cherrypop

Best advice was to bring a see through over the door shoe hanger. We put it on the inside of the bathroom door and it holds all our toiletries, hair brushes, toothbrushes etc. A lot of the ships don't have a lot of counter space in the bathroom and this is something we don't ever forget.

Always make sure we have a lot of dollar bills for either onboard or a shore they come in handy.

I presume that the "Regal" you talk about is from another cruise line! Each cruise line will have its own rules.

 

 

 

I have bought more than that online in both my wife's name and also my own, in the same cabin. Also we are cruising for 34 days which may well make a difference. Are you on a short cruise?

 

Mike

We are doing a 14 day cruise. In the past we have purchased more than $1000.00. It will be interesting to see if things have changed. Funny how people can get so many different answers for the same question.

Cherie

I am Canadian and just bought OBC for Feb 7 sailing of Regal and limited to 1000.00 per stateroom.

 

Arlene

Did you buy it online? If so I wonder if it only allows $1000.00 in one transaction. I would think that NCL wants people to spend money onboard. So the more people purchase the more they will spend.

Cherie

I phoned NCL yesterday and spoke with someone at Casino reservations and they said you could cash out OBC for a 3% fee..great..what I wanted to hear!

 

Today I phoned back as I wanted to purchase $150 OBC for a gift for someone else. I asked to confirm exchange rate and it would have cost me $55 more then buying online because they booked later at a different exchange rate.

So I asked if I could buy it for myself online and then cash it out at casino. I was told no, you cant do this. I said they wanted the money for casino (it was a birthday gift) He said if you have any money on your sail and sign card they will take it from that not give you cash.

So confused TA said no..NCL said no but Casino said yes! :confused:

 

Has anyone done this recently?

When you go to the casino you give them your sail and sign card and that is how you withdraw funds. The OBC you purchased is all on your sail and sign card. The only money you can not withdraw from the casino is the money you get from your TA or a credit from the cruise line itself. We have done this many times. Being Canadian this is how we get our spending money, buying OBC before we go at a cheaper rate than the bank. Luckily we purchased our cruise a long time ago so we got it for 1.11. Even at the rates they are giving today through NCL, it may seem a lot but it's still better than you would get at the bank.

Hi lor74

 

Thanks for posting your review.....just wondering if you can help a fellow Canadian out by telling me how I go about getting the onboard credit at 11 % Thanks so much:)

It all depends when you had booked. I originally had 11 percent for my Dawn cruise in 2016, but when I had to rebook a few months later due to the free UBP being offered when I rebooked they had put their exchange rate up to 1.19. NCL is at a good rate right now but I am sure they will be going up. A cruise line that begins with P is putting theirs up on Tuesday to 1.35😯

Virgin ChiChi, virgin Pina colada. I am sure they will have lots of non alcoholic drinks they mix up.

Best advise I ever got was to bring along a see through over the door shoe holder. We use it in the bathroom for all our toiletries. NCL bathrooms don't have a lot of counter space and this comes is very handy.

Ooh that price is worth it. Thanks!

With the half price special I don't even bother ironing hubby's shirts before we leave. Since we usually travel 10 plus hours by the time we get there they need ironing again, so why bother.

For those interested on embarkation day they have an ironing only special. Everything is half price. All I remember is its $2.00 for a mans shirt to be ironed on embarkation day. I figure I spend good money for a cruise so $20.00 for me to pay to get all the ironing done is a bonus. I would rather be enjoying the ship.

Just did it a week ago, took 3 days, they say it can take up to 72 hours. Converted to $275.00 Canadian.

We brought ours on once. The next time we bought the wine package. By the time you buy the wine and pay the corkage fee you don't save a lot bringing your own on. If you want it for your balcony then bring it on and pay the corkage, if you want it for the dining room, i say get the package.

Only direct bookings with NCL and booking through Canadian travel agents are allowed to book in Canadian dollars.

 

US agents are not allowed to make Canadian dollar bookings.

 

If your agent is Canadian, they simply have to ask NCL to price in Cdn.

We live in Canada and we booked through an American travel agent and we are paying in Canadian funds. We have done this for all our cruises. Works out to our advantage.

Cherie

We have done two cruises in May to Alaska and both times it was very warm, light jacket at the most. First time we went was the first week of September and it was freezing and raining. This year on our May 1st cruise it never rained a drop. People in Alaska told us the month of May has the least rain.

Cherie

The scenery was amazing, inside passage, we even did the B.C. Inside passage. The naturalist was very good. The bed was the most comfortable on any cruise ship. The food was not good in either the dining room or buffet and we found the specialty restaurants to be over priced and we tried them all. We did the May 1st cruise and had warm weather no need for heavy coats. We were told on several occasions when they didn't have the wine we wanted to we were told to go to another bar to see if they had it! Only twice did someone go find it for us. The view leaving Skagway in the Tuscan Grille was amazing, the food not so much, my rib steak was not cooked as I asked and didn't have any flavour. We had amazing weather, amazing company but the food left a little to be desired. The ship itself was very clean. We found it quite funny how at every performance in the theatre the Cruise Director kept saying we were on a luxury cruise line😉. We can at least now say we tried Celebrity and we can also say we won't be back.

I've cruised celebrity 4 times and NCL once. I will never go back to NCL. I was on the breakaway and the service was horrendous. On NCL food in the specialty restaurants was good but the regular restaurants were horrible. Celebrity has great food in both regular and specialty restaurants. The service aboard celebrity is levels above NCL.

 

I am not a smoker and the smokers are more contained on celebrity which is also a plus for me.

 

I found NCL nickel and dimes people. Celebrity has very few extra fees.

 

I will never cruise NCL again.

LOL never knew what nickle and diming was till I got off Celebrity. Just got off Celebrity last week and will never do Celebrity again. Service was the worst. Specialty restaurants were way overpriced. A luxury cruise line? Hell No! Those on Celebrity briden your horizons!

Celebrity is a tad more upscale, with a country club kinda group, that dress nicer even when not asked to. Whilst NCL is a shorts n t-shirt group that like hairie leg contest by the pool.

 

Ok, not quite that different! But Alaska sailing tend to draw an older group, which fancy a more elegant vacation, which NCL is not know for.

 

NCL\Circus Circus, Celebrity\Wynn

Not so sure about the dressier bit. We commented on how many people were wearing jeans into the dining room on the Solstice. Saw more jeans this past week than we ever did on any NCL cruise. My husband and I are in our early 50's and we were older than the average. There were plenty in their 30's and 40's. Don't forget the free beverage package is attracting a lot younger ones. Fancy or elegant it was not!

I booked 2 cruises.. the first is Celebrity Northbound from Vancouver to Seward.. The other is a week later on NCL Southbound Seward to Vancouver. The Celebrity is sold out.. has been for weeks now.. The NCL still has many cabins left in most categories.. I have never been on Celebrity, took this cruise because t worked well with our plans. . but i have been on NCL and loved it.. Is Celebrity that much better and if so how? Just curious.. ;)

Stick with NCL! We just got off the Solstice today and will never sail Celebrity again. Dining room food is better on NCL, staff is much happier on NCL. On numerous occasions we would ask for Malbec wine and were told they didn't have it and try another bar. Asked for brown sugar one morning in the dining room and got the sugar bowl, asked for more coffee never got it. We did all the specialty restaurants, Murano's was good, but worth $50.00 each, I don't think so. Silk Harvest was a big disappointment, Tuscan Grill was so so, I can buy better steak at my local grocery store and I know what medium is, my medium was well done. The ship itself is nice and clean, lots of room in the bathroom. It definitely isn't a luxury cruise like the Cruise Director kept repeating at every show.

Can we bring a mini power bar onboard with us?

We are new to Celebrity and I am noticing how people are talking about the buffet being crazy on embarkation. Is the main dining room not open for lunch when we get on?

So you don't have to print the e docs? I have the booklet with my luggage tags. I printed out the tags but really didn't see much in the booklet. If I don't need to e doc to board I won't print it.

So if we leave May 1st, isn't that unusual that we don't have our edocs yet?

Are Xpress pass and e docs the same?

They are not the same. You need to print the express pass and bring it with you, or fill one out when you arrive at the pier. It is much easier and faster to print it out and bring it. The eDocs is a package of documents, usually about 14 pages. It has all of the information about your cruise and the cruise contract. There is no real need to print it out unless you want to. You can print only the pages you want to have, such as iteniery, if you want to have it. We do not print eDocs as it is a waste of paper. Enjoy your cruise

Thank you! That is exactly what I did printed off the express pass and printed only the luggage tags and page where it said what we had pre paid.

Thanks again.

Are e docs and express pass the same thing? We are new to Celebrity and every other cruise line says print e docs.

You are allowed to bring two bottles of wine on the ship to be consumed in your cabin or with a corkage fee, at your table. That's why I always bring a bottle each of Ripple and Thunderbird for those special occasions. :D

We live in Canada. What is Thunderbird wine?