ollienbertsmum

Absolutely making it up. You were not asking for duty-free beverage. You were asking for a drink that had had duty paid on it.

All the Free at Sea cruisers which I think was the majority. I have no idea whether or not folk were using their own wine, I did not notice any bottles being used. TBH I did not realise that you could bring alcohol on board until reading through the comments here

Really interesting itinerary. I have been to all except Genoa. You do have to think about what you want to see. The kids would probably have some input. If you want to maximise what you want to see, as Cruisemom says it is about working with the tour provider beforehand. Not sure when you are going, in the middle of summer it can get very hot. Cannes is a tender port. I am happy to just walk around and enjoy the high-end Frenchness, but on one cruise I actually spent my 30th Wedding anniversary doing a boat ride over to Sainte Marguerite Island. It was a walk in the countryside and we enjoyed it. If it is the middle of summer there are private and public beaches you can use. There is one convenient one beside the film festival building, you can also look for the hand prints of some big stars which the kids might like. You can also walk from the port to the train station in about 20 minutes. By train you can reach some popular tourist spots - Nice, Monaco and Antibes are often mentioned. What you can do depends on how long you have in port and how early you can get the tender ticket. Or you do an internet search for a private tour that you can tailor to your own needs. Just make sure that you get a refundable tour in the case that you cannot get ashore. We were on a RCI ship that braved high winds. The NCL beside us cancelled the port. La Spezia We went to Cinque Terre and loved it. It remains my favourite tour ever. We did it as a ship tour because I knew that there was several modes of transport involved. You get a chance to bathe. I think that the kids would enjoy it. Civitavecchia In the middle of July I was on a ship tour in Rome on our first cruise. My 14 and 15 yr old hated it. They are used to hot summers but being dragged from site to site was horrible for them. You could get a ship shuttle to Rome. Lots of cruisers use the local train, but if you are there in the middle of summer it can be like playing sardines. As it is your wedding anniversary I would suggest that you get a private tour. You have an air-conditioned car to cool off in. The only thing is, you cannot see everything. I am not quite sure how important St Peter’s is to you. I am Catholic and was really excited to get in the first time. We did not get into the Vatican until our second visit. However on reflection we could have saved queuing time by just having a good look around St Peter’s Square (using Rick Steves Audio tour) and going to the Pantheon and a couple of the other big Basilicas. We go in by train and I always like to call in to Santa Maria Maggiore. I enjoyed St John Lateran which is fancy. You can research a church that has some famous art work without having to go round museums. One year we went to the Capuchin Crypt which is full of bones and skulls. We did not have the girls with us that year. I know that they would have engaged with it. You will enjoy the Coliseum, I think the kids would want to go inside. The Arches of Titus and Constantine are nearby and well worth a few minutes. You can see the Roman ruins from the road if you walk along Via dei Fori Imperiali, and with kids I think this is enough. Trevi fountain is a must. I enjoyed eating in Piazza Navona (we did not need to book) but some prefer to get pizza from a takeaway to spend more time walkiing around. Look at the obelisks, the statues and the fountains all around you. I never quite saw anything special about the Spanish Steps. Palma de Mallorca I recall that our first visit we took the shuttle to the centre, bought underwear and then went back thinking that Palma was a rubbish port. I have so changed my mind. You can get a shuttle or the public bus outside the port. We have always walked back - it is a long way but our average cruise port day is about 10 km. The cathedral is a sight to behold, I also loved the Royal Palace. There was good shopping there in the centre. Alternatively you could enjoy the beach. Barcelona There is so much to see in Barcelona, one of my favourite cities. All that Gaudi architecture. Will you have visited before your cruise?? If you have not visited Barcelona you need to put your luggage in a left-luggage and spend a good few hours there. I would be buying train tickets at about 7 pm ! If not, I have been on cruises that arrive at 6 am and we have been at the train station by 7.30 am. I would not book a ticket before 8.30 though. If I have made any mistakes in my advice, I hope that someone will point it out. Please do your research ahead of time. Lots of You Tubes can give you the historical contexts and save you having to keep opening your guide book and reading up at every stop. The other consideration is that you might want to split up some times. Eldest and DH did some things apart from me and youngest - like the Vatican museum on our second trip. We had been to the Hermitage a couple of years before and eldest was like “please no more art” but youngest and I really wanted to see the Sistine Chapel ceiling. No idea what the other two got up to, but we all stayed friends during that day.

We asked a taxi driver in Trieste how much it would cost to get to Marco Polo airport (VCE). He said around 230 euro. I have detailed how we got there and back last week in another post. I hope that the details have not made the whole story too complicated.

The first sentence of paragraph 2 does not seem to answer what was being asked. This is about duty-free sales which is not the question. At this point it is about being able to use the drink package. It is up to ncl whether and how they legally pay the duty. When we were in Trieste the pre-purchased beverage package was served. It was the pay as you go cruisers who had to go without alcohol. There were not many I think.

I have just received my feedback email from NCL for my cruise from Trieste to Croatia. I will refer to this issue.

but tbh there were few good reviews for any cruiseline. I have just had an interesting thirty minutes looking through NCL RCI and MSC. Many complaints along the lines of - someone in the party got sick, I don’t have insurance and they won’t refund me. Most say I won’t cruise with “X” line again. We are going to run out of cruise lines to run to. Maybe prices will have to rise across the board.

That seems ridiculous. You were not buying the free wine. Last week in Italy (Trieste) those who had bought packages could still drink whilst in territorial waters. you just could not ‘buy’ drinks.

I think that we have sailed the EPIC four times on the same WesternMed Itinerary out of Barcelona. I found it easier to get my bearings on the Star and the Gem. I hated the logo on the EPIC. Apart from that we have had great cruises, lovely staff and good entertainment. I appreciated the double use of the bathroom. .

Along the same lines, on my recent cruise to Croatia and Slovenia, we were clearly told that local laws prevented food and drinks being taken ashore. Fair enough. So how come they were selling cartons of water to people going ashore. The very same cartons that we had left in our cabin in order to comply with local laws !!!!! Lying or what???

I have just come off a cruise that included Dubrovnik. We had visited this port in September 2019. The place was heaving but we enjoyed walking the walls and wandering around the town. This time it was still busy but not heaving. We have DIYed each time. I do a bit of research on the history of each port (nothing heavy, just watching you tubes). When I am on vacation I do not want to stand in the sun and listen to someone give a history lecture. We decided not to repeat the walls (I think that they open at around 9 am), this time we went up the cable car and took in the views. It was easy and worth it. There were buggies parked there for a buggy safari, no idea about cost. I know that it would have been something my 30 year olds would have liked which is why I took a photo. We then wandered around the town which has Kodak moments around every turn. We also found the little beach beside the old town where they were doing sea kayaking. Just FYI, the ship charged $15 per person for a return use of the shuttle. At the port I took a picture of a notice that taxis charged 14 euro for the single journey and 50 euro for a panorama tour. This would be a more economical way of you getting your larger group around - e.g. at 7 am you might find a taxi to give you a 2 hour panorama tour and drop you off in town when you could walk the walls and wander around the old town. You could get a taxi back, you can ask about location of taxi ranks at the tourist info at Pile Gate. The strange thing is when we got back to the port I am convinced the same notice said that the route to the old town was 16 euro !!

This is what happened on the Gem last week. Leaving Trieste and then until 9.30 pm at another port (can’t recall which) we were told only those with beverage packages would be served alcohol. But whatever is happening in each port people really do need to know. For me one of the motivations for going on a cruise is that I can travel around without having to worry about drinking and driving. I am relying on the Captain to stay sober and ferry me around.

I have just come off the Gem. I much preferred it to Epic which i never found my way around even after about 5 cruise.

I always find the information on these boards so helpful. Trieste is a relatively new port and there are often questions about how to get there. I thought that I would tell what we did in case it helps others trying to work out how to get to their ship. So this is our second cruise from this area. We went on one of the last cruises that actually went from Venice. Now the ‘Venice’ port has moved to either Ravenna or Trieste. We left from Trieste. After I booked the cruise I realised that transport would be more difficult. This is what I did. The first problem is that I could not find direct flights from Malaga to Venice. On our past cruise we got a direct flight from Treviso airport which is about 30 km from Venice. If there are direct flights to Venice Marco Polo they were not on the days we wanted. I looked around for other airports. It seemed to me that the Ryanair to Bologna could work (it was a good price) if we stayed overnight in Bologna. This also gave us the opportunity to explore that lovely city. We then stayed overnight in Trieste and boarded from there. We could have gone to Trieste on the day, I just don’t like staying more than a taxi drive away from the port. Flying to Bologna was easy. We got a taxi to our AirBnB, the taxi was just 20 euro which was less than we would have paid for public transport to get us to town. By getting a taxi we were shown where our accommodation was. Exploring Bologna was enjoyable even though we coincided with a (planned) big union demonstration. I was concerned if this would have a knock on effect to the famous ‘train strikes’. It didn’t but we did run into other problems as I will now describe. We had dumped our cases at a left luggage at the station, we picked them up in time for a 16.01 departure that was planned to take almost 4 hours to get to Trieste. When we arrived back at the station, the display board didn’t show our train. It seemed that our train was delayed. The length and reason for the delay was not clear. Then it seemed like other trains were delayed. It seemed that there was a high voltage technical issue further up the line. The delay crept up and at one point it was shown as 240 minutes. We were getting frustrated and of course no one ever knows what is going on in these situations. Getting to the port After about 50 minutes a train to Venice passed through. We were told that it was too full for us to board (didn’t look it, but who knows), another train would pass through in five minutes. It was more like 30 minutes later and a train to Venice arrived. This time we didn’t ask, we just got on and we set off. We had a planned change at Venice Mestre. Whilst on the train the platform number of our next train was displayed. This was very helpful because trains were hourly and there was one about to leave. This actually helped to make up for our delay. So now we were at Venice Mestre. This might be the starting point for most cruisers. The train to Trieste was almost two hours, but absolutely trouble-free. We ended up arriving in Trieste about an hour after our original planned arrival. It was just after sunset which was later than I wanted because we had to look for our accommodation in the dark. We were a little late to look for a restaurant so we bought our supper at a supermarket and prepared in the accommodation. Trieste is not difficult to get around. So there was a delay but in the end, getting to Trieste from Venice Mestre train station was not hard. Reflecting on the first part of the journey - if we had got ourselves to Venice using Marco Polo airport and stayed in Venice overnight (or two nights) we could have gone from Venice Santa Lucia train station to Mestre train station and easily got to Treiste. It would not have seemed difficult. So I am almost wondering why getting to Trieste seems like a problem. It is two hours, but not a difficult two hours. Return journey our flight home was from Venice Marco Polo. We had to change in Zurich, but it was a short stopover. We were flying Swiss Air and they give you free chocolate so I was happy about that. Getting to Marco Polo from Trieste was easy using a Flixbus. I am too cautious. I was once on a ship that arrived late because we picked up some people attempting a crossing of the med from africa. There was a bus around 9 am that we could have easily have caught and then may well have got an earlier flight. I was happy to explore Trieste for a while. We caught a 3 pm Flixbus. Anyway it was not clear where the bus left from, the ticket office was not helpful because it seems that Flix has nothing to do with them. There were enough passengers from the cruise to work out that the platform had changed. Once on the Flixbus, we were on our way. The bus was almost exactly on time. Once at Marco Polo airport we were fine. We got home exactly on time. It was almost midnight but I had booked a car to get us home. I did not have to worry about driving myself. So was going from Trieste that hard? No it was not difficult. If we had stayed in Venice for one or two days the journey from Santa Lucia would have been 2 hours but not complicate. On our return from Trieste the trains did not seem as easy so it was more like “do we trust a bus called Flix?” and we should have . Just to reassure cruisers We do not speak Italian. We always found staff who spoke good English and could help. This was even when the staff themselves were frustrated about the train delays due to the technical issues.

I walked this with my luggage. It is around 2 km. The taxi would not be expensive, the base fare has to be around 5 euro, the actual fare might depend on add ons e.g.for number of suitcases, perhaps time of the day. It might depend on how many traffic lights are on red. If you can easily pull your suitcases it is a very flat walk. If you have more than one bag, it wont break the bank to take a taxi.

Ditto on NCL Gem cruising out of Trieste. ‘Local laws’ seems to be an odd phrase when it is happening across Europe in and out of the EU. On the Gem only those who had bought packages were served. NCL really does need to provide a proper explanation that clarifies why other cruise lines are not similarly affected.

Oh and I forgot to say that we left two people behind in Rijeka. We had waited for 15 minutes when they turned up. I suspect that they had not adjusted their watches correctly. The next port of Dubrovnik was 6 hr drive away - or 12hr public transport journey away. I felt for them. The next day there were announcements for 3 missing passengers at sailaway time. Getting to the next port would take a 5 hour bus, a ferry from Split and then a bus ride from Stari Grad to Hvar. OK so these are not calamities but they do spoil the smooth running of a trip.

So my DH and i have just done a 5-day cruise from Trieste. Getting to Trieste itself seemed like a mission. I will write about it in the Italy port board. This was our first cruise since the pandemic. I chose just 5 days because I was worried we might not like the post pandemic changes. I should not have worried. There were a few crew wearing masks, not really any other way we would have known that there was a pandemic. I also chose 5 days because I was trying out an internal. I have just retired and thought that if we did like internals we might increase the number of cheap last minute offers. I actually did not like it. I found it disorientating to wake up not knowing the temperature and amount of light. I am glad I tried but won’t repeat. I like spring as a time to travel. I can go to the beach and sit in the sun at home during June to September. I prefer to travel in less busy times. This did mean that we risked rain. We got it twice but i had my rain coat with me. comfortable shoes were important. Getting to the ship We stayed in Trieste overnight in an AirBnB. I always wake early on embarkation days. I had time to look around the attractive city centre. I walked along the seafront to work out where we would go and where the bag drop was for when we came off the ship. There were not many taxis for the fairly long queue at about 7.30 am. It was a Sunday morning so was that an issue? Someone in the queue asked me about getting to the train station. I said that for me it was easy and walkable (It was 1 km and flat). Later I saw a number of passengers doing the walk. Those who had large suitcases and a few extra bags looked as if they were puffing and panting. So although I am fine dragging my 2 wheeled bag with a small back pack, those who have spinner wheels that are heavy might prefer to wait for a taxi. I got back to the accommodation, We left at exactly 10 am. We now had to negotiate around a 21 k run that ended in the main square but that gave the sea front of Trieste a real buzz on the Sunday morning. There was not much of a wait at the port. Maybe this is one of the benefits of a smaller ship. We were on the ship by about 11.30 am and having skipped breakfast went straight to the buffet and waited for rooms to open at 2.15 pm. They were exactly on time. My thoughts on the ship The crew was lovely. I was expecting that cabins would only get cleaned once a day. Really that is enough for us. The big disadvantage is that you might find that you are already back from the port and the room has not yet been cleaned. When that happened to us I just asked for one clean towel. We can make our own bed. The food was fine for me. Did I notice a lower quality?? I think that there may have been a few things missing e.g. I don’t recall seeing smoked salmon at the breakfast buffet. I don’t eat meat so I cannot comment on the quality. I was not able to get a vegetarian sausage or burger so I felt a bit cheated at the grill area. I am sure I have had one on a ship before. May not have been NCL. There seemed to be occasional moments when bar and restaurants seemed short of staff, but we never had to wait very long. So now crew are not working for tips, it would seem that we are free to just enjoy and say thank you for their good service Not so fast ……. Now we have the feedback cards and vacation hero cards to fill in. DH said it felt like he was being a schoolteacher again writing report cards. A couple of times we had the cards pushed into our hands. The pushy crew are going to get more feedback. I do like the smaller ships for less queuing and that I can find my way around. There was never much of a wait for anything. We choose to avoid the lifts but occasionally, if we wanted to go from level 5 up to level 12 we took a ride. We never waited. There were a few small children on board, but they were all a credit to their parents. There was a mix of passengers. There was a much bigger percentage of europeans, especially Spanish and Italian which is not much of a surprise. For five days you would not want to travel long distances and then only have Dubrovnik as the big attraction. Adding on a week in Italy would of course make it wothwhile. Ports According to one of our waiters NCL are testing out this route. We went to Rijeka, Dubrovnik and Hvar in Croatia and Koper in Slovenia. Rijeka - A bit similar to Trieste. Looking over my photos I can’t really tell which port is which. I think it was the best shopping centre (Hvar had beautiful shops but they were expensive). I was not cruising to shop, but I had already realised that I was cold on the ship so I bought some warmish leggings to go under my tops. In Rijeka there was a staircase of 561 steps to get up to Trsat castle. It was not really that difficult and worth the climb. We have to find ways of working off the big breakfasts. Views were lovely. Dubrovnik - We had been to Dubrovnik before so I was less excited about this port. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Our last visit had been in hotter weather (September) and it was more crowded. I felt that we could better appreciate the beauty of the city. We went up the cable car for more views, there was a bit of a queue but not a deal breaker. It was lovely. We could easily have walked back down, DH was not keen. Back in Dubrovnik I walked down to the little beach where they do kayaking. That was attractive and peaceful. In the old town DH was cross when we got charged 10 euro for two small cans of beer (take out). I pointed out to him that the absence of prices should have been a red flag. Bars beside were charging less for beer. We were ‘tricked’. Hvar - I don’t know what I expected but this was much better. It was expensive, our dirnks were less expensive than our hole in the wall bar in Dubrovnik, but you can tell that this attracts the rich crowd. Lovely weather helped. We walked along the sea front. All of the beaches were rocky. I fancied dipping my feet in to see the temperature of the water. I just felt that a wave might dampen my shoes and so the day. I found some more stairs, fewer than in Rijeka, and climbed up to a castle where I wrote some postcards while admiring the views. Buying cards, finding stamps and finding postboxes is always a little mission when I visit new places. I managed to do this in Hvar. I’m always nervous that I have posted my cards in a private mail box. I got shown yellow Croatian boxes. I passed by a monastery that had a lace museum. I knew that lace making is a symbol of Hvar. I would have liked to go and see but they didn’t accept cards. I think it was only 5 euro but I only had a few coins left so I made do with a post card! Koper (Slovenia) - We woke to rain, but it mostly stopped by the time we went ashore. Here I had planned further walking around. When we walked out of the port there were some kiosks selling tours. For only 25 euro we could go on a scenic drive and spend two hours in the town of Piran. So I booked for the last tour at 1 pm. We had time to wander round the highlights of the town. I bought another card because we were in a different country. It was a really good value tour. The guide talked non-stop. The two hours was enough time to see around. Another good view from a castle. I had about 40 minutes to spare and noticed an aquarium. It was tiny but I needed a toilet break before getting back on the bus. For 7 euro I could kill time and the call of nature. So all in all a good set of ports, there was more to interest me than I expected. We could have visited Lake Bled and Ljubljana from Koper. Were I to go again I would look up ‘istranka tours’ and arrange ahead. In reality I think I would prefer Ljubljana as a whole weekend destination. I don’t use the gym but wore my apple watch almost all of the time to motivate me to exercise. I recorded 65 kilometres and climbing 162 flights of stairs. Is there anything more specific anyone wants to know???? I am happy to answer.

I feel the complaints. i had significant problems prior to my Gem cruise last week. My credit card would not connect, then I could not attach my husbands to my card. He does not have an NCL account to check in himself. I phoned up NCL and emailed my NCL consultant. Both said to turn up and we could check in there. It was not an issue. I had taken photos of both of us. That process was not difficult for me. When we got to port they asked me for another photo. Not difficult. All of the check in agents had tablets to work with. So I got miffed that I wasted about 3 afternoons stressing over the checkin process. All we really needed was the reservation number and our passport. They did not even ask me for my credit card. They said I needed to do that on board. I did not do that until port 3 when we wanted to buy shuttle tickets. So to anyone else trying to check in - don't stress. If you cannot do it online you CAN do it at the port.

So it was slightly different in Trieste last week. Trieste is also an Italian port !!!!

As I said to Keith I do not know the NCL policy. My gripe is that the cruiseline does not warn people ahead of time. Of course they would not want to - it just seems so ‘meh’ to get on to a ship and be told ‘sorry no drinks this evening’.

Ah Keith I only saw bottles being taken for storage on embarkation and at several ports. I actually didn’t know that you could take your own wine on board on a NCL ship. I did have a package - I meant that IF you had no package it would have been good to have warning. I think it is poor of NCL to get into this situation.

I have just come off the Gem. This was a new route from Trieste to Croatia and Slovenia. There were restrictions in Trieste after Sailaway. One more evening as I think we were in Italian waters we had to wait until 10.30 pm to get play in the Casino. The sign was the same as shown in previous posts. It stated ‘local restrictions’. If you already had a package they would serve you. Most people seemed to have packages so few were affected, but I do think that you should be told ahead of time. If it really were local laws, rather than NCL not wanting to pay out taxes etc, they should perhaps allow people without a package to bring on their own bottle and charge a corkage. Yeah they are not going to, but heck what is it new about local laws. One day soon I am going to get round to ask a lawyer.

We were back at 2 am. I have spent the day catching up with the Eurovision semis to settle my favourites before the final. I cannot get below a top 6!! I have been on Star, Epic and now Gem. Gem has been my favourite ship of the three, I seemed to find my way around. We had some brilliant trips on the Epic but I never thought that it was easy to get around. I have to say that I was a bit apprehensive about any post pandemic changes. I think we timed it perfectly. There were several staff still wearing masks but no other social distancing etc. All we did was answer a few questions about Covid along with stomach bugs and we were good to go. We went from Trieste, getting there (like Ravenna) was a bit of a faff, but I am glad that we went. I am now a fan of Croatia, although not their Euro entry. We don’t have any more cruises planned. DH keeps pushing me to plan some driving trips. There are so many cool trips ahead in Portugal and Spain.

Oh yum. That table is set out for a King. I have just climbed a 498 step tower in Bologna (and hate heights, but DD always says ‘face your fears’). I wonder if Charles said that to himself this morning. It is a big deal after all.