karinad

Thank you for the detailed response and great information. Two of our stops will surely be the Royal Yacht and the castle.

Thank you! I've heard of Premier Inn before but never stayed in one. Will check it out.

Thank you for the link! We have never had a long land vacation in Europe. We do love a cruise vacation but love to spend a few days on land. I wish we had more time!

Thank you for the great advice with where to stay, I was surprised with the late sailing out of Southampton. The possibility of rough seas makes me a little nervous. I'm sure I'll have more questions by the time my research is done. You're always so informative JB!

I will look into that! Thank you! Yes, going from Heathrow is a long drive!

We went on a British Island cruise that was supposed to stop in Edinburgh but couldn't because of high winds. I didn't book the cruise just for that port. The cruise was great anyway! I'd still like to get there so here's what I'm looking at. There's a repositioning cruise on the Anthem of the Seas on Oct. 14, 2024. Our 50th wedding anniversary is the 12th. The cruise leaves from Southampton. I've already checked the flights. We'd plan on flying into Edinburgh a few days before and spend at least 2-3 nights there. We'd want to fly into Heathrow a day before and stay near the port. British Airways has reasonable non-stop flights. We end up in Rome and would possibly want to stay a night before we fly back to New York. At our ages we had hoped that we wouldn't have time restraints but I take care of my 92 yr old mom so time is limited. We have not booked the cruise yet. Does anyone have suggestions with where to stay and a good itinerary for sightseeing to make the most of our time. Is this a good time to be there? Our last visit to the British Islands was in mid-Sept. and we had pretty nice weather. Thank you for any suggestions!

Thank you! Originally, the certificates were to expire in 2023 but they extended them to 2025.

We go for the entertainment, food is important. We like seafood but I hear that lobster tail isn't offered on these two. RCCL has limited theirs. We're in our late 60's but dh has played in a rock band for years. We don't get out on the weekends ourselves because of him having gigs on the weekend. Since both of them are 10 day cruises I wouldn't expect a lot of kids on them. Random opinions help because they could strike a nerve.

I'm trying to decide on one of these ships for a January Caribbean cruise. Both have similar itineraries but CCL has a longer stay in ports. We've been on both cruise lines but not for the past 5 years. Right now CCL is much cheaper but I have 2 CruiseNext certificates for NCL that don't expire until 2025. We've enjoyed both cruise lines in the past and multiple times on each. I know that things have changed on mostly all the cruise lines. Our latest cruises were on RCCL and they were fine. Has anyone been on both lately? Thanks for helping!

We never cruised at this time of year, usually October is our time. This cruise is from Nov 26 to Dec. 6. Maybe it would help get me in a festive mood after a bad year. I wish the Christmas fairy's would come and decorate my house while I'm gone! Thank you so much for the answers!

We're considering the week after Thanksgiving on the Getaway. Will it be decorated for the holidays?

I think it's a good excuse to do a short cruise before our 10 day one so we get platinum benefits for the long cruise.😁

Thank you to all that replied! I think I will check in with the CN onboard. It's a 10 day cruise, too!

Will I get Platinum benefits while on my next cruise? It's a 10 day cruise. I'm only one point away! TY

In our case with transportation to the port in NY, we have an hour drive to the bus terminal and the bus would take us right to the port. I imagine that if it was a major storm that the bus would not go if there was a state of emergency. If that was the case I don't imagine most of the passengers would make the ship. I wonder if that ever happened???? I hear you about luck! We, for the most part have traveled to the Caribbean in October for the past 30 years on and off. We have never been hit by a hurricane. The day that hurricane Sandy hit NJ we just got off the ship coming from Bermuda. I shouldn't even say this out loud!

Thank you! That's what I was thinking of MLK Day and Presidents Day. As Thinfool said about the amount of days the cruise is. Hopefully, we won't have a major snow storm here! We've been lucky the past few years!

We would be cruising out of NYC. I'm looking at either the CCL Venezia 10 or 12 days or NCL Getaway 10day. We usually cruise in October and never had a problem. Thank you!!!

We have never cruised in the winter, January or Feb. My question is with winter break, etc., for the school kids. When are we in danger of the ships being crowded with school vacationers? Thanks!

We have never cruised in the winter months before out of NYC, I'm most concerned about winter break for the school kids or MLK Day/weekend. When do these time typically start with winter or holiday break. The dates we're looking at are the end of Jan and mid Feb,, Typically we travel in Oct and not to many children around the ships. Thanks in advance

Thank you! I wish it was all black and white with no question about what's allowed and what isn't. We earned the points! When I talked to WP the other day I asked her if the availability to upgrade was there. She couldn't tell me unless I had a booking number. They are probably limited to just doing the upgrade and then your travel agent has to handle the rest.

Did you go through a travel agent or directly through NCL? So, the process for this to be done would be to book the inside with my agent, call WP to upgrade the inside to the outside and then call back my agent to buy the upgrade to balcony? With the agency I'm going to use it is only the balcony and higher that comes with paid gratuities and $150.OBC. I understand that when using points to upgrade that you only get the benefits of the original booking but if I pay to upgrade from outside to balcony would I get the benefits that go along with the balcony because I am paying for it? With my math I'd be saving $500. to do this process rather than cash the points out and put it towards the balcony. I'm hesitant since the cruise is only a little more than a month away. The availability seems to be all there for all categories using the next lower to the family category.

That's what I was wanting to do and another poster told me that it can't be done. I had called World points and asked them and they told me it can be done. If you read a few posts up you can see where I asked the question.

I had to come back to tell you about what I decided to do about my 30,000 points. The cruise I'm booking is a little over a month away. I have never booked a cruise this close to sailing. From what I'm seeing with the other NE/Ca. cruises they are not dropping in price. Instead of even taking a gamble and trying to use my points to upgrade I am just going to cash them in for a sure thing and not worry about having to cancel and lose points/money. I haven't asked any other agent about upgrading from inside to outside and then trying to see if NCL would let me pay to upgrade to a balcony from outside with cash. NCL should have something in black and white as to what's allowed like redepositing the points if needed to cancel. As any of us know that points are more precious than money. I have always used miles to book flights ever since we started travelling and the airlines have it written down if you can change or cancel a flight with miles. As one of the other posters has said not to trust what one person has told you.

Ok, yes, I'll ask NCL directly if they know anything about it. Thanks!

Yes, I do realize this with anything and wouldn't trust the answer unless everything was refundable. Do you mean to call my or a travel agent to ask them about it. I don't know that if once you put money down and it's in final payment, do they allow you 24 hours to cancel if things fall through?