ollienbertsmum

My family of 4 ((2 daughters in mid twenties) did our land portion (3 nights in Denali and one night to visit the Matanuska glacier) prior to our SB cruise. I planned the tour myself and know that I saved about one third on the price. We did find that shaking off any time-difference sleep disturbance was easier in a hotel than on a cruise where you would want to be seeing everything that was happening on board. Also a big consideration for us was getting laundry done. The land tour portion involved getting our clothes dirtier, so then when we boarded Princess ship we had laundry facilities.

I have been to Cannes on Liberty of the Seas and Norwegian Epic. The tender trip was short, no idea how long, maybe 10 minutes (I was enjoying the journey so not watching the clock). Getting ashore depends on how early you can get a ticket for a tender. That is a ‘how long is a piece of string’ type situation. We have always gone straight on to public transport so not sure what folk do.

All of the cruises I have been on, (none of these bigger than RCI Voyager of the Seas) announcements have been made that we can leave the ship within 20 minutes of stated arrival time - sometimes it might be earlier. If the arrival is early in the morning, the exodus of passengers is staggered by many still eating breakfast. If the arrival is later, I still do not recall there being unmanageable queues to get off the ship. If you are tendering off the ship it is harder to predict because it can depend on what time you can get tender tickets. Recently tickets have been distributed the day before (announced in the cruise daily). All of the ships I have been on have required you to be back 30 minutes before designated sailing time. So for your example you need to be back on board at the latest by 6.30 pm. Don’t mess with this time. Two weeks ago I watched a couple arrive 25 minutes after sailaway time in Rijeka, the gang plank was already up. They had to make their own way to Dubrovnik. This was a long trip. I usually DIY all of my port stops, but I am usually back on board 90 minutes before time. I am risk averse.

i have just been writing up my review from our 5 day to Croatia and Slovenia. It was a 4 port cruise and tbh I am not fussed about days at sea. As I was writing I came to the conclusion that in the amount of battery recharge it gives me, 5 or 7 days is about the same. When I was working I used to think about long weekends like that. A break is a break.

Those muffins look really yummy. I think I need to ask her for the recipe.

If it were me getting off the Star, I would have been furious. One of the reasons I started going on cruises with my husband is that I would be able to enjoy drinks with my evening meal without having to worry about driving. Let’s hope that the other affected ports i.e. Livorno, Gibraltar and Trieste are also no longer impacted by this nonsense.

Does this map help? I put a circle more or less where we stopped. One of our trips we wanted to go to Sainte Marguerite. It was literally a hop skip and jump from the tender point. Obviously things can change.

It is a Sunday morning too. !!!!!!

Taxis were always plentiful at around 7 am the times we did early disembark in Barcelona. We always skipped going to breakfast on that day. We had pre planned snacks in our room (yoghurt and bananas from previous day’s buffet).

Bit late answering. Was in Trieste on embarkation morning and for 7 hours after cruise. I cannot recall shops around the port where your hotel is. There was a well-stocked supermarket “Pam” to the right of the train station. It is a 15 minute stroll along the waterfront from your hotel. If you buy something too heavy to carry, you could get a taxi in front of the train station. That would be a five minute journey. i also expected to find “Coop” mini markets, but I did not notice any.

Thank you for that information. Please also let us know if they were forewarned. All of the NCL support staff seem to be giving the message of ‘of course they would let you know in advance’. I have not seen any message from anyone to say that they were told upfront.

Similar thing happened on the Gem last week. We went to the bar mid cruise and find that only those with packages would be served alcohol. No prior warning. No chance to stock up from the land and pay corkage.

I have not read through the whole of this thread but wanted to add comments about my trip to Santorini. I first went in 1979 and am sad for how busy it has become. We returned in September 2019, omg it was so crowded. DH wanted to walk up the steps, not difficult, but you had to get used to squashing against the wall when the donkeys came by. Once i saw how busy (packed) the town was, I suggested that we go straight to the walk i had researched. Basically it was walking along the coastline to the left of the donkey steps. Lots of Kodak moments. We turned back and before we went down to the ship stopped for a beer and some taramasalata. Nice. Going down was slippery but we were careful. We met a cruiser at the bottom who had slipped. She had to leave the ship in Mykonos because she had a nasty fracture that was going to keep her off work for months. Would I do exactly the same again? Yes. I cannot imagine better views and that is what Santorini is all about when you only have a few hours on a ship tour.

For me it is not a question of do I hate or love NCL. In fact I am critical of what is going on with the alcohol issue, but I love cruising with NCL. My frustration is that we are not warned about the issue. If NCL said “we can apply the package in 3 out of 5 ports (for example) so we will sell the package to you on a day by day basis”, then it would seem fair. If they would warn customers that - when we are sailing in waters by Trieste we will not be able to serve you alcohol if you don’t have the package it would seem forewarned and fair. The way they are doing this seems so random. You want all of this information before you get on board, not just go down to a bar and find a notice that basically says ‘we won’t be serving you tonight’. That is what frustrates me and makes me cross.

but I was in Trieste last week and there was a ban on alcohol being served to those who had not pre-purchased the drinks package.

Ah so now I have thought about it I actually just asked for a veggie sausage. This was in the Garden Cafe. The chef laughed as he said no. I had been really sure that I had seen or eaten them before on an NCL ship. I was not willing to ask again. So to anyone else - insist. I am glad that you enjoyed the review. I do like writing

Actually we did run into a potential delay on the bus. There had been a RTA on the single lane road and we had to wait. The guide was talking all of the time and she kept referring to “We have to be patient”, but the underlying message was that she was stressed because it might impact on her timings. She had a bus load of people to take back to the port. The road was cleared and we got to Piran for our 2 hour stop. She was there with minutes to spare to get her earlier bus load of passengers back to Koper. Timing did seem important to her. I wondered if the 2 left-behind-passengers had not corrected their watches coming from a different time zone. I. am sure it is not a great experience.

And I didn’t stop to look at any reviews, I just booked on impulse. That is not like me, but it worked at the time. If we had been late getting back etc I would not have minded so much. We were stopping in Trieste the next day so not much traveling if there was a lateness issue. I always take this into account. We definitely left two people at Rijeka (saw them arrive late) when the next port was Dubrovnik. Aargh

We have been on two cruises in the Med at that time of the year. I know that it is not Croatia but it is only the other side of Italy. Mixed in terms of weather. We had one port stop (Naples) cancelled due to bad weather. I still imagine that the walls would be open. Probably a more pleasant experience than with the crowds of summer. I would certainly cruise again in November but I would manage my expectations about the weather.

I saw the buggies when I was at the top of the cable car. I took a photo because I wanted to show it to daughter’s boyfriend. It was at the back of the top Cable Car Station. Having been there, the instructions about the meeting point make perfect sense to me. There were queues for the cable car, anyone going there from a cruise ship would be best to get a taxi from the port. I did not see how much it cost.

I think that I went on the ho ho tour referred to above. I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed it, I thought it was well organised and good value for money. It was not a HOHO in the usual definition. We got off at a viewpoint, we got off for 2 hours in Piran and we had a guide talk throughout. Other tours were being marketed at the same kiosk at the port. I think that I had missed the departure time for the others.

I did not set foot in the pools or hot tubs. Not very fond of them on the ship. However I can comment that …. The pools looked quite big compared to usual ship pools but that might be that few people were using them. Weather was pleasant - anywhere between 16 and 21 degrees, but not ‘summer’. I saw one family in the hot tub on a day that was somewhat drizzly. It must have been keeping them warm. No dailies. I used to collect them but I am moving to a ‘paperless’ house. Sorry. The shows were ‘fair to good’. A UK singer was on board two nights I enjoyed her, but DH thought her choice of songs may not have suited the non-UK crowd. The two ‘shows’ were entertaining enough. One was a medley of country songs. I didn’t recognise any, I think that was aiming at the US passengers. The other was ‘swing’ which I preferred but oddly also contained some country songs. Mentioning the show reminds me of how cold I found the ship, particularly in the theatre. I should have taken a blanket for the show. There was cold air blasting from the seats in front. It did not matter where you sat.

But how long do you think people should patiently sit by and wait until ‘things get resolved’. This was certainly an issue on the Sun out of Lisbon when visiting Gibraltar in December. That is nearly 6 months.

I have just come off the NCL Gem on a 5 day cruise of Croatia and Slovenia. I know that some of these ports are fairly new (our waiter told us that NCL are testing the route) so I thought that a review might be helpful for some travellers. DH and I usually like to DIY. We like to walk around a lot and usually do about 10 k a day when on holiday. We only speak English and Spanish, that did not hinder us in Italy, Croatia and Slovenia. Even though I am not very into ship tours due to large numbers of people, I do check out what is on offer. I don’t really recall very much of great interest to me. Trieste was a good port to start off our cruise. Getting to and from the train and bus station (beside each other) was mega easy. We had arrived at about 8.30 the previous evening. I wandered around early in the morning, we then had till 2 pm on the final day. It actually was a bit longer than we needed. Stunning buildings along the water front. You can tell that Trieste has been a thriving city and still seems to be thriving. That said, the two Italian cities we visited, Bologna and Trieste were the only places that we witnessed beggars. I genuinely did not have any money anyway. All my money was on my card. 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. I think that there were beaches nearby that would be a good way to pass the day in summer. I also think that there must have been trips to Lubljana and Bled. Dubrovnik - We had been to Dubrovnik before so I was less excited about this port. In the event, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Our last visit had been in hotter weather (September) and it had been more crowded. This time we could better appreciate the beauty of the city. We took the ship shuttle into town (Pile Gate). We nipped into the tourist info there and got a map and directions to the cable car for more views. It was not far but we did have to ask to confirm we were on the right route. When we got there, there was a bit of a queue and it was not clear where to buy tickets. There were ticket sales in shops below the cable car, but cash only. Once we found the official office, we got our tickets. The views were lovely. We could easily have walked back down, DH was not keen. Back in Dubrovnik 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’. I stopped to try and find postcards and stamps. When I asked if they had postcards I got quite a blunt ‘no’, which DH found a bit rude. I recalled that in 2019 I had got exactly the same style of response. I think Croatians don’t add flowers to their language. They didn’t have stamps, what else did I need to know? [actually telling me where the post office is situated might have helped]. I walked down to the little beach where they do kayaking. That was attractive and peaceful. Getting on the shuttle back was a bit of a scrum, I don’t think anyone checked the ticket on the way back! Incidentally this sign was in the port I think taxis would be plentiful early on. We could also have gone into town explored and then got a taxi from near to the cable car. With more than two in the party it would have bee a good value way of getting around. Just a note - the cruise daily info sheet stated that it was 25 minutes from the cruise port to the Pile Gate drop off. That is not true, it is more like 10 minutes. We could have walked it easily. Hvar - I don’t know what I expected but this was much better. It clearly was an expensive place to be but our drinks were less expensive than our hole in the wall bar in Dubrovnik. You can tell that this attracts the rich crowd. Lovely weather helped. This was a tender port. We walked along the sea front. All of the beaches were rocky and as a result the water was crystal clear. I fancied dipping my feet in to see the temperature of the water but could not see anywhere that would be safe from the odd rogue wave. I didn’t want to dampen my shoes and so the day. I found 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 but I think I did it right. On the steps back down into town, I passed a Benedictine Convent that had a lace museum. I knew that lace making is a symbol of Hvar. It is a bit of a niche interest but I would have liked to go and see. It was 5 euro but they didn’t accept cards. I had brought out 10 euro today to buy my postcards, I only had a few coins left. I made do with a post card of the lace. Again I have no idea what the ship had to offer in terms of tours. I would have been very interested in seeing Stari Grad Plain and Stari Grad itself. I would certainly have done this as a ship tour. We might have got to see and smell some lavender fields. We would probably have easily done it with a taxi but we really did not want to get up early enough to get an early tender that would allow us to do this in comfort. Koper (Slovenia) - We woke to rain, but it mostly stopped by the time we went ashore. Here I had planned further ‘strolling around’. When we walked out of the port there were some kiosks selling tours. The company was Istranka tours. They had a good selection including several local famous caves, a ‘wine fountain tour’ ???, Lake Bled and Lubljana - and the tour for me if only I had seen it, a Lipizzaner Stud Farm. My favourite ever ever TV show as a child (White Horses) was set on a stud farm near Lubljana. How would I have known that I could have gone back 50 years in time. However, 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 Koper. It was stunning even in the rain, but it seemed as if we were done in 45 mins. There was a tower to climb but I had done quite a few climbs during the week. I bought another card because we were in a different country. The panoramic tour was really good value. The guide talked non-stop. The two hours in Piran was enough time to see around. This would make a great spot in the summer. 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. 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 would certainly get to see those Lipizzaner horses then. So all in all a good set of ports, there was more to interest me than I expected. I hope that helps someone choosing what to do if in these relatively unreported ports. Happy to answer any questions.

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.