mashley1021

Some of the full day tours were round trip to Athinios. Our half day tour was not. Sounds like this one you mentioned is though so you should be good! Hope you enjoy Santorini!

Hi All! Back again, now to recap Day 10 in Athen (Piraeus), Greece! So this was the day I went alone on a very long tour in Athens. The tour I ended up on after lots of back and forth was "Acropolis Sightseeing, New Acropolis Museum with Plaka Free Time". It had literally the earliest meeting time of all the tours in that port of 7am in the theater on deck 4. Cafe 270 opens at 6:30am so I was literally the first person in there that morning grabbing a bagel and filling my water bottle (of course using glasses of water to do it). I then headed to the theater to get my number and wait for the announcement that we were cleared to go ashore. Literally as Captain Per was announcing the ships clearance, they came over to my tour's section and told us to head down ashore. From there, we got on the bus and got one of my least favorite things on tours: radios. They just hurt your ears, especially after a 7+ hour tour. Anyways here is what those joys look like, I would later find out they were 70 euros if we lost them, I didn't lose mine but you will find out later why I know this: Then we drove away from Piraeus as we headed to Athens. I snapped a few photos as we were driving through there and our guide, Eva, started commentating: It was a cloudy day but thankfully had no rain in the forecast and the clouds kept the temperatures down in a comfortable range. Our first stop was the Acropolis. Here was our first view of the Parthenon as we reached the site: Our tour guide, Eva, led us through the site with her red umbrella, commentating a lot, so much so that it was fairly empty when we got there but fairly full when we finally made it up to the Parthenon. The only good thing about that is it allowed for lots of breaks from the steps. Here she was: And here are some photos I took of the ruins during the walk up: When we made it up, she stopped just beyond the Parthenon to walk us through even more of the history including many pictures, here is a sample of just one: After our extremely thorough history lesson, we finally got a little time to explore on our own. I snapped a selfie to prove I made it to the top and then headed back down with the guide as I was alone and didn't want to get lost: The steps themselves weren't bad, there were only a couple really high ones, the worst part was that many of them were marble and it had rained the day before so on top of marble being slippery by itself, it was extra slippery with the little dampness that was still there. Anyways, from the Acropolis, we had about a 10 minute walk to the new Acropolis museum: Outside the museum was a spot where you could see the exposed ruins that they found under the site: Once inside, we had a bit of a wait (probably close to 40 minutes, although many of us spent some of that time waiting in the line for the toilets) while our guide bought our tickets and then we proceeded through the museum. We had the choice to go through it alone or with the guide, if you went alone, she told us to meet outside the entrance at noon. I opted to stay with her as she explained everything since once again, I was alone and I didn't want to get lost. You will notice that theme in my day. Our guide commentated for us throughout the whole museum. Those of us who stayed with her got an extremely thorough history lesson that we didn't know we needed . I said my dad would have loved this tour so it was extremely ironic I ended up on it alone, although he didn't want to see the Acropolis since he saw it 28 years ago when I was just shy of 3 on the Pacific Princess. After doing it, I can't help but agree that once is enough, Anyways, here are some photos I snapped in the museum, a lot of the artifacts are replicas since the British have many of the originals but there were still many original pieces: (Some samples of what the tools used to make everything at the acropolis probably looked like, although we don't know since no tools were found in the ruins) We finally made it through the museum with the guide at close to 12:30. Remember how she said to meet at noon? Anyways, from there we walked back to our bus and had a city tour from the comfort of our bus. We saw the modern olympic stadium and other sites and took photos from the bus. I got very lucky that I was sitting on the right side as pretty much everything she pointed out was on the right side. Here are some photos I snapped during this portion: From there, we headed to a square where we got the included snack on our tour. The tour description said souvlaki but we actually got gyros and a bottle of water. We ate these at a square, we weren't allowed to sit at the tables at the restaurant. I forgot to snap a photo of the gyro but I didn't eat much of it. After that, we headed to the Plaka. At this time, we were already at the time our tour was supposed to be back on the ship so we ended up having less free time, only 30 minutes. Note the wait we had for tickets in the museum as well as how long we took going through the museum. Our guide blamed the traffic but I can't help but think it wasn't just the traffic. We stopped on a square with the Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary and there was a large souvenir shop on the same square. Here is a photo of the church, you will notice women with roses in it, we were strongly told not to take their "free" roses (just a note: this was the only port where I felt slightly uncomfortable about the possibility of pickpocket's, I was happily carrying my locking travelon that day, and our guide consistently reminded us to watch our bags): From there I headed to the souvenir shop to get my magnets (I have a magnet board in my laundry room so I get magnets from each port to put on there). Our guide was very much so "hyping" this store but I will acknowledge these were the cheapest magnets I got in Greece, they were less than 2 euros each, so while every tour went to this store and the tour operators clearly got a kick back, I didn't necessarily mind. We also got free samples of baklava there which were a great treat. Finally, now approaching an hour late, we met up to join our bus to drive back to Piraeus and join the ship. Thankfully all aboard wasn't for a few hours so that wasn't a concern, just how long the tour was running. Our guide then started to count us and continually came up 2 short. We waited 15 minutes in the square and then headed back to the bus, she counted again, and we were still 2 short. After everyone accounted for their neighbors, we figured out who was missing and they had apparently already tipped our guide, they just didn't give back their radios or tell her they were leaving. This is when I found out how much those radios cost. I think that couple probably got fed up with the history lessons but they should have at least said they were leaving because we waited another 30 minutes on the bus before leaving. Our crew member escort even walked around with the paddle trying to find them. We finally gave up and headed back to the ship more than an hour behind schedule. The combination of this and the delays in the museum, and the supposed traffic, all led to us getting back to the ship close to 4, we were supposed to be back originally at 2:15. As sail away approached, no names were called so I am going to assume those 2 made it back on the ship. Anyways, I dropped off my stuff in the cabin and saw my towel animal: Anyways, since it was close to 4, and I hadn't eaten much all day (I had excited myself for the souvlaki and really didn't eat the gyro when that is what we got instead), I ate at playmaker's when they opened at 4. I didn't get a menu and just ordered right away when I sat down since I know that menu nearly by heart. Here are my standard chicken tenders order: Then I napped basically until our 8pm dinner in Giovanni's. I was exhausted and it was a really long day. Dinner photos: (we didn't order these, our waiter didn't think we order enough but we definitely did, we were completely stuffed after this meal) And then it was time for the pub, even though I was tired from 2 early days in a row and the extremely long day in Athens, we were gaining back the hour we lost earlier in the cruise that night and the next day (today) was a sea day, which meant I could sleep in. The stowaway crashed the pub and it was a hoot: Ok now for my overall assessment of the tour and my day in Athens: I am very glad I did it once (I was 3 last time so I didn't do it obviously) but I don't need to do it ever again. Unlike Mykonos and Santorini that I would gladly see again, this did not join the list. I can see why my dad bailed on me and obviously my mom could not do this tour. Speaking of this tour, it was listed as strenuous and that was definitely correct. It had significant walking plus all the steps and climbing at the Acropolis (on slippery marble). And our tour guide, Eva, she was definitely interesting. She has been doing this for 40 years. She spoke great English but probably spoke way too much although I know a few people on the tour very much so enjoyed it, but many did not. I felt bad for our crew escort as she continuously called her the wrong name the whole day. I do know the other groups that left the ship after us on this same tour made it back earlier so take with that what you will. Overall, this is probably a doable port with a private excursion but not sure you will get far completely on your own since Piraeus is a bit of distance from Athens. I also enjoyed having a guide in the Acropolis and the museum so that would also justify at least a private tour, although of course the assurance of the ship waiting for you in the event of traffic or something was worth it for me especially being alone that day. Today we were at sea, we also started packing as tomorrow, our last day, day 12, is a port day in Naples. We have a shore excursion called "Sorrento with Pizza and Gelato" tomorrow and I am sure that promises to be a good time but I will definitely report back. I am now a day behind again so some of this might get caught up on when I get home but I will see how I do the next couple days. I will try to post about our sea day that we had today tomorrow sometime but this next day will be busy. Thanks again and TTYL! - Ashley

It really depends on where you are, anywhere we stopped that had a public restroom, the guides would always point it out and if multiple people headed that way they would often wait, they would also point out if there wasn't any public restroom somewhere so to go "now" if you think you will need to (ex. in Santorini, there are no restrooms in Athinios so the cruise line announced multiple times while we were waiting in the theater to go as there would be none at the port, in our case the first open restrooms on our Santorini tour were in our second stop at Pyrgos; in Mykonos, when we started the walking portion of our tour, our tour guide told us to go at the tender dock before we started as there would not be any opportunities to stop when we got in town until the end). My dad has UC so he sometimes just has to run and I don't think he really had any problems on any tours as long as he went every time toilets were pointed out (hate to give TMI but here we are haha). Hope that answers your question!

Yes, would definitely recommend the Doubletree Rome Monti we stayed in! Here was our review: Also, I didn't mention this in the review but it was less than a 10 minute walk to Rome Termini station as well if you wanted to use trains to get around. We didn't for a variety of reasons (my mom's issues with walking as well as a train strike the weekend we got on OY), but it is very well located for that if you want to! We did walk over there once for the Sephora when my mom realized something she forgot to pack. Let me know if you have any questions! - Ashley

Hi All! Back on the morning of Day 11 (a sea day) to finally talk about Day 9: Santorini Day! Sorry for the delay, had 2 early mornings and long days in a row. On day 9, we had a tour meeting time of 7:25am in the theater so we each did what we needed for breakfast to be good for the day, I went to 270 and grabbed a bagel. And then it was off to the theater to wait for ships clearance. Once we got ships clearance, they started calling numbers for shore excursion only tenders to Athinios and we boarded I believe the second tender over to the shore excursion port: (Norwegian Epic that was not scheduled to be there as seen from our tender) (Marella Explorer, the former Celebrity Galaxy, as seen from our tender, we do have a story from her, our cabin got flooded! I guess that could be told another time haha) Once we made it to Athinios, we boarded our bus for our shore excursion, "Pyrgos Village with Mezes and Wine". Then we had the very interesting switchback roads up the island: (View from our bus ride) On the way to our first stop, we saw the first grape vines we would see on the island. It is very interesting how they grow them in Santorini since they grow them flat: Then we had a photo stop on the highest point of the island: Then we headed to Pyrgos village where we spent a little more than an hour. We had the option there to climb to the top to see the church with our guide or stay in the lower part of the town. We all opted to stay in the lower part, grab a coffee, and relax a bit. My mom could not have done the climb and when I saw the first part of the cobblestone stairs, I decided not to go since I knew what lied ahead for me the next day in Athens. Some photos I got there: (The church part of our group climbed up to) Then we headed off to the Venetsanos winery for our wine tasting and snacks. As we pulled in, we could see the Regent Ship, the Seven Seas Voyager, sailing in from the distance: We then had a short wait for another tour before we were seated for our wine tasting and snacks: (We tasted a dry white wine, a dry red wine, and a sweet dessert red wine) By the end of the tasting, the Regent ship had made it into position for tendering: A picture of us at the winery: Then we drove to Fira, our final stop on the tour! From there, our guide, he told us at the beginning to call him "F" (he said it would be easy to remember, think of the American curse word, ), he told us his actual Greek name but it was very difficult to pronounce, anyways, he led us from the bus stop uphill to the pedestrian zone in Fira. There really was nothing in this port that was flat, so it was a good thing we made sure my mom was well rested. (Oh yeah, we were number 12 for the 3rd time on this cruise ) Once in the pedestrian zone, he explained the cable car system, showed us where to get the cable cars and gave us our cable car vouchers. From there, the tour was effectively over and we were free to explore Fira on our own. It was shortly after noon at this point, we had about a 20 minute walk to the cable cars, and we heard the line for the cable cars would start to grow significantly at 1pm (especially given the additional ship in port, more reason to dislike the ugly NCL Epic ) so we opted to go straight there, albeit with a few quick stops inside various stores along the way. Sign with a map of the island at the cable car station: We waited in line about 30 minutes for the cable cars. Views from the cable cars once we finally got on them: (I ended up in a separate car from my parents so they snapped this picture) (The cable car station at the bottom in Skala, the old port) We made it back to the ship at about 1:30 so no surprise at this point, we headed to Coastal Kitchen for lunch: Then we once again had Siesta time before dinner in once again, Coastal Kitchen: (Same menu as night 1 and we all got the same appetizers and entrees so no need to post anything new there) (I did get a picture of the dessert menu this time, and we did get some different desserts) View of the sunset in Santorini from Coastal Kitchen with Fira all lit up: Overall, Santorini was beautiful. It is definitely not an island for someone will any mobility issues, there are steps everywhere to get on and off the cable car, in town, etc. My parents are both very glad they saw it when they did. We did hear from some people who chose to walk up that the stairs up are completely covered in Donkey poo making them even more slippery so just a heads up if you decide to make that climb. We also heard someone on the Epic fell on the steps and broke their ankle that day so also be aware. They were rushing down to meet their all aboard since theirs was earlier and a crew member we are friends with on here said they helped them call for help and they were likely not making their ship at that point. Anyways, my mom said she got her "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" moment but admitted that Mykonos was also just as beautiful and a little more accessible (still not devoid of stairs in the winding streets in town but didn't have the cliff aspect). She is very glad she made it as this was on her bucket list. The only regret is we didn't pick a tour that went to Oia to see the windmills but I heard it was very crowded there that day and Pyrgos was pretty quiet so that might have been a good thing. Also, just the logistics of a shore excursion in Santorini do make this port a lot easier as you get to take a bus ride up and you don't have to line up very early for tender tickets (although all the shore excursions met pretty early so it might be a wash there). I would probably recommend a shore excursion for anyone's first time in Santorini because of the logistics of everything. Anyways, there is (finally) my discussion on Santorini. The next day, yesterday now, was Day 10 and we were docked in Piraeus (Athens), Greece. My parents made the decision a couple days ago that they no longer wanted to do Athens, they needed a break from shore excursions. We were booked on a panoramic tour, "Ancient Athens, Plaka, and Shopping", and when we went to cancel them, the suite concierge talked me into changing my tour as well if I was going to go alone as I wouldn't get much out of the panoramic tour. This was the tour we changed a few weeks before the cruise after my mom's fall and we originally had "Acropolis, Plaka and Lunch at the Famous Bairaktaris Tavern" so I went to book that one again and found out it had significantly increased on price on board, it as now over $300 a person and we had it booked for well less than $200 a person so me being me (and being a bit cheap), I booked a similar tour that didn't have the sit down lunch and was much less money, it was also 2 hours longer as it included the museum for a total of 7 hours and 15 minutes scheduled. All that to say, I ended up on "Acropolis Sightseeing, New Acropolis Museum with Plaka Free Time" that had a meeting time yesterday of 7am, it was literally the earliest meeting time of all the tours in Athens . Anyways, that is why this got delayed. Hopefully I will get to posting about Athens later today since it is a see day. Now off to get ready for a relaxing sea day today! Thanks and TTYL! - Ashley

Hey Guys! Back from a beautiful day in Santorini today, I am going to post about it tomorrow though, we had a change of plans in Athens tomorrow that involves me being alone on a tour at 7am tomorrow so I need to get to bed, I will post more about that tomorrow when I update about Santorini. Thanks and TTYL! - Ashley

Hey All! Back from a wonderful Day 8 in Rhodes, Greece! We once again started our day in Coastal Kitchen for breakfast: Then, we headed off the ship in Rhodes for some independent exploration of the old town: We bought some oil paintings as well (I think I mentioned in a previous post that I just bought my second house last year so I thought these would be pretty on my still bare walls and would help me remember this trip): Then we once again got gelato (gelato and coastal kitchen, our 2 constants): Then we headed back to the ship a bit early, this cruise has been tiring for both of my parents. Today's Towel Animal: View of Rhodes from the ship: Then I wandered around the fairly empty ship to take pictures, I will go through those and post them after the cruise (when I do the cabin reviews as well), but here is a sneak peak of those in the form of today's towel station towel animal: Then we had an earlier dinner in Teppanyaki: (Our Chef, Kevin) (Olaf made with eggs ) (That bottom sauce is yum yum sauce, the best ) (Beautiful view as we sailed away ) Teppanyaki was absolutely delicious but it was definitely a lot of food. It was a nice change up from the typical restaurants and the show aspect of the meal is a lot of fun. We did have a family with 4 kids at our table but honestly the second the show started, they were so entertained so they quieted down. We did kinda expect kids since we did eat a lot earlier tonight due to our early tour tomorrow. Anyways, I would obviously come back to Teppanyaki/Hibachi on other ships since I have done it multiple times now and I definitely recommend it to others. Speaking of tomorrow, we are in Santorini! This is probably the highlight of this itinerary and I think the cruise line knows it as we have the longest port stay there. We are doing "Pyrgos Village with Mezes and Wine" obviously booked through shore excursions on the ship tomorrow. Given the tender situation, we have heard an excursion is the best deal here and also it means we don't have to do the cable car both ways. We are in Santorini tomorrow with 2 other ships, the Marella Explorer (former Celebrity Galaxy that we have actually been on!) and the Regent Seven Seas Voyager, so the wait for the cable car down shouldn't be terrible but I am sure I will find out and share. Thanks and TTYL! - Ashley

Hi All! Back to recap day 7 in Limassol, Cyprus. We once again started our day with breakfast in Coastal Kitchen, I didn't snap any pictures this time, I am sure you get the idea at this point. Then, our tour started a little later so we headed to our cabins to get ready to go ashore and then headed to the theater for our tour. As I said yesterday, our tour was "Panoramic Limassol & Shopping Tour". When we got to the theater, they gave us our stickers and then told us to come back at 11 as we were too early, so we decided to get Starbucks and then headed back at 5 til 11. At that time, they told us "oh your number was called a while ago". That was the first sign that this was not going to be a good tour. We were not the only people on our tour that this happened to so we all headed off the ship to the buses where we were the last parties to our bus. Then we started out tour with the panoramic drive around Cyprus. It was fine but our guide was so monotoned, I think my mom fell asleep. He had difficulty with English and was pausing before each and every word. None of our tour guides this trip have spoken English as their first language (obviously given where we are) but this one was by far the worst, he was trying but it was not great. I didn't catch his name either although that might have been a good thing. As we headed out on the bus, I discovered they drive on the left side of the road here. We passed the ship so I snapped a photo there: And then we had a few photo stops at various locations, honestly I could not tell you what any of them were but here they are: Then was the highlight of the tour, they dropped us off in town for an hour for food and shopping. We got gelato again: Then once back at the terminal, we waited in a very long line to get back on the ship as security here was controlled by the port. Here is a picture of the terminal with Limassol in the background, it kinda reminded me of the NCL terminal in Miami in shape, although obviously not size, I do think cruises can start and end here: Then I got a very late lunch at el loco fresh: At that time it was nearly time for dinner. We did our usual rest and then prep for dinner routine. Before dinner, we went to Giovanni's wine bar again and while there we saw the Stowaway piano player again: And then it was time for dinner in Chops Grille: (Sorry some bread was already missing in this photo ) And then we had our usual evening hang out in the pub: Now to recap a bit on the tour... yesterday, the ship announced they would offer a shuttle to town in Limassol. We should have cancelled our excursion and did that instead. Yes, we did see more of Cyprus this way, but we didn't get much out of it. We should have just gone in town for lunch and shopping and the hour stop in town was really not long enough to sit down anywhere and eat. Of course, they waited until the last minute to announce and sell shuttle tickets so no one would cancel their excursions. Anyways, I guess you live and you learn. Tomorrow, we are in Rhodes, Greece. Speaking of cancelling excursions, we cancelled our walking tour here. We found out the town is near the port and opted to cancel it to give my mom a break so she can hopefully be 100% for Santorini the next day which is going to be an early morning. We also have Teppanyaki for dinner tomorrow. Thanks and TTYL! - Ashley

I didn't go in there yesterday to check, I will have to check on the last sea day, Day 11.

Hey All! Back from a nice day in Limassol where we are currently still docked. My dad finally wrote something about his Ephesus tour on Day 5 so here is that. He put a ton of photos in it (like twice the amount I have been doing) and I don't know what can be cut so attaching it all as a PDF here, also the forums don't like copy pasting from word docs I have discovered from a formatting perspective. Anyways, see the attached document! Thanks and TTYL! - Ashley EphesusTour.pdf

Same, I never eat it, most cruises I am in the room with do not disturb on so it doesn't even get delivered. It is just sad and honestly a waste of food, kinda surprised they have kept this benefit around. - Ashley

Hi All! Once again I am back to recap day 6, an actual sea day, aka the day with all the crown and anchor things . We started our day off with breakfast in Coastal Kitchen... again... I am sorry, we are boring. Anyways, today I managed to get a photo of our tray of pastries before we attacked it so here it is: \ After breakfast, our normal stateroom attendant, Linton, was back and he had done my room and had one of the cuter towel animals I have seen: Next up (after my parents may or may not have booked another cruise...) we had the Pinnacle Cheers with an Officer Lunch. It was in the dining room on deck 4 and on the other side of the same floor was the Diamond Plus lunch. Anyways, here are a few photos I captured there: After that, we headed to the backstage tour. At least on Odyssey, the actual backstage tours and not just the panels are back, although it still started with a panel Q&A before we headed back stage where we were not allowed to take pictures. Here is a picture of the panel: Then I came back to my room where the chef's choice amenity had been delivered. I know these vary ship to ship and even sailing to sailing but here is what I got this time: I then wandered around the ship a bit. It was quite busy since it was a see day, I will try to capture some ship photos on a port day or in the morning one day when it is emptier. Anyways, after that, I got some Sorrento's pizza... for science : Then once again it was time to rest and get ready for dinner (not that the rest was really necessary on this incredibly lazy sea day). Once again, we had dinner in Coastal Kitchen: After dinner, we once again spent a bit of time in the pub before heading to bed: Tomorrow we are in Limassol, Cyprus. On boarding day we found out our mall transfer here had been cancelled so we booked "Panoramic Limassol & Shopping Tour" so we will be doing that tomorrow. We also have Chops Grille booked for dinner tomorrow so I promise you will finally see less Coastal Kitchen . Thanks again and TTYL! - Ashley

Hi All, Back to recap a rather uneventful day 5 here on Odyssey of the Seas. Today, we were docked in Kusadasi, Turkey. This morning, all 3 of us went to breakfast together in Coastal Kitchen before my dad left for his Ephesus excursion: (I took photos of breakfast this morning since we got some more exciting options and I knew there wouldn't be a ton to talk about today ) Then my dad headed off in Kusadasi for his Ephesus small group tour, I found out it was in fact actually 20 people and not 40 so it really was a smaller group. I will have to make him write something about it because I don't know what all he did, and I did make him take pictures. Maybe you all could encourage him to share his thoughts! Then my mom and I lounged in the Solarium, she read her kindle while I wrote my hotel review earlier . Here were some fun towel animals at the towel stand: Next up, we went back to our rooms to towel animals in the rooms, today our rooms had 2 different ones instead of the same like other days so I have pictures of both (our normal stateroom attendant Linton had some dental work done in Turkey today so he had the day off and someone else filled in for him, hence the different towel animals, who knew this would be the highlight of my day ) : Then my mom and I had a quiet lunch together in Coastal Kitchen. The menu was a repeat of the first day but I remembered to get a picture this time and we both ordered the exact same things: Then it was siesta time and my dad came back from his tour. We once again had dinner in coastal kitchen, I promise you will see this changed up in the next couple days: And then tonight we changed it up and hung out in the schooner bar. The pub guitarist had the night off and there was karaoke going on in the pub. My parents refuse to listen to karaoke and I don't blame them : Tomorrow is an actual day at sea finally! We have the pinnacle luncheon tomorrow so you will see a little less coastal kitchen from us. There is also the backstage tour in the afternoon if I am up for it. One fun fact we found out about the pinnacles on board this sailing: of the 89 pinnacles, only 14 joined for this sailing, the rest were on the TA. That means excluding us there are only 11 others who weren't on B2B, we have yet to find any of them . Thanks again and TTYL! - Ashley

Hey All! Back on Day 5 from Kusadasi, Turkey, aka a pseudo sea day for my mom and I. I am sitting in the solarium and decided it was finally time to post that hotel review. For our 4 nights, 3 days pre cruise in Rome we stayed in the Doubletree by Hilton Rome Monti. We were in a family connecting superior room which was a King Deluxe room and a King Superior room connected to each other through a little vestibule. It kinda reminded me of the old family connecting junior suites on the original Quantum class ships and the new connecting rooms on Icon. We had one door to get into both of our rooms (303 and 305): The other side of that door: And then a little hallway with the separate doors for 303 and 305: 305 in the front was the larger King Superior room that my parents stayed in and 303 to the right was the smaller King Deluxe room that I stayed in. The hotel also had the same configuration where the King Superior room was replaced with a Twin Superior room which would probably be ideal if you have young kids, obviously our setup was better for us. When you entered my room, 303, on the right was some storage for clothing and a little table: On the left was the bathroom: Mine had a bit of an awkward toilet setup with the toilet and bidet behind the door, and the shower definitely flooded the bathroom every morning although my parents room had the same shower issue. Given the standard for hotels in Rome was tiny rooms and tiny bathrooms, this really wasn't that bad and more than sufficed. As you got further in the room, my bed was on the left: View from the bed: The full king sized bed was a bit tight around it but overall really not a bad amount of room for a hotel in Rome. Also pretty adequate outlets throughout the room. Next up was my parent's room, 305. Their room had a hallway when you entered that headed to the bathroom up ahead with a pocket door (remedying the toilet issues my room had) and the bedroom to the right. Don't judge the amount of luggage in the hallway , my mom will tell you she likes to have options although I am pretty sure that my dad packed the most by weight of all of us: Here was their bathroom (Same shower as mine, just a bigger bathroom counter and slightly different layout): If you turn right in front of their bathroom, here is the entry to the bedroom: Immediately to the left in their bedroom was a similar storage system to my room and a similar table: In front of their bed was a little sofa that pulled out to a twin bed, I joked I could have shared a room with them (not that I wanted to) but it would have been awfully tight with this pulled out: And here was there King bed, they had a little more room on each side of theirs than I did: Overall, given the typical hotels you see in Rome, this was fairly modern, well located, never much more than a mile from where we wanted to go, and had loads of restaurants around it in addition to the restaurant in the hotel. Here were the restaurants someone at the front desk recommended to us all very near the hotel, we went to the second one, the pizza place, twice: There was also a gelato place down the street and a wine store around the corner where my dad got his wine that he took on board. The wine store had some open bottles so he was able to get an idea of what he was buying and the lady that worked there was incredibly helpful. He also didn't get talked into anything ridiculously priced, the 3 bottles he bought were about 20 euros each. He spends more than the price of all 3 combined plus vat pretty often on one bottle at home. We also got included hotel breakfast for being Hilton gold members but the coffee situation wasn't ideal as I stated in an earlier blog so we ended up getting coffee and pastries at a cafe down the street each morning instead. Overall, this hotel worked out really well for us. I am sure there are better located hotels that are less modern but this was really not that far from anything and gave us what we wanted and even pleased my picky mom with a modern hotel and a nice lobby. The furthest drive we had was to the Vatican but obviously we only went there once so it wasn't a big deal. Anyways, if anyone else is looking for a hotel in Rome, I would definitely recommend this one. Now just a quick update on our post cruise hotel situation, while we were spending 6 hours in the Heathrow lounge on our travel day, I discovered that the opening date for the Cardo Roma Autograph Collection (owned by Marriott) was further delayed from 5/1 to 5/13 and we are staying there 5/17 so I made the executive decision to book the Hilton Rome Eur La Lama instead. I then spent the next day moving around our post cruise transportation. Once everything was finalized, I cancelled the Cardo Roma. I didn't want to risk finding out it hadn't opened once we got on the ship so I think I made the right choice. The next day we tried to re-book the hotel in my dad's name and it was already sold out except for suites so I am glad I grabbed it when I did in Heathrow. The Hilton opened in 2023 and is in roughly the same location as the Cardo Roma, about halfway between the FCO airport and the center of Rome. Since we have an early flight the next day, aside from staying in an airport hotel (and both options there were older, which didn't meet my mom's requirements), this was the best solution. Ok, now back to lounging in the solarium! Feel free to let me know if you have any questions about the Doubletree, I will do my best to answer them! Thanks and TTYL! - Ashley

Ok now for some story time about some observations of another passenger in our tour at the inspiration of @AshleyDillo's live blogs and people watching... There was this guy on our tour that I will call Mr. Diamond Plus because he made sure to tell everyone that he was diamond plus and also wore his diamond plus pin in port today. He was a complete know it all and became our secondary entertainment today. First, at the winery, he tried to make statements about wine and kept getting refuted by the owner of the winery. Then, on the bus, he tried to argue with our guide that we would have the option to take the regular bus back to the ship and not just the sea bus as she was handing out the tickets. She told him no. Honestly, no clue why you would argue with the guide on that, she literally explained her background to us, that she had been doing this for years, and her significant other was literally leading the other group of the same tour. Next, as we were waiting for the group to use the facilities before walking in town, he was talking about his diamond plus benefits to another family and saying how he got "free laundry" and "free wifi for the whole cruise"... The tour guide obviously couldn't refute him on this and I could tell the other family had figured out that he was full of it so I bit my tongue, also I never really want to out my status, partly because of people like him. This was also when my dad started to notice him and make comments. Then, as we were walking in town and first saw the windmills, he asked our guide about power to the island and proceeded to say that those were wind turbine generators... our tour guide had to tell him no again, they were old fashioned windmills, I could barely hold back the laughing here . Throughout the walking tour he had to race around the group to be practically in front of our guide, practically losing his wife each time. He would look back and try to find her, but never slow down to stay with her, it was just obnoxious. Finally, at the end of the tour, he very loudly proclaimed he would be taking the sea bus back to the ship with the guide. I think that influenced our decision to stay in town and get away from him and I don't think anyone else went back with the guide either after that . Anyways, hope you enjoyed my story time and got some laughs, this definitely became our secondary entertainment today and became the generator for some inside jokes with me and my parents . - Ashley

Hi All! Back to recap today, day 4, in Mykonos. Mykonos has officially entered my list of ports I would love to go back and spend time in outside of a cruise so that means this was definitely a good day. Today we did the Mykonos Exploration with Farmhouse Wine Tastings shore excursion. It had a meeting time of 8:20am in the theater and since Coastal Kitchen adjusted its breakfast hours for how early we were in port today, we once again had breakfast in Coastal Kitchen. I didn't take any pictures this time since I think you get the point, the breakfast menu obviously stays the same. After that, we headed to the theater once again where once again we ended up being in group 12, the same number as yesterday, no clue how that happened but it did. When our number was called, we headed off the ship and met our guide Xena. From there we got on the bus and headed to our first stop, the early morning wine tasting (there was a later time for this tour but in the time we debated what to do here, it filled up, this was one of the ports added when Israel was cancelled). Also of note, we were docked in the new port today, this was originally scheduled as a tender port but I guess they were able to take the one spot in the dock, an MSC ship was out there tendering. We then got to a small farm where we tasted 3 local wines: a white, a rose, and a red. They also had some cheese and bread to nosh on along with the wine. The owner of the winery explained each wine to us before we tasted and gave us a little history of wine in Greece. After the wine tasting, we drove into town where we found out that we would be taking the sea bus back to the new port after the walking portion of the tour in town and we could return at our leisure. Our guide handed out sea bus tickets and instructed us to each hold our own... but they would only be 2 euros if we lost them . After that we got off and walked for the old tender port to town. On the way, our guide made sure to stop at a map to give us our bearings. From there, we headed in town where we saw all the picturesque white buildings, churches, and windmills: (MSC ship anchored, on the right in the distance you can see Odyssey docked) After the walking tour of the town, our guide showed us where the sea bus would pick up at and told us we could either go back with her or stay in town. We opted to stay in town and do some shopping and grab some lunch before heading back to the ship: We then lined up for the sea bus and headed back to the ship: (Sea bus) (Today's towel animal) Then once again, we had our usual siesta time before getting ready for dinner, once again in Coastal Kitchen: We then of course had to say goodbye to Mihai since he is getting off tomorrow in Ephesus: And after dinner we once again spent some time in the pub: Overall, we really enjoyed Mykonos. Once again, you could buy the sea bus tickets without being on an excursion so if I were coming on a cruise here again, I would probably just take that into town and spend the day in town, although I did enjoy the overview of the history and everything for my first time here. Although it was definitely a bit early for the wine tasting . Regardless, I think we all fell in love with Mykonos. My parents have a neighbor with a house here and my dad already texted her asking when we could stay in her house here . Tomorrow in Ephesus my dad is getting off for a tour alone. We couldn't convince my mom to get off (She has heard bad things about Turkey they we couldn't get out of her head, combined with everything going on for her we didn't think the ruins were a great idea), so I am going to stay on the ship as well to be with her. I might try to convince my dad to write a guest post or something since my mom and my day will probably involve more Coastal Kitchen, and wondering around the ship . Anyways, thanks again and TTYL - Ashley

Thanks! The more this goes on, the more I have been relying on photos over text

Hi All! Just got back from Mykonos but first I am going to recap yesterday, Day 3, in Chania. We started our day in Coastal Kitchen again for breakfast, I know we are boring and predictable: Then we headed to the theater to meet for our excursion, Chania Old Town Walk: Once our group was called, we headed to our bus where we met our tour guide Nicole: From there, we headed to a photo stop at Venizelos Graves where you could see all of the old town from above: Next up was a short bus ride to just outside of old town. From there, we started the walking portion of our tour: After that, our guide gave us some free time in old town. We got some gelato during our free time: After the free time, we had the choice to stay in old town and take the shuttle back or take the bus back with the tour. We opted to take the bus back with the tour: Once we got back to our ship, we ate in 270 cafe for lunch: And then had our normal siesta time before dinner. Dinner was at Giovanni's: (apologies that I didn't get a photo of the calamari before my dad attacked it) After dinner, we ran into the stowaway piano, he is no Guido who was on here in December but I believe Guido is on Icon so we will have to make do : And then it was time again for the pub: All in all, it was a good day, nothing too thrilling and probably a port that we could just take the shuttle to old town if we came in the future but it was interesting hearing some of the history of Chania and was good for our first time there. The cruise line shore excursions are very rarely something to write home about but they work and make my mom more comfortable, especially when we have a crew member escort which we did this time. Thanks again and TTYL! - Ashley :

No problem! Definitely good to share other perspectives from people who are more adventurous since we are only doing ship tours. Anyways, I will write up about our tour in Chania tomorrow sometime since tomorrow we have an early start in Mykonos so I need to get to bed . - Ashley

Hey All! Back to recap Day 2 onboard the cruise. First Towel Animal: Sailing through the Strait of Messina: Norwegian Epic Docked in Messina Today: It was a sea day so we spent the day relaxing for the most part and at all 3 meals in coastal kitchen and pre dinner drinks in Giovanni's wine bar again. Here at the pictures from that: Breakfast: Lunch: Dinner: We also went to top tier in the morning, there were quite a few 1050 milestones and one 1400 milestone. Here are some pictures I took there, not posting the milestones pictures for privacy but if anyone was one of them and wants a picture of their slide I got all of them. Here are what I can share: We wrapped up the night in the pub with Vishal, a bartender we first met on Symphony before covid and we are glad is in a bar we actually go to this sailing (he was in windjammer in December and as I stated earlier, we basically never walk in there ). Mark James, the guitar player, played this night and so far so good although I know this is a more difficult crowd with these port intensive sailings. Anyways, here are some pictures from those shenanigans including another water dump: Thanks again and I promise I will get to a hotel review eventually, I think the time change and lack of sleep caught up to me as I napped a lot this afternoon. Rome was all go go go for us as you saw . Tomorrow, we are in the first port of the cruise, Chania, and doing a walking tour with very little description so wish us luck there. Thanks and TTYL! - Ashley

Thanks! yes, it was definitely fun, and yeah my dad didn't realize that tiramisu was mostly raw egg although I had a feeling, it was a good time!

Thanks! Was going to post this when I got around to talking about today but you beat me to it, and your picture is better than mine

Yup! He finally gets off on Day 5 of this cruise for a much needed vacation, he has been going for a while now, and then he will be joining Utopia pretty soon for the take out. -Ashley

Hi Everyone! We obviously made it on board the beautiful Odyssey of the Seas so here is a wrap up of our boarding day yesterday. In the morning, we went to the same cafe near our hotel for coffee and pastries. After that, we got a porter to help us take our luggage down to the hotel lobby where our driver picked us up promptly at 10am. We used Stefano's Rome Cabs for our transfers between the airport, hotel, and ship. We have been very happy with them. We booked them through Viator (you can find the Viator links on their TripAdvisor). From there, we arrived at the port a little more than an hour later just after 11am. At the port, porters approached us to help with the checked luggage right away and then we walked in with them and they directed us through security. Security was a breeze. After that, we lined up for check in, they checked our passports and set sail passes and gave us a boarding number. In order to get a suite/pinnacle number, we then had to walk up to the Key sign to get our number replaced with a suites card so we could board immediately. This process was a bit confusing as there was no signage in the terminal for suites, only the Key, and it was after check in and receiving another number. Once we got the suite number, we proceeded to boarding. After boarding the ship, we headed straight to our muster station to check in. We watched the safety video while we were driving to the port so it was very quick, they scanned our set sail passes and we were done with the worst part . After that, we headed up to Coastal Kitchen where we saw Mihai, the Coastal Kitchen manager, who is on board until we get to Turkey and Jose, the Coastal Kitchen host who was also on board in December, along with most of the same wait staff. We were seated right away for lunch. While we were waiting for our food, I headed over to the reservations desk by Teppanyaki to get our reservations set for the rest of the cruise for our 5 night dining package as well as an Izumi Sushi lunch one sea day. By the time I was done making reservations, our food had arrived (I forgot to take a picture of the lunch menu and my dessert, it was the chicken sandwich menu and I had key lime pie for dessert while my parents had ice cream): Our staterooms opened at 1pm so by the time we were done with lunch, our staterooms were ready so we headed down to them. Our cases were shockingly already outside our door so we unpacked and then it was time for a short and very interrupted by announcements nap before getting ready for dinner. They did a diamond and above sail away party at 4:30pm in the Music Hall but we all decided we needed to take a nap instead, it was a busy few days in Rome. We then got ready for 8pm dinner in Coastal Kitchen. Before dinner, we had some drinks in Giovanni’s wine bar and then headed up to dinner. Odyssey just got the new Coastal Kitchen dinner menus from Icon of the Seas a month ago so you might see some new options in the pictures and menu below: After dinner, we had some drinks in the pub. The compass had an error and it was actually the pub player’s off night so I can’t comment on him yet but hopefully I will see him tonight. I have heard he plays Alice so I will definitely report back on the front. Anyways, here were some of our drinks in the pub as well as our first water and soda dump from our vouchers: And then we headed to bed, we lost an hour last night as we moved to Greece time. I will try to post tonight about our hotel in Rome. Thanks and TTYL! - Ashley

Hi All, We made it onboard the Odyssey of the Seas today but once again I need to catch up on what we did yesterday. I have a feeling I am going to be continually behind but hopefully I will be able to catch up since tomorrow is a sea day but then I might quickly end up behind again as the port days start. Anyways all of that to say just bear with me . Ok so back to yesterday. We started our day heading to a cafe near the hotel for coffee and pastries. We opted to not do the hotel breakfast again after the first time so I literally searched coffee shop on Google maps and went to the first place that showed up. Here are some pictures of the pastries and coffee: After that, we once again ordered an Uber and headed to the restaurant for our cooking class. The class was called “3 in 1 Cooking Class near Navona: Fettuccine, Ravioli & Tiramisu” and was conducted in the back room of a restaurant. Promptly at the start time of the class, our chef instructor Danilo came out to check us in for the class and had us come in and wash our hands before starting with the Tiramisu. Danilo already had the eggs separated in two bowls and then added sugar to the yolks. From there he asked for two volunteers to use the hand mixers to beat the egg whites and beat the yolks. I volunteered and ended up beating the yolks and sugar mixture. About halfway through the beating process we stopped and he got another volunteer up to drop spoonfuls of mascarpone in the yolk mixture as I continued beating with the hand mixer. Once the egg whites were stiff and the yolks, sugar, and mascarpone mixture was completely mixed, my job was done. From there he had a few more volunteers come up to fold the egg whites into the yolks mixture. My dad volunteered for this part and ended up being on of the people doing the folding. From there, Danilo instructed us how to assemble the tiramisu. We each were given a glass and two lady fingers (they have a much nicer Italian name that I don’t remember ). They had bowls of brewed coffee on the tables and we broke the lady fingers in half and quickly dipped the first half in the coffee and smushed it on the bottom of the cup (smushed is a technical term ). We then layered in the cream, the other half of the lady fingers dipped in coffee but not smushed and some more cream. Finally, we topped it off with cocoa powder. We then labeled our cups of tiramisu and put them on trays to go chill while we prepared our pasta. For the pasta making, we did the whole process by hand including the rolling and cutting. Danilo demonstrated each step and also came around to help. My mom has never been the cook in my household (she likes to talk about how she failed home ec in high school), and she required a lot of assistance to get the pasta mixed, kneaded, and rolled out. Thankfully he helped her out otherwise she wouldn’t have had lunch, he said there was one of her in every class . Not only did we cut thicker fettuccine noodles, we also filled and cut ravioli. We were given a card to write our name on and select one of three sauces for our fettuccine. My mom and I both selected cacio e pepe and my dad selected a tomato sauce with pork in it called Amatriciana. From there we left our finished pasta on our boards with the cards and headed to the actual restaurant side of the space to sit down at a large table as a group to enjoy what we made. The server came around with some house wine for everyone and then our pasta started coming out as it was prepared. Unfortunately one of my ravioli burst in the water so I lost one but it was still really cool eating what we just made. After we ate our pasta, they passed out our tiramisu and each enjoyed what we made. It was definitely a fun experience that while not a typical tour was a fun way to experience Rome. The class was operated by Eat and Walk Italy and I once again purchased it through Viator. The whole thing including the lunch took about 3 hours and at the end we got to download a recipe booklet of what we cooked to keep. The same operator also offers pizza and other classes and all the recipes for all the classes are included in the recipe booklet. Here are some pictures I took at the class: After the class, we finally had some free time so we walked to the Spanish steps (about a half mile from where the class was) and did some shopping. Let’s just say we did some damage and now have to figure out the VAT refund process when we leave FCO in 2 weeks. I will report back how that goes if we are successful. From there we got ditched by an Uber driver who started driving in circles trying to get us to cancel until he finally canceled so we ended up shopping some more before getting a cab at a taxi stand to get back to our hotel. We once again ate dinner at the pizza place near our hotel. Here are our pictures from this time: After that we got some gelato near our hotel: And finally went back to our rooms to pack up and prepare to board the ship the next day. Overall, this was our most relaxed day in Rome and definitely needed after the 2 busy days prior. My next post will probably be a shorter post about boarding day, it was rather uneventful as everything went pretty smoothly, as well as finally a hotel review. Spoiler: we definitely would recommend the Doubletree by Hilton Rome Monti. Thanks again for reading and TTYL! - Ashley