JoieNsk

About Viking - for us personally, I hate their payment policy. And for that reason I don't think we will ever do any ocean cruises with them. There are too many other great cruise lines in that market sector.

But we are trying their river cruise for the first time this year in November. The price was just very good, and we sucked it up and paid full price a year in advance (that's what you need to do with them unfortunately).

We don't like "all inclusive" idea many other river cruises do, as we don't drink much on the ship on a river cruise, we don't want to do two excursions per a day etc. Sometimes we just choose to get off the boat and do our own thing. So we'd rather pay as we go. That's why Viking this time.

Otherwise even with river cruises - we tried already couple lines, which were possibly better than Viking - in general. But we felt that we were overpaying - for the stuff we didn't want to do.  

But that's us.

19 hours ago, BecciBoo said:

Cozumel is our third home! 🥴  We always go to a playa, I love that gorgeous clear aqua water and Nachi service is bar none though we go to others, next stop in 2 weeks to Paradise Beach Club this time.

I would not call Cozumel a home. But I've been there couple times, and would not mind to go again - some time in January-February, when it is colder in Bahamas. I love snorkeling, and though it is not the best there - it is decent. 

I am just very particular I guess. I need 4-5 day cruise only, as I still work, and can't afford to take off more days for a "beach" or "just ship experience" type of cruise. I am saving my PTO for Europe and other exciting stuff.

But if I get a cabin I want for the right price (right for me) - I would go there happily. I just can't seem to find the right combination with any cruise line - so far. 

1 hour ago, ReneeFLL said:

I think you’ll be in for a shock.

 

Maybe.

But like I mentioned before - we booked for itinerary.  The ports are great, we really are looking forward to visit them. The cabin we booked is nice enough, we sailed in this type of cabin on this type of ship before - again in Europe.  It's Jewel of the Seas, which is supposed to go to dry dock in April. So at least it is going to be fresh. I hope we will be fine.

I am not expecting much, as Royal never was a luxury cruise line (at least on the older ships we sailed before). I hope the food in the buffet is going to be good enough - as what we usually do for dinner at European port intensive itineraries. 

So as a hotel taking us from place to place - I hope Royal will still do a decent job.

I feel like "higher price/worse experience" combo is all over tourist industry right now. 

Maybe it's pent-up demand for travel. Maybe it's still staffing shortages. Most likely both.

I guess I will join the group who is not loyal to any cruise line. But I never really was. Except probably for Disney. But even with Disney now when our daughter is grown up - I feel like it is over, till we maybe have grand kids some time.

For me - too - it is itinerary/price combination that matters.

We did do couple cruises kind of for the ship experience, as I found some great deals and they were on some significant dates (like anniversary etc). And we totally enjoyed them.

But now I am not in charge of our travel plans anymore (like I was when my husband was still working). Now my husband is retired, and he swore to plan couple non-cruise trips for us. We will see :)))

So the few cruises we have already booked right now are ALL itinerary driven, Europe and South America. And all of them are on different cruise lines.

7 minutes ago, shutterbug63 said:

Yes. Most definitely.  It's not only the prices, it's their deposit policy.  If I want a refundable deposit on (for example) a sailing in January, 2026, on Independence of the Seas, it's an additional $2,016 tacked on to the price which makes the price for a Sunset Junior Suite over $6,000.00. I paid less for that for a full suite on Princess for a 7 day sailing on a brand new ship with only a $200 fully refundable deposit.

 

Every time I do a mock booking on Royal, I get to the last step, and it's like, nope, that's too much money for what I'm getting.

Many cruise lines do this nowadays.

As far as my experience goes - NCL and Princess have refundable deposits with no other strings attached.

With Royal - as far as I remember - suite type rooms have non-refundable deposits anyways, no matter the final price. But you can at least switch the date paying $100 dollars per a person fee.

Disney also has non-refundable deposits for suites. But you can switch the date for free - at least.

We might be not typical, as we usually book Royal for Europe. We don't really do Caribbean and such cruises. 

But I normally can book nice enough suite type cabin on Royal for much better price that those of NCL, Celebrity etc. Granted we book old smaller ships.

I do realize suite perks on those ships with Royal are very different than even on their own newer ships. Not even to mention NCL Haven etc. But whatever Royal does - works for us very well, we don't need anything fancier - in general.

So I feel like we were getting very good value with Royal - for our needs - so far. We will see, as we didn't sail with them after Covid yet. Out first Royal post-Covid cruise is going to be this June. And the price we got is much better comparing similar itineraries with other cruise lines. (Though I did book as soon as the dates were out).

Thank you very much for all the information! I appreciate all the help and good news 🙂 

I just read somewhere that promotional onboard credit was not able to be used for gratuities. 

But maybe it was some other cruise line.

P.S. I know of course that I can use it for SPA etc. But my friend is very frugal, she doesn't go to SPAs. And I am not going to go without her: the main reason we are going on the cruise together, that we can spend some time together, as we live in different states.

I hope it can at least be used for shore excursions - once on board? That would be our last resource.

But I would rather first pay the gratuities with it, as I am the one who is going to pay them anyways. She doesn't even know that she has to pay them, as she doesn't cruise much. So I didn't even tell her about this extra expense :)))

Sorry if this has been asked already. 

I have the Healthcare promotional credit on my onboard account applied (it seems like for both passengers - even though my friend who is sailing with me is not one of the categories this credit is given too).

Can I use it for gratuities? As we are not big spenders, not big drinkers, and I am kind of struggling what we can use it for...

I know if I buy my own onboard credit, I can use it for anything, and even get the rest cashed in the end, if I don't use it. But the onboard credit they give you - I heard somewhere it has different rules - like use it or loose it for example.

Also the last time when we cashed the unused onboard credit, we were able to use concierge for that. It was easy. But this time we are not going to stay in the room with concierge services. Can Guest Services cash your unused onboard credit too?

Thank you very much in advance!

3 minutes ago, Sthrngary said:

Cruise well and enjoy every moment. 

Thank you very much for the information!

We will enjoy it to the fullest :))) 

For the balconies - our room has so called "solarium" balcony. It can be good and bad at the same time. People are really divided on how good or how bad this is 🙂

My understanding - the wind should not be a problem on a balcony like this. But it is not exactly an open balcony I would like to have on the cruise. So we will see where we will stand on the discussion about a "solarium" balcony - once we try it 🙂 

8 minutes ago, kasimir said:

 

So thats the thing, with the Prima and Viva the Haven sun deck (on deck 17) with two hot tubs is an adult only area for 16+ and there are signs there when walking upstairs to deck 17.

But what Ben & David mention (and I read similar things in the reviews) is that kids are not respecting those rules and are roaming around in the adults only area. When they notified the staff and concierge, nobody took action either. 

 

I think the Haven on the BA/BA+ ships also have some kind of adult only area. 

That does sound frustrating...

On Disney Cruise ships they have adult only areas, and they do enforce the rules - even on the Disney Cruise which are geared to families. I don't get why NCL can't enforce the rules on their ships?

Of course I would just tell the kids to leave myself (assuming they would listen). But I don't have to do anything like this, it should be enforced by the staff.

15 minutes ago, Traveling Fools said:

 

Sorry...there isn't a lap pool aboard ship and if there was one it would be congested or you would have to schedule your swim time. 

Thank you for the information!

What I usually do - I go to the biggest pool on the ship early in the morning. On Holland America I was able to get to the pool as early as 7am. Usually that time of the day there is nobody there, or maybe one person - crazy like me :)))

Of course the laps are short. So I just swim back and forth for an hour: I go by time - not by how many laps. It works somehow.

Sometimes it still gets tricky, as on the cruises where there are a lot of older people - sometimes there are several people in the pool even as early as 7.30 am - not actually swimming, but lounging around. So I had to go to the outside pool: as it was kind of cold, nobody was hanging out there :))))

I just called concierge with my requests. One of them was about the flowers, as I am allergic to certain flowers - not to the extent of an anaphylaxis of course -  but still not pleasant.

Guess what - NCL doesn't give any flowers, and you can't buy your own! :))))) Problem solved, no flowers at all... :))) They certainly made it simple for themselves 🙂

I hope we will have great experience in Haven. I don't care about the Haven pool or hot tubs - I want a lap pool to do my laps, yes. But Heaven pool probably too short for that anyways. 

And our cruise is a port intense one - just one sea day. 

What I want from Haven - the great cabin, not standing in guest services line, and ability to request some things and save some time.

We are on the Epic, in the front facing 2-bedroom. As we are in the Mediterranean, I hope we would not regret booking the front of the ship: I would hope the waters are going to be smooth their in October. At least they were last year! I wanted to try that shower with the big window - so you don't miss any views even when you need to take a shower :))) And Epic is the only ship which have those upfront 2-bedrooms. So I figured we can give it a try - as we got a great deal on this cruise.

I still need to work two more shifts at work. But after that - I am on vacation :)))) We are leaving on Friday! Wish us luck with Haven :)))))

18 hours ago, Traveling Fools said:

We have done this on most of our cruises, even the ones with foreign itineraries. You should be able to buy traveling wine bags at your local wine store.  You are not going to be lugging suite cases for any extended time, so weight will be minimal, especially if you are traveling with two suite cases and put a bottle in each bag.  

Thank you, I see your point. And like I mentioned - I did it once too.

But for me personally it just doesn't worth the trouble. All I need is just one bottle. First we don't drink much to begin with. That's why it's never worth to buy any kind of a drink package for us - it will never pay off. Second - my husband drinks wine sometimes, but at any time of a day his drink of choice would be a beer 🙂 Also I don't even like when toiletries leak, which they do once in a while. I can only imagine how much of a hassle it would be to clean the clothes, suitcases and everything else from wine! There is a small probability that the bottle breaks or explodes (pressure in the air) etc. - especially sparkling wine! And we have pretty pricey suitcases too!

I figured for us personally - it's just cheaper in any way to buy one bottle from the cruise line, and not worry about it anymore. Maybe I am just worrying type.

But I really appreciate all the great info everybody gave me! I feel like even if we know the cruise line and sailed with them before - I can not remember how things work, from cruise to cruise. But when you try new cruise line - gets even more tricky.

So this boards are priceless source of information! Thanks again!

18 hours ago, RocketMan275 said:

Could you buy the veuve at costco and pack a couple of bottles in your checked bags?

:))))

I once actually did bring two bottles with me - FROM the cruise :)))) As we got two bottles of premium cognac from Celebrity, and it was 4-day cruise - we didn't even open them. But that was from Fort Lauderdale, the distance was much shorter, and surprisingly they didn't break (I did use special sleeves though).

But on our second Celebrity cruise - in Europe - we decided to leave the bottles behind. Hopefully the butler used them to get some extra money in addition to the tip we gave him. I don't want to take any chance to get all my stuff soaked in alcohol :))) And my husband complains that I pack too much stuff anyways - I would feel bad to make him drag extra weight of two bottles :))) 

24 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

You'll pay $144 for a bottle of veuve if it's in stock.  There will be no corkage fee.

Sorry, maybe I have misunderstood.

Did you mean I would be better off just buying the bottle in the restaurant - for the same $144? And then I can take the rest back to the cabin? 

The reservation we have on the sailaway day is at the La Cucina - where people reported you are more likely to get some nice champagne.

I guess that would be the better option!

I am just the planner type - not the last moment type. I wanted to get it in advance, so I know what I get and when.

But I know that if they don't have it on the ship, we would not get it anuways - even if we ordered in advance  ;))) they would just say - sorry, and will give us onboard credit as a refund... :)))

15 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

You'll pay $144 for a bottle of veuve if it's in stock.  There will be no corkage fee.

I paid for it, yes 🙂 it's three times more than it is at Costco ;))))

But "a la guerre comme a la guerre" :)))) We have only one night in Marseille before the cruise. I don't want to spend any time to run around so I can buy a bottle of wine.  I would just rather relax and do something more interesting. The more that we still are going to in a jetleg state too.

I ended up buying a bottle from the NCL Gifts: 

https://www.ncl.com/shorex/236458982/53305043/gifts-detail/123

Does anybody know - if I did buy it from the cruise line like this, and it is delivered to the cabin from them - not from outside - if I take it with me to the restaurant - will they charge me the corkage fee on that one? 

Logically I would think they should not. But I learned that logic doesn't always work with things individual businesses do - especially the big ones like cruise lines are :))))

16 minutes ago, RocketMan275 said:

My wife and I poured the one bottle we opened into the sink.  YMMV, others think they're fine.  We don't.  As others have noted, this isn't Veuve, not even close. 

 

Reports vary but veuve brut is hard to find only available at Le Bistro. 

I am not very fastidious about wine. But I had couple incidents when I didn't want to finish some wine I didn't like. I have my alcohol allowance, and I am not willing to waste it on something I don't like - just because it's free :)))))

So I probably will either get a bottle in some Marseille wine shop. Or maybe will just buy a bottle from NCL - in advance...

Thank you to everybody for the info and great advice!!!

7 minutes ago, mrshorsy said:

...I’d easily get through that most nights with pre dinner, dinner and after dinner drinks !

If I buy a bottle from the cruise line in advance - can I bring it with me to the restaurant - if it's already opened? 

If I can - that would be great! I can have some in the cabin, and then have some at dinner too! Actually the dinner is scheduled before the sailaway, so the bottle is not even going to be opened! We are early eaters, so the dinner should be finished by the time the ship leaves the port!

Would they charge me a corkage fee for the bottle I bought from them - I wonder?

5 minutes ago, mrshorsy said:

How long are you cruising for ? If I opened a bottle of fizz it would be drank the same day as its not so great the next day I would think you would easily get through two.

Last time we were on NCL April 2022 the Premium Drinks package had Veuve by the glass which is my favourite 

It's 11 days.

Yes, it is not that great the next day. But there is no way I can finish a bottle by myself! I will probably die :)))))) It is essentially a dry white wine, and my OXO bottle stoppers work decent enough :)))

I just want to have something in the cabin, as we always spend the sailaway on our balcony - watching the views.

I have to figure also where we would get couple bottles of beer for my husband too :))) As the beer is his sailaway drink of choice :)))))))

Just now, RocketMan275 said:

Yes, you can take one or both bottles with you.  But remember you may have to pay duty.  Don't know if you will but you never know.

BTW, JMHO, but the free bottles aren't worth the trouble.  We usually just leave them in the room when we leave.

So they are no good?

As last time we were on Holland America - we got a bottle of simple yellow label Veuve Clicquot, and I bought exact same one in advance. This is good for me, I love it well enough!

I ended up finishing both of them eventually, as we were on a 14-day cruise with at least 3 sea days. I always have my travel wine stoppers with me, so I was able to stretch the wine for a week long :)))

This time we are going to have shorter and much more port intensive cruise. So I am not going to drink much on the ship.

I am really fighting with myself - I can just buy a bottle from NCL gifts. That would be the easiest option.

But last time I did something like this - I ended up with the two identical bottles: one I bought, and one they gave me for free with the cabin. My husband doesn't drink champagne or sparkling wine. And I am not sure I need two bottles. I would rather get different wines by the glass here and there.

I suppose we don't fly right away after the cruise. So I can take the second bottle with us for the post cruise stay...

What do the experts here think? :))) 

Thanks again!