Input, Med. Cruise! Your help is appreciated.

[remharri]

My husband and I are looking into a 7 Day Med. Cruise. We would love to be able to leave Philly the night before and arrive in Rome the morning of the cruise. Our travel agent states that this is a great way to do it, because then we would not need to get a hotel room. But, I am really nervous about this! If I book the flights on my own they are around 300 dollars less per person than if I book them through Royal Caribbean. What is everyone's input on this? Should we fly in the day of the cruise, book our own flights and save some money….or, are we setting ourselves up for stress? Any input would be great!

 

This may be excessive, but we flew in 2 days prior, that way we had enough time to catch up if something were to happen with the flights. You just never know and that is a long flight. Totally different than flying to Florida or something.

[Travel R]

Vacations are for relaxing - why stress yourself out worrying that something may/may not happen. Fly in at least a day early so you do not have to worry about it. Also, it is a long flight direct - and if you fly with a layover (like we did last summer - see link to review below), it is a really, really, really long commute between the time you leave your house until the time you get to your destination (hotel or cruise ship). As an FYI, we came very, very close to missing the connecting flight on the way home and it was only because a very large group of people on my first flight were also on the same connecting flight, we would have probably missed it.

 

There are a number of car/cab/limo companies that are very reliable (we used Rome Cabs). We arrived in Rome the day before and saw the city (in hindsight we should have come in an extra two or ten days earlier in order to see more of the city). We also used the same company to take us back to the airport post cruise. Just be wary that delays on the trains to Civi, as well as potential strikes are not uncommon. However, the reason I chose not to use the train system was the safety factor due to the fact I was with my family (it is a bit more expensive, but worth it) [one of my fellow cruisers did get robbed in the Termini station in Rome].

 

I have to respectively disagree with one of the above posters, and not meant to start an argument here - although you need to try to pack as light as possible, our European cruise was more formal and most people did follow the dress code than not (especially in the MDR).

 

I think I did respond to one of your earlier posts about a Med vacation, and noted that a link to my review on our vacation is in my signature below. I also discuss the hotel we stayed at (Aberdene (SP?) Hotel in Rome), the ports we visited, and the cruise itself.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Travel R

[PuterMonkey]

It's been about 15 years since I've seen the continent but if I were spending the money to fly that far and take that cruise on top of it, I'd spend the extra $200 for the hotel room and ensure I wouldn't miss the boat!