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JillK

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Everything posted by JillK

  1. We technically "moved up" to platinum after night 5 of a 14 night cruise... new status recognized only upon completion of the current cruise after you've earned the points required. Based on my experience, I would say that's a no... but just think, one more under your belt and you will enjoy the platinum perks on your next NCL cruise!
  2. Frankly the other reason I'm considering early renewal is that my sons have changed so much over those 4 1/2 years that their current passport photos I don't even look like them anymore which I suppose could be an issue if a passport control agent decided it was an issue. Yes exactly right! My daughter will be turning 18 in a month so I am inclined to wait to renew hers until after her birthday so that we can get her the 10 year version!
  3. Thanks for your advice. The Government of Canada says 3 months (Italy, Greece and Malta) and two passports expire 5 months from travel dates. I'm just so used to following the 6 month rule that I'm still uneasy and may just get them renewed ahead of travel anyhow.
  4. Thanks for getting back to let us know that there were no issues. I always thought the 6 month requirement was because that is the length of of time that we as Canadians can stay in the US per visit (six month casual travel visa) after which we would be there "illegally." Meanwhile, I am planning for our August cruise to the Med with some of the kids passports that are expiring 5 months after travel. According to the government of Canada website, they have a 3 month requirement so fingers crossed our experience ends up as seamless as yours!
  5. Yep - did eventually get an email that it had been chartered... after two cancellations for the same week, it felt as if they were still getting their itineraries in order and nothing else on offer was hitting the mark for us. We pivoted and have booked the Sun Princess.
  6. Hubby and I did a 14 night cruise on the Jade this past November. Overall we loved the ship and found it to be very fresh and clean - not showing her age at all. The two things we disliked... 1/ no seating on the promenade deck which on past ships has always been a favourite place to spend some quality time outside but not in the sun. 2/ the coffee bar being in the atrium. The net effect was that whereas usually the atrium is the heartbeat of the ship, in the evenings the atrium was a ghost town. We sailed on the the Jade's sister ship the Gem in 2019 and spent some time every night at the atrium bar. Really missed doing this on the Jade. Otherwise a great ship which I wouldn't hesitate to book again.
  7. I would agree with laudergayle as to the reason but regardless that's a nice win. Hope that you find a fun way to spend the money saved!
  8. Hi there. I recently switched a 7 night booking to a 14 night booking. I elected to go this route vs booking B2B because I was able to realize a better price for a better cabin category by going the route of the 14 day. I had originally booked an oceanview cabin for the 7 night but when I priced the 14 night, only balcony and above was bookable... turns out the balcony for 14 nights was only $400 more than booking the same oceanview cabin for two 7 night B2B cruises and booking the two B2B 7 nights in the balcony was $1100 more than booking it as a 14 night. In our case, a large portion of our savings was because our sons were free week 1 but not free the second week. By booking as a 14 night, they were free for the duration (yay). So - all this to say... check the pricing because depending on the weeks you are booking, you might be able to realize a savings (likely either way) by booking one way versus the other.
  9. Hi. Weighing in on this as I literally just booked a 14 night on the Sun for next March with hubby and our sons who will be 13 and 15 at time of sailing. I will add the caveat that we have cruised on various lines but our preference is NCL. Unfortunately NCL didn't have a cruise more than 7 days on a ship that offered the amenities we wanted to keep our kids happy in the time frame we were wanting to cruise so we opted for this ship. We cruised the Norwegian Getaway, Carnival Panorama and Ruby Princess with our sons (as well as our older daughters) in 2021. I give this info as background to provide context. Frankly the boys were pretty bored on the Ruby. They didn't care for the kids club (they were in that age range at the time) so only went once and the only thing they liked was swimming in the family pool and watching the occasional MUTS. From the renderings, it looks to me like the Sun is adopting several family friendly activities top deck that we REALLY enjoyed on the Panorama. I think that although the Sun may not have water slides there will be enough to capture their interest (I certainly hope so now that I've committed to 14 nights!) Between the three cruises that year, everyone's favourite was the Panorama. When I told my youngest (currently 12) I was going to book Princess he actually groaned and said - oh no not the boring ship. I told him it was their newest and they had some of the cool stuff he liked on the Panorama and then he got really excited. So - will your pre-teens like the Sun? Probably - Princess has done a lot to appeal to families with this ship but yet will still have that nice Princess touch and level of service the brand is known for. I'm really excited to try Princess' newest ship at a much more favourable price point than I can book NCL's Prima class (their newest ships). If you can afford to tie up the deposit amount, you can always book and re-evaluate once the ship sails and the reviews start rolling in. I suspect that once it sails the price point might creep up so if you've got a good price like I found, no harm in locking it in. Hope this helps and whatever you book - happy cruising!
  10. Hi! We recently cruised for 14 nights aboard the Jade in cabin # 8086. We had initially booked an inside cabin but upgraded to obstructed oceanview when the price came down to within $50 per person to do so. This was my 20th cruise and I have been in all the standard cabin types across several lines (balcony and below). The Pros: - Very convenient to get anywhere on the ship - central location that cannot be beat - Tons of storage space for two people - maybe we are light packers now that we have lots of experience with what know we do and don't need, but we didn't come close to using all the available space... would have been tight with four in the cabin though - Natural light is great, even if the view wasn't The Cons: - Deck lighting coming into the cabin at night - Super loud noise throughout the night beginning at 2:30 am and going for hours off and on - woke us up and kept us up most of the cruise. For this reason, this cabin (and I would assume adjacent cabins) should be DO NOT BOOK unless you can sleep through loud noises. The Jade is a very nice traditional ship and it was a great fit for an extended cruise with just hubby and I. Kids would have been bored out of their minds... Ship was renovated last year and is spotless. Food very good to excellent (some of our least favourite meals were in the specialties!) and good entertainment. Happy cruising!
  11. Call the cruise line to firm up exactly what you can actually book so you can figure out how to move forward. Last year on Princess we ended up booking three inside cabins for our family. Myself and youngest son in the first cabin, our two daughters (18 & 16 at the time of sailing) in the middle cabin and my husband and older son on the end. There were no issues in booking it this way with the cruiseline (likely as my eldest was 18 as is yours) and we had no issues during the cruise.
  12. Hi ya. Yes you can absolutely use a CruiseFirst certificate to act as your deposit. They are currently running the spend $250 for a CF valued at $500 so you are getting $250 "free." If you already know you are cruising, this is a great way to save. What you need to know: 1. Can only be used to book a cruise more than 120 out 2. Can only be used on cruises of 6 days or more 3. Non-refundable 4. Are transferrable You can buy them directly through NCL's website: - Click "Cruise Deals" toggle down (between Explore and Why Norwegian) - Click "CruiseFirst" - Click "Purchase a CruiseFirst Certificate" They are deposited to your latitudes account for you to apply if you are booking on your own online or you can direct a TA to apply it if you book that way. Looks like NCL has eliminated the expiration date on these certificates. When I purchased one last year I had three years from purchase date to use and sail (use by/sail by dates were the same). Happy cruising!
  13. I don't think there are many differences... they both do the same thing: offer a discounted way to deposit on a cruise. I believe the primary difference is that the CruiseNext is purchased while on board whereas you can buy the CruiseFirst off-ship. A few conditions for the CF: - only valid on cruises book more than 120 out - only valid on cruises of 6 days or more - non refundable - transferrable It also appears that like the CN, there are no longer expiration dates on these certificates. When I bought a few last year, the CF had a 3 year expiration from date of purchase (sail by/cruise by).
  14. All I can tell you is that we have cruised on the Escape twice, the Gem, the Epic and more recently the Getaway in 2022 and the Jade Nov 2023 and there was a difference in the soft serve on the Jade versus all the previous ships we have been on. The soft serve on the Jade was "dairy free" per the signage (in both machines, we checked) and this was the only time that dairy free was served, to my knowledge (ie - no signs either way on previous ships). I was expecting the same product across the line but that wasn't our experience.
  15. On the Jade this past November they were offering "dairy free ice cream" at the soft serve machines. We saw a lot of people eating it but we personally didn't find it to be very good. That was the first time on an NCL ship that we didn't like the soft serve so I would have to agree with the poster above who suggested that the quality/caliber of the soft serve might vary by ship. In any case, the answer to OP's question has been answered... available when the buffet is open though on the Jade, the machines did not appear to be operational during the breakfast hours.
  16. Oh my goodness - this has happened to me as well... but with NCL. I was checking my credit card postings two weeks before sailing in November and I was stunned to see 20 refunds from NCL....Went to my cruise planner and all 10 of our pre-paid excursions I had booked two months earlier were gone. Called NCL... they advised that in light of the situation in the middle east, the cruiseline had cancelled cruises/excursions in the affected area but a "glitch" meant unaffected cruises were also getting cancelled. The person I spoke with said they "thought" that they had managed to rebook everyone without them ever knowing there was an issue and my bookings must have "fallen through the cracks." I was also very unhappy as one of the excursions was sold out and no longer available for me to rebook and the exchange rate had changed in the intervening months so I had to pay $30 more. In 20 cruises that was the first time something like that has happened but it provided me with an important lesson... always quadruple check! I'm just glad I caught the error before being on the ship. If I hadn't, I would have boarded thinking everything was taken care of only to find out I had nothing booked. Not a fun way to start a vacation, I'm sure!
  17. Hi there. The best thing you can do is to determine what is important to you and how much it's worth to you. If you feel that you are comparing a similar experience on both ships, only you can decide if you want to spend more for the Norwegian experience vs. Royal. When we were pricing a British Isles cruise a while back, I really wanted to go with NCL as we were keen to try to focus our cruise dollars with one line to build loyalty perks (as you can see by my signature, we still haven't done that!) but I couldn't justify the price difference between them and Royal so we went with Royal. We had a wonderful cruise and no regrets. I have sailed on both vessels you are considering... mind you I was on the Grandeur in 1998 so I can't speak to what the experience would be like today. My parents, who began their cruising obsession with Royal, cruised on the Grandeur's sister ship the Enchantment last year and they said it was their last with Royal. If I recall correctly, their chief issues were the low quality of the food, the ship being rundown and service being lackluster (they are now booking NCL and Celebrity exclusively). Hubby and I cruised a 14 night itinerary on the Jade in November and it just sparkled. There are no top of ship bells and whistles, not even a movie screen at the pool, but it was renovated last year and looks brand new. Food ranged from very good to excellent and some of the most memorable meals we had were in the dining room over the specialties. Generally, it never felt overcrowded in any of the spaces (though the chair hogs were in full force for the entire cruise) and we had an amazing cruise. I'm one of those "any cruise is a good one" so I don't think you can go wrong. Whatever you decide, happy cruising!
  18. We also got an email from NCL mid-day saying it was being cancelled due to a full ship charter. I knew this was coming as this is exactly the same thing that happened when our Escape sailing was also cancelled. I'm starting to think that we aren't meant to cruise in March 2025! Will have to either give up or go back to the drawing board!
  19. I was recently on the Jade and did get the pass for the entire cruise. Both are located inside the single sex change rooms on the Jade. The only items in the common area are the hot stone loungers (6) and the large thalassotherapy pool. Steam room, shower experiences, plunge pool, sauna, whirlpool and lounge area are located in the change room area.
  20. Hi- Hubby and I (both late 40's) were on the Jade (Nov 26 - Dec 10 sailing) without our four kids. We really love this size ship and have previously sailed her sister ship the Gem, as well the Epic, the Getaway and the Escape twice. This was my 20th cruise overall. The Jade is very easy to learn and get your bearings. We almost always dined in the back of the ship at the Great Outdoors for breakfast and lunch. They have a breakfast buffet there daily and "tea time" service usually beginning at around 2:30 (buffet-style late lunch and snacks). We found that chairhogs were out in full force on this cruise. If you weren't up at the crack of dawn to get a lounger, you were out of luck. I believe that some loungers in full sun were available on the upper decks throughout the day but we were looking for spots of shade and only were able to snag two chairs around the pool with some shade on the day we were in Grand Cayman as we did not go to shore and the deck wasn't nearly full. We were in an obstructed oceanview and found the cabin to have more than enough storage for two. The beds were comfortable and the bathroom layout is good with more size than most ships. We were disappointed that there were no seating areas on the promenade deck, which used to be the case on ships of this size in the past. On the larger ships such as Escape, Getaway and Carnival's Panorama, we really loved using the promenade deck loungers and seats throughout the cruise and nice outdoor spots not geared to sunbathing. With no seating available on this deck on the Jade, we would often spent time playing cards or reading in the Spinnaker Lounge or the bar area on deck 6. We found the food in the dining room to be very good to excellent but the coffee everywhere to be terrible. We actually elected to without coffee for the majority of the cruise as I do not like Starbucks, nor having to pay for it. On that note, I didn't like the coffee bar being in the middle of the atrium and missed using that space to get a pre/post dinner cocktail and listen to live music like we did most nights when we sailed on the Gem. The atrium wasn't very busy on the evenings when we were passing through -- nothing to draw you in! The atrium used to be the heartbeat of the ship (on these size and smaller ships in particular) but the Jade atrium was pretty much deserted a lot of the time. The evening shows that we attended weren't overly busy so we never worried about getting a seat. The only show that was very well attending was "Elements." I also should note that this was the second time that we see the stage production "Blazing Boots" and there were several occasions where it was over the stop sexualized to the point that it made me feel uncomfortable and we noticed some of the bridge staff a few rows ahead of us shaking their heads at this as well. If we had been on the end of the aisle we would have left. If we had had our kids with us, I would have mountain climbed over people to get out. This definitely wasn't part of act when we saw it on the Gem and is unnecessary. The Jade was renovated last year and is in excellent condition - we did not spot any wear in the public spaces and very little in our cabin. The maintenance staff was very busy the duration of the cruise keeping things spotless. As like most other lines, NCL has reduced the cabin service to once a day. We are relatively neat people so for us it wasn't a big deal. We really enjoyed our two weeks aboard the Jade and would recommend this ship to anyone seeking a more traditional cruise experience (no rollercoasters or ropes courses, etc). It would be a lovely ship on which to sail to Canada/NE.
  21. Oh boy - I will brace myself for something similar then. I was on the Oasis when it was half full with a group - a weird experience so as I would agree with UKStages, we will be better off should this be the case for our sailing a month later. Still not bookable on NCL so assume it's heading that way! Just starting to run out of options with NCL... really down to Epic or Encore and we will have just done the Epic for the second time so it's Encore or bust!
  22. They did give us 10% off after cancelling the Escape. I did appreciate the gesture, and the savings - especially since the Cdn dollar is performing so poorly it helped to equalize the price difference on the exchange. Honestly I'd rather keep this booking than have another cancellation even with another 10% off but I'll find out one way or another before the end of the year I suppose!
  23. Hey, no problem... maybe not over the week I want to cruise though? 🙂 Well I'll keep you posted. Took about three weeks from when the Escape booking disappeared to official notification of cancellation from NCL but I can't believe we are unlucky enough to book two cruises for the same week and have them both be cancelled! Yikes.
  24. Has anyone got any idea what is happening with the Joy in February 2025? I had booked a cruise with the kiddos for March Break 2025 on the Escape and about three weeks later got a cancellation notification.... so I turned around and booked the Joy for the same week - March 8, 2025 on the Joy. When I was looking at the NCL website just now, I see that my week has disappeared from the site and it looks like it is also not bookable for February either. I know the ship is due to get a massive overhaul in 2024 so could it be taken out of service for a technical overhaul for 5 weeks in March 2025 or is NCL just messing with the deployment/schedule?
  25. Hi there. My husband and I (both late 40's) just disembarked a 14 night cruise aboard the Jade this past Sunday. We really love this size ship and have previously sailed her sister ship the Gem, the Epic, the Getaway, the Escape (x2) and my very first cruise with my brother and parents was in 1992 aboard the Norway. The ship is very easy to learn and get your bearings. We almost always dined in the back of the ship at the Great Outdoors. They have breakfast service there and "tea time" service usually beginning at around 2:30. It was almost always easy to get a table here for breakfast and lunch. We ate at Cagney's, Le Bistro and La Cucina... preferred La Cucina on this ship, whereas Le Bistro or Cagney's is usually the favourite. We found everything to be heavily charred at Cagney's and my husband's steak was not cooked to the temperature that he asked for. There is zero ambiance at Le Bistro - felt more like dining in a nicely appointed cafeteria. The service was exceptional, the food very good but the lights were too bright and you are so close to your neighbour that you are basically at a table for 4 (and they advertise this one as intimate and romantic). We found that chairhogs were out in full force on this cruise. If you weren't up at the crack of dawn to get a lounger, you were out of luck. I believe that some sunchairs were available on the upper decks later in the day but we were looking for spots of shade and only were able to get two chairs the day we were in Grand Cayman (we had just been there last December so elected not to bother tendering to shore). We were in an obstructed oceanview and found the cabin to have more than enough storage for two. The beds were comfortable and the bathroom layout is good with more size than most ships. We were disappointed that there were no seating areas on the promenade deck, which used to be the case on ships of this size in the past. As such, we would often spent time playing cards or reading in the Spinnaker Lounge or the bar area on deck 6. We found the food in the dining room to be very good to excellent but the coffee everywhere to be terrible. We actually elected to without coffee for the majority of the cruise as I do not like Starbucks, nor having to pay for it. On that note, I didn't care for the coffee bar being in the middle of the atrium and missed using that space to get a pre/post dinner drink and listen to live music like we did most nights when we sailed on the Gem. The atrium wasn't very busy most evenings when we went through there -- nothing to draw you in! For the most part, evening shows were moderately to poorly attended so we never worried about getting a seat. The Jade was renovated last year and is in excellent condition - I hope that you have a phenomenal cruise... welcome back to the NCL family!
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