Ozmodiar

I was a couple of years away from making the criteria for Lifetime Titanium at the merger so missed it, but have Lifetime Platinum so that's fine. Biggest advantage to Titanium on an annual basis is the United Airlines Silver status - if you fly United but not enough to make Silver or higher, it's a nice perk.

I like NCL and have cruised with them for years now, but as someone who does like to go on cruises mainly for the ports, and have watched as NCL cruises initially promoted as having interesting and unique itineraries get changed very late in the process, I find this to be a troubling trend for NCL. Especially when it is for ports that are not commonly visited and are part of cruises getting a premium because of the unique itinerary. The tide schedule, the distance between ports and the related fuel consumption, etc., - all of those should have been accounted for during the planning of the itinerary so are not valid rationales, same with the port feedback. I feel they are flouting the very real need to let cruise lines change itineraries for weather, security, etc. so they feel no financial pressure to risk passenger safety, and are now applying that clause solely to their benefit. That was not the intention of the language in the contract about missing ports, to let the cruise line entice people with one itinerary and then remove ports after final payment for non-emergency reasons.

I was thinking you were sailing from the city itself (Manhattan Cruise Terminal) like the OP, no need to go into NYC for a Bayonne departure.

Thanks for this, I may try this next time I sail from the MCT. Always wanted to try the ferry.

If you are comfortable with public transportation, the train from EWR into Manhattan is pretty easy to navigate. You can even switch from NJ Transit to the PATH system at Newark Penn Station (different than the airport station) and take the PATH to Exchange Place in Jersey City, where there is a very nice Hyatt on the waterfront. However, if you're not dealing with a car, I would just head into NYC direct from EWR.

One thing to consider is staying north a bit - there is a large Marriott in Teaneck close to both I-95 or I-80. You'd enter Manhattan via the George Washington Bridge and take the Hudson Parkway south to the cruise terminal. Probably 30 minutes or less and for the city a fairly easy drive.

Do you need to leave your car at the hotel or will you then drive into the city and park at the pier?

I'd go with #1, especially if you have a day or two you can add to the start and end - both Istanbul and Venice are worth a couple of days, and Venice in particular is not a great single-day port stop now in my opinion (based on how it was handled last year, maybe Ravenna is better). From Trieste after you disembark you can easily take the train into Venice (or stay in Mestre on the mainland for less and daytrip in) - it is a few hours and a nice ride from Trieste. If you think you will be heading back another time, Athens is on many more itineraries as an embarkation/disembarkation port than Olympia and Kotor are as regular port stops. But none are bad. And I have done Med cruises in Nov twice now and it was very mild and comfortable - not beach weather, but also not 100 degrees, and less crowded. I think it is a great time to be there for sightseeing.

I can always remember where I've been and what I saw there, I usually need to lookup which ship I was on what hotel I stayed at. So itinerary for me every time, because the ship is what it is - your transportation and accommodations, not the destination. I know people go for balconies on Alaska cruise, and I certainly get why for parts of it, but you really want to be on deck when in places like Glacier Bay so you can move from one side of the ship to another, and experience that wider view, see more sky, feel more out in the open.

No reason to think that Turkey, Cyprus, Malta or other spots will be impacted by this. About 10 or more years ago I was on a cruise that was supposed to overnight in Israel than go to Alexandira. There was, compared to this event, a minor flare-up that canceled Israel, so went to Rhodes and Antalya instead, then on the way to Egypt the situation in Israel lead to some protests so that was scrapped and went to Malta. Not the cruise I had wanted, but interesting, nonetheless. They can avoid the area easily - 100's of miles away - and provide a great cruise, no need to fully cancel.

You will see Black Friday sales though in those ports, which I find amusing every time as it makes no sense.... Honestly, I've found flying to and from Europe around Thanksgiving to be cheaper than normal - I think travel is crazy inside the US, but less people seem to head overseas - Thanksgiving week is one of my favorite times to cruise Europe for that reason.

This will be a bit of a challenge for NCL as they were using Haifa as the disembarkation/embarkation port, so not as easy as adding a new port mid-itinerary. From Cyprus, I think the best option might be back to Athens. Not sure if Antalya, Turkey or Alexandria, Egypt could do the turnaround.

10 years from now you'll probably need to look up the name of the ship (I know I do at least), but you'll have clear memories of Iceland. If the itinerary is what you are going for, go with the better itinerary... For a cruise where you are going primarily for the itinerary, to less touristy spots and smaller ports, I would almost always recommend the smaller ship anyway - less people competing for excursions and restaurants and so on, just less people invading the town. Ísafjörður's population is less than the Prima's capacity for instance...

Some additional info: For the April Star cruise, those on tours through NCL got last minute meeting time changes that were much earlier - just a day after the initial tickets were distributed. I believe they were redirected at the last minute from having the tenders dock at St Marks (as that was the original plan from 2022) to the cruise terminal, which added at least 30 minutes of transit time each way. So instead of one tender maybe doing 3 round trips in say a 9 hour period to St Marks, it could only complete 2 round trips to the cruise terminal in that time. Meaning that in the future they'd need to hire additional tenders for what was probably already a very expensive process to provide what became a less-than-optimal experience for many. They have a lot more flexibility to get people to Venice from Ravenna or Trieste and can do so in almost the same amount of time (once you factor in loading the tender vs a bus, and the time needied to get from the cruise terminal to the transportation hub where the buses can go directly) with less cost and risk of weather issues and so on.

If they stick to the published itinerary, then they will anchor outside of Venice and tender folks in. If they substitute Trieste for Venice that day, then any tours to Venice will get there by bus. Unfortunately, this is why it is very confusing in terms of planning as it is unclear what might happen, if they will do the tendering from Venice or if they will rework the itinerary and dock in Trieste. It doesn't help that NCL refers to Trieste as Venice (Trieste) as if is interchangeable planning-wise.

Not sure if you are being literal with "ferries" but from Trieste they will bus people to Venice, and individuals can take the train. Way too far for tendering - 60+ nautical miles. I agree with others that Trieste itself is worth a day exploring - either get there a day early and explore and take tours to Venice, or do Venice pre-cruise and spend the day in Trieste if they stay overnight.

Search for the Nature article "The effects of ship wakes in the Venice Lagoon and implications for the sustainability of shipping in coastal waters".

You need to look at your booking documents, but most likely ends in Trieste. I only see Venice (Trieste) as an embarkation point for Escape in 2024, not Venice (Ravenna).

Yes, I took the train from Venice where I stayed before my cruise to Trieste for embarkation, takes about 2 hrs, runs multiple times a day. I am pretty sure that both Trieste Centrale and Venice Santa Lucia are the "last" stations on the route between the cities - in other words on this route you are going end-point to end-point - so about as simple as it gets. From the train station you can either walk the city or get the water taxis and "buses". FYI, the same train has a stop for Trieste airport if you want to investigate that, as the airport is a bit outside of the city.

IF, and it is a big if, they tender they will have a few times likely with timed tickets they will make available if you are not on a tour - hard to assure that you will get a specific time, they can't tender 2,000+ in at the same time. They used tenders from Venice, not the ship tenders, for the Star visit earlier this year, but really needed a couple more running. Keep in mind that if the tenders drop off at the cruise port, you then need to get from there to wherever the tour starts - one of the frustrations with tendering to the cruise port on the Star was that no water taxis or water buses were there, so people needed to get to the transportation hub on the western edge of the city, which is another step. For the bigger issue of Venice as a port, I think using Ravenna or Trieste with buses - no different than trying to get to Florence or Paris as noted from their "ports" - is the future. Unless Venice decides to either allow tenders to drop off at St Marks (which I believe was what NCL hoped and planned for initially), or better yet establish a permanent tender location/port on the eastern end of the city so that tenders don't have to go into the canals at all and crowds can be managed well. But as noted, I think the city has decided they would rather have visitors not come from cruise ships but instead use the city hotels, restaurants 3 times a day, etc.

The card being accepted at retail locations off the ship is a different process - there you have the physical card and swipe or have the chip read. The card holder's name/address is not used in that validation process. I forget if they swipe the card at embarkation or simply ask if you want to use the card on file - if they swipe, then names matching exactly is irrelevant like any retail sale. But if the CC company declines a purchase/hold during the cruise, the ship may need to resubmit the charge without access to the physical card - at which point it seems possible that the ship, like when you use a credit card online, needs to submit in addition to the CC number the usual information like the expiration date, name, address, etc. which needs to match the bank records for that information. If the ship staff only have access to the ship records for name (also used to produce the key card) for submitting the information, that might not work if that data doesn't match the card exactly, as seems to have happened here. An online purchase being declined due to mismatch of data tends to not automatically lock the card, so the card could work off the ship even if NCL was having issues. So many people likely have differences between their submitted passenger name (like shortening their name from Edward to Ed) and the full name on the credit card that if this was a systemic issue we'd be hearing about it 100 times a cruise. And I assume many couples use one credit card for both passengers where the name on the "key card" for at least one person doesn't match the name on the credit card. So I doubt that this name mismatch is a regular or even common issue, and it may only pop up if the ship needs to - for lack of a better term - manually submit a charge.

My last two cruises were on the Sun (18 days TA in Nov) and Star (15 days Med in April) - they are fairly interchangeable I would say - about the same size with the essentially the same amenities so not like comparing to a megaship. The Sun does get some bonus points for the forward lounge as others noted, plus it has the Great Outdoors for eating outside from the buffet (although you can use Spice H2O for that on the Star to some extent). But I sort of liked the Star layout better, the O'Sheehans over the atrium is a better space than the equivalent sports bar on the Sun, plus I liked the more tiered levels on the upper outside decks on the Star. Probably not helpful, but to me this choice would come down to itinerary preference. Can't speak to comparing the ports although I am interested in, and have looked at, both those itineraries, but sort of feel like it is comparing the Baltic to the Med - same continent but very different experiences. (I'd lean towards what I suspect would be more the impressive nature on the Ushuaia to Brazil cruise)

Once you book an excursion online, the system removes those with times that overlap so you can't book yourself into a conflict. I have more than once booked morning and afternoon tours online and gotten the $50 off for each.

Although it would obviously save some money for those of us with Latitudes standing to apply the Latitudes percent discount first, then the $50 off, the way they do it actually matches what is promised. $100 excursion, first person in the cabin gets $50 off. New or Bronze pays $50.00. Silver/Gold/Platinum pays $45.00, or an additional 10% discount (compared to new/Bronze). Saphire/Diamond pays $42.50, or an additional 15% discount (compared to new/Bronze). Ambassador pays $40.00, or an additional 20% discount (compared to new/Bronze). If they did it the other way around (and note the additional discount will vary based on the cost of the excursion): New or Bronze pays $50.00. Silver/Gold/Platinum pays $40.00, or an additional 20% discount (compared to new/Bronze). Saphire/Diamond pays $35.00, or an additional 30% discount (compared to new/Bronze). Ambassador pays $30.00, or an additional 40% discount (compared to new/Bronze). As a solo traveler soon to be Saphire, this is probably the most valuable perk I get from NCL - so let's not even discuss changing it lest it gets watered down... 😏

As noted there is a train that runs regularly from the main station in Trieste, which is about a 10-15 minute walk to the port if the ship is docked downtown, to the main station in Venice. I used that to get from Venice to Trieste for embarkation and it was pretty straightforward. With some planning that is doable to get to Venice for the day (although I enjoyed Trieste itself). I was on the same excursion as KJQuilts it seems! The excursion to me went fine, but many folks who were doing Venice on their own were unsure how to proceed after being deposited at the cruise terminal. After the tour I wandered into Venice proper and that went fine but I can see how it might have flummoxed folks who hadn't been there before. I had heard that the prior cruise skipped Venice due to weather not being good for tendering - and was told that those passengers received a decent amount of OBC as the cost of the tendering was supposedly $300,000. Ultimately, I think NCL tried to make the best of it for Venice to deal with the new policies, but not sure it is going to work out.