Sailing12Away

Wifi is free minutes. You need to login and logout each time you want to do something, or the minutes go quick. It's decent enough to quickly check emails, or send messages back home. Uploading photos though.... not so good. It's free, so better than nothing. Drinks - NCL package is much cheaper than RCC. You have to pre-pay the gratuities, but that works out to about a price of $20/pp/day. Cheapest we've paid on RCC was $59/pp/day. All drinks up to $15 cost are included for free, anything more expensive you pay the difference. (the espresso martini is worth the $2 upcharge). If you enjoy an occasional breakfast mimosa, a frozen drink at the pool, a beer with lunch, wine with dinner, and after dinner cocktail before the show.... you're ahead of the game with the package. Cocktails are about $10-12 each, so having the package lets you try them all without feeling guilty if you don't like one. Just move on to the next one on the list. Dining package - to me it's a no brainer. You pay again up front for gratuities, but I believe it's about $20 total for your 2 free meals. What you get depends on the restaurant, but generally speaking the value of the meal is $100 that you get for $20. So it's nice having options, the food is good, and it's a minimal 'upcharge' for the gratuities. Excursions are not free, you get a $50 discount on them at each port of call. If you like the security of doing NCL excursions, it can add up to some decent savings on a port intensive trip. If you tend to book your own private stuff, there's no charge for taking it as a perk so it just won't provide value. But sometimes it's good for the smaller ports where you can use it for a cheap city transfer or to rent an umbrella on a beach. You can always decline some of the perks if you didn't want to accept the ones that come with a fee.

From what we've done so far, Alaska and Hawaii are the top 2 by far. I'm thinking the upcoming Norway trip may give it a decent run for the money though...

No need to sign up unless you want alerts. Can always just go there and do a quick price check, or if you're looking for a particular date it will show you every single cruise on every single line. Sometimes you find a better option/deal than what NCL is offering.

Check cruisedeckplans.com. There are tons of photos from my stay posted on that site of the suite.

Can't fill out the poll as my airlines are different for going and coming home. Going to the cruise we're booked on Iceland Air, coming home it's with Delta. Iceland Air we can upgrade to comfort plus. Coming home on Delta we are not allowed to upgrade our seats at all. Previous time using NCL air in February we were booked on AA.

On the Star/Dawn, none of the bedrooms have their own private balcony. The one labeled 1 in this photo was the one we stayed in. Big king bed, huge bathroom with separate shower and jacuzzi tub. #2 in the middle was much smaller, probably only a queen bed with a regular modest bathroom. Very similar to a standard club balcony type of room or an entry level suite room. You have to step up over the tub to get into the shower there, whereas #1 & #3 are separate walk-in showers. #3 has a sliding door that goes out to the deck, but it's the shared deck for the full suite. Bed seemed bigger, but we never used it so I'm only guessing if it was a queen or king. Room is a bit larger than #2, and the bathroom in there was also huge. Separate shower and tub. My hubby showered in #3, I showered in #1 (#1 has full windows looking out to the public pool area, he always felt like people were watching him even with the blinds drawn closed).

We're in a similar boat as well, having primary done NCL with most of those trips in various Haven rooms. Just started looking into Explora and it just looks gorgeous. Price wise when you add in everything that's counted it's on par with what we expect to pay for Haven when I don't find a good deal. I'm trying to convince my hubby to book the India - Kenya journey for 2025. All the photos and videos I've been stumbling upon today are certainly helping to secure our spot on that journey.

To me that means 'free' as it's no additional charge.

The premium drinks & wifi is not 'free' in the Retreat - it's simply built into the cost of your cabin fare. For the lower category rooms they have an option for an 'all-in' too, for a fee. If you add in the FAS+ to the cost of a Haven room, the perks would be the same for a lower price. Same with the lower category rooms. You can add FAS+ to a regular balcony on NCL and add in the same perks with a balcony on Celebrity - and NCL has always been cheaper when I've priced it out.

It depends. On our Panama canal trip they booked us on an 11:30am flight. We listened to the 'rules' and disembarked at 9am with our group for airport transfers. Had to get off the line for the bus and hail an Uber to make it to the airport in time. If they give you an early flight before noon - just use alternative arrangements to get to the airport in time. Their transfers suck and we won't be using them again.

Premium Plus has nothing to do with Haven. It's available to all guests who want to pay extra up front so they don't get charged as they go for those 'premium' drinks.

I would rethink that on the Joy if I were you. The HJ, HI, and HH cabins are amazing. The room size is much larger than those in the "proper" Haven, the price is cheaper, and it's a short elevator ride up into the "proper" area that you won't even notice.

Depends on the airline and where you're going. But generally, yes. NCL doesn't include bags for you - so it would be dependent upon the airline they book you on. Most airlines give you checked bags free on international flights. If you have status with an airline you are able to put in that reward number when you manage your booking on their website.

Double check your air confirmation page. There will be a different record locator number for Delta. If you have the same airline there and back (whether direct or with their partners) it's one number. But when you switch from United to Delta on the front and back ends - there is a different number for Delta. When you log in for the first half, they won't let you pick your Delta seats because they don't work with Delta. Go directly to Delta with your Delta number and you can. The only warning - at least for our upcoming flight - Delta will let you pick seats, but will not let you pay for an upgrade. First time we were not allowed to pay more for a seat. They'll let you pay $40/seat to sit in a closer row, but if I'm in coach I don't care about row 26 vs row 29. Coach is coach. First time ever that we can't pay for comfort plus or beyond. -Just reread your info, sounds like its the other way around with Delta first. Still double check that you've got the right number on Virgin's website directly - not Delta even though they're the ones 'operating it'.

I took a few RCC trips with family when I was <20 yrs old so don't remember much about them, but my one recent trip as an adult wasn't anything to write home about. It was shortly after the Covid reopening, so I try to not fault them too much, but it was the only cruise we've taken where we were bored and did not make any new friends at all. They have a dress up night which is enforced. NCL does not. NCL has some restaurants with a dress code (still very lax, men must wear pants - that's the only rule, and jeans are fine so even my very casual hubby is fine with it), but no official 'dress to impress' or whatever they call it nights where you have to be dressed up or resign yourself to eating in the buffet or in your room. On all of our NCL trips we've always been able to strike up a conversation with new folks at the bars, in restaurants, on excursions, in the elevator.... anywhere. But with the RCC trip, there was one lovely couple from Jersey (the UK one) who chatted with us, and that was it. At the chefs table there was actually a couple who lived literally 20 mins away from us at home that we talked with a bit, but other than sharing a cab ride to the hotel in Cyprus and from there to the airport, that was it - they would wave and smile and keep on keeping on. Again, maybe stranger-danger from Covid and cooties and whatnot, but it felt like we were in t-shirts and shorts sneaking onto a Cunard ship during elegant chic night asking where the chickie nuggies were. We would certainly try RCC again (no interest in their mega ships, and they seem to keep getting bigger which is another turnoff for us), but price wise they have never come in close for similar itineraries and length trips. Even with NCL price gouging, RCC is still significantly higher price/day for the trips we're interested in.

The appeal of the CN certificates died down for us after our second time using them. Covid made it so difficult to travel anywhere let alone use or extend expiring or expired certificates it made us rethink how many we want on hand at any given time. It's always completely inconsistent with how they're issued/charged as well that it's too much effort to bother most times. First time we bought it we were told we would get OBC for the current cruise we were on at that time. So we ran up a decent sized bill, only to find out my credit card had been charged $500 and we had $1000 worth of CN certificates in our account. No OBC at all. So $500 charge for the certificates plus a large debarkation bill to boot. Second time we bought 4 again as we were using them for a family trip, and all 4 came back when that was Covid cancelled. Along with the next 2 trips we tried to use them on that got cancelled as well. Don't remember if we got OBC or just another straight $500 cc charge for those. Now we finally have none left (assuming this trip in September doesn't get cancelled for any reason). Might get 2 just to have as I think we'll take another NCL trip at some point in 4 years, but definitely do NOT want more OBC as we're going into that trip with over $1300 already in our pocket. They're essentially a B1G1 free $250 gift card, usable only for new cruise bookings. I guess if you tend to book inside cabins they're a bigger deal, but our last few trips have been quite pricey Haven ventures, so that's barely a drop in the bucket.

I understand that. If you're a TA and I personally offended you, apologies. You're not my personal TA so I don't fault you personally for the issues I've had on this booking (there have been several beyond this new air hiccup), so please stop acting that way. My frustration is that it is inconsistent. On American, Alaska Air, United, Iceland Air.... as I said, never had a problem being allowed to purchase seat upgrades when NCL bought my air for me. It's only this one flight on Delta that has the restrictions. So again, I don't view this as an "NCL bought the cheapest seat possible and you get what you get" - this is not an NCL thing, it seems to be a Delta thing because my flight there has no restrictions even though NCL bought that ticket too. With regards to the TA, I did contact them and all they did was contact NCL, who told them, to tell me, to call the premium air division to see if I can upgrade through them. So this is exactly what I'm referring to - the back and forth. Why can't the TA just call them for me and see what my options (if any) are? So now I have to call NCL premium air myself and see if they're even willing/able to talk to me in the first place to even see what options there are. Outside of the large amount of OBC, I can't think of a single thing this TA has done for us.

I'm not blaming the TA for Deltas rules. My dislike of having my booking tied to a TA is that I can't ever talk to the companies directly. For issues with my NCL booking I can't talk to NCL, I have to wait for the TA to respond to me and then for them to get in touch with NCL. Same with the fights, have to reach out to the TA for them to call NCL to try and with with the airline. Like I said, never had an issue before on any other NCL booked flight so didn't know it was a possibility. Seat map only shows 4 seats occupied for both Delta one and comfort plus, so it's not an issue of there not being seats available too move into, my ticket just has a restriction for some reason.

We've used the NCL air promo a bunch of times, this is our first time using it for an international flight. We're ok with the flights themselves, but disappointed in the 'rules'. Previously we've never had an issue choosing our seats and paying to upgrade to comfort plus (or higher for some flights, though we didn't go beyond +). For our flight into Iceland we were able to pay $90/pp for comfort plus. But coming home on Delta there are no upgrades allowed at all. I take that back.... I can pay $45/pp to sit 3 rows closer to the front of the plane, but still all the way back in row 25. I called Delta and they said I have to go through my TA that it's booked through. Grrrr, another reason why I dislike TA's and won't use them again. Have an email out to the TA to see if there's anything that can be done, but never thought this was a possibility as we've done it at least 4x previously on multiple carriers without issue. And the fact that we can do it going there means it has nothing to do with NCL per se, but that the rules vary greatly by the airline it is ultimately booked through. Not looking forward to how hubby will deal with an 8hr flight home in such tight quarters. NCL charged us $800 total for both of us... pricing out similar flights (that Delta flight home isn't available, so I'm guessing NCL bought it out) and for us it was a truly B1G1 free deal. There are some cheaper flights available home through Jetblue, so not sure why they went with Delta and Gatwick instead of Heathrow, but there's still time for things to change. Or with our $800 savings, we look for a separate independent booking home on a different airline for a one way trip in comfort.

Haven't been on the Gem, but we did the garden villa on the Pearl a little while ago (similar ship to the Gem) and the Star. The number of liquor bottles depends on the length of your cruise. Longer cruise = more bottles. If there's something particular you want that isn't on the list, ask. If the price point is similar to what is on there, they're usually willing to swap. We had said instead of 6 bottles can we get 4 with one of them being Disaronno, and if not, we listed 2 other options. We got 6 bottles, one of them was my beloved amaretto. If it's within reason and on board, it's usually possible. Mixers will be general coke products - coke, diet coke, sprite, ginger ale, club soda, tonic water.... sometimes they have orange soda or root beer, so if there's something special you enjoy - just ask (that will be a recurring theme here). If you're adventurous, ask the butler for a blender in the room so you can make your own concoctions. I would use the leftover fruit from breakfast and make rum smoothies. Yes, the villas have their own private hot tub and private steam rooms. Steam room is small, can comfortably fit 2 if they're friendly, but it's nice to sit there for a bit. Sleeping - again, depends on how friendly the guests are. Huge sectional sofa in the living room, and some of the bedrooms have a pull out couch/chair bed. Ask your butler and cabin steward for recommendations - they know the room best. No lounge on the jewel class ships. No Haven restaurant on those ships either. No separate bar on those ships either. You'll get a pool and sundeck, and that's about it really. (we're not big fans of those ships, but the garden villas make up for it). We asked the butler to bring us the daily dinner menus from the MDR each day. Based on what was for dinner we decided to go there, or use our specialty dining credits if there was nothing catching our eye. The concierge will be your good friend, they'll be visiting you often in your room. Any reservations you need, let them help you. Just give them as much notice as possible since you're a large group (we only had 4 of us). For the meals - if it's on the menu, they can make it and swap things around. So for the veggie person, if they eat fish - you can swap the fish for say the filet but keep the rest of the sides that come with the filet. If there's something offered as an app or side dish that is safe for them, ask for an entree sized portion. Don't discredit Moderno. Even though it's a meat fest, they have an expansive salad bar that many people rave about. The grilled pineapple alone is worth a visit there.

Nope, someone else. Here's the email we got back in December for our February trip. Hoping that trend continues as it still gives you an out. Couldn't find anything better or cheaper so we left it as is.

I'll let you know in about 10 days. We're on day 85 for our next trip with NCL air booked. Our last trip in February we were sent an email and an option to accept or decline the flights they were proposing for us. Maybe that's the change that is coming?

We were on deck 15, no noise at all. There's a separate door to get into the hallway on that deck so you don't hear a peep from the elevator.

Well that's really unfortunate as we convinced her to go as a last hurrah before she physically can't travel at all anymore thinking that spending extra to be pampered in the Retreat would be "worth it". If she can't get up there though, this will be odd as we can't leave her on the gen pop deck alone while we enjoy the sun from the Retreat without her. I'm curious to see if Celebrity will forewarn us about this since she's in an accessible room. Or if they'll let us get past final payment and then decide to send a generic "it may not be working" letter to CYA.

That was exactly what prompted my question. If it was any other random day I wouldn't be concerned, but since it's all new to us and it's that first night getting on board which is the important one for holiday dinner, figured I would ask.