MyTMo777

@Faithcruiser I second @baltic17's question. We are scheduled to stop in San Juan del Sur on November 20. Would love to know what you'd recommend.

Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala, San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, & Puntarenas, Costa Rica. We have been to both the Guatemalan and Costa Rican ports before, and we know that we need to book an excursion because we dock in an industrial area. From what I am reading online, it sounds like Nicaragua is also not a port where we can just walk off the ship into town.

I appreciate the feedback. We seem to have an abundance of ports on our upcoming cruise that either are not safe to venture out in on our own, or that dock in an industrial area, which necessitates an excursion.

Ashland, have you been to Acapulco? Can we do things on our own there?

Can we do something in Acapulco on our own? Walking tour, cab to downtown and/or a beach? Is it safe, easy and affordable? All of the excursions in every port are adding up, so I want to do as many ports on our own as we can.

How do I find out the prices of cabs in ports, and whether they are set or negotiable? Specifically, we are going to Cabo, Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco. I'm not looking to cheap out on a negotiable price, but I also don't want to over pay.

Not much for beaches there. But we enjoyed just walking from the ship into town (super close). We browsed through the markets, tried some street food, paid a boat captain $2/each to take us out to our ship and tour around it (got some great pictures), and generally just enjoyed the culture of the town.

Yes, that's completely appropriate!

Maybe it’s a Prima glitch or special rules on that ship. But we made reservations just after making full payment at 120 days. That’s on the Jewel. I do know that people have had issues reserving for an odd-numbered group, so just reserve for 6.

That’s what I’ve done in the past, but other people have said their tags were lost off their luggage between the pier and their room, so I thought luggage tag holders might help prevent that.

I thought I'd order luggage tags from Amazon, but my-oh-my - way too many choices! I didn't know there were so many different sizes of luggage tags. I found one especially made for NCL tags, but they were 3x more expensive than some of the other ones offered. Which tags do I need?

This is helpful, but where did you find that paragraph? It's frustrating to me that I spent an hour searching the NCL site and Googling key words (which took me to NCL pages that I couldn't find on their website myself) and I didn't find that paragraph at all. Where on their website do you find ALL the fine print - I mean the really fine print - about every aspect of your cruise?

I looked repeatedly through the NCL terms and conditions to see where this is denied or confirmed, and could find nothing. Do you have a source that tells exactly what NCL would do to "fix it?" Get you to the first port at no charge to you? Refund your cruise and flights? There's a big difference there.

NCL is very safety conscious especially of windy conditions at Harvest Caye. My friends had their parasailing excursion canceled because it was too windy that day (fully refunded the same day). It was disappointing, but they found plenty of other ways to enjoy Harvest Caye, and everyone stayed safe.

I agree with the idea of moving about the ship. You have several hours in transit through the canal/lake, and the scenery is always changing. Going through one lock, I'd watch the whole process from the bow. For the next lock, and watched the whole process aft. I watched one lock fully open and close while sitting just above the water level inside so I could see right into the lock. It was great fun!

I definitely need to work on this! Like one other poster said, I should "practice" at home putting thing into small containers and then seeing if that amount will last me 2 weeks. I could also probably downsize some of my skin care routine and make up for two weeks. You people are inspiring me.

Thanks for the advice. I need to work on this more and see if I can actually do it. It sure would give me more piece of mind with the way airports are right now!

My problem with packing light isn't about the clothes - it's trying to fit all my toiletries in tiny 100ml containers that all have to fit in a 1 litre plastic bag to get through security. Part of the problem is that I value my skin care routine and I love to wear make up in the evening, plus I use numerous hair products. I say someday when I retire maybe I'll just go grey and stop wearing make up and worrying about getting wrinkles, and then I can just use a carry on for trips.

My TA told us not to expect flight info until 30 days prior to the cruise at best. She said all the cruise lines are waiting until as late as possible to book flights in order to avoid having flights canceled and having to rebook them. That makes sense to me as I know people booking their own flights too early have had cancelations, sometimes multiple times. I'm content to wait.

Hi Kay, we booked using NCL air for the first time, and they contacted us about a month before final payment was due to verify that the names on our passports matched exactly what they had in their records. When issuing flight tickets, all that is required is the passengers' names - no other passport info, but the names must match exactly. The airline will check your passport when you check in.

After reading stuff on CC, I swore I would never use the free air promo. But there was no way I could get flights as cheap as they were offering with the 2-for-1 deal. We're paying $500 total for flights that would cost $2000+ EACH if I booked on my own. So I'm hoping it all works out. What makes me most nervous is flying in the day of embarkation. We NEVER do that. So I'm hoping we can get a deviation at least for that. If not, getting to LA is the cheap part so we can book our own flights.

Tried it on the Bliss and couldn't get it to work when one of us was in a stateroom or public washroom. It only worked in the common areas. It was useful at times, but frustrating when you're texting, "Where are you?" and the person is in an area where it doesn't work.

Like any good love story, your first is always special, so I do love the Sun. But I think the Bliss is my favorite overall. I love the look of it and all of the activities.

Thanks for the insights. This is the first time we've used the air option. I've emailed our TA with the link to NCL's promotional policies to see what she has to say.

What a great idea! Thank you.