For those planning a 2013 Eastern Med Cruise - yet another trip report!

[lovestx]

I realize that there have been a couple of fabulous trip reports of late for the Mediterranean and Equinox. Please forgive me if adding mine is overload....but I just wanted to "Pay it forward" for all of the help we received from CC before our June 2012 trip. So I'm posting the pre-trip planning portion of my report now and you can let me know if more detailed day by day details would be helpful. I figure there are quite a few people out there now considering 2013 trips who might find this helpful.

Our family of four was looking for a special trip to take following our son’s graduation from high school and narrowed it down to three options: Hawaii, Australia/New Zealand or a cruise of the Eastern Mediterranean. Australia/New Zealand was out due to winter weather (why go to the Great Barrier Reef when it would be too cold to swim?!?). Hawaii was expected to be the children’s choice but they favored the idea of trying a cruise and seeing ancient sites.

Our party was comprised of DH (51), DW (53), DS (18) and DD (15 ½). We have travelled more than many families and our kids are used to both leisure and sightseeing trips. We have visited all the big National Parks, London, Scotland, Andalucia, Spain, San Francisco, L.A. and St. Croix. We have learned through the years that my obsession with planning and my use of online forums and other information sources has greatly improved our travel experiences. My family now simply goes with the flow when I tell there where we are going and gladly meets up with any of my online friends as they know that research has made all of our trips better.

Planning

Planning began in earnest in the Fall of 2011 with me (Mom) doing the bulk of the research and arranging with input from the family. All of us feared that we would not like the feeling of being on a cattle drive with thousands of people in the same place both on and off the ship so one main criterion was to pick a ship that would offer some feeling of intimacy. We were extremely limited by a two week window between graduation and summer job for our son so the only two real options were a Royal Caribbean cruise from Venice through the Greek Isles or Celebrity Equinox’s 11 day Eastern Med cruise out of Rome. The latter won due to the presence of Aqua Class cabins that would allow us to eat in Blu, the smaller restaurant.

Before booking, I spent a few weeks on CC learning as much as I could about ships, itineraries, pricing, cabin selection, OBCs, etc. Eventually I decided to use an online cruise deal consolidator to get competing quotes from online TAs. I was amazed at the competitive nature of the quotes provided and eventually went with the one that offered the most generous OBCs. In November 2011, I booked two connecting AQ cabins on the Equinox for the June 11, 2012 departure from Civitavecchia.

The boards and our Roll Call on CC were my constant companion from October to our June departure. I learned which cabin to pick, how to organize my trip information, what to bring, which drink package to order and what excursions to consider. All of the advice was right on the money and totally invaluable.

Beverage Packages

In January, I purchased four beverage packages when they were on sale for 10% off (I had to rebook in April….more on this later…but I knew we would benefit from the packages and was glad I could take advantage of the savings. As part of my totally-obsessive mentality, I used the information on drink prices found on CC to do a day by day guesstimate of how much my husband and I would spend on drinks taking into account port days, etc. My husband and I definitely like to drink and our guesstimate made it seem that it would almost be a wash if we bought the premium package (we enjoy decent wine with dinner) so we purchased two premiums. Our daughter loves nonalcoholic frozen drinks and smoothies so we bought the premium non-alcoholic package for her (probably didn’t get our money’s worth on this one) and we ordered the soda package for our son. We then bought him alcoholic drinks separately when we wanted to offer him a drink. With the exception of our daughter, our beverage package choices were great. We loved just giving our seapass to purchase drinks and never found (like others on CC have suggested) that we got less-attentive service because of that. We will say that we probably drank too many cocktails at the Martini Bar because they were ‘free’ and our livers and waistlines are still paying the price for those indiscretions even four months later!!!

Price Drop

After our final payment in March, there was a significant price drop (I think it was $400 per person or so). I contacted our rep at our online TA (our first rep left us in January but the new rep, while less friendly, was very efficient). He explained that in order to benefit from the price drop that we would have to cancel, pay the penalty and rebook. Even with the cancellation fee, we were going to save $800 so I figured that was worth it. What I didn’t realize was that I would have to re-register on that incredibly-clunky Celebrity website and that I would have to re-purchase the beverage packages without getting the 10% savings. So in the end, I saved about $600 total and probably spent two plus hours rebooking, etc. Money is money and I have the time….but it’s not for the faint of heart! Or the lazy J

CC Roll Call

I was so glad that I joined our CC Roll Call and was among the first ‘chatting’. We made a few close friends that way (more on that later) and I was able to book several private tours with CC friends. As new cruisers and new CC people, I was a bit hesitant to book too many tours with unknown folks so most of the time we had our own private tours. But the CC members on our Roll Call and on the Ports forums provided incredibly helpful information about different private tour operators, pitfalls to avoid when booking, and directions in places like Athens that smoothed our travel. I found that there were several Roll Call friends whom we saw quite a bit of and some whom I never met and that was fine. Everyone was very nice and we would definitely book more tours with Roll Call members on future trips. My only regret is that our Roll Call didn’t include email addresses on our Google Docs spreadsheet so I am now unable to be in touch with certain people whom I’d like to contact!

Trip Prep and Packing

When I started reading threads on CC about what we might need to bring with us on the cruise that I had never even imagined, I thought we’d be bringing an additional suitcase just for all of the ‘must have’ stuff! Much of what was suggested did come in handy….and some of it was not necessary. Here’s my own list of what to and what not to bring on a port-intensive cruise:

Do Bring:

Light up alarm clock (I didn’t like the LLBean one I bought as it only lit up when you pressed it)

Power Strip (how did we ever live without ALL these things that need charging?!?)

Clothesline – bought mine from Rick Steves’ site

Packs of detergent for handwashing in the sink

Copies of our passports – didn’t need them but was glad to have them!

Binder with all trip info

Don’t bother:

Highlighter – I used it a bit but didn’t really need it

Post It Notes _ we had little note paper in AQ that worked fine for leaving notes

Removable hooks (the 3M kind) – we had plenty of hooks (two in Bath and two on BR wall)

Over the door shoe organizer – simply didn’t need it

Since my family knew we were going on the cruise before Christmas last year, one of the gifts I gave to each of them was their own tote bag filled with ‘must haves’ for the trip. My daughter got a Vera Bradley tote, my husband got a new backpack and my son got a drawstring sportsac from his soon-to-be college. I filled them with power strips, alarm clocks, antibacterial wipes, eye masks (for the overnight flight to Rome), i.d. holders and some other things and they were a definite hit.

 

More to come if folks are interested...

 

And any help you can give on inserting photos would be appreciated....my uploads keep failing!

[PinotBlanc]

Yes, we're interested.

Thank you for post.

Keep sharing.

[Christine Frances]

More please:D

[Richard&JohnSTX]

More please!

 

Hi from St Croix!

 

Richard

[L11]

You've got a good story going. Keep it up, please! Thanks for posting.

 

Linda

Edited October 4, 2012 by L11

[vjblk]

Yes please post more. Day to day would be great. We're thinking of a Med cruise with Celebrity next year and your post is helpful!

[DebbieMacG]

More please :D

[hansolosmom]

Love this so far! I'm especially interested since my boys will be 17 & 15 when we go next summer.

Also orally love the idea for Christmas gifts.

 

Have to disagree on the highlighter. My dh goes nuts with it highlighting all the activities he wants to do on the daily paper.

Edited October 5, 2012 by hansolosmom

[lovestx]

Thanks for the encouragement. I'll try to post something tomorrow...starting with Rome :)

[TLCOhio]

Appreciate the very good postings, details, style and story. Keep it rolling!! Hopefully you'll be able to work out Australia-NZ in the future. We're booked for Jan. 2014 for there.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 105,431 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

[Esojac]

I agree with the rest - keep it coming

[lovestx]

So happy to hear from Terry....can you give me any help with how I change the size of my pictures so that I can upload them into the rest of my trip report? I am definitely techno-challenged!

 

Thanks,

Carol

[TLCOhio]

So happy to hear from Terry....can you give me any help with how I change the size of my pictures so that I can upload them into the rest of my trip report? I am definitely techno-challenged! Thanks, Carol

 

Here goes . . . . For posting larger photos to these boards, your FIRST STEP is pick an outside web source that will store or “host” your pictures to be posted. Cruise Critic does not have the space to do larger pictures on their site. You can check such places as photobucket.com, imageshack.com, photoshow.com, flickr.com, picasa.google.com etc. I’ve used photobucket.com and have been pleased with how they upload, etc. SECOND, you need to make an export of your picture in a size such as around 1000 pixel wide by about 700 to your desktop of your computer. That’s the approximate size that I use for this purpose. If you make your file too big for posting, then it slows the process and takes long to upload, etc. THIRD, you use this outside web host to which you upload these different pictures sitting on your desktop. FOURTH, after uploading each picture, you will make a copy of that imbedded address in your file for future posting purposes. It will have have the square parentheses or bracket symbols before and after the capital letter IMG at the start and end of this location on your photo storage site.

 

Then as you want to post each different picture, you would, FIFTH STEP, copy and paste that imbedded address file for each picture as a part of your message on the CC Boards. In my files, I also have brief written description of each picture and have them grouped by the different city or country locations. With this imbedded file address, the reader on these boards doesn’t have to check on anything or paste to their web browser. It just pops up showing the picture. Does this help? Let us know how it works out and/or any added questions. It will hopefully pop up as these couple of pictures do below. You can preview your post to see if it's working OK before doing the actual post to these CC boards.

 

Does this help? What other question or reactions??

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 105,693 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

[jt1120]

We're on the Eq in 41 days so we are very interested in reading your review.

[lovestx]

Thanks, Terry! That helps. Let's see if I can actually make it happen. Otherwise I'll just post with no pictures.

[TLCOhio]

Thanks, Terry! That helps. Let's see if I can actually make it happen. Otherwise I'll just post with no pictures.

 

Good luck. Let me know any added questions. Look forward to seeing the results.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 105,693 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

[Keith1010]

Very nice report and keep it coming.

 

Keith

[Deb0702]

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip and seeing your pictures. :)

[lovestx]

With thanks to Terry for technical advice (which I still need some work on!)

 

Day 1: June 8, 2012

After months of planning, we departed from Boston on a Thursday afternoon just days after DS’s high school graduation and a day after DD last final exam. We flew AA using Frequent Flyer miles given the exorbitant cost of transatlantic flights (would have been about $1600 per ticket if we were paying for it). DH is a platinum Advantage member so we are lucky to be able to check in using the First Class agent and we don’t pay extra for our baggage. Each of us had a 26” suitcase and a carryon plus a tote or backpack. We found we needed all of that room knowing that we would be in hot weather, needing dressy as well as casual clothes and no access to self-serve laundry.

The flight to JFK was uneventful and we check into the Admirals Club lounge to await our overnight flight. Pretty cool to be able to look out the window there and see the Manhattan skyline! I used the club computers to check one last time on our Roll Call and all of a sudden a man is standing behind me asking, “Are you on the Equinox out of Rome on Monday?” How did he know?!? Turns out he (Kevin from Abilene, TX) was on my roll call and recognized me as I had posted a family picture on our Roll Call. So fun to meet him and his wife—somehow it made it seem more real that we actually WERE going on a cruise J To our surprise, Kevin and Alison were seated directly behind us on the plane! The flight was uneventful with some of us sleeping and DD not sleeping at all (she’s my excited traveler!).

Day 2: June 9, 2012 Roma!

DH and I had been in Rome the previous year to celebrate his 50th birthday (believe me, if I had known that we would be taking this cruise, we would have gone somewhere different for the birthday….but it turned out to be helpful to have just been in Rome as we could focus our planning using first-hand knowledge). So when we arrived at FCO, we had a sense of passport control, etc. and found that we moved through it really quickly. I had arranged with RomeCabs to take us to our hotel.

First glitch: our driver was not waiting for us outside the arrivals area. The 10 minutes we used searching inside and outside for him seemed like 30 thanks to little sleep and trip anxiety, but he finally arrived and we connected. The ride into Rome was quick and he took us in through the Vatican area which was full of narrow streets and old buildings so the kids knew we weren’t in Boston anymore!

Here comes the second glitch: the driver couldn’t find our hotel and we had a hard time communicating. At one point, we all got out of the van and began walking around the adjacent neighborhood looking for our hotel to no avail. Picture this one: four very tired people, a very Type A husband who thinks that we will find the hotel quicker if he starts barking, a nervous over-planned wife who is quietly trying to read those crazy Rome maps, an over-the-top-excited-but-exhausted teen daughter who is getting exasperated at both parents for their ignorance and a“chilled out” tired son who wishes his crazy family would just find the hotel so he can sleep. Add into that a driver calling the hotel and speaking in Italian and giving us no sense that he knows where to take us and you have one lovely 20 minute welcome to Roma!!

Our hotel, Residenza Canali ai Coronari, is actually a restored apartment house on a pedestrian street a block or two from the Piazza Navona so it isn’t well marked. I chose this hotel for its location, its cost and the availability of outdoor space. When DH and I stayed in Rome in 2011, we chose Albergo del Senato which is very popular (we later learned) with CC members for its fabulous location across from the Pantheon. While we liked it very much, we did not want to pay their high prices for two small rooms even with that awesome view. I spent hours last winter using booking.com and venere.com to choose a hotel and finally picked Residenza Canali. We all agreed it was the perfect spot for the four of us.

Thankfully, we had been forewarned that our rooms were on the fourth floor (fifth floor in the US!) and there was no elevator. People on Tripadvisor rave about the helpful service (including luggage help) that is provided at Canali but we didn’t get that sense upon arrival. The person at the desk was efficient but offered only to carry one suitcase up the remaining four flights of stairs. So the four of us added “exhausted” to “tired and cranky” before landing in our two rooms at the top floor.

But my research rewarded us with nice, spacious rooms each having terraces. Our room had a wrap around terrace that included two chaise lounges and a sitting area which was just fabulous. The bathrooms were large by Italian standards and we even had a mini-fridge with a few sodas and waters gratis.

It was now about 12:30 p.m. and lunch seemed like a good idea. But DS was so exhausted he asked if he could just sleep. We have learned through previous travel that teenagers’ travel clocks can be different than adults’ and pushing the “forced march” on them only makes everyone unhappy. So we left DS to sleep and excited daughter and we took off for the Piazza Navona, Pantheon area and a touristy café right off the Pantheon area for lunch. We then returned to the hotel and each took naps (I napped on the terrace).

 

With limited time in Rome, we knew that we wanted to do a bit of sightseeing today so we set off for the Pantheon and Spanish Steps. Our son, who has a real interest in ancient history, was wowed by the Pantheon and both kids were just excited to be in Rome.

After a couple of hours of wandering the streets, we returned to the Piazza Navona area and had an early (pre-7 pm) dinner at Osteria dell’Anima which is on the back side of the Piazza Navona. My husband and I had eaten at this casual spot last year and decided it would be a good choice for four hungry and tired travelers. Their special pasta (stuffed with carrots) is delicious and didn’t disappoint. The kids got a real kick out of the fact that they could order and drink wine in restaurants so everyone enjoyed the meal. We then took off for the fun of wandering through the Piazza Navona and the to-die-for Tartuffo at Tre Scalini! Talk about chocolate heaven. Our ice-cream loving daughter was ecstatic (and her mom loved it as well!). Then it was back to our hotel, the five story climb and a crash into bed.

[Lin336]

Great review. Looking forward to more!

[bdpnatl]

Great Review

 

Looking forward to more!

[Fisherlady48]

Great picture of your family!! Great story telling.

[tright]

We will be on the Equinox in Nov and I am seeking any and all information about ship and ports, Not sure what ports you did but I am most interested in Rome. Glad to see you enjoyed your cruise, What a great graduation gift

[TLCOhio]

With thanks to Terry for technical advice (which I still need some work on!)

 

Great to see that you've got things working well for the pictures. Keep them being uploaded and posted. Having the visuals helps lots. Let me know if you need any added technical help.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Did a June 7-19, 2011, Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of wonderful visuals with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., on these postings. We are now at 105,693 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity and much on wonderful Barcelona. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

[lovestx]

We will be on the Equinox in Nov and I am seeking any and all information about ship and ports, Not sure what ports you did but I am most interested in Rome. Glad to see you enjoyed your cruise, What a great graduation gift

 

Lucky you! We did the following ports in this order: Santorini, Istanbul, Kusadasi/Ephesus, Athens, Crete (substituting for Mykonos) and Naples. I will write more later today and, when time permits, throughout the weekend.

 

And to the others, thanks for the compliments.