vinob

16 hours ago, little britain said:

JS and above on all ships should have kettles. 

Unfortunately just in a balcony cabin.

2 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

If you sail out of Southampton you will get a kettle.

When we have sailed in Europe I always ask our CS for a kettle and on most occasions they get us a kettle and I am delighted and give our CS $5 as a thank you.

2 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

If you sail out of Southampton you will get a kettle.

When we have sailed in Europe I always ask our CS for a kettle and on most occasions they get us a kettle and I am delighted and give our CS $5 as a thank you.

2 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

If you sail out of Southampton you will get a kettle.

When we have sailed in Europe I always ask our CS for a kettle and on most occasions they get us a kettle and I am delighted and give our CS $5 as a thank you.

2 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

If you sail out of Southampton you will get a kettle.

When we have sailed in Europe I always ask our CS for a kettle and on most occasions they get us a kettle and I am delighted and give our CS $5 as a thank you.

2 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

If you sail out of Southampton you will get a kettle.

When we have sailed in Europe I always ask our CS for a kettle and on most occasions they get us a kettle and I am delighted and give our CS $5 as a thank you.

2 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

If you sail out of Southampton you will get a kettle.

When we have sailed in Europe I always ask our CS for a kettle and on most occasions they get us a kettle and I am delighted and give our CS $5 as a thank you.

That’s great, fly cruise this time. Will ask for kettle, failing that will order continental. Thanks.

3 minutes ago, livylotte said:

You can ask your room attendant for a kettle.  Or alternatively as everyone says room service will bring you your early morning brew.

I will ask and see if I can get one as I often wake at around 5am (my body clock has been totally shot for years) it would be nice to just put the kettle on for a cuppa.  Many thanks.

5 minutes ago, Grandma Dazzles said:

No charge for continental breakfast.  Had delivered at 6:00 am. 

5 minutes ago, Grandma Dazzles said:

No charge for continental breakfast.  Had delivered at 6:00 am. 

That’s brilliant, done a number of cruises with 5 different lines, but this is first time without a kettle, just can’t function without my early morning coffee fix.  Many thanks.

13 minutes ago, not-enough-cruising said:

I’ve had breakfast delivered as early as 6:00

Many thanks.

21 minutes ago, NewCruiser77 said:

Hmm... I guess I can't share that site.  I just googled Jewel of the Seas Greece Cruise Compass to find it.

Many thanks. Very helpful.

I understand that the majority of cabins do not have tea making facilities and that room service incurs a charge. However am I right in saying there is no room service charge for continental breakfast in cabin?.   Just thinking I could use this service to get my early morning cuppa in the cabin which would save me having to get dressed to go in search of one,  anyone know what’s the earliest I can request continental breakfast. Any info much appreciated.

We are on Jewel of the Seas around the Greek Isles in a few weeks time.  Do any past passengers know whether there will be theme nights on board.  Any info much appreciated.

51 minutes ago, chipmaster said:

 

 

 Sunset is into the Ocean when we were there so the cliffs will be bathed in falling light, here is how it looked as we were there in the morning, YMMV

 

i would say / suggest to endure the crowds to see the wonderful views and experience.  Of course you can just enjoy the ship, download a few pictures online and say how wonderful, better yet do a staycation and save more with no fighting at all (take the last thought totally tongue in cheek  😋)

 

for prospective how it can look from up top, brave the crowds!

51 minutes ago, chipmaster said:

 

 

 Sunset is into the Ocean when we were there so the cliffs will be bathed in falling light, here is how it looked as we were there in the morning, YMMV

 

i would say / suggest to endure the crowds to see the wonderful views and experience.  Of course you can just enjoy the ship, download a few pictures online and say how wonderful, better yet do a staycation and save more with no fighting at all (take the last thought totally tongue in cheek  😋)

 

for prospective how it can look from up top, brave the crowds!

Looks absolutely wonderful, hope we get good weather in October.

Hi Patrice1, on Singalots video that she posted a few days ago, it shows the guy doing the video sitting at a dockside cafe waiting for the tender back, but I think there will only be one or two cafes as the dockside doesn't appear to be very big.  When Jewel of the Seas visits Santorini on this cruise, it shows 4 ships in port that day, 3 coming in early and one at 11am.  I estimate that if each ship was just working on double occupancy there will be approx 9K passengers.

9 hours ago, GastroGnome said:

The ques for the cable car are massive - 45 mins isn't an unusual wait.  I've seen waits up to 2 hours.   I'm in the odd position that I can walk but I can't stand still for long.  I simply could not stand in a queue for more than about 20 minutes without being in excruciating pain. (Or fainting..) But because I can walk - the rhythmic shifting of weight from side to side isn't as painful - we just walk down.  If I couldn't make the walk I wouldn't personally go up at all.  I would get too nervous about missing the ship.  But if you look at the ship departure times you might find you can time it for just after the departure rush for the departure before yours.

 

And thank you for not even considering the donkey's / mules.  The treatment they suffer is appalling.

Totally understand re standing still for hours.  I'm the same worrying about missing the ship, I checked out ships tour, but they still leave you in Fira at the end of the tour with a ticket for the cable car to make your way down at your leisure, in other words if you don't manage to get down in time they have no obligation to wait for you even although it was a ships tour you booked.  I think for those going to walk it, they will need flat shoes with a good grip as others on CC have talked about nearly slipping in the wet donkey poo on the steps, not to mention the flies.  Some of the images of the Fira steps show the old donkey poo piled up at the side of the steps.  They should stop using the donkeys it would save their poor backs and legs and the bonus would be that the steps would be free of donkey poo, thus making a more pleasant walk for those who don't like using the cable car.

12 hours ago, Bobal said:

 

There was talk that they were going to cap the total visitors but so far nothing seems to have been done about this. We are due into Santorini in September and we've calculated there will be around 11K cruise visitors on the day we're in. We'll be staying on the ship.

 

I've seen the same information, we are due there later this year too, 4 ships showing at present for day we are there, I reckon they total 10K+ passengers, fortunately one of them is not due til 11am, so at least we'll hopefully get a head start.

Hi Ashland, Did you book the boat to Oia beforehand or just on the day, can you advise how long you had to wait on the "Jet Boat" before starting off and also what time of day it was.  We are considering getting off the ship as early as possible and taking boat to Oia with transfer to Fira by bus.  Any help appreciated. Kind regards, Viv.

We have booked a greek isles cruise as have always wanted to see Santorini, I'm beginning to wonder if we're just going to see it from the top deck of the ship.

Can those who have visited Santorini on a cruise give me their views.

There will be at least 4 ships+ in Santorini on same day and I reckon at double occupancy that's around 9,000 passengers.  It appears the cable car handles 1200 passengers per hour, so assuming that's 600 each way per hour.  I've read about the horrendously long Q's for the cable car, but we don't want to use the mules and with arthritis in the hips the walk up and down the steps is out of the question.   We could do the ships tour but you are still left in Fira to make your own way back down the cable car,  just worried about been stuck in long Q's and missing the ship.   Can past cruise passengers share they experiences.  Any help greatly appreciated. Many thanks Viv.

Hi Folks, we are booked on the Jewel of the Seas late summer for 9nt Greek Isles cruise,  I have been trying to find out from RC's live chat what time the shows finish so that I can make speciality restaurant bookings, all they can till me is they are timed for 1st & 2nd dinner sittings.  Anyone been on Jewel know what time the shows begin and end even an approx time would help.

1 hour ago, waterbug123 said:

 

Haven't done a Royal tour of Pompeii but visited on our own during a land-based trip.  For various reasons we only had about 2 hours at Pompeii and I felt very rushed; would have preferred 4+ hours onsite.  That said, I took 2 years of Latin in school, which included a lot of Roman culture so I found Pompeii extremely interesting.  If you just want to visit to check it off a list, 2.5 hours might be ok.

I know what you mean waterbug, we spent 3.5hrs in Pompeii armed with a very good guide book when we were on a land holiday and still felt we only saw about a quarter of it, that why this time I'm looking for a guided tour but in a small group this time as we have friends with us who haven't been to this part of the world.. RC's tour is very reasonable but just think with 40/50 people you ain't going to see much unless they expect you to sprint around the site, just thinking how long will it take them to get 50 people through the small brothel let alone the other sites.

Thanks to everyone for so much information, now looking at a number of options for Pompeii.

On 4/10/2019 at 4:42 AM, Desert Cruizers said:

Daughter & I will be taking our first Western Med cruise Oct 2020 and am very interested in all the recommendations as we will be visiting Naples, Florence & Rome to name a few.. Would have liked to have done the Greek Isle but the Western Med & TA back worked out better for us.  

While on holiday in Rome a few years ago, we did a tour of the Vatican with a guide who only does the Vatican, I'm sure they only took a max of 20 in each party, on the day there were only 12 of us, he took us straight past all the Q's waiting to get in.  I also recall the tour been very reasonable for the time we had in there, I think it was called 7 Hills tours or similar. Of course it a few years (about 5 years).  it might be worth trying to google it.

10 hours ago, nasus2 said:

 

I can recommend ap tours - they do small groups and you don't have to organises a whole group you can sign up individually and they organise the group of 8. Used then 2 years ago and have also booked them again for June this year.

43 minutes ago, vinob said:

Yes two of our group have hearing problems, we do try to get as close to guides as possible, but if you are in a group of 50/60 people that can sometimes be difficult, especially as some people walk faster then others, but we will try informing the guide and see if we can keep close, many thanks for the advice. Kind regards Viv.

43 minutes ago, vinob said:

Yes two of our group have hearing problems, we do try to get as close to guides as possible, but if you are in a group of 50/60 people that can sometimes be difficult, especially as some people walk faster then others, but we will try informing the guide and see if we can keep close, many thanks for the advice. Kind regards Viv.

10 hours ago, nasus2 said:

 

I can recommend ap tours - they do small groups and you don't have to organises a whole group you can sign up individually and they organise the group of 8. Used then 2 years ago and have also booked them again for June this year.

15 hours ago, xpcdoojk said:

 

So, when we were there in 2004 we had a villa with four other couples, in the town of Maiori, which is next to Minori, (major and minor).  The villa is called La Nave it is still available for rent, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.  We arrived independently at our villa then we went shopping at the local store in Maiori for beer, wine, food, coffee, Lemoncello, and everything we need for a week on the Amalfi Coast.  Our villa had an infinity pool, and about a 1000 step (somewhat treacherous) hike down the cliff to our own private grotto like on Capri.  It was such a great spot that daily we had small tourist boats bringing people to our grotto.  Above the villa carved into a cliff was a monastery.  At dinner time we would sit on the patio and you could hear the monks forks and knives on their plates.  

 

Anyway, first night, lots of wine, and wonderful food, as myself and one of the wives are really good cooks and we made a wonderful meal with lovely fresh pasta from the store, that was open about 6 hours a day max.  Anyway, we had, also, found some Cuban cigars in our shopping and on a beautiful fall evening sitting by the pool we hit the Lemoncello and scotch.... about an hour in all the guys were naked in the pool a couple of the wives joined us.  

 

Good times.

 

One of the best vacations ever.  Later in the week we bought some wedding ravioli from the store, OMG....

 

jc

Your villa holiday sounded blissful, but definitely think I’m past skinny dipping  🤣🤣🤣

4 hours ago, Snit13 said:

OP, when I read your post I thought your main concern was hearing the guide.  I guess I must have read incorrectly.

I too am hearing impaired.  I always advise the guide as soon as I meet him/her and then make certain I stand beside the guide when information is being shared with the group.  If I don't hear, I ask guide to repeat.  Never been an issue.

Yes two of our group have hearing problems, we do try to get as close to guides as possible, but if you are in a group of 50/60 people that can sometimes be difficult, especially as some people walk faster then others, but we will try informing the guide and see if we can keep close, many thanks for the advice. Kind regards Viv.

1 hour ago, bigeck said:

I did see French and German, but English was the more popular. If I remember correct, we had about 10 which was good.

I left the ship early and was at Pompeii before the crowds. We got the 2pm train back and walked through Naples and was back onboard at around 3.30pm.

I do think the guide did show enough and you have to make a decision if you want to continue on your own or head back early to see Naples. The train station is about a 15 minute walk. Try and have a look on Google Maps before you go. 

It's called Napoli Garibaldi which is the local one and Napoli Centrali is the main one. They are both together, buy a return ticket and remember to validate it before you get on the train at Naples and Pompeii

Hi, thanks for the info, so your guided tour was just done in English, you didn’t have to wait while the guide translated into other languages. Been on the Pompeii ticket site now about £35 for skip the line/guided tour, but worth it if smaller groups. I’ll see if I can download the maps to see where the station is and I’m banking it will take us young OAP’s about 20 mins to walk it, someone did say there is a red bus runs to Pompeii from the port, thanks for taking the time to reply.. 

22 hours ago, bigeck said:

As above, lots of different ways to do it.

I can only say what I did. 

This was 2017 on Freedom. Walked to the train station. 2.25 Eu each way pp

At the gate it was 25Eu pp for tour guide and entry fee. Once the tour was finished, you can stay in and walk to things that you want to see again. You can spend a day easy.

We left at around 3pm as it might get busy and make sure we were back in time.

When you get off the train, have a walk through Naples and get a slice of pizza where it was first made.

 

I think a lot of tours offer Vesuvius and Pompeii. Personally, that's the next visit.

Naples is one of the places that has a lot of attractions. Amalfi, Vesuvius, Sorrento, Capri and Pompeii and a lot more.

Not an easy decision, but I'm sure you will enjoy what ever you choose

Hi bigeck, this sounds like it might be an option, as think it would be nice to have a bit time to wonder on own after the guided part, as there is only some much they can show you in a couple of hours.  if you bought combined ticket/guide at Pompeii, approximately how many were in your group, also was it just an english speaking group or multi lingual.  Finally how long is the walk to the train station.  It would be lovely to wander around Naples too, but think we will be wrecked after Pompeii, unfortunately it's also last day of our cruise, so some packing to be done when we get back (Just wish the cruise had of been the other way around with Naples been the first port of call).  .Thanks Viv.

Thank you for all your wonderful replies, we have been to Sorrento on a land holiday, we spent 4 hours in Pompeii with a guide book written by a tourist for tourists (e's been to Pompeii 15 times) it was very good but then we strayed from his route and got a bit lost, it then started to rain so we called it a day.    The other couple on the cruise with us haven't been to this part of Italy and particularly want to do Pompeii, this is why I feel we need a guided tour of Pompeii so that they can get the most out of it.

Even although we were based in Sorrento we mustn't have come across the shop that plies you with Lemoncello before selling you really expensive furniture items 🤣🤣, but they sound and look wonderful.  Once again thank you so much.

Is there a problem on the site, I can view RCL forum and Roll Call, however when I'm feeding in Naples to get information on the port, the screen just keeps flashing and I can't click into the reviews, I don't know how to get into the ports of call forum and have just searched Naples, am I doing something wrong or is there a technical issue with that part of the site.

Hi Xpcdoojk, tomato sauce & cruise fan 0001,

Your replies have been most helpful, I'll also have a look to see how to get into ports of call to see if anything on their, Many thanks to you all.