Aegean Treasures

[snorkle lover]

We have been on one Regent cruise and loved it. We are taking our second next spring 
Barcelona to Lisbon and now I am looking at a third.

 

Has anybody done Aegean Treasures? It leaves out of Rome and goes

to Sorrento and Taormina ( which we did last year) and then to Malta, Crete, Mykonos, Rhodes,

Kos, Santorini and Athens. Would love to hear from anybody who has done this itinerary or a similar

one and how you liked the ports.

[JMARINER]

It is a good itinerary. But it is intense, no sea days. Downside if in summer it is super crowded and very hot. Best if you can take the very last voyage of the season when the crowds are gone.

 

J

[Travelcat2]

Unfortunately, the "name" of the cruise is meaningless.  If there were an identical cruise, it would likely have another name.  Having said that, we have been to all of the ports except Kos that you listed but not necessarily on the same cruise.

 

You mentioned that you plan on going in the spring.  That is a good thing because, as mentioned above, summer can be miserable (even locals leave town to avoid the heat).

 

We love Greece - just about any island so that part is wonderful.  Santorini is fabulous but there are sometimes so many ships in port that there are "wall to wall" people on this small island.  Regent tries to avoid other ships but it is not always possible.  Would suggest going to a website that will show you which ships would be in port with you.

 

Not sure if you are into cooking but there is a fabulous Regent Choice excursion in Rhodes.  Alternatively, there is a visit to a restaurant that we have done twice (and plan on doing a third time next year).  You watch the dishes being prepared and then are served - extremely good food!

 

We are not fans of Athens but believe that everyone should go there once to see the amazing sites.  Definitely worth it.

 

Mykonos was a stop where we wanted to walk around and we walked many miles - going up through many steps passing homes and a lot of cats (one followed us for quite a long way - really cute).  

 

If this is a port intensive itinerary (ports every day), I would try to either give yourself a designated "sea day" or take a couple of half day excursions so that you can spend some time on the ship.  

 

Although Barcelona is one of the top pickpocketing cities in the world, we are careful and love the place.  We do not take excursions there but instead visit places by foot.

 

While we prefer going to this part of the world in the fall, early spring is also quite lovely. 

[Hambagahle]

We were in Malta in Nov 17 on an Oceania cruise.  We had our own car and guide and toured Valetta and Mdina.  Malta is a lovely place - reeking with history and a crossroads of civilisations.  There is a LOT to see and do there and I am sure Regent will have some good tours available.  The harbour in Valetta is beautiful too.

[taxare]

Except for Kos, we did a very similar itinerary to this in October '17 and really enjoyed the history and the beauty. As stated above, if possible, I wouldn't go in the middle of summer as way too many tourists.

[snorkle lover]

We are actually looking at this Greek itinerary for October 2020.We

are also thinking of doing a British Isles cruise in September 2020.

Trying to decide on one or the other ( not both). Our concern is

the weather and possibly rough seas if we do the British Isles

cruise. That aside I have wanted to go to Ireland for a long time.

Decisions, decisions... so blessed to have to make such tough

ones :)! Again appreciate any and all input.

 

[DeepFreeze63]

On 6/23/2019 at 8:46 AM, snorkle lover said:

We are actually looking at this Greek itinerary for October 2020.We

are also thinking of doing a British Isles cruise in September 2020.

Trying to decide on one or the other ( not both). Our concern is

the weather and possibly rough seas if we do the British Isles

cruise. That aside I have wanted to go to Ireland for a long time.

Decisions, decisions... so blessed to have to make such tough

ones :)! Again appreciate any and all input.

 

Yes, “tough choice”! We did a similar Med cruise (on Voyager) in early October 2018 ; see my post here on 10/23/2018. We did circa England (but some very different ports) in 2015. Weather can get rough in either place at that time of year.

A lot depends on your likes and experiences BUT, for us, the choice would be for the Med. This could change based upon how many other cruise ships are in the ports with you.

Contrary to what you might have heard, Athens has been reborn and there are great sights and great food. I’d stay over and take Regents post-cruise excursion. We took it as a pre-cruise; it was marvelous (except for Athens hotel).

Malta is magical! Do an early excursion and then stay in town. Ship should dock right at foot of town.

Taormina and Etna are worth a repeat.

Lots to do/see in Rhodes and Crete.

Downside: Santorini and Mykonos will be over-crowded even in October.

Best of all – the Splendor, which should have worked out all the new ship bugs by late September. She should be a wonderful respite after busy on-shore days.

[snorkle lover]

Thank you so much for all your helpful information. 

After lots of reading I am leaning toward the Rome to

Athens cruise on the Splendor. However ( not sure it is

kosher to say on this forum) but also looking at a Tauck

tour in Scotland in September ( instead of a BI cruise).

Unfortunately can not do both in the same year. 

[taxare]

Agree with DeepFreeze except for when we went to Santorini in October, it wasn't very crowded. As a matter of fact we did some good shopping there as some of the shops were closing up for the winter. Perhaps we were lucky. They are all wonderful choices to have. I will post a mini-review after our BI Explorer cruise in September.

[snorkle lover]

That would be great. Look forward to hearing about your BI cruise.

[UUNetBill]

I don't think you can go wrong with either choice.  We've also been to all of the ports you mentioned except for Kos and I'd go back to any of them in a heartbeat.  In fact, we've been back to several of them several times.   

 

IMO, 'shoulder season' is a bit of a gamble - you can have nice, moderate weather and smaller crowds or you can have rain and cold, albeit less like to have the cold in the eastern Med...but it's still worth the chance to me.  I hate crowds and I'd rather have some rain or overcast and small crowds, but that's just me.  

 

Another thing to consider is that if you're on Splendor and the weather isn't nice, well, call it a sea day and enjoy that gorgeous new ship.

[snorkle lover]

Thanks for that good advice Bill. I agree about crowds, not

something I like either hence one of the reason we loved 

sailing with Regent.