Badger-Badger

Silly question .... with an 8 pm sail away, what time is muster drill? I was wondering how to time muster/dinner and back to the balcony for sail away.

A quick island tour? To the forts, Queens Staircase and general area. We did one with my in laws when we cruised with them. We were at the British Colonial Hilton by lunch where we spent the rest of the day.

There are countless tou operators in the port area if you don't want to pre-book. It was not the most exciting tour, but I don't regret doing it. The tour guides at the forts are very knowledgeable.

When were in Nassau a few weeks ago we just got off long enough for my girls to shop at the straw market and then back on the ship to enjoy a really ni c e day.

And don't be unsettled by the soldiers with their very large guns who are at the sight. It sits right on an international border .... the soldiers took pictures with people. It scared a few people at first who were not expecting it.

I second Xunantunich. It was wonderful and other than our group of about 25 there was virtually no one else there other than a handful of day trippers from the resorts near San Ignacio. I have heard Altun Ha is more crowded ... but that is hearsay.

I also agree with booking through your ship. We booked through the Glory. It is a long drive out to the Guatemalan border. When we returned we were well past the time of the last scheduled tender. There was another tour coming in late from diving as well and we were all the last ones back onboard.

Belize is one of my favorite ports and this excursion is one of the reasons why ( we've been twice).

I did a search and didn't see an answer (sorry if I missed it!)

We will be in St Thomas at the end of March and my daughters really want to do the Sea Lion Swim at Coral World. I am not interested in doing this, but wanted to find a way for them to still get the chance.

My girls are 13 & 14 and, according to the website, therefore do not require an adult participate with them. Has anyone had their teens do this without them? Is there a waiting area for us? How does it work?

Just looking for some options .... worse case my husband may do it with them(but he doesn't really want to) and I'll just hang around and when they are done we'll head over to Coki Beach.

Thanks for any input.

My husband is one of those people who wears his SeaPass on a lanyard around his neck (a truly horrifying state of affairs which I am powerless to change) and on our last Norwegian cruise he wore his lanyard with the Royal Caribbean logo all over it. He was taken down below by a mysterious ship employee in whites and flogged and interrogated for hours about his *real* opinion on NCL vs RCCL, but otherwise all was well.

We had no problems using my daughters' passports a couple weeks ago when sailing to the Bahamas from Miami on Norwegian. Their passports are expiring the beginning of February. We did have their birth certificates with as a back up, but that was not needed.

The last thing I want when walking around in port - especially in a place like Europe - would be a wristband that screams "Cruise Passenger Tourist Right Here!"

My experience has been the same as everyone else's ...until we were on the Liberty of the Seas in the Med in June. There we just walked down the stairs and onto a tender with no numbered ticket and no wait ....and the tender was not even full when we took off. We just looked down from our balcony and saw people straggling on to a tender and thought we'd go check it out and ... poof! We were on and in Villefranche just like that. We were really (pleasantly) surprised.

At the non-tender ports we were off well before the ship tours everyday ...we saw a few of the ship tour groups following their "paddles" off the ship as we pulled out of the ports with our driver. Maybe it was because we got off so early? Maybe the ship wasn't full? I have no idea why it was so easy .....

We were highly impressed with how embarkation/debarkation/ports/tenders were handled on the Liberty. I've had more hassle and lines at the grocery store. It's going to be a downer to get back to reality on our next cruise!

We arrived at Barcelona after a transatlantic in May. We were not in a rush to get off as we were staying for three days before flying back to the US. We waited in a line for over an hour to get a taxi into town. Anyone with prearranged transport did a lot better than we did.

We got so lucky ... we walked off the ship at 7:15 and were in a cab no more than 10 minutes later ( and that includes the walk through the terminal) We caught an earlier train to our post-cruise destination than anticipated because it was so quick and easy. If you are concerned about time it may pay for you to self-assist debark early if possible.

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I made a reservation with Rome in Limo and then posted the link on my roll call to fill it. The tour also did appear on their tour sharing page so someone could have found it that way.

If you go to the Rome in Limo tour sharing website it is very easy to use and navigate and figure out (I'm on my phone or I would link it for you). They don't hide anything in fine print so you know what to expect from the get go.

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When that happened to my cruise it meant that my cruise had been cancelled .... even though for about 10 days RC insisted that was not the case.

It was no big deal for us because it was a Med. Cruise and it was just our embarkation point that was cancelled. They switched us to Barcelona and allowed us to keep our price plus OBC.

Hope it works out so well for you:)

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That website is great .... unfortunately the airline info would not load ( now or last weekend) on my phone which was our only internet access. It was frustrating to have the info so close but so far away!

If it works for you get your ticket counter number as well as the terminal. It will make things much easier :)

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We just returned from Europe .... specifically the Catalonia region of Spain. We ran into a few places unable to process an American magnetic credit card at all .... and a few where I had to explain ( in my poor Spanish) how to use it. We quickly learned to have cash on hand just in case.

It was not an issue in Barcelona but it was out in the villages and some of the smaller cities. We encountered several people who asked where we were from because they has never seen an American style card before! While this lead to delightful conversations with very lovely people I do wish the US would get with it and phase in chip and PIN!

Keep an emergency stash of local currency for unexpected circumstances and all will be well. In the main port cities and tourist destinations it was not an issue :)

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Same here. We flew united and the counter for check in wasn't open. Beautiful airport but no signs for united anywhere. Even the Taxi driver didn't know what terminal area it was in.

This was part of our trouble. We knew it was T1 but once inside we did not know the ticket counter number and there was no directory so the directional signs weren't useful.

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I'm also curious.

We flew back from BCN to the States this past Sunday and found BCN to be a zoo. Long, slow lines and only 3 self checking kiosks at the US Air area .... and one wasn't properly processing passport info. We arrived at 8:50AM for a 10:45 flight and barely made it.

It is a gorgeous airport but one I suspect is easier to deal with the second time around when you are familiar with how they lay out their check in counters. However security was very fast and the agents did their best to get everyone sorted so that people on our flight got priority to check in and go through so we wouldn't miss the flight.

Curious to see others experience. Were we unlucky or is it normal there to need 2 hours at least to catch a flight to the US.

ETA we were also on the Liberty. Awesome cruise. Super easy debarkation. Enjoy!

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I have never been on Celebrity, but I would recommend looking into Rome in Limo who offers a Rome Highlight tour that includes the Vatican. Since it is a private tour you have the flexibility to make it less strenuous if you get tired. We used them and shared our tour with two other couples which made it very affordable.

It may not be right for them but it is worth looking into. We were happy with the guide, vehicle and tour even if it did just make us want to come back again :)

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NOT TRUE. You will most certainly have your passport checked at the port in Italy when you get off the ship.

That is interesting because they do not in Spain nor did they for those that debarked in Italy. But like I said, that was the Western Med where we ported in countries subject to the Schengren Agreement. I realized after I posted that he may be on the eastern route :)

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to be honest, it was truly appreciated info....for some reason it never dawned on me that I will have to go through customs in Italy when we return from the cruise. I knew of flying to Rome and home to Chicago...but never thought of post cruise lol

You will not go through customs in Rome at the port. You just walk off .... no checks, passports, customs or etc. Just at the airports.

ETA at least this is true if you are doing a western Med cruise

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We were just on the Liberty 2 weeks ago and had a stateroom with a connecting door and never heard them - and they had 2 children under the age of 10. The only time we heard them was when we both had our balcony doors open.

Like always - I think it depends on the neighbors. If you have loud neighbors you can hear them connecting door or not.

We were on the Liberty last week .... there was no immigration to deal with at all since we only sailed to other EU ports. No papers or customs! Made debarking a breeze .... just walked off with our luggage and were in our cab in 5 minutes. You do customs at the airport upon returning to the US.

I also wanted to add .... the dress code in the dining room for our sailing was VERY casual. Even on formal night no one blinked at jeans .... or even khaki shorts. Yet people were not out of place dressed up either. Very laid back on this.

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The 10 euros covers unlimited train between all villages and La Spezia and all trails that are open (several are closed still).

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Just wanted to correct myself. The cab from the port to the train station was 12 euro. Very quick ride with a set price.

We did see all the ferry boats and I thought the view must have been spectacular .... but the people were packed on all of them. The trains were not crowded at all, which was an advantage for me personally. But I would have loved the scenery!

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We were there last week. We took at taxi for 7 euro from the port to the train station where we bought the CT cards (the office to buy them is out on the platform to your far right .... a lot of people were searching for it the day we were there).

Using the trains was easy. Just be sure to watch the timetable because not every train stops at each village.

I had trofie all pesto in Vernazza at a sea side cafe and it was wonderful ... sorry I do not recall the name. But do try this dish :)

Vernazza and Manarola were easily my favorites. Just lovely.

Oh ... the Lovers Walk was still closed as of last Tuesday, just FYI.

Have fun! Wonderful port day.

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What tour company did you use?

We used Rome in Limo. We have nothing but good things to say about our experience with them in Naples and in Rome.

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