CruisingWalter

Based on our cruise in 2018 in the Crown Princess I would have said 'no don't bother.' But after going along with some friends to Crown Grill on Sky Princess last month I'd say it's a 'don't miss.' The meal was honestly better than Sabatini's which is usually my favorite restaurant on a Princess ship. Very thankful our friends encouraged us to come along with them.

MNVV's page says it can be combined with 'most other offers' but not deeply discounted offers. The Bar Tab must be considered a 'deeply discounted offer' because I could not use MNVV and get a $600 Bar Tab on a planned 8-night Valiant Lady sailing.

NCL showed the way to do this with Food Republic years ago. They have touch pads at each table, you order and the items are brought to you. It's fast and efficient, we ate there three times during one cruise and it was great. They extended this into the Indulge Food Hall with Prima and soon to be Viva. All reports I've seen from Prima is the system works brilliantly. We had a similar system onboard the Sky Princess allowing us to order drinks and food items via the app to be delivered literally anywhere on the ship. They located us via the Ocean Medallions. We saw food and drinks being delivered all over the ship all day and into the night. Short of putting touch pads at each station, VV could move Galley ordering to the app. We put in our table number and place the order. Our orders go in much more efficiently, then the servers would only have to retrieve food instead of taking orders & delivery. With all the 'tech' onboard the ships, this should be a no brainer. Although that app, while much better now, is still a bit of a work in progress.

The Bar Tab promotion does not apply to MNVV bookings.

All the pricing I've seen has gone up because the discount changed from 50% to 45%

hashtag #cruise is a good place to start.

Yep for some cruises it'll go down, for others it'll go up, just depends on the date. For us the cruise went up by a few hundred because the Second Sailor went up from 50% off to 45% off.

It's honestly the best video platform out there today if you know where to look. Cruising, travel, health, home and auto repair, hobbies and so much more. You just have to find the right creators. But I get that some folks don't have the time or patience to find the 'good stuff.'

Oh my goodness you could not be more wrong. A friend of mind is a gastro surgeon now with an audience over 750k dispensing tons of amazing weight loss and overall healthy eating habits advice. His channel is so good and his Lives are amazing. And there are a ton of great Cruise Creators on there. You are absolutely wrong, and I mean WRONG by a mile. If you won't want to use the platform, that's your choice. but to disparage it because you don't like it, well that's on you.

The Bar Tab is definitely extended to April 2024. But new bookings only. I asked about my 2024 booking and was told in order to get the Bar Tab added, I have to rebook under the current prevailing rates. It didn't make sense to cancel and rebook with the new rates.

Tons of great, short, to the point tips, tours and other useful info across TikTok. I have a channel there and there are quite a few really good creators sharing info in 1 - 3 minute bites. 🙂

Uggggghhhh!!! I have a no politics rule on cruises. Once the conversation turns that way I exit stage left. 🙂

Correcting myself, the Bar Tab IS extended through April 2024, that's different. . My TA was offering up to $300 in extra Sailor Loot for all bookings through March 31, I'll have to check to see if they still have that offer going through April 11th as well. That was a good deal. 🙂

Correct, it's been that way for quite some time. If you want Free At Sea, you have to book any category other than Sail Away. There's only a limited amount of cabins in that category for any given sailing, though more tend to open up the closer you get to the cruise depending on capacity. You can purchase a Drinks Package and WiFi separately exactly the same as you would on Royal Caribbean so at that point, it's more like RCCL with the higher prices Drinks and WiFi.

If anything the Bar Tab might be extended into April, but probably not for the entire month. Look for that 50% off Second Sailor to be reduced too. Booking by midnight tonight is still the best deal honestly. Call your TA or VV tonight. 🙂

Nobody should leave any space to make anything more convenient for any vloggers. And yes, they're vloggers, not everyone who films is an 'influencer.' 🙂 I purposely set myself up when I'm doing longer pieces with nobody behind me, or I will blur them out in the edit. When I'm shooting footage of the overall ship, it's impossible to avoid folks in the shot, but I do my best to minimize how many folks are in the shot. And I never go live from a ship (or any public location) and show anyone and everyone on the ship. I position myself where there is nobody behind me, or minimal chance of folks walking through the shot. I do my best to be respectful of other people's vacations and if I am in a position where other folks are going to be around me, I make it a point to let the folks closest to me know I'm about to record a bit. But nobody should be asked to move, nor should you move if you don't want to, if a vlogger wants to film in a particular spot.

Royal Caribbean Drinks package averages about $70 to $80/pp per day or $1120 per week for 2. Carnival Cheers has showing at $60 lately so that $840 per week for 2 NCL Free at Sea is $306 per week for 2. MSC drinks package is pretty cheap too to be honest. So absolutely positively "yes" it's only $153pp per week on NCL.

She's definitely going into drydock in 2024 after the Winter season. Valiant Lady is going to stay in Miami and Scarlet is going back to the Med for her dry dock.

Roll calls used to be really popular on CC before the pandemic. Now too many folks set them up on Facebook and other platforms. I ignore them all honestly because the system here is in one place and better quite honestly.

But like Celebrity and all cruise lines, there are great deals to be had on NCL. But overall, the cost of the cruise with the drinks package included will be cheaper on NCL than Celebrity. Best drink package pricing is on NCL and Princess Plus at the moment, outside of Virgin Voyages Bar Tab. That Bar Tab is actually my favorite drinks package to be honest, it works so well.

Terms and conditions not negotiable. Deposits are often non-refundable but they will sometimes allow you to transfer the deposit to another cruise if you have one in mind, not FCC. Can transfer to an accredited travel agent up to 30 days after booking in most cases. After that, you cannot make the transfer.

Make the change at least 48 hours in advance and there should be no fees. Your travel agent can easily take care of this.

All bars charge the same for the same drinks to my knowledge. That's pretty much the same for all cruise lines. The only time you find 'different' pricing is when there's a variation to the drink in one bar to the next. I've honestly never seen a bucket of beer on a Celebrity ship, someone else will have to chime in about that. Celebrity is not a 'booze cruise' cruise line. If you're looking for that, and just getting plastered each night with friends, you might be disappointed. The cheapest drinks will be the frozen concoctions at the pool bars which are my least favorite onboard. I tend to pay extra at the World Class Bar for the crafted cocktails.

NCL's Free At Sea drinks package runs about $150 for the week per person in gratuities for a 7 night cruise. That's about as cheap a drinks package as you will find on any cruise line that doesn't include the alcohol.

A travel agent can take care of this rather quickly. They have dedicated representatives and dedicated phone reps to call.