CoralReef

Nice! Thanks, Dav.

glmschlaglp, were you able to get a table for two at dinner on the terrace? We enjoy being social sometimes, but maybe not every night. Wondering if the terrace would be a good alternative to a large, shared table.

Thank you for a detailed and informative trip report. I had been debating the Colmar Pocket excursion, not realizing until I read your report that it was Audie Murphy's last stand. We will definitely do that one! I also appreciated the "independent traveler" viewpoint and tips, since we also tend towards that travel style. Very helpful.

Enjoying the updates. Thanks, notamermaid.

OP, we are in the same boat (pun intended). Please let us know if you are successful!

Other than drugs or weapons, what can you not take OFF the ship?

Fruit. They are very strict about this in Puerto Rico.

not interested in shopping.... so will perhaps ask to miss that part of Sorrento... but would love to see the views from the peninsula around Sorrento..were you able to change the itinerary to suit what you wanted with Carmine?

Absolutely! Carmine could not have been more flexible. When we booked, we asked to visit Agerola, DH's grandmother's birthplace. Carmine was happy to take us there, and was quite knowledgeable about the area, even though it's not part of his usual tours.

Not only that... while in Agerola, we ended up meeting the town historian, who took us to city hall to look for family records, then called up some family members to meet us and show us the family church. This took some time, and Carmine adapted his tour on the fly to accommodate these delightful surprises. He is one of the best private tour guides we have ever worked with.

Another vote for an Istanbul specialty shop, where it should be fresher. Consume ASAP! We brought back some boxes as gifts, and when invited to share them, we were very disappointed at how much less yummy they were, only two weeks after purchasing. Turkish delight is fantastic when it's fresh, but it quickly loses flavor.

Personally, we would not waste time in Sorrento (which is not actually on the Amalfi Coast). Lunch really becomes a driver of your solution and its a matter of where and what cafe/restaurant.

Totally agree with both these points. We loved our tour with Carmine of seeamalficoast, loved our lunch at La Tagliata, and didn't much enjoy Sorrento. Sorrento might be worthwhile if you are really into shopping. Carmine did a great job of taking us to the most beautiful, unique scenery.

We only had a vague map, too, but had little trouble. Even a good map would not be that helpful, since the streets twist and turn, are not well marked, and don't have line-of-sight to major landmarks.

However, we found the entrance in about 15 minutes by heading up (you can clearly see which direction is "up"), and turning right whenever we hit a fork. We did hit a couple of wrong turns that dead-ended, but they only cost us 5 minutes or so.

Starting early is a good idea, to avoid heat and crowds. I don't think you'll have a problem. The town is really small, so it's just not possible to get lost for long.

Take a Euro plug adapter and you can use that outlet. No rules against those AFAIK. Have done so many times.

We docked at 7:00 and made the 7:30 train, so hopefully you will be in plenty of time for the 9:12.

Our ship was cleared immediately because we were coming from another Italian port, we were waiting at the gangplank, and we took a taxi directly to the train station. Just in case this doesn't all come together for you, I wouldn't buy tickets in advance. Just get to the train station as fast as you can and buy tickets on the next train.

What time does the ship sail? I would not be aiming for the last possible train, but rather the second to last or earlier, to allow for any problems. For example, we found no taxis waiting at the Livorno train station when we returned from Florence. We had to take a bus to a place where we could catch the ship shuttle, so you might want to research possible bus routes.

That said, we had a great day in Florence and the train worked well for us.

How long it takes until they go to open tendering can vary from cruise to cruise and port to port, depending on a number of factors, such as: distance from the ship to the tender dock, sea conditions, weather, number and size of the tenders they are using that day, whether they need to share the tender dock with others.

+1 and glad you noted this. People sometimes expect the process to be the same everywhere, and it isn't.

At a port with a very early morning ship arrival, sometimes no tender tickets are used at all.

This has been our experience more often than not.

Glad you stuck to your guns and insisted on Monreale! The mosaics are amazing. We recently visited Ravenna, and although the famous mosaics there are older, we thought Monreale was more beautiful.

Most of your questions are covered in Tom's port guide:

http://www.tomsportguides.com/Venice-05-06-2011.pdf

We did the climb June 3, 2015. It was a warm day. In general, all our Dalmation Coast stops were hotter than the averages I found on wunderground. Maybe next year will be cooler. :confused:

In the early morning, the path is shaded. This makes a big difference, as the sun was strong. I would guess the sun is less direct in evening, too.

From 11:00 to 4:00 is probably the hottest time due to lack of shade. If you must climb then, take or be prepared to buy some water, wear sunblock and hats, and hope for a cool year! Some of the folks climbing with us had brought the umbrellas from their cabins. Good idea.

Another vote for seeamalficoast.com. Check out the TripAdvisor reviews for their lunch spot, La Tagliata. Fantastic tour and lunch!

We enjoyed all the MDR menus during our 5/28 Connie cruise, except for one night. That night, I had the tilapia in puttanesca sauce, which was weirdly sweet, not spicy like a good puttanesca. Hubby had a beef stroganoff with shoe-leather beef. Heard complaints about the other dishes that night, too.

All other meals were great! Weird that nothing seemed to work that night. Fish, pasta, and simply prepared steak dishes are usually good.

OMG! :eek: Too funny :D. However it wouldn't have been funny if it caught fire. Was that electrical tape or duct tape?

Looked like duct tape.

Oh my! It looks like something I found in my Father's house when he moved to a retirement community. Except his had black marks on it :eek:, and he said he used it daily. I don't know how the house didn't burn.

LOL ken, I found similar scary stuff in my dad's house when he moved to assisted living... along with 3,000+ styrofoam takeout containers. At least Celebrity doesn't have a policy on those!

Here is the extension cord Celebrity furnished for hubby's CPAP. I'm sure it's much safer than your power cord!

Then your roll call would be the way to go. Looks like you are already on top of that :-)

Maybe you are going someplace unusual... but for the standard tourist stops, I would advise using public transportation or hiring a driver.

Naples traffic is insane! We saw several accidents. Amalfi coast requires inching past other vehicles with centimeters to spare. We used seeamalficoast.com and by doing so avoided several heart attacks!

Pompeii, Herculanium, and central Naples are all easily accessible by train or subway. Sorrento & Positano can be reached by ferry or bus.

Just MHO.

roothy, when we went up, the stairs were shady until about 10:00. They got really hot as we were coming down. If you can go up first thing in the morning, it will be less strenuous. I wish we'd started even earlier!

We paid €3 pp on 6/3/2015 for access to the stairs.

There were three places where vendors were selling drinks on the main path: Our Lady of Health (snacks also), halfway up (this guy was packing up to leave as we came down at about 10:00), and at St. John's fortress at the top. All had water, sodas, and beer.