capecruzer

Thanks everyone!  I'll continue to research more and I'm sure I'll be back to get more of the detailed information you are able to provide!  Looks like it might be doable so I'll expend some more time with research.

Hmmm, I think I found trains that went directly from Pisa to Montessoro (1:10 and $15) and Montessoro to Livorno (1:28 and $12)?  I'll have to revisit that.  

I've come up with a proposed itinerary for our LIvorno stop on NCL (9am-8:30p).  I've scoured the posts and it looks like options for transfers from the port to the train include a bus or shuttle to centro ($6Euro) and then a 1.5m trek to the train station or a direct shuttle from the port to the train station at $25Euro.  Does anyone have experience with taking a taxi directly from the port to Pisa? Is my information correct that it is approximately $80USD and cabs are easy enough to grab right at the port, although they often don't want to go the short trip to the train station? Do cabs fit four persons/extra charge for more than two?

So, if we are able to get a cab direct to Pisa, is two hours long enough to explore a bit?  Would like to take the train to Cinque Terre, either Monterosso or Vernazza or both.  Is two hours enough for each of those locations or should we just do one and spend three hours in Pisa and three hours in Monterosso?  We will likely just DIY walking tours with coffee/snack in Pisa, lunch, drinks and the beach at another spot.

Any comments, recommendations, corrections are welcome and encouraged.  TIA.

Roatan, Honduras

St. John USVI (port is St. Thomas, need to ferry over)

Its hard to remember all the details for each cruise but I know I was impressed by Celebrity Summit and Disney Wonder.  For those asking about the Disney ships, the restaurants on the Wonder remain the best of any cruise I've been on....both entertainment wise and food wise.  The Ships are super $$$ so I tell anyone who asks that the Disney ships are a "must -do - ONCE".  I'll likely do it again for grandkids but I've saved a small fortune taking my own kids on all the other lines (Carnival, RCCL, and NCL) instead and reserve Celebrity for my adult-only trips.

Not sure if this will help but I've been looking at diycruiseports.com and it details alot of bus information on Corfu and how to get to several beaches.  I only jotted down Ipsos and Dassia.  Good luck!

@Almoma, I have just emailed Vanessa at Nautilus tours to get information.  We are on the 9/26 EPIC cruise, two of us, looking to join a group or start a group for any type of boat trips during the cruise, including this one on October 1st.  If you are on the same cruise, would you be interested in joining/including others to keep the prices more reasonable?

So, there's four ships on 9/28 coming into Santorini, 3 at 8 am (two of them are smaller, one large) and ours EPIC not until 1 pm.  One of the small ships leaves at 5, the other smaller one at 10, the larger one at 9, and us also at 10.  My thoughts, and I'm writing this to get others' perspectives, is that the cable car should not be an issue going up  in the early afternoon (1-2p).  I question whether it will be an issue getting back down via cable car between 6 and 8pm?  What time would you think most people are headed back to their ship?  I'd just as soon watch the sunset from the ship and hoping to get off, do some window shopping and a cocktail or two and head back.  So, head up at 1:30, head back down at 5:30....would that avoid major crowds at the cable car in your opinion?

My daughter and I did this in late May 2019.  I was just almost 60 and in okay physical shape.  We found it long but not too strenuous.  Great views.  Happy to finally get to OIA for a cold beer though.  There were plenty of people on the trail so we felt safe.  Started out early in the morning to avoid the heat.  Nice way to kill a few hours and enjoy the views.  I think it took us 3 hours, maybe a little more?  We did get off the path a bit near the very end which cost us another 15 or 20 minutes.

Thanks everyone!

Hi, my daughter and I just booked the SUN for an Alaskan cruise August 2024.  There were few OV rooms available shipwide and ended up booking a stateroom on deck 6 that has no elevator access.  This is not an issue for us but I wonder why, it looks as though the deck is divided somehow at the midship/forward line with about a dozen staterooms on this second level of the deck.  Anyone have experience with this?  Rep assured me we were not above/under/near noisy areas.

Oh yea, I've cruised plenty and a few adventures won't stop me...

A short Victory review from the 3 day Bahamas 2/28-3/2 out of Miami.  Stayed at Hilton Airport Blue Lagoon, decent enough hotel, price was right.  It was pretty chilly out so the pool and outside bar were empty late afternoon day before the cruise.  Took an UBER to Little Havana and had a few drinks at the Ball & Chain for happy hour.  They had a good salsa band that switched to a Jazz band at 6...all good entertainment, nice little spot.  Drinks were weak but 241.  Walked across the street and had dinner at Olds Havana.  Food was good, average priced.

The hotel charge for cruise transfer was $13/pp and required a sign-up with two time options I believe 10 and 11.  We chose to Uber at 10:15 for a total of $19 so a bit of savings for a more private transfer.  Check-in was so easy!  We did have to fill out the health questionairre, nbd.  We went through security (each of us had the larger bottle of wine - is it 1.5L maybe? no problem) immediately, probably about 10:40 am (our check in time was 11:30 am) and sent to the waiting area.  We waited about 20 minutes before boarding.  We were sitting at the Red Frog Pub at the pool by 11:30 am.  Both of us had the Bowls with shrimp and chicken combo, delicious!

Weather was cool, probably high 60s.  We sat by the pool in our suits and cover ups but it was too cold to get in the water and this remained true for the three days 😞  Went to our extended balcony L-shaped room #6459 at 1:00 when rooms opened.  Our luggage was there already!  Room seemed a little larger than normal and our balcony was double length which was nice.  Beds were comfortable, linen was great.  The balcony though was in need of cleaning/update/repair.  Lots of rust, dirty tables and chairs, windows were very dirty.  Inside of the cabin was fine but def time for a bit of work.  We did smell an odor of septic/sewer but nothing alarming until....

We had a major issue on Saturday night sometime between 6 - 10 pm.  I arrived back to the room solo (sister was still in the casino) to find the sewer had backed up in the bathroom.  I'll say it was not disgusting, not sure what was backing up but it looked like coffee grounds all over the shower and bathroom floor and had gone over the edge into the carpet just outside the bathroom.  Okay I can deal with that....what I cannot deal with is NO ONE ANSWERING THE PHONE at customer service, housekeeping, etc.  I think I tried every extension lol.  I had switched into my PJs prior to noticing the bathroom and had to redress and go down to speak with someone after 30 minutes of attempting communication via telephone.  Yes, that really upset me!!  So, I get dressed again and go down to find a very long line.  I decided I wasn't waiting and went straight to the front amid scowls and under-breath name calling (I would have done the same lol).  I was assured the plumber would arrive soon.  Yes, he did...about 15 minutes later.  He "fixed" the problem and said housekeeping would be right up.  I laid down..there's a reason I came up from the casino instead of staying up another few hours right?  Housekeeping woke me up 20 minutes later and cleaned up the mess.  Now...here's my major issue....when he exited the bathroom I asked what he cleaned with he was empty handed except for towels.  Hot water.  What?  I explained I wanted someone to clean with bleach/or any cleaner at all and that the rug had to be cleaned as well.  They didnt' realize the rug had become soiled.  We compromised on the cleaning WITH CLEANER and rug shampooing for the next morning after we left the cabin as I was exhausted and just wanted to go to sleep!

We received a message the next day which I couldnt' understand but thought I better check with guest services in the event it was a family emergency. I waited 15 minutes in line to find out they wanted to compensate us by offering the "steak house offer" for dinner that evening.  Okay.  We ended up trading it for a comparable $40 bottle of wine because they had run out of lobster.  Run out of lobster on a 3 night cruise?  I couldn't care less but that's ridiculous.  We found out that running out of things on the last sailing is somewhat typical..they ran out of several things.

All in all it was a good cruise because we decided it was going to be fun.  We wouldn't let the several little wrongs get in the way.  We saw the Marriage Show (is it called that?) and it was great !  The comedian for Friday night apparently missed the ship but we saw the show on Sunday and it was very good.  Too cold for outdoor movies 😞  Alchemy Bar had the best drinks but the quietest, boring crowd.  Sushi was well worth the $5.  Iguana Restaurant excellent.  Got just the fries from Guys on Day One and they were great.  Had the burger and fries the next day and they were so spicey you couldnt eat them...I think someone spilled chili or paprika powder on them by accident lol.  They were nasty hot.  Pizza was okay.  In general, we were pleased with all the food, both Main Dining and side places.  Sea Day Brunch was fantastic...steak and eggs!  Service at all eateries was every good.

Disembarkement was easy peasy.  We ate in the dining room, grabbed our luggage and had an UBER before 9 am to Fort Lauderdale Beach for $35.  All in all a good cruise but there were some spots that needed some attention for sure.  

Thanks so much, I love picture reviews and yours was great!  I'm doing my first short cruise next week, three nights out of MIA to Nassau on the Victory because it was cheaper than getting a hotel in FLL for the three nights, lol.

This past week was school vacation in the Northeast....definately a time to avoid a cruise unless you have kids.  I couldn't agree more with the lack of good parenting skills and those who believe that their children deserve to hang with adults.  Yeah, no.  While I let my kids stay up a bit later on vacation, it never became a free for all...who wants to deal with crabby kids the next day?  Not me.  And myself and my friends have always been clear about drawing the line between adult activities and kids' activities, thank goodness.  Much more fun for everyone.

We, myself and pre-teen son and niece experienced this many years ago on the Glory(I think?).  It was terrible.  Pools were closed, restaurants and MDR closed, shows cancelled and people getting sick everywhere.  It seemed to come out of nowhere.  If I remember correctly, there were 20'+ rogue waves slamming us.  Nearly impossible to walk the ship.  We had an OV cabin and went there but the kids started getting green so I decided we were better off outside the cabin.  We sat in a hot tub and watched the few people stumbling from one place to another.  I sent the kids back to the cabin every so often to refill my wine lol and security came by and checked on us several times but didn't make us go to the cabin.  While the three of us got the occasional bout of seasick feeling, we avoided the throwing part....I can't remember how long it lasted, it was near the dinner hour when it started.  We eventually went to bed and when we woke it was over.

I love the look of the Premium Balcony but its the price of a suite.  Not going to happen.  Thanks for clearing that up 12cheermom, thought maybe I was looking at it wrong.

Isn't the whole balcony on the side of the ship?  The Premium Balcony staterooms would have both an aft view and side view with one portion of the balcony covered, no?

Well that settles it, I'll stay put.  Thank you both.

Wow, thats great news.  We are on Deck 6!  And yes, we'll be going to the comedy shows as well.  I've stayed in several aft balconies and soot has been an issue.  Hasn't stopped me from booking one (this particular time I went from an inside to the L-shape for $125 more when a big sale was advertised) but wasn't originally in the budget this time.  Would love to snag one of those corner balcony (are they called premium?) but they are pricey...about the same price as a suite.  Several of them are available on this particular cruise but again...out of budget for this "can't afford a hotel room in FLL so we'll sit on a cruise ship instead" trip.

Hi everyone !  Sailing Victory for a 3-day the last weekend in February.  I've booked this L-shaped room but can't find any information on it.  One thing I did notice when looking at deck plans is it sits above the Adriatic Lounge.  I'd love to hear reviews of these particular type staterooms and secondly, just how noisy will it be above the lounge?  The Extended Aft Balconys are priced less right now, not sure if that would have been a better choice.  There appear to be many left unsold as of today.  Thanks!

That's a nice list of movies.  We'll be spanning the last of February to beginning of March...so three questions:

1)  Does the list change during the cruise according to exact dates?  Feb movies for 2/28 and 2/29 and March movies on 3/1, etc.

2)  How do you determine which movies will play when?

3)  Are these same movies available in the staterooms?

THank you!

Two questions...1) can you do this if you book through someone other than Carnival and 2) can you get price drops after the final 60 day window?  TIA

Is it Maine lobster or warm water lobster?

"Be you, but more you"...I like that.  IMHO, those who don't want to even make an attempt at dialing it up a bit should leave the formal nights for those who do and let them enjoy their "prom" lol.  I never go because I don't want to pack the dressier clothes just for two hours of dining but respect that some really enjoy what once was a special occasion, not so much anymore.  Maybe its time to do away with formal nights and do something different...masquerade might be fun?