BartoA

Have to say, of all of the ports I've stopped at, Livorno is the least attractive of all. We stop there in a few weeks and have arranged a third party excursion to Florence. There are plenty of the shuttle busses that come right to the ship. The bus fills and leaves and another one quickly arrives, and drips you at a square in the town where many excursions leave from. This is a considerable distance from the train station on foot. There is no walking allowed in the port so the €7 per person shuttle is compulsory. It's the one port that I don't think I'd do a DIY trip from again as even just going to Pisa is a bit of a pain getting on and off different forms of transport. If you're not looking at heading out to Pisa, Lucca, Florence etc, Livorno itself doesn't have enough for me to justify even getting off the ship.

We go to Barcelona a couple of times a year and use the Motel One at Cuitadella Park. Nice hotel, clean and comfortable rooms, many with rooms over looking the park and a nice roof terrace. It's a really good location, a stones throw from the Arc de Triomf. It's a chain I use a lot in Europe as they always have really nice communal areas and the rooms are comfortable. It's about $230 per room the night you're looking for. If you go ahead with it, download and use the Motel One app, they allow early check in and often upgrade you for free if you use the App for some reason.

Gem was refurbished about 18 months ago so everything feels modern despite it being an old ship. I thought it was a fabulous ship and like many didn't experience any of the issues that the first poster mentioned. I was a little disappointed with the entertainment, there were times on the ship where there was no entertainment, often gaps between being able to find something going on, and the theatre was used seldom. I think most of the issues mentioned may simply be due to how the experience wasn't as great as it was pre-Covid, but I guess that applies to all ships and cruise lines. We've done a few in the last few years and unfortunately due to the cuts required, standards are not as high as they were right across the board.

We have booked an excursion with Get Your Guide from Livorno to Florence (for a fraction of the NCL price), a coach picks you up in Livorno man square where the port shuttle drops you off and takes you back there at the end of the trip. I've used them a few times and they use local tour operators whose business depends on reviews, so they will ensure that you are back in plenty of time. Livorno station is around 2km from the town centre so not as straight forward as you'd expect. Civitivecchia to Rome on the other hand is relatively simple if you are comfortable enough using the train. That is our plan for these stops.

I'm looking into the same thing as we are on the Escape July 3rd. We were on the Gem last year and O'Sheehans had the Premier League games on, there were also TVs dotted around the ship at various bars including the pool bar. None of them however had the sound on.

I have spoken to them and it is only for new bookings and its the likes of Indian Ocean, Australia etc. Suppose the Med may be considered exotic to those who fly across the world to get there but not so much when its only a couple of hours away.

I can guess the answer to this question but here we go. We booked via a 3rd party to travel in July with NCL, a family of 3. The offer for Free at Sea for £249pp ran until yesterday. We called and added it to our booking yesterday having had the advisor confirm that the offer we could see online ended at midnight. Today I woke to an email of a flash sale, £119 pp for Free at Sea. Which would mead £390 less for 3 people than the £747 I paid only yesterday. Can I cancel the Free at Sea that I paid for yesterday and then add it back at the new price?