shout19661966

The moral of this story for people who never cruise or never took a non ship sponsored excursion. If you take a non ship sponsored excursion go in the morning and be back to the boat by 1pm. Do not cut it down to the last minute because the ship will leave you. Some will say well its a all day excursion i have no choice then book it with the ship or expect to fly to the next port to catch up if you miss all aboard. Its not rocket science. The rules are clear and simple.

I think the media as per usual for the last 2 years have twisted this story in a way that suits their coverage. The cruise is not CANCELLED as say a professional hockey game have been when they do not play and fans miss the game all together .The cruises ports were cancelled and all the passengers are on board enjoying sea day after sea day of vacation , was it what they paid for of course not an that is why the refunds are being issued. I was on the Thanksgiving cruise  on the gem we had Charleston cancelled spent two days in port canaveral Fla. We then sailed to great stirrup cay and it was cancelled because it was too windy. did it suck we missed ports of course but it surely didn't ruin my vacation or my wife's.

Mind you the gem is still sailing back to NY and looks like it will arrive Wednesday as scheduled.

just buy a 3 4 5 6 or 7 day specialty dining pass onboard and go to whatever place you want whenever and it will be charged to your folio once and then the obc is credited to your folio. every meal you will sign a $0 bill.

you will have to pay tax on the drinks while in port that is all.

when you spend $$ onboard with your sea pass the system doesnt know what is what it minus and pluses each charge and gives you what you owe period end of story.

3 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

@shout19661966

 

May I ask what time you checked in?  We got there at 1pm...and didn't receive anything.  As I said...my first "notification" was when I checked the excursion list.  Maybe they ran out of the sheets...lol.  Anyway, everyone I spoke to was just as clueless as me.

 

As far as the $50 credit...I have several "$50" things on my statement.  I assumed they had something to do with the $50 platinum credit for shore excusions.  I'm glad they were "a gift"!

930 am 

Anyone on board can explain why they are still in port.

i was on the ship at checkin they  handed us a sheet with a new Itinerary and a note saying the first two pax in each cabin would get $50 OBC. I was told it was due to SC not allowing the ship into port due to covid restrictions.

Agreed on the french onion soup in Le Bistro, just got off the gem this morning.

Some other foods i can say were top notch.  I will only mention the buffet and main dining room lunch as others have touched on alot of the other spots

Buffet. Pizza was very good memories of pre covid it was poor.

Pasta Bolognese was very tasty.

Little Potatos Circles for breakfast

Reg Sausage for breakfast

Lemon butter Butter fish delicious

French Fries all places seems they fry them on the gem.

Every Meat item on the cutting board too many to remember. Beef wellington was very good

salads were good too

Lunch main dining room

Philly cheese steak sandwich no peppers extra cheese awesome

Fish sandwich made by  O'sheehans  very good

salads were good

Desserts Top 3

Tiramisu La Cucina

Apple pie w/vanilla ice cream O'sheehans

Chocolate Cake  Cagney' s 

Ice Cream was below average this time do to quality issues  too soft and too icey

no fee if you put your card into a slot machine and use it. Now I might be incorrect but i do believe this to be true. If you go to say a blackjack table and use your card to get say $200 in chips you will pay $206 for that $200.

8 hours ago, Oxo said:

Here are the meal pkgs pricing. These are very good. 

 

either these are old or not NCL I have higher prices on my explore and plan in my reservation. Maybe this is before tax and tip ? 

have 2 nights with the package. is there a advantage or disadvantage waiting to purchase say 4 more nights when you board.

just use them up on the website before you sail. add ever possible thing you can to use them up and then buy casino credits and you can use them or cash them in and not spend them

check the dailies each day the blackjack tournaments are usually sea days as this is when the casino is open during the day. it runs more then one day and the finals are later in the week.

op

is this FCC for a cancelled

cruise or one you bought on the ship.

I am pretty sure as long as you BOOK a cruise by 12/31/21 and apply the $1000 towards the cruise as say a deposit you can book any date you want. Could someone please confirm this for the OP.

read on facebook a question if there is raisins in the french toast. never ceases to amaze me.

i didnt read the ages.

edit.

https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/stateroom-details.php?ship=Pride-of-America&cabin=9552

this should help you.

Thanks so much for the great information. 

Planning to book,  questions about the reduce airfare if anyone has used it to Hawaii.

Will it be Non stop or layovers ?

Can you request to fly in a few days early to sight see on your own or book a excursion to do it with NCL.

Is it worth the restrictions and flexibility vs the cost of the flights ? 

Let me try to explain ONE more time. I was  on the line to purchase bus tokens at the dockyard, the lady behind me who was sailing ON celebrity and I started talking about the ferry to St Georges. I told her that NCL provides a ferry for free to St Georges. Her response was " Celebrity charges us for their ferry to St Georges ".  

On 5/17/2019 at 1:49 PM, njhorseman said:

Celebrity doesn't have a ferry. You took the public ferry, which may be used by anyone for payment of the fare, whether a cruise passenger or not.

Maybe i didnt phrase it correctly. We took the free ferry from royal navy dockyard provided by NCL. According to passengers from celebrity  they have to pay for the ferry, she did say it was provided by celebrity but there is a charge.

we were there may 8 and so was celebrity and they charge for there ferry to st george. at least its still free for ncl.