KeithJenner

I have stayed on deck 8 mini suites a few times (Getaway and Breakaway, but the Escape is the same) and have never heard a sound from the theatre. It certainly moves more up front than mid ship. Most of my trips in these rooms have been in the Caribbean and there was no movement at all in calm seas. I was in a large balcony room on deck 9 (above these ones) on a transatlantic where the seas were quite rough on a couple of days and it really did move a lot. If you get seasick then I would be reluctant about these rooms if you are on an itinerary that can get rough.

Yes, entertainment reservations are only available on the Epic and newer ships.

This is an M6 balcony on the Getaway.

You can bring on as much as you can carry. The bar service issue in Greece appears to have now been resolved if you have the beverage package, although there is no guarantee that it won’t resurface again. It has in the past.

It’s nice to see those pictures. We were booked in a corner mini suite for the Amsterdam to Reykjavik cruise which was cancelled, so I never got to see the balcony. If does look very nice.

I’ve not seen it mentioned for a while, but there have certainly been reports of people with 18-21 year olds that had free at sea soda packages being able to get them upgraded onboard for just the gratuity cost. From memory I think it was usually an upgrade to corks & caps. It’s probably worth enquiring onboard, but this may be something that was at their discretion or that they have stopped doing.

For most of our cruises we have been with our son and for most of them he hasn’t has a drink package. In all that time (about 20 cruises) we have only ever paid for his drinks a couple of times. That isn’t because we sneak around, I always make sure that I present his card when ordering from a new server and point out that he hasn’t got the package. Almost every time they don’t charge for it, and many times I have been told to just use our cards in future. Basically, we haven’t been able to pay for his drinks despite trying. Obviously this is just soda. I suspect they may be more keen to charge if it was an 18-21 year old getting alcohol.

It wasn’t the bartenders being lax, it is NCL policy. There are often signs at the bars on European sailings stating that the age for alcohol to be served is 18. The policy is stated on the NCL website.

This hasn’t changed much since before 2019, so if you had it all working ok then you will be fine.

I don’t think you would have been able to see these times as you already have a booking then. The person you spoke to at NCL should have been able to see something (I would assume), so I can’t explain that, but it may explain why your friends could get a booking when you couldn’t see anything.

It isn’t always a tender port. We have been there twice and docked both times. It is a port where ships may tender if there are multiple ships in port.

People are getting confused with the terminology here. The basic package that you get with free at sea is called the Premium Beverage Package, and is sometimes referred to as the Ultimate Beverage Package (from memory that used to be its name). With that package you are only covered for $15 and pay any extra. The package you bet with free at sea (or can be purchased separately) is the Premium Plus package. When the poster above was saying about paying the extra that was with the Premium package, not premium plus.

Yeah, would be about that. Nice morning walk.

It is an ok walk into town. About a mile and a half. We have walked in rather than queue for the shuttle.

Yes it does. When you book a restaurant (before the cruise) you are charged at the time of booking, unless you have a dining credit which covers it. The amount you are charged is the cover charge for fixed price places or $0 for a la carte places. So, when pre booking do the cover charge places first as you won’t be charged anything because of your dining plan. Then book any others. This is only relevant if you are booking more restaurants than you have dining credits for. This may be because you are buying an additional dining plan (the system only recognises your original plan at this point) or that you have included meals from elsewhere (latitudes platinum for example). The link in my signature, whilst out of date) covers this and this part is still relevant.

The Oia excursion takes you by tender to Thira port where you move to a coach which takes you to Oia. You have about 90 minutes there before going back to Thira town where you are left with a cable car ticket. You can obviously spend time in Thira before heading back to the ship. We did the excursion last time and have it booked again because the morning is much better than queueing up for tenders and the cable car. The excursion is not bad value if you have free at sea (even better with free at sea plus). Some people on our excursion opted to stay in Oia and make their own way back to Thira.

As dining reservations have been available for a while you may find that the most popular times are already taken. Don’t worry about that, as only a proportion (we don’t know the exact proportion as people get told varying guesses by NCL staff) are released for booking prior to the cruise. If you can’t get what you want now then do the bookings as a priority when you board. An option is to book times that will do now and change them to better times once onboard. This will mean that you have those as a back up in case you are late boarding.

Yes, it changed to any restaurant late last year.

It depends on where you are disembarking. I have only ever queued to disembark in the US. I’m Europe, for example, there is usually no immigration so queues. You just walk off when you want and straight out. The main reason we do self disembarkation is so we don’t have to put bags out the night before.

Good point. I hadn’t noticed that it was comedy shows. I think you are correct that these aren’t available to prebook.

I don’t book shows, but I’m sure they open up a lot nearer the cruise date these days. I think it may be 21 days out (same time as check in).

Dining reservations opened at 120 days, which is why you missed them. We have never had a problem getting reservations that we want on embarkation day. We board relatively early though. Ive never had any problem with using the app and booking things on it. There is always the possibility of issues on occasion though. Finally, we always do walk off disembarkation and it has always been very smooth except for in US ports where there are often long delays because of immigration. I always leave longer for the process there, as it can take a while to even get off the ship.

It isn’t unusual for European customers to have US based PCCs. The last few that I have had have been based there. We still book using UK rates though. From what I can tell the system defaults you to a market based on your location, but if you have ever booked using another country then that may change your default booking location, as in your case. If you were to ask to book a European rate then that would possibly change the default for the future.

I think it only states the numbers on the dining confirmation. Maybe if you go online and print booked items it may show it, but if you have the confirmation then you are covered anyway. You will be the only person named. The system doesn’t know who the other people are. You could turn up with anyone,

Possibly cancelled, possibly just a website error. Certainly not fully booked.