MeHeartCruising

What's sad about this situation is that it would not be a huge issue for Royal Caribbean's database/website designers to design logic to prevent this from happening at the time of (attempted) booking of the second cruise. But, as we all know, they seem to be challenged in the IT department. I feel bad for you folks needing to jump thru hoops (and potentially experience unexpected costs) due to Royal Caribbean's desire to not spend money to fix the issue.

Every time I've arrived in Barcelona on a ship, there has been a line of taxis waiting for passengers. And that line replenishes about as fast as it used up. There can be a line of passengers for those taxis, but as fast as people can get in a cab and ride off, there is another taxi taking its place. The waiting line moves quickly.

See my post in your other thread on the same topic.

Read the Italy forum posts on the topic. There are several (long) threads on the topic. Bottom line... if you're already in Ravenna, Royal Caribbean runs a shuttle service from the bus station parking lot (which is next door -- out the rear exit -- to the train station. It costs $10 per person and you can sign up on the bus (they will bill your ship account). I've heard this shuttle stops running at 3pm. If you want to do pre-cruise in Venice, Royal Caribbean sells shuttle bus transport from the airport and from Tronchetto parking area to the ship in Ravenna. You can purchase these shuttles in advance by calling Royal Caribbean. They are in the $50-$60 per person range. I'm not certain the Ravenna-to-port shuttle can be arranged in advance via phone. Perhaps, but perhaps not. These shuttles are also available going the opposite direction at the end of your cruise. They can all be purchased on the ship.

I'm also quite certain they get paid for cruises they book and not ones you book yourself online. I have called her to make adjustments to an existing cruise that she booked me on and she happily made the changes for me, so it wasn't just for a new cruise booking. But it was servicing one she sold. I would not call her for issues related to a cruise I did not book with her. I would call the 800 number. Once I was logged into my account and I was doing some early research on a possible future cruise, she was notified and she immediately called me (she got my voicemail) and sent me an email with a BIG BOLD "Don't book without calling me first!" at the top of it. That was a little more aggressive than I liked, but she's in sales. I did tell her, in a very forward manner, that I was just researching and that I would call her if and when I was ready to book and that she should not contact me.

All I can add is that I alway prefer to book directly with a tour company so I can have direct communication with them. The payment terms seem reasonable to do this in your case.

Go to the Delos archeological site.

Any time between now and your arrival at port. But likely in the next few days.

Was it "advertised" as an exit or were you part of a tour group that was led there? When I used it several years, ago, it was not advertised as an exit but I "followed" a tour group and pretended to be with them. I'm just wondering if the need to do that as an independent traveler has changed.

However, you will be presented with a paper check when you finish your meal. It will show the price of your meal, but will be credited down to $0 unless you ordered something that was additional that was a chargeable item. On that check will be a place where you can leave a gratuity, just like you see in most land restaurants. You do not need to add anything there, since you already paid your gratuity. Just ignore it or draw a line thru it. Or, if you're so inclined, you can leave an additional gratuity for your staff if you wish. I've done both.

Intentionally so thanks to the creative "marketing" departments of the cruise lines, unfortunately. They are hoping to lure people in with wonderful descriptions that may not match up to the reality. However, they do it in a way that doesn't quite go over that ledge of "incorrect information was given to me".

I have not done this excursion. But after reading NCL's description and watching the video they provide, I would interpret it to mean that the only places you leave the bus would be for going up to the Acropolis and then when you are set free to explore the Plaka for a while. I would bet the rest of the mentioned sites are drive by views from your bus only. But, that's just my interpretation. Hopefully someone who has been on the excursion will come along shortly with a report.

I was on Delos in May of this year. I took a Royal Caribbean excursion on the Explorer of the Seas. We were docked at the New Port. We boarded the boat to Delos right from the New Port, a short walk from our ship. Our excursion also started at 8:00 and we were on that boat about that time. The boat was only for the excursion. We went straight to Delos and were there about 8:45 or so, I guess. We were the only ones on the island other than some employees. Note, there were multiple tour groups of our excursion, each with a guide. The guides took the groups off in different directions to spread us out some. But we had the island to ourselves. Our boat then went back empty to Mykonos. It picked up paying customers in Old Town and then brought them over to Delos. That was the 10:00 departure from Old Town. So it was 10:30 or so before the next crowd of people descended on to Delos. What I can't recall is whether we rode that boat back to Mykonos at 11:00 or so, or if there was another boat in the picture. I'm pretty sure we left Delos around 11:00, but I could be wrong. It might have been a little later. I do know that there was more than one boat in the equation and both were at Delos at the same time when we departed for Mykonos. I do feel that we had enough time on Delos. But, there was no time to climb the mountain, of course. I think the excursions had our own boat back. We were dropped off in Old Town with a ticket to ride the shuttle back to the New Port at our leisure. I should add... I generally prefer to DIY on cruise ports. But I decided to spend the money here just to simplify the logistics of not having to get to Old Town and then purchase my own ticket and wait for the 10:00 boat. I wan't exactly sure how the timing would work out. I too was a little nervous about the possibility of sitting around until the 10:00 boat as part of the excursion. But I was happy to find out it wasn't done that way. So, while the excursion was much more expensive, it ended up just fine. I don't think I would have done anything different on Delos if I were on my own. I would definitely recommend using a guide while there. They explained things very well to us.

The station recently (in the last couple years) added elevators where it is needed. Prior to that you needed to walk down a set of stairs, walk thru a tunnel, and then walk back up a set of stairs. There are no escalators. If the elevator breaks down, you need to use the stairs.

Here is a link to the Greece ports forum. There are various threads thru the years discussing Athens hotels. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/463-greece-ports/

I would think by 6:30 at the latest.

You CAN get up at 4am and enjoy the sail in thru the fjords. You do not have to. You will also sail back out those same fjords later in the day, so you can view them at that time (albeit with different sun angles). I generally woke up around 6:00 am to enjoy part of the sail in. The fjords are quite narrow, you can easily see the shore on both sides as you sail in and out -- for several hours. Looking at the waterfalls, mountains, vacation houses, etc. along the way is enjoyable. While the waterway travel is wonderful, the ports can also be very enjoyable. If you arrange excursions (private or thru Celebrity), you get to see some more amazing scenery, viewpoints, cultural things, etc. I think the ports are just as good as on any cruise. The cruise you are researching looks like a good itinerary -- it includes both Flam and Geiranger, which are usually considered the Crown Jewels of fjord cruising.

Not one person ever looked at my scheduled arrival time in May. Arrive when you want to.

Around 5:00 am, the ship enters the Panama Canal from the Atlantic Ocean and passes thru the first set of locks on the canal (Gatun Locks). After the passing thru the locks, the ship cruises a short distance in Gatun Lake (part of the canal water system) and then tenders people with specific excursions to shore. Some of these excursions are on buses and some of them are on boats/buses. If you don't have a shore excursion, you stay on the ship. Shore excursions do not return to the ship at this location. I do not know if you are able to arrange excursions that are not sold by the cruise line. At 3:00 pm, the ship will return to the Atlantic Ocean via the same set of Gatun Locks (going the opposite direction). At 5:00 pm, the ship will dock at Colon, Panama (outside of the canal system). There's not much to do there for passengers. Between 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm (in theory) the shore excursions will return passengers by bus to the ship in Colon. I say "in theory" because my shore excursion did not get back to the ship until about 10:00 pm, but the ship waited for us, since it was a ship excursion. At 8:00 pm the ship departs for the next port.

I would not want them made into one reservation in case something came up and I needed to cancel one but not the other at some point. If it were one reservation, I don’t see how they would that.

If you haven’t seen this thread over on the NCL forum, you might read it. There are all sorts of things that have been done by NCL related to Venice lately. I have no idea what will happen to your cruise, but as one of the posts in that thread says, I would be prepared with multiple plans in case you tender into Venice, or dock in Trieste or dock in Ravenna. Things seem very fluid at this point.

Ships can dock with either side facing the water. They decide based on various operational reasons. So you won’t know which side faces what until it happens. During sail in, I chose to be up on the top decks so I could go back and forth between sides. Both sides are interesting to look at.

There was a Bologna train station shuttle on my B2B Explorer cruises on May 8 and May 14. I posted the luggage tag sheet in this thread - see post #43. You should be able to buy the transfer in advance prior to your cruise by calling Royal Caribbean and getting a knowledgeable agent. I booked my transfer to Venice, but had to call twice to find a knowledgeable agent who knew what a post-cruise transfer actually was. Once I had the right person, they knew exactly what options were available. You can also wait to book the shuttle on board, if you desire. They sold them all week and there were several notices in the daily newsletter about booking the shuttles (to anywhere they were offered).

Also, for number 2, if you show up at 6:30 with an 8:00 reservation they will happily seat you IF there are free tables (not reserved by others). I have showed up early for a reservation a few times and they have always had room for me. But, obviously, if they are full, they are full. They aren't going to bump someone else out of their table to make room for you.

There is usually no curfew. In fact, it's common for people to spend that night in a hotel in the city rather than spending time going back and forth to/from the ship. Since Livorno is quite a distance from Florence, you might consider doing this if you wish to have more time exploring Florence itself.