rhiannon35

We have cruised many times so I really should know this, but I can't remember the answer.

I have $300 TA OBCs for our upcoming cruise on NCL Epic. I want to purchase a soda package for my daughter, but when I go to do so online, it wants my credit card number.

Obviously, I want to use my OBC to pay for the charge.

Will my credit card automatically be charged or is it only charged once we board, allowing me to use my OBC? I'd also like to reserve Cirque seats so am assuming this would work the same way.

I developed a gluten intolerance a few years ago and was also concerned how it would affect our annual cruise. In fact, our first cruise since my becoming GF was the Getaway, and I'm happy to tell you that your husband will not have a problem.

Here's what you do: Day one go to the main dining room and let whoever is at the desk know about your food issues. they will mark your husband's name on the system as having a food allergy. If you are dining in the MDR, after your evening meal go to the desk and tell them you'd like to order tomorrow's meal. Someone will come with the menu, talk to you and take your order for the following day. Your wait person will also help you out if you are concerned about dressings or sauces.

If you are eating at a specialty restaurant, go the night before and speak to the maitre 'd. You will again order your meal for the following night with him or her.

At the buffet, they will also make special food to accommodate your needs. Pizza, toast, sandwiches, etc. Everything is kept separate. Just tell them, they are always very helpful.

Also, just FYI, I had a bad reaction (as in gluten reaction) to the nacho chips on the Getaway. I couldn't figure out what was bothering me, but when I stopped eating the chips, I was fine. Perhaps they are stored or shipped with wheat, but anyway, your husband may want to avoid to be "better safe than sorry."

I know the previous poster told you to contact the access desk, but I don't even bother to do that anymore as everything can be taken care of onboard.

Last but not least -- relax and enjoy the cruise. They are used to dealing with a variety of food issues and are well-versed in what needs to be done!

No I didn't post the dailies, I am trying to find them lol!

Yes, sorry, had the wrong person. The link works, thanks Nittany!

We really liked Paradise Beach. Their pool is huge, and my younger daughter loved that, along with the bungee trampoline. The guy working it got a kick out of sending the kids way high! My older son liked the beach, and we even both got a massage for around $25 -- much cheaper than on the ship! He also appreciated the free wifi in the open-air restaurant.

Paradise Beach is private so you won't get hustled by vendors. The tent where we had our massage was right next to a public beach, and I could see the people there were not able to relax with all the vendors coming up every five seconds.

Cab ride was not long and maybe $15-20 each way for all of us. Can't remember exactly.

I have a great idea for you. First come visit me at the Humane Society Kiosk and visit with me. Then either cab it or walk the 3/4 mile to our kennels and volunteer your time playing and walking our animals. Not sure where my kiosk will be at the port as it is just going back this week after being redone. I am usually next to Senor Frogs to the left when you get off the ship.

I'll be there in March and would love to come and visit your kiosk. Can you post or message me where it is once you know?

Just uploaded mine from the Epic's recent 12/3 sailing.

Owlgirl, the url didn't post correctly. Is there another way you can share them with us? Did you post as part of a review? Thanks!

AH, thank you, that's right! I read her excellent review and totally forgot about the dailies. Hurray! Thanks again!

Does anyone have a somewhat-recent link to Dailies for either of the Epic's 7-night Caribbean itineraries? We are going on the Western itinerary, but I'll take the Eastern if that's all that's available.

someone had posted them recently with a Dropbox link, but when I try to open it now, it says the link has expired. I can't find anything else recent that isn't a Med cruise.

Thanks!

Contact the special needs department and let them know what is going on, that will get the ball rolling.

In my experience, contacting the special needs dept/access desk ahead of time doesn't do much. You still need to go to the MDR and talk to the maitre d' the day you get on the ship, and have them mark your reservation. You can also order the meal for that night at that time -- the rest of the cruise you will order the evening before.

I don't even bother emailing the access desk anymore (not that there's any harm in doing that).

Also, don't be shy to tell them about any requests at the buffet -- if they are able, the staff will be happy to go and get you what you need. ENjoy your cruise!

Sure. The excursion on GSC is catering only to NCL guests. The stingrays are in a pen (at least an acre of ocean floor), and there were only two tour boats at a time - ours was on one side of the pen and there was a second one on the other side of the pen....pretty far away). The groups are smaller than the Cayman one, too, so you have much more time with the rays and much more interaction with them.

 

The one in the Cayman Islands was...chaotic. There were at least a dozen boats all anchored in a fairly tight semi-circle. More boats meant far more people. Between all of the people and all of the rays, I was convinced someone was going to get stung. (No one did that I recall, but it wasn't anywhere near the level of calm GSC was.) There was less interaction with the rays, and the ray that our tour guide had was having a bit of a temper tantrum. I don't think she was used to the tourist thing, or it could be that there was too much activity for her to be comfortable.

 

If I remember, they were priced about the same, but GSC was definitely worth the $70 (I think) we paid for it. I would do that one again, but I would never do the one in the Cayman Islands again.

 

Hope that helps!

This is great info! I'm sailing same itinerary in March and was afraid CI excursion would be crazy.

By any chance, do you know if the stingrays at GSC are de-barbed? I know the ones on Disney's private island are. I'm a bit of a worrier!

I can't speak to your GF's specific dietary needs, but I am a gluten-free vegetarian, and have not had any problems having my needs addressed on our past two NCL cruises.

You can email the ship ahead of time, but I don't even do this anymore. On embarkation day, I go to the MDR and talk to whoever is at the host's station. They then mark me as having special dietary needs. At the end of dinner every night, I order in advance with my server for the next evening's meal.

If we go to a specialty restaurant, we just go and meet with the maitre 'd the evening before and, again, get the menu for the next evening's meal to order from.

They have always been very accommodating, and will make changes to the menu if possible, if you ask.

Great review, thanks for taking the time to post.

Is the White Hot Party outdoors at Spice H2O? In some pics it looks like it's indoors at the nightclub, but it's been outside on our other ncl cruises.

And, did they have an '80s party? That's always a highlight for us!

Thanks!

So glad I found this thread, as I was having the same issues. I live in Canada, but book my cruises in the U.S. and pay U.S. dollars. I don't want the stupid Canadian site, but as of a week or two ago, that's all I can get. And, I have a U.S. vpn, but it still directs me to the Canadian site.

For the record, I emailed NCL about this, and have heard nothing back. RCL, Expedia and some other sites take me to a Cdn. page, but all have the option of clicking somewhere on the home page to see U.S. page and/or listings in U.S. dollars. Not sure why NCL doesn't give this option, but I'd love to find out.

Going to try Hola with the link -- thank you!

nyroadrunner I haven't heard of any other changes. I wondered the same about Million Dollar Quartet. Most posters here said they enjoyed it, but I would have to think the reviews overall were poor for them to get rid of it that quickly.

I just got the email, too. A bit disappointed as I have no desire to see the new show. I wonder why they took Million Dollar Quartet off the lineup so soon?

I wish they would have replaced it with an actual musical theater show, but I'm guessing they might eventually. Someone posted elsewhere that For the Record will be moving to the big theater at some point. Not sure if that's true or not.

I'll weigh in on the spa aspect. I always wait for Port Day specials. You can usually get a package of 4-5 services for the price they typically charge for a one-hour massage. The specials will be listed in the Navigator (schedule of next day's activities) you receive in your room each evening. And, I've never had trouble getting the time slot I want -- I've even called a couple of hours ahead and gotten in.

As for ports, we never do NCL tours. Overpriced. Unless you want to say zipline, you can get a ride to the beach or a tour of the city for much less taking a cab. we've never had a problem with cab drivers, and St thomas and Nassau are two of the best ports as far as integrity of cab drivers.

Prices are per person to most stops, and you can find out how much it costs before you go. I've never been to Tortola so not sure on that.

FYI, if all you want to do is walk through the Atlantis, take a cab on your own. It's a public hotel and you can walk through most spaces on your own. If you want to go on waterslides, etc. then pay the huge $$$ for tour.

So, if I received the Choice SDP with the purchase of my cruise, can I make reservations in advance on the NCL website? I don't see where I can do this on the website, it just gives me an option to purchase an additional package for 3 nights. It's been almost 3 years since we've cruised NCL and wasn't sure if we could make our dinner reservations online before our cruise or not.

Yes, you can make advance reservations, but not until 90 days before your cruise. That's probably why they aren't showing up. Once you are at 90 days, you will see additional options for dining appear. Or you can click on each day's itinerary and add dining that way.

We are leaving in March, and I just finished up making my reservations.

Thanks mjkacmom and Gordonchick. Yes, it makes sense that they would naturally gravitate towards others their age. We have gone on many cruises but my daughter is shy and was never one to go to the clubs herself. (My son was the opposite, but he's 22 and doesn't want to go anywhere with us anymore!)

We brought one of her friends with us on Carnival last year, and let's just say there were some problems with the friend and she and my daughter went separate ways with their own groups of friends after day 2! Live and learn -- I told her it's obvious she can make friends on her own, so that's what she will have to do on this cruise -- or hang with her parents, which should provide some incentive!

For the record, our last cruise was the same way Gordonchick-- the counselor didn't follow any of the scheduled activities and the kids just seemed to do their own things. Opposite experience when my son was younger on Dis cruises. Teen club (and kids' club) were very well structured as far as programming.

Yes - the entourage teen room is 13 to 17. I agree with you that a better split would be 12 to 14 and then 15 to 17. You should also know that they can come and go as they please which I personally think is too young for ages 13-15 on a ship with 4000 passengers and 1000 plus crew. My son is shy of 13 and am glad he will need to contact me to leave splash academy. Good luck! Norwegian has an app that will let you and your daughter keep in touch via text just so you know she can contact you from entourage.

Thanks, DuchessIt. Yes, I know about the app -- we cruised Getaway two years ago, and used it all the time. So glad they have these now. The year before that we cruised Dis and had these giant phones they gave us to communicate that never worked!

We are going on the Escape in March, and I'm interested in finding out more about Entourage. My DD is 13, and from what I can gather, she will be grouped in with 13-17 year olds. Is this correct? Or do they separate younger teens from older teens?

We cruised Carnival Dream last March, and the 12-14 year olds were in a separate club, which I liked. She is a bit shy and has some qualms about being in a club with kids who are 16 or 17.

Interested in any reports from those whose kids have used Entourage, particularly if on the Escape.

I'd be interested in this, too. Doesn'[t seem like there's a heckuva lot to do on the island, so this tour looks like a definite possibility for us.

Was on the Sky this weekend -- and we know that guy. He/they were everywhere we were, including a very small elevator in which the pounding music from his speaker on wheels combined with my group's hangovers would have led to a confrontation had the guy with the rolling speaker not been 6'4 and jacked.

 

That group looked like a traveling rap video. They almost got kicked off the tender to GSC because of the music, lewdness, and slapping of an NCL employee's butt. We passed them on the main drag in Nassau and several shop owners and others in the vicinity were not impressed. On the boat, him and his entourage pretty much took over the pool bar in the evenings. We were a little shocked that NCL allowed him to openly blare music everywhere, and everywhere he went, we avoided, which included the pool bar where he and his entourage set up shop a lot.

 

It was my first cruise out of Miami -- I typically cruise out of Baltimore or New York, and the demographics were completely different from anything I've seen before. There was a little bit of everyone on the boat!

we were on a Carnival cruise earlier this year and there was a group of 20somethings who carried a huge speaker around with them, blaring music wherever they went. Every day they set up shop for the day at the small pool, with their music so loud it overpowered everything except their incessant f-bombs.

I'm no prude, and I love to party -- but come on! I couldn't believe this was allowed. Can you imagine if we all carried about huge speakers blaring our own music? The pool is for everyone, not one group, and the poor ears of any kids in the vicinity.

Of course, the group was otherwise harmless...but this Sky story is a trip.The cruise lines need to start a policy against portable speakes -- and I guess against ladies of the evening -- onboard!

My daugther will be 13 when we cruise Escape next year, and I'm wondering how the Teen Club works. I see it's for 13-17 year olds, but I'm curious as to if they separate younger/older kids and if there is much supervision.

She loved tween club on Carnival Dream this year, but they had separate club for ages 12-14. She's a bit nervous at the thought of being "thrown" in with 16 and 17 year olds, instead of kids closer to her own age.

Can anyone explain how NCL's Fuel works? I assume it's pretty much the same on all ships

I've talked to a number of crew members who don't want any part of opening a new ship. They know how tough it can be behind the scenes. So, you know it will effect service.

 

Just glad Bong likes new openings though. He always has a smile on face. Can't wait to see him in a December.

 

Enjoy the rest of the day. Have a mojito or three!!!

Bong is on the Escape!?!? HURRAY! He made our nights on the Getaway -- I drank more Mojitos than I should because of him. He also treated my daughter like gold even though she is too young to drink. Just LOVE him!!

I corrected this post earlier in the thread. I had my numbers transposed - we were in 14268 not 14286. Again, sorry for all the confusion I caused. :o

Yes, I see that now. That's what I get for reading backwards! Thank you for answering me. I was able to snag an angled balcony for our cruise, thanks to your original tip!