crazycatlady82

It depended on the ship for me-I went on the paradise and the radiance last year. The times on the radiance seemed later than what I remembered on the paradise. On the radiance, the coffee bar opened at 7, but be prepared for a line. Blue iguana said they opened at 7 in the Funtimes, but didn’t open until 7:30. I’m an early riser too-I love watching the sunrise with a fun coffee!

Apparently he has an EDL and thinks it’s the same as a passport and doesn’t seem to know the difference between an EDL/passport card and a passport. All I know is that I had to get a passport book for the previous repositioning cruise I did (and almost exact same itinerary).

I stopped engaging with them lol.

They’re not my friends-just random people on the upcoming cruise that I was trying to help. My husband questions why I was trying to help lol

That’s what I keep telling them but man, they keep arguing with me that an enhanced drivers license due to the western hemisphere travel whatever is good enough. I keep saying, don’t trust the cruise line, call CBP. It’s their money though.

So, what about cruises that start in San Juan, and end in New York? This one is on NCL. I’m encouraging people in another site to travel with a passport as this is not a closed loop cruise. We do stop at foreign ports in the Caribbean.

Thank you for posting!

Yes, I did it in 2016. Royal Caribbean going out of Miami and then Celebrity out of Fort Lauderdale. Super easy. I pre booked transportation from Miami to FLL but don’t remember what I used.

We might be the minority but our cruise on the Star ended up having 5 sea days…and that was too many for us on a ship that size. If we wanted to play cards in the afternoon, it was hard to find a table by a bar. We do have 4 sea days on the Prima but we did that on purpose, as it is a new ship that my husband wanted to try.

We missed two ports on our Iceland/Greenland cruise this summer on the Star. We did not get anything refunded. We definitely booked this cruise because of the ports and having 5 sea days on the Star was too much for us. (But yes, we understand it was due to the weather but man, we were bored!) I did go ask guest relations on the ship about the port fees/taxes refund...and he said that it was already on my account. I asked him to show me and then he backtracked, and said oh, you'll have to contact NCL CS. That was the part that upset me--he wasn't mistaken, he was trying to lie to me.

Funny, I was also on the Paradise in May. I actually think that cruise was more relaxing for me due to the weather and being able to sit outside most of the time. I definitely would not book a cruise out of California this time of the year again--when the weather isn't the greatest, there is just no quiet place to sit. (I did find a nice, quiet, comfy chair to sit in and read while overlooking the ocean across from the red frog rum pub, but then they set up bingo sales right next to me....)

So I just got off the Radiance on 12/16 after a 4 day cruise. I was talking to a lady on the shuttle to the airport and we both agreed that it was not our favorite cruise and something was just not right. For me, there was a lot of little things…like having to run the shower 20-30 min before the water would become warm (I timed it lol). Hub app showing different times for when things are open…being turned away from the blue iguana for breakfast, saying they weren’t open until 7:30, but then serving others 5-10 min later. Not being able to get 2 bottles of water at the same time with cheers package. Guest services telling me that I didn’t do the online check in, as my card was not linked, and how everybody is supposed to go to a kiosk when they check in to link their card (not true). No quiet place to just sit, chill and read when the weather isn’t the greatest. Those are just a few things… I did have some great crew members but I’ve been wondering if I’ve just kind of aged out of the short cruises on carnival or just kind of aged out of carnival in general.

Thank you for the review! Heading to the Radiance next week-apparently it’s sold out! Did you notice a lot of crowds other than bingo and trivia?

We booked our Greenland/Iceland NCL cruise May 2020, caught a price drop, and had 10% off due to a cancelled cruise (due to Covid). For 10 days, with their perks, and a balcony room, we paid $3800. Im an obsessive price checker, and that was the lowest I saw for a balcony-when I originally booked it, we were paying over $5000. (I know, but I had a military bonus and it was my birthday gift to myself lol). Our balcony room with the perks for two was routinely over $10,000. also, don’t buy the Wi-Fi package for a Greenland cruise. You’re going to be frustrated lol. ETA: we cruised July 25-aug 4, 2022.

We went to Iceland and Greenland this summer on NCL (July 25-Aug 4). Even in the summer, there are a ton of icebergs and we dealt with a lot of fog. The captain spoke about how slow we had to go due to the icebergs. It is definitely not clear sailing, even in July. My guess is that to do a cruise to Greenland while school is in session, the weather would complicate things even more. We did not have a lot of kids on board, and the lido deck activities were pretty much non-existent due to the temps (40s).

Thanks for your review--I'm going to be taking the 3 day Freedom cruise in 2023 as a solo. I headed on my first solo cruise May 2022 on Carnival, and will be heading solo on another one here in December. Fortunately, I didn't have the issue of people touching me (I think I have RBF, haha) but it was an interesting experience. I was placed with a couple at breakfast who declined to be sat with me, stating that they were waiting for a friend...which they were sitting by themselves later. Just be honest, I'm an adult. Cruising solo is interesting...I think some people assume that cruising solo means you're single. It absolutely does not. I'm married, but I have a lot more vacation time than my spouse, and we need our alone time. I'm excited to go again here next month.

This was an issue for us on the NCL Star this summer. They would advertise bars that stayed open a lot later than they did, and it was only the pub and the nightclub bars that were open past 10pm. We’ll be on the miracle in august.

Darn it. I love bringing books to read and then leaving them in the library for others to enjoy!

We disembarked from the Star on 8/4. If you want to make that flight--get up EARLY and be the first in line to disembark. I once made a 9:30AM flight out of FLL this way, but I don't recommend it and it was super stressful. Also, like others said, do not wait for a street taxi. Book your own transportation with either Grayline (private car!) or a taxi--it will be about the same price. We weren't flying out until 4PM so we had extra time. I had already prebooked a taxi that showed up on time--now, get ready for a cluster because it will also be up to you to find which vehicle is yours. Disembarking for us didn't take too long nor did the lines at the airport take too long for us but we were early afternoon by that point (we were amongst the big crowd of people just siting at the airport for hours lol).

I've been wondering this too! Not sure what updates the Elation has had, but the Paradise had what appeared to be very few updates. Not even a Steakhouse!

Thank you! This is a great idea. I cruise solo sometimes and this would be perfect to bring along...especially for those trips upstairs for late night drink and pizza! I've also had the experience of cruising solo where I've set my food down to get silverware or a drink, and somebody moves my food, assuming that it's garbage/old.

Husband was diagnosed with COVID the day after our 10 day cruise on the Star (Iceland and Greenland), July 25-Aug 4. He started to have symptoms while we were flying back.

Weird, when I called to ask to fly in a day early to San Juan, they didn't make me book with their hotel. They asked me if I wanted to book their hotel and I said no, I'd book my own.

I have no idea. This was our first NCL cruise. We were able to take leftovers from La Cuchina back to the room, so I think it's an O'Sheehans specific thing.

We were on the Star in July. My husband was told no, he could not get his meal to go. He was pretty bummed as he wanted to just chill in the room. I talked to another person on that same cruise, they told me that they were also denied taking their carrot cake to go...so they just picked up the plate and left lol. I suggested to my husband that next time, if the food is served in those wire baskets, we should just grab some extra dinner plates from the buffet and put it on them to go.