Rome – Transatlantic 2009 – Wrap Up
December 15, 2009
The cruise/vacation is officially over. Yesterday we returned home. Our day in Fort Lauderdale was restful and uneventful. None us wanted to do anything but relax, so about all we did was swim in the pool at the hotel and eat. With a 4:30 AM wake up call for our flight back home, we turned in pretty early too. Both flights home were also uneventful and on time with no issues whatsoever.
This was an absolutely wonderful vacation. We ran around like idiots in Rome, Italy for 4 days at the start. I think we averaged over 6 miles walking a day touring the town and seeing the sights. The kids were glad to have been able to see Rome and experience the history there. For me, it was nice to finally get back there too since its been like 7 years since I have been to Rome.
Before the cruise, we were a bit worried about the Celebrity Solstice and its size. We have always sailed on smaller Celebrity (and other lines) ships. We were a bit worried about getting lost in a swarm of people. Now, this cruise was not nearly full, but still had many more folks than our previous cruises. And the end result is, So What? It was a complete non issue. In fact, the Celebrity Solstice is now my favorite cruise ship that I have sailed on. I found quite a few places where I could be alone with the ocean and do my stare time.
I also have to admit that I thought the Lawn Club and the Hot Glass Show would be a bit gimmicky, but I found them to be the best parts of the ship. Its amazing how immaculate they keep the lawn and how accessible it is. I do wonder if on a completely warm weather cruise, say the Caribbean, if the Lawn Club might be more jammed with people. I am guessing not since those cruises are more port intensive and we tend to not get off the ship on all ports. The Hot Glass Show was thoroughly entertaining. I thought it might be a very simplistic show and quite redundant. However, every show was different as the artists tried different pieces and techniques keeping it very fresh and entertaining. And the artists didnt just try simple pieces. They actually were experimenting to learn new techniques from the other artists and using the ‘free’ studio time to grow themselves. I think this show will just continue to get better and better with more and more artists discovering the benefits of participating.
The transatlantic cruises continues to be a favorite of ours. After running around Rome, and having 5 ports in 6 days, we were most definitely ready for 6 days at sea. I go on vacations to relax and recharge from work. While heavy sight seeing vacations are fun, one tends to come back more tired than when you left. Not having had a real vacation of any length this year, I need a recharging vacation and this turned out to be it. Perfect timing and the perfect vacation.
We are also presented with a dilemma for our future cruises. The kids missed two weeks of school for this vacation/cruise. The school has been really understanding about this and working with us on homework and stuff for the kids. Their philosophy has been that the kids will learn more on the vacation/cruise than in those two weeks of school. I think that is quite true, but not a prevalent thought in our society. Next year, Sean starts high school. Our plan has always been to not take the kids out of school for a cruise once they go to high school and school was ‘more important’ in prepping for the future. So our yearly family vacation over Thanksgiving will either need to shorten or be moved to a time of year when the kids have school off. They of course have time off in the summer, so we could adjust to then. But, thats not far away, so do we not take a cruise this year? Or do we take another soon? So of course, finances come into play with a cruise so soon. Or perhaps Suzanne and I go on the next cruise alone? Lots to think of on cruise planning! And we have begun already.
And where to cruise? We have never taken a cruise to the Caribbean. Perhaps its time? But the weather (we like colder weather over hot and humid) and the sheer number of boats and people in the Caribbean are a drawback. The Panama Canal cruise still beckons to us. We really want to do that one, but its usually one of the most expensive cruises. We also have our eye on an Arctic Circle cruise in the Iceland, Finland, Norway, etc area. So lots to think about!
Celebrity has done another great job. Except for the one bad meal and the communication issue on the shore excursion when our port was changed, they did an outstanding job. The cruise staff was their usual jovial, helpful and outstanding crew. Its a pretty safe bet that our next cruise will be on Celebrity once again.
I will close in saying that I hope you have enjoyed following our cruise adventure on my blog. Its been fun with the daily updates and its a great place for me to jot down my thoughts. Suzanne will begin processing all the photos from the cruise/vacation soonest and I hope to get them up here within the week.
Next Cruise Planning
June 22, 2009
Well, as mentioned here before, we currently don’t have a cruise booked yet for 2009. We have been planning on waiting until around the September time frame to see if prices were any better due to being inside 90 days for the cruise. That all sounded good and well, until this weekend when we decided to start researching now.
A couple of things have driven us to ‘consider’ booking a cruise now. One, the economy seems to have quit bottoming out and the cruise prices may have hit rock bottom already. Cruise occupancy rates seem to be inching back up. And two, but more importantly, I am planning on using frequent flier miles for any required air fare to and from the cruise. I have been periodically checking availability of free air fare just to make sure that is doable. Over the past month or so, the amount of available frequent flier tickets has been dwindling – especially if the cruise starts or ends overseas. So, this weekend we began researching and found some combinations of potential cruises and frequent flyer tickets already not available.
Thus, we figured we better do a full research effort and consider booking the cruise now based on those two items. So where are we thinking about cruising this year? Good question! We know we want to cruise in the last quarter of this year, which narrowed it down considerably. We also want a cruise duration of 10 days or more. We didn’t have any pre-conceived notions about where to cruise. We were happy to consider repeating a cruise if it fit in right – remember our favorite cruise days are days at sea! We also decided that we wanted a balcony cabin. We also wanted to cruise our favorite cruise line Celebrity.
Throwing all that data into the mix and considering the options, we were pretty quickly able to weed the list down to about half a dozen cruises:
- 15 Day Panama Canal Cruise
- 14 Day Transatlantic Cruise from Barcelona (very similar to what we did last year)
- 12 Day Eastern Caribbean Cruise
- 10 Day Mediterranean Cruise
- 14 Day Transatlantic Cruise from Rome
- 11 Day Western Caribbean Cruise
After some more detailed research, we have narrowed it down to two or three. They would be the Transatlantic from Rome, the Eastern Caribbean and the Panama Canal cruises. We have been wanting to do the Panama Canal cruise for some time, but it is quite expensive compared to the others. In the end, I think that will eliminate it. The Caribbean cruise is on the Mercury and there is always a limited number of cabins with balconies on the Mercury that can sleep 4, so we may run into issues there. Both of those cruises start and end in the States, so the free air fare is no problem. The Rome transatlantic is very intriguing. I have been to Rome half a dozen or so times and would love to show the kids around Old Rome. Free air tickets are already scarce though. We already have to fly in 3 or 4 days before the cruise to get free tickets. That actually works in our favor if we want to tour Rome beforehand, but is a good indicating that the limited free air tickets will disappear soon. The cruise itinerary is also quite different from last years TA with numerous different ports plus it has 8 straight sea days! Along the same lines, if we did the Eastern Caribbean cruise, since its out of Baltimore, we would likely tack on a few days beforehand and take the kid around Washington DC.
We also want to check on a Nordic Circle cruise in the Spring that had caught our eye before. This is probably the last year for a while that we will cruise during the school year as Sean will be entering High School and we aren’t as likely to pull him out of school for a cruise. Which means shorter cruises over holidays or cruising in the Summer. The kids are heavily voting for the ROME TA as their favorite which surprised us since they do want to see DC. I believe Suzanne is leaning towards the Panama Canal cruise as her favorite but also sees it quite expensive. Me, I am probably leaning towards the Rome TA as I haven’t been to Rome in over 5 years and would like to see the city again. Of course, more sea days is good too. However, food and lodging in Rome will add to the expense so we have more research to do.
Anyways, no cruise selected yet, but we have begun the process. Its still possible we won’t do anything currently and delay a bit or perhaps go for the Spring cruise. Stay tuned as we go through our decision process!
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