dritan

When I went with my kids, they really enjoyed the South Beach area too. But when it got too hot for them ( Brits - so not used to the summer heat in Miami) we went to the Frost Science Museum for a few hours. We also did the hop on hop off bus which was definitely one of the better ones I've been on.

Hi all I'm just looking for some views on our upcoming plans. We are from the UK and although we've sailed out of Miami once before, the whole area is quite new to us. I will be travelling with my 13 and 15 year old in Oct and landing in Fort Lauderdale airport around 8pm ( flight will be from NY as we are doing a New England cruise first). The next day we set sail on the Carnival Conquest from Miami. We are going to be staying in South Beach for a night at the end of our trip and have been there for several nights before. So my question is, would it be worth just finding a hotel in the Hollywood area when we land in Fort Lauderdale and just getting an uber around lunchtime the next day to Miami port? It looks like the Boardwalk area is nice, would have nice breakfast options and potentially a cheaper option than Miami Beach? Any advice?

After the Celebrity Apex, I think Toscana is my favourite ship. We loved Smeralda so much ( with kids) that we went right ahead and booked Toscana for last April. Also loved the Heineken Bar which was a great addition and the main giant lounge was fantastic for live music and trivia. My only issue is that Costa tend to repeat the exact same itineraries and I like to go to new places, so will keep looking out for a different itinerary.

I've used the "Live Chat" on the princess website and they have said that 12 year olds are priced as kids. It changes to adult when they turn 13. The app for me shows the same screen as above but when I selected the people and booked it used adult pricing for all 4. Odd.

Alas my daughter is at that awkward age where she doesn't want to be in a kids club with 9-12 year olds and is a bit introvert. She seems to be happy hanging out with me - I'm looking forward to sailing on a ship where I can locate my son though. But this dinner is for the first night, mainly to avoid the expected first night issues in the MDR ( it's also the first Southampton embarkation, so not expecting everything to be smooth on that first evening).

Hi all I've had a search on here and saw a thread where several different ages were given for what age limit is considered a "child" for Crown Grill. I have a 12 year old daughter who is considered a child for excursion costs, so have assumed that she would also be considered a child in Crown Grill? However when I've gone onto the app to book dinner for 4 ( 2 adults, 14 year old son ( who I assume is adult pricing) and my 12 year old) - it looks like it is charging full price for all 4. Is this just an issue on the app or is my 12 year old considered an adult in different areas of the ship 😉 I've had a look on the website and can't see any reference to this. Thanks

Thanks - very interested and have followed your journeys in past years.

Thanks I have sent an email. It will be great to see a blog for Oceania's ATW as there are quite a few for HAL and Viking.

Thanks - I'm considering go with the non Free at Sea option - it looks like I'd have to buy the 3rd person a soda package anyway and an extra £500 seems a lot for gratuities especially when one of the first two passengers is a child. I'm not a big drinker so will probably just get them a soda package separately.

Hi - I'm wondering if it is different on the UK NCL site? I'm considering whether to opt in or out of the Free At Sea package for myself and two children. The price difference is approx £500 if I opt in but I don't see any reference to gratuities in the final pricing. Looking at the Canadian example above, there is a line for both the dining package gratuities and the drinks package gratuities which just doesn't appear in the UK site. I'd hate to go on board and then find a huge gratuity fee on top of the normal tips. Anyone from UK clarify what they found?

Hi We stayed at the Hotel Sorrento City which was super close to the train station and a 5-10 min walk to the harbour. It was lovely and clean, the staff were lovely and there was a great little pastry shop next door that stayed open to 12 and a supermarket on the other side. A busy street but good soundproof windows.

Thanks - that's not great. But I guess I'm not the first person to say that lol.

I have seen an itinerary I like and have sailed with HAL a few years ago. From doing searches people refer to opting in and out of the Have it All option but I can't see how to do that on the website. I'm not interested in this package due to cost and the fact I'm travelling with a child. Feel like I'm being dumb but just can't see how to do it.

I second that - We took the free shuttle to the bus station and got our tickets easily to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem the electric railway/tram was just across the road from the bus station and a 10 min ride later we were at the old city.

From a historical perspective, just that first sense of how expansive the city is. Even compared to the fantastic Ephesus, the sheer scope of the excavations is somewhat overwhelming. For repeat visits, it's the fact that each time there is something new to see. For a parental perspective, it was seeing the excitement my kids had when visiting. Happiest memories are them standing in the ruins of a shop stall pretending to be shopkeepers, selling me bread and soup. And pretending to be gladiators in the stadium. They had watched and rewatched lots of youtube videos and a BBC dramatisation of the last day of Pompeii.

I'd go for the Bay of Naples area. I've just experienced this. FLew into Naples and transferred to a hotel in Sorrento for a few nights. This was a great base for a day along the Amalfi Coast and a day to Capri. We caught the train to Rome the day before ( the slightly more expensive Freccia trains cut the journey to 1 hour 20 mins) and then enjoyed Rome before catching a train to Civitaveechia the next morning. In saying that, we are big users of public transport - I stored our luggage near Naples train station so we'd not have too much hassle travel to Sorrento and back.

I would be sad to see Costa in decline. I've always preferred their product to MSC's - I agree with that lovely analogy someone in the thread made - MSC do lovely design but their overall experience is poor. I've recently sailed on Toscana and Smeralda and thought these were a great step up for Costa. Loved the entertainment and food options. I would put those two cruises in my top ten ahead of recent experiences on RCI and MSC.

I can also confirm that we used the 3 euro portlink straight from the rail station to the ship on 17th Oct.

Also from the UK here and will be using the free test kits we get. Taking a box I got at work months ago to do the job.

Thanks for the responses -we'll see how it goes on the morning. In the recent past we've paid 20 euros to go from the station to ship. Unfortunately there aren't many "fast" trains to Pisa from Civitavecchia but at least our flight home is the next day so no stress if we miss that particular train.

I wonder if I can get some advice. We are disembarking at Civitavecchia on Sat 28th Oct and I have pre purchased Frecciabianca tickets to Pisa. The train is at 7.46. The ship is due to dock at 6am. I think these are the options: 1) Get a taxi from the ship to the station - are there likely to be taxis there? 2) Get the port shuttle which leaves from 7am but is only likely to take us to that Largo Pace area which would then require another local bus to take us to the station ( this would be too tight for time) 3) Use the Portlink but as it only seems to start at 8 - that won't work 4) Check to see if Celebrity offer a paid service to get to the station OPtion 1 seems best but what do you think?

It is frustrating. I use Chrome on my laptop and each time I want to go into my account, I have to go up and clear the cookies for the celebrity website and go to Sign in each time. If I didn't do this, I would never get the username and password page coming up. It would be great if the keep me signed in actually worked.

Many thanks - I was able to go in this morning and pre pay the gratuities. Actually was pleasantly surprised by the amount I had to pay ( which was converted into ££) as it seems to be based on an old exchange rate rather than the most recent ones which have been painful for Brits.

Like others I can't find a way to prepay when I log into my account. Also not had any email, so suspect there isn't a way to do this without picking up the dreaded phone.

HI Just been looking at the main Greece ports part of this site and it appears that the Port of Piraeus dropped their testing requirement over the weekend - this was reported by those boarding there on Azamara. Of course this is all still at the unofficial state and reported on here but I'm hoping that this will start to filter through to the official websites for our cruiselines. It would be great to not have to do a proctored test for our upcoming cruise. Definitely worth keeping an eye and ear open on this over the next few days.