Sailing12Away

For non-cruise visitors, is everything headed back to 'normal' over there? We were supposed to visit in January 2021, which obviously was cancelled. Thought about rebooking for 2022 and had to put a hold on that. Now we're aiming for 2024 to be more realistic and not have to rebook hotels and car rentals all over again. But was curious how truly 'open' things were getting over there.

With the plus package, do you recall which bottles of wine were included for free? Is there a special designation next to their name on the menus?

From what I've read, the Utours are private tours, but handled by NCL. So if you want a much smaller group, or the ability to customize your excursion to what you specifically want to see/do, that's for you. But rather than go with an outside vendor, it's run through NCL so you have all their guarantees for returning to the ship on time and such. We were considering doing it in Seville this week as we specifically want to see the Royal Palace and that is literally the only tour that includes a formal stop there. But at $360+ per person it's a bit steep. I figure once we're on board in a few days we'll ask the concierge more about it to confirm how many people are in the tour and if it can be bumped to a bit more to save on the costs. I'm fine with 4 or 6 people at a higher price than the buses of 50+ people, but want to know exactly what you get before committing to 3x higher costs.

We have a group of 5 traveling in September. For one of the dinners I reached out to the Haven concierge to book as it's a friend's birthday. Our reservation says 4, but they 'internally' told them it was for 5. For the rest of the dinners I just booked it for 6 or 4 if there would only be 3 of us. Outside of Tepanyaki you're going to take up both seats at the table anyway so not sure it matters.

In @HLR's defense, I too had no idea there was a separate Canada board for the East coast vs West coast when I first posted in there myself.

We were originally booked in an MA and outright upgraded to an SD for about $1400 when the price kept dropping. Then just got the email about 30 minutes ago for our 5/13/22 sailing on the Star. We were upgraded from the SD to the S1 - the 3 bedroom garden villa. I'm in shock and awe right now. Not sure what the 2 of us are going to do with that much space. It's about 3x bigger than our home.

RCC charges me $60/day for unlimited cocktails, NCL charges me $20. Am I yelling and screaming at RCC for ripping me off? No, when I cruise with them my mantra is as follows with regards to the drink package: If cheap sushi is important to you, grab your box of immodium, roll the dice, and continue to sail with Carnival.

Thank you, I'll reach out to them as well. Been getting prices of $400-600 plus tax, tolls and gratuities. If I can just teach them how to use Uber it's roughly $150 each way...

What are these funky little bonus tags you got? I've never seen those before.

Quadruple points on a 7 day sailing in Haven would be 28 points. For that particular ad though, it's calling out the 7 day with 'up to' 30 points. So yeah, no. Not going to hit 30 on a 7 day cruise, even with quadruple points and Haven.

They're billed to your onboard cabin account. If you have loyalty perks with the airline I think there's a spot to write in your number.

You can book for as many people as you want, regardless of what is under your name or not. In September I'm sailing with just 2 in our cabin. My folks are in a separate unlinked reservation, and a friend of mine is traveling solo - also as a separate unlinked reservation. We're in Haven, so reservations have opened up for us - I had no problem booking tables for 6 (they won't let you do odd numbers) for all of our specialty restaurants. As for dining by the windows.... yeah, there is no table big enough to fit a group of 7 by the windows unless you pair off in 2 tables of 4 I suppose. And even then I think they keep the 2 tops closest to the windows. It also depends on your cabin and the ship... if you're in Haven, reach out to the concierge now and sometimes with advanced notice they can do wonders.

We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel (came in one day early) and used the NCL transfer to go back to the airport. It was a chaotic mess for the transfer with no one really doing a good job directing traffic. The employees were just screaming at people who were walking through the bus lanes, people were cutting the line (not intentionally), and then folks would drop off their luggage for one bus and find out there were no seats left - so they had to dig their luggage back out and cut the line to get onto another bus. We did the port valet service so thankfully didn't have to worry about our bags, but one bag never made it to the airport. Either NCL or Alaska Air shipped it from Seattle to San Diego instead of JFK. It got dropped off at our door via courier service 2 days later around 10pm. Much easier if you don't have any luggage to worry about. Just hang onto those luggage tag receipts and don't put anything you need right away in there. Or just stay at the Marriot across the street one night after the cruise to enjoy the market and there will be no chaos at all getting to the airport the following morning.

We haven't tried YC yet. Had a January cruise booked that was Covid cancelled. I have friends that have sailed YC and loved it, but they have yet to experience a 'true' Haven ship (non-Jewel class). We also have our eye on Celebrity, but apples-apples they always come out higher, or their entry Retreat rooms are sold out so quick it's hard to do a true comparison. For us, the itinerary comes first regardless of ship or suite perks. But 90% of our trips have been with NCL, so there must be a reason we keep going back (entertainment, food options, general vibe on the ship, fellow traveler demographic, etc). Those little things add up over the trip to determine final thoughts, but 5K is a big difference to make up when all other things are considered.

With the drink package, any drink that costs more than $15 you just pay the difference. Bottles of wine are discounted too if you wanted one with dinner. If you're in a club balcony suite, the laundry bag is free. If you're extending your trip either before or after your cruise, or on a long sailing >7 days, that one bag at $30 isn't a bad deal to save on what you schlep with you.

Looking for some recommendations on a car service my parents can use to get from Suffolk county to the NCL pier in NYC for their September cruise. I'm closer to the border of Queens, so for us we'll just use an Uber. But my folks like having something more secured and confirmed, and need a bit more of a white glove treatment as they don't travel as much and are less street savvy. Rather than just running through the list in Yelp, I figured I would ask if anyone else on the island has companies they would recommend for pickup/drop off.

Sailing into Le Verdon with NCL Star next month and we've been trying to find some wine tasting trips because we can't go to Bordeaux and not have wine. The NCL excursions are very limited and only visit 1-2 places. We found a few private tours, but since we're docking in Le Verdon the price is extremely high (~700 euros for 2 people). In speaking to the private tour companies, they've told us that there is no public transportation in Le Verdon. I find that a bit hard to believe, but what do I know... For anyone who has sailed into this port before, do the cruise ships typically have an option for a 'city transfer' that will bring you into the city proper? When we sailed to Palma NCL had an option for a $5 bus pass that took you from the port to city center, and then when you were ready you caught the bus back. It ran every hour or so on a loop and that was perfect for us. Since those are not expensive tours they typically don't advertise them online ahead of time, but we've found that as an option with both NCL and then again with RCC when we were in Crete. So can anyone confirm if such an option was available on your trips? Or if public transportation is an option? We're fine with just getting into town and wandering to a few wine bars instead of a vineyard visit, but would need to figure out how to get to city center. Or we just suck it up and do a 'lesser' NCL tour, or pay the hefty price for a private one that is more inline with what we wanted to see/do.

Curious to hear from others who have been there to see exactly where you get on land. We'll be with NCL Joy this coming September and looking into the brewery/distillery tour excursions. If the tender drops us off near Charlottetown, we can just wander on our own. But if it's dropping you off further away, then the more formal tour has it's merits.