FionaMG

In theory, it's probably doable. You'd need to be at the airport absolutely no later than 9 am if you're flying internationally (apparently Rome Airport is not the most organised) and it takes around an hour from the port (if the traffic cooperates). That sounds like a rather stressful end to your cruise. Can you stay an extra day and is there another flight the next day at a similar cost to the one you're looking at? If so, it would cost a lot less than the $2,000 you mention for the four of you to stay overnight in Rome and would be a much more relaxing end to your trip. Plus, what's not to like about having an extra day in Rome?

@MomOf6, you've accidentally posted the same itinerary twice. You'll need to repost with the correct Greek Isles itinerary so we can help.

Well done! Hope your alternative cruise is a huge success.

Welcome to the boards. We have a dedicated section on here for live (and not-so-live) blogs and we just love to see pics, so do feel free to share.

Hope you have an amazing time and will be hooked forever!

Fabulous itinerary. I'm sure you're going to love it.

Ok, so who's going where? Tell all...

I like Melody and Aria too.

But don't you get free cruises from the casino?...

I think the strawberry bisque still puts in an appearance fairly regularly but I can't remember seeing any of the others since they switched to "new" style single page menus several years ago. The last cruise when I saw them was on Serenade in 2017 and I remember them because one of our tablemates was a huge fan and always ordered them.

I do actually completely agree with you. Pier testing in Europe was required by the various European governments who are largely running around in all directions like scalded cats instead of getting their act together and living up to the name European Union. The problem is, we here on this board are the converted. For as long as the general and unsuspecting public pays attention to the media hysteria, keeping onboard cases as low as possible would surely help. We just had an incident here in Lisbon with the Aida Nova and while I, as a cruise aficionado, took away from it that the protocols had worked and that everything was actually very well organised (the actual words of a passenger interviewed on the dockside), all most viewers would have heard were the words "Dozens of people aboard giant cruise ship held due to covid outbreak", (newsreader's stress).

I personally think the cruise lines should be testing everyone at the port before allowing them to board, like they did in Europe in the summer, rather than just unvaxxed kids. That 2-3 day window which currently exists between testing and boarding is, in my opinion, an open invitation for the virus to go cruising and port testing could help prevent this. Yes, it would be a bit of a logistical nightmare to organise as passenger loads increase but surely it's got to be better than dealing with outbreaks on board and all of the ensuing negative media hysteria and passenger disappointment and anger.

We're staying in Europe this year to give covid time to settle down a bit more. Our Odyssey cruise is to the Greek Isles out of Rome in May and Anthem is out of Southampton to the Canaries in September. We had actually intended sailing on Anthem out of NJ last year and spending some time in the Big Apple beforehand so hopefully we will be able to do that one next year.

Happy New Year! Wishing everyone good health, much happiness and - of course - lots of cruises!

Full disclosure, I have never sailed Star Class and am never likely to unless I win the lottery. However, I do remember seeing a copy of the genie's form that someone posted either here on RCB or over on CC and it just seems to me to be such hard work. I would not have known what to answer for a lot of those questions either and would probably have given up on it without completing all of them. It's a big enough hassle having to pre-book shows and the like but this just seems way over the top to me. That said, I'm sure plenty of others love it and of course that's perfectly fine. I will be following along with interest as I have my first two Quantum class sailings booked for later this year (Yay! I can now say this year instead of next year! ), one on Odyssey and one on Anthem. Thanks for sharing and have a wonderful cruise.

West end of Glasgow. Fluent in several languages but Aberdonian is not one of them! Had to cheat and look it up! Answer: At een on at een, an at een on at een!

Frugal, Ray, frugal... (ex-pat Scot myself) But, yes, I agree. We are the same. On our most recent cruise - Harmony out of Barcelona in September - our onboard spend (apart from gratuities) was zero. We didn't do speciality dining, the only drinks/photos we "purchased" were our diamond drinks and one free pic each, and DH is exactly like you are, limiting himself to $20 a night max in the casino. We would have bought a couple of excursions but Royal got greedy and hiked the price because of having a captive audience (3 Italian ports requiring bubble excursions) so we just stayed on board and consumed the consumables that were included in our very cheap base price. Why pay over $200 per person for a day trip to Capri when you can get a 3-night trip to Italy for the same price?

Thanks for this and for sharing your cruise experience @Neesa. I started reading because I will be on Odyssey in May so any title with that word in it immediately draws my attention. However, in the midst of this week's mayhem on board the ship, your report is one of the few that I've stuck with to the end and that's because you've been so matter-of-fact about everything. It's been very interesting and I'm really glad you were able to make the best of a bad job.

I had never heard of effy until it was mentioned twice in this thread. I googled it and it appears to be a brand of jewellery. Is that right?

Normally you can only bid on categories that are 3-4 higher than the one you originally booked so your CB room wouldn't allow you to bid on those higher suites.

Following along. Hope you have a great cruise @Jax

Yes, totally this! Or, as in our case, for everyone, kids and adults alike, since we sailed in Europe where everyone had to test at the terminal. In reality it took under 15 minutes but I was a wreck. @Lovetocruise2002 have a fabulous time!

So, a somewhat related question. I just had a look at Enchantment's schedule. The last cruise out of Baltimore finishes at the end of March 2023. The first Alaska cruise out of Vancouver is scheduled for the 23rd of April. Is that enough time to do a Panama Canal cruise with passengers?

Why am I not surprised?

I guess it depends what sort of hotel you're looking for but we use the Ibis Barcelona Centro (Sagrada Familia) https://all.accor.com/hotel/7567/index.en.shtml when we stay in Barcelona. As you can guess from the name, it's right by the Sagrada Familia (if you haven't visited this it's an absolute must - buy tickets online in advance from the official website here: https://sagradafamilia.org/en/). There is also a metro station a very short distance away that connects you to the rest of the city. Ibis is a budget chain belonging to Accor Hotels that you'll find throughout Europe. The rooms here are comfortable, the staff are really friendly and helpful and they have a pretty decent buffet breakfast. If you sign up to the Accor Group loyalty programme on the website you'll get a small discount on the price of the room.