Norwegian Pearl Trip (Nov 14-21): Ports of Call

In my first blog about this trip I discussed the ship.  Now I would like to discuss the ports that we visited.

SAMANA

The first port of call was Samana which is in the Dominican Republic.  As a travel agent, I have always tried to be honest and not snow any of my clients.  There is not a positive that I can really come up with about this port.  When you get off the ship, you have to tender into the port.  Awaiting for you there is your typical Caribbean trinket outlets where you can barter.  The problem that I had was the amount of children that beg and sometimes hound you to buy shells and other trinkets.  I don’t care that you ask me to buy something, but no really does mean no and they have no problem following you.  The other thing that I had a problem with is how dirty it was.  I know that it is standard in the Caribbean to be dirty, but not to this extent.  Trash all over and sewage in the streets, made for a not so great time.  I will say this, those that took excursions off the ship had a wonderful time and missed the mess I got to see.  So my suggestion would be to do a excursion here, or stay on the ship.

ST. THOMAS

Talk about one extreme to the other.  St. Thomas was beautiful.  Pristine beaches, wonderful shopping and very nice excursions.  The shopping was very inexpensive; especially alcohol and tobacco products.  You can get very nice souvenirs here as well.  We also talked to several people who went to Megan’s Bay Beach and said that that was one of the best beaches they have been to.  We went on a snorkeling excursion.  This was my 1^st time and it did take me 15min to realize that I was not going to drown.  But after I got the hang of it we saw everything from stingrays to starfish.  I highly recommend this.

TORTOLA

I could really sum this up by saying it is the British Virgin Island equivalent to St. Thomas.  Same beauty and shopping, same excursions for the most part.  I highly recommend shopping in one area and doing an excursion in the other area if you do both ports.

GREAT STIRRUP CAY

This is NCL’s private island located in the Bahamas.  Very nice, but very crowded.  Water was beautiful but the beaches were very rocky.  You can rent rafts, snorkel, kayaks, and other water sport things to make your day here enjoyable.  They do cater the beach with hamburgers, pizza, hot dogs, etc.

So those were the ports that I visited.  Check back soon to get my review of the Norwegian Pearl.  If you have any questions don’t hesitate to cal me.

Norwegian Pearl Trip Nov 14-21

The Pearl is a medium sized ship holding around 2800 passengers.  I really liked the layout as everything was easy to find.  Staff was very friendly and eager to wait on your every need.  I would highly recommend this ship to anyone at any age.  Here are some of the highlights.

STATEROOM

I had an inside stateroom.  This is the 2^nd time I  have had one and this stateroom was a nice size. Perfect for two.  Four would be a little bit cramped.  Nice size shower but the toilet area was on the tiny side.  If you have ever cruised before, this is the norm so it is not unique to the Pearl.  I was only there to sleep so it did not matter really.  The beds were extremely comfortable.

Outside - Same as inside, just with window.

Balcony - This is where the ship shines.  Balcony cabins are bigger first of all, and the balcony is well secure (for little ones) and spacious.  If you are looking into the ship I would start my pricing here.

Mini Suite - A bit bigger then a balcony.  This suite has a separate living room area and bathrooms have a sit down tub.  Much larger bathroom then inside or outside.

Oceania Cruise: Sorrento/Amalfi Coast

I hate to use the term “my favorite” because on this trip, so many are my favorites, but the Amalfi coast is certainly one of my top favorites.

Having stayed in Sorrento twice, and also stopped on cruise stops before, I feel I know the area pretty well.  Our ship anchored off of Marina Piccolo and we tendered in.  Oceania supplied buses to take us to the top of the hill – saving a nice vertical climb.  I had arranged for a private car and driver here, because I knew the area.  Some of our group took the tour to Pompeii and we agreed to meet back in Sorrento for lunch afterwards.  Pompeii is a fascinating place and I think everyone who went enjoyed the tour.  I had been twice before and decided I would rather wander around Sorrento.  Pompeii is not far and the group had a private tour guide when they arrived and had a nice tour.  Luckily, it was a cooler day then when I have gone – Pompeii has no shade.  The city is amazingly well preserved from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79AD.

I wanted to go back to a favorite restaurant, and I thought I knew where it was, so after a cuppucino in a cafe in the main square, I went off to find it.  It wasn’t open when I got there, but there was someone cleaning.  I asked for a card with the address and the chef came out – I explained that I had been there before and was bringing  a group for lunch – his reply “We wait for you.”  The first time we went to Il Pozo, it had been recommended by my daughter – it was a Wednesday and we had just arrived for a week in Sorrento.  We found the restaurant, but unfortunately it was closed on Wednesdays so we went somewhere else, but came back for lunch or dinner 3 or more times that week.  We always had the same waiter.  When Tuesday came and we told him we wouldn’t be back because we were leaving the next day, he threw his hands in the air and said “oh no! We close the restaurant”  Knowing is was closed on Wednesdays we thought he was pretty clever.  It is not very touristy, off the beaten track a block or two, but great pasta, pizza and risotto at reasonable prices.  Heading back to the main drag, a gentleman stopped and asked if I lived in Sorrento – I said no, but could I help?  He said no, he was looking for a good local restaurant.  Of course I told him of Il Pozo – when we got there about an hour later, his group was there and very happy. FUN!

Sorrento has been a favorite with British tourists for decades, so I have never been in a shop or restaurant where English wasn’t spoken.  Part of me is disapointed because it is a great experience to try to blend in to the Italian culture, but it certainly makes it a very easy place to to vacation without a language barrier.

Twice when in Sorrento, I stayed in a hotel called “La Tonnerella,” perched on the side of a hill with amazing views of Sorrento.  Sorrento is a great base for day trips.  You can go to Pompeii, Amalfi, Positano, Capri, Naples and many other little towns using public transportation.

 

Barbados

This post is from guest blogger Debi King.

I had a great time in Barbados.  I expected it to be a pretty island with nice beaches and that would be it.  It was so much more!  Yes, it is a pretty island.  Yes, there are nice beaches.  I didn’t expect to see green rolling hills like you’d imagine seeing in Ireland.  I didn’t expect to go on board the Concorde.  And, WOW, the food!  Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Ivy Hotel, San Diego

This post is from guest blogger Cari Miller, Alison’s daughter.

In a recent trip to San Diego, my husband and I were thrilled to stay in the lovely Ivy Hotel in the Gaslamp Quarter. A 4 1/2 star hotel isn’t the norm for us, but we splurged a bit, and also got a fantastic deal. A lovely little boutique hotel right in the heart of everything in San Diego, this hotel really lived up to it’s star rating.

The first thing we were pleased by with this overall cozy feel of he lobby. It’s not a big lobby by any means, but it was warm and inviting – not at all stuffy and snobby, like you sometimes find with ritzy hotels. There was a nice looking restaurant and bar attached, though we never made our way in.

The next good sign of a nice hotel is the service at the front desk. We were unlucky enough to have our main piece of luggage -which included all of our toiletries- get lost on our way in to San Diego. Not only were the front desk staff helpful in directing us to the nearest drug store, but they also supplied us with some necessities, including a nice toothbrush (not the tiny ones you sometimes get), toothpaste, and deodorant. Not too bad.

We made our way up to the room and were just as pleased with our room. It was a bit small, but very very comfortable and well appointed. Nice linens and a comfortable bed, a nice flatscreen TV, and a fancy minibar (though we didn’t dare taste the $8 cashews). One thing I especially liked with this minibar was the addition of a Keurig coffee maker – they brew one cup at a time from a pod. This was complementary, of course.

Cruising the Mediterranean: Day 7 – Athens

We arrived at Piraeus, the port for Athens at about 8am and met our tour guide.  On our way to Athens, we learned a bit about Piraeus, which isn’t just a port, but an active city of its own.

After a short drive, we arrive in Athens – the birthplace of civilization. We visited the Olympic stadium that was used in the last two Olympics held in Athens.  We took a walk through beautiful gardens, close to the Prime Minister’s residence and saw the traditional Greek guards at the entryway.  We went to the Acropolis  and spent more than an hour exploring.  There is a charge to walk up to the Parthenon (12 euros), but it is well worth it.  Quite a bit is in scaffolding which you find everywhere in Europe.

With only a day of excursions we only had a chance to go to the Plaka and have lunch.  The Plaka is Athens’ old town – lots of restaurants, shopping, old churches, tourists and locals.  Our guide took us to a restaurant and they suggested dining family style and started bringing out the dishes.  All the regular Greek favorites starting with bread and salad, appetizers of hummus, fried chick pea-balls, cheese balls, followed by stew, dolmates and mousaka.  The food and wine just kept coming!

Our trip did not leave much time for shopping, but the Plaka is a great place to buy gold jewelry.

A Week in Santorini

This post is from guest blogger Cari Miller, Alison’s daughter.

Adam looking out from our villa in Oia

As my mom mentioned in her post on Santorini, my husband and I were lucky enough to spend an entire week in Santorini for our honeymoon in 2007. She’s asked us to put together a few of our thoughts and recommendations, as well as go over a few highlights from our trip.

What a perfect trip that was! We started our two week long honeymoon in England, as that is where my husband Adam and I first met. We spent a few days in the lovely town of Bath, where I studied abroad for a semester while attending Purdue, and then had a few days touring London. Neither Adam or I had been back to England since we’d met there four years earlier, so it was a great way for us to reminisce and revisit the places where we first met. Then, off to Santorini!

As my mom often recommends to honeymooners, we picked Santorini in part because neither of us had ever been. It’s great to explore a place together as newlyweds. I often find if you go somewhere where one person has been and the other hasn’t, you don’t get the same experience out of it.  One person tends to take on the ‘tour guide’ role, and if you’re both learning about the place together, it can become a special place for both of you. We definitely found this to be true in Santorini.

Honeymoons

Every honeymoon should be unique and we are experts at making that happen.

There are no specific honeymoon destinations – we like to match each couple to activities they are each interested in.  We even have a quiz we like couples to take so we can compare and suggest destinations they would both enjoy.

We have many couples come in wanting to stick to a budget – we can do that too.  Obviously if it is a small budget the trip can’t be as exotic as a large budget can afford, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a nice honeymoon.

Personally, I like to suggest going somewhere neither the bride nor the groom have been before.  Make it “our place” rather than somewhere you went with the guys (or gals) for spring break.

We like to suggest all-inclusive vacations so you don’t have to worry about running out of money halfway through the trip.  All-inclusives are very carefree with your meals, drinks, room, tips and taxes included.  Some even include excursions.

We are CERTIFIED SANDALS SPECIALISTS, which means we know a lot about Sandals, and honestly love the resorts – however we will not steer you to Sandals if it is not in your budget or is not the kind of trip you are looking for.

Our top destinations for honeymoons:

1. Mexico – specifically the Mayan Riviera/Cancun area, but we also have some on the west coast

2. Jamaica – the most all-inclusives in many price ranges are in Jamaica – Ocho Rios, Negril or Montego Bay are all popular

3. Hawaii – no passport needed! No all inclusive vacations but a great destination.

4. Cruises! Not just Caribbean cruises – we have honeymoons to Alaska and Europe, especially Mediterranean

5. Europe – especially Italy and Greece

6. Florida – especially Disney World

7. California

8. Colorado

9. Australia

10. St.      Lucia

Contact us for more information and to book your honeymoon!

World’s Largest Cruise Ship Sails for US Port (The Associated Press)

World’s Largest Cruise Ship Sails for US Port

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: October 30, 2009

Filed at 8:24 p.m. ET

HELSINKI (AP) — It’s five times larger than the Titanic, has seven neighborhoods, an ice rink, a golf course and a 750-seat outdoor amphitheater. The world’s largest cruise ship is finally finished and Friday it began gliding toward its home port in Florida.

The Oasis of the Seas will meet its first obstacle Saturday when exits the Baltic Sea and must squeeze under the Great Belt Bridge, which is just 1 foot taller than the ship — even after its telescopic smokestacks are lowered.

To be on the safe side, the ship — which rises about 20 stories high — will speed up so that it sinks deeper into the water when it passes below the span, said Lene Gebauer Thomsen, a spokeswoman for the operator of the Great Belt Bridge.

Once home, the $1.5 billion floating extravaganza will have more, if less visible, obstacles to duck: a sagging U.S. economy, questions about the consumer appetite for luxury cruises and criticism that such sailing behemoths are damaging to the environment and diminish the experience of traveling.

Oasis of the Seas, which is nearly 40 percent larger than the industry’s next-biggest ship, was conceived years before the economic downturn caused desperate cruise lines to slash prices to fill vacant berths.

”Obviously we did not want or anticipate she’d be born into the most significant economic downturn since the Depression,” Royal Caribbean International President & CEO Adam Goldstein told The Associated Press in an interview earlier this month. ”Even in this environment, we’re excited about her.”

It sets sail as cruise lines clamor to increase capacity, adding newer — and bigger — ships to their fleets.

The Oasis of the Seas has 2,700 cabins and can accommodate 6,300 passengers and 2,100 crew members. Company officials are banking that its novelty will help guarantee its success.

The enormous ship features various ”neighborhoods” — parks, squares and arenas with special themes. One of them will be a tropical environment, including palm trees and vines among the total 12,000 plants on board. They will be planted after the ship arrives in Fort Lauderdale.

In the stern, a 750-seat outdoor theater — modeled on an ancient Greek amphitheater — doubles as a swimming pool by day and an ocean front theater by night. The pool has a diving tower with spring boards and two 33-foot high-dive platforms. An indoor theater seats 1,300 guests.

Accommodations include loft cabins, with floor-to-ceiling windows, and 1,600-square-foot luxury suites with balconies overlooking the sea or promenades.

One of the ”neighborhoods,” named Central Park, features a square with boutiques, restaurants and bars, including a bar that moves up and down three decks, allowing customers to get on and off at different levels.

The liner also has four swimming pools, volleyball and basketball courts, and a youth zone with theme parks and nurseries for children.

The Oasis of the Seas is due to make its U.S. debut on Nov. 20 at its home port, Port Everglades in Florida.

Oceania Nautica, Day 5: Santorini

Beautiful Santorini

How many pictures have you seen with the beautiful blue and white of Santorini?  It is one of the places that never disappoints me.  Luckily this time we are in the age of digital cameras because Kodak made a fortune selling film on earlier trips.

We came by ship, so we tendered in to the bottom cable car station.  We had a bit of a wait (15 minutes or so)  to get tickets to get on the cable car.  It was 4 euros each way.  Some in our group walked up the hill, and said it was an okay walk (not too strenuous) but you had to dodge the donkeys and the donkey droppings which made the stairs slippery.  No one chose to ride the donkeys which I understand can be a bumpy, smelly and fearful!  I think the cable car was the better choice.  The cable car takes you to the town of Fira and all the shops and restaurants nearby.  We went straight to our bus and drove to the Santos winery.  The wine was good, but the scenery was even better!

We then went to Oia Village (pronounced “E ah”).  Each street, doorway and shop is a picture stop.  You see the beautiful Greek churches with their blue domes and the whitewashed buildings.  The doorways seem to lead to nowhere, but there are steps on the other side of the doorways that lead down to homes tucked along the cliff side.  The cobblestone streets are full of artist galleries, shops and restaurants, and there are many places you can get to beautiful panoramic views.

My daughter and her husband honeymooned in Oia – I will have her add a few words from someone lucky enough to spend a week in Santorini and not just one day cruise stop.  There is an airport serving Santorini with a few flights daily from Athens.