NCteacherlovescruising

Thanks, but we have already booked with Princess. We did book the land portion first.

We booked with Princess. Looks like our dates don’t conflict with the World Cup.

We booked our boat tour through Get Your Guide but it was ran by Positano Boats. It was one of the best days of our trip

We didn’t ask her to customize the tour so I don’t know if that’s an option. I would think so since it’s private. She booked the tickets and we paid her for them. She cannot offer an underground tour at the Colosseum. I believe she said you have to book those directly through the colosseum.

Just have to say we absolutely loved Venice and I can’t imagine missing her given the opportunity. However, it was a bucket list item for me. Given that, @FreestyleNovicesuggestion sounds amazing!! Tuscany is absolutely stunning and Florence is the main place I wanted to go on our visit to Italy that we couldn’t squeeze in. We did an NCL excursion to Bologna from Ravena and it was just ok. IMO, it didn’t compare to charm and beauty of Venice. If you do Venice, get up early to see it before the crowds. We stayed at the Hotel Rialto. We had breakfast outside with a view of the Rialto bridge and there were very few people out at that time.

We let them know ahead of time and they buy the tickets for us. We had talked about possibly doing the Picasso museum day 3 and maybe some shopping or just wondering around. They have a tour that includes Montserrat and I believe all the other stuff I mentioned.

The Barcelona city tour picks us up at our hotel and ends at SF, with the option to stay after the tour to go inside. If we decide to go inside, which we would, they reimburse you for the cost of a taxi to get back to our hotel. Something to consider but it’s a lot of taxis. I inquired about this tour and we would only be able to do the half day one, which does not include a winery. Back to the drawing board for day 3. How long would your itinerary for day 2 take? I believe we must be on the ship by 4 for a 6 PM sail-away.

We don’t mind being busy with tourist stuff! 😊 Thanks! How do you add stops?

So we can fit in everything we want to do in 48 hours?!!

Sorry, I’m just seeing this. We booked a cruise tour on the Discovery Princess. Our TA recommended it.

We actually booked on the 25th. Our friends just booked today though since they had never sailed with Princess before.

We are planning on doing carry-on only, so unless our plane is delayed, or we miss our connection at LHR, that should be doable. Day 1- check! They do not go inside They stop for like 5 minutes so we can get pictures and we have 45 minutes at Park Geull. This tour has the option to be left at La Sagrada at the end if we want to go inside, which we would. They arrange for discounted skip the line tickets. These are some of the sites that we aim to see during the half day city tour: • La Sagrada Familia- world-famous architectural masterpiece • Park Guell- Gaudi's greatest Park with beautiful city views - visit requires skip-the-line entry • Passeig de Gracia- Barcelona's most luxurious strip • La Pedrera/Casa Mila- Gaudi's most famous building in Barcelona • Casa Batllo- Gaudi's most astounding contribution to Modernisimo • Casa Amataller- part of the trio "Apple of Discord" • Casa Morera- part of the famous trio • Plaza España- most impressive plaza in Barcelona • The National Palace- very impressive site with great views • The Olympic Ring- see where it all happened in 1992 • Montjuic- with lots of history and great city views • The Columbus Monument- for the world-famous explorer • Port Olympic- marina, shops, restaurants, galleries, & more • Plaza Cataluña- the famous plaza in the heart of Barcelona Please know that this is mostly a panoramic visit (view from the outside) of the city highlights with an inside visit to Park Guell. We stop at some of the sites (for some as briefly as 5 minutes or so and for Park Guell around 45 minutes) and there is usually time to go out of the vehicle to walk around and take photos. The number of sites that we visit will still depend on the actual day of the tour as we have several factors to consider like driving time, length of stay in each site, pace of the tour, traffic conditions on the day, etc. Does this sound worthwhile? It's only 69 euros and is considered semi-private (4-12 people). It doesn't say how long the tour is. I'm sure we'd still have time to go back to a Gaudi house to go inside. This would be day 2. And day 3 the Montserrat tour that drops us off at the ship. We've had several Rioja's we have liked. Spanish just isn't our go-to wine, but we will drink them and I'm sure we would enjoy visiting a beautiful vineyard. Where would we squeeze in Les Ramblas? I believe our hotel is right next to it.

We won’t miss this. It’s #1 on our list. We will be there in June. For us, visiting a winery is about the experience more than the wine. We enjoy visiting vineyards in NC, although their wines don’t compare to the ones we typically buy. The only Spanish wine we typically drink is Tempranillo and even at that, it’s not our go to. We prefer French, Australian (Mollydooker in particular) and Napa reds. We recently returned from our first trip to Europe. We went to Italy (Rome, Amalfi Coast, Naples and Venice), Greece, Croatia and Montenegro. This time we will go to Spain, France, Italy (Genoa, Sicily, Capri) and Malta.

You all have given me so many good ideas! We need to research a bit on the following to see what all we want to squeeze in the apx. 48 hours. For sure we want to see: 1. SF 2. Gothic quarter - This wasn't initially on my list, but apparently it's a must see. Perhaps take the "free" walking tour @marazul suggested, or self guided as @alserrod did. I would love to see that little bridge! Thinking day of arrival for this. Reminder: our plane lands around 2 PM so we would get a late start, especially by the time we went to check in (if our room is ready) and grab a bite to eat. 3. I was going to put Montserrat winery tour on the maybe list, but the photos look stunning and you know we love our wine! Thanks for the suggestion @marazul! I see Spain Day tours have a tour for this as well. Maybe: 1. Les Rambles - It doesn't look that appealing to me but it's right by our hotel and everyone suggests it. 2. Park Gruell - Maybe do the the half day tour @VMax1700 mentioned. This would be nice for our last day since they would pick us (and our luggage!) up at our hotel and drop us off at the ship at the end of the day. Besides Park Gruell, is the rest just drive by? I can't tell from the description on the website. 3. Gaudi houses - Casa Batllo and La Pedrera are included in the Spain Day Tours Barcelona City Tour. As you can see, we have too much on our list for just 48 hours or so. My initial reaction is that we would most enjoy SF and Montserrat. Question is, what else will we have time for? Would it be reasonable to do the Gothic Quarter on our arrival day, a Barcelona City Tour on day 2 that ends at SF, which we could do on our own, and the Montserrat tour on embarkation day? (Ship doesn't leave until 6 PM) And maybe do Les Rambles day 2 after our tour...or is this itinerary way to ambitious?

Got our flights booked directly with AA and hotels with our Chase points. We ended up going with the Hotel Brighton for a larger room than we would have with Hotel Marronniers. Both seem very nice.

We ended up booking our flights directly with AA, which gets us there much earlier. Now we land at 2:05 on a Wednesday and our cruise begins on Friday. So we will have part of Wednesday and Friday, but all day Thursday. 🙂 As for the walking vs. HOHO, we found in Rome that walking in the sunshine kept us alert and the last thing on our mind was sleep until we had dinner. Woke up early the next morning and never had any difficulty adjusting to the time change. As for our Chase points, we ended up using them to book our hotels in Barcelona and Paris.

We already had them booked so I know they have rooms. I canceled today after we decided to use our Chase points for hotels since we can do better with flights booking directly with AA. That is correct. They aren’t sold out, that’s just what it says in the Chase portal. I think we’re going with the Brighton. Still waiting on AA to call me back. I tried booking with them both from my app and on my computer and couldn’t get them to take our trip credits. 🤬 I put a 24 hour hold on the tickets while I wait.

We had booked the Castille Hotel in Paris and were planning to book air with points in the Chase portal. However, we've found we can do much better booking our plane tickets directly with AA and booking hotels with our points in the Chase portal. The problem is, Castille is showing "sold out" in the portal, although their website has rooms available. This is leaving us with two other options we had considered, the Brighton or Marronniers. Would also be open to a Marriott since we are Bonvoy members.

I didn't quote it, but did reference it. I can try telling them I will complain to the EU commission.

They came back with another $50 credit, so a total of $100 each. I responded again but have not heard anything more.

My favorite thing we did while staying in Rome was our day trip to Tuscany. It was so relaxing, the views were absolutely stunning and the wine was good! We also enjoyed our catacombs and crypts tour, shopping, and eating. Not to mention just walking around enjoying their beautiful architecture and people watching.

We’re doing the Princess 13 day Connoisseur escorted tour TB6. If it’s not included perhaps it is an optional excursion.

We have a land tour prior to the cruise. Will that be included in our land tour?

We could cancel our trip to France post cruise and just stay in Barcelona. It’s at least worth checking out.

We already booked with Princess. We’ve already booked with Princess. This is our cruise itinerary.