East vs. west Med on Noordam this summer

[496and706]

After reading Sail's wonderfully informative thread about Alaska, I thought I would ask about the east and west med cruises on the Noordam this year.

 

Any excursions that are a "Yes!" or "No way". We are also looking at the Figueres excursion because dh loves Dali and we saw a mediocre museum just off the Rambla in Barcelona the last time we went and dh wants to see a better Dali museum.

 

Your thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

(We have set ourselves a deadline of this coming weekend to figure it all out.)

[CruiserBruce]

Hard to say, as we know so little about you, your interests and your budget. When we did the Noordam 20 day, we have a wide mix of standard ship's tours, the more private type tours HAL offers, private tours we booked, and just doing it ourselves (DIY). Have you looked over on the Med Ports boards for ideas?

 

We found that the best and most efficient way to see sites in heavy sites/compressed areas, like Rome and Athens was a private tour. Naples- for Pompei and the Amalfi Coast was also an excellent private tour that was absolutely the best way to go. As Noordam is in Barcelona a day and a half, we took a 3 hour area tour on the half day, and walked our butts off on the second day all over the Ramblas and surrounding area. We also walked Monaco.

 

Santorini, contrary to many on the Greece boards, is extremely fun and easy to DIY. Having lunch on the cliffs in Oia, and the incredible sunset from the ship were perfect, and the highlight of the stops.

 

Many of the East Med sites are don't miss. Olympia is a ruin, but so impressive. Get the tour that has the Mercouri Winery stop with it. If you like wine, you won't regret it. Esphesus is unbelievable, make sure you get the tour that includes the Terrace Houses. Most people we talked to thought Mary's House overrated.

 

We wouldn't get a tour on Corfu again. Just walk around the town would be fine. Dubrovnik is a town where we wish we had not taken a tour, just wanted more time in the Old Town- very pretty. Tunis is a tossup. Carthage is a little overrated- just not much to see. The town is interesting, something new and different.

 

Pisa/Lucca (at Livorno) was interesting and fun, although burdened with the usual group tour problems of people marching to their own drummer, and we would probably pick more carefully. But Lucca and Pisa were a great tour pair.

 

Sicily has two stops. We just walked both here, as something easy to do. We mad Majorca a "beach day", taking a swimming/snorkeling sail trip. Very relaxing and nice change of pace.

 

Think that covers the cruise. Looking over on the Ports board will be very helpful.

 

In re-reading your post, I sense you might be choosing between either the East or West. If that were true, hands down, no even thinking about it. I would take the East. Just our preference, but far more scenic and historical.

[luxurysailer]

We've done both eastern and western Mediterranean cruises but not on the Noordam. I would make two suggestions. If Rome is on the itinerary and HAL still offers the private HAL tour of the Vatican, take it. If Istanbul is on the eastern Med itinerary, I'd suggest the evening dinner cruise on the Bosporous. The food was OK, but the sightseeing was wonderful.

[CruiserBruce]

We've done both eastern and western Mediterranean cruises but not on the Noordam. I would make two suggestions. If Rome is on the itinerary and HAL still offers the private HAL tour of the Vatican, take it. If Istanbul is on the eastern Med itinerary, I'd suggest the evening dinner cruise on the Bosporous. The food was OK, but the sightseeing was wonderful.

 

Noordam doesn't stop in Istanbul.

 

Noordam operates out of Rome, every 10 days. If the OP is doing a 20 day B2B, the tour you mention comes into play. If not, the Vatican tour most likely will be arranged privately. We did ours privately, and it was great.

[kazu]

Noordam doesn't stop in Istanbul.

 

Noordam operates out of Rome, every 10 days. If the OP is doing a 20 day B2B, the tour you mention comes into play. If not, the Vatican tour most likely will be arranged privately. We did ours privately, and it was great.

 

Although we normally do private tours, we did do the HAL Vatican secret tour and it was excellent - it is basically a private tour (there were 8 of us) and we basically skipped the lines every where. We were truly impressed:D

[Cornishpastyman1]

After reading Sail's wonderfully informative thread about Alaska, I thought I would ask about the east and west med cruises on the Noordam this year.

 

Any excursions that are a "Yes!" or "No way". We are also looking at the Figueres excursion because dh loves Dali and we saw a mediocre museum just off the Rambla in Barcelona the last time we went and dh wants to see a better Dali museum.

 

Your thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

(We have set ourselves a deadline of this coming weekend to figure it all out.)

I've done East and West on the Noordam in separate cruises recently and the short videos of each can be found from the 'signature' below. The West ones (I still have Herculaneum and Pompeii to do) are at the top of the list, with 7 from the East starting about halfway down.

 

But which is better ? I think Bruce is right - the East. More ancient history and more scenic. But I am not quite as certain as he is ! Rome might well be, with St Petersburg, my favourite port of them all, and you can extend it by a day or two if you want. What about the New Amsterdam summer schedule - plenty of old East in there, with an o/n in Istanbul and maybe a possibility of a land visit to Rome ?

 

Tough choices of course but we are lucky to be a position to make them.

All the best with your weekend decision

Tony

[Valley Girl of VA]

Definitely the Eastern Mediterranean - no question about it in my mind!

[496and706]

Dh has booked us on a 20 "Collector" I think. We've done part of the east and 3 of those days will be repeats on this cruise. (Livorno, Monaco and Barcelona)

 

I really want to see the casino this time. Dh wants to go back to the aquarium for Monaco.

 

FIL just called and reminded us to do Hurculium (spelled wrong I know).

 

We will probably just walk around Florence again. We have such amazing memories from the last time.

 

From what I have read about pushy rug salesmen in Tunis, we will most likely just walk around ourselves.

 

Dh has mentioned the house of Mary. I'll go to make him happy, I'm not interested in that.

 

A bit about us... dh is 53, I'm 50. We have done east Med on the TA eastbound in 2010. This will be our first solo cruise without either my daughter or his parents. Previous 2 HAL cruises were Zaandam and Noordam. I love history and ruins and reading, dh loves to shop.

 

Budget... not interested in overpriced rugs, but dh will be bringing wine and champagne onto the ship.