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michelle-nh

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Everything posted by michelle-nh

  1. Thank you all. I will look into the other suggestions. Santorini: I’m thinking that going with NCL’s “Charming Oia and Winery” tour will be best to avoid the cable car? The other ports are: Athens, Mykonos, and Corfu. We love general sightseeing, just walking around and soaking in the place, and especially anything having to do with history and learning about the culture. We aren’t big shoppers but can be happy just wandering around and window shopping too. I still have lots of research to do, and am open to any suggestions.
  2. Yes, that’s the company we used on the last cruise. They were excellent. I plan to use them again for different tours in each Italian port.
  3. We (husband and I) just booked a 10-day cruise for next summer that will go to many ports in Italy and Greece. We’ve been to most of the ports in Italy before and booked tours with a local tour company. They were small group tours. We’d book individually and then they’d assign us to a tour, usually in a small van with say 2-4 other couples or families. We enjoyed this as it gave us a chance to make friends with other people on the ship. I’m trying to find an equivalent local company for the ports in Greece, but all I’m finding are private tours that will take groups but you have to book with your group. When I price them as just a couple they are really pricey and we’d miss out on the small group experience. Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks.
  4. Perfect! Decision made, then. And yes, thanks to those who clarified transfers. It does sound like I’m better off canceling that portion…at least on the way to the port at the start.
  5. If I book with air included and then find a better price on it, can I cancel the air portion of the booking without penalty?
  6. I’ve tried searching, but am not really finding current info, so thought I’d ask… We are planning to book the 11-day Mediterranean/Greek Isles cruise on the Epic for next August. We’ll be celebrating my birthday and our 37th anniversary. I’m expecting our TA to have a good Black Friday special that gets us lots of OBC, so will probably be booking this week and need to make some decisions. We fly out of Boston-Logan. I would like to fly into Rome at least 2 days ahead but ideally get directly home at the end of the cruise. We’ve never used NCL’s BOGO airfare or transfers before, so that’s what I’m wondering about. We don’t have an unlimited budget and I’d rather save $ on things like this to use it at tours at each port, but I’m also really nervous about giving up control of our flight plans. I’d usually be inclined to watch for the lowest airfare for a reasonable flight time/layovers and book myself. The best I’m finding at the moment would be around $1100 PP/RT. That’s with a direct flight going, but the equivalent return flight is pretty early in the AM (10:30), which would be cutting it scarily close (wouldn’t it?). But there is one flight at 12:30 with a 4-hour layover in Paris that looks good, same price. We went on a Mediterranean cruise five years ago and know Rome is close to an hour from port, so there are transfers to the port to think about too. I just ran a search on NCL and it looks like they’d charge about $1500 more if we go with BOGO airfare, so going with that would save us about $700 at today’s prices (which Google flights say are lower than usual). So, here are my major questions: 1) It looks like the best flights (with reasonable layovers) are also the lowest priced, so I’d guess that is what NCL would book. But is this a reasonable assumption? How likely is it that they’d book us on something with multiple layovers or some crazy layover times instead? 2) How about transfers to and from port? It sounds like they might be included if we go with BOGO? Is this true? If not, if we have to arrange that ourselves, what would we expect to pay to/from Rome/port? 3) I’ve read nightmare stories about using NCL for flights, but mostly that has to do with people flying in the same day as the cruise. We should be fine going two days ahead shouldn’t we? Any advice?
  7. So glad to hear that! I booked right across from the elevators for the same reason (DH’s back) for our April cruise and I’ve been debating whether to change them for fear of noise. I won’t worry now.
  8. Thank you, GeezerCouple. The 2br suites you mentioned sound like exactly what we need. I’ll look into those. If that doesn’t work out, the solution mentioned by others to book a balcony with an inside across the hall is a good compromise too. Unfortunately, even if we could afford Haven, my DH is very miserly and admittedly it’s one of his traits that I mostly appreciate. We are able to travel a lot, but do it modestly. My mother is a retired junior high school teacher. I’m sure the last thing she’d want on vacation is a mob of kids. I’ll take your advice and avoid holiday weeks.
  9. I haven’t narrowed it down that far yet. Probably one of the ships that cruise out of NYC.
  10. We’ve only ever cruised just the two of us in a balcony. And once a long time ago with our daughter when she was young, in an inside cabin. We love our balcony, and it is a must for us now. But now, I’m thinking about inviting my mother along on a cruise (it would be her first). I know she’d hate an inside room. A balcony would be a must for her too. But booking a balcony just for herself would be pretty pricey. Is there a particular room type (not Haven—it’s out of our budget) that would allow us all privacy? It would be uncomfortable for us all to be on top of each other and sleep in the same room. Outside of the Haven is a suite with bedrooms a thing? What are the best options?
  11. How late at night does the bus and/or ferry run between Kings Wharf and Hamilton? Specifically I’m interested in Wednesday nights for Harbour Night? I’ve tried looking for schedules online but am only finding old ones. NCL offers an excursion, but it seems like a waste of money since we’d basically just be paying for a ferry that would be exponentially less if the public one is running.
  12. I just came back to do another happy dance. While it took two more calls to get everything merged and straightened out, once they were I had a nice surprise. The cruise we took in 2001 (22 years ago!) which I’d written off assuming there were no records of it, suddenly showed up in our history along with the other two. So that means we are already Silver level 🙂 I thought we had to wait until after our April cruise to reach that level.
  13. We’ll be on the Apr 30 sailing. I booked a couple of weeks ago and specifically chose that sailing because it was NOT going to VA. No offense to Virginia. It’s a beautiful state. But I’d much rather have the extra sea day. Maybe it’s because I booked after the decision was made and it was no longer being advertised, but my itinerary has never shown VA like other are saying they see.
  14. So, a happy update to this. For some reason, apparently my husband and I each have two Latitude accounts. The solution is as “simple” as merging the two accounts and they are working on that now. So we will get our points back. I’m very pleased it was so simple. I was expecting major frustration.
  15. So, the Mediterranean cruise on the Epic that we took in summer of 2019 disappeared from our Latitudes account. I know it was in there. I remember seeing it when we booked an Alaskan cruise for summer 2020, which we obviously had to cancel before it happened. We haven’t cruised since 2020 and honestly I hadn’t paid much attention to our account other than to check on our CN certificates to make sure they weren’t going to expire. But now we have another cruise booked (90 more days, yay!!), so I am paying attention. And sure enough the Med cruise is no longer there. I tried to let them know, but can’t because the time limit has expired. So, I suppose my next step is to call customer service. But I’m not optimistic. Has anyone else had this happen? Any advice? Is there any chance of getting my points back?
  16. Yes, that’s exactly the reason I’m not bidding on the upgraded spa room too. We’re on the April 23 to Bermuda. By that time of year, after living through a freezing New England winter, any temps over 65 feel tropical. But yes, I’ll be prepared just in case. This will be our third cruise out of NYC at that time of year and we’ve been lucky so far. Hopefully that run of luck will hold out.
  17. My husband and I are booked on the Prima out of NYC at the end of April. It will be our first cruise since COVID and we can’t wait to get back to it. I’ve read the reviews, and honestly with the exception of it being hard to get reservations for entertainment, I don’t think any of the things people are complaining about will bother us. As long as we have a comfortable place to sit in the shade during the day with a good book and a bar nearby, the commotion of people around ( we live in a very quiet rural area and so actually enjoy the change of pace of being around crowds of people on vacation), good food, and a balcony room to go back to, we’re happy. I never loved the buffets anyhow, so the fact that it’s smaller on Prima won’t bother me. We are also not pool people or sun lovers, so the smaller pool area won’t bother us either. BUT, we do enjoy relaxing in a hot tub in the early evening. I see there are two on the pool deck. How about on deck 8 near the infinity pools? Are there hot tubs there? I’ve haven’t seen any mention of the hot tubs in any reviews. Are they too small and crowded too? I considered booking spa rooms so we’d have access to the hot tub there. But we did that once before and found we only used them twice on the whole cruise. It was TOO quiet in the spa for us, we’d rather be around people.
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