Wrong itinerary Gem Greek Isles Oct 22nd 2023

[Enigami]

Heads up .. tonight we booked the NCL Greek Isles cruise on the Gem Oct 22-Nov 1 only to find out through the app that the itinerary actually has 2 sea days instead of Venice (tender) and Ravenna. This was just minutes after booking. We reached out to NCL and they just said "itineraries change," not even an apology. 
 
I'd been reading reviews on here and know the Venice port has issues, and wasn't very hopeful about actually visiting Venice itself given the tender/bus situation, but we were looking forward to spending time in Trieste & Ravenna (and avoid sea days).

We cancelled our cruise and starting looking at another NCL one visiting the same general area. We chatted with an agent before booking to confirm the itinerary listed on the website and she said that was correct. But I don't really trust them now so I decided to test them by asking about the Greek Isles itinerary and sure enough, they gave me the (wrong) one on the website that lists the Venice (tender) and Ravenna ports.  

Hope this helps someone else and if someone has recommendations for other cruise lines visiting the Mediterranean I'd love to hear them. Thanks!

[bluesea777]

The Oct 22 Gem actually starts from Trieste and was going to Venice & Ravenna on Days 3&4 after Koper on Day 2. 

 

I have been reading not so good reviews about Venice - ships being docked in industrial port area where passengers aren't allowed to walk about freely and they have to take lengthy tenders to Venice proper. Not a timely operation. Ravenna is a long way from Venice. After having been to Venice a few times before, it's IMHO that it's better if these two ports of call are dropped from the itinerary, as these two aren't easy and simple for passengers to enjoy. I have been noticing NCL has been adding new Adriatic ports to other itineraries, so perhaps NCL will find two new ports to fill in for the 2 "sea days".

 

If you were to take the Oct 22 Gem out of Trieste I would suggest you go to Venice on your own for a few days pre-cruise and have a magical time. Then travel to Trieste to board the ship. 

 

We were recently on the two back to back Alaskan cruises on the Spirit. Both itineraries included Valdez, a new port for NCL. Unfortunately the place wasn't quite ready for the influx of cruise ship passengers and to add to that the Spirit was too long to dock at the town's ship dock so had to dock at the Container Terminal over 3 miles away. It was a high security area and pax weren't allowed to walk away from ship to look around. The town supplied shuttles (school buses, motorcoaches) to transfer the pax between ship and town ... at a cost. There wasn't much to do in town, and what excursions the ship were selling were so expensive that noone were interested in. After 4 visits to Valdez NCL dropped this port from future itineraries this year. Not profitable.

 

 

[Enigami]

Thanks! Visiting Venice pre-cruise on our own was the plan, but we already cancelled the cruise because we didn't feel like we could trust them. 

 

My issue is not with whether Ravenna is a suitable port, or whether Venica (via tender) is a good idea, but that NCL sells these ports knowing that's not going to happen.