RichT1

The guy at the desk went through it with me and advised to switch off any/all VPN to allow ship Wi-Fi to function, he wasn’t concerned with which particular make. It is possible to bypass, but it’s above my pay grade. I suppose it’s to prevent you streaming on the basic package.

Just back from Nova. Had to disconnect VPN for ship Wi-Fi to work at all. Hope this helps. Otherwise, Nova is great!

As mentioned, Nice airport to Monaco by road is fine; there’s sometimes some traffic at the Monaco end depending on the time of day. We took the chopper a few years ago as a treat. Not horribly expensive, and a great experience. It seated up to 4 of 5 passengers iirc. It included a limo from the heliport to the ship.

It’s a shame you didn’t ask the barman. They are always happy to share their recipes with us.

Thanks Lois for starting this thread. We were also on this sailing. The last time we were on Spirit was before the extension refit and we have been on Muse, Dawn etc since, so were very interested to see how she’s doing. Have to agree with Lois, everything from check-in to check-out was superb; the food was fabulous, no problem getting any wine or cocktails we wanted, the crew were exemplary, and the tours were pretty good. Just to expand on the tender issue in Dikili; the weather changed unexpectedly, causing a swell against the concrete jetty they were using. This caused excessive movement of the tenders in relation to the jetty which made it too dangerous to get on or off. Meanwhile, several bus loads of tours returned, resulting in probably a few hundred people waiting. The communications from the crew to the guests at this stage was poor, but in their defence, there was just one security officer and a couple of sailors ashore, who did their best. And I’m not sure how much help they were getting from the local reps, if any. Eventually, one of the officers in charge of one of the tenders motored around the corner into a little fishing marina which was more sheltered, but almost full of boats. It took him and his crew nearly an hour to manhandle a number of the local boats to make a space for the tenders, as, in his words, “none of the locals was interested in helping….” Then we walked around the corner to board the tenders there. One tender had damaged a prop in the rough sea (possibly against the concrete jetty) so they were one boat short, and it took longer than it might have to get everyone back. So, actually, job well done by the crew at the coalface, and after all, there’s always late lunch available if you’re starving…… Overall we had a great time, and would not hesitate on sailing Spirit again.

Haha. Yes, not the Caribbean I know, but a luxurious way to spend that period…

Moon Dec 22nd Athens - Aqaba. I saw this and thought it might be a great Christmas and New Year getaway. The website is showing a 4 day post cruise package but no price. I asked my TA to enquire and the reply was to the effect they have no costing for land tours in the system yet, but also they are not sure if this voyage will go ahead with the current itinerary, and may not end in Aqaba. I decided to call SS directly, and was told that essentially the above is correct, operations decided earlier this week to review this cruise, Aqaba may be replaced due to “lack of flights” and perhaps the final destination will be Dubai! (That’s actually a long way from Aqaba, and there are 2 Aqaba round trips on the website immediately after this one). I would still like to do this cruise but can’t book it until there’s certainty regarding the itinerary. Anybody out there booked on this with any more information? Perhaps you’ve been updated by SS with accurate info? Thanks.

Thank you for your report. We are joining Navigator on the 5th and just preparing to leave the UK! It will be our second RSSC cruise, and it is so good to hear that the ship is up to scratch. Thanks again and enjoy the rest of your trip!