ROLL CALL

Most Veteran NOWAT followers, and you know who you are, will recall that Chucky is an avid subscriber to Cruise Critic Roll Calls whenever THEY plan a cruise. 

Cruise Critic, for the NEWbees, and those that barely skim the alerts, and you know who you are, is a very popular website that has tons of information regarding… wait for it:

CRUISES

The Best Cruises for {fill in the blank}, What to wear-where, Where to go when you get there, loads of pertinent Articles, Reviews … 

OK, just lots and LOTS of info.

Roll Calls are a very important part of Cruise Critic for avid and even rookie cruisers where cruisers on a particular ship, of any particular Cruise lines and particular itineraries meet up to exchange information and/or connect to take advantage of other cruiser experiences, ask or give advice, share booking shore excursions etc. that aren’t ship sponsored and/or generally like seeing who else may be on board.

And, those that know the Wacky American Tourist and Ever-Lovely Dragon Lady, know that they prefer doing much of the “Rocks, Ruins and Temple visits on their own as much as possible. Roll Call is also where we met Sarah and Phyllis, those Wild & Wacky School Teachers from Ohio that we had a Fabulous time with on MEDCRUISE-2008 [and whom we still stay in touch with].  

This cruise is no different.  

And as such, through the Roll Call's for these two cruises, Chucky has managed, to “Hook Up” with several other cruisers to book private excursions in various ports.  

This is most often more economical than the ship sponsored excursions as you share the cost of a reasonably priced tour, generally managed by locals in smaller vehicles, thus a more intimate experience than being on a big bus, with 40-50 people to “be tightly scheduled with Get on the Bus - Get off the Bus…” etc. 

The “Private” tours allow for much more flexibility, for example: Having more time at a particular Historical site to take that Great Selfie overlooking the Blue Mediterranean that only you and 200 of your dearest friends on Facebook will ever see,  or “Oh that’s a cute little Tavern, let’s have a drink and snack before we go on” or, well you get the idea… hopefully.

Aside from the Private Walking tour in Venice previously mentioned, We4 have managed to connect with a couple from San Francisco to make a party of 6 for a tour of Athens, booked with a delightful “Certified-Licensed” Greek tour guide and private Van, that will take up most of the 7 hours in Athens including the Acropolis, and all the “Necessary Historical Sites”.

In Argostoli, we have hooked up with a Group of 8 from Montreal to share a Van and Guide for the various sites there.

We had, prior to the Schedule Change by RCI on the 2^nd cruise, had a tour in KOTOR [the second time around] booked with another Canadian Group, but with the change they elected to go another way that involved a speedboat ride and swim somewhere that had us nervous about getting back to the ship on time so they're on their own.

This caused us to book a Ship Excursion in KOTOR on the first cruise and plan a DIY of some kind on cruise #2 - Maybe a Bus to Perast to see the Our Lady of the Rocks, or sumthin' like that.

Now if all this has you staring glassy eyed at whatever device you read NOWAT’s on, then you know how Chucky feels after the last few weeks of trying to get all this planned. 

Oh common, you just know he has to have ALL the Details in order, long before he gets on the plane, if for no other reason than, well… Hey it’s Chucky and that’s how he rolls.

The rest of the stops will involve Ship sponsored excursions when we need to insure not having to chase the ship down the pier because we had one too many cocktails at that cute tavern and got stuck in traffic on some winding road filled with other bleary eyed tourists in private vans or sumthin’ like that. Or just wandering around the port or wherever looking for cute taverns closer to the pier.

Which brings us back to the Roll Calls and another advantage it offers.  In addition to being a Forum for idea exchanges etc., it also allows the opportunity to have a Ship Sponsored “Meet and Mingle” if you get 25 or more cruisers signed up, where everyone has a chance to plan more things to do with, supposedly, drinks on the house [we'll just see about that] and even plan “Cabin Crawls” [more about those later] etc.

Speaking of Bleary Eyed, that's HIS condition after trying to get this all down with the help of a Fine Bottle of Montepulciano d’Abruzo so we'll let you go get your own favorite beverage and rest up for the next edition of:

“What in the Hell is he talking about now”.

Ciao 4 Now

Uncle Chuck & The also bleary eyed,

Dragon Lady