Murt22

On 6/5/2024 at 9:14 PM, SantaFe1 said:

 If we go to Hawaii again, we will fly and DIY.

I'm not a cruise fanatic like some on this board, so I don't get the draw of being on the sea more than on the islands. We go to Maui every Jan/Feb and even if the weather isn't ideal - it will be better tomorrow (usually) and it definitely will be better than Iowa in January.

3 hours ago, CILCIANRQTS said:

A group of us shared a bottle of Veuve Clicquot and the bartender put it under the beverage package.

There was a similar champagne on our Alaskan cruise and my 2 glasses per day paid for my package...and sometimes I even MADE money by drinking more than that!😁

2 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

On a B2B you cannot book excursions for the overnight between cruise legs until you are on board.

We are on 3 legs of the 4 week cruise starting in Athens on September 1, and when I originally booked our excursions, they had none for those turnaround days- however I checked last week and was able to book for middle day of Venice and for Rome. 

We were on this cruise last year and we docked at Haines because they limit the ships in Skagway. There was no train option for us, so we did a "Yukon Explorer" which entailed walking to the ferry dock, taking the ferry to Skagway (scenic trip), getting on a bus, driving over the pass (well - after our bus broke down and we had to wait for a new bus), ended up at a made-up tourist stop to see a suspension bridge and eat chili. Rushed back to town, with only about 20 minutes of free time before having to get on the ferry to go back. Expensive and not worth it. Maybe they are just skipping it now...? One of the sailing days involved seeing a glacier, which was great, and one was before disembarking in Vancouver.

Just checked MVJ to confirm some of the times/excursions, etc. and the middle Venice day and the Rome day were open for booking for us. We are in a PS1, so maybe that is why it is open? Maybe that's why they were full when you wanted to book on-board?

On 5/14/2024 at 12:35 PM, RRTX2017 said:

The cost usually ranges from about $50-$150 (USD),

Not sure what cruise you have been on lately - but the minimum cost on our Mediterranean and Adriatic Sojourn was 69 (which was only a few), some in the 79-99 range and many over that. Even doing "on your own'' in some places were over the 69. I would plan for at least 100/excursion with some being over and some being under. 

Thank you so much - exactly the information I needed. We are in Venice on a Sat-Sun-Mon - so we booked the "on your own" for Saturday and hoping to prebook St. Mark's tickets, open on Sunday - hope to do Murano/Burano - but not crucial, and Monday we are already booked for Secrets of Doge's Palace. We are in Rome on Sunday as well - and I realized the issue when i researched so we are going to Rome on our own before the cruise. There are 2 different non-Rome proper tours that we hopefully can pick from. We plan on doing the same with Dubrovnik, Kotor and Corfu. Thanks again for the information.

A couple of questions - when were you able to pick an excursion for the middle Venice day and Rome? I know you have to book them on-board, but do you have to wait until you are arriving at that port or when you board? Did Kotor,Corfu and Dubrovnik have shuttles back to the ship?  

We're on the same exact trip starting September 1st - anxious to hear about your excursions. We are all booked for them but nice to know what to expect. I am expecting mostly warm weather, but the rain jacket is a good tip. We are actually going to Rome for 4 days before we fly to Athens for 3 days then join the cruise. We have an idea what we want to do on the Rome stop - but not life or death since we will have done what we wanted earlier. Still very shaky with the Venice situation and we are staying in Florence over night to maximize our experience. Thanks for posting.

I have read all the postings of the Venice -Chioggia situation and am trying to figure out the best way to get back from Venice if you want to stay longer (with or without staying all night). Are there taxi's that are relatively reasonable and available? I see that you can book private cars, but that is expensive, and the bus is available, but not sure it runs as late as we might want to stay. We may possibly go both ways if it wasn't cost prohibitive. As of now, we have Venice on Your Own for Saturday - plan to do Murano/Burano if available on Sunday (can't book now) and do Secrets of Doge's Palace on Monday. We will have to book our own St. Mark's tickets for Saturday and would like to do more if possible on Saturday. We may skip the Sunday trip if we decide to stay all night. Any current information would be appreciated. (we are on the Mediterranean and Adriatic Sojourn - Athens to Barcelona and will be in Venice on September 7-9).

I agree, but when I did research, I would map out the places to get a feel for the time. Takes time to do - but it gives you a better idea of how much bus time might be involved.

Thanks for the information - we just booked the included walking tour and had intended to do the wall on our own and you answered all the questions!

We did get everything booked. A few times, it wouldn't let me add the excursion to the cart so I would skip to the next one and a few times it would freeze and make me go back to the home page. I put a few paid excursions in the cart and paid for them before doing the next batch. Overall, it took about 40 minutes - we are on a 22 day cruise and didn't book anything for 4 of the days. 

We book our excursions on Saturday and in preparing for that, I have been going to the website often to look at the excursions. I have found the website down as much as i have found it up. I have really never seen so much "maintenance" on a website. Obviously, it is random - so some can say that they don't have the problem, but have anyone had this issue? I know there is no solution to this problem - but I find it frustrating and hope the website is available during our booking time as I am missing some things to stay home to do it.

4 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

One other option is to rent a hotel room in Venice for one of those nights. I’ve read of other people who have done this. Venice after dark is magical.

We thought about that - but how do you get back to the ship?

Thank you so much for the information - debating on doing the Venice on your own which has a longer time in Venice - but if we can't pre-order our tickets, we may be in the same boat - so to speak - as doing the paid excursion that includes St Mark's.

On 3/18/2024 at 4:34 PM, Frenchberet said:

On our other days in Venice we did an included walking tour, “Highlights of St Mark’s Square”, and an optional tour to the Doge’s Palace.

Did you go inside St. Mark's and/or Doge's Palace on the first day? We have an excursion "Unraveling St. Mark’s Square & Doge’s Palace" and wonder if it goes inside Doge's palace. I find the descriptions to be unclear. 

While sitting on our balcony while sailing to see a glacier, overheard our neighbors bragging about how they were glad to be in Florida during Covid because they didn't have all the rules, etc.  One of them was hacking and hacking. The next day, we came out of our room to see  the whole medical team standing in front of their door - and there was a do not disturb on their door- and suddenly our cabin steward was wearing a mask...hmmmm. 

We are on the reverse cruise that starts in Istanbul, but we start in Athens -so Venice and Rome are our turnaround days. We knew this would not give us enough time in Rome, so we are going early to Rome and then flying to Athens to catch the cruise. The Venice discussion is on point for us as well - we don't book our excursions for 5 weeks - so the information in this thread is very informative.

I like control of my air flights, so choose to book exactly what we want, cabin class, seats, routes, connections, etc. I'm sure it costs more, but with the too close connection times, multiple stops, terrible times, etc. it is worth it to us, especially if we are planning activities the first day. 

Favorite outfit seen on our Alaskan cruise was a pastel seersucker suit with shorts worn by a lovely white - haired man with a handle bar mustache. 

Our 22 day cruise includes Sunday embarkation at Athens, Sunday visit to Venice and Rome. After we originally were going to do the pre-tour in Athens and realized that it really only included a hotel(and transport). We decided to cancel our Viking Air and pre-tour and book our own pre-tour. We are flying to Rome a week before the cruise and will do all the sites then fly to Athens and do the sites, then embark on the cruise. We are planning on doing Ostia in Rome if available. We are also planning on staying overnight in Florence so we can do as much as possible. Venice is another issue - but still working on that. I haven't been any of these places before and have no idea if I will ever get there again.

In Italy, you must use your passport for ID when picking up tickets, etc. if you booked anything on your own. Not sure about other countries - but a photocopy or driver's license is not sufficient.

Thank you so much for the information. I did just book a walking tour that would require we stay  overnight so I have been researching the hotels. I don't know what excursions will be offered for our cruise but we do want to do the museums closed on Monday. 

What is the normal time that you must be on-board after excursions if the ship is scheduled to leave at 6pm?