GWAE

We wouldn't do that. You never know what kind of glitch can happen with flights-----delays or cancellations, which can cause you to arrive to late for boarding.

 

For peace of mind, fly in the day before. The price of a hotel room is cheaper than plane fare to the next port.

we are definitely hoping to do this. I was checking hotel rooms and they are mostly over $200 for a Saturday night near the port. We could stay a little further out but then we would have to figure out how to get to bourbon street on Saturday night and then back to the ship on Sunday. Those costs may eat up the savings.

2 questions for the experts.

 

1. The packages have blackout dates of March 1st-April 15th. If we leave on April 12th does that mean we are blacked out for the entire trip or just from 12-15?

2. Is there a price list anywhere of what drinks cost. I can not imagine spending $50 a day per person on drinks especially on the 4 days that we get off of the ship. We like to drink beer, rum and coke, daiquiris and basic drinks like those. Any idea of a rough price?

bumping for my 2 questions.

2 questions for the experts.

1. The packages have blackout dates of March 1st-April 15th. If we leave on April 12th does that mean we are blacked out for the entire trip or just from 12-15?

2. Is there a price list anywhere of what drinks cost. I can not imagine spending $50 a day per person on drinks especially on the 4 days that we get off of the ship. We like to drink beer, rum and coke, daiquiris and basic drinks like those. Any idea of a rough price?

I am so glad we are going. My wife seems really excited about it, more so then other vacations.

Someone mentioned age, we are both 34. In the years past if I was going to spend a lot of money we would go to the beach or to Vegas. We have both wanted to go on a cruise so this was a great opportunity.

She has printed all of the excursions and is eagerly going through them. She is really interested in cave tubing, zip lining, Jose cuervo tour, some underwater snorkeling thing with the little propelled jet things. Well basically she wants to just stay on the islands and do multiple excursions. It is going to be tough to decide which ones to do.

Highly advisable to fly in minimally the day before. Experienced cruisers swear by this. Having personally made embarkation with 15 minutes to spare by flying in the same day--- too stressful.

 

Tampa vs. NOLA -> NOLA wins ! The city is called the Big Easy for a reason. Do spend some time there pre-or- post cruise.

 

Garry

I am really glad that I posted that. We didn't even consider flying in the day before. I am not used to taking a vacation that is time sensitive. Any other vacation, if the plane is late it is just an inconvenience. With a cruise you miss your vacation.

We have decided to fly in as early as possible on Saturday. Spend the evening doing NOLA on a crazy Saturday night and get on the ship ASAP.

That leads me to my next question. I have heard from others that if a cruise is scheduled to leave at 4pm then you have to be on 2 hours early. I read earlier that you can sometimes get on as early as noon. If you are on by noon, do you get your room right away and are activities and food open already? Instead of paying for lunch prior to leaving it would make sense to eat for free as early as possible.

22 Years ago I took my first vacation without my parents. I cant remember what we did for info back then. I guess I went to AAA and got a book. It is so great to have boards like this to make you feel more comfortable about taking a trip.

I respect and thank everyone for their opinions. As of right now we have decided to take the Dawn out of NO. It is going to cost a little more but the trip is already pretty inexpensive so it is worth it. We are also goin to try and fly in on Saturday and experience bourbon street on a Saturday night. We would like to go on Friday but we will be leaving a 1 and 3 year old behind so that extra day might be a bit much.

ok so now our next order of business. My wife has been looking at excusions all day on youtube. I see it mentioned on here to not book it through NCL and wait till you get there. I see most of them are about 99 a person so we will be spending $400. Since this is our first time do you think it is just best to have them set up in advance or should we wait? I have heard horror stories where people go out on their own and the taxi people basically threaten to strand them if they dont pay more.

We have cruised out of New Orleans on several different NCL ships for quite a few years. We always pick NO because of the the port itself. Arriving early and staying after the cruise make it two vacations in one. The Dawn is a fine ship and we are sailing her this December. Tampa is a fine port, but not of the caliber of NO in our opinion. Check for hotels early for NO and you can get some really great deals for rooms.

Staying the night never really occurred to us. I was thinking about flying in in the morning and going right to the ship. It says it departs at 4pm, is it not advisable to do that?

Is there a significant difference in cost of airfare and night before lodging at the two ports?

 

I've been on the Sun - a little smaller and not quite as new / fancy but I really enjoyed the cruise and would cruise on the Sun again.

It is hard to tell because the cruise isn't until March so it is a little to far out to check Airfare. If I go based on todays prices it would be about $100 cheaper to go out of Tampa and the Sun.

Is the size difference something that is really noticeable? Being that this is our first cruise will we be missing out of stuff to do on the ship with one of these smaller ships?

yes they both go to

Roatan, Bay Islands (Honduras); Belize City (Belize); Costa Maya (Mexico); Cozumel (Mexico)

and they are both 7 days. They leave out of different ports and they go to the ports in a different order.

Hi all. I stumbled upon this forum today while researching about an upcoming cruise. We recently were given a free cruise from a local casino. It is through Norwegian and we have a bunch of ones that we can choose from.

This will be our first cruise and it is a bit overwhelming when looking at all of the ships, ports, excursions, and everything else. There seem to be hidden fees and extras that you have to pay attention to. We are responsible for taxes and port fees and also the $12 a day "gratuity".

I am posting here in hopes that some of you vets can help me out. Originally when I looked at the ships I wanted to take the Breakaway or one of the very new ships. The problem is the only one that would work on our schedule would leave from new york, then to florida, and 1 stop in the bahamas. There would be like 4 days at sea which my wife was not fond of.

So after debate we are looking at 2 options. 1 is the Sun leaving out of Tampa and the other is the Dawn out of New Orleans. I see just a few threads down there is a long thread on the Sun. There is a trip report for the Dawn also so I will go through that. I am just wondering what you think between the 2. The cruises are basically identical but leaving out of different ports. Which one would you choose and why?

I have many other questions but I don't want to make my first post super long.