rattla

Is it only in the Haven restaurant you can get the coffee likes cappuccino complimentary, or elsewhere in the Haven too? Often we don’t want a full breakfast so don’t want to go to the restaurant, but my wife would like a coffee. She prefers cappuccino and not a big fan of American filter style coffee.

Ok, so sounds like there could be a possibility of some specials as it’s a longer journey then as seems there may have been on the TA and Panama Canal journeys 😊👍

Am I right in thinking there is just the one Haven menu, even for a longer cruise? We are going on a 16 night itinerary, and from the menu I am seeing I would imagine that it’s going to require multiple repeats, which seems a shame if paying the extra for the Haven are the better dining experience? We will do a few speciality dinners, but I do have a seafood Intolerance, so that limits my options somewhat, and even deserts seem limited to about 4-5 options? Do they have any daily specials etc or maybe offer more options on a longer cruise?

Quite often the “refurbs” that are done will not include any significant upgrade of cabins. Most dry docks tend to be more focused on mechanical overhaul and updating some public areas with repaints, change of carpets and soft furnishing. You may get some things like mattresses, curtains and balcony furniture updated in cabins, but not always. Reality is it’s very hard to get these specific details of what’s been updated, unless you look for reviews and videos etc of people travelling after these refurbs where they go into the detail of things that may have changed.

Brussels, most would do Bruges, or maybe Ghent as an alternative, very few actually go to Brussels, as Bruges is probably more of a draw anyway 😊

So Berlin is a couple of hours as GALSews says. London isn’t that close to Southampton either, but if you wanted to do London, as it’s the end of the cruise it seems, maybe best to stay over there after the cruise? The others are generally not that far, though while Amsterdam is super close to where they dock, the local government have recently announced a plan to move the cruise port away from downtown, so May be a little further away, but I’m sure less than an hour. You don’t always have to go to the “Star” location though, there are often some nice places to see and explore outside of the big headline cities. Honfleur in France is a beautiful little town. Perfect for for a few hours exploring, so personally I’d recommend that to most people stopping at Le Havre.

id say you generally just get a sample or a chance to see one or two “highlights”. I think it’s a great way to see a lot of countries and cities in a single holiday. You obviously aren’t going to be able to experience everything an area has, in most cases you get 8-10 hours maximum. But personally we really enjoy the variety nd you get to see some places you perhaps wouldn’t have gone to for a specific holiday. It does give you the chance to see If you really like the place then maybe it’s somewhere you could come back to and see more of. Some places its enough to see all the key things in a town/city. But obviously there are some ports, like Le Havre, where you aren’t going to do Paris justice. Personally I wouldn’t go from ale Havre to Paris as it’s 3 hours each way and that’s too long for me to want to travel in any port to be honest. And that’s even if you exclude the fact where I live in the U.K. I can get to Paris quicker on the Eurostar Train than it would take to get from Le Havre to Paris. 😊

I guess pre Covid was 4 years ago though now, and we’ve also had some hefty inflation the last couple of years. when you look at the rise of food and drink prices, and note that most cruise line drinks package costs have gone up about 25-33% it’s not surprising NCL need to do the same. It’s just with their FAS deals they really need to add the higher cost onto the cruise price?

Unless the ship is really empty or you put in a very high bid, you’d be unlikely to receive the upgrade more than a couple of weeks before the sailing. In a lot of cases it can be the final week before sailing it is done. basically they will try to sell as many at full price as they can before giving upgrades at a reduced price 😊

Yup this approach does seem to work really well. the only “problem” with an upgrade after final payment is that it’s not always that great or worthwhile. For example before they confirmed the £35pp reprice was applicable for me as still over 60 days, they said they would be able to offer me a complimentary upgrade from club balcony suite to family club balcony suite. The only difference for that is every extra beds, but there’s just two of us? 🤷‍♂️ so really a bit pointless in that situation and I may have lost my cabin that is in a great location . So just be careful with “free upgrades” 😊

Certainly was discount for the ones I checked ? 🤷‍♂️ Prices do change all the time but 100% the price wasn’t increased during the offer period when the 1/2 price Free at sea offer was on. certainly wasn’t a scam for me I noticed the price had reduced online so the Total cost after adding back gratuities and FAS and all my other purchases was c.600 cheaper. I called via my TA and the reprice to the exact same price as the latest online price (after re adding those things id bought) so I saved the full amount, minus the £70 fee. mothers have also had the same as it was on the back of them highlighting this that I knew about it. Can’t speak for you situation, I assume when recalculating the saving you’d added all those extras back on? but this is not the first time I’ve done this and they do definitely give the current online price. N.B. They won’t give updated promotions, but the price is matched. For example when I repriced there there was an extra $200 OBC for new bookings. I couldn’t get that but did get the price matched which was the main thing.

Yeah. My cruise dropped a few days ago by £600+ and I repriced for £35pp. As I still have a week or two until final payment, so if it does come back, I’ll look at my options. As I’ve paid the extra £70 now to get the current price, that means if I cancelled it would only cost me £130 (£200 deposit - £70) Their website is down until 1:30 BST, so maybe will be showing once back up?

The best promotion I have seen was when the half price Free At Sea promotion was made available a couple of weeks ago, that was a genuine extra saving of maybe £100-150 per person (depending on cruise length - for mine it would have been £150pp). The % discounts are pretty irrelevant though as you say.

Actually while it doesn’t work the same as the US, in the U.K., NCL I’ve found out will reprice a cruise as long as it’s over 60 days before sail date, for a charge of £35pp. you are right that generally in the U.K. companies don’t offer this, but it seems that NCL do have an option!

Actually while it doesn’t work the same as the US, in the U.K., NCL I’ve found out will reprice a cruise as long as it’s over 60 days before sail date, for a charge of £35pp

I’ve just managed to update the price to the latest for c.£70. Think I’ve saved about £800 so very happy and thanks for the advice above! FYI. When my agent phoned the first time, they were told can’t do it and all they could offer was an upgrade to the next category cabin. I had checked with NCL direct just before and they said if it was more than 60 days (final payment date) they could reprice, but if it’s less they can only do the cabin upgrade. so I told my TA this and said can they try calling back and speak to someone else, and this time they said it was fine. 🙄 so it pays to know the correct details yourself as as is the way with most of these call centres, you are reliant on the knowledge of the individual to give the correct answer!

I’m intrigued by the repricing option now for U.K. passengers. I wonder if it’s only if booking direct, or I’d also be able to do that if I have booked through a TA (Costco) ?

I would have saved about £300 after deposit the other week when they had half price FAS. I was tempted but had passed the 120 days and booked all the dinning and other stuff so didn’t think it was worth the hassle

I think they do look for the best value from their side and the highest bids. My £515 bid for sunset was accepted, and that was my 2nd highest bid, but £565 for Royal suite was probably too cheap 😊 it’s for my MIL/FIL and they preferred aft to for, hence I bid a decent price on that. But the horizon suites do look lovely! crazy how much you’ve saved though when you look at the prices of those! 😁

you did well, congrats. I wanted to guarantee a Retreat suite, so had bid £515 for sunset suite and won that a week or so ago 😊

From what I’ve seen if your other bids expire and just one is left that usually means it is likely to be accepted. Can you modify the bid/offer on that one anymore? If not I’d expect you may well get confirmation you’ve been upgraded in the next 24-48 hours?

That’s great, very detailed thanks. They previously picked the 11:30 slot for their Aqua Class room before they got the upgrade bid to the Suite, is that the earliest to arrive usually or can suite guests arrive any earlier?

Thanks guys, sounds like there isn’t too much to worry about so can all be done once onboard anyway. They’ve only travelled on MSC Yacht Club before (apart from their first cruise with us on NCL in a standard balcony), so I’m expecting a similar experience for them, so hopefully nothing that’s that confusing for them 😊

I have been sorting Cruise this July for my MIL/FIL and had a successful bid to The Retreat, Sunset Suite on Silhouette. As part of the details in respect of the The Retreat, it mentions a pre-cruise concierge, but only provides a US based telephone number . Should they expect to be contact by this person/team, or should they contact them in another way without having to use the US number? ( “Dedicated pre-cruise Retreat Concierge. Call 1-877-RETREAT” ) im also not sure what services or details they would be able to provide at this stage? They are new to both Celeberity and The Retreat, so are not entirely certain on the processes and procedures and maybe what to do at arrival at Southampton port or do they arrive a different time being a Suite guest etc?

The trip was only booked 2nd week of May, and I tried the upgrade via the website about 2 weeks ago and it was showing as available to bid. So I put my bid in on 24th May which was about 33 days before sailing? I didn’t see the email, but that is in my FIL,s name as I am doing all the booking etc on their behalf. I just simply checked the upgrade occasionally and it showed up that day, not sure how long it had maybe been available, but can’t have been long before that.