Milhouse

Yup, just thought I'd top up a bit. I always appreciate your informative and detailed posts. Have a great trip!

For the post-cruise leg from ship to Rome: You'll need to transfer from the ship to a train station like Ravenna's or Bologna Centrale. The ship will likely have coach transfers to Ravenna's train station for about $15 per person or Bologna Centrale for about $35 pp. Taxis are an option but very limited. There is a public bus stop nearby but I don't think it's a reasonable option with luggage. At the Ravenna train station, as cruisemom42 indicates, there is a local commuter train that runs hourly to Bologna (the TTPER trains on the list) and costs about 8E pp. When we were planning our June 2023 cruise, for some reason (??) we had trouble seeing all the scheduled TTPER trains on the Trenitalia website but they were running. We just booked this segment (between Bologna and Ravenna both directions) while we were in Italy. The railcars had two levels and seemed to have a lot of seating so it shouldn't be an issue getting on and finding a seat (no assigned seating) If you take the coach transfer to Bologna Centrale, it saves you the Ravenna to Bologna connection. As cruisemom42 states, the Trenitalia high speed trains are the Frecce trains and the Frecciarossa (per the list above) is the specific version that serves Bologna to Rome. I also think you should book this high speed train leg in advance as again as mentioned, it is cheaper the further you book in advance. And the high speed trains are assigned seating and popular segments can get also become full such that you may need to book on a later train. Note there is also another high speed train company called Italo that is an option for the Boglona to Rome leg. Note on the above list for Ravenna to Rome, there are some options with multiple train changes (cambio). IMO, to keep things simple, as with cruisemom42 I would focus on the 1 change options with the local commuter train from Ravenna to Bologna and high speed train from Bologna to Rome vs the 2+ change options that will generally take much longer. You also see some Intercity trains but they are (obviously) slower than the high speed Frecce trains.

Yup unfortunately, Vancouver hotel prices (particularly downtown) are generally pretty expensive due to a lack of supply keeping up with demand (on top of the local housing shortage). I'm not sure if there's really a best area to stay in as there are pockets and corridors of interesting areas throughout the downtown core. Plus, if you are mobile, most of the downtown core and vicinity are very walkable IMO though there are some areas that are a bit sketchy. Staying by the Westin Bayshore is reasonable IMO as it provides easy and quick access to Stanley Park, the Coal Harbour waterfront/seawall, and Robson Street & Denman Street which are pedestrian lively with shops and restaurants. I'll defer to others for alternative hotel suggestions but might be able to add colour about the neighbourhoods. Personally, I think some of the best parts of Vancouver are along the water: Walking along various parts of the seawall, Granville Island, Friday night Shipyards Night Market, etc. I think with 2.5 days, you should be able to fill it with most of the big sights around the downtown core and just beyond particularly if you are also going to spend time at any of the paid attractions. (The missus and I visited a number of the attractions around town as part of an industry event this spring and found many of them very interesting though YMMV as many of them revolved around local history.) On top of the usual tourist sights, Vancouver typically has a rotating list of annual festivals and events nearly every weekend during the summer. Note that the first Monday in August is a long weekend and more busy than normal.

Weather is still generally good in mid-September with the last of the summer festivals and events happening. But it's kind of variable in that consistently good weather can last into October or it can start getting showery around mid-September. We've also had a lot of forest fires the last few years and it can get somewhat smokey/hazy around Vancouver and Whister (and other parts) depending on fire conditions. Somewhat random though. If you come earlier in September, note that we have a statutory/bank holiday the first Monday in September (Labour Day) so that can be a very busy travel long weekend (eg Ferries). But also a few of events happening in and around Vancouver. There's a bike race from Vancouver to Whistler on Sat Sept 7 (Gran Fondo) that will congest the sea to sky highway to Squamish/Gondola/Whistler northbound.

Just past Boxing Day, there is also Wave Season that runs from Jan to Mar. Personally, I think the deals are generally the best during this time frame whereas other sales throughout the year are somewhat variations of the same thing. But obviously, there are always lots of variables at play. eg In this particular instance, it's cutting it close with a late March departure. And you also never know what kind of pricing plays out within final payment. Etc, etc.

Here are some thoughts but please don't consider them definitive since my experiences are slightly different. Hopefully others will chime in or you can find additional information such as some of the historical threads on this topic. We also cruised on Celebrity but based on other threads, it seems other lines are somewhat similar. We took Celebrity's last disembarkation coach bus transfer to Ravenna train station at 9:30am. There were maybe five or so slots early than ours. They also charged $15 per person. IIRC, on a previous thread, someone mentioned Celebrity offered a free shuttle into town when Ravenna was a port of call versus point of embarkation/disembarkation. Since you are doing a b2b, maybe you can try to source that? Not sure when the last coach bus shuttle back to the ship is. But I don't think it would be hard to grab a taxi as a backup option if you get stuck. If you were referring to the public bus, the bus stop appeared to be about a simple 10min walk from the ship/terminal, across a parking lot. I think you'd be looking at bus #90. We superficially looked into taking the public bus to/from Ravenna and the port but decided it wasn't worth it for us, particularly with luggage so can't add more info. Plus Italian transportation is notorious for not being on time. For diembarkation, Celebrity wanted $35 per person for a coach bus transfer to Bologna Centrale train station. Comparatively, it's like $15 per person to Ravenna's train station and about 8E for a train ticket from Ravenna to Bologna which runs hourly. It's a personal choice whether it's worth it to save $10-12 per person that would require another transfer and potential wait at Ravenna station. We high speed trained it from Bologna to Florence to visit for a day and then high speed trained it down to Rome before flying home. The high speed trains are pretty convenient IMO. Note that there are two high speed train operators: TrenItalia and Italo. We took both and found their experience pretty equivalent. I wouldn't necessarily wait until the day of the buy the high speed train tickets as prices go up and train schedule selection becomes more limited.

If you're up to it, one option is to DIY but with a couple of connections and a little bit of walking. Others can likely provide more detail around the specifics from Bologna airport (eg Marconi Express into town??). However, if you can make it to a train station/Bologna Centrale, the ride itself to Ravenna's train station is pretty straight forward on a frequent commuter train that's reasonably comfortable but makes short stops at small towns along the way. Bologna Centrale station is somewhat large so you'll need to comfortable navigating to the right platform. At Ravenna train station, the cruise ships seem to have a (not well advertised) contractor hired to transport cruisers to the ship on a coach bus (and in the reverse for crew into town). The contractor has a person loitering in front of the main entrance to the train station starting later in the morning and directs cruisers to the back exit of the station to walk a block to the parking lot where more staff and the coach bus is waiting. IIRC, this transfer is about $10US pp and takes about 15mins excluding waiting for the bus to fill up a bit. You can also take a taxi or public bus to the ship from Ravenna station with varying degrees of cost and convenience of course. We trained into Ravenna (from Rome) a day early to check out the town and its mosaics which we're happy we did. And then did the coach transfer to the ship the next morning. In the reverse, we did the coach transfer from the ship to Ravenna's train station and then hopped on a train to Bologna to explore for the day which we were also happy that we visited.

They also aren't above fibbing either. Had one tell us while walking by them that the metro wasn't operating because it was on strike but of course it was running when we got there. 🙄

Agree with the comments that one can't accurately predict the weather very far in advance but you are kind of playing the odds. Anyways the missus and her parents are just getting off Infinity in Barcelona today after departing from Lisbon on October 30. They didn't have the greatest weather for the first part of the cruise due to a fairly large storm/weather pattern. Bands of pretty wet, windy, and somewhat rough seas including a few days pre-cruise in Portugal mixed with some clear breaks. So much so, they had to drop a port of call and also swap Gibraltar in for one early in the cruise IIRC.

I think you're referring to Ascent which is kind of on your right before the escalators up to the front desk at the Pan Pacific.

We cruised on Connie in June and would cruise on her again if the itinerary hit right notes. We had previously restarted cruising on Solstice last November so that's kind of my baseline I'm using for comparison. Just from a configuration perspective, we like Solstice class better but it's not a deal breaker. Eg. More open foyer areas between decks 3-5 on Solstice, the shopping corridor on Connie gets kind of congested, Tuscan Grill is kind of in an awkward space on Connie, I like the buffet islands on Solstice... stuff like that. We thought a few areas (mainly in our cabin) could have done with a bit more proactive maintenance but again it wasn't something that really tilted the cruise experience for us. Personally, I enjoyed the main production shows while the missus felt they were pretty typical/meh. (Conversely, I'm generally not a big fan of the feature/guest entertainers.) However, we thought the activities around the ship were only ok. Found dinner a bit inconsistent in the MDR but overall ok. eg. Some of the dishes early in the cruise were somewhat overly salty but they seemed to adjust along the way. Food overall was only fine (vs being a strong point) but I'd likely chalk that up to the issues around X's food quality that everyone is chatting about nowadays. Found the staff we regularly interacted with great/friendly as expected which is table stakes for us. As an aside, the missus is currently on Infinity, taking her folks on their first X cruise (they normally sail HAL). During our calls, she has describe various issues from food to unprofessional staff that sailing on Infinity is pretty much off our list.

Maybe plan to be flexible if the weather doesn't work out. Can still be pretty raining late April. Eg. The Sea to Sky Gondola is a nice thing to do if the weather is nice but it is kind of pricey. The wife and I did it for the first time this spring and enjoyed it but we also got to ride it for free for an industry event. Lots of trails to explore up top but likely not very fun in the rain. If you do end up going to Whistler, the Whistler Tourism site occasionally has last minute deals (ie day before/of) for accommodations. A friend and I booked a last minute room during the fall two years ago and got a nice room, a 10 minute walk from the village for about $100. YMMV of course.

Guessing it could be one of a few of common things: There could be a commission as you mention or other fees that prevent you from getting the actual advertised rate. The rate on the sign might be only to get you inside and then they do not give you that rate. Eg. "Sorry, forgot to update the sign." The rate might only be for large denomination (eg. $100), crisp bills. Might be running a scam on you like short changing you, dumping a fake bill onto you, etc. I'm assuming the scam NorthernJoey was referring to is shortchanging. One of the notorious scams in Bali apparently is counting out the money you're about to receive and then using slight of hand to pull a bill just before they hand it over to you. You basically need to count it yourself when you receive the bills. ADD after seeing NorthernJoey's post: Good point about confirming the number of bills you hand over too. Personally, I didn't have a problem using a money exchange (I forget which) when I was in Bali a few years ago but I only changed single $100 bills at a time. For some reason, my friend and I had problems using the ATM's and couldn't withdraw cash even after trying different machines.

Yep, it sounds like Ballantyne Pier. (We also once mistakenly had my FIL pick us up post cruise from Canada Place when in fact we disembarked at Ballantyne.) It was definitely not the best location so happy they decommissioned it.

May I ask when that was? I'm under the impression that all the cruise ships currently use Canada Place/Pan Pacific to dock nowadays. Previously, some ships also docked at Ballantyne Pier which is about 10min east of Canada Place. However, Ballantyne Pier is no longer used for cruise ships. Here's a link to the Port of Vancouver cruise schedule page. You need to click on the link mid-page to pull up the actual schedule which currently only shows the 2023 season.

Our most recent visit to Athens this spring was on a Sunday and quite a few of the places we wanted to visit/re-visit were closed. We enjoyed a relatively quick sit down lunch at a place called Atlantikos which is about a 5 minute walk from Monastiraki Square. It's an inexpensive seafood restaurant where most people are eating on tables along the alleyway. There are a few reviews on Google. Enjoyed it. We also grabbed a gyro from Bairaktaris' take-out window along Monastiraki Square. Unfortunately it was probably my least fav gyro during our cruise.

Base recommendation would be to go to a travel clinic. My experience is that I find them more knowledgeable than my family doctor since they focus on travel vaccinations and will be more in the know about hot spots. And I find they are pretty good in asking questions about where you're going (not just country but city versus rural areas) and explaining the risks for each area. Advice from a rando like me on the Internet is to at least get your Hep A & B series particularly if you are going to eat at local eateries (which IMO is half the fun). IMO tentanus should be kept up to date regardless. Whereas some of the other shots like typhoid, yellow fever, and Japanese encephalitis likely can be skipped if you are keeping to cities/urban areas. Again, you'll get better and more customized advice from a travel clinic and you need to assess your own risk tolerance.

We got off and on at Beppu Station (12-13 Ekimaecho, Beppu, Oita 874-0935, Japan). Not sure where your ship would dock but I'm guessing it would be near the ferry terminal (??). If it is, Beppu station is kind of far. There does appear to be a closer station, Beppudaigaku Station, but you would need to research if your train stops there.

We visited Beppu as a daytrip by train from Fukuoka during a land trip in late May of 2018. However, we only spent about three hours from about 10am to about 1pm on a Monday there as we didn't find a lot of things of interest to us. Part of it was our fault though because we didn't do a lot of research so maybe we didn't get to the better places. We basically walked one of the main streets from the train station to the waterfront, walked a covered arcade (Sol Paseo Ginza) that stretched out from that main street, and briefly explored some of the backstreets that led to an onsen (Takegawara Onsen) that looked interesting. We enjoy walking seawalls and waterfront promenades but struggled to find a great stretch for a walk. I'm not sure if it was because it was somewhat early on a Monday but a lot of shops seemed closed along Sol Paseo Ginza so that strech wasn't very fun either. As an option, maybe consider visiting Yufuin? We ended up ditching Beppu and taking a 1.5 hour trainride to Yufuin and spent about 3pm to about 5:30pm there. It's a small village but we found it more quaint. There's a pedestrian orientated road (that splinters off from the main road a few blocks from the train station and then runs parallel to it) with a lot of shops and eateries. There's also a nice lake (Kinrin Lake) that's small enough and that you can walk around the perimeter along a path. Not a tonne to see but we enjoyed it more than Beppu. YMMV of course.

We visited Ensenada for the first time last Novemeber and hoofed it to three food carts: Tacos Fenix, Tacos Corona, and La Guerrerense. We took some tips from a food blogger/Youtuber we follow called Mark Wiens who did a Youtube video for Ensenada a few years ago. Tacos Fenix and Tacos Corona are across the street from each other so it's easy to try both. It's not long a very long walk but we also did not find it to be super interesting other than seeing a different part of Ensenada. There was a short line for both with only locals when we went. Happy we tried both; tasty but not life changing. Very inexpensive. Friendly staff at both. We then made our way back towards the town area and shared a variety of items at the La Guerrerense cart (not restaurant). Very busy with tourists but we did not find the wait to order and for our food to be very long at all. The tostadas especiales were pretty loaded but I think we liked the simpler ceviches and conchas better. Also found a few of the items a tad too citrusy for me. But overall enjoyed everything we ordered. We bought a few jars of salsa to take home as souvenirs/gifts which were pretty tasty. Happy we ate here even though it's way over touristed with prices that reflect that. Very friendly and helpful staff. Eating at these three places pretty much stuffed us. However, we did end up getting a churro from a street vendor which was subpar (don't think the oil was hot enough). Also, an alternative to La Guerrerense that we were too full to try was El Güero Ens 1981. Have attached some pictures of the menus to give an idea of pricing but I'm guessing they would have gone up by now.

Standard reminder for most cities but watch out for pick pockets if taking the buses and/or metro.

The missus and I did the hike during our second visit to Santorini in mid-October 2016. Our ship was in port from 2pm to 9pm so we did the hike from about mid to late afternoon. From a degree of difficulty perspective, we did not find it strenuous from a walking perspective. However, I got pretty hot and sweaty even in mid-October because you're pretty exposed to the sun along the trail with limited cover. I'd suggest bringing a hat with a brim. I should have brought more water too as there didn't seem to be a lot of "convenience type stores" once you get further out from Fira. I forget how close the trail was/parallelled the main road but IIRC, it's within reasonable distance at the start and the end of the hike but further away during the mid-part (don't quote me on this). Further complicating things: We were in Santorini again this past June and I just looked at my Google Maps timeline. The buses we took between Fira and Oia took the back/eastside road both there and back and not the road that runs along the trail. So not sure if you would be able to ditch the trail halfway and jump on a bus. Great views. Happy we did it. Would consider doing it again but it's not at the top of my list. By the time we finished the hike, we didn't have a lot of daylight hours in Oia to explore all the little areas (and it was dark by the time we got back to Fira). However, as mentioned, we did the hike during our second visit so we didn't feel like we missed out since we explored Oia extensively and watched the sunset there during our first visit. If it's your first time, IMO it's kind of a shame not to have more daylight hours in Oia. (Also recommend eating at Pitogyros in Oia for a casual meal somewhat near the bus stop.) Leave yourself enough time to get back to Fira and back down to the tender station. "Everyone" is trying to catch one of the latter buses from Oia back to Fira so the queue can get pretty long. Same goes for the for the tram in Fira down to the tenders. The tram queue was pretty long and we didn't want to risk it so we hoofed it down the donkey trail which was pretty dark and somewhat slippery.

The prongs on the plug for US devices and Japanese outlets are similar but I find some outlets do not have a third hole for the ground so we now bring an outlet adaptor (without any voltage conversion) that creates a placeholder space for the ground prong (and in the past have asked to see if we can borrow one from the front desk). We're only charging electronics like laptops and phones vs hair appliances.

Autostrada Osteria? Google says it's a 12 min walk from the Pan Pacific (and it's in a slightly sketchy area). Tasty appies and pasta (tho they also have meat and fish dishes). It's not a chain but they are popular enough to have three locations now. (I haven't been to this location though.) There is the Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown if that's more what you're looking for. I haven't eaten there in over a decade but my friends apparently love it. It's a formulatic kitschy chain restaurant that known for a combo meal of soup/salad, main, dessert, and coffee/tea.

Ditto olive oil (from Crete) for gifts.