FionaMG

We have stayed twice at the Best Western Plus Oceanside Inn on Seabreeze Boulevard. The location is great and there's a decent included breakfast. They don't do a shuttle to the port but we just used a taxi the first time and uber (or maybe it was lyft) the second time. https://www.bestwestern.com/en_US/book/hotels-in-fort-lauderdale/best-western-plus-oceanside-inn/propertyCode.10212.html

What gorgeous photos! Thanks for sharing. I love Cinque Terre. We've done it by train two or three times now. I would love to do one of the hikes but my usual travelling companions are not into that sort of thing. I will need to go back one day with someone who is.

@TotalFascnation Yes, this ^^ is crucial! Never, ever pay any attention to the % off. It essentially means nothing. Look only at the bottom line.

I absolutely agree with @HeWhoWaits. I've seen a few reports of people putting things in their cart during a sale and then when they actually go to finalise them after the sale has ended the price has gone up. In fact, prices can go up even during a sale. I have seen this happen with several excursions in my cruise planners in recent months. I guess they probably have a set number of places at $xx and when those are sold it defaults to the next price up.

Back in the day when my DH was a cabin steward this was common practice on turn-around days. The stewards would actually pay other members of staff to assist them with the extra workload. It was an opportunity for some to make extra cash and alleviated what was a hugely busy day for the stewards themselves.

Haha, yes, that too! Didn't matter what flavour.

Growing up in Glasgow, Scotland, the word we used for pop/soda was "ginger". Don't ask me why!

Good one!

My pleasure. Glad to have been of assistance.

The food quality in the MDR has definitely gone down over the years. However, I am not so sure that it's because of the speciality restaurants rather than that they are part of the overall bigger picture. To start, the ships have been getting bigger to attract a different clientèle than used to be the case. Catering for such a large number of passengers all at once, many of whom are unfamiliar with the fine dining philosophy that was part of the cruise experience in the past, is bound to have an impact. It's much easier to produce better quality food in the smaller setting of the speciality restaurants. Also, in terms of cost, cruise prices have not really gone up much over the years. In the distant past, when my DH was a crew member, cruising was very expensive and only accessible to the wealthy. Nowadays, pretty much anyone can afford to cruise and that means something has to give. Food is an easy place to make the necessary savings. When we first started cruising back in 2001, the MDR was a pretty lush affair. The dinner would offer five courses and the quality was definitely better than it is today. There are probably other aspects that also come into play but either way, I can't say I've ever had a really bad meal in the MDR of any of the ships we've sailed on; some have been great, some have been adequate and some have been meh, but if I've ever really not liked something I've ordered I'll just ask for something else. We have only ever had a couple of meals in speciality restaurants because we think the upcharge is more than we want to pay and we've never gone hungry. But I do see why someone expecting a more upclass experience could be disappointed.

Hi Fred, Fira is the town on the cliff top where the cable car station is located. I suspect, but can't be 100% sure, that if you are on an excursion the tender will take you to the bus park rather than to the cable car station at the foot of the cliff (that's what our excursion to Oia did). The bus would then drive you to Fira and from there you'd be on your own. The bus will then have finished its job and you will have to make your own way back to ship via the cable car. The place where the return tenders leave from, right at the bottom of the cable car, is not the same place the buses leave from at the start of the excursion. There is no option to take a bus back down; everyone has to either use the cable car, ride a donkey or walk down the steps. With an "on your own" excursion, I believe that the ticket for the cable car is included in the cost of the excursion and you will be given a voucher to hand over at the ticket office when you are ready to back down. If it is not included, you will have to buy a ticket at the ticket office, cost €6 per person. With that said, and especially since you want to go to Oia, you're almost certainly going to be paying way over the odds for an "excursion" that doesn't even meet your needs. The only real benefit is that you get to go on an early tender without having to queue for tickets on board the ship. You may want to consider cancelling the excursion because if you are even the tiniest bit adventurous and given how long your ship is in port, you can totally do Fira and Oia by yourself for a lot less money and at your own pace. You will be given details on how, when and where to get non-excursion tender tickets on board. Those tenders go straight to the bottom of the cable car. Here's what someone from my CC roll call on my recent Odyssey cruise did in Santorini: "* 7:15 am down to the No.1 tender. I heard 75 onboard...took about 10 minutes to reach the Old Port. * Took 8 minutes up the cable car to Fira. 6 Euros/person one-way. You'll have to buy tickets again going down. * Option to walk up or ride the donkey (sorry, I didn't get the price for the donkey ride.) Walkers will go up approximately 500 big steps, winding up the hill and navigate around donkey dung. * We walked straight to the bus station. A leisurely 10 minute walk; follow the yellow line on the sidewalk...or ask. * We took the 8:30 am bus to Oia (eeh-yah)...sight of the world famous and highly photographed "Blue Domes". 1.60 Euros/person one-way. People huddled around waiting...then a very courteous gentleman started announcing "bus to Oia!"...a line formed and the bus soon arrived. Note: The man turned out to be the conductor. He firmly stopped those trying to cut the line. The bus was full with a few allowed to stand. The conductor collected the money and loudly announced each stop. (Best to have small bills or the exact change) * I believe there were 5 stops, but the bus driver only stopped twice...most of the passengers were going to Oia. * Fira to Oia was less than 30 minutes...but the spectacular scenery along the way will want you wishing the ride was longer. * Oia...simply breathtaking. A short 5 minute walk will take you the Blue Domes...(yup, I took the time and kissed my beautiful wife.) * We shared that iconic spot with a few others...all of us mesmerized...then the crowds came. * We took the 10am bus (left at 10:15) back to Fira. This time the bus had plenty of seats...and no stops. Took only about 20 minutes to get back to Fira. * Walked around Fira and took in more wonderful views...be careful, lots of steps. Personally, the views were magnified and enhanced by the incredible aroma coming from all the restaurants. * Back down the cable car...on to the tender...and back on the Odyssey...1pm." Santorini is absolutely beautiful and Oia is well worth the visit. You can see some pics I posted of it in my recap blog from my cruise here: Hope this helps and you have an amazing time on your cruise.

It's always been non-refundable deposits on this side of the pond, at least in both the UK and Portugal, which are the two countries I have experience with. That's why we tend only to book trips that we genuinely intend to go on and also why we pretty much always buy travel insurance that will generally cover us and get us our deposit back if we do have to cancel.

Sounds like a great adventure! Have fun!

Hi Laurie, welcome to the boards. Usually there is only one area of the main dining room that is open for breakfast. You can see which one in the daily Cruise Compass and in the app. It's open seating, so anyone can go there. It doesn't matter whether you have my time dining or traditional dining. The same applies to lunch, although normally the main dining room only opens for lunch on sea days.

Odyssey was berthed right next to the terminal so the taxi dropped us at the door, we went into the building to deal with the check-in formalities, and then up the stairs and straight onto the ship. No other form of transport was needed.

Thanks for sharing. I'm glad you had a good time. Those people at security drive me nuts too. Well done that pilot!

It dropped us right beside the ship at the entrance to the terminal. That's something to check for in the descriptions on the different companies' websites. Most of them say something to the effect that they are licensed to take you right to the ship. That is definitely preferable. Only one of the ones that I looked at had wording that suggested they dropped you at the port gate, necessitating the use of the shuttle bus.

Our very first cruise was on Splendour, back in November 2001, a repo from Barcelona to Lisbon. We almost didn’t make it, as DH got food poisoning just a few days before we were due to leave. The doctor said he would be fit to travel 2 days after the sailing date so we contacted Royal and asked if we could join in Malaga, then arranged with a friend to drive us there and take the car back. We haven't looked back since.

Try the Premier Inn West Quay. https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hotels/england/hampshire/southampton/southampton-city-centre-west-quay.html Premier Inn is a decent UK "budget" chain and this particular hotel is next to a mall and is close to the cruise port. We are booked there pre-cruise in September. My niece has stayed there, also pre-cruise, and said it was fine.

Exactly this. The thought of that darned q-tip obliterates all the pre-cruise excitement and anticipation.

We usually always leave a personal item such as a hat or a cover-up on the chair just to signal that the table is occupied. Either that or we go separately to get whatever we want, with one of us staying at the table until the other returns. On our recent Odyssey cruise, we saw a couple return to "their" table, where they had left partially eaten food and which they had left to go and get something else, only to find that not only had the staff removed their "remains" but that somebody else had claimed the table in the meantime. I can tell you the staff were so apologetic and couldn't do enough for them, got them resettled, brought them fresh drinks and did everything they could to make up for their mistake. But, really, how were they to know? Fortunately the people in question were understanding too and didn't make a big thing out of it after the initial shock.

And so it was finally "get off our ship day". Here's how it went: Disembarkation: The allocation of tags could have been improved. In the past, you would receive a form in your stateroom so you could say what time you needed to be off the ship. Not so on this cruise; the only assigned tags were for those who were taking Royal's transfers. Everyone else was assigned randomly (according to Guest Services), which is just plain stupid. This meant there were lots of guests in line to get their tags changed, us included. However, once we finally reached the desk there were no issues getting new ones and our tags were actually called a bit ahead of the estimated time. We dragged our feet a little, bearing in mind that we had transport booked at 9 and had 8.30 tags. It probably took us all of about 10 minutes to ding out for the last time and walk through the terminal to the car park, where there were lots of drivers holding up name signs. Since we were early, ours was not there but we did finally spot him at about 8.50. Homeward bound: Our flight home was not until 5.30 pm and I had originally planned on getting a transfer straight to the airport, where we would store our bags and then go and visit the nearby Etruscan ruins of Ostia Antica. Except it hadn't clicked that our cruise ended on a Monday and the Etruscan ruins are all closed on Mondays. DH has no idea how lucky he was to avoid another dose of ruins! Consequently, I arranged with our pre-cruise hotel to return there and store our bags for a few hours before heading to the airport so that we could have another little wander around Rome. With this is mind I booked a shared shuttle, again with Civitavecchia Shuttle Express, back to the hotel. As I mentioned above the driver met us as scheduled, but we were the last of four drop-offs so it took us two hours to get there, by which time I was second guessing myself and almost wishing we'd just headed straight to the airport. In the end, though I was glad we didn't. We had a pleasant wander around - much better than sitting around the airport for 6 hours - and went for lunch in the nearby Monti area of Rome, where the guide on our first walking tour had told us we would get sensible prices and decent quality. And he was right. Last lunch in Rome: I had again booked our return taxi to the airport with Fiumicino Taxis. The driver arrived about 10 minutes early, which worked fine for us as we had already arrived back at the hotel a few minutes beforehand, and the trip to the airport took just under 30 minutes. I was surprised at how "un-chaotic" the airport was (except for our airline's check-in desk but we're used to this with TAP; the Air France desks opposite seemed much more orderly). The security line was long and zig-zagging but fast-moving, as there were lots of stations open. This was in Terminal 1 and we were flying within the Schengen area, so I don't know how typical a situation this is or if it might be different in other parts of the airport. Someone from the CC roll call posted that a lot of American cruisers had missed their flights home because they had to be tested at the airport for their same-day flights and the line was long and very slow-moving, with a waiting time of around four hours! So while that testing requirement is still in place for those of you flying back to the US, it would be well worth considering a next-day flight that gives you the chance to get tested before heading to the airport for your flight. Another member of our roll call opted to stay overnight at the Rome Airport Hilton, where they were able to test, allowing them to get their results (happily negative) without the ordeal of potentially missing their flight home. Final remarks: The ship: This was our first time sailing a Quantum class ship and, while I liked the ship, I would be bound to say it is definitely not my favourite class. I missed the open spaces like Central Park and the Boardwalk on Oasis class, as well as the wider promenades on Oasis and Voyager class. I felt that the Via (I think that's what it was called) was rather a waste of space as there wasn't really anything on it, and the Esplanade was too narrow. I didn't like the way the Diamond lounge was so hidden away that we had to go hunting for it (the reason we only went there once). And I didn't like the lack of an internet cafe and a physical payment terminal at Guest Services, both of which caused us inconvenience. As a space, I thought Two70 was lovely, but it didn't do it for me as an entertainment venue because of the layout of the seating. The gym was fantastic but had a couple of what, to me, were design flaws: not enough open floor space for peeps wanting to do floor work outs; and no bathrooms! There was only a single bathroom on the landing outside, for everyone's use - men, women, families and disabled people. That's just not good enough. Folks doing a serious workout can be in the gym for an hour or two and they will be drinking fluids constantly to keep hydrated. Proper bathroom facilities are a must. Entertainment: All in all, I thought the entertainment was good. For once, we managed to see all the shows because there were performances scheduled for later times after dinner (9.30 or 10.30). We rarely make it to pre-dinner shows because they clash with my gym time and DH's hot tub time. I liked the special effects in the Effectors even though the story line was weak and I enjoyed the headliners and the production shows. I wasn't impressed by The Book. I thought it started way too slowly (and DH agreed by falling asleep within the first five minutes) and, while I enjoyed the aerial acrobatics, I thought the bazaar scene was messy. The food: Always subjective, I thought that the food in the MDR was good. We ate there for dinner every night except the night which had the Duck Terrine appetizer on the menu, as we don't like that particular menu. We would have done Teppanyaki that night instead but did not want to book before the cruise, when we could have got it for $38 each, because we didn't know which night that particular menu would show up; and we didn't want to book on board once we did know because the onboard price was an unjustifiably expensive $54. In retrospect, it was probably a mistake not to book it beforehand; I could have attempted to change it on board, if necessary and, in a worst case scenario, I would have been able to cancel and get the money back. I will bear that in mind for future cruises where there is a Teppanyaki option. Breakfasts and most lunches were in the Windjammer. I thought the food was just OK there and very lacking in variety, especially at lunchtime. We ate dinner there on the "duck terrine" night, when supposedly the WJ had an Italian theme, and I was very disappointed at the lack of choices. I have seen much much better on other ships. But hopefully, this situation is temporary and will gradually improve as the ships get back to their pre-covid standards. The Staff: In a word: fantastic. They went out of their way to provide excellent service and make sure we had a good time. And we did. I can't praise their efforts, in still very difficult circumstances, highly enough. They were still having to wear masks and many of them were actually double-masking. And during our cruise, they were only just beginning to be allowed some very limited shore leave. I really hope that will continue and improve going forward as they certainly deserve it. To sum up: Overall, this was a great trip. The itinerary was fabulous and I would happily do it again. Thanks to everyone who's been reading my rambles. It's been a huge pleasure to relive our experience onboard Odyssey and I will undoubtedly revisit the thread just to remind myself what a good time we had! Doing a blog like this is a great way to look back on your cruise so if you've never done one I would definitely recommend giving it a try. Plus, you'll be providing useful information for other blog users. Our next cruise is going to be on Anthem, out of Southampton, to the Canary Isles in late September. Hopefully I will be able to do another blog then. Wishing you all happy cruising in the meantime.

Some posters over on cc from New York and Ohio also reporting within the last hour that they're still not able to get in.

It's possible that the points have actually updated but are just not showing on the front page of your account (this happened to my SIL). There is a way to manually force updated points to show. 1. Log into your account 2. Click on your initials at top right and then on "profile" 3. With your profile open, click on my loyalty, which opens up a page showing your loyalty numbers for the different brands 4. Delete your C+A number and re-enter it and save. If the points have been updated in Royal's system, this should make them appear on the front page of your account.

To be fair, we never got round to meeting the D concierge, so it's entirely possible she could have done it for us, but the one time we went to the lounge I definitely didn't see a printer in there and I was looking precisely with that purpose in mind.