Anybody back from Eastern Med lately?

[rottyg]

Our first time to Eastern Mediterranean on the Galaxy :) and finalizing Shore Excursions. We already have private tours in Istanbul and Ephesus but trying to decide if we should take ship's tour to Lindos in Rhodes, Athens and Santorini. We like to do staff on our own but would not like to miss out :cool:

Thanks!!:p Also how do you find out which ships are going to be in the port the same day? :confused: In Santorini could get really busy, right? :eek:

[HeinBloed]

Our first time to Eastern Mediterranean on the Galaxy :) and finalizing Shore Excursions. We already have private tours in Istanbul and Ephesus but trying to decide if we should take ship's tour to Lindos in Rhodes, Athens and Santorini. We like to do staff on our own but would not like to miss out

 

Lindos on Rhodes is one place you really do not need to book a ship's tour:

 

In front of the Cruise Terminal Entrance there are so many taxi drivers who just take you there for 40-50 EUR (upto 3/4 persons)

 

And the rest is just walkable!

 

Also how do you find out which ships are going to be in the port the same day? :confused: In Santorini could get really busy, right? :eek:

 

Check here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=820166

[Culater]

We went to most of those placed on a HAL med cruise in July.

Athens, definitely easy on your own. You can walk from the port to the metro station. Not strenuous but about 20 to 30 minutes. Easy to take the metro and to the Acropolis area you don't have to transfer. Monastriaki is the stop we got off at. You can walk up the hill to the Acropolis and then down to the Roman Agora. The plaka is also basically in the same area. If you don't mind walking and it isn't extremely hot, it's nice on your own.

Santorini - when we were there, there were about 5 other ships in port. That equals SRO in the town (kidding, but it was very crowded). I would find out from the cruise line if the tours are tendered (you will have to tender) to Fira or to another town accessible by bus. ON our cruise, the tour groups got of first from 8AM and tendered to the other port. Then from 9:30 the tenders were going to and from Fira. Where you choose you own way up or down (cable car, donkey, foot). I heard someone who didn't take a tour say that the town was pretty sparsely populated in the morning. When all the tour groups get back, it is packed. Watch the cable car lines back down, some people were waiting for more than an hour. And if you walk down remember the donkeys walk the same path (and have no manners..hold your nose).

In Istanbul there is a metro stop about a 15 minute walk from the port. About a 10 -15 minute ride to the center of old town. Easy to see Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia and Topkapi on your own (and in the same path as the hundreds of tour groups). Blue Mosque has closing times during the day so you need to watch that. Have fun.

[aussiecruzer]

This is the site to find out which ships are in port with you on your cruise

 

http://www.porttime.com/

 

Just enter your ship name and sailing date, and all the information will be displayed.:)

[MercedMike]

You will find our comments about several of those ports in our reviews at

http://www.elite.net/~thehalls/med.html

and

http://www.elite.net/~thehalls/holyland.html

 

Have a GREAT cruise!

[weimluvr]

This was the best thing I've read on these boards in a long time----that site, port time is brilliant. Thank you, it made our day. We are the ONLY ship in Santorini on the day we are there. We were there 3 years ago and it was a zoo. :D

This is the site to find out which ships are in port with you on your cruise

 

http://www.porttime.com/

 

Just enter your ship name and sailing date, and all the information will be displayed.:)

[Lilith]

Our first time to Eastern Mediterranean on the Galaxy :) and finalizing Shore Excursions. We already have private tours in Istanbul and Ephesus but trying to decide if we should take ship's tour to Lindos in Rhodes, Athens and Santorini. We like to do staff on our own but would not like to miss out :cool:

Thanks!!:p Also how do you find out which ships are going to be in the port the same day? :confused: In Santorini could get really busy, right? :eek:

What date do you sail? We're on 9/22 and still working on a few port tours.

Have a great time.

[bonnieg]

I just returned from an Eastern Med cruise. There was only one other small cruise ship in Santorini the day we were there. We had no line for the tenders and funicular. We rented a car and drove to Oia. From there a winery, then to Perissa Beach and back to Fira. It was a perfect day. Very easy driving.

 

In Athens we did it on our own by train to the Acropolis then walked around the Plaka and Syntagna Square. In hindsight, it might have been better taking a private half day tour to get the most out of Athens. I would have liked to see the Olympic Stadium and go up Lycabettus Hill .

 

In Rhodes we didn't go to Lindos. This was a great walking town with good shopping and some beautiful views.

 

In Mykonos after walking around town, we took the bus to Platis Gialos Beach.

 

In Corfu we rented a car and drove to Paleokastritsa Beach. This was a beautiful beach with 1/2 hour boat tours to various caves. We also walked around Corfu town.

 

In Naples we went to Capri and did a 3 hour boat tour with Capritime around the island. Another memorable day.

 

Except for Kusadasi where we had a private tour, we did all of the ports on our own. We also had many great lunches at the tavernas and restaurants of Greece, Italy and Dubrovnik. Thanks to all the research I did on cruisecritic and other resources, our port days were planned out really well.

[kdowneymd]

We also recently returned from Med as well as visiting some of those ports over last few years. In Rhodes the Old town is delightful to walk around and explore. We also rented a car in Corfu and went to Paleokastritsas a wonderful day, one of our favorites. Istanbul we used a private guide (Ekol) for the major sites and found we learned so much more than when on our own not to mention it cut down waiting time in lines. Santorini we didn't enjoy due to the five ships in port. In Naples we have done Capri on the ferry and just walked around as well as touring the Amalfi coast on a private tour several years ago. I am afraid with the euro, this trip for the 6 of us would probably be prohibitively expensive but it was certainly wonderful. For that trip we used Sorrento limo

[Fabulous Four]

Hi Bonnie,

I had been reading the posts on your roll call as I will be doing the same itinerary on the ruby in 2009.

 

Can I ask which boat yu hired from Capritime and how many people? Was it comfortable? Were their other options yu thought might have been better? The motor boat or does that spoil the whole feel?

Thanks

Julie

[Fabulous Four]

Do you have any contact information on Ekol Travel?

 

What trip did you take and how long ( hrs) and how much ($ or E)?

 

Thanks for the information.

Julie

[kidoctr]

Do you have any contact information on Ekol Travel?

 

What trip did you take and how long ( hrs) and how much ($ or E)?

 

Thanks for the information.

Julie

 

We booked Ekol for our upcoming trip (2 weeks to go). For tours and prices check my blog.

[breslow]

We just returned from a cruise. I can only make a recommendation for athens, as it's the only port we shared with your itinerary. In athens we hired Paul www.athenstaxi.org actually his son jimmy was our driver. He was FANTASTIC! His knowledge of the sites, history and mythology made our trip. When we met back on the ship with others who took ship tours, we realized how much more we saw and learned. Contact them, they are the best.

[kdowneymd]

I booked EKOL through their website, just type in EKOL into search site. Their prices were very reasonable quoted in dollars. We have used them three times, once last summer and twice this summer. I cannot recommend them highly enough. Very efficient, great guides, very flexible. Just a pleasure to deal with. I always pre-paid to make my life easier and there was absolutely no difficulty. IN addition, their guides had pre-purchased all required tickets, we waited in no lines, and their knolwedge greatly increased our enjoyment of our tours.

[Louise45]

Breslow, which tour did you take with Athens Taxi? It sounds great!

[Fabulous Four]

We booked Ekol for our upcoming trip (2 weeks to go). For tours and prices check my blog.

 

Thanks for the blog link. I printed off the info on tours. Thanks

 

I also liked the info on DVC. We are memebers and that deal sounds interesting.

 

Thanks again

Julie

[poss]

What's DVC, please?

[kidoctr]

What's DVC, please?

 

LOL - sorry, that was totally off-topic. :o My blog is a collection of my thoughts that I've put in writing - not just a blog about traveling the Med (although obviously a lot my recent thoughts have been about our upcoming Celebrity Cruise to the Eastern Mediterranean).

DVC = Disney Vacation Club. We're members as well and just added 100 points last week with the new Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas at Walt Disney World. It's where we go when we're not cruising. ;)

[bonnieg]

Hi Bonnie,

I had been reading the posts on your roll call as I will be doing the same itinerary on the ruby in 2009.

 

Can I ask which boat yu hired from Capritime and how many people? Was it comfortable? Were their other options yu thought might have been better? The motor boat or does that spoil the whole feel?

Thanks

Julie

 

Julie, We hired the Lancia for 10 people. It was $250E, $25E pp. The whole front of the boat is a covered mattress and was very comfortable. We took the 8:10 ferry and the tour started around 9:30 (guide was a little late). With 5 ships in port I knew I wanted to take the 3:25 ferry back to Naples. With the boat tour over at 12:15, this left little time to explore Capri. The funicular lines were also long going up & down and that took up some time.I would of liked to have the time for a nice lunch, but was anxious to be at the ferry early because I heard they could leave earlier if they fill up. The tour itself was terrific. We swam in the green grotto and the scenery was beautiful! It's hard to say if I would rather had not done the tour and just explored Capri. When we arrived at Capri I saw people holding signs for boat tours for $90E, but I do not know if you were able to go swimming.

 

I did a private Amalfi coast tour a few years ago on a cruise. I preferred that day better. This is one port that needs to be done as a land trip, too many choices and not enough time.

Bonnie

[Fabulous Four]

Bonnie,

 

Thanks for the reply. We have done Sorrento and Capri/Blue Grotto before. So I need to weigh the options. I did not swim last time so that sounded interesting.

There are 3 ships in port that day so busy but not as bad as it could be I guess.

 

One other question: What was the on board smoking like? We sailed on the Sea Princess and there were a large number of Europeans so I beleieve in the lounges non smoking was the minority not the other way around. I was wondering about smoking in the lounges on the Emerald.

 

Again thanks for the info.

 

PS We have friends who live in Dix hills and live only about 1 hour from you.

 

Thanks again

Julie