Odyssey 5/5/24 - The Holy Lands Cruise that was not meant to be (Greece, Italy, and Turkey instead)

[mashley1021]

9 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

My wife is... let's go with > 30... and she kinda eats like a big kid and barely drinks as well. We just turned D+ and I'm going to have to make an effort to use up our vouchers. She maxes out at 3 and can easily use less. I'm not a huge drinker myself so 8 vouchers for just me will likely wind up in a fridge half full of Truly and/or soda cans.

My parents and I struggle to come close to our 6 each... we bring a shopping bag to a bar at the end of the night and get bottled water... usually lots of bottled water lol

[mashley1021]

Hey Everyone!

Sorry for the delayed post, things have gotten a bit hectic between getting ready for this trip and me finishing up things at work before I leave. Anyways, happy to report that more than just my mom is packed now, my dad and I are now pretty much packed as well, unfortunately we ended up taking one more case than planned (I am going to plead the 5th on what the planned number was).

Anyways, here are all the shore excursions we have planned for on the cruise (all booked through the cruise, we don’t normally do this but given foreign countries we did this just to be safe):

Note: I should clarify that we booked most of these last year and did have a family meeting going through them after everything that happened in February, at that time we changed one and held on to the rest after both my parents read descriptions and agreed, I am trying to take no responsibility if things go wrong here . There is one port we are still concerned about (Santorini, more on that below, but nothing else was available).

Day 3: Chania

Chania Old Town Walk
When in doubt about what we wanted to do, we tended to pick walking tours (or tours involving food or wine, more of those later). We will see how these go with my mom but for the time being we are going to be optimistic. Unfortunately, this is our first port so if it is a flop, it will be down hill from there on the excursion front for my mom. Also unfortunately, this one doesn’t list a distance and just says “extensive walking on cobblestone streets”. Wish us luck with that. (Not sure if I said this before but she was told she should walk and get exercise but she just needs to be careful not to overdo it.)

Day 4: Mykonos

Mykonos Exploration with Farmhouse Wine Tasting 
This was one of the ports added late. When we finally got around to booking a tour here, we saw wine and said that’s the one (pretty much all the thought that went into this). Anyways, this one has a small walking element but lists it specifically  at 1400 yards over cobblestones and very specifically 3 steps. That should be fine if it is accurate. Will report back on all of these.

Day 5: Ephesus

My mom and I are not planning to get off here, we understand the Virgin Mary sight is rather strenuous and my mom was not interested. I am staying on board with her to keep her company. My dad finally booked a tour today! He booked the Exclusive Small-Group Best of Ephesus tour, I will make him report back on how that goes. We did a "small group" tour through Celebrity last year when we were on the Apex in Belfast... it didn't go well, Celebrity overbooked it so the small group ended up being a completely full, full sized coach bus. They should have split us up but they didn't. We fought for onboard credits in the retreat which was a whole other ordeal I don't need to get into here. Hopefully this one goes better for my dad's sake.

Day 7: Limassol

My Mall
Yes, we booked a transfer to a shopping mall on our Europe trip. And yes, I did it to make my mom happy. Also, nothing else really interested us there and I was not pushing another walking tour.

Day 8: Rhodes

Medieval Rhodes Walking Tour
Yes, another walking tour, this one says 2 miles over uneven surfaces. The whole tour is 3.5 hours so that time with that distance once again should be fine. Once again, wish us luck.

Day 9: Santorini

Pyrgos Village with Mezes and Wine
Once again, the wine stole our interest. This one will truly be a play it by ear situation for my mom as it is 1 mile over steep surfaces with 30-40 steps. We are nervous about the steep but we also know that is the reality in Santorini so there wasn’t really an alternative. We just need to think positive “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” vibes.

Day 10: Athens

Ancient Athens, Plaka, and Shopping
This was a last minute change. Originally we were doing a longer tour that went into the Acropolis. This was an easy one for us to change to make it easier on my mom by instead getting more of a panoramic view of it. This one still says one mile of walking with some steps but didn’t sound nearly as strenuous as what we originally booked.

Day 12: Naples

Sorrento with Pizza and Gelato  
This time, the pizza stole our interest (see a theme here?). Anyways, this one says 600 feet and 5-10 steps. All of that sounds doable. I should note we have been to Pompeii before and done tours there before so there was no need for us to do that again this time.

Anyways, we fly out tomorrow night so it is getting very real now! I go into the office one last time for a bit tomorrow (don't feel too bad, my commute is only 1.8 miles from my house ) and then have to head home a bit early as my parents are getting picked up by our transportation company at about 3:30pm and my house is 30 minutes away from them, and a lot closer to the airport so I am getting picked up second. We went out for Mexican food on Sunday since we know we won’t be getting that for the next few weeks so enjoy the pictures of some wonderful Arizona Mexican Food:
 

Thanks again and TTYL!
Ashley

[Lovetocruise2002]

Wow! That is one awesome itinerary!!

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

10 hours ago, mashley1021 said:

We went out for Mexican food on Sunday since we know we won’t be getting that for the next few weeks so enjoy the pictures of some wonderful Arizona Mexican Food:

Where is this restaurant and the name?  I will be in Phoenix mid June with my granddaughter and will be looking for someplace good to eat at.  After Phoenix we will be in Flagstaff for 3 days so looking for places there as well!

Your itinerary sounds awesome.  Looking forward to following along!

[mashley1021]

1 hour ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Where is this restaurant and the name?  I will be in Phoenix mid June with my granddaughter and will be looking for someplace good to eat at.  After Phoenix we will be in Flagstaff for 3 days so looking for places there as well!

Your itinerary sounds awesome.  Looking forward to following along!

We ate at Jalapeño Inferno in super duper north Scottsdale (my mom complains she lives in the boondocks ). Anyways, where in Phoenix are you staying? I can definitely recommend something closer. I was born and raised in Phoenix so I have experience on this topic (and I still live in Phoenix unlike my parents who moved to Scottsdale lol ). And the last time I was in Flagstaff was for the 4th of July 2 years ago but I definitely have some recommendations, just need to find the list I have, give me a bit on that one but I will definitely get back to you!

- Ashley 

[PPPJJ-GCVAB]

53 minutes ago, mashley1021 said:

We ate at Jalapeño Inferno in super duper north Scottsdale (my mom complains she lives in the boondocks ). Anyways, where in Phoenix are you staying? I can definitely recommend something closer. I was born and raised in Phoenix so I have experience on this topic (and I still live in Phoenix unlike my parents who moved to Scottsdale lol ). And the last time I was in Flagstaff was for the 4th of July 2 years ago but I definitely have some recommendations, just need to find the list I have, give me a bit on that one but I will definitely get back to you!

- Ashley 

Staying our first night at the Embassy Suites Phoenix/Scottsdale.  Doing a hot air balloon ride over the Sonoran Desert early the next morning and then taking our time while heading all the way to Flagstaff.  I figure we’ll stop in Sedona along the way and possibly Arcosanti.  I visited there many years ago when my best friend lived in Phoenix.  Since then she moved to Nevada and is now in Tucson!  My granddaughter is a few months shy of 14 and super excited for this trip!  We’ve got a full day tour booked for the Grand Canyon too!

Thanks for any recommendations!  

[mashley1021]

On 4/30/2024 at 6:38 PM, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

Embassy Suites Phoenix/Scottsdale

That is right by where my parents used to live and not far from where I live now, so I definitely know the area. Also I love Sedona, your daughter should love it too, it is absolutely breathtaking. I can share reqs when I am not jet lagged .

Anyways, just made it to the hotel in Rome after a very long day of travel. Tomorrow (actually today now) we have our golf cart tour (with a high chance of rain so we will see how that goes). After that I will post about how our travel day went, nothing terribly eventful but probably useful for others to share the process since we flew British Airways and connected in Heathrow with a change of terminals as well.

Anyways, TTYL!

- Ashley

[mashley1021]

Hi All!

Just had a wonderful first full day in Rome doing a private golf cart tour (despite some rain). More on that later though, I am going to back track a little and talk about our travel day(s).

On Tuesday, we were picked up by the local transportation company we use right around 4pm, as I stated earlier, first they picked up my parents and then headed my way. We were dropped off at Phoenix Sky Harbor just before 5pm and checked in for our 7:35pm British Airways flight to London Heathrow. Our luggage was checked all the way through to Rome FCO. 

Once through TSA, we headed to the Escape Lounge that British Airways gave us access to in Phoenix for flying Club World (there version of business class) with them. Phoenix Sky Harbor also has a Centurion lounge right next door to the Escape lounge that we also had access to for being American Express Platinum card holders and meeting the minimum spend every year to get guest access but you can only check into one for some reason. We opted to go to the Escape lounge since it was primarily British Airways passengers in there. No clue if anyone reading this will ever be in the same situation but we should have gone in the Centurion lounge (I am speaking that into the universe to avoid anyone else making the same mistake, albeit a super minor mistake in the long run). The Escape lounge was small, cramped, and pretty much full when we got there at just shy of 2 hours before boarding. It was still an adequate lounge just a bit of an awkward situation especially with all the British Airways Club World guests in there from a sold out A350.

Anyways, after all that fun, we board our plane. Here are some pictures I took of the Club World Club Suite:

 

The flight being pretty much right at 10 hours meant we got served 2 meals. Shortly after boarding they came around with the menus for the meals:

They also came around with a choice of pre departure beverage, either orange juice or champagne. I got a champagne:

Shortly after take off, the flight attendants took our orders for dinner. They also took our drinks orders. First my soda was delivered with some nuts:

Then our dinner was served. I opted not to have a starter and to have the salmon as my main course:

It was good, a little bland but the fact that I ate a full meal on a plane is still amazing to me. My dad had the lamb and my mom had the courgette fritters. My dad said his was good and my mom said hers was gross but she is a very picky eater so take that with a grain of salt.

After the main course was done, the flight attendant took my dessert order. Having flown American Airlines for long haul international flights multiple times, I am a little spoiled with their sundaes. British Airways doesn’t come close there sadly. Anyways, I ordered the cheese plate:

Then, I made my seat flat and settled in to try to sleep for a few hours. I think I maybe got 3 hours of sleep when I gave up. Yes, I know I am the young one in the group and should have no issues sleeping on anything but I just couldn’t get comfortable in addition to the plane being overly warm (which shocked me since I am usually freezing cold on planes). On the plus side, my mom seemed to get more sleep than I did.

Anyways, about 1.5 hours before landing, the flight attendants started coming around again for breakfast. I had the omelette:

And shortly after that we landed in Heathrow Terminal 3 almost exactly on time at 1:35pm and it was now Wednesday (which is crazy to think about since it feels like we lost that day). Now the fun in Heathrow began. As an in transit passenger. we had to follow the purple connections signs on a long walk from one end of Terminal 3 all the way to the other end where we saw the flight screens to check the terminal for our connecting flight to Rome FCO. We knew in advance we would have to change terminals to terminal 5. We then got in a line for the bus to terminal 5. A few minutes later, one arrived and we boarded it. After they stuffed it completely full (I was shocked how full they filled it), we headed to terminal 5. Since these buses are only for connected passengers and technically “airside” (although not considered post security, it’s complicated), we drove literally right next to planes at gates. I thought it was kind of cool watching all the planes out the window, I even saw an Emirates A380 very up close. Anyways, now you see the geek side of me . After arriving at terminal 5, we passed by a British Airways check in counter. They are big on paper boarding passes but thankfully we already had ours from Phoenix so we had no need to wait in that line. 

After that was the dreaded London Heathrow security screening. Long story short, LHR doesn’t trust security at any other airports so they make all connections go through security again. We knew about this in advance and were thankfully prepared. Since we have TSA pre check, we are a little spoiled with not having to take liquids or laptops out. Also, TSA is much more relaxed about the size of your liquids bag than LHR security is. It was the first time in ages I used an actual ziplock bag and not a reusable pouch that is definitely bigger than a quart bag despite the marketing saying otherwise. I also took out my laptop and iPad while I was in line and took off my jacket. With all my preparation, I had a smooth security experience. Also, one important note: they are going to be relaxing the liquid rules later this year after they install new scanners. I am pretty sure they were already installed in the security line we were in but not all the airports in the UK have them yet and Heathrow is behind in some terminals. The date to be done was supposed to be June this year but it sounds like this is going to be delayed.

Now we were finally able to head to the club world lounge in Heathrow terminal 5. The whole process took a little more than an hour even with us stopping in terminal 3 for the facilities. The Heathrow website has a tool for checking connections and it told me the process would take 90 minutes which I would say is extremely generous. Even with a moderate security line we were less than their estimate although I would definitely refer to their tool when booking connections to be on the safe side. British Airways had marked our boarding passes for the fast track lane due to our class of travel on the flights so we had a slightly shorter line but not significantly by any means, so I could see their estimate even being long without that but I would still follow it. This is also a good time to talk about the advantages of flying through Heathrow over something like Dallas or Chicago beyond just the flight timings for us. We didn’t have to reclaim our bags in LHR and re-check them. It was nice not having that extra hassle. We also didn’t have to go through UK immigration and on the way home we won’t go through US immigration until we are back in Phoenix and therefore won’t be stressing about making a connection while in immigration. 

Anyways, back to the terminal 5 lounge. We got to the British Airways Galleries North Club Lounge and it was completely packed. It made the Escape lounge in Phoenix look empty by comparison. My dad headed straight to the shower rooms. He was determined to clean up after the long haul flight. My mom and I walked back and forth a bit until we were able to snag a table and 2 chairs when someone left. When the group next to use was leaving, we also grabbed a chair so we would have 3. When my dad got out of the shower, I followed him and got on the list for the showers as well. By the time I went, there was a short wait but we had no stress since our flight to Rome wasn’t until 7:10pm. I got a pager and about 15 minutes later it went off (the girl at the desk quoted 30 minutes when I asked as I checked in). The showers were cramped, it was difficult to open my luggage in there to grab things I needed, but it was nice to clean up a bit. It also woke me up after the minimal sleep I got. They had a wall mounted hair dryer in the shower room and no outlets to plug mine in to use instead. They only had shaver plugs so I rocked wet hair for a bit as the wall mounted hair dryer gave no pressure. Thankfully I have short thin hair that dries quickly (well not so thankfully on the thin part).

Anyways, after many hours in the lounge, it was finally approaching boarding time for our flight to Rome FCO. Heathrow does not give you gates in advance (and is quite famous for it) but at least for our flight, flight aware posted the gate a bit before they even posted their standard “Head to B gates” message on the Heathrow signs. This was helpful as we had time to get to the gate and didn’t feel so rushed (which was especially good for my mom). Thankfully, the flight aware gate was correct for our flight but your mileage may vary. After a short wait, we boarded our final flight of our day and a half of travel. We were in Club Europe (business class) for the short 2.5 hour flight (since we booked club world for the long haul and the British Airways booking engine doesn’t really let you downgrade segments in our experience. Unlike the US, the seat is no different than economy but the middle seat is blocked off and has a tray on it:

(my knees in the above photo are for reference since I am only 5'2")

They also serve a meal which was interesting to me as I have flown US domestic first class on American Airlines before and from PHX to DFW we don’t get a meal and that flight is about the same length as this. I guess the offsets the sundae situation at American Airlines. Anyways, here was that meal, we had a choice of a vegetarian pie (I think it was mushroom and asparagus) or prawn (Shrimp) Thai curry. I got the shrimp:

Anyways, we finally landed in Rome at 10:45pm. We went through probably the simplest immigration I ever have to get into Rome and after claiming our bags and walking through the nothing to declare door at customs, our driver from Stefano’s Rome Cabs was waiting their with a sign with my name on it. He didn’t speak much English but it was not a problem as he knew our destination in advance. I also knew that would be the situation since they typically only book the English speaking drivers on tours and this was just a transfer. He walked us to his van and helped us push our luggage. Then we had a quick drive to our hotel where we checked in shortly before midnight. We woke up this morning and were pretty much adjusted to the time (the primary reason we booked these flights), so aside from having a strange, short Wednesday, we would definitely do this again if we go to Europe and I know I at least intend to do the PHX-LHR flight again next year for a cruise from Southhampton I am doing without my parents. That is actually the Royal Caribbean Blog Group cruise on Independence of the Seas next year!

So far we are very happy with our hotel, the Doubletree by Hilton Rome Monti. We have a family connecting superior room and it is really the perfect set up for us where I have a separate room from my parents and a separate bathroom but we share a little hallway with 1 door that goes to both the doors for our 2 rooms. Anyways, more on that later, I need to photograph my parents half of the room.

Tomorrow, we are going to have a semi-private guided Vatican tour in the morning and then we have a break until the evening when we are doing a food walking tour.

Sorry for the long post today about flights and not a cruise but just in case someone was looking for this information, I definitely wanted to be of help. I know I had a difficult time researching the whole process at LHR in advance of the trip. Tomorrow I will try to catch up and post about the golf cart tour we did today but no guarantees as our food tour ends kind of late.

Thanks again and TTYL!
- Ashley

[mashley1021]

Hi Everyone!

Just got back from our Vatican tour. My parents are in siesta mode before our food tour tonight so I figured now was a good time to catch up on yesterday’s activities.

Yesterday we did a private golf cart tour booked through Viator operated by Rolling Rome. The driver picked us up from our hotel at 10am and it was a seven hour tour so we were dropped off back at our hotel at 5pm. Unfortunately yesterday morning started off quite rainy so the rain shields were down on our golf card but thankfully it cleared up for the afternoon and we were able to roll up the rain shields. As far as itinerary, we pretty much left it up to our driver/tour guide Antonio, although I did tell him we had a tour booked at the Vatican so we didn’t need to see that. Also told him that we have been to Rome a few times before so we didn’t need to try to squeeze everything in (for example, the Trevi Fountain was very packed yesterday as was the Pantheon so we skipped those this time). We did see a couple churches, the Borghese gardens, the Spanish Steps, the Colosseum, the Spanish steps, Circus Maximus, and a few other sites that I can’t remember anymore. The tour also included lunch and gelato so at 1pm we stopped for lunch and afterwards had gelato. Our driver also took us for some Italian pastries at the end, I don’t think those were supposed to be included in the tour but I think he liked to treat his guests but not sure honestly.  My parents didn’t get coffee before the tour yesterday so I did request a stop for coffee at the beginning so he did take us to a cafe with coffee and pastries to satisfy that need, we paid for that ourselves of course. 

Anyways, the tour was overall a pretty good tour and I think you could cover a lot of ground if you needed to and it wasn’t raining. It was also kind of fun being in the golf cart and being able to ride through lots of interesting areas that are not accessible by car. It worked out really well for my mom since we didn’t do a crazy amount of walking.

Here are some assorted photos from our tour yesterday:

After the tour yesterday, we got back to the hotel, we walked over to the termini station as my mom needed something from Sephora that she forgot (and she is the one with a packing list ) and then went to a pizza place near our hotel for dinner. Here are some assorted photos from dinner:

After dinner, we went to a wine shop near our hotel so my dad could buy some bottles to carry on the cruise on Sunday. Here are the bottles my dad selected with the help of someone at the store:

Then it was time for bed as we knew the next day (today) was going to be an earlier day since we needed to get breakfast before heading to the Vatican. 

As I said earlier, this morning we did the Vatican and rain came down again. Tonight we are doing a food walking after some rest. I will try to post about that either tonight or tomorrow sometime. I also finally got photos of my parent’s half of then hotel room so I will talk about the hotel in the next couple days sometime. Tomorrow morning we have a pasta cooking class (when in Rome I guess!) and then are free the rest of the day to relax (and maybe shop if my mom gets her way) before getting on the ship on Sunday.

Thanks again for reading and TTYL!

- Ashley

 

 

 

[Lovetocruise2002]

16 hours ago, mashley1021 said:

It was the first time in ages I used an actual ziplock bag and not a reusable pouch that is definitely bigger than a quart bag despite the marketing saying otherwise.

Do tell! The cup clips don't interest me one bit, but this sure does!

38 minutes ago, mashley1021 said:

we did a private golf cart tour booked through Viator operated by Rolling Rome

Our golf cart tour is booked with LivTours, but I was wondering, do these tours make stops along the way for you to take pictures? Or are you literally just driving around in the golf cart the entire time?

[mashley1021]

6 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Do tell! The cup clips don't interest me one bit, but this sure does!

I normally use something like this for my liquids bag (and definitely fit a lot more in it than a zip top bag, you can also find cheaper ones on Amazon, I just got this one when I had container store rewards): 

https://www.containerstore.com/s/travel/makeup-toiletries/rezip-zippered-travel-quart-bag/12d?productId=11022247

From my experience in Heathrow this trip, this definitely would not fly as they were stopping people with reusable bags and making them transfer their items to the zip top bags Heathrow provides, although I know that rule will be going away soon there. Also, based on my research (no direct experience on this yet), a reusable bag would be fine in FCO, they have the new scanners and have stopped having you take out your liquids bag like Heathrow still has you do. So really our only problem child was Heathrow. Of course these are fine in the US thanks to TSA pre check, and I don't think they are that picky when you have to take them out either.

6 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Our golf cart tour is booked with LivTours, but I was wondering, do these tours make stops along the way for you to take pictures? Or are you literally just driving around in the golf cart the entire time?

Our Vatican Tour today was booked through LivTours and the guide was absolutely wonderful! Anyways, the golf cart tour stopped numerous times, we got out to take pictures of the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, etc. We were in the Borghese Gardens when it was still raining so we didn't stop and get out but I think normally you would. The guide also parked at the 2 churches we went to and guided us through some things inside them (he was really into optical illusions in some of the art and stuff ). We all enjoyed our golf cart tour so I am sure you will have a blast!

 

[Lovetocruise2002]

31 minutes ago, mashley1021 said:

this definitely would not fly as they were stopping people with reusable bags and making them transfer their items to the zip top bags Heathrow provides,

Yes! This was our exact experience in Heathrow in the summer of 2022. We had to move our liquids from our Ziploc bags to theirs. So annoying.

32 minutes ago, mashley1021 said:

Also, based on my research (no direct experience on this yet), a reusable bag would be fine in FCO, they have the new scanners and have stopped having you take out your liquids

Oh...good to know. Are you returning back from FCO after your cruise? If you are, let me know what happens. I am always interested in how I can carry more liquids.

33 minutes ago, mashley1021 said:

Anyways, the golf cart tour stopped numerous times, we got out to take pictures of the Colosseum, Circus Maximus, etc.

Good to know. Thanks!

[mashley1021]

1 minute ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Oh...good to know. Are you returning back from FCO after your cruise? If you are, let me know what happens. I am always interested in how I can carry more liquids.

Yes, we are, definitely will report back! Obviously still using the zip top bag to satisfy Heathrow but I should be able to make a good judgement of how strict FCO is.

- Ashley

[mashley1021]

Hey Guys! 

Back from a fun day of pasta cooking and shopping to recap yesterday, Friday, our second full day in Rome.

Yesterday was another cold and rainy day. The first half of the day we took a semi private tour of the Vatican and the second half of the day we had a walking food tour. We started our day with breakfast at the hotel. While it was very civilized for hotel breakfast, the coffee was self serve at a crown lounge/suite lounge-esque coffee machine and not good according to both my parents who are coffee drinkers (I am not so I would not be the one to ask), and the food was just ok (this I can confirm myself). I forgot to catch pictures but needless to say we are not going to be doing it again. 

We then ordered an Uber and headed on our way to the Vatican and the meeting point for our Vatican tour. One quick note about Ubers in Rome: there is only Uber Black offered, you can also use the Uber app to order a cab but we haven’t tried that, we have stuck to Uber black as well as traditional taxi stands when they are convenient for us. You can’t just hail a cab in Rome, you have to go to a Taxi stand and in some cases that additional walking to find a taxi stand is not great for my mom. Anyways, after about a 30 minute ride with some traffic, we made it to our meeting point for our tour, the Caffe Vaticano, and it seems most tours meet outside of there so it was quite hectic. That combined with that fact that it started down pouring rain shortly after we got there provided for some interesting challenges. We were also a bit early for our meeting time. Anyways, after a short time the LivTours check in person arrived and we checked in and were pointed to our guide, Monica. 

The tour was just us and one other couple for a total of 5 guests. We headed across the street to the Vatican Museum. The entry times had gotten backed up, not entirely sure why but we waited a bit with our group (in the down pouring rain) before we were allowed to enter. Once we entered, we went through security. Security was very simple, you had your bags go through an x ray machine and walked through a metal detector. I had read online that they didn’t like reusable water bottles so we opted not to use ours as we didn’t want them taken away but the other couple in our group had theres and had no issue so in retrospect we would have been fine but your mileage may vary. It also looked like there was a bag check for oversized bags. Not entirely sure the rules there nor how you would be able to get them back since you don’t end the tour at the starting point so probably a good idea to look at the size restrictions on the Vatican website. My dad had a classic Jansport backpack with some jackets and umbrellas in it and had no issues, and same with my mom’s and my crossbody Travelon bags.

Once through security, our guide had us take a brief pause to use the facilities and also dry off a bit. There was literally a line for the hand dryer in the women’s restroom but I managed to use it to dry off my jacket and it was better than nothing but I definitely did the tour pretty drenched. Speaking of my Travelon, it was also completely soaked including all the contents. I just had to live with it for the duration of the tour. We then re-grouped and were given radios to wear throughout the museum, even though our group was small, our guide Monica didn’t want to have any issues since it was extremely crowded. We then entered the museum.

We spent about 1.5 hours going through the museum, after losing the first half hour of the tour to the wait outside as well as security, etc. It was very busy but Monica did a great job of keeping the group together as she talked us through each gallery. She shared loads of anecdotes about each room and I don’t know what we would have done without a guide in there. It was truly overwhelming between the crowds and the sheer magnitude of it. I think I took close to 100 pictures in the museum. We then spent about 15 minutes in the Sistine Chapel. Before the Sistine Chapel, she talked us through what the different paintings on the ceiling were and what they represented and prepped us where to meet her after our 15 minutes were up since she wasn’t allowed to guide us through that part. Then, we exited the museum, and had to turn back in our radios as they were the ones owned by the museum. From there, we proceeded directly into St. Peter’s Basilica. The biggest advantage of doing a guided tour was that we directly entered St. Peters from the museum and did not have to wait in the general entrance line. As someone who has waited in that line multiple times before, I can confirm this is a great perk. Once inside St. Peters, we spent the last half hour of the tour going through the highlights of the property. All in all, the tour was 3 hours long. Monica also gave us some advice about where to go while in Rome at the end of the tour. She really was a great and thorough guide and we were extremely impressed. 

As I said earlier, the tour was operated by LivTours and I purchased it through Viator. It was called “Rome: Skip the Line Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St Peter 6 PAX Group”. It was pricey, but definitely worth it and a lot cheaper than a completely private tour, even after factoring in the cost to Uber there (the private version of the tour offers a hotel pickup). The was my 3rd time to the Vatican and St. Peters but I definitely got the most out of it doing a guided tour. It was also our first time going into the Vatican museum and the Sistine chapel so those were both very neat experiences. Probably the closest thing I have to compare it to was when we did the hermitage museum in St. Petersburg in 2016 in terms of how crowded it was (I know, probably a terrible comparison), but I got a lot more out of this thanks to how small our group was and the truly fantastic guide.

Here are some photos from the experience (I took a ton so this is just a few to give you an idea):

After St. Peters, we headed out to the Vatican and found a side street where we were able to order an Uber to pick us up and take us to our hotel. Thankfully the rain had stopped and the weather was starting to clear up. One good thing we have noticed is we have had an easier time finding Uber pickup points on side streets here than in other cities such as London. We had originally planned to spend some time shopping and exploring independently then but we were all a bit tired from the Vatican between the crowds and the weather along with the walking and many steps. The tour is definitely not handicap accessible, which we knew going into it, but I don’t think we realized the amount of walking for my mom. Thankfully, she was a trooper but we definitely all needed a siesta after. We opted to skip lunch as we knew our food walking tour later would have enough food to suffice for lunch and dinner.

After an afternoon siesta, we once again took an Uber from our hotel to our meeting point for the 5:45pm walking tour. It was about a 15 minute drive from our hotel to the Piazza Mattei, the starting point for our tour. We had gotten in the habit of leaving early for tours to account for crazy Rome traffic (I could literally go on a diatribe about how crazy people drive in Rome but I won’t, I will just say I am constantly amazed I have not seen an accident here) so once there, we stopped in a bar so my dad could get some coffee. Many of the bars here also have espresso machines so you can order cappuccino, americano, espresso, etc. We then headed out a few minutes before the meeting time when it became obvious that other people were there waiting for our tour and our guide Andrea arrived promptly on time. We had a group of 10 people for this tour and it was a really great mix of people in our group. 

From there, we headed into the Jewish Ghetto where we started our tour covering some of the Jewish history in Rome, including the history of the Jewish Ghetto and saw one of the only synagogues in Rome, lots of Kosher restaurants that were closed for the sabbath since it was a Friday night, as well as one thing I remembered from Amsterdam last year: Stumbling Stones aka Stolperstein. They are these metal cobblestones in front of properties where people who were sent to concentration camps lived prior to World War II. They contain inscriptions with the names, birthdates, and other details about the people who lived there. It was truly sad to see so many of these again especially when you think about how only a handful of Italian Jews who were sent to concentration camps survived and the unfortunate parallels with current events. Most of the Jewish population in Rome still lives in this area and we saw numerous Israel flags outside windows and a very sad Bring them Home banner, none of which were things I anticipated seeing in Rome.

Our guide Andrea then took us to our first stop. It was a Kosher-style restaurant. Here, we ate "carciofo alla giudìa" which are artichokes fried and salted. They were actually really good, quite the unexpected gem of the tour. Our guide talked about how over time the Jewish people had become good at taking cheap ingredients and making them taste really good, and frying anything makes it taste good. Our next stop was another Kosher Style restaurant where we had a sampling of 3 different appetizers: roasted zucchini, roasted tomatoes, and anchovies. These were all a bit unexpected. After that stop, we headed out of the Jewish ghetto and got a taste of two different types of Roman style pizza: Pizza Marinara and Pizza Margherita. Roman style pizza is a square pizza that is a bit thicker than Neapolitan style pizza but it is cooked at an extremely hot temperature so it gets really crispy. It is also sold by weight so you literally tell them how much you want and they cut off a piece and weigh it for you. We enjoyed the pizza with some Peroni beer.

Next, we headed to Campo de' Fiori where we learned the history of this square, went on a little quest for a Virgin Mary, and then headed to our next restaurant where we sampled some pasta dishes. The restaurant was a very unique location with some literal ruins in the basement. At that restaurant, we sampled 3 kinds of pasta and an eggplant dish. My favorites were the cacao e pepe and the eggplant dish (kind of like lasagna made with slices of eggplant, I think they called it eggplant parmesan but it was definitely different than the fried dish with that name that I have had before. We also had a choice of a glass of white or red house wine at this location. My dad says he has not found a bad house wine in Italy yet and he is finding lots of great, inexpensive wines here so he has been happy (heck, the 3 bottles he bought on Thursday for the cruise were combined cheaper than many single bottles he buys at home, granted he does have expensive taste). Next up we headed to Piazza Navona for some Tiramisu. From there our guide talked us through the history of the square as well as explained one of the Baroque fountains to us. Finally, our last two stops were for espresso and gelato. Once again, I am not a coffee drinker and it was both too late for my mom to drink coffee and she also only likes her coffee heavily polluted with cream and sugar but my dad partook in the espresso and he continues to rave about it. He is comparing his shot of espresso to a milkshake in consistency… take with that what you will but he loved it. Finally, we headed over to a Gelato place and got a choice of a cup or cone with two flavors. I personally had Hazelnut and Cream in a cone and it was really good. I haven’t had bad gelato here yet, and the same story with tiramisu.

From there the guide Andrea wrapped up our tour. All in all it was about 4 hours long. My parents and I definitely enjoyed this tour as well. It was the second year in a row of great food tours abroad for use as we also had a great one in Amsterdam last year. This tour was called “Jewish Ghetto and Campo Dè Fiori By Night Food, Wine and Sightseeing Tour” and it was operated by Food Tours of Rome purchased through Viator. I would also like to add from a walking standpoint that it was definitely less walking than the Vatican tour in the morning and the walking was more spread out in terms of being a slower pace with longer stops. My mom had no issues other than needing some assistance from my dad on some steps.

Here are some photos from the food walking tour:

After the tour we Uber’ed back to the hotel to get to bed after our longest day out in Rome.

Thankfully, today the weather improved and we were finally able to enjoy some time outside independently. I will try to get in a post about today tomorrow sometime but tomorrow is probably going to be a busy day as we are finally boarding the beautiful Odyssey of the Seas in Civitavecchia. Also, I promise I will do a thorough hotel review in the next few days.

Thanks again and TTYL!
- Ashley

[Lovetocruise2002]

I am even more excited for our trip now! Today I made a “Bezos offering” as @asquared17 and @Ampurp85 (and many others here) call it and bought those re-zip liquids bags.

So happy to hear that you enjoyed LivTours. After hearing good reviews from you, and initially from @Jkaczano, I am pretty happy with our choice to go with LivTours for all our pre/post cruise excursions. 

I noticed in my research that while Rome does not have regular Uber, they do have something called “FreeNow”. I downloaded the app and it looks like exactly like the Uber/lyft app. Have you ever used them? Thinking of going this route when we get to Barcelona and Rome. 

[Ampurp85]

I had those square weighed pizza chunks in Rome. It wasn't bad, but I found it really dry. The best pizza was from a local place a few block from our hotel.

I also did the less than 10 people guided Vatican tour from Viator. It was so crowded that they had flags and it was rough to keep up. But the experience was so worth it.

[mashley1021]

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I noticed in my research that while Rome does not have regular Uber, they do have something called “FreeNow”. I downloaded the app and it looks like exactly like the Uber/lyft app. Have you ever used them? Thinking of going this route when we get to Barcelona and Rome. 

I have not used them. I think we got lucky in Amsterdam last year that Uber was very plentiful just like the US. In Rome it has been a bit more of a challenge, most of our rides have been no problem but yesterday we did have one driver drive in circles for 30 minutes yesterday and finally ditch us, after messaging me that they were on their way even, I know they wanted us to ditch them, probably because they have ditched too many rides but oh well, I stood my ground and wouldn't cancel until our ride became unassigned. That was the one time we decided to find a taxi stand, which might have been expensive as we did more shopping on the way .

Also, glad you got the reusable liquids bags! I definitely fit more in those than a ziplok and am even on my second one! I somehow managed to rip my first one after quite a few years of use thanks to a concealer with a pointy cap, I bought a new one and no longer take that concealer in my liquids bag . The plastic is quite durable as long as you don't put something sharp in there .

28 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I had those square weighed pizza chunks in Rome. It wasn't bad, but I found it really dry. The best pizza was from a local place a few block from our hotel.

 

Yeah, I enjoyed the ones we tried on the tour but I could easily see them being dry if not done well or sitting a bit. We also have definitely preferred a Neapolitan style pizza place not far from our hotel and have went there twice now as we went there the night of the golf cart tour and again last night. 

30 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I also did the less than 10 people guided Vatican tour from Viator. It was so crowded that they had flags and it was rough to keep up. But the experience was so worth it.

Yeah, our group of 5 just had to stay as close to the guide as possible. Our guide was shorter than I am even and didn't have a flag or anything but being short myself, I am used to sticking close to guides up front on tours so I could see things. The husband in the other couple on our tour was quite tall, probably over 6'6" based on how he looked next to my dad, and me and the guide use that to find the other couple when they got separated a few times . In contrast our food walking tour and golf cart tour both had very tall guides which made them easy to spot.

[Sweety]

On 4/22/2024 at 7:31 PM, mashley1021 said:

My parents and I struggle to come close to our 6 each... we bring a shopping bag to a bar at the end of the night and get bottled water... usually lots of bottled water lol

We do the same with 5. We give them to our cabin steward.

[Sweety]

Thank you for the memories. I lived in Rome for three months. They have a huge Jamaican community. Who knew you can get jerk chicken in Rome.

[mashley1021]

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

 

 

[mashley1021]

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
 

[Lovetocruise2002]

45 minutes ago, mashley1021 said:

Coastal Kitchen where we saw Mihai, the Coastal Kitchen manager,

Oh wow! He's still there? I remember him too! That was a good crew in there back in December.

[cedricmr]

Top tier event this morning on odyssey ots

[WAAAYTOOO]

Oh wow, @mashley1021.  That cooking class looks like it was a hoot !  I had no idea that tiramisu was meringue in disguise !  I’ll bet it was good, too.

A 5 night dining package !  Been a while since I’ve seen one of those !  Enjoy all of the dining options.

[mashley1021]

2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Oh wow! He's still there? I remember him too! That was a good crew in there back in December.

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

[mashley1021]

2 hours ago, cedricmr said:

Top tier event this morning on odyssey ots

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 

[mashley1021]

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Oh wow, @mashley1021.  That cooking class looks like it was a hoot !  I had no idea that tiramisu was meringue in disguise !  I’ll bet it was good, too.

A 5 night dining package !  Been a while since I’ve seen one of those !  Enjoy all of the dining options.

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!

[mashley1021]

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

[Starrynight0154]

Interested in your Chania post tomorrow. I’m on Odyssey in September and didn’t book anything for Crete. 

[DDaley]

19 hours ago, Starrynight0154 said:

Interested in your Chania post tomorrow. I’m on Odyssey in September and didn’t book anything for Crete. 

Super easy to rent a car in Crete, all you need in a $20 International Driver’s permit from a AAA before you leave and a reservation. We drove to Elafonisi (pictured below) and Falasarna beaches from Chania and it was welllll worth the 1.5 hour trip. The beach was gorgeous and the drive was also memorable as you pass through some small picturesque towns. I also loved an ATV tour we took in Crete as well as a snorkeling excursion from Marathi. 

 

Sorry for the hijack @mashley1021. Amazing blog so far!! 

 

[mashley1021]

2 hours ago, DDaley said:

Sorry for the hijack @mashley1021. Amazing blog so far!! 

 

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

[mashley1021]

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

 

:

 

[WAAAYTOOO]

Thank you, @mashley1021 for making me look SO bad as a live blogger.  What I lack in photo-fitness, you MORE than make up for !  

Truly….great job !

[mashley1021]

6 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Thank you, @mashley1021 for making me look SO bad as a live blogger.  What I lack in photo-fitness, you MORE than make up for !  

Truly….great job !

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

[mashley1021]

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

[mashley1021]

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

[Sweety]

Thank you for the memories. I went to the topless beach. As I was sunbathing, a Greek woman told me I was getting to dark. I simply smiled and said I was a natural sister.

[Ampurp85]

Oh I just love when a know-it-all is wrong. That is some good people watching, the looks on people's faces when they get schooled.......chef's kiss. 

[mashley1021]

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

 

 

 

[mashley1021]

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