clochette

20 hours ago, Momof3gurlz said:

I stopped at a new garden center today to get my herb pots started.  I usually only grow basil and mint but in looking around, they had some nice chive plants so I’m going to give that a go also.  They also had a new (to me at least) variety of mint called Mojito Mint.  Since mojitos are primarily what I grow it for -sold!  
(…Dreaming of mojitos…)

As others have mentioned mint is very invasive, I have mine in its own planter and it comes back every year, it is currently big enough for many Mojitos.  

As far as chive same thing also comes back, but not invasive, the plant that I have is 20 years old, my now 26 year old daughter got it for me for mother's day at the school sale because it was a pretty purple flower, my favorite "flower" of all time.

What a great trip and those 2 cruises look both amazing, I really look forward to following you,

So glad that I found your review and I am looking forward to following you, what a great graduation present.

2 hours ago, LooneyCruzer said:

We ventured out today and went to Tivoli. A short 30 min train ride to a small town with really narrow medieval streets, quaint squares, and historical buildings in a very old town. The charming ambiance and local shops make it a delightful place to wander around. Tivoli was here before Rome was around. The Romans took it over around 338 Bc. The rich nobles came and built villas to escape Rome’s unrest.

We came here to eat at Li Somari, a Michelin star restaurant I saw on an episode of “The best places I ever ate”. More about that later as we are very early for our reservation as it started pouring down rain while at the gardens.
We also came to see Villa d'Este: A UNESCO World Heritage site famous for its stunning Renaissance gardens, magnificent fountains, and impressive terraced landscapes, and a world class museum. Villa d'Este is a masterpiece of Italian garden design. Commissioned in 1509 by the Cardinal's of the church to be more beautiful than anything the Romans had built. 
It is quite impressive and will give your legs a workout, another 15k step day 😉

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

that sounds like a wonderful day, did you catch the train from the termini station in Rome, I can't seem to find any information on it, the restaurant also looks wonderful.

24 minutes ago, Ourusualbeach said:

There are no drink packages, no packages of any kind, it's all included.  Except to unlock my room or exit the ship I have never pulled out my seapass card.

It really sounds wonderful, you had me at the crab legs in the buffet and the wonderful lounge chairs on the pool deck, thanks for sharing your pictures.

2 hours ago, little britain said:

Yes it’s £88pp for a new full passport. 
As I said this “interlude” has cost us about £2000! The one way flights today were over €500. Then hotel/food/taxis/ my needing new prescription glasses 🤓… it adds up.

Thank goodness we were able to pay but I guess if you didn’t have anything or if they had got DHs credit cards 💳 too then we would have been totally stuck and would have thrown ourselves in the mercy of the British Consulate 

 

There were several other people in the consulate who had also had their passports stolen at the airport.

It’s sad: this beautiful city will start to lose visitors if they don’t stamp down on this. 20 minutes for the police to arrive in a major international airport is disgusting response time!!! 

 

 

unfortunately this is not new in Barcelona, I used to do quite a few trips with groups, I was the one in charge of the group and hyper vigilant of pickpockets, the only time we had a theft was in Barcelona in the hotel as we were checking in and we had at least 20 people together watching, they did get someone backpack with all passports, credit cards, etc..... and as you did I had the pleasure of visiting the Embassy to help the person apply for a new short term passport.  I am so sorry this happened to you.

same can log in but when trying to get into the specific cruise asks me to log in again

looking forward to following you, have so enjoyed your trips in the past.

Cannot wait to follow along with you what a great trip,

2 hours ago, Jimbo said:

They do suggest packing light and some of the hotels actually have washers and dryers where you are allowed to use and wash your own clothes.

 

Some of the hotels also might not have elevators or real good air conditioners systems........Is this a common thing for some of the hotels in Europe to not have elevators. I guess not all hotels there have AC either? Is this a common thing there?

if you are staying in brand name hotels Marriott, Hilton etc, they will have AC and elevators, if staying at older hotels maybe not or if they have elevators you might  have to go up some stairs to get to it, and they might be very small.  AC is still not common and you will find a lot of places that do not have any.

really enjoying your review and the food looks amazing, drooling here after my PB&J sandwich for lunch.  How are the pools on the ship and other outside areas?

2 hours ago, laurieal said:

Is everyone aware of the secret Diamond specialty coffee thing?

 

Is it always loaded on our SeaPass, or only for sailings where the Crown Lounge coffee machine is overwhelmed?

I have had the extra coffee coupon loaded when there was a high number of Diamond and Diamond plus on the cruise, another time because the machine was broken in the diamond lounge.

1 hour ago, Bullet100 said:

 Definitely not with the 190 up charge. In the future it will be NCL,Azamara and Oceania only.Bye Bye RCL !

the beauty of a cruise is that if you don't like your meal, you can always order another one, also you really got ripped off if you paid $190 to dine at chops,

We did it on Radiance last year, and it was great, wonderful menu it was served n Giovanni which was a great spot for it,  It seems that experiences really vary.

so looking forward to following you, we are doing the opposite TA Rome to Cape Liberty in October 2025, so I have lots of time to plan.

1 hour ago, Lionesss said:

I thought the solarium used to be 16 and older. 
 

Sign says 18. 
 

 

that changed maybe a year ago, on all ships.

What an amazing cruise you are all having, it took me a while but finally caught on to all of the posts, thank you so much for sharing 

3 hours ago, JessyCruises said:

 Yes they used to bring up several members of the audience to be background actors in the scene.  I have been selected a few times. There was always one they picked that was actually a plant and was one of the stunt performers. 

I also was part of the audience participation years ago, you had to make lots of noise to get chosen and I remember jumping up and down, it was fun and they gave us outfits to wear on stage.

looking forward to following you and to of course see your beautiful new purple luggage

it took me a week to catch up, loving your trip report as usual and all of the details, we want to do a transpacific at some point and you really convince me that we also need a week in Sydney. (we really need to retire).

looking forward to following you, we will be going on Vision for the first time in January departing hopefully from Baltimore.

I had no issues until today and got the dreaded wrong password prompt, I also got logged out in the app, I had to create a new password.

I am so glad that you are taking us along, what a great trip, and I have really enjoyed your previous trip reports.

Once you reach Barcelona are you spending some time in Europe?

looking forward to following you, we did this trip a year ago on the Radiance from Galveston, it was our first time on a Radiance class and we loved it.

One more reason I am not a gambler I loose every bet, I would certainly have bet that Vision would sail out of Cape Liberty/Bayonne as Royal has all of the infrastructure in place there.