ColdCruise

I guess my level of acceptable risk would be in proportion to the price difference but, if significant , I’d take the chance and buy insurance (do that anyway due to possibility of unknown changes - we usually travel enuf that annual plan makes sense)

@vtgumby I used Quark, they were using World Explorer which is owned by a Portuguese company, Mystic. Quark provided the expedition team and ran the gift shop, everyone else was employed by Mystic. Quark had a good Black Friday promotion - significant discount & possibility to be matched w same sex roommate to avoid single supplement (got unlucky & had a match, a couple other got lucky on that trip and ended up without a match). Good trip but not sure id choose them again. I left a trip review under Quark. Strangely, upon returning to work i was in a meeting with a guy who'd also just returned. Comparing expedition experiences I felt they had more time on target, so would consider his expedition team for future trip (although he also may have paid considerably more pp). He & his wife used an Australian company- Aurora Expeditions

@vtgumby Are you using a vpn with a European point of presence and a secure browser ? I tried using a vpn in Frankfurt AND the duckduckgo browser for a booking on a 12 day, 30 oct trip w northern lights guarantees in a polar outside guarantee cabin. I got all the way to the part where I had to enter my credit card for the deposit. btw price was (or 2) 43,028 nok (~$4,110)

@bones774 I know this thread died off several months ago, but I am investigating a coastal cruise for fall 2023 and thought Hurtigruten was only choice. Did this issue ever get resolved or are you still in limbo? Havila didn't show up in search but glad I checked this forum and I will look into their trips. The coastal trip with Hurtigruten has been in my radar fir several years and I’m astonished how their overall pricing and product has changed as they became more mainstream tourist centered. They were my front leader for polar expeditions until recently. Just returned from Antarctica with another company as well as different companies for Svalbard & Greenland recent past. thanks !

I had not looked at Hapag Lloyd for Arctic cruising @jeff74 I hope you love the trip and review it here as I don’t think there are a lot of cruise critic mentions of this operator (big for commercial shipping though they are).

Just returned home from my World Explorer Crossing the Circle trip. I’ll be posting a trip report shortly but wanted to comment on the Shake. Going south, crew called it “moderate seas” but the notorious puke bags were out in force and the housekeeping staff was on high stand-by with multiple wet “caution” signs up indicating past incidents. A lot of people were not out and about. Going north almost 2 weeks later we had a much more intense experience - Beaufort scale 6/7 with frequent 7 meter waves (crashing over the open bow on deck 5 and higher) with most open deck areas closed except for the partially protected smokers area on deck 7 port side, right behind the observation deck. At least 1/3 passengers seemed to be skipping meals in the dining room. Dramamine was a popular topic. lovely ship, btw

Agree with the comment about that spa locker room @RVACruiser43 - waaaay too small, after the 1st visit, I just did everything (re changing, showering after) in my cabin and only used the lockers to hold things. A shame cuz the shower was very good in there but… no place to dress comfortably.

Ecuador pegs it’s money to the US Dollar (at par) and freely uses it within the country.

I don’t recall that - good reason to pick an experienced Arctic/Antarctic operator!! no details please - leaving Monday & wish I didn’t know about that rogue wave or the 2 people who died on World Explorer when their rib boat flipped!

Your sister is my soul sister ! I’ve looked at those lovely suitcases but we’ve been successful using Wine Wings (Amazon) and padding with dirty clothes with the alcohol inside dry bags in case if breakage.

All these stories of bad behavior from Royal have me rethinking booking with them. unfortunate as my company has a rewards portal that offers a $1000 US gift card for Royal cruises that I qualify for and was thinking if selecting. I don't need more “stuff” but don’t think I want 1K in restaurant gift cards.

Thanks for the twice back info! I paid my first year through college cooking chicken wings at a bar in the Buffalo area …. before they became a nationwide food, so I consider myself a fair judge of wings. The ones we had in Prima last fall were just ok - not crisp enough nor well sauced. Both issues easily addressed. A shame as I remember the ones from O’Sheehans as better (esp on Gem). But … hey … sit down bar food on a cruise ship in the middle of the night … I can deal with it

Ahhh good question @ChiefMateJRK. I guess i should say I also do it from an anonymized browser. I just noticed with airfare that i get different prices than when repeatedly checking from home and assumed the same tracking of account & device occurred with NCL.

@BirdTravelsnice photos of the empty pools - you can see where the jets are! I wish I’d had those when the staff initially told me the pools weren't jetted on the 3 September cruise. I take it they've since (between Sept & Dec) fixed the jets so they now work?? (Later on the first cruise, different spa staff said the lines were installed wrong and couldn’t be fixed till Prima got to Miami) for sure that whole spa complex is beautiful though, with superb seating (ir laying) up front! We cancelled a couple 14 day NCL cruises to take an Antarctic expedition, but that still leaves a big travel gap between March & August so Im thinking of giving Prima another go now NCL’s had time to iron out some bugs & get all the shows staffed. Maybe May-ish

Wow - now why have I never thought of bringing the wine home? 🤯 Well, other than the bottles we've had in Cagney's have been nicer than the by the glass options in the basic drinks package . good tip though!

As above post state, that is true in my experience. ine thing to consider if its after final payment - call your TA or PCC and ask to pay fir an upgrade to the cabin type that currently cost closest to what you paid. An example: if you paid $1000pp for an oceanview but now the OV is $800pp but a balcony costs $1025pp, ask to upgrade to the balcony at the new price. You’re out 25pp but have a better cabin grade with more perks (under the current scheme). You should gave more luck at this than requesting a refund of the excess for the OV, or the non refundable OBC they might offer. pmPersonally, I dislike getting nonrefundable ObC - i have to “buy” things i probably wouldn't normally choose just to use it up.

Assuming you have the drink package as part of your FAS bundle, yes paying the 20% service fee is worthwhile if you have at least 2 drinks per day. But the cost if your drink package ( $99 a day last cruise) is built into your cabin rate ( as are the other “free” options in FAS. So if you’re not a big drinker, and not picky about room location (a big IF), sail-away cabin and pay as you go drinks can save a lot of money …. Something I always price out esp if I’m on a long port day intensive itinerary and not planning to use NCl’s BOGO air. just something to consider

Look at the bottom line. All the (4) cruises we booked prior to this “2nd guest sail free” hoopla ended up costing more or less than $20 difference if we booked like-for-like with “sail free” promo. We kept our original bookings. A good practice, once you book a cruise, is to periodically make a fake booking (ie all the way through until you have to enter payment info) for your existing cruises to see whether you can reprice them and get a lower total cost. Sometimes you can save hundreds. Do that without logging into your account then again while logged in to see if you get more latitudes points.

I did an « almost live » trip report on the first paying passenger trip Sept 3rd. The report has lots of photos and the dailies plus some other literature the ship passed out during the cruise. There was so much to do Onboard and in our port-intensive days, I struggled with posting daily 🤣 (I should finish the report, even if belatedly) Given that this was NOT the inaugural cruise we were sold and expected, and a lot of things weren’t working or not quite as advertised (spa pool jets inoperable, limited “headline” entertainment), I am looking for an opportunity to sail Prima again. We still work and have 2023 fully booked as well as most of 2924,we probably won’t do it or will do Viva first (looks to be identical down to color palettes). Prima will make a fantastic warm weather ship, albeit with a small “general population” pool 😉. Our cruise was Northern Europe/Scandinavia, we had mostly beautiful weather and enjoyed the outside spaces. My next cruise is an Antarctic expedition & I doubt I’ll be lounging outside in shorts this time.

@10july86 i’d love to hear your impression of World Explorer and your drake experiences when you sail or return. I’m booked on World Explorer mid February and crossing my fingers it’ll be the “ Drake Lake” at least in one direction!

@Gggggss There were some very good promotions for Black Friday (US) and I think a few are still on the table. I’m not sure how much a “thing” that is in the UK but it’s all via internet & snail here, so I’d think most offers would be an option for UK residents ? We visited Svalbard this past June/July on Ocean Atlantic - an older ship with a wide variety of cabins and reasonable pricing that for our trip started in the 2000s (USD). Despite being older, the ship was more than up to the task, good expedition team, food was varied and good (great 4th of July BBQ at 14th of July glacier!) and it more or less lived up to expectations. you can PM me and I can share agent and more pricing details.

@BelleEpoque(great name BTW) check out the you tube video from Ship Life (Jay) or Matzi (forgot his channel) - they both covered those rooms, Jay was staying in one and did an in-depth.

The jets in the 2 spa pools didn’t work on the 3 September “ inaugural” paying pax cruise. Disappointing as we were in a spa balcony. At first,spa staff insisted the pools weren’t jetted pools until we pointed out the actual jets several days into the cruise. Then one of the spa staff told us they didn’t work because the lines (plumbing) weren’t connected (or connected incorrectly) and that it w/couldn’t be fixed until Prima got to Miami.

@groundloop send a pm to @reeinaz and ask her opinion. She had mostly done Carnival but now appears to embrace the NCL experience Never having sailed Carnival, I cant offer a personal opinion. But we are booked on the Legend to Greenland next August, I may have a valid comparison then 👌

Hopefully you canceled your entertainment reservations when you didn’t go. A lot of Prima’s entertainment venues are on the small side, esp Std Norman's & the Improv. When we were on Prima in September we missed several shows because they were ”sold out”, and we only got into 1 by last minute waiting in line. Really regret missing the cover band - everyone said they were great. BTW, with more than 10 cruises under your belt in 3 years @reeinaz, including the covid shutdown, I don’t think i’d consider you “a new cruiser”. A lot of people on the forum only cruise 1-2x a year and wouldn’t call themselves new. I hear singles really love the Primas studio option happy cruising!