cuterlmt

We have stayed at the Hilton at FCO a couple times. Nice hotel, good breakfast and restaurant. Walkable from airport, and covered. Most of the walk is through the terminal buildings. Just look for the hilton sign.

Thank you for the recommendations for Hotel Albuergo Santa Chiara. It was a very lovely hotel. We had a gorgeous, large room with a s[lendidly huge balcony/terrace with a table and chairs. No view, except the other rooms but just lovely place to sit in the afternoon/evening. And it was so pleasant having the doors open in the evening to let the cool air in. The room was great, the breakfast was great, the staff and service was wonderful. We found a great restaurant around the corner for our dinners, walked to the Colosseum, and had just a great time. A couple of caveats though - 1) we reserved a car from the airport to the hotel through the hotel. It was 70 euro, which was fine. Private driver who was very nice, dropped us at the hotel. But his car was parked really far from the baggage claim. We were pretty exhausted and had to walk at least half a mile (probably more), to get to the car. He did drop us off in front of the hotel. 2) We asked for a room without stairs as we had heard of folks having to climb stairs and both of us are in our 60s and use canes. We got a room that had three steps, which were manageable. BUT, the shower, which was huge and nice, had a very high tub to step in. We managed ok, but it was a bit frightening getting in and out. 3) I thought we had pre-paid for our room, not just reserved it, so I did not have the card I used to reserve it and was prepared to use a different card to pay for the hotel. It worked out fine, but was a bit of a surprise. My fault certainly. The great positives: 1) huge room, with sitting area outside of bedroom, 2) terrace (as mentioned above), 3) staff was fantastic. Our ride from the hotel to the port was very late, and they were kind enough to help us out with calling them and talking to them about getting there. They talked to him in Italian so I didn't understand everything, but it seemed like the hotel staff was very much expressing how we felt about the delay. The staff was very kind and reassuring. We did make it to the port in plenty of time, but the driver had to drop two other couples off at hotels in Civitavecchia before taking us to port. He did drop us off right in front of the ship and we were able to get on board very quickly.

Oh he's fine eating slow (LOL), he just isn't patient in his seating and ordering. lol. Thanks for the other suggestions.

Thank you so much for the information - it is exactly what I was looking for, As far as the busy, my husband is not very patient so I'm just concerned we'll have to wait a while and he'll decide he wants to leave instead of wait. I am very much a planner, so I should probably just make reservations and just get him to those places when it's time..... I already had Armando Al Pantheon on our list, so that's great that you recommend it. We plan to visit the Colosseum area and Pantheon area, but plan to stick around there. I've been to the Vatican area and St. Peter's before and hubby does not want to go there, so I think we're just going to hang around areas that are walkable for us. We are a bit older, and slower, but are looking forward to walking around the area. Can you give me some sense of where the ghetto is to get the famed artichokes? Perhaps the name of a couple of restaurants that might have good ones so I can do some google mapping? thank you again! These boards are such a wealth of information.

I've read through a good number of the posts here and have some specific questions. We will be staying at Albergo Santa Chiara. We are looking for restaurants for lunch/dinner in that area as we'll be staying there a few days pre-cruise. We do not drink alcohol. And we'll probably stick to mostly non-meat dishes. I don't think I can get my husband on board to eat pork cheek, although I might try it. He likes shrimp, so any pasta with cheese and shrimp, he would probably eat. Pizza is fine, and gelato of course. And if there's a fried artichoke around, I might try it. The hotel serves breakfast, so I imagine the only treat we might have after breakfast is one of the filled croissants I've heard about. So mostly afternoon/evening options. Husband will not eat sandwiches, but will eat bread, or pizza. We do not eat a ton of food, so we may split dishes (if allowed) or like a place that has appetizer size meals or we can opt for appetizer pasta or something. We'd like a place that isn't too busy (if that's possible). We'll be there the 2nd week of November. Thank you all for sharing your information! It has been great reading about your experiences and jotting down notes for our visit.

Do they actually pick you up at your hotel and take you to the port/ship? That's a pretty great deal. We usually take the NCL shuttle but would have to trek back from our hotel to FCO (probably $50) and pay $75 a person to get a transfer from FCO to the port.

My Panama Canal cruise was through a Prime Casino offer. I had lots to choose from through April of 2024. April was the best time with my schedule. So I called Casino Royale to try to change the cruise to something I wanted to do and they would not do the change, said that I didn't have any offers for that time period, even though I had a ton of offers for that time period before I chose the Canal cruise - because those "expired" (I had to book within a certain period of time). Unfortunately, we cancelled. So incredibly disappointed with how Royal dealt with this.

I'm hoping to be able to do something similar - ours was a casino offer as well. Which sailing did you choose that they allowed you to switch to? and i assume minimal (or no) extra cost? I still have part of my list from the offer, but only kept January through Apil since we have a cruise in November, and try to cruise every 6 months (versus two in two months). thanks.

Ours was cancelled too, for 4/6/2024. Thankfully I hadn't booked our air yet. But this was a casino comp and I chose it out of at least a few hundred cruises I was offered. I wonder if I'll be able to go back and pick a different one from the casino comp.list that we got in May after our last cruise. So disappointed.

Just a heads up to those of you who were sailing with us on the Rhapsody of the Seas Panama Canal cruise - it has been cancelled and replaced with an ABC islands cruise. And while I enjoy the ABC islands, I've been there a couple of times, and really wanted to see the Panama Canal. So disappointed. Thankfully we'll have some time to research and hopefully find another Panama Canal cruise to put in its place. I have done so much research on this cruise... and I convinced some friends to join us because it's the Panama Canal. Oh well. If anyone finds any great options on RCCL for that same time period to Panama Canal, post here please. I will as well.

So they were in my coupons and credits, and it says CruiseNext not casNext. But I have never purchased cruisenext coupons. I did copy them into a document and printed them because I was worried about them disappearing, and I can't access them now, so I don't know where they exist? Not sure if someone else can help with that? I did have more in my account today, but they were percent off, etc.

I recently sailed in April/May, 2023 and didn't know about the new program. Normally I gamble enough that they take most of my excursions/gifts purchased on the ship off of my account at the end of the cruise. They did that on that cruise so we didn't have much on our onboard account, except gratuities to pay. The host did come tell me on the last night of our cruise that everything was taken care of but didn't tell me anything about the cruise next certificates. Yesterday, I went into my account to pay off my upcoming November cruise and found a ton of cruise next certificates - $500 and $250. They expire 12/31/2024, sail by 12/31/2024. So even though I didn't get them onboard, they showed up in my account, and they expire in 1-1/2 years. So I guess YMMV. Looking forward to trying to plan and be able to use them when there are times when you can use two or three of the coupons at a time. And I need to retire, so I can cruise more. lol

We just booked the April 6th cruise on this same ship and itinerary, so I'm anxiously following this thread. Thank you for all the information.

We actually flew from VCE to FCO (Rome) the week before and it was pretty easy. We did have to check in with the airline and drop our luggage, but TSA was easy, and we just waited for the plane. The only odd thing was we didn't get a gate assignment until about 30 minutes before the flight. But much easier of course.

We ended up taking a transfer to VCE, and then flying to Rome to start another cruise the next day. It was not horribly expensive - about $200 total for both of us with luggage for an hour long flight.

it is up It is upstairs, but it was very confusing. Our airline told us where to go, so that was good - and we knew to go to our airline check in because we needed boarding passes and to check our luggage. But other people thought that they had to start on the 2nd floor and weren't checking in with their airline first and had to be re-directed with the luggage to tag their luggage for their flight. And then you go through security and passport control. It wasn't really very difficult, just a very long line that took a long time to get through.

We ended up changing our flight to the next day. It was just too stressful to worry about catching a plane. I was very thankful we did as Royal was not very good with info on the transfers. I did not schedule a transfer until I was on the ship because I wanted to see if they had shore excursion options since we decided to stay the night. After we had a bad experience the previous week with a shore excursion to the airport (not Royal cruise), we decided to just do a transfer. I went to guest services 4 days in a row before they had information on transfers and booked our transfer to VCE - we went ahead to VCE because we got a shuttle from VCE to a hotel to stay the night. That worked out great. But I will tell you it took a long time to get through security going back to the US - they have a separate line for those travelling back to the US. We ended up having to get pulled out of line to get on the plane in time. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, and it just took some time to get our luggage checked in, and then go through security.

Is it 445 per person or for the group? What time will it leave the port? And get to the airport? Thanks.

Yes, Explorer. Sorry about the error. Thank you for the advice. I haven't quite decided what to do, but am leaning towards buying a flight out the next day (hopefully trading what I have without too much of a loss) and staying in a hotel the night before we fly. I'm not concerned about paying off my bill or anything. I am a bit concerned about having to tote our luggage ourselves.

thank you - one of my mistakes was relying on a schedule which showed RCI having a shuttle that would get me to the airport in time for a flight leaving by 11am. AFTER I booked the flight, I contacted RCI and got the run around, but finally after the 4th call they admitted they do not have a shuttle that early now. I got a good deal on the flight. At least I thought so. As far as the flight, it goes from VCE to Atlanta, which was part of the great thing about the flight - one stop, and then home. I will say that on our last cruise through NCL, I let them do the air, and it was so much less stressful, just letting them take care of all of it. I didn't spend hours trying to figure it out. Thank you again.

Any suggestions about getting a transfer to VCE from Port of Ravenna? I have tried through RC and it doesn't sound good. I bought an airline ticket thinking we would be able to make a flight because of a schedule I saw online showing that they offered transfers that would get us to the airport in time for our flight. When I called, they said they only have transfers for flights that leave later than ours, and that we could wait until we board the ship and see what they had. I really don't want to do that and be stranded in a foreign country and have to buy a new flight. We have tried to get a flight out the next day, but that has been pretty impossible, or later that day. I looked at private transfers and they are 300+ per person on Viator. I may have to bite the bullet. It's much cheaper than changing our flight and/or adding hotel nights. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I should have done more research, I know, before I booked the flight I booked. We leave VCE on an 1135am flight. We are on Symphony, back in Ravenna on 5/14. Thanks for any suggestions. I've already beat myself up enough about the situation and would just appreciate help.

Thought I would update you all - We submitted our claim on 11/15/2022 to get reimbursed for our new flights and a few add ons - meal in the airport, baggage fees, etc. Received a request for information from the airline about why our flight was delayed and got that pretty quickly from Delta. So sent that in the same day. Received an email this evening that our claim was approved, $500 each, which is the max available. So I am thrilled! I was worried that because I didn't call NCL emergency air initially when the flights were changed that we would lose out on the reimbursement. We just had NCL/AON insurance which we always purchase when we make our reservation for our CAS cruises. On another side note, we got a postcard notifying us that we're getting another CAS cruise from our local land-based casino on the 8th.

Thanks for your responses. Until we got home, i didn't really think about how this all worked out - I regretted not calling NCL air the night we were stuck in NY and letting them know about the problem. I was so exhausted, and I presumed they had changed the flights, and we were fine. I felt like Delta helped us a lot, and was thrilled we got a hotel and transfers and meal vouchers (although not all of that worked out great). Although I doubt I'll use NCL air again, for future reference, I guess I should have contacted NCL first, then tried to work it out through Delta in the morning once learning they didn't have tickets for us. I know when I talked to Delta, they asked how I booked and when I said through NCL, they said I needed to talk to NCL to square away the flights. I sure hope we get reimbursed for the flight.

We chose this unique itinerary because and had two cruises we needed to use or lose before the end of the year. The itinerary was Athens, Turkey, Israel (Ashdod and Haifa), Cypress, and Santorini. We were glad we were able to do back to back because we saw a lot of interesting excursions, and, again, had to use or lose. AIR: We have cruised with NCL exclusively since 2017, and have about 9 cruises under our belt, and decided to try to use NCL Air for the BOGO, and for the idea that if the flight was cancelled, they would cover it. We planned the air back when there were cancellations after cancellations, and one of our prior cruises was affected by that, and we had to put out an extra $1000 the day of the cruise to get to the port on time (the day before). This was not our first international travel. Anyway, I talked to NCL a LOT about the arrangements. We did a 1 day deviation going but not coming back. We scheduled the first cruise, and added the air, one way to the cruise. When I talked to NCL, I was trying to decide if I use our other cruise for the same itinerary - then decided to do it, and added the air to return home portion of our cruise. When we got our first flights going, they were great, no problems, not too long a layover. We did not get the return flights until after I called and spoke to a supervisor. We waited for those, and finally received them about 3 days before sailing. When I called they gave us a hint about them, but thankfully changed them. Initially it was requiring an overnight in Chicago, but when we finally received the flights, they were pretty good, getting us home the same day we left. Granted, there is a 9 hour time difference, but still, no overnight in an airport! I was frustrated with NCL not understanding that we really needed to have the air arrangements before we left the states given the lousy wifi on the ship. But, unfortunately, as sometimes happens it wasn't as good as we thought. Air going was fine, good flights - the last flight into Athens from Toronto was challenging because the seats I picked were odd - we wanted to seat in a two seat configuration, and the seat next to the window was to far from the window to lean on it to sleep. It was a pretty empty flight so hubby was able to find a row to sleep in. I wasn't able to sleep which isn't unusual for me on flights. On the plane, there was a call for a medical doctor, and apparently a passenger had a medical emergency. We were kept on the plane after landing so the person could be taken off. We didn't know what happened, but hope that the person is ok. The other odd thing was that we had to take stairs down from the plane. We both did pretty well with that, carrying our small carryon bag. Then we had to get on a bus to get to the terminal. When getting on the bus, I fell flat on my knees on the bus, landing hard. I am not a small person. It hurt. And I was in shock. I also somehow lost my cross--body purse/backpack that had all of our paperwork in it and cash. Thankfully someone saw it and pushed it towards me. The gentleman on the bus tried to force me to get up, but I couldn't do it from that position. And a very kind young woman who spoke greek and English helped me explain to him to wait to let me get my bearings and move into a better position to stand up. Thankfully that worked, and all was ok. I'm sure the exhaustion from not sleeping on the plane and unfamiliar surroundings contributed. It was painful. More on return air later. ISSUES AT THE AIRPORT, WITH NCL TRANSFERS When we initially scheduled our trip, transfers were included, and then they were taken out of our reservation. Months prior to the cruise, I contacted NCL about getting the transfers and trying to find out what hotel NCL uses in Athens so we could get an NCL transfer to the hotel and from the hotel to the port. I made my own (much less expensive) arrangements at the NCL hotel which was the Grand Hyatt Athens (great hotel! beautiful and great food). I called NCL back and made all the arrangements for the transfers, and they were included as part of our payment prior to final payment date. They were all also on our documents that I printed out before the trip. I was hesitant to try to take a cab or lyft or uber and enjoy NCL transfers for the excitement from everyone on the transfer going to the hotel/port. Anyway, they were all paid for. When we got to airport baggage claim, I found the NCL rep, and long story short, we were not on the list. He refused to sell us a transfer and told us we had to find another way to a hotel. He said if he took us on the bus, he would get arrested? He said cabs were safe, etc., etc., and to talk to guest services about getting reimbursed for our taxi. I was in a lot of pain, and just wanted to get to our hotel. Normally when we travel, we get local cash from an ATM at the airport. I didn't do that - so my fault. But when we went to the taxi stand, found a cab driver who said he would take US$ or credit card. During our ride, he wanted to take us somewhere other than our hotel and insisted that we go with him to exchange money. We said no - he insisted that I talk to his wife who spoke better English, who again insisted that we go somewhere to get cash. I said no. He stopped at an ATM that did not look like a safe area. I refused to get out. I finally realized that our hotel would probably have an ATM and reassured him we would get him Euro when we got there. This was a very stressful ride. I was worried he was going to dump us off somewhere. We finally got to the hotel, I got to an ATM, and got him his Euro. This was not a pleasant experience. At the hotel, there was an NCL rep who we were able to get the transfer to the ship with - again, on our paperwork, transfer is included, have a voucher, but we were not on the list. HOTEL: Grand Hyatt Athens: Although it boasts views of the parthenon and acropolis, our room view was of some apartments. But the hotel was very nice, room very comfortable. They have a rooftop pool and restaurant where you can see those places. Food was great, and different. Breakfast buffet was delicious, full of lots of different pastries and treats. EMBARKATION: Taking the NCL transfer bus (the second bus scheduled at 1030 am), we got to the port, dumped our luggage off, went into the different tents, and moved pretty quickly into the terminal and on to the ship. That process probably took less than 10 minutes in each place - it wasn't very crowded, and we were able to get on the ship and have lunch. I was a little disappointed that neither of the MDRs were open for lunch as that's our normal "go to" on the first day, but we went to O'Sheehans and had a nice relaxing lunch. Then on to get our dinner reservations, which we always end up doing on board. ROOMS: We originally had an Oceanview, and had reserved the same room for both legs of the cruise, but decided to bid on a balcony and club balcony for both weeks, deciding it would be ok to have different rooms if we got different rooms. Both bids were accepted and we have a club balcony for week one and a regular balcony for week two. I do wish they would get rid of the tubs in the club balcony. With the fall I had, I had a lot of trouble getting in and out of the tub. It was a huge room, very nice, and we got the extra goodies you get with the club balcony. I placed a minimum bid on both rooms. Our balcony room was on the 8th floor near O'Sheehans - very interesting hallways, twists and turns and slopes. Both cabins were close to the forward elevators. 11008 and 8032. EXCURSIONS: The excursions were great, but I will say that there were a couple of tour guides who were not very patient with us, and would move way far ahead of us. In Santorini it was very difficult because it was all uphill, and she was leading us to the cable car, and we had to find out from someone else about where the cable car was. It was already dark by the time we were there. AIR CONTINUED AND WARNING: The morning of our flight out of Athens, we were told that the flight would be delayed, and our connecting flights were cancelled and reset for the next day. There was no way to make the connecting flights as the original flight would not even arrive until after the first connecting flight left. When we received the email, I received new flights with the email, dates, flight numbers, air carriers, etc. When we checked in at Athens Delta counter, they gave us a printed copy of our booking which I thought were tickets. They also advised that we would be provided accommodations in Athens, including a hotel since we were stuck overnight. They made that same announcement on our flight (which was packed). Delta flight was great - more room, more comfortable than our flight going. When we got to JFK, we had to collect our luggage and go through customs/immigration, and then to the Delta Counter - they were fast, and provided a voucher for a hotel, meal vouchers and lyft vouchers. I have NEVER used a lyft before, so it was challenging, but I was able to get the lyft set up. We got a great hotel, another Hyatt, that was close to the airport. I was a bit concerned about how long it was taking, and he stopped and was going to drop us off in front of a law office - not a hotel. I said that was not where we were supposed to be and showed him my phone and the hotel, etc.. After him researching his GPS and putting the luggage back in his car, he took us to the hotel which was pretty close to where he dropped us off. Apparently it was not yet on his GPS. (We had the same problem with our lyft return who was unable to find the hotel.) Anyway, back to air. Thinking all was good, I had tickets to get on a flight, we headed to the airport the next morning and went to the Delta counter. They could not find our tickets. They looked at all of my documents, including the booked materials i received the day before at the Delta Counter. They said we did not have tickets. Eventually they suggested I call the cruise line and figure out what happened. I called the NCL emergency air number - thankfully I had put it on my phone. After sitting on hold and going through a phone tree, I spoke to one person who told me to call back because the connection was bad. I called back, found a semi quiet place to talk to the second person, and tried to figure out what happened. He kept telling me we had tickets, and to go back to the counter and gave me the ticket numbers. I went back to the counter and gave the same Delta crew the information, over and over again, and was told they didn't have those numbers. (The NCL person changed the numbers a few times, just slightly, but enough to be frustrating and to think maybe he did not know what he was talking about.) Eventually I figured out he was talking about our flights from the day before that had been cancelled. I told him we had to have flights home and asked him to make those flight arrangements. He said no. I asked how we were going to get home. He said to buy our own flights and we would get reimbursed. We had already missed our original Delta Flights set for that day. So I went on to Expedia and found flights, and over $1000 and a few hours later, we were on our way home. Thankfully, we got home, our luggage got home, and we've filed an insurance claim. I am hopeful we'll get reimbursed for the plane tickets. Has anyone had experience with this? I was much to hopeful that NCL would pull through for us and make it work. I'm only lucky we had $1000 that we could use to get a flight. I don't know what families do who have lots of people to buy tickets for. It certainly could have been a lot worse, but it also could have been a lot better. We have another cruise to Europe in April. I was tempted to use NCL Air, but not again. I'll do it myself. Good luck to those of you who choose NCL Air.

Thank you all for your kind input. I appreciate the information.