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lah66

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Posts posted by lah66

  1. 29 minutes ago, princeton123211 said:

    Agree with Cruisemom-- apples to oranges. But if I were forced to choose, based on experience, I would choose the interior of the Pantheon all day long. One of the very few fully intact Roman grand buildings left.

     

    The Colosseum is a ruin-- a very pretty ruin-- but you can get as good of a feel for the place on the outside as on the inside. Not saying you shouldn't try to do both but if you have to prioritize. 

    A lot of people said the same as you! And looking at Pantheon interior photos, it is gorgeous! We will keep looking for semi private tours that will accommodate our desires or maybe have to splurge for a private tour so we can determine our own timeline. Thank you for your advice!

    • Like 1
  2. On 5/30/2024 at 12:41 PM, cruisemom42 said:

     

    Trying to compare the interior of the Colosseum with the interior of the Pantheon is like apples and oranges. The Colosseum interior is much like the exterior -- by that I mean that the original facing and decoration is mostly gone. By contrast the Pantheon interior is largely intact (with a few changes and restorations over the years) because it was converted into a Catholic church fairly early. 

     

    So it's extremely difficult to compare the two. If you book a tour that might give you free time for lunch in the vicinity of the Pantheon or Piazza Navona, you can buy your own ticket from their kiosks outside the building or at the desk (both accept credit cards I think), but you will still have to wait in a line probably. Depending on what time of the year your visit is, the wait may be long or short.

     

    Or you can buy a timed ticket in advance online -- but you may still have a wait to get in due to capacity controls.

    Thank you so much for the great suggestions! Both my husband and I cannot imagine being outside the Colosseum and not seeing the inside arena! I guess that should answer my question of which is more important to us! Good idea to try to fit a Panthenon interior tour while others waste time at lunch! 🤣 Thank you again!

  3. We will have a 13 hour port stop in Civitavecchia. Looking for a tour that allows interior tours of both the Colosseum and the Pantheon. Italy tours eu only tours the Colosseum exterior but some reviews report the interior of the Pantheon is superior. The Roman Guy tours the interior of the Colosseum but only the exterior of the Pantheon. Would a private tour be able to fit both in as well as seeing Trevi Fountain, Roman Forum, Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica? We IF so can skip lunch! 🤣 Any suggestions are appreciated! Thank you so much!

  4. Thank you both for the info! If we do rent a vehicle it will be a car, not a golf cart. And the website referred to by CaliforniaAC clearly states only 4 wheel drive vehicles with an extra tire are allowed in the park, so we have nixed that idea! We have snorkeled with Woodwind before and find so much precious time is wasted just waiting around that we may just take a boat over to Klein Bonaire and enjoy the snorkel on our own! Thank you!!

  5. I reached out to Bonaire Cruisers to rent a golf cart for the day in November. Sounds convenient, inexpensive and a great way to see the island and do some shore snorkeling. In the email they noted that this park was off limits with the golf carts. So now I really want to go there! 🤣 Has anybody gone there? A quick search turned up nothing! Maybe we are better off renting a car? I want to see the entire island! 

  6. Heatherc73 I think we are on the same cruise! I was so disappointed to see how late we were getting into Dubrovnik. I have the same plan..getting a taxi and rushing to the walls, hoping they will keep them open a bit longer since thousands of people literally just docked! I posted a question on the TripAdvisor forum so I will let you and our roll call know if I get different advice....

    • Like 1
  7. Thank you! That helps in my planning...

    So their responsibility is to get us into Venice before midnight two days precruise (Friday). And since the cruise ends on a Saturday, they would fly us home on Monday sometime? So we actually will have only one day to play in Venice (Bummer!) and two days in Barcelona.

    This will be interesting to see what flights we get from Detroit! $599 was a bargain though so we had to take advantage!

  8. I apologize if this info is somewhere and I just cannot find it! I tried searching just the NCL Board but there seems no way to specify, at least not on my iPad! CC has changed in the past few years that I have been inactive! 

    We booked a cruise with two days deviation in Venice and Barcelona. Our cruise goes out of Venice on a Sunday, does that mean we will fly in on Thursday or Friday? If we fly in from MI on Friday, we will not be there until very late on Friday, so we would have really just one day to play tourist. Likewise on the way home, we get off the ship on Saturday in Barcelona. With a two day deviation, do we fly home on Monday or Tuesday? Want to plan hotel rooms and activities! Thank you so much, and again my apologies for unfamiliarity with the new CC search function! 

  9. The Airbnb we stayed at in May was " Cozy 2BD in the heart of OSJ" hosted by Eduardo. It was on San Justo St. it was the perfect location for all touristy places in OSJ. And great A/C too! We saw other nice offerings too. Could not believe how affordable the apartments were seeing how expensive the hotels were. We stayed at the San Juan Suites once and it was awful. I am not high maintenance but I need a window!

     

    The kiosks (restaurants, actually) were right out in front of Luquillo Beach. Maybe you went to a different part of the beach. It was quite a row of restaurants..maybe 10-15 of them if I remember right.

     

    We have always taken a taxi from the airport to OSJ. In May we were able to use Uber from OSJ to the cruise port and it was about half the price of a cab. Uber cannot pick up at the airport. They can drop off at the airport though.

     

    Our Vieques trip was in 2011 or 2010, I think. We used a tour company....we met them at a Marina and they brought us to Vieques..took a school bus ride..half our group went to eat at an authentic restaurant while the other half did the Biobay. We got back very very late but at least we did not have to stay on the island. Maybe they don't offer that anymore. It was the experience of a lifetime!

     

    We had two cruises out of PR where we stayed a few days pre cruise in OSJ and a few days post cruise out by El Yunque, but we still would like a whole week or longer to really see all the island. Driving there is very easy though I would not recommend driving in OSJ! PR is definitely one of our favorite places!

     

    Have fun,

    Lauri

  10. I remember how absolutely blown away we were with the Gran Melia our first visit. We missed that Wow experience on the second trip but it was still a very nice place to stay. It was about a 20 minute drive to El Yunque. We did eat at the Luquillo Beach kiosks...the hamburger place was great. We also went to Richies cafe which had great Puerto Rican food and even more gorgeous views!

     

    I love Old San Juan! My two girlfriends and I stayed at a two bedroom AIRBNB perfectly located in OSJ just this past May. I would definitely check out Airbnb if you want to stay in OSJ. Way cheaper than hotels and you can cook your own meals.

     

    We also enjoyed driving the Pork Highway and stopping at one of the many roadside restaurants to eat! We want to make it to the Volkswagen museum (Yauco?) and the Arecibo observatory our next trip. We also went to Vieques and did the Biobay on a little motorized boat! Your family and mine seem to enjoy a lot of the same cruise excursions so I have a feeling you would enjoy it!

     

    Have fun planning!

    Lauri

  11. Hey Kim,

    We have stayed at the Gran Melia twice and loved it. It is a beautiful resort with an absolute gorgeous pool and beautiful grounds. There is a beach as well. We were lucky both times we stayed it was only $99 a night through Hotwire. There should be a review of mine with photos from a few years back here in the PR forum. Great location for visiting el Yunque!

     

    Just looked back. My review is in the Royal caribbean forum. San Juan and brilliance Easter cruise! Last page is the Gran Melia.

  12. Thanks everyone! I think we have decided to switch to a different cruise. AOS sounds great but now I am noticing the prices on Oasis for that week! The ocean view balconies are the same price as an inside! I think I will gather the family tomorrow and get this figured out! We have always wanted to sail on one of the Displacement of the Seas ships but the prices are usually so high! This may be the perfect opportunity!

  13. We are looking at a Pre-Christmas cruise for our family, myself, DH, DS-25 and DD-21.

     

    Cannot decide between: Serenade out of FLL in 2 aft balconies on 7, Key West, Roatan, Cozumel and Costa Maya. Or Adventure out of OSJ in 2 promenades, St. Martin, Lucia, Kitts plus Antigua and Barbados.

     

    Airfare is higher to San Juan so we would do promenades (liked these rooms just fine) instead of aft balcony rooms. Pricing would be slightly higher for SJ but won't break the bank.

     

    We really love Adventure and we were not too fond of RCI ships with the Centrum (Brilliance anyways). So what would you go with, nicer ports & ship(?) out of San Juan or better cabins out of FLL?

  14. Hey Luckyinpa....

    Our cruise is getting closer!

    We had 4 nights of specialty dining and chose Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. We tend to eat more at the Specialty restaurants so spread them out a little bit throughout the cruise. We are cruising with friends so wanted a celebratory atmosphere on Sunday and Thursday is our anniversary so we wanted Specialty those nights. We wanted to eat in the MDR on Friday since that is Beef Wellington night!

    This will be our 4th stop in Bermuda and we begin our days early so have no problem making a 6 pm dinner reservation!

    Hopefully I choose well!

    Lauri

  15. We just booked this again for February. We had a great time last October with Bob!! Loved the snorkeling, the speed of the boat, seeing the island from the water, seeing planes land over Maho, eating a delicious lunch and stopping at Pinel Island! This is one of our favorite port excursions to date. We were not crowded at all, were kept well hydrated and entertained. Guests onboard were a riot! Getting back onboard does entail climbing a ladder but there is always someone helping you. Well worth the price. Even though you see and do a lot, it is a very relaxing day.

    Lauri

  16. Thanks everyone! Glad to hear it is just the buffet coffee that is bad! If I can have one good cup a day, I will be fine! So, after a bit of looking, it seems you need "soft" pods, not KKups or Vue pods. If we can find some at our grocery store, we may pick some up or just take our chances that that the coffee won't be that bad. We are on a cruise, somethings can't be all bad after all!

    Lauri

  17. This is "our" cove! We always stop here on our walk from Warwick to Horseshoe. We love going out between the rocks in your photo and bobbing along when the waves come in! It is slightly precarious making our way out there but with aqua socks and well coordinated steps between rocks and waves, we have never had an issue. Cannot wait to visit in 6 weeks! Thanks for all the updates!

    Lauri

  18. Thank you everyone! Great, we will have an alternate place to eat if the buffet is too crazy! I will make sure to look at the dailies to see if Moderno is open and if there is a theme that may interest us. Nice to have more options! We are in aft balconies on deck 9 so Moderno is actually closer.

     

    I did not realize that suites can dine in the Haven restaurant. I assumed there are suites onboard that are considered non-Haven but maybe that is wrong!

     

    Thanks for all the great info! We are so excited to cruise again! We will be celebrating two anniversaries and having my treatment for breast cancer completed! It is going to be an absolute ball!

     

    Lauri

  19. Is this a suite only perk or can anyone eat breakfast or lunch at Moderno? I have seen this mentioned only a few times and in one scenario they were not staying in a suite but maybe had family that were?! I also read this is only available on sea days.

    I keep reading how crowded the buffet is so want to understand all our options. I tried a search but did not come up with much!

    Thank you!

    Lauri

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