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Last Summer Trip review Rome to Venice

bw333

By bw333,
in Oceania Cruises

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bw333

bw333

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Oceania 12 day cruise Rome to Venice.

If you are new to Oceania, two words sum up the experience- service, quality of food! Oceania cruise staff will know you on a first name basis, and resolve any complaints immediately. Everyone from Leo the Captain to Dottie the Cruise director, and her entertaining husband Tom the Comedian will treat you like Royalty.

Your fellow passengers will become your new best friends after enjoying all the fun times.

This cruise had many ports; I will leave my recommendations below.

Venice-docked at San Basilio-Purchase Vaporetta pass at ACTV at airport, this will provide your boat shuttle around Venice. We did the expensive water Taxi to port, I enjoyed the views with my camera going down the Grand Canal, and smaller branches. To the right of Basilio port, next to Zattere stop there is a Billa Supermarket. Most expensive wine I could find was 8 Euros. Stock up, Oceania lets you consume all you want in your cabins.

To the left of Billa store there is a working ATM! Not all ATM’s will work in Italy. Reserve Basilica online, 1 euro.

Dubrovnik-Walk around and enjoy the scenery, go to Bruza café located to right and above cliffs overlooking the water.

Kotor-Enjoy the views sailing into port! To the right of entrance to old city there is a local market. Today’s mission is to climb to the top of the Fort. Great views, even if you can’t make it to top.

Corfu-We rented a car from Sunrise Car Rental, 70 Euros plus 25 for gas. Drove to Paleokastritsa, and took a boat ride to Grottos. Easy 30 minute drive, views and water were breathtaking. Drove back to Corfu, South of Corfu we drove to the Palace, views were nice, tasted local Koum Kouat Liqueur, located across the street from Palace. Allow extra time to refill gas, there is a gas strike.

Taormina (Sicily)-We shared a 2 hour taxi ride, 90euros total. In Taormina we found a Café off the main street that served wine in a Ceramic chicken pitcher. The wine pours out of the chicken beak. We enjoyed our wine and pizza. Do not miss the Greek Theater-great views. Took private taxi back to ship for 25 euros.

Sorrento-We shared a Private Mercedes Van for 8, with our new cruise critic friends. We used Romeinlimo, Giovanni was our driver. We had the best time! Went to Pompeii with a private guide, after tour Giovanni served us his chilled homemade white wine with fresh peaches. Next we went to Restaurant on the top of mountain over looking Positano. Great views and food. All we could eat and drink for 25 euros! Next came Limoncello talk, and Giovanni magically pulls out a whole bottle of Limoncello. We sing and drink and head to Positano to shop and visit. Great day!

Amalfi-Booked online with Amalfi Tours Cruise-49 Euro per person. Private Water Taxi –we toured a grotto, and headed back to Positano. We had about 2 hours in Positano, Captain then picks you back up and serves sparkling wine on the way back to ship. Prior day we saw Amalfi Coast by car, today by sea, beautiful!

Livorno-Our 2nd Romeinlimo Tour. Same fun group, our driver was Marie Claire. We drove to Tuscany-my favorite place in Italy. Tuscany is about 1 hour 45 minute drive from Livorno. First we went to Sienna, nice big church, learned the history of the local horse racing around the town square. Next we drove to San Gimignano-geat views, fantastic shopping and Gelato! Next we went to Tenuta Torciano Vinyard for lunch, and wine tasting. Great food and wine! We ordered wine to be shipped back to house. Sadly, we had to go back to ship.

Monte Carlo-One of my husband’s favorites. Yachts and High End cars everywhere. We walked around the port and admired all the yachts. Beaches on far right. We went to Meridian? Hotel and asked for Taxi. Private taxi for 25? Euros, drove by the Palace and asked to be dropped off at Musee Oceanographoqaue. Very nice aquariums, and specimens, and air conditioned. After Museum walked back to port area. Nice, pretty downhill walk. Visited a café and then headed back to ship. We ate early at Tappas, and headed back out for Casino and Hotel Paris. It is a twenty minute walk to Casino area. Men will need pants and dress shirt to gamble. Nice café in front of Casino to people and car watch. Allowed 45 minutes to walk and gaze into lighted Yachts in order to make the last tender.

La Spezia(Cinque Terre)-This was our least favorite port due to having to use Mass public transportation. We were tired, and for us the 5 minute walk thru each town vs time to get there was too stressful. However, if you want to go visit, I recommend getting up early and taking the boat there and coming back by train.

Portofino-One of my husband’s favorite. Pretty buildings with trompe l’oeil frescoes. We found another couple and took a private water taxi to Santa Margherita Ligure. Cost 50 Euros for 4 persons-15 minute scenic ride. Arranged for captain to pick us up 2 hours later and rode back to Portofino. St. Margherita is very nice, and not touristy. We walked around beaches, and found a Hotel and Bar that overlooked the beaches, we had a drink. Later we shopped and had a picnic. Very relaxing and scenic.

Rome-Our 3rd Romeinlimo Tour-We were picked up right where our luggage was. No rolling luggage down the block! I believe it took us 45 minutes to drive to Rome.

Our driver took us to all the major sites. We had time for photo stops. We visited the Vatican and had a guide. The guide was very helpful in explaining all the details. As usual we enjoyed our Romeinlimo tour. Our driver than brought each of us to our individual hotels. We stayed at Hotel Paba, near the Colosseo. Great Mini Hotel with large air conditioned rooms, for 100 euros. Our last night we took a taxi to Pizza Navona. We had a fantastic meal and enjoyed the street vendors.

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bw333

bw333

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Sorry for font size. Cruise critic changed the Word Font I used.:) (Maybe too long.)

I was denied my review in the official cruise critic spot awhile back, did not meet all their criteria. These are the items I had to learn first hand, and I wanted to help future cruisers with some of their questions.

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Reggiefan

Reggiefan

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Many thanks for the excellent summary. If I may, two questions.

 

First, there was no limit on how much wine you bring when boarding the ship? I thought there was a limit of two or three bottles.

 

Second, how much time did you have roughly in each port?

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LHT28 Holiday Sharing Rare

LHT28

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First, there was no limit on how much wine you bring when boarding the ship? I thought there was a limit of two or three bottles.

 

On embarkation day you can bring as much wine as you can carry on ;)

If you take the wine to any dining venues there is a corkage fee

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bw333

bw333

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We had almost 2 days in port in Venice before departing. Returning to ship, we would stop by Billa Store, buy some wine, and hit the working ATM, carry wine back to ship. I would advise to take 2 different ATM cards for 2 different accounts. It was very difficult to find a working ATM in Italy! Two cards let you have twice the money from one nice machine. We had all day in most of our ports. Our 3 tours with Romeinlimmo were 9 hours long.

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Binok

Binok

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Great, helpful review. We are going on the 10 day cruise in October so will miss a couple of your ports. We have used Romeinlimo before and agree they do a very fine job. Glad to hear they picked you up in Rome on your return. We'll probably need them to do that for us also.

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SLANGE

SLANGE

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I agree with bw333. 1st time on Oceania and I can't say enough about the accomodations, staff and food. I have a great tour company in Italy. They cater to smaller groups of 2 to 8 people. Send me an E-mail if you would like additional information about the tour company or the cruise.

p2psports@aol.com

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Dmgmd50

Dmgmd50

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[

Amalfi-Booked online with Amalfi Tours Cruise-49 Euro per person. Private Water Taxi –we toured a grotto, and headed back to Positano. We had about 2 hours in Positano, Captain then picks you back up and serves sparkling wine on the way back to ship. Prior day we saw Amalfi Coast by car, today by sea, beautiful!

 

 

Our ship, the Marina will only be in Amalfi for one day. We are suppose to be there from 8AM -4PM. Do you think we would be able to take the Amalfi boat cruise to Positano which leaves at 9:00 AM? Does the tour boat leave from close to where the ship docks?

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orchestrapal

orchestrapal

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Amalfi-Booked online with Amalfi Tours Cruise-49 Euro per person. Private Water Taxi –we toured a grotto, and headed back to Positano. We had about 2 hours in Positano, Captain then picks you back up and serves sparkling wine on the way back to ship. Prior day we saw Amalfi Coast by car, today by sea, beautiful!

 

 

Our ship, the Marina will only be in Amalfi for one day. We are suppose to be there from 8AM -4PM. Do you think we would be able to take the Amalfi boat cruise to Positano which leaves at 9:00 AM? Does the tour boat leave from close to where the ship docks?

 

Yes, the boat leaves right across from where your tender will dock and you should be able to make it in plenty of time.The ride over is really beautiful and you should sit on the right side to see the caves and rocks.

Positano is fairly small and very crowded and aside from the walk up to the town and back you don't need many hours unless your a relentless shopper. Enjoy!:)

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