BaseballMomof4

View from our room at The Plaka

ive used them in Rome, Florence and Naples. Are there any other cfruise ports you could use them in? i wouldnt consider anyone else!

Had a great tour with them in Messina!

Okay, now I get it and can see the benefit. Were you able to get both the outbound and the return tickets in the morning, or did you have to wait on a line again on the island to exchange the voucher for the return ticket? Also, which line did you use?

Both tickets at the same time. No fuss, no muss. We got off the ship, my kids went and stood in "line" for the ferry, I went and grabbed the tickets and off we went.

Coming back we just sat at the cafe across the street and had a beer until it was time to catch the ferry back and didn't have to deal with any ticket offices.

Thanks for providing this detail. If this is the case, however, I'm left wondering what is the benefit of purchasing in advance? You still have to wait on line, so you can't rush over at the last minute or you'll miss the ferry (and lose the money you spent on the pre-purchased tickets).

It is a special line for internet purchases so not really a line. There was 1 woman ahead of me and I just handed him my voucher and he handed me my tickets. It was also quite useful having the prepaid ticket coming back as the crowds were crazy.

With that said, you could certainly purchase the tickets there, I just found this approach a little easier.

We chose the Plaka Hotel and cannot say enough wonderful things about it. It was lovely, very comfortable, well situated for walking to attractions and their breakfast was outstanding!

The room was clean and comfortable and I had a stunning view of the Acropolis from my window. The bathroom was modern and super clean, and the rooftop terrace was spectacular! We even held a mini meet & greet there!

My 21 year old and his girlfriend had their own room without the view but had a small balcony to sit out on which was a really nice bonus!

There is a little convenience store right outside the door as well which helped out. There were refrigerators in both rooms which was also very nice.

I highly recommend this hotel - it was a good value and really delivered. The only negative was the tiny elevator (which is common in Europe). The staff were extremely helpful and friendly.

Since we were pretty tired out when we got to the hotel, we brought our bags up to our rooms and got settled then we went up to the rooftop terrace for a quick drink. We were ready to get a quick dinner and head for bed so we could have a nice day of sightseeing the following day.

We found a restaurant right near the hotel, sorry I cannot remember the name - take a right out of the hotel, cross the street and it is 2 doors down on the right. The food was good, the prices were reasonable, and the service was quick.

After that we were done for and headed back to the hotel.

Hello everyone! Just off the Vista 10 day May 24 - June 3 and have TONS to share. I will likely have to take several days to complete this as there is so much to tell!

I sailed with my 21 year old son, his 19 year old girlfriend and my 18 year old son.

We flew TAP Portugal out of Miami. Our flight to Athens had 2 stops. We rented a car to drive to Miami as it was cheaper than parking for a week and boarded our flight without issue. The first flight was Miami to Lisbon and was made even more tedious by the fact that the TV's were not working, not to mention that the man in front of me was having an absolute hissy fit about it the entire flight. We had enough layover time in Lisbon for a quick breakfast and then on to our flight to Madrid. That one was simply awful, but thankfully short. Finally we boarded Madrid to Athens. Talk about a bad flight. It was on Aegean and the seats felt like plastic with no padding. That was a long 3 hours.

Over all, TAP does a good job and got us to our destination on time and with all of our luggage (although one bag was a bit less than "intact").

Next up, our pre-arranged ride from Welcome Rides. Absolutely fabulous!! Our driver was waiting for us - Demetrius - and he got us into his vehicle and settled quickly which was a godsend after so many hours of flying. Our trip to the hotel was much longer than expected due to a strike meaning many more people were driving instead of using public transit but Demetrius did his best to make it interesting by pointing out all of the attractions along the way. I highly recommend Welcome Rides in Athens and Demetrius in particular! The price was 1/3 if what my cousin paid for the same ride and he was right there waiting for us! Outstanding!

Next up, our hotel.

I wish I had given smoking areas some consideration before I selected a cabin on deck TWO for the TA. I am so bummed that I didn't think about it ahead of time. I prefer not to be indoors to smoke, but realistically, I don't see myself making the hike up to eleven every time I want to smoke for two weeks. :( I tried to change to a higher level cabin but the cost is just too much more.

 

Guess I will not make that mistake again, huh? lol

There is a very nice area on Deck 5 for smoking as well.

baseballmom - Do you know if it is the entire length of starboard Deck 11? I ask because we specifically booked a starboard deck 11 balcony cabin (on the Breeze) to avoid the port side smoke drifting. We are located only a few cabins from the outdoor area and my mom likes her balcony naps but also has a strong sense of smell and I hope that this doesn't interfere with her enjoyment of her vacation.

It is the Starboard side. There are tables and chairs under cover right next to the doors to the elevator/stairs, some loungers and then another uncovered area with tables and chairs. It really was quite nice.

How did it go to pre-purchase your ferry tickets? We will be on the Vista in a couple of weeks and are thinking about buying the return tickets online.

 

Thank you!

It could not have been easier! Just exit the ship, go through the terminal building and you will be able to see the ferry boat area (it is off to the left, or at least it was from where the Vista was situated that day.)

Just know that while you purchased and printed your tickets online, you still have to go to the ticket counter and hand in your receipt for the actual ticket.

A couple of thoughts - these ferries will be crowded and people will fight for seats with better views. Do yourself a favor and sit up front. You may not be able to see a lot of what is in front of you, but trust me - once the spray starts you will be glad for the protection from it and the ones in the back will start scampering up to the front for cover ;)

Capri is breathtaking but don't expect to do it all. We managed a 3 hour boat tour around the island and saw the green, white, coral and blue grottos and then we went up to Capri Town. Never made it up to Anacapri as time ran out. Gives me a reason to go back! ;)

Just under 6 days until I sail on the Vista, 3 days until I fly away!!!!!!!!!!!

We have a rooftop terrace crawl planned for Athens the night before we sail and a small meet planned for Deck 10 aft right after the safety briefing. It's just really sad that we had a group of 100 well organized and planned (spreadsheets and all!), all we needed was a space and then this happened and looks like it has killed it. Very disappointing.

Absofreakinglutely! Getting off that ship, going to Ephesus and then shopping in town. Can't wait!!!!!!

I agree that anyone sailing on Carnival needs to arrange the M&G. JH doesn't sound nice towards CC and sadly Carnival Corp is not welcoming CC with open arms. Who knows what the politics are on this one? I am glad you have one arranged.

That's the thing. Event planning won't let you and won't give you a space any more. So it would have to be very informal and in a public area.

Like I said, the idea was a good one, the implementation is not.

We have been planning together for a year to 18 months and now will have to try to figure out where to meet 100 people in a public space???

Sometimes leaving well enough alone is the better plan.

It s quite odd that no one is stepping up to this issue. Especially on a topic big enough to be made a stickie.

It is, and I have gotten the same lack of response on John Heald's facebook. I posted and he even responded something vague to which I responded that the last day of the cruise while people in are in port won't work and asked again about rescheduling to the sea day. Not only did I get no reponse, but the comments were deleted.

So, being somewhat persistent, I posted again today asking for a yes or no answer so that, if recheduling was not going to occur, we could go back to scheduling it ourselves.

I began planning our Meet & Greet prior to this new service for our May 24 Vista sailing and had tremendous response, we had over 100 wishing to attend. When we heard about this, we all signed up for the planned event.

I was told that at 2 weeks out I could find out the date and time through Event Planning. I emailed event planning and was told it was scheduled for June 2 at 4:00 pm.

THIS IS THE LAST DAY ON THE SHIP AT A TIME WHEN MOST WILL STILL BE IN PORT!!!!!!!!!!

Either (1) Carnival has no concept of the purpose of a Meet & Greet (as one on our thread stated "do they think it is a meet & goodbye"?) or;

(2) They want to discourage these events.

I have contacted John Heald on his facebook page and am hopeful for a revision of the timing of this event to our sea day, which was our original request. As it stands only a handful of our original 100+ will even be on the ship at the designated time and even they will be unlikely to attend.

While the concept it a good one, the implementation is awful.

We are hopeful someone will intervene on our behalf as this group has spent months planning and would very much like to meet face to face. We are not asking for goodies and drinks and such, we just want a PLACE at a reasonable TIME.

13 Days 2 Hours 14 Minutes and 36 Seconds! :D:D:D

17 Days 3 Hours 32 Minutes :D

But only 14 days until I get on that jet plane!!!!!!!!!

Never had a couch in an interior. Only in ocean view and balcony rooms.

THIS.

 

 

Great minds, Amy :cool: I just said something on our roll call to the same effect. If they indeed only add a port on the day we were supposed to call on Izmir than it is still a win/win for all as those who wanted a sea day can treat it as such and those who want off the boat can do so. If they do any other maneuvering of ports, I will NOT be so happy.

Totally agree. With a party of 4, I have hundreds spent on tickets - Vatican, hydrofoil, etc. That would be an absolute disaster for me.

Sounds like they are adding a port to replace Izmir! Don't know if it will be all cruises or ? From John Heald's FB page

 

 

John Heald Yes thats right, there will be and I will have news today or tomorrow at the latest as to what the port will be and the new itinerant. cheers and see you very soon

Can't wait to hear what they come up with - although if they shuffle the dates of the other ports it would be a disaster for folks who have already paid for private excursions/tickets, etc. Particularly on the first few sailings.

That would sure be nice. They could take a lesson from Disney. I didn't have any luck on RCI in 2011, but it may have improved since then.

 

On Disney, they scanned your card for all photos. You could either go to a kiosk and see them all online, or they had book cases with real looking books, that had characters and numbers. You would find the one assigned to you and all your pics would be printed in there. It was so much neater and organized, and never crowded with people trying to find their pictures among hundreds.

NCL was very similar. Facial recognition and you could look at your "portfolio" online at a kiosk by putting in your cabin number. They also had most of them already printed out so you could purchase.

We booked our May 24 sailing in January 2015 for $1349 PP. It dropped to $664 in February 2016. Unfortunately, I had already paid for the cruise in full, so it was returned in the form of an OBC.

 

On a slightly off topic but still on topic question... I was told Early Saver only applies if there are still available cabins on the sailing, does anyone know if is this true? I had an agent tell me it applied whether there were cabins available or not - until the day before the sail date, but last night when I called, they said Early Saver only applies as long as cabins are available.

If you got the OBC I don't understand the issue. You received compensation for the price drop. Confused.

And yes, it only applies if there are cabins available in the category of the lower price.

On the topic of price reductions - is everyone else finding it that Carnival won't do it over the phone anymore? (as in apply the rate reductions)

 

I had 2 people tell me recently that I needed to complete the price protection form. With the first one, the rate had dropped quite a bit and by the time Carnival had got to it that new rate was gone :(

That's when a PVP comes in handy. If you have one, they will do it over the phone.

Jimbo do you see an area outside of the wall on the other side to walk? Definitely the area in between the cabana and the wall won't be for the public I figure. Too close. It's actually what I thought might be the case.

 

Also the hot tubs look pretty big to me.

 

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My understanding was that would be public walkway. That's one of the reasons I didn't want to book one of those rooms. That the doors leading to them will be locked until 5 pm to provide private pool access but unlocked after 5 pm.

That would be awesome! We had that on the NCL Epic and it made it so easy to find and choose photos!

I am hoping they will offer some kind of package deal as well.