RegBarclay

You can do that, but be aware that NCL charges a 3% fee for all withdrawals from onboard account in the casino.

Unused OBC of a few hundred $ you can probably get cash at guest services, but there have also been reports that they will issue a check...

Thanks for taking the time to check for alternatives, but the LAX-MUC flight is a restricted saver award I already booked using miles, so there is no changes possible...

Guess I will gamble and book the 10:25 flight!

Thanks Gardyloo,

SEA-LAX on Alaska and LAX-MUC on Lufthansa booked on separate tickets. So at LAX we will need to collect our bags and then go from terminal 6 to TBIT.

Never arrived in Seattle on a cruise, but I guess it is similar to Miami or NYC. So if NCL lists 6 am as arival time the ship should be docked long before that time. We can be off by 6:30, through immigration by 7 and at the airport before 8 if everything goes according to plan?

Hi all,

We will disembark NCL Bliss in Seattle on August 25th and need to get to LAX for a 5 pm international flight that is already confirmed.

Is it reasonably safe to book a 10:25 flight from SEA to LAX?

Only other option would be noon, which leaves little time for the connection and separate check-in at LAX.

Some additional information:

As Haven guests we can be first off the ship. Bliss is scheduled to arrive at 6 am.

We would be flying domestic first, but do not have TSA precheck in case that makes a difference.

Thanks for your input!

RegBarclay

Deck 13 has one regular H7 and one with handicapped facilities. Regular one will have a door between bedroom and living room. No 2nd bathroom.

Best deal I ever got was Jan 2014 10 Night Eastern Med on the Jade. Booked two weeks before saildate and got a Haven 2BR for 3k total (1.5k pp). 300 OBC on top, but no UBP or other choices included back then...

You can settle with cash.

Which ship/cabin are you sailing?

1) I am not aware of any Haven suites where the bed in master bedroom can be split...

2) should be no problem (depending on balcony size, some cannot really fit more than two chairs). If not done once you get to the cabin, steward will be happy to bring additional lounger.

3) depends on cabin and power outlets.

Joy itineraries only seem to be available on short notice through ncl main page. Most are sold to travel agents in China and only if they have problems to fill the ship, other markets are allowed to book...

If you are considering a cruise on Joy, please be aware that it caters to Chinese citizens exclusively and the cruise experience will be VERY different from what you are used to. There are some chinese YouTube reviews with english subtitles you can google to get an idea.

I have a question about the Cirque show. What did they serve for the meal?? Do you have options?

It is a fixed menu. Prosciutto with Mozzarella and tomatoes, Surf & Turf, trio of sweets.

There is a vegetarian alternative, but I do not have details.

Who was your Butler?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Sorry, but I am not comfortable naming the individual here. As I said it was only a small disappointment to us, as we do not expect or require much from the butlers when cruising Haven.

The coffee machine was taken care of within 10 minutes the two times I called, Butler was friendly and I surely would have gotten cookies as well if I repeated the request. Just not the quality of service we had the other times in Haven cabins...

Thanks for that information. Do you have to go down to the players club or does it show anywhere on your cabin TV?

You have to go to players club desk. Your casino points you can also check on any slot machine by inserting keycard and choosing account balance on the touchscreen.

But like I wrote it is never a fixed amount, but rather based on your level of play and win/loss. If I ask during the cruise, they always tell me to come back on the last day after I finished playing and only then will they say what they are willing to deduct from onboard account.

If I won a lot, they will only deduct $50-100 even if I also put in many hours. Loose a couple of thousand and they are more accommodating ;)

This is only true for table games. Slot players can redeem the points at the machines at a rate of $10 per 1,000 points afaik.

great info..

 

would you recommend the ship excursions

 

or wait and join the local excursions

I almost never book ship excursions as they are way overpriced. Google "cruise excursions" and you will find many companies that offer the same excursions for far less. Most of these will also offer guarantees that you get back to the ship on time.

I am new to NCL and CAS. I didn't even know about the OBC during my last cruise. I hate to think what I left behind because, like you we play $50.00 BJ. Where can you see your OBC and how much it is? Can you use it for DSC gratuities and the gift shop?

Everytime you play and give them your keycard, that play is tracked. Based on how many points you accumulate during the cruise and how much you won/lost, the casino host (players club desk) will take care of some charges from your onboard account on the final night. Normally this is in the $50-200 range for my play, only if you loose a lot are they willing to give more. Cannot be used for DSC, but gift shop, spa and most other onboard expenses qualify.

If you played a lot (10+ hours) during your last cruise and were logged in at the tables they will have a record of your play and it should qualify for some rewards. When ready to book the next cruise, just give them a call (1-800-PLAYNCL) and ask if they are willing to offer anything based on your play. Maybe they will comp an inside cabin (you still pay taxes and admin fee), or give a 20% discount...

Good Luck!

Definitely no squeeze on Epic. We were in Teppanyaki there last week and it was my family of 4, another family of 5 and there was still at least one seat open.

What did you do in order to upgrade wifi? Make a call or go see someone?

You have to see internet manager, hours are posted in freestyle daily.

Hi guys,

I just returned from my third cruise on Epic. Will not do a traditional review, but have some observations/topics that I thought about and wanted to share with you or put up for discussion.

Some background: My 7th NCL cruise (first time as platinum), all within the last 4 years. I have cruised Princess twice years ago, no other cruiselines. In the past we have cruised balconies but did Escape and Breakaway in Haven, this was first time Epic Haven. I have enjoyed all my cruises on NCL including this one and will continue to cruise with them. Please keep this in mind when reading as I may sound overly critical sometimes...

Haven pool area:

Loved the fact, that it is almost an actual pool and not a tiny one like on the newer ships, although it could be deeper than 3 ft. For all those concerned with children in the Haven pool area: yes, it is appearantly a big issue during the summer months. I have a six year old son myself and I know that kids will be kids, but there should be some supervision! Every day kids would scream, splash and jump into the pool (even from the hottub railings into pool) and only once did I ever see NCL staff reprimanding them. Many of those kids (even 4-5 year olds) came and went with no parent to be seen. NCL needs to step up their game and have a crew member present to supervise this area!

Drink service was spotty, but the bar is just steps away. On some days server would come by every 20 minutes to take orders, other days no one for hours. The pool bar closes at 8pm.

By mid-afternoon most loungers where empty, but staff would not bring out fresh towels (you can get them in the changing rooms next to courtyard).

Liked that an actual sauna, steam rooms, spa treatment rooms and small fitness center are included in Haven area!

I wish NCL would use (teak) wood for the Haven balconies and pool/sundeck areas but doubt that will ever happen.

Haven restaurant and grill:

Breakfast, lunch and dinner was great. We had 5 specialties booked and I was sorry i did not get to eat there more often for dinner. Do not like the fact that the full lunch menu is only available in the restaurant while only small menu (burgers, etc.) right outside at the grill/courtyard - there is a sliding door between these two and IMO both areas should serve full lunch.

Breakfast times:

Why is there breakfast until 10:30 one day and they stop serving it at 9 when the ship is docked in Civitavechia? I get that most people will leave the ship for excursions, but why not offer breakfast until 10:30 every day...

Cabin:

We had cabin 16016, a two bedroom suite (H4). Cabin was great overall. Did not notice any noise issues (except for running kids or slamming doors which can happen anywhere). Some wear and tear that I would not expect in a Haven cabin, but nothing major.

Haven staff:

Steward was ok. Only got a total of 4 towel animals which was a disappointment for the kids. Other than that very friendly and quick to resolve issues (toilet in guest bathroom did not flush twice during the week).

Butler was a small disappointment. I called her on the first evening to ask about refills for the nespresso machine. She came to the cabin and introduced herself. I told her we would be low maintenance as we almost never have room service. Did ask to please have the machine stocked. I had to call twice again during the week as we ran out of capsules. Requested to include cookies for the kids with afternoon snack - only got them twice.

Concierge we did not use much. They changed two reservations and provided escort to Cirque. Always friendly and helpfull. Concierge desk was open 8am-8pm.

Somehow I cannot shake the feeling that the Haven staff was prejudiced against non-US passengers as they do not expect them to tip a lot (if at all). They were all friendly, just not as eager as I remember from carribean cruises where most passengers are from the states. For the record: I did tip them all, although butler got the minimum I had allocated for that position. NCL could/should think about including positions like butler/concierge in the suite DSC to avoid them being stiffed (sometimes even unkowingly) by passengers.

Elevators:

NCL should include some basic "elevator education" during muster drill (or at least in freestyle daily) ;)

Amazing how many people do not understand "up" and "down" arrows, or are seemingly unable to take the stairs for even one floor.

Also, there is technology/software available that would provide better algorithms and the elevators would not need to stop on as many decks while actually increasing the capacity (example: if five or more decks already pressed, elevator will not stop on decks in-between as it is most likely full).

With the Haven keycard you can actually avoid this as it can do "priority service" between decks 16/17 and 5/6/7. But for other people already in the elevator it will void their selected deck, so it would be beyond tacky to actually use that perk... Maybe NCL should think about setting aside one elevator to provide this priority service by default.

Cirque show:

No longer a dinner show. Now it is a very rushed dinner (three courses in 40 minutes) followed by a show! Had I known that I would have asked to join for the show only and eat where you can actually choose your courses and take your time! Honestly, does anybody prefer this to the old format (eating while watching the show)?

Specialties:

Great service at all venues. We did Cagney's twice, La Cucina and Teppanyaki. No dinner took longer than 90 minutes total. One thing I still miss is the bread they used to serve at La Cucina which was paired with 3-4 different olive oils for dipping. Switching from a fixed $15 upcharge to á la carte pricing and removing this at the same time still leaves a sour taste in my mouth!

Internet:

Still slow, but seemed faster than last year. Maybe they did install the new internet NCL promised in spring.

Good news is you can now upgrade your 250 min free at sea perk to unlimited for a charge of $85 which means they actually credit the full value of the perk ($125) towards the regular charge for unlimited. Not so good news is that if you only learn of this on the second day, they will not adjust that upcharge for the missed day :')

Casino/CAS:

This and most previous cruises were comped by Casinos at Sea (CAS). I am not that much of a highroller that they actually comp the Haven cabin, but they usually offer inside/OV and I pay the upcharge for Haven. Still manage to save 25-50% off regular fare this way and consider that a very good deal as I would most likely gamble anyway during the cruises.

Very different from the carribean cruises as the casino was only open 30 min after leaving port until 2 am due to very strict regulations in Europe while in the carribean they usually stay open until docking and reopen the moment the ship leaves the port.

The only casino game I play is blackjack. I used to play the $25 or $50 tables, but it appears some months ago the rules changed and the dealer now hits a soft 17 on these tables, so I had to move up to the $100 (which also offers 6 decks instead of 8). In case you have no idea what I am talking about: the house edge in blackjack is about 0.4%, meaning for every $100 bet I would loose 40 cents on average. If the dealer hits a soft 17 that house edge changes to 0.6% which does not sound like much but actually increases their chances against me by 50%

Higher bets unfortunately equals higher variance and I was hit hard by it on this cruise loosing almost $10k. Hope now they will offer the Haven cabin for free next cruise :')

Casino host was very nice and came by to introduce herself during the first night. in the end she took care of $700+ onboard charges for me. Unfortunately that meant I had $300+ unrefundable OBC left which I only saw on the last morning (account statement on the iconcierge app disappeared around 11pm on the last night). I thought unrefundable OBC could be used for casino withdrawals, but appearantly that was wrong. Managed to spent it on some photos and could use the OBC to tip concierge/butler so in the end all was well.

Thanks for reading!

That's a bummer to hear. I would've thought ~$500 bets with decent hours would be enough to reach at least Ruby. It seems like they're really looking for players who cruise very frequently. For someone who only cruises once a year on average, it seems like it'd be hard to even get status, yet less benefit from it. It'd be nice if NCL would adapt the 18 month play periods. I think 12 months is more suitable for land based casinos.

 

 

 

 

 

With your estimate of $150-200/hand @ 20-30 hours per cruise, what kind of return offers do you receive from NCL?

My last 4 cruises I was offered comped inside or OV which I always upgraded to Haven. On one of those cruises (14 days) I also got a discounted price for the upgrade for a total savings of 50%...

I think Ruby or Elite are impossible unless you bet $500+, Sapphire could be reachable.

I play the green chip tables ($50 min) and always bet on two spots. My betting spread is $50-500 on each, probably average bet of $150-200 per hand, total of 20-30 hours per cruise.

Only on one of the 7 day cruises I took did I manage to reach Pearl status (5.000 points)!

While they are clear on points earning for slots, for table games they always claim "it depends"...

Won close to $10k on each of my last two cruises (summer 2015 and 2016) on Epic playing blackjack.

Taking into account the losses on the other cruises I took in the last two years and the savings from booking through CAS I am up around $25k at the moment [emoji846]

Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk

$50 table is 8 deck shoe with S17, for 6 deck you need to play $100

From what I remember there is no Spanish 21

Not sure about VP pay tables anymore, but will need to play $5 and up for best available pay tables (which still suck)

Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk

Remember to ask about upgrading the offer!

for my upcoming 14 day cruise I was offered a free inside which meant saving about usd 1,000 pp taking into account the admin fee and taxes. I asked about upgrading to Haven and their offer equaled a 2 for 1 fare, savings of usd 3,500 pp!

I have received the obc on my last two cruises booked through CAS and using FCC for both.

Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk

Minimums 6, 15, 25, 50, 100

25 or higher uses 8 deck shoe, others with continuous shuffle machines.

25 or higher bj 3:2, others 6:5

50 or higher stand soft 17, others hit

You get Free at Sea offer that goes with cabin category you are comped. Get a free inside, upgrade to balcony, only one promo chioce. Upgrade to Haven and you get all promos.

In the past, you could call upsell department. That should still apply for all ships other than Breakaway and Escape (upgrade bidding only - must receive email to initiate upsell). Have heard conflicting info on whether CAS cabins are eligible for new upsell bidding, maybe someone else has answers...