JM0115

Love PPBP! Champagne and a beautiful bottle of wine with dinner at Onda on Encore

9 minutes ago, RuthC said:

It's still the middle of the night there, considering the time difference. 
Give him a chance to sleep, wake up, and get some coffee. 

Wake up Clay!  Time to get exploring!

We just bid on a Haven Suite. We already purchased the premium plus beverage package. Is this a waste if we get the Haven? 

35 minutes ago, palpieha said:

 

Someone posted what seems to be the latest list a couple of pages ago, check post 591:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2758709-why-ncl-premium-plus-adult-drink-package/page/24/#comment-64092176

 

 

By the bottle, there are usually 2 or 3 French Champagne you can get. The list above shows Pommery Brut Rose, Mumm Cordon Rouge Brut, and Moet & Chandon "Imperial". 

 

Now, you can also get anything by the glass, and you can get as many glasses as you want. So if you want Veuve Clicquot, it's included by the glass. At Le Bistro, the Veuve is very popular, so even if getting by the glass you'll get it from a bottle very recently opened. Last time I was there, they opened a new one and set it in an ice bucket not too far from our table. We "shared" that one and then more bottles (those bottles of Veuve seem to leak a lot when I'm around 😀) with 2 other tables that were nearby, all by the glass.

 

At Le Bistro sometimes they'll have a French Champagne that is not anywhere else, like Veuve Rose or something else. That is also available by the glass included in the PPBP.

 

Of course, all brand availability is subject to supply chain issues, etc, but I've found that when something wasn't there, something equal or better was available. You'll have a great time.

Thanks we booked PPBP and are very excited!

Probably answered, but can you get bottles of Frence Champagne at Le Bistro and if so which ones under the PPBP?  Same question for the other Specialty Restaurants.

2 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

It’s BonVoyage Time. Will post again on Oct 14 from Maui!

Hope Mike is not on shore taking the shot!?  Have a nice time!

Maybe I am overthinking this. I am thinking of purchasing FASUP. With regards to the extra $50 excursion credit I do not understand the terms and conditions. What does it mean when it says "if the first guest purchases shore excursion tickets for other guests, the promotion and $50 Shore Excursion Credit will not apply to such tickets"? If I purchase shore excursion for me and my wife, wouldn't we both get the $50 shore excursion credit? We already have Free at Sea with one $50 shore excursion credit per port, so with FASUP wouldn't we get $50 each?

53 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Back on board with only having to be a jerk a little bit.  As we reentered the terminal, we flashed our “in transit” cards and were directed to the “crew” line which was also being used as the handicapped line at security.  Then unlike crew, we followed the “in transit” sign to passport control, then were directed to purgatory…but why I asked, we are in transit and told we could go immediately aboard.  After deer in headlight looks from two of the contracted terminal staff, I just kept walking towards Heaven’s Gate and while the terminal staff tried to stop me,  a HAL officer in Heaven saw me waving my In Transit pass and waved me through.  After that it was clear sailing (pun intended) all the way onboard.  
 

Now back at “our” table beside the pool for lunch. 

Happy sailing!

Just to confirm my understanding, if you bid and it is accepted, they will select a cabin for you which could be in a less desirable location? So you are rolling the dice. You cannot move to another one after that or can you?

If you get PPBP, can you get bottles of wine if you decide to eat at the buffet for dinner? Or only in restaurants?

4 hours ago, Nclgetawaymenhoney said:

First, you must book directly with NCL or a travel agent that participates must of the discounted travel agency so not participate. Second if you the qualify you will receive an email or a banner on your ncl home page on or around 115 to 80 days before sailing.  You are allowed to be up two meta categories, for example insides bid on ocean view and balconies.  Ocean view bids up to balconies and club balconies mini suites, and balconies can bid on club balconies mini suites and the various haven categories. You use the link from the email for the upgrade advantage program to bid and their is a scale that goes from poor bid on up, and it tells you right on the link q and a that most bids are awarded 10 to 2 days before sailing so the Monday before sailing thru that Friday.  I’ve had bids awarded on the Tuesday, Wednesday and 2 more awarded at like 1pm Friday for sailing that Sunday.  It’s all about algorithms to maximize profits, each sailing is different a holiday sailing almost already sold out versus an off season sailing will have different minimum maximum bids, etc.  also reading a couple of pages of this thread from the beginning might help you understand the program better.Haysailing.

Thank you!

We are new to sailing with Norwegian. Is there a primer on bidding to upgrade out there? How does it work? Can you bid up to any category from any category?  Can you have multiple bids for different categories and see which one is accepted?  I will continue to look on CC to see if I can find answers to this as it is probably out there somewhere but any help would be appreciated.

On 9/16/2022 at 10:08 AM, Nclgetawaymenhoney said:

You still have a great chance looking at inventory on a website I use that shows cabins including above 15 per category I see 77 currently available in the various ocean view categories, didn’t look at all of balconies as well but in the BA category alone their were 42 left, I would say they just haven’t done the upgrade process yet could even be next Monday or Tuesday before they do. Happy sailing.

How does one check on the inventory? New to NCL.

2 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Aboard America headed to Phoenix then on to Seattle and finally to Vancouver presuming we make our Air Canada Flight🤞

Hopefully all will go smoothly!

First time NCL'er.  I just booked a cruise.  Where do you find spa (thermal suite) passes for purchase?

3 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Taking a cue from @WCB and I am going to try to post about our upcoming adventure that will (like them) take us from Glaciers to Palm Trees 

but unlike Bill and MaryAnn we won’t be aboard quite as long and we aren’t 84 Star Mariners😂 Additionally, since we won’t spring for Internet aboard there will be some days with nada, followed by days with multiple posts(when we have cell data from T-Mobile) documenting what we did while away from the innerwebs. 
 

Presuming Hurricane Ian doesn’t affect us tomorrow morning, we should be leaving Raleigh, NC at 7am  headed to Vancouver (via Phoenix & Seattle) for an overnight prior to boarding Koningsdam on October 1, 2022 for the first of our b2b cruises. We start with a 7 night cruise to Alaska and then stay aboard on October 8 and sail to Hawaii returning to Vancouver on October 24, 2022. 

 

A little about us-we are longtime cruisers, but this will only be our second time aboard Holland America Line. Our previous cruise was a Caribbean on board Veendam in 2019. 

 

My husband Mike and I have been together almost 33 years and in December will celebrate our 8th anniversary of being married legally. We retired early in February 2018 (I will be able to join Medicare next year and Mike is 5 years behind me-you can do the math!) spent the first two years living nomadically. Prior to retirement most of our cruising had been on Norwegian Cruise Lines with a couple of Celebrity and a Princess voyage along the way.  For our retirement celebration (and to have a comfortable ride to Europe where we spent most of our first year of unemployment), we ended up booking a Viking Transatlantic (after discovering that for repositioning cruises their apples to apples pricing was comparable to NCL.) We have been Viking loyalists ever since. So part of this thread will likely do some compare & contrasts between the two.
 

We were originally scheduled to be cruising on Viking Orion from Hong Kong to Bangkok at the end of October, but presumably because of Japan’s issues with receiving visitors (they just announced  this week that they are reopening) and Visa confusions in Vietnam, Viking canceled the segments between Tokyo and Bangkok of their repositioning cruise from Vancouver to Sydney. When we mentioned the cancellation to long time friends, they suggested joining them on their Alaska cruise onboard Koningsdam. Since we first visited Alaska with them in 2003 (aboard Celebrity Summit), we decided it would be fun to do it again.  But since (unlike them) we aren’t constrained by having to return to work and we hated the idea of flying cross country for just 7 nights, we elected to stay aboard and go to Hawaii. This will be my first visit and Mike’s second but his last was almost 40 years ago. 

 

So tag along if you like and join us as we go from Glaciers to Palm ….ahem, King Crab to Poi!

 

Hope you have a wonderful time!

19 hours ago, Azulann said:

MSUjohn,,

Our   economy air  for Delta flights to and from AMS , and our KLM flights to Stockholm and for Conenhagen to AMS, is $1900 .pp. TOTAL . We booked through Delta vacations and also did three night hotel stay in Stockholm  pre cruise. the hotel is extra. These tickets are exchangeable. for a fee.

Good luck to you on finding  a flight that does not break the bank  this winter . 

rkacruiser,

The KLM flights are within  Europe, short flights. The Delta flight is  the long haul to and from MSP.  I did like the food on my previous KLM flights. They have great bread, nice wine.  

 

Azulann, this is not related to this post, but I saw in another post that you have stayed and like stateroom 4123, an aft facing cabin.  We would like to stay in an aft facing cabin.  What are the pros and cons please?

On 9/16/2022 at 1:06 AM, Mrs Miggins said:

My friend Dorothy reports that Manfredi's was excellent and they were looking forward to a performance by an English Tenor.   

Her husband was disappointed to miss the Bornholm, Denmark, stop.  It was apparently too windy.  That meant Tony could not do his 14 mile Bike tour. Dorothy was rather relieved.

They have met 4 of the 6 Australians onboard.

 

Bike tour was very fun!  Too bad.

2 minutes ago, Liz Masterson said:

Following... 

But if they don't I'll just request extra hangers and hang more things than usual. 

Also... I pack lightly as far as make up and such... so usually keep my undergarments in the drawer in the loo.

 

 

As of May 2022, no they have not been retrofitted.

58 minutes ago, ilv4cruising said:

I’m hoping for some help please. We are doing a booking today for Antarctica (we hope). We live in Toronto Canada and just looked at the prices for flights from Toronto to Buenos Aires. Unfortunately since my husband has had 2 spinal fusions we can’t fly economy, even premium is iffy if it is a long flight.  Our preference would be direct in business class but just looked at the cost and it is outrageous. 

 

Im looking for options on how we might fly with one stop   Any advice on options for a layover location that I might be able to use to a) break up our flight and b) make it more affordable?

 

thanks

Panama City might be a good stopover point??

It's very similar to Viking Homelands. Some slightly different ports. Have heard good things about it. 

On 5/22/2022 at 2:07 PM, Mountain Traveler said:

My wife and I travelled with another couple on Viking's "In Search of the Northern Lights" cruise in Feb/March of 2020.  It was the last cruise before COVID shutdowns.  I looked up the websites of the tour providers we used and both appear to be up and running now.

 

In Tromso, we booked a northern Lights tour with Tromsø Friluftsenter, (info@tromso-friluftsenter.no).  We were very fortunate to have a clear sky with lots of aurora activity.  It was, however, bitterly cold.  We met their bus by the hotel right outside where the ship was docked.  They take a maximum of 16 people.  Although they will drive all over to get a clear view of the sky, this night did not require that and we drove to their "base camp".  Inside the lavvu (a round, native Sami shelter) we sat around the fire and roasted marshmallows waiting for the light to appear.  They provided tripods for the photographers in the group, warm snowsuits to go over your clothes.  An outhouse was available for those needing it.   The location is along a small lake with a small community on the other side.  It made for wonderful northern lights photographs, as I think having some foreground in the photo is preferable to just green  lights up in the sky.  Their web site provides an accurate description of the tour.  They were very good to work with and I recommend them highly.

 

In Alta we had booked with Luuso Northern Lights Tours.  Unfortunately, the lights did not cooperate.  Here is my Trip Advisor review of the night:

 

We boarded the beautiful Lusso bus on a cold and overcast night. Per greeted us in his Sami costume. He said things did not look good. He showed us sky cams from all over the area and also the Aurora forecast. He volunteered to go, but told us we had a very slim chance of seeing any lights. We agreed that cancelling was the best choice (especially since the previous night in Tromso had been so wonderful).

They have several 4 minute films about the northern lights and Sami reindeer herding, which he showed us on the bus. He answered questions and gave us a sample of reindeer jerky and then a small package of jerky to take home. Luuso is Per's family name and the reindeer film was shot by his uncle. After a very enjoyable 45 minutes on the bus in the parking lot, we got off and took a photo with Per.

 

You can read all about the tour inclusions, etc. on their website.  I really wish we had been able to actually see lights that night.  

 

Good luck with your Northern Lights chase!

In Atla, did you tender?  Any issues with having a late night excursion not with Viking and getting back on the ship late at night (like around midnight)?

On 6/10/2022 at 3:43 PM, GKTV32162 said:

My blog address is kolbsontheroad.blogspot.com

Everything will be there. And, after the WC, I think everything will be a disappointment.

The comparison will be interesting!  Hope you have a great cruise!

2 hours ago, Traveler145 said:

Our cruise on Viking Venus arrives in Stavanger on October 5, 2022.  Viking is offering Lysefjord cruises to Pulpit Rock at 8:30, 9:00, and 12:00. For those who have previously taken the Pulpit Rock cruise through Viking, do you know if selecting one of these times is likely to give us a better chance of sailing on the electric boat? (Our only opportunity for the Lysefjord cruise is to book through Viking, as the local providers are not offering independent bookings on October 5.) Thanks very much.

I am not sure what you mean by an electric boat? I'm pretty sure that the boat we took was not electric but it was a great excursion. 

Just completed the World Cruise. I am probably one of the minority out there that love the World Cafe. We ate there something like 400+ times during the cruise (counting breakfast, lunch, and dinner). We got to know the wonderful staff and they took very good care of us. We would take our time. First get a table (outside if the weather was at all good), then order drinks, then have some of the drink (or all of it :)), go up and get some appetizers (could be sushi, salad, crablegs, shrimp, other items), then main course, and sometimes dessert. We liked to peruse the offerings and pick what we liked at that particular moment. I know I am in the minority with my preference for World Cafe, but we really enjoyed it and ate at our own pace. We particularly loved eating on the Aquavit Terrace. So many great servers taking care of us made it extremely special!!