CityChickCruising

I am replying very late to your comment - we just booked 6030 on Infinity for a Med cruise.. thank you for the suggestion!

We have definitely experienced that as well and just shrug and go on with our day. Especially when you see others not tipping, we just have to assume the grumbling or pocketing with a nod/minimal thanks is annoyance at others, exhaustion after a long day, and not your tip amount! When we pay as much as we do for excursions, private or ship’s, I think any tip (especially a $20!) is generous. Don’t lose sleep over it!!

Our rule of thumb is to always have 20s set aside for tours. I don’t think you need to give everyone a specific tip though, just people who performed services for you and enhanced your experience. Person leading our crew on the zip lines? 20. Person who drove us to/from the excursion? 20. I will say that our rule of thumb as two women traveling (I cruise with my mom) is that if we have a car service at a stop, we give them half the tip after the first ride so that they know we are grateful and reaffirm that they’ll be back for us. Maybe that’s a bit paranoid, but it provides us peace of mind and has also gotten us better service upon arrival to a destination, be it a hotel we bought a day pass at or zip lining or even a beach, when our driver tells people they work with that we were kind and tipping well. You can assume that if there are multiple people in a crew, you can tip one and they pool and split what they receive - I always say ‘thank you all for your time, this is for everyone’ when I give one person a tip so they know I want them to split it. After that, there’s nothing I can do. I would not tip at a rental shop for bikes. I would not tip a shopkeeper or someone at a market stall. I tip drivers and guides.. not someone whose store we are patronizing. They did not perform a service for you outside of the one you paid for - the bike - so there’s no need in my opinion. I know that we are generous with our excursion tips, but I also know that we are the type of guests who are up front in the transport, asking questions, following along closely.. so we feel strongly about setting aside extra money for tips on both excursions and service staff on the ship. Everyone does this differently, some not doing it at all, so I think it comes down to your experience and how comfortable you are.

I mean, you are being difficult haha - it is an upgrade as I said, so I'm not sure why there's any reason to be bent out of shape? I paid 1800 for my roundtrip flight with economy plus seats for both legs initially. Add $1270 on for the Polaris ticket from Dulles to Athens. Voila!

Thank you so much!! We cannot wait 🙂

Well, to be specific... $1270. I checked twice a day since we booked the flights - out of IAD - both on 'change flight' and 'change seat' and on Tuesday night 'change seat' was $1466 and 'change flight' was $1270... so we went for it!

Good to know... will have this as something I look for while researching!

Yes!! Awesome price, we were pumped. Point of inquiry: were these excursions through NCL? Do you think that cruise excursions are more likely to have folks who speak English well, or research is necessary either way? Thanks!!

Thank you thank you!! All of this is very helpful. We will look into the trains this weekend! We did end up purchasing the Polaris upgrade for the way there. We'll see if we decide to do it on the way back, but for now we are feeling good knowing we'll start our trip well rested 🙂

I see that some tours aren't in English... fantastic point! Now I know to look out for this. We ended up getting Polaris, which is the highest class on United's international flights, for a great deal on the way there, thanks to my obsessive checking. My mom, after a long flight last week across the country, said that her back hurt enough doing that, so... upgrading it was. It'll be overnight, so I think closing my eyes and hitting purchase was the best thing to do 🙂 Thanks so much for your insight!

Amazing!! I wouldn't have thought of hop on/hop off buses being there... I live in DC so I'm very familiar with how great these are for tourists 😆 we actually splurged on a balcony on the 6th floor (sweet sixteen as the folks on here have coined it) just so we can watch the sailing in and out of Kotor!! Nice - we will get the Vatican/St. Peters tickets here!! Really appreciate the link and your advice!

I'm so glad you are able to take this trip!!! We are flying United and actually saw tickets for Polaris - their business/first class - drop to $1000 for our way there and bought them yesterday. My mom thinks that it'll be worth it for the way there, and I agree... I think premium economy is also a fantastic way to do it, especially for AA! It's so hard when the prices fluctuate as much as they do... leaves you wondering what striking while the iron is hot actually means when it comes to flights!

awesome, thank you!! We will arrive to Athens two days early after a redeye. I am very excited for tours and taking in such an incredible city! We will look into money belts/neck pouches, that's a great idea. I am very much a researcher - we have a lot of things planned already excursion-wise, as a Game of Thrones fan we chose this itinerary for Split/Dubrovnik, but we need to book ahead for our final three days in Rome. I'm trying to dig through all of the websites that are selling tickets to the attractions so that I don't buy 'scam' ones. Let me know if you have any thoughts on where to buy Rome tix! Great tip on Florence train tix... we'll do this! Thank you thank you thank you!

thank you!! appreciate the insight.

Hi all, I have been drinking in the advice of this forum! My mom and I are both going to Europe for the first time in August… it’ll be our first Celebrity cruise, we are Royal cruisers and excited to head out on the Infinity! We’ll hit Mykonos, Zakynthos, Kotor, Split and Dubrovnik. We have 2 days in Athens on the front end and will hit Florence and Rome on the back end of the trip. I have a few questions: 1. What’s the latest we can safely board the ship ahead of embarkation from Athens at 6pm if we want to soak in our time there? 2. Getting off the ship, should we bring our passports? On Caribbean cruises we don’t, but figured it could be different here. 3. Generally, what do you wish you would’ve known for your first European cruise? 4. If acceptable to ask, we are disembarking in Ravenna and heading to Florence. Do you all normally have a private car waiting for you at port to make the journey or can we expect taxis there to take us 2ish hours away? 5. Lastly, also off topic, but it’s both of our first time flying across the pond… is it worth it to spring for first class for a 10 hour flight, at least on the way there? Thank you in advance!