KeithJenner

Yes it does. When you book a restaurant (before the cruise) you are charged at the time of booking, unless you have a dining credit which covers it. The amount you are charged is the cover charge for fixed price places or $0 for a la carte places. So, when pre booking do the cover charge places first as you won’t be charged anything because of your dining plan. Then book any others. This is only relevant if you are booking more restaurants than you have dining credits for. This may be because you are buying an additional dining plan (the system only recognises your original plan at this point) or that you have included meals from elsewhere (latitudes platinum for example). The link in my signature, whilst out of date) covers this and this part is still relevant.

The Oia excursion takes you by tender to Thira port where you move to a coach which takes you to Oia. You have about 90 minutes there before going back to Thira town where you are left with a cable car ticket. You can obviously spend time in Thira before heading back to the ship. We did the excursion last time and have it booked again because the morning is much better than queueing up for tenders and the cable car. The excursion is not bad value if you have free at sea (even better with free at sea plus). Some people on our excursion opted to stay in Oia and make their own way back to Thira.

As dining reservations have been available for a while you may find that the most popular times are already taken. Don’t worry about that, as only a proportion (we don’t know the exact proportion as people get told varying guesses by NCL staff) are released for booking prior to the cruise. If you can’t get what you want now then do the bookings as a priority when you board. An option is to book times that will do now and change them to better times once onboard. This will mean that you have those as a back up in case you are late boarding.

Yes, it changed to any restaurant late last year.

It depends on where you are disembarking. I have only ever queued to disembark in the US. I’m Europe, for example, there is usually no immigration so queues. You just walk off when you want and straight out. The main reason we do self disembarkation is so we don’t have to put bags out the night before.

Good point. I hadn’t noticed that it was comedy shows. I think you are correct that these aren’t available to prebook.

I don’t book shows, but I’m sure they open up a lot nearer the cruise date these days. I think it may be 21 days out (same time as check in).

Dining reservations opened at 120 days, which is why you missed them. We have never had a problem getting reservations that we want on embarkation day. We board relatively early though. Ive never had any problem with using the app and booking things on it. There is always the possibility of issues on occasion though. Finally, we always do walk off disembarkation and it has always been very smooth except for in US ports where there are often long delays because of immigration. I always leave longer for the process there, as it can take a while to even get off the ship.

It isn’t unusual for European customers to have US based PCCs. The last few that I have had have been based there. We still book using UK rates though. From what I can tell the system defaults you to a market based on your location, but if you have ever booked using another country then that may change your default booking location, as in your case. If you were to ask to book a European rate then that would possibly change the default for the future.

I think it only states the numbers on the dining confirmation. Maybe if you go online and print booked items it may show it, but if you have the confirmation then you are covered anyway. You will be the only person named. The system doesn’t know who the other people are. You could turn up with anyone,

Possibly cancelled, possibly just a website error. Certainly not fully booked.

Assuming there are no problems you should be off the ship at around the arrival time. There is a good chance that you will actually arrive a little before that time so they should be ready at around the time stated.

I would stay somewhere around Ermou, which is quite central. It is an easy walk to most places from there. We stayed at the Electra Hotel last time which was nice, but there are quite a few decent hotels in the area. Rooftop bars and restaurants are popular and many hotels have them. Breakfast was nice with a view over the city. Peraonally I would always want to find and book my own place rather than leave it to the cruise line, but I suppose there may be some benefits to letting them do it.

Yes, it looks like that is exactly what it is.

Yes, as discussed earlier in this thread, NCL have been charging the VAT on free at sea drinks in various European ports, and on the whole cruise where you don’t leave the EU, although it isn’t clear whether the embarkation port matters there. Where did you embark? If it was Barcelona then I would expect your experience. If it was Rome then it would suggest a new development.

We sailed often in April when our son was at school, during Easter holidays. Lots of kids onboard at those times.

This. What works for some people would be unacceptable for others. For example, many people will take the National Express bus from Heathrow to Southampton which I wouldn’t even consider. I would take the tube into London and then train to Southampton, which others wouldn’t want to do as it involves dragging bags about. Budget also comes into it. A taxi is a lot more expensive than the bus/train. Another consideration is whether you want to see anything on the way. It is quite popular to visit places like Stonehenge on the way when using a transfer. There is no “best”

You can’t share your dining package, so the answer to your first question is no. You can sit with people using different methods to pay though. Each person just lets the staff know how they will be paying.

I have disembarked in Southampton a number of times and self assist has always started very soon after the published arrival time. Always within an hour of that time. However, I have heard of more occasions lately where immigration have become involved for whatever reason, so maybe there is more chance of delays now.

Yeah, I meant to mention roadworks in my last post as another possible problem. That obviously slows you even at the weekend.

It really depends on the day. Early morning on a weekend it can be done in around 75 minutes (it's 60 miles, almost all motorway), but during the week it can easily be double that.

It is possible to get off very quickly in Southampton. Last time we were there we docked at about 5am and we were able to get off at 6am. We have always had very similar experiences there. However, it does seem to be rather less reliable these days and I have heard a few stories of slower disembarkation, so you can’t rely on it.

I’m fairly sure there aren’t flights from Southampton to Barcelona so the OP is most likely talking about Heathrow or Gatwick. It things go very well and it is a weekend then they could probably get to Heathrow by about 8am. On a weekday you would need to add about an hour. It’s possible to make a 9.15 flight, but I wouldn’t want to be trying this.

It’s absolutely fine to post it here. There have been quite a few similar posts in the past, mainly for US and UK offers.

I agree with the general consensus that I would go for the Viva out of those two (we are actually booked on the reverse itinerary next year). It has Lisbon and you still get to spend a day in Barcelona. You do miss Naples though. I also agree with the point made earlier that Eastern Med cruises have generally nicer ports that Western so I would also consider cruises from Athens or Greek Island from Rome (There is also Trieste, but the uncertainty and itinerary changes around Venice perhaps makes that less than ideal for a first visit. Western Med has more of the big destination ports (Rome, Naples, Florence, Barcelona) than Eastern, but the other ports are consistently nicer (in my opinion) in Eastern. Greek Island cruises from Rome include bits of both, so are certainly worth looking at. The itineraries you are looking at are both very nice though, so you won’t be disappointed whatever you go for.