MeHeartCruising

Between these 2, I'd flip a coin.  I like the Breakaway better than the Epic.  Both are fantastic itineraries.  I guess I would decide how much you want to visit the classic Greek ports vs. Dubrovnik and Venice.  I would also probably only do the one ending in Trieste if you can also spend 2-3 days in Venice afterward.

I would also start with the round trip out of Barcelona.  The itinerary is a great coverage for the Western Mediterranean.  The other itineraries are great too, but more complicated travel logistics.  If looking at cruises to/from Venice (Trieste), be sure you're up to speed on what it means.  Trieste is quite a distance from Venice and involves getting some form of transportation between the two if you're going to actually want to see or stay in Venice as part of the trip.  I would keep it simple for your first Med cruise.  All these cruises are great itineraries and you won't go wrong with any of them.

I would absolutely do what you have planned.  And as said above, I also would use the train between Barcelona and Madrid but fly between Madrid and Lisbon.  The train route between the 2 capital cities just isn’t efficiently done. 

Can you clarify what "clean ship" means for those of us not in the know.

This is a thread that somewhat discusses NCL using Venice as a tender port in recent time.  There is a lot of other commentary about Venice that can be ignored, but I wanted you to know that NCL does have a history of trying to stop in Venice for a day visit using tender boats from shore.  The thread indicates one person's experience with that.

57 minutes ago, jjjandkk said:

What are the options for getting from the Revenna port to Venice, (not the airport, as we are spending a few days there before returning home).  The only train schedule I see is 8:45 departure from Revenna and we are unfamiliar with the area.  Does RCCL have a bus to Venice?  

Yes, they do.  RCCL offers shuttles to the airport and to the Tronchetto People Mover station, where you can ride the People Mover over to Piazzale Roma and then use whatever transit you wish to use to get to the rest of Venice.  
 

Review the other threads on this topic.  They may be further down the list.  There were posts with images of the shuttle bus schedule posted over the Spring and Summer. 

Generally (always?) if you do NOT purchase a ship excursion, you will be tendered to shore at the base of the cable cars.  There is no wheeled vehicle access to this location.  However, there IS boat access.  You could theoretically purchase a private excursion that picked you up by boat at the small pier near the base of the cable cars.  I have no idea if such excursions exist, but it would physically be possible.

There is no place on your cruise confirmation that directly tells how many points you will receive from taking your cruise.  From the FAQs on the NCL Latitudes page, you can get the base award details:

"You will earn one point per cruise night and an additional point per night if you book in a Suite* or in The Haven™, or if you book with a Latitudes Rewards Insider Offer.

*For full fare Suites booked at the time the reservation was originally made. Does not include club balcony staterooms. Does not apply to upgrades or upsells. If you receive a free or discounted upgrade to a Suite or The Haven you will not receive Suite points. Rewards points are not applied for Cruisetour nights or hotel stay nights. Guests sailing with Friends & Family rates, NCLU travel partner reduced rates, and/or Casino cruises will earn points."

However, it is possible that there was a promotion in effect when you made your booking that could increase the number of points awarded.  Sometimes they offer "Double Latitude Points" or similar promotions.  IF that is the case, you will see a PROMO CODE that indicates this in the upper right corner of the GUEST CONFIRMATION pdf file that was sent to you when you booked the cruise.  If you booked via a travel agent, you may need to ask them about it.  LATDBLX is the code for double latitude points, for example.  The code LATREW is NOT a code related to how many points you will get.  It simply is a code that indicates you are a Latitudes member who is entitled to the corresponding benefits of whatever level you are currently at.

My taxi experience at Barcelona port is that it works fine.  There MAY or may not be much of a queue for the taxis depending on the timing of passengers coming off the ship.  I saw once where soon after disembarkation began, there was virtually no line for taxis.  Closer to 9:00 am, there was a significant line for taxis.  BUT... even with the significant line, the line was quickly moving.  The taxis were coming and going as fast as they could arrive, fill, and depart.  Multiple taxis would pull up simultaneously, load up and dart off, followed by another wave of taxis to replace them.  The line of people never stopped moving.  It was much like the taxi line at major, large airports.   The walk from the terminal to the taxis is not a long distance.

2 hours ago, PurpleTraveller said:

Getting the train from Termini in Rome to Civitavecchia is really easy and inexpensive. We usually get a train later in the morning so that it is not crowded. Cost in 2022 was €4.60 each. When arriving in Civitavecchia the shuttle to the ships are right outside the station and cost €6.00 each this year. If you are paying on the bus you pay in cash. There are different shuttles for the different ships so check the sign on the bus or ask the driver to make sure you are going to the correct ship. If your ship is docked close to the port entrance you could walk if you don't mind dealing with your luggage.

 

This was exactly my experience in May 2023 exactly.  I paid a little more for a reserved seat on a Freccia train.  I walked out of the Civitavecchia station and caught the €6.00 cash shuttle bus directly to my ship.  Very easy and low stress. 

For My NCL cruise out of Southampton about a year ago, it was not really a specific time that they started taking bags.  They started taking them after they completed the unloading and organizing process of the luggage from the disembarking cruise earlier that morning.  When they finished that, they took a work break.  After that, they came out and opened the luggage doors.  It was somewhere around 10:15-10:30 am.

My checkin process was fast and efficient.  However, when it came time to board, there was no loudspeaker system that could be heard.  Just one person’s voice announcing something.  The doors opened and the crowd stormed the gates.  

As mentioned above, this entire process can vary between ports, ships, and even sailings. Figure out the plan once you get notified of the procedure for your turnaround day.  But yes, the OP most certainly will be able to exit the ship and do things at their car if they want.

On one of my B2Bs in Rome, my "in transit" card bypassed the entire check-in procedure.  I showed it to the first person greeting the arrivals and I literally was shown an easy path to the gangway.  The same path that crew that had gotten off the ship were using to get back on.  I doubt it's that easy in a USA port, however.

I'm on the January 21st Breakaway sailing from New Orleans.  On my Cruise Planner, entertainment is not yet reservable.  However, when I drill into the description for "Six", the following message is shown on that page under the description:

"Beginning January 26th, 2024, SIX will no longer be offered."

It never hurts to stop at guest services early in the first cruise and double check they have you on their "list" of B2B (often called "through or continuing") passengers.  This will help ensure you get the instruction letter detailing the B2B procedure on turnaround day.  But, as said above, you should not need to reclaim your luggage.   The cabin steward should get it to your new cabin for you.  Also discuss this with him/her during the first cruise.

Do you have "cancel for any reason" travel insurance?  if not, I'm afraid you're stuck until NCL decides they want to cancel the cruises.  They may or may not, depending on how things unfold.

2 hours ago, Hydro ergo said:

Hi All!

 

As I'm sure many of you have done, we've got a busy day in Athens.  We are going the DIY route and heading into town right away to see the Acropolis first.  After that we are hoping to also visit the Ancient Agora and Monistiraki Square.  Was hoping that someone might have a suggestion for a quick grab n' go type lunch in this area?  We would love some tasty Greek food, but don't want to sit and spend a long time at a restaurant.

 

thank you! 

There are a ton of cafe type restaurants with outdoor seating along the streets in the Monistiraki area.  I seem to recall a fair number of places that had walk up windows where you could buy a kebab or gyro type handhelds and walk away and then find some place to sit down and eat it.  I wouldn't worry too much about it.  The area is a center of bustling activity.  Lots of places to eat that you can pick from.  Personally, I'd take 45 minutes to have a sit down lunch at one of the outdoor cafes and soak it all in.  Unless you have a really short day in port, you should have time.

1 hour ago, Hydro ergo said:

Thank you! This definitely makes sense. I reserved our train tickets, with specific seats. I didn't make a shuttle reservation, should I do that? The one on Trenitalia's site only gave us five minutes to make the connection to our train and I would like to have more of a window than that! 

There is no shuttle bus reservations.  You line up as best you can (not everyone understands the concept of getting in a queue) and hope to get on the bus.  If you don't.  You wait for the next one.  They do have multiple buses running, but I'm not sure how many, and it will be impacted by how many ships in port at the time.  It is much like getting on a rental car shuttle bus at the airport.  Get on, find a place for your bags and hope for a seat.

8 minutes ago, Hydro ergo said:

Thanks @MeHeartCruising!  We've booked the Freccia on our way there.  It looks like the best one for the way back to Rome is at 916.  Do you remember about how long it took to get off the ship and over to the station?  I don't want to miss our train.  thank you so much!

Sorry, I've never disembarked in Rome.  I have only embarked.  My advice was from general knowledge.  In May when I embarked, from the train station directly to ship, there was a bus for 6 euros per person.  I assume this same shuttle service was running earlier in the morning for people who disembarked from the ship and needed to get to the train station, but I don't have absolute proof of that.  The ride between ship to station and vice versa would take about 10-15 minutes once moving.  There could be some delay as they wait for the bus to fill up.

Here is a link to the port's website about the shuttle bus service (with operating hours).

https://civitavecchia.portmobility.it/en/civitavecchia-train-station

I second the above advice to take the Freccia train to Rome.  These trains provide you with a specific seat number on a specific car.  They are worth the extra price.  But there are far fewer of them on any given day.  But I would still try to time your departure for one of them.  It would be worth sitting around somewhere and waiting for it if you need to.  The regular regional trains are smaller, have less luggage room and can be a zoo when it comes to finding a seat.  Let alone 2 or 3 seats together.  Far more stressful.

Unless it states otherwise, I would expect you will leave your ship on a tender boat and proceed to your docked catamaran somewhere.  It doesn’t really matter where.  You will do the catamaran tour.  And, as it says, you will be dropped off at the port for Fira.  There will be tender boats there taking you back to the ship. The port for Fira is located at the bottom of the cable car, so these tender boats will also be taking passengers who have come down from Fira on the cable car back to the ship.  Fira sits up on a cliff looking down on its port and your ship.  
 

You will not need to use the cable car, because your excursion doesn’t take you up to the top of the cliffs. 

25 minutes ago, cruisinmeme said:

Looking back at the schedule we had for the breakaway the first call for people with flights is color red at 8:15. I could swear you can leave earlier with a very early flight.  
we have sailed out of New Orleans probably 15 times and debarking starts usually by 7:30

Was your scheduled arrival in port 8:00 am like the OP’s cruise?

They don’t always all appear at once either.  They sometimes dribble in.  Probably as they get contracts signed with local operators. 

In the past, when I brought on wine and was charged the corkage fee, it showed up on my onboard account on the 2nd or 3rd day as a bar or restaurant charge.  It didn’t even identify it as “corkage fee”.  It looked like purchased meals or drinks.  I would think any OBC would cover it.  Unless things have changed. 

And note, If you have the Free At Sea drink package, you no longer will be charged the corkage fee.  They changed the policy on that.  They assume that you carrying on your own wine is now to the benefit of NCL, since you will be driving your wine rather than getting it free by the glass from NCL.

It looks like the NCL website is getting caught up to the deck plan changes.  I was poking around on the Breakaway May 2024 sailings and I see Solo Balcony and Solo Inside cabins available, but only when I specify 1 person on the booking.  They have also updated the deck plans to show these as a new cabin category.  A Solo Inside shows as about $150 less expensive than a regular inside for one person.  A solo balcony is about $250 less than a regular balcony for one person.  There are also solo oceanview cabins.