eiloo

13 minutes ago, marazul said:

Sort of. Tour companies use bots to buy all the tickets as soon as they sre available. You have to be very quick or you have to buy tickets for the Spanish or Italian tours. 

Thanks marazul.  So if i were to buy tickets for Spanish or Italian tours, aside from the lost understanding of the tour, what am I missing?  If we go in and roam on our own, that’s sufficient.  Maybe there is an app I can download to describe what I’m seeing?

It’s just after 6pm ET.  I checked the site and can only see tickets available for Tomorrow.  Is the right or should I be seeing 30 days ahead as well?  Most of the dates are in a pink color and June 2 is in white which means it’s closed that day. I’m shocked if tickets were already sold out within minutes for 30 days out.  Is there a black market for these?

40 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

I wait and pay my gratuities on the cruise with leftover obc. Book a excursion or two. Buy myself a present in the online store. Twice out of 15 I have cashed out a small amount of obc. Last december I got sick and thought I would be confined to my cabin and cashes out my extra obc. Negative for covid and they were ok with me being sick it seemed and didnt confine me. .. oh well, I was ready. 

I didn’t think TA obc was available to be used on gratuities.  At least on other lines I’ve been on.

Will check on that.  However, even cashing that out at the casino would be better and then charging all reservations to the cc.  That way you’ll earn points from your cc and pay it with the obc.  

Pretty cool.  Thanks @Biker19

1 minute ago, Biker19 said:

They can get their OBC cashed via the slot machines in the casino - no need to spend it.

So they just play a slot machine and then go ask for cash for the rest of their obc?

Thanks biker19 and firefly333.  
 

Understood.  So they said the agent would put the obc about a week before sailing.  Guess that means it’ll get charged to the cc and then will need to spend the obc on other items.  

Thanks @MeHeartCruising

have you (or anyone else reading this) done the bus City tour that they sell?  Will that help with lines or just an added cost and worry about how to get on the bus and where to find it?

Helping a friend. When making specialty restaurant reservations online, it’s asking for payment.  Is that just for the reservation or will they charge the amount?  They have some obc they’d like to use against the dining. 
 

thanks

We have a couple days in June to visit Rome and want to visit the Vatican and Basilica.  Is entry to the Basilica free?  Time entry?  Or must you purchase the Vatican and Basilica tix to get in?  Folks up thread are saying to do this on separate days.  We’ll get in around noon or 1pm so maybe do Basilica later that day and book tix for Vatican the next day if there is no extra costs involved?

Does anyone know when the tix are released on the Vatican site for purchase?  I understand they are 60 days prior but even somedays before my desired dates have errors thrown by the site so I’m unsure if they are already sold out or something else is going on. 

Thanks to everyone and especially cruisemom42 for sharing in this thread.  
 

We’ll be in Naples late June with two kids under 13. We definitely want to do Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius but not looking for a whole day tour. I think we will take the train to Pompeii and explore there.  Are there taxis (or ride sharing) at Pompeii to hire to take us to Mount Vesuvius and then back to the ship?  What if we get out at Mount Vesuvius, are there transport from there down or are you typically taking the same vehicle up and down?

Does anyone know approximate cost of train/bus/taxis between these places?  Are taxis metered or are you negotiating the rates in advance?

What are the differences between Cruise First and Cruise Next that I am missing.

Cruise Next

-no requirement to book a cruise 120 or more after the purchase of the cert

-$125 cost for $250 credit

-may be able to use up to 2 certs for one reservation (2 x $250 certs for a total $500 payment toward your cruise).

-up to 4 years to sail

-sold on a cruise or purchased after market (eBay, FB etc.)

-can be used on cancelled and rebooked sailings

-transferrable

Cruise First

-required to book a cruise over 120 days from purchase of the cert OR have owned it for 120 days and book any cruise at any time.

-two denominations $150 for a $300 cert or $250 for a $500 cert.  

-only one cert can be used per reservation.  I would then just go for a $250/$500 cert.

-up to 3 years to sail.

-sold by NCL online direct.

-cannot be used on cancelled and rebooked sailings of the same cruise.

-transferrable

Any gotchas for using one CN instead of CF?  I've thought about purchasing on FB but worried about fund transfer fees.  eBay sellers are out in left field with pricing.

Can you use an independent cruise planner to book with CF or does it have to be direct with NCL?  I know the CN you can use any travel agent desired.

I see a lot of posts here about using points for upgrades to higher category or meta upgrades.  I'm curious to know if there are folks that use points for outright free cruises at the higher point levels. 

Is it because it just takes more time to get 200k of points to take the family on a cruise on points alone?   Or is there better value in only using the points for upgrades?  Granted, I know that the free cruises offered are for Mexico and Caribbean cruise only of 7 days or Bahamas of 3-4 days.

I had previously used 40k of points to comp the 3 and 4 passengers in my cabin but then they stopped that saying I would have to start by comping 1 and 2 first in order to use the 40k for passengers 3 and 4.  This was also when I didn't have a lot of points and was seriously thinking of cancelling the card altogether.  

Would love to hear your thoughts. 

Looking for suggestions and tips before embarking on the ship.  We'll be in Honolulu the night before and would like to visit Pearl harbor on the day of embarkation.  I understand they do not allow any bags.  

Where do you suggest we store luggage?  I suppose hotel can hold it for a few hours, but I'd need to them go back to get it. 

How early does the ship accept luggage?  Was thinking of dropping off our luggage first before going.

Any other tips you can share?

I went from almost cancelling this card to keeping it solely to use the points on a Caribbean/Mexico cruise in the future as I have other BoA credit cards to earn the same points that can be used on the NCL card.

My question is that would there be any benefit of booking the aforementioned cruise with a TA vs direct with NCL?  I would be comping the whole cabin.

When NCL used to allow WorldPoints to be used to comp just the 3rd and 4th passengers for 40K of points, one of the TAs I had used in the past ended up charging me $50 each for the 3rd and 4th passengers because of the lost commission.  This TA typically had the lowest rates and doesn't give OBC but essentially built the OBC into a discount on the final price of the cruise.

I'm leaning to just go with NCL for ease to comp the cabin but was wondering if anyone has had experiences doing this with and without a TA?

Original request for shareholder benefit on August 2 with a follow up sent on August 6.  Received the OBC on August 14. 

Yes they do.  I did it as part of the Platinum benefit. 

They must be backed up.  I sent a request on August 2. Received the standard automated message with a case number saying 24 hour response.  Sent a follow up on August 6 with the first case number and received another automated email with another case number. 

This is for a cruise in November 2020.  Maybe they don't want to commit that far in advance?

Back in the day I thought it was 2 points per dollar.  Now they have it as 3 points per dollar on NCL purchases.

• Earn 3 WorldPoints^® points for every $1 spent on Norwegian purchases
• Earn 1 WorldPoints^® point for every $1 spent on all other purchases
• Redeem points for hundreds of rewards like cash, gift cards, hotel stays, car rentals, and Norwegian redemptions
• If you're a Preferred Rewards client you could get an additional 25% - 75% points bonus on every purchase, applied to the base earn of 1 point per $1

I don't disagree with you that the card is on its way out of my wallet.  Though I recently became a Preferred Rewards member and now I get 5.25 points per dollar spent with NCL.  That's hard to pass up.  I may just keep the card and pull it out when booking an NCL cruise.

Does anyone know if you are already paid in full and pay final payment, can you still use points to upgrade to a higher cabin if available?

Or does this only work before final payment?

I didn't mean to get people to debate about this.

I was wondering if I were to wait for the cruise to start and have the ship add the DSC to my onboard account, would that reduce the 4.275% tax payable, so I would only be paying $15/pp/pd.

The way I read this: Guests sailing to Hawaii will be charged an additional 4.275% Pre Paid Service Charge GET Tax is that I'm paying the GET tax for the privilege for prepaying.

This may be a matter of semantics.  In my NCL.com account, I can pre-pay my gratuities and there is a GET tax to pay in Hawaii.  

"The convenience of pre-paying service charges allows you to plan your budget prior to your cruise giving you additional freedom while on board. A discretionary charge of $15.64 USD per person per day for all guests 3 years or older will automatically be added to your onboard account. Your service charges will total $437.96 USD for all guests, for your entire cruise. Guests sailing to Hawaii will be charged an additional 4.275% Pre Paid Service Charge GET Tax "

I'm trying to figure out is the GET Tax because I'm pre-paying the gratuities?  i.e. it would be $15.00 pp/pd if I let the ship add it to my onboard account?  Or would it still be $15.64 pp/pd even on the ship too?

@karinad

You would only redeem the amount needed to get to your $350 credit, ie 35K points.  The remaining 3K would stay on your NCL credit card for you to do as you wish.  If you have other Bank of America credit cards that earn points, you might be able to transfer your points to that card if eligible.  That other card may have a better redemption rate for cash.  The NCL Worldpoints redemption for cash is horrendous!

Speaking of these points becoming worthless... In 2017 and 2018, I had redeemed 40K of points to comp the third and fourth passengers in my cabin without issue.

I've tried to do the same the other day and was told that if the first two passengers were not comped, that I'm not able to use the 40K comp for the third and fourth passengers either.  I don't have enough points to comp the first two passengers.

Does anyone have thoughts on if things changed within the past year with this program.  If I am able to comp, I will almost exhaust these points.  That will also be the end of this credit card for me.

I see people referring to buying four or eight certificates. Can you buy 5, 6 or 7 at $125 apiece?