Last straw on Cut backs

[bbtablet]

7 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

We have a 19 nighter on Aurora - October 2023 with Greek ports.

Yes, we spotted this one too and think it was the jem of the offering for 2023.

Managed to book a deluxe balcony for less than £5k for the two of us.

[Ardennais]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

But if you study the website or brochures, these differences are highlighted along with lots of detail about the bars and restaurants, and where ships, or areas of ships are adult only.

So your point is already covered.

That’s true. But it depends when you sail too. Our last two cruises were on Ventura. 7 nights August 2019 - full of families and children and great fun. 35 nights Jan/Feb 2020 - no children, still great fun. Same ship, totally different atmosphere. 

[terrierjohn]

52 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

That’s true. But it depends when you sail too. Our last two cruises were on Ventura. 7 nights August 2019 - full of families and children and great fun. 35 nights Jan/Feb 2020 - no children, still great fun. Same ship, totally different atmosphere. 

That's where being an experienced cruiser comes into play, and why forums like CC  exist, to help the novice, I guess.

[Britboys]

9 hours ago, jeanlyon said:

We have a 19 nighter on Aurora - October 2023 with Greek ports.  We also have some nice ports on our :April 2023 one.  Zadar, Trieste, Cagliari, Dubrovnik etc.

But apart from Mykonos, the other Greek ports are "same old, same old" - Piraeus, Herakleion and Rhodes.... I suppose they don't want to risk using tender ports because it is late in the season and the weather isn't guaranteed.

[jeanlyon]

Yes you can keep Piraeus, but I've never been to Herakleion or Rhodes.

[Britboys]

24 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Yes you can keep Piraeus, but I've never been to Herakleion or Rhodes.

That's good for you if you've not been to those ports.  The Old Town should only be a short walk from the cruise dock and is lovely Jean - dating back to the Knights of St John. Heraklion isn't quite as interesting but is a pleasant town. It's a 20-odd minute stroll along the waterfront to get there.

I just wish they would call at some of the smaller islands but as I said, they would require tendering.

[Ardennais]

22 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

That's where being an experienced cruiser comes into play, and why forums like CC  exist, to help the novice, I guess.

Yes, quite right. But it does show how difficult it would be to market a family friendly ship as few children sail on term time cruises! And yet, they still have to offer the clubs for the children etc, 

[Eglesbrech]

On 3/31/2022 at 12:03 PM, Bazrat said:

You will also find that the free and easy attitude to COVID of celebrity ships is why they had more cases onboard, I much prefer the better safe than sorry attitude of p&o, as for the uncooked roast potatoes taking a wild guess you ment undercooked.

Have they (celebrity) had more. Source?

[Bazrat]

1 hour ago, Eglesbrech said:

Have they (celebrity) had more. Source?

Information freely available I checked before posting

[jeanlyon]

On 4/1/2022 at 11:23 AM, Britboys said:

That's good for you if you've not been to those ports.  The Old Town should only be a short walk from the cruise dock and is lovely Jean - dating back to the Knights of St John. Heraklion isn't quite as interesting but is a pleasant town. It's a 20-odd minute stroll along the waterfront to get there.

I just wish they would call at some of the smaller islands but as I said, they would require tendering.

Andrew, agree, sort of, but you may remember I lived on a sailing boat for 3 years, and lot of it was in Greece, so have been to most of the small ones and quite honestly can't imagine a load of ship passengers in them!!

[Britboys]

5 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Andrew, agree, sort of, but you may remember I lived on a sailing boat for 3 years, and lot of it was in Greece, so have been to most of the small ones and quite honestly can't imagine a load of ship passengers in them!!

But they already visit Santorini and Mykonos... Naxos, Paros, Samos and Lesvos could probably cope okay.

[jeanlyon]

19 minutes ago, Britboys said:

But they already visit Santorini and Mykonos... Naxos, Paros, Samos and Lesvos could probably cope okay.

Yes true.  there are rather a lot of them!!  Although I liked Santorini, I just hated the sight of those poor donkeys with very large cruise passengers on their backs.  No water available.

[AuroraCruiser08]

39 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Yes true.  there are rather a lot of them!!  Although I liked Santorini, I just hated the sight of those poor donkeys with very large cruise passengers on their backs.  No water available.

It's terrible. We walked up and down when we were there on Ventura in 2017

[Britboys]

53 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

Yes true.  there are rather a lot of them!!  Although I liked Santorini, I just hated the sight of those poor donkeys with very large cruise passengers on their backs.  No water available.

Absolutely. I holidayed on Santorini long before it became a cruise hotspot and beloved of the chic traveller. I don't think I'd like it now...

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, Bazrat said:

Information freely available I checked before posting

Did you check official CDC data?

[Megabear2]

7 hours ago, Britboys said:

Absolutely. I holidayed on Santorini long before it became a cruise hotspot and beloved of the chic traveller. I don't think I'd like it now...

Never arrived by cruise ship to Santorini but my husband spent an interesting half an hour in Thira when we holidayed there a couple of years back, where he followed an irrate Australian gentleman and his family as the former shouted at the top of his voice "What sort of f...... bleep bleep idiot decided it was a good idea to let a cruise ship with 3,000 people dock in this completely inaccessible hell hole covered in donkey shite".  Apparently they had walked up the steps rather than queue 50 deep for the cable car and encountered not only the poor donkeys laden with overweight ship passengers or being herded riderless back down but also the accompanying excrement the poor creatures had deposited.  My husband applauded him for not adding to the animals' misery while noting that the poor man was actually splattered from top to toe.  It was compounded when the family abandoned their trip around the town by joining the queue to descend on the cable car only to find it was approximately an hour and a half wait.

 

An example perhaps of why some of these beautiful places are not always right for modern cruise ships!

Edited April 6, 2022 by Megabear2

[Bazrat]

8 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Did you check official CDC data?

I refer you back to my answer to a previous post

[terrierjohn]

2 hours ago, Bazrat said:

I refer you back to my answer to a previous post

Ah, so just your guess work from seeing the odd post then?

[Solent Richard]

On 3/30/2022 at 3:54 PM, pete14 said:

Purely out of interest, how often do you change your towels at home?

I like your style Pete. 😉😉

[Solent Richard]

12 hours ago, Britboys said:

Absolutely. I holidayed on Santorini long before it became a cruise hotspot and beloved of the chic traveller. I don't think I'd like it now...

 

Oh I don't know.

 

We had a superb time a few years back...

 

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2017/07/14/one-way-to-do-santorini/

 

 

[Bazrat]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

Ah, so just your guess work from seeing the odd post then?

No I refer back to my previous post no guess work involved

[Dermotsgirl]

5 hours ago, Megabear2 said:

Never arrived by cruise ship to Santorini but my husband spent an interesting half an hour in Thira when we holidayed there a couple of years back, where he followed an irrate Australian gentleman and his family as the former shouted at the top of his voice "What sort of f...... bleep bleep idiot decided it was a good idea to let a cruise ship with 3,000 people dock in this completely inaccessible hell hole covered in donkey shite".  Apparently they had walked up the steps rather than queue 50 deep for the cable car and encountered not only the poor donkeys laden with overweight ship passengers or being herded riderless back down but also the accompanying excrement the poor creatures had deposited.  My husband applauded him for not adding to the animals' misery while noting that the poor man was actually splattered from top to toe.  It was compounded when the family abandoned their trip around the town by joining the queue to descend on the cable car only to find it was approximately an hour and a half wait.

 

An example perhaps of why some of these beautiful places are not always right for modern cruise ships!

We visited Santorini in Sept 2019.

 

There was only us (Azura) and one other ship in, but it was very, very busy. I took some nice photos, but almost had to elbow my way to the vantage points, especially in Oia.

 

At the end of the excursion, the queue for the cable car was huge, so we decided to walk down. Fortunately, we had our walking shoes on, but even so it was quite slippery in places. The poor donkeys weren’t keen on moving out of the way, so in places we were walking through herds of donkeys. I was a bit worried they’d kick out at us. 

[mickey1959]

We were on that cruise, very windy leaving crete.

[amajaa]

On 3/30/2022 at 3:55 PM, Gettingwarmer said:

You have radiators to dry your towels at home, not so on ship.

We put ours over the washing line in shower and leave the light on, that way the fan stays on as well. Towels normally dry when we get back in the evening. 

[Dermotsgirl]

49 minutes ago, mickey1959 said:

We were on that cruise, very windy leaving crete.

Yes, as I remember the wind played a big part in that cruise, as the ports kept on being rearranged.  I was disappointed that we didn’t get to Mykonos, but was pleased that we went to Souda Bay, as I had a chance to visit Chania, which was very nice