Greek Islands cruise

[kcbmarek]

DH and I are considering doing a cruise through the Greece in May 2015 (yes, I like to plan ahead).  Has anyone ever done this and if so, any recommendations?  The cruise we are considering is on the NCL Jade RT Venice.

Any help including must see/do's on the islands (Mykonos, Santorini, Olympia) would be awesome.

[gtkim]

DH and I took a cruise from Venice to Rome for our honeymoon on the Crown Princess and we loved every minute of it.

In Mykonos we took the local bus to the beach and just relaxed all day. In Santorini we also took the bus over to Oia and walked around. then we had lunch somewhere near the cable car station overlooking the cliffs and the water and stayed there for a while before we took the cable car back down to get the tender to return to the ship. In Olympia we toured the ruins but I can't remember how we got there. I know we didn't take a tour through the ship.  Maybe we rented a car. That was the most disappointing port for me.  I think I expected too much but we are glad we got to see it.

We also stopped in Dubrovnik, Athens, Corfu, Ephesus, and Naples before ending in Rome.

[lightbulbsun]

I did a cruise that stopped at Mykonos, Kusadasi, Patmos, Crete, and Santorini.

I would definitely suggest the Kusadasi stop, and to do an excursion to Ephasus. It was so amazing, and some of the best Roman ruins that I've seen. See the terrace houses if you can.

Mykonos was really cute. We just walked around the town and did some shopping.

Patmos was blah. There's a monastery where the book of revelations was written, but H and I aren't religious and didn't want to spend $50/pp to see it. There wasn't much else on the island.

Crete was ok, but we didn't bother seeing Knossos, because we heard there wasn't much to see there. We didn't have that much time on the island, and we were there on a Sunday so there wasn't much open.

Santorini was gorgeous. We went to Oia which is the city where everything is painted white and the churches have blue domes. It was really cute, and I loved walking around there.

My overall impression of the cruise was not great, but it might have just been because we were in an old, out of date cruise. It looks like the ones you're looking at are a lot nicer.

[Deleted]

We did that exact cruise in May 2012 and loved it! I usually do not like cruises, and went on that one as a compromise (it was part of a longer trip with family). There were lots of people in our age range (late 20s-early 30s) and we ended up making several friends at an onboard beer tasting. Food was so-so and the amenities are typical cruise stuff.

On Corfu, Mykonos, and Santorini we just walked around on our own, checked out some things from our guidebooks, and ate before going back to the ship. The islands are really beautiful and it felt like we had ample time in each port. Mykonos was my favorite, just based on how beautiful it was. I wish we had explored a little more outside the town - I think you can rent motorbikes or something which would be worth looking into. On Katakolon, we did the Olympic ruins/wine tasting tour which was fun (wine tasting ended up being a little too fun, actually).

Will you have time to do a few days in Italy first? We did 3 days in Milan and 3 days in Venice before the cruise, and it was really nice.

[gt7301b]

Make sure that the travel agency you book with allows you to rebook your tickets if prices go down or the incentives increase. Cruselines have been offering a lot of great deals, but I've never found a super deal that far in advance.