ajtaylor29

Yes, we booked our transport thru RC. They have a bus that will shuttle from Venice-Ravenna or Bologna-Ravenna and back. fyi - Ravenna is a lot closer to Bologna than Venice. We flew into Venice a few days pre-cruise, then went to Bologna for 2 days after the cruise then flew home from there) You cannot book the RC transport on the website, you have to call them (i don't know why?!?) It wasn't that expensive, i'd have to look up exact price, but there were 6 of us and it was the best option. Super easy to find the bus station. This worked out great for us! I loved Venice, and loved Bologna! So we got to add 2 Italian cities to our trip instead of one!

We sailed on Explorer to Greece and Croatia last September, had a great time! The ship was wonderful and the crew was friendly and helpful! I suggest you join the roll call for your cruise, also go to the boards for Greece and read other peoples comments about what to do in your port stops. There's a wealth of information out there (mostly good! :))

Last year on Odyssey, my hubby and i reserved one. This was our one and only (so far!) Star suite experience so it came at no charge! We selected one on the pool deck, the area was packed, and honestly i didn't love it at all?!? There were people constantly walking thru our little "private" area, pushing their chairs right up next to ours (to share our shade?) and in general it just felt like i was sitting in the busiest spot possible. Oh, and the bar was nearby so we had that traffic as well. Maybe in our younger days when partying by the pool was our vibe, this would have been fun! But we're a 60-something couple now, and even tho i think we're fun-lovers, we're not so much into the loud, drunken pool scene as we were years ago! The cabanas on the upper deck would have been much less crowded, however on this specific day it was pretty windy so they were blowing up there! If i had paid for it i wouldn't have been very happy, as it was we stayed for a couple of hours then left. I probably won't book one again.

We did this in October after our cruise. We took RC's shuttle to the airport to see our family members off as they were flying out that day. Then my husband and I took a taxi back into the city where we stayed 2 more days. We stayed at the Hotel Metropolitan, it was really nice and in a great location. We loved Bologna and I'm so glad we stayed there a while so we could walk around and explore. Had some great food there too! I think it was a very short cab ride (it was early on a Sunday so not much traffic, maybe 15 minutes to our hotel) I would recommend that you stay in the city center instead of by the airport so you can see the city... I think if RC's shuttle isn't available, you could look into the train schedule. I'm sure you can take the train.

Agree! When we boarded Explorer in September, the first thing i did (well, almost the first thing - i was in Italy after all and SO excited to be there!!!) but anyway - one of the first things i did was go searching for where they might show the Cowboy game that Sunday night (late because of the time difference). I was first told at each of the bars that "no, we're not showing NFL football at all, the World Cup is on".....so i was resigned to them not showing it at all....then after dinner and casually walking thru the bar on the way to the casino and looked up and there was the cowboy game on the screen!!! Don't dispair, it'll be showing somewhere!

Great thread here and it proves the point that there is never ONE right answer to a question like this!!! I think that most people figure out what works for them and that's what they go with. Great! As it should be! I agree with the comments about overall quality diminishing lately, but i have never gone hungry on a cruise. I have learned to be selective about what i eat and where based on past experiences, but other people will make different choices. I also agree that we've already "paid" for the buffet and the MDR so some will argue that paying for specialty restaurants is a waste. In my opinion, the specialty restaurants add to my overall enjoyment on a cruise, so to me it's worth a few $$s. We used to eat exclusively in the buffet or MDR, but over the years we've decided that those aren't our favorites so now we rarely go there at all. We're fortunate enough to cruise in suites most of the time so often that gets us Coastal Kitchen which is almost always a very satisfying meal. Then we'll sprinkle in a couple of specialty restaurants. Some times breakfast in Solarium Bistro. Some times Park Cafe for a great salad at lunch. Like i said, i won't go hungry on a cruise. And, i usually won't go to a venue that i KNOW will disappoint me. all that said - i totally understand that i am fortunate to be able to cruise a lot, i'm fortunate to be able to afford a suite or a specialty restaurant. I know some people cruise on a much tighter budget than I do and that's fine! There is food for ALL of us to enjoy!!!

You can ask to be seated at a two-top for dinner and i'm sure they'll accommodate your request!

I'm a huge nfl football fan (mostly Dallas Cowboys but i'll watch whatever game is on!!) and I've never missed a game at sea. Even on our Explorer cruise in Greece/Croatia this past September i was able to watch a Cowboy game in one of the bars (luckily, late night broadcast after all the soccer games were over!). For Oasis class ships, i've watched a couple of games at the Aqua Theater, they also were showing in Playmakers on multiple screens. I recently watched Cowboys/Eagles in the Aqua Theater with lots of fans from both sides, it was a lot of fun! Enjoy!!

We ended up doing what my instincts told me to do and had a great day! I booked a 1/2 day Blue Lagoon/Trogir private boat tour thru Viator. The boat crew were super nice, took us first to Trogir where we walked around for about an hour and got something to eat. Then we went to 2 different beaches which were both beautiful! The water was a little chilly for me (late September), but most of our group did swim and i enjoyed sitting in a lounge chair on the beach. The time spent on the speedboat was worth it too just seeing the beautiful landscapes around us! After the tour finished we still had a couple of hours to explore Split, see the Palace, shop a bit. It was a great day! Hope this helps!

i don't think you need to make a reservation in advance. Usually only one or two specialty restaurants are open on boarding day, but if you have the UDP then you can walk in and eat for no charge. We usually go to Chops on boarding day...

I haven't sailed on Rhapsody yet but am booked for this summer. Our cruise will be out of San Juan with 5 stops in 7 days - so very port intensive and only 1 sea day. If yours is anything like this itinerary, i would say that your niece will be too busy in ports to care whether there are bells and whistles or not! On a cruise with multiple sea days, some of those fun things on the big ships are great, but not critical to me either way. That said, we've sailed old and new, big and small, love them all (mostly!)Took our extended family to Europe last year on Explorer (older, smaller) and everyone loved it, including a couple of first-time cruisers. If we're booking just to get on a ship and go SOMEWHERE, we tend to go for the new big ships with lots to do, since they tend to run on the most popular routes (how many times can we go to Cozumel? or Labadee?). But if we're seeking out a new or interesting itinerary it almost always works out to be on the older, smaller ships., and we've yet to be disappointed. Enjoy!

We've been on 3 Alaska cruises and never have had an issue, ie it was a little rocky but not that bad. I know it can be bad, and also some people are more susceptible to motion sickness than others. Take some things with you just in case!

Totally agree! Once we had it and it was really tasty, tender and delicious. The next 5 attempts to eat one have not gone well.....last try on Harmony (Park Cafe) last month, the meat was so undercooked that it was inedible.....i'm sure i'll keep trying but my expectations are now pretty low....

Our first few cruises were on Carnival, and i remember they used to give a free beer to the first people to get to the pub once boarding started. One cruise with my BF we were in the first groups of passengers to board, and we literally RAN to the pub but were just beaten by another couple!!! Bummer, missed that free beer!!! I don't know if Carnival still does that....but i've long since gotten over the urge to be the first!! (Our first couple of cruises, i also insisted on carrying on water, and diet coke -what a hassle and never again on that one!!! Then we were stuck sitting somewhere with our carry-ons forever because they were too heavy to move around!) Our last cruise we arrived to port about 12:30, literally walked on, had lunch then our cabin was ready. I agree it's much less stressful than dragging around the carry-ons for an hour or two. And we didn't miss anything! On debarkation day, tho, no matter how hard i try, i can't sleep once the ship slows down and we start entering the port. So, we always self assist off and are usually in the first group. It would be more relaxing to wait....but i haven't been able to do that yet!

We've done 3 European cruises and did not use ta's for any of them. I feel like most passengers are American. We've never had trouble anywhere with the language barrier, not everybody but certainly a lot of Europeans speak English and for the most part they try very hard to communicate with us as tourism is their livlihood! imo, the cruise aspect helps so much in establishing your itinerary and floating hotel for the week, so all that's left is for you to decide what to do each day and settle all the little details! I rely on the boards here for so much information, i take advise from other travelers to decide on hotels, excursions transportation, etc. I would plan to stay a couple of days in Barcelona before the cruise, it's a great city with so much to see! We also stayed 1 night after our cruise there, but we were pretty tired at that point so we didn't explore as much as we did before the cruise! European cruises are definitely port intensive, so plan for long days and probably very little down time on the ship (compared to Caribbean cruises). Our European cruises have all been on smaller ships, going on an Oasis class ship would be different since you won't really have as much time to enjoy all the stuff on Oasis. Have fun! I'm already looking forward to planning another one for us!

Inside aft balcony on deck 12...if it faces the boardwalk then if you're far enough to the back you should be able to see the Aqua Theater from your balcony? If so, that might be fun to watch the aqua show from there. Although i've never done it so not sure if you'll have an unobstructed view or not...

It sounds like things have calmed down and hope the rest of the cruise is uneventful!! I got PTSD reading the issues with DD's passport, since i had my own scary experience last year boarding Symphony! Link below if you want to read my story!

I'm sure they will be showing them somewhere for sure! Just on Harmony last month, we watched one NFL game on the big screens in Aqua Theater area. Right next to that is Sabers, which had multiple tv's showing football games (although their bar area is small, so if you watch here you'll be in the dining area and probably need to order some food!) Beyond that, i'm sure there will be bars around the ship with tv's showing sports....

We've been to Cozumel numerous times and done lots of different excursions and beach days (always have had good experiences, btw!) We've gone to Mr. Sanchos and Paradise Beach and liked them both, but last month we were looking for something new (less crowded, quieter, etc.) so we decided to try Cabana Beach and we really enjoyed our day there! The price is very reasonable (you rent the cabana and pay ala carte for food and drinks, i know our cabana rental was less than $200) With that came the use of snorkling gear for no charge. There is no sandy beach here, but there are steps going in to the water which worked fine for us! If you wanted to you could walk down to the beach area but we didn't (other than to go see it). The food and drinks were good and not expensive. there are only 10 cabanas i think so the whole area is very quiet. We are going to be there again this Saturday and will be at Cabana Beach again! Travel tip: they did not have any floats available so this time we're taking some with us (small easy to inflate noodles), it wasn't really necessary here since we used snorkle gear/fins whenever we were in the water. But on that same cruise, we had a cabana in Roatan without floats, and our day at Krazy Lobster in Costa Maya had limited floats available, so now i think taking our own will be our new policy!

We saw it last year on Odyssey, just hubby and me. We liked it, i thought it was very entertaining. I can't imagine what would be offensive to kids....?!? People are a little too sensitive these days, maybe?? Anyway, like others have said, they might be bored but i don't think there's anything that will scar them for life! 🙂

i agree that e-mail is sort of a boiler-plate explanation to all....i would definitely write back and ask them to book CK for you and i'm sure they will! We're leaving Thursday on a short Voyager cruise. Since there's no CK on Voyager we bought the Unlimited Dining Package, which doesn't allow you to make reservations until you're onboard (except for night 1 which they did book us at Chops). I got the same e-mail over the weekend, so i've written back and asked that they make reservations for us, giving them our preferences for lunches and dinners. This also falls under "if you need assistance"!! Once we're onboard, we'll tweak it if we need to.

You will be contacted by the suite concierge about a week before the cruise and you can request reservations for CK at that time. We were on harmony last month and that was the first time we needed reservations, i'm sure because the ship was full. Our previous cruises on partially full ships we never worried about reservations we just showed up when we were hungry!! But on Harmony (because we didn't do anything until the 2nd or 3rd day when we realized how busy they were) we ended up with 8 pm dinner the rest of the cruise. It worked for us but most people prefer to eat earlier than that!

I never thought about this until our cruise 3 weeks ago on Harmony! We were on deck 7 portside, very conveniently close to the aft elevators. A couple of times (early in the cruise) we came up (or down) using the starboard side elevators and realized we couldn't get across to our cabin because of the Boardwalk! We figured it out after that and it really wasn't a problem, i loved the location. We just had to think about which elevator bank to use!

We were on Harmony 3 weeks ago, and tried to eat dinner (2nd night i think?) in Solarium Bistro. They said we needed a reservation as they were fully booked that night.(the restaurant was empty, but they said they had a party of 40 coming in....??) I was surprised, as i thought in the past we were always able to walk in. We didn't try again so i don't know if it was easier to walk in later in the cruise or not...

That looks like an awesome space to have a watching party!!!