alwalaska

Thank you so much for putting this together. I was to Melbourne on my own, but didn't have any great options picked out yet. I appreciate the hard work.

Thank you. I am definitely looking at the different options for doing just that. What I have found though is that everyone is non-refundable, even if the ship does not make it into town. My travel insurance doesn't cover missed activities unless the trip is "interrupted" where we have to go home or be hospitalized, etc. Do you know if everything is usually sold out, or if we can book when we get there? NCL doesn't have any excursions out yet, but I find they are usually almost twice the cost of the local tours, which doesn't make financial sense either. Someone said that there were usually people on the pier selling tours, so unless I can find someone who will offer a refund if the ship doesn't make it, that is what we will likely be doing.

Thanks, I didn't realize they could/would do that. Good to know. I know AmEx will give you a temporary number to start charging right away, but every bank and program is different.

I decided to chat with NCL, but we know that isn't necessarily any different from asking someone on here. They said the $4.95 does apply to the continental breakfast like BirdTravels posted the picture on the tag. When I mentioned the FAQ and provided the link, they said they would turn that into the correct department. I also noticed on that same FAQ page information about booking a trip in 2016 and taking it in 2017, so it doesn't look like anyone is in charge of maintaining that page.

A good sign that a bot or AI is answering your comments.

New comment Sorry, I think I misinterpreted that you were hoping to use the bonus points (see below at original comment), but I bet you just want to pay with it. I'd give yourself 5-7 business days unless you already have a bank account with BofA according to the article. Original Comment Remember too, even though you may be able to use it immediately (I really can't remember what happened when we got ours last year), but it takes at least until the end of the billing cycle or maybe even longer for the points to post to your account. You are probably already too late for July 13 this year. American Express gave me a temporary number and code immediately, but their agent said their points lag 2 billing cycles. So, I spent the last of my required 3k today, my first billing cycle ends July 17, but I likely won't see my bonus points until at least August 17. 😞

That is part of the reason why I read that the continental breakfast didn't have a service fee for anyone, but I did decide to check with the people on the Chat at NCL and they confirm what you said and what I believed before I read the FAQ. My husband laughs because when I'm talking to hotel employees I frequently know more about the rewards program than the employees do. Thanks for sharing your breakfast paper.

Here is the link of the FAQ page that I copied that from: Frequently Asked Questions (ncl.com). I had to read it 3 times because we had to pay in Feb as well. Now, this is me being a computer person reading the AND between continental breakfast and the info about suites as making it both things do not have a service charge. It really doesn't surprise me though that NCL has something that is either unclear or out and out wrong on its website.

I feel the same way about first-class or premium seats on airplanes. Trying to work some magic since I no longer have 18 months to plan and get ready to buy the plane tickets.

I was on another forum today and people were asking about free dining locations and continental breakfast from room service was included. On our Dawn cruise in Feb I could have sworn there was a charge for it. Today, after someone posted a click from NCL, I went and looked it up in the FAQ and I copied the info below. I'm guessing they walked it back. Does anyone have recent experience with this? Is Norwegian Cruise Line now charging for room service? Norwegian Cruise Line has introduced an enhanced room service menu. The new menu offers an expanded selection for breakfast, in addition to a wider variety of options available 24 hours. Individual items on the menu remain available on a complimentary basis and a convenience charge of up to $9.95 USD will be added to each order placed (Morning coffee, continental breakfast and orders placed by guests sailing in The Haven will not attract a charge)*. A 20% gratuity and beverage service charge will be added for non-complimentary beverages and special occasion items. *Prices subject to change.

That was what I thought too. It doesn't surprise me though that the system isn't configured to catch all exceptions to the rule.

Sorry for the confusion, I have my Australia/New Zealand on the Spirit picked out for the FCC. I was just curious what itinerary had such a premium for balconies. Alaska makes total sense. I saw some Alaska itineraries with interiors at $247 plus taxes and fees. That is crazy. I just can't afford any other cruises right now with the AUS/NZ trip that we will be taking in Feb this year instead of next. I reached Sapphire on my last cruise but think I may never get to Diamond. Yeah, I'm anxiously waiting to do my upgrade as soon as the FCC comes out and applies it. My TA has been a great help through this mess of trying to figure everything out. She did apply my Next Cruise as soon as it came back, but we decided waiting to do the upgrade would be safest. The WP person when I called to get my points back from the 2025 canceled cruise said she thought it would be OK to do the upgrade before the FCC, but I really don't want to take any chances on losing that 20% or the 60k points.

That is definitely a sweet deal. Do you mind sharing what cruise? I'm very anxiously awaiting the 23rd so that my TA can apply the 20% FCC to my new Spirit cruise to replace my canceled one, and then I will be doing an upgrade and seeing how much it was worth. As long as it is worth the $600, I'm good. I really want a balcony but don't want to pay for it.

I would ask your TA for a new printout of your confirmation with all of the codes on it. That still is not a guarantee that everything will show up, but I find it much more correct than what I see when I log into my account. At one point I thought I found it on the NCL page under My Account, but I couldn't find it today. There is a thread somewhere here in the NCL area with all of the codes and abbreviations. Also, my TA said today that she could see a bunch of WP info on my reservation within her system that in the past she could never see. Maybe your TA will be able to see your

They expire 5 years from the end of the billing cycle from when they were earned. Some of us don't cruise all the time, or we have multiple cards that we use and when trying to save up for a big purchase like a double-meta upgrade, it can take a while. Other travel credit cards I have transfer the points to the group sponsoring the card (Hilton, Marriott, AA, Hawaiian Air, etc) and they don't expire OR they stay active as long as you are earning or using points.

I agree with Mike as long as you plan on taking another cruise before the points expire. I'm not used to credit card points expiring, so I have to keep an eye on these.

Me too. Plus I need to call WP because I don't have my points back yet either.

Thank you!

I saw some pictures where it looks like the cruise ships have to dock quite a long way from town. Does anyone know about how long it takes to tender, one-way? Also, do the ships use their own boats, or are tenders provided by the town? Sometimes this seems to affect how quickly people can get to shore. Thanks in advance for any help.

I don't think it is silly. I have been saying we would go to Australia and New Zealand after we retired so that we could make a month of it since it is such a long flight. Well, we retired last year and on our cruise this Feb I started looking at itineraries. I totally fell in love with everything about the voyage, the ship, the ports, etc. We scheduled for 2025 to give ourselves enough time to save the money to be able to do the trip right without financial frustrations. Those who say, it is far away, so just do something else are probably not planners. Different people all take things in different ways. I hope that you find something truly memorable for your anniversary after two frustrating misses. We were going to be celebrating our 35th with our cruise, but now it will be our 34th anniversary, or at least our 35th Valentine's Day together. I'm glad that we were at least able to find something during the discount period that is almost the exact same cruise we were planning. I just have to finish planning much faster and realize that our budget will be upside down, but at least we have the resources to pay for it without borrowing money.

Plus I love the changes that were made.

I was worried about how NCL was canceling big swaths of dates over the past month or so. Unfortunately, this is a bucket list to Australia and New Zealand and they canceled all of them with nothing new in their place as of yet. This was the only ship NCL had in that region. Luckily, we are retired, so other than having to plan much more quickly than I hoped, and not being able to save all of the money ahead of time, we are moving to the same cruise in 2024 (at least until they cancel that one). I have a booking holding an interior cabin that I like, but we won't get the FCC for another 9 days so that one will likely get canceled and rebooked unless prices go up 20% in the next 9 days. I'm not sure why it will take so long to issue the FCCs and I'm hoping return my double-meta upgrade points to World Points so that hopefully I can try again for my double-meta upgrade.

NCL just canceled my cruise. Any idea how long it will take to get my points back so that I can do the same double-meta upgrade if I find another cruise to move to? They canceled 10 months of the Spirit 2025 cruises.

I just received my cancellation notice for Feb 8, 2025 Australia to NZ sailing. It says everything from Feb 8 - Nov 23 is gone. I am so upset. I've been worried since NCL starting randomly screwing around with itineraries all over the place and now it has happened. At least I don't have flights and all yet and I haven't paid for new credit cards to work on points for air, but still, a lot of planning down the tube.

Try using an Ingocnito window in Chrome or a private tab in Edge. Sometimes if a Cookie gets stuck, I get problems like this on other sites. I also sometimes try a different browser or computer if that doesn't work.