MeHeartCruising

The website has been a train wreck today. The search function only seems to work if you only select one criteria (like a date). For me, at least. And then when you try to drill into a single cruise, it can't display all the screens for it either. Trash website.

The advantage in Barcelona is that the wine shop the OP is asking about was AFTER the security checkpoint. So you could go thru security with no wine, then buy it inside the terminal. You were then able to take it on the ship without further scrutiny of the cruise line, thus bypassing any limitations (and fee$) they have for carrying on your own wine.

I agree with Taormina. I've been there twice and enjoyed it as a nice day. You don't really need a tour/guide. You just need transportation to get there. If the ship offers a "Taormina On Your Own" excursion, that works just fine. They get you there and back, but you are on your own to do as you please once there. The town is small and walkable. Perfect for a few hours visit.

We were refunded $13.81 per person automatically to our onboard account last week on the Joy. We did not miss a port. We assume this was a reduction in port fees to NCL and they passed it on to the passengers.

We had the "good" paper straws on the Joy last week and loved them. Then we went to one bar and they only had the "bad" paper straws. So we stopped going to that bar. The "good" ones last just like the plastic ones did.

We ate at Q on the Joy last week. Our dinner reservation was for 5:30. The band was starting to set up when we arrived and started playing around 6:00 pm. They were pretty decent, but not spectacular. Mostly played 1990 and onward music -- Randy Travis, Clint Black, Garth Brooks, etc. We enjoyed the music. It was at a volume that was fine for us during our meal. We were seated in a booth up against the wall, furthest from the stage. As for the meal, we thought it was OK. Not wonderful. The meats were good. The baked potatoes were good. The other sides were nothing special. But we would eat there again.

I can’t offer advice specific to Reykjavik. Is the ship arriving that morning and ending a cruise? I would assume so. In my experience at various ports, the porters will not start accepting luggage for the next cruise until they have finished the bulk of their work from the disembarking cruise. They are usually involved in helping to organize the luggage from that cruise and even assisting those passengers with their bags. As that gets further underway, they start transitioning to arriving passengers and their luggage. In Southampton last fall, the arriving passengers also had to wait for a while as the porters were on a brief rest break in between duties for the 2 cruises. I would not be surprised if at 8:30-9:00 or so they may not be willing or able to take bags from arriving passengers. In Barcelona we arrived and were told not until 10:00. The ended up starting at 9:45. Not much help, but I think you might need to delay your tour a little or take your luggage on the tour with you.

It could be that Celebrity’s excursion gives a cable car ticket to those people who wish to return to the ship on their own after spending additional time in Fira. For those that don’t wish to do this, they take them back to Athinios to board the ship via a tender. That would seem quite possible, especially if the excursion ends a few hours before the ship is scheduled to depart.

@irishgal432 I purchased the ship to Venice Marco Polo Airport transfer shuttle on Friday by calling Royal Caribbean. The price was $54.95 per person. They record all your flight details, so you need to have that ready if you decide to buy it.

I found this picture of shuttle times from previous cruises here on CC. It shows they had a shuttle designed for flights as early at 11:00 am. However, there's no guarantee they continue to offer that. Based on the comment above, it sounds like they might not be.

I love visiting Paris. However, I don't think I would recommend doing it from Le Havre as part of a single-day cruise visit. Is it possible? Yes. But I think the overall experience of the day will be negatively impacted by the lost time just getting there and back. Save the visit for a future land-based trip where you can do the city properly. Do something closer to the ship that day.

No. The Royal Caribbean website does not provide that capability. All you can do is to filter down to a list of cruises via the search criteria and then pick one for more details. Then a subsequent screen allow you to lower the number of guests to 1 for that particular cruise. It does make it difficult to compare solo pricing for multiple cruises.

On my very first cruise that stopped in Athens, I took a ship excursions to Cape Sounion. There is a Temple of Poseidon there and the views out over the water are great. I don’t recall the drive there to be all that memorable though.

I'm also investigating how I want to get to Venice VCE airport at the end my cruise in May. I just called Royal Caribbean and the agent told me a transfer from the ship in Ravenna to Venice VCE was $54.95. Not bad, I think. But then he said this would be for a "taxi car shuttle". I said, "it's a bus isn't it?". He said, "no, there is no bus shuttle service. Just a taxi." Weird. I'm assuming he doesn't have correct info. I hope. I'll call again tomorrow. I don't want to be out at the curb looking for a specific taxi/car.

NCL's Norwegian Dawn has visits to Kirkwall, Orkney Islands on it's British Isles: England, Ireland and Scotland itineraries for 2023, 2024, and 2025 from what I can see. I was on this itinerary in September. Unfortunately, I booked at the last minute and could not find any tour or car service to take me to some of the neolithic sites I wanted to see. Everyone was fully booked. All I could do was walk around Kirkwall and explore the local sites. It was still a nice day. I just re-read the OP's original posting. Note that the Dawn's itinerary has multiple stops on the mainland of the UK and Ireland. So it may not be a good fit.

I'm not going to say the next paragraph with the intention of changing anyone's mind about using their credit card or phone for the Tube payment. I get it and I respect you decision. Separately from that... I would like to suggest that anyone traveling abroad take at least 1 backup credit card and perhaps 2 in case there is a loss, damage, malfunction, etc. to your primary payment card. I travel with 3 credit cards. Two are in my wallet. The third I hide somewhere in my luggage/backpack in case it's needed. You never know. All 3 of my cards are ones that have no international travel fees on transactions. 2 of these 3 cards are never used except for international travel. I also carry 2 debit cards for the same reason. ATM's have been known to eat debit cards and I don't want to be left without a backup.

Regarding the food... There isn't anyone who is going to stop you from bringing food into the country. There is no bag/luggage inspection or X-ray devices where someone will look through your belongings and there is no customs barrier you will need to walk thru and declare items. You will just walk off the ship and walk to wherever you are meeting your tour group. Having said that, I don't know whether Scotland has any laws prohibiting you from bringing food off the ship. Your possessions WILL be X-rayed when you return to the ship, but that is done on the ship by ship security personnel.

This is also called a "Guarantee" balcony. Search for that on the forum and you'll find lots of discussions. You may or may not get a great cabin. You won't know when it will be assigned to you until it gets assigned to you. It varies. You may not even find out the exact cabin number until you arrive at the pier, although this is not common. NCL, and other cruise lines now have an automated "upgrade bidding" process. So as that process takes place, cabins in the lower levels will open up as people pay to upgrade to a better class of cabin. Once that settles down, it is a perfect time for them to assign the cabins to those who only paid for a Sailaway/Guarantee cabin. But they also may assign them prior to the upgrade processing. There is no way of knowing for sure.

I edited out my previous post after researching a little more. It looks like they have built a new, larger dedicated terminal building since I was last there. I would guess it's large enough to handle 2 ships embarking as a new cruise at the same time. So you may be in good shape. Hopefully someone who knows more about this current situation will update this thread soon. Good luck!

I'm Going to retract my posting. I'm not sure what I posted is accurate any more.

We saw this reported on a current live-report thread for the Bliss, but this article appears to confirm pre-Covid style muster drills will now be fleet wide. https://cruiseradio.net/norwegian-cruise-line-muster-drill-process/

Yes, some of the excursions may not be available for your cruise due to any number of reasons, but at least you can get an idea of what there is to do in the ports that might visit. To name a few... https://www.ncl.com/shore-excursions https://www.carnival.com/shore-excursions https://www.hollandamerica.com/en_US/shore-excursions.html Celebrity (owned by Royal Caribbean's parent company) makes it a little more challenging because I think you have to first drill into a destination, then find the link to view excursions, but it works. https://www.celebritycruises.com/ports/santorini/shore-excursions

It really is annoying that they removed that feature from their website. And they didn't do it very cleanly. You can find links to "Browse all of our Excursions", but they have been set up to take you back to a worthless page on their train wreck of a web site. Part of my decision making on whether to book a cruise is to see what Royal offers for shore excursions for the ports on cruise. Irritating to not be able to easily do this.

Yes you can do that. But most would ride the funicular or take a taxi up to Capri Town. The lower level where the ferries dock is primarily a marina port with a few businesses. Up in Capri town is where you want to be walking around and enjoying the views (and shopping, etc. if so inclined).

Guarantee cabins have been around longer than dirt. On all cruise lines, I think. SeaShark describes very well the 2 common situations when they appear. On popular itineraries, on short notice, it might be all that is available.