cardbucfan

Those items were included for us with the dining package. Of course who knows what they've changed since May!

Sorry, I missed these posts! @first cruise lady-you can not pre-book the tender tickets. You need to be on the deck they are distributing them and get them in person. Only one person from your group needs to be there though. We really just lucked out that we were there early and they were already handing them out. @governor-we booked all out Italy tours (except Venice) with RomeinLimo. There's a huge thread on the Italy port of call board with tons of reviews on them as well as over on Trip Advisor. They were great to work with but they do fill up so book as soon as you can! Tell RIL in advance you want a guide for the Vatican (a necessity!) and they will arrange it for you. You pay the guide separately though.

We tendered in to Kotor but by the time we left a berth had opened up and we were docked. Definitely send somebody up to get the earliest ticket you can get. Even with tender group 1 it was a good half hour before we were off the ship. We didn't make our Mykonos stop and that's the only other port that often tenders. Have fun!!

Yes. At the desk there is a low voltage U.S. outlet where we used our charging hub (so not terribly low voltage but it specifically says no hair dryer) and a European outlet. I didn't pull out my converter kit to see which one it was though. That's the one she used.

I think one of the California ladies used a converter in the European plug at the desk and was able to use her dryer. I didn't try it though. I just resigned myself to bad hair!

@ljthrupp-what a great trip you have ahead of you!! The drinks were fairly pricey without the package. I'd say between $7-$12 depending on what you got. Beer was on the cheaper side and the more involved mixed drinks in the higher end. I know the college boys ran through around $200 in OBC in two nights in the bars! Enjoy!

[quote name='Hutchinj']Cardbucfan -- Great review! Thanks so much for taking the time to share your experiences and the wonderful photos. We are taking the reverse of this cruise (Venice - Barcelona) on the NCL Spirit in September so this makes us just all the more excited about the trip![/QUOTE] It's a fabulous itinerary! Enjoy!

[quote name='airazor2']hello again......which tour u took on this port? 4 hours or 6hours or? is 4 long enough to see the important places? did he ask u if u want to take a dip in their beach? thanks[/QUOTE] Sorry I'm just now answering! I didn't get an email about your post! We booked the 6 hour tour but we went longer-probably closer to 8! He did ask us if we wanted to go to the beach but since we live in Florida that's wasn't a big priority for us. I don't think you could do the important stuff in 4 hours either.

I booked with PKTravel for the all day Athens tour for out med cruise in May 2016. Patoula was a joy to work with and very responsive. When NCL eliminated the Turkish ports and changed our itinerary Patoula shifted our tour to our new day with no problems whatsoever. We had a party of 12 from our roll call for a goal of 480€ including a guide at the Acropolis. We were still responsible for any entry fees (Acropolis, temple of Zeus, Agora, new Acropolis museum), tips and lunch but it was still a great value. Our diver was Tolis and he picked us up right on schedule outside the port. He was very funny and drove us to everything. Our guide at the Acropolis was Georgia and she was very informative. While I didn't love Athens itself and if we ever went back to that area I'd do another tour away from the city I'd highly recommend PKTravel!

[quote name='fabnfortysomething']I found Milo by research on these boards and recommended by several people he is a private tour guide [url]www.tours.milo.com[/url] or email [email]popmilo@rocketmail.com[/email][/QUOTE] Yep, that's how I found him too!

[quote name='airazor2']thanks so much for taking the time to share with us (future sailer) ur daily events . we learn a lot of things that didn't even thought about it. we just booked ours last wed. sail on jul 6th I am kind of weary now bec we don't have any preparation yet.so we just go by what we are reading here in CC. BTW...did u use a camera or just ur cell phone for the pixs....really awesome looks like postcard.[/QUOTE] Thanks! Some pictures were from my iPhone 6s and others were from my husbands Sony Cybershot compact digital camera. He has a big Nikon but we decided not to bring the big one and all the lenses for this trip. Glad we didn't! I also have a small Canon sure shot that takes great pictures but doesn't have much zoom. Have a great trip!

We were on the previous sailing and did tender in Montenegro. The excursion staff set up on the pool deck around 7:00 to start handing out tender tickets at 7:30. We were up early to watch sail in so grabbed tickets around 7:15. We had tender group 1. Once the ship was cleared they called NCL excursions first then called tender group 1. It was well after 9:00 a.m. when they called our group and we were supposed to be there at 8:00. The ship docked during the day though so we didn't have to tender back.

Thanks! It's a Tilley hat and I ordered it from Amazon. You can go to the Tilley website and see all the different styles and sizing. I liked that it didn't look like my hiking hats! Enjoy the planning!

So glad you guys had a good time! We were on the previous sailing out of Barcelona so I'm glad we left some liquor for you!

[quote name='clarkg']We did the twelve day Med, on the Spirit, but didn't go into the same ports. We went into Turkey and Mykonos instead of the ones you went to.[/QUOTE] It really killed me to miss the Turkey ports-I just have to hope the terrorists leave all those historic places alone so I can go back over one day and see them!