old nutter

Has anyone got any news about the Jade? The new itineraries were supposed to be out yesterday but still nothing anywhere today either.

And it looks like Pearl will be doing the Sixthman charters in August from Barca not Jade.

Question: we are using NCL transfer to airport on day of disembarkation ... is the bus located dockside or do we need to get back to Piazzale Roma to get on the bus?

It is in a car park about 150m from the building where the ship docks.

Norwegian Spirit has cruises Dec 2-15, 2019 and Jan 3-16, 2020 that include Kusadasi ..... they are available on NCL website now.

Thanks for that. I have to admit I had not searched the Spirit itineraries that late before because of the uncertainty on what she was doing late on in 2019 and into 2020.

I think I will wait until after the re-deployment details are released in August though until I commit anything because I have been bitten by previous re-deployments with dry-docks involved and a big session is planed for her to be ready to head East.

It would be great if NCL dropped the politics and started to go back to Turkey again. It would be great to be able to visit Istanbul and Ephesus again. They are some of the best preserved historic places I have ever been to.

Maybe Pearl will do the Sixthman charter. It is from Barca in August. That could leave Jade cruises alone?

Did it occur to you they may have docked prior to the closing of the port.

Good point, but in this case the Costa ship still had something like 15 miles or so to run to Dubrovnik on time when the Star got there and the Captain had to make the call to hang about outside the closed port and wait and see if it got better or quit and head straight to Venice. By the time the Costa ship had covered those miles it looks like the weather had begun easing off, so with a little further waiting outside the port it was looking that it might be possible to dock, so their captain did just that. Timing was everything. That later Costa schedule meant it was able to take advantage of easing conditions that were not even forecast an hour earlier when the Star arrived on scene.

It is very possible that the port closed after the other ship docked.

It was the other way round. The port was closed overnight with northerly winds over 60 mph and so the Star couldn't get in when it got there and there was no forecast at that time if or when it would re-open. Bear in mind there is no protection to that dock from the North. The Costa ship schedule was later and when they got there, the weather was improving so they waited unil it was calm enough attempt docking. The whole Costa schedule was later than the Star and so the late departure from Dubrovnik did not cause them any major issue as it happened.

Star arrived on schedule in Venice at around 7:00 and the ship was cleared of passengers on time by 9:30 as the Costa was just starting their disembarking, more or less in line with it's timetable. It was just that there was not enough slack in the Star schedule to allow it to wait around in case the weather cleared and then leave Dubrovnik late given the then possibility of lots of missed flights if it was late into Venice this morning.

The reasons for the cancellation of the Star call at Dubrovnik were a bit more complex than the OP was able to see from a distance without all of the information to hand. It was a very difficult call.

Last night there was a very severe electric storm around the ship and there were a fair few nasty squalls about for most of the night. The weather was certainly very unreliable. The Star arrived off Dubrovnik in good time for an early 7.00 am dock to give everyone time to get their excursions done but according to the message from the captain at about 7am the port was closed due to Northerly winds in excess of 90 kph at the time. There was no indication when or if things would calm down enough to tie-up safely. The options were to hang about for a while in the area hoping for the best or give up and set sail for Venice. The planned stop was already tight to allow for the various trips and any delayed departure to give enough time to do everything planned could have jeopardised the disembarkation in Venice tomorrow.

The Costa Delizioza was over an hour behind the Star and it looked like it had to to hang about for over another hour outside the port and then made it's way into dock by about 10am and it looked as though it may have needed help from a tug to get docked. It left for Venice at 1435 and it is now making 20 knots to make it by 7:30 tomorrow.

Had the Star captain decided to hold fast on the off chance of a clearance and assuming he then decided he could make it in when the port opened after all and also allowed both big ships to dock at the same time (unlikely) there would only have been about three hours left for the excursions without a lot of unpalettable issues. He would then have been left with either a logical nightmare with the excursion teams, dissapointed passengers who had no time to get into and out of Dubrovnik or stay late and have to race back to Venice after an overstay to make the stop worthwhile and if no clearance came, cope with all three! Never mind all the safety issues to consider.

Captain's decision - our safety - no contest - good call.

This episode goes to show how complicated things can end up when the weather decides to get nasty and unreliable with a cruise ship.

I am afraid I can't see the pictures.

Booking via NCL wil be more expensive, but one of the big advantages you get is if there is a big change in your booking like a charter or late change to a dry dock schedule. In that case, if you take up the change offer, your flight will follow it, and if you cancel because of a change, you get the whole costs back, includung the flight costs. Book your flights yourself and you have to take the whole hit if there is a big change not covered on your flight ticket. Like most things, there are plusses and minusses and it depends on your risk profiles which one you take.

She is well on the way to Barcelona this morning. Due in at 1800 tonight ready for tomorrow's first trip after the drydock. It will be interesting to see what has been changed.

With an afternoon/evening there, the return down from Fira will be less of a problem because most other ships will probably leave at about 5pm. If you just want to go up to Fira after the first rush has gone on the tender you will be able to avoid the crush both ways and the highest heat of the day. You can stay to see the sunset from Fira before going back down on the cable car after the queues have died down.

If you want to go to Oia, go on the circuit described by fabandfortysomething. You will still avoid the queues because you need not go down the cable car until the other ships have sailed. Do not forget your drinking water and a sun hat - it can get pretty hot.

Been to these ports several times. Often, the key to what you do is the time you get there and when you leave. If you are on the cruise that gets to Santorini at lunchtime and leaves at 10pm it is worth going on the ship's cruise to Oia because you will get a dedicated tender to a port down the coast to catch the bus - no crowds. After getting back to Fira, you can spend time there and watch the sunset from up there. After that the other ships will probably have gone and the trip down on the cable car will be no problem.

Corfu has a HoHo bus the leaves from the town. There is a bus from the port into the town that was only 5 euros each way last year.

Dubrovnik definitely use a taxi. Cheaper than the bus and easier to get back too without queues. Don't miss having one of the Ice Creams . You will need some local currency to buy anything because they are not allowed to use euros, but there are some small change places in the main street.

Mykonos the ship either docks or tenders. If it docks, there is a courtesy bus to town, or for a few euros, you can catch a boat taxi by the dock gate. Plenty to see walking round the town for a first visit.

Haven't done Kotor for a few years but a trip either on a tour or local bus through the tunnel to Budva on the coast is worth doing if the hiily walks in Kotor itself are too much in the heat. You will probably only have half a day there so no problem with the sail in or out depending if it is morning or afternoon- spectacular as it is the most southerly fjord in Europe (and it is a lot warmer than the northen ones!) The trip in and out will take something like an hour and a half and at one point you will feel like you could shake hands with the people on the land.

I am sure you will find that Europe is not really that different to home for you. We have spent a great deal of time across in the US and I have to say that like over there, during the day, there is more emphasis on dressing to suit the weather and the terrain than any cultural thing. The main difference is probably when we go out to eat. It is not necessary to dress formally to eat, but you would probably notice many men dressing in "proper" clothes, long trousers (pants to you) and buttoned shirts and ladies not in what I would probably term extreme non-casual clothes like skinny shorts and swimwear type tops. Many eating places will not look kindly on scruffy jeans and non-tailored shorts, but you will not be anywhere out at night on the cruise anyway.

In terms of behavior there are really very few differences. We tend to look down on the sort of "game show" over the top stuff that some Americans think of as more normal, but on an individual level, politeness rules and I doubt very much if you would notice much difference over here. Clearly there are language issues, because we do not just have dialects, we have different languages and dialects! I always try to learn a few words of a language when I go anywhere, so things like hello, goodbye and some of the numbers so you can handle cash always go down well. Stuff like that goes down really well in most European places as a away of breaking the ice. Having said that the places you are going to will be able to use English that is probably better then most of us Brits use, let alone Americans!

The biggest difference is probably how we handle tipping. It is very unusual for anyone in Europe (particularly around the med) not to earn a proper wage and there are fairly stringent rules in most countries here around paying a minimum wage, so tipping is not a major source of cash for employees. Having said that, one major source of cash for some (particularly in places like Barcelona) is to take it directly out of your pockets or handbags, so learn to be street savvy. If you have particularly good service somewhere, you may choose to tip as a reward, but you will not find waiters chasing you down the street because you haven't left a tip, but 10-15% is probably tops if you want to tip after a particularly good meal.

I suggest that you will find very few differences these days and it should not worry you at all.

The haven on the Jewel class ships is much much much smaller than on the -away and -away+ ships. No bar, lounge, concierge desk, restaurant. You get a small courtyard area with hot tub and a pool. There is a butler assigned to the courtyard, so you can get a drink or food delivered there, but there is not dedicated space for non pool type lounging.

That last part is not quite right. On the Jewel ships there is a huge sundeck with various loungers depending on which ship you are on. The sundeck is above all of the port-side suites and is accessed via stairs out of the courtyard. It virtually doubles the lounging area and at least on the Jade, after the last drydock, there are some large covered double loungers.

Agreed, the Courtyard Butler will serve drinks for you on the sundeck as well, so apart from the ability to lean on a bar counter, the liquid intake can be achieved much the same as if there were a bar. You can of course get lunch brought up from Cagney's/Moderno or even one of the main dining rooms if you want to stay up there, so it can also serve as a lunchtime Haven restaurant, particularly on port days when is is warm and sunny. Obviously, these alternatives are nowhere near as good as a dedicated Haven Restaurant in the evening nor for any meals when the sundeck is not comfortable in bad weather or on sea days, but is is a great peaceful extra facility nevertheless.

Because the sundeck is at the top of the ship, you get complete outside views over the port-side rails and to the stern - a great spot for sail-aways and port gazing while docked - it is a superb outside view facility that I don't recall having on the the Away or Epic ships when I was on them. The downside is that because it is open to the sky it is often way too cold and windy when the ship is underway, but then you have the choice of a potentially covered lounge area in the courtyard (unlike the topless Getaway Haven Courtyard that is pretty near worthless when it rains or blows cold... )

We did this trip a few years ago and had the same issue around flights home in the afternoon. We booked a bespoke tour with "LA Insider Tours" who were very good. Their vehicle collected us at the port and then we did a morning trip round the major tourist bits of TA (including the inevitable photo of the Hollywood sign of course). We ended up right at the terminal at LAX in perfect time for our flight home. Very helpful team.

Untrue. Another huge advantage that I love is the courtyard valet. He/she serves you breakfast and lunch from the Cagney's menu and gets your desired drinks all day while sitting in relative solitude away from the rest of the crowds on the ship. In addition the courtyard valet keeps the courtyard breakfast and snack bar replenished.

And of course there is that huge sun deck above the Haven where the valet will keep you well watered as well. When the weather is right that area is a great and restful sun trap.

Seriously? And so, from that, I guess you wouldn't expect there to be any female Electronic Engineers nor Master Electricians, nor Tier 3 Technicians, is that correct? Many women are far more advanced than you obviously know. :confused:

And the sooner there are a lot more of them, the safer we will all be and the more chance there will be that I will expect to come across their eminently sensible views where electricity is concerned.:)

OK, but if these thingies have an electric plug on the end of a cable and when plugged into an electric socket they warm up they must contain a heating element - no rumor and no fake news. The main point is do NCL enforce the prohibitions given in their Ts and Cs or not? If a jobsworth on the ship decides these thingies shouldn't be plugged into the ship because they are part of the "...but not limited to..." in No 21, on the Prohibited Item List they would be held and returned at the end of the cruise.

I doubt this would happen to these thingies, but if it does, you wouldn't have a leg to stand on in arguing your point so if they are truly super essential, carry on ignoring the rules, just make sure you do not leave them plugged in when you are not in the cabin or I suspect they would be removed by the room steward.

I fully reaalise that as a bloke I could be expected to assume a flat iron was for putting creases in my trousers and taking them out of my shirts and that a "head safe" is a crash helmet. However, I would also not expect a female to understand that if any piece of beauty equipment that gets warm and needs to be plugged into a wall socket such as a hair curler would have to have a heating element in it.:confused:

We did Epic from Barca this year. We grabbed our bags off the luggage carousel and went through to the main hall. There were NCL reps with clip boards to our left who collected us in a group and we were led down a floor to where the coaches were. Made sure our bags went into the coach hold and settled back for the drive to the port. At the port, we watched our bags come off the coach and they were stacked on trollies and we didn't see them again until they came to our cabin.

Things to check - put your NCL luggage tags on as you collect your luggage in the airport so that they have got your cabin number on them. And make sure you have a pen handy becaue you will have to fill in a health form before you book in.

Easy system even for a refugee rom the Black Country now living down south :-) Have a great time.

Probably the two biggest differences are in "entertainment vs enrichment" and "Eat-when-you-want", otherwise known as Freestyle Dining. The emphasis is much more on entertaining than educating - probably more ITV than BBC2 (UK readers will understand!). As far as dining is concerned, apart from the complementary offerings, try to get to Cagney's at least once to sample superb steak and Le Bistro where they do a fabulous mushroom soup. Probably less of an attraction is La Cucina as it is a bit more American Italian than Italian Italian!

The news media mainly shows extreme and dangerous versions of the truth because they think calm and good news doesn't sell papers. Travel is a great antidote to this idea. Europe has a long history of large peaceful demonstrations of public discontent with government. I have not seen how US and Canadian news has portrayed the situation in Barcelona, but if the OP has developed such a paranoia about going near the city then it must be being shown by reporters who have little knowledge of life and history in Europe and even less about the situation in Barcelona.

The situation in Spain at the moment is constitutionally serious but it is far from producing situations that are likely to be dangerous for tourists. That is not to say that it will definitely not eventually lead to serious civil unrest, but it certainly is not anywhere near that at the moment and there is every indication that the political participants want it to be settled in a civilised fashion.

I suggest that rather than writing either on here or to NCL, the OP changes from the news outlets currently fostering an apparent paranoia and looks to a more balanced localised European outlet between now and when the ship docks in Barcelona. As has already been said, there are lots of places to go away from La Ramblas which is where these public demonstrations tend to be held. If you want a really scenic and peaceful day, why not try the Monastery at Monserrat for example.

For us, Ponta Delgada is the worst possible outcome.

Have you ever been to the Azores? We have had some fabulous holidays there. The islands are fascinating and beautiful places with a really interesting history.