JMHAM1

1 hour ago, krittykat said:

We are also on the Breakaway in Dec..12/12. This is our 2nd reschedule and looks like a go this time. Used our bonus credits to bump to The Haven...which will be a first for us. We are so looking forward to New Orleans and the cruise

We love leaving out of NOLA as we used to live there. I am trying to decide what dates in Nov/Dec will work and hoping they will be sailing by then. We had to cancel our dream cruise due to COVID and have been not so patiently waiting to rebook!

We had a unique situation as we booked two forward penthouses and I guess one of them was assigned to one butler and the other was assigned to another. We saw first hand where a good butler can make a difference. The one the girls brought all sorts of different snacks for them to sample as well as made sure they had plenty of towels and cold drinks when we got back from being out in port. She always made sure the couch was put back into a couch during the day and then put down into a bed at night. The boys butler said he didn't want to "deal with" putting it down and back because he would have to make it back into a bed in a few hours anyway. Their cabin never had enough towels and their snacks were all the same every day. The girls' butler even suggested things she could do like set up an in room "spa" one afternoon. She brought lots of sample products from the spa and filled up the bathtub with bath salts and bubbles then brought in sparkling apple juice in champaigne flutes while they had masks on lounging on the balcony in robes. I would never have thought of that. 

On 12/3/2019 at 1:25 PM, sid_9169 said:

One foot. Two foot. A red foot. A blue foot...

 

And, one extremely crooked foot...

 

Dang how many toes is that? 6? 7? Gross!

I would suggest booking through NCL. We did this but it was me, DH and 6 minor children. The rep was able to put the kids in the adjoining room and everyone got all the amenities because it was booked as an adjoining cabin. IDK if we got it because there were just 2 adults and everyone else was kids but it doesn't hurt to ask.

We have 6 kids and it was a logistical nightmare as we only had 2 adults but needed bigger rooms. I would suggest calling Carnival and getting them to help with your booking. They were able to get us 3 OV rooms side by side, one adjoining and we were able to spread out between the three rooms. They have ways to link bookings together and there are some "secret" rooms that are shaped like a "L" or have a bit of extra room because it goes into a corner or has a bump out. They know about those rooms and can help. I would get adjoining rooms, mini-suite and above or get a suite. The steward made the couch in the room into a toddler bed by turning it around and then we brought an inflatable toddler bed and used it. The inflatable bed came with it's own inflator and carry bag and we just slapped a tag on it like a piece of luggage. When not in use, we left it inflated and just slid it under the bed.

This is my favorite place in the Caribbean bar none! It is relaxing and low key. The food is great and the drinks keep coming. Having a massage on the beach here was the best ever!! Would not hesitate to go there again and again. They even baked a cake for hubby's birthday and I didn't even tell them it was his birthday. What a nice surprise!!

If you had 4 days before your cruise and you went to the doctor, confirmed flu diagnosis and started Tamiflu, you would have been feeling so much better and would have been considered to be not contagious. I'm not sure what I would have done in the same situation. I hope you feel better and can rebook soon.

I didn't realize that they would not credit FCC's back to your account. I had to cancel a trip that I used FCC's on and they showed back up on my NCL account in a couple of days. Of course, I did cancel just prior to final due date. Hopefully your trip insurance pays off quickly.

WOW I'm so impressed someone was able to keep this surprise from you! How exciting!!! I know you may have planning withdrawal on this one. Test out the winging it thing and come back and tell us all about it!

I'm in a different camp. I wish this ridiculous promo would end and not come back. You are paying full price of the beverage package right now. They are rolling it into the cost of the cruise. If you are not a drinker this promo only inflates the cruise price. I wish they would just stop and let the passengers decide if they want to purchase the package instead of baking it into the price.

 

That said, it is brilliant marketing as there are many new cruisers that don't know it is being baked in and drinkers that would buy the package anyway.

 

Once enough people agree with me the promo will go away and they will try something else. Obviously it is successful enough to keep doing it again and again and again.

This may be true to some extent but I monitor a site that keeps track of all cabins and their cost. For the Epic that we are on in November, we got the cabin for the lowest price offered ever and we got the UBP and the SDP. Whenever there is a promo, everyone needs to make sure that the price they paid for a cabin, with or without perks, is a good value for them.

We picked a B6 as well. Bed by the balcony room 11169. I'm hoping that is a good one. I have not been able to find any pics.

We are not in a suite this time but we did get to pick two of the promos. We picked the UBP and the SDP for our upcoming cruise. I think the tips that the OP mentions may be the service charge that is on the bill for those free perks.

For our cruise there was $200.52 on the bill for Choice Promo Service Charge.

I'm thinking if you don't use a perk, then it is just an extra thing that you don't use. My problem would be getting charged for the promo service charge for items that you know you won't use. When we stay in the suites, we don't really use the concierge even though that is a suite perk. The concierge does receive a tip even if we don't use them because I am sure they do some behind the scenes work that we don't know about.

NCL is still all Pepsi products, right?? Wondering if I will need to bring my beloved Coke with me or if I can skip doing that since I have the UBP.

Call a PCC and get them to do it. We are a family of 8 and were struggling getting an adult in each room. On the Spirit, those connecting balconies are designed to extend the occupancy of the adjoining suite. Your PCC should be able to book the two adults in the suite with one kid and have the other two kids in the balcony next door or all three kids in the balcony. The kids will get the suite benefits.

We found though when we had the kids with us that it was rare that they went with us to Cagney's. I think we may have done one breakfast and two lunches with the kids. The kids were just too busy with the kid activities or with friends they met on the ship to waste time with a sit down meal with the old folks. We did enjoy having the priority tendering and priority debarkation and embarkation. I don't think that having the kids there would impact anyone's enjoyment of their suite benefits. People just like to complain!!

Have fun!!

There is not a lot to do in Freeport. We were in the same mind set as you on our last cruise. It was the kids first time and we really wanted to get off the ship and give them the island experience. We booked the Grand Lucyan and really enjoyed it. I am posting some of my pics so you can see for yourself.

We booked online through ShoreExcursioner, paid a small deposit and the rest had to be paid IN CASH at the gate.

If it had just been DH and I we may have gone to Gold's or Gold's point (something like that) for snorkeling. I didn't feel comfortable being responsible for watching 6 kids snorkeling so we did the resort.

There were plenty of fish to see just swimming around in the shallow water. There is also a shopping complex across the street from the resort and a casino next door.

We booked the British Colonial Hilton and LOVED it! It is within walking distance which saved on transportation and we had access to a beach that wasn't crowded, a nice pool with Food & Beverage credits to boot. We booked it online. We paid a deposit then paid the remainder when we arrived at the resort. We would go here again.

See my pics below....

Here is a pic of the menu so you can see how far the F&B credit will go. We had 8 people and found that we had to have more frozen beverages than we had planned to use it all up!

A word about "coverage" for medical from someone who has years in the industry. It is true that typically there is "coverage" for medical care aboard cruise ships or abroad, however, what is not said is that you would need to pay up front, submit the claims to BC/BS or what other insurance company you have and it will be processed as a foreign claim and the payment would be reimbursed to you at the out of network coverage. Keep that in mind. A foreign health care provider or the cruise ship will not bill your insurance company on your behalf.

WELL HELLO THERE! I remember you! So sorry we didn't get to meet last time. I can't imagine there was someone that I missed. That roll call was "Epic"!!! I would so love to meet you this time around if you decided to book. DO IT DO IT DO IT! :D How old is the littlest now? Sakari is...well will be, 8 at the time of our Epic cruise. She has never let me live it down that we went on this ship without her. Every time we are in port by the Epic it's all she talks about. I have a rule to never sail the same ship more than once and I am breaking the rules for her. She is going to get her Epic cruise and I expect to never hear about it again after this! :p I have been hoping and praying the Epic would return back to the US and the minute I heard she is coming back, I've been researching. It's even better that Nov 12th is the hubbys birthday...so why not? :D

I hope you see you on there. :)

**edit** Whoops! I was thinking you were on the Epic with me. But I remember now, you were on the Jewel December cruise right? I'm thinking I met your kids but not you? I'm trying to remember...it's been so many cruises ago...LOL

Yes it was the Jewel. You have a great memory. I saw you once but was too "star struck" to chat. I just booked the Epic for Nov 12th so I WILL talk to you this time!! We are only bringing one kid this time and he will be 6. I'm hoping he will do the kids club because he didn't do it on the Jewel and our last cruise was on Carnival and I think he went for maybe an hour the whole cruise. He will be a bit older this time so I am hoping he will want to go some.

O-M-GEE! I am sitting here trying to decide between the NCL Epic and the NCL Escape for the Week of Nov 12th and I happen to notice that you are sailing the Epic on that week......Last time we sailed with you, I didn't get a chance to say Hi.....I might be leaning more towards the Epic now.

The only thing that was on my mind was thinking we might want to take our whole crew in March 2017 and the Orlando area is within driving distance. For Nov, we are only taking our littlest little.

Decisions, decisions!

How can you tell if the bed is by the balcony or the closet?

Great review so far. We are thinking about booking the Escape. The dining package is part of the perks NCL has going now or you can choose the UDP. I noticed you said you couldn't get reservations at LaCuchina and LeBistro for the week. Did you find it difficult to get any reservations or just certain times? I was thinking we would select the UDP but if we can't get in at LeBistro or others, the UDP might be the better bet.

Let me know! Thanks!

I am planning a cruise on the Escape. Looks like we will be in a balcony on the 11th deck towards the aft. Can anyone tell me if these balconies are covered or non-covered and if there is a view on these cabins down to the water or if the view is of the cover on Deck 10 balconies, lifeboats or something else? Thanks in advance!

It really depends on the kids. We did the buddy system. None of the tweens were allowed to go anywhere alone. They always had to tell us where they would be and we had set "check in" times.

We also had sticky notes and pens in the cabin so we could leave notes. They also did a lot of kids club activities.

That worked well for us. We found that they pretty much liked to hang out around us most of the time.

We had a "contract" that spelled out the rules....like no going into anyone's cabin, no allowing others in our cabin, do not go into any crew only areas, don't leave your drink sitting out, if you walk away from it....just get another......etc. We also spelled out the punishment should they break a rule.

Never had a problem and we were so worried about it our first cruise.

They were making special gluten free pizzas on the Fascination when we were there last month. It wasn't on the menu but someone next to me ordered one. Looked pretty good too.

They had a sugar free option each night. We tried a couple of times and there wasn't anything that I thought was good.

Really funny review! I thought it was just me and something I was doing wrong, but I can never get a good shot of the dinner menus either. You're not the only one. And you're so right about one thing- the only way to eat the wcmc is with two ice creams! :D Thanks for posting. It looks like you and your family had a lot of fun.

GAPEARL read my review and commented! Woot! I'm doing the happy dance now! I have so enjoyed your reviews on here. I even read the ones on ships I know I won't be sailing any time soon. We did have a lot of fun. It is so difficult pleasing everyone on vacation but cruising makes it so much easier.

After brunch we took Cole to Camp Carnival. We walked around some and then hit up the casino. Continuing on as we started, Hubby had no luck and I played forever on $5. Go ME!

OK so the next pic shows something that I typically wouldn't mention but I really thought the public restrooms on the ship were not only clean but nice looking. There was a little garbage can next to the door so you could drop in the paper towel you used to open the door. Nice!

Below is the candy shop on board. I'm not sure if this is a good use of space. I never saw anyone in here.

I still love the ships that have the large central atrium.

After the casino we browsed the photos at the photo gallery. We bought a few that we could not live without and we had some on board credit to burn.

I also stopped at the shop on board and bought my Mom a bracelet as a thank you for taking care of our dog. The last day they had practically everything on sale. Before the trip, my watch broke. I was planning to pick up one during the cruise but hubby surprised me with a new Citizen. We saw a watch identical to the one I got and the price was comparable.

I'm not really one to buy things on board unless I have OBC that I need to spend. I do like to browse. Besides jewelry, alcohol and cigs, I really didn't see much selection. Unless I missed that particular shop completely, there wasn't much. I usually look for a Christmas ornament or maybe a sweatshirt. I didn't see any ornaments and the selection of sweatshirts were not to my liking.

I know people are always asking about the phone rates. I think that the cabin phone is a good option if you must call home IF you keep track of the time. I couldn't get it any cheaper with my cell. This time we purchased the social media package and I didn't have a need to call at all.

On this cruise, hubby and I both got the water and I got the free drink coupon because I'm gold. I really wish you could use the coupon at any bar, any day of the cruise. I didn't use mine because it was hectic on the last evening for me making sure everyone was packed and ready to roll out. I have no idea if these tickets are transferable. Maybe someone else knows and can comment. I would have totally donated mine to a deserving, thirsty soul. I hate having a freebie of anything go to waste. I am guessing this is the reason why there is a time/day restriction on it. Lots of people may not use them for the same reason I didn't.