NCL Venice - Venice cruise; Greek Island excursions

[flexsmom]

I received so much great info on this board prior to booking our excursions that I thought I would report back on what we did and our impressions.

 

We had a couple of other ports, but our Greek ports were Corfu, Santorini, and Mykonos.

 

Corfu - we booked the Nautilus and had an amazing day with aboard. Our roll call wasn't very active, so it was just our family of four, so a bit pricey but all agree it was the BEST day of our cruise. We docked in Corfu, disembarked, and found the Nautilus tied up close by. We cruised to some beautiful little grottos, swam into a cave, did some snorkeling in the clearest water we've ever seen, and had the best lunch of our trip that was cooked on a BBQ on-board. Fish, chicken, grilled veggies, saganaki, wine, you-name-it. Iakis and his godson were wonderful hosts. We'd do this trip again in a heartbeat.

 

Santorini - Booked via Viator a tour offered by Santorini Unique Experience Tour. There were a few other ships in port, but we had no trouble with the tender and cable car to the top of Fira to meet our guide. Our guide was a local high school teacher, and he and our driver took us all over Santorini - beaches, villages that weren't overrun by tourists, fabulous wine tasting, and probably a more educational view of Santorini than we would have had otherwise. The views in Oia were amazing, but even late in the day it was just overrun, so we were happy to have had the more sedate experiences elsewhere in Santorini. We had plenty of time after the tour to shop in Fira, followed by about a 45 minute wait for the cable car down. We didn't dock until 2pm, so very happy to have the wine tasting stop to grab a quick snack. I had originally thought to eat dinner in port, but with the cable car lines, we decided it was best to head down and just grab a late bite on the ship (we had a 9:30 all-aboard time.) One humorous note - my daughter and I bought leather sandals in Fira - had to laugh as the shoemaker was adamant that we were buying shoes too large for our feet - but the size he wanted us to buy had our heels almost hanging over the ends. He was downright irritated. I think we Americans must wear our shoes differently!

 

Mykonos - My teenage son is a diver and really wanted to dive in Greece, so I coordinated with Waldemar at the Kalafati Dive Center. He picked us up at the port and my son did one boat dive while the rest of us (party of three) rented an umbrella and some chairs on Kalafati beach. We had a relaxing day and he checked something off his bucket list. The water was a bit chilly, but clear as could be. The restaurant close by was a bit of a disappointment (burgers and club sandwiches when I was looking for a Greek lunch), but a man selling hot homemade donuts on the beach made our day! Sugar and cinnamon were the options - amazing snack that filled us up. Our son was very happy with the dive - felt safe and equipment was in good shape - all in all it was a unique day with great weather and a beautiful beach. We were dropped back at the port, and had time for some Greek appetizers at a restaurant before we headed for the ship. My humorous story about Mykonos - the woman under the umbrella in front of us decided to sit topless. No biggie - it's Europe, right? My son had his first experience with that. However, then she stripped off the bottoms, too, and put the whole suit on top of the umbrella to dry off. After a while she got up, put it back on, went back into the ocean, and after her dip, took it all off again to dry. I'm pretty open-minded, but I wasn't expecting the bottoms to come off, too. From the looks of the patrons around us, neither was anyone else. Definitely made it a memorable experience....while munching on donuts.

 

I had asked about diving in Greece before we left and there wasn't much info, so hopefully this helps someone! I think most of the patrons were people staying on the island for a while, so perhaps that is why there just isn't much info out there for cruise pax.

[racingraysswimmom]

Thanks for posting your review flexmom!

 

We will be on the NCL Star in September so I just had a few questions and kindly ask your assistance.

 

If you are not Platinum and had to get tender tickets - did you have a limit of number of tickets you could get?

 

Do you remember what time your Muster Drill occurred?

 

Did you have a sail-away party/BBQ on deck?

 

Thank you so much.

 

Jan

[Houstonguy62]

We sailed on the Norwegian Star in June.

I'm not sure about a sail away party.

There wasn't any limit to the number of tender tickets you could get but you have to wait in line. I got in line about 1 hour before they started handing them out and I was on tender 8 which was called about 1 hour after arrived in Santorini.

The muster drill was while we were still in port so probably started about 1 hour before we left Venice.

[L1211]

Looking to book this cruise next June. How was the weather? Thank you Flexmom! Very informative. We will be better prepared for the beach!!

 

 

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