schmoopie17

Very often a certain cabin category comes up as "Guarantee"...which implies you have no choice in cabin or cabin location. However, a quick call to our PCC gets us a whole laundry list of available cabins in that category. Has happened more than once...

Two possible answers to the first question: Yes No Two possible answers to the second question: Yes No As stated above, you need to be more specific as to what you're looking to find out.

Agreed. This topic has been discussed ad infinitum on this board and the consensus is that port fees, gratuities, etc., are refunded if you cancel and the advice is not to include them in the cost of your trip for insurance purposes. Having said that, this appears to be conjecture without anyone ever posting that this was the case when they canceled. It would be nice to have someone verify this was, indeed, the case, so the precedent has been set. Otherwise it's just conjecture.

Keep in mind that NCL reserves the right to change itineraries. We just went through this, with a cruise a couple months from now that said it would be stopping in San Juan (a place we've never been and really wanted to stop, since we have friends who live there and were going to show us around.) A few days after we booked it, they ended up dropping San Juan and substituting St. Kitts (a place we've already been). Not a good trade-off...at least for us. So just because an itinerary is posted for a cruise, there's no guarantee they'll keep all of those ports.

Prepaid gratuities are an inducement from the TA to use their service. I may be wrong (I have been known to be wrong once or twice in my life) but I don't recall NCL ever offering prepaid gratuities.

Just be careful if the price of your cruise goes down and you contact the TA to get the reduced price. This just happened to us...called for the reduced price and they ended up removing the prepaid gratuities...WITHOUT TELLING US. Why they wouldn't tell us until after the fact is beyond me. Had we known, we would have forfeited the $120 price reduction to keep the $400 in prepaid gratuities. We spent several days going back and forth with the TA to get the gratuities added back, since it was their error for not informing us beforehand. Needless to say, that is the last time we use that TA.

Something tells me ETIAS will be a PITA. Yes, I know it's only a few dollars...and supposedly only takes a few minutes to complete...but it's a government program. What could go wrong, right?

Free, or not...I've never been able to access CC onboard a ship. Maybe it's my phone...although even the internet cafe guys don't have an answer, either. Although, I am able to access the NCL site via the free page link. Strange...

Must have freed up some cabins...or had some cancels. At the time the link was posted it only showed inside availability.

Seriously...asking for trouble by bringing two large suitcases? How dare us!! I mean nobody brings large suitcases on a cruise, right? All those porters have nothing to do... Considering we were on a 16 day transatlantic with a few days in Europe on both ends, would you suggest we bring backpacks?

Yes...create a fire/safety hazard. Sounds really smart...

Maybe you should have reversed the order. 😁 And if I were you, I would have inserted "have a beer" in between every step.

They probably had an outward opening door and didn't want to deal with it. Trust me, I know from experience (and having tried to contort myself to reach out the door and pull a suitcase against an open door...while trying to close the door at the same time, with your arm wedged in the open door space) that it's not easy...especially at my age. And to do two big suitcases at once...when you can only barely reach one? Yeah, right. Wheels, or no wheels...

I can attest to the spa services are not being provided by NCL. Several years ago, we owned stock in a company that provided spa services on cruise ships.

What?? How do you push the luggage back into the nook from inside the cabin??? That's the problem with the outward opening door.

Regardless of how anyone feels about the security of leaving bags outside their doors (it's obvious most of you don't have a problem with it)...here's another angle: On the Escape, we had to leave our bags outside of our door. Okay...easier said than done, when your cabin door opens to the OUTSIDE. It wasn't easy trying to fit the bags in the little nook outside the door and then shut the door from the inside. And if you had to leave your cabin, your bags were up against the door. Major pain... And before anyone says that cabin doors open to the inside...not all of them do. We had this discussion on another thread many moons ago. Cabin 11214 on the Escape has the cabin door opening to the outside.

The Prima seemed very crowded on sea days. (Well, ALL days, actually) but with a full ship on a sea day, with the smaller venues it can get very crowded very fast. Good luck finding a seat in the tiny buffet at peak times. Also, try getting a drink at the Local bar in less than 20 minutes. Hate the way that bar is on a main walkway. Obviously, you will have numerous sea days on a TA. Seems like a no-brainer to do the Anthem.

I never understood the concept of putting your bags outside your cabin the night before disembarking. Just doesn't seem safe or secure, given the traffic up and down the hallways. Plus, don't airports warn people not to let their bags out of sight? Putting them outside your cabin is about as out of sight as you can get.

We also thought it was quite odd that the Prima "internet cafe" had no desktop pcs. Strange...

At lunch, do you need to use one of your specialty perks...or is lunch complimentary?

Most people would give the shirt off their back to be able to go on another cruise. Wondering what you get if you give your undies...

We've done specialty dining on the first night. We've done specialty dining on the last night...and most nights in between. However, we view specialty dining as "something special to look forward to"...and unless we have a slew of specialty nights (as we will on our first Platinum cruise)...we prefer to put them off until later in the cruise (usually on sea days).

Hence my comment of "YMMV".

Yes, please report back. We're also on the Escape in September, 2024 (out of Rome...you may actually be on the same cruise, since they also have embarkation in Barcelona) and currently have the BOGO booked. Although, it's still too early in the game to see airfares for over a year out.

Working on vacation? No, thanks. Now that I'm retired, the thought of work makes me ill. The thought of working on vacation is beyond my comprehension. But as they say on CC...YMMV.