sbnuggie

Howdy, Back from the cruise and just answering my own questions in case this comes up again. I can proudly confirm that we embarked onto the Pearl at approximately 1245pm, walked right to the bar and obtained two very strong alcoholic drinks at 1246pm.....

Okay, just replying to my own post after our cruise. Here are the Freestyle Dailies for Athens - Trieste 9 day Pearl Day 1 - Embarkation.pdf Day 2 - Santorini.pdf Day 3 - Mykonos.pdf Day 4 - Zakynthos.pdf Day 5 - Corfu.pdf Day 6 - Dubrovnik.pdf Day 7 - Kotor.pdf Day 8 - Split.pdf Day 9 - Ravenna.pdf Disembarkation - Trieste.pdf

Okay, so just reporting back on my question post cruise. I got all of the reservation #'s and took a member of each of our sailing friends with me to the specialty reservation desk on Deck 7 on embarkation day, OMG what a mistake!!! The lady was clearly flustered, ended up cancelling some, not getting tables for 6, all and all a complete disaster and we left frustrated, so than we decided to walk to each of the restaurants individually right after that. WHAT A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE!!! Each hostess was knowledgeable and able to accommodate us for our times and for a party of 6, was so EASY compared to the frustration of online booking 120 days out to the experience of the specialty reservation desk. My advice, go to each restaurants individually on embarkation day.

Day 9 - Ravenna.pdf The ferrari Museum through NCL I would rate as a B-. Nothing excellent but easy to do. The bus ride is about 1hr 43minutes. Comfortable coach. Once you arrive you are actually set up with a tour guide for the museum which I did not expect as it wasn't in the NCL description. The museum is actually kind of small given the history. It is a couple of miles from the factory but on our way back to the ship the bus driver drove past the large factory complex and the test track. The souvenir shop is very expensive. You will have time after the tour to shop, go across the street to a gift shop there, much more reasonable prices for the same shirts made in china (ferrari museum t-shirt 100 euros, gift shop across street 50 euros). The port itself is in a very industrial area. None of our travelling party (2 other couples) went into town so can't speak to that but it sounds like someone else gave some good feedback. We were staying in Venice 2 days post cruise so didn't go up there from this port either but heard from others on the cruise that it makes for a very long day if you do.

JUst off the Pearl last week, Yes, in Ravenna, NCL offers a round trip shuttle service for $20 per person round trip. We did not use it as we took NCL excursion to Ferrari Museum. The port is industrial area north of Downtown

Thanks for the tips, just for clarification: Is there just one Specialty Dining Desk where we can all do this at, if so where on the ship is it? or do we have to go to each restaurant? Thanks again

Good Evening, Sailing in just a couple of weeks with two other couples and we've been planning for sometime so really looking forward to this cruise. One question is at the 120 day mark when we were able to we all logged on and made specialty dining reservations (all three of us couples have FAS+, so had 4) online. We ran into an issue as during the reservation process we could only get reservations for groups of no more than 4. We tried getting them for 6 but only times available were when the restaurants were first open or closing (5:30 or 9:30). So my question is, on embarkation day, do we have to go to each individual restaurant (Moderno, Le Bistro, Cagney's) to see if we can modify existing reservations to accommodate the 6 of us? As an example, one evening: Le Bistro: Couple 1 has a reservation for 2 at 6:30pm. Couple 2 has a reservation for 4 at 6:30pm. Would it be best to show up on embarkation day to see if they can make Couple 1 reservations for 6 and have couple 2 cancel their reservations? Or just show up on night of and ask them to push tables together if possible? TIA

Thanks all who replied. I got copies of the PEARL dailies from our identical sailing in July 2024 and that advisement of no alcohol service is not on any of the greece ports of the dailies.

HOwdy, Friends we are cruising with (this will be there first cruise) stating that she read online somewhere that while the ship is in port at Piraeus it is not allowed to sell alcohol at the bars while in port thus you can't have a cocktail UNLESS you have the drink package. If you have the drink package, then you can get a drink because you are not "purchasing" alcohol, rather you are being served alcohol. Anyone hear about this? Initially I thought maybe they were referring to a gift shop on board not selling alcohol while in a port, but she said no they were very specific in that some guests had drinks as they had a drink package and others did not and they were upset about this. Anyone experience this or heard of this. Thanks

Thanks

Howdy, Was just curious at what time can you do your online check in at 21 days out? Is it like specialty dining where you can log in at midnight eastern time from whatever time zone? As an example, lets say our 21 days out is Wed August 7th, could I log on Tuesday August 6th at 901pm Pacific Time since it would be 1201am Wed August 7th in Miami?

Good to know, this is our first time on NCL so were new to their business model.

If you look on your cruise confirmation that is emailed to you at the last page they have the itinerary listed and it states what is tendered and what is docked. But as someone else mentioned ultimately up to the Head Harbor Honcho (may not be the official name). YMMV

Howdy, I called NCL today (our first cruise with NCL) after looking online and noted the price had dropped on our Cruise. We originally booked a balcony cabin, deck 10 midships. The price had dropped on those cabins so I talked to a rep. He confirmed the price drop and stated that since we have already made final payment we had two options: 1) Future Cruise Credit which had to be used within 1 year (not an option for us based on other plans) or 2) Move it to upgrade our cabin. Since we have our vacations booked for the following year the Cruise Credit was a no go. I inquired about just turning it into OBC but he said it was not allowed, which sounded wierd to me. Anyway, I opted to "upgrade" to a Club Balcony suite, got lucky got one midships but am a leary about being under the pool deck. I've always avoided rooms with public spaces above/below but I figured lets give it a shot. I don't think our particular cruise will be a party cruise considering its 9 day port every day greek cruise and not a 3 day booze cruise in the Caribbean/Bahamas. We are going with two other couples and when I spoke with our friend she stated that she had read somewhere that if you upgrade to a Club Balcony, not a fresh booking, you will not be afforded the little extra's that come with this room (i.e. wine on embarkation, treats a few times throughout the cruise, bag of laundry). I tried doing a search and I can't find that anywhere, don't really want to call NCL again, but has anyone heard of that? Upgrade into the cabin you don't get the amenities. Thanks for any insights

Thank you for posting this, we will be on the Pearl end of august doing the 9 day athens up to Trieste. Could you comment on the tender process? and Perhaps confirm just how insanely busy Santorini is. Thanks again

Our Pearl faceb00k group arranged a private tour for groups of about 15 with a company called nefis travel. Unfortunately they were out of space. Zak has proven to be challenging to plan for. Shipwreck beach is on the far northwest corner of island and we dock/tender on the southeast corner so getting there is challenging. We are still stumped as to what to do.

Awesome, thank you for posting this, we are visiting the same ports so we have some idea of things like last tender times, opening for dining rooms etc.... hopefully someone on the same direction will post theirs. Thanks again for paying it forward and posting these

No it does a series of one way's all through the summer and into fall. She does 2 9 day one way's than 10 day round trip.

Good Evening, Doing the Greek Isle cruise end of August, looking to see if anyone has the dailies yet for this cruise, I know it just started the cruises earlier this month but hoping someone has them for us. Thanks so much

Awesome info, thanks, was looking for this. We have free at sea plus, with balcony on 9 day cruise (pearl greek cruise), so we have 4 dinners for wife and I. Was curious as to what the "dinners" included, correct me if I'm wrong: for a la carte restaurants on the pearl (Sushi, La cucina, Le Bistro, Cagney): 1 appetizer, 1 soup/salad, 1 entree, 1 dessert For Cover Charge Restaurant (Brazillian, Teppanyaki): 1 Meal

Hello, our time is approaching to make specialty dining reservations online for our cruise in late August and was curious if you could make reservations for more than just those in your stateroom. We are traveling with two other couples, all on separate reservations. We would like to make reservations to include them (i.e. 6 for Cagney's) or can we only do it for us and then let them know the date and time we have and they would have to make a separate reservation. If this matters we have the free at Sea plus so we have 4 dinners. Thanks.

Ahhh... good to know, used to mexico and caribean cruising where it is a thing. I was born and raised in Petaluma... small world. Thanks, shore excursions group doesn't even list excursions and viator has some that we are considering but its one of those we'd like to make it a leisurely day if possible. Thanks

Howdy, Will be on the NCL Pearl 9 day from Athens-Trieste in late august. ONe of the stops is Zakynthos, limited ship excursions which we dont like to do anyway. This stop will be after the absolute madhouse of Santorini and Mykonos (according to cruise mapper will have 4-6 ships in each port with over 12k passengers each stop). That being said, we would like to sleep in for Zak get up and maybe find a guided boat tour up to shipwreck beach (i know they cant land anymore) and the caves, thinking from 1100 - 1500. Our ship is in port with one other and our hours will be 0930 - 1700 and tendered so likely all aboard time will be about 1600 I'm sure. Ive even heard you can rent boats yourself, I own a boat so not adverse to that but thinking a guide would be better. Anyone have any thoughts.

Good Morning, Quick question, we are new to NCL and will be on the 9 day Greek Cruise from Athens-Trieste in late August. Looking at the NCL excursions, the vast majority of the excursions have start times shortly after the cruise ship arrives, which in some cases is early in the morning, even for beach tours or short excursions. Does NCL ever have excursion start times later in the day? We've been on port intensive cruises in the past and they can be exhausting so we'd like to sleep in on some days so was curious if what i'm seeing on the website now is pretty much the only available times or as we get closer more times to choose from will be available, especially for shorter duration excursions. Thanks

Howdy, First time cruisers on NCL, we are taking the 9 day out of Athens (Pireaus) in late August. As our ship does not depart until 10 pm and NCL has said we should be on board no later than 2 hours before departure, I was curious if anyone knew when we would actually be able to get on the ship. We have sailed out of Puerto Rico once where the ship didn't depart until late in the evening (9ish if I remember) and we could get on around Noon, we dropped our bags off than did a tour of old town. Was kind of hoping to do the same in Athens: Get on Early, drop off bags, get situated than go back out and tour around for a few hours in the afternoon than comeback for dinner. Thanks for any insight