Itchy&Scratchy

we simply don't bring jewelry on the cruise. Problem solved. Especially, if you do have to evacuate, but can't get back to your room - your irreplaceable heirloom jewelry is safe at home.

Passports travel in a zipped pouch for easy retrieval.

Unfortunately we didn't snorkel in Bonaire, but we were at some unusual place ... don't remember the name, but it starts from J. City.

It is very shallow and warm.

Offers great surfing and surfers watching

 

looks like Luc (Lac) Bay we went to. It was glorious. We are still dreaming about it.

I have not sailed Princess yet so I can't confirm for sure, but I would guess that in the buffet, there is probably a coffee and hot water station with tea bags. Bring your favorite tea and just fill up a cup in the buffet, no need to order pots of hot water every time unless you mean during dinner. .

that's exactly what we did last year - we brought insulated mugs and used the hot water spouts at the buffet.

Must attest - Regal has super hot water.

We didn't bring the tea bags with us. We don't drink Lipton, but we aren't into super fancy tea either. At home we drink Ahmad, Twinings and Bigelow. On the cruises we always found something fitting our tastes just fine - usually Twinings and Bigelow, and some unknown to us brands that tasted pretty well.

We have friends with similar tastes, who have cruised more than we have and on more cruise lines. They time and time again come back to Princess holy grail (but only Regal and Royal ships), telling us how unhappy they have been with RCI, Celebrity, etc.

They never do any research on cruisecritic, so they never actually realize the full potential and the array of opportunities the ships offer, so they never exploit it fully, IMHO. Then they bash the ship because of "horribly long lines at the buffet" (they didn't realize the ship had a ton of other free dining venues besides the Windjammer); no free on demand movies like on Regal Princess (we bring our own tablet with movies and cartoons, so we don't depend on it); bad food (now, that's very subjective); etc.

So, now we are going on Norwegian and once again on RCi, because I no longer make my decisions based on these friends' opinions, because I know better - we are going to enjoy the cruise, unless the engines die and the toilets overflow with sewage or the ship runs aground.

we use free Princess totes for towels and dry clothes, and a bigger tote just like them to carry beach toys and floaties for DS. WE usually put wet swimsuits into a plastic bag inside the tote.

We also started using a Sprouts tote (that's a store in the US) for wet swimsuits, since it's waterproof.

I seriously don't care which ship/cruise line or magic carpet gets me there, but Bonaire and Aruba were just magical.

We went there on Caribbean Princess in November of 2016. I think it may have been an 8 night cruise, but definitely not a 9+ one. The itinerary made up for all of our small grievances about the older ship and the rainy sea days.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=111

may want to ask here as well. Good luck!

a vest that is rated to her weight. That's what we used with DS before he hit the weight limit for puddle jumpers. Thankfully, he was 34# at 2.

Aruba and Bonaire are simply magical. In Curacao don't go to Pirate's beach - nothing interesting there, very mediocre beach.

thank you, Jana and Starry Eyes! I guess I was too impatient to check my email first. :) Sure enough, it says "starting at $50 pp for balcony".

I think I'll bid $100pp, so that I don't have to keep an eye on prices or check how many balconies remain and at what price.

If you click on the 0 to 400 and move the dial slither it will show you the minimum price and as you move the dial the price will go up

well, the dial is moving from 0 (No Offer) to $400 for the balcony, but it just says "poor offer" if I leave it at $50-100, but I didn't see any indication of a "minimum" offer.

ETA: oh, do you mean the size of an increment? And the first one is the min offer? If yes, then I understand now. So, the min bid for OV is $25 and for balcony it's $50.

This is for Jade in November, and I don't want to pay more than $200 total for a balcony upgrade. The difference in price between inside and balcony for the 3 of us is a $1,000 right this moment if I were to buy the cruise.

Can I make a $50 offer and if it doesn't get accepted, increase it to $100 pp and see if that works?

I just got the “No” notice on my minimum plus $10 bid to go from balcony to aft penthouse. Too bad. I think I’ll have to drown my sorrows!

how do you know what the minimum is? I just got an upgrade offer from inside (location unknown, cabin not assigned as of yet) to OV or balcony, and it just has a sliding scale from 0 to $400 for balcony and from 0 to $200 for OV. How would I know what the minimum is?

Just use the Uber app to get you an UberXL, which are for vans and SUVs. Also, you can use the UberSUV option for a more luxury ride.

 

Lyft also gives you the option to get larger vehicles.

do you know if the XL option costs more?

just an FYI - RCI is having Kids Sail Free again right now, but the prices are nowhere near as good as they were in July.

Aruba and Bonaire.

Our friends loved Dominica.

i had a problem with Chrome, but in IE it opened just fine.

So why did you ask the question? The majority of the responses rightly noted that the earlier flight would be fine. Sounds like you’ll have 6 hours or more to burn now at FLL.

because there was one Princess cruise we were on that had immigration and customs problems and we didn't get to get off the ship till 1 pm. That was in Port Everglades. We felt very lucky that we had the 5 pm fight that day because by the time we actually made it to the airport, checked the luggage in and went through security, we only had time left for a quick lunch and then it was time to board.

We've done the 5 pm flight 2 or 3 times already, but not by choice - the 12:30 pm flight was always sold out. This is the first time the 12:30 flight was still available, and if we sailed out of Everglades port, I wouldn't even ask - I'd just book it. But since we sail out of Miami, and we've never done that before, and since this is our first cruise with NCL and we are unfamiliar with its disembarkation procedures, I had doubts about traffic, and the time it takes to get back to the airport, and logistics in general.

Keep in mind that you are flying the Monday AFTER Thanksgiving. My travel agent says that could be a nightmare in the airport.

We always do a Thanksgiving cruise and come back on the same 5 pm flight on SUNDAY after Thanksgiving. It's bad, but not usually a nightmare.

This time the return flight is on Monday. We'll see how that goes. Judging by the fact that the Monday flight is 1/2 price of the Sunday flight, it should be much better.

Yes there is plenty of seafood, but just not the selection we have gotten on Princess nor was it as good as Princess seafood. that was our favorite part of cruising Princess.

gotcha. Food and seafood are the reasons we stuck with Princess. But I don't ever want to go to Cozumel and Falmouth again, even if the seafood is great. :)

thank you, everyone. I think we'll go with 5 pm.

We always sail out of FLL, so it's our first sailing out of Miami and the reason why I am unfamiliar with port. If we make it to FLL before 12:30, we may ask to go standby if the flight is not sold out.

Ok, so the sailing is on Jade and it's coming back to Miami on Nov 26, which is Monday.

I have a choice of flights at 12:30 pm or 5 pm out of FLL. It is my understanding that the ride from Miami port to FLL airport is about 35 minutes long.

On the website it says "Disembarkation 8 am". Does that mean that people start disembarking at 8 am or that the ship docks at 8 am and disembarkation will start 2 hours later?

Will we make the 12:30 flight or should I get the 5 pm flight and spend all day at the airport (we've done this twice already, gets kind of old)?

dang. Filled out all the info, hit "book" and got "500 - Internal Server Error"

ETA: checked the website, and it's booked! Yay!

By the way, we also considered Harmony of the Seas, but the value of the 10 day sailing for significantly less money appealed to my bargain hunting side.

I hit a terrific sale on the 4th of July with Kids Sail Free and got a spring break on Allure for $1,600 for the 3 of us (inside cabin). The price has been at least $2,880 since then for the same cruise, even with Kids Sail Free which is running on right now as well.

But Harmony is unreasonably expensive...

Which ports would be new to you?

all but St Thomas and St Maarten

As you can see from my signature, we are also ready for new places!!

your signature is very impressive. :)

Foodwise, we actually enjoy NCL's food as well if not better than Princess except for the missing sea food.

So, in a nut shell, it will probably work for you, but remember NCL is not Disney

oh, I realized that. :) We don't care that much for Disney anyway. It's a plus, right?

Thanks, newmexico, I think all three of us will like this cruise a lot. I am going to buy it shortly.

The longer the cruise the fewer kids you will see, but this is true about all cruise lines.

well, this one is running over the Thanksgiving school break, so I am pretty sure it'll have a lot of kids. :)

Oh, I didn't see the OBC at all, maybe, because it's our first trip with Norwegian? I'll look again.

looked again - no OBC for the inside guarantee cabin with the 3rd person free perk. Under Offers it says:

YOUR OFFERS

Friends & Family

Now, if I try to "book" a balcony, it says

YOUR OFFERS

Friends & Family

Wifi

$100 onboard spending

That IS interesting. I just tried it, myself. $2035 with 3rd person free, $2004 without. LOL

 

That being said, the $2035 rate does come with $50 OBC, so it's a little cheaper to do it that way if you factor that in. :)

 

Incidentally, if you price out an OV that comes with the Free at Sea offers, you can get the free drinks package, and the total would be $2791, plus $50 OBC. If you plan to buy the drinks package separately, then that would be a net savings and a cabin with a window.

 

When we booked, we got all 5 offers because of the promo they were running. The drinks package would be wasted on me most of the time because I don't drink very much, but it will be nice to be able to order my fruity drinks and sodas and not have to worry about the bar tab. LOL

Oh, I didn't see the OBC at all, maybe, because it's our first trip with Norwegian? I'll look again.

We don't buy drink packages or specialty dining. I can't drink, and DH can no longer drink more than a couple of beers a day.

And I've read that Norwegian charges a flat 20% tip daily on a drink package valued at $89 per day per person, whether you are drinking or not. So, it's not really free.... :(