KeithJenner

Some friends went to Saint Paul on an NCL excursion and seemed to enjoy it. I would suggest going there or Eze rather than hanging around Villefranche based on reports from others, but we still really enjoyed it. We have work on Tuesday so are going straight to the airport. We have done Rome a few times and as we try to get away a few times a year we are always tight on holiday leave.

Villefranche was very nice. There was some sort of event going on from the Nice automobile club, which was quite fun. I’m not into cars, but it was still nice to see them. We then had a walk around town for a few hours. We were going to stop and eat somewhere, but everywhere was quite busy so we ended up just finding a bench to sit at for a while, The weather was very good today so we spent a few hours up at Vibe this afternoon. We probably won’t get there tomorrow as we are in Florence for most of the day, so that is probably Vibr done for us for the cruise now. Dinner was at Hakuzi. We were at a table for 4. We always enjoy Teppanyaki and this was as good as usual. Very enjoyable. As we have an early start tomorrow we are having a quiet night. I’ve been reading on the balcony for a while. A lovely evening. Edit: here’s some pictures from Villefranche: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6i4bukIjK-/?igsh=azl2NHUyYmI2cWl0

According to the freestyle daily it is open 6am-11pm daily.

So, a bit of catching up to do. We went back to Indulge on Barcelona day for dinner. As we have 6 meals in speciality restaurants this leave 4 for the complementary places and I think we will go to Indulge for all of them. We really like it there. The first couple of times I had a curry, but this time we just ordered a few dishes to share. Very nice. Plenty of room in Indulge once again. I’ve not seen it more than half full all cruise. Yesterday was Food Republic, which was our second visit there and again it was excellent. More dishes to share and the food was excellent. I have heard that they used to let you share a dining credit to get four items to share at Food Republic, but we haven’t asked if we could do this. Six items between us is about right. We didn’t do much in Marseilles yesterday. Pre cruise we close Ibiza and Marseilles as our relaxing days. We did actually get off the ship to stretch our legs, and walked for a mile before turning back and were still in the port. There was a shuttle bus to the city centre, which I think was complementary, Other than that we spent a lot of the day in the local and my wife is feeling the after effects this morning. We are a little later than planned getting the tender this morning. We were considering getting the train into Nice but it actually looks like there is quite a bit in Villefranche, so we may just stay there. We have a long day in Florence tomorrow so aren’t looking to do too much today.

It totally depends on what you are doing. If you are wandering around town 5 minutes from the shop then 15 minutes before all aboard is plenty. If we are in Rome and have to get a train to Civitaveccia then I always work out the last train that will work and aim to catch one at least an hour before that.

A brief history of the latitudes meals: Before 2017 each platinum guest got a voucher for a meal for two (in Cagneys or Le Bistro from memory). This meant that a couple got two meals for two. Solos were usually allowed to split theirs to two meals for one. Then in 2017 they changed it to two meals for two regardless of the number of people. This meant that a solo now got two meals for two but they were no longer allowed to split them (as this would have meant four meals). The losers were groups where there were more than 2 platinums as they still only got the 2 meals. There must have been some complaints as soon afterwards the T&Cs were changed to the wording quoted earlier in this thread to allow more meals for these groups. The main change to the meals recently has been to allow them to be used everywhere.

We haven’t heard anything directly about the people that were left behind, but have seen the news report. Im confused about how their bus was delayed due to the weather. Apparently there was quite a downpour, but everyone else’s buses all left on time. Not sure what was going on there.

Sorry, you’re correct. I misread that yesterday and thought it was saying that you only got two vouchers if there were more than two platinums.

I’ve heard some ridiculous things that NCL reps have told people but that may be the worst. Just keep that as a story you can share with others about how rubbish they are and go ahead and book yourself a hotel in Rome.

Here’s an example from todays daily.

Just turn off automatic update and set the time manually. People seem to just be buying watches to do what your phone will do with a quick setting change. If you all want to make life hard for yourself then go ahead but this all sounds like a lot of hard work to me. Subject to issues like mentioned above if an app won’t deal with this of course.

I can’t check these things as the website isn’t working properly on my phone, but that looks like the original wording before they changed things when people started complaining after the latitudes update in around 2017z

A little update. We were talking to someone today who was in Granada and did experience the rain. However they couldn’t see any reason why it would have delayed anything. Their bus left during the storm and there was no problem.

Barcelona today. We have sailed out of Barcelona 7 times before and this is the second time we’ve been here as a port of call, so we know the city fairly well. We walked into the city and spent some time walking around the area near the cathedral for a while. Spend a few hours just wandering round some areas that we’ve not been to much before. Also got some more very nice Iberico ham. No photos today as we already have plenty from Barcelona. For people who are new to Barcelona you can’t really go wrong whatever you choose. We have never done any tours or anything here as it’s a very easy place to get around. All the obvious things (Sagrada Familia, other Gaudi buildings etc) are well worth seeing, but it’s also a great city to just wander around.

I do like wine but I am also not a connoisseur. There are a couple of wines that I tend to go for at the bars. However the restaurants have a larger selection and I quite like to let the wine waiter recommend one to go with my meal. In Le Bistro I specifically said that I would appreciate a recommendation when it came to the entree, but in the end I just took another glass of Veuve. Not a great hardship but a bit of a disappointment. Yesterday in Cagneys it was just topping up our glasses, but we did spend about 10 minutes with empty glasses when eating our entrees. It is the one area where the cutbacks have affected us. They are trying to deal with too many people. I don’t particularly blame the waiters themselves (except maybe the Le Bistro one), but it’s still disappointing as the customer.

We were late leaving Lisbon because the port were so slow in checking passports before letting people into the terminal building and then getting the luggage onboard. I didn’t notice us being particularly late to leave either Gibraltar or Cádiz. Of course, if they have been on 30 cruises then they shouldn’t have needed those two ports to know that ships don’t always leave on time. The strangest bit of the story for me is their bus getting caught up for an hour due to the weather. If it was any sort of excursion bus then why were they the only ones to miss the ship. In addition I have talked to a few people who went into Granada and nobody has mentioned anything about any weather problems. Not saying they are lying, but it doesnt quite tie in with what I have seen or heard. It could also be inaccurate reporting by the journalist.

We went to Cagneys last night. Recently we have found it a bit hit and miss there but yesterday it was very good. Probably our best Cagneys meal for a few years. However, once again the wine waiter went awol after he introduced himself at the start of the meal. Once again we were reliant on our server to refresh our wine but they had been empty for a while. That’s Le Bistro, Onda and Cagneys where the wine waiters have been absolutely useless.

You actually do get more if there are more than two platinums in a cabin.

If they come back to the ship one hour before sail away they will absolutely be allowed on the ship, as will those for the next 30 minutes (and probably later). If it is a tender port then there could be an issue, but I don’t think that was the scenario discussed.

True, but then you have to change a manual watch all those times too, and if you have an linked watch then this fixes both devices. I look at my phone as often as my watch to see the time.

Yes they added a table during the dry dock in early 2020.

Sorry, I meant to say we couldn’t prebook on some smaller ships, not newer. These were Spirit (when it only had one table) and either Star or Dawn that have two I believe.

Here’s a picture of a sign at the gangway showing all aboard times. We leave at 7pm.

Back onboard now, after a nice day in Palma. As mentioned previously we got the hop on hop off bus, which was free after the latitudes and free at sea discounts. We basically used it as a transfer into town and back, but did the full loop so we could see everything from the bus. The centre itself is quite compact so was easy to walk around without needing to use the bus. Palma itself is quite nice, especially the area around the Cathedral. Not a favourite, but pleasant enough. We spent a few hours exploring before heading back. One thing to be aware of, if you take the Hop on Hop off, the bus collects people who have booked through the ship from the pier and then goes direct to the cathedral. After that the port stop is outside the port gates. We were expecting most people to get off when we returned but not many did. Some were probably heading back into town, but I wonder whether some may have been expecting if to go all the way to the ship. Here’s some pictures from Palma: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6bOo1OIpM6/?igsh=MjdjZDVqNjhvNXg0

Yes you can. A while ago we were unable to prebook on a couple of the newer ships that have limited space, and I’m not sure if that’s still the case, but we’ve not had any problem recently.