CaliMom05

We also have only done the Escape to Jost Van Dyke excursion while in Tortola and will be going again this December. We have the same port times as the OP and our excursion leaves at 7:00 a.m. I don't believe we were given another option for a later excursion time. It's a great excursion and once we booked our cruise, I made sure to book this excursion right away so that it didn't sell out.

My husband and I were on the Prima Halloween 2022 and it was a lot of fun. So many passengers and cruise staff dressed up - they did a "haunted hall" down each hallway leading into the theater and had a huge Halloween dance party that night in the theater. Decorations all around the ship and the buffet had Halloween treats (cakes and candy). They had a few Halloween cocktails but I don't remember what they were. We had a fun time!

I was quite surprised also. There are many on our roll call who have received their airfare info but the friends we are traveling with have not received theirs yet. It appears to be hit or miss!

Thanks for this info. My friend took a med cruise in 2019 on BOGO air and they left out of Ontario (California) and their first layover was LAX! So crazy. They did have 3 legs - from Ontario to LAX, LAX to Atlanta, then direct flight to Europe. I was happy that our flight has just one layover in Toronto then on to Rome. I guess it just depends on what's available when the air dept is doing their bookings.

We had a little hiccup with our flight assignments for our November 12, 2023, cruise out of Rome. We requested a two-day deviation and last week received our flight info with only a one-day deviation. I slightly freaked out because I had already booked our hotel for the two additional nights and had a Scavi tour at the Vatican for November 11th which we would be late for. I contacted NCL Air department and the gentleman reviewed my reservation and said there was definitely an error on their part and that a new reservation would be forecoming with an arrival date of November 10th. Yesterday I received our new flights with two-day deviation - yay! And the flights are booked with United (operating as Air Canada) as opposed to just Air Canada from the original flights. We now have one free checked bag and were able to upgrade our seats to preferred (at an additional cost but it's additional legroom so we were fine with it). I am very happy that NCL Air sorted this out so quickly. And I was pretty surprised that we received our flight info over 90 days prior to sailing date. This is our third time using the BOGO NCL Air and have always been happy with our reservations. I made sure this time to choose LAX (as opposed to San Diego or Ontario which are a bit closer) because I've read some people find that smaller airports have more layovers with international travel and the airfare price was less expensive out of LAX as well. I wouldn't hesitate to use NCL Air again based on our prior experiences,

As soon as we got onboard we got on the waitlist for an excursion on our Caribbean cruise. We were notified the day before the excursion that we were able to participate in the excursion! We received the shore excursion tickets in our room and were super happy about it. Another plus is that we had some non-refundable OBC from the casino and since we booked onboard we were able to use the OBC to cover the cost of the excursion!

We were on the Bliss last year and my RAMS!!! were playing and NCL had a great party set up in the theater! They had game day food (hot dogs, popcorn, nachos, etc.) set up as you entered the theater and we had a fantastic time! Rams fans and Bengals fans were clearly divided and there was plenty of cheering and high fives during the entire game. Bar staff came around during the entire game and served drinks. We have a fantastic time!

Thanks! We never saw them there but will be sure to check it out when we're back on her in November.

As this will be our first TA I don't know the answer to your question but maybe someone else can chime in?

Thanks for the info. Quite possibly NCL has removed the late night buffet option which is a real bummer.

My husband and I went on the Breakaway in April 2022 and had such a great time so we decided to sail again to celebrate our 25th anniversary in Jan 2023. This sailing had the same itinerary but we sailed in a nicer cabin (from regular balcony to club spa balcony) and this time we had friends who traveled with us (they were in an inside stateroom). Here are some of the differences we observed: Boarding Process: April 2022 - We used NCL transportation to the port and arrived with the masses! Even though it wasn't a full sailing (I don't remember the number of passengers but it was between 2,000 and 3,000 guests - no kids club was available - I remember that) it was a cluster**** waiting to board the ship. We were booked with Casinos at Sea (CAS) and had priority boarding but after checking in had to wait in the terminal in the infamous plastic chairs for at least 90 mins. Jan 2023 - We stayed in NOLA prior to the cruise so we took an Uber to the port and checked in after 11:00 a.m. Ship was full (4,300 passengers) but the lines moved pretty quickly. They didn't separate out anyone except for Haven guests (even though we were again CAS guests) but after check-in we asked what boarding group we were in and the girl who checked us in said "Oh they didn't give you a number? Just go in with the next group called." So we walked into the terminal area and bypassed the plastic chairs and just walked onto the ship when they called the next group. Probably would have had to wait another hour or so if we had a number so I guess we got lucky. Disembarkation: April 2022 - We were staying in NOLA so we planned on taking a taxi to our hotel. We selected a 10:00 a.m. disembarking time and lined up and didn't get off the ship until almost 11:30. It was a hot mess as they had multiple lines exiting and merging off the ship. We found our bags without any issue and had a porter get us to the front of the exit line super quickly. Left the port by noon. Jan 2023 - Again we were staying in NOLA but had a food tour scheduled at noon so we got off at 9:00 a.m. This time Breakaway staff had it figured out because there was one dedicated line with only Haven guests merging in at the very end. Again we got a porter and he and the other porters (they were awesome, making sure we moved swiftly down the HUGE line of people waiting) were a great help and we were out waitng for our Lyft driver by 9:45. In NOLA I totally recommend using a porter. They work off tips and you'll save SO much time getting to the exit doors at the port. Ports: April 2022 - We had a lot of time in all the ports but Roatan was cancelled due to docking issues with Royal Caribbean (NCL pays to use the dock and a RCL ship was docked and didn't leave enough room for us). Very disappointing to go all the way up to the dock and then back out and go back out to sea! When this happened the staff worked hard to add activities so it ended up being a fun sea day. Not as fun as playing with sloths but it was okay. Jan 2023 - Found out about itinerary changes at check-in. Costa Maya port time was decreased by several hours! Instead of arriving in the morning, arrival time was 2 or 2:30. We had a private excursion booked so the tour company adjusted it for us but our friends booked an NCL excursion and it was cancelled. Numerous excursions were cancelled in Costa Maya. Cozumel port time was shortened also. My girlfriend and I had booked Nachi Cocom on our own so it was fine for us but her husband had a full day NCL excursion booked. He showed up to meet his excursion per the shore excursion ticket meeting place and no one was there! He found a shore excurion staff member and they found out it had been cancelled due to the shortened port time but he wasn't notified. If we had known of the cancellation he could have come with us to the beach so that was a bummer. We did stop in Roatan and yay I got to see the sloths. We booked with Daniel Johnson and they are so awesome I highly recommend. I had booked them last April and rebooked because of the missed port and our tour guide said she had been waiting at the port in April 2022 and saw the Breakaway backing up and thought it was one of the strangest things she had ever seen. I agreed! Dining: April 2022 - We had two specialty dinners plus two platinum so my husband and I agreed on Cagney's, Moderno, Ocean Blue, and Teppanyaki. He hates Le Bistro and doesn't particularly care for La Cucina so I suffer with his choices LOL. We had great meals in all four. Servers were attentive and meal times were reasonable. We also ate at Taste/Savor (we don't do the main MDR as it's a little too stuffy for us), O'Sheehan's, and did the buffet a couple of times. Can't say we had a bad meal anywhere and buffet wasn't crowded at all. Jan 2023 - Same specialty dining situation and same restaurants. This time we noticed a HUGE change in the wait staff. I ususally fill out a ton of vacation hero cards. This time, we felt a lot of the wait staff were just not very happy. And we had a huge issue in Cagney's. Our meal time was over 2-1/2 hours which was crazy since the tables on each side of us (one a table of four, like ours, and the other a table of two) both came in after us and both left before we even finished our meals. Believe me, we are not needy people. We are super happy to be on a cruise and rarely ever complain. Give us our cocktails and we are good to go. But we planned on seeing SIX (the theater show) at 10:00 and we arrived at Cagney's at 7:15. Honestly I assumed that would give us plenty of time. Because it was so long of a meal, our friend skipped dessert to make sure he saved us seats. We had show reservations but we wanted to sit together! At 9:45 we just received our dessert (after letting our server know we needed to leave by 9:45 to make the show). Pretty frustrating. I always leave at least $10 tip (usually $20 if it's super good service) when we eat in a specialty restaurant but my husband didn't even want to tip so I left a measly $5. Other restaurants were more of the same with a few exceptions. We had a couple of awesome servers in Savor and Ocean Blue. And the wine steward in Ocean Blue was a gem. Buffet was super packed but food was good - only went there for breakfast once and lunch twice. BIG ISSUE REGARDING BUFFET!!! So, my husband loves his late night cookies. He sometimes skips desserts or just orders a scoop of ice cream at dinner and then we hit up the buffet before bed. First night we went to the buffet and it was closed around 10. I thought maybe it was because it was the first night. Second night, same thing. Weird so the next day we did lunch in the buffet and my husband went and spoke with the manager working the buffet and asked about late night - especially cookies. Buffet manager said, "Fleetwide decision to forego late night dining in the buffet!!! But if we ever want cookies while the buffet is open, just ask a staff member and they will get them for you." Okay, this stinks! My husband spends time in the casino (as you can tell since we book with CAS) and we always cruise by the buffet at night. We were on the Prima in October/November and it was open late night. So I'm assuming this is a recent change? I haven't been on Cruise Critic for a few weeks so I'm wondering if anyone else has confirmed this on other ships? Very disappointed if this is actually a fleetwide decision!!! Room and Room Steward: April 2022: Balcony room was okay - plenty of room and our room steward was absolutely the best! Addressed us by name and came by and introduced himself on the first day. Made us towel animals a couple of times even though we didn't request them. Always smiling and helpful! Jan 2023: Room was really awesome - especially the bathroom! Super big. Room steward was a grump. My husband never met him until day five! He made up the room after noon each day and did an okay job but just not very happy. Did he have too many rooms to clean? I don't know. He did turn down service each night also so we did have two visits a day. Our friends liked their room but said their steward was MIA a few nights and they rarely saw her either. So maybe they have too much work to do? I don't know as our guy was not very talkative so we didn't really engage in much conversation. Finally, production shows on both sailings were the same but we had different comedians, singers, and other variety acts. We enjoyed the shows and felt the entertainment value was great on both sailings. We had fun in the atrium enjoying the various trivia offerings and other game shows. We did the thermal spa this time and that was amazing! We also did a couple's massage (for our anniversary!) and the therapists were great. We don't hang out at the pool so I can't comment on how crowded it might have been. I enjoyed the ropes course with my friend and saw people using the free sports courts so I'm glad those are still available at no charge for anyone that wants to use them. Bar service was great. Sometimes a little wait for the bar servers but they were hustling so no complaints. As I previously mentioned it was a very full sailing but it didn't feel super crowded on the ship, except in the buffet. My friend has limited mobility and uses a cane or a wheelchair so we always used the elevators and didn't have much of a wait except on port days to disembark, so no problems there. So...would we sail Breakawy again. Yes! We are giving the ship another chance and booked a transatlantic sailing in November 2023. I'm thinking the ship will be less crowded as it is a 16-day sailing so I'm hoping for a happier cruise staff and who knows - maybe they'll bring back the late night buffet!!!!

We have both refundable OBC (from our TA) and non-refundable OBC (from NCL stock). To view your OBC, go to your Vacation Summary page. On our upcoming reservation, the TA purchased the OBC so it is considered refundable OBC and it's listed on our vacation summary: The non-refundable OBC is also listed on our vacation summary and is clearly labeled non-refundable: Only the "refundable" OBC may be used for daily service charges. As mentioned previously, it is a bit confusing now the way they display everything on your account onboard. You can always go to guest services and they will figure everything out for you or keep a running tally yourself - that's what I do. I just tell my husband to order a lobster tail at Cagney's, add a tip for our servers at dinner, and not to worry about the tax they charge while in port on our alcoholic beverages and that will all be covered by the non-refundable OBC. And we found out that non-refundable OBC can not be used towards any "gaming" charges such as bingo, slot tournaments, etc.

So I'm not sure what happened to my original post about watching NFL games on NCL - this section was not added by me - very strange: "I can still suggest from myself some interesting games actually. It's not hard, you can even play blackjack now. It's really just an awesome game and I recommend everyone here to take a look and read https://pokiesman.com/blackjack/ where you can find blackjack, here's a list of casinos that have it. Plus you can really get yourself all the information about this cool game quickly. I recommend it." How can I figure out who added this crap to my original post? TIA

Inside was comped (just had to pay the port fees and the 2 for 1 airfare) and I called the dedicated latitudes phone number for the upgrade. I was calling on a Sunday and they only answer the CAS phone number Monday - Friday. Sorry but I can't remember the latitudes phone number - I saw it when I was on Cruise Critic and decided to call about another issue and then asked about upgrading and got lucky.

Booked thru CAS (Casinos at Sea).