sherrihall128

Agree--MDR fare is equivalent to most American chain restaurants (which I mostly avoid). However, the variety is fairly decent with more interesting meals. As long as they deliver hot food hot, I'm ok with "average" food.

We are going on this cruise through Norwegian Cruise Line on one of their bigger ships in October 2024. The ship has kids facilities, family programs, and water slides (enough to keep our 2 kids busy). It embarks from Israel and disembarks in Istanbul. We are bringing our 2 kids (one will be 8 and almost 14). There is not an overnight stop in Egypt, but the port stop is very long. We will likely do a 10-12 hour to Cairo as the ports are ~2 hours away. https://www.ncl.com/cruises/10-day-greek-isles-round-trip-haifa-to-istanbul-greece-turkey-and-egypt-GETAWAY10HFAASHPSDALYHERJTRJMKPIRKUSIST?destinations=4294938496&embarkationport=4294923107&sailMonths=4294932301&numberOfGuests=4294953449&sortBy=featured&autoPopulate=f&from=resultpage&itineraryCode=GETAWAY10HFAASHPSDALYHERJTRJMKPIRKUSIST Hope this might be an option for you.

Wow, what a great live review. With the pictures and plans of shows/entertainment, it was a great follow along post! Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences. Also, I think my family and I will be on one of your upcoming cruises in October 2024 on the Getaway. We plan to be on the one from Haifa to Istanbul that departs on October 9th.

I was on this cruise with you, and my husband and I even ate at OSheehans for lunch on our first day. We probably crossed paths multiples times! I loved reading your review after the fact. We absolutely had the best time and the best weather.

We were there in November 2022, and bought our bus tickets with a credit card at the Libertas stand right outside of Port Gruz. Also, if you buy the Dubrovnik Pass, it includes a bus pass for 24 hours.

We just completed a 7-day cruise on the Norwegian Gem, and we used ItalyTours for 3 tours. We used them for Sicily (Mt Etna and Taormina), Naples (Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast), and Livorno (Florence only--no Pisa). I would highly recommend their services. The drivers were safe, spoke good English, and gave us some good insight on their towns. We only had 6-10 people per tour. We loved having extra guides in Pompeii and Florence. Without them, we would have missed a lot of pertinent info. ItalyTours provided a lot of extra value compared to the cruise line tours, and they guarantee a return to the ship. Some of the cruise members were a bit anxious to get back to the port, and some even tried to pressure our Pompeii tour guide to cut it short to get back earlier. We were back in Naples about 60 minutes prior to all on board time, so we had plenty of time. Although this was not ItalyTours's fault, I would consider skipping Mt Etna and just going to Taormina and/or Castelmola. We live near volcanoes, we have seen craters/cones, etc.. and while it was cool because it was in Italy, I would have preferred more time in Taormina. However, the honey and olive oil from Mt Etna was delicious, so.. choose your tours carefully depending on what you really want to see. We were trying to see it all, so sometimes we only had 2 hours in 1 place (and if you want to eat in Italy, sometimes the service is very slow).