Live (almost) from the Enchanted Princess June 24-July 15 Best of the Mediterranean

[Senga]

@fpsphilIs your last photo Kotor?  Looks gorgeous but there is NO WAY my husband and I would be capable of that climb so thanks for posting what we won't be seeing.  😂

[CalLuvsCrusingToo]

43 minutes ago, Senga said:

@fpsphilIs your last photo Kotor?  Looks gorgeous but there is NO WAY my husband and I would be capable of that climb so thanks for posting what we won't be seeing.  😂

 

Totally agree with you!  If those were all steps? 

Makes climbing Leaning tower of Pisa look like stepping up a curb.

 

[fpsphil]

48 minutes ago, Senga said:

@fpsphilIs your last photo Kotor?  Looks gorgeous but there is NO WAY my husband and I would be capable of that climb so thanks for posting what we won't be seeing.  😂

According to my Apple Watch we climbed 63 flights of stairs. We went all the way to the top and according to maps that’s about 900 foot ascent.

 

You can do the hike to the first church which isn’t that bad and is about 300 feet up.

 

Off to bed have been nodding off tired even after 3 coffees tonight. Thank god we get to sleep in a little tomorrow. This is a full marathon for us cruise wise!

[Ken the cruiser]

6 hours ago, fpsphil said:

Santorini, Sea Day, and Kotor

 

Wow the last few days have been a complete whirlwind with us taking every moment we can just to rest and relax after 6 days of ports in a row. Will start with Santorini day where we took the Discovery Family Oia Village and Beach day. Was a great tour and are extremely grateful we were the 3rd bus at Oia town for the day before it turned into a complete madhouse by the time we left. The beach day was very nice at a restaurant with loungers, a great lunch and a beautiful beach. Got back to Fira town and had a quick bite at Nektar lounge before wondering around town, grabbing souvenirs and checking out the cable car line. Line was pretty long and we wanted to enjoy our last hour there so we ended up hiking down. Was a pleasant hike down and we are happy we did that.

 

Sea day was pretty uneventful. Patter seemed on the light side but we did have a cruise director change in Istanbul and I feel Jason the new CD hasn’t found his groove yet filling in the patter throughout the day.

 

Kotor…. WOW was so impressed. Reminded me of sailing into a port in Norway but with opposite weather. We took the boat out tour to Perast and Boka bay. Again we were extremely lucky as we were the 3rd of 4th boat landing on the island for the day and it was not crowded. After we had finished touring the church there were multiple boats incoming full of ship groups and the island was mobbed by the time we got back on our boat.

 

We were back in old town by 11:30 which gave us time to do the Kotor steps and wow we both almost fainted. We did manage to make it to the top but my legs are already making me regret it.

 

Had some time for a quick beer and some souvenirs before wandering back to the ever growing tender line (we could see it from the top of the stairs). Princess was only using 2 ship tenders and the rest of the small water taxis which made the line crawl. Why they didn’t put more of the high capacity ship ones I’ll never truly understand. Ended up leaving about 45 minutes late due to the lines on the dock.

 

Posting up the Patters and some various pics below!

Just a suggestion regarding your upside down pictures. I usually have good results when I subsequently edit a picture that initially appears upside down when uploaded into my CC thread. I basically go back to my device's Photo Gallery (usually either an iPhone or iPad), edit the picture to include rotating it at least 3 turns, save it, then reupload it to my CC thread. Just a suggestion.

Edited July 4, 2023 by Ken the cruiser

[fpsphil]

3 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Just a suggestion regarding your upside down pictures. I usually have good results when I subsequently edit a picture that initially appears upside down when uploaded into my CC thread. I basically go back to my device's Photo Gallery (usually either an iPhone or iPad), edit the picture to include rotating it at least 3 turns, save it, then reupload it to my CC thread. Just a suggestion.

I’ll try that next photo batch. With the Wi-Fi in the state it’s been for me thus far I usually upload and forget about it.

[Ken the cruiser]

They were such beautiful pictures, I thought I'd flip them for you.

 

 

 

[Bridgestone66]

One last request from future cruiser in m107.  Patter doesn’t have menus for the main dining does it?    I guess it will post on the app soon.  Curious so I can plan specialty dining around good nights.  Thanks again I appreciate all the info and pictures.  We will be there soon

 

[Senga]

29 minutes ago, Bridgestone66 said:

Patter doesn’t have menus for the main dining does it?    I guess it will post on the app soon.

 

You won’t see the MDR menus until the actual day and, even then, they aren’t always correct.

[Gwendy]

7 hours ago, fpsphil said:

Santorini, Sea Day, and Kotor

 

Wow the last few days have been a complete whirlwind with us taking every moment we can just to rest and relax after 6 days of ports in a row. Will start with Santorini day where we took the Discovery Family Oia Village and Beach day. Was a great tour and are extremely grateful we were the 3rd bus at Oia town for the day before it turned into a complete madhouse by the time we left. The beach day was very nice at a restaurant with loungers, a great lunch and a beautiful beach. Got back to Fira town and had a quick bite at Nektar lounge before wondering around town, grabbing souvenirs and checking out the cable car line. Line was pretty long and we wanted to enjoy our last hour there so we ended up hiking down. Was a pleasant hike down and we are happy we did that.

 

Sea day was pretty uneventful. Patter seemed on the light side but we did have a cruise director change in Istanbul and I feel Jason the new CD hasn’t found his groove yet filling in the patter throughout the day.

 

Kotor…. WOW was so impressed. Reminded me of sailing into a port in Norway but with opposite weather. We took the boat out tour to Perast and Boka bay. Again we were extremely lucky as we were the 3rd of 4th boat landing on the island for the day and it was not crowded. After we had finished touring the church there were multiple boats incoming full of ship groups and the island was mobbed by the time we got back on our boat.

 

We were back in old town by 11:30 which gave us time to do the Kotor steps and wow we both almost fainted. We did manage to make it to the top but my legs are already making me regret it.

 

Had some time for a quick beer and some souvenirs before wandering back to the ever growing tender line (we could see it from the top of the stairs). Princess was only using 2 ship tenders and the rest of the small water taxis which made the line crawl. Why they didn’t put more of the high capacity ship ones I’ll never truly understand. Ended up leaving about 45 minutes late due to the lines on the dock.

 

Posting up the Patters and some various pics below!

Know how you feel, did. Barcelona to Athens in April.  So port intensive, but such wonderful ports.  I had to come home for a holiday. Lol Cruised to Fiji in May, lots of sea days, so different.  Thank you for sharing, brings the memories back.

[fpsphil]

8 hours ago, Senga said:

You won’t see the MDR menus until the actual day and, even then, they aren’t always correct.

We haven’t been eating in the MDR consistently so I always forget to snap pictures. With this port intensive itinerary some days we just want some comfort food and to wander the ship.

[pppatpc2]

14 hours ago, Bridgestone66 said:

One last request from future cruiser in m107.  Patter doesn’t have menus for the main dining does it?    I guess it will post on the app soon.  Curious so I can plan specialty dining around good nights.  Thanks again I appreciate all the info and pictures.  We will be there soon

 

MDR menus can be seen on the app for every night once you board.  You will go to the Dine My Way section - View or book daily reservation and there is a box to click with each nights menu. You have to have a reservation in the MDR to see their menu.  If you have a specialty reservation, it will show you that menu.

[Senga]

1 hour ago, pppatpc2 said:

MDR menus can be seen on the app for every night once you board.  You will go to the Dine My Way section - View or book daily reservation and there is a box to click with each nights menu. You have to have a reservation in the MDR to see their menu.  If you have a specialty reservation, it will show you that menu.

Thanks for that.  Had no idea!

[cruisequeen4ever]

On 7/4/2023 at 9:40 PM, fpsphil said:

No word yet. I’ll ask passenger services but they prob will deflect me to Friday like everything else so far that involves another “segment”

Thank you. I know; they’ll probably wait til we all board Saturday and put out a letter. 

[fpsphil]

34 minutes ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

Thank you. I know; they’ll probably wait til we all board Saturday and put out a letter. 

I will say the news articles have slowed down about the riots so they may be calming down

[fpsphil]

Coming soon to the Discovery but apparently not on the Enchanted yet since no branded merchandise

[fpsphil]

Messina, Naples and a day at Sea

 

Been another exhausting stretch of ports but going to try to get caught up. If I am missing any patters I will be bringing them all home and scanning them when we get back.

 

Got into Messina about 25 minutes early and were off on our tour to Mt Etna and Taormina by 12:05. Unfortunately there was a large wreck on our way down to Etna causing us to have to detour around it. This kind of threw a bunch of wrenches in our timing as by the time we got to Taormina we barely had time to grab a drink at a cafe and buy a quick souvenir. Will skip Etna next time but we wanted to see it was both our first times going up there.

 

Beautiful sail out of Messina at sunset which was fantastic. Will have a couple photos down below.

 

Woke up with some deja vu being back in Naples. Had an independent tour booked through Viator that was taking us to Capri including Blue Grotto. With 3 ships there early in the morning you can imagine the pandemonium as droves of Celebrity passengers were hoarding the ferry dock. Our guide Paola a native of the Capri island was on it though. She arranged for us to be off the ferry first and because of the incoming crowds and the expected weather conditions by late morning she already had a boat waiting with the engine running for the 14 of us to jump into and go to the Blue Grotto. We were through the Blue Grotto by 10 AM and later in the day we found it has closed at noon. Super happy we got to experience one of the most fascinating sights in Capri. Spent the rest of the day enjoying the beautiful but crowded island that was overrun with groups at that point from both Princess and Celebrity.

 

Happy today is a sea day. Going to be laying low and maybe doing some bingo this afternoon. Happy 3 of the next 5 days are sea days so we can recharge a bit.

Also in regards to the Wi-Fi it has only gotten worse for us as the cruise has gone on. Some images in this post failed randomly. Going to try to stop in to talk to the internet manager to ask if there’s a reason they are still using SES over Starlink. He’ll probably shrug but it’s worth the shot. Also will be asking about Marseille this afternoon. 

 

[Bridgestone66]

Thank you so much for taking the time to enter all this.   We have been reading every post in prep for our Oct 7th Enchanted cruise.   Did you have princess prizes?  if so did you win anything .... just curious.   Food quality is good?  Which is your favorite specialty meal.   I have booked Crown and looking for a second.  Thanks agian.

[fpsphil]

11 minutes ago, Bridgestone66 said:

Thank you so much for taking the time to enter all this.   We have been reading every post in prep for our Oct 7th Enchanted cruise.   Did you have princess prizes?  if so did you win anything .... just curious.   Food quality is good?  Which is your favorite specialty meal.   I have booked Crown and looking for a second.  Thanks agian.

We did not do princess prizes.

 

Food quality has been fantastic and surpasses all the cruises we’ve done since the restart. Might be supply tho with European suppliers.

 

We skipped Crown and Sabatinis this cruise. We did balcony dining and are planning to do it again on Marseille sail-out which is prepared in crown grill kitchen. Would highly recommend the Catch. We are doing that again in 2 days.

[Bridgestone66]

thank you!

 

[freecruiser2]

Thank you for all of your posts.  We get on the Enchanted on the day you disembark.  Appreciate your info.

[Senga]

We loved Capri where we did a 4 day land vacation.  So glad we didn’t have to deal with the cruise ships!

[h20cruzer]

Great review, love your pictures. Do you know if the M107 cabin can sleep 4 and are the doors really locked while your at sea, limiting your access to the balcony.

Norma

[fpsphil]

1 hour ago, h20cruzer said:

Great review, love your pictures. Do you know if the M107 cabin can sleep 4 and are the doors really locked while your at sea, limiting your access to the balcony.

Norma

I believe it’s 2 max since the couch folding out would block emergency egress

 

Balcony is definitely not locked at sea. Have been outside with 40 knot+ winds over the bow. Only thing that gets disabled is the balcony light at night.

 

There are days though you don’t want to use the balcony at all when the wind is too strong. It can get scary out there

Edited July 7, 2023 by fpsphil

[Baxter92]

Hi Thank you for sharing u#your adventures. I am very interested in your Capri excuriosn. Do you know the specific name of the Viator tour? And did it leave from Naples or did you travel to Capri on your own. We've been to Naples a few times and Capri is the only bit left to do.

[Labanos]

13 hours ago, Baxter92 said:

Hi Thank you for sharing u#your adventures. I am very interested in your Capri excuriosn. Do you know the specific name of the Viator tour? And did it leave from Naples or did you travel to Capri on your own. We've been to Naples a few times and Capri is the only bit left to do.

I have the same question, what was the Capri tour? I've booked a tour as well when we visit with enchanted in a month. Am curious if it's the same.