CCJack

Our cruise out of Southampton to Norway was probably our best vacation ever.. Have fun... We loved Norway. Only drawback was the trek across the North Sea was pretty rough waters !! Note that Wimbeldon starts July 3, if that is something that interests you. Our trip must have been very similar dates as yours, as we went to day 1 of Wimbledon a couple days before our cruise....We loved that experience..

Agree with euro cruiser.... Our last visit we stayed right next to the Pantheon... excellent location. We walked to the Vatican no problem. It is a safe and enjoyable walk. We also walked to the colosseum (different day). I just think you will get to both places faster on foot rather than any other options... The Pantheon is beautiful and very historic, but you don't need to really plan any time for that. It can be a quick trip as time allows especially since you are staying close by, you can hopefully avoid the busy times (visiting in the morning or later in the evening.) . You need a lot of time at the Vatican. Colosseum could be short or medium visit depending on what you want. Jet lag rules say try to stay awake as much as you can on arrival day. Colosseum may not be out of the question on arrival day depending on how you feel. Then you could pick up Pantheon after Vatican on day 2 or even the morning of the cruise...

I would not drop the Portofino and St. Margherita excursion. Also, do not ignore Genoa itself. We hired a private guide (from Genoa) to visit all 3 places (Genoa, Portofino, and S.M.) and all 3 were great in my opinion.... I have never been to Luberon. However, we did take a ship's excursion to Cinque Terre and I was a bit underwhelmed. Maybe a couple days there and hiking would be different. As others have said it is crowded for a one afternoon visit. Also, keep in mind the photos you see of Cinque Terre villages are likely taken from helicopters or drones, you really don't get to see that view of the village(s). You see from the street looking out over the ocean rather than the other way around. At Portofino, on the other hand, you can easily walk to the other side of the bay and see the exact view that most of the beautiful photos were taken that you are probably familiar with. Have fun.....

The zipline website says it ends near Rallarrosa. Google maps says 16 km and 57 min by bike from Rallarrosa to Flam. However, that is likely non stop. You are going to want to take a leisurely pace and stop for photos, etc. Maybe plan 2 hours? I remember our bike trek form Mydral to Flam (longer that from Rallarrosa) took about 2.5 hours but we had plenty of stops...

At Stavenger you could book an independent cruise to Pulpit rock. The view of the rock is not that great from the water, but the cruise itself was fun with great views of the rock walls bordering the fjord, etc. I recall those boats docked close to the ship so it would be a pretty easy walk from ship to boat, I think. Also in Stavenger, our ship docked right next to a quaint neighborhood. It was a very nice walk through the residential area right next to the ship. Easy stroll (and free!)

You will see Eagles in the port cities... they are quite abundant. While on our balcony on the moving ship, I tried to spot them as we passed land by looking for white spots in the trees. Of course you are much further away then seeing them in the port towns, but was something fun to do and I have a nice pair of binoculars that helped.

We enjoyed the Aleyska Resort stop. It is a ski resort in the winter, however, in the summer we enjoyed the nice hiking trails around the property. It is a very nice resort, we did not leave the resort property. Probably my least favorite stop was Talkeetna. However, to be fair, we did not take any excursions... It appears there are some awesome air based excursions that leave from there. We just walked in the downtown which takes about 10 minutes to see everything. The lodge that RCCL put us up was a couple miles from Talkeetna. The lodge was nice and had beautiful sweeping views, but not as nice of a resort or as good hiking as at Alesyska.

Good question.... Schipol has had lots of problems with long waits over the last 2 years (including our trip through the airport last June.) However, I understand things have gotten quite a bit better lately. I would still plan 3 hours if it were me. Also, the Hilton in the airport is a nice place and very convenient for early morning flights.... I hope things are well in Lincoln, I am a UNL grad now in Michigan.. !

thank you. My photo was a ship and not a beach but it worked ! I understand about paying account with card then taking the statement credit; and still considering that. I mostly wanted to be able to log in and investigate options such as OBC and upgrades. We are booked in the lowest category (MC) of club suite on the Joy (7 day). I am not sure an upgrade would mean much to us as it would only be likely a better location on ship of same cabin size, etc. Location doesn't mean that much to us. Looking at options. I should have booked an oceanview and then upgraded but too late for that !

Good idea.... you could also take the tram up and then hiked the free trails up from there. You can hike as much as you like up there the views are great. Then take the tram down. Essentially hiking all above the tram. You would have to purchase tram tix, but they are reasonable.

I am having trouble understanding how to redeem my points for OBC. On my BoA online account, I choose redeem points, and it gives option of cash or travel. If i choose travel, it takes to a page to choose flights, etc. Perhaps this has been answered, but 223 pages is a lot to look through! thanks

We were on the Var for a Danube cruise... I loved the Danube - I hope you enjoy it too. Lots of locks to go through on the Danube which was fun, I thought. I agree do not book based on the boat, they are all the same. We did have an unrelated issue with Viking... We booked our cabin early, the first reservation on the boat. A few months later our TA called and said thatViking had sold every other cabin to a group, so we would be the only people not part of that group. That didn't sound fun to me, so we had to change to another date / boat. I thought it was not handled well by Viking, although I am glad they at least told us.

We were in Florence for 4 days and also took a day trip to Siena... Really enjoyed Siena, I hope you enjoy it to. In Florence try dining at the rooftop restaurant at the Grand Hotel Baglioni - the restaurant may now be called B roof. Fantastic views and great food.

We took a taxi downtown and I asked the driver where the best place is to pick up a taxi for the return and he indicated the taxi stand near the park with the founders statue (map attached.) There is a sign there at the taxi stand. If your walking tour ends up in center downtown this would work. If not, I would ask your driver how to catch a taxi back. This is a good question to ask as I didn't really see a lot of taxi's - several available but not an over abundance so you want to know where to go to get one.

I am not sure I have hear about this option of on your own.. Maybe it is new. We took an RCCL cruise tour and a guide was on the bus available to make reservations for excursions if you wanted some. We didn't do hardly any excursions other than the Denali wilderness tour. The other stops we hiked on our own, our lodging places seem to all have some hiking places near the grounds....

Another option is to take tram up. Then hike the trails that go up from the top tram station. Then take tram back down. Essentially only hiking above the tram. We did this and the views are fantastic. Not a lot of trees up there though, and a bit windy. I think the hike from street level to top of tram would have more trees and be a steeper hike (although we did not hike that portion so i am not sure).

Another option for Juneau with kids is to take the Mt. Roberts Tram up and then take the free hiking trails at the top. You can hike as much or as little as you want. views are spectacular up there and it would be very reasonably priced afternoon for a family. There is not a lot of trees up there so it can be a bit windy.....

Great Advice.... For our last Norway cruise in June (daylight plentiful) - I was on the deck at 5 am into Flam. At first I was the only person on the deck, then one other person for a bit. The other 2,998 passengers (including my wife) were sleeping and missed what I thought was the highlight of the week. Of course you sail out as well, but weather can change, dinner plans, crowds, in the evening etc. made the morning sail in more beautiful.

I do think if your are docked then 10:45 probably doable. The 12:00 train might have timing issues at the backend with biking down in time to return to ship as you suggest. You don't know what the logistics of the zipline and also the bike rental place will be like.

It sounds fun..... We did the train up and biked down from Mydral (not a ship excursion) and it was great. We did not do the zipline down, so it sounds like your bike route would be different or a subset of ours, but general scenery would be similar I would think. The 10:45 train might be tight. The train station in Flam is very close to the ship, however, I would be concerned if you are tendering. In our case, we were scheduled to tender. Our ship arrived early and they docked at the pier and let off only the passengers who were booked on ship's excursions. Then the ship pulled back from the dock as another ship docked for the day. So everyone else on our ship had to tender (including us) - and the tendering was behind schedule - so it took a while. Your experience may be completely different, you may be docked or your ship may have its own tender boats, etc. Good luck and have fun..

this is a great suggestion, however, I have a question. I just applied for the MC. The application does not say anything about statement credits it only lists the Cruise rewards such as OBC and upgrades. Could this be a change, or do they just not advertise statement credit on the application website? Either way is fine, we will just use OBC if we have to. thanks.

You can also try Glacier Point Wilderness Safari excursion out of Skagway (or Haines I believe) for a very up close glacier experience. It is not the tall towering glacier like Hubbard, however. It was a great excursion I thought.

Agree with Hallasm, try to get a round trip train ticket if that is what you want. I would hike down only if you want to hike, not because you can't get a return train ticket. It is an easy hike, but it is not short. I think about 11 miles. Our bike ride was about 2.5 hours but that is at a leisurely pace and stopping for photos. I would guess 3 or 4 hours to walk it. Also, our ship tendered and it was very slow process. Our ship did not have its own tender boats, so the port's tender boats were used. They were way behind schedule.

My experience with Whale watching has been that all tour operators will go to where the whales are and sometimes the competing companies communicate with each other to find whales. This is a good thing to make everyone's experience better. So you may be very close to other boats - and you likely will see the same whales no matter what company you choose. I think this comes down to boat size and what your preference is. Smaller boats (likely independent excursions) may be rougher ride but better view in that you are not competing with so many people for a "front row view". Our independent excursion had about 12 people on board, I have also been on the larger boats and I much prefer the smaller boats. Have fun !

We went on RCCL (Radiance Class) - Northbound one way and it was a great cruise. I would not prioritize getting a large ship, there are drawbacks to mega ships. One-ways are a more efficient use of time and likely longer port times. I like Northbound just because Vancouver is a great departure city - you can stay one or two nights there ahead of time.