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We Did It-Cruise from Ravenna Summary


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Just got back from our Brilliance of the Seas cruise from Ravenna, Italy.   Great ship and crew.

Here's a quick summary:

Ravenna-Dubrovnik-sea day-Mykonos-Santorini (tender)-sea day-Split-Ravenna.  Myself, wife, Daughter (22), Son (20).

>We took our covid tests at 9:00 PM est about an hour before our flight to Venice but  forgot to change our phones to UCT time.  Thought I had wasted the tests but the emed report showed using UCT time anyway. Crisis averted.

>Spent a day and half in Venice.  Beautiful city even though it rained a lot.  Doge's Palace is a must-see and walking the streets of Venice is a real pleasure.  Great food and gelato.

>Booked private transfer to Ravenna from Piazzale Roma using the water bus to meet our driver.  No issues. 

>Arrived at Porto Corsini at 11:20 AM and were strongly encouraged to check in and board the ship even though our check in time was 12:30 pm.  Eating lunch in the outside portion of the WJ at 11:35 am. 

>Bags were waiting outside our rooms by 1:30 pm.

>Booked 2 Junior Suite cabins on deck 10 and they were spacious and very nice rooms.  Covered Balcony was  a plus.  Rooms were 90 second walk up one flight of steps to WJ/Pool.

>Cruise felt empty except on sea days-every pool chair was "hogged" and gym was packed solid.   Lengthy wait to get in for My Time Dining the 3 nights we went.

>The majority of cruisers appeared to be from the U.K. and we celebrated the Queen's Jubilee on our last sea day.

>Able to attend my first Top Tier event, nice music, champagne, and a few words from the officers.   Loyalty Ambassador said there were 550 C & A members onboard, majority were Gold.  Top Cruiser had 1800+ points. We also received our first Glass Block the day after the Top Tier event (the ship on the block was Symphony!)

>Captain sped up and we were able to port in Mykonos instead of using tenders. 

>We booked a Royal Excursion to Santorini and it worked out well.  Other port days we booked our own excursions.

>Entertainment was decent but limited compared to the Oasis class ships we had been on.  Magician, Tenors, Dance Show, etc. The CD and AD did an outstanding job of keeping everyone entertained and the Centrum was hopping most nights.  First cruise I've been on where they had difficulty finding enough couples for Love and Marriage.

>Royal provided options for transportation back to Venice airport/city, and Ravenna train station. 

Let me know if you have any questions about Brilliance, the itinerary, or the transportation logistics of getting from Venice to Ravenna.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Our flights from Washington DC departed on a Thursday evening at 10:30 pm.  The cruise started on Sunday.  I planned on moving our phones to UTC time which is 4 hours ahead of East Coast time, which meant we could take the tests after 8:00 pm Thursday (UTC time 12:00 AM Friday).  We found an empty gate area at the airport and did our tests.  I realized I forgot to change our phones to UTC time but the EMed test report showed up with the UTC time and Friday date anyway.    

After the cruise, we did the tests at our hotel the night before our return flights back to DC.

We saw testing sites at the Venice airport as well.

 

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5 hours ago, Va4fam said:

.

>We took our covid tests at 9:00 PM est about an hour before our flight to Venice but  forgot to change our phones to UTC time.  Thought I had wasted the tests but the emed report showed using UTC time anyway. Crisis averted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Can you break this down for a very confused person?

I have a flight that leaves NY at 5:30pm on a Thursday, we land in Spain Friday morning and board the ship on Saturday.

can I test at any time on Thursday? I was really hoping to test before heading to the airport so somewhere around 11:00am or noon -though I’d prefer earlier that day (or worst case, at the airport prior to boarding the plane) using the Emed test kits. Can you advise the earliest test time in NY to be able to utilize the test to board the ship?

thank you for any explanation you can help me with. 

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@Pattycruise...I think you are on the right track and totally understand the comfort of having the tests completed before boarding the plane.

We are located in the same time zone as you and our biggest concern was what date the lab/test results would display.   UTCtime is 4 hours ahead of NYC/DC time, so the earliest we could test would be after 8 pm on a Thursday night for a Sunday cruise departure.  In your case, it wo uld be a Wednesday night at 8 pm for a Saturday departure.   Make sure your phones and test reflect the right date.  

 

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31 minutes ago, Va4fam said:

@Pattycruise...I think you are on the right track and totally understand the comfort of having the tests completed before boarding the plane.

We are located in the same time zone as you and our biggest concern was what date the lab/test results would display.   UTCtime is 4 hours ahead of NYC/DC time, so the earliest we could test would be after 8 pm on a Thursday night for a Sunday cruise departure.  In your case, it wo uld be a Wednesday night at 8 pm for a Saturday departure.   Make sure your phones and test reflect the right date.  

 

Awesome.  One less thing to worry about!  We leave on Thursday for a Saturday cruise so we should be fine 

I would have loved to fly in a day earlier but anticipated we would then need to test overseas, I’d hate to quarantine and miss the cruise. It’s already risky enough that we may have to have to quarantine there when we test to come home 

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On 6/9/2022 at 12:57 PM, NewlyRoyalBuckeye said:

What shore excursions did you book and do you recommend them? Any other tips on the ports?  We have the same itinerary in July.  Thanks!

We booked our tours in Dubrovnik (Game of Thrones walking tour), Mykonos (went to Paradise beach on our own), and Split (Blue Lagoon 3 island tour), plus we booked a Royal excursion in Santorini (Oia and Fira plus winery bus tour).   

If I could do it again, we would have gotten off ship early to walk the city walls in Dubrovnik, done the GOT tour, and then rode the cable car up the mountain for late lunch.

Walking around Mykonos is amazing but also very confusing.   We didn't have much time at the beach after spending a lot of time in town.

The Blue Lagoon was okay (bring beach shoes) but the small fishing village we stopped at for lunch was our favorite part.

Our Royal Excursion for Santorini worked out great, Santorini is somewhat spread out so we saw a lot and still had time to explore on our own and ride the cable car back to the tender.

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On 6/13/2022 at 5:52 PM, MLH said:

What was the cost of the royal shuttle back to the airport please. 

We didn't take the shuttle to the airport but were quoted $45 and $55 per person during our research.  We went to Ravenna and rode the train to Munich.

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4 hours ago, JerseyGirl13 said:

We'll be cruising on the Billiance of the Seas September 25th.  We'll be staying in Venice for 2 days pre-cruise.  Interested to know who you used for the private transfer from Venice to Ravenna?  

Thanks,

Maria

Maria....we used Get Transfer(s) to book a private transfer from Venice to the cruise port.   They offer longer transfers if you want to stop at the beach or other places on the way.  

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