Rob_H

These should only have two Ts, not 3. 🙂 Also, on Aug 30, 2023 we posted the following addition to this thread but it somehow got missed in the update: RR0DG Ambassador Tier Comp Cruise (Yes, we did both get our "free" cruises last year!)

Moderno has gone downhill during 2023. The salad bar (with sushi) is still great, but the meat is now of poor quality, poorly cooked, with long gaps where they don't circulate with any meat at all. On the smaller ships (we were on the Spirit, Star, Jade and Jewel in 2023) we're not going to go there anymore (unless we feel like having a good salad), we gave it many chances to do better. We go to Cagneys again instead. On one of those ships in 2023, the Moderno cook literally didn't know what he was cooking. He'd send the servers out with "lamb" when it was beef, and so on. Several times. It because a joke when we had to keep correcting the names of what they were offering. We finished by asking for the fried "banana" which was delicious as always. 🙂

You'll receive a "back-to-back letter" onboard a day or two before the end of cruise one. This will explain the process and timings, which can vary depending on the ship and port. The letter will include some luggage tags, which show your new room number. You pack up your luggage (other than things you need if you're going ashore on the turnaround day), attach the tags, and leave it in your room (do not put it out in the hall the night before!). Your room attendant will know you're moving (although it doesn't hurt to remind them) and they will move your luggage to your new room, during the turnaround day. You need to leave your room at the normal time in the morning (like 8am) and probably won't have access to your new room until everybody else does (like 1pm or later). When you need to go and get the new key card depends on the ship. Usually you have to go to guest services on the turnaround morning, some ships allow it earlier. If you can get your new card earlier, it may only work to let you back on the ship, not into the new room (because the room was occupied on cruise 1). In that case, you have to go to guest services again to get an updated card, after disembarkation of those other people who were in your new room.

Three Norwegian Sky cruises for November 2024 were cancelled around 21 Feb 2024 (Barcelona-Haifa, Haifa-Dubai, Dubai-Mauritius). The replacement cruises (which we're booked on) appeared on the website around 13 March 2024. These are Barcelona-Lisbon, Lisbon-Cape Town, Cape Town - Mauritius which avoid not just Israel but the Red Sea as well. The Sky gets to Mauritius in time for the existing cruise to Singapore and onwards to the Asia season. So three cruises had to be replaced to get the ship in position. So, to answer your question, the replacements were announced about three weeks after the cancellations.

The stated reason for the Jade's redeployment is strong demand for Panama, yet the four cruises cancelled were all going through the canal. Maybe a megaship will be redeployed there later to replace the Jade. Oh well, at least we have another 10% voucher to add to our collection!

We've used that number 70 bus several times. It goes both clockwise and anticlockwise, take whichever comes first. It's a little minibus that is only once an hour in each direction so can be totally swamped by cruise people in the morning. 50c per trip, cash only, no change. At Kukui Grove (the mall) you can change onto the "trunk" routes (still tiny buses) that go up and down the island. $2 per trip. Exact change only. Use the transit option (image of a train) in Google Maps directions to get a live schedule with connections. We went to Poipu Beach that way, using the 70, then the 200, then another local bus, all as shown by Google. Total $3 each (each way) compared to $40ish quote for an Uber. Only do this if you have plenty of time (like an overnight).

I don't know about megaships, but yes many cruise lines are re-routing via West Africa and South Africa. For examle the Norwegian Sky was going to be leaving New York on Oct 21, 2024, to Barcelona, then Israel, then the Red Sea to Dubai, then Mauritius, before heading across the Indian Ocean to Singapore for an Asia season. The Israel disembarkation/embarkation port got changed to Athens months ago. Then when it became clear the Red Sea wasn't going to get sorted any time soon, those trips were cancelled, the three cruises from Barcelona to Mauriius. In the past couple of weeks, new cruises were added to replace them. After Barcelona the Sky will make it's way slowly to Lisbon via the Canaries, then a 21 day West Africa from Lisbon to Cape Town, then east Africa to Mauritius to arrive as originally scheduled, to continue to Asia. There are many port stops on the replacement cruises so there shouldn't be any problem with bunkering or supplies. We'll be on these cruises, from New York to Mauritius. For your cruise, 21 days to get from Dubai to the Mediterranean via South Africa would be tight, it couldn't have many port stops. It would work better if they took a bit longer and split it into two, probably at Cape Town.

Any amounts charged to your account are first deducted from non-refundable OBC, if they are eligible, until your non-ref OBC runs out. After that, charges are deducted from the refundable OBC. When that runs out, your bill has an amount to pay. You can get a printout of your account from guest services as any point during the cruise. At the end, this will show your remaining non-ref OBC, and your ref OBC, so you can keep track of what's left. The account on the app doesn't show these figures. BTW, another thing you can use non-ref OBC for (but hopefully don't need to): charges from the onboard medical centre.

Norwegian has various options in Nov/Dec this year for transatlantic round trips. Fine if you don't mind the cold weather in Europe at that time. All 2024 unless stated. From the US to Europe are: Oct 21-Nov 4, Norwegian Sky, NY to Barcelona Nov 3-Nov 17, Norwegian Encore, Miami to London Return from Europe to US after those: Nov 7-Nov 23, Norwegian Prima, Rome to NY Nov 26-Dec 10, Norwegian Escape, Barcelona to Miami Nov 30-Dec 14. Norwegian Pearl, Barcelona to Miami Dec 3-Dec 15, Norwegian Encore, London to Miami Also works in the other direction (round trip from Europe), earlier outbounds from Europe are: Oct 6-Oct 18, Norwegian Getaway, Lisbon to Miami Oct 17-Oct 30, Norwegian Epic, Rome to Orlando return on Oct 21 NY, Nov 3 Miami, or: Jan4-Jan 17 (2025) Norwegian Bliss Miami to London Most of these are very reasonably priced (except the Prima).

Phone any Norwegian number to cancel the cruise (whichever office is awake). Don't rely on email. Don't expect the cruise to auto-cancel, there's often a few days grace, so you have to take action. The call centre person may say you have to go through the PCC, but if it's urgent you should insist they do it (and send you an email confirmation). The PCC may be on holiday, or have left the company. We tried a PCC for a while but the slow response (especially for repricing) is why we fired her. As Keith says, you may have booked the cruise in a region where deposits are not refunded.

It can take a week or so after the end of the cruise for it to reach the account. The onboard sales people batch them up and they get processed on shore later. Some ships are slower than others, could be over a week.

We mostly go on long cruises, and b2b (and b2b2b and beyond). So for us the key metric is total cost per cabin per night. Lower cost means more cruises. During 2018 and 2019, our budget was a total cost (including port fees and service charges) of US$200 per cabin per night ($100 per person), inside. Sometimes the service charges or a special cruise that worked just right would push it a little over, but most of the time we could keep to that. In 2022 and 2023 we've had 25 cruises on Norwegian. A few have been within our pre-Covid budget, but most have not. We've had to increase our budget to $300 total price per cabin per night ($150 per person). With this budget we've been able to get some fantastic cruises to exotic places, so it's still well worth it and a great deal. But, yes, the prices are now higher. The price of shore excursions on NCL is another issue, we've been fully priced out of that market, just not worth it. And honestly we've had much more fun doing things more independently, so don't miss them.

At Currimao we took a shared van to Vigan city, a heritage city further south. Our ship was late arriving, and Currimao was further away than Salomague, so we had quite a short time there. You'd be able to be there longer, hopefully. It's quite a run down city with old colonial buildings.

There's currently still a gap in the Sky schedules from Mar 13, 2025 (Seoul) to Apr 12 (Doha). That does leave open the possibility of a connection from the Sun arriving Singapore on Mar 25 to catch the Sky towards Europe, if the two missing cruises have the right date in Singapore!

It's a USB A socket, and quite a slow charge. Above the bed. We use a longer than normal cable (3m/10ft) so that there's plenty of slack when the phone is on the bedside table or being read in bed, a standard length cable is a bit of a stretch. We also have our own fast charger which we plug in elsewhere in the room for a quick boost.

I received four similar emails for the four cruises I had cancelled. Despite what it says, there's no need to wait until Dec 11 to use the fcc, if it's in the account it can be used. I've already applied one, to an existing booking. As usual, 10% off the base fare only, not port fees or taxes or extras.

We have Auckland to Istanbul booked, and they still appear in the account, Today we had four 10% off vouchers added to each of our accounts, without any explanation. These are normally added after a cancellation. There are four cruises between Singapore and Istanbul. So it looks very likely we'll get a notice soon that the cruises after Singapore are officially cancelled.

As your table shows, it's the more unique (and especially longer) cruises that still attract some interest and activity. If it's a routine 12 day Au/NZ or PoA Hawaii or a Caribbean, it has a different market that has an (even) lower proportion of Cruise Critic members. It also helps if the solo supplement has been low for a while. Several things have caused the decline in the Cruise Critic message boards. A large one is that the owners (Tripadvisor) are not putting any effort into promoting that such a thing exists. I've pointed many people to cruise critic and all they see is another cruise sales site, the word "boards" tucked away on the corner means nothing to a generation not raised on BBSes and AOL. I presume it's because the boards are seen as a cost, everything else is the stuff that brings in the money. Few new people will find the boards by going to the home page, that's probably intentional (channel them to the sales instead). The other thing, as many have said, is the closure of direct messages. If you have to send people to another place for private messages, all the communication will move there. Don't drive your users directly to the competition by removing essential features.

We booked a while back the Sun from Auckland through to Istanbul in March to May 2025 (6 cruises b2b). That includes trips in the middle east and even a turnaround day in Haifa so it's not a surprise that only the first two of those cruises are now shown, as far as Singapore. I wonder if the Sun will stay in Asia for the northern summer 2025? Or head to Alaska again?

The musicians onboard were Melvin, Los Paisanos, and 5th Wave, as well as the showband. Some of the musicians could be different by January. We didn't really get to hear them much except in passing, it was such a busy cruise!

The final full day of the cruise was a sea day. And also the day when the shareholder OBC for cruise three was finally applied to our account! On cruise one, some OBC was missing, but soon fixed when I mentioned it. Cruise two was applied correctly. On cruise three I've heard a very long list of excuses, and had to chase it many times, but it finally got done. On the 11th, we reached Singapore. Disembarkation was slow to start and got slower from there. We weren't in a hurry, but it was still tedious, a very manual process for Singapore immigration in the terminal. Uber doesn't operate in Singapore any more so I signed up on the Grab app while waiting in the morning. We got a Grab car (like an Uber) all the way to Changi airport for S$21, from the well organised pick up area at the cruise port, with very little waiting. We had an early morning flight planned for the 13th, so I booked a hotel at the airport. Really IN the airport - the Yotelair is on the 4th floor of the Jewel. It has a view of the vortex waterfall from the breakfast area / lounge. The Yotelair has tiny tiny rooms (inside cabins) but the location is great. It also allows early check ins by paying for the hours until your check in. We got there at 11am so paid for 4 hours extra ($S11/hr) rather than bothering with luggage storage, much nicer to have immediate access to the room. The nightly rate is reasonable, for Singapore. The rest of Saturday we went to Little India by MRT to see the deepavali/diwali celebrations and lights. Sunday we went to Sentosa and had a couple of cable car rides. Monday morning we caught the Singapore Airlines flight to Cairns, Australia. Back home after nearly eight months travelling, including nearly five months of cruises!

The final port day was Phu My, the port for Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). It's a commercial container port. We saw passengers walking through the port around trucks and cranes, which looked quite risky. Neither NCL or the port provided any shuttle. We took an NCL tour, as it's so far from the city, 1.5 to 2 hours by road! Others did walk out of the port and get taxis and minibuses on the industrial highway outside, so it is possible. As usual the tour bus had a cold wind blowing the whole time, but we were better prepared with more warm clothes! The tour included a canal boat ride including snacks and drinks, which made a nice break. Other places on the tour were not that interesting, such as the 1960's presidential place. The museum tour was extremely rushed as it was about to close for lunch. We had some free time near the Opera later, where we had lunch. It was convenient to be driven around and have tickets provided and not worry about getting back on time. This was one place where that peace of mind was nice to have. But next time, we'd prefer more freedom. The Vietnam arrival/departure cards were collected from us when we returned to the ship.

Our first port in Vietnam was Nha Trang. Paper arrival cards were distributed to cabins the day before. They were stamped by Vietnam as we left the ship, a fast and smooth process. Norwegian offered a shuttle to the city (maybe 5km away) for $20 return. There were also taxis in the port. We took a four hour taxi tour with another couple for $25 each. We went to the big Buddha and temple (with good views), the Ponaga temple, the catholic church, coffee by the beach, and the Dam market. A relaxed tour that got us to more places than a shuttle bus, for only $5 more. There were a couple of admission fees of a dollar or two, cash only. Even the coffee shop didn't take credit cards. US dollars were OK in many places, having local currency helped in the market. One of the world's longest cable cars across water, leading to a theme park, is visible from the ship. Unfortunately it's no longer operating and is partly dismantled.

Hi Patrick! We just have two nights in Singapore then fly to Cairns, Australia (a nice short flight!). We left Sydney on the Norwegian Spirit on Match 28. After twelve cruises, eight flights, and lots of time with family and friends in many countries, we'll be home. We don't have the option to stay on this ship for a while longer, as the Jewel's next cruise is a full ship charter.

Quite a shock on Tuesday -- no port! Our first sea day for nearly three weeks. We went on the Behind the Scenes tour (the free Latitudes version). The was a clash with something else on cruise one, and it was on a port day on cruise two (since there were no sea days). On this cruise, cruise three, we were told it was full already when we got back to ship after the port day in Taipei, so were waitlisted. On a previous ship, Ambassador back to backs were offered a sign up for the events the day before the cruise started, so we didn't have to line up after a port day. Not this one. At least we did get a call the night before to say they had a cancellation and would we like to go. Usual tour, with a theatre manager we've seen before on the Spirit. But still there's always something new to learn every time. There were two latitudes parties during the day (one for silver and gold, one for higher) but we gave it a miss this time. In the evening it was Dinner with Officers. This time, the HR guy. Not as senior as before but a fun person to be with. Show was a new acrobatics couple. So that means there will be a Cirque de Bijou production show in a couple of days (it was missing on cruise 2).