katiemylady

Hi all! My husband and I leave on 5/25 for our 11 Night Holy Land cruise on the Odyssey of the Seas. According to RCCL's website, we will need a negative PCR or rapid antigen test no more than 1 day prior to boarding. Here is our dilemma: we fly out of Boston, MA on 5/24 on a red-eye. Most PCR tests I see offer results within 1-2 days, which may not be ready by the time we board. We have called RCCL and they are absolutely no help. If we get a rapid test performed on 5/24 early morning EST, would we be fine boarding with that result? Alternatively, is anyone familiar with the costs and availability/locations of rapid antigen testing in Rome/Cittavecchia? My husband is panicking that we will not have the right testing completed timely. 

Mud slides!!! Pretty sure they have blenders at every bar. My husband and I had fun on our last cruise asking the bartenders to make "something frozen of your choice" while at the pool deck. It was so fun to try all sorts of different things. There's plenty to choose from, and they can make almost any drink a frozen one!

10 hours ago, SusieKIslandGirl said:

What transfer company did you book with? Thanks!

We booked with MyCabinRome! He was excellent to work with and is going to give us exactly what we were hoping for! 

Thanks all! We ended up booking a private transfer with a short half day tour of some of the most popular sites (Trevi Fountain, etc) and it was very reaosnably priced! 

On 3/31/2022 at 8:37 PM, cruisemom42 said:

 

It's hard to avoid asking why you're not spending a day or two in Rome before your cruise if you want to see anything of the city.

 

At best you could visit Trevi Fountain, get some outside photos of the Colosseum and Forum, possibly photos of St. Peter's and a quick dash inside if the security lines aren't too long.

 

It won't be inexpensive, but given your limitations I think it would be this or just go straight to the port.

It's not hard to answer the question. The cruise we are going on is 11 nights, and given our vacation time allotted from each of our companies, we don't have much time to add days before or after the cruise. We would definitely be okay with Trevi Fountain and outside photos of Colosseum. We will look into to some private transfers or possibly go the train route. 

Hi all! We are cruising out of Rome port on 5/25. Cruise leaves around 5 pm, but our flights gets in to FCO at 7:30 am. We would like to explore Rome a bit (we know it’s a drive to get to the city center, but willing to do it just for a bit!), but we aren’t quite sure what to do with our luggage? We don’t want to do a ton, just look at the Trevi Fountain, maybe the Vatican, or a hop-on, hop-off tour? We have AAA, wondering if we should go there to ask about transfers from airport to city center and then city center to cruise port. This is our first time cruising internationally! 

4 minutes ago, DCPIV said:

 

Yes, you can, and you can cancel online via the cruise planner.

 

I believe you'll need to cancel the one you've purchased first, but then you just immediately repurchase at the lower rate.

 

Perfect. That is what I thought, but wanted to be sure! Thanks so much!

Hi all! Looking at booking the DBP for our upcoming May sailing on the Odyssey of the Seas 11 Night Holy Land cruise. It is currently at $65.99/person/day. I have been watching it the past few weeks, and it hovered around $79.99 or $69.99/person/day. We are going to book it at this price. If it goes down again, can we rebook, and then call and cancel the original purchase? 

Thanks!!

Just signed up for our May 25th Holy Land cruise on Odyssey of the Seas, and wondering if people have experience with the UDP trends? We are seeing $69/person/day right now on the website. I expect those will probably go down before the trip, and I should keep checking? Last time we cruised (3 years ago), I know that the cost went down over time as we led up to the sail date. Is that still the norm?

3 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

Agreed. This is from the Moderators, posted back in March. We should all be mindful of this.

 

The world has become a changing place; we're all stressed, worried and nothing makes sense any longer.  We've lost  jobs, the security of every day life, some experience health issues and yes, some have even lost friends and family.

 

For 25 years we've provided this haven for cruisers.  KEYWORD:  haven.    I'm asking that you all remember that.  This is our place to escape, connect with friends and to discuss your favorite form of travel -- cruising.

 

Don't bring politics into your posts.  Soften your "virtual" voice when you respond to others.  Re-read before you push the submit button.  Let's set an example for the rest of the travel world by displaying who we are!  Remember, we're all in this together.

 

Thank you for listening, and for your anticipated cooperation,

 

LauraS and the Cruise Critic Community Team

I apologize for bringing politics into it. I did not bring it up again after that initial reply that made me aware I brought politics into it (I genuinely didn’t think that was a political statement, just pure facts lol). I won’t mention anything else about the country and how it is handling this virus, and I have only been responding since then about the frustrations I have about the situation and the uncertainty of it all. 

7 hours ago, mellowrose said:

Don't put your hopes on a vaccine. Its still not confirmed by the experts when that will be coming out. Personally I would not put money down on a cruise for 2021. The USA is getting higher and higher numbers of deaths so I doubt if Europe will be welcoming Americans into their ports in 2021. Lets hope for the best but plan for the worst. There are other attractive travel options in USA itself. Beautiful parks, resorts that all need customers.

Yeah, there are plenty of places in the US for us to go, but like I mentioned, this is really the only opportunity we are going to have to travel internationally before we have kids. It’s just all the more frustrating that the US as a country cannot get their heads out of their behinds enough to manage this thing better than we have. It sucks for people like us who have followed all protocol, and are still going to miss out on once in a lifetime opportunities because of this thing. 

7 minutes ago, Fido Chuckwagon said:

If I were you I'd start looking at alternatives to a cruise vacation for your honeymoon.  Hopefully things will be much better in May of '21 then they are right now, however the odds of there being cruises that US citizens can go on in Europe seems pretty remote on our current trajectory.  The odds of these cruise lines even surviving is highly questionable at this point.  If you put money down for a deposit you are risking losing it.

That is my fear as well. I know it took us almost 60 days to get back our deposit for the first cruise. 
 

This whole thing really sucks. We LOVE cruising, and wanted to explore some new areas neither of us have seen before while on our honeymoon. We’ve both always wanted to go to Europe, and likely won’t be able to once we start having children, so this is really our only chance. 

37 minutes ago, chipmaster said:

Congratulations, is your wedding now a zoom wedding?

 

I'd say next year.. maybe, better to go for your 5 year anniversary celebration IMHO

We are not doing a zoom wedding, we just postponed to May for the entire thing in general. 
 

We likely wouldn’t be able to do this as a 5 year anniversary trip, because we are planning on starting to try to have kids within about 2 years after our wedding (were both getting old) and likely won’t have the money or freedom to go away at that point. 

Hi all! My fiancé and I were supposed to get married in September, and then we’re going to hop on the September 29th 10-day Cruise out of Athens. Well, COVID came and kicked that plan right out the window. We canceled our cruise before our final payment date and made other plans in the US (we live in Massachusetts), because we figured that even if things got better and we were able to have our wedding as planned, we wouldn’t be able to go on our dream honeymoon. WELL, now that COVID is still a mess here in the states, we ended up postponing our wedding to late May 2021. 
 

SO, all that stupid nonsense aside, now we are unsure if we should go ahead and try to rebook a similar Mediterranean cruise again? Do we think we may Be able to travel internationally by that point? Postponing a wedding and originally cancelling a honeymoon has been super stressful, and honestly we are lost on what to do with our now official honeymoon. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 

We contemplated it yesterday, but took the dive and booked our 10-day Mediterranean honeymoon out of Athens for September today. It was about $700 more than it was yesterday, but we are well outside of our final payment window, and I expect prices to go down, so we wanted to book now to secure the 5 free at sea deals and then can price adjust from here. I have a strong feeling that this hysteria will calm down by September. We are two healthy individuals, and we are not letting this madness stop us from the honeymoon of our dreams.

Just booked our HONEYMOON! 221 days to go - Mediterranean cruise! 😊😊😊

I'm guessing the activities are just not to your liking. We are sailing on the Adventure on Saturday and are really looking forward to it. The activities that I can see on the RCI app already look like so much fun! Sorry you did not enjoy yourself.

Also, keep an eye on the price of the drink package on the cruise planner on the RCI website. It will go up and down in the weeks leading up to your cruise. We were able to book our beverage package for $42 per day, so we snagged it. I know you already ordered it at $46/day, but if price goes down, you can cancel and re-book at the cheaper price.

11 minutes ago, robyn206 said:

Not sure when you are sailing, but my excursion prices today are less than they were earlier in the week, so I just cancelled and rebooked my Labadee excursion and saved a few dollars.  I sail in July.

We sail on Saturday! 

15 minutes ago, Akaicb said:

Wow, that is a great sale price.  Were you just lucky or did you keep checking daily for a sale?

We are on the Adventure this Saturday 4/27 and were able to book pre-cruise for $42/day. Definitely keep checking cruise planner! The prices will go up and down in the weeks/months leading up to the cruise depending on the amount of people who booked pre-cruise. We booked about 4 weeks out because we couldn't turn down the price! If prices go down further, you are also allowed to cancel and then re-book at the discounted price, just FYI.

Hi folks! Do the Labadee excursions (zip line, dragon's tail coaster, snorkel safari, etc) ever go on sale once on the ship depending on the popularity or number of participants? We are contemplating doing one of the above, but are not 100% sold on them because of prices, so are wondering if they put them on sale once on ship, or if we would be better off booking now.

Looking forward to your review. We leave on the Adventure on Saturday! Did your room have the USB ports on the bottom of the book lights/night lights by the bed? I have seen some mention of them but don't know what rooms/floors they are in.

I find that the guarantee rooms (the "let us pick your room") are on a lower floor (floors 2-4) and when you are allowed to pick your own room, you can usually get a room on a more preferable floor.

Hi all! I’m wondering what the lowest price of the drink package is that you’ve seen. My boyfriend and I are on the Adventure on April 27th and it is currently $44/day. Also, do both people in the cabin have to purchase the package? We are hoping that one of us can do the drink package and the other can do the soda package. 

50 minutes ago, ckrobyn said:

There are no drink cards on the Adventure. I asked about it on day one and was told they have been discontinued (on this ship anyways).

That really stinks! Looks like I will just have to bring extra money with me for my occasional drinks. Thank you for the info!