poohdreaming

Some people choose to give on top of the DSC while some do not. It really depends on what the cabin steward did for you. Did s/he made your cruise more fun? Or helped you in some ways beside the regular cleanup of the cabin? There are some factors that can make a person give more or less or not to do so.

Vibe passes are just a hype ... To me, it not worth it even though it is only an adult area. I would rather pay and choose the spa over the vibe. The price a vibe pass had increased. It is now cost at least $200. Some guests returned these passes for a refund and the guest services would have more to sell the next day. It really depends on the weather and the cruise.

NCL often changed their port time for these Bermuda cruises in Oct-Nov. It was the same thing as in 2018. Some learned of the time change and decided to rebook to another cruise. If you have to travel for that week, then stick with it. If not, you can decide if you want to rebook to another cruise that stay at Bermuda longer or you can plan to visit Bermuda again in a future cruise after this one. 

There are a list of phone numbers to call. https://www.ncl.com/about/contact-us / https://www.ncl.com/cruise-faq/shorex-activities-dining-entertainment

"How do I book my Shore Excursions?

Click here to view the available Shore Excursions. An updated listing of Shore Excursions is available approximately 6 months prior to the first sailing of each cruise destination season. All tours are available to pre-request at My NCL, or you can call 866-625-1167 (US & Canada) or 0845-201-8907 (UK). Once onboard, Shore Excursions can also be purchased at the ship's Shore Excursion Desk.

How do I book my Dining, Entertainment and Spa activities prior to sailing?

Onboard activities can be booked online at ncl.com/myncl; by calling 866-625-1167 (for Shore Excursions) and 800-327-7030 for Spa (Norwegian Epic only), Dining and Entertainment, or by contacting your travel professional.

Please note: Specialty dining can be pre-booked online for parties of up to eight guests. If you'd like to pre-book specialty dining for larger parties, please call us at 800-327-7030 for assistance. Our reservation agents will also be able to assist you if you would like to pre-book specialty dining for your group using more than one credit card."

If you have a private shore excursion, you should be given priority access to tender first. Find more information once on board the cruise ship or call the shore excursion desk to ask.

Traveling as a solo - last minute or not - you can still enjoy the cruise

First - look up the roll call to see if there is one. If there is, join the roll call and if you are interested & if they are having a cruise  critic meet and greet, go join. They will provide some drinks and appetizers.

Second - look for the solo group meeting time on the freestyle newsletter. You will meet different people and you can join others for dinner/lunch and breakfast after meeting the first time.

Yes, have forward and aft to get off at Bermuda on the Escape. Once off, you need to go through the terminal building. Last time I was there, it was easy as I got off early as I wanted to catch the first NCL free ferry to St. George. Going to Hamilton, make sure you look up the schedule to see when the first ferry start in order to give yourself some time before the 11:15 excursion. If it was me, I would catch the earliest one or the next one before 11:15 am. Even if you arrived early to Hamilton, you can walk around. Ferry would the best option, then probably a taxis/cab. Buses - last time I heard, these were not on time and were broken down very often.

The only way to find out is to call the CAS department to ask your questions.

As you mentioned, you are not new to cruising. But are you new to these kinds of casino promotions? It is not "free," think of it like a discount off of purchasing a cruise on your own. You would need to pay the port taxes, the admin fee that the casino department charge you with, and then if you choose any of those perks like the drinking or the dining package, you need to pay the 20% gratuities. 

If you have not been to Alaska before and you like cruising, then this might interest you depending on the total price.

Fresh made pastas, omelettes, those bread sticks, and crepes at late evening dinner/snack. Ice cream too.

Since this is your first NCL, you might want to try some of those specialty restaurants (specialty dining package) - you would get probably 4 or 5 meals out of the 14 days cruise if you are really into food. Otherwise, the free food in the main dining rooms and the buffet will be fine. You would have to pay the gratuity. But it would be worth it.

The shore excursion credit - it is $50 per each port. If the cruise ship missed the port, you would not get a credit for it. And if you use a shore excursion that is less than $50 - they will not apply the whole $50 credit. Do your research and see if shore excursion credit would work for you.

The internet - 250 minutes - it depends on if you needed to go on the internet. Since this is a vacation, might want to disconnect unless it is important to keep in touch with families.

Drinking package - unless you and your partner would break even with drinking all those different drinks, the package would worth it on top of paying the gratuities. 

Either to the coco beach or unless shopping/entertainments - to the disney springs.

It depends on the port. At NYC port, if you tell them you're booked through the Casino At Sea program, you will be directed to a shorter line to check in.

Yes, there is a current promotion going on right now that you needed to login in order to see certain discounts:

Your cruise is probably part of this promotion.

https://www.ncl.com/latitudes-rewards-program/insider-offer

20% off select Caribbean sailings or the free spend and additional rewards point.

It depends on the restaurant and the waiter you get. With the 1 entree, 1 app and 1 dessert - you should already be full.

The person who the cruise is comped to must be on board. If not, the other person would need to pay the full rate or whatever the rate is for one person for that room plus the port & taxes.

Plenty of activities to do that you can choose from and you won't be bored. On the first day, take part in the spa tour and sign up for shows (comedy shows and the Escape the Big Top) if you are interested. Also any art classes, if you are interested - you need to sign up at the box office (I believe the cost was $35). Sign and join your cruise roll - meet & greet. Make sure to check out Food Republic.

There are times where they do offer cruises to other places/ports. But mostly cruises to the Caribbean / to Bahamas.

One of my friend do gamble, she only play the slot machines and does not gamble a lot. She wanted to go on a cruise to Europe. NCL said she did not have enough points/credits to go, but can only select cruises (to the Caribbean/to Bahamas or to Bermuda). She selected to go to Bermuda. Depending on your credits, you would be offered different types of room. If you gamble less, you would start off on a inside room. Of course you can upgrade to another type of room, but you would need to pay for it out of pocket. Comp. cruises is not totally free as you would need to pay the admin fee, the port taxes and the dsc charge. Think of it as saving some costs.

For the cabin, you would tell your cabin steward if you see him or her. If not, just leave a note on the bed or wherever the note can be seen. For example, you can also request for more hangers and for the mattress topper if they have one.

For no salt on food, you would need to just tell the waitress.

32 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Is there an option to upgrade to the premium  streaming plan after getting on the ship?  From the examples given I don't see if that is possible from a cell phone or laptop.  

 

The procedure is, connect to wifi network, then enter login.com or is there another page to look for?

Whichever device you are using - for example, your cellphone - you turn on the airplane mode and the wifi mode. Then connect it to the ship wifi network and yes enter the login.com. Once on that page, it will ask if you are a new user or already setup/signed on. You would go ahead to create a user/pw and then you will select the plan you wanted to use (for example) the comp. wifi. Remember to logout each time you finished. Then next time you use it, go to login.com again and input user/pw again.

No one need to convince you to why give or go on NCL for a try. You should plan your cruise on the destinations/ports and based on what cruise ship you wanted to be on and the total cost of the vacation. Some prefer the smaller cruise ships, like Gem and some wanted newer things or experience a big cruise ships like (Breakaway, Escape, Bliss, Joy). Newer cruise ships will come out in the future, Encore.  Bliss have the racing track and laser tags that other cruise ships does not have.

For me, when I want to go on a cruise - I would go with NCL because of their solo pricings.

From NYC til out of the line (territorial water), it was less than $1.00

No need to worry about the taxes while in port, just go ahead to get and enjoy drinks once on board.

You already paid the gratuity on these drinks.

If a cabin is more important, then be happy with your choice. Sometimes a random balcony or any types of room that was assigned might not be good. Enjoy your cruise.

You have to pay the admin fee of at least $140 per person. It might be increased later on. Right now, some people are paying $280.00 for two people for 7 days.

The cruise that goes out of Miami, check if it included the open bar. If that is the case, you already needed to include the taxes/gratuity for the drink. Check the taxes of the port. You can do a mocking of the cruise to get an idea of what the port taxes you would have to pay.

Then you also need to prepaid or pay the DSC at the end of the cruise before you get off the cruise ship. Right now the DSC is $14.50 per day. 7 days, would be $101.50 and for 2 people = $203.00.

The whole cruise for two people would probably cost between $800-$1,000 something.

FYI, if your cruise is through the casino - you would get a casino card drink on the house.

However, it is not for all drinks. But you can get waters, red/white wine.

There are plenty of shops like Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, McDonald's that you can go to for free wifi.