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Okay so masks now required which is okay with me as working in Boston am used to it. Now just got this from NCL.

Dear Valued Guests,

Thank you for choosing Norwegian Escape for your vacation at sea.

We continuously aim to offer an enhanced experience for all our guests, and we strive to provide a world-class product consistent throughout our fleet. As part of this commitment, Norwegian Escape Sports Complex, including The Ropes Course and other activities, are undergoing maintenance to better serve our guests, and therefore will be closed during your cruise. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.  

We remain at your service and cannot wait to welcome you aboard for a vacation of a lifetime.

I used mine to apply for the upgrade to ocean view from my comped inside

On 5/16/2020 at 1:20 PM, Sand and Seas said:

That's just what they told me too.    I guess the 25% bonus wasn't designed to help a comped cruiser. 

 

If the 25% FCC sits on our accounts long enough perhaps we can try again to have it applied to another cruise, but I'm not going to count on it.   I think it expires next April.

I might  see if I can us it for an upgrade before it expires. Was suppos d to be on my cruise to Bermuda right now, rescheduled it for May 2021

I had a comped cruise cancelled and called Casino at Sea department to rebook for next year. I was told no on the 25% as that only applies to cruise fare and since it is a comped cruise with no actual cruise fare (just admin fee and port charges and taxes) it can't be used. 

Oh definitely do a high tea at one of the hotels.  My sisters and I did that with my mom at the Southampton Princess Hotel.  Definitely check out the Bermuda tourism site though.  Lots of things to do.

My daughter won the "free cruise" at Bingo, it's only for 5 nights or less max $600 PP. Hard pressed to find a cruise for that unless you want to do a booze cruise to Bahamas in an inside cabin.

I won the raffle in January and at that time they were for 7 days. Inside cabin for the cost of Gov Taxes/Port Exp/Fees including prepaying the services charges brought our total on the November Getaway cruise we are doing to $468.38 for two. Have since got others through Casino At Sea promotion and they were more expensive. If we wanted to upgrade to a balcony on this trip it would almost be $1,000 each more. We are sticking with inside. Also you are correct in you do not get any of the perks when you win the bingo raffle cruise (drink package, shore credit, dining package) and the cruise does not get added to the number of cruises/days you have taken. Stinks if you are close to the next tier.

I am also on the St. Patrick's Day sailing of the Dawn. I hope we end up at the pier in Old San Juan as we are booked in the hotel across the street. Looking forward to this trip. We plan on boarding and just hanging on the ship since we will be in Puerto Rico the day before.

If your first port of call is in Cozumel, they are even cheaper there. I think I got cartons of Marlboro Lights for a friend for $20 a carton.

I've also posted this on the Bermuda board...

 

I have a bit of a unique issue. We are travelling from Boston to Bermuda and back on the Dawn from July 20 - 27 (it's a family vacation - 8 of us travelling together). My husband just learned that he needs to be back in Boston part way through the trip (on the 25th) for a work issue that just arose. We live in Boston so an option would be for him to fly from Bermuda to Boston on the 24th (we're in port) and just stay home while the rest of us continue on with the trip. It's annoying but I can't do much about it. The other alternative is for him to not go at all but that seems illogical since a one-way ticket on JetBlue from Bermuda to Boston is just $300.

 

What I don't know is whether there is any issue with this type of arrangement (e.g., visa or immigration). I'm about to start my research but wanted to ask the community if anyone has ever had to do this before.

 

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Ranasa,

Did you buy trip insurance? I did some research and this is what NCL has posted on their site:

Joining or debarking the ship at any time outside of the published embark/debark port is not permitted for the following reasons:

• Itineraries are subject to change without notice.
  
• Violation of the Passenger Vessel Act (Jones Act), if applicable.
  

Approval to embark or disembark mid-cruise may be allowed only in cases of emergencies. Please note that embarking or disembarking mid-cruise may result in a violation of the Passenger Vessel Act (Jones Act), resulting in a fine starting at $762 per person.

Was on the same cruise and we had late seating in the Isaac Dining room. Our waiter and assistant waiter were great and our food was always hot. We also did the Chef's table one night and it was spectacular.

As for breakfast in the dining room, they definitely need to get their act together on how they seat people. One day seated right away and food came out right away and hot, next day straggled in the seating, straggled in bringing out meals and foods was so so.

1) my parents arrived early for the muster drill and over heard a very loud guest on the phone. The guest was going on the cruise with a guy. And for whatever reason he was arrested at the port. Well he had all of the spending money in his bag. She tried to get it but could not. The police would not let her near him becuase she has a restraining order against him!

I was on this cruise and we got to watch him get arrested and placed in the sheriffs car before we headed up to Muster drill.

Another weird thing that happened on the ship is while we were in Costa Maya I guess there was a swarm of bees nears some area of the ships pool that they had to shut it down to get rid of them.

Welcome to Cruise Critic and I will also be on the December 3rd Sailing of Freedom OTS. This is our second time on the Freedom as we sailed on her in March 2016. You guys will have a great time.

Got a cruise to New England scheduled in Sept 2017. Boston is first port. Does anyone know if there are taxi's or tours that come close to the port or at the end of the pier? My daughter and grandson want to go the Aquarium. Thanks for any answers or suggestions. Kiri

There are definitely taxis in the area when cruise ships are in town. I would highly suggest taking a taxi or an uber or lyft car to the aquarium. There you can also get on the duck boats for an 80 - 90 minute tour of Boston (lots of fun and you might get to drive the duck).

Carnival charges you $79.99 for an adult and $59.99 for a child for the duck tour. If you book directly with http://www.bostonducktours.com it will only cost you $39.50 for an adult an $27 for children ages 3 to 11. With the ticket you also get a $3 discount of your New England Aquarium ticket.

Aquarium tickets (not including IMAX theatre) are $27.95 for an adult and $18.95 for a child. The Aquarium/IMAX combo is $32.95 for an adult and $23.95 for a child.

Fanueil Hall is okay, mostly shops and restaurants - not a lot for children to do.

The Children's Museum is about a 5 minute ride from the port and has fun things to do for younger children (not sure how old your grandchildren are).

Science Museum is another fun place for kids and there are also duck boat tours outside of that also.

If you are sports enthusiast, taking a tour of Fenway Park is a highlight and it being September, there might actually be a game going on that day.

We had so much fun on the ship in March. Have you been to Vintages yet. We went there every night. Lovely was our favorite bartender and her counterpart who we nicknamed Handsome were great. Tell her bernadette, Colleen and Ita said hello.

Hello all! I am currently booked for a January 2, 2017 Majesty of the Seas cruise. But I can't find the Roll Call for it!! Any ideas as to why?

Thanks!!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

MJohn I didn't see one so just started a roll call on the roll call page. Looking forward to a quick vacation in January.

I believe the Radiance of the Seas is its sister ship and I saw a video someone did of Cabin 7004 on that ship on your tube. It might help you see what the set up is like. Here is the link:

Taxi cabs in Boston are expensive especially if you are stuck in traffic. Coming from Logan there is a charge for Logan around $3 and if you go through the Harbor Tunnel to get to the pier add another $5 - 6 to the cost on top of the regular fare. I say for your next cruise out of Boston definitely take the public transportation or I believe there is a water taxi that will take you over to that area too.

Would love for them to come back to Boston. I live about 20 minutes from the City.

Just got off the Freedom on Sunday. We sailed March 6 - 13th. Did the Chef's table and it was $59.

Our chef's table was held after we left the port of St. Thomas. The menu was the same as someone had posted earlier and the short rib ravioli's were fantastic. My opinion the best dish of the table.

It was held in the Windjammer in a closed off section with drinks at the bar right there. They should have closed that off too as we had to deal with the intoxicated college students who spent most of the day at Senor Frogs.

Most Chef's tables I have done have been in one of the specialty restaurants in a partitioned off section - Royal should think of doing something like that.

Glad you started this thread! We are scheduled to go on the 9-day New England cruise on May 26. I have been researching what to do at the ports, but would love to hear what others have done when they took this cruise. TIA!

Looks like for your Boston stop you will be here during Memorial weekend. Lots of fun things to do here that weekend. You can take a Duck Boat Tour of the City and Charles River, check out the Boston Common and Public Gardens and ride the swan boats and see all the flags planted for memorial weekend on the Common. Plenty of Museums: Science Museum, Children's Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum, Contemporary Art Museum, etc. And Red Sox have home games that weekend but they might be night games but during the day you can take tours of historical Fenway Park. Lots of fun stuff to do in the City I work in.

My stepdaughter saw a commercial on TV that indicated that Royal Caribbean currently has a "friends & family" promotion, where the 3rd & 4th guest sail free? I can't find it on RCCL's website though. I see the 2nd guest sails at 50% off during Christmas sailings (40 offered), but not the other. Anybody have any info on this promotion? Thanks!!

When you go into the find a cruise part of the website and pick your selection, a pop up will show that says the Friends and Family rate will only show if you have more than 2 people in the cabin.

I did a dummy booking to check it out and put 4 people in and the Friends and Family rate appears.

I had a good friend to ask me today "So, why do they call it a port-hole....don't they have them on Starboard too?"

It was funny but I thought, hey that's a good question. Wonder if anyone on CC knows the answer...... I mean did they only start out on port of a ship and then for whatever reason, go to Starboard side too?

 

I'm sure one of our maritime historians can tell us how that came about. ;)

I found this answer on the Naval History and Heritage site:

Sometimes, novice seamen will ask "how comes holes on the starboard side are called portholes instead of starboardholes?" Many old salts are ready with explanations, but actually the name "porthole" has nothing to do with its location. The word originated during the reign of Henry VI of England (1485). It seems the good king insisted on mounting guns too large for his ships and therefore the conventional methods of securing the weapons on the forecastle and aftcastle could not be used.

A French shipbuilder named James Baker was commissioned to solve the problem. And solve it he did by piercing the ship's sides so the cannon could be mounted inside the fore and after castles. Covers, gun ports, were fitted for heavy weather and when the cannon were not in use.

The French word "porte" meaning door, was used to designate the revolutionary invention. "Porte" was Anglicized to "Port" and later corrupted to porthole. Eventually, it came to mean any opening in a ship's side whether for cannon or not.

We purchased LAST NIGHT....E-1, E-2 ANd E-3.....just curious....does anyone know what the earlier sale prices were? We keep reading how the prices steadily increased. (E2 was $1892 for 2people)

 

Our last RC cruise was in 1995......so we are newbies once again!

 

Thank you to all in advance!

We had booked an E-2 for March 2016 on the Freedom and it was $1,744.30 for that cabin for the two of us. Today it is almost $600 more for that same type of cabin. Glad we booked yesterday.

My husband doesn't think the directions are correct on NCL's website to arrive at the cruise terminal in Boston from Western Mass.......MapQuest has different directions, but I am worried about taking these since I would have to guess NCL knows what they are doing.

 

Anyone from the area know the best directions from the MASS Pike?

 

Thanks ahead of time.

Here is the link from Massport's website for the Port of Boston cruise terminal (Black Falcon). They are correct: http://www.massport.com/port-of-boston/cruiseport-boston/directions-to-cruise-terminal/

This was the highlight of our cruise on the Dawn to Bermuda. Menu was outstanding and in doing the chefs table we got to do a tour of the galleys, etc. two days later with a guided tour from one of the chefs. Was well worth the $99 we paid. We went from the restaurant galleys all the way down to where the bakery, butcher and fish guy were on deck 4.