Traveler

Ports: Not like in the Caribbean and many of US ports the European ports mainly in Italy can be quite far from the main attractions, sometime even more than two hours , that’s require different preparations. Civitavecchia: This is the gate to Rome , its around 1 hour to 1.30 hours drive from Rome (depends on the traffic). There is a free shuttle that takes you from the ship to the main gate of the port but you can also walk (15 minutes) if you want. At the main gate you can easily walk to the city which has a nice cost line but nothing special, maybe it’s a good place to buy some good balsamic sauce . Most of the people would like to go to Rome , It can easily done by getting a shore excursion from RCL or use a 3rd party. You can also find an external vendors that will offer last minute transfer to Rome. If this is your first time I will recommend to take an excursion just make sure if you want to see the Vatican and mainly the Vatican Museum that the excursion includes it and also “skip the line option”. If you did not bought excursion and you still want to go to see the museum be careful from people offering skip the line tickets in the Vatican , I would not trust many of them. The main Area to visit while in Rome will be the Vatican and old Rome its around 15 – 20 minutes bus drive between them For the St. Peter's Basilica, you do not need to pay entrance fee but you will need to wait in a ling line , there are skip the lines tickets which get you also an audio guide. Another ticket will allow you to go all the way up to the Basilica roof for a nice view , mind if you take the stairs , its not that easy and not recommended for people who suffer from claustrophobic. The Vatican Museum requires tickets, again try to have the skip the line tickets and buy them ahead of time. The museum itself is build like a maze of corridors /room that contain with many work of arts, most of the rooms does not have air condition (last time I checked , maybe it changed) after walking quite a while you will get at the end to the Sistine Chapel. The other important site of Rome are in a walking distance from each other although you can take the HOHO bus to cover more sites. The Spanish stairs are near the Trevi fountain which is 15 minutes’ walk from the Pantheon which is another 15 minutes’ walk to the colosseum and the forum .During the summer time it might be very warm to walk so do your math.. For the colosseum its better to buy tickets online and secure the entrance time. Another way to get to Rome from the port is to take a short bus drive (or walk 20 minutes) to the train station and take the train to Rome (around 17 $ each direction) it will be much cheaper than any other option but just make sure to buy tickets online and to take the train that will bring you at least 2.5 hours before all on board (Italian train might have delays).

In such a long cruise with lots of port you must find a day or two to rest and maybe do only half day on some of the ports otherwise you will quickly be very tired and require another vacation post the this vacation . Done the med few times, enjoyed all the ports but still even if I had full day trip to Rome or other interesting port I still wanted to enjoy activities during the evening/night

I do agree the Diamond main benefits is the alcohol/diamond launch , there is also the free picture which is only diamond and above . The question is if Diamonds had better benefits few years ago and if the Diamond perks were harmed due to the key program ?

Well , maybe its not visible but from Diamond and up you get : Diamond lounge access and free drinks between 5 to 8:30 PM 3 Daily drink vouchers during the happy hour to be consume in any bar. bottle water/juices in the room at embarkation day. Discounts in internet packages and other discounts Many by one get one free (Wine , beer and more). But yes , they are not announce your name and status once you get on the ship

I guess its also the numbers playing here , it always looked funny for me that the lines of the gold check in are many times busier than the general lines.

And before the key was it the same ? (beside the key are now boarding before D+) ? I am asking since I found out that in the US and Europe , once they start boarding its going quite fast. I guess we can also complain that suits (even JS) are boarding before D+ , the question is did D+ lost any benefits since the key was presented ? or its just the feeling that someone that pays 20 $ per day get some of the benefits as D+ ?

In Italy I love the espresso stations (well any way that is how I call it) were people stands and drink the espresso as a way to continue the day .

Can you elaborate ? Is not there a queue for D+ in the check in ? they allow you on only after The keys people or with the key people ?

How could i forget about the gelato , this is a must , my favorite is the pistachio. Venice as good food but also allot of tourist traps , every week there is an article on tourist that order few dishes and got a huge bill. I guess the secrete is to get as far as you can from San Marco , there is few street with restaurants for locals , I will try to remember the names.

Correct , if you want something like pepperoni it will be salumi , but for me all a good pizza in Italy should have is fresh tomato sauce , good mozzarella cheese and fresh basil

Food : Wow this is a tuff one , first every person has his own taste and there are so many options. Each country (and sometime cites) got that something you must taste at least once, the problem like any tourist places you can fall into a tourist trap. Lately I started to use an application named “the fork” this is something very similar to Open table with two main difference : first , it’s much more popular in Europe , second , it offer you discounts at some restaurants from time to time (real one). The application is very easy to use , you can try and book a restaurant you want , or you can find a restaurant that has availability near you. I tried it two weeks ago in Paris for three nights , one was good , one was very good and one was perfect ,two of them were with discount (30%) the third one was without discount but the restaurant owner decided to give it anyway . Last week I tried the same in Milan and the restaurant I got was also very good. As always it will be a good advice to read some more information on the restaurants on other places. Street food – in general , street food in Europe is safe but just use your best judgment, don’t be the first one to east in a food stand (if it’s a crepe or hotdog), try to eat were many other eats so you know food was not left unconsumed for long hours , try to avoid delicate food if it is a very warm outside. Try to locate some food festivals were you will find many quality food stands which will allow you to test the local food. Barcelona – In Barcelona I guess there are few things you do not want to miss ? 1. Try the Paella – the famous rice dish which cocked with sea food or meat – this can be a very filling dish but be careful , there are many tourist traps that try to sell you Paella with not so quality ingredients, you can easily recognize them by the big pictures of Paella dish and very obvious English menu. So a restaurant which not published the Paella as the main dish it serve has a good chance to have a decent one. 2. Tapas - The small dishes that started as something to eat while standing drinking a post work drink in one of the local bars , it can be sea food , vegetable, Hamon (dry pork meet), cheese and olives , meat and many other , each place as its own version. Many tapas bar will have the daily dishes present on a board. My recommendation to order some tapas to share , not too many to start with , if you feel you want more , just go and order more later , they arrive very fast. I was eating tapas at Tapas 25 (which become very touristic but still has some good tapas and easy to understand the menu , also was eating in the tapas chain (Tapa Tapa) which are dissent. Last place I tried was in Boqueria market which has many small places that sell some small plates. Greece – Musakka , best to describe it will be maybe a Greek Lasagna . Greek salad – fresh vegetables with olive oil and feta cheese. Dolma – grape leave filled with rice or/with meet. Gyro – grilled chicken kabab Kalmata olives Tzatziki – Yogurt with cucumbers and garlic - perfect in a warm day as light appetizer. (anyway you should try the Greek Yogurt. Baklava – many kinds of sweet pastries done with layer of dough covered with sweet sugar water/honey and nuts/pistachio – very very sweet , do not try to eat too many ? , usually will come near the Greek coffee which is very strong, Tips – up to 10 % Italy – I am sure many other can give better recommendation than me for Italian food but you need to remember several things : 1. Pizza – usually will be with less cheese than you have on US pizza , most of the time with Mozzarella cheese. 2. Pasta – might be less cooked than you used to. 3. Coperto – this is cover charge that will be added to your meal in most of the restaurants , if this line was added you can avoid adding tip to the final bill (or just add few Euros) .

If you book early enough around 100$ PP for round trip.

That is a very good question , 6 hours round trip is quite allot for a day trip , I guess it can work if there are few special things you would like to see there , maybe, if you can still change your ticket you can travel to Barcelona or back from Barcelona with a stopover in Madrid ? if not I would check the train option.

Agree about the city pass , as you said almost every big city in Europe has some kind of city pass , most of them with an option to add travel card to it. City passes can be bought for 1 to 5 days , some have a minimum of 2 days. Is it worse it , well as always the answer is depends , first things you should ask yourself is what I would like to see around , create a list of the places, estimate the time you want to dedicate for each attraction and think how many of them you can do while still enjoy in one day. When you have this list , check how much each attraction cost and start to check the city pass option asking : 1. Is the pass contains most of the attractions you wanted to visit (for example , most of Rome passes dose may not contain the Vatican Museum) ? 2. IS the price of the pass cost less than the accumulate price of the attractions you wanted to see. 3. Is the pass contains a skip the line options ? 4. Do you like other attractions in the pass which you you will gladly do (and not just because its free anywhere) ? , remember the most expensive resource while you are on vacation is your time ... 5. Are you with kids ? will they enjoy most of the attractions/museums in the pass ? can they go to more than one attraction per day ? . After you answer this question you can do your choice, as you can see as @Matt always answer on the "is a drinking package worse it" - depends on you. For example , the city pass in Paris contains more than 60 attractions , most are museums , its a good card if you want to fill your check list saying been there and just visit the highlights of each museum, but are your really want to spend only 1 hour in the Louvre just to run across the river to see a picture or two in the Orsay museum and continue to run to get it on time to the Rodin museum ? We used passes at the past , most of the time we enjoyed them , mainly when we did not try to do all it offers and when we used the skip the lines option

As the European cruise session starts I thought to write some tips and information based on our past experiences. Before I start just short disclaimer , most of our European cruise were going out from Barcelona and Venice , still we haven’t cruise from the UK so it will be less focused on this area. First subject will be around transportation , after all for most of the readers here we need to take at least 8 hours flight over the pond to get there. The key of finding a good flight is to be flexible and search for nearby airports plus try to be flexible with the dates. For example , we have planned a cruise out of Venice , for some reason, this year flights to Venice were quite expensive so we looked for alternatives. After quick search we found flights to Milan are much cheaper , train from Milan to Venice (the Venice train station is in a walking distance from the cruise port) is only 2 hours and the cost around 30 $ PP. So we will enjoy some time in Milan , we will take an hotel near the train station (Airport train to the Milan Central 15 $) and save around 350 on air fare. Another example , two weeks ago we wanted to visit Paris during the long weekend we had , tickets to Paris were quite expensive (I guess we were not the only one who thought about it) but then we found tickets to another city in France (near the Atlantic) , Nantes, that were way more cheaper so we took the flight to Nantes , visit it for few hours and jump on a 1:45 hours train to Paris that cost us 18 $ each … Same can be done in many places in Europe which have a very good rail system (the TGV train in France goes faster than 200 Mph) and distance are not that bad. Train tickets can be booked online very easy , most of the sites are supports English, just be sure to take extra time for your travel as in some counties which I will not write their name , train time are a suggestion , mainly if the country known for their Pasta and Pizza . Another option will be to rent a car and use this time to visit some other place, while travel by car from Milan to Venice for example , you can visit Verona for a selfie ay Romeo & Juliet terrace. The key is to travel few days before , just think when is the next time you will visit Europe and there are so many nice things to see and do before or after the cruise. Even if your cruise port is far from the cheap flights/train option there is always a possibility to check some of the low cost flights inside Europe, a flight between London and Rome can sometime be low as 10 $ … Just keep in mind , low cost flight fare dose not include checked luggage which can cost between 25- 35 $ per suitcase if order online. Car rentals – Its easy to drive in most European countries as long as you are not trying to get into the city center. If you rent a car I would try to find an hotel outside the center near good public transportation option. Please note , most of the cars you will be offered in Europe are with manual transmissions , to get a car with automatic transmission you need to ask specifically and most of the times the automatic option will cost much higher . Another thing to take into consideration are the car size , cars are usually smaller than what you expect in the US, midsize car in Europe can be something you consider as a very small car, so check what you are ordering. Another aspect to remember in Europe is the car insurance , even if you book online and ask for all the insurance you might find out in the renting station that you are under covered for things like window protection and self-deductible that can be up to 2000 $ , you will be offer this extra insurance on site , check before what you are covered in your own insurance , including credit cards . If you refuse to the local insurance take some extra time while returning the car as its going to be inspected thoroughly. City transportation - Most of the big city in Europe has a very efficient public transportation system including subways , tramways and buses. Tickets mostly should be purchase ahead of time at the stations , some will allow you to pay in the buss but will require exact changes. Most of the cities will offer some kind of discount for buying 10 tickets at once (Paris , Barcelona and some places in Italy) , some will offer a daily or weekly tickets. Most of the tickets are good both for buses and subways, at some countries all you need to do is to wave your CC (as long as it has the chip) against the machine and you are done (if the conductor ask to see your ticket you give him the CC). Take into consideration that many buses dose not have air condition which can be a problem during July/August in Italy and Spain . You can save allot of money by taken hotels which are located near a subway while not located in the middle of the city. Many cities will also have one or two HOHO options , I also find it the best way to start a visit at a new city as it gives me a view of the important places to check , how far they are from each other and best time to visit. You can buy tickets online or at one of the stations. Uber – well a very sensitive question in Europe , many places had Uber and banned it (like Barcelona) other places have it but without Uber X just the expensive Uber black (Rome , Milan) do not be surprise if you will order Uber black in Milan and get a Jaguar or even a Ferrari. There are many other Taxi applications , most common is My Taxi which allow you to use CC or cache , you will get a regular Taxi and pay the Taxi rate (but many time you find coupons to be used which will reduce the cost. Please note , in Italy while using any application you will pay from the location the driver answered your call , so if you see the estimate time of the taxi arrival is more than 5 minutes , just cancel it , unless it is very late and not many cars around. There are other options , in Rome you can hail a scooter which will arrive to pick you with an extra helmet, not really useful for a family but another experience ?. Bicycles are also a good option to tour , many cities will have a share bicycles system , using apps or fixed docking stations that can be rent for a rather cheap fee. As always I found the best way to travel is by foot , you will see much more doing that and you will have less guilt for all the food you consumed ? not like in man city of the US (Once tried to walk 0.7 miles from the office I was visiting in NJ to a nearby mall , the sidewalk suddenly gone and I was ended up stopped by the police telling me I should not to that, now I know better , car for any distance more than 50 yard ? ) , it is very easy to travel by foot in Europe , sidewalks are everywhere and most places are safe. Next , food and difference in Mediterranean cruises.

During the winter Huston should be safer than Chicago , although there could be issue there also. There is one Advantage for Chicago , its American Arline hub (which I guess going to be your connection flight as BA and AA are on the same alliance , Oneworld) , which mean if something happens to your flight it will be much easier for them to book you on another flight. As people wrote here , try to see if a direct flight to Miami is cheaper a day before or a day after as it will be the safest option.

I think the main issue here is the price and the price structure, RCL Europe cruise cost almost twice than Caribbean cruise , 7 nights Rhapsody Of the Seas for a European cruise starts around 1000 $ PP while you can find 7 nights around 500-600 PP when she doing a Caribbean route. One can say its just a matter of higher cost of operation in Europe or just a matter of demands , but when the other cruise lines offer much better prices (beside NCL) issue starts. Another issue , is the market change , more families are traveling with children , here RCL have a huge cost disadvantage, while they do offer from time to time "children sell free" its not include July/August while in many other European based company the kids sell free is for all the cruises . That has dramatic price effect , for example , my brother which hears from me only good things about RCL and would love to try it but he has two kids , if he wants to travel during Jul/August while the kids are on vacation he will need to pay almost twice to do so on RCL ship than on MSC (on a ship the size of Voyager).Now he is going on his third cruise with the kids and they love it. Regarding the reduction in Europe , you can see it also on Barcelona sails , I am monitoring my 9-Jul Sail , and you can still find many cabins beside maybe insides , including star class suite.

In the day time it looks better , I hope they will re build it soon

In all my Med Ang greeck cruise I took a sport jacket with me, few dress shirts/pants and a tie just in case (although I did not used it) , my spouse took several dress Never felt I was under or over dressed. I think there was a mix like in any other cruise. If you are flying, save some space for things you want to take back with you ( gifts , souvenirs, wine , food etc)

Although most of my fights to the US are landing in EWR (flying United) I used JFK from time to time. I prefer EWR any time due to traffic/proximity (most of the time I had meetings in Middletown ) and car renting location. It seems you need one way ticket which cost more in most of the companies (beside the low cost and very few others). I would also check to fly from London as the United flights from London can be much cheaper to EWR , you can take a cheap low cost flight to London go directly home (but I guess you will need to change airport) or even stay a day or two in London, Yes I know its adding to the distance but maybe it will be cheaper. If there is one thing which I do not like in EWR its the migration when you come from Europe , seem that all the flights from Europe landing on the same time (between 3:30 and 5 PM) and all I landing in terminal B and not C , the migration/custom can take long time even for US citizens (unless you can use the automatic machines).

Here is how it looks now , sad but maybe in the day time it will be better and one that still stands

The only two way I am aware of to get more cruise will be to travel in a suite which will give you dubble points or travel as a solo cruiser which give you also dubble points (triple if you travel solo in a suite)

Thank you for sharing your experience it was very enjoyable to follow , have a safe trip home.

You should always compare the same method , the 500 $ is per person after the BOGO considering you are booking at leas two people (they calculate already the discount in the price they show you) minus Taxes and fees . So in your case I guess its (500*2) + 215 taxes and fees (which really depends on the ports , some ports will take more taxes than other) , so looking on 500 price is Ok to check for changes. If you have more than two people in the room and if you adding children under 12 you might want to compare the final number as sometimes you have discounts for third and fourth person in the room (most of the times 30%) and kids sells free.

I guess doing mockup booking everyday for my cruise is not something that can put me in the crazy list at this site ?