Karemark

Love your pictures of Santorini. We were there in May and visited Oia and Santos winery in a ships excursion. It was a cloudy day when we were there - but beautiful nonetheless - so it's nice to see photos with blue skies.

Santorini was absolutely beautiful and we were very fortunate to have such a beautiful day!

Hi Karen,

 

Just wanted to drop in and say how much I am enjoying your review... your pictures are stunning!!!! My mom and I did a similiar cruise last Oct aboud the Serenade (but we stopping in Venice & Dubrovnik instead of Athens and Turkey). It's fun seeing the different things that others did in the same ports. Thanks for taking to time to write up the review :)

 

Melissa

Thanks Melissa! I definitely want to do a Med cruise again and want to go to Venice next time, I'll bet it's beautiful!

Off we went to Santo Winery where the wines were OK but the view was spectacular!

It seemed almost everywhere we went on the island, we were able to see the ship which was pretty cool!

We then drove all the way to the other end of the island to Red Beach for some amazing views.

Our lunch stop was at Dolphins Taverna which was close to Red Beach.

The food was wonderful. We had tomato balls, fried cuttlefish, and grilled octopus - all yummy!!

Since Dianne and John had been to Santorini before, we decided to rent a car and drive the island. So, off we headed to Tony's to pick up our car.

Tony's is a small, family-owned business and Tony is so nice! We rented a four-dour Hyundai for 35 euros for the day!

We started off by heading to Oia for shopping and pictures. Absolutely beautiful and very peaceful!!

Santorini - May 31st

We arrived in Santorini and boy is it a beautiful island!!

We took advantage of the tender "happy hour" where they allowed people to leave between 8 and 8:30 without needing tender tickets.

We took the cable car up at 5 euros per person. This went very smoothly!

Karen - On your Cruse (Again, I'm going on the same cruise July 10th), in what ports did you have to wear more conservative clothes (shoulders and knees covered) in order to gain entrance into Churches & Cathedrals? I realize it is depending on where you go on your excursions, but most definitely Rome & the Vatican, but how about Ephsesus & Mary's house, Barcelona and Familia Segrada? Any other excursion wear tips and suggestions would be greatly appreciate! :)

The only place we needed to be conservative (shoulders and knees covered) was for Rome. You will be out in the sun a lot, so I recommend a good hat!! I bought a pair of Clark's sandals which were extremely comfortable and I wore them on all of the tours, in fact, I still have the wide tan marks on my feet!! Also, the purse I bought was a good size for carrying a can of sunscreen and a bottle of water.

Loving the review and pictures.

Thanks!!

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Turkey, it was amazing!! This is one of my top stops so far. I highly recommend Serdar, he was excellent...very engaging, knowledgeable, and funny!!

We were very surprised at how much we loved Turkey!

We were back at the ship to get ready for the Mystery Dinner Theater. We all met in the Safari Lounge and were given champagne and appetizers. The show began in the lounge and started out very hoaky!! We were then moved into Giovanni's. The wine was free flowing and the food was good. The show was interspersed throughout the evening. We ended up enjoying the show as it picked up once it was moved to the restaurant. However, the free-flowing wine may have helped as well!!

Back to the ship

After having our delicious lunch, which was included in the price of the tour, we headed off to the agora to do some shopping, and then to St. John's Basilica.

We then went to see the Ephesus Terrace Houses. This was one of my very favorite things. We were able to see the work being done...very cool!

Enjoying your review - bringing back lots of memories of our trips.

I took DD on a mom daughter cruise from Venice to Barcelona last year for graduation and we also stayed in the 'Pink' hotel. Awesome location and we enjoyed the balcony and people watching from there.

I'm glad you're enjoying it and it's bringing back some good memories!! I really would like to get back and see Venice at some point!

On the private tours, were there a few bathroom stops. I'm always concerned about that.

Yes, there were. Our guides were also good about poining out where the nicer bathrooms were...and the free ones.

The countryside in Turkey is absolutely beautiful!

We then headed to the ruins. The driver dropped us off at the top and would meet us at the bottom. This was very cool to see the ruins they have unearthed.

Friday, May 30th - Ephesus

We started our day being warmly greeted by our tour guide, Serdar, from Ephesus Shuttle. We went with several others from CC.

Serdar

We first went to Mary's House which is a quaint little chapel. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside.

This was my least favorite tour company. The tour guide had a very monotone voice which was dificult to listen to as she spoke all day long. She would start talking before everyone in the group was present and she would also walk off before making sure everyone was there.

Thursday, May 29th - Athens

We met our CC tour mates in the R Bar and proceeded down to deck two to get off the ship.

We were greeted by our driver, Theo, and our tour guide, Anna, from PK Travel.

We were off to the Acropolis. So glad we went here first as the crowds grew quite large before we left.

Karemark, Thank you for the wonderful review & the beautiful pictures. My DH & I set sail on the SOS on July 10th and your review is getting us even more excited (if that's possible, LOL!) for our dream cruise!

I'm excited for you and wish we were going back!! Hope you have a wonderful time!!

I have looked at all the tour companies that you have booked. The price is for a group rate. Do the companies get others to join the group, and then each pay a part of the price?

 

Also, if you would be so kind as to tell me which package tour you took for each of the ports, some are 5 hours and some are 8 hours. Obviously you would see more in 8 hours. Just really don't know what to do, as this is our first time in Europe. Really need your help. Thanks again.

Some of the ports we took private tours with just four of us, others we took semi-private tours where the company does add others to your tours, and others we filled the vehicles with CC people. The private tours were definitely the most costly but we did enjoy having a few days with just us.

Cannes - We did 6-hour Monaco, Eze Village, St Paul de Vence. Since Grand Prix was going on, we went to La Turbie instead of Monaco. This was just the four of us.

Livorno - The four of us did the 9-hour Pisa and San Gimignano tour.

Rome - The four of us did the 9-hour Rome and Vatican tour

Greece - We went with CC group on a 9-hour Athens day tour.

Turkey - With CC group, went on a full-day Ephesus tour

Naples - 9-hour tour with CC members to Pompeii, Sorrento, and Positano.

Hi all we are on the Serenade for the first time next week, and I have read all had a good time, but can you tell me if there are tea making facilities on board

or should I take my travel kettle with me, cannot do with out my cup of tea

first thing in the morning Thanks

I'm not a tea drinker so I didn't pay any attention. I hope you have a wonderful trip!!

Wednesday, May 28th - Sea Day

Boy was it great to sleep in!! Did I already say how much we enjoyed the JS!?! It was so nice not to keep bumping into each other! We spent a leisurely morning and afternoon hanging out at the pool.

We decided to try out the slide at the kids pool - It's definitely not for grown ups (even ones who act like kids)! We kept getting stuck.

When we got back to the cabin, we went out onto the balcony and saw a school of dolphins jumping in the water.

Approximately 6 p.m., we went through the Straits of Messina which was pretty cool!!

This is a Celebrity ship coming out of the Straits before we entered

The Celebrity ship after it made it through the Straits

A seagull hanging out on a turtle!

Tuesday, May 27th - Sea Day

We really needed a sea day!!

Our official CC Meet & Mingle was at 10:15 this morning. We had already met the people who were most active on the thread, so we were looking forward to meeting everyone else. The turn out was very light and it seemed a lot of people only came for the prizes, as soon as the prizes were done, people got up and left. We didn't even get a chance to meet anyone else - it was a shame!

Since we turned the clocks ahead an hour and slept in, our day went by really fast!

We had dinner in the main DR, this was the second of three formal nights and dinner was delicious as usual.

After dinner, we went to the Castle & Crown Pub for karaoke with some of our CC buddies. We had a blast!!