Turtles06

Excellent! Enjoy!! In early 2023, the Gem did those one-way cruises, but from and back to NY. Lots of folks on the B2B. Wonderful 23 days. I wish the Gem were still in NY.

I would do a B2B from Miami. 😊

Where?

My favorite as well!

Ugh, 5,000-guest ships… No thank you. Such a horrible trend in the cruise industry.

You can't tell how food tastes by how it looks. 🙂 And you can't tell whether the service is any good either. (Which often in Moderno it was not.) You were having trouble fitting Moderno into your schedule; I was merely suggesting you not bother.

I would not waste time nor a FAS or dining package meal on Moderno. We've given it a bunch of tries on the Jewel-class ships and NCL just can't pull off a churrascaria. The meats were invariably cold, tough, poor quality. I realize that food is subjective, and other folks may feel differently. But we've decided we are done with Moderno.

Sadly, it's not just NCL. We had a Norway cruise booked last year with HAL. It was supposed to stop in Stavanger. Many months earlier, the Stavanger *official* port web site showed that our ship, instead of docking in Stavanger (where the docks are right in town), would be docked quite a distance away in the suburbs. No walking into Stavanger; you'd need to take the train or a taxi. The docking location also made it very difficult for folks booked on a very popular private shore excursion to be able to get to it in time. Many of us called HAL to ask about this, talking to numerous levels of HAL reps, including supervisors. We were told there was no change, that the ship would be docking right in Stavanger, and not to believe what we read on social media. Social media? How about THE OFFICIAL PORT WEB SITE, with an actual drawing of which ships would be berthed where. Of course, the port web site was correct, and HAL finally had to fess up to the change.

Do you have a link to what you consider to be the port of Bar Harbor's cruise schedule?

I have a related question about the Bar Harbor port schedule linked in comment 19 above: https://maine.portcall.com/#!?tab=2&port=Bar Harbor Going into September-October 2025, it shows a number of visits by the Breakaway, but none by the Getaway. As best I can tell from NCL's web site, the only Away class ship NCL has sailing to Bar Harbor those months is the Getaway. Indeed, I'm booked on the Getaway departing NY on Sept. 14, 2025, which NCL says will be calling at Bar Harbor on Sept. 17, 2025, but the port schedule shows the Breakaway there on that date. I wonder if NCL made a reservation for the Breakaway -- (possibly prior to the Nov. 2022 referendum) -- and now hopes to swap for the Getaway. In any event, I've booked the Getaway cruise fully expecting that we won't be going to Bar Harbor. (Frankly, I'd love a sea day instead. 🙂)

Thank you. Interestingly, that site shows the Breakaway in Bar Harbor on Oct. 2 and Oct. 9, 2024, but not any later this year.

Yes, it was in November 2022. This recent article is very helpful in explaining how Bar Harbor is implementing the restrictions, given their victory in federal court. I agree with you -- it's likely that cruise lines made reservations hoping or expecting the restrictions to be judicially invalidated. https://www.cruisehive.com/new-details-confirmed-about-port-cruise-ship-limits/125450

Thanks Rick, but the first thing I do before asking folks on social media is to ask my friend Mr. Google. And I came up with that site too, but it shows the Breakaway in Bar Harbor on Oct. 9, 16 and 23 [as well as many huge ships there in 2025]. So that one didn't seem to be correct.

Could you please link to the web site you’re looking at for the Bar Harbor ship schedule? (It looks like there are several out there.) Thanks!

Definitely do that. The conductor will call ahead to Newark to let the Red Caps know you will need assistance.

Glad to hear your great feedback on the Bliss. We are taking the eastbound TA over next January before the dry dock. It is. (Paris is best done on its own, with at least several days.) The whole "Paris from Le Havre" question is discussed frequently in the France Ports of Call forum, here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/462-france-ports/ (And please note for any research/searches you may do that the spelling is Le Havre. 🙂) See the aforementioned France Ports of Call forum. Le Havre is in Normandy, a great jumping off point for tours of the D-Day sites (among other places). Check out Overlord Tours. Fabulous. Yes, and it is. You'll find info in the Portugal Ports of Call forum here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/465-spain-and-portugal-ports/ I think only NCL can reliably tell you that. But also, according to what I've read, sometimes Le Havre is missed because of weather. Can you fly into Paris before your cruise, spend time there, and then take the Eurostar to London (a fun thing in and of itself)? Enjoy the crossing if you book it!

Certainly not the case on NCL ten years ago.

NCL.com lists the total approximate size of "club balcony suites" on the Getaway (categories MB and MA) as "236-310 sq. feet" and the balconies as "32-103 sq. feet." Those are big variations, and I'm trying to find out which of these staterooms are the largest, as it's not really apparent from the deck plans (at least as far as I can tell). [I'm only talking about the regular "club balcony suites" and not the "aft-facing club balcony suites."] I'm sure that the information I'm looking for is here in the NCL forum, but a search for "Getaway club balcony" yields no results, and the individual search terms are far too common for a search. So I would appreciate any information and advice. Thanks! (And I know these aren't really "suites," just deluxe balconies with some additional amenities now thrown in. 🙂)

It's a horrible tragedy; prayers for all affected. It's hard to understand what might have happened. I assume a harbor pilot would have been on board the container ship at that time. Is that a correct assumption?

We did exactly that -- walked over to Trinity Church after visiting the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. Not only is Alexander Hamilton buried there, but the grave of his wife, Eliza, is at the foot of Alexander's grave. And the grave of Eliza's sister Angelica -- a person very important in Alexander's life and in the show -- is nearby. Fans of the show know this from one of the lyrics in "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story," as Eliza sings to Hamilton: "I rely on Angelica While she's alive, we tell your story She is buried in Trinity Church near you...."

For folks who don't know about this and might be interested, the "Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary Concert" that was performed and filmed last December at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London will be available for on-demand streaming in North America starting this evening (March 24) at 7pm ET with a "watch party." Tickets are $19.99, and entitle you to stream the concert whenever you want, through March 31, 2024. Below is the link for information and buying tickets. At the upper right hand side of this web page you can see the entire programme and which stars are singing what -- - it's quite a collection of R&H hits. https://concert.rodgersandhammerstein.com/

Never? Oh, please do yourselves a favor and see it. It’s absolutely brilliant. (I’ve seen it six times live, watched the film capture of the OBC six times through as well as pieces of it countless times when I needed a “fix.” I did finally give up Disney+ though. 😂)

The Halifax Public Gardens are absolutely beautiful and well worth a visit (assuming the weather cooperates). They are back up the hill, not that far from the Citadel. Do what you did before, take a cab up the hill. Saves time apart from everything else. https://www.halifax.ca/parks-recreation/parks-trails-gardens/gardens/halifax-public-gardens I suspect your reference to the Cathedral is to St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica. It's Gothic Revival architecture, which I always find interesting (and did when we visited). If you look at a map, it's downhill from the Public Gardens, so you could start at the Gardens, walk down to the Basilica, and then walk down to the waterfront. https://www.novascotia.com/see-do/attractions/saint-marys-cathedral-basilica/1307 A "must do" for us along the waterfront is to have some BeaverTails. Yum! (They are located at 1549 Lower Water Street, about midway along the boardwalk in a cluster of other food shacks.) If it's pouring rain that day and you're looking for something indoors that you haven't already visited, there's the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. We haven't been there yet, so I can't give a personal recommendation. https://maritimemuseum.novascotia.ca/ I hope this was helpful. Enjoy your trip!

Jamaica and the Cayman Islands are both fairly anti-gay places, Jamaica possibly worse from what I've read. Neither would be on my current wish-list of itineraries. As @njhorseman has said, the Gem and Pearl are sister ships. I haven't been on the Pearl, but I've sailed on the Gem six times (including three full transits of the Canal), and she's among my favorite ships.

This is good advice if the port prior to Boston is not in the U.S. But the Eclipse is doing some NE/Canada cruises RT out of Boston, where the final port call after Canada is Portland, and so immigration will be handled there.