Chefestelle and DD cruise the Med

The countdown begins! DD and I are excited to be on our way! We board the Eurodam on July 17 for the Mediterranean Empires 12 night cruise. We are too excited! The itinerary looks fabulous, the only anxiety being if we can get into Istanbul safely.

I have downloaded my apps: app in the air, mobily, tripcast, ulmon and maps.me (thanks the-inside-cabin, LAFFNVegas, and team flames!). I have been testing them to see which I prefer. App in the air was very useful! It reminded me to check in online! Between visitors to my own town, sports trips and business trips, I've had plenty of practice with these apps and have a sense now of what works best for me.

I have the little credit card protectors, money belts, thief proofed daypack, and cooling towels all packed. Itineraries, proof of dinner, excursion and hotel reservations are in the travel folder and ready to go. Passport expiries have been checked and rechecked. We both have our books packed for when we are reading in the sun or I can't take the iPad screen any longer (I mostly read my tablet). We are taking an extra suitcase for shoes etc because the overweight charge is $100 each way regardless of the overage, whereas the extra bag is only $35 each way. Considering we would both likely have been over, that's quite the savings! There will be no packing light with my shoe fondness and our first week away...

We start today for St.John's, Newfoundland for a week of conference and then we are off to Venice! I can hardly wait. Luckily, we have not yet been to Newfoundland so this will be a pre-adventure adventure! It's two completely different vacations in one. I cruised (pun intended) the Canada/New England port section for recommendations to go with my other research. Boy, that was tough. Most of it was about Saint John, New Brunswick! Very little about St. John's but thanks to maryann ns, declansdad, and Jolie_Cruiser, I was able to access some great threads and get some good feedback. I'm hoping to post cruise oriented info in the relevant ports of call section over the next week for future actual cruisers.

Anyway, this cruise was booked at DD's request early last year. She's 15 so I was quite taken aback by this. We have travelled all of her life: mostly DIY land trips with a smattering of all-inclusives and only one prior cruise each - and not together. We then took a Christmas cruise in December to get used to the idea. It was fabulous except for the noro that hit me after I got home...

Her goal for this Med trip is to see where she would like to go for longer. A day in a port isn't a lot to go by, but it is like an amuse bouche anyway! I'm just looking forward to a lovely, varied vacation!

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Hope you have a terrific trip and cruise. I traveled to Europe several times with my parents when I was a teen and it got me hooked on travel for life. ;)

Let us know what happens with Istanbul, i.e., whether you stop there or not.

I sure will! My fingers are crossed!

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Looking forward to your reports. Have a great trip!

You can't possibly be missing anything in the packing area: very impressive prep work!

Have a great time! Looking forward to any posts you can find time to make.

See you Onboard 😀

We are the Russian and Dutch talking group who will probably embarrass ourselves after a couple of cocktails 😉...

Hope you have a great trip!

Eat lots of lobster in St. John's.:D

Thank you everyone! Yes, lobster will feature large on the menus this week. Of course, I think the actual season is over so we are probably left with pound lobsters. I will try to make posts, though SLOTheta is on the Eurodam in the Med right now and I think she posted the inet was slow. I'll watch for you Despegue! I'm impressed you have so many languages you can speak. Perhaps from all that flying? I ran into a group of Dutch people a couple of decades ago while they were visiting Vancouver. They were trying to figure out where to go on Vancouver island. They couldn't speak English well and I couldn't speak Dutch at all. But we all had a smattering of German and managed to stumble our way through some discussion. It was fun!

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

This sounds absolutely wonderful! What fun times ahead and many memories to be made.

Have a safe trip and I'll be watching and reading your updates.

Have a fabulous cruise.

Travel safely.

Sounds wonderful.

Have a great cruise.

I hope you have a wonderful time in St. John's.

Have a great cruise. I'm looking forward to reading all about it!

Bon Voyage!

Also going to be on MS Eurodam sailing the 17th (first time cruise for both me and my wife).

Looking forward to the Redentore festival fireworks the 16th at night. More worried of not having a good place to view the fireworks than my worry about Istanbul ;)

Should be a lot emptier in Istanbul with all that has happened, and my philosophy (and experience the last few years) is you never know what could happen where so you might as well enjoy what you can when you can :cool:

Any tips from previous MS Eurodam cruisers?

We've been assigned VA4132. A bit concerned in regards to the view, but with gurantee rate I guess it's better to have balcony than to not have one...

July 15: It's hard to believe it is time at last! I have been scouring CC, pouring over Rick Steves' guide books and haunting the Internet for ideas, excursions and cruising tips. Whatsinport.com, tomsportguides.com, Viator and tripadvisor have all been most helpful to me for deciding what we would like to see and do in each port. I'm very grateful, as well, to CC for the useful tips and great posts. Just see my thread "Mediterranean Musts" for an example of some excellent tips submitted by CCers. Or the "Tipping in ***" threads I started on the ports of call boards to gain the benefit of the experience of locals or former locals to the regions.

In the style of Oscar winners everywhere, I'd like to thank POA1, RuthC, Hlitner, KrazyKruizer, Fouremco, Kazu, sail7seas, Cruise_More_often, DeeniEncinitas, Cruisemom42, Boytije, 3rdGenCunarder, (cue the hook-her-off-the-stage music) and everyone else who has chimed in to offer great advice and insights. So thank you, thank you, thank you!

Our flight to Venice is a red eye. I've been at a conference all week so it was a packing challenge to plan for Newfoundland and then the Mediterranean. Newfoundland is pleasant in the summer (if it's not raining) but not scorching hot like home or like the Mediterranean. As we approached our departure day, it looked more and more like it was going to be quite cool and rainy for our week in St. John's. I had to pack for hot, cool or rainy options. DD had it easier: she is young and fit so she can wear leggings! They roll up into tiny bundles smaller than my underwear. We planned originally to post our cool weather clothes home at the end of that week, but then strike action began to loom for Canada Post. I looked up courier companies but none looked close enough to be able to squeeze in a side trip to drop off a package. So it was looking like we were taking cold weather clothes to the Mediterranean with us! In the end, we packed for both places and the hotel arranged a courier package for us to send home.

So now we are on our way to Venice. We land at 7:30 in the morning, giving us a full day to explore Venice; then we embark the next day. These flights were booked with Air Canada and its partners. After the San Diego fiasco, I will not fly on connections that are not partners! Note I didn't say never...

I will have to remember to get healthy snacks for the flight to Venice. In December, the flight had not been provisioned so it was dehydrated soup or cashews or Twizzlers. Now, I love Twizzlers, but not for dinner! This could be even worse: we're flying Air Canada Rouge. Sigh. What I won't do to get in to Venice early...

I had planned to purchase the unlimited internet plan on the Eurodam if it was available so I could do a live thread every day, but that plan hasn't reached our ship. Depending on the reliability of the Internet, I still hope to go on once in a while to do a semi-live thread. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

I pre-purchased the unlimited laundry for $84 at $7 per day. I also pre-booked some dinners in the Pinnacle Grill and Tamarind. We have explore4 included so that has a dine around night too. I didn't make much use of the beverage package at Christmas (it was also a promo added to my package, so no loss) but I will need more water on this cruise. Also, having discovered they have almond milk and rice milk in the Explorations Cafe, I plan to have more lattes.

We had a lovely time in St. John's even if I was in a conference. DD was able to sleep late, have lunch with me, wander the streets and then connect with me for some afternoon and evening sightseeing. So if you plan to take a cruise to St. John's, Newfoundland, a fairly fulsome report of what we did is under its ports of call.

I've got some books tucked away in my carry on for this flight: They Called Me Number One by Bev Sellars plus everything on my iPad should see me through.

So here's hoping there are no delays, food is palatable and the seats are not too horrible!

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Bon Voyage!!

Have safe flights.

Looking forward to your "Live" reports.

Have a wonderful time and safe travels. Looking forward to your reports. :)

I can't wait to hear more - you and DD are going to make some wonderful memories together.

Smooth Sailing ! :) :) :)

Thanks for the honorable mention! Glad I was a help.

I think St. John's is one of the nicest ports in Maritime Canada. I've been there several times, and got a kick out of it each time. Happy you were able to see some of the area.

The sail out between the cliffs is neat, trying to reach out and touch the sides. Too bad you didn't have that opportunity, but maybe some day.

Have a safe flight and a great time.

St. John's is a delight, for sure!

We received notice of a big itinerary change right before we left St. John's. Istanbul was dropped and we picked up Mykonos, Rhodes and Heraklion. This was before the attempted coup so we still had Kusadasi at last report. We will roll with these changes and send out thoughts of hope and comfort to the people of Turkey.

July 16: Venice: Here we are! The flight, food, seats, entertainment were all too hideous to mention so I'm skipping right along.

When booking our hotel, we had hoped to also book transfers to take the burden off the red eye trip and extra luggage. The HAL package for all transfers was a staggering amount: between $794 and $1365 per person. I just need a ride, for pete's sake! After more investigation, I was able to get some other options. For 242 €, we could get a transfer to the square and walk to the hotel. I told my TA that for that price I want someone to haul the bags, fan me and feed me peeled grapes. Nope, not included. Not even feed-yourself grapes. Interestingly, the HAL transfers were not significantly higher than any of the other transfers I priced online for the same service. [emoji33]

Then I was cruising around the Venezia port site on this webpage http://europeforvisitors.com/venice/articles/venice-cruise-terminal.htm and discovered another link to Viator that gave me more options than the app did! For $88 CDN going in and $106 going out (total! Not per person) this seemed too good to pass up with extra luggage. So I booked it and now we're set. Unfortunately, I overlooked goofygame's really handy link to Venice Link Shuttles in one thread which produced the best fares at $77 for two: http://venicelink.com/en/products/shuttle. It would have been about $11 cheaper, but I can live with that.

The hotels are pretty dear too - it is Venice, after all! They are better if you go to the Piazzale Roma which is really convenient to the port. You can access those hotels by land bus too, making life a bit easier (and cheaper). Getting into the San Marco area from there is also reported to be super easy and not that expensive. However, we finally decided on the Royal San Marco just off San Marco Square. DD fell in love with Venice on her spring break trip and really wanted to be near San Marco. There is so much more she wants to do without a crowd and pre-set itinerary. In fact, I foresee a big Italian trip in her future. Maybe she will even let me come along!

The ride into town was shared by one other couple. It is a long walk to the pier but DD was in charge of the complimentary luggage cart and did a great job steering it. Once we got to the boat, there was a bit of confusion between the dock number and the taxi number. But it sorted itself out. The alilaguna docks in the same place so everything is made pretty easy. The view is best taken from the stern with your head popped over the top. However, the ride is quite choppy, so hold on!

So the current plan is to take the alilaguna water bus between the hotel and port on each end of the cruise. Thanks to cruisemom42 and dogs4fun, all the options from price to schedules were available to me before we ever left home. With the extra luggage from Newfoundland, I may buckle under the pressure and take a taxi. It's just not that easy to toss heavy suitcases around after dragging them along rumbly, uneven stone streets!

After dropping our luggage at the hotel, we wandered off in quest of breakfast. Coming up empty for a place that serves that repast, we settled for a sidewalk cafe on a back street - no service charge, no cover charge - for a cappuccino and a latte. It's so much more delicious when sipping coffee in Venice while men hauling carts march by, calling attenzione! to the milling crowds. I never gave garbage removal a thought til I saw the men hauling the steel garbage carts along, stopping to collect from each store as they went. Or the carts full of crates of soda, milk and other delights. It was a moment of pleasure and fascination watching Venice unfold for the day!

We wandered and rested some more before scouting out another sidewalk cafe for a slice of 4 gusti pizza. I'm not a huge pizza fan but I had to make an exception here. It was thin crust and quite tasty. So was the Bellini! Besides, anything eaten at a sidewalk cafe in Venice is perfection!

Then it was time to rest up. We were dead on our feet by then and not smelling our freshest either! The room was ready when we returned. It is TINY but has a good bathroom and comfortable beds. Just what you need for a one night stop. We slept long and well.

After a too-big dinner in a delightful cafe we returned to our hotel to divest ourselves of everything but our room key, camera and a small bit of cash. Our maitre d told us (as you can expect) that it was going to be very crowded and there would be lots of pick pockets. He urged us to take as little as possible. So we did. It was already very crowded when we went there around 8:30. We walked almost the whole board walked taking pictures of landmarks shining under the sunset, party boats rocking to really loud music, the yacht with the helicopter, and snippets of quieter canals. There was a lot of security presence in the form of the usual security guards, lots of police, tons of rescue teams and, of course, the military. We really wanted to stay for the fireworks but we walked so much today, we just couldn't make it to 11:30.

Tomorrow is embarkation day!

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Wonderful report!! Enjoying your writing style immensely.

I think the change in ports is excellent!

Thank you! And I'm pleased with the ports too. I know some people would have liked to see Albania and more along that coast added but I'm fine either way! And just as we were about to hit the hay, the fireworks started. Turns out we can see them right from our room!

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Glad you made it safely to Venice. Love that city.

Wonderful report.

Thank you! And I'm pleased with the ports too. I know some people would have liked to see Albania and more along that coast added but I'm fine either way! And just as we were about to hit the hay, the fireworks started. Turns out we can see them right from our room!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Bonus seeing the fireworks from your room! Loved reading about your trip so far.

Have a great time on the Eurodam! We just left and sad to go. While on the ship we heard about the Istanbul cancelation. People were disappointed, but also relieved. The Internet is pretty non-existent. They did a major upgrade right before we left and it created a lot of problems. Hopefully, they will fix it soon! I'm still way behind on my posts and it's no longer a "LIVE" thread. Safe travels.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Enjoy the sailaway from La Serenissima!