Midwest_Traveler

On 12/22/2022 at 10:33 AM, allie3490 said:

This doesn't sound like a vacation at all. Can't imagine lugging a pack n play along with "mountains of luggage" on vacation but to each their own I guess. Have fun!

I might exaggerate bit 🙂 Prior to the baby, we were a carry-on only family and now I actually have to check a bag! Oh, and we have the Guava Family pack-n-play, which is worn as a backpack and can be carried on a plane. Huge gamechanger!

Kiddo so far has been to Florida, road tripped across country twice to see family, camped in the Rockies for a weekend amid other multiple weekend trips in the mountains, and done a week-long journey through the Canadian Rockies. Infants do change the travel game, but it's been a lot of fun to get to take trips with him. I am just a touch neurotic and like to be overprepared, especially when I'm not able to easily get to the store to stock up on items.

17 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

If you look on the RC website, at the deck plans for the Wonder, you will be able to see if you have connecting cabins. (you didn't check when you booked?)

 

If you mean:  Can the balcony dividers be opened?  The answer is usually "yes".

 

If you need a bottle warmer, bring your own.

 

I'm hesitant about the cabins because Carnival guaranteed that our balcony dividers would open. They did not and were literally rusted shut, so now I feel like I can't trust deck plans for details like that. But we're hoping to have a better overall experience than that cruise anyway 🙂

Are bottle warmers allowed? I haven't been able to find a clear answer online.

12 hours ago, D4 said:

Give your large luggage to the porters.  You'll have to keep your carryon bags with you until the cabins are available, which is often around 1:00 - 2:00

 

Although there are no DIY washing machines, you can send laundry out for it to be washed and folded.

Can I request certain washes? We wash in only cold water. Or is it just take what you can get?

We aren't going to use the porters because my son needs to take a nap, so we will need our large luggage and pack n play immediately. We can't really wait until dinner time or later to have all of the baby supplies.

I've cruised many times before - mostly on Disney, but one cruise on Norwegian and Carnival each - but am new to Royal. We are going on the 8N cruise on Wonder leaving 1/7.

I did not realize that you needed to book a reservation for MDT (🤦‍♀️) and now, 18 days out, the only times left at 8 pm or later. We will make it work but I would have stuck with "traditional" dining if I had known it was not just eat whenever you want... However, that made me realize that I might not know other things about Royal that I should be aware of before boarding. I am the family "travel concierge" so I do get to make all of the non-major decisions. Everyone else just literally shows up to vacation without even printing the daily itinerary I have carefully prepared and emailed to everyone (the HORROR).

Here's where we are right now:

   -Two linked parties: my parents and our fam (me, husband and 1 y/o)

   -OV balconies that should hopefully possibly maybe connect

  -All shows that we're interested in are booked - everything but Voices. We'll see if my dad/husband/son are interested in any of them 🙂

  -Lunch reservations at Giovanni's and Hooked

  -Chef's Table for some of the adults

  -Drinks package for all the adults but me...I will be 20 weeks pregnant and drinking the ship's supply of ginger ale

  -Internet package booked for my dad who has work meetings that he can't cancel

  -I've checked us all in. Port arrival time at 12:30, so we are hoping to be able to go straight to our cabins with our mountains of luggage before doing anything else.

 - We're bringing our own pack n' play. It was easier with hotel stays before/after and I worry way too much about germs for someone whose kid licks her dogs on a regular basis.

  -No excursions booked. I wasn't sure how my son would do - he's never been to the beach - and the most fun options in my opinion prohibit pregnant people.

  -For the baby's sake, we are sticking to Mountain time throughout the cruise which is how an 8 pm ET dinner is possible for our group.

  -Rented a van to get to/from the port so we can stop by Wal-mart and buy a pile of diapers and sunscreen before boarding.

  - Yes, my OB knows I am cruising and has 0 concerns. Same for the kiddo's pediatrician.

There's no laundry on Wonder, right?

How easy is it to book a baby into the Adventure Ocean for under-3s? Kiddo has never been to daycare, but it would be magical to get to go to dinner with only adults.

Are the casitas on Wonder shaded?

Can I bring/borrow on board a bottle warmer? It would make life easier.

Do I request a fridge as soon as we get on board for bottles? Or do I call beforehand?

Is there anything else I should be thinking of/packing/preparing for as a newbie to Royal/mom of a baby/pregnant woman?

We're cruising in January with my son who will be 14 months old. I've been to most of the other ports that we're stopping at, but have never been to the Dominican Republic. He's so young that we can't go on any of the excursions and I also don't want to be locked into an 8-hour trip with a possibly grouchy baby. Is there anything near Taino Bay that anyone recommends? Is there a decent beach that's a quick walk/taxi ride so that if he gets unhappy, we could quickly get back to the ship? If not, I can stay on the ship while my husband and parents check it out. Thanks!

Hi all,

I'm cruising on the Fascination with my family in early January and we're starting to get really excited! I have a few random questions that I'm hoping someone could help with.

1. Are the doors magnetic? We were thinking about taking a over the door shoe organizer with magnetic hooks to try to keep things organized, but I feel like I had read somewhere that it didn't work on the Fascination. We're staying in a grand suite if that makes a difference.

2. Are there any mixology or tastings offered on the ship? Is there a way to sign up in advance or do you just have to make friends with the right bartender on board?

3. We're boarding in San Juan. Is it possible to board the ship, drop off our luggage, and then go finish exploring in San Juan that afternoon? I know that the rooms aren't available until 1:30-ish, but if we got on once our rooms are available, is that a possibility?

Thanks all! These boards are a huge help for over-planners like me :)

I posted all of the Epic Haven menus in Post #3 of my report: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2381470&highlight=epic

It's a dropbox file. Let me know if it doesn't work. Hope this helps!

It took 8 weeks for NCL to provide me with my refund. At that point in time, they sent me a check (not a credit back to my credit card) and sent it to the address of the wrong passenger in a connected reservation. Thankfully, we're friends and she let me know that I had a check for $500 but still, I thought that was pretty irresponsible on the part of NCL. They apparently never thought to confirm my address that was connected to my name.

Since the Concierge takes you down to Cirque show which tickets do you have to purchase? We want to make sure we are on the floor.

As QuiltingCruiser noted, you have to buy the more expensive tickets to sit right on the floor. If not, even with the Haven, you will end up at the edge of the room. I sat at the front corner of the table so I was roughly 2 feet from the "stage" and had an amazing view. I think you would also have a great view from the balcony without the danger of being asked to participate in the show :)

In case its helpful, here's a link to some Freestyle Dailies from early July on the Epic:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/g7mbp7vyv1cavky/AADyjhwpOBM1YrLfNkD6BftJa?dl=0

Hi Brooke,

I posted some photos of my family's cabin in July. From what I saw, all of the family suites resembled this: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=50558122&postcount=7

I didn't get to see all of them but I would assume the same decor is throughout. I was not a huge fan of the decor, but the cabin itself was great.

Great review! We leave on this cruise in April and I've been taking LOTS of notes from your thread :)

 

We'll be in Europe for a total of 12 days and I have to ask a question that has been stressing me out -- what did you do about laundry??? Did you pack enough clothes for the whole trip? I'm leaning against this, because we're taking the train from Paris to Barcelona and I don't want to be lugging around a bunch of heavy suitcases. But, if that's the only option then we'll deal with it.

Thank you! I only brought a carry-on and didn't do laundry, but I wore mostly light sundresses that don't wrinkle. I was able to pack 8 dresses, 4 tops and two pairs of shorts, in addition to yoga clothes for travel. I did have to rinse my bras out in the shower because we got a little sweaty on a few days. Also, due to the boot, I only had to bring right shoes and not pairs :) My advice is to pack about a week in advance and then continue to think about it and take things out of the suitcase until the day you leave. I still brought too many tops but did pretty well overall. I realize that it's a lot harder with kids so I can't provide any advice there.

First of all great review, my family is going in May so we are looking forward to the adventure. You mention that you only took 200 euros and had money left over at the end. I was wondering if all the gift shops you purchased items from took your credit card as well as restaurants, etc.? The euros were used for tips,taxis and misc small items? I'm trying to figure out how much we need to bring in euros ourselves.

Thanks again

Thank you! We paid by credit card for everything other than small purchases, some cabs and tips. We found that cabs in Barcelona generally took credit cards, but cabs in Italy did not. Also, each one of the adults took 200 euros each, so we had a total of 600 euros in cash to cover 5 people. This worked out really well for us.

The dragon is a must see for me as my youngest granddaughter loves dragons. I am so sorry your review is over it was like traveling with you.

Thanks Linda! I'm hoping to post one last section tonight or tomorrow on overall thoughts and our favorite parts.

Monday was our travel day and I was sad that the week had went so quickly after looking forward to it for so long. We had asked the front desk to call us a cab to arrive at 8:45 am. The taxi ride to the airport took roughly 20 minutes cost about €40 for 5 people and our luggage. Check-in was easy and we stopped by the duty free store to spend our remaining euros on candy not sold in the US.

Our flight from Barcelona to Dublin was non-eventful. We had a 3.5 hour layover in Dublin this time, which was just enough time to get more fish and chips before we went through US customs. One of the best parts about flying Aer Lingus was that we were able to clear US customs before landing in O’Hare. This was amazing because customs took under 30 minutes in Dublin and I know that it can take over 2 hours in Chicago. But be sure to eat before going through customs - there was one sad looking place to grab a sandwich on the “US side”.

Lunch in Dublin. There was not sufficient ketchup for these Americans...

The flight to Chicago was slightly delayed but in just seven short hours, we were back in the States. Everyone else headed back to Indiana and I went to bed to go back to work the next day bright and early. Vacation was over :(

Staircase in Park Guell (The 6 photo limit is rough!)

Park Guell's famous dragon

Once we had finished wandering around the Park, we hopped in another van cab and went back to our hotel. H10 Cubik was more expensive (about $300 for a triple room) but it was so nice. I think it opened up in 2015 and felt very new.

Our triple room

The main lobby resembled an eccentric collectors’ library. Our triple room was huge and pristine. The best feature, though, was that it had a rooftop pool. The pool wasn’t very deep (maybe just past my knees) but the rooftop had a beautiful view of Barcelona. You also received a free drink at the roof bar upon checkin and, for registering in their loyalty program, got another free drink. We all spent several hours up there before going to dinner.

View from the rooftop (again, you can see the Epic in the background)

While on the roof, I made reservations for us at a restaurant rated highly online, Arcano. This was the second best meal of the trip (second only to Veni e Vecchi in Florence). This restaurant was very close to the Cathedral but isn’t located in the Gothic Quarter - I think it’s in El Born. Arcano resembles a cave and had delicious fresh seafood dishes. C and D opted for chicken and beef and enjoyed those as well. For me, the best part was that Arcano makes its own cava and it was only €3.50 per glass! We all thoroughly enjoyed our meal. This dinner for 5 cost about €120 and, again, we were all stuffed after sharing appetizers, entrees and splitting two desserts. One of the desserts was named “Magnificent Chocolate Texture” and was some kind of chocolate mousse with brownie mixed in. It was delicious and the name was so odd that we had to try it.

Arcano

Following dinner, we took the Metro to Montjuic. We had hoped to see the magic fountain show at 11:30, but apparently that night the last show had been at 11 and we had just missed it. Montjuic was really pretty at night, though, and it was a quick Metro ride back to our hotel. I loved how many people were still out at midnight on a Sunday night. I’m a night owl and Spain is my kind of place.

Montjuic at night

Originally, we had hoped to fly back to the States on Sunday. However, the only Aer Lingus flight to Chicago left at 10:20 am each day and we were worried that we might not have enough to get off the ship and to the airport. As it turns out, we would have been fine, but I was excited to have another day in Barcelona. I really loved this city and would love to spend more time there.

On the night before disembarkation, we received a flyer in our room with luggage tags and a note that we need to disembark no later than 9:15 am. Thanks to CC, I knew that we could order a room service breakfast one last time. We woke up around 8 am, had breakfast, finished packing and said good bye to the Haven and the Epic.

At around 9 am, we went to the concierge desk and he escorted us to the shortest checkout line so we could swipe our room keys one last time. We opted to take our bags with us so we didn’t have to pick them up from the baggage claim area. After leaving the ship, we went right to the taxi line. It looked incredibly long, but we only waited 18 minutes (yes, I timed it) before we were at the front of the line. We weren’t able to get a van taxi, but split into two cars. This is when we discovered that most Barcelona cabs accept credit cards, which was great news because we were all running low on euros.

Reconstruction of Roman gates in the Gothic Quarter

From the port, we went to our hotel, the H10 Cubik, to drop off our bags. We checked in but the rooms weren’t quite ready. This hotel was located very close to the Gothic Quarter and the Placa Catalunya. We left instead to go off on a tour of the Gothic Quarter courtesy of my Rick Steves book. I absolutely loved the Gothic Quarter. It’s the “original” Barcelona and was filled with tiny, winding streets with adorable cafes and shops. The Cathedral is also located there. We didn’t end up going inside because we weren’t appropriately dressed, but the outside was beautiful.

Barcelona Cathedral

This tour took us a little over an hour and it was lunchtime once we finished exploring the Gothic Quarter. I had planned to go to a tapas restaurant that the guidebook recommended near the Picasso museum, but, when we got there, there was a handwritten sign that they were going to be closed on Sundays in July starting that day. Guess we won’t be eating there... We went back towards the Gothic Quarter and ended up eating in a deli/bakery that had some tasty sandwiches. If you’re a vegetarian, be sure to make that clear when ordering in Spain. They have a tendency to slip pork into a lot of foods that you might not expect - I’ve had that problem in the past but was fine at the bakery.

A street in what used to be the Jewish ghetto of Barcelona

Beautiful bridge connecting two Catalan government buildings

Before we left on the trip, I had booked us tickets to go to Park Guell at 2:30 pm. I had wanted to go there in the morning before it got too hot, but I wasn’t sure when we would be able to get there from the ship after dropping off our bags and settled for an afternoon tour. We walked back back past our hotel to the Placa Catalunya, thinking we might do a little shopping, but all of the stores were closed. This seemed strange because they had been open the Sunday before, but there wasn’t much we could do about that. We caught a van taxi from the Placa and went to Park Guell, which took about 15 minutes. We had a little extra time before our tickets were valid so we looked in a few of the souvenir shops and picked up some more water. It was a hot and sunny day.

Benches in Park Guell

Park Guell was beautiful. It had been designed by Gaudi as a residential neighborhood, but that never came to fruition. Instead, it’s a whimsical park that was until recently a part of a public park. Now it costs €7 to get in. I recommend buying tickets in advance online because when we went, there were tickets available day of, but they were for 5:30 pm at around 2 pm.

View of Barcelona from Park Guell. The ship you can just barely see is the Epic.

We wandered around for a while, taking a ton of pictures and enjoying the view of Barcelona from above. I was a big fan of the dragon on the main staircase. We also really liked the gift shop here and picked up a few souvenirs.

You should try Hopper. It's an app for your phone and it will track flights for you. As soon as the flights drop to what they estimate to being the lowest or close to lowest price, they will send you a notification. To get the price, you do need to be able to book immediately. It doesn't include Southwest unfortunately.

In my experience, prices are generally lowest on Tuesdays-Wednesday between 4-6 weeks from the flight. However, that can always change due to demand - airlines are smart about that these days! I've booked a flight the week of for the lowest price after watching it for 10 weeks so you never really know.

The bill for all of that food was right at €180, including the cover charge. Everyone loved this meal and were glad we had taken the time for a sit down lunch that day.

I want to make a correction to my Florence post. I went back through my expenses spreadsheet today and realized that lunch cost 100 euros NOT 180 euros. That seemed like a good deal for delicious food in Florence.

The guide dropped us off at the starting point around 12:30. It took us a few minutes to catch a van taxi, but we were eventually able to find one. It was about a 15 minute ride to the port where we got back on the ship. We had debated going into Marseilles but decided to treat this as a mini-sea day.

One last photo from our boat trip in Marseilles. That's the entrance to the cave at the second swimming stop. Not sure who the guys are...

Back on the ship, we split up. C and D worked out and had lunch at O’Sheehan’s. The rest of us wanted to have lunch up on Posh, but it was entirely too hot to sit up there. There wasn’t a breeze and the mister water effect was not nearly strong enough to make it bearable. We instead decided to eat near the Haven pool and ordered lunch from the bar area outside the Haven restaurant. The waiter told us that he couldn’t deliver it to the pool area that was about 5 feet from where we were currently standing, but we could call our butler to have him pick the food up once ready and deliver it to us. We decided that seemed excessive and just sat at a table to wait the 45 minutes it took to make 3 sandwiches and an order of onion rings. At this point in the trip, the waiting for food was a bit of a joke. We thought about going to the buffet but I think we were trying to get the Internet to work while we were waiting. I do highly recommend the onion rings - they were fantastic.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting out in the Haven courtyard. The kids sat in a hot tub at one point before they went to go nap. The three of us stayed by the pool until the ship pulled away from Marseilles around 4pm and then transferred up to Posh once there was a breeze. I much preferred Posh to the courtyard. There seemed to be a chair hog problem in the courtyard area, plus the pool was filled with kids doing cannonballs that afternoon. I got jumped on twice when I got in to try to cool off. The pool rarely had anyone in it, but it seemed like a lot of people had made the same decision to stay on the ship in Marseilles. For reference, I think that the pool was open until 10 pm. We were too tired to ever go swim or even sit in a hot tub at night.

Haven Courtyard in the evening

Another view of the Haven Courtyard in the evening

Because we didn’t have any reservations for dinner that night, we decided to eat together in the Haven restaurant. The three adults stayed up on Posh until we noticed that they were stacking up the chairs around us because it was past 6 pm. We all got ready for dinner and (sadly) began packing up. I also got our bill from the concierge and took care of the additional tips with our onboard credit.

Once everyone was cleaned up, we went to dinner at 8:15 pm. The waiters took our orders and then we waited...and waited...and waited. We finished dinner at 10:30 pm and were one of the last two tables there. Other groups who had entered in much later than us somehow got their food before us, including a group of 12. Again, the food was very good but unless you have to actually catch the fish, a 2 hour 15 minute meal is unacceptable.

Part of O'Sheehan's (I had some extra photos of the ship that I'm adding in here)

Part of the very large casino on the ship. I didn't think it was too smoky on any part of the ship but it was noticeable in the casino. We're not big gamblers so we didn't spend much time there.

After dinner, we wandered through the stores for a bit to make sure that we hadn’t missed out on anything and then finished packing to disembark in Barcelona the next day. Ok, let’s be honest, C and D watched a movie while the rest of us packed around them. :p

For Marseilles, I was really interested in going on a wine tour of the region. No one else (particularly C and D) are big wine drinkers so that idea didn’t get too far. I also would like to see Avignon, but I was worried we might have seen too much “history” at that point and we still had one day left in Barcelona. I was intrigued by the Calanques national park. Apparently you can take a public bus to a nearby town and then hike for a while on beautiful cliffs to a beach. As I continued to read, though, I read that the park is often closed in July and August due to forest fires, which would be a problem for us.

So I went back to my favorite travel tool, TripAdviser, and discovered that you could see the Calanques via a ferry. That didn’t really interest my group too much. Then I finally discovered companies that would take you out in small groups on a boat into the Calanques where you could snorkel and swim. We were sold! We booked a trip with Bleu Evasion for €59 per person for a 3 hour tour beginning at 9:30 am. The group was capped at 12 people.

We woke up around 7:30 am. I convinced everyone to eat breakfast in the Haven dining room again. I’m a big fan of breakfast but no one other than C is too enthused about it, but everyone went along with it. Breakfast was slightly faster today. We also were able to take advantage of the priority disembarkation because we weren’t trying to be the first people off the ship, which was nice. They had an express elevator reserved and we were off the ship by 9 am.

Before getting to Marseilles, I was a little worried about the port shuttle/taxi situation. When we docked that morning, though, I could see the taxi stand from our balcony. It couldn’t have been easier. We turned left, went past a few stores and got right into a van taxi. The taxi driver seemed to have a complete disregard for the speed limit, but, as he told me, he was “friends with all of the cops”. That made me feel SO much better. It cost about €13 and he dropped us off by a museum/old fort. The Bleu Evasion people don’t seem to have a dock - they picked us up by some stairs that led into the water.

Leaving the "dock" in Marseilles. My camera was accidentally in an odd setting but I kind of like the effect.

The boat ride to the Calanques was beautiful! We went past the island where The Count of Monte Cristo is set and had a lovely view of Marseilles as we crossed the harbor area. I would not recommend this tour if you get seasick. The boat ride was pretty rough the entire time - to the point where my neck hurt the next day from the impact of the waves. However, there was a French lady who sat near the back of the boat who appeared to be 7-8 months pregnant and she was fine so I guess it depends on your tolerance level.

Island where the Count of Monte Cristo is set

In the Calanques, our first stop was at the Blue Lagoon. The water here was a gorgeous turquoise color. We all jumped in and swam up to a little beach. Jumping into the water was a real shock - the water was FREEZING! It was so clear and pretty though, that I didn’t mind too much. We saw all kinds of fish and several large starfish. The water was so clear we didn’t even need snorkel gear, although the boat did have some.

Blue Lagoon

View from our boat, looking out of the Blue Lagoon

After the Blue Lagoon, we got back into the boat and the guide drove us into some of the cliffs that the area is famous for. I had pictured them looking like the fjords in Norway or the Napali coast in Kauai - it was nothing like either of those. These are barren, desert-like cliffs with some scrubby trees. The cliffs were spectacular and there were adorable fishing villages located inside the inlets.

The Calanques

We drove close to one village and this lovely elderly French woman who was swimming shouted a few expletives at us and yelled at the boat about how tourists aren’t welcome in her village. The guide was polite and moved on. He told us that he has family in that village and explained that sort of thing happens all the time. Glad to know that village is not a place I would be welcome to stay in the future...

Fishing village

Following that excitement, we cruised over to the second snorkeling point. This area was off the cliffs and had a cave that we could swim inside. The water here was extremely deep and a dark blue color but still crystal clear. We all jumped in and swam into the cave. The cave was incredibly cold but huge and really neat to swim around in. I had a GoPro so I stayed in the cave to take some pictures. I was probably in there less than 5 minutes but by the time my mom swam in, you could see my breath! That's how cold the water was. After our freezing swim, we all got back in the boat and the guide offered water, soft drinks or rose. We then started to head back towards Marseilles after checking out one other cliff.

Our boat excursion was my mom’s favorite day of the trip. My family loves to go boating and this was beautiful. I loved it as well. Our guide did speak English, but the website is mostly in French so google translate was my friend in booking. I would not recommend this tour if you get seasick or aren’t a confident swimmer. I think the guide might have had some foam noodles but this water was cold and deep so if you’re not comfortable with that, this would not be a fun day.

Bleu Evasion: A+

When they got back, C and D went straight to go get on a tender so they could (what else?) work out before dinner. The moms collected me and our stuff, and we paid the tab for the day before getting on the tender. Once again, we didn’t have to wait in any sort of line but were escorted onto a waiting tender. That was really, really nice especially as I was hobbling along.

Priority Tender: A+

We got back on the ship a little before 5 and had reservations at Teppanyaki that night. C decided that he wanted to rock climb while D worked out, so the two moms went to go watch him rock climb. Be sure to bring socks if you want to rock climb. There is NO signage about this, but the folks running the rock wall said it was required once he got to the front of the line and J had to run back to grab him socks. Apparently they don’t clean the shoes at all (ew) and you have to wear socks even though you typically don’t wear socks with rock climbing shoes.

I stayed back in the room while everyone else participated in physical activities. Walking is overrated. We had ordered some room service to share because we had essentially all skipped lunch. It arrived while everyone else was gone so I took the opportunity to be the most spoiled girl in the world. I sat out on the balcony, overlooking the French Riviera, eating lobster and reading my Kindle. Seriously, could life get any better than that?

Lobster, a book and a view of Cannes. I want to be back there!

Once everyone was done with their chosen activity, we all got cleaned up and went to dinner at Teppanyaki. We had a reservation at 7:30 pm. I had been a little worried that they wouldn’t be able to accommodate my dietary restrictions because I have to be very careful about cross-contamination. It turned out that they were great - they cooked my food first before putting any meat or eggs on the grill. My rice was a wee bit heavy on the garlic, but the food was good. Our chef was great! He put on a really fun show, similar to what we had seen before at Benihana’s. D’s birthday was the day that we got back to the States, but we told them that we were celebrating that night. Several chefs came over and sang to D and gave her a huge square of cake. The birthday cake was delicious and was big enough to share between 5 people.

Teppanyaki: A+

We walked by the Ice Bar as we were leaving Teppanyaki and discussed if we wanted to go in. C, J and I all decided that we wanted to see what it was like, so we went back up to the room and changed into warmer clothing. My mom and D stayed in the room and looked through pictures. We went back downstairs, paid our $20 per person and were given coats that looked kind of like heavier ponchos and gloves. The girl then led us into what looked like a freezer. It was SO cold. I think it was around 11 degrees inside and there were all kinds of ice sculptures, including ice benches (but those made you even colder!). We got our two vodka-based drinks that were included in the price and took a few pictures. The drinks were served in an ice glass inside a plastic cup, which was kind of funny. We probably stayed in the Ice Bar for 15 minutes. It was the only time the entire trip I was glad to have a boot! The Ice Bar was fun but reminded me of Chicago in January at the same time :)

Inside the Ice Bar

Our drinks in an ice cup in a plastic cup

We all started Whiskey Tango Foxtrot but weren’t able to finish the movie. Everyone was tired yet again and headed to bed.

For our day in Cannes, we debated taking the train into Monaco. My mom had really wanted to go and see how the rich and famous live. We ultimately decided that we would be too tired after three extremely busy days in Italy and planned a beach day.

This was a GREAT decision. By this point in the trip, we were all wiped out and I was having a hard time keeping up with everyone else in my boot. I had looked online at various beaches but some of them charge nearly 50 euros a day. Cruise Critic came to the rescue again and one of the members of my roll call said she had read good things about O’Key beach and it was around €20 per chair there.

The Epic docked (parked? it’s a tender port) a little before 8 am as we were getting up. We weren’t in a big rush but had a room service breakfast again to keep things moving. (Teenagers are not exactly quick in getting out of bed.) The views from our balcony that morning were beautiful! The mountains and beaches were stunning. Because we were in the Haven, we didn’t need to select a tender time in advance. Once we were all ready, we simply walked to the concierge desk and they escorted us onto the boat. It was around 9 am at that point.

View from our balcony of the Cannes beaches

The tenders are the ship’s lifeboats and they made sure to fill the boat completely. It was a little toasty on the ride over and they seemed to be driving as slowly as possible. I think I might have been able to swim to the port faster. But we did eventually make to France (yay!) and we got off and passed the numerous picture people. I don’t really understand the appeal of the characters on the port but maybe that’s just me.

View from our balcony, with a tender boat

Anyways, getting to O’Key Beach was super easy. We exited the port area and turned left and O’Key was the first beach we came to. If you turn right out of the port, you head to the fancier hotels and more expensive beaches. There is a public beach next to O’Key that’s free but doesn’t provide any chairs. We opted to splurge on the chairs because we would be there all day.

O’Key is a beachfront restaurant that has padded beach loungers on the beach and on a platform that extends out into the water. The loungers were €18 euro for the first row, €15 euro for the other rows on the beach and maybe €21 euros for the platform. We got three chairs in the front row and the kids got two behind us. You give the (very attractive) beach boys your name and then pay your tab at the end of the day. As a warning, the chairs were reasonably priced but one large bottle of water was €7(!!).

We were some of the first people to arrive but the beach began to fill up around 10 am. It was a little hazy in the morning but cleared up to be a beautiful (hot) day. Before it got too crowded, we were able to get pictures in the water with the boat in the background. There was no one in the pictures but us and it looked like it was a backdrop!

View of the Epic from our lounge chairs

It was a hot day so we spent a lot of time getting in and out of the water. The water was chilly but it felt good after being in the sun. There were diving platforms moored out in the sea that were fun to swim to. These were a long ways out (further than it looked) and in very deep water so I don’t necessarily recommend it for weak swimmers. C, D and I swam out twice and had a good time doing dives and flips off the platform.

O'Key Beach, taken from the end of the platform with chairs, looking down onto the beach

O’Key Beach: A-

After a while, C and D started to get bored and wanted to find crepes or a French bakery. They wandered around for a while and eventually found a bakery towards the center of town. Cannes felt extremely clean and safe so the moms felt fine letting the teens go off on their own for a while.

Public beach, with the Epic in the background

At some point in the afternoon, everyone else decided to go for a ride on the Petite Train. It’s a little tram thing that costs €10 each and goes on a one-hour tour of the city. I opted to stay behind in the sun with all of our bags. I love sitting in the sun, reading and swimming, plus I wanted to walk as little as possible that day. I had taken my boot off when we got to the beach and didn’t want to put it back on without showering off the sand and salt so I couldn’t walk very far. The others said the train ride was fine but that I didn't miss too much. Apparently, the best part was stopping on top of a hill with a view of Cannes and they took plenty of photos.

View from the top of the hill where the train stopped

I am really enjoying your report. I have twice had to cope with a walking cast boot so I well understand your difficulties. I think you have really got around.

 

How early did you leave the ship to get to Rome. :eek: we usually get to the train station around 8:45 and my family complain. It still gives us time to do quite a lot. I realised in April that you can do more when the weather is cooler.

 

I know that you wanted to visit the Colosseum first but I actually think it makes sense to reverse the route you took and get off at St Peters and visit St Peters first then make your way to wherever else you want to got and wind back to the main Termini station. This means that you are more likely to get a seat on the train.

Thanks for the kinds words! We really did enjoy the cruise. I had been in a walking boot for 2 months at this point so I was pretty good at getting around. I was also bound and determined to enjoy this trip, stress fracture or not, so I think that helped. There were several times when I was walking faster than the rest of the group which made us all laugh.

For Rome, as QuiltingCruiser noted, we were the first off the ship at 6:05am. My family and our friends had never been to Italy and my mom might not go back. We tried to fit as much as possible into one day, which would not have been my plan if I was planning this for someone who had been there multiple times. Also, the tour times for the Colosseum dictated our plans for the day. I wanted to start near St. Peter's as you suggested, but the Colosseum tours were at 9:30 am or 3:30 pm which did not work for us as we had to be on a train around 5. Thankfully, the express trains have reserved seating so we were able to sit down.

We were in a 2-bedroom suite and only felt motion on the last night (Marseilles-Barcelona). I think the other days the ship is moving pretty slowly and we didn't notice it at all. I had brought seabands to be safe but didn't need them.