Queen of Oakville

That makes sense, I was looking at two cabins but had not put in our ages yet, well, exxcept for mine, and saw that I had a senior discount, and then had a mini meltdown 😂. We are not soda drinkers. on X and Royal, the kid use their drink packages for smoothies, and coffee drinks. DH prefers the water package or non-aclohol package. He's happy drinking water all week. I'm the alkie in the family. Does NCL force both adults int he cabin to get the drinks package?

Thanks all. Still haven't worked out our trip details yet. I didn't even think about parkign at the port. While we have sailed out of newark before, I barely recall the port. We'll have a rental car so not to worried. An option might be to return the return and have them shuttle us, like we would do at Port Canaveral. thanks for the link to trinity

The amount quoted to me was 871 or 891 - there are four of us. There is no way we would consume 891 in drink costs (yeah,I know it can add up) let alone spend 891 in gratuities.

I priced out the Gem sailing from boston and it was not cheap. Have to admit I got a bit of sticker shock. Especially the gratuities on the beverage plan. I tihnk when we've had beverage plans before the gratuities were not as high . I tihnk the beverages were comped at $1,400 and the beverage gratuities were charged at 891. We're not huge drinkers and would never spend that much. I think I read somewhere that you could pass on the "free" beverage plan. That might make sense for us to pay as we go. I have two teens - 18 and 17, so we are either looking at two cabins or a suite. I'm not clear on Haven - I think that is just a larger suite, is that correct? when my kids were younger, they loved HAL and Celebrity. but they also loved our recent cruises Oasis and Symphony. I was trying to avoid a flight to Florida, so I figured if we could drive to Boston or NJ - it made sense and we have never been to Bermuda. lots to think about ~ thank you to all who responded.

I think we've sailed every major cruiseline except Norwegian! What should I expect to be different compared to Royal/Celebrity. Food, Entertainment, Service - compared to other lines. Is there anything I should know about booking my a cruise with NCL?

Following are the celebrity ships still mostly non-smoking? I hope that hasn't changed, especially the casino. has the entertainment gotten better or same?

I'm with you Poncho ... thinking of doing a tester cruise. Our last cruise was November 2019. The kids really miss it and we all really need a holiday. Through covid ,I swore we would never get back on a ship again!

This is my first visit back to these boards in about 5 years!! thinking of getting back to cruising, after 2020, never thought I'd cruise again, ... and here we are 🙂 sad to read all the indecision because we previously loved Royal and Celebrity. .. but I have to ask, what is infinite verandah?

I made it to page 6 before finding a post from 2010, so figured it was safe to post this question! Thinking of driving from Ontario to NJ rather than flying. Any recommendations for a hotel near the port with free parking while we cruise? Any hotels that shuttle or would we have to uber to the cruise port?