Venice:

You are flying into Venice,so I am sure you will take a water taxi to your hotel.


1. Do all of St.Mark's Square and tour the Basilica and also climb the Campanile Tower in the Square.

2.Then make sure you tour Doge's Palace ,as it is from inside here that your cross over the Bridge of Sighs.

3. Of course you will do the Gondola Ride...you cannot leave Venice without doing this.

4. You can take a boat ride to Murano Island to see the glass blowing factory...this was neat and you canbuy a souvenir right here.

5. There are some nice outside cafes alongthe main canal right outside St. Mark's Square.

Athens:

I would get a tour guide so that he can take you to all the "out of the way" places that you might want to see.

I do not know if you have been to Athens before...if not then
of couse you will visit the Acropolis, Plaka area, Constitutional Square (with changing of the guards, and some great lookout points ,that the guide will take you to.

here is thee-mail address to a good guide
Dennis Kokkotos

d.limo@yahoo.com



Naples:

1. You can do all of Pompeii and then take the Almafi Coast drive to Sorrento

Rome and Florence you have been there you say.

Barcelona... are you staying an extra day(s) here or are you heading for the airport.?

Venice you can do on your own. Everything there is great. Start at San Marco and see all you can. It's great and compact. Murano is very nice and easy. Santorini is also compact. Take the cable car up and down- even if the lines are long they move fast. Just check out the lunch hours. Otherwise walk and look. Athens is very nice, but I would recommend that you arrange a private tour. There is a lot of walking involved, and a good guide - one who honors your preferences would be nice. Florence is a way from the coast so you would probably benefit from a prvate guide.

When you get the list of tours from Celebrity, you will find many tours for those who have been to those ports before. Or, you can access them online.

You will be surprised at how many options there are. For example, we have been to Rome many times, so we opted for a wine tasting. There was also a beach excursion for that port, too. Most cruiselines have many options for the ports in Europe, because many people have been to the ports more than once.

BTW, Dubrovnik is good for just walking around.

Thanks all. I have found a nice private tour in Athens that we may try. As I said, we have already done Venice, Rome and Florence in the past so we are opting for other ventures like wine tasting in the countryside and the beach. Concentrating on Athens and Cannes right now. Thanks for your input!

hey there, me (italian ) and my oregonian partner living here just 45' minutes from livorno we did soemthing special (we can proove) with some friend of us who came from USA by cruise in Livorno last year. We took them in a tour off the normal path. Glad to talk with you about and glad to do again. slickbryl@yahoo.it or pagenebeau@yahoo.com

we did this cruise last summer and almost didn't do pompei- not sure why, maybe there was just so much we wanted to see at that port- but it turned out to be one of our absolute favorite parts of the trip! fascinating- don't miss it! and we still saw sorrento and the amalfi coast

I did this same cruise 3 years ago on a different Celebrity ship.
Some thoughts- Croatia and Santorini were our favorite spots. So beautiful. We did shore excursions in Croatia to get a feel for the countryside, including a sampling of their local cuisine. It was fantastic and the people were so friendly. Tons of history and the cleanest water anywhere.
In Florence, we opted to hire a private car to take us to Chianti wine tasting. We stopped in Pisa first- and beat all the buses- then did a leisurely drive to a winery for lunch and tasting. Our driver stopped along the way to show us things nobody else got to see and we feel we did better than anyone else. If you want the name of the company we used, email me at cathykarabag@gmail.com and I'll provide. We wished we'd had more time in Barcelona. Don't miss the glass blowing. And eat gelata in every port. We did judging to see where it was the best- Barcelona won. Nice was our least favorite experience but Monte Carlo is accessible by train and worth going to see the yachts.
We enjoyed this cruise so much we're going back but a different itinerary. Enjoy.

Venice: Walked and walked and walked. Beautiful city. Dubrovnik: Not much there, except the Old Town
Santorini: We rented a car and drove around the island..lovely. (Take the cable car up & down)
Athens: Took the train from the port into Athens and walked our little feet off. Was very nice.
Naples: Hired a car to drive us down the Amalfi Coast. Worth it!
Florence & Rome: Took a bus from the ship into these cities and walked them on our own. Good way to visit, but, if never been there, might be wise to take one of the cruise's excursions.
Cannes: Took the train to Nice and walked around, but also took a "touristy" ride around Nice. Also, did this in Cannes. Very nice overview.

Well, for anyone still looking at this post, this is what we decided to do on our cruise:

Venice...We will explore on our own as we have been here before.

Dubrovnik...We are feeling pretty confident to take the bus into town and explore on our own. We will walk the wall, shop and have lunch here.

Athens...We have hired a driver and are sharing this private excursion with another couple we found on Cruisecritic.com. We will hire a private guide when we arrive at the Acropolis. Lunch and shopping in La Plaka.

Santorini...We are going to do this port on our own as well. Would like to figure out how to get to the beaches and maybe shop but definitely looking forward to a nice leisurely lunch in the afternoon.

Naples...Since we have been here before, we are going with a ship's excursion which will take us to Sorrento and then a private beach lido.

Rome...Again, having been here before, we opted for a ship excursion to Orvieto. Looking forward to seeing the countryside and enjoying some wine.

Florence...Deja vu. We have been here so we chose a do-it-yourself excursion from the ship. They provide transportation to Pisa and Florence and we explore on our own.

Cannes...We have hired a private guide, Sylvie DiCristo for the day with the same couple from the Athens excursion. Really looking forward to this as Sylvie has been very helpful with planning and information so far.

Barcelona...Having been to Spain but not Barcelona in the past, we chose to stay on here for two days after our cruise. We have booked the Hotel Majestic and are looking forward to enjoying some tapas, some flamenco, Las Ramblas, and of course, La Sagrada Familia.

Will report back when we get home. Thank you everyone for your advice!

In Naples port we had a private driver from Sorrento Silver Star for Pompeii, Sorrento and Positano tour, very friendly and informative.

Might you have room for 2 more on your Cannes guided tour? This is our first trip, I am 58 and partner is 44...would love to do private guide and share cost.

Sorry kjporter but we are full for Cannes. Have you checked out www.Cruisecritic.com? There is a couple from San Diego and they were still looking for another couple to round out their excursions. I think Cannes was one of them. When you go to the website, look for our cruise under Celebrity cruises, then our specific dates, Aug 26-Sept 7. If you have trouble, come back here and I will check in a few days to give you more info if you need it. Good luck!

DU10: Highlights of Dubrovnik Riviera: Pass on this. Nice place, food was good, but wasn't worth the long drive and not a lot of scenery along the way. The restaurant felt like Disney built it with it's new "old" look and the fake waterwheel.
My recommendation: DU06 - Dalmatian Coastline & Wine Tasting

Florence:
LV08 - Wine Tasting in Tuscany
This we enjoyed very much. The drive was beautiful and our guide was very good, the winery was atop a hillside with wonderful views. A young lady with the longest fingers I've ever seen was our guide at the winery. The wine was very enjoyable and my wife and I were a bit tipsy by the time we left. On the way back the guide pointed out some painted ladies sitting along side the road in chairs next to tents. Open late?