doolfan

Ok thank you for the info. We are at 24 days out, so I’ll wait a few days to book the transfer until I have an idea on boarding times! I’d love to get in the boat as early as possible!

I’m trying to book a transfer to our port and I’m not sure what time to arrive. Our ship sails out of Athens at 8 PM. I would like to board as early as possible since we have no other plans that day and being our first cruise ever we’re excited to get on board and look around and settle in. Everything I read says the latest times you can arrive by but not how early. If we arrived at the port at 1 would we just be wandering around for hours? Thanks!

Thank you very much, I appreciate it! Coming home we have booked our own flights since we’ll be staying in Europe a few more weeks after our cruise. We’re using Iceland air and flying from London to Iceland for a 2 day stay and then Iceland to nyc. We fly into jfk and then the next day have a direct flight booked home on Southwest from LaGuardia. Not worried about coming home since we’ll have overnight stays, I was just concerned about what we would need to do in both Chicago and Toronto on the way there!

I received airfare confirmation for my cruise and I am happy with the flights! I do have a question about the logistics as I have only ever flown direct flights overseas. Our flight travels from the Midwest to Chicago, then Toronto, then Athens. Our layover in Chicago is an hour and 20 minutes and in Toronto is 2 and a half hours. Do we need to do anything with luggage or international customs at the Chicago or Toronto airports? I’m hoping especially in Chicago we just go directly from one gate to the next, but I’m not sure since the next flight will be out of the country. And then in Toronto do we have to go through Canadian customs before boarding the next flight to Athens? Thank you!

Thank you all! It’s my very first cruise so I’m not really sure if the procedures, maybe 6AM is when we dock? I thought I read something about disembarkment starting 2 hours later?? Are we allowed to stay in the ship longer? Like if they did start letting us off at 6 could we just decided we’re going to get off at 9 and have a leisurely morning? I realize they would have to end it at some point…but maybe if I just planned on disembarking at 9 and having the shuttle meet us at 9:30? Is 30 minutes enough time to get off and through customs??

I’m only a month out from my first cruise and getting very excited!! We disembark in Rome. I want to book a private shuttle to take us to our hotel in the center of Rome. Disembarkment is at 6:00 AM but I understand it doesn’t actually start for 2 hours. We plan to carry our own luggage off the ship. What time should I order the shuttle for? Thank you

This is our first cruise and I’m confused on the logistics if an excursion is chosen for the final departure port. Our final port is Rome and my understanding is it’s about a hour from the dock to Rome. We have our own hotel booked in the city center in walking distance to most main attractions. My plan was to get off the boat with our luggage (I’ve never done a cruise so I’m not sure of how this works, do you carry it off with you?) and then take a cab to our hotel. I do see that there are excursions at Rome offered that say they include transfer. One basically takes you to the city and gives you a driving tour and then drops you for “time in your own”. If I chose this does that make getting off the ship easier? Will our luggage be taken into Rome and where would we meet up with it? As soon as we get to the on our own time can we just head to our hotel? I’m just trying to figure the easiest way to get us and our luggage from the ship to our hotel. Thanks!

I’m new to cruising and will be taking my first this spring. On the Norwegian app I can look through all the shore excursions and sort them by port. However 2 ports are missing, Kusadasi Turkey, and Nice France. We are at both locations for many hours so I’m not sure why no excursions are listed. Does this mean there are t any we can take or just that they are not listed yet? I’ve been checking for months and many more excursions have been added but none for these 2 ports. Thanks!

This will be our very first cruise and I’m looking for some information on what kind of expectations I should have for WiFi. I’m traveling with my daughter who is just graduating with a degree in communications (but specifically in social media marketing). Staying connected on social media and being able to post videos of what she is doing in real time is very important to her. We’re traveling on viva which I understand has starlink. I upgraded us both to unlimited WiFi (but not the streaming). The woman I spoke with on the phone said the streaming version was more for if we wanted to bring a gaming system and play video games. Will unlimited WiFi with starlink be good enough to allow us to fully use our phone for social media (both watching reels and posting videos) and watching movies/TV on apps? I’m looking for people’s actual experiences. I’m taking it with a grain of salt when someone on a phone in a call center tells me what “should” work. Thank you!!

Thank you all for your input!! I went with the itinerary and booked on Jade! I got a 2 bedroom room family villa that has a large picture window over the tub so that can be my “hot tub” experience. Thank you all for wonderful insightful responses, I’m very excited!!

I’m trying to plan a once in a lifetime Alaskan cruise. The other day I asked about heaven vs 2 aft facing balconies on Bliss for Alaska. The response was all haven so I booked it. But then I’ve continued reading and it sounds like overall Norwegian is not recommended so much for Alaska. So I decided to look into HAL or Princess but I just kept coming back to Norwegian. I have now found a trip on Norwegian Jade that has all the things I want for Alaska (inside passage, glacier bay and Skagway, ALL places Bliss was not going to). But Jade does not have all the things I wanted in a ship. I don’t care at all about slides, racetracks, VR etc. but I was looking forward to the very fancy Haven (Jades Haven looks lame in comparison) or at least Vibe (which Jade doesn’t have at all) so I figured I’d pay extra for spa passes, but Jade’s spa doesn’t have all the cool new things either and also looks kinda lame in comparison. Just looking for nice places to relax really! And hot tubs!! I’m probably spoiled because I have my first ever cruise coming up and it just happens to be on Viva. I fell in love with that itinerary and then found out it was the newest ship. Which would you choose for Alaska great luxury ship or itinerary? Is the scenery that much better in the inside passage and glacier bay? Would we miss out if we knew nothing else? Or if it’s a one and done for Alaska should we make sure to see the best??

I’m booking an Alaskan cruise on Norwegian Joy for May 2025. It will be me and my mom (71) and my 2 young adult kids (22&21) The cost is about the same for a Haven family balcony 400 sq ft plus 85 sq ft balcony mid ship or 2 aft facing large balconies. The are advantages and disadvantages both ways. I’d love to be part of haven!! Is that worth giving up the extra bathroom and privacy 2 rooms would provide? Which kind of balcony would be best for Alaska. I’m very new to cruising! I have my first ever cruise this coming May out of Athens on Viva. For that it’s just my daughter and I and we have a standard balcony. Any help you guys can give for Alaska is much appreciated! This will be a once in a lifetime type of thing. My mom is getting older and my kids are finishing college. May 25 will most likely be our final big trip all together and our only trip to Alaska!

This is our first cruise and I’m confused about the WiFi. My daughter and I will be cruising on Viva next spring to the Mediterranean to celebrate her college graduation. Streaming is a must for her. She runs several social media accounts (communications major with an emphasis in social media marketing) so staying connected to her followers and providing content for them is VERY important to her! Will unlimited premium WiFi do the job for this? She will only have 1 device, her phone. Is there a difference between the unlimited premium WiFi package (which cost 299 each, so 600 for both of us) or the unlimited premium WiFi 1 device (which cost 399 each so 800 total)…It seems like they are both the same? Am I missing something??

I booked a cruise beginning in Athens next spring. I booked the airfare and requested a 2 day deviation. The cruise begins on Saturday. I live in the US and all flights appear to be overnight. With 2 day deviation would our flight leave Thursday with us arriving on Friday or would the flight leave Wednesday with us arriving Thursday? I’m booking a hotel and am unsure if I need 1 night or 2.

I booked a cruise to Europe for next year and I am also planning to stay longer. I booked the free at sea airfare for the flight there only, for 2 days early. It was a substantial savings. The flight there was only about 850 total for both of us versus current prices that I’m seeing of over 2000 per person to Europe! We’re staying a couple of weeks in Europe after the cruise and I actually looked into booking another cruise at the end of our trip just for airfare home! Dates don’t line up but I’d actually consider it if they did! I know a lot of people have had bad airfare experiences but flights to Europe for 2 for 850 instead of 4500 was too good to pass up!!

Thank you guys very much for the help! We’ll do Vibe for sure and the spa if we can get a day pass. Being our first cruise and first time to Europe we are planning to do all the ports, but it will be nice to relax in a hot tub in the evening! We’ll get a spa pass for our one at sea day if offered!

My daughter and I are booked on Viva for next year to celebrate her college graduation. It will be our first cruise. I see that we can buy passes for Vibe for the week and will plan to do so as soon as they are available. The thermal spa (Mandara Spa) I’m less clear on. Can you only enter if you have the spa room? Or can you buy day or week passes? We have a standard balcony room. If we can purchase a pass, would it too much to have both? Would it be somewhat redundant?

Thank you! This is our first cruise. We’re going to be on Viva in spring 2024. A few years ago my kids loved our visit to Yellowstone but hated not having any service while we were there. I know people say to unplug and enjoy, but I feel that’s more a mentality for adults disconnecting from work, teens/20s definitely want to stay connected to their friends and followers!

I’m just wondering if this works well? I don’t mind spending the money if it truly does. I’ll be traveling with my daughter who will be 22 and just graduating college. Being able to stream and post video content is going to be a must for her.

This will be our first cruise so I don’t have any frame of reference for asking this. We are booked on Viva in May 2024 and our stops are mostly Italy and Greece, with 2 in Turkey and 1 on France. I started reading through the shore excursions and they seem the same at every port. They are all basically tours of the cities. We want to do those in some of the cities for sure, but I guess I was thinking there would be a bit of variety. Are most of the excursions in these areas just seeing the city? I thought there would be horseback riding somewhere or some type of fast car tour in France? Maybe kayaking? Am I totally way off base here??

I’m looking to book a cruise in May 2024 from Barcelona to Athens. They are currently offering the second person to fly free. We will be flying from St Louis to Barcelona, but the cruise will only be the first part of our trip. After the cruise we’ll continue traveling through Europe eventually flying home from London approx 2-3 weeks after the cruise is over. Is it possible to set the flights up this way?? I’d assume they only book you a flight to Barcelona the day before the cruise and a flight home from Athens the day after. Should I skip booking airfare through them completely…it’s a shame because it was a really good deal on airfare. This is our first cruise and our first trip to Europe so I’m new at this!

Thank you all very much for the quick replies…I now understand why I’ve seen conflicting info. It’s clearly up to the discretion of that particular cruise and the countries involved. It’s not a huge deal if we can’t. We are going to head to Athens next on our itinerary anyway, I just thought it would be fun to spend a couple of nights in Mykonos before moving on.

I’m in the very early stages of planning my very first cruise. The itinerary I’m looking at begins in Barcelona and ends in Athens. The day before Athens it is docked in Mykonos. Can we disembark in Mykonos a day early? We’d like to stay a few days there. I have found conflicting info on if cruises allow leaving early.