I could review Venice as its utterly stunning I think its somewhere everyone should go!!!

If you want to get into Venice quickly and cheaply then you may want to use the People Mover. It takes about 5 minutes to Plaza Roma and from there you can get a waterbus to everywhere in the city.

The People Mover costs 1 euro each way - I'd suggest you buy multiple tickets if you are in Venice for a few days (or like us are travelling from there to the cruise terminal and returning a few weeks later) as there are lengthy queues for tickets at the cruise terminal station so its worth saving a little time and getting the tickets in advance.

Venice

There were a couple of tour companies touting for business inside and outside of the port in Bari. We didn't know what was there and decided to take a tour with one of these. The bus was shaped like a train and for twenty euros included an English speaking guide. The bus took us to the main attractions and the guide gave us details of what we could see (although she didn't come inside with us). We felt this was good value and we were quite surprised about the guide as we'd thought it was one of the usual hop on hop off tours. Well worth trying if you go there as its cheaper than the cruise version.

Bari

We didn't really like Athens. I think this was partly as we were so looking forward to visiting and its actually not a pretty place - its really quite tatty and tired.

There were tour companies touting outside of the port and we took a tour with one of these (mainly because the underground station is quite a long walk and we wanted to get to the Acroplis as early as possible - after 10am you are part of the cruise tours whether you are on them or not!)

Anyway the tour bus was 20 euros and was quite reasonable particularly if you were there for longer as it was a 2 day ticket. 

Tickets for the Acropolis are 12 euros and cover other sites but not the Acropolis Museum which requires a separate ticket which was 5 euros.

The Acropolis is worth visiting but is currently being renovated so has scaffolding. The Acropolis museum is worth a visit.

Athens (Piraeus)

Istanbul is lovely and I'd recommend everyone goes there - although I think you need longer than the few hours that a cruise allows to visit all the sites.

Its probably worth noting that Topkapi palace closes on Tuesdays - so if you want to go there you need to go on a tour. Opening times/days for the palace are on their website. The Harem is a separate ticket and wasn't included in our tour (so worth looking for one that also includes that if you go on a cruise tour as its supposed to be lovely).

There were lengthy queues for the blue mosque and st Sophia so be aware of that also the Blue Mosque closes at prayer times

Istanbul

We arrived in Dubrovnik earlier and walked the walls first - this was a good move as its busy later in the day. It cost 70KN.

We also went to the Rectors Palace which was 40 KN and is worth visiting.

The city is only small and with the large cruise crowds you need to stagger your visits to all the tours to go - there are cafes around so suggest you get a coffee and watch them leave before venturing inside (although don't wait too long as there are always more tours).

Also Dubrovnik is quite expensive but they do take Euros.

Dubrovnik

Our cabin wasn't a standard one as it was squeezed into a space at the end of the corridor. This was actually a bonus as it was larger than the standard ones. It was cleaned twice a day and we had clean bedding every other day.

People around us were catching trains and flights - they had told MSC this but were told that it wasn't urgent enough for them to leave the ship sooner (with hindsight it would appear that if you have travel arrangements and haven't booked excursions or transfers with MSC I'd suggest you don't hand your bags in and take them off yourself).Tenders/Dubrovnik
This wasn't the fault of the staff on the Opera but MSC had also booked the port for another ship on the same day.

MSC Opera Review

Lovely ship, ace cruise but some issues

Rating by category

Additional details

Cabin Review

Find an MSC Opera Cruise from $109