SakeDad

Thanks....and of course they don't do tours the day we are there. But great info.

The other advantage is being first off the ship with an excursion sometimes.

The trains are also much more expensive and we are in no rush nor need to spend more than necessary.....we are on a leisurely vacation.

We are on an NCL cruise in July and stopping in Bruges from 9am-6pm. I have never been and while Brussels sounds romantic I am worried about a 1-2 hour trip both directions as we know anything can happen to delay you. I am not impressed with the excursions to Brussels by NCL so would probably book my own but I worry about "missing the boat" as it's so far away. So my question is.....Is there enough to do in Bruges (beer tastings, restaurants. sites, etc....) to keep us happy & busy closer to the ship or should I really consider heading into Brussels for the day???

We are staying in London a few days pre-cruise an plan on taking the bus from Victoria Station on the morning of the cruise. As I have never been the sights from London to Southampton will be like another excursion to me.

We sail her in July. Hoping the soot issues are settled by then. Of course, the way NCL is charging for room service, upping the gratuities, ending turndown service and removing a lot of entertainment choices this may be our final cruise with them. But I love the ship look and London-Iceland was just too good an itinerary to pass up.

The bus is NOT a whole set piece. It breaks apart for storage as well as load-in/load-outs. As for dance shows on multiple ships have you not noticed the deck sail away parties and white parties, etc are all the SAME shows done by the casts of the bigger shows??

If we get bottles of wine at dinner on our Free At Sea Plus package and we are sharing a table with friends who are not on that package can we share the wine at dinner with them????

Thanks everyone for your great answers and advice! As a result we booked the Free at Sea Plus upgrade package. For an 11 day cruise with only 2 sea days it was only $112 more per person than the regular premium package and we get additional specialty dining, 2nd person gets $50 off on NCL excursions (already have that for the 1st person and it's a port intensive cruise) and we get unlimited wifi including streaming....so as it's my 60th birthday we plan on only drinking the BEST and lots of champagne!!! It will pay for itself after 2 excursions! Just to upgrade to premium drinks would have been $765 but to get the PLUS was only $990 so it was a no-brainer for us!

Thanks everyone for some GREAT information. We are on an 11 day London to Iceland on Prima and already have 2 specialty dinners. With the fabulous main dining room and Indulge Food Hall reviews I have seen I don't think we need any more specialty dining. Also, as it's a very port intensive cruise with only 2 sea days internet onboard in not important. I may be interested in getting more port adventure discounts if they are included in the package, I will look closer for that.

We have the regular included drink package that covers anything up to $15.....we are looking at purchasing the PREMIUM PLUS package for our 11 day ($382 pp now) but it's not until July and it looks like we have to pay as soon as we book it. Is there an advantage to buying it now (several months before we even have final payment) or can we wait and book it for the same price with final payment? THANKS

But are those pictures on Prima??? Every video I have seen from Prima Vibe hasn't shown anything close to this.

Apparently the big daybeds are what they are calling Cabanas. Nothing I would be willing to pay extra for.

If they are still in port their cell phones would work....wouldn't need ships wifi.

Same for my 60th July 16 cruise.

I would hope instead of a service charge they do a time limit , like an hour or so, on how long you can sit and graze

I have also been told there are $5 bloody mary's and mimosas at pool side and most bars before noon.

Will this be self-serve?

At this point there wouldn't be any guest cabin chairs out for workers. Look closely at the other balconies and those are most definitely guest balcony chairs, not crew chairs.

Some of us like to sleep in or enjoy quiet time on our balconies without hearing screams next to us every 5 minutes. Just saying. Will be very curious what the reviews say.

We booked over the Concourse so I am hoping it's quieter. We only have 2 sea days so not too worried about the sea view. I usually like afts but was nervous about the Soliel Bar and Indulge areas being loud. We don't cruise until next July so I have plenty of time to change my mind on location once the guest reviews start coming in.

We booked a balcony 8 cabins away from the slides. I'm hoping that's far enough away not to hear the screams of people going down them. Sadly we won't really know until guest reviews start coming in. I was also concerned about noise from the portside Deck 8 midship restaurants as we are on Deck 9 so we booked starboard.

They gave them a gorgeous outside crew bar area. I think they really are stepping it up for crew with this ship.

Nope...1st pic is NCL without slide on balcony, second is CruiseDeckPlan with slides

CruiseDeckPlans has the slides added on balconies and you can click on the little cameras to see what that area will look like. NCL hasn't added those. So...not the same.