Lvntrvl

What is your favorite specialty restaurant? We are traveling on the Jade, but weigh in on any NCL ship.

Our scheduled cruise on the Jade from Dubai to Cape Town in December 2021 was cancelled by NCL. ☹️ When we attempted to rebook to the following year, the price had almost tripled in price, so we opted to wait for the 2024 dates to be released. It now looks as if they have repositioned the Jade to the Caribbean in early 2024. Does anyone know if they are planning to resume that itinerary...or has that ship sailed...so to speak.

When I initially made this inquiry in August, I could not have imagined the response to this thread and all that has transpired with Covid.  We reluctantly cancelled prior to final payment, but love this itinerary and hope to complete it someday. Unfortunately, prices for future dates have increased far beyond the 10% FCC that we were offered from a previously cancelled cruise.

I imagine others are facing similar situations.

I can only hope that either (1) NCL offers better pricing for this itinerary in the future, (2) deploys either a larger or an additional ship to this area... as their appears to be significant demand, or (3) another cruise line deploys ships to this area recognizing the interest.

Thank you!

Just curious... We are  currently booked on an aft Baja deck cabin for a transatlantic. If they are utilizing the Aloha aft cabins for quarantine I am not sure how comfortable I would be utilizing our balcony given the close proximity. We upgraded in order to have the larger balcony. 

Does anyone currently on board have a list of the wines available on the Premier package? Are the options different in the main dining room versus the lounges?

Does Princess typically have Black Friday or Cyber Monday Specials? If so, what have they traditionally offered?

Just called to cancel our 12/3/21 Dubai to Cape Town cruise.  Very sad 😪 as this is an amazing itinerary, but I am not willing to risk 18 days at sea given the current port restrictions along the route.  I was hoping to hear something from NCL prior to final payment date of the precursor cruise to Dubai, which did not happen and I am not interested in banking FCC. However, I would like to retain our 10% discount from our previously cancelled South American cruise. Unfortunately, contacting our PCC has again proven futile.  Last time I tried to call her it took a week to respond, so when it went to her voice mail I hung up and immediately contacted the main number.  I was informed that they could not assist me and was transferred back to... you guessed it ... her voice mail. Now I am both sad and frustrated.

I would like to thank everyone here for posting their thoughts and updates.  If she does sail as planned, you should have an amazing time. We will try again in the future.

Interesting. The final payment dates in the US are different from NZ. Our final payment date for Dubai - Cape Town is 10/4.

Final payment for the Athens - Dubai precursor cruise is this week and NCL is still showing these itineraries for sale. I really expected either a cancellation or an updated itinerary by now.

We are still booked, but getting (reluctantly) more convinced each day that she will not sail this itinerary this season.  I looked at changing to the 22/23 season, but most balconies are either sold out or very high priced. We are probably looking at waiting for the 23/24 season. Any idea when that would be released...if at all. 

Steve,

Thank you for the update. We will definitely cancel if those ports are no longer available. We used  a 10% off credit due to a cancellation of a South American cruise originally scheduled for January 2022. If we cancel this cruise, it is my understanding that we can retain that benefit for a period of time. Do you have any updates as to how soon we need to exercise that option. Finding info on the NCL site is like looking for a needle in a haystack and unfortunately our PCC has not been helpful.

Steve,

Thank you for the update. We will definitely cancel if those ports are no longer available. We used  a 10% off credit due to a cancellation of a South American cruise originally scheduled for January 2022. If we cancel this cruise, it is my understanding that we can retain that benefit for a period of time. Do you have any updates as to how soon we need to exercise that option. Finding info on the NCL site is like looking for a needle in a haystack and unfortunately our PCC has not been helpful.

Interesting, because I did trial bookings for the Jade from Piraeus to Dubai and the following segment from Dubai to Cape Town and both had final payment dates of 60 days. 

Thank you for the input. We are watching carefully right now, but my husband (I refer to him as “the pessimist”... he calls himself “the realist”) gives it a 0% chance of happening. I, the eternal optimist am holding out hope at about 20%.  

We are currently scheduled on the Jade from Dubai to Cape Town in December. Given the current situation with Covid and restrictions at several ports,  do you think that the Jade will likely sail to Africa this season? If not, what would you predict for itinerary changes?

8 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

Folks, life is sometimes NOT fair for sure.  We just have to keep a positive outlook and do our best, based on the information we currently have to make good decisions in the future. 

Amen!

Is there a master list of current international port closures and their predicted reopening dates?

Is there a master list somewhere of which international ports are currently closed and when they are predicted to open? 

It seems as if the prices on repositioning cruises, especially transatlantic crossings, have increased considerably.  They used to be an incredible bargain, but have gone mainstream in their daily pricing.  Am I missing something, or do others enjoy sea days as much as I?
Just curious.

I am NOT impressed with the PCC that we currently have. The price appeared to have dropped on our Dubai to Cape Town cruise in December 2021. I took a screen shot of the offer and immediately called her and had to leave a message. When she didn’t call back, I tried to rebook it on the NCL site on my own and got the original price without my 10 percent credit from a previously cancelled cruise. She finally called me back a WEEK later and basically said that offer was no longer available. I thought that booking with NCL directly would be a plus, but not so sure at this point.

Currently booked on the December 3, 2021 sailing from Dubai to Cape Town on the Jade. Any thoughts as to the likelihood of that sailing happening? 

Thank you for your response. 

We are currently booked on the Jade from Dubai to Cape Town in December. Several of the countries that we are scheduled to visit require a negative Covid -19 test “not more than 72 hours prior to travel”. We are fully vaccinated and more than happy to test prior to departing the US, but does this mean that we also will need to retest prior to entering each of those countries before we are allowed to disembark or are we covered by the initial testing?

We just booked a cruise on NCL that visits these 3 ports in December 2021. We are certified divers, but have not dove in several years. Is it worth taking a refresher course and hauling gear to dive or is the snorkeling equally as good?