kby1216

On 8/19/2023 at 5:11 PM, MagnoliaBlossom said:

I feel your pain.  I have a ginormous armoire that is filled with yarn.   BTW, I was raised in NOLA and until six years ago, spent my life in Alex.  I see you’re a Louisiana girl, too

Born and raised in Lake Charles, then lived in Texas for 20 years and  now I am back home.

3 hours ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

I remember a fantastic yarn shop.  All the wool was grown and processed on the island.  It was beautiful yarn, but maybe only a fabric arts person could fully appreciate that. 😋.  We were to have seen the puffins but the island where they nest was closed to an outbreak of bird flu, but the island was beautiful.  Soooo many sheep, it was crazy!

I saw that shop but I knew I would have blown my whole budget there so did not go in. LOL. I crochet and have more yarn than I could possible ever use.

We just did this itinerary in July and Kirkwall was one of my favorite stops. I can understand that they need to limit ships because it is a very small town. I really like the smaller stops with shops that are owned by locals so you can get a feel for the location and sample the local foods. 

We use an NCL PCC. Ours is knowledgeable and usually responds to our calls the same day. For us it is peace of mind that we have one contact that can answer any questions or get us to the right department if he can not help. No long waits on hold and a response within 24 hours most times if we have to leave a voice mail.

Another vote for Delos and I really enjoyed Olympia but I can't remember what Island it was on. Also enjoyed the castle in Rhodes. 

We are leaving in 30 days from IAH and we got a non stop to Heathrow leaving around 8 PM and getting in to London around 10 AM (can't remember the exact times) through NCL. This will be our third time using their BOGO deal and we are always happy with our flights. My suggestion is when you get your flight information use the reservation number on the airline website and choose your seats.

You will find alot of opinions on this board. We have used it three times with no problems. If you go with them, you can not choose your flights but once it is booked you can go to the airline website and choose your seats. Just be aware that will be the only thing you have control of. We are ok with that but some people are not. I don't have the time or motivation to shop for the lowest fares so it works for us.

We had to call the Air department directly to get ours. We are at around 50 days out and they have our reservations just have not emailed them out or posted to our account yet. 

8 hours ago, tomk3212 said:

I've had good, bad & very good experiences with our plethora (6 at last count...) of PCCs we've had in 20 years of cruising with NCL.  My 'bottom line' is simply this; if they're helpful, use them.  Otherwise ignore them & just book online using the website.  We've booked both methods & haven't really noticed any great difference in the end.  Our present PCC (Jonas) is quite good so we use him.

We have Jonas too. He is the best!

In the last two years we have flown from Houston to Athens and Barcelona (I can not remember the airline, sorry) but I use a "normal" size backpack that could accomodate a small laptop and did not pack it tightly and it fit perfectly under the seat. I will be using it again this summer.

We have used NCL BOGO flights twice and have our third one booked for July. We have had no problems with any of our trips. The first one was to Greece and we flew in day of which was a little stressful just because we had never done it before but we got to the ship in plenty of time and had no problems. The second trip we flew in a day early just for our own peace of mind but not because of anything NCL had done. 

I do suggest that you go to the airline's website and try and pick your seats ahead of time. I usually just choose seats that are not an extra cost so that my husband and I can sit together. It is very easy, just use the confirmation number that is on your flight information. Once you land there is usually an NCL rep very visible by the baggage claim or right outside of it gathering the group for the ride to the port.

Have fun! I am sure you will have a great time.

Having almost everything paid for before you board so you can just unpack and enjoy the ride.😃

I think they move the ships during hurricane season.

My husband and I just did our tests at Walgreens drive thru from the same car. We did have to have two separate appointments. We are in Louisiana.

We are cruising next week in the Mediterranean and our PCC told us that all ships are cruising at below capacity and should not be at 100% until maybe the first quarter of 2023. Our ship will be at 40-50%.

Keep us updated. We fly out next Friday. Have fun!

We are on this cruise in 13 days! I am curious about the ship capacity also.

2 hours ago, bj81 said:

We are sailing out of Barcelona on July 31, and flying out of Houston as well.  By chance, have you received your flight information yet?  I know Barcelona is 7+ hours ahead of us and we are wondering how NCL is arranging the flights.  We did add two days at the beginning of our cruise, but are hesitant on schedule tours in Barcelona.

We added one day to the beginning and they have us flying Houston-Frankfurt-Barcelona and on the way back Barcelona-London-Houston. We are pretty happy with our flights. Flight over is overnight. It will be afternoon before we get into Barcelona.

We sail June 5 and I don't see Priscilla on the app.

56 minutes ago, Cobra1365 said:

If I may ask.  How early did you get to the port in Barcelona?  We’re on the 15 May sailing and we fly in a day ahead of time and I signed up for a 1030 AM embarkation time the next day.  But, someone in our group heard from somewhere that they won’t let you start boarding until 3:00 PM! (sounds very odd).

 

Also, I heard the Pompeii and Amalfi coast excursion might cancel due to closures at Pompeii.  Though we have no heard anything official from NCL and it’s still showing on our paperwork.  Did you hear anything?

 

Thanks!

I just looked at the Pompeii website and they say as of May 1, 2022 all sites are open to the public.

I am also interested in the answers. We will be sailing on Epic Jun 5.

We cruised to Alaska pre pandemic on another line and if I remember correctly in each port there were independent tour companies set up as soon as you step off the ship. We used one of them because the one we wanted was sold out on our ship. Also most of the stops were an easy walk into town with plenty of things to do and see.

Our PCC is great. We usually pick our cruises for the itinerary but have come back to NCL because of our PCC and the free at sea (I know it is not really free but the math works out for us).

12 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

Normally 8:00 am - 10:00 pm

Last night, it closes at 8:00 pm. 

 

BTW: The Epic has the absolute best Thermal Suite on any ship in the fleet 

Thank you for your response. I think we will go for it. 😄

1 hour ago, Rusty Shacklefjord said:

How much are they charging this year for the weekly pass the Epic BCN RT itinerary?

Today it is $139 and we are 53 days out.