SunshineGal2022

On 6/6/2023 at 6:50 PM, BirdTravels said:

Or you can print 1 page on paper and not worry about having a phone service in a big metal terminal. 

Thanks for this tip.  I’ll just print it and put it in the RFID folder with my passport.  It will be easy enough to show both at the same time then 🙂

On 4/23/2023 at 4:57 AM, genma803 said:

Hello, we booked our cruise to Bermuda on Joy only about 5 weeks before sailing. 🥴

As a result there were very specialty dining restaurant reservations available when we booked.

We were able to get one late night dining time at Le Bistro to use our included meal with The Free at Sea promotion but there were no reservations available for Cagney's or Ocean Blue, the two other places we are interested in trying, so we decided against buying an additional two specialty dinners per person in advance. We just didn't know if we'd be able to get once we want once on board.

 

Does anyone have experience with booking the specialty dining package on board and know if ends up being the same cost as prebooking ($69pp plus gratuity per person for two meals)? If so we will likely wait to see what reservations are available once we board.

 

TIA

Personally I would pay for the upgrade before the cruise (when it will be cheaper).  I imagine you’ll be able to get in for either place, if not both, if you go straight to Teppanyaki after boarding.  If you can’t get reservations for either place, I would ask Guest Services for a refund immediately that day. I’m not sure if they would allow it, but I also do think you have a good chance of getting into one of your choice restaurants.  

The ocean villas are closer to the snorkel trail, which is at the main beach.  The ocean villas are also closer to the restaurant, zip lines, and closer to more food trucks. 

The lagoon villas are at the end of the developed beach, and you must either walk a bit (or hitch a ride on the golf cart) to get back to the main snorkel trail.  I’m not sure if you can snorkel in the lagoon, but I don’t see why not.  You probably won’t see as many fish as you would out near the reef though.  

Perhaps you can modify the return flight home with the airline’s own website(s) to stay the extra full day in Rome.  

Look at your email confirmation on what you have.

I am pretty sure it’s $90 each to add pop for the week for the 3rd and 4th guest. You can call and add it.

1 minute ago, BirdTravels said:

It is game that a very very few people play to save 1 day of internet charges. 

I understand that, but people lately say the day 2 upgrade is $109, which is saving them the $29 for not using any day 1 minutes.  But you can pay $109 if you pre-buy the Internet package anyways.  Unless you want to use OBC for the Internet, I don’t understand why people feel the need to wait.  You can buy it for only one person pre-cruise, right?  

19 hours ago, hallux said:

The cruise line doesn't care who owns the phone, just who is signing in to the internet with it.  If your daughter is guest 3 or 4 in the room, she's not eligible for the upgrade option as I don't believe she gets the 150 minutes free, though that's not specified in the T&C's as it is for others with the restriction.

 

The other possibility is if your daughter is over 13 she is eligible for her own MyNCL account, the cruise might show up once that's registered and the upgrade could be purchased through there.

 

A tip - you can get the non-streaming unlimited internet for $109 IF you wait until the second day to do the upgrade AND don't activate the Free-at-sea minutes.

I don’t understand the need to wait until the second day.  I only have the 150 FAS min but I have the option to upgrade to the unlimited non-streaming wi-if for $109.93 pre-cruise.  Am I missing something?  This is for a 7 day cruise.  

Also, how do guests who are not the first person get their own NCL account?  Do they need to call CS and get emails sent for each person, or can person #1 submit emails for everyone else in the cabin?

3 hours ago, rbxlady said:

Yes, you get designated floats for your villa.

2 hours ago, Greenpea2 said:

There were 3 or four big bunches of the yellow floats neatly placed and spaced apart on the beach in front of our row of cabanas. Each bunch had probably 6 or more. I did not count. No indication of any certain number for each villa, but there were plenty in use and still some left. The water will be replaced as needed. Same with the coffee and coffee supplies. We also asked for more of the salsa that came with chips. No problem getting more of that either.

Thank you both!!

I know the cabanas come with 4 yellow floats.  Do the villas come with those too?

Also, I assume the waters in the fridge are included in the price.  Can you get more for free, or are those charged to your account if you don’t have the Plus beverage package?

On 3/15/2023 at 10:15 AM, vacation44 said:

 

For our June 2024 Joy Bermuda cruise, it is $229 per person for the week.

June 2023  7 days on Escape is also $229

25 minutes ago, Oakman58 said:

I consider the 20% tip on drinks to be more than generous.  Tipping just $1 on a $12 dollar drink increases the tip another 8%.  I'm not that generous at my local bar and grill so I'm not going to overtip on a cruise.  Over tipping in my opinion just leads to employees expecting something over and above.

 

Just look how luggage porters (longshoremen making a union wage) at the ports expect that tip for simply tossing luggage onto a cart.  

Lifting 50 lb bags for hours is hard work.  It’s a very physical job and puts strain on your knees, back, shoulders, and hands. I gladly tip luggage porters.

We switched passengers in the cabins and we were charged the difference of what we paid v what the current rate was.  They also said any more switches may be difficult because of the airfare.

46 minutes ago, tgloersen said:

Yes very weird, I have personally never been.  Not sure $750 with our discounts are worth it for a top from 10Am until 5PM?  What are your thoughts?

If mobility is an issue, and you don’t have a large group, I would book the ocean villas.  They are closer to the food and the rest of the island.  

It would depend on how crowded the ship was and what the weather was like if it is worth it to me.   

CC has an article on “Enrichment Cruises.”

that’s the category you are looking for. (for whatever reason, I can’t paste the link here at the moment.)

On 2/23/2023 at 6:40 AM, sjacobs11 said:

Are you able to pre-book the cabanas or does that have to be done onboard?

You can pre-book them.  If they are sold out online, call and see if they have any left.  If they are sold out then just keep checking - they may have cancellations.

On 2/6/2023 at 5:18 AM, Peachypooh said:

What is the procedure for adding an extra person to the cabana I rented on GSC? The one I rented

holds 6 people but I need to add one more person and pay the fee. Do I do it on the ship? Thanks.

We were told to talk to Guest Services on board to designate the cabana (well, villa for us) guests.  I assume this would be where to add another cabana guest too.  Or at a ShoreX desk.

12 minutes ago, acct1975 said:

I was on a cruise out of Miami for the 1st time in Summer 2022 at the new terminal. They let us use whatever bathrooms we wanted (thankfully) but it was a particularly sunny day that day and with the sun blazing through the windows is started to get rather warm in the Terminal. The prior cruise was late in disembarking and thus we were waiting for quite a while with everyone crammed in the Terminal, hot and a little humid. I was kind of disappointed. The chairs in the waiting area are also sub-par IMO.

Can you bring battery operated neck fans into the waiting area?  We have people who cannot overheat.  

At 18, they can go into Vibe or the Thermal Spa.  They may like that more than the kids club.

Is there a way to reach the Cruise Director?  He may be able to confirm the soca staff will be taking over the pool deck during certain times or not.  The threat of always hearing soca music would annoy me too.  I don’t want to hear constant music while I’m on a cruise to relax, especially if it was not my preferred type of music!

I ordered a credit card sized PVC card on Etsy that had the Escape details printed on the front and back.  I don’t know if she has the Prima yet but she might!  
 

I had originally searched for Light Cards when I found her.

20 hours ago, chloe173 said:

Well, for one thing Virgin includes all exercise classes in the cruise fare, so they have things like sunrise yoga, bungee aerobics (which i found i am TERRIBLE at, but i suppose you do burn calories from laughing at yourself, lol), and the "VHS" (Video-Hair Metal-Simmons) 80's themed aerobic workout, which people dress up in 80s gear for and is all set to the most cheesy 80s songs. Rather than boring ol' bingo - they have drag queen bingo, which was a hoot. They had upcharge classes to teach you bartending, or food photography, which we didn't do but we heard good things about.

And they also would have members of their "Happenings Staff" as they call them just scheduled to hang out in certain areas at certain times....so like, "The Gamer" would be hanging in a bar with like 10 board games, and would organize people to play different things together. Another bar would have "The Charmer" (onboard magician) and would just hang out with whoever showed up and do up-close magic.

 

So it felt a lot more social and active overall - a lot of variety.

 

 

This sounds so fun!  Activities like this certainly invoke a different atmosphere than napkin folding.  I would like both atmospheres, but would prefer the Virgin cruise style that you describe.
 

I would be disappointed in the cruise too. If you spend $10K+ on a vacation, you would hope to not have as many little things go as poorly as you did.  The port stop issues in a storm/ bad sea conditions were understandable.  But when you combine that with everything else, it would not be a great trip. Hopefully one day you can look back on this trip and laugh at the constant issues. 
 

I would tell DH to get an X-ray, to make sure there is not a bone piece stuck under his gums.  

On 2/17/2023 at 6:33 PM, EngIceDave said:

 

 

Weed doesn't make people unruly or fight. 

People need to quit with the bad rap on weed. Many (of us) are actually prescribed it instead of pills to manage PTSD, insomnia and many other issues. I don't even get high, it only levels me out, same as some pill might do....but of course I have to try 20 different pills to find out which works for me and eventually it'll stop working and have to try all the different pills and weights again.

 

If you don't like the smell, fine, understood. Yes, I do know what the laws and rules are, not advocating anyone break those rules, only saying weed isn't meth.

 

So don't act as if weed is creating anything more than mellow people.

More people should smoke weed.

Many of the weed strains have smoke that give me migraines.  Others have smoke that make me nauseous.  Also, if there is enough smoke, I can feel the effects of it, too.  And if I can feel it, so can my children.  

I don’t care if people enjoy it but when it affects others who don’t want to partake then it’s an issue. I have many friends who use it for medical issues and it has changed their life for the better.  I understand the need for it to be used medicinally without a break, but if there is a way to keep the smoke away from others, this would be preferred.  

On 2/17/2023 at 7:59 AM, vacation44 said:

Thank you.   I will check daily on my NCL App for them them to become available.  

The Vibe didn’t show up on my app without me doing a search for it.  It should show up from the search, even if you can’t book it.                                                                                                                     

It seems to be a bug.  The “Offer Upgrades” of the Internet, Dining, and Drinks have been coming and going for three months on my app.  I put the dining in my cart one day when it came back and then the system would not allow me to remove it!  I coudn’t remove it, but the system still could see it was there, because I could not book any dining until I paid for the offer upgrade!  Now I need to decide to keep it as it is or call and pay for FAS+.  With the drink packages being cut, the Internet being spotty, and the excursions that we wanted being sold out already, maybe it’s not as helpful to have as I thought it would be.

Do you know of any companies in Tortula that would offer a similar tour but in an air conditioned van instead of an open air bus?  I am looking for something for a group tour (13) that would do scenic views + beach time. 
 

We are in port the typical 6am-2pm from NCL.