Nebr.cruiser

We had excellent service using Princess CFR insurance last Dec. We had to cancel a cruise 3 days before sailing because of a medical problem. We sent in the required documents and were refunded (to our credit card) within less than a week. Great experience with them.

Of course you can always go outside, but cruises to Hawaii, and I have heard to Tahiti, etc. can be quite cool. Ours to Hawaii was cool and windy enough, with some rain, that sitting outside often wasn't enjoyable. Of course sitting on a balcony would be the same. Once in Hawaii it was fine. I had thought cruising the Pacific would be warmer.

As to dressing up for dinner, you absolutely can on NCL and while you may be in the minority, you won't be alone. You won't be out of place. In fact, the most fabulous, out of this world ball gown I ever saw was on a NCL cruise--her guy was in a dress kilt outfit. The dress looked like something from Gone With the Wind. And despite the casual vibe, the only time I have ever seen anyone turned away from a dining room for wearing jeans was on Norwegian. I don't think that would happen now.

I'd love to hear what this roundtrip cruise was like, especially if all the sea days was just too much and what the weather was like when at sea. Love the idea of no airfare and getting to see all the islands. We've only done one cruise on HA and it was far from our favorite.

We've never bought a Plus or Premier package because it just doesn't make sense for us. We rarely drink, are Elite on Princess, so wifi is relatively cheap, and don't even drink much pop. I'm fine with the included coffee. The only real benefit is tips are included, since the cost is usually around $500pp for a cruise, the numbers don't work out. Once in a while we do a specialty restaurant, but usually using OBC. You can spend practically nothing extra, except for gratuities, which we always pay, and have a great time. All the other things are discretionary and up to you. Sometimes we even can cash in OBC we haven't used.

NCL used to have some ships with a swim against the current pool. I've seen one, I think on the Jewel. I have no idea if they still have these. It would probably be on their older ships.

John Bull, I do understand why it might work well to do a fly/cruise combo from the UK in a charter. I don't especially see how it would work in the OP's situation where they are spending a lot of extra time in Florida. And I have heard of charter cruises here in the US from major population areas. We live about 2.5 hours from a major city, and even then Omaha does not have the type of airport/air traffic that normally warrants charter flights. That said, wayyyy back in the 70's we took our very first cruise on a charter flight from Omaha to San Juan for some ridiculous price like $249pp. Started our love of cruising. I just wish we could sometimes find well priced charter vacations from Omaha! Not impossible, but rare and usually pricey.

Right. I've never booked a flight through a TA--just cruises, mostly. We also use miles for almost all of our flights.

I almost never see flight/cruise combos here in the US. I s that common in the UK? You should be able to google most large cruise agencies to see stand alone cruises, where flights aren't included. However, I don't know if there is some reason you can't do this in the UK. With your itinerary you should easily be able to find a cruise from one of the Florida ports that hits the islands you mentioned and a schedule that works for you. I wish I could mention the name of the online agency that lists almost every cruise, dates and itinerary around the world but it's against the rules! It's so great for research, we don't always use them to book.

I admit we mainly used travel agents because of the often better price and almost always good perks. But, we have also had them go to bat for us when issues came up or changes needed to be made in our booking. For instance, we had to cancel a cruise last December 3 days out. Our agent handled it all. Luckily we had cancel for any reason insurance and our expenses were reimbursed without issue. One thing I do expect is that a travel agent responds to an inquiry I have in a reasonable time. I don't mean in an hour, but the same day if possible. I really don't need or expect agents to give advice on most common aspects of cruising or traveling in general. I do my own research and also we have a lot of travel experience of our own. I can't think of a time I used one for flights, hotels, etc.

We've taken pill boxes into and out of Chile and Amsterdam with no problem. That's how we normally take our medications. Last year we made a lot of prep to take meds to Australia, which has strict rules. I mean, we had doctor's letters, original bottles, labels, and more. Of course, no one even bothered to look at a thing once we arrived. After being in New Zealand on the same trip, we were asked if we had any honey products. They laughed when I showed them the hand lotion with makuna honey in it that I had bought.

I know it's not popular, but I'd rather have announcements in the cabin. We have missed things just because we either didn't hear the hall announcement or got there too late. I also wish the International Cafe would add back some of the salads, etc. they used to have and of course 'real' promenade decks where you could walk around the ship. We tend to choose older ships because they still have this. I also like the big closet but wish for a bigger shower with shower doors! And bring back separate conditioner and shampoo; the combo is just awful. Finally, better production shows--they have gotten stale and lame--.Broadway style?

I know it's not popular, but I'd rather have announcements in the cabin. We have missed things just because we either didn't hear the hall announcement or got there too late.

It's hard to compare experiences I know. We perhaps got a different dining room experience than usual, but we still enjoyed it and especially how nice the Spanish-speaking diners were in including us to the best of their ability. Now, we mostly do tables for two, but when we used to share tables we certainly had some great and interesting experiences and only a few times was it a little um, challenging. The Puerto Rico cruise was not one of those times. .

We've sailed a lot of different lines from many ports. The only real difference we ever noticed was on a cruise departing from Puerto Rico where apparently it was school vacation and cabins were sold very cheap to families. Many, many kids, and while another poster said the kids were well behaved, it really wasn't true on our cruise. Parents seemed to ignore the kids and just let them run wild. I remember especially a little girl, 5 or less, crying and knocking on her cabin door for a long, long time. After at least an hour a parent opened the door. I know because I was concerned about her and kept checking. The only other real difference was that in the dining room several times we were seated with people whose first language was Spanish. It really wasn't a problem, as they were all very nice and tried their best to talk with us, some of them spoke decent English, others not, and unfortunately our Spanish is of the extremely limited kind. While they were more than polite, and tried to include us, it was still a little awkward. A couple of times we have sailed with groups who were very loud talkers in public places, which I know is common for some nationalities. On another cruise with many Asian passengers there was a lot of taking multiple items from the buffet, one that stands out its someone sitting at a table with over a dozen hard-boiled eggs and about twenty cups of tea.