Photo review Nieuw Amsterdam 24-n Med cruise July 11 2014

[Laurino]

Day 10, July 20, Argostoli (Cephalonia)

This day was one of few failures for us. The itinerary stated tender port, and since we would be arriving late and have little time in port, I scrapped my plans of going to the Melissani cave lake and/or Myrtos bay beach. A HAL shore excursion might have worked, but none went to Myrtos.

 

We ended up docking instead, so we would have more time, so we started looking for taxis, rental cars, buses or private shore excursions. There was nothing left that suited us, it was a Sunday, and it was the hottest day of the entire cruise, so we ended up just having a walk around town.

 

Too bad because the island seemed beautiful:

 

 

 

Day 11, July 21, sea day

So we had another sea day and formal night on the way back to Venice. I took some photos of onboard activities.

 

Port talk in the Showroom:

 

Cooking show in the Culinary arts center:

 

It was formal night, and 'Surf and Turf' was offered in the MDR:

[Laurino]

Day 12, July 22, Venice

We sailed back to Venice and arrived after lunch. I won't post the sail in pictures, they are similar to the sail away ones. We were staying overnight in Venice and were also given 'in transit' passes to show to immigration (though they didn't seem very interested), since tomorrow would be turnover day for many of the passengers (not for us, yay!). Now we had lots of time for sightseeing in Venice. I had been there quite recently on a work trip, but it was a long time ago for my partner.

 

Most any canal or scene in Venice seems beautiful:

 

We went to many churches. This is Santa Maria della Salute:

 

San Giorgio Maggiore church and island:

 

We were on our way to the Doge's palace. Initially we would have liked to pre-purchase a museum pass to skip the lines, but it was impractical to get hold of. This method worked perfectly however: go to a less popular museum, such as the Museo Correr (also on St Marks' square), there you can either get a city-wide museum pass for 24€ or a museum pass for St Marks' square (incl Doge's palace) for 16€, we chose the latter and there was no line to get it. Then just breeze in to the Doge's palace.

 

Some photos from the Doge's palace:

 

 

St Marks' square and Doge's palace in dusk:

[Laurino]

Day 13, July 23, Venice

Now we had a full day left in Venice, the ship wouldn't leave until 11pm. However we had to participate in another muster drill at 8pm.

 

We had bought Vaporetto (water bus) passes yesterday, it's a great but slow way to tour the Grand canal and get to other islands in the lagoon.

 

Mansions along the Grand canal:

 

 

Today we were going to St Marks' basilica. Entrance is free, but there's usually a long line, so I had pre-booked our visit to 11am for 2€. It worked out great. We had also planned our visit to coincide with when they turn on the interior lights in the basilica for approximately 1 hour per day, which happened at 11.30am. The illumination makes a huge difference for experiencing the golden mosaics.

 

St Marks' basilica, without illumination:

 

St Marks' basilica, with illumination:

 

Inside the basilica, you have to pay to enter certain interesting parts. I can strongly recommend paying for entering the upstairs gallery, there's an interesting museum, nice views of the basilica and best of all you can go out on a terrace overlooking St Marks' square:

 

 

Another beautiful canal:

[Laurino]

Day 13, July 23, Venice, continued & sail away

I need to post even more pictures of beautiful Venice.

 

This, if you can believe it, is a hospital:

 

We bought pizza slices from a 'hole in the wall' and had lunch on the street. It's strange that street food often is better than restaurant food. There was still time left, so we decided to take the Vaporetto to Murano island (the glass island). It's quite relaxing to get out of crowded Venice for a while. I also bought a small piece as a souvenir in one of the more tasteful showrooms (Murano glass tends to be colorful IMO).

 

Fantastic glass sculptures in the squares of Murano:

 

 

There was a great express-Vaporetto, line #3, that took us quickly back to Piazzale Roma and from there we used the People mover as usual.

 

HAL Noordam was docked right next to us and departed in the afternoon:

 

We had muster drill at 8pm and sail away at 11pm:

 

It was nice to sail away in the evening, but much of Venice is not illuminated. After all, not many people live in the city anymore. You can see much stronger lights in the background, on the mainland in Mestre.

[Laurino]

Day 14, July 24, sea day

Yet another relaxing sea day, there were 2 per segment so 4 in total. The first segment had many de facto half sea days too, because of the distances involved, but that was fine with me. In total we would visit 17 ports and have 20 days in port. The itinerary was very intensive, but for us it helps immensely to have a comfortable floating home to return to each afternoon.

 

I'm a sucker for the beautiful invitations and letters etc we got all the time to our cabin, such as this thank you letter and chocolate gift just because we had chosen a collector's voyage:

 

There was a flower-arranging show in the Culinary arts center:

 

We also had the Cruise critic Meet & greet this day. We had two roll calls on CC, one for each cruise segment, but no one succeeded in arranging a meet & greet for the first leg of the trip. It was a nice gathering, but I had not been that active on the boards because I had no excursions to share/plan. I also get a little shy on such occasions... However it's always nice to get to meet some officers, such as the cruise director (Mario Vines) and several others.

 

All those on the Collector's voyage, were invited to a special Rijstaffel lunch in the MDR:

[Krazy Kruizers]

Getting caught up on your review.

Love everything - pictures are wonderful.

We loved Venice and were glad that we got there a few times.

[herbsnspices]

Thank you so much for your excellent review & photos. We are sailing from Barcelona for 24 nights on Nieuw Amsterdam in September . Really looking forward to experiencing this lovely region again.

[ol3]

great review and pictures! How did the car rental works? Do they offer a nice price for half a day rental near the harbour??

[MrsMuir]

Tusen takk for such a great review, though you are only halfway through. DH and I are doing the first 12 days that you covered so beautifully. Your photos and review have made me even more excited.

 

Mrs M

[chevy1960]

Thanks so much for your wonderful review. We are doing the first half of your cruise from Venice next Saturday and your pictures and commentary are making us so excited. We have never cruised with HA before and I wonder if you can answer a couple of questions please?

I notice you had glasses of water with your gorgeous meals - is this bottled water you have to purchase or do they provide carafes of water with the food? Can you have tea/ coffee after the meal / at breakfast or is this extra?

Also we hadn't thought of hiring a car but this sounds like a brilliant idea!What are the roads like from Kusadasi to Ephesus (quiet/ busy ; narrow/ wide ; steep/ flat )and do they drive on the left or right?

I hope you don't mind me asking :)

[Laurino]

Day 15, July 25, Dubrovnik

We docked in Dubrovnik, but that meant we were in the modern ferry port. It was however surrounded by pretty hillsides:

 

 

Just walking out of the cruise terminal, we took the bus towards the old town. The long-distance bus terminal was next to the cruise terminal. We could take city bus #1, 1a, 1b or 3 (but not #3 on the way back), it was 12KN (15, if bought onboard). All the buses have a terminus at the 'Pile' gate, which is the main entrance to the old town.

 

This fortress was just outside the old town:

 

We decided to walk the city walls (100KN), it was quite a climb up to the walls and I would not do that later in the day. We walked counter-clockwise and got down after the harbor, to skip the steeper last section. The views were superb on the entire walk:

 

 

 

[Laurino]

great review and pictures! How did the car rental works? Do they offer a nice price for half a day rental near the harbour??

 

Thank you! We feel more comfortable using the larger car rental brands (Avis, Budget, Sixt, Europcar, Hertz etc). For each port where I wanted a rental, I simply checked all those brands for which one was closest to the dock and/or cheapest. Sometimes we had to walk or take a bus like 1km to the rental location, but sometimes if you call them they can wait for you at the port instead. I generally booked on their websites and chose the smallest car for a half or 3/4 day. I didn't book if it exceeded 50€. I never pre-paid, always chose pay at counter, if there was a problem with the ship not docking etc.

 

Many times the location had few cars and said they were fully booked, then we were grateful for our planning. For instance in Argostoli we could not walk in and get a car for the day even though we tried 2 locations and one was closed (Sunday), all of those were no-brand local agencies.

[Laurino]

Thanks so much for your wonderful review. We are doing the first half of your cruise from Venice next Saturday and your pictures and commentary are making us so excited. We have never cruised with HA before and I wonder if you can answer a couple of questions please?

I notice you had glasses of water with your gorgeous meals - is this bottled water you have to purchase or do they provide carafes of water with the food? Can you have tea/ coffee after the meal / at breakfast or is this extra?

Also we hadn't thought of hiring a car but this sounds like a brilliant idea!What are the roads like from Kusadasi to Ephesus (quiet/ busy ; narrow/ wide ; steep/ flat )and do they drive on the left or right?

I hope you don't mind me asking :)

 

Thank you! You will have a fantastic cruise, the first part was best IMO, mostly because we hadn't been to most places. Many ports were also more accessible (except Piraeus) compared to the enormous ports of Civitavecchia, Livorno, Marseille and Barcelona on the second leg.

 

I will gladly try to answer your questions. In the Main dining room (MDR) and the speciality restaurants, there's always a large water glass on your table that your waiter will continually top up with tap ice water from a pitcher, and it's free. You don't get a carafe. We never chose bottled water. Actually the tap water was worse (more chlorine) when the ship had purchased water from ashore, as opposed to when the ship itself produced it (desalinized).

 

Yes you can get regular coffee / tea for free after dinner in the restaurants, also during breakfast and lunch. They usually ask you about coffee when you want to order dessert. I think you have to pay extra for cappuccino nowadays in the MDR (does anyone know?), but I could get it complimentary in the Pinnacle Grill speciality restaurant. Coffee and tea is always available for free in the Lido buffet restaurant.

 

It's wonderful to rent a car during a cruise, to get away from the busy ports and get to experience the country side at your own pace! I would say the roads between Kusadasi and Ephesus were not that busy and not narrow, however a bit curvy for the first part along the coast before turning inland. Also we got a bit worried when we returned to Kusadasi in the afternoon because traffic was horrendous in the city center, but we always plan to return to the ship with a couple of hours margin, so we made it. They drive on the right in all countries on this cruise. Also checkout my previous reply about rental cars, to member 'ol3'.

[Laurino]

Day 15, July 25, Dubrovnik, continued & sail away

The old port in old town is beautiful:

 

 

We got down from the city wall, and walked along the marble-paved squares and streets of the old town:

 

 

We also visited the cathedral and the small Franciscan monastery. The monastery had a beautiful old pharmacy, still in use. The monastery cloister:

 

We considered taking the cable car, but it was hot in the afternoon and we would've had to walk uphill or take a taxi just to get to the station. It would've been expensive too, so we skipped it and returned to the ship. We stopped by the 'Konzum' supermarket in the port, to stock up our minibar.

 

The ship arranged a tasty 'Balkan delight BBQ' by the sea view pool:

 

We had a nice sunset and a late sail away, due to the short distance to our next port Kotor.

 

[Laurino]

Day 16, July 26, Kotor, sail in

We would be sailing through the Kotor fjord, but didn't bother getting up that early, we could see the entire sail away in the afternoon. This stop was also changed from docked to tendering.

 

The arrival into Kotor was beautiful. We lay anchored with these beautiful views:

 

 

The old town of Kotor, seen behind the trees. It's very difficult to make out the spectacular city wall climbing the mountain (we certainly wouldn't climb that wall!):

 

Nieuw Amsterdam anchored in Kotor bay:

[Laurino]

Day 16, July 26, Kotor, continued

The old town was easily accessible from the (tender) pier.

 

The city walls of Kotor:

 

There was a new, very large and cool (architecturally speaking) cafe/restaurant outside the city gates:

 

The old town was quaint, perhaps not as stunning as Dubrovnik, but the location in the fjord made up for that. The mountain backdrop to the city views was fantastic, like a 'Innsbruck in the Mediterranean'... Some views from inside the old town:

 

 

 

We also visited the catholic cathedral and the orthodox cathedral, but it looked quite new or recently restored:

[Laurino]

Day 16, July 26, Kotor, sail away

The sail away started approximately at 3pm, and was very scenic.

 

We passed this village:

 

These amazing church and monastery islands were right in the middle of the fjord:

 

The narrowest part:

 

[Laurino]

Day 17, July 27, Kerkyra (Corfu)

We docked in the new port in Kerkyra. The port provided a free shuttle from the ship to the cruise terminal, even though it wasn't that far. Just outside the terminal we took bus #16 (1,50€) to the old port, where the entrance into the old town was and also where we fetched our rental car from Sixt (52€).

 

Cunard's 'Queen Elizabeth' (also a signature-class ship) was docked next to us:

 

We would explore the old town in the afternoon, so we headed out into the countryside with our car. First we went to Sissi's (the famous Austrian empress) 'Achilleion palace'. We were also surprised to learn that the palace was a casino for a while, and was a film shooting location for the casino scenes in the Bond movie 'For your eyes only'.

 

 

 

Unfortunately there was almost no furniture etc left in the palace.

 

Next we drove to Palaiokastritsa, on the west coast, to get to swim in a beautiful setting. It was nice, but quite crowded with charter vacationers and not that clean (on land).

 

 

We returned to Kerkyra (Corfu town) and had a coffee break on the 'Liston', the famous esplanade modeled after the 'Rue de Rivoli' in Paris:

 

 

Unfortunately we were not that impressed by Corfu, I guess we had hyped expectations. The old town was in very poor repair, for being a world heritage site.

 

A view of the old town, squeezed in between the old and new fort, during sail away:

[Laurino]

Day 18, July 28, sea day

This was our 4:th and last sea day, circling the southern tip of the Italian mainland, on our way to Naples.

 

Even though I prefer the Silk Den, a sea day is well spent playing board games or cards in the Crow's Nest and the Explorations cafe/library:

 

 

At about 3-4pm, we sailed through the Strait of Messina:

 

On either side were these huge pylons, which was an ill-fated attempt to get a power line across to Sicily. Nowadays there's a submarine power cable and the pylons are a historical monument (the wiring is disassembled):

 

It's nice when the bow is opened for scenic sailing:

 

As you can see, we had really calm seas!

 

In the evening close to dinner-time, we passed the active volcano island of Stromboli. Eerily, the volcano is continuously emitting smoke:

[DeeniEncinitas]

Great pics!!!!! Was a year ago we did the same cruise on Nieuw Amsterdam, but we did the 24 day Barcelona to Venice! She is a beautiful ship! We were in Barcelona a week before our 2 month adventure. Did Italy and Paris on our own after wards!!! You will have fond memories!

 

 

3 Star Mariners :) BECOMING 4 STAR on next CRUISE :)

Sailing Nieuw Amsterdam Western/Eastern Mediterranean B2B 3/15/2015

 

Nieuw Amsterdam 24 day Mediterranean Collectors Cruise 7/26/2013

Oosterdam 14 day Mexican Riviera cruise 12/26/2012

Zaandam 15 day Hawaii Cruise 4/10/2011

Oosterdam 10 day Mexican Riviera Cruise 2/12/2010

Zaandam 10 day Sea of Cortez Cruise 2/21/2009

Ryndam 10 day Sea of Cortez Cruise 12/26/2008

Oosterdam 10 day Mexican Riviera Cruise 11/15/2007

WindStar 10 day Venice to Athens Cruise 9/6/2006

NCL Western Caribbean Cruise 2/22/2004

[Loreto]

I love the pictures....I want to go !!!:)

 

Karen

[Laurino]

Day 19, July 29, Naples

We arrived 8am in Naples and it was probably the busiest day of the cruise, in regard to the number of large cruise ships in port:

 

 

We've been to Naples before and really dislike the city, so we were planning an excursion to get out. We have been to Sorrento and the Amalfi coast before on a rail trip. This time we chose a day in Pompeii. I planned using 'cruisemom42's excellent thread on the topic, however it was not a weekend so everything wasn't open and visits to the houses that had to be pre-booked had been suspended. But we had a great visit anyway.

 

We got off the ship as soon as possible in the morning. As there were so many cruise ships arriving, we didn't dock by the Marittima cruise terminal but on a ferry/commercial pier farther to the east. This was to our advantage, since we were now closer to the train stations. We bought 'U3' tickets (good for Pompeii, 2,90€) in a tobacco kiosk and waited for tram #1. The tram never arrived, we found a note in Italian on the tram stop advising that traffic was suspended. So we took a brisk walk toward the 'Porta Nolana' train station, where we boarded the 'Circumvesuviana' train headed in the direction of Sorrento, we made it to the 8.39am departure. The train took 40min, it had no AC. We got off at the station 'Pompei Scavi - Villa dei Misteri', which is right next to the ruins. Admission was 11€. As 'cruisemom42' suggested, we got the free guidebook and map and asked them to cross of the closed houses. Then we plotted a course for the day and set of.

 

This is the Civic forum, with Vesuvius in the background:

 

 

The pavement and many wells along the streets are well-preserved:

 

The Forum baths were fantastic:

 

[Laurino]

Day 19, July 29, Naples, continued

We continued our day in Pompeii.

 

The Large theatre:

 

The Temple of Isis:

 

Frescoes in the Villa of Mysteries:

 

Frescoes and a body cast, in Macellum:

 

House of the Menander was very impressive:

 

 

We took the train back to Naples in the early afternoon, the train was brand new with AC, but all seats were taken. Close to the train station we had a late pizza (a must!) lunch. We walked back to the port through the back streets, which was nice even though they're shabby, because there was less traffic and more shops etc.

 

During sail away there was some sort of pizza-buffet around the sea view pool, but we had already had pizza for lunch and we didn't like the ship pizza anyway. We had another lovely dinner in the MDR.

[SuJaDon]

Absolutely wonderful trip report. Looking forward to following the rest of your cruise. We are considering doing the same cruise in 2015. Thanks.

[Laurino]

Day 20, July 30, Civitavecchia

This was one our best days during the cruise! We had been in Rome before. Instead we planned to visit some Italian renaissance villas and gardens, of which there are 3 famous ones close to Viterbo. I had also already been to Villa d'Este, which is in Tivoli, closer to Rome. Viterbo is approximately a 1 hour drive 60km from Civitavecchia. We had booked a rental car with Europcar for 54€. The port offers a free shuttle from the ship to the entrance of the port area. Since there was roadwork being done, the final stop of the shuttle was moved further north and conveniently we were dropped right outside the rental location! From the drop-off point there were also city busses available.

 

First we drove towards the small hill-top village 'Caprarola', we didn't expect the stunning setting:

 

Our first pit stop was the 'Palazzo Farnese' (admission 5€), a renaissance palace built atop an older fortress:

 

We were mainly there for the gardens, but the interior was stunning and more interesting than the gardens. The stairwell:

 

The courtyard:

 

The map room:

 

Past the gardens, into the forest, there was a gazebo/casino with water stairs: