sailingships

I keep agents on the phone with me until the confirmation Email arrives ...

I want to see at once that we have the flight, date and time etc

Just book another restaurant/date/time online as long as its not Moderna or Teppanyaki due to the charges.  You wont be able to cancel until you are onboard so let them know the first day so that someone else can use that spot.

We already have our dinners booked online for a Sept cruise. Book Moderna and Teppanyaki first to avoid the $70  etc charge. The other restaurants are ala carte so theres no charge up front.

Regardless of the amount of days for the cruise, check and see if you can book your dinners.

On 4/22/2024 at 12:28 PM, PAPAx5 said:

We are booked for cabin 10000 on the Gem to Bermuda; is it ok to use the balcony while at sea. A recent post said that a posted notice forbade balcony use while at sea. 
 Anybody ever run into this restriction, excluding bad weather ? Thanks.

We always book a balcony for a TA just for that reason. We spend most of the day on sea days reading and sunning on our own balcony

When was the cruise ?

The Gem is usually well maintained etc

Bagel/Lox in the MDR in December

You will get a $15 corkage fee even with a screw top bottle. They catch the bottle in the security machine and get you to sign a form then. The fee is added to your account.

Yes other cruise lines like Carnival dont charge as yet but soon. With Carnival you can bring wine or champagne on board at embarkation. In Europe you can bring any type of booze back from the ports and take it to your cabin also no fees but not in the Caribbean. In the Caribbean no fees but they keep it until the day you get back to the US port. But thats Carnival. I dont know about other cruise lines.

Sometimes there will be a wait list for shorex that are sold out and NCL staff will try to get another bus etc. Check when you go onboard. 

On 3/31/2024 at 9:01 PM, roddy good boy said:

Could you explain further. What do you mean by carrying something to stand on. And, what is the flooring? I’m going in Sept. 2024. Thanks! 

The flooring is not clean. There go your nice white socks etc.

On 3/22/2024 at 11:28 AM, Helen1981 said:

Hi everyone, we are taking a one week Mediterranean cruise in the summer with a stop in Istanbul. We are doing the 8 1/2 hour day trip which includes the blue mosque and Hagia Sophia. From what I have read the knees and elbows need to be covered to enter these sites,

I think its shoulders. Women also need to cover their hair. A sun hat is acceptable. At the Sophia theres a big lobby where you take off your shoes before you go into the sanctuary.  For the shoe thingy theres nowhere to sit down so carry something to stand on. They give you a bag to put your shoes in and then you place them in a cubbyhole We got 2 of them We took our socks off too and used wet ones later to wipe our feet. The floor is not friendly to socks

You have about at least an hour of travel from Orlando to Port C on a weekend day with everyone else heading for the beaches. You might consider changing that flight to earlier or even the day before. By the time you get off the plane and get your luggage you would be late for the meeting time with the NCL rep at 10am. (Terminal B, Level one by Hertz) The busses start rolling at 11am.

3 hours ago, purplecow15 said:

Has anyone used NCL transfers from Civitavecchia cruise port to FCO? Our cruise in September docks at 6:30 am. When is the first transfer likely to be? Also, I can't find the cost of transfers without flight information which I don't have yet.TIA

NCL charges $75 for the transfer from Civitavecchia to FCO (Rome airport) Your flight must be at least 6 hours after the ship docks. At least after 12 Noon.

36 minutes ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

I am Diamond on both CCL and NCL but find NCL a better fit for us.  

So am I and I thought I really miss the unlimited laundry on CCL. However there ways to get around that problem. As a veteran, I get treated better on NCL than on CCL. Plus we get the vouchers for free dinners at the specialty restaurants etc. After nearly 40 cruises with CCL and many with NCL overall I've been treated better and had a more enjoyable experience with NCL, and spent much less for the cruise.  I still cruise with CCL if friends are going but about one a year. Last year we took 12 cruises only one of them with CCL. This year only one also.

Carnival treats the passenger as though the are already the higher status when they first go onto the ship if they are going to change to that higher level during the cruise.

IOW If the passenger will be changing to Platinum during the cruise all the Platinum goodies are gifted from the first day: free bags of laundry, the number depending on the length of the cruise, a gift, a free drink, the elite party, the special Elite line at Guest Services etc. For a cruise of 12+ days there are 5 bags of laundry.

This doesnt apply if the passenger will move up the last day of the cruise as it is not a full day.

6 hours ago, Blueberry89 said:

We did the TA last year on the Epic from New York to Barcelona.  We had great weather and I found I didn’t bring enough shorts! Especially for the European ports. It was last two weeks of April, first week of May. We sat by the pool most days as the sun was shining and it was warm enough to lounge at least. 

We were on that same cruise and spent most of the days on our balcony in swimsuits, tanning.  

On 3/22/2024 at 9:45 AM, graphicguy said:

That said, the only Carnival cruise that vaguely interests me is the Venezia, which is a refurbished Costa ship (I think, not sure).  Pics make it look nice and totally different from Carnival's other ships.

For those who were on the Gem TA in December that was the Venezia that berthed next to us on the Monday we were in NYC

On 3/21/2024 at 1:42 PM, cruiseDH22 said:

Wifey and I have done 4 or 5 NCL cruises.  We are interested in a Carnival Cruise to Bahamas or Caribbean out of NY later this year.

 

What will we expect, not having experienced Carnival before.  What will we miss, and what can we expect in general?

 

I will probably post this on the Carnival forum as well, but looking for some expert insight and thought I will start here.

 

(Once you NCL you never consider anything else?)

NCL V Carnival The buffet is about the same as NCL. Buffet area is open all night for coffee and pizza. There's laundry rooms on every other deck for about $3 per wash and $3 for about 20 minutes drying time. Plus an iron and ironing board. Upper-level Lats called VIFP cruisers get free unlimited laundry. Theres a steak house for about $45 and the newer ships have a Teppanyaki and maybe an Italian restaurant but no Le Bistro nor Moderno.  The MDRs have set times with the same table usually 6pm and 8.15PM and an eat any time but you have to stay in whatever category you choose the whole cruise, unless you ask nicely. For TAs the early time is usually 5.30pm Theres usually 2 'Elegant nights where they frown on caps and shorts. The first night is lobster the 2nd usually Prime Rib. Gold (25 days) on up get a free drink. Theres usually a free party for the upper-levels but thats been scaled back to very little. When you first embark you can take a .75 ML bottle of wine onboard with no charge.  There is a way to take more than one but thats classified. For TAs and foreign countries you can bring back stronger stuff from the ports onto the ship no charge. but not in the Caribbean etc. Most of the ships have a big screen on the deck for movies etc Big games like the Super Bowl are shown there also. 

8 hours ago, MajSteve said:

Quick Question: What time does the Buffet on the Epic open for service? Thanks!

It depends on whether you're in a port or it's a sea day.

Have you asked NCL ?

On 11/11/2022 at 6:09 PM, Lucky Dude 2101 said:

From what I’ve seen, there is no behind the scenes offered any more.. 

Depends on the ship and cruise. The Gem had BTS in December.

On 9/20/2022 at 9:22 AM, spanishguy1970 said:

nope, remember, they have to clean the ship and staterooms, boarding usually starts at 11 am.

Actually it starts after every single one of the passengers from the prior cruise have left the ship. That does not include B2B passengers.  

It varies ship to ship and cruise to cruise. We've already booked our shorex for a Christmas cruise on the Gem. It also depends on where you are going.

Theres been discussions in the past about just when we can use two CruiseNext certificates. We just received an Email that NCL has just started DoubleUp again. I dont know how long the promotion will last though.

They have Cholera. The Dawn is quarantined off the coast of Mauritius. They should have been in Port Lewis today.

Have you called NCL ? There was that problem with the cell phones etc for several hours this morning. I had something added to a cruise and instead of receiving the updated info Email, it arrived hours later after my cell phone was working again.

5 hours ago, SoloAlaska said:

Dinner only. I was on a TA from Rome to NY in December and it wasn’t open at lunch for any of the days. It’s a great spot though to play games and was set up with coffee and I think pastries sometimes as well during the day and a stack of board games.

Actually it was