I am currently on the Gem. Today was scheduled to be a tendering into Venice. Three days ago the itinerary changed to stay at in Trieste today, where we boarded yesterday. This was somewhat expected based on prior Norwegian cruises. I had altered my itinerary a week and a half ago to spend more time in Venice prior to the cruise.
Right after the email regarding the itinerary change came, I reserved a car from Avis for today. Avis and Hertz share a location that is about a 10 minute walk from the ship. The airport is quite far, so not rent there if you can all help it.
Without too much time to plan ( the weekend was spent enjoying Venice ) we headed out to Bled, Slovakia after picking up the car. This was about a 2 hour drive each way. The castle and lake are the top 2 most visited spots in Slovenia. We did very much enjoy our visit and discussed coming back for a visit sometime in the future.
We had thought about visiting the caves that are the third most visited spot and in Slovenia, but decided to spend time exploring Trieste instead.
On the way back my 23 year old son was driving. At the border between Slovenia and Italy he was pulled over. Before we even knew why we were pulled over we shared the car rental contract and US drivers license, so it was obvious that we were tourists. It was explained that we had a toll violation. So, yes we had not understood the signs at the border and did not pay the toll. True! What happened next seemed way overblown to me.
They took my son’s license, passport and the rental agreement back to their van. There were 2 vehicles and 3 officers involved. After about 10 minutes of running the papers, they told my son to follow them to their van. My daughter thought that one of the officers was reaching for her handcuffs. This heighten our concern considerably. He was in the back of the police van for a considerable time. My wife tried to check on him, but was told to return to our car.
At this point my wife screamed at me to “call someone!” I always take a picture from the daily newsletter of the port agent for that port, so that is who I called. The person I talked to could not do anything in Slovenia, but promised to email the ship and call the port agent in Slovenia. He also assured us that this did not seem routine…
After about 20 minutes he returned to our car and said that he needed money. My wife ended up paying hundreds of Euros in fines by credit card on the spot. Totally seems like a shakedown.
Obviously this put quite a different spin on our day in Slovenia and changed my recommendation for other cruisers to spend a day in Trieste. If you do decide to do what we did and drive yourself, research the toll system. I think the way it works is it costs 15 Euro to use the tolls for a week. But don’t take my word for it!
So yes, we did have a toll violation, but the response seemed way too much for me. The officers were not friendly, helpful or considerate at all. It felt that we were detained for a much more serious reason infraction.
I had thought that the tourism loss for Venice could be a gain for Slovenia, but we can’t recommend going there after our day.
As we returned to the ship, the chief security officer was waiting for us and stopped us to check on us. The general manager also was aware of our story and pictures as well.
Anyone know a Slovenian lawyer who can help with an appeal?
