johnrich

Although it’s not necessary to print in color, the same thing happened to me. I clicked on the link to the luggage tags and it only printed in black and white. Without changing any settings, when I printed out my eDocs the red and blue print did print correctly. I ended up using the snipping tool to copy the luggage tag then pasted it into Word to print and it printed fine in color.

Is NCL now using Southwest as one of their airlines or is that who you ended up booking with on your own? I know they’ve had a bad rap recently, but we still love flying with them.

I see you are in a concierge Family Suite. We have one booked on the Joy for May. What do you think of the suite? How is the virtual balcony? Have you seen the concierge much or is it a quick meeting on the first day and they say “if you need anything just let me know” and you don’t see them again? Are there any additional plugs (electrical) in the suite than a regular balcony stateroom? Did your “master bedroom” have the bathtub or just the larger shower in the bathroom? Sorry for so many questions, just want to know what to expect. Thanks so much.

A couple years ago we rented a car from Budget at MCO when we flew in the day before our cruise then drove to Port Canaveral the next morning. We just dropped it off at the Budget on Astronaut Blvd and they drove us to the ship. After the cruise they picked us up and drove us back to their lot where we picked up another car and took it back to MCO. It was much cheaper doing 2 one day rentals than dealing with paying for parking for the whole week. The shuttle picks up for Avis, Budget and Enterprise even though they are on different lots. It was very convenient, economical and very close to the port.

I believe it depends on the travel agent. When we used one, we had vouchers in our room saying “A Gift from….” and they were refundable OBC and we could use them anywhere for anything on the ship. When other family members went, their TA actually went in to the Gifts and More section of the website and did a Spa gift and they were told they had to use it in the spa, but if that is the case, not sure how the bingo $ would work since you can’t book that online. Good luck either way. As another poster has said, if you don’t use any spa treatments maybe just use it to purchase beauty products.

We loved the Breakaway. When we had a group (there were 6 of us), we would talk to the hostess at one of the main dining rooms and they would make us reservations for the next day but would only do one day at a time. This was before covid but I would assume they would still do it.

I know for a while NCL was doing muster drill videos and then you just had to checkin to your muster station during a certain time period on embarkation day and were then free to go about your first day. I thought I read that they were going to go back to doing it the previous way with everyone crammed into small spaces and standing there while crew tried to explain things while half the people were talking over them. I haven’t seen or heard anything lately. Any recent (last month or so) cruisers who can tell me which way it’s done currently?

I agree, Choir of Man is one of our favorites. We’ve seen it several times. We also really like Six. We saw that twice - and now seeing it on land. Choir of Man seems to have a fairly simple set and Six has very few cast members so I am hoping both might be expanded to other ships.

We stayed at the Hampton Inn Ridgefield Park. The hotel room was nice but getting to the hotel and getting out is very confusing and sometimes difficult. You have to enter through a gas station parking lot. Exiting isn’t as confusing but when we were there it was very difficult to turn into the main road because of traffic. Just be careful

I thought it would be triple and quad, but both confirmations only list LATDBLX so I’m thinking that’s only double. Guess I need to contact someone in Latitudes Rewards Dept. to make sure it is changed. NEVERMIND - I just found the codes and that code means 2 bonus points per night.

We just “upgraded” to one of these rooms for our May Bermuda cruise (although the first two NCL reps kept saying that it was a downgrade and we’d lose some of our benefits since it was an inside. Finally on my third call I got someone who knew of the Family Suite and said she’s heard lots of good things about it and said it was def an upgrade). We are also on the Joy for the Thanksgiving cruise. If we like the suite in May, we may upgrade for the Thanksgiving trip as well.

If you’re on the webpage, go to View Reservation. If on the app, pull up the reservation and go to My Plans. scroll down below the map and the itinerary. You will see Vacation Add-ons. As shown above (as well as in other posts) the description states 6 1L of flow water. We made our one reservation back in May and a second reservation in November and both are showing the regular Free at Sea includes the 6 1L cartons. Since we’re platinum, I am guessing we will therefore get 7 cartons each.

We were thinking of upgrading our upcoming Joy sailing to Bermuda. We currently have a balcony (category B4). We were looking at the 2 bedroom Family Suite (Category SP). We know this is an interior cabin but we were still thinking of trying it. Several questions for people who have stayed in one of these cabins: 1. Is the virtual balcony actually what is viewed live from the outside of the ship. I.e., if we are docked, will we see the dock area on the screen (if port side) or will it always be the same ocean image? 2. Did you receive all the normal Free at Sea amenities? The rep I was dealing with insisted it was a downgrade because it is going from a balcony to an inside cabin and we’d only get the amenities for an inside cabin. If I do a mock reservation I get the same amenities as I did with a balcony cabin, so as usual not sure I trust the NCL customer service reps. I know we can wait to bid on this, but not sure we want to chance missing out on the extra space. Any help is greatly appreciated.

I almost always book through NCL and have always had the choice of bidding on an upgrade. Since our upcoming cruise is the first one we’ve taken since Covid I wasn’t sure if things have changed. If I click on the Room Upgrades button on the My Plans Page and type in my name and reservation number it says “reservation not found.” Is there a time frame when bidding starts? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

I know that if there are two passengers in a room, you only get one set of platinum dinner vouchers, but what if there are three pax in the room and all three of us are platinum? Is the third person out of luck? Trying to determine how many specialty dinners we need to purchase. TIA.

When I look at the Explore and Plan section on the NCL app, under the dining tab is a “Specialty Dining Upgrade.” I’ve tried to click to get info but it never seems to show any info. Just keeps circling. We already have our two FAS specialty meals plus our platinum specialty meal vouchers. Just wondering what the “upgrade” is. It doesn’t list the number of meals. Any help is appreciated.

Great review! Thanks so much! We love NCL but haven’t been on the Joy yet, although we do have a cruise booked on her for next May.

We’ve been on the Escape before and love it. Have a trip booked on the Joy for our next cruise. As far as ports go, we have done Roatan, Costa Maya and Cozumel quite a few times and always loved them. Roatan and Cozumel we do something different each time. In Costa Maya we always go to Maya Chan Beach Resort for the day. It is awesome! Highly recommend it for the family. It’s all inclusive (including transportation from the ship) and lots to do for all ages! If I were you, I’d do a tour of Cozumel (try Black Hat Tours, they’re great) and have the beach day in Costa Maya. We’ve been to Tortola three times. Yeah, it was nice but not great IMHO so the third time we never got off the ship. We’ve never been to Puerta Plata. As far as St. Thomas, we’ve been there many times and it’s great but I would prefer the other options.

I read many good reviews about Heidi. We were supposed to tour with her three years ago but our cruise was diverted due to a hurricane that never hit. We just booked with her again for our upcoming Bermuda cruise. Above is another post I just found on a different thread.

Thanks. I knew it had to stop at a foreign port, but didn’t know it had to be a distant foreign port. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.

Thanks GTJ! Actually it’s not the Breakaway. It’s the Joy next spring but it is doing the same thing the Breakaway does and deadheads from Miami to NYC with no pax. I would think they could make the last cruise in Miami a short 3-nighter to the Bahamas then do a northbound from Miami with pax and do a stop in the Bahamas or even Canada before coming to NYC. I would think something like that would be PVSA compliant. I’ll be anxious to see what time the Breakaway gets into NYC next month and starts to board as that may give me a bit more data to plan my trip.

Our cruise doesn’t leave until 11:00 PM. I am assuming it is since the ship is repositioning from Miami to New York. We have air and transfers through NCL. If we have an early flight and are able to make it to the pier early (before they start allowing people into the terminal) is there someplace at the port to store our luggage so we can explore Manhattan? Has anyone ever had a late evening departure (11 PM)? What time do they usually let you start boarding?

Recently booked a sailing on the Joy. I was reading over some of the paperwork, and it states that “This cabin has an enclosed balcony.” Based on the deck plans it looks like an angled balcony but what do they mean by enclosed? If it is indeed enclosed, is it truly a balcony? Stateroom Category is B4. Stateroom is 14256. If anyone has any pics of an enclosed balcony it would be greatly appreciated. TIA.