emeraldcity

Just back from my Greek Isles cruise. We were late getting due Santorini due to a diversion for a medical emergency. We arrived at 10:30 a.m. and were one of 4 ships in port ... but the Odyssey was by far the biggest ship. People had to queue up for tender tickets to leave the ship and we opted to stay on board that morning, have a nice lunch and then head ashore at 2:00 p.m. We knew we had plenty of time because the captain had announced the ship would delay departure until 10:00 p.m. It took about an hour and a half for all the people with tender tickets to get off. By noon, no one needed a ticket. My plan of duplicating my experience on how to get to Oia fell apart as soon as we hit the dock ... the water taxi to Oia ceases operation at noon. So we took the cable car up and figured we'd explore Fira. Of course, it didn't take long to realize that Fira wasn't going to deliver the visual experience of Oia ... but there is a solution to every problem. We got deeper into the town and spotted a big sign that said taxi. Even better, as we got closer to the sign, we discovered a lot full of buses right behind it. We asked at the lot and were told to go to bus 18. You buy your ticket as you are boarding the bus and it set us back a mere 1.6 Euro each. 30 minutes later we were in Oia. The bus runs every 30 minutes. When we finished exploring Oia, we headed back to where the bus dropped us off and there were two buses waiting to load passengers for the trip back to Fia. Score! 6.4 Euros total for two rides in a very comfortable huge coach. They simply don't pay that driver enough to negotiate those roads every day. PS. While we waited about 15 minutes for the cable car ride down, we found out that those who opted for a taxi to Oia paid 35 Euros. And while we enjoyed dinner that night on the ship at 8:00 we realized the cable car ceases operating before dark ... we could make out little pinpoints of light slowly zigzagging down the cliff as passengers made their way back down, undoubtedly using the flashlights of the phones.

That was my experience as well. We plan on doing the same thing this time. Sounds like we can expect a line to the cable car, but it's all part of the adventure.

I had absolutely no luck booking any private tours that could accommodate the ship's port schedule (2 p.m. arrival with a departure the following day at 5:00 p.m.). I ended up booking a ship tour on day one and the hop-on/hop-off bus the next day. The ho/ho bus was a colossal waste of money. They were supposed to be operating every 15-20 minutes and clearly the drivers never got that memo. We waited 30 minutes at the port before the bus showed up. It took us as far as the church (stop #9), where we got off with the grand plan to walk back to bus stop #7, doing a bit of shopping ... then catch the bus to do the rest of the circuit. We reached stop #7 shortly before 3:00. And we waited. Then waited some more. By 3:30 it was clear doing the rest of the circuit was going to be cutting things too close, so we called a taxi. When the taxi picked us up at 3:40, there was still no sign of the bus.

Introduce some new itineraries ... definitely in the Med, but elsewhere as well. Other cruiselines offer something other than Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway in Alaska. Why should I cruise RC again in Alaska if I don't get to see a new port? And then there's South America ... I don't have the funds to undertake the World Odyssey, but I'd be interested in something other than the ABC islands and Cartegena.

I've got the same issue for an upcoming cruise out of Rome. We finally decided what we want to do in Naples and the only thing that doesn't block us with that message is the Hop/on-Hop/Off bus in Naples

They absolutely enforce it. I wanted to do a "go fast" drive yourself boat excursion in Cozumel and I couldn't book it on the web site, so I waited till I got on board and tried the shore excursion desk the night before. As soon as she input my name she told me that I exceeded the max age. One month later on the Anthem I got to do the Rhino Riders in St. Maarten ... same "go fast" boat experience ... drive it yourself ... no age limit. Both excursions were ship excursions. That indicates to me the issue lies with the third party providers, not Royal.

I have typically gotten a lot of information about port stops on the ports-of-call section of this forum, but I can't find anything for Iceland and Greenland. Are they just not there, or maybe the ports are buried under an unexpected category. They aren't in Canada/New England and they aren't in Europe.

Vision ... November of this year

I agree with this assessment wholeheartedly. Stick with a ship's excursion here and suffer the big bus experience (which I also am not a fan of). Special trivia note: the emeraldcity avatar is actually a photo of a condo in Panama City

Finally found it. Thank you all for your patience with me.

Oh. OK. Thanks. But is there a way to see my set sail pass in the subsequent cruise?

I would like to access my check-in information for a cruise in late September. I did my checkin on my computer, but you can't upload photos of your vaccine card there, so I want to do it in the app. However, I have a cruise that takes place prior to that and when I open the app, all I get is info about the upcoming cruise and I can't figure out how to find an option to see information for a subsequent cruise. I'm sure it's a simple thing, but it's eluding me.

So many favorites already listed. I agree wholeheartedly about the Austrian Striezel bread in the morning ... although it's not the same on all ships. Sadly, I think they overbaked it a bit on the Allure and sliced it too thin so it was drier. But that's the only ship that disappointed. And I'm all about the mashed potatoes and gravy ... it's in my DNA. Numerous times I'd head to the WJ thinking I was going to get something else ... and then I walked by the mashed potatoes and it called to me. And the inclusion of real ice cream (instead of just that soft serve stuff on the pool deck) is a huge draw. My last couple of cruises I'd head up there just before closing time for my version of a night cap. So glad to see they are adding a crepe station. It was the one thing NCL had over Royal's buffet for so long.

Thank you. I was a bit disappointed in the first go-round, but I see the thread was revived and my actual question has been addressed. So it's possible that Royal is giving them compensation in some way, but it's really unknown. And a dollar a drink for an easy pour, but $2 for a frozen concoction would be more appropriate.

I've been giving the server a dollar for the drinks that are loaded on my card, but is that enough? Mainly, I'm confused about whether servers receive any compensation for those D and D+ drinks. If they don't and it's a $10 drink, then my dollar is only a 10% tip and I need to up my game. And I'm sure this topic has been covered, but I tried several searches, and apparently my searching skills are deficient.

OK. That makes sense. In my case, I tend to tip the cabin steward extra because I don't want him/her to feel like they got shafted by having only one person in the cabin.

OK. You're right. It was a guarantee for the couple but not the solo. That's a strange policy. I wonder what's the reason behind it. In any event, I clearly want to book as a solo because I've just hit the magic 340+ points, so I should be able to qualify for the solo supplement reduction. Not sure how I go about getting that discount. Do you have to book with a phone rep?

I've been watching pricing on January cruises for Anthem. And the situation hasn't changed in months. When I run a mock booking for a given cabin with 2 people in it, the final price is nearly $200 less than if I back up and run the numbers again for one guest. I'm getting $2551 for a solo and $2375 for a couple in a balcony. I was prepared to pay for double occupancy plus one charge for taxes and port fees ... but that's not what's coming back.

Whoa! Given the big upcharge I had to pay for that accessible cabin when I was still wheelchair-bound a few weeks before my May cruise, I can't see people plunking down that kind of cash unless they are getting a suite with suite perks. Granted, the only one available was the "spacious" oceanview, but I've paid far less for a junior suite and at least got double points with it.

Thanks for the info ... I was told last night that price adjustments are no longer made (as of May). So it's back to the method of calling back to get someone who will give me the answer I want.

Until things settle down, I'm sticking with booking with Air2Sea. When a cruise gets cancelled, there's no hassle getting your flight money refunded (instead of airline flight credits). And when I had to return home early because of an accident, they were awesome on getting my return flight changed without cost. But one of the best things going right now is that you can book your flights and lock in a price ... then, until final payment you can call periodically and check pricing. If it drops, they will lower the price. They will also check to see if they can get better flight arrangements for the same price. I've gotten several price drops and reschedulings. And several of the price drops were significant.

I'm still recovering from a bad fall that happened in February. As May 21st approached it was clear the cruise was not going to be business as usual. I ended up switching to an accessible cabin and renting a 3-wheeled scooter to get around the ship. Those two things saved my vacation. I am so grateful for everyone who held a door for me or assisted me in reaching something in the Windjammer. People even helped me move chairs in the Windjammer to get reasonably close to a table. This trip had been two years in the planning, since it was my gift to my Granddaughters for their high school graduation. This turned out being one of the best cruises I have ever taken.

I finally decided to try to set up a new account, using my original email address and the original password and that worked. WAY too much stress. But I have my negative results in hand now, so all is good. Thanks for the support. Hope this helps anyone else who is struggling to get logged in.

Both my daughter and I have tried to log into the emed site for the BinaxNOW monitored test. It tells me my password is wrong and then it won't send an email to reset. Is anyone else having any luck today?

I've tried several searches, and I've not hit on a great search string. I know there's an email address to which you can send special requests regarding dining table assignments. Can someone provide that to me? Thank you in advance.