European_CruiseGirl

I do not believe there is an easy way to get to Nassau. GCS is NCL’s own private island so there aren’t normal passenger ferries operating to/from the island.

We tried it once so that my parents were on a (then) mini suite category and we were on a 2 bedroom non Haven suite. It was on the Gem. Even that was cumbersome. Starting from check in: hey bye bye, we’ll check in here at the suite check in, see you at the ship. Continuing with embarkation lunch: well would be nice to go to Cagneys for suite lunch but well it’s the situation of my parents again, well…lets go together to the main dining room. Breakfast together? Only if we skipped the suite breakfast at Moderno and went with my parents to Garden Café/main dining room. Ah and now comes the tender port…ummmmm…well, we’d have priority tender tickets but my parents don’t so do we just split up again or will we forget our priority tender tickets and queue with them? And we weren’t even on a Haven suite which would have made it even more awkward. We made the decision there and then that as long as we travel together we will always have cabins with the same type of perks. On the other hand when we travel with my brothers family we both aknowledge that it is enough for us to meet for an occasional dinner or pool time at the main pool etc. So with them it is ok. Quite often they choose the inside cabin (and buy the jewellery instead I am sure 😁). So it really depends with whom you travel with and how much you want to experience and do stuff together with that person/persons. And when thinking about parents/grand parents: do you feel comfortable getting all those suite/Haven perks while knowing your elders don’t. The decision is always based on your individual feelings of these factors 😊 Currently we are planning an RSSC cruise and it will be me, my DH and my mother. There is no way the three of us will be in the same cabin 😂 And as we are getting a Penthouse suite with my husband so is my mother too although she has to pay the full double occupancy rate even though she will be alone in that Penthouse. Now I can tell you that a Penthouse suite for a solo passenger is expensive with RSSC prices 🤣 But we still prefer to do it like this and will skip a couple of cruises before it 😊

I guess the problem with Amber Cove is that it is a Carnival Corp built port and only accommodates two ships max. So if there are already two ships scheduled at Amber Cove by Carnival, HAL, Princess, Seabourn, Cunard, Aida, Costa or P&O cruises on any given day NCL won’t go there. Those Carnival Corp ships always take the spots at the port before other cruiselines ships. So the best that you can do is to check the Amber Cove port schedule and if you see on your day 2 other Carnival Corp ships there you can assume you might not get to Puerto Plata at all. There seems to be some kind of trouble at the other Puerto Plata port for NCL and they are not using it currently. However if Amber Cove has only one or zero other ships scheduled for your day you could imagine that you’d likely go there. From what I have read when NCL has skipped Puerto Plata it has gone to either Nassau or Great Stirrup Cay.

Just to ad to my post (I took too long time to edit my post anymore): having worked for years in an incoming travel agency also serving cruiseline guests and doing shore excursions it is business as usual to follow into which port ships arrive. Changes are frequent and not a problem at all. If a change occurs we adjust ourselves so that wherever our booked guests arrive we are there 😊 And we make sure that the change means minimal to zero change for our guests tours. Port changes (and even airport changes) are indeed very usual and taken care of efficiently by tour operators 😊

As far as I can tell both Amber Cove and Taino Bay are considered to be ”Puerto Plata” ports so I wouldn’t really expect NCL to tell me this in beforehand or apologize in some way for choosing one or another port facility. Although yes of course Taino Bay would seem to be nicer. Has NCL ever really advertized any cruise as going to Amber Cove instead of just talking about Puerto Plata town in general? They don’t specify Havensight or Crown Bay either at St Thomas, just calling the stop as Charlotte Amalie. I can see how the change of expected port facility within a port stop could potentially cause problems when booking own excursions. However I would assume (and have always assumed) that when I book with a local tour operator and tell them with which ship I come with on date xx they’ll know where to come and pick me up as they are locals and work in the tourist industry.

Getting ready for our first post covid cruise and feeling excited. At the same time it’s been 4 years since we cruised NCL and well things change. We purchased a bottle of Moet to be in our suite at embarkation day through NCL’s gifts & more some months ago. The cruise is in April. As we now decided to upgrade to the Free at Sea Plus it doesn’t really make any sense to have the purchased Moet as we can get a bottle of it free at dinner any evening or even every evening if we feel like it 😁 If it was another brand which they currently allow a whole bottle at dinner thats fine too. Just to make sure before we cancel the order that we already made (and paid): can we expect to get a full refund for it or is there something that we should take into consideration? And how long can we expect for the refund to take nowadays before it is processed and shows on the credit card with which it was paid for originally? I could of course ask the NCL rep when I call them to cancel the Moet but well…Cruise Critic members usually are much more knowleable than the NCL shoreside staff 😅 Lovely cruising to you all 🌅

I would actually read the above so that the staff is paid by salary and an incentive program. And that the incentive program is only supported (not dependent on) the DSC. So the incentive program is what it is anyway and NCL uses some of the guests DSC to fund it. This quote by NCL leaves it also open that NCL might use the DSC to anything else they wish to also. Lets say leadership bonuses etc. They don’t say that the DSC is used to give it back to the crew. Only that it ”supports” the crew incentive program which is a very vague description. Who knows what else it might support.

Unfortunately NCL’s drink package does not include soda cans, it includes only fountain soda. So your drink package is quite useless if you’d want to stock up your cabin with soda cans. You can though purchase the soda cans separately while onboard of course. Yes I feel your pain, I am a soda addict and need my soda first thing in the morning. I have been known to order a pepsi at Haven breakfast more than once…now I guess it will be a coke then as NCL switched brands.

Everything else is available except the Haven. There are butlers and a concierge, breakfast is at one of the speciality restaurants and there is also a suite lunch at a speciality restaurant (same menus as Haven ships suite breakfast and lunch). There is escort on and off the ship. There is priority boarding and tendering. There isn’t the Haven area in itself or a Haven Bar. There isn’t a Haven dinner restaurant. But really other than that you get all the perks that you’d get on a Haven ship suite.

We are usually Haven cruisers (and our DD just loves ”the special attention” like your kids at global entry) so I can understand your feelings. With the situation though that you mention above (and the prices 😶) I’d definitely go with the two club balconies without any suite perks. Heck I’d even go with the standard balconies. The only thing I am wondering is that it seems you are travelling as the only adult with the kids who are under 18. This would mean that one cabin would not have an adult in it. Not sure if NCL is ok with this as they cannot book two cabins under the same reservation so although they can link the reservations they are in fact still two separate reservations. Not sure if NCL can do this and have a reservation with only an underage kid in it. However if NCL is ok with this I’d go with two cabins for sure. Sorry if I misread and there will be 2 adults too 😊 Putting basically three adult sized people (or almost 😁) in a standard Haven suite is not a good idea IMHO and the two bedroom Haven suite seems to be $14.000 whereas the two club balconies would be $10.000. Thats one heck of a price difference. Add to that the port extensive cruise where you’d be out of the ship every day, the fact that your daughter wouldn’t use the Haven area even while on ship as she’d be with her friends outside of Haven and I’d definitely lean on the two club balconies. Particularly as then all of you would get the free at sea perks (so drinks packages, dinner packages, Wi-Fi, excursion credit) which only pax 1-2 would get in a Haven suite. If you want to enhance your cruising experience (if you feel like it) I’d suggest you look up cruisecritic member strngary’s ”Haven light” post where he explains how he creates a Haven light experience when cruising in a non Haven cabin. As I mentioned in the beginning we usually cruise Haven or if we cruise on an older ship which does not have a Haven we book a suite anyway. A couple of times though Haven just wasnt available or doable for us so we booked a standard balcony cabin. We were very hesitant about it the first time we did it. Would we feel something extremely important was missing. Well guess what: we had a blast! A fantastic time! We booked a cabin in the aft (not aft facing, just in the aft section of the ship) two decks below Garden Café (and Great Outdoors, I believe it was Gem) and every morning ventured two decks up to have breakfast sitting at the Great Outdoors. Omg that was nice! Although I loooooove when the butler brings us breakfast to the suite those Great Outdoors breakfasts are the thing I remember most fondly while thinking of NCL breakfasts 😄 And looking at the pics and remembering our feelings while on the cruise we just simply had a fantastic time. Even without the suite…or could it be because we didn’t have a suite and needed/wanted to be more out and about on the ship 😲 So IMHO choose the two club balconies (or even balconies) and have a fantastic time if NCL just allows it.

Sad and frustrating but kind of makes me laugh still 😂

I wholeheartedly agree. However on this particular matter I do believe that many will consider this as an enhancement. Previously hot breakfast to the cabin was just below $10 - now it is below $5. There will be a lot of people who will be extremely happy about this as $10 sounds too much to pay for a hot breakfast to be delivered to the cabin. However $5 is very much doable for many. There will be a lot of happy and satisfied customers because of this change enjoying their omelet and french toast with all the other breakfast items in their cabin.

The NCL beverage package’s rules explicitly say that it excludes room service drinks. It doesn’t matter if that room service is being delivered by the butler of not. Those drinks are still not included in the package. The butlers and other room service people would do nothing else than run around getting people drinks to the suites/cabins if those were included in the packages😁 There isn’t an extra charge for the butler’s delivery though so they deliver anything for your suite for free (= no delivery charge) - it is just the non free item you order that you need to pay for 😊

Should be easy enough to change once you get onboard if you do it first thing. Perhaps you won’t get the prime preferred time but a more suitable than you now have.

Yes indeed you can use the Haven check in. All suites (except Club balcony suites which are not real suites) can use the Haven check in. The only thing the non Haven suites cannot use is the Haven area itself while on the ship. We have cruised multiple times on a non Haven suite and have always used the Haven check in.

The previous poster asked if you tried to book the same restaurant for several days, not if you try to book several restaurants for one day 😊 See on the NCL app you can book each restaurant only once. If you try to book a restaurant for several evenings the app doesnt work. You can only book one evening for each restaurant meaning main dining room too 🤦🏼‍♀️ What you can do (and it’s super easy, I just did it last week) is that you go to NCL website and open the chat pop up. Then chat with the agent and ask him/her to add the restaurant bookings you couldn’t do on the app. Btw there is really no need to book the main dining room times in advance. Of course you can but really no need. NCL does their anytime dining very well on the main dining room (whereas for example Royal Caribbean’s my time dining is a complete mess at main dining room without, or even with, a reservation).

The wifi can be easily given to you (3rd and 4th passenger) as it involves just signing onto a device using credentials that you’d obtain from your mom. However for the other perks. Sorry but the only way for 3rd and 4th passenger to use the dining, drinks and shore excursion package would be to make the 3rd and 4th person in that cabin as persons 1 and 2. That could be extremely difficult to do as you are already past final payment date and sailing shortly. As of why NCL limits it like this. Well that’s how they have designed the promo. Pax 1-2 pay the full prices but get perks. Pax 3-4 sail ”for free” but if they want to get the perks they need to pay. NCL is in the money making business and they want to get money out of those ”free” 3-4 pax too.

On the Jewel class ships (Gem, Jade, Pearl) the non-Haven suites have all other suite services, amenities and benefits except that they do not give access to the Haven area itself (which is small on those ships and doesn’t include it’s own dinner restaurant for example). I would expect the Prima to be the same. However it is good to point out that mini suites (club balcony suites) are not suites on NCL (even though they have the name suite in them) so they do not get any suite benefits.

I guess that puts you to Santorini on September 28th 2024? Ships that day at Santorini are: Odyssey of the Seas NCL Epic NCL Getaway While that might sound quite easy all three of those ships are big ones. Odyssey with double capacity of 4198, Epic 4100, Getaway 3963. I’d definitely skip Santorini with 12261 pax in port that day but then again I live in Europe so can go whenever I want to Santorini for a 7 day land based holiday. But if it is a once in a lifetime kind of trip to Greece you might want to get off at each port regardless of the crowds. It will be crowded though at Santorini that day, thats for sure.

Op are you on the Odyssey leaving from Rome on September 24th 2023? If so skip Santorini. You’ll be at Santorini on September 27th. The following ships will be at Santorini that day: Odyssey of the Seas Seadream II Celebrity Constallation Wind Star Star Legend Costa Deliziosa Azamara Quest Celestyal Crystal Granted some of those ships are small but still. It’s going to be crazy busy. Now if you are leaving from Rome on September 15th 2023 you’ll be at Santorini on September 18th. Thats a bit easier day. The following ships will be at Santorini that day: Odyssey of the Seas Seadream II MSC Musica Resilient Lady Even that is much but well could be doable.

We have a suite so our dinner bookings opened at 130 days. Until 131 days the NCL app stated us the standard 120 days (you are too early to book, come back at xx day to book…which was 120 days out). However at 0:01AM EST on day 130 the restaurant bookings were open on the app. Yes thats 0:01AM. I was indeed there at 0:00AM to check the booking situation and it was not open and had the text like above. At 0:01AM the bookings were available 😁 😂

Op - what they mean with the text you took a screen shot is that you get "unlimited wifi" with free at sea plus. However, if you want to have "unlimited wifi with streaming" you need to call the given number and there is an additional cost for that streaming part.

The drink package is connected to the 1-2 person in that cabin and the particular persons names. Hence they would not be too happy if you'd try to switch persons from a cabin to another while at ship and it might very well not work when they realize the other cabin had no drink packages. What they will however gladly do at front desk is to give you an additional key card for both of the cabins. Just go there together and say you'd like to give each other a door key card to each others cabin. No problem there. Then just use those additional key cards and do the switch unofficially yourself. Just making sure that you understand that if you get one cabin for the wifes without the "free" perks it means that the husbands' have (in addition to the drinks package) also speciality dining packages, free wifi and $50/per port to use. The wifes get none of that. When calculating the cost of the free drinks package (for which you pay the daily tax still) it is good to understand that the package includes also non-alcohol drinks such as juices, soft drinks and soda water for example. So if the ladies drink around 5-6 glasses of soft drinks or soda water per day (priced at $3,5 + tax per glass) it may easily become beneficial to take the free drinks package and just pay the daily tax for it. Particularly if the ladies still drink some amount of alcohol. And if you'd anyway get wifi, go to specialty dining and do some NCL shore excursions.

Different packages include different things on different cruise lines so indeed they may be highly confusing when you change a cruise line 🙂 Just giving some random clarifications to topics which have come up previously in this thread. The NCL basic alcohol beverage package (the Premium Beverage Package) indeed also includes soft drinks - something I did read either op or someone else said that the package would not include. So just to clarify: soft drinks are included. So if op's wife is not drinking so much alcohol but is (like I am) a coca cola addict: well the coca colas (and other soft drinks) are included in that package. Also although premium sparkling water such as Pellegrino is not included in the package a basic (and very good) club soda type of water is included. At least for us that is close enough to Pellegrino. Also your average juices are included on the NCL's package. What I mean by average are other juices than "freshly squeezed oj". If you want that you pay extra but other than that juices are included. Also if a drink would cost over $15 with NCL's basic Premium Beverage Package you'll only pay the amount that goes over the $15 limit. You don't pay for the whole drink. So if you buy a drink which is $16 you'll pay $1 + tax. These are just some points which I wanted to highlight. Do let me know if other questions come to your mind which I and the rest of NCL cruisecritic people could reply. For me and DH, although I do not drink so many drinks with alcohol during the day, the Premium Beverage Package is a no brainer. We always take it when we get it "free" so when we only pay taxes for it. I'll easily drink 5-6 glasses of cokes per day which are priced around $3,50 each + tax. So they on their own make around $17,5-$21+ tax daily. Add some club sodas during lunch and dinner (2 glasses on each meal) and it adds up. And then I'll anyway have a glass of wine ($14-$15 + tax) during dinner or a fruity drink ($15 + tax) by the pool during the day. So even though I do not drink that much alcohol the package makes sense when it is part of the free packages and we pay just the tax part of the drink package.

I guess you are at Tortola on April 12th? Here you are: it should be still available to book through here on that date (and with a departure time at 7:30 which makes it doable for your port hours): https://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/tour/jost-van-dyke-escape-/catovdescape It’s not the Rebel Yell as far as I know but still you’ll get where you want to go.