Captain Canuck

what do you call a bus full of lawyers at the bottom of a steep cliff

a good start

we cruised out of Barcelona. Choice of Madrid was made for us. We flew on airmiles and Barcelona was not an option. so we flew to Madrid and spent a day or 2 (cannot remember). visited the Prado museum.

flew to Barcelona and spent 2 nights pre cruise. stay on or near Las Ramblas walking street with outdoor cafes etc. there is a hop on hop off bus that the main stop is at the base of Las Ramblas...you can see the highlights of Barcelona that way.

our only issue is that they cancelled our return flight from Barcelona to Madrid. put us on a later flight and we had to run from one end of the terminal to the other to catch our non refundable airmiles flight home. they left a message on our home phone to advise us that the earlier flight was cancelled. apparently they could not figure out WE WERE NOT THERE.

have a great time

unilateral offer made by NCL

cruiser is the one accepting

but I am also sure there is something in the fine print of the offer that gets NCL off the hook so probably no legal recourse

fine print also probably has rules requiring arbitration on Neptune in 2073.

and again free legal advice worth everything paid for it...plus I am Canadian and while US law is based on the same common law as ours the US does have a lot of weird statutory stuff

only chimed in to agree that the treatment of a customer by NCL was wrong. They may be legally right but blaming the customer not cool.

Carlyle and the Carbolic Smoke Ball Company

unilateral offer once accepted is a contract...basic contract law...call back

there is now a people mover from port to square where you can get an airport bus

think the mover is 1 euro and the bus is around 4 euro each...

way cheaper than taxi and fraction of water taxi

you are going the wrong way from port to airport to see much of Venice...but you see Venice from the ship arriving in port and it was amazing when we did this

Hi there,

My husband and I are going on our very first cruise ever and we are very excited. We will be on the Norwegian Epic and will be at sea from May 8 2016 to May 15 2016. We will be leaving from and arriving back to Barcelona. The ports we will be stopping at are:

 

Tuesday 10 May (7am-7pm) - Naples/Pompeii

Wednesday 11 May (6am-7pm) - Civitavecchia (Rome)

Thursday 12 May (7am-7pm) - Livorno (Florence/Pisa)

Friday 13 May (8am-6pm) - Cannes

Saturday 14 May (7am-4pm) - Provence (Marseille)

 

We are trying to work out land tours/activities at each port and will really appreciate any advice on how to book, who to book with, etc.

 

Thanks heaps :):)

in Naples we planned to use local train to go from Port to Pompeii...lots of info online to plan this...ship then put on a bus to and from the ship to Pompeii for reasonable price..drops you off at site then picks up in a few hours..ample time to explore Pompeii

I would have on your own planned but be able to switch gears if easier option is open

other option in Napes is to go to Capri. There are ferries and hydrofoils from port to Capri. You can also go take a ferry from there to Sorrento and take a train back.

Amalfi coast is also doable. but traffic there is a nightmare. We do not normally take ships excursions as they are expensive but did so on one of our earlier cruises that stopped in Naples as the ship will wait for their tours if late. Our tour was late and the ship waited. If you are on your own it would likely leave.

ROME

easy day trip on train. search on Cruise Critic. people have put full details up with maps and photos of trip. get a return train ticket (use machine to stamp it in the station ) as this also acts as metro ticket in Rome. Plan on a few sites in Rome as you will not have time to do everything. Also, if you go into the collosseum or the Vatican or Vatican museum these take lots of time. for that reason if you can afford it a tour may be worth it as it will cut the lines.

Livorno

We did the train to Florence and stopped in Pisa on the way back. If you want to see David get tickets online. Time spent there means Pisa a gamble. If taking the train try and plan on not taking the last possible train back to give you a second chance should you miss a train.

Cannes

We just walked into port here. There are great views up the hill to the left of the port.

Hope you have a great trip. Its been awhile since we have done these ports so I suggest using search function in cruise critic to get up to date advice.

take no clothes and you may make $

...have a packing story for you..we went on a cruise out of Athens..I had packed at least 2 months before. Just before we left we bought a new suitcase and I moved my stuff to it. Or at least I thought I had. For some fool reason I packed my undies in the outside zippered pocket on the suitcase. 26 inch high bag so the pocket did not show any contents.

got to Athens and realized I was either going commando or shopping in Athens for underwear. I made the mistake of emailing this tale of woe to a friend. When I got back to work there was a photo-shopped movie poster of the movie "Commando" with my head on Arnolds body.

your room card is not only key to open the door, its your id to get back on the ship and an onboard credit card. really easy to run up a bill when all you are doing is signing for drinks etc.

not saying you should overly focus on that but just be aware of it.

other 2 cents is do not try and do everything you are interested in. hopefully you will cruise again. its okay to pack your days but include time just to relax otherwise not a vacation

have fun

can only see an issue if your party is bigger than normal tables

does have a rep as a party ship

we have done a few...but since we go to bed early have never really noticed any noise

like on any cruise you participate in what you want to

did have friends who got unlucky and had next cabin full of a bunch of really noisy women who bothered them the entire cruise..but that can happen on any ship

thanks for the update..we were on 3 years ago...went for regular walks in that area and it think I only stopped there once for a donut

if I remember right the donut shop was actually just across from the hot dog stand and was self serve cabinet

there is a Starbucks on the Oasis....usually went for a couple of morning lattes

ship coffee not bad ..AND there is a donut shop towards the aft of the ship by the carousell ..actually free donuts and coffee...also a Johnny Rockets were breakfast is free and made to order

prepare to get addicted

you can look at cabins here: http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/cabinclass/cabinTypes/home.do?cabincls=B&br=R&shipCode=OA

can fit 4 but might be a tight fit...I would also shop and see what the difference is between a family balcony and a regular balcony and an inside. you will get a bit of privacy plus for group stuff you can enjoy the balcony cabin.

lots and lots of stuff to do on the Oasis...you may not use the room for much more than sleeping so 2 inside cabins could be an option as well. they call them interior cabins.

have fun

two reasons to look into taking the metro

1. Athenian cab drivers are mostly war criminals..ok too harsh but deserved reputation for being dishonest

2. surface traffic can be a nightmare...especially if you happen to run into demonstrations. metro is likely to be more timely

only issue may be getting from ship to metro. we did it the other way which was easy...there is supposed to be a shuttle from the port but not sure how it works

Hi-

 

I am going on the Norwegian Epic next year and am wondering if anyone has gone to any of the ports:

 

CRUISE PORTS EMBARK Barcelona (Spain); Naples (Italy); Rome (Civitavecchia) (Italy); Florence/Pisa (Livorno) (Italy); Cannes (France); Provence (Marseille) (France); DISEMBARK Barcelona (Spain)

 

 

My question is- if we want to explore ourselves how close is everything to the ports listed above? Can we walk or do we need to take other transportation?

 

Thanks,

Danielle

stayed in a hotel on Las Ramblas main pedestrian street in Barcelona. Hop on hop off bus is good. metro is easy. watch out for pickpockets.

have done naples a few times. Pompeii is easy to get to. train goes there close to port but fairly industrial. we had planned to do that but then the ship put on a reasonable excursion that was just bus too and from Pompeii. Have also done Capri. Ferry docked right next to the cruise port and we walked on just as it was leaving. decided to take the rapid ferry back which docked about a mile and a half away from the cruise ship and out of the line of site was an easy walk but a little stressful as we were not sure where we were.

did Florence and pisa from Livorna by train. fairly easy to do. tower of Pisa a fair walk from the train station so watch your time getting back to the ship. if you really want to get into the Ufizi this should be planned and ticketed in advance...we decided it was not worth taking up all our time.

Cannes is an easy walk in from the cruise dock.

have fun planning

repositioning cruises in the fall when they take the ships from Seattle and Vancouver down to LA for the winter can be really cheap. also a nice way to visit San Francisco

October is good...might get to see the fall colours

forgot about Anthem of the Seas...the ship is almost a destination in itself...have not been on it but have done Oasis and Allure.

have you done cruise to Canada...our dollar sucks at the moment so your money will go far up here....we did one out of Boston which hit Bar Harbor etc. Was really good. Quebec for a 6 year old is just one step up from Epcot but will give a taste of anther culture.

funny you should say that...long time ago for work I got a helicopter ride from Inuvik to Herschel Island..over the Mackenzie Delta...when we got on they gave us the safety warning...if we went down in water we had 2 minutes to live with the hyporthermia...probably the last time I ever paid attention to the pre flight safety demonstration

having a basic plan with alternates is the best plan

means you have facts at your fingertips if things change

excursions do fill up..especially the ones with limited spots such as helicopter tours in Alaska...I am too cheap for those so not an issue for me

amount of planning also is based on type of cruise..when we do Europe it is important to have an idea of what we want to see. normally like to do it on our own and public transport is normally good....but for example in Naples we had train route planned out for Pompeii plus local bus there...but the ship put on a reasonable excursion with just bus transport to and from Pompeii so we grabbed that

and for me planning is part of the fun

hope you have a great cruise

been almost 3 years since we were there...walked into town. there is a beach promenade as the town is a beach resort..but while there is a lot of Germans it is more Muslim re dress etc. felt very safe and welcome.

also a fort right by the dock