Princess Cruise to Greek Isles

[loanin]

My mother and I are going on a Princess cruise in Nov, leaving from Venice then to Dubrovnik, Croatia, Corfu, Greece, Olympia, Athens, Mykonos, Ephesus Turkey, Rhodes, Greece, Santorini, Capri/Naples ,Italy and finally Rome. We would love to hear other's experience in these ports and excursions. Most interested in low cost and DIY excursions. Thanks in advance!!

[CruiserBruce]

Read here- there are tons of comments about those ports. Also on the Other Med Ports board ( for Kusadasi and Dubrovnik- two big threads over there) and the Italy board for Venice, Naples and Rome.

[sammiedawg]

We did this exact itinerary in May, 2 or 3 years ago. It is a great trip. Read the port information on this board in detail, there are many choice. Buy Rick Steves type of guidebook. Most of these ports are DIY, we do not like ship excursions. Private guides are also a good option, lots of suggestions on this board.

 

We had private guides for Ephesus, Athens, Corfu and Santorini.. The private guide is not needed in Santorini, easy to do yourself. Take the donkey or funicular to the top of Fira, then find a bus or cab to Oia.

Dubrovnik- we got off the ship and got a cab to the city gates, then walked the walls.

Olympia- we hired a cab to drive us from Katakalon, wait 2 hours then take us back.

Mykonos- we took the Princess shuttle into the town, short distance but unsafe walking, then we explored on our own.

Rhodes- we walked into the town a short distance, then into the city, just walked and went to a palace.

Naples- we took hydrofoil to Capri for the day, used Rick Steves guide book to see Anacapri, then Capri. The hydrofoil dock is a short walk from the cruise ships.

We used Ekol tours for Ephesus.

We had a private guide in Athens, I honestly don't remember the name of the guide company. The private guide got us quickly to the various sites, worth the money, Athens is huge.

[Eileen G]

We did this cruise in 2008 on the Grand Princess. It was a fantastic itinerary. Here is the link to my review.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=790116&highlight=delos

[loanin]

Thank you for your feedback. We are really looking forward to this.

[cruisemom42]

I was planning to take a Princess cruise with similar ports (mine went to Split rather than Dubrovnik but otherwise the same lineup). I had planned to do every port on our own except for Kusadasi, where it makes sense to do a private tour.

 

I didn't end up taking the cruise (work interfered), but I had detailed notes on almost all the ports. If you would like some info on a particular port, let me know and I'll post here. Or you can email me at cmkahn*at*bellsouth*dot*net and I'd be happy to forward the whole set to you.

[agabbymama]

Be sure you have a Plan "A", then a Plan "B" for when Plan "A" falls apart. And be prepared to "roll with the flow". We found Princess to be lacking in the communication department. We either got no information, or lots of the information given was wrong.

 

We had planned to do DIY in Monte Carlo and Naples, but both fell apart. We didn't see much in Monte Carlo, only the lower lever where the ship was docked and about half way up the stairs to the top, as we just couldn't climb anymore. Princess never mentioned that there was an elevator, we found that out at the Monte Carlo Visitor Kiosk when returning to the ship.

 

Naples we were docked at the far end of the pier from the hydrofoil dock. So couldn't make the walk. The Captain announced the night before there would be a shuttle at 8:00 am. We went down only to be told rather rudely that the shuttle wouldn't start until 9:00, but that was the time scheduled for the first hydrofoil. So we ended up taking a taxi to Pompeii and then on to Sorrento. Cost us 100 EUR pp, but it was absolutely worth it, it was the best day of our 21 day trip. Our own personal escort/driver.

 

SO we booked ship tours in Livorno, Santorini, & Kusadasi for fear things would awry at every port. The tours were really nice. If you booked Princess tours, they did take good care of you. It seemed to only fall apart if you wanted DIY (really no information given, you are truly on your own).

 

Then when we departed in Venice, I had filled out the cards that we were staying in Venice, so didn't need transportation etc. The Purser's desk called to ask what company we had pre-booked with. I told them we were just going to use a taxi. She replied "there would be no taxis if I hadn't pre-booked I would have to walk or take a Princess transfer at $24 pp for a 5 minute ride. And she was right, I looked for the taxi queue when we got on the bus, and there was not a single taxi at the pier. When we got our luggage tags, the letter stated "silver" tags, but whe I looked at the tags, they were "gold". Walked down to the Purser's desk to question, and she said "oh dear, gold goes to the airport, you do need silver". She gave me silver tags, but never apologized for the mix up. I could see us getting off the ship and finding no luggage, not knowing our bags had been taken to the airport.

 

So be careful and have a great trip!

[Ferndale Girl]

agabbymama: Which tour did you take in Livorno?

[cruisemom42]

Be sure you have a Plan "A", then a Plan "B" for when Plan "A" falls apart. And be prepared to "roll with the flow". We found Princess to be lacking in the communication department. We either got no information, or lots of the information given was wrong.

 

We had planned to do DIY in Monte Carlo and Naples, but both fell apart. We didn't see much in Monte Carlo, only the lower lever where the ship was docked and about half way up the stairs to the top, as we just couldn't climb anymore. Princess never mentioned that there was an elevator, we found that out at the Monte Carlo Visitor Kiosk when returning to the ship.

 

Naples we were docked at the far end of the pier from the hydrofoil dock. So couldn't make the walk. The Captain announced the night before there would be a shuttle at 8:00 am. We went down only to be told rather rudely that the shuttle wouldn't start until 9:00, but that was the time scheduled for the first hydrofoil. So we ended up taking a taxi to Pompeii and then on to Sorrento. Cost us 100 EUR pp, but it was absolutely worth it, it was the best day of our 21 day trip. Our own personal escort/driver.

 

SO we booked ship tours in Livorno, Santorini, & Kusadasi for fear things would awry at every port. The tours were really nice. If you booked Princess tours, they did take good care of you. It seemed to only fall apart if you wanted DIY (really no information given, you are truly on your own).

 

Then when we departed in Venice, I had filled out the cards that we were staying in Venice, so didn't need transportation etc. The Purser's desk called to ask what company we had pre-booked with. I told them we were just going to use a taxi. She replied "there would be no taxis if I hadn't pre-booked I would have to walk or take a Princess transfer at $24 pp for a 5 minute ride. And she was right, I looked for the taxi queue when we got on the bus, and there was not a single taxi at the pier. When we got our luggage tags, the letter stated "silver" tags, but whe I looked at the tags, they were "gold". Walked down to the Purser's desk to question, and she said "oh dear, gold goes to the airport, you do need silver". She gave me silver tags, but never apologized for the mix up. I could see us getting off the ship and finding no luggage, not knowing our bags had been taken to the airport.

 

So be careful and have a great trip!

 

I have not found any significant difference in how any major line treats DIYers. I have just completed a HAL Eastern Med cruise where I did 6 ports on my own and took 2 ship tours. It was no different than my previous Princess cruise, and I actually thought disembarking in the morning and embarking at night were much less organized on HAL for DIYers.

 

Ships are not motivated to provide information for DIY passengers; it's in their interest to convince you to take their tours. I am a thorough researcher; I do recommend that anyone going the DIY route really do their homework. You are on the money there. Don't just have an "idea" of what you'll do -- plan out every detail and walk through it in your mind. It's better to ask questions HERE before you go, and to verify answers in several places, than to depend on ship's staff for information. My goodness, the HAL front desk couldn't even tell me what gate we were docked near in Athens. (There were only two choices: A or B!) I certainly wouldn't depend on them for accurate info.

 

Also, you fail to mention that you have mobility issues and apparently your friend had even more. I don't think you can blame the ship for not giving you information based on your situation. A relatively able-bodied person should be easily able to make the walk from the pier to the hydrofoil in Naples, for example, or the 25-minute walk to the metro station in Athens. When you asked questions here in advance of your travel, I can say truthfully that you didn't specify how mobility limited you and your friend were.

 

For what it's worth, on my recent cruise my DIY days were all fantastic. Of the two ships' tours I took, one was adequate and the other was an unmitigated disaster due to having a guide that gave no information about the sites we visited; instead spending the hour-plus bus ride sharing ethnic jokes and promoting local shopping/products. :rolleyes: If I hadn't done my research myself in advance, I would've come away with absolutely no understanding of the places we visited that day.

 

Another anecdote: My sister and BIL, on their first Med cruise, using their own research and notes from me, were able to DIY in every port they visited. They even knew about places to visit in Istanbul that the PORT LECTURER didn't know. He asked to copy their notes about one site.....:D

[agabbymama]

You're right Cynthia, my friend and I do have mobility issues, of which we made Princess well aware of. They even took us on the handicapped elevator a number of times.

 

I've only done HAL in Alaska, so can't really compare the two cruises.

 

I'm only reporting the experience we had on Princess. And I did spend many hours on this board, and with the different ports own websites. I even had brochures & maps of the different ports. There were supposed to be taxi queues in Monte Carlo and Venice, but upon our Grand Princess arrival, there were no taxis at either port. Interesting to note that we were the only ship in port at those ports. When we arrived in Corfu with NCL Jade, there were 100's of taxis as well as NCL providing a shuttle to the end of the pier. We were in Kusadasi with NCL Jade too, but no shuttle there, so we did do the walk.

 

MY MAIN POINT IS TO HAVE A BACK-UP PLAN, which I didn't have. I've been to Europe 7 times, so knew exactly what I wanted to do, and when I wanted to do it, down to the hour. But it was pretty difficult to stick to a schedule when the Captain of the ship said there would be a shuttle at 8:00, we arrived at the shuttle at 8:10 only to be told to go away it wasn't starting until 9:00, it's a little difficult to stick to the schedule of a hydrofoil leaving Naples at 9:00, when none of the taxis wanted to lose their spot in the queue for such a short trip to the other end of the pier (possibly 1 1/2 miles) So we rolled with the punches and paid the taxi driver 100 EUR each for an 8 hour day to Pompeii and Sorrento with a short mini-tour of Naples thrown in before arriving back at the ship at about 4:30, and were thoroughly thrilled with the personalized attention.

[agabbymama]

agabbymama: Which tour did you take in Livorno?

 

Sorry Ferndale Girl, I missed your question. We did a Tuscan Winery tour to Oliveto Castel/Winery with a stop in San Gimignano (beautiful old walled city). It was an excellent tour for $99 pp. We had a light snack at the winery with three different wines. But we had eaten lunch in San Gimignano.