alaskawdw12

What is the customary tip to give to the porters at the Civitavecchia cruise port? I have absolutely no idea, so all opinions and advice are welcomed :)

Thanks!

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I’m gonna be there at 11am this Thursday, I’ll let you know how it goes.

We’ll see you there!

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Try the back door: https://secure.royalcaribbean.com/beforeyouboard/boardingDocuments.do?icid=hpnvbr_pagehe_nln_hm_awaren_954

Thanks! I tried that while I was on the phone with her. No luck. She did say that worst case scenario we show up without the Set Sail Pass. Just annoying...

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Honestly quite irritated with Royal’s website and phone operators. We’ve encountered many problems with the website ever since first booking our upcoming cruise. I now got off the phone with them because I am unable to complete and print our online check in. What I find most irritating is talking to a Royal employee on the phone who clearly knows nothing about computers and doesn’t understand what I’m talking about when I say I have managed to sign in to online check in - meaning, I am in the account - but there is no link to press other than “what is this?”, so I can’t finish the check in process or print the Set Sail Pass. She couldn’t understand my complaint and said to stop trying because the system will kick me out...again - I’m already in my account, there’s just nothing for me to click on other than “what is this?” and “print paper luggage tags”, those are the only existing links ...I’m not trying to access anything. I know it’s a “new” website - 4 months isn’t new anymore - but the staff isn’t new and should be better trained, and I expect someone whose job it is to assist with the website to be more computer savvy than me - a musician...

And....rant over.

Any advice? :)

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I second the warning about regular Dramamine and add a warning about none-drowsy Bonine. When I was a teen I missed a whole day on a cruise because of Dramamine. It just totally knocked me out. Then on my honeymoon DH took none-drowsy Bonine the night before our cruise and boy was he drowsy!! He could barely move on embarkation day. He just felt completely exhausted. So you never know how you’re going to react to a drug.

Our go to is Sea Bands. We first bought them onboard the cruise on our honeymoon since there was no chance we were taking the Bonine. We now swear by Sea Bands and I use them at home as well for car rides, movie theaters and just random vertigo spells. My whole family uses them on cruises and we find them to be amazingly affective. We also drink ginger ale onboard if the ship is really rocking.

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I am thinking of trying one of the Boarwalk balcony cabins as far back as possible in order to sea the ocean but I am reading conflicting reports on them being noisy.

 

I am a light sleeper and not a late night person.

 

So the question is are they noisy?? or not??:) Thanks

I’m a very light sleeper, so I was really nervous about our BW balcony on the Allure. We absolutely loved it!! And actually liked it even more than an ocean view balcony, since we felt like we got the best of both worlds - a sea view while still being part of the ship and people watching. When we closed the balcony door we couldn’t hear any noise from outside, with one exception - the aqua theater show. Which we loved, since we got to watch it a bunch of times from our balcony, including rehearsals, which was super cool.

So since you don’t stay up late I’d suggest you check at what time the second aqua theater show is over (I think it’s over by 11:30 PM), and if that’s not too late for you you’re good to go. Also, get a room closer to the aqua theater both for the nicer sea view and also there’s late music in Dazzles that it seemed to me would be bothersome to the rooms closer to the Boardwalk entrance.

We were on deck 12.

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Not so sure the Boardwalk Balcony ajoining cabin balconies can be opened. :confused:

We had ours opened on the Allure.

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Thanks for sharing! I’ve been waiting to read more reviews of Rome embarkations since we’ll be doing the same.

Were jacuzzis and pools open during the Barcelona muster drill or were those closed as well?

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Hey you.

Would you be able to download the compasses before Friday? [emoji5]

Our trip to Barcelona starts then and on Sunday we board the ship! Woohoo [emoji4]

You can find the cruise compasses in the Royal app in the meantime :)

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Hello from Barcelona!

Flight was decent. Ryanair are a budget airline, so the seats weren't comfortable, but not a bad flight. I can take a 3 hour flight, but I do find traveling to the States to be a struggle.

We had to wait an hour to get our bags at Barcelona Airport. Thumbs down to them. Way too long.

 

Just checked into the hotel. Spent some time walking around Barcelona. Nice city.

You were lucky...when we landed in Barcelona we had to wait two hours for our luggage!!

Have a great time on your cruise :)

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I’ve done 2 Alaskan cruises and am going on my 3rd in August. One of the great things is enjoying the beautiful scenery in the morning and then participating in ship activities in the afternoon and evening. There’s always something going on to suit just about everyone’s taste. We tend to sway toward the adult type activities like the Quest, Majority Rules, Finish the Lyrics, etc. I believe there’s dancing on most ships after the games/shows are done.

I’m jealous! Have great time :)

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Okay - I have been eyeballing a cruise to Alaska for some time - really want to experience it but, I am not a sit still kind of person. I like to play games and scavenger hunt and dance and people watch and sing along and really enjoy the night life of the fun Caribbean cruises. We are considering the Ovation in 2020.

 

 

 

Am I going to have that on an Alaskan cruise? I know that I will be awed by the beauty of Alaska having never really been out of the south (except for that one visit to Michigan to see my sister in January), but I am scared.

 

 

 

Note - My husband and I will probably be traveling with another couple.

 

 

 

Is it really a ghost ship after 10pm? Am I gonna have something to do late-night? Pizza at 3am?

 

 

 

Any information (or suggestions) is greatly appreciated.

DH and I were on the Radiance in Alaska for our honeymoon six years ago when we were 27 and 24. We had an AMAZING time! We’ve since done the same cruise again with my mom and grandmother and dream of taking that cruise a third time.

We are total ship activities kind of people, we hate lounging around on vacation, and we had a BLAST! There are LOTS of activities onboard all day and at night as well. We enjoyed full days in the ports and then great activities back onboard. We actually enjoyed some of the activities on the Radiance better than on the Allure because of the smaller setting, which allowed everyone to participate.

Things don’t run as late as on Caribbean cruises, but there still are activities at night - dancing, piano bar entertainment etc. - through midnight. There wasn’t a 24 hour pizza place on the Radiance, Park Cafe was open until 1 AM, but you can always order room service. Of course, this is specifically for the Radiance. Given that the Ovation is bigger than the Radiance I can only assume you’d have even more on offer, at least in terms of food.

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We actually like the Mudslide and think it tastes like a milkshake :) you can ask for it at any bar onboard.

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That's brilliant, thanks for the heads up! My mouth's watering already! :-)

Hahahaha...same here!!!!

And I’m really looking forward to this review!

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The app shows the same menu for each day unless I'm mistaken? The mdr menu changes daily though.

The app shows the menu for each day :) just pick the “show more” option in the times shown for the MDR and you’ll see a different menu for each day.

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Hi Joe,

 

If you could take a photo of the mdr menu each day too please, that would be great. Trying to work out what the 'weaker' nights are so we can book a couple of speciality restaurants!

 

Thanks.

You can see all of the menus in the app.

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Just to clarify a few comments on this thread.

 

 

3. With travel insurance policies you do have to bill your own home insurance first and then send the bill and EOB (explanation of benefits) to the travel insurance company and they will pay the difference.

 

We always travel with medical+search and rescue insurance just in case, and over the years have had to send in bills in the past to get back money spent. When we cruise on Royal we get the “cancel for any reason” cruise line insurance in addition because the extra cost is worth it for our peace of mind. Again, when I got hurt on a private excursion and had to go to the doctor onboard twice + tetanus antibodies shot + antibiotics + supplies for bandaging the wound we were not charged because we had the cruise line insurance. This was clearly stated to us by the nurse + we DID NOT receive a bill nor did we have to make any claims later. We simply were not charged at all. This was about four years ago, so perhaps the policy has changed, but that’s how it worked at the time.

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Thanks for the great review! I really had a good time reading it and always looked forward to your updates.

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You weren't charge on Radiance because you were hurt doing a ship activity. I don't know about the bite by the turtle, but if it was an excursion through the ship you also wouldn't be charged, even without insurance.

 

 

 

When you have any kind of insurance, including Royal's, you have to pay the bill, and then submit the paperwork they give you to the insurance company.

Nope, on the Allure it was a private excursion not through the ship and we didn’t have to pay a thing. No paperwork, no bill. We just showed them we had the Assist Card insurance and that was it.

You’re correct about the Radiance and in that case they also had an officer come talk to me and fill out a case report.

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Glad to hear everything went ok.

 

 

 

Out of curiosity, if you had travel insurance, would that have covered the $167? I've never bought travel insurance so I don't know the ins and outs.

We always get the insurance offered by Royal Caribbean and that has covered our visits to the doctor onboard. I manage to have weird things happen to me on vacation :)

On the Radiance we participated in an activity with all kinds of things your team had to do to win, one of which being building a human pyramid. I stupidly took part of it despite having not the greatest back and being with a very small build. A woman three times my size was on me with her leg right on the middle of my back and I was just in the worst pain afterwards...and feeling so stupid for doing it to myself. Went to the doctor the next day because the pain was just getting worse. The x-rayed me, found everything was fine, and gave me 800 mg ibuprofen to take. We weren’t charged. And I don’t let my competitiveness push me to do stupid things anymore :)

On the Allure we went swimming with sea turtles in St. Thomas and one of the turtles clamped onto my finger and would not let go until the guide finally managed to force her to open her mouth (I told you, really weird things...). Really gross wound (I still have the scar to prove it). When we got back onboard they gave me a tetanus antibody shot, antibiotics and bandages to keep the wound clean and protected. We were not charged for anything.

So I would recommend getting the insurance RCL offers.

OP, that’s SUCH a scary scenario!! I’m so happy they were so great and that you ended your day at dinner with your family. Both of my experiences with the medical staff onboard were super positive as well.

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Just a follow-up now that we’re home.

 

Luggage tags and wristbands were delivered Wednesday night. Bags get left in hall just like normal. Departure morning you must leave the room by 9:00 am. We went to breakfast about 8:30 (which is the time all the paperwork for departures says breakfast will end) and joined those staying aboard (whose breakfast ends at the normal 11:00 am), then went to the pool deck for awhile. At about 10:15, announcements were made for people to report to the departure gangway. Imagine my confusion when my name was called. We went down and found there was a second couple on the same deck who shared our names (I’ve never found another LaBianca that I wasn’t related to - hard to believe there was a second Alexander LaBianca on the same deck as me for a week). Cleared that up, went to the Park Cafe for second breakfast and then to the Windjammer for lunch.

 

We walked off at 1:00pm found our luggage and got into the car we had reserved. At the airport by 2:15, plenty of time for our 6:00 flight.

 

A few notes:

Carry-ones could be left in the Card Room on Deck 14 for the duration of the Stay Awhile program. We opted to keep ours with us, which meant that after about 10:30, crew members were welcoming us on board , trying to sell us dinner packages, etc.

When we claimed our bags, there were two other sets of bags with them, so not a lot of people are taking advantage of this (or don’t know about it).

 

 

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Thanks! This is great information to have. The card room is open, right? so no guarantee your stuff is safe?

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Thanks for you Cinque Terre info... I have read so much info on how to do this I think I have confused myself!!!

 

Did you feel like you wasted time waiting for the train to get between the villages or did you have a timetable and arrived at the station just as the train was scheduled?.

How much time would you allocate in each place?

Can you walk between any village (I have read of a path but that had a landfall and not sure if it is open again)

 

Thanks for a great review!

LB

 

 

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You can check the status of the trail that connects the five towns at this website

https://www.incinqueterre.com/en/trail-number2-blue

The two easier trails are closed right now.

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I have had problems with the website since I booked our cruise months ago. Half the time it tells me to try again later and why are there two log in pages? One for the website and then another for the cruise planner?? I've cruised with Norwegian and Carnival and never had this problem. Both of their websites and apps were very easy to use! This is our first time with RC (Adventure of the Seas) and we are getting very nervous. The app gives me a message and I quote "Your reservations on ships not yet available in this app". What?????? that's not even grammatically correct! NCL and CCL both had an easy app to use to communicate with others in our party while on board. Does RC?

While the website is totally irritating, don’t be worried about your cruise. We’ve cruised with Royal 3 times now (much less than many people here, but a lot for us :) ) and loved each cruise. It’s a shame their website isn’t at the level of their service onboard.

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We need to be off by 3:30 pm at the latest.

 

Barcelona morning is just like any other morning except for the announcements about luggage tag numbers being able to leave. We just walked off and took a taxi to our privately set up tour.

 

 

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Thank you!!! Mystery solved :) now we can figure out what we want to do on our last day.

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Too bad.

 

I was playing with the app just now, and you can manually select a cruise in the preview function (start with "more details on ships we support"), and access the daily planner, deck plans, etc. So I picked the one leaving 7/22 and was able to see all the activities for my embarkation day (day 5 of that week), menus, etc.

 

That could also be useful for those who love to plan ahead, as of today you can select all the way up to the 8/5 sailing.

I’ve been doing the same thing :) still, the fact remains that our cruises don’t exist as cruises, which is weird and why all of these reported glitches are happening.

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