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Thanks! I apparently earned 7 bonus credits last cruise, and didn't even know it. By my 3rd cruise I'll have moved to two star.

Do you earn cruise day bonus credits (per $300) by purchasing excursions, or indulgences, prior to embarkation?

My NCL stock is up a bit today too.  well, everything is up lately.  I hope it keeps up.  Interesting to hear about the stockholder perks.  Might have to busy some CCL.

Thank you! I think we'll bring on a case of water and two bottles of wine, since it won't cost us anything.  I'm glad HAL offers this, NCL does not.

is that something they would have to dry dock for? Must be hundreds of thousands in damage.

1. Does  Holland America allow you to bring bottled water, soda or wine onboard?

Just wanted to thank everyone for the advice, I really appreciated it!  I ended up finding a Holland America Line cruise that worked a little better with my schedule and each port was one I hadn't been to.  It is also out of Florida, so no cold sea days! That was a piece of advice I definitely went with!

I was bummed to find out that this doesn't apply to cruises sailing in February.  This would have earned my booking otherwise. 

Thanks everyone for the advice.  I'm going with princess.  Especially since NCL raised their prices by over $300/pp since I first looked, and princess has gone down a tiny amount.  the Best.Sale.Ever does not affect this booking, so it is only applying to sailings after March 26th.  The price did come down a little, but they also took away the wi-fi package, so it was a wash.

Just did a little googling on the best. sale. ever. Looks like it will only apply to sailings that embark March 26th 2020 or later.  They had a huge sale during black Friday that I should have jumped on.  I'll let you know what I learn tomorrow though!

18 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We've cruised on the NCL Getaway for 7 days two winters ago and this past summer we did a 12 day cruise on the Crown. Hands down, the food was much better on Princess. NCL food was just too salty and the meat had a little too much fat for our taste. 

 

As far as promotions go, check out the Princess Best.Sale.Ever promotion that starts on Dec 11. It's going to be a pretty good one. I have heard on NCL you will have to pay the drink gratuities if you get a beverage package as a perk. Not the case on Princess if you get the drink package in one of their promotions. As far as entertainment goes, you'll have loads of fun on either cruise. 

 

However, if you are going to book a balcony cabin on Princess, make sure you book at least a premium balcony as they have removed the barrel chair in the regular balcony leaving just the desk chair along with the bed to sit on when you are in the cabin, unless you want to drag one of the balcony chairs inside.

 

BUT as you can see from my signature, we kind of like cruising with Princess right now as we always seem to have a great time on one of their ships.

Thanks for the info on the promotion starting tomorrow.  I'll wait and see what that looks like.  I'm leaning almost fully to Princess.  I like the suggestion of flying down a few days earlier.  We're going with an ocean view, unless the balcony price drops.  This is very helpful! Thank you!

thank you capriccio!

Thank you AF-1!

I could use some help deciding on which cruise to go on.  I've narrowed it down to two.  I am looking at either doing the NCL Gem, 11 day out of NYC in February or Crown Princess 10 day in February out of Florida.  I've done NCL three times, Jewel, Breakaway and Epic.  I did HAL once and that was a bit more upscale from what I remember.  I'm in the Northeast so am either driving to NYC or flying to FLL, over all the cost is about the same with Crown Princess being just a little more once you factor the flights and hotel.  They are close enough in total cost that I'm now trying to decide which has the best service, dining, amenities, etc.  Having never been on Princess I have no idea what to expect.  For example how do drink, excursions, and specialty dining costs and service compare? what about accommodations? room size, amenities, etc.  What sets Princess apart from NCL? any advice is helpful.  Thanks!

On 10/12/2019 at 11:13 AM, drvmywifecrzy said:

Eliminate Moderno....too much meat and most isnt that great.  

and really salty i found.  so my bottom choice, unless you really love salty meats!

if you like meat, moderno.  if you like fancier food, le bistro. If you like steak, Cagney's.  Those are my tops.  Didn't care for their la cucina. Probably varies from ship to ship in my experience as far as overall satisfaction.  Teppanyki is fun, but if you've done hibachi before in a land restaurant its not quite the same experience.

3 hours ago, DinaS said:

 

You can still get a free upgrade when the prices drop.  We did, along with MANY other people on our sailing.  The balcony price dropped, and now the mini suite price was the same as we paid for a balcony.  We were upgraded to a mini suite at no charge.

Thanks, I thought that I heard they did away with that practice.  If they drop, I'll call.  its an 11 night and a smaller ship, so my gut is that it will sell out and they may not lower prices.  I usually don't do sailaway rate, but I chose that this time so its a real gamble where we end up.  So I definitely plan on upgrading to a balcony room, one way or another,  even if I don't get to choose the room. 

with my last cruise I ended up just buying the last balcony.  It was the Epic in April and it ended up being sold out, or so they said.  I ended up in an aft balcony, it was great.  back in 2016 i was able to get a free upgrade when the prices dropped, went from balcony to mini suite for nothing.  They no longer offer that and you have to pay the differnce.  If the price drops you now have to pay the difference.  My next one is this February, and I'll try bidding to go from inside to balcony, or if it looks full I'll just call and buy up to a balcony.   One thing I have heard is that they factor in past cruises and spending while on board.