N-8

10 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

Welcome fellow boglehead.😎

Boglehead here too. 

Another vote for sea days. Or if its a port that the ship leaves early (like 5 PM or earlier). 

5 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

As everyone says, each individual's calculator is different.

 

I'm different than my good friend @ChiefMateJRK.  No wrong answers here.

 

Personally, I get claustrophobic (just ask the last Dr who ordered an MRI for me).  So, while I've had inside cabins (NCL's solo cabins), I didn't like it.  Not like being in a tube, but a little too confined for me.

 

Anyway, my cabin pricing begins with Ocean Views.  In general, the delta between an Ocean View and Balcony cabin is usually $200 or less....sometimes much less.

 

Club Balcony is the same as a Balcony cabin, just with a bigger bathroom, something I care little about.  So, unless it's an exceptional deal, I don't book Club Balconies.

 

On the Jewel Clas, the non-Haven suites are the best deals on the ships.  You get all the Haven amenities except for the teeny-tiny Haven pool area.  And, they are significantly less than the Haven.  Price threshold?  $500 over a Balcony.

 

Haven...I have a crazy set of rules for the Haven.  First, the Haven on Breakaway class and above (including Epic) are the only Havens I'll consider.  Spirit class has no Haven and Jewel Class I covered above...just too small.

 

Using arbitrary numbers (but numbers I've personally seen given I've sailed NCL quite a bit), if the Haven is any more than $1,500-$2,000 more than a Balcony, I'll punt.  But, if the Haven is less than $5K all in, I'll look at it.  If it's under $4,500 all in, I'm booking it.  Those fares are per cabin, not per person.

 

I figure Balconies will run anywhere between $2,500-$3,000 for 7 nites, depending on ship, dates and itinerary.

 

What is interesting are NCL's new solo Balcony Cabins.  Being a (sometimes) solo, those would interest me quite a bit.

I feel the same about Club Balconies. On our upcoming cruise, we can bid a minimum $125 pp to upgrade from Balcony to Club Balcony. Maybe it was a total of $50, I would do it but pretty sure others would grab it. Large bathroom isn't a selling point for me. However, balcony? Non-negotiable. All depends on what you value.  

6 hours ago, ChiefMateJRK said:

I have some advice my friend.  Consider each email from NCL about the safety video as a brief reminder that you'll soon be on a cruise!!  The five minute (or less) walk to the muster station?  It means YES, I am on the ship!!!  Woo Hoo!!!🤩

I've only been on one NCL cruise post COVID but definitely a fan of the quick walk to the muster station and check in versus everyone drop what you are doing, got sit in the huge theater or stand outside in line at your muster station and having to wait for everyone to get there. Hope they key it the same way.

It's really going to depend on the person and what you want out of a cruise and your budget, I've done several CCL/RCL cruises to the Bahamas, Jamaica, Mexico and Caribbean. It was all either inside cabin or outside cabin with a window/porthole. Honestly, we were pretty much done with cruising but the family wanted to do an Alaskan cruise. We finally upgraded to balcony for that Alaskan cruise and after that, I have zero interest in booking anything lower than a balcony. For us, the default room is balcony so there is no price differential. It's nice to be able to let me wife sleep and I can sit on the balcony and enjoy my coffee while watching the waves go by. It's also nice to be able to get up in the morning and see the new port that you are in.

It really depends on what you like. I've taken multiple cruises to the Bahamas/Caribbean/Mexico on Carnival and RCL but all in that 3 - 5 range. I'm not really a fan of sea days on those cruises but I'm not one to sit by the pool or drink overpriced drinks plus the cruise is so short, I feel like I'm missing out of seeing something new. However, on longer 7 - 14 days cruises, I like having one sea day because it is nice to have chill day with so many port intensive days. 

We did a similar cruise a few years ago and you need to keep in mind Monaco is a bit aways from the port. If you do it on your own, make sure you understand their "guarantees" to get you back in time. It was our first European cruise but there was a transit strike in Rome so all excursions there were cancelled. We did a private tour instead and decided to do private tours for the rest of the cruise due to the price. For the Monaco trip (which we loved), there was an accident on the way back and we made it back with maybe 5 minutes to spare so it was very stressful. The good thing was that many of the NCL excursions were late coming back too because they were impacted by the accident as well but you may not be that lucky. If there is a practice, I would imagine the roads are going to be even busier. Ever since that situation, if the destination is a distance from the port, we just book with NCL. 

Not sure if we are on the same cruise but we also will be in Warnemunde in July (off the Dawn). We debated if we were going to Berlin or not. There were three different excursions (guided tour, shorter guided tour with three hours on your own and just the train ride there and back). After taking a three hour train ride from Lisbon to Porto (not a cruise, just 9 days in Portugal), we decided when don't want to spend that much time on the train and will do Warnemunde and Rostock on our own (not a cruise excursion). I don't know if its related but a couple of weeks ago, they cancelled one of the Norway stops and changed it to a sea day. Also, almost every port had it's arrival time changed. When that happened, the list of excursions went from 40 something down to 13. So either they sold out or NCL may be doing some reshuffling with excursions due to different port arrival times. I would keep checking everyday or keep calling your PCC. 

Great to read. We are on the Dawn in a couple of months and while the entertainment on ships isn't a big deal to me, my wife really enjoys them and glad to see it was fun. 

You'll see a wide range of dress attire. Some casual, some business casual, some dress up. The last two cruise post COVID, we still saw people dressing up for photos but its in the atrium or by the stairs. We didn't see photographers wandering around the MDR but there was one a Cagney's the night we ate there (that was one of the pics we bought).

I think it's all about expectations. People need to understand the terms they agree to when deciding to go on a cruise. I only read this board so there could be some confirmation bias going on in this echo chamber but cancelling ports happens and I just hope for our next cruise, our must stop isn't one of them. For me personally, the environmental/guest experience reason rubs me the wrong way but it's not going to stop me from cruising. Like I said earlier though, if there is a place I REALLY want to see, we will fly and spend time there versus selecting a cruise that stops there. Or we pick a cruise that starts or ends at our desired location. 

You have the answer but I'm usually booking two to three cabins at once and it's only my cabin that gets the free drinks. I turn down the drinks for the other two cabins since they maybe will have one drink once or twice during the cruise.

Love to hear the resolution on this.

Yes, we did it on our last cruise in October. We have another cruise booked and could have got a reservation at 120 days out again but are doing different restaurants this time

1 hour ago, PATRLR said:

As I have been expanding out to other cruise lines recently, I find myself spending more time on other line's boards and forums.  In my exposure, it seems like this just-after-final-payment port change/drop happens significantly more frequently on NCL than it does on other lines.  

I find it to be very concerning and it does factor into my future cruise planning.

I was going to start perusing cruise lines boards to see if they are having similar issues. Not bailing on NCL yet but there seems to be trend of them cancelling/modifying stops right close after the final deposit is paid. 

Soon we are going on our 4th NCL cruise. Probably have done 6 or 7 Royal Caribbean/Carnival cruises over the years but all but an Alaska one were Caribbean/Bahamas/Mexico. The NCL cruises have all been European ones. First cruise, no NCL issues BUT there was a bus strike in Italy and excursions involving busing to Rome were cancelled. No worries, we just hired a private driver. Second cruise was on the Star out of Venice. Midnight the day before the cruise, they told us they had engine problems and they were cancelling two Greek Islands AND Montenegro. Ended up picking up Split, Croatia and OBC and a future cruise credit. Third cruise, last year going Israel. Welp, that was the week all hell broke loose a day before we got on the ship so no Israel. Picked up a couple stops in Turkey and OBC. Now for the upcoming cruise, we were just notified that one port has been cancelled and will be a sea day. No compensation for that one. We will still cruise on NCL again after this but also book with the knowledge things can easily change and we may not be compensated for it. International travel can be complicated and I have level expectations for what could happen so it does bother me that much. Also, if there is a place we REALLY want to see, we don't do a cruise there. We fly and spend time in that area.

So at the end of the day, I don't get too terribly upset about the changes and understand it will probably happen again in the future and like I said, we will booking our next trip once we buy a couple more CruiseNext on this cruise. The only thing that I roll my eyes at is the "given recent guest feedback" and "sustainability efforts", they are CANCELLING a port. Pretty sure guest feedback isn't hey, let's cancel a stop we paid to go to. Secondly, on this particular cruise, they are extending our stays in other ports which for Edinburgh, we pick up two more hours. But for four other ports that they extended our stay for "optimal guest experience"??? Its 15 minutes for one and 30 minutes for the others. Pretty silly to laud those changes. 

Concerning CruiseNext, we had to cancel two cruises (one because of COVID, one because of family changing their mind). Both times, CruiseNext were refunded and put back on our account

19 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

If it makes you feel better, you can ask for a double shot of whatever spirit is going into your drinks. That way they're just stronger (NCL cocktails tend to be very weak to me) and you're not having to consume 4+ dinks at a time, just 2 strong ones. Saves on belly & bladder space for other stuff.

Good advice, didn't know that but I usually stick to beer so my bladder usually isn't happy. 🙂 Have to say, on port intensive cruises, I may stop getting the drink package. Trust me, I can easily put down much more than 4 drinks in a day. But EVERY day of a cruise gets old quick. 

On 4/21/2024 at 9:35 PM, BandAgain said:

It all depends on the table mates. I have lucked out most of the time with scheduled times. I hate the time restrictions, but I do like establishing a relationship with waiters. I appreciate how they make the effort to accommodate wants/needs/requirements. It is so nice to have a lot of things established early. My upcoming NCL will be my first...so looking forward to seeing how I like "Freestyle Dining". 

Agreed. It was either a Carnival or RCL cruise but we were seated with an older couple who were SUPER nice BUT they slowed the service down to a crawl. Every night, they would order one appetizer. Finish it, then order another, finish it. Then sometimes a third. We had small kids at the time and not once did at least one of them fall asleep before dinner was served. I really enjoy NCL's freestyle dining. 

Following this. We book it on an upcoming cruise and curious of other's experience.

A lot of this depends on what you like to do, we stayed in Athens 3 nights BEFORE a cruise and one day after. We just stayed in Athens and 3 days for us was perfect. We didn't want to feel rushed off the cruise so stayed one more night but just relaxed and found a cool spot to have lunch and dinner.

If you are just going to stay in Athens, I would say two days would work. 19th - drop your luggage off and explore Plaka. 20th - Acropolis and Museum. Fly out on the 21st. If you want to venture out to the other sites (Meteora and Oracle of Delphi), you'll probably need to add a couple of more days. 

Also keep in mind, with the free drinks, BOTH persons in the room get it and pay the tips on it. So if only one person actually drinks, that's four a day....

Only reason I say that is that my wife rarely drinks so my breakeven is always a little higher in drink count...

I've used them probably 5 times, couple US, three in Europe. No issues but definitely read the reviews that are posted. Not all tours are equal. Also, as stated above, they are just a booking agent so keep that in mind. For one tour that went to Stonehenge, I looked at Get Your Guide then just google tours to Stonehenge and found the company these used (or at least think I did). Saved probably 30% on it by doing it but also researched the reviews of the actual tour company.

On a NCL cruise last July, we aren't Gold yet but while waiting in line to get our tender tickets, the couple in front of me were Gold. When they asked the person how to get the priority ticket, they were told just show up and show your key card (the husband got a bit agitated because they stood in line for 30 or so minutes just to find out he didn't have to). Later that day while in line to get on tender, I saw others flashing their key cards and hopping in line. So go with the advice most are giving, think that you probably can just show your key card but get with Guest Services when you get on the boat and ask.

We did Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast through a private company MAINLY because there was a bus strike for a couple of days of the cruise (but not during that portion of the trip so we could have used NCL's excursion) and booked everything through a private company. It was great BUT like said above, the traffic was TERRIBLE. I would definitely make sure you understand the private company's policy and guarantees on return time. On the way back, there was an accident and we still made it back to the ship in time but I was a little nervous. The "good" thing about it was that all the excursions were coming back late due to the accident so we beat most of the NCL sponsored excursions back to the ship. 

For what's its worth, we've called and also emailed our NCL rep, stating we would like our cruise next moved to this latitudes number and they've done it twice with no problems.