Thanks, I'm so grateful that you have taken the time to document your trip to share. We are going on the same cruise. It is very helpful. Question, on embarkation, do you recall what the boarding time was for Haifa? Since the ship is not sailing until 11 pm, just wondering if we are able to maximize time in Haifa rather than the rush to get onboard like a typical Caribbean cruise.
I'm assuming your embarkation will be much better than ours. Our sailing last October was the first time NCL had embarked from Haifa. It had previously been a stop, but not an embarkation point. We had an embarkation time in the early afternoon, either noon or 1:00 and the whole ship was loading at staggered times. Then, the day before embarkation, Israel changed something. A new communication came out that confused passengers. It appeared to tell people that they could board earlier, regardless of what time they had chosen previously. And of course hordes of people decided to do that. They designated a place to drop off luggage, starting at 11 a.m. as I recall. So everyone came at that time, and the place was overrun. Then people got in line to board, but no one was allowed to even approach the check-in area until noon. So the line became very long and cranky. By they time they opened the gate, it felt like the "last helicopter out of Viet Nam." They didn't have enough people to process arrivals, and no chairs to seat people waiting. Altogether we were on our feet for 3 hours. It was our worst embarkation, and it appeared to be a startup issue unique to Haifa, because none of this happened again in Rome or Lisbon for the embarkation of the second and third legs. The ship did, in fact, sail out of Haifa very late, and it is a pretty sail away. People who arrived later had much easier time boarding because the lines were finally shorter by then. If I were doing it again, I would definitely pick a later embarkation time and do some sightseeing like you want to do.
A lot of information in your video thank you very much. I'm going to Rhodes next month with Norwegian cruise. I want you to please confirm, can I leave the port and walk to the city or is it better for me to pay for an excursion with NCL?
Yes, it is a 5 minute walk from the port to the old city. No excursion is necessary. We love exploring the old city on our own. The only reason to take an excursion is if you want to go to Lindos or some other location on the island outside of the town of Rhodes. We have visited twice without taking an excursion.
We will be there in May 2024 by RCCL, as you said we will do DIY ...Thank you
Great time to visit. Let us know how you like it.
@@mytravelwindow3061 Thank you Going from Galveston to Barcelona to Athens, 27 days on RC, looking forward to it, especially Ponta Delgado
Thanks, I'm so grateful that you have taken the time to document your trip to share. We are going on the same cruise. It is very helpful.
Question, on embarkation, do you recall what the boarding time was for Haifa? Since the ship is not sailing until 11 pm, just wondering if we are able to maximize time in Haifa rather than the rush to get onboard like a typical Caribbean cruise.
I'm assuming your embarkation will be much better than ours.
Our sailing last October was the first time NCL had embarked from Haifa. It had previously been a stop, but not an embarkation point. We had an embarkation time in the early afternoon, either noon or 1:00 and the whole ship was loading at staggered times. Then, the day before embarkation, Israel changed something. A new communication came out that confused passengers. It appeared to tell people that they could board earlier, regardless of what time they had chosen previously. And of course hordes of people decided to do that. They designated a place to drop off luggage, starting at 11 a.m. as I recall. So everyone came at that time, and the place was overrun. Then people got in line to board, but no one was allowed to even approach the check-in area until noon. So the line became very long and cranky. By they time they opened the gate, it felt like the "last helicopter out of Viet Nam." They didn't have enough people to process arrivals, and no chairs to seat people waiting. Altogether we were on our feet for 3 hours. It was our worst embarkation, and it appeared to be a startup issue unique to Haifa, because none of this happened again in Rome or Lisbon for the embarkation of the second and third legs.
The ship did, in fact, sail out of Haifa very late, and it is a pretty sail away. People who arrived later had much easier time boarding because the lines were finally shorter by then. If I were doing it again, I would definitely pick a later embarkation time and do some sightseeing like you want to do.
A lot of information in your video thank you very much.
I'm going to Rhodes next month with Norwegian cruise. I want you to please confirm, can I leave the port and walk to the city or is it better for me to pay for an excursion with NCL?
Yes, it is a 5 minute walk from the port to the old city. No excursion is necessary. We love exploring the old city on our own. The only reason to take an excursion is if you want to go to Lindos or some other location on the island outside of the town of Rhodes. We have visited twice without taking an excursion.