Swan Hellenic Minerva/Discovery

[venicecruiser]

Thanks, Mel. Seriously considering a sailing on Minerva next year. Seems like very good value for the price!

 

Are the shore-ex pretty good even if they are included?

 

Claudia

[Mel]

Hi Claudia,

This was our first Minerva cruise and we were VERY impressed with the shore excursions. We pre-booked 13 shore excursions for our 14 day cruise (at no additional cost to the cruise fare) and they were all at least as good as any we had taken on previous cruises. Very well organized and interesting. We felt that this was probably the best value for the price of any cruise we had taken. If you like small ship cruising and don't mind that there is very little entertainment (the older we get, the more we seem to like smaller ships....) you will love this one. I would say the average age on board would be about 70, with lots of older and a few younger people, but obviously they were all very well travelled and really enjoyed seeing all the sights! Most of the passengers seemed to be British and Australian, with a few North Americans. Mel

[Carmelita]

Mel, we are scheduled for the Nov 10 Minerva Athens to Sharm El Sheikh cruise. On the Minerva web site it says you are not supposed to bring alcohol on board, we would also like to bring some local wine aboard for cabin consumption. Do many people seem to do this and if so do the staff just sort of look the other way or do you need covert ops to get it on board? Thanks!

[Mel]

When we boarded the ship in Venice, we had a couple of bottles of wine and Baileys in our carry-on - went through a scanner and there was no comment made about it - we bought a few other bottles at different ports and were never questioned about it, so don't think it is a big problem. Mel