Bennyboats28

Hi, 

We did this cruise last year and we also went for the Christmas markets. What date do you sail? In the Netherlands the Christmas markets tend to finish in early December so depending on what date you sail could determine whether they will be open or not. 

For rotterdam you could go during the day to Amsterdam for the canal boat tours and they may have the Christmas market barges set up but again depends on what date your sailing. As you have children I would not recommend going to Amsterdam at night. 

For Bruge it's an absolutely beautiful place to visit even better at Christmas. As a top tip just outside the port area is a coach company that runs a shuttle to Brugge for the same price that P&O want for the train that takes longer. Once you get off the ship and walk outside the port gates, walk straight 100m and there should be a cabin where the shuttle company is. Costs 15 euro an adult and will get you to Brugge in 15 mins. Your welcome 🙂

I just got off the Explorer this Sunday. Although not directly related to your question I'm a rugby fan and wanted to watch the world cup on the ship. There was only one channel called sport24 but it did not show all of the matches as this channel would share the coverage with other sports so you are at the mercy of other sports. 

You could watch this in your stateroom or in the sports bar on deck 4. There was 2 other US sports channels but I think they just showed college football. Hope this helps 🙂

Hi, 

 in santorini you will be tendering from the ship. If you intend to go ashore quite early you will need to get a tender ticket which is usually given out in one of the public areas. Once they have gone through the tender tickets they will announce an open tender where you can make your where down to the tender without needing a ticket. 

One thing to bear in mind is that it can get very busy if there are more than one ship in waiting for the cable car up to OIA which can make significant delays. If you have a shore excursion booked they will drop you off in a separate area to catch a coach. 

Other stops are docked 🙂 hope this helps

Hey there, 

 We are also from the UK and when you book the free at sea drinks package the gratiutes are included for the drinks. 

The DSC (daily service charge) is not included in the promotion. 

Hope this helps. 

Did NCL give a reason for this change? 

We're going on RCI in October to Corfu and hoping this isn't something related to the port. 

1 hour ago, sgmn said:

Mykonos, we've taken a trip to nearby Delos. Book at a booth in the harbour Quay. Great for wondering around the ruins but no shade on hot days. Back in plenty of time to enjoy Mykonos and have my favourite Greek Salad in a taverna.  I've heard it's easy to do a beach day in Mykonos 

That's a good option for the OP. 

One thing to bear in mind in Mykonos is that it can get seriously windy on most days. This should not be much of a problem if the oydessy is in the mykonos Dock. If the ship is tendering however and it gets very windy it would be touch and go whether they can run  a safe tendering operation. 

Both Mykonos and Santorini can get seriously overcrowded depending on how many ships they have in port. 

For both of these ports the best thing would be to check on the day how many ships there are in. If there are more than two I would forget venturing ashore. 

My only worry with the new build process for RCI is what is going to happen to the amplification schedule for the older ships? 

It seems that RCI is focusing on launching new ships rather than amping existing ones. I know there was a schedule to amp the older ships and that was delayed due to Covid but that is beginning to look a bit silly considering there launching a multi million dollar new ship. I hope they start amping the radiance class as we love that class along with many other RCI cruises. In Europe we seem to be left every year with RCI ships which are very old or which have not been amped (except Oydessy and Symphony) 

This ship unfortunately is not for me but I wish everyone happy sailing who does go on the Icon 🙂

14 hours ago, troutfisherman said:

Just had an email to tell us that they have cancelled our cruise departing from Limassol on 30th July 23 and that the ship is now cruising from Haifa. Not going to bother re booking anything as I’m fed up and pissed off.

Sorry to hear about your cancelled trip and I feel your frustration. RCI has a habit of constantly repositioning ships in Europe as over the past 4 years we have had 3 + cruises cancelled in Europe due to the company "repositioning" ships. 

Just now, Yesimapirate said:

What about on the ship?

Not required on the ship either 🙂

20 hours ago, Yesimapirate said:

Hope you had a wonderful cruise.   I've heard mixed things in masks on Greek departures.  Do you mind sharing your experience?   Tyia 

No problems, 

In terms of mask wearing it's now completely optional in Greek ports as to whether you wear one or not. It's also not required in the cruise terminal building either.

The cruise compass will stay say about wearing masks in Greek ports but that's because they haven't updated this since the start of the season. 

Hi Ken, 

I have just got back today from our Jade cruise which started last Sunday 18th September. 

Last Sunday we had to do a negative test 2 days before embarkation and when we got to the port it was being checked very carefully by the check in staff. People who had not done a test where being sent to the tent to do a covid test at around the 60 dollar mark. 

Not sure we heard anything about testing being eliminated this week but fingers crossed it's true as that is one less hurdle. 

On a separate note the Jade was fantastic and I will post a brief trip report in the coming days 🙂

11 minutes ago, trepidatiously_cruising said:

Is there a sauna or steam room available

Hi, I didn't use this but the vitality at sea spa on the pool deck usually has a sauna and steam room available

I'm not sure whether this is free or has a charge associated with it but your best bet would be to check your cruise planner to see if there is any charge. I believe it should be free but I could be wrong 😀

Hi Marta, 

I had this problem only a couple of weeks ago when trying to link my Jade cruise to my account. The problem I had was that the name of the guest used on the booking must match what you use in the app. 

I had to create a new account on the NCL app using my full name that was on the booking invoice and then I could link the reservation. You will have to create a new account with the full name matching the invoice and then login. Once you are then logged in it will tell you to link your reservation which then should work. 

Let me know if this helps at all 

I work in IT and would assume that they were updating the UK website for either the pricing/back end engine or other logic based changes. 

Hopefully it will come back online soon for you 😀

Thanks for the awesome review of your cruise on the Jade Benny. I am glad to see that you had a great time around the Greek Isles. This makes me very excited for my Greece and Turkey cruise on September 18th. 

Hope you have a Safe travel home and luck forward to your next cruise. 😀

You can book a ship for Europe the minute the itenaries are released however knowing RCI give it 6 months and either the ship will be swapped for something else or cancelled all together. 

It does seem recently that Europe gets whatever is left over from the fleet (excluding oasis class out of Barcelona and oydessy in Greece) that has been deployed from the US Ports. 

My prediction is that Anthem will stay in Southampton due to the weather round Northern Europe. An oasis class will probably do the Central med from Barcelona/Rome and the Eastern med will probably be covered by Oydessy and another vison class vessel that will be porting all over the place. 

Just my thoughts and could be wrong however 🙂

Interesting, looking forward to new announcements 

On 8/1/2022 at 4:24 AM, Elkins45 said:

I’m considering a solo four day on Independence of the Seas just to experience RC. It’s fairly cheap and this particular date doesn’t have as large a single upcharge as others. We’ve cruised on Celebrity, Princess, MSC and Carnival but never on Royal. How different is the Royal Caribbean experience compared to other lines?

Hi, 

Given your previous experience with other lines you will probably like RCI. As other cruises have mentioned you may want to book a longer cruise than 4 nights as this will probably avoid the booze cruises that tend to happen at a weekend. 

You did mention that you intend to cruise solo? I believe that NCL does studio cabins specifically for solo travellers. Could this be a viable option for you as well?

13 hours ago, JR3UK said:

Hey all,

Planning to jump on Symphony of the Seas when she sails around the Western Med in August 2023.

This will be a Fly-Cruise from the UK, transferring direct from the airport to the ship on sailaway day.

But there is a choice of start port for effectively the same 7 day round trip - Barcelona or Rome?

Is there a better choice of the 2 or doesn't it make any difference?

Price of cabin/cruise is negligible as is the cost of flights. Flight times not craxy different either.

Any advice or feedback?

Thanks!

Another vote for Barcelona from me. 

When we went there for our vison cruise in July we were through the Airport in 10 mins 🙂 Taxi transfer only takes about 15 mins down the motorway. Probably one of the easiest embarkation ports in Europe. 

If you didn't have a fly cruise package, you could fly with Vueling. They have very good prices and are very punctual with flights leaving on time. We actually landed in Manchester 30 mins early 

On 7/26/2022 at 2:30 PM, c-leg5 said:

Thanks, I am still not clear if this was a UK bookings only deal? 
 

I expected more flights to Cyprus since many Brits have holiday homes there but a quick search has only shown limited TUI and Jet2, along with their package holidays. I wondered who else flew regularly from the regional airports.Sounds like BA? - will have to check their schedule out.

Hi, 

We did the Jewel chartered sailing last year in October. What RCI did was that they chartered special TUI aircraft to get passengers over to Limassol. We were flying from Manchester at around 8am in the morning. Normally flights to Cyprus are in the evening from Cyprus so that's why they had to charter an aircraft to get us over there in the morning. 

They then put on a free shuttle bus for us in Limassol to transfer to the cruise ship. Looking back at this deal we got last year it was fantastic and it's looking unlikely we will get anything like this again. 

To answer your question yes it seemed to be a UK specific deal for the flights with TUI. 

Cyprus is a lovely island and I hope you enjoy your cruise on the Rhapsody. 

Looking forward to this. I'm on the Jade September 18th to Turkey and the Greek Islands. 

Hope you have a wonderful trip 

I'm not 100% sure but when I went through terminal 1 departures at Barcelona Airport last week I think there was a pharmacy that did travel covid 19 test for about 25 euros

I definitely understand your anxiety with pre cruise testing. Our past trip with RCI we were anxious before the cruise about testing just in case we tested positive. 

We are due to sail on the NCl Jade on September 18th sailing around the Greek Isles and we will probably have to test as well. 

As another poster has stated if you test positive whilst in Greece you will probably have to isolate in a hotel and then try to get your money back for the lost vacation time and holiday expenses through your travel insurance which will always be difficult. 

If you have any lateral flow tests in your possession my advice would be to take a test now (which isn't your official travel covid test) and then if you test negative this should put your anxiety at ease and give you more certainty for your official travel covid test. If you test positive this give you some more time to claim a covid cancellation refund. 

Hope this helps 😀

2 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

 

Money saving, staff shortages, or supply issues?  Probably a combination.

I think your right and it maybe a combination of all of the above factors. When the crew parade happened they said the crew was at 765 which seems pretty low but I'm not sure if that's normal for vison class?