CCJack

I have not been on this excursion, however trying to decifer the description, I would guess that you do not go to Fira. It appears you tender to the new port (anthinios), then bus to Oia, spend some time there, then bus back to anthinios for a boat ride in the caldera. Then perhaps sail back to anthinios to catch a tender to the ship. Perhaps someone who has been on this can comment. I think it sounds like a good excursion if one wants to avoid the cable cars altogether. Unfortunately, it is sold out for our September 2024 cruise.

I have to agree... the sail - ins and sail - outs can be stunning (weather permitting). I was also on deck at 4:45 am for Flam (by myself as DW and all other passengers were sleeping!) Either go soon or follow the LNG rules, ships, etc. as Hallasam suggests.

I don't think it is necessary to make a special vaporetto trip to see views from the water as opposed to views from the sidewalk / bridges, etc. All views are great. The best way to see any city is walking, if you have the time and energy! However, as mentioned by meheartcruising, the vaporetto can be pretty convenient transportation to get you from point A to point B if you are looking to save some time compared to walking. If you are walkers, I would suggest walking from your hotel to St. Marks for the first time, it is a great walk. But then later in your stay if you are just trying to get somewhere consider the vaporetto.

We were there last September and took Uber to Newark airport. We docked at Pier 88, not sure if all NCL goes there but likely there or a next door Pier. Once we collected our luggage the only exit took us to the crosswalk across Hudson River Greenway - in the crosswalk there were many taxi drivers on foot, trying to hard sell the cruise passengers in the crosswalk. On the other side of the crosswalk there were many cruise passengers from our ship looking a little lost and it was crowded. We turned left, walked 2 blocks, got away from the crowd and requested an Uber from there. Worked great, no crowd. I believe it was about $65.

On your Barcelona cruise did you go to Rome? Both Venice and Rome and worthy cities to spend at least a couple nights in. If you have been to Rome, then perhaps a cruise out of Venice would be good, as you suggest. I prefer the 2 or 3 day visit to be pre cruise rather than post cruise. Simple reason is lost luggage... you will have a couple days for luggage to catch up to you before you cruise if the airline loses it. This very thing happened to us and it took 3 days to get luggage, but it was just in time before our cruise left. If you want to spend time in both cities maybe 2 days in Venice, train to Rome, 2 days in Rome, and then transport to Civi. Have fun... my favorite excursion from an Adriatic cruise was Lake Bled.

Do you need to be on board for the app to work (for reservations) or will it work the morning of departure, from the terminal (as an example.) thanks.

Very glad you made it without delays / cancellations...thanks for the update.

Trying to decifer the description of this excursion before our Greek cruise. Trying to decide if we just want to to Mykonos on our own, or take the small excursion. As an example, it is not clear if you bus from the ship to town and then walk, or just walk (we are OK with walking). Also, is there free time at the end, or could you just create your own free time by just not returning to ship. Overall thoughts on this excursion? Thanks.

Florence is very walkable and pretty easy to do on your own. Visiting the Duomo, the museums, then a couple hours for strolling will consume your day. That said, if a private guide or group excursion is in your budget, I think it is always money well spent to have a local show you around. If you spend the night, consider dinner on the top of the Baglioni Hotel. Outdoor seating with spectacular views of the Duomo lit up. I think it is now called B-Roof but it was not called that when we were there. Netflix's "Medici the Magnificent" is a great watch prior to any visit to Florence.

I agree. We have done both and prefer the smaller boats. The large boats (you sit in rows like a bus, likely glass covered and likely recorded commentary with headphones) are very easy to find (lots near the train station) and I suspect don't sell out. We went on "Floating Amsterdam" which appears similar to Flaship. You may be sitting around the perimeter of the smaller boat facing each other on sofas, with bar service and live commentary from the captain. These smaller boats are more expensive but worth it IMO. For Floating Amsterdam, we did need reservations (they were turning people away) but that may depend on the day. Plus the smaller boats may be more difficult to find, ours really didn't have a storefront, and if their boat is currently out on a tour, you could easily walk past their dock without even knowing it. If you know the day you are going to be there, I would do a little research and possibly reserve, rather than walking up to the large boats, which you likely will come across first. Have fun... Amsterdam is beautiful.

These are all good suggestions... My opinion is for a trip like this I would be focusing on the itinerary and price. All of these mainstream cruiselines would be fine for me (Viking, Royal, Celebrity, etc.) These trips are quite a bit different than a Caribbean trip. Since you are mixing Italian stops with Greek stops, the choices of cruises that do both may be more limited, although that Viking cruise is a good suggestion. Not sure what your requirements are for total trip time, but for sure tack on at least a couple nights pre cruise and hopefully 1 or 2 nights post cruise, even if you have to change to a 7 night cruise to meet your timing. We sometimes book a flight home the same day as debarkation but frequently airlines will change transatlantic flight times a month or two ahead of time, causing issues with getting to the airport on time. One hotel night post cruise helps with this issue, you will see loads of threads of people trying to figure out if they can make it from ship to airport on time after a flight time change. I think Venice is a city everyone should try to see at least once, but if you add that to your list - your list grows, and you may need to drop another port so your trip doesn't grow to be too much. Good luck, have fun planning.

I agree. No need for excursion. Spend 1 or 2 hours walking in Portofino, then either return to ship or head to S.M. for some more exploration. No worries about missing ship as you have a long port day and will never be that far away from the ship.

Good luck with the biopsy results, lets hope that torpedo misses by a long ways! In my opinion Quebec City is one of the most beautiful cities in N. America and a perfect cruise stop as the ship will dock right in the old town. You can walk everywhere. It would be a don't miss stop for me. Saguenay was very enjoyable. The sail in / out in the Fjord is really nice. We went to the national parked and hiked up the Fjord. As others have said, there is not a lot around the ship so you need to have a plan / excursion there. Good luck.

a couple random thoughts... A 13 day cruise is always better than a 7 day cruise ! Do you have a preference of Southampton (perhaps visiting London) vs. Copenhagen. I put a lot of emphasis on the departure city... flying in a few days prior you get a 2nd vacation tacked onto the first. Both of those could be fun depending on if you have visited before / have an interest. I have been on one MSC cruise, a few quirks that just weren't for me, so I may pass on MSC in the future; but others may like it. I loved the Apex. good luck!

Just be aware that short layovers can be a problem too. If you go to one of the non-airline travel sites, I am amazed that they will combine flights that have a 45 min. layover in a big airport like Amsterdam or Frankfurt after your transatlantic flight. No way I would want that. I always book our own flights, mostly because I want to control my layovers. Good luck... enjoy your trip planning... We are on a cruise out of Athens this September.

Thank you. Yes, I think these words on their website are maybe in "travel agent" language, and somehow they got put on the customer facing side of the website. There is no way a regular customer could decifer those words without help. Just to be clear, if I answer Yes - would be considered for any upgrade even a BD to BB as an example. But if I answered "M" then they would not propose a BD to BB but only to a mini suite, or higher correct? I will also look at your suggestion of deck 10 aft.

I just talked to the agent... PacnGoNow was the closest! The wording on the website is very poor: Complementary Upgrade M: Y/N Complementary Upgrade N: Y/N Complementary Upgrade Y: Y/N what it means is: "Y" means yes, you will take any cabin upgrade above your current classification (mine is BD) "N" means no, you don't want an upgrade. "M" means meta, you want an upgrade but only meta class (blacony) and not above. Since I chose yes (actually clicked a box) for all 3, it defaults to the N, so I currently am not eligible for any upgrade. The agent can change that. So the next question is if I get upgraded to any thing above BD is there any cabins I that could be viewed as a downgrade?

Thank you all... I reserved a specific cabin (B629) when I booked. I will call the agency tomorrow. Have booked many cruises with them and pleased with their service. I never was presented those options for other cruise lines. clarification... it was not "Complementary Upgrade, choose M,N or Y." It was: Complementary Upgrade M: Y/N Complementary Upgrade N: Y/N Complementary Upgrade Y: Y/N

Just booked our first Princess Cruise on Diamond Princess! However, we have sailed many other lines. I booked through a warehouse club travel website, which I have used many times for cruises. For this cruise, I was given the option of "Complementary Upgrade M" and another for "N" and another for "Y". I checked all 3 boxes, I assume that is a Princess thing allowing them to upgrade your cabin. However, I don't know what the M,N and Y mean. It appears that some suites have the cabin code "M" but I don't see any cabins labeled N or Y. If this upgrade is a bad idea, I can cancel and rebook. The cruise is a long way off. Our current cabin is BD deck 11. We don't really care about location on ship in terms of walking, but I wouldn't want an obstructed view cabin. Please share any thoughts. thanks.

We have taken 3 Med cruises, 2 in Spring/Summer and 1 at the end of December. Looking back, I think I enjoyed the December cruise the most. Some days we had to wear fall / or light winter jackets, but some days not. Everything was much less crowded. A few things were closed (Portofino shops and restaurants as an example... but we still went there and enjoyed the views with practically no one there.) Most places were fully open, however. Of course in the larger cities everything is open. This is a personal preference, however, but I enjoyed the cooler temps and fewer crowds.

Good suggestion, thanks.

Not a dumb question, but a couple things to consider. Some advantages of a ship's excursion (during the cruise) are: 1) priority on getting off of the ship early, 2) they guarantee return to ship on time, and 3) convenience of buses right at the ship gangway. None of these would apply for days prior to cruise, so maybe also look at independent tours or private guides and compare to the RCCL excursion price...

I agree. You have a choice at Mt. Roberts.... Hike up to the top of the tram or tram up to the top of the tram. Either way you can then hike at the top (going higher than the tram) - and enjoy the spectacular views. That is what we did. The trails at the top are easy but vast. You will not run out of trails up there, you can spend a little or a lot of time hiking up there.

We are on your cruise. American airlines moved our flight home on the 10th from 5:00 pm to 11:00 am, so we decided to spend another night and leave the following day at 11:00 am. . If they had moved to 12:30 like yours I think I would have kept Sept 10 departure. I would think you can make that. Note that Uber was not allowed in Greece up until a while ago. Now Uber has a pickup spot at the airport. There are some special rules.... perhaps only official taxi's can use uber app but not private cars... I am not sure about this I am not an expert . However the advantage of using the Uber app for a taxi is the price is set and paid through the app, avoiding the haggling with the taxi driver. Our plan is to use uber app. Good luck, we are looking forward to the trip!

I agree, I hope things go well. Although I don't like tight connections either, I think if the OP's flights are reasonably on time, they should have no problem making the ship. I would bet money they will hold the ship at least a little while since they moved it ahead, and there could be lots of people with tight connections now.