Tips for cruises

[nichola]

We are going on a weeks cruise in November. We have never been on one before and would really appreciate any tips from those that have for making the most of this experience.

We aren't really into organized tours and I just wondered how easy it is to make our own way into the places where we dock.

Places we dock include Istanbul, Dubrovnik, Venice, Bari and Katakolon.

It's with Costa, you know the one that has been on the news quite a lot recently   

Thanks

[Sleuth]

Are you sailing from Izmir ?  or Kusadasi ports  ?

[AOK]

One important thing to remember.
If you are on a tour organized by the cruise ship,if there are any delays,traffic etc the ship will wait for you.
If you do your own thing and are late the ship will leave without you.
We tend to do a mixture of organized tours and also do our own thing.
you will have a great time.Venice is lovely and easy to just stroll around.  

[echogirl1]

We used an excursion firm (found on line) which was excellent, much cheaper than the organised trips from P and O or NCL.  We also talked to people on the ship who had cruised many times, (you will find plenty of them!!) and you will get lots of advice.  We also wandered round the ports under our own steam, there are always taxis waiting when the ship docks, many of them will haggle with you over prices etc. they will also take you wherever you would like to go.  The cruise ship usually has a free transfer bus to take passengers to the nearest town.  I am sure you will have a great time, it seems to be addictive, some of the people we met had been cruising twice a year for decades!!

[Jacqui Harvey]

As soon as you get on they invite you to a meeting so they can sell you trips.  However, you can go along and find out what trips are available and how much they cost and most important, how long they take.  After you have this information you can then, if you wish, do your own thing, once armed with all the tourist information of what and where, you can decide to go it alone if you want to.   We have always take a few of the trips offered on cruises, but also chilled out ourselves.

[mercury]

Andy and Mark have done the cruises from here Nichola. you could try asking him...

[Cavfan]

we did a mix of both but we were in the carribean and were unfamiliar. We used the ships tours for certain excursions and did our own thing for others. However when I say own thing they were arranged on line from the uk well in advance of us travelling in the main. We were planning a specific day in Aruba for my ( coughs) birthday - however it involved a beach club and on the day the rain was torrential( couldnt make it up could you) so we took a tour from one of the touts waiting by the pier- which was fab! However as has been said I would make sure for any that you do not organised by the ship- dont cut it fine! particularly in big cities as traffic hold ups etc wont be accomodated for tours not organised with the ship.  i'd be particularly concerned about Istanbul !
However places like Venice and Dubrovnik will be easy as the ship docks close to the centre of everything.
Useful advice I got was take hooks! yes hooks! You dont get loads of storage, its not bad compared to some Turkish hotels I've stayed in but hooks provide you with additional hanging space for things like toiletries etc.
Also have you tried going on cruise critic, www.cruisecritic.co.uk
 its really useful. Joing the 'roll call' for your cruise and ask these questions there - its a really good source!
Would be interested in your thoughts on the cruise as we are looking at a similar itinerary for next year -Italy and Croatia are our must sees.

[nichola]

Are you sailing from Izmir ?  or Kusadasi ports  ?

We leave from Izmir, then onto Istanbul where we spend a full day. the longest amount of time compared to the other places. Not too worried about being late here as I know my way around really well.

I heard it's a good idea to buy all inclusive drinks packages onboard!

The hooks sound a good idea and I will check the cruise critic web site too.

Dogan wants to go on a gondola and we will definitely want to eat somewhere nice every place we visit.

What about clothes - do people really dress up on board for dinner?

[Somerset Simon]

The Costa Pacifica looked impressive on Saturday docked in Istanbul!

[echogirl1]

Every cruise ship is different, and they all have different restaurants, some where you are expected to "dress for dinner", and some more buffet style places where you can wear what you like.  On the Oriana if you were eating in the "posh" restaurant you were expected to dress up, and everybody did, but on some of the less "stuffy" cruise ships, it was more a case gentlemen requested to wear long trousers, no shorts or jeans.  If you want fine dining, with good food served by waiters, a couple of dressy outfits is a good idea.  With ref to the drinks packages, if you like wine with your meal, and a few (or more) drinks in the day (or night) we have found alcohol on board is very expensive (around £30.00 for a bottle of wine) but we did smuggle some alcohol in our cases to have in our cabin!!