I just went online to look at the cruises again. The prices were released on Wednesday and they were around $200 less for the ones that I was looking at.
We had this happen during a TA last year. The port fees were credited to our onboard account around $90/pp. I just made sure to take the money out at the casino, but it did state that we would receive the money back on our credit card.
Make sure to book Air2Sea and then you won’t need to worry about the cruise being cancelled. I always do this when flying International, especially when there are questions on whether it will even happen.
We were on both of the ships last year. They honestly are so much alike. Pick the cheapest and best ports and don’t worry about either ship, they are virtually the same.
I would suggest doing Barcelona. Easy to the port, inexpensive hotel prices and food choices. We also love Rome, but it isn’t as easy to get to the port as Barcelona is and it is more expensive.
I received 3 of these last year and ran into the same issue. We were on a B2B2B, but 2 of the certs were from the same cruise from different crew members. They honored 2 of them in the end.
I was just there 4 days ago. The pool was heated and beach was nice. There were quiet places to be found, but you could also choose a loud place with no problem. The food differences are only that you can also have pizza and empanadas(if that is important to you).