Huntingdon1701

That's excellent news! Thank you for sharing. Enjoy the rest of your cruise!

@HBCcruiser Thank you for sharing all this - I'm enjoying following along. You mentioned it was quite busy on the first day - how are you finding the crowds now? Have people worked out how to comfortably spread themselves across restaurants and bars?

Yes, it's always been the day before that they become available.

Thanks - very helpful to see. Unfortunately it means mine still isn't showing, but at least that clarifies that I need to speak to them down the line.

No OBC showing, and excursions are still mostly missing. The second email was even less accurate than her first.

Yes, it will. But it only means you can join the queue early and not cut in front, so you'll still need to get there early.

Hard to tell, since there are no Barbados options listed any more. Lisbon excursions do appear before Madeira, but that's also chronological - it's that all the Lisbon ones, and the Land programmes, are for disembarkation there, rather than Barbados. ie the transfers take you from port to airport, when you'll be needing the opposite. Can someone tell me where on board credit should be showing on the booked cruise pages? I can't spot it, but it might just be located somewhere less obvious than I expect. Or the email from the President might have been wrong about it being fixed.

Likewise!

They seem to have loaded my cruise backward, so rather than going Lisbon to Barbados, the excursions show it going the other way. Really hard to see how that could get that wrong without actively trying - but fortunately still many months away. Feels like an apalling situation for anyone with a nearer cruise though.

That should be fine. It's not a long tender trip. Just make sure you pick up tender tickets as soon as they're announced so you're in an early group.

They don't check, expecially in yacht club. I arrived two hours early a couple of weeks ago and they were ready to get me on board straight away.

You can only pay for the experience - but can't specify the time or day online. You have to confirm those once on board. It's unlike other cruise lines, and quite frustrating.

I was there two weeks ago in MSC's Seaside, which is a comparable size. She docked, as did the Epic alongside her. But if there's a third ship there as well, Getaway may well have to tender as there wasn't much space left with the two of them there. I'd go with the confirmation documents for now. Most tour providers will be keeping an eye on ships and know if there are changes that need to be made. (Some of them know before the cruise line tells passengers!)

Yes, I was on that second one, and we were all very nervous after hearing of your experience. We ended up missing two ports but still very pleased I made it there. Worth giving it another go, if you can.

You don't say. I was talking about the port in Iceland, which is the subject of this thread. The Star did two trips to Greenland from Iceland last year, rather than the more usual Iceland to Norway trips.

She's doing both itineraries in 2024. Maybe they haven't uploaded that r/t Capetown one yet, or you could adjust the date a bit to see if it's happening a different month. There was a recent review from the Jade doing one of these itineraries - https://www.worldofcruising.co.uk/editors-corner/south-africa-cruise-review-dave-monk?fbclid=IwAR0FjiXXkyT66aWIvbNOyX19Mbb822OFvm2pwiXDlh_y2u1AUUdBZOzp3ok

Not on the Star's Greenland cruise last year - we docked. It may vary depending on if other ships are in. The dock was big enough to take a larger ship than the Star so I would think Prima would just fit in. My documents for this August say we dock in Isafjordur, as the Star did.

I think Sea Pavillion is an option on some of the Fantasia Class? I seem to recall it on Splendida. Just off Seaside and the other option would be the Pan-Asian/Sushi restaurant as you say.

Just off Seaside's caribbean itinerary. There is not a lot of consistent shade there and I can't see where you could move a lounger to in order to get any. There are small eating areas either side which are shaded but they are upright chairs. The reliable alternative is the cabanas which booked up fast. It could be worth emailing the concierge in advance and seeing what prices are like and laying early claim. I suspect it will be more than $35 though.

The shorter cruises can be booze cruises, and I had a bad experience with that on P&O. However, I did a four-day one on Virtuosa last year in Yacht Club and it was great. The only minor downside was that the staff don't get to know you as well, but they're so attentive it's not really a negative. The fact that you can stay on board longer for disembarkation day also makes it feel a bit longer.

My hotel in Athens was happy to print mine for me. They also arranged for someone to come and test me in the hotel on the way back - it looked like most of the main hotels were bought into that offer. You should be ok. You're right that it's three full days before sailing for testing out of Athens. But I've also been on other cruises where they were fine just seeing an email version (although haven't tried that on NCL).

Thank you! And annmarz.

Thanks for all the useful information. I'm boarding on the 25th July. Was there any kind of priority boarding in Reykjavik for latitudes members? Or was it just based on arrival times at the terminal?

It's sold out, but as Birdtravels says it can open up again. That happened to me - disappeared 12 days ago and then suddenly popped up again. Needless to say I went ahead and booked immediately. Keep checking, and hopefully you'll get lucky. Another option might be to check places like viator and the specialist cruise excursion companies, as they often offer identical excursions, and can be cheaper.

Just got upgraded for Star's Iceland & Greenland Cruise on Monday - inside to Balcony (BA) for lowest possible bid (£125 per person). Good location for the new cabin so very happy. Would have cost about £1200 to pay the difference directly.