Sailing12Away

As for the original question regarding when is it "cheaper".... looks like you've got a better chance of finding lower prices cruises at the end of October, all through November, and first few weeks of December. There's 8 pages of POA sailings, and when sorted by cheapest price the overwhelming majority on page 1 are in the month of November. These prices are based on a single traveler from Canada, so for the US folks going with a friend, the prices would be even better. I'm even eyeing that Thanksgiving one myself.... grossly shocked at the "cheap" price for that one. For comparison, when we first sailed POA in a large balcony in 2019, our price was around 8K per room. This thanksgiving cruise in post-Covid (expensive) times is coming in around $7,700. Usually the holiday cruises have a premium price tag.

A few comments on your list based on our experiences of staying a week in Maui at a condo rental in Kaanapali, vs a week on POA. 1) The cruise takes you to 4 different islands. A week long stay in Hawaii where you tried to island hop to even just one other island would have you 'losing out' on much more time at the airports than the time lost while you're sleeping on the cruise traveling to the next port of call. Plus the extra costs of those flights to get to the other islands is missing from your equation. 2) We had a rental car in Maui on POA. Did we get to nearly as many of the hidden gems that we did when we had a rental for our Maui only trip? Of course not. But we went halfway to Hana, made it to Maui brewing, and watched the sunset from the top of Haleakala (with lots of other stuff in between). To get the rental, it was a short bus ride from the port to the airport rental area (all the major car rentals had shuttle buses waiting), and to drop the car back off at night it was a short Uber pick up from the airport back to the cruise port. Our second day in Maui on POA we just did a traditional snorkeling excursion, so no need for a car 2 nights for us. 3) If you have your heart seat on visiting Kaanapali for some reason, you can easily reach it by car from the cruise port since you've got an overnight stay on the cruise when in Maui. 4) For our POA trip, we priced it out for the same condo we rented a few years prior vs POA. We were planning on going to Maui for 4 nights and big island for 3 before flying home. Group of 4, so either a 2br condo or 2 separate large balcony rooms on POA to fit us. All in (flights, car rentals, hotels, etc), the price for the land only trip was slightly cheaper (<$250/pp), but it didn't cover any of our food or drinks for that entire week, and only went to 2 islands. POA brought us to more spots, took care of all our food/drinks, and the logistics of getting from point A to B. So for a few extra bucks it was 1000% worth it to us to go via the POA route. To each their own I suppose, but when you honestly get down to the nitty gritty of what you get with each different type of trip, and what is important to you, for us it was an easy choice to go with POA.

Same with us, I had posted our flight info earlier this week. So either NCL has heard enough of the complaints, or just has better options now that we're getting closer to the 'before times'.

It depends on the airline. I just got my flight info a few days ago. We're traveling domestic, so I don't know if it would be different for an international flight. JFK - LAX is with American. The only thing we could do was move from row 19 (main cabin) to row 11 (exit row, comfort plus). The rows closer to the cockpit were not even visible. I didn't bother calling them to see based on the estimated prices I thought it might be. MIA - JFK is with Delta. We had the option to move all the way into first class on that flight. At a price of $700/person for a 3-hr flight, we opted just to move into comfort plus again.

Um, have I had one too many cocktails tonight or is that photo either backwards or in Russian?

Our last trip we heard of people unpacking into their assigned cabins, just to be moved out and upgraded after already being on board. I'm not a fan of that system.

It depends on your cabin you're booked in. I'm past final payment for my next trip. Price went down, I said it wasn't worth it yet to call for my 1-time FCC bonus and waited. Now my category of cabin is sold out, so no more potential price drops for me at all. If you're happy with the amount saved, just do it.

If you're in an owners suite or garden villa, then yes, your mini bar in the room is free. Outside of those 2 special categories of rooms, your mini bar is not free. Even if you have the drink package (regular free at sea or the upgraded) you can't have the butler bring you drinks to the room. Well, you can, but you will be charged for them. It's one of the silliest rules NCL has. However, depending on which ship you'll be on, if it comes with a Haven bar, the bartenders are usually generous if you ask for a can or 2 to bring back to your room at the end of the night. If you've got the plus version of the drink package then they'll give you bottles of still/sparkling water as well.

In that vein of thought though not sure how much it would help you. If you board as soon as possible at say 11am, your room may not be ready until 1pm, and if all aboard is 3pm... is it worth it?

Got a phone call today from NCL confirming my choices in flights, and they said I would get an email with my ticket numbers later. By lunchtime I had the email with my record locator numbers for each flight. On both flights they put each of us sitting twinkie in the main cabin area. At a minimum, I immediately moved us so we were next to each other (free to do). When I got home from work we sorted out the particulars. AA outbound flight to LAX we paid a total of ~$150 to move from coach into comfort plus (exit row with only 2 seats in the row). Delta flight home we could have upgraded all the way to first class if we wanted. For a short 3 hour flight the extra $700/person wasn't worth it. But for again ~$150 total we gladly moved into comfort plus. So all in, for 2 people it was roughly $550 total for comfort plus for each of us. Booking the identical flights now on our own would have us at those prices for main cabin. We're in the AA advantage program, so automatic complimentary upgrade request is in our account once I added our numbers, and on Delta I get free checked bags with my skymiles card account so for us - again, big win with the NCL selected flights.

Is there a reason you want to do this? As others have said, just drop your bags off, check in and get your card, but just don't get on. We did exactly that in Seattle. Stayed at the hotel across the street the night before, dropped our bags off and checked in at 9:30am, but then left the terminal building with cards in hand to go wander Seattle. Came back around 1:30pm and walked right to security, then right through everything else and onto the ship.

If they have the ingredients on hand, the Haven bartenders will make anything you want. You may need to tell them what to put in there, or just let them know you want something creamy and cinnamony and let their imaginations take over.

The person you were quoting was actually referring to food from The Local which is 100% free. For food from Food Republic, it tends to be open on sea days and you can use your specialty dining credit for either lunch or dinner. Pricing doesn't change at all.

As a 'meal' item, it was a bit lacking. But if you think of them as a fancy fry side dish they're fine and tasty.

Why not just get packing cubes? They can go from your suitcase right onto the shelves as is and keeps things together. Not exactly sure what it is your looking to do with a cloth bin that will take up a lot more space in your luggage.

We're currently 73 days out from sailing, so the rule about 45-60 days is just a 'suggestion' I suppose. After accepting the flights the email said the actual record locator won't come for about another 10 days, so I guess that would put us at the 60 day mark. We took an Uber/Lyft from the port to the place. It's about a 15 min ride from the port, so close by. They offer a bunch of different animal encounters you can do, so we sent them an email ahead of time to see if storing our luggage was an option. They said no problem and let us bring it to the manager office and we picked it back up when we were ready to catch our Uber/Lyft to the airport. We did both the lemur encounter and the sloth one. Nice little park/zoo place to walk around and kill some time at. https://www.jungleisland.com/

Yeah, being 15 mins from JFK (1000% dependent upon traffic) has its advantages sometimes. We haven't had a truly bad flight from NCL yet. Worst was a return from Miami that left at 6pm. We went to an animal sanctuary that allowed us to store our luggage in their office while we played with lemurs and sloths for a few hours to kill time.

There is no charge at all for the wifi or shore excursion credits. So no need to remove something that is free (really free, unlike drinks where you pay the gratuities up front).

Buy one get one. That's why it cost us $250 total for two people to fly.

Our next cruise is February 24th out of Miami. Just got an email today from NCL with our proposed flights. There was an option to accept them, or reject them. If you reject them then you get refunded what you paid for flights, but you're on your own for finding air. First time using NCL flights since last year so not sure if this is just new to me or new in general. But figured it would make folks happy who love to complain about the fights NCL books them on. Seems like this is a win-win because you can take them off you like them, but you're not out anything if you think you can do better. For us, it's a win. The fights they picked are perfect for us. We paid $250 total, pricing it out with those exact fights would be $240 each. So for folks afraid of NCL air promos, don't be.

The only time I was told we could do 3 days instead of the normal 2 days was when we were headed to New Zealand. The flight on that alone takes nearly 3 days between the 20 hours in the air and crossing the dateline. The standard max is 2 days pre/post, so whoever told you 3 was in error. For our upcoming trip next September I originally asked for 2 days, but when I got our receipt it said we would be arriving an extra day earlier than I wanted. I find it easier to just say what day you want to arrive in the country and let them work out the details of how much of a deviation it is. In the before times, around day 60 you could check your edocs and see your record locator number. Now that you can't check in until 21 days, I'm honestly not sure how that info is relayed now. I'll find out in about 2 weeks as we're using NCL air to get to LAX in February. I don't recall ever being able to upgrade into business class, but it may be airline specific and also depend on the destinations.

These were my picks back in September. Tempura fried shishito peppers Peruvian beef skewers Thai chicken lettuce wraps (least favorite of the things I tried, good, but not as good as the others) Tijuana street fries

Same. We refuse to eat Cadbury here in the states because we're tainted from our travels to the UK. Always stock up at the local stores with tons of real Cadbury to bring home. Now for crisps.... I tend to lean towards Walkers simply because they're easier for me to get here. Are the Tayto that much better and worth an extra few minutes of hunting down?

That's the joy of having options and many perks to benefit from. As much as folks rave about the Haven restaurant, it's the one perk I would willingly give up. We're of the one and done camp for the most part when it comes to using the restaurant. The Haven bartenders though on ships with a full Haven bar... to us, that alone is worth the cost of membership.

I believe they were referring to the main therasomethingorother pool that was supposed to have jets in it.