 My family and I took a Royal Caribbean cruise of the Greek Isles that left from Civitavecchia, Italy. Our last port of call was Katakolon - the day before - Athens, after Mykonos and Santorini! I have shared more about our pre-stay in Rome in my post “Rome in a Day and a Half”, our day in Santorini in my post “Santorini Port of Call”, our stop in Mykonos in "Mykonos Port of Call", and Athens in "Port of Piraeus (Athens)"
This port on the southwest coast area of Greece - and is the port closest to the site of Olympia, Olympia is an ancient Greek sanctuary in the Peloponnese region in southern Greece where every four years the ancient Olympic games were held. The archaeological site held over 70 significant buildings, and ruins of many of these survive, although the main Temple of Zeus survives only as stones on the ground. We joined a group of other cruisers found through Facebook for a private tour of this site that included a meal at a traditional taverna with an opportunity to swim!  By Senior Travel Planner Meghan Umlauf My family and I took a Royal Caribbean cruise of the Greek Isles that left from Civitavecchia, Italy. Athens was our third stop, after Mykonos and Santorini! I have shared more about our pre-stay in Rome in my post “Rome in a Day and a Half”,our day in Santorini in my post “Santorini Port of Call” and our stop in Mykonos in "Mykonos Port of Call" With so much to see in Athens, we decided to sign up for a Royal Caribbean Excursion to make sure we saw it all! We had from 6:30a-6:30p in this port and out excursion began bright and early with our meeting time of 7:30a in the theatre on the ship… once were given our group numbers to break us into smaller group for our guides - we disembarked the ship to the busses to take us into Athens. We had met another family from MA, and the kids had hit it off - and we were happy to discover they too were booked on this excursion and in our group!
We had a comfortable air conditioned coach bus to take us on our fairly long journey into Athens. Due to standard Athen traffic - this ride was about an hour, during which time our guide gave us an overview of our day - and what to expect and what we could and couldn’t bring to certain stops… our first stop was the Acropolis - to see the Parthenon!  By Tink's Agent, Kathy F. Are you ready to get out of the house and take a vacation? Are you looking for something less crowded and busy then a theme park while still maintaining that Disney magic? A great option to consider for your next family vacation is Disney’s Vero Beach Resort which is only about a 90 minute drive from the Walt Disney World® Resort on the east coast of Florida. I took a trip to Disney’s Vero Beach Resort with my family last year after spending a week at the Walt Disney World® Resort and I was amazed at what I found at this not well known Disney destination. The main appeal of Disney's Vero Beach Resort is that it is directly on the beach. It only took me about five minutes to walk from my room to the beach. The beach has several access points from the Resort for guests to use with key cards. This allowed for an enjoyable crowd free experience. Umbrellas, cabanas, beach chairs and lounge chairs are available to rent. My family rented a cabana for the day, which is basically a half dome cloth tent with two lounge chairs and it was perfect for a nice relaxing and private spot on the beach. We were even given a bucket full of sand toys to borrow for the day when the cast member helping us saw that we had small children. The waves were small and gentle during our stay and even toddlers and babies could easily play in the water. This beach is also a sea turtle habitat that is frequented by three species of endangered sea turtles for nesting. I saw several areas that were roped off on the beach that contained sea turtle nests. The resort offers sea turtle outings from May to October to allow guests to observe the sea turtles, and is dedicated to the conservation of these wild animals. Disney's Vero Beach Resort offers deluxe inn rooms, deluxe studios, one bedroom villas, two bedroom villas and three bedroom cottages. The villas and cottages all include full sized kitchens so meals can be made right in the privacy of your room. On my vacation, I stayed in a deluxe inn room which included a kitchenette with a small refrigerator, microwave, sink, plates, cups and utensils. The inn rooms are conveniently located in the main building and have two queen sized beds. I found the room to be modern, comfortable and immaculately clean. All of the furniture, wall art, flooring, and fixtures looked to be recently updated and I could not find any faults. When exploring the grounds, I was impressed with the three bedroom cottages which are stand alone two story beach houses with spectacular ocean views. Food was easy to find at the Resort. The Winds & Waves Market is a quick service location right by the pool with basic offerings such as burgers, sandwiches, salads, Dole whips, Mickey pretzels and a soda station. My family and I ended up eating all of our meals at the Winds & Waves Market, and, being a vegetarian family, we were pleasantly surprised with the variety of options available for us. The Winds & Waves Grill is a sit down restaurant and The Green Cabin Room and Winds & Waves Bar are two bars on property. There was so much to do at this resort that my family never left the property during our entire three day stay. The pool area at the Resort is amazing and I spent hours relaxing and having fun there. The pool is located only steps away from the beach so it was really easy to go back and forth from the beach to the pool. One of my favorite attractions at the pool was the Pirate's Plunge Pool slide, which is a two story spiral water slide. For smaller children, there is a nice splash pad area with a pirate ship and a mini water slide right next to the main pool. The pool area also features lots of activities like a nine hole pirate themed miniature golf course, pool tables, bike rentals, a playground and much more. For adults, the Resort offers a spa for massages and other soothing treatments. On select evenings we found that a sing along campfire was going on out by the fire pit where families were having a blast. My three-year-old daughter joined in at the campfire one night and she absolutely loved singing and dancing with all the other kids followed by eating s'mores. Disney characters are not normally present at this resort although in the past they have made appearances during select mornings for breakfast. We did not see any characters during our stay but that did not diminish the Disney magic in any way. Disney's Vero Beach Resort offers a relaxing getaway. It is a perfect stand alone vacation or a way to spend a few days unwinding after a hectic and exhausting week at Walt Disney World. Additionally, the cast members at this resort were all phenomenal and went above and beyond my expectations when it came to customer service. I will definitely be adding more visits to Disney's Vero Beach Resort in my future. Tink’s Magical Vacations can help book your family’s next vacation at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort. Contact us today and let’s start planning your magical vacation! |
Check out some of our trip reports, tips and tricks and different Disney experiences in out blog!
Archives
November 2024
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
|
California Seller of Travel:
#2121158-70 Florida Seller of Travel: No.ST40259 Washington Seller of Travel 604061778 |
|
|
|
|