Greek Isles - Grand Princess - Put your feet up

[Cruise Junky]

It's a long one, sorry. Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

 

After doing a lovely land trip of France and Italy the year before we seriously considered canceling this cruise, but thought logistically, it would just be too hard to cover the territory by land. We were right !

We flew Vancouver to London on Air Canada non stop which was lovely and even better was we were upgraded to business class. We very easily navigated our way with luggage on the Heathrow Express to the Hilton at Paddington Station. Great hotel to stay in and quite reasonable. 109 Pounds per night which included buffet breakfast and a dinner. Only issue was the bed was hard as cement. Other than that we loved the Hilton’s location – right across from the tube station. Our two days in London were spent traveling around Hyde Park, Knightsbridge (hubby had never seen the Food Hall at Harrods), Big Ben, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus before a couple of hours of retail therapy and beer on Oxford Street.

Next Stop: Venice! We we’re flying from Gatwick to Venice on British Airways. Getting to Gatwick was easy, we flagged a taxi outside out hotel and for less than 10 pounds we were at Victoria Station to take the Gatwick Express to the airport. All very easy and quite manageable. The flight was excellent, we had upgraded on line for about 100 pounds and drank our share of free champagne on the flight. Arriving in Venice, we opted for the Alligunia water taxi, cheap, convenient, but man it takes a long time to get to St. Marks. Nice cheap tour of Venice though! Upon arrival at St. Marks we walked to our hotel, The Westin. Again, very easy to navigate as we’d stayed there before and knew exactly where it was. The Westin was fabulous. We had booked on points and were given a lovely room (I called it our Wing) overlooking the Grand Canal. We immediately dropped our bags and started touring. First stop, Gelato! Second stop, liquid both for the room and for the ship. We headed over the Accademia bridge and kept walking until you hit the water on the other side and then head right. There’s a decent grocery store there. We bought beer, wine, mix, etc. and headed back to the hotel.

Embarkation. To get to the ship, we headed back towards St. Marks with our luggage, to the Alligunia stop again. It was 6 Euro each for a person and I think 3 Euro for the suitcase. Super easy, super cheap and we got there very fast. Check in was very easy about 1:00 pm ish, no waiting in line and we could board immediately. We went straight to our room Caribe 703. The balcony was huge, but the room was smallish compared to our last two cruises which were a full suite on the Sea Princess and a Corner FV on Millennium. The room proved to be big enough for two and we had no issues with storage or bumping into each other.

The Ship at first glance. We loved the Grand, people had told us beforehand that she was too big, but we didn’t find her that way at all. Being by the aft elevators was great, we’re not show people so I don’t think we actually ventured much past the middle.

Back to Venice. As the ship wasn’t leaving until the next morning, we got off and walked to Piazza Roma and bought vaporetto passes. We sailed up and down the Grand Canal, taking pictures, getting off at the Rialto for a little shopping, a lovely way to spend the afternoon/evening.

Sailaway from Venice: Wow, I really don’t think any sailaway could compare. We have sailed into Venice before and it’s just magical…cold, but magical. We wrapped up well and got our spot on deck for the 8:00 am sailaway. Something I will always remember. Of course it doesn’t hurt that we sailed out of Venice on our wedding anniversary.

Meet and Greet: One of the lovely ladies on our extremely active roll call had organized our meet and greet for the sailaway afternoon in the Skywalkers nightclub. We had a great turnout and it was fantastic to finally meet all of these people that we’d been chatting to for 18 months online. The “assistant” cruise director showed up and made a bit of a speech. We also had a get together on the last sea day where the cruise director and photographer showed up to take a group picture.

Ports – may not be in order

Dubrovnik: We’d been here before in 2005 but because of a downpour then, we were unable to walk the walls…not this time!! We shared a taxi for 10 Euro with friends and headed straight to the wall. It’s quite the hike with some climbs that I hadn’t expected but really worth it for the views. You can pay in Kuna or Euros for the wall. You got a better deal paying in Kuna. After the walls it was beer time, we didn’t care that it was only 10:30 am and most civilized adults were sipping coffee, we’d earned our beer! For lunch we went back to Mea Culpa Pizza which we loved last time and it didn’t disappoint this time. Not very good shopping, so we headed back to the ship. Another 10 Euro for a taxi for 4…very good deal to not have to wait and pay for the ships shuttles.

Corfu: We just walked the town in Corfu and met up with friends for a beer (are you starting to see a pattern? :) ) In retrospect, I do wish we had done a tour to see the island better, be we did enjoy the downtown area. We walked there and took the 1 euro bus back to the port. There was a duty free store by the port We didn’t see any booze being taken away or any table set up in any of our ports to confiscate liquor….Yeah Princess!!

Olympia: This was a new port for us and with the Olympics being in Vancouver in 2010 it had special significance. However, it really is a huge pile of rocks that you assume was once the home of the Olympics. It will be cool though when they light the torch there and we’ll know it’s on its way to Vancouver. Did a little shopping in Katakolon after our ½ day tour.

Athens: We’ve been to Athens before and then and now, I still think it’s a hole. Which is shame for such a historically significant city. We did the National Museum which was excellent. My husband had his wallet lifted in Athens (no what’s not why I don’t like it). It wasn’t as secured as it should have been and it was lifted when he got on the Subway. The thief only got his one day spending money and one credit card. The ship was fantastic in getting us through to Capital One to get his card cancelled. They made all the calls at their expense. Can’t say enough about how they handled it. I firmly believe in Karma and we didn’t let this ruin our vacation. (Probably saved him 1,000s anyway not being able to buy me stuff). The Grand was delayed in Athens due to a fuel strike or something. The people that pump the fuel were not too co-operative and they were still filling her up at 7/8 at night. We had to leave our cabin as the fuel was being pumped on our side….Yuck!!

Mykonos: Lovely, Lovely Mykonos. Very glad we got to return here. We had no tour booked, we just took the ships shuttle into town. Wandered over to Little Italy to check out the windmills and have our first beer of the morning overlooking the windmills and getting splashed by spray coming up. We had a mission in Mykonos, well actually two. Mission #1 was to get back to Nykos Taverna for lunch which was fantastic. I swear, I’ve never tasted Feta like it. And the 500 ml Mythos beer, how can you complain. Mission #2…Yellow Label Grand Marnier. Mykonos is one of the very few places I’ve seen that sells it. It’s made by Grand Marnier and tastes a lot like Cointreau, only better. We succeeded in both of our missions !! We spent the afternoon walking around in the lovely sunshine and met up with a two couples from our roll call for what else, an afternoon beer.

Rhodes: Rhodes was supposed to be after Kusadasi but the two ports were switched due to traffic congestion. Loved Rhodes. We took the ships excursion to Lindos and climbed up to the Acropolis. Fantastic views, but a lot of steps!! After the climb we had about an hour free, I’m not even going to tell you what we did, I’m sure you can guess J Anyway, met 6 or 8 Brits on a roof top Taverna and we had a great chat. They were there on a land trip. Our tour bus dropped us off at the ship and we grabbed a quick lunch before heading into Old Town Rhodes. I really wanted to buy a leather coat on this trip and figured either Rhodes or Kusadasi would be good. I found the exact one that I wanted but the price tag was 720 Euro…I think not. Anyway after some negotiating and walking away and what I swear was being sworn at in greek ;) I got it for 360 Euro. I was happy, they were happy, and I got a beautiful coat. Old Town Rhodes is a giant shopping mall. Everywhere, stores, stores and more stores.

Kusadasi: this was the first of our two Private Tours. This was booked by Jackie from our roll call who organized this for 13 people. Of course, we were going to Ephesus. We toured with Nejat who is often mentioned on these boards. He was great and very knowledgable. We started at the Virgin Mary’s House and then made our way down to Ephesus. What a fantastic site. Wow! You really could spend hours and hours there, it’s fascinating. But it was also really hot and PACKED!!! Can’t imagine what it was like the day before if we got switched because of Traffic! We seemed to suffer from the disappearing group in Ephesus. By the end of the tour 5 people had become separated from the group, which was too bad because they missed the Terrace Houses which was incredible. If you go to Ephesus, make sure your tour includes the Terrace Houses, awesome. And keep your group on a string !

After Ephesus we headed for a late lunch which was great. Kabobs, salad, etc.

Not much time for shopping at the end of this tour, glad I got my coat the day before and the shopkeepers were so aggressive, it was such a turn off after being with so many people in Ephesus all day that we just turned around and headed back to the ship.

Santorini: Santorini is a place that I turn into a different person. All the cares, worries just disappear and I’m instantly relaxed. They should bottle it! We knew there was going to be a few ships in port with us so we wanted to make an early start. We were able to get the first tender with only about 15 other people and we got the first funicular up to Fira. Not much was open at this point and we’d talked about doing the walk to Oia. There is a trail that stretches across the caldera away from the road. We found the path and started to walk. We got about 3 K and the trail was starting to get bad and you could tell it was going further and further way from the road and we’d hit the end of civilization…..so low and behold, upon walking to the road, we came out at one of the only bus stops on the entire route! We waited about 10 minutes and hopped the next bus to Oia. Best of both worlds really, we were able to take in the fantastic views of the caldera in the first 3 K without tiring ourselves out and got to Oia quite quickly. We spent about 4 hours in Oia, had breakfast there, shopped, took a ton of pictures, walked around to the windmill and then went for lunch and took the bus back to Fira. Hubby left me at this point to go back to the ship and I did a little shopping in Fira before returning. There was no line up for the funicular going down as it was now mid-afternoon and the two Costa ships had left by 1:00 pm.

Sea Day !! Yeah, finally a chance to sleep in and relax!! I spent some time by the aft pool and the casino (the casino was terrible this trip). I placed 3rd in the slot tournament which got me a t-shirt and hat.

Naples: We had arranged a private tour for 8 with Salvatore of DriveAmalfi. Great day, but this was probably our worst day weather wise. We headed straight down to the Amalfi Coast and drove through Positano with lots of stops for photos along the way. We then headed to Amalfi with some free time. Had to buy our Lemoncello to take home. We then went for lunch just below Ravello. I had the Gnocci which I think was 6 Euro and it was fabulous…..light as Angel’s Pillows!! The rest of the group had Pizza which looked delicious and was equally as cheap if not cheaper. Our next stop should have been Ravello, but as we came to the top, the heavens opened. If we’d have even attempted to get out of the van, we’d have been soaked to the skin in seconds so we skipped Ravello and headed to Pompeii for more time there. Pompeii was fascinating. It’s far bigger than I thought it would be. But of course, within ½ hour of arriving, the heavens opened there too and our entire group was huddled against a wall trying to escape a hail storm. You really couldn’t help but giggle about the whole thing especially when the rain and hail started coming sideways. C’est le Vie!! We were at Pompeii for about 90 minutes and barely scraped the surface.

Disembarkation: OMG, did we really get off that easily? It was incredible. We were given a time to meet in the Casino with our land luggage and within 5 minutes of that time, we were walking off the ship. Shocking! By far the easiest disembarkation we’ve ever done.

Food: I think we’re getting tired of the dining room on cruises. We opted for Anytime Dining this time and it worked out great (when we were there) I think we ate in the dining room 3 times…one was a disaster…I’ll get there in a minute. We ate at Sterlings twice. I had the fillet both times and found it outstanding. My DH had the Rib Eye one night and said it was very fatty, he ordered the fillet the second time. We also ate at Sabatini’s once with a group of 6. That was excellent. I had the Sea Bass - really, really good. The other nights, we either ate at Horizon Court, ordered a pizza from Room Service & Nachos and Guacamole (excellent) and one night we brought back olives and cheese, etc. from Santorini and went up to the Horizon court for food to supplement our greek dinner and very much enjoyed eating on our deck. Back to the dining room…. We ate there one night with two other couples from our roll call. The waiter was awful, very rushed service, almost like he had somewhere to go. Removing silverwear from your place setting while you were eating. Terrible, terrible service. This came to a head when he spilt coffee on one of the ladies legs. They were very light silk pants and of course would have scorched her instantly. He and the Maitre’d of that dining room were too busy filling out their paperwork to check to see if she was ok. Anyway, long story short, they were invited back by the Head Honcho on the last formal night, we ate with them and were treated like royalty.

Horizon Court was always good, we usually ate out on the back deck on 14 for breakfast usually by ourselves! The only time the Horizon Court was packed was the morning of Ephesus, everyone and their dog had an early tour.

MUTS: I LOVE MUTS!! I really do. I don’t enjoy the shows, I find most of them very cheesy, but give me a blanket and popcorn and I’m happy under the stars. We watched two movies on this trip.

Aft Pool and Hot Tubs: Loved the aft pool and the Hot Tubs. Being right by those aft elevators, it was very easy to sneak up in your bathrobes at night. Quite often about 9 pm we’d be in the hot tubs and no one around! Very nice and relaxing. Not once did we spot anyone else up there at night.

Post Cruise ….If you only want to read about the cruise, you can stop now! We weren’t due to fly home for another week after the cruise docked so we took the train from Civitavecchia to Monaco. Very easy to get to the train station at the port. Princess has free shuttles that drop you at the gates and then it's about a 10 minute walk. Can’t remember the exact price, but I think it was less than $200 for the two of us first class. We changed trains in Genoa. Fantastic train trip, it pretty much stuck to the coast, great views of the ocean and the Italian Riviera. We arrived in Monaco about 7:00 pm and shared a taxi with two ladies who were also heading to the Le Meridien Beach Club….taxi was 12 Euro. Awesome Hotel!! For 199 Euro we had a very large ocean front room with a large balcony. We stayed her for 5 nights. We spent our first day touring around Monaco (we’d been here twice before). We headed to “the Rock” and toured the Aquarium. Excellent aquarium! We toured around by the palace and did a little shopping/gambling…should have done more shopping, it would have been cheaper J and had lunch at Café de Paris before heading back to the hotel and spending the afternoon by the pool. Day 2 in Monaco we took the bus to Eze. Very easy to do if you have the time. We spoke with a few people at the bus stop who were in on a cruise and they would basically have to turn around at Eze as soon as they got there. I love Eze and didn’t go there when we spent three days at St. Paul de Vence the year before. We spent a while in the Cactus Garden at the top of Eze, fantastic views, before having a glass of wine at the Chateau Eza. Took the bus back to Monaco and spent the afternoon at the hotel’s private beach. Day 3…we took the bus to Nice and spent the day shopping, eating, touring. Day 4…took the bus to Menton and enjoyed their market and walking along the water with a Pizza lunch. Day 5….time to leave Monaco….we took the airport bus to Nice and flew Easy Jet to Paris. This part I was nervous about…luggage restriction is 20k per person and I knew I was over. My bag weighed 23 k…she asked if I could take anything out..I took a couple of pairs of shoes that only brought it down to 22k and she let it go…Whoooo.

Paris: I feel pretty much the same way about Paris as I do Santorini…I could spent a lot of time there!! We stayed at the Westin which is right across from the Tuileries. Our first afternoon, we wandered over to find Bon Marche and check out their food floor and grab some dinner. Just walking around Paris at dusk is magical. Keep in mind this was early October, so the leaves were reds, golds and yellows. We walked around the Louvre grounds and then settled in for the night. The next morning we were up very early and took a cab to the Eiffel Tower. We were 3rd in line..and what a line it was…wow!! Disneyland has nothing on the Eiffel Tower. We went right to the top…..the views were incredible…..we had breakfast at the Eiffel Tower and hubby jokingly proposed again !! We then set off on foot to explore Paris, ok, hubby thought we were exploring Paris, I was plotting the quickest way possible to the Louis Vuitton Store on the Champs Elysees. Bought the purse I’d been wanting for considerably cheaper than in Canada…..it’s $1,150 us including taxes, I paid the equivalent of $800 cdn with my VAT refund. For our last night in Paris, we just strolled around the city. The weather had been spectacular! Next morning we just grabbed a cab to head to CDG in the early morning. Check in was very easy, getting the VAT processed was so much easier than in Rome and no lines. Now I can see where Air Canada is spending it’s money….the lounge in CDG…French champagne at 9:00 am, pain au chocolate, Roquefort, camembert… you certainly don’t get that in the lounges in Canada!! Very much enjoyed the lounge in Paris…nice job! Our luggage was ridiculously overweight, thank heavens I’m Air Canada Elite and they didn’t bat an eye! Flight home was LONNNNNGGGG as we had to change in Montreal.

Summary… Great trip, we love Europe. Next time though we’re either going to find a perfect cruise from Barcelona to London as we’d like to see Spain and Portugal and Western France/Normandy, or we’ll opt for a land trip to Normandy and Paris and live like locals for a couple of weeks. We really enjoyed Princess and other than the crappy waiter the one night, everything was great. Good food, good service, lovely balcony and fantastic cruising friends!!

[chrysalis]

I enjoyed "putting my feet up"...thanks for the comprehensive review. This is a cruise that we are considering on the Grand for next Fall.

[rdsqrl]

Thank you -- that was a wonderful read! What a terrific trip. I had to laugh at all the beer-drinking stops: clearly y'all have your priorities in order! Thanks for sharing your vacation with us.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Wow! What a wonderful review! I felt like I was right there with you! Excellent, excellent job. :)

 

One question though - how did you know there'd be a return bus from Oia to Fira in Santorini? How often do they run? Could you have caught it near the funicular instead? Thanks!

[Cruise Junky]

Wow! What a wonderful review! I felt like I was right there with you! Excellent, excellent job. :)

 

One question though - how did you know there'd be a return bus from Oia to Fira in Santorini? How often do they run? Could you have caught it near the funicular instead? Thanks!

 

Hi - they run about every 45 minutes or so back and forth. We definitely could have caught it from the bus station in Fira and actually got damn lucky that when we wandered onto the road we were within 20 feet of a bus stop. I actually forgot to mention that on the bus on the way back from Oia, the bus driver made a point of saying no stops anywhere, express to Fira which we thought odd....but it was fantastic, he took the scenic route on the lower road all the way back. It was like getting a tour of the island for 1 euro. We had a few people that booked the Elite Tour of Santorini and were very disappointed so I'd definitely not recommend that.

[DrivesLikeMario]

That sounds more to our liking - doing it on our own. I think we may take that option when we go to Santorini. Thanks for the info.! :)

[Cruise Junky]

That sounds more to our liking - doing it on our own. I think we may take that option when we go to Santorini. Thanks for the info.! :)

 

Just really try and get up early that day. I think our roll call had freaked each other out to get up early. It was hilarious, the only people waiting for that first tender were all from our roll call. I spoke with people on the funicular when I came down and they said they had about an hour's wait going up at about 9:30 am.

[Go-Bucks!]

Sounds like a great trip.

 

Paris: I feel pretty much the same way about Paris as I do Santorini…I could spent a lot of time there!! We stayed at the Westin which is right across from the Tuileries. Our first afternoon, we wandered over to find Bon Marche and check out their food floor and grab some dinner. Just walking around Paris at dusk is magical.

Paris is one of my very favorite cities. I can't get enough of it. Everything is magical! I'll be going back in March, 2009 - can't wait. And it's so fun to be able to speak French with people - my 8 years of French classes always pay off when I'm there since there's no one to speak it with here. I usually stay in the 7th arr., near the Eiffel tower. Luckily the Metro is so good that you can get anywhere in no time. My favorite place on the Champs Elysees is Laduree. Their macaroons are to die for.

[rugbypopsie]

Great review!!!! thanks so much for sharing with all of us.

[caber]

Great review!

We have been to all those ports and it brought back many great memories.

We took the donkeys up and the fenicular down in Santorini. The donkeys were an experience. On the bus back from Oia it was standing room only, on top of each other, but it was well worth going to see.

Thanks for the memories.:D

[DrivesLikeMario]

Just really try and get up early that day. I think our roll call had freaked each other out to get up early. It was hilarious, the only people waiting for that first tender were all from our roll call. I spoke with people on the funicular when I came down and they said they had about an hour's wait going up at about 9:30 am.

 

Great advice! I have no problem getting up before the roosters! :D Thanks!

[WeBeGone]

Thanks so much for the review. This itinerary is on our "must do" list.

[High C's]

Great review. I feel like I was right there with you. Oh, that's right - I was!!!;) Is it 10:30 yet???? Cheers!

[Cruise Junky]

Great review. I feel like I was right there with you. Oh' date=' that's right - I was!!!;) Is it 10:30 yet???? Cheers![/quote']

 

And please note, I called you "lovely" :rolleyes: :p

[Ggrrrr]

Thanks for the review! This is one of the cruises I've been looking at for 2009 and your review provided great detail.

[jfv379]

Great post. Haven't yet cruised the Med, but you brought back a lot of memories from from my european land tours. Maybe someday...the Med cruise.

[Woobstr112G]

Great review. Thanks for taking the time to write it. We did the western med on our recently completed Emerald Princess cruise. Maybee when we return to the Med we'll do the eastern half as well. Really enjoyed the Med/TA itinerary though.

 

Thanks again for a great review

 

Bob

 

Future: Diamond Princess Aus/Nz 01/09

Emerald Princess Med/Trans Atlantic 10/08

Celebrity Constellation British Isles/Norway 07/06

Celebrity Summit Alaska Repositioning 05/05

Celebrity Summit Panama Canal 10/02

Rhapsody Of The Seas Alaska 09/01

Spledour Of The Seas Baltic 09/99

HAL Veendam Eastern Caribbean 07/96

Carnival Holiday Western Carribean 07/93

[robanddiane]

Loved the review, brought back great memories of when we did the identical cruise on the Golden 2 years ago. Also remember the excellent Mythos beer in the greek islands and the Efes beer in Kusadasi. As you have said the sailaway from Venice is unbelievable. Thanks for bringing the memories back.

[Cruise Junky]

Loved the review, brought back great memories of when we did the identical cruise on the Golden 2 years ago. Also remember the excellent Mythos beer in the greek islands and the Efes beer in Kusadasi. As you have said the sailaway from Venice is unbelievable. Thanks for bringing the memories back.

 

You are quite welcome, and yes, I forgot to mention Efes beer as well as Alpha which was also quite good...not that we drank much beer ;)

[pretenda]

What a wonderfully well written, entertaining review. Thanks for sharing - it brought back memories of ours on Emerald last year.

Glenda

[Julia’s Journey’s]

Thanks for the great review - it has been years (lots of them) since I spent time in Europe so this brought back great memories and makes me feel like cruising there although I know I would like to live like a local in Greece again:D:D:D

[High C's]

And please note, I called you "lovely" :rolleyes: :p

 

And I will expect the "sweet talk" to continue in Mexico!!!!

 

All kiddng aside - excellent review! It brought everything back, as sometimes this vacation seems like a lifetime ago!

 

To anyone considering this itinerary, it was absolutely wonderful. Of all the Greek Islands, my personal favourite was Rhodes. Not to fault any of the others, but Rhodes was so unique. And if you are considering the trip to Delos, I absolutely recommend it. The scenery there is stunningly beautiful.

 

I also enjoyed Dubrovnik very much. Heck, I enjoyed everywhere we went. Of course, the beer at 10:30 each day didn't hurt!!!!;)