realnice46

Thank you for info, will be taking granddaughter on belated High School Grad trip delayed by Covid. She’s 21 now and chose NCL cruise because of itinerary. I had many of those same questions about free at sea. Definitely not the case with them, unlike Princess and Celebrity which they’re all inclusive includes tips, unlimited Wi-Fi and drink package that also includes tips. We will still enjoy and make the best of it. We’ve had this cruise booked 3 times before and yes each time there were itinerary changes as well as port times on each of those before we had to cancel. Hoping for the best as ports are good as well as times.

Krka Waterfalls are spectacular. Viator offers tour from Split but it depends on long you have in port. Does your cruise line offer a tour?.

You could book private tours, depends on much time you will have.

Celebrity definitely older crowd not so much party atmosphere, but decent entertainment. There will be some children but not like Carnival Royal Caribbean.We recently tried Princess and weren’t impressed with ship design, entertainment wasn’t that great either, food pretty good. Celebrity food quality not as good as it once was, but ok. All in all we like Celebrity and have several cruises booked this year and next. I guess you’ll just have to try it.

There are aft facing balconies.

Does the wine shop sell bottled water?

First, yes they will probably move this post to the port boards. We chose a private tour, there were I think about 8 of us in a mini van. What size tour is a personal choice, we prefer smaller groups makes it easier to hear the guide when you are walking around Ephesus. I do think most tours will include the carpet stop. We too weren’t interested but it was actually very good. It was also the stop for lunch. We were worried about the food but it was wonderful. We’re able to try many new things. We love to eat at local restaurants in port, the food on the ship can be repitative especially if it’s 10 days or longer.

If you choose Hotel Jazz book as soon as you are able, it does sell out. You should be able to get refundable rate in case your plans change or you see a rate drop.

Did you look for private tours?

Thank you all for the many suggestions.

We too are booked on 12 Night Ultimate Caribbean March 2024. We haven’t been to Tampa area before and plan to spends a few days pre cruise. Any suggestions of what are must sees in the area, we will have a car.

Pay a little more and get an automatic, makes it a lot easier. Get GPS if you can but like earlier post have paper map as back up. We live in California and did not find driving in Italy any crazier, but just don’t drive in the larger cities.

There are people along the waterfront selling tours and boat trips. Talk to a few to negotiate a price and make sure if they are quoting for a group price or per person. If you plan to be dropped off at beach as we did make sure to look at boat and the person driving it. Our guy was great and picked us up at exactly the time we agreed upon.

We just returned from Mexican Rivera cruise two weeks ago. We had the most fun in Cabo and we are in our 70’s. We decided to do on our own and not prebook a tour. We walked along the marina and went to Cabo Waco for a drink and some snacks. It was early so not a lot going on but it was nice and the Taquitos were good. We then walked back to the waterfront a took a boat out to the arch and then he dropped us off at the beach and went to a place called The Mango Deck. It was great, drinks were 2/1 and there was entertainment. Pretty wild but it was our favorite activity of the entire cruise. Then the boat picked us back up at agreed time and took us back to catch our tender. We were in port from 8-4 I believe so a nice day. You will get your feet wet at the beach when you get out of boat.

Sometimes specific port boards are not very active so for answers sometimes you need to post questions where you are more likely to receive a response. Since the pandemic the boards are not as active as before, especially the rolls calls.

We will be in Valletta on a Sunday in May 2023, are we going to find shops and restaurants are closed?

Early May 2023

I was making MDR dining reservations for upcoming Constellation Mediterranean cruise and noticed evening dining times didn’t start until 6PM. What are evening dining time in the buffet currently?

I agree a totally unnecessary comment!

They really need to fix the bathroom design on that ship. Who thought that was a good idea?

I’ve booked a cruise on NCL Pearl Greek Isles&Croatia cruise and noticed that out of 8 ports we are tendering in 6 of them. On a recent Mexico cruise we met quite a few people on a NCL ship who complained about 2 hour tendering times as well as other complaints about their ships. For those of you who sail NCL is this the norm? I’m a little concerned as this is not an inexpensive cruise compared to other lines, have I made a mistake?

We prefer the S Class ships, second choice the M Class except those which have been revolutionized. The new designs are too cold and less storage.

We just returned from a Princess cruise to Mexico out of San Francisco. First cruise on Princess in 50 years. It was nice to cruise from a port where we didn’t have to fly and just a 30 minute drive. It was very nice in general, but I think we will stay with Celebrity. Although food quality is down the overall experience much better, Celebrity ships are just better set up. On Princess seemed like we were constantly walking from one end of ship to other and running into dead ends, Entertainment venues smaller, MDR dining was broken up into 3 separate venues. Public bathrooms very small and not well maintained no indoor pool, so when it was cold you were stuck inside and not really and good lounge areas that looked on to the ocean, such as Celebrity Sky Lounge. We were on Crown Princess and they used the beautiful Piazza for games like bean bag toss, paper airplane making etc. These are just my opinions bur t thought I would share.

We usually rent a car for 1 day to circle the island , that seems to be enough.

We do a lot of cruising and have spent many land vacations in Hawaii and we have decided never to cruise to Hawaii. We prefer picking one island and staying there. Too many sea days with sometimes iffy weather. Also now with food on cruises quality going down I would much prefer the dining choices in Hawaii. We still prefer Cruising Caribbean and Mediterranean for all the port choices. It’s what appeals to you. Happy Cruising.