robinbtigger

I've read that most lines are very strict on the age limits for the teen clubs and this is the exact reason we chose NCL over Carnival and MSC, both of which were in my price range. NCL's teen club starts at 13 and the other 2 line's clubs start at 15. If we chose one of the other lines my 14-year old high school DD would not be with other high school kids.

I ended up booking with Alamo because the rates this week were too good to pass up! We'll return it to TPA and then take the flat rate taxi fare to the port and vice versa upon return.

 

Looking forward to having a car so we can go out to eat, hit a liquor store and do some sight seeing.

I'll be on the Dawn the week after you! I just booked a couple days ago so I'm in planning overdrive :). I still have my Alamo reservations, but I can get Hertz even cheaper using a code from my husband's work. So I think we're going to drop off and pick up at the Tampa Marriott instead. It looks to be about a 15 minute walk if I can't get a ride from Hertz. They close at 1:00 and we may not be back until a little later so I need to see if they allow after hours drop offs. If they don't we'll have to skip brunch with my husband's family in Oldsmar. They are very late risers so we can't do it early (read: before 11:00 am).

We use Dollar everytime. We book way in advance and just update the reservation with price codes when they have a sale. Shuttle from airport location to cruise terminal is free and was quick in Tampa and Port Canaveral. Dollar shuttle in Miami is a nightmare.

I am looking for a car rental company which has a free shuttle to the port and I called Dollar on your recommendation. They no longer offer a shuttle :(. I was bummed because they had great rates!

 

National/Alamo offers a shuttle from their Westin location but you need to get there using the hotel shuttle from the airport. I need a car for 2 days before my cruise and then 1 day after. I plan on picking up at the airport and returning to the Westin and visa versa on the other side of my cruise.

I just wanted to come back with an update. I ended up going with TA B because her over-all deal was better. I tracked down the company that administers the free condo through TA A and there were too many restrictions and opportunities to pay more to be able to use it (upgrade from a 1BR, travel outside of "low season", etc.) that I knew my initial gut reaction was correct and we would never use it. We will definitely use the $75 excursion credit through B. In the meantime, I also talked to TA C who was close to TA B but TA B's deal was still the best. So, I booked my cruise today and I'll be sailing in just a month!

 

Thanks for everyone's advise and thanks for letting me know that putting a cabin on hold is SOP. I thought that allowing a TA to put something on hold forced me to work with her even if I found a better deal (before putting down a deposit). Knowing the real deal about holds made me feel better about TA B and it gave me some breathing room to continue to poke around and convince myself it was the best deal for me.

No matter which cruise you choose, you will have fun, I'm sure. We have a 14 yr old son. He's not *thrilled* with having to be with more middle schoolers than high schoolers (he's in 9th grade), but he usually meets some older kids around the ship or in the arcade during the cruise. (Boys are SO easygoing).

I bet that my daughter would have been fine with younger kids, but she's convinced that she won't. She isn't very easygoing :p.

 

Speaking of swimming competitively, where are you from? Do you know of Matthew Hirschberger? He is the boys’ 13-14 national age group record holder in the men’s 1000-yard freestyle and has gone to school with my son since preschool. Matthew recently moved to Maryland to train and go to school. I have such respect for young swimmers! They have such drive and determination. I know Matthew would wake up at 4am to go to swim practice every morning before school AND he got straight A's. Unbelievable. Such a great sport for kids!

We're from Wisconsin and my DD swam last year with NAG 13-14/15-16 100 Butterfly record holder Beata Nelson. I just looked Matthew up. Amazing! We were in your neck of the woods last year for Spring Break for the NASA Showcase Classic over at the Doyle Aquatic Center. Apparently, I saw Matthew swim because he was at the meet. For the girls on my DD's team it was all about 13-year old Michael Andrew at that meet. He has systematically taken down NINE 13-14 records. Unfortunately, we changed teams and our new team doesn't do NASA ... luckily that leaves more time to cruise! We wanted to last year but my DD had to train for the NASA meet instead.

In the future, please understand that holds are a normal part of the quoting/booking process, and quotes and holds both have expirations. The same quote without a hold may be available when you call back, but these forums have numerous complaints about 'quotes' that were not honored because the client did not want a hold to be placed. A hold is your ONLY guarantee that a quoted price will be honored when you call back.

Thank you, I don't think I understood that yesterday.

You had two TAs playing one against the other in your attempt to nickle and dime the best deal. One of them will not get any business despite spending their time with you. Since you asked, I'm going to say that you are the one pulling the "dirty trick".

Really? I shopped around and called for rates and bonuses. Since when is that playing one TA against the other?

Now I have long ago stopped using TAs--but I would hardly call this a "dirty trick"

 

It is very likely that to get the cruise line to give a firm and enforceable quote on OBCs that the TA needs to initate the booking process by placing a cabin on a hold--which will harmelssly come off in 2 or 3 days if the booking is not deposited. And look at it the other way--say the TA called the cruise line to verify the OBC, then called you back with the info and you said 'book it'. But in the time it took for the second phone call to be made that sailing went sold out on the cabins set aside for that promotion. You'd be screaming bloody murder because the TA didn't place a cabin on hold.

No, I don't think I would. I know that "you snooze, you lose" in some things. But, if such practice is common and the TA was looking out for ME and not HER then I'm willing to accept that fact :).

 

What happens if I want to go with TA A and the booking hold in my name is still in place?

I hope that I have posted this in the right place.

 

I have been pricing an NCL cruise for mid April 2014. I would book directly with NCL, but some travel agents and consolidators have the same price plus OBC and other extras.

 

I called TA A and got a price then called TA B. The agent at B wanted to put the cruise booking on hold for me. I told her not to, mostly because I didn't want to have to hassle with canceling the hold if I didn't want to go with them. The agent said she would have to call NCL to find out which credits I would be eligible for. She asked me all my information, including our birthdays (should have been my first clue) and she emailed me back about an hour later and told me that she put the cruise on hold for me because it was "easier" for her to determine the OBC when she called NCL.

 

It turns out that the OBC for TA A is the same for TA B. TA A offers a free 7-day condo (which is probably useless for us, I'm sure) and TA B offers a $75 credit for an excursion.

 

How, I think I would usually go with TA B given that I would be more likely to use the excursion credit over some limited condo week. However, I think the booking hold was a dirty trick. Should I overlook the dirty trick and go with TA B who would give me a better deal or should I go with TA A and hope that I will be able to use the condo?

Yeah. That's what I'm afraid of :(. Unfortunately, I think that the teen club will make or break my daughter's cruise. She swims competitively with 7th and 8th graders in her age group and gets along with them fine, but I think she really wants to hang out with other high school kids on our cruise. I'll talk to her again about it tonight. I really like the looks of the Divina, but we might have to go with the NCL Dawn.

I am trying to choose a cruise for our family for the week before Easter 2014. I'm looking at cruises on April 12th - 13th on 3 different lines (Carnival, NCL & MSC). I am considering the Divina because of the awesome pool areas and what appears to be a great selection of vegetarian food for my DD. My daughter is a 14-year old HS Freshman (she'll be 15 in August, 4 months after sailing) and I know that she will not want to be in the 12-14 year old Middle School Y-Club. Will she be allowed in the Generation Teen Club? The MSC booking agent said it would be OK, but I thought I would ask here too. I understand that there are not many planned activities for teens. I think she would just go to the club to meet friends and hang out instead of participating in activities, so that's OK.

 

FWIW, I have the same issue with Carnival and have read mixed reviews about allowing a 14-year old into the O2 teen club. The Carnival booking agent said "absolutely not". NCL's teen club starts at 14 so that's not an issue.

 

Thanks for any advise!