drummerdavebmth

The UK website still says there is a Corkage Fee........ :mad:

Click on the Link 'What Not To Pack' , then look under 'Alcoholic Beverages' http://www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/frequently-asked-questions/planning-and-preparation/what-and-what-not-to-pack/

You're welcome.....Glad you're enjoying the review :)

I love this photo.....

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Sailing past Stromboli like that and viewing all it's splendour right from our balcony is another one of those moments I'll remember for the rest of my life. Incredible!!

When we got back to our room....we were in for a nice surprise. We were sailing past the Island of Stromboli with it's active volcano (one of 3 in Italy). we could clearly see the smoke coming out of the volcano!!

All this from our balcony!!!

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But THIS is what was really grabbing our attention (...and yes, that really is a town you see on the right of the Island!!)

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each cruise is treated as separate entities so everything will 'reset' since you will be getting a brand spanky new sea pass card. that being said anything that does not get used up on the first cruise will NOT carry over to the second.

Cool....thanks for the clarification. The drinks part of the first cruise C&A benefits will certainly be used at least! :cool:

YES!!!!! That was what I was hoping......Thanks! :D

I have a quick question regarding the benefits you get onboard though the Crown & Anchor program (free drinks, buy one get another free etc...).

We are doing a B2B on Ovation of the Seas this week (14th April 3 nights + 17th April 5 nights). We have reached Platinum status on C&A.

How do RCI do the onboard C&A benefits for B2B cruises? Will we get the benefits for the 2nd cruise as well as the 1st cruise - or will we have the make the benefits received for the 14th April cruise last for the duration of the 17th April cruise too?

I'm hoping that they count it as two separate cruises, so we will get the full C&A benefits for both..........or is that wishful thinking?

As we were passing Messina, we watched a Holland America ship pass us by...

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Around about 12pm, RCI staff put on a really nice presentation in the Centrum. RCI staff representing many nationalities were introduced (all doing a little solo dance, to much hand clapping and cheers) whilst waving their national flags. It was really cool to see and made you appreciate how truly multi-national Royal Caribbean's staff is. Everyone was so proud and happy waving their flags....It brought a lump to my throat... Amazing!!!

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Of course, watching all that emotional flag waving made me hungry....so we went to the MDR for lunch.

Here's my desert.......it was soooooo good!!

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Ok then......Let's see what our last sea day will bring.

It started with my usual check on the TV to see exactly where we were (always sad at this point in the cruise, seeing where we had been - and wishing we were still back at that point in the cruise).

We were approaching the Strait of Messina (the bit of sea between Sicily and the Italian mainland).

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Then back on our balcony, we spotted Mount Etna (do you remember us climbing this earlier in our cruise? - looking at it now, it's hard to believe we made it up there!!)

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I'm really enjoying your review! Thanks so much for sharing! The pictures are amazing! And I love your writing style!

Glad you're enjoying it...and thank you for your kind comments :)

Now that we were well and truly out into the Adriatic sea again, we got ready to go for dinner.....and stopped off at Vintages for a pre-dinner drink.

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After dinner, we watched another arial show in the Centrum...before having a leisurely walk through the ship via the shopping area.

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Later that evening it was the traditional 70's Disco party. Our Cruise Director (Mercedes) looked quite the part!!

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Finally (and rather reluctantly) it was time for bed. Tomorrow would be our final day at sea. It turned out to be quite a memorable day!!

Stay tuned.....

Great trip report! I enjoyed seeing your photos, very nice. This makes me excited about my upcoming trip in June, slightly different itin..but very close to your's...I can hardly wait!

Thank you!! You'll love the Eastern Med........Being on MSC should be cool too! One of the things I like about cruising the Med, embarking from a Mediterranean port (rather than a local, British port to us - i.e. Southampton) is the cosmopolitan mix of passengers - a great nationality & culture mix!! :)

Our ship had started moving now, slowly leaving Dubrovnik behind. I took this photo of the Croatian flag, shortly before it was taken down as we left port. It was a sad moment, because I knew it was a last port of call on our cruise...

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We spotted the infamous "hidden bar", but didn't figure out how to get down there. Oh well - another good reason to come back some day!

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Thank you! Yes, very helpful!

 

 

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No worries.......and by the way it was meant to have been 'Piazza Del Roma' (not "Orma"...lol, sorry! :D )

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Now that looks like fun!

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AND.....for all you 'Game Of Thrones' fans, we spotted some props!!! Suffice to say, we were pretty excited! Cool, huh?!

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Jen getting some good GoPro footage for our video >

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Our original plan was to go on the cable car in Dubrovnik which took you up to some spectacular views over the old town (see Hoopster95's review!). However, when we got there around mid morning...the queues were so long (and did not appear to be moving) that it looked like we'd be waiting for 2 hours +

We decided we didn't want to waste 2 hours of the day stood in a queue. We thought (at the time) if they were this bad at 11:30am, God knows how bad they would be in the afternoon....so we didn't bother coming back. We kicked ourselves later because, by all accounts, the queues died down to almost nothing by the afternoon (Doh!!).

Oh well...you live and learn (and all the more reason to come back!).

So, after making the decision not to queue for the cable cars, we decided now was a good time to walk around the ancient wall surrounding the old town.

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Notice the MSC ship now tendered behind the Costa ship....

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OK, the first thing we noticed about Dubrovnik (at least in the old, walled town) was how crowded this was. Apparently this isn't so typical though. There was a total of 5 cruise ships visiting this small town today.....our taxi driver told us this was most unusual.

It certainly didn't stop us marvelling at the beauty and culture of this historic place though. The weather couldn't be more perfect either!!

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Untitled by drummerdave72, on Flickr[/img]

I love this photo....You can see a cruise ship (looks to me like a Costa line) tendered. A MSC ship joined her later, bringing more people!

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Fantastic job reviewing Venice, complete with awesome pictures! A visit to Venice is on my "to do" list and you have definitely whetted my appetite.

Thank you! Jen and I both loved Venice and will definitely go back there again some day... :)

Thanks for the kind words guys....glad you're enjoying it! I will carry on with the review and (photo onslaught) when I get back from work later this afternoon.

Still to come.....Our day in Dubrovnik (a must see, especially if you're a 'Game of Thrones' fan!) and our last day at sea, where we get a fantastic view of Stromboli - right from our balcony! :eek:

Stay tuned.... :cool:

Loving your photos! I'm going to some of these same ports (12-night Mediterranean Venice on Brilliance) in October, so this sneak preview is fabulous! Did you do any of RCI's excursions? It appears that you're exploring on your own. Was it difficult to get back to the ship from Venice? That's the one stop we'll have a free afternoon after the tour and would need to figure our how to get back on our own.

 

 

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Hi there...I'm glad you're enjoying the photo's and you'll love cruising around the Med!!

The only RCI excursion we did was the boat trip to Amalfi and back from the port of Salerno. RCI also laid on coaches in Corfu (which we had to pay for). This took you from the dock to outside the fort in old Corfu town. We used a private company called 'Rome In Limo for our day on Sicily (which took us to Mount Etna & Taormina).

With regards to Venice (if your tour finishes in the city centre) you could get the Vaporetto (boat bus) to 'Piazza Del Orma'. From there get the sky train that takes you to the dock and then walk to your ship.

Hope that helps? :)

Breakfast sat in the outside area of the Windjammer was (again) a real treat...

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P&O's Oriana was docked behind us - I always like being nosey and looking at other cruise ships. I liked the look of their aft pool...

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I couldn't decide which desert I wanted, so I had three!!

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