Lvbhappy

Mykonos was beautiful. Thankful I am latitudes gold, and priority tender. This port was listed as dock but changed to a tender, not sure why. boats seemed limited, and we got in line at 1, were seated in the theater for priority tendering at 115, and we did not leave the shop until after 2. The people next to us tracked the breakaway, and said it was scheduled to leave at 3, and theorized that perhaps we were splitting the tender boats with them, for the people coming back and needing to be on board and us trying to get off. It was slow going but once we made it, very worth it and beautiful. I feel bad for those whose tender numbers weren’t until 30+. Can easily walk to little Venice and the church and windmills, gorgeous day in the 70s. Shop people were nice, restaurant was yummy, views were amazing. You CAN swim at the little beach there so if that’s your jam, do it! made it back on board just before sunset which we saw in the Obs lounge. Sad our cruise is ending but miss home, the pups, and our families. Cheers to the last night!

Daily!

Le bistro and beetlejuice! le bistro was amazing. Very high quality, service was amazing. Ysmeal the waiter was excellent, went above and beyond to take care of us. This is the only place to get that champagne everyone seems to love—by the glass. Veuve clicquot. after dinner waited around for a bit then got in line for beetlejuice! Theater is good, really don’t think there are bad seats in there. Show was very fun. I hadn’t actually seen the movie, so this was all new to me. Everyone enjoyed it thoroughly. A couple of the actors are in both icons and beetlejuice, so you’ll see them again. I though the lighting and background was well done for being on a ship. Actors/singers did an excellent job. Worth going to for sure! It doesn’t win my favorite show of all time though—that award is still held by Choir of Man on the encore.

And I appreciate this! My brother in law travels extensively and had talked up Istanbul, similarly to you. Hopefully our experience is just a one off, and not typical.

Istanbul! I have to admit, I was not looking forward to the turkey parts of the stops and I feel like this was warranted. Happily would have never set foot in this port and didn’t feel like I would have been missing anything. we got off the ship and ate in the little touristy area. Finally decided we’d go see the grand bazaar, felt like itd be safe enough, didn’t look like it was that far away. Ordered an Uber. Says it’s a yellow taxi but an Uber. Okay. 70-90 lira or $4-5 usd. We fend off other taxis and get into ours. He pulls out and then kind off pulls off saying something. We don’t understand so he asks for my phone. I say sure. He canceled the Uber ride and says 20€. the heck are we going to do. Say okay. ride the 30-35min ride, terrible and scary traffic, and get there and i hand him my card. He said cash only. I said that’s why I booked the UBER, so I could use card. Demands cash. I end up giving him $20 usd and 6€ coins. I’m livid. Still have to walk 8min to the bazaar. underwhelmed by the whole experience, and to be honest, want nothing to do with turkey in the future. We looked at google maps and opted to walk 2 miles back versus interact with any more Turkish transportation. It was faster than the Uber/taxi. There are some pretty things and sailing away the city looked beautiful in instanbul but on the whole my impression of turkey has been : aggressive sales, dishonest transport, and unsure safety. Honestly wish we’d just spent an extra night in Santorini. Caveat: this is just my opinion. Others may have a different experience and that’s great. There is a lot of history here, beautiful landmarks, but I didn’t want to pay hundreds usd excursions to go through ncl, and I didn’t feel remotely safe going through outside vendors.

It said taxi on the top. But in my opinion, max would be 20 ppl

Pizza daily in the buffet! Usually at least cheese and pepperoni and then one or two specialities. if you missed it, my post from the day we ate at onda, we had an AMAZING pizza there. Little knotted crust with cheese and a spicy bite inside. And in fira, we ate at a rooftop restaurant that had gyro pizza!! Ask for a side of tzatziki sauce.

We just got lucky. Our plan was to hoof it back up the stairs, and take an Uber or taxi from the top. We had 3h left once we got down the stairs. On the way down I started wondering if a water taxi would be available because it would be fun! Talked to the guy at the bottom and 10min later had it booked!

Yes they are. As soon as you get on board you can go to deck 6 and book dinner and entertainment.

It was 20€ per person. Loved it.

It was 47€ split between 3 couples. The Uber alone was 36€. we had planned on a taxi but asked our waiter and he’s the one that turned us on to the Uber. Goes “absolutely not. No taxi. Get an Uber, much cheaper, will be good.” I DO think we lucked out with a good Uber guy though, he did not have to do the tour. He very much said okay first time? We’ll take the mountain way. And if we can, take you to good picture spot. But will have to be fast bc big brother is watching (Uber meter). Needless to say, he got a big tip!

Definitely different! They had staples like the Big Mac, chicken nuggets, and fries. But at least half the menu is turkey specific. I got a picture of some of it! There’s a lamb one and I don’t know what the daba daba is but it was there. We drove right by one on our wine tour in Italy, and that’s what got me thinking about it—they had things like pistachio crossiants!

We have le bistro tonight, and….BEETLEJUICE!! Stay tuned:).

Random food buffet and seaside cafe pics!