roddy good boy

I also sailed out of Venice on NCL’s Jade. I think it was in 2015. That was such a cool experience! They literarily had me walk my own suitcase onto the ship, go through security, and then just leave it in the entrance to be brought later to my stateroom. There was no line…at all. The most memorable part was that we sailed right past my Venice hotel. Yeah, and I remember that the food was fabulous! You got 4 specialty meals included with a balcony stateroom. And, it was the old Cagney menu. Such is life! 🤷🏻‍♀️

I got the invite about a month ago, for a Sept cruise. Those Haven bids are still really high. Do they ever lower the minimum required bids? For example, if no one actually bids on those higher categories?

That was ridiculous! I’ve mentioned before that I had a similar experience, where our butler told us he “may be” too busy with his larger suites to bring us breakfast and suggested we go to the dining room. We ignored him and continued to fill out the breakfast menu and place it on the door knob. He brought the breakfast. Otherwise, he was a pretty hilarious and competent guy, so we stayed with him. But then, I’m easily amused.

I happen to love New York! Love the people, food, and most of all the entertainment. We try to go at least once a year and stay at a hotel on Broadway, to eat at our favorite restaurants and see a few plays. And, (horror of horrors) we even take the subway to the various Burroughs! In my work life, I would have to travel there on occasion for business, and would take the subway by myself and explore, when my meetings or conferences ended. I was a woman alone. My husband and I have sailed on the Breakaway from NY to Bermuda, two times! Loved it so much, we did it twice! 😃

You know, I’m thinking that they are still working on the itineraries for many of our cruises. That could explain all these discrepancies. It’s frustrating, I know! I just looked at the Kusadasi port schedule and our ship is now the only one listed in port that day. Previously, we were competing with 2-3 other ships. So, I’m wondering whether our time will be adjusted from 1pm - 10pm to an earlier arrival. Perhaps they’re still working out the excursions.

Same here. I just booked through a TA and earned the triple points. The charge showed up on my credit card as NCL. I had heard that NCL would not discuss your booking if you had a TA, but that wasn’t the case. I just called NCL to confirm that my TA was paying our gratuities. I’m assuming that you could call NCL to confirm that final payment was made if the charges show as VTG.

I hope to leave my kids just a bit. My parents enjoyed their retirement, but left enough to pay for my daughter’s last year of undergrad (huge burden lifted) and for us to give my son a down payment on his condo. My in-laws ( who lived to be 90 plus) wouldn’t spend a dime, wouldn’t even improve their home enough to install a much needed walk in tub. So now we’re using their money to upgrade our tub to a walk in. 🤦🏻‍♀️I think it’s all about balance.

They have changed our dates and times around once. I’m hoping that the failure to post excursions for Ephesus doesn’t mean that they may cancel the port. When I looked at the port website, the date and time matches that currently listed on NCL’s itinerary.

I hope your Mom is traveling with you! That would be so nice to have a native speaker with you on the trip!

You’ll get triple points. The charge identifies NCL as the vendor.

Oh my! I’m so glad I read this. My husband needs to pack his tramadol and Sudafed. I never knew it was an issue. We have recently gone to Barcelona and a few Caribbean islands without incident. Yes, please let us know what you experience.

No. For us it’s Kusadasi! We have a several listed for Santorini. I booked one that takes you to Oia and is only 3 1/2 hours long. Actually, I’m considering whether to cancel and just stay on the ship. While the tour bypasses the cable car congestion on the front end, you have to take it back down to the port and then take the tender back to the ship, at the tour’s completion. That or walk down that treacherous, nasty donkey trail! Reports say the line for the cable car can be several hours. Although I’d love to experience Santorini, it’s our last cruise day and I don’t want to end things on an exhausting, frustrating note. Or, listen to my husband complain for hours on end.😬😆 There will be 4 other large cruise ships in port that day. We arrive a few days earlier in Kusadasi at 1:00 pm. I guess they are finding it difficult booking tour operators to do excursions that would go into the late afternoon. Not sure.

🤦🏻‍♀️

Really? Only 1 side? I kinda like to get a veggie AND a starch.

By the way, we booked transport with www.welcometransport.com It was recommended by our hotel. And, I just double checked. The fare is actually 55 euros.

Yes, we were warned about the taxis, so we pre-booked transportation from the airport to our hotel. I think we got a decent rate. It was around $53 Euros. I’ve been to the Parthenon, but my husband hasn’t, so I’m excited to experience it with him. I was on a NCL tour when I last toured the site, and can’t recall if we saw all of the acropolis, or just the one structure. I heard it’s a good idea to go to the museum first, so you can appreciate the actual structures all the more. We’ll have time to see the entire acropolis when we return from the cruise. Thanks for all your tips. I may even pre-book transport from the hotel to the port. I just need to finalize our plans.

Thanks for the suggestion! Our ship sails at 5 pm, so we may try to tour the Acropolis Museum in the morning, if all goes well. We are booked at a hotel a few feet from the museum. My husband is leaning toward going directly to the ship after breakfast, but I think it would be a good thing to walk around a bit. We are in the Haven, so we can board anytime after it opens up.

I’m in a similar position. We are flying in from the U.S., will transfer at Heathrow, but will land in Athens at 8 pm the night before our cruise. There’s not a lot of cushion for error, or mishap. My husband wanted to work a full day prior to departure, since we are going to be traveling for 2 full weeks. I’ve been to Athens, so we are just going to tour a day at the end of the cruise. i think we’ll both be fine. I’ve travelled numerous times through Heathrow Airport. I’ve only had one mishap flying from that airport (back to the States). On that occasion, the fog was so thick the airport cancelled all flights that afternoon and evening. 😬 We were able to fly out first thing the next morning. If there are slight delays, we’ll be fine. It is, what it is! 🙂

We only book the Haven, so my choice is basic. I just use the card to pay for our cruise, any excursions, spa, etc., and get immediate cash back. I consider it a discount on our cruise. I just cashed in $400. Not bad, since it was money we would have spent anyway. My dilemma is usually whether I want to use the cruise fare monies to build up points on my airline card. That is a major savings when I can book 2 business tickets for international flights by just paying the taxes.

They have excursions listed for all but one of our ports, for Greece/Turkey cruise this Fall. We are now 81 days out.

That just makes me sad. The snacks, grab bags, etc. added to the festive atmosphere! I guess we can bring our own individual drinks, and see whether attendees can (or want to) bring snacks?

Disney’s food is really good, both on the cruise line and in the park’s specialty restaurants. But, I agree with you on NCLs old menus and offerings. Would I pay more? I guess, but it depends on how much we’re talking about. 😂

Can you imagine? That’ll be 2 cases of canned or bottled water you’ll have to store in your stateroom! 🤦🏻‍♀️

If you look at the website, it now also says 48 1/2 liter containers. So I guess the 24 liters that were purchased will become the 48.

Yeah. I also either leave them in the room or drop them at the front desk as I walk out. I usually like to keep at least one with us until the very last minute, just in case…. But, I recall being told to just toss them.