curmudgeon98

The transportation logistics are often awkward. On our recent cruises we had Azamazing evenings in Antwerp (quite a nice location and show) and Bilbao (also pretty good). For Bilbao, we avoided half the transport mess by staying in town rather than going back to the ship in the afternoon; tapas and drinks as we wandered our way from the old city area to the venue. If we'd thought about it in time, that probably would have worked for Antwerp as well. Sometimes I think it would be worth it to duck the busses and just take a taxi or Uber, but that certainly wouldn't work in all ports.

Just to close the loop on this one. we never did get the b2b credit for this on the recent two cruises. Got the runaround on the phone when I called in about it (different stories on each call, eventually saying they would deal with it on the ship). Onboard Onward, similar BS, with them finally saying they had talked to HQ and it would be applied to the following Quest sailing. And then Quest guest services futzing around and then finally claiming b2b credit didn't apply to two different ships. I suspect the bottom line is that their current way of handling this via merging the bookings under one number doesn't work, and no one was willing or able to work around that. The potential credit wasn't key to why we were doing the b2b booking, though it was in our minds, but all the hand waving and finger pointing by guest services left a bad taste in my mouth.

You are next door to two of the most expensive cabins on the ship (Owners Suites). You are also on the center line of the ship relative to side-to-side rolling. I tend to think all the location worry for seasickness is a bit overblown; the cabin location differences aren't as big a factor as people often think. If the weather is rocking and you are prone to motion sickness, you'll feel it no matter where the cabin is. My only hesitation about 7001 is that the balcony might be windy while traveling at full speed. But we aren't especially susceptible to motion sickness, so this all is easy for me to say. Sometimes a bigger annoyance with far forward cabins is getting woken up early by the bow thrusters and/or the anchor chains when docking or anchoring at 6am, but deck six is more affected by that.

Helpful advice, thanks! That gives us a good starting point.

We've got a cruise coming up in a few months on the Sun with some specialty dining included. It's been six years since we've been on NCL (Spirit), and our specialty dining experience that time was mixed (great filet mignon at Cagneys, but everything else there and at the French restaurant was pretty mediocre that cruise). We moved on to other cruise lines, but this year NCL had the right itinerary and timing, so we are back with a family group. The Sun has Cagneys, Le Bistro, Teppanyaki, Sushi, and Moderno for choices (we'd probably skip Los Lobos). I know it's somewhat dependent on the chefs, but I'd appreciate thoughts on what dishes and/or venues are working well currently on the smaller ships. We might do one with kids (age 7-12); would Teppanyaki or Moderno keep them entertained?

That's too bad. They seem to be making a substantial effort to bring them back; it looks like mostly seven-day or transatlantic are the ones left out.

I'll give my compliments to Azamara. We just got an email notice that the "destination celebration" which had been scheduled onboard in Bilbao has been upgraded to an "Azamazing Evening". Same headline performers, but adding a dance troupe and moving to a theater in the city. This is for a cruise just five weeks away. This is an appreciated touch, as it didn't appear that the cruise dock is an especially scenic location.

I'm not a fan of the layout of the large Princess ships because of the lack of a forward lounge and outdoor access, but we were pretty happy with the MDR food and the music/entertainment. Similar to Celebrity, and a step up from our NCL experience. We mostly cruise on smaller ships now, though. We were "one and done" with NCL after quite poor food and MDR service on our cruise with them six years ago. It wasn't a horrible experience, but at the time I said we probably wouldn't do NCL again unless they had an itinerary/timing that we just couldn't match with other lines. This year that itinerary/timing thing happened though, so off we go on NCL again. We'll have modest expectations and take any upsides as a bonus.

Others have covered a lot of the ground. Waitlisting for excursions is often rewarded as slots come open (especially around final payment date) or groups may be added. Our Western Med excursions tended to have 25-30 in the group, about half a bus. Not bad, but still susceptible to the occasional stray or lagger. Guides seemed to be luck of the draw from the local tourist agencies. All knew their material at least OK, but some were much better than others at handling the group and being interesting in their commentary. More that a few times we broke away from the tour early and just arranged to meet at the bus for transport back to the ship. We made a point of avoiding anything with long bus rides. Everyone is different, but we found that signing up for excursions in each port was a bit more than we wanted. Sometimes just exploring on your own, poking through small shops, and enjoying a relaxed local meal beats seeing yet more historic buildings/ruins and hearing more historical facts. Many of the ports in the Eastern Med are well suited for exploring on your own and just walking off the ship. There are a few ports where it definitely pays to have something arranged, though, whether included excursion, upgraded smaller group excursion, or private guide from something like getyourguide.

My biggest gripe with Mariner was the very awkward tub showers in the standard cabins. High sided and raised several inches above floor level. At 6-1, I had to stoop a bit to not hit my head on the ceiling in the shower. Other aspects are more a matter of personal taste (decor, entertainment). On our cruise Sette Marie was pretty poor (table service, but the food was essentially buffet food plated and brought to you - some dishes survive that treatment better than others). Otherwise food and wine were good. While I don't rule out Mariner entirely for future cruises, I look to other Regent ships first.

I've used the similar Bavaria ticket before. You can buy from the machine in the station (find the UK flag on the screen to get english). Good any time after 9am on weekdays (all day on weekends/holidays) on any regional train. You would need to buy a four-passenger and a two-passenger ticket (or similar combination) since you can't put more that five on a single ticket, and write everyone's name on a ticket. These tickets don't have any further discount for advance purchase, unlike the mainline trains. Looking at the schedule, it seems like the best routings leave around 8:30 or 10:30 am. The earlier one wouldn't be valid on the discount regional ticket.

bahn.de is the general German train site. It does have English pages (select in the upper right corner). As an example, you can choose Warnemunde to Schwerin Hbf as a route. Reasonable routings (one change in Rostok) are only every two hours or so. The regional trains would be the "S" and "RE"; the "ICE" trains are the long distance trains and don't have the cheap ticket deal.

I'm not very picky about wines, and will often be happy with a carafe of house wine in a small French or Italian restaurant, but two years ago on Onward they were serving some wines that seemed pretty poor to me. I think they were from Croatia or nearby region. We found something tolerable, but mostly just shifted away from drinking much wine at dinner on that cruise. Not a deal-breaker for us, and I think they've moved on from that batch of wine in any case.

There is a nice regional train ticket deal available from that port. The Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ticket is valid from 9am until after midnight on all the regional trains in the area. If the group stays together, it's only 35 or 39 euro (depending on the day) for four adults. https://www.dbregio-mecklenburg-vorpommern.de/db-regio-mv/tickets-und-tarife/mecklenburg-vorpommern-ticket I don't think there is an english version of that page, but you can use translate within chrome browser.

I've only been in Piraeus a couple of times; I just can't remember whether there were typically large van taxis around or not. If it were me, I would pre-book a car service (for a larger vehicle) to meet you at 9am and do self-debark. If you are ahead of the crowds waiting for their luggage, you should be through customs/immigration fairly quickly. If you are 20 minutes late, just tip your driver a bit extra. In general, I'd say Greece is a little more formal about security than some places, but not extremely so. They are closer to various problem corners of the world, but the cruise passenger routine is pretty well worked out. Politeness is always appreciated.

Personally, in that region of the world, enjoying a lunch on shore is often one of the highlights. It's usually best to get out of the complete tourist zoo zone, but you don't have to go far to find family-run restaurants that have high standards.

In September we are getting off Onward in Southampton, and then immediately joining Quest for another segment. Looking at the port schedule, the two ships are set to be at adjacent terminals. I suppose we could ask if Onward guest services could forward our luggage next door for us, but I don't mind walking the bags over to the next pier (and I'd probably worry less if I do it myself). The only thing is, we'd be leaving Onward probably at 8:30 or 9:00, and I'm not sure if they would be set up to accept our bags for Quest so soon. Our tentative plan for the day is to walk over to the Southampton train station and take a train to Winchester, so keeping the bags with us would definitely be awkward. I suppose alternately if there is luggage storage service available at either City Cruise Terminal of Horizon Cruise Terminal we could use that. Anyone have experience with this?

There IS a vaporetto service from "Fusina" to Venice, but it is generally NOT accessible from the Fusina cruise port (you aren't allowed to walk through the truck/boat storage areas and campground between the cruise dock and the vaporetto dock. I think I have heard of some cruise lines arranging a private tender service directly to Venice from their ship while in Fusina, but I think that was for a cruise that didn't start/end in Fusina. I'll be curious for any corrections or changes, because the current mode of bus transfer to the old Maritima terminal is definitely awkward.

I can't see a 7:55 flight happening, even if you carry your own bags off. Port authorities aren't likely to be set up to accept passengers early, and it's not a short/simple trip to the airport (plug it into google maps with a "depart at" setting of a weekday morning).

Sort of an odd situation, but we have two Azamara cruises coming up that are B2B in days sailed, but on two different ships. Onward sailing from Stockholm to Southampton, followed by Quest from Southampton to Lisbon. Both ships happen to be in Southampton on the same day, and the second half Quest itinerary suited us better than sticking with Onward for the next leg, so we are shifting from one ship to the other that day. The B2B OBC wasn't specifically on our minds when doing this, but it would be nice to have. Reading the B2B OBC terms didn't show any requirement that both legs be on the same ship, but at the same time, the online request form for the credit didn't really accommodate the situation. I put in the request, but haven't heard anything back. We last did a B2B a couple of years ago and got the credit, but my memory is fuzzy as to what the process or notification was like for the OBC. Any comments on recent B2B OBC process, or this specific situation would be appreciated.

There is quite a bit of variation in the Regent ships (but then, R-class to Vista on Oceania also are quite different). No tiny showers on Regent, but some of the bathtubs on the older ships are pretty awkward for showering. I thought the included wines on Regent were decent. I wasn't really impressed with service or food on our Regent cruise, but that was somewhat of an odd case, starting right after the ship completed a world cruise and had a large staff turnover; I suspect things would get better when the large block of new staff settled in. Group size on the included excursions was 20-25. Quality of excursions was mixed; some were quite good, others just so-so. We wouldn't hesitate to do either again for the right itinerary and value proposition (though we lean towards Azamara generally).

We have two Azamara cruises coming up. I see that the 12-day one has the Azamazing evening scheduled onshore in Antwerp (cultural show at the old stock exchange). It's an overnight stop, and I'm torn between making a longer day in Bruges or Ghent versus getting back in time for the show. Our 8-day cruise has a Destination celebration onboard in Bilbao. If we were actually docked upriver in the center of the city, that could be a nice setting, but I have the impression that we'll be docked in the suburban Getxo port. Hopefully with time Azamara will be able to pull more of the Azamazing evenings together in forms that will make them special. It's not an easy task after all the covid disruption to the industry.

My wife won't go for inside cabins, though she's never tried one. Just thinks she'd feel claustrophobic. We are relatively indifferent on the subject of OV vs balcony because we tend to spend a lot of time out on the decks or in the observation lounge. We've had a balcony on an Alaska cruise and rarely used it because it was a little too cool for comfort (on the other hand, I won't sail Alaska on a ship that doesn't have a good forward observation lounge). Two years ago we had a balcony for 14 days of Greece and Croatia; we figured that with great weather and beautiful ports and coast we would use it a ton. In reality we had one gorgeous breakfast out there, but when we wanted to view the scenery, we preferred to be on the more open deck. Funny enough, though, this year we answered the original question almost exactly. We booked two cruises back-to-back. On the first cruise the price difference between balcony and OV was $40 pp/pd, and we took the OV. On the second cruise, the difference was $30 pp/pd, and we took the balcony. The actual dollars don't really matter to us, but somehow both my wife and I gravitated to the same decision.

I'm no NCL expert, but my impression is that as long as the reservation is made in the name of the adult officially listed to the cabin, nobody is going to care who is the 2nd guest. Corrections are welcome, though, as the situation may come up with a family group this year.

A side effect should be that you will get specialty dining for two for both cabins (and two sets of internet minutes). Feed the kids in the buffet and then drop them off when the kids program opens and the adults do the specialty meal.