alwalaska

It was the Dawn that we were on in Feb as well. I'm hoping the Spirit will be more flexible. I'm thinking I would like to try for my husband and me to share an antipasti, a pizza, and a pasta, skipping the Secondi and maybe on side. That still seems like a lot of food to eat, but it is only 5 items total between the 2 of us. I guess I'll find out in Feb.

Thanks all for all of the responses. It is good to know that we should plan on sharing items like the veal. Pictures are very helpful. I'm allergic to citrus and I never would have thought to remind them about it when ordering a veal cutlet.

So - what are these items pictured?

Hi! I know that people are frequently given everything they ask for and are not charged extra, but I would like to know what the rules are for Onda. I'm not worried about not having enough to eat, but it is nice to know ahead of time when I'm looking through the menus for things I'd like to try. What sections can you pick from with the Dining Package? What sections can you pick from with the Latitudes Coupon? We learned last cruise (different ship) that in Cagney's with the Latitude coupon, you get 1 appetizer, salad, or soup, 1 main course, and 1 side. With the dining package, you get an appetizer and either a salad or soup, and 2 sides, along with the main course. Onda seems to have 5 categories. I'm particularly interested in the pizza and pasta options and whether they can be in addition to a secondi or if they are instead of. Thanks.

They definitely completely shut down in an ice storm, but you can hit bad weather anywhere. I was in Houston one January when an ice storm came through, and they started shutting down before the temperatures even hit 32 degrees. They are not regular occurrences though.

Thanks for sharing. I was looking at Galveston for Feb 2024, but now we're doing our Australia/NZ trip in 2024, so 2025 will have to be a cheap cruise of some sort. If we do Galveston, we'll probably drive, even though it is a long haul from Ohio, there are still places in Texas we want to visit and the weather is quite pleasant for us northerners in January and February. 🙂

Sorry, I can't help with that. I'm going in Feb and will have more info when I get home. I do know that there are places that the regular ferries go that the HoHo ships do not, and I think the ferries are more point to point, where the HoHo options make a circuit. I haven't been able to find great info on ferry pricing on the different routes, nor whether or not ferries are "free" once you hit the daily max on the Opal cards. Maybe someone else knows.

Thank you for all of the pictures and info. Architecture and library - you hit the nail on the head with that one. I love both.

That is true for the FantaSea cruise. I'm sorry, I forgot about that. The HoHo Bus is available all days of the week. Also, the Captain Cook HoHo (which Bing has a bad email address for at the top) is all days of the week. Hop On Hop Off Sydney Harbour Explorer | Captain Cook Cruises Sydney Harbour .One thing I read is that it is better to do the zoo purchase separately if you are doing that. Someone had a hard time exchanging the coupon into a ticket at the zoo. Also, the sky ride that usually takes you from the ferry point to the zoo is currently closed, so I think we will take a bus to the top of the zoo and then use the ferry to get back to our hotel or wherever we are going next at the end of the day. Again - my info is all web learned. I have not been on my trip yet.

Thank you. I'm pretty sure this is what we are going to book. I just noticed that you are from the suburbs of Melbourne. We're thinking about taking the public transport from near the cruise port to downtown inside the "free zone", and then using a combination of the tram and our feet, explore the area, hopping into some of the museums, checking out what looks like some really amazing architecture, etc. 1) From the public transportation side, it looks like the myki visitor pack no longer exists. I've been trying to read up on the public transport and it seems like the best bet will be to load myki into the Google Wallet of both of our phones, load it with $10 each (full day fare across 2 zones???), and call it good? Does this sound right? I'll have been in Australia prior to the cruise, so I can make sure I save cash for this day if it will be easier (or even possible). Am I missing anything on this plan? 2) Anything that we absolutely should not miss? 3) Our all aboard will likely be 4:30 pm. How early should we leave and head back? I don't want to be worried about missing the boat if there are problems getting back due to rush hour. I appreciate all of your help.

WARNING: My answer is all from research - not real knowledge 😉 Supposedly if you always use the same credit card to tap on and tap off when riding, it has the same discounts and daily max values as the Opal card. I plan on getting the OPAL card to help keep myself straight. We will be there for 6 days, so although I plan on using a lot of public transportation, I do also plan on getting the combo Ho/Ho for the bus and the cruise because I like having the narration to help me get acquainted with the area and learn more about the history. There are at least two companies that offer the HoHo cruises. One is FantaSea and they are the ones that work with the Big Brown bus to do the combination tickets. Captain Cook is the other and you can use your Opal card to pay for it according to this site: https://transportnsw.info/travel-info/ways-to-get-around/ferry/how-to-pay-for-your-ferry-trip

Thank you again for sharing your info. I'm looking at Zealandier and they say the tour is a small group tour. What size was the vehicle you were in?

I'm so sorry. Please keep us updated.

That is just wrong. I would try to open up a customer service incident if you would like to go to Australia a year earlier than your original plan. There seems to be room on all of the itineraries.

Were you previously on an Alaska itinerary or an Australia/New Zealand itinerary? We were originally on Aus/NZ. I think the 20% offers were specific to the itinerary, not just the ship. Our 20% was only good on the Spirit and only from June 23, 2023 (which was impossible since we didn't get the cert until the 23rd) and April 2024. The Jewel was doing similar itineraries to the Spirit in Alaska I believe. But yes, NCL has definitely messed things up and did not do right by a lot of people in my opinion. I'm so sorry that your situation has been so frustrating. Can you at least make use of the 10% coupon on your Jewel cruise?

The coupons are for the Latitudes free meals.

Thank you! I had been on the page with all of the menus, but didn't see this page. I appreciate your help.

I only know about Cagney's with the current rules. I would use the Free at Sea Dinners at Cagney's if you have somewhere else to use the Latitude coupons. Although not every server on every ship does it, the Latitude's coupon gives you Pick 1 from appetizers, salads, and soups, and 1 side. The Free at Sea gives you 1 appetizer, 1 Soup or salad, and 2 sides. We used our Latitude ones on the Dawn for Teppanyaki and the Brazillian place because they were fixed prices and no different, but you don't have either of those choices. I hope someone can help you with Le Bistro and La Cucina.

I'll be on the Spirit in Feb and I found a couple of sites with menus, but I haven't seen any for Silk. Thanks!

Thank you very much! I thought I posted previously to thank you, but it poofed. I had read their standard and COVID cancelation policies but somehow missed the cruise one farther down. Their cruises sound fantastic and the area sound beautiful.

It was an interesting move when many sites (sometimes due to law suits, but still) seem to be going more transparent with pricing. At least for now, I go to 3rd party sites to do price checking since most don't require you to fill out all of the info before getting the grand total and breakdowns. Eventually, I'm sure NCL will close that loop-hole.

I'm actually glad they were doing maintenance. Earlier today my cruise said "Default Voyage Name" instead of the cruise name and when I went to click into it, it said "Page not found". Since my cruise has already been canceled once, the heart skipped a couple of beats until I realized the whole site was having problems.

Interesting, yes, I did see them on the non-booking deck plans, that was how I learned about them. I haven't seen them when I tried doing fake bookings and the lady from World Points didn't have any of them on her list, but they were available. Good to know that they at least show up in the available cabins list typically. Not sure why I wasn't seeing them.

Yeah - I told the person I talked to about that, but... they don't care if they have incorrect info. There are still FAQ entries about 2016 and 2017 out there. It is really frustrating for people like me who like to research and know what is going to happen in different situations. Although, one website glitch just helped me get the cabin that I really wanted. There is a whole section of cabins on Deck 10 of the Spirit that don't show up on any booking site I have found, including NCLs. I had originally booked the port side cabin at the back of deck 10 before NCL canceled my cruise, but it was already gone on the 2024 cruise. I asked the World Points person when I was getting my points back from the canceled cruise if the other cabin was still available for the cruise I was looking at. She typed it in and said yet. Then, when my FCC came in and I tried to upgrade to that cabin via the World Points phone line, I was told it wasn't available. I asked them to type in the number and they said they only had a list, they could not type anything in, so I gave up and was sad. I decided to call my amazing TA and ask if she could see if the cabin was available and then I figured I would call back until I got someone at WP who knew how their software worked. She not only found that it was still available, she moved me to it. I was a happy camper and glad NCL hadn't fixed the problem yet. The point of this story is that about 3 weeks ago I was talking to tech support at NCL and I mentioned the missing cabins on Deck 10. He said he would report it to that group, but the cabins are still not available to be booked unless you know they are there and have access to one of the travel agent portals where you can type in actual cabin numbers rather than scrolling through lists.

@possum52 Thank you so much. That was exactly the info I was looking for. The NSW port website has us docking in Eden, but thank you for the warning that it might change. It is always better to be forewarned since I typically do my own thing or private tours vs ship tours. We are on the NCL Spirit and she is pretty small, but if they are working on the port, I don't know if that matters. I am so excited for this trip. I appreciate all of the time you spend out on these forums helping people like me.