Anyone on Zuiderdam 7/19/08 sailing?

[day11]

Hey, this is my first post, so I hope I am in the right section...

 

My husband and I are possibly looking for people to share touring/van costs for some excursions. We are an active 30ish year old couple. I've been doing tons of research on ports, places to go, etc. I've cruised before and have found that the ship excursions are generally WAY more expensive than something done on your own. So I've been looking into train, bus, and private hired cars. One site I have emailed, for example, an all day car/tour costs X amount of Euros for 1 to 4 people, less for 5 to 8 people, etc. So some of them are cheaper if you have a few more people.

 

So basically, I am looking for people who might be on this same cruise who may want to split costs on things??? I say "may want to split costs" because we haven't fully decided what we want to do, and also because trains may be fine in some ports? Mostly, I guess we're looking at doing the further away excursions in Naples, Civitavecchia, and Livorno.

 

Also, if anyone has first hand experience/knowledge to share about getting around in the following ports, I'd greatly like to hear that too!

Do you recommend the trains or buses? Is it better to try to book stuff ahead of time, or is it easy to access and figure out once you are there?

 

PORTS: Venice, Dubrovnik, Argostoli, Santorini, Catania, Naples, Civitavecchia, Livorno, Barcelona.

 

Finally, on a totally unrelated note, I read somewhere in all this internet research where someone "discovered" that HA has a 20-punch wine card, which can be purchased from the Oceania Bar. Ends up about $3.90 a glass. Anyone have first hand knowledge of this?

[O2B@C]

Welcome to Cruise Critic! There is an active Roll Call for your cruise, which can be found here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=742694

 

That would be the place to go if you want to communicate with your fellow cruisers.

 

As for the wine card, I think you can buy it pretty much at any bar, including the Ocean (not Oceania) Bar. Reports vary about the quality of the wines available by the glass on that card - I can't give you first-hand info - sorry!

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[day11]

Thank you for the information, I reposted there. (Now I can't figure out how to delete this one!)