FionaMG

Hi @RevRyan and welcome to the boards! We will be getting off Anthem as you get on. We were actually planning on doing this TA back in 2021 but of course it got "covidated" and we couldn't make the timing work for us this year. Anyway, on to your question. I have not done this excursion myself but I can tell you that just by looking at the logistics it's likely to be a huge waste of money. To start, it's about a 2-hour drive from Le Havre to Paris, plus at least an hour for your lunch stop and time wasted waiting for the inevitable stragglers at any stops you make. That said, I agree that it's a good idea to use a ship-sponsored excursion when you're that far away from the port. If you really want to visit Paris while you're there, see if there is a "Paris on your own" excursion showing in your cruise planner. These "on your own" excursions are typically the cheapest option as they effectively are just a transfer from the port to the city centre. There will usually be a guide on the bus, who may (or may not) point out a few landmarks during the ride. Once you get to the drop-off point in the city, the guide will tell you what time to meet the bus for the ride back to the ship. And then you are literally on your own, hence the name. You're free to see and do what you want to do, without having to wait around for 50 other people. Just be sure to keep an eye on your watch and leave yourself enough time to get back to the meeting place for the bus back to the ship. If you miss it and have to get a taxi, you'll need a bank loan to pay for it! If there isn't an on your own tour, see if there's another cheaper excursion that will get you to Paris, maybe without an included lunch. While you can't avoid the time lost on the drive there and back, you really don't want to be wasting a further hour of your limited and precious time on a lunch you don't need. Instead, grab a freshly-baked crispy roll from one of the many bakeries with windows open to the street and eat it as you go or while you rest your feet for a few minutes on a park bench. I hope this helps and you have an amazing trip!

@Katiemay Take a look at the thread linked below in which I've been sharing my research for our Norway cruise in July. The links I've posted in the thread will hopefully give you a starting point to find something suitable for your family. I haven't done Haugesund yet, if that's one of your ports too, (work keeps getting in the way) so that one is still to come. If you follow that thread you should get a notification when I get it done. Hope it helps.

Perfect. Thanks very much. Really appreciate your insight.

@KevinK do you live in the NJ/NY area? If you do, or if you're pretty familiar with the area, maybe you can give me a bit of advice. I was wondering how long roughly to allow for a transfer (likely using a car service) from our pre-cruise hotel in downtown Manhattan/Chinatown (Henry Street) to the port? I looked on Google maps and it suggests between 30 and 40 minutes. Does that sound about right to you? I don't want to snag a decent check-in time and then miss it by not allowing enough time to get there. Thanks a lot.

For a balcony cabin it should be $100 (6-9 nights).

Thanks. Fingers crossed. We saw it on our Canary Islands cruise back in September and it was early on then too, first or second night. It was one of the very few shows DH enthused about and didn't fall asleep during. It was a tall, slim guy doing it then and he was excellent. I actually saw him in the gym a couple of times when I was working out.

Booked it for day 8. I'd been hoping it would be on earlier in the cruise, so will keep watching in case there's a chance to change. Do you remember if it was available earlier when you were on in February? The extended (pay) sessions of North Star and I-fly have also opened up for booking in the activities section of the planner.

Could be either depending on what ship you're on and what other ships are calling there that day apart from yours. And if yours doesn't dock at the new port you'll have tenders to take into consideration too. Can't you contact the provider by email and ask them about this before you book?

I'm enjoying following along. Thanks for sharing. I prefer the MDR for breakfast too, for the same reasons. Unfortunately DH prefers tge WJ so there always has to be a bit of negotiating.

Check out the Hotel Lancelot. They have some family rooms. It's a 5-minute walk to the Colosseum and abiut 15-20 from the centre. We stayed there pre-cruise last year and found them to be very helpful. Book direct for best rates. They will definitely hold your luggage until your room is ready but pretty much any hotel will do that. Their website has tons of useful information. https://www.lancelothotel.com/

Just opened up for me too this afternoon. Only Spectra's Cabaret, as expected.

We didn't get a chance to try in the check-in area. Everything went so quickly that we were on board within 15 minutes of getting out of the cab. Never stopped moving. Our sailing was from Southampton, though; I don't have any experience of Cape Liberty.

Sorry, I didn’t notice as we didn't do either.

They did in the past. I don't know why they stopped but I would guess it was down to how much money they were or weren't making sailing those routes. Valparaiso is a departure port for one of the segments of Serenade's World cruise. That's why you can see it but nothing comes up when you select it. There's a separate website for that cruise but I don't know if you can book it online.

That's correct. Everything else was walk-in, first come, first served. You should have seen the queue for the first performance of WWRY. People started lining up an hour before it was due to start and 15 minutes later it was all the way past the Schooner bar almost to izumi!

Just to follow up on my earlier post... Nope, 1st of March has come and gone and nothing has opened up for my Anthem sailing next month. To be fair though, I'm not sure how much of the entertainment on Anthem needs to be booked. When we were on the ship back in September only Spectra's Cabaret required booking; everything else was first come first served on board.

You have to be wary of words like "driving" and "panoramic" in tour descriptions. Basically you'll be spending a lot of your time looking at stuff through the bus windows. Fine if you have mobility issues but not so great if you don't and what you actually want to do is get out and explore. You really, really, really don't need a tour in Mykonos. The whole fun of the place is wandering around in those delightful (and incredibly clean) little streets at your whim. You'll probably get lost but that's part of the fun. We did and ended up accidentally finding the windmills that are apparently one of the highlights of the island and which we didn't know about beforehand. I'd say cancel the tour and use the money for something more worthwhile. You can read about how we spent our time in Mykonos in my recap blog from our Greek Isles cruise last May here:

Yes. I booked it for my party of 3 a couple of sales ago and got it for $43.99. I booked the 10.30 departure so we don't have to be up too early. I'm hoping that by booking through the ship, we will get picked up at the port, rather than having to make our own way to Bayfront, which I think is the starting point for the route. However, as usual, Royal's description is as clear as mud, so it's something of a shot in the dark. We're also doing the jeeps in Nassau and the Space Center in Port Canaveral.

Oh wow, what an upheaval that must have been! I hope everything's fixed now? That's a great itinerary. The overnight in Bermuda is a real bonus. I have real hopes of getting there one day. In fact, it sounds like a fabulous trip overall and is the sort of thing we would like to do ourselves after we retire. We've got our NYC plan pretty much mapped out: the usual touristy stuff like the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building. And, of course, we will visit the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in order to pay our respects. We have no ideas as to dining, so will gratefully accept any suggestions you have. We're not foodies at all. Our favourite would be Mom+Pop Italian. We're staying in the downtown area of Manhattan pre-cruise and up by Times Square post-cruise. 54 days and counting...

Wow, that took ages! Good that you're all sorted now.

Plus, the only other ships still to be deployed are Ovation and Quantum and I'd reckon it's a fairly safe bet they'll be heading your way. I read that Anthem is due for dry dock in 2025, so I could see her perhaps heading to Singapore for that and just staying there. I'd like to see her do the 2024-2025 winter season here in Europe first though. That would be a pretty cool repo if they did it as a revenue sailing...

Anthem?

I personally wouldn't really consider cruising in the Med between November and March. However, the Canary Islands and Madeira, both of which are farther south, off the coast of Africa, are popular winter sun holiday spots with folks from all over Europe. Cruises in that area over the winter months could work very well.

That pizza looks amazingly yummy!

The Lagos area is lovely. The operators will be operating but with an extremely reduced schedule. You might book something and then they don't get the minimum number of people needed to run it and it could be cancelled. If budget allows, you could consider private excursions, as they would run to your schedule. There is a concept here called "Taxi T". These are tourism taxis and the drivers, who all speak English, have to take a special course to be able to operate under this banner. They know the region inside out and are very experienced in working with tourists. I have no idea what sort of price you'd be looking at but you can contact the local company "Algarve T" through their Facebook page if it's something you think might interest you. https://www.facebook.com/AlgarveT/?locale=pt_PT