Royal Caribbean cruise..going saturday..help!

Jelly*baby

Ok have been rushed off feet and as you can see we go in a matter of days. Have been moving house amongst other things so everything is upside down so just wondered if anyone knew some quick fire answers to the following to help us out.

What are the tip denominations onboard..dollars or euros? (we are going round the med)

Also if anyone has been to the following is there anything we shouldn't mis..obviously the tower of pisa is a must!
We are going to:

Gibralter
Provence
florence
rome
Ajaccio
Seville
lisbon
vigo

Thanks for any help..have been on a cruise before but not RC.
Thanks for any help.

daveyjp

You can tip in whatever you like.

Vigo is nothing to write home about, a typical Spanish town with some shops and good seafood restaurants- if you go wandering be careful around the castle - we found lots of drug waste including dirty needles and a few unsavoury characters wandering around obviously high on whatever they had been injecting.

Lisbon is compact and easy to DIY on foot or the local trams - tram 28 is the one to get which goes up the hillside to the castle - IIRC it's about €1.20 per trip.

getmore4less

I think onboard will be $ or it might have gone £ if the Independence
tips are added to the onboard account unless prepaid.

cash tips can be anything you have

if this is the Independence then the port list looks incomplete.

Gib taxi tour to the top of the rock the caves and/or seige tunnels with the apes. there is a good tourist web page for gib.

Rome plan DIY by train for low cost or take a tour(expensive) you need to decide what you want to do, vatican or old rome you can do both but it is a rush.

Rome is over an hour from the port.

Florence same long way(2hr) from Livorno port, so you need to plan to go by train or take a tour or jus stay in lvorno or goto Piza.

Lisbon you can just get the tram to the center, watch out for pickpockets.

Cadiz has a HOHO or there is walking tour marked on the pavement from near the port but I can't find the map and last time we were their it needed a repaint to avoid getting lost. we walk into town and do a seafood lunch,, good shoe shopping for thr ladies.


get onto cruise citic and check out the roll call for this trip, you might get lucky and find space on some DIY trips

could be this one looks quiet.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1166070

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Independence Of The Seas 03-Sep-201104-Sep-2011 10:30:00 AM, Anthony & Cleopartra Dining Room

fluffykins13

Jelly Baby I did the same cruise in June - it was out of this world, best 2 weeks I've ever had! Everything on the ship is in dollars - have you prepaid your tips?

We did all the excursions organised by RC since it was our first cruise and we didn't want to be late back.
Gibralter - we did the cave and monkey tour
Provence - we did Aix en Provence which I just loved
Pisa - we did the tower tour
Rome -I would do your own thing - organised excursion just didn't give us enough time to do what we wanted
Ajaccio - lovely place and you can just walk off the boat but if you're going on a Sunday everything is closed
Seville - we did the water park
Lisbon - we did the hop on hop off bus tour which leaves from the cruise port
Vigo - we actually really liked this place, good shops and you can just walk off the ship.

If there's anything else you need to know since I've just been on it, let me know
Enjoy!!

Jelly*baby

Thanks for all the replies..conflicting talk online on tips so nice to know its easy either way i guess!

Fluffykins thanks thats a great help..

Pisa- can you remember how much the tour was roughly? and how far it was to get to from the ship

Seville what is the water park called..again is it something we can hop in a taxi to get to?..i have done 2 cruises before but P&O and have to say i find the amount they add on too much but worry about not being back on time!

Vigo i have been to before think we enjoyed it too last time!

Also how much roughly did you spend on drinks onboard..confused with the dollar thing so does it make drinks more than they would be on say P&O where it is english currency? I realise depending on amount of people etc it varies hugely but just looking for worst case scenario!

Thanks very behind with everything so a bit stressed but cant wait to go!

Jelly*baby

Well were back! Had a great time weather was very hot and the ship was great..one of the best bits was us having a banging noise in our cabin.. towards the end unfortunately! which meant we were upgraded to one of the luxury suites free of charge..very exciting!! Thought ide just put about how we got on in terms of the ship and the days as thanks to fluffykins post above ours differed a little as we did the trips ourselves as opposed through RC so thought may be handy for any future travellers.

Gibralter - we did the cave and monkey tour but we did this through a mini bus company who were situated near the cable car up the rock, only a short walk from the ship, reason for the bus not cable car was the queue was a minimum of an hour and too hot to stand and the bus actually showed us much more..cost us 100 euros for 4 of us including bits RC didnt have on their excursion. If you like monkeys this is a great trip and the girls loved it..mad things jumping everywhere and the driver was ble to get them to sit on shoulders to have pics..very good day out!

Provence - not sure but think this is where we walked and got a water boat into town..lovely chic area with nice shops and bars etc..lovely marina..again RC trip loads..water boat 2 euros each! walked quite a long way to find the cable car and gave up due to the heat and 2 moaning girls!

Pisa - we did the tower tour..we got a free shuttle to town, walked to a train station and then after the train walked through a lovely street where we had a drink before heading to the tower..very very hot..the tower tour was off the top of my head about 80 euros again much cheaper than RC and we saw more.

Rome -Stayed on the boat this day..weather was just too hot and Rome was a 45 min trip away from the boat..left for a weekend trip maybe one day!

Ajaccio - lovely place agreed had a nice wander have a terrible memory as cant think what we did but was nice!

Seville - Very cross as we had decided to do the RC excursion for the water park..enquired about it on i think the provence day as there was another one listed but was told to leave really as easier..got to the night before and upon booking was told the park was actually shut so 2 unhappy girls..def cheaper if you can do yourself getting to the park (45 mins) though as only 20 euros for adults and Rc do add a huge whack on.

Lisbon - we walked the back roads to the main shopping area which was nice and had a drink, been here before and remembered most of it..did the tour last time too so decided not to this time due to the heat as very hot, nice square and shopping.

Vigo - yes can walk striaght off the ship liked this place, the girls though were not impressed and moaned so we had a short lived trip and back on the boat..grr children!! saw some nice bits though.

All in all a lovely trip and we saved a fortune. I have been on 2 P&O cruises prior to this and have to say although initially i found this one different they weren't really. RC is obviously the dollar and so you have to work out what it would equate to..everything especially drinks are def more expensive than P&O...cocktails on average of about £8 for the cheapest. There is no launderette and the facilities to have it done are expensive..not allowed irons on again expensive to have done, my other half ordered a shirt and tie as he wanted a white one for a posh evening and despite being measured it turned up like a tent!! no other shirts..unbelievable considering 4000 guests. The cafes which were all you can eat seemed a little too in one area so usually waited for seating but nothing major. Cabin smaller than P&O until we were moved to this suite..had to laugh as they said 'go and check the room and see of you are happy with it and let us know'..me and the other half were like young children running round this huge apartment giggling away!! hasen to say yes we had..result! struggled previously with 4 of us though in 1 cabin so did showers etc in shifts before! Lovely lovely time though..staff fab, food way too good proved by the weight i have put on already! love cruises but have to say think P&O would sway me again if we do another.