Holy Land “Odyssey” - May 2023

[FionaMG]

On 5/5/2023 at 9:49 PM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

This is going to be my problem exactly next year when we head to the Med with our then 16/18 year old girls. We're planning a few days pre-cruise in Barcelona and a few days post cruise in Rome. The hotel is going to be a real issue.

Following because this cruise itinerary is totally on my bucket list!

For Rome, take a look at the Hotel Lancelot. It's nothing fancy but it's comfortable, walking distance to the Colosseum and has a couple of family rooms.

[FionaMG]

3 hours ago, Jkaczano said:

It’s been a trying day. We docked at Haifa around noon and immigration started around 1:30.  We had immigration group 1, so we were off the ship and back with no lines or waiting.  Passengers were not able to leave the port.  plan was to move the ship at dusk and possibly allow people to leave at 8PM.  Unfortunately around 4:15  the captain came on the intercom to tell us that due to the “geopolitical climate”, we were leaving port immediately.   We later heard there were air strikes against Tel Aviv 40 miles away.  DH and DS said that even the ships’ officers were grabbing stuff off the pier and running it back to the ship.  We left right about 5, and I’ve never seen a ship move so fast as it was leaving harbor.   
 

the captain later came on and said we would be detouring to Santorini and Chania.     After dinner we received a letter in our room with new itinerary and port times, as well as “compensation” to make up for this change.  Quite frankly, I don’t think it’s sufficient given the premium we paid for this cruise over standard RC itineraries but it is what it is.  It was also stated that new excursions would be posted within 2 hirs - it’s now been about 4 and no sign of them yet.  We are about to walk to shore excursions desk.   On a brighter note, at least sports staff has their act together as they’ve already called me to reschedule my private flowrider I ime…

 

 

So disappointing for you. I hope you will be able to enjoy your time in the alternative ports anyway.

[Traveler]

Oh sorry to hear that , just a very bad timing ( from my experience, most likely it will over today/tomorrow) , yes there were two alarms in Tel Aviv (one of the alarm caught me outside) but all were intercepts. Can not blame the Captain for taken this decision  has he responsible for the safety  of everyone although he could give some more time to leave the port . Enjoy the rest of the cruise.

[Jkaczano]

18 hours ago, Traveler said:

Oh sorry to hear that , just a very bad timing ( from my experience, most likely it will over today/tomorrow) , yes there were two alarms in Tel Aviv (one of the alarm caught me outside) but all were intercepts. Can not blame the Captain for taken this decision  has he responsible for the safety  of everyone although he could give some more time to leave the port . Enjoy the rest of the cruise.

I didn’t realize you were in Israel.  Please stay safe.  
 

I haven’t heard of any blame or anger about leaving.  Since everyone was on the ship (no one was allowed to get off except to do immigration and go to duty free), it was just a matter of the staff packing up once the decision was made. They just expedited that. 

[Jkaczano]

Woke up this morning at 7 and they had started posting tours for tomorrow.  We ended up choosing Oia on our own because we had concerns about tender, cable car queue, and transport to Oia as private tours picked up at top of cable car.  Just got a letter at our room tonight that we had priority tender through the key program so if I had it to do over again might have done something different.  Hard to make last minute decisions though.  Still haven’t found anything I want to do in Chania.  
 

rode Flowrider for 3 hours this morning, had lunch at Chops, napped for 2 hours, and rode for another 2 hours.  Dinner again at Chops and then at 8 we went to get seats for 8:30 show but there were barely any left so we left and watched the Odyssey orchestra.  Back in the room now. We are meeting for tour tomorrow at 7:45 so probably going to be early tonight.  

[mjb1127]

We stayed at the Hotel Golden back in 2015 when we sailed out of Civitavecchia and we also used Stefano's Rome Cabs.

So sorry to hear about the situation in Israel.

[Jkaczano]

We woke up this morning, had Windjammers, and met in royal theater at 7:45 for our tour (Oia on your own, $59 per person).  We boarded tender at ship which brought us directly to the commercial port where we boarded busses for Oia.  Tour guide was knowledgeable and friendly but it was hard to hear him over the 2 small children sitting behind me on the bus screaming and kicking my seat.  Once we arrived in Oia, we walked to the top of the hill as a group, then had about 75 minutes on our own before we had to be back in the bus.  I thought we’d be waiting around forever for stragglers but we left only 5 minutes late.  Bus drove to Fira and dropped us close to bus depot.  Guide pointed out where cable car departed from and gave us all 1 way tickets.  
 

Tour itself was OK for a ship tour but the screaming children reminded me why I generally book privates.  Unfortunately, I found Santorini to be disappointing.  Even with only 1 ship in port, the streets were crowded and lined with souvenir shops, gelato stands, and restaurants.  Can’t imagine what it would be like with 3 or 4 ships in port.  Quite frankly, Santorini felt like nothing more than a tourist trap.  

[MaryS]

3 hours ago, Jkaczano said:

We woke up this morning, had Windjammers, and met in royal theater at 7:45 for our tour (Oia on your own, $59 per person).  We boarded tender at ship which brought us directly to the commercial port where we boarded busses for Oia.  Tour guide was knowledgeable and friendly but it was hard to hear him over the 2 small children sitting behind me on the bus screaming and kicking my seat.  Once we arrived in Oia, we walked to the top of the hill as a group, then had about 75 minutes on our own before we had to be back in the bus.  I thought we’d be waiting around forever for stragglers but we left only 5 minutes late.  Bus drove to Fira and dropped us close to bus depot.  Guide pointed out where cable car departed from and gave us all 1 way tickets.  
 

Tour itself was OK for a ship tour but the screaming children reminded me why I generally book privates.  Unfortunately, I found Santorini to be disappointing.  Even with only 1 ship in port, the streets were crowded and lined with souvenir shops, gelato stands, and restaurants.  Can’t imagine what it would be like with 3 or 4 ships in port.  Quite frankly, Santorini felt like nothing more than a tourist trap.  

That's the same tour we took in September.  I think we had 3 ships in port and it was very crowded but I knew it was going to be and just went with the flow.  Yes it does seem like a tourist trap but the gelato was very good when we were hot from wandering around.  I really loved views in Santorini. 

[Jkaczano]

Pictures from Santorini

[Jkaczano]

Once we were back on the ship from Santorini, we had some lunch and the kids and I headed to the flowrider for 3:30 when it opened.   We rode until 7 when it closed with no one else showing up.  Guess that’s one good thing about Santorini.  
 

after riding we had dinner at Coastal Kitchen - another filet night.  Great food and great service.  Then we watched the virtual orchestra in 270 (I slept through) and then royal 5 in main theater.  Royal 5 is a show featuring 5 vocalists from the onboard shows.  All had great voices and it was great to hear them singing songs of their choice highlighting their strengths.  
 

This morning, we had windjammer and then rode again advanced then mixed wave.  After flowrider closed, DH and I headed into Old Town in Chania. RC was providing shuttles from port to right outside Old Town.  We had very low expectations but had a wonderful time.  You could tell that it wasn’t just tourists.  Lots of non-souvenir stores with a bunch of restaurants.  DH and I grabbed a spinach pie (we call it Spanikopita at home) and it was absolutely delicious.  3.50 euro. 
 

got back on the ship and had el loco fresh and rode again at 3:30. Definitely busier today.  Our dinner reservations are at 9 tonight so just had a Sorentos snack to hold us over.  

[Jkaczano]

Oops - forgot to mention the lifeboat drill this morning.  They actually took down every lifeboat on starboard side and drove them around the harbor.  

[DDaley]

Chania is so pretty! Completely agreed on Santorini, it was our least favorite Greek port out of the 9 we visited. 

[Jkaczano]

I definitely fell down on the job. We’re sitting at airport now so I’ll try to catch up.  
 

Sunday Kusadasi/ Ephesus. We booked a private tour through Ephesus Shuttle (4B biblical Galilee and terrace houses). Tour started with trip to House of the Virgin Mary, then went to Ephesus.  Ephesus was amazing and the terrace houses were well worth the extra charge.  We then went to St John’s Basilica, and toured a rug coop.  The rug coop was really interesting to see but it was obvious they wanted to sell rugs which made 1 of my teens uncomfortable. Sounds like a bunch of cruise ship tours stopped there too so not sure it could be avoided.  Overall it was a great tour. 

[Jkaczano]

Ephesus 

[Jkaczano]

Monday was Piraeus/ Athens. Private tour booked through HP tours.  Company was clear that they are NOT licensed tour guides so they couldn’t accompany us IN the sites.  It was a great day.  We were one of the first off the ship and driver got us to the Acropolis / Parthenon well before the group tours got there. We then saw some of the smaller sites like the Olympic Stadium, and changing of the guard, before spending the last hour/ 90 minutes at the Acropolis museum.  Again, wonderful tour. 

[Jkaczano]

[Jkaczano]

Tuesday was a well needed sea day. Sports staff was incredible which meant that there really was not much rest.  

[Jkaczano]

Wednesday (yesterday) was our last port day in Naples.  I had booked the private Pompeii shore excursion through LivItaly.  Pickup was scheduled for 8 but Roberto was there 7:45 when we exited the ship.  Since we weren’t meeting the guide until just before 9 at Pompeii, he brought us to see the cathedral in the new town of Pompeii.  It was amazing inside.  Met our tour guide Annalise just outside the ruins.  Her tour was absolutely amazing and she was extremely knowledgeable.  I’m sure there was much more to see as the site is very extensive, but we got a great overview.  After the tour was over, Roberto was supposed to bring us to an authentic lunch but after 2 weeks, we suggested plan 3 - back to the ship.  He then suggested plan 4 - his favorite to go. We thought this was a great plan. He brought us to pizzeria da carmine in Pompeii right next to the amphitheater gate.  They had small pizzas and calzones - each 2.50 euro - which we ate on the way back to the ship.  Both the kids and adults really enjoyed it.  
 

spent the afternoon on Northstar, flowrider, and bumper cars.  Last night was packing and a make up show of Effectors.  The 8:30 show the previous night stopped 3! Times for technical issues before they decided to just do the show again. 

[Jkaczano]

[Jkaczano]

This morning - we had key so I arranged our private pickup (romecabs) for 7:30.  Had a quick breakfast at Windjammer at 6:45 and people were just starting to get off the ship.  We went back to the room and were off the ship about 7:15. No line to get out.  Driver was waiting and has us to Fimicino in just about an hour.  Had to show passports just to get into bag drop line and then again when dropped bags. I purchased Fast Track to get through security faster but it was a complete waste.  Security said you could only use fast track if you were first or business class and part of your ticket.  I told her it was supposed to be for security too and she FINALLY tried it where it worked.  Definitely not worth the money, caused aggravation, and probably took longer than if we just used regular line.  Made it to the gate just about 9.  
 

flight times - making a 10:30 flight time would have been possible this morning but would have been tight even with key departure, private transfer, no traffic, and fast track.  

[MichelleB1234]

Thanks for sharing your adventure.  

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

On 5/5/2023 at 4:45 PM, Jkaczano said:

The hotel is definitely not a standard US hotel room.  It’s family run and Giuseppe was on the desk when we arrived.  Room wasn’t ready yet so he said he would store our bags while we started exploring.  He grabbed a map and marked our hotel and his suggested restaurants.  Little did my family know, their day was just beginning.  
 

Since Rome and Holy Land are bucket list for me and DH, I had a FULL day planned.  
 

We headed south to Santa Maria Della Vittoria first.  Mass wasn’t in session, so we went inside to see the art - specifically Bernini’s Ecstasy of St Theresa.  Then saw the Fountain of Moses, Plaza Della Republica, Fontana del Tritone (Triton’s Fountain by Bernini), Trevi Fountain, Piazza Colonna (dolphin fountain and Marco Aurelio column).  We then went by the Pantheon but the line was so long thwt we didn’t go in. I was planning on lunch at Antica Salumeria (recommended on cruise critic) in the plaza there but the smell of meat was SO strong that DS and I wouldn’t even go in.  
 

We then went to the Piazza della Minerva to see the Bernini Obelisk and Santa Maria sopra Minerva.   The church houses Michaelangelo’s Risen Christ.  Then Area sacra Largo dell Argentina to see the ruins and cats, and Piazza Navona to see the column and 2 more Bernini fountains.  
 

By this time, it was about 1:30 and everyone was getting cranky when DH spied McDonalds.  Not my favorite choice but the idea of sitting and not worrying whether everyone would be happy was too appealing. 

Lol love that you found McDonald’s!  I stayed at a lovely hotel on Via Nazionale in Rome back in 2006 and when we opened the window curtains right in front of us was…McDonalds!  It had a beautiful terrace for outdoor dining!  It was just funny that we had traveled all the way to Rome only to have a McDonalds as our view out the window!  We didn’t eat there though.

[MaryS]

Thank you so much for sharing this.  It brought back wonderful memories of our Odyssey trip back in Sept.  I think Ephesus was one of my favorite stops.  I was not prepared for the size and beauty of the site.  Have a safe trip home.