MagnoliaBlossom

Yes. They will announce how it works that morning and at what point priority passengers can proceed to the gangway

I see. We did receive FunPlay on our last sailing, but when the poster said cash, I thought this was something different.

Upgrades can only be done from inside and OV and only as high as a BA balcony.

Just to clarify the $25. Is that a platinum perk and not a casino booking perk?

Once you are in the rewards page look to the far right at the blue box with a pretty beach photo. Click on that and it shows the OBC option. But, you might consider paying your account with your NCL card, get triple points per dollar, and then request a statement credit for the amount you were going to get in OBC.

We are Diamond. Have cruised four times since restart and leave next week on another. The first two trips after restart were disappointing, but it was understandable. The next two were pretty much back to normal, realized that there were some things that are just going to be the new norm, so no use whining about it. My only disappointment was the overcrowding of the ship. It was not spring break or school vacation. It seemed security was not willing or able to control some obnoxious drunks and unruly passengers. We have received almost daily casino offers of free or $100 cabin offers, and lots of the people we chatted with onboard related the same. I think, as someone else said, they have attracted a lot of first time cruisers who don’t quite understand proper behavior on a ship and that has led to some less than stellar behavior. we have an 8 day booked for next week and received a note on our boarding documents that cabin access would not be allowed until 1:30:even for platinum or diamond baggage drop off. I find that disappointing.

I have bought our trip insurance from Steve for some time now and recently emailed them about an annual policy and was told they didn’t sell them. Did I misread that?

I had already done a double meta, so 60k points were attached to the reservation. She asked if I had a particular cabin in mind, I said I did and gave her the number. It wasn’t available but she offered the one next door, which was fine.

Okay, points are safe and upgrade booked on my new cruise. But it worked differently this time. although I changed ships and dates, the reservation number did not change, it was transferred. as such, the points did not return to my WP account but strayed attached to the reservation. When I called to ask about reinstatement of my points, it was explained to me and all I had to do was select a cabin number for this ship. Easy peasy, but very different.

Before they pull the plug on your old reservation, make sure it will actually save you money and that you will not lose any perks that might be important to you. After we became MAP approved I had my PCC review our cruises and only one would save me money because the rates had increased more than the 10% savings.

We used to always get a bottle when we sailed but now they no longer carry what we drink. We also now sail out of Galveston rather thanNew Orleans, so the liquor is not delivered until noon onthe first sea day. We get free drinks in the casino so I bring my big sippy cup and keep refilling it for later, but it’s such a bother to do that. I had read that CCL had suspended in room sales during spring break to try and control over drinking, and it did disappear from the website all together. But now it’s back but outrageous. No thanks.

It has been my experience that the listed prices are usually at their lowest when they are first posted. The “sales” as others have said are generally a gimmick. Once you near final payment date the prices will usually begin to fall if the cruise is not selling as well as expected. And yes, you can get some real deals inside final payment and close to sailing, but the cabin type you like may be sold out, or only cabins in problem areas are all that is available. Book it early and keep note of price changes. Outside of final payment there is no penalty to rebook, although your promos will be what is offered on the new booking. As you will be booking a 3rd and 4th passenger pay close attention to that area as it often times is where you will see promos differ.

Wow, you’re right, it has disappeared fromthe website, but this address should take you there. ncl.com/military It was on the main web page just a few days ago because I was showing it to a neighbor. The program is referred to as MAP - military appreciation program

Go to NCLs website and you will find the area to apply for your veterans discount. Takes five minutes. All online, no faxing a DD214. Easy peasy and it stays in you account so it will show up on any cruise you look at.

We did all three of the above mentioned restaurants in February and they were all back to pre-covid levels, or very close. LaCucina was very good, as well.

I promise to let you know as soon as those points show back up in my account.

From what they told me they will be redeposited and I will have to call and upgrade like normal, but from the start I didn’t let them think it was an outright cancellation, but a rebook. I don’t know if it would have made a difference but given the new language in the t and c I tried a different approach.

I had an interesting turn of events - today I chose to change a reservation. Different ship, date, itinerary. But was transferring one booking to a new one (yes, everything changed but I requested a transfer). Wasn’t sure if this would work in the new world order, but they redeposited my points, and transferred certificates, etc to my new booking. Before I did this I called WP to see if this move would result in forfeiture and they said no, then my PCC checked while we were in process and still no problem. So I am feeling better about this forfeiture language being a pile of Pooh. I will need to call in a day or so when points show up in my account to redo my upgrade, but thought I would report in.

I do miss those huge roll calls. We had one for a British Isles cruise that they had to separate into thre parts because it grew and grew. We had 350 or so folks on the roll call and we’re able to really plan some nice private tours with small groups.

You can fly to IAH or to Hobby, which is closer. There are several shuttle companies, six I think, that service both airports. Do a search for Galveston cruise shuttle and they’ll pop up. The sites will tell you their schedules and the estimated drive time.

While the social media sites have some advantages, IMHO, they are much less civil platforms. While I’m sure many of those folks find CC boring, at least there is not usually outright hostility to other posters. I use them to some degree but prefer CC.

You may want to consider the NCL MasterCard where you can upgrade using points. 30,000 points OV to BA or 60,000 IN to BA. Depending on the promotion you get a minimum of 20,000 with your card when accepted (after the obligatory spending). There a sticky on the card I’d you’re curious

Before you do a double meta upgrade be sure to compare the cost of IN vs OV. On some cruises the difference is very small. So it is wise to compare all your IN and OV categories and make sure you’re not spending an extra30K points for a small amount of savings. Of course, you know your budget and how long it takes to earn your points, so only you can decide. wen to upgrade is a question, in the past I would upgrade as soon as I booked, but now with NCL being difficult about fare adjustments after upgrading, I am holding off a bit, also since WO added the verbage that points could be surrendered in the event of cancellation it gives me pause about upgrading right away. I am fussy about cabin location so I don’t wait too long, because I want to be assured of a good location. But not everyone is as concerned about location. Enjoy!

And they had a 10% military that went away around 2010, but thankfully is back.

603, I don’t know why WP would deny an upgrade. But their rules can change on the time of the day 😵‍💫