purepixie67

Doug and Sue, thank you so much for the time and care you have taken to share your adventures with us.

Another vote for keeping this thread running please. I only get to read it at the weekend and I love catching up on everyone's life, food porn, and cruise countdowns.

I am 84 days away from an Escape cruise and am looking forward to Sid's pre-cruise food tips as we will be spending three nights in Miami. 

Hope the party goes well and that any food and drink is good.

(long time lurker)

atush - think next weekend will be a washout ( I am in the Midlands)

Hope you have smooth sailing A&L_Ont - we have to wait 125 day to get to Miami to cuise 

Looking forward to this live report. Have a great trip. And finally I understand the pineapple references...It's been a long working week is my only defence.

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VAT stands for Value Added Tax. It's like a state tax. In shops it is normally included in the price you see on a product.

Stopping by Manhattan Room to support $hip$hape LCR game...

 

 

Thanks for the great review Doug. If you get a chance please could you say hi to the $hip$shapes from Paula Chris on 2017 Feb's Gem cruise.

Ta muchly.

 

 

 

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Sailings from Barcelona are Sunday to Sunday, so an overnight flight after work on Friday should get you into Barcelona on Saturday. That gives you a day and a half to see some of Barcelona before boarding on Sunday afternoon. The Monday is a sea day, giving you time to recover from the jet lag.

The ship is due to get back into Barcelona early the following Sunday so you should be able to get to the airport by noon. As long as you can sleep on the flight back it should be do-able.

We are doing this cruise next June and have already realised that we may be exhausted after hitting 6 ports in 7 days, so may stay on in Barcelona post cruise

Thank you for all the photographs; only 431 days till we board her

Thank you very much for all the time and effort you have put into your review.

I sympathise with the poster who lost her iphone - several years ago I caught a pickpocket on the train about to pick a man's pocket, and my husband had his pocket slashed while we were in the city.

Be very careful on the trains, and in the square around the Naples train station.

Also - make sure you take water into Pompeii. There is little shelter from the sun. You can refill bottles when you are walking around (well there were about 5 years ago), but I didn't see any shops inside after you have bought your tickets.

Belated Happy Anniversary - glad you both had a good day.

Thank you for another trip report

I asked my pcp this last month and he though they would be out in October.

Shows are at 7pm and at 9pm. Second show was 'Swing'. Second City one night, and another comedian another, plus an acrobatic duo

Hi,

What port was this and when? The hat looks exactly like the hat that was blown from my husband's head while we were sailing back from Jost Van Dyke on Valentine's Day.

Fortunately, the rum punch on the Rebel Yell soothed the loss.

After the 'Denied boarding' story I did print off our ESTAs before embarking on the Gem last month, but at check in no one asked to see them.

We had been through full photograph/fingerprint at JFK, and I believe our passports were stamped.

Having said that - they did take both our passports away to check/photocopy - so maybe they were checking for an ESTA online?

I was going to say, in the UK 18% is normal

You can get credit cards that you pre-load with cash. They work the same as normal credit cards but you cannot spend more than you pre-load.

Not for the MDRs, just the other restaurants like Cagneys.

We were given a pager at Magenta one night, and waited 20 mins for a table, but normally walked straight in - there was only two of us

HI, I was on the Gem last month, and managed to make excursion bookings and restaurant bookings on iConcierge with no issues. It is not, however, easy to read the menus for the different restaurants.

You do not need to book entertainment.

Just to say thank you for your review - I am really enjoying all the pictures.

At our meet and greet the officers told us it was a three stage process, doing some cabins at a time.

First stage - new headboards. We had ours (deck 11 starboard) changed during the day last week (02/07 - 02/17 cruise)

Second stage - new sofas, and I think he mentioned curtains too

Third stage - new carpet. I did see one cabin on our corridor that looked like the carpet had been changed while we cruised. They are pre-cutting the carpet to make it easier to fit.

Our RS also said that there were going to be new chairs.

Thank you!

Was there a laundry special on day 5?

Thank you very much for writing this review, and to your wife for her photos; I have thoroughly enjoyed reading about your adventures and experiences.

I'm sorry but I do not see why it is 'taking a chance' getting an ESTA. It is what the state department and NCL tell a passenger to do.

When you apply for an ESTA your previous visa and travel are checked. I know this because a colleague was refused an ESTA and had to attend the American Embassy to get a full visa.

If an ESTA is accepted on arrival in the US - and indeed for being allowed to board a plane to the US - then why would it not be accepted when returning from a cruise?