soccerdad72

I'm pretty sure all cruise ship walls are magnetic, as the ships are all metal.

Just two formal nights [emoji16]

 

 

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Interesting - I would have thought with 12 nights, it would be 3. May have to adjust packing a little.

That sounds pretty tight, but some clarification needed:

 

- crucially what day of the week? You’ll be in rush hour traffic on a working day - current Google map estimate of LHR T3 to Marble Arch is 1 hour 10 minutes (7-50 am on Wednesday), for example.

- by “hired a car” I assume you mean a car service with driver (“hire car” often means “rental car” in British English usage)

 

In any case, are you coming off an overnight flight? You seem to have no time to freshen up, get changed etc.

 

 

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Thanks for this insight - I now realize how overly optimistic I was being, having planned a tour at 10:30am on the same day that we land (from the US) at 8:35am. I have no idea why I thought we'd be able to clear customs, get our luggage, get to our hotel (with a car service) and get to Leicester Square from Hyde Park.

I've readjusted my expectations now - thanks! :D

Leaving for our Baltic Sea cruise next week, stopping in Helsinki on June 22nd and trying to decide between either doing a city tour combo with Seurasaari (with Alla Tours) or catching a tram to the city center, spending some time in the market and then going to Suomenlinna for the rest of the day.

It will be my wife and I plus our two teenaged (13 and 17) boys. I also just saw that it's Midsummer Day in Helsinki, in case that makes any difference.

Any thoughts on which option would be better for our family? Thanks! :)

We have two rooms for our cruise next week, but I put my wife in one room and myself in the other when we set up the reservation. After check in, I just go to guest services and get two new keys printed up and move the boys into their own room.

Thanks for this great post. We get on as you get off on the 15th June. Can't wait! May the sunny weather stay with you for the full 12 days.

Have a fab time and enjoy every minute.

Looking forward to your subsequent posts.

Same here - following along as well :D

Thanks - I was thinking somewhere around 40-50 pounds, so I wasn't too far off.

Just booked this for our family of 4 on our pre-cruise visit to London and was curious if anyone else has done this tour (or others by Strawberry Tours) before? If so, did you enjoy it and, more importantly, how much tip did you give to the guide? I was looking around trying to see if there is some sort of standard gratuity that folks give (just trying to not seem like a cheap American ;) )

Spend some time looking through threads on the Italy board - that's where I got most of my recommendations for our Med Cruise.

We used Rome in Limo to go to the port from the hotel. And we stayed at Hotel Golden for the pre cruise stay - a nice little boutique hotel not far from Villa Borghese and an easy walk to much of central Rome.

Yes, we do have our tickets! Well, not physically in hand, since FIFA hasn't mailed the tickets out yet, but they are allocated to us.

 

There have already been several buying rounds, some of which are by lottery and others by first-come-first-serve (FCFS). Luckily for us, we got our tickets in the first round last year, which was a lottery before the teams were even set.

 

The next round starts in a few days, so you may want to get ready for it by setting up a FIFA account, etc. It's a FCFS round, so you will probably want to have a bunch of web browsers ready at the designated time (in the middle of the night in the U.S., I believe), to maximize your chances of getting into the purchasing screens before the allocation is all gone. Note that if you strike out, there is another FCFS round in April that you can try again for. The details are all here: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/organisation/ticketing/index.html. This message board thread may also be useful: http://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/russia-2018-ticket-thread.2038931/page-241. That website may also have people buying and selling tickets, I believe, so you can look into that if helpful (though I don't know if it's legit).

 

Once FIFA confirms that you have been allocated tickets, you can then apply online for a FAN ID for each ticket-holder. The FAN ID is required to enter the stadium for the game. It also allows for visa-free travel throughout Russia during the World Cup period. We already have our FAN IDs in hand. The online application is very easy, and you can get the FAN IDs mailed for free to your home address.

Thanks for all the info! I might try to see if I can land tickets - our boys are huge soccer fans and would love to catch a World Cup game.

Another option this summer is to secure World Cup soccer tickets, since that makes you eligible for visa-free travel throughout Russia. Two options have been discussed in the forums: (1) Buy the cheapest tickets you can find during the WC ($105 from FIFA), and don't actually attend the game; or (2) if your ship is docked on a St. Petersburg game day, you can try to get tickets to a match that you'll actually attend (which is what we are doing).

Were you able to land World Cup tickets yet? The last I looked, it seemed like it was some sort of lottery system - and then, if you got tickets, you had to apply for some sort of 'fan visa' (or something like that). Seemed like a lot of work, so we opted (so far) to not try to attend the game. Just curious how you found the process of getting tickets and other authorization for the game?

I was on Oasis last month and didn't see anything about making your own. I ate my share of the pizza and enjoyed it. It's just thin cheap pizza but that's what I like. Some people may expect a deep dish loaded pizza. If that's the case I can see disappointment. I enjoyed it though.

It's not something that's obvious - you often just have to ask at the counter if they can make a specific pizza and they'll usually just ask what you want on it. Like someone else said, it takes 10 minutes or so, but it's hot and fresh.

To the poster who asked which ship, we will be sailing on the oasis

As others have mentioned, Oasis class ships have the option to make your own pizza, which is much better than just grabbing a slice of whatever is pre-made.

This is one of those areas with a wide range of opinions. Personally, I've always found their pizza to be fine - certainly not the greatest pizza you're going to eat, but decent enough for a quick snack.

I had no luck. Called and got right through to a rep, no hold, so I thought I was on my way. Explained the situation and told the rep (Bethany) that I wanted to re-price my cruise. I gave her my reservation #, she typed a bunch of stuff and told me she came up with the same price I paid. I explained the discounts I already had applied and told her I did a mock booking this morning for this sailing and got a bottom line price $200 lower than the final price I booked at. She typed a bunch more stuff and then told me that her system kept dropping the "SAVEMORE" promo code because it only applies to booking made between 2/22 and 3/7. My booking was made on 2/21. I asked her if that meant that if I had booked 9 hours later, I'd be entitled to a $200 discount, but as it stands I am not - she replied "yes, that's correct."

 

Am I getting hosed here or does this sound right to you guys?

I think you're unlucky, maybe not 'hosed'. There are usually applicable dates on sales and discounts - you just happened to fall just outside of that range, unfortunately.

All the various items open at at different and seemingly random times.

I'll echo what Bob said - different activities and offerings often just show up day by day. Keep checking the Cruise Planner every now and then.

So you were able to get the $200 discount applied to your booking?

Actually, I don't know if I got the $200, to be honest? I was happy to get the lower cabin cost that I forgot to ask about the $200 discount code as well. Sounds like from what others are saying, we wouldn't have been able to get that.

The price today was actually $200 lower than when I booked and with the $200 discount, $400 lower. They did reprice my cruise for today’s rates but they would not honor the additional $200. My cruise isn’t until November. This is the 3rd price drop. I keep saying I’m going to stop booking early. When I first booked a few months ago, I paid $999 per person for a balcony. As of today, they are $548 per person for my same category.

 

 

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This was our second price drop (or, at least, that I've noticed). Whenever I get a promotional e-mail from RCCL, I would do a mock booking and see what our cruise priced out at. Fortunately, having my booking through a travel agency, I've been able to have them make the phone call to RCCL for the price difference. I was on hold a couple times, but all told, it was probably 15 minutes on the phone. Our cabins started out at around $7,500 a piece when we booked on board a previous cruise and we're now at about $5,500.

I got a similar e-mail about our Europe cruise this summer (on Navigator).

Called the travel agency (warehouse club) that we had our booking with, they called RCCL and repriced our cruise for us. $800 savings per cabin (we have 2 balcony cabins). We lose $75 OBC, but obviously nets out much better overall. So it may very well be worth checking and seeing if they'll reprice.

Looks like they do have movies poolside - here's a post from someone with Cruise Compasses from last month - so the movies might have changed by now, though:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2590355&highlight=navigator+cruise+compass

Shirt and tie on formal nights and either khakis or dress shorts and a button down shirt or golf shirt on casual nights.

Same as others - proximity to Central Park, Park Cafe and being somewhat equal walk up or down to other areas of the ship.

Hmm, I think the following should work:

Mom/Dad/whatever: Son, where are you going to be.

Son: Pool

M/D/W: OK, we'll see you there in a couple of hours.

 

Check pool, kid there. Repeat conversation. kid not there, (and no good excuse like was in the bathroom) they find themselves attached to your hip.

That's what we've done for previous cruises. Overall, it worked. Only once did we lose a child (but we had two, so we had a spare ;p )

Actually, we did lose track of our youngest the last cruise we were on - turned out, him and a buddy he found on the cruise decided (without telling us) that they were going to find somewhere to watch the Ohio St - Michigan game. We finally found him an hour or so after he was supposed to check in with us - they were sitting on the floor of On Air. Had a brief chat about his freedom on the ship after that. :confused:

Main dining room: Early seating, late seating and My Time Dining (where you make 'reservations' for specific times each day.

Specialty restaurants (upcharge) - reservations are on-line or at the restaurant after you board.

And there's always Windjammer and other included food options (depending on the ship).

Umberto is with joebananalimos, aka Italytoursharing.com. We had him for our Amalfi coast and Pompeii excursion last June and he is very good! He took us to the restaurant up the mountain of Positano. The food, the wine, the view and the atmosphere were amazing!

We did the same tour two years ago (I forget who our guide was) and I agree, it was the highlight of our cruise. Our boys still talk about the lunch on the hillside and the tour guide they set up for us at Pompeii was great as well!

There isn't a Jan 18th sailing - it sails on Jan 19th.

Here's the role call for the sailing:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2351414