Odyssey 5/5/24 - The Holy Lands Cruise that was not meant to be (Greece, Italy, and Turkey instead)

[mashley1021]

Hi All!

A little about myself since I haven't posted on here before, I am Ashley, a 30 year old from Arizona who has been cruising mostly with my parents (and grandparents before they passed) but sometimes solo, with friends, and with groups since I was 9 months old. I have mostly done Royal Caribbean but I have also done some Celebrity and Princess as well as one each of Holland America, NCL, and Carnival (we don't talk about those, there is a reason it was one each). Anyways, all that to say I am very loyal to Royal with nearly 80 Royal Caribbean cruises under my belt. When I am not cruising, I am a full time software engineer to pay for my cruising habit.

And now for some history on this cruise.... my parents and I first booked this itinerary for October of 2021 in the summer of 2020. Heck, we also booked cruises in June of 2020 when our May cruise was canceled, August when June was cancelled, November when August was cancelled, so on so forth, you get the idea. Fast forward to summer of 2021 and well over 40 FCCs later, the restart was finally happening and the final payment due date for this cruise was quickly approaching. There we still a lot of unknowns about Israel and what the covid requirements would be to go there and as that was the main reason we booked that cruise (more on that later...), after a family meeting we cancelled it and I spent 2 weeks in October on the Symphony of the Seas with a friend (and my parents ultimately joining for the second cruise after some convincing) instead where I finally earned pinnacle after waiting the entire restart only a little more than 1 cruise away (I promise, I am not a snotty pinnacle, I refuse to wear the pin and prefer to go with the flow instead). With that I had finally made it back on a ship for the first time since January 2020 but I still hadn't made it to holy lands.

Fast forward again to February 2023 when my parents were on the Celebrity Beyond celebrating their 40th anniversary without me (to quote Stephanie Tanner: how rude... not, they deserved the vacation without me and they had their neighbors with them to take my place, also I am pretty sure my work would have killed me if I took another cruise at that point). Before they headed out on their cruise, I looked at the itineraries released just a couple months before for Europe in 2024 and found this one, and made the mistake of emailing my parents with the details. It didn't take much convincing that we had to book this cruise. A week later, after a lot of back and forth with them and the future cruises agent on Celebrity Beyond, we finally got this booked and everything confirmed. Note to my future self and really everyone reading this: never book Royal on Celebrity, while we have successfully booked Celebrity on Royal before with no issues, this was a nightmare to say the least, the on-board agent had no clue what the different cabin categories were and after pleading with her that Odyssey had J1s, J3s, and J4s and they were all Junior Suites, she was finally able to find more than just the J1s available.

With the cruise finally booked, let's talk about why we wanted to do it: Israel. My mom and I are Jewish and my mom has always wanted to go to the holy land but has said she would never do it by land, she just didn't feel comfortable due to some experiences her parents/my grandparents had when they went. And similar to me, she loves cruising. So this seemed like the perfect solution. I had also unfortunately aged out of birthright during Covid as a result of them changing the age policy during that time so this would give me a taste of Israel to see if I wanted to join a volunteer trip or something else in the future. When June 2023 arrived and the flights opened up to book, there wasn't a doubt in our minds that we were going on this cruise. Before booking the flights we had a family meeting and I made one important note to my parents: If this cruise doesn't go to Israel, are you still ok with going for the other ports? They both said yes. My mom has always wanted to go to Santorini since watching Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants so while it was not Israel, there would still be something on her bucket list to cross off. Even though the itinerary at the time didn't have Ephesus, Turkey on it, we knew it was likely this would appear if Israel was removed and my dad wanted to see the House of the Virgin Mary after missing the opportunity to see it while on the Splendour of the Seas in 2000. After that discussion, our flights were booked and we started making hotels and other plans for the trip including booking excursions for every port except Israel since conveniently none were open for Israel and also I knew if we did make it there, we would want to do a private tour so we could cover both the Christian and Jewish heritage there adequately.

Once again, let's fast forward this time to November 2023. Unfortunately, we all know what happened on October 7th. The days that followed made it very obvious that this was sadly not like other times Israel had been attacked. They were not getting out of this quickly. We received the not at all surprising email that this itinerary was changing. Out was Israel and in was Turkey, as I unfortunately predicted, along with Mykonos. After yet another family meeting (I think this is at least the 3rd one in this story, sensing a theme here...) we unanimously decided we were still going, barring any crazy world event. It was full steam ahead and I finally decided to start planning the tours for our pre-cruise stay in Rome. We also booked an excursion for Mykonos through the ship and I left my dad to figure out Ephesus himself. I still don't think he has that planned, you can tell who is the planner and who isn't in this family.

Now let's fast forward to February 2024. It was Super Bowl Sunday and I had plans to go to the Phoenix Open with my dad in the corporate tents on the 17th hole. Instead, I got woken up by a call at 6am with news that my mom had passed out just before midnight the night before and they were in the ER room at Mayo Hospital. This cruise was far from the first thing on my mind, I wanted to know how my mom was doing, what had happened, if there was anything they needed as the hospital is less than a mile from my house, I can literally see it from my backyard. In the weeks that followed, and what seemed like hundreds of doctors appointments, a couple dental appointments, and a surgery later, we finally brought up this cruise again. Her doctor's gave her the all clear to go, they just warned that we had to be careful, she couldn't over exert herself. Another family meeting and the swapping of tours later to some less strenuous ones, we were once again on track for this cruise to happen.

Now finally we have made it to today. We fly out in a little more than 2 weeks on the evening of 4/30. We finally settled on a hotel for our one night post cruise in Rome before flying home so the last thing is planned. As many hurdles as this cruise had and the amount of times we thought this wouldn't happen, we are looking forward to it finally happening, even if it is a little different than originally planned. I am just grateful that we are all still here to enjoy this as a family. I have never done a live blog of a cruise before. Not here and also not on that other cruise board that shall not be named. Something about this cruise feels different, while I hope this isn't my last big European adventure with my parents, I know there is a chance that will be the case so I really want to remember this and document it. Not only are my parents getting older, I am also getting older and who knows what will come for my future as well. While we have plenty more cruises planned as a family out of the US to the Caribbean as well as the Mexican riviera on the west coast, I don't know that I will have a trip like this as a family once again.

I promise my future posts won't be as much of a novel. There was a lot of backstory to cover and I hope I at least made it interesting to read. In the coming days I will start to talk about our plans for both pre-cruise and on the cruise but figured it made sense to start with the back story first.

Since I have never done this before, not sure how to end these, I am sure I will figure that out better as I go. So for this one I guess I should say TTYL!

 

[Lovetocruise2002]

This type of sailing is on our bucket list!

I am glad that your Mom is able to go with you guys. Such a blessing!

[OCSC Mike]

That was novel-worthy. I can be long-winded for no good reason… this wasn’t that.

1. To echo @Lovetocruise2002, glad your mom is able to go & wishing her the best.

2. Love the Full House reference from a 30-year-old, lol (yes I know there are reruns & Fuller House, which was pretty weak, but still).

3. I hope you do get to Israel someday. I’m not at all religious and I was in high school when I went (part of a sponsored basketball trip) so I didn’t come close to fully appreciating it but it was still meaningful & I’m sure it would be 100x moreso for you.

4. Live blogging is a great way to document a trip, even a random Caribbean cruise with no special meaning… so all the more reason for this one.

Hope everything goes smoothly over the next 2 weeks… you’ve clearly dealt with enough bumps in the road related to this cruise.

[JohnK6404]

Welcome and have an amazing time!!! 

[Sweety]

Have an amazing and joyful cruise. I have been to Mykonos before and I would love to hear about your adventure. I am glad your Mom is doing better.

[SweetPea]

5 hours ago, mashley1021 said:

I have mostly done Royal Caribbean but I have also done some Celebrity and Princess as well as one each of Holland America, NCL, and Carnival (we don't talk about those, there is a reason it was one each).

This made me . We were one and done with Royal for a full 11 years because our first cruise with them was THAT bad. We then booked Norwegian since it was a new ship sailing out of our backyard, and hubby's response was "why not? It can't be as bad as Royal!" Anyway, after all this time, we now love both Norwegian & Royal. However, we are with you on Holland. We will not sail them again, and my SIL works for Carnival and even she won't sail them.

You also resonated with me in that i sense your dad married into a Jewish family, which is a theme in my family. Two men in my family have married Jewish women, and some of their kids are now very interested in their Jewish heritage, and even I'm having fun exploring that with them, even though i can't offer much except, "you're 11 nearly 12, and it would have to be a major cram to get Bar Mitzvah'd since you've never picked up a Torah and don't speak a single word of Hebrew. You cannot have a Bar Mitzvah just for the party."

Anyway, you have a great itinerary and i love Odyssey reports. Looking forward to yours!

[mashley1021]

Hi Again! Thanks everyone for the well wishes for my mom and support on this crazy cruise. Ok so some discussion about the plans for this cruise:

The Ship:
This is technically our 3rd cruise on Odyssey of the Seas. We did a back to back on her in December for Christmas and NYE just a few months ago so it will feel a bit like coming home as many of the crew mentioned they would still be on for this sailing. My mom and I really like Quantum class, in particular the Coastal Kitchen on it as well as just how classy the whole ship feels for lack of a better descriptor. My dad prefers Oasis class but we out-voted him, and also the two of them will get their Oasis fix with Wonder in August (once again without me haha).

The Cabins:
My parents are back in a GS, basically the same cabin they had in December just 2 floors lower. Ironically, they both hate the GS on Quantum class but by the time they figured that out it was far too late to change it and prices had been jacked way up. We never have used Royal Up either as we don't love surprises so my parents agreed they will keep what they have and just prepare better for it this time. Hopefully once on board I can post about the downfalls of that category with some pictures, and maybe some pointers to make it work better. Granted, I know we have no right to complain as this category is often booked with 3 or 4 guests and it will just have my parents in it.
I am in a J4. I was in a J3 in December. The JS categories have different bathroom, closet and sofa layouts on this ship so I have some thorough pictures from December that I can use to compare once on board. I think there are pluses and minuses to both from past experience and I am one person so really I could make whatever work, I only ended up with this cabin because it was only $213 more than a balcony at the time we booked this with the 150% single supplement.

Dining:
We booked a 5 night dining package. The other nights we will probably end up at Coastal Kitchen. We are not Windjammer/buffet people so warning in advance you probably won't see much of that in this live blog.

Flights:
We are flying on British Airways through London Heathrow with a 5 hour layover. We will spend those 5 hours crossings our fingers and toes that our bags don't end up lost in Heathrow. Thankfully we all have Apple airtags in our cases which have proven themselves very handy. We did this flight through London instead of Dallas so we would land in the evening instead of in the morning. Last year we landed at 7am in Amsterdam for a British Isles cruise and my mom said never again, so heres to also crossing our fingers that this flight works out better for us adjusting to the time zone. 

Pre-cruise:
I will detail this more later but we have 3 full days in Rome pre cruise, hopefully after a good night sleep after landing later in the evening.

Post cruise:
Given the day of the week this cruise ends (a Friday), and the fact that I, unlike my parents, still work full time, we are only staying one night outside of Rome post cruise and have a pretty early flight the next day home. We would have flown home the same day if we could but it is just not that logistically possible with the distance between Civitavecchia and FCO and how early all the flight options are. We are also taking British Airways through Heathrow with the same 5 hour layover on the way home. Once again, wish us luck.

And I guess just some backstory on Europe for us:
This is my 8th European Cruise. The closest cruise to this one that we did was on the original Pacific Princess aka the Love Boat in 1997. I was just shy of 4 years old so I obviously don't remember a thing. I do know that cruise left from Venice and went to some of these ports but not all of them. All of that to say, most of these ports are going to be fairly new experiences for us (hence why you will see us primarily doing ship tours when I cover that sometime in the future). Also, my mom gets nervous about missing the ship and would have us back on board with many hours to spare if we didn't do ship tours so this is the best solution for us when we do cruises in Europe. I know it means we will just get a sampling of the "Greatest Hits" in each port but I will take it all things considered.

Anyways, I will probably mainly be posting on weekends leading up to the trip given my work schedule. In the future posts, I will try to cover what we booked in terms of pre-cruise tours as well as our shore excursions. Also, will probably cover a little of the dreaded packing process when I finally decide to start that.

Thanks again and TTYL!

[mashley1021]

9 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

This type of sailing is on our bucket list!

I am glad that your Mom is able to go with you guys. Such a blessing!

Thank you so much! 

I believe we were on Odyssey together for NYE? The other Ashley (Ashley Dillo) told me about you and I was too much of a wimp to introduce myself when I saw you in CK and around this ship.

Anyways, hopefully you are able to take this type of sailing in the future!

[mashley1021]

8 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

2. Love the Full House reference from a 30-year-old, lol (yes I know there are reruns & Fuller House, which was pretty weak, but still).

HAHA! Yes, I know Full House ended when I was 2, I did however watch the reruns after school on ABC Family. They aired before my bedtime when I was younger so that was the limited quality TV I got to watch haha. I also never really watched Fuller House, I think I watched maybe the first 2 episodes but just couldn't get into it.

Also, thanks for the well wishes for my mom! I am sure she will figure out how to snoop on here eventually and see them as well.

[mashley1021]

3 hours ago, SweetPea said:

You also resonated with me in that i sense your dad married into a Jewish family, which is a theme in my family.

Yeah, my dad has taken to calling himself an honorary member of the tribe . He never converted and still very much considers himself "a good lutheran boy" (his quote, not mine) but has learned a lot being a part of my mom's family. I was never Ba Mitzvah'd either, when I was younger my parents raised us to respect both religions. My brother ultimately got baptized as an adult and I first started to explore my Jewish heritage in college and even more post college when I was looking for a community.

And with the other cruise lines, I don't really remember HAL or NCL, I was too young to remember those. I do remember Carnival and that is enough for me to turn down every time a friend wants to do a cheap Carnival cruise haha. Anyways, glad you guys enjoy NCL! I definitely want to give it another chance some day (maybe in the Haven).

[OCSC Mike]

7 hours ago, mashley1021 said:

Yeah, my dad has taken to calling himself an honorary member of the tribe 

Can definitely relate to this via my wife and her dad. He uses more Yiddish than my fully Jewish MIL, lol. He’s of Italian descent so my wife affectionately refers to herself as a “Pizza Bagel.”

 

 

[WAAAYTOOO]

9 hours ago, mashley1021 said:

they both hate the GS on Quantum class 

I have to agree with your parents on this one.  They completely ruined the GS on the Q class ships.  That wall dividing the room in half makes everything feel SO cramped.  I also hate the partitioned bathroom.  Horrible design all around.

[Lovetocruise2002]

10 hours ago, mashley1021 said:

Thank you so much! 

I believe we were on Odyssey together for NYE? The other Ashley (Ashley Dillo) told me about you and I was too much of a wimp to introduce myself when I saw you in CK and around this ship.

Anyways, hopefully you are able to take this type of sailing in the future!

What?! No way! That makes me sad, next time please come say hi. I love meeting people from this RB Blog community.

That was the sailing that almost did not happen for us either because of health issues with my Dad, so when you mentioned your Mom, that resonates with me.

We also will be spending some time in Rome in July after our Voyager sailing. Can't wait to follow your adventures!

[mashley1021]

3 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I have to agree with your parents on this one.  They completely ruined the GS on the Q class ships.  That wall dividing the room in half makes everything feel SO cramped.  I also hate the partitioned bathroom.  Horrible design all around.

Yeah, I definitely saw the faults, I am just trying to stay optimistic. I agree the divider is weird but it is worse even on the Harmony/Symphony GS, although the storage is definitely worse here. I didn't get pictures of their cabin in December but I will try to this time. Prior to Odyssey in December, my parents had only been in JSs on Anthem and Ovation and never a GS so they didn't realize how poor the design is. They decided after COVID they only wanted to stay GS or higher so that is how we ended up booking this, although I wish we would have had the first Odyssey experience sooner as when we booked this initially, it wasn't a crazy price difference for an OS... right before final payment when one opened up again, it was more than double what they paid for their GS so they passed. And someone actually scooped it up! Pretty much right away, it has been gone since then. Anyways, we rectified this for our Quantum sailings in 2025... one of them all 3 of us are staying in a 2 bedroom GS together, will be my first time sharing a cabin with them since 2008 so that will be interesting but the cabin looks nice (separate bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and decent enough storage especially for just an 8 night cruise) and we got it for a steal. The other one they booked an OS out right the day the cruise opened with a fairly reasonable price difference from a GS with me once again in my own cabin. (Yes, we will be taking advantage of Quantum being out of LA)

[SweetPea]

1 hour ago, mashley1021 said:

when we booked this initially, it wasn't a crazy price difference for an OS... right before final payment when one opened up again, it was more than double what they paid for their GS so they passed. And someone actually scooped it up!

Crazy how this happens! Not so much that the price increased but that people are willing to pay it! Our Odyssey cruise, we booked a GLS and got the last one on opening day. Recently one opened up at more than double the price we paid, and yup, it didn't last long. Someone scooped it right up.  

[JJMOLL]

We are actually booked into an October sailing for this itinerary. Been a long year and a half wait so far!

Your posts have been an interesting read so far, particularly the backstory and decision choices made so far. Will be sure to follow to see your remaining posts and hopefully post cruise experience.

Quick question regarding Santorini excursions - are many listed for you in the Cruise Planner? We literally have only had 1 excursion posted and it's been fully booked for months!

[mashley1021]

9 hours ago, JJMOLL said:

We are actually booked into an October sailing for this itinerary. Been a long year and a half wait so far!

Your posts have been an interesting read so far, particularly the backstory and decision choices made so far. Will be sure to follow to see your remaining posts and hopefully post cruise experience.

Quick question regarding Santorini excursions - are many listed for you in the Cruise Planner? We literally have only had 1 excursion posted and it's been fully booked for months!

We only had 13 available tours for Santorini and most of them have been sold out the whole time, I am glad I snatched one early. Hopefully more open up for your cruise? It could also have to do with what other ships are in with you as well, I haven't looked who is in with us. I know that this is a difficult port to do without an excursion so that definitely contributes to how quickly they have sold.

[JJMOLL]

On 4/17/2024 at 3:14 AM, mashley1021 said:

We only had 13 available tours for Santorini and most of them have been sold out the whole time, I am glad I snatched one early. Hopefully more open up for your cruise? It could also have to do with what other ships are in with you as well, I haven't looked who is in with us. I know that this is a difficult port to do without an excursion so that definitely contributes to how quickly they have sold.

Ahh, thanks for that. Yeah we have seen videos and such on Youtube which shows a lot more excursions than what we are currently being offered. My partner has already tried to reach out to RC to see what's up, though I don't think they understood the question so he has had to reattempt and the second time they said they would get back to him. I know it is closer to the end of season, but I doubt all they could find was one excursion partner.

 

We have already checked for other cruises that are visiting and only 1 other ship is in that day, I believe quite a lot smaller as well. So I doubt it'll be solely due to how busy it is. I honestly just think they have forgot to put the rest up tbh. But yeah, all we just have the Spirits of Santorini that has been sold out.

 

As you said, due to the tendering and ticket system, my partner would prefer an excursion just to get off the ship with more ease. I myself I'm not too bothered as I have been to Santorini before maybe about 5 years ago and have done quite a lot of the usual spots. Plus, at least it's a long 13 hour stay, so we do have time on our hands, if we do have to wait to tender and cable car it up!

[Kelseylovestocruise]

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. 

[SMOKEY0202]

There are plenty of tour companies that offer excursions to the winery.  We did it thru non ship excursion and it was so easy.

Tour operators were all waiting at top of cable car at platform.  

It was a small group under 10 with more intimate enjoyable experience and much cheaper.  There are plenty of reputable tour operators.

[Kelseylovestocruise]

1 minute ago, SMOKEY0202 said:

There are plenty of tour companies that offer excursions to the winery.  We did it thru non ship excursion and it was so easy.

Tour operators were all waiting at top of cable car at platform.  

It was a small group under 10 with more intimate enjoyable experience and much cheaper.  There are plenty of reputable tour operators.

Did you just book at the top of the cable car or before hand online? I’ve been to Santorini before I just walked around and enjoyed lunch that day. 

[Starrynight0154]

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. 

[Starrynight0154]

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?

[SMOKEY0202]

I researched different tour operators to what i was looking to do, reputable, guarantee back to ship and booked ahead of time.  

I prefer a more small group setting so usually won't book ship excursion.  You will find the right tour operator that meets your desire.

[mashley1021]

Thank you @SMOKEY0202 for the answers on Santorini and helping out @Kelseylovestocruise! I haven't been there before so honestly didn't know how feasible a non-ship tour would be, also with my mom it is just easier doing a ship tour, hopefully ours works out well.

As far as the bus station in Civitavecchia @Starrynight0154, I am not sure and not sure I will really find out considering we booked private transportation from our Rome hotel to Civitavecchia the day of the cruise and same for the disembarkation day. Hopefully someone else here can answer that question for you!

Anyways, my boss was back in town this week which led to a busy week at work (he was gone for more than a month and I think I was getting used to that haha), I will try to write a detailed post about our pre-cruise plans tonight or tomorrow, and I did do laundry and take out my suitcase today so you might get a packing status update. I went to my parent's house today and my mom has already put stuff in her case so she is the furthest ahead of all of us, wish my dad and me luck with packing.

Thanks again everyone!

[mashley1021]

Hi Everyone,

As promised, here is a post about our pre-cruise plans in Rome. 

Just some back story, we have done Rome as a port of call at least 3 times before that I can remember (and I think we went there on one cruise before my memories as well). Those times were all as a port of call and not an embarkation/disembarkation port. Two of the three times I remember we did private tours with Driver in Rome that picked us up in Civitavecchia and drove us into Rome to see the sights. Those were in 2004 and 2008 so no clue if that was the same Driver in Rome company you can find when you Google it now. In 2004 we went to the Colosseum (at my insistence because of the Lizzie McGuire movie that came out the year before ) and hit most of the major highlights and in 2008 I think we mainly went shopping (pretty sure our tour guide got annoyed at us for not wanting to do anything). Both those times were with my grandparents and my grandmother had just started using a wheelchair occasionally around the time of that 2004 trip. The third time was in 2014 with just me and my parents and we did a shore excursion that was a walking tour that started at either the Spanish steps or the Trevi Fountain (I don’t remember but I know it went to both) and ended at the Vatican, covering all the sights in between (except the Colosseum) including a stop for pizza. It was listed as strenuous (something we couldn’t do anymore with my mom but were more than capable of back then). It was a fantastic tour that I would recommend if it was still offered but looking at Royal Caribbean’s site, I don’t see it listed granted I don’t have access to a specific sailing with Rome as a port of call.

Now to our current plans! We land in Rome late in the evening of the 1st so we have the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th to explore Rome. Since we have seen most of the major sites before, we are focusing on the things we wanted to see again as well as some more fun experiences. We are staying at the Doubletree by Hilton Rome Monti which we chose based on a combination of TripAdvisor reviews and location. We have never stayed there before obviously so I will report back how it is. I booked tours each of the three days on Viator, leaving some time each day as free time ie shopping time that my mom insisted on having. I used a combination of Viator and TripAdvisor reviews when booking tours. One of the days we are doing a private guided golf cart tour, another day we are doing a small group guided Vatican tour (every time we have done the Vatican in the past has been self guided so this was something my dad really wanted to do). We are also doing a pasta cooking class one day as well as a food tour one evening. We did a food tour in Amsterdam last year and it was our favorite tour we did so hoping for the same success again. The food walking tour this time also goes through Rome’s Jewish Ghetto so a bit of Jewish history as a consolation prize for not going to Israel I guess. I will share the tour operators if people ask but none of this is a review yet so I don’t want to recommend any of our choices yet as we might be getting this all wrong .

Finally, for transportation, we are using Stefano’s Rome Cabs booked through Viator based on reviews on TripAdvisor as well as on all the cruise board sites. They are picking us up from the airport and taking us to our hotel, taking us from our hotel to the cruise, the cruise to our post cruise hotel, and then taking us from our post cruise hotel to the airport. Speaking of our post cruise hotel, we are staying at the Cardo Roma, Autograph Collection since it is just one night. This is a little closer to the airport than staying in the center of Rome and our flight is very early the next day. This was a last minute change (we were originally staying at the Hilton at the Airport but then heard some pretty bad reviews). Hopefully it was the right change, at least the hotel is very newly renovated and just reopened, so much so that it doesn't have any new TripAdvisor reviews.

In another post I will talk about the cruise excursions we have booked and I plan to post a packing status update soon. I just took out my suitcases today so no progress as of yet but my mom has started putting stuff in her suitcase so at least she is going on this cruise . Warning: we haven’t exactly mastered the art of packing light so please don’t judge too much. We also got Euros from our bank this week and started all of our obligatory pre-cruise prep of stopping the mail, printing out baggage tags, etc.

Thanks again! TTYL!
- Ashley 

[Lovetocruise2002]

16 hours ago, mashley1021 said:

One of the days we are doing a private guided golf cart tour, another day we are doing a small group guided Vatican tour (every time we have done the Vatican in the past has been self guided so this was something my dad really wanted to do). We are also doing a pasta cooking class one day as well as a food tour one evening. We did a food tour in Amsterdam last year and it was our favorite tour we did so hoping for the same success again. The food walking tour this time also goes through Rome’s Jewish Ghetto so a bit of Jewish history as a consolation prize for not going to Israel I guess. I will share the tour operators if people ask but none of this is a review yet so I don’t want to recommend any of our choices yet as we might be getting this all wrong

We are doing a private golf cart tour and the food walking tour as well! We are booked with LivTours. @Jkaczano spoke highly of them in her previous blog. Can’t wait to hear about your experiences! 

[mashley1021]

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

We are doing a private golf cart tour and the food walking tour as well! We are booked with LivTours. @Jkaczano spoke highly of them in her previous blog. Can’t wait to hear about your experiences! 

Glad to hear this! Our Vatican tour is with LivTours as well so at least one of the operators has first hand experience from someone on here. I trust Viator and TripAdvisor reviews but definitely prefer to hear from others when I can.

- Ashley

[Lovetocruise2002]

Just now, mashley1021 said:

Glad to hear this! Our Vatican tour is with LivTours as well so at least one of the operators has first hand experience from someone on here. I trust Viator and TripAdvisor reviews but definitely prefer to hear from others when I can.

- Ashley

I looked at so many tour operators over the last month. We ended up booking with LivTours for all our tours in Barcelona and Rome. I would have loved to book with them for the port days too on the cruise but I chickened out and went with the cruise line tours. Don’t want to risk missing the ship in an area that I am not familiar with. I was really impressed when dealing with LivTours over email and Whatsapp while planning, hoping this means the actual tour will be great too! 

[SMOKEY0202]

Walks of Italy and Spain Day Tour company are also very reliable as well.

It will be a great trip alone just with all the food and wine 

[mashley1021]

1 hour ago, SMOKEY0202 said:

Walks of Italy and Spain Day Tour company are also very reliable as well.

It will be a great trip alone just with all the food and wine 

Yes, my dad is probably most looking forward to the wine, he has a large wine collection in my parent's house in Scottsdale. For me, just give me pizza, pasta, and gelato and I will be happy .

[Lovetocruise2002]

12 hours ago, mashley1021 said:

For me, just give me pizza, pasta, and gelato and I will be happy .

That sounds exactly like my 17 year old lol

[Lovetocruise2002]

14 hours ago, SMOKEY0202 said:

Walks of Italy

We looked up a tour by them. It was the Key Master tour, the one where you open the Sistine Chapel. It was almost $4K for all 4 of us! I closed that browser pretty quickly lol

[OCSC Mike]

22 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I closed that browser pretty quickly lol

Not very unfrugal or YOLO of you!

[mashley1021]

48 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

That sounds exactly like my 17 year old lol

I promise I am 30... just with the eating habits of a teenager I guess  and I really don't drink much so that also furthers this I guess

[OCSC Mike]

12 minutes ago, mashley1021 said:

I promise I am 30... just with the eating habits of a teenager I guess  and I really don't drink much so that also furthers this I guess

My wife is... let's go with > 30... and she kinda eats like a big kid and barely drinks as well. We just turned D+ and I'm going to have to make an effort to use up our vouchers. She maxes out at 3 and can easily use less. I'm not a huge drinker myself so 8 vouchers for just me will likely wind up in a fridge half full of Truly and/or soda cans.

[AshleyDillo]

1 hour ago, mashley1021 said:

really don't drink much so that also furthers this I guess

Yes...avoid taking tequila shots with @mashley1021

[Lovetocruise2002]

5 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

Not very unfrugal or YOLO of you!

Oh, this whole trip in July is YOLO unfrugal! I wanted to pull the plug on the whole thing but we couldn't do that to D17 since it's for her graduation.

4 hours ago, mashley1021 said:

I promise I am 30... just with the eating habits of a teenager I guess  and I really don't drink much so that also furthers this I guess

I get it. Hubby still thinks he is 20. lol

[mashley1021]

8 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

Yes...avoid taking tequila shots with @mashley1021

I plead the 5th

[mashley1021]

5 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Oh, this whole trip in July is YOLO unfrugal! I wanted to pull the plug on the whole thing but we couldn't do that to D17 since it's for her graduation.

I get it. Hubby still thinks he is 20. lol

My dad probably felt the same way about my college graduation cruise in 2016 (for some reason we didn't do anything special for my high school graduation, I think we just did Caribbean that summer... checked the spreadsheet, yes we were on Allure in the Caribbean)... Anyways back to college graduation... It was on the Navigator of the Seas to the Baltic and he said the 8 days we spent in London before it were the national debt  I am sure she will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed mine!