Disappointed that you have to pay to be shuttled off to a main area from the port after paying all that money for the cruise you would think they could offer free shuttling to bring you to an area that you can walk around.
We would not do NCL again, we will stick with Royal Caribbean they treat their vacationers much better and
Embarkation
1 out of 5
The directions we used off this website brought us to a completely different address and the cab driver did not know the area. My wife and I had to walk around with our luggage to find the bus terminal to shuttle us to the port.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
3 out of 5
This is a freestyle cruise, so you can eat anytime which was nice but once you got your food from the buffet and found a seat it was cold. Some of the meals were bland and the omelet stations always had long lines. The specialty restaurants we only ate at the free ones and La Cucchina which food and service was good.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
Small area for the pool and only 1 main pool. The water slides were leaking so they had to close the area under them for the kids pool area.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
We liked Howl at the Moon, the other shows did not interest us and the theater was very small.
Children's Programs
We did not bring kids
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
The service was not top notch, the only service we had a good experience with was our room steward and the lady who sprays your hands with hand sanitizer to go into the buffet area. She was always smiling and very friendly! The room steward was great! He did a great job at giving us whatever we needed for the room.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Common areas were clean, the layout is not very opened. The elevators are terrible! You end up waiting forever and they hardly stop on the middle floors where the rooms are.
Cabin / Stateroom
1 out of 5
We were very disappointed with this room, due to it being right across the way from a crew area door to their stairs. Their door would slam shut at all hours of the night waking you up. The size of the room was not bad but the balcony had no table only 2 chairs and 2 small end tables. If you wanted to have room service you could not eat outside, and the life boats were right under you obstructing the view. The television only plays 1 movie channel in English and played the same movies over and over. If you wanted to rent a movie they charged you $9.95.
Cabin was clean, our steward did a great job in that.
Ship tip
Expect to pay to be shuttled from boat to a main area.
You have to pay to be shuttled to the train station to bring you to Pisa or Florence. Pay for a train fare which Pisa is 25 mins by train, Florence is a little over 1 hr by train.
Our excursion was canceled to do Pisa and Florence due to the high winds that day, we could not pull into port which ended in canceling the excursion due to not enough time.
The excursion we did was good, we had a nice time visiting Monaco and other places. Beware, you have to schedule a tender the night before due to the ship not docking at their port. It takes some time to get off the boat, and get back on due to this.
We did not do an excursion yet we did walk around which was okay. The 2 things to really do is visit the famous cathedral and the soccer stadium, yet these places you need a cab because they are so far away and in opposite directions.
This was our favorite port, and I would highly recommend to do an excursion. We did Pompeii and the Amalfi coast which was beautiful and we wish we had more time to shop in the small villages we stopped at. Beautiful area and our tour guide was awesome!!!
We disembarked on our own, had to be off the ship for 8:30am. The free shuttle busses to bring you from the port to the shuttle bus station was a mess. The drivers kept pushing people to another bus as soon as they would get back to have a smoke break and then you'd try to get onto another one and they would say no you have to go to another one. Very irritating after you spend all that money and you still need to pay $100.00 for 2 people to go to the airport which is 45 mins away from port. We finally had a cab driver as us and I said fine just get us out of here.
It pays to do your research when traveling to another country. Especially major tourist destinations. I purchased my tickets for all attractions, and transportation at each place I am visiting, online ahead of time.
I think that a cruise in Europe is just nothing for you. You need to 'organise' your trip. Even if you cruise with RC in Europe you also have to pay for the shuttle.
Having to pay for a tour or a shuttle to see the main sites is Common in many ports. I am not aware of any free shuttles that Royal Caribbean has in any of the ports that you mentioned.
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