LipstickLeslie

On 6/29/2021 at 3:22 PM, Bellaggio Cruisers said:

The best brunch ever is ….Sunday at sea …. on Regent. Not only caviar but so much more. And, it’s all delicious. After that, you can not eat the rest of the day ( until dinner)!

 I keep hearing people mention Sunday Brunch, my first Regent cruise is in June in Alaska but on Sunday we're in port from 7am-4pm and I have 2 excursions booked... I don't want to miss the brunch. Do you remember timing of brunch? 

On 3/12/2024 at 2:04 PM, mrstanley said:

I would like to see Sette Mari at La Veranda become a dinner specialty restaurant requiring a reservation.

The restaurant always has a long line waiting to get in. 
More people may decide to eat there if they could make a reservation.

Have you eaten there, is the food good? What did you like? Is it a buffet or table service?

Any chance any of you are in Marseille on Tue July 9th? We will be hiring 2 vans to see Arles and les Baux for a tour and have room for 7 more people. Our group is 9 people and each van only holds 8 people, so it would be nice to have another group join us to help keep the price lower. Just message me if you have any interest.

On 4/11/2019 at 7:22 PM, mkaalong said:

 

 

Another tip for Barcelona...we are using Runnerbean tours for 2 walking tours.  Found the suggestion on a Facebook group.  They have great reviews...we are doing the Gothic Walking tour & a night time one...fun!!

 

 Thanks for the walking tour ideas in Barcelona, the night tour sounds really fun! What else are you doing there? Since this our first trip to Europe, trying to figure out a rough schedule for the first few days has been tough for me. I arrive at 8am and have to wait until 1pm to check into our AirB&B, not sure what to do with that time. I hope the next day everyone will be ready for a full day tour. Then the following I'm thinking of a chocolate tour I found on airB&B (my kids really want to do a food tour but most are expensive and include alcohol:  https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/169232?location=Barcelona%2C%20Spain&checkin=2019-07-03&checkout=2019-07-07&adults=9&source=p2¤tTab=all_tab&searchId=16db6edf-dab6-407b-859a-be641614dcac&federatedSearchId=908a04d4-010e-4c4e-811b-38f86087b6f3§ionId=cc24540b-102a-4836-8b8e-9f82734f210f )

I'm also thinking some beach time since my youngest LOVES playing in the sand still (age 13).

This is a great thread! Thanks everyone.

18 minutes ago, ShillyShally said:

They'll be different shows but yours won't likely open until later, I expect the inaccurate response you got may have been because you're on Oasis and there probably is a lot of confusion on that given the recent sailings they had to cancel due to the shipyard incident and not knowing full status of the Aqua Theater 🙂

What?  I haven’t been paying attention I didn’t realize that the oasis had an incident. Is there anywhere I can read about it? Thanks for all your tips!

Thanks everyone! She said as of March 21st they changed it, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that she is wrong!!! We are 88 days out from our cruise. I can't seem to even find what shows are on Oasis. Mind you I've been so busy trying to get everything else in place since it's my first trip to Europe and I'm coordinating for 9 people before and after cruise stuff. Does anyone know are the shows similar to Allure? We did Allure 2x in 2017 (won a free cruise on our first cruise) and I'm really hoping they have something different.

We went on a few RCI cruises in the past couple years on Allure and always prebooked our shows so I could plan excursions and dinner times around show times. We're cruising again on Oasis in July and I've been waiting for them to release the shows and they haven't so I just called and found out that in March RCI no longer lets you prebook your shows. I'm so frustrated about that. We're a large group in 4 rooms and that's the last thing I want to do when I get on the ship is stand in some long line to set up our reservations... Any one else frustrated with this or is it just me.

Great thread. This stop has been the hardest for me to figure out. We're a family of three teens - 13, 15 and 17 on Oasis in July (I wish some of you were on my cruise). We've decided to book our own private tour/van to go to Arles and Les Baux. We are either going with https://www.provence-travel.com/ or www.facebook.com/simonsaysprovencetours/ both look pretty good - about 550 Euro for a van/guide for the day. 

We're doing Cinque terre on our own, with the train/bus/walking pass. In Rome we booked our private with "Can't Be Missed Tours" so we could do both inside the coliseum and Vatican and in Naples we're doing the Pompeii, Sorrento and Ammalfi coast with www.italytours.eu. In Palme we hired a catamaran for 4 hours (we're also with our parents, so we a group of 9 people total, makes it easier to split up costs for private tours). We'll spend 3 days in Barcelona before the cruise, then afterwards we take the train to Paris for 3 days. It's our first trip to Europe too and I feel like I'm spending HOURS and HOURS researching and booking things.

Thanks everyone for sharing, it's nice to read what others are doing with kids!

Thank you for this very helpful information! I'm looking into all the suggested options (listed below to help others) but I'm running into one problem - they are all for up to 8 people and we're a group of 9! Ugh.

So far I think the De Baux castle sounds like a great option with kids. I'm curious if anyone has gone to Arles and seen the Vincent Van Gogh and if they enjoyed that. I'm still trying to figure out what to do during our time at point. Our family wants to see sites as much as possible.

https://onedayinprovence.com

https://www.provence-travel.com/

http://provence-connection-tours.com/cruise_passengers/arriving_in_marseille.html

Thanks Iamchops and GeezerCouple for both of your great ideas. Chartering a boat sounds really fun, we did that in the Caribbean with another family and it was fabulous. We're trying to keep costs down at this port since we're spending more at some other ports. Our group size is 9 plus we have another family of 4 that might join us. But the boat idea is very tempting... 

I like the idea of going to Monterosso first so that we work our way back toward the ship, but I'm trying to figure out a bit of beach time for my kids too and I know the best beach is in Monterosso, but I was thinking of visiting several cities, walking a trail or two depending on what is open and then some beach time toward the end so we can gage our time appropriately but the beaches at the cities closer to the ship are tiny and rocky. Any thoughts on this?

On ‎9‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 11:40 AM, cruisemom42 said:

 

I wouldn't attempt it. You're going in two different directions and it's roughly an hour transit time from La Spezia to Pisa, then another 20-30 minutes to get to the Field of Miracles where the Tower is. That's 3 hours plus whatever time you actually spend in Pisa.

 

Getting to the Cinque Terre by train from La Spezia is much faster, but part of the fun of it is going between the five villages (by hiking, train or boat) and that also takes time and shouldn't be a rushed experience.

 

Also remember that even if your ship is docked for 12 hours, you realistically only have 11 hours at most since you probably should plan to be back on the ship an hour before departure if doing it yourself, to allow a little room for error/snafu/train running late.

 

I'm a DIY traveler, and there's no way I'd do both by train in a single day. However, I'd certainly do one or the other....

Thank you for your information, I'm tying to be a DIY traveler, our party is a bit challenging - 11 people - 2 couples in their late 60's in great health and 3 kids ages 13-17... We are thinking we'll skip spending the 2 hours one way to visit Florence because that's a lot of travel since the next day we'll be at Rome and will make that trip. I'm thinking that Cinque Terre is our best option. I've been looking into the train but thought it would be fun to combine boats too and some hiking, mix it up a bit. Probably some beach time too. 

Here's one without the Vatican too: https://www.romeprivateexcursions.com/shore-excursions/ 

My daughter, grandson, and I will be on the Dec. 10th sailing, so looking forward to your thoughts. Have a great cruise!

So will my husband and I! Will you be at the CC mingle?

We had reserved a cruise on Symphony in Europe for June 2018 but I just canceled because of date conflicts with our family (multiple family groups) and we decided to wait until summer of 2019. Does anyone know when they will come out with their summer European dates?

Also, has anyone sailed Mediterranean or Greek cruises. What are things you loved and found challenging? I've never traveled out of North America, so I find figuring out travel for all the family a bit overwhelming but yet I'm super excited too.

Good advice from the above cruises. My experience... 18 years ago my fiancé booked our honeymoon with a travel agent. We both had never cruised before. We did a 2 week cruise with Holland America, it was the last cruise that ship ever take before it retired. It was old and I was so under impressed with the ship, however the food and cruise was great and all the islands we went to were great, so we had a great honeymoon but felt cheated on the ship part. Then we cruised again about 4 years later on RCI for a short 4 night cruise on an older ship, honestly I can't even remember what ship, under impressed again, just an ok cruise. This past spring break we took our 3 kids ages 11-15 on Allure of the Seas with RCI - that was the wow had been waiting for all those years. Stunning ship, lots to do, great food (we didn't even eat at one pay for place, trying to keep our costs down), great entertainment. It spoiled my kids, I looked at booking another cruise next year on an older ship but I think everyone would be disappointed. I think the others are right, what is your priority - one long day at one port or having a great ship for the entire week. What ages are your kids?

I agree with other posters. Make as many reservations as possible now, especially for what is important to you. The shows were important to me. I particularly selected the Allure over the Oasis so I could see Chicago instead of Hairspray. The water show is great, too. It's basically a cirque du soleil show with diving.

We cruised Allure in March - made all reservations to shows in advanced and ate 6 of the 7 nights in the MDR. Our 3 kids loved the dinning choices (ages 10-15) in the MDR and felt like they got to try lots of things. We decided to save money by not dinning at any of the specialty restaurants. Our friends went to some of the specialty places for lunch and figured that out on the cruise, then they joined us in the MDR each night. Only one night did we eat in windjammer.

FYI - Allure has Mama Mia not Chicago unless it changes for 2018.

How did you manage to buy for your husband but not yourself? It's now every adult in a room who has to buy - did you phone up?

I just did it online through the cruise planner and it let me. But I actually called and canceled it now. We felt like it was worth it if he could get me a few drinks but since that's considered stealing, we just canceled it. We'll end up spending less for the two of us without the package since we're not big drinkers.

Hi all - first time RCL cruiser here, and a question about booking excursions. To fully reserve a spot, will I need to pay for that now, upfront ? Or does having the excursion in my shopping cart, reserve a spot ?

 

I'm asking as the majority of my previous cruises have been with Princess, and you don't need to pay upfront for an excursion reservation.

 

Thanks !!

I’m pretty sure with RCI you have to pay for it up front.

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Thank you so much for this great review! I’m so glad I found it. I traveled on The Beast in March with my DH and three kids plus another family (my kids first cruise, my third). It was amazing. I agree with you that Central Park became my favorite place to hangout and I would have never thought so before getting on the ship. We never ate at any of the pay for placed because my thought was we paid for perfectly wonderful food already with the included places. My kids loved dinner every night at the dinning hall. We had two interior rooms to keep the price down. Nothing wrong with that!

While on the cruise, my husband won a free cruise playing in a poker tournament, we leave on Dec 10th, same ship, same ports. I was a little disappointed at first that it was the same ship, since we already saw all the shows, but this ship is so amazing, I’m exciting to hang out on her again. The best part of the free cruise, we get a balcony overlooking Cental park on floor 10! I’ve never had a balcony before and I’m super excited plus we get one free meal at a pay place, so after reading your review, I’m thinking Central 150 is the place to go.

It’s been very inspirational to read your perspective traveling solo. I will miss my kids and friends but I’m excited to get to do my own thing while my husband plays at the big poker tournament (included in the prize). I was hoping to meet some fun cool people at the dinner table, but have now lowered my expectations after reading your blog... Have a great Thanksgiving!

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If caught they can revoke the package without a refund and retroactively charge for all drinks received using the package. Stealing is generally heavily frowned upon by cruise critic especially since a lot of people, myself included, believe it is because of people stealing drinks without buying the package that Royal is starting to force all adults in a room to buy the package.

 

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Thanks for the info! I purchased the package last cruise and didn’t use it enough, but. Easy enough to just purchase what I do drink.

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So just a few minutes ago I purchased the drink package for my husband and not me. I don’t drink that much but we wanted to be able to get bottled water and chia too. I’ll have my hubby get me my chia in the morning. Has anyone ever had luck with spouse getting a few drinks for their wife? I’m sure they aren’t supposed to do that, but if you tip a waiter or bartender, do they look the other way? I’d love to know if others have tired it

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We’ll be there on Dec 13, I️ booked a local tour for a walking food tour, so excited

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Just remember there are still lots of power issues... my guess is they are still off line

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By the way, my plan worked perfectly - we just got off when we wanted and hired a driver for the day (sorry, can't remember who, but he owned his own company) and we had a great 2 hour tour of the island.

So we just got back from a cruise in Allure and while on the ship I joined my friend and we bought a bunch of Bingo cards to win a cruise and it was a joke, we didn't even get close to getting a bingo on any of our boards. There were so many people playing trying to win. Out of 1000's of boards that people purchased only one winner. But...

Meanwhile my husband decided to try his hand at Poker. It cost $100 to play and when players ran out of money they could rebuy in (which lots of people did). He ended up winning his table during the first round then on the last night of the cruise he played with all the other winners from the week. Part way thought the final game we learned that the top 3 winners would win a free cruise. He ended up winning!

The cruise is non transferable and we can't sell it to anyone. Either we go or loose it. It's the worst time of year for us. We can go Dec 3rd or Dec 10th -same ship same ports. I think all the winners from all the poker tourneys are invited to the same two cruises. I'm trying to find out more info. If you won a cruise from another ship, what were those details. If you won playing bingo, when is your free cruise. Is it the same week?

We're excited for our free cruise, bummed it's in Dec. We have three kids in three different schools, so that time of year is crazy busy, but we'll figure it out.

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