I just got off Epic, flew with NCL air. Both my NCL account and my air reservation did not list my middle name. It is on my passport and I have TSA pre check. Same for my husband and kids. We had no issues.

I live in Portland and you will be coming here. The referendum to limit cruise passengers failed in Portland. Bar Harbor passed but several town businesses have started litigation regarding that. You definitely do not need an NCL tour in Portland. Even I’ve been on a Portland Discovery tour (with visiting family)!  If you don’t want to do that just go to the Casco Bay Ferry Terminal and get tickets for a Mailboat run! You’ll see all the islands and if 10 + people they narrate and it costs <20$. There is a place to rent bicycles just off the boat and plenty of restaurants. 

1 hour ago, laudergayle said:

Take a look at the dailies to see what activities/parties may interest you.  Have fun embarrassing your tween 🤣

This is awesome!! Thank you so much!! Now to find my 80s outfit!! 

Do you remember if there were any theme parties…glow party/80s/etc? We are traveling in 3 weeks and when we were on Encore last year they had theme parties that I wish I was prepared for (in order to fully embarrass my tween)😆

We were specifically looking for paddle board rentals…any on Eagle Beach or would Palm Beach be better?

On 2/3/2023 at 7:44 PM, pyropoodle said:

i'm jumping in 3 pages into this convo...i'm a Carnival Cruiser and i'm  heading for my first NCL cruise in a couple of weeks.  when we saw the free airfare offer for the first 2 and heavily discounted for the other 2 in our our cabin, we jumped at it. that was months and months before the cruise, so at that time, it seemed like a good plan.   at around 60 days before the cruise, a ton of people on my sailing started getting their flight details, but we did not, which is ok. we knew from the beginning that we would likely not get them until 30 days out...

 

at 30 days out, still nothing, no flights have been booked they said when i called.  nothing at 29 days out, nothing has been booked.  finally got through to someone on the phone who told me my flights were booked in december and the confirmation email must have been stuck in my spam folder.  check spam folder, nothing at all.  i told the agent that i have been calling and each time they tell me the flights have not been booked so why wouldn't they tell me they were booked in December... she put me on hold/ came back.."oh, you are correct, your flights have not yet been booked".  lol

 

they booked them right after that call and we got our flight information.  GREAT flights, i was quite surprised because i have heard so many horror stories.  the only issue is i'm travelling with my husband, my 8 year old and my 5 year old and on the outbound flight our seats are alll over the plane.  i tried to get on to AA.com and i managed to at least get my 5 year old seated with me. hoping the person next to me will trade with my son or my husband who are in a window seat.  

 

the flights are in a couple of weeks, so fingers crossed for smooth trip.  the above scenario does not read as stressful as it was and currently we have other issues with NCL where they have our excursions booked on the wrong days (a tortola excursion booked on Dominican Republic day, for example) so it's been a process.   i know at the time we grabbed the flight deal, it was amazing. flights are cray expensive, BUT....i don't know that all of that stress was worth it for me.  if i had to do over again, even knowing how it would turn out, i would probably just bite the bullet and get my own flights for a time that works for me and my family.  i saved a lot of $$$, but, i gained some gray hairs in the process. 

At least your kids were put on the same flight as you! I still haven’t got an email from NCL saying they fixed my daughters flight and we are 30 days out (it’s fixed as I checked the airline). I wouldn’t worry about the kids not being assigned seats with you. This happened to me once when we had a flight cancellation and was quickly put on different flights. They can’t do anything til you are at the gate. Go to the desk at gate and they will move people so your kids can sit with at least one of you. They’ll even compensate the person who gets moved. A United agent told me one time when no one would switch for a 5 year old the pilot came out and made an announcement he wasn’t boarding the plane til someone switched and if they missed their window for takeoff every passenger would have a new seat on a different plane. Not sure how true it is but it’s always worked out for us when our kids were young.

Update…. almost exactly 3 weeks after we got my 11 y/o flight info, it got fixed and NCL decided maybe she shouldn’t leave 2 hours after the rest of her family and fly alone.  I didn’t hear anything from NCL, I checked my United app and saw it was changed. I expect I’ll get an email later this week.

11 minutes ago, lfdemt said:

When is your sailing? We cruise end of March and at anxiously awaiting the flight arrangement. Just wondering how much longer we might have to wait. 

We fly out March 3 for the cruise on the 5th. All of us got our info on 12/27/22 except one cabin (the one with my 11 y/o daughter and my mom). We thought it was because they are flying in from different cities so my mom called to check and be sure my daughter was on our flights. They said they didn’t have the info and would of course put a minor on the same flights as her parents. Then a week later she called again and the had the info. They didn’t get the email til this week. They told us to wait 3 weeks to see if they could fix it. 

15 hours ago, lfdemt said:

NCL used to have a program called “travel with”  and you could pay to link reservations to be together. They cancelled that program and refunded those that had paid back in September??  Anyway they won’t guarantee that my minor children are on the same flight as their parents, so you might want to consider cancelling the air fare through them and book it yourself. 

This is us. Cruising on Epic out of San Juan in March. The 6 coming in from Cleveland got 2 different flights in and 3 different flights out. No biggie all adults and couples together. We are flying in from Portland, Maine. Flights all together going but coming back my 11 year old daughter leaves San Juan 2 hours after her parents and younger sister. Same airline and our second flight is all together but not sure who thought that was a good idea! So now we are in the waiting game of, “Oh we’ll try to fix it but it may take 3 weeks to move you to same flights”.  If it even happens!!!

Well this is a bit disappointing to hear! I have 7 and 10 year old daughters who I raced to get vaccinated so we could cruise. My 10 year old daughter is an introvert and won’t care as much about Splash Academy but did like the parties. Now my 7 year old daughter is the extrovert and loved meeting other kids. 
 

I haven’t got the email yet. But if anyone is on the Encore sailing 12/26/21 with kids around those ages and wants to meet up at the pool or one of those Feel Free Play, let me know!  

2 hours ago, maryred said:

There must be a miscommunication between the call center clerk and your FIL as the deposit amounts are not dependent on cabin class but on length of cruise. So passengers in a suite have the same deposit amount as someone doing a 1A upper/lower interior. If there is a deposit special VIFP offer or a special booking offer reducing the normal per passenger amounts in the chart below then that would be across the board as well. As for there being only 20 cabins left on the whole cruise or even only 20 cabins of a particular category then I would book now for the cabin type wanted and not waste time hoping that and upgrade is available later.

 

DEPOSIT AND FINAL PAYMENT REQUIREMENTS

Cruise Duration	Deposit Required	Deposit Required Single Occupancy	Final Payment Required
2 - 3 days	$100 USD per person	$200 USD	60 days prior to sailing
4 - 5 days	$150 USD per person	$300 USD	60 days prior to sailing
6 - 8 days	$250 USD per person	$500 USD	75 days prior to sailing
9 days and longer	$400 USD per person	$800 USD	90 days prior to sailing
Alaska, Europe, Panama Canal,  Transatlantic, Transpacific	$400 USD per person	$800 USD	90 days prior to sailing
Non-Refundable Deposit at time of booking: Early Saver and Super Saver Non-Refundable Total Fare at time of booking: Pack & Go Total Fare is defined as cruise fare, air supplement, optional transfers and pre/post cruise vacation package. Single Occupancy: Reservation will require 200% of the per person deposit. The total deposit amount will never exceed the cruise fare.

 

 

If you are talking about the Presidents/Energy Conservation week then less school districts every year seemed to be scheduling this favor of having more of flexible snow or adverse weather days available to them. (So they don't have to cut days from Easter/Passover vacation or run longer into the summer.) BUT many travel agents and vacation clubs haven't gotten that memo, and still block out more than normal winter season cabins for open group bookings leaving a cruise to look almost full up until they are forced to return their unsold inventory about 2-4 weeks prior to the final payment date. When those open group bookings are closed out, suddenly there could a glut of cabins available (category 4B and up) and the cruise line's automated pricing logarithm kicks in lowering the price, and could get the upgrade then, but it is a gamble. 

Under Early Saver you always have to pick your cabin prior to getting to the payment page., because GNT bookings are not eligible for price reductions once booked So either there is a computer glitch on Carnival's end or all that is left to offer for that particular cabin category is the Super Saver offers which are guaranteed category but TBA location and require full payment of the entire fare at booking and Carnival reserving the right to assign or change the cabin location right up until the sail away date. And yes is where having a good PVP to call or a local TA that you can face to face with that is CLIA trained makes all of the difference, sincethey can go over all the fine print of what each booking rate involves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh I wish they would get rid of February break (President’s day week) but it’s not happening anytime soon here in Maine or most New England states (I suspect).   

Usually when we do book group family cruises we use a cruise only travel agent we know and have used many times in past. I didn’t initially because it was only the 4 of us and easy to book online. I think I can still give her all the bookings and may consider this option now.

2 hours ago, maryred said:

There must be a miscommunication between the call center clerk and your FIL as the deposit amounts are not dependent on cabin class but on length of cruise. So passengers in a suite have the same deposit amount as someone doing a 1A upper/lower interior. If there is a deposit special VIFP offer or a special booking offer reducing the normal per passenger amounts in the chart below then that would be across the board as well. As for there being only 20 cabins left on the whole cruise or even only 20 cabins of a particular category then I would book now for the cabin type wanted and not waste time hoping that and upgrade is available later.

 

DEPOSIT AND FINAL PAYMENT REQUIREMENTS

Cruise Duration	Deposit Required	Deposit Required Single Occupancy	Final Payment Required
2 - 3 days	$100 USD per person	$200 USD	60 days prior to sailing
4 - 5 days	$150 USD per person	$300 USD	60 days prior to sailing
6 - 8 days	$250 USD per person	$500 USD	75 days prior to sailing
9 days and longer	$400 USD per person	$800 USD	90 days prior to sailing
Alaska, Europe, Panama Canal,  Transatlantic, Transpacific	$400 USD per person	$800 USD	90 days prior to sailing
Non-Refundable Deposit at time of booking: Early Saver and Super Saver Non-Refundable Total Fare at time of booking: Pack & Go Total Fare is defined as cruise fare, air supplement, optional transfers and pre/post cruise vacation package. Single Occupancy: Reservation will require 200% of the per person deposit. The total deposit amount will never exceed the cruise fare.

 

 

If you are talking about the Presidents/Energy Conservation week then less school districts every year seemed to be scheduling this favor of having more of flexible snow or adverse weather days available to them. (So they don't have to cut days from Easter/Passover vacation or run longer into the summer.) BUT many travel agents and vacation clubs haven't gotten that memo, and still block out more than normal winter season cabins for open group bookings leaving a cruise to look almost full up until they are forced to return their unsold inventory about 2-4 weeks prior to the final payment date. When those open group bookings are closed out, suddenly there could a glut of cabins available (category 4B and up) and the cruise line's automated pricing logarithm kicks in lowering the price, and could get the upgrade then, but it is a gamble. 

Under Early Saver you always have to pick your cabin prior to getting to the payment page., because GNT bookings are not eligible for price reductions once booked So either there is a computer glitch on Carnival's end or all that is left to offer for that particular cabin category is the Super Saver offers which are guaranteed category but TBA location and require full payment of the entire fare at booking and Carnival reserving the right to assign or change the cabin location right up until the sail away date. And yes is where having a good PVP to call or a local TA that you can face to face with that is CLIA trained makes all of the difference, sincethey can go over all the fine print of what each booking rate involves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh I wish they would get rid of February break (President’s day week) but it’s not happening anytime soon here in Maine or most New England states (I suspect).   

Usually when we do book group family cruises we use a cruise only travel agent we know and have used many times in past. I didn’t initially because it was only the 4 of us and easy to book online. I think I can still give her all the bookings and may consider this option now.

I agree maryred- that was my understanding as well, but he called back the next day, booked an interior and the deposit was $100. I looked up the booking when I linked it. Weird huh!

It’s the Magic and it’s break week for school in the Northeast so I’m not surprised it’s a popular booking.

He called to book and the Carnival rep would only offer non refundable deposits. He asked because when he booked he did a refundable deposit fare. When I tried to mock book online they only offered the early saver and the won’t assign you a cabin yet for any of the categories.

We were  trying to figure out when the best chance to try and upgrade would be. If we can’t at least they have a cabin. They’ve never cruised before so they won’t have any comparison.

So my immediate family and I decided to take a cruise during February 2020 break and all these other family members started jumping on. Which I’m cool with as it’s my favorite line and ship/itinerary I picked.

So recently my sister in law and her young son  decided to join us. So my father in law called Carnival to reserve her a cabin and was told only 20 cabins left. He was leary of booking a balcony for them (that’s what he wanted) due to the $500 non refundable deposit and there is 50% chance she’ll decide not to go. She’s never dependable (I said in law right?) So he booked her an inside room (deposit was less) and is getting trip insurance. Though he wants to try and upgrade her to a balcony later, he wanted to guarantee she had a cabin. 

Is it best to try and upgrade prior to final payment? Just after final payment? Is a PVP helpful with this? He had no issue with the price of the balcony- it was the non refundable deposit. He would also probe happy with an inside cabin closer to his cabin as well.

Any advice appreciated! Thanks!

We did Seaside this last December for a New Year’s Eve Cruise. I’m Platinum on Carnival and have been on 3 celebrity cruises. Here was our take- staff was very nice (but we traveled with young kids and they always seem nice to them). Dining room food was quite good, smaller portions but ordered different dishes, no issues with water. Buffet food was mundane and repetitive. Pizza was good. We had drink pack and no issues with water. Announcements were rarely in multiple languages, mostly English. Pool and slides are great. My kids loved them. The kids program goes later. No comedy they have Improv that is hit or miss. I went to one regular show and it was ok. The gelato is to die for but the soft serve has limited hours and is not DIY.  It is not as friendly in general because people speak all different languages so not as much chit chat as on other cruises. I didn’t feel passengers were rude-just kept to themselves more. I’m originally from Ohio so this went against my nature but live in the Northeast now so not a deal breaker.

My big big complaint was the drinks. They were awful- warm, not mixed well, sometimes weak and service was so/so at most bars. The best bar was the sports bar and I drank a lot of beer and wine which is not my thing when cruising. That is the only thing holding me back from cruising MSC again- so if that’s not your thing then try it.

I think cruising is the best mom vacation. No dishes, no food prep, always kids food available and no extra charge so who cares if the don’t eat it! My kids love the water so always something to do. My oldest went on her first cruise at 2 and cried the whole time at the kids club- they called me to get her! Now she’s 8 - loves to cruise but doesn’t love the kids club but she’ll go. Her younger sister loves the kids club and would go all day. Take some laundry detergent and clean their clothes in sink. Blow up pool or bathtub works if they won’t shower. 

I am pretty sure charter buses are exempt from car seat laws. This includes shuttles. We often travel from Portland Maine to Boston on charter buses to catch flights and no car seat required. For taxis, it depends on the state, some require them. You would have to look that up but Florida traditionally has less restrictive car seat laws. If you Uber or Lyft you can request a driver who has a car seat- it’s an extra fee but possible. 

Now how comfortable you you are traveling without using a car seat is a whole other debate that I am staying out of. Head over to the cruising with families board for more on that debate.

Nice start!  Can’t wait for the rest. Though I’ll admit your profile pic and user name is what grabbed my attention. As a mom to 2 senior beagles I couldn’t pass up your review. We’ve never been on Breeze but we are going on it’s sister ship, Magic, in February. I suspect your group will get the most out of your cheers package so feel free to make recommendations on drinks to try-I love to try new yummy drinks while cruising.Thanks again for the review.

My mom needs 8 more points to turn Platinum and we are going on an 8 day Magic Cruise in February. I told her she would be Platinum on the cruise- am I correct? I know it happens if you turn in the middle of the cruise but what if it’s the last day?

I would choose #3- that’s my favorite itinerary but I’m a beach person with young daughters who love the beach. And good weather in Aruba is almost guaranteed. La Romana is often a boat day for us.

My husband would pick new #2 as 2 stops we’ve never done (st Lucia and Barbados) and he is one of those who walks around and gets the local feel. Surprisingly he hasn’t been kidnapped/robbed or gotten lost and missed the boat yet (🙏🏻 knocking on wood).

Wichever you pick- wishing you a wonderful cruise!

I was wondering the same about the Magic aft pool, we sail February 2020.  I think it’s family friendly like all other Dream class ships but I’ve never been on it. My kids enjoy the aft pools when available to get away from the commotion  of the main pool. 

I’m pretty disappointed in Carnival if you don’t get all that deposit money back. Maybe not for all the cabins but at least your cabin. We had a family cruise booked for this past December and my dad was diagnosed with Leukemia. They cancelled air fare on American and B2B cruises- one week MSC and 1 week RCL. The oncologist wrote a letter advising against travel and that he was diagnosed after booking. The airline and both cruise lines refunded all their money including deposits. They did not have any travel insurance and it was going to be their first cruise on MSC.

Ohh thanks for the info about NCL. I’m checking that out!

Both kids loved the water park. The 4 1/2 yo could go on all but the inner tube slide (they do it by height) but she only went on the real little ones and brown one but loved the splash area. The 7 1/2 year old went on all of them. There at lifeguards at every pool, no drinks near pools or hot tubs and they count how many people in hot tubs do not overcrowded.

Kids program until 11- I didn’t see an after hours on advertised. Yeah the adult improv was 10:45.

Just of Seaside today. We were in a balcony Fantastica and it was my family with 4 1/2 yo and 7 1/2 yo and my brothers family with 21, 19 and 15 yo kids. It was the first MSC cruise for all of us. Usually we are Carnival or Celebrity cruisers. And we all enjoyed. Like every cruise I’ve been on there are always good and not so good things. But I’ve yet to go on a bad cruise!

Cabin- yes shower is small, storage is small but none of this was surprising. I did my research. Luckily my daughters got bunk beds cause a pull out sofa would take up way too much room. I love the buttons/ lights to tell attendant when you are in/out of room and when you want it cleaned-learned the first night if you don’t press the button they’re not coming in. The ship is a year old - not sure why the shower was so moldy if the clean it every day, it wasn’t an huge issue for us but may be for someone else.

Overall ship- beautiful, lay out a little choppy, hard to find bathrooms. If you want sun, have to go to Miami pool area. Jungle pool doesn’t have sun neither does the water park area. None us walked in to a mirror so that was a bonus. Get your waterslide bracelet day 1 as on day 2 the line is super long and if you already have it can jump on as soon as the open. Adults need bracelets too. The table is next to the end of the single blue slide with the inner tubes.

Food- we all loved smaller portions. We had 7:15 dinner and good service except for drinks. It wasn’t any worse then any other cruise line- walk in with a full drink and order another immediately and you are good. The dinner ended at around 9. Made it a little difficult for kids program after but 5:15 was just too early. My family ate breakfast in dining room twice, one with good service and one bad. Breakfast menu is standard, regular fare. We had lunch in dining room twice, mostly because food on buffet was always the same it was nice to get something different. My brother’s family ate more often in dining room for breakfast/lunch and had great experiences. The food in buffet wasn’t bad just the same. This was fine for breakfast but got old for lunch. The pizza is good but even my kids got sick of it. Don’t get me wrong, we didn’t go hungry and this is not a deal breaker for us as food at dinner was great.

Shows- I never go to shows, went to one cause I heard they were good. It was ok, not my thing. Very rude person behind us that caused person next to me to move seats. My husband went to adult improve and said it was pretty good. Book the shows you want early, the Michael Jackson show which is last night and filled quickly.

Drinks- never found a bar I loved. The sports bar was the best sports bar I’ve ever seen but didn’t love to sit there dressed up after dinner.  Drinks were average to below average so I drank a lot of beer and wine. Since I’m from a great craft beer city I will never find a cruise that has great beer. We upgraded from DOU to all inclusive deluxe. Included gelato and mini bar. My brother had drink tickets and waited to upgrade til on ship and did get some credit for vouchers. Bar service was on par with other cruise lines. Button on tables didn’t always work well. Liked that I could order a bunch of drinks at once (for kids and husband with one card)

Kids program- my kids didn’t love it. Not sure why. The oldest only went after dinner but the younger went before and after. They had themes and parties but because of dinner often missed the face painting. I didn’t feel the staff there knew the kids as well as other cruise programs. They never refused to go, I think they just preferred other ones.

Fellow passengers- other than the fact that lots of different languages were spoken, it was very similar to other cruises. People can be rude no matter where they are from (trash and food left on elevators, cutting people, being pushy). 

Ports- hadn’t been to them since having kids. We don’t do ship tours. Ocho Rios- climbed falls, did the boat to falls tour- it was 40$ person, included falls guide. Grand Cayman- Turtle Center- this was great if you have kids 3-7 especially who want to try snorkeling cause you snorkel with turtles but don’t take a taxi there take the bus, it’s 2.50 per person. Cozumel- shopped a little and stayed on boat which was empty. Nassau- walked to public beach.

Overall we had a lovely cruise. I would go on MSC again if price was right and different ports.