marazul

How are you planning to get there? If it is a taxi, you can arrange for it to wait for you and bring you back. Do that before you get in the taxi. I thought you might be doing this as part of an independent tour.

You should be ok. The visit is one hour, but you should be ready to end it by 4 pm if need be so you can get back to the ship by 4:30. You need a little extra time just in case.

Yes. Plenty of time to get there by 9-9:30 am. Take a taxi or book a transfer.

That works. There is a lot more to see in Athens, such as the Acropolis Museum and the National Archaeological Museum. However, the Corinth-Mycenae-Epidaurus combo is very popular and you might find other tour companies that offer it. Enjoy your trip.

You do realize that to get to Mycenae you have to drive through Corinth. Consider going to Corinth, Mycenae and Epidaurus and skipping Nafplio. Are you in Athens three full days (4 nights) or two full days (3 nights)? If it is two full days, you can save the early visit to the Acropolis for the morning you embark on your cruise. You have plenty of time to go there and then return to the hotel to check out. Get your tickets as soon as you can to guarantee an early admission.

The waterfront is lined with restaurants, all with the same great view and outside tables. No reservations needed. The menus are all posted outside, so just look at them and pick a place to eat. We have been to several and they are all good. Local specialties: soupe de poissons (fish soup), moules-frites (mussels and fries), daurade grillée (grilled sea bream). For nougats there are a few souvenir shops around and near the port. Most of them will have them.

The ho-ho bus is a bit of a waste in Athens. You are really packing it in the rest of the time, so here is how to add more to it. On the day you arrive, take a walking tour of Plaka in the afternoon to keep you awake and get over jetlag. On the third day, get tickets to the Acropolis and visit it on your own first thing in the morning. Then go to Corinth in the afternoon and make sure you add a short boat ride on the Canal to see the sinking bridges in action.

I am not taking exception and you do not need to apologize. I was only pointing out that you are not going to get any new info on this topic with multiple posts.

You are posting this in every forum. The answer is the same for all euro countries

Ashore you can use credit cards for practically everything. However, you should carry euros for small purchases (like coffee, snacks) or for when a vendor (maybe a taxi) refuses the credit card. Always ask first if they take cards, this is particularly true for taxis and small purchases. Always charge the transaction in euros, never in your currency. In that way you get the lower interbank exchange rate rather than whatever exchange rate the vendor decides to charge you. There are lots of posts on this subject. Search these forums.

2024 or 2025? September 5 this year is on a Thursday; next year it's a Friday. Are you tied to a particular cruise line? If not, you will find plenty of Friday, Saturday or Sunday sailings on other lines. That will give you another day to board your cruise. Or you might want to do a few days of land travel first and maybe board a cruise in Venice a few days later. Why risk missing embarkation or add all that stress to your plans?

Taxi. About 35 euros.

If you are in the foreign country, always charge in the country's currency. If you are making internet purchases from home, you might have the choice of charging in your own currency or in the local currency. If so, go to a website such as https://www.xe.com/ and enter the amount they ask in local currency to check what your own currency amount would be at the current rate. If the amount the vendor offers you in your own currency is more than the official rate, charge in the local currency.

We have used https://www.georgestaxi.com/ many times over the years and we re very pleased with their service.

They are probably national companies that have rental offices in Sicily. Just check them out.

I agree with @Kane. We were caught in the great European travel snafus of June 2022. We got our flights through Flight Ease. We stayed in Lisbon for three days after the cruise. Our flight to the US got canceled repeatedly on the day that we were supposed to leave. Seabourn was out of the picture since we were no longer on the cruise. The airline put us up on a hotel and we got rerouted the next day. We did our own research on new flights and told the airline the flights we preferred. At one point we tried to call Flight Ease, but we had already found good alternative flights on the airlines app. After we returned we also spent months filing claims with the airline and Seabourn Shield. Everything was resolved eventually, but it was not the end of the trip we had envisioned. Just be prepared to fend for yourself.

It seems that the new website will be https://www.colosseo.it/ Unfortunately, it isn't working. At least, I keep getting error messages today.

It is listed under "Other Mediterranean Ports" because so many Med cruises stop in Turkey.

Nothing negative right now. I just checked the local newspaper and there are no news of unrest or closings in Marseille. A group of teachers staged a small protest in Avignon yesterday. They are expecting floodings this week from Avignon to the sea. https://www.lamarseillaise.fr/

You should post in Mediterranean ports. Ephesus is in Turkey. Turkey is not in Africa.

Wrong. Greek ships can choose to make a stop in another country, but they are not required to do it. Non-Greek flag ships MUST make a stop in another country. Greek ships are the only ones allowed to have only Greek ports in their itineraries.

What time do your boarding documents say? It takes about one hour from central Rome to the port, so allow 1.5 hours.

The fastest would be to go to Monterosso by train and then use the ferry between the villages. When you are in Riomaggiore, which is the closest to La Spezia, you can decide whether to return by train or ferry depending on how much time you have. In that way you visit four villages. On a longer day, you could get off the train in Corniglia, then train to Monterosso and ferry back as above. Like that you visit all five villages.

There should be plenty of cabs, but a single cab should take all of you. Spaniards are very accommodating of children and families. Two cabs is your fall back option.

Cabotage laws require ships that have their first and last ports in the same country to make a stop in another country during the trip. (It's complicated, search this forum or google "cabotage law.") The exception is for ships flagged by that country. So f you sail a Greek cruise line like Celestyal, they are allowed to vist only Greek ports. Any foreign flag cruise line, has to make a stop in another country. The most common stops for Greek cruises are Turkey, Cyprus or Italy. You have three options if you don't want to go to Turkey: Pick a cruise that stops in Cyprus or Italy. Pick a Greek cruise line that stays only on Greek ports. Or pick a cruise that starts or ends in another country. The on-board duty free issue mentioned by @edinburgher is a separate issue. Cabotage laws go back centuries and are meant to protect the maritime industry of every country, not only the EU.