69RoadRunner

Mass produced crabcakes always seem to be a mushy mess. There's a local group of restaurants near me that only uses fresh big pieces of crab to make their crabcakes and I've yet to find anything even close, so I don't even order them elsewhere anymore. I'm a big fan of butter chicken and I believe I saw that's on the new menu. I hope that's done well.

I used it for our Med cruise this summer. I was able to choose seats for our United flight out on United's site. The flight back is United operated but Lufthansa and I could not select seats for our family on either site. I got a non-stop to Rome on a red eye at the same price as booking directly with United. We leave 3 days ahead of the cruise, but with the red eye, arrive 2 days ahead. After being on a Med cruise with Princess and being stuck on the ship in Istanbul because of the 9/11 attacks, I was glad we booked our flights with the cruise line. They bent over backwards to get us on a charter after just 1.5 days, quicker than my brother in law who was stuck longer in Kansas. I understand things are different now, but with a European cruise, I'm hoping this is our least risky option when it comes to logistics/delays/cancellations.

Thank you. This is very good information. We're flying from the DC area, so there are direct flights from IAD. Flights are mostly red eye flights. So flying out 2 days early gets you there just 1 day early. Flying out 3 or 4 days early is currently at least $600/person (4 of us) more. Plus hotel plus, plus, plus. I could get the Economy Plus seats on ITA 2 days early for less than Economy Cramped 3 or 4 days early. I'm almost 6'3", so that 40% extra space would be nice. Maybe I should start looking at touring Rome after the cruise instead.

Are you doing all the planning yourself or using a travel agent for your time in Barcelona?

When we booked with Princess, if the flight was canceled and caused us to not make it to the ship, Princess was responsible for getting us to the ship. If we had booked ourselves, we would be responsible finding a way to the ship. Is that the case today with RC? Flying to Europe, I felt good having it be on the cruise line to get us there.

We're doing a Med cruise on Symphony this summer. The last time we did one was on Princess. We booked flights through Princess, which is good because we were stuck in Istanbul on 9/11 and the cruise line was responsible for getting us a flight home (ended up on the first flight allowed into the US from that part of the world). Anyway, that experience has me leaning toward booking through RC. Any thoughts and experiences doing this with RC? How far in advance should I book flights? I'd like to tour Rome a day before our cruise and it looks like that's possible but I'll have to figure out hotel/tours/transfer to the ship myself.

It's a charter. I did it with my brother a few years ago and had a great time. First day, we're eating at the buffet and Joel Hoekstra (Whitesnake, Trans Siberian Orchestra formerly Night Ranger) saw me and came over to say hello. I've gotten to know him a bit from chatting after TSO shows. He does a solo band set. All night you go from venue to venue seeing bands. Some are one hit wonders from the golden age of MTV. Alice Cooper was the headliner of the last one. It's not for everyone, but we had a blast.

My wife and I are light drinkers. No way would we drink enough for that to make sense. Do the math. You'd have to drink A LOT every day of the cruise.

I had this discussion once asking people to explain why wearing a hat inside is disrespectful but outside is not. Nobody could give a valid answer. They all said it was because they were told it's disrespectful and they didn't question this. Being follically challenged, my choice has been to often wear a hat. I would choose not to at a formal dining situation. My life is not affected in any way by those who choose otherwise.

Family of 4 (two older teens) doing a Med cruise next year. We're looking to do a pre-cruise, or possibly post-cruise tour of Rome for a day/night to include hotel and transfer to/from the ship. Any suggestions for do it yourself or reputable travel agents to help out?