taocat

Hi Larry, Your 2 cents is definitely worth more than that...you provided great info to think about. Two of the couples that are going with us are related to each other and they kind of stated that they don't want to be attached at the hip to each other and want to do their own thing. So we kind of all agreed to meet up during dinners only (with the exception of Rome) and talk about our experiences. It's their vacation too, so we were fine with that. I really do love the idea of the more private tours...I'll have to reflect on that and feel out my tolerance level. I usually book the RCI excusions for the security purpose of having the guarantee that the ship will wait for us if something happens. I'm petrified of missing the boat...I've seen it happen on just about every cruise I've taken. I would LOVE to fly in a day or two earlier to see a little more of Barcelona and get used to the time zone differences, but unfortunately this was decided by my husband's work schedule. Another reason why we chose the RCI ChoiceAir program, just in case our flights were delayed, they are supposed to get us to the next port to meet up with the ship at no extra charge. As you can see, I plan for all these crazy things, and then I hope for the best!! My hopes are to do all the planning to the best of my abilities before hand, and then just relax and go with the flow once I get there. That way I can be in the moment and just enjoy the trip. Thanks so much for taking the time to post. Naomi

Naomi - My daughter lived in Vermont for five years when she was attending Champlain College. Burlington is a beautiful city! In fact, my husband's cousin is the swim coach at UVM. I miss my drives back and forth, but my daughter goes back up to visit friends on occasion and in fact is attending a wedding up there in September. She loves Burlington, too - unfortunately, she couldn't find a job so had to return home. My youngest daughter also graduated Champlain College. It was a perfect college fit for her. There have been a lot of articles in the VT papers in recent years that all our young adults are leaving the states to find jobs because they just can't find one here. My oldest daughter had to move out of state for 3 years until she could find a job back here...a little sad. Whenever anyone asks how my family is - I say, they all are healthy and they all have jobs...I consider that a blessing!

Hi Jackie, Yes, please send me the info for your tour guide...it's worth looking into. Naomi

This is a rather interesting topic... We have only been on 5 cruises - 1 Carnival, 2 Norwegian and 2 RCI. On the duplicate ships we have noticed a different "climate or culture" on each ship. Example: We went on a Norwegian ship in Alaska and did not find the ship itself that enjoyable - the staff were not really friendly and a couple of staff members snapped at me when I asked questions. From that point on we just made sure we did not have a lot of interaction with the staff, but we considered it a great cruise because WE'RE CRUISING ALASKA!! How could we not? The other Norwegian ship we were on, the staff were so over top helpful and friendly we still consider that our #1 top cruise. The captain would be out and about talking to cruisers every day, asking about their experience and if he could do anything to help improve it. I saw an officer (not sure what kind, but obviously an officer due to the stripes on his uniform) - stop and clean up spilled ice cream in the hallway himself. I'm sure he could of just ignored it or reported it for someone else to clean up, but the ship must be that important to him that he just took care of it himself. As for the complaints...well I think other posters have hit the nail on the head. A fire on board, running a ground with any injuries or loss of life - these are serious issues that the company needs to investigate and fix. These are safety issues and must be addressed. Are procedures being met, are inspections and repairs being done as proper maintenance? That sort of thing can not be tolerated (by any company), but especially where the consequences can be so dire. The other complaints...I had a woman complain to me once about there not being any mashed potatoes on the buffet - for 10 minutes she went on and on about this. I mean really...mashed potatoes! You are just looking for something to be unhappy about... Naomi

Hi Again All, Thank you all for the comments so far. I really appreciate it. Jackie - this is some wonderful information. It certainly helps with the planning. That's very sad about the car accident that happened on your day entering Rome, sorry to hear about that person losing their life. The Rome private tour that we have already booked wasn't really what we were expecting - it had said no groups larger than 20 (so we thought our group of 8 would be a group because it was not more than 20), transportation to and from Rome, english speaking guide, see these particular sites, entrance tickets to the sites included with a skip the line entry, lunch and a guarantee that if we missed this ship, they would provide us transportation to catch up to it for no additional charge. Sounded great and we booked. Then after booking, we got our confirmation voucher and it mentioned that the transportation choice would be decided upon 2 days before the tour...our friend who did the original research called them directly and we were told that if more people from our ship or other ships in port booked with them, they would put everyone on buses to get us into Rome and then break us off into groups of no more than 20 with a guide. Also, it now mentions that they do not pick us up at the ship itself, we have to take some sort of free shuttle from the port to Forte Michelangelo which is about 15 minutes away - the original information said nothing about that either. I wouldn't say that we felt "tricked", but we definitely did not understand it to be that way...oh well, that's kind of why I am asking more questions now. Dee - Plan B is always good advice. On our very first cruise, Hurricane Isabel made her appearance in the Easterm Caribbean so they re-routed our ship to the Western Caribbean. A lot of people were upset, but we were kind of like - oh well, we haven't been here before either! My motto tends to be "have a plan, but go with the flow when you can't control things" - and weather is certainly one of those things we have no control over. Kevin - we had great snow in Vermont this year (last year I did not use the snow shoes at all - cold, but no snow). I actually got to snowshoe just about every day this season. There is a little mountain behind my building that the University of Vermont conservation students keep up the trails. I can do the inner loop trail of about 1.5 miles in my 30 minute lunch break. Everybody kind of laughs at me when they see me all geared up and ready to go, but I don't care. It's great exercise and I love the fresh air. I also have family in the Lake Placid / Saranac Lake, NY area so I go over there a couple of times a season too. That's why I think I could do the Mt. Vesuvius hike (it said 1000 feet of strenuous activity), but I want to be realistic about my ability...I'm certainly no marathon runner...but I think I'm fairly fit. Thank you again everyone for your helpful hints and information. Keep posting if you have more to add. Naomi

Hi All, I have been a member of this site for a while now, but have never posted or commented so please bear with me... My husband and I (along with 3 other couples) are doing the 7 Day Western Med cruise on RCI at the end of Sept 2013. None of us have ever been to Europe. I'm looking for some information/feedback/comments/tips, on my ideas and plans to see if I'm on the right track with having an enjoyable trip. I'm realistic enough to know that this isn't necessarily a "relaxing" cruise, but my plan is to see some great sites, but keep the stress level to a minimum. The best way I know how to do that is to plan. We've been on 5 other cruises (and 3 we didn't even fly to the ports - we go out of NYC or Bayonne, NJ). We are not really big city type travelers/tourists...we mostly do long weekends to local spots. So this is definately a BIG trip for us, but we've been saving for 2 1/2 years since it's one of our dream items to do. So here I go...this is what I've done and am thinking so far. Booked the flights through RCI's Air Choice program - supposedly they say that if there are delays they will get us to the next port to meet the ship at no charge. We fly in to BCN the morning of departure and booked the transfer to and from the pier through RCI (the transfer to the ship includes the RCI Barcelona City Tour excursion). Provence (Toulon): Thought we would book the Taste of Toulon excursion through RCI. It's a short excursion and we may be a bit jet lagged considering we have never flown international (we live in Vermont). Villefranche (Nice): Thought we would go off on our own and explore this cute little town. This would give us time to explore at our own pace and yet we can enjoy time on the ship too. Also, this is one of the nights that there is a show and we would be able to see that since we are not off on a long excursion. La Spezia (Florence/Pisa): The excursion we are looking to book through the ship is the Pisa/Florence tour. It's a little bit longer, but not overly, and we really want to see both of these cities. Civitavecchia (Rome): We've already booked a more private tour through Viator (locally Dark Rome Ltd) - it's 12 hours long, but it seemed to cover a lot of ground. Concern here is the long bus ride into Rome from the port...I have some anxiety issues regarding long drives, but really don't see anyway around it. Naples (Capri): We would like to do the Pompeii/Mt. Vesuvius excursion through the ship. There's kind of a disclaimer saying this is a "strenuous" activity. I'm mid 40's and my husband is early 50's and we both walk and I hike/snowshoe. Is this really out of our league for an activity or is the "strenuous" part exaggerated? Does this plan sound reasonable and doable? Am I on the right track here? I know that things can happen and plans may need to change (i.e. - if the ship can't make a port for some reason), but any feedback from all you experienced cruisers would be welcome. Thank you everyone. Naomi