First time cruise NCL questions!

[louiselanch]

Hi

 

After my small panic about not getting the drinks package, I have a few questions!

 

We are travelling on the spirit on a western Caribbean cruise 6th Feb 16

 

I have trawled through the forum but there are hundreds of threads :confused:

 

Is there a limit on how many soft drinks we take on board?

 

How do we carry them on, can we put them in a cool box on wheels? I'm thinking of buying a cheap one when we get to Florida (we are coming from the UK)

 

We will have 2 suitcases one big and one small, will I be able to keep the small case & cool box (I'm assuming we will be able to walk the. With us to the cabin whilst we wait for the suitcase) with us and send the large suitcase to our cabin? I'm not sure what really happens when we get on the ship! I will also have a fanny pack.

 

Can we take our soft drinks anywhere on the ship with us? Pool etc

 

Will we need to take our passports with us when we go off ship or are they safe in the room.

 

I'm not sure how the whole getting on and off the ship works, our ship departs at 4pm what time do we need to get there? On our docked days when do we get off? If our itinerary says 9am-4pm what time will we need to be back at the ship for? On the final day our ship arrives at 8am, do we just walk off with our cases :confused:

 

We have hired a car to and from MCO airport, are the rental car garages near to the port?

 

Any other things as a first timer I should know? I am sure I will have more questions over the next week or so :p

 

Many thanks

 

Louise

[GeezerCouple]

Hi

 

After my small panic about not getting the drinks package, I have a few questions!

 

We are travelling on the spirit on a western Caribbean cruise 6th Feb 16

 

I have trawled through the forum but there are hundreds of threads :confused:

 

Is there a limit on how many soft drinks we take on board?

 

How do we carry them on, can we put them in a cool box on wheels? I'm thinking of buying a cheap one when we get to Florida (we are coming from the UK)

 

We will have 2 suitcases one big and one small, will I be able to keep the small case & cool box (I'm assuming we will be able to walk the. With us to the cabin whilst we wait for the suitcase) with us and send the large suitcase to our cabin? I'm not sure what really happens when we get on the ship! I will also have a fanny pack.

 

Can we take our soft drinks anywhere on the ship with us? Pool etc

 

Will we need to take our passports with us when we go off ship or are they safe in the room.

 

I'm not sure how the whole getting on and off the ship works, our ship departs at 4pm what time do we need to get there? On our docked days when do we get off? If our itinerary says 9am-4pm what time will we need to be back at the ship for? On the final day our ship arrives at 8am, do we just walk off with our cases :confused:

 

We have hired a car to and from MCO airport, are the rental car garages near to the port?

 

Any other things as a first timer I should know? I am sure I will have more questions over the next week or so :p

 

Many thanks

 

Louise

 

NCL is a Pepsi-only line; no Coca Cola products.

 

I am a Diet Coke addict, or close enough :o and we both prefer the bottles with tops that can be screwed back on (fewer spills!).

 

So we packed (for the air travel) a duffel bag.

In Miami, we had a taxi take us for a short tour (very nice), and then stop at a grocery store for the Diet Coke.

We had expected to buy it near the hotel, but everyone seemed to be out of it (??).

The owner of the small store was a bit startled when we cleared his (small) shelf of ALL his Diet Coke.

 

Then the next day, we dropped our large bags, including the Diet Coke - all with NCL luggage tags - at the pier.

 

You don't need to carry anything other than "carry on", including anything of value, or any medicines. (We NEVER let those out of our sight when in transit.)

 

All of it showed up in our suite just fine.

We hand carried a couple of bottles, so we could give the checked bottles time to "settle" (so they didn't explode when we opened them!).

 

There was no problem at all just carrying our beverages wherever we wanted, including the dining areas.

(IF you bring on wine, there will be a corkage fee collected when you board, and then you can drink it in your cabin, or have it stored and brought to you at meals.)

[KeithJenner]

Lots of questions there, but I'll give it a go.

 

No limit to drinks you can take onboard.

 

If you are taking a lot on then the best way is to put a tag on them and hand them over to the porters. If doing that then I would use get a box of bottles and hand that over so it's obvious they haven't been tampered with. If you have individual bottles then they may want to check each one for alcohol. I'm not an expert on this though, we don't usually take anything on with us.

 

When you get onboard you are likely to be able to drop your carry ons in your cabin, although occasionally we have found that doors to the cabin corridors are closed.

 

You can take your drinks just about everywhere.

 

Whether you need to take passports with you depends a bit on the ports. Most places, we leave them in our room, but take advice at the time about the specific ports.

 

On the first day you need to be onboard two hours before departure time, but in ports of call it is usually 30 minutes. Again, check when onboard to confirm this. The all aboard time is on your freestyle daily and also usually displayed at the gangplank.

 

On the final day you have the option of leaving your bags outside your room for NCL to carry them off, or you can just walk off yourself. If you don't walk them off then you need to get luggage tags which will be for a specific time of departure.

 

Different rental car garages are in different places, although those not near the port often have shuttles (Avis certainly do, as we used it when dropping our cars off). You will need to find out about your specific company.

 

I think that's all about right. :)

[roger001]

No limit on soft drinks. We take two twelve packs of diet pepsi in a roller carry on. Yes, you can take them anywhere you wish. Only at a very few port stops are passport required. If needed, it will be announced in the Freestyle Daily for that stop. We always take ours, but most don't. You will need an official photo ID and your room card to get back on the ship. If ship departs at 4 pm, you need to be checking in by 2 pm. We however like to get to the port early, to get on as early as possible...let the vacation begin. At port stops, you need to be back on the ship at least 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time. The latest time will be posted as you exit the ship. Have a great cruise and ask all the questions you can think of. Answers..or opinions...are plentiful on here.

[KeithJenner]

Just one point about your question as to whether you can carry your soft drinks anywhere.

 

Many new cruisers seem to struggle with the concept that you can just walk around the ship with a drink. You are really free to do just that. You can walk out of the bar to another venue with your bottle of wine, your beer, cocktail or a coke without a problem.

[H&J]

And if you can't survive with Coke or Pepsi or whatever, get into a 12 step program.

[shivelme]

Louiselanch,

Welcome to cruisesritic, there is a wealth of information here.

We are on the same sailing. Please join our roll call. We have a meet and greet planned.

You might want to ask any specific questions on the Norwegian board.

[louiselanch]

And if you can't survive with Coke or Pepsi or whatever, get into a 12 step program.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by this?! There a lot of drinks that count as soft drinks, I like to drink water, Coke, orange juice, apple juice etc but rather than write a list I thought it would be easier to label them together in one group!

 

Thank you for everyone who wrote a helpful post!

 

Is there any particular soft drinks we can't take on board? I'm assuming a case of water will be ok...

[louiselanch]

Louiselanch,

Welcome to cruisesritic, there is a wealth of information here.

We are on the same sailing. Please join our roll call. We have a meet and greet planned.

You might want to ask any specific questions on the Norwegian board.

 

Oh I thought I was on the Norwegian board:confused:

[shivelme]

Bottled water is allowed. If you bring a refillable bottle, there is a variety of fruit infused water available in the buffet all day.

[shivelme]

Oh I thought I was on the Norwegian board:confused:

 

You are on the right board. Don't mind me I was mistaken. Sorry to confuse you.:o

[Renstr]

Thanks to the person who pointed out ncl is all Pepsi. I know to bring myself a small carton of Coke and a small carton of water on the ship.

[LrgPizza]

I'm not sure what you mean by this?! There a lot of drinks that count as soft drinks, I like to drink water, Coke, orange juice, apple juice etc but rather than write a list I thought it would be easier to label them together in one group!

 

Thank you for everyone who wrote a helpful post!

 

Is there any particular soft drinks we can't take on board? I'm assuming a case of water will be ok...

 

In the US, soft drinks generally refers to soda only, hence the confusion. Water is water, not a soft drink.

 

No there aren't any limits, as others already answered.

[chery4lbooks]

We always bring a case of water and just put a luggage tag on it as well as 2different 12 packs of soda that we put in a carry on size bag (also with a luggage tag), drop it off with porter with our other checked luggage and it arrives in our cabin. We use the now empty carry on size bag for souvenirs or things we get on our trip. Win Win!