FawnRiver

I agree with the other posters - a big contributor to the age make up on any cruise line is the itinerary and length of cruise.

We are in our forties and have always cruised with Princess (so far). There is definitely a difference when comparing itineraries & length of cruises to figure out if the cruise will have a good mix for you.

We were on a TA and were having a conversation with a nice older couple (no shortage of those on a 15 day TA) ;), and the lady said to me, it's great you decided to try cruising so early in life

:confused: I had to ask her how old she thought I was, she said 25 :D. The look on her face was priceless when I told her I was actually 42 :cool:

DS is a few years older than I am, and much more into partying, so she enjoys NCL (except for Pride of America, that she said was a floating old age home). DH & I are sociable, we like Princess where you can sit in a lounge, enjoy some nice music and atmosphere and chat with other cruisers. There are parties, we just don't go to them.

We stayed at the Hotel Ala in San Marco, it is on the campo de Santa Maria del Giglio. It has a water taxi dock or you can take the Alilaguna orange line to the stop at Santa Maria del Giglio and walk about fifty yards down an alley to get to the hotel. Its about a seven minute walk from Piazza San Marco, or at least it takes seven minutes once you get used to navigating in Venice :cool:

Have fun.

 

I could save about $125 pp (last time I checked :p) by going with Air Transat, don't know why but I don't feel great about that airline, not that I've had any issues with them in the past, but the savings would pay for the overnight hotel. Anyone like to comment on using Air Transat?

I've used Air Transat in the past without issues, even on transatlantic flights. DS flew Air Transat last month YYZ - FLL (on my suggestion) and had no issues. They flew in on embarkation day (not my suggestion) and made it to their cruise leaving from PoM with their baggage with plenty of time to spare.

Personally, I prefer to book with the originating airline, fewer opportunities for things to go wrong.

Depends on what your tolerance for risk is, especially if you have to switch terminals and aren't capable of moving at top speed. If you're travelling economy class, then that will delay you in getting off the plane. And, then you have to account for whether or not you have to pick up your checked baggage and check in for the connecting flight.

It all depends on your specific arrangements. Once you are looking at specific flights, then it will be easier to answer your question.

Our last time through LHR, our flight was delayed leaving BCN by a thunderstorm, it wasn't a long delay - 30 minutes. Didn't bother us because I had booked the later flight to YYZ so we would still have 4 hours to kill. One of the couples on the flight had booked the earlier flight, so they weren't feeling good about their 2 hour layover being shortened to 1.5 hrs with a change of terminals and going back through security to look forward to.

I have never heard that and never seen it here on the forum. Do you have a link to some of those posts?

Never seen it in the forums here, but it's a story that crops up in the news from time to time. Globaliser was kind enough to post links to some examples.

Codes matter. This morning there's an article about a couple that expected to fly from Birmingham UK to Las Vegas (BHX-LAS) but had instead booked tickets from Birmingham, Alabama (BHM-LAS).

How many times a year do we hear of someone thinking they're getting a cheap flight to Sydney, Australia and instead end up in Sydney, Nova Scotia? :rolleyes:

Thanks for the advice. At this point we pretty much ruled out the land based cruise line tour- we will do it on our own. We want to go to Venice, so may fly into there and then "train it"? to Rome, We just can't do it all, it being our first trip to Europe- have to pick and choose. So thinking a few days in Venice and Rome, then the 9 day Italy/Greece cruise. Still piecing it together!

Happy to be able to help. In Venice, we stayed at the Hotel Ala in San Marco - its a beautiful hotel, reasonably priced and easy to get to. Its 50 yards from the Santa Maria del Giglio stop on the orange line of the Alilaguna. We got there by water taxi because I didn't want to have to haul luggage on public transit. There are no bridges to get there if you use the Alilaguna. The hotel has a dock on a small canal running behind the hotel for water taxis, which is how we left when we went to board the ship. If you want to do a water taxi, I would recommend pre-booking. We didn't know that you could and ended up waiting about an hour for one to be free to take us after getting through the airport and down to the dock.

One thing to note about Venice, it is extremely easy to get lost. The first day we were there and left the hotel to explore, it took us about 45 minutes to find the hotel again from Piazza San Marco :o. The last day, we could do it in 7 minutes :cool:. DH likes wandering, but I don't, so he ended up using the GPS on his phone to help us navigate the city.

Have fun!

Just watch what day you are there on. Sundays can complicate things.

I seem to recall reading that the Colosseum is free for residents on the last Sunday of the month.

We did the underground tour and it was definitely worth what we paid for it. Having pre-booked tickets allows you to walk in straight away, unless the Colosseum has hit the maximum occupancy its rated for, then it doesn't matter if you've pre-booked or not.

Can't help you with Genoa (haven't made it there....yet)

We did a tour off of the Island Princess last September and went to a farm, Sorrento and then Pompeii. We saw a little bit of the Amalfi Coast, but not a lot. A new tunnel has been constructed through the mountains, so the tour buses don't have to negotiate the roads along the coast any more to get into the Sorrento area.

We had wanted to see the Amalfi Coast from the water, but that tour was cancelled, so we had to go with our next best option.

We make a list of what we want to see & do and prioritize it. No matter what you choose, you will not be able to see everything you want to see everywhere you plan to go. Sometimes, the best things you see aren't in any tourist books, its just the things you happen across by accident.

Our first trip to Rome, it was a port of call in the middle of a cruise, so we booked a tour to see the Trevi Fountain, Colosseum and Vatican. Then, it took two hours for the ship to safely get into port due to high winds. That two hour delay cost us the chance to see the Colosseum, which was the primary reason we took that tour. Second time in Rome, similar scenario, except we planned to do it on our own and were going to see the Forum instead of the Vatican. We got into port no problem and took the ship's transfer into Rome.

Then the subways were closed due to a ceiling falling in at one of the stations. We ended up walking from St. Peter's Square to the Colosseum and bussing back to pick up the bus back to the port. Day did not go as planned, but we saw a lot of things that we're glad we saw, but were nowhere on our list of things to see.

If you do go to Venice (highly recommend doing so), plan to go to the tourist sites first thing in the morning or later on in the evening. Avoid the day trippers, unless you like standing in lines. During the day, relax or go to more out of the way places. When we were there, I really wanted to see Arsenale, the old shipyards, it was quite a hike from our hotel, but it was worth it and there weren't any crowds there. Its an Italian Naval base, so you can't get inside, but it was still worth the look.

One other tip, don't overschedule - take time to just find a nice café to sit and relax and soak in the atmosphere and watch the world go by.

We stayed at the Best Western Hotel Ala in San Marco, Santa Maria di Giglio.

Gorgeous hotel, great staff, right on a canal and a campo(square) in front of it. No bridges to cross - Orange line Alilaguna vaporetto will drop you at the Santa Maria di Giglio stop, you just walk about 50 yards down a small alley to get to the square and there it is. Or they have a dock water taxis can pull up to and you step right into the lobby of the hotel.

We've booked on the Royal for a 10 day cruise in May 2017. I was looking at the land tour, too. I love not having to worry about all of the arrangements.

Then I saw the price :eek:

I've heard that the price of the cruise/land tour packages do NOT decrease, even if the cruise itself goes on sale. So, DH and I are planning our own tour.

Venice Airport is Marco Polo, there is also Treviso, which if I understand correctly is further inland. I'd just fly into Marco Polo. The best way to get into Venice proper, is a water taxi, which while expensive, is worth the money, IMHO. Others will disagree.

The distance between Venice and Rome depends on if/where you plan to stop in between. Train service is reputed to be the best away to get around, but you should do your research. There is direct, high speed service between Venice and Florence (I think it is a 2-2.5 hour run), which is certainly worth seeing, then you could go from there to Rome. After telling DH that it is suggested to pack light when travelling that way, he decided that he'd rather we rent a car and drive :rolleyes:

I have apps on my iPad, "Guide with Me" Italy and "maps.me" which have been very useful in planning. Plus there's no shortage of website and books you can use to plan.

Good Luck, and Happy planning. :D

We did a private excursion on one cruise with a group from our roll call. The lady who organized it let everyone know what the cost was, and we just all sent her cheques. It was nice and simple.

It might have helped a little that there was another couple waiting in the wings to join, so if you didn't send your share of the bill, you risked being bumped.

We are on the same cruise and flying in from the US a day early. We're sraying at fhe Novatel......recommended by our travel agent. See you soon!!!!!

We stayed at the Novotel and were quite satisfied with it. It was a short walk from the train station and a short taxi ride to the port. DH didn't care for the Nespresso machine in the room, but he still used it to tide him over until we got down to breakfast.

If you're walking around, be careful when crossing the street. That was the hardest thing while we were there. We instinctively kept looking the wrong way trying to cross the street. We ended up just crossing where and when the locals did.

I can't say specifically about transatlantics, but I can say that every Princess cruise I've been on has offered 2 sessions of bingo a day on sea days, morning and afternoon.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Two a day on sea days during a transatlantic, at least it was on the last TA I did.

We did one thru Princess, it was nice enough, but the specific people running the tour weren't all that professional and weren't particularly helpful for novice snorkellers. DH and I are experienced, so it didn't bother us any. On other snorkel tours, there's usually a guide in the water showing people things, not with this group. He just sat in the rescue ring watching us. The captain was full of information on the ride from site to site and since we knew how to snorkel & knew what the corals & fish were, it wasn't a wasted tour, just not one of the better ones we've been on.

I don't know what planes they're using, but watch out for the Dreamliners if going BA. Their economy class is awful, booking the bulkhead or exit rows doesn't really help.

Our first BA flight YYZ-LHR, I paid extra for exit row for DH who is also 6'2 (& I'm 5'8). With the immovable armrests, the seats were extremely tight and uncomfortable. I have an old hip injury from a car accident and the seat was so tight to my hip that by the time we landed, I couldn't walk without help. I'm a little hippy, but even DH was not comfortable with the width. The girl in the "window" seat (there wasn't a window there) knew what she was doing when she booked. There is a jut out there for the door, she was so petite that she curled up wedged between her seat and the jut out and slept very well.

Our last BA flight, we paid extra for the Plus class and it was worth every penny. And on our way home, we were given an upgrade to Business Class :D

We prefer the cabana, it just adds something. The rooms can be stuffy and dark. It's nice to be up on deck in the cabana.

Fawn River,

 

We are taking a British Isles cruise and thinking about flying in a day early and going into Southampton, hard to determine how easy it is to get around once there ? how did you get to the pier?Thanks

It's super easy to get around, there's a free bus service that goes around the town. The bus drivers are very good. We tried to get onto the regular bus that you have to pay a fare for and he told us about the free bus. We stayed at the Novotel near the train station which made it easy to access the bus and we were in a decent walking distance (for us) to good shopping and Above Bar area where there were a lot of good pubs. There are two great museums there, Sea City which covers a lot of the history of the area, not just maritime history. If you like planes and WW2 history, see the Solent Sky museum. You'll likely need the bus to get there, it's on the opposite end of town, but it was worth the trip.

As to getting to the pier, we just had the hotel front desk call a cab for us. It was about 20 pounds, if I recall correctly.

Have a great trip!

We didn't have any trouble with Gatwick a few years ago. We didn't do EZair or any private transfers. We flew in a couple of days early and hopped the train straight down to Southampton, it's a really nice place to spend a couple of days. We got our bags and got through the terminal to the train station without any real issues, a fair bit of walking, but nothing unexpected. Having done Princess transfers at other ports, I expect they'll have someone waiting for you to steer you through once you clear customs and immigration.

Have a great cruise!

Even having two adults per child isn't necessarily a guarantee of good behaviour. I was on a flight FLL to YYZ, in the front row (paid the extra for so DH could stretch out -he's 6'2). Seats were a 3 by 3 configuration, DH had the window, I was in the middle. In Row 2, there was a child in the middle seat between her parents, who obviously weren't paying any attention because the child popped up out of her chair and started punching me in the head right in the middle of the flight. It didn't really hurt me, but it scared the hell out of me!

When they got her back in her seat, they pulled out a lap top and distracted her with cartoons. I looked back at the mother and she just glared at me and said "what?", like it was somehow my fault.

I'm not saying anything like that is going to happen with the OP, at least they're trying to make it a not miserable flight for everyone involved. Flying Southwest makes it difficult of them, though.

News Media isn't about news anymore, it's about attracting viewers/readers so they can sell add space. Noro on cruise ships is just an easy target for them. They are not going to bother to point out that it happens elsewhere or how many people cruise without getting it, it doesn't help their ad revenue.

Wow, that's beautiful.

Has anyone got any experience as to how strict Princess are with boarding by deck at Southampton? We are on Aloha deck where they are saying to arrive at 3.15 but as we are due to sail at 4 pm this also seems a 'little on the tight side'. Our transportation is due to arrive in Southampton at midday so we will probably arrive at the port before 1 pm and not really looking forward to sitting in the terminal for more than a couple of hours.

Boarding at Southampton sucks. We were told to show up at 12:30, so we got there at 12:25. We were handed a number card and told to go sit and wait for the number to be called, and that was just to check in.

We didn't get to board until 2:30.

My advice, go when you want, you're likely to wait anyway.

On our last cruise, DH asked for one & our room steward told him all of the mattresses had been replaced so he shouldn't need one. We tried the bed out and found he was right.