Rhapsody of the Seas - July 29 - Aug 5 Mediterranean Cruise Trip Report

[Mgugs46]

Oia was beautiful, and we had a perfectly sunny day where every picture we took looked like a postcard. Personally, I would recommend that if you have an early tender to Santorini that you get off and head to Oia first. Exploring before the hordes of people showed up was great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Bizzie07]

We were on this same cruise and I must say your pictures are amazing (a lot better than mine;p). Loving your review. Just curious how much did you pay for a taxi from Fira to Oia? We did a ships excursion that took us in a tender to the bottom of a zig zag road where a bus took us up to Oia. After an hour and a half in Oia it then took us to Fira where we could stay as long as we wanted. Santorini was truly amazing.

[Mgugs46]

So the second thing I soon realized was that this walk from Oia to Fira was not only far (I already knew that), but that it is essentially straight up hill for 7 miles. Some of that uphill being extremely steep, and on loose lava rock that was not the easiest to climb (think walking in sand on the beach). The views were amazing, and I really enjoyed the walk - but it was exhausting. As I had mentioned earlier, I am 41. I am in shape, but apparently not that in shape because on a hot day, you really need to be in much better cardio shape than I am to make this walk easily.

 

The good news is there are plenty of places to stop along the way to take pictures and rest. The bad news, there is almost no place to stop and get some water. I had packed some water, but would recommend that if you do this walk that you grab some water in Oia before you head out. It was probably the most fun, and most exhausting thing we did all vacation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mgugs46]

We were on this same cruise and I must say your pictures are amazing (a lot better than mine;p). Loving your review. Just curious how much did you pay for a taxi from Fira to Oia? We did a ships excursion that took us in a tender to the bottom of a zig zag road where a bus took us up to Oia. After an hour and a half in Oia it then took us to Fira where we could stay as long as we wanted. Santorini was truly amazing.

 

I must say, the Samsung 8+ takes pretty great pics for a cell phone camera. I believe the guy who took us charged 15 or 20 Euro for the trip.

[Mgugs46]

 

 

 

 

 

[Mgugs46]

Despite the part where I said this was one of the most exhausting things I have done, I really do recommend it. The views were amazing, and honestly on our walk back it was probably an hour before we even ran in to any other people.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mgugs46]

 

 

 

 

 

[Mgugs46]

 

 

 

 

 

[wolfcathorse]

I may have missed you saying but could you tell me who the captain was for your voyage?

[Mgugs46]

On the way back to Fira, you pass through Imerovigli, which had a lot of nice hotels/resorts and luckily for a very tired and hungry me, a great restaurant at the Adronis Concept resort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mgugs46]

I may have missed you saying but could you tell me who the captain was for your voyage?

 

Captain Juan Caranti

[Biker19]

Walk time between Oia and Fira?

[Mgugs46]

Maybe I was starving, or maybe this really was one of the best sandwiches I have ever eaten in my life. For 32 Euro my wife and I both had delicious sandwiches and all the ice cold bottled water we could choke down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, the one thing I would caution you would be to better budget your time ... because by the time we got back to Fira, and by the cable cars, the line was enormous. Trust me, the last thing I wanted to do was to walk down the winding donkey poo filed stairs, but that is what we ultimately ended up deciding to do as the cable car line was not moving at all and there was a slight "what if" panic that had set in about missing the ship.

 

Walking down the stairs is awful. I don't care what anyone else has told you. It smells awful. It is extremely crowded. Donkeys on the way up being ridden by folks who cannot control the donkeys nearly slamming in to you. Also after having walked 7 plus miles up hill, walking down 588 steps was near impossible for my shaky legs. I honestly thought a few times on the way down, well I have had a good 41 years, is it that big of a deal if I just quit and am forever stuck in Santorini? In short, unless you love steps, donkey poo, and crowds of people banging in to you ... try and make it back to the cable cars earlier than we did (roughly 3pm).

 

After we made it down, it was time to head to the ship, attempt to rest my blistered feet and sore legs and say goodbye to beautiful Santorini.

 

[Mgugs46]

Walk time between Oia and Fira?

 

I would say 3 hours. We stopped for lunch, but other than that we did not take many breaks. Probably longer than 3 hours with the walk down the steps.

 

[PlanItOut]

This is a great review. Nearly spit out my coffee laughing as I read the "...well I have had a good 41 years..." part.

[Mgugs46]

Night 5

That night we ate in the Main Dining Room for the first time. I finally understood where all the negative comments came from regarding the food. In short, it was not terrible, but everything was just bland and tasteless. The waiters and waitresses seemed more annoying - almost desperate for your approval. Like they were walking on egg shells. I am not sure why, but it is just the opinion I got.

 

I had the french onion soup (ok, but not as good as in Chops), and the beef sliders (not good) and I believe either a piece of Key Lime pie or Red Velvet cake (I can't remember, but both were pretty good).

 

Tonight was the parade of flags in the Centrum, which seemed to be pretty popular with the folks on board.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mgugs46]

The other thing that happened that night was that I won this:

 

 

More importantly, I also won $860 on a slot machine, which was totally unexpected.

[Biker19]

More importantly, I also won $860 on a slot machine, which was totally unexpected.

Any tax paperwork for that?

[Mgugs46]

Any tax paperwork for that?

 

No, no tax paperwork. I don't think it is enough for tax paperwork.

[Mgugs46]

I am now looking at flights to/from Santorini...thanks so much....there goes my savings :)

 

Santorini is just amazing. If you can afford a night or two stay at the Adronis Concept, do it. It looked amazing - the rooms each had their own private infinity pool overlooking the caldera.

[sapphireblue]

Excellent review!! Amazing photos! I was on the same sailing as you as well and am re-living this sailing along with you.

 

I laughed out loud about your heat wave comment. I heard from someone that this was the hottest weather in this area in the last 200 hundred years. I wasn't sure how correct this was. But your comment about "Heat Wave Lucifer" seems quite accurate. It was HOT!!!!

 

I believe we chatted briefly on the Roll Call page about booking with Milo. He absolutely offers amazing tours in Kotor. He showed us his Kotor 3 years ago, and I booked with him again on the sailing before this one (we were on a b2b). Like you, I highly recommend Milo for any tour he offers. His sense of humour coupled with his life experience and perspective on life in Montenegro was wonderful.

 

In Fira, Santorini, we also walked down the stairs with the donkeys. We did expect to have to dodge the poop piles, but found it ok. There were very few donkeys to dodge, thankfully, on the way down. Mind you - we did catch one of the last tenders (yikes - just a little close) so perhaps that is why there was little activity down. But the calves the next day! Ooooh my! Sure felt that. I know how you felt. ;p

 

Following along with the rest of your review. Thoroughly enjoying it!

[wolfcathorse]

Captain Juan Caranti

 

thank you I will update my Current Captains Con't thread

[Mgugs46]

Day 6 - Katakolon (Olympia), Greece

This was probably the port I was looking forward to the least. Not because I do not enjoy ruins, and history, but just because I was so excited to see Croatia, and Santorini (and then with how surprisingly great Montenegro was). Also, my legs/feet were still killing me from the day before! It was also the port that looked most Caribbean to me:

 

 

Once we got off the ship, we headed right to the taxi line and asked what the taxi's would cost to get to Olympia. They were expensive. 40 Euro each way for the 30 minute ride in to Olympia. We really had no interest in going to the jelly fish infested beach, so 80 Euro round trip to Olympia it was.

 

The ride was pretty smooth, and rather quick since our driver was doing 140km/hr on the way there. Olympia to me was just ok. I have been to Rome, and some other places in Italy, and to me, these ruins were just less exciting to look at.

 

 

 

It was neat to see the original Olympic site and track, but to me the ruins as a whole were just less than impressive. I think part of it was just how tired we were from the day(s) before, and the unrelenting heat.

 

 

 

Don't get me wrong, there were certainly some interesting things to see from a historical standpoint, like the Temple of Zeus, or Pheidas Workshop

 

[Mgugs46]

 

 

After spending a few hours here and at checking out the Museum, we headed back to the town and just wandered around. There was not much to see in town - just some shops, and restaurants, so after wandering we were back on the ship fairly early.

 

 

 

[Mgugs46]

Here are just some other random pictures...