berkeleykel

It's never been an issue for me as I tend to bring my own shower poof regardless. And I do suspect you will have a better chance of finding them in London proper where hotels are more used to dealing with American guests and may stock them automatically. I just mentioned it because it does catch people unsuspecting sometimes! I think that in many parts of the world a washcloth is considered unnecessary (you can use your hands) or a personal item so you would carry around your own if you wanted it, in the vein of a handkerchief.

When is the group cruise?

I’ve usually had great experiences at Heathrow. And now US citizens can use the e-gates as long as you aren’t traveling with children, which has sped up going through passport control a lot.

True, even travelling just me, husband and son can be difficult because they'll want us to book two rooms for 2 adults + 1 small child. I think it is common in Europe in general that the default is a 2 person room rather than a 4 person room. Bring your own washcloths - that's not really a standard thing in hotels here.

I second the Premier Inns recommendation. But depends on how long you are staying in London, what you plan to do while you are there, and what you consider moderately priced. Personally I love my neighborhood so would also recommend the Hilton London Tower Bridge. Walking distance to Tower Bridge, Tower of London, the Shard, Borough Market. Close to the Jubilee line which takes you quickly to Westminster and Waterloo (near London Eye, trains to Southampton, trains to Windsor if you wanted a day trip there). For trains from London to Southamption, which is what I would do personally, look at South Western Railway. Direct trains run regularly from London Waterloo to Southampton Central and take around 1 hr 20 mins.

I can't compare to other RCL ships as Rhapsody is the only one I've been on, but here are my thoughts on our 7 night trip from this past September: Ship is older but well maintained. Smaller ship with not many activities. I thought it could have used one more family activity like mini golf or something. However, the activities staff is top notch and makes up for it with excellent activities. We had a lot of fun at the trivia events, game shows, etc. We would go back just for the activities staff. We only had one sea day though. Maybe we would have felt the lack of activities more if we had more sea days. MDR was excellent. We loved our meals and service. Same for Chops. My husband loved his food at Giovanni's but my stuffed chicken entree was nearly inedible. We had some issues with Guest Services not knowing what they were doing, giving out incorrect information, being generally incompetent. Loved the bar staff for the most part; Schooners was our fave. Spa was mediocre. Long waits despite having appointments booked. Food in Windjammer was good and generally kept well stocked. There were issues with getting seating sometimes, especially at breakfast. Our room was in the forward part of deck 8. There were some nights where the noise from dancing on the pool deck was kind of ridiculous--constant, loud thumping on our ceiling until 1 am. Would avoid a cabin in that area. We were pleasantly surprised by how entertained we were the whole time. I had been wanting to try an Oasis class ship but after our experience on Rhapsody I started thinking that it might be too much for us to jump up to such a big ship. It was nice seeing the same groups of people over and over again. The cruise felt like a true shared experience and we were all in it together.

The Adventure sailings are listed in the blog as going to St. Petersburg, Russia and I would assume that's the St. Petersburg that the OP wants to go since they called it a bucket list destination!

I didn't know such a thing existed! I'm worried the vibe would feel weird with people coming and going in the middle. BTW - looks like the UK site has caught up to the US site's listings.

So the Harmony itineraries departing from Barcelona and departing from Rome overlap - it looks like the idea is that in any 7 given days guests may be embarking/disembarking at either Barcelona or Rome. Either that, or a major glitch. Has this been done before? Seems like a logistical nightmare .

Ends in Venice. Pretty awesome itinerary really if you add a few days land vacation on either side. But looking more closely there's only one stop in Greece, so not really a Greek isles cruise.

There is one Rhapsody cruise up that leaves from Rome. It must just be a matter of not being posted yet, because Royal's website says Odyssey will be doing med cruises from Rome. Interestingly, Harmony is doing a few western Med cruises departing from Rome.

But the one Anthem sailing that is showing up does list all of the suites as options. Where is the banging head against the wall emoji?

Am I the only one unable to see anything above Junior Suite level on the Anthem sailings?

I did not see many tuxes or full gowns on my Greek isles cruise a couple months ago. I would not stress.

Part of my problem with the response though was that it should lack of consideration for future guests. Royal should have wanted to look into the issue to solve it, if not for the person who already left then at least for the next one. Instead they are taking the easy way out. If they don't have effective communications between their land-based people and their ship-based people, whose fault is that? The issue was Royal's to begin with for providing a crappy room. I'm not super sympathetic to them. I completely understand that if this kind of stuff happens and the goal is to get it fixed or get compensation, as a practical matter you need to complain on board. I'm just saying that does not mean Royal is objectively in the right and I think frustration with them throwing their hands up because they don't feel like dealing is reasonable.