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This is a great suggestion, not only for possible Napier recommendations but also for Auckland. We will be there for two days at the end of our cruise.

Thanks so much

Catherine

Thanks David for the follow up reply.  Appreciate it. 

Catherine

Thank you both for your responses.  We plan to do a private tour (Oceania tours are notoriously expensive).  Glad to hear that the region is among the best. Although we love wine, we are most familiar with California wines, so we are eager to learn about this region.  

Two local wine tours popped up in my research, but I glad to hear from David that we could just take taxis from one to another and not have to rely on an organized tour guide

We are investigating doing a wine tour in Napier when we are there in February 2020. Has anyone done one in that port? And if not there, perhaps you have one to recommend in a different port in NZ.  

Catherine

We used Venice Taxi Airport www.venicetaxiairport.com  from cruise ship to hotel and then again from hotel to airport. Professional service and prompt. 

On 7/2/2019 at 10:07 PM, Langoustine said:

I like Antico Martini near the La Fenice Opera House. If you really want to knock their socks off, hire a water taxi to take you to Locanda Cipriani on Torcello.

+1 on Antico Martini. We ate there a few nights ago. Service was excellent and both the outside area under a canopy with air conditioning inside was quite romantic. Very leisurely paced dinner. 

Catherine

We actually left after the Coliseum. We had just arrived from the states and were fading after the two hour tour. Wish I could  tell you.

We just attended a Vivaldi concert in Venice out of the Church San Vidal.  The concert seems to perform several nights a week in the church with different selections. We attended the Four Seasons concert that also included a Handel piece. Tickets cost 30 euros a person and the performance starts at 9:00 and ended around 10:30.  Doors open at 8:15. There was a line forming when we showed up at 8:20. There are several restaurants in the same piazza so it was lovely to dine outside nearby and then walk over to the church. The only drawback was that the church was exceptionally hot.  

It was impromptu for us but we were all very happy we did it.

Catherine

On ‎6‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 6:20 PM, cruisemom42 said:

I took a look at all 3 tours, and here's my takeaway:

 

Premium Colosseum Tour with Roman Forum & Palatine Hill:  Avoids the long queues. Small group. Takes you to the 'basic' levels of the Colosseum (which is fine for most), gives you an orientation to all three of these related sites and covers a lot of ground in three hours.

 

VIP Underground Colosseum Tour with Roman Forum and Palatine Hill:  All of the above plus the Underground level of the Colosseum, which has limited access. Longer by 45 minutes. The Underground is where the 'props' (scenery, animal cages) were kept for the games in the Colosseum and possibly where the gladiators awaited their turn. On the minus side, it's not that well preserved so hopefully your guide can paint the picture for you....

 

Gladiator's Gate: Special Access Colosseum Tour with Arena Floor (also includes Roman Forum and Palatine Hill):  Same length as first tour but more people. In addition to what's included in the Premium Tour, you get to stand at the arena-level in the Colosseum, which seems more interesting to me than the underground tour, and you get to enter through a special gate. Everything else is the same as the first tour.

 

It's really a personal choice. The 'Underground' level has been the tourists' darling for the last several years but it's never been a big favorite of mine. You see and understand far more from the upper levels looking down than from the lower level looking up, and as mentioned, the level itself is not well preserved (and is prone to flooding, although I think that problem has been addressed). However, if this is your main interest and main site you plan to see, then perhaps you want to do the whole thing....!  

 

Edited to add: All three of the tours are guided.

 

We did the Gladiator's gate and were very pleased with this tour.  It was far more extensive than I thought it would be. We started on the ground floor, but then we were led to the main area on the third level I think. Very knowledgeable guide and very well organized tour. We are glad we did it.  very glad we did it.  

We were just in Rome and stayed at the Hotel Savoy. Only a few blocks from the hotel just around the corner from the Westin was a wonderful small restaurant we ate at called Il Felini.  Great food and service and not terribly expensive. The tuna was excellent as was the beef carpaccio and we all enjoyed the cacia e pepe (spaghetti dish). They were serving a lovely white wine from a small distributor. 

Also right next door to the hotel is a very trendy sushi bar called Jaguar bar.  We enjoyed the sushi there.  

Excellent point. We are on Rome to Venice.  Open waters at night, in ports nearly every day.  I think in this case it has more to do with the combination of the system on the ship and unlimited internet per stateroom. 

But the rest of the cruise? absolutely fantastic. 

I am an Oceania cheerleader but I must report that we are on the Riviera right now and the Internet is the worst we have ever experienced. No matter the time of day or whether people are on board or sleeping, it has been extremely difficult to be on or stay on. You ask how am I sending this? Because we are in port and I am using cellular data roaming 😀

No I won’t stop booking Oceania but I sure wish the line could get it together. Please. 

Catherine

PS. I will try hanging out at the back of the Terrace cafe. 

We share the mild criticism. For me, it is more about placement than about comfort.  I much prefer sitting at a table in front of the window, which is what we have had on the R ships, than at the foot of an unmade bed (or quickly made bed by me) at 7:00 in the morning. Only a few feet difference, I know, but the ambiance feels different.

Having said that, SO grateful to be able to have a beautiful breakfast served to us as we lounge in our bathrobes, wherever the table is.

Catherine

I am stunned by some of the pushback on Hawaiian Dan. If an airline, a concert hall, or even a restaurant did not honor their commitments for no reason other than someone further down the line was willing to pay more, people would be outraged. Forgetting real money out of pocket costs, not everyone has the flexibility to change twice their vacation plans as this situation seemed to demand.

Oceania is my cruise line of choice. But this does not mean I cannot see the problem here. A passenger bill of rights was developed for the airlines. It may be time soon for there to be some new ground rules for cruises.

Catherine

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+1 on both points.

We like the aft cabins (PH3) - saves a little money over PH1 & 2 and the aft is closer to all dining venues (which are important for us :))

We like 8056 or 8059 - not too far back and closest PH3 to elevators.

We second this. We have also stayed in 8056 and 8059 the first PH3 (or last depending on your view!). I was worried about the possible noise from above because I am used to Deck 10 in the larger ships. But It was quiet and in a great location. I would not hesitate to snag either of those cabins. Less expensive than PH2 and great.

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We live the S1 suites on Deck 12. We are not bothered by any noise from above. We are early risers and just love being up in the still, early morning.

 

 

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Thank you both for sharing your experiences. On a different line we were underneath the cafe and did not hear any distracting noises. Perhaps we will give this a try. The location is so nice.

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I would avoid any cabin/suite directly under a bar/cafe where people move chairs or they clean early in the morning based on been there, cone that.....so the answer is yes, try to find a different suite.

Thank you Ghstudio. That was my thought as well, but maybe hoping[emoji1]

Catherine

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To our Celebrity gurus. We are looking at a great itinerary on Reflection next summer. The Sky Suite our TA has suggested is off the back of the ship on Deck 12 under the Cafe. I am not familiar with the ship. I read the wonderful cabin compilation that has been posted on CC. I saw some complaints about the noise from the Cafe above and perhaps soot as well. Wondering whether I should look for a different cabin.

Any advice is appreciated.

Catherine

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Hi Fran. We left Budapest two weeks ago and the bridge was open at that time. Can’t speak about future repairs though. Nobody said anything.

Catherine

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We were on S.S. Maria Theresa and thoroughly enjoyed the ship and were very impressed by the Uniworld service on board.

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Just off our Uniworld trip from Budapest to Prague and thrilled to have done it. We second (or third) Taste of Prague as the best city food tour we have ever taken. And we have taken a number. Excellent food choices. Well organized and well worth the price. Not only are they passionate foodies on the tour, they were extremely helpful in recommending restaurants via email to me for our five day stay in Prague that was not on their tour.

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We are just finishing the cruise you may be taking. We thoroughly agree with the recommendations posted earlier. Attend the concert the evening you are in Vienna. Wonderful musicians and the selections were very good. We also enjoyed very much the Linz option. Walking tour combined with a visit to the apple cider farm. But you are correct when you say the descriptions do not tell the full story. This tour is better than represented. This is a family farm in the countryside owned for generations. Joseph the owner and his wife are very proud of the farm. They serve a lovely lunch and pour their ciders and distilled spirits. Only Uniworld has this arrangement and it was a highlight. We also enjoyed visiting the museum of fine art in Vienna. They open the museum one hour earlier to Uniworld. But when that part of the tour was over, rather than continue walking, we stayed behind to enjoy the museum for another hour and had a great lunch at Cafe Leopold across the street. Easy to hop a taxi back to the ship. Britislava you can do on your own. No need for a tour at all. And if you are a cyclist, their cycling tours are excellent.

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We are currently on a cruise out of Budapest. We had an excellent tour guide in Budapest for a full day private tour last week. Her name is Szilvi Hennig. Szilvi was recommended to us and the praise of her was spot on. She is bright and knowledgeable and extremely personable. She conducted a full day private guided tour for us at a reasonable price. She was flexible about what we did and she worked with me on restaurant suggestions and other sites I should see on other days we were in Budapest. Her email is Hennigszilvi@yahoo.com

Catherine

PS. On Uniworld right now and loving our river cruise.

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Sorry my earlier post was confusing. I agree with TravelerThom that it takes time to do justice to the three sites that you mentioned. They could not all be done in a few hours, but I do think that you could create a nice trip to Sintra in a half day if you wanted to do that.

Catherine

We're taking Uniworld's Jewels of Spain, Portugal and the Douro River this summer. At the end of the cruise, we'll be spending 2 nights (only one full day) in Lisbon. Uniworld provides a "city tour" in the morning. They have an optional "TUK TUK" tour in the afternoon. I'm wondering if time would allow for a trip to Sintra ( the Pena Palace, Moorish Castle, and Quinta da Regaleira) in the afternoon and evening. Has anyone done a half day trip from Lisbon to Sintra? Any other suggestions for making the most of our time in Lisbon?

Absolutely doable. Depending on how you travel, Sintra is about 45 minutes away. Each time we have gone we have done everything we wanted to do in Sintra in a few hours. Again depending on how you travel, the trip getting there can be lovely as well And if you are in the mood to shop in Sintra, it has a boutique with the most interesting silk wraps and jewelry. That alone is worth the trip [emoji1]

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