CoolChange37

Based on your comparison with Celebrity and RCCL, it is most definitely not the same. The bathroom situation is awful, but depending on what type cabin you get, it may not matter. The Haven suites were refurbished recently and I don't they have the split bath issue. My problem wasn't that - it was that the frosted glass at the doorway was not as private as one might like especially if someone opens the cabin door. Do you go for itinerary or for the cosmetics and layout of the ship? I have found after 45 some cruises, that the itinerary is what is important and the busier the itinerary, the less time you are on the ship. Do what makes sense to you. The Epic is a nice ship but not as posh as Celebrity and the newer huge ships of RCCL. We are actually cruising her again in April for the TA and it will be just awesome disconnecting...

I got it for $49.00 pp (5 of us) last Black Friday for the end of this month on Independence. Which is great cause my husband and I will just be there to keep an eye on our grands and I didn't want to spend anymore than that to not participate.

I got it for $49.00 pp (5 of us) last Black Friday for the end of this month on Independence. Which is great cause my husband and I will just be there to keep an eye on our grands and I didn't want to spend anymore than that to not participate.

Where do you go to do this? I'm Platinum and don't see anything.

Thanks. That's the one I was looking at.

My next question. We live in the US and will be traveling to Italy, Israel and Greece. What type of VPN would you suggest for a Firestick to be able to pick up my recorded shows or casting from my iPad to the TV for recorded movies/shows? TIA

May I ask what you mean by negotiate? We are going to be on the Odyssey and traveling from Rome to Greece to Israel and such.

Yikes, RobinMN! That's alot of information. Thank you so much! We are from Tennessee going to the Greek Isles and Israel, so thinking that is a bit far from home. Gonna research the VPN thing. Completely clueless at this point but have a couple of months to figure it out. Thanks again!

Thanks Biker19! Great advice. So no remote?

Please "dumb" this down for me. I am technologically challenged and hoping to be able to watch recorded shows on my Firestick that we use at home. We are on the Odyssey for 14 days in October and I'm trying to figure out what I actually need to be able to use the TV with my gadgets. I have an iPhone and iPad and can purchase a universal remote (which one?). What does Casting mean? We tried the HDMI cable and the Firestick on the Harmony in December and it didn't work, but we didn't have a universal remote. TIA. Please no snarky remarks. I've read everything I can on these forums and still confused.

Good evening. I was just with some friends that were on a cruise for New Year's and they advised they were charged for drinks while gambling in the casino on Carnival. Is this the case with Royal Caribbean as well?

Thank you everyone. I change it this morning and all is good!

Very experienced cruiser here but stumped... If we are booked in a large balcony cabin on the Odyssey and want to upgrade to a Jr Suite (just because its more room for a 2 week cruise), do we loose all the excursions and packages we have booked or do they just change our cabin for us? Or would it be better to wait til the upgrade offer (assuming there will be one)? And then, do they just change the room without loosing all the prepaid stuff we have? TIA

Thank you!

Good evening. Has anyone done the catacombs tour(s) in Rome? There are so many to choose from various tour companies and looking for recommendation(s) from anyone that has done one and was it worth it? Looking for something to do a couple of hours the afternoon the day we arrive (Sept 30). TIA

My friend wanted us to check out Orvieto and Civita Bagnoregio. Has anyone been there and what did you think?

Thanks!

I have contacted them and asked them, but have not heard anything back. We've had luck with contacting vendors directly, and had good experiences and bad experiences. Was just hoping for some personal experience recommendations. I was a Travel Agent for 20 years (sold the business 20 years ago - due to the internet accesses) and always relied on personal experiences. Guess things have changed. Thanks.

Hlitner, thanks so much. I appreciate your input. I would like to have our group experience something in the area (outside of Rome - as we did all of Rome last year) that would be memorable for the first timers and something new for us.

Cruisemom42 - thanks for pointing that out. You are right I have, but apparently wasn't asking the right question. As I've said, I've looked at all the recommendations and they are all doing the same tour(s) (which means a lot of people showing up at the same time on huge buses) and we don't want that. We will be doing enough of that with the tours from the ship. We want off the beaten path. We went to Fattoria il poggio the year on a tour from the ship and had so much fun and would like do do something like that again with this year's group. So I tried again. I want advice from someone that actually went on one or knows someone personally that does this from Rome. Sorry for the repeat question. Won't do it again. Will try another way. Thank you.

There are 10 of us and we are looking for a private tour to Tuscany from Rome for a day enjoying lunch and wine and some time for walking around? We don't want to do the train as part of this trip as some of our group is visually impaired. We'd rather have a private guide throughout - as we did for Normandy last year from Paris and it was perfect. I have been to all the Trip Advisor and Viator sites, and many others, and it seems that every one of them go to the same places which leads me to believe they are paid by these places to bring masses of people to their venues. Not what we want. Can anyone tell me or refer me to a company or private guide that you have actually done/used that would be able to accommodate 10 of us? This is a "must do" for our group. TIA.

I think that when it was realized that 20,000 people would be off boarding in Santorini (5 large ships), they had to rethink this. 😳

Good afternoon. I just got notice that our itinerary for our 13 night Holy Land cruise for October has completely changed due to "crowd control" and we have excursions booked on every stop with the cruise RCCL. Will they change all these for us (5 cabins) or will I need to call and have them rearranged. Ohmylanta, it was a nightmare trying to just get them booked in the first place! I don't want to have to redo all this! Anyone experience this in the past? TIA

Thank you so much JBrinkM! That answers my question!

I'm confused as well. I'm taking my 3 grands and I don't understand the difference between getting a package with 4 devices and 4 Voom and Streaming packages other than the $60 difference. I want to be sure we can all watch a movie or keep in touch with their friends, etc when we return to the cabin for the evening. Help!