Long, detailed review of 11/30/09 Solstice TA

[cruise kitty]

First, a little back ground info on DH and I, I am 42, he is 44, married for 23 years with 2 grown children. We booked this cruise in May of 2008.

We've never been to Europe and the price for this cruise seemed like a terrific value considering the ports it would visit, the time of year, & the excitement of a new class of ship with 6 straight sea days to enjoy it.

 

We booked a C2, cabin 1281 (although this would change) ourselves on the X website, choose to do our own air & pre cruise hotel arrangements.

 

Shortly before trip, a price decrease enabled us to upgrade to C1 cabin 1108 with large angle balcony, as well as a very nice OBC.

 

Received great tips & help on the cruise air board. Ended up booking ANZ premium economy from LAX to LHR leaving on Thanksgiving day, with BA business class into Rome from LHR (more about that later)

 

First flight (ANZ Thansgiving Day) Cannot say enough about this flight & crew. We were seated on the upper deck first row of premium economy, boarded early due to upper deck status, clean spacious seating area on exit row, champagne served promptly, along with a small gift bag containing ear plugs, eye shades, slipper socks, toothbrush & toothpaste, a various lotions. Delicious meal & continued beverage services, & a truly outstanding entertainment system. Fresh sealed blankets (I brought my own pillow) After a few more cocktails, DH and I were able to get a very good night of sleep, freshen up in nicely appointed WC & were soon enjoying a fantastic breakfast. Arrived about 30 to 40 minutes early, around 10:00 am local time, actually hated for flight to end, but eagerly anticipating arriving in Rome in a few short hours.

 

Easy & quick pass through customs, collected baggage & traveled to terminal 5, tried to go stand by on earlier flight, but no business seats available, so we checked into our flight & enjoyed the BA lounge for the next few hours. About 45 minutes prior to flight, we headed down stairs to board, however, our flight was now showing a delayed message, no explanations, & no staff to answer questions. About 30 minutes after flight was scheduled to leave, it completely disappeared from the board, by now rumors were swirling of a strike by baggage handlers in Rome. Finally informed that we would be flown to pisa, followed by a 4 hour bus ride into Rome, we quickly researched the train schedules & decided we would take a train on our own from Pisa instead, it would save several hours. A good number of (mostly British) passengers decided to forgo the trip altogether & requested that their luggage be removed from the plane. We were seated in first row of plane, business class. A far cry from the cleanliness & luxury of ANZ, however by now we were so tired (& feeling smelly) that we were just grateful not to be at the back of the plane with the screaming babies. Flight left around 4 ish. We made our descent into Pisa, & lost our permission to land which resulted in a rather swift pull up & assent followed by 15 minutes or so of a holding pattern, made another attempt at landing, again a sudden pull up followed by glorious news from captain that we had been cleared to go to Rome! Great cheers throughout the cabin, & we toasted the news with champagne.

 

Unfortunately most of the customs officials had already gone home for the evening, with many delayed planes now landing at once we had a very, very long wait (only 2 officials for many hundreds of pax), but we were so grateful to be in Rome, we just sucked it up & waited our turn. Finally made it through, & headed to baggage claim, where an entire days worth of baggage was being processed & sorted, did I mention that some pax chose to skip trip & had their luggage removed?? Well, apparently 2 of our bags were enjoying a little private time in London, we waited in line & filled out missing bag report. We had carried on bit of clothing, but all my make up, hair appliances, & bulk of our clothing was missing.

 

Followed simple signs to train station, purchased tickets, and headed into central Rome. Our hotel ( Waldorf Astoria) was supposed to run a free shuttle from one the Piazza's. We waited on the proper corner, & finally called the Hotel, it seemed that the shuttle had stopped running at 8, so we hailed a cab instead.

 

Arrived, filthy, exhausted & starving at hotel, let them know about missing luggage, were checked in quickly & escorted to lovely room with gorgeous view of city. Headed to concierge lounge & ate & drank whatever we could get our hands on. Lounge closed at 11, we were still starving, so we headed to room & ordered an omelette that must have cost us 80 euros, which we devoured with gratitude. Showered & asleep shortly after 1 am (we had originally been scheduled to be at our hotel before 5) & drifted off to sleep (with visions of missing luggage dancing in our heads) in the cozy down beds with the sounds of Rome echoing softly in the distance.

 

Next: Rome

[kannna]

Well.....I hope it got better from there :)

[Eileen G]

Very interesting so far. Looking forward to the rest of your trip.

[AWorldCruise4Me]

keep going!

 

Michelle

[jayoldschool]

Wake me up when we get to the "Solstice" part ;)

[elvnga]

I was on that cruise as well and we flew from Atlanta directly to Rome on our hometown airline. We arrived an hour early but waited close to 90 minutes for our luggage. We were never told why and we just thought the luggage handlers had not arrived yet because we were so early. Really could not complain when we were getting the shuttle only about 30 minutes later than we would have been if we arrived as scheduled. Sounds like things went downhill after we left the airport.

 

I loved Rome. It was great to see things I learned about so many years ago in school, but the highlight was attending vespers at St Peter's Saturday night.

 

I am anxious to hear about your opinion on the cruise after such a stressful start.

[FinelyCruising]

 

Arrived, filthy, exhausted & starving at hotel, let them know about missing luggage, were checked in quickly & escorted to lovely room with gorgeous view of city. Headed to concierge lounge & ate & drank whatever we could get our hands on. Lounge closed at 11, we were still starving, so we headed to room & ordered an omelette that must have cost us 80 euros, which we devoured with gratitude. Showered & asleep shortly after 1 am (we had originally been scheduled to be at our hotel before 5) & drifted off to sleep (with visions of missing luggage dancing in our heads) in the cozy down beds with the sounds of Rome echoing softly in the distance.

 

Next: Rome

 

OK Lady...time to get us to Part II. I am home from work, filthy, tired, exhaused and starving...well...not so filthy.;)

[tlampley]

Thought this was supposed to be a cruise review? :D

[cruise kitty]

Sorry took so long to continue, busy enjoying holidays, hope everyone else is too. Please keep in mind, I did warn you this would be long...

 

We woke up to greet the gorgeous sunrise that was just beginning to peek over the hills of Rome, there was a slight misty drizzle that lent a very romantic ambiance to the scenery. DH went downstairs for coffee while I showered, and happy happy joy, he returned with our suitcases! Everything was intact, with the exception of my voltage adaptor, so I made due with the hotel dryer, also use the dryer to heat my hot rollers ( actually worked quite well) A lovely buffet breakfast was included with the room, we ate far too much, but figured we would soon be walking it all off.

 

We donned our back packs and made our way on foot to the bus stop about a half mile down the hill, purchased our tickets at the newsstand, and were soon on our way.

We had decided to devote this first day to ancient Rome, starting with the Forum & Colosseum. We studied our guidebook, trying to decide when we should leave the bus to catch the metro, a very helpful Italian woman volunteered to help us, I have to say I was amazed at how many locals would catch our occasional confusion & offer to help us. It was very heartening.

Upon exiting the metro station, the Colosseum is RIGHT THERE! Yes, I'm shouting this because that was pretty much my reaction at the time, it was so overwhelming to see in person (as it were) This was a feeling I would repeat many times over the next week. The line for tickets was quite long, so we headed over the the Palatine Hill/Forum area and bought our tickets there instead (no line) Again, it was just stunning, hard to believe that you're really there seeing things you've only seen in pictures before & realizing that you will never be able to fully describe the experience to anyone who has not been there themselves. We spent a good 2 hours there, & then headed over to the Colosseum. I have to say, for the Forum area you need a good guidebook, as there are not very many signs explaining what you are viewing, but the Colsseum was the exact opposite, there were many very educational displays as you made your way to the interior.

Dh and I decided we would be watching Gladiator as soon as we returned home, and reluctantly headed out towards the Piazza Venezia.

We found a very charming outdoor cafe & enjoyed a slice of pizza & cold beer, and refreshed, continued on our way. (on a side note, we came equipped with our own toileting supplies- I would advise others to do the same, the restrooms often had none)

TBC....