Star Princess: 12-day Greek Isles Venice to Rome

In August 2011 Sharon and I visited Venice for 3 days prior to embarking on a 12-night Greek Island cruise aboard the Star Princess. Highlights of the pre-cruise stay are summarized in an earlier posting on this site. 


This cruise featured a very port-intensive itinerary with only one full day at sea. It was an excellent itinerary which will be repeated several times in 2012 on the Crown Princess.  This itinerary provides a nice sampling of ports in 4 different countries.  Our brief stops in Croatia and Turkey make me anxious for return land-based visits.

Star Princess at Santorini

Venice “sail away”: we boarded the ship on a Monday afternoon and the ship stayed in port for that evening and into the next day. We could have purchased passes for unlimited transfers to and from St. Marks Square. But after 3 full days in Venice we were ready to relax and enjoy the ship. On Tuesday at 1PM the ship departed passing St. Marks on its way to Croatia. We watched the sail away from the top deck; it was nice to see the sights from the perspective of being 15 stories up.

passing St. Mark's Square during 'Sail Away'

Dubrovnik, Croatia: A highlight of a visit to Dubrovnik is a walk around the ancient city walls that encircle the old town. We arrived on a very hot day.  We left the ship as early as we could so that we could complete the wall walk before the hottest part of the day. The ship docks at a location which is a long walk from the old town; to preserve time and energy we spent $15 on a taxi ride to town.

There is an admission charge to walk the walls, about $14 in local currency only, but credit cards are accepted. The walk involves lots of steps but can easily be done by anyone who is moderately fit. There are great views from the various outlooks. A complete circumnavigation took about 2 ½ hours to complete.  An audio device can be rented for about $7; it was moderately informative.

Dubrovnik Wall Walk

One regret of our visit is that we weren’t dressed properly to participate in one of the kayak tours offered near old town; perhaps next time.

Kayakers explore lagoon below the old town

Corfu, Greece:  Corfu is a large island, about 40 miles long, located in the Ionian Sea. It is a very green island covered in lush foliage. For this stop I booked a Princess shore excursion, the Paleokastritsa, Monastery and Kinopiastes Village tour. Paleokastritsa is a village perched above 6 coves on a rocky shoreline. The monastery was very picturesque and it had great views of the shoreline below. We were taken to a village tavern for snacks and a folkloric show. The folkloric show consisted of two musicians and two dancers performing 3 dance routines in different local costumes. The show concluded with the classic ‘dancer picks up a table with his teeth’ routine. It turned out that the ‘snack’ was actually a very tasty light lunch and it was served with unlimited local wine. It’s really nice when a tour operator under-promises and over-delivers.

Katakolon, Greece: this is the port city that is used for visits to the ancient site of Olympia. Many passengers traveled to Olympia via shore excursion or independently but I decided that a beach day was in order. There is a small pebbly beach called Renata that is a short walk from the cruise dock. The beach is quite pleasant but rocky into the water so water shoes are quite useful. When we arrived at 9AM we had a good selection of loungers to rent but the beach pretty much filled up by 10:30. There was a small bar/café above the beach. Overall it was a quite pleasant location. The local village of Katakolon is supposed to have some nice tavernas but we didn’t venture into town.

Renata Beach at mid-day

Athens:  There was some concern about the Athens stop due to the civil unrest and strikes related to the government's austerity measures.  I had been following the new stories but fortunately things had settled down by the time of our visit.

Athens lies about 12 miles from its port city of Piraeus. I had planned an independent trip to visit the Acropolis and other nearby sites by using the local subway. However the day before our arrival the ship announced that the subway was closed for maintenance and that taxis would be at a premium. We discussed our plans with our dining companions and decided that we would leave the ship early in the morning and share a taxi to the Acropolis.

When attempting to hire a taxi in Athens you are subjected to a major sales pitch for a private taxi tour. We turned down the first offer of one for 200 euro, about $290. We ended up agreeing to another one for 160 euro, about $230. In retrospect this worked out reasonably well.  But towards the end of the tour the driver became somewhat surly when we turned down his proposal to drive us down to see the Corinth canal for an additional 100 euro. We had another minor incident at the end when we declined his offer to leave us in a waterfront restaurant in Piraeus. My takeaway from this experience is that it is crucial to determine exactly where you are going and how long will be allocated for each of the stops. At one stop he gave us 45 minutes total to visit the Roman agora (mostly useless), the Greek agora (a huge site) and Hadrian’s Library (didn’t make it—ran out of time). I was unable to insert one of my major desires, a visit to the new archeology museum adjacent to the Acropolis. This shortcoming is covered by my philosophy “it’s always good to leave something for your next visit.”

The Parthenon is always covered with scaffolding

Theatre of Dionysus, aka "Yanni's Theatre"

 Mykonos, Greece: we arrived at Mykonos, everyone’s favorite party island, at about 1AM on a Saturday night/Sunday morning. The ship allowed passengers to go into town to experience the late-night revelry. We waited until morning. We awoke to a very windy day. The ship docks about a mile from town with no sidewalks on the narrow road. For safety considerations the ship strongly recommended using the overpriced local shuttle to get to town. We planned a beach day at Paradise Beach, reached by bus from town. We eventually found the bus station and arrived at Paradise about 15 minutes later. It was less windy there. The beach was pleasant and the water was reasonably warm. This beach has a reputation for wild late-night parties but during the day everything is calm.

After many hours at the beach we returned to explore the town. Even though we aren’t shoppers we spent some time visiting the high end jewelry stores and admiring the unique pieces created from gold and gemstones.

Mykonos town with cruise ships in the background

Sharon with a resident pet pelican

Paradise Beach

Kusadasi, Turkey:  Kusadasi is the port used to access Ephesus, an ancient Greek city later occupied by the Romans. Only a small portion of the ancient city has been excavated but the excavation and restoration was performed exceedingly well. I have read that the ruins of Ephesus provide the best visit for ruins of any site in the greater Mediterranean region; they are certainly impressive.

Reviews on cruisecritic.com led me to Ephesus Shuttle, a tour operator based in Kusadasi (http://www.ephesusshuttle.com/). They offer a variety of tour options and I selected the basic Ephesus tour plus the Terrace Houses. The cost for the tour for four passengers with a driver and guide in a very comfortable van was only $56/person. Our guide was college educated, extremely articulate and he provided an outstanding guiding experience.  The walk through the Terrace Houses provides some insight into how the wealthy residents of Ephesus lived.

Celsus Library

Terrace Houses were adorned with frescos



Every tour in Turkey seems to include a visit to a carpet factory. We were promised that this visit would be brief, informative and without sales pressure. During the demonstration of carpet making, Sharon had an opportunity to learn how to tie a few knots. After the demo, we were shown a variety of carpets in different sizes and qualities but we politely declined to purchase any. On our return to the port we were dropped off at a port-side restaurant which had very good food at reasonable prices.

Sharon learns the skill of carpet knot tying

Rhodes, Greece:  Rhodes is a very popular beach destination for Europeans.  Many cruise passengers opt for a shore excursion to visit the acropolis at Lindos or explore the medieval walled city of the city of Rhodes.  We began with a walk to the nearby beach district of Elli, about a mile walk from the cruiseport.  The beach had decent sand, warm water, and moderately priced loungers for rent.  After several hours of enjoying the beach and the Aegean water, we wandered through the old town.

Medieval walled city of Rhodes

Santorini, Greece:  The current topography of Santorini is what is left after a huge volcanic eruption over 5000 years ago blew up much of the island.  Here is a satellite image of Santorini today:

Ships "dock" in the central caldera and transport passengers to a tender dock on the edge of the caldera.  From here, you have a three choices to reach the main city of Fira at the top of the cliff: a walk up the donkey path, a donkey ride up the path, or a cable car ride.  In this picture you can see the tender dock at the bottom, Fira at the top and the zig-zag pedestrian/donkey path connecting them.  The cable car is barely visible on the left:

Santorini is incredibly popular and our visit was somewhat hampered by the presence of seven other cruise ships in port.  I had planned some independent exploration but the huge number of visitors made me nervous about the availability of local buses and taxis.  I selected a Princess shore excursion that included a visit to a winery and a visit to the picturesque village of Oia.  We also visited a small museum containing many artifacts from the pre-explosion island.

the village of Oia features wonderful sunsets

Naples, Italy:  Naples has a bit of a bad reputation for crowding and petty crime so I wanted to do an excursion.  One of the Cruise Critic members organized a private shore excursion for 12 passengers visiting Pompeii and the Amalfi coast (http://www.aptours.it/).  Our tourguide did a great job of showing us around Pompeii, the Roman town buried in ash by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79AD.  Our two-hour tour of Pompeii was followed by a bus ride to the towns of Positano and Sorrento.  An excellent pizza lunch highlighted our afternoon.

Pompeii with Mt. Vesuvius in the background

view along Amalfi coast

pizza at il Leone Rosso in Sorrento

Rome, Italy:  The cruise ended at Rome's port city of Civitavecchia.  Last year we spent five days in Rome at the conclusion of a Crown Princess transatlantic voyage.  For this voyage we proceded directly to the Rome airport.  Disembarkation and the Princess bus transfer to the airport were both very well organized and efficient.

The ship:  The Star Princess is one of Princess' larger ships at 109,000 tons and 2,600 passengers.  It was refurbished in 2008 to add Movies Under the Stars, the Sanctuary and the Piazza.  Our category BB cabin had a double-sized balcony, half covered, half open.

Category BB balcony cabin

the Piazza features frequent entertainment

"Movies Under the Stars" is very popular all day



the adult pool below the Sanctuary



Venice Italy, pre-cruise trip


Prior to our August 2011 12-night Greek Island cruise on the Star Princess, I booked 3 nights in Venice. Venice is a compact set of interconnected islands.  I found it to be much more approachable than Rome and I very much enjoyed our visit.

typical scene along the Grand Canal, Rialto Bridge in the distance

 

some visitors opt for a gondola ride

Sharon at St. Mark's Square

vegetable market near Rialto Bridge

Hotel: this can involve a major expenditure if you wish to stay in one of the upscale canal-side locations. Hotels seem to run anywhere from $150 to over $1000 per night.  If you are carrying luggage, location becomes a significant consideration as getting to many of the hotels will require carrying your luggage over one or more bridges over the canals.  Most bridges have steps tall enough to require picking up your rolling suitcases.  If someone has any mobility issues at all, they should strongly consider taking a private water taxi transfer to/from the airport and to/from the cruise dock and using a hotel that is near a dock.  The water taxi typically runs about $150 per trip.

Westin Regina near San Marco ($700-1000/night)

I booked a much more modest place, the Hotel Santa Lucia near the train station, only $115/night without breakfast.  It was completely adequate with good air conditioning (important in summer).  It was near a snack bar with good pastries and fresh-squeezed orange juice. 

Shortly before leaving for Venice I discovered a very interesting website, Tom's Port Guides (http://www.tomsportguides.com/).  He recommends staying on the mainland near the Mestre train station.  To tour Venice the train provides frequent and quick service into the island and a major vaporetto stop is directly in front of the Venice train station.  From Mestre you can get a relatively reasonably priced taxi directly to the cruiseport.  After lugging 50-lb suitcases over the Constitution bridge and through the cruiseport in Venice, I'm inclined to agree with him. 

Local transport: Venice proper is fairly compact and theoretically you can walk anywhere.  However the twisting streets and limited passages over the canals make walking to a destination a bit like going through a maze.  Local water buses, called vaporetto, provide transport on the canals.  Individual tickets are expensive (about $10/ride) but day passes and multi-day passes are available.  Some tourbooks recommend carefully planning your days to make best use of a single day pass.  I decided that it was best to purchase a pass for our whole 3-day stay ($50) and not worry about it.  On two occasions, once during the day and once during the evening, we took the vaporetto for its entire length just to see the sights and we really enjoyed both journeys.

Vaporettos provide efficient local transport

Murano and Burano: I highly recommend a day trip to Murano, the famous glass making  island, and Burano, the lace making island.  The glass stores are almost like museums with amazing tableware and sculptures.

outdoor glass sculpture in Murano

most houses in Burano are brightly painted

Getting to the cruise port: it sound easy when reading the tour book.  Take your luggage to Piazzale Roma (near the train station), purchase a ticket for the People Mover, ride  the People Mover to the cruise port, walk to the luggage drop-off point for your cruise, and check in for your cruise.  This isn't too much of a burden for someone who is moderately fit carrying a reasonable amount of luggage.  However it is a major undertaking for anyone with mobility issues.  Anyone staying in Venice proper should strongly consider booking a water taxi.

In summary, I really enjoyed Venice and three days seems to be just about the right amount of time to explore the various sites.

BC

Hoover at British Columbia Fall

Bob's new Princess Cruises experiences

For our sixth Princess cruise, I was determined to try some new Princess-specific experiences. I feared that this would be a challenge as our 12-night Star Princess Venice to Rome Greek Island itinerary was very port intensive with only one day at sea.

This was a great itinerary with on overnight in Venice providing two half-days to see the city along with stops in Dubrovnik Croatia, Corfu, Katakolon (for Olympia), Athens, Mykonos, Kusadasi Turkey (for Ephesus), Rhodes, Santorini and Naples before concluding in the port city for Rome. I did manage to accomplish several 'firsts' as described below:




Bob, Sharon and new cruise friend enjoy Sabatini's

 

First alternative dining experience: Sabatini's Italian restaurant. I'm generally very happy with the food in the main dining room so I've been reluctant to spend the $20/person for the Italian venue or the premium steakhouse. Also, Sabatini's had a reputation for significantly overfeeding you. Recently they switched to an a la carte menu so I decided to give it a try. Our experience was marred by an arrogant and obnoxious head waiter and marginal service. However we enjoyed three starters and all were excellent. The main course lobster tail was large and perfectly cooked and served in a lobster bisque sauce.  Except for Tommy Toy's, this was the best lobster that I have ever eaten. The accompanying lobster risotto was gummy and not very appetizing but I didn't really need the starch. Another minor disappointment is that the dessert menu lacked a real chocolate dessert. Overall I would rate the dining experience to be quite good provided that you select good starters. I will likely try the Crown Grill steakhouse on my next cruise.




A portion of the Sanctuary

  First Sanctuary experience: most of the Princess ships have been refitted with an adult-only quiet area called the sanctuary. On the Star it is located above the adult pool and the spa. I am not a big user of the pools on-board and never visit the main pool as it is usually quite a zoo and on this voyage the indoor pool was filled with lots of kids. The adult pools on many of the ships are generally very comfortable. On the Star there were only 6 lounge chairs on either side of the adult pool and half of these were normally in full sun. One day I went to the pool about 1PM to find that all of the loungers on the shady side were occupied or 'saved' with towels and stuff. I decided to move upstairs to the Sanctuary where I could rent a lounger for $10 for the afternoon. I found that all of the best lounge locations were already taken by people that had booked the full day ($20) experience. However I found a nice location in dappled shade and settled in to read my book. Several times servers brought me fresh water flavored with lemon. They also offered food service for a small service charge (something like $3). It is a short walk down to the adult pool and hot tubs. At one point a group of loud Europeans began whooping, hollering and doing canon balls into the pool. I was a bit surprised that no one from the Sanctuary or the adjoining spa did anything to correct this behavior. I solved the problem by requesting a complementary mp3 player which came with high-end Bose noise canceling headphones. They really work. I very much enjoyed my Sanctuary afternoon and will repeat it on future cruises.

First Princess afternoon tea: each day between 3:30 and 4:30 an afternoon tea is featured in one of the main dining venues. White-gloved waiters pour from prebrewed pots of tea while other waiters circulate with platters of finger sandwiches, pastries and scones with cream and jam. This experience is not as elegant as on Cunard where the stunning Queens Room venue and live musicians create a very special event. However the Princess tea is a reasonably civilized experience and provides a nice opportunity to chat with fellow passengers. It is worth checking out.

First 'special order ethnic meal' in the main dining room: I had read on Cruise Critic that it is possible to special order either an Indian or a Filipino meal in the main dining room. I was interested in trying their Indian offering. Since our table of eight only had four diners, I recruited three friends from the 'anytime' dining venue to join us. I spoke with the head waiter and she agreed that it could be done the following day. I was expecting a full dinner, perhaps starting with Mulligatawny soup, papadams with chutney, some samosas and an interesting main course. As we sat down our waiter presented us with the normal menu for the evening. I reminded him that we were going to be having the Indian dinner. After the third time he asked us what we wanted to eat I determined that we had a failure to communicate. I chased down the head waiter and explained my concern. She informed me that the 'Indian meal' is only a main course with two side dishes and that we should order soups, salads and starters from the traditional menu to round out our meal. She returned to the table with me and took our orders for some starters. After our starters the Indian food arrived featuring chicken in a red sauce (they called it tandoori but it was more likely a variant of tikka masala), an amazing spinach and corn dish, and a garbanzo dish. I found the chicken to be quite good and loved the spinach. I don't eat garbanzos but it got favorable reviews from the others. Dessert was from the main menu (thankfully as gulab jamun and rice pudding don't qualify as proper desserts in my opinion). With regard to the confusion, clearly I didn't ask enough questions when arranging the event. Now that I understand the system, I'd be inclined to try again on another voyage as the Indian food provides a nice diversion from the normal meat/fish/poultry offerings.

First Princess airport transfer: our outbound flights were scheduled from Rome airport, a distance of over one hour from the cruise port. On a previous cruise into Rome I had used a private taxi service for the transfer of four people to downtown Rome. This time the same taxi service offered an 8:30 AM pickup for an 11:00 AM flight which I found to be too risky. Princess initially offered a 7:00 meeting time but I was able to switch to a 6:00 AM meeting time. Promptly at 6:00 we were released to the gangway for a short walk to the baggage claim terminal. Our bags were neatly laid out in color-coded areas. Our luggage was loaded onto a bus and we departed by 7:15. We were at the terminal by 8:30 and met by a Princess rep who provided luggage carts. Our arrival was in plenty of time for a very inefficient US Air check-in process. Overall I was very impressed with Princess' ability to provide a virtually effortless transfer to the airport.

Conclusion: many cruisers are reluctant to spend additional money on specialty restaurants and experiences like the Sanctuary. Given the very low per diem rates currently offered by Princess, this seems short sighted. While spending $20 on a special meal or $10-20 on a Sanctuary experience is not going to turn a $100/day Princess cruise into a $400/day Crystal cruise, these expenditures can make the very affordable Princess cruise feel a bit more special. I suggest that Princess cruisers give them a try.