Rob_H

These should only have two Ts, not 3. 🙂 Also, on Aug 30, 2023 we posted the following addition to this thread but it somehow got missed in the update: RR0DG Ambassador Tier Comp Cruise (Yes, we did both get our "free" cruises last year!)

Moderno has gone downhill during 2023. The salad bar (with sushi) is still great, but the meat is now of poor quality, poorly cooked, with long gaps where they don't circulate with any meat at all. On the smaller ships (we were on the Spirit, Star, Jade and Jewel in 2023) we're not going to go there anymore (unless we feel like having a good salad), we gave it many chances to do better. We go to Cagneys again instead. On one of those ships in 2023, the Moderno cook literally didn't know what he was cooking. He'd send the servers out with "lamb" when it was beef, and so on. Several times. It because a joke when we had to keep correcting the names of what they were offering. We finished by asking for the fried "banana" which was delicious as always. 🙂

You'll receive a "back-to-back letter" onboard a day or two before the end of cruise one. This will explain the process and timings, which can vary depending on the ship and port. The letter will include some luggage tags, which show your new room number. You pack up your luggage (other than things you need if you're going ashore on the turnaround day), attach the tags, and leave it in your room (do not put it out in the hall the night before!). Your room attendant will know you're moving (although it doesn't hurt to remind them) and they will move your luggage to your new room, during the turnaround day. You need to leave your room at the normal time in the morning (like 8am) and probably won't have access to your new room until everybody else does (like 1pm or later). When you need to go and get the new key card depends on the ship. Usually you have to go to guest services on the turnaround morning, some ships allow it earlier. If you can get your new card earlier, it may only work to let you back on the ship, not into the new room (because the room was occupied on cruise 1). In that case, you have to go to guest services again to get an updated card, after disembarkation of those other people who were in your new room.

Three Norwegian Sky cruises for November 2024 were cancelled around 21 Feb 2024 (Barcelona-Haifa, Haifa-Dubai, Dubai-Mauritius). The replacement cruises (which we're booked on) appeared on the website around 13 March 2024. These are Barcelona-Lisbon, Lisbon-Cape Town, Cape Town - Mauritius which avoid not just Israel but the Red Sea as well. The Sky gets to Mauritius in time for the existing cruise to Singapore and onwards to the Asia season. So three cruises had to be replaced to get the ship in position. So, to answer your question, the replacements were announced about three weeks after the cancellations.

The stated reason for the Jade's redeployment is strong demand for Panama, yet the four cruises cancelled were all going through the canal. Maybe a megaship will be redeployed there later to replace the Jade. Oh well, at least we have another 10% voucher to add to our collection!

We've used that number 70 bus several times. It goes both clockwise and anticlockwise, take whichever comes first. It's a little minibus that is only once an hour in each direction so can be totally swamped by cruise people in the morning. 50c per trip, cash only, no change. At Kukui Grove (the mall) you can change onto the "trunk" routes (still tiny buses) that go up and down the island. $2 per trip. Exact change only. Use the transit option (image of a train) in Google Maps directions to get a live schedule with connections. We went to Poipu Beach that way, using the 70, then the 200, then another local bus, all as shown by Google. Total $3 each (each way) compared to $40ish quote for an Uber. Only do this if you have plenty of time (like an overnight).

I don't know about megaships, but yes many cruise lines are re-routing via West Africa and South Africa. For examle the Norwegian Sky was going to be leaving New York on Oct 21, 2024, to Barcelona, then Israel, then the Red Sea to Dubai, then Mauritius, before heading across the Indian Ocean to Singapore for an Asia season. The Israel disembarkation/embarkation port got changed to Athens months ago. Then when it became clear the Red Sea wasn't going to get sorted any time soon, those trips were cancelled, the three cruises from Barcelona to Mauriius. In the past couple of weeks, new cruises were added to replace them. After Barcelona the Sky will make it's way slowly to Lisbon via the Canaries, then a 21 day West Africa from Lisbon to Cape Town, then east Africa to Mauritius to arrive as originally scheduled, to continue to Asia. There are many port stops on the replacement cruises so there shouldn't be any problem with bunkering or supplies. We'll be on these cruises, from New York to Mauritius. For your cruise, 21 days to get from Dubai to the Mediterranean via South Africa would be tight, it couldn't have many port stops. It would work better if they took a bit longer and split it into two, probably at Cape Town.

Any amounts charged to your account are first deducted from non-refundable OBC, if they are eligible, until your non-ref OBC runs out. After that, charges are deducted from the refundable OBC. When that runs out, your bill has an amount to pay. You can get a printout of your account from guest services as any point during the cruise. At the end, this will show your remaining non-ref OBC, and your ref OBC, so you can keep track of what's left. The account on the app doesn't show these figures. BTW, another thing you can use non-ref OBC for (but hopefully don't need to): charges from the onboard medical centre.

Norwegian has various options in Nov/Dec this year for transatlantic round trips. Fine if you don't mind the cold weather in Europe at that time. All 2024 unless stated. From the US to Europe are: Oct 21-Nov 4, Norwegian Sky, NY to Barcelona Nov 3-Nov 17, Norwegian Encore, Miami to London Return from Europe to US after those: Nov 7-Nov 23, Norwegian Prima, Rome to NY Nov 26-Dec 10, Norwegian Escape, Barcelona to Miami Nov 30-Dec 14. Norwegian Pearl, Barcelona to Miami Dec 3-Dec 15, Norwegian Encore, London to Miami Also works in the other direction (round trip from Europe), earlier outbounds from Europe are: Oct 6-Oct 18, Norwegian Getaway, Lisbon to Miami Oct 17-Oct 30, Norwegian Epic, Rome to Orlando return on Oct 21 NY, Nov 3 Miami, or: Jan4-Jan 17 (2025) Norwegian Bliss Miami to London Most of these are very reasonably priced (except the Prima).

Phone any Norwegian number to cancel the cruise (whichever office is awake). Don't rely on email. Don't expect the cruise to auto-cancel, there's often a few days grace, so you have to take action. The call centre person may say you have to go through the PCC, but if it's urgent you should insist they do it (and send you an email confirmation). The PCC may be on holiday, or have left the company. We tried a PCC for a while but the slow response (especially for repricing) is why we fired her. As Keith says, you may have booked the cruise in a region where deposits are not refunded.

It can take a week or so after the end of the cruise for it to reach the account. The onboard sales people batch them up and they get processed on shore later. Some ships are slower than others, could be over a week.

We mostly go on long cruises, and b2b (and b2b2b and beyond). So for us the key metric is total cost per cabin per night. Lower cost means more cruises. During 2018 and 2019, our budget was a total cost (including port fees and service charges) of US$200 per cabin per night ($100 per person), inside. Sometimes the service charges or a special cruise that worked just right would push it a little over, but most of the time we could keep to that. In 2022 and 2023 we've had 25 cruises on Norwegian. A few have been within our pre-Covid budget, but most have not. We've had to increase our budget to $300 total price per cabin per night ($150 per person). With this budget we've been able to get some fantastic cruises to exotic places, so it's still well worth it and a great deal. But, yes, the prices are now higher. The price of shore excursions on NCL is another issue, we've been fully priced out of that market, just not worth it. And honestly we've had much more fun doing things more independently, so don't miss them.

At Currimao we took a shared van to Vigan city, a heritage city further south. Our ship was late arriving, and Currimao was further away than Salomague, so we had quite a short time there. You'd be able to be there longer, hopefully. It's quite a run down city with old colonial buildings.

There's currently still a gap in the Sky schedules from Mar 13, 2025 (Seoul) to Apr 12 (Doha). That does leave open the possibility of a connection from the Sun arriving Singapore on Mar 25 to catch the Sky towards Europe, if the two missing cruises have the right date in Singapore!

It's a USB A socket, and quite a slow charge. Above the bed. We use a longer than normal cable (3m/10ft) so that there's plenty of slack when the phone is on the bedside table or being read in bed, a standard length cable is a bit of a stretch. We also have our own fast charger which we plug in elsewhere in the room for a quick boost.