$299 12day Transatlantic cruise.......

[frank10b]

I can tell you are new to cruising as well as CruiseCritic.com.

 

First a cruise ship is what we pay to sail on. Being CruiseCritic, we plan a Meet & Greet for everyone on our cruise with us. At th at meeting we meet the Captain & officers such as Cruise Director, Hotel Director, Food & Beverage Director, etc. The rest of the cruise you can be contacted about a new activity that was not announced previously, such as a Meet the Captain at the theatre, since nothing major happening so he gets an hour for folks to ask questions. Even going for a walk at a port, and 2 are getting off the ship for a break so we had a great time teamed up with them since they knew places to go to from previous stops.

 

Ships are different. Dawn & Jewel have a crew that interchanges between the 2 ships. We had a cruise on Jewel a week after she was flooded with ill folks. They had to disinfect 100% of the ship for the new cruise from the time the people left the ship til we boarded late. A staff that was exhausted & no help other than a few from Dawn that came to be the Customer Service desk, reservations, and even a new Captain half way thru. We felt for these folks.

 

2 main dining rooms per ship with free food. A great menu that gives you plenty to choose from. The food stations, formerly called a buffet, is there also for folks who want to choose their meal. Free cappucino, latte & espresso at both. Iced tea (unsweetened), coffee, hot tea, & breakfast juice is free as is milk.

 

If you live on soda aka pop, bring it or buy it at ports. $2 each is a bit steep onboard. But if you live on it then you can buy a soda card to get nonstop soda from bars by the glass not cans.

 

As far as free Net access, that is a private company that has the satelitte on the ship to give Net access, cell service, etc to the cruisers. So you are paying their rate.

 

Any other questions, just ask.

 

Thanks for the advise, so someone said that on net access they may block skype? Is this possible? No doubt that the satelite company charges what NCL allows.

 

Is the tap water on board safe to drink? I drink tap in usa/europe with no problem. Is is a pain to get tap water or is it the "italian" problem in other words do they make a hard sell on the bottled water? Do they make a hard sell on anything? Can u get juice all day? Is it juice or is it sugar-water? What exactly is the quality of food on a cheapie cruise like this? Granted that my standards are pretty high (zagat 25s) but do the standards fall even more on a cruise like this?

 

What about using my USA prepaid tel cell on board, or using my french sim-card (orange), or other country sim cards-what would give me the best deal? Are they all billed at some premium rate. Do they try to nickle and dime you to death?

[AFT_LOVER]

as their system for desalination gives us great water to enjoy. Order a pitcher of iced water from room service & then keep filling it putting it in the fridge to keep cold.

 

As far as juice goes, they use Minute Maid since they are a Coke customer. My husband is a diabetic so he skips them. Lemonade is 5% juice and plenty of sugar. Juice blends are the same (here we use the work cocktail after juice which means SUGAR).

 

At home we prefer Welch's & Tropicana which is 100& juice.

[AFT_LOVER]

as their system for desalination gives us great water to enjoy. Order a pitcher of iced water from room service & then keep filling it putting it in the fridge to keep cold.

 

As far as juice goes, they use Minute Maid since they are a Coke customer. My husband is a diabetic so he skips them. Lemonade is 5% juice and plenty of sugar. Juice blends are the same (here we use the work cocktail after juice which means SUGAR).

 

At home we prefer Welch's & Tropicana which is 100& juice.

 

Cell phones may & may not work. Just turn it on & see if your service shows. If not do not use it. Mine is T-Mobile prepaid & it shows when I leave a ship in any country but I forget the name it states onboard.

[Grandpaul]

If you live on soda aka pop, bring it or buy it at ports. $2 each is a bit steep onboard. But if you live on it then you can buy a soda card to get nonstop soda from bars by the glass not cans.

 

I get a soda card every cruise and most of the soda I get comes from cans. A few bars have cans, I just look around for them.

[Bennett'sCruise]

Never been on cruise,

 

First lesson ... never call it a "boat" ... they are ships. "Boats" are the little things that hang off the side of the ship and in which you hope you never find yourself ... ;):)

[Poconolady]

So is this a better boat? What does a better boat mean, what exactly is better about it?

So u can get outside cabin for same price as this inside prison cell?

So only water is free everything else u must pay for including soda?

 

Man, a big negative is the lack of cheap internet (something u can find even in the slums of Cairo, Paris, or BA) and I really wonder if the food is as good as the slums of Cairo, Paris or BA (perhaps if the staff got to cook what they wanted?)

 

Are we talking about two offers here, and is one boat better than the other?

Your "baksheesh" is the standard $12 pp/per day service fee that is automatically added onto your ship account. Anything extra is up to you, but unless someone goes out of their way to provide a specual request, it isn't necessary. This is "Freestyle" cruising so your dining room servers, etc change all of the time. As far as expensive internet acccess goes, well that is just one of the disadvantages of cruising, on any cruiseline. It is very expensive, even with happy hour specials, etc, and it is generally VERY slow. Then again, this is a cruise, you are supposed to relax and put you landside activites on hold, especially if you are cruising through the mid Atlantic.

Food is a totally subjective matter, everyones tastes differ. Some items are great, some are not. There is plenty of food servered at multiple dining areas, no one will ever go hungry. Gourmet? Yes in some of the specualty restaurants that you pay extra for. Standard dining room fare is similar to eating at many local chain restaurants. As far as better than in the slums of Cairo, BA or Paris--at least you don't run as high a risk of Mummy Tummy, etc --(however, that street food look:)s mighty tasty!)

Before embarking on a transatlantic cruise (even with the terrific bargain price) I would stop and consider if being confined on a moving ship for 5 straight days is really your thing. If moving around, continually being on the move, experienceing new places every day is your style , then maybe this isn't the trip for you. If you are content to kick back and relax, read, watch movies, attend lectures, walk around the decks, work out in the gym, go to an art auction, lay around the pool, indulge in a spa treatment or two and try a variety of eating venues, then maybe this style of travel is right up your alley. Transatlantic cruises are more laid back than those that offer a full schedule of daily ports.

I get the feeling that this thread is a hoax and you are just having fun with those of us who are addicted cruisers-if not, give cruising a try (however, I wouldn't make a transatlantic cruise my first cruise, until I saw that I really liked the lifestyle)

[insidecabin]

The great things about the transatlantics is you can take your time eating no rush to get an excursion, or go ashore, no getting back late and trying to fit in dinner and a show.

 

With the right company you can spend 6+ hours a day in the dining venues.

 

We tested our cabin fever with a 10 day no stops TA and loved it.

[LOWTYD]

Consider this you can go to england on the jewel and return on Cunard May 2 - for less than 1000 a person in a balconycabin. thus the entire trip would cost less than 3500 for a couple.........

 

 

I was thinking the same thing! Is there another ship heading back...you did the homework for me. Such a deal!:)

[Catz4001]

I always thought TA was a travel agent. people on this thread are using it to describe a trip...what is it an abreviation for? sorry can't figure it out myself:rolleyes:

[uppitycats]

I always thought TA was a travel agent. people on this thread are using it to describe a trip...what is it an abreviation for? sorry can't figure it out myself:rolleyes:

 

some folks on this thread are using TA to mean TransAtlantic ...which is what this thread is about -- a discounted transatlantic cruise. Generally it is an abbreviation for travel agent.

[Grandpaul]

I got a kick out of the above posting. Uppitycats talking to Catz4001. Puuuurrfect.

[insidecabin]

It is used for both travel agent and Transatlantic

 

Context usualy determines which.

[Griller]

It is used for both travel agent and Transatlantic

 

Context usually determines which.

 

Hi Phil - are you and Nina going to make it onto Jewel for this T/A?

 

We booked - yes - an INSIDECABIN! - for $365 inc each .

 

We've given up on the expensive suites on NCL, we feel that unless you book the GV you don't really get much extra worth having. And the GV is just too much for 2 of us.

 

And this way we are less critical as we didn't pay much.

 

It was a bit of a tossup between this and Princess - which was a bit more dosh but for us better food in the main dining rooms - but the convenience of no flying upon arrival made the difference.

 

Wow! Home half an hour after arrival in Dover!

[mamasue]

Just checked.... inside cabins seem to be all sold out now..... cheapest seems to be $445 for OV.

I'm glad we booked when we first saw it.... $263 for military rate, inside cabin.

We've decided to make a couple of months of it.... staying in UK 5 days with daughter, then flying to Egypt for 2 months.... flying home at the end of June...

Should be quite a trip!! :)

[frank10b]

Your "baksheesh" is the standard $12 pp/per day service fee that is automatically added onto your ship account. Anything extra is up to you, but unless someone goes out of their way to provide a specual request, it isn't necessary. This is "Freestyle" cruising so your dining room servers, etc change all of the time. As far as expensive internet acccess goes, well that is just one of the disadvantages of cruising, on any cruiseline. It is very expensive, even with happy hour specials, etc, and it is generally VERY slow. Then again, this is a cruise, you are supposed to relax and put you landside activites on hold, especially if you are cruising through the mid Atlantic.

Food is a totally subjective matter, everyones tastes differ. Some items are great, some are not. There is plenty of food servered at multiple dining areas, no one will ever go hungry. Gourmet? Yes in some of the specualty restaurants that you pay extra for. Standard dining room fare is similar to eating at many local chain restaurants. As far as better than in the slums of Cairo, BA or Paris--at least you don't run as high a risk of Mummy Tummy, etc --(however, that street food look:)s mighty tasty!)

Before embarking on a transatlantic cruise (even with the terrific bargain price) I would stop and consider if being confined on a moving ship for 5 straight days is really your thing. If moving around, continually being on the move, experienceing new places every day is your style , then maybe this isn't the trip for you. If you are content to kick back and relax, read, watch movies, attend lectures, walk around the decks, work out in the gym, go to an art auction, lay around the pool, indulge in a spa treatment or two and try a variety of eating venues, then maybe this style of travel is right up your alley. Transatlantic cruises are more laid back than those that offer a full schedule of daily ports.

I get the feeling that this thread is a hoax and you are just having fun with those of us who are addicted cruisers-if not, give cruising a try (however, I wouldn't make a transatlantic cruise my first cruise, until I saw that I really liked the lifestyle)

 

My posts are not so much a hoax as trying to see if my lifestyle would fit allow sitting on a boat for over a week at sea. I get that there are many here who are fanatical about cruises and thats ok. I can get into couch-sitting but in that case I guess I really gotta have my internet. The best offer I could get from the NCL reps was 250 minutes for $100, which for slow sattelite internets seems a bit much. Maybe as an option for a return from a difficult trip back to the usa it might be a good relaxing option.

 

Are the prices cheaper with a travel agent? Can an agent get you better discounts?

 

thanks!

[insidecabin]

Hi Phil - are you and Nina going to make it onto Jewel for this T/A?

 

We booked - yes - an INSIDECABIN! - for $365 inc each .

 

We've given up on the expensive suites on NCL, we feel that unless you book the GV you don't really get much extra worth having. And the GV is just too much for 2 of us.

 

And this way we are less critical as we didn't pay much.

 

It was a bit of a tossup between this and Princess - which was a bit more dosh but for us better food in the main dining rooms - but the convenience of no flying upon arrival made the difference.

 

Wow! Home half an hour after arrival in Dover!

 

You can use the saving to eat in the pay places, we found the main dining room very good on our Jade trip in Jan so much so we did not get to eat in the others as much as we thought we would.

 

It's tempting to do this or one of the other TAs but timing is not quite right at the moment, we also need to add the flight and hotel which bumps up the price Orlando flight is £200 but that is a drive down.

 

We are looking at the Jade 8 day in May as an option this works slightly better time wise it is £450 but we need to get to Rotterdam.

[Hblanton]

For anyone on or considering this trip. First, it is a wicked great deal. I saw baclonys down as low as $450pp (minus a free onboard credit.) The return air is expensive. Try checking kayak for flights. You may find a RT (London - USA - London) is cheaper than a 1 way (was for me) I may or may not use the return which I booked for November in case the transatlantic repositioning cruises in late November end up being really cheap again. The best one way I have found is on Aire Lingus (via Dublin.) You may be able to pinch a few more pennies by flying to Dublin on Ryan or similar and then flying to the US. Also, look at alternative US destinations. You can fly into NY or DC or Florida and then take a cheap carrier (Jetblue or SW) to your final.

 

Internet is very expensive onboard. You just can't plan on surfing. We will buy 250 minutes for the wife and me, and what we will do is use it a couple of times a day to download email. If you use a web based email (like google or Yahoo) you should convert to a local mail client using POP or IMAP. That way you can go online, grab your mail, and go offline. We can usually do this in 4 or 5 minutes (10 minutes a day x 2 people x 11 days equals about 250 minutes.) $100 is pricy, but what are you gonna do. I also have a Kindle and download newspapers every day which is great.

 

Last tip - the ship heads East on this trip. That means that the right (starboard) side of the ship is facing South the whole way. So if you have a balcony or porthole, being on that side of the ship mean WAY more sun for the entire trip.

 

Oh, last, last tip. We took this trip once before. In general I find all cruise food to be pretty much the same (from top lines to mass market it is all really just catered food - not restaurant quality.) That said, we had a couple of really good quality meals at Cagneys. Being cheap we ate early each time so got 2 for 1 on the surcharge. The steaks were nearly as good as a mid-range chain steakhouse like a Sullivans (not Ruths Chris or Mortons, but not Outback either.) I always bring a couple of bottles of really good wine and pay the $15 corkage and it makes for a very nice, moderatley priced meal.

 

HLY

[Beachbum1944]

I don't know if anyone posted this but you can do NCL Jewel this April 17 (11 days) Miami to London (balcony) $499 plus tax & fees and return May 2(6days) to NY (balcony) on the Queen Mary 2 for $1045 plus tax & fees. That's $1544 plus tax & fees round trip. Beats flying.