KeithJenner

Taking what NCL have written literally is almost as certain a recipe for confusion and disappointment as asking one of their phone staff a question. i only have part experience of this, as our son (who would be Sapphire) turned 18 last year. He currently has no cruise history showing. When he does go on a cruise, that history has to be there before boarding for it to make any real difference, or at least to avoid having to queue up at the cruise next desk to get benefits added. Having the points added on day one would just cause confusion. Logic, and reported experience, says that the points are added along with the points for the cruise just completed at the end of the cruise, whatever the T&Cs say (and I think they are fairly vague anyway). If they were going to be added in time for the first cruise then it would be easier to set the system up to automatically add them when a latitudes account is set up after they turn 18.

Remember that this is written by NCL, so it will never be as clear as it could be. Whilst they say “on their first cruise” they mean it in the same way as points for that cruise are awarded (ie soon after the cruise ends). At that point all of your cruise history should be added. I don’t know what happens if there are any missing at that point, but as they say they will only look back a year I assume it is tough luck.

I will very often get more than 15 drinks a day on my package, if only because the bar staff only take one card if you are getting two drinks, and it is invariably my card that I hand over. Meanwhile, it would look like my wife hardly ever uses her drinks package.

No idea what’s going on there, but it looks like a great deal. I’m posting to mention that I laughed with your comment that you aren’t complaining. With the internet today you probably did need to point that out. 🙂

There is no way of predicting when excursions will be posted. It can be years out or it can be very close to sailing. As you have seen it can vary from port to port on one cruise. There have been a few posts lately amount European ports with no excursions close to sailing so there seems to be an issue in places. We can’t say for sure is and when they will be listed. I don’t really follow excursions all that closely as we don’t take many, but I don’t recall seeing any ports where they never get listed, or where they aren’t available onboard, but in these times you just never know.

You will want to post in the roll call for the cruise itself, not just in that forum. https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2848768-norwegian-viva-lisbon-to-rome-26-april-2024/ It isn't particularly active, but there are a few people posting there.

NCL use Horizon if they can, but Southampton is a very busy port and as a result they may have to use a different terminal. We have sailed out of or into every terminal in Southampton on NCL, sometimes using different ones on the same cruise (embarking at one and disembarking at another). The Port of Southampton website has a cruise schedule that shows which terminals ships will be at, although that hadn't been updated for 2024 when I last looked, As for the train station, it depends on preference and which terminal. Personally I would walk to some (Horizon, City), but use a taxi for the further ones (QE2). City is walkable, but is a bit of a pain. Most will use taxis. I like to walk where I can.

It is true. They really were sorry.

Calling is very likely to cause more confusion, as people apparently often get told that you can’t book latitudes meals in advance. That is nonsense, you can book whatever meals you want regardless of how they are being paid for. It is quite simple though. Ignore the reasons why if that helps, but just go online and book the meals that you want, making sure that you book any with a fixed charge first.

The only thing that matters is to book any meals at fixed price places (Teppanyaki, Moderno) first. The link in my signature is a bit out of date, but it explains the reason for this.

The value of the meals that people receive from free at sea, or latitudes, is whatever the cost would be to buy an equivalent meal package for the number of meals received. For example, we are getting 6 meals on our next cruise (2 free at sea, 2 latitudes and 2 free at sea plus). The cost of a 6 meal package is £209.16. Whether we would have purchased that many meals otherwise is another consideration. Maybe we would have just purchased 4 meals, in which case you could argue that the value is just the cost of a 4 meal package. The a la carte menu prices are irrelevant for us, as we would never pay that amount for those meals. If all the deals and packages weren’t there so a typical meal would cost nearly $100 per person then we would just eat at the complementary places all week.

Some people have reported things like being escorted off the ship etc, but the general consensus is that this is rare. I have never tried things like that, so couldn’t talk from experience. I’ve generally worked out the way off the ship by that point all by myself. 🙂 Anyway, for us what the latitudes disembarkation means is that you get coloured luggage tags which are one of the first to be available after disembarkation starts (usually just after haven), and you can get off the ship early, before all the other colours are called. It is useful if you need to get off the ship early, and it is usually fairly easy to find your bags as there are less of them than other colour tags. If you don’t want to leave until later then you can do so, your bags will still be waiting for you. You still have to find your way off by yourself though.

As a rule I would imagine that not making final payment will cancel your cruise, but not return your deposit. However, these things depend a lot on where you booked. Your profile suggests that you may have booked in Europe, which means that the majority of experiences that people on here have had may not apply. For example, are deposits refundable for you regardless? They certainly aren’t for us in the UK and I thought that EU terms were similar.

Yes, you still have two meals for two, so you can bring someone else with you. As you state, the restriction is that you can’t split the vouchers to give yourself 4 meals for one.

No, the area where Syds is on other Breakaway or Breakaway plus ships is the Cavern on the Encore.

“Real music” is being played every night in small venues around the world. Unfortunately hardly anyone notices it because the media is telling everyone to look the wrong way.

It isn't charged per day. It is a fixed fee based on the number of days and that includes all the free at sea offers. There is an offer on at the moment, which completes things, but I think these are the usual prices: 3-5 days £149 6-8 days £199 9-11 days £249 12-14 days £299 It carries on increasing like that for longer cruises. The actual costs usually ends up not being far from the gratuities paid in the US.

I don’t have recent first hand experience of being in France during public holidays, but I think your biggest issue would be around transportation as services are likely to be running on reduced levels. Usually Public holiday services are similar to Sundays. Most services should be running but they will likely be a lot less regular (ie services that may run every 30 minutes usually may only be one an hour). It is possible that some less used services may not run at all. Most tourist areas are likely to be open, but may be busier due to locals being off work. Shops are likely to be a bit hit and miss, with those in tourist areas more likely to be open for the same reason as those places are busy, if there is something you specifically want to do then check whether it is open, whether they are holding any special holiday events that may make them particularly busy, and what your transport services are running. Basically, planning is more important. You are much more likely to run into reduced services or bigger crowds, and you don’t want to find that the train that would normally get you back to the ship just in time isn’t running.

Still working fine for me. I just went into a reservation, selected an excursion at random. Price £62 each. When I added it to the basket the total is £105.50. That is a 15% latitudes discount.

You are sorted then. It would take a major issue for there to be any risk of you not getting an 11.50 flight.

As you have seen, excursions are added at various times in the lead up to a cruise, and those times can differ by port. So it is not unusual for there to be some ports with excursions listed and others where they aren’t. However, it does seem strange that none are listed yet at this stage. We are visiting Villefranche (which I assume is the port you are visiting for Nice) in April and excursions have been on there for ages. Similarly, we went to Kusadasi a couple of years ago and excursions there were posted a long time out. I would be surprised (although I suppose it’s possible) that they have all sold out, as I find they tend to add more as tours fill up. So I would say that it is unusual for no tours to have been available at this point. Many would suggest calling to enquire, but you aren’t guaranteed to get a sensible answer (I suspect that many phone reps will just say that they must have sold out without actually doing any checking). It may be worth making that call and taking any answer with a pinch of salt. What would really surprise me would be if you got onboard and still found that nothing was offered, so I think your chances of finding something once onboard are very good.

I’ve just gone back to look at your times. You have plenty of time, and then a bit to spare. If you re due in at 6.30am and you are carrying your bags off then you should easily be off the ship by 7.15. That is loads of time to get to FCO for a 11.50 flight. Most likely when you get to the airport you will be waiting for check in to open. As a comparison we have flights at 12.55 and we have arranged our transfer for 9am. We had similar timings last year when we ended up waiting for ages. Just make sure that you have a transfer booked, and that it is picking you up from the ship. If you are using the shuttle buses, or queueing for a taxi then things could go wrong, but a booked transfer will give you loads of time.

We flew out of Rome last September and got there just under three hours before our flight. Check in and security were very quick and we had about two hours waiting. I know that there can be delays at airports, but I’ve always found Rome to be OK.

NCL is all freestyle, so there are no tables set aside for people to have in a traditional style. The closest that you can do would be to book a restaurant for the same time every night. That wouldn't give you the same table though. I believe that some people have spoken to the staff and requested the same table each night, so that may work. I'm not sure you would get the same staff serving you each time though, if that is what you are after.

This. Even though someone may have free at sea credits doesn't mean that they will be using them for any meal. They could have been planning to pay a la carte and use their credits elsewhere.