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We liked both Giovanni's & chops on explorer. Service was excellent in both & Giovanni's would be better value.

I would wait till onboard to book as they tend to have random specials you might be able to take advantage of.

On our first cruise trip to Napoli we jumped on train to Sorrento & walked around a bit, then another train back to Pompeii for about 3 hours & then train back to the city where we walked around some more & had a pizza. This was a great day, but took up all day also. I would suggest skipping Mt.Vesuvius unless that is a must for you. You will definitely see it from anywhere in naples anyway & many areas behind the downtown area still have smoke & steam coming out from underground springs that are very visible.

There will also be many cabs at the port who will take you on tours you can organise & negotiate right there at the port.

I have docked at Messina 3 times. There are always plenty of cabs waiting at the port trying to negotiate various trips & most usually sell at the same price point. On the last trip 4 of us jumped in one of these cabs & did a half day trip to Taormina. It was under 50euro each & the driver was great. He stopped here and there for some great photo ops & he waited for us while we walked around the town on our own for about 3 hours, & gave us a few good tips at the time also.

Not sure if you're going to be in Rome just for the day in June or if you will be there overnight. But for anyone who will be in Rome of an evening, you can do night tours of the Colosseum during the summer months. We did this two years ago & it was great. It was much cooler, no lines, no crowds & the place looks great lit up at night. I think it started around 8.30pm & went for just under two hours. It was a real highlight of our trip.

We have done 3 different med cruises all around October/November & all very enjoyable & with good weather.

Our Carnival cruise was on a very new ship with long port stops & a mainly American crowd & a great party atmosphere on board. Our MSC cruise was on a very beautiful, huge new ship. The ports were also good & the passengers were mainly European. This was totally fine for us & we had a ball, but others might not appreciate being in the minority language group. Our third was a shorter cruise with Royal, also on a large, nice ship & this had a good mix of other passengers, but a bit more quieter crowd.

So, I don't think there is one best Cruiseline in the med. It will come down to what price point you are happy with & what ports you really want to see. Two very similar cruises might have completely different pricing.

Sailing out of somewhere like Barcelona would be one of the easier ports as the port is fairly close to the city and very well setup for international travellers. Some of the Italian Lines will use ports like Genoa & Naples & Venice. Rome is also very popular but the port is far from the city in another town called Civitavechia.

The longer cruises (10-14days) generally cover more ports & stay for longer. 7 day cruises usually have much shorter stays in port.

Med cruises are normally fairly port intensive, so you won't have many sea days.

As other have said, choices of ports etc can be very subjective. The bigger & better ships will be based in Australia between about November to April and mainly out of Sydney. Keep in mind school holidays between early Dec to late Jan. Personally I like big ships like the ones from RCI, Celebrity or Carnival & would prefer one of those if I was to sail to NZ. You could also take one of these ships to sail north up the Australian Coast or out to countries in the Sth.Pacific like Vanuatu. I personally wouldn't choose to do a cruise out of Melbourne or down south from there as the waters are known for being very rough. As for ports, well in Oz you wouldn't want to miss Sydney, and maybe ones like Cairns if you wanted to get close to the Great barrier reef, all others would be a bonus. In NZ the standout for me is Milford Sound. Auckland is scenic and very easy to just walk off the ship. Any other ports will be a bonus.

Is there two VIFP programs running side by side? Aussie and US?

As far as I am aware there is just the one vifp program

I travelled to Jordan 2 years ago and visited Petra. It is definitely worth it, but not easy. At the time I was suffering bad back pain which really restricted how far I could walk. So we hired a Horse & carriage from just inside the visitor/entrance centre. There were many available. I don't remember anything about needing a permit though. It would be about 1 and a half Km's or so to the Treasury down a windy and rough track. The carriages have some padding in them but it will still be a rough ride, but doable if you can't walk far. The area around the Treasury is reasonably flat & not overly huge so someone with mobility issues does not need to walk around too much to see it from a couple of angles. And yes there were many camels and donkeys in that area which you could hire to take you further beyond the Treasury area to explore more of the ruins.

I would suggest to do a youtube/google search for an idea of what the horse & carriage experience might be like.

I would say join up regardless.

To add to the confusion, I am aware that sometimes Carnival Australia recognise an Australian customers name in their system via the customers P&O number if they already have one, & they are somehow linked to vifp for when you sail carnival if you have a vifp number as well. You'll only earn points when you sail carnival, 1 night = 1 point.

I have been Gold with carnival VIFP for a few years as I had already become gold in their old system while sailing with them overseas. Having said that I would be gold now on their new system anyway.

I know that when I sailed on the Carnival Legend out of Syd that I had my usual gold card waiting for me at checkin and a couple of weeks later the new points were added to my USA carnival account as normal, so all good there. Also, on that particular cruise there were only about 18 or so of us gold on-board and no higher, so they did throw a couple of little perks our way including an intimate cocktail party with the officers. In today's Vifp program gold customers are no longer meant to get a party. Maybe it might depend on how many gold and above are on a particular aussie sailing? Obviously there will be more and more as more aussies sail with them.

We've done 4 cruises with carnival and we have been Gold for a while, before the current system even. Somehow they just know that you are boarding and will give you the appropriate coloured card you are entitled to on each cruise. Within about 2 weeks of being back home you will notice the latest points added to your account. Lucky for us, carnival is still pretty new here in Oz so Gold is considered fairly high & you get some cool perks. On our last carnival cruise on the legend we were given our own little party with the officers and there were only 18 of us gold on board and no higher. Unfortunately on US sailings now gold wont even get you a party. You need to be platinum.

I agree that some ports overseas have really got a handle on getting people off and on the cruise ships but then most of the best embarkations ever have all been in Sydney. A couple of the worst was in Vancouver and Buenos Aires.

I can't really agree about Sydney. Personally my experiences there at OPT have been good and bad, but mostly seen lots of disorganised chaos going on there, especially around the entrance. We too had a cruise in and out of Buenos aires once & I know what you mean, but luckily some guy working at the port took a liking to us being the only english speaking people there at the time & gave us an express pass to be first on once boarding started. Then there was the fun part on the bus through the busy industrial docks. lol

They don't call Florida the cruising capital of the world for nothing. lol!

I read that article about Port Everglades too. I've been lucky to have sailed out of Fort Lauderdale once & Miami just down the road 3 times. Both ports are really good & efficient at what they do & our local ports here in Australia could learn a lot from them. Hopefully we'll see some ports at least half the size of these built in Brisbane & Sydney in the coming years so we can attract bigger & better boats year round!

I think the overall best Cd I have come across is Royal's head director Ken Rush who normally starts off on each new ship that Royal bring out. Followed closely by a guy called Fillipe on carnival Splendor a few years back. In 15 cruises I don't think we have had a bad one, but some better than others.

I do think though that the CD job is changing more into a roll of a good delegator as ships become bigger & us passengers have more thirst to be entertained in various forms across many hours of the day. There is just no way a CD can now do the same roll they may have done on a smaller, older ship of years gone by.

As others have mentioned you really don't need to pay anything extra if you have already pre-paid tips. However if you feel you want to give someone an extra reward $5 -$20 should be more than enough. & yes put it in an envelope if that makes you feel more comfortable. Sometimes, depending on cruiseline, etc, it can also be easy to just tip a dollar here and there to your favourite bartender or barista at the bottom of your docket when ordering a drink.

Also, try not to fall into the trap of giving someone a big tip just because they have the gift of the gab & make you laugh. Sometimes the hardest & nicest working people around you can be the quietest ones. Not all, but sometimes!

-Is the ship too packed? Are there always long lines? Is it difficult to get a seat at meals, for the shows, for activities?

Personally I find these bigger ships less packed than the smaller ones. I really like the Explorer. No problem getting a seat at meals in MDR or specialty dining. You may have long lines at tender ports, but this can't always be helped. You might want to get to the ice shows early for a good seat, or get there late & just stand up the back if you want to just walk straight in.

-Looking to book a balcony on deck 12. Has anybody had those rooms before that can tell me about them? I am mostly concerned about noise.

I have had one of these balconies and they are the best kept secret on the ship. No noise to worry about & they are actually in a very quiet location of the ship. The views being up so high are amazing, and these cabins are a bit longer than the rest on the ship & have a more modern fitout & larger wall mounted TV's. SSHHHH keep this info quiet!

-Seeing mixed reviews regarding service and kindness of staff. Are they rude, neutral or great?

I found the staff to be fantastic. I think a lot has to do with how people treat them to begin with. I tend to talk with them rather than at them and no complaints from me.

-Is there a very large amount of children onboard?

Not on the two times I have been on board, but a Sth Pacific cruise will attract more families & depends if you will be sailing on school holidays. There are plenty of places to retreat to though that kids won't be allowed in or interested in.

We had one on Explorer & loved it. Don't get me wrong I'd choose a real balcony first if price was right, but this was a very good alternative. I think the view you get is assigned by the side of the ship your cabin is on, in our case starboard. It was always on & at night the cabin attendant would close the curtains over it just like a normal window. Being dark at night you couldn't really see anything but it was great by day. It was full floor to ceiling height & the clarity & perspective was really great. It was really handy when pulling in or out of ports if you were inside your room & could keep an eye on what was going on outside. Also as a bonus, it kinda made the room appear a bit bigger too.

I'd wait till on board for dining specials, sometimes all you have to do is ask the specialty dining staff for any specials they can give you, but do this during the day & not around other passengers. Sshhh ;) Also, sometimes if you register at the art auctions on the first day they may give you a whole lot of discount vouchers to use around the ship.

Other than formal nights, Royal doesn't really do theme nights. They are more of a small themed party, usually held after 10.30pm in studio B. So you won't find many people dressed up in theme as such. If you really want to partake in dressing up & some do, the most common ones might be a country & western party, 70's, rock & roll & british rock.

Shanghai port for the big ships is a long way from the city. Our ship docked late due to fog & then coz of busy traffic it took almost 2 hours in a cab to make it to our city hotel. Once there the Bund area is really nice to see, especially if you can see it at night once all the lights are on.

Have been on the Allure western route & loved it. It is way bigger than the ships you mentioned, mainly coz they are just so wide. The two ships currently operate a reverse schedule every 7 days so you can do just 7 days east or west or do b2b for 14 days and do both. Also, one ship used to depart on a Sat & the other departs on a sunday. This is so boarding at F.L goes smoothly and it makes it easy for americans wanting to just take 1 week off work. Once the harmony arrives, the oasis will be home ported in Port Canavral I believe and will continue 7 day trips from there.

I just don't want to wait till December.

 

Because she's a teacher we need to find something in School holidays, there's one that leaves two days early so ....???

I can see those two days being of great work experience for a junior teacher to take over, hehe! but I understand some bosses don't see it like this.

If mrs Gur can snag two days off work, there is a good one 8 days change from $800 for a balcony.

great hope she can get the time off work. we are in a kind of similar dilemma over the next few months.

Carnival oz competing with RCI with their own 72 hour sale. balconies for under $100 night twin.

And was it worth going there for the day?

 

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It's really just a massive shopping mall, but we enjoyed it. Some things we purchased were cheaper than at home, & I remember it had a big Asian food hall type area where we got to have a great local lunch for a cheap price. I'm pretty sure there was also an ice rink down the bottom & maybe cinemas too. There is a hotel & water park attached. Just google it. Might be more I don't know about or can remember!

Have you been to Batu caves?

I have not made it there yet. I believe it's about a 90min drive from the port.

I guess I did not explain myself well. I was thinking of taking the Kuala Lumpur on your own, being dropped and picked up in the city by the cruise line. But I was wondering if I could easily get around once there. Sorry!

Yea fairly easy once in the city. Some of the shopping malls are close to each other & many people use these to walk from one place to the other staying in air-con as much as possible. There is also a good MRT system, but taxis are cheap & plentiful and might save you time.