Back from Venice!

[jessicalorene]

Hi everyone! Back from an awesome cruise from Venice to the Greek Islands and Turkey! I wanted to throw it out there in case anyone had any questions I could answer for them!

 

I stayed in Venice for two days, departed on Splendour of the Seas and we stopped in Dubrovnik Croatia, Kusadasi Turkey, Santorini and Katakolon Greece. BEAUTIFUL itinerary! :)

[eel]

Did you spend some time in Venice? Our cruise in September ends there and we are spending a few days there afterward. Looking for opinions on anything you did while there.

[scswift]

That's great to know. We are doing this itinerary in September. The last person who posted a review was not pleased with their cabin. I'm curious to know what category of cabin you were in and what you thought of it.

[jessicalorene]

Did you spend some time in Venice? Our cruise in September ends there and we are spending a few days there afterward. Looking for opinions on anything you did while there.

 

We did, our flight arrived Thursday and the cruise left Saturday. We didn't need more time than that unless you want to explore the surrounding area. I LOVED Venice and found it pretty relaxing and laid back even when touring. We did the Doge's Palace, San Marco Square, went to the island of Murano, took a Gondola ride and really just explored all the little narrow streets and shops. We also drank a ton of wine while people watching / admiring the view.

 

The sail away from Venice is INCREDIBLE, the best I have ever seen!

[jessicalorene]

That's great to know. We are doing this itinerary in September. The last person who posted a review was not pleased with their cabin. I'm curious to know what category of cabin you were in and what you thought of it.

 

I stayed in an ocean view cabin on deck 3 which is fine for this type of trip ... we were out and about exploring so much in port that we weren't in the room much and we were also with family members so we tended to gather in the centrum area or on the pool deck to hang out. My aunt had an aft junior suite on 8 that was beautiful for the size of the deck and the view.

 

The cabins in my opinions were very worn down looking, this ship noticeably lacked that glamour feeling I get from so many RCI ships. I am in love with her sister, Enchantment, so I was surprised I was pretty indifferent towards Splendour.

[scswift]

We also booked an ocean view room. It's good to know what to expect. Thanks for your reply. I guess we'll concentrate on the itinerary, not the ship!

[Royal_Cruiser]

 

I stayed in Venice for two days, departed on Splendour of the Seas and we stopped in Dubrovnik Croatia, Kusadasi Turkey, Santorini and Katakolon Greece. BEAUTIFUL itinerary! :)

 

Sounds like a great trip!

[jessicalorene]

We also booked an ocean view room. It's good to know what to expect. Thanks for your reply. I guess we'll concentrate on the itinerary, not the ship!

 

Its not awful by any means it just needs some freshening up. Nothing that impacted my vacation :)

[CruisesOnMyMind]

Hi everyone! Back from an awesome cruise from Venice to the Greek Islands and Turkey! I wanted to throw it out there in case anyone had any questions I could answer for them!

 

I stayed in Venice for two days, departed on Splendour of the Seas and we stopped in Dubrovnik Croatia, Kusadasi Turkey, Santorini and Katakolon Greece. BEAUTIFUL itinerary! :)

 

We are doing the same cruise in Oct. of this year. So happy you enjoyed so much.

 

Would you mind giving a rundown of what you did at each port?:D

 

Were there any particular restaurant's in Venice that you would recommend?

 

What hotel did you stay in precruise?

[newgrange]

Doing this cruise in October too. Looking forward to any tips you have.

[KirkNC]

Welcome back, hope you enjoyed your cruise.

[jessicalorene]

We are doing the same cruise in Oct. of this year. So happy you enjoyed so much.

 

Would you mind giving a rundown of what you did at each port?:D

 

Were there any particular restaurant's in Venice that you would recommend?

 

What hotel did you stay in precruise?

 

Of course :)

 

We stayed at the Marriott Courtyard by the airport ... it was super easy and cheap to get to Venice and walk around all day. If you want to stay in the heart of Venice this isn't it but I was with a group of 6 and 4 of us travel a ton for work so we had a lot of points and upgrades and perks with this hotel :)

 

Dubrovnik - We were supposed to do the walking the walls excursion which for some reason got changed to audio discovery tour .. aka walk around alone with an iPod and pay $40 for it. I ended up just exploring on my own with my husband ... it was small enough that I didnt feel lost

 

Kusadasi - We just walked around port here because last year we did the all day Ephesus excursion. If you haven't done it though, go, it is incredible! Bring water though because we were dying in May last year I don't know how we would have done it in July!

 

Santorini - We took the hiking the volcano and swimming in the hot springs tour here. It was a work out - don't do it if you aren't in good physical shape. If you are though its so worth it and really incredible. Our tour left at noon so we got off the ship as soon as we docked and took the cable car up to Fira. My advice - do what we did. The line to go up when we were coming down was over a 2 hour wait and around 3pm when the ship was getting ready to go the line to get back down was atrocious according to people we met on the ship. When we walked around Fira we stopped and got a coffee in an expensive but beautiful restaurant which basically hangs over the cliff. Amazing.

 

Katakalon - Took the trip to Olympus ... pretty awesome but nothing compared to Ephesus. We also went to a winery and had a tasting which was lovely (we bought far too many bottles to bring home ;) )

 

I don't remember any specific restaurants in Venice but I do recommend staying out of the plaza by the Doge's Palace to eat - we paid an insane amount of money for a piece of deli meat on two slices of bread. All the other restaurants were great!