deelightfull

I don't know if you are talking about booking airline tickets or cruise ship tickets, but for Southwest airline tickets, add soon as you know, you book. They release a limited number of cheaper fares and they NEVER get cheaper, which is why @Tradestock was up early the day they knew flights for their days were open. Watching and waiting just doesn't work with Southwest.

We paid with cash, and the taxi driver took us to the ATM. There were a TON of taxi drivers. You wouldn't need on board wifi for Uber/Lyft/etc, you'll be on shore by the time you need a taxi 😁

One little thing, if you're in Stockholm and going to the Vasa, you totally need to go to the Viking Musuem not that far away. Rick Steves doesn't like it, but we LOVED it (I wonder if they've had a change of management?) Lots of displays on what the archeology can PROVE about the Vikings, very scholarly, but lots of interactive displays too. At the end they have a well done darkroom ride (darkroom ride= Mr. Toads Wild Ride at Disneyland/Disney World ). We liked seeing the Vasa, we LOVED the Vikings musuem. Everything is written in English and Swedish, including the ride. The operator will change the language to English/Swedish/German whatever. Edited to add: "we" are middle age parents and a 14 year old boy who's a bit of a history geek, but also a 14 year old boy!

We didn't even try the Internet 🤷‍♀️ there was enough from ports. Most mornings we woke up with cell phone data, and then we lost it shortly after the ship pulls away from the dock.

@miloliiThey have some sort of zero calorie sprite, yes! But, for your other question no ethnic/ regional preformers, 😕. Our cruise had some airialists, a couple doing "circus acts", a magician, and the house band with four singers. The circus acts are new this week, a different singer just finished a two week tour.

I don't drink alcohol, so I can tell you they have plenty of diet Pepsi 🤣. Folk shows? Like folk music? Or like regional preformers? I'm not sure what you mean. The big evening shows have been cover music, an airialists show, an act that bills themselves as a "circus" act, and a goofy version of American Idol. Tonight it's the headline show, Elements.

$229 for a 9 day cruise, $219 for an 8 day cruise! 😁 We were the first ones to go to Karlskrona, and it was delightful! A free little train (like at your local amusement park) took us into town. Super cute town, lovely parks and churches. And the Naval museum was AWESOME. Lots of interactive exhibits. Klaipedia we hired one of the taxi drivers just off the port and he took us to the dunes and the Witch's Forrest and to peek over the border at Russia. 🤣 Good times! In Helsinki, there's a shuttle bus to take you downtown, 10€ round trip. If you don't pay someone to take you into town, it's a 2k walk. Not the worst, not the best. Weather has mostly been tee shirt weather, but leaving Helsinki tonight, I've got my sweatshirt on!

Sad too say, it's just the buffet for lunch. I keep forgetting to check on the cost of the thermal pass, but we're next to the spa, I'll get it soon. 😁

We got on in Copenhagen, disembark in Stockholm, and our onboarding in Copenhagen was super smooth. It may have helped that we were trying to squeeze the last out of Copenhagen and didn't board till 2pm, but it was much easier than going though San Pedro port in LA a million years ago. Bus 25 dropped us off right at the terminal, and it was like 15 minutes till we were walking aboard. Nothing on the ship is closed, that I know of. It seems like we're "fully operational". I'll check on the restaurant when I get back on board. And see if I can post some photos of the dailies 😁

Consierge is Bruno

Cruise Director is easy to find, it's Marzena. Concierge, hmmm, I'll have to ask. 😁 I just asked the steward, he says we're at about 900 (capacity 2500).

It's been a while *cough* 10 years *cough* since I've been cruising at all, and this is my first NCL cruise, so don't know much about how it is "usually". I can tell you, we're cruising with a teen, and Entourage, the teen's club is open with one staff member. She said there are 90 teens on board this sailing. I saw the kids club was also open and registering kids. Evening entertainment, eh... First night the main event was circus acts and was about 2/3 full, one show. Last night I don't even know, didn't get back to the ship till 15 minutes past call time 😱. Not anything I was sad about missing. Tonight it's the house band playing oldies. What else would help?

Speaking of which, we just (47 hours before cruising) had our bid accepted for Wednesday's cruise. Of the three bids we put in, they took the biggest bid for the nicest room, club balcony suite, $260 bid ($520 total) to upgrade from an inside room. If it wasn't the lowest bid possible, it was close! I know other people on our ship for our cruise dates started getting bids accepted on Friday, and here we are Monday! It's my (totally unsupported) hypothesis that since we were upgrading from an inside room, we were last, because there's no way they're getting anyone else for that room we're leaving behind. 🤣 We've also heard rumors this ship is going to be pretty empty, so maybe enough rooms for whoever is willing to pay. Ultimately though, who knows what computers do and why they do it. 🤷‍♀️

After five hours on hold yesterday (with SAS) we got replacement flights, yay! Red Eye Sunday night to Newark, NJ. Seven hours to self transfer over to JFK, then a second red-eye Monday night to Frankfurt. Lastly, an hour later, a quick hop to Copenhagen and we should be there by Tuesday morning, 24hrs later than originally planned, but still a day before embarkation! 😁

Our flights for Sunday were finally officially canceled early Saturday Morning. Hubby called NCL air as soon as they opened this morning, and no joy in Mudville! NCL basically told us they had no options for us, oh well, darn! They told us we should take it up with SAS to get re-booked. We've called SAS before and they've said they can do nothing, because the airfare is through NCL. We've been on hold for about 2 hours now, again with SAS. Based on their on hold message I'm pretty sure they're only offering refunds, not re-bookings. We do have trip insurance, so we're about to cobble together some crazy combination of flights to Europe and trains within Europe, and see how the travel insurance works out. How's everyone else doing?

All of the "winning" bids I've seen are within three days of sailing, so right now your window of that sort of risk is small (though not non-existent). Check your insurance, do they convert upgrades? Do they explicitly NOT cover upgrades? Would the cost of the upgrade exceed your total coverage?

Hubby says it took two different phone calls, but eventually it came back as a credit on our credit card. This is a first cruise with NCL for us, so no FCCs or anything of the sort were used to pay. And we don't sail till Wednesday, so it's DEFINITELY not 30days from time of sail, someone somewhere can make it right, they just don't want to. Sounds like you have some time on hold ahead of you. 😕

I know we got the 20%, (Dawn, sailing next week, July 20), but my husband handled that. I'll ask him how it worked.

I have a 14 year-old who's about to go though an unintentional YouTube detox, because I'm too cheap to pay for streaming internet. I'm wondering what his other onboard entertainment will be. I've heard rumors that the Dawn isn't very full this summer. I saw at least one person who got on board a month ago and surprised to find no kids club. Can anyone confirm or deny that the teen club is open? If it is open, what's likely to be available? In tours from previous years I can see a play station/Nintendo/video game something or other. Anything else? Thanks!

We are a fairly active family of three (the kid is 14) trying to cram as much as possible in the few days we have before our cruise. Our reservation to get on the cruise boat, NCL Dawn, is for 2pm on Wednesday July 20. We think it's at Oceankaj pier but aren't 100% sure. Our hostel is Next House Copenhagen, <27 Bernstorffsgade, 1577, Denmark>. Is it reasonable to think that on the day we board the ship, we could take our luggage, all carry on, leave the hostel, see the changing of the guard, and then make boat by 2pm? We'll have the Copenhagen card and plan to use that for transportation. If that's not possible, would it be possible with a taxi? Thanks!

SAS, "economy" fare....our documents said economy fare, if you go to the SAS website they don't even have an economy fare, it's called a "go" fare. The "go lite" fare doesn't include checked baggage, in the fare. And what I know is we couldn't pick our seats, so we upgraded our fare. Any fare that allows you to pick a seat, allows you to check bags. Could I have checked bags anyway, for a fee....of course! And the fee is called, upgrading your seat. 🤷‍♀️ You can do *almost* anything you want on an airline if you pay the fee. I just wouldn't promise that the fare NCL provides you with is going to include checked baggage for no extra charge.

We are using free airway for the second person, but we don't fly out for a week. That said, our experience so far: 1. We fly out of LAX, major hub. We're going to CPH (Copenhagen) and coming home from Stockholm. 2. On the way out they booked us on the only direct flight, not the cheapest flight yay! Unfortunately, that direct flight was with SAS Airlines, which is currently on strike, boo! The strike is not their fault of course, but they won't rebook us on a different flight until our first flight is officially cancelled, (not likely to be cancelled) which will be about 36hrs before we're supposed to fly. 😕 3. They gave us economy fares and we had to pay the airline to upgrade our "class" so that we could select our seats with the airline and make 100% sure at least one of us was sitting next to the kid. (He's 14, it's a 12 hr flight) That upgrade also gave us the right to check a piece of luggage, but if we didn't do that, we wouldn't have been able to check anything. One carry-on, one personal item each. 🤷‍♀️ 4. We asked for the two extra days on both ends. They honored that, initially. BUT, shortly after they booked the flights the AIRLINE moved the flight up by 18hrs, so we leave in the afternoon the day after leaving the ship. We called and tried, they refused to rebook us us different flight that left the next day. Once they book you, that's the flight, until that flight gets cancelled (or, I suppose if it leaves before you get off the ship 😳) 5. No news is good news? 🙃 No one's been on here complaining that they paid NCL for airfare and weren't able to get to the boat on time based on how NCL booked the flights even with the strike. At least one person's upset that they had a major baggage snafu (airline's fault) and NCL didn't work hard enough (at all?) to get the lost luggage to the passenger. That's been our experience so far. I'll update in a week, or when we have other news.

😳 I did not know that! Thanks for the tip! (It makes sense though)

Right now we have an inside cabin (🤞 upgrade bid is accepted). As far as I can tell we'll have two plugs on the little desk in the room, an American two prong plug and a European two prong plug. Maybe an extra plug in the bathroom? Am I going to be okay with something like this that has a cord, or is NCL going to confiscate it? Power Strip with USB C, 3 Outlet 4 USB Ports 4.5A Flat Plug Desktop Charging Station, Non Surge Protector with 5ft Heavy Duty Braided Extension Cord for Cruise Ship Travel Office Home, ETL Listed https://a.co/d/hm0clPQ Thanks! (We are two adults + teenager, and phones + back up batteries + kindle + Nintendo Switch = lots of charging!)

We weren't in a cruise, but we were visiting Cancun. My husband is fascinated by pre-Columbian sites. We had a hard time at Chichen Itzen because it was so crowded, and the crowds of tourists brought out the crowds of venders. On the other hand, since we weren't on an excursion we could visit Uxmal, a *slightly* smaller site that was so much better because it was significantly less crowded. Ever since then we trip we joke that we are going to open the "second best" travel agency going to the second places at the second best times 🤣🤣. We love shoulder seasons, but we can't take advantage of many of them with a school student who HATES making up school work. 🤷‍♀️ That said we are going on a Baltic Cruise at the end of July, not very second best, 😁.