CCJack

on our last NCL departure from Quebec City, the ship' s original sail time was 4 pm, but they changed it to 8:00 pm a few days before the cruise left. No changes in board time schedule. We reserved a 9:30 am check in time (which was the first time slot). On board by about 11:30 am. Boarding early is not necessarily for everyone, but since we were in QC for a few days prior it made sense to board early and relax rather than another afternoon in QC. Plus I had to make a dining reservation change, etc. and best to board early if you need to do that. Have fun...

I cruised a lot with my kids at that age, and it is a good age for them to travel. I hope you have fun.... My recommendation is not to choose a cruise based on the kids program or on ports that are kid friendly. I would choose the cruise you want and I feel kids that age will adapt and will have a great time, on any ship. We went on Radiance Class to Alaska and it was great. I do not think smaller ships are a negative. However, that was a few years ago and Radiance Class is getting up in years. Not saying she doesn't still look nice, cause I haven't been on Radiance class in several years. However, age of ship sometimes is more of an issue than size in my opinion.... That said, I really like Vancouver as a embarkation port. Stay downtown 1 or 2 nights before, walk to ship. Really a beautiful city.

I agree that finding a table for 2 may be difficult. I do hope, however, that you get the chance to enjoy a river cruise despite this concern.... river cruises are a lot different than ocean cruises and a great experience, in my opinion. I did find that by the middle of the cruise, people tended to sit in the same spots with the same people. Perhaps you could explain your partner's hearing issues to those at your table and they may be very understanding for the duration of the cruise.

I felt the biggest perk was the 5 day head start on dining reservations. Of course the laundry bag (which our room steward said you could do any day) is worth something (maybe $30). The treats aren't worth much. Actually with a whole buffet available to you, it seems like a waste of the employee's time to bring a plate of two cookies to your room, etc. They should drop that.

I would just add that Starbucks gift cards and merchandise (thermos mugs, etc.) require refundable OBC. Starbucks drinks and food can use NR as you indicate.

Can you tell me if that 250 OBC is refundable (can be used for service charges) or non refundable? Also, I assume that OBC has to be used on the cruise you are currently on and cannot be applied to the future cruise you will book using the certificates? thanks.

Can i ask where you stayed pre cruise in Athens? We are doing same plan next september.

We were on the Viking Romantic Danube so slightly different stops than you. It was a great trip, I hope you love it as much as we did. As others have said, I would avoid independent excursions. First off, there are not many... it is not like a big ship cruise where there is a market for local excursion vendors. We had no water level problems on our cruise, but schedules can still change. You want to stick with Viking or DIY with a good understanding of when the boat leaves. The included viking tours we took were typically very good but short. Typically walking from boat for 1.5 hours or so, then you could go off on your own. We did take a few viking paid excursions with mixed results..... Viking Nuremberg WWII excursion - excellent Vienna included walking tour - excellent Viking Vienna Mozart concert - I was disappointed.. I posted a separate review on this. Others like it. The bus took us to a large concert hall and a concert was just ending so lots of people exiting the theater. I assumed we were going in the large hall for a 2nd show, but instead you go to a smaller room and it is a viking only concert. It as not a full orchestra, maybe 6 piece chamber music. They told a lot of jokes and gags. I would have rather bought a ticket to the big traditional concert for locals. Viking Gottweib Abbey. The Abbey is a beautiful building and you get great views of the valley. But it is a pretty low key excursion - wine tasting and that was about it. We ended in Budapest with an overnight on the ship. So they took us out again after dinner for an evening cruise (on the viking ship)... Budapest is absolutely beautiful from the river after dark. If you have an overnight on the Viking ship in Budapest at the beginning of your cruise, they likely will do that. If not, then schedule your own evening cruise with an local boat during your pre cruise stay. Don't miss. I really enjoyed going through 20+ locks during the cruise. Very interesting, I thought. Have fun...

We were there last month disembarking off of the NCL Joy and we also had a noon flight out of LGA. We self carried our luggage and were one of the first off the ship. NCL advertised disembarkation begins at 7:30 for self carry folks, but it was probably closer to 7:45. We walked across the street (busy parkway) to the taxi stand. That area is a mad house for a big ship at least. Taxi drivers start trying to grab you as you cross the parkway, I asked how much to LGA and they said 120 cash. Instead we crossed the parkway and turned left and walk about 2 blocks to get away from the crowd and called na uber. I think it was about $65. We made it in plenty of time and had 2 hours to kill at LGA, but I would still disembark as soon as you can.

I was just there last month and we took a taxi from the airport to the old town area of QC. The driver did not take a credit card, so I paid with C$. I suspect he had a CC machine but would rather have cash so he just said that he didn't take cards. Other than that he was very friendly. We had a great time in QC.

Good luck... this is a great tour, very small group and tight quarters but very interesting. I sensed that the crew that runs this is completely different than the high volume ticket sales crew at the Vatican Museum (with computers and barcodes, etc). The folks for the Scavi tour were very friendly and great tour guides, but not the best English, and maybe a bit unorganized. Treat it like a small business and keep trying... it will be worth the effort.

We recently completed an NCL cruise and I went on their website to book another and my account was populated with two credits: FCC - i was expecting this due to a price reduction after final payment on our previous cruise and "welcome back credit" $100 It also says only credits for the person who logged in will be shown. I know my wife has a similar FCC amount. I have a couple of questions: 1) can both of these types be used if I book through a TA.? I think the FCC can but I am not sure about the welcome back credit 2) will both of us get the welcome back credit? If so , I assume we could create a login account for my wife to see the certificate.

thank you all for the input... I am thinking the 9 day plus 2 or 3 nights in Athens pre cruise. Any thoughts on a good hotel or areas to stay in Athens.

Also, I like the 8 am Flam arrival (Anthem) better than the 7 am (Apex). I felt the highlight of our trip was the sail-in to Flam. I recommend being up and on the deck 2 -3 hours prior to arrival. Plus sometimes these ships arrive early, which in this case is not good IMO. The later 8 am arrival gives you a little more reasonable alarm clock time ! Note, our ship announced nothing about the sail in, so you need to make note of it yourself and try to figure out when your ship enters the fjord.

all of those solo balconies are now showing unavailable. It must me a screw up, or maybe they are converting them to solo, but they pushed them out before all the ducks were in a row....they are offline now.

No, I am getting numbers similar to Pookie2u, book 1 person and choose this cabin $3900, book 2 people and choose this cabin $4100 total. Doesn't seem like much of a break for solos. A lot of the lower priced balconies on this ship are listed as solo. Now, to be sure I get space for my wife and I, I need to upgrade... maybe to a club balcony suite. NCL makes a confusing change on the website and now they have us all spending more money!

I am still confused.. trying to book for 2 and it lists these as an option. The way NCL operates I am afraid to have a booking that says "solo" anywhere... we may arrive at embarkation and they will only let one of us board ! My wife and I would have to do rock-paper-scissors to see who goes. Even if I won, she would then want 2 out of 3, etc. until I lose !

Getaway. Greek isles. September 2024, Athens. I don't recall the dates but i looked at 2 different dates and got same thing.

I am trying to book a cruise for 2 on the NCL website. It is defaulting to a cabin that is a "solo balcony" . My understanding is that means these are reserved for solo traveler pricing but you can still book 2 people in them. Is this correct? Anything else I am missing on this point? There would be no drawbacks to this as compared to a normal "balcony" cabin for 2 people? thanks.

Help me decide between these two cruises. They are on the same ship, pricing comparable (with the 10 day a little more due to extra day.) I don't know much about these ports - there are some different ports between the two. I am leaning towards 9 day just because with flight days it turns into a fairly long trip for us and I was thinking to limit cruise to 9 days. Unless the 10 day has better ports.... thank you. 9-day SUNDAY Athens (Piraeus), Greece 5:00 PM Embark MONDAY Kusadasi, Turkey 6:30 AM - 1:30 PM TUESDAY Istanbul, Turkey 9:30 AM WEDNESDAY Istanbul, Turkey 4:00 PM THURSDAY Volos, Greece 11:30 AM - 7:30 PM FRIDAY Mykonos, Greece 7:00 AM - 7:00 PM (Tender Port) SATURDAY Rhodes, Greece 8:00 AM - 7:00 PM SUNDAY Heraklion (Crete), Greece 7:00 AM - 7:00 PM MONDAY Santorini, Greece 8:00 AM - 9:30 PM (Tender Port) TUESDAY Athens (Piraeus), Greece 7:00 AM Disembark 10-day Athens (Piraeus), Greece 5:00 PM Embark FRIDAY Thessaloniki, Greece 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM SATURDAY Izmir (Ephesus), Turkey 7:00 AM - 4:00 PM SUNDAY Istanbul, Turkey 10:00 AM MONDAY Istanbul, Turkey 4:00 PM TUESDAY Mykonos, Greece 11:00 AM - 8:00 PM (Tender Port) WEDNESDAY Paros, Greece 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM (Tender Port) THURSDAY Rhodes, Greece 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM FRIDAY Heraklion (Crete), Greece 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM SATURDAY Santorini, Greece 8:00 AM - 9:30 PM (Tender Port) SUNDAY Athens (Piraeus), Greece 7:00 AM Disembark

Although the Apex is my favorite ship of those that we have been on, I vote for the Anthem here. That is a huge price difference and Anthem is also a big, newer ship. Those ports for Anthem are the same ports that we went to and they are all very enjoyable. Have you considered leaving from Amsterdam? That may open up some more options..

We sailed on Cunard to Norway and also a very recent NCL cruise to Canada / NE (plus another NCL Med cruise a while ago). We have also sailed on Celebrity, Viking and RCCL quite a bit. I found Cunard to be more similar to mainstream lines that what others are reporting here. I do think they had two formal nights, but I don't recall it really being enforced. I am sure you would find a wide variety of folks and dress on any big cruise ship these days. I wouldn't worry about the dress code. On the downside, Cunard is likely more money than NCL and I don't recall the food being any better than other mainstream lines, but certainly equal. So maybe you could question the value of the Cunard trip. The Cunard ships are really beautifully done, however. Either way, have fun !

When to sail: For both our Iceland cruise and Norway cruise, I booked as close to June 21 as I could. I just think 24 hour daylight is something unique to experience. If you cruise to the North coast of Iceland you will be very close to the arctic circle (close enough for daylight all night at the end of June), likely same for Norway depending on how far North your itinerary takes you. When to book: I agree with others. Book now, then keep an eye on prices. Unless we have another pandemic, cruise load is going to increase. There will be some price drops but nothing big, except for the 2 weeks prior to cruise when they may try to unload empty cabins, but that is too late for my planning comfort zone. Ship size: Both of our cruises were big ship (but not NCL) . Big ships can get into Flam and Geiranger in Norway, make sure you see one or both of those. Fjords are very deep by their nature. I am tempted to try to book a small excursion type cruise in Norway, to see the smaller fjords, but so far not in my budget! BTW, I think Norway is a much more beautiful cruise destination than Iceland. In Iceland you will be driving or busing inland quite a bit from the coast to see the geological sights. Norway is stunning from a cruise ship and beautiful along the coast. We did spend quite a bit of time on the outdoor decks on the Norway cruise. Some people recommend a Norway only cruise and a land cruise to Iceland on a separate trip.

A few comments on our 9/13 NCL Joy cruise. We are new to NCL. Food… Excellent across the board. Buffet, MDR (3 dinners) and Specialty (4 dinners) all better than other more costly cruise lines we have been on (Viking, Cunard, Celebrity). Service… Outstanding service from cabin steward and wait staff…We did get some bad info from guest services, but all other staff was great. Cabin… Our cabin was great.. Looked newer than the ship is, clean, modern and everything worked! I likely would not book our cabin type again, however. My fault…. I didn’t think it through, we booked deck 8 club balcony suite with the large balcony. For just my wife and I we did not need a large balcony and there are some drawbacks to those balconies. They are the same width as a normal cabin, but the balcony is probably 4x as deep. This means when you are in your cabin looking out through glass door, you have tunnel vision with the deep balcony and a much narrower view of the ocean. Plus these balconies are completely uncovered and thus exposed to the elements. They were very windy and almost unusable. I believe the normal-sized balconies are all covered, and we would have enjoyed a normal-sized balcony more. Ship.. No complaints, the Joy is clean, looks new and is big. Not our favorite ship (our last cruise was Celebrity Apex which sets the bar high) – but I would go again on the Joy for the right itinerary, etc. Note that on the Joy a lot of real estate is used for kid’s activities (great if you are a kid). The go carts and the laser tag take a lot of the space on the sun decks. I don’t know why they put the laser tag on the sun deck since it is a big enclosed box – it needs to be dark inside. They could have put that on a lower deck in my opinion. Thus, the remaining swimming pool – jogging track area available to non-Haven folks is not that big considering the size of the ship. Free-Style Cruising….I know a lot of cruise lines are doing something similar, but I am not sure I am a fan of this. It seemed like on this ship it quickly becomes a task of getting a lot of reservations for dining and entertainment. Even though we made reservations before the cruise, you still have to take what times you can get sometimes and that is the opposite of what free-style implies (that you can go when you want). It seems like they are putting more and more people on these ships but not increasing the theater size, etc. On the Joy there is only 1 big theater rather than 2. I would guess that a lot of people don’t get reservations or are late to try and then they don’t get to go at all to some of the entertainment. It never used to be that way with cruising... there was always a seat for everyone. All said, we had a great trip and our experience with NCL was a positive one.

We are looking at booking Odyssey OTS and have not been on this class of ship yet. I see a guaranteed balcony is quite a bit cheaper than selecting our own cabin. We do not care about location on ship, distance to elevators or anything like that.. However, I am wondering what the worst case scenario would be in terms of obstructed view.. Are there any balconies where you look directly at a life boat or something like that? Any tips appreciated... thanks.