marymcpherson

@Mljstr - In your case you now have 90 minutes between arrival and departure.  You were very smart to book a longer layover and now that is paying dividends since there have been changes and you still have a very generous amount of time to make your connection.
Keep in mind you don't have to be at the gate of your Rome flight 60 minutes before.  Not that I think it will happen, but arriving after boarding has started won't impact you.  You could stop, eat a quick bite, go to the restroom and still make it to your Rome flight with ample time to board.
Unlike domestic flights were everyone is competing for overhead bins space, on most international flights people have checked bags and fewer carry on items usually meaning ample overhead bin space for everyone's carry on.  
You are likely not getting anywhere with Air2Sea or the airline because 90 minutes between flights is more than enough time for anyone regardless of their age or abilities. 
As to why flight times have changed - Airlines set schedules far in advance but as day of travel approaches many things impact the day of a plane. 
In some cases the FAA grants and adjusts take-off and landing slots in a giant jigsaw puzzle trying to balance multiple airlines using both the originating and destination airport. 
In your case the change may have started hours earlier in a different city far away where your plane (ironically called 'ships' in the airline industry) had to have it's scheduled adjusted for any number of reasons.  That one small change impacts the next leg and the leg after that and the leg after that until it comes to the leg that you are on. 
It could be that an airport in California announces it is closing a runway for maintenance.  Your plane just happens to be there 6 hours before your flight.  Instead of the hour long ground time they thought they would have, now they have to land 10 minutes later and will spend 68 minutes on the ground because of that maintenance being introduced by the airport four states away.  That one change ripples through the various flights your plane is scheduled to fly that day until it comes to your turn to get on that plane.
On any given plane there are passengers connecting to a myriad of destinations.  Every change has ripple effects for the daily life cycle of any plane and the hundreds of passenger connections each day.
Rest assured it's not some conspiracy or shenanigan focused at you.  If you fly enough you see this sort of thing all the time, some times providing a longer layover, some times making it shorter.

With respect, claiming handicap when you aren't is like claiming military when you aren't.  It dilutes the perks for those than have earned it and not something I'll ever do despite having a child going through basic training in the service of our country as I write this.
While I partially agree some airlines can be lame in their tactics, it's not fair to paint Air2Sea with that brush using guilt by association.  
Air2Sea in my experience isn't a cheap way to book flights.  I use them for the limited protection they offer, having actually read the terms and conditions.
Hate airlines all you want, but lay blame where it belongs.  Airlines do not intentionally "pull shenanigans".  Stuff happens.  Everyone wants cheap seats and accepts the clauses that come with those cheap rates while booking until something happens.  No one, including the airlines desire to create chaos in our lives or their operational day.
 

??
@Blondie511 apologizing on behalf of @JLMoran, @ellcee,and I for completely taking this thread off topic.

San Juan is one of the best pre-cruise departure ports because the city offers so much culture and history (and food).

Opps , 
Just saw I reacted on another thread , anyway , after all the wonderful advises here we decided to go with the Greek Islands option. We already booked the cruise and tickets.   we will fly two days before the cruise so we will have at least a full day to tour Venice.
Panning to book hotel in the mainland outside of Venice 15 minutes from the airport (we will land quite late)15-20 minutes by train from the city  and 30 minutes from the cruise terminal , some of the hotels are offering shuttle to the cruise port , still need to check that.  Hotels inside the city are very expensive and more important its not that easy to travel inside the city with luggage.
Trying to add the new cruise to my account seem to be the most problematic part now , amazing (or maybe the fact I am still amazed that something is not working with RC site is the amazing part) 

personally i would choose the greek islands cruise. With a very port intensive itinerary i doubt you'll spend very much time on the ship, and a smaller ship should be fine for the time you do.
In January of this year my family did a southern Caribbean that was 7 days and had 6 port days. We were "nervous" about being on a small, older ship (Jewel), but when it came down to it, we were really only on the ship in the evenings and to sleep. We spent all of our days off the ship, exploring the islands. We ended up loving Jewel. For the time we did spend on the ship there was more than enough to do, plenty of places to walk to, and we never felt like we were missing things to do... half the time we were so tired from our long days in port we ate, watched a show and then went to bed to be well rested for our next port! That being said, if it had been an itinerary with less ports and more sea days i think we may have run out of things to do towards the end of the week if we wanted variety. 
I know everyone talks up the new mega ships, but I quite enjoy the smaller ships, especially on an itinerary like this! If we could make it work with everyone's schedules we'd jump on this itinerary in a second! (we're looking at doing it next summer!)
To me, wanting a "fancier" ship on a port intensive itinerary is the equivalent of booking a luxury hotel with bells and whistles only to solely sleep there.
Like @twangster said, are you choosing these itineraries to see the ports that it stops in? or are you wanting to spend the week with the ship as your destination? 
If you're choosing the itinerary to see the ports, I don't think you need to worry about the ship. 
I would pick the Greek Isle's cruise ?
 
 
 

Is the ship the destination or are the ports the destination?  Which is more important?
I get the feeling the ship is holding you back from choosing the Greek cruise.  As you have noted the smaller ship is required to get into some of those ports. 
Last year I sailed on Allure in May then my next ship was Grandeur.  Mega to small.  I loved Grandeur.  It's a wonderful ship.  It's only considered a small ship by Royal Caribbean standards.  By the measure used by all other cruises lines, having ~2,000 guests is not a small ship. 
The Greek Islands are on my bucket list and I'd have no hesitation sailing Vision class ships so I know what I'd do, but this is your vacation.  Follow your gut. 
 

Thanks!! Will definitely try this out for July!

I'd look into adding the telus easy roam to your current telus plan, its a free option to add and you don't pay for it until you need to access your plan in a country outside of canada. So if you only needed it on the days you need to order a lyft/uber in the states (say on embarkation/debarkation day) you would only access easy roam on two days and it would be only $10 total. plus with easy roam you're paying the flat fee to access your canadian plan which is definitely better in terms of what you get than any of the telus travel packages they offer. 
I know for me my canadian telus plan is 12gb of data, unlimited calling and text so to pay $5/a day to access that is way better than buying one of the telus travel packages that is like 150 minutes, unlimited text and 500mb data for $30 (or whatever it is).
i'd say its definitely worth looking into, even if all you plan to do is use it for 2 days

I am with Telus and I take my phone with me whenever i travel! I'm down in the states probably 2-3 times a month, i took it on a recent trip to China and on our last cruise to the Southern Caribbean. You can add US and/or International easy roam to most Telus plans for free and then you're charged a flat fee each day to access your Canadian plan abroad. For me it's $5/day CAD for the USA and $10/day CAD for international. It might be a bit more expensive than some of the options out there but its attached to my current plan so its easy and gives me peace of mind since i don't have to keep track of anything!

I just wanted to book a cruise for $2.00!! I've already cancelled it! 

Lol!  That sounded like us.  Except when we got on board my parents pulled a disappearing act for most days.  Didn't respond to texts.  Claimed it was delayed timing! 

We're going as a family (my dad, myself and 2 brothers), i like the visit to the port idea, wouldn't work in our case since the departure port is Athens, and we live in Toronto  I do like the model ship idea, something to wrap and we'll be able to see the moment he gets what it is

We booked pretty far out - as far as Delta would allow us to book. We got great deals on First Class that way! My husband is an ex-football player with bad knees so the layflats work great. Our cruise leaves Rome in June and we booked in October for flights, I believe. 

@LetsTryThisTech Thats exactly what i found! Not sure if it was because we'd left it until now to look but Royal was like $600 pp more for basically the same itinerary as MSC or Princess. We're surprising my dad for his 60th, and my and my brothers couldn't justify the extra money for basically the same thing. Figured we'd go with the cheaper option and spend an extra day in Athens and Barcelona before and after the cruise!

Ya I would book it as soon as you can because I agree, it will go up and probably soon too.

@LetsTryThisTech yea i was pleasantly surprised! The only one cheaper was a mixed airline flight with like 2 stops each way, and thats not worth it for like $100 in savings! We'll probably end up booking the air canada flights and probably in the next few weeks before it goes up, at it inevitably will!