Moon42
October 16th, 2008, 07:11 PM
In July we went on a 12 day cruise on the Zuiderdam. We have been planning and saving for this for a while. We are not new cruisers we got our 50-day pin on this trip. We have also cruised on other lines to, but this was the most expensive and probably our last big one. I just want to tell anyone who is gong to go on this cruise about out experience on the excursions we took. This cruise advertises that you have 3 days in Venice…wrong!
Our itinerary was;
Day 1 Venice, arrive early…however we arrived late due to plane difficulties so this day was shot.
Day 2 Venice: We went on the on the Venice Sightseeing tour it cost $93.for each one of us in EUROS. So it was actually more. This tour was really disappointing, we had a tour guide that took us through the back alleys, we saw the outside of the beautiful cathedrals only, the night before there was a big celebration so the streets were dirty and there was human excrement in the corners. When we arrived at the Doges Palace, we only were given 15 minutes to shop and see the square. The tour guide did not let us stop to take one picture, if we did we got left and that was a little scary because there was no way we could find our way out of the maze. We passed by wonderful stores filled with beautiful hand made masks, gelato shops, pastry shops, museums, but we were not allowed to stop, just keep walking and listening to this young lady and keep your eye on her or you would be left.
Do not take tours here, when you dock you are only a couple of blocks from the main area and you can take a Vaporetta for a day pass and sail around the bend and spend the whole day seeing what we missed. Only after we returned on one did we realize how close we were and how easy it would have been to do it that was and cheaper! They took us in the opposite direction!
Day 3- Venice leave at 10:00 a.m. So you see here you don’t get 3 days in Venice.
Day 4- Dubrovnik We Signed up for the Historic Dubrovnik Tour. This was $61. ea. (In American dollars.) We had another tour guide a man and he ran us just as fast through the streets of Old Town. It was very hot; he gave us all a headphone. They worked half of the time. We did get to see the inside of a cathedral but it was another rush, rush tour. When we told him the headphones were not working he got a little hot under the collar…told us we should have told him sooner…:(
Day 5- Argostoli. We took the Cephalonia Highlights Tour $69.ea. We drove to Mt Ainos and through the city of Sami. We went to Melissani Lake and got on small boat and floated around inside of what looked like a crater. Then we got to have a little time in Fiskaro village. It was ok for the money but not the best tour.
Day 6- Santorni Now this is where a few movies were filmed so we took the tour to Profitis Ilias and Oia Village. This cost $74. We traveled by bus on a very narrow high road,( if you don't like heights do do this) the scenic views were incredible. We got to spend 25 minutes in the Oia village. Then we went back down and they let us off in Fira. We had to take a tram down the mountain or ride a donkey…we chose the tram. However, we passed the tram while on the bus, they took us blocks away and told us to walk in that direction, so we had to walk blocks to get to the tram. It was unbearably hot I thought I would die one minute and then was afraid I wouldn’t. We were short on time so we had to move, we didn’t have time to see anything or take photos. When we got to the tram I just about collapsed, as I was dehydrated. Our water had run out and so had our Euros!
Day 7- at sea, this was a relief…we could finally relax and enjoy our room with a balcony.
Day 8- Catania. We chose the Classic Syracuse tour it was $64. we drove to Syracuse on bus, we had a very nice guide but he moved fast too, we did see some wonderful sights but this was 5 hours long, we spent most of it walking. By the time we reached the Roman Theater we were so tired that we just wanted to sit down. We did have 20 minutes here to see the sights. But it was more than :mad:….and it was a little bit of a climb to the theatre.
Day 9- Naples We took the “taste of Naples’ here it cost us $75. ea. We had a panoramic ride around Naples and entered a local restaurant and watched them make the original Pizza and were served a whole Pizza ea. It was the best Pizza we have ever had. We loved this excursion. We really didn't get to see much of Naples but we were so tired from the days before that this was a relief to just sit!
Day10- Civitavecchia. Well here was the biggest disappointment of all; I am a professional artist, and all my life I have waited to see the Sistine Chapel. We decided to go all out purchase one of the more expensive tours. It was $204 ea. We traveled by bus to Rome about 2 and half hours to get there, then we had a traditional lunch…this was bad, they had our salads sitting on the tables when we arrived, they were lettuce stacked with what looked like the cheapest tuna you could buy from a can.They were warm! Then they served us Lasagna, I am part Italian and my mother’s recipe was 10 times better. They had a buffet set up but nothing was over ice…. everything looked like it had been there for days! This place looked like a place I would call a “dive” in the states. Then we boarded the bus and went to the Vatican City. We got in rather quickly because we were in a tour. But quickly is how I have to describe our next hour. The tour guide moved us so fast through the halls that I actually don’t remember most of it. It was wall to wall bodies, one tour group after another, the guide kept stressing to watch her flag and don’t get left behind. So guess what…. most of the people in our group just missed the artwork…we had to make sure we didn’t get lost, after all we were hours away from the ship and let me tell you there was not way in !@!@!@ that the guide was going to slow down or check to see if her group was together, we had some elderly people behind us and they just looked like they were going to collapse. I think I saw the ceiling….not too sure! Then we were given 15 minutes in a very crowded gift shop…I bought a book on the art in the Vatican! :(
We got to pass by the Coliseum on foot but we were at least a half a block away. Once again no time for pictures…hurry..hurry or we leave you! This was a 12-hour tour including travel time.
Day 11 Livorno. Here we had a tour lined up but our Travel agency gave us a free tour to an olive farm in the Tuscany area. This was a wonderful tour, saw the beautiful Tuscan country and got to taste the best green olives ever.
Day 12- Barcelona Arrived at 6pm no time to do anything
Day 13 Barcelona Our flight was at 1:40 pm so we didn’t get to see Barcelona.So you really don't have time here unless you choose to stay in the city for a day or two.
Now my husband and I are not fussy, we are easy going and we have been across both oceans 2 times, plus other cruises. We love HA, but I think they need to check out the tours more. We did not feel we got what we paid for. To be so rushed is just stupid for a cruise line; the tours should have been shorter or maybe not so involved.
Anyway I lost some weight because we walked so much. If you go…really look for other ways to see this area, it is just beautiful…I am so sorry we didn’t just go out on our own but that is a bit scary sometimes. I think if I did it again I would do it with friends and then share the taxi money and do what I wanted and maybe have the chance to see some art and take a few photos of myself and hubby in front of the places we saw on the run….
If you would like to contact me you can email me at: shiningfeather@comcast.net
Moon42
Our itinerary was;
Day 1 Venice, arrive early…however we arrived late due to plane difficulties so this day was shot.
Day 2 Venice: We went on the on the Venice Sightseeing tour it cost $93.for each one of us in EUROS. So it was actually more. This tour was really disappointing, we had a tour guide that took us through the back alleys, we saw the outside of the beautiful cathedrals only, the night before there was a big celebration so the streets were dirty and there was human excrement in the corners. When we arrived at the Doges Palace, we only were given 15 minutes to shop and see the square. The tour guide did not let us stop to take one picture, if we did we got left and that was a little scary because there was no way we could find our way out of the maze. We passed by wonderful stores filled with beautiful hand made masks, gelato shops, pastry shops, museums, but we were not allowed to stop, just keep walking and listening to this young lady and keep your eye on her or you would be left.
Do not take tours here, when you dock you are only a couple of blocks from the main area and you can take a Vaporetta for a day pass and sail around the bend and spend the whole day seeing what we missed. Only after we returned on one did we realize how close we were and how easy it would have been to do it that was and cheaper! They took us in the opposite direction!
Day 3- Venice leave at 10:00 a.m. So you see here you don’t get 3 days in Venice.
Day 4- Dubrovnik We Signed up for the Historic Dubrovnik Tour. This was $61. ea. (In American dollars.) We had another tour guide a man and he ran us just as fast through the streets of Old Town. It was very hot; he gave us all a headphone. They worked half of the time. We did get to see the inside of a cathedral but it was another rush, rush tour. When we told him the headphones were not working he got a little hot under the collar…told us we should have told him sooner…:(
Day 5- Argostoli. We took the Cephalonia Highlights Tour $69.ea. We drove to Mt Ainos and through the city of Sami. We went to Melissani Lake and got on small boat and floated around inside of what looked like a crater. Then we got to have a little time in Fiskaro village. It was ok for the money but not the best tour.
Day 6- Santorni Now this is where a few movies were filmed so we took the tour to Profitis Ilias and Oia Village. This cost $74. We traveled by bus on a very narrow high road,( if you don't like heights do do this) the scenic views were incredible. We got to spend 25 minutes in the Oia village. Then we went back down and they let us off in Fira. We had to take a tram down the mountain or ride a donkey…we chose the tram. However, we passed the tram while on the bus, they took us blocks away and told us to walk in that direction, so we had to walk blocks to get to the tram. It was unbearably hot I thought I would die one minute and then was afraid I wouldn’t. We were short on time so we had to move, we didn’t have time to see anything or take photos. When we got to the tram I just about collapsed, as I was dehydrated. Our water had run out and so had our Euros!
Day 7- at sea, this was a relief…we could finally relax and enjoy our room with a balcony.
Day 8- Catania. We chose the Classic Syracuse tour it was $64. we drove to Syracuse on bus, we had a very nice guide but he moved fast too, we did see some wonderful sights but this was 5 hours long, we spent most of it walking. By the time we reached the Roman Theater we were so tired that we just wanted to sit down. We did have 20 minutes here to see the sights. But it was more than :mad:….and it was a little bit of a climb to the theatre.
Day 9- Naples We took the “taste of Naples’ here it cost us $75. ea. We had a panoramic ride around Naples and entered a local restaurant and watched them make the original Pizza and were served a whole Pizza ea. It was the best Pizza we have ever had. We loved this excursion. We really didn't get to see much of Naples but we were so tired from the days before that this was a relief to just sit!
Day10- Civitavecchia. Well here was the biggest disappointment of all; I am a professional artist, and all my life I have waited to see the Sistine Chapel. We decided to go all out purchase one of the more expensive tours. It was $204 ea. We traveled by bus to Rome about 2 and half hours to get there, then we had a traditional lunch…this was bad, they had our salads sitting on the tables when we arrived, they were lettuce stacked with what looked like the cheapest tuna you could buy from a can.They were warm! Then they served us Lasagna, I am part Italian and my mother’s recipe was 10 times better. They had a buffet set up but nothing was over ice…. everything looked like it had been there for days! This place looked like a place I would call a “dive” in the states. Then we boarded the bus and went to the Vatican City. We got in rather quickly because we were in a tour. But quickly is how I have to describe our next hour. The tour guide moved us so fast through the halls that I actually don’t remember most of it. It was wall to wall bodies, one tour group after another, the guide kept stressing to watch her flag and don’t get left behind. So guess what…. most of the people in our group just missed the artwork…we had to make sure we didn’t get lost, after all we were hours away from the ship and let me tell you there was not way in !@!@!@ that the guide was going to slow down or check to see if her group was together, we had some elderly people behind us and they just looked like they were going to collapse. I think I saw the ceiling….not too sure! Then we were given 15 minutes in a very crowded gift shop…I bought a book on the art in the Vatican! :(
We got to pass by the Coliseum on foot but we were at least a half a block away. Once again no time for pictures…hurry..hurry or we leave you! This was a 12-hour tour including travel time.
Day 11 Livorno. Here we had a tour lined up but our Travel agency gave us a free tour to an olive farm in the Tuscany area. This was a wonderful tour, saw the beautiful Tuscan country and got to taste the best green olives ever.
Day 12- Barcelona Arrived at 6pm no time to do anything
Day 13 Barcelona Our flight was at 1:40 pm so we didn’t get to see Barcelona.So you really don't have time here unless you choose to stay in the city for a day or two.
Now my husband and I are not fussy, we are easy going and we have been across both oceans 2 times, plus other cruises. We love HA, but I think they need to check out the tours more. We did not feel we got what we paid for. To be so rushed is just stupid for a cruise line; the tours should have been shorter or maybe not so involved.
Anyway I lost some weight because we walked so much. If you go…really look for other ways to see this area, it is just beautiful…I am so sorry we didn’t just go out on our own but that is a bit scary sometimes. I think if I did it again I would do it with friends and then share the taxi money and do what I wanted and maybe have the chance to see some art and take a few photos of myself and hubby in front of the places we saw on the run….
If you would like to contact me you can email me at: shiningfeather@comcast.net
Moon42