Greece and Turkey – Family Cruise on the NCL Jade – June 2022

 




Our cruise Itinerary:

Flight to Athens through Atlanta - June 2nd, 10 am - June 3rd 11:30 am
Exploring Athens - June 4th
Embarkation in Piraeus - June 5th, we had 11:30 am boarding time, 6 pm departure
Ephesus - June 6th, 6 am - 12:30 pm
Istanbul - June 7th, 7am - 6 pm
Volos - June 8th, 12 pm - 9 pm
Mykonos - June 9th, 8 am - 7 pm, tender port
Rhodes - June 10th, 7 am - 6 pm 
Santorini - June 11th, 8 am - 9:30 pm, tender port
Disembarkation back in Piraeus - June 12th, 6 am

Planning: 

We successfully made it to Greece and Turkey and on our first cruise back since covid. Travis, husband, and I were originally going November 2020, without the kids. We rescheduled for June 2022, with kids due to the possibility of being quarantined in another country, so our responsibilities with us. Our original cruise was 10 nights with a couple of sea days. After covid reopening, we traded that for 7 nights, no sea days, and with kids. So, with less time and ports everyday, it is naturally less relaxing. But, we were very excited to get back on a cruise and fingers crossed for a successful trip (with no positive covid tests, quarantine on the ship, flight problems, etc.)! As an intro, our kids are 13 and 16 year old boys, Owen and Joel. Due to stories of flight issues (and we even beat the summer rush with horror stories of no one to unload luggage, no one to drive the jetway, etc.), we flew in to stay 2 nights before.

This was our first flights that we booked through the cruise line, so I was also nervous about this and have heard horror stories -- anytime someone else, who does not have to do it, is deciding your schedule. When we got our flights from the cruise line just over 30 days before the flight, we lucked out, they looked very reasonable, just one tight item -- getting off the cruise ship on disembarkation day and to the Athens airport (from the Port of Piraeus on the far west to the far east) for a 10:30 am international flight. Since this would not make us miss our cruise, I was not going to sweat it yet. Let me back up and say even though I love to travel that I'm a very high stress traveler. I did pretty good on this trip though. So, the cruise lines do not book flights too early due to all recent flight changes that airlines have done. Our Travel Agent (TA) warned us that we would only get them a month ahead of time and that after we got them to watch the airline's site because they could still change. Before we got our final flights, myncl.com had the wrong date, flying out June 4th for the June 5th cruise, going through Newark, and no return details. Our TA confirmed with NCL that they still had the right date, to leave the 2nd, and that these were just "practice" flight bookings. A few days later myncl.com was updated, and we received the actual flights emailed from NCL and the TA. Just one stop each way: DFW -> ATL -> ATHens on Delta and then ATHens -> Istanbul -> DFW home on Turkish airlines -- good. Enough layover time -- good. No crazy late times -- good. Travis thought the 4.5 hour layover in ATL was crazy, but hey, then I would not stress about how quickly or not the first flight took off.

So, how did we end up trying cruise flights for the first time? NCL was offering 2nd guest flies free; this required buying the other 3 flights through NCL too; which I guess makes sense, we all want to be on the same flight. This was also the first time cruising with kids that we were all in the same room. A few times before, we had connecting rooms with a door between them (not many available; book early). Only one room, only one free flight, but this was still more economical. Another reason was with covid, if the cruise was cancelled, delayed, or moved, then the cruise line would manage the flight changes along with any other changes they needed to do. With cruise line flights, you pay with the cruise final payment, take what you are given -- their website says that they try to book two stops max. If you have people traveling together who are on different reservations, you can pay a fee to have them linked. Since we were on the same reservation, we were booked together. You also get a $25/paid flight credit, refunded to your credit card, for doing a flight deviation, which can be flying 1 or 2 days before or after the cruise. It read as one or the other, and I did not try to deviate both sides. I believe that I have read someone on Cruise Critic doing both sides. Deviations needed to be submitted 75 days before the flight. Other NCL info on deviations: https://www.ncl.com/air-service-standards 

Next up flights and Athens...


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