My advice for Santorini is either take a Celebrity excursion or get up early on the day and get an early tender ticket. It is a tiny harbour and if you aren't on a Celebrity excursion, the only way up to the town from your disembarkation point is donkey (PLEASE DON'T) up the 588 steps, walk the steps yourself through the donkey waste or the 36-person seat funicular. There were 3 ships in when we were there, do the maths (the previous Wednesday, there were FIVE ships, 11000 passengers, in.) The excursion people start tendering even before the ship drops anchor and they are dropped at a different harbour for buses but do note, their return is via the steps/funicular route. The night before, the CD told us not to worry as it still only took 60-90 minutes to get everyone off; the excursion people started leaving about 1330, we didn't get off until 1600.

We queued an hour for the 2 minute funicular journey and to be honest, Fira didn't seem to have a lot to offer. The wait for the funicular back down was horrendous. That was over an hour and we didn't actually get down until after the last tender was officially supposed to have departed. The excursion people were told by their guides to allow 20 minutes. Nonsense. The problem was exacerbated by people trying to walk straight to the front of the queue because "We're on the Refection, we have to get down." You and me both, baby. Celebrity could have had agents at the top to allay our fears of the ship departing without us.

Great place. Loved everything here. We took a full day tour with True Blue Tours of Istanbul who I can't recommend highly enough. Very small groups (just my wife and I in the morning with superb guide, Elif.) We did their full-day Best of Istanbul tour which included, funicular to Pierre Lotti cafe with great city views, Ruston Pasha mosque, 90 minute Bosphorous cruise, dropping on the Asian banks so taking a train back, lunch (price included) in a beautiful boutique hotel, Hagia Sophia, Cisterns, Blue Mosque and Hippodrome. We didn't actually go in the Blue Mosque as it was a Friday (Holy Day) and its hours for visitors are erratic so queues were massive. Our choice, not the guide's. 8hr tour. Ruston Pasha, Hagia Sophia and the Cisterns were amazing. If you've got a bay-looking balcony, just sit and watch the traffic on the Bosphorous; it's phenomenal. Boats everywhere. Transport to/from the dock was easy, we took the tram. However, be aware, if another ship or two are embarking/disembarking there, you will dock about 1km from the terminal.

The rating is for the trip to Ephesus. Kusadasis is a tourist resort town. We were hassled a bit by taxi drivers when we left the ship but we wanted to go for a drink, get wifi and make our own plans. We got a private trip to Ephesus and what a place. It really is a fantastic way to spend a few hours. As others have said, do take plenty of water and sun screen as once you're inside the site, there's no kiosks or shade (although the vendors outside the entrance seemed reasonably priced.) The audio guide is well worth the price.

Beautiful little place. Tendering far easier than Santorini and you're taken straight into the harbour town. The town was very small with tiny streets and hundreds of shops and restaurants. After the trek around in the heat of Ephesus the day before, we just wanted to chill which was easy to do. Cafe for a beer and wifi, another walk around, finishing off with just sitting on a harbour wall, dangling our feet in the beautiful Aegean waters.

There are, I gather, two terminals in Piraeus, we went into B. Right opposite the ship is the bus stop for the regular X80 bus (also stops at A) which takes you straight to the Acropolis. It costs €4 for 24hrs unlimited travel on all Athens public transport. We got to the Acropolis about 8.40am and even though there was only a small queue, once we were in and got up the 100 or so steps (and slopes) there were already hundreds there. The information we were given, in the form of maps, was hit and miss. We didn't realise that our map was for just one slope (the East.) For others, you had to seek out someone and ask. But so much to see up there, most notably of course, the Parthenon. There is some shade at the top but again, as with Ephesus, very little shade and no vendors inside. Even at 9am the sun was baking so be prepared. The onto the Acropolis Museum which is just over the road. A nice museum with plenty to see. Lunch in the restaurant (reasonably priced) gave us a rest. We then went to the Temple of Zeus and the Gateway to Olypieion, another tremendous site and ticket price included as part of the Acropolis. We finished off worthy walk to the Panathaneic Stadium which was excellent then back on the X80 to the ship.

Review is for Pompeii & Herculaneum, not necessarily Naples which, frankly, is a dump and has few redeeming features. We took a No1 tram from the port to Porta Nolana station for the Circumvesuviana train. First thing to note is that to travel on buses/trams in Italy, you must buy your ticket from a Tabaccheria (Tobaccanists), noticeable by the big "T" outside. The one in the terminal didn't sell them but the one just outside did, €1 per single journey. The station at Porta Nolana, the terminus for the train, is a horrid concrete building with few facilities. I wanted two return tickets to Pompeii which was €10.40. The agent refused my €20 note, telling me I had to go to the bank for change. At 7.30am? She was very rude and her till (cash register) was two margarine tubs with about €2 in them. I complained to a manager and got my tickets.

The trains themselves are old and uncomfortable and will have lots of commuters on. On alighting at Pompeii Scavi, the entrance is about 30m away. Pompeii itself is MASSIVE. Do not underestimate its size. To see it fully, I would say you need most of the day. There's so many things to see that you need a guide of some sorts. We chose audio guides for €5 each but, along with other visitors, we found we had to stop using them shortly after. The main problem is that it simply gives too much information. That level of info might be ok for students of history or archaeology but just too much for the casual visitor. I reckon that if you followed the guide for everything, then they'd be kicking you out after closing.

Unfortunately, this only leads onto another problem; there is little or no written information around the site so if you don't have a guide, you're really just walking in and out of old buildings randomly. Another problem was tour guide groups, some of which had up to 40 members in. This meant that the place always felt crowded even though it probably wasn't. We lasted about 2 and a half hours before knocking it on the head and heading back along the line to Herculaneum (be sure you alight at Ercolano Scavi.) The walk to the site is about 500m and there are plenty of eating places and shops along the route but most notable was the lack of pushiness seen at Pompeii. The site itself is compact and we did it in an hour, mainly because of the lack of visitors. It was so much better than Pompeii in many ways. Do note that it is run by the same organisation so the audio guides, I'm guessing, will be similar. But, as it's a smaller site, it may not be such a problem. In hindsight, I think doing one of the two historical sites would have been preferable, possibly with a Sorrento or Capri trip. If you have to choose one, I'd go for Herculaneum.