dexddd

So it is 3 people total? Who gets the king-ish size main bed? The sofa bed was comfortable for our kids but it really wouldn't be big enough for two adults.

As said, there are real doors and curtains between bedroom and living room. The other bathroom is only a toilet and sink so you would all share the main but large bathroom. Plenty of closet space.

The ones on 10 have a nook area for a dining table.

We are on our 11th Carnival Cruise and we've never had this problem before. On the Dream, the WIFI is strictly for surfing the web. They must have ports blocked so that we cannot do normal work. I can use Outlook Web Access but not Outlook Anywhere (my normal Outlook), i cannot VPN or RDP to my own or clients computer and I cannot use Log Me In.

 

I know this is vacation but my husband and I are business consultants and we can't cruise without these key communication methods.

 

We did not have these issues a few months ago on the Sunshine.

 

We are on POA in March and I've assumed that at least in port my normal AT&T service will work, but what about away from port? We need to be in touch wihth our office and clients.

 

....signed...wasting my onboard minutes writing this instead of working.

As far as Outlook, it could be that your company has an exchange server for Outlook. So if you are not vpn'd in, Outlook is basically in disconnected mode (see lower right corner and it will say "offline". Hence the work around is Outlook Web Access which works via internet. What ever you do in one will synch with the other.

eta: Sometimes when you come back into Outlook, say via vpn or when you are back in the office, it won't automatically go back online so you have to go to the top, pick the right tab and look for the offline button and hit it once.

Thanks.

Never had a problem on any NCL ship using vpn or being blocked. If you are in port you should be able to use either a mobile hot spot if you have one or use your phone as a hot spot if you have that option.

They had a couple guys when we were on in August. The ladies seemed to enjoy them. One was tall with long curly hair and plenty of tattoos. The other guy I don't recall.

They were quite visible around the ship and on the docks at various ports.

I wanted to share our ONCE IN A LIFETIME cruise experience with you. I know some people will be upset that they paid more and have never had this happen, but I think it’s nice for regular people to know that they could be visited by the upgrade fairy (and boy did we ever). It is somewhat of a long story but I will just tell it like it is.

 

My husband and I had no intention of taking a cruise, but while eating breakfast Friday morning 1/3/14 we decided we just needed to get away. Around noon we started calling for cruises that would leave in the next couple weeks (we didn’t care where it went). We looked up NCL and they had a Panama Cruise that left on Sunday 1/5/14, but it was booked. We called on a Hawaiian Cruise that left on 1/4/14, but it was booked. Everything seemed to be booked. Later about 5pm on Friday we called NCL directly and asked about a Panama Canal cruise going from Miami to LA on 1/19/14, we were told it was booked also. But that they had one Guarantee Inside Cabin available on the LA to Miami 1/5/14 cruise on the STAR! It must have changed since earlier when they were booked. We were very happy and definitely okay with an inside cabin and thrilled with the last minute price that we got. We had a whirlwind day and a half packing and driving 12 hours to LA.

 

When we arrived in San Pedro we didn’t have luggage tags and when inquiring at the luggage drop we’re told that our name wasn’t on the list and that since we didn’t have a room number we would just have to drop our luggage with a GTY 0 on it and it would find us. We were nervous. There we were standing in the long line at the terminal not knowing if we had a room or not. when we finally made it to the front of the line and were called to the counter we explained to the agent we didn’t have a room number. So he looked on the computer and to our relief he found our names. He told us we had room 12502. That number meant nothing to us as we were just glad to be listed and officially going on a much needed, relaxing cruise. He took our credit card information and went to get our keys. This is when we got really nervous, because when he gets back he tells us he can't find our keys. then he left again and after being gone for about 5 minutes he comes back and tells us he doesn’t have our keys, because we are in the wrong area. He tells us we need to be in the VIP area! Being completely confused and not even knowing a VIP area existed, I said “what does that mean”? He leans over the counter and says “that means you paid a lot more than everyone else here”! (little did he know)

 

The agent then asks us to wait while he comes around the counter and escorts us to the VIP area. At this point we are completely dazed and confused! I had a vague idea that suites with special perks existed, but my husband had no idea and was completely confused (until he saw the mini buffet in the VIP lounge then he was happy as a clam). Upon arrival to the lounge we were introduced to a nice lady who looked for our envelope with our key cards in it. When we got the envelope under our names it said “OWNERS SUITE”! We were completely taken aback and surprised (at least I was because my husband was already getting coffee and pound cake). But we still didn't really know exactly what an owners suite was (other than it wasn't an inside cabin).

We were only in the lounge for a couple of minutes when we were told to line up and we would be escorted onto the ship for lunch (at the private dining area for people in suites, “Cagney’s”). While lining up a nice young lady in uniform comes up and tells us she wanted to introduce herself to us, she said my name is Lea and I am your BUTLER! (You could have slapped us as both our jaws hit the floor).

 

After eating our lunch and meeting some fantastic people we finally went to our room (Owners Suite). When we entered our room, we were complete shocked and awed! The room was absolutely beautiful. Now we’ve been on a few cruises before but didn’t even know rooms like this existed (it was all ours for 14 days!). We were treated like royalty and had the vacation of a lifetime and that we couldn’t even have imagined.

 

In closing we would like to thank NCL for making us feel, not only special but like we were part of their FAMILY.

Wow that is nice. What did the room look like?

OS, DOS, and GV get the unlimited. Typically they have the regular bottled water plus Pellegrino or something similar.

Do all ships only have one concierge? The breakaway has about 80 suites. That would be tough to offer personalized service to them all.

When we were on the Dawn last time their was an asst concierge. The asst is actually the one who walked us to our room right when we boarded. During the rest of the trip we dealt with the concierge so whether there is an asst the whole trip, I'm not sure.

We did this trip in 2009 on the Star and had the best weather but I have a feeling our weather was not typical. It was warm and sunny in Vancouver and Astoria (upper 70s at Astoria as I recall). We even went down to Cannon Beach and the high school was having gym on the beach (or at least one of the high schools on the way down there).

The sea day down to SFO was dreary. With the questionable weather, I'd probably go aft but the thought about SFO having a front cabin would be great, but you could always go into the forward facing lounge for that or one of the top decks.

I agree. The ages of the children in the party would put all of them in the same club, if that's important to them.

 

I'm sorry for whoever's posts she saw that turned her off here. Hopefully, she'll come back.

I didn't get it either. I saw the post on the NCL board and checked here and at least in those that answered her questions seemed quite nice. Generally speaking the DCL board here on CC is much kinder than the NCL board.

March 16. Thanks for all the answers!

That is the week before us.

They will let you invite someone to dinner, but you will have to pay $25 per person.

It has been awhile since I looked, but at the time they only allowed you to invite someone a limited number of times.

I will be on the Breakaway in March with Haven access. Can I invite 2 people not from the Haven for a lunch or dinner to eat with us?

 

Thanks!

When are you going in March? We are going in March too.

It's been a couple years but they had the Star in Seattle.

I'd love NCL to do a UK embarking port at somepoint too, would fit in well with a Baltic or northern france perhaps... works well for other cruiselines.

They did the Baltics for a few years from Dover. At the time, they were 12 nights. A couple years back they made the switch to embark at Copenhagen.

We're Silver Latitudes and will be on the Dawn if anyone has any info. Thx!!

Last time for silver and above it was in Spinnaker.

The only other thing I wanted to point out is Ballantyne is more of a freight port. In 2007 we had no problems getting on around noon with no lines. But in the years since, there seems to be problems with excessive wait times from some of the feedback.

Very interesting. I had not heard of the PVSA before. It sounds to me like it's ship-specific. I'd like to hear from anyone else who has tried this. :)

We took NCL Star from Vancouver to LA and several people had taken Princess from Seattle to Vancouver, got off and got on the NCL Star. The only wrinkle they ran into is one of the elderly ladies had won some small bottles (those single serving size) on Princess and when she came onto NCL they took them from her.

Ok. Decision made! We booked Getaway for March, 2-bedroom villa under private Have sun deck. I'll let you all know how it is.

 

Question for experienced NCLers. Is Haven restaurant open for all meals or just breakfast and lunch? And reservations necessary or is it open seating? Finally, what's the menu like? Unique or essential that of MDR?

 

Thanks.

There is a thread about the menu floating around here somewhere with input within the last week or so.

You can only use one certificate good for $250 and the rest of the deposit you have to pay.

We are having the same discussion here about this excursion. Ncl's website says the tour is 7hrs long' date=' with departure time of 12:30, which implies you stay later that kSC's advertised closing time of 5pm. I would choose the NCL excursion if I knew we would get a longer visit, as taking a cab isn't an option with our two young boys, and the price difference between the excursion and renting a car is about $35. We are Canadian so no free tickets for us :)

Does anyone know if the NCL excursion allows you to stay later than 5pm?

 

 

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If you go, you may want to see if the boys are big enough to go on the Shuttle Launch Experience before you go there.

Is it worth it ($300 value) or just a bunch of stuff that few people will use???

Not much useful stuff IMO. And it seems to get worse each year.

Thanks. I very much want to be in The Haven directly. I may take a chance and book under the private Haven sun deck. I remember the private Concierge sun deck on Disney Fantasy being barely used and always quiet. Hopefully the same would be true of Getaway's.

The problem with DCL Fantasy is that it isn't too close to a pool (even though the Haven pool is tiny) like BA and GA, at least IMO.

One of my kids fave thing about NCL are the specialty restaurants. It reminds them of Disney where they get to eat in a different room (almost) every night.

 

Not to mention we find the food exceptional and the smaller venues more to our liking.

 

Last time we were on Epic my DD was 10 so she was 1/2 price in all specialty dinning rooms. On this trip she will be 12 is she full price or 1/2 price? I know they are free if they order off the kid menu but thats never going to happen.

 

We are most likely going to get the dinning plan since we eat in the specialty restaurants so much its worth it for us. From what I understand there is no UDP for kids. right?

If they are 12 they are supposed to be 1/2 price for ordering off the specialty menu. However, I did get charged wrong in the Italian restaurant on the Star once and got the run around from the servers in the restaurant saying no, the front desk girl saying she wasn't sure then no, then the desk supervisor saying yes to only have the maitre'd of the restaurant say no (he had to come down and approve the credit). I finally moved it up to the chain to someone who knew the exact policy and we were credited.

I ordered the new NCL gift card around December 12, 2013 as a Christmas gift for my DS and her DH. I received an email on December 19th that my order was processed and would be mailed out. As of Jan 13th I have not received the card. I contacted NCL Gift Card # who verified the mailing address advised and I was advised that it would be ariving time. I find this as unacceptable yes I could have paid more for overnight delivery lucky my DS and herDH are not sailing till March

 

Just wondering if other CC members has had problems Think next time will give them cash.

I ordered mine right about when you did. They had an estimated date in there at the time that was pretty close. As the other poster said, the letter had a return address from Texas.

The HSN card that was the promo took awhile longer and I got that in early Jan.