azdrydock

DW tried binging spices in zip lock bags home and a friendly US Customs dog came over and sat down next to our luggage. They confiscated all food stuffs not in original factory sealed containers. As far as as shipping goods there is usually a store or desk at your departing airport that will package and ship items.

Humm.,,. Been on 6 Viking ships including the Jupiter and the hallway announcements have always been on the bridge channel with an annoying 2 second delay. The play by play from the expert in the Explorers Lounge is not heard in the hallways and I believe on at least one cruise it was on the Bridge channel and not in the public areas. Doubt there will be any announcements any where at 4AM.

We are doing the same thing again in a few weeks. Good luck

I went into the archives and dug out my last HAL invoice from early 2019 The first few lines read as Gift Orders which were my OBC's that totaled to $500 The next few lines read as "Hotel Service Charge" and each one decremented my OBC by $16.00 There is a difference between a gratuity and the Hotel Service charge. I would assume that a gratuity is a non invoiceable tip that you would give a crew member in lieu of or addition to the Hotel Service Charge. I can't comment on Casino charges. As others have stated you can book now on your credit card and then once onboard cancel and rebook. You can tell the risk factor by checking the excursions a few days prior to sailing and see if they are waitlisted or sold out and double check with EXC desk before cancelling. Last cruise we were on (not HAL) there were dramatic differences between the internet and onboard prices. Besides new excursions some excursions that were marked sold out were available, This was do to allowing increased bus capacity due to the lifting of Covid restrictions and more drivers available. My experience has been that as long as it appears on your invoice your OBC covers it. When I book a onboard future cruise, the deposit has to be done with a credit card thus it does not appear on the invoice.

Thanks We booked our "must have" excursions in advance and plan on waiting until we board for the rest. Some times we wait until the last minute to decide to do a tour, walk around the port or stay on the ship. Since the restart new excursions have been added on a daily basis sometimes the day before port arrival. You may be able to switch to the new excursion at the last minute with no penalty, but not always We haven't been on HAL for a while but on other lines the agent generated OBC's were not available until after sailing but since they appeared as a credit on the invoice it came off the bottom line.

Do excursions booked on board cost the same as online bookings?

you are correct...

This was also a first for us. Both ships, Crystal Serenity and Symphony were arriving from foreign ports and Sydney was the final destination for both voyages I think both ships were supposed to dock in Darling Harbor and the night before we were notified that we would embark at White Bay and I am not sure if the Serenity was anchored or sent to a pier with no immigration facilities. If think this was due to 2 megaships in Darling were being held over because of an impending storm. In any event the pax from Serenity arrived by ferry White Bay and luggage was on a barge. We heard stories about the chaos and confusion at White Bay for days and it reinforced our policy of embarking as late as possible.

In Sydney Australia we were not allowed to leave the ship once we embarked at White Bay. Some of the answers we got related to logistics issues in the terminal to immigration having to match their records with the ships manifest. It was a rare situation since there were two ships from the same line using the terminal Passengers from ship A were continuing on A, others transferring to B and others ending their journey. Same for ship B. Australia required all in transit passengers to disembark with their luggage go through customs and then embark..

Same cruise; some different observations. Our last NCL cruises were about 7 years ago. Alaska and then Panama Canal on the Pearl and the Pride of America. The food was one of our highlights. Used to go up to the Cafe after the MBR or /and after the show for the amazing deserts. Boarding - Getting on the ship in NY was very easy and very quick. Only question there was if you submitted a pic of yourself when you checked in online, why do they need to take another pic and a pic of your passport? Same experience Cabin - we had a balcony and it was one of the best for the dollar we have had recently. Two USB outlets on each bedside lamp. Would definitely book that cabin again. Close to elevators without any noise. Room size - very adequate, well laid-out, 3 separate closets (2 with sliding doors and 1 open.) Safe normal size. Bathroom - Big shower with 4 setting rain head. Shelve, mirror, lighting and towels more than adequate. Balcony - 2 comfortable chairs and one table. Must have had a different balcony. Couch, no chairs and a hassock. No sheer curtains only blackouts. Would have been nice to have been able to use only the floor lights in the bathroom as a night light. Liked the décor and agree it was a great use of space. Ship - Very different than any other ship we have been on. Anyone could rate this as a positive or negative. Or both ! Our impression was: Prima Theater & Club - No real bad seats as they are all on separate levels. We always entered via Deck 6 by the Penrose Atrium. Must have reservations for the shows. The only show we did not like was the Magician. Many people walked out during his act. He was on 3 nights. The two main shows were Noisy Boys and Donna Summer. Both excellent. On two nights in a row due to stage setup time. Noisy Boys at beginning or cruise 2 nights, 2 times per night. Summer on late in the cruise, 2 nights 2 shows per night. The Price is Right another very good show with guest participation. The Irish singer was fantastic and appeared 2 nights. Never went to the theater after the shows when it was converted to a club. Stayed around to see how they converted from Theater to Club. Best Magic show of the cruise. MDR - Menu the same every night. We did attend the Hudson’s for breakfast and diner. What can you say about breakfast? Quick, good selection. Dinner, I tried the NY Strip medium rare. Seriously, could not cut it and the waiter could not except either. Tried the pork cops, too thin and done too much so they were very dry. Same as the veal chops. Wife had the fish and chips and pasta, OK. We had 5 or 6 dinners and breakfasts at Hudson. Food was OK at best. Service was very good except there were times the entre was delivered before we finished the appetizer. Some have written that the limited menu to steer people to the Specialties. This might happen with the loyalists but others will be steered away from NCL. Again, food is very subjective and you may find it excellent. We went to the Speciality Restaurants using our perks from Latitudes and booking. Speciality Restaurants - Make sure you know where they are at before you try to find them. They are almost completely hidden from the inside of the ship. Located on various decks. Cagney’s Deck 6 Aft - Excellent Starter, Black Tiger Shrimp Trio, very good and big. Main, DW- Double Cut Australian Lamb Chops 12oz. More than she can eat and very tender (Medium.) I had the NY Strip 12oz medium rare. Excellent in all aspects. We don’t eat desert. Palomar Deck Deck 17 - Excellent Starter, Grilled Octopus Excellent. DW - Greek Salad Excellent. NY Strip medium rare. Excellent! DW - Grilled Australian Lamb Chops, OMG 5 lamp chops that we could have shared. One of the best meals as we both like lamb and cook it at home. Only thing missing is Mint Sauce, we don’t like mint jelly. Le-Bistro Deck 7 - Excellent Excargots, very good. I had the Filet De Boeuf Rossini - Beef Tenderloin. Excellent medium rare. DW had the Braised shank and roasted lamb chop. Excellent medium. Los Lobos Deck 8 - Excellent 2 times since you may only use 1 vouch/meal for two. Chips n Salsa Guacamole prepared at table side. Very good Main - Camarones - 6 tiger shrimp on a screwer. with 3 corn tortillas. Excellent Food Republic Deck 17 - Excellent 2 times ordered/shared 4 items thus could use only 1 vouch/meal for two. Tiger Roll - big and excellent Firecracker shrimp 4 pieces with spicy sauce. Spicy Korean Fried Chicken Chicken Teriyaki Thai Steak & Noodle Salad Vietnamese Pho Tai Local Bar & Grill Deck 8 - Excellent Shared 6 Chicken Wings. Not same as other ships. Very small 2nd wing piece. OK Shared Reuben & fries. Lot of meat, OK Breakfast 2 times. Never crowded in the AM and shared the English style breakfast with 2 eggs, beans, hash browns, mushrooms. More than enough for two. Very busy other times of the days. Becareful of the door going opens towards the inside. Second door opens out. Our opinion; this is the best food venue on the Prima! We found out about the evening "specials" near the end of the cruise. Beef Stroganoff was excellent, Indulge Food Hall Deck 8 - OMG! Be extra careful. You will get lost and turned around in this venue. It is totally different! You name it and it has so many choices. Tapas, The Garden, Nudls, Latin Quarter, Seaside Rotisserie, Coco’s ($$$$).You order via a Tablet and they will deliver you order to your table. Too many choices to list. We tried many things and were totally satisfied. Did I mention Indian Curry, try it. The concept and food were OK, lamb chops excellent, but it still needs some tuning. If you place a complete order everything arrives at once if it is from the same restaurant. Different restaurants the food may arrive at random intervals. Secret was to order appetizer and when finished order entre. Can't add bread or butter or change vegetables. I believe this is the only venue on the ship that you can go to just for ice cream. Chocolate, Vanilla Strawberry plus a daily special on a 3 day rotation, no condiments. The only way you can get to Indulge from inside is through the Local Bar & Grill The lack of signage is a problem on the Prima. All of this is easily fixable but the issue of exterior doors with no effective air locks or wind breaks throughout the Prima as a major problem Onda Italian Specialty Resturant. Food was good but restaurant did not have an Italian feel. No Veal dishes except veal chops. Good deserts. Hasuki Japanese Grill Entertaining but electric grills takes a lot away from land based flames.. Bring the kids. Surfside Very small for a ship this size. I think the intent was Indulge and Local Bar and Grill would siphon many of the normal Surfside clients. This was not the case on a cruise that was not at full capacity, perfect weather and few kids. They did use New Republic at breakfast and lunch for the overflow. When the exterior doors opened and closed it felt like a wind tunnel. There were other HVAC problems such as the temperature differential between the Grill and Cafe was so high that there was a constant dripping from the ceiling in what was known as the rain forest. Hopefully this will soon be fixed Elevators - Doors close to quick for you to get on. The sound notifying you that this is the elevator to use is too soft. The light does help, but you must be quick. Doors close very fast. Haven has the aft Elevator and only Haven Guest may use it. So, all other passengers must use the other 2 elevators The Haven accounts more than 100 of the 1,600 cabins and around 6% of occupancy. Yet, the AFT elevators may only be used by the Haven Guests.I know they pay for that privilege, yet, why not allow everyone to use those AFT elevators and control entrance by a door to enter the Haven? The first few days there appeared to be a a few elevators out of order and they may have made some timing changes to the dwell times to compensate. Didn't have a problem with the volume of the of the bells but I am not sure if the sound came from a central location or the arriving elevator, As soon as bell sounded everyone's head was on a swivel to see which light was on. The Haven elevators were a common discussion topic. We were also on Deck 10 so we used the stairs a lot. I thought the the elevator layouts were very clever way to isolate the noise. Shops - If you need a watch, your in luck. Never seen so many watches on a ship. Shops all over the ship, not in one area or deck. Bars - Yes, speciality bars which limit the drinks they serve. No martini bar and if you like a martini, very limited selection. Whiskey bar, basically whiskey and noting else. Many bars open late in the morning.No, I am not a drinker, just showing limitations. Example: Luna bar on deck 8 11am Penrose bar on Deck 6 9am Local bar on deck 8 7am Observation on deck 17 11am Waves bar on deck 17 8am. In a Speciality Restaurant, if you have a favorite drink, bring it with you as you may not be able to get it from that SR or on that deck. Syd Norman’s Pour House and Improv at Sea - Very limited seating and no reservations. People line up an hour or more before a show. Never attended either one. Agreed.... Some of the events did require reservation. Why would you have venues on a ship this size that only seat 30 or 40 for events that are normally held in the theater. The Observation Lounge Deck 17 - Much smaller, half the size of the Joy, with very few lounges and more seats. Lovely area to sit in at front of the ship. Bar opens at 11am, food served 3 times a day with coffee/tea. Very quiet, however, may be very hot based on sun position. Agreed... that this is a nice sit and relax venue but not a place to hold a Latitudes meeting or Meet the Captain event. Because of the thin circumference very few people can see the speakers and even less if seated. Staff - Excellent throughout the ship. Very accommodating and always there to help. Never had any problems with the staff in any venue. Agreed Special Thanks to General Manager Martin Ivanov and his staff for being the best of the best. Always there to answer any question and go above and beyond! Met Tony Pearsall, Manager of Music Programs who was on this cruise. Very on-hands individual. He really did a fantastic job on getting some of the best musical entertainment. We enjoyed them very much in the Penrose Atrim. Duo Rika, Purple Sundaze and Familiar Strangers. Play various types of music and guest really got involved every night NCL application - very good and easy to use. Keep you up-to-day on your daily ship activities, billing account, deck plans and more. Disagree,, You couldn't make reservations or changes. Couldn't read restaurant menus. Tech support said issue of reading menus was effecting about half the users and he had no answer from main office on how to fix it. Internet - Slow at times, but overall very good and ensure you log out when you are done so you time does not run out. Easy to log in and out if you follow directions. disagree Disagree..... EMail was slow but worked. Trying to connect to Airlines etc. connections failed due lags transferring credentials. We had the free package so I don't know if it was better on the premium. Ports - we have been to them many times, thus we do our own thing. Some excellent others OK. Your decision. Also been to all of the ports but took a few excursions. anyway .. Combo Panoramic and City walk tour in Curacao The bus never showed at pier so they decided to walk to town and do walking part first. Background noise, size of group made it impossible to hear the guide. Tour company sent bus for 18 people (group was about 40) so we had to wait for an additional bus PA system on didn't work on bus. Bonaire,, Panoramic around Island with history of the salt trade was excellent. Air/Transfers- Used NCL air going to NY, great time and flight using United. We flew in a day early, went from NJ Newark to Manhattan Hotel via Coach 1 hour and very reasonable. Stayed in Times Square Hotel and very centralized, took Uber from hotel to ship. Going from Galveston to MI, we did our own air and even came out cheaper than if we bough our own air. Bus transfer from Galveston to Houston airport well worth the money and very easy to use. Overall Assessment - New ship, new design, however, very worth while as it was Excellent food, entertainment, staff and YES, we are cruising again on Prima Nov 19 out of Miami 7 days. As OP stated food is very subjective. In general we rated it similar to a chain restaurant. The fact that the dinning room evening dress code was reduced to "anything goes except hats and tank tops" diminishes and overall dining experience. One or two meals were excellent but the overall dinning experience just OK. We liked the décor and layout of the ship. Usual collection of chair hogs around the pools. Enjoyed our evening deck 8 walks. Entertainment was very good but many performances were sold out. Ship was very smooth with little sway or vibration. Waters were calm but there was no vibration when maneuvering away from the pier. Overall service was very good. The upselling was the biggest negative. Twice in the elevator some one from the spa tried to sell a us something. Same thing with someone from one of the stores. The sink water seemed to be overly chlorinated. We were gifted to boxes of water. When we finished one we filled it with tap water and let it sit in the refrigerator for a few hours. No one could taste the difference between the boxes. Rumer is the cloud of smoke from the smoking room near the Metropolitan Bar was so NCL could eventually sell "Fresh AIr" Would we sail the Prima again? We will wait for Rev 3 to make that decision.

I think the credits or OBC you get on MVJ are Viking provided. As mentioned, the agency OBC does not appear until after you have embarked. On Viking there is usually a card in the room from your TA with a bottle of wine and OBC mention. Not on Viking, we have tried canceling paid excursions and rebooking once onboard once our OBC appeared. Usually worked but sometimes the prices were higher and we were told if we cancel and it is waitlisted we cannot rebook. If you do it in person with the on board travel advisor they will prevent you for doing something you will regret.

Currently Viking has a $500 OBC +Silver Spirits Promo on some cruises and see Clay's post #8 for current maximum agency OBC allowance. You get this no matter who you book with possible exception with bookings through brokers. To my knowledge Viking does not use brokers. Most online TA's offer the maximum. Most of the mom and pop agencies with out any affiliations can't match this but they can throw in local airport transfers, restaurant gift certificates etc. A good local agent can provide more service than the online agents and help with excursions, destination event tickets etc.

... There is really no reason not to use an agent. You can still call Viking directly with any cruise and Viking Air issues. I the case of sold out extensions, some agents can create a similar package at the same hotel. At the time you book with an agent you should receive a statement that describes any perks and addons and the agencies cancellation policy, Usually this supersedes any subsequent advertised promotions. The on board credit conditions should be clearly stated. If it is non refundable it means if you don't use it you lose it. If it is refundable will it appear as a credit on your shipboard account and be refunded through the cruise line. Sometimes you are required to submit your final onboard statement to the agency and they will issue a credit for the amount you spent up to the OBC. The only other caution is to make sure that cruise line will copy you on all important communications. Twice we had embarkation locations changed the night before a cruise and because of time differences or agent availability we received them after the fact. Viking is very strict with allowable agency perks so beware of an agency that is promising more then the others. It is also a good idea to plan how you are going to spend the agency OBC in advance, You can use it for gratuities and excursions and other packages only after you board the ship. .