LIVE from the Eurodam! Our 1st Cruise! July 5th to 17th - Mediterranean Tapestry

[tedcruise]

My husband is 6'7" [emoji16]

 

 

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Whew I should be fine only 6'4". Thanks.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Catching up on your review.

Wonderful time you all are having.

That was nice of the captain to recognize your DH's birthday. Hope you all had a wonderful dinner.

[SLOTheta]

Whew I should be fine only 6'4". Thanks.

 

 

At 6'7", international travel has been tricky. He was actually surprised how well sized everything was on the ship. He fit comfortably in the bed, shower and bathroom. He didn't fit in the tub, but we are used to that. [emoji16]

 

You should be fine.

 

 

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[SLOTheta]

Our itinerary is jam packed with amazing stops. We will need a vacation from our vacation. I'm glad we are doing another 3 weeks in Italy after our cruise.

 

We out had 1 sea day, and we loved it! If we take a cruise again, we will look for an itinerary that has 2 sea days. It was luxurious to order room service (they are getting my orders right now). I've been ordering a bunch of breakfast items, but requesting only 1 piece. It's been great to have my slice of a French toast and 1/2 of an Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon in the morning.

 

I had great intentions of hitting all the sea day activities. They had flower arranging classes, black jack tournaments, bingo, etc. I didn't make any of them! But, my husband caught the beer tasting session and he loved it. 4 beers for $12.50. Our normal bartender at the Billboard, Carlos was instructing the class. He gave history and background on each beer. There were 9 guys taking the class and they had a great time, Paul says it was his favorite activity in the ship.

 

I, on the other hand, spent a few hours lounging in our Cabana. Our group rented all but 2 Cabanas on the Lido, it was nice to have a large section for us to rest and spend time together. I also love that they bring you champagne, fresh chocolate covered strawberries and Evian mist.

 

 

The Final Gala night of our cruise was the best dinner of our entire cruise. It was another night of our group and the majority of the MDR dressing to the "nines" as Cruise Director Simon says. We have the late seating and I would say almost everyone (including the men) were dressed well. Most wore suits, about 15% wore tuxes, the rest wore long sleeved collared shirts. We maybe saw a handful of people in smart casual. But, no one cared really what you wore. It was nice to see all the pretty dresses and the men looking sharp.

 

 

 

All of our favorites were on the menu and I'm embarrassed to say I had just about everything on the menu. The escargot was cooked perfectly, I had to dip my bread into the garlic butter!

 

 

The lobster ravioli was delicious. Yet another tasty pasta dish. The lobsters were steamed perfectly. The severs took the tails out of the shell and poured drawn butter on the meat. I had first only ordered the "surf" (2) without the "turf" but as the night went on and I saw others ordering more, I had to indulge. I think I ate 2 more tails! There was also a very flavorful Asian duck over yellow noodles. I couldn't stop eating! Everything was scrumptious!

 

 

 

Entree and Dessert Menu

 

 

We ended the night dancing at BB Kings. Super fun, talented band. The dance floor was packed. We've had several fun nights of dancing. They play a wide variety of songs and really work hard to get the crowd going. The dance floor has been fairly full every night of the cruise.

 

 

 

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[SLOTheta]

Next Stop: Corfu, Greece. We attended Location Guide Tom's port overview the night before. Every night a 7:30pm he does a 20-30 minute presentation in the Queen's Lounge on the next port. We typically arrive at 7:30pm, but we've never been able to get a seat. It's packed! We grab a drink and stand in the back. Tom recommended that we rent a car to get to be able to explore the beach. It's 50-60€ to rent a car for the day that includes insurance. Otherwise, it's a 60-90€ one way trek to the beach on the other side of the island. He told us it was a super easy drive, so we went for it.

 

When we docked, you can take a bus to the terminal, or walk. I opted to walk and it was a quick 5 minute walk. The port terminal is a large pink building that houses the car rental offices. I tried to book a car the night before, but it was too close to the reservation time. There's Hertz, Royal and one other company that you can rent from. I had read about Royal from TripAvisor and it received good reviews. The Hertz line was enormous. Tom told us we needed to go super early to get a car since there weren't that many available, he was right. It was slim pickings. Luckily our group got their right at 8am and we picked up a van and 2 cars. For all 3 vehicles (including a 10 person van), it was 270€. Great deal.

 

We headed off to the beach. It was a 45 minute drive to the beach, a bit hairy in some spots and not exactly as easy as we were lead to believe, but we made it. We were the first to arrive at 9am to Glyfada beach. Tom had recommended this little beach to us. We rented first row beach chairs (3€ each) and umbrellas (2€). The beach area we chose was right below Glyfada Beach Restaurant which had cold drinks and free wifi that you could catch waterside.

 

 

We had a fabulous Greek lunch at the restaurant with incredible views.

 

 

They were zippy quick with our drinks and food, but when we needed the bill, they were slammed and really couldn't handle the crowd.

 

We left the beach around 2:30pm to explore Old Town Corfu. We zipped through the main market place and found one of the silver stores Tom had recommended - Silver Star. I picked up a Greek coin that had been fashioned into a pendant.

 

 

Photos of Old Town and its Forts

 

Main shopping area

 

 

 

Fort

 

 

 

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[Cruising-along]

Loving your review, thanks for "taking us along"! :D

[Lady Arwen]

Doing our first Med cruise in May! Thank you for giving us a taste of what's to come.......super fun to read your thread.

[SLOTheta]

It was 35 MPH winds, so the original tender directly to old town was scrapped this morning. Many excursions were cancelled. It was rough! The staff scrambled to try to rectify the situation. Some excursions were cancelled or rescheduled. The original tender was perfect for us, this change of plans was a bit of a bummer.

 

You had two options, you could tender and then take a bus that HAL arranged to take you into old town, or wait until 1pm. We were told we were going to swap spots with the Costa, and we would dock by 1pm. Unfortunately, we didn't act silly dock until 2. While we were on our way to the port, we saw several tenders following the ship.

 

We loaded up into buses around 2:10. It was a very slow and traffic filled ride to old town. Our driver said there's usually 3 or 4 ships, today, it was 8!

 

It was extremely crowded all through out Dubrovnik, it was also very hot. But, we decided to brave the long walk and we started on our walk around old town around the city walls. I'm glad we went - the views were well worth it.

 

 

 

 

After our long walk around the city, we had read about a wine bar and a "hole in the wall" cliff bar from Rick Steve's Mediterranean Port Guide. We found D'Vino wine bar pretty easily. Our group took over the bar and were served by a gracious Anita. Huge wine selection with good nibbles.

 

 

We then headed to the bar that was literally carved out of the city's wall called Buzo. The bar only takes cash and is a little over priced, but watching the young men try to brave the challenge of cliff diving was quite a scene.

 

 

 

Dubrovnik is a fairly expensive place, compared to our previous ports. They also don't take he Euro. If you go, get krona from an ATM and brace for the prices. We loved it regardless.

 

 

 

 

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[erewhon]

Am enjoying reading your review.

Thanks for sharing your photos.

You stated that Champagne is served in the Cabana, do you know which brand of Champagne is served?

[SLOTheta]

Am enjoying reading your review.

Thanks for sharing your photos.

You stated that Champagne is served in the Cabana, do you know which brand of Champagne is served?

 

 

It's their Bon Voyage champagne. It wasn't great, but a nice bonus. You get 2 glasses a day per cabana. We tipped our server well and didn't spend a ton of time in the cabana, so he would bend the rules now and again and give us a few more.

 

 

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[Krazy Kruizers]

Wonderful reports and pictures.

[SLOTheta]

Short stop in Kotor, Montenegro (8-11am). My husband woke up at 5:30am to catch the sail in through the Fjords. He said it was one of the highlights of our cruise.

 

Our friends had been to Montenegro previously and let us know about the incredibly beautiful, and sometimes challenging hike up the Mountain. It's a long hike that can be brutal in the heat. The group decided it was best to hit the mountain early before the heat set in.

 

We started the day at 8am and hiked up to the Kotorsk Bedemi Cattaro Fortresse (Kotor Fortress). The hike takes you up this majestic mountain on an old mule track. We huffed and puffed along tricky hike, but it was well worth it for the incredible views. It's about an hour up and back if you stop to take photos. There's only one way up and back, so you have to negotiate with the people coming up and down the hill.

 

 

Great view of the Eurodam and Kotor

 

 

 

 

We wandered through town and hit a wine bar - Old Winery Bar on the way back. Inexpensive drinks and great location.

 

 

When we got back on the ship, we were exhausted. We had been invited to a farewell brunch, but we couldn't muster up the strength. We also wanted to catch Location Guide Tom's commentary on the sail out of the Fjord. We ordered room service. I had my trusty club sandwich and seafood chowder, my husband ordered the chicken sandwich with a side of potato salad. My sandwich and his were great. The soup was pretty horrible. Nonetheless, it was such a treat to sit out on our verdandah and listen to Tom. I wish there were speakers on the verandah. It was hard to hear I stood near the door and turned on the TV to hear better. I also wish we had the option of switching a button on and listening to the on board announcements. I think we can switch to a channel, but by time I get the tv on, the message is over.

 

 

 

 

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Edited July 18, 2016 by SLOTheta

[erewhon]

It's their Bon Voyage champagne. It wasn't great, but a nice bonus. You get 2 glasses a day per cabana. We tipped our server well and didn't spend a ton of time in the cabana, so he would bend the rules now and again and give us a few more.

 

 

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Thank you for your reply.

[SLOTheta]

Thank you for your reply.

 

 

If you are ever in the Eurodam, Jeffrey is a fabulous Lido host. Our group had 4 cabanas, but we were rarely there. But, every time we were, he went out of his way to ensure we had a great time. He was quick with offering chocolate covered strawberries, fresh ice, champagne and water. He would bring us extra Evian sprays before we even asked.

 

It was well worth the price of the cabana.

 

 

 

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Edited July 18, 2016 by SLOTheta

[ang293]

Great photos of Kotor - I take it from your photos that you docked instead of tendered? Was that what your itinerary originally said you'd be doing? Just wondering as we have a quick turn around in Kotor in September to get on a private excursion and it's looking like Eurodam is increasingly docking there even if the itinerary says tender which is great.

[SLOTheta]

Great photos of Kotor - I take it from your photos that you docked instead of tendered? Was that what your itinerary originally said you'd be doing? Just wondering as we have a quick turn around in Kotor in September to get on a private excursion and it's looking like Eurodam is increasingly docking there even if the itinerary says tender which is great.

 

 

Thanks! We docked. It was the closest dock we had during the cruise. It was like we stepped off the gangway and until the city. Super convenient. This was helpful since we only had a few short hours in Montenegro. We were told we had a short day because Venice was going to close its waterways for the Festa Redentore and we couldn't get Venice if we didn't hey before 8am the next day.

 

Here's how close we were:

 

 

 

I was glad we didn't tender. We have several tenders during the trip and they were very uncomfortable. Super hot and rocked quite a bit. The worst part of the cruise was the tenders. One time, we waited almost 30 minutes on the pier. Horrible

 

 

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[SLOTheta]

We needed to figure out the logistics on how to effectively get off the ship and get to our hotel in Venice, we knew Tom would show us the way. He did a Venice overview for about 45 minutes to a packed audience. He explained that we could take the water bus (7.5€) or water taxis (90€+). He also covered some great history and exposed us to places we didn't previously read about. Always informative!

 

 

It was the staff's goodbye to us and Venice mask night in the MDR. I dropped by our table to tip our servers and say goodbye, since we weren't sure if we were going to eat dinner when we are docked in Venice. The staff passed out Venice carnival masks, a nice touch.

 

 

We headed to dinner at the Tamarind. The food was plentiful and extremely tasty. The service wasn't what we were used to, including having to bus our own tables and having a plate of food dropped on me. But, the excellent food made up for it. We shared all of our plates, which made it easy to indulge and try things we normally wouldn't choose. For appetizers, we had the satay, duck crepes, and tempura shrimp. To round out the starters, they gave us fish crackers. I loved them! Just like how my mom makes them.

 

For our intermezzo, we shared a smorgasbord of sashimi, nigiri and a lobster roll. We usually eat sushi twice a week at home, this was just as good as some of the restaurants we frequent.

 

For our entrees, we shared the lobster, shrimp and duck dishes. There were 4 of us, but we originally orders 3 entrees. After tasting the lobster, we had to have another! I didn't like how our waitress told me there would be a charge for an "extra entree" I had to remind her we ordered only 3.

 

 

We were stuffed beyond stuffed by time the dessert menu came, but we had heard about the giant fortune cookie and chocolate desserts. We also ordered the lychee green tea ice cream to share. The fortune cookie didn't disappoint!

 

 

Enjoyable dinner with one of my favorite Veuve bubblies with a lovely couple.

 

Even though we were experiencing the roughest night on the boat, the rocking didn't stop our group from trying to win some of our money back in the casino. We were losing our shirts and the ship was rocking and rolling hard. We had to call it a night

 

 

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[tedcruise]

Man this thread sure is making our six week wait seem like forever. Can't wait to roll into Venice and board the Eurodam. Kotor is beautiful can't wait to see it. Thanks again for all the great pictures and info.

[SLOTheta]

Man this thread sure is making our six week wait seem like forever. Can't wait to roll into Venice and board the Eurodam. Kotor is beautiful can't wait to see it. Thanks again for all the great pictures and info.

 

 

Kotor was my husband's favorite stop. We will definitely be back. Be ready to leave the ship as soon as it socks so you can squeeze every bit of the city.

 

 

 

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[SLOTheta]

We made it to Venice after a very rough night at sea. I don't know if it was because we were moving fast or if the weather was bad. I didn't sleep a wink since I had a hard time dealing with motion. I prepared myself by bringing ginger chews, dramamine, queasy drops and seabands. I used all, and even slept in seabands. It was just to hard to sleep. Luckily, besides the 1st night, we didn't have much of a motion issue.

 

I had a late start to Venice, but my husband got up early to explore the People Mover and Waterbus situation. We brought 2 huge suitcases, rollerbag, backpack and a computer bag. We had to try to bring one of the large suit cases a day early. We were going to dock in Venice for a night and then check out tomorrow. There was no way we were going to be able to haul it all.

 

The People Mover was about 2€ but didn't move you all that far. The Water Bus was pretty easy to use. The pickup was about a 10 minute easy walk from the port. It was 7€ per person and 3€ for our suitcase. Much better than the 100€ they wanted to charge for a private water taxi from the port to our Hotel, the Westin Europa. Anytime we mentioned our hotel, people would jack up the prices. I guess when the minimum room is 475€ a night, they figure you can afford anything. I paid with points and wasn't going to be fleeced.

 

The drop off from the water bus is conveniently located right near St Mark's Square (San Marcos). From the port, I would recommend taking the bus into Venice, then walking back. It's about 30-40mins to walk.

 

Waterbus coming into the dock. It's a great little ride

 

 

Our first day in Venice was amazing, but uber crowded since there was about 200,000 people I town to celebrate the Festa Del Redentore. The end of the plague. Boats and people like up all over Venice to see a magnificent display of fireworks. Lucky for us, the best views will be on the ship.

 

Waterbus drops you off a few minutes from St Marks:

 

 

Everyone has to have a Bellini in Venice. We stumbled across a wonderful little spot called Osteria Antico Dolo. Harry's Bar charges 20€, here, it's 6€!

 

 

 

The best rated pizza in Venice, and #18 on tech Trip Advisor list is Antico Forna. We picked up the thick pizza (slow rising) it was the best we've ever had and 3.90€ a slice with free wifi.

 

 

Stumbled across the most amazing gentlemen playing classical pieces on water glasses. It stopped me in my tracks

 

 

Gondola rides are a set price at 80€ and it was a mad house trying to queue to get one

 

 

 

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[SLOTheta]

I'm still trying to sift through all my photos and notes. I missed covering our dinner at Canaletto.

 

We were given a dinner to Canaletto by the our fabulous Casino host - Sinead. I had been gambling every night for about 2 hours, and also playing the Lotto game on a regular basis. I've never hit more than 2 numbers on a 5 line card, but I had a feeling I was getting closer. One night, I had given my lotto ticket about 15 minutes before the drawing, but because the Internet had been on the fritz, Sinead couldn't get my numbers selected and printed. 3/5 of my numbers hit, Sinead felt so bad, she gave us a dinner to Canaletto. We weren't planning on going, since we spending 3 weeks in Italy eating lots of pasta, but our group went to Le Cirque one night, and most of our group were not eating in the MDR.

 

We had heard mixed reviews on CC regarding Canaletto, we weren't sure what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised. The food and service were very good.

 

Be warned, the portions are enormous! Even when sharing 1/2 sizes, we couldn't finish our sampling.

 

We were running out of our wine that we brought on the ship, so we ordered a bottle off the menu. We were happy to see that the wine menu was different than what is offered in the MDR. The wines were limited, but much less expensive. Most of the bottles are Canaletto branded. We ordered the Montepulciano, $22 and it was quite good for the price point.

 

For our starters, I ordered Chicken and duck pate, which was surprisingly very good. If had a good consistency and nice flavor. We also shared a plate with prosciutto and cheese. The quality of the meat was similar to what we found in Spain. My husband had the salad which came with a large piece of blue cheese. He loved it even more when he sprinkled the reduced balsamic vinegar poured on it. It was already dressed with a raspberry vinaigrette. We used the balsamic that was on the table. The blue cheese was really good. We've requested the crumbled blue cheese previously to add to salads, it's always been an excellent add.

 

 

We then ordered 3 pastas to share, we asked for small, 1/2 sizes: shrimp pappardelle, ravioli and gnocchi. The gnocchi usually comes with braised short ribs, but we opted not to have it. All 3 were very good. The sauce on pappardelle and ravioli was a thick Alfredo that was quite tasty. Since w didn't get the ribs on our gnocchi, it only had a light olive oil dressing, which was perfect. We added a bit of Parmesan cheese which added a nice flavor.

 

By the time our entrees came, we were extremely full. We made our best effort, but couldn't eat all the chicken or bass!! My husband tried his best on the chicken and really enjoyed the dish. I picked at the bass, but it was a bit fishy for me.

 

 

Our sever surprised us with a cake for our Anniversary, what a nice touch. Even though I was completely full, I realized I had been in Italy, but haven't had any gelato. I ordered the Pistachio gelato, a tiny scoop was all I needed. I was glad I ordered it, it was quite tasty.

 

 

 

Our towel animal that night was one of the cutest so far. An adorable monkey.

 

 

 

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[SLOTheta]

Our final night on the ship has arrived. We weren't sure if we were going to stay in Venice for the evening, but our group wanted to have one final dinner together in the MDR. We all couldn't believe our cruise was over. The 1st few days moved slowly, but the last 8 have zipped by. I can see why many people on the ship are staying for the next leg. We totally could have stayed for another 12 days!

 

 

We had our last bottle of Prisoner which we brought from home and shared with the group. There were several people who had bottles left from their navigator package, so we all shared. For a few, they had too many bottles to drink, so they took their bottles with them.

 

Dinner was good. It wasn't as fabulous as the gala night, but my quail was large and tasty. I asked for additional reduction sauce, the tart sauce really accentuated the dish. The shrimp salad was also very good.

 

 

Service has been excellent in the MDR. Our group hasn't been easy to accommodate with our late arrivals and many requests for extra entrees.

 

We once again asked for 1 of every dessert. After the first round, we asked for the crisp again. The key is to remind people to wipe their spoons in their napkins after each rotated dessert.

 

 

Our last night on the ship was capped off perfectly by an hour long fireworks display celebrating the end of the plague - Fest Del Redentore. I've seen a lot of fireworks, this is by far the best. We went up to the top and watched with awe.

 

 

The pictures don't do the fireworks display justice.

 

 

 

 

 

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[rguy123]

Thank you, great review.

[vicd1969]

Your coverage and photos have been outstanding, thank you for the tremendous effort in getting them posted while onboard.