si_boy

When I was in Rome at Christmas, taxis were showing as 125 euro for the trip between Rome airport and Civitavecchia port.

Used the offer too this week to pay off some of the balance for a cruise in June. £150 back was a nice bonus, have also used when the offer appeared some months ago.

In the recent past we have seen a fair number of people dressing the part for Gala night when it is roaring 20s, both men and ladies. As well as the flapper dresses, lots of accessories too including ladies headbands, gloves and cigarette holder (no cigarette of course). Amazon sell a 1920s accessories set quite cheaply. Always found less uptake for Masquerade Gala night, usually a few wearing masks though.

Now in view off the Isle of Wight, on cam.

Since the OP has not clarified, we can only speculate. You have missed my point which was the advice of the NCL agent on what would happen after final payment had been made. In the UK of course, which appears to differ from US.

Agree, different arrangements in different locations. Quoting experience in UK which is where I though OP was based.

Not necessarily, NCL agent said at that the time when I called if the price dropped further closer to the departure date and after final payment was made to call again and they would look into OBC and/or cabin upgrade. Of course upgrade would depend on how full the ship was.

I am also in UK, spotted a lower price before final payment was due and telephoned them. We had booked direct with NCL. Very helpful agent who was able to verify the price had dropped and that we would get the new price, without cancellation or losing deposit. Even better we kept the same balcony cabin number. We are on the cruise now! The reduction to us was £1,000 so not insignificant. My advice would be to try calling again.

Onboard Prima now and we were at Ibiza yesterday, beautiful island. A little tip, much cheaper to use the public bus to go into town than the organised shuttle at $20 each return. A few unhappy passengers as we waited for the shuttle and public bus was exactly the same but €6 return each.

Currently on Prima, our first NCL cruise and we are platinum (12 cruises) on Cunard. So the other way round to the question put by the OP. We are both aged early 50s. We sailed on QM2 to the Norwegian fjords in August, so quite recently. Very different experiences, if you sail on Cunard during the holidays and from Southampton there will be younger passengers and a few children. There are some fine public spaces on QM2 and the ship does not close after 10pm although we have seen this on other Cunard ships in low season where we most definitely the youngest of all passengers. The most obvious difference is the lack of choice of restaurants on Cunard, although the food is amazing with different menus every night. The buffet also serves great food and room service is free. Cunard passengers love to dress up and wear their finest especially on Gala nights. Expect 2 Gala nights on a 7 night cruise when about 90% of men will be wearing black tie and tuxedo and ladies their finest dresses. Other nights are less formal, but passengers still dress smart for dinner. The highlight for most is of course the afternoon tea, served in the Queens room by waiters wearing white gloves. We have loved all of our cruises on Cunard but are looking for a bit more, NCL and Celebrity are our now go to cruise lines. I recommend everyone should do a Cunard cruise at least once, especially on QM2. It is very traditional and is a fine cruise ship, but the experience is a bit like comparing apples and pears.

We did it all on our own when on Constellation in June. Took the ships tender to the shore, avoided the queue (and cost) for the cable car and made it to the top walking up the steps. About a 10 minute walk to the bus transportation hub where the buses stop and caught a local bus to Oia for less than €2 each. Takes about 20 minutes each way and stops right in the centre of Oia. Repeated to get back to the ship, including a bottle of water, we did the trip to Oia for less than €10 for the 2 of us.

I have self disembarked several times at 7:15am and it is very quiet once off the ship, most still having breakfast onboard From memory few taxis are waiting around the port at that time so best to book in advance. it is a small airport so won’t take long to reach check in desks, all being well you will be in the departure lounge by 8am. if you are arriving on 23 September, there are 3 other ships also arriving that day so will definitely be busy later on in the morning, but as it is a Saturday you won’t have the commuter traffic to contend with.

Not the case in June, guests in the Solarium pool and hot tubs had drinks from the pool bar.

@GLYNAGP Slightly off topic, on the app there is mention of the service charges, do you pay these upfront so they don’t appear on your onboard account and therefore you have zero balance?

Thank you @GLYNAGP for your helpful explanation. i was starting to go mad thinking we would be paying $$$ extra. All makes sense now, I checked back to original invoice and there is a charge for all at sea, £249 each for 12 nights. Still seems like a good deal.

Thank you @Ken the cruiser confused me at first, but as in UK what we see is different. There is no mention of the gratuities on the perks in the price breakdown that we see. I just did a pretend booking. Hopefully someone in UK can confirm. I can see the service charges payable when I log into the booking and can pay these upfront.

Have read with interest as we will soon be on our first Norwegian cruise and have the Free at Sea pass. I understand all the benefits but can someone confirm you pay 20% gratuity per day (e.g. 20% of the $109 per day). That seems to add up on a 12 night cruise. Using the link above I read the T&Cs and read it is included, so now confused. Also, are service charges additional.

Before bidding on Aqua, check availability, we found lots of Aqua class cabins available on the cruise we were recently on so waited it out. Move up bid minimum dropped by 50% for Aqua nearer to departure.

We did this exact same cruise last month, flew London Heathrow to Bologna and stayed 2 nights before catching the train to Ravenna. We booked the flights ourselves as much cheaper. Cost of the train ticket was 11 Euro each and booked the tickets a few weeks before while still at home. Train takes little over an hour to reach Ravenna from Bologna. Had read up beforehand that it might be an issue getting from Ravenna train station to the ship as transport options limited, so called Celebrity and booked their transfer, met at Ravenna train station by Celebrity staff who guided us to the coach. Very easy and once at the port we were onboard in what must have been 10 minutes. There were several passengers on the train all travelling to get on the same cruise. Cost of transfer was £16 each from memory. Did the exact same thing to get back to Bologna airport to fly home. Celebrity staff again on hand to make sure we got to the station ok. Very organised at Ravenna we thought.

We have self disembarked several times and are usually off the ship and outside the terminal with suitcases and bags by 7:30am. Being among the first passengers off the ship we have even been outside as early as 7:15. I don’t remember seeing too many taxis at the terminal at this time though, recommendation would be book one to be there at 7:30. Railway station is not far.

Last month we sailed on Constellation on a 10 night cruise around the Greek isles. We had booked a verandah cabin and the Move-up bid to Aqua was minimum £600 each. I could see there was a lot of Aqua cabins available and did not bother with a bid. Fast forward a few weeks and availability hadn’t changed much and the minimum move-up bid dropped by 50% to £300 each which we bid and had accepted. We loved taking breakfast at Blu as well as evening dining. The service and food is amazing. Persian Garden was disappointing and we only went in once. Was it worth it, yes for the dining in Blu, was it value for money, probably not. Other than dining at Blu, no other benefits really. The enhanced shower was nice, but unnecessary, did not notice any difference in toiletries. We are glad we did it, but would only do it again if it cost less. On Constellation I guess the question is how much will you pay to dine in Blu every day.

Worked for me, listed all past cruises correctly.

Booked direct with NCL a few months ago for cruise in October 2023, so final payment not yet due. Saw lower price on website and called them up, very friendly advisor who said there would be £35 charge per passenger and that the reprice would need to cover this otherwise could not be done. I knew what the current price was from the website so knew it should be covered. Fully expected some reason why the lower price could not be honoured or that we would have to change cabin, but no, advisor priced our cabin at current prices and was delighted that she was able to help. We were happy with the original price which we thought was reasonable, balcony cabin with all at sea add on so overjoyed that the advisor confirmed the new price will be £1,000 lower! Also advised if price drops after final payment made to call again as upgrade or onboard spend could be discussed.

Only a few days ago while on Constellation we overheard a couple who were also dining in Blu ask if they could invite their friends, who were not Aqua passengers if they could join them for dinner in Blu. It was a firm no, this is not allowed, only Aqua passengers can dine in Blu. They were quite put out to be honest and made the waiter feel quite uncomfortable and suggested they should be able to invite friends as guests to Blu. As mentioned above, the servers and Maitre d’ quickly remember who’s who.

After Move Up bid was accepted for Aqua, dining still showed as MDR and anytime on the app even while on board this week. I was told this is because you can still eat in the MDR and book a time slot if you wanted. We enjoyed all the Aqua benefits without issue, the sea pass card is a lighter blue in colour, so quickly identifies you as an Aqua passenger.