European Supreme & Aegean Cruise ~ Sept 2011 ~ BonnieRabbit

Just returned from this amazing journey. 

I have a travel journal but not sure when I'll have time to put it into something cohesive so will just share a few thoughts based on many discussion threads I've followed over the past 10 months.

Pro's: 

you will see so many amazing sights - I'm being asked what is my favourtite - how can I pick? The ruins of Ephesus, Pompeii, Dephi, Rome, Athens -- just to be walking in these places with all this history is surreal to me still. Monasteries - unbelieveable feats of engineering, ornate, beauty with a sense of holiness that almost brings you to your knees. The Sisteen Chapel at the Vatican - brings a tear to the eye to see one man's incredible vision. Castles and tombs a plenty. A feast for the eyes and senses. City tour guides were so knowledgeable about the areas that you had a complete sense of what you were looking at. Grafitti - sure there is some but given the size of the population in the major cities I don't think its overboard. There is so much amazing things to see that I found no difficulty in looking past this and didn't find any "dirty" cities.

Con's: 

many long hours on the coach - more than anyone thought for sure. Again, would not have missed a thing I saw or did in spite of it. Coach comfort is based on where you're sitting. Not enough time in Athens, Rome, Paris - this could easily be the 38 day European Supreme. Air travel is a necessary evil if you want to travel and fortunately we managed without disruption; however, TT could do a lot better job on airport transfers. Coach travel - once a bug hits you are very, very fortunate if you don't get it. Got the sore throat on day 5 and most of the coach got it. I was the 4th or 5th to get it and most folks cleared it in 2-4 days. Mine lasted for 12 days as I'm immune compromised. More of a nuisance than being sick but couldn't talk for about 3-4 days and lots of difficulty swallowing by the end of the day. Then we got the coach cold. We were surrounded by hacking and sneezing so didn't stand a chance.

Accommodation: 

we were pretty happy but again, didn't have a huge expectation for grandiose. Lido in Venice was the challenging one. Converted manor house so you either hit the lottery for rooms or had, as we did, a very small room with no place to put one, nevermind two pieces of luggage. This was early on and by the grace of God my back didn't go out with having the suitcase on the floor. We also had dinner on the terrace with a canopy of trees overhead - more than made up for the room. We had a lot of corner rooms, elevators, and car parks but you are so busy you don't have a lot of time for gazing out windows. Showers are interesting in many places and will leave out details as it should be experienced to be appreciated:)Wink Note - if you get the lottery with rooms don't boast about it because its like rubbing salt in a wound for those who get more than there share of back alleys, etc. and we had one couple who reallly had bad luck. They did complain at one point but it didn't really improve.

Food: no complaints at all. I have a lactose issue along with some of the fruit family. Our TD made sure I was well taken care of at our optional dinners and believe me, in Europe you have lots of dairy, heavy creams and sauces containing dairy.

Perfume: 

we had a lot of scents and a full coach. I like perfumre and bought some at the perfume factory but I found a couple of ladies heavy-scented and was glad I wasn't sitting in too close proximity.

Toilets on coach: 

try to use for emergencies only as we do get comfort stops.

Optionals: I commented on the evaluation that a heads-up on length of time you'll be on the coach would be helpful when booking optionals. Many times we would just pull in to the hotel and have no time for a shower before heading off for an optional or city tour. Would not have signed up for some of them if I had known how long we'd be on the coash. We did all but 2 at the end of the day. Cancelled out on the Caberat because we would have been scrambling to get our luggage in order before our flight back to Canada. Skipped one city tour because I had spent 9 hours in the back seat of the coach with no where to put my feet because there was a bag on the floor in front of me. I couldn't face getting back on the coach once I was off it. Fortunately, it appears I didn't miss too much according the the folks who went.

Shopping: 

buy when you see something you like - you have no time for comparison shopping. Huge complaint by many - not enough time!! I still managed to do some major damage:)

Cruise: 

we absolutely loved it but I did have my room changed. We live in a land-locked province and have to fly to see water. When you book and pay extra for an outside cabin it would imply you want to see out the window. The window was so absolutely crusted with salt you couldn't see out at all. We stewed for a couple of hours and then I went to see Reception about it. The Louis Line is aware of this problem and plan to retofit next year - doesn't help me so they did upgrade the room (last one) and we were able to see out - still not the best but the room was larger. We were happy. Later found out that a couple on our tour did NOT have a working toilet the whole time. They were told to use the public facilities. 

Tipping: 

the TD and driver earn every penny. I had no difficulty paying extra for the services I received. Hats off to Martin, our TD and organizer extrordinare and Roberto who squeezed us thru the tightest spots I've ever seen.

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