Navigator of the Seas - November 6th, 2011 out of Rome

[TheZaxy]

Hi,

My partner, Erick, and I are all booked and ready to head off on our 14 night Transatlantic cruise on RCL's Navigator of the Seas sailing 11/06/11. We are hoping there will be other gay guys along for the ride.

Marc

[jcbatc01]

Hello guys!

We are also booked on this transatllantic out of Rome.
We have done one TA before and had a great time and made lots of friends.
We are from Tampa, FL. Called John and Alex. :)
Planning to be in Rome a day or two before the cruise.
Hope to meet you all there!

John

[TheZaxy]

Hi John and Alex,

We live in NYC. Erick plans to hit a couple of eastern European countries the week before the cruise and then we will meet up in Rome the Thursday before. We also did a TA and had an amazing time. Made some really good friends and had some great fun. :-) We are hoping to repeat that experience again.

Where will you be staying in Rome?

Marc

[jcbatc01]

Hello guys.

Awesome to hear back from you.
We just finalized our flight details to Europe yesterday.
We are flying to London on Thrusday to spend a night with friends who live there. We then head to Rome Saturday am.

For now we do not have a hotel booked, but found some descent ones around the Termini Stazione which is close to everything, given we will be there for just a short day. A couple of good best weterns came to mind as they seem nice, with breakfast, gym and even sauna to chill from the flights.

Have you guys got a place in Rome yet? :)
John & Alex

[TheZaxy]

Hi John and Alex,

I have a couple of free resort nights that I need to use up before the end of the year, so we will be staying at the Sheraton Golf Parco de' Medici Hotel & Resort. It should be nice.

Nothing like a nice sauna to... that's right, relax in. :-)

Marc

[jcbatc01]

Heck yeah guys! Great that you can use points for the stay in Rome.
We lucked out on our flights with AA, which we are using miles too to get to London. Nothing like cashing them out for a long haul flights. :p

Not sure if there will be a lot of other guys/couples in our cruise, cause other sailings seems to have a lot of folks in it, but we like this itenrary a lot and as the cruise ends in Lauderdale, its close to home for us. :)

You guys booked any excursion yet or going to wing it and figure once we sail out?

[TheZaxy]

We have not yet booked any excursions. I think we will be looking at doing that in the coming weeks. We usually wing it, but after reviewing the options there seems to be fewer than normal, so we may want to play it safe.

I agree that there don't seem to be other guys or couples on our cruise. A slight disappointment for us, but what can you do? We selected this cruise for the itinerary, so any hot, fun guys on the ship would be an excellent bonus.

On past cruises we've had some fun in the sauna (and other places), which would be fun to repeat again, so we will remain hopeful. Do you guys look for that kind of thing or it is not your idea of fun?

[jcbatc01]

We have not booked any excursions either. But we also noticed the options for excursions are indeed fewer than normal, and in Europe sailings we noticed it's may not as easy as the Caribbean ones to find something in the port upon arrival.

We are in the same "boat" as you guys as far as the fun deal - sauna its always a great place to meet and break the ice with others... u know what I mean.... :)

We love making new friends and enjoy getting to know them too. Like you mentioned, we also hope to repeat the experience as the previous TAl. And like you said, if hot guys come around, great added bonus!!!!! :)

Really happy hear to know you boys will be in this sailing. We thought we were the only ones.

[TheZaxy]

So, tell us more about you guys. You know, some general stat stuff. We think it would be great to have fun in the sauna and perhaps even better in the comfort of a room.

Do you guys know what room you will be in?

If you prefer, you can contact me over email: marc.mendelson@gmail.com

Oh, did you also go to another gay website (email me for the url) where you can register and indicate what cruise you are taking and check whether anyone else is on the same ship. So far, Erick and I, and two other gentleman are listed as being on our ship.

[jcbatc01]

Hey guys.
Sent you an email early on today.
Hoping you got it. If not, let me know. :)
John

[hotdog647]

Doug from Gainesville and Bob from MD just finished plans to join this cruise. It does seem like fewer gay cruisers than from/to Barcelona. Probably sent a message from another site. I'm curious how the ports will be set up for cruise travellers. And I think some people on tour to Florence will be surprised to find the Uffizi and Accademia closed on Mondayss when we are there. Regardless we will have a great time, and as previously noted, the Navigator has a great steamroom and sauna for relaxing or whatever. I think the glass walled men's room outside the windjammer has the best view in the world. Doug

[bobcruise45]

Hi,

I'm Bob sailing with Doug. That makes 6 of us. If the ship holds 2500 passengers and is half full and half of the passengers are men, that's 625 men (not counting crew). If there are really only 6 of us, the Kinsey Report was way the hell off! LOL

We have not booked any excursions either. But we also noticed the options for excursions are indeed fewer than normal, and in Europe sailings we noticed it's may not as easy as the Caribbean ones to find something in the port upon arrival.

We are in the same "boat" as you guys as far as the fun deal - sauna its always a great place to meet and break the ice with others... u know what I mean.... :)

We love making new friends and enjoy getting to know them too. Like you mentioned, we also hope to repeat the experience as the previous TAl. And like you said, if hot guys come around, great added bonus!!!!! :)

Really happy hear to know you boys will be in this sailing. We thought we were the only ones.

[jcbatc01]

Hey guys!
Just about 40 or so days till cruise time.
Looking forward to this TA as the ports seem really cool. :)
We have booked a couple of excursions, but mainly to do our own thing.
Any one has any thoughts on Cartagena, Spain? Have no clue on what to do there....

[hotdog647]

Check out the posts on the 'meet and mingle roll call' board for our cruise. There have been several about Cartagena and just cruising around on foot. Check out post #2749. Doug

[jcbatc01]

Thank you for the input.
We looked into some websites and also the postings in here.
It seems that there is a few things to check it out while in Cartagena on foot. Guess thats the plan for us..... I also checked into another website "*************" and found the same input. See u all onboard! :)

[hotdog647]

Even without tours/plans in each port you shouldn't be bored. It is different from Caribbean ports. Sometimes you get a better feel of a destination if you stay away from groups and tours and go on your own. And be assured if there are tourist sights there will be people wanting to make money taking you there, probably better than ship excursions.
I hope we all meet on board. On 3 Navigator cruises last year a 'Friends of Dorothy' card was already posted when we boarded, but it seemed like it was always set up at inconvenient times & places. If someone has better ideas, please post here or on bulletin board after we embark.

Doug

[TheZaxy]

Erick and I plan the following:

Day 2: Livorno: Explore Florence & Pisa On Your Own. It only provides the transportation, but that is all we really need. We are comfortable touring on our own and have planned an itinerary. We also plan to buy some tickets to the sights prior to the trip, so once we get there we can avoid any lines.

Day 3: Provence (Toulon): Saint Tropez. We figure is we are going to be in the Riviera, we might as well see the finest it has to offer.

Day 4: Barcelona: We will do that on our own. The ship essentially ports near the center of town. We have planned an literary for the day and wil hit it hard once we port.

Day 5: Cartagena: no decision yet

Days 6 - 8: Sleep and play...

Day 9: Ponta Delgada: no decision yet

Days 10 - 14: you know where to find us :-)

We will also be in Rome a few days prior to the cruise. There we have a serious itinerary planned.

On the days we have not decided on yet, we should soon. Tonight we plan to buy advanced tickets to the sites in Rome and Florence.

[hotdog647]

Bob and I are looking into a small group tour (6-10) all day with lunch. It crosses the island, goes to the lakes, and hot pools and waterfalls, etc. It is being grouped by a woman on the cruise and sounds like a thorough tour. Currently our cost will be 65Euros, and the price goes down with more people. If interested let me know and I can send contact info.

Now tell me, am I guessing correctly where you will be on the other days

Doug

[hotdog647]

Another option is a smaller group tour about 4-6 hrs, in which we have a private chaffeur and the costs would be 35-50 Euros depending on length, destination and whether 4 or 6 went in a private van. Thoughts Doug

[bobcruise45]

Hi - I'm Bob - sailing with Doug Hotdog647. Here's our port plans so far. See if you want to join us for anything.

Rome - arriving 10/1 and staying at the Hotel Siviglia near termini. Via Gaeta 12-0185 phone 39 06 4441197. One day in Florence by train. Night walk of Rome 11/5.

Ponta Delgada - Doug and I are going to book a tour and will be looking for 2 to 5 others to join us. The tour is with http://www.azores-tours.com/en/azores-tours/ It is their 1st tour on the site - Seven Cities & Fire Lake (around 6 hours) and costs 210€ divided among how ever many of us go (30€ each if we get 7 people) Let me know at bob.egan@gmail.com if you want to sign on.

Livorno - Since the museums will be closed the day we're in port, we're going to go up from Rome by train for one day sometime before the cruise. But when the ship makes port on Monday, we'll want to get transport to Florence with possibly a short stop at Pisa and then explore on our own. The Royal Caribbean excursion at $99 seems a little pricey and probably devotes more time to Pisa than we want to. Do any of you have any other options to suggest? Any interest in booking a van for a small group?

Toulon - I'm thinking about trying to get up to Aix-en-Provence for the day. Again it would be ideal to get transport for a small group and then just play it by ear when we get there. Any other thoughts?

Barcelona - as I think Marc said, the boat docks near the city center and we are just going to wander. The Gaudi buildings and the Gehry fish are on my agenda.

Cartagena - no plans yet.

Ft Lauderdale - I'm planning on a complete collapse before flying back to Bmore!

[t_and_j]

Hi everyone, my name is JR and I'm from Tampa and will be sailing with you. I'm really looking forward to this and to meeting new friends. See you all soon.

[hotdog647]

Hi everyone, my name is JR and I'm from Tampa and will be sailing with you. I'm really looking forward to this and to meeting new friends. See you all soon.

Glad to have you with us! I'm sure we will all have a great time. I'm working right now on getting back tfrom Ft. Lauderdale. I'm leaving from Orlando Oct. 28 and it seems so short a time even though it's 2 weeks. Too much to do and too little time. Hope everyone who has posted here and any others watching the board will be able to get together near the start of the cruise. Looking forward to meeting all.

Doug from Gainesville
cabin 7226

PS: Always looking for cabin mates on Jewel from Tampa this season. If you hear of someone interested, please keep me in mind.

[hotdog647]

Would anyone be interested in sharing a table for dinner? It could be a lot of fun.

Bob arranged a wonderful private Azores tour! We will be seeing the best parts of the island, including the crater lakes and mountain towns. Unlike tours from the ship or dockside, we have the option of purchasing some 'refreshments of choice' as we go, as well as staying longer to swim in hot springs or play under waterfall or whatever we decide.

If anyone would care to join us for either of the above, drop me a line at
FL352 at america OL dot com for more info.

Doug

[bobcruise45]

In Livorno, Doug and I are joining a group set up by an lady named Arline to take an 8 person van to Siena, San Gimignano, ride through some of Tuscany and quick stop in Pisa. Cost will be about $90 each. If interested get back to me at bob.egan@gmail.com

[kcrandy]

Hey guys!

I just found this thread. I will be traveling solo since my partner of 4 years & I split the week after final payment was made. I am looking forward to the hot italian men and having the time of my life.

I am arriving Rome Friday, Nov 4th. What do you know there is a gay bar that happens to have naked orgy night the 1st friday of every month. So far Bob, Doug and myself plan on going to that. I was told about 100 men show up for this after 10 pm. Here is info on it if anyone is interested.

Website: www.ildiavolodentro.com (http://www.ildiavolodentro.com/)

Location


Il Diavolo Dentro
Largo Itri, 23
Rome
Italy

I am staying at Hotel Eden. - Looks like excellent hotel in a good location with hey hey hey a steam room in the evenings. If anyone would like to come over Fri evening before the orgy, let me know.

Sat there are about 40 people from cruise critic meeting to do a night walk of Rome. Doug, Bob, Jerry, Richard and myself are meeting for this.

Livorno, I have a van reserved but it is full going to Pisa & Florence wandering around for the day. Jerry & Richard are going with me.

Toulon, I am going with Bob & Doug to take the train & go to Marseilles. Not sure what else. We just want to venture out.

Barcelona, nothing in concrete here. I think use the hop on hop off bus and go to the market. Stroll Las Ramblas, Barri Gotic & Segrada Familia.

Cartegena, nothing arranged. Everything is within walking distance of the ship.

Azores, Jerry, Richard & I are joining Bob & Doug for the tour. There are still 3 seats left. Sounds like a fun day.

If you need more information on any of the above or anything sounds interesting, email me at happyrock8 at hotmail dot com.

I will be in cabin # 8263 ( when I am not in the steam room ).

So far our dinner table consists of Jerry, Richard, Bob, Doug and myself.

Randy

[TheZaxy]

Hi Randy,

Thanks for the info on the orgy in Rome. Perhaps we will see you there.

My partner and I are really hoping for some "fun" times on the cruise too.

Marc