robinbtigger

Hi everyone! I am thinking about booking the Divina in mid-August. I would be booking 1 Interior cabin for my daughter and her friend and a balcony for my husband and I. The inside is only available with the Fantastica Experience while the balcony is available with both the Bella Experience and the Fantastica Experience. My only concern with the Bella experience is the possibility of not being able to eat in the MDR. If we took the Bella Experience for the balcony, would we be put at the same table as the Interior since the cabins are on the same itinerary? And, can we select the seating? The Fantastica Experience is $300 more for the week and not really worth it for us.

I can only speak for the Dawn, but kids under 18 were not allowed after 10:00 in the Spinnaker Lounge where the dancing and adult themed game-shows were. That rule appeared to be enforced. They were also not supposed to be allowed on deck after 10:00 during the White Hot Party, but that rule was not enforced. I would say that half of the people dancing between 10-11 were tweens and teens. I didn't mind because the kids kept the party going :).

 

If you have teens, I would assume that the Gem also has a teen disco/club where the kids 13 and older can dance and hang out. I never saw my 14-year old DD between the hours of 8-1 every night because she was dancing and hanging out with her friends.

I already booked the breakaway... thanks to all for your feedback, I will go swim with the sharks.

Well, at least you'll get a work out! Enjoy :).

Not much value for someone on the Breakaway. I did however enjoy the peace and quiet of the Dawns spa pool.

 

 

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I know :). It was the OP's first post and doesn't mention that s/he had already booked the Breakaway. I mentioned the Dawn because the OP may still be in the evaluation phase of which ship to book and it may be a factor in his/her decision.

There is a small lap pool in the spa on the Dawn. It costs extra to use it and it is smaller than a traditional lap pool.

You could consider pushing back a week so you're cruising over Christmas when he would usually be off work. The price will be higher though :(.

If you don't actually book a particular cabin and book a guaranty instead you will likely be "upgraded" to Deck 4 or Deck 5 cabin. We booked an OX on the Dawn and ended up in cabin 4522. I knew I was taking a chance and it wasn't as bad as I expected but I would have preferred to book a specific cabin and be on Deck 8 rather than needing to take the elevator almost every time we wanted to go somewhere.

 

You may also want to look at reviews for the Dawn as she is the Star's sister ship.

That's an unusual question given your username ;).

 

We disembarked from the Dawn on Easter Sunday and they didn't do anything except the Easter Bunny showed up for photos in Cozumel two days before. They *did* have a special Passover menu on the first 2 nights of Passover in the Aqua. We missed the first night :( and were the only ones at the second night. The dinner was one of the best of the whole week. Apparently the first night was well attended and they ended up putting all the tables together. I'm sorry we missed it.

Dining options will close down earlier than normal. Check your daily.

 

 

 

And, when I wanted to FINALLY get my eggs Benedict on last day... sorry, not available.

 

 

I also tried to get the freshly made waffles at my last breakfast and they were not available :(.

 

I have an eggs Benedict hint: the eggs were always perfect but the muffin was soggy. My DH toasted a new muffin and replaced the soggy one.

 

 

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We just sailed on the Dawn out of Tampa. We had our wine in our carry on and the X-ray screener said something like 'wine!' and we were directed to a table to declare the wine and get it stamped. It was by the honor system to take out all the wine in your bag and pay for corkage. The bottles were not checked again until we brought them to the restaurants. The corkage charge showed up under the MDR Aqua's billing.

 

One cool thing I learned here on CC is that the dining room will hold your partially filled wine in the wine cellar for you. So we had 1/2 a bottle at one dinner, asked the server to cork it up and save it and then had the rest at a second dinner. We bought wine under $10 per bottle but the cheapest wine on board is about $25 per bottle and my cheap wine was a better product for less $$ including the corkage fee.

 

 

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Thanks for the idea about taking a photo of the badge! I carried my phone with me out of habit even though it was in airplane mode.

 

I like the idea of the card being filled out if a guest asks. What I don't like is the cards being included with the daily papers. I don't know why but that is such a turn off to me. It feels like begging. I'm experienced enough on NCL that I know where to get the card. The steward should know that. ;)

I was not an experienced NCL guest, so I would have been fine with the cards being included in the Freestyle Daily. There was enough junk in them one more thing wouldn't bother and I wouldn't have thought that it came from my cabin steward looking for good comments but as just part of the Daily packet. I did experience a begging moment and that really turned me off. I had one given to me by a crew member who was hosting a tasting on a sea day. It was dropped on my table at the end of the tasting and s/he was definitely begging for a card. I used it for someone else who really deserved it.

Have to say I never saw the CD Dan Dan the entire cruise.

 

Was he even there? I wonder if something happened to him or his family. We were on the sailing right after you and NCL called in Soozy from home to be our CD. She barely made it in time for our sailing.

 

 

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Someone on the roll call for next week's cruise on the Jewel called NCL this afternoon and was told the ship isn't going to Roatan. They were told NCL would be sending an e-mail when a decision is made an alternate port of call of whether it will be an additional day at sea.

Hmmm ... I'm on the 4/13 Dawn and we are supposed to be in Roatan earlier than the Jewel. I called 2 days ago and was told there was no change in our itinerary I was really looking forward to Roatan and I don't mind skipping it for safety reasons but I just wish they would come out and tell us if they are going to skip the port already. My husband and daughter have their only dive scheduled that day and we will have to adjust out Belize or Costa Maya plans so they can get a dive in.

I want to thank everyone for their advise! My husband ended up booking with (I think) West End Divers dive shop. I booked a separate snorkel excursion with a $75 excursion credit we had with our travel agency. I think it will be with Subway Sports. We'll just meet back on the ship. Unfortunately, the whole thing is up in the air right now because NCL may skip Roatan next week.

Hi there! We booked a last minute cruise and my planning was delayed even more because my daughter tore her ACL and we were not sure if we were going to cancel. In any case, the cruise is still on and I emailed Steve to see if he had room for next week. I know! That's really late with 2 ships in port. I wasn't really expecting him to have room and he didn't but he was super nice to put me on his "walk-up" list. He said if he didn't have room for me when we arrived he would see if he could find a place with one of his neighbors. Has anyone spent a day with one of his neighbors? If so, which one?

Thanks for your great review! We are scheduled to sail on the Dawn on Sunday.

There are websites that offer cruise price monitoring and price drop alerts, but I don't think we are allowed to mention them. You can google for them. I looked at one and your cruise is still dropping, but the one after seems to be completely sold out.

I'm glad you asked, because I had the same question. The specialty restaurants seem to be very popular here and I was wondering if I was really going to miss something by skipping them. I really like French food so I was thinking about booking Le Bistro on the Dawn but maybe I'll just save my $40 and eat in the MDR.

 

Yes I am that same Pomcoach from Biddingfortravel. And yes, I am still on there and bidding every few months. In fact I was trying to get a post-hotel night on Priceline just last night, but bombed out. It tickles me that you remember my name! Ha Ha! Love that website and Priceline and love bidding! So much fun!

Wow! Small world. I used to be a mod over at BFT and I too recognized your username, LOL. I no longer post at BFT for the obvious reason :rolleyes:. FWIW, I really like the new PL Express Deals. I've booked them in the past and also used their prices as the "upper limit" for bidding.

Can you elaborate on this a bit...I'm confused, lol. We are going to stay at The Westin Tampa Bay the night before the cruise. After the cruise we have a car rental reserved at Tampa International airport with Alamo. Are there shuttle options?

 

Thanks,

Gina

As I understand it Alamo/National's shuttle to/from the port now operates out the the Airport Westin Tampa Bay instead of the airport. IIRC the prices were about the same to pick up at the Westin but if worse comes to worse you can take the Alamo shuttle to the Westin and then the Westin shuttle to the airport. You can call the Alamo location directly at the Westin to verify that they do have a shuttle (and report back here :D). I didn't follow through on calling because I found acceptable pricing through Hertz.

 

Speaking of a follow-up, I talked to Hertz in the Marriott and they do NOT have an after hours drop off :(. I really wanted to see my in-laws the morning that we leave but that's not going to happen if I have to get the car back by 1:00. They don't wake up until noon!

O.K. I just looked at the dawn 4/13 balcony gty @ $ 1,394 with port fees and tax with fifty dollar OBC is avalalbe to buy . The OB price is @ 1,234 with a $25 OBC so my math is like three sixty to upgrade .

Thanks for looking that up!

 

We currently have $50 OBC so that's a wash. A B3 family balcony is $340 more than the OX I booked but $50 per day is still too much for us. I assume the upgrade price is based on the amount that I paid and not the current value of the assigned cabin. I guess I'll press my TA to try to upgrade me if prices drop enough and the difference is less.

Thanks :).

 

I just wanted to make things clearer. I am willing to pay the difference between the price I paid for my OX to a BX if prices come down, but there are no cabins available to be assigned in that category right now. The BX category is currently in GTY status (not sold out). My TA says that I can't upgrade to a BX GTY because my OX GTY cabin was already assigned. Maybe she thinks that I don't want to continue to play the GTY game.

 

I can get an upgrade to an OB right now for $200, but I'm holding out for a better price as I'm okay with my current cabin.

Hi everyone! I recently booked a cruise on the Dawn in an obstructed view OX GTY cabin and I received my cabin assignment last week (category OG, a forward cabin on Deck 4) . I'm not thrilled with the location so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an upsell call and my eyes peeled for more price drops in higher categories so I can pay for an upgrade. I emailed my TA to let her know that my cabin was assigned, that I would be interested in an upsell if one is offered and that I was watching rates for better categories. I mentioned that a I might be interested in paying for an upgrade to a Balcony if the prices come down enough. Most of the balcony categories are currently GTY and my TA said that NCL will not allow an upgrade from an OV GTY to a Balcony GTY once the cabin has been assigned. Is that true? I could think that NCL would be happy to take more money from me (and yes, I know that I could be in the same boat with a less than desirable cabin assignment).

 

FWIW, if an upgrade doesn't happen I will be *fine* with my assigned cabin. It's on the departures deck which will make it easy for us to grab our stuff and go and it's close to the forward elevators. I was just hoping for a window instead of a port hole and I would love a balcony if the price is right :).

I booked an obstructed ocean view OX GTY ocean view about 2 weeks ago on the Dawn and was just assigned a OG porthole cabin forward on Deck 4. It's an "upgrade" from the OX obstructed ocean view on Deck 8 with 4 other OV categories above it on the ship, all with windows. I'm not thrilled, but that's the gamble I took :o. There are more than 15 OB and 01 cabins left according to NCL so maybe they're softening me up and I'll be offered an upsell :p. In any case, I'll keeping my eye on the prices and I'm willing to pay a little bit more for an upgrade if it's offered or if the rates drop enough. If that doesn't materialize I'll make the best out of my OG porthole and enjoy the proximity to the forward elevator and departures door.

Thanks! That's what we are doing right now. If worse comes to worse I think ill book a snorkel trip with another company. I'll be fine as long as I am in a group.

 

 

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Hi there! Can anyone recommend a company in Roatan that offers both scuba and snorkel? My husband and 14-year old daughter both dive and they will want to do a 2-tank dive. I prefer to stay on the top of the water so I want to snorkel. Since I will be alone I want to be part of a group. I know that their dive will probably take longer than my snorkel so I'm also looking for someplace that is comfortable to hang out while I wait for them.

 

Thanks!