| Family Travels Cruise Summer 2008 Ten night Mediterranean Cruise |
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| 10 Night Mediterranean Celebrity's Galaxy Rome, Italy Sicily, Italy Day at Sea Athens, Greece Mykonos Ephesus, Turkey Rhodes, Greece Santorini Day at Sea Naples, Italy Rome, Italy |
| We decided to combine a cruise with our normal European vacation. It was a great decision, as this is probably the easiest way to see the Greek Isles, visit Turkey and combine Italy into one easy trip. We looked at the cruise as a floating hotel. We are comfortable with travel in Europe, so in most of the ports we did not do "shore excursions" but rather did the destination on "our own" Two exceptions: Messina, Sicily: Doesn't have a lot to offer around the port....and our time in port did not allow for a trip to the top of Mt Etna to see the flowing lava (which is why we really wanted to visit here)...so we decided to go inland. In order to feel comfortable that we would make it back to ship in time...we booked the " Taoromina on Your Own"...basically bus transportation to and from. Ephesus, Turkey: Was a little outside our comfort zone...so we booked a shore excursion offered by Celebrity to Ephesus, Didyma and Miletus that we highly recommend. Otherwise, we treated each day in port like any other Europe trip. We did research at home, printed maps and had some idea of what we wanted to do. |
| Taormina, Sicily A Taormina On Your Own shore excursion was offered by Celebrity from the port of Messina, Italy. It provided bus transportation to and from.. and allowed you about four hours of free time to explore the city and shop and eat at your own expense. It was a great way to see the interior and to guarantee your return to the ship. Cute town. Don't miss the Pizza at Porta Messina Trattoria (Messina Gate Restaurant) and the Pistachio Pesto Gnocchi Unbelievably GREAT! |
| Athens We totally did Athens on our own...not as a shore excursion. We visited the Acropolis, the Plaka, The Roman Agora, and Syntagma Square....Eating the local food the whole time we were there. Too many great pictures to share and experiences to relate. See it own webpage for more info |
Celebrity's Galaxy |
| Take the time to "get lost" and really explore the little town. |
| Rome/Citavecchia When you see Rome as a cruise destination, you will notice the port is Citevecchia, which is about an hour away. Transfers to and from the ship offered by the cruise line are expensive and time consuming Here are two Options: Train: From the main station Termini (which is also on the metro) there is about a 10 minute (long walk with suitcases) to tracks 27-30 where the train to Citavecchia leaves from. Again, when traveling by train, ask customer service for train schedules and make sure that you take the "direct" train, not local trains which add so much time in many, many local stations. In 2008, five person/family ticket one way was $22.50 Euro (compared to several hundred dollars in ship transfers. It is a struggle to get your luggage up on the train...the train is not A/C, so can be very hot...and if you don't arrive early (we didn't) it is standing room only. An hour later, you arrive at this cute little train station. Turn right upon exiting...The port is a easy 10 minute sidewalk walk down the main drag (you could have up to a 20-30 minute wait for a taxi for a two minute ride)...just walk Once inside the port, which is used for industrial shipping, you MUST take a complimentary shuttle to the check in area |
| Mykonos We split up our shore excursions. Dad, Brent and Amanda went scuba diving (which we booked privately) Mom and Erica had a wonderful day of sightseeing, shopping and eating |
| Turkey We only saw a little of the port of Kusadasi. We booked the Celebrity shore excursion (7 hours) to see Ephesus, Miletus and Dydima with a wonderful Turkish buffet lunch. This may be the best excursion for seeing the interior and the major sights |
| Poolside on the Day at Sea |
| 007 - Shaken not Stirred Martini Bar Dancing with Dad at the Disco |
| Private Driver Tours orTransportation to Airport/Piers Wonderful, Wonderful, Wonderful Just Call Him and Talk Over what you want and Negotiate a Price Marco Retacchi Via della Cappella info@romelimousinetouring.com www.romelimousinetouring.com |
| Rhodes Love Rhodes. This medieval town will delight you. It is so different from the other Greek Island ports. We did this walled city on our own. Do research before you go Try to find the recommended Mama Sofia restuarant |
| Santorini Having honeymooned here 25 years ago, this was the highlight of our trip. We hired a private driver for the day so we could fully share our love of this island with our children. Don't miss taking the donkey ride up to Thira...it is an experience! |
| Naples We got off the ship, and took a taxi to the National Archaeological Museum, the highlight of which is the wonderful mosaics from Pompeii (which we visited in 2007). Warning: Naples basically closes down on Sunday...if you are in port...book a shore excursion and do not do Naples "on your own"...everything is closed. We also followed Rick Steves' "walking tour" of Naples (in reverse) and enjoyed pizza at La Tana della'Arte |
| Toga Party Poolside Mediterranean Buffet happened to be the night of Dad's Birthday |
| Frequent Cruising has it Benefits We were recognized for our cruises with Celebrity/Royal Caribbean and were invited to the following special functions Dinner at the Captains Table with Mr. Starvos Zannikos (of Greece) Chief Engineer Invited to tour below deck the Engineering rooms Invited to the Bridge during Sail Away from Mykonos Invited to Senior Officers Party |
| Chief Engineer - Mr. Zannikos |
| The Captain and his First Officers |
| Kory - Hotel Director |
| The Engineering Rooms We were surprised to learn that the Galaxy could make 250,000 gallons of fresh water from its desalinization process |
