quercus alba

Very much agree--Mrs. Q and I went on first cruise (West Med) because she wanted to go to Europe and I had no idea how to start. So we booked the cruise with the idea that it was more like a "Spain and Italy 101" introductory survey course to show us places which we might consider for upper division courses or even graduate seminars later, to continue the analogy. Also to continue the analogy, our graduation date has been indefinitely postponed. 😅 Our current survey will be for the Eastern Mediterranean, which pretty much demands that someone drive you around in a boat, and our criteria for even thinking about cruising anymore is that the vast majority of the ports have to be places we've never been before, as well as places that our lives will be enriched by having seen, even once, for too short a time. We also enjoy the convenience of packing and unpacking for our "hotel" once, and not needing to book lodging in multiple places, or arrange transport between all of these places. (OTOH, I'm getting better all the all the time at figuring those things out, and we had a great trip to Scotland & Ireland a couple of years ago where we were able to "settle" in Glasgow and Dublin respectively a few nights and plan day trips.)

Roughly like "hot-racking"--e.g. sharing the berth with another sailor on a submarine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_racking

Well this would be a great month to buy a new iphone or ipad then, and get the free 3 months of AppleTV that come with it...since Season 3 of Ted Lasso drops on March 15! ⚽ Futbal is life!☺️

Just stumbled across this series with Schitt's Creek's Eugene Levy doing a kind of semi-comic travel documentary. The episode on Venice was quite beautifully shot, but also interesting in showing some less famous sites like the Jewish ghetto and "back street" canals. Plus, in between his cheesy (and sometimes cringy) commentary, he often does dispense some good wisdom about travel and people and such.

If this was directed at us at all, just click either of the review links in my signature. 07-19-2015 Norwegian Pearl--Alaska [Review] 03-24-2013 Norwegian Pearl--Caribbean [Review]

We've had two really nice family cruises on Pearl, once to Caribbean, once to Alaska. Great staff.

The only thing that can be done is to unleash CruiseCritic's most powerful, intimidating, indomitable force--the one, the only...The Chair Hogs. Every morning at dawn they will descend on the pool decks, towels, books, and flip flops in hand...umm, feet. They will mark every lounger. Occupy every inch of space. Monopolize every barstool. No soca will penetrate! Arise CruiseCritics! This is your Call! This is what YOU WERE MADE FOR! This is our Moment! This is our Finest Hour!

So is that the left foot of the poor guy on the far right, who has one white foot?

Wow--thanks for these! We'll be spending a couple of days in Istanbul after our NCL cruise this November, and these pictures really get the juices flowing! I'm reading Roger Crowley's City of Fortune right now, which is a history of Venice that opens with a blow by blow account of how Dandolo utilized the Fourth Crusade to essentially gain Venice a monopoly on trade in the Eastern Mediterranean, including a brutal account of the siege and sack of Constantinople in that campaign. He has another history of Constantinople and the rise of the Ottomans that I'm planning to read next. As far as I'm concerned, seeing this places in person is one of the primary reasons to travel! Thanks.

We've had these twice on deck 11 on Pearl--once cruise far forward next to officer's quarters, and once right at the aft stairwell. Both were great locations. Forward was a bit quieter--was underneath spa and library, but aft wasn't bad--think it was under the Garden Cafe's seating area. Did sometimes notice noise from the jogging track 2 decks up--we were right at the point where the track juts out a bit on an overhang to loop around the sports court, so you could hear tromping up there occasionally if you were out on the balcony. No big deal. The really nice thing about the more aft-ish location was the convenience to the Garden Cafe and the Great Outdoors. I think the distance from our cabin to the Pearl's "secret Good Coffee Machine" upstairs was not really significantly more than the distance from my bedroom to kitchen at home, so it was always easy to pop up and get coffee or breakfast or snack items.

We were going to go up to the top of the Duomo anyway, but I'd read about a “Terraces of the Cathedral” tour in Rick Steeves’ guide for just a few Euros more (It’s 8 to enter and climb vs 15 to take this tour--admittedly a few years back, so you may want to make sure this is still happening, and pricing has certainly changed). You have to go to the Duomo Museum (across the street from the back of the cathedral) to purchase the tickets, and it’s limited to about 20 or so people. But for the extra Euros, you get to skip the lines, get a guide to show you the details of the cathedral, and got to go on some scary interior and exterior terraces that other folks don't get to see (NOT for the acrophobic!) on your way to the cut the line for the second half of the interior dome climb.

I just pack a roll of clear packing tape and do some quick "self-laminating" after I print them out. They're pretty resilient and loop around a handle or can be stuck to whatever you like.

Been in those cabins twice, and that is indeed the state of the wiring. I found that between my CPAP's hose and power supply/cord unit, a regular household extension cord was enough to span the distance at night. I could unplug it and stow it under the bed in the morning.

We'll be taking our first cruise of more than 7 days later this year, and will definitely be looking to fold Le Bistro into the rotation at least once--but we usually only visit a given specialty restaurant once per cruise. I was just wondering, with your multiple visits to Le Bistro, does the menu ever change? Are there different or new items from day to day?

On our first cruise, we were sitting on our balcony on Epic in Barcelona, sipping a Spanish red wine that they hadn't bothered to take away from us somehow, and Mrs. Quercus said, "Hey, we're moving." "So we are." <clink> [sip] And so, a tradition was born. We can usually hear the festivities up above, but there's really nothing like a balcony, a beverage, and the first breaths of vacation air.

@mapleleaves--you seem really quite helpful on your other posts in this forum, so I'll direct this your way: Just wondering if you can say anything more about NCL's shuttle offerings from VCE. We're leaving Trieste on NCL Dawn on the evening of Nov 14, and I'm looking at getting into VCE early on Nov 13*. Was thinking about staying near-ish the airport, taking train in for the afternoon and evening; perhaps even returning for the morning a bit--or making an earlier departure via train to Trieste and hiring a private tour of that area for the afternoon as an option. But was also wondering if returning to VCE to catch NCL's shuttle would work. Thanks! *(I know it's not enough time pre-cruise for Venice--or any other place--but it never is, is it? And unfortunately we have work to do and lives to live on this end, too, dang it!)

Exactly...I live in Minnesota. I cruise to get away from this sh...tuff!

Thanks for this info-- I'm looking at flights home from Istanbul this fall, and my preferred single connection would also be through AMS on Delta, but would have a 17 hr overnight layover. Probably too short to do any real sightseeing, but maybe a quick train ride into town for a beer and back for a decent night's sleep that's not on an airport bench then? Question--do you know if luggage that we check in Istanbul will be checked through all the way to MSP--or would we have to claim it, clear Dutch customs, and then check it in again the next morning? Thanks!

We have an NCL cruise in Italy booked for November this year. I'm quite comfortable booking my own flights the handful of times a year I do it, almost always through Delta's site (being based here in MSP). Was just wondering whether it's too soon to start shopping for/booking the flights now, or what you more experienced international flyers might think the optimum lead time would be to lock in the price and dates we want for travel. TIA.

All of the above, plus the fact that MSP is a nicer, better laid-out airport than mega-ATL. An hour at MSP is plenty of time to get between gates and even grab a cup of Caribou Coffee, whereas I'd want at least 90 minutes at ATL on a normal day.

This was Shakers on Epic--but I think most of the fleet has a martini-oriented bar.

Pretty much how I got there, too--was with a group of three teachers who "didn't like gin"...I did them the service of disposing of the ones they didn't like...had a wonderful long conversation with them that will forever go unremembered, and the rest is relationship history. Slept off the rest of the afternoon, ate quite lightly that night for dinner--even though the kids insisted on going to Moderno (the Brazilian steakhouse with the unlimited meat feast).

No kidding...I think the only time I ever got the messaging to work on the NCL app was after a martini "tasting" (they are really martini drinkings) on Pearl a few years ago. She preserved it for posterity...name blacked out to protect the innocent...

My instinctive answer is "the one that's in my hand", but I've been partial to the Dark & Stormy (right side of picture below) for my last couple of cruises, and what I choose as my first drink after boarding. Also a big fan of the First-Morning-at-Sea Bloody Mary. Thanks for calling out the Rum Cake though. That's a yummy one, too. Got that at Shakers on Epic a couple of times.