FarreyFamCruzin
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Posts posted by FarreyFamCruzin
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One tip for anyone taking a taxi in Cozumel, before you get into a cab ask the driver what the cost will be. If it sounds unreasonable, ask to see the rate card. If they "don't have one" or refuse to show it to you, don't get in their cab - they are going to try to overcharge you.
We made this mistake last week as we got in a cab at the Punta Lagosta port without asking the cost (but knowing the cost should be approximately $20) to get to Mr. Sanchos for our family of 4. We were shocked when we handed him $25 as we got out that he told us the rates had recently changed and it was $40. When I asked for a rate card, he said the rate was so new that he didn't have a card yet. We knew we were being messed over but to get on with our day we forked over the extra $15 and told him that we knew he was overcharging so there would be no additional tip.
On the return to the ship, we asked the taxi captain at Mr Sanchos what it should cost for us to get back to Punta Lagosta and were told $22. That driver was upset that the taxi captain shared the correct rate with us based upon a call to his friend to inform him in Spanish not to go to Sancho's - they are telling people the right rates and that he can't believe he's going back to the port for $20.
I'm surprised he assumed that just be because we are Americans that people in the car don't speak Spanish 😀
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We did a vow renewal on the Getaway on the May 1 cruise. This included the Perspectives photographer and a studio session for our party - so I can’t comment on the sitting fee.
in terms of the prices per print, we were surprised to learn that the Perspectives studio is not the same as the ships photographers that are positioned throughout the ship and when exiting the ship at each port and photos taken in the studio can’t be printed as part of other photo packages. The perspective is most interested in selling you a collection of 8 - 12 canvas prints or metal prints that range from $1000 to $2500. They will also sell you the digital images and you give a copyright transfer letter that will allow you to print on your own off the ship.
To get a copy of all of the images (over 250 images) we were offered a package for $2000. This was much more than we had budgeted for pictures on the cruise so we asked for a lower cost package. In the end, we ended up purchasing a package of 24 digital images for $1200. It was a bit of a high pressure sales pitch; I’m confident that if I would have wanted to waste some of my precious vacation time to haggle we could have gotten a better deal, but after spending nearly 2 hours down-selecting the images, we were ready to get back to the fun.
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I was doing a mock booking for the May 1 sailing of the Getaway to see how full my cruise would be. I noticed on the informational page for the cruise, that the website is showing Casteries, St Lucia as a tender port. I checked my confirmation documents, and it clearly says that it’s a dock location. Which one should I trust? Is it normal to tender into St Lucia? The only reason I am asking, is that I have a private tour booked, and may need to let them know we may need a later start if it’s a tender port.
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My wife and I are cruising with family on the Getaway in a few weeks to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. We are considering splurging on the Private Vow Renewal package. Has anyone done this and would you recommend it?
Our only reservation is that it doesn’t appear that we have any input on the time it will happen (pending ship officer availability). Wondering how flexible NCL is on this…
Any input is appreciated
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I am seeing the same message on my November 22 cruise on the Breakaway out New Orleans.
We’re booked for the same cruise and I’m seeing the same thing. We were hoping for a Thanksgiving getaway (no pun intended). We knew when we made the final payment that there was a high likelihood that we were pre-paying our Jan 2022 9 day ABC islands cruise; looks like we will be using the additional 25% for OBC that would be used for a photo package and additional specialty dining nights.
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I think ready2cruzagain must be doing a back to back. The Jan 11 cruise is 11 days and the Jan 22 cruise is 10 days. We are on the Jan 11 sailing. While it wouldn’t break my heart if they extended the cruise by 10 days, I don’t think I’ll be that lucky. 😀
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5 hours ago, BirdTravels said:
Wow. You ask your steward to take time and go above and beyond and stiff two of them?
Towel animals are not “by request”. They have been discontinued. BIG difference.
If you request your room steward to do you a favor and fold them for you, that is not within their current job description and well above and beyond. Tip them.
@BirdTravels you always seem to be “in the know” for all things NCL, so much that I’ve wondered if you are an NCL employee yourself. However, in this case, I’m not sure I know where you are getting your information on the discontinuation of towel animals all together. I did a quick Google search and found multiple press articles quoting an April 2019 NCL press release that said:
”We are committed to being a responsible corporate citizen by fostering a culture of awareness and respect for our world’s resources. Our mission is to continually improve our sustainability culture through fresh innovation, progressive education and open collaboration. In this instance, we are assessing the impact of reducing the number of towel animals we showcase aboard a few of our ships.... We understand that many of our guests enjoy them as part of the experience of cruising with us so towel animals remain available upon request," the statement continued. "This is simply a test, and we are providing them if guests request them."
Here are a few links:
https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/3922/
https://www.travelpulse.com/news/cruise/norwegian-cruise-line-cutting-back-on-towel-animals.html
Where are you seeing / hearing that they have been discontinued all together? In my mind, “On request” is much different than “Discontinued”. If they are on request, I have no problems asking my steward to make them to bring joy to my kids on our cruise. If they truly are discontinued, it would be pretty obnoxious of me to ask for something that simply isn’t available.
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On 11/7/2019 at 4:19 PM, adam_s_allen said:
From the live threads of the Encore sailing there are up charge menu items in the specialties, at least at Ocean Blue.
The current model is better than what is was 1 1/2 years ago. When we sailed the Getaway in 2018, everyone paid a $25 up charge on top of the dining plan to eat at Ocean Blue. At least now, there are many menu items where you can enjoy the venue without adding to the tab. If you don’t want to spend more on-board, you can just go without lobster and enjoy something else on the menu. This method is much better as you would expect a land based restaurant to charge a premium for surf & turf vs the price for a seafood pasta.
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What really happens to cash tips given to you by guests? Do you get to keep it or does it go in a pool? Do cash tippers get better service?
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We will be in Roatan on Sunday in January and there are very few ship excursions being sold by NCL. We were thinking of doing a Rony’s Tour, but are seeing that many popular places (Daniel Johnson’s, Rum Factory, etc) are closed on Sundays. Other than a beach day and zip lines, what would you recommend a family with kids to do on Roatan?
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I am cruising on the this Breakaway in November out of New Orleans. All of these Bliss live feed threads have pushed my wife and I to decide to take the plunge and do Alaska in summer 2019. As a result, we are planning to get CruiseNext certificates on our cruise in Early December to help offset some of the cost in 2019.
Part of me wants to make a reservation right now so that I can get the stateroom that I want. I don’t want to do it, however, if I wouldn’t be able to use the certificates on the sailing. We would have > 6 months between sailings... If I reserved today, would I be able to apply the CruiseNext certificates to the reservation later?
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We were in Costa Maya about 2 weeks ago and visited Maya Chan. While the people at Maya Chan did give us fair warning that they were dealing with sea grass on the beach and gave us an opportunity to opt out with a full refund, we moved forward and went to anyway.
We were extremely surprised when we arrived that the sea grass problem was really a wall of sea grass that was probably 1 foot deep and 1 1/2 - 2 feet in depth. Due to the wind that day, we also dealt with a significant odor of decaying plant material (think garden fertilizer).
While I still had a relaxing day at Maya Chan, the sea grass diminished the experience of my family members enough that they are considering not getting off the ship in Costa Maya when we visit again in November. We talked about finding another location, but my recollection is that the entire shoreline was covered - so we’d have the same issue anywhere we’d go.
Is the seagrass a seasonal problem? Is a different beach club that would have less impact due to currents and tides? We are beach people so missing an opportunity would be disappointing to me... Any help you can give is appreciated.
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Farrey,
When and where do you sign up for the Escape the Bigtop?
Escape the Big Top sign-ups are in the box office which is on Deck 7 Forward - right next to the theater. It fills up quickly so I would recommend you do it on the first day.
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Just got off the Getaway (4/8 - 4/15 sailing) and I can assure you she is a beautiful ship with so much to do. In terms of getting an idea of what it looks like from a day to day basis, search the forum for the dailies and you can see the types of activities that happen each day.
Personally my family made a list of all of the things we wanted to do in our week aboard and didn’t manage to get it all done. The primary reason is all of the things that we found on board in the dailies that were not on the original list.
A few of our favorite activities were the water slides, the ropes course, a mojito tasting, Escape the Big Top (an escape room), Million Dollar Quartet show, and the Levity comedy shows. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
If you have specific questions, ask away and I’ll do my best to answer.
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Following. Considering one of the 11 day Breakaway cruises from New Orleans.
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If you would like to sample 6 mojitos, there are two options with the UBP.
1. Order a flight of 6 samples and pay $20
2. Order the first mojito on the menu. Have a sip. Order the second mojito on the menu. Have a sip. Continue until you fall out of your chair. This option will be free unless any of the individual mojito prices are over $15
I agree that the system is silly
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Two problems with this method. (A) there is at least 1 mojito - possibly more that isn’t on the menu (strawberry) and (B) the mojito bar is extremely busy - getting 6 mojitos in an hour or so would be an extremely difficult task that would require a lot of patience.
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Just off the Getaway on Sunday. The flight of mojitos was not included in UBP. The Sugarcane Bar had a very entertaining mojito tasting event twice during the sailing where the flight of mojitos was served. All participants with UBP received 20% off the $20 cost. If you like mojitos, I highly recommend it.
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I was able to use two $250 vouchers today... Was told by the representative that if I booked a balcony or higher, NCL allowed me to apply 2. Happy Cruising!!!
Just bought 2 CruiseNext certificates on the last night of the 4/8 Getaway sailing. The total final cost was $250 for 2 credits worth $250 each. There were 3 transactions on my final bill, 2 for $250 each and 1 credit for -$250 which puts the final cost at $250. My CruiseNext brochure that explains the program says that you can use 2 credits if you book a balcony or higher category at least 6 month’s out. The program is called “Double Up”.
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Margaritaville - We have eaten at several of these, so we are familiar with the menu. We decided to eat lunch here our last sea day. It was definitely worth the $14.95 charge. The food was good and plentyful. The venue was not crowded and with the drink package, the margaritas were plentyful.
So does this mean that they have converted Margaritaville on the Getaway to a fixed up charge per person and away from ala carte pricing? If so, that is disappointing...
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Thank you!
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If you are concerned about transportation safety, Maya Chan arranges the transportation for you both ways and it appears they will group you up with other cruise passengers as well.
http://costamayabeachresort.com/transportation
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I just booked an angled balcony, 14862, on the Gateway. Has anybody ever stayed in this room? Does anyone have pictures? Do you guys like angled balconies? Tell me all about it!
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I am booked in 13836 in April. I booked that room because of the below video showing the angled balconies on the Getaway.
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Cozumel taxi
in Cozumel
Posted
No. The reason we were charged $40 was not because we got into a van. We squeezed 4 people into a Nissan Versa. 😂I took a photo of the car and license plate with the intent of trying to figure out how to turn the driver in. Later I realized my time and energy is worth more than the $15 he took from me. In the grand scheme of things it’s a small price to pay and thought I’d share with this community so that the same thing doesn’t happen to others as they visit the island.