Sailing12Away

1 hour ago, debenson0723 said:

Landed at LGA before noon, car service sent a nice black Cadillac Escalade for pick up. Now waiting on pizza for lunch. @Sailing12Awaywe were talking about going to see the Mets. Citifield is one of the few MLB stadiums I haven't been to. Next time!

We've been to about half of them, and Citi is one of our favorites. San Diego beats it for their gardens and craft beer options though.

On 5/15/2024 at 12:25 PM, graphicguy said:

Preparing you in advance to allow all the ammunition to be loaded for this post.

 

I'M FLYING IN THE DAY OF THE CRUISE!

 

There, got that mentioned up front.

 

The method to the madness.....a long, long, long time ago, I played baseball for my high school....a 1B to be exact....and sometimes right fielder.  I lettered and started on the team 3 years.  In my mind, I was nothing exceptional in my own mind.  They threw or hit it to me, and I caught it.  They threw it to me, and I hit it...sometimes really, really hard.  That's it.

 

However, the powers that be must think that was a worthy accomplishment as they are inducting me into my High School's Athletic Hall of Fame.  Only thing I can figure would be either my team mates have moved, or are dead.  Took them a while to get to my name.

 

Anyway, there's a point to this.  The induction ceremony is the evening of June 15th.  We sail on June 16th.  I could skip the ceremony, but wouldn't that be in poor taste?  They went to all the trouble and I didn't show up?  There are others who are being inducted, too.  But, I kind of really want to go.  

 

It's settled.  I'm flying in the day of the cruise.

 

Made my own reservations, as this is tricky enough without NCL adding a layer of complexity by booking through them.

 

Moreover, my preferred airline, Delta, has 2 other flights later that will get me to Pier 88 one time.  Plus, if I want to go from Cincinnati to JFK or EWR, there are 2 other flights that will get me there on time.  Or, American Airlines has 2 more into LGA that will get me there on time.  In short, I have backups on top of back ups if something goes amiss on my scheduled flight.

 

 

Just seeing all this now and working my way to catching up. If you had come in a day early (today) I could have taken you to the Mets game with us. We still have about 4 extra tickets in our account we can't give away because they suck so bad.

Next time fly into JFK and your NY bagel and coffee is on me. Depending on traffic I'm about 15-20 mins from JFK. Enjoy the trip!

18 hours ago, swmichigan cruiser said:

What is now happening for us. We had great flight times for going to and from Seattle. And got a second confirmation from NCL so I went to the airline website to book our seats and found out the flights coming home are pretty messed up they now have us leaving Seattle at 6:00 am the morning the ship returns to Seattle so impossible. I guess what I really don't like is we had to find this out and NCL didn't notify us there was a problem and fortunately the cruise isn't until September so there is time to get this corrected even if I need to pay and book myself flights. Just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I do have my TA working on this.

If your cruise isn't until September there is no way you have flight info now in June. Flight info when booked through NCL free air promo isn't released until around 30-45 days before sailing. 

What you're seeing is just a place holder probably. Unless you have a record locator number from an airline you do not have booked flights yet this early out.

11 hours ago, zqvol said:

Been on over 10 NCL cruises and I have never seen or experienced that. 

Because it's not true. They offer a single option as an upgrade (a Cagney's steak), but the full specialty menu has 10+ choices across starters, apps, mains, and desserts that are unique to each specialty.

It's like saying you've eaten a taco once in your life and saying you've tried everything taco bell has to offer so there's no need to ever visit. Just pure silliness.

On 5/29/2024 at 10:27 AM, Svit said:

Was on the Joy in April. Booked ncl for the reputation of the food. Purchased extra dinning and did every specialty restaurant. Was extremely disappointed in lack of variety, portion size and quality of the food. If I book again, I will just eat at the main dining room. The best meals we had were at Taste and Savor for lunch. Specialty NOT worth the extra money.

Lack of variety, at 7 different specialty restaurants? Really???

On 6/10/2024 at 10:18 AM, Stelkp said:

On this topic, last time I was on the encore Haven we were given American diner as a lunch option on day one. I read on the bliss that American diner is complementary. Can anyone confirm that?

It's complimentary for everyone, but the menu has drastically changed. So just be prepared your favorite dish may no longer be there on the new free menu.

16 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

 

 

 

Yeah, your experiences are out dated. I sailed Thanksgiving 2023 and it was exactly as I described. My MIL in the sky suite got nothing, and we got charged for mini fridge items in our celebrity suite.

14 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

You left out the worst of all, often discussed here in the past.  A balcony near people who have the nerve to blow bubbles off their balcony.  According to many experts here, if one of those bubbles pops on your balcony, it will create a tremendous mess that will take hours to clean up and, even worse, an immediate safety hazard for anybody who foolishly enters that hazard zone.  The horrors.😱

I haven't killed any of my neighbors yet with the slip and fall hazards I've created. Still trying though...

On 5/16/2024 at 1:35 AM, gizfish said:

The brand of towels in the Haven used to be Baltic Linen, specifically pyramid excel, actually made in Lake Success, NY.  In 2017, the company was acquired by Sobel Westex. I haven't had to replace the original Baltic brand towels I bought in 2014 since they are still so awesome.  But the Sobel website does seem to offer some styles of Baltic towels.  

https://blog.sobelathome.com/baltic-linen-brand-hotel-linens/

Worked in Lake Success for many years and never heard of them. Google maps is showing the closest one (under either name) all the way in south Jersey.

The difference though is that passengers are a bit clueless and careless. Staff will be more mindful about not touching the gun nozzle directly to the vessel. 

It may fall into the general void of inconsistently enforced NCL policies, but I've seen staff filling them specifically at the Haven bar. 

23 hours ago, dmwnc1959 said:

THANK YOU for such a really great question! Having last cruised Royal Caribbean the soda package tumbler used in conjunction with the freestyle soda machines was really great. If NCL had this as a package separate from the FAS I'd definitely buy it, but I'm not going to spend all of that money just for a glass of soda here and there. Just not worth it to me personally. 

There's nothing stopping you from bringing your own on board and having the bartenders fill it with soda if you wanted to be able to carry more than one cup at a time.

You can't just look at the price to upgrade, you have to look at the total cost. If you booked the cruise at a very discounted rate, even paying 1K to upgrade may still be 'worth it' because the total value is still in the good price range. But if you overpaid originally, even upgrading for just $200 total may NOT be worth it because you're already way over priced for what you're getting. Unless I missed it you're only talking math about the additional charge, not what the new total price per day is vs will be.

My dear friend loves his inside cabins because of the value they offer in terms of pricing, but I'm pretty confident that if the prices were the same he would gladly move himself and travel companions into the balcony. For us - we can never consider an inside at all. Between claustrophobia, anxiety, vitamin D deficiency, lack of open air, and the mysterious great unknown we had with Covid where folks were locked in their cabins for multiple days where those in inside cabins didn't get any of that at all - nope, not for us, regardless of the price. 

Even if I only spend 5 mins during the morning and another 5 mins at night standing out there, I want a balcony. I want the option to just sit and veg and stare out at the sea without anyone near me. I want to stand there in my PJs without funny looks. Hubby wants to stand there topless without someone giggling at his doughboy belly. So for us the price is irrelevant.

Having said that, our normal prices we expect to pay/pp/day for a standard cruise (not on POA, not Alaska, not Panama Canal....) with the basic FAS package is as follows - this is based on what we've actually paid on some trips or what I've price checked countless times on my various spreadsheets, and the value we perceive the cabin/ship is "worth" having sailed it and seen first hand. Anything less than this we feel we got a good price, anything higher we would consider based on the itinerary and/or friends joining us.

• Haven cabin on a breakaway plus class ship (Encore, Bliss, Joy...) - $500 - 550
• Haven cabin on a jewel class ship (Gem, Jade, Pearl....) - $400 - 450
• Non-Haven suite - $350 - 400
• Club balcony - $250 - 300
• Balcony - $150 - 200

So if your balcony upgrade is costing you an extra $100/day, but you're only currently paying $100/day for your inside, then you're well within what I consider normal pricing for that balcony.

On 5/11/2024 at 3:07 PM, david_sobe said:

I sailed Epic twice in Haven suites but long ago.  They used to have 2 for 1 drink specials in the Haven lounge from 5 to 6pm.  During sail away they would walk all through Posh and offer rum punch and sparking wine.  Those same kinds of drinks you get at the latitudes party.  Probably cost NCL nothing but they still took it away.  The Haven also used to get giant fluffy special towels.  Those are gone too.  In the old days they also would give you a few liters of spring water.  

The big fluffy blue beach towels are still there for Haven guests in your room. Regular white towels are also big and fluffy. The cartons of water are there for free too based on your latitude status regardless of cabin type booked.

17 hours ago, jrt.mom said:

I can't believe they have milk for free and charge for pop. Strange economics...

If 80% of passengers want to drink soda, and only 10% of passengers want milk (whether for cereal, coffee, or to dunk a cookie in) - it's better business for them to charge the 80% rather than go after the 10%.

17 hours ago, complawyer said:

usually, if i wanted a soft drink (pepsi  prior to the change, coke afterwards) i would get it at any bar in a plastic cup, no charge, and as many as i wanted. our last cruise on the ncl star. which ended in lisbon on 4/27/2024, anytime i wanted a soft drink, i got a can with no problem, no questions asked and no charge.  and it was a 17 day cruise. usually, there is a bar set up in the buffet area also

I thought you always had the FAS drink package though, no? The official rule on cans vs real life experience is very different. Even on the same cruise with the same crew, from night to night the experience can be different.

We always have the FAS package, and even staying in the Haven with a Haven bar it's been hit or miss as to whether we can get cans to go or not. Last trip on the Epic the bartender refused and would give us 2 cups full of ice and fountain soda, which were diluted flat messes later on when hubby actually wanted to drink them. Trip before on the Prima it depended on the night, some nights yes, others no. Trip before that on Joy through the Panama Canal - bartenders there just pulled out 2 cans and handed them to us when they did last call without us even asking after the 2nd night. The bonus tips given on each of those 3 ships varied accordingly as well...

On 5/9/2024 at 10:13 PM, PartyPlannerLady said:

As was said in the previous post (in a round about way) you can eat no matter what time you get on board.  Glad that all wolrks for you.  I do not go on a cruise vacation to have to do anything but chill out, relax, and not get all worked up about being anywhere at any particular time. 
 

Sounds like you may be overdue for one of those relaxing chill out cruises since you're all hot and bothered by what someone else needs to do...

55 minutes ago, vacation44 said:

I know!  All I asked as the OP was for the boarding order and I think I was called an alcoholic in an off handed remark.

Nah.... alcoholics go to meetings. The rest of us excessively social drinkers just know how to maximize our drink packages.

An option to consider for your next trip though is to look at prices for the Haven. Between what you're paying extra for Vibe and the cabanas and all the imposed stress (and judgement from others) - the extra price for Haven may make it 'worth it' so you can just stroll on board whenever you want.

10 hours ago, Russiamomm said:

I wasn’t aware of the two smaller ships.  I was going to be in Quito for work in February and priced out the larger Celebrity ship.  $25k for seven days as a solo.  😳. I passed.   😂

Yeah, they don't really do any discounts for solo travelers because the ships are so small. You can certainly look into the smaller ships, since they're a bit older they tend to be cheaper. I have no idea what week you need in February, but a quick check would get you on board Exploration (8 cabins total on the entire ship) for around 14K as a solo. The other thing to consider is that many of the Galapagos trips are 100% included - meaning no extra charges for drinks, specialty dining, wifi, tips, flights.... it's all there. So yes, 14K for a week is high, but it's a private yacht with only 15 other passengers and the only other expense is the Uber to get you to the airport (which on our package was covered as well). Specifically on Flora, the worst cabin on the ship (which is what we booked) is still considered a decent sized suite on any other regular cruise line. You're not getting an oceanview cabin <200 sq ft in size for that big price.

10 hours ago, Candy Apple 12 said:

We’ve never bought the drink package or the soda package, hence my question on the success of getting a pitcher without the drink package. They don’t drink enough to make the soda package worth it. My FIL has had some success ordering a soda in the Haven restaurant without the soda package. He expected to pay, but they never brought him a charge slip.
 

I’m guessing with such small ships that the Galapagos cruises are very pricey.

The soda package is $10/pp/day. Which comes out to only 3 sodas a day. I'm in the camp of when I'm on vacation I never want to convince myself that something is 'worth it' and whether I should buy it or not. If I'm thirsty for something other than water, I want to just drink it without hemming and hawing over whether it's worth the $3 or not.

And yes, Galapagos cruises are pricey due to the limited number of guests on board. We got ours at a very good price considering everything that's included but it's still our 2nd most expensive cruise booked to date. The only thing that trumps it was our ill-fated Prima Haven trip which we egregiously overpaid for and will never do again.

Galapagos trip includes all of this: car service to/from our home and JFK, flights to/from Quito, 2 hotel nights & tours in Quito pre-cruise, 1 hotel night post-cruise, flight to/from Baltra, 7 night cruise, drinks/wifi/tips/excursions/laundry/dining on the cruise and in the hotels. Literally the only thing left to do is pack our toothbrush and swimsuits. 

The Prima trip was the price for a 10 night cruise with the basic FAS package. That's it. Had to pay extra for flights, transfers, pre-cruise hotel, all excursions, gratuities, etc etc. And if I ignore the $1350 OBC we had the price was even worse.

3 hours ago, Candy Apple 12 said:

Thanks for the comparison. Does Celebrity go to the Galapagos? It’s a trip I’d like to take, but otherwise based on your post, I’ll stick with the Haven. 
 

The butler brought a pitcher of fountain soda for free? Did you have the drink package? 

We would never sail without at a minimum the basic soda package. Do you typically get that or not even the soda deal?

Celebrity has 3 different ships that go to the Galapagos. Only is reallllly tiny (only 16 people I believe), one is newer and holds 100 people max, and the other is in between around 35 people I think. So not really a cruise ship that most folks are used to - more of a luxury private yacht. I'll know more in October when we get on board...

23 hours ago, OceanCruise said:

Thank you. That info is very helpful. I admit that I am surprised that the Haven is more expensive than the Retreat due to these extra costs (at least for the cruises I was comparing). Does the Haven lounge have food offerings throughout the day like the Retreat or is it just an exclusive lounge? Can you get lunch on the Haven sundeck? On the Retreat sundeck there is a small lunch menu and a server comes around to to take orders and bring food/drinks to your lounger.

With all things being equal, Celebrity Retreat is always much higher in cost for us than NCL Haven. Our one and only Retreat experience was on a smaller ship (Summit), and did not even come close in comparison to what we experience on NCL (NCL was leaps and bounds better, except for the private restaurant, Celebrity wins there). 

Celebrity is no longer including gratuities for free, so no different from NCL's daily service charge.

Celebrity doesn't include the mini bar for free unless you're in a top tier room, so no different from NCL. NCL's drink package is pretty reasonable at only ~$21/pp/day - you can decline it if you want and just get a soda plan. NCL Butler can bring you a pitcher of ice water, lemonade, fruit juice, or fountain soda for free - you can't get that in the Retreat unless you're in a 20K+ room. They charged me $5 for a bottle of water just for removing it from the fridge and putting on the counter so I can put my own water bottle in there - never had that with NCL.

Butler on NCL will also bring you snacks throughout the day of nearly whatever you want. With Celebrity, my MIL was only in a sky suite and told she can walk herself to the lounge to get a snack (she was in a wheelchair BTW). We were in a celebrity suite and only got anything because we asked the butler about it, and he brought the exact same thing every day of the trip. NCL butlers will mix it up based on what you tell them you like. 

Snacks in the Retreat lounge never changed for us - ever. Some veggies, popcorn, and small canape sandwiches - that's it. With NCL depending on the ship you'll be on, if you're on one with a full Haven observation lounge there are free snacks there throughout the day that change up often and have a much wider selection than Celebrity gives you. Wait staff come through both there and the upper sun deck outdoors to take drink orders, or to get a bigger bite than the self serve snacks - never saw that with Celebrity.

With NCL the pool, sun deck, lounge, private bar, private restaurant - they're all in the same general location. So easy to go from your room to any of those exclusive areas without having to fight through the crowds of the regular ship. With Celebrity the restaurant was aft, the lounge forward, sun deck not accessible for MIL in her wheelchair as the elevator has been broken for 2+ years and they didn't tell us until we got on board, no pool - only a hot tub, and to get to it you had to walk through the crowds near the regular main pool area. So we went once to see it and quickly left. 

It honestly all depends on the Celebrity ship you're used to, and the NCL ship you're looking to try out. Not all NCL ships are built the same, and I'm sure if we had enough money to try Celebrity again on a newer ship in a fancier room our experience may be different - but that first trip didn't make us think it was better than the Haven at all. Not counting the Galapagos trip as that's a completely different beast all together, our next Celebrity trip will not be in the Retreat - not worth the price of admission at all.

*Edit - also forgot to add that the tip for butler and concierge on Celebrity are not included either. Butler made a point to remind us on day one, and we only spoke to the concierge once on day 3 after having many issues with MIL's room and level of service she was getting. Never saw our cabin steward until the last morning when he showed up with his hand held out for a tip with the butler. 

The flight deal depends on the specific cruise you're looking to book - it's not offered on all of them.

If you have specifics about what trip you were curious about and the cabin you're interested, I don't mind price checking it for you. 

Current homepage of the US site with the miniscule *** to show that nothing in life is ever actually free.

645 cruise options with no filters applied, if I apply the 'free airfare' filter then it drops down to only 509 options. So most, but not all qualify.

12 hours ago, Vegas2000 said:

I'm so excited to finally going! In a teachers salary it takes forever!! That is a great idea to learn a few basics to ask because I will definitely get lost!!

NCL has a new promo they rolled out where teachers get an extra 5% discount. Call them up and see if you can get that added to your trip to save even more money.

https://www.ncl.com/teachers

23 hours ago, brookie848 said:

Nope. Just arranged for it ourselves. He did peritoneal, so the first time it was arranged he didn't need a machine (all manual). The second cruise we planned on bringing the machine with us, but we ended up canceling when he got his transplant.

 

If your family member is doing peritoneal, then it can be arranged with the ship. We had Baxter deliver the supplies to the ship, which were waiting for the cabin for us when we arrived. The only thing we didn't have was a heating pad (not allowed on ships), but my husband just let the liquid get warm by placing them in the windows.

 

I'm not sure Dialysis at Sea sails with NCL.

Ahh, ok. I think with enough notice and willingness to pay, DaS is able to work with other cruise lines if they have conference room space to set up their equipment. Hubby's uncle isn't in a position to be able to do anything on their own, so we'll have to just do a bit more research between both DaS and the requirements for each cruise line that we're considering. It's just nice to know there's options out there and the whole family can still travel together even with different health issues and such.

19 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

I’m sure haven personnel have enough to do on turnover day than hand out water (and I’m pretty sure you can get water at the MCT, but there aren’t enough chairs for all on the big ships).

These are not my gripes... these were from the OP 9 pages back who farted and left the building for the rest of us locked inside to smell.

Maybe because I show up a bit later in the day, but the last few times I've arrived for a cruise there were a half dozen Haven employees standing around waiting for us to decide we wanted to go on the ship. So again, depending on the time of day, they're either super busy or doing nothing at all.

Chickie nuggs all the way..... 

The safe in the closet will look similar to this (might not be exactly this one). You create your own 4 digit code to use and that will lock/unlock it. We tend to keep our passports and main wallets in there and not even bother to lock it, just keeps it in a well known spot for us in case of emergency.

What time was the flight you were looking at? As mentioned above, if you can book something no earlier than 12pm you should be ok. If the cruise ends in "Rome" it's about an hour away from Rome. So you have to take that into account when estimating how much time you need to get to the airport. The airport is also a bit confusing (to me at least), so for our fight home from there it took us a good 2 hours to get through all the different lines and security check points and make it to our gate for take off. 

It's a short flight from Rome to Munich, so even if the concert was that same night you still have plenty of time to drop bags off at your hotel, freshen up a bit, and get to the concert if you took a 12pm or 1pm flight over there. There's a nice 12:55 trip on Lufthansa nonstop for <$100 available which would be perfect...

Another slightly crazy idea would be to look at Ryanair. They only fly on certain days from FCO, but if you can fly into Memmingen the price is only $18. Yes, 18. You would then need to figure out how to get from there over to Munich (about 60-90 mins away) which might negate the crazy cost savings, but there's a train and I doubt it costs $100+. 

So yeah, depends on what day the Swifty show is, but yes, it's doable and fairly cheap to get there once you're in Italy.

NYC public school break info: https://www.schools.nyc.gov/calendar/2024-2025-school-year-calendar (Mid-winter recess Feb 17-21, 2015; Spring recess April 14-18, 2025)

NJ school break in one township: info: https://www.paramus.k12.nj.us/accnt_308692/site_308693/Documents/2024-2025-Calendar.pdf (no mid-winter break, same spring break as NY)

Different NJ township:

https://www.monroetwp.k12.nj.us/pdf/District_Calendars/School_Calendar_Next.pdf (Spring break April 18-25, 2025)

With regards specifically to "spring break", for comparison NYU college will have it from March 24-28, 2025.

So it's all over the place and depends on specifically which crowds you're trying to avoid.