Greece Turkey Egypt port reviews 2/29/08-3/11/08

[Lve2Travel]

Mountainmare - thanks, I found the information about the sandals -- now could I impose another request . . . what is the exact name of the "vision" book you purchased? Quite a long time ago, I purchased one like that for the Roman Forum when we visited Rome the very first time.

 

I would like to purchase one for Athens -

 

Thanks,

[Susan-M]

Thanks mm!

 

I've heard back from R. Canali ... what do you think about a double room there? It's not low season when we're there and suites are priced higher than I want to pay for a 3 night stay. The location sounds ideal... esp. since our last visit only allowed time for a 3 minute stop in P. Navona.

 

Thanks for the reminder about the keyhole ... I hadn't heard of the Mouth of Truth but will look it up. I will do some more research on the Borghese...we will definitely buy a Roma Pass, but I thought it was necessary to make advance reservations for the Borghese.

 

I too was amazed by the Temple of Zeus .... and we were the only ones there which made it even nicer - I should say the only humans ... lots of dogs :)

 

I'll look up T-2's posts ... we are in Limassol from 7-2.

 

We are off to Hawaii next month for our first visit there (land vacation) so I have to change my focus for a while.

[Susan-M]

Hi mm,

 

I found T-2's report on Cyprus ... very helpful & something I think we would enjoy. One of our shore excursion offerings is hiking at Troodos .... so now I have a couple of options to think about for Limassol. :)

[mountainmare]

The Visions books with the plastic overlays is called Athens Past an Present --or Rome Past and present --or Pompeii Past and present. the publisher is Wiley and my Athens book says Frommers on the cover. I bought mine on Amazon--I got it "used" really cheap abd it looks brand new.

 

SusamM -- I would go for the Canali. The location and ambiance is ideal--the breakfast very good. I'm sure you looked it up on tripadvisor. For the price the location cannot be beat and you feel like you are living in a palaza in Rome. Very clean, quiet and classy.

You do have to make reservations for Borghese--do you have the RS Rome book? he talks about how best to use the Roma Pass in there. He actually even gives instructions to cruise passengers traveling in from Civ.

[Susan-M]

Thanks again mm! I have RS Rome '08 on order from the library. In '05 we used Fodor's City Pack Rome Top 25 with a good map, and will take it again because of size and focus on the highlights. Picked up some Eyewitness books yesterday... Greek Island, Athens & Turkey, so decided to borrow the RS ones for Italy and Rome and take notes on his recommendations, walks, etc. Will have to cut out the appropriate pages from some of my guidebooks that I've bought in order to keep the weight down.

 

Am leaning towards R. Canali .... did you see into any of the double rooms? I've sent them an email to ask about bed size since it doesn't say on their website.

[mountainmare]

Susan

I didn't see any double rooms our bed was a queen in the jr suite. On TA there was a review where they had a double room and liked it so much that they decided not to move upstairs. As I said the location is ideal.

 

On the weight down front--I used to scan, but now I just take a picture of the pages I need and print on both sides of the paper, then I not only don't tear up my guidebooks but I can throw the pages out as we go, reducung weight even more. A bonus is that I now have a prety extensive guidebook collection on my computer, and since most of the time I get books from the library it is free. I do have some books that are must own, but I print the pages from them also.

[1stCruiser]

mountainmare - Thanks for the great review! I have booked Nejat for our stop at Ephesus in October and I'm happy to hear that you enjoyed your tour with him. We have planned a pre-cruise visit to Tarquinia and it was great hearing about it also. I haven't seen many reviews of this town.

 

We are also stopping in Egypt and was interested in reading about your stop there - did you have the chance to post your review yet?

 

Thanks so much for taking the time,

 

Laura

[Susan-M]

Hi mm .... I've made my reservation at R. Canali ... quite excited about the location!:)

 

Have also figured out the Borghese Gallery ... I thought you had to pre-purchase the tickets, but you have two options..either to reserve and pick tickets up 30 mins. ahead, or pre-purchase tickets. I will reserve on-line and then use the Roma Pass.

 

Good suggestion re photocopying some material, which will also give me a chance to increase the print size so that I can forego using my reading glasses needed for the small print in some of the guide books.

 

Thanks again for the info!

[Sea Island Lady]

Thanks so much for the wonderful review! :)

 

Right before leaving for this trip we watched a DVD about the engineering and construction of Rome--so seeing the humble home of Augustus Ceasar compared with the lavish palaces moved me as I thought about power gone wrong.

Could you tell me the name of the DVD you watched and where you got it?

 

I would love to know a little more about Rome before we head over there in June.

[CAT GIRL]

If you see this can you please email me the Egypt portion

of your review?

Thanks.

 

anitak63@sbcglobal.net

[YoPhilly]

I'm interested in Norwegian Fjords/Iceland....just waiting for the new itineraries to come out for '09.

 

Susan, we booked the Crown Princess for Sep. 5, 2009....Transatlantic from London to NYC via Shetland Islands, Faroe Islands, Norway, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. Check it out. Then join our Roll Call!!:D

[calmac]

Mountainmare, do you have a website or contact e-mail address for Nejat Incedogan?

[sea-explorer]

Another cheeky request for the email for the egyption review. Everything has been so helpful, thank you. I'm sailing on the Concordia on the same itinerary next April. sparky1664 at yahoo dot com.

[Host Karen]

Mountainmare, do you have a website or contact e-mail address for Nejat Incedogan?

 

You should try Google.

 

Karen

HostKaren@CruiseCritic.com

[Livestotravel]

I'm doing my research for an October trip to Athens, the Greek Islands, and Turkey and started cutting and pasting from your review when I suddenly realized it was you!

 

Nancy and I met you and your DH on the Panama Canal cruise (remember "Whales") and it was wonderful reading about your trip - especially what you did in Athens.

 

I'm going with another friend to Athens, cruise on M/S Cristal (Greek Line) to Istanbul, Mykonos, Patmos, Kusadasi, Rhodes, Crete, Santorini, then back to Athens.

 

Question, do you think it would be practical to book Nejat for just the two of us to go to Ephesus. I did a Baltic cruise last May and 8 of us booked a private Russian tour company. It was wonderful, and less expensive that the ship tour. But I'm wondering about just two of us, and I can't find anyone yet going on this tour on Cruise Critic. Did he charge per person?

 

I lost my email addresses when I switched computers, so I'm so glad to find you again. You sound like you had a great time! Pat

[chocolat]

Hello mountainmare,

thanks for an informative article!

Do you knoz whether it is possible to find a taxi right in the port of Izmir to drive us to Ephesus and back? Do taxis line up near the ship? I generally prefer to be independent. We are sailing on the Costa Serena on April 20th.

lutchocolat

[mountainmare]

Hello all--

I am recovering from eye surgery (the third in eight months) and have been off line.

 

I will post a report on the Africa board--clearly stating that it is in response to requests (did you read that all cruise critic people????) so it doesn't get deleted again.

 

I would definately get a private guide for turkey. I know that Neget was going on vacation (on a Trans-Atlantic cruise no less) so if he is not avlailable contact one of the other guides you find here. We tend to be VERY inedependant travelers and this would not be a port to pick up a taxi. remember--we ported in Izmir, maybe Kusadki is different.

 

Pat--Please keep reporting on your trip--I love Greece and would love just a Greek Islands cruise--I'm going to check out the details of your trip.

 

And yes--the singing bowl did come along, but the flamingo lights stayed home.

[Livestotravel]

Is the singing bowl different than your whale calling gong! That was such a fun trip.

 

We are taking the October 21 Grand European Tours trip called "Greece & Turkey Cruise". It had the islands I wanted to see, and Istanbul & Ephesus, although some of the islands we only visit for a few hours. It starts with two days at the Divani Caravel in Athens, then 7 day Greek Islands and Turkey, and finally one more day in Athens. I'm intrigued by the sandels idea and perhaps if we follow your directions we will find that restaurant!

 

When the time gets closer I'll try a roll call, but haven't had much luck so far finding anyone sailing on the M/S Cristal departing 3 pm from Piraeus the 24th of October, with a return the morning of the 31st, and have found just three posters who have been on that cruise in the past.

[Host Karen]

I will post a report on the Africa board--clearly stating that it is in response to requests (did you read that all cruise critic people????) so it doesn't get deleted again.

 

 

Your thread was deleted because rather than responding to a specific request for information, you violated the Community Guidelines by starting a new thread to discuss tours. Here is part of the Guidelines recently posted by Laura S:

 

Reviews/Recommendations of Tour Operators/Guides

Legitimate third-party recommendations/reviews for tour operators/guides/businesses *must* be posted in response to a request for the information. All others will be removed from the boards. Additionally, repeatedly posting the same “review” over and over in response to many threads is considered “spamming” and will be removed from the boards.

If you wish to post information about your tours, you must either find an appropriate existing thread or post it as part of an overall review of your cruise. Otherwise, it will be removed again.

 

If you have any questions, please e-mail community@cruisecritic.com.

 

Karen

HostKaren@CruiseCritic.com

[ILoveScotland]

Mountainmare, it's too bad you didn't have more time on Cyprus. I was there a couple of weeks ago as a stop on a 10 day chartered cruise/land study tour. The company that arranged the trip booked all our excursions so only know the name of the guide for our bus (one of 15). Her name was Olga, and I thought she was excellent.

 

Our excursion was only a half day, but we went out to Paphos on the SW coast of the island visiting a couple of archaeological sites and driving along the spectacular Southern coast and seeing the rocks said to be the birth place of Aphrodite.

 

All I know is the visit was one of those moments of wonderful surprise making me want to return for a longer visit.

[mountainmare]

We enjoyed Cyprus and do hope to return, what you did was exactly what we thought we would do--but opted for a leisurely day instead.

 

Also--someone asked about the dvd on Rome. I took it out of our library. Rome--Engineering an Empire History Channel A&E Home Video

produced by History television Network written by Christopher Cassel.

 

Also I answered a question posed on the Africa board about our guide Dalia in Egypt--while not the same report it gives some idea of our day.

[lh9789]

I was wondering about Savona, Italy, so thanks very much for that information in particular! We will be there on Mother's Day and I hope I find something nice for my mom to see/do. The Rigi-Zucci funicular sounds fun, but some funiculars are too steep and scary for her. How was the incline?

[mountainmare]

It is alot of fun, the incline is steep but once you start seeing the views it is worth it, and it is neat to see the different stops on the way.

Another suggestion would be to enjoy Savona itself. Countrary to alot that has been written it is a lovely town, and if we go back we would explore more there rather than rush to Genoa.

If you can find it there is a DK Eyewitness Italian Riviera guidebook that includes information about Savona and some of the little towns in the area that might be more relaxing.

I'll get out my "files" and find some websites for you.

Can anyone tell me how to post pictures? I have some of the funicular and Savona.

[joemooch]

Susan, we booked the Crown Princess for Sep. 5, 2009....Transatlantic from London to NYC via Shetland Islands, Faroe Islands, Norway, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland. Check it out. Then join our Roll Call!!:D

 

We are on that TA also, B2B with the previous UK cruise.

Joe

[Livestotravel]

Fortunately I checked our Oct. 21 direct flight on Continental from Newark to Athens on Oct. 21 and found that it had been cancelled. We were never notified. Searching further, I found that all their direct flights from Oct. 1 to May of 2009 have been cancelled.

 

Since there were no other decent flights, we opted to change our trip to leave Sept. 2nd so that we could still use Continental.

 

I started a roll call for the cruise portion of the trip, but no luck yet - that's Louis Lines, Cristal cruise from Sept. 5th to the 12th. Not as happy with this time period - expect it to be much more crowded and much hotter, the reason we originally picked the late Oct. dates.