mevs904

We have never chosen to have our medallions mailed to us. We see no point in it, particularly when we often leave our home and travel before our cruise. We also prefer not to rely on the efficiency of mail and package delivery. In the past we have been able to get our medallions quickly and easily at check-in. As far as a $10 charge is concerned, until we accepted a Move Over offer from Princess we were scheduled to sail on the current April 22 Enchanted Mediterranean cruise. We did not request that the medallions be mailed to us and planned to pick them up at the port. We were not charged and we were both in the green lane. We will do the same for our replacement cruise on June 24. We just don’t see the need to have them before we check in at the port.

Glad to see that you’ve received some suggestions to your inquiry. We were in Taormina a few years ago and ate in several places, but I was unable to remember an exact name to give you. All of the restaurants that we went to were quite good by our standards. (I’m of Italian heritage and am pretty discerning about food.) You should have a very good experience. If I were to return to Taormina I’d love to try the restaurant that Lew recommended. I’m sorry that there were some people who were dismissive of your inquiry. The majority of folks on this board are respectful and helpful.

This is interesting. I thought that Medicare Advantage didn’t cover claims outside of the country. We’re these international cruises?

We always book our domestic flights independently. The international flights that we have taken have been a mixture of independent and EZ Air with the most recent being EZ Air. We just experienced an interesting situation. We were scheduled to sail today on a Princess Mediterranean cruise. Three days ago we received a Move Over Offer from Princess because our sailing was overbooked. It was an offer that we couldn’t refuse so we rebooked for a later date. Because we had EZ Air Princess took care of rebooking our flights and absorbed all cost increases. The replacement flights that we were given were very satisfactory. If we had had independent air arrangements it would have made it more complicated and expensive to accept Princess’s very generous Move Over Offer. We will continue to use EZ Air for our cruise related international flights.

Yes! We bought the book and the map for our Alaska cruise and also used magnets to mount it on the wall. It was a great reference for mapping our progress and identifying some of the areas we sailed past. I believe we purchased our book and map before we left, but they did sell it on the ship.

Well, this will be interesting. We’re boarding the Enchanted on the 21st and will be very curious about all these changes. An Irish pub on a Mediterranean cruise doesn’t really appeal to us. We enjoy seafood and depending on the menu, we may try The Catch. We always enjoy Sabatinis and hope that the new venue on deck 7 isn’t a disappointment.

We are Platinum and remember many warnings on Princess and other cruise lines not to take unpackaged food off of the ship. We also remember the amnesty bins at the gangplanks where passengers dumped the food that they were going to try to bring off. I’ll never forget one disembarkation when a crew member said, “If you try to take a banana off the ship it will probably be the most expensive banana that you ever bought”.😆

Several years ago on a previous Princess cruise we saw a vow renewal ceremony that looked exactly how Rick & Jeannie describe. 15-20 couples participated, including a couple from our dinner table seating. It was definitely a group event and I don’t remember seeing any type of refreshments. This must have been the no charge version.

I completely agree with this!

Oh how I wish we could get chosen. We will be on the Enchanted in April, but we are only Platinum and in a mini-suite. From what I’ve read the invitations seem to be extended to Elite suite passengers.

Once again, thank you Hank! I had forgotten about the Basilica Cistern. I first learned about it when I read Dan Brown’s Inferno and was intrigued at the time. We will definitely book a tour that includes the cistern. This was exactly the kind of recommendation that I was hoping to get.

Thank you, Hlitner. Your posts are always helpful. Yes, I have been checking out the other posts and I’m coming to the conclusion that your second option of just enjoying the village is the best choice for Kotor. That’s what we did in Tallinn, Estonia on our Baltic cruise and it worked well for us. I just wanted to see if there was a “must see” that we might miss. We will certainly look forward to seeing the physical beauty of the area. The other ports, however, are a different story. We’re particularly excited about Istanbul and the Greece ports and want to do as much research as we can on those ports. We’ve been to Sicily and Naples and pretty much know what we will do there. Once again, thanks for your help.

This thread has been very informative. We will have one day in Istanbul during our April Mediterranean cruise and we definitely would like to take a guided tour of the major sights. Yes, the reviews of the ship’s tours have not been encouraging, but we’re just not sure of which alternatives to consider. Will consider Ephesus Shuttle.

Yes, we will be stopping in Kotor on our April Enchanted tour and we are very interested in any recommendations that posters might give for excursions. The scenery on the sail-in and sail-out sounds lovely. What would be the best way to spend our day?

We love the variety of drinks available on board and I’m looking forward to trying a Dirty Banana on our upcoming Mediterranean cruise. Our first drink upon embarkation however has traditionally been champagne.

Well, the dry dock would have to end before April 15th in order to do the trans-Atlantic and be ready to sail out of Barcelona on the 15th.

Hmm…it can’t be too extensive of a dry dock since the Enchanted is scheduled to sail out of Barcelona on April 15th. We will be boarding her in Rome on April 22.

Thank you so much! We love Sabatinis and this looks like their best menu yet. We’re looking forward to trying their Ribollita. We’ve had it in Florence and Siena and practically licked the bowl we liked it so much. Do they still offer the dessert sampler as one of the choices? We’ll be on the Enchanted in April and it looks like we’ll be going to Sabatinis more than once!

We have dined at both restaurants more than once and our preference is Sabatinis. Although everything at the CrownGrill was good it was more of a meat and potatoes restaurant and we were not impressed with the quality of the meat. The variety and preparations of the food at Sabatinis is more appealing to us and we are looking forward to trying the Sabatinis on our April Enchanted cruise.

Hi lovetotraveltx! We will be staying at the H10 Cataluyha Plaza Hotel in April after our Mediterranean cruise and are very interested in any responses that you may get. So far we are looking into Barcelona Day Tours for an overview experience. They were recommended by a poster on these boards and have excellent reviews on Trip Advisor. We also purchased Rick Steves’ Pocket Barcelona guide as a resource. We, too, are looking forward to the local cuisine and we would also appreciate hearing any tips that other posters may have about exploring the neighborhoods of Barcelona, especially near our hotel.

We’ll be on the Enchanted on the Mediterranean in April and do not have high expectations about the Internet. Thankfully, we’ll only be using it for emails to our family.

Yes, I love soft ice cream, but was very disappointed in all the soft ice cream that I tried on each of the five Princess ships that we’ve sailed on. It appeared to be very poor quantity in terms of flavor and creaminess. None of them were worth a second try. As cjpj said, calorie wise it was probably good that I wasn’t tempted to go back.

Thank you. Will do!

Thanks again, PacnGoNow. We will almost certainly book one or both of these tours. Any restaurant recommendations for Barcelona?

Thank you PacnGoNow. I appreciate your response. Yes, Montserrat looks very inviting and we are tempted to book this tour. We suspect that the ride to and from Montserrat will probably at least an hour each way, so we were wondering if most of the sites in Barcelona proper were more like drivebys. It’s advertised as a full day tour so we wonder how much of it is in the car and what the arrangements for lunch are. I guess our next step would be to email them directly.