NikkiDee-Canada

This is doable. The twin sofa is much more "bed-like" than it appears in the photo. A couple of things and suggestions:

• Your steward will turn the sofa into a bunk bed when s/he turns down the room. The cushion is removed from the back, so the lower bed becomes an absolute twin bed, as does the upper bunk. The upper bunk has its own light which is great if you have a nighttime reader (though it might still be annoying for others in the room if the light is on!)
• As others stated, ask for a mattress topper for the two twin beds, if you deem them to be uncomfortable. I tried out the lower bed and found it to be quite comfortable.
• Under the "bunk bed" are two drawers which are great for clothing storage for those guests. There's also a cupboard under the mirror in the room, which fits folded clothes nicely. We managed to fit clothing for five people in a four person room, so it's completely doable.
• Stick your suitcases under the bed to free up room.
• The bathroom/shower situation will be your only real "issue". We didn't find it to be an issue when we went, as we were all naturally on different schedules. Some early risers, some who slept in, some who preferred a shower later. I'm guessing anyone who uses the gym could also elect to shower, there.
• Bring "poo-pourri" or another bathroom spray for the washroom. Mandate usage. Trust me. As someone else stated, get to know the closest public washrooms as well.
• Don't get the continental breakfast delivered to your room. With that many people in a room, the dishes take over! Just go hit up the buffet or restaurant for your AM coffee/etc. 🙂
• If there is an issue with "fairness" surrounding the beds (ie: who gets the bunks and who gets the regular bed) you can ask your steward to re-dress the beds with clean bedding halfway through the cruise and simply switch spots. 🙂

I've done this with two adult-sized teens, but have considered doing this with another couple (using 3rd and 4th guest sail free) who couldn't otherwise afford to cruise with us. So I do think you can make it work, for sure, as long as your mindset is positive and you have realistic expectations. The room WILL be a bit crowded, but if you think of it as just a place to sleep, and not a place to hang out, you'll be good!

There are always 2-4 Indian dishes at the buffet, toward the back. I am not a huge fan of the buffet (I prefer a sit-down meal as opposed to a feeding frenzy...it can get chaotic in there!), but make sure to hit it up solely for their Indian food once every few days. It's fantastic!

We did a large cabana when we went a couple of years ago. It was directly in front of the beach, but up a hill. The price was a flat fee for all of us, and they allowed us to bring our toddlers without counting them as people, so we were able to have 11 humans assigned to one large cabana. I don't know if this is a typical exception, but they had no issue allowing it, and there was PLENTY of room for all of us. We had the drink package, and drinks were flowing freely. They'd bring round after round of drinks, including virgin options for the kids. We also received a food allowance credit with the caban, and got a couple of seafood platters, I believe. The cabana had a big sectional sofa, several lounge chairs, a hammock, and outdoor shower, and four complementary floaties (my husband went too hard, too fast on the flowing booze, floated out to sea, immediately burned his ginger skin, got sick, and went back to the ship, haha).

The ONLY complaint I would have is that the ramps leading up to the large cabanas are quite steep. We had one person with us who had trouble walking, and once he parked his butt up in the cabana, it wasn't worth it to come back down to wander the island. He was happy enough, but even as an able-bodied person, I limited my trips back and forth from the cabana to the beach.

Short version: Worth the price (the priority tender was AWESOME), was my favourite port out of the six we visited that trip.

If you subscribe to Spotify, you can download your playlists before you leave on your trip. This is what we do, so we can play music (quietly) in our room. 🙂

On 10/24/2019 at 8:04 PM, disneylover89 said:

I read that they put it in the little stool/foot rest.  The top comes off

All three times we have been, they remove the alcohol from our room completely (or hide it well enough that I've never found it!) We also travel with a full room, and use the stool storage for the kids' colouring and toys. And every available drawer and storage area for clothes. 🙂

My sister and I tried to (drunkenly) get the bartender to make a round of polar bear shots once night (creme de cacao and peppermint schnapps, basically) and he had no clue what we were trying to ask for. We explained it and he concocted us a drink that sort of matched what we wanted (but GREEN, which is not the colour they normally come in, lol). So it seems to depend on who you get as a bartender. Some seem very by-the-book, and others are happy to experiment with whatever they have behind the bar.

I appreciate when people post about issues like this, because it brings to attention specific issues with rooms that you otherwise would never think of. Since this would be a "premium", higher-priced type of room, I - like the OP - would incorrectly assume that it had a premium location. The deck plans can be kind of hard to understand.

To the OP, if you change your mind about cruising with NCL in the future, I would recommend calling to book your cruise instead of booking online, yourself. We have always called (after mock-booking online to get an idea of price expectations) and EVERY SINGLE TIME, the PCC was able to give us insight and suggestions on which room to book. I.E. "No, you don't want that room, it's directly under X area which can be quite noisy" or "If you are getting that room type, we have this one that has a slightly bigger balcony available, we'll set it all up!" They always have more information than is available online, in terms of "quality" or quirks of the rooms.

Hey all,

I'm totally jumping the gun on doing some research - just bored today. We are on the Breakaway next October (2020) and our last port of call is Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. I was curious about doing an NCL excursion at that port (DR makes us a bit nervous) but there are none listed either through our booking, or through the NCL website Shore Excursion Search tool. Has anyone done an NCL excursion in the DR? Any reason why none appear through the shore excursion search tool? I recognize that it's way too early for anything to show through our actual booking, but wondering why I can't see any, at all, in the generic search tool.

The daily service charge can be so painful. 🤣 We are a family of 5, so it often dips over past $1000 for the entire cruise for us, which is a substantial amount. I mean, that's another small trip for my husband and I! I'd much rather they built it into the cruise price, and paid the staff a fair wage. Out of sight out of mind. And then we could make our decisions on booking the trip based on the actual cost. It's misleading, and very easy to think we are getting an awesome deal that generally creeps up to a $9000+ cruise after all fees and gratuities are applied. It absolutely impacts how often we are able to go on vacation as a family. We will still go on trips, but are doing it every second year now, instead of annually, because of the cost increases.

We've been dealing with a PCC who has been awesome! Anytime we call and leave a message, he calls back promptly (often within minutes) and has all of our info up on the screen and ready to go. Booking our latest cruise took maybe 5-7 minutes, tops? When we called to make a change (adding the free airfare), our PCC was on vacation, but left contact info for a few colleagues. Again, they called back immediately, and we had everything set up within minutes, and a confirmation email immediately, with everything correct on the first go.

They aren't all perfect. We had one a couple of years ago that was a nightmare situation that bordered on (actually, fully entered into) full-on harassment to an absolutely bonkers degree. Not even kidding. It was almost comical in its oddness. But for the most part, we've had an awesome experience!

I was wondering about how it all works, as well. We took advantage of the free flight offer for our next cruise (October 2020) this past week. It's free for my husband and I, and around $260 for each of the kids. In addition, there is a fee of around $350 for the transportation to and from the port (mandatory). We were offered the option of a deviation of up to 2 days prior to the cruise, and declined. My understanding is that by booking a flight through the cruise line, the ship must wait for us if our flight is delayed. Can anyone confirm? I have been on a cruise where we were delayed departure, and the rumor mill buzzing around the ship was that our delay was due to a flight that hadn't come in, yet, booked through NLC.

My other concern is that we are travelling with our two young children, and I keep reading horror stories of families being separated onto different flights. Is there any truth to this? Would they honestly put an 8 year old on a flight alone?? My kids have never flown, so this is especially concerning. We are hoping to have seats together (at least 2 and 2, so each of us can sit with a kid. My husband and I don't care if we are at opposite ends of the plane), but was booking this a major mistake that will end with crying kids by themselves on planes? 😉 I hope not! The price just seemed too good to pass up. Flying in will be cheaper than any other method of travel, and eliminates the need to book a hotel. Considering we were robbed at the New Jersey hotel we stayed at for our last cruise (by a staff member, goodbye all of our travel cash) we want to avoid that mess, entirely. =P

We have done Breakaway (sister ship to Getaway) and Dawn, and much preferred the Breakaway. The Dawn seemed a bit sleepier, and we found ourselves bored at times. We loved the piano bar and comedy club on Breakaway, and spent a lot of time hanging out there in the evening. The Dawn seemed to lack evening hang-out spots that weren't completely empty. I don't think I'd do one of the smaller ships again. I prefer the activities available on the bigger ships.

Same as the others, I have it listed on my itinerary from last year as 2:30pm with a 3:00pm departure. Our ship ended up being several hours delayed leaving, but this did not impact the muster schedule at all. It's a well-oiled machine. 😉

We are at Best Western Premier NYC Gateway Hotel, which has extended stay parking ($125 for up to 14 days). Not sure if they have a shuttle, but we are leaving in a week so I will update. We chose it because it's right across from the pier, and they allow five in a room (I have three kiddos). So even if we have to cab it, it shouldn't be astronomically priced.

On 11/26/2018 at 8:42 PM, Son of a son of a ... said:

 

I had my t-shirt blow off a chair and into the sea on a BX.

Better than blowing off of your body, I suppose.

Enjoy the balcony! That looks awesome. We are in an inside for our cruise on the Escape next week, and I really miss balcony rooms (the downside of having three kids, and not wanting to shell out for two rooms!)

I had it last year. It was very fresh tasting. I really liked it. A nice break from all of the sweet drinks!

I've heard that Costa Maya has a ton of stuff to do right in port, including swimming. We were supposed to go there but ended up getting diverted to Cozumel last minute due to an emergency on-board, so didn't have much time to plan from the ship. We ended up taking a cab to a resort for the day, which was gorgeous, but a bit pricier than we had planned. I will say that Cozumel seemed to have the most inexpensive kitchy souveniers in their market area, and my kids had a great time picking stuff out (including blankets for $5, and bracelets custom made in front of them with their names). They learned to haggle in Cozumel. Haha.

Very very simple. The first morning of my first cruise, which was our first family vacation ever. We left from NYC in December, so it was snowing and cold. The first morning we woke up and stepped onto the balcony to mild, comfortable, beautiful weather, a gorgeous sunrise, and THE OCEAN!! I did a happy dance. 🙂

We are booked in a Family Oceanview on NCL Escape in a few weeks. I know they have the Family Oceanviews on some of their other large ships, as well (ie: Breakaway and Getaway). It's a bit bigger than the regular balcony room, and has a ton more storage. The sofa opens up into a small double bed for two, and the bunk comes out of the ceiling for another single bed. So if you have kids that refuse to share a bed, it could be a problem.

And as others have said, you have to call to book it. Which works out better, anyway, as they are pretty good with helping you find additional deals when you call in!

We brought our Elf on the Shelf for our cruise last year, and had fun setting it up around the cabin. Our steward even joined in on the fun, and incorporated the elf into some of the towel animal set-ups. We brought christmas window clings that stuck to the door (from the dollar store, super cheap and easy to pack). We also did a "christmas ball", with goodies inside for ages ranging from 1 to 14. Candies, small toys, glow sticks and things for the glow party, all wrapped up in a big cling-wrap ball that the kids had to take turns unwrapping with mittens on. A fun little christmas game we did in our cabin one night.

We called an Uber. They aren't allowed in the port area, but we simply had to cross the road to reach them. When you get off the ship, you can walk straight and walk past the barrier gate arm and they can pick you up there. Less than a minute walk.

The alternative didn't look fun. They had shuttles, but the line was crazy long and we had a combined 5 children with us (two were toddlers). We made arrangements with the Uber to pick us back up at the beach when we were done. She actually called a friend of hers, as well, and we had two vans show up to drive us around. It was much cheaper than the shuttle would have been for all of us (11 people in total).

21 hours ago, electro said:

The truth is that NCL should not be sending mail to the wrong address. If passenger number 2 has a different address than passenger 1, they should not sent passenger 1's mail to passenger 2's address. this should not be a difficult concept. What happens after the mail is sent does not change the fact that NCL sent it to the wrong address.

This exactly. The best course of action would be to contact NCL directly and explain what happened and why you are upset. And it is a problem, obviously some sort of a glitch in their booking system. We had this happen last year. I was receiving info for my mother's cruise, things were coming for our own cruise in my 12 year old son's name. My sister received an itinerary change that none of the rest of us received. I got a phone call from an NCL cruise consultant at midnight, chewing me out because my sister had called to make a complaint. It was completely bonkers. None of our bookings should have been linked to one another, and there's a definite breach of privacy risk there, depending on the info being sent out.

NCL needs to iron out the glitches in their booking system, but that won't happen if people complain here instead of directly to NCL.

Those ages are hard for NCL. The 11 and 12 year old will end up in Splash Academy, and it really caters more to the younger kids. My 12 year old was in it last December, and went once and was done with it. My oldest was 14, and was in their Entourage club which was much more appealing. We barely saw her on sea days, once she connected with a few kids. She absolutely loved cruising. It was all about the social aspect for her (and she's a total introvert, really came out of her shell!)

My 12 year old is a foodie, so he entertained himself by checking into the restaurants and getting very experimental with food. He'd try anything, lol. Other than that, he spent a lot of time with us and our youngest in the pools and hot tubs, we played a TON of mini golf, and we'd check the dailies for any interesting mini events or shows going on. He'd keep an eye on the kid club dailies to see if there were any activities he could try out. But the biggest issue for him was that he never did connect with any other kids his age, on that cruise. I found that really makes or breaks the experience for the kids. They roam around in packs, and find their own fun.

• I love standing up and walking away from restaurants without paying. Not having to wait for a bill is the best!
• I love the gentle rocking of the ship when I am sleeping on nights with rough sea.
• I love that I can order every dessert instead of having dinner, and nobody gives me judging looks.
• I love the weird cruise ship paparazzi, and the surprise of going through photos at the end of the cruise, that I didn't even recall being taken.
• I love the salty pool water, and the kids love the additional buoyancy, as it helps them swim.
• I LOVE LOVE LOVE having a room steward. As a mom, the complete lack of work is the best vacation, for me. 🙂

Snorkeled there last December with my own gear, right from the beach where the snorkle rental building was. Zero issue. Had an amazing experience following a giant sea turtle around with the kids!