Back to back stopping in Ravenna. What to see or stay on the ship

[screamin400]

Doing our first ever back to back. The layover is in Ravenna. I do have to do a room change on the port day. Is Ravenna worth getting off the ship of have the pool pretty much to ourselves on the ship? I am thinking the changing of the rooms will take a little bit of time. My wife votes for the pool. What do you guys think?

[MeHeartCruising]

1 hour ago, screamin400 said:

Doing our first ever back to back. The layover is in Ravenna. I do have to do a room change on the port day. Is Ravenna worth getting off the ship of have the pool pretty much to ourselves on the ship? I am thinking the changing of the rooms will take a little bit of time. My wife votes for the pool. What do you guys think?

 

I'm also doing a B2B with Ravenna as the turnaround port (in May on Royal Caribbean).  I'm keeping my plans fluid at this point.  I think the town of Ravenna is definitely worth visiting, but it is not walkable from the ship.  There are several very well known mosaics that the city is famous for that I'd like to see, for example.  But there are a couple considerations.

 

I also have to change rooms.  Generally, the cabin steward will take care of getting your luggage to the cabin for your second cruise.  They sometimes say they will take any clothing on hangars as-is, but I prefer to repack at the end of cruise 1 and then unpack again in cabin 2.  But you shouldn't have to hang around to do that, since the cabin steward will move the luggage for you.  You can unpack/get settled in the new cabin anytime later in the day.

 

The B2B process sometimes differs from ship to ship.  Ultimately, there is an employee responsible for the B2B passengers.  They will have their own way of doing things.  It is possible we may meet as a group on the turnaround morning to get our second key card.  Sometimes they deliver those to the cabins the night before.  So we really just have to see what the instructions for this B2B turnaround is.  Until you know that, you won't know what time you would be able to get off the ship, for example.

 

Plus, there's no confirmed information about what transportation from ship into Ravenna will be available for us this year.  In previous years, there appears to have been a shuttle bus to the train station that is mostly intended for disembarking passengers.  But whether we will be able to use it as B2B passengers is yet to be known.  I plan on checking with that once I get on board.  There is also a city-provided shuttle bus that serves the port on Sundays but it's posted arrival/departure times don't really line up with a B2B passenger.  There is also a second city bus that would stop at a nearby (not right inside the port) bus stop.  I might look into taking that.  And finally, you may or may not be able to get a taxi into town and back.  But that is unclear to me too how many will actually be there.

 

So... I'm going to discuss my options with guest services after sometime during the first cruise.  And I'll see how that lines up with the info they give us about B2B processing.  Then I'll make the call on turnaround day.  If I have to stay on the ship, so-be-it.  But I'd rather pop into Ravenna for a few hours if I can.  But I won't risk that if I can't get a decent level of confidence about how I will get to town and back.

Edited April 23, 2023 by MeHeartCruising

[screamin400]

Pretty much what we are thinking. Probably will not know until the first leg of the trip.

[mdepsmom]

We're also doing a B2B with the turn-around day in Ravenna.  We have the same cabin for both legs.  We plan to go into Ravenna and explore on our own for at least a few hours.  

[cruisemom42]

It would be a shame to miss the mosaics in Ravenna. The main sites (two basilicas, a mausoleum and two baptisteries, all dating from Late Roman Empire.

 

I was on a Celebrity BTB turning around in Ravenna last year. I didn’t change cabins, but the other administrative stuff was quickly and efficiently got through and we were free to leave the ship sometime between 9:00 and 9:30 am.

 

The Celebrity shuttle ran to and from ship to the train station on a fixed schedule all day. There was a charge (don’t remember exact amount). Once in Ravenna, everything except one of the Baptisteries was walkable.