NYFirstTimeCruiser

I used Discover Athens - Spiros for tours and airport transfers.  Got the name from here as well.  Airport pickup and transfers were smooth.  The tour though was mediocre.  Hired a tour guide for the Acropolis but the rest of the tour was the driver speaking softly to me, no mic so I had to repeat what he tells me to the group of 15.

I would recommend Spiros - Discover Athens for transfers but not for the tours.

2 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

Tepanyaki has replaced tenderloin/filet with some mystery meat.

The filet at the French restaurant is now an upcharge,

ah yes.  We did Teppanyaki and the steak was no longer filet mignon.  tough meat.  didn't like it at all.

On 9/5/2023 at 11:09 AM, www3traveler said:

Would you please be kind enough to post a list of the Senior Officers both Bridge and Hotel.

 

I hope the rest of this wonderful adventure goes well and your return trip home.

apologies.  They showed it on the big screen but didn't take pics.  Saw your message late.

Cagneys Steakhouse downgrade - My family was in love with Cagney's in the beginning. After a while, we got sick of it so haven't done Cagneys until this trip.  I don't know when it happened but they downgraded the steak selection.  Prime Rib is now NY Strip.  Porterhouse was a free choice but now an upcharge.  I guess that's how they can maintain the free at see promotion.  Curious what was downgraded on other specialty dinings.  anyone?

Casinos at Seas Group Booking - this one is a good deal if you have a group. Not sure what minimum for a group but we have 5 cabins / 15 people.

1.  Every cabin in your group gets 10% off

2.  Each cabin has $50 free play.

3.  Group Leader gets $500 free play. unfortunately not OBC. Of course they took it all 😞

Dailies....

I did a CC check before leaving for the trip to Athens and ther's not a lot of post so thought of adding one.....

Airline Booking - used NCL buy 1 get 1 free air.   

JFK Terminal Lounge - Primeclass is good. Better than Lufthansa.

 The flights we have are not bad.  NY-Brussels-Athens.  Layover ar Athens is 2.5 hours.

TIP - if you have a connecting flight, you will need to go through immigration.  Upon exit, there

are two exits that say connecting.  One is straight out and one exit ramp to the right. The exit ramp

has a waay shorter line through immigration. 
Brussels Airlines either has a bad conveyor or their luggage people throw bags because 3 of 4 have some sort

of damage.  I saw one box that said fragile that was totally mishandled. Other than that, flight was ok

our return at the end of the week is Austrian air -Athens-Vienna-NY.

Did a two day deviation on Athens Arrival
 

Athens Greece Arrival

Airport Transfer- we used Spiros which was a recommendation from old cc posts.

Prices were not cheap so I asked if I can pay by credit card. He said yes with no qualms or warnings.

Upon drop off at our hotel- I gave my cc and the driver said 15% surcharge for using credit card.

I don't mind 3% but 15? Annoyed at Spiros tour at this point but had no choice.

I emailed to say that the guy he contracted to pick us up is charging us 15%.  His reply was

the price he gave me was so low so it's cash only.  See his original answer when I asked if I could use CC.

i asked for a receipt which they didn't have.
 

Now that you are aware, make sure you have everything in writing, 
 

Athens Tour prebooked also from Spiros.

told my group It's cash only so collected cash.

We got a tour guide from spiros but it was only for the acropolis for 120 euro.

just ok guide.  The rest of the tour was the driver talking... not good english and only the person next to him

can hear so I had to repeat to everyone. I became the human bullhorn for the rest of the tour.

Airport dropoff from spiros went seamless but still cash only.

Times for pickup and dropoff were dead on.

sidenote: if you have apple pay, you can use it on most stores; even those small kiosks.

had no need to put out cash in athens except for Spiros. 
 

Athens port

No casinos at sea nor platinum check in line. Only those who bought VIP through NCL had express checkin.

Nothing recognized except for those who paid for haven or vip pass.

Jade - refurbished so it looks great. Layout of restaurants and venues are all spread

out in hidden areas of the ship. I like the breakaway class ship's layouts better.

Rhodes - used chat gpt to give us a walking tour.  I was impressed.

People are nice.

Bodrum Turkey - didn't like the salespeople. Very aggresive salespeople bordering on being AHoles.

you have to be ready to bargain.  i saw a guy being followed outside the door by a shirtless salesman

saying 50 euros. Customer said no.

Sales "how much you want to pay?

customer- I only have 20 usd.

Sales - no 30

cust - walks away

sales - ok fine give me 20.

cust - continued to walk away.

Lesson: from 50 to 20? That means they mark it up so high. Total tourist trap.

anothe experience:  one cust was from my group asked for price of a bag.

cust- how about 20 euros

sales - squats in pooping position and said he'll poop and sell it for 20 euros.

Very rude.  Good thing it's only for a day,

food - they have a menu but says ignore that and go pick by the grams/kilos

and you get fresh everything.  So the menu items are frozen seafood?

bill was $275 for 5. 
 

just disappointed With Bodrum.

Rest of the trip is in Greece . Next stops are Mykonos, Paros, Crete and Santorini.

I'll add to above as we go. i can post picks of dailies if someone wants it.  On day 3 (of 7) so far.

thanks

Following. Doing same tour next year

We will be on Jade from Athen in September. Do you have the dailies for the Athens cruise? Thanks in advance

Got upgraded 6 weeks out.... but I bid very high.

Our cruise is on Jade from Athens on Sept. 3rd and we got upgraded today.

I did a mock booking on July 22nd and there were 25 balconies (give or take)

that were available including club balconies.

I also bid for Club Balcony but they gave me balcony instead.  I guess someone

booked higher than me on club balcony.

Always booked a balcony but the prices on this cruise was outrageous. Peak season I guess.

I got a discounted inside cabin from CAS so putting in a high bid for balcony ($400pp),

I was still 1.8 k below than if I booked balcony outright with CAS discount.

I rolled the dice and won.

When I've booked Balconies, I think I've won 1out of 6 bids to Haven.  Harder to win

Haven bids.

Good luck to all who put in bids!

NCL dailies for Greek cruise from Athens on NCL Jade?

Question - has NCL done anything for you onboard or even embarkation when you are a group of 15? 
are there group boardings?

group dining and theater?

any perks for the group?

Thanks so much for the info.

6 hours ago, Crazy planning mom said:

Some of the ports you can explore independently.  If you prefer an excursion, I really enjoyed Opa, a Greek Celebration in Santorini and in Kusadasi, Turkey, Ephesus is a must see.

We only have Bodrum Turkey in our itin. 

12 minutes ago, YVRteacher said:

Do you go to Mykonos? One of the best NCL shore excursions we have experienced was out of Mykonos to Delos.  Yes, the boat ride there was long and choppy (I took seasick pulls and wore acupressure bands and was fine) but the time on the island was absolutely incredible. I will never forget it!

 

If you list your ports we can provide more feedback.

Here's the ports

It does have a ferry from mykknos to delos.

we'll get this one

Hi CC'ers.

     Looking for NCL shore excursion recommendations for the 7day greek isles cruise from athens. I know there's a wide selection but first time taking this cruise and first time in greece so open to anything. Will only take on ncl excursions even though it's cheaper outside. tnx

On 10/23/2022 at 12:31 AM, BirdTravels said:

Complimentary Sparkling Wine

I always have one of these every cruise and ends up untouched at the end of the cruise.  I just leave it in the room.  Curious if anyone has tried it and if it's any good.  I just have plenty of time in my hands now (LOL) so I googled to see how much it costs.  It retails for $6 so maybe it was bought wholesale for $3-4 a pop.  Bottle looks good though.

embark/disembark list from my last cruise

handicap

haven

vip

latitudes

cas

Just to share. Not all club balconies offer the same coffee maker. I was on Joy and we had a nespresso which was great. On the bliss, it's the crappy one like above and it was in the cabinet. If we wanted to use it, we had to ask for the coffee stuff. We never used it. 

8 hours ago, dexddd said:

What cabin is that with the chute/slide blocking their view? Is that on port or starboard side? Is it on the aft?  Hoping that's not happening on Haven rooms.

On 9/24/2022 at 4:06 AM, JIMESOPUS said:

Day 2 !!! Meet and Greet at 1100, south of the UK, crossing the Irish Sea. Dinner at Cagney's last night, for us and the camera it was a little dark, was able to sit near a window which helped us, seems strange it's located on deck #6. Basic menu no surprise here. Starting to get a feel for the ship, still somewhat confusing at times on the layout. If you like a balcony and don't mind being watched then deck #9 and #10 are for you. Couple of photo's of the balcony's that have the slide going thru. Crazy light show inside the lift.

Would you mind telling us what cabins in your opinion have those slide chutes? Is it port or starboard side? Thanks in advance.

2. Rome, Naples, caliari, Mallorca, Ibiza, Barcelona, Cannes, Livorno, Livorno, Rome.  NW epic (they also have this RT from Barcelona versus Rome) 

Did this in 2018 and to this day, we still talk about it as our best cruise itinerary ever out of 12 cruises (and counting).

room and balcony size is exactly the same. the bathroom is bigger with two sinks and the jet shower. Mini-suites are now called club balcony suites in other ship but are the same.

The coffeemaker varies per ship as well.  In Joy, we got a nespresso which was super cool. In Bliss, just a pathetic drip coffee that we saw in the cabinet.  It wasn't even set up.

Other than the bigger bathroom and 1 free laundry bag for the suite, it's just a regular balcony room.... but others book it primarily for the big bathroom since they have 3 or 4 pax in the room.  and oh, we didn't eat the chocolate strawberry treats that came with it.  If it's your first time cruising, you'll most likely be out and about and spend less time in the room :).  Have fun!

Our 2nd on the Bliss on a Club Balcony through upgrade advantage and 1st trip as Platinum.

Club Balcony - we were on Club Balcony on NCL Joy last April.  Joy had Nespresso so was looking forward to it.

Bliss doesn't have Nespresso on Bliss

Deck 8 - We've always picked Deck 15 since the debut of observation lounge.  Now it seems we are hooked on Deck 8

since we are right on the waterfront, above the casino and atrium. everything's close by.

Casinos at Sea - Hit Pearl on the last cruise so they have a $100 OBC.  Got chocolates in the room

Platinum Latitudes - the 2 free dinners can be used on all specialty dining places.  We booked Ocean Blue and Teppanyaki.

The hostess at Ocean Blue said they got the email on this cruise to accept the Platinum coupon.  The only thing is the free

bottle of wine is not yet on their computer so they can't give one.  We got the free bottle of wine, which you can take to

your room, at Teppanyaki.  Got the usual cookies and choco strawberries.  

Itinerary -The itinerary is all weird because of the odd hours. some days you have to wake up at 6am, some you can sleep over

because it doesn't port at 1pm.  Starting next week, they'll stay a full day in Juneau.

We also didn't see any snowcaps.  I was told they stopped that trip 2 weeks ago... so if you are doing Alaska to see snowcaps,

come earlier.  Don't go in September as they don't do that route because it gets dark earlier and they don't want to go through

the area at night.  I thought it had something to do with hitting glacier a few months ago but that wasn't the reason they gave us.

Upgrade - we got upgraded to Club Balcony and they increased my insurance as well but not the gratuities.  Weird.

Whale watching - not as lucky as the other groups.  Now I understand what other postings said that the NCL tour had a bigger boat

and went with the non-NCL smaller boats.  I see the smaller boats go close to the whales but the NCL ones stayed far and didn't

want to go close.

Shows - Jersey Boys and Six are back on.

Victoria port - there are free shuttles to the town as soon as you disembark.  Go look for the signs.  NCL won't tell you as they

charge $49 to bring you to town.  The shuttles are free.

The only negative on our trip was they didn't pass by the snow caps which we were looking forward to and was disappointed

that we didn't see it.  Don't go later in the year if that's what you want to see on the Alaska trip.  Also got lucky it didn't rain.

The forecast a week ago was that it was going to rain all week.

Be careful though if you have travel insurance.  I bid the same to club balcony and we were charged $68 on top of our bid so I emailed Upgrade advantage. Below is their reply.  In short, they will charge you extra travel insurance based on your new room category. I will never buy travel insurance from NCL again. I'll go back to Allianz.