Baby_Bear

Some really interesting points. I guess it was inevitable that cruising might start to go the way of flying, where many services even on full service airlines are now unbundled and pax can pick what they like/need on an a la carte basis. For us, we like the option of having more choices particularly in food, so it's nice to see new restaurants. I could definitely see us signing up for dinners at the Teppenyaki and Jiji on nights where we don't like what's on the dining room menu. Actually, that raises a question: does Carnival have the option of seeing the menus for the week (maybe when you board) so you can make other restaurant bookings for certain nights in advance?

Thanks! We really enjoyed Princess as well last year in Greece. To be honest, we were looking at Princess again this year, but were attracted by Carnival offering a new ship and not needing to fly to the point of embarkation (too much flying for work already this year). We don't really attend shows on board, but I'm happy you think the food has improved with more choices.

Pretty much what the title says. Our last Carnival cruise was in 2014. We've sailed on Royal Caribbean and Princess since then and have very much enjoyed them. Now booked on the Horizon for August, after considering the Magic, but finally went for Horizon despite the higher cost. The temptation of a brand new ship and being able to sail out of our home port of NYC was too hard to resist!

So what changes, if any, should we expect? What's been going on in the last three years? Or is everything much the same?

Thank you both! Nice to hear she is in good shape and leaving from Port Canaveral should be fine.

Hi, its been a while since we have cruised Carnival, and wondering what the current experience is like. Looking at a 7-dayer on the Magic in August. Can people who have been on her recently comment on food, entertainment, ship condition, etc. I read that she was refurbished in 2016 - is she still in pretty good shape?

Also, I read that Carnival now offers a couple of extra perks for suites. Is it just the extra bottles of water and one free bag of laundry (in addition to the priority boarding which was always there)?

Lastly, what's the experience boarding from Port Canaveral? I've only ever boarded from Fort Lauderdale and Miami, both of which were big and Miami was pretty chaotic. Is Port Canaveral better?

Thanks!

Wow, thanks for the quick reply, Keith! Your reward is a couple more questions :-)

In the interest of not sitting around waiting to board, would you suggest we plan to arrive at around 11:30? I was thinking we would complete the check in procedures by noon and so board straight away. We have our hotel room till noon.

Is the Athens cruise terminal huge, like airports? My mom is very independent and likes to try to manage on her own, but if it's huge distances, that's different. If it's not too much, we just go slowly.

Seriously, thanks for the help!

Hi, we are booked on Royal Princess this summer, RT Athens. First Princess Cruise and first cruise out of Athens and had a few questions:

1) Embarkation day - I understand that on Princess, they let you board and go straight to your cabin, is that right? Therefore, approximately what time would boarding begin? We are staying pre cruise in Athens so will be cabbing it to the port. Around what time should we plan to arrive? We would love to leave our carry on in the cabin and go have lunch on the ship if possible.

Also - I'm traveling with my mom who walks slowly with a cane. Does Princess have a line for passengers who need a little extra time to board?

Also, are we permitted to bring 5-6 big bottles of water on board? Or do we need to buy onboard?

2) Disembarkation day - we are flying on to Asia and our plane doesn't leave till 3:30 pm. Can anyone advise what is the latest time we (a) have to be out of our cabins and (b) off the ship?

Thanks so much. Looking forward to our first Princess cruise!:D

I thought someone else had mentioned on other threads they have tried those and they were OK? But if I'm wrong, please let me know.

Sorry, being new to Princess - what level is that? Below the Sidewalk?

Hi, planning an upcoming Med cruise on Royal Princess this summer. We usually pick our cabins, but on this one our TA has offered us a special rate for a mini suite guarantee.

I was wondering if all the Princess experts could chime in with your thoughts. Are there any bad/avoidable mini suites on the Royal? If so, we may pay more to choose our cabin, but if not really, we are happy to take our chances with the guarantee.

From what I can see, the mini suites are all clustered more or less mid ship on all decks and have good proximity to elevators, is that reasonably accurate? Thanks!

First off, thanks to everyone who responded. Above all, thanks for being so helpful and not assuming that we were trying to game the system to get a bigger cabin, etc. I saw someone getting absolutely crucified on the Royal Caribbean boards once for asking a similar question and it wasn't nice.

The reason we are thinking mini suite is because we really would like the extra space. We are thinking of doing the 14-day cruise and with two women in one cabin, extra space is always welcome, lol! And I fear the full suite is out of our price range since its a longer cruise. So I figured, its absolutely worth the extra cash for the mini suite.

You have given me a lot to think about. We were on a Royal Caribbean cruise in 2015 in a suite and I remember the tub being very high. Even at that time, poor mom struggled getting in and out due to her knee and I always had to be on hand to help her. If the Princess tubs are anything like that, it will be tough for sure. On the other hand, your point that the bathing area in an accessible cabin may be slippery after use is also worrying.

I think I will talk to my TA as well. She may recommend a solution. Perhaps the Deluxe Balcony Cabin that you mentioned? Are those larger than the regular balcony cabins?

I also like the idea of the collapsible wheelchair, I did not know we could rent that, just in case. Never having been in this situation before, I guess I never paid attention to these things.

Thanks again!

Hi everyone! Former Royal Caribbean and Carnival cruiser here, now seriously considering Princess for the first time. We are looking at a Mediterranean cruise on the Royal Princess later this summer.

Briefly - my cruising partner in crime is my mom. Due to a combination of arthritis and ligament damage from old sports injuries, she has a painful left hip and knee. Not just pain but stiffness and pretty much every day now, she has to use a walking stick. She will most probably need surgery this fall. We were initially disappointed as we were hoping to cruise this summer but her doctor says she can still go, as long as she uses a wheelchair at the airports and takes it easy both on the ship and shore excursions.

Shore excursions are not a problem as we can book private tours and go slowly. But I was wondering about whether I should book an accessible cabin for her. My understanding is, those are located very near elevators and also the mini suites will have showers rather than tubs which is much easier for her. My question is - should we not book it as she's not actually in a wheelchair? Should we keep them just for wheelchair passengers? We don't want to take away something from someone who really needs it but in this case, we may need it.

Also - what kind of documentation do we need? Should we submit a letter from her physician and/or her surgeon?

Also - and this is more for me - what difference is there in a regular mini suite vs an accessible one? Does the shower area get messy due to the water spray? Any other differences?

Finally, are there any regular mini suites with showers? The bathtub is really quite tough for her to climb in and out of.

Thanks so much! We are excited at the chance to cruise again and possibly trying Princess. Our friends have gone on Princess and loved it!

We used Roma Shuttle (http://www.romashuttle.com). Drivers were either on time or early. There were just 2 of us, so we had a brand new Mercedes sedan for each of the rides. Drivers were professional, courteous and spoke basic English. We used them for FCO-Naples ( 2 1/2 hours), Naples-Civitavecchia (3 1/2 hours) and Civitavecchia-FCO (45 mins) and could not have been more pleased. They are not the cheapest out there but we found their prices quite competitive overall. I'm recommending them to all my friends.

It's very possible to make an early flight out of FCO - we just did it last month and our flight was at 9:55 AM which I think is earlier than anyone posting here. Rhapsody was supposed to dock at 5 am she actually docked early around 4:30. Royal Caribbean surprisingly made no announcements when she was cleared by customs. We were out on our balcony and saw the first passengers start to leave at 6:10. We left our cabin at 6:15, we were carrying off our own bags of course. It took us 10 mins to go down and walk out thru the terminal. We had been to Greece and Turkey but the last port of call was Greece (Schengen zone, same as Italy) which maybe explains why we had no customs checks or had to show passports as we exited the terminal.

Our car service was booked for 6:30 am, the driver was pulling up as we exited the terminal. We reached FCO at 7:15 AM. We were on United which is checked in at Terminal 5. All the North American Airlines are checked in at T5, I saw signs for US Air, Delta, Air Canada, etc. Check in was fast but passport control and security checks were slow. They then bus to you Terminal 3 as that's where the flight actually departs from. Check in at T5, depart from T3, only in Italy! And that took about 10 mins as they wait for the bus to fill up, the actual ride is about 3 mins. We reached the lounge next to our gates by 8:10 which gave us an hours cushion before our flight began boarding. As long as you have a private car service picking you up, it'll be just fine. We had a great car service, really took all the stress out if the equation.

Is your port Naples? We recently stayed in Naples for 3 days and did a wonderful private day tour of Capri with http://www.toursofcapri.com We were staying at the waterfront so just took a cab to Molo Bevellero (the cruise port) where our guide met us to start the tour. We saw a lot of people getting off Allure, etc. We had an amazing day in Capri and the guide took care of everything for us. While its not cheap, it does include all the tickets for the ferry, Blue Grotto, chairlift, etc. and its so easy, just follow the guide and you can concentrate on having a good time while he/she takes care of the logistics. Capri is amazing, I'd go back in a heartbeat.

ETA: Another option is to do a full day day trip visiting various towns along the Amalfi Coast which we also did. We booked through http://www.viator.com and although it was supposed to be a small group tour (max 8 people), there was no one else so de facto it turned into a private day trip. We visited Sorrento, Positano, Ravello and Amalfi. It was a great day trip and again I'd highly recommend. We were fortunate enough to have sufficient time to visit both Capri and Amalfi Coast on separate days, but if you only have one option, I'd go with whatever you have been wanting to see most. Both options are terrific.

Sure, will post them this weekend.

You can go and enjoy your cruise with no worries - like you, I was a little concerned before the cruise, but can honestly say that everything was much, much better than expected, particularly the food. The ship is beautiful and you will have a good time.

Thanks all! Yes, the suite and bathroom were great. The whole cruise was a wonderful experience, much better than we expected.

Great review and pics....looking forward to seeing the rest...

Thanks! Read thru to the end and tell me what you think!:D

And finally to finish - some random pics taken around this ship that we both came to really like!

The Rhapsody docked in Crete:

Aerial entertainment - pretty gimicky I thought

Shot of the lower level of the Edelweiss Dining Room:

The Centrum all lit up at night

Waiting for a show to start in Broadway Melodies:

Overall Verdict: Loved the cruise and the ship! We had mixed feelings about RCL previously, as our Vision cruise was a bit hit-or-miss, but this one stepped it up a few notches and it wound up being one of the best cruises we have ever done. For us, it ranks right up there with our 12-day Med cruise on the then-brand new Carnival Breeze in 2012 and that’s high praise as that cruise set a high bar. We still won't be loyal to any one cruise line as we primarily cruise for the itinerary and not the ship but we'd definitely be favorably inclined to any RCL cruise where we liked the itinerary in the future. Thanks to all the posters on the boards here for all the tips and advice! And let me know if you any questions.

P.S. I do have the Cruise Compasses and MDR menus saved so let me know if anyone wants them.

Entertainment: While not outstanding, it was surprisingly better than we expected. There were two production shows – Piano Man and Ballroom Fever – your typical cruise ship song and dance routines, but we found the quality of the singing and dancing a step above our Carnival cruise last year. They also had a string ensemble called String Fever from London one night which we enjoyed listening to, and one night they had a guest entertainer Marco Romano who has been in musicals on the West End in London. He sang a number of English and Italian songs. He has a very good voice and we probably enjoyed his performance the most. They had a rock-n-roll band DJ Grooveline who performed nightly and they were terrible. Having listened to some pretty good bands on Carnival, they were most disappointing. They also had a Caribbean band who mostly played poolside (incongruous in the Med) and a strings duo who were decent. We don't participate in any of the trivia contests so no idea how they were.

Other: We don't really ever use the casino so no idea how they paid out but it usually seemed pretty empty when we walked through it, even on sea days. The fitness center was nice and well equipped with great sea views but again, not very busy. Didn't visit the spa as I prefer the ones at home but I saw a lot of people with various offers in their hands so they seemed to be doing OK. The pool areas were always super crowded and we did see that chairs being left empty for over 30 minutes were turned over to other users which was good. Overall, we were able to use our sea days to just relax, hang out on our balcony and read, which was great.

The ship overall was pretty full – not 100% capacity but close (about 2,200 pax). The concierge told us there were 800 Italians, 800 Brits, only 160 Americans and the rest were other nationalities. People were overall quite nice, and no pushing, although Italians are LOUD when they are in groups (more of an issue in the Windjammer when tables are closer together) and there was a lot of seat hogging going on for the shows. The ship is well designed overall to minimize bottlenecks and we never experienced any waits for the elevators. We also could always find a nice window table for 2 at the Windjammer, no problems there. Long lines always to get off and on the ship though, at all the ports, except for Kusadasi where we got off late as we didn't have a formal tour organized. I really don't know why RCL couldn't open up another line mid-ship to help minimize lines. Its no fun standing in long lines in the searing heat!

On Board Spending: Minimal. Thanks to our TA, our gratuities were pre-paid, also we had a $200 OBC. We are light drinkers and were quite happy with one or two drinks each night in the Concierge Lounge. Once or twice if we wanted another drink, we just ordered a la carte. Bar service was particularly slow in the MDR so we avoided ordering drinks there (heard tons of complaints). I didn't find the drinks particularly expensive, but I'm from New York, so its all relative. We sent out the laundry twice (expensive at $30 per bag of wash and fold, double that of Carnival) and ordered some photos and did some on-board shopping on the last day as well as got the Internet package and still ended up spending only $40 after our OBC was used up!

I'll now address a few questions I think people may have:

Ship: As I mentioned, we loved the Rhapsody. While she's not the newest kid on the block, she is looking pretty good after her refurbishment. I had been worried pre-cruise as some previous posters had complained that the ship was looking tired and someone else posted about sewer smells, but we never encountered any of these problems on the ship. The ship is spotlessly clean and based on the pics, you can see she's in great condition. We did encounter one blocked toilet on Deck 6 on the last day, but they were already fixing it. For anyone planning a cruise on her, I'd say book with an easy mind and go enjoy yourself!

Cabin: I had previously noted that we had sailed in equivalent suites on HAL and Carnival but we found RCL's GS to be the best cabin we have had so far. Really loved the high quality of the furniture and fixtures and layout, plus that bathroom! Our cabin was located forward, near the three forward elevators. It was pretty convenient for accessing the Windjammer Café and to access the MDR, we got into the habit of walking to mid-ship and taking the elevators down to Deck 5. We had been slightly concerned as our suite was below the Windjammer but except for late at night when we head some light noise from chairs being dragged overhead (which only lasted a few minutes), we never heard any noise and the cabin was super quiet during the day. Also, we mostly have sailed in port side cabins, and while this was on the starboard side, we ended up docking on the side facing the port pretty much everywhere so we had nice sailaway views everywhere.

Crew: Awesome! Every single crew member we encountered was helpful and friendly. The crew was working so hard as it was a pretty full ship and were constantly cleaning. Please don't ever take off the auto tips for these people, they deserve them! Our stateroom attendant was great. The captain Rob Hempstead was also nice although his daily attempts at humor pretty much always fell flat. We had very good weather (not a drop of rain), clear skies and calm seas throughout the trip. Only on the morning we were sailing into Santorini, we did experience some rougher seas but thanks to Bonine, we were just fine.

Food: Very subjective I know, but we were pleasantly surprised by the food. On our previous 4-dayer on the Vision, the food was hit-or-miss so we didn't have high expectations going in. I had told my mom pre-cruise that if we didn't like the food, we would book the specialty restaurants but to our surprise, we found the MDR food to be pretty good! I would say the food ranged from good to very good, and everything was well prepared and served at the appropriate temperatures. We definitely found a big improvement in the quality of the food on the Rhapsody as compared to the Vision last year. Also to our surprise, the food in the Windjammer was also pretty good. Good range of food and pretty tasty for the most part.

In general, the food service on the Rhapsody was slow. Dinner generally took around 1 ½ hours to get through in the MDR, which is quite long. Also, breakfast and lunch service were slow. They kept the MDR open on several of the port days which was a nice touch, but the service was slow. After a particularly slow service on the day of the Bodrum stop which made us slightly late for our tour, we started eating breakfast every day in the Windjammer, which was much quicker and the food was equally good. We had lunch in the MDR twice – I enjoyed the tutti salad but the other days, we were perfectly happy to eat at the Windjammer. Dinner was always at the MDR though.

We had My Time Dining and did experience a couple of hiccups. I had previously made MTD reservations online for 7:30 pm each night, table for 2 requested. The first night, we arrived promptly at 7:30 pm and experienced a 45 minute delay! I can understand if did not have a reservation, but I think its unacceptable to be kept waiting so long when you do have a reservation. We told Analia our Concierge about the experience and I don't know if she said anything, but the waits were minimal on all subsequent days. We also got into the habit of showing up about 10 minutes early, and found that way, we were usually seated by 7:30 pm. We witnessed a lot of people complaining about the delays and the lines out the door at the MDR were crazy each night – both in the reservations and non-reservations lines! I really think this is an area that needs to be worked on.

Day 7 – sea day. We spent the time packing and just enjoying our last day on the beautiful Rhapsody. I did get the internet package on Day 6 and got a good deal as it was only $20 for two days. We hadn't bothered before as we have international voice and unlimited data coverage in the ports. The internet on the ship was pretty miserable and kept going off and on. I really think RC shouldn't offer it if its going to be so subs-standard. I know I could have gotten a refund but it was only $20 and I couldn't be bothered to go stand in line at Guest Services so I let it go. I did mention it in my post-cruise survey though.

Day 8 – debarkation! We had an early flight back to the US, so had to make an early start. We were really sorry to leave the Rhapsody as we had become really fond of her. Anyways, debarkation was a snap. The ship was supposed to dock at Civi at 5 am. She docked early, around 4:30. I had expected RC to make an announcement once she was cleared by customs but they surprisingly didn't make any announcements. We were out on our balcony and by around 6:10 am, we saw the first pax getting off the ship. We left our cabin at 6:15 am. We were of course carrying off our own bags, in view of the early start. It took us about 10 minutes to get down and get through the terminal. There were no additional checks at the terminal. Roma Shuttle were pulling up as we got to the exit. We reached FCO airport by 7:15 am. All flights on North American airlines are checked in at T5 but depart from T3, which is bizarre. Check in was fast but with additional security checks and being bussed from T5 to T3 took up quite a bit of time. United doesn't have their own lounge so we used the Alitalia Giotto lounge at T3 once the bus dropped us off. It was OK, somewhere to sit. Our flight was scheduled for 9:55 am departure and we made it to the lounge which was literally next to our gate with almost an hour to spare. As long as you have good arrangements in place, its easy to make an early flight here! And so, home after a great vacay.

Elena then took us to an amazing look out point, perfect for photographs; and we finally spent a couple of hours walking around Chania Old Town which was enchanting. We did some great shopping (chili olive oil and kataifi), stopped for coffee and a local dessert and toured the old lighthouse. Such a great way to see the island and truthfully, we saw so much with Elena, much more than we could have seen on our own. Again, our complaint was that we had to be back on board by about 2:30 pm and we would have really liked to have had more time as there was much more to see. Some pics of Chania Old Town and the waterfront:

Day 6 – Crete. Our ship was docked in Souda. We had a tour booked through Tours By Locals (http://www.toursbylocals.com). Elena was waiting for us as we emerged out of the port. She first drove us all around the southern part of the island, then took us to a wonderful medieval Greek Orthodox monastery which is still being used by the monks today.

Ok great. Thank you. Do you remember who the diamond concierge was?

Sorry no idea - we are not Diamond.