baseballsandbows

UPDATE: So...turns out that Royal hadn't attached the 30% off to the Rome sailings! My TA told me to hold on, so I am waiting to see.

I'm sure Rome will be more because the sailing will be in late June--peak travel season.

Now I decide between sailing from Rome for a higher cost (but hopefully not too much higher) without having to fly to or from Barcelona, but also dealing with crowds and heat; OR, sticking with Barcelona to have better crowds and temps with the hassle of flying to or from Rome.

As I have never traveled in Europe, I lean towards the ease of sailing out of Rome, but all of you have been so great with your tips--let me know if I am crazy to go late June/early July! Guess I will also know which way to lean when I see the prices!

(If you saw the first version of this post, I thought they had already adjusted the price, but it was the wrong ship--I am waiting for specific numbers, but I have a hold on staterooms for the Barcelona sailing.)

So, the consensus is that we should see Rome AFTER the cruise? Our only jet-lag experience was Hawaii, which is the opposite direction. Sounds like we should arrive to Barcelona at least a day early and do Rome on the tail end? Not sure why, but I was thinking of doing Rome first as after the cruise I might feel the vacation is over and it’s time for home. Don’t know why I lean that way, but it seems that some of you (with experience) feel it would be best to go to Rome at the end.

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Barcelona is a beautiful city! It's very easy to take a cruise out of the port. And you save $5,000 that can be used at the end of your cruise to fly to Rome.

 

 

 

Flying into Rome a few days early does't really get you much. Day 1 -- take a Red-eye into Rome; Day 2 -- by the time you get your luggage and get a taxi and checkin to your hotel you'll be exhausted. Dinner. Day 3 -- full day of sight seeing, and not much more than you would get off a ship's excursion. Day 4 -- Morning drive to Civitavecchia port.

 

 

 

You could easily use that $5,000 to fly in to Barcelona a day early. Take your cruise. After 7 days you'll be used to the time change. Then fly to Rome.

 

 

 

One other issue you may not have considered. Travelling in the Med during the summer will be very hot, and very crowded. Flights and hotels will also be more expensive. We have been there 4 times, by far the best weather is early October.

 

 

 

Enjoy!

Thank you. Sadly, we can’t go in October as both kids will be in high school and can’t miss that much. However, they do get out of school for the summer May 23, so we plan to go in late May, which we hope will put us ahead of the worst crowds and heat. My DH and I have big dreams for shoulder season when we get rid of these two kiddos. [emoji23]

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You will have a marvelous family vacation full of memories. Our land/cruise Med trip is one of our families all time favorite things we have ever done. Even the things that didn't quite go as planned (because they will happen) did not put a damper on our experience.

 

We are planning our next big trip to include the British Isles cruise so there is much work to be done for us too.

Thank you. British Isles was my pick, but I let my son have first choice as he will be leaving for college not long after. So, it will be the Med in 2019, but hopefully the British Isles in the future!

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You don't want to take the train between Rome and Barcelona it takes 22-24 hours! A short flight is your friend. Our Alitalia flight included 1 checked bag. We also only take a carry-on size suitcase and backpack each anyway.

 

 

 

Do your research and due diligence and you can make this a budget-friendly trip. Get a copy of Rick Steves Mediterranean Cruise Ports. You can DIY all the Med ports very easily if you put in the research time first. We paid about €20 round trip for 4 on the local bus to Pompeii plus the admission while those on excursions paid close to $100 each! Crazysauce.

Hooray! I already have the Rick Steves Med Cruise guide, so at least I am doing something right. :')

Sounds like the flight would be a great option. We may have to add few days to our trip if we don't sail out of Rome but want to visit there for a few days. However, for a $5,000 difference, four flights to Rome from Barcelona and an extra travel day or two will be worth it, I'm sure.

I have only cruised twice - once on Epic and once on an Oasis ship, and the Epic just didn't compare. I would pay more to be on the Oasis ship between those two choices.

Thank you. I am hearing this from multiple people. Will definitely stick with my decision to try Royal!

The cheap flights usually don't include luggage, but taking too much luggage as far as Europe is just not a very good idea. I remember a land trip many years ago, where we each had two large bags and a back pack, and I remember showing up in Venice, and lugging that stuff over multiple bridges going to our hotel. Never again. One checked back and a backpack is the most we take now. I bought my wife a two seat sports car for her birthday almost a decade ago, the trunk was tiny, we took two carry-on bags and a backpack and we travelled all over Germany Austria and Switzerland for 15 nights. You really don't need that much to make it all work.

 

Back to planes and trains, the pricing will be competitive with each. Flights are quicker, but the trains typically drop you in the center of a city, compared to most airports and in particular the case with Rome where you usually fly to an airport quite a ways away....

 

JC

This sounds very doable for everyone in my family except my daughter! She has OCD (real, clinical OCD--not just that she's picky about things), anxiety, and hoarding tendencies. We will have to work on her packing skills between now and then, but I'd say Rome/Europe is a good carrot to hang in front of her for motivation! Thank you for the information!

Fly into Barcelona, take the cruise and then fly to Rome for post cruise stay. Intra-European flights can be very inexpensive. We did this 2 years ago when our ship debarked in Athens and we wanted more Rome time. Flights on Alitalia were $66 each for the one way trip. My young teens loved Rome and my niece now says it's her favorite city. I loved Barcelona and wouldn't hesitate to return there too.

Are the flights comparable to the cost of a train? Does having luggage raise the prices significantly?

Thanks so much for this suggestion. If we did this, we could see Barcelona on the front end, Rome on the back end, and use the Rome port day to explore something closer to Civitavecchia or have an extra "at-sea" day while others are off the ship.

How about if you fly to Rome, do your sighseeing for several days, then take a train to Barcelona for the cruise.

As someone who has never traveled in Europe, this didn't cross my mind, but I will look into it! Thank you!

Haven't done one yet myself, but I have heard that med cruises tend to be very port heavy with long days at port. Not sure the Oasis class would be as big of a difference maker for one of those myself. In the Caribbean, with only 3 ports in 7 nights, it makes a huge difference in what there is to do on the ship.

That is definitely something I am trying to think about. We will only have one at-sea day, so we won't be speding long periods of time on the ship. My son will definitely want a basketball/sports court, and both my son and daughter are up for things like rock climbing/flow riding/mini-golfing, etc... But, there won't be enough time to do all of the activities with this itinerary for sure!

Having sailed both the Oasis and the Epic there is no comparison. Oasis wins hands down. We found the Epic very crowded and poorly designed in comparison. We have aslo sailed Allure and loved it too. Wait for a better deal from Royal. Keep checking prices. Your teens will have much more to enjoy on Oasis too.

This was my gut feeling, so thank you for sharing your experience. Our only NCL cruise was the Pride of America, which is somewhat atypical. But, after four Disney cruises, we were underwhelmed with NCL. Don't get me wrong, we had a great time, but it was not at the same level. I don't expect Royal to be the same as Disney, and now that my kids are older, I don't really want it to be exactly the same, but even though I haven't sailed with Royal, I have done research, and it just seems to have a different feel than NCL.

We sailed the Brilliance (same class as the Jewel) out of Barcelona when our kids were 9 & 12. The ship was a great size, although definitely not the Oasis (which we sail on this Sunday!) I was not excited about Barcelona but we flew in 2 days early to tour and I ended up loving it! Rome is a few hours from Civitavecchia and the only port we booked an excursion through RCCL-we took their chartered bus in and then explored on our own. You won't get the full Rome experience you are dreaming of, but it was still pretty great. I would save the $5,000 and go out of Barcelona. Either way, congrats on a trip of a lifetime!

I definitely feel we should have the $5,000! We can do a lot with that! I'm glad to know you enjoyed Barcelona. I will look into it more. Thank you!

Hello! I was planning to book a 2019 Western Med sailing out of Civitavecchia this morning, but I have sticker shock! It is a 7-Night cruise on Oasis of the Seas. We could do the same port stops on Oasis sailing from Barcelona for $5,000 less! (I priced out one Central Park View for 2/Ocean View Balcony for 2 on both the Rome and Barcelona sailings.)

So...I need advice from those of you who have experience with Royal ships. To give a bit of background info, we are a family of four, and my kids will be 14 and 17 at sailing. We have sailed with Disney 4 times and NCL Pride of America once. My kids were super excited about the thought of sailing on an Oasis class ship, and I loved the idea of having pre or post cruise time to explore Rome as there's no way to do it justice in one day. This will be our first trip to Europe, so I had planned to do 3-4 days in Rome plus the cruise.

What should I do?

1)Just book it out of Barcelona so the kids can experience Oasis and figure we'll find a way to see Rome more in-depth at another time. (I'm guessing there are fun things to explore in Barcelona pre-cruise--I just already had my brain dreaming about the sights--and foods--of Rome!)

2)Choose a different ship that either starts or stops in Rome with a completely different itinerary. Jewel of the Seas sails out of Rome, mostly to Greece. Would my kids enjoy that ship as much?

3)Sail out of Barcelona on a 12 Night that stops at more places across both Eastern and Western Med (but is still less than the 7 Night out of Rome) and plan to return for longer visits to places we love. However, this is on Vision of the Seas. Is this a ship teens would enjoy?

4)Bail on trying Royal and book NCL Epic out of Rome (same basic itinerary as Oasis) when those sailings are released.

Any advice is appreciated!

Prices for every ship in Europe is very expensive! :loudcry:

I agree. [emoji31]

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We weren't in a hurry when we woke up on Saturday. Our flight wasn't until 3:30, so we wanted to stay on the ship for as long as we could. Since we weren't rushing, we decided to go to Skyline for breakfast. This wasn't the best idea. On the last day, they have a limited menu, and they were out of butter and other items. However, after eating in Skyline, I went up to the buffet to get some fruit, and they had butter and several of the food items that we couldn't get in Skyline. Perhaps this was an usual experience, but I would recommend the buffet over Skyline on the last day.

At 8:45, they called for everyone to be out of their staterooms. At first, we thought we would just sit in a lounge for a while, but there were many people still on the ship, and these people were taking up all the room in the public areas. So, we decided to leave for the airport. I think that most of the people still on the ship were waiting for their luggage group to be called before leaving, but we carried our own bags off, so we were free to leave.

Side note: Why do we carry our own bags off the ship? Several years ago, I forgot to leave pants out for myself when we set our bags out the night before disembarkation. I had to wear pajama pants off the ship. While this might be trendy with teens and shoppers at Wal-Mart, I don't want to do that again. Since that time, I've always kept our luggage with us. This guarantees that I always have my clothes! :rolleyes: (No disrespect to Wal-Mart shoppers. I shop there, too, but I don't shop in my PJ's.)

As we left the port area, I noticed that there was a spot where you could leave bags for the day. If you have a late flight, this might be an option. You could do something in Oahu and return for your bags later.

With a 3:30 flight time, we had a long wait, but not long enough to go somewhere else in Oahu, so we walked out to hail a cab. There was a line of cabs waiting, and they were almost all minivans--very helpful for families with lots of bags! We made it to the airport by 9:30, and only had six long hours to wait!

There are lots of shops and restaurants at the airport, which helped pass the time. We also sat for quite a while and listened to some musicians. They were very entertaining.

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Parts of the HNL airport are open-air, so we also tried to soak up the last few mintues of heat before returning to winter!

We boarded our flight with Alaska Airlines and said good-bye to Hawaii at 3:30. We landed in Oakland at 10:30 and spent the night at the Hampton Inn near the airport. On Sunday morning, we returned to the airport for the flight back to Nashville. We were startled back to reality as we exited the plane in Nashville. It was 13 degrees! And, the next morning, when DS got up for school, our bodies thought it was 2AM. It took about a week to fully adjust back to central time, and I'm still waiting for our temperatures to feel like Hawaii! Come on, spring!

Overall, we had a great cruising experience in Hawaii. Although I still prefer the DCL product as a whole, the specialty restaurants on the POA earned high marks, and I wouldn't hesitate to sail NCL again if the itinerary and price were right. I'm very thankful we had the opportunity to get such an amazing overview of the major Hawaiian islands. It was a wonderful vacation! For all of you planning and looking forward to your own trips to Hawaii, I know you will have a wonderful time.

Thanks to everyone for reading. I guess all vacations and trip reports must come to an end at some point! :(

Na Pali is still beautiful, even with the clouds. Great pics, and you did an outstanding review. Well done!

Yes, it is! Thank you, and thanks for reading! I'll do one more post for disembarkation morning, and then I guess my vacation will officially be over!

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The ship turned and began to leave the shore. It was time for our final dinner! La Cucina had been a family favorite, so we decided to eat there for a third time. The sun tried to peek through as we were seated, but it was too late to help with the coastline pics and it was minutes from sunset.

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We enjoyed our final dinner and also went by the buffet to get one last crepe for dessert. We were sad that it was our final evening, but after being gone for almost two weeks, we were also looking forward returning home and to seeing our sweet dog as well. DD spent a final evening in the kids' club with her new friends, and then we turned in for one more night of being rocked to sleep by the waves!

After lunch, we had several hours at sea before we would be sailing past the Napali Coast. I took time to pack up our stuff and spent some time on the balcony reading. It was raining on the island, but it never rained on us.

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Just a side note: We took advantage of the laundry special on Thursday. It was $20 for as much as you could stuff in a bag. We needed a few items cleaned, and we had some leftover OBC, so we filled up the bag with the necessaries. Everything was returned by Friday evening. I missed having self-serve laundry rooms like they have on DCL. You can't beat only $1 per load to wash and $1 to dry. Really helpful for a family that is gone from home for 13 days!

We neared the Napali coastline around 5:00. If you went to the outside decks, you could hear a narration. We chose to enjoy it from our balcony.

I only had two disappointments during this trip. The first was my dislike for Waikiki. The second was that it was cloudy as we passed the Napali coastline. I had dreamed of the pictures I would get with the setting sun shining on the coastline, but it was not meant to be. It was still beautiful, but not as visually stunning as it would have been with the sun.

As we first turned around the coastline, a whale breached not far from our balcony. You could hear squeals of delight from all over the ship. It was near the location where we had spotted the whales during our flight--I wish I had been camera ready! I did manage to get a picture of its hump.

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Now for the coastline pics...

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We returned to the Skyline office about 10:00, giving us plenty of time before our all aboard time of 1:30. We decided we needed one more taste of Hawaii before returning to the ship. We left Skyline and drove to the Koloa Mill Ice Cream and Coffee shop in a cute strip of stores we had passed on the way into Koloa. We wanted some shave ice before leaving! DD got hers with just the ice, but DS got condensed milk on his, which was called a snow cap. He was very happy with this, but I preferred the plain ice version.

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After the yummy treat, we returned to the Lihue airport. My favorite part of the drive was the tunnel of trees.

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We returned the car about 11:00 and were able to hop right onto a shuttle to the pier. We were probably back to the ship by 11:15, ready for lunch. The kids wanted one more meal at Cadillac Diner, so we headed there to make them happy.

However this is a limited selection of "basic" tours. There is so much more, if you plan in advance.

Oh, I agree. I'm an obsessive planner, but the option does exist if that is what someone is looking for, so I just thought I would share that we did see people offering tours (we didn't take one--we already had plans).

Hawaii is one of those places where you're better off planning things in advance. I didn't see any tour companies looking for new passengers- everyone appeared to already have their plans made.

This is what I noticed as well except in Kona. We did see people offering tours when we got off the ship there. They weren't right on the pier, but as soon as you crossed the street to the shopping area, there were people on the sidewalk advertising available excursions.

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Not sure if this will work, but this one is a video. You can click to watch it.

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On our second day in Kauai, we planned to go ziplining. DH and I had never ziplined before, but the kids had done small lines at camp. DH, however, is NOT a risk taker, so we let him off the hook to enjoy a morning on the ship alone. The kids and I were up by 6:00, eating breakfast in the buffet by 6:20, and off the ship by 6:45.

I visited many websites and read reviews when trying to choose a zipline company. After researching, my first choice was Koloa Ziplines. Their first time slot of the day, however, was 8:30, and I wanted a little extra cushion with time since we had to return the car to the airport, catch a shuttle, and be back to ship by 1:30. Skyline, which was also in Koloa, had an 8:00 zip, and this extra 30 minutes made me feel less worried. (In the end, we made it back in PLENTY of time, so if you are looking at the 8:30 zip with Koloa, I think you will be fine.)

We left the Anchor Cove parking lot at 7:00, and made it to the Skyline office at 7:25 for our 7:30 check-in. We were weighed, signed our lives away at the waiver computer, and had time for a bathroom break before boarding the van. We had a really fun group of people with us, which made the excursion even more enjoyable. One family was from Ireland, and others were from New Hampshire, Arizona, and California. I think all of us were on sailing on the Pride of America.

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There were eight lines. The first was a breeze, and they got more exciting from there. On the longest line, the guide was very doubtful that my kids would make it all the way across (apparently this is common when the wind isn't blowing from the right direction), and he is trained to get anyone who gets stuck to the other side), but everyone in the group made it across. I think my kids were so worried about getting stuck out there that they listened to every piece of advice and followed them all!

I did purchase the photo package. It was only $15. There was no professional photographer--only the guides with iPhones, but I was very happy with the pictures, and felt it was well worth the $15. We had a really great morning. I am so glad I did this with my kids. It was an experience that we will always remember. We will have to force DH to come next time!

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It's been a busy week, but I am going to try to finish up the report this weekend!

After a beautiful day of exploring Kauai, we returned to the ship for dinner. DD was always happy to find towel animals waiting.

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This was the view off our port side balcony as we prepared for dinner.

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Unfortunately, the view from our window at Cagney's during dinner was out the starboard side, and we were viewing an ugly, industrial port. That didn't affect dinner, however, and we enjoyed our meal at Cagney's for the second time. DH and I ordered rib-eye, but I went straight for the kid-favorite sides of mac-n-cheese and fries this time so I didn't have to steal from my children. Very yummy. Once again, the Oreo cheesecake did not disappoint! That and the crepes at the buffet were our favorite desserts of the week.

After dinner, DH, DS, and I played shuffleboard for a bit while DD went to the club. We went to bed ready for our last full day in Hawaii!

Tell me a bit more about the trip to Diamond Head, if you would...did the Uber driver wait for you while you walked around, or drive you around like a tour guide would, and was it a round trip with one driver?

 

Thanks for your other experience based info, too. Helpful.

We actually took The Bus to Diamond Head from Waikiki. Of course, that is much slower than using Uber or a cab because of the frequent stops. When we finished with our hike, we were concerned we wouldn't be able to get cleaned up and out of our room on time if we used The Bus to get back to the room (it was checkout day, and there were four of us needing to shower), so we used Uber. There was a driver six minutes away. We walked out to the main road, and she picked us up there. When we requested the ride, we also requested that she call us so we could be sure she knew where we were waiting.

Our Uber experience was good, but I will say that The Bus is good, too, and you can use Google Maps to see the buses that are nearby, their routes, and the time they will get you to your destination. Being able to see that info helped us decided to go with Uber for the return trip from Diamond Head to our hotel.

did either of the taxi services you used accept credit cards?

The regular cab did take credit cards for sure. With Johnny Cab, I prepaid our trip from the airport to our Waikiki hotel online with credit card, and I paid cash when they took us from the hotel to the port. I didn't pay with credit at the time of service, but you could look on their website to see. Just google Johnny Cab Honolulu and you should find the website.

They are separate things, but as the screen shot shows in the previous post, they can be reserved with one transaction. I did this for our visit in January. As the previous poster mentioned, you are prompted to reserve the Arizona Memorial tickets when you select the audio tour.

We really enjoyed the audio tour.

I would also just purchase your admission to Missouri and Aviation Museum once you get there. No need for a tour. They have a shuttle to take you to both places, and you can go at your own pace.

We were also a party of four and used Uber from Waikiki to Diamond Head, and we had a great experience. We did not use it from Waikiki to the pier or from the pier to the airport. Because we had luggage, it would have required an SUV/minivan, and that was more. There was also a high volume charge of some sort (I'm not a frequent uber user, but I believe that meant there was high demand at that time, so the fee increased). We used Johnny Cab to the pier from Waikiki ($25) and a metered cab to the airport from the pier ($27). They had cabs/minivans lined up at the pier at disembarkation.