Sailing12Away

Intriguing... but I just can't bring myself to do it. I haven't worked a minimum wage job in over 20 years. Yeah, room & board and food is included.... but I'm not going to sell my house just to try living on a cruise ship for 6 months. Maybe one day when the house is paid off...

This might get better traction in the port of call forums. I can honestly say I have never associated St. Kitt with monkeys until just now. It may not be as 'touristy' a thing to do as you think it is. If you don't see an NCL trip which specifically lists 'monkeys', and you have your heart set on using your $100 credit, book a short trip to get your moneys worth of free excursions and then talk to the locals.

We're in our 40's too and taking our PC trip in <60 days. Current itinerary has every other day as a sea day (just about), so we're booked in a Haven room and I'll be getting lots of vitamin D and relaxing and unwinding in. As with our last trip to Canada on the Joy, I'll try and use my free internet minutes to give updates and check-in here as we go.

I have the Capital one venture card, I think it's a $90 annual fee. It's the easiest card I've had to cash in rewards. I've gotten thousands back each year so well worth the cost. My previous card of choice was a Delta Amex. Good when you fly Delta, but a PITA to use points, plus horrible security (card # was compromised 3x without me ever losing my card).

My credit card with capital one gives it to me for free too. As for our location, we're a mile from the cross island pkwy, so when traffic is kind it's a fast trip. No one ever takes the van wyk unless they have to. Cue Seinfeld episode....

If you've never been to the Vatican, it's 'worth it' to pay for the smaller group. When you get near the entrance, the later in the day the more insane it becomes. There will be thousands of people waiting to go inside on tours. If you're with a large group of people, all of their heads will be in every one of your photos. With a smaller group, the folks up front take their shot and move along, letting you then come behind and get a clean(ish) shot. There's no way I would do a mega bus tour in those areas, it would almost be a waste as you won't see much other than heads of your fellow travelers. Just one of countless example photos you can find by searching. For comparison, this is my own personally taken photo when we did a small group tour (only 20 in the group) and we booked it for very early in the morning, shortly after they opened. As well as the lines of folks waiting for their chance to go inside still behind us.

Not until you get through the online check-in at 21 days to go I think.

Ok, so for anyone else who doesn't know how to use the NCL website, this is where you go. It really isn't that hard, and no - it is not normal to spend 1.5 hrs to accomplish this. If you're not computer savvy, try just calling them next time instead. www.ncl.com Log in with your username/password. Click 'password reset' if you don't remember it. Go to 'My Account'. It will bring up your booked trips. Click the reservation for the one you care about doing things in. Then go to Explore & Plan up top and pick "Dining" (or excursions, or upgrades... whatever it is you're trying to do). Select the restaurant you want to make reservations for and pick a date/time and party size. If it says too early to book - you're too early. 130 days out for Haven guests, 125 for platinum and club balcony suites (I think), and 120 days for everyone else. Peek in the top right corner to see how far out you are.

Makes me appreciate my closeness to JFK I suppose. We typically go from front door to sitting at the airport gate in ~45 mins, and that includes a ~20min Uber ride. TSA precheck FTW!

Just curious why you were looking at such a late flight. Surely there had to be other options that were still flying in on the day of, but not cutting it so close as a compromise.

The wind here is insane tonight. We're out on LI so further from the city a bit. But this morning it was in the 50's, by the time I got home from work it dropped to the 30's, now it's 14F here with nearly 30mph winds.

Glad you had a great trip. We'll be doing a PC transit but in the opposite direction in about 60 days, so looking forward to being back on board. In the Mexico ports of call, did you pay US cash for the last minute excursions, they took credit cards, you brought some pesos with you....? Right now we have nothing booked for Acapulco and just a short 1 hr tour in Cabo. Was hoping it would be easy to catch a water taxi across from the tender area to head to the brewery over there on our own. Just not sure what is best to take with us on land to pay for stuff.

We came close once when we were flying to Miami for a short 5 day cruise. Our flight was on time, but when we were boarding the pilot came on and told us all to get off the plane. They were giving it to another flight headed to Colorado that needed it for the high altitude. Back in the terminal, shuffling to another gate. Then waiting, and waiting, no word on when our 'new' plane is coming. More than half the flight was headed to some type of cruise so everyone on the phone with their cruise lines. If you booked through NCL, they know your flight is delayed. The info we got from others on the phone with NCL was that if you miss the ship, you miss the ship, and if you weren't at the port by 3pm for that 4pm departure you can't get on. In reality what happened was that everyone sprinted to baggage claim to meet the NCL agents and they reassured all of us that if they were still there, the ship would be waiting for us and not to worry. So phone agents were not in synch with on the ground agents. Shuffled quickly onto the buses with a stop first for the Breakaway passengers, then 2nd stop was for us on the Jade. We were at check-in around 3:30 or 3:45. Only 5 of us at the port check-in with 2 agents processing us in with constant back and forth on walkie talkies. We were on the ship a smidge before 4 and pulling away before we even made it to our room. If we had missed the ship, next day was a sea day so not worth it at all to try and catch up on a 5 day cruise. I'll keep taking my chances. If the ship leaves without me, it's something in the universe telling me not to get on anyway.

Blame your fellow passengers. One to hog their chair, one to dry off, one to dry their hair, one to cover their legs when they're getting too much sun, another one when they go back in the pool and get wet again because they bunched the first one up so it never dried out....

How much would it cost to outright upgrade and move from your inside to that balcony now? Whatever that price is, bid lower based on how much you want it. Minimum bid of 0 doesn't make any sense though.

Same with us. They do laundry much better than I do so I will gladly let them do it every time.

Wait for the $29 special. Everything you can fit in a a bag for a flat fee.

8 (I think) cruises under our belt and I've never once heard of this or seen it offered on any of our sailings.

We booked several tours with this company when we were in Athens last year. Used them for airport transfers. Went in a day early so did a full day Meteora tour with them. Then when we were back for our stop in Athens on the cruise (our cruise left from Cyprus) we used them for a half day tour for a private tour of the South to a nice lake and the Poseidon temple with a stop for lunch. But yeah, this belongs in the port of call boards - you'll get more help there. https://www.premium-athens-transfer.com/book-athens-tours

That one's gone now. For S&G I was pricing it out since it leaves from NY. Would only need to work from 'home' on the Wednesday, and then either have off, or work from 'home' on Thurs-Fri. For an owners suite, I would have just booked it if it was still there. But when I try to book it says the room is no longer available. Courtyard had an accessible room left, but when I bumped it to 3 people (my MIL is disabled, so we would take her to make it legit), now there's no Haven left at all.

If that cabin holds 3 and they're only a party of 2, and someone comes along with a group of 3... then it makes sense to bump someone who didn't pick a particular cabin and give them a room meant for only 2.

We were in Haven on the Encore around Alaska last summer, and Haven on the Joy this September for Canada/NE. No difference in our experience, or if anything I would say Joy was a smidge better. Before our trip I read lots of complaints here with folks saying because Joy has so many extra Haven rooms the experience was crowded and lesser. Not our experience at all. Encore we were in an aft cabin with a long walk to the Haven area. When we're in Haven we like to spend a lot of time in the lounge/bar area, so being aft was a downer for us. Views and room was amazing, but just not the right experience for us. On the Joy we were in an HH cabin on deck 15 (Haven areas are on 17). So still not in the courtyard, but a quick elevator ride up and we're right in the heart of where we wanted to be. Room was huge, balcony was twice as wide as a normal one so also quite big (no where near as big/deep as the aft one, that was one of the best), and easy enough to get to the Haven areas that it was a great compromise. Both trips were cold weather ones, so not a ton of people in the pool areas. But again, never felt crowded once on Joy despite having more people in the area than on Encore. Those HH, HI, HJ rooms are a great option to save a little money but still be right in the thick of it all. Headed back into an HH room on Joy in February.

Never in my life have I arrived to an airport 4hrs early for an international flight. I'm sure they say that so that if you don't and you miss your flight, they can blame it on you. But that's just ludicrous, especially with so many folks these days having TSA pre-check/global entry/priority boarding options. Domestic flights we're from our front door of our home to sitting at the gate at the terminal within 45 mins, and that's with a 20 mins Uber to the airport. International we'll give it an extra hour of wiggle room just because anything can happen with traffic and if we miss that flight there isn't many other options to jump onto. But that's just us...

What time does the ship get in? Assuming it's in early at 6am, you would be in the first group off with NCL transfers and at the airport by 8am-ish. They wouldn't book you on a flight they didn't think you would make, as they'll be the ones dealing with the angry phone calls and having to reschedule things last minute if you don't make it. Sometimes NCL can't win. My flight is so late in the day.... My flight is so early in the day.... I get in so late... I get in so early....

Guess I'm in the minority. We try to intentionally NOT get to the ship before 11am as the likelihood of getting onto the actual ship is slim to none. I'd rather take my time getting there when the rush of folks has come and gone, and when I'm checked in just walk right on board instead of sitting and waiting and waiting and waiting. Having said that, I've never been in a rush to do my check-in beyond being able to say it's 'done', and usually when I remember to do it around 8-9am there are still plenty of options available to me earlier than 11am if I wanted them. Guess it all depends on the sailing and ship you'll be on and what your fellow travelers are thinking. I'm in the camp voting for waking up a smidge earlier than normal if it's important to you.