CruiseMH

Just have a look at pictures on the web from Kusadasi cruise port and you will see that four big ships do fit in there. 😉

There are many reasons why a ship can`t wait, no matter if they were contacted well in time or not. But asides all the good reasons every cruise line has the right o say " we left on time because we can and want to". There does not have to be a valid or good reason why they have to leave or can wait. They don`t have to give a reason for not waiting.

Usually it is "only" renovations like new carpets,new chairs/loungers,repairs(that can`t be done while at sea) or replacement of broken stuff, maybe some fresh paint here and there. Don`t expect to look like a new ship.

My private premium tip: You will find all that information for each specific ship on their website. 😉

It is a great feeling if it works. But if it doesn`t and you don`t get along with your table mates you are stuck with them for the whole cruise.

Kusadasi has two piers for 4 cruise ships at the same time. On August 31st there are only three ships in port, so no docking space actually can`t be the reason.

They only have the breakaway+ class ships as the biggest,so when they tell you the pier can handle them then its the same as if you are a group of 25 people and someone tells you "the elevator can handle the whole group at once". it does not say that the elevator can`t handle more.But it simply is not necessary cause your group is only 25 people.

It is absolutely dangerous to try to have the perfect ship for every type of guest. No cruise line has that and no cruise line wants that to have. Because it is extremely difficult to offer a good service all these different types of passengers. So it is much easier to concentrate on a specific type of passenger. Of course the cruise lines try to get as many different passenger types as possible onto their ships, but not at any price. NCL has 2000 Passenger ships, 3300 passengers ships, and 4000 and in future 5000 passenger ships. If people want to have smaller ships they can go to Oceania or regent. If they want to have expedition ships, there are other cruise lines available on the market.

Simply because they don`t need it. 😉

If it is for the itinerary: Italy/greece. If it is for the ship: the escape

As far as i know you only need your key card and show it to the crew. As your latitudes status is mentioned on your key they know whether you are entitled to use that service or not.

Because thats what people pay for on a cruise. Depending on ship size there are dozens or even hundreds of crew doing nothing else then cleaning the tables and removing plates and waste, in the buffet restaurants and in the table-service restaurants as well. this is called service.

therefore they have regent and Oceania 😉 Yes, these are not explicitly expedition ships, but most cruise lines don`t have expedition ships. I guess there is a good reason for. In the mediterranean and the caribbean there are still enough ports where such a ship can dock. not the very exotic ones but still enough.

The bigger the ship the less are the costs per passenger.It is as simple as that. For most people it doesn`t make any big difference whether its a 4100 or 5000-passenger-ship. They either hate them anyway or love them anyway. The people who are preferring smaller ships are preferring MUCH smaller ships (2000-2400 passengers).

the cruise ended in Barcelona. At the other ports one could assume that they would go back on board. But in Barcelona they had to do the regular immigration process because they were disembarking.

The needed documents were presented at check-in but they were faked. During check in this was not realized and only popped up at Barcelona when the cruise line handed over the docs to immigration authorities.

Payment is also a reason for a ship to get a better position. But most ports would not admit that. 😉

Most ports handle it based on first come first serve. The first cruise who books a berth on a specific day gets the "best" berth (e.g. closest to the city or whatever). In case there are more ship calls than available berths then usually the cruise line that has booked a berth for that day the latest has to tender their guests in.

As far as i know that stop at Sao Tome was not the first stop of the cruise. So they had a few port stops before and hence should now how NCL handles this.

Most ports charge per docking or to be price per berth usage. Every port has a limited number of berths. No. of berths x 365 days = max. amount they can have as income. Thats why they usually charge per day.(midnight to midnight) It doesn`t matter whether a ship is docked from 7 am till 5 pm or from 5 am till 11 pm. Only when the ship e.g. is docking from 8 am till 8 am next day then there is an additional charge.Some ports do charge supplements for arrival/departure during night times(e.g. between 10 pm and 6 am) but this depends on the port fee tariff of each port. I do know it because i studied a lot of port fee tariffs(because i was curious on how much a average day in port costs) and because of many Q&A`s with captain and other nautical officers.(german market cruise line AIDA does Q&A`s with the captain on almost every cruise)

From my personal experience and what i read here in the forums i would say that Europe is the area where NCL makes the least amount of itinerary changes that have nothing to do with weather or safety. At least the mediterranean sea.

Every person who is able to make it to Miami, find the correct terminal and get checked in and find their cabin should be able to read the clock and should be able to match their personal clock/watch/smartphone..whatever to the correct time to make sure they are back in time. Thats why i also don`t feel sorry for them at all. If it is true and they were not in a hurry it seems that they were confident to be on time. SO either they had the wrong time on their devices or they had the wrong "all aboard" time in mind.

thats practically the same what i said. If your bus departing time is 6:30 they will not wait until 7:30 until everybody is there. The bus company gets the order to bring a fixed number of passengers within a fixed time frame to the airport. Therefore they get a fixed amount per passenger. If the passengers arrive too late and miss their bus then NCL will not care about because it is passengers fault. Bus company will also not care because the earlier they bring all the passengers to the airport the earlier the busses are free for other tours. (and if the bus is arriving at the airport at 8 am they still have the whole day to use the bus) Also if it is passengers fault NCL will not give any compensation to the passenger and hence they will not reduce the payment to the bus company. I think there is a big difference between bringing the passengers to the airport after the cruise and bringing the passengers from the airport to the cruise ship before the cruise.

It`s the same every time. Guest are not following the rules and if due to this something bad happens the fault is always at the others. There are reasons why the captain has refused reentry. He for sure didn`t make that for fun or because he was in a bad mood. I usually prefer private tours over cruise line tours but there are regions in the world where i would always choose a cruise line excursion. And one of these regions is Africa. Apart from South africa and Egypt no other african country has significant experiences with cruise ships. In Africa it is absolutely normal to be late.most people there do have the attitude "we are there when we are there" or "everything will become good". They don`t understand that a cruise ship will NOT wait when they return too late.

I never experienced it that the NCL transfer buses are waiting. You give them your transfer voucher,get on the bus and at the planned time the bus is leaving. NCL wants to have the passengers as early from the ship and at the airport as possible.