mattio

I had the total opposite experience as OP. I was on a sold-out cruise and had no issues getting drinks. Longest I had to wait was at the pool bar before sail away and that was maybe 5 minutes.

Now, if you are ordering drinks from the waitress/waiter that comes around, that may take a while.

Thanks for that elitist perspective.

Even if you want to change the name to allow someone else to travel, any time after final payment, it is considered a cancellation.(other lines may have this also)

This isn't always true. I changed a passenger a week before a cruise with no penalty.

Well, we were concerned about disembarkation too. We thought we might be interrogated. It turns out you don't even need a passport or birth certificate to get back through. We just showed them our drivers licenses and that was fun. Also, they don't really care what you bring back. We had 5 liquor bottles for two people and they didn't even make us pay fees. They just looked at the paper and waved us through.

You're fine. Just don't accidentally throw away the birth certificates while on the ship like we did :)

No. I believe the best option is to swap the 3rd person you want to have the drink package with 1 of the 2 in the cabin with 2 people. I believe you can then have extra keys issues at the guest services desk. So while the 3rd person you want in that cabin would be listed in the other cabin, they would have access to the other and vice versa.

No because every bar I have been to on land has served Jack and has Coke on tap.

Sounds good. I'm definitely bringing a 24pack of Coke and packing cans to the bar with me on my next cruise.

If I bring them a can of coke will they mix it with jack on the rocks for me.

This is kind of a silly question but for any of you who have used cavetubing.bz before...is there beer available anywhere? I'm used to enjoying a cold one after floating the river lol

No beer that I remember. However, you have a traditional Belizean lunch after the cave tubing. The meal includes rice & beans, chicken, and cole slaw. Also, there are soft drinks in bottles AND rum punch that is very good.

I prefer Jack Fire, much better taste, and it's a liquor!

I'll put a recommendation in for cavetubing.bz

Did this in December. We didn't have priority tickets for tendering. We did not even get down to the boats until they had already started opening up the process to anyone on the ship. There was no wait and we went right over. Got to Belize and still had to wait about 20 minutes or so for our tour to leave. You definitely do not need priority tickets to do this.

We did our cave tubing through cavetubing.bz and I would highly recommend them. We had a group of about 20 with us mixed with people on our ship and the Caribbean Princess. They will make sure you get back on time to make the ship, do not worry! There was still 2 more tender boats that arrived after ours.

I think the reason most people book through the ship is for fear of not making it back in time. In this case I find that fear to be unnecessary.

I believe OP meant having the UBP promo added to the reservation during an upsell when the promo UBP was not part of the original reservation.

Then that sounds unlikely considering you cannot take advantage of the promos if you are less than 30 days from the sailing when you book.

I have another question though.

If you book a room and get the UBP promo a few months out and are able to get an upsell a few days before the cruise, will you keep the UBP promo or lose it by taking the upsell?

Just watch the price. With your cruise being more than a year out, there is plenty of time for it to fluctuate. My Escape cruise dropped $900 2 weeks after I booked it while on board my previous cruise.

How far is the drive with cave tubing dot bz? Is it scary in any way- mountains, bad vehicles, careless drivers? I would like to do this, but don't want any unnecessary risks.

I don't remember how long the drive is exactly. It is longer on the way there than the way back because they drive you through Belize City and give you a mini-tour. None of the path is scary, vehicle was very nice with air conditioning, and the drivers were very safe. The tour guides are informative and will be giving you interesting facts and answering questions all the way there.

I will say that if you are strapped for time on the way back, there may be some speeding by the driver. While there is a speed limit in Belize, there is no real law enforcement of the limit. However, I never felt at risk the whole time.

When you call select the cabin they will/should tell you there's a charge from switching from guarantee to a confirmed cabin. The entire point of a guarantee fare is to give the line flexibility in where to put you, otherwise people would book the fare then just go pick a cabin.

True, but the fare for what I paid when I switched to a GTY over the phone (2 days ago) is the same fare I would be paying if I booked online right now and selected 8114 as my cabin. I will call and confirm tomorrow.

Being able to choose a stateroom ahead of time is not what a guarantee is. The guarantee is that you'll be placed by NCL in any mini suite (or possibly better) anywhere on board and the actual assignment could happen weeks before your sailing or even the day before you sail. Read the paragraph on NCL.com that states what a mini suite MX entails and it will confirm what I am stating.

Still confused, can you explain why if I book online an MX cabin right now on NCL.com for my exact cruise date it gives me the option to select cabin 8114 as my room?

I understand what a GTY room is but I had been given information on another thread that the two GTY mini-suites on deck 8 could be booked as regular rooms as others have done before. It seems like 8114 is a bookable cabin, so I should just be able to call and switch into this cabin right since I have the option on the website? I'll still be in the guarantee category but will have an assigned room.

Correct. Guests 18-20 can only drink beer and wine with the signed consent form. He would not be able to drink cocktails or other drinks containing liquor.

Interesting. Do you know what deck? Unlike the plans for Escape, the Getaway deck plans do not show the MX as being on any deck but 8.

I'm just extremely confused because I can go to NCL.com and book guarantee mini-suite right now on my same cruise and it gives me the option to choose my stateroom, with the only option being 8114.

Click on the down triangle next to where it says deck 8. It will then give you the option to choose any of the other decks. When you click on that deck, it will then show you all of the other off-orange MX cabin options for decks 9 through 15.

I did that but none of the other decks have cabins with the matching color. Can you point out one for me? I've looked at all of them.

I see that the other decks list the MX category as being on the deck. However, none can actually be found to the map on the right except for Deck 8. It is the off-orange color and only is used for two cabins.

I'm thinking cave tubing. Not sure from whom yet. It's crazy expensive thru NCL, as expected, so I'll likely go independent. I'll wait until the itinerary is officially changed before I contact independent vendors. Any independent vendor suggestions?

Book with cavetubing.bz

They are #1 on tripadvisor and you don't have to carry your own tubes.

So disappointing. My May cruise will be the second in a row where I will miss Harvest Caye. I'll be venturing to the Eastern Caribbean next year, so it may be a while before I make it there.

SO- how would one actually go about booking one of these 4 specific rooms since BX are balcony guarantees that would normally be assigned vs. choosing a specific room?

I was under the impression that if you booked a BX category you would be placed into 1 of the 4, same for MX except there are 2.