soniam

That's what I was thinking, but my guide book was a little vague about the galleries. If the OP is on the same cruise as me, then we have have an overnight in Istanbul. Anything that we miss with our tour, I plan to come back for early the next morning. Thank you

It may not be included. Since it's now a mosque and free to enter, I don't think there would be a way for tour group to "cut the line". Also, they may be restoring the mosaics. It's hard to tell. Searching doesn't find much. We are on a July Italy/Istanbul/Greece cruise too. The tour we picked says the same thing. I am thinking that if we can't get in with the tour, then we will get in line early on day 2 to go. It's supposedly pretty empty inside now though to have space for prayer.

That's good to know. I don't usually drink soda. I don't remember seeing DP in a Free Style machine before. As another poster pointed out, DP is not a Coke product but may be bottled by a coke plant.

Dr Pepper is abundantly available outside the south. Even at the theme parks in Florida, you are stuck with Coke or Pepsi, no DP. The ones that carry Coke products do not usually have Mr Pibb either. It's the price we pay to travel I guess. Luckily, I can get as much as I want, being in Texas.

San Juan is fun too. Go a day early.

Some jobs, even while on vacation, expect people to be connected. It's the price you pay, but hopefully, the company pays well to make it worthwhile. I told my husband to complain to Mr Starlink if they complain at work that he can't connect on our cruise🤣

We stayed in a royal suite on summit in 2018. Didn't like the hot tub. It was in poor shape, and the water didn't warm up well. This was before at least one, if not 2, refurbs, so hopefully they fixed it. It was a little windy and chilly too. This was Southern Caribbean in April. The balcony was nice and big though. The tub in the bathroom was nicer for us. Well, one of us. I would try it out though. Worst thing happens is you don't like it and you sit outside on the balcony in a robe enjoying an adult beverage.

Do you have an example? Thanks

I noticed for our Italy/Turkey/Greece this summer, that the Greek excursions were some of the cheaper ones. However, most of them were only about 4 hours. Athens was longer but still not outrageous.

This is only our 2nd Celebrity cruise, so I don't know if they normally do this. I can't remember if I got an email, or if I just happened to look. I imagine this is probably pretty normal. I haven't seen any others, but I may not have paid much attention.

Definitely book early and keep looking. If you find a better excursion or price later, just cancel and book the new one. I did this when they had their cyber sale the first week or two after Thanksgiving. We booked our cruise very early, 2 years out. It's this summer, so we booked it during a covidy time. There weren't many excursions. At first, they only had some for 1 port. I just kept going back and looking, and eventually more showed up. Same for dining. Chef's table at Le Voyage was the last dining to show up that we wanted. They had sales on that too for cyber sale.

It may depend upon the ports. For our Italy/Turkey/Greece, many were between $150-250/person, particularly the longer ones. Shorter ones that didn't include a meal were between $60 and $150. If you pre-purchase, you get a discount. They also had a sale the week or 2 after Thanksgiving. The sale applied to specialty dining too. It might be a little cheaper than Alaska, since those are very involved. The small group tours are also on the more expensive side.

No getting off the boat and no bars, makes for unhappy guests. Hopefully, all of the problems are resolved.

We have been to Antigua on Celebrity. It was a 7 night out of Puerto Rico. I think Celebrity does Tortola (BVI); I know DCL does. You probably won't hit Trinidad & Tobago on a cruise, only 1, Tobago. I don't know of anyone that goes anywhere in the Bahamas except Nassau and private islands, ie Coco Cay (RCL), Castaway Cay (DCL), and Bimini (Virgin). HAL seems to go to Turks/Caicos, Bimini & Half Moon Cay (Bahamas), St Vincent/Grenadines, Trinidad/Tobago, Tortola (BVI), Grenada, and Antigua. I would look into them. I think Monserrat and St Barths don't do cruise ships.

Or look at your credit card statement to ensure that payment went through the first time. Good luck!

I think real Bermuda shorts should be allowed, with the appropriate shirt, even at dinner. You have to wear the long dark socks too🤣

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like every cruise forum has complaints about noise or rocking. People complain to no end on the DCL forums. I am a sound sleeper and absolutely love the movement of the ship, even in somewhat rough seas. Maybe I would just never notice things like this. I haven't been on Beyond yet though.

DCL does open one MDR for lunch on embarkation day. I think concierge guests have access to a different MDR for lunch. We have never done it either.

That is notoriously one of the roughest seas on Earth. More rogue waves occur down there than any other place on Earth. It's still really beautiful. I would love to do a South American cruise around the bottom and by the Chilean fjords. My in-laws enjoyed theirs. We did a land vacation through Patagonia, including Punta Arenas, right before Covid. We didn't go through the actual strait though.

I just asked on a DCL message forum. DCL may be more inclined to pay the license fee though, because they don't have drink packages that are usable at the bars. So they may make enough money off the paid drinks to make up for any license fees.

No. 2022 and before. I didn't read any posts saying the law/licensing was new for 2023. There wouldn't have been very many cruises that have been there on any cruise line this year, just a handful. Since it's still early in 2023. Weird. I will have to see if anyone has seen this on DCL for this year.

I don't recall this being an issue on DCL. We have been to GC twice on DCL. We do go into port, but we probably got drinks to have while getting ready for dinner. However, DCL doesn't have drink packages that apply outside of the dining rooms. If it's a purchased license thing, then it might be worth it for DCL to open the bars with everyone having to pay.

I feel bad for anyone's itinerary that gets changed after they have paid in full. It's really a bummer. However, I have visited Monterrey. It's a beautiful, unique, and fragile place. I love cruising, but it's very damaging to the waters off the ports. If you have seen pictures of Venice's bay and canals during covid, you will see what I mean. Venice's other boats don't help, of course. I think Monterrey and the area is best visited by land. I love Venice, but I refuse to do a cruise that actually leaves out of there because of that. Not that you can do that anymore anyway. At some point, we have to protect what we have if we can. I must confess though, I really prefer sea days. Ports are fine, but a cruise with just sea days would be perfectly OK with me. Good luck to everyone. I hope your situations work out.

We are on Beyond July 17, 2023. I booked our first restaurants on 8/26/22. I had looked before that, not sure by how much, and they weren't available. I couldn't book Le Voyage until 11/20/22. The chef's table didn't show up until later, 1/27/23. I had been looking for it, but I am not sure how frequently.

Pompeii can be very hot and definitely has very little to no shade. I wouldn't say that it's physically difficult, but they probably should worn people about the heat.