Starrynight0154

Personally I like Marcella Royal Hotel. It’s below Villa Borghese garden in a quiet area. Has a rooftop breakfast overlooking the city, which turns into a piano bar at night. Most people don’t book it because it’s an extra 15 minute walk to the city center.  

We enjoyed Hideaway Beach. I believe there’s bathrooms on each end and one in the middle, so very accessible. The heated pool is massive. I don’t think pictures represent how large it is until you see it in person. I was able to swim, get drinks, play with the beach ball that was getting hit around in the pool. Hideaway gets busy but the far end away from the DJ has open chairs on the beach. No roving wait staff the day I was there. The music quickly dies out and you can barely hear it on the end of the beach by the hammocks. The food was okay but we prefer the buffet on Coco Cay. The pizza was Sorrento’s with different toppings, sandwiches, various appetizers. We’re vegetarian so take that opinion with a grain of salt. I didn’t try everything they had to offer at Hideaway. 

I think they’re testing out higher prices for various things to see if it affects demand IMO. It’s $39.99 on my upcoming Odyssey cruise. Hideaway Beach is fluctuating too. 

I’m doing the “Island of Santorini and Oia Village” excursion through RC. Doesn’t give a detailed description how they return to the ship at the end. It says there’s a journey back to Athinio’s port. Not sure if it’s a bus back or cable car before tendering. 

This will be my first European cruise, just curious how often do they give bathroom breaks on these excursions? 

Were seats available in the solarium on the sea day?

Interested in your Chania post tomorrow. I’m on Odyssey in September and didn’t book anything for Crete. 

Really looking forward to this live blog. My wife and I will be on Odyssey in a junior suite for a 9 night Greek Isles cruise in September. This is a bucket list trip for us and we’re seeing the main sights at each port.

It’s all planned but maybe you can provide clarity on one thing. I’m confused where the bus pickup location is in Civitavecchia to take passengers to the cruise terminal. It’s either Largo Della Pace or by Fort Michelangelo?

1 hour ago, Kelseylovestocruise said:

Sorry for taking over for a minute. I’m  going to Santorini this summer on Explore and I have 12 excursions available. I would love to do a winery tour but there is not any available that is just a winery. 

The “Island of Santorini and Village of Oia” RC excursion stops at Santos Winery. Beautiful view there but not a place where they produce wine, it’s a tasting. 

22 hours ago, need2cruz said:

This could happen, but really it's not as big of a deal as reading this thread leads one to believe.  We met a lot of different people on the elevator.  We always had a conversation starter w/"don't get too close to the elevator buttons, or we'll have to stop at all the floors".  Yes, sometimes we stopped on some extra floors.  Twice we even got to ride in the elevator w/ the surprise piano player!   We enjoyed the journey.  We were on vacation.  The elevator can be one of your favorite memories of the ship.  It's all in the  perspective.

I feel like that applies to almost anything read online. People focus on the negatives(food, or travel in general). Once you try it out yourself it’s actually a positive experience. 

Will be on Odyssey for our 9 night bucket list trip(Greek Isles, Italy, Turkey) first day of fall this year. Booked a junior suite almost 1.5 years ago. Spending 5 nights in Rome before, and 7 nights in Florence after. Odyssey looks like a great ship, and I’m getting more excited everyday to try it out. 

Website won’t allow me to cancel a massage, app has the same error message. There is definitely more glitches last few days. 

Try the peanut butter tropic at Schooner Bar. I don’t know if it’s just me, but that is drink is sooo good. 

1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

We got labadee replaced with grand turk on Sunday. 

Royal Caribbean rarely goes to Grand Turk it seems like. 

38 minutes ago, Scott Wooten said:

We will be cruising in 3 weeks aboard the Adventure of the Seas (March 29-April 6).  My wife's 59th birthday will be on the 31st, and I have reserved dinner on that night. My question is this: Can I request for our room to be decorated or some other type of special RCCL "bling" be placed in our room? Or is that completely up to me? Any other ideas to make this a special day for my wife are welcome!! 

On the cruise planner there’s an option for room decorations for birthdays. They typically have it decorated on day 1.

I’d feel safer in Labadee than any hospital, school, mall, festival in the U.S. 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/royal-caribbean-cruise-ship-worker-allegedly-admits-filming-young-passengers-even-hiding-under-beds/ar-BB1jms8K

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside Disney resort before our cruise recently. Beautiful landscaping and you get to take the boat to Disney Springs. 

9 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I have never been a fan of the short cruises either, because I have to fly into all ports. However, this trend that Royal is starting is strangely coming at a good time for where we are at as a family.

I have a 4 nighter booked on Allure for NYE this coming December, a 4 nighter for UT for March 2025, a 4 nighter for NYE 2025 on UT, and a 4 nighter on WN for March 2026. Two of these sailings are definitely going to be without my oldest, and the other two are questionable. In the past, I would never have booked so many 4 nighters, but the thought of leaving a 18/19 year old at home alone for a shorter period of time, while still being able to get away a bit is appealing and works for us for this coming season of life. The only negative is that my climb up the C&A ladder is taking a bit of a hit.

Hopefully, in a few years, when I retire and we ditch the freeloaders, Royal will pick up more longer sailings again.

The other thought I had is that with our new family rule of flying in two days prior to cruise, even a 4 nighter becomes a 6 day vacation for us. For a Canadian, who desperately wants out of the cold, I cannot complain!

Living most of my life in Michigan I get that feeling of wanting to escape. Winter is so long, overcast, and cold!

Long Island kicked my ass on Wonder last week. First one I’ve had in years, afterwards I was sitting at Sorrento’s eating pizza and watching the 80’s party. Everything started spinning

I prefer rock cover bands. None were on Wonder recently. They did have a Whitney Houston tribute singer that was a major hit with the audience. People were waving their flashlights in the air on their phones, and singing along. 

3 hours ago, KevinJ said:

We're on Odyssey next November. On Feb 12th all my Cruise Planner purchases made under black Friday sale got mysteriously cancelled. Then they were all reapplied as a single transaction under my son's name, same sale prices. The refunds did show up on my card but so far there has been no charge to my son? I have my TA monitoring this as I also have had Cruise Planner issues affect final payment amount. From the previous experience I've learned to track and watch all these things very carefully.

 

Black Friday sales are a hot mess. Takes forever to charge credit cards, and sometimes months to get refunds in my experience.

Some of the most popular drinks ordered are off the menu. Classics like the lava flow, mudslide, chocolate martini, mimosa, bloody mary, baileys banana colada. 

1 hour ago, CanHardlyWait said:

OK, a warning to all. I would love to cancel my soda package and rebook on sale today, but I don't dare. Not worth the headache.

We canceled several items over the past year and since rebooked several. 

The problem was Royals wonderful system refunded us the charges out of our PAID IN FULL cruise balance and not out of there own money they maid off the individual purchases. 

Putting us in the red just before final balance due in full or you will be canceled and we will resell your cabin at four times the price time. This is for Icon that we booked day one of booking 2 years ago at 1/4th the current price. (Some coincidence huh??)

Anyway, it took 5 days and a total of 6 hours to get someone to straighten it out. I out and out asked for OBC and got $50 for my troubles. Believe me, it wasn't enough for what went through.

Point is....be very careful when canceling and rebooking add ons like drink packages etc for better price, when there is a sale.

Continue to check your balance for paid in full. Both in app and website. We went from paid in full to owing over $600 days before final payment due date. All because Royal Caribbean refunded our paid by credit card add ons, with our own money and not the money the cards paid them.

Check your balances constantly. And think twice about canceling and rebooking something to save a few dollars. It can go so horribly wrong it's ridiculous.

Wise words, best to never cancel cruise planner purchases and rebook at lower prices just to save money, especially if cruise is paid in full. It can take 2-3 months for refunds, and risk cruise cancellation due to their IT system glitch. Not worth it.  We like the soda package, and $8.99 is a decent price. On Wonder I was disappointed that ginger ale wasn’t available, in fact 1/4 of the flavors were unavailable in most freestyle machines. There’s always the option for canned soda at least.