cmph

I don't know what it is about Chrome sometimes! I prefer using it, but there are a handful of sites that just won't work there. The only reason it even occurred to me was b/c I just bought shoes a few days ago on a site that wouldn't work in Chrome. T he app seems like the way to go, though - at least if you are ok with on-the-fly planning (which is our preference in this case).

@Sujormik just took a quick screenshot to show you what I mean. On Firefox, you can actually get to that red shopping cart button. That definitely never showed up on Chrome, but I wasn't really digging too deeply since the pricing was all I was interested at the time.

OH hey!! Are you on Chrome? I realized that it works perfectly fine/differently in Firefox. So I think it might be a browser issue!

I'm nodding along with you on a couple of these points, Amberle3. We couldn't justify paying the service charge, either. I'm the only one who can/will drink alcohol, and that'll be maybe one drink a day (port intensive Baltic itinerary). My teenage daughter would get mocktails, fancy juice, and Starbucks drinks all day, but soda only? nope. She'd rather have lemonade, which is free anyway. The excursion credit is really only helpful in certain scenarios, IMO. We happen to have 4 people in two rooms (1A, 1teen per room), so $50x2. We still went with OYO in half the ports, b/c of factor #2 - which is that some of the NCL excursions are ridiculously priced (ex: $129pp for a shuttle from the port to another town, completely self-guided otherwise). But it made sense to use NCL for the other half - logistical reasons for the port mostly, without apparent price gouging. We never let that discount drive the choice on what we were going to do, but I probably would have examined harder if we had a discount of $50x1 for a party of 4.

I guess that makes me feel slightly better that it's not just NCL overcharging lol. I did not attempt to buy roundtrip tickets. However, I did see that if you start to enter details, it should pop up with a way to book the return trip too. It's sort of greyish text, under the date, so it's easy to miss. I did this for near-future dates, just to get an idea of pricing. Definitely make sure to view the details to confirm you are booking direct travel. We'll probably just use the app for day-of purchasing. It says that you can do it as late as 10min after departure.

Hi! I'm not sure if this question was for me? We are not booking an excursion. We are just going to buy regular train tickets. You can get an idea of pricing here: https://www.bahn.com/en. (NCL's bus is a ridiculous $129 pp, roundtrip, in comparison!) It's a direct trip, no transfers. Put in Kiel Hbf to Lubeck Hbf. My short list of places to see in Lubeck is walking distance from Lubeck Hbf. FWIW - we are American, so train travel is not our norm in the US where we live; I understand completely if that is outside of your norm. Train travel between cities is very easy in Germany, so it's kind of like buying metro tickets in major US cities (if that makes sense).

That's not true for Disney (the only line I've sailed in recent years). Only the 18% auto gratuity is pooled. The additional tip you add on the slip is only for your bar server. I do understand your point, though, as policies vary workplace-to-workplace.

Oh my gosh folks, I guess hyperbole gets lost. I just wanted to understand why people are carrying cash, b/c I am a newbie to NCL who is used to other cruise lines that give slips (with lines for added gratuities). Since I have not had to carry cash to add gratuities previously on cruises and don't carry cash in my daily life either, it's just not my norm. I appreciate that some have responded to explain that slips are not used, so I can plan accordingly. My husband says I should add "How dare you call me dramatic??!!" to really insert some drama.🤣

We have a Kiel stop in June, too. We decided to do OYO via train, b/c Norwegian's shuttle costs were ridiculous and it gives us flexibility. They really didn't offer much for Kiel - just a couple options for guided tours, plus the 2 shuttles. Depending on your family's preferences, Hamburg is the better choice for museums. My teens think most museums are boring though, and we didn't have any "must-sees" in either Hamburg or Lubeck. We decided on Lubeck over Hamburg, b/c it's going to be much easier touring. We have a decent amount of time in port, but with Hamburg, we'd have to travel around a bunch within the city to see various sites. It's not that we're uncomfortable taking mass transit, but I don't want to waste half the day taking trains around. With Lubeck, we're walking from the train station to all the things we want to see, which are all easy walking distance to each other; short list is Holstentor gate, Rathaus, St. Mary’s, Niederegger Café, St. Petri. Oh, and in terms of resources - my starting points were various cruise lines' excursions plus a couple other excursion sites' tours. I used those to build a list of the major attractions that might interest my family. I used google maps to build sample walking tours to give everyone an idea of the length of time, in comparison to the guided tours I used for inspiration.

I do tip, as I stated... using the slip provided on other cruise lines. Your response doesn't answer my question, though. Does NCL not give you a slip? Is cash the only way to give extra tip?

I'm wondering this same thing. I am not sure why everyone wants to carry around stacks of dollar bills, unless there is no slip? On Disney cruises, it's pretty easy to add $1 to the slip (clearly noted as additional gratuity beyond the already included 18%). Maybe these slips are not given on NCL? Or maybe they don't give them if you have a drinks package, but you do get them if you DON'T have a drinks package? BTW, on my cruise last week, I had one outfit that had pockets. Women's clothing is stupid that way. So carrying cash around is not my preference. I keep my card in a lanyard with a couple other small things but not interested in adding a stack of folded cash.

This is one of the rare ports that I booked an excursion via the cruiseline - to Schwerin. My family discussed Rostock vs. Schwerin, and the Schwerin castle won. There wasn't a time/distance advantage to taking trains and going independently, so we went for ease with the NCL excursion. We will have enough time to tour Warnemunde on our own afterward, and I guess if we are feeling very energetic, could still take the train to Rostock. (I highly doubt we are that energetic at our 9th port in as many days though!)

Our paid-in-full date was last week, and I couldn't get my first attempt to go through. Definitely wasn't a whole system issue, b/c my husband was paying for our second room under his name at the exact same time mine was declined. I tried a different credit card, and that worked. No clue why.

oh for sure! I just think the people claiming that 'you should know better' b/c it's high-season due to numerous districts' school breaks are way off. (And whether or not there are more-than-normal kids onboard - that isn't going to back up service at the bars.) I would be just as unhappy in your shoes to have missed all those ports and be bored onboard, so I think I'm offended on your behalf that people are making up reasons to negate your experience haha!

As someone with school-aged kids who have split their school years between the west coast and east coast, with family all located in the midwest - I don't know anyone who has a weeklong break the week BEFORE President's Day. I get that some people may feel defensive of their preferred brand. I also get that there are high times when lots of kids will be out (actual holiday weeks, summer, spring break in March), but mid-Feb without an actual holiday is not one of those high times. This is a weird argument to make for an overcrowded ship. In your shoes, I'd never have guessed it would be a consideration.

Thanks to all who replied to me. Kind of funny that the email makes it seem like you have to use that PCC. He's been fine, no complaints, but I haven't had to ask for much since I do my own planning. I will say, having a PCC worked out nicely once so far - I requested a price adjustment via email over a holiday after reading about a sale. I suppose I could not have done that any easier way, b/c he processed the new rate when he returned to work and sent me the updated balances via email. No questions asked, no attempts to upsell, no time wasted on the phone, easy peasy.

Out of curiosity - does this mean that you can somehow bypass the PCC once you are an established customer? We booked on our own online for our first NCL cruise, and we got emails assigning us PCCs right away. I didn't think it was an opt-out situation with the PCC. It's fine, and he's been perfectly fine, but I'm not sure how I defaulted into having to use him, unless it's a newbie thing?

Thanks! We're American, but my husband lived in Europe before we got married. Generally, we don't tip (and definitely don't tip in American quantities) while in Europe. Part of the problem is that, being American, there is often somewhat of an expectation that we will tip. In any case, a tour is one of those rare times in which I think it's deserved for the tour guide. We chose self-guided touring for most of the ports, so we will not have much need for cash. Other than Sweden and Poland, all of the ports are in countries that use euros. We aren't doing any tours in Sweden though, so we're planning on cashless payments there. Sounds like we can easily stick to euros only, though. 🙂

Thank you! I didn't want to offend anyone by tipping in the wrong currency. Sounds like euros will be fine though. Our day starts and ends rather early (7:00-14:00 in port), so I'm not sure we want to deal with a train. If we had more time in port, I might think differently. We also have $100 excursion credits to use for each port, and this excursion was surprisingly low-priced. Based on what others have quoted for the cost of the taxi, it's cheaper (or at least no more expensive) to book the excursion, and it definitely offers some piece of mind with that early ship departure time.

I'm looking for guidance on tipping in Gdansk. We booked an excursion due to the reports that this was the most cost-effective way to get from Gdynia to Gdansk. It's our only Polish port; we'll otherwise be using euros or cashless options. Does anyone have experience tipping in euros instead of zloty here?

This thread definitely made me go "ouch". My daughter is a teenager now, but I still vividly remember flying with her when she was 2yo, for my grandfather's funeral. I had booked the flight the night before, obviously unable to plan in advance. The rep told me seats together were unavailable, but that someone would surely be willing to move; back then, there were no paid 'upgrades' in the main cabin, so it's not like anyone had paid for their seat assignment. Wishful thinking on her part - I got either point-blank refusal or they pretended they hadn't heard me. It was awful, standing in that aisle and pleading with anyone to trade seats, and compounded an already awful time. The flight attendants couldn't have cared less. So yeah, not everyone sitting with you on that plane could plan ahead or is cheap.

I do have some sympathy, b/c NCL can't say that the flight has to arrive by 11:30am on the day of embarkation to one person AND book a 12:00pm arrival for someone else on that same cruise. Can't have it both ways! So many stories like this are what scared me off the airfare promo. I agree that day-of arrivals are not within my comfort zone. That said, it seems to me like they could request the ($25 i think) deviation credit? I am sure NCL could still tell them no, and I wouldn't think they would get anymore than that.

Lots of great info in your post for us newbies to NCL! Quick question regarding the above - what restaurants book up entirely in advance, even the 'bad' times? My teenagers eat at weird times on a normal basis, so I'm not particularly concerned with getting early/good times. We will be on a 10-night Baltic (very port intensive) on the Dawn, if that matters. We were looking at Cagney's, Moderno, and Le Bistro potentially. I'm not sure how to prioritize which one to try for first, when our booking time opens.

Does anyone know - is there any app other than iMessage that will work the same way for onboard texting, such as WhatsApp?

FWIW, our PCC stated about $15 per drink when trying to talk me out of declining the drink package. He was not specific about the types. I did the math, and it was not in favor of the package. YMMV of course, but I'm the only one who drinks in my family and the others aren't big on the other paid options. Port-intensive Baltic (no sea days), some late days in port; no way will I be drinking more than 1 or 2 drinks a day on-board. My suggestion would be to consider not just your party's preferences, but your itinerary and how much you're likely to drink each day.