Cully1953

5 minutes ago, ColeThornton said:

If you have a TA, why didn't they cancel and rebook for you?

I originally booked online, I phoned the agent because I wanted clarification that the only cancellation costs would be the 50 pounds pp that I originally paid. Because I booked online (through the TA) I had to cancel the previous booking online and rebook the new one online. There is a cruise company that primarily serves the UK market (Marella) who sometimes have a promo for reduced deposits, but if you want to cancel a booking you have to pay the regular deposit payment before they will let you cancel. I wanted to make sure that the booking with NCL wasn't the same as this. 

A couple of months ago my wife and I booked a cruise on the Epic for June 2020. We booked a mini suite (MC grade). We booked this with a UK travel agent from whom we get regular emails. The price had gone up a bit from our last cruise on the Epic (2017) but we figured that's the way prices go. Last Friday I received an email from the same TA with offers for the cruise we had booked, so out of curiosity I did a mock booking to see how the prices now compared to the ones we were quoted. I was very surprised to discover that the price now was 600 pounds in total less than the one we had originally booked. I rang the TA and they advised me to cancel the original booking and rebook at the new price, which is what I did. We lost the original deposit (50 pounds pp) but were able to book a slightly higher grade mini suite (MB) and still be 500 pounds to the good. I am quite pleased with myself and my darling wife is already planning how to spend the extra money lol.

Hello all. We have booked the excursion "Relaxing Rome" for our cruise on Explorer 2 in early June. It is advertised as 6 hours and I would like to ask anyone that has done this trip what time roughly do you get back to the ship? The reason for asking is that we would like to book Surf & Turf for that evening and was wondering what time we should book the restaurant for. Thanks in advance.

In June we sailed on the Spirit, we were booked into a balcony cabin. A few weeks before we were due to sail, I checked out the prices for our cruise and noticed that they were offering the Presidential Suite for just £190 more than we had paid. I rang them up and they agreed to upgrade us to the suite for the extra 190. Not a free upgrade, I'll admit, but we got an amazing cabin for a small amount of extra money.

We were on the Spirit in June, we originally decided on a balcony cabin when we booked in January. Around 8 weeks before we were due to sail I was checking the prices on the website and comparing them to what we paid. I noticed that the Presidential Suite was selling for only £190 more than we had paid for a balcony cabin. I rang Marella and they agreed to upgrade us if we paid the extra. My wife and I thoroughly loved the suite and all the extra space it provided.

Some people say that you should never look at prices again, once you have booked. I am glad we ignored that piece of advice.

Last year we had a flight departing at 10.20AM. We had a transfer booked for 7.45, we self disembarked at 7.30, the transfer arrived on time and we were at BCN by 8.15. The traffic was fairly light as it was on a Sunday morning. We always use Suntransfers when sailing out of Barcelona.

We went through BCN to sail on the Epic at the beginning of June. On arrival at Barcelona airport we did not encounter any noticeable delays. I was a bit worried about our return to BCN for our flight home, we had a 10.20AM flight back to the UK. We self disembarked the ship at 7AM, and I had arranged for a transfer to pick us up at 7.30. This was on time and we were at BCN by 8AM. When we went to check in for our flight, the lady on the desk advised us to go straight through security and passport control. We did this and although the airport was quite busy it took less than an hour to get airside. At Barcelona airport they don't show the actual gate number until about 45 mins before take off but they do indicate which area your flight is departing from (the different areas are letter coded, A,B,C,D etc.) We were in the correct area for our gate in plenty of time.

If you google Barcelona airport transfers, you will find plenty of specialist transfer companies, most of them can supply car seats for children

If you head towards Spice from the pool area there are some very comfortable shady sofas on the port side just before you get to the Marketplace, there are more within the Marketplace area also. On our sailing in early June we never had any trouble finding a shady spot.

On our last Epic Mediterranean cruise we tipped our room steward with a mixture of Dollars, Euro and British Pounds, he seemed perfectly happy with that.

I was looking at pricing with the 50% off second passenger deal they are running for UK right now. Terms and conditions state if you choose this perk you do not receive the free at sea perks. That's understandable but do you still get the new inclusions of DSC, water bottle and specialty coffee with meals? If DSC and the waters and coffees are included brings some of the sailings that qualify for the 50% off down to their lowest price since they went on sale. This is potentially a great deal for someone who doesn't want the UBP. Am I correct that the UK bookings do not get to partake in the upgrade advantage program?

Hi. I'm from the UK and regularly check on the NCL UK website. I have not seen an offer with 50% off for the 2nd passenger. Free at Sea is no longer available for European passengers, instead we have the Premium All Inclusive package, also they are discounting up to £200 per stateroom during April. You are correct in stating that UK bookings can't partake in the upgrade advantage program

I have just compared prices for Discovery 2 for this May and roughly the same dates for May 2018. I realise they are different itineraries, but the difference in prices is quite staggering. They are offering the May 14th 2017 sailing with Manchester flights in a Grand Suite for £2172 per couple. The price quoted for the May 18th 2018 sailing in the same category of cabin with similar flights is £3459. I am aware that the 2017 one departs from Malaga and the 2018 from Corfu and I am also aware that cabin availability for this May's cruise is restricted, but at over £1200 difference I think I will wait a while before booking next year's cruise.

When I was on the Epic in November 2015 I asked if they could change British Pounds into Euro. The person that I spoke to said that they would have to firstly change the Pounds into Dollars and then into Euro, by the time they had done this I would have ended up with less Euro than the amount of Pounds I wanted to exchange. The exchange rates on the ship were pretty awful. I declined their offer and went ashore at the next port, found a Bureaux de Change and changed my Pounds into Euro there. I think at the time the exchange rate ashore was around 1.40 Euro per Pound, the ship was offering 0.95 Euro per Pound. I imagine something similar would happen in your case.

I have been wondering about that. We are embarking in Barcelona and going to Italian and French ports. Only one sea day. How does the added vat work and does it effect drinks prices ( we have UBP)?

 

 

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Being from an EU country you will not have to pay any extra for drinks with your UBP

Following, we will be on the Spirit for Christmas/New Year in December 2018. We would be interested in reading your impressions of her

A week ago we booked an 11 night Xmas/New Year cruise on the Spirit going in December 2018. The price is £3698 + £187 DSC making a total of £3885. There are 2 of us travelling and the perks for a mid ship balcony (BA) are, low deposit (£100) UBP and OBC of $200.

If I'd have booked the cabin next door yesterday the total price would have been £240 less but I would have had to pay £200 deposit. the perks would have been UBP and only $100 OBC.

Today's price on the new all inclusive package for the same cabin would be a total of £3878, this is actually £7 less than the total price I would be paying on my original booking.

I do not intend to switch because firstly I would lose my £100 deposit and $200 OBC if I were to cancel and rebook and secondly regarding the UBP, I only drink beer with maybe an occasional cocktail and my wife will only have a couple of glasses of wine all cruise, also I believe soda is already part of the UBP, so the premium drinks on the all inclusive package would have no appeal for us. We will maybe have an odd coffee mid morning when we are on the ship but not at mealtimes and we can buy as much water as we need with our OBC.

Your call. I will assume 2 in a cabin.

 

£240 priced reduction less £100 deposit (is that total or pp?) less $100 OBC

 

Annie

Thanks for you reply Anniegb the £240 reduction was in total for 2 passengers and the £100 deposit was for both of us.

There shouldn't be any downside, but once you take into account the reduced OBC, you aren't talking about much of a saving. Probably worth it, but I doubt whether I'd bother myself.

 

If you're going to do it then do it today, as the prices may change significantly tomorrow.

Thanks for your quick reply Keith, I would tend to agree. I compared similar cruises with P&O, Cunard and MSC and was happy enough with the original deal I got, so I think I'll just leave it.

A week ago I booked an 11 day Xmas/New Year cruise on the Spirit leaving on 23rd Dec 2018. We booked a mid ship balcony cabin (BA) and got the UBP and OBC as perks. I checked the prices again this morning and found that I can book the cabin next door to the one we have for £240 less. I realise that in the UK we don't benefit from the price drop guarantee that applies to US passengers, so it seems my options are either to leave it as it is or cancel and lose my £100 deposit and rebook which would require a further £200 deposit. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Another thing I noticed with my existing booking was that the OBC is $100 per person, if I cancel and rebook the OBC would drop to $100 per stateroom, if that is the case then any potential savings by cancelling and rebooking would be lessened.

I booked an Xmas/New Year cruise on the Spirit for Dec '18 a few days ago. I chose UBP and $100pp OBC as my perks. The price seemed reasonable to me, but I will be keeping an eye on the new prices. It may be cost effective for me to cancel and lose my 100 pounds deposit and then rebook when the new prices are out, the DSC for my cruise are quoted at 187 pounds for us both.

We are from the UK and have prepaid gratuity at 119GBP. We are sailing on Epic in June of this year.

My question is this. I can buy onboard credit of $1000 for 690GBP. Is it possible for me to get the onboard credit in cash while on the ship? From the casino maybe? In a post further up the page someone was saying that you can cash out your OBC at the casino and pay a 3% fee which would leave me with $970, this would convert in 790GBP at today's tourist exchange rates, so I'd be 100 pounds up on the deal.

Is this possible? Many thanks in advance for your replies

We are from the UK and have sailed on both NCL Epic and Carnival Vista. I prefer English bacon and that was pretty much the same on both cruise lines, however, my wife likes American style bacon (we call it streaky bacon) and she much preferred the bacon on the Epic, she said it was crisper and less greasy than that on Carnival.

We sailed on the Epic in early November 2015, just after the refit. We were on Carnival Vista in late September '16 and thoroughly enjoyed both cruises.

We are from the UK so our opinion is from a British perspective. There were some things we preferred the Epic for and other things the Vista came out tops for us. I will try to explain the things we liked below.

Embarkation/Disembarkation. The Epic was the winner for us regarding embarkation, we arrived at Barcelona port at about 11.30 and by 12.15 we were in the buffet restaurant enjoying our lunch, we did not have priority boarding. When we arrived to board the Vista, also in Barcelona, there was a huge queue just to drop off our cases, once we had done that the boarding process took us about 20 minutes. We did have priority boarding for this cruise. To be fair to the Vista the reason for the large queues was that the ship had a minor engine problem and arrived at Barcelona 2 hours late, Carnival did email us to advise that we should arrive at the port 2 hours later than our check in time, but as we don't bother with the internet while on holiday, we didn't get the message until we got home. Disembarkation for both cruises was about the same.

Food. This is quite a subjective thing and we enjoyed the meals on both ships. I must add that we preferred the dining experience more on the Vista to that on the Epic, the reason for this is we were lucky to have the same MDR servers on Vista each night and they were excellent.

Entertainment. We preferred the Epic's entertainment to that on the Vista. Vista has the Imax cinema instead of the theatre on Epic, and on holiday we would much rather see a live show than a movie in the evenings. Overall we thought that the entertainment on the Epic was much better than the Vista's.

Crew & fellow passengers. Vista wins this one, all the crew and the vast majority of our fellow passengers we very friendly. The crew on Epic were polite and efficient but most of them seemed a bit too busy to interact fully with the guests. The Epic also seemed to have about 25% of it's passengers from Eastern Asian countries, so I suppose that the language differences had some bearing on that.

To summarise, we both enjoyed the 2 cruises immensely and would cruise on either in a heartbeat, in fact we are booked back on the Epic in June of this year and will also be looking at the new Carnival ship Horizon's itinerary for 2018 with great interest.

Hope that this has been helpful. Best wishes Paul & Tricia

Why don't you try an ocean suite balcony on deck 7 or 8? That's the vertical middle of the ship so your cruise virgin won't feel much rocking, your son is accommodated, and you'll be high enough away from the water.

 

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We returned yesterday and had an Ocean Suite on deck 7 (7349). While it does overlook deck 5 you would only notice that if you were stood by the balcony rail, sitting down you get a clear view of the sea or port. I highly recommend an OS category, the rooms are a good size, it has a full sized jacuzzi bath with a shower overhead and 2 washbasins. We absolutely loved our suite, also there were no noise issues from deck 5

When The Vista docks in Palma de mallorca, get off and head to the Porto Pi shopping centre (just over the bridge from the terminal only a 5 min walk ) and go into macdonalds or burger king and use their WiFi, buy a coffee and do your stuff there. i know because we live in palma :)

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I would like to ask slaine29 a question.

Is there a shop that sells cigarettes/tobacco in the Porto Pi shopping centre?

Thanks in advance Paul