Anyone gone on NCL Jade cruisetour of Italy

[rosie56]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has done the Jade cruisetour. You tour Rome,Florence,Venice and the go on a cruise on the Jade for 7 nights.

If so could someone tell me how it was.

Also why are the reservation for the cruise only showing up in NCL sign in reservation area.

I will going on this cruietour Aug30 to Sept 13th.

How are the hotels for the land part.

[gra2172]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has done the Jade cruisetour. You tour Rome,Florence,Venice and the go on a cruise on the Jade for 7 nights.

If so could someone tell me how it was.

Also why are the reservation for the cruise only showing up in NCL sign in reservation area.

I will going on this cruietour Aug30 to Sept 13th.

How are the hotels for the land part.

 

Do you mean a land and sea tour? I didnt know NCL did those. Id be interested in hearing what others say..

[rosie56]

NCL Jade has grouped up with Gate1 travel and they offer a CruiseTour.

3nights in Rome, 2 nights in Florence. 2 nights in Venice then you do a 7 night cruise on the Jade to the Greek Islands.

I like this because you don't often get to see very much of the cities when your just in port for 8 to 10 hours.

I have yet to talk with anyone that has done one of these cruise/tours.

Or they just haven't replied yet.

[Demonyte]

That is just a travel agent that has put together a pre-cruise tour, NCL is not affiliated in any way with the tour (or otherwise they'd promote it on their own website too). Also, discussions about travel agents are forbidden here on CC (one can talk about tours in general though).

 

I'd suggest that you'd ask about this in "Italy Ports" at the "Ports of call" section of the forum, maybe somebody there (even cruisers from another line) has done something similar.

Edited January 26, 2014 by Demonyte

[rosie56]

Sorry to say that you are wrong about NCL not having this cruise tour on there web site. This is who I booked it through.:rolleyes:

I was just trying to find out if anyone had done it.

Gosh people get upset over the littlest things.:(

Also if you goggle Gate1 and NCL you will see that they HAVE joined together to make these cruise/tours. Its been about two years since they did this.

Cant be a expert on everything.

[Demonyte]

Whoa, whoa - no need to get worked up there, nobody is upset except maybe you. :)

 

I actually did a search for "gate1" or "gate 1" limiting the search only on ncl.com (here) and didn't find anything (so they are not even mentioned on ncl.com, except maybe in the list of all other hundreds of travel agents). I also did a mock booking on ncl.com fairly far (until air and pre/post-cruise hotels) and didn't find anything mentioning that a tour before the cruise bought from NCL would be possible. Also as other poster already told you, NCL is not known for selling land+cruise packages, only air+cruise with possible pre/post-cruise hotels in embarkation/disembarkation cities.

 

Also the results you refer to (like this) only tell that Gate 1 has become a NCL distributor, in other words a travel agent that will start selling NCL cruises as part of their own tour packages. That doesn't mean that the packages would be provided "together" with NCL in any shape or form, except that Gate 1 simply books their clients to NCL cruises, just like they do with cruises from two other cruise lines that they are resellers for - and any other travel agent providing similar tours could do.

 

What you can find with google are just a marketing press releases from Gate 1 alone, those don't have any comments from NCL and no contact information to NCL like press releases about joint ventures normally would - therefore it's safe to say that NCL has nothing to do with it except that they have agreed to Gate 1 selling their cruises.

 

So in conclusion and without any other references to back up NCL selling tours from that travel agent, I stand by my original post about Gate 1 being nothing more than a regular travel agent that is not affilliated with NCL any deeper than most other travel agents. Sorry if you had gotten more glorified picture from Gate 1's press release, that's why it's formulated by the PR firm like it is - to make the simple reseller contract to appear a lot bigger deal than it actually is.

 

P.S. Since according to your post count, you are still fairly new to actually posting here, I was just trying to help you with your assumptions and guide you to a place where you might be getting answers you are looking for. Don't shoot the messenger.

[LadyStone50]

I saw this tour (the land portion) offered through Go-Today tours at an amazing price, but only for certain weeks during the year. I liked the idea because Rome is easier to fly into than Venice and a tour through Italy to Venice sounded fun before the cruise. Has anyone done this?

[Demonyte]

Sorry, I need to take some of my previous post back.

 

When not searching for Gate 1 but just cruisetours and NCL, I did actually find this:

 

http://www.ncl.com/europe-cruisetours

 

So while it's so weird that it is not more prominently promoted on NCL's website when checking the cruises involved, there are cruisetours (in Alaska, Hawai'i and Europe) that actually are bookable (by phone) through NCL directly.

 

However most of my previous post still stand and it still seems that Gate 1 is just a travel agent operating as the shore excursion provider just like there are third party contractors in ports of call, as I still couldn't find anything regarding announced partnership with Gate 1 from NCL's PR.

 

Either way, I stand corrected, but as seen also from the other's responses, these tours are not widely known.

[kawilliams50]

Hi All...I booked a (4day) pre cruise tour in Rome through NCL yesterday. According to the NCL's TA, the company they arrange the tours with is Gate 1. I also got a $100.00 on board credit for booking the tour with my cruise. I don't cruise until June 2015, so that will be to late to answer any questions for you concerning the tour, but everything the NCL TA explained sounded exciting. My co-worker also booked the same tour and she is sailing Octobe 2015. So, I'd say NCL is clearing working with Gate 1. Happy Sailing.....

 

I found this review while browsing reviews for Epic in the Western Mediterranean. Might answer your questions....http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=226133

Edited January 29, 2014 by kawilliams50
Update

[kawilliams50]

Here's another posting I found concerning the touring package now available through NCL . If you follow the link about from COOL CRUISE the NCL website clears uses the wording "we've partnered with" in the description of cruisetouring.

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/archive/index.php/t-1746246.html:)

Edited January 29, 2014 by kawilliams50

[rosie56]

I would like to thank those that said that NCL has partnered up with Gate1.

I am getting old but I'm not going crazy. I was very sure I had book through NCL for this vacation and was told that the land part was with Gate1. Now if I could just find someone who has gone on this cruise tour I would be a happy camper.

[MagnoliaBlossom]

I have been watching for reviews on the cruise tours for a while now. I think NCL makes it difficult to find this info easily - just imagine, when a group of cruise addicts here didn't even know they existed, it obviously is a well kept secret. To find the tours you must go to the learn about tab on their page, where you would look at hotels and it is grouped with the hotels there. Jeepers, I think this is a great offering and would like to see it better advertised.

[JPNNH]

I'm going on the EPIC cruise & land tour with Gate 1 for the package May 7, 2014 Link follows: http://www.ncl.com/europe-cruisetours/15-day-classic-italy-epic

[JPNNH]

http://www.ncl.com/europe-cruisetours/15-day-classic-italy-epic

[JPNNH]

NCL Jade has grouped up with Gate1 travel and they offer a CruiseTour.

3nights in Rome, 2 nights in Florence. 2 nights in Venice then you do a 7 night cruise on the Jade to the Greek Islands.

I like this because you don't often get to see very much of the cities when your just in port for 8 to 10 hours.

I have yet to talk with anyone that has done one of these cruise/tours.

Or they just haven't replied yet.

 

http://www.ncl.com/europe-cruisetours/15-day-classic-italy-epic

[Jenorama]

My friend did the Italy cruise tour last year for his honeymoon. They had a really great time on the land tour and then the following cruise on the Epic, but he did have some headaches with the booking and arrangements. I think that was due to the land part being arranged through the different company.

 

He had some trouble finding out their actual arrival date in Venice, but did get that straightened out and then when they arrived, no one was there to meet them. Apparently the tour operator didn't realize they were arriving that day. Everything got sorted out and as far as I know, that was the worst mishap. I think since you're aware that the land portion is through Gate 1, you'll know to contact them directly for questions on the land portion rather than trying to contact NCL and having NCL shrug or give incorrect information.

 

Jen