MaryS

Just bought the premium drink package for $53.99 ($64.79 including gratuities) a day for my June 4th Summit cruise and I used my $200. OBC.   I had the zero proof drink package and I was saving the OBC to use for alcohol on the ship.  Canceled the Zero package.  I am happy!

Thank you so much for sharing this.  It brought back wonderful memories of our Odyssey trip back in Sept.  I think Ephesus was one of my favorite stops.  I was not prepared for the size and beauty of the site.  Have a safe trip home. 

3 hours ago, Jkaczano said:

We woke up this morning, had Windjammers, and met in royal theater at 7:45 for our tour (Oia on your own, $59 per person).  We boarded tender at ship which brought us directly to the commercial port where we boarded busses for Oia.  Tour guide was knowledgeable and friendly but it was hard to hear him over the 2 small children sitting behind me on the bus screaming and kicking my seat.  Once we arrived in Oia, we walked to the top of the hill as a group, then had about 75 minutes on our own before we had to be back in the bus.  I thought we’d be waiting around forever for stragglers but we left only 5 minutes late.  Bus drove to Fira and dropped us close to bus depot.  Guide pointed out where cable car departed from and gave us all 1 way tickets.  
 

Tour itself was OK for a ship tour but the screaming children reminded me why I generally book privates.  Unfortunately, I found Santorini to be disappointing.  Even with only 1 ship in port, the streets were crowded and lined with souvenir shops, gelato stands, and restaurants.  Can’t imagine what it would be like with 3 or 4 ships in port.  Quite frankly, Santorini felt like nothing more than a tourist trap.  

That's the same tour we took in September.  I think we had 3 ships in port and it was very crowded but I knew it was going to be and just went with the flow.  Yes it does seem like a tourist trap but the gelato was very good when we were hot from wandering around.  I really loved views in Santorini. 

9 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

How cute is this !?!?

What is the star fish hung-up in ??

It looks like a giraffe that fell on its back

These were the excursions available for Chania back in September.  It will give you some ideas of what to do. 

Chania Crete Excursions.pdf

We were on Odyssey in September and went to Santorini and Chania.  We have never been to either so decided to do Royal excursions.

Santorini: We did an excursion with Royal "Village of Oia On Your Own".  It was okay.  We were tendered to the port (not the one that has the cable car) and then took the tour bus to Oia where our guide gave highlights and then we had about 90 minutes on our own to explore Oia.  Met up with the group and then took the tour bus to Fira again guide gave highlights of the town gave us our cable car tickets and the tour was over.  We wandered Fira did a little shopping and eating.

Chania:  we did another Royal excursion (last minute choice most were already sold out) to a monastery then went to a small beach town (Rethimno) to wander around.  It was nice.  

I loved McDonald's pancakes.  When we were teenagers on Sundays my sisters and I would sneak out of church early and walk over to McDonald's  and get our pancakes.   It's been over 35 years (OMG I'm old) since I have had McDonald's or any other fast food.  Now I want pancakes.

I love those pants!

1 hour ago, twangster said:

I think the frozen drinks from a bar are different than the real fruit smoothies available in Vitality Spa.  The bar frozen drinks are made from a sugary flavor concentrate blended with ice.  

I do remember having one with pineapple, banana, coconut milk and yogurt on Christmas because I wasn't feeling that great.  I was also surprised to see that they were making them.  They had the separate smoothie menus on the bar.  Maybe they don't have the menu available on all Anthem sailings.

I was on Anthem in Dec. and they were making smoothies at the Solarium Bar. 

In Athens this past September my sister and I did a Royal excursion "Acropolis Sightseeing, New Acropolis Museum with Plaka Free Time".  It was an all day trip around  7 hours but I thought it was well worth it.   In Mykonos we did the another Royal excursion the "Delos tour" (an island off Mykonos with more ruins) which was okay then we were dropped off right in the middle of town in Mykonos and wandered around and I finally got my greek pastry.  We were on Odyssey and the ship was docked so we took the water taxi back to where the ship was.  

Early

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Summit June 4 2023  7 days to Bermuda.  I need my Bermuda fix

48 minutes ago, HeWhoWaits said:

I think they leave them alone because it's better to leave the food that we DON'T want alone than to discard something we DO intend to eat later and will be disappointed to miss out on. Example - the elusive Ranger cookies which often show up just once per cruise. If we had several of those sitting on a plate to have as a snack and they disappeared it would be a huge disappointment.

Note: when we have something we want to be sure is available later, we do not leave it sitting out where it could potentially be cleared away.

So true. On Anthem stale cookies sat there for 8 days.  On Odyssey the room steward took my half eaten delicious chocolate birthday cake on day 4.  I as soooooo upset and made a big stink about it.  Never saw that room steward again for the remaining 5 days. 

I got "A Special Offer For You" pamphlet from Amex in today's mail.  Can't find it on the website either.  I hope it shows up soon since my final payment is due next week.

We had a 12:50 flight out of Rome in September and had plenty of time.  We carried our own luggage off and arranged a driver to pick us up at 8:00.  We got to the airport a little before 9:00.  The Economy line to check in was very very long and people were very cranky.  We were lucky we were business class and that line only had 6 people in front of us.

5 hours ago, Neesa said:

My Travelpro! It's deep yet compact. With packing cubes inside I can sail a 7 night cruise with clothing to spare. In addition my daughter and I have Vera Bradley school sized backpacks for the extra outfit, swimwear and otc meds/first aid kit. 

It's the ONLY bag I take no matter my destination. I love it, very durable and super manageable. The opposite of cumbersome.

I have the same one in olive (blue was out of stock).  Bought it during the summer for my Italy/Greece cruise and I absolutely love it.  Also got the matching large one.

I did this excursion back in 2017 on a Carnival cruise and it was fun.  Kids will love the bus.  I also found a link to a live blog on this site too.  Hope this helps.

mine is okay

3 hours ago, Rakaia said:

Coooookies!!!

37 minutes ago, Rakaia said:

(I couldn't get enough of those chocolate/sprinkle coated Christmas cookies!).

Me too.  Also the white chocolate/sprinkle ones and the sugar Christmas cookies with some tea yum.  I was always taking a plate of them back to the cabin.  I love cookies!

21 minutes ago, Sharla said:

Yep!

 

12 hours ago, FionaMG said:

I haven't questioned it any further but spent it during the BF sale just in case it decided to disappear as mysteriously as it appeared!

I did the same thing 

4 hours ago, Sharla said:

The agent probably pulled it into a consortia group, free OBC for you! I do this all the time for clients, and I don't even necessarily tell them because if the OBC doesn't show up then it looks bad. But it's a nice surprise for most people! 

@Sharlais that where my $50.00 credit came from for my Dec 18th Anthem cruise?  If it was THANKS!  I had a great time at the Coco Cay Beach Club.

4 hours ago, FireFishII said:

I believe @MarySmentioned in her live blog that she also got some free OBC that she did not know where it came from.  This happened back in November. 

Yup I logged into the cruise planner on Black Friday and this notice popped up saying I had a $50.00 OBC that had to be used on the cruise planner only (basically use it or lose it).  I didn't even read the whole notice I booked the Coco Cay Beach Club for my Anthem Christmas cruise and used the OBC so fast because my luck it would disappear if I didn't.  Still have no clue where the OBC came from.