Live! Odyssey 5/5/24 - The Holy Lands Cruise that was not meant to be (Greece, Italy, and Turkey instead)

[skiorcruise]

I am also following your trip report with great interest.  We (DW and I, both 71years old, she has minor mobility issues) will be on this trip in October of this year.  First Royal Cruise, first trip to Europe for her (Mine was in the early 70s).  Keep the info coming.

[ashlynn1021]

Hey Guys! 

 

Back from a fun day of pasta cooking and shopping to recap yesterday, Friday, our second full day in Rome.

 

Yesterday was another cold and rainy day. The first half of the day we took a semi private tour of the Vatican and the second half of the day we had a walking food tour. We started our day with breakfast at the hotel. While it was very civilized for hotel breakfast, the coffee was self serve at a crown lounge/suite lounge-esque coffee machine and not good according to both my parents who are coffee drinkers (I am not so I would not be the one to ask), and the food was just ok (this I can confirm myself). I forgot to catch pictures but needless to say we are not going to be doing it again. 

 

We then ordered an Uber and headed on our way to the Vatican and the meeting point for our Vatican tour. One quick note about Ubers in Rome: there is only Uber Black offered, you can also use the Uber app to order a cab but we haven’t tried that, we have stuck to Uber black as well as traditional taxi stands when they are convenient for us. You can’t just hail a cab in Rome, you have to go to a Taxi stand and in some cases that additional walking to find a taxi stand is not great for my mom. Anyways, after about a 30 minute ride with some traffic, we made it to our meeting point for our tour, the Caffe Vaticano, and it seems most tours meet outside of there so it was quite hectic. That combined with that fact that it started down pouring rain shortly after we got there provided for some interesting challenges. We were also a bit early for our meeting time. Anyways, after a short time the LivTours check in person arrived and we checked in and were pointed to our guide, Monica. 

 

The tour was just us and one other couple for a total of 5 guests. We headed across the street to the Vatican Museum. The entry times had gotten backed up, not entirely sure why but we waited a bit with our group (in the down pouring rain) before we were allowed to enter. Once we entered, we went through security. Security was very simple, you had your bags go through an x ray machine and walked through a metal detector. I had read online that they didn’t like reusable water bottles so we opted not to use ours as we didn’t want them taken away but the other couple in our group had theres and had no issue so in retrospect we would have been fine but your mileage may vary. It also looked like there was a bag check for oversized bags. Not entirely sure the rules there nor how you would be able to get them back since you don’t end the tour at the starting point so probably a good idea to look at the size restrictions on the Vatican website. My dad had a classic Jansport backpack with some jackets and umbrellas in it and had no issues, and same with my mom’s and my crossbody Travelon bags.

 

Once through security, our guide had us take a brief pause to use the facilities and also dry off a bit. There was literally a line for the hand dryer in the women’s restroom but I managed to use it to dry off my jacket and it was better than nothing but I definitely did the tour pretty drenched. Speaking of my Travelon, it was also completely soaked including all the contents. I just had to live with it for the duration of the tour. We then re-grouped and were given radios to wear throughout the museum, even though our group was small, our guide Monica didn’t want to have any issues since it was extremely crowded. We then entered the museum.

 

We spent about 1.5 hours going through the museum, after losing the first half hour of the tour to the wait outside as well as security, etc. It was very busy but Monica did a great job of keeping the group together as she talked us through each gallery. She shared loads of anecdotes about each room and I don’t know what we would have done without a guide in there. It was truly overwhelming between the crowds and the sheer magnitude of it. I think I took close to 100 pictures in the museum. We then spent about 15 minutes in the Sistine Chapel. Before the Sistine Chapel, she talked us through what the different paintings on the ceiling were and what they represented and prepped us where to meet her after our 15 minutes were up since she wasn’t allowed to guide us through that part. Then, we exited the museum, and had to turn back in our radios as they were the ones owned by the museum. From there, we proceeded directly into St. Peter’s Basilica. The biggest advantage of doing a guided tour was that we directly entered St. Peters from the museum and did not have to wait in the general entrance line. As someone who has waited in that line multiple times before, I can confirm this is a great perk. Once inside St. Peters, we spent the last half hour of the tour going through the highlights of the property. All in all, the tour was 3 hours long. Monica also gave us some advice about where to go while in Rome at the end of the tour. She really was a great and thorough guide and we were extremely impressed. 

 

As I said earlier, the tour was operated by LivTours and I purchased it through Viator. It was called “Rome: Skip the Line Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St Peter 6 PAX Group”. It was pricey, but definitely worth it and a lot cheaper than a completely private tour, even after factoring in the cost to Uber there (the private version of the tour offers a hotel pickup). The was my 3rd time to the Vatican and St. Peters but I definitely got the most out of it doing a guided tour. It was also our first time going into the Vatican museum and the Sistine chapel so those were both very neat experiences. Probably the closest thing I have to compare it to was when we did the hermitage museum in St. Petersburg in 2016 in terms of how crowded it was (I know, probably a terrible comparison), but I got a lot more out of this thanks to how small our group was and the truly fantastic guide.

 

Here are some photos from the experience (I took a ton so this is just a few to give you an idea):

 

 

After St. Peters, we headed out to the Vatican and found a side street where we were able to order an Uber to pick us up and take us to our hotel. Thankfully the rain had stopped and the weather was starting to clear up. One good thing we have noticed is we have had an easier time finding Uber pickup points on side streets here than in other cities such as London. We had originally planned to spend some time shopping and exploring independently then but we were all a bit tired from the Vatican between the crowds and the weather along with the walking and many steps. The tour is definitely not handicap accessible, which we knew going into it, but I don’t think we realized the amount of walking for my mom. Thankfully, she was a trooper but we definitely all needed a siesta after. We opted to skip lunch as we knew our food walking tour later would have enough food to suffice for lunch and dinner.

 

After an afternoon siesta, we once again took an Uber from our hotel to our meeting point for the 5:45pm walking tour. It was about a 15 minute drive from our hotel to the Piazza Mattei, the starting point for our tour. We had gotten in the habit of leaving early for tours to account for crazy Rome traffic (I could literally go on a diatribe about how crazy people drive in Rome but I won’t, I will just say I am constantly amazed I have not seen an accident here) so once there, we stopped in a bar so my dad could get some coffee. Many of the bars here also have espresso machines so you can order cappuccino, americano, espresso, etc. We then headed out a few minutes before the meeting time when it became obvious that other people were there waiting for our tour and our guide Andrea arrived promptly on time. We had a group of 10 people for this tour and it was a really great mix of people in our group. 

 

From there, we headed into the Jewish Ghetto where we started our tour covering some of the Jewish history in Rome, including the history of the Jewish Ghetto and saw one of the only synagogues in Rome, lots of Kosher restaurants that were closed for the sabbath since it was a Friday night, as well as one thing I remembered from Amsterdam last year: Stumbling Stones aka Stolperstein. They are these metal cobblestones in front of properties where people who were sent to concentration camps lived prior to World War II. They contain inscriptions with the names, birthdates, and other details about the people who lived there. It was truly sad to see so many of these again especially when you think about how only a handful of Italian Jews who were sent to concentration camps survived and the unfortunate parallels with current events. Most of the Jewish population in Rome still lives in this area and we saw numerous Israel flags outside windows and a very sad Bring them Home banner, none of which were things I anticipated seeing in Rome.

 

Our guide Andrea then took us to our first stop. It was a Kosher-style restaurant. Here, we ate "carciofo alla giudìa" which are artichokes fried and salted. They were actually really good, quite the unexpected gem of the tour. Our guide talked about how over time the Jewish people had become good at taking cheap ingredients and making them taste really good, and frying anything makes it taste good. Our next stop was another Kosher Style restaurant where we had a sampling of 3 different appetizers: roasted zucchini, roasted tomatoes, and anchovies. These were all a bit unexpected. After that stop, we headed out of the Jewish ghetto and got a taste of two different types of Roman style pizza: Pizza Marinara and Pizza Margherita. Roman style pizza is a square pizza that is a bit thicker than Neapolitan style pizza but it is cooked at an extremely hot temperature so it gets really crispy. It is also sold by weight so you literally tell them how much you want and they cut off a piece and weigh it for you. We enjoyed the pizza with some Peroni beer.

 

Next, we headed to Campo de' Fiori where we learned the history of this square, went on a little quest for a Virgin Mary, and then headed to our next restaurant where we sampled some pasta dishes. The restaurant was a very unique location with some literal ruins in the basement. At that restaurant, we sampled 3 kinds of pasta and an eggplant dish. My favorites were the cacao e pepe and the eggplant dish (kind of like lasagna made with slices of eggplant, I think they called it eggplant parmesan but it was definitely different than the fried dish with that name that I have had before. We also had a choice of a glass of white or red house wine at this location. My dad says he has not found a bad house wine in Italy yet and he is finding lots of great, inexpensive wines here so he has been happy (heck, the 3 bottles he bought on Thursday for the cruise were combined cheaper than many single bottles he buys at home, granted he does have expensive taste). Next up we headed to Piazza Navona for some Tiramisu. From there our guide talked us through the history of the square as well as explained one of the Baroque fountains to us. Finally, our last two stops were for espresso and gelato. Once again, I am not a coffee drinker and it was both too late for my mom to drink coffee and she also only likes her coffee heavily polluted with cream and sugar but my dad partook in the espresso and he continues to rave about it. He is comparing his shot of espresso to a milkshake in consistency… take with that what you will but he loved it. Finally, we headed over to a Gelato place and got a choice of a cup or cone with two flavors. I personally had Hazelnut and Cream in a cone and it was really good. I haven’t had bad gelato here yet, and the same story with tiramisu.

 

From there the guide Andrea wrapped up our tour. All in all it was about 4 hours long. My parents and I definitely enjoyed this tour as well. It was the second year in a row of great food tours abroad for use as we also had a great one in Amsterdam last year. This tour was called “Jewish Ghetto and Campo Dè Fiori By Night Food, Wine and Sightseeing Tour” and it was operated by Food Tours of Rome purchased through Viator. I would also like to add from a walking standpoint that it was definitely less walking than the Vatican tour in the morning and the walking was more spread out in terms of being a slower pace with longer stops. My mom had no issues other than needing some assistance from my dad on some steps.

 

Here are some photos from the food walking tour:

 

 

After the tour we Uber’ed back to the hotel to get to bed after our longest day out in Rome.

 

Thankfully, today the weather improved and we were finally able to enjoy some time outside independently. I will try to get in a post about today tomorrow sometime but tomorrow is probably going to be a busy day as we are finally boarding the beautiful Odyssey of the Seas in Civitavecchia. Also, I promise I will do a thorough hotel review in the next few days.

 

Thanks again and TTYL!

- Ashley

Edited May 4 by ashlynn1021

[elizabethbp]

Absolutely wonderful review.  I think I likely have more mobility issues than your mom, but   I will look forward to hearing about the other tours once you are on the cruise. 

[ashlynn1021]

3 hours ago, elizabethbp said:

Absolutely wonderful review.  I think I likely have more mobility issues than your mom, but   I will look forward to hearing about the other tours once you are on the cruise. 

 

Yeah, we have been quite happy with how well she has kept up and how much she has been able to walk, although the cruise tours will definitely be the test. 

 

Thankfully, she definitely still can walk, her mobility issues are extremely minor compared to some. She had brain surgery in 2022 to remove a benign tumor and that caused numbness in her right foot. She went to physical therapy then for it and bounced back for the most part. Unfortunately, the fall in February re-triggered her symptoms again so she has been going to PT again and also trying acupuncture even (which shocked me considering she has an extreme fear of needles so I guess that is just how bothered she is with her foot).

 

All her doctors told her to walk and go on this trip, just not to overdo it, especially after she had a panic attack a few weeks after falling when I spent the day walking around the Tempe Arts Festival with her and we ended up in the ER after (although a theme for her has also been dehydration, and that definitely was a factor that day, hence why we have been trying to keep her with a refillable water bottle where we can). And obviously the numbness makes her a bit unsteady so my dad and I have been assisting her with steps and things where we think we should.

 

At home, she just started driving again a bit since the fall but doesn't feel comfortable yet behind the wheel (considering the numbness is in her right foot) and we definitely aren't pushing her there. I hope this trip is a nice break for her from the stress of that at home.

 

- Ashley 

Edited May 5 by ashlynn1021

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All,

 

We made it onboard the Odyssey of the Seas today but once again I need to catch up on what we did yesterday. I have a feeling I am going to be continually behind but hopefully I will be able to catch up since tomorrow is a sea day but then I might quickly end up behind again as the port days start. Anyways all of that to say just bear with me 🫣.

 

Ok so back to yesterday. We started our day heading to a cafe near the hotel for coffee and pastries. We opted to not do the hotel breakfast again after the first time so I literally searched coffee shop on Google maps and went to the first place that showed up. Here are some pictures of the pastries and coffee:

 

 

After that, we once again ordered an Uber and headed to the restaurant for our cooking class. The class was called “3 in 1 Cooking Class near Navona: Fettuccine, Ravioli & Tiramisu” and was conducted in the back room of a restaurant. Promptly at the start time of the class, our chef instructor Danilo came out to check us in for the class and had us come in and wash our hands before starting with the Tiramisu. Danilo already had the eggs separated in two bowls and then added sugar to the yolks. From there he asked for two volunteers to use the hand mixers to beat the egg whites and beat the yolks. I volunteered and ended up beating the yolks and sugar mixture. About halfway through the beating process we stopped and he got another volunteer up to drop spoonfuls of mascarpone in the yolk mixture as I continued beating with the hand mixer. Once the egg whites were stiff and the yolks, sugar, and mascarpone mixture was completely mixed, my job was done. From there he had a few more volunteers come up to fold the egg whites into the yolks mixture. My dad volunteered for this part and ended up being on of the people doing the folding. 

 

From there, Danilo instructed us how to assemble the tiramisu. We each were given a glass and two lady fingers (they have a much nicer Italian name that I don’t remember 🙃). They had bowls of brewed coffee on the tables and we broke the lady fingers in half and quickly dipped the first half in the coffee and smushed it on the bottom of the cup (smushed is a technical term 😂). We then layered in the cream, the other half of the lady fingers dipped in coffee but not smushed and some more cream. Finally, we topped it off with cocoa powder. We then labeled our cups of tiramisu and put them on trays to go chill while we prepared our pasta.

 

For the pasta making, we did the whole process by hand including the rolling and cutting. Danilo demonstrated each step and also came around to help. My mom has never been the cook in my household (she likes to talk about how she failed home ec in high school), and she required a lot of assistance to get the pasta mixed, kneaded, and rolled out. Thankfully he helped her out otherwise she wouldn’t have had lunch, he said there was one of her in every class 🤣. Not only did we cut thicker fettuccine noodles, we also filled and cut ravioli. We were given a card to write our name on and select one of three sauces for our fettuccine. My mom and I both selected cacio e pepe and my dad selected a tomato sauce with pork in it called Amatriciana. From there we left our finished pasta on our boards with the cards and headed to the actual restaurant side of the space to sit down at a large table as a group to enjoy what we made. 

 

The server came around with some house wine for everyone and then our pasta started coming out as it was prepared. Unfortunately one of my ravioli burst in the water so I lost one but it was still really cool eating what we just made. After we ate our pasta, they passed out our tiramisu and each enjoyed what we made.

 

It was definitely a fun experience that while not a typical tour was a fun way to experience Rome. The class was operated by Eat and Walk Italy and I once again purchased it through Viator. The whole thing including the lunch took about 3 hours and at the end we got to download a recipe booklet of what we cooked to keep. The same operator also offers pizza and other classes and all the recipes for all the classes are included in the recipe booklet. Here are some pictures I took at the class:

 

 

After the class, we finally had some free time so we walked to the Spanish steps (about a half mile from where the class was) and did some shopping. Let’s just say we did some damage and now have to figure out the VAT refund process when we leave FCO in 2 weeks. I will report back how that goes if we are successful. From there we got ditched by an Uber driver who started driving in circles trying to get us to cancel until he finally canceled so we ended up shopping some more before getting a cab at a taxi stand to get back to our hotel. We once again ate dinner at the pizza place near our hotel. Here are our pictures from this time:

 

 

After that we got some gelato near our hotel:

 

 

And finally went back to our rooms to pack up and prepare to board the ship the next day.

Overall, this was our most relaxed day in Rome and definitely needed after the 2 busy days prior. My next post will probably be a shorter post about boarding day, it was rather uneventful as everything went pretty smoothly, as well as finally a hotel review. Spoiler: we definitely would recommend the Doubletree by Hilton Rome Monti.

 

Thanks again for reading and TTYL!
- Ashley

[wendyam76]

Thank you for your review. Can I suggest booking mobility assistance for your mom on the way home. It is very easy to do on the BA website. She’ll be met by wheelchairs and guided through security as well - you’ll both be able to accompany her. They’ll even wheel her to the lounges and pick her (and you!) up. 
For Santorini I did that tour with my mum - for the hill bit she stayed in a cafe  and we met her on the way down. Some of the tours also take you back to the new port to tender back to the ship rather than having to do the cable car  - there are steps at the top and bottom for that. Might be worth checking out. 
For Rhodes I honestly just love wandering the Old Town myself - again my mum would come and sit in bars/cafes! 
have a fabulous cruise.

Wendy

[ashlynn1021]

Hi Everyone!

We obviously made it on board the beautiful Odyssey of the Seas so here is a wrap up of our boarding day yesterday.

 

In the morning, we went to the same cafe near our hotel for coffee and pastries. After that, we got a porter to help us take our luggage down to the hotel lobby where our driver picked us up promptly at 10am. We used Stefano's Rome Cabs for our transfers between the airport, hotel, and ship. We have been very happy with them. We booked them through Viator (you can find the Viator links on their TripAdvisor).

 

From there, we arrived at the port a little more than an hour later just after 11am. At the port, porters approached us to help with the checked luggage right away and then we walked in with them and they directed us through security. Security was a breeze. After that, we lined up for check in, they checked our passports and set sail passes and gave us a boarding number. In order to get a suite/pinnacle number, we then had to walk up to the Key sign to get our number replaced with a suites card so we could board immediately. This process was a bit confusing as there was no signage in the terminal for suites, only the Key, and it was after check in and receiving another number.

 

Once we got the suite number, we proceeded to boarding. After boarding the ship, we headed straight to our muster station to check in. We watched the safety video while we were driving to the port so it was very quick, they scanned our set sail passes and we were done with the worst part 🙌. After that, we headed up to Coastal Kitchen where we saw Mihai, the Coastal Kitchen manager, who is on board until we get to Turkey and Jose, the Coastal Kitchen host who was also on board in December, along with most of the same wait staff. We were seated right away for lunch. While we were waiting for our food, I headed over to the reservations desk by Teppanyaki to get our reservations set for the rest of the cruise for our 5 night dining package as well as an Izumi Sushi lunch one sea day. By the time I was done making reservations, our food had arrived:

 

 

Our staterooms opened at 1pm so by the time we were done with lunch, our staterooms were ready so we headed down to them. Our cases were shockingly already outside our door so we unpacked and then it was time for a short and very interrupted by announcements nap before getting ready for dinner. They did a diamond and above sail away party at 4:30pm in the Music Hall but we all decided we needed to take a nap instead, it was a busy few days in Rome. We then got ready for 8pm dinner in Coastal Kitchen. Before dinner, we had some drinks in Giovanni’s wine bar and then headed up to dinner:

 

 

After dinner, we had some drinks in the pub. The compass had an error and it was actually the pub player’s off night so I can’t comment on him yet but hopefully I will see him tonight. I have heard he plays Alice so I will definitely report back on the front. Anyways, here were some of our drinks in the pub as well as our first water and soda dump from our vouchers:

 

 

And then we headed to bed, we lost an hour last night as we moved to Greece time.

 

I will try to post tonight about our hotel in Rome.

Thanks and TTYL!
- Ashley

[ashlynn1021]

Hey All!

 

Back to recap Day 2 onboard the cruise.

 

First Towel Animal:

 

Sailing through the Strait of Messina:

 

Norwegian Epic Docked in Messina Today:

 

It was a sea day so we spent the day relaxing for the most part and at all 3 meals in coastal kitchen and pre dinner drinks in Giovanni's wine bar again. Here at the pictures from that:

 

Breakfast:

 

Lunch:

 

Dinner:

 

We also went to top tier in the morning, there were quite a few 1050 milestones and one 1400 milestone. Here are some pictures I took there, not posting the milestones pictures for privacy but if anyone was one of them and wants a picture of their slide I got all of them. Here are what I can share:

 

We wrapped up the night in the pub with Vishal, a bartender we first met on Symphony before covid and we are glad is in a bar we actually go to this sailing (he was in windjammer in December and as I stated earlier, we basically never walk in there 🤣). Mark James, the guitar player, played this night and so far so good although I know this is a more difficult crowd with these port intensive sailings. Anyways, here are some pictures from those shenanigans including another water dump:

 

Thanks again and I promise I will get to a hotel review eventually, I think the time change and lack of sleep caught up to me as I napped a lot this afternoon. Rome was all go go go for us as you saw 🙃. Tomorrow, we are in the first port of the cruise, Chania, and doing a walking tour with very little description so wish us luck there.

 

Thanks and TTYL!

- Ashley

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All!

 

Just got back from Mykonos but first I am going to recap yesterday, Day 3, in Chania. 

 

We started our day in Coastal Kitchen again for breakfast, I know we are boring and predictable:

Then we headed to the theater to meet for our excursion, Chania Old Town Walk:

 

Once our group was called, we headed to our bus where we met our tour guide Nicole:

 

From there, we headed to a photo stop at Venizelos Graves where you could see all of the old town from above:

Next up was a short bus ride to just outside of old town. From there, we started the walking portion of our tour:

 

After that, our guide gave us some free time in old town. We got some gelato during our free time:

 

After the free time, we had the choice to stay in old town and take the shuttle back or take the bus back with the tour. We opted to take the bus back with the tour:

 

Once we got back to our ship, we ate in 270 cafe for lunch:

 

And then had our normal siesta time before dinner. Dinner was at Giovanni's:

(apologies that I didn't get a photo of the calamari before my dad attacked it)

 

After dinner, we ran into the stowaway piano, he is no Guido who was on here in December but I believe Guido is on Icon so we will have to make do 🤣:

 

And then it was time again for the pub:

 

All in all, it was a good day, nothing too thrilling and probably a port that we could just take the shuttle to old town if we came in the future but it was interesting hearing some of the history of Chania and was good for our first time there. The cruise line shore excursions are very rarely something to write home about but they work and make my mom more comfortable, especially when we have a crew member escort which we did this time.

 

Thanks again and TTYL!
- Ashley

 

:

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All!

 

Back to recap today, day 4, in Mykonos. Mykonos has officially entered my list of ports I would love to go back and spend time in outside of a cruise so that means this was definitely a good day. Today we did the Mykonos Exploration with Farmhouse Wine Tastings shore excursion. It had a meeting time of 8:20am in the theater and since Coastal Kitchen adjusted its breakfast hours for how early we were in port today, we once again had breakfast in Coastal Kitchen. I didn't take any pictures this time since I think you get the point, the breakfast menu obviously stays the same. After that, we headed to the theater once again where once again we ended up being in group 12, the same number as yesterday, no clue how that happened but it did. When our number was called, we headed off the ship and met our guide Xena. 

 

From there we got on the bus and headed to our first stop, the early morning wine tasting (there was a later time for this tour but in the time we debated what to do here, it filled up, this was one of the ports added when Israel was cancelled). Also of note, we were docked in the new port today, this was originally scheduled as a tender port but I guess they were able to take the one spot in the dock, an MSC ship was out there tendering.

 

We then got to a small farm where we tasted 3 local wines: a white, a rose, and a red. They also had some cheese and bread to nosh on along with the wine. The owner of the winery explained each wine to us before we tasted and gave us a little history of wine in Greece.

 

 

After the wine tasting, we drove into town where we found out that we would be taking the sea bus back to the new port after the walking portion of the tour in town and we could return at our leisure. Our guide handed out sea bus tickets and instructed us to each hold our own... but they would only be 2 euros if we lost them 🤣. 

 

\

 

After that we got off and walked for the old tender port to town. On the way, our guide made sure to stop at a map to give us our bearings. 

 

 

From there, we headed in town where we saw all the picturesque white buildings, churches, and windmills:

 

(MSC ship anchored, on the right in the distance you can see Odyssey docked)

 

After the walking tour of the town, our guide showed us where the sea bus would pick up at and told us we could either go back with her or stay in town. We opted to stay in town and do some shopping and grab some lunch before heading back to the ship:

 

 

We then lined up for the sea bus and headed back to the ship:

 

(Sea bus)

(Today's towel animal)

 

Then once again, we had our usual siesta time before getting ready for dinner, once again in Coastal Kitchen:

 

 

We then of course had to say goodbye to Mihai since he is getting off tomorrow in Ephesus:

 

 

And after dinner we once again spent some time in the pub:

 

 

Overall, we really enjoyed Mykonos. Once again, you could buy the sea bus tickets without being on an excursion so if I were coming on a cruise here again, I would probably just take that into town and spend the day in town, although I did enjoy the overview of the history and everything for my first time here. Although it was definitely a bit early for the wine tasting 😂. Regardless, I think we all fell in love with Mykonos. My parents have a neighbor with a house here and my dad already texted her asking when we could stay in her house here 😆. 

 

Tomorrow in Ephesus my dad is getting off for a tour alone. We couldn't convince my mom to get off (She has heard bad things about Turkey they we couldn't get our of her head, combined with everything going on for her we didn't think the ruins were a great idea), so I am going to stay on the ship as well to be with her. I might try to convince my dad to write a guest post or something since my mom and my day will probably involve more Coastal Kitchen, and wondering around the ship 🙃.

 

Anyways, thanks again and TTYL
- Ashley

[elizabethbp]

Excellent review.  Were you given any warnings about Turkey because of the current political climate?

[MtnSeaGirl]

I am really enjoying your review. Never been to Europe yet and appreciate the details you are giving.   We hope to do Europe in the future. 

 

 

[ashlynn1021]

9 hours ago, elizabethbp said:

Excellent review.  Were you given any warnings about Turkey because of the current political climate?

We really weren't given a warning, my dad said there was something mentioned his tour description but nothing on today's compass that I can find.

[ashlynn1021]

Hey All!

Back on Day 5 from Kusadasi, Turkey, aka a pseudo sea day for my mom and I. I am sitting in the solarium and decided it was finally time to post that hotel review.

 

For our 4 nights, 3 days pre cruise in Rome we stayed in the Doubletree by Hilton Rome Monti. We were in a family connecting superior room which was a King Deluxe room and a King Superior room connected to each other through a little vestibule. It kinda reminded me of the old family connecting junior suites on the original Quantum class ships and the new connecting rooms on Icon. We had one door to get into both of our rooms (303 and 305):

 

 

The other side of that door:

 

And then a little hallway with the separate doors for 303 and 305:

 

305 in the front was the larger King Superior room that my parents stayed in and 303 to the right was the smaller King Deluxe room that I stayed in. The hotel also had the same configuration where the King Superior room was replaced with a Twin Superior room which would probably be ideal if you have young kids, obviously our setup was better for us. 

 

When you entered my room, 303, on the right was some storage for clothing and a little table:

 

On the left was the bathroom:

 

Mine had a bit of an awkward toilet setup with the toilet and bidet behind the door, and the shower definitely flooded the bathroom every morning although my parents room had the same shower issue. Given the standard for hotels in Rome was tiny rooms and tiny bathrooms, this really wasn't that bad and more than sufficed.

 

As you got further in the room, my bed was on the left:

 

View from the bed:

 

The full king sized bed was a bit tight around it but overall really not a bad amount of room for a hotel in Rome. Also pretty adequate outlets throughout the room.

 

Next up was my parent's room, 305. Their room had a hallway when you entered that headed to the bathroom up ahead with a pocket door (remedying the toilet issues my room had) and the bedroom to the right. Don't judge the amount of luggage in the hallway 🤣, my mom will tell you she likes to have options although I am pretty sure that my dad packed the most by weight of all of us: 

 

Here was their bathroom (Same shower as mine, just a bigger bathroom counter and slightly different layout):

 

If you turn right in front of their bathroom, here is the entry to the bedroom:

 

Immediately to the left in their bedroom was a similar storage system to my room and a similar table:

 

In front of their bed was a little sofa that pulled out to a twin bed, I joked I could have shared a room with them (not that I wanted to) but it would have been awfully tight with this pulled out:

 

And here was there King bed, they had a little more room on each side of theirs than I did:

 

Overall, given the typical hotels you see in Rome, this was fairly modern, well located, never much more than a mile from where we wanted to go, and had loads of restaurants around it in addition to the restaurant in the hotel. Here were the restaurants someone at the front desk recommended to us all very near the hotel, we went to the second one, the pizza place, twice:

 

There was also a gelato place down the street and a wine store around the corner where my dad got his wine that he took on board. The wine store had some open bottles so he was able to get an idea of what he was buying and the lady that worked there was incredibly helpful. He also didn't get talked into anything ridiculously priced, the 3 bottles he bought were about 20 euros each. He spends more than the price of all 3 combined (plus vat) pretty often on one bottle at home. 

 

We also got included hotel breakfast for being Hilton gold members but the coffee situation wasn't ideal as I stated in an earlier blog so we ended up getting coffee and pastries at a cafe down the street each morning instead.

 

Overall, this hotel worked out really well for us. I am sure there are better located hotels that are less modern but this was really not that far from anything and gave us what we want and even pleased my picky mom with a modern hotel and a nice lobby. The furthest drive we had was to the Vatican but obviously we only went there once so it wasn't a big deal.

 

Anyways, if anyone else is looking for a hotel in Rome, I would definitely recommend this one. 

Now just a quick update on our post cruise hotel situation, while we were spending 6 hours in the Heathrow lounge on our travel day, I discovered that the opening date for the Cardo Roma Autograph Collection (owned by Marriott) was further delayed from 5/1 to 5/13 and we are staying there 5/17 so I made the executive decision to book the Hilton Rome Eur La Lama instead. I then spent the next day moving around our post cruise transportation. Once everything was finalized, I cancelled the Cardo Roma. I didn't want to risk finding out it hadn't opened once we got on the ship so I think I made the right choice. The next day we tried to re-book the hotel in my dad's name and it was already sold out except for suites so I am glad I grabbed it when I did in Heathrow. The Hilton opened in 2023 and is in roughly the same location as the Cardo Roma, about halfway between the FCO airport and the center of Rome. Since we have an early flight the next day, aside from staying in an airport hotel (and both options there were older, which didn't meet my mom's requirements), this was the best solution.

 

Ok, now back to lounging in the solarium! Feel free to let me know if you have any questions about the Doubletree, I will do my best to answer them!

Thanks and TTYL!
- Ashley

 

 

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All, 

 

Back to recap a rather uneventful day 5 here on Odyssey of the Seas.

 

Today, we were docked in Kusadasi, Turkey. This morning, all 3 of us went to breakfast together in Coastal Kitchen before my dad left for his Ephesus excursion:

 

(I took photos of breakfast this morning since we got some more exciting options and I knew there wouldn't be a ton to talk about today 🤣)

 

Then my dad headed off in Kusadasi for his Ephesus small group tour, I found out it was in fact actually 20 people and not 40 so it really was a smaller group. I will have to make him write something about it because I don't know what all he did, and I did make him take pictures. Maybe you all could encourage him to share his thoughts! 

 

 

Then my mom and I lounged in the Solarium, she read her kindle while I wrote my hotel review earlier 🙃. Here were some fun towel animals at the towel stand:

 

 

Next up, we went back to our rooms to towel animals in the rooms, today our rooms had 2 different ones instead of the same like other days so I have pictures of both (our normal stateroom attendant Linton had some dental work done in Turkey today so he had the day off and someone else filled in for him, hence the different towel animals, who knew this would be the highlight of my day 😂 ) :

 

 

Then my mom and I had a quiet lunch together in Coastal Kitchen. The menu was a repeat of the first day but I remembered to get a picture this time and we both ordered the exact same things:

 

 

Then it was siesta time and my dad came back from his tour. We once again had dinner in coastal kitchen, I promise you will see this changed up in the next couple days:

 

 

And then tonight we changed it up and hung out in the schooner bar. The pub guitarist had the night off and there was karaoke going on in the pub. My parents refuse to listen to karaoke and I don't blame them 😆:

 

 

Tomorrow is an actual day at sea finally! We have the pinnacle luncheon tomorrow so you will see a little less coastal kitchen from us. There is also the backstage tour in the afternoon if I am up for it. 

One fun fact we found out about the pinnacles on board this sailing: of the 89 pinnacles, only 14 joined for this sailing, the rest were on the TA. That means excluding us there are only 11 others who weren't on B2B, we have yet to find any of them 🤷‍♀️.

 

Thanks again and TTYL!
- Ashley

 

[MtnSeaGirl]

 

I must say again that this is an absolutely wonderful review.  I love your writing style.  You give lots of info for future cruisers.  I would love to do a cooking class like you did. That would be right up my alley.  Perhaps, in the future....  Keep on writing; I'll keep on reading.  

[elizabethbp]

My daughter and I will be on the Odyssey for the Thanksgiving cruise. I have watched several You Tube videos but if  you get time, please take pictures of the ship, faculties, pools, dining, etc.    We have a Jr Suite so pictures of that are appreciated also.

 

Again, your review is amazing.

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All!

 

Once again I am back to recap day 6, an actual sea day, aka the day with all the crown and anchor things 🙃.

 

We started our day off with breakfast in Coastal Kitchen... again... I am sorry, we are boring. Anyways, today I managed to get a photo of our tray of pastries before we attacked it so here it is:

 

\

 

After breakfast, our normal stateroom attendant, Linton, was back and he had done my room and had one of the cuter towel animals I have seen:

 

 

Next up (after my parents may or may not have booked another cruise...) we had the Pinnacle Cheers with an Officer Lunch. It was in the dining room on deck 4 and on the other side of the same floor was the Diamond Plus lunch. Anyways, here are a few photos I captured there:

 

 

After that, we headed to the backstage tour. At least on Odyssey, the actual backstage tours and not just the panels are back, although it still started with a panel Q&A before we headed back stage where we were not allowed to take pictures. Here is a picture of the panel:

 

 

Then I came back to my room where the chef's choice amenity had been delivered. I know these vary ship to ship and even sailing to sailing but here is what I got this time:

 

 

I then wandered around the ship a bit. It was quite busy since it was a see day, I will try to capture some ship photos on a port day or in the morning one day when it is emptier. Anyways, after that, I got some Sorrento's pizza... for science 🤣:

 

 

 

Then once again it was time to rest and get ready for dinner (not that the rest was really necessary on this incredibly lazy sea day). Once again, we had dinner in Coastal Kitchen:

 

 

After dinner, we once again spent a bit of time in the pub before heading to bed:

 

 

Tomorrow we are in Limassol, Cyprus. On boarding day we found out our mall transfer here had been cancelled so we booked "Panoramic Limassol & Shopping Tour" so we will be doing that tomorrow. We also have Chops Grille booked for dinner tomorrow so I promise you will finally see less Coastal Kitchen 😂.

 

Thanks again and TTYL!
- Ashley

 

[ashlynn1021]

Hey All!

 

Back from a nice day in Limassol where we are currently still docked. My dad finally wrote something about his Ephesus tour on Day 5 so here is that.

 

He put a ton of photos in it (like twice the amount I have been doing) and I don't know what can be cut so attaching it all as a PDF here, also the forums don't like copy pasting from word docs I have discovered from a formatting perspective. Anyways, see the attached document!

 

Thanks and TTYL!
- Ashley

 

EphesusTour.pdf

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All!

 

Back to recap day 7 in Limassol, Cyprus. We once again started our day with breakfast in Coastal Kitchen, I didn't snap any pictures this time, I am sure you get the idea at this point. Then, our tour started a little later so we headed to our cabins to get ready to go ashore and then headed to the theater for our tour. As I said yesterday, our tour was "Panoramic Limassol & Shopping Tour". When we got to the theater, they gave us our stickers and then told us to come back at 11 as we were too early, so we decided to get Starbucks and then headed back at 5 til 11. At that time, they told us "oh your number was called a while ago". That was the first sign that this was not going to be a good tour. We were not the only people on our tour that this happened to so we all headed off the ship to the buses where we were the last parties to our bus. 

 

Then we started out tour with the panoramic drive around Cyprus. It was fine but our guide was so monotoned, I think my mom fell asleep. He had difficulty with English and was pausing before each and every word. None of our tour guides this trip have spoken English as their first language (obviously given where we are) but this one was by far the worst, he was trying but it was not great. I didn't catch his name either although that might have been a good thing. As we headed out on the bus, I discovered they drive on the left side of the road here. We passed the ship so I snapped a photo there:

 

 

And then we had a few photo stops at various locations, honestly I could not tell you what any of them were but here they are:

 

 

Then was the highlight of the tour, they dropped us off in town for an hour for food and shopping. We got gelato again:

 

 

Then once back at the terminal, we waited in a very long line to get back on the ship as security here was controlled by the port. Here is a picture of the terminal with Limassol in the background, it kinda reminded me of the NCL terminal in Miami in shape, although obviously not size, I do think cruises can start and end here:

 

 

Then I got a very late lunch at el loco fresh:

 

 

At that time it was nearly time for dinner. We did our usual rest and then prep for dinner routine. Before dinner, we went to Giovanni's wine bar again and while there we saw the Stowaway piano player again:

 

 

And then it was time for dinner in Chops Grille:

 

(Sorry some bread was already missing in this photo 😂 )

 

And then we had our usual evening hang out in the pub:

 

 

Now to recap a bit on the tour... yesterday, the ship announced they would offer a shuttle to town in Limassol. We should have cancelled our excursion and did that instead. Yes, we did see more of Cyprus this way, but we didn't get much out of it. We should have just gone in town for lunch and shopping and the hour stop in town was really not long enough to sit down anywhere and eat. Of course, they waited until the last minute to announce and sell shuttle tickets so no one would cancel their excursions. Anyways, I guess you live and you learn.

 

Tomorrow, we are in Rhodes, Greece. Speaking of cancelling excursions, we cancelled our walking tour here. We found of the town is near the port and opted to cancel it to give my mom a break so she can hopefully be 100% for Santorini the next day which is going to be an early morning. We also have Teppanyaki for dinner tomorrow.

 

Thanks and TTYL!
- Ashley

[ashlynn1021]

Hey All!

 

Back from a wonderful Day 8 in Rhodes, Greece!

 

We once again started our day in Coastal Kitchen for breakfast:

 

Then, we headed off the ship in Rhodes for some independent exploration of the old town:

 

We bought some oil paintings as well (I think I mentioned in a previous post that I just bought my second house last year so I thought these would be pretty on my still bare walls and would help me remember this trip):

 

Then we once again got gelato (gelato and coastal kitchen, our 2 constants):

 

Then we headed back to the ship a bit early, this cruise has been tiring for both of my parents.

Today's Towel Animal:

View of Rhodes from the ship:

 

Then I wandered around the fairly empty ship to take pictures, I will go through those and post them after the cruise (when I do the cabin reviews as well), but here is a sneak peak of those in the form of today's towel station towel animal:

 

Then we had an earlier dinner in Teppanyaki:

(Our Chef, Kevin)

(Olaf made with eggs 🤣)

(That bottom sauce is yum yum sauce, the best 😋)

(Beautiful view as we sailed away 🤩)

 

Teppanyaki was absolutely delicious but it was definitely a lot of food. It was a nice change up from the typical restaurants and the show aspect of the meal is a lot of fun. We did have a family with 4 kids at our table but honestly the second the show started, they were so entertained, they quieted down. We did kinda expect kids since we did eat a lot earlier tonight due to our early tour tomorrow. Anyways, I would obviously come back to Teppanyaki/Hibachi on other ships since I have done it multiple times now and I definitely recommend it to others.

 

Speaking of tomorrow, we are in Santorini! This is probably the highlight of this itinerary and I think the cruise line knows it as we have the longest port stay there. We are doing "Pyrgos Village with Mezes and Wine" obviously booked through shore excursions tomorrow. Given the tender situation, we have heard an excursion is the best deal here and also it means we don't have to do the cable car both ways. We are in Santorini tomorrow with 2 other ships, the Marella Explorer (former Celebrity Galaxy that we have actually been on!) and the Regent Seven Seas Voyager, so the wait for the cable car down shouldn't be terrible but I am sure I will find out and share.

 

Thanks and TTYL!
- Ashley

 

[ashlynn1021]

Hey Guys!

 

Back from a beautiful day in Santorini today, I am going to post about it tomorrow though, we had a change of plans in Athens tomorrow that involves me being alone on a tour at 7am tomorrow 😳 so I need to get to bed, I will post more about that tomorrow when I update about Santorini.

 

Thanks and TTYL!
- Ashley 

[joyhannah]

I am Loving your review 🙂 keep it coming

[GimmeOcean]

On 5/12/2024 at 3:14 PM, ashlynn1021 said:

 

(Our Chef, Kevin)

 

We had Kevin as our Teppanyaki chef for our 2nd visit to that restaurant on the TA. He was great! 

[ashlynn1021]

Hi All!

 

Back on the morning of Day 11 (a sea day) to finally talk about Day 9: Santorini Day! Sorry for the delay, had 2 early mornings and long days in a row.

 

On day 9, we had a tour meeting time of 7:25am in the theater so we each did what we needed for breakfast to be good for the day, I went to 270 and grabbed a bagel. And then it was off to the theater to wait for ships clearance. Once we got ships clearance, they started calling numbers for shore excursion only tenders to Athinios and we boarded I believe the second tender over to the shore excursion port:

(Norwegian Epic that was not scheduled to be there as seen from our tender)

(Marella Explorer, the former Celebrity Galaxy, as seen from our tender, we do have a story from her, our cabin got flooded! I guess that could be told another time haha)

 

Once we made it to Athinios, we boarded our bus for our shore excursion, "Pyrgos Village with Mezes and Wine". Then we had the very interesting switchback roads up the island:

(View from our bus ride)

 

On the way to our first stop, we saw the first grape vines we would see on the island. It is very interesting how they grow them in Santorini since they grow them flat:

 

Then we had a photo stop on the highest point of the island:

 

Then we headed to Pyrgos village where we spent a little more than an hour. We had the option there to climb to the top to see the church with our guide or stay in the lower part of the town. We all opted to stay in the lower part, grab a coffee,  and relax a bit. My mom could not have done the climb and when I saw the first part of the cobblestone stairs, I decided not to go since I knew what lied ahead for me the next day in Athens. 

 

Some photos I got there:

(The church part of our group climbed up to)

 

Then we headed off to the Venetsanos winery for our wine tasting and snacks.

 

As we pulled in, we could see the Regent Ship, the Seven Seas Voyager, sailing in from the distance:

 

We then had a short wait for another tour before we were seated for our wine tasting and snacks:

(We tasted a dry white wine, a dry red wine, and a sweet dessert red wine)

 

By the end of the tasting, the Regent ship had made it into position for tendering:

 

A picture of us at the winery:

 

Then we drove to Fira, our final stop on the tour! From there, our guide, he told us at the beginning to call him "F" (he said it would be easy to remember, think of the American curse word, 🤣), he told us his actual Greek name but it was very difficult to pronounce, anyways, he led us from the bus stop uphill to the pedestrian zone in Fira. There really was nothing in this port that was flat, so it was a good thing we made sure my mom was well rested.

(Oh yeah, we were number 12 for the 3rd time on this cruise 😂)

 

Once in the pedestrian zone, he explained the cable car system, showed us where to get the cable cars and gave us our cable car vouchers. From there, the tour was effectively over and we were free to explore Fira on our own. It was shortly after noon at this point, we had about a 20 minute walk to the cable cars, and we heard the line for the cable cars would start to grow significantly at 1pm (especially given the additional ship in port, more reason to dislike the ugly NCL Epic 🙃 ) so we opted to go straight there, albeit with a few quick stops inside various stores along the way. 

 

Sign with a map of the island at the cable car station:

 

We waited in line about 30 minutes for the cable cars. Views from the cable cars once we finally got on them:

(I ended up in a separate car from my parents so they snapped this picture)

(The cable car station at the bottom in Skala, the old port)

 

We made it back to the ship at about 1:30 so no surprise at this point, we headed to Coastal Kitchen for lunch:

 

Then we once again had Siesta time before dinner in once again, Coastal Kitchen:

(Same menu as night 1 and we all got the same appetizers and entrees so no need to post anything new there)

(I did get a picture of the dessert menu this time, and we did get some different desserts)

 

View of the sunset in Santorini from Coastal Kitchen with Fira all lit up:

 

Overall, Santorini was beautiful. It is definitely not an island for someone will any mobility issues, there are steps everywhere to get on and off the cable car, in town, etc. My parents are both very glad they saw it when they did. We did hear from some people who chose to walk up that the stairs up are completely covered in Donkey poo making them even more slippery so just a heads up if you decide to make that climb. We also heard someone on the Epic fell on the steps and broke their ankle that day so also be aware. They were rushing down to meet their all aboard since theirs was earlier and a crew member we are friends with on here said they helped them call for help and they were likely not making their ship at that point. Anyways, my mom said she got her "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" moment but admitted that Mykonos was also just as beautiful and a little more accessible (still not devoid of stairs in the winding streets in town but didn't have the cliff aspect). She is very glad she made it as this was on her bucket list.

 

The only regret is we didn't pick a tour that went to Oia to see the windmills but I heard it was very crowded there that day and Pyrgos was pretty quiet so that might have been a good thing. Also, just the logistics of a shore excursion in Santorini do make this port a lot easier as you get to take a bus ride up and you don't have to line up very early for tender tickets (although all the shore excursions met pretty early so it might be a wash there). I would probably recommend a shore excursion for anyone's first time in Santorini because of the logistics of everything.

 

Anyways, there is (finally) my discussion on Santorini. The next day, yesterday now, was Day 10 and we were docked in Piraeus (Athens), Greece. My parents made the decision a couple days ago that they no longer wanted to do Athens, they needed a break from shore excursions. We were booked on a panoramic tour, "Ancient Athens, Plaka, and Shopping", and when we went to cancel them, the suite concierge talked me into changing my tour as well if I was going to go alone as I wouldn't get much our of the panoramic tour. This was the tour we changed a few weeks before the cruise after my mom's fall and we originally had "Acropolis, Plaka and Lunch at the Famous Bairaktaris Tavern" so I went to book that one again and found out it had significantly increased on price on board, it as now over $300 a person and we had it booked for well less than $200 a person so me being me (and being a bit cheap), I booked a similar tour that didn't have the sit down lunch and was much less money, it was also 2 hours longer as it included the museum for a total of 7 hours and 15 minutes scheduled. All that to say, I ended up on "Acropolis Sightseeing, New Acropolis Museum with Plaka Free Time" that had a meeting time yesterday of 7am, it was literally the earliest meeting time of all the tours in Athens 😳. Anyways, that is why this got delayed. Hopefully I will get to posting about Athens later today since it is a see day.

 

Now off to get ready for a relaxing sea day today!

 

Thanks and TTYL!
- Ashley