JandC_Cruising

To try to connect from the terminal, do the following: 1. Turn on Airplane mode on your phone and be sure WiFi is turned on. 2. Connect to the Ship's WiFi (this is the key step and, depending upon your location in terminal v. ship, may or may not work). 3. Open up the NCL App on your device. 4. As long as the ship has "initiated" your cruise on the app, you will be good to go. You will be able to make reservations for shows, restaurants, etc. If you try this too early, the ship may still think it's the previous cruise. In that case, you will need to wait .

Yes, If you get upgraded into a "Spa" Cabin, you get access to the Thermal spa.

It is refunded onto the on-board account as a Refundable OBC. Just be sure, as you mentioned, to cancel more than 48hrs in advance.

As others have said, the deckplan on the NCL site for the Vibe is inaccurate. Here is a video on Youtube that is a fly-over of the Joy. You can see the Vibe area clearly.

Gary, I agree with this particular sentiment. We were not impressed with the "available" Chardonnay or as they call them "Bold Reds" on the Encore last week. Additionally, with the change to only offering bottles of wines that are already available by the glass, they have diminished the value of this package on the 'Wine" side of the program. They used to have a very nice Lois Jadot Pouilly-Fuisse but that was missing and several others I know we've ordered before by bottle were blocked from our choices because they were not offered by the glass. I know you have mentioned your wife likes to take the bottle back to the room. While we did not test this "NEW" restriction, last week, I'm suspect if they would really enforce it. If they think they can leave a bottle on one party's table and then re-circulate it to others by the glass if it is left unfinished, there are sanitary issues at play. it would be like re-serving un-eaten dinner rolls to another table. We do a lot of whisky drinking and felt well served by the package on that front this past week. My wife and I drank plenty of Aqua Pana and SIL with us was drinking San Pellegrino like it was going out of style. Again, all valuable benefits of the program. We are definitely going to "test" taking unfinished bottles back to our room in March. There will be 3 of us dining and we will all have the Plus package, so plan on ordering 3 bottles at each dinner. There will definitely be left-overs. Best wishes and happy NY!

I fully agree it is the right process. but we've seen cabins disappear for nearly 1/2 of the day in the past. Even if the category wasn't sold out. (Mock booking on a cabin...change mind...then come back and want to select that original cabin again and it's gone....re-appears later in the day) Could someone else have gone into it and done the same as us exactly 15 minutes later? I suppose so. I was just using "mysterious" as code for the fact that I don't know "EXACTLY" how long before it would re-appear. I've seen it take longer than 15 minutes though....

Hello all, I figured I would report back to this very detailed thread based on our most recent experience. We have upgraded to the Plus package on 4 of our past 5 cruises. We just got off the Encore on Sunday and here are a few observations/experiences: 1. The wine lists throughout the ship no longer had any indicators of what bottles were included in the plus package. On our past cruises, all the lists that either indicated "Premium Plus", had an "*", or were in bold print . We were simply told that we could get a bottle at dinner (1 for each passenger with the plus package) of ANY wine that was sold by the glass. We did not ask for a wine and find that it was no on board. There were three of us dining each night and we typically had 2 bottles. Only one night did we get three bottles and that was because the waiter brought and opened a White (of the same vineyard) by accident. He left the extra bottle and we only drank 1/2 of it. We had other plans so we didn't try to leave with the left overs. 2. Veuve Champagne was surprisingly listed prominently at Ocean Blue, but not at Le Bistro...We had it at OB without any issue. Le Bistro was promoting the Pommery Brut Royal ($120 without package but free with the Plus), even though the napkin ties still had the Veuve cards attached. 3. We had Aqua Pana and San Pellegrino at every dinner and most lunches (even in the Buffet) and easily got that from a couple of random bars to have a bottle in our room each night. 4. Starbucks was included, but we didn't take as great advantage of it as we should have. (oh...and this was our fault as DW didn't see the clear words on the Starbucks machine in the buffet that self-service machines ARE NOT INCLUDED IN ANY BEVERAGE PACKAGE...fair warning) 5. Maltings had a good selection of Whiskey's and Scotches (Whistle Pig Rye, Gentleman Jack, Woodford Reserve, Macallan Quest, and others) We also saw these in the Vibe, Observation lounge, Alist Bar, and even the Social for the Comedy Show. 6. As always, CHECK YOUR ONBOARD ACCOUNT EVERY DAY! We had two bottles (one at Manhattan Room and one at Ocean Blue) accidently charged to us. The Manhattan room one was because we had three of us at the table (we all had the Plus package) but they attached the 3rd bottle to my card rather than the single person from the other cabin. The Ocean Blue one was because they sent a runner to "Onda" to pick up the wine and they ran the card there without realizing it was for our dinner). I got both corrected at Guest Services without issue. So, in short, for us the package is still worth it. We drink a bunch of premium whisky and have a lot of bottled water throughout the cruise. The biggest disappointment for us was that they were clear that only wines by the glass qualified for the free bottles. I know there were several bottles from past cruises sill on the wine lists, but we could not select them because our waiters claimed they were no longer included since they were not offered by the glass. We made the most of it however and still enjoyed all but one bottle we had selected. Hope this report provides some recent insight and value to others. Happy Cruising All!

COMPLETLY AGREE! I understand some who feel it is not worth it for them. For US, a couple in our 50's, the more comfortable chairs, dedicated service and honestly a more quite retreat for sunning and reading is exactly what we want. We just got off the Encore but had pre-purchased the passes. We met several who purchased on day 1 once on-board. I believe they got them at the Social but not 100% sure. If it isn't there, then you will just be steps from Guest Services and they can confirm where to go to get them. Our one criticism of the Encore Vibe is that the chaises do not have full cushions (yes...first world problems 🙂 ). However the bartending staff was great! Leo took fantastic care of us, being sure to add a very nice rum float on every one of my Pina Coladas!

It will be interesting. Since we are only a couple, the bed "turn down" is honestly a minor issue. We can easily toss any throw pillows and sham onto the sofa each night 😴 I could imagine some customers having a problem (perhaps even difficulty) dealing with a pullman or other sofa setup each evening themselves if that is left to the passenger to do. Our next cruise is March on the Joy (standard balcony since they don't have the spa) so we will see how the announced changes flow through the fleet/organization.

That is definietly true. I'd still then be worried about the mess in the hallways as flyer after flyer is flopping around and wantonly discarded by lazy passengers

Exactly....whether it's a laundry special, gift shop sale, art auction or other revenue generator, they rely upon the Stewards to drop those off each evening. In doing that, I would suspect that many Stewards would continue to pick-up discarded towels or other objects and maybe some other tasks. After all, those Stewards know that most of us would not respond well (tip wise) if the time was taken to give us the mountain of promotional material but not replace an overused towel from the day if left on the floor as they ask.

We just disembarked the Encore on Sunday (5-day out of Miami). We were in Cabin 15866 - Spa Balcony Cabin Our Room Steward was Putu and he provided us with 2 services each day. Once sometime in the morning to remake the room and then in the evening to turn down the bed, replace any towels/robes and leave the next Daily and other flyers on our bed. I know that the scale back of services is reported to be slowly rolling out, so perhaps the Encore was not implemented yet. I suspect they will still have to come into the room later in the day for to at least leave the Daily and other marketing materials.

Here is something we have noticed. If there is say only one room available in a particular category and you go into NCL.com and do a mock booking, that specific room is then "held" for some mysterious amount of time. This can happen easily when looking at Haven rooms as there can be very limited numbers in each category as you get closer to the cruise date. Even if you back out of the mock-booking, clear your cache, or try "incognito mode" in the browser, NCL has that room locked for a while.

No. Any passenger 21+ in the cabin is given the FAS alcohol package. Even if they are #3.

It worked for us yesterday. We had two cruises previously booked (July '23 and March '24) with two CN's already applied to each. Plunked another CN onto each and got confirmation emails within the hour.

"You" don't apply codes anywhere in the booking process. It's not like ordering merchandise online and entering a special code to get "free shipping" or extra discount at Macy's. The variety of codes are applied based upon the fare programs, perks, Latitude status, purchased upgrades, etc. which you book. It is how NCL (and you) can identify all the benefits you have on your reservation.

We just applied a 3rd CN to two separate cruises we had already booked a while ago. Just went online and selected from our available certs. One cruise is for this summer and one for next March. Just confirmed that our promotions all remained the same.

LOL! @hallux is a faster typist than I am! 🤪

Some people are misinterpreting the timing rules for the increase in DSC's and think they need to pay them before the end of the year. As someone mentioned, as long as you booked your cruise under the old DSC rates, you get that lower rate AS LONG AS YOU PRE-PAY BEFORE YOUR CRUISE.

You can absolutely upgrade onboard to the P+ drink package. If you are staying in the Haven, just discuss with the concierge. They will add it to your account and re-print your key card with the proper code (P+) right at their desk. I'm not sure if you can do the full free at sea plus upgrade onboard.

Yes. We figured that would be the case. We would also settle our bill at Guest Services and inform our Steward of our plans. We don't want them calling our names over the speakers as the ship is waiting to depart Le Harvre.

Thank you very much for that insight!

Yes. Certainly a consideration. Although the cruise originates in Portugal, so perhaps that will help. We will always be in EU countries if we can do what we hope to do.

We are planning to be on Getaway this July/August on a 9-day from Lisbon to Southampton. The ship stops in Le Havre the day before the cruise ends. We are planning to extend our vacation with a number of days in Paris. Does NCL allow passengers to disembark in European ports prior to the end of the full itinerary? Our plan would be to disembark in Le Havre and go to Paris from there, rather than spending the last night on the ship, only to have to take a much longer journey back to Paris from Southampton the next morning. We would certainly need to inform Guest services and settle our account the day before, but in general is this permitted? Are there any charges/fees/penalties for doing this? If this is allowed, then our biggest concern would be "missing the port" for some unforeseen circumstances. Thanks for any insights or experiences others have had with this approach.

I read that "per package" as being 1 bottle PER person who has the package. We are on the Encore in 7 days and have the + package. We always get it for the wines at dinner and the bourbon's. I'll report back in just over a week with our experience on the Encore.