The Other Tom

Note that 2025 is a Jubilee year in Rome and it will be more crowded than normal. You should google that to know what to expect. As far as tours go, Rome in Limo or Joe Banana (yes, that's a real tour company).

There's a saying, "The more you pay, the more you sway".

Makes you wonder what happens if you don't ask. I guess you don't "get"

Loved the fish pics. Thanks for posting.

Wow! 77 days? Almost as long as a WC! OK, maybe half a WC

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. LA to Sydney is more or less south, so port gets morning sun Sydney to Cape Town is more or less west sailing, so it doesn't matter which side you're on. Cape Town to Greece islands then Rome is more or less north, so starboard gets morning sun Rome to Ft Lauderdale is more or less south, so port gets morning sun

Correct, of course. Looking at the map, it seems travel from Gatwick to Greenwich would avoid at least some traffic. Do you agree?

following

The above posters offer good advice...fly in several days early and enjoy London. Use the extra days to overcome jetlag so you can fully enjoy your cruise. There's way too much risk of delays, flight cancellations, etc by flying in the day of. LHR is a lot closer to Greenwich than LGW, but if you fly into LHR you have to travel through downtown London traffic to get to Greenwich. It could work out to be the same, time wise. FWIW, we took the tube from LHR to a major station near our hotel, then a taxi from the tube station to our hotel. We took a private car (Blacklane) to the ship from our hotel. Worked well. There is an Uber boat that leaves from downtown London to Greenwich. We took that as well but for sightseeing purposes.

Nice! Thanks for posting. I'll be following along.

Most flights to Europe from the US arrive in the morning, and all of them that I've been on serve breakfast an hour or so before landing. As others have said, Viking will most likely provide a snack of some kind prior to embarking.

As @LindaS272 said, yes. But if you use air plus and fly in a day or two early, or extend your stay, you're on your on. At least we were when we did that.

Exactly this^^^. Veggie burgers are mush IMO, but the impossible burger actually tastes good. Unfortunately for me, it's high in fat so it's "impossible" for me.

gotcha, thanks!

You are correct in that you don't have the free airfare until your flight is ticketed. But we asked the Air Plus person to go ahead and ticket our flight when they made the reservation, many months before the cruise. We wanted the earlier ticketing so we would have a lot of choices for seats, as opposed to waiting and being stuck next to a restroom. The downside is you have to pay a deviation if you want to change your flights later.

Get the Rick Steve's book on Rome and research what you want to see. We've used Joe Banana tours a couple of times and were pleased. They'll work with you to customize a tour.

Go to your deleted (or trash) email folder. It should still be there.

Easy to do on your own. Rome in Limo, Joe Banana (yes, that's the real name), Tours by Locals, or Viator offer tours (probably others as well). Highly recommend getting the Rick Steves book on Rome.

Thanks, Clay. Maybe this is common knowledge in this forum, but this tidbit from a linked article in your post: "The new berths put Viking's compound annual growth rate for ocean ships at 10.6% from 2023 to 2028, compared to the industry's 3%." 10 more Viking ocean ships by 2030, a tad bigger and some for China (seatrade-cruise.com)

That's not the end of the world. We've always had good luck with "private vendor" excursions. Make sure you read the reviews beforehand. Double check the roll call for your cruise. There may already be like minded individuals who have booked an Alhambra excursion, and you can go with them.

From Wikipedia: Liberation Day (Dutch: Bevrijdingsdag) is a public holiday in the Netherlands to mark the end of the *** occupation of the country during the Second World War.[1][2] It follows the Remembrance of the Dead (Dodenherdenking) on 4 May.[3][4]

I imagine that did wonders for your lungs.....

Wow! Learn something new every day. Thanks for the info.

Unfortunately, that's true.

Yeah, I had durian...once. Never again.