Lottosal65

We did not book a transfer when we arrive, as we're coming in the day before. I will be looking into this, but

my FIL has some mobility and can walk short distances and get himself in and out of vehicles. We booked NCL's bus transfer from Port to the airport on disembarkation day. Sorry I'm not more helpful. 😞

This sounds wonderful, thank you for sharing this information - we absolutely will do this. ❤️

I've canceled my tickets on American and rebooked on United. American just did not offer any flights out of NOLA in the afternoon or evening without overnight layovers or short connection times - untenable for us when we're traveling with my in-laws. So, our new flight is out a little after 2 pm, very doable for us. Thanks again everyone! 😘 

Yes. After reading these responses, I'm going to watch flights on American to see if I can book something later. It sounds like this could work if everything goes smoothly... but we'll be up a creek without a paddle if it doesn't. Thanks to everyone for weighing in, I really appreciate the help. ❤️

Confirmation says 8 am arrival. 

Hi all,

I'm traveling with my husband, inlaws, daughter and her boyfriend on the NCL Breakaway from 1/28/24 to 2/4/24 out of Port of New Orleans. We just got notice that our 5 pm departure flight has been moved up to 11:45 am. We're scheduled to arrive in NOLA at 8 am. My inlaws have physical challenges, so we booked nonstop flights for each leg. I'm looking for info on the port and disembarkation there. Is it well organized, and how long it will take us to depart the ship and get to the airport? American has few options in the afternoon to get us out of NOLA and back to Chicago, but I'll sort that out if we really need to change our flight. Sharing any experience you've had with the NOLA port and NCL would be appreciated. (We've sailed with NCL multiple times out of Tampa and Miami on smaller ships but never NOLA on an NCL as large as the Breakaway). Thanks in advance. 🙂

22 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

One more thing.  While enjoying your cruise,  you can ask your fellow passengers what TA they use and why.  You might find a really good TA that way.  One that will give discounts, etc.

Great idea! We're talking right now with a TA my parents use, he booked our trip with them on another cruise line and they love him. So far, he's been great, but we'll see how this goes re: NCL. Asking others on the cruise is definitely something we'll do.

Thank you to everyone for weighing in, there is a lot of info to consider in this thread. A new detail to add: my inlaws have decided to come as well after talking with my spouse about the trip. We've decided to book our air on our own since we'll have to be fussy about our flights (inlaws aren't in great health and in mid-80s), but have reached out to a TA to see if they'll help booking the cruise - perhaps we can access some incentives. Thanks again, and I'll keep reading this thread if anyone has some additional insights to share. 🙂 

Hi all, this will be my 8th cruise, 5th with NCL. In the past, I've booked online, mostly successfully. My one issue was with a cruise pre-COVID, where I was looking to use the free airfare. NCL booked us on a flight that got in only 3 hours prior to cruising - since we were flying in from WI in the winter, there are often delays and I was concerned that we would miss the boat if any of our flights were delayed. Since then, I've booked my own travel, coming in the day prior to the cruise.

Fast forward to now. We wish to book two cabins in January on the Breakaway out of New Orleans. I would like to use the "Free" airfare (really BOGO), as we're on a bit of a budget because we're taking my daughter and her boyfriend. I've noticed that many of the flights have very short layovers. I'm thinking I would rather have some help with this booking, so I get it right for our group of 4 people.

I've never used a Personal Cruise Consultant but am thinking going that way or using a travel agent. Do any of you have preferences one way or the other, and why? And, how do I go about finding a PCC if that is the way to go? Thanks in advance for the help. :)

On 5/22/2019 at 12:32 PM, Captain-John said:

NCL Platinum now matches to Gold I believe.

 

At the time my NCL Platinum matched to Black - can't remember exactly when but very early on in the programme.

Makes sense, I just went through the match process and my NCL Gold matched to MSC Silver.

14 hours ago, NEW 2 CRUISIN said:

You can expect to have a FANTASTIC vacation!

ENJOY!!  

Thank you!

On 1/27/2022 at 8:59 PM, bonvoyagie said:

suites in general are larger. Usually the butler and steward work as a team to insure that the guests have their every needs attended to. Butlers handle snacks and food issues as well as the coffee machine, the steward handles the rest. We have found that you can make a request of either one. One thing we have learned is that if you want room service call the butler and work through them - do not call the room service number directly - they just pass it on to the butler to deliver, the butler wants to be in the loop from the beginning. 

 

On the Dawn as well as the Jewel class ships, you will be able to eat breakfast and lunch in Cagney's/Modernero. In the morning they have a great buffet along with a fixed hot menu. The concierge will also set up shop in the bar area we found that this was the best time to get any of our issues/questions solved. 

 

If they have one, I suggest that you attend the suites reception party as an alternate way to meet some of the officers. A couple of things to remember is that there are several layers of management - some are parallel paths to the GM (former Hotel Manager). The room stewards report through the head of housekeeping while the butler reports to the concierge to the GM and yes the housekeeping mgr reports to the GM.

 

Butlers and the concierge do not receive the benefits of the DSC so you need to tip them above and beyond. I tend to tip based on cruise length and how much they do for us above and beyond their expected duties. For example serving meals and special snack and beverage requests. We tend to order breakfast in at least once on a cruise. It is the easiest meal to have delivered as it is one course so they drop and go. Dinner is multi course and is served that way even in your suite. 

 

One thing to note, once you have had the suite experience it is hard to go back.

Really great to know we can make requests through either the butler or steward. We'll definitely look into attending a suite reception if there is one, and connect with the concierge at breakfast. Thank you!!!

On 1/26/2022 at 7:49 PM, coin ops said:

You can also expect to never want to cruise in a regular room again! 😉

We've stayed in a Deck 10 aft PH (large balcony) twice on the Dawn and totally  enjoyed them.

 

 

I can see this is dangerous... 😆 We've always stayed in aft balcony cabins, but this is our first penthouse, + a large balcony... We're both looking forward to the larger room and bigger balcony.

On 1/26/2022 at 7:29 PM, don't-use-real-name said:

You can also have dinner (Specialty with service charge) served right in your stateroom.

Alcoholic beverages not included - but maybe with a service charge - otherwise normal

room service is free.

In general - your Butler takes care of meals treats beverages in cabin and everything outside

and in a way is an assistant Concierge

Your cabin attendant takes care of the cabin inside beds linen towels cleaning upkeep etc.

Okay, thank you. We'll have to work to keep this straight, lol. 😀

On 1/26/2022 at 4:50 PM, complawyer said:

you get to eat breakfast and lunch in cagneys or moderno, with special menus, priority embarkation/disembarkation, the concierge can/will assist you with dinner, show reservations, and shore excursions, the butler will accomodate almost any reasonable request. i have him/her bring a pot of coffee, hot water for tea and sweet rolls/croissants to the cabin every morning, meats, cheeseds and crackers in the afternoon, any goodies you might want, cookies, mm's gummies, 

 

sometimes i ask for a cold beer. just about anything within reason

Oh, nice! My husband is very uncomfortable with the idea of having a butler, but snacks may help him adjust. 🙂 Thanks for the info!

11 hours ago, don't-use-real-name said:

About as close to it as you are going to get -

 

Deck 13 (Sun deck) forward 

 

While not signed or restricted (and certainly NOT clothing optional) it is not an area

that offers minors anything of interest - a stacked balcony area with small hot tub -

drafty area with glass shields - tacking into a brisk wind can be chilling - around the

corner and up a flight of stairs (deck 14) is the Bimini Bar & Grill.

Forward from the Bar (Forecastle deck 14) is a walkway - just a walkway not a

lounging area.

 

Deck 14 (Sun deck {Heli-pad}) aft

 

 

While not signed or restricted (and certainly NOT clothing optional) 

But it does look down on deck 12 the childrens pool play area

Two passageways port & starboard access to the sports courts

 

For all intensive purposes unless in one of the two Garden Villas there really is no

adult only areas - suitable for what adults do !

 

For further reference LINK:

 

Norwegian Dawn Deck-Drag (cruisedeckplans.com)

Good call. When we were on the Dawn in January 2020 we hung out in that deck 13 area. There weren't many people, so we had good hot tub access. (And people didn't park themselves in there all day... 😐).

On 1/28/2022 at 5:36 PM, bonvoyagie said:

The Dawn is similar to the Jewel class ships in that the suits on deck 10 have larger balconies than those on decks 8 and 9, but the cabin size is the same. NCL has also put the deck 10 suites in a different catagory and are charging more $$ for the better view.

Good to know, we're on Deck 10. 🙂👍

On 1/20/2022 at 1:33 PM, Lottosal65 said:

Hi all, we used FCC to book a much better cabin than usual, for our Caribbean cruise in late March on the Dawn (aft penthouse w/large balcony, spouse loves to watch where we've been...😀). I've done some reading, and see that a butler and concierge staff those rooms. Not ever having had these services before, I'm wondering what is reasonable to request? Are there other perks of which we're unaware? We're really pretty clueless about how this all works... 😮

Bumping in hope someone will chime in? This is by far the nicest cabin we've ever had, and don't want to embarrass ourselves or the staff... 😬

2 hours ago, itsnotjustme said:

FCC with cancel for any reason is nothing more than NCL is PRESENTLY offering automatically.

Agreed. We canceled our cruise under Peace of Mind in late December, and received credit for all costs except the insurance. We've rebooked for late March, and won't buy their insurance, at least for this year.

Hi all, we used FCC to book a much better cabin than usual, for our Caribbean cruise in late March on the Dawn (aft penthouse w/large balcony, spouse loves to watch where we've been...😀). I've done some reading, and see that a butler and concierge staff those rooms. Not ever having had these services before, I'm wondering what is reasonable to request? Are there other perks of which we're unaware? We're really pretty clueless about how this all works... 😮

On 1/14/2022 at 8:00 PM, smokeymtn51 said:

We are thinking of using the POM to cancel our cruise leaving on Jan 19th. Does anyone know how if NCL requires you to cancel a certain number of days prior to sailing?  Kind of waiting to see if NCL cancels the cruise.

 

Thanks

Not sure if this is helpful, but I cancelled our January 3rd cruise on the Pearl (yes, the one that went for two days then returned) on December 31st with no issues. POM was reinstated the day before. We received 100% FCC on the 12th, which we promptly rebooked for two cruises- one sooner, one later.

23 hours ago, butterfly4108 said:

Just spent some time on the phone asking why I couldn't apply my FCC to my April 2023 sailing when the email clearly said "thru May 2023".  They gave me some double talk that I couldn't understand except that the final outcome is that it must be applied to sailings in 2022.  Spoke to 3 different people and got the same answer but the last person explained it clearly....because the original sailing was January 2022, you have one year from that date for the new sailing using the FCC.  

I got doubletalk as well, same issue. The cruise consultant finally said she would ask for an extension of the FCC to May (reflecting what my letter said...🤔).  I've got cruises booked in late March and January 2023, and it seems like that took - I got both sets of paperwork yesterday. So, we'll see...😐

On 1/13/2022 at 11:01 AM, kfnesq said:

Same.

Me too. 😐

8 hours ago, CarolinaMamma said:

I think you are absolutely correct about the calculations of whether sailings are profitable is playing a huge part here. 
 

People like me who are playing chicken with the cruise line and not cancelling because we’d rather have a cash refund than FCC probably don’t help. Wonder how they will estimate how many people will cancel 48 hours out under POM. 

We did close to that for the Jan. 3rd sailing of the Pearl, canceled on Friday the 31st for Monday's sailing, were also concerned about flights, potentially getting stuck in Miami (we booked our own flights), bringing COVID back to vulnerable loved ones... I can't imagine how many others are now thinking about this. (And we're sad for everyone that Pearl come back so soon, but happy we're not scrambling in Miami right now and are comfortable at home). I made a spreadsheet today of possible trips for us this year, we'll rebook with FCC as soon as it posts to my account.

8 hours ago, Analog187 said:

Update- we got upgraded.  Balcony BA to Haven Aft Balcony- $900 pp

We leave on 1/3

 

 

 

Wow, that's great! Minimum bids  for those suites on my sailing were $1200 pp. Enjoy!🙂