alistairg

Thanks. I couldn’t find the price of the transfer. $70 is crazy compared to the train. I was amazed how cheap trains were in Italy. We also took the train to and from the airport which was very fast and cheap. When we came home we were able to go from Civitavecchia to Rome Fiumicino with one change of train.

They do a Rome transfer which is probably around $30 a person. However a better option is to take a bus from the cruise terminal to the station than the train to Rome. Train to Rome only takes around an hour and costs 6 Euros (I think that’s the new price next year, it was even cheaper when we did it in October). We used a transfer company on a previous cruise but couldn’t believe how easy and cheap the train was on our latest cruise.

I put up a dining review after being on Wonder in October. I will also add that Hooked was very poor particularly the desserts which were awful. Only had breakfast in CK which was fine. Mason Jar was a good addition, we enjoyed brunch and dinner.

We are just back from a trip in Star Class on the Wonder which allowed us to try almost every restaurant on board and I wanted to give a few thoughts. Star Class was fantastic as always, our butler Israel was the best we have had so far. We stayed in a 2 bed Aqua Suite and invited along a family who have never cruised, so everything was new to them. I have a few general points to make re the specialty restaurants- 1. They really need to change some of the menus. Maybe most people are cruising for the first or second time, but we this was our fourth time at Wonderland, fifth at 150 Central Park and maybe around 10th at Chops. Wonderland in particular would benefit from a new menu. 2. Service was very good everywhere and we have no complaints at all about that. Mason Jar was particularly good. 3. My wife is coeliac and the staff were extremely good at recommending what she could and could not have and if things could be altered to be gluten free. It would, however, help with planning if allergens were listed on the menus. 4. In general starters and desserts were better than entrees. I suspect that the requirement to cater to a variety of customers does mean that many of the entrees are a bit blander than they might otherwise be. My family loved the food in Sichuan Red on the Spectrum and also Sabor on the Symphony which we are sad to see leaving the ships. 5. I am not sure that the specialty restaurants represent great value at $50-60 a head plus 18% over and above food already available in the main restaurant or Coastal Kitchen. In Star Class when there is no extra charge you feel why not give them a try, but much of the benefit of the specialty restaurants is just a quieter setting and choices not available elsewhere rather than materially better food. 6. The specialty restaurants were in general quite quiet, maybe other people find them over priced. 7. The ability to ask for items from other restaurants is particularly useful if you have anyone with an allergy, preference or who is just a picky teenager. I particularly wanted to mention the new restaurants - Mason Jar and Hooked as well as Wonderland Mason Jar Brunch We skipped breakfast so that we could have brunch at Mason Jar. Food and service was very good. The blueberry johnnycakes went down very well. The avocado and salmon toast could perhaps have had a little more seasoning to add flavour. All the dessert opinions were good to excellent. The cinnamon roll was enormous, and maybe a little dry on the outside which I overcame by eating the centre. Mason Jar Dinner The Mason Jar bar was extremely popular, much more so than the restaurant. The band playing in the bar was quite loud and could be heard in the restaurant at dinner In general the starters (lil plates) and desserts were excellent with the entrees being a little disappointing in comparisson. The fried green tomatoes were very tasty and a massive portion. The gumbo and smoky devilled eggs were very tasty. The catfish and chicken pot pie were a little tasteless. We have chicken pot pie all the time at home. There were no sides, everything was in the pie. I would have liked potatoes to be on the side. The pastry was a very thin layer over the top of everything. It should have been much thicker. They need a Brit making their pies! Cherry pie was vastly better than hooked. Basically all the desserts were excellent, the least good was maybe the pecan pie which was a bit heavy. Mason Jar was a very positive surprise in terms of food and service. Hooked This was our first time on a ship with Hooked, so we thought we would give it a try. To be blunt it was bad. We reported it back to the Genie who told us that some of his other passengers had almost exactly the same experience. My wife had the lobster and said it was awful. They had no oysters which one person had been looking forward to all cruise. I had the messy fish sandwich which was actually tasty, but only had two small pieces of battered fish on it which meant the proportion of fish to bun/coleslaw was incorrect. The real disaster was the desserts, the other Star Class guests left before dessert. The cherry pie was rock hard and perhaps the worst dessert I have ever had on a cruise ship. They made two creme brûlées for us as we had one gluten free person. They were dreadful. The custard was literally brown and clumpy. The coconut cream pie was tasteless. They had what was described as a key lime tart. It was actually a lemon tart, it was a very nice lemon tart, just not lime as described. Curiously other ships have a lemon tart on the menu. Our server was very nice and helpful, but the other staff had the air of believing they were at a better restaurant than it actually was. Reminded me of an old fashioned New York steak restaurant. Our friends pointed out that it is advertised as a fish restaurant, but almost everything is fried, making it more like an up market fish and chips. Wonderland I had enjoyed previous meals at Wonderland on other ships. The meat eaters enjoyed their food, but the fish was nowhere near as good. The Halibut in paper had a very strange taste to it that no one at the table liked. We had pre ordered a chicken salad for my wife. Not only did we have to ask multiple times before it came out, but she gave me a piece of the chicken and it was astonishingly bad. Seemed like it had been cooked hours before and kept warm. It was barely edible, but after the fuss and difficulty of actually getting her hands on it, she didn't want to send it back. Considering the lack of choice at Wonderland they really need to change the menu. Each ship has a different mad hatter and the one on the Wonder was maybe a little too attentive and creepy. The service at Wonderland was the worst of any of the specialty restaurants. 150 Central Park In my view, from previous cruises, 150 is the best of the specialty restaurants on the Oasis class ships. Despite the menu not having changed, there are still a lot of things I would like to try as most of the dishes look good. The pumpkin bisque and fried cheesecake continue to be highlights. I could easily have had another portion of the cheesecake. Coastal Kitchen We had breakfast here most days as well as a couple of lunches. Breakfast was always solid. the real benefit of Coastal Kitchen is that I hate how busy the Windjammer generally is for breakfast. I asked for eggs benedict with smoked salmon (eggs royale) instead of ham one day and they cooked the salmon. Perhaps my fault for not being specific enough. Our room mates informed me that the pastries were higher quality than in the Windjammer. A very pleasant breakfast surprise was the chorizo and egg flatbread which my wife persuaded me to try. Basically chorizo pizza with a fried egg on top. Very nice. The soups were always very tasty. The creme brûlée was much better than in Hooked, but still not quite right as the custard was too hard set. Chops We have dinner once or twice at Chops most cruises. It was pretty standard. I thought that the quality of my ribeye could have nee a little better. The sides were good but smaller than I might have expected. I wish they would add onion rings to the menu. Desserts were nice with one comment. Someone had decided to add a thin layer of chocolate sauce between the cake and frosting on the red velvet cake.This is my mind spoiled it as it made it taste too choclatey. It annoys me when people mess with classic foods. They are classics for a reason. The red velvet cake in the Wind Jammer was actually better, actually one of the best things I have ever had in the Wind Jammer. Izumi Food was tasty and plentiful as always. Our friends really enjoyed it. Must have been the fifth time I have heard the chef's spiel and surprisingly it remained entertaining. Giovanni's We hadn't planned to go here, but decided that we should as we have never tried it before. Stromboli and meatball gigante starters were very tasty. I had the lasagne main. It was poor and nowhere near as good as the lasagne I had previously had at Jamie's on the Harmony. It lacked tomato sauce and basically tasted like mince and pasta. The Go Bananas was another dessert highlight.

Currently having a great time in a 2 bed Aquatheater suite on the Wonder. From the deck plans and the info posted earlier on the UK website it looks like there is no equivalent room on the Icon. Did anyone see something similar? You either have various 4 people suites or the crazy expensive Royal Loft and Icon Townhouse. I have always thought that the Aquatheater (and the 4 bed on the Harmony) was the best value for money Star Class suite and would love to see something similar on the Icon.

Does anyone have the genie email address for Wonder? We are leaving from Rome on the 13th of October and have not heard from them yet. I have tried wn_genie01@rccl.com and wn_concierge@rccl.com but they did not work. I understood that WN was the code forWonder, but maybe I am wrong. Thanks

Just click on the E in the top left corner and it changes to English

The 48 hour visa is 100 SAR. There are also $10.50 in fees plus insurance. One company was offering it for 99c, which seemed a little suspect. So you are talking around $40. The hassle is worse than the cost. We have five people so I would have to fill out forms for every person, the form asks every foreign trip you have been on in the last five years. That is a lot of information. Also the payments are all taken separately, there is a note saying they will be combined in the future. So I would need to make 15 payments. Hence waiting to see if necessary!

That is for a 1 year e-visa. The link that I posted is for a 48 hour transit visa which is considerably cheaper. For some reason visit Saudi do the one year visas but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs do the transit visas. It is not clear of you can just apply for a transit visa when you get there, I would hope applying before you leave saves some time. As I am going in February I am hoping we get a bit more info from the cruises in late December as to the exact procedures. https://visa.mofa.gov.sa/Home/Index2?service_type=1

I am on World Europa in February and have been following this. After a LOT of searching I found that you can get a transit visa by going through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website and clicking on the option for Visa Applications From Saudi Missions Abroad. Apparently the old government site linked above has not worked for a long time. https://visa.mofa.gov.sa/Home/Index2?service_type=1 You have to set up an account, fill in a form with some somewhat odd questions, select an insurance provider and make payment. Some of the odd questions included qualification/source of degree. I just put NA as I not everyone in the party has one and I wanted to see what happens. They asked for a KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) home address. Which is very strange as it is for visitors. I put NA again. I put MSC World Europa in for the flight number. They also asked for all countries visited in the last 5 years. As I do not have this information to hand, I have not filled it in yet and having saved the application I cannot edit this part for some reason. They also asked for a PO Box and zip code. In the insurance part. I think they mean address in Saudi Arabia. I put in the port PO Box number which is 28062 and the zip code appears to be 31188. The 48hour transit visa is SAR100 which is around $27. There is also a $10.50 application and processing fee and you have to select an insurance provider. There are some very cheap options, one appears to only be 99c.

It looks like it is Ostuferhafen LP1 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ostuferhafen+1,+24149+Kiel,+Germany/@54.3317606,10.1666866,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x47b257b5c7621945:0x80d2e6b0e172fd06!8m2!3d54.3317606!4d10.1754413

I wonder if this happens to other people might a better course of action be to pay the incorrect amount and then do a chargeback on your credit card. In issues like this that I have had elsewhere, the credit card company seems to have more sway than individual customers. This would still be a hassle, but at least you wouldn't risk losing all of your booking.