GWAE

If we crave some ice cream, can we just walk into the buffet grab some and go?

are there laundry mats or anything on the ship where you can do your own?

Do we need luggage tags on bags that we carry on or just the ones we check?

We are still trying to figure out this cruise thing. I see on the menu that wings come 6 at a time. Can I order 3 orders at once if I wanted to?

We are sailing in April through CAS for free plus all the fees. We plan on taking another in december. Can I do the deposit and apply it to a free CAS cruise and get the bonus?

You might want to check prices again - Southwest is having a sale this week. I love SWA since they let you cancel with no penalty. And of course, the two free suitcases are a BIG plus when you are cruising.

I checked earlier today and the nola flight is unchanged but the Birmingham one dropped 1200 points.

I wanted to add. Originally when I had this plan we were going to taxi to the Airport, get the car, and leave from there. As of right now I think I am going to book with hertz which is a mile from the port and leave from Downtown. This should save us about 90 minutes and give us a good comfort zone for the right. If all goes right we should be leaving with the rental around 9:30 which would give us 9 hours to make a 5 hour drive and get through security which I can't imagine would be too bad in Birmingham.

If you are willing to drive 350 miles then look at flying into HOU as it is much bigger hub for SWA and is the same distance to New Orleans.

I did look at that as well but the latest flight is 3pm back to home. We also had the option to fly from NOLA to atl to Cleveland and then drive 2 hours home. This flight would have a 5 hour layover in atl and get us home at the same time for $100 more. We have elected to book the Birmingham flight. We would rather drive 5 hours than sit in Atlanta for 5 hours.

Spring break for New Orleans schools & colleges would be over - our kids are off the week of Mardi Gras or around Easter. College semesters end in early May here. You are flying out right between two major festivals - French Quarter Fest is the weekend before and Jazz Fest (coupled with the golf tournament) is the next weekend. My guess would be a major convention, but I could not find any ending that day on a quick Google search.

 

I would try flying out on Monday if your schedule permits & the price is right. If you decide to drive to Birmingham, watch out for speed traps in AL. They try to get the college kids going back to school after a weekend off.

Thank you for the info on speed traps. I consider myself a pretty safe driver and usually stick to max 5 over speed limit.

We did consider flying out on Monday as well. The only problem with that is Monday will be our 1 year olds first birthday. We are leaving a 1 and 3 year old behind which will be the first time away from them so my wife wants to get home ASAP. I also work Monday night so that would make it tough as well. We are still considering the spending the money and just flying out of NOLA. We have tried to do this whole cruise cheaply and it will hurt to spend the same amount on airfare as we did on the cruise.

Currently we have spent $566 on the cruise as it was a free one through the casino. Our flight down was free because we opened a southwest credit card and received 50k miles. We were trying to use the 50k for round trip. Our hotel the night before was $139. My parents bought us 2 excursions for our anniversary. And we received the dUBP for the cruise for free.

Do you really save anything by the time you pay for a rental car (one way with drop off charges) or (round trip and then pay for a week plus parking) , plus gas?

Actually we would save a bunch. At least a bunch by our standards. If we fly home from New orleans the tickets are currently $443 a person. If we drive to Birmingham it will cost approx $200 for car and gas and $178 for airfare. It would save us $350.

Our return date is April 19th so we have a little time yet. Not sure what is causing the high price. Maybe spring break?

5+ hours and 350 Interstate miles. No fun, but probably ok if you can handle the drive.

Mileage and driving is no issue for us. We once drove from Pittsburgh to st Louis to tunica to Memphis and back home in a 4 day weekend.

I am just curious if the drive is one that is predictable or could there be problems such as closures or delays and if Birmingham airport is a busy one that could delay us.

Not sure if this is the right place to post but I am curious if anyone can answer my questions.

We are trying to save money on our flight by using southwest because we have 40,000 miles. Prices for Sunday April 19th are really high. We would have to buy another 25k miles in order to use them.

If I would rent a car in new Orleans and drive to Birmingham we would save $250 and still have 15k miles so really we would save $400.

So I guess my question is, if I were to do this would be have time to make the drive. We will be arriving in the port via NCL Dawn at 8am. The flight out of Birmingham is 6:45pm.

I know it would be a lot of driving which is fine and I understand that things could happen and we miss flight. Just curious if the experienced people in that area thinks it is possible and good idea.

If I want ice cream on the ship what are my options?

Can I just walk into the buffet, grab some ice cream and leave?

Would these stay the same for the Dawn in april?

I have the same question. If not this excursion, does anyone have recommendations for another ATV excursion?

Hmm that is confusing. We have an excursion booked in cozumel. I wonder what time they are going to use.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions and comments. It gives us a lot to think about. I never thought about being stranded or if needing to fly back. We are actually leaving our 1 and 3 year olds home for the first time. We also need to think about if something were to happen to them and needing to return home. It probably makes sense to get them, just not sure we want to spend $300 for a one time use. It is basically like buying insurance.

We originally got the card instead because it was much cheaper and we only used it for driving to canada. You make a very good point about not being able to fly home if we miss the ship in port. What would happen if that happened? I should probably look to see if we have enough time to get the real passport.

When we booked our cruise I assumed a passport card was ok since it is for land or sea travel. After reading to much about it I am not questioning if I was right.

I read that it is ok for a closed loop cruise however some countries may not allow you to enter with the passport card. I would hate to get to NOLA and them not let us on the ship. I am going to call NCL on Monday unless there are some people on here that have used one.

We are going on the Dawn in April to Belize city, Costa maua, cozmel, and roatan bay.

Just to be clear, your new cabin is not a balcony. Some of the earlier posts assumed any upgrade would be a balcony, but there are no balconies on deck 5.

 

Jim

oh yes that is correct. We never did get the upgrade that I inquired about earlier in this thread. 8006 and our new room are both picture window rooms.

I agree. It's on a deck with more "life" to it, as opposed to being, essentially, in the belly of the beast. 😉 The only difference in the room seems to be the location, and the higher the deck, the better. At least for me..

 

Midship is seen as preferable. Technically low and mid is the most stable, and therefore less rocky. Also, mid ship makes it easier to get to both aft and forward. If you're able bodied, it's not really an issue.

We are in our 30's and in decent shape. We have never been on a cruise but we do spend a lot of time in Vegas. Last year we stayed at the mgm, it seemed like it took us a half hour to walk anywhere from the room, I can't imagine that it would be worse.

Personally, I'd much prefer 8006.

Can I ask why?

I just called and was able to get the current promotion. Had to pick between UDP, UBP, or $200 on board credit.

There were some problems with changing the reservation because we have shore excusions booked already. She ended up booking a new reservation while leaving the old one open until the new one is official. Because of this she had to book a new room number. Our old one was 8006 (I think, it is outside picture) and the new one is 5638.

Which one of these locations are better? Should I call back and try to keep my original room. This is our first cruise and my wife is convinced that if a room is still available then no one must want it.

LOL who operates the camera in your household? Will either you or you DW ask a stranger to snap a photo? Do you travel alone with just you and your DW.

 

The reason I ask this, is I imagine DH would probably be under the same opinion as you. I'm not a vain person by any means but I take all the photos when we are on vacation, DH never thinks to pick up the camera and take any. I will not ask a stranger to take a photo of the two of us. Therefore, for years we have came back from vacation looking like DH went alone and left me behind :D So now he has a choice; remember pick up the camera now and then to include me in the vacation photos, ask a stranger to take some photos of the 2 of us, or put up with me spending on over priced photos. So far he's chosen the latter. :D

well you see, I think my dw has a photo addiction. She will just walk around snapping pictures of everything. We went to AC last week and when entering NJ she takes a pic of welcome to NJ. I said, hun you have taken that same picture at least 25 times. She says, yes but this one is for this trip. While at the rainforest cafe she took a picture of us 4 in the restaurant and then when the person came around she got another one and then we paid for it. At least they are only $6 there, I think that is reasonable. I can not stand when they are $24.95. That is just absurd for a picture.

I see someone quoted current pricing above.

 

What they charge, and what they are worth are not always the same thing. We bought some pictures years ago and they are now buried in a box somewhere. We no longer buy ANY pictures even if they were $1.

I wish I could convince my wife of this. Last week we bought one at rainforest cafe, but at least it was only $6.