CCJack

right at the port you can walk through the cannery / shopping / museum type building. Looks to be build for cruise passengers so it is not a historic building or anything, but it is very nice, clean and worth a walk through. Also the nature hike just in back of the building is very pretty with giant trees and a good view of the ship from the rocky beach. You can spend a couple hours just in the port area. ISP has excellent whale watching if you change your mind on an excursion....

We have been on several med cruises and one was over Christmas week. I think it was my favorite due to cool temps and lower crowds. We happened to be in Malta on xmas day and not Rome, but we were able to find a private guide there on xmas day. We worked through an agency and their normal guides wanted the day off but they were able to get a younger college age guide for us - and she was a fantastic guide for the day. You can experience a lot in Rome from the exterior of the landmarks as others have said. Good luck...

I bought a pair of Canon IS 10x30 before our Alaska cruise and one of the best purchases I have ever made. They are expensive. However the image stabilization works fantastic. It takes the shake away from the image and I can look through them for a long while without getting a headache from the normally shaking image. Since the Alaska cruise, I use them for football games, other cruises, and have gotten more use than I had thought.

Agree. We took the National Bus with good results. We actually walked from ship to the national bus terminal.... not a short walk but possible and if weather is good not a bad walk. You could taxi there as well.

We went with gogenova tours (one word, with the v). She was a great tour guide and we had a wonderful day.

We hired a private local guide who accompanied us all day, and we took public transportation to all three places. (Genoa, S.M. and Portofino). We had a group of 6 so it made sense to do that rather than book 6 excursions. We enjoyed all 3 places. Pleasantly surprised at Genoa itself. Portofino was beautiful as expected. Have fun !

Also, I would consider the departure city. This is important to me when choosing a cruise, more important than the cruiseline. For Norway, I think Amsterdam is an excellent choice (assuming you are going before they stop cruise ships in Amsterdam.) If you stay a couple nights prior to cruise you get an additional mini vacation in Amsterdam. If you prefer London, then you could leave from Southampton, but that is a bit more hassle to get to the ship from London.

I agree you will have time as long as you really do dock at Cobh. We got moved to Ringaskiddy - it was changed maybe a month before sailing. From what I can tell cruiselines will all advertise Cobh and then some ships get moved. As the crow flies across the bay, it is not far away, but it looks to me like it is not a simple or short drive if you would still want to go to Cobh. BTW, I was pleasantly surprised with our Blarney Castle tour. I thought grounds were really beautiful and the clothing store was not a tourist trap, but very large and good quality.

If you like scenery, then you are going to the right place ! Norway cruises are beautiful. I agree with Ine, look for Flam, Geiranger (both long Fjords). Some stops in Norway are not fjords at all, but still very nice coastal cities (Bergen, etc.). Be careful with the cruiselines' title of the trip - they like to spin things. Look and see what each cruise's ports are and browse these boards to understand a little about the ports and see if they appeal to you.

Although hotel prices have shot up, I have found that the prices in hotel points have not gone up (at least not yet) so if you have reward points with a hotel chain maybe use those. Since you are a year out, you might have time to get a sign up bonus with a hotel credit card and get 2 or 3 nights for free. I am thinking Hilton card and the doubletree, but there could be others. Just a thought.

Are you staying at the resort at Alyeska? If so, I think the tram is free (at least used to be) so it would take it - I enjoyed the tram ride up. If you are not staying there, I am not sure I would make a trip there for the tram however. The resort is very nice, and I am glad we spent a night there. The Juneau tram was crowded, but we enjoyed it too. At the top, you can then continue on walking trails even higher up for fantastic views. Tram was crowded but the trails at the top were not crowded at all.

In Skagway consider the glacier point wilderness safari. We booked through an outside vendor, but ended up with the same people who booked through the ship. You get a ferry ride across the bay, then a hike through the woods, a canoe trip across a lake and finally you get to see Davison Glacier up close. If you do that, I would skip Mendenhall altogether as you will see Davison Glacier plus your day at Glacier Bay. In Juneau, you could replace the Mendenhall excursion with whale watching or take the tram up Mt. Roberts and hike at the top of the tram. Your plan is certainly doable, but I was a bit underwhelmed with Mendenhall and thought Davison glacier was better and that frees up time in Juneau for something else.

We have been on a couple of Med cruises with this arrangement (but not RCCL). If I recall correctly (no guarantee on that!) the daily programs were specific to our situation. In other words ours might say Day 7 with luggage instructions for departure, while the next door cabin on the same day may get a program that says Day 4 without the luggage instructions. So the cabin stewards would have to make sure people get the correct version. Also, the theatre shows need to be considered. Our cruises had shows every night but none were "welcome aboard" theme or "farewell" theme (no great loss in my opinion.) Those themes would not work in this situation. I like this arrangement, it seems to take some of the load off of the embarkation and debarkation days. They don't need to onboard / offboard everyone on the same day. - thus it was smoother and less waiting for everyone including in Barcelona. If I were to guess, 60% of our ships passengers started in Barcelona, 30% in Rome, and 10% in Marseille.

My unofficial observation on our cruise was that far more people started and ended their week cruise in Barcelona than those that started and ended in Rome. (roundtrip - ours was not a directional cruise - so the ship is full the whole time, just many more people started/ended in Barcelona) We started in Rome and the check - in was a breeze for that reason. As far as going into Rome after a 9:30 arrival, I am not sure I would be up for that hectic of a day, but it is probably doable. Just make sure you understand when you need to be back and anticipate traffic if you are traveling by car. I don't see more than a couple hours in Rome given your constraints.

Yes, your plan is very doable. I would just make sure you have luggage tags secure on your bags, as there are 1000s of bags going the other direction (off the ship, and onto taxis and buses) in the early morning, so you don't want yours to get somehow misplaced. I like to put packaging tape over the paper luggage tags in case it rains (poor man's laminating!).

You will be further out to sea than you are imagining, so it doesn't matter from that standpoint. I do like to face the ports when docked in ports but that is a bit of a guess. You could do some research and see what the most likely docking position is at each port, I have never done that. All else equal, I would give a slight edge to port side for North bound. In the mornings when we sit on our balcony with coffee, I would prefer the sun be at our backs so we get good views of the water , dolphins, whales, etc. In the evening when the sun is in the West, more likely we would be out and about on the ship and not on our balcony.

this is an excellent thread ! I have ordered Barometer Rising on thrift books. For the whole maritime area - I think Moby Dick is a great read (although difficult) to appreciate the lives of those in the whaling industry in this part of the world. It was a very difficult life. For Boston - tons of history books. Two come to mind, both by McCullough: 1776 and John Adams. Different topic..... For those going to Venice: City of Falling Angels (not fallen angels that is a different book). City of Falling Angels gets into the business end of the city, which families own which buildings on the grand canal, how the city is run, etc.

After further recollection and tapping into my memory !!! I do now also remember stairs on each end of that pedestrian bridge, but only a few stairs.

In Venice we really liked the Al Ponte Mocenigo... in a quiet area and had an excellent breakfast in a nice courtyard. In Florence, our hotel was not very memorable, so I can't make a recommendation.... Have fun !

We did this in June 2022. Our GPS took us on Alex's blue route, and I don't recall stairs. There is an outdoor elevator by the big stairway by the tracks (elevator is in the top red circle). I don't recall stairs on the pedestrian bridge across the water, but I may be mistaken. I recall it was an easy walk with luggage. Either way, I would walk without luggage the night before for practice! It is an easy and safe walk, but it is not real intuitive (ie, you can't see the ship as you walk there) and a bit off the beaten path. The doubletree is an excellent choice. We had lots of cruisers there when we stayed. 5 min walk to train, 15 min walk to ship and much closer to city sites than the movenpick is. Just be careful of the pedestrian intersection in front of the hotel coffee shop (it was a starbucks last year, now it is a different coffee shop). That intersection has pedestrians, bicycles (fast) and cars (fast) all in a tight space.

Awesome photo of the humpback.

I agree a Fjords cruise would be a good choice. Ports are small cities / towns - all walkable usually with your ship in sight. Bergen, a bit larger but still very walkable. Most of your time will be outdoors. You won't be spending time on subways, or waiting in lines with the kids. Highlight of the cruise may be the fjords themselves which you will enjoy from the ship - while the kids do their thing on the ship.

I agree that ISP is a made up stop and the port area is fabricated for the cruise. However, it is quite nice. The building and displays are new, clean and you can spend an hour or so walking through. The nature trail next to the port buildings was very nice as well. Whale watching is the thing to do in ISP. We had outstanding whale watching there...

We were on the Viking Var Danube cruise a couple years ago. We loved the cruise. I was pleasantly surprised at the number of locks you go through (more than 20) - boring for some folks, but I thought those were really interesting..... As far as excursions typically we did the included viking tour, which usually was only 1.5 hours or so, but that gave us enough introduction to do the remainder of the afternoon on our own. A couple excursions we did take - Nuremburg WWII tour - outstanding... our tour guide had a Masters in WWII history and it was really good. Not sure if you go to Nuremburg or not. We also did the Viking Mozart concert in Vienna. We were underwhelmed, although a lot of people liked it. I was expecting a big concert hall. This was a concert just for Viking in a smaller room of the concert hall. It was a bit of a variety / comedy show mixed with the music - almost like a big cruise ship variety show. I think we would pass on this next time.

Since you will be seeing another glacier on your trip, I would skip Mendenhall. I agree it can be a bit underwhelming... I vote whale watching and since you don't go to ISP, Juneau would be a good place to whale watch. You will also see beautiful scenery from your whale watching boat, so it is almost like an excursion in itself (in addition to whale watching.) Juneau is not far from ISP, so I think people have had good whale watching experiences from both ISP and Juneau. Of course, it is a matter of luck on whale watching but we had a great time on our whale watching trip out of ISP.