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cuterlmt

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. We have stayed at the Hilton at FCO a couple times. Nice hotel, good breakfast and restaurant. Walkable from airport, and covered. Most of the walk is through the terminal buildings. Just look for the hilton sign.
  2. Thank you for the recommendations for Hotel Albuergo Santa Chiara. It was a very lovely hotel. We had a gorgeous, large room with a s[lendidly huge balcony/terrace with a table and chairs. No view, except the other rooms but just lovely place to sit in the afternoon/evening. And it was so pleasant having the doors open in the evening to let the cool air in. The room was great, the breakfast was great, the staff and service was wonderful. We found a great restaurant around the corner for our dinners, walked to the Colosseum, and had just a great time. A couple of caveats though - 1) we reserved a car from the airport to the hotel through the hotel. It was 70 euro, which was fine. Private driver who was very nice, dropped us at the hotel. But his car was parked really far from the baggage claim. We were pretty exhausted and had to walk at least half a mile (probably more), to get to the car. He did drop us off in front of the hotel. 2) We asked for a room without stairs as we had heard of folks having to climb stairs and both of us are in our 60s and use canes. We got a room that had three steps, which were manageable. BUT, the shower, which was huge and nice, had a very high tub to step in. We managed ok, but it was a bit frightening getting in and out. 3) I thought we had pre-paid for our room, not just reserved it, so I did not have the card I used to reserve it and was prepared to use a different card to pay for the hotel. It worked out fine, but was a bit of a surprise. My fault certainly. The great positives: 1) huge room, with sitting area outside of bedroom, 2) terrace (as mentioned above), 3) staff was fantastic. Our ride from the hotel to the port was very late, and they were kind enough to help us out with calling them and talking to them about getting there. They talked to him in Italian so I didn't understand everything, but it seemed like the hotel staff was very much expressing how we felt about the delay. The staff was very kind and reassuring. We did make it to the port in plenty of time, but the driver had to drop two other couples off at hotels in Civitavecchia before taking us to port. He did drop us off right in front of the ship and we were able to get on board very quickly.
  3. Oh he's fine eating slow (LOL), he just isn't patient in his seating and ordering. lol. Thanks for the other suggestions.
  4. Thank you so much for the information - it is exactly what I was looking for, As far as the busy, my husband is not very patient so I'm just concerned we'll have to wait a while and he'll decide he wants to leave instead of wait. I am very much a planner, so I should probably just make reservations and just get him to those places when it's time..... I already had Armando Al Pantheon on our list, so that's great that you recommend it. We plan to visit the Colosseum area and Pantheon area, but plan to stick around there. I've been to the Vatican area and St. Peter's before and hubby does not want to go there, so I think we're just going to hang around areas that are walkable for us. We are a bit older, and slower, but are looking forward to walking around the area. Can you give me some sense of where the ghetto is to get the famed artichokes? Perhaps the name of a couple of restaurants that might have good ones so I can do some google mapping? thank you again! These boards are such a wealth of information.
  5. I've read through a good number of the posts here and have some specific questions. We will be staying at Albergo Santa Chiara. We are looking for restaurants for lunch/dinner in that area as we'll be staying there a few days pre-cruise. We do not drink alcohol. And we'll probably stick to mostly non-meat dishes. I don't think I can get my husband on board to eat pork cheek, although I might try it. He likes shrimp, so any pasta with cheese and shrimp, he would probably eat. Pizza is fine, and gelato of course. And if there's a fried artichoke around, I might try it. The hotel serves breakfast, so I imagine the only treat we might have after breakfast is one of the filled croissants I've heard about. So mostly afternoon/evening options. Husband will not eat sandwiches, but will eat bread, or pizza. We do not eat a ton of food, so we may split dishes (if allowed) or like a place that has appetizer size meals or we can opt for appetizer pasta or something. We'd like a place that isn't too busy (if that's possible). We'll be there the 2nd week of November. Thank you all for sharing your information! It has been great reading about your experiences and jotting down notes for our visit.
  6. Do they actually pick you up at your hotel and take you to the port/ship? That's a pretty great deal. We usually take the NCL shuttle but would have to trek back from our hotel to FCO (probably $50) and pay $75 a person to get a transfer from FCO to the port.
  7. My Panama Canal cruise was through a Prime Casino offer. I had lots to choose from through April of 2024. April was the best time with my schedule. So I called Casino Royale to try to change the cruise to something I wanted to do and they would not do the change, said that I didn't have any offers for that time period, even though I had a ton of offers for that time period before I chose the Canal cruise - because those "expired" (I had to book within a certain period of time). Unfortunately, we cancelled. So incredibly disappointed with how Royal dealt with this.
  8. I'm hoping to be able to do something similar - ours was a casino offer as well. Which sailing did you choose that they allowed you to switch to? and i assume minimal (or no) extra cost? I still have part of my list from the offer, but only kept January through Apil since we have a cruise in November, and try to cruise every 6 months (versus two in two months). thanks.
  9. Ours was cancelled too, for 4/6/2024. Thankfully I hadn't booked our air yet. But this was a casino comp and I chose it out of at least a few hundred cruises I was offered. I wonder if I'll be able to go back and pick a different one from the casino comp.list that we got in May after our last cruise. So disappointed.
  10. Just a heads up to those of you who were sailing with us on the Rhapsody of the Seas Panama Canal cruise - it has been cancelled and replaced with an ABC islands cruise. And while I enjoy the ABC islands, I've been there a couple of times, and really wanted to see the Panama Canal. So disappointed. Thankfully we'll have some time to research and hopefully find another Panama Canal cruise to put in its place. I have done so much research on this cruise... and I convinced some friends to join us because it's the Panama Canal. Oh well. If anyone finds any great options on RCCL for that same time period to Panama Canal, post here please. I will as well.
  11. So they were in my coupons and credits, and it says CruiseNext not casNext. But I have never purchased cruisenext coupons. I did copy them into a document and printed them because I was worried about them disappearing, and I can't access them now, so I don't know where they exist? Not sure if someone else can help with that? I did have more in my account today, but they were percent off, etc.
  12. I recently sailed in April/May, 2023 and didn't know about the new program. Normally I gamble enough that they take most of my excursions/gifts purchased on the ship off of my account at the end of the cruise. They did that on that cruise so we didn't have much on our onboard account, except gratuities to pay. The host did come tell me on the last night of our cruise that everything was taken care of but didn't tell me anything about the cruise next certificates. Yesterday, I went into my account to pay off my upcoming November cruise and found a ton of cruise next certificates - $500 and $250. They expire 12/31/2024, sail by 12/31/2024. So even though I didn't get them onboard, they showed up in my account, and they expire in 1-1/2 years. So I guess YMMV. Looking forward to trying to plan and be able to use them when there are times when you can use two or three of the coupons at a time. And I need to retire, so I can cruise more. lol
  13. We just booked the April 6th cruise on this same ship and itinerary, so I'm anxiously following this thread. Thank you for all the information.
  14. We actually flew from VCE to FCO (Rome) the week before and it was pretty easy. We did have to check in with the airline and drop our luggage, but TSA was easy, and we just waited for the plane. The only odd thing was we didn't get a gate assignment until about 30 minutes before the flight. But much easier of course.
  15. We ended up taking a transfer to VCE, and then flying to Rome to start another cruise the next day. It was not horribly expensive - about $200 total for both of us with luggage for an hour long flight.
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