TrueNorth74

$1000 a day had to be for two people. For $1000pp per day, either you’re in the Owner’s Suite or you’re doing it wrong.

“If all goes well”…famous last words 😁

Literally all of these things have to go exactly right to make it to the ship on time…

• No weather delays in the Northeast in January, and also wherever the plane is coming from
• In fact, no flight delays of any kind
• No delays getting off the plane
• No delays at baggage claim
• No problems getting transportation to the port
• No traffic jams

I’d rather spend the money to go a day early and be unpacking in my cabin at 3:30 😎 Can’t put a price on peace of mind, especially at the start of a vacation.

My wife and I have always declined it. Neither of us drink, and not having access to unlimited soda is helpful to the waistline 🙂

On 5/27/2021 at 6:47 PM, Yinster said:

 

 

 

 

 

Slow roasted pork belly in the Haven. My starter every time we dined there

Exactly what I was coming to say. We couldn't get enough of these.

I would cancel and not even give it a second thought.

Personally cancelled 2 for this year, but both were/will be doomed anyway...Feb 13 to Hawaii and Sept 6 to Alaska.

I consider myself lucky it wasn’t a third, we got off the ship from a Caribbean cruise less than four weeks before everything shut down.

We should be on a plane to Hawaii right now, we had gotten a great deal on an aft balcony on POA for the Feb. 13 cruise. Alas...

22 hours ago, ScratchTheRat said:

So for today's topic: What port has been your favourite to visit? 🙂

St. Petersburg, Russia in 2019. My wife and I booked a private tour guide for our overnight stay and it was out of this world.

Before that, probably the Faeroe Islands.

Cancelled two 2021 cruises over the phone last Tuesday. All four CruiseNext deposits are now back in my account, and our deposit on the second cruise just hit my CC today.

On 7/25/2020 at 3:38 PM, farmersfight said:

Fingers crossed 🤞 that "Operation Warp Speed" is successful and that an effective vaccine is developed by end of 2020 and made available by early/mid 2021.

I admire your optimism. Speaking as someone who knows how clinical trials work, though, the only thing you'll be able to say with any certainty about any vaccine that's developed that quickly is that it won't kill you.

On 7/25/2020 at 3:38 PM, farmersfight said:

 

Double post.

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-421/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-04-421.htm
 

This is very, very tl;dr, but the key sentence is this:

“The exemption requires that NCL operate these ships in regular service, as defined in the exemption as the "primary service in which the ship is engaged on an annual basis," between the islands of Hawaii and specifically prohibits NCL from transporting paying passengers to ports in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, or the Caribbean.”

So unless NCL is somehow granted some kind of special waiver from Congress, POA can’t be used for Alaskan itineraries.

I spoke with a member of the CruiseNext team on my cruise last week. He told me they likely wouldn't release the 2021/2022 schedule until closer to the end of this year. He said it had to do with the new Leonardo class ships - possibly waiting to confirm whether they'd be in service?

All times listed on the itinerary are always local time.

01/2009 Pearl NO - diverted to Key West

12/2009 Jewel NO - sea day

12/2015 Spirit YES, but had to be evacuated in the afternoon due to a sudden tropical storm (we literally couldn’t see the ship from our cabana)

01/2019 Epic NO - sea day

02/2020 Breakaway ???

Regular Mountain Dew only, no diet. The only diet drink offered is Diet Pepsi.

Have fun!

That's awful. We're sailing on the Spirit in August and were considering an upgrade bid, this has certainly put us off that idea.

You can get food from any specialty restaurant delivered to your stateroom. Just talk to your butler the day before you want to do it and s/he will take care of it.

The problem with the Haven is that once you do it, you never want to go back to regular cabins. 😉

Have a great time!

We’ve done four cruises that were scheduled to stop at GSC. Two ended up with an extra sea day due to winds, one got diverted to Key West, and the only one that did call on GSC ended up with an evacuation in the afternoon due to torrential rain (we literally couldn’t see the ship anchored offshore from our cabana).

9 cruises over 7 years for my wife and me. We never booked suites until very recently, now we figure we’ll be at PP after our 13th :D

Do you think the itinerary is still worth it when my cruise has 4 sea days? I didn’t realize there was an extra day because it’s labeled as Dublin but it’s because they leave at 1am, but the final port isn’t until 5am the next day

It looks like you have five actual sea days, since that third day in Reykjavik isn't really a port day either if you're departing at 6 am.

I guess it depends on whether you're more likely to remember the cruise for the ship experience, or for the ports. It sounds like you're really excited about the ports, so I would say go for it.

I was on the Spirit prior to the last refurb, and it was probably the worst cruise we've ever been on. It wasn't an awful time, but compared to other NCL ships it wasn't good. We had a lot of bad service issues in the restaurants and buffet.

That being said, we're booked to go on the Spirit again next year for their Ultimate Baltics cruise in August. Our reasoning was pretty much the same as yours -- the itinerary is one of a kind, and with only one sea day over 15 days we figure we won't be on the ship all that much where it should stand in the way of enjoying the ports.

October to March, when it actually gets dark in the evening, is best for northern lights viewing. Of course, finding a cruise ship for then is another story... :(

WoW! That cruise looks amazing.....i was wondering how I missed it in my planning as I would have *definitely* selected that one....... but then I saw that it is too late in August for us. But man.....14 countries in 15 days?!??! I love that. We're doing I think 7 countries in 14 days.

 

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The Spirit is actually doing almost the exact same cruise in reverse (Southampton to Stockholm) at the start of August. That one does miss Oslo, though.

If you did your planning before May, you would’ve definitely missed these. NCL was extremely late publishing their 2019 itineraries for the Spirit. Many of us were wondering if the ship was being decommissioned, that’s how late it was.

We're booked on the Ultimate Baltic cruise on the Norwegian Spirit next August, from Stockholm to Southampton. All of the main Baltic ports are covered, plus out of the ordinary stops in Riga, Klaipeda and Gdansk, PLUS three western European ports following Oslo. 14 countries total on a 15-day cruise. The trip will be super hectic, but we couldn't let an itinerary like that go by.