charity709

Thanks, everyone. Very helpful. I agree, the daytime is easy to plan out  and hit all the major must-see areas but it would be nice to be close to the lively areas in the evening without having to worry about a long walk back to the hotel.

Too late to edit, but looking at Trevi Fountain area vs. where we were - Colosseum area. 

Hi there

I got a message this morning that our AirBnB for Rome has cancelled and we now have to find new accommodations for our 3 night pre-cruise visit. 

We were originally booked within walking distance of the Colosseum (via San Giovanni, 9 min walk) but I am now wondering if this is an opportunity to look for something closer to the Pantheon area as it seems like more sights are central to that location.    

What is your favorite neighborhood to stay in while in Rome? Looking for pros & cons 🙂  

Thanks in advance

Hi everyone,

We are arriving in Rome for 3 nights before our cruise. Our flight gets in at 9:00 a.m. so we were planning on dropping our bags at our accommodation, getting a quick lunch and then visiting the Colosseum / Forum in the afternoon.  Is it easy to self-tour? Or are we much better off booking a guided tour?    I'm concerned if we've booked a tour for 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. that if there are any delays on the morning of our arrival that we will miss the tour.

Has anyone done the night-time tour with the Roman Guy?  That could be an option but I didn't know how it would compare to seeing it all in the light of day. 

We plan to book a tour for the Vatican the next day.  The third day is a civic holiday (May 1st) so want to make the most of our time on the first and second days and then have some more leisurely exploring on the holiday when the major sites are closed. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 🙂

Thank you, everyone.  Really appreciate the input! It's been very helpful.

This will be our biggest trip to date (it's our honeymoon).  We're early 30s and finally able to afford this trip, lol.  I've been nervous about life getting in the way of us getting back to Europe...once kids come along it seems like vacations start to be to focused on Disney and amusement parks or something. But I think there have been a lot of valid points about whether it would actually be enjoyable and fulfilling or just a tick off the bucket list.  So I'm leaning toward focusing on Rome, the cruise and Barcelona. As has been mentioned by some of you, we'll have to make a point to plan Venice and eastern Med ...perhaps for an anniversary!

5 hours ago, mapleleaves said:

Do you think you'll never get back to Europe and this is your one and only opportunity to see Venice?

I would look at all the costs involved with adding a visit to Venice:  the difference in airfare flying to Venice over Rome, an extra hotel night, food, train, transfers, etc.

But I gotta admit .... unless it was super exhorbitant, I'd go for a day and night in  Venice!  It's pretty magical. 

Thanks! I've been tallying the cost and it is playing into my hesitation a little, along with the business of it all. I've heard that Venice is one of the more expensive cities even to eat since its so tourist-y. I'd hope I'd be able to get back and see it under more relaxed circumstances, but who knows. I'm so torn lol.

4 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

You don't say how many days you were planning to spend in Rome, but I think three is really the minimum.

 

Mediterranean cruises can be very tiring (even when you're young) -- usually you are in port actively sightseeing for a good 8 hours or more every day. And if you're going in the heat of summer, even more so. 

 

To try to squeeze in Venice would be, I think, rather exhausting even before you board. You will likely also have some jet-lag to contend with when you first arrive.

 

Now if you could spend 2 days in Venice and three in Rome, it would perhaps make it worthwhile....

 

I understand the attraction of wanting to see and do everything possible, but taking a little time to actually breathe in and enjoy the trip is also to be highly recommended. 

Thanks for commenting! I'm definitely nervous about being beat out by the time the cruise even starts lol. The cruise is 10 nights and we are planning 3 nights in Rome prior to and 2 nights in Barcelona at the end. I'm kind of intimidated at the thought of rushing 1 day in Venice after a tiring and long flight and then lugging our luggage to a train station and finding our way around.  

Definitely torn because we want to make the most of the trip and I've always wanted to see Venice but dont want it to feel stressful or overwhelming.

Thank you to everyone who responded! Your tips and experiences have definitely increased my comfort level in booking an independent excursion. I'll spend lots of time on the 'port of call' threads and Trip Advisor for reviews before booking. 

🙂

Hello!

We are headed for our first cruise in May departing from Rome. It's also our first time in Europe.

We are looking forward to spending a few days in Rome prior to departure, but since our itinerary doesn't include Venice we were considering leaving a day earlier, flying into Venice for one day/night and then taking the train to Rome. In your experience, would this be too hectic? We want to fit in as much as we can, but I don't want to over complicate things either so I don't know if it's worth it for the sake of one day?  Looking for opinions. Thanks

Hi everyone, 

We are at the point of planning which ports to do shore excursions for on our upcoming cruise.  We've joined our Roll Call and notice fellow cruisers sharing independent tours, which we are interested in joining since they seem to be much more cost effective than that tours offered on the ship. I've be cautioned by friends that excursions offered by the cruiseline is the safest/best way to go since you are guaranteed not to miss your ship if you are late getting back to port. 

Can anyone share any general rules of thumb they use when deciding whether to book independently or with the cruise line? 

Thanks so much! 

On 2/20/2019 at 2:58 AM, HappyCamper2018 said:

We got off the Celebrity Eclipse cruise to Antarctica a few days ago.  We had the Classic drinks package and that was sufficient for us.  We last cruised with Celebrity in 2015 and noticed on the recent cruise they have moved some drinks to the Premium, like Cointreau and Baileys - but we certainly had enough other choices so it didn't bother us.  Have attached a copy of the (well used) list of drinks for the 3 packages.  I presume all Celebrity cruise ships have the same or similar lists.  Hope this helps.  

Thanks for posting the list! Looks like we have lots of great options with the Classic.

Thanks so much everyone for your input! Definitely taking the advice and sticking with Classic 🙂

8 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

If you must have WiFi for whatever reason you will simply have to pay the price.  Just beware that using the Internet on ships can often be very sloooooow…..to a point where it can even take 5 min just to logon.  Things have been getting better on some ships (with newer high speed satellite connections) but Celebrity has yet to catch-up to much of their competition.

Thanks for your comment. 🙂  If the connection is slow it would definitely be a no-go for us.  We'll just have to try to survive somehow LOL.

Hi everyone!

First time cruiser - second post on this forum. Had great answers for my first question, so figured I'd throw another out there.

We are booked on Celebrity Constellation in May for Western Mediterranean. 

We were able to choose 3 of 4 promotions when we booked (drink package, free prepaid gratuities and onboard credit) and now are wondering if we made a mistake not choosing unlimited internet.  I didn't realize that roaming packages on our cell phone wouldn't work at sea (rookie mistake, lol).  From the website it seems like we can only buy packages for the whole cruise which is very costly. I'm mostly concerned about wanting to connect on our 2 sea days.

My questions are - do you usually forego wifi while cruising? If you do pay for it, is the service spotty or slow on the ship? 

Thanks!

12 minutes ago, Host Clarea said:

 

For information specific to the ship and cruise line, it would be good to also post in the Celebrity forum:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/16-celebrity-cruises/

Thank you! New to this site so didn't even realize there was a Celebrity forum! lol

Hi everyone!

First time cruiser - second post on this forum. Had great answers for my first question, so figured I'd throw another out there.

We are booked on Celebrity Constellation in May for Western Mediterranean. 

We were able to choose 3 of 4 promotions when we booked (drink package, free prepaid gratuities and onboard credit) and now are wondering if we made a mistake not choosing unlimited internet.  I didn't realize that roaming packages on our cell phone wouldn't work at sea (rookie mistake, lol).  From the website it seems like we can only buy packages for the whole cruise which is very costly. I'm mostly concerned about wanting to connect on our 2 sea days.

My questions are - do you usually forego wifi while cruising? If you do pay for it, is the service spotty or slow on the ship? Do you feel like it's worth the cost?

Thanks!

2 hours ago, George C said:

Depends on what you drink , we like the more expensive wine which in some cases is not even totally covered by deluxe package, but if your package is up to 9 then you should be able to order a 12 dollar drink and pay the extra 3 dollars.

Thank you! I had read in another review that for Celebrity, you'd have to pay the full cost if it was over the 'classic' limits. If it's only the difference that has to be paid, that's awesome!

7 minutes ago, sanger727 said:

Agreed it really depends on your preference. If you want to order specific liquors in your drinks or if you are picky about wine; you’ll probably want to upgrade. The upgrade is $10 a day, so it really comes down to if you’ll spend $10 or more a day in upcharges. We aren’t picky and had no trouble with the classic package. We all found wines we liked and found that the bartenders could make any cocktail you wanted with an included liquor. We did stop by the martini bar a handful of times and paid $3ish to order a specialty martini; but over the course of the trip that was a lot cheaper than upgrading.

 

you can upgrade on the ship, at any point in your cruise. Would suggest waiting till you get onboard and if you find yourself spending $10+ a day to get drinks you enjoy, upgrade then.

Thanks for commenting! We aren't picky about brands of liquor and wine at all. I was worried about having an option for champagne/sparkling wine (again, not picky on brand)...which we love on vacation and also about the times we'd want martinis or mojitos something like that.   I didn't realize you could just pay the difference for more expensive drinks. I had read in another review that you would have to pay the full price if it was above $9.   If we only have to pay the difference, we could definitely work within the Classic package. 

Hi! 

I'm a first time cruiser heading out on the Celebrity Constellation for my Honeymoon in May.

We got a promotion that includes the Classic Drink package and we are wondering if we should upgrade to the premium package so that we have access to a greater variety of drinks. I've read that there are limited options that are actually included in the $9 range of the Classic package but I can't seem to find any drink menus for the ship online. 

Any opinions/experiences would be great to hear. Would be amazing if someone could point me to where I could find any drink menus online. I called Celebrity and they said they didn't have any lists/menus to share. But I've seen some people have uploaded photos of menus from other cruise lines, so wondering if I could find something like that so we can compare and decide if it's worth it to upgrade. 

Thanks in advance for any comments 🙂