Vision of the Seas Mediterranean cruise

[Bigtex1622]

My mother wants to do a Mediterranean cruise out of Spain.

They have two differant - 12 day cruises.

One is a Italy intensive cruise, the other does Greece and Turkey as well.

Has anyone done either or both, and which would you do with a 87 year old mother.

We are thinking in September, or October.

I will bring a wheel chair, and push her around the land excursions.

But will rent a scooter for her use on the ship.

Also we make her walk a bit, like to dinner and some laps around the ship to keep her legs moving.

But would be hard for her to get in and out of a bus.

 

Thanks for any info.

 

 

 

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Edited January 21, 2015 by Bigtex1622

[Hoopster95]

My mother wants to do a Mediterranean cruise out of Spain.

They have two differant - 12 day cruises.

One is a Italy intensive cruise, the other does Greece and Turkey as well.

Has anyone done either or both, and which would you do with a 87 year old mother.

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I've done both, Italy/Adriatic just this past Sept. I think you will have challenges no matter which itinerary you choose.

 

However I think your best option according to the Vision itineraries is Italy/Adriatic. Ephesus requires walking, Santorini is tender/then mountain side/then bus ride transfer to Oia/up and down stairs at Oia. Athens and the Parthenon is very far from the port and not mobility friendly. Kotor is just utterly gorgeous, and albeit a tender port it's only 10min from ship to pier and easy to site see when in town. Dubrovnik will be very easy to go to old town. Venice... unreal! Most of the other cities as well.

 

So I think your best bet is to stick with Italy/Adriatic. You can look at some of the cities you'd be travelling to in my review in my signature below "Serenade full review"... it's much of the same itinerary Vision has except it departed from Rome and not Barcelona.

 

And for the record, even without your mother, I personally value the Italy/Adriatic cruise higher than Turkey/Greece. Just wait until you sail into Venice at 3pm... OMG!!!! Has to be one the top cruising experiences any cruiser can possibly have in their lifetime.

 

Have a great cruise! :D

[Bigtex1622]

One of my sisters really wants to see Greece, and since we probably will not get back for quite a long time.

I do not know what to do.

Will there be anything for mom to do at the tender ports, or is it just too hard to get off and on?

 

 

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[Bigtex1622]

What about leaving out of Italy?

 

 

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[blueblock]

My mom was 76 when we went on an Eastern Med cruise, which is younger than your mom - and she wasn't in a wheelchair, but she definitely had some walking issues. There were things she couldn't do, like climb to the top of the Acropolis - but we saw the view of the Acropolis from the Acropolis Museum. She couldn't make it to the top of the Terrace Houses in Ephesus - but the guide couldn't have been kinder or more accommodating. In Crete, we mostly sat at a cafe and watched the world go by - but that was more fun than sitting around at home. There will be challenges, and you won't get to do everything you might want to, and you might end up spending more on taxis than you might like - but I wouldn't have missed that cruise with Mom for the world.

[Bigtex1622]

...- but I wouldn't have missed that cruise with Mom for the world.

 

Thanks for your thoughtful insight.

This is why we want to do this cruise, Mom wants too.

One thing is there is no Venice, but she would rather do some Greece as well.

I think it is going to be harder to get there than once there.

I wish there was some non-stops to Spain !

[griffy116]

We've done Italy, Greece and Turkey, but we left out of Civitevecchia (Rome) port. There are things that will be more difficult. It helped a great deal that we used a private driver/guide. We had some mobility issues with two of our party. Acropolis was impossible but the New Acropolis museum was AMAZING and easy to do..and the driver can also get you closer to some of the attractions than the large buses are allowed. Ephesus in Turkey is going to be a challenge. Another advantage of having the driver was that at times, we were able to say, "I'll just stay here with the car" and our driver would suggest a nice cafe or safe spot to sit while others continued, and he would have a cool drink (provided ice cold bottles of water in the car, too) always. There are so many places in Rome that you can do, even with mobility issues, that's it's a great place to visit and with a driver or even taking a taxi, it's doable. Having the driver gives you the flexibility because it's definitely going to take you longer when visiting some of these places.

[Bigtex1622]

Thanks for the ideas.

It sounds like we are going to have a harder time getting there, than cruising.

We can not fly non stop to Spain, so will have to transfer planes.

What are some of the must see things to do on the Mediterranean Greek Island route?

Also we are going to do a Owner's suite, anyone have some pictures of it?

 

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