FionaMG

Have an amazing time!

Woohoo!!!! Yes, yes, yes, totally get it! Have an amazing time!

You're probably best to book something in advance. Some companies offer shared rides at very reasonable prices. We used Civitavecchia Shuttle Express and were very happy with the service. The driver met us outside the terminal. You can check their prices and book online: https://www.civitavecchiashuttleexpress.com/booking-1.html

This is the departure information from my Odyssey cruise back in May. Of course, there's no guarantee yours will be the same but at least it will give you an idea.

Catch up when you can. We'll happily follow along on a recap, if it comes down to it. The most important thing is that you have as much fun as you can. It's your vacation, after all.

Yup. It really doesn't make much sense. Seems more like a CYA policy than anything genuinely useful.

I need 12 but I sail in under 5 weeks. Gotta think it's not happening for me but I'll take the unsupervised self-test 3 days out happily in comparison to having to test at the airport before checking in for our flight.

I feel your pain. Pretty much the same protocols on this side of the pond. I have family members sailing 28 August to 4 September and our own cruise on 23 September is a 12-nighter. Shall we have a virtual cry on each other's shoulder...

It looks like it might because you don't have to buy the tests from them; you can use your own. I'm just not sure to what extent they would be able to validate a test purchased in Europe rather than the US. However, I did have a look at a UK-based proctor site and it looks like that could potentially work, since they actually specify the list of accepted UK and EU tests. So, it was definitely worth your sharing because you may well have pointed me in the right direction.

For those of us in Europe, it's becoming a problem. We don't have access to e-med or other proctored testing and we're seeing the number of testing sites dwindling away to nothing. One of the main labs in my region had sites all across the region until fairly recently. Currently they have only three. It's an additional layer of concern when you not only have to test but don't know if you're even going to be able to find somewhere to do so. Since Royal put the onus on the guest to arrange for testing, it would be helpful for there to be some sort of testing available at embarkation ports for anyone unable to source a test for themselves.

@berkeleykel, can I just throw out a suggestion to you for your Cinque Terre explorations? We've done it twice and it's amazing. First off, I can confirm that the walk to the train station is around the 20-30 minute mark. There's a bit of an uphill stretch on the way there but it's not too bad and, of course, it's downhill on the way back when you're tired. We were totally unable to find any taxis to take us there from the port. We really loved Riomaggiore. Note that the main street is quite a steep hill and you might have to bribe the kids with an ice cream! I'm not sure if you'll be able to see the video (fingers crossed). If you can't, at least the pic (sorry not the best) will give you an idea. 20160928_121027.mp4 Something you might like to consider is taking a couple of beach towels and wearing your swimwear and going all the way to last village, Monterosso. It's really not that much farther on and it has a great beach with beach restaurants where you can enjoy a bite to eat and let the kids run around. Another benefit is that, because it's the first village on the way back, when you get on the train to head back the chances are you'll be able to get seats. The whole journey only takes half an hour but by the time the train gets to the second village on the return journey pretty much anyone who boards from there onwards has to stand. These two pics are Monterosso. We didn't make it that far the first time we went and the second time we wished we'd known to bring our beach stuff! Hope this is useful.

I have not done this in NY but I have done the same sort of thing in Miami. If the "formula" is the same you can expect to see some highlights pointed out from the bus and one or two stops where you get some limited time to wander around. Royal are very risk averse so they will get you to the airport in plenty of time for flights departing at whatever time they state in the excursion description, e.g. "for international flights departing after 5 pm". That means you could potentially be at the airport 3 or 4 hours before you need to be. The cost of that excursion for 4 people is not going to be cheap. You may well be better off getting a day room somewhere not too far from the airport and using lyft or uber or a car service to get there. I have read suggestions from others that the TWA hotel at JFK is a great place to spend the day before an evening flight but I have no idea what sort of price you'd be looking at.

I'm more than happy with the loyalty perks that I've already earned and look forward to some additional ones when I get to the next level. The only thing I've done to be entitled to those perks is cruise at a price that's within my budget, which I would have done anyway, so essentially they're free. And not only that, they have reduced my onboard spend to virtually nil (yes, I am one of those cruisers who probably costs the cruise line money to have on board). Suite guests pay big money for their cruises, far more than I do for my obstructed balcony or promenade interior view cabin, so why shouldn't they get extra perks that I don't get?

It's unlikely on a TA that the majority of passengers would be from Italy or Spain, although there may be decent-sized contingents from those countries. Note too that Spanish language excursions are not aimed exclusively at Spanish citizens but also at the many passengers from Latin American countries. As a related aside, anyone who has sufficient knowledge of secondary excursion language could actually benefit from booking them rather than the corresponding English language tour. On our recent Odyssey cruise, we booked two Spanish language tours that were essentially identical to the English ones but were considerably cheaper.

Not quite the same thing, but similar. On our last cruise I accidentally booked the wrong internet package and didn't want to cancel for refund to my card because I would have lost out on the exchange rate and foreign currency fee. So I booked the correct package in addition to the wrong one and went to the Voom person when we boarded. He was able to cancel the one I didn't want and it immediately posted as OBC. I imagine the same will apply for your meal reservations. That said, as I understand it, this OBC is refundable if you are unable to use it all on board, in which case any that is left over should then be refunded to the original form of payment.

Can you find a friend/relative to go with you? Think "Girls' Cruise"... At least then, you wouldn't have to worry about leaving the kids because Hubs would be there to look after them...

I see your point. I was forgetting that a cruise that length has the higher deposit. It's a tough call.

Can't you book it with a refundable deposit?

Is it too early to start the live blog?

Yeah... not happening. But you knew that even before you posted.

I suspect this is the wrong board to be asking peeps to talk you out of it...

I think your itinerary is the same as the 6 June one and ours departing right after yours, so it seems a bit odd that there have been no changes to yours. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Great start! Well done for convincing DH. I'm sure you'll have an amazing time. We have done this itinerary several times, most recently on Harmony at the end of September 2021, having lifted and shifted from Allure in 2020.

I admit, that was at the back of my mind despite what the email said about engine maintenance.

We are on the same cruise but were informed of these changes on 30 June. It's odd you're only finding out now. I believe it's an ongoing issue since, from what I can gather, the identical sailing on 6 June also had these changes to the itinerary. My e-mail said it was because of routine engine maintenance.