Odyssey to the Greek Isles - 7 to 16 May 2022

[FionaMG]

41 minutes ago, Citrons said:

Mr and Mrs show - this was so funny 🤣

It was. It never disappoints. But I was surprised how many couples refused to participate after rushing to put their hands up to say how long they'd been married.

[FionaMG]

1 hour ago, sgmn said:

My DH loves them,  has them most nights. Me, not so much 😏

 

I used to love them too but I've found, as I've got older, that the buttery sauce doesn't agree with me any more, so I no longer order them.

However, we have snails here in Portugal, only they're done in a completely different way, with no sauce, and I love those. Also there's no way anybody wouldn't know what they're eating as you have to pick them out of the shells.

They're a very traditional nibble here on May Day:

[FionaMG]

2 hours ago, UK_Cruiser99 said:

Test has come back negative, what was everyone's best / worst port of call?

I wasn't too keen on Crete, it felt like any other town center and we didn't have much time at this port.

 

I enjoyed Mykonos and Rhodes the most, I booked some of excursions myself through viator , as I noticed the RCI ones were very early in the morning and lasted around 6 - 8 hours...

 

Did anyone go on the Highlights of Mykonos Tour by RCI? This isn't one I would recommend...we spent 40 mins driving to a beach where we were given 2 minutes to take photos, then back into the the coach to a Monastery and then on to the Town Center.

 

90% of my group told the tour guide they wanted to look around alone which she was okay with! It was a bit silly there was no stop for lunch seeing as the tour was 11 - 4pm. I believe this is why most people including myself ended up doing a self tour in order to grab some food.

 

 

 

Good news about the test.

 

I think my least favourite was Naples but I put that down largely to the fact that the time of the walking tour we had booked was changed at the last minute from late morning to mid-afternoon, making it unworkable, so we were left at a loose end. I would have liked to do Capri but wasn't willing to pay the outrageous cost for the excursion and was not adventurous enough to go it alone on a one-day port call.

 

I really enjoyed all of the others and can't really say which I preferred most. DH would say Santorini, which he thought was beautiful. I kind of "ruined him out" in Kusadasi! We have a cruise coming up on Anthem to the Canary Islands in September and I've promised him he won't have to see a single ruin on that one. 

 

I'm glad we did the tour in Crete. Having been to the island before on a previous cruise and just wandered around the town centre, I wanted to see a bit more of the island, which was a challenge because of the short time there.

[FionaMG]

Pre-cruise, part two. Our pre-cruise hotel:

 

We stayed at the Hotel Lancelot (https://www.lancelothotel.com/). The reason for choosing this one was mainly its proximity to the Colosseum, which we (read "I" ) really wanted to visit. Someone had mentioned it over on the "Hotels in Rome" thread on the ports of call board, so I did some research and thought it met our needs. It was reasonably priced (for Rome), had decent reviews and was literally a 3-minute walk from the Colosseum.

 

The owner was very responsive and helpful and the staff were lovely. The hotel does have a couple of rooms on the top floor (there is a minuscule lift) with a balcony and view of the Colosseum but they come at a premium and were not available on our dates anyway. It also has several family rooms that can sleep two adults and two kids.

Our room was a spacious corner room with a street view and a narrow wrap-around balcony. This being a traditional hotel, all the rooms are different.

 

Our room:

 

The Colosseum is a 3-minute walk down this street:

 

The social area that you go through to get into the dining room.

 

 

There was a decent included continental breakfast (no hot items) and the hotel has a convivial dinner on some nights, at a reasonable price - €25 for three courses including wine and coffee. We arrived too late on the first night but enjoyed it on the second night. The tables are shared, like on board the ship, and we very much enjoyed chatting to our table mates, a mum and daughter, respectively from Pittsburgh and Seattle.

 

We felt very welcome and would definitely recommend and consider staying here again.

[FionaMG]

3 hours ago, Levi is good said:

Thank you Fiona.  I am very grateful for this thread.  

My pleasure. Thanks for reading. 

[bobmacliberty]

2 hours ago, FionaMG said:

I would have liked to do Capri but wasn't willing to pay the outrageous cost for the excursion and was not adventurous enough to go it alone on a one-day port call.

 

If/when you're back in Naples, I highly recommend a self-led tour of Capri.  The ferries were easy to manage and the views from atop Anacapri were amazing.  We took an early morning ferry to the island and an early afternoon ferry back so that we had plenty of time before all aboard.  I never felt worried about running into a problem and I believe that the ship excursions were on ferries after ours, both going there and coming back.  

[Citrons]

3 hours ago, FionaMG said:

 

I used to love them too but I've found, as I've got older, that the buttery sauce doesn't agree with me any more, so I no longer order them.

However, we have snails here in Portugal, only they're done in a completely different way, with no sauce, and I love those. Also there's no way anybody wouldn't know what they're eating as you have to pick them out of the shells.

They're a very traditional nibble here on May Day:

No in the WJ the snails were taken out of their shells and looked like mushrooms/eggplant fried. Thats why i say the RCL made it very sneaky for some reason to call them Escargots, take them out of their shells to mislead people for some unknown reason.

Edited May 18, 2022 by Citrons

[FionaMG]

34 minutes ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

If/when you're back in Naples, I highly recommend a self-led tour of Capri.  The ferries were easy to manage and the views from atop Anacapri were amazing.  We took an early morning ferry to the island and an early afternoon ferry back so that we had plenty of time before all aboard.  I never felt worried about running into a problem and I believe that the ship excursions were on ferries after ours, both going there and coming back.  

 

I would definitely like to and if the all aboard had been a bit later I might have been able to overcome my nervousness. I would actually like to spend a few days in the area so I could see the amalfi coast too. 

[FionaMG]

On 5/9/2022 at 6:49 PM, woodward girl said:

Hey everyone, hope you can post a few things for me.  I am on this cruise in July celebrating my 50th anniversary.  My family is all going on this cruise.  My husband and I are regular cruisers but this is the first Europe vacation for my children and grandchildren.  We are planning a wedding celebration in Santorini which we have been to many times but I am worried about the cable car wait and if there are any restrictions getting off the ship.  RC has not been helpful when I have asked questions.  Could someone let me know how things were getting off on Santorini and any special requirements you may have had besides the testing to board in Civitacheccia?  Thanks  --you could email me directly

 

nancyadie@gmail.com

 

Sorry, I missed this post.  

You may have already seen it by now but, if not, check out @bonsai3s's information in post #57 for details about getting off the ship in Santorini.

The testing to board in Civi was the only special requirement for us, as we are both up-to-date on vaccinations.

[Citrons]

9 hours ago, FionaMG said:

 

Sorry, I missed this post.  

You may have already seen it by now but, if not, check out @bonsai3s's information in post #57 for details about getting off the ship in Santorini.

The testing to board in Civi was the only special requirement for us, as we are both up-to-date on vaccinations.

We got breakfast in the WJ at 6am. Then 6.20am went to Two70 to queue for our tender tickets which was group1 and group2. Then around 7am they anounced could group1, 2 and 3 go to the casino on deck 3 to board the tender boats. We got on the 1st tender boat. It was very low down and my mam hit her head badly inside - the later tender boats were larger.

 

We walked to the left and were 1st up the cable car after paying €6. Then we walked straight to the taxi's in Fira main square and within 15 to 20 minutes were in Oia before all of the crowds. 

 

We left Santorini at around 1pm and there was just about queues starting to form for the cable car down. We did not have much of a wait for the cable car down. In the end it was smooth how we timed it.

 

We had people even 4th vaccine in our group so didnt need tests. Unfortunately even the 4th vaccinated and us (3rd vaccine Dec 2021) got covid on  Odyssey. But we didnt find out until we were home in Ireland as no tests are needed if you are up to date with vaccines. We only had to do the day before boarding antigen test before boarding which we were all negative 🤗

Edited May 19, 2022 by Citrons

[little britain]

18 hours ago, Citrons said:

Yes only for me living in France I knew that Escargots means snails. But not many people would automatically know and it was as if the Odyssey was trying to trick people into eating them. 

I got some "eggplant" and my mam went up to get "eggplant" (in Ireland we call it aubergine) - so when she saw "escargots" she thought it was "eggplant" and picked them and ate them by accident. As we call eggplant aubergine in Ireland its how she made the mistake. 🤢🤢🤢

Because 🐌 really look like 🍆  and because escargot is spelt the same as eggplant….🤷‍♀️
 

RCI are hardly being “sneaky” or playing “tricks” or “misleading” by calling them escargot… as that is what they were.   If, for some reason, you don’t understand a basic French food item on a menu, surely you ask ? 

Edited May 19, 2022 by little britain

[Coralc]

I thought most adults were familiar with the term escargot. Brown garden snails are a plague here, and garden pests. We can actually collect them by the handful in the backyard, purge them with a corn meal diet for a couple of days and make our own escargot.  But somehow it just doesn't have the same dining appeal as having it served to you. 

Edited May 19, 2022 by Coralc

[UK_Cruiser99]

18 hours ago, Citrons said:

Great to hear your test is negative. Mine were negative Monday/Tuesday and this morning. It wasnt until a retest this afternoon it started to appear positive. I knew from the sore throat on Sunday that i kept retesting since my mam had the same sore throat and tested positive.

 

I was disappointed a bit by Mykonos. It was nice of course but thought Little Venice was overrated and drinks overpriced. It was a nice couple of hours there but glad i never went there for a long period of time.

 

Santorini is my fav - I spent 6 weeks on holiday there last summer.

 

Rhodes I enjoyed going back as i spent 2 weeks there in 2005. However i felt rushed as the people i was with could not walk very far and were too obssessed with shopping. I like @FionaMG photos of her tour. Also her Ephesus photos look great and pity i didnt see that either.

 

Chania i was there in 2017 for a week and glad to revisit. Very short day since we had to be aboard before 2.30pm. Again @FionaMGhad nice photos and she got to see so much in what was little time in Crete. Nice that we waited 45mins for the final couple to arrive onto the ship.

 

Naples i was glad to see because i didnt get to see it in 2017 when i went to Sorrento/Capri/Pompei

 

Overall i was glad i had been on holidays to most of these locations before the cruise (the only places i had not been to was Naples city,Mykonos and Kusadasi) so it felt like I had no rush and it was more to relive happy memories from previous holidays. However I wonder what it would be like to visit them for the 1st time on the cruise? Would it be a rush?Stressful trying to see so much in such little time?

 

I've woken up this morning feeling awful! Sweating all night, body ache , sore throat and constant cough! I've done a LFT test its come back negative....If I have contracted Covid I am not blaming RCI in anyway...

 

 

Edited May 19, 2022 by UK_Cruiser99

[FionaMG]

2 minutes ago, UK_Cruiser99 said:

 

I've woken up this morning feeling awful! Sweating all night, body ache , sore throat and constant cough! I've done a LFT test its come back negative....If I have contracted Covid I am not blaming RCI in anyway...

 

 

Aw bummer. Hope you feel better soon.

[FionaMG]

Our pre-cruise day in Rome.

 

Morning.

 

With only one full day in Rome before the cruise I wanted to ensure we made the most of it, while also getting in the visit to the Colosseum. 

 

Having visited the Vatican on a previous trip, but never central Rome, and to avoid us simply wandering around aimlessly, I booked us on the "free" walking tour "Marvels of Rome" through Guru Walks: https://www.guruwalk.com/walks/37444-marvels-of-rome-walking-tour

This gave us a decent overview of the monuments in the centre of Rome. The guide was not the one originally indicated (Colin) but his replacement (Paulo) was excellent, very knowledgeable and passionate about his subject. The only issue I had with the tour was that the group was far too big, over 50 people, which prevented any meaningful interaction with the guide. However, for the cost of the €20 tip at the end, it was fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tour was followed by lunch in a side street off the Piazza Navona that the guide pointed out to us at the end of the tour, after recommending we avoided eating on the square itself.

 

 

[FionaMG]

Pre-cruise day in Rome.

 

Afternoon.

 

After lunch we had the much-awaited (for me, DH was just about hanging on by this time ) visit to the Colosseum, which I booked through Walks of Italy: 

https://www.walksofitaly.com/rome-tours/colosseum-arena-floor-tour/

 

This tour also includes the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill and the guide (Dario) reversed the order so that we visited these first. He said that, for most people, the highlight of the tour would be the Colosseum itself so he always preferred to leave that till last. I'm glad he did, because DH definitely perked up once we got inside the Colosseum.

 

Since this was a paying tour, the group was much smaller. The company guarantees there will be no more than 25 people per group and ours actually had 19.

Dario was excellent, very knowledgeable and personable and, of course, the smaller group size meant he was able to better engage with the members of the group.

One thing I really liked was how he made the effort to inform us about where and when to expect bathroom breaks.

I really enjoyed the tour, even though the weather decided to have a meltdown and start pouring with rain just as we were sitting in the arena floor. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see how wet it was in this last one. We had to shelter under a restaurant canopy on the way back to the hotel, even though it was really close by, because the rain was so heavy.

[Citrons]

1 hour ago, UK_Cruiser99 said:

 

I've woken up this morning feeling awful! Sweating all night, body ache , sore throat and constant cough! I've done a LFT test its come back negative....If I have contracted Covid I am not blaming RCI in anyway...

 

 

Hope you feel better.

 

My mam had the same symptoms on Saturday night on the cruise. I got a sore throat on Sunday but my antigen didn't turn a faint positive until yesterday. 

 

We definitely don't blame RCL for covid - just didn't know there was so much covid on the ship we would have been more careful and worn the mask more on the ship. We wore our masks in the port shops and on the port buses etc and drank outside at the port stops.

 

Reading the Facebook group - it is true that there was covid quarantine rooms on deck 6 and 7 next to our rooms despite having deck 3 as a covid area. They must have had so many cases. 

 

Found out on the facebook that healthy people next to quarantine rooms on deck 6 and 7 got moved but we were never made aware that we were next to covid rooms - we suspected it when we saw brown dinner trays outside rooms all the time. They should have made another covid deck and moved us away from deck 7.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Citrons

[Citrons]

3 hours ago, Coralc said:

I thought most adults were familiar with the term escargot. Brown garden snails are a plague here, and garden pests. We can actually collect them by the handful in the backyard, purge them with a corn meal diet for a couple of days and make our own escargot.  But somehow it just doesn't have the same dining appeal as having it served to you. 

Its never on the menu in Ireland and only for i lived in France there would be no reason for an english speaking older Irish person to know what Escargots are since we don't eat them or have them on menu's in Ireland. 

[Citrons]

4 hours ago, little britain said:

Because 🐌 really look like 🍆  and because escargot is spelt the same as eggplant….🤷‍♀️
 

RCI are hardly being “sneaky” or playing “tricks” or “misleading” by calling them escargot… as that is what they were.   If, for some reason, you don’t understand a basic French food item on a menu, surely you ask ? 

My mam left school at 12 years old due to large catholic families in Ireland needing to go to work and didn't have the pleasure of studying French in school here in Ireland. 

My mother and father worked hard to get me through secondary school and I was lucky to do a PhD in France - but in Ireland snails is something we do not have on the menu and as vegans it is even more misleading if someone has not studied french.

These do not look like obvious snails since their shells are removed.

[AlohaLivin]

54 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

Pre-cruise day in Rome.

 

Afternoon.

 

After lunch we had the much-awaited (for me, DH was just about hanging on by this time ) visit to the Colosseum, which I booked through Walks of Italy: 

https://www.walksofitaly.com/rome-tours/colosseum-arena-floor-tour/

 

This tour also includes the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill and the guide (Dario) reversed the order so that we visited these first. He said that, for most people, the highlight of the tour would be the Colosseum itself so he always preferred to leave that till last. I'm glad he did, because DH definitely perked up once we got inside the Colosseum.

 

Since this was a paying tour, the group was much smaller. The company guarantees there will be no more than 25 people per group and ours actually had 19.

Dario was excellent, very knowledgeable and personable and, of course, the smaller group size meant he was able to better engage with the members of the group.

One thing I really liked was how he made the effort to inform us about where and when to expect bathroom breaks.

I really enjoyed the tour, even though the weather decided to have a meltdown and start pouring with rain just as we were sitting in the arena floor. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see how wet it was in this last one. We had to shelter under a restaurant canopy on the way back to the hotel, even though it was really close by, because the rain was so heavy.

 

Seems like that is a good tour company name to write down! Did the Colosseum meet your expectations, I feel that it would almost be impossible given that it is one of the most renown structures on the planet.

 

 

[FionaMG]

26 minutes ago, Citrons said:

Found out on the facebook that healthy people next to quarantine rooms on deck 6 and 7 got moved but we were never made aware that we were next to covid rooms - we suspected it when we saw brown dinner trays outside rooms all the time. They should have made another covid deck and moved us away from deck 7.

Interesting. We were on deck 6 (6622) and only saw the occasional room service tray out in the hall, so the quarantine area must have been in a different section from us.

[Citrons]

36 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

Interesting. We were on deck 6 (6622) and only saw the occasional room service tray out in the hall, so the quarantine area must have been in a different section from us.

There was an "official" covid quarantine area in the porthole cabin rooms on Deck 3 in the rooms next to the music hall/casino.

 

However on the Facebook group a few of the TA cruisers confirmed they tested positive for covid on the TA and left the Odyssey in Crete after completing quarantine in Balcony rooms on deck 6 and 7. Some people on our cruise in the facebook group complained that there was lots of brown room service dishes outside deck 6 and 7 rooms. They moved rooms as a result to another deck.

 

We saw many brown room service dishes outside the balcony rooms next to our room and thought they were quarantine covid rooms - it looks like the Odyssey indeed has covid quarantine people on deck 6 and 7 too in the balcony cabins.

 

Celebrity Beyond also had the same issue and the other Celebrity TA ships. 

Edited May 19, 2022 by Citrons

[cloud_nine]

55 minutes ago, Citrons said:

My mam left school at 12 years old due to large catholic families in Ireland needing to go to work and didn't have the pleasure of studying French in school here in Ireland. 

My mother and father worked hard to get me through secondary school and I was lucky to do a PhD in France - but in Ireland snails is something we do not have on the menu and as vegans it is even more misleading if someone has not studied french.

These do not look like obvious snails since their shells are removed.

Considering you are vegans, I'm surprised that you don't know what foods contain/are animal-based. I'm a vegetarian and make it my business to know everything that has meat, fish, insects etc in, and if I don't know, I ask or avoid it altogether. For example, I often avoid mousse-based desserts as it is likely they would contain gelatine. If there is a soup on the menu that I am interested in, I ask what broth it is made with (chicken, vegetable etc). I don't automatically assume that something is safe for me to eat just by the way it looks. I am very sorry that your mother inadvertently ate snails, but this really is not Royal's fault. They were not trying to be sneaky, they were just calling it by it's proper name. Escargot is what it's called. It's like someone from the States coming to the U.K and eating black pudding without checking what it really is.

[FionaMG]

1 hour ago, AlohaLivin said:

 

Seems like that is a good tour company name to write down! Did the Colosseum meet your expectations, I feel that it would almost be impossible given that it is one of the most renown structures on the planet.

 

 

 

I enjoyed it. To be honest, I'm not a huge history buff so my expectations probably weren't all that high. I was glad we did the tour with access to the arena floor, rather than just the upper tiers as it gives you a better feel for the place.

I had no idea that the whole "thumbs down" thing you see in films is made up. According to the guide, being a gladiator was a job and if one got killed in the arena, the school sponsoring him would be due compensation because it cost so much to train them.

[AlohaLivin]

12 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

 

I enjoyed it. To be honest, I'm not a huge history buff so my expectations probably weren't all that high. I was glad we did the tour with access to the arena floor, rather than just the upper tiers as it gives you a better feel for the place.

I had no idea that the whole "thumbs down" thing you see in films is made up. According to the guide, being a gladiator was a job and if one got killed in the arena, the school sponsoring him would be due compensation because it cost so much to train them.

I love history, but ancient history is not my greatest interest. Still, few buildings have achieved the notoriety of that one! Hard to imagine such a large structure being created in the time that it was.