Starlight Durban Cruising

In Acapulco the NCL ships use the cruise terminal based on our experience from Panama-bound cruise in 2019. Once again we walked out to the street, turned left and walked round the shipping buildings, and then past the Yacht marina. Not to much further we reached the small beach in the bay - Playa Tlacopanocha. We had a quick swim and then headed back towards the ship. We wanted my son to ride in a Herbie VW car, so avoided all the regular taxis and soon a Herbie picked us up. He loves Herbie so it was an experience for 4 of us to fit in and ride in Herbie - one of the last cities in MX where the VW taxis can still be found. We laughed so much when we eventually got out - 3 large adults in the back seat, and one pre-teen in the front seat.

There is a public beach close to the marina - it faces the bay and locals go there more than tourists, although is is getting more well known. Very few facilities, so take what you need. Basically as you arrive at the marina, walk straight through the shopping center, and once you hit the street outside then turn left, and just keep on going till you reach the circle at the end. The public beach is right there. A bit of a walk, but nothing that my 80 year old parents wont do. Cant get lost as the road curves left around the marina till you pass the navy facility then you will get there. Seems more and more tourists walk the route when we are there so it is not isolated. Water is safe/calm.

Scroll down to posts #6 and #7 and you will see what we enjoyed in Cartegena port (yes it was safe in the port). My plan had been to do a ship's tour into the city but then I had a pre-teen who had not done his remote school assignment, so that forced me to not book tour, SMH. He eventually got the school assignment done and emailed that morning so we just joined the rest of the family at the port entrance wild life park and shops. So glad we did this in the port. It was relaxing and we saw plenty of birds and sloths too. It was so easy using the port shuttle.

thank you for the picture showing what people were wearing on deck, that will help us when planning our trip south - although we wont follow the lady on the left LOL when it comes to how little to wear.

We did the NCL Star for Panama Canal cruise early 2019, and one of the things that the ship's team announced was that in order to get the best experience (of the canal) you should not sit in one location that day, once should move around the ship to get different perspectives and views. It was amazing topside, stern, and they even had the bow open for passengers that day too. I also went down to the cabin on deck 6 briefly to collect another battery pack and witnessed the canal wall sliding by about 2 feet out. Surreal. Obviously Antarctic weather will be different, but we will apply the same principle of not staying on one location. perhaps a little more viewing from indoors.

For this cruise, what sort of "winter-Arctic" clothing did you take and use. We're booked for Feb 2025.

That does sound interesting and I do agree with you about the risk of breakdowns/car-troubles/late returns. I would suggest that you look at as many "review" websites as possible to see what other people's experiences have been with the tour group(s) you mentioned - and then take the reviews with a pinch of salt. You know the norm - it is MOSTLY only the people who are unhappy with some aspect who will write a review... . It might work out OK for you if you are with a tour guide in their vehicle. Perhaps ask them if they have ever had a problem with breakdowns and how they resolved the problem. A parallel scenario that I considered for Ensenada one year was as follows: - There are some hot springs near Ensenada and I figured that we wanted to go there from the cruise port (for the day), until I discovered that: - There were no tour groups going there, and I would need to rent a vehicle to get there on gravel roads - The road crosses the river or low water bridges multiple times to get there - I wasn't too sure if I could rent a 4x4 and what they would say if it came back with any water incursion, or under-body "marks" - the location was a rustic farm area - risk of getting there and then the place was closed - the time to get to the rental location, to reach the hot springs and the reverse order back to still make it to the ship on-time. I decided it would not be worth the effort for something where there was a risk of problems and we're stuck in a remote location.

One thing with the busses - if you have Pesos (that you got prior to arriving in MX), then that will be in notes (not coins), and those notes will often be in higher denominations. The busses may not be able to make change if you only have notes. Sure if you have a large group then one note may cover the fee for all in the group, but just be aware if you are only a few people in your group and you have a 500 Peso note, then that may get complex.... Might be easier if you have MX coins to pay for bus coming back to the port.

Essiesmom, did you book online or did you book on the call center? Was there a fee later to change from TBD to an actual name?

This was also the case on Panorama in July last year - no daily PRINTED Fun Times planner in the cabin anymore. You had to look at the App on your cell phone to see all daily activities, make reservations for YTD dinner, etc. It suited us perfectly to go down to the cabin to shower and get ready for dinner, then as soon as we were at the point of almost ready to go we would put in the request for the dining reservation on the app. The system would ping back with "there is a xxx minutes wait, we will ping you once your table is ready". We would often take a slow amble, perhaps stop for a drink along the way and generally we would get our "ping" within about 15 minutes to say "Your table is ready". They do hold the table for a further 15 - 20 minutes so even if you were still in your cabin at the front of the ship you should be able to make it to the dining room in time. We loved the flexibility of this method. I am not a techie person, but I really got used to the app pretty quickly. For all of this you are on their "intranet". You need to sign up for the extra texting part that costs $5 IF YOU WANT TO do texting but I did not find a need for it - OK I had a teen who was hibernating in the cabin all the time so did not need to text him as he was always there. .

In PV, you are tied up at the pier, so as soon as customs clears the ship then people can get off. It's quicker than Cabo where you are anchored in the bay and there are only so many water taxis that can be next to the ship at a time, which leads to cabin-class and status-level prioritization for getting off... It also depends if your ship is tied up next to the new terminal (South side), East side opposite Walmart, or North side next to Military zone. Sometimes there are a lot of ships in port that day... That be said, we did a private horse-riding tour the one time and had to meet at 10.00am (local time) at the library (pretty close to the harbor) for private pick-up, We almost missed the tour because of the time difference. Thankfully the taxi driver called them from his local cell phone and they came back for us !!!

We've found that they usually take both currencies - even if the menu is listed in Pesos. Smaller places (think mom and pop) may not take USD, but many of the port places will take Dollars and just do the conversion into USD. We carry both types usually, just in case, but then we know that if we don't use the Pesos now, then there is always another cruise later ... 🙂 Best to ask when you go in to the restaurant if they take Dollars.