Diocletian's Palace, Split, Coatia

I found a link to a place called Virtual Tourist. It is a little difficult to navigate, but essentially is people who like to travel or live in a place posting about it. There I found this link to an article about Diocletian's Palace in Split, Coratia, which will tell you who Diocletian was. Also a walking tour here.

Although it is one of the most important monuments from the late antiquity and the best preserved Roman palace – when you arrive to Split, you won’t have to pay for the entrance to see it. That’s because it is still the center of Split, the area which is referred to as “Grad” - “The Town”.

I have also seen recommendations to go on the tours to the countryside, to Trogir, along the Dalmatian coast. All very exotic sounding. Maybe this is the place to do a ship tour!

More Cruising Info

So Diana, the hostess of our big cruise group, mentioned Cruise Diva as another website with info. I found this hilarious post about Gentlemen Hosts. This really rings a bell, when Carol and I went on our cruise to Alaska, even the married women in our group who were travelling with their husbands lamented on the lack of dance partners. Hmmm... wonder how you make sure there are Gentlement Hosts on our sailing?

Also I got an answer to the question - is it okay to stay the night in Rome? - over on CC. People do it all the time, although some warned that it might not be strictly legal. Particularly, one poster said they had just done it in Rome last month, and another said they did it in Florence (along with lots of other people on their ship).

Also, I "met" a couple who has gone on lots of cruises, and found their website (I know there are probably lots of them out there). The Halls sound like a fun couple. Their last cruise went to Split and Venice (among other places). Check it out. Also their description of their stay in Venice sounded heavenly:

The ship did offer a shuttle to the hotels in the St. Mark's area. Your bags traveled in a different shuttle and were delivered to your hotel...

The choice we made was to book a private transfer from IC Bellagio through our Travel Agent. We were met right at the terminal, and took a private taxi tour of the Grand Canal en route to our hotels. We dropped the bags at the hotel, and then the water taxi took us on a tour of the "undiscovered" canals of Venice, including the Armory where the great galleys were built. After that we had a 2 hour walking tour of the back ways of Venice with a great guide, winding up at our hotel...

Rome Transportation To

It looks like it is easy to take the train from Civitavecchia to Rome. There is an entire thread here on the Cruise Critic boards and also Carol got similar advice from her friend Joann. This would be particularly easy if we are not traveling with lots of stuff. It looks like it actually takes less time on the train than if we are driving. Here is a link to a step by step how-to on taking the train from Civitavecchia. It only costs about 11 euros (roundtrip?). On the other hand, I wonder how crowded it gets?

If all we want is transportation to Rome this might be a good time to get on the cruise bus with everyone else (no tour just transport which in itself is advertised from Celebrity as $74 (US dollars) per person).

Or we might want to have a private tour that takes us to Rome on the first day and shows us "everything", then the second day we do it on our own. This will also depend on whether we spend the night in Rome or on the ship.

Note: Carol found a link to a private limo service in Rome (I am moving that post here so we can keep them all together). kay t 12/6/07

Happy Monday.

Cruising info

First, did you hear about the fuel surcharge? It looks like Celebrity is jumping on the bandwagon to charge more because of the high cost of fuel. It is $5 per day per person, up to a maximum of $70.

Second, I was telling Carol about a great website, called Cruise Critic, that is about cruises, has details about different ports of call, and bulletin boards where people can talk about different issues. Here is the link to the Cruise Critic boards. If you join the site you can also post in the Roll Call area where people from specific cruises can chat and make plans together. My favorite part of the site so far is the Virtual Cruise where people write in detail about what they did on their cruise. There are at least two about the Mediterranean (not our specific cruise, but some of the same ports).

So, enjoy!

Venice

So here is a map of Venice, or actually a satellite picture. I think that the ships dock on the Guidecca Island, but I am not sure about that yet. Most of the hotels we have found are not far from St. Marks Square. The Dorsodoro is the section of the island south of the Grand Canal (sort of where the end of the word falls on the picture) and the area where we stayed last time. So to summarize the earlier posts:

• Pensione Calcina (Dorsodoro) - Double (2 people) with a view €143-165 (about €70-85 per person per night)
• Hotel American (Dorsodoro) - Double with canal view €180, Triple €180, Quadruple €220 (about €90 per person per night)
• Hotel Flora (near St. Marks) - Superior Double room , 3 nights, €620 (about €210 per night, about €105 per person per night).
• Hotel Metropole (on other side of St. Marks) - per night standard Double € 210,00 - € 500,00, Deluxe Double € 280,00 - € 580,00, Junior Suite € 400,00 - € 800,00, Lagoon View € 400,00 - € 800,00 (about €110 per person per night to €250 per person per night)
  
• Locanda Vivaldi (near Metropole) -per night Double Standard room, €190, Double Superior room Lagoon view, €260, Junior Suite, €290, extra bed, €50 (assuming Superior room, about 130 per person per night).
• Hotel Saturnia (between St. Marks & Rialto Bridge) - €288 per night for standard double room, 345 Superior room, 396 for triple (about €140-150 per person per night).

It might be easiest to plan on having two rooms, then Judy can stay a night or so and someone could stay on in the room alone if they want.

Note 1: Alex said she is looking at the Savoia Jolanda . The pictures show it is ok, although they feature a room with a round bed. It gets an pretty good review from Trip Advisor. The prices go from $287 (US dollars) for a room with no view to $445 room with a view.

Note 2: Carol suggested another hotel we found from someone on Cruise Critic. It is called the Hotel Violino d'Oro Venice. Prices range from €99 for non-weekend standard rooms (€115 on Saturday), to €140 for canal view (€145 on Saturday). This sound good. Check it out.

Note 3: Cruise Critic person recommended Hotel Becher. Prices are a little higher than Violino, but it is located in the same area and looks like they have gondoliers outside their windows too!

Note 4: Sally's daughter is staying at the Hotel Splendid which sounds very nice.

More Venice Hotels

Here are the Venice hotels I found from Karen Brown that sounded good: Hotel Locanda Vivaldi; Hotel Metropole. These sound like they are right near each other.

Hotel Flora - Venice

This is a hotel in both Karen Brown's book and Eyewittness Travel Guides. I looked at the prices and they seemed reasonable.

Venice Hotels: The Saturnia Italy

Venice Hotels: The Saturnia Italy - Hotels in Venice - Venice Hotels - Hotel in Venice

Nice

The most famous market of Nice is the flower market and main market on the Cours Saleya in the old town .

On Mondays, (when we will be there) the Cours Saleya has a large flea market, the Marché a la Brocante et Antiquités. In the picture the market is the street with the colorful awnings (2 rows from the beach). It ends at the Ville Matisse.

Photo from Flickr user Tony M.

I would like to get to the town of Nice and just walk around. Here is a link to instructions on how to take the train from Villefranche to Nice. Sounds like a good way to do it! kay t 12/6/07

Istanbul

I can't believe we are doing this! I found a great site with what to see in Istanbul if all you have is one day, click here.

The Wikipedia article on Istanbul (click here) is pretty interesting, and not too detailed or just touristy. One of the "must see" sights is the Blue Mosque which I borrowed a picture of.

Note: Here is another Istanbul tour site, Ekol. They also do Athens, I think.

More Shore Excursions

Here is a link to the shore excursions on Celebrity:

http://tinyurl.com/24ey6u

I hope this works, it was a search result. The Celebrity shore excursions in general are at:

http://www.celebritycruises.com/plancruise/shoreExcursions/home.do;jsessionid=0000O2vmG6MPelQNWtaVqykswgn:12hdebebp

have fun.

Italy Shore Excursions

I just found a link to an Italy site I used when we went before. It also has private tours and shore excursions here:

http://www.initaly.com/info/shore/shoreexcu.htm#25

It gives an idea of what type of excursions other people might offer and the cost (between 150-250 Euros per person, sounds expensive, but probably in line with the cruise excursions).

Newspaper Article

I thought the article was great and very helpful. Maybe it would be good to contact (what are their names?) the couple who started this and tell them that we have this blog site so that the other 80 or so people could contribute info. Maybe some of them have been to some of these places and can provide input about what to see and (more importantly) what to avoid. Also, if there is a time that we can meet in the summer before we leave (I think there is some talk to that couple putting something together) we may meet people we really like and could do something with that would be more costly on our own. Just a thought so let me know what you think.

Barcelona Hotel from Karen Brown

Here is a link to a hotel in Barcelona that sounds nice

http://www.karenbrown.com/Accommodations/Spain/Catalu%F1a/Hotel_Col%F3n/00001583.php

There is another one mentioned on her site that also sounds good.

Hotels

Ok, This maybe just too much for me, but I love that you did it. Judy knows someone who goes to Venice every year and know of a hotel that she thinks is great. Just re-done. She is going to get the name and spelling to we can check it out. Also, Alex told her that more people want to stay in Barcelona and she is seeing about a hotel that may give a group discount.

Travel & Leisure: Tapas article

Here is a link to the article that Lesley sent us.

http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/viva-la-tapa/

We can print out the page with the addresses!

Karen Brown Barcelona link

Here is that link to the Karen Brown summary of Barcelona sites.

http://www.karenbrown.com/City/Spain/STATE/Barcelona/000000000000496.php

Group Cruising

Here is a link to an article on group cruising that had some useful info for our trip. They went to some different places, but this will help get some ideas.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/travel/ci_7306087

Getting Organized

I have set up this blog to help organize the Mediterranean Cruise we are taking in November 2008! I am not really sure how this will work, but I am excited about the trip and hope you will be able to use it!