Voyages to Antiquity 2015 Winter Schedule

My husband and I are booked on 2 cruises next year; the Singapore to Bali and the Jordan to Athens. On the first one in January we are going with Road Scholar. Want to see what the difference is between being part of RS and not. we are frequent Road Scholar travelers. Has anyone sailed on VTA with Road Scholar?

See my response below...

I would agree. I never figured out why you needed that extra bit of the nanny service. One is taken care of well by the ship and everything is included and you get lectures. I would hate to pay the extra cash for one -two lectures.

We felt like like we received a better experience.

I was on the 25th September Athens to Istanbul, Istanbul to Istanbul round the Black Sea.

I am just halfway though posting the story on my Blogo for anyone interested. Mostly photos with a few comments.

http://hasbeen.travellerspoint.com/384/

Press "next' at the bottom of the blog to continue

Steve

Great blog and pictures. Waiting to read more.

Great blog and pictures. Waiting to read more.

Istanbul is there now. I usually post a port every two days or so.

Istanbul is there now. I usually post a port every two days or so.

Well, you seem to be posting more frequent than that for the last few days.

I share most of your opinion about the ship. Anyone who wants to know more about V2A should read your blogs.

Let me add a few comments.

Regarding the bridge players, the organizers are very nice. Last year, we were on V2A from Singapore to Egypt, and the bridge players were on board for the second half of the cruise. We did not book the cruise through them, but they welcomed me and several others to join them. It was a great way to enjoy the sea days. On your trip, there were 50 bridge players. It would be a very tight fit in the Observation Lounge.

It is interesting to read your brief comments about the King George hotel in Athens. On our cruise on V2A this year, from Venice to Athens, we were supposed to stay in the King George. For reason unknown to us, almost everyone from V2A were put into the Grande Bretagne instead. From reading the reviews in TripAdvisor, it seemed that the King George would be more to our liking.

Congratulation on getting an upgrade.

I have been reading blogs of your past cruises too. Many of the places were either the places we had been to, or places we would like to visit next. We were thinking of trying Oceania out. But your comment, at the end of your 65 days cruise on Oceania: "I will never go on an Oceania cruise again", makes me wonder.

Looking forward to your upcoming installments.

Just spent a lovely 1/2 hour looking at your review and pictures, has been and I now I really miss the AO. I'm in the midst of booking for June 2015 and am looking forward to being back on the lovely little ship.

I agree with you that it's very hard to stay up late while onboard because of the busy shore itinerary.

Shar

I have now finished posting my impressions. For anyone not interested in the photos of the whole trip I have added a Summary

Thanks to those who expressed an opinion of the postings.

That will be the end of any posts until around June when I will be writing about my SE asia adventure. Mid Jan to Mid May.

To all those who will sail on the Odyssey - Bon Voyage.

Steve

Thanks for sharing your blog with your wonderful photos. I was on the Sept. Athens to Istanbul cruise and loved it. Will certainly book another one.

We are considering taking this ship in November 2015 for 32 days-it goes from Malaga to Cape Town.

We need some input from experienced folks about this ship. How is it in less than smooth seas? We are experienced cruisers but haven't been on this size ship. Does it have decent stabilizers?

Thanks for your input.

Avril

The captain will warn you in the evening how rough the seas will be. On the trip from India to Istanbul there were 2 days I did not eat meals. This past one I had a queasy stomach one time. This. Trip was Nice to Morocco to Rome. I think it also depends where you are. The lower the floor the better for sleeping as well as in the center of the ship. Had a tough time walking to table one time for dinner. I think a couple of people fell on this last trip. Just be careful. Not any worse than some big ships if you are on the top floors. We wore a patch on this trip but discarded in within 4 days and this was about a 20 plus day cruise. Pills are readily available from front desk. You have to remember that the average age on this ship is at least 60 plus. The part of the cruise where people fell on the last one they were much older than that age. Some came just to play bridge and never left the ship. I never really saw any extremely rough seas as you would expect on Drake Passage etc.