2 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

Trastevere is a neighborhood unto itself. It was always the place where "outsiders" lived and none of the ancient monuments are located there. Many people enjoy walking around the area, which has a lot of winding, narrow streets and alleys, interesting buildings (good photo ops) and some early churches that are not to be missed including Santa Maria in Trastevere and Santa Cecilia. 

 

It is much more touristy than it once was, but it is an area that does have a lively vibe at night with a lot of restaurants. Lots of apartment rentals there as well.

 

Personally I've just never had a connection with Trastevere. On my most recent trip I spent the better part of a day there again because I wanted to revisit Santa Cecilia, look up a monument to a Roman poet in Piazza Trilussa ("Trilussa" was the poet's pen name), and see the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola (the stones of which came from one of the Imperial Forums of Rome) again:

 

 

While I enjoyed my day, and had excellent pizza for lunch at Dar Poeta (highly recommended) I still missed any real sense of connection. Give me the Centro Storico (and in particular the Campo Marzo) any day!

 

 

Thank you for all your valuable knowledge.  We have seen all the major sites in Rome and wanted a different experience. I will keep your advice in mind as I plan our trip. 😊😊

8 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

@midwestchick   Your quote got messed up, so I'm not going to re-quote it.

 

Trastevere would be a bit of a walk from anywhere in the heart of the 'centro storico' as it's on the other side of the Tiber. If you were to stay near the Pantheon, I would recommend taking a taxi from the taxi stand just on the right side of the Pantheon and asking them to take you to somewhere central in Trastevere such as the piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere. The taxi should be around 15 euro give or take. Save your energy for strolling around Trastevere!

 

Thank you again.  Are the taxis easy to find for the return in the  Trastevere area?  I really don’t see anyone posting about that area. 

2 hours ago, Mrs f. said:

We were in Tenerife on a cruise. I used a site called TRIPSPOINT.com.

They had a private tour for 6. I posted on my roll call for 4 people.immediately  got 4 people. Driver met us at pier gates. Drove us up into the mountains. Small family winery with wine and TAPAS. Great day. 

Thank you. How was the drive up to the mountain?  I was hoping to take the tram because some of those mountain drives can be treacherous. 

On 7/21/2021 at 5:13 AM, -Lew- said:

 

Here's a link to a Google Map...

Thanks Lew.

On 7/21/2021 at 10:17 AM, cruisemom42 said:

 

It faces the Pantheon. Piazza Navona is about a 5-7 minute walk at reasonable pace. In the other direction, Trevi fountain can be reached in less than 10 minutes. Largo Argentina is also very close.

 

It is a slightly longer walk (about 15 minutes) to the Roman forum; add on another 5 minutes along the same route to reach the Colosseum.

 

Thank you so much. How far is it from the Trastevere area?  We would like to visit there this time

I am not familiar with Largo Argentina.

On 7/25/2021 at 7:10 PM, CPT Trips said:

I’m nosy, I was going to say curious but honesty got the better of me. Are you traveling as part of an OAT cruisetour?

On 7/21/2021 at 10:17 AM, cruisemom42 said:

 

It faces the Pantheon. Piazza Navona is about a 5-7 minute walk at reasonable pace. In the other direction, Trevi fountain can be reached in less than 10 minutes. Largo Argentina is also very close.

 

It is a slightly longer walk (about 15 minutes) to the Roman forum; add on another 5 minutes along the same route to reach the Colosseum.

 

Thank you so much. How far is it from the Trastevere area?  I’d like to see that area this trip.

I have a purchase I want to pick up at a department store in El Corte Ignies.  We will be there in October on a cruise ship. It this far from where the ships dock?  Any of other ideas what to do in Vigo would be appreciated. 

Thanks for the replies.  Hoping for more suggestions.

On 3/3/2020 at 4:20 AM, GCHAN said:

We went to Tenerife via a cruise and did a Volcano tour.

 

It was very good value and a really great scenic tour.

 

We used Tenerife Private Tours and John the owner was punctual, very knowledgable and gave us a great explanation of the island and its history. The car was comfortable and we were picked up and dropped off from the port.

 

We had such a good tour we skipped lunch because we didn't want to miss anything but of course that was our choice and not necessary.

 

I would do a tour at this location. 

 

 

Can you please give me Tenerife Private Tours contact information?  What was your tour itinerary? 

On 5/23/2021 at 11:11 AM, cruisemom42 said:

Often people are unaware of Lisbon's Roman past. There is a lovely museum up on the hill in the Alfama district (oldest part of Lisbon) that includes some of the remains of the amphitheatre (more can be visited across the street):

 

https://www.golisbon.com/sight-seeing/roman-theater.html

 

Also, it is worth doing the Cloisters tour of the lovely old Se Cathedral for the cost of a couple euros, which also has some late Roman remains in addition to medieval ones:

 

https://www.lisbon.net/lisbon-cathedral

 

Finally, the archaeological museum, in Belem, is also very good -- not huge but has some quite nice pieces from the Roman past (as well as prehistoric Portugal....):

 

http://www.museunacionalarqueologia.gov.pt/?cat=70

 

 

Do you know any tour operators that do small groups and would allow 4 people from a cruise to join?  We want to see Lisbon and ride the furnicular for sure.  The highlights of Lisbon would also be nice to see and I’d say we have a solid 5 hours but that’s it.  Not long enough, I know.

35 minutes ago, HMR74 said:

One of the  things we like about the bigger ships is the choices for example, on entertainment.

On S class, on the way to Quisine, Blue and Tuscan Grill, right next to Michaels Club, is a bar where the atmosphere is great for us, regarding the  setting and music. So we can sit and talk , have a leisurely drink or late coffee. etc. It  is rarely overcrowded and after dinner is not crowded at all. There are several quiet bars on top. I love the bar outside the Oceanview cafe  on most of the S class ships for hanging around in the afternoon on sea days while wife plays mahj jong. . A drink, my ipad with music , books or internet and headphones, and of course fresh air and wonderful sights. 

On longer cruises, or B2b, the bartenders get to know you and they have fun getting me to try different creations, as do I.

 

All on a bigger ship, you create your own little world, and the downside of a bigger ship, getting on and off, is offset by being in Suites or status. Esp at a tender port.

 

 

 

These amenities are  not always available on the  Azmara type ships, and even on Oceana for example, the dining is real good,  however choices are limited. It will be interesting to see how a hedge fund runs Azmara and how soon they flip it.

Oh yes, agree with that too but when we do Azamara, we normally do port intensive cruises so we’re usually exhausted after dinner.  That makes a big difference as to what you feel like doing. We’ve only done one TA and it was on  Azamara. Our next TA is on The Edge and in a Suite.  We’re doing that cruise to mostly experience the ship.  Happy sailing. 😊

2 hours ago, HMR74 said:

on the food issue-which is the topic of this thread

 

last night I read an article about summer camps in the NE closing down  since they cannot get food delivered as companies like Sysco (restaurant and institutional supplier)  have constraints.  We know supply chains are being constrained on just about everything now, and with cruising starting up that adds to the resurging demand for food.

 

Can anybody add "flavor" to this that might be in the "know"?

 

And how does this affect cruise ship provisioning. I am under the impression that cruise lines do a lot of provisioning out of the US even for non US cruises and only locally provision for certain items. eg, a lot of pallets of food is air shipped to other ports.

 

Since I will have a lot of not refundable OBC on my next cruise, which is a TA, perhaps I should take one of the internal ship tours, although with covid and normal health restrictions, the kitchen would be off limits and probably most other areas too. I've never taken one of those.

 

One of the resosn for either Aqua or Suite class is you get away from the institutional food prep, even though its all coming out of the same kitchen. Our first cruise was on a ship that had less than 1,000 capacity, and we were impressed by the food quality and service. As time went on and the ships got bigger, food service became institutionalized. and as ships further grew we saw upscale classes of service (eg Blu and Luminae) , and then specialty restaurants that more or less both  give us the old style quality and service.

 

I also like Blu and Luminae for the intimacy of dining and meeting interesting folks.

 

For reasons you cited regarding Aqua and Suite class, that is why we love Azamara. We love the small ship atmosphere and have found it quite easy to make acquaintances with many couples during our cruises.  We also usually travel alone.

We’ve also hit it off quite nicely with some couples eating at nearby two tops in Blu. 

59 minutes ago, cruisingator2 said:

Based upon your recommendations we booked the Albergo del Senato for three nights in May after our cruise on the Edge. The location looks absolutely perfect. Thanks for the suggestion. 

Without going back and sifting through all the posts, will you please say what is near the hotel?  Thanks.

5 hours ago, miched said:

if you really want to dine in Luminae you  can always pay the upcharge to a suite if they are still available or do it on a Move Up.   It is limited to suites or their guests as others have posted.

 

Personally if you could pay a uncharge for one night  it would still be better  to purchase a specialty restaurant as the service and food is much better if you are looking for a one night dining experience

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🌅🇺🇸

 

 

Lol….”Land of ice, snow and potholes”.  You wouldn't happen to be from Illinois, would you? 

On 7/11/2021 at 12:03 PM, morpheusofthesea said:

Just got off Edge July 3rd sailing. Daniel Bouland's Morrocan chicken tagine was the mainstay. The Cypress restaurant offered Greek specialties, the lamb shank stuck out to me and it is a complimentary specialty restaurant, which stuck out to me even more. The dessert selection was rather meager, generally only 2 to choose from, but that did not matter. We took a short stroll over to the Oceanview Cafe (buffet) and we had different multitudes of desserts in a clean, no lines, no self service venue. We have never eaten in a buffet for 30 years, but the mandatory hand washing troughs at the entrance, the masked and gloved servers, the immediately cleaned tables opened up a new culinary world for us on Celebrity.

Is there any way to see Cypress menu online?  
 

27 minutes ago, dogs4fun said:

Ah, I found this on the website here: https://www.portodelisboa.pt/en/planeamento-de-cruzeiros1

Cruises planning

 

 Information

Due to the COVID 19 pandemic situation, cruise planning is available only for the next two weeks.

So that explains it.  Thanks for looking for it. I just booked a ship tour.  I can always cancel it later once I figure out some things.  

On 7/17/2021 at 9:24 AM, dogs4fun said:

First question – where will your ship dock? You can find docking information on the port of Lisbon's website (note: no ships are scheduled at this time – you can check back a few months prior to your cruise). https://www.lisboncruiseport.pt/

I haven’t seen the Rick Steves video but I believe the tourist trolley that you describe is Tram #28 – information can be found here: https://www.tram28lisboa.com/

We docked at Alcantara by the 25th of April Bridge and, as my friends wanted to visit Belem (Mosteiro dos Jerónimos,  the famous Pasteis de Nata, Museu de Marinha - Maritime Museum, Torre de Belém, Padrão dos Descobrimentos - Monument to the Discoveries, Museu Nacional dos Coches - Coach Museum)

We took tram #15 (just a 5 minute walk from the cruise port to the tram stop). You can also take tram #15 in the opposite direction to the city center (interchange at Praça do Comércio). We had some time left before returning to the ship & took the tram to Praça do Comércio as the crew wanted to ride the Santa Justa Lift. Busy day.

Thank you for the information. We are there on October 26, 2021.  I don’t know why it isn’t showing up 

5 hours ago, mskaufman said:

We did the Lisbon HOHO bus in 2019 and had a great experience.  It even went as far as Belem. We got off and on and there was more than enough to do in a day.  The only thing I would do different is to get off the bus and take the tourist trolley that follows the number 28 route.  

Interesting.  I did watch  a Rick Steves video that showed him on the cable car and then he took the funicular.  Looked like a fun way to spend the day. Any advice on how to find where you get on the tourist trolley and then back to port when you’re finished? 

3 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Sorry, but we don't do HoHo buses (some of my friends disagree) as we are long time DIYers and find that HoHos are costly and one can spend too much time just waiting for buses.  In Porto, we took the metro (subway) to the far side of the river and spent the day simply walking everywhere.    Since DW is a big fan of Port wines, on our two visits we spent a good part of the day just visiting and tasting at multiple Port Houses (this term refers to the actual winery) which were all located within a radius we could cover on foot in less then an hour.  We broke up the day with a nice long lunch (near the river) and also some shopping.    If and when we return to Porto we would likely do something similar although we would try to get to some of Port Houses we did not visit on our last trip.

 

Just a suggestion about HoHos.  If you want to use those buses you need to make sure they have a stop near your ship.  And it is also wise to check on the frequency of those HoHOs.  We have been in places where they would only run about once every 30 - 45 min which complicates planning.   I will admit that we have used some HoHos (the last time was in Reykjavik) but for us in Porto the subway got us from point A to point B very quickly (and cheaply) while I assume folks were still waiting for their bus.

 

Hank

Good to know.  We actually only did these on a New England cruise and a California Coastal. They were actually called something Trolley.  They seem to be a chain in the states.  We loved those but our experience was a good one. They were actually quite fun. We have never done a HOHO in Europe.  I was just inquiring. I just booked a ship tour with Porto. It will give us some time to experience the city 

9 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

I would agree that the Rick Steves books are a great starting point.  Lisbon has several different cruise ship docking locations (all within the city) , but they all allow access to public transit (buses, metro, tram, etc).  Lisbon is fine for DIY as its surrounding region (which includes places like Estoril, Cascais and Sintra) which can be be accessed by trains, rental cars, etc.   For those who are not familiar with the city doing pre-cruise homework is very helpful.   When we are in Lisbon overnight we always manage to find our way to a dinner show featuring Fado.. (look it up).  One of our favorite spots for this is a restaurant called Senhor Vinho.

 

Porto is a little different because the two different cruise ship docking locations are well outside the town.  Depending on where a ship is docked they may have relatively easy access to the train/subway which once it gets into town does go underground.  Porto is arrayed on two sides of a Douro River.  The side closest to the ports has the downtown shopping area and business neighborhood.  But the other side of the river (my favorite) is where you can find the many Port houses (we are talking Port Wine) of which many are open to the public for tours and tastings.  Along the river bank (across the street from the river) are also some decent shops, cafes, etc.    The subway does connect both sides of the river as do a few bridges.  They have very good tourist brochures (which you will likely get from the local tourist office after your ship docks) which has a very helpful map showing all the tourist highlights (including all the Port Houses) along with basic information.

 

Hank

Do you know if they have HOHO buses?  May just do a ship tour (not our favorite) in Porto but one doesn’t look too bad.  Besides, I have OBC to get rid of. Thanks for the info. 

3 minutes ago, mchell810 said:

I can't give you any info on Porto.  For Lisbon it is possible to DIY so you will ultimately have to decide; and I think where you are staying may be a factor.  The city is easy to get around via public transit and cabs were plentiful when we were too tired to keep walking.  I was there in 2019 for a couple days pre-cruise.  We explored mostly on our own.  We went up the the Castle Sao Jorge -- nice views -- and then walked our way back into the city.  We explored the main squares in the Restauradores area and up Avenida Libertade to our hotel.  Another day we took the subway to explore the main park and in the evening we walked from the hotel through various squares all the way to the sea.  The Belem area is of interest and can be reached via a tram.  We were joining a group so for our last morning we had a tour and then they took us to the port.  For that tour the guide took us to Belem to see the Explorers monument and the monastery.  Quite lovely if you are interested in history.

 

If you are interested in getting outside the city it's possible to DIY but a tour might be easier.  I wanted to get to Sinatra; I just didn't have time so left it to my next trip.  I hope this helps.

 

Thank you. Maybe I’ll ask about private guides or look on Tripadvisor.  Even a walking tour with a local would be good.

18 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Rick Steves Portugal will give you several walking tour itineraries plus detailed descriptions of all the major sites.

Are those some where online?  I don’t want to purchase travel books. Have too many setting around as it is. Thanks.

I’m curious if we can DIY these two ports ourselves. I’ve been looking to see what we can do or if someone has a guide they can recommend. Sometimes we just love to wander around and I know both ports are great to experience 

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

We tend to prefer to smaller European style hotels to the large chain places preferred by many Americans.  There are some real long-time Rome lovers (like Cruisemom) who have previously recommended specific hotels in that neighborhood and perhaps she will see this thread and chime in with some good advice.   DW and I are pretty adventurous travelers (we almost always are on our own by ourselves) and will often try new hotels (for us) based on recommendations that are current to the time frame we are traveling.  At this point, few have been to Rome (or elsewhere) in a long time because of COVID.  We can assume that many things have changed (including ownership, management,  staff, etc) so I am now looking for recommendations based on current info.

 

Hank

We are exactly the same. I have never booked a chain hotel overseas. Let’s hope Rome hasn’t changed too much from precovid.

3 hours ago, Hlitner said:

DW and truly love the Piazza Navona area and the nearby Campo de Fiori neighborhood.   We have spent many hours just relaxing in cafes/restaurants in that part of Rome where the people watching is often our favorite entertainment.  The next time we spend some time in Rome we will prioritize finding a decent hotel room in that part of town.

 

Hank

According to what I’ve been reading there are many. I’m just trying to figure out which one suits our needs best   Not the walkers we once were so I need things to be relatively close.