Jaglady10 Posted May 15, 2018 #1 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Making reservations for 6 for North Star. Can't decide whether to do on sea day or while in Halifax. Wondering if any downsides or upsides for either. Thanks for any info! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshrich Posted May 15, 2018 #2 Share Posted May 15, 2018 We did it while in Port, I would do it then as while at sea you only get to see the Sea and the ship which will be crowded, on a Port day you can get some good shots, also, I don't think they go 'over the side' anymore, only up and down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackshirt Posted May 15, 2018 #3 Share Posted May 15, 2018 There is a risk of being cancelled on a sea day. If winds are too high, they won’t operate. We just got off Anthem and were told ‘over the side’ is prohibited on US sailings due to US law. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare sparks1093 Posted May 15, 2018 #4 Share Posted May 15, 2018 It never even dawned on me that they would do this in port, even if only up and down. Will definitely remember this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnival03 Posted May 15, 2018 #5 Share Posted May 15, 2018 There is a risk of being cancelled on a sea day. If winds are too high, they won’t operate. We just got off Anthem and were told ‘over the side’ is prohibited on US sailings due to US law. Does this mean while only at U.S. ports or the whole cruise? Does it go over the side if your docked at a port, say Labadee? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackshirt Posted May 15, 2018 #6 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Does this mean while only at U.S. ports or the whole cruise? Does it go over the side if your docked at a port, say Labadee? It means the whole cruise. We were on a sea day when told this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnival03 Posted May 15, 2018 #7 Share Posted May 15, 2018 It means the whole cruise. We were on a sea day when told this. Darn. :( That's slightly disappointing. Thanks for that info, we're sailing Anthem next May. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julielouhoo Posted May 15, 2018 #8 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Making reservations for 6 for North Star. Can't decide whether to do on sea day or while in Halifax. Wondering if any downsides or upsides for either. Thanks for any info! I would do it in Halifax. Such a cool place, but especially with the Citadel. I actually have it booked (for my upcoming cruise) on a sea day and after reading so many reviews, am going to try to do it on embarkation day. Everyone seems to say its so much better in port. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reallyitsmema Posted May 15, 2018 #9 Share Posted May 15, 2018 It means the whole cruise. We were on a sea day when told this. Who told you it is against the law? They shortened the NorthStar rides to up and down and a little turn side to side because that only takes 9 minutes as opposed to the 15 minutes it takes when the go over the side. This allows them to offer more rides each day, giving more of the passengers a chance to ride. This change was made after many complaints about so few people being able to ride NorthStar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reallyitsmema Posted May 15, 2018 #10 Share Posted May 15, 2018 I would do it in Halifax. Such a cool place, but especially with the Citadel. I actually have it booked (for my upcoming cruise) on a sea day and after reading so many reviews, am going to try to do it on embarkation day. Everyone seems to say its so much better in port. We did it on one of our Anthem cruises just after we went under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. We had a beautiful view of the city. We were able to book a reservation using the Royal IQ app right after we boarded the ship. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnival03 Posted May 15, 2018 #11 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Are you limited to how many times you can ride NorthStar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nelblu Posted May 15, 2018 #12 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Did it twice. Once in St Martin and the other on our 9 night NE/Canada on a sea day. Both times really enjoyed it even with the winds on the sea day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reallyitsmema Posted May 15, 2018 #13 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Are you limited to how many times you can ride NorthStar? You can only have one reservation at a time, but you can make another one, if there are any available, after you have completed your ride. They also take standbys at times, so just walk by and ask if there is availability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EleventyBangBang Posted May 15, 2018 #14 Share Posted May 15, 2018 There is a risk of being cancelled on a sea day. If winds are too high, they won’t operate. We learned this the hard way. We had that and iFly booked for the last day. Both were canceled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjeff87 Posted May 15, 2018 #15 Share Posted May 15, 2018 We were going to do it embarkation day, but then decided to hold off until the last sea day. Darn thing broke down on day 3 and was out of service for the whole rest of the cruise, for whatever reason. I'd book it earlier than later if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robtulipe Posted May 15, 2018 #16 Share Posted May 15, 2018 (edited) Are you limited to how many times you can ride NorthStar? You can only reserve it once in your My Calendar per cruise but can do other rides on a stand by basis. I was able to do two more trips after the reserved one on the Anthem cruise we did last month. I simply asked to be on as a stand by when I noticed not many in line for the North Star. Once was when I stayed onboard while in port at Cape Canaveral, DW and grand kids went on an air boat excursion and other time was a sea day back to Cape Liberty. Also have done more than one trip on stand by on the other four Anthem cruises we've done. Edited May 15, 2018 by robtulipe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackshirt Posted May 15, 2018 #17 Share Posted May 15, 2018 Who told you it is against the law? They shortened the NorthStar rides to up and down and a little turn side to side because that only takes 9 minutes as opposed to the 15 minutes it takes when the go over the side. This allows them to offer more rides each day, giving more of the passengers a chance to ride. This change was made after many complaints about so few people being able to ride NorthStar. The attendant operating the North Star told us. Perhaps he was just blowing smoke, who knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biker19 Posted May 15, 2018 #18 Share Posted May 15, 2018 perhaps he was just blowing smoke. +1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnival03 Posted May 16, 2018 #19 Share Posted May 16, 2018 We learned this the hard way. We had that and iFly booked for the last day. Both were canceled. Do they not do iFly if Winds are too high? I was going to save this for the last day, but now reconsidering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnival03 Posted May 16, 2018 #20 Share Posted May 16, 2018 You can only have one reservation at a time, but you can make another one, if there are any available, after you have completed your ride. They also take standbys at times, so just walk by and ask if there is availability. You can only reserve it once in your My Calendar per cruise but can do other rides on a stand by basis. I was able to do two more trips after the reserved one on the Anthem cruise we did last month. I simply asked to be on as a stand by when I noticed not many in line for the North Star. Once was when I stayed onboard while in port at Cape Canaveral, DW and grand kids went on an air boat excursion and other time was a sea day back to Cape Liberty. Also have done more than one trip on stand by on the other four Anthem cruises we've done. Good to know. Do they accept reservations for embarkation day, or is it stand by? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare BirdTravels Posted May 16, 2018 #21 Share Posted May 16, 2018 We just got off Anthem and were told ‘over the side’ is prohibited on US sailings due to US law. Hmmmm,,, we were recently on the Anthem. We were told that they discontinue "over the side" to reduce the ride time. With an Up, Turn, Down, they can do 2 trips every half hour (vs. one trip per half hour). The change doubled the capacity of the ride. We booked our NorthStar as we were leaving New Jersey (after the bridge :) ). And then we went stand-by at one of our ports of call. With 2 trips every half hour, they fill the cabin on the first trip. Leftovers (latecomers) go on the second trip with stand-bys if there is room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timf2001 Posted May 17, 2018 #22 Share Posted May 17, 2018 I'd recommend going on North Star while in port, or at least while close to land. I scheduled it on a sea day and unfortunately it was foggy so you couldn't see much. Note that it closes while in Boston due to the proximity of the airport. I haven't heard of Ripcord being closed due to high winds, unless it's simply unsafe to be out on deck. In our case it broke down a couple days before our cruise ended and they were unable to fix it at sea, so those people had their bookings cancelled. I'd recommend going early, because if you like it there's usually room to go again later in the cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carnival03 Posted May 17, 2018 #23 Share Posted May 17, 2018 I'd recommend going on North Star while in port, or at least while close to land. I scheduled it on a sea day and unfortunately it was foggy so you couldn't see much. Note that it closes while in Boston due to the proximity of the airport. I haven't heard of Ripcord being closed due to high winds, unless it's simply unsafe to be out on deck. In our case it broke down a couple days before our cruise ended and they were unable to fix it at sea, so those people had their bookings cancelled. I'd recommend going early, because if you like it there's usually room to go again later in the cruise. Good to know. Seems like the consensus is earlier rather than later for both North Star and iFly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
95south Posted June 7, 2018 #24 Share Posted June 7, 2018 On a sea day you get a great view of nothing but more ocean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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