Jetsetter2023

Thank you!! All of these answers help a lot I heard smaller ships provide muck boots so I wasn’t sure if we needed those! 

On 10/7/2023 at 1:13 PM, cottagelady said:

We leave Tuesday for Rome and taking the breakaway cruise Friday.  This is our first  med cruise overseas and I'm excited and nervous about making all the connections but our daughter is going and she's made  most of the arrangements.   We've cruise lots of times on different lines so cruising isn't new to us. 

7 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Are you going on an Antarctica expedition cruise on some other cruise line, as the cruises Princess provides, which usually includes 4 days cruising around the Antarctica Peninsula are "drive-by" only cruises?

Yes! It seems like a drive-by but we have 3 excursions with penguins so I’m not sure how to dress 

On 10/10/2022 at 5:55 PM, AryMay said:

 

To really enjoy Antarctica, you need to dress for cold and wind. We did this cruise in 2019 and spent a lot of time outdoors...and I mean a LOT. Here is an excerpt from my blog describing how I dressed:

 

My clothing amounted to either Cuddle Duds long underwear or a pair of fleece-lined leggings under my jeans and then topped by a pair of REI rain pants to block the wind. On top was a warm sweatshirt or sherpa top, my Columbia fleece jacket and finally my parka-length Eddie Bauer packable down coat. For headwear I had a fleece lined knitted beanie covered by a microfleece hood that I got at Kohls. This protected my neck and I could pull it up over my chin and mouth. I also pulled up the hood on my down coat...so 3 layers on my head altogether! I had purchased convertible wool mittens that could be folded back to expose the tips of my fingers to use my camera but these I never wore. Instead I put Hot Hands hand warmers inside my snuggly fitting gloves and my hands stayed toasty warm. I had also brought along foot warmers, but never used any. Wool socks kept my feet plenty warm. Getting dressed was time consuming, but we stayed outside for long periods of time and were comfortable.

 

 

The link to my blog is in my signature if you would like to read about our trip...our favorite of many cruises for sure!

 

We are taking this cruise soon! Would you suggest a down jacket under a Patagonia TorrentShell? What boots did you wear? Does anyone know if the excursions provided coats and boots? I read that the National Geographic Expedition tours do, but I wasn’t sure for regular cruise lines- thanks for all of your help!! 

Yay!!! It’ll be so fun!! There’s only so much you can control so just enjoy the journey! And take lots of pics! We did the same cruise about 2 weeks ago and it was incredible  

25 minutes ago, Jetsetter2023 said:

I have T-Mobile and texts were free    My partner has AT&T and she called them and bought the international plan before leaving so she could text  

the app on the ship is pretty basic so we couldn’t message each other through the app; I remember Princess having a cool app that would even show where your shipmates are and reach out to them   There’s a port everyday though so your phone will have service.  We both bought the wifi package on the ship anyway (plus my partner bought the international plan through AT&T on top of that) 

I have T-Mobile and texts were free    My partner has AT&T and she called them and bought the international plan before leaving so she could text  

1 hour ago, CruiseMH said:

 

Sorrento is nice but not THE place to go. I`d rather prefer to go to Capri again or the amalfi coast again then going to Sorrento again.

And i`m really wondering why Jetsetter2023  complains about the time waste at tourist traps and at the same time buying things from there.

If nobody buys anything these tourist trap wouldn`t be a part of the tours anymore.

Maybe they would be 5 USD more expensive but at least you would see more from the country.

 

Haha I’m not complaining; a lot of people on the bus bought things, but it would have been nice to know about the stops in advance so I could have explored other possible excursions based on random stops  Capri is beautiful, but we didn’t have much time   Enjoy your trip! 

Also, we did Pompeii and Sorrento today   Our day was cut by 3 hours(return at 3pm instead of 6pm, not sure why)  If you’ve never been to Pompeii- we are thinking we should have focused on that rather than try to do 2 places in 1 day (but we didn’t know our day would be cut in advance!) Pompeii is huge and in the middle of the city. I’ve read websites that made it seem it’s in the middle of nowhere.  It’s actually a really nice area with shopping kiosks, restrooms and drinks. I wore active wear and would probably have worn a dress and good walking sandals.  An older lady did trip over the cobblestones so be careful. And make sure you go to the museum at the end. We were extremely rushed today. First, we drove 20minutes to a tourist trap where they sell handmade paintings/carvings on jewelry out of shells.  My partner bought something even though it was kind of pricey and pointless to stop there.  Then, we drove to Sorrento and because of the time cut, we only had about an hour, which included a Another 5-10minute tourist trap of handmade music boxes, which we ended up buying a small one- ugh- haha- then we didn’t have time to really eat or anything so we just walked around, then we had to backtrack back to Pompeii, (which they should have taken us there first to beat the heat since we started at 7am), but we got there around 1230(?) and had to leave at 2:30!! The place is massive and there’s a lot to see. I really wish we would have had more time there.  It would have been nice to at least sit and have a drink in Sorrento, too.  The whole day was rushed and we were either the last bus to come in or one of the last ones, and we had to be on the ship at 3.  We have some great photos but we pretty much speed-walked through Pompeii. On the bright side, they separated our group and we had a different tour guide who was absolutely amazing and ensured we saw as much as possible in the small amount of time we had while explaining everything. Because of time, im really happy she was our guide, since we usually do everything on our own. We learned a lot and the drive to Sorrento was beautiful. 

22 minutes ago, CCTES said:

According to NCL excursions, the cruise lead tours are exempt from the time stamp rule, I hope that is the case, I would be less than impressed to be turned away!

Oh yea make sure the excursion says the Acropolis entry is included- not just “seeing” it - the selfie tour “saw” it from a distance    So if you go on your own, then go to the website   

29 minutes ago, CCTES said:

Who time stamps the Acropolis tickets? My mother and I are booked for that excursion on the Oct 23 sailing and I don't want to be denied entry.

Go to HHTicket.gr   That’s where I bought mine and it had a timed entry based on the time I chose to arrive   The line was 2hours even with the ticket but we only waited 15-30 because it rained 

30 minutes ago, CCTES said:

Who time stamps the Acropolis tickets? My mother and I are booked for that excursion on the Oct 23 sailing and I don't want to be denied entry.

Our ship Sailaway time changed from 6pm to 3pm so our Pompeii tour is cut short  I wonder why it was changed? 

We did the Highlights of Taormina today! It included entrance and a walk through the Ancient Greece Theatre! Then we hung out  near the port for awhile! Great visit! 

For anyone on Breakaway from Rome: 

we booked a hotel upon disembarkation, so it includes a transfer.  Do you think we should leave it as is, or do you think a walk-off would be quicker(and we could take the train?)  I’m wondering if the transfer will take forever to get into Rome(we have tours booked thru other companies)  

Thanks!