Live - Gem 10th July 2022 from Venice (Trieste).

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I will be reporting live from this Gem sailing from Venice with lots of pictures I hope.

 

We booked an inside but our bid of £90pp for a balcony was accepted on Wednesday 6th July (D-4)

 

We need an Antigen test which we did from home on 7th July from home by video and have our certificates, aprox £20 a test from Qured.

 

We fly British Airways to Venice at 6.30PM today from London Heathrow for a late check-in outside Venice in Mestre for an overnight before a train to the cruise on Sunday, we have a 10AM check-in but wont make that due the the train times, train is pre booked at 27 euro a head for the hour and a half trip to the port in Trieste.

 

We will also be picking up some wine in Trieste to test the new (?) corkage system for those with a beverage package, will report back.

After the Cruise which ends on Friday we will be spending some time in Venice and flying home on Sunday 17th.

 

Let the party start 🥳

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by ziggyuk

[TrumpyNor]

Great, thank you for taking the time to do this - we will be on the cruise that starts July 24th. 😊🤩

[TrumpyNor]

53 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

 

 

We will also be picking up some wine in Trieste to test the new (?) corkage system for those with a beverage package, will report back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

So different/lower corkage fee if you have a beverage package?

It used to be $15 per bottle of wine "pre-covid"..

[ziggyuk]

20 minutes ago, TrumpyNor said:

So different/lower corkage fee if you have a beverage package?

It used to be $15 per bottle of wine "pre-covid"..

 

The T&Cs now say no corkage fee if you have the beverage package, I will be putting that to the test on this cruise, not that I need extra wine but it's good to test the reaction.

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by ziggyuk

[Muckyduckway]

Looking forward to this- we're doing the same cruise in October.

Didn't know about the corkage policy change, so thanks already.

[jimbri]

Have a wonderful time!

[KeithJenner]

That may be a short cruise, but it’s hard to find a better selection of port stops. 🙂

[ziggyuk]

14 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

That may be a short cruise, but it’s hard to find a better selection of port stops. 🙂

They sure are, can't wait to get back to Venice & Dubrovnik, it's been too long.

[kimandtim]

Definitely will be following along.  Curious to see if you guys leave from main port in Trieste or are shuttled to a different one as was reported by another CCer.  Safe travels and have a wonderful trip!

[skeeker522]

I will be following along...we leave out of Trieste on Friday July 15th.  I will be grateful for your information and feedback! 

[Caligirl20]

We sail out of Trieste on the Gem 7/31.  Thanks for sharing all the info 🙂

[YVRteacher]

Hope you have an amazing trip!  The Gem is a great ship!  I’m looking forward to your live review.

[Muckyduckway]

Curious as to the location of your upgraded balcony? We were upgraded on the Jade in May and assigned a cabin almost all the way forward. We were happy with it but wondering if it's a given.

[ziggyuk]

10 hours ago, Muckyduckway said:

Curious as to the location of your upgraded balcony? We were upgraded on the Jade in May and assigned a cabin almost all the way forward. We were happy with it but wondering if it's a given.

It's a good location midship although they class it as aft not far from the rear lifts.

9618 from level 4 inside..... The covid level 😷

[ziggyuk]

OK so we are on the train to the port after a bad night.

It's history now but our flight was delayed and the hotel refused a late check in so we were left with no hotel and hotels.com were useless.

No harm, we managed to find a new hotel, not great but a bed for the night and all is fine today.

 

Just a bit of a panic yesterday, In the past I have found hotels.com very good but yesterday, I only needed a hotel and was happy to pay again but they did not want to help.

Oh well past history not to dwell on further, logged in the brain cells for further bookings.

About half an hour from the ports. 🍾🎉

[Muckyduckway]

Oh no, how late were you? Not the way one wants to start a holiday, hope that's all of the hiccups out of the way and all goes well from now on.

[ziggyuk]

1 hour ago, Muckyduckway said:

Oh no, how late were you? Not the way one wants to start a holiday, hope that's all of the hiccups out of the way and all goes well from now on.

At one point it was 2.5 hour delay but they pulled that back to 1.5 hours late.

That was yesterday, today is the ship.

[ziggyuk]

PORT DETAILS.

 

We walked from the train station to the port, just a 10 minute walk. No ship, we walked to the end of the port where some shuttle buses were waiting, the bus drive is about 10 minutes once the bus was full.

The shuttles are had to find, Costa and Tui were in the main port, walk past any ships in port and the shuttles are at the end.

 

 

[ziggyuk]

Corkage update 

Sorry but I can't update on this as our hand baggage went through the scanner with the wine in it and no questions were raised.

We did not get to test the system 🤔

[ziggyuk]

So we are onboard the ship now at 1.15.

After signing in at our muster station we went to the main dining room for lunch.

Very few people here probably about 3 other tables.

 

[ConnieTact]

22 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

Corkage update 

Sorry but I can't update on this as our hand baggage went through the scanner with the wine in it and no questions were raised.

We did not get to test the system 🤔

Maybe take it to a restaurant to see if they charge corkage?

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Mojito + Dark & Stormy

What should I order next?

 

 

 

 

[ziggyuk]

Going off menu for my first Caesar