Connie Review - 11 nite E.Med with 2 kids

[Apexgal]

Messina was my other intimidating port only because. I wanted to go to Taormina without spending a fortune on transfers and the idea of a hike to the train to a bus/cab seemed like a lot with 2 kids in tow and a lot of waiting for trains and busses.

 

 

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[MicCanberra]

I loved our time on Santorini, we had a private tour that took us all over the island and with a lunch and wine tasting at a winery. There were 3 other ships (smaller ones) in port as well but we didn't have any issues as the tour guide knew where and when was best to avoid the larger crowds.:D

[Apexgal]

My son is a big greek mythology fan and I really wanted the Acropolis to come to life for him. He was so excited about Athens. I had researched tours and came across a supposed 4-hr family friendly mythological Athens small group tour by Alternative Athens. The company reviewed extremely well and I even found a review of that specific tour from a family with similar aged children. It was supposed to be the highlight of our trip. HA! I call this mistake #3 but this one wasn't truly my fault.

 

We had to be at the Temple of Zeus at 9:30 am for our tour and left our room a little after 8 after our typical port day breakfast on our balcony - a combination of cereal, bananas and bacon from room service and a muffin from Café Al Bacio when my husband made his coffee run to (which never had a line the entire trip).

 

We went with 3 liters of water in the backpack to use as refills, plus 2 regular bottles for us and the kids 2 water bottles. We drank all of that and bought more.

 

The folks on cc seemed to make it out like the X80 bus was the way to go so we tried that. Found the ticket booth at the end of the tour bus parking lot (not a lot of signage). Found the bus stop and waited. For 30 minutes we waited in blazing the hot sun. Finally, a cab pulled up and fearing we would miss our tour we grabbed it chalking up the already purchased unused tickets to lessons learned. In talking with others on the ship - the X80 busses were incredibly crowded and many folks ended up in cabs. At least our cab had free wifi.

 

We met our tour and there were 11 of us. I started getting concerned when we spent an hour at the Temple of Zeus. Our tour guide was incredibly knowledgeable (too much so) but instead of giving us a dynamic family friendly mythological tour of the acropolis, we got the entire history of Greece AND the entire mythological tour. And she was monotone. My kids tolerated her so well because at this point - even I had zoned out. Even an English teacher in the group was bored. Thankfully, she would stop in the shade a lot and give us her history lesson (I'd watch other tours come and go quickly), then we would quickly walk in the sun, take 2 pictures and move on to the next shady spot. After 4 hours, she said there was another hour and a half to go. We settled up, said thank you and headed for the Plakka. My son said it best - if she had just given us the history or the mythology it would have been great but it was just too academic. We got the kids (and us) extra large gelatos for unbelievably good behavior during a horribly boring morning.

 

We (and surprisingly the kids) were disappointed that our ticket didn't cover the acropolis museum and we seriously thought about going but after 6 hours in the sun, we were all spent and just wanted to get back to the ship quickly. We didn't even try to find the X80 stop and just hailed a cab. Best 20E we spent.

 

I can't begin to describe how hot it was. Some of the folks in our group had one small bottle of water. At one point, I realized I was getting woozy and pulled out my electrolyte replacement and squirted it in the family's water bottles. Kids loved it. I hated it but drank it. I think it saved me from passing out at the top.

 

This was my second trip to Athens and I've traveled a lot of places in the world. It continues to be my least favorite.

 

We crashed back on the ship. We had now had 3 very hot days in the sun and were zapped. Honestly I cannot remember what we did for dinner or that afternoon other than nap. The kids some how mustered enough energy to go out to the kids club as usual.

 

Up next - Turkey

[Von & John]

The reviews are great!! We loved Santorini & started the day in Oia as well, on Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday. All the restaurants were grilling young sheep (we asked if they were lambs & were told "young sheep") - the smell was amazing!! We didn't stay in Oia long enough to sample - these were planned for later in the day.

[dutchclogs]

We actually stayed on the ship in Athens as this is also our least favourite port of call as well. The sun is brutal at this time of year. Have you seen the New Acropolis museum? I'd suggest that if you ever return your son would love it. It's a pity that your guided tour wasn't shorter to be able to combine the two.

[MicCanberra]

The reviews are great!! We loved Santorini & started the day in Oia as well, on Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday. All the restaurants were grilling young sheep (we asked if they were lambs & were told "young sheep") - the smell was amazing!! We didn't stay in Oia long enough to sample - these were planned for later in the day.

 

It was wonderful wasn't it (we were on the same cruise), the skewers with all the parts was even an better smelling meal. We got to have some at the winery lunch.:D

[Iamthesea]

Loving this review!

 

We have never taken our children to Europe. Nothing against your decision to take your own children, but I realize now that we did the right thing waiting to take our children until ours are adults. ;) Actually, we didn't even get to see Europe until our children were in college! Now we are trying to figure out a good time to take our adult children...without the grandchildren! :D

 

DH and I agree about Athens. Wonderful the first time, but we have no desire to go back unless it happens to be on the schedule of the cruise we are taking.

 

We love Santorini! Have been there twice in the past 10 years. Most recently about 5 years ago. I cannot imagine that it would have changed so much. We timed it so that we were pratically the only cruise passengers in Oia. And by the time we took a quick bus ride half way to Fira (walked the rest of the way), all the cruise passengers had left the island. DH and I had a sunset drink high up above the caldera and then walked the path down - along side the donkeys.

[MVPinBoynton]

Thank you for the most informative review, especially for those with kids. I know so many people that won't travel internationally for so many years because they have young children. You have shown that it can be better than most expect.

 

We felt the same way about Athens. During our first visit there on a land tour, there was a major garbage strike. The place was filthy and smelly. We had no desire to return there. During a port stop there in 2004, we took a tour to Cape Sounion to avoid going into the city. With the improvements made in Athens for the Olympics, what we did see of the city looked much better. So when we were there for a port stop in 2007, we took a private tour and thoroughly enjoyed our visit. It was so much better than the first time; plus he took us to less popular tourist attractions.

 

We will be back in Athens before a cruise in October. I am looking forward to it, since we will be staying in a hotel in the Plaka and just relaxing and walking around. With the much milder weather than we have experienced there in the summer, it should be much more enjoyable.

[villauk]

I know I may be in the minority, but Santorini just didn't do it for me. I was expecting to be wowed and it just didn't happen. Oia was pretty, however personally, I much preferred visiting Kotor in Montenegro (where we visited last year and I was wowed :)).

 

For those who have visited Athens previously, ferrying to one the islands such as Aegina is also an option from Piraeus :).

 

Our kids have been cruising Europe for years, and have included many of their experiences in their school work. Well done to the OP for letting them experience such wonderful sights.

Edited August 25, 2016 by villauk

[Route6A]

My husband and I toured Athens with Jordan Daioglou. He has a very comfortable Mercedes sedan and is a charming, knowledgeable resident of Athens. Jordan met us at the port in the morning and took us to important sites before the busloads of tourists arrived. I recommend him highly. This is a comfortable, pleasant way to tour Athens. We visited in the fall, when the weather is pleasant. You can check out Jordan's reviews on a number of Internet review sites. Hope this helps someone in planning.

 

Enjoying your review. Your children are very good travelers as is our son.

[Von & John]

It was wonderful wasn't it (we were on the same cruise), the skewers with all the parts was even an better smelling meal. We got to have some at the winery lunch.:D

 

Mic - since this was our first visit to Santorini, we wanted to visit Fira as well. Otherwise - would have loved to wait for the food in the restaurants @ Oia!! With John still recovering from his broken hip - we had an easy day & enjoyed the tram ride down. Santorini & Crete are 2 islands we'd like to return to on a land visit :)

[Apexgal]

The Turkey debate. To go or not to go.

 

The ship was scheduled to dock in Kusadasi, Turkey. Before the coup, we had arranged for a private tour through Ephesus Shuttle to see Ephesus of course. Again - they required no down payment only a request that if we were going to cancel, we do so with 24 hours notice. When the coup occurred, there was a lot of discussion on the roll call as to whether the ship would dock and if you would feel comfortable getting off.

 

This to me was a personal decision. Only I know what I feel comfortable with. We opted to cancel our tour and I'm glad we did for reason's other than the coup.

 

We did however get up early and walk into the grand bazaar (which was empty) to see the authentic fake watches, taste fresh Turkish delight, have a Turkish coffee and let the boys watch a small carpet demo (zero pressure). They got to see how businesses were almost all male-run and heard a Muslim call to prayer. The Turkish people could not have been friendlier. Clearly they had lost much business to all of the ships cancelling their tours. It was a short visit but they got a different perspective on the world.

 

Obviously there were no issues for those who chose to go on tours. However, we had just done 3 days of extremely hot ruins and this day was supposed to be the hottest with the least shade. I think another day may have been our breaking point if we had gone. Yes we were disappointed but there will be other trips.

 

I was happy to visit the spa, the kids went to a mostly empty pool (many folks were on board though) and we played some family card games on the balcony while we watched the red security boats patrol around us.

 

The spa itself was ok - but the massage was great. The Persian Gardens were like a dark wet dungeon and I had not worn a bathing suit so a few of the options weren't available to me.

 

That evening, my husband and I had arranged for dinner with Oceanliners. We told the Fun Factory that they kids would be arriving at 6 for their dinner - they were supposed to charge me $6 per kid for an hour but never did. This was the only meal we ate without them, despite protests that they wanted to go back for dinner. They took them up to a dedicated kids section in the Oceanview and they had hot dogs and hamburgers. I'm sure they could have had anything but though my kids are good eaters when faced with a hamburger and fries or roast beef and mashed potatoes - of course they are going to choose the burger. Then they walked them over to the ice cream section and they got dessert.

 

My dinner was way better than theirs. We had requested a table by the window and were lucky enough to get it though the restaurant was far from full. The service and the food was exquisite and I'm a huge foodie. I couldn't decide between the mushroom cappuccino and the scallop wellington to start and they suggested we just have an extra soup course. My husband was completely fine with that and had the lobster bisque (mine was better).

 

They also presented us with a ridiculously priced wine menu and when we mentioned that we had the classic package and would prefer to stick with those options, it was no trouble at all.

 

We shared the chateaubriand which said tableside preparation but really it was just carved tableside - we enjoyed the flambé action from other tables. And then the soufflé for dessert - amazing. It was all perfectly portioned so I wasn't overly full when we finished - even with my extra soup.

 

It definitely was a lengthy dinner but I never felt like I was waiting on anyone. It was just relaxing and well timed. It does take a while to eat that many courses.

 

Up next - Sea Day 2 - Rock and Roll!

[TeaBag]

We also stayed on the ship the last time we were in Athens. I can't imagine 4 hours, even in the shade, listening to someone droning on.....................

[MicCanberra]

Mic - since this was our first visit to Santorini, we wanted to visit Fira as well. Otherwise - would have loved to wait for the food in the restaurants @ Oia!! With John still recovering from his broken hip - we had an easy day & enjoyed the tram ride down. Santorini & Crete are 2 islands we'd like to return to on a land visit :)

 

Yeah, we actually had the lamb about 3 hours after we left Oia and were on the other side of the island at a winery. We got to look around Fira as well. We were very lucky as it was a wonderful cruise with great weather.:D

[brekat1]

I am loving this review :) My two children are the exact ages of yours , I have a 9 year old son and a 5 (almost 6) year old daughter and I agree that there are not enough family reviews for Celebrity. So far we have only cruised Alaska with both kids but we are doing the South Caribbean with them in December and I have the Baltics in mind for next year potentially. Anyhow, thank you so much for taking the time to write your Europe review :)

[easyboy]

Thanks for the review.

[Apexgal]

At this point, we'd been gone a while and we had been waiting for the "all you can stuff laundry challenge". I had heard it definitely was on a 12-night but not always on a 7 night so I wasn't certain it was on an 11 night. We had one more night before I was going to have to do a per-piece wash! I didn't wash anything "special". The kids clothes was a lot of it (they were less likely to be able to re-wear theirs - tho they surprised me and it helped that I only let them get gelato in a cup for the first half of the trip) and unmentionables made up most of my bag. Our socks from all those dusty ruins were hideous! I'm proud to say, I stuffed 57 pieces of laundry in that bag (rolled up tight). And 2 days later, 2 bags of laundry appeared on my bed. $45 well spent.

 

It took me about an hour to get all that sorted and I sent the kids and hubby to one of the historical talks by the Ph.D. I was shocked that my kids (especially the older one) loved the "talks". These weren't the "go shop here in port" talks but rather more the history of Rome talks.

 

About this time the captain came on and gave his morning talk and said we had beautiful weather and calm seas to zip across the med. HA!

 

The small swells we had in the morning, turned into large swells and a sea full of whitecaps. My hubby who never gets sea sick was green and headed back to the room by lunch. Shortly thereafter, the kids were starting to feel the affects so we hid out watching the Olympics. Apparently, so did most of the boat. The waves got progressively worse as the day went on and by dinner our second "evening chic" night - waves were washing onto the 4th floor, some hitting the 5th and there was no water left in the pools because it had all splashed out. From the aft we could see the front of the ship rise up and then crash down as the back rose up to ride the waves. It was the worst day I've ever been on a ship. I had never noticed those rails in the hallways until I needed them because you could not walk a straight line. I brought back bland food for everyone to eat what they could for dinner. I heard the dining room was a ghost town at dinner.

 

Since we did nothing this day - I'll take a minute to address a few things around the ship.....the entertainment. This to me is the only spot where Celebrity really doesn't shine at all. The evening shows were awful, save for 2-nights they brought in acts - the winner of Britain's got talent and another comedian/mind reader. Normally we would have taken the kids to the big production shows but we had been spoiled on Royal Caribbean and these just didn't measure up.

 

They had some ok lounge acts (singing off ipad lyrics) but the entertainment in the evening was severely lacking if you just couldn't watch the shows. There were a few game show types but all in all - disappointing. Before about 10 pm the casino was pretty empty.

 

From a kids perspective - if they aren't into the kids club - there was very little for them on this ship. We knew this going in and were fine because it was a port heavy trip and the down time we did have, we spent recovering. There was 1 late night PG13 movie (after 10 pm so not for us). One ping pong table and a set of corn hole. No shuffleboard (a disappointment) and other than the 1 hour of family programing by the kids club - not much else. (they did have the Olympics on 24/7 at the back of 1 lounge).

 

I doubt I'd take this ship somewhere where there were more sea days. At the same time, my hubby and I never felt like we "had" to be somewhere because we didn't want to miss the opening time for ice skating or we had to line up early for a show or get to the rock wall before it gets too hot. Not having to live by that kind of stress, was very enjoyable.

 

Also - a note about the kids club - my eldest son has a rare medical condition that is not recognizable when you just see him. They were completely cool when we explained it. Listened closely, asked good questions and happily handed us a pager for the duration of the trip. To compare, Royal Caribbean has only ever handed us a phone while he was in the kids club. We'd check him in, get the phone and hand it back over when we checked him out. Having the pager was peace of mind. A couple of times we would leave him for 30 min or so here and there in the cabin and he knew if something came up, he could page us. As a side note - he could page from any phone on the ship and the location of the phone would come up and we would know where he was.

 

Funny enough - the only time the kids club used the pager was on my younger son on this day. We had put him in for about an hour while we did a slot pull with the roll call. But the rocking at the top at the front of the ship in the kids club was so bad he started to feel worse.

 

Up next: Our favorite - Malta!

[Taylor D]

I love reading your review because we were on that ship the week before your cruise. We had not cruised with Celebrity before and had never been to Europe.

 

We loved the entertainment, the production shows were really good. Their were just two nights we skipped the show that did not look good to us. But we did not have kids with us so I'm sure what we liked may not be what was for your family.

 

The ship would be a bit boring with more sea days, we just had one and even with that there was no where to lay around the pool. We were very surprised with the amount of kids on our cruise but it was right in the middle of summer and they were all very nice.

 

We had dinner in the MDR each night and loved the food each night. Over all we loved the ship the cruise and Celebrity over all. We are planning to go back and hit Greece in 2018 and Celebrity will be our first choice so I will be following your review with great interest.

[Apexgal]

Before this cruise, I'll admit, I really hadn't heard much about Malta. After this cruise, I could spend a week there happily. It was a perfect mix of history and beaches and big city and was beautiful (though very brown) to boot.

 

Once I got to planning, I wanted to do it all. Originally we were going to take the public bus to the blue grotto and then over to Mdina. As I looked more, I found a full day excursion (very reasonably priced) on Sea Adventures that took you over to Comino and snorkeling and swimming in gorgeous clear (though slightly chilly for us) water. Can't imagine swimming there much earlier than August but my southern blood is used to warm oceans!

 

The boat was awesome and had an underwater viewing area, two slides off the back for when it was anchored and a diving platform. Let me first say - my kids are both on swim team and even the 5 year old can snorkel. My hubby and I are also strong swimmers. If they weren't strong swimmers, this would not have been nearly as fun as we wouldn't have been able to use the features on the boat because we did a lot of treading water at times. They had snorkels for rent but and we rented an adult one. We had brought along a kid version (mask and snorkel only) because we've found those are often hard to find for kids that fit comfortably for small faces and we all took turns with 2.

 

They anchored at Blue Lagoon which gets ridiculously crowded and isn't the sandy Caribbean beach you are used to - its very rocky which the kids thought was awesome (the Keens came in very handy here). We rented one chair and one umbrella on the beach which did have a large shallow walk in but the chairs were more like packed place with chairs together on rocks. We did this mainly so that when the boat left for 30 minutes to take some folks to another stop that we hadn't paid for - we had access to our things we needed - though we later learned we could have just stayed with the boat for the ride.

 

They also provided transport to and from the ship for an extra 5E pp. Food (hotdogs, hamburgers, chicken) was available on the ship and on the island. The kids jumped off cliffs, swam in caves, hunted for sea glass and hiked around on rocks. What a fun day!

 

By the time we got back to the ship, it was about 6:45, we were starving and clearly we had missed the MDR. Many folks were off the ship dining in Malta so we went to the Oceanview dressed more afternoon casual than evening casual. Finally tried the stir-fry station - this was my favorite spot in the Oceanview (aside from the ice cream).

 

This happened to be the eve of the culmination of the Feast of the Assumption in Malta which is a National Holiday (the next day) and 7 towns in Malta pride themselves on a fireworks show to end the 2 week festival. Most of our roll call was headed in cabs to the fireworks but knowing it would be a crowded late night (after 11) we stayed on the ship. However we were in for a treat - because from our vantage first the top deck and then we realized from our balcony - we could see 3 of the displays - that went on well past 11. They were firework displays like I've never seen - simply amazing! Even the servers in the restaurants were taking turns slipping out to watch for a few moments. A magical end to a great day.

 

Up next - More Malta!

[Apexgal]

We knew that this day was a public holiday and had seen many of the decorations in various villages on the way to the snorkeling trip the day before but had had a hard time getting a handle on what would and wouldn't be open ahead of time. Many of the churches and main sites of Valletta we had researched had indicated they would be closed. So our plan was to walk into Valletta and we had a few parks and gardens highlighted on our map and figured we would just see what the day brought.

 

On our way out of the port, a horsedrawn carriage cab offered us 60E for a 1 hour tour around town. We politely declined and kept walking. The more we walked, the lower he went and at 30E we decided to take him up on the offer. This was a good decision. He took us around Valletta, allowed us to stop and take photos and he pointed out some unique points of interest.

 

The final stop was at the bottom of a hill that would take us into the central business area but also happened to be a block from Fort St. Elmo and the National War Museum. And it was actually open! Apparently few folks expected it to be open and we had the place to ourselves. We spoke to others on the ship who had expected it to be closed (and its a good hike though doable from the ship) so they hadn't even tried. Had the horse-cab not dropped us off, we likely wouldn't have ventured that far.

 

The kids loved seeing all of the armory, guns, ammo, swords and they had some great short movies detailing the history of Malta from the 1500s to the 1980s. You walked from building to building (all air conditioned) until the end. The kids loved it.

 

We started our trip back into town in search of lunch and so much was closed for the holiday. All of the shops were closed aside from the tourist magnet/cup shops (it looked like I could have spent significant time here in the others) but we found a small pizzeria with free wifi with some of the best food we had eaten. We chatted with the owner and learned he had just moved to Malta from Rome and was so kind to the kids, bringing them a complimentary bowl of chips to munch on and free ice cream cones at the end.

 

Now our pre-downloaded google maps had navigated us through the winding streets of Venice but this was the one time Google Maps failed us. Some of the streets were closed and some streets were just stairs (Malta is very hilly) and we kept hitting a dead end. Realizing we really just needed to get down, we took a set of stairs and eventually found the waterfront and walked straight to the ship.

 

We arrived back in the room to find all of our laundry on the bed. The whites weren't exactly bright but they were no longer dirty either. Tonight's MDR surprised everyone with a 3rd evening chic night. Since we were less than 12 days, we expected only 2 chic nights but we weren't sure if they had opted to add an extra night since the 2nd night had been on the day we had such bad weather. There were some repeat outfits but everyone was well dressed.

 

The afternoon was spent taking turns at the adult pool (conveniently located directly under the Fun Factory making drop off and pick up a breeze) and then it was time to get ready for dinner.

 

We arrived a few minutes early for our traditional pre-dinner drink in the Rendezvous lounge and listen to the live music. I always tried to get there earlier to really enjoy but it always seemed the best we could do was to get there by 6 (dinner was at 615). But bar service was quick and tasty! The kids would sit quietly and listen to the music or watch out the windows.

 

Another negative about Celebrity is the lack of a bar menu. They had a few drinks listed that were premium only - I'd say less than 10. So if you didn't know what you wanted or wanted to try new things, you really needed to know ahead of time. A couple of times I would tell the bartender what I liked and they would surprise me. These were some of my best drinks!

 

Up next - Sicily and cannoli!

[Apexgal]

I love reading your review because we were on that ship the week before your cruise. We had not cruised with Celebrity before and had never been to Europe.

 

We loved the entertainment, the production shows were really good. Their were just two nights we skipped the show that did not look good to us. But we did not have kids with us so I'm sure what we liked may not be what was for your family.

 

The ship would be a bit boring with more sea days, we just had one and even with that there was no where to lay around the pool. We were very surprised with the amount of kids on our cruise but it was right in the middle of summer and they were all very nice.

 

We had dinner in the MDR each night and loved the food each night. Over all we loved the ship the cruise and Celebrity over all. We are planning to go back and hit Greece in 2018 and Celebrity will be our first choice so I will be following your review with great interest.

 

We had been told that the week before had 500 kids - double the number we had but because it was getting later in August the number of kids would be dwindling. I think like food - production shows are personal taste. If we hadn't done the RC Freedom of the Seas last year, I think I would have liked them a lot more. But Freedom spoiled us on shows.

[workstocruise]

I have been enjoying your review very much mostly because we sail on the Connie in about 4 weeks to some of the same ports. Our cruise departs from Venice. I have to comment on the food and entertainment. You are right in that these two things are subject to each one's taste. We first sailed on the Connie six months after we sailed on the Allure of the Seas. As you can imagine the entertainment on the Allure was amazing! We saw Chicago as well as all the other wonderful shows that were offered. The Allure is an incredible ship, so when we booked the Constellation it was for the itinerary, we did a Baltic cruise on her which is at the top of our favorite cruises. I was worried for weeks before we left that all of us (we sailed with same friends on both cruises) would be so disappointed in this small and old ship versus the big,new and amazing Allure. Well I worried needlessly. The Connie was incredible from the Captain and his crew, to the excellent food in the MDR to the fantastic production shows in the theatre. I can only hope the next cruise will be as good as the first!

[MicCanberra]

Looking forward to reading about your pot stop at sicily.

[mrsgoggins]

I'm enjoying your review very much as this was one of the itineraries we did last year on the Connie.

 

I just wanted to comment on the entertainment since last year we did a 7-night Greek cruise (we added it on as it was a great deal), followed by the 11 night, which is the one we had really wanted to do. The entertainment the first week was so much better than the second. Obviously the production shows were the same but in terms of guest acts and also passenger participation - flash mob dances etc. You can just never tell! But I must admit I was not looking at it through the eyes of having children along.

 

Additionally, the CD last summer on the Connie was the wonderful Alejandro, who happily was also on our Equinox cruise this year. Previously I would not have thought that would have made much difference to me, but surprisingly it did because I thought him hilarious.

 

Thanks for taking the time to put this together. I am researching for next year with family and our grandchildren who will be 5 and 7. At the moment, a 7 night RCL cruise out of Venice is in the lead.

[Moonraker7]

Really enjoying your review. Single, no kids but on Connie in November!! Are both the pools saltwater? Thanks!