Crazy planning mom

Thanks for your review.  Definitely recommend NCL as long as it's not spring break.

Any idea when those might go on sale?

Marmalade has a $135 tasting menu.  Can someone recommend something moderately priced in Old san Juan?

On 9/21/2023 at 6:38 AM, vjmatty said:

Well this is concerning, as we are sailing Infinity in February from Athens to Israel and Egypt. Since the ship will be in the Mediterranean for some time by then I would hope the food will be hard to mess up since it will be supplied by European vendors… but I’m sure they can find a way to ruin it anyway. 

Enjoy some delicious local food in Athens before boarding and when off the ship.

Hope you both feel better soon.  Enjoy Vegas and the Navigator.

Great review as usual.  Planning a land trip of Paris & London and this review was helpful.

Never mind I see it now.

Please delete

4 minutes ago, jwlane said:

Did you check the app for the current / upcoming sailings?

 

I didn't see them there but maybe I just missed it.

I was especially looking forward to seeing Rockumentary.  However, it hasnt appeared in the App recently.

I havent sailed yet just like to see what they have.  Has anyone sailed recently.  Are they still showing these two shows?

13 hours ago, aubreyc1988 said:

On the way back to the cruiseport, I am pretty sure the whole bus fell asleep so no van pics of the way back.

 

After being dropped off at the port, we had enough time to walk around, get some stuff to take back home, and grab a snack

Here is the AIDA in port with us today
 

 

And here is Anthem 

 

 

We walked around some

 

 

 

 

*

And here is where we went for a sandwich and a waffle. This was called a princess waffle and it was tasty

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You earned that waffle after the hike.

  You can walk on Matanuska Glacier.   We used Mica Guides but had to get there ourselves from Anchorage.

If you don't have a car, I believe Salmon Berry Tours has tours of Matanuska Glacier that includes transport from Anchorage.

9 hours ago, Beeline Cruiser said:

I would love to have sailed to all the ports but it was too expensive for us to get here just to drink!! At least our cabin was cheap and we spent a couple days in Seward. The casino is down too so not easy to blow the OBC! 

We are very excited to pick tours from Anchorage and ride the train back in the morning!!

 

You also may wish to try a quieter line like Princess although they don't have water slides, ice skating rinks.

Love reading your reviews and live blogs.

Have a great time!   Love Alaska.

Thanks for all the responses.   I am lactose intolerant and not a big fan of mashed potatoes.  I will pop a lactaid pill for something yummy but not a big fan of mashed potatoes.

Thanks.

Can I ask to have something else other than mashed potatoes with my entree?  

Unfortunately, COVID is on the rise and there is a risk with all forms of travel.  We did catch COVID on our only post COVID cruise.  However, we have another one planned.  We will mask im crowded indoor spaces as I do wear a mask commuting to work on the subway.  The other thing I recommend is bringing some OTC meds with you.  And, yes I plan to get the latest booster.

On 9/5/2023 at 10:12 AM, NYFirstTimeCruiser said:

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

 

Recommend PK Travel for transfer in Athens and to the ship.

17 minutes ago, Thoenix said:

Debating between three different ships and itineraries in Feb of 2024 for a first time cruise.  We're three autistic adults who will be sharing a cabin.  We live and work independently.  Two of us are absolutely obsessed with ocean liners, cruise ships, and other large boats, the third wants to sit on a pool deck with a book.  None of us have children.  We might get the refreshment package, but two of us drink no alcohol and one of us drinks maybe 3 drinks in a week even on vacation.  We don't intend to use specialty restaurants.  We care less about specific ports because none of us have travelled the Caribbean so all of it would be new to us and we plan to just get off for an hour or two at each port and wander around near the docks, probably not do any excursions (we find the idea of most excursion options we've seen to be stressful and too busy for us).

If you were us, which would you pick of the following if the pricing was close enough to make that not a factor.  We'd love to just say 'the most possible days on a boat' but also we recognise that the different boats might be more of a factor.

8 nights on Vision leaving Baltimore 
7 nights on Enchantment out of Tampa 
6 nights on Adventure out of Port Canaveral
 

Definitely Adventure of the Seas since it sails to Puerto Plata and Labadee.  Those are both good ports to get off and wander.  Not all ports are conducive and safe to just wandering.  Plus, the Adventure is newer than the other too.

On 9/10/2023 at 11:17 AM, paulh84 said:

Where did the loyal cruiser come from? They were the new and younger at one point. You have to start somewhere. The older ‘loyal’ crowd is at tipping point age-wise. I’m not sure the loyalist crowd are as important to the bottom line as some would like to think they are. 

True, but younger people enjoy food.  It doesn't have to be lobster per se but the millennials and gen xers aren't going to stay with Celebrity if the food isn't up to par.

12 hours ago, 70sGringo said:

We are on the Radiance right now (Sat 9/2/23). RCL did not inform us until about 4pm Friday, so we were already on the ACT bus from Seward. We have until noon Sunday to depart and RCL is comp'ing guests and calling it a "hotel experience", with free bus service back to Anchorage leaving at multiple intervals including today. We look forward to RCL following through on their promises of travel compensation and future sailing credit. The crew is doing the best they can under the circumstances with some amenities open (dining) and others (shops) closed. Guest services has been packed since we boarded and I noticed some people virtually melting down over their predicaments. I also have not encountered any credible explanation of what the exact mechanical problem is, nor do I think I will get any. My advice to people on the Northbound trip (Vancouver-Seward 9/8/23) is to call RCL EARLY and get their best idea for disruption  mitigation. FYI, we decided to stay in AK for the balance of the week and self-fund some land based stay and travel. Not sure if we have any recourse to recoup any of that portion. Whale watching in Juneau (Harv n Marv) and Ducks tour Ketchikan quickly refunded our money, which is above and beyond their printed policies. Kudos to them for prompt responses. We look forward to the next "adventure".  : ^ )

We ended up doing a self guided trip of Alaska in 2021.  Recommend take a Mica guides tour of Matanuska Glacier.    Matanuska Glacier id an hour and a half drive from Anchorage.   Also, Denali.  In addition to the bus in Denali, my husband and son ziplined nearby.  We also loved our Kenai Fjords boat tour out of Seward.

1 hour ago, MCARAB1 said:

Sorry for any confusion on proper protocol on posting. I’m not real tech savvy and don’t understand how to use this site to get information or ask questions. Would love to know the actual steps to take to find information about port stops and independent contractors for excursions and hotels as NCL doesn’t show options for pre cruise stay as definitely want to schedule flights to arrive the day before embarking just in case any flight delays 

thanks again to complawyer!

We took a similar cruise on the Jade last year.  We stayed at the beautiful AVA Boutique Hotel in Athens which was a short walk from the Acropolis.  Link-  https://www.avahotel.gr/  For more information on Greece ports visits the Greece forum  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/463-greece-ports/

In Israel, I highly recommend Guided Tours Israel.  We had a wonderful tour with them.  Here is the link" - https://www.guidedtoursisrael.com/

For more information on Israel visit the link below and Tripadvisor also.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/19-africa-amp-middle-east/

Our very first cruise 25 years ago was on Celebrity.  My parents treated us.   The food wowed us.  We started a family and then cruised Royal. Carnival and NCL.  Now, we are booked on Celebrity again and it seems the product is downgraded.  If that's our experience, it's back to Royal/ NCL.

We sailed on the Jade in 2022 on a 7 day bucket list itinerary without kids.  We enjoyed it very much but there wasn't a ton of activities.   I think I would be bored for 14 days on her.