slavetoabunny

I never have and never will shop on Black Friday - I won't even leave the house!

You get your luggage tags in the mail!!!! Hubby and I are booked on our first post-covid cruise 12/16-12/23 on the Escape out of Port Canaveral. Since it's been three years without cruising, I splurged and booked a Haven suite. Is it too early to start packing?

I finally received my refund today for a shore excursion that NCL cancelled on October 17th.

I'll be sailing on the Escape in December in a forward facing Penthouse (deck 14). For me, the priority was room size/price. I really don't think we will mind staying outside the Haven at all and intend on taking full advantage of the amenities! This will be my first time on an NCL ship with an actual Haven. We were on the Dawn pre-pandemic in the Deluxe Owner's Suite and enjoyed every minute of it.

They have had some major glitches recently with their shore excursions. I wouldn't be surprised if they show up in the next few days.

Same thing here. My cruise excursions were cancelled and then added back in and I received an invoice for the ones that were added back. One excursion actually was cancelled and I am due a refund for that one. One phone call with the shorex desk and it was taken care of - my account showed $194 due to NCL and now it shows the $208 due to me for the cancelled excursion. They said the refund will take 7-10 days to be refunded back to the original form of payment. I keep a sharp on on that sort of thing so I don't show up at the port and be told that my cruise was cancelled for a balance due!

On our last cruise, we stayed in the Deluxe Owner's Suite on a non-Haven ship. It was a 7-day cruise and I left $200 for the butler and $100 each for the concierge and room steward. I also brought my own thank you cards and wrote a personal message to each.

I am enjoying your review of this trip! Hubby and I have the same itinerary planned for next August, except out of Anchorage instead of Fairbanks and on the Noordam. Your trip looks fabulous and makes me even more excited for our trip. It looks like you are in a Neptune Suite?? We have a Neptune booked on Noordam.

We were on the Zaandam for a South America cruise in 2019 (booked directly with HAL) in a Signature Suite. I received an upgrade offer to a Neptune at a very reasonable rate. When I called to book within an hour of getting the email I was told I got the last one, so they do move quickly. I have a feeling if the booking would have been through a TA, I wouldn't have gotten it time. The location was great - just down the hall from the Concierge Lounge - and we were happy for the extra space on such a long cruise.

Hubby and I were on the Dawn for our last cruise pre-covid in March 2020. In fact, it was the Dawn's last cruise before everything shut down. It was our first NCL cruise and we loved absolutely everything. We were in the Deluxe Owners Suite and were absolutely spoiled by our butler. The specialty restaurants (Moderno, Cagney's and the Italian one) were all exceptional. Our favorite place to hang out during the day was the Bimini bar. We would definitely sail on her again.

I just booked the Behind the Scenes tour for our December Escape sailing. It seemed like a nice diversion for our final sea day. I happily paid the $129/pp. My hubby has always wanted to see the bridge on a cruise liner since he is a 500-ton Captain. He has only run private yachts - I think the largest was 80 ft.

No, it is not shown there. Everything else is.

I have a cruise December 16-23 on the Escape out of Port Canaveral. The cruise (including gratuities on drink and dining packages, pre-paid gratuities, and upsell wifi) was paid in full before the final payment date. I have since made purchases for shore excursions for all ports except for Stirrup Cay. I was looking at my reservation today and noticed that I show a balance of negative -$340.86, which happens to be the exact amount I paid for the drink and dining package gratuities. Also, my account is not showing my excursion for Ochos Rios. I do have my confirmation showing it was booked and paid for. In fact, there are currently no offerings for Ochos Rios excursions at all. I have not received any email concerning the shore excursion being cancelled. I plan on calling NCL tomorrow, but I was wondering if anyone else has seen anything like this.

What surprised me is that they wouldn't allow the family to pick up the cruise in the next port.

I do too. I have never booked air through the cruise line. I also arrive the day before (unless I can drive to the cruise port) and buy insurance.

I just saw this video on La Lido Loca and wonder if it's not the entire story. According to the video, NCL will leave you high and dry if you miss your cruise due to flights booked through them being cancelled. Does anyone know if there is any truth to this? I agree that not purchasing travel insurance for such an expensive trip was a huge mistake.

I'm loving your pics! Hubby and I just returned from a 10-day self drive vacation in Iceland last month and the pics are bringing back happy memories. We decided on a driving vacation so we could take our time and spend as long as we wanted at the attractions.

Like others have said, book your reservations as soon as they open up. I am sailing 12/16 - 12/23 and booked my two Specialty meals at Cagney's and Moderno the day they opened and got the 5:30 dining time that I wanted at both.

Uh, yeah.......my hubby is a photographer. He took over 5,000 pictures and is still editing them. He was so busy taking photos that we didn't have time to stop at grocery stores. I was graciously given 2 hours to shop for gifts on our last day in Reykjavik.

I absolutely love all your pictures, especially of Norway. Hubby and I just returned from a 10 day self driving tour of Iceland (saw all the the places you had a port stop in) and am planning a self drive tour of Norway. We love cruising (have 4 planned between now and the end of 2024), but also love driving tours.

I had purchased four $250 certificates on our last cruise in March 2020 (we were on the Dawn and got back to Tampa on March 15th - the port was a ghost town!). They were due to expire in 2024 and NCL extended them until 2026 without me even asking. We are using two of them on our December 2023 cruise. I also had a 10% off credit in my account that I guess I got when for a cruise that was cancelled.

In who's world does this even come close to a grilled cheese?

I don't eat meat and when I ate at Moderno on the Dawn with my husband, the server offered to have the kitchen prepare salmon for me. I wish they would have offered to fix you something special. I'm sorry you have been having such horrible food issues.

Hubby is 100% carnivore and I am pescatarian. We dined at Moderno, with me informing the server that I would just be partaking of the salad bar. To my delight, he offered to have a salmon entree prepared for me from Cagney's. NCL is very accommodating.

We have a vacation house rented next April in Hot Springs, Arkansas for the esclipse next April. The family is joining us from Colorado and I can't wait!