bleah!
I think you would have to pay me to go on another cruise. We did Venice, Drubrovnik, various Greek Islands, Bari.
Best part: waking up in the AM, looking out the window and seeing the port of a new place gliding into view!
Worst part: almost everything else. The one day you spend in each place means: Get up at 6 or 7 to manage to have breakfast and be off the ship by 8 or 8:30, along with about 1000 of your fellow passengers (mooo!). Clamber onto a fleet of 30 or 40 pullman buses that take you to the spot of interest (never near the port; the port zones are fairly scuzzy). Follow the guide with the umbrella for a while, get a 10 or 15-minute break to buy postcards or have a coffee, then.. back in the bus and back to the ship. You pay extra, BTW, for each on-shore excursion. We were also bused to the obligatory gift shop where the bus driver has an "arrangement" (wink, wink) with the owner--held hostage is more like it--and where you end up buying trinkets for friends back home regardless just because you have no time to shop in any of the more interesting local stores as you are traipsing after the lady with the umbrella.
Since you have paid to eat on the ship you don't get to try the local cuisine. If you choose not to go on the planned excursions, you're on your own getting from the port to any town or beach, so you're no better off than if you were traveling solo. You'd want a map and a guidebook and some idea of how not to get ripped off by the foreign taxi driver. Then you're anxious about being able to get back to the ship before it leaves, 'cause it ain't waiting for you...
After a few days of this, we just didn't even get off the boat one day because we wanted to relax! We just hung out on the deck reading and sunning ourselves. We were "in" Greece, but we could have read books at home!
Then you look at the bill for your "all-inclusive" trip and realize they've been charging you $2 or $3 for eaxh pint of bottled water.
The food was OK, the entertainment was charmingly mediocre, the atmosphere is schizophrenic because on the one hand it's "de-luxe" and on the other it's flip-flops.. The most irritating thing was trying to get out of earshot of the hyperactive "animators", those employees that go around trying to encourage everyone to "have fun", usually by doing some sort of on-deck aerobics with a Madonna-type microphone to a bad techno/disco soundtrack.
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Sheryl is right. I'm don't want to knock any particular kind of vacation, as long as you know what you are getting into. Some "organized" vacations take the stress out of making plans, but can add stress in other ways afterwards (but if I oversleep I'll miss the Duomo!). If you can manage to book a plane flight, and can get a taxi to a hotel or B&B, the hard part is over. Wander. Sleep in. Go down a tiny street and eat in a tiny restaurant with four tables where the owner serves you. Sit by the Trevi fountain for a whole hour, if you feel like it. You will never see everything worthwhile in Italy even if you live 100 lifetimes, so enjoy what's in front of you!
Jay, I hope you have a chance to review the sites I posted. You can use them as a guideline for planning.. see where they put you up (I've seen them mention hotels by name), see what time frames they use and the points of interest that are included. You may be able to find one that lets you opt out of the daily group activities and gives you a cheaper rate by just hauling you from one place to the next? Why not call or write them and explain what you have in mind? In Italy, if you are not planning to go with the pullman group, "options for travel" between distant cities are plane, bus (avoid because the bus stations are usually in nasty hard-to-get-to areas outside the center), train (best option, but you'll have to be up for deciphering the timetables and dealing with purchasing tickets), and renting a car (if you don't mind getting lost in traffic in Florence trying to find your hotel). I don't know where you have traveled in the past, but I would say it is pretty impossible to get a "bad" meal in Italy, unless you go to a Chinese restaurant or an Autogrill. Hotels you sound pretty picky about, but I figure I'm out wandering.. I only want the hotel for a place to sleep in. Best of luck, anyway!
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Better yet.. Just Go Here:
http://tinyurl.com/ap6ff. Take out your Amex card and just do it, today! There! You're done!
