mahdnc

This is da Enzo. We are getting closer to the front of the line. This means that we can smell the food..... Last night we had dinner at La Ciambella which is behind the Pantheon and hence close to the hotel.

Thanks. I'll have to look for it. David

We are currently waiting in line to have dinner at Trattoria da Enzo al 29. It is located in Trastevere area. "Narrow streets of cobblestone" come to mind. The restaurant does not take reservations. We got there 30 min before it opened at 7pm. The line was very long. I hope it's worth it. At least the evening is very comfortable.

After walking through several areas in the underground, the guide showed us the arena level. The tour ended up concluding there. Afterwards you were allowed to walk around to the other areas in the Colosseum that was open to general admission ticket holders. We walked around a bit although it was getting fairly crowded by then. It was 1pm by then and it was time for us to to head back our room. I had only slept 4 hours last night, my stomach was empty, and I was starting to fade.

Under very clear skies, we visited the Roman Forum and Colosseum this morning. I very much wanted to see the Roman Forum on this trip because the last time we were in Rome (Jun 2007, Millennium), it was a port day and so our touring plans did not include it. We met our private guide, Marisa (photo), at the main entrance to the Roman Forum at 9 am. She spent 2 hours with us that morning. Marisa worked as an archeologist which included field work and digging at the Forum a few years ago. It was clear that the Forum was her passion and she covered a wealth of topics including ancient Roman culture and politics. One note of caution, many of the sidewalks were old Roman roads made up of uneven cobblestone with large gaps and so the footing was tricky which made walking a bit of a chore. Because we started early in the morning, the Forum and Palatine Hill was very quiet and not busy which was nice. However by the time we finished at 11:00, it started to get very crowded as the early morning Colosseum crowd made its way to the Roman Forum. I originally wanted Marisa to be our guide at the Colosseum, however I told her I was interested in doing the Underground Tour (something we did not do during our 2007 visit). Marisa told me that she does not do the Underground Tour because the admission tickets (34 Euro pp) are extremely hard to get because large tour companies instantly snap up the small number of tickets that are released on the Colosseum website for each day (one month in advance). She emailed me specific instructions on how to attempt getting the tickets directly from the Colosseum website (it involved getting up at 2:30 am Central Time exactly 30 days before the tour date). The bad news was that I overslept and missed getting them! The good news was a couple days later, I found 3 tickets available for my date and so I snatched two! With our precious tickets in our hands, Marisa did a nice job in walking us over to the nearby Colosseum and making sure that we got to the right spot for people attending the Underground Tour. The group size is 25 and the tour lasted about an hour. The tour is guided and involved going up and down stairs. The nice thing about the Underground Tour is that the area is relatively cool temperature wise.

9:15 am

Our Rome plans: Day 1 (today): Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps. We didn't do the last two because we were tired. Day 2: Private guided tour with an archeologist for Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Then do the Underground Tour of the Colosseum. Afternoon is open. Day 3: Private guided tour of Ostia with the same guide. Afternoon is open. Day 4: Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel. Afternoon is open. Day 5: Scavi guided tour, St Peter's Basilica and Dome climb. Afternoon is open. During the afternoons, we will be fitting in other things.

I will give you our thoughts in a few days. So far we are very happy. Room is nicely appointed and clean. Front desk is friendly and competent

We then visited the Pantheon which is only a few seconds walk from the hotel. The admission is free, but we purchased a guided tour (25 euros pp). Then it was back to the hotel because we were tired.

It is now 525pm. We are pretty jet lagged because we didn't sleep hardly at all on the plane. After our early check in, we spent time in the room taking showers and getting settled in this morning. We went out to grab lunch. And then we visited Piazza Navona which is only a few minutes walk from the hotel.

Good morning, Noreen. Looking forward to meeting you and Peader! We checked into the Albergo del Senato at about 945am this morning. We have a nice view of the Pantheon:

Good morning, Italy. Looks beautiful from 40,000 feet

We were 16th and 17th in line for an upgrade to Business Class on a flight that's pretty much full.

Unfortunately, no diving this time. I tried to book a dive trip independently for our stop at the Bahamas, but the outfitter's schedule didn't quite work with the ship's docking schedule. The ship does not offer a dive excursion, so we're snorkeling.

We are in a corner FV. So, yes, main dining room for us!

There are quite a few roll call members that were on the cancelled Constellation WB TA's from a year or two ago.

Cathy, My wife and I are flying together. I have now corrected that error in my first post. But no kids, so yes, second honeymoon! However we will miss not having the kids with us. Right now, I am missing my dog as our dog sitter just picked her up and drove away with her.

I understand that the TA roll calls are quire lively. The one for this sailing was no different. We had approximately 120 members (25 doing the Europe-TA B2B + 1 doing the TA-Caribbean B2B). I invite all of them to post and contribute to this Live Thread.

Hi. Coming this Saturday, my wife and I will be board Constellation for her sailing across the Atlantic from Civitavecchia to her winter home port in Tampa (15 nights). Constellation will be the 4th of 7 Celebrity ships that will be coming back from Europe. For us, this will be our first TA and the first cruise without the kids since they were born 27-30 years ago. It will also be the first time we have sailed on Constellation. We have been on the other 3 Millennium class ships. My wife and I will be flying nonstop from Chicago to Rome today and will stay in Rome for 5 nights. We have been to Rome before but only as a stop during our 2007 Med cruise on Millennium. So, we are looking forward to spending some real time there. We are currently packed and ready for the taxi to pick us up for the drive to ORD. If you have any questions about the ship, etc during our voyage, please ask.

Points just show up without any prior warning. However this thread is useful for notifying you when points start showing up and when the next opportunity to earn points comes up. See you on board in 8 days!

Finally. 5 points showed up in the past hour. 98 total Club Points from the PUP program over the past ~2.5 years. Averages out to about a 12-14 night cruise (balcony) per year which is equivalent to what we had been doing pre-pandemic.

no change in club points for me, yet.

Is there a limit to how much you can buy?

We received a similar notice that our times at 4 of our ports have been changed (reduced) for operational efficiency reasons. This is for a Dec 2023 sailing on Solstice.

It has been pretty well documented on a few threads since July that the Blue Chip Club is offering complimentary cruises to extremely low level members. Our son--a lowly Pearl member with only 40 points--has received two emails for free cruises. Once in July and another in September. For reference, Pearl is the lowest of the 5 membership tiers and it spans 0-2,499 points. Although crazy and insane, the offer is quite legitimate. It is probably an attempt to fill empty cabins without having to reduce published fares. There is no obligation to gamble on this cruise; in fact the humorous thought is that you may not want to gamble much to keep yourself eligible for the next free offer. The complimentary cruise is a perkless cruise-only deal and the fees/taxes are not covered.