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Still on the Riviera (yay!)


BigNance
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Day 4 

Santorini😍😍

 

I woke up at 6:30 for no apparent reason. I looked out of the balcony curtains and saw that we were coming into the caldera/Harbor of Santorini! That’s what woke me up! Santorini calling my name! It was just before dawn and I woke up my DH, since he is all about taking pics.  

 

I thought  we might sit on our balcony, sipping room service decaf cappuccino while watching the sunrise. No. 

We had to get dressed and dash up to Deck 15 to photograph the sunrise. 🙄

 

i have to admit, it was gorgeous!! There were a few people out at that time, also with cameras. Since we weren’t going to be here for sunset, we were happy to see sunrise!!

 

By the time we finished with our photographic endeavor, The Terrace Cafe buffet was open. Their breakfasts are excellent. I haven’t had to wait for custom cooked eggs behind more than 2-3 people, so that delay has been tolerable.  Today we scored an outside table and just enjoyed our breakfast view! 

 

We we tendered over at about 9:15, and by that time, they had open tenders. We didn’t rush for an early tender, because we were enjoying our breakfast view!

 

we did our own thing in Santorini, wandering the streets of Fira, taking a bazillion pictures.  We were going to take a public bus to Oia, but GFM wanted a private driver and someone to tell us what was what. We found a place on the way to the Main Street and set up a ride quickly. By this time it was 12:15 and the last tender was at 3:30. We had to get a move on! 

 

The views from Oia (and of Oia) were incredible!  We were very fortunate and our earlier forecast of clouds, 50-60 degrees, overcast, etc. never materialized. It was blue skies and sunshine and 70’s all day. Perfect for pictures!!  Santorini is really picturesque and we would like to return for a stay of several days. In the future....

 

We returned to Fira by 2:30 and DH HAD to buy a few souvenirs and have fig gelato. Once we tracked that down, it was getting close to missing the boat time and I had to nag and drag him to the cable car. Our original plan was to walk down the donkey path, but it was too late. Darn.  We weren’t on the last tender, but it was close. 

 

Once back on the ship, we headed for our go to bar, Martinis, for a reviving adult beverage. It was delightful!  The bartenders there are very friendly and make very good cocktails. One seems to be very knowledgeable on the subject of mixology and he gave us some interesting info on the XO’a and mixing in general. He wouldn’t let me create a cocktail with 5 ingredients. He said the taste would be off and the flavors would clash. 😱

Ao I requested a margarita using Gran Centenair (sp) tequila😁

 

By this time our friends had moved on to the pool deck and texted us to come up because They had snagged 2 of the big “bed” loungers by the band. I have been admiring these all week, but either they were occupied, or we were running around.  Off we went!  These thing are great!  Lounging around is easy with all that room!  Next stop, Jacques!

 

I had my doubts, but Jacques delivered. Everything we had there was excellent! Warm fois Gras, cold fois Gras, Coquille St Jacques, bouillabaisse (outstanding), French onion soup (amazing). The positive reviews I have read are spot on. Go there. 

 

I will say that I made our reservations as soon as I could on line (30 days out, 12:01 AM.  At that time, for 4 people, all I could get were 6 PM reservations. Fortunately, that is our preference. People making reservations on the ship had availability, but they were getting 8 or 8:30 time slots. I was in line the first day to try to change one of our reservations and could

hear what the people in line ahead of me were requesting. 

 

After dinner we went to the Production cast show in the Riviera Lounge.  It is a new cast and they are good! The female lead singer has a great voice! Their show was a tribute to Burt Bacharach’s music. The band/orchestra behind them is also very talented. We enjoyed it, but were slipping into food comas, so we left to return to our room. 

 

On the way, we were snagged in the Martini bar by “Name that Tune” trivia by the piano player.  We did stay and play and laughed a lot! The piano player gave extra points for singing along and dancing, so it was quite hilarious. We didn’t win, but we weren’t too bad. 

 

After a brief scan. for those evasive art scavenger hunt items, we retired. I checked the weather for Kefalonia the next

day. 60’s and 100% chance of rain. All day 😭😭😭

until the next time.   

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Love following along on your trip.  We'll be on our first Oceania cruise next month.  Won't be as exotic as yours as we'll be in the Caribbean but very excited to go.  Keep up enjoying and posting.  Thanks for taking the time to do it!

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Day 5 

Kefalonia 

(although we are on day 7, on our delayed way to Kings Landing, I mean Dubrovnik)

But I am getting ahead of myself..

 

Anyway, the forecast for Kefalonia was not good. But, we lucked out and it was cloudy early on, no rain, and then we got sunny skies and 70’s temps!!

 

I had arranged ahead of time for a taxi for 4 with Kefalonia Taxi Tours. Fanis met us on time with a printed sign with my name on it.

 

He took us to Mellissani Lake, Dragorati cave(spectacular!), Sami Port town, Agios Efithrmia resort town, and Myrtis Beach. All of the views were gorgeous, he stopped wherever we wanted to take pics, and he gave us a running commentary on the sights, the country, and things in general. 

 

We had a terrific day at a very good price.  If you have a party of 4 and several of your party are large individuals, you may want to ask for a little larger size car.  I definitely recommend them for a tour around the island. 

 

Upon our return, we hit Martinis for some Martinis and Baggo and OPoints. I actually scored higher than DH (never happens!)

I’m guessing with our huge (not) collection of O Points we will be able to get a luggage tag😁😁

 

After another reviving adult beverage, we went back to the cabin to prepare for dinner at Toscana.

 

Dinner at Toscana was terrific!  I loved their dinner ware!! All the food was delicious!  DH ordered cioppino, and numerous appetizers. GFM(good friend make) ordered osso bucco and said it was very good.  I cannot remember what I ordered or what GFF (good friend female) ordered. That’s the problem with doing this two days later and not making notes😡

im sure the premium beverage package hasn’t helped 😬

 

The food was well prepared and beautifully presented. I have seen comments stating that it’s all red sauce and pasta. I didn’t find that to be the case. And red sauce and pasta are good things, in my world anyway😍

 

We managed to squeeze in a brain teasers trivia contest before the evening musical performance and tied for third. More O points ( and evidence that we are smarter than a fourth grader-barely😜)!!

 

We enjoyed the production cast’s performance of ABBA songs and the headliner, Samantha Ivey, was great! 

 

We did a little more searching for art clues and turned in. Getting up at 5 AM is killing our late night life!

 

Tomorrow Kotor and the sail in!!

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Yes, Kotor is an absolutely beautiful sail in. 

 

I noticed a lot of the cruises are not going there in 19 or 20, whichever current circular I was looking at. I wonder why? We really like Kotor. 

 

Thanks for your review. 

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4 hours ago, StanandJim said:

lovely to read this review-

Chatty, witty, informational and  above all, obviously written with a smile.

Thank you! That’s quite a compliment from y’all!  I love y’all’s comments on everything! 

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Love reading your posts....very informative. I know what you mean about Dubrovnik...lovely spot but if you walked the wall I feel your pain. Wonderful, wonderful views thankfully make up for the walk and stairs.

we are on the Rivera end of November..can I please ask you about the bathroom. We have sailed on the Marina but we can’t recall the bathroom. Are the tubs separate from the shower or is it  combo? As well, wonder if there are grab bars to steady oneself while getting in the shower?

Many many thanks if you can reply to my questions.

Look forward to reading the rest of your posts...most enjoyable.

Liz

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Thank you Liz! 

 

The shower and tub are separate. The shower does NOT have grab bars, but it is fairly tight quarters in there, so there isn’t that much room to fall!  The tub has a shower piece in it as well. That DOES have 2 grab bars. 

 

Between the climb up the mountain in Kotor and the walk on the wall in Dubrovnik, my calves are crying!!

Which leads to.......

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13 hours ago, BigNance said:

Thank you Liz! 

 

The shower and tub are separate. The shower does NOT have grab bars, but it is fairly tight quarters in there, so there isn’t that much room to fall!  The tub has a shower piece in it as well. That DOES have 2 grab bars. 

 

Between the climb up the mountain in Kotor and the walk on the wall in Dubrovnik, my calves are crying!!

Which leads to.......

We walked all the way to the top of the fort in Kotor, I feel your pain. Our calves hurt for days. 

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Day 6

Kotor Montenegro

As we were leaving Kefalonia, the Captain announced that we were trying to avoid some bad weather, So we were going to do a fast run, nearer to shore because we were still going to hit some high winds and large swells (4-5 meters😱). We were expecting 50 knot winds at our back. Sorry, I’m not sure of the nautical expression for that!

 

Our GFF was very concerned, because she was having a little trouble with the current ocean motion and was afraid the worsening conditions might incapacitate her. Whatever the Captain did, it seemed to work for us, because the overnight ride was not bad  at all. Also, it got us to Kotor an hour earlier. And, how about that sail in!!

 

The weather was heavy clouds and windy, but that made the views dramatic!  I can imagine that seeing all that lovely scenery in the sunlight with blue skies would be very awesome!  

 

We were up on Deck 15 taking many pictures as we sailed to Kotor. It is pretty spectacular!  We were supposed to tender into Kotor, but we ended up docking there. Yay!  The folks on Marina were anchored a fair ways out!! 

 

The Terrace Cafe had a seafood buffet for lunch, so we decided to try that before heading ashore. It was decent, but not as good as the Greek Market dinner they had after we left Santorini. 

 

The day was overcast with the threat of rain. When reading about Kotor before the trip(yes, I’m one of those-see Compulsive Cruise  prep thread🤣🤣) I wanted to climb up the Upper Town walls up the mountain to Our Lady of Health church and then to St Johns Fortress.

 

When they say it is for the physically fit, they aren’t joking. We are in our 60’s and in ok shape, but haven’t been to the gym in 8 months. We did it with frequent rest stops (also known as photo opportunities). It was magnificent!! I’m really glad we did it. There were quite a few people from the cruise ship that did it, some young, some not. We enjoyed the views, caught our breath, rested our knees, and headed back to the town. It took us an 1 1/2 to get up and 45 mins to get down. It started raining as soon as we reached the town. We took that as a sign and returned to the ship and our favorite bar, Martinis. After several libations and team trivia (we did not place) we returned to our cabin to get ready for dinner. We went to the Terrace buffet and greatly enjoyed it. The grill section is very good and the selection of everything else is pretty tasty. There were a few items we came across that we didn’t care for, but I think that was personal preference. 

 

After dinner we embarrassed ourselves at Team Trivia and then caught the comedian, Mel Mellars again. He is very funny!!

 

We went back to our cabin immediately after, since we were worn out from our exertions on the wall! Also, we intended to walk the wall in Dubrovnik. 

 

On the weather front, we were originally supposed to depart Kotor at midnight, but due to some massive storm further north, the Captain said we would stay overnight and leave at 5 AM. When I awoke at 5:30, we were still in port and the wind was blowing at a very high speed. We eventually left at 7 ish. The Captain said the winds had been blowing at 70 knots, which prevented us leaving. 😱 I would say so!!

 

This pushed our arrival in Dubrovnik back some, but the Captain said he would try to make it up.   And next is Day....

 

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7!!

 

After a somewhat rolling beginning out of the Kotor waterway, things calmed down a little and we cruised in up to Dubrovnik.  We were VERY fortunate and we had blue skies and sunshine. It was a gorgeous day! After checking forecasts the 2 weeks before we left and seeing rain almost every day, I was a tad worried. We only had 2 cloudy/drizzly days out of 10! 

 

I am am not joking when I tell you that I lit candles in the churches we visited on the way through our ports!  In Thanks!

 

Oceania bussed is to the Old City, Pile Gate. They had 6 shuttles going back and forth, supposedly all day. I can say they were there for us in the morning and waiting by the gate at 3.30 when I dragged DH away from the numerous photogenic spots in that beautiful place!

 

We arrived at the gate and immediately went in to buy tickets for the wall walk. It was spectacular!!  It took us about 2 hours with stops for photos, selfies, beer, etc. Everywhere you turn there is a magnificent vista or an interesting look into the town.  We enjoyed it immensely!! Of course, after climbing up to the fortress in Kotor the day before, my legs were turning into quivering masses of jelly. 

 

After the wall, we didn’t have a ton of time left, so we just walked around the old city. I would have liked to take the cable car up for that view, but we couldn’t do everything!  And, we did get some good Kings Landing shots from the high points on the wall!

 

Upon our return to the ship, we headed straight for Martinis for some martinis (and margaritas, my drink of choice!). We tested our brains with Trivia again (you would think we learned our lesson the first 5 times), and I think we played Baggo again.  Just keeping busy!

 

we decided to try the main dining room, since we  had gone in for breakfast and liked it. It is a pretty room, very quiet, and not rushed. Our meals were very good and the atmosphere was a plus. It does take an hour or more. But, they are trying for a relaxed dining experience, it seems to me, not a “wolf down your food and rush off” experience 😜

 

That night was the last production night and the Halloween Party. We (well, I) had every intention of attending both, but we could not stay awake and headed off to a very early bedtime! 

 

By this time we heard heard about the flooding in Venice and were interested to see what our day would be like....

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As I re-read these posts/comments, I see wierd typos (which I am going to blame on autocorrect), bizarre spacing, etc. 

 

i do apologize. I am doing this on my cell mostly late in the evening, and I didn’t catch a lot of errors!

 

 

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2 hours ago, CruisingCleo said:

Don’t worry about that. We are all enjoying your review and looking forward to the next installment. And we have all had to deal with autocorrect.

Are you also on board for the leg to Barcelona?

No. Unfortunately! We had to return for work! I’m hoping that area is in the cards for our next cruise! 

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Day 8

😢😢

Last day

We sailed into Venice for a noon arrival. We had been told by several friends  NOT to miss it. So, we didn’t. We figured that it would probably take an hour or more, so we wanted to be on Deck 15 outside (Sports Deck) to see everything. 

 

We had breakfast in the Main dining Room, because DH and GFM found little lamb chops were on the menu for breakfast!! And, since Sail In was later, we had time to sit around and have a leisurely breakfast. Some of us restrained ourselves to a single course, others had more. Much more. Lamb chops abounded at our table. I will admit that I had a WHOLE croissant every morning with breakfast. They were SOOO delicious 😋 

Once we waddled out of the MDR, we went off to pack before Sail In. 

 

I was in the middle of packing when I looked out of our balcony door and saw that we were passing one of the outer barrier islands. Eeek! We dropped everything (literally) and ran up for our usual photo frenzy. Along with a large number of our fellow cruisers. 

 

The weather in Venice had improved markedly!! Sunny and 70’s. Sail in was pretty amazing!! They had Andrea Bocelli playing on the sound system as we Sailed in. 

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Oh Nance Venice every time we go it is breathtaking!! OMG my husband will flip when I tell him of the lamb chops for breakfast!! Thank you for taking us along on your fabulous adventure!

Till the next time fair winds and a smooth sail till we meet again!

HAPPY CRUISING!

Denise😊

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Those of us who are regulars here (such as Stan&Jim and moi, if no one else) rave about the lamb chops at breakfast in the GDR all the time... DH and I always have them several times on a cruise ...

 

Mura

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9 hours ago, DeeniEncinitas said:

Oh Nance Venice every time we go it is breathtaking!! OMG my husband will flip when I tell him of the lamb chops for breakfast!! Thank you for taking us along on your fabulous adventure!

Till the next time fair winds and a smooth sail till we meet again!

HAPPY CRUISING!

Denise😊

We didn’t find them lamb chops til late in the cruise. That is the day we finally had enough time (noon sail in, I believe) to think about the MDR. We had already ordered breakfast when GFM looked at the Menu again and said “oh! Lamb chops! I’m gettin a couple!” Whereupon my DH ordered ditto. It’s a good thing the rest of the cruise was late Sail ins without early excursions, because these two would have made us late!!

 

i can see that anytime you sail into Venice is an event worth viewing. I’m hoping for return trips! 

 

I did do a Venice Part 2, but the draft disappeared. We were in the Frankfurt airport and the service was spotty. 

 

Happy cruising to you and thanks for following along!

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8 hours ago, Mura said:

Those of us who are regulars here (such as Stan&Jim and moi, if no one else) rave about the lamb chops at breakfast in the GDR all the time... DH and I always have them several times on a cruise ...

 

Mura

I have been stalking CC since late last year (getting prepared for our Costa Cruise in the Southeren Indian Ocean, the Madagascar disaster), and have read a lot of your comments (which are always helpful and witty) and StanandJims(also helpful and witty).

 

I must have glossed over the lamb chop part. Or maybe it was sub conscious self preservation 😬.....

needless to say, at breakfast on Day 8 before the Venice Sail In, they were bemoaning their fate, instead of delicious lamb chops and Illy cappuccino for breakfast, they were returning to K-cup coffee and no breakfast at home! 

I then reminded them of the treat of airplane food for the interim😜

 

 

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6 hours ago, ellbon said:

Enjoyed the review. I have done both set   Of stairs. Kotor I felt the next day but I also went up faster. 

My calves still hurt and we sure as heck weren’t fast!! And we did Kotor Monday, Dubrovnik Tuesday. You would think we would have recovered by now!!  It’s Friday!

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