Travelling2Some

That's our method too. No need to bring a stapler. Or, if you stay in a hotel the night before you embark, just stop by the front desk and ask to borrow a stapler for a minute.

We were on the recent Sun trans-Atlantic (Miami/NYC to Lisbon) and thought the ship looked fine. Entertainment just okay, crew great, cabin bigger than expected. No complaints, especially given that it was very inexpensive.

I'm always on the hunt for exotic itineraries so a big thank you for starting/contributing to this thread!

Also agree with the person who pointed out the negative impact the lack of wine would have should you have a nice specialty restaurant booked that evening. French and Italian food just call for wine, as does a good steak. Can't quite get enthused about drinking soda pop in those circumstances!

This. Plus I also second the poster who pointed out that, once you book an excursion, other excursions that conflict with that time slot for that port (which will be most of the offerings) will no longer appear as an option if you are signed into your account. I wish NCL would not do this since sometimes they will add excursions after you've booked one that you might have preferred.

This happened to us because my husband got the idea to try out the NCL app. I always make our travel arrangements so he did not know his Lattitudes number and opted for a new one when he signed up, thus (unknowingly) losing his Platinum status. Since he was now not entitled to various discounts on things I had pre-purchased (shore excursions, etc.) several of our upcoming paid in full reservations suddenly had small balances on them. Took myself and the PCC a while to figure it out.

Personally, I don't care. I'm tidy by nature and don't request anything from the room steward beyond an egg crate on the bed and a printed daily program. Not being stupid though, I do notice that we will be paying a bit more and getting a bit less. Also, since I'm not stupid I do feel the NCL doubletalk nonsense is both hilarious and a bit insulting to the intelligence. At least this one didn't have the words "out of an abundance of caution . . ."

My husband started pushing GE a couple of years ago and I didn't feel we needed it because we always arrive when airports are not crowded (kids are in school, basic weekday, etc.) and there is never a line anyway so why bother? Then he said the magic word . . . FREE, lol. I don't know if they do this all the time but right after our application was processed the told us we could just stop by the next time we flew into JFK instead of keeping our scheduled interview appointment. So we were even able to do the fingerprinting/interview very conveniently.

This is what I always do. No downside since deposits are refundable. Things do come up with our large family but you can always cancel with just a phone call as long as you haven't passed final payment. We intend to take every cruise we book but lately have ended up taking only about 2/3rds of them.

In general, I would think that using it to fly home can make better sense. Let's face it, NCL's 2 day deviation can easy turn into only a day and a half and when you arrive you can be so jet lagged that you can't even truly enjoy the little time you are getting for sightseeing. I wish they would extend the deviation to more days because I know the savings can be substantial.

We always have this problem so we have never used the cruise-lines' airfare deals. I don't like flying and, once I've endured the flight and the expense to get somewhere interesting, two days to see the place is just not going to cut it. We also will only take non-stops so I don't want to risk NCL booking us with connections.

We were able to get Global Entry free by using our regular old (no fee) Citi-card debit card. We paid $200 ($100 per person) for it using the card and they rebated the whole $200 back.

Our daughter and her husband were going on a simple non-stop from JFK to MIA in good weather to board a cruise and I still urged them to go a day early. They booked their flight one day early so you would think they had their bases covered sufficiently and nothing could go wrong. However the airline managed to lose their luggage and, even with the one day buffer, it arrived at the cruise terminal with only minutes to spare!

This happened to us because I make all our travel arrangements and my husband does not understand much of what is involved. Long story short he wanted to add the NCL app to his phone and in doing so got himself a brand new Latitudes number (not knowing that he was dropping his status from Platinum back to basic). Suddenly I was getting small balances due on several of our booked and fully paid for cruises. The trivial amounts were due to his loosing his discount on booked shore excursions but it took several days for our PCC and myself to figure out what was generating all these small charges. Just a cautionary tale and maybe an explanation.

Having a Plan B that is almost as good as Plan A works.

Same here. After 40 plus years of marriage and traveling together my husband has developed a level of sacred trust in my planning which I would never damage. I am a lunatic over-planner because I enjoy it. Such is his trust that he once asked me on the way to the gate, "So, where exactly are we going?" Needless to say, flying in the same day as the cruise is completely out of the question. Out of the northeast in the winter is not just out of the question, it's nuts.

Has anyone noticed if the Port of Miami has Global Entry enabled?

Partial charter? We once got booted from an inside (NOT sail away - I picked the cabin) up to a suite. This was on Celebrity and happened only a day or two before the cruise. Once we boarded we could see what was going on. Large groups made up of largely first time cruisers who likely would have been upset to be separated from their leaders.

Third vote for the second itinerary for the same reasons. We stayed in Bruges for a couple of days after a cruise and loved it. Be sure to buy your tickets for the scenic railway in Flam online well before you arrive. We saw long lines and many disappointed cruisers who had assumed they could buy tickets the day of.

My husband always takes the upgraded package and I never take it. As the above post shows, I just check his box and not mine and pay online before we cruise. Never a problem. I don't use the internet at all when we are away so he even uses up my complimentary minutes since I don't want them.

Thanks! Very pleased to see this. We are booked on the Viva and love the Broadway style entertainment.

Sorry, I did mean to ask about Miami.

And this is what I said. Not sure if you misread my first paragraph, but we are in agreement.

Well . . . I hope the bar was still open. Is Global Entry available in San Pedro?

In our area (metro New York) which week will depend on the date of Passover. In years that Passover falls in the week before Easter that is the week that public schools will be closed. The exception is Catholic/Christian schools. Those are closed for the week following Easter. Another week where ships out of NY are crammed with children is locally known as "yeshiva week". This is the week Orthodox Jewish schools are out, which is generally the third week of January. Not sure of the dates for 2023 but I know it is January 11-21 in 2024. I have a friend who teaches at a yeshiva and I always check with her. Not sure if this has any effect on ships out of Florida but I think it might.