tel2

I think it has value especially for a family with young children. Presumably, you do not go to sleep at the same time your children under 10 YOA do. Having the balcony allows you and your husband some quiet time with a drink or a snack to talk or read and relax without disturbing your sleeping children. It also gives you or your husband a place to retreat while others are getting ready so there aren't all 4 of you in the room at the same time. Also, just so you know, there is a latch on the balcony door so your children cannot get out on the balcony by themselves.

Terry

There is a very wide range of what people think is appropriate. My husband and I in recent years rarely use the concierge for anything -- we tend to make our own excursion, dinner and spa reservations - just find it easier, and we rarely go to shows, etc If we use the concierge at all these days it is usually for priority debarkation at a port.

We do tend to use the butler more - asking for special snacks, having breakfast delivered, asking that a pitcher of cranberry juice be kept full in fridge, occasionally ordering dinner in the suite. ....

Our starting point is 10.00 per day per person for the butler, and 5.00 pp per day for the concierge, and we adjust upwards for more or extra good service (i.e., meals in room, party, etc), and downward for extremely poor service. We have only once in more that 15 suite cruises adjusted downward -- and that was the concierge on the pearl to Alaska, who introduced himself on day 1, failed to return a number of calls during cruise, screwed up the one excursion we asked him to book, screwed up both dinner reservations we asked him to book, told us to "call the hotel manager" when we called to complain about a leak in our room, and then basically stood with his hand out when we were disembarking. He got zippo, and I have never in my life before or since then failed to tip a service provider....

So, by way of example, when we had a small cocktail party (8 people) in our suite, we added 50.00 to the butler's tip. If we have white cloth dinners in our cabin, we adjust upward. if we ask our butler to bring a late night snack to the pool, or even once to us in the casino, we definitely adjust upward.

When on our last Epic cruise, the unlimited internet I purchased kept requiring a "password reset" which had to be done by the internet manager, and the internet desk was never open when it happened, I used the concierge extensively to get the resets done every time it happened, which was like 10 times. She got a big extra tip for that because, instead of having to wait for the desk to open and then go down and stand in line, I simply left her a message that "it happened again" and it would magically get fixed pronto. She got a nice extra tip for that.

Everyone has a different opinion of what is appropriate. Just remember, they are not part of the tip pool so no part of the DSC goes to them.

Although the room steward is part of the DSC, we also tend to tip him extra, depending on how good he/she is, when we are in a suite.

Terry

I almost always stay at Harrahs because I can get good rates, and it is a beautiful hotel. Only downside in the summer is that it doesn't have a pool. And it gets REALLY hot in New Orleans.

Terry

No worries. The U.S. Passport Card can be used to enter the United States from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda at land border crossings or sea ports-of-entry. The passport card cannot be used for international travel by air.

I know it is a matter of principle, and I would certainly keep pressing if I were you, including a letter to top management, but at base, isnt it far less expensive for you to purchase the perks for your mom and add the dinner package than it would have been for you to keep the two suites and retain all the perks?

Terry

Each of the emails should have a booking number. Create a MyNCL account and put in the booking number.

Terry

I was in 16011 in May. What do you want to know? We had no issues. The room steward was great. The butler, for the first half of our trip, was mediocre at best, but he went off on vacation half way thru, and we got Theresa, and she was spectacular. I really believe the two bedroom balconies are all the same.

Terry

I have never encountered such a policy in any hotel that I've stayed in. Nor have I ever had a hotel ask to search my bags (and if they did I'd tell them where to go).

I travel frequently for business, as well are pretty often for pleasure. There are two situations in which I have seen a no liquids policy reiterated and agressively enforced: 1) in casino and other entertainment style hotels that seem to attract alot of 20 somethings, sometimes walking in with ice chests. One AC casino hotel we frequent has security posted at elevator banks on weekends to prevent the transport of ice chests to rooms. I actually get that -- I dont think they are doing it primarily to increase alcohol sales; I think they are doing it to prevent drunken loud parties that disrupt their other guests. I dont think most hotels care much about what responsible mature adults bring in, and in any event, unless you are at a secluded resort, you can pretty much go out and get what you want elsewhere; and 2) in high end spa resorts that prohibit alcohol. But in both cases, you know, or should know, the policy when you book.

Terry

thanks

A friend of mine received her first comp from Resorts AC and I called for her after we sailed and asked what her comp level would be (She tiered up to hot on that sailing) for 2 different cruises, on a 7 day she gets a balcony and a 14 night an inside so she decided on the balcony. I wound up calling the welcome back reward desk for her and ordered her a FCC so she will have an extra $75 OBC attached to that reservation as well as the $75 food/beverage credit applied by the casino. I just received it last night in my email last night so I am booking her in the adjoining cabin to my suite, she's very happy with that news.

What is the Welcome Back reward desk?

The answer was correctly stated the first time.

Just to be clear: We have 4 cabins, two of which are suites. So, each cabin has a separate 50.00 excursion credit for each port. Thus, we have four 50.00 excursion credits for GSC.

The large Cabana is for 8 people, which we have -- 2 in each room. When we called to book, which we ended up not doing yet because we are changing our date, we told the person we were speaking to we wanted to divide the cost between us, have all of us on the reservation, and put 25% of the cost on 4 different credit cards, and they said that was no problem. So, that is what got me thinking that we should ask them if we could each apply our GSC excursion credit.

I will obviously call them, but wondered whether anyone had tried to do this. I read the T&C carefully, and I see absolutely nothing that could possibly be interpreted as not allowing this. The cabana is specifically for 8 people, we are in 4 separate staterooms, and we each want to apply our credit to our share of the excursion cost (I am sure they will come up with some reason why it isn't allowed..... I mostly wanted to figure out what explanation they gave if it had not been allowed.....)

Terry

I know I cannot do this online, but I am wondering whether, if we have 4 cabins and we each have a 50.00 excursion credit, whether if we call to book cabana we can apply our 4 50.00 excursion credits to the cabana rental. Anyone know?

Terry

Deleted - duplicate post. Not sure why it posted twice.....

Following your review. We did the same trip in early May, when, thankfully, it was much cooler. We agree that hostaria romana was fantastic. Another really terrific restaurant, but a bit more expensive, was Roscioli, which we thought was by far the best meal we had in Rome, but I don't know whether they do gluten free or not.

We also rented an apartment - on campo de fiori -- with a terrace, which I wouldn't hesitate to do again. So nice at the end of the day to sit on terrace and watch people in square below while eating or having a glass of wine.

Not sure what else you have planned, but the highlight of our days in Rome -- and also our one really big extravagance -- was doing a night-time golf cart tour. It was like 4 hours and we saw all the monuments lit up. Guide spoke perfect English and it was wonderful.

We also did Bruno's Food Tour, which was a walking tour that stopped at 6 restaurants each for a different course. Also well worth it.

Looking forward to the rest of your review

terry

Is it 16011 by any chance??

We were in 16011 3 weeks ago. What do you want to know?

terry

We were on Epic last month, disembarking in Rome. While we were in no hurry, we were watching folks disembarking from our breakfast table at no later than 7AM.

Terry

I finally got around to calling and getting actual and theo loss: Theo 9633; actual loss 2069. That just includes me - they wouldn't give me my husband's, said he had to call himself. But he is a much more casual gambler and plays way less than I do. He had about 5000 points.

Thanks for info.

 

Does anyone know if I can use both EUROS and USD for gambling in the casino at the tables on a Transatlantic from Europe to US?

No. US dollars only.

Well, of course that's exactly what CruiserBruiser and I are concerned about, but when I booked on the phone I was told the price we'd pay on board was the price they were quoting right then, and the the Shorex rep yesterday said the same thing --- she assured me that the price I will pay on board is the price that it is now, at the time of booking, which she says is set in my reservation. It's disturbing that you were told something else.

 

NCL really needs to deal with this mess.

The reps are not known for their command of the policies and procedures. When I was told that, I said is there anyway to avoid that outcome, and was told that I could pay now, and get OBC refund when I boarded. I just decided it was all too much work, and just hoped for the best. Sicne there was no change in price for my excursion, it all worked out fine.

Terry

I just came back from a med cruise on the Spirit and we handed over our passports at embarkation and got them back a few days before our last stop. I think it is to make going through customs easier at all the ports. I kept a copy of my passport in my purse but I never needed it.

 

I believe they only do that on the cruises that have a stop in Turkey. I was on the Epic a few weeks ago, and they did not take our passports. I kept our passports in the ship safe, but carried color paper and scanned (on my iPhone) copies with me.

You can stay on the ship and be one of the last off if that is what you want to do. That would be some where around 9:30 to 10:30. Why not get off earlier and walk around to see some sights?

Well, for one to sleep in as much as possible. But main reason is I don't want to walk around with my luggage. I can get on the hop off/hop off bus at 9.00am at the earliest. I can't drop my luggage at the hotel until 1pm.

Is Breakfast served the day of disembarkment?

Yes, breakfast is served until I think 9AM on day of disembarkment.

Are you sure you cannot drop luggage at hotel until 1PM? Most hotels I dealt with in Europe will allow you to drop off luggage before check in time and will hold it for you.

Hi everyone

Had this issue a few weeks ago, and was told that they could not confirm the price because the price I would be required to pay was the price in place at the time I paid, not the price in place at the time I reserved. No clue if that is correct or not since price did not change on the excursion I was looking at.

Terry

Hi, hubby & I are taking our first ever cruise, Epic 29th June, I am getting so bamboozled with the excursions really don't know what to do, book ahead or do our own thing? Any suggestions would be very much appreciated please.

Hi. We were on the Epic earlier this month - boarded in Rome. Did not do any ship excursions as we found them ridiculously priced. We used Cant be Missed Tours in Naples (Pompeii, Sorrento, Amalfi Coast) around 69E a person. Highly recommend - it was a comfortable bus, with a great tour guide. We used Barcelona Day Tours in Barcelona, about 59E per person - picked up at port, sightseeing, visit inside Parc Guell, and we had a drop off at Sagrada familiglia since we had afternoon tickets for that but they will take you back to port if you choose. Didn't do tours in Cannes or Marseilles. For Florence, we organized a transport only group from our roll call. Used Share a Shore Excursion. They were terrific.

You might have more luck finding info about discussions if you go to the "ports" boards for the cities you are looking for excursions in. Also, sign up for your roll call as there may be opportunities on that board to share excursions for a fraction of the price NCL is charging.

FYI I gave up trying to figure out how to make an upsell work, and I just called my travel agent and upgraded us to a spa mini-suite cabin instead.

 

If any solo travelers ever take an upsell and then try to add a second passenger, let the rest of us know what that second passenger is charged! The whole situation seemed a bit murky to me.

I would call upsell now, and ask them the price pp to upgrade from mini to haven.

I for one am on permanent disability due to very bad back issues which I actually had a very bad flare up the first day we boarded the gem. Thank god I had a scooter it saved my trip. I have stopped working 3 years ago. lucky for me my husband owns his own business which enables me to stay home. Harriet also doesn't work, phyllis retired a year ago, maria owns her own business, Cathy and Gretchen have successful high powered jobs and enable them to squeeze those trips in. So like I said in my other post I will be the on,y one in AC for 3 days but the other at least that friday I hope you come. Can you try and find me on the other social media site? My name is Geri Cole with a few other last names in the middle lol

 

Talk to you soon

Hi

Found you but it will not allow me to send a friend request, not sure why. Sent you a message thru that site. Was in AC this weekend, got killed, but then stopped at Chester harrahs on way home and hit a royal on ultimate poker .50 with a 2 multiplier so made up losses and was ahead some. Yay!