Brick1

Hi all, I am on a two week cruise with Marella in July. Sailing out of Corfu. The first week going to Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, Trieste and Kotor before returning to Corfu and the second week going to Crete, Santorini, Kusadasi, Athens and Kefalonia before returning to Corfu. I am wanting to disembark the ship a day early in Kefalonia and then stay there for a few days before flying back to the UK. Is this likely to be an issue? I would obviously inform Marella before travelling and guest services as soon as I got on the ship.

Hi all, Me and my wife have never done a Princess cruise before but are looking at booking a 14 day Mediterranean Adventure cruise from Southampton going in August 2025. The reason for going in school holidays is that we would be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary during this time. I am just a little concerned as to what the age ranges are likely to be at this time of year (we will be in our late 40's), how many children are likely to be on board and how busy it is likely to be. There are 7 sea days during the 14 day cruise so obviously a lot of time would be spent on board. Any advice/info from people who have done a cruise with Princess at this time of year would be much appreciated.

Hi, sorry for not reporting back sooner. We had an absolutely fantastic time and everything went pretty much perfectly. Our cabin was great, cabin stewards lovely, we found the food really nice, drinks were great and we upgraded to premium but you could certainly get away with normal AI. A couple of drinks they intermittently ran out of but it was no big issue. Entertainment was really good and they had a couple of very good guest acts on (we were on for 2 weeks). The best thing about the ship though were the people. The staff were absolutely all lovely and couldn't do enough for you. Then the people we met, some briefly, some who we spent lots of time with and have become friends with, were all genuinely nice people. As you are doing Sail The Three Seas and this was our second week I'll mention the ports and what we did in each. Dubrovnik was our cross over day from the first week to the second so we got a full day here and went into Dubrovnik and walked the walls then went around the marina etc. It was stunning. Messina we went on a TUI trip to Taormina which took around 50 minutes to get to and we had around 3 hours there. First hour was a guided tour and included entrance to the amphitheatre and the last couple of hours we ventured round on our own and had some lunch etc. The place was beautiful with some lovely architecture and great views across to Mount Etna. It is well worth visiting. When we got back to the ship we went into Messina and had a look around the town. It was a Sunday with not much open but the big bell tower clock is well with going to see. Valletta we just made our own way into Valletta on the way taking the lift that is adjacent to the port up to the town. We had a good walk around the town and paid to watch the cannons being fired at 12pm. Valletta was lovely, again with some really nice buildings/architecture and you can easily spend 4-5 hours wandering around. On the way back o the ship we walked back down rather than take the lift and went in the Hard Rock Cafe which is adjacent to where the ship docks along with a couple of other bars/restaurants and small shops. Taranto was the one place where we never got off the ship. It was our 11th day and we needed a bit of a rest and as we'd read there was not much to do there made the decision to stay on. Not one that sat easy with me as I felt guilty not getting off. We spoke to some people who did though and it was mixed reviews. Some said it was not a very nice place with not much to see, others said it was fine and a couple of people had found a beach which they said was nice. Corfu town we made our own way into the town. We had been to Corfu 10 times before on beach/resort holidays so had seen many of the lovely places to visit on the island but had never actually been around the town. The weather wasn't great on this day and it rained and was very grey which probably didn't help but Corfu town is a little run down in places in terms of not being very clean with a lot of weeds growing etc but there are some nice buildings. We also made our way to Faliraki beach which is in the town and offered some nice views and would have been a nice place to sit and have a drink and something to eat in one of the bars/restaurants there had it been a nicer day. We did eat in a real local places called Ninos Tavern and the food was lovely. Bar was the real surprise of the whole 14 day cruise. One the places that we expected the least from but it was great. We got the TUI free shuttle from the industrial section of the port the cruise docks at into Bar. From there we immediately got a taxi up to Stari Bar. Make sure you haggle as we paid €15 going but only €10 on the way back down as we had spoken to other people by then. Stari Bar was stunning. We paid €3 each to go into the ruins which I can't advise enough you have to do this. The remains of the buildings in here are unreal to look at and the views from right up top blew us away. We spent around 2 hours in the ruins and then wandered around the cobbled street just outside which is lined with bars and restaurants and found a lovely bar right at the top and sat and had a couple of drinks and chatted to some people from the ship. It was lovely. We then got a taxi back down to bar and went along the promenade which was lovely, had a dip in the sea from the pebbled beach and then had some lunch at one of the many restaurants along the promenade. The whole place was beautiful and it was one of our favourite days/places of the whole cruise. We'd also at the start of our two weeks been to Kotor in Montenegro which absolutely blew us away and that along with visiting Bar has resulted in us booking an 11 day land based holiday to Montenegro next year as we fell in love with the place. It is a stunning country to visit. Anyway sorry for the essay reply 🙂 Hope you have a great time, I am 100% sure you will.

Hi, yes I go on Thursday for 2 weeks. I'll let you know how we get on. I know you have mentioned Taranto and there we plan on doing a free guided tour of the castle - http://www.castelloaragonesetaranto.com/

Looks a great itinerary and like you say a nice contrast to Adriatic Affair. We are booked to do Aegean Shores next July on Explorer 1 going from Corfu to Crete, Santorini, Kusadasi (Turkey), Piraeus (mainland Greece) and Kefalonia. Then a weeks stay in Corfu. We love the Greek islands. It was meant to be our first ever cruise but we decided we couldn't wait that long so booked the one for August.

Are you doing Greek Mystique first week?

That is a great point. On our two week in August we are doing: Dubrovnik (Croatia) Kotor (Montenegro), Ravenna (Italy), Trieste (Italy), Koper (Slovenia), Split (Croatia), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Valletta (Malta), Messina (Sicily), Taranto (Italy), Corfu and Bar (Montenegro). I couldn't get as good an itinerary as that with P&O around that part of the world (Adriatic, Ionian, Med). 21:00

I think it is very much going to depend on what you drink as to if it is decent value. We have paid £6000 for a two week cruise in late August on Ex2 in a balcony cabin (we have chose a specific cabin) and a premium all inc drinks package. We could have done a cruise with P&O for around £5000 in a balcony cabin but with no drinks included. I'd estimate I'll have at least two premium (Lavazza) coffees (probably iced), and 8-12 alcoholic drinks over the day/night. Obviously On Marella premium all inc you are getting premium spirits/wines and also canned soft drinks including red bull (which I drink), J2O, and fever tree tonics. To buy what I drink on P&O I'd estimate would cost me easily £70 a day. That is before I take into account that my wife drinks prosecco, will also have the premium coffees etc so will also easily do £70 a day. Therefore £140 a day over 14 days would be pretty much 2k. We could have course take a P&O drinks package at £40 each but that would not cover everything we drink but even that would be £1100 over 14 nights. Overall for us when weighing it up then Marella was a better fit in terms of value. I could though see that if you don't drink a lot then P&O would work out cheaper.

@euro cruiser thank you so much for taking the time to reply. We arrive into port at 7:00am and leave at 5pm so that return would unfortunately not be suitable. It is also a Sunday as well which I assume may make a difference.

Hi all, has anyone ever got a taxi or non cruise excursion/transfer from Messina to Taormina? The cruise we are on the excursion is either 5.5 hours if do the guided tour or 5 hours if do it on your own so with the journey time being around 50 mins each way neither leaves much more than 3 hours actually in Taormina. We'd like time to have a good look around, go to the Greek amphitheatre and also walk down to the beach/Isola Bella and not sure if the cruise excursion would allow enough time. Any info much appreciated. Mark

You can get coffee (included on premium) from the coffee port from when it opens at 7am. It is cans of pop that you have to wait until after 10am for. I think with regard if the upgrade is worth it comes simply down to what you drink. I love iced coffee so three of them a day from Coffee Port would be over £6, I drink vodka red bull and red bull is £3.45 a can and I'd have a least two cans a day so for me even without the premium alcohol I am looking at £13 if I paid as I went so the £10 a day to upgrade to premium is well worth it. Likewise the wine my wife drinks is £4.70 a glass so just a couple of glasses equates to the £10 a day to upgrade.

Thank you. A lot of what we had read on the FB pages etc was that it would be really quite being a Sunday but now you have said this then we'll plan differently and may well get ourselves into Ravenna.

Thanks @Tony1878 there is one port (Ravenna) that we are going to on a Sunday and everything is apparently closed and the excursions we don't really fancy so we may well stay on the ship that day and just chill out/use the facilities.

Thanks @JATeesside. I will definitely keep in mind what you have said about moving the sun loungers. You are right about people being selfish with sunbeds and putting a towel on and going off for half the day. We have experienced loads of that on land holidays but were hoping it may have been different on a cruise but it was probably just wishful thinking 🙂 We have been told a few times we have picked two great cruises in terms of locations. I have done a fair bit of research and it has pretty much taken up all of my spare time since we booked it and we don't go for 4 months! I will definitely tap into your knowledge though as you have visited the same places. Have a great time on your cruise in a couple of weeks. I look forward to reading about how you got on so make sure you post. Mark

Thanks @dronnygirl that is reassuring about us likely being able to find a lounger on the higher decks. We'd prefer it be quieter anyway. Also looking forward to getting on the cabin balcony when there is a bit of sun on it. We know tips are supposedly included but still plan on tipping. Will definitely post how we got on although it is still 4 months away so sure I will be posting a few more questions prior to then 🙂 Mark