Swan Hellenic Minerva/Discovery

[Parapara]

Hi Tamara,

Thanks for the information. We are on the cruise before as well so are hoping it won't be too long before we can see or receive something.

Jean

[Gothic]

I joined Minerva in Hong Kong at the end of January for a cruise to Vietnam and Cambodia. It was my third Swan Hellenic cruise but my first time aboard Minerva, previous Swan cruises had been on the Minerva II several years back. No denying that Minerva II was the far superior ship in every way. That said, Minerva was a delight, though her cabins, in my view are poorly laid out and somewhat basic. They are utterly at odds with the fairly opulent feel of the public rooms. The food is good, indeed, often very good. Thankfully there is none of the usual tacky evening entertainment of dancing girls and second rate comedians. People I spoke to wished for more formal evenings during the 17-night cruise, we had just two. Otherwise most nights a jacket and tie were required for men in the dining room, which is what one would expect aboard any cruise ship I'd have thought. Great to have open sitting in the dining room rather than two sittings and stuck with the same people every evening (no matter how nice they may be). I sailed on Discovery last year and we had the fixed seating dining, it worked out OK but why is this system carried on with when so many people hate it? Also, I have to ask, what is this thing about bringing onto the ship one's own alcohol - isn't there enough of it on board? Cases and bags are heavy enough without adding bottles of alcohol to them as well!! Anyway, Minerva was really a good cruise experience and one that I would recommend and look forward to repeating at some time.

[comcox]

Nice to hear from someone with recent experience. It's interesting to hear about the desire for more formal nights. On many American cruise lines now the move is away from formal nights--in some cases, all together. Both Oceania and Azamara--small but higher end companies like Swan-- have a standard smart-casual dress code every night although I've seen folks dress up more if they want. I also prefer the open seating plan as well.

 

I could tell from what few photos are on Swan's website that cabins looked fairly basic. But personally I cruise for the ports, not the ship. As long as the bed is comfortable, there's enough hot water for a decent shower, and the cabin is quiet and smoke-free I'm a happy "camper."

[comcox]

We still have no shore excursion information/cruise book available. I must say I'm not too impressed with Swan Hellenic at this point. I wrote to them a few weeks ago about getting the information and they told me to expect something by March 17 or 18, but there's been nothing. I'm leaving the country on Monday morning for an overseas trip so I'll probably lose out on getting excursions because I won't be able to book--quite upset about that.

 

Any other cruise line I've sailed with usually starts shore ex booking 6 months in advance and it's all online. With Swan you have to wait for a mailed form and then fax it back hoping it gets back before excursion limits are reached, which obviously gives the U.K. locals a huge lead.

[Parapara]

Hi Tamara,

Yes we are still waiting for something and we are also on the cruise before yours as well. Our T/A was told 6-7 weeks before sailing and we leave in 5 weeks and nothing. I have looked at the E-books part but nothing online for our cruise yet and even when there is it will be no use to us with dial-up. Not sure when we get our tickets but the last cruise we were on ( Discovery) we got them a month before sailing and we had the shore excursion brochure well in advance and booked a few before sailing by filling in a form and giving to our T/A.

Jean

[comcox]

Received email from our U.S. booking agent yesterday to say our May 11th cruise book would be coming out now on April 21! That's just under 3 weeks before sailing. And we can only book by FAX-first come, first served.

[Mel]

Hi Jean,

 

I see that they have finally got the cruise book for the 'Greece and the Adriatic' part of your trip showing on the swanhellenic.com site. It looks like a good variety of excursions available. Hopefully the next two weeks (ours) will be listed soon. We were in Croatia last year and absolutely loved it. We were only there for 5 days but said we will definitely go back. We walked around the wall in Dubrovnik (beautiful scenery - definitely need your camera there...) and also took the ferry over to Lokrum island which was a pleasant afternoon if you have time. Looking forward to meeting you on the ship in less than 7 weeks! Merilyn

[Parapara]

Hi Merilyn.

Yes, not long now. We leave 4 weeks today. I can see that the shore excursions are on line for the first part of the cruise- not that we can see then with dial-up! Our T/A said last week that the booklets are on the way from the UK so hopefully we get them this coming week. Hopefully, also, we get our tickets this week too. Have you been allocated a cabin yet? We told you our cabin no. earlier on so will look forward to meeting you all and Tamara when you get on board.

Jean

[comcox]

Just doing a quick check-in today while I had computer access. No word as far as I know from Swan on the Italy segment. I'll be back on Apr 7th--airlines willing (I arrived in Ireland a day late because of delays). Maybe by then we'll know more.

[comcox]

Just got back from Ireland last night and discovered that the shore excursion booklet is now online for Swan Hellenic's Italian Serenade May 11th cruise. Lots of interesting choices; it's difficult to decide on some of the ports.

 

However, there's no excursion order form included so I'm not sure how we are suppose to fax our requests. I've sent SH an email asking about it.

[Mel]

Hi Tamara,

Yes, I saw it too - and am busy researching all the options! Please let me know what you are told about the booking form. Still no word about what cabin we are in - have you heard either?

Merilyn

[comcox]

Hi Tamara,

Yes, I saw it too - and am busy researching all the options! Please let me know what you are told about the booking form. Still no word about what cabin we are in - have you heard either?

Merilyn

 

I've tentatively picked my choices except for Crotone and Civitavecchia. Can't find much info online for some of the locations. It's not clear if you can do more than one tour in a single port as some are morning and some afternoon. In both Palermo and Naples I'm hoping to be able to do that.

[Parapara]

Hi Tamara and Mel,

We have been having fun trying to find out about and booking shore excursions. In desperation I finally e-mailed S H in the UK and have been corresponding with a very helpful woman called Wendy. Here in NZ all T/A seem to have to book cruises through a company called Cruise Holidays who seem to be pretty poor to deal with. We finally got our paper version of the first part of our cruise on Saturday- nice to have but not much use for booking excursions. They also said that there was a hold up in England for the printing of the booklet for the cruise we are all on and they would forward the PDF version as soon as it was available. Wendy sent an e-mail to us with it attached on Wednesday ( including a booking form) and we have had nothing from cruise Holidays! ( It took about 40 mins to download but quicker than watching a little rotating circle on the website!)

We have booked our shore excursions for Greece and the Adriatic by e-mailing them direct to the UK. We are now trying to sort out the next one. Too many interesting choices in some places, but I guess they aren't all set in stone if we change our minds.

Two weeks today we will have just left Christchurch! Saw in a paper yesterday that Istanbul was about 6 degrees. Hope it changes dramatically in a couple of weeks!

Just a reminder - our cabin is B5.

See you all in a few weeks,

Jean

[Parapara]

I've tentatively picked my choices except for Crotone and Civitavecchia. Can't find much info online for some of the locations. It's not clear if you can do more than one tour in a single port as some are morning and some afternoon. In both Palermo and Naples I'm hoping to be able to do that.

Yes you can do ones in a.m. and p.m. if there is time I can see us walking our feet off!!

Jean

[comcox]

Got my shore excursions booked on Friday. Fortunately our American booking agent (All Discovery) appears to be more on the ball and they emailed me the North American booking form; I did not have to fax--just emailed it back. Of course I have no idea when I will hear if I'm actually confirmed for any of the tours. I hope this confusion does not represent what the actual cruise will be like. E-book says we won't get final papers until two weeks before the cruise which seems quite late as most American cruise companies send it 4-6 weeks before. I expect that is when we will hear which cabin we got for those of us booking a "guaranteed" cabin.

 

Hope your flights go well Parapara. We'll see you in Venice.

[Mel]

Hi Jean and Tamara,

I faxed the shore excursion booking form to Oscar at All Discovery last night asking him to let me know that he received it. Thanks for helping me with that, Tamara. We're really looking forward to the trip - hope everyone's flights go well and we'll see you in Venice!

Merilyn

[comcox]

Mel & Jean,

 

Just received an updated invoice from Voyages/Swan Hellenic and noticed that my cabin number was now attached. I'll be in B18.

[KansasCityTBone]

I put a Swan Hellenic travel wallet up on eBay if you are interested. I got it off the Minerva II before she was the Royal Princess. Don't mean to advertise but it would be a great item to whip out at dinner or when you pay for drinks!

[oakfield]

Hello Everybody,

 

I have just book on the Minerva for May 25th. My daughter, Adria, and I [Rosemary] will be sharing a room. I know very little about the ship or the line but it sounds very interesting. Last minute flights were a problem. I booked one from Toronto to Rome but had to go two days earlier-- so if anyone can help me with information about transportation--and hotels in Rome. I would really appreciate it. I figure when we fly in if there is rail or bus transportation we could stay somewhere between the airport and the city center, [ looking for something reasonable not lavish!!] then we could go sightseeing in Rome on Tuesday -- then of course we would need to get to the pier.

Thanks in advance

Looking forward to meeting everyone -- all 350 of you!!!

 

[AMPERSANDRA]

My friend Sandy and I are on this cruise also - I believe you have talked to her - small world. I just booked transfers from the airport to the port - am waiting reply. Looking forward to meeting you - we got all our excursions except the second day ( full day) in Seville - which is fine - am looking into options of doing something on our own - just sent Sandy some thing s to think about!

[venicecruiser]

Can anyone give me an an approximate size of the inside cabins? Particularly Baltic deck insides?

 

Thanks!

 

Claudia

[Mel]

We were on the Minerva in May - it was fabulous! We were in an outside cabin on the Baltic deck and they were about 140 square feet. We saw an inside cabin and it looked about the same. The shore excursions and the food were great. You'll have a wonderful time. Mel

[comcox]

I was on same cruise as Mel and had a Baltic deck outside. Swan's cabins are a bit small but I still loved the whole cruise.

 

I thought Baltic deck was great and would definitely choose that deck again. My cabin attendant showed me an inside cabin to compare and her only suggestion there was to avoid getting one with the third fold-down berth over one of the beds as that stuck out from the wall. I would definitely go with a twin bed configuration as you get a bit more floor space. Since I was traveling alone, I had ordered them together but they don't have those special pads to put over the "seam" between them so I was aware of the divide the whole time. On the plus side, their twins are large so together they make a king-size bed instead of the usual queen size you get on other ships.

[venicecruiser]

Thanks, Tamara and Mel. A couple more questions....

 

How were the bar prices? Is there good storage in the inside cabins?

 

Claudia

[Mel]

The bar prices seemed to be on par with other cruises we have been on - frankly, we don't buy many drinks from the bar, except wine with dinner and the occasional glass of wine sitting out on the deck by the pool (which was heated and very nice, by the way). We bought wine in local shops and brought it on board to drink in our cabin which was never a problem. Storage in the cabins was fine - lots of cupboards and drawers (for two of us, anyway). Any more questions, just ask! Mel