AmR87

Hello all again,

Well a week later and boy do I have a lot more figured out.

I convinced my mil to let me book the apartment, woo hoo, I have booked hotel Tiber for two days post cruise.

Could someone let me know if this looks okay for an itinerary?

Friday- no plans but to explore. I am not sure how tired or pumped up we will be. We will see where our legs take us. The only job that day is to find a grocery store.

Saturday- walk to Trevi fountain, Spanish steps and pantheon. Stops for fun in between

Sunday- colosseum area exploration.

Monday- day trip to Tuscany or tivoli (not sure which to do here. I understand Tuscany is about a 3 hour drive each way)

Tuesday- vatacian area tour with Angel tours. Explore this area before and after the tour

Post cruise

Wednesday- explore around our hotel and ocean.

Thursday.- Ostia antico exploring

So there's a vague outline. My mil says there are student workers that work near the colosseum to give tours. Is this true or can we make it on our own?

Does this look like I am hitting main spots and allowing okay time for each? Any help is great!

I think an apartment is a fine idea. Just try to book one that is well reviewed (not just 1 or 2, which could be "plants" ;)). And obviously in a central area is better and makes it easier to get about on your own without needing a concierge.

 

For Rome you are lucky (and smart!) to have so much time. You should count on three days just to see the Rome highlights at a pace that's reasonable, not breakneck. I usually suggest:

 

One day for the Vatican museum, St. Peter's and dome (if you wish) plus Castel Sant'Angelo.

 

One day for the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine Hill plus maybe a visit to the Capitoline Museum (it's right there) or to the basilica of San Clemente (http://basilicasanclemente.com/eng/).

 

And one day to meander through the Centro Storico on foot, from the Spanish Steps (window shop down Via Condotti), Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon, Largo Argentina, Piazza Navona and perhaps Campo di Fiori. Of course, you could well do one or two of these things on other days if you are close by, after the "main" sightseeing of ancient Rome and the Vatican.

 

Be aware in your planning that the Vatican Museum is closed on Sundays, and many other sites (particularly museums) are closed on Mondays. However, the Colosseum and Forum are open every day.

 

I'm not sure if you are counting as full days your arrival day and departure day for the port. You could look into a daytrip to Tivoli, which is easy to do from Rome (many tour agencies run such a tour several times a week). If you have two full days unoccupied and are not planning to visit Florence on your cruise, you could do it in a long day from Rome.

 

Be sure you get a GOOD map of Rome. One with all the streets, not just the main ones. Most hotels give these out for free -- you may be able to step into a hotel lobby and get one, if you are charming. ;) Or look for a tourist information kiosk at the airport or in Rome.

 

If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask. Some of us just love answering questions about Rome. :D

Wow! I appreciate the information!! After watching many Rick Steves videos on youtube, I figured 5 days would be a good amount of time to see everything we have on the must have list. I am glad to hear that is a good amount of time.

We will definitely be doing the Colosseum then on Sunday or Monday, per your information about many museums being closed then.

The apartment we are looking at is in the Piazza Barberini area. It has a full terrace with not one, but TWO big outdoor couches. I am envisioning myself out there already every morning with coffee and evening with wine.

I contacted the owner via airbnb and he responded back within 30 minutes. He must be semi legit then right? The specific apartment has 7 reviews, but he has 926 reviews as he manages multiple properties.

I am still unsure of what to do for our two days after. We had not been planning to stay after the cruise but flight prices and times pushed us back a few days. Do we just grab a hotel near the airport, or cruise port, or lug everything back to rome to a hotel? I am not sure of the best option.

We really love the idea of an apartment in the central area (Centro Storico). Your M IL could have her own room, and you would have a common gathering spot and a place to relax after a long hours of hitting the pavement. There are restaurants everywhere and the owner of the apartment most likely would leave A lot of information on local restaurants, sites to see, etc. That's been the case and all the apartments that we've rented in Europe. You can also stock up on breakfast foods, snacks, etc. and that's a great way to save money for some nicer meals in restaurants. Without knowing what her particular objections are, it's hard to counter them, but in your case I think an apartment makes perfect sense

Thanks for the suggestion! Originally, I think it was two things that bothered her, the familiarity of a hotel (she has never not staying in a hotel when traveling) and the whole "how will I know where to go aspect."

I actually decided to send her some links of some of my favorite apartments. Once she saw some, I could hear in her voice that her mind was changing. "Cheaper, and I get my own room?" She then asked me "Can you post on those review sites you do to see what people say about apartments. Which has brought me to this! :)

We stayed in an apartment at Maison Giulia. It's a small hotel/B&B but they also offer apartments, so we had the best of both worlds. We still had a concierge and staff available to help with our luggage, but we also had the extra space that comes with an apartment.

 

If you want your own rooms you could always choose a cheaper hotel and just book separate rooms. While Albergo Del Senato is nice, it's also expensive. Albergo Cesari gets good reviews on this board and is about half the price. Both hotels are in the same area.

 

For the two days post cruise, I'd probably base myself in Rome (especially since you're flight departs from there). There are lots of day trips you can do from there.

 

If wanting to stay in a different area of Italy, I'd be more inclined to do it pre-cruise when you have more time.

Thank you for the help!

That's were the problem arises. I wish we could book separate rooms at a hotel (even a cheaper one) but my MIL could not afford anything more than 400 on her own. Thus making it much easier to book together, or an apartment.

I'm going to look into the place you mentioned though!

Hello All,

I am booked on the NCL Epic in June. We booked our airfare last night (that means we REALLY are going!) The travelers are my husband (33), myself (28) and my mother in law (62, but moves n groves great!)

Anyway, I am looking for suggestions as there is so much information out there. We will be arriving in Rome 5 days prior to the cruise. I have found some amazing apartments for cheaper than hotels. It has been very hard convincing my MIL though of this as she believes there are too many cons to this type of booking. Other than not having a concierge are there any other cons to booking an apartment? I looked at it more as we get our own rooms for a cheaper price than a shared room at a hotel.

If we go the hotel route, I will be booking the Albergo Del Sento.

Secondly, anyone have suggestions on possible itinteraries? Again, we have 5 days.

Finally, we have two days post cruise before leaving from FCO. Any ideas on places to stay after? Not sure if we should go back to Rome or outside of Rome, etc.

Thank you all for the help!!!

AmR87, when do you go? We are on the Glory sailing out of Miami on Jan 9. We are novice divers. At the moment, I have the ship's excursion booked, but but we may cancel and try a different company as we're looking for a smaller group with few divers per DM.

 

I think the ship uses Oasis.

We are going next week. Cruise leaves Saturday. I can let you know how it is when we return on the 4th!

I am definitely a little more nervous with a bigger group. However, I remind myself that I have had plenty of training and 5 dives in addition to my training. I am trying to force myself to become slightly more independent in the sport!

I did!

I found our exact scuba tour for cheaper. Woo hoo!

So excited to read this!

I just had mine approved for my cruise next week. I had booked through the ship for scuba diving. I then found out the name of the provider and checked their website. It was only 5 dollars cheaper, but it gave me 11 in on board credit... And hey that's a free drink right!?

Is dive gear included with the excursion price? I'm a little unsure of where to find the answer to this?

Hi all,

In doing a search about diving this thread came up. Although a year old I had a few questions.

1 does anyone know what company carnivals currently using for dives? I did book through the ship.

2 will we be well taken care of as newish divers? We have 8 logged dives and our first after certification were all in Tahiti and her islands. They were amazing with us there and now I feel spoiled.

3 does the ship excursion include gear rental? I'm unsure as to whether I should bring extra money and how much

Thank you all for your help!

I am interested in the July 1 vista cruise. I am cruising on the conquest in two weeks. Would it be better to book my next cruise while on the ship?

No question that BB is the stuff of dreams. At some point I want to stay at the 4 seasons there.

With respect to deviation.....$200 ie $100 per person is the cheaper end of the spectrum. I guess you do not have much experience with deviating on your air booking to find this ridiculous. When we deviate ,and this is not just on the PG , we weigh the costs vs conveniences of booking all arrangements on on our own against what the cruise line offers. Sometimes we prefer the convenience of the cruise line arrangements sometimes we prefer our own. It depends on the circumstances.

 

On the subject of deviation it would be nice for the PG to offer free deviation as some cruise lines do for repeaters with a certain number of days.

Yes, I have had experience with deviation. I meant in general, I believe it is ridiculous that charges can be made concerning that. (Not just PG). Even when the person booking me (through PG directly I may add) apologizes for 'having' to charge that, I get a sense that even employees have similar feelings. (Or have had many complainants maybe?)

In our case, spending the 200 dollars still saved us 2000. Well worth the extra nights we were able to spend in BB!

My husband and I stayed for 4 days after our cruise.

I booked everything on my own through Expedia. (Flight and overwater bungalow at the ic moana) I saved about 2k doing so. Now, my trip didn't include transfers or breakfast, where pg did. That was not worth 2k to me.

Pg will charge an air deviation fee though, which is ridiculous in my opinion. It was 200 for both of us I believe.

I would disagree with other posters though. Bb is so worth it to fly back to. Moorea was great and all but I still dream about bb

Hello. Can someone familiar with the PG shore excursions please help me with something:

It looks like tour BRB 1603 ("Lagoon excursion with Maohi Nui") is one of Patrick's tours.

There is another tour (BRB-1602: "Lagoon Cruise and Polynesian Feast") that may also be with his company. Can anyone confirm that?

 

I'm not familiar with Patrick - does booking through the PG shore excursions mean that he is less likely to be the guide, or does he guide all of his tours?

 

Thank you very much. :)

They are both Patrick's tours

We did the one without the feast, and had a guide that went by 'the bad boy of bora bora'. The other boat had Patrick. We went to all the same places, our tour just ended before theirs, since we did not do the lunch.

Kaye,

I'm so excited to read your report! It is wonderful thus far.

I hope everything is lovely in Vegas".

AmR what a wonderful review- terrific photos and it looks like you and hubby had a wonderful anniversary trip! Watch out for that anniversary fertility blanket! ;) When I go back one day, I plan to buy a pair for my daughters weddings, I just thought it was such a beautiful thing (I even got teary! I think I was missing them at the time!)

I agree with you about the star gazing, it's easy to forget since we live in the Northern Hemisphere, that the sky is different "down south". I always get out on a dry night whenever I'm in the Southern Hemisphere and look for the southern cross!

I am with you about exploring the world...I keep telling myself I'll go back to FP but then some new destination pops up like a shiny bauble and I'm off in that direction, but ahhh, FP is an amazing place! Thanks for sharing it with all of us!

Thank you for the kind words. I took a lot of inspiration from your amazing report!

I really appreciated your honest review and I am sure those with special dietary needs especially welcomed your report on the PG's ability to meet your needs.

 

The Marquesas are not known for their diving. The islands are quite different in geography and there are no reefs. Our daughter who went on many of our PG cruises reports at Tonga and Fiji are great for diving. You might consider those cruises if you are into diving.

 

I agree with your assessment that being on the PG is better than a land stay. We have done both before and after stays and found them to be expensive and not the value that the PG gives. I always advise to go for the longest time you can afford on the PG rather than popping for pre or post stays. Different strokes for different folks.

 

We are going on our 9th PG cruise due to the crew and the special environment on the ship. We have cruised other lines but never found the warm welcoming that the PG crew provides to their passengers.

 

I guess you did not attend any of the guest lectures while on board? They for the most part add so much to the cruise. We enjoy Anthropologist Mark Eddowes lectures and even attend the ones that we have heard before. I didn't realize how much I had soaked up until we were in New Zealand visiting a museum that had a section on Polynesia. I kept thinking I know this and why while viewing their exhibit.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to report to us!!!!

That's great to know concerning diving! I am all open for places to dive.

I was sad that we didn't make any of the lectures. We were so busy on the land that we were gone every day from the first, to the last tender. I guess you can't do it all. :(

DH fought me for the OWB. I wanted the cruise, he wanted the bungalow, so we compromised and did both. I do think I would do a longer cruise next time with a couple nights again in Tahiti/Moorea beforehand. I'll have to see what he thinks about that ;)

Wonderful review! Makes me really look forward to our twentieth anniversary trip in October.

One question: was the dive in Tahiti worth it once you compared the dives on the other islands?

My favorite dive was actually in tahiti.

Some background though- it was my first dive after certification. This could be why it holds a special place in my heart.

It also was the calmest and warmest water, on the clearest day of our trip.

I felt that I saw the most marine life during this dive as well. I believe we saw 4 turtles within 10 minutes alone.

Bora Bora was nice too. The water was insanely choppy (even with a strong current under) and it wasn't as sunny of a day. These dives also had a lot more people, which put me off a little as I felt I had to 'fight' to hold on to the rope going up and down.

I would skip Moorea honestly. I was not impressed by anything there (maybe it was the day/time?), and I am a new diver!

Thank you for the awesome review and photos! We're thinking of this trip for our upcoming 20th anniversary and I love reading reviews from folks who are new to PG. Loved it!

I am glad you enjoyed it. You'll have a blast!

The last section I wanted to include was things I was surprised by or learned even after doing my massive amounts of research on cruise critic.

1. Staff at IC Tahiti were very unaware of what should or should not be included in your stay. (food wise) Luckily, I always kept all my paperwork for proof. They wanted to charge us for our Saturday lunch as well as one of our breakfasts. Both of these took time to figure out and prove, which was frustrating.

2. If you have any dietary needs, just mention it at the time of booking. They took care of me, I swear, better than I do myself at home. When booking, they even asked what brand of gluten free items I liked. Guess What... they ordered that brand! The ATN flight had even made me GF meals as well. I did call them ahead of time to confirm this.

3. Laundry Package- Yes, this was awesome. However, they inspected every article of clothing. My PJ shirt had a tiny hole from home from bleach. They sent it back, along with all of the laundry saying they needed permission to wash it. I understand there are liability issues, but it stank (literally) to wait another day to wash all of the laundry. This happened again with one of my tank tops. I just started writing on the laundry sheet 'Has hole, please still wash." which seemed to fix the problem.

4.New Divers- I was all prepared to set up all my own gear, clean it all, etc. (That's how we were trained at home at lease.) I never had to do anything. Every place we dove, they took care of set up, cleaning, etc. It was nice to feel like I was truly on vacation and didn't have to clean up. Lazy people unite!

5. The juicing machine on the boat is amazing. We didn't find out about it though, until our 3rd day. I wish I would've known sooner.

6. Go to the star gazing on the boat. They turned off all the lights and brought out a huge telescope. It was pretty neat.

7. Look into booking post stays on your own. We did it on our own and saved a lot of money by doing so. We were even able to add on an extra night because it saved so much.

8. We were between upgrading to a balcony or staying in our room and decided to stay (deck 4). We were NEVER in our room, except to sleep and pack. I am glad we didn't spend the extra 1000 to upgrade.

9. Would I go back? Yes/No. I have a hard time going to places I have already been. I am a one and done girl, as I feel there are too many places in the world to see in 1 lifetime.

I wouldn't spend the same amount of money again. Seriously, I'm jealous of those who can afford to go 5+ times. I am glad I did it once. I wouldn't mind doing the cruise again, as I had more fun there than in Bora Bora. I did feel like royalty there.

I would not stay at Le Moana again either. I'd shell out the money and stay on one of the motu resorts, if we went back.

Please let me know if anyone has any questions. I would love to help out if I can!

Day 14 (I think?) July 7th, 2015- Beginning the long journey home

Well, it was now Tuesday morning. Time to begin our journey home. It was raining, again. Way to make me miss you Bora Bora!

Check out was at 11am, and our flight was at 530. We ensured that we could use the transit room around 3 as our boat was scheduled to leave at 4.

One interesting thing was that the day before someone from the front desk had called and offered me a 'proposition.' He wanted us to leave our bungalow and offered us free late check out from the beach room as well as 250 dollars back. After thinking about it, I realized that he was just giving us the difference between the bungalow and new room, so basically he was only offering us free late check out. I declined as I waited far too long to stay in an OWB to just give it up.

We checked out around 11am and then tried to sit at the beach. It began to rain, when we decided to get lunch. This is where my favorite GF story comes to play.

I ordered a GF pizza. It came out and did not look like the one I had ordered on a previous day. The crust was for sure a regular crust. The waitress did not understand what I was trying to tell her, so she got another man. This man came out and said "well, I'll just get the chef, because I don't understand. This pizza isn't crusty enough for you? We will just cook it longer." HA! So DH thinks quickly, and asked for the menu so that we could point. Long story short, it gets figured out and I get the right pizza. At the end, he brings a sheet of paper saying I needed to sign it to say why I sent the pizza back. Guess what he wrote on it? "Pizza not crusty enough."

Oh language barriers...

We walked to the pier to leave at 345

Picture from previous day, it was not this sunny.

And made our way back to the airport.

Our flight was late, but it did not matter as our night flight wasn't leaving until 1050pm.

When we got back to Tahiti, we paid for luggage storage and walked to the Ocean Restaurant for dinner.

That killed a good amount of time and then we walked back to the airport, checked in and got on the plane. I thought the ride back was faster than the ride there. Probably because I was able to sleep most of the time.

Day 15/16- July 8th/9th 2015

We arrived to LAX, where I had again used hotwire to book a room. This time I had the Hilton. I very much liked this hotel.

We checked in, walked to In n Out for lunch, then came back and used the pool. We then decided to go to Manhattan beach on the ocean express bus and had a blast! We had a wine tasting, went to the pier, had happy hour drinks and appetizers, and went to Mama D's for dinner. Way to end a magical vacation.

Our flight back home was on Thursday the 9th. All went well and we got back home in one piece.

I am going to do an FYI section next, for any newbies, or things that I was surprised by.

One last happy picture :)

Day 12 & Day 13 July 5-6th 2015

Ready for round 2! I ran out of steam yesterday and my goal for today is to finish this review as well as get our pictures ordered.

Thank you to everyone for the very kind comments! This is my first review of something of this nature (I am very into writing yelp reviews though!) so it is nice to hear that my writing is coming off as semi educated. ;)

Anywho-

I thought I would bundle our two full days in Bora Bora as we finally took the time to relax. After DH saw my itinerary for the cruise he ever so nicely asked "hunny, can we just not schedule anything for Bora Bora?" So, that is almost what we did!

We began the morning on Sunday with 2 tank dives with TOPDIVE. Again, I booked this all online and paid ahead of time, which saved about 10%. They came and picked us up on time and all went well. The water was insanely choppy, and I semi freaked out before the first dive. I went in nervous and came out nervous. Luckily, by the second dive I had calmed down a bit. I was impressed with what we saw. Many of the other experienced divers told me though, that diving was 'terrible' there and there was not much to see. These were also people that had a 7000 dollar underwater housing for their cameras. ;/ We were finished and back to our resort by about 1230pm.

Now it was time to relax!

For the next day and a half, the weather was pretty beautiful, but windy. Now, I have heard contradicting stories about Le Moana being generally windy, but this was WINDY. My shoes even blew away! I was lucky and found them back on the beach though.

We mainly did a lot of snorkeling and laying out over these two days. Breakfast was granola that we brought from home and milk. Lunch was meat and cheese (and doritos!) bought from the market as well as some fresh fruit. I began to crave vegetables by the end of the trip though.

Eagle Rays

Eel and DH's 'pet' fish under the bungalow

Brought my pink floatie!

View from the room

We tried to go to the sushi restaurant one night for dinner, but it was closed due to the Hevia festival. We made it to the restaurant next to our resort, which was fine. (GF options limited). We also made it to bloody mary's, which was touristy, but I enjoyed it. Due to the switch for that week's PG schedule, many PG cruisers were at BM the night we were. It was nice chatting with them.

We were in bed early each night, but up early as well. I wanted as much sun as I could savor.

And on to the last official day in Bora Bora... which, includes the best gluten free story of the trip.

Hi all....

 

another hopeful PG newbie with a I am thinking of the 10 day cruise in the summer of 2017 and know that itineraries won't be out for some time. I submitted by name and email to the PG website and was contacted a travel agent from an independent agency. He stated his role is as a 'concierge' for my plans.

 

Can I not book directly with PG or do I have to be at their mercy to connect me to someone they contract with?

This cruise has been on my bucket list forever!!!!:)

I booked directly through the PG- Found the number on their website. The biggest perk was that she gave me every possible on board credit she could find through the company. Seriously I had like 650 dollars worth. It was amazing.

Day 11- July 4th, 2015- Dembarkation, Beginning of Bora Bora

Well, morning came, like all mornings do. We got up early to enjoy the last minutes of the ship. We got our last juices upstairs and then went down to breakfast to say goodbye to everyone. I of course, had to say thanks and bye to Christian who dealt with my celiac butt all week. We also chatted a lot to Ryan in the Veranda. We took some pictures with him and then he took out his phone and asked for pictures with us. I wasn't sure why this touched me so much, but it did. I had to hold my tears back. :(

We headed to the ship's store as we wanted some dive shirts and then headed off the boat.

My first piece of advice, you DO NOT need 2 hours between leaving the boat and an inter-island flight. We left at about 930 for our 1130am flight. It was way too much time. Yes, I did suck it up and just booked the taxi through the PG with the dumb 15 dollar fee. The taxi was there and ready though, so I guess I cannot complain. Which, also reminds me, they had specific room numbers for those taxis, so I highly doubt you could walk out and just get one. They knew who they were supposed to get.

We headed to the airport and had so much time to kill. There isn't much to do there, so DH and I began the game of what was your favorite. _____? It passed the time well.

Then, finally, our flight was called! We got on the plane and a quick 50 minutes later, we were there.

However, it was pouring. This would be the story for all of the days but one. It rained and poured and rained and then blew wind 30 mph.

Although, it made for some nice photos.

We checked into Intercontinental Le Moana, Bungalow 14. Our room was not ready, so we just sat and relaxed for a bit. Again, I booked through on my own, not through PG. I saved a lot of money for essentially, the same thing. We did not get breakfast or transfers with our package. I do not think that was 2K worth though.

Eventually we got to our room. They sent us champagne, which we enjoyed immediately.

I was very happy to be on the deck.

We walked over to Matira Beach when it stopped raining for the view. We then headed down to the larger grocery store to grab breakfast and lunch items. We saved a lot of money on food by doing this.

Finally, we walked back to our room and decided to order pizza from the resort. They actually had gluten free crust! At 14 dollars each, this was our cheapest meal in Bora Bora.

We went to sleep, hoping for nicer weather in the morning.