NCteacherlovescruising

Ok, I knew it was a non-refundable deposit. I didn’t realize that wasn’t the case outside of the YC. We may just lose our deposit, rather than spend another 6,000+, when we’ve already exceeded our vacation budget for 2024. We thought we had a year from the date of the booked cruise to reschedule. Lesson learned.

I thought you lost your deposit if you canceled.

The 90 days will be an issue for us. We wanted to move it out 9-12 months since we decided to keep our Celebrity/NCL combo instead of NCL/MSC. Is there anymore flexibility for YC? Spending over a month in Europe next summer will blow our budget for any extra travel next year. What do you mean, if we go from a 7 nights sailing to a 3 they would still charge us the price difference? What refund? You haven’t paid for the cruise yet, have you?

I don’t recall this ad.

I would fall into the first category.

I thought TA’s couldn’t discount cruises, but just give perks like OBC. I wish we could list TA’s on here.

I agree.

Why do you wish you had went to Uffizi instead of the Accademia? I really want to see the original statue of David. Is that all that was worth seeing there? If we can’t find anyone to join us on a private excursion, perhaps we will repurchase this. The other day in Livorno we will have a private excursion that will take us to a beautiful winery with a tasting of 11 wines and 3 olive oils and balsamic vinegar, plus a steak lunch. The wine tasting included really good wines, including 6 D.O.C.G.! We are splurging in this because we love nice wines and visiting a beautiful vineyard in Tuscany has been a longtime dream of mine. We are staying in Rome 5 nights post cruise so if we feel we didn’t see everything we wanted to in Florence, we could always make a day trip.

So that means if we have already booked they wouldn’t change this? We booked a Sunset Sky Suite on the Equinox for June, Barcelona to Rome. I just checked and the they still have the following suites available on our cruise. 4 Sky suites 8 sunset sky suites 8 Aqua sky suites 8 Celebrity suites and 1 Royal suite I booked this while onboard on December. It doesn’t appear they are selling very well to me, although it’s still 320 days out. We’ve had a $700+ price drop since then, but even at that we could get a veranda for half! If they change this policy, can we change room categories without penalty (still considered an onboard booking?) What’s the point of getting a suite if we don’t have a butler and the sundeck doesn’t have a pool? I should add that I’m not a foodie so the retreat menu doesn’t seem that appealing to me. (I’m the yacht club I ordered the filet half the nights) We’d mostly be paying for retreat access and better restaurant service. We sailed with MSC in the yacht club earlier this summer. We absolutely loved it! It was our first time in a suite with benefits though. I’m looking forward to comparing the experiences of the two. I already know that the YC will win the sun deck category because we had a lovely pool (and hot tubs we didn’t use, but others did) with plenty of loungers all day, and a full service bar and grill, got waited on with fast service from our loungers, with buffet. BTW, we did this for 57% of the cost and had a butler, and reserved theater seating every night. We were waited on constantly, we’re completely pampered and had special elevator access that called an empty elevator for us a YC guests. This may be our first and last retreat experience, but dh said he could never go back after the service we received in the YC so perhaps a move to MSC for future sailings. We’re keeping our X cruise because the itinerary is amazing! That’s why we picked it over a newer ship with a retreat pool. We will be disappointed if we don’t have a butler to bring us coffee in the morning, but it won’t ruin our cruise. We aren’t needy and we only used our butler for morning coffee, room service, and laundry on the MSC cruise. Oh, and since the mini bar was included he asked us what we wanted it stocked with.

If we’re too tired we’ll take a nap. Biggest problem with that is I’m notorious for turning off alarms and sleeping for a few hours when I’m exhausted. Otherwise we will skip dinner, go to bed early and catch an early train to BCN. I don’t see us making any evening reservations because we may sleep through dinner. Thanks for the recommendations.

That looks perfect for dh. Since it’s currently 40% off we went ahead and ordered. I have a crossbody Travelon RGID bag too, but very different than yours. Same idea though.

Thank you! We will probably be too tired to use it, but it looks nice. I appreciate all your help with my planning!!! I wanted to make that tour early because I will need to keep busy to stay awake. 😆 Our flight is from 4:40-6:40 so our bodies will say it’s 12:40 AM! I don’t know if we will make it without napping or not. Hope to make it at least till 7 or so and then just go to sleep. Dh is used to missing sleep with his job but I’m not.

The Ocean Drive Hotel looks nice and is close to the palace tour I'd like to do so I booked it. Thanks again!

It looks like the Hotel Europa is in this area. It says they have rooms with a view of Puerta del Sol. Trip Advisor also list both of the Only You Hotels as top 10 hotels near there. 🤷‍♀️

That’s a given! Lol Tapas, wine, and early to bed it will be. 🤪 All 4 are on our list. Good to get another recommendation for them. Thank you!

I will check it out. Thanks! Was it close to the tourist sites? We were planning on taking a taxi from the airport to our hotel, then walking around the city, but don’t mind taking a taxi if that would get us there on time. Edited to add:. I had looked that one up after seeing it on TA. I decided to keep looking because of the location. Someone had recommended staying more centrally located near the attraction rather than the train station. The reviews are excellent. I got those from a travel blog and Trip Advisor. The blogger said that hotel was in an excellent location, but again that’s just one persons opinion.

We have a direct flight into Madrid that arrives at 6:40 AM. I am looking at the Only You Boutique Hotel or the Meliã Madrid Princesa. Would you recommend one over the other? Is so, why? Should we be able to take our luggage to our hotel (it will be too early to check in) and make it to a skip the line guided tour at Royal palace by 9:45?

We were worried about missing connecting flights or lost luggage so we opted for the direct flight to Madrid. We will enjoy it for a day then take the train to Barcelona.

You’re correct. I have plenty of time and if the excursions I may like sell out we can always take the train. I don’t see that information anywhere. I posted in the Celebrity group and most said they wouldn’t do a Celebrity excursion there so we decided to cancel. I really would like to just do our own thing there, and not be limited by a group tour. We have plenty of time to decide.

That would keep me awake! I don’t think I will walk into it.

I’ve never seen an ocean view cabin like that. Nice choice!

We made a couple modifications to our plans. We will fly from Charlotte to Madrid on June 9, arrive in Madrid on the 10th and take the train to Barcelona on the morning of the 11th. It's a direct flight (Thanks @marazul) and we will arrive in Barcelona a little earlier on the 11th than expected, with the bonus of getting to spend a day in Madrid. We have canceled the Celebrity excursion for Livorno. Still looking at our options there. Not sure I see anything I like any better, without doing a private excursion for the two of us at a much higher cost, dealing with transport to the train station in Livorno and back, or again, a day trip from Rome. Still discussing our options. @edinburgher I have looked at that thread on excursions form Rome to Florence, but thank you!

We had decided we wanted to book flights today and it was on our short list. We loved the direct flight and easy access to Barcelona by train. Also, a couple others also mentioned this direct flight.

The most comfortable shoes I own!

We booked the CLT-MAD. Thanks for all this helpful information. You are such a wealth of knowledge, which has made our planning so much easier!