Birdnutty

We are scheduled to arrive in Panama City at 7 AM, and have chosen to stay overnight, see some of the area, then take a late day flight home the next day.  So we have from 8AM ish on one day to about 3 PM the next.  Obviously, we have all this luggage we'll be toting.  We have current arrangements to stay at the Crowne Plaza Airport, which has a very convenient luggage storage situation for both arrival and departure day, as well as airport shuttles. Good price, too.   We had not factored in the  distance from the city in which we will be sightseeing.

BUT.. there's a quoted ride share of $110 to get from cruise ship to hotel to drop off luggage. (for 4 people) Then we'd need to go back to Panama City to see anything that day.  Then back to the hotel for sleeping.  The next day, if we want to be picked up by an excursion company, we need to be in Panama City, so back we need to go to to get the excursion.  Then back to hotel after that to pick up luggage and head to the airport.  This seems to me to be a big waste of time, considering that we'd need at least a half hour for each one way trip, not to mention the cost involved.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to which decent hotel has the same luggage deal but is closer to the action?  Preference is for it to be somewhat quiet (like not on a main downtown thoroughfare)

Thanks so much for taking us along on your vacation.  It helps tide us over until we get to experience it ourselves.

7 minutes ago, UWCorry said:

We are on 12/30 Prima. 
 

we were supposed to fly Sea-Mco Wednesday afternoon. Got notice 10pm Tuesday flight was canceled. Called and found out they don’t have enough pilots…. 
 

so I say let’s find an alternative flight somewhere close. After searching and searching we found 9 seats Sea-Chs. 8am next day. 
 

so an overnight drive to airport and being up 36 hours Straight we made it to Charleston. Visiting Fort Sumter before driving to Port Canaveral. 
 

When airlines give you lemons. 
 

bonus taking kids to see Buc-ees for the first time!

Wow... but you made it.  Have a great trip!

5 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

In Europe Value Added Tax (VAT) is quite common, as opposed to the US where sales tax is common. Value Added Tax is the actual name of the levy.

 The wording on the Freestyle Daily is a carryover from its European cruising season and should have been replaced by "Sales Tax" with the start of the ship's US cruising season.

Ok, that makes sense.  Still seems to be just a little bit of an oxymoron, wouldn't you say?

Thank you for those dailies!  It's good to know what might be happening, or not, when we get on.  

I'm so sorry for you about the amount of rude, obnoxious guests. They can really spoil your experience.  It's particularly alarming when they berate hard working staff for things beyond the staff's control, or just because the cruiser's in a lousy mood.  Or behave as badly as their children.    And when everyone is on edge because they've been unexpectedly stuck on the ship in less than optimal weather....  Oy.   There's still no excuse for bad behaviour.

I hope the CD steps up to the plate and comes up with lots of things to keep people busy.  The problem with that is that staff is needed to run all these events, and if there are some down due to sickness, things can't happen anyway.  I'm sure she's doing the best she can with the circumstances.

I had to laugh... since when is a tax considered "Added Value?"

So nice to be traveling with you virtually.  It is so interesting how different people have such widely differing attitudes and approaches to things. So far all of you seem to be doing OK, and even tho it doesn't sound perfect, I wish I were there too.  We're freezing our butts off up here in the NY/CT area.

We'll be going on the Gem in a few weeks, hitting (or not) many of the same ports as you, so I'm anticipating extra unplanned-for sea days.  Could someone post a few pics of sea day dailies so I have an idea as to what to expect?  I am not a pool sitter, nor very good at relaxing, so I'm looking for activities to keep me busy.  Any Zumba or Latin dance style classes?

Thanks for taking the time to do this, especially with crappy internet.  We all appreciate your time.

I've been sailing with NCL for over 35 years, (sapphire) and on each cruise dumped a bit of money in the casino. Never tried, or even thought about trying to book via CAS, as I don't consider myself a big gambler.   How do I find out what my CAS status is?  Is it cumulative, or specific to the most recent sailing?

Bon voyage!  May the seas be smooth, the temperature tolerable and your expectations exceeded.  Looking forward to your reports.

Thanks for that listing of officers.  I haven't cruised NCL for awhile... I gather they changed the name "Hotel Director" to General Manager?

Hearing some pretty depressing things about NCL in general and Gem specifically... hope they get the fixable kinks worked out.  Have been on Gem numerous times, and am Sapphire on NCL - I'd hate to see my opinion of both become tarnished.  That being said, I always go with reasonable expectations and a large amount of tolerance/understanding in tow.  I always have a good time.  I'm cruising.  What's not to love?

Hmmm do I have to call NCL to get that package?  I couldn't find it anywhere within my reservation info, or anywhere else on the site. 

 I did read that you're allowed to take wine on if you pay a corkage fee.

https://www.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/liquor-beverages

Good to know!  Is that available on the NCL site?

Can someone give me a ballpark price on how much the ship would charge with gratuities for a single glass of house wine, say a merlot?  And ballpark on their least expensive bottles?  I'm weighing the value of the "free" beverage package with the pre-determined added gratuities against an ala carte occasional glass of wine, or a bottle for the table.   I know there must be a breaking point somewhere at which it's worth it to pay the beverage gratuities and get the whole package.  For our next 12 day cruise, the gratuities are $260 each.  Would love to know how far that could actually go if I go drink by drink.

Trying to keep our consumption down, but I don't want to pay more than I would need to if I go ala carte.  TIA!

Good points, all.  I'll give it a try and report back in a few days.  Thanks1

Thanks for your reply.  I made the reservation through a TA.  So I'm figuring I'd have to go through them to request this change, yes?

I'm having second thoughts about the beverage package part of the Free at Sea Promotion.  We've already paid for all of it, including the gratuities for this "free" perk.  But now, we find that DH isn't really supposed to drink much, and the beverage package just makes it too tempting to resist.  I don't really need it either  🙄.  Does anyone know if I can remove that perk and get the gratuities that were part of the cruise fare invoice refunded?  Our sailing doesn't happen for a month yet.

On 12/11/2022 at 8:39 PM, complawyer said:

the good lord willin' and the crick dont rise,...

Got a real chuckle out of this.  I use that saying all the time, word for word ( and spelling too) and people always laugh at me.  But it's so true, metaphorically, at least. (I don't live near no crick.)

I agree 100% with the OP.  We are people who are fortunate enough to be sitting here reading these boards, meaning that we have the free time to do this and having experienced at least one if not many multiple cruises.  Meanwhile, others can't even dream of a cruise. 
Yes, prices are going up.  But the cruiselines are still there, and they have huge deficits to make up.  And interestingly enough, on my first cruise, 38 years ago on the Nordic Prince, (about 700 passengers) , we had a tiny indoor cabin on the second deck. This year, we had a balcony cabin on a ship that held 5 times as many passengers, had enormous amounts of entertainment, more lounges, more food venues, constant buffets (as opposed to only one buffet at midnight)... I could go on and on.  That balcony cabin cost me the same amount as I paid for the little dinky one 38 years ago.  The same amount!!!   The differences between cruising now and then are astronomical.  But the prices, at least for us, were comparable.  Now, we get a much bigger bang for the buck.  Absolutely nothing to complain about.

I'm so sorry to hear the carpet fish are gone!  I know it sounds stupid, but I loved those little guys.

Thanks for all the pix.  She really does look beautiful, altho I always thought she did, no matter how "vintage" she may have become.

I, too, was hoping that the cabins would get some updating.  That is the one place where they need to keep up with the times, with USB hubs and the like.  I don't remember any of the cabins I had been in having a tub, but I certainly would not like one now.  We'll be on her in a short while, And I look forward to seeing her new look.

We used it twice when our flights were cancelled due to bad weather in New York as we were due to leave from Florida.  Aw shucks, we had to stay an extra day in Florida!  I actually called trip insurance store during this time to make sure I was doing everything I needed to be covered.  I took screenshots of the cancelled flights on my phone, and was meticulous about keeping records and receipts.  It took awhile before they paid, but they did eventually.  Covered the cost of the insurance, both times.  That covered hotel, & food.

7 minutes ago, stefmaia said:

@Birdnutty Yes. I just renewed for next year already. I have mine with Allianz and it has worked really well for myself and my husband. Delays in New York required an overnight stay, we stayed at the TWA hotel on site and we had the room and dinner covered by insurance. That right there covered the annual cost.

Good to know.  I will check out the insurance forum (which I didn't know existed).  Did you have to notify them every time you went away?

We love all the NCL shows.  Have never seen one we didn't like.  HOWEVER, the all-time BEST show, as far as we were concerned was a Cruise Director led show on almost all the ships we were on (a long time ago), was Fountains.  Every ship had the same theme, but was different according to how that ship's CD wanted to do it.  Ten or more ship's staff (usually very recognisable ones) came on stage wearing bedsheets in different styles of togas, with bare feet, each carrying a silver carafe that the waiters used to deliver water in the dining rooms.  To an Enya tune, they stood in a line and well...  check out these you tube videos for an example.  We laughed so hard for the whole show.  even though I probably saw it 10 times on different ships, it never got old and just thinking about it now makes me laugh. It started off slow and calm, but you never knew what to expect!  And watching the crew members trying so hard not to laugh... oh my.

Nowadays, they could never do anything like that for many reasons, but boy, was I glad to see the ones I did.

Has anyone ever tried this?  Now that we're a bit older, and we'd like to travel more, we need to buy insurance more often, which is obviously more expensive because we're older and we're taking more trips (duh!🙄). I read somewhere here on cruise critic about folks who have bought this insurance which covers what I believe is all the  trips for the year, instead of individual policies which cover one trip only.

How does it work?  Does it work well?  Are there gotchas I should know about?  How do you do comparisons among companies?

I've never run into this, but it wouldn't it just be easier to cash out your refundable cash now,  just leaving the non-refundable?  Or is it so messed up that the two are hopelessly entangled?

Then when you use up the non-refundable, anything else gets charged to your credit card, for which you probably get points anyway.  And you could save the cash to pay the credit card bill.  Or not.

I may be far off the mark on this, but it seems to me there are ways to pull this off.

The ports are not always the same on each leg, so it pays to look at each itinerary.  Plus, they are subject to change.  We are scheduled to do one (from NYC to Panama) in a few months, and one of the ports was changed already.  The way return trip  back to NYC has different ports, and more days at sea. I don't know if that's always the case with the east coast/west coast itineraries.   So you really need to do your homework.  

As for which end is which, we opted to end and fly home from Panama.  A the previous poster said, missing the cruise is far worse than being delayed on the way home.   

Thanks for that.  I’m wondering what they actually did. Major refurb?  We’re planning on booking for late January, so I was curious.    Thanks!

I saw on the cruise deck plans site that the Gem was scheduled for dry dock in Nov, 2022, which is pretty much over.  Does anyone know if this is true?  Or scheduled for anytime in the near future?