NCMtnBoys

Thanks for your review, we leave this Sunday on Meraviglia. This will be cruise #33 for me, fourth on MSC. Sailing with two friends who have never cruised. Sounds like it should be a great week on a great ship!

We've used GoPort twice, once where we took the shuttle from the hotel booked through them (when we flew down), and the other time when we took the shuttle from the parking facility they use near the port (when we drove down). It's a great service either way and we would definitely use them again.

And, we even had an email several days ago from NCL letting us know what names they have for our airfare, making sure what they have is correct and matches our travel documents, asking us to contact them if we need to make a change. Our cruise isn't until September 10th so they won't even be doing our air for awhile but are proactively checking. I always have to make sure my name includes the suffix "Jr" since that's what my passport shows. Learned the hard way once when I had to pay an airline a change fee just to add the "Jr" after ticketing.

Hi, even though our friends in a separate cabin have the drink package and we do not, our reservations are linked and we should be seated at the same table because their drink package was a promotion included in the fare they booked. They did not purchase the drink package separately. So we were told by MSC that this rule doesn't apply in our situation.

You CAN book the cruise without using the NCL BOGO promo... but it must be added or taken away before the final payment date. If you don't want the air promo, just call and have them remove it, but do so before the final payment date. Also, if using the air promo and requesting a 1-2 day deviation, you must do so up to 75 days before departure; after that you can't add a deviation and you will be scheduled to arrive the day your ship departs, and depart to come home the day you disembark the ship. You're currently about 83 days out, so you don't have long to get the deviation(s) added if you want to do that. I always said I would never use the BOGO air promo because of having to give up control of the flight planning, but I have been searching flights to Athens for our September 10th cruise for months and months and they're pretty high. So we went ahead and added the air promo to our booking (with a two day deviation on the outbound only) and it's half the price as booking the flights on our own. I know the risks and am willing to take them for the significant savings. Hoping for the best when we get our flight info. If the flights aren't that great we'll make the best of it.

We're booked on Anthem for July 12, 2024 out of Southampton, 7-night Norwegian Fjords in a 2D balcony for $3216 total for both of us including gratuities.

With a two day deviation, you will need two nights hotel. I certainly would not spend those two nights in Civitavecchia. Plenty of time to go into Rome and spend your time there. We're cruising from Athens September 10th. I've requested a two day deviation for the air. I know this means we'll arrive sometime on September 8th, which means our flight will leave the US sometime on the 7th and be an overnight crossing to Europe, arriving the 8th. I've got two nights booked in Athens (8th and 9th).

Yes! We were on our way to a taxi line in Miami when a guy yelled across the street at us asking if we wanted a shuttle to the airport. I asked how much and he said $10pp; asked when it was leaving and he said in a few minutes. So we walked across the street, handed over our bags, boarded the shuttle and off we went. I'd do that again if I knew it would be that smooth every time.

Thank you, with the flights that I've researched there aren't many that would be truly awful. I could work with pretty much any of them although some would be less desirable. A few hundred dollars might not be worth the savings but $1500 would be, for me!

Thanks for the link, that's encouraging with just 5 hour max connection times. I know it's a gamble with what they assign and you just have to make the best of it if it's not ideal.

So I decided to go ahead and just add the BOGO offer to our reservation to have it there - can take it off later if we end up not wanting it - and since last week the BOGO price has increased by $300. Now $1750 for two. It had been $1450 for months. But it's on our reservation now and still nearly half the price of booking ourselves.

Yea, I've searched Raleigh too and it's no better than departing from Charlotte for us. For us and my wallet the best option at this time seems to be the Air Canada through Toronto each way, one connection, good flight times. My biggest concern is having an overnight connection on the way back and arriving back the next day instead of the same day we disembark the ship. Still, if it costs $1450 for two from Charlotte using BOGO vs $3200 for two booking it ourselves, that's a big savings. I hope you find flights that work for you!

Thanks for your reply. I've been eyeing the Air Canada flights through Toronto myself, it's slightly less than $1600 per person for basic economy (plus seat assignments and baggage fees) and has good flight times and gets us back in the evening without an overnight connection. For the return I do not want a later flight and that was what I was afraid of... that they'd stick us on the American Airlines flight that leaves at 4:05pm with an overnight connection. I'm glad to hear your traveling companions got good flights. Very encouraging!

I am curious whether anyone who has used the NCL BOGO air offer from the US to Europe has received return flights from Europe with overnight connections? We are cruising from Athens in September and I am very hesitant to use the BOGO air because of all the restrictions - not having any control over the flights and what they assign, routing, departure times, can't make changes once assigned, etc. I've been searching for months for flights to purchase on my own and am noticing some of the return flights from Athens back to Charlotte have an overnight connection, which I'd like to try and avoid. Would these be flights that NCL may potentially choose or do they attempt to get you back to your home city on the day you disembark the ship? I'm presuming if we were given a flight with an overnight connection it'd be on us to get a hotel in that city until our connecting flight the next day? I know their T&C state they try to do a maximum of two connections when possible, but I don't recall seeing anything about maximum connection times. The price difference between the BOGO offer and buying on our own ($1450 round trip for two with BOGO vs $1600+ per person if purchased ourselves for flights that get us back to Charlotte the day we disembark the ship) is hard to ignore. I'm still not sure whether I'm willing to give up control of my flights to use the BOGO offer, but the savings are significant. If they'd just give us a little more information and choice - like maybe pre-select some flights and show us the flights we may get for the BOGO offer, it sure would be nice!

We're traveling with friends on Meraviglia in May. They're on a completely separate reservation and in a different cabin. They have the drink package, we do not, and don't want it. Our reservations are linked for dining (we were able to do that when the second reservation was made, no problem). After seeing the discussion the last few days about possibly not being able to sit together, we called MSC today for clarification. It seems it does not affect those who have booked a promotion that includes the drink package (our friends did), so we were told we should not have an issue sitting together. Only affects those who add the drink package after booking.

So we're traveling with two friends on Meraviglia in May. This is their first cruise and they have their own booking and cabin, and we have our own booking and cabin. They have the drink package, we do not, and don't want it. Our reservations are linked in the MSC system. Hoping we won't have any issues getting seated at the same table in the MDR.

We're on the Meraviglia 5/21 and I just automatically assumed we'd be departing out of the Manhattan cruise terminal but later learned we'll be departing out of the Brooklyn terminal. I didn't even know there was a Brooklyn terminal. This'll be our first cruise out of New York. We'll be flying in/out of LGA and spending two nights pre-cruise in NYC so don't need parking anywhere but if we'd planned to park at the port, WHOA, $45/day is outrageous!

We also use the Capital One 360 card for ATM withdrawals in Europe. We generally withdraw the local currency every few days and just use cash for our purchases throughout each day. It's worked great for the more than 10 years that we've done this.

I am completely with you. I have no interest in eating in the MDR if I can't have a table for two. We sent an email to the same address two weeks before our cruise last month and never did hear back. When our stateroom was ready and we were able to get our room keys to see our table number, we immediately went and checked the location and to see if it was a table for two. It was indeed a table for two, and a great location... one of those that was not elbow to elbow with other tables for two, rather it was against a wall on one side and no table to the other side. I had asked for such a table in my email, so maybe they got it and obliged, and just didn't respond.

We booked a 7-night Norwegian Fjord cruise from Southampton on Anthem for July 2024 which includes only four port stops - Stavanger, Flaam, Alesund and Bergen. We'll spend a couple nights in London pre-cruise. I wouldn't have minded a longer itinerary but we'll be going back to Europe in December 2024 and spend two weeks exploring Christmas markets.

We sailed Symphony in January also, 21st-28th, and I, too, thought the MDR food was very good to great. Far better than our Mariner sailing in May of last year. No complaints regarding the new menus. I don't eat a lot of meat other than pork or chicken, and for me, if there's a non-seafood pasta option I'll sometimes choose that over the meat option. Other than shrimp, I don't eat seafood either. But all hot dishes were hot and portions were plentiful. I thought their lasagna bolognese was excellent, and I ordered two servings of that and no appetizer or dessert that night.

I just stumbled across this thread today and I thought not being able to see my points all this past week was because we had just cruised Jan 21-28 and that cruise moved us from Diamond to Diamond Plus. So I thought maybe they were doing some sort of internal audit to make sure we were eligible to move to Diamond Plus after our recent cruise, before actually updating our status and showing it on the website. I went and checked today and my points and new status are there. I didn't do anything except just wait (didn't delete and re-enter anything).

Just off Symphony Jan 28th. The entertainment on Symphony was also top notch. LOVED Hairspray, Flight-Dare to Dream, 1977 (Ice show) and Hiro (Aquatic show). We had a great band onboard called Muzik Xpress that played fantastic sets for 3+ hours almost every night. I thought our MDR dinners were fantastic. We had the same three port stops you did, plus Coco Cay, and enjoyed all of them. We had done Oasis in 2018 and also enjoyed it. My sister is part of a family group (her husband's family) who will be on Allure beginning Feb 11th and that will be her first Oasis class cruise. I hope she enjoys Allure as much as we enjoyed Symphony. Our next Royal cruise will be on Anthem from Southampton to the Norwegian Fjords in July 2024, although we've got several other cruises before then. Have not done that class but the ship looks good. I really enjoy the Oasis class so I'm hoping we won't be disappointed with Anthem.

I second checking other Florida airports - Jacksonville, Tampa, Ft Lauderdale, Miami... all served by major carriers other than Southwest. From any of those, you could rent a car for an easy drive to Orlando. We had a cancellation of the second leg of our flights Christmas day on Delta and despite an online search of six other departure airports in our region, all flights were full so we didn't get to take our trip. We learned of our cancellation at 11:00pm the night before our 7:00am first leg. I tried calling then too, and the wait was more than 5 hours (I've seen other say at some point they had a recorded message of a wait time of 17 hours). Thankfully we never took our first flight leg so we weren't stranded somewhere else. Lots and lots of baggage issues right now too. I hope it all works out for you, I know it would be really disappointing to miss a cruise. Our next cruise is January 21st from Miami and we're flying on the 20th. Not Southwest, but issues can happen at all airlines, unfortunately.

Sorry you had such a hard time and negative experience. But thank you for posting about your experience, which prompted me to check my reservation for Symphony January 21st to see if the shows were open for reservations. They were not, last time I checked sometime not too long ago. But they are now! So I was able to reserve four shows. I did not see anything about the ice show though, is that something that can be reserved before boarding, as I did the other four shows?