perkydebrajean

On 4/24/2024 at 9:30 AM, Irish clare said:

i have now been lucky enough to sail on the Apex / Edge and the Beyond and am on the Ascent in a few weeks 

I have had the combination of single infinity balcony room / porthole room and will have an internal room on the Ascent - i also travel solo

Unless i win the lottery i will never be in a position to have a suite room but i can assure you that the Edge class ships are amazing for all passengers ... while  we do not have the extra restaurants or access to the retreat but the rest of the ship is so beautiful, the staff so helpful and the Martins very very tasty 🙂 

 

 What did you think of the porthole room? We are looking at booking the Ascent next year and are considering the port hole room since I wake up before the others and would like to sit on the balcony and read.

Make sure you get your luggage and take it with you to the bus. We just did a cruise with them in March, and I had booked the ships transfer from the port to the airport. The guy at guest services told me not to worry about my luggage after going through customs and that the ship would take it out to the bus for us. The morning of departure I went to guest services to double check what he said. Once again, he said for me not to get my suitcase, that they would do it for us. Nope! We got outside and checked in with the bus transfer and they told us that the ship does not bring your luggage out and that we should have gotten it ourselves. But since we were already outside, we were not allowed back in to get it. We had to stand there for almost 3 hours waiting for our luggage to finally be brought out after the entire ship was cleared and it was x-rayed and physically searched since it was considered abandoned. Then we had to catch a cab to the airport. Luckily our flights weren't until 5pm. Expensive mistake since between the ships transfer and the cab it costs us $100.

I remember seeing Kate Spade purses in one of the shops but don't remember an entire shop dedicated. 

We did 11 night Southern Caribbean in 1 bedroom haven on the Pearl in December 2014.  Entire cruise (including prepaid gratuities) ran us $5,500 for the both of us.  Priced a similar cruise a couple of years ago, same time frame on same class of ship but was only a 10 night Southern Caribbean.  Same room was running just shy of $12,000 for two. 

I think they jacked the prices up once they started with all of the "free at sea" perks. 

Frank did get a bonus increase. I guess this might be where it came from!

We made it fine the middle of June the one time we stopped there. 

9 hours ago, Saab4444 said:

What is the benefit of doing this?

I did it when my daughter and I did our first cruise. Knew we'd be doing spa treatments, specialty dining, drinks and some shopping. Our final bill came out to $17.24 which was a lot better than getting the huge credit card bill at the end of the cruise.  At least for me it was. 

We stayed there last summer and enjoyed the view. Had a room on an upper floor facing the port. I'm a Hilton Honors member and was able to go in and choose my room location when I checked in online. We ate at the outside bar and the food was fine for us. I was out on my balcony at 5am watching the cruise ships come into port. 

In regards to driving directions, I got on google maps before we ever left our house and researched how to get there and where the turn for the hotel was so that I would have an idea once we got into the area. 

Water tax stop is right outside the hotel. Wish we had gotten to the hotel a lot earlier in the day so that we could have taken it down to Margaritaville also, but we did ride it round trip the other direction. The views were great and the guide on the taxi was very informative. 

Have a great cruise!

We've got ebags brand and love them. Have several different sizes and two different colors. I put husbands in one color and mine in the other. I also roll our clothes before putting them in and I can fit a lot more in them than I thought I'd be able to. Just take them out of the suitcase and put them in the drawers or on the shelf. 

We're from the Atlanta area and I brought Coke's for one of our gifts since they are headquartered here. It went over pretty good with the recipient. Guess I can't do that anymore!

12/2014   11 Day Southern Caribbean on the Pearl out of Miami

$5500 for 2 people in a 1 bedroom Haven suite (that included gratuities and dining package for 11 nights)

Do away with all of the "free at sea" perks that have been going on for years now and drop prices back to reasonable.  

We sailed an 11 night Southern Caribbean in a one bedroom Haven suite on the Pearl in 2014 for a total of $5,500.  That was before they started offering the "free at sea" perks.  Since then that cruise now (or one just about like it) runs just shy of $12,000 for 2 people.  Guess they have to make up for those "free" perks that they are giving away. 

We just stayed at the Hilton Marina in July and had a tower room facing the port. Our room was spotless and all of the hotel from what we could see was. And there was even a huge Florida Supercon Convention going on with huge parties at the hotel and it was still extremely clean. We plan on staying there again next cruise. We did the water taxi and loved it. Just wish we had gotten into town earlier in the day so that we had time to ride it down to the Hollywood area.

We stayed at the Hilton Ft Lauderdale Marina a couple of months ago before our cruise. Had a room facing the port and woke up at 5am so that I could sit out on the balcony and watch our ship arrive. Great view and will more than likely stay there again next year.

For the money, I would rather saiil on Regents, Seabourn or Crystal. They serve premiuom wine and spirits and the food will destroy anything you have ever eaten on NCL. The haven restaurant might be good but last time I checked, Thomas Kellar wasn't advising on NCL's menus.

 

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Not a wine drinker, and husband doesn't drink at all. We enjoy the casual atmosphere on NCL. We're easy to please when it comes to food. And not to be nitpicky or anything but it's "Keller".

It took me years to convince my husband to go on a cruise. I booked a haven room on the Pearl because I figured if I started him out in a suite then my chances of getting him to go again would be higher than if I started him in an inside room. And he also isn't big on crowds and we keep different sleep schedules, so having a separate bedroom and living room worked out great for us. We did an 11 day Southern Caribbean for $5500 total for 2 people. That was before they started offering all the "Free at Sea" promos. Since they've started throwing those in, the price for almost an identical cruise now is costing just shy of $12,000 for 2 people. They've priced us out of the Haven for right now. We enjoyed the Haven but cringe at the costs now.

Nothing on my last two cruises, but in my first cruise I was going to bring duct tape but forgot to put it in my suitcase. Flew into NYC for our cruise. Took a taxi to our hotel and noticed a foot long crack down the back of my suitcase, compliments of the airline's. Had to find a store in the Times Square area that sold duct tape to fix it with.

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We had about that much on a cruise. We used it for 3 or 4 excursions, several photos, and a few presents from the gift shop for my daughter, grandson, and a couple of things for ourselves. My daughter and I used some on a spa visit.

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We weren't able to get into Cagney's one night, so we had the butler bring Cagney's to us. We had the dining plan, so that covered the cost of it. We will probably do the same a couple of times on our next cruise. Enjoy your suite!

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On our last cruise our Concierge said that she had several people that would make reservations for more than one specialty on the same night because they weren't sure where they wanted to eat that night. Then they'd cancel the one they didn't want that evening.

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We liked the haven on the Pearl and Gem. Haven't been on the bigger ships and probably won't. We enjoyed the fact that there aren't very many haven cabins, so the courtyard was empty most of the time. Was nice having the hot tub right outside our cabin door and rarely was anyone in it.

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No dedicated restaurant for meals like the bigger ships. You use Moderno for suite breakfast and lunches, but no dinners.

The haven has a sundeck located above the courtyard.

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We had Elvina on the Pearl a couple of years ago. She was great! She stopped by our suite in the haven the first evening to check on us. When I told her my husbands suitcase hadn't been delivered yet, she took down the description and it appeared shortly after. She went around to all of the tables at breakfast and checked on everyone. Seems like she was all over the ship because we were constantly seeing her. We're hoping she'll still be on the Gem next year when we sail.

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We recently booked with NCL and noticed they added their insurance on without us asking for it. Can I call and have them remove it? Last time we booked through a TA and then found our own insurance.

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We cruised in an OS on deck 9 and the only time we really felt motion was our last sea day coming back from Nassau to NYC and had 12 to 18 foot swells for a few hours. Our Captain said it was common in the Cape Hatteras area.

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