MeHeartCruising

When I was in Malta, taxis were available at the port that could be booked by the number hours you wanted them.  I think we paid 65 euros or so for 3 hours, but that was many years ago.  You paid for this at a tent that was set up along the walk toward the taxis.  You paid and the person discussed with you where you wanted to go.  They wrote it all on a slip of paper and you handed the slip to the first driver in the taxi line and off you went.   
 

We went to Mdina and Rabbat and Moste.  Our driver waited for us as we walked around seeing what we wanted.  Mdina was the longest stop.  Probably 45-60 minutes.  He then took us back to Valletta where we tipped him a little (he was very personable, spoke English, and talked freely with us — he did not have to as we had not purchased a tour guide).  We then explored Valletta on foot before heading back to the ship on foot.  
 

I can’t help with Birgu.  Based on how we were treated, I would think a driver would wait for you while in the Hypogeum. 
 

It was a great day.   Enjoy Malta.  I’d love to go back and explore more.  

6 hours ago, cravecruising said:

Hi.  Does anyone know if Royal offers a transfer from the port into Ravenna?  If so, can you book it in advance or on-board?  We are staying in Ravenna for one night after our cruise ends.  Thanks.

Royal offered this shuttle in May 2023 when I was there on the Explorer.  I don’t know if you could book in advance, but I would think so since you could purchase transfer to Venice in advance.  I know you could purchase it on the ship.  It was a couple (few?) buses that ran fairly continuously to the Ravenna train station and back.  It was also picking up passengers who had arrived by train for the cruise just starting and bringing them to the ship.

I agree with euro cruiser.  Try for that earlier ferry.  You'll appreciate that extra 90 minutes of fewer crowds on Capri.

Google Maps shows it as about a 40 minute (1.8 miles) walk.  It would be a pleasant walk along any number of different routes.  Through the central core area of Amsterdam.

A few thoughts…

Valletta, Malta

Kotor, Montenegro

Santorini, Greece

Istanbul, Turkey

Venice, Italy (but you can only do that on small ships now)

4 hours ago, victory2020 said:

So if there is a price drop they will adjust price & you will retain full certificate price? I would be using a travel agent.

Yes. A CruiseFirst Credit never changes value.  And, no, you do not need to cancel and rebook in order to take advantage of a price reduction prior to final payment.  You just call and ask them to reprice it to the currently offered price.  They can do this in seconds and you retain the same Booking Number. HOWEVER, when you do this, you are also going to get the current  promotion benefits/perks offer/terms.  They may be different from the offer/terms in place at the time of your original booking.  So be sure you know what the current promotions are when repricing.  I also always ask them to confirm the CruiseFirst (or CruiseNext) credit is still applied. 

Amsterdam cruise port is very close (walkable) to the central city area where you likely want to explore.   It is probably a 10-20 minute walk for most people.  However, if you prefer, there are public transit trams that you can hop on (with a ticket) if you don't want to do the walk.  You might also want to hop in a taxi if your destination is far enough away.  The ship will dock beside the Movenpic Hotel if you want to look for it on Google Maps.

Note:  Sometimes cruise lines say they are stopping in Amsterdam but actually they dock in the town of Ijmuiden.  This is usually shown as "Amsterdam (Ijmuiden)" or similar in the cruise documentation.  For of like they say "Rome (Civitavecchia)" or "Florence (Livorno)".  If you are truly in Ijmuiden, then this is not walkable to Amsterdam.  You will need to arrange transportation of some sort and from what I have read, public transit is not really an option.

1 hour ago, jmcross said:

I guess my question is do suite guests get to board first or do I need to wait for my assigned check in time?

If I can board first with expedited check in then why do I need an assigned time?

This is one of the only perks associated with the higher cost of a Junior suite.

The Junior Suite perk is "priority boarding".  Not priority check-in.  

Check-in refers to getting into the check-in area and finalizing all your cruise information with the agent.  Boarding refers to physically getting on the ship.

If you are in the waiting area, when the boarding process begins, you will be one of the first to board due to your Junior Suite status.

IF they decide to enforce check-in times, you will not be in the waiting area until after 2:30.  By that time, you will likely be able to walk directly on the ship after checking in.

As mentioned above, they don't always enforce the checkin time.  Go early and hopefully they will let you in the doors to check-in area upon your arrival.  If you do this early enough to get in the waiting area prior to the boarding processing starting, you will then be one of the first to board the ship due to your Junior Suite status.

If they won't let you in the doors early, then you won't be boarding early.

@Eno In 2022, I purchased my London Waterloo to Southampton Central train ticket using trainline.com.  I believe I purchased it on the web, but they also have a phone app where I was able to see and use my ticket (barcode).  They may charge a little more (I'm not sure), but for a £9.20 ticket it was minimal.  I created an account on trainline.

I just purchased one as well.  I'm on an NCL cruise in one week and could have just bought CruiseNexts, but decided since this matched that deal financially, I'd just buy one now so I won't have to fill out paperwork on the ship or deal with a salesperson (who usually speaks in circles as they try to upsell you).

It showed up in my account in about 5 minutes.

Just make sure you notice it must be used for a cruise that is at least 120 days in the future.

I guess the other thing I'll add is that for almost all my cruises, when the itinerary says the port arrival time is 8:00, that is when the ship literally pulls up to the dock.  Sometimes a few minutes early.  Rarely later than that.  But they still need to then tie the ship to the pier, lower the gangway, set up security, get the photographer off the ship to take pictures of you, etc.  I would not expect anyone to be getting off the ship until at least 8:15 - 8:30.  So I'm not sure what the excursions will do.

Here is the distance.  This is a picture I took as I was getting off the train and walking back toward the ship at the end of the ride.

The distance is indeed a matter of a couple hundred yards, if that.  So not far at all.  From the bottom of the gangway to boarding the train could take 5 minutes or less I would think depending on your walking speed.  The question will be how quickly you can get to that bottom of the gangway.  And would you need to stop at the ticket office to pick up any tickets first or would you have them already in hand?  It's going to be tight.  Isn't there a train later in the morning that you could also take?  I'd probably do that if possible.

Thanks for sharing!  I would love to see the map (schooled geographer/cartographer here).  I will put it on my list for my next trip to Rome.

I'm not familiar with the HOHOs in London, although you see them all over the city, so they are popular.  

My only comment is that I would suggest not resting at the hotel upon arrival.  It will be better for your jet lag if you just continue on with your day and try to power on until as late as you can tolerate it.  Then go to bed.  You'll wake up the next morning mostly adjusted to the new time zone that way.  If your room is actually ready for checkin upon arrival, I would recommend a quick shower and then head back out on to the streets of London for your sightseeing.   If your room is not ready for checkin (sometimes you can't check in until 2 or 3 in the afternoon), you can always leave your luggage with the hotel and then go out sightseeing until later in the day.  

Perhaps you're not new to all this and you know what works best for you.  But if you are new to this, I think you'll find that a lot of us do as I describe above quite successfully.  

Enjoy London. It's one of my favorite cities to visit.

I love stew!  and the Windjammer.  I can always find something that I like to eat.  Every meal that I'm there.

OP, the letter indicates you "can lock in the specific flights detailed below".  But I don't see specific flights detailed in the letter.  Did they include specific flight information?  If they didn't, then I too would pass or at least call and ask them where the specific flight details are.  However, for me, starting at the Pittsburgh or Cleveland Airports, I might be very happy to pay $300 to get a direct flight to some locations.  But I'd have to see those flight details first.

18 hours ago, tokidoki said:

I know we’ve discussed the bogo many times, but I didn’t expect that for the first time, I was offered 2 flights for May whete the flight home is late and they want $300 just to secure these flights.  When did this start?  They offer the flights by the 100 day mark, but it seems quite ridiculous to me and it’s not even 100% guaranteed!  Has anyone who took bogo get economy seats where they could still book seats or did u pay to upgrade? Thx for any info

You say "to secure these flights" and then say "it's not even 100% guaranteed".  How did NCL word it?  What are they saying "secure" means.

If you're asking about seat assignments, it will depend on the rules of the actual airline that NCL purchases the tickets from.  Different Airlines have different rules for the different classes of tickets they sell.  Especially with economy seats.  If NCL buys you a ticket class that permits seat selection and/or paid upgrades to better seats, you can call the airline and get those.  Sometimes even on the website.  If your ticket class does not permit that then you won't be able to.  Not all airlines do this the same way.

I would think with kids that age, I would get them to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  It's quite cool to see, in my opinion.  You'll all love getting selfies there.   You have to get a pictured where you're pretending to hold the tower from falling over!

You can do a quick visit to Florence as well if you're so inclined.  I did these 2 as part of ship excursion in years past.

In Portland, your ship will dock in a secure (military?) facility.  You will not be able to walk off the ship to go anywhere.  You can take ship excursions, if you were so inclined.  In addition to this, there will be a free shuttle bus that goes from the ship into Weymouth with an intermediary stop at Portland Castle.  The bus(es) run regularly throughout the day.

I wasn't too interested in the ship's excursions.  Some were sold out by the time I booked my cruise anyway.  What I did was to ride the bus into Weymouth in the morning.  From the drop off point, I walked across the harbor area into central Weymouth and explored the town commercial streets a bit as I worked my way to the waterfront of Weymouth Bay (part of The English Channel).  Then I walked up and down the waterfront enjoying the views and typical waterfront stuff.  It's a pleasant place to just walk around (if you're inclined to that sort of thing).  From there, I walked to Nothe Fort, which I found interesting to explore and enjoy the scenic views of the Channel.  Then I walked back to the shuttle pickup point.  On the way back to the ship, I got off at the Portland Castle stop and visited the castle.  It's nothing special, but it was something to do.  I enjoyed seeing the WWII Mulberry Harbour Caissons in the nearby water.   I then caught the next shuttle bus which took me back to the ship.

All-in-all, I found it to be a very pleasant day where I just "winged it".  

4 hours ago, Old Maine guy said:

All information that I can find says that terminal A is the correct place to board the Explorer in Miami.  Is that correct?  Will I need any additional information for my driver?

Terminal A is Royal Caribbean's large, new flashy terminal.  It was built to accommodate the larger ships in the fleet.  If there is a larger Royal Caribbean ship in port at the same time as you will be boarding the Explorer, the larger ship will almost certainly be docked at Terminal A and you will be pushed to another terminal, such as Terminal G mentioned above.  

Also, there are multiple places where ships can dock.  They are not all considered "walkable".  I would research the shuttle buses.  In May 2023, I used the 6 euro bus from train station right to my ship.  It couldn't have been easier.  You need cash for the bus.

I would feel very comfortable booking a 9:30 excursion at Costa Maya with a ship arrival time of 8:00.  You should be able to walk off the ship by 8:30 or so and the pier walk plus the walk thru the port "village" to transportation options will take 10-15 minutes or so for most people.  Plenty of time.  Your tour may actually have a meeting point inside the village at the end of the pier.  You should ask.

And yes, Costa Maya is not across the water from Cozumel.  That poster is confusing Playa Del Carmen with Costa Maya.  

Had a group who sat down beside me at the pool with walkies.  They were totally obnoxious using them without any care whatsoever how it might impact the pool experience for others.  Most people around them left for another spot before long.  Myself included. 

I think they offer a shuttle to the Ravenna train station.  You could catch a train there to get to Bologna.