Greek Isles Cruise

[UlvaZell]

I'm planning a cruise for DW's 50th birthday. I've looked at several lines (Celebrity, Regent, Windstar, Hellenic, Oceania, Sea Dream and Star Clippers) but I keep going back to Costa. They have a couple of itineraries that focus on Italy and Greece that really appeal to me.

 

I've never sailed with them and don't know much about the line except that they are now owned by Carnival (?). I've sailed Carnival several times and have always had a good experience with them:D . What is everyone's experience with Costa?

 

The itineraries however only spend a half day in Mykonos and the other half in Santorini. That just does not seem like enough time for either. Is it?

 

Thx

[Cruise Junky]

You didn't mention Princess. We found that to be the best Greek Island itinerary for us. Grand Princess in Sept 08 and I believe Emerald does something similar in May/June 08

 

1 Venice, Italy

2 Venice, Italy 8:00 AM

3 Dubrovnik, Croatia 8:00 AM 6:00 PM

4 Corfu, Greece 8:00 AM 6:00 PM

5 Katakolon (Olympia), Greece 7:00 AM 4:00 PM

6 Athens (Piraeus), Greece 6:00 AM 5:45 PM

7 Mykonos, Greece 7:00 AM 6:00 PM

8 Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

9 Rhodes, Greece 8:00 AM 5:00 PM

10 Santorini, Greece 7:00 AM 6:00 PM

11 At Sea

12 Naples/Capri, Italy 7:00 AM 6:00 PM

13 Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy 4:00 AM

[VaTraveler]

We also chose Princess over our beloved RCI and Celebrity because of the itinerary. I checked out all the Greek Isle itineraries, and I thought it to be the best by far. It will be our first Princess cruise, and I'm excited. We'll be on the Star in October.

[UlvaZell]

I had not checked Princess but I love the itinerary. A full day in each port and 11 ports in 12 days. That's hard to beat. I was originally looking at only 7 or 10 day cruises, but go ahead, make me take a 12-day cruise :D

[Cruise Junky]

I had not checked Princess but I love the itinerary. A full day in each port and 11 ports in 12 days. That's hard to beat. I was originally looking at only 7 or 10 day cruises, but go ahead, make me take a 12-day cruise :D

 

Yeah, we're that way, we like to enable :)

[Queenk2]

Costa has few Americans on board...mostly an Italian group of Passengers. It was VERY smokey! I am not a Princess fan, but the itinerary sounds wonderful!

Karen

[Jo42]

UlvaZell, there are a few of us cc's doing the Costa Greek Island Cruise out of Venice next week (16th). Watch this space for our reviews!

[UlvaZell]

I appreciate all of the input I can get...

[CruiseKidz]

We're doing the Sept 2nd Emeradl Princess cruise, Italy & Greek Islands. We choose this cruise for itinery, port intensive and the NEW ship.

[nole62]

We took the exact Princess cruise suggested in May on the Grand. It was wonderful. Very port intensive, but easily doable. We did private drivers in Athens, Kusadasi, Rhodes and Rome. We spent 3 extra days in Rome at the end.

 

One of our "Grand Cruisers" has posted a review and picts on their website. Their pict are lovely and their review is great. Suggest you check it out and that will help you decide.

[Maryutah]

We took the Carnival Freedom cruise the itinerary includes 3 Greek ports (Athens, Olympia (Katakalon) and Rhodes (which I totally adored and could have spent a week there, relaxing and soaking up the culture beautiy), it also had 2 Turkey ports (Izmir (Ephesus) and Instanbul), along with 3 Italy ports (Citivecchia (Rome), Livorno (Florence / Tuscany) and Naples (Amafi/pompeii etc)

 

If you haven't considered it, might be worth a look, it was about $600 per person cheaper than what we looked at with other lines, the ship was beautiful, and the ports of call amazing! Be prepared either way for a lot of walking! :D

[hcat]

we booked Celebrity Galaxy for 08 based on the ship which is a nice size, the itin & fact that we like to do round trip cruises--easier to work out the airfare! But Princess sounds nice as well! Have fun!

[cusyl]

We picked Princess because the Grand also went to Istanbul Turkey.