sherrihall128

1 hour ago, Badatz2 said:

How can I know which terminal the NCL Escape will dock at on Aug 21, 2024.  Cruisemapper and Cruise line timetables only list Trieste and not the exact terminal.

Hey, I'm on that cruise too! We are the only ship in Trieste that day, so it should be in the terminal closest to the train station. You'll be able to see it from there. And yes, I second @complawyer that the dock should be specified in our documents once we check in to the cruise in August.

We are considering a Viva cruise in 2026 with 2 of our children, 1 of which will be 15 years old when we cruise. I read that they were making the Speedway bar into the teen club in April this year. Has anyone utilized the new teen club since they changed it? I'm curious to hear other families' opinions.

Loving your review! You really lucked out with Seattle weather that weekend. It's been extraordinarily wet this season so far. Isn't it beautiful here? I'd highly recommend coming back and visiting the west side of the water to Bainbridge Island, Poulsbo, or adventuring to Olympic National Park. I didn't grow up here, but I find every day here beautiful.. even the gross, dark, rainy days. I'm loving your review. I'd probably enjoy a solo cruise as well, especially reading about your positive experiences!

What a trip! Can't wait to see all the things you do. Also, the owner's suite looks amazing!

This is good to know! I had an Israel to Istanbul cruise in 10/2024, and I just cancelled yesterday. I'm glad that NCL is planning ahead for their cruisers.

We live near Seattle.. so we were looking at this itinerary to get to Japan as it looks interesting but super long. Excited to hear about your trip!

There are millions of olive trees on Corfu, so we bought a couple of things from there. We bought pure Corfu olive oil. It is liquid gold and tastes so good! We also got olivewood utensils, and I wish I bought one of their salad bowls. They are beautiful and so cheap! Also, we saw this in Corfu, and we decided not to buy it, and we regretted it because we couldn't find something exactly like it. It was a fancy chess set with the 2 different sides being different kinds of Greek/Mediterranean warriors, like Spartans vs Trojans. If you know someone who loves chess and history, it's the perfect gift.

8 hours ago, cwistyred said:

No, we are not Jewish. I am very familiar with the holidays however as I grew up in New York. The cruise is sailing on October 9th of next year. We are coming in on the 4th. Just the luck of the draw. Trying to be optimistic as we will have to deal with the limitations of the dates we will be there.  That is why I wanted to know what area will be best to stay in, as I know transportation will be limited.  We will be taking organized tours during our visit, so that part is taken care of. 

Which cruise line are you using? We are cruising out of Haifa with NCL on October 9th next year. I am not as familiar with Jewish holidays like Rosh Ha shana, although my grandma was from Israel. She mostly celebrated the big holidays like Passover and Hannukah with us. We plan on arriving in Israel after sunset on the 5th of October (which is a Saturday, so I'm aware of the restrictions before sunset). Is there anything different that I should expect?

We stayed at the Embassy Suites, which was only a few blocks away from the port. We walked there on embarkation day. It was a decent price, good location, and the breakfast was pretty good. I'd definitely recommend.

What a stunning and unique location! Adding Cappadocia to my bucket list now!

On 8/17/2023 at 8:56 AM, WappNY said:

My wife and I have a western mediterranean cruise booked and these are our ports of call. Depart/Return Barcelona, Cannes, Florence/Pisa(Livorno), Rome(Civitavecchia), Naples, Messina(Sicily), Valletta, Cagilari, Palma(Majorca). 

 

To anyone who has been to these ports, will we need to book excursions at each of these ports or will we be able to just disembark and experience beautiful sights and towns right off the ship?

 

This is our first mediterranean cruise so anything and everything that we see is going to be new for us. 

 

Thank you!

I'd highly recommend the Rick Steve's Mediterranean cruise ports book or Kindle book. It gave me a lot of info and confidence to navigate the ports with excursion recommendations, or ideas to do our own tours.

On 7/23/2023 at 8:28 AM, dunedain said:

Thanks, oops not sure why I didn't think of contacting the seller! Here's their response and they confirmed I can just pick it up on the bus:

 

"Thank you for your purchase, you can pick up your bus ticket in the bus during the initial journey, bus driver will scan you digital Pass and give you bus ticket. Please keep your bus ticket you have collected as reissuing is not possible."

We were not able to activate our bus pass at the bus stop right outside the cruise port. I didn't know that a bus driver would have been able to activate the digital pass on the bus itself. That would have been nice to know as we ended up buying a one-way ticket to Old Town from Port Gruz. One tip with the Dubrovnik Pass--we ended up walking the walls first, then we went to the museums, and lastly decided to go to the Fortress... which was closing in 5 minutes. Make sure you verify the hours for the places you want to go.

We bought the Dubrovnik Pass: https://www.dubrovnikpass.com/included-section  . It was ~$35, and it included admission to the fortress, walking the walls, the city museums, and also included a bus ride to/from Old Town. If you want to DIY the city, walk the walls, and avoid any tours, this is the best deal. The only frustrating thing about it was that you could only activate the free bus tickets at certain stops, and it is NOT the bus stop right outside Port Gruz (it delayed us an additional 20 minutes with a frustrating conversation at the bus stop with an employee, and we had to buy a one-way ticket to Old Town). Other than that, a great deal for the day. I did miss hearing about the history of the city from a guide, but we did read a lot about it in the museums.

Dubrovnik is a $15pp shuttle to/from the port and Old Town, but you can take the same bus run by the city right outside the port gate for maybe $3. When we were coming back from Old Town, everyone was standing in line for the NCL shuttle, but we had no line for the city bus that went to the same place.

Malta--no shuttle as you park right next to the town. Same with Naples.

We went to Corfu, but I'm not sure if there was a free or paid shuttle.

1 hour ago, singinalot said:

 

we got our tickets at 2:30pm and the boat left the dock at 3pm.

they leave on the hour all day, though, so could go at any time!

Do you have to plan ahead, or can you just show up at the dock? Also, do you know the latest time of the cruise? Thanks for the tips!

We went to Corfu last year in early November. We had sunny weather in the 60s-70s. We did this tour with Viator: https://www.viator.com/tours/Corfu/Shore-Excursion-Leisurely-Small-Group-Tour-of-Corfu/d4279-21019P2

It was low-key and saw many of the sights on the island. We had the option to go on a short boat ride around the coast at Paleokastritsa Beach (my husband's bucket list item for Corfu) to caves.. or you could take the option for a short hike up to a monastery overlooking the bay. We had some time to go around Old Town at the end of the tour. 

Luckily, I have a cruise that ends in Istanbul next year... otherwise, I'd be finding a flight and packing my bags right now! I love your pictures. The city looks so safe and walkable. I can't wait to go visit. Also, lucky for me, Turkish Airlines has non-stop roundtrip flights from Seattle (where I live) to Istanbul, so the 12 hour flight won't be so bad. So excited! Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

We went on the Breakaway (Getaway's sister ship) during spring break this year. The main pool was incredibly full. We went in it once, and were limited to a tiny corner. It wasn't a deal breaker for us, though. We did the slides, ropes course, and the kids pool during other times, and were happy with those options instead. There were a lot of people and a lot of kids on the ship during spring break!

I can't comment on the access for wheelchairs, though.

1 hour ago, MR_BUTCHIE said:

Is it necessary to make reservations for all the shows or can you just walk in 

 

You can make reservations online or through the app 21 days ahead of time. You can also show up for standby. On our fully booked Caribbean cruise, there were plenty of available seats at the 7:30 PM shows for standby guests. However, if you want to attend the comedy shows, you can only make reservations once you're on the ship. We didn't know that about the comedy shows, so we missed it as all of the shows were booked as of day 2 or 3.

I have not been on the EPIC, but I would still consider it for a family Mediterranean cruise. I think it has enough activities like the water slides, arcade, rock climbing wall, and the kids' club to keep them occupied. Since a Mediterranean cruise tends to be more active with longer tours, I would be less concerned about having all of the things on RCL ships like the ice skating, golf, etc. After a long tour compared to a beach day on a Caribbean cruise, I doubt my kids would have enough energy to do all of the activities on a RCL ship. We have youngish kids (they will be 8 and 14 on our next cruise), and we plan to take them on a Med cruise next fall on the Getaway, which has similar activities to the EPIC. Also, choosing a less hot time in the Med (like May or October) will be more kid-friendly as well. Hope you have fun with whatever you choose!

Edited to add: EPIC tends to have better deals, so it is definitely a more economical choice! We are looking at Northern European cruises for 2025 on smaller ships, and WOW, what a price difference.

On 8/2/2023 at 8:10 AM, CruisingSince1982 said:

 

How long did you have in Taormina?

We had 2 hours there. We practically ran to the Greek theater (highly recommend), did a little bit of shopping, and stopped for a quick lunch (which is tough in Italy!). Our tour group only wanted 2 hours, but 3 would probably have been better. We were back to the ship 90 minutes before it left the port.

My 7 year old daughter and 12 year old son both attended the Splash Academy every day on our Caribbean cruise on the Breakaway. They had a variety of activities, including crafts, active games (like gaga ball), and video games. Our kids loved it and asked to go every day. I wouldn't hesitate to send them again. They also separate the ages somewhat in the kids club. Our kids weren't in the same age group.

Happy to follow along!

Just now, TRAVELBUGCRUISER said:

@sherrihall128 Thanks so much for your reply regarding the weather and time of year. I strongly dislike being in too much heat for too long too!! Sounds like November could be the perfect time to go 🙂 Thanks!

Same! We had such a good time in November that we booked another Mediterranean cruise for October 2024. Hope you catch a good deal too. 🙂

Just now, TRAVELBUGCRUISER said:

@sherrihall128 What ports did you do for your first Med Cruise? What time of month in November did you go? My Husband and I are debating this type of cruise for this year and wonder if mid-November is too late and too cold/rainy for France Italy etc.

I am a monster when it comes to it being too hot outside, and I am not patient with long lines, so the beginning of November was literally perfect weather-wise with less crowds. I also didn't care about going to the beach, so it was a good time to go. Plus, the price could not be beat for a fall cruise! It was sunny and 60s-70s most days. Florence was 60s and cloudy, so a little more chilly. Venice was mid 60s and sunny. We did these stops: Trieste (Venice), Dubrovnik, Corfu (Greece), Malta, Messina (Sicily), Naples, Livorno (Florence), Civitavecchia (Rome). I also looked at average weather at the various places on this website: https://www.holiday-weather.com/