Sailing12Away

Nah, already have too many other coffee/espresso/tea kettles/french press gadgets and gizmos a plenty. The NCL pods are boring, so no point in stealing them to bring home. I was looking to go the opposite direction and buy the fun and flavorful ones to bring there to use on board. All the barista collection ones are calling out to me, as is the orange blossom and Colombian one. I'm stumped by the Indonesia one though - who wants to drink tobacco in their coffee (besides smokers needing their fix I suppose)?

The most you can do is a 2 day deviation. If you request a deviation they give you a $50 credit because it makes it easier for them to find flights that won't cause you to miss the cruise. Just look at the types of flight options you have on your own first. If there's a nice direct flight for $1000/pp or a less ideal flight with 1-2 layovers and changes it from an 8hr flight to 12+ hours - you can almost bet money that NCL will be putting you on that cheaper and less desirable flight. It honestly depends on what you're comfortable with. We've done the B1G1 free airfare a half dozen times and up until the most recent have never had a problem. In all but one flight we were able to pay extra to the airline when we got our record locator number and upgrade to comfort plus seats. The last trip was our longest, flying home to NY from London so an ~8.5 hr flight - and that one we couldn't upgrade at all. So the rules about picking your seats, being able to upgrade or not - it all depends on the specific air carrier the flight is booked with. You have no say in that. You have no say in the time of the flight or how many layovers (they'll limit it to <2). You can't change your mind and say no if you don't like them once assigned. If you're equidistant to both PHL or EWR, you technically don't have a say in that either as they can put you out of either one if they're within I believe 50 miles of your preference. If you don't care about where you sit, when you fly, having extra legroom (or butt room for those of us fluffier travelers), or anything else - then yes, go ahead and cash in on those savings. In your case the savings isn't big enough for me to take that chance on an international flight based on our recent trip. Domestic, yes, I'll keep using them. But for long haul trips - nope, I want control of that going forward.

Ironically, stumbled upon a whole section from Nespresso of the pods that work with it and I'm tempted to stock up on the funky fancy ones next time I book an NCL Haven trip. https://www.nespresso.com/us/en/original-coffee-pods

Just the standard one with the black or blue pods. No fancy lounge on Epic like on the BA+ class of ships, but you might be able to get the bartender to make you something frothy. They have a fancy machine behind the main bar, but that isn't usually open until evenings. Day time is the smaller poolside bar - no coffee frother there.

And this is why I continue to lie to my mother and say they are not allowed on board. She would be that person, based on how many feet she ran over in Disney a few years back. Captain Oblivious morphed with Steve Urkel ('Did I do that?'). Funniest (in hindsight, at the time, no) memory we all have of mom was our trip to Bermuda a few years back. She got a scooter for our trip to Atlantis and was going into the elevator one night. She wasn't paying attention, despite being first in for the past 4 days, "oh, do I go in first?" - yes mom, go. Elevator doors start to close, and instead of just sitting there and letting them bounce off and open back up, she guns it and crashes into the back wall of the elevator. The look of horror on all the other guests faces in the elevator hallway waiting with us was unforgettable. My niece (~6 at the time) started crying in hysterics because she thought Nanny went through the wall of the elevator. Oh and the time in Disney a few years before that when her and my dad were trying to get the scooter up onto the transfer bus and drove off the ramp before the bus attendant caught them.... yeah. No. My folks are not allowed to get scooters on a cruise. They'll be the first ones to go scooting overboard with their horrible daughter looking on in shame and laughing rather than throwing them the life ring.

As someone who experienced probably one of THE worst embarkations ever, without more info it's usually not NCL's fault. My issue was in LA during one of the worst rainstorms ever for the west coast. Original embarkation pier was about 4" deep underwater, so everything had to move to a different building at the last minute. Lines wrapped around the building for hours with folks standing in the rain in February. We had an NCL transfer and they held us on the bus outside the terminal for about 90 mins because there was no where to go except stand in the rain and not move, so at least we were dry. Once on the line in the rain still took 20+ mins to get inside, no priority given for Haven until you made it in there and caught wind of the secret bypass escalator trick. More lines, then new lines for shuttle buses back to where the ship was, and more lines.... we were at the terminal on our bus around 10:30am (would have to check my semi live thread for the full info), didn't get onto the ship until after 5pm I believe for a 4pm sail away. So yes, I'm sure my embarkation experience was worse. Does it negate theirs and their 'right' to complain, of course not. Was I complaining about it and documenting each phase of chaos along the way, of course I was. The difference is that when I got on board I left that BS behind on the soggy pier and blamed mother nature. This person did not.

Just to throw another monkey wrench into the works, if you're taking advantage of the B1G1 free airfare promo - the most you can stay pre or post cruise is only 2 nights. So keep that in mind as that may decide for you how many days you're staying if you're using their free air package.

Nah, you just need to broaden your horizons. If you're a beer person - instead of a mimosa for breakfast, do a shandy. Get a pale ale and a lemonade and mix em together. Poolside get your normal beer or keep it light with another shandy. Dinner can be the normal beer. And after dinner find a liqueur you enjoy and sip it over some cubes during the entertainment. Easy peasy.

NCL picks and chooses which rules to enforce on which day, and depending on much loudly you bark they change their minds. Our last trip we had 3 passengers sharing the same cabin. All 3 were platinum or above, so we had 2 different letters in the room talking about our perks. We went to eat together at Moderno one night and it was a fiasco. They were saying we couldn't use 2 of our vouchers at the same time. And when we pushed back to say what if guest 3 ate on their own but happened to pick Moderno as well at a different time of night, would we be prevented from eating there too because he beat us there? Eventually after getting the manager they let us use 2 vouchers for the 3 of us. They kept pushing for me to just use my FAS credit, but I didn't want to do that because what you get with FAS is a little different from the latitude voucher in some restaurants. As for Food Republic being shared for 4 people, you get 4 items per credit/voucher person. So my guess is they don't care how many bellies it is filling, 4 items if you're using one part of the credit. We've used a single credit at Q between 2 people, and the 2nd credit at Food Republic for items and 2 people. So yes, you can 'share' a voucher, but it depends on the wait staff and how they interpret what it is you're trying to do.

Every Haven guest can ask their butler to bring those heavenly goodies to you every single day, regardless of where your cabin is located. For anyone with a hankering for them at home, check your local Trader Joes. Leave them out overnight to proof and pop em in the oven in the morning. Yummy yummy. https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/4-almond-croissants-098265

Go see whatever interests you on the first leg. There's no guarantee the performers will still be there, or be able to perform on the 2nd leg. If something was really good, you can go again on the 2nd leg. If it wasn't, you know you can skip it and go check something else during that time. We had one trip where we were going to see Choir of Man on the 2nd night of their performance, and it ended up getting cancelled - so we missed it completely.

You can ask your butler to bring you just about anything they serve on the ship. As for how long it will take to deliver to you - that's a different story. Depends on where the food is coming from (MDR vs Haven restaurant vs a specialty place), depends on when you request it (6:30pm prime dinner hours when everyone is busy vs 3pm when it's in-between typical meal times), and whether all meals are from the same place or the kids want nachos from O'Sheehans, dad wants surf & turf from Haven, and mom wants the baked ziti from MDR. Last minute requests have always had about a 45-60 min wait in my experience. So if you're able to plan ahead, it helps. We ordered lunch one day at 9am to be delivered to the cabin at 11:30 for 4 adults and 2 kids, 11:32 they were knocking on our door. Different trip we ordered from the included shanghai noodle bar for 3 adults for ASAP delivery - that took almost an hour to show up.

I think you need to double check your actual cruise documents because there's a lot of conflicting and incorrect information all over this thread. You do NOT get an automatic drink package just because you're in the Haven - not sure where you heard that from. Concierge can do things, but not if everything is sold out already. So don't rely on that completely if you have your heart set on a specific place at a specific prime time. They can't add a table if there's none left by the time you decide what you want. If you don't care what time you eat and just want to go to Cagneys one time, then yes, they'll find a spot. But it might be at 9pm the day the entertainment is happening.

Do a quick google search on "Arthur's Day" for more info. I think it officially has been discontinued, but it wasn't an NCL thing, more of a local Irish passenger thing.

If it's not an official NCL cruise, then the platinum perks may not apply either since those are offered through NCL - not the random company sponsoring the sailing.

We've been on Epic 3x. First NCL trip ever was in a club balcony room with my MIL tagging along, and the last 2 trips were in the Haven. Pricing on the Haven is pretty good usually (compared to other ships), so keep an eye on prices and consider upgrading if it falls within your budget. Haven rooms don't have the weird bathroom situation, and you can usually get a great price on a 2br cabin which gives you an extra bathroom. If you're in a regular room, the bathroom is a bit odd but manageable. With my MIL sharing the room with us, she felt more comfortable pulling the curtain over when she needed to use the toilet. There's one that can be pulled to separate the front of the room from the back, so it gave her a bit more privacy. For showering, we would just shower first and then leave the room so she had all the privacy she wanted. If it's just you and a significant other, you should be used to seeing each others bits so it won't be as big a deal. The free at sea internet package is minutes based. So if you forget to log off when you're done checking your emails and such, your minutes will be gone quick. Unless you need to be connected 24/7 for some reason, it's often better to wait until you're on board and those free minutes are used up first to then upgrade to the unlimited. It's based on # of days remaining, so if you upgrade on day 1, you're paying for 7 days. Whereas if you can wait until day 3 you only have to pay for the 5 days left so it's a bit cheaper. As someone else said, compared to RCC there are no 'sales' to watch for. The price is the price, and you add it on whenever you want - not when the price is on "sale". The thing we like best about Epic is that it's very easy to walk aft to front without all the meandering in and out or through buffets or other areas. So it makes getting around the ship very fast and easy for us.

This is always widely debated as everyone interprets the letter different, and I honestly don't have a clear answer myself. But the fact that NCL charges you upfront gratuities when you add on the drink package tells me that the bartenders ARE covered already. I think the reason they put it in the letter is because not everyone chooses to get the package, but even then it's silly because I thought they added an automatic 20% for every drink order at the time of purchase (if you don't have the package). So again, not sure why they would include that verbiage if they're already covered either way. We tip extra, because we're heavy drinkers with eclectic requests, but feel that staff have already been tipped when we bought the package. As for the original question, we always bring cash. Sort it out ahead of time what we estimate we'll tip to each team and put it into envelopes that I keep in a zippered part of my carryon backpack. When we get on the ship, those envelopes are kept in the safe until it's time to hand them out. So long as you know where it is and always keep it on you or in the safe, it's not as scary to walk around with cash. Common sense rules of travel always apply anyway - don't pull out that wad in the middle of the street in a foreign country and proclaim to everyone nearby that you're a dumb tourist with a lot of cash on you. Be discrete, go to the restroom if you need to check it/count it/transfer some of it...

Welcome to the club. It's every cruise, and the freebie wine list has actually improved a lot, there's some decent choices on there considering it's free. If you don't finish your bottle you can take the rest to go. So yes, 2 guests get to have 2 extra specialty dining meals for free on every cruise from now on out. If you don't feel you need extra specialty dining, then you can skip the free at sea dining plan - although at only $20 per person it isn't a bad deal to have in your pocket and get 4 meals.

My only advice to folks planning one is to start up high and end low. Much easier for some folks with mobility issues to walk down stairs, than to walk up them. Waiting on elevators for a large group isn't ideal, and one flight down is much easier to sell than a flight up.

Own it and be proud. A cruise is 95% what you choose to make of it. Folks expecting everything to go according to plan, but only willing to pay a guarantee cabin rate price for that experience are setting themselves up for a lot of disappointment. Glad you were able to still find some joy and fun in your travel despite the ick.

If it makes you feel better, you can ask for a double shot of whatever spirit is going into your drinks. That way they're just stronger (NCL cocktails tend to be very weak to me) and you're not having to consume 4+ dinks at a time, just 2 strong ones. Saves on belly & bladder space for other stuff.

If we're flying in the day of, by the time we get off the plane, get our bags, and sort out a transfer to the port it's usually after 10am anyway which works out perfect for us. If we flew in a day early, we want to spend as much time in the local port before getting on the ship - so we've either gone and dropped bags off then walked and wandered (Seattle), or left bags at the hotel desk to wander and then come back for them (Barcelona), or did a private tour that picked us up and let us wander the country before dropping us at the port at the last minute possible (Rome). For NYC embarkations - I won't even consider calling an Uber until after 11am just to avoid the traffic of getting into the city. We can usually get away with working from home for a half day, then hop in the Uber, and once on board make some last minute conference calls and email checks before sailing away. Doesn't help that I'm not a fan of the Haven restaurant, so getting there in time for lunch isn't a value add for me at all.

Sounds like you need to do some research about what exactly you want to see in Athens first. Once you sort out what is a must see vs a nice to see, then you can figure out how many days you'll need to get to all of it. The day you get off the cruise would be a good day to check in to your hotel, and if it's walking distance to the Acropolis or some sights to just do that as a casual day. If you get tired, go back to the hotel and nap. If you're not tired, keep walking. Look through this site, we used them for our trip to Greece for an airport pickup and transfer to hotel, full day tour of Meteora, and then when our cruise stopped in Athens for the day used them again for another private tour in the South. It will give you some ideas on things to see and how much time you need to do it 'right', and ballpark on costs. https://www.premium-athens-transfer.com/

I'm hoping you're right and I read it wrong. I'm fine with it just being an extra food truck, that seems the most appropriate way to introduce it and see how it takes off. But as much as I love Thai, it's not a replacement for Food Republic. We'll wait and see what the menu brings, but my gut is predicting a lot of drunken noodles, pad thai and more 'american-ized' things. Still keeping my fingers cross for a larger selection of indian dishes at the food trucks. Where's the dosa and kati rolls? Those are small simple things that seem perfect for finger food truck things.

2 what? Adults? Teens? Children? Just because the room says it can hold 6 doesn't mean it holds them comfortably. The room hasn't changed, so any photos and videos you saw before the dry dock are still the same now.