Carolina Girl 99

Find yourself a TA with access to Group X rates. I just booked 2 couples on Edge for Alaska, May 2024. E1 - Prime Edge Stateroom with Infinite verandah, ALLINC plus refundable deposit for under $4800

I found rates for Sept 13, 2024 sailing for even less 
 

On 8/11/2023 at 10:29 AM, deliver42 said:

I just did a mock booking on the celebrity Edge Alaska cruise for Sept,2024.With the all In on a regular Infinity veranda the price came to $5600.00, then another $950.00 for a refundable deposit. Celebrity has gone beserk. I love Celebrity, but not at these prices. They are $2000.00 higher than Princess AND Holland America for the same package, and I get a real balcony. I've been on Princess, and like their product. Haven't tried HAL yet. I realize  the Edge is a newer ship, but so is the Discovery Princess. In fact, it's newer than the Edge. There was no Celebrity alternative from Seattle in that time frame. All the itineraries were similar, except for Glacier Bay that Celebrity can't enter.

WUU150 - Unlimited Wifi Package Upgrade: From Internet Package (150 minutes)
WBP6 - Water 6-pack (1-Liter)
RRNCLU - Reduced Rate NCLUniversity. Reduced rate on personal bookings for travel partners that have completed the NCLU training

NATOBC - OBC for National Accounts

As a TA, I can tell you that a lot of the missing codes are in fact group codes. Anything with AF is an affinity group (vs a Speculative or SPEC group) so

AFBDSIBC = AFfinity Bev Dining Shore excursion Internet BalCony and above

BROCHURE = Brochure rate (which nobody pays)

DEPOSIT B = the group deposit schedule that is chosen when the group is created

EJFCC-20 = Extended Journey FCC for 20% off (I have this on my personal booking. It was an FCC coupon that was issued from an NCL- canceled cruise. The normal FCC's or coupons from canceled cruises are 10% off, but this was good for 20% off a 9-night or longer itinerary)

GAP000 = Group Amenity Program or GAP with 0 points (points can be used for extra amenities)

GROUP = Means it is a group booking 

FIT = Free Independent Travel (meaning an individual reservation not booked as part of a group) so

FITOBC = is an FIT booking with OBC. The amount of OBC depends on the promotion that was in effect at time of booking

GWYOFF and LATMET6 no idea on these

 Hope this helps!

9 minutes ago, seaman11 said:

carnival  breeze

Not NCL, but that being said- I took my very first Carnival cruise on Breeze to Bermuda & Grand Turk in 2019. The itinerary was awesome and we really enjoyed the ship!

I have not personally used any of these, but a lot of options at this link:

https://www.resortpass.com

My mom has indicated that she wants our next cruise to be on Seaside (since she really loved the ship) or the new Seashore. I started to do general research and some mock bookings for SEASHORE to get an idea of anticipated costs. I thought I really should surprise her and book one of the S3 aft wraps like we had on Seaside back in 2018. It was probably our second favorite cabin after the 2 BR Haven on Getaway that I upgraded us to for a steal on my 50th birthday sailing.

I know the ship hasn't started sailing yet and that the deck plans might not be 100% correct, but could one assume to have a cabin that is similar to Seaside? We were on deck 12 and did have some obstruction from the window washing equipment, but it was not really a complaint. Looking at the aft view of Seashore on the MSC website, could one assume that deck 10 or 11 would have the least amount of obstruction? 

Am also aware of the changes in drink packages from the fall to winter sailings. I'm looking at a September 2022 date, would the S3 Aurea suite have the Easy + package? If not, I'm seriously considering taking the S2 extended balcony on deck 9 as it's about $1000 less

Thoughts  on the S3 cabin similarities (Seashore vs Seaside) and which drink package I can expect? 

Congratulations and good luck from another "Carolina Girl"

Hopefully not OT, but does anyone know if we can use our FCC's for shore excursions? I assume if we can that I would have to call NCL to do this vs book online which is not a problem

You are probably right @caitlynambrai, I had forgotten about the "upgraded" decor and amenities in the Spa cabins.

Anyone know if it's still just the Mandara spa sticker that you place on your card, or are they actually printing it on the cards now like the bev & dining packages are?

6 hours ago, SpainAlien said:

That might be a spa club balcony?

 

I took a closer look this morning as the system was down for maintenance last night-

The December date was in fact for a Spa Club balcony

The January date was for Haven as every other category was sold out

The February date was a Sailaway balcony vs a Spa balcony. Balcony BF is $1490 vs a B9 at $1875, so still a $385 difference, making it more than $139 pp to just buy a thermal pass

If it's really only $139 for the week vs the $199 or $299 (?) I've seen for some other ships, then why is the cost of a Spa Balcony (B9) cabin so much more expensive than a standard balcony cabin? 

My TA messaged me 2 hours ago to say my Oct 19, 2021 Joy cruise was frozen. She said there was a very real possibility that it would be canceled. Apparently NCL is having issues getting crew. 

It was still showing on the website a couple of hours ago, but I see that it's no longer there 🤕

Our family of 3 adults is currently booked in an angled balcony cabin and the upgrade advantage email just came out today for our 14 day Oct 16th cruise. Now I'm trying to decide which cabin to bid on. We stayed in the 2 BR suite on Getaway a few years ago with 4 us and I have had a tour of the Courtyard penthouse so I know how both of those are set up. I love aft cabins, but want to be in the Haven proper.

That leaves me 3 choices: the 2 BR suite (minimum bid more than I want commit to), the Courtyard PH or the Forward Facing PH. I've only seen the FF in pics, so that's my unknown. Which would you bid on and why?

I'm totally bummed regarding the October 2020 Meraviglia cancellations, I jumped the gun I'm afraid.

We had booked two 12+ days cruises for Oct 2020 knowing we would cancel one. After family discussions over Memorial Day weekend, it was decided we would keep our NCL booking and cancel MSC based solely on ports. I called my TA to cancel on May 25th. Then MSC announced the cancellations with the 100 + 25% FCC, so if we had just waited another week or so we could have taken advantage of the FCC or moved the deposit to another date (plan on re-booking Meraviglia for May 2021). Instead it looks like I won't get anything extra and I still have to wait the 60 days for my deposit to be refunded

I was wondering about this as well. It's showing as $149 per cabin on my 14 day Breakaway cruise in October, so for the 3 of us it would cover the cost of the spa credit.

I'm wondering if we have any tender ports: Bermuda I know isn't, but what about Barbados, St Lucia, Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao or Puerto Plata?

Interesting topic. We had booked overlapping cruises for OCT 2020 with the intention of cancelling one. After family discussions this past weekend, we chose to cancel the Meraviglia repo so I called our TA on Monday to cancel. So far we had only paid the initial deposit of $199 pp with final due in July. I sure hope I will get a refund and not a FCC for what I put down. 

I've tried poking around the MSC website the past couple of days to see if our status updated but it only allows me to log in, once in I get an error message trying to do anything else like manage booking. Is it just me, or are others having trouble with the website?

6 hours ago, Mallefiscent said:

Did you ever get any information about the horseback riding companies?

I never heard back from anyone. We ended up doing a stingray excursion to Gibbs Cay that we booked through the cruise line - had a great time 

21 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

There's one thing that you can say about Harvest Caye and that is that it's beautifully decorated. A lot of thought went into the layout and landscaping of this place and it was just gorgeous!!! Everywhere you look there were flowers and greenery, bushes and palms and umbrella and everything that could be thought up. It was just so nice there.

I wholeheartedly agree with you- I thought the island was gorgeous!

You also mentioned the water being murky- I also found that to be the case when we went for our first time in Oct 2017, so I don't think it had anything to do with being new 

Do you happen to know (or remember) how late the shops were open at the Clocktower Mall when a ship is in port? We arrive at 4 pm our first day and depart at 4 pm the next day, so we're planning on spending the first night doing Dockyard activities. Thanks!

I would for sure choose the aft balcony any day!! The mini suite will only get you a bigger/nicer bathroom and that's about it. You won't get any "suite" perks as the mini suite is basically a deluxe balcony cabin

I have stayed at both the Hampton Inn & Suites- MIA Airport/Blue Lagoon as well as the Hampton Inn Coconut Grove/Coral Gables and would stay at either one again, making my decision based on price/availability. 

The Airport/Blue Lagoon location has parking on an outside, gated deck.
The Coconut Grove location has parking in an underground, gated parking garage.

Both offer a Park and cruise option which includes free breakfast, parking for at least 7 days and free shuttle for 2 to the cruise terminal. You will need to secure your own transportation back to the hotel post cruise 

Yikes Kim!!!
Sending you positive vibes for a speedy and successful recovery!

22 minutes ago, QuickGold said:

That's not from FB. It's verbatim copy and paste from here: https://is.gd/iKycLm

You're right, but it was from a post from that page on FB. Last time I linked to their site here on cc, my post got pulled. There are a few other cruise sites that have the same info