Grillfish

Oh boy... I better book a taxi then, might try Tinker. I have a 10:55am flight out of AMS, getting off the Silhouette. If I can disembark the ship by 7am (if they are cleared), I hope that is enough time.

I've done self disembarkation many times and will do this again.

How crowded is the beach on Passion Island? did you have any trouble finding chairs or loungers?

When we went, only 2 ships in port and had entire beach to ourselves. Lunch was great and free drinks, hard to beat. Twister is awesome! We sat in the very back, up high and it was wild!

Have fun.

Cozumel - Sounds like the OP has a plan.

Belize - You tender there and we did the 4WD adventure, caving and rive ride, fun. Like others said, the port area is small, but some shops, bars, if I recall, nothing fancy.

GC - You tender there and can just walk around town and shop or taxi to a beach.

Roatan - Nice beach right there. We did Clip n Zip right in the AM (right outside the port gate), then did a day at the beach. We bought $1 blow up tubes/floats before we left for the cruise and had a great time floating around.

Great advice already given. Wife and I have done two med trips, one 12 day out of Rome in March 2007 and 7 day out of Barcelona in May 2013.

First trip we flew out of ORL to JFK, the night before and into Rome the morning of the cruise. Lucked out, no issues at all and arrived at the port right when they let folks board.

Last trip, flew out of ORL to Philly, two days before so we could spend time in Barcelona. Lucky we did as we had mechanical trouble, boarded first plane and sat there 2 hours or so, then had to deboard and wait for a new plane (not easy since USAirways only has a few planes available in the same format). Ended up leaving 5 hours late. No issue for us, as it just cut down on the day in Barcelona. But some folks were very stressed and were rushing getting from the airport to the port. Shorter drive in Barcelona to the port. They made it, but barely....

Oh, trip insurance for sure.

We had an inside one time.... Played a joke on my wife. Woke her up saying we are going to be late for our excursion as we over slept. I told her to hurry and get a shower as we need to leave in 15 min. Well she rushed and we go outside our cabin and it was dead. No people around. She asked what's going on.... I then showed her my watch, it was 5am :P

She never wore a watch on a cruise and always asked me what time is it (like 20 times a day). Every cruise after that, she wore a watch :)

We sailed out of Barcelona on the EPIC last May for a short 7 day cruise. Loved Barcelona. The ship.... so, so. Prob wonnt book EPIC again.

Osheehans is good for lunch. We did MTD and if we got there when they opened, no wait. One MDR was better than the other, but can't remember which one. The shows were good.

Our room had an extended balcony and we had two lounge chairs out there. Our bed was closer to the balcony than the bathroom, didn't want to have the toilet almost next to the bed.

One hint, if someone is taking a shower, do not open the cabin door to go out or come into the cabin. I saw many "blurred" people taking showers as the other person in the cabin opened the door for some reason or another. At least no one had the glass shower door open or stepping out of the glass tube when the cabin door was opened.

This May, we will be on the FOS for the first time, actually first Royal Car. cruise for us. Will be nice to see the differences.

Either way, enjoy the TA cruise!

Thanks for the feedback on Soller. I might just walk around the town now in Palma, seeing I haven't been there before. In July the weather should be nice and warm/hot so maybe a train trip is not such a good idea. I've also got two busy days before I even get to Palma. I'm doing Cinque Terre in Livorno, and a Winery tour (2 wineries) and free time in Aix of Provence in Marseille, so thanks heaps for your suggestions. You're right, it is only a half day in Palma Mallorca. Sleep in, lazy morning then I'll probably feel like walking. Any good shops-I have to find a Mother of The bride outfit before November. It's winter here, so there's not much available.

We did this a few weeks ago, from Barcelona.

We did the train from Soller, but it was not worth it. 50% of the time, you are in tunnels :( The bus ride around the island is fun, great little towns.

We did Aix and it was a nice busy town to walk around and visit shops.

We did Cinque, but the weather was bad, so we had to do public trains from town to town, not the boat (which would have been much better). Imagine, large group of 5 or 6 buses trying to get on public trains, it was crazy. However, the towns you visit while in Cinque are amazing. We had calamari, best ever in my life, right out of the sea :)

Enjoy the trip!

I've just booked the Epic out of Barcelona for May 2014 and am so excited for this cruise, even tough it's more than a year away! Elsplace2, your review is awesome.

 

We are also from Va Beach, and I'm curious to hear what airline/routing you used to get to Barcelona. We can't buy our air tix just yet because it it too far out, but I'm trying to figure out what routing might be easiest/least expensive. Appreciate any info you can give about our air arrangements, even though I realize it was a few years ago now...

For us, we leave for Barcelona on May 10th on the EPIC. Our first time on this ship, bt 2nd trip to Europe.

But after looking at all flights, we decided to arrive early to enjoy Barcelona and come back same day as we disembark. For us, from Orlando, we fly into Philly, then direct to Barcelona over night (leave Friday, arrive in BAR Saturday 8:30am, staying in Hotel Jazz one night). On the way back, we fly out of Barcelona direct to Philly and then into ORL (leave Sun get home Sun). Both ways on US Airways.

We saw other options to fly from ORL to London, then Barcelona or ORL to Miami then to Barcelona, but the return trip didn't meet what we were looking for.

Good luck.