ollienbertsmum

You need to check with the cruise line the exact time you need to be on board. It sounds as if you are cutting it a bit fine. i watched a couple miss sailaway from our second port. The ship did wait for a while, but they arrived about ten minutes later and we watched them from the ship. It reminded me how important good timing can be. Our cruise stopped in Rijeka for the first port. This would not be far to catch up the ship if you did miss embarkation, however I am not sure if they allow you to board the ship late.

This is a very sound response.

I have nothing to do with booking in US - but in a business scenario that is shocking

I am glad for you that you are finding a solution that includes getting the kids to the wonderful city of Paris. Rome just about beats Paris for my favorite city, but it is close. I have had a few good holidays in Paris including three weeks as a 16 yr old on a pupil exchange. I was interested that you had 14 hours on your port stop so would have assumed a longer day there. Maybe the tour times are not extended to take this into account. . I recall the first family visit a tour from Disneyland Paris (I sort of did not realize we could get there on our own 🤦‍♀️. It was frustrating for the girls being driven around and not being able to get out and explore. If you go for a Eurostar day you can get a good day and manage it yourself. I have the d day landing beaches on my bucket list so great if you can get there too.

I went to Versailles ten years ago during a stay in Paris. No experience from Le Havre, although a google threw up this https://www.normandyprivatetours.com/portfolio-item/versailles-palace-tour/ considering you have to get your own ticket and the site itself says to allow 1 to 2 hours for security, I wonder what you are achieving by going private. I bought tickets from a place opposite the station from a Trip Advisor recommendation. When we reached the palace we found this My friends were grateful for my research. We still had security. There are basically two things you want to do on a first trip, you see the house and the gardens (with fountains). We also had lunch in the cafe in the chateau and it was very good. We spent about 7 hours there and got to Marie Antoinette’s Estate. I recall us being exhausted from the walking but I think we may have got into Grand Trianon. I assume that if you had a tour, ship or private, they would pick you up there. The point of me saying all this is that I am not sure what you are gaining by having a private tour. The transport will not be accessible to you for the time you are in the palace. Getting a ticket, unless you find one online beforehand will be your responsibility. If you have a guide it will be an extra 500 euro. Unless you have a lot of time or it is your second time there you will want to do the same as everyone else. I cannot imagine someone going to all that trouble to get to Versailles and then say that they wanted to skip the house and do their own thing. iI don’t very often say it, but I wonder if at Versailles you would be just as happy (or better off) with a ship tour. Does that make sense?

I am not disputing that guests are saying they are being served right now. I believe tax is being added, it happened to us on one of our Barcelona cruises a good few years ago. I just wonder if it is actually sorted. This issue and whether they serve no alcohol/only to package guests/only wine and beer - has been popping up for at least a year. The notice was somewhat obscure - so I just am not convinced that it really is over. Lack of trust I suppose.

I am still not convinced. They have thrown out a badly written sign. It includes typos. The sign says that extra tax will be charged when drinks are served. It does not say IF drinks will be served or not. NCL have made such a hash of this, I no longer believe them. I do not feel valued.

Just fyi. I went from Trieste earlier this month. It is not really that difficult to get from Trieste to VCE. There is a cheap and regular Flix bus from the bus station. The bus and train station are side by side only 1 km from the port ALL FLAT. It makes it an easy port for embarking and disembarking. You can easily fly to VCE a couple of days early, do the usual Venice stay and then take an early train to Trieste. After complaining it was going to be such a faff, i think the Trieste part was not so bad. Easier than the people mover etc in huge Venice cruise port. What makes it such a faff for us is that we cannot get direct flights from Malaga to VCE. So I probably won’t be doing that itinerary again.

Sorry that is so strange. I turned them upside down in my library and they still came out upside dow, That is comicon. For you. You will have to turn your phone upside down. ! !

The others were coming out upside down. Hmmm

I will refer to your points in reverse order. if you have never been to Venice, I would say to try to make that extra day or two in Venice. We did an Eastern Med in 2019 and I thought it was wonderful. It was the most I have ever paid for a hotel, it was perfectly fine but it was small, it had no lift (not easy to fit modern day convenience into such old buildings). The room had a real key ! Venice is a special place though. Nothing wrong with staying on the ship on your overnight. You can still be in Florence after the crowds have gone and have an early drink and appetizers without worrying about missing the 4: 28 train back. You can have a good few more hours in Florence. As to Lucca. So I loved it, but my photos are either spoiled or enhanced by the fact that there was a com-icon on the day we visited. It was my wedding anniversary. I could not help thinking this was a metaphor for marriage. It was so crazy. So hear are some pictures, Lucca should be the star because it is a wonderful place.

Get back to the ship on time😄 I gave a lot of detail in my review, what do you want to know more about?

And the Epic. I always cringe when i say to the taxi driver “it is this one”. Then I am over that moment. I get on board and as previous posts have noted, you cannot see it.

And I suppose the next question has to be ‘did you know before your cruise that you would be paying the tax. I have no issues with paying tax when due, but had ncl let passengers know up front

just re read Keith Jenner’s previous post. So maybe in the old days we were not charged.

Thanks for this information. Just to clarify, did you have a package? I have been on the Epic numerous times (with a drink package) from about 2012 to 2018 same route, but never had to pay any VAT. I wonder why the change

We went southbound and stayed in Vancouver for three nights post cruise. I loved that city.

This is so pertinent to what i have been doing for the past week. This has been a retirement task of sorting out my photo file. We had been on quite a few trips going back to 2005 and the camera date was wrong. I could not find any photos because they were all the wrong date. As i have been doing this I noticed how the number of food porn photos have increased. Actually just how many more photos we take in general. I have nearly finished the task but found the change in photo habits has been so interesting

Sounds really dodgy to me. Not about alcohol but theme of drinks: when we were leaving the Gem for port days every day during our recent Croatia and Slovenia cruise there were notices saying that absolutely no ood and drink allowed off. They cited it was the law. A few metres away from this notice, still on the ship, was a table selling containers of water. These were the same containers of water that we were not allowed to take off the ship because it was illegal. I didn’t make a fuss, it was not so hot that I needed extra water. I did think “hmmm how does that work?”

I can see how to do this, but what difference would this make when tracking your luggage?

Oh so lucky you. I went to Tromso with my youngest daughter in February. We saw some wonderful lights, the best being at the top of the cable car. I had always said that in my next life I would be Swiss due to their efficiency Since visiting Norway I want to come back into a country where I could see Northern Lights on a regular basis.

And this is what is important. If you know beforehand then there is little you can say. It is when NCL either announce sudden alcohol restrictions or make charges that had not been flagged before the cruise, passengers are right to feel annoyed.

This really is not a question that I would have enough information to provide an answer. Maybe you could ask someone else on the sailings before yours. In your place I would be hoping to get off within an hour, but have backup plans for your itinerary in case you take longer.

That is a really good point. It would make a lot of difference.

I think I get what they are saying. It seems like the ship is asking people to restrict self-assist to between 6 am and 7 am. Is it being suggested that disembarkation will be too crowded to accommodate folk with luggage after 7 am. In the circumstances I would be trying to get off around 7 am and find somewhere to wait or go for a grey ticket with an airtag in the case. A cruise ship on disembarkation is not a relaxing place to wait in my opinion.