cruiser2015

On 3/24/2024 at 9:03 AM, JandC_Cruising said:

NCL will accept reservations for their posted excursions as soon as you see them available on your cruise planner.

You can even pay for the excursions before you have made final payment on the cruise.

We have done that many times when there were excursions that were a "must-do" in our plans.

If there are excursions you want to take, and you see them available, book them ASAP.  Even Haven guests do not get priority for excursions.  They will fill up.

 

There is no "even pay before final".

Excursions must be paid for at time of booking.

2 hours ago, UKstages said:

 

you just said you leave it on the table as you explore the buffet!

 

what happens if you see hash browns or cookies?

 

nobody will ever believe it without that all important photo!

Forget the phone.

Time to head for the sick bay - report of delusional behavior.

🤪

27 minutes ago, schmoopie17 said:

Mrs. Schmoopie decided to make hash browns today. Eat your hearts out…while I eat real hash browns.

Not fair!!

Unless she's gonna make them for EVERYONE reading this post!!!

1 minute ago, d9704011 said:

Worth less than what?

Less than a Euro on a one-to-one basis.

That is fixed by offering additional dollars, if accepted.

2 hours ago, Mr.Dude said:

Thanks for the feedback! Do you have any recommendations for tour operators for Pearl Harbor that are not with NCL? 

It's been a few years, so I'm a bit short on specifics.

I just peeked at some names and Viator came up. A well known name around the world. I also recall Roberts from when we were there. Not sure which I used; we did a tour to Pearl which made a couple of spots and then took us on the ferry to the Arizona; then some free time for lunch & whatever; finally, back on the bus to the Missouri; then a few city highlights on the way back to the hotel; so, pretty much all day.

If you're interested in the Polynesian Cultural Center, I booked directly on their website. Prices were all cheaper than the tour companies. They offered a few different packages. We did an all day that went to the far side of the island and then along the north shore to the center. All included for the day (except lunch) plus their buffet dinner and the night time show (I think the show is a must see). NCL's tour leaves in the afternoon - no show.

Good luck & enjoy!

On 3/23/2024 at 4:34 PM, Mr.Dude said:

Question on pre cruise Pearl Harbor tour with NCL - looks like it always occurs on a Friday. 

 

Has anyone done this recently? We leave in May and want to break off the tour to go to see Arizona memorial? What time does the tour actually arrive at PH and when is the best time to break off tour to go see Arizona? Need to get tix separately.

 

Any other advice appreciated. 

Advice - aside from not picking up a 6 year old thread (there are plenty more recent ones regarding POA pre-cruise tours) - don't use the NCL tour.

Book your own tour through a local tour company and it can include the Arizona - with priority access. On your own will require a reservation that may prove difficult to get.

I arrived 4 days before the cruise and booked a couple of full day tours.

I just checked NCL tours - they show post cruise tours.

I am only aware of the Cruise Tour option pre-cruise for a few days. This does not include the Arizona on their Pearl Harbor stop.

You lose a bit of convenience by doing it on your own, but you have many choices of hotel (instead of one) and can schedule the tours you like - for a lot less money. 

1 hour ago, marktwothousand said:

I dunno why NCL has to get clearance from my agent. Maybe because this involves money and it goes thru the agent?

 

anyway good news is my

agent has already heard back from NCL and my voucher is being applied as an overpayment which will be refunded in cash

Sounds familiar.

NCL was happy to apply the military discount to my cruise, shortly after final payment (which is technically too late) as long as my TA requested it.

Perhaps because it reduced their commission.

1 hour ago, cwn said:

When we were in Miami, you could not enter the port terminal building until after the disembarking passengers had left. That was some before 10. They had the door locked for a few minutes after we arrived at about 9:30…we sat on a cement bench waiting. They opened the main doors before check in started. We then waited in the entrance hall until they  started letting people go though the actual check in process. Bottom line is you need a place to wait from arrival ant 4am until probably 9:30 because the port terminal will not be open to boarding passenagers.

 

Would suggest two things…1. you get something to eat at the airport and wait there for a while before taking a taxi to the port. The airport was about 45 minutes away as I remember.

 

Or 2. Taxi to a nice hotel near the port area…there are several. Wait in their lobby, have nice breakfast then taxi to the port.

Make that travel time about 20 minutes without heavy traffic.

6 hours ago, david_sobe said:

I suppose hash browns and cookies are out of the question.

Fer sure!

On 3/22/2024 at 3:20 PM, dltvermont said:

We are booked on the Escape in April 2025 so quite a wait. I was wondering when it would be safe to start researching things on board, entertainment, excursions etc. I dont want to start now and have everything change before the cruise!

As to entertainment, I would not give that much thought for now. First of all, the shows that will be there, will be there. Knowing early on might be something to simply be curious about - unless they are so important to you that you would cancel the cruise for lack of interest. Second, there are, typically, only 2 shows that you can make advance reservations for (in the main theater). That will be at 120 days pre-sail; or 125/130 for certain cabins or latitude levels.

As to excursions, the actual ones available will show up from a couple of months before to a year before - and not all at once.

For research purposes, use the explore tab on the NCL site to search excursions by port . Not all of these may be offered for your cruise, but many will and will give you a feel for what will likely be offered.

11 hours ago, johnkylie said:

We are booked on an Ncl prima cruise in July 2025 leaving from Southampton.  Can anyone advise whether we can add a cruise tour from London to our cruise? We were planning to arrive a few days early before the cruise anyway.

 

 

NCL appears to have a 4 day 3 night cruise tour in London.

Contact your TA (if used) or an NCL PCC to get more info and pricing for your departure date.

On 9/17/2022 at 8:08 PM, ChiefMateJRK said:

Thanks.  We use Hyatt points and the Hyatt Place is normally our preference.  Sometimes they don't honor points at all locations, so it was looking like the Hyatt Regency for our planned-but-now-aborted October POA itinerary.  We'll just have to see what's what when we again try to finalize a HI itinerary.  I'm committed to planning nothing firm until I have days/weeks of reports of the POA issues being "solved."

Great hotel.

Great location.

Stayed 4 days pre-cruise several years ago. It was undergoing a full renovation at that time. 

5 hours ago, soaringfalcon said:

We used the transport to the airport, checked our bags with the airline, and then went sightseeing from there 

Careful with this option - some airlines have a maximum amount of time that you can check bags pre flight. I've had 4 hour limits in the past.

49 minutes ago, hallux said:

They need to be on the WiFi but they certainly don't need to have paid for an internet plan to have iMessage, unless they want to send pictures.

Don't you have to purchase internet in order to get wifi access?

11 hours ago, MoCruiseFan said:

 

Just as with any other port it only takes  few minutes to get off of the ship.  Get in line at yoru assigned time and you will be off in a matter of minutes.

Now if you are asjking WHAT TIME are you off of the sip, that depends on the debarkation time you select.

That's if everything goes off on schedule.

The ship could arrive late to the port.

Or, as I experience just a few weeks ago in Miami, they actually called my group 45 minutes early; got on the line and shortly after it stopped moving - there was a hold up in the customs area.

Result - despite early call, we were off much later than expected and we missed our flight from MIA.

Bottom line - no guarantees on any times.

On 3/13/2024 at 2:07 PM, BeachBum92 said:

Hello, sorry if already answered, I did not search in hopes to get the most up to date information without bothering those so kind to do live cruise updates.

Is there now texting available within the NCL app that allows you to text like on airplanes now? 
and was there any cost to you to utilize it?

Thank you.

Also, note that if al involved users have iphones, and are registered on the ship for internet use (therefore on the ship's wifi) , you can text between phones without paying that $10 per phone.

7 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Good to know. Thanks! But since it makes no sense to pay the full $250 per CNC, we will still ask to only be charged the $125 and opt out of the OBC being posted to our account. But if that option is not allowed the next time we buy CNCs, we will definitely verify that is in fact the case.

They are double-talking you about OBC.

There is no requirement to ask them to apply that OBC to your CN's - it happens automatically.

On 3/8/2024 at 4:51 PM, MoCruiseFan said:

 

The names explain it all.  Cruise FIRST  is for your FIRST crusie.  Cuise NEXT is for subsequent cruises.

Cruise next is for a next (or future, not necessarily the very next) cruise as you purchase it while onboard and you cannot use it immediately.

Cruise First - well, does not have to be one's actual First cruise, now does it? Also, it does not have to be your very next cruise as you may be taking a cruise within the next 120 days of the purchase, making the CF not usable until at least the SECOND next cruise.

Just sayin'.

52 minutes ago, Anoynmous Phoenix said:

@cruiser2015

 

This thread is about NCL Free Airfare NOT NCL.

 

I would not consider using NCL FREE AIRFARE.   We are very happy with the rest of what NCL offers.

Sorry for that confusion.

I fully realized what this thread was about - but I took your comments at what was written, with no mention of the air context.

Thanks for clearing up the small mystery.

On 3/7/2024 at 2:34 PM, CSK71 said:

I was curious if this cruise line has TVS with access to the HDMI, I wanted to bring a game console to play some shows or movies.

If you really must play on it, how about connecting to a laptop.

Smaller, but so much simpler.

On 3/5/2024 at 4:50 PM, Anoynmous Phoenix said:

@Cmikel

 

We have cruised a great deal but have never used NCL as we are not certain if we could as we live in New Zealand.   BUT we have read so many negative comments/threads and talked to so many negative people on cruises who have that we wouldn't even consider it.

I have seen you post on this board many times.

So, after reading this one, you've made me curious.

If you are so negative on NCL, and, would never even consider sailing with them, why are you spending so much time here?

Just wondering...

43 minutes ago, EngrJones said:

If you're still confused, it's not because of this thread.  At least three different people have given the exact same answer.  I doubt we can make it any more clear.

Okay, I'll give it a try anyway.

You buy the 2 certificates, face value $250, for $250 each.

NCL immediately credits your ship's account for half that amount, or $125 each, $250 for two.

Your only concern to get the maximum value is to spend at least $250 during the cruise.

You may spend it on whatever you like.

But the key here is that even if you spent not another dime, the $250 credit will go against the $500 you paid for the certs. In other words, you already used that OBC up to cover 1/2 of the cost of those certs.

If you spend more for excursions drinks, whatever, you will owe more for those at the end of the cruise for those additional items.

Bottom line - you get the certs. at 1/2 price instantly on your account.

By them calling it "OBC" is a distraction - it makes you think you need to use it up when in reality it is already used.

18 hours ago, dmwnc1959 said:

I’m booked on Norwegian Jade, so 👍 the historic old locks. I’ve been watching cruise ships go through the Panama Canal on the canal live cams for a quite some time (probably going back +15 years), and there was actually a recent transit of the Norwegian Bliss last November when it cleared Bridge of the Americas Northbound by 130am and was well into the Colcoli Locks by 230a. This was all apparently due to tide restrictions. Talk about an early morning rise, otherwise they would have missed half the canal transit. 😳

 

Our pre-transit port day is Colon, so I’m definitely doing one of the canal tours from there. I’ve read a detailed blog of the small ferry transit and talk about a long day! I’m sure it’s worth it ($200 per person) but some folks have complained that 5 hours on the ferry was more than they could handle. I think a lot of others have opted for the scenic train crossing and IMAX/observation deck tours. 

We crossed in the daylight. If she transited at the time of that one you observed, the passengers would have freaked out.

So, on our cruise we ported near Panama City on the Pacific side; no stop in Colon. My decision was to do the ferry of the train (I love trains). Chose the ferry and it delivered what I had hoped for - that up-close view of the old locks. We went through the first two sets of locks. No idea what the one from the Atlantic side does.

As I recall, the whole tour was 7 hours. About $200 full price. A short bus ride to the boat, several hours onboard and about 1 hour bus ride back to the Bliss.

I had no issue with the duration. We were sitting on bridge chairs. I was on the upper of 2 decks. They offered free water & soda throughout the whole trip. There was a buffet (served) lunch - chicken, rice, some veggies, apples; maybe another item or 2. Nothing great, but it filled the empty tummy.

Easy to roam about the decks to grab views & photos. I'd say it was a lot more revealing than simply riding the rail and looking down at the ships passing through.

Not just a long day, but the meet time on the ship was 5:15 AM. Yikes! It was moved up from the original time scheduled by about an hour.

I think there were 5 bus loads (a full ferry's worth). They opened the buffet super early so getting breakfast was not an issue.

Yes - it's intended for carry-ons.

But even those can be of moderate size, so it's convenient to drop them off for a couple of hours.

17 minutes ago, dmwnc1959 said:

 

One thing I do plan on doing the first couple of days (which are sea days) on the ship is to walk around a LOT, especially around the Promenade Deck and up on the Sun Deck (Deck 14 forward) to get a feel for the ship. I know when we transit the canal it’s going to be a very long day, so the shelter and shade provided by the Promenade Deck will come in handy. I think one of the most interesting parts of the transit will be when we are in the locks - seeing the mules up close, waiving to the canal lock crew, getting up close and personal with the lock walls, watching the opening and closing of the lock gates, and just taking it all in. I’ve done small boat transits of river navigation locks and found that to be incredibly fascinating, so the Panama Canal will no doubt be amazing! 

I take it that you are on a smaller ship going through the old locks (no mules on the new ones).

We were on the Bliss in January, through the new locks - northbound. There was plenty of time for breakfast prior to hitting anything critically scenic, though schedules may vary.

As previously posted on this thread, on the port day for Panama, they opened the buffet super early for the early tour folks (I was on it) where we took a small ferry half way through the canal.

Now THAT was up close and personal to those locks! Great experience.