Mediterranean Empires Pre-Cruise

I thought that I would lay out some of the planning and thoughts that have gone into our upcoming cruise to the Eastern Mediterranean. This will be our 10th cruise overall and first to sail on Holland America. As I write this, the Nieuw Amsterdam has just completed her maiden voyage and so will only be about three months old when we arrive to set sail. (Read John Heald's blog from the inaugural cruise here). Our previous cruises have been with Royal Caribbean and Celebrity so the change of cruiseline as well as cruising on a brand new ship is both exciting and wrought with unanswered questions....will we like Holland America as much as RCCL and X? Will they still be working out the bugs seen so many times on a new ship? Will the demographic be any different? so on and so on....

We are travelling with my mother and sister who have accompanied us on several other cruises and we have always had a fantastic time. I will work on putting together some pics from those cruises as well. A few years back, we asked my mother if she would like to join us on a Caribbean cruise and it immediately became a February tradition for my wife and I along with Mom and her guest (one of my two sisters) to take a weeklong cruise to someplace warm. This year mom will celebrate her 75th birthday and this is our gift to her. A return trip to her favorite spot in the world...Santorini, Greece.

So, on to the itinerary....We will be sailing out of Venice then calling on ports in Croatia, Turkey and Greece. In all, this will be a 12 night cruise and the longest (by one day) than any of the previous cruises we have been on. After arriving in Venice at 2:50 p.m. following a layover in Madrid we will plan on heading straight to the ship for the embarkation process. Unlike any cruise we have been on, we will not sail out the same day that we board the ship. We will actually stay overnight in the port of Venice and sail out the following day at 5:00 p.m. At this point I am unsure how I or anyone else will feel after the overnight flight so we will have to gauge that once we get there. With any luck, we will all be bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to go back out and explore the canals of Venice after delivery of our luggage.

The following day we are scheduled to arrive in Split, Croatia at 9:00 a.m and set to depart at 4:00 p.m. The plan right now is to take a bus first thing to the town of Trogir for a little exploring and then head back to Split around lunchtime. From what I have gathered, it sounds like a bus ride of about 45 minutes to and from Trogir. We haven't decided yet to have lunch there or Split...still looking for some recommendations on that one. After arriving back in Split, the main attraction is Diocletion's Palace and if we have timed it right, the crowd's would have died down somewhat and we will have the palace to ourselves. The city of Split itself sprang from the construction of the palace that Roman emporer Diocletion had built for himself in 295 A.D. returning to the Dalmation coast of his birth. The palace is some 1 million sq ft and is one of the best preserved oldest private residences in Europe. After some obligatory souvenir shopping, it's back to the ship. On the topic of souvenir shopping, my goal is to find a neck tie to bring back as a memento from Croatia. From what I understand, the neck tie originated in Croatia and was introduced to France and the world after a group of Croatian mercenaries arrived in Paris in 1635 to lend aid to King Louis XIII. The French were immediately struck by the silk scarves tied around the soldiers necks and the fashion craze began. The French initially called the scarf "le croat" which later became the cravat. Anyway...seems like a cool thing to get.

The following day is a sea day so there will be plenty of time for lounging around. I hope to get to spend some time in the Thermal Suite....I had a chance to take advantage of something similar on another cruise and it was really nice! The tiled lounge chairs are heated and coupled with the sound of running water from the fountain create a very relaxing experience.

Our next stop is in Athens, Greece. We will be in port from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. I have to say that this is the only place that I am a little nervous about. With all of the political turmoil and strikes that are currently going on there is the possibility that we could miss this stop. Thus far, there have been three cruises that have skipped this port due to planned strikes but from what I have read, if you are there on a day when the strike is not going on, you would never know that there was any unrest at all. The problem is that some cruises have rescheduled this stop for a different day during the cruise and jumbled up the itinerary to accommodate the change in date. If that happens, a lot of the planning and reservations that have been made could potentially go out the window. Nothing I can do about it, so I try not to think about it too much. Provided everything goes according to plan, we have booked a private tour with Paul, the owner of Athens By Taxi. The itinerary that has been suggested is a visit to: The Acropolis where you will see the Masterpieces which were built ''during the Golden Age of Pericles'': The Parthenon, Propylea, The Temple of Athena Nike, Erechthion, The Cariatides, The New Acropolis Museum, The Temple of Zeus, The Panathenaic Stadium (also known as The Kallimarmaro; the original stadium was built in 1863 for the first modern Olympic games in 1896), The Hill of Lycabettous, The Old Palace, The Tomb of The Unknown Soldier and The Changing of The Guards, The Plaka for lunch and finally The Greek Agora, The Roman Agora and The Tower of Winds. A breakdown of the time is as follows: From and to the Piraeus port (1h), The Acropolis (about 1h30m), The New Acropolis Museum (about 1h30m), The Temple of Zeus and The Panathenaic Stadium (45m), The Hill of Lycabettous (45m), The Old Palace, The Tomb of The Unknown Soldier and The Changing of The Guards (30m), Plaka for lunch (1h), The Greek Agora, The Roman Agora and The Tower of Winds (2h). One of the Cruise Critic members was gracious enough to suggest Thanassis as a great spot for lunch in the Plaka close to Monastriaki Square. We will be researching this overall plan a little more and may decided to change the suggested intinerary somewhat...more details to follow.

Following Athens, we will spend the next two days in Istanbul, Turkey. Arriving at 4:00 p.m. we hope to find a recommendation for an authentic Turkish dinner that evening. The ship's food is always wonderful, but it will be hard to top going out into Istanbul and getting a taste of the local flavor. Maybe I can find one of those hookah pipe bars to indulge in after dinner :-) The following day, we have booked an all day tour with Ekol Tours. As with Athens, we have a suggested itinerary to work from and can alter it as needed. The suggested sites to see are: the Blue Mosque, the Grand Bazaar, Santa Sophia, Topkapi Palace and the Hippodrome. We will be in port this day until 5:00 p.m. As we gather more information and advice on sights to see in Istanbul, I will update as needed.

The following day we will arrive in Mykonos at 1:00 pm. We have booked an excursion for all of us through the ship to tour the island of Delos. The tour departs at 2:00 and states that will last 4 hours. From what we have read, it sounds like the ferry ride to Delos from Mykonos takes about 45 minutes, so I am assuming that we will be on the island from about 2:45 - 5:15 and arriving back on Mykonos about 6:00 pm. Apparently, according to local laws, everyone is supposed to depart the island by 3:00, however it appears that Holland America has an arrangement, as do other cruise lines I am sure, to allow cruise ship passengers an exemption from this rule since they will all be on the same ferry leaving the island. One unfortunate thing however that I have read is that the museum located on Delos will most likely be closed by the time we get there. The museum is supposed to contain some very nice pieces from antiquity. But, what are you going to do? After arriving back on Mykonos, we will plan on having dinner at a restaurant that has been highly recommended called Alefkandra. It is located right on the water and the timing should be just about perfect to watch the sunset on the Aegean Sea. After dinner we can shop and so forth until we are ready to go back to the ship. We don't leave port until 11:00 pm, however since we will have an early start the following day in Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey we may not want to stay out too late. We will arrive in Kusadasi at 7:00 a.m. the following morning and have a tour planned with Ekol Tours who is scheduled to pick us up first thing after we dock...

Speaking of Ephesus...As mentioned, we have pre-arranged a guided tour with Ekol Travel for the day in Ephesus. Our ship is scheduled to dock in Kusadasi at 7:00 a.m. and we will be met first thing. The suggested itinerary includes the Library of Celsus, Temple of Hadrian, Odeon Theatre, The House of Virgin Mary. Basilica of St. John and the Temple of Artemis. Nur, the representative with Ekol Travel has been very responsive and a pleasure to deal with in planning our tour. He has suggested allowing a minimum of five hours for the tour and that we begin as soon as the ship arrives in port in order to stay ahead of the crowds. Fortunately for us, according to Cruise TT.com the Westerdam will be the only other ship in port that day for a total port load of 4,020 passengers. We should have plenty of time following the tour to do some shopping and sightseeing on our own before departing for Santorini at 7:00 p.m.

We will arrive in Santorini on October 3rd at 8:00 and depart at 5:00 pm. Our plan is to be off the ship at 8:00 am (or as soon as is allowed) and take the funicular up to Fira (Thira). The choices here are funicular, donkey or by foot. After all that we have read about the ill treatment of the donkeys and the push by the locals to do away with the donkeys all together, the fleas and smelly clothes afterward, we changed our minds about our original plans for the donkey ride to the top. On foot is an option, but 600 steps uphill, as exhilarating as it sounds, was ruled out. That leaves the gondola. Several people had posted questions about the height of the gondola since fear of heights was an issue and were reassured that the car stays very close to the side of the mountain and that it isn't an issue. After arriving at the top, which is the town of Fira we plan on renting a car for the day. Other options were public bus or taxi. Sounds like the buses can be very overcrowded with pushing and shoving and the likelihood of heavy-set woman with an ample backside clearing the isles with said backside aided in ruling out that option. Taxis are apparently limited, so the decision was made to be masters of our own destinies and rent a car. After obtaining the rental car, we plan on driving to the northern end of the island to Oia. If you have seen Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, apparently a lot of the movie was filmed there. Although I am a big fan of traveling as well as pants, I have somehow missed seeing the movie. I am sure it's great. After arriving in Oia and some aimless wandering, shopping and sightseeing we plan to have lunch in Ammoudi which is located directly below Oia on the water which is the rim of the caldera. The restaurant is Sunset Taverna and was featured on the Travel Channel's Samantha Brown's Passport to Europe. The seafood is as fresh as it gets with fisherman unloading the morning's catch right there at the taverna! I also read that there are some very nice art gallaries in Oia, so that may be of particular interest to the art afficianados. After lunch we plan to drive back to Fira for sightseeing, shopping, etc. for the remainder of our time. Either on the way to, or coming back from Oia, a point of interest that we may want to stop at is the medieval castle of Skaros located in Imerovigli. The views from this highest point on the island of Santorini are supposed to be breathtaking.

Our final port of this cruise will be in Katakolon, Greece which is about a 45 minute drive from Olympia. Our plan is to rent a car and drive up to Olympia first thing after leaving the ship. Our scheduled arrival time is 9:00 a.m. I was able to get a hold of a sweet ride from Katakolo Rent a Car, the highly sought after stick shift Fiat Panda. I can only hope that the bright yellow model shown on the website is still available once we get there! Once in Olympia, the sight of the original Olympic Games in 776 BC, we will have time to tour the archaeological site of the Olympic Stadium and all of the surroundings. It is here that I will issue the challenge of a foot race on the 200-meter track with the winner having the honor of driving the bright yellow stick shift Fiat Panda back to Katakolon later that day. Better bring your "A" game because I am in it to win it! After we have had our fill of Olympia, we will head back to Katakolon for lunch, shopping and what not. Only about two miles from Katakolon is the Mercouri Wine Estate. Providing we still have time before the 5:00 departure, we will make a stop there to sample some of the local wines.


We have a final day at sea before our arrival back in Venice or as I call it, "Cramming Day". This is the day that you try to cram in all of the activities that you promised yourself that you were going to do on this cruise that you haven't done followed by trying to cram all of the stuff you bought during the cruise into luggage that was crammed when you started. It seems like before every cruise I tell myself that this cruise I will take the time to just relax. Hopefully I can cram some of that in...


Upon our arrival back in Venice, we will have the day to do and see the things that we may have missed at the beginning of our trip. Since we were unable to find a flight out that morning, we decided to stay overnight and catch the first flight out the following day. We are staying at the Hotel Antiche Figure, a boutique hotel that occupies a XV century palazzo overlooking the Grand Canal. With the glowing reviews that this hotel received, I have to say that I feel fortunate to have been able to book it. The only definite plans that we have for our day here is to go to the famous glass factories in Murano and possibly the quaint village of Burano . This will conclude what promises to be a very memorable, fascinating and enjoyable Mediterranean Empires cruise.