Sailing12Away

It's very nice... save your luggage space for something else.

No take-away bottles, they refill the ones that are there. Some ships with the other high-end products (Bulgogi? Bulvogi? you know that one I mean...) - those were still in take-away bottles on some ships. I'm right there with you. Sailing in about 2 weeks to Canada on a 10 day. Hubby & I are in Haven, my folks are not. My mom is sad, we're not. I've got some dinners booked and we're sharing one tour... that's sufficient to me.

Rooms on 11 (at least right now) are not owners suites though. That's the difference. So you have to pick between being in an owners suite with those bonus perks - but potentially no hot tub, or being on deck 11 in a 'regular' cabin but know that you have the hot tub.

Definitely better to skip the free drinks package then when you book and call NCL. I've never had that issue as we personally won't sail without a drink package, but that's us. POA has slightly different rules as it's a US based ship.

If you have a good PCC, they can tell you the specific square footage for each room. With ours, I usually tell her the specific cabin I want, she says "let me check first to make sure that's the one with the biggest balcony (something important to me)" and 9/10 times I've already found it. But she knows the specifics on each cabin and balcony for each room.

Oh, I get it. Even with a separate bedroom and separate bathroom, there are certainly people I would not want to share such close spaces with. More info just helps the rest of us give other options and advice.

You know we're all anxiously waiting for that review with images of you lounging in the hot tub with your wine 🙂

Have you looked at these videos? https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ncl+joy+family+oceanview

Out of curiosity, what ship and what room are you currently booked in? Just because a room says it CAN sleep up to 6, doesn't mean it really can. Also how many do you already have in there? If you've already got 5 and they would be on a pull out couch sharing a bathroom with 5 other people... I don't blame them. If they're not in Haven, they can certainly spend time in your room with you but they are not permitted in the courtyard, lounge, bar, etc. They can join you for meals in the Haven restaurant, but they have to pay a fee and that needs to be pre-arranged through the concierge. Not sure when you're sailing, but just because something is 'sold-out' doesn't mean it's sold out either. No harm in going in a club balcony room and trying for an upgrade to Haven for last minute cancellations. Yes, it happens. Not often, but yes it's possible.

LOL... found the cruise and even added in flights from SC based on the OP's stated location. You snooze you loose... price already went up to $5400. Better hurry and finish that booking.

Call me crazy, but that sounds like a reasonable price to me for a brand spanking new ship. OP also failed to mention how many days the cruise is for, or where it's sailing as all of that greatly impacts the cost.

First thing I saw as well... that's my room right there so I'm excited. Just need to wait a full year and change, lol.

Yeah, but you're on the opposite coast from where I'm sailing. There's 2 different cruise port options for ships stopping in Victoria. For me on the East coast... none. At least none that are truly accurate and correct. Guess I'm an honorary yacht club member for the day?

I'm a sucker for the pesto gnocchi at La Cucina, so I have to get it every time I'm there. I can get a steak at any restaurant on board, but can only get that gnocchi in one place.

Nope. Unless any of these look familiar to you. You may be more versed in knowing what's what than I am.

Oh, no need to worry about me. That's why we opt for the balcony or bust mentality when booking rooms so I don't have to venture outside my cabin in those undies. It's @ChiefMateJRK that I'm worried about! 🐀

Yes, sneakers are allowed. Regular jeans are also allowed in those restaurants that require pants. We've never worn anything fancy beyond a polo shirt & jeans for hubby with sneakers. That's why we sail NCL as much as we do.

We're sailing the West coast in February 2023 for the first time, so can't say for sure what it's like over there. But 1K is a lot of money, and the trip from California over to Texas is nearly the same as you flying all the way over to Perth. It's far... and you're already traveling VERY far to begin with. However, Prima is brand spanking new and supposed to be wonderful (booked on her for 9/2023 so we'll see...) The only other option I would consider is to stop in California somewhere for a few days to break your trip up before heading to Texas. That would make it more palatable to me. Definitely a tough call... but what are you more interested in seeing/doing? Do you want a nice beach to relax on? Do you want some unique ancient history & culture? Do you just want some good margaritas and fish tacos? Or do you just want an escape from home for a few days and to be out at sea?

Ironically, if I search "cruise" the only options that show up are on the West coast. So not sure what us on the East coast are supposed to do, other than settle for the Charlottetown Yacht Club.

Yes. At the start of the form there are only 3 options - none say "cruise" so I went with marine. If you search for "Prince" this is what shows up.... Prince Edward Yacht Club is no where near where we are actually entering Canada as it isn't even on Prince Edward Island. It's about 14hrs away and closer to home back near NY. Nothing shows up at all if you search "PEI", and this is the options for "CH..." Someone else had mentioned there was a different website for cruise travel to Canada, but there was no link (that I could find) to a different ArriveCan website through there. All the discussions here on CC are for the Alaska sailors with a stop in Victoria. Looks like we'll be one of the first guinea pigs traveling the East coast and having to sort this out.

Definitely depends on your itinerary with regards to port times. We have a few 10+ hour days coming up on our Canada cruise in a few weeks. But your port times are listed before booking, all that takes is a simple check of google maps to see where your ship will probably come into, and what is walkable/nearby to do on your own without having to rely on a cruise sponsored trip. For any sailing right now, I'd say folks need to still be patient and understanding as we're still not back to the 'before times'. Staff are working with a skeleton crew, passenger counts are going up faster than they can restock and re-staff ships. Those tours that NCL offers are not ran by NCL employees... those have to be subcontracted and outsourced and many of those companies went under after not being in business for 2 years. Lots of moving parts still as we return to 'normal' - so try not to fault NCL exclusively. All the cruise lines are struggling to return to the level of service they once had.

Isn't Viking a bit hoity toity with their actual fancy nights and such, unlike NCL where we can walk for coffee in our PJs/Undies? We've been eyeing Virgin Voyages for such a reason... just haven't found one that fits our schedule yet. I would love to see NCL have an adult-only (but not a winky winky "adult only") cruise one day. We tend to book our trips at the opposite times when kids and families will be on board, so we haven't experienced many in our travels. It's more so because they're cheaper than to specifically avoid the germ mongers, but that's a nice plus. Not anti-children per se, but when the free at sea drinks package is flowing, I don't want to have to constantly watch my sailor mouth.

There's prizes at trivia sometimes... nothing to write home about, usually just an NCL koozie or one of those endless free bottles of sparkling wine. Bragging rights are always more important to me. We won the escape room on Epic and got a whopping koozie... that we ultimately left behind in our cabin 'by accident'.

They're entering the ship separately from us, so that's why I want them to have their own documents. Everything I keep seeing says that everyone on the same ArriveCan form needs to be together, which we won't be. I just filled out the first half for us, but it's too soon to complete the rest. The only problem I have is where it asks for your first port of entry. Our first stop in Canada is Charlottetown PEI. That's not listed as an option for the available ports of entry. Do I pick the yacht club in Charlottetown since it's the closest to the cruise ship port?

Updated link that isn't requiring a member logon: https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/Norwegian-Joy A few of them have videos attached... all of the videos show the 2 bedroom layout. But if you look at the actual deck plans there's a lot of variability in room shape/size, so I'm curious. But I would assume they all have that 2 bedroom 2 bathroom configuration with the virtual balcony.