mertziek

Yes, I believe that next cruise or the one after it was stuck trying to find a port to disembark while the world was shutting down. We felt very lucky to have stayed one jump ahead of Covid. Several of our ports closed a day or two after we left. We were a bit nervous about getting home but had a few days leeway to travel before everything was closed down. Again, we were very lucky!

We were on this cruise. Initially we lost a day from the original cruise itinerary and then a week before the cruise we lost 3 more days causing us to scramble and book extra precruise days in Rome. Then we got to the port and on checkin found out our DOS was not ready and were told we were “upgraded” to a better cabin before we boarded. NOT!!! We were in one of the smallest balconies for 2+ weeks and only spent 4 days in our DOS. Had we known all of that before boarding we might have canceled the cruise but in retrospect, other than the unexpected room downgrade plus other unfinished parts of the Spirit, we had a great cruise. After that cruise I became aware of the true meaning of “travel is an adventure” and learned to go with the flow expecting the unexpected at any time. In the age the ease of last minute internet bookings, it’s much easier to go with the flow and formulate a Plan B very quickly. By the way - we made all of our ports just scooting ahead of Covid port closures and getting home from Dubai without any delays.

Then there is the possibility the bag fell off the ship into the water as they were unloading bags. We saw that happen at a port where 5-7 bags went in the water. The crew did not seem too upset about it and we did not see them fish the bags out while we were watching.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for the hotel suggestion. It sounds like San Antonio might be like why we stay in Rome and not Civitavecchia when we leave from there. More happening in Rome.

We have a cruise out of San Antonio, Chile next March but fly into Santiago. We want to go a couple of days early to do some local touring before embarking on our cruise and it looks like tours from Santiago are easier/better to book and then arrange a transfer on cruise embarkation day to the Cruiseport rather than staying in San Antonio. Any suggestions on 5* hotels in Santiago? Or do you suggest staying in San Antonio? We are looking for a good hotel location for local site seeing as well as day touring out of Santiago or San Antonio. Thank you in advance.

Since we are particular about the cabin we book and usually see those cabins booked early, we like to book as soon as we find a cruise we want to do. We’ve booked 2 years ahead several times. My husband always says he hopes we are still alive then. 😳😳😳

Ummm….BirdTravels you are wrong. Yes, we did book a Viva suite with a hot tub because of the hot tub although we preferred another much less expensive Owners’ Suite set up. Had we known in advance that there were issues with the hot tubs impacting ability to use it whenever we wanted without having to get our room steward involved, we would have changed our suite to another much less expensive suite by $1,000’s with a better interior room layout. The paltry OBC given was significantly less than the extra we paid for the hot tub suite. Also we sailed Prima before the problem occurred and were able to control our hot tub temperature plus use it without a thought given to get staff involved. The Viva hot tubs were different - as far as we were able to determine - with no ability to control the temps and keep the heat on even when not being used. That being said - we made a point of not letting it ruin our cruise but it left a sour taste because we felt duped by NCL.

I’ve looked online and searched here but didn’t find an answer. Can you explain the difference between the OS and OE designated tours? Are there restrictions who can book them? TIA

No. Safari

No not on VPN but back home recently back from a European/TA cruise so my iPad is confused with foreign sites. Clearing cache did not help but I looked at the web address and see where if I change it to just NCL.com it corrects the problem. I could not find a place to click on the currency icon but I often find my iPad is wonky that way. Thanks for suggestions/help.

Tried to do a search to see if this was asked before no results. So my NCL account is showing me pricing in euros. Is there a way to change it to US$’s? I’ve cleared my cache and still in euros. TIA

Tipping is very personal. You decide what you can afford. Also, we save our tips to the end of the cruise for our butler, steward and concierge. Some tip them as they use them. Many use the $10 pp per day rule for the butler and adjust up or down based on service. Room stewards’ tips based on service. We often tip them the same as the butler despite being part of the DSC since they do the most to keep our room tidy and clean with the concierge getting about half as much. We tip bartenders as we are served and same for waitstaff in restaurants - Haven, included restaurants and specialty ones. Haven Head maitre D’ at the end of the cruise and amount less than our butler. Around the ship, we tip as drinks are served or for dining service at the time. Again, you tip what best fits your service and your custom.

Same here. We did not like the TA on Prima for several reasons (we still had a great cruise though) but we are going with you on Viva mainly to join friends. Agree - never say never!