love*2*cruise

On 6/19/2023 at 9:04 AM, alfa666 said:

I really congrats you and I would love to hear from your experience. I'm thinking to book as well. Could you message by private.

Thank so much

I tried to send you a message but the feature is turned off…pls send me one.

On 2/19/2023 at 9:11 PM, IslandThyme said:

I see a big flurry of publicity about these ships now, evidently sailing as soon as next month. Does anyone have any non-PR information?

I’m a future resident, I’ve done my research, happy to answer any questions you may have.

We are booked on this epic adventure & can’t wait to join this great community of like minded people & sail around the world!

I hope others decide to join us!

We are booked on Victoria Cruises Line world cruise.

Over 200 port, 115 countries, 28 months, 7 continents, One epic adventure for 1 affordable monthly rental fee.

We are about to embark on an around the world residential cruise with Victoria Cruises Line. It’s a brand new concept as it gives you all the perks of a cruise with a monthly rental structure while sailing around, traveling the world, at a reasonable price. The big advantage is that we stop at many ports for multiple days to allow us a proper emersion into the places we are visiting. It’s also an adults only ship, 18+ so no kids running around.

This trip will take about 28 months to go around the world, but many of us have signed up for 37+ months taking advantage of a 40% discount, who knows we may never get off the ship. But one can join the adventure for as short as 6 months or take advantage of some of their last minute deals. 

OK, here's my two cents for those of you seeking information on this ship. I accompanied our senior class on ten days in Greece. What a fabulous time we had. The cruise was part of our trip and I had no expectations before boarding the ship. I was expecting a ferry with some type of berths and was pleasantly surprised by what we found. That being said, if you go into this with low expectations you will be much happier.

• Boarding and disembarkation: Prior to boarding we stood in a line outside the terminal for about 45 minutes. Not too bad but not exactly pleasant. Once the line started moving we were on the ship pretty rapidly. They still process by hand, no computers, so it was interesting. I had a moment of panic when they took my passport to give back to me at the end (having spent five days in Greece prior to the cruise I knew that passport theft is rampant) but all went well and passports were returned prior to disembarkation with no problems. In fact this is pretty brilliant on their part, our students could have cash accounts but could not pick up their passports without settling thier accounts.
  
• Cabin, we had an inside for three. It was very similar to cabins on other ships. Cabin was clean, no smells. TV and sound system. The biggest problem with the cabin was the paperthin walls. We could hear the conversation of all three cabins around us. In fact, late one night some adjoining high school students were actually having conversations through the walls.
  
• Food and dining - I was very surprised by this. It was quite good. No, it was not equivalent to other cruise lines' foods but it was very good. Service in the dining room was mediocre, frequently we had no refills on water, and service was very slow but the food was similar to maybe an Olive Garden experience.
  
• Ports - the Greek isles are fabulous. We loved our ports. On Mykonos, Crete and Santorini we did not have excursions booked and were fine without them. Patmos and Ephesus were very interesting and we had private excursions on both. Our tour company booked these. My biggest complaint is that we just did not have enough time in port. Most ports were half days at most, Mykonos and Santorinin we arrived late afternoon and all aboard was about 10 pm. Just not enough time to really enjoy and explore. The people on the islands are friendly and helpful. This is unlike the people in Greece mainland. We found the people there to be very cold and the whole place was depressing. Beautiful country, amazing history but I'm wondering what is wrong with the people. Perhaps it's the economy. People were the least friendly of any where I have ever visited. Crime in Athens is high and human trafficking is in evidence everywere.
  
• To the parents who are sending students on a trip - please insist that they are accompanied by an adult at all times. It is not a safe place to be a teenage girl. Our tour guide was exceptional and pointed out to us in every area, including the islands, areas of crime and things to be aware of. I just don't think that a group of teens is perceptive and careful enough to manage on their own.
  
• Overall this cruise was a fun experience. If you've been on cruises before don't expect that type of cruise. There's not much to do on board, but it's not needed. The point of the cruise is the ports. Go expecting to enjoy the ports, go with a good attitude and you will have a fantastic time.
  

If you have any questions I will be glad to answer them. One final thought. One of our chaperones was pickpocketed our last night in Athens. Anyone who is going needs to be very vigilant with their belongings at all times. It was actually kind of surreal to watch them "work our group" to try to get our belongings.

I have a cruise booked on the Celebrity Solstice next month and now I can't wait to again experience a "real" cruise!

By any chance do you still have the itinerary from your 2015 cruise on the Louis Hellenic's Aquamarine? I'm trying to trace back some old ship itinerary that I've done and as the cruise line doesn't exist anymore it's hard to get any info. I'm hoping that it was perhaps the same as mine as they usually repeat the same over & over...

By any chance would you have access to the detailed ports for the following Msc cruise:

1.) msc musica New Years cruise 2006/2007, I think departing 28.12.2006

I'm having difficulties finding old routes, any advice of how to find this & a few others I would be very grateful for.

Does anybody still have the exact itinerary of this cruise?

I'm trying to get all our past cruises mapped thus would appreciate the help as I wasn't that organized at that point....

Thanks in advance,

If you contact the Director of the Repeaters Society for each of the cruise lines and give them the date and ship name of the cruises you have taken, they have the ability to get you the information you seek. Whether they will or not is another matter. They certainly have access to those past itineraries.

 

That's a good idea, I'll do that on my next cruise with RC in September but as you can see from my signature block we've cruised on so many different lines that I was really hoping for some unified data base or app, I would have hoped an app for that already existed.

There are great web sites for ships arriving at certain ports in the future so why not the past...it seems the data is there...but not easily accessible!?!

Is there a database an app or a way of finding past routs & ports of calls of various ships?

I would love to put together a map (virtual or real) of all or past cruises & potrts that we have been to but I have not kept good records...except the recent ones on the cruise critic signature block...

Has anybody done something similar, i would be grateful for any advice!

OmG this is the best review that I have ever read! Thank you so much for the detail & amazing, information & particularly the great pictures.

We are flying to the US to take the ship transatlantic back to Europe in September & your review is making the anticipation greater with each word I read!

A few questions from my side:

- have you tried Izumi?

- are you using the online web services, are they pricy?

As we are doing the transatlantic, I'm seriously considering the premium or ultimate drink package, did anyone you met get it & comment on it?

If you mention these on the following pages, I'm still on page 13 & just started reading last night.

You sound like a fun person to cruise with...perhaps our paths will cross on the high seas one day...

Thanks again!

Totally enjoyed your review, pictures & hints, totally appreciate all your time & effort!

We sail in 8 days & man the anticipation is even greater now!

Did you go to any of the evening shows in the theatre?

How are the venues for dancing the night away?

Many thanks!

We are back & had the chance to post a review:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=36857.

Met some lovely people but sorry that we did not meet the others from CC; many knew about CC but were not 'active' per say.

Regards to all!

Tammy,

We have done the majority of these ports on previous cruises so at the moment I'm e-mailing with someone (recomended here from other CC's) who would possibly take us to Olimpia when we are in Katakolon. I may book something for Turkey as it will be our first time there but otherwise we will be taking it easy & not taking any long excursions & simply doing the things on our own. In the past, for the majority of the other ports we usually ended up getting a cab and being taken around the areas privately instead of the big ship excursions. Cairo was definitely the exception & I'm sure you will be amazed with the piramyds, sphynx, etc.

The MSC ships that we have been on in the past are far from bi-lingual, you will have no problem getting around with English (but also Italian, German, Frecnch, Spanish, etc) - we were always amazed that the anouncemnts and introductions were always done in all the languages.

I'm sure you will enjoy Rome for Christmas, especially Christmas Eve I'm sure it will be amazing! We fly to Milano on early on the 28th & then get to Genoa...we are also getting very excited!

As to the wine packages, I never saw them on-line either but do remember that before one boards they have the forms with the various wine options. If I remember correctly they have a white, red or a mixed package that also gives you a bottle of Sekt and like 5-7 bottles of mineral water...we have done it before when we were with friends but alone I couldn't finish (OK perhaps shouldn't) nor drink all that wine.

It would be lovely to meet you on board...perhaps we can work out a meeting point/time on Saturday when we are at sea & have a coffee or a drink together.

Barbara

Dear Browns,

I was looking for something else on other threads & found this one which does confirm that no visa is needed:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=621703

The last time we were in Alexandria & took the tour to Cairo (booked on the ship) to see the pyramids we did not need to get the visa prior to sailing - it was simply arranged by the cruise company. I just checked our passports and we did get a stamp from Alexandria, but no hassle was involved.

This time we wanted to simply do Alexandria on our own - I'll check with the Embassy or our TA and get back to you.

Glad to hear that there are a few more Americans on board!

Hope that we can meet on board.

Barbara

Thanks for your reply. Yes the aquarium in Genoa is rather good. What was also nice is that close by there was an old ship that could have been a pirate ship & it was fun to go on it to explore and see a small ship and fanticize how it was in th old days sailing such a wooden amazing vessel. A couple of years back we were also in ALexandria and also took the excursion to Cairo and the Sphinx and the piramids & it was well worth it. It is a distance & we were of the same opinion to book the excursion as to not be delayed for some odd reason & miss the ship. This time I want to explore in Alexandria, I hope that the library is open to tourists and who knows what else.

We have been on MSC in Europe before and it really depends on the people on the particular cruise, we did encounter some English speakers. We do have an advantage living in Vienna now a few years that we also speak German - and there are also often many Germans aboard. What we really enjoyed on the MSC sailings on the Meditaranean was that the show's anouncers and many activities were multi-lingual (Italian, German, French, Spanish and English) and this gave my daughter a kick to learn an additional language.

I'll write a report upon my return.

My daughter (age 12) & I are going on this cruise - curious if anyone else is also joining? :o

Any suggestions/recomendations on "must do's" either on the ship or at the following destinations :confused: :

- Genoa, Italy

- Olympia (Katakolon), Greece

- Athens (Piraeus), Greece

- Rhodes, Greece

- Cairo / Giza (Alexandria), Egypt

- Limassol, Cyprus

- Marmaris, Turkey

- Crete (Heraklion), Greece

- Naples, Italy