CCJack

This is a perfect city to do this. Your ship will likely be docked right in the old town. If your timing allows consider a walking tour tour which starts at the visitor information center near the Frontenac. We did it and it was a great 1.5 hour tour. QC is beautiful and very walkable (although hilly). Airport is not real large so plan on average arrival time. We took a taxi from airport to old town, with no issues. (our cruise started in QC). GBR

The dock area around the ship is nice.. likely you will be greeted with local music and "carnival" entertainers with music. Seemed like the locals really rolled out a welcome to the cruise ship passengers. We took a ship's excursion to Saguenay Fjord National Park. We enjoyed it a lot. You are bused to the Park, passing by the flood memorial (pyramid) and a couple other sites on the way. At the park, we joined a park guide for a hike up. It was a beautiful hike. The ship's excursion description listed this as "strenuous" but I have found those cautions to be exaggerated a bit. We are 60 / 54 and had no trouble with this hike, but we are good walkers. The footing was a little tricky at some places. I understand you can also rent a car near the ship and drive to the national park, but we did not do that. Note the sail in and sail out up the fjord on the ship is very beautiful. Because our excursion headed in the opposite direction I cannot comment on the city excursions. Saguenay was our favorite port except for QC. Have fun.

one other credit card travel tip... we usually make sure I only carry 1 or 2 cards and my wife carries different 1 or 2 cards. We make sure we don't carry a card the other one has. In this way if we lose a bag or wallet, one of us will have a card that has not been lost or compromised.

Not necessarily a no brainer for me, but I would have to agree that CT gets the nod. Coincidentally, we were booked on a ship's CT excursion and we arrived at the meeting place 1 minute late (I swear!) - they left without us, so we had to rebook on whatever was left which was Pisa. I was pleasantly surprised with Pisa - Field of Miracles - I thought it was beautiful. On a later trip we went to CT and it is just more of an experience and more of an adventure than Pisa so I would agree that would be my first choice.

Many people report that land tours (as opposed to cruises) let you see inland sights in Iceland that cruise passengers can't get to in an afternoon. Maybe you can use your 5 nights pre cruise to venture inland and spend the night somewhere, perhaps on a guided tour? Golden Circle tour from Reykjavik is very nice - a full day tour. Blue Lagoon (if open) maybe 1/2 day. Downtown Reykjavik is fun to walk around and shop but likely no more than an afternoon. You may still have time for a longer excursion inland. Have fun.

We made this very walk to the bus station after out cruise... We did have luggage. No issues, a pleasant walk, however, some cobblestone surfaces made luggage rolling a little difficult. Nice weather = walk, bad weather = taxi !

We were on NCL Joy last September for a QC to NYC 1 way cruise. It was a great cruise, we were dodging hurricane remnants but I thought NCL handled it about as good as they could, we did end up skipping a port due to weather. For sure stay overnight in QC before or after - a great city to spend a couple days. I always prefer our land stays to be before the cruise simply because it helps if you have luggage delays from the airline (which we have had on at least one occasion.) We intentionally chose a cruise that had only Canadian ports (except for NYC) because we had already been to the U.S. New England ports, but that is strictly personal preference. Saguenay is a nice port due to sailing in the Fjord. I do remember that some people who booked air through NCL (to QC) were instead rerouted to Montreal and bused to QC, and some were not happy. We booked air on our own to QC and had no issues. A few days before our cruise they announced the departure would be delayed about 6 hours from scheduled, also due to NCL air passengers' flights - evidently air into QC is more limited than to a larger airport like Boston or Montreal. Just something to keep in mind, book early. Also, QC has a lot of boutique small hotels, which I wanted to stay at but couldn't pass up the free Hilton room with points. It turns out the Hilton is a great place to stay as well. It is big but very nice, and the views of the old town are spectacular especially from the higher floors.

Sequenay Fjord is beautiful to sail down, but you will only go in the Fjord if Sequenay is one of your ports. The rest of the St. Lawrence River is very large, you won't see land most of the time, so it is like a sea day.

Correct, For cruises in this part of North America, I like 1-way. It seems like R/T you are going to have sea days. Only 5 ports on an 11 day cruise isn't the best. I would choose QC your starting or ending point and then you can stay in QC 1 or 2 nights. It is a lovely city to visit and stay. Same on the backend in NYC or Boston. Maybe a shorter 1 way cruise then use the extra days for hotel stays. Your airfare may be a little more the a one way, but I would price it out as compared to a longer cruise. We loved our cruise in Canada / N.E. Enjoy.

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.