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cruisemom42

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  1. I have been to Egypt on three different cruises (three different cruise lines as well). I know I docked in Alexandria when I was on HAL Westerdam and I'm pretty sure I didn't go into Cairo. However I might have done a private tour rather than a ship tour. If you can list what the tour covers, I can give you my impressions of the included sites. El-Alamein is, I think, of less interest to US passengers than perhaps to UK and other countries that were more heavily involved. I don't know that a lot of cruise lines offer tours. I believe when I was there on the (small) Aegean Odyssey, which had a majority of passengers from the UK, a tour may have been scheduled. I wouldn't count on it with HAL. You could look into private tours.
  2. On my tour the drop-off point for the Acropolis was very near the ticket office. As others have said, there is a bit of a climb to the top. I wouldn't call it a hike but there are a lot of steps of unequal height, made of marble, and can be slippery. For the Plaka area, we were dropped off on a main road at Hadrian's Gate. From there it is a walk of a few blocks to the actual Plaka. Walking is fairly flat, on sidewalks, and much of the Plaka area is pedestrian-only.
  3. As far as I understand it, a Day cream may have a different formulation from a Night cream. Night creams tend to be heavier, absorb less quickly and don't always play well if you are planning to use them with make-up. Day creams tend to be thinner and absorb faster so they cause less problems with make-up. They may also contain sunscreen, which Night creams do not. Remember, if using a Night cream on your face during daytime hours that you also need separate sunscreen.
  4. Maybe if these prove unpopular they'll lower the prices.
  5. Are you asking about a "transportation only" bus tour offered by your ship? Or are you asking about a guided shore excursion with several stops including the Acropolis and Plaka? Different answers for each.
  6. Might be a better question for the Cruise Air forum here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/77-cruise-air/
  7. Not sure I understand your point? https://www.businessinsider.com/nelk-boys-youtube-kicked-off-cruise-pranks-disturbing-guests-2022-1 https://japantoday.com/category/features/opinions/should-youtuber-johnny-somali-get-prison-time-in-japan
  8. As someone who only recently started consuming material from YouTube vloggers, I've come to realize that there are two different types. (Or probably more, but only two I can think of that relate to cruising.) One type are made by disruptive entities who are out to shock people, break rules, etc. and generally annoy people on film. I call these the sensationalists. Japan, for example, has recently arrested, fined, banned and/or deported several non-Japanese tourist "vloggers" who have done things like riding long-distance trains without paying, shouting provocative statements, behaving badly in restaurants, etc. I believe I remember hearing about at least one similar incident on a cruise ship a few years ago when several "youtubers" booked a cruise line specifically to see if they could get themselves thrown off. (Spoiler alert: they did.) The other type are the helpful ones such as those mentioned above. The former should definitely be banned. I have no real issues with the latter, but TBH I haven't actually encountered any of them on my cruises so far.
  9. Well, if I could work up my nerve to put myself down for the 42-day Med cruise, as a solo I would save about $8400 over booking an Inside category room right now. 😵‍💫
  10. Your #1 choice should be seeing Ravenna itself. It has OUTSTANDING mosaics. I've never seen mosaics of this period that are so colorful and well done. Once you get to "downtown" Ravenna, you can walk to all of the churches and other sites to visit them. There is a pass that includes entry to the top 5 places. I'd definitely cross Faenza off the list.
  11. I'm adventurous and flexible but can't imagine preparing for a 42-day journey with 2 days notice. I guess one would need to basically get everything done on the "off chance" they'll get a room...
  12. Well (to paraphrase you), yes and no. I've traveled all my life, and I've come to a couple of major realizations: First is the realization that not all things interest me equally about places. Some things interest me very little at all. And in some places I CAN do more than scratch the surface of the things I am interested in. It doesn't matter if I spend a day or a week in a place like Mykonos, I am unlikely to learn much more about the place with an additional six days because I am just not interested in beaches, natural beauty, etc. Second is the realization that a cruise to a place is not necessarily a "one and done" either. I've taken more than a dozen Mediterranean cruises (so far!) and have visited Ephesus four times. I don't think I learned any less about it during those four visits than I did when I stayed in a lovely but somewhat isolated and very Western hotel near the beaches in Ephesus -- I spent each day being driven out of town anyway to visit nearby (and not as nearby) archaeological sites. I could have done -- and actually have done -- the same thing from a cruise ship day in port. Same with Corfu, for example. While I'd welcome a fourth visit there, if I don't return I feel I've seen and experienced everything I'm interested in there in three port days. I never mistake a port stop at a major city with a visit to an entire country. On the other hand, a small island is a small island and sometimes there is not much more to interest me than I can do in a day. While I fully agree with you, I feel something gets lost in translation. Yes, you cannot fully see a country from a cruise ship [in most cases, as explained above], BUT a cruise can be a valuable additional way to learn about/understand a country. I just posted a lengthy post on the Oceania forum about whether to see Great Britain by land or by sea. There's little doubt that, if I had to choose one, I'd recommend a land tour. But having said that, Great Britain is an island nation with a long maritime history and I also feel that much can be ADDED by also taking a cruise that circumnavigates the country. It gives you a sense of the naval and maritime power, the role that the sea has played in their history, etc. that you don't feel as strongly when just approaching by land. It also provides a chance to visit some remote places not included on most land tours or even independent exploration such as the Hebrides or the Channel Islands. (I feel the same about Japan and Greece, and I'm sure there are other examples as well...)
  13. Or there are bus transfer companies that depart from the squire where the shuttles drop off, taking you either to Florence and back or to Florence and Pisa, then back. These are cheaper than the ship excursions and easier than getting to the train station, but you also probably lose an hour or more off your possible total visiting time. (The buses are geared to return for the departure time of whatever ship in port leaves earliest...which may short-change you time-wise, if you have a long port day.) Of course, on the the other hand I've had ship excursions that wasted a good 45 minutes of time at a 'bathroom and shopping stop' before even arriving in Florence. These situations unfortunately illustrate why visiting Florence on a single day from a cruise ship is less than ideal.
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