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I thought of you when I saw that itinerary. You would certainly know your way around the city!

Thanks for posting this. The return itinerary is slightly different. Perhaps most notable a stop to visit National Historic Site L’Anse aux Meadows as a replacement for St. John’s in Newfoundland. This provides an interesting choice.

We have had a number of experiences with RomeCabs, the second one Stefano himself was our driver. We have never had a problem with their services and once they successfully solved a challenging problem for us. I hope your experience is just as positive. Please return to share your impressions with us, especially the visit ro Ostia Antica.

Thanks for providing more information. Good that your area was largely spared.

These “once in a hundred year events” are becoming rather too common for my liking. One thing I will never miss about living on a farm is the dependence on the weather, and we never faced what you have encountered.

Thanks for the update. I had read that much of the worst of the flooding was around Montpelier but Burlington was also mentioned. I hope that the federal and state governments will quickly come to the aid of those, like your son-in-law, who have suffered such serious damages. As such a unique event, this must be quite traumatic.

I do hope that Mackdogmolly and other posters that live in Vermont are avoiding the worst elements of the deluge that seems to be centred on that state.

This works for me but the list was of 5 club continent suites so I don’t know if that is the total inventory available. Really appreciate the time you took to describe your system.

These are wonderful suggestions. We have often chosen Option 2. It provides lots of flexibility and sitting around at an airport for a long period of time is a situation we try to avoid.

Good suggestion! I think RomeCabs will definitely organize a city tour as part of a transfer.

That is certainly frustrating. My memory may well be failing, but I seem to remember that even before leaving Royal Caribbean the Azamara offices in North America were only open Saturday mornings for weekend services. So I wouldn’t expect you will receive the needed attention from Azamara offices on this side of the Atlantic.

That’s a lot of potential excitement. I hope you do get to enjoy some celebrations. Our eldest lives in Brooklin. She keeps trying to talk us into moving there.

Thanks. Our eldest is supposed to go family camping north of Montreal next week. Interesting that the air has been better there so far. I will tell her that, as attractive as it is, the area around Burlington is not an option at this point if conditions worsen at her destination.

Thanks!! They are opening the Dome for the Jays game so air quality may have improved.

The article mentioned that Gen Z was seen as a growing market for nonalcoholic cocktails etc. I am certain cruise lines will monitor this change in tastes. As you can imagine we are also “enjoying” our Canada Day with a noticeable haze. When one gets up in the morning it is time to check the weather and then the Air Quality Index. This is becoming a little too dystopian for me.

I have just read a newspaper article that a nearby touristy town just held a “Craft Gin Festival” honouring World Gin Day. I must admit that despite the kind and helpful suggestions of posters such as Uktog, I tried a G&T on our British Intensive Cruise and, well, I was underwhelmed. I have decided that I would only partake again if sitting on the porch of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. So missing the festival was not a loss, But the deeper purpose of the article was to announce that one of the popular displays at the festival was for a company producing alcohol-free gin. ( I know, you just can’t trust the colonials to respect any tradition. ) It also described how Generation Z in general are trending away from alcohol drinks. If that generational trend continues, then what will be the impact on cruise line revenues?

Actually I wasn’t surprised at the decision on our cruise, so I wasn’t proactive in pushing our case. You are much better informed on these issues than we were.

In late 2019 we were not permitted to apply our free nights on board since the qualifying cruise had to be completed, and we were also told that the office in Miami had to approve application of said nights. Others reported that they were not held to this policy. Perhaps we should have been more forceful in our request, but there certainly seemed to be variations in application of the “rules”.

Unfortunately AC’s reputation has taken a hit recently. Specifically in the problem you encountered and also in terms of handling luggage.

I cannot find the history of our cruises on the Azamara site and I now realize that my own cruise records are in a shambles, but I think our visit to Marseilles was on a B2B in June of 2018. More research on my part is needed. We really enjoyed Marseilles on a DIY tour. The Cathedral visit alone was memorable.

Several years ago we were docked at a more industrial location about 15 minutes from the usual handy spot. It was no problem as there was a constant free shuttle. Apparently, as Riocca points out, that docking location is an anomaly.

Perhaps the best HOHO bus tour we have experienced was the one in Belfast. I know a lot depends on the guide, but the route itself was quite informative.

I, too, “narrow down the range of options”, not just to respect the agent’s time but also mine. Sometimes it takes us a while to clarify the viable choices and it is inefficient to do so through an agent. The Azamara website is presently making clarification difficult for many but I am confident that full functionality will return.

Thanks for this interesting thread! Raised in Ontario, we are familiar with many of the waterways/ports you are experiencing and enjoy your enthusiasm for them. We have looked at the Viking itinerary on the Great Lakes but it is very expensive. Probably because they have built a special ship that can navigate the Welland Canal and there are more stops in Canada. This cruise appears to be a nice alternative.

Are you and uktog suggesting that I am not looking at this event with the right eyes? I was focussing on the beautiful horses. Yeah, my wife would agree with both of you.