CCJack

We were just on the Joy in one of those deck 8 club suites. We did hear the theatre but not very much, and it did not bother us or keep me from sleeping. Location is also very good in terms of access to things on the ship. We had the large balcony. However I would have rather had a normal balcony. The large balconies are very large but skinny and very deep. I felt like when standing in your cabin looking our your glass door it had tunnel vision and really restricted your field of view of the ocean as compared to a normal balcony. Of course if you are at the railing on the balcony the view was fine. We were on the St. Lawrence Seaway in September so it was too cold to be out there most of the time. So it depends on where you are sailing to.. Also note that these balconies are uncovered where as normal sized balconies are covered by the balcony above... the covering helps in terms of wind / rain protection IMO. That said, we really didn't have any major complaints with the cabin.. Have fun.

As others have said, I would not count on this. Consider you are looking 9 months in advance, and those direct / good flights likely have plenty of room and prices are reasonable. When NCL books your BOGO flights it will be 30 days prior to departure and many of those seats will be gone so the airline will raise those prices for those desirable flights, thus NCL likely will put you on cheaper flight combinations (that no one else wanted) I am all about saving money on domestic flights, I can sit in a middle seat to Florida. But for trips across the pond, I want more control. Besides very long layovers, I would also be concerned about very short layovers that I would not book for myself. I am surprised if you go to a travel site and look at what combinations they pull up for you, sometimes it is a little as 45 minute layover in a big airports like Frankfurt or Amsterdam. That is too tight for me, considering there could also be passport control, etc. Your choice to fly in 2 days early is a good choice though. You will get there if you go BOGO, but personally I like to book my own flights.

Those are two long Fjords and I thought our view of the fjords from the ship while sailing through was spectacular, maybe more memorable than excursions. I agree with the comment on weather. If you get up early to see the sail-in rather than just watching the sail -out in the evening, you double your chances of good viewing weather. While we were sailing into Flam, I was on the only person on the deck at 4:30 am for about 1.5 hours... It was very nice. All the other 4000 people (including my wife) were sleeping!. The views in the morning were much nicer than in the evening, since our sail-out was under cloudy skies and windy, plus a lot of activity with ship's dinners, etc. For this moment in my life, I thought I was the smartest person on the ship (or at least the smartest person in my marriage!) Note that our cruise line and crew told us nothing about the fjords, what they were, when we would enter the fjord in the am, etc. So it is worth doing a little homework before you go with a map.... such as when is your docking time? approx. how long will it take the ship to sail through (likely a few hours)? what time does the sunrise (likely very early)? etc.... so you can get a rough idea of a good alarm clock time! At least the ship had the coffee going for me at 4:30, which was a godsend! Have fun.

thanks, this is helpful. Sounds like Uber is the way to go.

Yes, if you hear more about this let us know.. i did look up the website and you board a boat at the old port and they take you to the new port, where you board their bus (van). then you bus to Oia, then to winery, then to Fira, then to new port and board boat back to old port where you can tender back to ship. In theory this would work. I am hesitant from your comments above about chaos as well as their website which isn't very good. It only allowed me to choose Carnival ship port dates, and only a few dates available. Bad websites make me nervous. Maybe we will hear more about this option.

I am curious to learn more about your uber experience, at one time uber was not allowed in Athens but they now allow regular taxis to use the app. But I have read that normal private uber vehicles are not allowed. I don't know any of this for sure, I haven't been there yet. Was your uber pickup a normal taxi ? I guess it doesn't really matter as long as they honored the uber fare from the app. Also, your trip to the museum was from the airport? thanks.

I am convinced that the CEOs of all the main cruise lines meet once per year in secret and renew their pact to serve horrible coffee on cruises. In that way, all passengers must pay $9 per cup of premium coffee no matter what cruise line they go on. By the way, this is illegal and should be reported to the S.E.C. (Securities and Exchange Coffee committee).

thank you all... these are all great inputs.. A couple questions... itsnotjustme... how was the volcano hike? We are not on B2B so if we do the volcano we will not go to Fira. Do you think Fira is a "don't miss" place? We are on a 9 day cruise with 8 ports so we will be busy and I am fine skipping some towns if necessary. Another option is the Oia excursion (without winery) and take our chances on the cable car down. It is listed as a 3 hour excursion that starts at 9 am, so I would assume we would be in Fira at noon with cable car tickets, then we could may be be in line for cable car by 1 pm or so. There are 3 ships in port that day but one of them does not arrive until 2 pm, so basically a 2 ship day for the morning / early afternoon. All ships stay until 9 pm. I am hoping a 1 pm line for cable car down would not be too bad.

Our NCL cruise lists about 5 different excursions for Santorini. The descriptions are very poor in terms of telling you the logistics, and in Santorini the logistics are important. My understanding is all cruiselines tender their "non excursion" passengers to the old port and then you are on your own to get up the cliff to Fira via cable car, donkey, or walking the 600 steps. The "excursion" people are tendered to Anthinios so that they can board buses for their excursion. My question is, do the NCL excursions all end up at Fira, where you can spend some time on your own and then cable car down or walk down to the old port and tender to the ship, or do some of the excursions return you to Anthinios? I am considering booking an excursion just to avoid the possible 2 hour wait for the cable car but would still like to see Fira and walk down ourselves after the excursion. My guess is they all end up at Fira. Thanks for any insight here.

I would just make sure you understand the credit card's travel insurance coverage very well. I have had good luck cancelling 2 cruises when I had 3rd party travel insurance, I got everything back I was owed. However, with a "free" benefit on a credit card I would be suspicious. Travel insurance can get very complicated in terms of what is covered and what is not.

You could get a lot of differing opinions on this topic. My 2 cents.......... (our last cruise was NCL Joy, but previously on RCCL, Celebrity, Cunard, Viking, others) Food: I thought the food on Joy was outstanding, MDR, SD and even the buffet. Better than the other lines. Value: NCL seems to me to be the best value. For us, we lately have been more interested in spending our money on the destination / itinerary even if if means going with a lesser cost cruise line. Entertainment: On the Joy, we had one production show which was very good, but everything else seemed so-so..... a victim of budget cutting I suspect. A Beatles tribute band was good, but they had them play 3 nights with different song list and re-titled the "name" of the show to get 3 nights main entertainment from one band. Ship: Joy was fine. Very clean and no complaints. Not as beautiful and unique as Celebrity, Cunard, or RCCL. Cabin was great, they all seem to be the same across cruise lines now. Free-Style cruising: I like the tradition of more formal dress, but have grown to hate packing a lot of clothes, so informal is fine with us now. However, free-style isn't really free style in terms of schedules. On the Joy, it becomes a challenge to get the reservation times before anyone else, otherwise you end up going to entertainment / dinners at whatever times they have left (if they have any at all) which isn't really Free Style.

We really enjoyed Glacier Wilderness Safari out of Skagway. It includes about a mile hike through woods, canoeing (large 6 person canoe with a motor!), all to get to the Davison Glacier....I think it would be perfect for active teens. Also, I think whale watching would appeal to all ages.. We got extremely lucky on our whale watching out of ISP and saw fantastic views of whales.

the Pan Pacific would be great location,,, however, note that there are a couple of other hotels such as the Pinnacle and the Marriott Pinnacle (2 different places) which are an easy walk to the ship, even with luggage. We stayed at the Pinnacle hotel and it was very nice and convenient.

Cannot answer your question about the tea, but we were just on a similar cruise last month and I think Quebec City is the prefect port to skip the ship's excursions. The ships dock right near the old town and there is lots to do there in the city. We booked an independent city walking tour that started near the visitor center right across from the Frontenac and it was a great tour. I believe the hotel is open to walk into on your own and go to the restaurants, etc.

thank you... Our itinerary shows 8 am arrival, but ship's excursions list 9 am departure, but that might not be too reliable. I am thinking maybe the excursion bus leaves at 9, tender for cruise excursions may be before that (8?) , then other (non-excursions) tender to old port even later.

thanks, this is helpful. Considering both of these options (ferry/taxi to Oia, or a cruise excursion bus from Athinios.) I have read that the only way they tender you to Athinios is via a ship's excursions, all others tender to old port / Fira. Is this true? Leaning towards the water taxi to Oia. We are early risers, and tend to head out early. Maybe back at Fira to head down to tenders by 2 or 3 pm. We have 3 ships in port (9/9/24) but one doesn't arrive until 2 pm, we arrive 8 am, all 3 stay late until 9 pm or so. Maybe cable cars down would be doable at 2 pm. Walking down would be an option for us too- we are walkers...

I was told on the Joy to come to GS the evening before the last full day, so if Sunday disembarking then come Friday eve. I did and they gave me my cash. I suspect this is ship specific or maybe even employee specific. They have some wiggle room I would think. Avoid the night before embarkation if possible.

Thank you Hank,,, somewhat related question...... with 9 days in ports we likely are going to be looking for one or two days to take it "easy" and not have a full day excursion but just an easy walk in port near ship or something similar. Not sure how Santorini with its crowds fits into this planning....

We took a cruiseline cruisetour a couple years ago and loved it. I hope you have a good time. Although you can customize a driving trip yourself and see more in less time, driving on vacation is not for me. I do plenty of driving in my normal life ! We really enjoyed the scenery from the bus, commentary from the tour guide and driver, and also meeting other folks in the group.. One downside is we were told very little from the cruiseline about our tour before we left (excursions, etc.), but once we boarded the bus it was very well organized. We took only a couple excursions, we spent a lot of time day hiking around the lodges, etc. Not necessarily in the park on on an excursion.

I can recommend gogenova tours. It was a walking and public transportation (with ferry) - but outstanding day.

We were just on the joy. There were 4 BJ tables and two of those were $10 min for the duration of the cruise. However they paid 6:5 for blackjack.

They said there is not a fee, instead they give you a brand new quote (as opposed to the 2 for 1 price you are presented at booking + fee). Especially if you want to upgrade cabin class for an international flight that quote will be a lot more than what you are presented during cruise booking for the 2 for 1 air price. I know on Viking we paid $75 on top of their "special" air fare, and it actually worked out well for us..... they worked with us on flights and the $75 was well worth it. If NCL did that at one time, it looks like maybe the process has changed somewhat.

Thanks, I decided to book directly with the airline. I did call NCL and the agent was very friendly and explained the process but I decided against it. For reference here is what I was told: (note this is entirely different than the 2 for 1 special, where your tix are assigned by a computer 30 days out, etc.) between 200 and 100 days pre cruise you fill out a form and submit to NCL. the form allows you to indicate preferences such as cabin class, approximate preferred departure time, etc. they come back with a quote and suggested flights. you don't get to specify exact flights. Quotes will be more than the 2 for 1, 30 day out thing.... I wanted to be in control even if it costs more. Biz Class is out of our budget but I am not sitting in Economy for 10 hours, so premium economy is what we want. For some of these big transatlantic planes they only show 10 or 12 PE seats and in some cases some seats are already booked 11 months out. So waiting until 200 days out makes me nervous. It looks like post-pandemic there is a lot of people traveling so we all can expect to pay a premium for cruises and flights and need to book early !

I would like to choose my own flights, I see there is a number you can call NCL and they will provide you a quote for air. I think this is different than the 2 for 1 specials and the deep discounts where they chose your flights 30 days prior.... My question is....are there any advantages to calling NCL to get a quote vs. booking on your own with the airline. Do they offer a discount, or is there any other advantages to involving NCL? This is for Detroit to Athens. thanks.

NCL getaway. Sept. 2024. NCL not my first choice but i really like 0 sea days and overnight in Istanbul.