csh_ct9

Not sure if you have made plans yet but I would 100pc rather two nights in Southampton than London! So, I guess it depends what you want to get out of those days and what you are into. I’m an outdoors/seaside/countyside fan. There are some great hotels in Southampton, we stay at the (cheaper) Leonardo up in the town and it’s within walking distance of everything. We usually even walk to port. There are some fabulous days out from S’ton by train to see some lesser known but quintessentially English stuff - the Roman town of Chichester, Arundel Castle, over to Cowes on the Isle of Wight as a foot passenger on the ferry.

I use the Trenitalia app and booking opens three months before the departure however you can use it to look at the scheduling before that to plan your day. If you look at this date three months out, it shows you how many seats are available but if you go a week later, that bit won’t be there. Once you see the seat availability, you can book.

Just coming back to say we did do this! And it was probably the highlight of the cruise from me. If you are fit and used to hill walking then I’d highly recommend this if your time in port or time of year makes it possible. By the time our tender had been called, we made the boat to Oia about 4pm and spent some time exploring. We left Oia on the trail just after 6pm and took about 3 hours to get back to the bottom of the steps from Fira to take a tender back to the ship. By this time of day there was natural shade on the route, we carried lots of water and had taken suitable clothes and walking shoes.

*realised this hadn’t uploaded so should be before Zadar! Kotor Montenegro - another tender port and our only day of rain. I’ve never got the Key before but could see why it sold out this cruise!! I went to queue at 06:45 for a 7am distribution time and got number 20. We made it onto shore for a little before midday so almost three hours into tender operations. The morning wasn’t wasted though - flow rider and solarium, A late breakfast and a little bit of packing (). There were scores of people with tickets after ours waiting all morning in the public areas for the tenders to be called. Our plan today was to climb the city walls up to the Old Fort of Kotor. The cost to do this is 15€ each and you pay at the gates once up on the city wall. They tried to get us to pay cash and said the internet connection wasn’t good but card payment went straight through. Short story of this one - it’s a physical climb over some less than ideal terrain. We say people in flip flops etc but this is another where I would say strong walking shoes only. And wicking clothing/gym gear worked well for us as we were a sweaty mess by the time we reached the top! Carry extra water although there were two vendors on the route. The journey back down is not to be underestimated either. Hard on the knees and heavy foot traffic making it hard to pass one another in some places. It was however totally worth it to see the views. Stunning! We purchased some souvenirs here and then headed back to the ship, no queue to return on the tender here. Quiet afternoon and watched the sail away from the solarium while J went climbing and flow riding. We had dinner in the main dining room and then there was a great fun ‘surfing under the stars’ session 9-10pm. I enjoyed watching that!

Zadar Croatia - the stop I was least fussed by mostly because the excursions offered by the cruise line seemed dull. Zadar Croatia - one of the most beautiful places I have visited, full of charm, crystal clear sea and stunning architecture. We booked a ‘traditional wooden boat’ half day tour to two islands using Viator. It was around £38 each and the meeting time was 10am. I’d done an online chat with the provider who assured me a 9am arrival was plenty of time to get there so naturally when the cruise compass updated to show that gangway down was 09:30 we were a bit concerned. We messaged the provider and luckily the trip was entirely sold to people on our cruise but in the end, we were able to walk off about 09:05am. The cruise port is a fair distance from the tourist harbour and we found ourself with little choice apart from paying the $17 each for the shuttle into town as I hadn’t researched other ways of travelling and taxis published rates as €20 each way. As it turns out other people managed to negotiate with taxis and got it down to €15 and the bus stopped at The Sea Organ which was a long way from our meeting point on the other side of the harbour so taxi would have been a better option. We were only 10 mins late and able to keep in touch with the provider who was happy to wait - benefit of a small tour. The boat was better that I expected for the price and the description ‘traditional wooden boat’ and we had another family on board with girls the same age as my son so they all settled up on the bow to chat and enjoy the journey. The islands of Preko and Ošljak were beautiful and we got to stop for around an hour at each to swim and explore. My son swam out to another island that houses a monastery. Ošljak was used as a quarantine island historically during periods of disease - people had to reside there for 40 days before coming to the mainland. It’s unspoiled and just stunning. Our boat had us back to the meeting point for 2pm and we took a (slower) walk back to the shuttle bus through the old town and via the sea organ. Handy tip - carry some 1€ coins for the public bathrooms. The last shuttle was 3:30pm. We were back on board just after 3pm and hit the pool deck after paying off our sea pass account and visiting ‘Next Cruise’ (just future booking certificates but we think it’s going to be Norway on the Independence). We haven’t struggled to find a lounger by the pool Or in the solarium (me) at all despite the cruise being busy. We watched sailing away from deck 12 and then the flowrider queue, last bit of packing then dinner at Izumi.

Sea day yesterday - wasn't sure how I felt having a sea day mid itinerary but I quite enjoyed it, especially as we have been so active in our explorations. I’m not overly keen on the idea of disembarking straight after a long port day though. Our day was started early due to advanced stand up in the Flowrider being 9-10. We had breakfast at MDR and service was slow again but to be expected on a sea day perhaps. The ship and her crew are generally marvellous. We have a lovely stateroom attendant called JJ who has been making up our room each morning. He also knocks of an evening to make sure we have all the info for the next day which is appreciated. Noted below is a picture of the transfer options offered on board for the end of the cruise. JJ let us know that if we didn’t book on we would likely get a very late departure time as guest with independent travel - we are doing self assist anyway but it was good information to get. Voyager class is about the optimum ship for me. LOVE a Viking Crown and spend a lot of time up there but this has the best of everything. Small enough so service still feels personal but big enough for ice skating, climbing, flow rider, good variety of restaurants and all that jazz. We have sailed Quantum Class and Oasis Class but just can’t quite find the love for them (although had a wonderful transatlantic on Allure as it was so quiet everywhere!). We should maybe try a Quantum away from Southampton and outside of school holidays… J passed his day mostly climbing and surfing and I spent a while watching the sea pass on deck 12, watched the shenanigans at the pool and read a book. He hasn’t used the teen programme at all but has made a few friends hanging out at the flow rider. Lots of younger cruisers celebrating graduation and lots of BIG groups on board including a Girl Scout group. We used anther of our three night dining package bookings this evening at Chops and it was hands down the best meal of the cruise. Starter was Tuna Tatare for both followed by mushroom soup/goats cheese salad and shrimp/branzino. Delicious and excellent service. We’d told them on arrival we hoped to see the ice show and the staff made sure we were away in plenty of time. That was awesome too. Really enjoyed the whole performance but especially the interaction with the audience. Must be such a challenge for the skaters to perform all that on a small rink. It was easy to get a seat and there were still spares when the show started. Our stage show was Frankie And the Four Seasons - wasn’t quite what I expected as they started rapping Eminem and the Fresh Prince theme song at one point but it passed an enjoyable hour. And so to bed ready to get up for 7am tender ticket allocation for Kotor Montenegro.

Today we docked at Terminal C, Piraeus, and the ship was cleared a little before 8am. We had breakfast in MDR (much quieter than yesterday!) and were off the ship by 8:20am. Our initial plan was to take the Metro but I got an online deal with City Sightseeing HOHO about two days before we left. We paid £15 each but I also got a cash back deal on it meaning the net price was about £12. You could but the same ticket at the port for 20€ (£16) per person. The green line stops in short walking distance of both Acropolis and Temple of Zeus. Our tickets (good for six different archaeological sites) were purchased directly from the Hellenic Heritage site and gave us a 9-10am arrival time for Parthenon. Even leaving Piraeus at 08:40 after a wait for the bus, we only just made it for 10am. They are very strict on tickets times and the traffic was terrible all the way from Piraeus to Athens. We headed straight up to the Acropolis which was already busy - there was a very rewarding breeze at the top but definitely book ahead and book and early slot. An email came from Royal just a couple of days prior to say that the Acropolis would close if it got too hot and we’d seen this happen the week prior on the news. It’s another must for closed toe sturdy shoes. Lots of slippery and sharp rocks and gravel paths. Next stop was temple of Olympian Zeus then the Panathenaic Stadium. We walked back across the city and traffic still looked terrible everywhere, stopped to share some Greek Salad, Tzatziki and Spinach Pie then boarded the HoHo back to Piraeus. A point to note about Piraeus - as an embarkation port it looked hectic! Long queues for the NCL ship when we left in the morning and returned in the afternoon. The majority of the queues were without shade. Fabulous day however wish we’d stuck with the Metro plan for transport. Back on board, the ship was pretty empty still at 14:00 so we had some pool time and hung out in the outside area of the Diamond lounge. My son hit up the flow rider (which turned out to be a great spot to watch sail away so win win) then we grabbed dinner at Windjammer. The evening finished playing some cards up in the diamond lounge again.

We got up early this morning with the intention of having breakfast in the main dining room before joining the queue for 10 to tickets at 9 am. Headed down to the dining room just a little after 8 o’clock we were surprised to see that the issuing process for tickets was already well underway and alas although the queue moved quickly, we were allocated number 14. This morning was passed by iceskating and more Flo Rida where my son was able to achieve the blue wristband Which he wanted to be able to go to the advanced stand-up sessions where there are often small queues. Plus side of this means that our vacation schedule is less governed by the opening times of the Flo Rida from this point forward. We actually docked in Santorini ahead of time at 1pm and the first tenders started slightly after that. Our number 14 was not called until around 3:30 pm when we made our way down to deck 1 and boarded the tender. Last tender back to ship is 10:15pm. It must be said that our plan in Santorini is not for the fainthearted - we are hiking the mountain trail from Oia back to Fira. This will only work if it’s out of season or, like us you have a late arrival and departure. We’d research this thoroughly, packed for it and we are experienced hill walkers. There is a climb of around 400m and much of the path is loose gravel. If you are going to attempt this strong, closed toe walking shoes are vital. The first step was a speedboat from the bottom of the steps where the tenders arrive to Oia. That was 30€ each and would have included a return bus as well. We hung out in Oia for a while and headed onto the trail back to Fira at 6pm. It took just over 3 hours to walk the 10km including lots of photo stops. We were back on board by 9:40 after a wait of about 20 minutes to get onto a tender. I’m not sure my body will agree tomorrow when I’m out of bed at 7am for a day in Athens but right now it was totally worth it! Our thoughts on Santorini as a whole - the island is being oversold to cruise ships and can’t cope with the volume of people. It’s going to lead to a lot of unhappy cruisers and the port area just can’t safely process all the queues of people waiting for tenders in the midday sun. Its stunningly beautiful though but if we came with the youngest in tow too who is 9 or older members of the family, we would stay on board for the day.

Today has been about three views. Deck 12, ocean view, the wake from the flow rider and the Diamond Lounge in the Viking Crown. I just love that space so much! We had an early start as my son had a flow rider lesson, chasing that illusive blue wristband to be able to get on advance stand up. It was a group class at 8am which we had pre-booked on line and cost about £40. In reality, of the hour class, he only got about 10 minutes of tuition but it was enough for him to master launching himself on a stand up board. I went to the C&A top tier event. The top cruiser was a lady from Barnsley (UK)with over 3,700 points Lunch in the Windjammer (busy but manageable), watched the belly flop at the main pool, reading time in the lounge. We found sun loungers in our preferred location of deck 12 easily enough - the breeze up there was lovely and the view looking out to sea is the best! We spent the last hour of the afternoon catching up on emails etc and doing online college registration for my son. No WiFi or drinks package for us - just the freebies! So far both days we haven’t even managed to use all Five drinks each. Our mobiles have European roaming included so we are using this in port and saving our free days of WiFi for specific evenings and the two sea days. This evening we used our D+ BOGO at Giovanni’s for a 7pm booking - tasty but prob not worth the price to be honest. It would have been cheaper to have used it last night at Izumi and done this evening under our dining package but they were strict about booking night one as a package booking. We did formal night pictures but weren’t too keen on them. Early night followed ready for Santorini tomorrow afternoon!

Boarding day was the first sunshine we have seen! We packed and headed out with our bags to take the bus to port around 09:30am, taking the 70 bus to Ravenna Marina then a little ferry called Traghetto accross to the cruise port. It was €1 each and took about five minutes. If you take the bus directly from Ravenna train station, you would not need to take this little ferry as the bus is from there connect directly to the cruise port. The cruise terminal at Ravenna is certainly basic but when we arrived for our 11 am boarding, it was quick easy and effective. There were two firsts for us however. The porters refused to take our luggage because it was carry on size and we had to take it on with us. The second first is that in all the cruises my son and I’ve taken together, I have never been asked for additional identification to prove parentage. Luckily I always carry our birth certificates and this check only added about five minutes to our boarding process and we were on board the Explorer of the seas about 10 minutes before our 11 am scheduled boarding time. We spoke to our cabin steward who we found in the corridor outside of the Palace Theatre for our deck three cabin and he was kind enough to us to allow us to put our luggage outside the state room door. From there it was on to make our specialty restaurant bookings to make the most of the three night dining package I had booked last Black Friday. I had booked us a guaranteed inside as the price was significantly less than any other offering when we booked around 14 months out. In the end cruise fares for one person or more than we had paid for the two of us. Our room allocation only came last week although I could see it from my boarding passes unofficially and I was a little concerned about the proximity to the theatre but so far one night in all seems to be well. we took an early lunch in the windjammer and headed directly for the pool deck where we waited patiently (well maybe not so patiently in the case of my son) for the Flowrider to open at 1 pm. We then spent a few hours there before returning to the pool for a swim. We enjoyed a pre-dinner drink in the outside area of the diamond lounge and then headed to Izumi for our 6 pm reservation where we watched the ocean pass by and enjoyed some very delicious food. After dinner, we joined in some trivia about Landmarks which was fun. The evening finished for us early with a quick wander through the shops and then back to our cabin to watch coverage of the Sail GP which has been shown on the state room TV. Up early tomorrow for an 8am Flowrider class!

Friday brought lots of cloud but very humid temperatures. We took ourselves to the beach in the morning but within an hour or so the lifeguards all along the beach raised red flags and we soon realised why… not sure if you can make it out in the picture but we shall just say it was a water quality issue!! We took the bus to Ravenna a little earlier than planned which turned out to be a good job as a street market had closed the town of Punta Marina and it took us a while to work out the diversion. At Basilica di San Vitale we purchased a ticket for three mosaic sites (there was a choice to add an extra two). One adult and one student was 19€. It was breathtaking! The buildings look relatively unassuming from outside, certainly when you compare to some British Cathederals like Canterbury but inside was just amazing. The mosaics were beautifully preserved and just so detailed. My pictures don’t do them justice. Ravenna is a very walkable town, bus and rail station are centrally located We wandered the streets for a while then took the bus back to our accommodation. We got off in town and checked out the market and got dinner at a fish restaurant on the beach called Bellavista. This was a bit more expensive at 70€ for a shared starter and two mains but soooo fresh and delicious. Once back at site, we used the self service laundry (€4 for a load - another perk) and hung them out to dry overnight which was a success - it was still 30 degrees at 9pm. it was an early night ready to pack and head to the port the next morning.

Yes. Signal was great in our cabin but didn’t test it elsewhere.

The camp was very much a family venue with loads of European children. They had kids club and lots of activities. Just on board Explorer and we have around 900 Kids on for this sailing!

Our pre-cruise time will perhaps not appeal to all but we are staying on a holiday camp at the beach about 7km from Ravenna. We have a 2 bed air conditioned mobile home which is well equipped and furnished with comfortable beds. It was booked though Eurocamp and would provide a fantastic solution for families where it can be a challenge finding a twin room or where there are 4/5 people together. We paid £179 for three nights which is exceptional value given that it has an entertainment programme and swimming pool. Eurocamp Have sites all over France, Italy and Spain. Originally we had planned to explore Ravenna yesterday (Thursday) but we found out that both Azamara Pursuit and Serenade were in port so we have decided to go there today instead. Yesterday was a long walk along the coast and the rest of the day spent at the beach and in the sea. It was hazy but very warm. The water is very clear and the sand clean although it’s darker in colour. The beach doesn’t have much charm though, it’s a vast array of neatly lined up sunbeds as far as the eye can see in the either direction ranging from 7€ to €30 per day. Some areas charged more for the front rows. We found a section of public beach nearby and settled on the sand. For dinner, we found a restaurant on Trip Advisor called Pizzeria Mollinetto. It was about a mile away though we were more than grateful for the walk back after eating lots of delicious food. We shared a caprese salad to start then pizza and seafood pasta. Dessert was a Gelato once we got back into Punta Marina Terme. Our meal was 50€ and the ice cream €4.

Thank you. It was delicious. We found a little beach bar still serving food.