Sailing12Away

They literally just posted 2024 about a month ago. So if you're looking for 2025 you've got another year wait.

Parties in your room are a normal occurrence the butler is used to. Just give them a heads up on the preferred date, how many total guests you think you'll have, and what you want them to eat/munch on. They will gladly bring several pitchers of juice, lemonade, soda, etc for the group. For food, it all depends on what you want. Are you looking for little sandwiches? Cookies and candy? Fruit platter? Charchuterie and cheese/crackers? Whatever you want - just ask. They also have good ideas for things they can do, or things they've seen been popular in the past. For dinner - absolutely ask the concierge for help. Again, just tell them the date/time, how many in the group, and where you want to dine. They work magic when you give them notice and speak your mind about what you want.

I'm actually pretty decent at math and know that the NCL drink package isn't really 'free', but it's still always been 3x cheaper than what I paid for a drink package when I sailed with RCC. We like to not think about things while on vacation. If something catches my eye, I try it. If I like it, I get 2 more. If not, I switch to something else. We drink a LOT on cruises, but yet oddly, unless we're putting back bottles of wine I don't think I've ever felt drunk. So either I need to ask for a double in February on our next trip to get them stronger, or the fact that I drink when I want to rather than limiting myself to just certain times of days or certain types of drinks makes the overall trip more enjoyable. Your ears must have been ringing, I was just telling hubby about your Martha Stewart recommendation of the day to clean out soap dispensers with..... more soap. We need to align our travel plans for 2024.

Isn't it the bottom that gets emptied out first? You refill from the top, not the bottom on those.... Honestly, soap is soap. Unless you have a specific need for special products or are particular about your hair smelling a certain artificial way... soap is soap. Look into moving into a Haven room. They have separate containers for shampoo and conditioner. Although the bottles look identical, so it won't help the visually impaired folks.

It all depends on where you're flying into/out of. We've used it about 4-5 times with no issues at all. For Alaska, we flew JFK straight to Seattle nonstop with decent times. Had a 1 day deviation coming in because we wanted to catch a baseball game the night before. Coming home on Alaska Air they lost our luggage, but that's on Alaska Air and not NCL. Bag ended up going to San Diego instead of NY and made it back to us via a taxi drop off the following night. Our next trip is in February and we have great flights. JFK to LAX leaving NY at 6am. We'll get into LAX around 9am for a 4pm cruise departure. Coming home we have an 11:30am flight from Miami, I'll be home in my living room before 3pm. Going we're on AA, coming home it's on Delta. We were able to upgrade to comfort plus for about $50/person, and even with those added charges it's still half price what the same flights would have cost on our own. In total we've saved several thousand dollars on flights by using the promo and haven't had an issue yet.

If you have the name of a different one you want to use, just call/email them directly. There's no rule that you have to use the random person assigned to you. If you want a different one and don't have one, you can always just either book yourself online or call the main number to talk to a random person. I didn't find one I liked until I got a recommendation from another traveler. I personally dislike all regular TA's and won't use them, nothing but trouble have I had.

NCL does not make you buy insurance just because you use their air promotion. I've used their air about 4-5 times and never once gotten insurance.

I will be testing this theory in February. I've heard the same thing, drinks at the brewhouse and munchies delivered from next door at FR.

I have one of these: https://chums.com/products/surfshorts-wallet Small with 2 zipper pouches. Keep my ID, room key, 1 credit card, and a small bit of cash locked up in there. Fits easily into any pocket. For just being around the ship, I use the Haven room key holder. Even if we're not in Haven, I use an old one. Again, perfectly fits the room key as that's all I need.

Our cell phone carrier is TMobile. While in port, we have free data in nearly every country. Once the ship starts pulling away from the dock, we go on airplane mode with wifi on. Don't log into the NCL wifi server unless we need it, mostly save it for the laptop which is 100x easier to do stuff on than our phones. We'll log in, check email, check in here at CC or on FB, do some research on our next port of call if we need something to do or need to check the local maps, then log out. Our last trip was a 10 day Canada/NE trip and we only used up minutes for one of our accounts and that was with me checking in nearly every day and uploading photos and making a near live review of our trip here on CC. So for us, the free minutes are more than sufficient when they're combined with our unlimited access on dry land.

For our upcoming Prima trip in September we'll have $1300 in OBC to use up. It's a 10 day cruise and my sister and her family are traveling with us. I plan on gifting her and my niece some type of spa credit for them to go and get pampered one day. Buying the unlimited arcade/VR package for my nephew. Some cigars for my BIL. And that bottle of Chateau Rothchild is calling my hubby's name. I don't think for us we'll have any problem using it up. As others have said, either small random acts of kindness to either the staff or fellow travelers, or buying things that will transport home easily and you can gift/resell seems to be the way to go for you. No harm in talking to the cruise next desk to see if there's a way to apply any of it towards your next trip. They'd gladly take your money to earn those commission points for a new booking.

Ugggg.... that one kills me. It leaves from NY so no added fee for flights. I just can't with work right now. This month I have to physically be on site, otherwise I would have paid for the unlimited internet and 'worked from home' while enjoying butler service in the Haven. When I tried to book it online for S&G all the Haven rooms kept erroring out, but I could book a non-Haven 2br suite for 5K total. For a 9 day trip that's a great price.

Food Republic was only open for lunch on sea days on the Joy.

These were my picks in September. Looking forward to eating there for lunch again in February. Despite the phallic shape of the shishito peppers, they were quite tasty and something I will definitely repeat.

I like knowing where I'm going to be, so it's not something I would like. Plus we don't cruise unless we have the drink package, and with the NCL promo it doesn't make any sense for folks who drink to NOT take the FAS package.

I can understand the 'being fair' part for picking your boarding time, but not being able to enter my passport info and all that other jazz has no bearing on that. The only reason that makes sense is so they can have the latest info for vaccinations/testing/etc for you to either click a link about or at least acknowledge that you were made aware (whether you actually read the info or not is another story). For flights, no, I can't complete my check in until 24 hrs, but I can certainly go in and add my TSA number, rewards number, emergency contact info, etc etc the moment I book my flight. I'll be happy if we can go back to putting in as much as possible as soon as we want.

Yes, as a garden villa guest you will be permitted to have your traveling companions get a spare key to your room. They are not permitted in the Haven courtyard/pool, but they will need a separate access card to get to your deck your cabin is on. Reach out to the concierge ahead of time and give them the reservation numbers for your travel companions, and they could have the notation on their account when they check in where you don't have to worry about going on together. Their card will not say "Haven" on it, it will be a regular key card but one that gives them access to unlock your door. Just a few pro tips on the garden villa experience: Make sure your guests know which room is yours. Even if the door to the other one is open, strongly remind them they have access to YOUR room only. With the villas, there's lots of crew coming/going and sometimes the doors don't close all the way. Our last trip on the Star we found a guest from the other villa on our sundeck wondering where his family members were. We didn't speak Portuguese, he didn't speak English, that made for an awkward situation when we thought we were alone and found a stranger out there. On both the Star and on the Pearl, the door on the outside sun deck was not locked and allowed uninvited guests to enter. For the one instance, it was people who ignored the sign on the door saying "Villa guests only" and when we saw them and approached them, their only response was "we were just exploring, why can't we look around?". Second instance was a much older gentleman who just didn't know where he was at all and truly wandered through a random door by the basketball court - no malicious intent on that part. So when you get in your room, just double check those exterior doors on the deck to make sure they were locked after cleaning was finished. The crew will sneak in like ninjas to clean the hot tub in the middle of the night. If you're in the room closest to the deck, don't be alarmed if you see folks out there walking around. Or if you're a night owl and wanted to do some private things, make sure your curtains are closed. Or, just check with the butler to ask for a heads up when they plan on doing it so you're not spooked out like we were seeing 3 people in white bunny suits barefoot in the hot tub with scrubbing brooms.

NCL booked us on an 11:30am flight, but we're leaving from Miami. If they didn't think it was possible, they wouldn't book you in it. Obviously no time to dilly dally and be the last off the ship, but nothing that I'm planning on worrying too much over. If I miss the flight for any reason, there will be other options to get me home to NY later so I'm not worried at all about the extra dose of vitamin D.

It all depends on where you're flying from and where you're going to. We've used the NCL air promo about 4 times and have always gotten either AA, Delta, or Alaska Airlines (which is actually still AA).

Galapagos is in my top 3 places to go. I'm trying to gather a group of friends to join us on one of those smaller Celebrity ships. It's almost like a private charter yacht at that point. Were the typical perks included in those smaller ships like the drinks and such? I know there's obviously no broadway type shows, but other than lectures and scenic viewing was there much to see/do at night on board, or just rest up for double wildlife viewing the next day?

The seat part is simply not true at all. Every flight I've taken through NCL air I have been able to select my seats and pay for an upgrade if desired. The options available are all based on the specific airline. Some let you upgrade all the way up to first (Delta), other's only let you go from basic to comfort plus (AA) or exit row. Some airlines charge just for the convenience of not sitting in the middle seat, others don't charge a dime so long as your further in the back of the plane. It's all based on the airlines - not NCL. But again, you absolutely CAN pick your seats - or at least I have been able to on my last 4+ trips.

We never really paid much attention to our status until we reached platinum. That's where (for us) the real true perks kicked in. The bonus specialty dining credits always get used. For cruises >7 days, that laundry perk is great to keep the suitcase empty for room to bring home liquor and wine from our travels. As for the parties and such, if we're free we try to attend but it's not a priority for us since we always have the drink package. If you're not big drinkers and skip the package, the parties are a decent way to get in a few freebies I suppose and meet other folks who enjoy sailing on NCL. It's also helpful to have some of the priority type perks so when we don't travel in Haven we'll still get a few of those level type perks. It all depends on what is important to you.

We're using NCL air in February and our flights are great. JFK to LAX leaving NY at 6am, getting to LA around 9:30am. Flight is on AA, and we were able to pay ~$50 each to upgrade to comfort plus. Coming home from Miami our flight is at 11:30am on Delta. Again, able to upgrade our seats to comfort plus for a small fee, was able to go all the way up to business if we wanted to but that's a short flight and not needed. Happy with Delta coming home as we get free checked bags with my status. We've done NCL flights a handful of times and never had an issue. If the price savings is significant, it's worth it.

This is the one I had mentioned to you in your live thread - head up the other coast of Africa to say you've seen nearly the entire coast which is quite a feat. https://www.ncl.com/cruises/21-day-africa-from-cape-town-to-barcelona-namibia-cape-verde-angola-ivory-coast?itineraryCode=DAWN21CPTWVBLUATMSABJBJLDKRSMCSCTACEAGACASBCN Japan is on our list for 2024, I've been price watching a few itineraries that stop in Okinawa. Not sure if you've done that trip yet, but I'd love to live vicariously through you on that journey. South Pacific is always a good option for unique and once in a lifetime adventures. This one is dirt cheap considering the number of days. https://www.ncl.com/cruises/15-day-south-pacific-from-sydney-to-papeete-fiji-moorea-and-samoa-SPIRIT15SYDLIFMYSLTKDRAAPWPPGRAIMOZPPT?destinations=4294960641&numberOfGuests=4294953449&sortBy=featured&autoPopulate=f&from=resultpage&itineraryCode=SPIRIT15SYDLIFMYSLTKDRAAPWPPGRAIMOZPPT Antarctica is another dream cruise: https://www.ncl.com/cruises/14-day-antarctica-and-south-america-from-buenos-aires-argentina-falkland-islands-and-uruguay-STAR14BUEMVDPMYPUQUSHPSYBUE?destinations=4294936385&numberOfGuests=4294953449&sortBy=featured&autoPopulate=f&from=resultpage&itineraryCode=STAR14BUEMVDPMYPUQUSHPSYBUE Here's a July Greenland journey: https://www.ncl.com/cruises/12-day-iceland-and-greenland-from-reykjavik-to-tromso-STAR12REYISAAKUITTLYBHVGALTHSTSVOTOS?destinations=4294936385&numberOfGuests=4294953449&sortBy=featured&autoPopulate=f&from=resultpage&itineraryCode=STAR12REYISAAKUITTLYBHVGALTHSTSVOTOS I could sit here all night cruise shopping when someone else is paying the bill 😛

We had Pedro back in September. Very nice, but exceptionally quiet. Curious if we'll get him again in February as we'll be in the same general area we were in for the last trip on Joy. I had to laugh when you said your wife thought the pasta was spicy.... fra diavolo - "from the devil", it's made with lots of crushed red pepper. It's meant to be spicy 😛 As for the Haven restaurant... all of you folks who love it can keep it. Yes, it's lovely, but we won't venture in there more than once as I'm a picky eater and don't find many things I want to try. For our next trip we're going to try talking to the concierge to see if we can pre-arrange for me to eat something from the main restaurant served up in the Haven area. I like the quietness of it, just not the food itself. There's only so many filets I can eat in one trip.