PurpleTraveller

When researching for my Santorini port stop for June 2024 I found this helpful website for the Santorini Old Port with information, photos and prices. https://www.santoriniport.com/ I am not sure how often the website is updated for prices but the other information about the facilities would be the same.

The cable car or path is the only way down from Fira to the old port to get the ship tenders. If you get a tender to the old port and do not wish to go up to Fira or get a boat to Oia there is very little to see or do in the immediate area of the old port. This is a link to the website for the old port of Santorini https://www.santoriniport.com/ which has information about the old port.

Firstly I would do some research both online with websites such as whatsinport and perhaps buying a book. Also look at the shore excursions available to book through your cruiseline to get some idea of what you might like to see or do in each port. You will have to decide whether you want to DIY or do ship shore excursions or private tours. Planning ahead will ensure that you get to see and do what you want in each port. In Valletta it is very easy to get off the ship and explore Valletta which is a beautiful city. The St John's co-cathedral is magnificent and there is lots to see and do in the city. In Naples there is lots to see and do in the city itself and you dock in the city. You could consider going to Pompeii, Capri or the Amalfi Coast on some type of tour either with the ship or private. You can DIY to Pompeii by train or to Capri by ferry. Livorno does not have a lot to do or see and Florence is about 90 minutes from the port. You can do a tour of some type to Florence, Pisa or Cinque Terre from Livorno or DIY on the train. Rome is about an hour from the port at Civitavecchia. You can DIY to Rome on the train or take a tour to Rome. You will need to prioritise what you want to see and do in Rome as there is so much that you won't be able to see it all in one day but you will be able to see a lot. There is not a lot to do in Messina itself though it is a short walk from the dock to the cathedral area. You may want to do a tour to Taormina, Mt Etna or perhaps to a couple of towns where the Godfather movies were filmed. I would recommend spending a few days in Barcelona either before or after your cruise. Barcelona is a great city to visit with lots to see and do. Spending time before the cruise will also allow you to recover from any jetlag. Most importantly have a wonderful cruise! 🛳️

Great to see another trip review from you! I'll be spending four days in Istanbul next June before flying to Athens for a Celebrity cruise, so I'll be following closely to see what you do. I went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum many many years ago and can't remember a lot but recently went to the Museum of Flight in Seattle and spent more than six hours there and still didn't see it all. Looking forward to reading about your trip. 😊

I really hope your bed is good, particularly for a 31 day cruise! Usually Princess beds are very comfortable but we were so pleased to get off the ship and sleep in a bed in our hotel after only 11 days. Hope you have a great cruise! 🛳️

So sorry to read this! Hope you recover soon. Take care.

I was on Crown for the June 2 cruise from Vancouver. I was in E631 and had the most uncomfortable, saggy and horrible bed I have ever slept in. The two mattresses that were pushed together to make a queen bed were completely worn out with large sags in them. A mattress topper had been placed over the mattresses but all that achieved were very soft saggy mattresses. There was a hump in the middle of the bed where the two mattresses met. Our steward told us there was nothing else that he could do to make it more comfortable. When I emailed Princess with my complaint about the terrible state of our bed and an itinerary change, Princess did not even mention the state of the bed in their reply. On my review of the cruise a number of people have commented that they have also had worn out mattresses, particularly on Emerald deck. Fortunately others reported that their beds were fine. You can see the sags in the bed from the photo I took when we first entered our cabin. I thought the rest of the ship was in good condition.

It is dependent on where you are, the terms of your existing booking and the terms of the new price. Many times the new price or promotion will be for new bookings only so Princess will not re-fare and require you to cancel your existing booking and then rebook to get the new price or promotion. Any existing reservations such as excursions will be cancelled and you will need to rebook them. The excursion price may have gone up since you booked originally, there may be currency conversion loss or gain (it often seems to be a loss and rarely a gain) or they could be sold out. Sometimes you can not rebook the same cabin (this happened to me when the cabin category was changed to guarantee bookings only between my original booking and rebooking). Always check all the different components of your existing booking including promotional OBC which you may lose, any cancellation costs, current price of any excursions you have booked and whether you can rebook the same cabin before you cancel an existing booking.

Thank you so much for your wonderful review! I have thoroughly enjoyed following you and your lovely family on your travels. I am returning to the Med next year on Constellation and Infinity for two cruises and I really enjoyed reading of what you did in each port and about the Beyond. Thanks again and happy future cruising! 🛳️

I think it is a table for two as we had booked a private table for two but I can't confirm as we never got to see it.

Thanks for reading! I certainly have lots of photos to look back on a wonderful trip.

Very interesting comparison, thank you. I find that the crew on Princess ships can vary significantly. On our 2019 Sapphire Princess and 2023 Crown Princess cruises the crew were fantastic. On our 2018 Majestic Princess cruise the crew were not engaged and the service was terrible. The food on our latest Crown Princess cruise was better than we have had for a long time on Princess but still not as good as we had on Reflection last year. The service on Reflection was also excellent. We like to cruise in the Mediterranean and Princess has seven day cruise segments that you can add together to make 14 or 21 day cruises. Those itineraries have barely changed in the last ten years. Celebrity wins hands down for their varied Mediterranean cruises of varying lengths and itineraries. When booking my Celebrity seven day Greek Islands cruise for June 2024 the cost of the Celebrity cruise was less than a seven day Princess cruise leaving from Athens. Admittedly the Celebrity ship is a lot older than the Princess ship but the Celebrity itinerary is much better. I also have a ten day Italy and Croatia Celebrity cruise booked for 2024 and Princess has nothing like it. It certainly pays to shop around!

I do agree that costs can start to add up and especially for you with four. We rarely do excursions unless we have OBC and much prefer to DIY where possible. We much prefer to walk everywhere if it's not a ridiculous distance. I'm looking forward to reading about the rest of your cruise.

I've got another Princess cruise booked for December as well as the two Celebrity ones for 2024. It pays to shop around as the Celebrity 7 day Greek Islands cruise was cheaper than a 7 day cruise from Athens on Princess when I booked. Admittedly the Princess ship is a lot newer than the Celebrity ship but the Celebrity itinerary is what interested me the most. The new charges for room service and to order through the medallion don't affect me because I don't use them but we usually go to Alfredo's a lot on the ships that have it. It won't stop me sailing with Princess but it's another cost to take into account. I have found Celebrity and Princess are both great cruise lines to cruise with and it's a good thing that we all have a choice of who to cruise with.

If you read the Princess threads then you will see that passengers are up in arms due to the about to be implemented charges for previously included items such as room service and Alfredo's (a casual dining restaurant). I think all cruise lines are trying to reduce costs and improve their bottom line. They also seem to be less interested in keeping their long term loyal customers and are hoping to attract new younger passengers. I am a long time Princess cruiser who tried Celebrity last year and had such a wonderful cruise I have two more booked. From now on I am not loyal to any particular cruise line and will book according to itinerary, price and value for money.

I'm sorry that you didn't particularly enjoy your day in Dubrovnik. If you ever go there again I would recommend that you walk the walls. We walked to the Pile Gate and it took us an hour because we kept stopping to admire the view and take photos and it took about 40 minutes to walk back to the ship. We got to the Pile Gate at 9.15am and took two hours to walk a full lap of the walls and enjoyed the wonderful views over the city and water. Because we were early the walls were not very busy and we beat the worst of the heat. We then spent a few hours exploring the old city within the walls. Dubrovnik was one of our favourite ports. Thanks for your wonderful review.

Thank you so much for your wonderful review. Rome is one of my favourite cities and I have been there a number of times and never tire of hearing and seeing other people's visits there. Ten years ago we met up with our adult son in Rome for a few days when he was travelling around Europe and went to many of the same places that you did. Your review has brought back some wonderful memories. I was also very interested in your time in Lucca as after three previous port stops in Livorno we are planning to go to Lucca in June next year during our port stop on our Celebrity Constellation cruise. Thank you again! PS. I love Scotland and are planning to revisit in 2025.

My goodness! What a ridiculous thing to happen. As if you would change your order to something you don't eat. I don't know why they just don't say that there has been a mistake and move on to correct it. I'd much rather an "oh sorry there seems to have been a mistake" or "I don't know what's happened but I'll get it fixed" than telling you that you caused the issue. It just leaves a bad taste when the whole situation could have easily been smoothed over. It may be a good table but there's no guarantee that you won't get your waitress! 😂 All joking aside I hope you get a good table, great waiter/waitress and have a wonderful cruise!

As a passenger who only books Standard fare as I don't drink alcohol or coffee, don't use the internet (I used to use my free Platinum minutes for five minutes a day but that is now gone) and as an Australian don't have gratuities included in the packages, I am saddened by the introduction of the new charges but not surprised. I will continue to sail with Princess because I love the product, buy my drinks, buy an occassional day of internet, prepay my gratuities and now pay for an occasional meal at Alfredo's. What I don't like is that I booked and paid for a cruise with the items that will now have a charge when they were included. The Princess hype of how wonderful these changes are is possibly what annoys people the most, not so much the actual introduction of charges. Just another reason to consider all cruise lines for future cruises and take into account the itinerary, the cost and the value for money. My next cruise is with Princess (booked before these changes) and then the next two are with Celebrity. Who knows who the following ones will be with.

I'm sort of glad that it's not only Princess showing an inaccurate itinerary map. It makes it difficult to choose an itinerary if the itinerary map is not accurate. I have heard from a number of people that the eastern side of Vancouver Island is really beautiful. It seems a pity that Princess' opinion of the eastern side of Vancouver Island is that it is not a "scenic cruising point of interest". I'll just have to do a lot more research before booking another cruise to and from Vancouver so that I can get to see the scenery for myself.

That's good to hear that it's not always a mess in Vancouver. I hope if I go from Vancouver again that I get an easy boarding like you got.

I was told by guest services that the itinerary had been changed a few cruises previously and would be changed for all cruises on this itinerary for the remainder of the season. I would completely understand if it was a one off change due to a problem or issue of some type but I was told otherwise.

I agree with everything you say. I feel like I've been given the brush-off by Princess, as I expected. I still think that Princess should notify their passengers when they permanently change an itinerary that they have sold and published an itinerary map for.

Just thought I would give an update on my email to Princess about the change of itinerary to sail on the western side of Vancouver Island rather than the eastern side as per the itinerary map. I received a reply today apologising for my disappointment but that the inside passage is a shipping lane and not a scenic point of interest and as per the Passage Contract the captain can change the itinerary at any point. There is no mention that all of the Crown Princess 11 day Inside Passage itineraries have been changed and I would be fairly certain that the captain has not made an unilateral decision to change the itinerary on all sailings. Also no mention was made of my complaint about the terrible state of our mattresses and that they need to be replaced. If I do an Alaskan cruise again I will do further research on the itinerary to make sure that I will cruise in the shipping lane of the eastern side of Vancouver Island so that I can enjoy the non existent scenic cruising point of interest. 😂 I wonder why if the inside passage is not a scenic cruising point of interest why do Princess call the cruise "Alaska - Inside Passage"?

How lovely to see you back in cruising mode again! Looking forward to reading your blog of your cruise. Sapphire is my favourite Princess ship. I cruised Alaska for the first time in June on Crown Princess and had a great time. Happy Anniversary and hope you have a wonderful cruise! 🛳️