Detailed Photo Review of Carnival Sunshine 12-Night Mediterranean Cruise 9/8/13

[deladane]

Did you book a tour guide in advance or just find one when exiting the ship? i am looking forward to Pompeii more than anything else.

 

. What about other ports?

 

We are trying to decide if we want to book private tour excursions in advance or wait until we get off the ship. With my wife and kids there are 6 of us so we need a van and want private tours.

 

I'm not sure if your question is directed at pb19 or at me, but I'll answer anyway ;) The guides we used at both Pompeii and the Vatican were arranged through Rome in Limo, so they were waiting for us at the entrance doors when we arrived at each location. The guide from the Vatican actually called our driver's cell phone to verify our timing to be sure he was there when we arrived. It was very convenient and worth every penny!

[LargeCornGyro]

 

The vaporetto stops can be somewhat confusing. There are multiple floating docks at the stop location, and two or three vaporetto routes stop at each dock so you need to look for the numbers on top of the waiting area shelter to see which routes stop there. We intended to take the route that goes directly to Murano express with very few stops, but somehow ended up on the local route instead. No worries though- it got us to Murano eventually! Unfortunately, I never took a good photo of the vaporetto stops, but here is a photo I took while standing on the dock...

 

 

I had to laugh at this. We looked at this as more like a boat ride, with a terminus; not a stop. Of course, we ended up getting off one stop further than we were supposed to.

[LargeCornGyro]

Nice shots, and nice "journey". Been a long time since I was in Venice or on this ship. She certainly has changed!

[deladane]

I had to laugh at this. We looked at this as more like a boat ride, with a terminus; not a stop. Of course, we ended up getting off one stop further than we were supposed to.

 

Maybe it's because I lived in Manhattan for a few years, but I equated it to a subway on the water. I even used my old skills of weight shifting side to side to keep my balance like I used to do on the subways haha Subways have "stops" so that's why I thought of it like that :) Either way, it was an interesting experience haha

[LargeCornGyro]

Maybe it's because I lived in Manhattan for a few years, but I equated it to a subway on the water. I even used my old skills of weight shifting side to side to keep my balance like I used to do on the subways haha Subways have "stops" so that's why I thought of it like that :) Either way, it was an interesting experience haha

 

I'm a D train rider myself. Translated to DUH! :)

 

But I did end up buying a nice chandelier there from my mistake.

[deladane]

Thursday, September 12th - Athens, Greece

 

Today was the first of many early port days, so I woke up to my alarm at 6:15am, got dressed, and ate breakfast up on Lido with a beautiful sunrise as my backdrop.

 

 

 

We were originally supposed to be able to get off the ship starting at 7am, but it was delayed until 7:45am. Luckily, that didn't impact us much because we were already planning to meet our tour group at 7:45 in the lobby anyway. Once all 12 of us were together, we went down to deck 0 and met our tour guide Kaliope (Kali for short) in the cruise terminal. There's always something reassuring when you first see that sign with your group's name and knowing that the guide you booked privately actually showed up haha Kali spoke perfect English and was an excellent guide. She went with us into every attraction, while our driver Nicos stayed with the van so he could drop of off and pick us up at the front entrance to each site.

 

We loaded up into the van and drove directly to the Acropolis in an attempt to beat the crowds, as there were 7 ships in port today! We arrived at the Acropolis by 8:45am and there were very few people ahead of us in the line to buy tickets.

 

 

The tickets cost 12 Euros per person, and included entrance to the Acropolis, Ancient Agora, and the Temple of Zeus. Kali escorted us all over the Acropolis, stopping many times to explain what we were looking at and to give us time to take photos.

 

 

 

[deladane]

I took hundreds of photos of the Acropolis, the Parthenon, the panoramic views, and all the other sites. Let's see if I can narrow this down to the best handful of shots...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

 

 

 

You can see in this photo that the crowds were starting to build as we spent our time exploring the Acropolis...

 

 

By the time we were ready to leave at 10:45am, there were thousands of people walking up the hill and narrow stairs to enter, so we were really glad we arrived early!

 

 

 

Luckily, Kali had a skill for weaving through the crowds (sometimes against traffic!) and we eventually escaped out to the entrance. The problem was that Nicos couldn't drive the van up to meet us because of all the big tour buses and heavy traffic, so we had to walk a short distance down the hill to meet him.

[cruiseman111111]

Very GOOD Review...GREAT Photos...

 

Venice was GREAT wasn't it...

 

Jim

[pghsteelerfan]

I know you're still working on this, but I have to let you know how much I'm enjoying it and all of your beautiful pictures. I remember reading your Victory review this past January while we were in the very early stages of planning our cruise, same itinerary, but on Valor. We'd seen pictures of Sapphire Beach in other reviews but we were hesitant to go since we didn't know if it would be easy to get a taxi back to the port, but your review put my mind to ease, I showed DH the pictures and that's where we spent the day. Loved it!

 

We don't have any future cruises booked at this time and a European cruise will be years off, so I'm really enjoying seeing Europe through your review. Your pictures are spectacular!

[deladane]

Very GOOD Review...GREAT Photos...

 

Venice was GREAT wasn't it...

 

Jim

 

Thanks Jim!

 

 

I know you're still working on this, but I have to let you know how much I'm enjoying it and all of your beautiful pictures. I remember reading your Victory review this past January while we were in the very early stages of planning our cruise, same itinerary, but on Valor. We'd seen pictures of Sapphire Beach in other reviews but we were hesitant to go since we didn't know if it would be easy to get a taxi back to the port, but your review put my mind to ease, I showed DH the pictures and that's where we spent the day. Loved it!

 

We don't have any future cruises booked at this time and a European cruise will be years off, so I'm really enjoying seeing Europe through your review. Your pictures are spectacular!

 

Wow, thank you! That's very nice of you to say :) I still say Sapphire Beach was the most beautiful beach I have ever seen, so I'm glad you got to experience it too!! When I first got home from that cruise, I didn't think I'd be able to take a European cruise like this either, but then I thought... why not?? I'm so glad I made it happen, and I hope you will get to take one soon too!

[deladane]

After a short drive, we arrived at our next stop, the Temple of Zeus. We re-used our same ticket from the Acropolis and there was no line to enter. Kali escorted us to the only small area of shade as she explained the history of the site, and then we had some time to take photos. By the time we left, there was a huge line to enter because a tour bus had arrived, so we had some pretty good timing thus far!

 

 

 

 

Our next stop was the Ancient Panathenaic Stadium.

 

 

 

We got back on the bus and drove through Athens to the Prime Minister's and President's house just in time to watch the changing of the guards. It was very impressive how well Kali and Nicos timed all of our stops so we arrived just at the right time everywhere we went!

 

[deladane]

Up next, we drove through the city center and the Plaka to see the market area. We got off the van and walked through the market to eat lunch slightly off the main strip at Hermion Restaurant (per Kali's recommendation).

 

 

 

 

We were bummed that we didn't have time to shop at all the stores we walked passed, but the lunch was very good. I ordered pork souvlaki with a side of tzatziki sauce (my favorite!) The restaurant had a pretty outdoor seating area in the shade, and they were willing to do separate checks (although they had some trouble processing our credit cards!)

 

 

 

[fuddrules]

Did you book a tour guide in advance or just find one when exiting the ship? i am looking forward to Pompeii more than anything else.

 

. What about other ports?

 

We are trying to decide if we want to book private tour excursions in advance or wait until we get off the ship. With my wife and kids there are 6 of us so we need a van and want private tours.

 

I would book ahead with Rome-In-Limo (RIL) and book the guides through them as well for Pompei and the Vatican. With a party of 6, I would book their Van for 8 and then advertise for 2 more on your roll call board and/or set up a group at RIL for each tour with 2 openings. It will help maximize your dollars and the 2 add ons would pay say....25% of the cost.

 

If you're new to visiting these places (I was) and you want to maximize your time (I did), this a a great (but pricey) way to go. The guides make a world of difference at each place.

Edited October 7, 2013 by fuddrules

[deladane]

After lunch, we continued walking through the city center until we reached the Ancient Agora. We used our combo tickets once more to enter this site, and Kali walked us through to explain everything we saw.

 

 

 

 

 

Remember that temple I showed earlier from the view at the Acropolis? Well that is the best-preserved temple in Athens, and it is located down in the Agora, so we got to get up close to it.

 

 

[deladane]

Our next stop was a half hour drive up to the top of a hill which offered incredible panoramic views of the entire city.

 

 

It was a nice way to round out the day because we had views of all the places we had just visited up close, but I'm not really sure that it was worth such a long detour. By the time we got back down the hill and arrived at the shopping area, it was 3:30pm. Kali suggested we could have 20 minutes to shop, but our all aboard time was 4:30pm and we still had to drive back out to the port and were afraid there might be traffic considering there were 7 cruise ships docked today. We decided it wasn't worth 20 frantic minutes of shopping to risk possibly missing the ship, so we opted to just drive straight back to the ship. Had I known how the timing would work out, I probably would have preferred to skip the scenic overlook to have more time shopping. Oh well! On the drive back, we passed a few of the venues built for the 2004 Olympics.

 

 

We got back to the port at 4pm and spent a few minutes shopping at the duty free stores in the terminal. Then we got back on the ship and got ready for dinner at 6pm.

 

Dinner Menu:

 

Prosciutto Ruffles

 

Sushi

 

Penne Mariscos

[deladane]

Dessert Menu

 

Warm Fig, Date, and Cinnamon Cake (one of my favorite desserts of the cruise... it was soooooo good!!)

 

Strawberry Cheesecake (it was disappointing)

 

After dinner, mom played a game of bingo (and sadly, she did not win) and then we watched the magician. He was not very good... he repeated the same jokes over and over to fill his hour on stage, so he was funny the first time he did the trick but not every time there after. We then went back to the cabin to unwind and get ready for our next day in Izmir, Turkey!

 

[sjn911]

Such a thrill to read your reviews Deladane and this one is just wondrous..thanks so much...sarah

[Green4me]

Awesome cruise and even better review, Thanks for sharing :)

[swammie511]

dana- I just wanted to let you know how fabulous your review is. We did the 9 day itinerary in June and I am reliving some of the ports we went to through your words and pictures. I tell myself each trip that I will take notes and post a review but I lack your discipline. Do you take notes throughout the day or just recap events each evening?

 

It's truly unfortunate that Carnival is departing Europe next year-it was a wonderful adventure. Cheers. pat

[deladane]

Such a thrill to read your reviews Deladane and this one is just wondrous..thanks so much...sarah

Thank you!

 

 

Awesome cruise and even better review, Thanks for sharing :)

Thanks! :)

 

 

dana- I just wanted to let you know how fabulous your review is. We did the 9 day itinerary in June and I am reliving some of the ports we went to through your words and pictures. I tell myself each trip that I will take notes and post a review but I lack your discipline. Do you take notes throughout the day or just recap events each evening?

 

It's truly unfortunate that Carnival is departing Europe next year-it was a wonderful adventure. Cheers. pat

 

After we got back to the cabin after the shows or whatever we did at night, my mom had to check in with her business, so I used that time to upload my photos to my iPad (in case my SD card ever broke, I wanted to have a back up on my iPad too), and I wrote fairly detailed notes from that day in my trip journal. When I did my review from my Victory cruise in December, I was not nearly as diligent, but that itinerary didn't need as many details for the review- we just went to different beaches every day haha With this crazy Europe itinerary, I knew I had to force myself to take notes every night or there would be no chance I would remember all the details to write a review like this. I too am sad that Carnival has pulled out of Europe for 2014, but hopefully they'll realize their mistake and go back again in 2015!

[deladane]

Friday, September 13 - Izmir, Turkey

 

Uh oh! It's Friday the 13th!! Good thing nothing scary happened today. I woke up to my alarm at 6:15am, got dressed and went up to Lido for my usual breakfast. When I got to the omelet line, it was way too long for my limited patience, so I went in search of an alternative and found the breakfast burrito bar just as it was opening at 7am! I am very happy to have found it because this was the first of many mornings when I ate here.

 

 

 

 

There was another beautiful sunrise this morning as I ate.

 

 

 

Like yesterday, we booked a private tour with 11 people from our Cruise Critic roll call. We met the group at 7:45 in the lobby and exited the ship together by 8am. As we got off the ship, they handed us a paper from customs which we had to return when we got back to the ship that afternoon. Everyone was unsure of how things would work because Turkey is not part of the European Union like most of our other ports were, but it turned out that we did NOT need our passports to get on or off the ship. However, the form did ask for our passport numbers, so it was a good thing we had them in our purses! We actually opted to always carry our passports hidden in a secure pocket of our bags when we were off the ship, just in case we ever did not get back in time (which luckily never happened and we never needed our passports during the cruise).

 

Anyway, back to the tour... We met our tour guide Bill in the cruise terminal. Bill spoke English well and was very informative and funny, although he had a tough act to follow as Kali was so great yesterday in Athens. We were unsure if we would even be able to dock in Turkey because of the crisis and the travel alerts for the Eastern side of the country, but I was glad we went because I never felt unsafe in the touristy areas of the West coast.

 

We drove 1 hour on the highway in our large air conditioned van through the countryside to Ephesus. Bill talked a lot about the history of Turkey and the current political and religious situations. We passed the ruins of Ephesus a little after 9am and noticed hardly anyone was there. I kind of wished we just stopped there because it would have been nice to see it when it wasn't crowded and hot outside yet, but Bill said our first stop would be the House of the Virgin Mary.

 

[deladane]

Several big tour buses were already there when we arrived, so there was a 30 minute wait to enter the house. The ladies went to use the restroom while the men waited in line... they had possibly the best restroom sign I've ever seen. Notice her facial expression...

 

 

We spent some more time waiting in line, and then finally got to walk through the house. It was small and quaint, but no photos were allowed inside so I only got to take photos on the grounds.

 

 

 

 

 

[deladane]

 

After we walked through the house, we had 15 minutes to shop at the little stores on the grounds.

 

 

 

 

 

We met up with Bill at 10am and got back in the van to head back to Ephesus.

 

[Captain Carnival]

 

 

I can see the wishes we left here in May!!!! :D