AlaskaGoer

NCL stated they will be posting the excursions on May 8th. Is there a set time or do they roll the dice on when they post it?

Docking in Santorini in June. Oia seems like a decent place to check out, but I know it can be a bit rough to get too.

This guide seems to suggest taking the bus etc. from Fira over.

https://zeweekendtraveller.com/index.php/europe/greece/seeing-santorini-in-a-few-hours/

Knowing the mass chaos of people trying to get off the ship etc, is it better just to grab a taxi? And if so, how easy is it to grab one and where...

1 hour ago, Girr said:

As already mentioned, go to the port call thread for Italy and you'll find these issued discussed in detail.  Also, don't forget to check your roll call.  I'd avoid NCL recommended hotels as they're always way outside "centro". 

 

If there's just two of you to get into Rome from FCO just grab a taxi with a set fare of 50 euros. It's really easy as you just walk out the door and the taxi stand is "right there".   With a car service you need to find your driver, and then walk down to the other end of all the terminals to get the car in the parking garage.  This will also run you more than a taxi.  There's also an express train, but by the time you pay for two fares plus than a taxi from Termini to your hotel the savings aren't significant.

 

The port forum for Italy has a separate thread for just Rome hotels.  I personally always start with one of the major hotels booking sites (Booking, Expedia, Hotels, etc.) and start a search using Rome Historical District. You'll find better rates near Termini or the Vatican, but I can't recommend either district.  Vatican is just too far out and Termini just a little too seedy - however, I've stayed in both districts.  Now, if a person was only in Rome for a day and the Vatican was the primary location of tour it does make sense near the Vatican.  I don't want to panic you, but you need to get your hotel rooms booked now - it books up fast and you're behind the curve.  Also, booking directly with the hotel vice the booking sites may save you a little money. 

 

To get to the port the train is cheapest (not easiest) and the most expensive is private car service (easiest).  The train is not for everyone.  Years ago, I never thought of any other option than the train.  At 4.80 euros it was a no brainer even with the hassle of pickpockets, no assigned seating, lack of luggage storage, no elevators, the long walk involved, etc.  Now if I'm travelling with someone (check out your roll call) I prebook a private car service, or if travelling alone I take one of the shared shuttle services like www.sharedshuttle.it for abut 40 euros which picks me up at my hotel and takes me directly to the ship.  

 

 

Appreciate the lengthy post.

I did end up posting in the port of call, and got recommendations on hotels. I booked last night and I'm squared away. I also booked a car service from FCO to the Hotel as well, so I appreciate the insight. I looked into the train, but as I am traveling with my better half, I'd rather not worry about taking it and just book a car service, as I did also. Peace of mind sometimes is worth its weight in gold.

I imagine this won't be our first time through Rome, not sure about cruising through again, but we definitely want to go back for a more lengthy stay to explore.

17 minutes ago, marazul said:

Santorini: Akrotiri, Pyrgos, beaches, Fira

 

Athens: Acropolis, Plaka, National Archaeological Museum, Acropolis museum. Forget about Sounion, it's too far.

 

Katakolon: Olympia - a must.

Thanks for the help, again!

For the Acropolis, I probably don't need to do the combined tickets right?

https://hhticket.gr/tap_b2c_new/english/tap.exe?PM=P1P&place=000000002 I assume the general admission will burn up plenty of time.

Are taxis a plenty in getting around from the pier to Acropolis and back?

I'll be booking the excursion for Olympia once they go live.

I assume the combo ticket is probably a bit of overkill for cruise stoppers of only one day unless we start really early and continue to late afternoon?

Wife and I like to take our time and enjoy things. lol

First, I can't thank this board enough for information. I love to travel, but cruises sometimes can give me a bit of anxiety as there is a lot of information to digest.

Santorini

From what I understand reading other threads, the coming back to the ship can be tricky. The Village of Oia seems nice, and someone posted a link to https://zeweekendtraveller.com/index.php/europe/greece/seeing-santorini-in-a-few-hours/ that shows the quickest method to get there via the cable car / bus.

Is there anything else that is worthwhile as opposed to Oia? We dock around 1:00pm and leave at 9:00pm. I understand its not a huge amount of time, and according to Cruise Mapper, there is one other ship leaving with about 2500 passengers also at 9:00pm. (Gulp)

My wife and I are in good shape, so taking the 20 minute trek down instead of the cable car is doable if we start stressing on the lines.

Athens

We have about 12 hrs here, and would like to make use out of the time we are there. Acropolis is probably on the short list of things to do. I originally tried to the Temple of Poseidon excursion through the cruise line, but it got booked so fast I didn't realize it was that popular.

Any thoughts? How easy is to get around Athens if we even wanted to do both the Temple and Acropolis?  (I know the Temple is about a 45 minute drive away) Browsing other threads some felt if you were gonna be only in Athens for a day, better to stick with Acropolis as you'll spend quite a bit of time driving to reach the temple.

Katakolon

This stop was originally Corfu, which in a twist of life, was a place I did have an excursion booked. We only got told this three days ago, and the excurcions haven't been posted yet. With that in mind, is there anything that is a must? I did very little research into this one ahead of time as I wasn't counting on this stop.

4 minutes ago, Girr said:

As already responded give the transfer company your flight number, and with their experience they’ll know when to be there. Most companies will request you to download WhatsApp (if you don’t already have), and communicate with you via this method on days of transport. I normally contact them upon landing and we keep track of each other until pick up. This is also helpful for pickup to/from cruise port or daily excursions. 

I'll grab the app. Thank you.

On 5/1/2024 at 4:28 PM, marazul said:

For a car service look at https://www.romecabs.com/ or https://sharedshuttle.it/.  Book directly with them.  They are both reliable, well-reviewed companies.  Book ahead of time.  Uber would not be as well used or less expensive.

For hotels look at the thread at the top of this forum for many suggestions.

 

How much time should I give myself when booking the Shared Shuttle after getting off the plane? An hour between luggage etc.? Any recommendations?>

1 minute ago, euro cruiser said:

Here is the list of taxi companies in Rome, with contact info:  In taxi / Muoversi in città / Trasporti - 060608.it

Thanks.

1 minute ago, marazul said:

Yes, there are many taxi stands in Rome and thousands of taxis.  Your hotel will point you to the closest line or call you one. Google maps will also show taxi stands. You can also flag them on the street. Most rides will cost you between 10 and 15 euros.

Thank you.

For a ride from the airport to the hotel, I booked through the service you recommended. I'll sort out the ride from the hotel to the pier once I sort out what or if we're gonna do something on Saturday morning.

On 5/1/2024 at 4:41 PM, euro cruiser said:

Here are three hotels that are centrally located (as in you can walk to most sites), I don't know what the rates are in the height of the season though.

 

Damaso Hotel Rome™ - OFFICIAL SITE - BEST RATES GUARANTEED (hoteldamaso.it)

 

Hotel in the Heart of Rome - Hotel Barrett

 

Hotel Nazionale Roma | 4 Star Hotel in The Centre of Rome

Two out of the three were sold out for the dates I was looking for.

However, I sent pictures of the third to the wife and she liked it. I booked it, thank you much!

On 5/1/2024 at 4:28 PM, euro cruiser said:

Depending on the hotel, they may have a preferred service they use.  I don't know how the prices compare to booking yourself, there are several that folks here recommend and you could easily check.

 

Uber in Italy is not the model you are accustomed to (amateur driver with a personal car),  Each city negotiates its own deal with Uber, in Rome it is simply a connection to a professional car service.  It will cost more than just booking yourself.

Are Taxis easily accessible and fairly frequent? Other than walking where we can, I figured we might have to get a ride here and there.

22 hours ago, pld said:

Have you tried an Airbnb?  We booked one for Athens prior to our cruise from Piraeus and the host is assisting with booking transportation from airport and to cruiseport. 

I have not. AirBnbs are good for places I've been before (for me personally), but as we're they're only for 2 nights, I am trying to find something that is set in stone and doesn't have the possibility of having problems.  Appreciate the advice tho.

4 minutes ago, euro cruiser said:

Has anyone, ever, talked to a cruise line rep who actually knew what they were talking about?  What awful advice!

 

Taxis are available but for a ride like this, which is well out of town (about 45 miles), you'd do better with a car service or a shared shuttle.  There are plenty of both of them, we used a shared shuttle in November that charged 80 euro per couple and picked up at the hotel.

 

As for hotels, Rome is covered with them.  When are you trying to go, and what is your price range (in euros)?  The cruise lines tend to use hotels that are outside of the center to save money, with only two days you really want to be right in town so you're not wasting time going back and forth.

 

Can I book the car service through the hotel that I choose or better to do it way ahead of time? I heard Uber is available?

Looking to maybe 250 to 350 euro max a night. I found 'Crown Tours' that is about 3 hrs long of a tour. https://www.crowntours.com/colosseum-palatine-hill-and-roman-forum-tour?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjw0MexBhD3ARIsAEI3WHJ2BXKdO3l1Neb0yWB_yM3TthTBLDupbhyz6dOHr1PId3Hxs8vxmccaAkJfEALw_wcB

6 minutes ago, debenson0723 said:

Go to the Ports of Call forum on this board and review all the information available for Italy. You will find many hotel recommendations and modes of transport to the port from Rome. There are also many YouTube videos for transportation and tour options for Rome.

Enjoy your cruise.

Good idea, thank you.

I booked this cruise years ago. Unfortunately I've hit a snag and I'm trying to get my head sorted out before I have anxiety attack.

We booked everything through NCL except for the hotel stay (as we are coming in two days early). When I started calling back in January / February, they said they didn't have any spots available and to continue to call every week, of which I have. Well, now I'm kind of at ground zero and need to get hotels booked and sort out transportation.

The NCL rep provided two hotels they use in Rome. (One is booked up, the other still has room). However, she recommended NOT staying in Rome but closer to the port because of traffic... which, kind of defeats the point of going two days early to explore Rome.

Any help with this? How hard is it to arrange transportation from Rome to the pier? I've never been to Rome, so this is literally, all foreign to me. Are Taxis a plenty in Rome to get to and from the airport / around the city to the pier?

On 3/24/2024 at 6:14 PM, Audra74 said:

As of today there is one Athens tour listed but not in English.  There are also no Santorini tours in English.

 

Yeah,its a bit odd. We have some of the other ports booked with stuff to do, but the earlier ones will be a bit of a free for all for us.

7 hours ago, nordicacres said:

In my case booked on an NCL AK cruise, they remove the listing once it’s sold out. Ketchikan now only has about four excursions listed whereas there used to be many, many more. I also had an excursion in my favorites that said something like, “No longer available.”

 

But I can’t speculate on your cruise. It’s odd that they all suddenly disappeared.

I'm going to call our cruise consultant this week. Other stops have plenty of excursions, but that one port has 0?

Its like they're not sure if its going to be a port we visit and don't wan to provide any excursions just in case. Very odd.

I logged into NCL a week or so ago to plan out the excursions. Each port had a a good amount listed.

When I checked today, one of the ports (Athens) has 0 listed. In the past,any excursion sold out was still listed but not removed. Is this the new normal?

Thanks.

1 minute ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

Late arrival definitely causes a backup, especially when so many at that port do self disembark.  We sail a lot from Cape Liberty and usually wait for the first wave of self disembark to get off and then leave around 7:30.  With the ship coming in late, that wouldn't work at all.

 

With the OP coming in on a smaller ship on a TA, it won't be the local self disembark crowd, hopefully.

We were sitting in the WindJammer having B Fast watching the disembarking procedure. 

What the dock workers did to the luggage made me happy we did self assist to be honest. 

4 minutes ago, reallyitsmema said:

 

Self assist for Oasis usually starts around 6:45am.  Was the ship delayed or did you just choose to get off later?  There were escalator problems on our May Oasis cruise too.  At boarding, no one had reversed the escalators, so they were running down instead of going up.  When we disembarked, one was off and the other stopped with people on it as we were about to get on it.  They had those people walk down and then blocked it off so no one could use it.  We walked down the stairs as my DH was able to carry both roll aboards down the stairs but many people had to get in the long elevator line.  No issues in the terminal though and we walked right up to customs and facial recognition and right out the door.

We opted to hang out until as late as possible (we actually were kicked out of our room at 830 lol).  The ship docked later than it was supposed to, but people who had luggage pick up times (ie, in the terminal ) between 800 and 830 weren't getting them until almost an hour later.

Royal isn't necessarily at fault here, but as there are a lot of moving parts and I for one wouldn't want to be running for the terminal, I'd give myself as much time as possible. 

As someone who just got off the Oasis yesterday... 

Give yourself as much time as possible. 

We did self assist and got in line at 835a.

We didn't walk out of the Customs terminal until 9:55. The lines were crazy to get off, and one of the escalators broke creating a nightmare.

The ones who had their luggage taken and put in the terminal at pre determined times still had to wait in line like the rest of us. Overall it was a mess, so just make sure you give yourself plenty of time to get off and get to the airport. 

13 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

If you plan to book more than one restaurant you should be able to do it all at whatever restaurant you go to first.  They are all linked to the same system usually.  I say usually because I have read here a couple of times that Hibachi was different.  That wasn't my experience but I have read it here so I thought I would mention it as a possibility. 

Good to know. I'm all about 1 stop shopping.

12 minutes ago, taglovestocruise said:

Exactly, going to customer service would bet a total waste of time. By the time they got out of the customer service line many specialty slots would be long gone. 

Thanks. I'll look and see where the restaurants are on the ship and B line it to them.