Doris Visits - Port Guides for cruisers: cruise ships

Showing posts with label cruise ships. Show all posts

Sunday, 31 October 2021

Rhodes Guide

Our first visit to Rhodes and what a pleasant surprise, it is an excellent cruise shop. You can walk to the town, walk around it hassle-free, and it is not expensive. An example of how easy they make this visit, the tourist's authority normally deliver maps to the ship to be taken at the reception. Fridge magnet one Euro compared with ten dollars in Bora Bora ... so bonus. It is a find. Great food, great art, nice people, fantastic wine. We stopped there with P&O, and we were followed around by the Norwegian Spirit. We have guides of Athens, Malta, Crete and other Med cities.

DORIS VISITS EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN MENU OF PORT GUIDES DORIS VISITS WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN MENU OF PORT GUIDES

ATHENS METRO ATHENS ICE CREAM ATHENS GUIDE ATHENS HORSE+CARRIAGE ATHENS PLAKA

Well, we did end the day with an incredible bottle of rose wine with some grilled sardines and a Greek salad just away from the oldest square in the town, in a restaurant where we were not hassled to go inside. The town is an old walled city, whilst there is a new part with designer shops that we looked at quickly at the end, it is, without doubt, the charm of the old town that wins.

The cotton and art are not expensive and we were not over hassled. It was hot and whilst you feel protected suncream and a stop for liquid is recommended. The ship is very close and you can enter at any gate. The maps handed out are very clear. There is no need to prep this site or spend a lot of money, the film may help.

There are options to visit, inside the buildings with or without guides.

In brief, Rhodes, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a well-preserved city with about 10,000 residents. The streets inside the wall are flat, the roads up to the back of the city have a gradient which is a nice climb. Sensible shoes. Castles, narrow streets, mosques, fountains, squares, vines draping, wine, fresh fish, and more. The old city wall is thick, it has been a strategic island for the Knights Templars and many others for centuries. Mussolini wanted to use the old Palace of the Grand Masters as his holiday home. It was originally a Byzantine fortress in the 7th century, then the administrative centre of the Knights after they conquered the island. To find it, walk up the cobblestone alley, the Avenue of the Knights. You will see the Knights of St John's palace on the right at the top. There are explanatory boards to read.

The knights had a hospital to deal with the wounded and then the plague that developed because of mounting dead bodies.

Take a look at the maps and help here Here you will find this map of the old town

SHOPS - The shop where we saw jewellery being made belonged to Nikoz. It can be found at the back of the town if you are walking around. These streets are quiet and the shops less commercial. His brother's boat is here if you want to book something small and local before you arrive.

SHIP TOURS help you choose your next ship Aurora Ship Tour Marella Discovery 2 Azura Ship Tour Cunard Queen Victoria Britannia Ship Tour Virgin Scarlet Lady Arcadia Ship Tour Ventura Ship Tour SUITE on P&O Every cruise ship and every fleet listed here

PORT GUIDES filmed by Doris Visits are a great way to research, remember your cruise and share your memories with your friends. ATHENS GUIDE ANTIGUA CRETE GUIDE RHODES ST PETERSBURG ROME DUBROVNIK KEY WEST STATUE OF LIBERTY TOUR STAVANGER

You may have seen cruise thriller author & movie maker Stuart St Paul - click here on a ship giving an after-dinner speech or a talk with a book signing. Crime novels are a whole new experience. You may not have been to the ports in the novels, you certainly won't have been to the parts of the ship they use but they take you there. Stuart's page is here. The cheapest way to buy his cruise thrillers is the KINDLE BOX SET, all six cruise thrillers for the price of two.

CHAT GROUPS - is a fantastic way to help others and a place to find answers. We run a Facebook Group for each of the ships. For example, P&O IONA group P&O Ventura MARELLA EXPLORER Disney & Family cruise chat SAGA Ocean & River cruise chat group Viking Ocean & River Cruising chat Cunard Chat - Premium cruise liners Find the complete list of chat groups here

Thursday, 24 November 2016

Does every cruise ship have a Fairy Godmother? Which ship is Darcey Bussell godmother to?

As we approach panto season, what better question to ask, Ships? Godmothers?

The first time I entered the Arcadia I wondered why Dame Kelly Holmes had a framed picture on the wall in the atrium then on inspection I realised she had Christened the ship. Compared with Dame Helen Mirren's christening of the Ventura, Kelly's was a tame affair. Kelly had stilt walkers and balloons.

Dame Helen got a team of Royal Marine Commandos and she abseiled down the side of the ship with them before breaking the bottle of Champagne! That is the style I would expect of her having worked with her on Prime Suspect just a few years ago.

But talking of history, the picture I am using is from 1978 Sunderland Empire Panto when Doris was the Fairy Godmother, but alas not to a ship. Doris is the character that comes from the award winning web series that put 61 episodes on line, Shades Of Bad.

Earlier that year she got off a ship called a Floatel in Zsa Zsa where she was on tour with the then hit BBC TV show Seaside Special.

Little did she know then she would be presenting a TV Travel Show nearly 40 years later and off and on ships like they were taxi cabs.

BBC's Strictly Come Dancing star judge Darcey Bussell CBE can hardly be referred to as a retired ballerina. Ballerina she was and is, but retired no. She seems to work tirelessly on the dance show, with appearances and supporting good causes. She is Godmother to the P&O ship Ventura, and after smashing the bottle, she presented a Ballet on board from the Royal Ballet.

We wonder if she will be on the Strictly Come Dancing Cruises now lined up for 2017? Who will be on there, will Louise Redknapp win, will she be on the cruise? We do know there will be dancers, will be at least one judge, and the costumes will be on board ship on display. Click here for Strictly Cruise blog.

But, back to pantos and the godmothers, the list is long but we have one or two missing which you might just know, so please, take a look and help us out.

The Queen makes the list a few times and when christening the Britannia used British sparkling wine...

Does every Cruise ship has a Godmother? The fullest list of ships Godmothers in existence ! http://bit.ly/2grMgvG

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Doris Visits will be streaming our first live TV show in 2017.

Wednesday, 20 July 2016

Futuristic cruising and cruise ships

The Future is something many try and ignore, but it is coming, and it starts tomorrow.

It appears tomorrow is only the start of the future, so let's just dream and look at the dreamers. Some ships now have two surfing ramps, climbing walls and merry go rounds as well as multiple pools and sea screens. Why? They are just hotels, hotels that move you from place to place while you sleep. Hotels that are there to offer you the best and more, to keep you entertained and go home with a wow factor.

So as cruise ships get bigger and offer more and more, not just a choice of areas from ultra exclusive to the fun filled bar with karaoke, you realise they are sailing towns, sailing mega hotels, with night clubs and theatres and stages and fine dining. This is why you need to learn to cruise before you go. You need to ask, what you want from a ship.

Do you want an outside cabin with a view of the sea, or an inside cabin with a view of the pools, climbing wall and zip slide. Yes there are ships with a hollow inside and inside cabins, that is not the future.

If you do not want the fine dining option as the restaurants are a treat enough, and they are, and you don't want the many night clubs and zip wires, then the smaller ships are the ones you may feel happier in.

As the smaller ships get moved out to specialist cruising like the volunteer cruises where you go and help on islands like Haiti during the day and relax in style at night. (The P&O ship Adonia has been posted thus for a while, and one now looks at what used to be called mid sized ships like the Arcadia and they are the new small). Why not take a look at a ship like the Arcadia with our simple tour and see how easy it is to become familiar in the mid size (smaller) ship. Doris Visits takes you round the ship and gives you the numbers. Click this text to tour the Arcadia with Doris.

A ship such as some of these pictures have yet to be built, but they are getting bigger and some that have been built have 6,000 plus guests.

The Azura is a regular ship we travel on, and it used to be called a bigger ship, but at 3100 guests is it still large, or are they now the medium sized ships? The Azura packs a lot in, but it is still really easy to find your way round and it manages to keep the children so busy you don't know they are there most of the time. Take a look around the Azura. Click this text for the tour.

Here is another futuristic image, the ship car park. Will ports start to look like a shipping car park?

When we stopped recently at Tallinn, there were 6 ships parked there. Click here for the Tallinn film, a beautiful stop.

At the end of last year when we stopped at Tortola, they were rebuilding the Port to house more ships. When we were there this spring at the end of the Caribbean season if was finished, or that phase was, because cruising is being discovered by thousands more each week and is growing. Click this text block for one of our Tortola films.

Will large ships continue to visit the tiny places like Bequia in the Grenadines? ... that Doris Visits Bequia film is a must for island lovers. Click here for Bequia.

Or, and here is a thought, will giant cruise docks like space station docking stations be built, similar to oil rigs but with mega wow facilities which means travellers will want to visit space station like cruise stops. You see, the future is unpredictable, which is why there are betting shops on the High Street.

But the purpose of this blog is to say, if you thought you weren't a cruiser because you like ..... then you can find it cruising, whatever you like. I am tempted to quote the Status Quo track, only because as you know, Doris took Quo to Fiji and made a feature length comedy caper with them. Yes, what ever you want....

As we sweep gracefully into the future, it is about, what would I like to do, how, on what and where.

Imagine being waited on hand and foot, in the finest hotel and saying, take me to..... and maybe you could be taken there in style.

This might be a post to share, if nothing else it will generate discussion. Let Doris Visits show you the stops and a few of the ships and you do the choosing. But please follow us on twitter and our films on DailyMotion.

The future is watching these films on your television again, going full circle.
So if you have a new television, super new, and it is connected to the web; try and find the Opera App and search for Doris Visits in Opera on your television. Let us know if you find us.... please.

Please share this blog.

Tips...
1. Choose the right ship, that offers what you want.
2. Work out the additional costs of any extras you wish to take, from Exclusivity to Fine Dining and consider them part of the cost.
3. Don't expect Yorkshire Pudding on a Sunday if you are the other side of the world.
4. Walking Shoes. Bathers, sun cream.
5. Share your pictures with us and share these films with other cruisers.

For now, we have the ships that are in the fleet and Doris tours some of them. Here is the Azura. Check others and films on fine dining options and please follow and subscribe to the channels.