sbnuggie

3 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

 

Balcony and above: 3 dinners

Studio, Inside, Ocean View: 2 dinners

 

Ocean Blue, Le Bistro, Q, Cagney's, La Cucina: 1 appetizer, 1 soup/salad, 1 entree, 1 dessert

Teppanyaki: One meal

Food Republic: 4 items for each person off menu

 

Example from Cagney's you asked about. So, yes, it zeros out all charges for meals. At some restaurants, there are specific menu items with additional charges (mostly those that include lobster). 

Awesome info, thanks, was looking for this.  We have free at sea plus, with balcony on 9 day cruise (pearl greek cruise), so we have 4 dinners for wife and I.  Was curious as to what the "dinners" included, correct me if I'm wrong:

for a la carte restaurants on the pearl (Sushi, La cucina, Le Bistro, Cagney):

1 appetizer, 1 soup/salad, 1 entree, 1 dessert

For Cover Charge Restaurant (Brazillian, Teppanyaki):  

1 Meal

12 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Finding tours at the dock is not "a thing" in Europe. 

Ahhh... good to know, used to mexico and caribean cruising where it is a thing.  I was born and raised in Petaluma... small world.

1 hour ago, edinburgher said:

I would not expect you to find such a boat tour next to the dock on the day, so advise instead that you pre-arrange one before you travel.

 

Google will be your best friend for this, and should you need others to share with you, you could ask on your Roll Call, or check it to see if any of your fellow passengers has already arranged one and is looking for others like yourselves to share.

Thanks, shore excursions group doesn't even list excursions and viator has some that we are considering but its one of those we'd like to make it a leisurely day if possible.  Thanks

Howdy,

Will be on the NCL Pearl 9 day from Athens-Trieste in late august.  ONe of the stops is Zakynthos, limited ship excursions which we dont like to do anyway.  This stop will be after the absolute madhouse of Santorini and Mykonos (according to cruise mapper will have 4-6 ships in each port with over 12k passengers each stop).  That being said, we would like to sleep in for Zak get up and maybe find a guided boat tour up to shipwreck beach (i know they cant land anymore) and the caves, thinking from 1100 - 1500.  Our ship is in port with one other and our hours will be 0930 - 1700 and tendered so likely all aboard time will be about 1600 I'm sure.  Ive even heard you can rent boats yourself, I own a boat so not adverse to that but thinking a guide would be better. 

Anyone have any thoughts.

Howdy,

First time cruisers on NCL, we are taking the 9 day out of Athens (Pireaus) in late August.  As our ship does not depart until 10 pm and NCL has said we should be on board no later than 2 hours before departure, I was curious if anyone knew when we would actually be able to get on the ship. 

We have sailed out of Puerto Rico once where the ship didn't depart until late in the evening (9ish if I remember) and we could get on around Noon, we dropped our bags off than did a tour of old town.  Was kind of hoping to do the same in Athens:  Get on Early, drop off bags, get situated than go back out and tour around for a few hours in the afternoon than comeback for dinner.

Thanks for any insight

Howdy,

Quick question, I tried doing a search couldn't find what I was looking for.  We disembark in Trieste on Friday and have opted to stay two nights in Venice post cruise.  For both cost and convenance for our early flight out on Sunday we are staying very near Marco Polo Airport.  I am looking at Transfer options and was curious if NCL will allow you to use their transfer service from the cruise port to Marco Polo Airport even though we don't have flights booked for Disembarkation.  When I look on the NCL website it asks us to input flight information for the disembarkation day.  I know they also have excursions on disembarkation day then transfer to the airport based upon my intrawebs searches but those haven't been released yet for our cruise.  For us going into tour Venice on the afternoon/evening and the following day we were just going to take the public bus #5 or walk to airport and take the water bus.

Thanks for any advice 

10 hours ago, cassie55 said:

I've just booked this for our Pearl cruise in May.  Mainly because our flight isn't until 17.10 and it uses up some time. 

Do you recall when it showed up and available for booking?

Loooks like another poster said it was sold out already for her june cruise

Out of curiosity, as we are on the pearl in late august/early september, when do they release the shore excursions/transfers to airport in Trieste.  I've seen photos of the excursions list from NCL but nothing on our booking is shown.

On 6/3/2023 at 6:20 AM, Happycrafter123 said:

We found the priority access expensive and not sure on value, but it really did help with embarcation and disembarkation on a full ship.  
 

we were able to get boarding group 1 on embarcation so were with the first set of folks on board, instead of boarding group 11 they were going to give us, and we did not have to wait long for check in as there was a separate line.   
 

as for disembarkation there was a huge line of folks waiting to walk off and we were able to by pass that via a separate exit so off the ship in about 5 minutes rather likely 30-40.

 

there was an option to exit ship for tender early too as below

what would have made it seem more worthwhile was to get priority for tender on RETURN to ship on tender ports but that is not included.

 

it was a port intensive cruise so did not take advantage of the spa credits but did get the daily room service for breakfast.

 

all in all not sure it was worth the cost but it did smooth out the process and save us time both on and off.

 

 We got it as we had a tight schedule to get to airport on day of disembarkation and so I am glad we got it.

 

 

Hello, Im looking at your photo here... Thanks by the way.... We will be on the Pearl stopping at Santorini in late August and am considering the priority access as both in Santorini and Mykonos there will be 6 ships in port each day, so we want to get off quick and early.  For Santorini how was the experience with this program.  Thanks

Thanks for the tip

Howdy,

This is our first cruise since 2018 and our first on NCL,  so we've been out of the game for a bit.  Looking forward to the cruise and experiencing NCL.  Was just curious if the ship is on different time than local port times?  I am looking to possibly book independent excursions and this issue always arises on certain itineraries at certain times of the year.  Was just curious, thanks for any info.

HOwdy,

We will be sailing on the Pearl on August 28 2024 on the 9 day greek isles cruise.  This is our first NCL cruise.  We have always sailed Carnival as our kids were growing up and this is first cruise since 2018 so we've been out of the game for a bit.  I was reading the ncl page and they posted all aboard times is 2 hours before sailing.  It's a bit ambiguous but I'm ASS-uming that is for embarkation day only and not port days.  Our experience has been typical all aboard times at ports vary from 30 minutes to an hours before published sailing times, hoping that is true on this cruise as well.  I included the screen shot.  Thanks for any info.

HOwdy,

We will be sailing on the Pearl on August 28 2024 on the 9 day greek isles cruise.  This is our first NCL cruise.  We have always sailed Carnival as our kids were growing up and this will be our first cruise since 2018 so we've been out of the game for a bit.  I was wondering if anyone had the Freestyle Daily's from last summer.  I'm not sure if the Pearl was doing greek cruises last summer, if not the pearl than what ship was (if anyone knows)?  Want to get our planning going and reading the daily's is always a big help.

Thanks

Bait and switch?!

I am going as part of the Millenium's Cruise for Hero's promotion.  I am not at all worried about getting sick etc.... been on 8 cruises so not worried at all.  HOWEVER, what does concern me, is that if just 1 person gets sick, they don't allow the ship to dock and we're stuck off the coast for a few days and then quarantine for 14 days etc, etc,....  So although the cruise for me and the wife are free (40 something's in perfect health), I would not be happy if we got stuck and not able to come back.....  Thats my only concern.

Assuming this still works, haven't cruised in 4 years

OBC Cash out Trick

1) Go to a slot machine.

2) Insert your S&S card in the slot.

3) Press the button that says load money from S&S account.

4) You will have to set up your card by entering your date of birth and then selecting a 4 digit pin.

5) You will then select the amount you wish to load on the card.

5.5) Play on the slots if you want to dance with lady luck........

6) When you want to cash out, take your card to the cashier who will run your card.

7) They will verify the amount and ask you to enter your pin on a pad there.

8) Voila! you are handed your cash.

Howdy,

Quick question, always seems to come up on cruises and taking independent excursions with us. I'm going to assume that the Dream (out of new Orleans) will stay on New Orleans time for the entire cruise. Is that correct

We booked a couple of independent excursions in Freeport and key west and they were telling us the time the tour operates is on local time (which is effectively going to be 1 hour ahead of ship time if the ship stays on "new Orleans time" during the voyage.

Anyone know for sure.

Yup.... The Devil is ALWAYS in the Details. Details, Details, Details, they matter when it comes to this stuff. Not gonna get much sympathy until we get those, and of course, this comes from you, would like to hear Carnival or Embarkation staff's point of view as well... But of course we won't, soooo, not sure we gonna get much accomplished on this thread.....

We were there last month, and instead of going to the resort, we took a taxi abut 20 minutes from the port to Cleveland's Beach Club. It doesn't look like much, in fact we call it our favorite Bahamas Dive Bar, but it is on the beach, the 5 children in our group pretty much had the whole beach to themselves, the beer was cold, the food was great - best conch fritters EVER! Cleveland and Millie were great hosts, and it was pretty much locals and a couple of people who came from the nearby hotel. There is a facebook page for it.

Cleveland looks interesting did they have umbrellas my wife will try to a crisp without one..... In fact I think she would still get under an umbrella hahaha

Google crime at cabbage and paradise beach

We rented a car from the city area ( took cab to rental office) and used the car to store luggage and toured some plantations for our 8pm flight. Depending on how many people this may be cheaper then just the luggage storage, but it doesn’t work as well to stay in New Orleans because of the high parking fees.

 

 

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Who did you use for rental car?

I cant find info on "one way" rentals, some places allow it, some don't. We are having same issue, very late flight 8pm on the Sunday we return, was thinking a car rental would be perfect solution. To clarify: "one way" rental I mean, rent from an office in downtown and return at the airport.

Subscribed!!, thanks richard, our very good friends are from England and I find my self constantly googling things they say.... And they introduced me to these fiendish little devils known as Jaffa Cakes.........

Thanks for doing this, we are staying at the residence inn downtown and I was looking for a way to walk and I found this, AWESOME JOB, thanks a bunch...

God Bless Rum Runners another justification for their use

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