Markanddonna

I totally understand your position but if you look at different scenarios, it is WILDLY different. Our 19 night panama canal cruise in April had lot of availability one day AFTER the final payment was due. Then, NCL slashed the prices quickly filling up the ship. It is now about 50 days away and only Haven like cabins are available. Anyone who had booked was offered a free upgrade ONLY if you called, so there are lots of folks out there unaware that this policy was happening.

I had a friend traveling with us who wanted to look into a paid upgrade after his snowbirding in FL. If he had waited, he would have called to find no cabins available, but I contacted him and he pounced on the free offer and got a nice upgrade- midship balcony assigned.

I have never seen anything as wild with deep discounts plus the UDP or UBP offered on top. If I waited until 4 days after the payment was due, I could have had a cheaper fare plus UDP but if I waited 6 days, I'd be totally out of luck.

Here's what I learned: check the fares every day and get on your roll call for the sailing you want. That is where we found out about the great offer.

Thank you for a sensible answer. I think we decided that the exclusive non stop van service was likely the way to go for four adults. $79 total

No, we are not like the Real Housewives of __________ with 4 suitcases each. I meant 4 large suitcases in all with a backpack or small bag also for each person= 4 large suitcases plus 4 small bags. This would be out of Hobby in Texas.

Thanks for catching my mistake.

We have 4 adults who need a taxi or shuttle from an airport and we would each have 4 large suitcases and a carryon bag. I am looking at supershuttle and it is confusing

shared ride van service: $33 each passenger, so $132 for four passengers

execucar Sedan Meet and Greet $70 for all four passengers.

I called the shuttle service direct and the customer service person's response didn't give me any assurance of her knowledge since she had to look everything up like I had just done.

My question: will an ExecuCar Sedan for a max of four passengers be able to handle 4 pieces of large luggage plus the 4 carryons?

They have an ExecuCar SUV Meet and Greet for $85. Maybe that is safer?

Last spring, we took a TA to Copenhagen. The weather going across was surprisingly warm and quite nice (late April) and many used the pool area all day. The weather in England, Sweden and Copenhagen was lovely and sunny (early May), which I think is not typical, but it did happen! Maybe 65-70 F. Another's experience weeks before or after could have been horrible, so no guarantees.

The temps inside were just fine and very comfortable.

We arrive for a day in SF on Sunday, May 3 and want to go to Alcatraz as early as possible. We can disembark at 8 AM. When would you recommend the earliest "safe" time would be to book tickets? 9:10? 9:30? Thanks!

The pier to Alcatraz appears to be just a 5-10 minute walk from our pier.

I wish I had known about them earlier. We had an inferior experience with shuttleexpress going to the port (not horrible, just long and more $) and then booked Seattle express before we departed on the cruise so they would pick us up on the return. Great experience.

I think so much depends on your life and how involved you are in your community and helping out with the grandkids. Being away from those responsibilities isn't easy for some of us.

Also, those who have to fly to any port have that added expense so I can't see doing anything less than 8-10 days.

This winter is getting to me so I think next winter will see us in FL on some type of cruise. I'm not a beach person, but this snow has to go away!

Besides those thoughts, I mostly enjoy Transatlantics and then visiting places in Europe at the beginning or end. We do a TA every other year. The time and planning is huge since we are independent sorts.

You said you had a guarantee but gave your cabin number so your cabin has been assigned.

Google the cabin on cruise critic to see if anyone has made comments or left photos. You may keep checking with NCL to see if the price in the category you really want has been reduced. We were given a free upgrade right after the final payment but this is probably not typical unless there are a lot of cabins above you still waiting.

The only time I see passports as an issue is concerning filling out all your forms online. I did that once when I had a guarantee and got the room assignment the moment I clicked "done". They require you to enter the passports, so that is the only involvement in passports.

I'm on a 19 night cruise and the price came crashing down a few days after the final payment was due. A CC person alerted the roll call and we called and got a nice upgrade for no extra cost, as did most of the roll call. One person who booked through an agent couldn't get them to move fast enough and lost out. I'd be fuming, having had that experience with an agent in the past.

I am beginning to think that folks who spend most of their time in the Caribbean are likely to get bored eventually unless they are the type who have leathery skin from laying in the sun for hours and hours.

The Caribbean and the Bahamas are lovely but the islands all start looking the same with minor variations that to be honest, aren't all that interesting to me. I think looking into an all inclusive resort might be a great idea compared to cruising for many. We prefer to vary our experiences: TA's to Europe, Alaska, the Panama Canal, etc.

For "simple life" and any who are locked into those high price school holidays: retirement is absolutely wonderful as you can enjoy some of the best times of the year at the lowest prices. We went on an 8 night Carnival cruise (our first- not great, but not that bad either) for $199 pp, have gone on TA's both east and west bound for $725-950 pp (cabins were anything between an obstructed view to a balcony) and a 19 night Panama Canal cruise $1,149 for a balcony- all scheduled during the time of year teachers can't get off. Few children, although the ones on board were just fine.

Hotels are cheaper, flights, etc.

Of all the cruise types, I prefer TAs so that we can do some exploring inland. These vacations require a lot of research and aren't a last minute type of deal for us.

Hi,

I was on the Star to CPH last May and stayed in an Obstructed View Cabin. It was just fine for us although we decided to have the beds separated as we couldn't get to the one side of the bed without crawling over the bed. It has no real sitting area but was just fine for us. We had ours on the cabin crawl and others were impressed with it- all the other features were very nice.

One issue about the obstructed view cabins: the crew is often seen outside on the platforms walking right next to the windows. Most just walked by but one made a disgusting effort to look in and get a good view. I don't know what he wanted to see but he was embarrassed what I saw HIM doing (not just staring). So, if you get the obstructed view, keep you curtains closed when you want privacy.

None have ever been edited and they are LONG and detailed with mostly objective comments and quantified opinions.

"Niggles" is my new favorite word. Maybe when I have an issue or complaint and use that term, I will get better results. It sounds so...English!

Thanks, Robbie!

I'd be more concerned about pickpockets than being at risk from ISIS infiltrators in Europe. I'd have no hesitancy in going to Europe. Dress in dark colors as much as possible and blend in. Don't stick out like a naïve American tourist with white sneakers, t-shirts with your sports team's logo and your camera at ready around your neck.

I agree with others that there is always an element of danger in travel. We were in London about twenty years ago with our teenage daughters and the Tube was evacuated twice while we were on it because of bomb threats. The lovely Londoners saw we were Americans and escorted us to show us how to get to the next station that was running.

While that was a bit tense, it makes a good story after the fact. The scariest thing I saw in Europe was the nudist park in Munich. I had no idea that we would stumble upon that. Taught me to do my homework!

We are also newly retired and enjoy an active lifestyle, but not hand gliding and such. Retired folks tend to go on longer cruises when families tend to be busy (read their kids at school). Every cruise I've been on has some folks on walkers and wheelchairs. I think the last TA I was on had more YOUNGER people in wheelchairs than older people. Some were recuperating from surgery and others were just too heavy to move about easily.

You will find a very active and physically fit group of retirees on TA's and longer cruises. There are a few cruiselines that tend to be preferred by a much older crowd but even those ships can be very diverse on certain sailings.

I've never been on a cruise where the elderly population was skewed.

pcur gave some good advice. For many reasons, you don't want to stick out and look like an American. Color choice is a huge issue to me in Europe. I wear black, grey, some tan and some white with just a dash of color in a scarf. No print tops, etc. That is how most European women your age dress. They are very sophisticated and hard to copy. No athletic shoes! Find a very comfortable pair of shoes that can handle those cobblestones.

While I don't think I will ever look "European" in some countries because of my fair coloring, I do manage to fit in well in England, France, Germany and Scandinavia. The only T-shirt and athletic shoes I would bring are for workouts onboard the ship.

BTW- I was amazed at how think most Europeans are. I thought I would find chubby grandmas in Poland, but they were quite sophisticated in their dress and very thin.

I believe this bag is best suited for day trips in a city, not the beach. There are museums and places that don't allow backpacks but do allow something this small which is more like a medium size purse. Personally, I love mine for that type of travel. I can fit my wallet, camera, glasses, cell phone and kindle in it. A beach towel? Not so much. I have an assigned place for all the important things and feel it is very secure against pickpockets.

My recent booking on an NCL cruise this spring made me see that the vigilant often win. We got word on our roll call that the prices fell two days after the final payment was due and they crashed. The poster mentioned that they were offering free upgrades if you called and asked. Long story short, we did and went from outside to a balcony. However, if we had been a last minute booker, we could have had that balcony for $300 less than we paid for the OV AND received the dining option that allowed us to eat for 19 nights in a specialty restaurant onboard. We are happy with the upgrade and never saw anything like this before on any previous sailing. The ship is now almost fully booked with just a few insides available and a few suites/penthouses still for sale. Anyone want an owner's penthouse for $16K pp?

I did give my friend the advice about not wearing the robe outside of the cabin. I've seen them in the buffet area. Egads.

Third party insurance will provide more and better coverage than the ship will offer. Like others said, go to insuremytrip dot com and look at your options. One thing: if you have an existing medical problem, be sure to purchase it within the first two weeks after booking the cruise. Look for advice on the insurance board on cruise critic.

Also, you can cancel a cruise that you have already purchased third party insurance for and rebook another cruise and have the policy assigned to the new booking. I did that with a fall transatlantic and transferred it to a spring TA.

My experience with the last two direct NCL bookings is that they automatically assume you want insurance and include it. I've had to take the initiative to get it removed.

I posted here for two reasons:

- I saw two videos on balcony rooms and didn't see robes in the closet. They were in the mini-suites, though. So, despite NCL saying they were I wanted to confirm.

- I was showing off for friends who are newbie cruisers about how fast Cruise Critic folks answer questions. I told them "I bet we get a reply before you leave." and I had a reply within just a few minutes. Thanks for your reliability. Cruise critic members are great!

BTW- NCL says robes are in balconies so I would have no hesitation asking the steward for them. It would be like soap, pillows, ice buckets, etc. I'm a low demand person, so a minor request like this isn't a big deal.

Are there bathrobes in the balcony cabins on the NCL Jewel?

If you do cancel and hope to rebook, be sure to log on twice daily to see what is going on. We had a friend sailing with us who is out of town and never checks but was hoping to upgrade to a balcony when he returned in March. We called him immediately to let him know about the dramatic price decrease and he got a nice balcony for the same price as his obstructed view cabin. If he had waited, he would have found that there are no balconies, minisuites or even oceanviews left. So, keep current!