RoadTripFanatic

Every Med cruise I have done (not on Princess), the casino is open every night. The problem with the Round Britain cruise is the Irish sea. The ship never gets far enough away from land, I believe.

Thank you. I had to smile no matter how port intensive a cruise is my husband always finds plenty of time to gamble. :) Especially when we are cruising with his gambling buddy. LOL!

They were only open from around 7 am to about 10 pm on the Star Princess in May. I think they close them at night in order not to disturb those in the cabins around them.

 

Which ship are you on?

Royal Princess. I forgot to mention that. Thank you!

They could have been the type that come with rips & tares from the factory. It's about the only type they reject.

I've even see a worn out pair of faded jeans & the ones with suspenders- they let most of them in without question.

:) I have to confess I wouldn't let my daughter where torn jeans into the dining room. BUT on a funny note her ripped capri jeans cost me more than her last cocktail dress.

Does anyone know if the laundry mats are open while we are in port in the Med? (Rome, Naples, Mykonos, Kusadasi, Crete and Istanbul) I am secretly hoping to do my laundry when we get on the ship in Rome. We will have been traveling for 10 days at that point and I will want clean clothes. :eek:

Thank you!

We are cruising this month on the Royal Princess out of Rome. Does anyone know if there are any gambling restrictions or the possible hours that the casino is open for a Med cruise? When we did our British Isles cruise both of our husbands were rather distressed that the casino was only open a few days of the trip. :D We do know that they are always closed while in port and that we do have to be in "international" waters to gamble.

Thank you!

I appreciate all the great info everyone! I am 5'8" and was never larger than a sz 12 until a combination of quit smoking and menopause hit 5 years ago. So frustrating.

 

Anyway, I am definitely going to check out the websites and stores you have recommended. I live in a FL oceanfront community and have worked from home full-time for the past 10 years, so my closet is stuffed with capris, cotton tops, and a dozens of flip-flops. All ideal for daytime cruise wear, but I want some dressy stuff now.

 

Again, thanks for the responses. This is such a great community.

I feel your pain except I haven't started menopause and I've never smoked. I am 5'8" and a size 16 bottom but can make a size 14 dress work. I really like Adrianna Papell for "fancier" dresses. I think Nordstroms and Von Maur are a great place to look for clothes. P.s. For the poster who said a size 14 is obes,e according to my BMI I am only overweight.

ETA: I am slowly falling in love with Dress Barn. I recently moved from a major city of a population of a million to a small town of 50k. Culture shock for shopping. Dress Barn has been a lifesaver for me. Our Carson's is so small and is geared to the elderly population here in town.

As I said...your itinerary may show Istanbul but there is a good chance its already canceled and you won't find out until you board.

Some have said they have received the port changes before they left home.

Thank you. I have friends who are boarding the ship 7 days before us. (They are doing the entire 14 day cruise) I'm hoping they text us to let us know if the port has changed. :)

Found out yesterday they cancelled Istanbul for this cruise. Husband and daughter are boarding today. They replaced it with rhodes, greece. They are excited to see Rhodes.

 

Not sure what they are doing for future cruises, but i would think they would cancel all istanbul stops this season.

Thank you so much for the update. I appreciate it! We are cruising in 3 weeks out of Rome with the stop in Istanbul. It's good to know what the back-up port is just in case. We've been there before but we loved it.

We are sailing on the Royal in three weeks time and I have to say I am not overjoyed at the thought of stopping in Turkey, the ship is only stopping in Kusadasi but I just don't feel as though I want to get off in that port and I will be quite happy when we leave.

 

Ideally I would like to see the port of call cancelled but I somehow can't see Princess doing that.

What is your cruise date? We are cruising on the 23rd and we are going to Istanbul.

I would not be surprised if it is #3. They have 5 more days until their ship is back in Istanbul if my memory serves me right. I'll be watching to see what happens. I doubt they will cancel Kusadasi. Istanbul, I would almost bet on it. This makes me so sad. Part of the reason we picked this cruise was to return to Istanbul. We spent 3 nights there 3 years ago and I love this city. (LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!) In respect to the bombing, I am genuinely now concerned about safety. If it were just my husband and I, I would still be like lets go! But we are traveling with our daughter and friends and if anything were to happen to them, I would be destroyed. Their safety comes first. (Please no lectures about my safety. I know, I know....)

I wouldn't worry about it. I've seen many people in the dining room on formal night without a jacket. I think shirt and tie will be appropriate. If they say something complain about being too hot and about to pass out. LOL! You left it in the cabin.

I had one European cruise that I went on where I packed only one simple church dress. No one kicked me out of the dinning hall. DH didn't pack a jacket either. On our upcoming cruise we are going to be gone for 20 days. The first half of the trip we are taking various trains and do not want to pack heavy. (3 plane flights, 4 train rides= duffel bag packing) I will not have a true formal but several sun dresses with me.

I hope so too! I want to hear more. We are cruising on the Royal on the 23rd from Rome to Athens. Exact opposite directions but I love hearing about the ship!

State Department also has a warning for all of Europe. Would this stop me going probably not though we tend to be a little more careful. The world has

changed and if you are going to travel or go to your local shopping area, you

now are at risk.

Europe travel alert but it is not a "warning."

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings/europe-travel-alert.html

The US State Department has now issued a TRAVEL WARNING to Turkey meaning Americans should not go at all regardless. There have been 6 terror attacks this year in Turkey and it just isn't ISIS. There is a Kurdish separatist group that also uses same type tactics.

I live in Florida and was in WDW right after the Pulse attack (along with the gator) incident and it was virtually dead given the time of year. So yes there are intelligent people out there who are heeding the warnings and those who are just scared.

Bottom line is it is only a matter of time before there will be a terrorist incident involving cruise ship tours or passengers. The cruise companies need to stay out of these dangerous ports of call.

Actually there has been a travel warning since March. It is the same one but they moved it up.

https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings/turkey-travel-warning.html

While I appreciate and respect everyone's right to their opinion, I want to try and bring it back to the original topic of this thread.

 

My friends and I are currently booked on the 16 July sailing of the Equinox out of Istanbul and have already been told by Delta that our flight there is cancelled and they are refunding our fare.

 

I contacted Celebrity to see if they were aware of this and had planned everything and they stated that they were monitoring the situation and will let us know if anything changes.

 

That being said, I am past cancelling without penalty (they stated that it would be 75%) and am not sure what to do with the airfare.

 

Does anyone think that Celebrity will in fact move the embarkation port or should I try booking airfare on another non-US based carrier?

I agree with the others and call Celebrity. Maybe you could book through them and insure the flight? I might cost you extra but in the long run some peace and insurance might be worth it on this trip. I do hope you get to go. It is amazing!! (Turkish Airlines BTW is a fabulous airline. I've flown with them in the past and the service is great.) NO matter who you book your flight through I would get travel insurance.

This is the repetitive occurrence terrorists attacked on the same city for the past few months.

This show the weakness of the security and safety there.

Yes if this happen multiple times on one particular port in the USA.There should consider closing the port temporally for security and safety reason.:rolleyes:

In all honesty I have never been in a city that has more security than Istanbul. We spent 3 nights there in 2013. Our hotel required our car to be searched underneath and the trunk before we were allowed to enter the property. Our luggage had to go through security before we could enter the building. There has not been a particular attack against the port itself. It has been various places in Istanbul. It's a MASSIVE city. The airport itself has more security than any airport in the States. You have to go through a metal detector and have your luggage screened before anyone can enter any part of the airport. In fact you go through security during connecting flights!!! Please do not judge this beautiful city. The security there is amazing. I am now faced with the fact that we will be there a month from today via Princess cruise line. (searching cruise critic for info on Istanbul and ended up here.) My heart is broken. I love this city. I actually have friends who live there. In fact they are in the States this month for which I am thankful they are safe. I am now concerned. I wasn't until this point in time. I may go with plan b which is a non-tourist destination in the city if we go to the port.

We are scheduled to stop on the 28th. I am so sad about today's attack at the airport. I fear our stop will be discontinued. I've been to Istanbul before and I absolutely love it!

I hope you have a fantastic flight and everything goes smoothly! I'm doing the second half of that cruise next month!

I'll confess that I haven't read all of the previous replies so I will apologize for any repeat information.

1. I loved Ephesus. I have been to many a ruins on a cruise and found this place to be amazing. It's massive and I don't think you should skip this one. I enjoyed it. My daughter who was in 6th grade enjoyed it too!

2. Pompeii. Its a different kind of ruin to me. It's a story of tragedy and the history makes it very unique. It's been 17 years since I've been there and I can still visualize the bodies and the old streets preserved from the tragedy. We are taking our daughter there for the first time this summer.

3. For Olympia do some research. Our daughter happened to be reading the Percy Jackson series during this trip and it made it more interesting for all of us. She was in 4th grade and was spouting off who such and such was and why they were important. I have no true interest in Greek Mythology so it helped having my little resource give us information. I also loved the fact that I could check off visiting another place of one of the seven wonders of the world. (Zeus temple) For a fan of the Olympics to see the site of the origin was really cool. It's a great place for some beautiful pictures.

I haven't been to the last site. I'll be honest I did wonder if I would get tired of seeing ruin after ruin on our big Med cruise when DD was in 4th grade. Amazingly none of us ever did. It was a great trip and I'm glad I saw all of it.

How exciting! We are doing one of the Royal Princess cruises this summer. Our friends are doing the 14 days out of Barcelona. We are joining them for 7 days out of Rome! So much fun!

Ephesus- Go. :) It's really a cool excursion. It's one of the few ship excursions we did on our cruise to the med 3 years ago. Amazing.

Istanbul: OMG! One of my favorite cities in the world. It is simply beyond amazing. We stayed there for 3 nights during a spring break trip. The Cistern and grand bazaar are musts in my book. The topaki palace is pretty cool too. In all honesty it's an easy to do on your own kind of city if you plan properly. Having an overnight there will help.

Athens: Read on how to do it on your own. We had a great time taking a taxi to the Acropolis and doing things on our own.

Rhodes. I loved this city even though we got completely loss trying to get into the city. We walked around and somehow ended up in the mote. While we were there we took a public bus to Lindos. The acropolis there is adorable. After visiting Athens it seems small but it was a fantastic day for us.

While looking at the excursions you have planned, I think you can do it. Most of the excursions are not high energy where everyone would be exhausted. When we travel we are usually on the go from sun up to sun down. You will definitely sleep well at night. Airplane rides aren't going to wear you out if you know what I mean. Lumberjack show? Not exhausting. You will have a fantastic trip.

I hope you have a great time. My parents just got off the Regal and loved it. I am sailing on the Royal out of Rome this summer! I can't wait to hear about the ship.

We did a cruise out of Rome 5 years ago and it was cold. It snowed on the day we arrived in Rome. We wore our winter coats the entire trip! The only time we managed to wear a light jacket was when we were in Egypt. :)

Was his cousin Daniel Johnson? If so I know you had a great visit!

There are a lot of Zip Lining options in Roatan. There is Daniel Johnson's Sloth and Monkey place. It is unique because he has sloths. You could hire a driver for the day and do a tour of the island. The sights are beautiful.