tour" but visit a city. However, on a cruise, this isn't possible with the limited time. I think we will probably still do this tour and see what we can and hope to return some day to visit Athens over several days, not hours.

 

We are doing this tour as well when we are in Athens. This is the only tour we have booked through Princess and did so because of all the turmoil going on over there. This way, if we can't dock in Athens for whatever reason, we will at least get a refund. We are doing private tours in Italy and Turkey based on other people's suggestions. Hopefully our tour will run a little bit smoother!

[teetee91477]

Hello!

 

As I've said before - love your writing. Congrats on being the big winner! Well, almost the big winner.

 

Anyways - if you are heading to Capri and Naples, I am awaiting your post. We are having trouble finding out where we dock and I want to visit Pompeii terribly, but can't arrange anything private because . . . .we don't know where we're docking. :mad::confused:

 

Thanks for the heads up on Athens. I'm glad we didn't book a tour yet! We'll just find another way to see the Acropolis!

 

Have a sweet night!

 

 

We booked private tours with Italy Limo (italycarservice.com). Josephine is who we have been talking to, and she is WONDERFUL! Just tell her what ship you are on and she will deal with where to pick you up and what ports you are in. It was very reasonable pricing to. We are doing this itinerary backwards, and for the 3 ports in Italy (Florence, Rome and Naples) for the 3 of us it was 1100 euros. Private car with driver at our disposal for the entire day...I think it's better pricing than booking anything with Princess.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the ongoing live!~!

 

[J&Jtravelcouple]

Thanks again Kimmer, sorry things were so hectic in Athens. I hope we all have better luck, and you have better luck with your next few tours.