heckofagator

thanks for the thoughts all.  I guess it can't hurt to get some pricing.  I'm not sure what additional amenities the suites offer, but guessing the 2x "normal" rooms will come in cheaper, but we'll see.

We are in uncharted territory here - we have 2 sons and usually the 4 of us get 2 separate rooms and everything is good.  This year, however, son in college probably won't be joining us, so we may be down to 3.

Quick google tells me we can still book a double interior room for the 2 boys and if 1 doesn't show up, then oh well. 

But I wanted to see if a family suite made sense.  I think we'd like something with separate sleeping rooms if possible.  Not a firm requirement but wanted to see if anyone was familiar with these type of family suites and had any recommendations on what categories we might be looking at.  I think these probably have a separate room with a pull-out couch, which I think would be fine.

We traveled and returned from the cruise last week.  Ended up having a 7pm flight out of Rome so we got off the ship around 8am and did the whole train station thing and got into Rome and spent 10am-3pm walking around and then got a cab to the airport.  Worked out well.

Thank you, all of the googling I was doing and never came across this. 

Hoping this will be somewhat easily marked but now we know what to look out for. 

I have read there are limited taxis available post cruise and we are trying to figure out how best to get to the train station in Civitecchia to get back into Rome. 

20 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

 

 

The train is an option, but a bit of a hassle with luggage. Definitely doable, but probably not fun. I would just take the last cruise line transfer.

 

This is from a couple who just spent 15 days traveling around Europe by train, but only with carry on bags.

Thanks, still need to research from Rome to the port and then from Port to airport, but this is good to know.  Thanks. 

We just purchase the transfer while on the ship?  Or needs to be done pre-cruise? 

We'll be docking in Civitavecchia and are looking at return flights to the US from Rome. 

I was looking at a 1pm departure and wife is worried for whatever reason that there is not enough time to make that flight. There are some 10am flights which I'd rather be on but that might be pushing it in my opinion. 

Figure off the ship at 8am, 2 hour train ride to the airport and that's still very early to me for a 1pm departure, but just wanted to make sure I'm not missing anything. 

Thanks! 

Hey gang, trying to get this booked, wife has been talking with Vacations To Go.  If I did the drink package, I was going to go in the room with my minor son so we didn't have to have my wife buy the alcohol drink package which doesn't make sense for her. 

So we asked about AI package with me and my son in a room and it's $1000 pp, regardless if he's drinking age or not.  Does that makes sense?  I figured a non drinker would bring down the AI price. 

Sales person says AI makes no sense for us as we're getting charged for a 2nd drinker either way regardless if I go on a room wirh my wife or one of my sons. 

Are the 50% sales site wide for everyone (announced anywhere?) or are they random and specific to a ship or sailing or something that you have to see in the app? 

also reading some other threads, I see a lot of people upgrading from classic to premium.  Did most of these people get the classic upgrade free as part of some promotion?  and then pre-cruise, they just pay the differences in the packages?

thanks for the thoughts all.

Unfortunate that we just missed the 50% off sale.  And I'm also a bit worried about the AI pricing but I guess we'll have to wait and see what it looks like in the app once we book.  I did see something about the AI package costing like $2000 in another thread (I had to look up what "AI" was) and I just dont know that I'd be able to stomach that cost, to be honest.

how does AI work when you have 2 people in the cabin?  Do they still force the other person to get the drink package if the other gets the AI package?

I do enjoy drinking on vacation and in the past from what I remember, these drink packages were always around $500 so it was just nice peace of mind not to have to worry everytime you went up to the bar.  But the $1000 price is giving me a bit of pause for some reason, that just seems like a lot of money.

This would only be my 2nd Celebrity cruise, so Captains Club tier is probably as low as you can get…unfortunately.  Let me see if i can verify.

edit to add….I’m not even Classic tier apparently.  Last Celebrity cruise 20 years ago must not be linked to my account.

Thinking about a last minute cruise this summer…..was quickly trying to find some info on the drink package pricing.

the Premium package appeared to be $109 a day, which seemed crazy to me as it would be over $1000 for a 10 day cruise.  Which is approaching the base price of the cruise.  Although its been a number of years since we’ve been on a ship.

i also know you can prepay before you leave for some discount, i just wasnt sure how much that discount was.

can anyone help clarify the actual pre-cruise discount price for the (alcohol) drink packages?

thanks!

8 minutes ago, malmo288 said:

Thank you for sharing! How does the RT bus transfer work? We want to head to Montego Bay, eat at Scotchies and maybe hang out at the beach for a bit. Is it only a bus there and a bus back or is it like a hop on hop off bus style? 

There's a whole taxi/bus station just past all of the shops in port.  Its super easy to find.  There's a big sign with a map and it has all of the prices to go by bus/taxi,. etc to various locations.  There are 4-5 guys out there to answer questions and to try to get you on one of the buses.  Although you pay the bus driver directly, so I'm not sure how that works - maybe they get a kickback.  Our driver took us and then set up a time to meet him back.  The same group that went out all came back together.  He collects the $20 when he drops you off in MB.

I don' t know if there's a hopon/off bus, offhand.

5 minutes ago, maldenmusic said:

Did the vendors bother you much as you were walking around the Hip Strip?

It wasn't horrible, but yes, the shop owners were def asking if you wanted to come in their shop.  What I remember most, though, was being asked if we needed a taxi.  All of the drivers would ask from their moving car and would drive off immediately when we said no, but we must have been asked 20+ times.

The most pushy vendors by far were the ones at the Haiti port.  There was a small section where they were all set up near the back.  We went to one of the beaches pretty far back and had to pass by here twice.  they all were trying to get you into their shops.  You really have to be forceful as they will keep following you and when you leave one you'll walk right into another.

well, we're back from the cruise.  Ending up getting off of the ship around noon and headed over to the bus/taxi stand.  We ended up doing a RT transfer to Montego Bay for $20pp.  After we got dropped off and walked around Hip Strip for a few, I was wondering, now what the heck are we going to do for the next 3 hours.  

We ended up at Margaritaville and bought a couple beers and hung out on their chairs and did all of their water activities.  We saw a few catamarans that were totally packed cruising right off shore.  I think I saw them stop too for snorkeling, like what seemed to be 150' from shore.  Kinda lame.

All in all, it was nice to get out of the port.  I'm glad we found margaritaville.

We've done Dunns and Blue Hole.  Thinking about heading to Montego Bay, possibly to take a catamaran, but not decided on that for sure. 

Is it worth the transportation cost to get to Montego Bay?  We've been to Ochos Rios several times but nothing outside of that. 

Thanks! 

thanks, will def take a look at the park and see what makes sense for us.

Probably a silly question, but is there any time on the way back to walk 5th Ave in Playa de Carmen or is the schedule pretty tight and they get you on the ferry back right away?

We've been one quite a few cruises and ship time and local time are always the same right?  What am I missing?  I've never had to convert time during the day.  Time changes always have happened at night when we were on board.

We've been to Ocho Rios several times and have done Dunns Rover Falls and Blue Hole 2x.  We are coming to Falmouth this time and looking for something similar but different. Wife found mention of Bengal Falls but there doesn't seem to be hardly anything about it on these boards.

Any suggestions?  Family of four with 2 boys, 12 and 15.  Looking for something more active.  Been Ziplining a whole bunch already.

We'll be visiting Cozumel via Royal Caribbean soon and have read that XCaret is not recommended to do on your own.  We normally never do the shop excursions, but in this case, it seems like it may be wise to book with the ship.

Is there anything we should know before booking the CZ81 8-hour XCaret trip?

perhaps RCL is different but every cruise I've been on before, the spin bikes were off limits unless you paid for the class.  Even if they weren't in use.

Our kids are 12 and 15 now and have been on their own on the ship for 4-5 years easily, maybe more.  We sometimes only see them once or twice a day, usually up at the buffet or basketball court or arcade.  they've almost always had their own room.

Of course they're always welcome to hang with us and sometimes they do, but mostly we're just boring parents

thanks all, yes, will def cancel and re-book if it drops.  I just didn't want to see prices go up as we're getting closer to the sail date, I'm not sure if that will happen or not.

Purchasing a few things today!

First time RC cruiser here.  We just booked and are on a fairly short timeframe until the cruise leaves.

I've read that the prices on some of the items can drop, but I'm guessing they can also go up?  Is there any reason I shouldn't just purchase the items now to protect from any future price increases?  Of course, I'm hoping they'll drop, but I also would be upset if they went up and never came down again.

Should I just go ahead and just purchase now and keep watching for price drops?