Birdnutty

On 5/6/2023 at 12:28 PM, ngrund said:

Reservation made-

 

we'll see how it goes tomorrow -:)

I realise this is an older thread, but I'm hoping this poster is still active.

 Ngrund, how did it go?   I'm looking to do this myself.  It'll save me over $100 if I have a reservation.    I'm curious as to the start time... are they rigid about when you get there?  Or is the start time a general idea about the EARLIEST you can enter?

I understand that you can pre-pay for parking at the pier for a substantial discount by making a reservation through NYcruise.com.  A savings of about $100.  Has anyone here done that?  They say they offer free cancellation up to the time you're supposed to be parking.  Has anyone had to cancel?

I'm curious, intrigued and hesitant, all at the same time.  Please tell me your experiences.

8 hours ago, UKstages said:

 

as for doing research... that would usually be done before you call. most offers are not for specific cruises. you tell them which cruise you want to take. the offers stipulate the length of cruise, the level of accommodation (inside, balcony, haven, etc.) and any restrictions. the most common restrictions exclude the pride of america and the newest ships such as the viva and prima. occasionally, there are offers for specific cruises, but those are less common offers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow - so much useful info - thank you!  One more question - is the CAS program the same umbrella organisation for all cruise lines?  They all seem to call their gambling arm CAS, and each seem to offer discounts.  I have a friend who is a substantial gambler and has told me some of her offers, but even she doesn't understand any of the background.  Is it the same CAS for all lines, and they pool the info on all your gambling, or is it individually tallied by cruise line?  I hope this is understandable - let me know if clarification is needed.

UKStages, may I ask a total newbie question here?  I can tell you are a much higher stakes gambler than me, but I usually drop a few hundred in the casino with each cruise, and my upcoming cruise will be my 27th NCL cruise (over the course of 40 years) 

I never think to call CAS when considering making a booking.  Do you think my low level of gambling would get me anything significant?  Is one's gambling record cumulative, or only based on your last cruise? Are the offers very time-limited (like, you need to decide in three days), or can you have a chance to do more research?   

May I assume that since CAS would be doing the booking, there would be no going through a TA to get the perks?  Probably a really dumb question, actually. 
These questions have been on my mind for years.  I hope you don't mind answering them for me.  TIA!

I’m loving the water carton idea. I’ve been wondering the same thing about heating pads.  I frequently need them to quell restless legs. 

Unfortunately, my TA (an individual I’ve worked with before, who works for a large online agency , not big box) did not answer my call or email over the course of the day, but for all I know he could be sick. There sure is enough of that going around. The Agency doesn’t work evenings or weekends, so I have to wait till Monday. 
 

The fare was unbelievably low, and I was afraid to lose it, so I booked online anyway, figuring I’d take the chance. So glad I did!  The fare went up by $400 pp as of this morning!  For a one week cruise, that was a substantial amount. 
 

and I remembered to take screen shots of everything to have the proof that everything, especially the perks, existed.  Got screwed too many times by disappearing info on online sites. 

Hi, oh ye wizards.  I'm about to take the plunge on booking a cruise online, but am confused about the codes. I usually book cruises within the final payment window, but this one is far enough out for me to be interested in cancellation/refunds/etc.  If the coding does not actually say non-refundable, can I assume that it's refundable?  I've seen some that were combinable with certain and discounts fares, but not combinable with others...  This one says virtually nothing about any of that.  Would someone be kind enough to tell me if there are any gotchas in this?

Here's the explanation box for the fare code:  

On 12/16/2023 at 1:08 AM, ColdCruise said:

Thanks for the info @Birdnutty as you say, not a lot of info about this island other than as a destination to go to from the mainland (lots of excursions from Punta Cana resort areas to Catalina) in order to snorkel from a boat.

when you were on Catalina Island @Birdnutty did you notice anywhere where small boats could pick up passengers to take back to the mainland or if there was a ferry service?
 

happy cruising

There were small boats anchored out, away from shore (and away from our swimming areas) that looked like snorkel boats.  I did not see any coming near our beach.  The passengers from our ship were delivered by ship's tender.  It appears that the beach and immediate waterfront was ours alone.  Did not see anything that looked like mainland.

On 12/14/2023 at 8:33 PM, Sunseeker11 said:

Thanks for sharing.  We just had Cabo Rojo changed to Catalina Island on Jan 30.

 

Do you have to pay for loungers/umbrellas?

The chairs themselves were free, umbrellas were delivered for a tip.

Agreed.  A moving target, mostly invisible.  LOL. 

20 hours ago, havoc315 said:

 

Miss the upsell desk... had their phone number, that's how I first experienced the Haven. $2,000 to upgrade from a "minisuite" as they used to be called, to a Haven 2BR for a week.  

 

Us too!  We got a great bargain on a 12 day, which later became a 14 day when the cruises to nowhere were declared illegal. Our first time in Haven, and so far, our last. All though the upsell desk, which was great. (Thanks to CC or I never would have known about it.). Hoping to get it again, although we really can’t  afford to bid much higher than the minimum, and we know our chances are low. I would love to see the algorithm they use to determine the winners.  Wondering if the Latitudes status plays any part at all.  

We received upgrade offers almost immediately upon booking. Sailing is about 7 weeks out.  The upgrade offers seem high, and I was wondering - if you don’t bid on the upgrade right away, has anyone ever experienced a change in offer price, either up or down? I’m sure it’s a crapshoot due to the capacity of the ship and how full it is, but I was wondering just how firm the offer is. And has anyone seen one disappear?

To my understanding, it’s possible to dock at Amber Cove, but only if Carnival isn’t using it. It is very confusing they way they post it.  

No, it’s not required. We were there last year, and it was handled just like any other cruise port. 

Thank you for all your answers! Now, if I can just win the upgrade bid….

I know this has probably been asked and covered many times before,but my searches have yielded nothing. So please bear with me…

if I were to bid on an upgrade to the Haven and I win, are all the Haven amenities still available to me?  Is there any alcohol such as wine that is left in the cabin?  We are Sapphire, so we usually get the bottle of sparkly in our room anyway, but that stuff makes us both very queasy. We did not get the drink package, as were both supposed to not imbibe much and an open bar is just too enticing. But we do enjoy an occasional drink. Just curious as to what would be included in the Haven perks, should we be lucky enough to get it.  

On 11/29/2023 at 7:40 PM, luvcruzing said:

I’ve been traveling solo for about twenty years.  Thinking back, I put myself in what could have been very serious and danger situations, like hiring an independent driver to take me on a tour of Roatan. I think we live in a different world now. 

We did that in Roatan, too, but we had plenty of background on him from doing research on CruiseCritic. It was a great tour. 

8 hours ago, Asawi said:

😄 Yeah... This time I could really see how they upped the "original" price and coming to the exact same amount as with the 35% "sale" on a cruise I'm monitoring. Not even a single dollar less than yesterday! 😄  Soooo shady! 😮 

 

That's what I figured. No big deal.

On 10/26/2023 at 2:50 PM, julig22 said:

Yes, last year on Black Friday the sale was 50% off, However, it was already at 50% before BF, stayed there at least into January, had been 40% prior to that, and was 35% before that.  What I am saying is that there usually isn't anything special for BF. But if you happen to check, thinking it's a great deal, you might see a price change and chalk it up to a BF sale.

 

 

NCL is now having a 50% (aka BOGO) sale for the next 4 days.  

13 hours ago, island lady said:

Another reason we use really wild print suitcases...have never seen anything like them (in fact Tumi discontinued that print quite soon after).  Actually I think anyone else would be embarrassed to walk out with them.  They are that tacky looking!  😛

Same here!  I hand stencilled stars and circles on all my luggage.  Very distinctive!  Tacky? - definitely.  But I highly prefer my tacky bags and the looks they may generate to putting up with stolen/mistaken luggage and the aggravation that entails.  

10 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

I'm sorry, but you're mistaken.  We were not in the Haven, we were in a non-Haven suite.  But putting that aside, and while I feel very blessed to have been able to sail in a suite, I think it's a real stretch to characterize my (in-progress) review as being from a "Haven perspective."   I've never spoken about suite-specific things like boarding in NY, or suite dining for breakfast and lunch (which we rarely took advantage of, btw), or having a butler, or anything like that.  My comments have focused on food throughout the ship -- in venues open to everyone -- on the entertainment -- open to everyone -- on what we did in the ports, choices anyone could make, and to things we did on sea days, once again choices anyone could make.

 

 

My apologies for assuming.  It seemed to me like some of the things you spoke of were Haven-like.  But you are correct - you never did mention any of the suite-specific perks. You just didn't seem to run into the same crowd based snafus as us, or at least never mentioned it.

 Once again - I'm sorry to have jumped to incorrect conclusions.  

On another note - I do especially love your photos.  You have quite the knack for picking and framing great subjects.

For anyone that would like to see this cruise from a different perspective (non-Haven), see the link below for my review.  For the most part, it's similar, but we did different excursions that I reported on, and vastly different debarkation experiences.  Included are many tips and hints if you're considering going on this cruise.

 https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2917451-gem-review-12523-2623/#comment-64898010

I'm skipping to the end of our cruise, as the other reviews are very similar EXCEPT that this review is from a non-Haven experience.  We did not have priority anything, so our experience was somewhat different in certain areas.

February 6 -  Disembarkation: those of us on the starboard side were treated to a landing in Panama City at 3 AM combined with an outrageous metallic clanking, scraping, unbelievable noise, people yelling to each other as they were starting to put up the gangplank and all the other associated disembarkation procedures.   3 AM!!!  No sleeping could happen during that for us. Port side apparently did not have any of that.

Note: Port side also was the side that we docked on most frequently, so if you want to see the town and the pier, (and the pier runners) port side might be the better choice for room selection.

The CD started calling colored luggage tickets LOUDLY, in your stateroom, at 5 AM and continued every 10 to 15 minutes for several hours. We were supposed to have breakfast with our friends at 7:30, because our luggage tags were supposed to be called for 8:15 departure. But they called our color at 7:15!  Frantically, we downed a little breakfast and then left our rooms to disembark.  And then…we waited. 

Debarkation was not fun. The halls were a mass of people. Not unruly, thankfully, but there was no room to even turn around. One poor woman had lost track of her husband, and really did lose him. She didn't know if she should get off and wait, or if he was already off, their cell phones didn't work, and there was no staff anywhere to ask for help. (she did eventually find him, but she was close to panic.  I felt so bad for her.)

We were finally able to get an elevator down by going up first, but the elevator would not go below the 7th deck on the way back down.  They programmed it that way.  We all had to get out and walk down the next two flights of stairs. They stopped the line at some points, and let another line through, then maybe 10 minutes later they'd let our line move a little.  Just like in Costa Rica, they funneled all 1500 or however many there were of us through the same one exit to bring us out. Stood on the stairs for I’ll bet close to an hour as we inched our way down. I wish I had taken a picture.

NCL could do a much better job with this.  It was by far the worst debarkation I'd ever experienced, and had the potential for dangerous situations to arise.   We were informed the night before that we were to put ALL luggage outside our rooms, just to keep a personal bag for PJ’s etc.  Some people didn’t listen, so they were dragging their suitcases down the stairs, tripping people, taking up valuable room.  No social distancing here!!  I do understand the need for not wanting us to have any luggage.  They needed to put all of us on a bus for the bumpy ride down the unfinished pier to the convention center, where we picked up our luggage. There was really no room for luggage on the busses, and they didn't want to take the extra time to load and unload it.   

Once we got to the convention center, there were many very helpful Panamanian workers, mostly younger people there to help you find your luggage, and port it if you wanted.  Very friendly and helpful, not pushy.

Unfortunately, one of the bags our traveling companions had had was not there.  Every single porter went through that center looking for the lost bag.  (Long story short, it had been taken in haste by another passenger and returned by mail in about a week.)

Another note:  NCL asks for your home phone number on your color luggage tag.  Use your cell phone!!!  That could be instrumental in getting back a mistakenly taken bag a lot more quickly.  

Another note:  To get to Panama City hotels or the airport and if you’re not using NCL transfers, schedule an Uber rather than a taxi.  They really take advantage of unknowing tourists.  We had heard this before, but were so frustrated after the lost luggage episode that we just did it.  Costly mistake.

Our experience was still wonderful.  Our dining experiences were great, in all the venues we chose.   We love the food just about everywhere (altho the buffet food could be cool on occasion), the service staff was fantastic.  The specialty restaurants were amazing and fabulous.  Nothing is ever perfect, of course, but this cruise was close, although they really do need to work on those few ports where getting on and off the ship was nightmarish.  I’d say that was the only real down side.  Looking forward to doing it again soon.

We were on the same cruise as the OP, although we got off the Gem a bit later.  The sun was already quite hot.   We did the snorkelling (and yes, the water was VERY chilly) and saw some pretty cool stuff.  Out away from the shore the water got a little clearer, and the snorkelling was quite easy.  We did enjoy that day - a very chill relaxing day with no real schedule, beautiful soft sand, sunshine and blue water.  No complaints from us!

Our beach area was walled off (with a fairly high, nicely built rock wall) from the rest of the island, leading us to believe that the rest of the island was jungle/national park. We took a walk down to the end and there were several DR men shooing us back to our area.  We were obviously not supposed to go beyond our boundary. But from our balcony once we went back on the ship, we could see that there were two other spots very similar to the one we were on, just further down the shore. They were quite a bit smaller than our area.  You could not see one from the other.  There may have been more on the other side of the island, but we couldn't tell.  I wonder if DR is trying to lease out these island cutouts to cruise lines to generate some revenue and give cruise lines more options within their shores.

These are the other areas I could see.  Ours is the arrow on the right.

The snorkelling area was a short way on the other side of the tender pier.

Turtles, your review has been very enjoyable. I hope you don't mind me hopping in to augment areas you didn't cover. It's not my intent to hijack. It's so good to see the cruise I was on through different eyes.  My own review is floating around, but yours is different, as we did different things.  And we got off in Panama City.  Would have loved to do the back to back, but not this time!  Thank you for taking the time to do this.  You take beautiful pictures. 

I'm not reporting on sea days.  Pretty much same ol', same ol'.

Feb 4, Saturday, Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. Unusually beautiful day, no rain.

Debarkation was absolutely crazy. They didn’t let us off right away, then funnelled everyone through one gangway all at one time.  The did not stagger any departures.  Took forever.   No organization at all. I’m sure if we had been Haven guests, we would have a different experience, but from the steerage point of view… oy.   Same for the pier area.  There were all kinds of busses lined up, but nobody directing the passengers as to which bus to go to for their excursion, and it looked like the private tours were mixed in with ship’s tour busses. The helpful shore excursion staff people with their directional signs were missing completely.  It was a free for all.  Took a long time, and the pier was chaotic.  We were 2 of the last 4 on the bus, and we weren’t sure if they might have left without us.

Bus ride was about a half hour to the canal ride.  Saw a lot of wildlife, including yellow crowned night heron, caiman, kingfisher, yellow billed cuckoo, both types sloths, howler monkeys with a baby, grackles.   Canal trip took about an hour. They turned around at the half hour point, not at a specific geographical spot.  So we missed part of what could be seen because we spent a great deal of time on certain areas, eating up time from the rest.(we’d done this before and had expectations of a similar experience). Went for a short-ish walk through the rainforest there, had some fruit for snacks, then returned to the bus.  Stopped at a coffee demonstration and banana plantation. The banana plantation was neat, and they had examples of other kinds of tree including cacao and breadfruit, and jackfruit.  Once back on the pier, getting back on the ship was long too.  One point of entry for everybody.  At some ports, the ship used the facial recognition software instead of “binging” everyone back in.  This took about three times as long per person.  Can’t remember if they did it here or not, but whenever they used it, it took much longer to get folks back on the ship.

Leaf cutter ants

Howler monkey and baby

Fruit snack

Find the iguana!  He's huge!

Guide with a banana flower

Busses lines up.  Sorry - this turned out to be a screenshot.  I thought I was taking a picture!

Yellow crowned night heron

Reception area before boarding canal boat.

Orchid along the path

Long, slow line getting back on. This is only the beginning of it. Only one line for everyone!