John Bull

That was back in 2010 !! Long after Pol Pot's "killing fields", but I remembered it from when it was news. And of course before the building boom-and-bust. A few weeks ago, responding to a post on Cruise Critic, I mentioned a grubby but interesting little fishing village in the countryside down the coast from Sihanoukville. The OP asked me where it was - If i'd even known the name of the village I couldn't remember it, and it took me ages to find it on googlemaps . Check it out on this Googlemaps link https://maps.app.goo.gl/aoNVtobZu5P5x7id9 and you'll understand why I struggled to find it, no longer in the countryside but amongst the high-rise buildings. Some photos of it on that thread https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2976738-sihanoukville-kog-rong-kog-saloem/#comment-66706105 Yes, we know exactly what you mean by the peoples' "mellow" attitude. Life is what it is, stay laid-back and happy despite circumstances. Can't offer any comparisons with Siem Reap because we didn't go there - un-obliging ship's captain refused to sail the ship along about 300 miles of dusty roads 🙃 I remember our first visit to Lass Vegas - we drove from lonely Death Valley at dusk, and ended up on a different neon-lit planet 😃 But couldn't help but see the other side of Vegas Vietnam was much livelier than Cambodia, but tourism was in its infancy which meant it was difficult to fix things up but ridiculously cheap. An all-day junk cruise negotiated at the pier & getting lost from civilisation amongst the limestone karsts of Ha Long bay was something else. And the mist (which is normal for the bay) added to the eerie watery moonscape. About a dozen of us at $10 a head. As I understand it, now crowded and waaay more expensive And I'd organised a speedboat from Saigon (small ship, we ported in the city) up the Saigon River to the Cu Chi tunnels. Booking it was fraught because of the language barrier, wasn't too sure how big the boat would be, whether we'd find sharers on the ship (we booked it on the grounds that we reckoned it worth the cost even if it was just the two of us), and whether even the guy would show. But he was good as gold waiting for us at the ship, boat would have taken twice as many as the 8 of us but it meant we all had great seats with the wind i our hair, and it cost us about $10, each, same as a van to Cu Chi. I now see speedboats to Cu Chi professionally offered on the internet. Apologies for the long screed, as you may have realised, the best cruise we ever had - and on the rustiest old tub we've ever sailed (Loveboat's twin-sister), but such a homely ship & crew, & congenial company.. JB 🙂

I used to drive ships' bus transfers. If you book with the cruise line it will be a bus chartered by the cruise line, all the passengers will be your cruise-mates, and it will take you and your luggage direct to your cruise terminal. Exactly the same as coaches chartered by cruise lines for airport transfers Yes, ships' transfer buses leave from Victoria Coach Station in central London - that's the same coach station as the time-tabled cross-country National Express (think Greyhound) buses, and that's possibly the reason for confusion. You have the option of instead booking with National Express for a much lower fare (around £9), it's a direct service from Victoria coach station to Southampton (two or three stops en-route, but no changing buses), driver loads & unloads luggage, same as ship's coaches. But they go to Southampton Coach Station. From there a couple of cruise terminals are only a 15 minute walk, or it's a taxi costing no more than £10 to any cruise terminal. I usually try to persuade folk to save their money by booking Nat Express. Some understandably prefer the security of being the cruise line's responsibility from the moment they board the bus, but also there are luggage constraints. Since you mention lots of luggage, perhaps better for you to stick with a Princess transfer, which has no limitations on luggage - in fact they don't book out every seat because of the risk of too much luggage for the bus's belly-lockers and exceeding the coach's maximum gross weight. I hope that explains the reasons for conflicting reviews.. JB 🙂

About 8 - 10 years ago..... Bonaire - quite small, not much happening there. One time we took an escorted quad-bike tour, quite good fun, Another time snorkelling on Klein Bonaire, a small island opposite the cruise piers, just a short boat ride - best snorkelling we've done in the Caribbean. Willemstad, Curacao. Loved it. The town is very Dutch. We were berthed right in town on the channel which links the lake to the sea, & alongside the floating pedestrian bridge which is pulled open & closed by a tug - when closed to allow a ship to pass there's a free ferry launch. But larger ships berth at the cruise terminal at the end of town, a10-minute walk then cross that bridge to the town centre. Quite expensive compared to other islands. We didn't leave the town. Grand Turk. It's a Carnival-brands port. Not our sort of place - nothing local just a beach & Carnival -owned or leased shops & bars (you can use your sea-pass). Make it a beach day, don't bother with snorkelling gear. Grand Caymen. Tendered. You can fix up a boat-trip to "Stingray City", a sandbar about ? 1/2 mile / One mile? out to sea. Water is only about waist-high on the sandbar and it's teeming with wild stingrays. Harmless, they'll swim between your legs etc. Worth taking snorkelling gear but don't bother with the fins. A great experience, likely to be busy (over-busy?) these days In the past year or two .......... B.V.I. (Road Town, Tortola?). Two main choices - boat excursion to "the Baths of Virgin Gorda", a water-side boulder formation on the island of Virgin Gorda. There's a cheap ferry service, but being an island off Tortola there's no Plan B if the ferry has a problem. Ship's excursion of course costs a lot more, but the security that a boat problem is your ship's worry & not yours, cos it's a long swim to your next port 😏. So your choice will depend how lucky you feel. - Local buses & vans from the cruise pier to Cane Garden Bay. Pleasant ride with good panoramic views, to the best beach on the island. Dominica, Was very backward. now more switched-on. Vans at the pier to go up into the rain-forest or river-tubing. Very worthwhile. Dom. Rep. (Romana) Not very attractive, better in the countryside. We took a ship's excursion to Cueva-de-las-Maravillas (quite a lot of steps) and a area of iguanas, followed by a river trip (lots of rum punch) - pleasant, but not overly-exciting. JB 🙂

In many ways Cambodia is stuck in the 18th Century, and the poverty isn't because the economy has taken a dive - it's always been a very poor & backward country. Remember this was the country of Pol Pot & the Khmer Rouge, so the country went backwards when the neighbouring tiger economies were zooming forward. When we visited Sihanoukville, in a pretty second-rate way it was Cambodia's playground, In the past decade or two Chinese investment accelerated that - but yes, it back-fired. We were there before the building work, and enjoyed our day in and around Sihanoukville. Others felt that it was an awful port-of-call, but it's part of the world that we live in, it's an education how other people live, and we're glad that we went there. We don't plan to go back anyway, but making it a Cambodian Macao would put us off whether the high-rises were shells or thriving BTW Quite a few cruise ships stop there, perhaps more because it's conveniently located between Thailand & Vietnam. Yes, your overnight stop was probably because Phnom Penh (3 hours e/w) is hardly worth the travel in one day, plus two days also means that for those with deep pockets flight excursions can be arranged to Angkor Wat JB 🙂

The gardens, museums and bullring are within easy and level walking distance of the cruise berths. But the Alcazaba, immediately behind and above the gardens & museums, is then a bit of a climb - 'though part-way can be by elevator if it still works. The castillo is significantly higher altho the two are linked - a very steep 1/4 mile walk or a tortuous two miles by road.. https://maps.app.goo.gl/vhVxeFVEb5zwz94d8 A picture says a thousand words 😏 ........... Here's the view from the Alcazaba https://maps.app.goo.gl/hjppvUoe35y4yyga6 And from the Castillo https://maps.app.goo.gl/41ifmeKKn7chc2489 The Castillo is great for panoramic views, but there's little there other than the rampart walls. JB 🙂

Yes, get dropped-off in town, one of the best on cruise itineraries for shopping. Or at the Old Fortress, about a 10 - 15 minute walk from the town centre. Get the driver to show you the bus stop for buses back to the port, a bus every few minutes and about a 10-minute ride JB 🙂

Hi, Ziggy, I'll strike a deal with you. I promise to visit the Royal Oak sometime this summer, if you promise to do likewise with our favourite Forest pub, the Alice Lisle in Rockford 🙂 JB 🙂

Kotor is a lovely little historic & compact town, very easy to meander on foot - lovely people as well. It's under 2 hours from Dubrovnik by road, though I was going to say much the same as @edinburgher about the wonderful sail-in to Kotor. But when I checked the distance by road (57 miles) I found that the road follows the coast of that sail-in, literally waterside for most of it https://maps.app.goo.gl/Xc6V7HKWGLLVUq8Y6 Then I saw that you'd found an option by boat. Because by boat is more of a straight line route it looks to be about 35 miles, so probably takes little if any longer than by road. So either or both sound good. JB 🙂

@ziggyuk Since the pick-u is Lymington & the drop-off in Beaulieu I feel sure the taxi driver will know the Forest. And how to avoid the log-jam of Lyndhurst. Ask the driver to include Rhinefield Ornamental Drive (which also means automatically avoiding Lyndhurst) and Bolderwood Arboretum then Beaulieu (about 25 miles). And - if time & pocket allow - from there to Linwood, Ringwood and back via Burley & Brockenhurst to Beaulieu, showing you the different aspects of the Forest (about 40 miles total). What say you, Ziggy? JB 🙂

We've sailed MSC a couple of times, and another coming up. Being poverty-stricken pensioners 😏 we've never sailed Yacht Club but still enjoyed the cruises. Youngest and most-stylish fleet in the business, a real wow. And with lots of toys - depending which ships things like F1 simulator & bowling alley (both pay-extra), incredibly-technical theatre stage, massive & feature-filled kids' adventure & water playgrounds, etc. Keen prices, esp for kids. A few negatives..... A smart-phone based booking system for everything including dining. But other ships are going the same way,.no fun for techo-dinosaurs like JB Multi-lingual PA announcements & theatre compere, which get to be extremely boring - especially when that compere loves to show off his linguistic skills with long monologues. Lots of passengers whose first language isn't English, so some very stilted conversations. But no significant language difficulties with the crew, the only recurring problem is explaining "shandy". Those linguistic matters apply to European cruises, others can tell you if its the same on the other side of The Pond. MDR food involves a lot of pasta, service is laid-back, and you may have to ask for a jug of water on the table or a post-dinner coffee, and that's a clue about why MSC get poor English-language reviews. Americans & Brits are surprised to find that Italian ships do things the Italian way 🙄. Expect the American or British way & you'll be disappointed, go with the flow & you'll have a great cruise. JB 🙂

What water you can take on board & what it costs if bottled water is bought on-board is cruiseline-specific. as per @capriccio's post. It's pretty reasonable to believe that ship's water is safe to drink - I've never seen anyone washing or shaving or brushing their teeth at a drinks-dispenser, only people drinking the stuff 😏 It's (almost-always) de-salinated seawater, but a great deal different from the awful stuff I remember from 60-odd years ago. And it's the same water as in the cabins, the kitchens, the bars etc, and used for ship's ice. Other than not being as cold as ground-water (needs a few ice-cubes) I can't tell the difference from tap water at home, though some folk can. The only times I've bought bottled water is in a very few god-forsaken third-world countries, or the first drink of a day ashore because I've forgotten to take a refillable bottle. JB 🙂

South Africa doesn't have a strong tipping culture, but safari guides kinda expect something and you may get the odd hint any time from initial paperwork to goodbyes. But don't be swayed by any suggested amounts. 🙄 Tipping at US levels isn't regarded as generous - it's regarded as a mug's game. I guess the equivalent of 10 USD per person per day for about a week's safari, mebbe 15 USD pp for a single full day. But I suggest you follow our general routine - for a very satisfactory experience a total of 50 - 75 USD per day divided by the number of guests, which is usually 4 to 8 per safari jeep. More for going the extra mile, less or more-likely zilch for an unsatisfactory experience (which I doubt will happen). South Africa has a very poor exchange rate - so the value (other than the very best safari lodges) is excellent and tips are worth rather more than you'd think. Tip at the end of the safari. For a small organisation, a good review is more important than good tips. I guess organised entertainment will depend on the size of the establishment and the price level - we've only once come across organised evening entertainment, fire-eating round the pool at one quite large mid-priced lodge on a roving safari. But it's not really necessary, dinner or after-dinner in relaxed surroundings round a braal & chatting to guides & guests is fine for us - and early-to-bed because the best drives start around 5.30 - 6am For a one-lodge safari there's usually a game drive before breakfast, another in the afternoon, and sometimes a night drive. Jeeps are open-sided with tiered seats like an early charabanc. The more-expensive ones have a tracker seated on the nearside front wing. They remain in one reserve, which is open only to guests in the reserve's lodges. All are high-quality lodges, but the most expensive eg Sabi Sands have the best animal sightings. Roving safaris are usually better value & with more flexible pricing. They start a little later in the day, and some days are a mix of game drives and travelling. Jeeps are closed because of the distances and the need to carry luggage, but they have a full-length pop-up roof. They travel between reserves. Drivers on both fixed & roving safaris keep in touch with each-other by radio and share information about sightings. On fixed safaris that means only two or three jeeps, on roving safaris that can mean only a few or it can mean too many. Bear in mind that there's a huge selection of safaris & locations, so our experiences - whether on fixed safaris or roving safaris or self-drive Nat Parks may not be relevant to what or where you're booked. JB 🙂

Haugesund. The cruise port.is on an island just a river's width from the main town, accessed by a bridge. The town centre (street named Strandgata) is about a 15-minute walk. Busy street of shops, bars etc. and a few yards up from a parallel waterfront which makes an interesting block. We took a ho-ho from the cruise port - the rest of the town is uninteresting, so the ho-ho was a waste of time and effectively an expensive way of avoiding that 15 minute walk. The town centre for a lazy day, or research what's to see or do beyond the town. Olden (or like us you may be tendered from a mooring off Loen, 4 miles from Olden) The obvious excursion is to Briksdal glacier (Briksdalspreen). Tours, buses etc to where the road runs out at Briksdalsbre, about 14 miles from Olden. There appeared to be just one suitably-timed public bus for the return to Olden - a long walk if the bus is full !!! We also struggled to research how difficult the hike from the road to the glacier viewpoint or even quite where that viewpoint was, so we gave up on the idea. When we arrived at Loen we took an on-spec chance on an inexpensive tour which involved a short bus ride (also operates from Olden) to the landing stage at the bottom of Lovatnet Lake (Googlemaps name, just to confuse tourists also called Loen Lake and Lodalen Lake) where we met the folk who'd started in Olden and had a lovely boat ride the full length of the lake, followed by a short van ride from the lake to the viewpoint for Kjenndalsbreen glacier. Then included waffles & coffee (& rest-room) at a little restaurant before the boat back. Runs back-and-forth all-day approx hourly with the different parts knitting together, we did it on-spec but best to pre-book. We recommend it. https://www.oldencruise.com/loen-lake-and-kjenndal-glacier/ At Loen is the Loen Skylift, a very long & steep cablecar ride with panoramic views Alesund. We re-booked a day-long bus tour (available on-spec. at the pier if seats available, but our bus was full) up to the Trollsteigen. Scenic ride with interesting stops, highlight was the narrow switchback Trollsteigen pass & waterfall. Well-organised, leaves from the pier, excellent drive, excellent guide. Can be booked with or without a meal, we chose to do our own thing - delish filled baguettes and local strawberries - yes strawberries this far north, and the best we've ever eaten. The are has a reputation for its strawberries. Bus seats aren't allocated, sit on the right side (same as the door) for the best views. We recommend it. https://www.norwayexcursions.com/en/tour/alesund-from-fjords-to-trolls/ JB 🙂

Hi, The Nat Express timetable isn't showing me a 10.00 coach, but there's one to Heathrow at 9.45 and another to central London at 10.05. You should be good for either 🙂. Norwegian Prima's cruise terminal (City Cruise Terminal) is only about 3/4 of a mile from the coach station. Yes, there are 4 cruise ships arriving on sunday 12th May - they're all big ships but being a sunday morning, other than for those cruise ships there'll be little demand for taxis and virtually no traffic. And two alternative routes should one be clogged. There will probably be a line for taxis, but lines move quickly because almost every taxi journey will be to the train or coach station or to a city centre hotel, then the taxi returns for its next fare. If you are tolerably mobile you can walk to the coach station in 20 minutes - it's level ground. 6.00 will be ship's arrival time, disembarkation usually starts around 7,00 unassisted (haul your own luggage from your cabin) and the first tranche of assisted disembarkation at 7.30. Unassisted and the first couple of tranches of assisted means no delays through the cruise terminal and plenty of taxis. Things can go wrong with later disembarkation, so if you are allocated a later slot go to Guest Relations and ask for an early slot citing your onward travel arrangements (you might "forget" to take your coach tickets with you, and "mistakenly" tell them that you're booked on the 9.15 or even the 8,25 coach to London 😏). Or disembark unassisted when disembarkation starts. The later you get off the ship the more-likely you'll find a line in the cruise terminal and another for taxis. If you get off the ship early you're not going to have a problem making the coach, but you could find yourself spending a long time in the coach station waiting room. Whichever you choose depends how lucky or unlucky you feel 😏 JB 🙂

The roads out of London (and Heathrow) to Southampton will be quiet 🙂. Depending on the weather & time of day you may have schadenfreude from seeing the lemmings on the opposite carriageway slowly heading back to the big bad city after their weekend on the coast or in the countryside. Trains will also be lightly-loaded, even though they'll be on a sunday timetable. The risk as per @Globaliser's post is that long weekends are favoured for carrying out track maintenance. (commuters are a big big customer base) These will be planned works so there'll be up to 3 months notice on https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/status-and-disruptions/?date=20240527&operatorCode=SW In the main only a relatively short length of line is closed, and "rail replacement" buses close the gap between the stations either side of the closure. So your journey will still be available, but passengers have to leave the train at the station ahead of the closure, join a fleet of buses (they always grossly over-book buses so no line) to the station beyond the closure, and continue by train. JB 🙂

I know that a taxi from cruise terminal to rail station is 1.5 miles & £10 - to the White Cliffs Visitor Centre is about 3 miles so I'll guess about £15. St Margaret's Bay to the castle is about 4.5 miles, so perhaps as much as £20 - but as per my last post from there you'll need to call for a taxi and ask for it to arrive at a mutually-convenient time. From the castle unless you fix a return time to the ship with the driver, again you'll need to phone for a taxi (make sure to agree a clear and obvious location within the extensive castle grounds - perhaps outside the NAAFI Restaurant - drinks, snacks etc). Back to the ship is 2 miles, £10 to £12. All educated guesswork. But if you want to ask about UBER this techno-dinosaur isn't the person to ask 🥴 JB 🙂

On a lot of ships evening food in the buffet is the same, or almost the same, as in the MDR ie it's prepared the same way with the same ingredients and often comes from the same kitchens. So whatever folk say about food in the MDR will tell you what the food is like in the buffet. Only at breakfast do we notice a big difference in the food - cooked pretty-well to order in the MDRs, but mass re-heated congealed bacon, trays of cold fried eggs, always one or two trays of stock standard items empty, etc in the buffets. The big differences are in the surroundings and service, which is why we prefer to dine in the MDR in the evening The ambience & surroundings in the MDRs we find far superior to the buffets - folk tend to show far more decorum in both dress & behaviour, the atmosphere is far more relaxed, the decor & furnishings are far more up-market even on budget lines, whereas many buffets are canteen-like. Service includes things like whether the food is too cold or dried-up from being sat for quite a while under heat-lamps, whether buffet serving trays are empty, whether the counters, tables, floor etc are clean or spattered with spills, whether tables are promptly cleared. And daytime, whether the buffet is over-crowded and folk are wanderingg around like lost sheep with trays or plates in their hands. Buffets are fine if you want a quick meal (our choice for breakfast on port days, and lunch-time snacks on sea-days while hoping that our sunbeds by the pool aren't purloined during those 20 minutes), if you don't want or don't have the time to get changed into evening-wear, or want to see food rather than menu descriptions before choosing. Or if you want to mix-and-match meals eg curry or Chinese with chips, or overdose on the meats and skip the greens, or have three desserts - it takes a brave man to ask for those in the MDR 😃. In answer to your question our overall buffet experiences are that Carnival is poor, MSC is poor but in excellent surroundings, P&O better but canteen-like, RCI gets in right in both respects, On the ships we've sailed, Princess probably the best mass-market buffets (and the exceptional fish-and-chips in their Wheehouse pub put P&O's bland counter-service F&C venue to shame) . But none come close to Ocean Village - a now-defunct different-concept subsidiary of P&O which amongst other differences had no MDRs - everything except a premium-pay speciality restaurant was buffet-style plus a few deck barbies. Because there was no alternative the buffets had to be very good, and they were. If you want try Ocean Village, ask Marty McFly or Dr Emmett Brown to take you back about 15 years 😏 Of course it's all subjective - hence just MHO JB 🙂

We've visited Dover Castle a couple of times. On another occasion we dropped into St Margaret's Bay by car. But we've never walked the Cliffs path. Sorry, I got it wrong 🙄 Checking googlemaps & photos, altho Dover Castle to the upper start of the cliff walk (White Cliffs Visitor Centre & carpark) is little more than 1/2 of a mile as the crow flies it's not really sensible for those of us without wings - from the castle you have to go down about a mile to the "town" start of the path behind the ferry terminal, under the A2 London road and a steep uphill walk of a little under half a mile (including steps) up to the Visitor Centre. From the Visitor Centre the walk past the South Foreland lighthouse looks to be undulating but easy and eventually drops down to St Margaret's Bay, about 3 miles on a variety of paths, some gravelled & some merely beaten by walkers but easy going. It wouldn.t be fun in adverse weather. The route shown here includes the steep climb up to the visitor centre, which you can avoid by taking a taxi to the visitor centre https://thecoastguard.co.uk/ There's little to see in St Margaret's Bay, and there certainly won't be a taxi rank. There's a pub "The Coastguard" by the little beach, it would make sense to ask them for a taxi phone number (and ask to use their phone if using your own would be an international call) and settle down for a pint or a snack or meal. https://thecoastguard.co.uk/ I'm none-too-sure what to suggest - possibly start with a taxi from ship to White Cliffs Visitor Centre, walk to St Margaret's Bay, take a break at the Coastguard pub, taxi to the castle, taxi back to the ship? JB 🙂

Thanks for that, Gumshoe. A simple search on the Chiltern site show exactly the same as I found on the other sites - the £20.10 fare showing only the trains at 20 mins past the hour. I'll take your word for it that the 50 mins past the hour trains show if "via Havant" is selected but nowhere on that Chiltern site nor the National Rail site could I find a "via" filter. There is a via filter on Southern's site. Havant isn't one of the stations listed, but if it's typed in - bingo - it shows both the 20 mins past & 50 mins past trains. But of course a stranger to UK trains - and even locals like JB - isn't going to know that for half of the Gatwick trains they have to use a via filter to include a change at Havant. (or for trains in the opposite direction a change at Barnham). The unnecessarily complicated fare structure and this "via" nonsense make the train websites a bit of a nightmare. I get very bored explaining time and again on Cruise Critic how Advance fares work, now this nonsense. I'm not going to do the same with the need to use the "via Havant" or "via Barnham" facility to get a full timetable of SOU to GTW trains. I might create & save a post which covers these matters. Or I'm more likely to just ignore train threads. Exasperated 😡 Now I gotta lie down and go to a happy place 😏 JB 🙁

Strangely enough, in Norway you'll have more difficulty using cash than using cards - a lot of outlets don't accept cash. But just a few NOK in your pocket isn't a bad thing. JB 🙂

A favourite on Saints' football match-days. But a half-hour walk from most hotels, City Cruise Terminal & other cruise terminals. JB 🙂

Now I'm well-confused. For various weekday dates, eg Thurs 20th June, neither the National Rail site nor the Southern site are showing me the trains at 50 minutes past the hour, only those at 20 mins past. Hence you say half-hourly via Havant at £20.10, and I'm saying hourly. In desperation I checked the LNER site (a different operator covering a different part of the UK but should show the same). That needs the "go cheaper" filter to show any trains on that route, which I rate as ridiculous, but again shows only the trains at 20 mins past the hour. I think I've sussed it. 🙂 The timetables show half-hourly trains from Southampton to Havant and half-hourly from Havant to Gatwick, but only hourly (20 mins past the hour) from Southampton to Gatwick 🙄 But I give up on why they don't show the 50 mns past the hour trains, journey time is the same and timetabling shows they're not overtaken by the trains which go via Clapham.🥴 Jeez, what a mess. Can you please tell me which website you've pasted, it might be better if I got my information from it. JB 🙂

Hi, Andy, MSC's large ships, eg MSC Seaside and MSC Virtuosa, match / beat RCI for the wow factor and for entertaining the kids and young adults . The whistles & bells in the kids' pool areas and adventure parks are especially awesome, and the fares are keen eg kids go free. JB 🙂

So it's Marella - a Marella-chartered flight?. If so, the first para of my post applies, and I can confirm the post by @Izzywiz That means no need of a car, you & your luggage should be able to stay on the ship and enjoy all the food & facilities (except your cabin) until your airport transfer is called - for a 10pm flight that's likely to be about 6pm to 7pm. If instead you choose to rent a car, go to Guest Relations a few days ahead and tell them - they'll tell you about how to organise your luggage and note that you won't be using the transfer bus - they don't want to be searching for you to catch the bus We sailed a Marella Adriatic fly-cruise a couple of years back. You'll certainly enjoy historic little Koper, Split. the iconic walled city of Dubrovnik, and the long sail in / sail out of cosy little Kotor. Trieste is pleasant enough, but it's on the itinerary as a vaguely-convenient port to visit Venice if you've not been there before - most cruise ships are no longer permitted to port in Venice. JB 🙂

I too lean heavily toward the Princess itinerary - the only disappointment with that itinerary (for me) is that the Turks & Caicos (Grand Turk island) call is a Carnival Corp,-owned beach. Yes, bars & cruisers' shops & sunbeds & such, and yes you can use your cruise card for purchases, but there's nowhere local to visit, no local character, all a bit cruise-corporate. (Princess Cays on the Sky Princess is similar) The other islands are so varied - some volcanic. some rainforested, different produce, different peoples,. different colonial pasts. All-in-all better IMHO than Mexico and Belize, altho swimming with wild stingrays on Grand Caymen is wonderful. I'll also second the ABC islands - Aruba is a bit "Florida", Bonaire is small but great snorkelling, Curacao is my favourite - very Dutch. Cartagena in Columbia is often on the same itineraries as the ABC islands. JB 🙂