Advice about 11 Night Italy, Turkey, Greece on Beyond

[soniam]

Sorry for the very general questions. We are looking to sail on the 11 night Italy, Turkey, Greek Islands on Beyond in July 2023 for our 25th anniversary. We have sailed before and have sailed once on Celebrity in a suite. We have only sailed the Caribbean before, but we have been to Europe, including Rome and Naples. We are looking to book the Celebrity Suite #11101. I couldn't find any issues with the cabin on Edge or Apex, ie noise. I know this is a new ship, so that's a bit of an unknown. Is there anything I should be worried about for the placement of the cabin? Or is there anything I should know about this itinerary that's not on the website description, ie special things/concerns. I have looked at the info for the ship. Is there anything unique or interesting that's not described for the Edge class? I am not concerned with any pandemic related issues. I have been following other message boards for this, since we are on our 4th rescheduled DCL cruise starting from summer 2020. Plus, I am sure things will be different in some way by summer 2023. Thanks for the info.

[WonderMan3]

Your cabin is positioned at the very front of the ship so you may feel a bit more motion than something mid-ship just in case motion sickness is a concern for you. 

 

As far as the itinerary goes, you are cruising in the middle of summer so expect high temperatures (when I was on a cruise in the summer once it hit 100 degrees in Athens and got pretty close at a couple other stops) and crowds of tourists. Crowds can be problematic in places like Santorini if there are multiple ships visiting; the gondola ride can have hour long back-ups or more. Heat can be brutal for visiting some places like Pompeii so just keep that in mind when planning excursions. Read reviews for tourist sites and try to find them from people who also visited in July to get an accurate picture.  And for the Greek islands you may encounter the Meltemi winds which can make sailing a bit choppy and very windy on deck and there is a risk of ports being cancelled. My first Greek islands cruise we had those winds which made the sail back from an excursion to Delos Island (from Mykonos) a scary and vomit-inducing experience for multiple passengers, and it caused our port stop in Rhodes to be cancelled. 

[soniam]

8 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

Your cabin is positioned at the very front of the ship so you may feel a bit more motion than something mid-ship just in case motion sickness is a concern for you. 

 

As far as the itinerary goes, you are cruising in the middle of summer so expect high temperatures (when I was on a cruise in the summer once it hit 100 degrees in Athens and got pretty close at a couple other stops) and crowds of tourists. Crowds can be problematic in places like Santorini if there are multiple ships visiting; the gondola ride can have hour long back-ups or more. Heat can be brutal for visiting some places like Pompeii so just keep that in mind when planning excursions. Read reviews for tourist sites and try to find them from people who also visited in July to get an accurate picture.  And for the Greek islands you may encounter the Meltemi winds which can make sailing a bit choppy and very windy on deck and there is a risk of ports being cancelled. My first Greek islands cruise we had those winds which made the sail back from an excursion to Delos Island (from Mykonos) a scary and vomit-inducing experience for multiple passengers, and it caused our port stop in Rhodes to be cancelled. 

Thanks. That’s the kind of info I needed. The motion should be fine. We usually stay aft and love the rocking of the ship. Summer isn’t ideal for crowds, but with our son still at home and in school, it’s the only time that we can get away without him. Crowds don’t usually bother us. We often go to Disney World and Disneyland during the most crowded times. Also, we are from Texas and not bothered by the heat.

 

The choppy seas should be fine. We have sailed during a tropical storm and don’t get seasick. Missing ports due to wind is definitely not ideal, and we have experienced that before. Seeing the ocean and islands from the ship is the most important part for us. This itinerary doesn’t have quite as many Greek Isle stops as I would like, but we really want to try the new ship. I suspect we will either do another Greek cruise at some point or even just visit the individual islands. Our son is getting closer to graduating, and we are planning to move to Spain in the coming years, so I think we will have more opportunities to do it again. Since we haven’t been cruising due to Covid, we have pent up demand and will probably use any excuse to go again. Thanks

[garyl62]

We recently booked this same trip for the same time, however after booking we realized we had a schedule conflict (can you believe it, summer of 2023 and we already have a conflict!) so we pushed it to the first sailing in August of 2023.  We are in a aft Sky suite.  I too wish there could have been 1 or 2 more Greek ports, but looking forward to the overnight in Istanbul.  With the changes they have made to the location of Luminae and the double level Retreat deck/pool area I think the retreat will feel even more isolated on the ship than it seems on Edge or Apex.  Some will be happy with that, others not.  One thing I noticed is the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is open from 10 to 6 daily and with the port time of noon to noon you'll need to plan to go there right after arriving if you want to spend a good amount of time there.  

 

It's a long way off, but should be fun to plan and we'll look forward to hearing about your trip next summer!

[soniam]

2 hours ago, garyl62 said:

We recently booked this same trip for the same time, however after booking we realized we had a schedule conflict (can you believe it, summer of 2023 and we already have a conflict!) so we pushed it to the first sailing in August of 2023.  We are in a aft Sky suite.  I too wish there could have been 1 or 2 more Greek ports, but looking forward to the overnight in Istanbul.  With the changes they have made to the location of Luminae and the double level Retreat deck/pool area I think the retreat will feel even more isolated on the ship than it seems on Edge or Apex.  Some will be happy with that, others not.  One thing I noticed is the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is open from 10 to 6 daily and with the port time of noon to noon you'll need to plan to go there right after arriving if you want to spend a good amount of time there.  

 

It's a long way off, but should be fun to plan and we'll look forward to hearing about your trip next summer!

That's good to know about the Grand Bazaar. I haven't looked into what we would do at the ports yet, but I definitely want to see that. Unfortunately, 10-6 probably means that light will be garbage for photos, but hopefully, that won't matter much due to the subject matter. It will be nice to be able to get some shots at sunset or sunrise of the rest of the city. I have never over-nighted before on a cruise, so I don't know how they handle getting off and on the ship late or early.

 

I know what you mean about conflicts. Our vacation/travel schedule has been so messed up the last couple of years. We want July, because I think we will be going to Japan in June. We wanted to go this June, but I don't think they will be opening up in time for reasonable planning. So, I think we will be pushing that off until June 2023. So many places to see and so little time. I realize that we have missed out on taking our son to some places due to travel restrictions/uncertaintanties before he leaves for college. Hopefully, he will still want take advantage of free vacations with us for a little while longer. August will hopefully be nice for you with maybe less crowds, at least non-European crowds. Looking forward to seeing the new ship and getting outside the US.

[Virginia100]

I’ll hopefully be on the Beyond cruise 8/8/2022. I know the crowds will be there as that is the traditional European vacation month but I figure that may force restrictions to be minimal. I picked this Beyond  cruise and not the Istanbul one as this cruise includes besides Santorini, Mykonos and Rhodes the ports in Greece of Nafplio and Argostoli. These two I noticed are not on many other itineraries I reviewed. I don’t know if this same itinerary is in 2023. We have a Sunset Veranda cabin. I’ve booked a dinner already at Eden and Fine Cut. We enjoyed the three main DR on our Edge cruise so much with these two specialty restaurants  we didn’t feel the added expense for Aqua or Luminae was necessary. 

[soniam]

4 minutes ago, Virginia100 said:

I’ll hopefully be on the Beyond cruise 8/8/2022. I know the crowds will be there as that is the traditional European vacation month but I figure that may force restrictions to be minimal. I picked this Beyond  cruise and not the Istanbul one as this cruise includes besides Santorini, Mykonos and Rhodes the ports in Greece of Nafplio and Argostoli. These two I noticed are not on many other itineraries I reviewed. I don’t know if this same itinerary is in 2023. We have a Sunset Veranda cabin. I’ve booked a dinner already at Eden and Fine Cut. We enjoyed the three main DR on our Edge cruise so much with these two specialty restaurants  we didn’t feel the added expense for Aqua or Luminae was necessary. 

That does sound like a great itinerary. They have some really great ones for the new ships this coming summer. They are not offering it in Summer 2023 right now. In fact, the only long Greek Isle cruise in Summer 2023 on an Edge class ship is this Beyond itinerary. I do like the other long Greek Isle itineraries offered in Summer 2023, but they are on Constellation and Reflection. Constellation has not been revolutionized but seems to have had a mild refurb. Reflection might be sorely due for any refurb from what I can tell. However, I am sure they are both lovely ships. We have been on Summit, which is pretty much identical to Constellation. It was great, but we decided that the new ship with the Edge class uniqueness and with this itinerary outweighed the other 2 itineraries/ships for us. Gives us an excuse to go back and do the Greek Isles again😀

[ijscheer]

36 minutes ago, soniam said:

That's good to know about the Grand Bazaar. I haven't looked into what we would do at the ports yet, but I definitely want to see that. Unfortunately, 10-6 probably means that light will be garbage for photos, but hopefully, that won't matter much due to the subject matter. It will be nice to be able to get some shots at sunset or sunrise of the rest of the city. I have never over-nighted before on a cruise, so I don't know how they handle getting off and on the ship late or early.

 

 

The Grand Bazaar is a roof-covered structure.  I don't think the time of day will affect your photos.

[soniam]

1 minute ago, ijscheer said:

The Grand Bazaar is a roof-covered structure.  I don't think the time of day will affect your photos.

Good to know. I think I was envisioning markets and the Medina in Morocco. Thanks

Edited February 5, 2022 by soniam

[jimandcyn]

On 2/5/2022 at 8:51 AM, garyl62 said:

We recently booked this same trip for the same time, however after booking we realized we had a schedule conflict (can you believe it, summer of 2023 and we already have a conflict!) so we pushed it to the first sailing in August of 2023.  We are in a aft Sky suite.  I too wish there could have been 1 or 2 more Greek ports, but looking forward to the overnight in Istanbul.  With the changes they have made to the location of Luminae and the double level Retreat deck/pool area I think the retreat will feel even more isolated on the ship than it seems on Edge or Apex.  Some will be happy with that, others not.  One thing I noticed is the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is open from 10 to 6 daily and with the port time of noon to noon you'll need to plan to go there right after arriving if you want to spend a good amount of time there.  

 

It's a long way off, but should be fun to plan and we'll look forward to hearing about your trip next summer!

Hi,

we just booked this trip for 8/7 2023!

we are looking at booking some private tour that can accommodate up to 6 people.

If you are interested in sharing some excursions please reach out.

 

[garyl62]

On 8/9/2022 at 9:55 PM, jimandcyn said:

Hi,

we just booked this trip for 8/7 2023!

we are looking at booking some private tour that can accommodate up to 6 people.

If you are interested in sharing some excursions please reach out.

 

We had a lot of OBC so we've booked several things already in the planner, but they have very limited items at this time for Mykonos so if you're looking at something there we may be interested.  You can contact me directly by using my screen name but at AOL.com

[pastrygirl]

My husband and I just booked this cruise and are already getting excited with the planning.  A cousin and his wife are joining us.   Just got them onto the Cruise Critic site and told them a bit about roll calls.  Have had great luck in the past joining tours that others had planned.  Look forward to meeting everyone, perhaps doing a cabin crawl and getting out there traveling internationally once again.  Pastrygirl

[Pantheral]

Highly recommend a small privately booked tour on Santorini. With a smaller tour vehicle it is easier to enter parts of the towns that the buses cannot reach. Also, it is possible to customize what you want to see and when. 

 

With a private tour we were able to beat the buses to Oia (even with stops along the way), lunch on the Eastern beaches and hit a winery when no tour buses were present and still be back to the cable car before the bus crowds arrived.

[zitsky]

I’m thinking to do this in 2023, middle of May or second week of June.  Supposed to do it this week but Covid happened.

 

I’m worried about the Meltemi winds and high temps.  Wondering if that will be an issue.

 

We are a little sensitive to motion.  Usually book mid ship.  We book Aqua.

 

May aft Aqua cabins available.

June midship Aqua cabins available.

 

I would appreciate any advice.

Edited September 26, 2022 by zitsky

[soniam]

15 minutes ago, zitsky said:

I’m thinking to do this in 2023, middle of May or second week of June.  Supposed to do it this week but Covid happened.

 

I’m worried about the Meltemi winds and high temps.  Wondering if that will be an issue.

 

We are a little sensitive to motion.  Usually book mid ship.  We book Aqua.

 

May aft Aqua cabins available.

June midship Aqua cabins available.

 

I would appreciate any advice.

 

I am sorry you had to cancel your cruise. It's probably better to know beforehand though. Our son ended up catching covid on our July 9 night cruise. Got to day 6. It wasn't ideal, but you take your chances these days. Can't help with the winds though. Midship low is what I have read as the best for low motion.

[CRUIS4ME]

Just got off The Odyssey of the Seas on similar itinerary.   If you like, I did post on the port threads about each port and on RCCL general thread, posted about The Odyssey Holy Land What I Now Know.   
Was a great itinerary, very hot, lots of walking,  not a cruise  for sipping pina coladas…we worked hard to see as much as possible.  Plan now.  Have a good cruise.  

[zitsky]

13 minutes ago, CRUIS4ME said:

Just got off The Odyssey of the Seas on similar itinerary.   If you like, I did post on the port threads about each port and on RCCL general thread, posted about The Odyssey Holy Land What I Now Know.   
Was a great itinerary, very hot, lots of walking,  not a cruise  for sipping pina coladas…we worked hard to see as much as possible.  Plan now.  Have a good cruise.  

Sounds interesting.