terri910

On 11/8/2021 at 6:12 PM, dad son team said:

If you go to your online account it will tell you when they expire.  I bought mine in 2019 and they have been extended to 2023 without me asking.

 

You can also transfer to someone else that has an ncl account.  I gave my son one for a January cruise.  At minimum I would give them away, but I bet you can find someone willing to buy them off you

We have some expiring next year. We would like to sell at a discount (beyond the discounted price we paid) or at the very least give them to someone that could use them, but is there a place where people post the availability of the certificates?

Never mind....I should've searched on THIS site rather than the NCL site.

Badabing badaboom, I have my answer!! :D :D :D

Thanks Cruise Critic!

I am 99% sure I know the answer to this question, but since I went to the NCL website and tried entering in my question several different ways in their search function and not finding an answer, I thought I would ask it here. I'm sure someone will be able to confirm that my 99% confidence is correct:

Do all the cabins on the NCL Star have hair blow dryers?

I think the last time I cruised and the cabin DIDN'T have a blow dryer supplied would have been in the early 80's on the Carnival Carnivale...*LOL*

Still....since a friend who is also sailing with us asked, I want to make sure I'm telling her accurate information!

Generally, B2B guests are directed to gather in a lounge to meet a crew member who will lead them off the ship. Those who choose to, wait in the terminal with the crew member & when the ship is cleared, they can return to the ship.

We'll be old hands at it eventually...*L* We are actually on B2B2B2B cruises on the Star....beginning in Venice, and ending up in Los Angeles!

I’m not into karaoke , but sailed on Star last week. I believe we’ve seen it several times in 5 o’clock somewhere bar.

 

Husband is saying that it was every night karaoke bar... from 6 or 7 pm

Thanks!

Hopefully a karaoke afficionado will let me know about the other stuff (song selection, etc.).... :)

If the port is the first US port after going to foreign ports then everyone must get off the ship. In Vancouver and San Juan we were b2b but not required to leave the ship.

We have an upcoming B2B that begins Venice-to-Rome, and then the 2nd leg is Rome-TA-to-Miami. Are you saying we won't necessarily HAVE to disembark in Civitavecchia? (I anticipate we will, just to walk around the town, but we aren't planning on going in to Rome because we will have visited there on our land trip before boarding the first leg in Venice)

Just wondering if anyone has recently sailed on NCL's Star....and noticed if karaoke was pretty much a nightly activity and where it was held (or mostly held). Also....was the host/hostess good (and familiar with karaoke ettiquette), was the song selection fairly decent, and did the system allow for pitch changes? Thanks in advance!

If you don't like karaoke, I don't really need to know that...*LOL*...I know it isn't for everyone, but some of us enjoy it, so we like to know how often it is offered, and what kind of attention the ship's staff give to it.

When we cruised on the Epic, it was pretty much a nightly activity, and extremely well-attended.

My husband and I are both Platinum with NCL, but it has been two years since we sailed on NCL. We will be on the NCL Star this coming Fall on back-to-back-to-back-to-back cruises. I believe that one of the perks of being Platinum is that we get to have dinner at one (or more?) specialty restaurants each cruise (or is it each week?). I wanted to check what the NCL website currently says, but we are in Ecuador right now and even with a VPN, NCL's website seems to know we are in Ecuador and assumes that we speak Spanish, so we can only view their website in Spanish. No bueno!! :D

Anyway, I believe we should be making reservations for these Platinum perk dinners, but we don't know how to do it -- and especially don't know what we're doing in Spanish!

Is it possible to call some Customer Service phone number in the States (we have MagicJack, so any US phone number would be fine) where we could make these reservations, or MUST they be made online?

I would also love to get a copy of the Platinum perks in English, somehow.

Can anyone advise? Thanks in advance!

Thanks! Per cabin, and per cruise, but two dinners (Cagney's or Le Bistro and Moderno or La Cucina).

How far ahead of the cruise can we reserve?

And do you know about the free laundry bag?

It occurs to me that I have pretty much the same questions about the "Free Bag of Laundry" perk for Platinums. Per cruise or per week? And do we each get a free bag of laundry?

My husband and I are both Platinum with NCL. I seem to remember that Platinum members get a meal for two at one of the specialty dining locations (like Cagney's) either per cruise or per week. This Fall, we will be on back-to-back-to-back-to back cruises on the NCL Star. An 8-day out of Venice, a 14-day Trans-Atlantic out of Rome, an 11-day southern Caribbean out of Miami, and a 14-day Panama Cruise out of Miami ending up in Los Angeles.

As you can see, all of the cruises are over 7 days, and two of them are 14-days. So, my first question is: is this perk per cruise or per week?

My 2nd question is: since we are both Platinum, do we both get that perk separately (so my husband would get a dinner for two, and I would get a separate dinner for two)?

My 3rd question is: how far ahead should we reserve our dinners?

My husband was Platinum on our last NCL cruise, but we didn't reserve until we got on board, and the best times were, of course, already taken. I became Platinum with the points received on that last cruise, so we haven't cruised with both of us Platinum on NCL, before.

I would try to find answers to these questions on the NCL website, but we are in Ecuador right now, and when we go on the NCL website it only appears in Spanish, and we have found NO WAY to switch the language!!

Some things are simply subjective.

My husband and I sailed the Epic twice. One was a Med cruise, one was trans-Atlantic.

We both agreed we would try to avoid the Epic from then on. We did not become any more comfortable with the odd layout, and the frosted glass doors on the bathroom (right by the front door), and we just thought the lighting in the room was horrible -- so dark.

Service in the Dining Room(s) was slow. And the bowling alleys seemed like such a waste of space.

That doesn't mean we didn't have a wonderful time on our cruise...we have always enjoyed our cruises, but the Epic just didn't hit all the marks for us. We preferred our last cruise on the NCL Jade more (back-to-back-to-back). Hoping we will also like the Star this Fall on our back-to-back-to-back-to-back that begins in Venice and winds up in Los Angeles, California!

You'll only need clean pages if it's a full-on visa application required, maybe check the visa requirements for the countries you'll be visiting. My passport caused the US immigration officers mass confusion on my recent cruise as I'd so many stamps from past trips to the USA in it I wound up having to tell them which page the stamp was on for the current trip... "the page with the costa rica stamp". There was a time when they'd put the stamp on a clean page every time I visited the US, but as I was travelling over so often they had to start putting them on pages they'd used before so I'd still have clean pages for other visas. Thankfully that passport expires next year so there won't be that confusion next time as I'll have to renew it before my next visit.

I almost wish our passports expired next year, because then we'd absolutely have to get all this done. It just seems like we're wasting 2 years worth of use. *LOL*

How much space do you have left? Most countries do not require an entire blank page just to give you their stamp(s), that's usually only if you get a visa and it covers a whole page.

 

If you still have like 5 pages left in each book, I think that will be more than enough for the trips you listed (but I have no first-hand experience with Central/South America).

We each have 8 blank pages left.

But, there may be fewer by the end of this year, as we will be making trips from the US to Ecuador twice. We are US citizens and have residency in the US, but also legal residency in Ecuador. If we decide to get a new passport, we will eventually have to go to the Ministerio here in Ecuador to have our residency visa transferred.

Although we have been told we can travel with both passport for a while and Ecuador immigration will accept the residency visa in the old passport as valid.....

There was a similar post a few weeks back, no way was found to change the URL or the language. Sorry.

Thanks. I was kind of afraid of that.

Thanks, everyone else, also, for the comments. I guess I will just have to go ahead and make sure I have our VPN on when I want to access ncl.com.

And, as I mentioned in my OP, yes, I have tried changing the URL, but it just goes back to what the computer thinks I need (which is the kind of thing I actually hate about machines they are trying to make "smart"! *L*) And while the US site does have a language choice right next to the search box, what I'm getting doesn't.

What is weird is that it hasn't always been this way.

Oh, well....

Oh well.....worth a shot.

We are currently in Ecuador.

My computer recognizes this, so when I try to access ncl.com, it takes me there, but it is all in Spanish.

I have not been able to find a place on the website to change the language to English, nor have I been able to figure out how I can change the url to make it English.

I plug in ncl.com, but once it goes the website, the url changes to ncl.com/ar/es

I don't know what the "at" denotes, but I assume the "es" is for "espanol." I tried changing that to "en" for "English," but it just goes back to "es."

Is there a place on the website where you can change the language?

Having to do the VPN thing just to be able to get to a website in English is a PITA. Hope there is another way that I just haven't found yet. Any ideas/suggestions?

So next year we have several cruises planned. (1) Adriatic that will begin in Venice, stop in Dubrovnik, Kotor, Athens, Santorini, Naples and Rome. (2) Trans-Atlantic that will begin in Rome and visit Barcelona, Funchal, St. Maarten, and Miami. (3) Caribbean that will begin in Miami and visit Jamaica, Aruba, Curacao, St. Maarten, St. Thomas and back to Miami. (4) Panama Canal Transit that begins in Miami and visits Colombia, the Panama Canal, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and two ports in Mexico finally ending up in Los Angeles.

We have been on a Med cruise where the cruise ship gathered everyone's passports and the various countries' immigrations went through all of them, I guess. But the last couple of Med and TA cruises we've done, NCL did not take our passports and we never needed them to go ashore. But we have a few countries on these that we've never cruised to before.

Mainly, I am wondering about whether or not we have enough pages left in our passports. The passports are valid for another three years, but if every country requires 1 to 2 blank pages to issue stamps, we're in trouble.

Anyone that has been on NCL cruises to these ports, could you let me know if any of them require your passports 9so they can stamp them) to disembark for the day?

We will be staying one or two nights before our cruise departs Venice. I am starting to research places to stay.

While staying on Venice sounds wonderful, prices are rather expensive, and I have read that most places travelers will find themselves dragging their luggage around the walkways and up and down many bridges, to get from wherever the water taxi or vaporetto drops them off, to their hotel or AirBnB apartment.

On the other hand, it appears that there are hotels and AirBnB's on the mainland (Marghera area?) at more reasonable rates, but it means catching a bus or train (I'm not certain which) to Venice and then taking some sort of water transportation to get to specific areas of the island (or walking).

I am not certain how easy it is to get from the various mainland hotels to the bus or train that goes to Venice. I also do not know what hours it runs, so do not know when one would have to be back at the Venice terminal to catch a return trip to the mainland hotel. So, hard to know if one would be able to watch the sunset, and have an evening meal, while in Venice, and still be able to get back to the hotel.

If you have been there, any information you can give me to help us make a decision....pricing of bus (or is it a train?), and if there are passes, etc.

Thanks! I hoped it was just that it waits for a billing cycle to end...

I know about the sticky thread and tried searching, but the words I searched for gave me miles and miles of posts that talked about how to use the points, the best way to use the points (in various peoples' opinions), how many points different rewards take....but darned if I could find an answer to my question.

Karaoke and Trivia games.

We've never participated in Deal or No Deal (if they're still doing that), but it looked like a lot of fun, and we enjoyed watching it.

If we are traveling with friends, we enjoy playing either card games or Mexican Train Dominoes.

Other than those, we enjoy the pool/hot tubs, and the shows!

We recently received our NCL MasterCard (sure wish we'd gotten one several years ago!)....and we've already made payments on a couple of booked cruises with NCL. It is new enough that we haven't received our first statement, yet.

But, we have registered online and have been able to look at the account, including our point balance. But, at this point, it gives a point balance and says they are "pending."

I have looked online and through the contract that came in the mail with the credit card, and haven't been able to find out when the points are available and no longer pending.

Anyone know the answer?

I always book an inside when I decide I want to go. I do not book the cheapest because the cheapest sell out in all category's first and there is not an even swap or upgrade. Remember it is based on availabilty, which is not really a problem.

What ever ship you are going on, see what catagory of Balcony they have the most of, like a BC, which would be 3rd best, so I book the 3rd best inside which is not much more than the cheapest inside, so you get swapped from 3rd best inside to 3rd best Balcony.

Spa and Aft are now excluded and option to upgrade was not allowed on my upcoming cruise since they did not place a value on the upgrade so there was no "pay the difference to get an aft".

 

If I were you, I would pay off the cruises now and get the points and use them.:D

 

Now there might be a few issues so be aware. my 40 night cruise is a B2B2B which is 3 cruises in reality, but was sold as one 40 night cruise as well as 3 individual cruises, so booking the 40 night got me 1 booking number so my meta upgrade was for all 40 nights 1 shot.

If your 4 B2B are not under 1 booking number your upgrade is good for just 1 cruise only.

 

Steve

 

If it did n

Right.....we actually have 4 separate booking numbers. The 4 cruises are 8-day, 14-day, 11-day and 14-day. If we were to upgrade any of them, obviously it would be wisest to choose one of the longer cruises...and in our case, the 14-day Panama Canal transit, rather than the 14-day Trans-Atlantic crossing....more ports and more to see on the Canal transit, I think. But, that's all something to remember for another time. I don't believe we will have the needed amount of points for any of these cruises.

When you use your card and get your first statement, go to your online statement and click on rewards. That will give you a general idea or use the link provided in a post or two back.

 

Depending on your cruise habits, some rewards are better than others. Double meta upgrade is worth the most to me, especially if you do longer cruises. I used the double meta for a 15 night panama and a 40 night Asia.

Panama was worth $1600 value, Asia was worth $6000 value. Last was a 21 night med cruise and value was worth $3000+

 

What ever you thoughts or plans are, just ask here. We will help:)

 

Steve

Do you do this at the time of booking, or after you have already booked?

I know we are a ways away from that, seeing as how we just received our cards. But, since we get triple points for anything purchased thru NCL, and we are booked on 4 cruises for 2018 (B2B2B2B), we do plan on utilizing the card to pay off all of those cruises. So, who knows, we may still manage to do an upgrade one of these years.

Wish we'd had the card and had paid more attention to the CruiseNext Certificate program on our 2015 NCL cruise...*L*

OMG. The beginning of this thread is like from 10 years ago, or something.....

I would guess (but don't know) that some of the terms, perks, etc., have changed since then. Even if they haven't, do I really want to try and read through HUNDREDS of PAGES?

My husband and I have just received our NCL Mastercards. Is there someplace (that ISN'T hundreds of pages long) where we can get tips to best utilize the card, maximize rewards, and best use of the rewards points?

We are looking an amazing deal on the Jade for Dec 18th to 28th (3&4th sail free). Concerned about the decor and age of the ship.

 

Anyone who has been Epic and Escape try the Jade and was happy with their experience?

 

We have been on both Epic and Escape and enjoyed them a lot.

We sailed on the Epic a couple of times, and then, last year, we did back-to-back cruises on the Jade.

We actually preferred the Jade. Have no plans to sail on the Epic again.