homeschoolmom3
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Posts posted by homeschoolmom3
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55 minutes ago, Wayfairers said:
If you booked through a TA, ask that person - our TA normally gets our deviation letters for us after I tell her what we want to do. That is with HAL, but I suspect that is how it works with other lines too. If you booked directly with NCL, I would imagine call their customer service
I started with 4 separate people in Customer Service and received 4 different answers. My favorite was ask onboard but they will only let you off early if it is a medical emergency. I know downlining happens and am hoping someone has a better contact number. I do appreciate you answering though!
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3 hours ago, Badatz2 said:
I would ask on the NCL page. You might get a better response there
Thank you. After no responses here that is where I posted!
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We will be on a Mediterranean Cruise on Epic next year. We would like to permanently get off on our second to last port in Israel Ashdod and go and spend the night in Jerusalem instead of going back to the ship for one night as it moves to our final port of Haifa. US customer service says just ask on board. I am quite aware that the process needs to start before we get onboard. Has anyone done this and if so do you have any contact numbers or emails? Thank you.
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We will be on NCL Epic next year. Our final 2 stops are both in Israel. We would like to permanently get off the ship at the first port Ashdod and just stay in Jerusalem while the ship ends the cruise in Haifa. The US customer service says ask on board. I know we need to start the request before we get on board. Does anyone have contacts for starting this process? Thank you.
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Looking for a tour group/guide suggestion for Cabot Trail. Our Artic cruise was canceled so with our new cruise, ports have changed. Thank you.
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We have been to Paris before and are having more relaxed time visiting friends before we hit Rome. Hopefully that will recharge us before we try and see this current schedule in Rome. We can definitely adjust if we need to!
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Planning our first Mediterranean cruise and wondering if our current plans are doable. We are flying in from 5 nights in Paris to Rome.
Sunday arrive, drop off bags at Airbnb, follow Rick Steve's Heart of Rome tour going inside the Pantheon and side tracking to the cat sanctuary.
Monday Eating Europe tour followed an hour later by a Colosseum and area tour. (7 minute travel time between the end of one and start of the second tour)
Tuesday Angel and Demons Tour 9:30 until 1:30 lunch then Borghese 4-6
Wednesday Scavi tour, Vatican Museum and St. Peter's
Thursday final Rome breakfast then off to the port for our 12 night cruise.
Are we missing anything that needs added to this itinerary? Thanks in advance.
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Thank you. While I have looked at the train by ourselves, we will probably use a service. We want to enjoy the places that we see, however Pisa is truly a photo stop.
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We have 12 hours in Florence but it starts quite early 6 AM to 6 PM. If we pre-order skip the line tickets, is it possible to visit Duomo, Accademia, Uffizi and Pisa in this time frame? Or do we have to choose between Accademia and Uffizi. (First time here)
Thanks.
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Thank you everyone. We have some time and will definitely price flying vs. train. Now to research 10 cruise stops.
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Just starting to get information on our 12 night Mediterranean cruise. Thought was to spend 3 nights in Paris then take a train to Rome for 3 nights before the cruise. Train travel is not our norm. There are direct trains leaving Paris just before 7 in the morning arriving in Milan just after 2pm. Next train leaves at 2:30 with a direct to Rome. Can non- athletic, middle-aged adults get luggage, get off of one train then miraculously find a different train in 23 minutes when we do not know the language. (Would already have train tickets purchased) or do we need to give ourselves more time? Thank you in advance
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On 1/31/2020 at 6:24 PM, heidikay said:
Thank you Spif for the review. I wonder if the street peddlers are getting worse? I booked a tour in Cartagena and my tour guide said he had booked a police officer to accompany us.
Which tour guide hires a police officer? Thanks.
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We fly to Honolulu in 19 days for our first Hawaii Journey cruise!
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We just received an email that explained with the death in the family all April tours have been canceled. They did send a list of several other companies that they reccomend. All but one are based out of Hilo where we already have a tour scheduled the previous day. Looking for recommendations for a general first time in Kona type tour. Thanks.
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During the muster drill you get to stay inside in the liquid lounge in air-conditioning while everyone else is standing outside in the heat!
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Day 7 Day at Sea
I thought this was going to be a normal day at sea. We ate breakfast in the Havana area and of course hit the spa. We decided to eat lunch in Bonsai Sushi today. We had not been there yet and it sounded fun. While I am not a huge sushi fan I like the shrimp sushi and California rolls so we got to Bento boxes that had salad, soup and sushi. This is a pay for it restaurant but they did give us free edamame as an appetizer. The food was good and the chefs were entertaining. We got both desserts and decided that the custard was much better than the green tea cupcakes but worth trying. Then the excitement started. I overheard some fellow guests talking about the ship moving. The ship is always moving unless we are in port so I went back to eating. We were just about done when an alarm went off. The doors behind us were shutting. I asked Jon, so if the Sushi restaurant is on fire they close us in to save the majority? The alarm continued, the doors kept opening and closing and we decided it was time to leave and left during a door opening time.
Then an announcement came on that said we may have noticed that the ship had changed course and picked up speed. Hmmm, must have been what the fellow passengers were discussing. We had a medical emergency onboard and were headed to Puerto Rico for an emergency air lift. They may have to close down a deck or two for the safety of everyone. we went back to our cabin and saw on the tv that we were at 22 knots and for the first time I felt the ship move. We had felt gentle movement but this was different, the you could lose your balance movement.
They asked us to pray for the person and family. Ship activities kept on so we went to tea time to eat again. The back of the ship was really shaking from the engines working so hard. Glasses were rattling. We were really glad we had a room at the front of the ship. Around 4:30ish or so we were back in our room when we heard the helicopter. It circled the ship and then stayed on our side of the ship. We could look over and see people watching from the open deck but all of us on our balconies were very close. The helicopter took the woman away and then came back and got a nurse. Her family had to stay onboard. I can't imagine how they felt.
Excitement over we turned back towards home.
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This is the e-mail for the maitre'd on Sunshine!
The Captain is Andrea Catalani.
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Day 6 St. Maarten
It was towel animal invasion day. The creativity of the staff is so much fun. I have many pictures. You need to take pictures fast as the little ones on the ship pic a favorite and take off with their new possession.
Jon decided he did not want to get off the ship so I booked a shore excursion through Carnival. I have to say the shore excursions with other excursion groups was more organized. We were out on the dock hunting for someone with our sign and it took a long time to gather our group. I was amused that the bus we were riding had Diamonds International on the side. Sure hadn't heard that name often enough this trip. Without Jon I decided on the Butterfly Garden and shopping in Marigot. I had been to St. Maarten before and wanted to go somewhere different with the Butterfly Garden and I knew I liked shopping in Marigot.
The Butterfly Garden was beautiful and worth visiting. The owners love their job. There is a small shop and you are offered water, punch or rum punch. We continued on our way and were dropped off in Marigot and given a card from the driver about going to a certain shop where there was a free bathroom. OK. I had met a couple from our ship on the tour and we went shopping and then had some time so decided to check out the shop that the driver had recommended. It was OK but the bathrooms were really bad. the men's room was only a half door and you have to face that to get to the woman's. It was strange. Back to the bus and there was no sign of the driver. He had said be back at a certain time but he has no where. It is hot there, the fumes from the multiple buses was disgusting and yet we waited. Another driver from some other tour finally asked if he could help and went to track him down. I kept thinking if this is the wonderful Carnival sponsored tour, I truly am better off booking without Carnival's help!
He finally came back and offered to drop us off in town for shopping near the ship. This was one of the options listed for the tour. I chose to get dropped off but when he dropped us off (there were only three of us who got off the bus) he was at a gas station, said he needed to fill up and the shopping was that way. It was about a 15 minute walk to hit the street that we were told was safe to go shopping on and you had to go down a scary alley way to get to the correct street. Not my favorite experience as Jon was back on the ship. There are many wonderful stores in the area and I had fun picking up souvenirs to take back home. I tried to use up some of my coupons from the 25.00 coupon book and got a water wallet, necklace and a gem. The water wallet was glued shut ( my boys could not even open it when we came home), the necklace was interesting and the gem was plastic. When I asked what type of gem, they kept making up new words for it. I did get a bag from Del Sol that was nice so it wasn't a total loss.
At the end of the street there is a water taxi that I took back to the cruise terminal. It was only 5 dollars and so worth it as I was done by that point!
Spent the rest of the day in the spa, then our last formal dinner and we watched a little of the Hasbro Game night. As we pulled away from St. Maarten it was strange knowing that our next port would be home.
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Day 5 St. Kitts and our 25th Wedding Anniversary!
I have to say I was a little hesitant about St. Kitts due to the shopping and excursion talk where they kept reiterating about only shop in Carnival sponsored shops and only use Carnival shore excursions. I was picturing Belize the first time we went and it was a crazy place. We had booked a tour of the island through Thenford Grey Tours. Cruise critic and Trip Advisor had rated them very high.
We had a room service breakfast out on our balcony so we could watch our arrival. We had a 10:30 tour so we left the ship as soon as they would let us and easily found our guide. We were going to be driven around by Thenford's brother Sackville. He was a wonderful tour guide. We were in an air-conditioned van and had 6 other people fro our cruise with us. The couple that sat in front of us were from the city that is right beside ours. We also had a family of four sitting behind us. We drove through Basseterre and learned about the history of the island and the city then out to Romney Manor and the Caribelle Batik shop. Sackville gave us a wonderful tour of the gardens and then we watched how the ladies make Batik. There is a wonderful store there and I bought a beautiful dress for myself and one for my daughter. Thenford met us later on our tour ( He was with another group) and he had painted on the back window of the van Happy Silver 25th Wedding Anniversary Kathy and Jon. Such a nice tour group. I highly recommend them.
Our next stop was Brimstone Hill Fortress. Getting up to the Fortress was interesting. It was created due to the volcano right next door and on certain days you could smell sulfur. Fortunately for us the wind was blowing and we could not smell anything. The turns and gates that we went through were so tight that there were not side mirrors on the van. We are teaching our 15 year old to drive right now and I have no idea how they teach their children to drive. The views form the top of the fort are breathtaking. Worth the climb. Then we went to a part of the island where you can take pictures of the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Carribean Sea on the other. Touristy shops there that we avoided. The family of four wanted dropped off at the beach to spend some time. Sackville set up a time to come back to get them and then dropped us off at the pier. We had some time to relax and get ready for our Steakhouse dinner at 555.
Dinner was very good. They offered free Champagne to us for our anniversary. Jon had my glass and I went for a glass of wine. I had the lobster and Jon had the filet. Both were wonderful. We were stuffed as usual and after we had dessert they brought out an extra dessert that the chef had made for our anniversary surprise. It was wonderful but we were so full. Got back to the room and there were 2 macarons waiting for us from the restaurant. We had a wonderful anniversary.
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We just sent a nice message here for the table!
They got back to us about a week before the cruise.
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You wear your bathing suit down to the thermal suite and steam rooms. We often just wore our robes from our rooms right over the bathing suit!
I did not see an interior Spa, I don't think they have them on the 12th but I am sure they are nice!
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Day 4 Puerto Rico, San Juan
I have spent several days trying to post pictures but until our computer child gets home tat is not happening!
Puerto Rico was a late port, we arrived around 1 in the afternoon but it took awhile for us to be cleared to leave. The ship announcements kept calling people to go here or there. I guess it was for customs. We had a slow morning though I did go to a free Yoga class which was very nice. Very humorous to be balancing on one leg and then have the ship tilt to one side. We were told we were not concentrating hard enough if we lost our balance. Sure.
We made a mistake when trying to leave the ship. The day before we got into the elevator (12th floor) and it went all the way down to zero and we got right off. Today we followed the crowd that got off on level 1. Don't do that. On level one you are herded around the elevators over to the stairs where they are yelling excursions to one side everyone else to the other. Then you are crammed into the stair well and into the crowd. Trust me, the elevator down to zero is much better. This was a must have photo id port so many people were going back up to their rooms to get their ID.
We had used some Marriott points to book this cruise and Marriott had offered a tour through them. It was 39.95 to go on a tour of old and new San Juan. Since we had never been before and Jon did not want to hike in the rain forest we chose that tour. It guaranteed that we would make it back to the ship on time or they would pay to get us to the next stop. The tour was not until 3:30 so we decided to go shopping. We decided to use some of our coupons from the great coupon book and may have saved about 5.00. Most of the other things in the book any one on the cruise could have gotten that deal. Then we went behind the Sheraton Old San Juan where they have the Plaza Arturo Somohano. This is where people are selling things that are not made in China! We bought some soap and several other unique items.
At this point the weather was changing, it looked like a big storm was coming so though we were early we decided to head towards the hotel which is where our tour meeting place was to be taking place. Before we got to the hotel we saw a Starbucks. I enjoy Starbucks so we went and got some drinks and watched the people running in the storm. About 3:15 we went to find our tour and found out we were the only people on the tour. This was rather nice. We explored the new San Juan then headed back toward Old San Juan. We would have toured the fort but it was still drizzling out and honestly it looked just like the fort in St. Augustine Florida. Maybe if it wasn't raining. We did go into the Capital Building and took some gorgeous pictures of the mosaics and then stopped at the Cathedral of San Juan. All the while we were getting a grand tour and could ask any questions. At the end of the tour we were dropped off right at the Port and so we went back onboard.
Dinner that night was back in the Sunset. Danny and Hari sang very loudly to us for our anniversary and gave us another dessert. They knew we would be in the 555 Steakhouse on our anniversary. They are very thoughtful. We went to the magic show that night and it was entertaining. We never had a problem finding a seat in the balcony for any show. San Juan is pretty during the day but really nice to see at night from your balcony!
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Sunshine as seen from the conch shell graveyard. Grand Turk.
Day 3 Grand Turk- I will try and post more pictures but the kids are not happy with putting my high def pictures into the required numbers for cruise critic. (And they spent the day at Busch Gardens so they are cranky tired)
June 21 Father's Day. We arrived around 8 am or so in Grand Turk. It is beautiful. The color of the ocean is breathtaking. After reading Cruise Critic we had decided not to take a Carnival tour but rented a golf cart from Karibu Rental. We had already paid a deposit. You have to walk out of the cruise area to find the golf carts but there is a path to follow. It had rained that morning and seemed to be a big deal on the island. They said they had had a drought. Needless to say our map and all paperwork were ruined from the brief storm. He said we couldn't get lost on an island that was only 7 miles long. He was a little wrong.
We started out towards the lighthouse and ended up too far to the left and had to back track. Driving on the wrong side of the road was interesting but there is not much traffic and when people were behind you they just beeped to go around. I pet one of the wild donkeys and we took pictures of them. Then we came back into town and went to the museum. It was only 5 dollars a person and we had a tour guide with us for the start to explain things before we explored on our own. The best part is that it is air-conditioned as we were hot. I bought some salts while we were there. The view from the top balcony is exquisite.
Then I was bound and determined to find the conch graveyard. We took the golf cart over dirt roads and found the beach that has the shells right where you are walking. I picked out two shells and put them into the plastic gallon size bags that I had brought. Then we decided that we were done and hungry so we dropped off the cart and went up to eat at the BlueIguana Cantina. The Shrimp burrito was excellent and Jon enjoyed his tacos.
We hit the spa and then had dinner at JiJi's for Father's Day. What an incredible experience. You are supposed to pick 2 things from the appetizer-soup section. Jon wanted a third item and after a consultation with the chef we were allowed to order three things. We chose the pork belly, shrimp bonnet and the Tamarind soup. It was all very good. For the main course we went with Peppered beef and Fragrant Sweet and Sour Shrimp. If you like tea they have a wonderful green tea. My favorite part of the meal was dessert, the Rose Creme Brulee was the best I have ever had. Jon got the Caramelized crepes and they were OK but the Creme Brulee was better!! The meals and appetizers are served family style so you can share. That was fine with us.
Jon went to watch the Latin Nights main show and I crashed. It was a good Father's Day at sea.
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Here is a link to zydecocruiser dot net though they may not let me post a website. http://www.zydecocruiser.net/CarnivalMiracleAK2014/mdr_dinner.html
Downling on Epic
in Norwegian Cruise Line
Posted
I have looked up other threads. (I used Downlining and getting off early)There are 2 with NCL one has to do with Canada/Alaska/Jones Act. The second has to do with getting on in a Schengen area and getting off in another. I have a question for Israel! I posted in the Israel/North Africa board and they suggested posting here. Other cruise lines have their own rules so those posts were not helpful! I was hoping to get a better contact number as US Customer Service for NCL the partial answer is different every time I call in or escalate.