tony@stanton19.freeserve.
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Posts posted by tony@stanton19.freeserve.
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We have just done a Rome to Athens cruise on the Getaway and were told that the ship was onlt 1/3 full, with just over 1300 onboard.
We were told that was partly due to some South Americans cancelling due to difficulties with them entering Turkey. When we boarded, we were informed that Kusadasi had been removed from the itinerary and we would go to Volos in Greece instead. This actually meant that as the ship never left the EU, they couldn't sell any Duty Free goods and all tabacco and alcohol was removed from the shops.
The fact that the ship was so empty made for a great cruise experience with lots of space in the Garden Cafe, no waits for elevators and no trouble getting into the shows. In fact they seemed to be press ganging the entertainment staff to attend the shows to fill up the seats.
But you have to remember that this is the Med in winter which is a very quiet period anyway and tourism is just waking up from the COVID Coma. Places like Pompeii and Dubrovnik were virtually empty so with travel restictions just tstarting to be lifted, not many people are travelling. I suspect it will take the warmer spring weather and increasing custome confidence to bring tourists out of their enforced prolonged hibernation.-
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We always go for it as there are three of us. The standard balcony is tiny, barely large enough for the two chairs on it which you would need to incline to avoid banging knees on the glass. The large balcony has two loungers, two chairs and a full height table. The deck eight ones are the best. I'm not sure if all minisuite get the spa jet shower but the M6 definitely does which is worth it.
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Cesar Manrique's house is wonderful as is the Jameo del Agua. Hopefully the tour will also take in the Cueva del Verde with its secret surprise at the end. The whole tour is a wonderful experience. Make sure you take your camera.
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Now I know I will be shouted at and told that we shouldn't be doing this but we always pack a travel Kettle, take our own tea bags and borrow cups from the Buffet and make our own morning cuppa, we have done this on NCL, RCI and Celebrity and it's never been a problem in around 20 cruises.
You can also get the small cartons of milk they have by the cereals at breakfast and keep it in your cabin fridge.
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We are attending the Manchester event this afternoon. Can't decide whether to drive as it's only a few miles from home. Parking is free but they may be serving Prosecco as they are promoting "Premium All Inclusive". No guilt as we booked POA the day after the AI launch date.
Will post again after the event.
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Free At Sea is a different program, and once Premium All-Inclusive goes live on April 6, Free At Sea should disappear from the UK website.
I don't fully understand the liquor laws in Hawaii, but evidently you are allowed to give people unlimited alcohol as part of their cruise fare, but you are not allowed to offer unlimited alcohol as an optional add-on.
I got a similar impression from a UK NCL PCC I spoke to today. You can't sell it as an add on but if it's included it's OK. He said he had heard that it was included as part of the initial trial in Germany so he predicted that as the current Free at Sea promotion ended on 5th April, it would be included as the Premium Unlimited promotion starts on 6th April.
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It says it's available in Hawaii but doesn't list the UBP on the Hawaii Free at Sea options. It's a little ambiguous but I hope it's available.
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If you haven't done so already, have a look at the CC Hawaii message board - and/or even the CC Pride of America roll calls (even if you aren't sailing with them in Hawaii). Lots of information there.
Thanks.
Have started looking in the Hawaii boards and will look at the POA roll-calls as its probably going to be that ship.
It would be nice to do the other lines but by the time we have done the TA flight then a two week cruise, with probably pre or post cruise stay it means we're spending an awful lot of time and money to do just three days in Hawaii.
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Loving you review. We are considering a Hawaii vacation and looking at all the options. Coming all the way from UK it's important that we get it right so your report is very helpful...............And fun too.....
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Just jumping onto this thread as we are considering a Hawaii cruise and would be interested to see any tips on planning.
Tony
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If you click on the reply link in the email, it gives all the dates and cities. My daughter got sent it as she seems to have been selected as the point of contact in our home. Have emailed back asking for the invitation to be reissued to us as we would love to find out what this is all about, especially the "exciting new product enhancement for the UK that will bring new meaning to premium contemporary cruising" and "discover the new way to cruise and help us celebrate another first for Norwegian"
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No additional charge. You give your voucher to the hostess so she gives you the right wine menu. You get 1-1-1 (one appitizer, one entree, one dessert) each plus a bottle of wine. We always order a couple of extra appitizers and pay the difference, if asked.
Thank you for your answer. It's useful to know and we haven't had a Platinum meal since they changed the charging system.
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has any solo cruiser used the dinner voucher for two dinners for themselves or is that not allowed?
My wife and I travel with our daughter and all three of us are Platinum, so we get three vouchers for dinner for two. So six meals in total
We have asked if we could use them as two meals for three but they wouldn't let us. So if we went as a threesome twice we would have had to pay for an extra meal for our daughter.
As CruisinHarvey says, it doesn't do any harm to ask though. They may do the second one but with only one bottle of wine for both occasions.
Having done most of the speciality restaurants several times, this isn't a big deal for us so we don't bother.
I would rather go out for a meal on a separate occasion rather than pay extra unnecessarily on the ship. I've already paid once for food and ship restaurants are rarely better than land based places. We're usually more than happy with the included restaurants.
In saying that if there's a reason to do so such as the Illusionarium show or the Teppanyaki then that's something that we would normally do ashore so it's worth doing.
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No, they don't do an automatic charge for gratuity. You just give your voucher to the hostess when you check in for your reservation.
Thanks
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Can anyone tell me if you get charged the 18% gratuity when you use the Platinum meal voucher now that the speciality restaurants are charging a la carte?
Didn't get round to making reservations in time on our cruise last September so "missed out" on three dinners for two.
Not that we were worried but just interested whether they apply the service charge on the Platinum perk.
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to me , they should have a quick exit path and reserved elevator for haven. otherwise you are just like the common man fighting for one after the show
Perhaps they could do special showings inside the Haven for all the Haven guests so you could avoid having to mix and fight with the common man to leave the theatre.
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Thanks everyone for the your knowledgeable replies. Quite a learning curve for a first time cruiser, and visitor to NYC. Ive saved this thread and will return to it for reference. Definitely will book a room on a high floor. I'll wait to see how many free hours I'll actually have in NYC before we cruise, and then decide the priorities about the exact location. I'll look at the prices and decide if we can actually add a further night before we cruise, that would be very appealing. I'll leave Ink48 to you hi-rollers;) (Looks great though).
I'm sure to be back again for further advice. Much appreciated.
You may also wish to consider a night in a NYC hotel post cruise. It's easy to transfer by cab and eliminates the problem of what to do with your luggage all day as your flight will be that night.
You will then effectively get two days in New York. Most hotels will hold your luggage either for a fee or tip.
Also bear in mind that cabs have a fixed rate between Manhattan and JFK
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We normally book with Virgin and have used the Westin At Times Squre on our last two occasions. We love the location as it's right opposite the bus station, subway and one block away from Times Square and in the heart of the Theatres District. Booking with Virgin will give you a $15 per person bar credit and it's an easy 15 min walk to the Manhattan Cruise terminal. Although we walked back up on this occasion it was a bit of an effort as it's a gentle steady uphill climb.
While we were in the area we did notice The Travel Inn on West 42nd Street which is fairly close to the river which would be very convenient and seems a little more basic for a simple overnight stay, never stayed there but would consider it.
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Waterfront Boardwalk Roof on Deck 9
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The very first time we booked the Breakaway, I hadn't done my homework and took the minisuite offered by my travel agent.
When I got home I checked it out and it was a mini midships on Deck 9 over the Waterfront. These have the roof of the Waterfront directly in front of them something like a sidewalk and may restrict your sea view below. I will try to post a picture later.
If smoke from the bar below on the starboard side is an issue you may not enjoy these cabins.
On that occasion, we re-booked for an M6 and have done so ever since.
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With 2.5 days on the islands, you can book many of the same tours on your own and easily save 1/3 or more. Please see the BDA forum under Destination here in CC, if case you haven't - all sorts of tips, advice, latest info, FAQ's, etc. Not to mention several resident experts on BDA. Ship's prices for excursions are for your convenience and ... overpriced, including beach "transfers".
Have fun planning - if it's not readable, please leave a note and I will run them again on the hi-res flatbed scanner.
Thanks it's perfectly readable and very helpful.
For example a Two tank scuba dive is $179 v £122.50 on the UK site. That works out at an exchange rate of 1.4 $ to the £ which is what we were getting before the Brexit vote. Some of the other prices on the UK site were only showing a 1.2 exchange rate which was terrible.
We have been on the Breakaway to Bermuda three years ago and found the Ports of call boards very useful in planning our trip. Last time we used the local transport and did our own thing. The two NCL trips we had booked was cancelled due to the appalling storms that we had on our first day in port.
Will now have to start planning our trip. (Also our pre-cruise trip to Niagara and NYC)
Thanks again
Tony
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Many thanks for that
It will make interesting reading.
The UK site hasn't changed their prices depicted the drop in the Pound. The exchange rate used by NCL has always been very poor.
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Does anyone have a recent copy of the Breakaway Shore Excursion Pricelist please?
We are booked on the Sept 11 sailing and are interested to see what the onboard price will be as the UK MyNCL site shows the prices in GBP. I normally prefer to pay in US$ but this may not be wise with the current exchange rate uncertainty
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We flew into Miami in September last year and also the year before. On both occasions we had no significant delay clearing immigration but the walk from the gate took ages.
There is a site listing wait times but these are obviously dependant on how many planes land at a particular time so I don't see how they can predict a specific experience. We haven't flown out of Miami as we usually drive up to Orlando post - cruise so we can fly directly to Manchester.
Tranfers in Athens
in Norwegian Cruise Line
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Can't advise re taxi but we just got off Getaway in Athens and the ship's transfer was advertised onboard at $37 per person. We already had it prebooked and it's about an hour drive from the ship to the airport so I don't think a taxi would be cheap. There did seem to be plenty of taxis at the port.