CruzinfromFL

Thanks all! I appreciate the info.

5 hours ago, keesar said:

 

It is not a great deal without the two perks.  If the perks are not included, you are actually paying a lot more than the $50 upgrade and not worth it.  

Agreed! So I won't be following up with my TA at this time, but I will watch to see what happens over the next year.

We are booked in a verandah cabin for an Alaska cruise on Millennium in May 2020. I was doing a mock booking to check on prices and see if there were any drops and decided to see what the cost of an AquaClass cabin would be. It looks like it would only be about $50 more pp to upgrade. Our current cabin and the mock booking cabin are both mid-ship. I will contact my TA to look into this for us. This is the first time we are sailing on Celebrity so I'm wondering what the benefits of AquaClass are. I've seen on here people talk about Blu, and on the X website the cabin/balcony dimensions are larger. What other benefits are there to being in this type of cabin?

Edit: just double checked and realized the lower rate doesn't seem to include the 2 perks we currently have so not the great deal I thought it was.

This thread is very interesting. Here's my recent experience. We were booked on an NCL cruisetour to Alaska in May 2020, but were uncomfortable with the price and some basic internet searching on my part showed we could get lower rates. So after changing travel agents (long story) our new new TA recommended Celebrity to us. This will be our first cruise on Celebrity (our previous cruises have all been Royal Caribbean to the Caribbean). We booked a similar cruisetour leaving 10 days later in May 2020, including 2 perks (drink package and $300 OBC), and we are paying $900 less than what we would have paid for the NCL trip (which included the drink package and $50 shore excursion credit at each port).

Our TA told me that Celebrity has actually reduced their prices lately to appeal to more people, so I really do find this discussion interesting and reading everyone's experiences and perspectives.

Becky - thank you so much for your detailed review. I stumbled across it trying to find pictures of cabin 7111 on Millennium because that is the cabin we are in on our Alaska cruise next June. We are doing the cruise tour because for our first trip to Alaska (I'm sure it won't be out last) I wanted someone else to do the work of picking locations and places to stay, and we have a great travel agent who recommended this particular cruise tour. And the cruise portion is the same as yours. 

I know the ship has recently been updated so the cabin won't look the same as far as decor, but your pics helped give us a good idea of the size of the room. This is our first time on Celebrity and I believe its the smallest balcony room we've had, but then again, we are rarely in the room 😀

On 3/23/2019 at 2:14 AM, slugg said:

“Freestyle dining” keeps being cited as, seemingly, the most popular reason to cruise with NCL. Are people not aware that the concept is not unique to NCL?

 

I was on RCCL Oasis of the Seas and not once, ever, did I have to make a reservation for dining. I just had to wait about 5 minutes before being seated, except for one of the nights. That night, we had to wait 10 minutes,  but they let us order drinks while waiting. Specialty restaurants had no wait whatsoever.

 

As far as dress code, I wore jeans, a button down shirt, and no tie to the formal night. Honestly, I blended in just fine; it seems like the younger the cruiser, the less formal they dress. 

 

There’s plenty to like about NCL, but if freestyle dining is your top reason, you should know that other cruise lines are doing the same thing, but without the marketing term. 

Yes, you can eat when you want on Royal IF you get MyTime dining. The last cruise we took we were wait listed for MyTime and never got off the wait list So we only made it to dinner in the MDR twice during our cruise because our assigned time didn't work for us. We will be sailing on NCL for the first time and are really looking forward to really being able to eat what we want/when we want.

Thanks all! Appreciate your input. 

15 minutes ago, Harratine said:

For a time of the year, look around Black Friday.  They usually have a sale for time period.  You often find the government fees and taxes as part of the package then.  Also, keep an eye out for current deals and find the price drops there.  NCL is pretty good about capturing the price change or package deal improvement if you bring it up.  Last cruise I was able to get $500 OBC added in under 6 minutes when I called.  If you need to rebook to capture a price drop, be careful that you are okay with whatever perks they have current.  That’s the biggest risk. You will lose whatever old perks you had and have the new package instead.

Thanks! The perks is exactly what my TA mentioned she would look at tomorrow when I emailed her on Friday.

I appreciate the info!

On 3/23/2019 at 12:51 PM, don't-use-real-name said:

 

 Looks like NCL only has the Bliss and Joy in Alaska next year

 

The JOY and BLISS sail closed loop out of Seattle -

Checking my TA schedule for Alaska cruises in 2020 the JEWEL sails out of Vancouver and Seward (Anchorage)

The JEWEL would be my recommendation for your pursuit of happiness.

Also as BirdTravels just posted consider doing a Land Package taking the Alaska Railroad to Denali Park -

There is more to Alaska than coastal glacier cruising - there are more options combining a great deal more.

Yes, my husband and I are booked on the Jewel next May. We are doing the land tour first and then cruising from Seward to Vancouver. We've never sailed NCL before, but we do prefer smaller ships and are excited about being on the Jewel, it looks like a great ship for us.

Hi all,

Hubby and I have taken 3 cruises on Royal Caribbean to the Caribbean. We booked 2 out of 3 last minute and the 3rd one was booked less than a year out. We have recently booked an Alaska cruisetour on Norwegian for May 2020. My travel agent told me that if I find the price drops to let her know and she'll be able to cancel and rebook us at the lower rate. I signed up for price notifications and the cruise has dropped by 1%, my travel agent will look into it Monday for us, but I'm wondering if anyone here can give me any insight into price drops with Norwegian. Is there a time of year (holidays?) where they tend to drop prices? Are price drops small like the 1% I have seen or can they be significant? Or is it just totally random if/when a price drop happens. I guess I"m just wondering how closely I need to watch prices between now and when our final payment is due in January. 

Thanks!

Going to Cuba in July aboard the Majesty of the Seas. Who's been to Cuba on a cruise? Do you have to exchange dollars for the tourist currency, or would be better off buying euros at our bank and taking those? How hard is it to go through Cuban customs when we get off the ship? Reboarding? Thanks!

Going through customs was very quick and easy. We brought euros to avoid the extra 10% fee they charge for exchanging US dollars. We had lots of CUCs left over and exchanged them for US dollars, and we were only charged the standard 3% fee, not the extra 10%.