romrai

23 years ago, we sailed on the pacific princess. It was old, but food and service was great. Booked an inside, got upgraded to a full window. Cost us $7000. (This does not include tips, tours, flights or drinks for 2. It was a 12 day cruise. Today I get a 12 day cruise for 2 at a total of $2500. - $3000. And I have a balcony. Even if spent another $600 for the 2 of us to eat in the speciality restaurants every day, with extra special service, we would still be better off. Considering gas, wages etc etc. have gone up, paying a little extra for this and that is no big deal. When I see people whining, I say, since it's so good elsewhere GO!

we were scheduled to fly out of boston for ny on october 29 a couple years back. drove to boston, parked the car. went to salem for halloween celebrations....laughed at sign that said winter storm warning....in october, come on??? must be joke. well, nor'easter hit..... our flight the next day (day before cruise) was cancelled, airline rebooked for 2 days after cruise left, rebooked for next day, flight cancelled. trains cancelled, highways closed etc etc. ended up having to stay extra day in boston, lost booking for ny, had to fly to bermuda to catch ship, 3 days booked hotel in bermuda. when all said and done, $1500. extra later we finally caught our ship, only to get one case of food poisioning, and one case of seasickness. could of spent a couple days in ny for less. another trip out of ny. we arrived 4 days early, snow storm hit, we managed to get our flight to greece, but others missed the first 2 days of our holiday (3 days in athens + cruise) so....the long and short of the story is don't wait until last day, but give yourself a couple extra for unknown events. start your holidays a couple days early and not have concerns....

Average temperature in Istanbul for the end of September is76f. Izmir will be a little warmer. But of course, these days you can't tell what the weather will do. But.....night temperatures do drop drastically . Suggest googling....average temperature (city) (month) to get better idea..... All around. I know in Cairo, mid may was almost 90 during the day and down to 54F at night.

we did this when it was just a murder mystery. unless it has changed a great deal, i wouldn't waste my $. ours was a 4:30 dinner......payed for food that was free in dining room with a VERY condensed menu.

6 of one, half doz of other, but, personally i would choose the 12 days and then stay in venice for 2 more or start with 2 days in barcelona (hang onto your wallet!) one really can't depend on weather anymore, it could be stinking hot or cool or anywhere in between. i would try to beat the rush of the european holiday makers. we will be there the end of april - early may. we have gone before in february and december. we were able to tan on the deck protected from the wind when we were in izmir. have also spent time in egypt in may and july where the temperatures got up to 47C/116F. whatever you choose, you will enjoy it.

as others have stated, the size of your party seemed to be the problem. i have cruised princess, renaissance, carnival and ncl. currently platinum on ncl. have to say, loved princess, but hated waiting for a meal, cause if i am hungry, i want to eat NOW! now, they are too expensive for me now. carnival was absolutely horrible. i had set dining, the food was always cold, as the waiter had to stop to dance around the dining room and service was the absolute worse we have ever had. matter of fact, this was the one and only time we took the dining rooms share off the tips at the end of the cruise. can't believe that you would post a "won't be back" because of that, but to each their own. i bet if you compared the price of a similar cruise with your favorite, it would be significantly more..... might be easier to splitting your party into 2 and go down to the dining room together. you will still have to wait the time anyways. personally, i would rather have a little inconvenience and pay less for cruise.

i have to say agree the tv sucks. but as far as the layout of the ship, try another ship. we hated the layout of our carnival ship.....so i guess what i am trying to say, there are good and bad everywhere. i have friends who won't cruise ncl again (or til they get a deal that they couldn't turn down) and as disappointing as our carnival cruise was, if i got a good deal, i just might try it again.

last january we did the DAWN out of Tampa x2. it went to roatan, Belize, Costa maya and Cozumel. as others have said, it is not a jewel class ship. it is the sister ship to the dawn. all rooms have bar fridges. the SPIRIT does not. there are a FEW available. the spirit is smaller, and is definitely styled for the asian market.

the music scene on the main deck and the white party are definitely for the 20's crowd. we never do shore excursions.

costa maya has a pool, swim up bar and lots of shopping. i strongly suggest NOT buying jewelery there. you are overcharged a lot and the guarantees are bogus. you can walk or cab into Mahahual. the beach is nice and you can rent a chair and get a drink for next to nothing. lots of restaurants, bars and shopping. you can also pick up a tour (previously booked on line) with native choice.

forget Belize as a beach stop. out of the 2x's there, we could only go out once as we were told there were problems between the police and the local drug sellers. on the QT we were told that the judge had just sentenced these dealers and the jail had no place for them, so they were taking care of it. no shore excursions went that day. the second day, we went out, but we were not impressed. some decent shopping and bars right at the port. BELIZE can be VERY dangerous.

roatan, has an area right outside the port for shopping (across street at the straw market) you can also pick up taxi's or tour buses ect. there is a nice beach area at the far end of the island. only takes about 20 minutes or so. if you port into cozumel, there is dive/snorkel operators available ashore.

as far as tampa goes, we stayed at Chase suites. very nice little place with nice kitchette. prices were VERY reasonable. you can also arrange a ride to the ship and pick up from the ship to airport with them. it is fairly close to the airport/car rental place. lots of hotels right around port. the area around busch gardens is not the best place for a hotel. it is a little out of the way. suggest you rent a car, the cost, would more than cover the cost of a rental compared to taxi\shuttle. what we did was get the free shuttle to the hotel when we came in. the next am we took the shuttle to the airport to pick up our car. went to busch gardens and the flea market (near busch). at the end of the day, returned car and took shuttle back to hotel. in the am we took the shuttle to the ship, coming back, shuttle from ship to airport.

its been a few years, but there was a couple restaurants right in the heart of the market serving chicken on skewers with rice. (like souvalaki) the bread "bagel" is great and so is apple tea and baklava.

we reserved a tour for 8 with celsus travel from izmir to ephesus two years ago. the guide was excellent. and most important to us, no deep accent which we couldn't understand. we also saw the terrace houses too. it was about $45 a person. it was custom designed by us. to ephesus and back to izmir, terrace houses and no stops for lunch or shopping. we stuck to that, as we didn't want to go to silk, carpet or alabaster shops. 5 hours. it is about an hour each way from izmir.

definitely beach for aruba. take a taxi or local bus, its not far. best beaches are attached to hotels. town is just outside the pier.

been to both locations twice. we rented an open car in Barbados (think dune buggy) and drove around the island. nice. traffic was not aggressive, however, they do drive on the left. we finished with a stop and stroll around town. lots of snorkel and dive tours available on shore as well. port within walking distance of town. where you dock in Curacao is also a walking distance from ship, lots of shopping/casino. we also had gone to a beach resort, being told that all sandy beaches are man made. i think it was about $5 each to get in. (that was about 4 years ago) personally, i thought the town/market was the best.

we are going on our 3rd med cruise in april. 1st one was on another line. 5 days with 3 days in athens and another 3 in istanbul, stops in crete, kusadasi and rhodes. really enjoyed that. the second was on the jade. 12 days grand, from barcelona. saw malta, rome, alexandria, izmir (supposed to be athens, ended in crete) very nice. in april we will be going from rome, naples, olympia, izmir, 2 days istanbul and athens. this is on the jade as well. we have spent 16 nights on the spirit before and 12 on the jade. we like the size of the spirit, but she is old and designed for the asian market, so it is smaller (railing heights, countertop heights etc) she is definately showing her age and it is not like fine wine. we do find that the med has too many ports for us. we like to kick back and relax, and find it hard when we are in a new port everyday. on the next one, since we have seen most places, we can relax a bit more.

depending where you are from...... we always fly to London, then book through easy jet to whatever location we sailing out of. it has always been cheapest, but beware of the costs of extras. have flown to cairo from halifax, for 1/3 the cost of booking direct.

Last oct. we decide to take a last minute cruise. Booked a week in advance. Boston to Bermuda. Went down fron ns to Boston 2 days early. Booked a flight from Boston to ny. Should have known to turn around a go home....left medication at home, wheel broke on suitcase, gas filler pipe rusted out. All in the first 5 hours of 12 hour trip. Checked the weather before we left and said it was going to be cold a rainy. Arrived in Boston to see winter storm warning, come on , its only oct. plane was cancelled, and the next, so went to airport to get the last one we could. Tried to check in, but it just was cancelled too. Sent us to train station 5 trains cancelled. Missed ship, had to stay another night in Boston $175.. Flew to bermuda $700. stayed in a dump for 2 nights for $300. Eating in Bermuda, $150. (Meals are soooo expensive here) taxis. $85. Finally made it to the ship. Obc missing. Didn't get credit until month after return. Food poisoning one day, one day really bad storm. Back to ny for worse night in a hotel. $160. ( it should be only rented by hour and warning posted) happy to say rest went without bother. Long and short of it. Even booking couple days and well planned can end up awful .....some days the dragon wins!

We were there a couple years back. We were told by the people at our hotel, not to use the taxis. "They rip us off, they certainly will rip you off". You can get the metro to an area just below the acropolis "plaka" where the shopping area is and the view of the parthenon is great. There are many restaurants and if you want to take the time, you can walk around the base, through the ancient plaka and make your way up to the top.