MeHeartCruising

Yes. It was from Southampton to Amsterdam and included stops in England, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland. On NCL’s Norwegian Dawn.

Are you sure the Sail Away shows the FULL set of Free at Sea options? It normally would only show the "Free" excursions portion.

Does NCL offer a post-cruise excursion with airport drop off? That would solve your issue.

This thread makes me happy that I'm not a coffee drinker. But my Diet Coke addiction is bad and boy if the mix is not good (which is frequently the case), I'm not a happy camper. So I can relate to you poor folks on this thread.

For my September British Isles cruise, I arrived at Heathrow at a similar time. I took the Elizabeth Line/Tube to the Premier Inn near Waterloo station. Premier Inns are not fancy or charming, but they are affordable and decent enough for a short stay. Upon arrival around 10:30 am, they even had an available room for me to check in early -- they charge £10 for early checkin. I then explored London the rest of that day. That evening, while out and about finding dinner, I checked out Waterloo to familiarize myself enough to know how it worked for my trip the next morning. That next morning, I walked (with my suitcase) to Waterloo and took the train to Southampton. There were taxis at the train station waiting to take me to the ship. It was really quite easy to do.

@euro cruiser Thank you for the detailed instructions. This is part of my plan for Naples on my May 9th visit on the Explorer of the Seas. I have printed this out to carry with me.

I'm a solo cruiser and have always been offered a Free at Sea option when booking a cabin. No matter what the supplement. You see the offers when you do the booking process online.

This is correct. Except there aren't really any tickets involved. If you're booked on an NCL excursion, you do not need a tender ticket and you do not get one. Nor do you need to reserve one on the computer screens on the ship. You will board whatever tender they put you on when the employee escorts your group from the excursion assembly location to the tender boat. It's pretty common that they are using 2 locations to launch tenders from on the ship. One is for the NCL excursions and one is for the rest of the passengers. This is not always the case, but pretty common. If they only use one location, they will take the excursion group to the front of the line for the tenders and make sure they get off in a timely manner so as to not hold up the excursion.

Which makes sense because your cruise started the day after your sail-by-date of the FCC. The OP will have his cruise start on the SAME DAY as his sail-by-date of the FCC.

From reading your post, I think your English is perfect. However, what NCL has written is a poorly worded English sentence! You are within your rights to be confused by it. My GUESS of what they mean is that once you complete the current cruise on August 15, 2023 they will credit your account with the FCC. So on August 15, 2023. From that date you will have one year to book AND sale on your next cruise. Since your second cruise embarks on August 15, 2024, I definitely would think that the FCC should be usable for it. That's my interpretation. But you probably will not know until August 15, 2023 for certain. Unfortunately.

On the newer NCL ships that I have been on, you electronically get a "ticket" using the video screens located around the ship. You insert your key card, and up will pop a list of the available time slots for the upcoming tender. I think it was just the day before the port, but I could be wrong on that. If earlier time slots are full they won't show them to you on the screen. So you pick from those that are available. I don't recall how the priority aspect of this worked. I'm platinum, so I suppose they must have held a few of the early time slots aside for priority members. But I really just saw the time slots that were available to me and I could pick it. I was able to see my selection in the phone app, so I could remember what time I had picked.

Please scan thru the last several pages of posts. There are lots of posts that have already been posted on this topic. This is a hot topic filled with many stories of dissatisfaction. And a few satisfied ones. These will help prepare you what to expect.

I can't speak for Amsterdam itself, but usually the drop off time is dependent on the luggage porters first finishing their work in getting the disembarking passengers' luggage all unloaded and ready for pickup in the luggage claim area. Once they finish that, they probably take a coffee or breakfast break. Then they probably return to work to start accepting new bags from the arriving passengers. I would guess 9am.

The port is not open to ALL vehicles. Even taxis. But, taxi companies, private-hire companies, etc. CAN do whatever paperwork they need to do (and probably pay for) to permit them to drop off and pick up passengers at the cruise ships. I suspect not all taxi companies (or individual drivers) pay to be able to do this. Your hotel should be able to arrange a driver that CAN get you into the and drop you right at your ship. However, if they will not/can not do this, then you need to get to the place where the port shuttle busses pick people up and transport them to the ship. That location is called Largo della Pace. From there, you follow signs to one of multiple busses that would drive you right to your ship, for free.

This seems like a perfect plan. Have a great trip.

You will want to ask your tour provider where to meet you at Parc Guell. I believe there are a couple different entrances. This appears to be the website for Parc Guell and I've linked to the page with a map of the park. You may want to write down the entrance name/location for your taxi driver. They may not speak English very well. https://parkguell.barcelona/en/planning-your-visit/maps-and-services As for taxis at the port, they will be obvious when you get there. There is a well defined line of taxis that meet the ships. Even if the line looks long, it moves very quickly. They pull up multiple taxis at a time for people to climb in and then dart off to their destination. Prior to leaving the ship, I would look down at the dock area from above and locate the taxi stop. It should be obvious.

I agree with marazul. It’s the better starting cruise for the Eastern Med.

Another transfer option to consider. Royal sells bus transfers from Venice Airport and Venice City “Center”. City Center is at a parking garage area on the west side of Venice called Tronchetto. It’s not really in city center. But it’s reachable from the automated rail system called the “People Mover”. These bus transfers may be more convenient than taking the train to Ravenna and then a taxi or bus to the ship. But it’s also more expensive. There are lots of options to consider over the coming months!

It is not clear what you are asking, as you first indicated you don't want to wait for the cable car, but then indicate you need the cable car. If you book a ship excursion, you will ride a tender boat to a level area where you will meet a tour bus which will take you up to the populated top of the crater to wherever your excursion goes. There will not be a cable car. However, you will need to walk a short distance to the shuttle bus. Generally ship excursions do NOT return you to that same location to re-board the ship later in the day. Instead, they give you a ticket to the cable car and drop you off in Fira, the town with the cable car. You will need to walk thru that town a little bit to get to the cable car. You will need to wait in any line that may be there at the cable car (this will depend on how many people are in port, time of the ship departures, etc.). Then you ride the cable car down to a dock area where a tender boat will take you back to the ship. Again, there will be some walking involved down at the water level. SOME cruise lines (like Celebrity) seem to be starting to have some of their excursions return to the same place where the passenger boarded the bus. They then tender back to the boat from that location. This avoids the cable car entirely -- both in the morning and in the afternoon. But this is a relatively new happening (last year was the first year, I believe). It is unclear if that will continue this year and it doesn't seem that most cruise lines do this. Without doing a ship excursion, you will be tendered to the location of the cable car, where you wait in line and ride it up the hill. You would also ride the cable car back down -- waiting in line if necessary.

They had the "sale" on the last couple of days of my Mexican Riviera cruise in February on the Joy. I think they were $20 each or 2 for $30, if I recall. Buy a size larger, because they shrink horribly in the first wash/dry. And they weren't necessarily all from current cruise ports. It was a mixture.

I would say that's cutting it very close. I think 25 minutes going down is right in that sweet spot of what it takes to walk down hill. Some will take more time. Some will take less time. Me? I would start down 45-60 minutes before last tender and take my time and take pictures of the sunset along the way.

I think any excursion that requires bus transport away from Fira will use the Athinios port. And that's probably most, if not all, of them.

Personally, I would do the full Oia excursion. It takes care of the morning transport issue for you. I think 90 minutes in Oia is plenty of time to soak in the sites and get your pictures. It will be early in the morning, so very little will be open. It is not a large village. You'll just naturally find the right locations for the pictures you want. Then meet your next tour in Fira.

I agree with hallasm. This will all depend on the efficiency of the Prima and NCL policies. As you mention, NCL will give priority to their own excursions. But they will also give priority to their passengers who are booked in suites and are higher members of their loyalty program. On NCL's newer ships, you request a tender time electronically -- either from your cabin or touch screens around the ship or via their phone app (I think). In addition to the priorities mentioned above, it will be first-come-first-serve to a tender time group. Then you must factor in if they have any issues on that morning that slow them down. I believe in this port, the tendering would be done via the ship's own lifeboats and not a service provided by the port. You really won't know until you go thru the process. There are lots of factors that can change with each sailing. Many times, the ship will tender from 2 locations on the ship -- one for their own excursions and one for other passengers. I do not know if the Prima does this or not.

The ports are all well-established and known cruise ports. You can research them on cruise critics forums for the Mediterranean ports. You can browse NCL's excursions for these ports here https://www.ncl.com/shore-excursions/search The EPIC is a ship that you will either love or hate. The reviews are about 50/50 on it. You won't really know which camp you sit in until you sail her. I've sailed her twice and have no problems at all with her. It's not my favorite ship, but it gets me where I want to go. The itinerary is a great itinerary. I would book it in a heartbeat if I had the time.