Costa Mediterranea 7-16-07

[krennen]

We will be on this ship on this date. I would appreciate anyone's experience with this cruise of the Greek Isles with this ship. (I realize that the ship is just coming from the Carribean.) Have you enjoyed the ports? Have the short stays in several of the ports been enough that you got at least a "taste" of the area? Any tips or trip reports would be great. Thanks.

[murbanjr]

My wife and I just came back from a cruise on Costa Med (05/28/07.) As soon as I have a free moment (catching up at work is always a pain,) I shall be posting a review here - unfortunately it will be fairly negative.

 

In short:

Venice is wonderful. If you are able to find time before or after to spend a day or two, I would highly recommend it.

 

Bari: Ship docs during the "siesta" hours. As such, most establishements are closed or have a very small staff. This was very dissapointing.

 

Greek Isles in general were great. We enjoyed our time on every island. We were very dissapointed as to the limited time we had at each island. I am unable to understand why Costa does not plan for an entire day at each island since the distances between most islands are very reasonable.

 

We only did one shore excursion through Costa - Dubrovnik - which was a bit dissapointing. Next time around, we will go on our own as we did at all the other stops. Dubrovnik overall was very nice - the old town is very tourist friendly.

 

We will happily do the Med again but on a different cruise line.

 

Cordially,

Milan

[krennen]

Dear Murbanjr,

Thanks for writing! I look forward to any more you may post. I already anticipate being unhappy about short port times. We are taking this cruise because we are coming from a land tour of Rome, Florence, and Venice and it fit with our schedule. Since we were already in Europe, we wanted to see some of the Greek Isles. Yes, we will have about 3 days in Venice pre-cruise. I have done a lot of research and we will do the ports on our own. I am especially interested in what you did at Bari, Katakolon, and Rhodes. Were the churches open in Bari? How did you get to Olympia? And did you go to Lindos in Rhodes?

[cleophus12]

We just returned from this trip and we also had a semi-negative experience. There is a good post on this board about the 5/28 sailing which I have added to, so maybe that will give you some ideas.

 

We did not go into Bari as we had just spend 10 days in Italy (also Rome, Florence, and Venice), and took the day to rest. Several folks told us we did not miss anything.

 

We are not shore excursion people, but we did take the excursion to Olympia because that seemed to be the easiest way to get there and back given the short time the ship was in port. It was a great tour with an excellent guide who was very knowledgeable about the area. It really was quite amazing and we were very glad we did it. It was HOT so dress lightly and wear a hat. Take the chance to run in the stadium. It was a highlight for our daughter and her dad.

 

Santorini was lovely, but the time just is too limited. We did take a taxi to Oia for 17E, but we had very little time to wander since the ship sailed at 1:00. We took the cable car and I strongly recommend taking it back down. We walked back down and that was too much. Also it stinks terribly because of the donkeys. It looks like fun, but it isn't. Spend the extra money and ride the cable car.

 

Mykonos was lovely. We had first seating for dinner, so we went ashore quickly before dinner. A lovely area for an evening walk. We were on the ship for the most gorgeous sunset you've ever seen and got great photos. Again, not enough time. I don't understand Costa's reasoning on this since surely they know Santorini and Mykonos are this itinerary's major draws. Go figure.

 

Rhodes was fun. We took a taxi to Faliraki Beach for the morning (13E one way). We came back to the ship for lunch, cleaned up, and walked into town for some shopping. A lovely little place.

 

Dubrovnik was lovely but HOT. We walked the walls on our own and it was quite the experience. You must do that since you really can't do that in too many places in the world.

 

Disembarkation was easy and quick. We were scheduled to get off at 10 and were off by 9:45 with no problems.

 

Hope you enjoy your cruise. If I have time, I'll add some more later.