Vineyard View

We have a port day next year there with 10k passengers. We are doing the boat excursion, even though we generally do not take ship excursions, and have never been to Santorini. Too many people and the stories I have read just sound like a miserable day. It’s a shame that they continue to allow this to be the norm there, but I guess money talks louder than keeping a beautiful island enjoyable. We also will spend the rest of our day and evening on the ship.

Interesting. Why would that be I wonder? We booked a cabin with extended balcony on Marina for the first post dry dock itinerary, with the understanding that the ship will have been upgraded.

Good point. We only experienced the water taxi stop and it worked quite a bit better than some of the comments I heard from other passengers. I can’t speak to the other options, but I was sure glad to have staff there to assist. It is a BIG mostly empty port.

Would a car service be able to bring them to the restaurant without them having to walk down that steep hill?

We love spending port times exploring. We just do not plan on returning to ship on a port day for lunch….unless it’s a really unexpectedly bad port experience (Cartona IT for example), where we find ourselves back on ship early….and then, we do not expect to be entertained. We just do not travel for that expectation. We travel to experience as much together in port as possible….and if that doesn’t work out….we do not expect the ship to entertain us. I think if we needed that, we would likely look to larger, as in a lot larger, ships. We have only traveled on Quest with Seabourn, and found ourselves with chosen port days twice. We enjoyed them thoroughly. We also did similar on Viking ships, which are larger. When we found a port was more suited to our making it a ship day, and we did not expect organized activities there as well. We are booked on Encore next year….and honestly not expecting to change our expectations. That said, we mostly always DIY or book private tours. So maybe we roll a little differently. I hope you enjoy

I hope you have a lovely time! Enjoy every moment. Let us know how it all rolls out for you, and hopefully in such a positive memory!

I honestly do not. I just remember it felt at the far side of where we had to pass through check in for our cruise. Coming from Venice proper, it should have been the Eastern side of the port where he left us, and the old terminal we checked in through was more on the western side, as it was a good walk to get there. But different cruise lines may be different.

We took a private water taxi from our hotel to the terminal this May after staying in Venice four nights prior. We were sailing Seabourn and there were agents there to grab our checked bags when we arrived at the Marittima terminal. It was a lengthy walk to the check in terminal so be prepared for that possibility. We also disembarked there, took the cruise shuttle bus from Fusina to the terminal, then their bus to the airport, taxi to the hotel, then transportation back to the island for the day prior to our departure the next day. I say all of this as it is impossible to board or disembark independently in Fusina, and unless there were pax on early flights on disembarking day, then we had to go back to the old, empty terminal. It was strange being in that huge space again without anyone there for the most part.

We will be doing the same for the same reasons. We are planning on taking the ferry. I haven’t looked up exact schedules but it is a nice way to arrive in Positano vs all the stairs. Just an idea. Also agree that Rome in Limo has excellent reviews and will look to them for disembarking.

So true

Oy 😏 they are out there. Took me time and effort and it paid off. Good luck.

Life happens. We learned this trick several years back here on CC and I only book this way now. I hope it can work for you. There are online agencies you can ‘live chat’ with to make sure your policy is able to offer this method, and then you also can screen shot your chat with the agent for your records.

I just do not agree with you. Our TA does not book anything but the cruise. I do all the research, use miles for flights, book insurance independently, book hotels independent, cruise one time a year. She’s fantastic. she provides benefits financially and otherwise to book with her over what any cruise line offers directly. We had a TA many years back from a large consortium who did not offer us anything whatsoever. It was eye opening having conversations with fellow travelers on a cruise about how their TA’s offers so much. So I began my research. It took me looking and interviewing, so to speak. It was well worth my while to do that. Maybe it would benefit you as well to give it a try, until you find one yourself. I am sorry that you have not had those experiences, but it does NOT mean that many of us have not, as has been shared repeatedly here. Maybe, just maybe, you haven’t found the right TA, because they clearly are out there from reading these comments. Maybe there is more than what has been your REAL WORLD. That said, if you don’t want to believe it is possible, that is clearly your choice, but please stop the insisting that all of us who have this are not speaking the truth.

The information just seems to be rarely available, but mostly ‘not found’ or some such response. Hoping this week to figure out flights so that we can button it up easily when engaging with our TA. I want to know what our preferences are and expected pricing beforehand. Makes it impossible with this situation. Would also like to book TK in advance. I guess there is at least the know.edge now that it isn’t just us having these issues. Thank your for all the responses.

Thank you. Our last booking we had the opportunity before now in advance. I will ask TA to see if she can assist

We used a private water taxi from our hotel to the Marittima port. It was just easiest to do that. Once we arrived , there was a Seabourn group waiting to take our checked bags, along with a representative who walked us to the correct building. It was a lengthy walk as an FYI. If you have mobility issues, I would recommend checking with Regent on how that might work. It’s a strange environment being in an empty port complex that was once so busy. Word or caution though, our experience as well as others that we spoke with - land operations truly didn’t have a clear idea of what the situation and process was at this port so not sure they can be overly helpful. It may have improved since as that was fairly early in the process. I hope this is helpful and that you have a great time. We sure did!

That is not working for me either, but thank you for the suggestion.

So how far in advance do the TK reservations open up typically?

Well mine was working again yesterday after a few days of inop. I wanted to check flight options. Today I just tried to log in again to double check on something and ‘page not found’ is once again the response. I cannot access anything within my booking. I have not yet taken the time to call

Same same.

That is probably just too logical! 😆

We always purchase for pre-existing and that is a 14 day window from deposit. We also only insure the deposit initially - maybe check to see if any of those policies are available in Canada

Clearing out on Safari didn’t help. Grandkids aren’t around, darn it! So will call SB tomorrow but thanks for the suggestions!

Thank you for that clarification. I appreciate understanding. We have a great TA….she jumps through hoops for us. Generally we receive a designated discount, plus rebate back. Sometimes OBC as well. This time it did not include OBC. I suppose I could waive the rebate for gratuities paid….but I haven’t broached that with her. Maybe this designation is in addition to the above with these agencies. IdK.

For the past couple of days, I have been unable to access our booking details. I’ve tried every segment category….excursions, travel, dining….and I keep getting “page not found”. Is anyone else experiencing this issue? Maybe it is an IT issue….