Thanks for all the great information! We too will be on Oceania Riviera and have heard nothing but raves about the accommodations and food. Their specialty restaurant menus have me predicting an extra 15 pounds!
It is delightful that many of you mentioned Barcelona. It is one of my favorite cities. This will be my third time and his second time to visit. I introduced him to my favorite architect, Antonin Gaudi, last year. We are very comfortable moving around this city and already have a personal itinerary set to see a couple of things we missed last year. Since we had been before, it fit well to be our last stop.
(Medtrans, I too had the pickpocket experience on my first visit to Barcelona. We were on the Ramblas and she managed to get her hand in my purse while her other hand was presenting me a "free" red carnation. I caught her as she was extracting a wad of cash and she didn't succeed. I got lucky that time and more savvy with my personal belongings and interaction with strangers like this. I was even approached later by a second duo carrying red carnations. The "NO!!!" couldn't have been any louder. Last year, I insisted on carrying my husband's wallet as I felt I could keep a cross body bag closed and closer in front of me.)
I am a researcher as well, (which I will continue to do all the way up to departure). I have collected a bunch of Rick Steves shows (from PBS) on the DVR, (he is great to watch and you always pick up something new) and gone to many sites including cruisecritic.com. Blueash, thanks for turning us on to Rollcall. That is a feature we were unaware of and a great idea.
After discussion and more research, we decided to go ahead and book our shore excursions through the site cruiseexcursions.com. They are more than half the price of the equivalent that is being offered through Oceania. We are hoping for the best. The city that we are least comfortable with right now is Florence. There is so much to try and see there in what will amount to about a half a day. We will need to set some priorities!
Thanks again TOTV community. We will let you know how the cruise and excursions turn out later in September.
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