Sailing12Away

16 hours ago, WonderMan3 said:

 

 

 

Yeah, your experiences are out dated. I sailed Thanksgiving 2023 and it was exactly as I described. My MIL in the sky suite got nothing, and we got charged for mini fridge items in our celebrity suite.

14 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

You left out the worst of all, often discussed here in the past.  A balcony near people who have the nerve to blow bubbles off their balcony.  According to many experts here, if one of those bubbles pops on your balcony, it will create a tremendous mess that will take hours to clean up and, even worse, an immediate safety hazard for anybody who foolishly enters that hazard zone.  The horrors.😱

I haven't killed any of my neighbors yet with the slip and fall hazards I've created. Still trying though...

On 5/16/2024 at 1:35 AM, gizfish said:

The brand of towels in the Haven used to be Baltic Linen, specifically pyramid excel, actually made in Lake Success, NY.  In 2017, the company was acquired by Sobel Westex. I haven't had to replace the original Baltic brand towels I bought in 2014 since they are still so awesome.  But the Sobel website does seem to offer some styles of Baltic towels.  

https://blog.sobelathome.com/baltic-linen-brand-hotel-linens/

Worked in Lake Success for many years and never heard of them. Google maps is showing the closest one (under either name) all the way in south Jersey.

The difference though is that passengers are a bit clueless and careless. Staff will be more mindful about not touching the gun nozzle directly to the vessel. 

It may fall into the general void of inconsistently enforced NCL policies, but I've seen staff filling them specifically at the Haven bar. 

23 hours ago, dmwnc1959 said:

THANK YOU for such a really great question! Having last cruised Royal Caribbean the soda package tumbler used in conjunction with the freestyle soda machines was really great. If NCL had this as a package separate from the FAS I'd definitely buy it, but I'm not going to spend all of that money just for a glass of soda here and there. Just not worth it to me personally. 

There's nothing stopping you from bringing your own on board and having the bartenders fill it with soda if you wanted to be able to carry more than one cup at a time.

You can't just look at the price to upgrade, you have to look at the total cost. If you booked the cruise at a very discounted rate, even paying 1K to upgrade may still be 'worth it' because the total value is still in the good price range. But if you overpaid originally, even upgrading for just $200 total may NOT be worth it because you're already way over priced for what you're getting. Unless I missed it you're only talking math about the additional charge, not what the new total price per day is vs will be.

My dear friend loves his inside cabins because of the value they offer in terms of pricing, but I'm pretty confident that if the prices were the same he would gladly move himself and travel companions into the balcony. For us - we can never consider an inside at all. Between claustrophobia, anxiety, vitamin D deficiency, lack of open air, and the mysterious great unknown we had with Covid where folks were locked in their cabins for multiple days where those in inside cabins didn't get any of that at all - nope, not for us, regardless of the price. 

Even if I only spend 5 mins during the morning and another 5 mins at night standing out there, I want a balcony. I want the option to just sit and veg and stare out at the sea without anyone near me. I want to stand there in my PJs without funny looks. Hubby wants to stand there topless without someone giggling at his doughboy belly. So for us the price is irrelevant.

Having said that, our normal prices we expect to pay/pp/day for a standard cruise (not on POA, not Alaska, not Panama Canal....) with the basic FAS package is as follows - this is based on what we've actually paid on some trips or what I've price checked countless times on my various spreadsheets, and the value we perceive the cabin/ship is "worth" having sailed it and seen first hand. Anything less than this we feel we got a good price, anything higher we would consider based on the itinerary and/or friends joining us.

• Haven cabin on a breakaway plus class ship (Encore, Bliss, Joy...) - $500 - 550
• Haven cabin on a jewel class ship (Gem, Jade, Pearl....) - $400 - 450
• Non-Haven suite - $350 - 400
• Club balcony - $250 - 300
• Balcony - $150 - 200

So if your balcony upgrade is costing you an extra $100/day, but you're only currently paying $100/day for your inside, then you're well within what I consider normal pricing for that balcony.

On 5/11/2024 at 3:07 PM, david_sobe said:

I sailed Epic twice in Haven suites but long ago.  They used to have 2 for 1 drink specials in the Haven lounge from 5 to 6pm.  During sail away they would walk all through Posh and offer rum punch and sparking wine.  Those same kinds of drinks you get at the latitudes party.  Probably cost NCL nothing but they still took it away.  The Haven also used to get giant fluffy special towels.  Those are gone too.  In the old days they also would give you a few liters of spring water.  

The big fluffy blue beach towels are still there for Haven guests in your room. Regular white towels are also big and fluffy. The cartons of water are there for free too based on your latitude status regardless of cabin type booked.

17 hours ago, jrt.mom said:

I can't believe they have milk for free and charge for pop. Strange economics...

If 80% of passengers want to drink soda, and only 10% of passengers want milk (whether for cereal, coffee, or to dunk a cookie in) - it's better business for them to charge the 80% rather than go after the 10%.

17 hours ago, complawyer said:

usually, if i wanted a soft drink (pepsi  prior to the change, coke afterwards) i would get it at any bar in a plastic cup, no charge, and as many as i wanted. our last cruise on the ncl star. which ended in lisbon on 4/27/2024, anytime i wanted a soft drink, i got a can with no problem, no questions asked and no charge.  and it was a 17 day cruise. usually, there is a bar set up in the buffet area also

I thought you always had the FAS drink package though, no? The official rule on cans vs real life experience is very different. Even on the same cruise with the same crew, from night to night the experience can be different.

We always have the FAS package, and even staying in the Haven with a Haven bar it's been hit or miss as to whether we can get cans to go or not. Last trip on the Epic the bartender refused and would give us 2 cups full of ice and fountain soda, which were diluted flat messes later on when hubby actually wanted to drink them. Trip before on the Prima it depended on the night, some nights yes, others no. Trip before that on Joy through the Panama Canal - bartenders there just pulled out 2 cans and handed them to us when they did last call without us even asking after the 2nd night. The bonus tips given on each of those 3 ships varied accordingly as well...

On 5/9/2024 at 10:13 PM, PartyPlannerLady said:

As was said in the previous post (in a round about way) you can eat no matter what time you get on board.  Glad that all wolrks for you.  I do not go on a cruise vacation to have to do anything but chill out, relax, and not get all worked up about being anywhere at any particular time. 
 

Sounds like you may be overdue for one of those relaxing chill out cruises since you're all hot and bothered by what someone else needs to do...

55 minutes ago, vacation44 said:

I know!  All I asked as the OP was for the boarding order and I think I was called an alcoholic in an off handed remark.

Nah.... alcoholics go to meetings. The rest of us excessively social drinkers just know how to maximize our drink packages.

An option to consider for your next trip though is to look at prices for the Haven. Between what you're paying extra for Vibe and the cabanas and all the imposed stress (and judgement from others) - the extra price for Haven may make it 'worth it' so you can just stroll on board whenever you want.

10 hours ago, Russiamomm said:

I wasn’t aware of the two smaller ships.  I was going to be in Quito for work in February and priced out the larger Celebrity ship.  $25k for seven days as a solo.  😳. I passed.   😂

Yeah, they don't really do any discounts for solo travelers because the ships are so small. You can certainly look into the smaller ships, since they're a bit older they tend to be cheaper. I have no idea what week you need in February, but a quick check would get you on board Exploration (8 cabins total on the entire ship) for around 14K as a solo. The other thing to consider is that many of the Galapagos trips are 100% included - meaning no extra charges for drinks, specialty dining, wifi, tips, flights.... it's all there. So yes, 14K for a week is high, but it's a private yacht with only 15 other passengers and the only other expense is the Uber to get you to the airport (which on our package was covered as well). Specifically on Flora, the worst cabin on the ship (which is what we booked) is still considered a decent sized suite on any other regular cruise line. You're not getting an oceanview cabin <200 sq ft in size for that big price.

10 hours ago, Candy Apple 12 said:

We’ve never bought the drink package or the soda package, hence my question on the success of getting a pitcher without the drink package. They don’t drink enough to make the soda package worth it. My FIL has had some success ordering a soda in the Haven restaurant without the soda package. He expected to pay, but they never brought him a charge slip.
 

I’m guessing with such small ships that the Galapagos cruises are very pricey.

The soda package is $10/pp/day. Which comes out to only 3 sodas a day. I'm in the camp of when I'm on vacation I never want to convince myself that something is 'worth it' and whether I should buy it or not. If I'm thirsty for something other than water, I want to just drink it without hemming and hawing over whether it's worth the $3 or not.

And yes, Galapagos cruises are pricey due to the limited number of guests on board. We got ours at a very good price considering everything that's included but it's still our 2nd most expensive cruise booked to date. The only thing that trumps it was our ill-fated Prima Haven trip which we egregiously overpaid for and will never do again.

Galapagos trip includes all of this: car service to/from our home and JFK, flights to/from Quito, 2 hotel nights & tours in Quito pre-cruise, 1 hotel night post-cruise, flight to/from Baltra, 7 night cruise, drinks/wifi/tips/excursions/laundry/dining on the cruise and in the hotels. Literally the only thing left to do is pack our toothbrush and swimsuits. 

The Prima trip was the price for a 10 night cruise with the basic FAS package. That's it. Had to pay extra for flights, transfers, pre-cruise hotel, all excursions, gratuities, etc etc. And if I ignore the $1350 OBC we had the price was even worse.

3 hours ago, Candy Apple 12 said:

Thanks for the comparison. Does Celebrity go to the Galapagos? It’s a trip I’d like to take, but otherwise based on your post, I’ll stick with the Haven. 
 

The butler brought a pitcher of fountain soda for free? Did you have the drink package? 

We would never sail without at a minimum the basic soda package. Do you typically get that or not even the soda deal?

Celebrity has 3 different ships that go to the Galapagos. Only is reallllly tiny (only 16 people I believe), one is newer and holds 100 people max, and the other is in between around 35 people I think. So not really a cruise ship that most folks are used to - more of a luxury private yacht. I'll know more in October when we get on board...

23 hours ago, OceanCruise said:

Thank you. That info is very helpful. I admit that I am surprised that the Haven is more expensive than the Retreat due to these extra costs (at least for the cruises I was comparing). Does the Haven lounge have food offerings throughout the day like the Retreat or is it just an exclusive lounge? Can you get lunch on the Haven sundeck? On the Retreat sundeck there is a small lunch menu and a server comes around to to take orders and bring food/drinks to your lounger.

With all things being equal, Celebrity Retreat is always much higher in cost for us than NCL Haven. Our one and only Retreat experience was on a smaller ship (Summit), and did not even come close in comparison to what we experience on NCL (NCL was leaps and bounds better, except for the private restaurant, Celebrity wins there). 

Celebrity is no longer including gratuities for free, so no different from NCL's daily service charge.

Celebrity doesn't include the mini bar for free unless you're in a top tier room, so no different from NCL. NCL's drink package is pretty reasonable at only ~$21/pp/day - you can decline it if you want and just get a soda plan. NCL Butler can bring you a pitcher of ice water, lemonade, fruit juice, or fountain soda for free - you can't get that in the Retreat unless you're in a 20K+ room. They charged me $5 for a bottle of water just for removing it from the fridge and putting on the counter so I can put my own water bottle in there - never had that with NCL.

Butler on NCL will also bring you snacks throughout the day of nearly whatever you want. With Celebrity, my MIL was only in a sky suite and told she can walk herself to the lounge to get a snack (she was in a wheelchair BTW). We were in a celebrity suite and only got anything because we asked the butler about it, and he brought the exact same thing every day of the trip. NCL butlers will mix it up based on what you tell them you like. 

Snacks in the Retreat lounge never changed for us - ever. Some veggies, popcorn, and small canape sandwiches - that's it. With NCL depending on the ship you'll be on, if you're on one with a full Haven observation lounge there are free snacks there throughout the day that change up often and have a much wider selection than Celebrity gives you. Wait staff come through both there and the upper sun deck outdoors to take drink orders, or to get a bigger bite than the self serve snacks - never saw that with Celebrity.

With NCL the pool, sun deck, lounge, private bar, private restaurant - they're all in the same general location. So easy to go from your room to any of those exclusive areas without having to fight through the crowds of the regular ship. With Celebrity the restaurant was aft, the lounge forward, sun deck not accessible for MIL in her wheelchair as the elevator has been broken for 2+ years and they didn't tell us until we got on board, no pool - only a hot tub, and to get to it you had to walk through the crowds near the regular main pool area. So we went once to see it and quickly left. 

It honestly all depends on the Celebrity ship you're used to, and the NCL ship you're looking to try out. Not all NCL ships are built the same, and I'm sure if we had enough money to try Celebrity again on a newer ship in a fancier room our experience may be different - but that first trip didn't make us think it was better than the Haven at all. Not counting the Galapagos trip as that's a completely different beast all together, our next Celebrity trip will not be in the Retreat - not worth the price of admission at all.

*Edit - also forgot to add that the tip for butler and concierge on Celebrity are not included either. Butler made a point to remind us on day one, and we only spoke to the concierge once on day 3 after having many issues with MIL's room and level of service she was getting. Never saw our cabin steward until the last morning when he showed up with his hand held out for a tip with the butler. 

The flight deal depends on the specific cruise you're looking to book - it's not offered on all of them.

If you have specifics about what trip you were curious about and the cabin you're interested, I don't mind price checking it for you. 

Current homepage of the US site with the miniscule *** to show that nothing in life is ever actually free.

645 cruise options with no filters applied, if I apply the 'free airfare' filter then it drops down to only 509 options. So most, but not all qualify.

12 hours ago, Vegas2000 said:

I'm so excited to finally going! In a teachers salary it takes forever!! That is a great idea to learn a few basics to ask because I will definitely get lost!!

NCL has a new promo they rolled out where teachers get an extra 5% discount. Call them up and see if you can get that added to your trip to save even more money.

https://www.ncl.com/teachers

23 hours ago, brookie848 said:

Nope. Just arranged for it ourselves. He did peritoneal, so the first time it was arranged he didn't need a machine (all manual). The second cruise we planned on bringing the machine with us, but we ended up canceling when he got his transplant.

 

If your family member is doing peritoneal, then it can be arranged with the ship. We had Baxter deliver the supplies to the ship, which were waiting for the cabin for us when we arrived. The only thing we didn't have was a heating pad (not allowed on ships), but my husband just let the liquid get warm by placing them in the windows.

 

I'm not sure Dialysis at Sea sails with NCL.

Ahh, ok. I think with enough notice and willingness to pay, DaS is able to work with other cruise lines if they have conference room space to set up their equipment. Hubby's uncle isn't in a position to be able to do anything on their own, so we'll have to just do a bit more research between both DaS and the requirements for each cruise line that we're considering. It's just nice to know there's options out there and the whole family can still travel together even with different health issues and such.

19 minutes ago, mjkacmom said:

I’m sure haven personnel have enough to do on turnover day than hand out water (and I’m pretty sure you can get water at the MCT, but there aren’t enough chairs for all on the big ships).

These are not my gripes... these were from the OP 9 pages back who farted and left the building for the rest of us locked inside to smell.

Maybe because I show up a bit later in the day, but the last few times I've arrived for a cruise there were a half dozen Haven employees standing around waiting for us to decide we wanted to go on the ship. So again, depending on the time of day, they're either super busy or doing nothing at all.

Chickie nuggs all the way..... 

The safe in the closet will look similar to this (might not be exactly this one). You create your own 4 digit code to use and that will lock/unlock it. We tend to keep our passports and main wallets in there and not even bother to lock it, just keeps it in a well known spot for us in case of emergency.

What time was the flight you were looking at? As mentioned above, if you can book something no earlier than 12pm you should be ok. If the cruise ends in "Rome" it's about an hour away from Rome. So you have to take that into account when estimating how much time you need to get to the airport. The airport is also a bit confusing (to me at least), so for our fight home from there it took us a good 2 hours to get through all the different lines and security check points and make it to our gate for take off. 

It's a short flight from Rome to Munich, so even if the concert was that same night you still have plenty of time to drop bags off at your hotel, freshen up a bit, and get to the concert if you took a 12pm or 1pm flight over there. There's a nice 12:55 trip on Lufthansa nonstop for <$100 available which would be perfect...

Another slightly crazy idea would be to look at Ryanair. They only fly on certain days from FCO, but if you can fly into Memmingen the price is only $18. Yes, 18. You would then need to figure out how to get from there over to Munich (about 60-90 mins away) which might negate the crazy cost savings, but there's a train and I doubt it costs $100+. 

So yeah, depends on what day the Swifty show is, but yes, it's doable and fairly cheap to get there once you're in Italy.

NYC public school break info: https://www.schools.nyc.gov/calendar/2024-2025-school-year-calendar (Mid-winter recess Feb 17-21, 2015; Spring recess April 14-18, 2025)

NJ school break in one township: info: https://www.paramus.k12.nj.us/accnt_308692/site_308693/Documents/2024-2025-Calendar.pdf (no mid-winter break, same spring break as NY)

Different NJ township:

https://www.monroetwp.k12.nj.us/pdf/District_Calendars/School_Calendar_Next.pdf (Spring break April 18-25, 2025)

With regards specifically to "spring break", for comparison NYU college will have it from March 24-28, 2025.

So it's all over the place and depends on specifically which crowds you're trying to avoid.

In Seattle we stayed across the street from the port, so dropped luggage off as early as we could, got our key cards and all squared away, but never stepped foot on the ship. Left the terminal building to wander Seattle a bit before returning and then getting to skip some (not all) of the lines to actually get on the ship. 

Unless you're in the Haven, your current plan has a lot of flaws and won't leave you a lot of time to wander NYC. Better to either leave the bags at the hotel, or do something similar to what I did in Seattle where you get all squared away but don't go on the ship. So drop the bags off at the cruise and then explore the city some more before starting the cruise. Realistically you won't be boarding the ship until after 11-12. So if your plan was to run and do things on the ship, then get off to do city things, only to return just 3 hours later - seems like a lot of wasted time. 

But it all depends on what specifically you wanted to do in the city. So long as you sign up for the latitudes stuff that first day, I've never seen a need to be the first on board to sign up. They run more than one behind the scenes tour. 

Go straight to the NCL website for more up to date info on what is or isn't on board.

https://www.ncl.com/cruise-ship/Gem

19 hours ago, coopster said:

i know it is not ideal but we are going to do self carry off 

All that saves you is maybe 15-20 mins. You still have to wait for the ship to be cleared, wait to disembark, walk through the maze to get from the ship, through the terminal, through customs, and outside to hail an Uber/Lyft/taxi/car service. Then the drive to the airport, the check-in for the flight, possibly checking bags there, security, walk to the gate....

You also didn't mention where the cruise is traveling to/through. A short trip with just a handful of 'normal' stops will have a faster customs line to get through than a 15+ day Panama Canal transit. 

Are you sure they're for rent and not a first come first served type of thing? The ones in the Haven are not reservable. If it's open, use it. When you're done, move your stuff so someone else can use it.

12 hours ago, brookie848 said:

Not on the Epic, but we have stayed in a forward-facing DOS on the Dawn that had no balcony. We had great views from the master bedroom and decent views from the living room.

 

It was the right price for us (it was less than a 2-bedroom suite, plus it came with a few extra perks). My husband did appreciate the forward views from the MBR because he would sit there and look out the windows while he did dialysis on board (that was an interesting trip!).

 

For us, though, I would prefer a balcony.

Was that with dialysis at sea? We've been trying to finagle a family trip for hubby's large extended family, but it's tough between his uncle's dialysis needs, cousin's autism at sea needs, our preference in where we go/when we go.... The only trips I've seen DaS offer were through RCC, so curious to hear they're able to do it on NCL ships as well.

On 5/4/2024 at 8:04 PM, RocketMan275 said:

You really don’t understand how union shops work. If cruise line personnel did any of those things the unions could file a grievance which could result in penalties against the port, the city,and the cruise lines. 

Are you saying the Haven crew members are union employees that are prohibited from leaving the sanctuary of the Haven embarkation lounge and offering cups of water to ALL nearby guests on an exceptionally hot day with embarkation delays? The port authority union employees are not doing this - which is the problem. So why in the world can't NCL allow their own employed crew members to do it? No one is asking NCL staff to become luggage porters, security screeners, or any of the other countless jobs it takes to get folks on a cruise. But things within their scope of their role that are outside the scope of the union port crew - absolutely they can.