Italy/Greek Cruise Tips and Discussion

[brentm77]

I am starting this thread because I think I have unintentionally hijacked another great thread, here. Maybe we could move the discussion over to this thread?

So here is my response to @mmmears

Sorry for the off-topic question, but what do you recommend for Santorini? I'm a private excursion all the way traveler, but private there means getting on the tenders last and having to wait for the cable car on the way up (vs. booking through DCL, getting off first, and being tendered directly to a bus) so I was seriously considering a DCL excursion for this one port

I'll let @tidefan respond, but wanted to add my 2 cents. I forgot that's why we did Disney in Santorini. I makes a huge difference to tender first and take a bus up from the other port versus waiting to get up. That part worked really well. I would avoid the one called "A Local Greek Experience & Fiesta." It consisted of driving to Oia, where they literally only gave us enough time to wait in a restroom line, take some photos, and head back to the bus. I think it was an hour, but it takes time just to walk into and out of the heart of the city from the parking lot, and if one person in the group needs to use the restroom, the line is long. I remember having about 15 minutes to actually take some photos before we had to start walking back out. I didn't have time to browse any of the shops even. Then, the lunch that was supposed to have a scenic view, was a small little place on a commercial road, where you could just make out the ocean at the end of the street. The food was bland, with no choice of what you were served, and small portions. There were also rodent droppings in the bathroom, which we didn't see until after we ate! They did a part where you could break a plaster plate and yell "Opa!", but there was a place you were supposed to do it in the center, and people didn't listen and started throwing them everywhere as the owner ran around in panic. It was kind of sad. All that said, the island is beautiful and we still loved our visit there very much.

 

[brentm77]

No, we were on the June 27th departure. Other than how terrible Prenetics was, we couldn't have asked for a better cruise! As to Santorini, not sure which excursion you went on, but we spent a good bit of the morning in Oia, probably 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Very much enjoyed it.

@tidefan Responding to you here too, so I don't take over the other thread, which is great.

I bet it was crazy hot when you went. We were told it was unusually hot when were there, but it was bearable still. I'm glad you had so much more time in Oia. It would have made the day so much better.

 

[brentm77]

Here are some other things that might be helpful to those planning the Italy/Greece cruise:

We used RomeCabs to transfer from the airport to hotel, hotel to ship, and ship to airport in Rome. They were always on time, affordable, and very friendly drivers. They were easy to communicate with via email ahead of time too.

We stayed in the Rome Marriott Grand Hotel Flora for nearly a week prior to the cruise and loved it. The rooms were clean, large (for Europe), and the staff was great. It was removed from the noise and chaos, but walkable to nearly all the major stuff in Rome. We did use Uber when going to the coliseum and Vatican, but walked nearly everywhere else. It is at the top of one of hills, so I wouldn't say its an easy walk when returning in the evening, but we enjoyed it. There is a little newspaper type stand out front for getting small things like water, soda, or snacks. A fantastic little coffee shop across the street for coffee and pastries in the morning. I we enjoyed Vladimiro, a traditional restaurant nearby, when we wanted to eat near the hotel. Do not eat at the hotel restaurant, no matter how tired you are when you arrive - it was our worst meal of the trip.

One thing we did in Rome that was pricey, but worth it, was a city driving tour through TheTourGuy on our first day. We had an excellent guide who hit up all the major stuff and some places we would have never thought of seeing, or even knew existed. It was all in an airconditioned van, with short walks at each stop. Some stops were too short, but we just went back to the places we wanted to see again on evening walks later that week. The tour guide really helped us understand the history of the city and sites. We also did TheTourGuy for the coliseum and Vatican, and really enjoyed the tours. The Vatican one was particularly valuable since she walked us straight into St. Peter's Basilica, avoiding a huge line. Speaking of that, St. Peter's was the highlight of Rome for me. I didn't really want to see it, other than knowing most people did, and that it houses the Pietà that I wanted to see, but it took my breath away when we walked in. The scale and beauty of it are indescribable. I wouldn't miss that for anything - I would actually choose it over many of the other "must sees," which I never expected. *See conversation later in thread about issues I and others had with TheTourGuy that may make it worth looking for other options. I also recommend looking for options to see some masterpieces in various churches for free - I have a background in art and finally got to see many of the masterpieces I had studied. I was surprised how many were just open for public viewing in small churches.

In Sicily, we did the Disney Excursion, "Discover Taormina & Greek Theatre (MSN02)" and very much liked it. Taormina was the most charming little town, with amazing cannoli, cute shops, and breathtaking views. The Greek theater was interesting too. The drive out and back gave us a small taste for that area of the island, which we really liked. It felt like the right length and got us back to the ship at a reasonable time, since we were exhausted after just having spent a week in Rome.

In Mykonos, we did a private tour through http://www.greektravelling.com. We actually wanted to just spend a day swimming in the Mediterranean, but the Disney tour filled up before out booking window opened. The private one was expensive, but turned out really nice. I thought we were just buying a drive to a beach, but it turns out we were also booking a tour guide. She was a local who took us to an abandoned light house, then to a monastery, then to a beach resort where we swam and had drinks, then to windmills and little Venice. She was awesome. It was a great day.

In Athens, we booked a tour with Tune in Tours. We had a private driver and a separate tour guide. Both of them were amazing. The driver told us he would beat the busses to the Acropolis, which he did, by weaving in and out of traffic and taking a few back street. Our guide then took us on a detailed tour of it, with very low crowds, and just as we were heading out and to the museum, the busses started rolling in with hundreds of people getting off. Then we did a detailed tour of the museum and just as we were leaving, the crowds started arriving. She then took us to an upscale shopping area, where she let us go on our own to try some local food (baklava and frozen Greek yogurt with honey rocked), then the Olympic stadium, the university, a couple of other places, and back to the ship. It was the perfect day.

Finally, we did our Amalfi coast tour from the port of Naples using SimplyAmalfi. This turned out to be an amazing day. But know, the tour guide seems to be the owner and only employee of the company. So the person you are emailing is the person who will take you on the tour. He is very affordable too. You are getting more of a driver than someone who will walk you around the towns, but we liked it better that way for this port. Note that he (and other non-Disney tours) must pick you up outside of the port gates. This was not clear and the way Disney had setup their own car tours, with signs with last names held by their drivers, left us with the false impression that we were in the right spot and out tour guide was not on time. We wasted an hour because of this - so don't be fooled like we were. There was some miscommunication with what we wanted versus what the tour guide wanted to show us. It turned out great, but it made us really nervous we wouldn't get back to the ship, because he didn't make it clear we were taking an inland route back that was much faster. It turned out we were back with two hours to spare. The owner is quirky, but fun. He lives in Amalfi and knows it well, including knowing people nearly everywhere you go, which allowed him to drive us deep into Positano and park near the bottom so we didn't need to walk far. I would recommend him if you are ready to just let him take you to the best places and don't have a specific agenda in mind. We really liked his fun personality and are glad it worked out so well in the end. We were worried about carsickness, but none of us got sick, despite the many twists and turns on the drive.

Don't stay at the Hilton Rome Airport unless you really need to be at the airport early the next morning. Check-in took over an hour, with the line going out the front door and down the sidewalk. The lobby was nice, but the hallways and rooms upstairs were gross and creepy. The carpets were disgusting in the hallways. Our room smelled so bad it was hard to stay in it long. And the hotel's restaurant has a multi-hour wait to get into, since there is no other eating options within walking distance and catching a rideshare service was surprisingly difficult form there. If I was going to stay there again, I would plan on arranging a cab to take us back into Rome for the day and only come back to sleep so we could catch our flight early the next day.

I had often heard that it wasn't worth the money to sail DCL for the med cruise, sine it was so port heavy and you had little time on the ship. That wasn't our experience at all. First, it was a welcome comfort to arrive to the brand we love (although this was our first time on the Magic), after a week in a foreign land. It was great getting onto the ship, having a general idea of where things were and how dinning and everything else worked. Second, you really do have a lot of time on the ship. You have two sea days, all your evenings, and sometimes even late afternoons. I and my adult daughter even made it to lots of the late-evening entertainment and had a blast, while my wife enjoyed resting in the room. Plus we enjoyed the great shows and even just downtime in the cabin, watching some classic movies. In short, I don't regret for a second the extra money we spent for DCL. We aren't high-energy people, but we did surprisingly well with so many stops, and I think having DCL as part of our downtime was part of it. It was so nice to come back to each day. The service was great, the food was the best we have had on DCL, and it just made a fantastic trip, with amazing ports, even better.

I'm sure I will think of more, but hopefully this will help those planning for next year.

 

[brentm77]

A few photos (I don't have too many without our family, which I prefer not to post online):

Sicily:

 

[brentm77]

Mykonos:

 

[brentm77]

Santorini

 

[brentm77]

Athens

 

[brentm77]

Amalfi Coast:

 

[tidefan]

@brentm77 we did the Oia, Winery, Fira Town and Cable Car excursion. Yes, you are correct, it is a HUGE advantage to do the DCL excursion because you tender to the drivable dock, though the drive up the side of the caldera is not for the feint of heart!

 

[tidefan]

@tidefan Responding to you here too, so I don't take over the other thread, which is great.

I bet it was crazy hot when you went. We were told it was unusually hot when were there, but it was bearable still. I'm glad you had so much more time in Oia. It would have made the day so much better.

Yep. Insanely hot. Curiously enough, not too bad out on the islands (Crete, Santorini, Mykonos), but Rome was very hot, Athens was hot as well (but dry, which made a difference) and Naples, well, I don't think I've ever been that miserable before, and that's saying a lot as I grew up in North Florida...

 

[tidefan]

Here are some other things that might be helpful to those planning the Italy/Greece cruise:

We used RomeCabs to transfer from the airport to hotel, hotel to ship, and ship to airport in Rome. They were always on time, affordable, and very friendly drivers. They were easy to communicate with via email ahead of time too.

We stayed in the Rome Marriott Grand Hotel Flora for nearly a week prior to the cruise and loved it. The rooms were clean, large (for Europe), and the staff was great. It was removed from the noise and chaos, but walkable to nearly all the major stuff in Rome. We did use Uber when going to the coliseum and Vatican, but walked nearly everywhere else. It is at the top of one of hills, so I wouldn't say its an easy walk when returning in the evening, but we enjoyed it. There is a little newspaper type stand out front for getting small things like water, soda, or snacks. A fantastic little coffee shop across the street for coffee and pastries in the morning. I we enjoyed Vladimiro, a traditional restaurant nearby, when we wanted to eat near the hotel. Do not eat at the hotel restaurant, no matter how tired you are when you arrive - it was our worst email of the trip.

One thing we did in Rome that was pricey, but worth it, was a city driving tour through TheTourGuy on our first day. We had an excellent guide who hit up all the major stuff and some places we would have never thought of seeing, or even knew existed. It was all in an airconditioned van, with short walks at each stop. Some stops were too short, but we just went back to the places we wanted to see again on evening walks later that week. The tour guide really helped us understand the history of the city and sites. We also did TheTourGuy for the coliseum and Vatican, and really enjoyed the tours. The Vatican one was particularly valuable since she walked us straight into St. Peter's Basilica, avoiding a huge line. Speaking of that, St. Peter's was the highlight of Rome for me. I didn't have an comprehension of wanting/needing to see it, but it took my breath away when we walked in. The scale and beauty of it are indescribable. I wouldn't miss that for anything - I would actually choose it over many of the other "must sees," which I never expected.

In Sicily, we did the Disney Excursion, "Discover Taormina & Greek Theatre (MSN02)" and very much liked it. Taormina was the most charming little town, with amazing cannoli, cute shops, and breathtaking views. The Greek theater was interesting too. The drive out and back gave us a small taste for that area of the island, which we really liked. It felt like the right length and got us back to the ship at a reasonable time, since we were exhausted after just having spent a week in Rome.

In Mykonos, we did a private tour through http://www.greektravelling.com. We actually wanted to just spend a day swimming in the Mediterranean, but the Disney tour filled up before out booking window opened. The private one was expensive, but turned out really nice. I thought we were just buying a drive to a beach, but it turns out we were also booking a tour guide. She was a local who took us to an abandoned light house, then to a monastery, then to a beach resort where we swam and had drinks, then to windmills and little Venice. She was awesome. It was a great day.

In Athens, we booked a tour with Tune in Tours. We had a private driver and a separate tour guide. Both of them were amazing. The driver told us he would beat the busses to the Acropolis, which he did, by weaving in and out of traffic and taking a few back street. Our guide then took us on a detailed tour of it, with very low crowds, and just as we were heading out and to the museum, the busses started rolling in with hundreds of people getting off. Then we did a detailed tour of the museum and just as we were leaving, the crowds started arriving. She then took us to an upscale shopping area, where she let us go on our own to try some local food (baklava and frozen Greek yogurt with honey rocked), then the Olympic stadium, the university, a couple of other places, and back to the ship. It was the perfect day.

Finally, we did our Amalfi coast tour from the port of Naples using SimplyAmalfi. This turned out to be an amazing day. But know, the tour guide seems to be the owner and only employee of the company. So the person you are emailing is the person who will take you on the tour. He is very affordable too. You are getting more of a driver than someone who will walk you around the towns, but we liked it better that way for this port. Note that he (and other non-Disney tours) must pick you up outside of the port gates. This was not clear and the way Disney had setup their own car tours, with signs with last names held by their drivers, left us with the false impression that we were in the right spot and out tour guide was not on time. We wasted an hour because of this - so don't be fooled like we were. There was some miscommunication with what we wanted versus what the tour guide wanted to show us. It turned out great, but it made us really nervous we wouldn't get back to the ship, because he didn't make it clear we were taking an inland route back that was much faster. It turned out we were back with two hours to spare. The owner is quirky, but fun. He lives in Amalfi and knows it well, including knowing people nearly everywhere you go, which allowed him to drive us deep into Positano and park near the bottom so we didn't need to walk far. I would recommend him if you are ready to just let him take you to the best places and don't have a specific agenda in mind. We really liked his fun personality and are glad it worked out so well in the end. We were worried about carsickness, but none of us got sick, despite the many twists and turns on the drive.

Don't stay at the Hilton Rome Airport unless you really need to be at the airport early the next morning. Check-in took over an hour, with the line going out the front door and down the sidewalk. The lobby was nice, but the hallways and rooms upstairs were gross and creepy. The carpets were disgusting in the hallways. Our room smelled so bad it was hard to stay in it long. And the hotel's restaurant has a multi-hour wait to get into, since there is no other eating options within walking distance and catching a rideshare service was surprisingly difficult form there. If I was going to stay there again, I would plan on arranging a cab to take us back into Rome for the day and only come back to sleep so we could catch our flight early the next day.

I had often heard that it wasn't worth the money to sail DCL for the med cruise, sine it was so port heavy and you had little time on the ship. That wasn't our experience at all. First, it was a welcome comfort to arrive to the brand we love (although this was our first time on the Magic), after a week in a foreign land. It was great getting onto the ship, having a general idea of where things were and how dinning and everything else worked. Second, you really do have a lot of time on the ship. You have two sea days, all your evenings, and sometimes even late afternoons. I and my adult daughter even made it to lots of the late-evening entertainment and had a blast, while my wife enjoyed resting in the room. Plus we enjoyed the great shows and even just downtime in the cabin, watching some classic movies. In short, I don't regret for a second the extra money we spent for DCL. We aren't high-energy people, but we did surprisingly well with so many stops, and I think having DCL as part of our downtime was part of it. It was so nice to come back to each day. The service was great, the food was the best we have had on DCL, and it just made a fantastic trip, with amazing ports, even better.

I'm sure I will think of more, but hopefully this will help those planning for next year.

I'll post our schedule in the next post, but one comment on yours. We will NEVER, EVER use The Tour Guy. Reason being that we were booked on the 12-night Greek Isles in 2020 (and you know what happened to that) and we had booked a tour in Rome with The Tour Guy. I had it in the printout in the tickets that we had that the excursion was cancellable for a full refund up to 24 hours prior. Well, COVID rolls around, the world shuts down, and The Tour Guy refused to issue refunds (and this wasn't just us, it was numerous people on our cruise) and said they had "changed their policy" to future credits. However, that is NOT what their policy was at the time of our booking, so we and many others ended up having to file a complaint with our credit card company. I won't do business with a company that operates that way. Interestingly enough, they were the only vendor we had an issue with.

 

[brentm77]

I'll post our schedule in the next post, but one comment on yours. We will NEVER, EVER use The Tour Guy. Reason being that we were booked on the 12-night Greek Isles in 2020 (and you know what happened to that) and we had booked a tour in Rome with The Tour Guy. I had it in the printout in the tickets that we had that the excursion was cancellable for a full refund up to 24 hours prior. Well, COVID rolls around, the world shuts down, and The Tour Guy refused to issue refunds (and this wasn't just us, it was numerous people on our cruise) and said they had "changed their policy" to future credits. However, that is NOT what their policy was at the time of our booking, so we and many others ended up having to file a complaint with our credit card company. I won't do business with a company that operates that way. Interestingly enough, they were the only vendor we had an issue with.

We had done the same thing, booking with them pre-COVID. We had only one tour booked at the time though, so I accepted their credit knowing we would be going as soon as things got better. It was only a few hundred dollars, so I didn't push for a refund and they did honor the credit in the end.

Now that I think about it, the tours were actually all excellent, but we had two issues:

We showed up to the coliseum and they didn't have us booked as promised, even though I had a certificate with the date and time. We had switched tours around and they got it confused on their end, despite me reaching out to them to confirm everything was right when I started to suspect they had it wrong. They promised it was right, but it wasn't. They couldn't fit us in when booked, so we had to come back a few hours later. It put us at a much hotter time of the day and cost us two Uber ride fares.

I also just remembered that they promised us early entry to the Vatican when I booked the tour. But then claimed it wasn't being offered due to COVID, but ours was the first tour of the day and would still beat the crowds. When we arrived, we waited about a 45 minutes after opening to enter as six or so other groups (from their own company!) went before us. Our tour guide made up for it by being fantastic, and it wasn't too crowded that day anyway, but it still wasn't honest when booking.

I had actually forgotten about the above, because the tours were great. Their lack of honesty and mistake may make me think twice about using them again. I'm sure there are some better options out there.

 

[brentm77]

@tidefan Did you port in Sicily? If so, what tour did you do and did you like it? If not, where did you port instead?

 

[tidefan]

Rome

Arrived in Rome 3 days early and had booked a private transfer with Stefano's RomeCabs (cannot recommend them enough!). Because I had a lot of Hilton points to burn, we stayed at the Waldorf Rome Cavalieri. The downside of this hotel was that it was on a hill north of the Vatican, so you had to take their shuttle or a cab in and out of town. The upside was fantastic rooms (with amazing A/C) and as I am HHonors Gold, we received complimentary breakfast, and the Waldorf has an amazing breakfast. The rooms were also huge which was nice for the 3 of us. I would definitely stay at this hotel again, even with it being a bit outside the center. The first night we met my DW's sorority sister from college that lives outside of Naples and went to dinner at Mama Eat Lab, the location in Travastere. DW is gluten free and Mama Eat has 2 kitchens, so they can prepare anything on the menu either regular or GF, and it was amazing. The next day, we had a tour booked for the Vatican, but we were so tired from jet lag that we slept through it. We met our friends and had lunch at Hostaria Romana near the Trevi Fountain. It was amazing. They just kept bringing antipasto plates. It was nice b/c our friends spoke some Italian and knew what to order. We then walked around visiting the Trevi fountain, the Spanish Steps and doing some shopping. At this point, I had mentioned to them that we had missed our Vatican excursion and they said "you know, tomorrow is the last Sunday of the month, it will be free", so we decided to go the next morning before our afternoon tour. I am not sure that I've ever seen a longer line to get in anywhere, but it moved quickly. We visited the Vatican museums (but @brentm77 , we missed St Peter's because service was going on. I will have to go back!) and afterwards, we headed to our pickup point for our Golf Cart Tour of Rome that we arranged through Viator.com as it was the only one we could get at late notice. We had lunch at the meeting point of the Cafe Peru and were off on a 4-hour Golf Cart Tour of Rome with our Guide, Iames. That was an incredible tour. You can go many places on a golf cart that regular vehicles will have more difficulty with. We went by the Piazza Navona, the first Jesuit Church, the Vittorio Emanuel, the Roman Forum, The Colosseo, the Circus Maximus, the Palazzo del Quirinale, the Basilica de Santa Sabina, and to the famous keyhole view of St Peters from the door of the Order of Malta. It was a really, really good tour. We hit some of these other sites because we had already been to Trevi and the Spanish Steps, so he customized it a bit for us. He also took us to some fantastic gelato places. For those of you that are GF, many gelato places in Rome have GF cones in addition to GF gelato. DW loved that! The next morning we got up and met our arranged Stefano's Rome Cabs transfer to Civitavecchia, which took maybe a bit over an hour.

Civitavecchia

What a mess the port of Civitavecchia is. We arrived a bit early and had to wait outside as Italy "would only allow so many people in the terminal due to COVID restrictions". OK, but by the end of the day, that didn't really seem to matter. So, we finally got in, dropped our bags, and did our testing with Prenetics, who was in charge of the testing at the port. They wrote our testing time on our wristbands they gave us, and my DD and I were tested at 12:03pm (DW didn't have to test because she had COVID a month prior to the trip). So we went upstairs and they said we would get an e-mail when our results were ready. This was problem number one. The wifi at the terminal really didn't work and as most were Americans, many didn't have local data service on their phones. Not only was no one being able to pull up their e-mails, it seemed like the Prenetics folks couldn't get them sent out, so after about 45 minutes, people would get in their line to ask if they had been cleared, only to get the answer "Give it another 5 minutes". Now, these were antigen tests, mind you. Should be 15 minutes. After an hour, still no results. I ask. Give it 5 minutes they say. After about another 15 minutes, I get my e-mail that I am cleared. Wait a bit to see about DD's. Nope, nothing. Back in line. "Give it another 5 minutes". Nope. After 2 hours in the terminal, I ask again. "Give it 5 minutes". I asked because she tested with me and mine was back an hour ago, what happened to hers. "It's fine, I'm sure it's on it's way, give it 5 minutes". So, after another 30 minutes or so, I asked to speak to a supervisor. Granted, she was very nice. I said, we tested at 12:03pm and it's now 2:45pm. Nothing on my DD's test (and from the crowds that were still in the terminal, they weren't getting theirs either - come to find out most were like us, 3 of 4 or 7 of 8 would get results, but one didn't come back, and unless your whole party was clear, no one was let on). She went over, pulled up a few screens on the computer and said, "well, we don't seem to have results for your Daughter". I will say, she then offered to take her down herself for a retest and said she would stay with her until results came back. 15 minutes later (which was 3 hours after we entered the terminal), we were finally cleared to board. Thankfully, DCL extended the Cabanas lunch hours to 3:30pm, so we were at least finally able to get something to eat. When I was telling the staff that half the ship still probably wasn't on, they all said they wondered where everybody was, so I don't know if it was just our cruise in particular, if it was Prenetics, if it was the Civitavecchia port, or if it was a combination of all of it, but it was the most miserable embarkation for a cruise I've ever done. Fortunately, the cruise itself more than made up for this...

Katakolon

We did the tour through the ship of "Archaeological Museum of Olympia and Winery". The first part of the tour was just what it said. About an hour drive to the Museum at ancient Olympia. I had hoped that we would be able to visit the archeological site, but it was just the museum. We did, however, have a fantastic tour guide who explained everything in detail and seemed to know how to keep us out of the crowds (unlike in Athens). After about an hour at the museum, we headed back near the port of Katakolon to the Mercouri Winery. When we booked this tour we were more excited for Olympia and just thought the winery would be a fun stop with an expected sales pitch. We were pleasantly surprised, however, that this little place had a history of its own, with former owners working for the White Star line, etc. We got to go into the basement (looking at the place when you get there, you'd never know it had a basement), but while moldy, it was a good 20 degrees cooler down there and much appreciated! After the quick tour of the winery, we went into a nice wooded area and they had tables set up for us to enjoy wine (Red and White, we all thought the White was better), meats, cheeses, bread, olives, and amazing Olive Oil. Yes, they produced olive oil as well, which in a way was even better than the wine. It was a nice afternoon, actually. After that, we headed back to the ship, but for those of us that wanted to, they let us disembark in Katakolon for a bit of shopping. We did that, then walked back to the ship.

Heraklion (Crete)

The next day, we ported in Heraklion in Crete. DW and DD were tired and decided they did not want to go on the excursion that we had planned that day, the "Discover Knossos Archaeological Site with Leisure Time" tour. I, however, was looking forward to this, so I went out on my own. I am so glad that I did. Once again, we had a pretty good tour guide (as an aside, from talking to people in different groups, it is a bit of a crapshoot as to if you get a good guide or not. We did the short drive to Knossos, and when there, our guide, if I read it correctly, took us on the tour route "in reverse". So, while crowded, we actually had a pretty good visit. Got about 2 hours out at Knossos and I would encourage anyone that visits Crete to definitely make the effort to get there. While yes, there are a few "recreations" there, for the most part, this is ancient and it feels like it. One of the best sites on the trip, actually. After that, we were dropped off in central Heraklion for about an hour and a half to have a look around, get something to eat, etc. When the tour guide let us go on our own for awhile, a couple in front of me asked her if there was a good "fast food" place. She said, yes, it's right around the corner. OK. I would never have found this place if she had not taken us there, but it was a small souvlaki stand on the back side of a shopping center called "Chop Chop". I had Chicken Souvlaki (no tomatoes - yuck!) in a pita with french fries. It was 3.3 euros. So cheap and man, so good! I also made the Starbucks here to get the "You are Here" mugs. They had not only the Greece mug, but they also had a few others, including Athens, so I got that one too to save some time the next day. We returned to the ship and as we were near the airport, we watched planes take off and land most of the rest of the afternoon.

Athens

We were very much looking forward to Athens, as how could you not look forward to Athens if you have a taste for history. We had the "Historic Athens Sightseeing, Acropolis and Plaka - Adults Only" booked for the day. Here is where our guide let us down. First of all, for whatever reason, when we left port, we didn't go straight to the Acropolis. No, they wanted to take us around Pireaus first. While I appreciated that, it wasn't what I wanted to see. When we got to the Acropolis, there were already lines at the tours, not only from our ship, but from Odyssey of the Seas and another European cruise that was there as well. That said, it didn't take us long to get to the top because DW had a torn meniscus in her knee and one of the guys at the Acropolis saw her hobbling in line and said, would you like to take the elevator up? OK, so had no idea that they had an elevator, but sure enough, he pulled us out of line, took us through what we found out later was the exit, put us on a golf cart and dropped us at a contraption that functioned as an elevator, but I've not seen anything like it. It went straight up the side of the Acropolis, definitely an experience in itself. At any rate, we got up there and finally found our group when they got up there about 30 minutes later. Our guide was worthless at the Acropolis. It was such chaos up there that it was much more enjoyable just to know that we had to meet back down at the exit in an hour and just to experience it ourselves. We saw a lot of people fall. The top of the acropolis is marble, and I don't mean marble they've put down. It's the real deal. If you got off the concrete pathways and got on the actual marble top, it was extremely slippery. At any rate, we had a good visit up there and met our group down at the bottom (I went back down through the main entrance and let DW and DD go back down the "elevator" as I wasn't brave enough to try that again Then things got interesting. Our guide couldn't find our bus and come to find out it is because the traffic in Athens was pretty much gridlock. Don't know that I've really seen anything like it. The bus finally shows up and as we start to go, the guide stops the bus and gets off to get "a couple of people that are looking for the tour". After about 30 minutes, she comes back on and says "Sorry, they were from the Odyssey, not your cruise". Now, don't know about you, but I've been on a number of DCL tours and it's not hard to tell the difference between the DCL numbered stickers and what RCCL was using, but this lady couldn't seem to figure it out.

Then we went on an Odyssey of our own. We sat in traffic for what seemed like an hour then she decides to have the bus driver give us a "tour" of the city. Well, the first time around that was OK, but by the 3rd time we passed the French Embassy, we were all asking when we were going to get to get out in Athens. So, she takes us over by Hadrian's Arch, drops us off and says we now have our free time in the Plaka, which is up this street (she pointed up a street). Then she said, and I quote, "Meet back here in 15 minutes". OK, what is the point if you are stopping for 15 minutes? We decided that we wanted to explore the Plaka, so we just told the guide that we'd find a cab back to the ship. I think at least half of our tour did this. It was crazy. So, we did walk through the Plaka, which was nice and ended up somewhere near Monastariki Square, where we got an expensive cab back to the ship. Now that we've been to Athens, and realizing just how close the city is to Pireaus, I think that next time we will just take either the Hop On Hop Off bus, or better yet, just take the Metro into town and avoid traffic all together...

Santorini

We had the "Oia, Winery, Fira Town, and Cable Car" tour booked in Santorini. As mentioned before, if you have a DCL excursion, there is a HUGE benefit of tendering to the Ferry port instead of over to the Cable Car. We boarded our bus and won the guide lottery jackpot with our guide "Dora". She later told us that she had only been doing tours for a little over a month, but ended up being our best tour guide. Our bus took us over to Oia first thing in the morning, which included a very nice ride through the "backcountry" of Santorini that we actually liked just as much, if not more than the cliffside towns. Took us about 20 minutes to decide that Santorini was a place that we were going to have to come back to stay. Absolutely as beautiful as you would think.

We got to Oia and did a short tour to the town square, then she gave us a bit over an hour on our own to explore. She encouraged us to go to the castle (which we didn't make - shopping!) and some other sites (like the main church). Oia is beautiful. We also got lucky because at that point there was only our ship and a smaller NCL ship (Star, maybe?) and it was fun exploring all the nooks and crannies of Oia. Definitely many, many photogenic spots here. On the way back to the bus, there was another Souvlaki stand, so I got Souvlaki again We then headed back towards the Ferry port to the cliffside Santo Winery. Again, thought this would be a hard sell type place, but this place was beautiful, the wine, cheese, and olives were unlimited and views were amazing. We were there about an hour, then headed to Fira for a short tour. We saw from the Winery that the NCL Getaway was pulling in (it was due in at 1pm). Well, by the time we got up to the cable car area in Fira, it was a mass of humanity as the 4000-5000 people from the Getaway were all coming up the cable car. We decided to head back down, and at that point, the cable car was about a 30 minute wait.

Mykonos

The next day was a Sunday and we docked in Mykonos. We didn't have an excursion planned here and I am so glad that we didn't. We slept in a bit, then got off and there was a free shuttle from the port into Mykonos town. We took the bus in, actually, with a number of the crew, who were all excited to get to go into Mykonos. When we got into town, it didn't disappoint. Oh my word. I cannot describe how beautiful Mykonos town was to walk around. Yes, there are a lot of high end shops there to lighten your wallet, but it really is one of the most picturesque places I think I've ever been in my life. It didn't matter where you were, when you turned a corner, the scenery was just amazing. This is exactly what I had in my mind as to what the Greek Isles would be. I did take a long, arduous hike up a hill to the Starbucks to get the Mykonos mug, then headed back down to meet DW and DD. They had a great time shopping. I had a great time just taking in the town. Just amazing. Then we went over to see the windmills and wander a bit through little Venice. I will also say that it really helped on this day that we were the only ship in port, so it seemed like we had the place to ourselves. I'd go back tomorrow. I think of all the cruise ports I've ever been to, Mykonos is hands down my favorite port ever. We will definitely be visiting here again!

Naples

Well, originally, we were going to meet our friends and go to Pompeii, but they let us know a couple days earlier that their son had tested positive for COVID, so they weren't going to meet us (FYI, we never got sick, so I think he got exposed after they met us in Rome). By this point, we were all so tired that we just decided to walk around town. Mistake. I can't stress enough how hot and miserable our day in Naples was. Mix 98 degrees Fahrenheit with 80 percent humidity with VOG (yep, volcanic fog, the sulfur from Vesuvius mixes with the air as it is still active) and you have a formula for about the most uncomfortable, nasty air you could ever want. That said, we did make it to the Galleria and the main shopping street and had lunch at Zero Zero Grano, another GF restaurant that was really good. By that point, after an hour or so, we had had it and went back to the ship. I wish that it wouldn't have been our last day or we would have taken a ferry to Capri or Sorrento, but it was what it was. We'll get back there...

Flight home

After a miserable time in coach on the flight over, we upgraded our flight home to Delta Comfort +. Best decision of the trip...

Disney Magic

I thought that I ought to take a minute to talk about the ship. We've done the Magic a number of times, including last October, just after the startup. However, in the meantime, we had been on ships like Oasis OTS, Virgin's Scarlet Lady, the Carnival Mardi Gras, and Independence OTS and stepping on the Magic, it was like, wow, this is a good bit smaller, I hope there will be stuff to do. Again, that was just my initial reaction. By the end of the cruise, however, I found myself saying that I think that the Magic just may be my favorite cruise ship. I don't know, it's something about those classic ships. Everything just "feels" right. And there was plenty to do. Always something going on in the D Lounge, or Fathoms, or O'Gill's, and the movie theater was great as always. We thought that the food had taken a definite step in the right direction as well. All our food on the cruise was very good. Service, as always on the Magic, was excellent. Just love this ship. I will say that if I had one complaint it was that DCL didn't have any cruise specific merchandise. No Greek Isles or Mediterranean T-shirt, etc. Add to that the fact that we had a note that Italy had determined that since our cruise did not leave the EU, every purchase was subject to a 22% VAT, I hardly ever saw anyone in the gift shops. It was kind of weird. All in all, a fabulous trip. Probably my favorite cruise ever up there with our DVC Member Cruise to Alaska (that was as much about the fact it was a Member Cruise as the itinerary) and our Norway cruise and my first cruise ever on Dawn Princess (I miss that ship!)...

 

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Rome

 

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Keyhole view of St Peters

 

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Katakolon/Olympia

 

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Crete

 

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Athens

 

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Santorini