jlandz09

Sorry for the frantic OP. “Just announced” for me meant “just received the email from NCL.” I checked the websites but must have just missed this one. Meant to check again before we left but wedding got in the way. Not anyone’s fault but my own. How would I go about determining whether our train will still run?

Emergency! Train strike just announced Friday and tickets already purchased. Literally taxiing the runway in Philly as I type this. Should I try to book private transportation from Rome hotel in city center to the port as soon as we land and get through customs, or am I misunderstanding what happens for those with pre-booked train tickets? What DOES happen with those tickets? Help!

Staying in Rome for a few days before we board the ship. Been checking the forecast now we’re in range. Is this an accurate depiction of what’s happening in Rome right now? Random 2-3 hour storm at the exact same time every day? Or is something just off with this computer model?

This is all great to know. In my little planbook, I'm going to put the information down for all three and approach it this way: Ideally, we get off as early as possible and just catch the X80 bus so we can skip the walk to the Metro since it would be nice to actually have something of a view on the way into the city. If the bus is overly crowded and we have time, we will make the 20-minute trek out to the Metro station and ride out from there. By my calculation, we can catch a metro that leaves at 8:05-8:10 and still arrive in time for our tour since the tour meets at 8:45 and the meeting point is only a 1 minute walk from Acropolis metro station. However, if we are getting off the ship and it's already closer to 8, then we will just grab a cab either one that's sitting there or through Uber or Freenow.

Ah, well we do have two carry-ons and two larger bags, so maybe we will just have them take the two larger ones then since you’re all saying the larger ones won’t go through X-Ray. Good to know, thanks!

Our already-purchased train/bus tickets are depositing us at the port entrance at 1:05 for a 5:00 departure in Civitavecchia. My guess is that fiancé will not want to depart from our luggage and would like to take it straight to the room ourselves. I am aware that typical protocol is to just go ahead and let the workers take your bags and meet up with them when the room is ready because rolling your bags around the ship while waiting for your room to be ready is a nuisance. However, it is very rare for me to show up to a cruise to start boarding even as late as 1:00, so I don’t know a) what crowds will look like at this time, b) how zippy the process will be so late in the day (my guess is that most like to get there early but I can easily see where I’d be wrong) c) how NCL might differ from my typical RCI experience and d) what time in the afternoon you’re allowed to enter your room. Any guidance will be much appreciated as always!

What if we wanted to take a taxi from the Cruise port just to the Metro station? Just checked the Uber app and it was only 5-7 dollars. Im thinking maybe we play it by ear. If we get off the ship at, say…7:15…we have plenty of time to walk. If we get off at 7:45, maybe we taxi to the metro to turn the half hour walk into a 5 minute drive. And if it’s REALLY backed up for some reason getting off the ship and we can’t get off until 8 or so, then we just catch a taxi all the way to the tour office.

Lots of good information here that I wasn’t able to get from the travel blogs. Much thanks!

We are scheduled to arrive in Piraeus at 7:00 am. Our tour meets close to the Acropolis at 9:00 am. X80- Pros- Cheap (~4 euros) Cons- Worried about space and not getting a spot if there is a flood of people. Metro- Pros- Cheap (~2 euros), Seems less like the train would run out of space compared to the X80 bus Cons- Seems like it's quite the hike from the cruise port to the train station. Someone correct me if I'm wrong about this. Welcome Pickups- Pros- Private, pretty much same price as a taxi, guaranteed ride Cons- More expensive (~30 euros) Our primary concern is getting to the meeting spot on time. If all three of these options will reliably get us there, then the only other consideration is whether the Metro is too long of a walk from the port. Any information on these concerns + anything else I am not already understanding would be greatly appreciated!

Is it a kind of situation where everyone just immediately heads to the cable car without thinking about the boat because the cable car is cheaper? Our plan is to do the Fira-Oia hike, but we're worried that we will not get an early enough tender ticket. For example, if we make it up to Fira and start the hike by 3, we could reasonable expect to be in Oia by 6-6:15 is my understanding. Problem is that we then need to make it back to Fira and my estimate is that we would need to be in line for the cable car by around 7 in order to feel assured we will make the last tender back at 8:30. The alternative would be that we take the fast boat to Oia, explore Oia first, and then do the hike back to Fira instead. Downside here is that the hike is uphill when you do it in reverse back to Fira. Just hate that so much is unknown and reliant on how early we can get off the ship.

Their website says they have no availability for the next three months. Does that seem right?

How much of this do you think could be attributed to it being Breakaway’s first itinerary in these ports? Just wondering if the process just is what it is or if it will have time to improve by late May-early June.

Okay. As long as it's not on Day 1 once you're onboard, we'll be okay. We are going to be getting to the port later around 1-1:30, and I didn't want to lost our advantage to try to get an early tender because we boarded the ship later on Day 1. I will be checking in with NCL Staff once we're on the ship to confirm exact timing. Thanks!

So here on shore, 18 days before embarkation, the tender tickets are not available in the app to reserve yet. Right now there isn’t even a button to press on the home page. Our only tender scheduled is Santorini from 1-10 on Day 3 of the itinerary. Does anyone know precisely when those tickets go live? Is it like 24 hours before we’re scheduled to anchor? Does the button appear once you’ve boarded for the first time on Day 1? Any help is appreciated! 🙂

Thank you so much! Now to just figure out when that button comes available on the app. 😂