SUGGESTIONS ON WHAT DO AT PORTS
 

HI! MY HUSBAND AND I WILL BE ON THE PRINCESS IN NOVEMBER TO CELEBRATE HIS BIRTHDAY. WE WILL BE LEAVING ROME ON THE 10TH FOR 12 DAYS TO THE FOLLOWING PORTS OF CALL: NAPLES, ATHENS,KUSADASI,ISTANBUL, MYKONOS, PORT SAID, ALEXANDRIA AND BACK TO ROME! WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT TO DO AT THESE PORTS OR TAKE A LAND EXCURSION AND HEAR ANYONES EXPERIENCES THERE. THANK YOU!

You can get great information on all the ports you've mentioned by checking out www.cruisecritic.com

Go to Ports on their header and you'll find both tips and reviews from past cruisers.

Have fun researching, then have even more fun on the cruise!

Yes, do dig through Cruise Critic...it is a wealth of information.

Naples...Pompeii or Herculaneum...my kids went to Pompeii with their dad on our cruise, and it was nothing to what they expected, but very cool.
Athens, you must go see the Acropolis. We did not take a ship's tour, but grabbed a taxi OUTSIDE the port entrance. It was amazing to visit. We wandered through the Plaka and stood in line for some local souvlaki...delicious! Then found a taxi back to the port. There are probably many places we missed seeing but, now I have a reason to go back!
Mykonos - a sleepy little island in November. We wandered through the streets, as did hundreds from our ship. Going to the windmills is a fantastic photo op.Not many stores open, but such a quaint place.
Kusadasi - visit the ancient city...it is magnificent.

Istanbul - we were there overnight, and toured completely on our own. November can be cold, rainy and snowy - we had it all!
Hagia Sophia, The Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace...we walked to all of them after taking the ship's shuttle bus into the city. I was told the Hippodrome (underground cisterns?) is amazing...sorry we missed that.The Grand Bazaar can be overwhelming, but not to be missed. Outside the bazaar, we found a little store owned by a nice young couple...we bought many items from them for our souvenirs to take home. We never felt unsafe in this city. I wish we had gotten to the spice market, but our kids were wet and cold.
Port Said is on our wish list!
What a wonderful way to celebrate a birthday visiting all these magnificent places...enjoy!

Agree about cruisecritic port reviews. We did tour Naples and saw Pompei. Its one of the highlight attractions there as is the Amalfi coast.

Hi wyand7
We're booked on the same Princess cruise as you! So far we have only booked the overnight Cairo excursion. We are still looking into what ports we feel we can do on our own. This will be our first cruise but we have been to Europe several times on our own and have never had any problems.

It is a good idea to check on the ship before going it alone. We had some misleading info from a reputable guide book and the guy on board saved the day. Granted, the ships shore excursions leave a great deal to be desired, but sometimes that is all there is.

We were in Italy last November
We joined a family of four from our roll call for a tour with Massimo from the Sorrentosilverstar
(www.sorrentosilverstar.com) . What a great day! He was waiting for us at the dock and we headed for Pompeii. We arrived just as it was opening. Pompeii is the kind of place that you could spend the entire day, but 2 hours was plenty and we had so many other things we wanted to see and do. The drive along the Amalfi Coast was beautiful. We stopped in several small towns as well as Positano. I would recommend Massimo to anyone looking for a guide/driver in Naples.

you can get really good info about turkish port from www.kusadasi.biz
www.turkeyexplorers.com

Hi Sailorgal, We also had booked the overnight Cairo excursion but then cancelled it. It looks great, but $$$ wise we decided that it was too expensive. I really would like to hear how the excursion was and was it worth it when you come back. I have freinds living in Italy and they say that they can get deals to fly to Cairo and spend 3 nights there for around $800. So if we like Egypt we will probably do something like that the following year. Also we kept thinking we already paid for our room on the ship and then paying for another room on shore if we had done the excursion. Wish the ship would just stay for the night. Thank you all for you comments!

NAPLES: we were supposed to tender in Amalfi, but docked in Naples instead. We hired Giovanni from www.tourofitaly.com to take us on an all day tour of the Amalfi Cost, stopping in Amalfi, Sorrento, Positano, and Ravello.

ATHENS: this was our disembarkation port. We hired Spiros from www.athenstaxi.net to pick us up at the ship, take us on a half day tour of Athens, and drop us at our hotel.

MYKONOS: We follwed a self-guided walking tour I found in a book, the kind of thing we really enjoy.

Hi Wyland 7, sorry to hear you canceled your Cairo excursion. I hope we're not the only ones on it! We were in Sicily 3 years ago and looked into flying to Cairo from there but the cost of the flights was outrageous. We thought we would be more comfortable with a group of people rather than on our own since we've never been to the Middle East before. It is a lot of money for the excursion but I assume it includes all of the entrance fees and anything else you would have to pay for.

Dear Sir/Madam,
I would like to give you some tips about Istanbul. Even though some agencies&cruises inform people claiming that they should be very careful in Istanbul as it is not safe, it is not more dangerous than any European countries. When you visit Istanbul, you may have a professional tour guide and visit all major sites with a full day tour. Or you may have a half day tour but you do not have enough time for all sites. You just need two hours for Topkapi Palace as it has 3 main sections really worth seeing .You should also have a lunch at Konyali Restaurant in Topkapi Palace with a wonderful view of the city. If you do not hire a guide you can certainly visit all sites yourself but it means you will not get any detailed information about the history and you will not have any chance to experience the information to catch the local life as you will just visit the touristic sites. If you have time I highly recommend you to have a dinner at Park Fora or Mavi Balik Restaurant to enjoy the most delicious fish in the cith with wonderful Bosphorus view.I do not want to bother you with lots of details however if you need any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me at any time as I will be happier to assist you .