MeHeartCruising

Since you're good with public transportation, I would fly into either airport and take transit into London and spend the night before your cruise enjoying the city (or a few nights, if you can). Stay in the County Hall/Waterloo area. Then take a train from Waterloo station to Southampton on the morning of your cruise. Then take a taxi from the Southampton train station to the ship.

I agree with KeithJenner about Rhodes. The ships dock right beside the entrances to the Old Town. You can't get much closer without docking on the street.

Yes, a solo cruiser in a Studio cabin can optionally decline the drink package. That will remove the mandatory gratuities for the package from the cost of the cruise. For a 7 day cruise, it removes $152.60 from the cost. You can also remove the dining package if you really want, but that only saves $11.80.

https://www.ncl.com/latitudes-rewards-program#tier_benefits

I’m quite confident the ship crew can accommodate the situation with your child. However, I doubt you’ll get much confirmation from Royal until you get on the ship. There always seems to be a crew member responsible for the B2B process. Go to guest services early in the cruise and explain what needs to happen. They can make it happen. Ask to speak to the person who will be responsible to see to the details. Don’t sweat the room change. I’ve done it several times. I actually like getting a new cabin for something different. Work with your cabin steward on the actual details. Some have preferences on how they like to accommodate you. I choose to entirely repack my belongings into my luggage just so there are no loose clothes going down the hallway. If you get a 2nd room that is near your first, you might keep the same steward or you can at least go introduce yourself to the new steward and let them know your bags are going be coming in that morning.

Sounds like an opportunity to book another short cruise prior to the 12 night one.

If you can afford the larger room, I would go for it. Hotel rooms in Europe are generally much smaller than we are familiar with in the US hotels. For your afternoon in Venice, I would suggest getting ground transport from the hotel to Piazzale Roma (the transportation hub for Venice) and then catching a vaporetto water bus (Line 1 or 2) to ride the entire length of the Grand Canal (to soak it all in) to San Marco Square. Do your sightseeing in that area and expand outward. If you're walkers, end your day by walking back to Piazzale Roma so you can get lost in the core of Venice (and then get unlost -- don't worry, you will -- just look for signs on the walls pointing you to P. Roma). It's a wonderful day!

You can request the cord and distilled water using this form. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/resources/guest-special-needs However, if the supplies are not in your cabin upon arrival, ask your steward to get them for you. I’ve never had a problem getting them. But more times than not, for me, I’ve had to ask for them upon arrival, even after filling out the form. The cord will likely be a big heavy orange cord like you use in your garage. You might want to bring duct tape to tape it to the floor since it likely will have to run from an outlet on the desk.

Yes, they return to your account as they previously were before using them. You may need to call to use them on an immediate cruise as I think it took a few days before I could see them on my online account to do something with them. However, you will be calling anyway to cancel the first cruise. So just see if that agent can immediately process them on to another cruise.

I would estimate $8-15 per drink. But it really depends on WHAT you drink. Beers are on the lower end. Fancy martinis are on the upper end. A generic screwdriver in between.

More likely is that United will upgrade one of their frequent flyers or customer's that paid more money that is currently in economy into those unfilled Plus seats. And then they will assign you into the lower cost, now open, economy seats.

It's interesting that the link you provide (to the Australian FAQs) has different information than what we see in the USA. Here is the equivalent USA FAQ Link. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/questions/different-departure-port-city?country=USA Where it says "Royal Caribbean no longer allows cruise passengers to pre-plan early debark or late embarkation for any of our ships."

I thoroughly enjoyed the few hours on Delos. However, as Hank says above there's not much there... other than dirt, gravel, crumbling stone structures/artifacts, some sparse areas of brown grass, a small boat docking area, and views of the wonderful Mediterranean around you. There is no town. No stores. Depending on when you go, there may be a small museum (if they reopen it from its renovation). It's basically several hundred acres of small tour groups walking around the remnants of cultures from the past. Visits to this island are for those with an interest in the very significant role it played in the history of the Greek civilization (and onward). If one does not have any interest in this whatsoever, it will likely be viewed as a negative trip over from Mykonos.

As for the bathrooms, there is definitely a door on the shower stall, which is on one side of the room as you enter the cabin from the hallway. There is also a door on the toilet stall, which is on the other side of the room. The sink and mirror sit off to one side, somewhat in the cabin's interior. There is a curtain that can be pulled across the room to separate the bathroom area (shower stall, toilet stall, sink/mirror) from the sleeping/sitting area. With the curtain pulled, those in the sitting/sleeping area can't see anything. But they can probably hear more than a more traditional bathroom setup. The stalls are made of a frosted glass which prohibits seeing anything clearly. However, in certain lighting, you can somewhat make out shapes in the stalls. Nothing X-rated, but you're aware people are in there. Also, if someone is using the bathroom area, even with the curtain pulled, someone could walk in from the hallway door if the door was left ajar or had a key. I think there is a deadbolt lock for the door, however. I don't care for the bathroom configuration. But we made it work. Depending on your comfort level with a roommate, it may be considered uncomfortable for some. I've sailed the Epic twice, so obviously, it's not a deal breaker for me. But it's a personal thing to either like or dislike. This is a good YouTube video of a typical Epic cabin. About halfway thru they start showing the bathroom stuff. This is a balcony cabin, but the insides are the same bathroom setup.

And just to make sure you know. Since you mentioned the confusion about the "separate gratuity". There IS a separate gratuity in the amount of $20/person/day that will be automatically added to your onboard accounts. It is not 20% of anything. Just a flat $20 per day. This is NCLs version of the tip/gratuity/service charge that has long been a part of cruising. This $20 is not related to the built-in gratuity of the beverage and dining packages. The $20 charge goes toward your cabin steward, the wait staff in all the dining rooms and restaurants, the cooks, the dishwashers, the people who wash your towels, etc. NCL currently refers to this as a "service charge". You can pre-pay this if you desire using your online account or by calling NCL. Otherwise, it will be added to your onboard account every day of your cruise. I believe both Celebrity and Royal Caribbean do the same thing nowadays for this "gratuity".

Is your arrival in Munich a flight from the United States or somewhere in Europe (specifically, a Schengen country)? If arriving from the US, you will need to clear passport control upon arrival before you can connect to the flight to Rome. So, that could make it quite tight, depending on the lines at passport control. If you are arriving from say, Madrid, then it would be just like connecting domestic flights in the US. I'm not sure if you will be required to gather your luggage to pass thru customs or not. I think you might. This would also slow you down as you'd have to re-check it. Some of our European experts should be along shortly to chime in with confirmations.

If it helps the OP, that cruise currently "starts" at $1246 USD per person for an inside cabin on the US website.

You summarized it nicely. Any other tipping you may or may not want to do for the housekeeping, bar staff, or dining staff is entirely optional. You do not need to tip more. Some people choose to, however. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don’t.

Between these 2, I'd flip a coin. I like the Breakaway better than the Epic. Both are fantastic itineraries. I guess I would decide how much you want to visit the classic Greek ports vs. Dubrovnik and Venice. I would also probably only do the one ending in Trieste if you can also spend 2-3 days in Venice afterward.

I would also start with the round trip out of Barcelona. The itinerary is a great coverage for the Western Mediterranean. The other itineraries are great too, but more complicated travel logistics. If looking at cruises to/from Venice (Trieste), be sure you're up to speed on what it means. Trieste is quite a distance from Venice and involves getting some form of transportation between the two if you're going to actually want to see or stay in Venice as part of the trip. I would keep it simple for your first Med cruise. All these cruises are great itineraries and you won't go wrong with any of them.

I would absolutely do what you have planned. And as said above, I also would use the train between Barcelona and Madrid but fly between Madrid and Lisbon. The train route between the 2 capital cities just isn’t efficiently done.

Can you clarify what "clean ship" means for those of us not in the know.

This is a thread that somewhat discusses NCL using Venice as a tender port in recent time. There is a lot of other commentary about Venice that can be ignored, but I wanted you to know that NCL does have a history of trying to stop in Venice for a day visit using tender boats from shore. The thread indicates one person's experience with that.

Yes, they do. RCCL offers shuttles to the airport and to the Tronchetto People Mover station, where you can ride the People Mover over to Piazzale Roma and then use whatever transit you wish to use to get to the rest of Venice. Review the other threads on this topic. They may be further down the list. There were posts with images of the shuttle bus schedule posted over the Spring and Summer.

Generally (always?) if you do NOT purchase a ship excursion, you will be tendered to shore at the base of the cable cars. There is no wheeled vehicle access to this location. However, there IS boat access. You could theoretically purchase a private excursion that picked you up by boat at the small pier near the base of the cable cars. I have no idea if such excursions exist, but it would physically be possible.