Chris_2448

Correct, as long as they cancelled and not you.

9 hours ago, Heather1972 said:

So let me get this straight, if I use my Bonus FCC ( I have both 50% and 25% from 2 separate cruises) that it just brings down the cruise fare. If NCL cancels the cruise I used the bonus FCC on, I will lose that and it won't be put back into my account because it didn't go in as a payment, just a reduction in price? 

Correct. But in theory, if they cancel again they would probably offer the same type of deal so you would get a 25% bonus back as part of the new deal (no guarantees they will do that though). You also have a unique situation where you have two different bonus's. Have you already booked a new cruise? I would be curious if they will allow you to use both on one booking.  

The first 100% FCC goes as a payment. The extra 20/50% goes in against the Cruise Fare (lowering the price of the cruise) so no, you would not get an extra 25/50 FCC if they cancel again. 

I used mine yesterday. In the morning before my FCC was applied the cruise I was looking at was $3649PP. After they credited my FCC and I went back in to book, that same booking was $2919 (20% less). I needed to add both Latitudes numbers before the $2919 showed up for both people. Also, the extra 25% FCC comes off the price of the room, not as a payment. After I booked the PP price dropped to $2136 PP. The 100% FCC shows as payments.

Must have been a clitch as they are showing up now. May 17th through August.

Can we see our FCC on our account on NCL.com or is that only visible to NCL?  If yes, where can we see it?

Thanks,

Chris

2 minutes ago, jmin346 said:

Thank you. 

I'm booked on the 4/13 Bliss cruise which I'm expecting NCL will cancel. I'm going to wait until the last minute (48 hours) to cancel to allow them to cancel first to get the max FCC as possible.

My question is how do they determine FCC? I currently have $521 in prepaid items. If they cancel, will that be refunded to me or included in the FCC? If not, I'll call and cancel those items. If there included in the FCC, I wouldn't mind getting the extra FCC especially if they give 125% FCC.

Thanks in advance.

Chris 

She is currently anchored off of Staten Island

I think the jack up in prices on Monday is because they know they will be canceling cruises. The POA cancelation offered a 150% FCC, if other's follow suit, they need to cover the 50% extra FCC. And as JamieLogical states above, also to stop people from canceling just to rebook at a lower price. I believe by EOD today, we will here announcements about cancellations from the rest of the industry. 

Code Red - Outbreak of norovirus or illness. It means the ship must undergo deep cleaning and sick passengers should stay in their rooms. Code Green and Code Yellow indicate less severe problems.

Thanks for the info. I was inquiring about the Bliss ( I guess I should have included that in my original post). 

1. I'm sure it varies but typically what time does the Vibe close? 

2. How is access controlled? Do you swipe your card to get in?

3. Is the only entrance the main entrance or if there a another entrance for the Haven quest who also have Vibe passes. I only ask this because I know the areas are right next to each other. 

Thanks,

Chris

Does anyone know what time the Vibe closes at night? 

You need to look under each day of the itinerary. 

Your Kids probably won't enjoy the full effect of the Haven. The outside Haven area is restricted to 18 and older. They will probably spend most of their free time in other parts of the ship. That said, if you decide to bid I would go for the H4 so you  will be in the Haven proper. We did the Escape Haven last cruise and loved it. The amount of your bid is all depending and what you feel the value of such upgrade is and availabilty. We were upgraded to H5 at $1050 PP and upgraded early in the process (3 weeks out). I probably would have gotten it at a cheaper price but I really wanted it so I went a little on the high side. Good Luck!!

What ship? 

Do the ships dock at Great Stirrup Cay or do they utilize tenders?

23 minutes ago, kkoenig89 said:

It is strange to me that other than the Haven, pricing for the 4/12 cruise is the same or a little higher than on the 4/5 one. That said, we'll be on the 4/5 cruise because it's my spring break as a teacher.

After my initial post I realized the same thing. It's only the Haven that is priced lower for the 4/12 cruise. $800 PP difference for an H5. That's too much of a savings to pass up so we booked the 4/12 cruise. It appears both cruises will be somewhat impacted by school vacations so we will take our chance. I typically don't let to many things bother me when I'm cruising so we will be fine.

We are planning a cruise out of NY on the Bliss to Florida/Bahamas early April 2020 (Easter is 4/12 and Passover is 4/8-16). The two cruises we are looking at are 4/5 through 4/12 or 4/12 through 4/19. We need to do one of these 2 cruises due to construction being done on our house.

We prefer not sailing with a ton of kids and we realize this is prime time for this but like I said we are limited to these two weeks. Do you think that one week to the other would have a substantially different number of children sailing? If so, could that be part of the price difference? 

We are looking to book the Haven and right now there is a pretty big price difference in the two weeks. $1600 lower for 2 people on the 4/12 cruise. The pricing for the week of 4/12 is an anomaly when the previous sailings prices are considered. I realize I'm asking you to take a guess at the mind of NCL, but can anyone speculate as to why there is such a dramatic price difference? One would think the Easter week cruise would be priced higher, not substantially lower. 

Thanks for all input. 

11 hours ago, tennislvr8 said:

Anthem is one of my favorite ships, the port being less than a 2 hours drive makes it even better. 

I have sailed her in multiple times all in cold winter months. You are correct the first day to day and a half and last day will be cold but she is built for cold weather. There is an indoor pool and lots of indoor activities. You won't be disappointed. Parking is a breeze there is a parking garage a 2 mile walk from the check in building. You drop your luggage off with the porters, go park and walk right into the building. Anthem is free food is sufficient.  The reataursnts are Johnny rockets, wonderland, imuzumi, chops and jaime's Italian. I LOVE the lamb chops at Jamie's and will always pay to go there. Wonderland is an experience everyone should try, just once.

There are three different drink packages, a soda only package. I think they still have that. A refreshment package soda, coffee, tea, bottled water and the alcohol package. They range I  price from 8.99, 25 and 56 per day if purchased before sailing....my prices may be slightly off but in same ball park.

There is a specific teen hangout spot, not too familiar with it though. There are bumper cars (sign up at iPads as soon as you board the ship) and other things all on the same deck. The ifly and northstar will be available about 60 days prior to sailing. If all booked once again book on ship as soon as you get on, sometimes they open more times.

Hope this helps

2 mile walk? It's more like 1/8 of a mile.

Weather in Bermuda was very nice. About 70 degrees.

This was part of my longer review from my 5/12 Escape Sailing to Bermuda I just posted. I though it deserved it's own thread as I know the Vibe passes are a popular discussion.

19^th deck bar: I found this little hidden Gem. Never crowded when I went and ended going there a few times to catch up on the PGA. This is the bar which is right to the right before you enter the Vibe. The Vibe Bartenders service this bar. I got to speaking to one of the Vibe’s bartenders, her name was Febry. Great personality. She gave me a tour of the Vibe and told me to comeback tomorrow and she would let me spend the day there. I did not however because we were in Bermuda and spent most of the day off the ship. She did mention to me that they have not sold out of the Vibe passes since they raised the prices (I think about a month and ½ ago).

I paid for the SPA. Well worth it. It was a little more expensive buying it on the ship (I think $20 more PP) but I had no choice. Once I got the upgrade the Spa passes were already sold out for online sales.

I did tweak the bids a few times. I was watching inventory for both categories weekly. My bid for the H5 was $300 PP less then my bid for the H9 to cover the additional cost. I was actually surprised to get that one.  

This was our first cruise out of Manhattan. We cruised out of NJ twice before. I was looking forward to the sail away along the NYC skyline on the 19^th deck.

Unfortunately, the weather had other plans for our sail away.

We parked at the pier and that process was seamless. Well worth it. We arrived at the pier just after 9:45.

We were in a Haven Courtyard Penthouse (H5) on deck 17 (originally booked a SPA Mini Suite – (M9). We bid on this upgrade at $910 PP and we notified 12 day’s prior that our bid was accepted. I also had a bid in for a Haven Spa Suite (H9) on deck 17 at $1210 PP. The morning I got upgraded I increased both bids by $10 and approx. 15 minutes afterwards I was awarded the H5 upgrade and the other bid expired. At the time there were 4 H9’s available and 9 H5’s available.

Once we were on the second floor of the terminal, we made or way to the haven lounge where we checked in. After about a 15 minute wait we were escorted on the ship. We were in the Haven lounge by 10:45.

Since we lost our Thermal Spa access on the upgrade, I paid for two passes for the week. This turned out to be a good choice as we had bad weather the first few day’s. We also did sail away in the SPA which worked as you can see both sides at the same time. The Thermal SPA was great. The therapy pool was the best.  

Restaurants we went to:

Cagney’s – Great atmosphere but my steak was basically gristle and fat. Probably worst steak I had on a Cruise.

La Cucina – They changed the menu since we last eat here on the Star a few years ago. We didn’t care for the menu change but the food was alright.

Moderno – Good food. We ate here our last night but we were stuffed from the prior 6 nights of cruising. We should have made this one of our first nights so I could have enjoyed it more.

Haven – Had breakfast here most days, which was good each time. We had dinner here 3 times. Same menu each time but it worked for just 3 times we went.

Margaritaville - We had free lunch here on the first day which was nice.  One disappointment was that it was only open for lunch each day. It closed around 5/6 each night.

Overall, it was a nice cruise. Weather was crappy but nothing we can do about that.  The crew was great, no complaints there. You definitely can smell smoke around deck 7 from the casino as you walk through. I went to the casino each night and played in the non smoking section and it really didn’t bother me much.

Outside areas:

The waterfront: is a great idea and we enjoyed that a few times.

Pool decks:  well this is where NCL screwed up. Although we were Haven, I did venture out once in a while to go to an outdoor bar to watch a little of the PGA tour. Both Bars by the pool are “Smoking Areas” and it was overwhelming. One of them should have been non-smoking. Also, there is just not enough room for the amount of people on the ship. Very small pool with little entertainment.

Spice H20: Went here a few times and was a nice area.

19^th deck bar: I found this little hidden Gem. Never crowded when I went and ended going there a few times to catch up on the PGA. This is the bar which is right to the right before you enter the Vibe. The Vibe Bartenders service this bar. I got to speaking to one of the Vibe’s bartenders, her name was Febry. Great personality. She gave me a tour of the Vibe and told me to comeback tomorrow and she would let me spend the day there. I did not however because we were in Bermuda and spent most of the day off the ship. She did mention to me that that have not sold out of the Vibe passes since they raised the prices (I think about a month and ½ ago).

Haven: What’s not to like. This made the whole trip. Not one compliant. We spent most of our time up on the 19^th deck (indoor and out). I think NCL made one mistake on the Haven by not having a outdoor bar up on the 19^th deck although the two gentleman servers were always around to get us anything we wanted.  

We did know prior to sailing that this was an Irish Music cruise which we were looking forward to however all the events were Private which was a bummer. I would have paid to see some of the shows. One Irish band did play by the pool on the last day which was nice.

I guess that's about it...