Live - Gem 10th July 2022 from Venice (Trieste).

[ziggyuk]

One thing that came up in Dubrovnik, good little tip.

NCL shuttle is $15 return and a cab is 15 euro each way so you would think a cab is the right choice for 2 or more people.

Actually our Friends booked the shuttle and it counted as an excursion and they got $15 back as a credit under the $50 perk.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2022 by ziggyuk

[ItsWani]

8 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

One thing that came up in Dubrovnik, good little tip.

NCL shuttle is $15 return and a cab is 15 euro each way so you would think a cab is the right choice for 2 or more people.

Actually our Friends booked the shuttle and it counted as an excursion and they got $15 back as a credit under the $50 perk.

 

 

 

 

Good to know! Could you only book the shuttle once onboard? I don't see it in my NLC app right now.

[ziggyuk]

11 minutes ago, ItsWani said:

Good to know! Could you only book the shuttle once onboard? I don't see it in my NLC app right now.

No you book it on the quayside with your cruise card. 

[ConnieTact]

19 hours ago, ItsWani said:

Good to know! Could you only book the shuttle once onboard? I don't see it in my NLC app right now.

We could not buy it in advance but there is plenty of availability on the day.
We were undecided whether to go on shuttle or taxi but we’re pleasantly surprised at the $15 credit back on our account. We purchased it at the dockside from a NCL rep, just before boarding the bus.
They put little red sticky dots on our cards But we didn’t have to show them on our return.
We were initially undecided whether to go on shuttle or taxi but we’re pleasantly surprised at the $15 credit back on our account. 

When we were in Corfu, we asked a couple if they wanted to share a cab with us and this just cost €10 between us all- so that was good. It seems the taxi drivers have a set fee of €10 each car from centre to the port terminal.

[mapleleaves]

21 hours ago, ziggyuk said:

One thing that came up in Dubrovnik, good little tip.

NCL shuttle is $15 return and a cab is 15 euro each way so you would think a cab is the right choice for 2 or more people.

Actually our Friends booked the shuttle and it counted as an excursion and they got $15 back as a credit under the $50 perk.

 

 

 

 

In dubrovnik did the cab drivers accept euros?  stores/restaurants ?

[ziggyuk]

18 minutes ago, mapleleaves said:

In dubrovnik did the cab drivers accept euros?  stores/restaurants ?

The cab drivers accepted cash payments in euros, I use a credit card in all other places.

 

EDIT: in Split a bar did not take credit cards, we asked to pay euro and they were happy to do this.

Edited July 16, 2022 by ziggyuk

[ConnieTact]

54 minutes ago, mapleleaves said:

In dubrovnik did the cab drivers accept euros?  stores/restaurants ?

Our experience was a little different. Obviously no issue at Kotor as Montenegro currency is the Euro. When we went to Dubrovnik we could not pay in Euros in bars or shops. Some accepted cards.
A worse situation was the public toilets that required Croatian Kuna! We got around this by buying a rather expensive bottle of water in a bar with a card! 😅

The next day in Split the bar we went to insisted on local Currency so I went and withdrew some cash from a cash machine.

It was handy to have some cash to give the dressed up folk who I wanted photos with!

Lastly, I gave the change to our cabin steward as part of her tip.

[TrumpyNor]

16 minutes ago, ConnieTact said:

Our experience was a little different. Obviously no issue at Kotor as Montenegro currency is the Euro. When we went to Dubrovnik we could not pay in Euros in bars or shops. Some accepted cards.
A worse situation was the public toilets that required Croatian Kuna! We got around this by buying a rather expensive bottle of water in a bar with a card! 😅

The next day in Split the bar we went to insisted on local Currency so I went and withdrew some cash from a cash machine.

It was handy to have some cash to give the dressed up folk who I wanted photos with!

Lastly, I gave the change to our cabin steward as part of her tip.

I know this from past experience myself as I have been to Croatia on many different occasions (also land vacations) to both Dubrovnik and Split, but unfortunately when I try to tell people that they may need some local money when in Croatia (or pay by card) they for some reason have a problem believing me and are 100% convinced that I am wrong and that Euros can  be used all over Europe, inlcuding Croatia. It is like insisting on paying with US dollars in Canada (a few places may accept it, majority of places don't).

[mapleleaves]

53 minutes ago, ConnieTact said:

Our experience was a little different. Obviously no issue at Kotor as Montenegro currency is the Euro. When we went to Dubrovnik we could not pay in Euros in bars or shops. Some accepted cards.
A worse situation was the public toilets that required Croatian Kuna! We got around this by buying a rather expensive bottle of water in a bar with a card! 😅

The next day in Split the bar we went to insisted on local Currency so I went and withdrew some cash from a cash machine.

It was handy to have some cash to give the dressed up folk who I wanted photos with!

Lastly, I gave the change to our cabin steward as part of her tip.

Thx, I remembered from my visit to Split several yrs ago that vendors only accepted Kuna, but with Croatia converting to Euros in 2023 I thought perhaps some places were already accepting euros. 

[TrumpyNor]

Breakfast with a view this morning. 😊

 

[ziggyuk]

4 hours ago, TrumpyNor said:

Breakfast with a view this morning. 😊

 

 

 

Wow what a perfect spot, such a long walk 😁
Have a great cruise 🤩

[redlock]

On 7/9/2022 at 9:06 AM, ziggyuk said:

 

 

We need an Antigen test which we did from home on 7th July from home by video and have our certificates, aprox £20 a test from Qured

 

Hi Ziggy

Glad you had a great cruise.

Can you answer a quick question about the tests from Qured. What date did you put when ordering the tests? Its asks for flight date so is this the date they assign you a video consultation?

 

We are sailing on a sunday, flying to Athens on the saturday so was hoping to do the tests on the friday.

 

Cheers

 

On 7/9/2022 at 9:06 AM, ziggyuk said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by redlock

[ziggyuk]

29 minutes ago, redlock said:

 

Hi Ziggy

Glad you had a great cruise.

Can you answer a quick question about the tests from Qured. What date did you put when ordering the tests? Its asks for flight date so is this the date they assign you a video consultation?

 

We are sailing on a sunday, flying to Athens on the saturday so was hoping to do the tests on the friday.

 

Cheers

 

 

 

We ordered our tests about 2 months before as we needed two for another cruise a month before but the only take about 2 days to arrive.
For the flight date just put the date of your cruise, this date has no meaning and i think it just give them an idea of workload.
One you have the tests registered you just go onto their booking system and book a time slot to do the video test, this can be any time you want and we had lots of availability. I booked our slots about a week in advance.
As a side note, they only watch you do the test they do not stay on the line to see the results, you send a photo of the result and your passports via their upload link. This upload must happen within 10 minutes of getting the test result so if a number of you are doing tests leave a good break between them or it starts to get very complicated.

Your times sound very achievable.

 

We paid £19.70 a video test with Qured (HEATHROW10 to take 10% off) apparently BATRAVEL20 will take 20% off.

 

 

 

Edited July 24, 2022 by ziggyuk

[redlock]

Thanks a lot of the info.

[RBrowny]

What was your thoughts on the Orchid Garden and O'Sheenans? I've read your review and honestly can't wait for next month when we are on board

[ziggyuk]

1 hour ago, RBrowny said:

What was your thoughts on the Orchid Garden and O'Sheenans? I've read your review and honestly can't wait for next month when we are on board

 

I did not try the Orchid Garden this time as I have been disappointed with it before on other cruises and gave up on it a long time ago, I am not a fan.

O'Sheehans was great as usual, love the wings any time eating. The only disappointment this time was a lack of alcoholic drinks, a lot of the bottles beers were out of stock and as with all other bars and restaurants they only had two white wines available and limited reds.

[RBrowny]

40 minutes ago, ziggyuk said:

 

I did not try the Orchid Garden this time as I have been disappointed with it before on other cruises and gave up on it a long time ago, I am not a fan.

O'Sheehans was great as usual, love the wings any time eating. The only disappointment this time was a lack of alcoholic drinks, a lot of the bottles beers were out of stock and as with all other bars and restaurants they only had two white wines available and limited reds.

I'm going at the end of next month, so if some stuff isn't stocked that will be a bit of a disappointment. Thankfully I'm not a wine drinker, but that would annoy me if there wasn't much to choose from. Me and my partner like ciders and I like blue moon, and they're both apparently on board

[KeithJenner]

2 hours ago, RBrowny said:

What was your thoughts on the Orchid Garden and O'Sheenans? I've read your review and honestly can't wait for next month when we are on board

I like the Asian places on NCL and we went there on the Jade back in April. It was very good.

 

It certainly isn’t a leisurely meal though. They bring everything out very quickly. I always say that next time I will order each course individually, but then forget and end up with a table full of food, all courses. 🙂

[RBrowny]

26 minutes ago, KeithJenner said:

I like the Asian places on NCL and we went there on the Jade back in April. It was very good.

 

It certainly isn’t a leisurely meal though. They bring everything out very quickly. I always say that next time I will order each course individually, but then forget and end up with a table full of food, all courses. 🙂

I'll bare that in mind, so just order some things you want and then if you want more get more, rather than do all in one

[ziggyuk]

1 hour ago, RBrowny said:

I'm going at the end of next month, so if some stuff isn't stocked that will be a bit of a disappointment. Thankfully I'm not a wine drinker, but that would annoy me if there wasn't much to choose from. Me and my partner like ciders and I like blue moon, and they're both apparently on board

 

They have Angry Orchard and Strongbow cider, the Angry Orchard is a bit sweet for my taste. The Blue Moon is a Belgium beer (not sure if you thought it was cider?), served (believe it or not) with a whole slice of orange, I like it.

[RBrowny]

Just now, ziggyuk said:

 

They have Angry Orchard and Strongbow cider, the Angry Orchard is a bit sweet for my taste. The Blue Moon is a Belgium beer (not sure if you thought it was cider?), served (believe it or not) with a whole slice of orange, I like it.

Yeah, sometimes it's nice to have sweet stuff, but then I'm thinking of all the food I will be eating and the amount of weight I'll be putting on haha! Yeah, I'm aware it's beer. Sorry, should have made that clear, and yeah most places I go they serve it with an orange. But it's nice to have the variety, and if it's available, perfect. 

[ziggyuk]

Reading it again I think you both like cider and only you like Blue Moon so I guess you know exactly what it is and how its served, it was new to me to have fruit in a beer, it was however very nice.

 

EDIT: We both posted at the same time, sorry it was me who misinterpreted the post.

Edited August 10, 2022 by ziggyuk

[ziggyuk]

@RBrowny They also have Paulaner Weissbier at the bar, its not on the menu (nor is Blue Moon) but if you ask the bartender they should have some behind the bar. 
I drank them out of Paulaner and moved onto Blue Moon when it was gone 😂

[RBrowny]

1 minute ago, ziggyuk said:

@RBrowny They also have Paulaner Weissbier at the bar, its not on the menu (nor is Blue Moon) but if you ask the bartender they should have some behind the bar. 
I drank them out of Paulaner and moved onto Blue Moon when it was gone 😂

I have never heard of that before, but does look lovely. I will definitely have to try that. I will just ask at the bar if they have Blue Moon, and if they say no, I'll ask for that, if not cocktails and spirits.

 

Would you go back on the gem? I know it's one of the older ships in the fleet but the itinerary caught our eye, so wanted to go

[ziggyuk]

7 minutes ago, RBrowny said:

I have never heard of that before, but does look lovely. I will definitely have to try that. I will just ask at the bar if they have Blue Moon, and if they say no, I'll ask for that, if not cocktails and spirits.

 

Would you go back on the gem? I know it's one of the older ships in the fleet but the itinerary caught our eye, so wanted to go

 

I love the smaller ships, the Gem, Jade & Jewel are all similar and I go on the regularly.
For me the bigger ships have some fantastic west end shows, comedy club or Beatles in the Cavern Club, you would probably like the district brewhouse with all their beers on tap (not all big ships have this). However, I don't like the crowds of the big ships and I would never use laser tag or go carts so for me the big ships only advantage is the entertainment.