Voy. to Antiquity Q's - Tours & Misc.

[LovesSicily]

My husband and I are considering a Voyage to Antiquity cruise next year (2012), specifically the Light of Greece or similar intinerary and we have a couple of questions:

 

What is the ship sponsored tour group size?

 

Is it open seating for dinner?

 

We have been on two Oceania cruises and I note some slight similarities between the two?

 

Any other observations, thoughts and experiences will also be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you.

[patseacruiser]

I posted your request on one of the roll calls and perhaps a past passenger will answer regarding comparing the lines.

 

I suggest you lurk over in roll calls, other lines and find a V2A roll call and see if anyone can answer over there. There are a number of past passengers like Cruisemom and Ontariotrekker to name a couple that will most certainly be able to answer.

[Ontariotrekker]

Hi there and welcome to the V2A blogs. Pat's suggestion to go to the roll calls already set up is a great one but to answer your 2 main questions - the group size for the tours is around 20-25 but everyone carries a whisper speaker and it's tuned to your tour guide. You can hear everything that that specific guide is saying and so you don't have to crowd around him or her. I'm a photo bug and was able to wander and get pix while still keeping track of the guide.

 

It's open seating for all the meals and I can only speak for last year - breakfast only ran from 6:45 - 8:30 or so to match up for the first tour. There was some talk about keeping breakfast on later, maybe someone will post. Lunch is in the main dining room on Sea Days only but there is a large selection in the buffet and the lines, though long move quickly. Last year I do not think you could book a table for a certain time, that may have changed. I personally enjoy open seating so I can mix and mingle but if you are traveling with a group, I'm sure you can arrange something.

 

I love your blog name - I was able to see lots of Sicily last year on my cruise and am trying to convince my some friends that we need to do a driving tour of all the wonderful places next year - Shar

[cruisemom42]

Hi......I think we've run across each other on the Italy boards!

 

I sailed on Aegean Odyssey last November on their last cruise of the inaugural season. If you have read some reviews of the earliest cruises, rest assured they had worked most of the "kinks" out by the time I was onboard.

 

On my cruise, the tour groups were somewhat larger -- I'd say most were 35-40 people per bus. Perhaps we had more people onboard, or maybe more people chose to go on each excursion on our trip. Usually, as a solo traveler, I had to share a seat on the bus, so it was pretty full. While the "Whisper Ears" help somewhat with the need to crowd around the guide, they sometimes seemed to be almost more difficult than they were worth -- so many people had trouble tuning them in properly, getting them to work (dead battery component, not following instructions, etc). And the guides we had were not accustomed to using them either and keep telling us to "gather around" and getting visibly impatient if we didn't!

 

That said, this was a very minor irk, and the tours were in general well conducted and were pretty fast paced. Not a lot of down time or shopping time (which was fine for me).

 

Dining was open seating for dinner. Although I was solo, I met up early on with another CC'er and another solo traveler and the 3 of us ate together most nights. At our first dinner we really enjoyed our wait staff and every subsequent evening (except perhaps one) we were able to be seated with them. You could also eat dinner in the buffet. If you wanted something light, they offered "Tapas on the Terrace" in the early evening.

 

For lunch you could eat at the buffet or in the restaurant (when there were not all-day tours). For breakfast I always ate in the buffet. I believe they had extended the hours somewhat by the time I cruised. You could get coffee and rolls earlier than that as well.

 

I haven't been on Oceania (keep meaning to try them out), but I'm willing to answer any other questions you have. A couple other points that come to mind:

 

--Internet was very inexpensive compared with most cruise lines.

 

--The onboard speakers were excellent and more in depth than any other lines I've sailed with have offered.

 

--The deck loungers were plentiful and very comfortable.

[LovesSicily]

Thanks to both of you for your replies and posting to roll call.

 

It will only be the two of us - open seating will suit us very well along with the early breakfast hours. No moss grows on us when there are ruins to be seen.

 

We have searched and waited for the particular itinerary offered in Light of Greece and hope they will offer the identical or very similar one in 2012.

 

The tour group size sounds ideal coupled with the use of the whisper speaker, now I can listen and take pictures.

 

ontariotrekker: most of our vacations have been spent in Sicily and sometimes a Sicily/Rome combination. We fell in love with the island in 2000 and have returned eight times since then. Absolutely do a driving trip through Sicily, it is a hauntingly beautiful land.

[Guest ruimin]

We'll be on 9/28/2011 Light of the Greece (first time on V2A), maybe we'll have more info for you then, or other who had been on this itinerary can give us tips & info.

Dave

[LovesSicily]

I look forward to more information. This itinerary covers so many bases for us in places we want to see but did not want to spend an extended period of time visiting.

[Guest ruimin]

For a number of reasons we've decided to postpone our Mediterranean cruise for a year. Sorry we won't be able to give you tips but we hope to be able to in the not-too-distant future. We wish you happy cruising.

 

Dave