wil e coyote

One very important thing about requesting this - you must do it at least 75 days prior to your cruise in order for NCL to honor the request. If you book within the 75 day window or if you forget to ask 2 1/2 months in advance, you most likely will be told that early/late flights are not available through NCL.

I notice you said you like the pools. My observation on the Getaway/Breakaway/Escape (BA and BA+ class ships) is that there is only one main pool, and it is VERY small for 4000-ish passengers. The Haven has a small pool, and it is never crowded, but on most of the ships it is indoors. That may or may not matter to you so I'm providing that info. So if the pool is important to you and you don't want to pay for the Haven, I'd recommend one of the smaller ships. As far as food is concerned, the Haven food is the best on the ship. But you can do OK by using specialty dining and the main dining rooms. I should say, I really like the Haven. But I also recognize it is expensive and not for everyone. Whatever ship and room you choose, a cruise is a great couple's vacation!

Seat selection needs to be done on the airline's website or through their app, and it is subject to their rules and fees. Some airlines charge fees for "better" economy class seats, and you would be responsible for those fees if you wanted a choice seat. I've never seen NCL use Southwest, but sassycruiser did experience that. If you're flying SWA seat selection is a whole different thing. My suggestion would be to jump onto the airline website as soon as you get your flight confirmations from NCL.

We've used NCL Air several times, and also made our own flight arrangements for a cruise several times. We have never had any issues with our NCL flights. The determining factor for us typically has to do with whether we are doing anything else before or after our cruise. If we are, we make our own flights. If not, we tend to use NCL Air. In general, the NCL pricing is better than we can find on our own, unless we are using points for one/both tickets. Thanks for setting up this survey - the data so far suggests that most people who use NCL Air actually make it to their ship - that is not the conclusion that you'd arrive at from just looking at the posts on CC...

We used the 50% off coupon too. That isn't an issue. I often find that phone/chat agents will simply say "no" if they don't know how to resolve your issue. They are often measured on time to close a conversation, and taking the time to investigate a question hurts the turn-time metric. Try talking with a different agent. If you have a PCC who you like, call him/her. They are more motivated to help you.

Hmmm. Well, that's definitely an Alaska cruise, and it is in 2023 (I assume.) So I'm pretty sure the agent is mistaken. Assuming you meet the other requirements (date of booking, cabin class, current Latitudes member) I'd call and talk to a different agent. Unfortunately, different agents often give different answers.

Same here. We had booked on 2/22 for the 5/8 Jewel sailing, and were able to call and get the LATRIPLE code added to our booking.

I'm guessing that you are using a third-party travel insurance company (which is what we do too.) I'd encourage you to look into the cost difference between insuring the whole cost of your cruise vs. just insuring for the cost of the cruise fare. The cost of the insurance probably isn't all that different, and if you've insured the whole cost, you are covered in any case. Also, if (like us) you are also insuring flights, pre-cruise hotel, etc as well as the cruise, including the gratuities and taxes in the plan might not change the overall cost at all. Enjoy your cruise!

In my experience, it is always best to make use it is being applied by asking when the item is being rung up. Hey, if you ask about it and they say a particular item isn't eligible, it didn't hurt to ask...

There are several places you might see it - but one is on the Summary page of your booking on NCL.com. If you look under Payment, you should see an entry for FAS gratuities. If that is missing, you don't have FAS on your booking.

We got this email as well. It didn't show up in "My Coupons and Credits" in my account for a few days. But it did show up if I went in and did a booking. Here's how it worked, assuming you received the email from NCL: -Log in to NCL and choose one of the three ships for a 2023 Alaska cruise itinerary. -Work through all the booking steps (choose cabin, add travelers, etc) til you get to the payment screen. -On the payment screen, choose the 50% off coupon (in my case it was at the bottom of the list below my CruiseNext coupons.) Note this is a coupon, and is not transferable. -The coupon discounts the cabin fare by 50% (not taxes, gratuities, fees, or tours) So this is 50% off of the original (largely bogus) 50% discount on the website - for the cruise fare. All that said, it is a pretty significant sale. Significant enough that we booked a cruise with it!

Most of the clamshells are off to the right as you are walking towards the beach. They are all squished together in rows, and the beach is very flat. So if you don't get one of the first few rows, you will just be looking at the back of other clamshells. There is also a smaller block of clamshells off to the left, beyond the zipline lighthouse. We ended up in the large group to the right, but if I were to do it again, I would try to get into the clamshells to the left.

Gary - thanks for the info. Our experience with the Haven only goes back to January of 2022, so maybe we aren't familiar with what it used to be. We have tried the chocolate cake in Cagney's (just had some last month in fact), and my wife definitely prefers the Haven cake! Of course, everyone's tastes are his or her own - that is part of the fun. Thanks.

We've stayed in both types of cabin as well. As with most things, a lot of this depends on what you value. Personally, I loved having a separate living room with a door separate from the bedroom. I tend to wake up much earlier than my DW, and so I could read, or go out on the balcony, or even have breakfast delivered all without bothering her at all. That was pretty sweet. The downside was that we could clearly hear the crew lounge area at night - we were on deck 9 just above it on the Getaway. On the other hand, being in the courtyard area is really nice if you want to get your "lazy" on, which we sometimes do on vacation. It was also nice being just steps away from the gathering area for early disembarkation at ports and for shows. So which would I choose going forward? I'm not sure. I think it would depend on the ship and the itinerary. Any Haven cabin is a good choice, in my experience!

OP, I appreciate you sharing your thoughts on your cruise. FWIW, we sailed on a fully sold-out Escape back in January. We were also in the Haven, but as we walked around the ship, we couldn't help but notice how full it was and how long many of the lines were, and I can't count the number of times we thanked our lucky stars that we had booked (and were able to afford) the Haven. We had a great time - but we made it to all our ports so that probably affected our point of view. We've sailed on fairly large NCL ships pre-COVID (Epic in early 2020, non-Haven) and didn't notice the same feeling of everything being super-crowded. I know my sensitivity to large crowds has changed over the past 3 years, and I am spoiled by our recent Haven cruises. But in my opinion (no facts to back this up) it does seem that the crew is less well-equipped to handle a full ship than they were pre-pandemic. I hope that is due to restart pains and things will return to "normal" eventually. FWIW, if you do cruise NCL Haven again, and if you have a competent concierge, you can take any Guest Services requests to the Haven Concierge desk and they will take care of it. We have done that multiple times, and it beats the heck out of standing in line down on Deck 6.

Gary, I love this idea, and I might have to try it in the future when our (now grown) children go with us on a cruise! My addition to this list is super-simple, and perhaps not original, but one of the things I love about cruising. My DW and I went on a cruise earlier this year, and embarkation day was her birthday. So as part of my prep, I called the pre-cruise concierge and asked them to decorate our cabin for her birthday without telling her I was calling them. I know embarkation day is crazy-busy for the crew, so I made it clear in my request that if this wasn't possible, I would understand, but it would be great if they could do it. Sure enough, when we walked into our cabin, it had a Happy Birthday banner and other decorations! It was a nice surprise for her. Then at dinner, the waitstaff sang Happy Birthday and brought her a birthday cake, and when we got back to our cabin, there was ANOTHER cake from the steward and our concierge! (In truth, the only cake she really wanted was the chocolate mousse cake from the Haven dining room - which she had.) We ended up with way too much cake. But the real moral is that I don't know of any other way to travel where you can get this level of celebration for a birthday without A LOT of work. Also, we left the decorations up all week in our cabin, and it gave the whole cruise a festive air!

Thanks @Booboochase for the kind words and the extra info. We didn't hit Tobacco Road so your info will help us for next time! We were in Tortola in 2020 on the Epic for a full day, and went to the Baths on Virgin Gorda. That was an amazing trip, and we would love to go to Jost Van Dyke as well. Just not at 6 AM!!! 😀

Thanks @big al - I will do my best to answer your questions. It seemed like there was plenty of entertainment. Admittedly, we don't go looking for a show every night, so maybe I'm not the best person to answer. But there were a couple of very good comedians, several musicians/bands around the ship so it seemed sufficient to me. We didn't eat at O'Sheehans. Honestly, we don't love their food (personal taste), so I can't comment on how it was on the Escape. FWIW, I have become a bit of a beer snob too. This was our first sailing on an NCL ship with the District, and I loved it!

The casino is definitely NOT non-smoking. The smoke odor from the casino is also quite apparent on deck 8 (casino is on deck 7).

Hi all, my DW and I just got back from the 1/28 sailing of the Escape out of Port Canaveral. Here are my general impressions in no particular order. To set expectations, we have sailed NCL several times, but also other cruise lines. We stayed in the Haven for this sailing (this was a birthday cruise so we were splurging). More on the Haven later. Overall crowd levels: This sailing was 100% full. We were told that there were over 4600 passengers on board, and it looked like it. There were lines everywhere, starting at embarkation, for all the port disembarkations and embarkations, and especially for tendering at GSC. The pool deck was crazy full on sea days. This was our first sailing since ships returned to 100% capacity, and it seemed like A LOT of people. I am not sure how much of that was due to the whole not-used-to-crowds-post-COVID-thing, and how much was that it was just full. All that said, this didn't actually affect us much as we were in the Haven - but we had initially booked a Club Balcony and then upgraded later. So part of me was looking at this and thinking, "boy, am I glad I upgraded!" I'm not sure we would have had the same experience if we hadn't. Muster Drills: We had an in-person muster drill shortly before sail-away. Our station was in the Escape Theater, and it was over-full. We headed there as soon as the drill started, and when we walked in there were no seats left. There were a lot of people standing around like us. I actually don't mind the in-person drill (go find another thread to debate this if you disagree) but I thought they could have planned things better. After all, they know how many people are assigned to each area, and how many people each area holds. The drill was relatively quick, so as I said, I didn't mind it all that much. I do think there is muscle memory value in actually going to the place you'd need to visit in case of emergency. Feel free to disagree with me - somewhere else... Ports of Call: We actually made it to all four ports of call on this sailing! Hurray! Puerto Plata - Escape docked at Taino Bay, much to my surprise. The interesting thing was that we were about 1.5 hours late in departing, as the captain told us they were waiting for the winds to die down before navigating the channel out of the harbor. St. Thomas - We did the Magen's Bay and Shopping excursion through NCL. Magen's Bay was beautiful, and we would have gladly stayed there for much longer than the 2-ish hours we were allotted. I highly recommend this beach and we will plan to go back there. Our driver gave us way too much time for shopping in town. He dropped us off at 3:30, and told us he would pick us up at 5:45. There just isn't enough shopping to be done to take up 2+ hours, and half of the people from our little bus were at the meeting point by 5 pm. So we hired a taxi and went back the ship. Tortola - This stop is silly on this itinerary. 6 AM to 1 PM? Tortola is a beautiful island, and so is Virgin Gorda, a brief ferry ride away. But I'm on vacation and I'm not getting up at 5:30 am to go on a shore excursion. We stayed on board. Great Stirrup Cay - We actually thought this wasn't going to happen. The seas had been pretty high most of the week, and GSC had been cancelled the week before. But the winds and waves smiled on us, and we were able to go to GSC this time. We did the ziplining and the waverunners. Both excursions were fantastic! The staff were very helpful and friendly. My DW is afraid of heights but wanted to try the ziplining, and the staff helped her to feel comfortable. The waverunner crew was excellent. We had a blast! We stayed pretty basic on food - the lines were very long so we stuck with hot dogs and waited to get back on the ship. We headed back to the ship after 4:30, and the line was crazy long - this is one of the times that the Haven card paid off. Specialty Dining: Cagney's - We ate at Cagney's on the second night. We sat outside on the Waterfront, which was really extraordinary. The sunset and the ambience were perfect, and the wind was really not too bad. We thought the food was quite good, but not as good as the entrees in the Haven dining room. We had been booked for Moderno also, but the food was so good in the Haven that we ate there for the rest of the week. District Brew House - not specialty dining, but a really nice upgrade from prior NCL ships. I loved being able to order real beer! The Haven: Our experience in the Haven was outstanding in just about every respect. Staff overall - Really great - multiple staff members remembered our names after the first day, and all were extremely helpful. Dilip (concierge) and his team were tremendous. They helped us rebook dining and shows, got us into shows and to disembarkation, and answered myriad questions. Dining - The food was excellent all week at every meal. The star of the dining experience was Siva, the Maître D'. He stopped by our table every meal to ask how things were going. After my DW said hat she like the onion rings, he arranged for her to have them available for every dinner for the rest of the week. He also got us some Indian food one night after we saw another couple with it. Haven area / sun deck - this was a wonderful oasis on an otherwise very full ship. I'm not sure we would have been able to use the pool deck hot tubs at all - they were always jam-packed. Entertainment: Choir of Man - Outstanding. Go see it. I especially like that they involve the audience in multiple ways, including serving beer at the start of the show! The Pour House - The troupe on this sailing was good, but not great. We saw another troupe doing the same musical sets (Rumours, 80's prom night, etc.) on the Breakaway last June and that troupe was much better. Perhaps if we hadn't seen the acts on BA we would have felt differently this time. Overall: We had a great time. At the same time, I really don't know whether we would want to be on a ship of this size if we were not in the Haven. Maybe we could try the Haven-lite strategy on this board. All the crew we came in contact with was friendly, and the ship was beautiful. Feel free to ask any questions!

We are just off the Escape as well - and the waverunners were our favorite excursion of the whole cruise. I would also love to know the URL for the photos. FYI, we were never asked to show our driver's licenses, and we booked on the ship. So YMMV!!!

Also oddly, Encore is not on the Taino Bay schedule for today! Taino Bay, Puerto Plata (porttainobay.com)

Thanks for the write-up! I'm a little disappointed that Malevo is gone as we were looking forward to that. But really glad to hear that Syd's is still going! There had been some rumblings on CC that it might be gone or changing. And we definitely plan to see Choir of Man. As far as late night at Spice H20 - I don't know how to stay up that late anymore!!! 🤣

This made me LOL! We'll be on this cruise in two weeks, so the directions to find those little gold signs are super-helpful! Thanks!

Bird, thanks for that clarification. When was that? You're one of the only ones who has reported stopping at Taino Bay in a larger NCL ship since the Escape incident.