love2bonboard

The possibility to pre-book tables in the MDR is rather new, it started some time last year (I don't remember when). Were you on the Epic recently? If it is a problem with pre-booking, then you can for sure make reservations while on board - just talk to the Maitre D.

It has been 3 years since I was on the Epic and I couldn't make reservations back then. On the last NCL cruise, last year, I was talking to a few people who said they were able to get reservations. I went to talk to the MD and he said it was to late to pre-book tables; honestly, he was kind of rude so I just went on my way. That is why I asked in this forum to see how I do it, the person who I booked my next cruise with said they don't offer pre-booking, but I think she just didn't know. I will just wait until 90 days before my cruise and call NCL directly as the previous person mentioned above. Again, not really a big deal...I just like getting to know my waiter, I think it adds a little something fun about going out to dinner.

If you want a table at a set time in the MDR every evening, you certainly may do so. Just talk to the MD when on board (or just pre-book it online through MyNCL before the cruise, that is usually possible to do when it is less than 90 days until your cruise). And if you would like a certain waiter every night, then you just request to be seated in his/her section of the restaurant...

ok, that is what I was wondering. I couldn't do it on the Epic so I wasn't sure if it was on all ships. I will keep an eye out 90 days or just call NCL customer service. I looked earlier today and didn't see any option in MyNCL, but hopefully it is just too early.

I sure miss the old days when you were assigned a table and waiter for your dinner every night. I understand why a lot of people like the flexibility of not having a schedule while on vacation, but I like having the same table, same time, and the same waiter every night. Does anybody know if it is possible to get a reservation like in the old days?

I like it and you are likely correct. Although my money is still on an announcement regarding the kid's franchise that will replace Nick in 2016.

Just an attempt an humor (I actually don't mind the fee for upgraded services), but seriously a cruise to Australian would be amazing!

I like the first evening...

right after you unpack and put everything away in your cabin, the crowds start thinning out and you get to go for the first dinner and show knowing your entire vacation is just starting.

also, sleeping in without 3 dogs waking you up every morning at 5:30 (okay, I will miss them terribly)

Lastly, food and alcohol everywhere and I don't have to prepare or clean anything!

I know what it is...absolutely positive...

NCL freestyle is changing to....

NCL feestyle :D

Thanks for all the post, appreciate the replies. I was actually only talking about bridge tours, not the behind the scenes tour. I had been on a couple of NCL cruise critic roll calls and both times we got a special invitation in our cabin from the captain inviting us to a private bridge tour. They even catered it with snacks and champagne. It was absolutely fantastic. The second time, the captain spent a great deal of time with us letting us take our time talking to the officers and showing us all the controls. The captain went into full details of how he keeps the ship sailing so smoothly and how he pulls in/out of ports. I am guessing though, that since there apparently is no bridge viewing room on the breakaway, there probably won't be one on the Escape. Oh well, it was sure fun when I had the opportunity on prior cruises.

The Star is an older ship, but we liked it. The only part I really did not like was the stadium style deck layout by the pool. I felt like I was a dolphin swimming in the water with a crowd of people waiting for me to do a trick. Also, the Jacuzzis were only luke warm during the entire cruise (may have just been a electrical/maintenance problem during my sailing). The pool area, as a whole, was just crowded with the chair design and the slides. Everything else was just as normal on NCL. No issues that I recall, but I really think 1/2 of the cruise experience depends on your own attitude. With that being said, I do try and only book with newer ships. I sailed on the Epic and just fell in love with the modern cabins, the dueling piano bars, and the edgy/modern bar and store fronts. I am booked on the Escape next year and cannot wait. Have fun on the Star, she is older but a nice ship.

I guess I have been on the right ship at the right time. I have done the bridge tour with the roll call group and assumed the roll call leader arranged it. I am hoping the captain of the Escape will allow it. I will cross my fingers and ask the cruise director at the meet and greet. Thanks for your responses. I sure hope we can do it, it is such a great experience.

Has anyone sailing on Getaway or Breakaway been offered a bridge tour with their roll call group? If so, how can I set it up? I am starting a roll call and want to try and get all the fun things arranged!

Sooooo, does anyone know what would happen if we purposely missed the ship in STT and met up with it the next day in Tortola? We'd have our passports and credit cards with a few things with us "just in case we missed the ship". I'd only do this if they screw with the time on STT on the May 29 cruise. It would be fairly easy to do:cool::

 

Good grief. I guess you can't post a direct link to a certain website here to look at the ferry schedule so try this:

 

V I now dot com and click on ferry schedule in top right corner.

You can actually get pre-approved for "disembarking" in STT and then "embarking" in Tortola. We had to do this on a Scandinavia/Russia cruise as the military would not let my husband go into Russian Waters. It was a little bit of a hassle, but we got off, I think, in Helsinki and took a ferry over to Tallin, Estonia. We spent the night in Estonia and waited for the ship to come in after it had gone to St. Petersburg. While I would have loved to see St. Petersburg, it ended up being fabulous staying all that extra time in Estonia. It may, however, be easier for you just to "miss" the ship. We just wanted to make sure they knew what we were doing and that we were coming back; plus we didn't want to know that we were holding up the ship just in case they were calling our name out/looking for us. The ship security manager met us the morning we arrived in Helsinki and checked us out of our account and walked us off, then she met us back in Estonia and checked us back in. It was fairly easy. Also, the other good thing about doing it this way is that if a lot of people request this it should let them know that people are not happy with the shorter time in STT. Good luck.

Well, I didn't cancel mainly because I have other family members going on the cruise. I did, however, change my cabin from an aft balcony to an inside cabin. Not a big hardship for us as we like inside cabins, but had booked an aft balcony before we knew family was going on the cruise (figured if it was just the two of us we would spend a lot of time out on the balcony). Anyway, when I got the email about the service charge increase I decided to keep some of my money and give less to NCL. Now, it doesn't really do anything to NCL's bottom line as they will definitely fill that aft balcony, but it does make me feel a little better about my own response to NCL constant nickel and diming especially after a booking. I have gone on about 20 cruises and have always loved them, but I really wish they would just increase the cost of the cruise price and stop trying to find ways to squeeze a little more out of you, it is just a bad way to do business. We used to sail with Princess but since auto gratuity came to be ,well, quite honestly, the service just went to crap. NCL is still maintaining good service, so I will still stay with them, but honestly we cruise a lot less now...just get tired of the nickel/dime stuff plus the food isn't as good as it used to be. My biggest complaint about this increase is that it just makes people angry about the auto-gratuity. I'm sure there will be a lot of people who just get frustrated and not tip at all. Again, there is no easy solution other then to raise cruise prices and pay employees a decent salary. That will probably never happen. Or, raise cruise prices, pay a decent salary, remove auto-tip and go back to people paying for great service (I know I miss those days). I really used to enjoy giving them their little white envelopes...I do think service was better back then. Anyway, just my opinion, I'm sure someone will have a snarky response (one of the reasons I cut back on here, as well). I do agree with the other poster...cruising is still a very economical way of traveling and absolutely nothing beats going to bed while being rocked by the ocean.

You sound like me! I have 5 Martiros. Many Tarkay, Medvedev, Krasnyansky, LeKinff, Max, Hatchett, Ledan etc,etc. I don't regret any purchase I've made and have personally met several of these artists. Everyone has their own opinion on the art auctions. I attend them all and have had nothing but good experiences. I hope to buy a Godard on the Ruby next month. After I booked and paid for the Ruby I got invited to meet Max and Tarkay in Michigan. Very tempted to cancel/change dates of the cruise.....but we are sailing withnon-artsy people. LOL.

You will not regret buying a Godard! We have quite a large collection of his including a special request gold and silver drawing he made for us that I absolutely love. I'm not sure if he is doing special request anymore, but the piece is brilliant.

I cannot believe this thread is still alive :D...I guess that is proof that there are still a lot of us that love these auctions and Princess has the best.

Yes, all of the art we have purchased has gone up in value, actually by quite a bit. We have Godard originals, Behrens, Daniel Wall, Bill Mack, and a Nekita. We have no desire to sell them whatsoever as we get great enjoyment at looking at all of them. We have been extremely happy with Princess art auctions and the customer service we received from them. As a matter of fact, we are going to Alaska in May and really thinking about adding to our collection.

You may want to perhaps rethink this itinerary choice. You state you do not like "bus tours anyway"??? I question why you are, then, going all the way to Denali Park?? You have no plans to enter it, and are still investing a great deal of time in transit to get there?? This definately is NOT an intense scenic transit, and for me, pretty boring on a stright run.

 

Frankly, I would suggest you may want to consider spending your time in Seward?? 2 overnights there offer plenty of variety and plenty to do without big amounts of time in transit. The transit is also more scenic. With the train option here, a big bonus in scenery.

 

With your current plans in the Denali direction, compares to going to Disneyland, and not even getting through Main Street of the attraction, more like not getting out of the parking lot. Is it worth the overall??? As a seasoned Denali repeater visitor- not for me.

 

Only point of these comments is to bring about the best touring for you, with perhaps other ideas that may not have been looked at initially?

We are going into Denali Park. We have two excursions that we want to do, just not the Princess one. We are younger and somewhat athletic so we are opting for the rafting and the hike. We are going w/ family members who are not able to walk very well...they are signed up for the entire package (train and bus tour). Our family members want us to take the train w/ them, but we just don't want to spend the money. While I would not book an excursion on a bus; I don't think I care if we are on a bus for transportation purposes (although 8 hours is long). I think we decided to skip the train upgrade.

Are you on one of the "do it yourself" bookings? And not a "cruisetour"? There is available rafting of the Knik Glacier area, Matanuska etc. that could be a better use of time, perhaps, rather than going back and forth to Denali Park, with no interest of getting into it?

 

The train Denali to Whittier is 10 hours, the above information is not correct.

 

The bus is less than 8 hours with stops. These are available, both to you??

 

Both these transits, have mostly the same scenery, since they run parallel, most of the time.

 

IF you want to save money, then take the bus.

We are signed up for the Princess Denali on your own. So, we get the transportation included...we just get a bus vs. the express train and we don't get the afternoon tour of the park (don't really like bus tours anyway). So, we would end up paying $300.00 for both of us to add the train/tour package. I was wondering if the train and bus had the same scenery...so, thanks for the info. I think we will stick with the bus and spend the $300.00 on a excursion. I do like trains, but to change the reservation is a huge hassle as we have booked restricted Air tickets w/ Princess and it is really difficult to change the tickets over to a "new" booking w/o them wanting to charge a huge fee from the airlines.

Thanks for the post/info. The train does sound nice, but I am hoping to save the $300.00 and take the bus. Is there anyone out there who has done the 8 hour bus ride? Is there plenty of restroom stops? Sightseeing?

We are booked for the land/sea tour w/ Princess. For an additional $150.00pp we can get the express train from Denali to the cruise ship in Whittier and a tour in Denali. We don't want the tour in Denali (would rather do the rafting); but we are not sure if we want to do the 8.5 hour bus ride to the cruise ship. Has anyone done the bus ride? Should we pay the $150.00pp to take the express train?

In short, what is the benefit of owning Carnival shares when you sail on Princess?

 

Carnival provides qualified shareholders sailing with Princess with an On-Board Credit (OBC) of varying amounts in addition to the regular cash dividends paid to all shareholders. The amounts are subject to change, but as of July 1, 2009, they are as follows:

 

 

Great summary, however, they stopped paying dividends to the shareholders.

I was on that sailing and had a nice time, too. One note...while most people do not need to get a visa for Russia, please take note for any of you who are active duty military...YOU NEED A VISA. Trust me on this. My husband found out 2 weeks before the cruise that the "blanket" visa which covers cruise passengers does not include DOD employees and has a set of regulations regardless of Princess or Russian rules. My husband was denied clearance (he was not even allowed to stay on the ship as the ship was in Russian waters). We had to disembark in Helsinki and re-embark in Tallinn. Every customer service representative from Princess will tell you that you don't need one, but the DOD has there own regulations. So, you active military cruisers...get your visa! Just a side note...we had room R745 and it was horrible...squeak, squeak, squeak from the chairs above at 1:00am (when the crew stacked them) and then again at 5:30am when they put them out again. So, that is the other tip...don't sleep under the deck w/ the chairs. Otherwise, a great cruise. Just a note...the staff and crew were all just amazing. It was the best group of personnel we have ever had on a cruise ship.

We bought a Dali lithograph on Island Princess in 2004. At the time there was a lifetime buy back guarantee on fine art. We paid about 3300 USD at the time. Now with money getting tight we are thinking of returning it and using th money for another Princess cruise.

Has anyone returned a piece under the guarantee?

Thanks.

Matt

I thought the buyback guarantee was for piece valued at over 20,000 usd. I will be on a cruise next month and I can ask about it. You might try the online art auctions though.

What we have done is keep a binder of all of the art we have collected. It includes a photo and any receipts for each piece of art. I also update it from time to time (when I can find them) prices off of the internet. The binder has grown to two and keeps expanding. I showed it to my insurance broker and he said it was exactly the right proof to have in case of a claim.

 

Remember not to keep your records at home. The most likely reason for a claim is a fire and it doesn't help if the binder burns up too! I keep mine at work.

I scanned my receipts and took digital photos and then I emailed them to myself and kept it in my "in" box in a subfolder "misc". That way, I have a record of them and can pull them up wherever I am. I also keep a 10 page "home Inventory" as well.

I answered trivia questions several years ago on Carnival and won my choice of 3 out

of serveral prints. Paid 8.00 for shipping and handling for each. They came in wonderful

mailing tubes......really good ones, probably worth the 8.00. I had one framed, actually

an odd piece with two masked people during Carnivale in Venice. Everyone who visits

comments on that one picture.

My brother is fortunate enough to have two Behrens originals.....large paintings done on

vacation on the east coast of the US....vastly different from most of his works.

I'd be shocked to see any of his originals for sale on a cruise ship, but prints, lithographs

and giclees, yes. The chances of realizing a profit from any of them is slim to none,

but the joy of looking at them, and the memories of where you obtained them.....priceless.

We just bought an original Behrens. We met with Mr. Behrens (very charming man)...he even gave us a beautiful book of his works (valued at $100.00) since we bought his painting. We bought the Isles of Capri #3. I can't wait to hang it up (we are moving back to the USA in August and will wait to hang it when we get into our new home). We also bought an original Godard (LOVE HIM). When I started this post, it wasn't really meant to be a post on using the art as an investment, but that is the direction it has taken. I just classify it as an investment so I make sure I have it insured properly and so I can note the $ somewhere in our budget sheets. But no, I have no plans on selling any of them. Thanks for your comments...I enjoy reading about what other people bought.:D

I bought three Tarkay's on my last NCL cruise along with another Tomasz Rut which is my favorite.

My First Rut Giglee I bought for $1875 I beleive several years ago, is now appraised at $5700. At least for replacement purposes.

On this last NCL cruise I spent about 5K on pieces I think. I like Park West and have had good luck with them, for a while NCL had someone else and they STUNK.

I have not cruised Princess in years now, but do have one coming up next year.

For sake of investment purposes and insurance, did you have to get them appraised? I raised my home insurance when I spent a sum of $ on my new art, but I'm still not quite sure if I need to get them appraised (since the value goes up yearly). Any advice?

We have always enjoyed the Princess art auctions, at least when they are run by someone who doesn't act like a Manhattan three card monte dealer. We've never spent big bucks and only buy what we like, not as investments. I find your posts interesting in part because we don't care at all for Godard and his dancing olives, but Behrens is our favorite living artist. My place of work has always had five Behrens prints scattered around it, but I never knew who the artist was until seeing one of his lovely hand-embellished prints on Princess that we bought for our house (thinking how familar the style and subjects looked--now where had I seen something like that before?) It may not be an appreciating asset, but we don't care--it's a great reminder of a Lake Como area vacation.

 

Les

FYI, Mr. Behrens was on the ship and he spent a great deal of time with us. Very charming man, as was his wife.