roddy good boy

On 6/12/2024 at 3:18 PM, DrUrsula said:

We have nada for Santorini. When I went directly to the website for both the port of Santorini and the port of Heraklion; they show us arriving on different days than NCL.

i even had my little Greek mother read it in Greek and neither port has us arriving the day NCL does.

 

For our 10 night cruise there are only 28 excursions. We have an overnight in Istanbul.

 

We may just stay in the ship for Santorini.  We have been there a bunch of times and can't imagine it with a bunch of ships.

You know, I’m thinking that they are still working on the itineraries for many of our cruises. That could explain all these discrepancies. It’s frustrating, I know!

I just looked at the Kusadasi port schedule and our ship is now the only one listed in port that day. Previously, we were competing with 2-3 other ships. So, I’m wondering whether our time will be adjusted from 1pm - 10pm to an earlier arrival. Perhaps they’re still working out the excursions. 

8 hours ago, peg013 said:

Not true in all cases. I always book thru a TA (2 different agencies) and the charge shows as NCL not the TA's agency so I always get the triple points. I would be cautious of any TA that makes the charge to their agency rather than NCL. We know VTG is legit, but many have been ripped off by TA's that make the charge to themselves and then pay NCL thru their account. If they don't pay it, you are screwed.

Same here. I just booked through a TA and earned the triple points. The charge showed up on my credit card as NCL.

I had heard that NCL would not discuss your booking if you had a TA, but that wasn’t the case. I just called NCL to confirm that my TA was paying our gratuities. I’m assuming that you could call NCL to confirm that final payment was made if the charges show as VTG. 

I hope to leave my kids just a bit. My parents enjoyed their retirement, but left enough to pay for my daughter’s last year of undergrad (huge burden lifted) and for us to give my son a down payment on his condo. My in-laws ( who lived to be 90 plus)  wouldn’t spend a dime, wouldn’t even improve their home enough to install a much needed walk in tub. So now we’re using their money to upgrade our tub to a walk in. 🤦🏻‍♀️I think it’s all about balance. 

They have changed our dates and times around once. I’m hoping that the failure to post excursions for Ephesus doesn’t mean that they may cancel the port. When I looked at the port website, the date and time matches that currently listed on NCL’s itinerary.

2 minutes ago, DrUrsula said:

We have nada for Santorini. When I went directly to the website for both the port of Santorini and the port of Heraklion; they show us arriving on different days than NCL.

i even had my little Greek mother read it in Greek and neither port has us arriving the day NCL does.

 

For our 10 night cruise there are only 28 excursions. We have an overnight in Istanbul.

 

We may just stay in the ship for Santorini.  We have been there a bunch of times and can't imagine it with a bunch of ships.

I hope your Mom is traveling with you! That would be so nice to have a native speaker with you on the trip! 

20 minutes ago, ronheg said:

If we book a cruise thru a major online internet travel agency and we pay for the cruise using a ncl mastercard, will we get triple points or only one reward point ( will the credit card see a internet travel agency as the vendor or will they see a ncl cruise)?

You’ll get triple points. The charge identifies NCL as the vendor.

2 hours ago, Wipammy said:

From what I read the main ones they watch for are Tramadol, Diazepam (I'm sure I'm miss spelling these lol) and one other I forgot which and, as noted above, another is Sudafed with whatever is in the behind counter version. I am going to travel with all mine in the bottles and the one I feel unsure about I will carry a letter from my doctor why I take it and hope for the best. 

 

I feel like Athens is a huge place with many people traveling to and from other places and there has to be people with multiple meds needed. So I'm going to go forward as I normally do and hope for the best. We go at the end of July. I'll update this thread with what happens.

 

Oh my! I’m so glad I read this. My husband needs to pack his tramadol and Sudafed. I never knew it was an issue. We have recently gone to Barcelona and a few Caribbean islands without incident. Yes, please let us know what you experience.  

2 minutes ago, DrUrsula said:

Santorini? 
We are right after you and Santorini has not had any showing.  

No. For us it’s Kusadasi! We have a several listed for Santorini. I booked one that takes you to Oia and is only 3 1/2 hours long. Actually, I’m considering whether to cancel and just stay on the ship. While the tour bypasses the cable car congestion on the front end, you have to take it back down to the port and then take the tender back to the ship, at the tour’s completion. That or walk down that treacherous, nasty donkey trail! Reports say the line for the cable car can be several hours. Although I’d love to experience Santorini, it’s our last cruise day and I don’t want to end things on an exhausting, frustrating note. Or, listen to my husband complain for hours on end.😬😆 There will be 4 other large cruise ships in port that day.

 We arrive a few days earlier in Kusadasi at 1:00 pm. I guess they are finding it difficult booking tour operators to do excursions that would go into the late afternoon. Not sure.

1 minute ago, slidemaster5 said:

 

We were told You can pick 2 appetizers, 1 entree, 2 sides, 1 dessert.

 

Appears ggTexasGal was told something else on the same cruise. So, there is confusion amongst the waiters I assume. Or with NCL.

 

 

🤦🏻‍♀️

12 minutes ago, slidemaster5 said:

We were in Cagney's on the Gem on Tuesday June 4th, and Thursday June 6th and were told the same things both times. Also, the tables around us were told the same thing since I heard the same intro being given by the waiter (we were there both times at 5:30 so everyone is getting seated and given menus at the same time)

Really? Only 1 side? I kinda like to get a veggie AND a starch.

By the way, we booked transport with www.welcometransport.com  It was recommended by our hotel. And, I just double checked. The fare is actually 55 euros.

Yes, we were warned about the taxis, so we pre-booked transportation from the airport to our hotel. I think we got a decent rate. It was around $53 Euros.

I’ve been to the Parthenon, but my husband hasn’t, so I’m excited to experience it with him. I was on a NCL tour when I last toured the site, and can’t recall if we saw all of the acropolis, or just the one structure.
 

I heard it’s a good idea to go to the museum first, so you can appreciate the actual structures all the more. We’ll have time to see the entire acropolis  when we return from the cruise. 
 

Thanks for all your tips. I may even pre-book transport from the hotel to the port. I just need to finalize our plans. 

3 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

An 8pm arrival is not a bad thing.  Unlike the OP, you have a pretty decent cushion to deal with a late flight, although we do not like the delayed luggage risk with that type of travel.

 

My suggestion, for you, is to book a room in the airport Sofitel.  It is a short walk from the main entrance doors of ATH (you can roll your luggage since it is a flat walk) and the hotel is quite fine for a decent night's sleep.  In the morning you can enjoy breakfast, and then either get a taxi or Uber to take you to the port (the hotel's doorman can quickly get you a taxi).  We have stayed at this Sofitel, a few times, and really appreciate its convenient location for late night arrivals or early departures.

 

Hank

Thanks for the suggestion! Our ship sails at 5 pm, so we may try to tour the Acropolis Museum in the morning, if all goes well. We are booked at a hotel a few feet from the museum. My husband is leaning toward going directly to the ship after breakfast, but I think it would be a good thing to walk around a bit. We are in the Haven, so we can board anytime after it opens up. 

On 5/20/2024 at 3:42 PM, jandbatsea said:

Landing at ATH in the wee hours (2:20am) and trying to figure out how to kill time comfortably before boarding a cruise ship in Piraeus around noon the same day.  We are coming from the U.S. with a 5 hour London layover leaving there at 8:30pm.  Figure in a +10 hour time change. so no idea if we will be exhausted or ready to party, but I am going to go with exhausted!   Any ideas or insights would be greatly appreciated.

I’m in a similar position. We are flying in from the U.S., will transfer at Heathrow, but will land in Athens at 8 pm the night before our cruise. There’s not a lot of cushion for error, or mishap. My husband wanted to work a full day prior to departure, since we are going to be traveling for 2 full weeks. I’ve been to Athens, so we are just going to tour a day at the end of the cruise.

i think we’ll both be fine. I’ve travelled numerous times through Heathrow Airport. I’ve only had one mishap flying from that airport (back to the States). On that occasion, the fog was so thick the airport cancelled all flights that afternoon and evening. 😬 We were able to fly out first thing the next morning. If there are slight delays, we’ll be fine. It is, what it is! 🙂 

We only book the Haven, so my choice is basic. I just use the card to pay for our cruise, any excursions, spa, etc., and get immediate cash back. I consider it a discount on our cruise. I just cashed in $400. Not bad, since it was money we would have spent anyway.

My dilemma is usually whether I want to use the cruise fare monies to build up points on my airline card.  That is a major savings when I can book 2 business tickets for international flights by just paying the taxes. 

They have excursions listed for all but one of our ports, for Greece/Turkey cruise this Fall. We are now 81 days out.

2 hours ago, lisabdh1 said:

They just informed me there will be no more complimentary snacks and beverages at any Meet and Greets either.

That just makes me sad. The snacks, grab bags, etc. added to the festive atmosphere! I guess we can bring our own individual drinks, and see whether attendees can (or want to) bring snacks?

23 minutes ago, Distinctive-Destinations said:

I could not possibly disagree more, for several reasons. But since this is strictly about food/dining, I’d much rather have NCL emulate Virgin’s dining than Disney’s.

 

Or better yet, just go back to what NCL was ten years ago and just charge me more.

Disney’s food is really good, both on the cruise line and in the park’s specialty restaurants. But, I agree with you on NCLs old menus and offerings. Would I pay more? I guess, but it depends on how much we’re talking about. 😂

Can you imagine? That’ll be 2 cases of canned or bottled water you’ll have to store in your stateroom! 🤦🏻‍♀️

On 6/7/2024 at 5:14 PM, dmwnc1959 said:

How does the pricing now compare to what you paid for your package? You might have to call and get clarification. The current description in the NCL app shows this:

 

 If you look at the website, it now also says 48 1/2 liter containers.  So I guess the 24 liters that were purchased will become the 48.

27 minutes ago, DorothyB said:

Maybe they don't have to be returned any more? or maybe depends where you are.  I'm just used to either dropping it off at the main desk or leaving it in the room.

Yeah. I also either leave them in the room or drop them at the front desk as I walk out. I usually like to keep at least one with us until the very last minute, just in case…. But, I recall being told to just toss them. 

17 minutes ago, DorothyB said:

I've used misc cards in the slots before, but surprised to see so many using hotel cards - I thought they were supposed to be returned?

I can’t speak to all chains, as I typically stay in Hiltons and Marriotts, but in those two they say not to bother returning them. I just figured it had something to do with sanitation. 

15 minutes ago, hallux said:

There are a couple reasons - the Note 7 was so long ago and they were blocked so hard that they're certainly not being used, plus it's part of the cruise contract that the Note 7 is not allowed on the ship.

 

@stellarose33 I usually bring an old hotel keycard to use in that slot, but I usually pull it out enough to turn off the power when I leave the room.  I just do that so I don't leave my keycard in there by accident.

Thanks for the hotel card tip! I stay in enough hotels to supply the whole family! Like you, I’ll just use it to keep up with my stateroom key.

4 hours ago, hallux said:

I would expect this, they don't want people charging devices when they're not in the cabin.  Cabin stewards are even asked to unplug devices they find plugged in when they visit a cabin.

Interesting. I noticed that and I understand why they do that. I’ve never had one of my devices catch on fire, but I have experience both my iPhone and iPad overheating, at times. 

2 hours ago, Seas2mountains said:

Unfortunately, the Breakaway no longer has the quiet area signs posted. The ones on the Pearl and Gem had such small writing that it could easily be missed. Glad to hear the Bliss still has the signs posted.

 

That is awesome! Too funny!

 

Yes, I also wish those keep the floor dry could enforce the no talking/yelling.  I also wish they would remind people when they take their cards for the thermal spa that it is a quiet space and they will be asked to leave if they aren't considerate of other guests using the space. A simple reminder each time would be helpful for people who are new to using the thermal suite area.

It’s been a few years, but I recall them telling me that it was a quiet space when I checked in.