NCL Hamburg cruise port

Just booked a fjords/N. Cape cruise on the Jade leaving 6/22. I am not familiar in the least with Hamburg and wonder if NCL always uses the same port?

NCL have only rarely used Hamburg in the past. I believe that when the Escape was there last year it was the first time for years, if ever.

We used the new port (can't remember the name). It is a little way out of the city and a taxi journey away.

Thanks Keith. I haven't seen much about Hamburg on here, but didn't look very far back either. Hoping to get this all together without a travel agent or NCL's flight and pre-cruise transportation assistance. Have a feeling the fodor's 'learning basic German' site is going to come in real handy for me.

You can get some basic info about Hamburg and post your questions at: JMHamburg and others please help with Hamburg

Hamburg does only have 1 port, but 3 cruise terminals ...

Ships with 3000+ passengers are usually not in the downtown cruise port: cruise center Hafencity.

It's cruise center Altona or cruise center Steinwerder, Prinzenkai further out.

http://www.hamburg-travel.com/attractions/shipping-and-cruises/ship-arrivals/?__utma=78727693.904979312.1465568994.1465568994.1474039207.2&__utmb=78727693.1.10.1474039207&__utmc=78727693&__utmx=-&__utmz=78727693.1474039207.2.2.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)&__utmv=-&__utmk=187699502

The Escape was at Steinwerder.

I assume that is where NCL will use in future, although the Jade is a lot smaller so I suppose it's possible it will go elsewhere.

Thank you all. I will keep monitoring this thread and the N. Europe/Baltics Forum. Eventually NCL will let the cat out of the bag.

In the meantime, your answers have helped me decide to stay at the Radisson Blu at the airport, rather than try to find a hotel near the cruise port.

Our travel time, coming in the day before the cruise leaves, will be 16-18 hours anyway. That means we won't want to do much more than eat, drink, shower, sleep.

One more thing I have vowed to do after looking at pictures of the cruise port and airport...learn some basic German. Maybe I'm the only one that didn't know this, but Fodor's has a wonderful basic foreign language tutoring site with correct pronunciation recordings, in several different languages!

Don't know if this helps straight from Cruise Terminal yesterday. MSC Splendida, 4000 passengers, docks at Steinwerder every week and we wanted to get to city centre avoiding queues, taxis and public transport. The free port shuttle takes you to the port gates and then you are free to go anywhere. We are going to walk to the centre.

"walking from the Pier to the St Pauli Elbe Tunnel takes app 20 minutes. passing by the historical ship yard “Blohm und Voss”.

Once you reach and cross through the tunnel (which is a touristic point itself) you´ll be also in a very central and historical part of our city, the “Landungsbrücken”.

From Landungsbrücken you have the chance to do a sightseeing with the buses hop on hop off. There are in front of the Hard Rock Café.

And up there, you can easily take the U-Bahn (Metro) and take any direction through the hanseatic city of Hamburg."

Don't know if this helps straight from Cruise Terminal yesterday. MSC Splendida, 4000 passengers, docks at Steinwerder every week and we wanted to get to city centre avoiding queues, taxis and public transport. The free port shuttle takes you to the port gates and then you are free to go anywhere. We are going to walk to the centre.

Is this when embarking/disembarking, or. As a port of call?

Getting into the city is fairly easy when walking, by using the tunnel. However, if carrying cases then it is not as easy.

The OP is embarking there, in which case transport is probably the best plan.

In the meantime, your answers have helped me decide to stay at the Radisson Blu at the airport, rather than try to find a hotel near the cruise port.

If you can then I would recommend having a day or two in Hamburg before the cruise. It's a great city. In that case, obviously a city centre hotel would be sensible.

However, if you are short in time and aren't going into Hamburg then I'd agree to stay near the airport. That would just mean one journey to get to the ship.

Port of Call. We embark in Southampton.

I will be flying in from Copenhagen after an NCL Getaway cruise (probably on the 28th), plan to stay at an airbnb and then embark on NCL Jade Norway cruise July 30. Any recommendations on where to stay so that I am in as close proximity to airport and cruise port?

It appears the Radisson Blu Hotel (check it out on Trip Advisor) is just across the parking lot, and easily walkable, from the airport. From all we have read I plan to book there soon, as we will be leaving Hamburg on the Jade in June the day after flying in from the midwest, USA.

The Radisson Blu airport is indeed just across from the terminal, easy to walk and roll your luggage. It's one floor up from arrival, but there is an elevator on the parking lot across the street. We stayed there in July. The hotel is convenient, clean, friendly staff, excellent breakfast buffet. The subway station is right in the airport.

All three cruise ports are in totally different areas and none is anywhere near the (inland) airport. The Altona cruise port is in an area with lots of hotels. I haven't looked at Steinwerder.

I think there is a downtown Radisson Blu as well about which I know nothing.

Thank you, Floridiana. You confirm what I have been reading.

By the time we land in Hamburg (day before cruise approx 1:30 pm), we will have flown 18+ hours.

Our cruise leaves the following day at 5pm. Planning to crash at the hotel so we can enjoy our embarkation day.

Today I reserved a plain old King room. I still have no clue which pier the JADE will cruise from, but it will come out eventually.

We always cab it to the pier because we don't like to meet any schedules other than our own.

I do appreciate your feedback.

NCL company said that the terminal that will use JADE next year

is Aitona terminal, (near the center)

Having been in Hamburg with MSC Splendida, as mentioned on this thread, coincidentally have now booked on NCL Jade leaving Tampa at the end of April on her way back across the pond directly after the total refurb. I guess you're looking forward to seeing that as much as I

Interglactic, you are right, it will be great to be on a newly refurbed ship. We love NCL's Jewel class ships. We leave on the Pearl (Panama Canal) in less than 5 weeks, it is getting ready to go to dry dock very shortly, so it will be on the other end of the spectrum. Have a great trip across the pond, that's on our bucket list.

Bobeponja, thank you, we will look forward to hearing that the Jade is at the Altona terminal waiting for us to board in June.

Is there a decent hotel that is near Miniature Wonderland? Does anyone know how far that is from the port? We leave on Jade on July 4. Thank you

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public transport in the city of Hamburg works very well, is easy, safe, and cheap

so, when you make a reservation in one hotel, doesn`t matter if its close or not

to one place, but is much, much better when you select an hotel close the transport

station, bus or underground, the part of the city that has special ambiance is St. Pauli

not dangerous, but special, if you travel with your family can go there, but there is not

a good place to stay in a hotel, Hamburg is an interesting place, with many things to do

I do not feel comfortable taking public transportation in Germany at this time because of previous terror attacks at train stations so if there is a hotel close to the Wonderland, then I will stay there and take a cab to the port and airport. I know I may be being paranoid but if I can avoid public transport, I will do. I have always been in awe of Europe's wonderful public transport but the attacks at train stations have scared me.

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I do not feel comfortable taking public transportation in Germany at this time because of previous terror attacks at train stations so if there is a hotel close to the Wonderland, then I will stay there and take a cab to the port and airport. I know I may be being paranoid but if I can avoid public transport, I will do. I have always been in awe of Europe's wonderful public transport but the attacks at train stations have scared me.

 

 

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I don't want to discount what you're saying, as you of course are entitled to your own feelings. But you can't avoid the airport, a restaurant, and your hotel-- all of which have seen attacks before and any public/tourist spots can be targets-- the key is to be aware but I wouldn't travel to Europe if it meant that I couldn't do what I wanted to do because of that fear.

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I do understand what you are saying. I avoid public transport in my own country as well right now, although I do use the airports but we bring only carry on luggage. We went to Europe last summer too and we did take overnight trains in Poland. The conductor told us to keep all windows closed and doors double locked and we didn't even ask about it. So I want to go but with certain cautions. Obviously nothing is 100% safe but to me it means minimizing the risk. I avoid crowds where I live too

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I found an interesting teaser/tidbit listed on the NCL board about the refurb of Jade, Intergalactic. Hate to hijack my own thread here but, check out the thread called "Jade Drydock - change to SE decor, Post #7 by TrumpyNor. He found an article with a few bits of info on her transformation.

@ angeleyes27

you may take a look to thread JMHamburg and others please help with Hamburg especially

post #4 'Hamburg - Some Basic Information'

and

post #9 'Reeperbahn' (regarding safety in St.Pauli)