Gimpy McFarlan

Shout out to @cruisemom42 for the hotel recommendations in this thread.  We stayed at Hotel Artemide in Rome and Hotel Papadopoli in Venice prior to our May 13th Celebrity cruise around the Adriatic Sea.  We absolutely loved both hotels and would stay in each again in a heartbeat.  The locations of each hotel were perfect for us.  Artemide was close walking distance from the ancient sites and we were able to get a taxi easily from Via Nationale.  Papadopoli was far enough away from the grande canal to be quiet yet close enough to have quick easy access to vaparettos.  We especially loved the rooftop restaurant on Artemide and the garden restaurant in Papadopoli.  The weather in Venice was so nice they almost always had the doors open so we could enjoy breakfast in fresh air.  Bravo!

11 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

Lost the Internet last evening around 5:30 and was still out when we retired last night.  Even before that the live TV on the ship was wonky.    This morning it is back up but really slow loading Cruise Critic.   

 

For you techies it was kinda a weird outage last night.    From the ping command I could ping Google and Intel with 20-50% packet loss but no email or web access.   I was expecting to not be able to ping.

Perhaps the packets got lost in the Bermuda Triangle? 🤔 🤣

18 hours ago, lydnsyd said:

The Health Protocol has finally been announced for European sailings

My sailing out of Italy will require an Antigen Test 1 day prior to sailing -  does that mean exactly 24 hrs before sailing or can the test be done anytime the day before the sailing?

I am hoping it is the latter as we are flying in to FCO the night before the cruise

It is based on calendar day. So if your cruise sails on Friday you can test any time on Thursday. 

34 minutes ago, tvlworm said:

Is the train faster than the bus? We currently have a Viator option for coach transportation to/from which includes an hour in Pisa, but interested in learning about the train if it’s a faster option! 

The fastest trains from Livorno to Florence take around an hour and 20 minutes.  I'm not sure how fast the commercial buses are.  We are not that interested in Pisa so stopping there does not appeal to us.  Most of the excursions we have seen (which utilize buses) include some type of shopping stop which also does not appeal to us.  Since most of the sites we are interested in are with a 15 minute walk from each other spending the day there seems like a no brainer.

We are seriously considering visiting Florence on our own from Livorno.  We will hop on the train to Florence, visit the Ascademia (to see David), visit Uffizi and then the Duomo.  Rick Steves has multiple pre-recorded walking tours of Florence so we plan to spend any additional time doing those.

I called FbC approximately 60 days prior to our international flight and the phone rep was able to submit a request to Air Canada to have the flights ticketed.  48 hours after my call to FbC the “Select Seats” option became available on the Air Canada web site.

On 3/17/2022 at 4:40 AM, pdmlynek said:

 

Obviously, the Archillion Palace is one of the highlights of Corfu.  Unfortunately, it is now closed.

 

This explains why Celebrity cancelled our excursion that included Archillion Palace.  🙁  Thank you for sharing this information.  My DW and I are now scrambling to find alternative plans for Corfu.  Any ideas for guided tours would be greatly appreciated!

For our May 13th Med sailing on Reflection the X app currently shows the regular menu for Sushi On 5 for the first 7 days but then says “Venue Closed” for the remaining 4 days.  🧐

We make the decision to go Aqua vs Veranda based on price first.  We absolutely love Blu for dining but (as others have indicated) to us is it not worth paying multiple thousands of $ for it.  In general we like the location of the Aqua cabins better but (again) it would not be worth paying multiple thousands of $ for it.  We don’t use the Spa services very much so that is not a factor.

Is it still a thing to notify Celebrity that someone is gluten free prior to boarding?  I vaguely remember doing so when we first started cruising w/ Celebrity 5+ years ago.  Looking around their web site I don’t see any instructions about doing so.  Perhaps they has eliminated the need to since GF items seem to be more integrated throughout their operations now.  We have have always talked to the restaurant manager, hostess or server on the first night and received excellent service as a result.

On 2/27/2022 at 11:07 PM, 3red7s said:

We are booked for a September trip to Italy, Greek Isles, & Turkey.

We are booked on an Adriatic cruise (Italy, Croatia, Montenegro and Greece) in May and have no concerns.

I have seen multiple recommendations for WalksInItaly.  We are currently considering taking some of  their tours in Rome, Venice and Florence.

No…  Aqua class has an expanded room service menu but what is offered on it is not from the Blu restaurant.

Celebrity has just changed our itinerary on Reflection.  Instead of stopping in La Spezia we will now be stopping in Livorno.  Arrival set for 10am and departure set for 7pm.  Looks like it takes approx an hour and 20 minutes to travel between Livorno and Florence.  Visiting Florence sounds more appealing than the “Tuscan Farmhouse” excursion we had planned.  🤔

On 2/14/2022 at 2:55 PM, the_dylaness said:

Celebrity has allowed us (via "Flights By Celebrity") to book an 11:30am departure from FCO...

We have an 11:30am flight booked by FBC to return to the US.  We decided to take a private car (via RomeCabs) from the Civi port to FCO.  The only Celebrity post-cruise transfers I saw on their web site were designed for late-afternoon flights and included a brief sightseeing visit to Rome. 

5 minutes ago, euro cruiser said:

There is a 6:26 from Venezia S. Lucia arriving to Rome Termini at 10:25.  It makes six stops but there is no change of train.

True but…

13 minutes ago, Gimpy McFarlan said:

We did not want to leave after 9am and the 7:26am train was a touch too early for us.

The train change was required when going from Venice to Rome.  This is for Friday May 13th.  In order to allow enough time to depart Venice, arrive in Rome and then transfer to the Civitavecchia cruise port we must leave Venice early in the morning. Trenitalia has a direct train at 7:26am and then again at 9:26am and 10:26am.  We did not want to leave after 9am and the 7:26am train was a touch too early for us.  If our schedule was more flexible we definitely would have gone with Trenitalia.

Ran some comparisons last night and ended up booking Prima class on Italo.  Trenitalia did have a better price but we would had to switch trains at some point when traveling between Venice and Rome.  Italo offered end-to-end service without any train changes in both directions (Rome Termini -> Venice St Lucia and Venice St Lucia -> Rome Termini).  Was able to reserve seats on the way to Venice for €3 each and for free on the way back to Rome.  🎉

Thank you @cruisemom42 and @slidergirl for the feedback!  Ordinarily I would go for 2nd class but I’m seriously considering spending the money on one of the middle classes in order to reserve one of the few cafe-style face-to-face seats for 2.

Hello,

Curious about opinions / thoughts / experiences with the faster (4-hour) train services offered by Italio and Trenitalia between Rome and Venice.  My DW and I will be visiting Rome and Venice prior to our Celebrity cruise in May and we will use one of these trains to move between the cities.  We will be using a private car to transfer between Termini Station in Rom and the Civi cruise port.  Questions that come to mine are…

Since our schedule is set does it make sense to purchase the train tickets now?  Is it common for prices to increase significantly as the date/time of train departure decreases?  Is it common for these trains to sell out?  Are there any significant pros / cons of each provider (Italo vs Trenitalia)?  I noticed each company offers multiple service classes ranging from a basic level, a “comfort” level with better seats and free snacks and a “business” level.  It seems free Wi-fi is offered at every level so do the better seats and snacks really justify the additional cost?

13 minutes ago, slidergirl said:

If you want Italo, you purchase from the Italo website, not Trenitalia.  Trenitalia is for all the rest of the trains.  Italo is a private company.  Check timing and pricing from both, though.  

I was curious about that…. Looks like Trentalia and Italo both offer 4-hour train service between Rome and Venice.  Any thoughts about the differences or pros/cons between them?  At first glance Italo offers fast trains at times that are more advantageous but we are interested in multiple opinions.

This question is a off topic from the thread title but there is such good info in here and the people participating in the thread are so knowledgeable I cannot help but ask it here…

We will be visiting Venice for a brief stay before our cruise.  How far in advance should we purchase tickets for the Italo quick trains between Rome and Venice?  🤔

9 hours ago, chamima said:

 

Just wondering if you could purchase the non proctored tests (which are less expensive)  as a backup for the liquid in case the plastic container is empty in the proctored test.

We have 2 proctored Binax tests and 4 non proctored (also Binax).

It is very unlikely that will work…. I doubt the proctor will allow you to use supplies from multiple boxes to perform the test.  We plan to buy extra tests in case there is a problem.

Agree there are many options in these CC posts.  We are using Rome Cabs for transfer from Rome Termini station to Civ port to board our cruise and from Civ port to the airport after our cruise.

Hoping cruisemom42 sees this question…. 😊

My DW and I have decided to stay at Hotel Artemide in Rome and Hotel Papadopoli Venezia in Venice. How do you recommend making the reservations? Are there benefits to calling the hotels and booking the rooms over the phone?  🤔