suec12

I just realized that I can do online final payment - not sure why the email they keep prompting me with tells me to call! But I still agree, the call centers wait times are bad! esp. for a high end company.

Well if they don't want to staff up the call centers, then they should at least have an online payment option for final payment -DUH! It does irk me to be on hold 15 minutes waiting to pass over thousands of dollars or loose my reservation. I think all the RCCL brands have this option.

We will be on the Riviera in May. We sailed on O before, but on Nautica. Please rank the speciality restaurants in your order of preference and name you favorite dish / dishes.

We love lamb chops - our go-to favorite.

Also it is my understanding I should book at 45 days out (we are in a verandah) by email? if you waited until onboard, were you shut out?

Thanks for your input.

We are docking for two nights / 3 days in Haifa. For the first day (Saturday) we have booked a Jerusalem / Bethlehem tour - how will it being the Jewish Sabbath affect us? I am hoping for light traffic - maybe I am naive!

Fredsue - have you booked a cruise? I am on the May Riviera cruise that stops for 2 nights in Haifa. I have not made a final decision about tours yet - I have been in contact with GTI and also another company that offers a 2 day overnight in Jerusalem. Yes, it's really little time to see a country with so many interesting sights but it will probably be my one and only trip there.

If you are booked on a cruise - go on over to the roll call. On the May trip, we are still looking for cruisers to join us for small group tours. We are looking at 2 one day tours with GTI - one day in Jerusalem and one day in the north. We want to focus on Christian sights - there is another couple that wants to focus on Jewish sights. With GTI a group of 6 or more, the day tours are about $100 per person, so much less than Oceania. The 2 day overnight is (I think) $330 per person - not sure if that group needs a minimum.

PaulMCO - oh I think pretty much all the cruise lines are quite creative these days - we also cruise on Azamara and Celebrity - so many times I see a deal after booking, call to check it out and it is not what it seems. It makes it pretty frustarting to know when to "pull the trigger"! tho I've found usually earlier is better unless you can do very last minute.

We did this cruise in Oct. on the Silhouette - it was great.

You might want to purchase the Rick Steves guide to Med. ports - this will give you info / walking tours of several of the main ports. Also very good logistics and suggestions on how to spend your limited time.

We did one small group tour with some friends in Split to tour Diocletian's palace - what an amazing site and the tour was very helpful as there were so many layers of history. The other ports we did on our own, several were repeats of places we had been before. I don't think Ravenna is in Rick's Med. ports book - you might want to check out his Italy guide from the library and copy out those pages for better understanding of the mosaics.

For sure, hook up with your roll call and I hope you are adding a few days at both ends for Venice and Rome unless you have already spent time in those cities.

I'd rather spend my monies on some nice lunches in port than in the speciality restaurants. IMO the MDR is just fine and has many selections. The speciality restaurants are a bit over the top for me - both in service (a bit slow and too attentive for me!) and amount / richness of food and I'd suggest you not go to Quisine as a party of two - way too much food (and I'm not a light eater by any measure!).

As I said, we loved this cruise - Malta was new to us and a pleasant surprise - the cathedral there is amazing (and we've seen many!). Sicily, so much to see, so little time!

Hope you have a wonderful time!

Because my husband wants to know - hee hee - how often do you think they change the sheets on the beds, say on a 12 day cruise?

we will be in a standard balcony cabin - how far ahead of time can we book? thanks

Its fun just to ride the trolleys around in Lisbon, or maybe a HOHO - it is a city where you could easily enjoy a week or more but for a day, go for the overview and try one of the Belem pastries. But do be aware of tricky people on the trolleys that might be "fishing" for your goodies.

I have sailed both Azamara and Oceania on the "small ships" and also several times on Celebrity's solstice class. Beyond the cabins, the ships are very different but I certainly enjoy myself on all of the above. Yes, the bathroom will be tight on the Nautica with the clingy shower curtain - I've heard that taking clothes pins to clip to the bottom can help. (I like the comparison to bathrooms found in many European hotels!) IMO it would not be worth it to pay for a PH suite to upgrade the bathroom - for the cost, I'd certainly make do in a regular cabin. But I doubt very much if you end up thinking the days you spend on the Nautica are just "making do" days.

obviously they are too busy producing and mailing their lovely brochures to take time out to answer the phone.

I don't use a TA and I'll ask Oceania when I have a chance but after holding for 15 minutes, I had to move on. Was hoping to get an idea here before I try calling again.

Well I know it's better to go to the source rather than these boards, but I've been on hold for quite a awhile and can't take the blathering promos another minute!

I have a reservation for a May sail - final payment not made, nor am I past the $250 penalty date. The person I had planned to travel with is dithering - can I replace her with someone else and keep the reservation that I now have or will we need a new reservation and possibly have to pay a price difference? (we got a promo deal).

I certainly agree with the OP - too many promotions! and often they are "tricky" and make it very difficult to find the actual price (or the price has increased to include the FREE beverage package). I would rather have a bottom line price and then pay for whatever extras I am interested in.

We have sailed with X several times lately and each year their pricing and promos get more and more complicated. I'm using my college educated brain for something these days, trying to get to the bottom line of their prices! But as others have said, many promos are "new bookings only" or there may be a lower price but you lose a perk given when you booked. I do like to book directly with X so I don't have to always go thru a TA when I see these promos and try to figure out if it is to my advantage.

And let me just say, in case someone from X reads these boards!, this fairly loyal X cruiser would rather see a lower bottom line than perks I may or may not want included with a higher price - just sayin'.

We did this cruise and by the way, it was great! We actually flew into Zurich! spent 3 nights at Lake Como, then trained over to Venice to board (we had been to Venice before, if you have not, I'd certainly advise arriving a few days early. Even with the overnight, that would not be enough time to enjoy the city IMO). You could also fly into Milan and train over.

The time I used Choice Air (not on this trip tho) I was pleased with how it worked out. But if you book yourselves, an "open jaw" ticket, into one city and out another, should not cost much more than round trip.

One more piece of advice - with so many cruises starting or ending at the port of Rome these days, there is a HUGE demand for flights on the days the big ships dock so I'd advise you not to wait too long to book your flights.

Since you have been to Venice before, you might choose to stay in Mestre and take a taxi from Mestre directly to the ship. Also there is a hotel - I think Best Western Olimpia very near Piazzale Roma that would probably be walkable (airport bus to Piazzale Roma, Piazzale Roma to people mover to ship) as long as luggage was not outrageous.

I assume you are aware that the days of the big ships in and out of Venice is coming to an end - who knows what the docking situation for your ship will be. I'm not sure of exact dates but I think beginnning Jan. 2014, the changes begin to go into effect.

wow - tough crowd here for river cruising! We did 2 river cruises, probably a "lower end" choice - GCT. The first was the Danube - Budapest, Vienna, Prague. We did this because we wanted to see that part of the world, esp. a stop in Bratilava as my husband is 1st generation child of Slovakian immigrant. Me, I will never do another bus tour - waaaay too much moving and packing and unpacking so the river cruise was the best choice for the itinerary. Also my impression was that I would not like the country cuisine in that part of the world and hoped for better on the ship. Our 2nd river cruise was in France on the Saone and Rhone.

Yes, the food on O was much superior and the dining, everyone eats at the same time on the river cruise, a very different experience. But I have reached the point in my life where I have had so much good food that every meal does not have to be a home run! I still want to eat tasty food BUT we wanted to visit the places on the itinerary so fine dining could be sacrified a bit!

We loved the first river cruise, esp. Budapest! And the second was pleasant as well - yes, the shore excursions (all included) were not small groups but for the most part the guides were fine. I really liked traveling along the river seeing the country side and usually docking right in the middle of the city. As far as entertainment, we are happy to chat with fellow travelers at night or play cards - met some bridge players. We thought the city visits were fine, some tour time, some free (or optional excursions time). We did not spend much time on buses except when we needed to go overland at the beginning / end of the trip. We did not notice going thru the locks at night.

A river cruise is just very different - I guess whether you decide to go or not probably depends how much you want to go where it goes. Again, I'd never do a bus tour - I think even a Rick Steves (probably the best of the bunch) would move too often, too many up and out in the mornings for me. I'd do a slow paced land trip on my own before a tour bus! Where are you thinking of going on your river cruise (if you have read all the way thru this "river of blather")

We recently sailed out of Venice on a Celebrity ship - large but not the biggest ship in the canal! We have been to Venice several times before so we planned to visit a church we had read about in the WSJ and stay away from tourist ground zero sights. We had a lovely day! wandering in a part of the city near the university where there were few tourists so for those of you that don't like crowds, you can still enjoy the city. We even saw some of the graffiti about keeping the (big?) ships out of the city.

However, Venice must have spent quite a few E's lately on the people mover and our cab driver on the way to the port said many locals wanted the business from the ships. He said alot of the protesters were university students, not residents or those working in the city. But it does seem that they could have the super big girls dock a bit away from the city and shuttle in the hoardes. But what else does Venice have besides tourism? and I still think it is a wonddrful place to visit whenever I am fortunate enough to be in that part of the world.

We will be on the Riviera in the spring - we have taken one other O cruise, several years ago on one of the older ships so I am thinking things may be a bit different on Riviera.

Is there sushi on board?

For the nights we eat in the speciality restaurants, can we sit with others? We liked meeting new folks at the larger tables in the MDR but if I remember correctly, we ended up at a two top in the specialty dining venuew. We like to eat with others! the conversation is always more interesting than just between the 2 of us.

First of all, I was told to be on a wait-list I had to put down a deposit? So I did and soon other offers began to come my way by emails, not for the cruise I had booked on but on somewhat similar itineraries - at first for late season sails (Nov.) but then came one for one next spring that was great. So I "jumped ship" and I am very happy with what was offered me. So my advice is cross your fingers and see what might be offered while you waiting. A note - I booked on the website, hopefully your TA will pass along the offers - you might want to be pro-active and let her know, you are willing to entertain other options, if indeed you are.

Did you have transfers into the city? I don't understand why you were not just picking the bags up in the big area in the terminal? not sure where "put on the wrong bus" plays in to this as obviously you were not going straight to the airport.

But good luck! I hope the bags show up before you leave Rome!

Hoepfully no one from my current roll call will see this, I think I am prety much off the radar of the main posters, but IMO my current roll call is overflowing with "froth". There is a core that is planning a pre-cruise meal, travel to the port and onboard activities all of which are nice but the lists of these activities and the roll call have been posted so many times the roll call may be headed for an all time record. Plus alot of personal chit chat. Yes, at some point people need to take the personal chit chat off line!

I enjoy some personal greetings and chit chat but I think its best if most posts remain in the context of either the upcoming ports or ship information. Tour planning, books to read as background, previous experiences, even weather expectations and what to pack - that sort of info is great and makes participating in a roll call is a great way to travel plan and enjoy the anticipation of an upcoming trip.

We have done 2 GCT river cruises but several years ago - then we switched to several Med. cruises. Over the years I have learned that prices go up and prices go down and just like the airlines, everyone ends up paying different prices - at least on the large ships. I did not know this when we booked our river cruises before.

Now we are thinking about a Danube cruise in 2014 - GCT is currently offering a DEAL but the deal is quite a bit higher than we paid before (price per night, per person). We do not want to wait until the last minute but we do wonder if we hold off a bit, if the price might fluctuate, hopefully get better. Anyone here want to give me some clues or tips about booking experiences they may have had with this company? Many thanks!