S&B

Thanks for posting the pictures. We are also doing the Transatlantic back to Tampa.

Campolady, I'm currently on the Harmony having just left Malaga. I just wanted to say that there was a twist in the tale of my quest to get to the Alhambra (Spain Day Tours cancelled our booking as could not get tickets)

Found out on day 3 of the cruise that Ship was offering an excursion afterall. It was not advertised online. Apparently Royal took up a strict limited allocation of tickets-- just one bus -- two days before leaving Southampton, so I grabbed the chance. Ship also had to give names two days in advance, don't know why. Did not get to see Granada itself but very happy to see the palaces!

We have a reservation with Spain Day Tours which has been confirmed but I am concerned that they cancelled dutchclogs booking to Alhambra. Does anyone know if this has happened before or since. We are going to be there in October and there are three ships in port that day. Would it be possible there are other days Spain Day Tours cannot get tickets?

Thanks for any information

Thanks every one for your suggestions and help. After reading some of your thoughts we are going to play it safe and fly Alitalia. Our ship departs Rome on a Monday. We were thinking about leaving BCN on Sunday. Is that cutting it too short? I know it is impossible to predict but is Alitalia pretty reliable, as in not having strikes or delays?

Thanks again.

Sylvia

We have a FF mile ticket from the USA to Barcelona. Now we have decided to change plans and will pick up the cruise ship in Rome. Since we still want to spend time in Barcelona what air line would be the best for us to take to get to Rome. We will have luggage plus a carry on. I have found a couple of options just wondering what others think - Iberia or Vueling. Iberia is considerably less. Our ship leaves on Monday and I was thinking about Sat or Sun. flight to get to Rome.

Thanks for any advice.

Through Trip Advisor I have found an excursion in Calvi and was wondering if anyone else has used them or a similar company. The company is - Corse Adventure 4x4. They have good reviews and we like to get out and see the countryside. It does not bother us to be riding in a jeep. They have half day and full day tours. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Thanks so much Carol.

I went back to our itinerary and we do stop at Alicante. The excursion is 4.5 hours and ends up at a shoe factory. Being from Florida I think we will enjoy seeing what the other side of the world has in palm trees. We do enjoy our palm trees here and have three of them in our yard.

Thanks again.

Sylvia

I went back and read your previous posts that you shared with someone else. After the excursion I believe we will stay in town and then take the shuttle back to the ship. I am going to print out what you have written and take it with us. Thanks for the information and taking the time to help us.

Has anyone done this excursion. It goes to the Palmoral de Elche to see the palms. Is there anything else there? We will be there in November 2016.

Thanks for any help.

Thanks for all the wonderful advice you are giving. We have a 3.5 hour tour in Gibraltar but it does not go to the WWII tunnels. After the tour we would like to return to the rock to see the tunnels and walk around the reserve. Is this logical or not? I presume we need to take the cable car to do this. Thanks for any suggestions. Will be there end of Oct.

Sail7Seas has is exactly correct. Very easy to do. We did it this past summer on a 22 day cruise in the Med. I would, however, check with the front desk because for some reason they had us staying in an inside cabin for the entire B2B when we had booked a balcony for the second portion of our cruise. I had to show our papers where we booked the second 11 days separately.

However,I will have to say that our inside cabin was very nice and large. I learned that if I want to cruise bad enough I can stay in an inside cabin. But, we were two doors away from being able to get on an open deck. Enjoy!!

7 Seas, thanks for all the wonderful advice you give to all of us. Much appreciated.

Thanks everybody for all of your replies. I have found the cruise for 2017 and think it is great.

Bowie - You don't know how bad I want to go on that July 2, 2016 sailing but we just returned from a B2B - 22 day cruise to the Med. and we are having a new granddaughter the end of April so I think this summer is booked up.

We will probably book the July 15, 2017 segment but it does not go past the arctic circle which is on my bucket list. But it does go to Greenland which is a place we have always wanted to visit.

I wish we could start a thread just for VofV 2017 but I think it is too early.

Happy sailing. I am enjoying reading the July 2 roll call. Who knows??

I have been looking on the HAL website and cannot find any V of V cruise for 2017 in July or August. Are they not having those cruises or is it too early to be posted on their website. Thanks for any info.

We were on a B2B 22 day cruise in September and stayed in cabin 10020. I believe the balcony might have been a little smaller but that did not bother us. What we liked about that deck is that we could be out doors very quickly to see everything. We really enjoyed that and would definitely want to be in that area again. That was a guarantee cabin for us so we had no choice but were happy.

Have a great cruise.

Thanks Keith,

We leave in a couple of weeks and I wanted to know if I could actually find tour operators at the dock when we get off the ship. We have nothing planned so far. Sorry if I wasn't clear - it was late at night. :)

Will we find tour operators at the port that will take us to Taormina and the area? I cannot find an excursion that I like with our cruise line.

Terri,

I am so glad you got to do this cruise. We also have a tour with Milo's brother in Kotor. When you were through with the tour (6 hr) did you have time to go to the old town of Kotor or were you docked too far away. Were there any taxis at that time of day that could take us after the tour? Did he pick you up at 9? He has not told us what time he will meet us. We dock at 8.

Thanks so much for the review. We go in September and hope we will have beaten the heat.

Sail 7 Seas:

It says: Interior - $1,099.00/Ocean View (Obstructed)- $1,199.00/Suites - $2,299.00. It left out the balcony. As I look at the 14 days South America Dec. 6 cruise it also has these never heard of prices. Excuse me, I made a mistake. The 21 day cruise starts on Dec. 20. That is the cruise the OP, I presume, wanted to go on.

At those prices (if they honored it) we could go back to SA which I would love to do but hubby says we have been there once and can't go back.:( Too many other things to do while we are still able!

I have never understood why we get all these mailings and others don't but I am not complaining.

St. Pete cruiser,

I was wondering if it was a "typo" and what they would do. I also noticed another sailing in the same brochure that was very low for a 14 day cruise. We probably live only a few miles from each other. We are north of St. Pete. Small World!!

Happy sailing!

I have the mailing in my hand. The sailing is for December 20, 2015 and the price of the suite is $2,299.00. It is a 21 day cruise. If that is the date you want then I would try another PCC. As someone else said they list several dates but they always tell you the date for the price listed.

I just want to make sure I am doing the right thing. I am booking tickets through "tickitaly" and I have to book two different tickets. One for the entry and the other for the underground tour. I thought there would be a combination ticket to book but I cannot find it.

I have tried to book tickets through the main coliseum office for September and it will not let me so I am presuming they are sold out for my date. (Sept. 12)

Thanks for helping. If it wasn't for this wonderful thread I would have let it slip my mind.

Thanks for your answers. The date is Sept. 10. We always book with Delta on line and always with our Ameri Ex card because we get one free luggage. The reason I might switch to the earlier flight (Alitalia) is because then we get a free shuttle to our hotel. (Holiday Inn Express with our points) The Delta flight we would only have one hour to get our luggage, go through customs and get to the shuttle bus.

Another question but maybe I should start a new post. The instructions about the shuttle bus says: "shuttle service is available to/from Metro Station EUR MAGLIANA, FCO parking lot No. 30". Maybe this is going to be confusing and we should just take a cab. Hopefully not over 40 eur. Thanks again.

We have two options going from Tampa - JFK - FCO on Delta which gets in at 10:40 a.m. or Alitalia which arrives at 8 a.m. They are the same price but we have never flown on Alitalia. They are a partner with Delta. I am presuming we will get the same amount of FF miles towards our flight. Can someone tell me about Alitalia? Both flights leave Tampa at the same time on Delta.

Thanks for any advice.

This is nutty!! When I scroll down through the cruises that HAL has listed in my email I get the sale price. When I try to book it only the regular price comes up. Anyways, we have all had interesting experiences. Will have to call our PCC.

Happy sailing!!

Yesterday we got an "Explore Europe Now" Private email from HAL that had special fares. Does everyone get these emails or does it go to customers who have been searching for that particular area in Europe or elsewhere.

The cruises that we have been considering were a lower price than the Anniversary Sale. Now I am confused. Just how many sales does HAL have out there? :confused:

I brought this thread back to the top because I am the one that mentioned about HAL raising the price of the cruise after the anniversary sale. I looked at the HAL website yesterday and they have lowered the price for that cruise (and particular cabin) back to the original price at the time of the sale. Thought it would only be right to tell you. Those of you who booked with this sale need to watch to see if your price went down also.

Happy sailing and thanks to all those who help!!

Silver to Gold,

The price of our cruise has been raised 200.00pp since this new anniversary cruise sale came out. Does make you wonder!!! We really have not gained anything.