bookbabe

The map on NCL's website shows you what's on the island... https://www.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/great-stirrup-cay And this GSC thread has all sorts of useful info... https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2706578-everything-great-stirrup-cay-silver-cove-villas-lagoon-spa-etc/

If I booked my mom her cruise in April 2023 and got the premier package then, which does she have, the old or the new? I don't have an invoice showing the pricing breakdown, just a total, so I can't remember if it was $75 or $80. Just trying to figure out if I need to call and pay to "upgrade" or not. Don't want her to have any extra charges onboard. Thanks.

Gaming store? Would you remember some more details? Location or name? And what type of stuff did they have? I might actually get DH to agree to spend the afternoon shopping if I can add a good gaming store to the itinerary... 😉

On our last cruise, Mexican night at the WC featured quesadillas made using puffy naan bread and a teeny tiny scattering of cheddar cheese.

As someone with allergies, I’d also note that the ingredients cards above the WC items weren’t always correct, so use your common sense, personal experience and food knowledge to exercise safe judgment about what to eat and/or when to verify things with a chef.

Holiday Inn is not on Seven Mile Beach and I haven’t done a day pass there, but I’ve used Resort 4 a Day on other islands with good results. So far, what I’ve booked and what I’ve gotten has matched fairly well. Anyone can eat at hotel restaurants, even the Kimpton’s, although you cannot use even the beach chairs right beside their beach restaurant unless you’re a hotel guest, and dining at the restaurant doesn’t count. There are dozens of restaurants all along SMB, many with great water views. Check out Cayman Good Taste for some suggestions. Use the filters at the right of the page to narrow down area and experience. https://www.caymangoodtaste.com/restaurants

LOL. You’re a Viking cruiser complaining about NCL’s repricing policies? I find that highly ironic, since Viking won’t reprice at all, unless you cancel and rebook, and it usually requires a date or itinerary change. What you book at is what you pay, even if the price or promotions drastically change, and don’t get me started about their final payment dates falling years in advance in some cases. At least NCL has a reasonable final payment schedule and you can reprice as often as you want before then.

https://www.sixthman.net/latitudes

I can't remember what was on the old menu, wasn't there a Reuben? Anyone have an old menu to compare?

That looks delicious. Question, on a seven day cruise where the second day is a Sunday and a sea day (day following embarkation) would they have a buffet of this nature? Or is it only on longer cruises? On Mariner, if that makes a difference.

We can only live in eternal hope.

I would rather be seated next to a quiet table of diners in ripped jeans, baseball caps and muscle shirts than next to a table of exceptionally well-dressed loud talkers or people having full volume FaceTime calls at the table. If we are focusing on the "dress code as common courtesy" angle, can we loosen up the dress code and tighten up the behaviour code?

The price and type of drink package available will differ from the regular NCL drink package, or at least that was the case on the Kiss Kruise we did in the fall. The info will be on the festival website in one of the sub-sections, I think under On Board Experience maybe? We booked and paid for the drink package with Sixthman through their booking site, not via the NCL website. Most festival events were included, we had one or two things that were an extra charge but they were merch-related and included signings. You can tell which specialty restaurants will be open by looking at the deck plans on the Sixthman festival website for your particular cruise. The ones that are closed won’t actually appear on the deck plan. Le Bistro was closed for ours, the assumption was that it was being used for the talent and special guests. The Haven was closed for our cruise, again, that’s where the talent stayed. The only suites available to book were the ones located outside of the Haven, and didn’t include Haven access even if they normally would. You won’t get your NCL booking number until close to the cruise, so NCL shore excursions don’t become available for actual booking until much later than you normally would be able to. You’ll only have a Sixthman booking number right away. It’s on an NCL ship, but it doesn’t really run like a normal NCL cruise. The Sixthman staffers are excellent, though, and they have this type of thing down to a science. It’s really well organized, and I’d do a Sixthman charter again if the right date and theme combination came up.

For PEI, maybe Anne of Green Gables?

The important part to note is: “Latitudes discounts are available on all Sixthman sailings; remaining perks are only available on 4 night or longer sailings.” They leave a letter in your cabin outlining what perks apply for that cruise, but it’s on the back of another info sheet so it’s easy to miss.

Question for the Norway residents @Norwaylady @kaisatsu and those who've visited recently... Has anyone been to the Viking Planet attraction in Oslo? https://www.thevikingplanet.com Thoughts? Is it any good? Or is it a very cheesy tourist trap? Thanks

Personally, I'd rather hang out dancing and singing on the pier versus cleaning toilets, etc. Maybe the crew members in question felt the same? 😉

If you have Plus or Premiere can you ask your cabin steward to stock water in the fridge or do you have to go to a bar to get it?

Actually, we really liked the location of 5108. Easy access to restaurants, gangway entrance, pool, pretty much everything we wanted to have access to. Longer walk to the theatre and spa, but that’s of less importance to us. Balcony was awesome, and having the wraparound gives you a wider potential view of the ports. We’ve booked that cabin (or the same cabin on the other side) again for our future cruises.

No, we ended up switching to 5108 on the Sea, for the West Indies Explorer. DH wanted a bigger balcony.

The only remaining beach club is https://coralbeach.ky

If you have the premier package, can you get your cabin steward to bring you bottled water for your cabin fridge? Or do you have to only get it at the bars and take it back yourself? Does it make a difference if you’re in a reserve class mini?

Okay, so I assumed you’d be arriving at Royal Watler terminal and renting a car at the airport. Wasn’t sure what the “interesting attractions” were at East End, but I added the caves in Old Man Bay to get you taking the full loop around the island. I hit the maximum number of destinations for a google map, so you have to add the taxi time back to the port after dropping off the car at the airport, but you’ll know how long that will take based on how long it took you to get there and pick up the car in the morning. You can change or redo the map to add in your preferred stops, etc. https://goo.gl/maps/xF35FUYL1FJciSX77 Without any traffic issues, tendering time or any time at all spent at the various stops, you are looking at about 2.5 hours of “drive time” to do what you suggest. Say you get off the ship by 9am, which is the absolute earliest I’d suspect, and want to be back at the port in the tender line at 4pm at the latest, that gives you a maximum of 7 hours, minus the drive time, that’s 5.5 hours, minus an hour of car pickup and return paperwork time, leave an hour buffer time in case of delays or snags, now you’re at approx 3.5 hours time to split up between the various attractions. So it’s doable, but will be a busy day.

NCL currently has one ship sailing just the Hawaiian islands, the Pride of America. It is American-flagged and crewed, a requirement for all cruise ships sailing solely between US ports without a stop in another country. At one time NCL America had three ships: Pride of America, still sailing - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_of_America Pride of Aloha, now Norwegian Sky - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Sky Pride of Hawaii, now Norwegian Jade - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Jade

It depends on what you take and how many are in your group. An actual taxi all to yourselves will be about $45 usd for up to 4 people to go from Royal Watler cruise terminal to the Turtle Center. Additional passengers would be $7 usd pp more. However, there are also what I call shuttle taxis that do the cruise port to SMB trip back and forth all day, they’re shared ride mini vans. You might be able to negotiate a different price with one of them to get them to drop you off after they drop people at the beach.