**Originally published 5 August 2016
For a very long time, certainly by many Australian’s, cruising was considered either an ‘old persons’ vacation or at the other end of the scale a party boat holiday for young & carefree singles. Unless you’d done a cruise you really only had The Love Boat or Titanic as a reference and let’s face it, neither are reality!
During my 17+ years in retail travel I have witnessed the number of Aussies that choose to cruise steadily grow and in the last few years absolutely boom. I’ve had clients book their 10th plus cruise with me and others swear they’ll never consider it but I do know that more often than not, once a cruiser always a cruiser.
Cruising comes in many forms, ocean or river, big or small ship, pure luxury or fairly basic but most of all no matter your preference its fantastic value for money, it’s your accommodation, transportation & meals all rolled into one price.
Although I’ve been selling cruises for years and have researched many for clients to find just the right one to suit them I’ve not really managed to take one myself. Apart from a number of ship inspections and a 2 night Sydney to Melbourne sampler on the Dawn Princess about 5 years ago I really considered myself a novice in the field. I’d suggested to my husband on quite a few occasions that I’d like to do a cruise, if for nothing else, then as research, but he was never all that keen. When we started planning this trip I was sure 8 weeks would be more than enough time to fit in everything we wanted to do but each time I played with dates it was just going to be far too rushed so I resigned myself to the fact that we’d have to forgo a few destinations. Then it hit me, we could do a cruise, one day in each port to get a taste of a few more places had to be better than not seeing them at all plus with a few days at sea we’d have some relax time thrown in & I’d finally get a chance to experience extended cruising first hand, it was a win, win!
There are a few ways to choose the right cruise. For me it was all about the dates & destinations for others, especially experienced cruisers it’s all about the ship and what facilities it has. As I wanted to include the Greek Islands on my itinerary and it had to be mid July I narrowed it down to Royal Caribbean’s Rhapsody of the seas. The Rhapsody is about 20 years old and when she was built was absolutely top of the range and still is a lovely ship and I feel perfect for our introduction to cruising. She is just under 80,000 ton and accommodates 2200 passengers and 800 crew, she has 2 pools, 8 spa’s, 6 restaurants, 10 bars, a rock climbing wall, babies room, kids club and teen club, a live theatre and a casino, however with the boom in cruising over the past 20 years she is now considered very small in the pecking order. Royal Caribbean’s newest Quantum class ship, Ovation of the seas is ridiculously huge at almost 170,000 ton and accommodates almost 5000 passengers and 2000 crew, she is the 2nd biggest passenger ship in the world only superseded by her sister, Harmony of the seas at almost 400,000 ton! Over and above the usual features The Ovation has, just to name a few, a Flo Rider pool to surf on, a skating rink which also converts to a dodgem car arena and has a full size basketball court, circus school with trampolines & a trapeze and a skydiving experience, it’s mind blowing and I know the kids would love all these features but to be honest I can not even begin to fathom being on a cruise with that many people, with that said she is sold out almost 18 months in advance so there are certainly plenty of people keen for the experience.
We boarded our cruise in Venice and immediately went about exploring our home for the next 10 days. Being my families first cruise they were all suitably impressed.
Our first few days were at sea and gave us time to finally rest. We sat by the pool, we ate and drank, Cenz used the gym, dad the casino, we joined in activities like trivia competitions (which we managed to win a couple of times!) By the pool we laughed at the the belly flop competition, cheered on the staff v’s the passengers volleyball and caught a live show in the evening. We hardly saw the kids as they had already made friends in the teen room & were loving the freedom being on a ship allowed them. We had 4 days at sea during the whole cruise and although we loved our days ashore the at sea days were probably our favourites as there was no need to set the alarm, no schedule to follow, absolutely no rushing at all.
On the days ashore you have 2 options, an organised shore excursion or go it alone. Each destination has a number of excursions to choose from, one to appeal to all tastes but they are very big groups and most usually quite expensive. We decided, after reading all the information and attending the briefings the night before we went ashore that in all places but one we could walk and use local transport. Big, structured tour groups are not my style and as most places were quiet small they were easy to navigate. The only one we agreed was far too big and busy to wing it in was Athens.
Our stops were as follows,
Corfu – although a popular island I didn’t know much about Corfu. It’s not the stereotypical traditional Greek Island you imagine, no whitewashed buildings here instead mostly sandstone coloured concrete with a pink church or yellow house thrown in here or there. It’s very quaint with bluestones on the narrow shop lined walkways, it has beautiful orthodox churches and lovely views over the Ionian Sea but we were more than ready to return to the ship after about 4 hours of wandering.
Santorini – Ahhhhh mazing!!! Our ship tendered here so we could see the beauty of the island while we caught the tender boats over. We decided to jump straight on a water taxi to head around the back of the island to Oia. Every photo you have ever seen of the whitewashed houses with blue doors and shutters and the blue domes on the churches was taken in Oia. It is everything I’d expected and more. Narrow black pebbled lane ways with shops selling local wares, pink bougainvillea hanging here & there and water views to die for, It’s charming beyond words. After spending a few hours here we got on a bus and headed to Fira town. Fira, also known as Thira is also very lovely just not quiet as polished as Oia. We wandered for a while and then stopped for a late lunch. Greek cuisine is one of my favourites and the food here was sensational. We ordered a number of dishes to share including calamari, moussaka, tzatziki, doner lamb and my favourite saganaki, I was in food heaven! We finished the day by catching the very steep cable car down to the port to tender back to the ship. This stop was by far my fav of all of them.
Athens – our only goal here was to get to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon. We discovered that this was at least an hours drive from the port and as traffic in Athens is known to be extreme we figured a taxi would be pretty expensive and the fact we would need 2 for the 6 of us booking a shore excursion seemed the most logical thing to do. Being on a tour allowed us priority disembarkation and meant our tour bus was ready and waiting at the dock. We had a local guide who’s English was a little hard to decipher but we got the gist of what he pointed out to us along the way. When he told us the history of the Acropolis I very nearly LOL’d, he sounded exactly like Mr Portokalos from ‘My big fat Greek wedding’ one of my favourite movies of all time. “Acropolis comes from the Greek words Acro meaning high & Polis meaning city”, if you know the movie as well as me you most likely or at least I really hope that you read that with your best Greek accent!!
When we arrived we joined the crowd of thousands (no exaggeration!) in the stifling heat and shuffled our way up the steep incline to the top. The size of the structure still standing and the history behind it all is hard to comprehend, how they were able to erect these buildings with such detail without any of the equipment or technology we take for granted is beyond me. We battled the extreme wind and explored for over an hour marveling at the architecture . We then continued on the bus where our guide told us about other points on interest before pulling up for a quick photo opportunity at the ancient Olympic stadium built for the first summer Olympic games of the modern world in 1896. We only got to see the city of Athens from the bus but apart from the Plaka, a pretty & touristy shopping area it seems to me to be a huge concrete jungle & although I’m glad to have seen it I don’t think it’s a place I’ll rush back to any time soon.
Mykonos – I was looking forward to this stop as much as Santorini and I loved it almost as much. It’s very pretty like Santorini with white washed buildings and the trademark blue but also adds splashes of greens and reds on doors here and there. Mykonos feels like it’s all a little more fabricated for tourists, we saw shop keepers scrubbing or sweeping their entrances and they have every major luxury brand here, Gucci, Versace, MaxMara etc and even the gift shops were more expensive than Santorini. We walked through the town out to the old windmills that were & still are used to mill flour.
After another absolutely delicious meal of traditional Greek food we made our way to the local beach to swim in the crystal clear Aegean Sea. While there we noticed a man who looked familiar who we surprisingly realised was the captain of our ship! He was more than happy to join us for a photo and we knew that as long as he was there we could be confident the ship would not leave without us.
Kotor – Montenegro may not have been a place I would have chosen had I been able to pick all 6 stops but boy were we pleasantly surprised. This little Old world, medieval like town is divine, like something out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I had read that cruising into the bay of Kotor with all its fjords and villages doted along the coast was stunning but I wasn’t prepared for just how lovely it was. Who ever first said ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ might have been in the bay of Kotor at the time. You expect this type of scenery in perhaps Norway or Sweden but I certainly was not expecting it here. We were just going to look around the town but while on the tender we were chatting with one of Sam’s new friends parents. They told us about a walk you could do up to an old fort (I’ve since discovered it was built in the year 535!) all the way to the top of the town. After looking around the town centre with a lovely welcome from some kids in traditional dress we embarked on what we thought would be maybe a little steep but a lovely stroll. How bloody wrong can you be!?! We walked 1365 steps in 30 degree heat to 230 meters above sea level and I think I sweated as much as when we hiked the Cinque Terre but again we were rewarded with the most magical view over the town and bay & we continued to reward our self with a couple of pots of ice cold beer (for €1!) when we walked back down. I will definitely add more of Montenegro to my next visit to Europe, for a very small country she packs a mighty punch.
Zadar – I’ve always wanted to go to Croatia but I expected when I did finally get there I’d see Dubrovnik Zagreb or Split, Zadar was not a town I’d even heard of. Although we were tired from long days ashore and late nights carving up the dance floor or joining in the parties on the pool deck we figured we’re here, we may as well check it out. We got a taxi from the port which was an experience in its self. Have you heard the saying ‘drive it like you stole it’? We’ve changed it to ‘drive it like a Croatian taxi driver’! Our driver explained that Croatia is in financial trouble right now with the government selling almost everything off to private investors so the country owns almost nothing, they have no industry to export and with a population of 4 million they have 15% unemployment, weirdly enough their president is Canadian and doesn’t speak Croatian…Can you imagine our prime minister not speaking English?! Zadar is a pretty town, lots of modern shops set up in ancient buildings and as it is Croatia’s oldest continuously inhabited town some are as old as 3000 years. It has a lovely garden and ruins on display in the city centre. Although it’s clean and attractive I have to say I was surprised to see huge flags in the main square advertising that Zadar won the European best destination 2016 award. I’m not sure I’d add it on my top 10 but I would like to see more of Croatia to get a better feel for the country and the Dalmatian coast.
I can’t tell you about cruising without mentioning food & drink. We decided prior to departing Australia that pre paying for the drinks package was good value for us. We calculated with all charges on board in US dollars and with wine by the glass at approximately $10-$12 and beers at about $8 we’d only need to have 3-4 drinks a day to make it worth while and let’s face it, that’s pretty easy to do on holidays but the other benefit was not having to worry about your cruise account adding up each time you ordered a drink. I purchased the beer & wine package for $39. As Vince likes a scotch or 2 at night we purchased the beer, wine, spirits & cocktail package for him for $49 per day and we booked the kids the non alcoholic package which included soft drink, bottled water, juices, smoothies, virgin cocktails & speciality coffee for $29 per day. It’s certainly not encouraged but I may have had a few mojitos or vodka, lime and sodas care of Cenzo’s package by the pool occasionally and he may have had a short macchiato each morning care of the kids package but hey, it was all paid for so why not?
Rhapsody has 6 restaurants. The Windjammer café is the huge buffet that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner daily and everything is included in your cruise fare. The variety of hot & cold, sweet and savoury foods and the changes they made each day kept it interesting and it was constantly being topped up so you knew it was fresh. We ate breakfast here each day and lunch on our at sea days but it never got old.
We had dinner at the other restaurant that is included in the cruise fare, The Edelweiss dining room. This is completely A la carte, a new menu with lots of choice every night and as you’re seated on the same table each night your waiter gets to know you by name and goes above and beyond for you. Our head waiter was Leonard & his assistant was Andrei, both from Romania and both so lovely we felt like we were saying goodbye to old friends on our last day. The other 4 restaurants on board are the signature dining options that require you pay a supplement to eat there. We made a number of friends on the cruise, a few families from the States and also a few from England who we are now Facebook friends with and have agreed to be in touch should any of us visit each other’s lands in the future. We decided with one family from the USA to all book the Italian restaurant Giovanni’s table together one night. We paid $25 extra per person for the most magnificent 4 course meal which I have no doubt would have cost at least $100 a head had we eaten the same meal in Melbourne. It was a nice change from the main dining room and lovely to share it with great company.
I can certainly see how people over eat on a cruise, there is just so much to choose from and on too many occasions I saw people with plates piled way too high or so many left overs on a table it’s rather obscene. There is always so much food and you’re welcome to go back and forth to the buffet as many times as you like so there is no need to be greedy.
When our time on the cruise came to an end the kids were devastated, they’d formed a bond with kids from Sweden, the USA, Spain, Mexico, the UK, Ireland, Slovenia and even Australia. They all swapped Instagram, Facebook & snapchat details and they hugged each other for ages, it was so nice to see how connected they all were after only 10 days at sea.
We had such a great time, the ship was perfect, the service was absolutely second to none and the food was fantastic. The logistical nightmare of coordinating so many people on and off the ship was handled impeccably & the entertainment was brilliant. I’m absolutely certain this will not be our last cruise, Cenz even asked me if they have year long, around the world cruises! I’m not sure I’m quiet ready for that but am thrilled that they all loved it and I very much look forward to our next cruise experience.
wanderlust mum 