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4 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

 

And that’s all it takes in the court of public opinion. 
 

NCL has utterly failed. 

If NCL waited for them here, will they now need to wait for every late passenger in every port?  Do this once, and every passenger will expect the ship to wait for them everywhere. 

Sorry, not sorry.  NCL was absolutely right

So these folks are special and NCL followed the rules too rigidly???   They are that special that the cruise ship should have waited for them?  Really?   Now after flying to catch up to the ship they are unsure they want to re-board?  Seriously?

And the Today hosts sure tried to play that NCL was the bad guy.  

Do the companies also have round-trips to Ghent?   We have done Bruges previously and looking to get to Ghent this time.

We used the app to apply.  We installed it on everyone's phone, since the app seems to only allow one application at a time.

3 of us have been approved already, and mine is showing an error.  I guess I will wait until 72 hours is up to see what happens.

On the issued e-mail, the last line in the what next section reads:

You must apply for entry permission and a visa on arrival in New Zealand.

I thought that is what the NZeTa gave us?

We had our PINs for all our cards, and wanted to use the PIN, but had to sign darn near everything.

Were there any discounts for a bag of laundry during the cruise? Thank you for your response.

Yeah, they left the flyer in our room on the sea day and picked up the bag on Tallin day. I think they would return the laundry on the Wednesday (Hellsinki) of the cruise.

I can help for St. Petersberg who had an non-NCL tour in the June 7th cruise

As one of the plebes, we got a letter in our stateroom on Berlin day saying if you have independent tour you had to make a reservation (under entertainment) for a specific group (A-H, maybe more) to enter the theater. I am not sure how many were in each group. By the time I went to a screen, Group A was booked, and I was able to book our family for group B.

They started letting the groups into the theater around 8am. By the time we got there, they looked like they were checking cards to verify you were in the current group, but the terminals were empty, so any group you had a reservation for could enter. It was almost like they realized it was taking more time to check everyone's reservation than just letting people enter.

They were filling up the theater once section at a time. So one section would be leaving by row, while the others were filling up by row. It was pretty organized in that regard, and I think we were in the theater about 15-20 minutes before we were allowed to go out. We were in the middle section, and the right section was exiting when we sat, than the right section got to go, than us.

Still took a good amount of time once we got to customs. I think we got to the SPB buses just before 9.

I imagine they will change to procedures again for how you enter the theater, but the rest seemed to go pretty smooth

Thanks for the photos Danish viking, that will be very helpful in about 1 months time for us.

Based on the bus schedules for going to Oceankaj, it seems like the 25 bus is the better choice when going to broad for the start of a cruise when going around mid-day

They actually got rid of them being free years ago. Think as long as 2010. One thing we can't blame on the new admin.

Tapas were free in 2014 in Las Ramblas when we sailed her on a Northbound Alaska

We have done two Med cruises on other lines.

Trains in Europe are usually easy to navigate. It does help to do some research on the different country systems beforehand and determine how to read the timetables. We DIY most ports in Europe and use trains to get some of the locations we want to visit. (i.e Rome, Florence, etc.)

Each cruise, we have missed a port due to port or country strikes. 2013 was Athens and we switched to Dubrovnik instead.

This past summer, we missed Marseilles due to a planned national strike and stayed had a sea day instead.

Last week, they had meatballs, mini corndogs, mini pizzas, spring rolls and a couple other items. Also had a good selection of small size desert items and fruits

we hit it several times during the afternoons. Was disappointed it closed at 6 everyday. We would have hit it for a quick bite before getting ready for dinner on all three of the italy ports.

We only got a Adventure Ocean compass on day one we signed our 10 year old up. Did not see any the rest of the week.

Just finished our first cruise on RCCL on Harmony, and probably will not cruise RCCL again. Loved the ship and the activities and the itinerary.

On the other 6 cruises we have done, we felt the crew on other lines recognized us more and asked us questions about the cruise, our day, etc. Hardly got that this past week on Harmony. Our server in Silk did, and our stateroom attendant. Employees in the promenade hardly acknowledged us as we walked by. NCL and Carnival would have employees handing out water and/or damp towels to use before boarding a ship after a day in port, RCCL just had the security guy looking at everyone cards and not even a welcome back.

Ugh, that's what I was afraid of!!! What time was this? We were hoping to disembark right at 7:00 to get the 7:50something train. We may have to set our Midwestern politeness aside and make it every man for themselves.

We got into port about 1.5 hours late because another ship was in the spot we were going to. Because of being late, I think it was a little more chaotic than a normal 7am docking, with all the private groups and the other DIYers trying to exit at the same time because of the lateness. I was happy we booked an afternoon Vatican Museum time and not a morning one.

However, we found that every port, they did not allow people off the ship until about 20-30 minutes after we docked. 7:50 would be tough with the bus out of the port, and then the bus to the station. We walked to the station, and it was about a 25 minute walk.

Because of being late into port, we stayed in port until 10pm

We are on the beautiful Harmony right now - sailing in to Marseille as I type !!!

Last weeks visit was cancelled due to some strike, they spent longer in Palma apparently. This ship is fabulous, we are loving it.

We were on last week. Stayed in Palma until very late. We watched the Fine Line while in port. France had a Day of strikes called for the 14th where even more folks were going to be on strike including dock workers. This was also a couple of days after the Russian and British soccer hooligans had a little kerfluffle in Marseilles.

A warning if you are DIYer for Rome, we had chaos once off the ship trying to get on the mandatory shuttle buses to get out of the port area. Too many people surging to get on the few buses (port people claimed 13 of them) they had running and no queuing what so ever.

Hopefully they have American bacon for the whole cruise now. We did not get that until day 6

We are scheduled to fly to Paris this weekend.

Right now we are waiting to see what happens with the planned Air Traffic Controller strike planned for this weekend. June 3-5.

SCNF is on a rolling strike right now effecting 40% of the TGV trains.

Paris Metro is planning to go on strike tomorrow. From what I have read, most metro will should be fine, but only 1 out of 3 per hour for RER train B from CDG will be running.

Not the kind of news I want to read before flying to Europe.

They are saying it's because we have Air2Sea, that the site thinks we are flying in the same day and there is no way to add it. Does anyone else have Air2Sea and were able to select their boarding and departure times?

Interesting. We booked with Air2Sea, but are flying into Paris a week before the cruise starts.

I will be curious to see if anyone has Air2Sea and able to select boarding time.

Its after your name, after passport info, after emergency contacts, I believe. Its like on the 3rd or 4th page. Sorry I can't be more specific because I am locked out of both online check ins on both our upcoming cruises.

Thanks for the info. I just went through my screens again, and did not have a choice of boarding time.

I wonder if it is because we have minors traveling with us.....

Where during the check-in does it allow you to select boarding time? I do not see that selection anywhere. I am on June 12th sailing, and I have done everything but print my SetSail Pass.

Thanks for the review. Helped us relive our Med cruise on the Spirit two year ago this week. A most amazing cruise on a very enjoyable ship.

We made reservations on the Dec 14th Magic cruise the first day at sea at the Steakhouse.

The night before the meal, we got a letter saying the meal was cancelled because not enough folks signed up. We were bummed.

Is it really a bad idea to do a inside cabin for a Alaskan cruise? Prices are almost a third of the cost and I understand the oooo and ahhh's that go along with the balcony. But taking in the full cost... I could do so many more excursions with the extra $.

 

What are your thoughts?

We had an inside on the NCL Sun last month, and were perfectly happy with it. We found plenty of spaces on the decks to see the scenery go by.

We were on the June 9th Sun sailing. We enjoyed the tapas in Las Ramblas. Was surprised how quiet it was there every evening when we went to get some. My wife loved the olives. Two of the evenings we were by ourselves for awhile. The wine tasting sessions were also held in Las Ramblas

Lobster was on the first night in the MDRs.

We found it too chilly for breakfast out back, and all other areas were pretty crowded, including Moderno. We usually sat at the bar area in the Sports Bar. On the mornings when the World Cup was on, that was fine by me!

Lottery signup was at Guest Services.

We found it interesting that there looked to be space available for the Chef's Table for the 1st couple of days.

We never upgraded to specialty dining, and mainly ate in the Seven Seas. Found the food portions and speed of service to be well done. Chocolate Night was fantastic!

The process to enter/visit a few countries is the reason. You will be just fine.

Agreed, we sailed on the Spirit last June, and had no issues with the NCL process. We had photocopied the main pages of our passport and carried with us in the ports, and also had a PDF file of the passports on our tablet.

Easy process to pick them up in the theater near the end of the trip. I believe they called you to the theater by which deck you were on.

Yikes! Thanks so much for the valuable information. Do you happen to know how often the buses came to the bus stop in Cassis? Also we don't leave the port until 6:00 p.m. If we left Cassis as early as 3:30 will we have any problems getting back by then?

We didn't look at the bus timetable as closely as we should have! If I remember correctly, there was a bus around 2:30ish, and the next one was after 3:30.

I would think there would be no issues getting back for a 6pm if you are on the 3:30 train. I don't remember when the next train from Cassis to Toulon was. Our boat was scheduled to leave at 5, and we got on board at 4:50. There was one last tour bus coming in as we boarded.