Greek Islands

[pgstan]

We are travelling on the Star Princess in September.
Can anyone advise how close to town the ship docks in Corfu, Dubrovnick and Katakolon. We want to take some self guided walking tours in these ports if possible.
Thanks

[craven3]

Hi Stan,

We have a thread for this cruise over on the Roll Calls message board. The direct link is [url]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/show...01&page=6&pp=25[/url]

That should get you to page 6; you can also read the previous pages. So far we know about 50 people aboard that cruise and the next; I've been keeping a spreadsheet. If you'd like more infomation, send me an e-mail to: craven3 @nospam adelphia.net (just scrunch it all up to delete the spaces, and also delete the "nospam" word.)

From what I've read, we dock in Dubrovnik and Kataklon. Haven't heard anything about Corfu, but we sure am interested in where you got information on walking tours there.

Mike & Charlotte

[Morgans]

Corfu Town should be easy to do on your own and is enjoyable to walk around. As I recall the ship's berth isn't far.Katakolon must rate as the easiest port in the world to do on your own - you will only be half a minute away and its all flat. It's tiny but there are some lovely cafes and pleasant shops - very uncommercialised. For Dubrovnik, it depends if you dock or tender in. The dock is a taxi or shuttle ride awaywhereas the tender point is right into the city.
You should enjoy them all....have fun

[pgstan]

We are sailing on Sept.25th. We have pre/post stays in Rome & Venice.
We have prebooked tours in Naples, Santoini,Athens and Kusadasi.

Morgans , thanks for the input.

Craven3, Sorry we have no knowledge of walking tours. We plan on getting local info once there and just take off. We thought these three ports along with Mykonos would be good candidates.

Any further advice is welcome.

[craven3]

Hi Stan,

I gather that you're not StanV, who is also talking about this same cruise on the other thread on Princess Roll Call message board?

Mike and I plan to do walking tours of sorts in Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos--all on our own. On Kataklon, however, I want to grab a taxi and zip out to Olympia; I think it would be neat to visit the oldest and newest Olympic sites on this trip. After that, we'll walk around there, too. Thanks, Morgans, for the info.

By the way, Mike and I signed up for the ship's Sights and Sounds of Dubrovnik walking tour, as well as the ship's walking tour of Rhodes City. Then through Viator ([url]www.viator.com[/url]) we signed up for Venice by Night Ghost Walk, which sounded interesting. Viator is a San Francisco based company that contracts with local tour operators in many countries; we have used them before and found their tours to be less that Princess', but just as high in quality. We'll return to Rome after the cruise and signed up for a couple of Viator things there, too.

At Naples we and a few others plan to do Pompeii on our own by taking the Circumvesuviana train out in the morning. After a few hours there (it's hugh!) we can either continue on the train to Sorrento for lunch or return to Naples, depending upon our whims at the time. Too bad we'll be in naples on a Sunday, when the museums are only open till 1 pm.

Finally, Stan, on that other thread on the Roll Calls Board we have about 50 people talking about this cruise (some of them are continuing on the next cruise, as well.) Four others are from Canada, one couple each from England and Australia, one from Bermuda, several from parts unknown, and the rest from the US. We are planning a Sailaway party immediately after the muster drill as we leave port in Civitavecchia so that we can all meet in person, instead of cyberspace. Pretty casual. It will be in the Outrigger Bar area, which is at the stern, on an outside deck that is tucked in between two wings of the Horizon Court Buffet. Go all the way to the back of the Buffet eating area and exit through the only door. You're welcome to join the conversation on the Roll Call Board and also to join our party.

Charlotte

[pgstan]

Thanks Charlotte. I'll check out the other thread.
We will look forward to meeting you all at the sailaway.
Pat & Gerry and our Toronto cruise buddies Janet & Fred.

[craven3]

Welcome to the four of you. We'll have name tags waiting for you at the party.

Charlotte

[jjones]

I was on this cruise in April and enjoyed it very much. The Star docked in Dubrovnik and a shuttle took us to town for $10 US round trip. Inside the walled city is very small but with lots of interesting things to see. My favorite activity was walking around on top of the wall - I think the admission was 30 kunar (about $6 US).

In Corfu we took a taxi to town, cost 10 Euro. We could probably have found a cheaper taxi if we'd tried. It is interesting (and strenuous) to hike up to the top of the Old Fortress (there is also a New Fortress) and we enjoyed the archaeological museum very much. We took a taxi to Achellion Palace - cost 40 Euro with a great driver - but I wouldn't go there again. I wish we had gone to Mon Repos instead, but I'm an archaeology nut.

Katakolon is tiny. We hired a taxi to take us to Olympia, the site of the original Olympic games. It was fabulous, but we had agreed to only spend 2 hours and I wish we had more time. That museum is also excellent.

My niece and I did individual (not ship) excursions everywhere. For the two of us we had taxis and excellent drivers for less money than the ship tour and I believe we saw more than we would have on a ship's tour.

In Athens we walked to the train station (about 25 minutes fast walk) and rode to the city, then walked to the Acropolis. There are a number of ancient sites in Athens and we walked to as many as we could. I got very tired but it was worth it. Get a GOOD MAP!

I hope you go to Santorini on any day except Monday - the museum and archaeological site at Akrotiri are closed Mondays, which was the day we were there.

If you have any questions, e-mail me: [email]jkj2t@aol.com[/email] - put Princess Med in the subject line.

[craven3]

Thanks a million! Nothing like advice from somebody who's been there. I've cut and pasted your comments into my Word documents for each port.

I'll e-mail you separately,
Charlotte

[Navy_Chief]

Here's a link I found to a map of Corfu Town. Maybe it will help.



[url="http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/maps/jpg/1675_corfutown.jpg"]http://www.frommers.com/images/destinations/maps/jpg/1675_corfutown.jpg[/url]

[craven3]

Hi Navy Chief,

Thanks for the map. I've heard that the postman hikes on his holiday and the housekeeper cleans her home on her vacation; are you, by chance, on our cruise on the Star Princess to the Greek Isles, departing Civitavecchia September 25?:confused:

Charlotte