Pat

My daughter cruised out of here last summer and said that there is parking on the pier,  very close just a short walk and you are in the terminal, is this no longer the case.  She also said there were police directing traffic and pointing you in the right direction for parking.  We are headed down in 10 days,  I hope that it hasn't changed.

I have a question related this,  we have the three dinner promo for two of us, so  six dinners,  there will be 3 of us sailing, can i buy the6 dinner package and have it distributed so each of us will have 4 dinner credits?

I tweeted them my concern with the added upcharge and they wanted to talk to me in a direct message and not answer my tweet publicly.  I haven't gotten back to them and I'm not sure I will, since I'd like this discussed out in the open.  I'm just very disappointed that they continue to add these small upcharges.  I love NCL,  I love that they sail out of the northeast and I don't want to switch,  but I just think they'd be better off raising the price of the cruise by $5 if they are so desperate for money for their stockholders.

I was just about to buy extra meals through the dining plan but have put that on hold,  I might as well eat in the main dining room  I AM really feeling nickeled and dimed to death by NCL and its really not even the money,  its just the way they go about it.   I booked a last minute cruise with them because I wanted to sail out of Boston,  but I will definitely be considering other lines,  I feel like I've accepted all the upcharges I want to from them.   

Copies of both parents drivers licenses and the form filed out accurately is all you need. It does not need t o be notarized. We take our granddaughter all the time. It is a good idea to have a medical f orm granting petmission to treat and that may need to bee notarized but that is not part of the cruiselines requirements. Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be, and dont worry, it's really quite a smooth process.

Sailing 5/29 Breakaway. Our $75pp bid on minisuite was successful. Was hoping to make it into the Haven, and I thought I bid generously. Still, I'm happy to get upgraded at all!

 

Our failed Haven bids were:

$1460pp for the Haven Forward Facing Penthouse (H7)

$1415pp for the Haven Aft-facing Penthouse (H6)

$1670pp for the Haven 2 bedroom Family Villa (H4)

$1515pp for the Haven Owner's Suite with Large Balcony (H3)

$1790pp for the Haven Deluxe Owner's Suite with Large Balcony (H2)

What category was your original cabin and how much did you originally pay per person?

Most certainly it's not a school vacation, probably not many kids will be onboard. Gem is in great condition and it's a wonderful ship, a really nice size.

you don't even have to go to the internet café now. All you have to do is once on board connect to icafe and it will ask you to choose your package. Your 250 package will give you a credit towards unlimited and the rest gets charged to your onboard account. You can do it right after boarding. Its easy peasy......

Does NCL notify you if your bid is not accepted? Also, how close to sailing are you notified if accepted (or denied)? Thanks

Denial came Thursday night for a Saturday cruise.

Wow! That sucks. Sorry to hear that. Hope you enjoyed the cruise.

Yes, we had a great cruise and a great cabin, a forward penthouse suite, the balcony has to be the best ever and we loved it. I only posted because I wanted to correct the inaccurate information about "pending" and "processing"

I have seen a number of replies that say that if your bid changes from "pending" to "processing" it means you have won the bid. I can tell you that this is just not true. My bid changed from "pending" to "processing" on the Tuesday before the Saturday cruise and then the next day it changed back to "pending" and Thursday night I got the email that I did not win the bid.

I would like to add some information about this whole upgrade bidding process. Yesterday morning someone posted that they won a bid on a cabin that I was also bidding on. I know it was the same cabin because there are only 2 cabins in that category and one has been booked for a long, long time. No problem there. Yet, my bid still said pending and I could still do a modification if I had wished to and I have yet to receive a denial. My bid just recently within the last hour, changed from pending to processing, yet I'm fairly certain that my bid has been out of play for more than 24 hours. Just more information on the bidding black hole.

We have booked a Suite on Gem, we sail in two weeks and have the specialty dining promo. I have tried to make reservations in the specialty restaurants, but the ONLY time available in ANY restaurant is 9:00 p.m. This is way too late for me to eat. I remember a couple of years ago when I sailed in a suite before we boarded we were given a paper(by the concierge) to request specialty restaurant reservations. Does this still happen? Would I be able to book a preferred time then? One of the people in our cabin did not get a SDP and I am looking at buying her the dining package, but I'm not going to buy it if I can't eat in the specialty restaurants. Thanks for your help.

Wines by the glass? Have they changed since last year(or recently)? I read somewhere they were adding some. Thanks.

She'll have her driver's license in 6 months, its just this interim period when she only has a permit, so no photo on it. I will look into a state ID. Thanks for the info.

I read in one of these posts that anyone over the age of 16 needs a photo ID and cruise card to get back on the ship. What if the 16 year old doesn't have a photo ID, except her passport, does she have to carry her passport around with her onshore? Thanks, Pat

If you purchase a cabin within 20 days of sailing, is there still a chance that you will receive an upgrade email? Does anyone know, from experience, how long after you booked you received the email? Just curious. In the past, I've always contacted the upsell # about 10 days out, but the upsell number has been retired, correct? Thanks! Pat

I did a search but can't find if someone has posted the new wine by the glass list. Does anyone have it? Heard it was just changed lately(March 2018).

Well I think that is one of the reasons we got this upsell. We have an aft balcony and they are always in high demand and we're always very happy in this cabin. But sometimes the upsell's have been too hard to resist.........(i.e.$750 for a DOS last year).

Gem March 9 -- All cabins appear to be sold since the entire sailing is off all travel sites, but the offer was for penthouse suites, family suites, haven family suites or garden villa. The offers are much too high for me. I could have gotten the penthouse suite for $1000 more when I got my balcony, and now they want $1500 A PIECE for the upsell.

Curiously, I got an upsell offer today. Instructions were to call the old upsell number. So its not shut down yet.

We're on the 3/9 sailing. What I did before was call the upsell number starting about 2 weeks out. I called every day. At first they said nothing had been released. Then at about 10 days they had availability, but it was too much for me, but I kept calling because there were LOTS of empty cabins. (not like this time when there are NO empty cabins above my category) and at 7 days I got an okay deal, I tried to get haggle a better deal but she told me they hadn't even "sent out upsell emails yet" so they wouldn't entertain offers. I decided I wanted the upgrade bad enough and went for it. I think I might have been able to wait on that cruise until 48 hours before and gotten a better deal because one of the other cabins in my upsell category sailed empty. That's what I wanted to do this time, but all of a sudden there is no availability in upper level cabins.

I look for cruises that are less than full and then book them closer to time of sailing in hopes I can score an upsell. I've been quite successful doing this for a reasonable amount of $$. This year, I booked a 10 day on the Gem in March out of NYC. I have an aft balcony so its a great cabin, but there were lots of empty cabins above my category when I booked, two weeks ago. All of a sudden all cabins are gone except for lower level inside or OVs. Does anyone know what might have happened? And is there any chance those cabins are "hiding" and I should call the upsell number at around 30(or 20 or 10) days and see? Just really curious........Thanks for your help,

Sorry double post.

Your advise is the best I have seen. It is like calling your TA and asking them to check toward the end. it won't hurt. We have chosen GTY many times, never gotten a huge upgrade but have gotten a slightly better class. Sometimes the overall location hasn't been that much better.

Make your on luck, start callng the upsell department yourself at 7 days, the longer you hold off buying the better deal you'll get, I was told that will sell cabins up until 2 days before the cruise leaves.