Mandy923

WE bring our yeti cups off the ship at every port. Our kids are filled with ice water and my husband and mine are usually a mixed drink. 

You'll need a different cabin (that sleeps 3). So that's why. 

 

Wow! A 4yr old thread revived! Still invaluable info.

Today is the last day for the "Take all 6" and Free $100 OBC for past guests. I'm wondering if you think cruise prices will go down, if they stop the promotions. Although- I know NCL always has SOME kind of promotion happening. Just debating if I should book Escape March 31-April 7 now or wait it out. Price isn't bad. 

We’ve been on the Sunshine 2X out of Norfolk. 3X glory. And 2 Holland ships back before they pulled out of Norfolk. RCCL used to also have a ship. I really would love to see the port utilized more than just 2 months a year by Carnival. This may the new Sunrise will be going out of Norfolk. We live 15m away so it’s super easy. Plenty of parking decks in downtown Norfolk. I don’t know why the port isn’t used more. I heard rumors about high port taxes.

I used a TA for the first time, bc she is a friend, and the folks we are traveling with used her too. So I haven't really been paying much attention to my booking. I did my online check-in, with no rush, as normal. Only to find out about the new staggered check in.

This will be the very first cruise, I won't have lunch on the ship. I guess a few hours is nothing to get to upset about though. 2:30-3pm UGH.

Very good points. I appreaciate them!

All suites sold out for our sailing- so no choice to move to another suite category.

I also was just looking at our booking and the promotion included all grats paid. Isn't it $18/ pp per day now? So that's $630....hmmm.

I didn't factor in our grats for the insides. So saving less than I anticipated at first.

2 insides would give us the 2 bathrooms, but no tub. LOL

But I am in money saving mode, at this point- so any "extra" may just have to be forfeited. We're even considering DRIVING (12 hours for us) something we NEVER do, bc I hate driving more than 4 or so hours.

Yes- I realize I'm having serious 1st world problems over here too

On all other cruise lines, we choose 1 balcony and 1 inside (for the kids). But on NCL, the suite perks are so awesome we have always chosen a suite. We booked during a really great promotion on March- Owners suite- with all 5 of the "choose your freebie" thing (including $200 OBC) for a total of $4650 (including taxes/ port charges) for the 5 of us (kids are 18, 10, 7)

Here's the dilema: I lost my job in April! It was only P/T and I run an e-commerce business from home, as well- so we are still doing OK- but I just priced out 2 insides and it saves us about $1700. We could even add the UDP and still be ahead by a long shot.

But I think the suite price is really an amazing deal, and I'd hate to give that up too....

So my question is- has a family cruised on NCL with their family, in insides and not felt like they were going to kill each other. LOL.

My husband and I have cruised CCL insides on short duration cruises, when it was just the 2 of us- and I actually loved being able to take a nap in the middle of the day in complete darkness.

This is also a pretty port intensive cruise, so I can't imagine we'd be in the room a lot. But I will admit, I LOVE having a bathtub. I soak and soak in that thing.

Should I be worried about my Jan. cruise?

Can anyone tell me if Carnival sells (in the bars) Ciroq vodka or 1800 Agave Tequila?

Thank you!

Thanks Everyone for your input!

I'm leaning towards the DOS- But really not sure if we will miss the Balcony. We don't really spend any considerable time out there. Usually just a few minutes at a time- while coming into Port.....

Hmm.... Decisions!

We are a family of 5. (18, 10, 7 are the kids ages). Which one of these staterooms would you chose on the STAR. They are identical in price.

THought I'd get some input. One of the biggest differences I can see is the 2 bedroom Family suite has a Balcony, where the Deluxe Owners Suite does not.

Any other input?

We've only been on 1 NCL cruise (Pearl)- I am pretty unfamilair with the Ships. Even though I've been reading reviews like crazy! haha! I'm planning a Jan 2016 Family cruise (kids: 18, 10, 7) and me and my husband. I'm curious to seen what everyone's favorite ship is- and why. If the ship offers THe Haven (I understand some older ones don't?) then we will be staying in the 2 bedroom family suite in the Haven. If a ship doesn't have THe Haven- we'll probably get 2 Balconies. But feel free to offer other options that may be better. If we Sail on the Epic we might get a suite or Balcony for the 4 of us, and get a studio for the 18yr old.

So....What's your all time most favorite NCL ship, and what did you love so much about it?

They did have GF buns on our 2 Glory cruises (within the last 18m) and they also did on our Breeze cruise in Jan. 2014

It wasn't advertised or anything. I just asked, and it took about 10m for them to make it. But my 8yr old son, who has celiac LOVED being able to have a burger with a bun. Bc we just go bunless 99.9% of the time.

The fries are NOT GF!

My family has been on both Breeze and Liberty of the Seas (Indy's sister)

And although we prefer Carnival over Royal- in general. I liked Liberty much more than the Breeze.

THe Breeze ALWAYS felt insanely crowded to me. I haven't experienced that on other Carnival ships (Glory, Conquest, Paradise).

Really looking forward to this!! Thanks :)

I saw it, by doing a mock booking. But I did have my VIFP in, because I was logged in.

It was just for certain dates- I guess the ones not selling well. The $100 OBC was a nice bonus too. I'm trying to see if our schedule will work for any of the dates.

I live in Norfolk- and we've taken 3 cruises this year. So I swore I'd just wait until May 2015 to cruise again (When Splendor will be in Norfolk) but I don't think I can wait that long!

Baltimore is a 3.5hr drive for us, so still pretty easy. I've really HATED our last Flights to FL to cruise- so I'm trying to stick with Drivable ones for awhile.

My husband and son both LOVE Guys burgers! They were way to greasy for me, but I'm not a big burger fan, anyway.

My 8yr old has Celiac (cannot eat Gluten) and he LOVED that he could get a Big Juicy Burger on a Gluten Free Bun! Most of the time, he eats his burgers bunless.

My husband would pile his so high with toppings, he'd have to eat it open faced with a fork!

I did enjoy the fries, and had those several time.

Just FYI- THe fries are NOT Gluten free.

ohhh! So it's actually just a temporary Platinum status for the booked cruise?

My kids love to go in there! We usually let them, get a little bag of whatever- once a cruise.

I was looking at some Cruises out of Baltimore late Spring/ Early Summer and noticed some of the dates had a "Special offer" with them, of $100 OBC and immediate Platinum status.

Seems like a great deal!

My question is- has anyone ever done this, and how does that work when trying to reach Diamond?

For example- I'm gold (28 points). So if I received this upgrade and became platinum- would my "points" go to the lowest level of Platinum too? THen i'm that much closer to Diamond? Or would I still be at 28?

I guess it really doesn't matter- but I was curious to know.

Oh my! I had the age groups totally wrong :o

This will not even be a problem for us now!

I'm sure this has been asked, and answered before- but the search function on here, is really not very good, compared to other forums I belong to. So, my apologies in advance.

My question:

Can a newly turned 10yr old, stay in the 6-9 group? Looking at a cruise where my son will be 10yrs and 1 month. I know my 2 children will want to stay together in Camp. Will they allow this?

THank you

I'll be the odd man out here and say I think they are totally unneccassy for children (or even adults) traveling on a cruise ship.

We've been cruising as a family for 15 years. Starting with 1 child (who is now 17yrs old) and now have 3 kids. Never have we gotten passports, any of us.

Just hand over the birth certificates for the kids (ID not needed until they are 16)

And birth certificate and ID for the 2 adults and now my oldest.

It's not really hard or complicated.

And if for some crazy 1% chance we were stuck in the Bahamas or carribean or wherever and needed to fly home. We could work that out. They do have ways to fly folks home that don't have passports.