randych

Can you please advise the cost of the rental for a few hours and the make of car? Did you have to fill up with any more petrol?

I think it was a Hyundai i10, and almost new -- around 4,000 km on the odometer. We paid 47 Euro total, and they ask that you bring it back with the same amount of petrol as when you picked it up. I ended up putting just a couple of liters in the car before returning it.

So no pizza anywhere after 9pm (other than room service), when Windjammer closes?

Not that I saw.

I just got off the Splendour this past weekend. Here's what I experienced:

The Dog House had several different kinds of hot dogs (and some good ones), but no pizza. The Park Cafe had sandwiches, salads, desserts, fruit and cookies... no pizza. I did see pizza pretty regularly in the Windjammer, but it was your basic buffet pizza. It was okay, but nothing special.

Everything at the Park Cafe was very good, and it was never crowded. We ended up eating most of our breakfasts and lunches there because it was such a nice, relaxing atmosphere.

We just returned from our cruise, and had a great experience with Tony's car rental. The location is a short walk from the top of the tram, and filling out the paperwork was quick and easy. The car was almost new and in great shape. It was definitely a small car, and it was a manual shift, but I'm pretty sure they had larger automatics available as well.

Driving around Santorini was reasonably easy. There are quite a few large tour buses to watch out for, but other than that, driving and parking was a breeze. I'm glad we did it.

We sent my daughter's application in on March 3, and received her passport on the 21st. So, less than three weeks for us. This was for a renewal, not a new passport, which might make a difference.

If you've already sent in the application, you can check the status here:

http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/english/passports/information/application-status.html

It took almost two weeks for anything to show up on this site, and by that time her passport was practically on its way back to us. But at least it was nice to know that they had received the application.

That was our first cruise as well, back in 1984. I still have our shipshape tshirts in a drawer somewhere. And a couple of the old souvenir glasses from the Viking Crown Lounge.

I bet I could scrounge up some photos somewhere.

I'm currently using my Chase Sapphire most of the time, but also use an SPG AMEX card and my United Miles card. If you're interested in airline miles then the best card might be whatever airline has the most options from your home airport.

Do a search for the Frugal Travel Guy. He compares most of the cards and has a lot of tips on how to get the most bang for your buck. Four of us are flying from Seattle to Venice for "free" on our upcoming cruise thanks to info I've gleaned from his site.

Major League Baseball ...if you are there in season.

Yeah... except it's the Mariners :)

Those sound like different and exciting ideas for teens. Don't mean to sound off put but 10 minutes in a market and I got 3 teens asking me "what are we doing next?" Thanks

It's really worth a visit, even if it's only 10 minutes. There are a lot of good food options in and around the market, so that always helped keep our kids interested. And if you head downstairs away from the fish, fruit and vegetables there are some quirky, offbeat shops that my kids loved. The gum wall is right there too which is sure to entertain them for a few more minutes.

There's also a Pike Place ghost tour. Might be a way to see the market, and keep your kids interested. I've never done the tour so I can't speak about it first hand, but it gets good reviews on Trip Advisor.

If they're into music or science fiction then a visit to the EMP/SciFi museum is a good idea. My kids loved that place when they were teens (and still love it).

If you're looking for something a bit more active, go to Aqua Verde cafe, rent kayaks and paddle through the Montlake cut or over to Gasworks park.

This is a really helpful thread. Thanks! Looks like the package makes sense for us.

I'd like to use an onboard credit to purchase this, and am assuming I won't be able to do that in advance. Is there any downside to waiting until we're on board to purchase? And will I be able to purchase this with an on board credit?