edinburgher

There was a similar debate (actually more than one thread) last year when NCL (and only NCL) passengers were taxed on drinks in some European countries. It was a VAT charge. A quick google found this one but there were others over a period of a few months. https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2963144-10-vat-tax-added-to-all-free-at-sea-drinks-on-ncl-while-in-med/ There was also a higher VAT charge on any items bought in the onboard stores. Searching CC or googling should find some of these threads and/or media reports. A quick search on the NCL board found these, some of which may be applicable https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=tax on alcoholic drinks&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=64&updated_after=any&sortby=relevancy&search_and_or=and

Can I suggest that before planning the Midhope visit, you have a look at the reviews and images of it on Tripadvisor as there really is not a great deal to see there, but reading reviews and looking at the images will help you decide if it would be worth it to you. There are a small number of Outlander filming locations in the city itself and a quick google should find them. Bakehouse Close (featured in several scenes but worth visiting in its own right)and Tweeddale Court are near each other on the Royal Mile, but there is also Craigmillar Castle within the city but not central and again uphill. You would need a taxi for this one.

Nice to read that. There is of course much more to the city outside of the Old Town and more than enough for several days. Unfortunately cruise port calls rarely offer enough time to "see it all", but they do give ideas as to which places might merit a return land trip and you could consider Edinburgh maybe combined with places such as York, Bath and others, also with the option of visiting further north to the Scottish Highlands or islands. We only ever cruised smaller ships, in part due to long tender waits on the bigger ships and reading what you wrote, so pleased we did that.

Pre-booking timed entry tickets on the castle website does the same thing without paying the extra for the shorex. Pleased to read that you appear to have enjoyed your day in the city, might you perhaps return in the future for a few extra days which would allow you to fill in the gaps?

In that case, my apologies as it seems important to you. An "oops" moment probably as tired and heading to .zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I thought I quoted the OP, Anyislandwill do,( lines 1,2 and 3 of post #1) Whom did I mistakenly quote?

In that case, and as Edinburgh is hilly, you would need to plan your visit carefully to take account of your abilities.

Sorry, no buses or trams go to the castle so only a taxi would take you close to but not onto the castle esplanade. You could take the bus for its full run and take a taxi from the x99 terminus in the city centre.

Flying TO Europe, your luggage is normally checked all the way through to your destination airport if using one carrier for the entire journey (and this applies to code share airlines too, eg airlines such as Air France, KLM and others in the same alliance where one sector is with one of them and the second or third with a different one) Your luggage will normally have a different(speedy) tag if the connection is fairly short. This means it is often amongst the last to be loaded at departure airport and should be amongst first off at the connecting airport ready for transfer to the next flight. Simpler yes, but slightly stressful too in case one arrives at destination and one does not. As many of our flights involve connections we usually cross pack, each having half clothing in each suitcase just in case. It is simpler than the US way of claiming, rechecking in etc.

or to both from e130. thanks for adding the info as others may find it ueful in the future. I assume these are transfers only with no information given by the driver? Did you have enough time to view the rare Mycenaen suit of armour in the museum?

There is quite a wide selection of options from le Havre, not itself the most interesting of towns, but a good location for exploring other parts of Normandy. Should you have an interest in WW11 and the Normandy beaches, that would be a longer tour. Check your Roll Call to see if anyone has already booked a tour and looking for others to join it. Should you have no interest, Rouen would be a good option, although I very much doubt you could shoehorn in a visit to Giverny on the same day. Giverny is a longer and more complex journey unless you will have a rental car, a shorex or a private tour. Rouen is very easy and a little under an hour by direct train, no changes, and the city is both historic and attractive.There will be many reviews and images online, eg Tripadvisor. Honfleir is only a 30 minute journey by taxi from le Havre or there is an irregular public bus. Cruise passengers will often share with others.(again try your Roll Call or look for others dockside when you leave the ship) Unless planning a long lunch in Honfleur, you would probably only need 2-3 hours, but that would leave time for a walkaround le Havre itself, although there is little of interest there. Reading past threads might help you decide. Rouen https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=rouen&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=462 Honfleur https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=honfleur&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=462 Giverny https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=giverny&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=462

Most reliable way to find out is to go to the official "cruiseportamsterdam" website and check if your ship is listed. If it is not, you would need to try the Ijmuiden port website, or a website such as cruisetimetables

Absolutely. The Radical Road closure period has become a big embarrassment. It isn't that much of a diversion to access Grassmarket via the short stretch of Lothian Road then on to Castle Terrace, but it isn't as quiet or scenic and could confuse non residents.

fruitmachine, is there an expected date for reopening?

I would also suggest dropping the Royal Yacht due to time constraints as its location is not a good fit with your other plans. Should you have time to spare (and you may not have) you could instead stroll the gardens on Princes St, and/or if the weather is fine, go up Calton Hill for the 360 degree views across the city. Or you could visit any of the several museums on or close to the Royal Mile, with the best being the National Museum of Scotland on Chambers St. a 3 or 4 minute walk from the Royal Mile. there will be much info about it online. Should you prefer art, the National Galleries of Scotland are to be found at the foot of The Mound dividing two sections of Princes St Gardens, or the National Portrait Gallery on Queen St just off St Andrew Square. All of these would tie in well with your other plans, and again, info on all these galleries can be found online and entry to all is free unless visiting a special visiting exhibition. Do book your castle timed entry tickets ahead of time to save standing in a long line on the day, and also pre-book Mary Kings Close.

Pisa is the closest town/city to a port, usually Livorno, but sometimes la Spezia, further than Livorno. With Rome and Venice on your wish list , you could look for itineraries which begin or end there, (the port for Rome is Civitavecchia) and if time allows, could therefore plan a stay of a few days in one or both pre or post cruise which would be much better than only a few short hours and long drives. And flights routings, duration and cost could be of importance to you so these should also be researched once you narrow down your itinerary choices. Suggesting you go to cruisetimetables, where you can input your preferred month, ports of call etc and results will show ships and itineraries for you to consider. If this will be your first trip to Europe, most folks can expect to be challenged with some jetlag for a couple of days on arrival and this could impact your sightseeing plans.

Welcome to CC. Sorry to disappoint with your very first question, but tour share posts are only permitted on Roll Calls. Because of this, this thread likely to be moved by the Mods. You would need to find your Roll Call, if there is one, if not perhaps you could start one. Go to Windstar Roll Calls, look for the name of your ship then check for your sailing date(not your date in Almeria) Your RC his is where you can share info and ideas with fellow pax on your sailing,also look for ohers to join you on a tour you have arranged or join a private tour already arranged by another passenger. Windstar RCs can be found here https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/478-windstar-roll-calls/ And are you aware that the Alhambra only issues a certain number of entry tickets each day and they can sell out weeks in advance. Have you already bought tickets and looking for transport, or is your date already sold out, in which case not much point in going there as entry is strictly limited to those with timed tickets.

An afterthought. Another "headline" port the cruiselines love to promote in their adverts is Venice, nowadays sadly an approx 2 hours each way usually from ports in Trieste or Ravenna.

In that case,( and so far you have not named any city which would be a "must see" for you) it might suit you better to avoid the "headline" cities which cruiselines love to advertise without making it known that some are between 1 and 3 hours distant from the actual port. Paris is one which immediately springs to mind, but Rome, Seville and a few others are 1-2 hours distant. Round trip travel will therefore add several hours to your day, some of which may be walking, and a shorex such as this could be anywhere between 7 and 10 hours long, and it can extremely hot in southern Europe during the summer months and that too is tiring, so choose your travel month wisely. Although we never sailed MSC,I do know from others that, yes, folks will get on and off at ports along the way, and as they are catering to international passengers, the same announcements will be repeated in several languages, ditto shorex where a language choice is offered. My understanding (perhaps wrong, I do not know) is that on occasion a shorex will be offered in two languages meaning everything said by the guide will be repeated. I have no knowledge of onboard international languages relating to entertainment or dining. If seriously interested in MSC, you could ask questions on the MSC board or browse their board, also read MSC reviews to help you decide. Every cruiseline sails the Med and there are many to choose from. It might be helpful to you to first narrow down your choices to cities/towns/regions which would appeal to you, rather than only give the names of countries as a whole, and from that point, finding itineraries and ships to suit your interests would be easier.Is there anywhere "in the S.Med/Europe" that you would be particularly interested in visiting to celebrate this special anniversary?

No tour is actually need, because if you google something along the lines of "self guided walking tour of GOT locations Dubrovnik", you should find several options you could either take with you or access them when there. (gypsmycity being one of them) And if you google without the words "self guided" you should find several companies offering the tour. You could then look at their reviews to help you decide which one, or if you would be better with the ship shorex.. On that topic, as your question is specific to NCL, consider cross posting on the NCL forum where NCL passengers who did this tour would be more likely to see it and reply.

Not fine dining, but the chain Wetherspoons (locally "spoons") has a number of bars in Southampton and you could search for one close to the port. Locations should appear on a map if you google "Wetherspoons Southampton" or similar They do a full range of meals, and their breakfast selection is really quite comprehensive and reasonably priced too. There would be something for everyone, whether they are looking for healthy- or unhealthy! And unusually, their hot drinks are refillable for free. You could find their breakfast selection by googling something like "Wetherspoons breakfast menu" as it is a chain and probably more or less the same in every UK outlet.

we did a Godfather three villages excursion through the ship, but others may have done it or a different tour with the company you name. We loved the tour, fabulous scenery.😀 Some past threads on the subject https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=godfather villages&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=464&updated_after=any&sortby=relevancy&search_and_or=and A quick search for "discover Messina" using the search tool on this Italy Ports forum resulted in these past threads where the company was mentioned and you would maybe find comments, good or bad, on some of them. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q="discover messina"&quick=1&updated_after=any&sortby=relevancy

Unless there has been a recent change, I believe this is a tender port. Past threads for Santa Margherita can be found here and you should find some useful info and/or ideas in them.A popular way to spend the day is to combine Santa Margherita with nearby Portofino or to visit some of the CT villages. Choose which to read from these Santa Margherita https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=santa margherita&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=464 Portofino https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=portofino&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=464 Portofino is also a tender port.

The National Archaeolgical Museum offers an incredible selection of exhibits and anyone with a serious interest could spend a few days in there.(seriously) Most visitors will spend perhaps 2 or 3 hours There was an indoor/outdoor cafe so you could have lunch or a snack there if you wanted. If you can manage public transport or a taxi, you could visit both sights of the tour on your own, remembering it is essential to pre-book entry tickets to the Acropolis first. And by visiting The Nat A. museum independently, you would get to choose which galleries and exhibits were of most interest to you personally rather than be taken to the ones the guide has been instructed to visit.

It also depends on any mobility issues you might have and how much luggage you will be carrying.