JamieLogical

There's already been several posts on the Roll Call about the marathon being that day, so most should already be aware.

I had the card first. Got it for a land-crossing trip into Mexico as, while the US accepts enhanced NYS licenses for land border crossings, Mexico officially did not. Most of the time, crossing into Mexico, they won't even check your passport/ID, but that can do random checks and at the time they did not accept an NYS enhanced license. Anyway, once I started cruising, I went ahead and got a full passport book. Even though I didn't need it for the cruises themselves, if there was any reason I needed to fly home internationally (like injured/sick while in a foreign country), then you need the full book. Now my card and my book have different expiration dates, so I have to decide whether to renew the card on its own when the time comes or just stick with the book.

You mentioned that the TV is across from the bed and can't be seen from the couch. Are you able to pull it out from the wall on a swivel or anything? Or is it just a fixed position on the wall?

Yeah, the pricing is nuts. But I guess people are willing to pay it! I paid it for my upcoming Oct. 30 Canada/NE sailing, because I figured on a cold weather cruise, it would still be worth it. It's a port intensive itinerary, so hopefully the spa won't be too packed on port days. But with it being about 40 degrees outside, maybe everyone will decide to stay onboard in the warm spa like me....

Ah, well the OP said he was right around $900, so probably excluding the travel insurance (he didn't say he was paying that), it makes sense you would be seeing roughly double the price. When I booked, I paid something like $486 out of pocket for my balcony, but the pricing was different then. I think it was slightly more than it is currently, but I had $500 of CruiseFirst and a 20% off coupon. I didn't buy the insurance, because I get travel insurance through my credit card. If I were to try to book a Club Balcony Suite right now, as the OP did, the total solo price comes out to $1051.40 without insurance, so perhaps the price has gone up a bit since he booked.

Are you sure you are looking at the same sailing? I can go to NCL.com right now and this is the pricing I see for a solo cruiser for the 10/30 Breakaway sailing:

I would post in the Roll Call for that sailing and ask someone who is already booked to check for you.

I must be bored too, because I think that's pretty cool.

I have always received excursion tickets in my stateroom, usually the first day of the cruise.

I know that the Breakaway is skipping Halifax this week (was supposed to dock there tomorrow) and heading to Boston instead. Not sure about cruises starting up this weekend.

I have never sailed on any ship where the suites were not sold out. Even when I was on the Celebrity Summit with only 250 people onboard after the restart, the suites were sold out. Every cruise line wants to sell their suites and will price them to sell or will fill them with upgrades. I think the only time suites might be below full capacity is when there aren't a lot of kids onboard, so the rooms are only single or double occupancy.

I have a friend on this sailing with you. Since you aren't scheduled to leave Halifax until 9:00pm on Friday, I think you will likely be leaving early if you make it there at all. Projection right now is that the hurricane will hit Halifax at 8:00pm on Friday.

Yeah, the better way is the way Celebrity does it. Your OBC shows up as a potential payment method when booking anything through their Cruise Planner website when you book excursions, package upgrades, specialty dining, etc. And, if you don't have enough OBC to cover the full amount, you can put the difference on your credit card. Oh well. Maybe I will try the book, then cancel, then rebook trick.

I honestly can't remember if there is a way to use OBC on purchases before boarding. I have $100 of OBC from my Shareholder's Benefit and I want to possibly book some excursions with it. Do I have to wait until I am onboard or can I call in to use it? Does not appear to let me use it booking through the website. I have gotten spoiled by Celebrity I guess. There I can just spend OBC when booking things in advance through their Cruise Planner website.

I get 2 from Free at Sea and 2 from Platinum for a total of 4. Sorry for the confusion.

No. My brother and his girlfriend booked this sailing and with my $500 of unspent CruiseFirst and the fact this sailing was soooo cheap, I decided to join them. I don't plan to sail NCL again after this, but I guess you can never say never. My next sailing is with Princess (Panama Canal) and after that, we plan to stick with Celebrity for the most part as I am now almost Elite with them.

Not surprising with with the cheap fare!

There looks to be some decent stuff on the menu in the video, but certainly not enough to keep me happy for more than 2-3 nights. At least I am Platinum and end up with 4 specialty dinners on a 7-day sailing, but anything more than 7 days and that menu would get old fast! Meanwhile, Celebrity has four different dining rooms all serving different food on their newest ships....

I don't want to hijack the thread, but the straw that broke the camel's back for me was when we booked the Joy out of Montego Bay as part of NCL's "Return to Sea" where they swore up and down that these cruises would 100% be happening and would not be yet another COVID cancelation (of which we had many!) and then Alaska opened up and they canceled the sailings on the Joy to move the entire crew to the Encore and offered us zero compensation. We used up our FCC and a couple of CruiseNexts for a B2B to Bermuda on the Breakaway last Sept/Oct and that was supposed to be my last NCL sailing. For those sailings, I got another example of NCL's poor customer service. The price on the second leg of the B2B dropped by something like $190 per person for my husband and I and we called up expecting 25% of the difference as OBC as we had received for price drops in the past. We were told they would not give us OBC, because the total would be less than $50 per person. The price then dropped even further to where 25% would have been more than $50 and they said they wouldn't give us OBC because we were inside of 15 days from sailing. Meanwhile, I was booked on a Celebrity cruise for the following month. That one, I was sailing solo and the price dropped right around $400 (I was in the Retreat). I called them up and they gave me 110% of the price drop as OBC! Talk about night and day! ~$400 price drop on NCL = no OBC. $400 price drop on Celebrity = $440 OBC.

I checked out OnPoint and their instructions say to make sure the test box is unopened.... I only have an open box of a 5-pack of tests left (4 tests remaining), so I don't think I can use that? By the time I spend the cash for a new box of tests and pay for the proctoring, I might as well do eMed....

Nope. Like you, I am all in for about $450 right now. I had $500 of CruiseFirst that I had intended to let expire and then with no solo supplement and the cruise fare being so cheap, I couldn't resist. Plus, I was supposed to cruise with my brother the week that cruising shut down for COVID and so now I am finally going to get to do it!

The spa is stupidly expensive on this sailing, but I am going to have to pull the trigger. One thing I do miss on Celebrity is the Breakaway/Breakaway+ Thermal Spas, so I am not going to pass up the chance to use one again and on a cold weather cruise, it will be very nice to have access.

I wouldn't say "back to the dark side", as that sounds kind of permanent. I am just making a very brief stop on the dark side. 😋

I can't believe that after all of our NCL and Celebrity adventures, we are finally ending up on the same sailing!

I was using Rebound Patches, which no longer seem to be available. Used up the last of ours on our Alaska sailing. I am going to have to research alternatives. I also recommend Liquid IV for recovery. They are packets of powder you mix into a bottle of water. Edit: Just checked Amazon and it looks like Rebound Patches are back!