Embarkation

Embarkation 

I am behind in my posts... Ive had challenges with internet connections except on the ship or in the hotel, and I haven't spent much time in either. My tech support (AKA DH) ensured me I'd have internet access off the ship. I might need to find new teach support! Hopefully I can get caught up today!

Because of the delayed embarkation notice, I was expecting a zoo at the port. People arriving from Rome to the port mostlikely had transportation booked that would unlikely be able to be changed. People staying at a port hotel, would most likely have an 1100 checkout, so what were they to do? 

Our shared shuttle arrived at the port about 1030. It was mass people and luggage. Port staff informed us, these were people disembarking and lined for shuttles to the port and the train, and that as soon as they cleared, the doors to the terminal would be opened for us. They told us where we would kine up and where to stand to access the pending line. We were standing in a shaded area and in about 15 minutes we were checked in and waiting in the VIP lounge area. This was just a roped off area of the terminal that had some comfy seating, washrooms, pastries, coffee, tea, and water. By 115 we were on board. Easy-peasy, no drama. 

 Once on board, we dropped our bags in our suite, met Billy, our steward, and quickly checked out the suite lounge. DH or Pat went to the cabin to lie down and then Q and I did a quick tour of the ship from top to bottom. 

I have to tell you, I LOVE the smart elevators. No more waiting and guessing what elevator will arrive or waiting for an elevator only to have people who just arrived get on before you and you have to wait again or no more elevators stopping so full of people you couldn't get another small child in there.

The ship layout is very different from other Princess ships. It is broken up, so you don't have long corridors of shops and restaurants. They are almost in little nooks and crannies, giving a big ship a smaller ship feel. The center area of the ship, the piazza, is open with various bars surrounding it on each floor and continuous entertainment. I'll see how I feel about this layout in a few days. I didn't visit the dome as Q was with me and it is adults only. I did pop into the Sanctuary Club (16 and up). It looks like it will be a great relaxing spot.

Meet and Mingle (M&M)

Our Cruise Critics (CC) M&M was at 4:30 in Bellini's lounge. For our M&M we had some prizes from CC in celebration of their 30th Anniversary. Our CC Master had the prizes and stickers, and I had sharpies for name tags. Unfortunately our CC Masters luggage had not arrived by the time of our M&M at 4:30. There were about 40 people there - I didn't get a count from Amitava Mukerjee AKA CC Master. I also did not get any pictures at this meeting. We agreed to meet in the Wheelhouse bar at 8:30 too do the prize draw. Unfortunately we had a smaller group for this. It's hard to pick a time in the evening, people have dinner reservations and plans. I've posted several pictures of the M&M on CC.

KLM Houses

House 11
Proeflokaal Wynand Fockink
Pijlsteeg 31 Amsterdam, Built 1689
Released 1960

House 23

Proeflokaal Wynand Fockink

Pijlsteeg 31 Amsterdam, Built 1689

Released 1964

House 29 Stadstimmerwerf Kort Galgewater 21 Leiden  Built 1612

Released 1966

Rome

Hello from Rome! 

It's been a busy few days with no time for posting and internet challenges, I will catch you up now.  

KLM fights

I was a bit underwhelmed by KLM. The lounge at YYZ is small and the food selection is minimal, however most of the food we tried was tasty. The flight was delayed about 30 minutes. Boarding was smooth, having BC seats we walked right onto the plane. This aircraft was an A330 with 2x2x2 seat configuration. GS and I had the first row with the extra leg room. DH was in a center aisle a couple rows back. GS enjoyed discovering all the seat gadgets. There is not a lot of storage space in these seats, however the extra footwell space in row 1 helped. The food service was super slow. The menu was different from what I'd posted before and was a teriyaki chicken or tortellini. GS had the chicken and said it was good. I had the tortellini and it was not good. Since we were the last people in BC serverd, the tortellini around the edge of the dish was dried out. The pasta that was in the sauce was good, but 25% of it was rock hard. I can't say anything memorable about the food. For food service, they started well after take off and on the right hand aisle. Since we were seated on the left, we were literally the last served. Orders were not taken like I’ve seen on most BC flights, this was served from a cart. Breakfast was not much better. I had crepes, but it was a bowl full of crepes - narry any fruit to be found anywhere. The seats were not the most comfortable for sleeping. If a matress pad were provided, I think it would go a long way to improve that. I did manage to sleep about 3 hours and felt reasonably human the following day. The staff were all super friendly and lovely. We each had our pick of.one of the collectible dutch houses KLM gives to each passenger as a gift. These are all based on real houses in Amsterdam.  

Our transfer in AMS was smooth and although we were in the smaller KLM lounge (the European side and not the larger Internationallounge), it was a huge improvement over the YYZ lounge. Great selection of food, drinks and various seating options. The boarding at AMS to FCO was ridiculous. We were delayed and there were horders of people slamming the small gate area.k The food on the second leg was a cold pasta salad with tuna, which no one in my travel party ate. It looked good, but I don't eat tuna. It was accompanied by some rice crackers and macaroons. Both of those were good. Besides the usual beverages they also served a small bottle of strawberry juice. Seats are just regular seats with the middle seat blocked. And, again, the crew were lovely. After deplaning, our luggage arrived with minimal delay. Our driver met us at the exit and we had a pleasant ride to the hotel. 

Rome Hotel

Our hotel was a reasonable size, the bathroom we very decent. There was a small fridge and a safe (but I didn't find it until the last day). I'd stay there again - Hotel La Residenza.

Tours

We were in Rome about 20 years ago. I was prepared for the heat and the crowds due to the Jubilee. As much as you can prepare for either of those. The crowds were not as bad as I was anticipating and the heat, well, I don't do heat well. Even though the temps had cooled down from the previous weeks, the heat and humidity was hard to take. Temps were in the low 30's, but I was still dripping sweat every time I walked out the door. 

We did 3 tours in Rome. There first was the Colosseum. Our tour guide was great. He trained as an urban planner and was very much into the history of Rome. He did not like the sun or crowds, so he was always hearding us to a spot in the shade as he pointed things out. I booked another tour for the afternoon and in between tours we stopped for lunch. Q and I shared a pizza, DH had a colossal Gelato sundae that we all shares. DH bailed on the afternoon crypt tour. Our guide was hilarious and we went to three different crypts, each depicting a different era in Roman history. It was cool in some of the crypts and we had an air conditioned bus for transport between the crypts. PRO TIP: Does not book more than one tour in a day, - it is just too hot and exhausting. We had dinner at our hotel the first evening. It was very good; excellent service. 

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Veal and Gnocchi 

The last day in Rome, we just wandered around in the morning. Went to.the Parthenon, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps. We stopped for gelato near the Parthenon. 

Gelato Menu

Our last tour was on our last full day in Rome. I booked a Basilica tour and audio guide directly from the Vatican site for 6 pm. We took the metro there. Our hotel desk clerk gave us excellent directions. No problems getting there. You need to arrive for your tour about an hour early to go through security. We were there 2 hours early and went for a bite to eat. Q had a fruit plate, I had bruschetta, and Pat had fettuccine Alfredo. And it took FOREVER for the fettuccine. It came 10 minutes before we had to check in.for.the tour. DH wolfed it down...said it was good. We we able to almost walk right into the Basilica with the tickets we had. The audio guide was terrible. None of us could follow it. No markings for each station, etc. The Basilica was very crowded and they were setting up for a mass on Tuesday. We walked home, as once you go through the Vatican you are on the other side of it on exiting so the metro was quite a hike. The last.part of the walk home involved walking UP the Spanish Steps! Pat barely made it  between his knees and his asthma.it was a challenge.

Colosseum Arena Floor 

Q at the Colosseum 

Crypt Tour

Q at the Trevi Fountain 

Trevi Fountain (we were there at a time it.was closed for maintenance)

The Parthenon 

This one is for Mari

I discovered Q does has no interest in history. He wasn't impressed with any of the tours! I will definitely cancel our Florence tour once we get.on the ship. I wasn't keen on that one, but thought Q would be interested in the statue of David and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

I See More Drama Ahead!

We received notification that our ship would not be boarding until 1 pm due to an immigration check required, as opposed to the normal 10:30 or 11:00. GREAT! We have a shared shuttle to the port leaving at 8, meaning we should be at the port by 10:00. Of course most people have transportation arrange and will unlikely be able to change it last minute.

Last Minute Glitch

Drama,Drama, Drama Yesterday! 

Flight checkin was at 4:45 pm and at 2:25 pm, as I was leaving my nail appointment, I received an email from KLM saying we were downgraded to economy from business class (BC). WHAT? I've had this flight booked for over 6 months, I had selected seats. I've been talking up BC to the Q and getting myself all psyched. All packed according to flying BC. I am not flying economy! So on the phone to KLM. I was in transit at the time and didn't have easy access to booking numbers, etc. Michael at KLM was very helpful, gave me his name and extension so I could call him back once I got home. At home I could see a couple of other flights that had room for 3 in business. I was able to reconnect with Michael and he put me on hold and said he'd work on it. He did get me another flight, but wanted to charge me 689 per person! NO! Not my fault you bumped me. Okay, well it will be 500 something without the tax. NO. Then he booked me on something else, BC, no charge. He gave me the flight number but I had no booking or confirmation number and I could no longer see my original booking. He said, I'll send you an email, you should have booking info in 2 hours. Then we got disconnected. Okay, so now I'm really panicking; it's almost checkin time for the original flight (that I have no access to) and I looked at the KLM site and saw no modified booking. I phoned my friend Michael back and got him. He confirmed I had a flight, departing later, in BC. I asked about booking seats. He said he could do that, did it, and that it would be 200 per person to book a seat. I said NO!, Since when do you pay to book a BC seat; I'll book it at checkin. At this point I'm not sure if I have a flight at all, and if it is economy or BC. I still could find no flight on any website or had a email.

I had initially booked these flights through my bank points plan (RBC Avion). Time to phone them. I would have started with them, but found the KLM phone number first while I was doing this in transit, and Michael seemed capable and was trying to help. Okay, RBC looks at it and says it looks like it is AF. She's going to call the airline. While I'm on hold, I check the AF site and find, YES, yes I do have a business class flight booked, like Micharl said. I go to book seats, but it wants me to check in. My passport info was there, but DH wasn't there any more. Fortunately his passport was sitting on the desk and I entered it. Feeling much better now and the RBC lady comes back on the call. She can't help me now, as the airline has taken the booking over. Okay, I thank her, tell her I found the flight on the AF site and I think I'm good. Called Q and got his passport info, because his is gone too. Okay now we are checked in and I go to select seats. Low and behold, the seats Michael talked to me about and wanted 200 each for, were booked. I did change them to available seats more to my liking and printed that boarding pass PRONTO! I don't know if I was misunderstanding Michael with all those fees he wanted to charge. Or if that is just a money grab they try. I had to rebook our car pickup from the hotel and one tour that we will not arrive in time for, I rebooked to Monday.   

It's all over and done with (I hope!) and if truth be told, I prefer the new fligh times better to the prior ones. Fingers crossed, we get on that flight with no further drama.

The Final Countdown

The Final Countdown

Our Medallions have arrived last week! That means the countdown is officially on!

It will be a busy week of last minute cruise/vacation preparation. 

What's on tap?

Monday visit the lab for blood work and do laundry. 

Tuesday is the official packing day

Wednesday is haircut and waxing day. Wednesday evening we have theatre - Natasha, Pierre and the great Comet of 1812.

Thursday is doctor's appointment. You know those annual checkups you book a year in advance. Mine just happened to fall the day before we leave. This is what Monday's bloodwork is for, I always do it before my physicals. Also manicure and pedicure day.

Friday will be for any last minute items and we'll head to the airport about 1315 to 1530.

Somewhere in the week, I'll need to download some videos, ebooks, etc. and confirm a few tours.

From Q's Eyes to Your Screen - ROME TO BARCELONA 2025 - PREAMBLE -

We leave exactly one week from today, so it is time to get this blog started. I will also be posting a "LIVE" thread on Cruise Critics - https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3072124-live-sun-princess-rome-to-barcelona-july-29-to-august-9/

The Planning

This is a celebration 🍾 cruise 🛳 . A celebration as i) we are taking our 15 year old grandson, Quintin (Q), with us to experience Europe, ii) I'm celebrating my retirement, and it's our 47th wedding anniversary during the cruise. So I've used all of these milestones to justify going all out!

Travel and Accomodations

We will be flying KLM business class to Rome (FCO) via Amsterdam (AMS) and spending 3 days in Rome pre-cruise. This is followed by an 11 day Mediterranean cruise and  post cruise will be 3 days in Barcelona (BCN) . Return home will be via Paris(CDG) with Air France business class.

Flights

Our KLM flight flight departs at 1645 from YYZ.  Initially we were in the pods, but the hardware was swapped out for the flight and now we are in the A330-300 with 2 x 2 x 2 seating. We all have 1st row seats. Q wanted a window seat and he can climb over me if I'm sleeping and he needs to get up and Pat has the center aisle seat, so no access problems or no one crawling over him. The first row usually has slightly more leg and foot well room. Note that the designations in the screen shot are not correct, Q will have the window and I'll have the aisle. I just dont want to change them at this point and loose the seats.  And by the way, Q's first name is James and his second name is Quintin. Just like Pat, whose, first name is James and second name is Patrick. So I'm travelling with two James Jenkins who never go by James. Should be fun!

We only have one hour to connect for our flight to FCO in AMS, but if we miss our connecting flight there is another flight a couple hours later. The flight to Rome for business class is just at the front of the plane with the middle seat blocked and our scheduled arrival in FCO is 0925.  I'm planning on leaving early to YYZ and have Q's mom and dad drive us, come in to the airport and wait until we have checked in.  That way,  if there are any issues with Q traveling with us we can hopefully resolve them. I have a notarized travel authorization,  a notarized medical authorization, and a long form birth certificate. Once we are checked in, we can spend our time waiting to board in the KLM lounge. This will be Qs first time flying business. I'm sure he'll love the lounge food and the flight experience. I do hope we are delayed so we can spend some time in the KLM lounge in AMS. It is their signature lounge and is two stories with great views. I've never, ever flown overseas with Pat that we were not delayed, so I'm thinking chances are good! Coming home from BAR on Air France we are in the pods in the a350-900 - the first 3 window pods on the right side. Let's hope they don't change out that hardware! 

Our first flight home from BCN is in economy, so i don't know if we will be able to access the AF lounge in BCN, but we have almost a 2 hour layover in CDG and should be able to visit the AF lounge. The flight home is a daytime flight leaving BCN at 0955 and arriving to YYZ at 1545.

Accommodations 

In Rome we are staying at Hotel La Residenza.  It's in the center of the sites, has no pool, but it does have breakfast. It's hard to find reasonable priced hotels in Europe that have 2 King or Queen beds; most are two doubles and I am NOT sleeping in a double bed (unless I have it all to myself)! We have a triple room booked - a king and a twin sofa bed.

In Barcelona we are staying right on Las Ramblas at Hotel Loret Ramblas. We have a quad room here. Again, no pool but breakfast.  This one has me a little concerned, right on Ramblas so it will probably be noisy and it looks like it is an older hotel and may be hot. I'm bringing a small fan and white noise machine.

Stateroom

The ship is the Sun Princess which is a little over a year old and has had a rocky start that I'll detail below. We are in room 15627, which I didn't notice until now, but 15 is Q's age and 6/27 was my last day of work. Is that a lucky omen? The cabin is a suite, so we have a queen bed, a sofa that can open out to a bed and a Pullman (drops from the ceiling). Q will have his choice of bed. There is a washroom with a separate shower, tub and sink and the toilet is in a separate room with a sink. That will make it easier when there are 3 of us getting ready in the morning or for dinner.

I got decent pricing on the flights ✈️ using RBC Avion points. I started out with our cabin being a mini-suite, then upgraded us to a Sanctuary mini during a promotion, and then noticed it wasn't much more for a suite, so what the heck!

So what is the Sanctuary? It is an area of the ship that has a private sun deck, with drinks and food for adults only. You have to be 16 to access the Sanctuary (sorry Q!). Since this is a port intensive cruise, I don't think we'll be hanging out in the Sanctuary much anyway. Sanctuary guests also have a separate dining room that is open for breakfast and dinner each day and lunch on sea days. The Premier package is also included in the Sanctuary fare. What's in the Premium package? Wifi is included for each person for up to 4 devices, daily gratuities for each person are covered, unlimited beverages up to 20 dollars each, unlimited specialty dining (steakhouse, Italian, Japanese etc.), unlimited photos (download and 3 prints), unlimited casual dining, unlimited fitness classes, reserved seats at the Production shows, etc., etc..

What perks do we get being in a suite? Well, there is a complimentary specialty dining on embarkation day, although with the Premier package that's not much of a perk. We also get a mini bar setup up and since we get one for the cruise status we have, that means two mini bar setup. These usually include an assortment of 8 mini alcohol bottles, a couple of beer, and an assortment of soda. Since we have Premier we usually exchange it for soda and/or water. We have a Lavazza coffee maker in the room and we can have dinner from the main dining room served in our suite if we want. On some ships you have breakfast in a separate dining room and can order pretty much what you want. Again, with the Sanctuary dining room on the Sun we should be able to order anything we want. There is a Suite Lounge that is two stories at the back of the ship accessible 24/7 and has beverages, snacks, happy hour and a concierge to assist with any reservations, issues, etc.

I've been in planning mode for this cruise for about 10 months. I do enjoy planning a cruise as much as I do taking it. Most of our pre, post and cruise excursions have been chosen with a teen in mind. We'll see how well I did as very early in the planning stages Q was over whelmed by my queries and just said surprise me! 

The Sun

This is Princess' newest ship and the first of what is called their Sphere Class ships. The next Sphere Class ship, the Star, is due to sail soon. It is currenly undergoing Sea trials. Q picked this itinerary and I'm sure he did so based on the ship. It had an area with hand gliders, splash pads, and a few items like that to attract kids and teens. Well, it never did open as Princess was unable to get the required safety clearance required. How you build something like that without some idea of requirements is beyond me. Anyway, on the ships first transatlantic crossing, they tore the whole thing out! Nothing has replaced it; its an open area with a few Hammocks. Now, I don’t think Q will miss it much as this is such a port intensive cruise, there is not much time to enjoy the ship. Several restaurants were also moved around during that transatlantic sailing as they weren't meeting the needs. In addition, there is an area called the Arena, which is basically in the dome. The dome area has an indoor/outdoor pool, but initially they did cirque-type shows there in the evening. That is until one of the performers was injured and that shut down the entertainment in the Arena. It is used in the evenings for some events, like the Captains Circle loyalty parties and they have a disco there later in the evening. There is another traditional theatre for many of the evening entertainment activities.  Both the Arena and the Theatre are said to be too small for a ship of this size and seeing show, means arriving early to get seats. The layout is also completely different from the other ships and people have been complaining about that. The one thing there have been no complaints about are the smart elevators on the ship. You key in the floor you want to go to and push that button for each person riding. So for us, we'd push the floor we want to go to 3x. These are suppose to be fantastic.  So you can see the rocky start the ship has had. They've been working on the kinks, so most should be worked out  by now.

Itinerary 

Rome

July 26 to 29

Ports

July 29 - Embark from Rome - Port Civitavecchia 

July 30 - Naples

July 31 - Sicily - Messina

August 1 - Sea Day

August 2 - La Spezia 

August 3 - Marseille 

August 4 - Sea Day 

August 5 - Malaga 

August 6 - Gibraltar 

August 7 - Cartagena 

August 8 - Majorca 

August 9 - Disembark - Port of Barcelona

Barcelona 

August 9 to 12

Money

People always wonder how much money to take.  Now a days, it is so easy to use a credit card for even the smallest of purchases, I take minimal cash. I just got a new credit card (Visa) that has no fees and no foreign transaction fees. The one I previously used for travel started charging transaction fees. I've kept it so far, as it is a Mastercard and I need it for Costco. I don't chase points on CC, I just want a selection of various cards to meet my usage. I needed some Euros to pay our driver from the airport to the hotel. There are cheaper ways to get from FCO to the hotel, but Pat is not the best traveler, so we'll do the car service. I'd be up for doing the train myself. We also have a "pay what you want" Sunset in Rome tour booked for the first evening and I figured I'd need cash 💸 for that. About the only other thing I'll need Euros for is tips. I got €550 and if that's not enough, I can always hit an ATM. I also needed some £ for Gibraltar.  We have a private tour booked in Gibraltar and they want payment in £ so I got just enough to cover the tour and tip which was £300. Charges on the ship are in $US. I have a US credit card I use for ship charges. I've paid for several ship tours, that I subsequently booked private tours for and these ship tours have to be paid as you book them. I'm going to cancel.the ship tours once I'm on board. If I cancel them before rhe cruise, they would be credited back to whatever credit card I used and since they are in US dollars, you always loose on the exchange - unless I booked them on the US card. This will give us some additional shipboard credit. I can't see that we will have much of a shipboard charge as with the Premium package, almost everything is included as far as drinks and food, excursions are all paid for and I even prebooked a spa appointment that is paid. We only have 100 on board credit (OBC) for this cruise from our Shareholders credit.  Once I cancel the two excursions I no longer want to take, that will be 1200.00 more (yes,  excursions are expensive and we are booking for three). We'll also have 10 percent OBC for the excursions and spa treatments from our Elite benefits (at least for my and Pat's excursions. So that is going to give us a healthy OBC and it is all refundable, except for the Shareholders credit. What we don't spend we'll receive a mailed US check about 6 weeks after the cruise. You can also play in the casino, deposit the OBC, play a few games, then cash out. No waiting for a cheque. Since neither of us are gamblers, we've never done this.

In-flight Entertainment and Food

My travel planning includes what movies or shows I plan on watching on my flight and what I'm going to eat. I know, it's a bit obsessive isn't it?

Entertainment 

I plan on watching Wicked. I haven't seen it yet and I know my sister is wigging out if she sees this as she is the consummate Wicked fan. I don't know how many time she's seen the play or the movie, but I'd be betting double digits for the movie. She even has the green makeup to dress up as Elphaba. My second movie on the list is The Many Saints of Newark. Should I still be awake and want something more to watch, I'll start in on season three of White Lotus. I'll probably download some movies, audio books and books as well.

Food

Now for food. This is suppose to be the selection for our flight: 

Enjoy a tasteful meal created by Dutch top chefs. Every 3 months, we offer our World Business Class passengers a brand-new menu of dishes. Right now, you can choose an appetiser and main dish by De Librije, the only Dutch restaurant with 3 Michelin stars. These dishes will be accompanied by a range of carefully selected wines.

Starters

Surf & Turf with Asian-style beef tartlet and shrimp vadouvan, served with kaffir lime cream, pickled mushrooms, mustard seeds, and haricots verts

Thai red curry soup

Side dish

Mesclun salad with sweet cherry tomato, Reypenaer cheese, candied pine nuts, and Italian balsamic vinaigrette

Main dishes

Duo of sole and langoustine in curry sauce, served with potato gratin, soybeans, and cherry tomato

Tartlet filled with asparagus, potato, and aged Parmesan, with leek, artichoke, broad beans, and sweety drops, served with a creamy Béarnaise sauce

Taste of delicacies: chicken thigh marinated in Bulgogi sauce, beef Tsukune-style with hot bean sauce, Korean steamed aubergine, and rice with kimchi

Desserts

Yuzu and pear quenelle with pear mousse, light coffee crémeux, cinnamon ganache, and sweet caramel sauce

Cheese plate with Moulin Bleu, honey goat cheese, and Dutch cumin cheese, served with grapes and crackers.

My Selections

So, those of you that know me know I don't have a very sophisticated palate. I don't like fish or seafood, so it will be Thai soup for my appetizer.  Salad is fine. As far as the main course goes, well, the first option is out- fish. The third option sounds a bit too adventurous for me, so I'll be going with the vegetarian option. I don't really like asparagus, leeks, artichokes or broad beans, but I'm hoping the Parmesan and Bearnaise sauce will overwhelm everything. As for the dessert, I'd like both and I'm going to ask for both!