Shorex/Planning H*ll

[Bruin Steve]

I guess I am at the point of spewing forth a bit of frustration.

 

Our Nautica cruise is now less than four months away.

I would prefer to do most of the ports by private tour rather than by shore excursion, but, with a small ship, our roll call is sparsely populated...and we've had some tours agreed to and arranged, but there has been some defections for various reasons and certain tours have been placed in jeopardy...

 

...and it nmay be prohibitively costly to do too many private tours all by ourselves in some of these ports...

 

So, we may be sort of forced into booking some shore excursions...

 

And therein lies the frustration with Oceania...

They must go an awfully long way to get their act together.

Do they actually have someone paying any attention to their shore excursion offerings?

 

For the first several months we were booked, absolutely nothing was posted...but that is typical of cruise lines, so I can live with that...

But, when the shorexes finally went up a couple of months ago, at least one port (Limassol, Cyprus) was completely blank...It still is...

 

Then they changed the itinerary back in NOVEMBER to replace one of the days in Haifa to a visit to Ashdod instead...but no change to the shorex offerings on the website...Ashdod is STILL blank...I guess MAYBE we can assume the more southerly offerings on the Haifa list will now be offered from Ashdod...But, might that affect the prices? times? I mean, you save two hours of drive time going to Jerusalem...and you'd think maybe it would open up some other options...or at least changes in the tour content?

 

Oh...it gets worse...

Some of the offerings at certain ports are flat-out impossible...For example, they offer a couple of "full day" 7 and 7.5 hour tours in Kusadasi...BUT, we are only in port for SIX hours TOTAL--from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm...

 

This all makes it sort of difficult to plan ANYTHING...

 

Do I expect them to resolve any of this? Maybe by the embarkation?

Somehow, I doubt it...

When we last cruised on the Nautica, for our port stop in Taormina, Sicily, we pre-booked, months in advance, a shore excursion to Mt. Etna and Taormina...They didn't tell us until we were already on the ship that they didn't have the time to fit the whole tour into the port visit and we had to opt for another tour...

 

For a "planoholic" like me, this is h*ll...

[laurelhollow]

don't have a hissy fit. :p i'm working on finding private guides. :)))

 

which tours have you have had defections from? we might be tempted.

 

just got the name of a tunisian guide for the la goulette stop. hopefully he will be available for the day we are there. the van is for eight people. will see if there are others interested.

 

 

 

I guess I am at the point of spewing forth a bit of frustration.

 

Our Nautica cruise is now less than four months away.

I would prefer to do most of the ports by private tour rather than by shore excursion, but, with a small ship, our roll call is sparsely populated...and we've had some tours agreed to and arranged, but there has been some defections for various reasons and certain tours have been placed in jeopardy...

 

...and it nmay be prohibitively costly to do too many private tours all by ourselves in some of these ports...

 

So, we may be sort of forced into booking some shore excursions...

 

And therein lies the frustration with Oceania...

They must go an awfully long way to get their act together.

Do they actually have someone paying any attention to their shore excursion offerings?

 

For the first several months we were booked, absolutely nothing was posted...but that is typical of cruise lines, so I can live with that...

But, when the shorexes finally went up a couple of months ago, at least one port (Limassol, Cyprus) was completely blank...It still is...

 

Then they changed the itinerary back in NOVEMBER to replace one of the days in Haifa to a visit to Ashdod instead...but no change to the shorex offerings on the website...Ashdod is STILL blank...I guess MAYBE we can assume the more southerly offerings on the Haifa list will now be offered from Ashdod...But, might that affect the prices? times? I mean, you save two hours of drive time going to Jerusalem...and you'd think maybe it would open up some other options...or at least changes in the tour content?

 

Oh...it gets worse...

Some of the offerings at certain ports are flat-out impossible...For example, they offer a couple of "full day" 7 and 7.5 hour tours in Kusadasi...BUT, we are only in port for SIX hours TOTAL--from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm...

 

This all makes it sort of difficult to plan ANYTHING...

 

Do I expect them to resolve any of this? Maybe by the embarkation?

Somehow, I doubt it...

When we last cruised on the Nautica, for our port stop in Taormina, Sicily, we pre-booked, months in advance, a shore excursion to Mt. Etna and Taormina...They didn't tell us until we were already on the ship that they didn't have the time to fit the whole tour into the port visit and we had to opt for another tour...

 

For a "planoholic" like me, this is h*ll...

[Bruin Steve]

Holly,

e-mail me at ...

BruinSD@aol.com

 

Steve

[CintiPam]

Bruin Steve, I understand your frustration, plus with such a small ship, I understand that many of the ship's tours get cancelled at the last minute. As a now second-time cruiser, maybe I'm wrong about this, but for this very reason, I have not even looked to see what Oceania is offering on our June 5 Athens to Rome cruise.

 

I am sure you already know that you can book a private tour with driver and guide for the two of you for whatever you want to do with your short time in Kusadasi for less than Oceania will charge for its excursions there. We used Ekol, and were very pleased, but there are other reasonably-priced tour companies who will customize your choices there.

 

We also wanted to share tours, but our roll call on our September cruise from Istanbul to Athens was dead, and we found no one to share, so just booked this one on our own. Fortunately, the rest of the itinerary lent itself to DIY, and we happily were able to do so. (Rented a car in Santorini and Katakolon and used guidebooks for our touring in all the ports.)

 

Good luck to you in finding reliable replacement people to share your tours. I know you are a guy who does his homework, and I am sure you will find taxi or other public transportation that will work out satisfactorily for you if necessary.

[LHT28]

If you are doing private guides you can always pick up people on the ship to join the tours.

Once on board we usually mention any tours we have room on to our dinner mates if they have not made plans...

Not everyone knows about Cruise Critic so they may have not made plans either;)

[calvin81]

CintiPam, would you care to share what the cost was for your guide in Ephesus? Our roll call for the June 12 Istanbul to Athens cruise so far is myself and one other person who is part of a group that it sounds like has their own guide. Like you, we are used to DIY touring and find our preferences in time spent looking at various sites is vastly different than most tours. I think we're fine in most of the other ports, but have been told by several people Ephesus should have a guide. I just wish Rick Steves had a book on the Greek Isles!

[Bruin Steve]

CintiPam, would you care to share what the cost was for your guide in Ephesus? Our roll call for the June 12 Istanbul to Athens cruise so far is myself and one other person who is part of a group that it sounds like has their own guide. Like you, we are used to DIY touring and find our preferences in time spent looking at various sites is vastly different than most tours. I think we're fine in most of the other ports, but have been told by several people Ephesus should have a guide. I just wish Rick Steves had a book on the Greek Isles!

 

Well, we used Ekol Travel (go to ekol travel dot com for their current prices and tours) in 2006 and, at that time, our full day tour of Miletus, Didyma and Ephesus--including lunch and admission fees for two of us with private guide was $150 total ($75 per person)...looks like it's gone up to $100 pp for that same tour...(For our upcoming cruise, Oceania wants $79 per person just for a 3 and a half hour tour to Ephesus...and that's a mob on a bus with maybe 30+ people...this was two of us and our own guide and car).

 

I REALLY recommend doing this port with a guide. The sites are a fairly good ride out of Kusadasi and I would not trust public transportation or expect to just hire a taxi at the port...And the guide's knowledge was invaluable...

 

Good luck...

[CintiPam]

CintiPam, would you care to share what the cost was for your guide in Ephesus? Our roll call for the June 12 Istanbul to Athens cruise so far is myself and one other person who is part of a group that it sounds like has their own guide. Like you, we are used to DIY touring and find our preferences in time spent looking at various sites is vastly different than most tours. I think we're fine in most of the other ports, but have been told by several people Ephesus should have a guide. I just wish Rick Steves had a book on the Greek Isles!

 

Hi, Calvin, hope you have booked some extra days for Istanbul; we had four glorious days there guided happily and exclusively by Rick Steves' Istanbul. Istanbul and Ephesus absolutely were the highlights of our trip. Rick's "Athens and the Peloponnese" is scheduled to be published in May.

 

Our cost for our customized heavy archaeological/historical, no shopping whatsover Ekol tour (driver and guide) was $95 per person or $190 total, inclusive of all admissions, including the do-not-miss Terrace Houses, but not lunch, for our 6-1/2 to 7 hour tour.

 

BTW, my extensive review of our September 5, 2008 Istanbul to Athens Aegean Adventure is posted in the Nautica reviews at:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=48450. Just scroll down to whatever (if anything) interests you.

 

Enjoy!

[calvin81]

Thanks for your replies all. I will have to check out Ekol. I'm still hoping someone else joins the roll call. I wonder if I book a tour with Ekol if we could add people that we might meet onboard. Although we may be looking for different things from a tour. I'm so happy to hear Rick Steves has a book coming out on Greece! I'll have to get a copy before our June departure. We will be in Istanbul one evening and one full day early, and then have most of the day before we sail as well. On the way home we're stopping in Belgium for a few days and it was hard to decide how much time to spend where.

[Bruin Steve]

Thanks for your replies all. I will have to check out Ekol. I'm still hoping someone else joins the roll call. I wonder if I book a tour with Ekol if we could add people that we might meet onboard. Although we may be looking for different things from a tour. I'm so happy to hear Rick Steves has a book coming out on Greece! I'll have to get a copy before our June departure. We will be in Istanbul one evening and one full day early, and then have most of the day before we sail as well. On the way home we're stopping in Belgium for a few days and it was hard to decide how much time to spend where.

 

The great thing about those Kusadasi tours is that it's cheap enough even if only 2 of you. The way they structure the prices, there's no great advantage to adding more people--unlike some tours where you pay a set price whether you have 2 or 10.

 

Where in Belgium are you going? (I have a personal thing for Belgium--my family is from Liege and I have relatives all over the country...I absolutely love Bruges...but I've also spent time in Brussels (of course), Ghent, Namur, Knokke-Heist, Waterloo, etc....It's a great little country...Have fun...

[CintiPam]

Bruges...hmmm, the best!:)

[calvin81]

We're planning on a day trip to Bruges via the train and are considering making it a long day and trying to fit in Ghent too. We'll fly from Athens at the end of our cruise and arrive in Brussels mid-afternoon. So we'll have part of that day and another whole day in Brussels in addition to another whole day we were planning to go to Bruges. Any advice on whether we should try to fit Bruges and Ghent in on the same day? Someone on the tripadvisor forum said it is possible via the train, and it started me thinking. It is unlikely we'll be back to Belgium in the foreseeable future. I'd appreciate any advice on must see's. Thanks!

[CintiPam]

We're planning on a day trip to Bruges via the train and are considering making it a long day and trying to fit in Ghent too. We'll fly from Athens at the end of our cruise and arrive in Brussels mid-afternoon. So we'll have part of that day and another whole day in Brussels in addition to another whole day we were planning to go to Bruges. Any advice on whether we should try to fit Bruges and Ghent in on the same day? Someone on the tripadvisor forum said it is possible via the train, and it started me thinking. It is unlikely we'll be back to Belgium in the foreseeable future. I'd appreciate any advice on must see's. Thanks!

 

Never been to Ghent, but Bruges itself rates at least a single day, especially if you want to feel that you are living in the 15th century (although a cleaned up idealized version thereof). I read a series of novels about a Bruges dye apprentice in the 15th century by Dorothy Dunnett, so it was on my wish list for a while. It did not disappoint: home of the only Michelangelo sculpture in northern Europe, lovely canals (and fun canal boat ride), great chocolate at Madam Dumon's, wonderful merchant's house (Groeninge Museum) to visit, excellent art museum (Memling Museum), lovely Market Square. Rent "In Bruges" and take a look or check out Rick Steves' Amsterdam, Bruges & Brussels guidebook from your local library for great information.

[Bruin Steve]

We're planning on a day trip to Bruges via the train and are considering making it a long day and trying to fit in Ghent too. We'll fly from Athens at the end of our cruise and arrive in Brussels mid-afternoon. So we'll have part of that day and another whole day in Brussels in addition to another whole day we were planning to go to Bruges. Any advice on whether we should try to fit Bruges and Ghent in on the same day? Someone on the tripadvisor forum said it is possible via the train, and it started me thinking. It is unlikely we'll be back to Belgium in the foreseeable future. I'd appreciate any advice on must see's. Thanks!

 

Calvin,

With limited time I'd skip Ghent and concentrate on Bruges...Quite simply, there's nowhere else like it and there's a lot to see.

 

I have large photos blown up in my office with shots I took during a 1993 trip to France, Belgium and Spain...The six photos from that trip I chose to hang on my office walls are of 1) The Arc de Triomphe at night, 2) The Palace at Verseilles, 3) Rocamadour, France, 4) the Maison Carrie in Nimes, France, 5) Chenonceau in the Loire Valley and 5) and ORDINARY street scene (actually canal scene) in Bruges...

 

Typically the one everyone stops and asks me about is the one of Bruges...and I tell them it's nothing special...I could have taken a similar photo on just about any corner in town...

Bruges has been described as what Amsterdam would have looked like 300 years ago...It was a major trading port of the Middle Ages and Renaissance times...But, around the early 1700s, the North Sea receded, leaving Bruges stranded about 10 miles inland...and new development basically stopped...Every building in town is in the architectural style of the late 1600s/early 1700s...most of them date from that era...but even new construction is required to be built in the same architectural manner...The city has an intermeshing network of cobblestone streets and canals, with bridges everywhere a street meets a canal...There is a great fish market on certain days...There are a number of museums...everything from modern art to lace making...The shops are just wonderful...

 

Belgium has one of the highest standards of living in the world...North Sea Oil and the fact that all of the major oil pipelines supplying Europe with oil come through the port of Zeebrugge--the new port 10 miles from the old city...That and the fact that Belgium was always seen by the major powers as a compromise...so, a lot of Europe's business goes through Belgium--so it's a rich little country...I guess it's starting to make up for all of those centuries Germany, France and England used to use it as a battlefield...

[brian_uk]

JUst my thoughts on these places.

 

When doing the Ephesus Tour make sure your guide starts at the TOP and you work your way downhill. In the Summer it was just so hot that doing it the other way round would have been awful. Also take plenty of water.

 

Brugges we have visited many times, less than a 6 hour drive from London and we always try to stay at least 2 nights. I agree with BruinSteve that it is a very special City. Check the main square as well as there are often events taking place in the Summer.

 

Brian

[calvin81]

Thanks for the advice all. I will plan on spending a full day in Bruges. When I checked out Rick Steves book on Belgium the section on Bruges is what made me extend my stay in Belgium. And thanks for the advice on touring in Ephesus -- a basic suggestion like that will make a big difference in our enjoyment of the ruins if it is a warm day.

[conan]

We used Nejat Incedogan and his asociate, Nejat Tek as guides to Ephesus. Cost of $USD112.50 pp included air conditioned van & driver, guide, tour with enlightened commentary of Mary's place, Ephesus including Terrace Houses, buffet lunch, Selcuk museum, St. John the Baptist basilica and drive by of Temple of Artemis. No carpet factories! **********atyahoodotcom or nejattekatsuperonlinedotcom. We returned to the ship with 45 minutes to spare.

[conan]

Nejat Incedogan's address is first initial lastname at yahoo dot com