The Ports
The real reason we booked this cruise was for the amazing itinerary. It did not disappoint - we saw a tremendous variety of unique places and things. Emerald Princess calls at Venice, Athens, Kusadasi (gateway to Ephesus), Istanbul, Mykonos, Naples (gateway to Pompeii/Amalfi Coast), Civatavechia (gateway to Rome), Livorno (gateway to Florence/Pisa), Marseille, and Barcelona. Two sea days are scheduled, which provide for forced relaxation.
We wanted an itinerary with a little bit of everything, but heavy on the Italy ports. In the end, I was surprised that my favorite stops were, far and away, the Turkey ports. Istanbul may be the most amazing city I've ever been to and the Ephesus ruins are breathtaking. Other particular favorites were our Pompeii/Amalfi Coast stop, Athens, and Barcelona, where we spent two and a half days post-cruise. We came away from the trip with stunning pictures and happy memories of everything from touring Istanbul's spice market and Blue Mosque to sipping Limoncello in Sorrento to time spent admiring Gaudi's art and architecture.
After branching out some on our last cruise, I've come to conclude that Princess tours are vastly overpriced and of questionable quality, as they take place on buses in groups too large to maneuver easily around a busy city. Most use the same vendors one can book privately, keeping the markup margin as profit. As such, our group of five used private tour guides, pre-booked a taxi, or got around on our own in all the ports. In doing so, we saved a ton of money while receiving more personalized tours. I won't go into too much detail about our particular experiences, but I will specifically recommend Shorex Turkey (http://www.shorexturkey.co.nr/) out of Turkey, which we used for both Istanbul and Kusadasi. This company is probably the most well-run tour operator I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with and our guides dramatically enhanced the overall quality of our experience in Turkey.
In Athens, we had an extremely memorable experience with Spiros () which included one of the best meals I've ever enjoyed in any country. In Naples we arranged for a private tour through DriveAmalfi with Salvatore () to tour the Amalfi Coast. Unfortunately our ship was late docking in Naples due to some shipping traffic and so we did not get off the ship and start our tour for several hours. The positive side to a late docking was our ship delayed leaving the port for 1 hour so we did get to see all that we had planned for the day. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant called S.Giovanni. Great spot and the food was good. Had a sample taste of limoncello and meloncello as well.
Purchased a bottle of limoncello in Amalfi and had no problems with it in the checked luggage back home. In Santorini we decided to do a day on our own for this port stop. Tendering ashore was quite a thrill as the tender boat and the docking areas (off the ship and also on the island) were not always in sync. Quite a few times they had to stop people from boarding or disembarking the tender since the boat was moving too far away from the step off point. We took the tram up to the top - 4 euros each one way. Spectacular view when you're going up or down. Lots of donkey poo on the streets. Ventured out through the narrow streets and donkey poo to find the famous blue doom church. Spent time at the archaeological museum, did some shopping/browsing and then headed back to the ship around 1:00pm and have lunch on board the ship for a change.
Overall View of the Emerald Princess
I should finish by noting that the three star rating is for my Emerald Princess experience only, not my overall fabulous vacation. Fortunately, we spent the majority of our days in fabulous ports, nearly all of which receive five stars from me. In the end, I'm not sorry I picked this ship and its diverse itinerary. Had I opted for a land trip instead, most of the trip would have been spent in Italy and the Turkey ports that turned out to by my very favorites wouldn't have even been on the radar. Still, the ship itself had a few kinks that brought it down to an average rating for me. While food is very good, entertainment is somewhat lacking at this time, and the layout is just not my cup of tea. Given the very, very high price per person, I'm not convinced the Emerald Princess is the best value for Europe at this time.
