CintiPam's Review of June 5 Athens to Rome Enchanted Escapade

[CintiPam]

Oceania friends, my lengthy, but very well-captioned, review of our second-ever Oceania cruise, Athens to Rome, on Nautica last month, has been posted at the following link:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=56647.

 

Our ports were: Athens, Delos/Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini, Malta, Taormina, Sorrento, Amalfi, Livorno, Monte Carlo, Portofino, and Rome. A jam-packed fantastic itinerary with one sea day and many lovely roll call friends. Great service, great food, great sights, great company: the complete package!

 

So, clean your bifocals, enjoy the parts which interest you (if any:)), and feel free to post your comments or questions.

 

Pam

[Hunding]

Thank you for this extraordinary and wonderful review - absolutely one of the best I have ever read.

[CintiPam]

You're welcome.

 

"Recovering attorneys" can get pretty verbose, and now that I have a strained hamstring, so have not been able to play any tennis, my main warm weather activity, for two weeks, I had plenty of time to go overboard.:)

[Hunding]

Well, your "overboard" is just dandy - worth 100 of the usual.

[JoePDX]

Pam,

 

Thank you for taking the time to write such a wonderful review of your amazing trip.... A top notch review in every way. I can't wait to get back on Nautica... I do love that ship.

 

Joe

[A Knitter]

Oceania friends, my lengthy, but very well-captioned, review of our second-ever Oceania cruise, Athens to Rome, on Nautica last month, has been posted at the following link:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=56647.

 

Our ports were: Athens, Delos/Mykonos, Rhodes, Santorini, Malta, Taormina, Sorrento, Amalfi, Livorno, Monte Carlo, Portofino, and Rome. A jam-packed fantastic itinerary with one sea day and many lovely roll call friends. Great service, great food, great sights, great company: the complete package!

 

So, clean your bifocals, enjoy the parts which interest you (if any:)), and feel free to post your comments or questions.

 

Pam

 

Great Review with or without the Butler:D

[scottam]

Hi Pam,

Great review! I gleaned a few tips from it even though our itinerary is a little different from yours. Thanks for taking the time to write it.

 

Tammy

[ORV]

Nice informative review. I did miss which tour was the "lousy" one you mentioned earlier in your review though?

 

Sounds like all of them were very good.

[wripro]

CintiPam,

 

What a wonderful review. As you know I was supposed to be on this cruise but changed my travel plans. I'm so glad you enjoyed it so much.

[jmdpsca]

Hi CintiPam,

We are on the Enchanded Escapade, Sept 4, reverse of your trip, Athens to Rome,

I have emailed SeeSorrento, Marcello to get a price for the same trip...could you let me know where the your birthday celebration was??

Also, what you felt the shore excusion was that was not good...Cinque Terre?

We have booked from Livorno, with Papallion tours...it is also a Sunday..

 

We are on our second voyage with Oceania, last was Dover to Rome.

 

 

THANKS FOR A GREAT REVIEW, Jan (jmdpsca@yahoo.com)

[CintiPam]

Great Review with or without the Butler:D

 

LOL! So now you are ending my day with another big laugh and huge smile.:)

 

Thanks,

Pam

[CintiPam]

Hi CintiPam,

We are on the Enchanded Escapade, Sept 4, reverse of your trip, Athens to Rome,

I have emailed SeeSorrento, Marcello to get a price for the same trip...could you let me know where the your birthday celebration was??...

THANKS FOR A GREAT REVIEW, Jan (jmdpsca@yahoo.com)

 

My birthday celebration lasted two days on board ship:), but the lunch was in the small town of Pontone above Amalfi at Trattoria L'Antico Borgo. Marcello said not to publicize the name but it is mentioned in Rick Steves' Italy 2009 guidebook in his discussion of hikes from Amalfi, so I figure I am not really giving too much away!

 

It is a wonderful itinerary. I hope you have planned some time before and after your cruise in both Athens and Rome, both great, although very different, cities for history lovers like me. Have a great time!

 

Pam

[CintiPam]

Hundling, JoePDX, A Knitter, scottam, ORV, wripro, and jmdpsca, you are all welcome. Isn't cruisecritic a wonderful cruising tool? I have gone from total cruise ignoramus to very frequent poster in less than a year!

 

wripro, I regret we did not have a chance to meet, but I am sure you enjoyed your alternate cruise on an undeniably luxurious line. (Any reviews to read or is the cruise still coming up in the next few months?)

 

Pam

[wripro]

Cintipam,

 

The cruise was June 24 so definitely over. It was really spectacular, a unique experience, especially the first night in Venice. Still, I know I would have had a great time with all of you on O as well.

[jmdpsca]

Hello Pam,

We are leaving for Athens, from Palm Springs,Ca on August 31, and arrive in Athens on Sept 1, our cruise leaves Athens on Sept 4 to Rome. We will be arriving in Rome on Sept 16, and going to Florence to meet up with 6 friends from Palm Springs, and we have rented a Villa in Tuscany, and be there for 11 days, to fly home on the 27th of Sept..

We have been to Rome many times and enjoy the City, as it is one of our favorites.

I contacted Marcello, and he replied with a price of 500 Euro, for a van for 6 people.

I know the Cinque Terre was crowded, but is it worth the trip?

Thanks for the info on the restaurant.

Jan

[CintiPam]

Hello Pam,

We are leaving for Athens, from Palm Springs,Ca on August 31, and arrive in Athens on Sept 1, our cruise leaves Athens on Sept 4 to Rome. We will be arriving in Rome on Sept 16, and going to Florence to meet up with 6 friends from Palm Springs, and we have rented a Villa in Tuscany, and be there for 11 days, to fly home on the 27th of Sept..

We have been to Rome many times and enjoy the City, as it is one of our favorites.

I contacted Marcello, and he replied with a price of 500 Euro, for a van for 6 people.

I know the Cinque Terre was crowded, but is it worth the trip?

Thanks for the info on the restaurant.

Jan

 

Eleven days at a villa in Tuscany; sounds absolutely wonderful! (Any extra bedrooms?:)) We did a land trip to Italy in October 2006, which included five nights in Venice, five nights in Florence, two nights in Siena and one night in Assisi before ending with four nights in Rome, our first visit back to Italy in almost 30 years (pre-kids time!) The weather was outstanding the entire trip.

 

On that trip, we took day-trips to Padua, San Gimagnano, Lucca and Pisa, but simply could not fit in some time for the Cinque Terre, so I really wanted to check it out, at least for a day, particularly because I am a real fan of Rick Steves and his guidebooks.

 

I am glad I went, but because we had just come from two days on the Amalfi Coast, one in Sorrento and one in Amalfi, I am not sure that I can say it was worth the trip, but our day there was affected by other circumstances I prefer not to discuss on these boards.

 

If you go to the Cinque Terre, try to go during the week and be sure to go inland in the towns rather than hanging out near the shore, where the crowds tend to congregate.

 

Keep enjoying!

[meow!]

Oceania friends, my lengthy, but very well-captioned, review of our second-ever Oceania cruise, Athens to Rome, on Nautica last month, has been posted at the following link:

Thank you kindly for such a detailed report. Having written long reports section by section before on this board, we can appreciate how much work it took. You were quite lucky to have gotten an upgrade, and then two sittings in each of the alternative restaurants for a category B. In our case, we only got one sitting in each last October aboard the Nautica. Actually we preferred the Tappas for dinners, we could get them to cook for us individually with the ingredients of our choice, did not have to wait for course by course and could sit by ourselves farther away from others. It was an enjoyable voyage ..meow!

[jmdpsca]

Please email me the information, so it is private,,(jmdpsca@yahoo.com)

Grazie, and Prego..jan

 

Eleven days at a villa in Tuscany; sounds absolutely wonderful! (Any extra bedrooms?:)) We did a land trip to Italy in October 2006, which included five nights in Venice, five nights in Florence, two nights in Siena and one night in Assisi before ending with four nights in Rome, our first visit back to Italy in almost 30 years (pre-kids time!) The weather was outstanding the entire trip.

 

On that trip, we took day-trips to Padua, San Gimagnano, Lucca and Pisa, but simply could not fit in some time for the Cinque Terre, so I really wanted to check it out, at least for a day, particularly because I am a real fan of Rick Steves and his guidebooks.

 

I am glad I went, but because we had just come from two days on the Amalfi Coast, one in Sorrento and one in Amalfi, I am not sure that I can say it was worth the trip, but our day there was affected by other circumstances I prefer not to discuss on these boards.

 

If you go to the Cinque Terre, try to go during the week and be sure to go inland in the towns rather than hanging out near the shore, where the crowds tend to congregate.

 

Keep enjoying!

[Bowie MeMe]

Thanks for a great review. Your review of your first cruise was one of the items that I used to decide on the Nautica Sept. 9 Istanbul to Athens. For several reasons we are taking the Discovery Collection of shore excursions and hoping that they work out well for us. We are doing a day in Madrid and 4 days in Istanbul pre-cruise and 4 days in Madrid post-cruise (weird routing but great deal and we have not been in Madrid before). Now I want to go back to Italy. Spent 3 months there in Florence on Ricali Street (between David and Duomo) 1980 -- my first trip to Europe! Time to go back. Again thanks for the review. I enjoyed it.

[CintiPam]

Thanks for a great review. Your review of your first cruise was one of the items that I used to decide on the Nautica Sept. 9 Istanbul to Athens. For several reasons we are taking the Discovery Collection of shore excursions and hoping that they work out well for us. We are doing a day in Madrid and 4 days in Istanbul pre-cruise and 4 days in Madrid post-cruise (weird routing but great deal and we have not been in Madrid before). Now I want to go back to Italy. Spent 3 months there in Florence on Ricali Street (between David and Duomo) 1980 -- my first trip to Europe! Time to go back. Again thanks for the review. I enjoyed it.

 

Glad you enjoyed it. A land trip to Spain was our first destination when our younger child started college, and we started travelling again. I am sure you will enjoy your stay there: the Royal Palace is interesting, and, if you enjoy art, there are three incredible art museums that can eat up all of your time there!

 

I so loved Istanbul that almost a year since my return, I still am a daily participant in the Istanbul forum board of sister website tripadvisor. I think it is the combination of beautiful geography (there is something very appealing about cities located on lovely bodies of water), the importance of the city through so many time periods, so there are very diverse sights to visit (versus, for example, Athens, which really was a backwater until the mid-19th century revival of interest in the ruins of the Classical Age), the very attractive tourist-friendly historic area, and very friendly people. Do not miss the Alexander Sarcophagus at the Archeological Museum; incredible!

 

Another mosaic (of an angel) was just uncovered this past week in the Aya Sofia, so take a good look in person on my behalf! And if you like mosaics, the Chora Church is worth the short taxi ride.

 

Happy travels!

[jmdpsca]

Pam,

 

Where did you meet for your "Meet and Greet"?

Jan

[CintiPam]

Pam,

 

Where did you meet for your "Meet and Greet"?

Jan

 

Our roll call gathering was held at the Horizons lounge at 6 PM one evening, beautifully organized by Jim (of StanandJim). Lovely appetizers were provided by Oceania (at least I think so, unless Jim picked up the tab!) and drinks were on your own. Oceania provided a lot of servers, and it truly was a lovely event.

 

Our cruise was so port intensive that we were unable to hold it until day three; it had been scheduled by Jim originally for day two because day one was Delos/Mykonos, too full a day for the party, but there was a conflict with some event hosted by the Captain on day two, so it finally happened on day three. (Of course, many of us rowdies already had met/partied together by then! :)