Worldwide Wanderers

NCL Pearl - November 1-11, 2024 We booked this 10-night cruise a year before with our 20% off future cruise credit from missed ports in Iceland/Greenland for its awesome itinerary. All the ports were new to both of us, and we had two nights before and after the cruise planned to see Florence and Rome. I had been to Florence and Rome 25 years ago, and they were new to Travis. We had a port everyday, which we worried about being tiring, but we could always stay onboard or not stay on shore long.    Embarkation We boarded in Trieste, Italy and disembarked in Civitavecchia, Italy. Our embarkation was quick and easy since we had a late boarding time -- 3pm, after the rush. The Italian police were at the entrance to the terminal. We do not normally see that. They very carefully (aka slowly and suspiciously) inspected our passports and pre-check-in cruise line boarding passes and then let us continue. Next, a NCL rep confirmed our boarding passes and let us to go followed by ano...

P&O Britannia Review -- September 13-20, 2024    This was our first cruise on P&O UK cruise line. It was great value and included the daily service charges included in the fare. It was a British experience where everyone was lovely and the vibe was more relaxed. As an American, you can only book P&O UK through VacationsToGo; we booked through Emma Cruise's US travel agent, who went through VacationsToGo.  Embarkation Our assigned embarkation time was late -- 2:45pm, but it worked out and gave us time to explore the SeaCity (Titanic) Museum. We went early, at 10:30 am, to drop off our luggage because it did not work out to store it at the Airbnb. There were people available to let us know that they start taking luggage at 11am. This is the first time that we brought luggage before our check-in, and it worked out well after we knew the state time. Originally, we wanted to carry it on since the rooms should be ready before our check-in time, but when that did not...

NCL Jade: Greece and Turkey Cruise - June 5-12, 2022   Embarkation:   New muster drill is SO much better -- watch video at check in and again before going to the port, go to your assigned muster station for scanning/learn where it is as soon as boarding. Then when onboard, they demonstrated the warning horns and played a long/detailed safety announcement over the speaker and into rooms. I covered embarkation fully in post .  Food: The kids and I really like O'Sheehan's, the 24 hour Irish Pub. I never got to try any of the burgers. The kids had them, and they looked very good. I had the wings once; they are always very good -- and the fish and chips. We shared appetizers -- pretzel bread with beer cheese dip and spinach and artichoke dip. The kids loved the nachos. Travis prefers the buffet with its Indian options. I'm not a big fan of the buffet. It was well arranged with stations. It has lost the hard/normal ice cream (as opposed to soft serve); I like the normal ice cre...