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michelle-nh

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Posts posted by michelle-nh

  1. 6 hours ago, euro cruiser said:

    You need to be at the airport three hours prior to an international flight (1:55 PM) or two hours prior to a Schengen flight (2:55 PM).

     

    There is a left luggage office at the airport, I'd be a tad skeptical of a service that takes your things away and comes back with them later, but maybe that's me.

     

    From the airport web site:

    Luggage storage is located in Terminal 3, International Arrivals close to door n°6.

    Opening hours: 7.00 a.m.-11.00 p.m.

    Telephone: +39 0665953541

    E-mail : depositobagagliadr@adr.it

    The price is 10,00€ (VAT included) per luggage 24h. Payment is made upon collection of baggage.
    No reservation needed.

     

    link here:  Baggage services - ADR

     

    Ostia Antica is a good idea.  If you do as you've described and use a shuttle to the airport, then a cab from the airport to the ruins, be sure to ask the driver for his card and arrange for him to come back for you at a specific time.  If for some reason he does not, you can ask the staff at the ticket office to call a cab for you, but it would be nice to only have to use that as a backup.


    Thank you! That’s perfect.

  2. 6 hours ago, Woody14 said:

    The first time in we arranged a tour with the ship that gave us a half day tour and dropped us at the airport.     The second time we did a private tour something like what you are planning but when I told the tour company my plans and issues, for a nominal extra charge they were able to take our luggage and organize getting us to the airport.   It was so worth the reaching out to them to ask.


    Do you happen to remember what tour company you used?

  3. Our NCL cruise ends in Civitavecchia, supposedly docking at 6 am. I've been on enough cruises to know to give it some cushion and not to expect debarkation until say, 9 am. But we will still have a day to ourselves as our flight doesn't leave Fiumicino until 3:55 PM. We've never flown from Rome, but I'm thinking we'd be more than safe arriving at the airport by 1:30?? Or maybe a little later???

     

    Of course we will have our luggage, which complicates things. We are spending a few days in Rome pre-cruise, so for this last day, I'm thinking of finding something to do on the way to the airport rather than in Rome itself. 

     

    I am very, very open to suggestions. I am currently looking at two options and trying to figure out the feasibility.

     

    1) Taurine Baths Of Civitavecchia  https://civitavecchia.portmobility.it/en/taurine-baths-civitavecchia 

    2) Ostia Antica https://www.ostia-antica.org/

     

    I am leaning toward #2 (Ostia Antica) as that will get us closer to the airport at the start of the day, and ease any anxiety I might have about that. 

    I'm thinking we could take a shared shuttle back to the airport and get there approximately no later than 10:30 am (is this realistic?). Stow our luggage somewhere (https://usebounce.com/ ???) or maybe check it early if they'd let us?? Then take a bus or cab to Ostia Antica and have a couple of hours before we have to go back to the airport. 

     

    Does anyone have any advice whether the above is doable? Or have other suggestions? I don't want to stress us out at the end of the trip by rushing around, but an entire day at the airport when we could be out enjoying ourselves sounds equally stressful. 
     

  4. No judgement please.I have an online business and am able to travel a lot because I am okay with spending an hour or two working in the early morning or while my husband naps in the afternoon. I usually just upgrade to unlimited when cruising and do it ahead of time, but we are going on a 10-day Mediterranean cruise this summer and I’m maxing out my budget on excursions and a few days in Rome ahead, so I’m looking for other ways to cut back.

     

    We have a lot of onboard credit thanks to a TA promotion, so I was thinking of using up the free time, however long it lasts me, and then upgrading once it runs out, using the onboard credit. I’ve never done this before. I am assuming they charge more once onboard. Is it a lot more than I’d pay if I upgraded now? How much is it discounted if we are 2 or 3 days into the cruise already?

     

    Second question: is the regular WiFi adequate for a short Zoom meeting if I’m not overly concerned about quality? Or would I need the streaming package? We’ll be on the Epic, which I believe has Starlink now, if that makes a difference.

  5. Thank you all. I will look into the other suggestions. 
     

    Santorini: I’m thinking that going with NCL’s “Charming Oia and Winery” tour will be best to avoid the cable car?


    The other ports are:

    Athens, Mykonos, and Corfu.

     

    We love general sightseeing, just walking around and soaking in the place, and especially anything having to do with history and learning about the culture. We aren’t big shoppers but can be happy just wandering around and window shopping too. 
     

    I still have lots of research to do, and am open to any suggestions.

  6. On 11/28/2023 at 8:32 PM, Alatraveler1 said:

    We are using Italytours.eu for a couple of ports, they are highly recommended by those on cruise critic that have used them.  We have one completely booked right now, and one for Florence we hope will fill up soon so we have that one confirmed as well.


    Yes, that’s the company we used on the last cruise. They were excellent. I plan to use them again for different tours in each Italian port.

    • Like 1
  7. We (husband and I) just booked a 10-day cruise for next summer that will go to many ports in Italy and Greece. We’ve been to most of the ports in Italy before and booked tours with a local tour company. They were small group tours. We’d book individually and then they’d assign us to a tour, usually in a small van with say 2-4 other couples or families. We enjoyed this as it gave us a chance to make friends with other people on the ship. I’m trying to find an equivalent local company for the ports in Greece, but all I’m finding are private tours that will take groups but you have to book with your group. When I price them as just a couple they are really pricey and we’d miss out on the small group experience.

     

    Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks.

  8. I’ve tried searching, but am not really finding current info, so thought I’d ask…

     

    We are planning to book the 11-day Mediterranean/Greek Isles cruise on the Epic for next August. We’ll be celebrating my birthday and our 37th anniversary. I’m expecting our TA to have a good Black Friday special that gets us lots of OBC, so will probably be booking this week and need to make some decisions.
     

    We fly out of Boston-Logan. I would like to fly into Rome at least 2 days ahead but ideally get directly home at the end of the cruise. We’ve never used NCL’s BOGO airfare or transfers before, so that’s what I’m wondering about. We don’t have an unlimited budget and I’d rather save $ on things like this to use it at tours at each port, but I’m also really nervous about giving up control of our flight plans.


    I’d usually be inclined to watch for the lowest airfare for a reasonable flight time/layovers and book myself. The best I’m finding at the moment would be around $1100 PP/RT. That’s with a direct flight going, but the equivalent return flight is pretty early in the AM (10:30), which would be cutting it scarily close (wouldn’t it?). But there is one flight at 12:30 with a 4-hour layover in Paris that looks good, same price. We went on a Mediterranean cruise five years ago and know Rome is close to an hour from port, so there are transfers to the port to think about too.

     

    I just ran a search on NCL and it looks like they’d charge about $1500 more if we go with BOGO airfare, so going with that would save us about $700 at today’s prices (which Google flights say are lower than usual). So, here are my major questions:

     

    1) It looks like the best flights (with reasonable layovers) are also the lowest priced, so I’d guess that is what NCL would book. But is this a reasonable assumption?  How likely is it that they’d book us on something with multiple layovers or some crazy layover times instead?

     

    2) How about transfers to and from port? It sounds like they might be included if we go with BOGO? Is this true? If not, if we have to arrange that ourselves, what would we expect to pay to/from Rome/port? 
     

    3) I’ve read nightmare stories about using NCL for flights, but mostly that has to do with people flying in the same day as the cruise. We should be fine going two days ahead shouldn’t we? 
     

    Any advice?

     

  9. On 2/18/2023 at 4:56 PM, uneamie said:

    We've had cabins next to the elevators and stairs and never had any noise issues. I purposely booked our up coming cruise on Prima right across from them since it will be less of a walk for me with back issues. 


    So glad to hear that! I booked right across from the elevators for the same reason (DH’s back) for our April cruise and I’ve been debating whether to change them for fear of noise.  I won’t worry now.

    • Like 1
  10. Thank you, GeezerCouple. The 2br suites you mentioned sound like exactly what we need. I’ll look into those.  If that doesn’t work out, the solution mentioned by others to book a balcony with an inside across the hall is a good compromise too. Unfortunately, even if we could afford Haven, my DH is very miserly and admittedly it’s one of his traits that I mostly appreciate. We are able to travel a lot, but do it modestly.
     

    My mother is a retired junior high school teacher. I’m sure the last thing she’d want on vacation is a mob of kids. I’ll take your advice and avoid holiday weeks.
     

     

    • Like 1
  11. We’ve only ever cruised just the two of us in a balcony. And once a long time ago with our daughter when she was young, in an inside cabin. We love our balcony, and it is a must for us now. 
     

    But now, I’m thinking about inviting my mother along on a cruise (it would be her first). I know she’d hate an inside room. A balcony would be a must for her too. But booking a balcony just for herself would be pretty pricey. Is there a particular room type (not Haven—it’s out of our budget) that would allow us all privacy?  It would be uncomfortable for us all to be on top of each other and sleep in the same room. Outside of the Haven is a suite with bedrooms a thing? What are the best options?

  12. How late at night does the bus and/or ferry run between Kings Wharf and Hamilton? Specifically I’m interested in Wednesday nights for Harbour Night? I’ve tried looking for schedules online but am only finding old ones.

     

    NCL offers an excursion, but it seems like a waste of money since we’d basically just be paying for a ferry that would be exponentially less if the public one is running.

  13. I just came back to do another happy dance. While it took two more calls to get everything merged and straightened out, once they were I had a nice surprise.

     

    The cruise we took in 2001 (22 years ago!) which I’d written off assuming there were no records of it, suddenly showed up in our history along with the other two. So that means we are already Silver level 🙂 I thought we had to wait until after our April cruise to reach that level.

    • Like 1
  14. We’ll be on the Apr 30 sailing. I booked a couple of weeks ago and specifically chose that sailing because it was NOT going to VA. No offense to Virginia. It’s a beautiful state. But I’d much rather have the extra sea day.  Maybe it’s because I booked after the decision was made and it was no longer being advertised, but my itinerary has never shown VA like other are saying they see.

  15. So, a happy update to this. For some reason, apparently my husband and I each have two Latitude accounts. The solution is as “simple” as merging the two accounts and they are working on that now. So we will get our points back. I’m very pleased it was so simple. I was expecting major frustration.

    • Like 5
  16. So, the Mediterranean cruise on the Epic that we took in summer of 2019 disappeared from our Latitudes account. I know it was in there. I remember seeing it when we booked an Alaskan cruise for summer 2020, which we obviously had to cancel before it happened. We haven’t cruised since 2020 and honestly I hadn’t paid much attention to our account other than to check on our CN certificates to make sure they weren’t going to expire. 
     

    But now we have another cruise booked (90 more days, yay!!), so I am paying attention. And sure enough the Med cruise is no longer there. I tried to let them know, but can’t because the time limit has expired. 
     

    So, I suppose my next step is to call customer service. But I’m not optimistic. Has anyone else had this happen? Any advice? Is there any chance of getting my points back?

  17. 22 hours ago, uneamie said:

    Keep in mind that sailing our NYC the end of April could mean cool weather for a few days there and back. I am assuming you are going to Bermuda. We are booked on Prima for May7th to Bermuda and so we are prepared for the cooler weather if need be. However if the hot tubs are good and hot the cool weather might not be an issue for you.  We got an upgrade offer from our balcony for a Spa balcony and I wanted to bid on it but it's on deck 16 and when I did a search the available cabins are under the "speedway" on deck 17. So I decided to keep our balcony and not bid. Like you...I am not all that concerned about most of the complaints. 


    Yes, that’s exactly the reason I’m not bidding on the upgraded spa room too. We’re on the April 23 to Bermuda. By that time of year, after living through a freezing New England winter, any temps over 65 feel tropical. But yes, I’ll be prepared just in case. This will be our third cruise out of NYC at that time of year and we’ve been lucky so far. Hopefully that run of luck will hold out.

    • Like 1
  18. My husband and I are booked on the Prima out of NYC at the end of April. It will be our first cruise since COVID and we can’t wait to get back to it. I’ve read the reviews, and honestly with the exception of it being hard to get reservations for entertainment, I don’t think any of the things people are complaining about will bother us. As long as we have a comfortable place to sit in the shade during the day with a good book and a bar nearby, the commotion of people around ( we live in a very quiet rural area and so actually enjoy the change of pace of being around crowds of people on vacation), good food, and a balcony room to go back to, we’re happy.
     

    I never loved the buffets anyhow, so the fact that it’s smaller on Prima won’t bother me. We are also not pool people or sun lovers, so the smaller pool area won’t bother us either. BUT, we do enjoy relaxing in a hot tub in the early evening. I see there are two on the pool deck. How about on deck 8 near the infinity pools? Are there hot tubs there? I’ve haven’t seen any mention of the hot tubs in any reviews. Are they too small and crowded too? I considered booking spa rooms so we’d have access to the hot tub there. But we did that once before and found we only used them twice on the whole cruise. It was TOO quiet in the spa for us, we’d rather be around people.

  19. Okay. Thanks, everyone. I'm feeling better about it and won't stress anymore. I think we're all just trying for a really fun and stress-free time as a family, and so are trying to take care of all the little details ahead of time so we don't have to worry about them then.

     

    As I said, we all booked direct through RC and the agent told me she had linked the reservations, but apparently she didn't which is I guess what is causing all the confusion now. I just went into the planner and linked the other two reservations to mine, so we should be all set now. 

    • Like 1
  20. 2 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

    WHen you purchase a dining package, you get a reduced price in part because you cannot make pre-cruise reservations.

     

    If you want the ability to choose the restaurant/day/time ahead of time, then simply pay full price for each restaurant.

     We weren't asking to choose the restaurant, day or time. We were simply asking that we be given a table for 6.

     

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