shapatack0

Yep - just looked it up for our cruise departing in 3 weeks. Now leaves at 3, which means we have to be back to the ship by 1.

No, if the ship leaves at 3 you only need to get back to the ship by 2:30. The 2 hours is just for embarkation day.

Did you even read the original post at all?|

 

 

Yes, you can upgrade after final payment without issue. You will also NOT lose your promotions as another user posted. You are simply paying for an upgrade, not canceling and rebooking. Keep an eye on the pricing and if you are luck they will drop. A quick call to your PCC is all it will take.

 

6&8

That's not entirely true. If the promotions you booked under are no longer available at the current advertised price you are looking to pay then you may lose your promotion, or just get whatever the current promotion is by paying to upgrade.

A quick question ... I think:

 

We are booked on the Escape in November. The cruise has been sold out for months, but I see these advertisements for UDP, OBC, etc. on other cruises and I wonder if they would be available if we rebooked before final payment on the sold out cruise. Of course, I have no rate to compare to so I don't even know if this is possible.

 

Thanks!

Those promos are to get people to book, they're sale promos. Since your cruise is sold out and there is nothing for sale, there are no new promos for it.

Thank you shof 515. Have only been on 1 cruise prior to this 25 years ago (honeymoon) which stopped in Bermuda and just stayed there and really did not have to worry about getting on and off at a specific time. So considering the ship docks at 12:00 PM and departs at 9:00 PM, can I be rest assured to have a solid 6 hours to enjoy the port. What do you think?:)

Shouldn't take an hour to get off the ship unless the ship is late for some reason, more like 15 minutes, and all aboard will be at 8:30 or 8:45. I'd expect to have about 8 or a little more hours available in port.

January 2017 is already on sale, POA is on sale through 2018. The NCL website is buggy and if you try to search by dates without selecting the ship, it only shows through 2016 right now. Try searching by ship, select pride of america, and then choose the date and you should be able to book it.

This link may work for you:

http://www.ncl.com/vacations/pride-of-america-jan-2017-2-guests-new-york?ships=4294963223&sailmonths=4294915096&cruise=1&cruiseTour=1&cruiseHotel=1&cruiseHotelAir=1&numberOfGuests=4294915774&state=NY&pageSize=5&currentPage=1&sortBy=Featured&autoPopulate=f&from=resultPage

http://www.ncl.com/vacations/pride-of-america-jan-2017-2-guests-new-york?ships=4294963223&sailmonths=4294915096&cruise=1&cruiseTour=1&cruiseHotel=1&cruiseHotelAir=1&numberOfGuests=4294915774&state=NY&pageSize=5&currentPage=1&sortBy=Featured&autoPopulate=f&from=resultPage

Because the POA basically sails the same itinerary every week, I was wondering how long I have to wait for January 2017 cruises to be on sale. I already know I want to book the cruise that my 40th birthday falls on. That is less than 2 years away.

January 2017 is already on sale, POA is on sale through 2018. The NCL website is buggy and if you try to search by dates without selecting the ship, it only shows through 2016 right now. Try searching by ship, select pride of america, and then choose the date and you should be able to book it.

You really don't need shore excursions for Bermuda.

Yeah, I know, I've been, but I definitely don't need the UBP or the UDP, and I won't really use the wifi either.

We are going on the Epic 6/28 and are planning to visit Pisa on our own on the Liverno day. However if my husband and daughter are too tired from touring the 2 days before I was thinking of doing the Florence on your own tour. They probably won't know until the evening before if they want to go to Pisa or not. When is the latest you can sign up for a ship's tour?

Also, if the shore excursions desk is closed you may be able to book it through guest services (I've done this before for a last minute excursion).

Here's another tip. There are banks (usually online) that refund ATM fees. I have a non-interest checking account at such a bank. I'm transferring money to it so in case I need more cash, I can withdraw it from any ATM and not worry about the fee.

Yes, this is what I use as well.

I suspect those fees would be more than the 3% the casino charges?

No, unless you're withdrawing a very small amount of money at a time. I think they're around standard to moderately expensive flat fees for an ATM, something like $3-$5 per transaction. So if you're withdrawing less than $100, then yes it's more expensive, but if you're withdrawing more than $200 at a time then it's cheaper to use the ATM.

The pool towels...oh lordy lordy where do I begin. Ok, we had 4 in our room. They were used daily x6 days. I can guarantee you that out of those 24+ towels (including 4 towel each x6 days in Kendra's room) we maybe had a total of 5 towels that DID NOT have a yellow stain on them. They were nasty looking. I don't know what this yellowish stain is, but if odds are that we had them, everyone else on the ship did too. They seriously need to do away with them and start all over!!!

 

 

 

Service at the bars=excruciating painful waits. I found that most bars had 1 bar tender doing everyone's drinks. Then they would have 1 person that was making the drinks only for the runners on the floor. This is either at a pool bar or the casino bar. Every once in awhile we might see 2 people back there helping those standing in herds around the long bars, glaring at the bar tenders, and demanding their drinks saying they were skipped. I would NOT want their job. They seriously need to hire more people. But hey, I guess this is a way to slow down the drinkers with the UBP right? I just want a fricken Pepsi. Just give me a Pepsi...but I would wait, and wait and wait, and be passed up and wait some more. Some times the hubby would think I ran off on him and vice versa. But nope, you'd find me still there waiting. This is one cruise I would say that I DID NOT get my moneys worth out of the soda package.

 

Shower in the room-I have had this problem happen on several cruises...the water temp will vary and go up and down. Now normally it doesn't bother me "too much" but when you are a little red from the days water/sun activities, going from cool water to scalding hot can be a little aggravating. Just saying...

 

 

 

 

 

I think the yellow stain is caused by sunblock.

How do you avoid that? Baring bringing more cash.

There are ATM's on the ship.

I have searched on here for answers, but can't really seem to find what I'm looking for.

 

I recently discovered what renting the "boston whalers" meant and after checking into it, thought it would be a neat thing to do (however after reading another thread, it said "book early they fill up quickly", so we might not even find a place to rent one at this point).

 

Anyhow...from what I'm reading (correct me if I'm wrong) once they give you the demonstration on running it, you go on your own? Like without a captain or tour guide?

 

So if that's the case, how do you know where to go? If you do a 4 hour rental, how far will that take you? (Looking at using Sommerset Bridge Rentals).

 

Do you just cruise around looking at the shoreline? Are you able to stop at any time and jump in the water and snorkel? Is there a way to get back up on it easily?

 

Are you able to go to any of the beaches and can you "park" there? Or are you completely restricted to staying out in the water? Just wondering what beaches you would be able to make it to from the Sommerset bridge (Sandys) location.

 

 

What we are thinking of doing (if they have available reservations) is to rent jet skis for 2 hours doing the "tour" and then when we get back go out on the whaler (since we'll be a little more familiar with the water and area after that).

 

What do you think?

I did Somerset Rentals in Bermuda last September and rented a Boston Whaler. They are great. They will give you a laminated map and point out areas that you can visit with the boat including a shipwreck where you can feed fish with bread that they will provide you, and several private islands that you can pull the boat up on and camp out on. The map they give you has a suggested route that is essentially a giant circle that ends you up back at Somerset at the end. This was the highlight of the Bermuda trip for my wife and I, I highly recommend it.

Norwegian Breakaway Time Plan

 

Breakaway Pricing

Price

Pay As You Go (per MB) $0.59

25MB $12.00

100MB $29.00

300MB $59.00

1000MB $125.00

 

Ultimate Cruise Plan

(Breakaway, Dawn, Epic, Gem, Getaway, Jade, Jewel, Pearl, Spirit, Star, Sun, America)

1-12 Days...................$24.99 per day

13 Days or longer.......$19.99 per day

How does it work if you're on the Breakaway and get the 250 free minutes promo? Does it translate into 250 free megabytes?

Did you have a special tool to open the balconies? I want to know so I can take what I need

Having your balcony partitions open is a fire hazard. The balcony partitions double as firebreaks. Don't leave them open, there's a reason NCL has that rule.

My husband and I will be on the Gem in mid-July. We were planning to do the Atlantis Aquaventure. We have never been, so this first time we wanted to go with the ship since there didn't seem to be a price advantage to do it on our own. Based on reliable info I got from a fellow CCer.

 

Seadog67 was kind enough to take pictures of the excursion order forms when he was onboard the Gem the last week of May. I compared the prices from these forms, which were from the ship directly, to the prices offered through MyNCL for an online booking. The online price is $169 while the onboard price is $135. The $135 price seemed to be the same if purchasing a daypass at Atlantis directly.

 

I have a few questions, perhaps someone can answer:

1) is the price for the Aquaventure excursion through the ship less expensive on the May sailing than it will be on the July sailing? (Perhaps that explains the price difference)

 

2) for those of you who have booked excursions like this, what would you say are the chances that the excursion would be sold out prior to boarding the ship? (On the chance it is less expensive on the ship, we are thinking of waiting and not prebooking, but are nervous it won't be available when we get on the ship)

 

3) Atlantis claims they could sell out of the passes that you can buy on the premises (not through the ship) - I've heard that doesn't usually happen. Has it happened to anyone reading this post?

 

4) does Atlantis charge more for the day pass in July than in May, or does the price remain the same?

 

Since we get so early into the port, I am really looking forward to spending the day at Atlantis so I don't want to take any chances that we won't be able to get access, but I also don't want to spend more on the tickets than I have to since it is already so expensive.

 

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide!

I hav ebeen to Atlantis several times. The price is different based upon the time of the year, that's why you're seeing a different price, not becase its cheaper to buy it on the ship than in advance. The price savings from buying from the resort versus doing the excursion is negligible, so it's worth it to do it as an excursion through the ship.

For everyone that dumped NCL to go back to Carnival... Carnival has banned bringing bottles of water/soda, etc. on the ship to stop people from smuggling liquor on the ship. You can still bring cans (canned water?) I wonder if they examine mouth wash too?

Kind of hard to get worked up about that when carnival only charges $2.99 for a 12 pack of water. Given that price point I can't imagine that anyone other than alcohol smugglers bothered to bring bottled water on board. Given that NCL charges nearly as much for a bottle of water as Carnival does for 12 if NCL were to adopt this change it would be a real problem.

A GoPro will not rip your finger or ear off if it gets caught.

For the other poster, how do you wrap floss around your finger to take the ring off?

It's not just danger to the riders wearing the jewelry. Jewelry can scratch up the slide, which in turn can then cause injuries to the following riders who go on the slide after it has been scratched up by a previous person's jewelry. It is very painful to go down a body slide that has a small gouge in it from somebody's jewelry when you're not wearing a shirt (I know this from personal experience).

FWIW, the zipline and "walk the plank" were both not available the one time we went by to do that on our 4/19/15 Breakaway cruise. It was a sea day; perhaps they don't do those on sea days? For me, without any kids, it was just a very minor disappointment, but I would be interested in hearing from others who have cruised recently (last couple of months) if either of these activities have been available, and when (was it while in port?, etc.).

When I cruises on April 11 or 12th of this year can't remember the exact date, zip line was closed the whole cruise, at least every time I checjed.

Dang sorry about your service at the bars. But I do have to ask why are you complaining about the port and port times. You knew about those ahead of time, so why did you book a cruise knowing full well the ports and time at ports were not up to your standards?

Actually, the Nassau Port time was changed from 10 to 12 only a few months ago by Del Rio (another cost cut to save on fuel). If he/she booked this cruise more than a few months ago then he/she might not have known how little time he/she was going to have in Nassau.

How do I contact the new CEO - do you know?

Don't bother, the new CEO doesn't care what people post online. At a recent speech he referred to people who complain online as "social media flacks" whose opinions he does not care about.

My question is why you would *not* believe this.

 

Room service fee - TRUE

Removal of free Cirque/Illusionarium from UDP - TRUE

Kids full price in specialty restaurants - TRUE

No taking food from restaurants to your room - TRUE

 

All these "rumors" were posted first here on CC and all are true. The guy who heard from a guy has a lot better communications track record than NCL at this point. Any communications from NCL has come well after many posters had confirmed these "rumors".

 

I don't know why NCL is choosing to do such a bad job of communicating all the changes, but IMO they are creating a lot of the uproar by not letting people know these things in a timely way.

Because to Del Rio we're all just "social media flaks" whose opinions and cruising dollars don't matter. In his business model he doesn't care if the entirety of cruisecritic stopped cruising with him tommorrow. Well Del Rio, I have heard what you said and you won't have to deal with this "social media flak" onboard your ships anymore.

I find it hard to believe they would even try to ban taking food from the buffet to the pool area. How in the world would they handle the lunch time barbecue that the have on port days?? Would that not constitute eating food around the pool area:confused:

I would guess they are going to end the lunchtime barbecue, or possibly start charging a convenience fee for it.

So you mean to tell me that me and my SIL can't each order:

 

Soup, Salad, a tuna sandwich, and an ice tea for each of us?

 

Harriet

You can but it'll cost you $18.76, for your convenience of course. ($7.95x2 plus 18 percent grat).

So room service is in fact now a la carte pricing, it's just that every item costs $3.97 and you have to buy them in pairs.