complawyer

nothing to envy, just pick a cruise at a price you wish to pay, going to place you wish to see, and voila youre on board the cruise ship. by the way, at most ports, we hire a cab rather than the ncl excursions. just take the excursion description with you, show the driver which one you want, and most of the time he'll take you to those same places, at a much more reasonable cost. the nice thing is that he will stop any where you want along the way, let you take as many pictures as you want (a must for me) no and by the way, on any ncl ship we've everbeen on, i havent ever seen a wunder bar LOL!

it used to be a must go-to whenever we were on an ncl cruise. lately the food has gone down slightly, ny strip rather than filet, the so-called show is the same all the time, maybe the chef's change them one in a while. anyway while i would not presume to discourage you from trying it out, or attempting t o put the kibbosh on your dinner plans, to me it's no longer a need. i consider it a couple of steps below your neighborhood benihana's

talk about bare necessities, this april will be our 26th cruise with ncl. we've been to naples and we took a cab to the amalfi coast, beautiful. we've taken a river cruise on the seinne, i rode an elephant in bangkok, swam with stingrays in grand caymen island, visited the tower of pisa, colleseum in Rome,, took a gondola in venice, toured the Vatican/sistine chapel, stayed overnight in london and saw Wicked in londons west end the night before going to southampton all with ncl cruise lines. we're now scheduled for a b2b from rio to lisbon and in sept iceland to southampton ive posted many times before, i book with ncl because pricewise, and ports of call (inmo) ncl beats all competition hands down. im not concerned about, the food, entertainment, on board activities etc. as long as i have a balcony where i can sit and watch the sunset and the world float by, have an ice cold heineken, i happier than a pig in poop. my one and only major complaint, as ive posted many times before, is that my hamburger bun falls apart before im finished with the burger. totally 1st world problem. my drink package covers what i want, a glass of champagne in the morning, a mojito in the afternoon, a chivas before dinner and a glass of port wine after dinner and maybe a ate night margarita (or 2 or maybe even 3) LOL as the song goes "who could ask for anything more"

cruiseny 4life. hey buddy, i see you responded to my most recent post about the 17 day cruise. only problem is that for some reason it never came thru. this seems to happen a lot. Does it ever happen to you? My paranoia indicates cc must have some diabolical plot against me. LOL so censors, this is in jest so dont block please. any way cruiseny, i always enjoy your comments, and take on all things ncl. could you please try and resend, or (again if cc doesnt block this) sampraw@aol.com

just an update (if anyone cares) kudos to my lovely wonderful daughter ( she must get it from her mothers side certainly not mine). while i suffered with extreme (and i mean extreme) frustration and totally giving up after 2 months of trying, and taking the position the heck with it, i totally gave up the quest to get the brazilian visa. as i told everyone one before, my daughter stepped in, accomplished all the (un)necessary) bs, in a little over an hr. my wife got her visa 2 days ago, and i got mine lst night. so dear friends, and also not so dear friends, dont give up, i can be done!

italy and france prefer euros. years ago, trying to get from venice to the airport, the driver refused to accept u.s. dollars. we're on the star in april, out of brazil, and ive been advised by the concierge in the hotel we've booked, that most places in brazil prefer doing business in their own currency. in the carribean, most islands habla $20 bill. years ago we were in martinique, and i went into a bakery, and they insisted on francs (before euro became fashionable, and probably over 30 years ago)

same day arrival is always a hair raising experience. yer pays your money and yer takes your choice! by the way, trieste is a truly beautiful little city, you'd be doing yourself a disservice if you dont spend at least 1 day there before you sail. we did that a few years ago. stayed in venice for 2 days, hired a shuttle to drive us to trieste for 1 day, just wandered around the city for a while, next day, got on a bus chartered by the hotel/ncl, and went right to the port. stayed in hilton double tree hotel, no muss, no fuss, no bother. unless we're traveling from a u.s port to another or same u.s. port, i would never take chance on same day fly in, unless ive booked a red eye.

no contest... hands down a balcony. its amazing, pulling into a port and seeing the city from your balcony. i have taken (imho) some of the best photos i have ever taken from my balcony. it's also (at least for me) watching a sunset over the ocean from the balcony absolutely breathtaking. also, after a shore excursion, or on a sea day, its nice just to sit on the balcony and watch the world drift by

hey cruiseny4life. it's 17 days on the star, and i know people have complained of mishaps on this ship. i experienced 3 missed ports i really wanted to visit, on the star's 1st southeast asia cruise, dec 2016-jan 2017. that being said, we've been on the star a few more times,( as ive often stated) I cruise for the enjoyment of being on a cruise ship. what people complain about, (entertainment, food, no cookies or hash browns) I consider very minor problems. the poster who complains that he has to pay an additional $25 for a 2nd lobster tail in the haven restaurant, doesnt realize how utterly entitled that sounds. I think most of the world's populace would give an arm or a leg just to be on a cruise ship to an exotic location, much less complain about being in a haven and having to pay an additional $25.00 for a 2nd lobster tail. total 1st world problem. chiefmate jrk is happy as a clam with an inside cabin. of course the bun falling apart before i finish my hamburger, to me is a much more intense problem, one that shakes the very foundations of a successful cruise (sarcasm fully intended) maybe next time, i'll have you take care of all my travel arrangements, as in your secret identity, you claim to be a travel agent (lol). to you and your husband, continue to cruise safely, happily etc.

PATRLR. thanks, but not to worry, the visa clearly says Brazil

hey cruiseny good buddy, we actually booked this cruise for the following reasons, (1) i always wanted to see Rio and Lisbon, (2) the number of sea days, i can just veg out on my balcony with my heretofore mentioned ice cold bottle of heineken, (3) most of all, we got a great fare on a 2 bedroom suite. 17 days, for less that $6,000 in a suite category, you cant pass that up if you love cruising... it's a no brainer.

the shotgun didnt hurt either. BTW this august, 55 years. when people ask about how we managed to stay together this long, standard reply community property (LOL)

fp. it was my understanding that if you arrived in brazil prior to april 10th you didnt need a visa. i just assumed that showing my passport with the date of entry would allow be to board, if noting else. without questioning the integrity of brazilian boarder patrol, i was curios if a $20 bill at the remaining brazilian ports, would take the place of a visa

i have tried, tried and tried some more to get a brazilian visa. it wouldn't accept my picture, it wouldn't accept the letter from ncl counsel, it would'n't give me the otp (and i had no idea what that even was), and i really wasn't comfortable sending my bank statement to a group of complete strangers ,much less a foreign country i asked by 24 year old grandson (who's my go-to tech guy) and even he counldn't get he site to help. this has been going on since mid-jan. initially i decided the heck with it, if i couldn't get into the other 3 brazilian ports, i'd stay on board and guzzle champagne. we were getting into rio on the 8th anyway. finally, my daughter (51) and my wife who knows it all and is never wrong, told me to get away and they'd take care of it. Lo and behold! they got online this saturday, and this evening, my wife got her visa via her email. Im still waiting for mine, but go figure. I guess miracles actually do happen

engr jones, before you chastise mexico bob, you need to establish how much he was paying for the balcony cabin. if the difference was $3400, that's a lot for the larger bathroom, if he was paying $2500 for the balcony and upped it to $3400, that's only a $900 difference, or $450 per person. so dont please throw stones, or tell anyone how to spend their money. it's not nice lol

just remember, its about an hour+ from london to soutghampton, and hour 1/2 from paris to le harve. just watch your times.

it absolutely amazes me that this post keeps on going. people, tip if you want to in the amount you want to. in the alternative, if you believe the DSC is sufficient, DON'T tip !

kirtihk. to whichever post you're referring to, dont take it personally. probably no one on cc knows you, no one on cc will probably ever meet or come in contact with you. so dont worry about it. LOL!!! i am neither fond nor not fond of you. frankly scarlet, i could give a .....

ok, granny, i apologize for the mistake

ok, granny, i apologize for the mistake

1st off, you won't know what type of service you'll get if you tip 1st. once again, imho, a tip, is an acknowledgement for service performed. operative words here, SERVICE PERFORMED, granny, if you arent going to tip your waiter or waitress, stay home. if you feel the service offered was sub par, tell the manager. offering a tip upfront, is a request for a certain type of service or expectation that the person taking the money will perform for you. we go to the theater regularly that has it's own parking. i give the valet an extra $10 to keep the car close so we can exit in a hurry after the play and avoid the crowd and confusion. i feel no shame doing so. i also feel no shame giving the maitre'd an extra $20+ to take care of us during the cruise. again, no shame whatsoever. Try it, it works. if not, dont complain, if youre discussing tipping extra on a cruise, ok, youve paid into the DSC, and extra tipping is neither expected nor required. on the other hand, regardless of the restaurant, try giving your server and extra $5 or so, and see how much more attention you'll get from them

we are doing exactly the same thing. getting to rio on the 8th. i vacillated between applying for the visa or not, since i figured i'd be in brazil before the deadline. since there are a great number of sea days, i didnt want to chance not being able to enter the other brazilian ports if a visa was in fact required. in the end, my wife and i bit the bullet, and sent in our applications this evening. i figured if we couldnt get off at the other ports, it would be a very, very long time before we reached cape verde, that and the fact my wife would probably kill me for making her stay onboard that long. now all i have to do is get her to get the yellow fever shot. any way, see you on board. im the one with the glass of champagne in one hand, and an ice cold heineken in the other BON VOYAGE

if you ask nicely, and they arent very busy, the grill guy will probably be able to make the burger the way you like it cooked. of course if he does this for you ,dont you think a tip (or a bribe ) is then appropriate?

ncl will advise you of time and date. i understand that you can arrange to go in a day or so early, and return a day or so late. i cant answer exactly, but i do know ncl makes the flight arrangements if you take the flight offer thru them. 2nd person flies free! some of the prior posts have indicated an unhappiness with the ncl picks, some are happy with the arrangements. as a personal preference, i can tell you that after taking over 25 ncl cruises, i would never (emphatically) never book my flights thru ncl. I believe in the adage "if you want something done right, do it yourself" i want to control, time, date seats etc, and i would never leave that to anyone else, much less ncl. also, if we are leaving from a foreign port and disembarking at a different port i will usually go in 2-3 days early, and arrange to stay in final port 2-3 days later. ncl booking doesnt allow you to do that. finally, as a self proclaimed newbie, make sure your flight lands at least one day prior to departure. if you try and fly in on the day of sailing and something goes wrong, you my friend are outta luck

you dont book the air, ncl does it for you. consequently, you pays yer money and you takes your chance