Burchrod

Absolutely do the cove balcony. We just got back from a week in cabin 2288 on the Dream and loved, loved, loved it.

The life boats are not in your way at all. You have an unobstructed view down to the water and to the front and back. If anything, the lifeboats give you a bit of shade at times.

There was sometimes a light mist from the sea spray, but that was fine by me! To sit and watch the ocean going by so closely, with no sheet of plexiglass in the way was absolute heaven.

Any time there is a cove balcony available I will grab it!!!!!!

The pool deck buffet on all DCL ships is open for dinner. This is Cabanas on the Dream. It is NOT a buffet. It is a "cruise casual" sit down restaurant that you can enter any time during the stated hours (no assigned times). They serve 5-6 items in each category from the menu plus a salad bar and a "carved item." They are NOT open on the first or last nights of the cruise.

So Cabanas is not the name of the buffet? So it is Cabanas that is not open for dinner - or is it only open on certain nights?

Does the buffet have a name?

First Disney cruise and we're confused. We've been on multiple cruises and the buffet was always an option for dinner, rather than the dining room. Is that not the case on Disney?

Looking at the Navigators posted online I don't see Cabanas listed as a dinner option.

What if you accidentally nap through your assigned dining time? Do you have to make do with hamburgers from the pool-side grill?

Thanks!

We will be in Nassau March 25. Since that is during Spring Break I was wondering if that will have an effect on pricing or availability - specifically at Wyndham and Melia. Thanks!

If you are choosing between St. Thomas and St. Martin, I would go with St. Martin every time.

As a US territory St. Thomas is very 'Americanized'. McDonalds, Home Depot and all that everywhere.

St. Martin is 1/2 Dutch and 1/2 French. Much more relaxed and laid back. Much more of an 'island experience'. I'd go back to St. Martin in a heartbeat! St. Thomas, not so much.

Our driver in St. Thomas was armed and would not let us leave our bags in his van because of theft risk. Our driver in St. Martin didn't even bother to lock his car and left the keys in it! Very different atmosphere.

We hired Rome in Limo for all three of our Italy ports in early August on the Norwegian Epic - Naples, Civitivecchia and Livorno. It was the best decision we could have made.

Our drivers were all interesting, informative, flexible and full of wonderful suggestions.

Naples: Diego was wonderful - he told us stories (and even sang a song) as we drove. He was very open to whatever we wanted to do and made some perfect suggestions.

We had not booked a Pompeii guide in advance as we weren't sure we wanted one. Once we decided we did - no problem - Diego made a 10 second phone call and a guide was waiting for us at the gate. We were literally the first ones into Pompeii that morning!

Diego's original plan had been to visit Sorento on the way to Positano until we told him we would really like to lunch in Positano somewhere with a view. No problem - another 10 second phone call and we had a reserved window table at a restaurant above the town. It was possibly the best meal of our trip and the views were incredible.

We hit Sorrento on the way back to Naples. On the way, I casually mentioned that after he dropped us off I was planning to walk into Naples to see the Galleria Umberto. He insisted on driving us there himself and returning us to the ship after.

Diego is an absolute gem!

Civitavecchia: Nicola drove us to his hometown of Rome. His tour was very different, mostly because there was simply so much to see and so little time. He was a wealth of information, pointing out things we would never have noticed and showing us things we never thought to ask to see - such as the keyhole of the Knights of Malta on the Avantine Hill.

With so much to see in such a short time, we asked for a quick pizza lunch and he directed us to a hole-in-the-wall pizza counter with some of the best pizza we'd had.

I had wanted to tour the Forum, but Nicola talked me out of it. He was absolutely right, as it turned out; but if I had insisted he would have happily taken us wherever we wanted to go.

Hiring a driver just for their advice alone would have made the money worth it.

Livorno: Fabrizio was an absolute hoot! We loved spending time with him and learned so much about Italian history.

At our request, we took the scenic route into Florence, leaving the highway about 10 miles outside of the city. He took us to a little olive oil factory to see if it was open, since it wasn't the season. They were open and quickly prepared a tasting for us.

From there we headed into Florence where Fabrizio gave us wonderful advice (and directions - he even bought us a street map at his own expense!).

When I told him I had not yet had gelato he about had a fit and took us to a wonderful place.

We stopped at Pisa on the way back - he had suggested heading straight to Florence to enjoy walking around when the day was not so hot.

Our experience with Rome in Limo was top notch, professional and very entertaining. I would recommend them to anybody; and we would definately use them again.

We recieved a discount for multiple tour bookings which was great and a additional discount for prepaying. They were running a special for the holidays at the time. When prepaying they had made a mistake and accidently overcharged us. Jany apoligized and promissed we would be paid back in cash when we arrived in Rome. When we got there we were given a envelope with our cash back upon arrival.

Wait a minute. You were able to prepay? We are booked with them in three ports and were told our only option was to pay in cash or Euro traveller's checks at the end of each day's trip.

I would love to prepay and not have to worry about carrying that much cash or finding ATMs!!